The Citadel of the Citadel

An endless desert of white sand. That seems at first to invite confusion by the presence of strange pools and lakes that one quickly realizes are not water at all, but simply glass. The sun above beats down with such ferocity that the sky around it seems to fade from pale and powder blue to something almost approaching white for there is not a cloud anywhere to be seen. However, in this land that seems to show no indication of life, that would seem to preclude any possibility of habitation let alone thriving. Perhaps for this very reason, or perhaps the cause of this state of affairs is the impossible made manifest, the gleaming spire of the Citadel.