Ethereal Void (ONC 2023)

Chapter Three

The abyss was where I was born, it was what I knew. It was my solace, especially when I was asked to make a decision as monumental as this.

The Void wasn't blessed with green pastures like the Light was. When the sun bore down on us, it scorched the plains, leaving nothing but a crumbling sheet of sand, dead trees and an ever-growing number of Cavities—colossal holes descending so deep into the earth that nothing but the void survived.

I sat at the mouth of one such Cavity, staring at the infinite abyss. Ravaging my mind for a solution.

Our lands were bare of most necessities, but what we lacked in nature, we mined. The largest, deepest Ether mines were found in the Void after all. Ether was the bloodline of a mage, the basis of the magic crystals that harnessed the forces of nature. The basis of every weapon forged in the Void.

Even a High Mage like myself always carried a bag full of ethereal crystals in every shape and colour. Large gold ones to summon the heat of the sun, small white ones to freeze the earth into oblivion. Red ones, green ones, blue, black, silver—each with their own purpose, each just as deadly as a blade in my hands.

I rummaged through my worn, cloth bag to fetch the smallest gold crystal I could find. I watched it glow in my palm, encapsulating me with its soothing warmth.

But that wasn't why I had retrieved the Ether from my satchel.

I shut my eyes, trying to recall Merikh's arrogance. She had called me a child! A naive optimist! She had tried to justify murdering children.

CRACK!

I popped my eyes open just in time to see a dark fissure on the gemstone growing wider and wider. As if the jewel was being eaten from the inside by the very abyss I sat dangling my legs in. Until nothing but ash remained in my palm.

I blew the ash into the darkness under my feet. Could I do this to an entire nation? Was I ready to?

"I thought I'd find you here!"

I had barely looked up when four fingers dug their way through my hair, in an attempt to muss them. I winced at the force of it, at the calloused fingers digging holes in my head. I slapped the hand away, suddenly overcome with a nauseating, throbbing headache.

"It wasn't amusing twenty years ago, and it's not amusing now!" I declared, massaging my scalp. The knight that slunk beside me was  tan with shoulder-length, raven hair.

All the inhabitants of the Void had dark hair and skin, just like those of the light were fair and blonde. Yet this particular dunce shared more than just the motherland with me. He shared my ancestry, my blood and for a long time, my very home.

"What do you want, Enzo?" I snarled at my older brother.

"I heard someone threatened the High Lord today," Enzo said, a wide grin plastered on his ridiculous face, "and I knew there was only one person in the Void foolish enough to do that."

I urged the desire to roll my eyes. Gossip didn't take long to spread even in times as deadly as these, "How did you hear of it?" I demanded, arching both eyebrows. Enzo was a knight, a warrior, he shouldn't have been anywhere near the capital city to hear the fruitless whispering, which raised the more important question, "What are you even doing here?" I corrected myself, "You told me you were to be sent to the battlefield yesterday!"

Enzo narrowed his eyes at me, "No," he said stretching the syllable like a child and poking the side of my head with his finger again. A twinge of annoyance began to form in the pit of my stomach, but I ignored it as my brother spoke. "I said the day after the summer solstice," he said, "that's tomorrow."