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Agatha had made certain he understood exactly how dangerous his existence truly was during the suns following the undercroft incident. The old Sister had spent nearly every evening buried alongside him within the restricted archives searching through fragmented records surrounding Nulls, Blackwake survivors like himself, and failed observatory accounts from the Ash Wars.
Most of the texts had terrified him. One claimed Nulls were born touched by an ancient force older than the stars. Another described them as “living absences” capable of disrupting or breaking resonance entirely.
There were some records, however, that suggested Nulls emerged after surviving direct exposure to the Dimming, while others insisted they were omens born during Blackwake events.
“They fear what they cannot understand,” Agatha had murmured the previous night while sorting through brittle observatory records beside him. “And Caelyn…” Her tired eyes had lifted toward him in careful regard. “You are living proof that the old understanding is incomplete. While we may now have some idea of how you came to be a Null, you exist outside the rules people rely upon to feel safe.”
The memory hovered in the forefront of his mind. Especially while Elowynn stood before him, looking torn between fear of what he was and loyalty to their friendship.
Gods, he wished she would just yell at him instead! Distance and uncertainty hurt far more than ire.
Before he could speak again, rapid footsteps echoed through the courtyard.
“Lady Elowynn!”
Both of them turned toward the voice of Sister Maelin, who was hurrying in their direction through the archways. She had her robes gathered hastily in one hand while excitement lit her usually composed expression.
“Lady Elowynn,” she repeated through panting breaths, “Agatha has been searching everywhere for you.”
“Why? Is all well?”
Concern had fallen across Elowynn’s face, but Sister Maelin was smiling from ear to ear.
“The western observatory,” she said.
Caelyn watched as Elowynn blinked in confusion.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You did!” Sister Maelin exclaimed as she practically grabbed Elowynn’s wrist. “Come quick!” she urged.
Elowynn had looked back at Caelyn from over her shoulder as she was all but dragged away.
Scooping up his tools and tossing them in a crate, he turned to follow.
Neither Elowynn nor Caelyn understood what was going on. Not until they reached the upper observatory towers.
The chamber buzzed with an unusual energy when they entered. Several scholars crowded around the central worktable while Agatha stood near the observatory windows, gripping a crystalline focusing rod with a brass handle. Thin strands of resonance arced outward from the instrument in delicate blue-white threads across the room.
And floating above the table—
Stars above, that was astrylite!
Caelyn felt Elowynn freeze beside him as they both stared toward the suspended crystal hovering nearly a foot above the resonance platform. Shimmering threads of celestial light spiraled around it like strands of living silk, reacting to the resonance flowing through the chamber.
Then the crystal moved, but not toward Agatha.
Toward Elowynn.
Caelyn stopped breathing and his whole body tensed.
The moment Elowynn stepped forward, the resonance lurched through the chamber.
Instruments skidded and rattled against the surrounding tables while their astrylite cores flared bright enough to flood the observatory in silvery light. An intense, harmonic wave of resonance rippled outward from the platform, whipping through the chamber as threads of celestial energy twisted around Elowynn’s outstretched hands.
The crystal rose higher, following her movements. Silver light gathered beneath her skin as resonance coursed through her body. Her veins illuminated along her hands and forearms, their soft radiance seen through the flesh before continuing upward beneath the sleeves of her robe.
It was clear to Caelyn, and to everyone else within the observatory, that there was no accidental resonance sensitivity happening here.
