“How did you know?”
“Never mind that. Is there a crystal here?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve walked the perimeter. I didn’t see anything like that.”
“Well, what did the instructor say?”
“What do you mean?”
“When the barrier was formed. Were there any words?—”
“Oh, yes, sir! I remember now. Um, it was that phrase you see everywhere.”
“Ex nihilo aliquid?”
“Yes! That’s it!”
Luc ran his tongue over his teeth. He had a thought.
“Fetch me a candle.”
“Sir?”
Luc shot him a cutting glance, and Braun rushed inside.
“Yes, sir!” he called out, reappearing moments later with Luc’s request. The student warrior lit the candle, then placed it in Luc’s outstretched hand.
Luc produced Lila’s crystal from his pocket. He had no time to waste, but he wasted time studying it anyway. It occurred to him that he might never see Lila again, and the crystal held the only image he’d have of her, save the ones in his mind. Could he really risk destroying it? He didn’t know what the barrier would do.
And yet, he had no other crystal, no other method for leaving. And he had to leave. Right then, or perhaps never.
Luc swallowed.
Why was he still thinking about her? Why did he care? She didn’t.
At any moment, someone could walk by and spot him outside his house.
Before his weaker emotions got the better of him, he thrust the crystal over the candle and muttered, “Ex aliqua re nihil,” reversing the phrase.
He’d expected the incantation to work—possibly—but he hadn’t expected it to work so quickly. One moment the barrier was there, and the next it had been sucked into the crystal, evaporating in a burst of light.
“Whoa!” Braun stared at the crystal, his mouth agape.
“No time for that.” Luc pushed him forward into the clear aether, checking that there was still no one in the vicinity.
As one, they slipped around the backside of Braun’s house, then around the next house, then the next. When they’d traveled far enough from the scene, toward the heart of the Artisanal Courtyard where traffic was thinner than it was near the Great Hall, they took to the aether above for the last leg of their journey.
The Void wasas Luc had left it, and the watchtowers were, thankfully, still empty in that deserted part of Heaven. Luc and Braun droppeddown by the obelisk and approached the edge of the Void, though Braun hung behind Luc, hesitant despite his training.
Meanwhile, Luc approached the Void as if it were an old friend, and perhaps it was. The type of friend that necessarily had to be an enemy.
Braun had a practice sword with him, and this Luc used to make his initial strike into the darkness. It had been over an aeon and a half since Luc had learned basic sword fighting. All the students were required to take beginners’ courses for defensive purposes, but only a certain number of angels became warriors. Luc was out of practice, but due to his smithing projects, he remembered his basic attack and defensive maneuvers.
As he struck it, the Void groaned, and where there had been utter stillness, billows of dark gas swirled around the outside of Heaven’s protective dome, trying to break through it. A few wisps managed, and Luc blocked those, dispersing them into the aether where they vanished with a crackle and a spark of light. His muscle memory returning, he struck again in the same spot, and some swirling gas outside of the dome dispersed also—Luc remembered learning that the Void was weaker when in motion.
Still, he could only drive back so much of the dark matter at one time. There were limits to what a single warrior with one sword could do.
Stepping away, he set the practice sword aside and unsheathed his experimental sword. Hoping against hope that the Void would not render his entire project useless by devouring the sword immediately, Luc took a breath and lashed out at it.
