Chapter 4: The Color of Nothing

The day of the Mana Rite dawned unnaturally bright. The magical architecture of Concord Spire seemed to gather the morning light and amplify it, bathing the city in a crisp, golden glow that felt entirely too cheerful for the dread coiling in Liam's stomach. The air itself hummed, a low-frequency thrum of anticipation and raw power that vibrated in his teeth.

He moved with the great river of aspirants, a slow-moving tide of teenagers flowing from the dormitories toward the central plaza where the Concord Spire stood. The crowd was a nervous, chattering beast. Some kids boasted loudly, naming the famous mages in their family lines. Others were pale and silent, muttering prayers to the Five Forebears. Liam was in the latter camp, minus the prayers. He felt less like an aspirant and more like a lamb being led to a very ornate, very public slaughter.

Tess found him in the throng, her expression as stoic as ever, though Liam could see the tension in her jaw. She gave him a short, sharp nod. "Today's the day," she said, stating the obvious. It was her version of a comforting pep talk.

"Try not to look so much like you're about to be sick," she added, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. "It's bad for morale."

"My morale is currently hiding somewhere in my boots," Liam muttered back, but her presence was a small, solid anchor in his sea of panic.

The plaza was a breathtaking spectacle. It was a vast, circular amphitheater, open to the sky, with tiered seating carved from white marble rising on all sides. Thousands of spectators filled the stands: nobles in their vibrant silks, powerful merchants, guild masters, and common folk who had traveled for weeks to witness the future of their kingdoms being forged. Banners bearing the crests of the five kingdoms hung from every pillar: the swirling gale of Zephyrion (Wind), the crashing wave of Aquilane (Water), the roaring flame of Pyraxis (Fire), the steadfast mountain of Terrastone (Stone), and the stark, six-pointed snowflake of Glaciera (Ice).

At the center of the plaza, on a raised dais of polished obsidian, stood the Aether Diamond.

It was not what Liam had expected. He'd imagined a glittering, fist-sized jewel on a velvet cushion. This was something else entirely. The Diamond was a flawless, man-high crystal, so clear it seemed to drink the light around it. It pulsed with a soft, internal luminescence, a slow, steady heartbeat of pure mana. It felt ancient and alive, and looking at it made the hungry void inside Liam stir with a strange, terrifying curiosity.

Seated on four ornate thrones behind the Diamond were the rulers of the Pentarchy. Liam recognized them from the tapestries and carvings he'd seen since arriving in the capital.

There was Queen Aria of Zephyrion, her silver hair braided with feathers that fluttered in a breeze only she could feel. Her eyes were sharp and constantly moving, missing nothing. Beside her sat Lord Darius of Aquilane, a man with a calm, deep-set gaze and robes the color of the abyssal sea; he looked more like a scholar than a king. Lord Kael of Pyraxis was his opposite, a fiery man with a red-gold beard and armor that seemed to smolder with latent heat, his expression impatient and proud. Finally, there was High Queen Sylvara of Terrastone, a woman who seemed carved from granite herself, her posture unbending and her face a mask of regal neutrality.

One throne, the one bearing the sigil of Glaciera, was empty. A low murmur rippled through the crowd at the absence.

A herald with a voice magically amplified to fill the plaza began the proceedings. "Let the annual Mana Rite commence! May the Diamond reveal the strength of this generation!"

The process was brutally efficient. Aspirants were called forward in small groups. One by one, they stepped onto the dais, placed a trembling hand on the cold surface of the Aether Diamond, and held their breath.

For most, the result was a simple, clear projection. A column of colored light would shoot from the top of the crystal, accompanied by a single, floating glyph that denoted their power tier. A boy from a Pyraxis border town touched the diamond, and a pillar of solid red light erupted, the glyph for 'Thread' hovering within it. A cheer went up from the Pyraxis section of the crowd as a guild master made a note on a slate. He was claimed.

A girl from an Aquilane fishing village produced a gentle blue column, but the glyph was faint, a mere 'Spark.' She was unclaimed. She walked off the dais with tears in her eyes, her future as a commoner sealed.

On and on it went. Green for Wind, brown for Stone, red for Fire, blue for Water. The glyphs ranged from the common Spark and Thread to the rarer Current and, on two occasions, the powerful Core, which elicited gasps from the crowd and immediate, competing claims from the rulers.

Liam watched, his heart a leaden drum in his chest. He saw Roric, the boastful boy from the caravan, produce a respectable red Thread, earning him a smug grin and a place in the Pyraxis armed forces. Then it was Tess's turn.

She walked to the Diamond with a steady, determined stride. She placed her hand on its surface, and the crystal responded instantly. A column of deep, earthy brown light shot toward the sky, so solid it looked like a physical pillar. Within it, two glyphs appeared, one above the other: 'Core' and, below it, the rarer sigil for 'Growth.'

A collective gasp swept the amphitheater. A dual attunement, and at the Core level. It was the most impressive result of the day.

High Queen Sylvara of Terrastone leaned forward, a rare smile on her stern face. "Terrastone claims her," she declared, her voice resonating with the power of the earth. The other rulers nodded in acknowledgment. Tess had secured her future in an instant. She caught Liam's eye as she walked off the dais, giving him a look of encouragement before being whisked away by a Terrastone official.

Then, the herald called his name. "Liam of Junk Pit."

The name echoed in the sudden silence. *Junk Pit.* The words hung in the air, a stain on the pristine ceremony. A ripple of murmurs went through the crowd. A few nobles sneered openly. Liam felt a thousand pairs of eyes on him, stripping him bare. He was the gutter-rat at the royal banquet.

He forced his legs to move, walking the longest fifty paces of his life. The dais felt like a scaffold. The eyes of the four rulers were on him, sharp and analytical. He could feel their power, four distinct oceans of mana, pressing in on him.

He reached the Aether Diamond. Its surface was cool and smooth, humming with an energy that made the hairs on his arm stand up. The void inside him, which had been a nervous flutter, now felt like a ravenous maw, drawn to this immense source of power.

*This is it,* he thought. *The moment of truth.*

He took a deep, shaky breath and placed his hand on the crystal.

For a single, heart-stopping second, nothing happened. The Diamond remained clear, its internal light steady. A few titters rose from the crowd. Another dud from the Pit.

Then, the world went wrong.

It started at his palm. A spot of absolute black, the color of a starless midnight, appeared on the surface of the crystal. It wasn't a color projected *by* the Diamond; it was a color *consuming* it. The blackness spread with terrifying speed, like ink bleeding into water. It devoured the Diamond's internal luminescence, swallowing the light greedily.

The soft hum of the crystal became a discordant, screaming shriek of raw mana being unmade. The air grew cold. The bright, golden sunlight of the plaza seemed to dim, as if a shadow had fallen over the sun itself.

Within seconds, the entire man-high Aether Diamond had turned a perfect, horrifying, absolute black. It did not reflect light; it absorbed it. It was a hole in the world, a pillar of pure void.

No column of light erupted. No glyph appeared. There was only the silent, screaming blackness.

Panic.

The crowd cried out in terror. People in the lower tiers scrambled backward, trampling each other in their haste to get away. The royal guards drew their weapons, their faces pale with shock.

On the thrones, the rulers were on their feet.

"Abomination!" Lord Kael of Pyraxis roared, his beard seeming to smolder. A ball of white-hot fire ignited in his hand. "It's a creature of the Void! A demon! Purge it now!"

"Hold, Kael!" Queen Aria commanded, her voice sharp as a blade of wind, though her own hand rested on the hilt of her sword. "The Compact is clear! No execution without analysis!"

"What is there to analyze?!" Kael bellowed, gesturing at the light-devouring crystal. "It is Corruption incarnate! It is draining the Diamond!"

He was right. Liam could feel it. The Diamond was a reservoir of unimaginable power, and the void inside him was drinking from it, a bottomless thirst being slaked. The feeling was intoxicating and terrifying. Power, raw and untamed, was pouring into him, filling a space he never knew was so vast.

Lord Darius of Aquilane raised a hand, and a shield of shimmering water formed around the dais. "He is a boy, Kael, not an army. We must understand what this is."

But fear was a stronger force than reason. The guards, spurred by Kael's fury and the crowd's terror, began to advance, their spears leveled at Liam's heart. He was frozen, trapped between the black crystal and a line of cold steel, the immense power thrumming inside him with no outlet.

He was going to die. Here, in the center of the world, he was going to be executed for being something he didn't understand. He thought of Hemlock, of his hope, and a bitter laugh almost escaped him.

"Enough."

The voice was not loud, but it cut through the chaos like a shard of glass. It was calm, melodic, and carried an authority that dwarfed everyone present, even the four rulers.

All heads turned.

Standing at the entrance to the royal dais, as if he had simply materialized from the air, was a young man. He couldn't have been much older than Liam, perhaps seventeen. He was tall and slender, dressed in simple white and silver robes that bore the snowflake sigil of Glaciera.

And he was, to the point of being offensive, beautiful.

His hair was the pale, luminous white of frost under moonlight, and his eyes were the color of pure gold. His features were so perfectly, androgynously crafted that he seemed less like a person and more like a statue of a deity that had decided to start breathing. His very presence seemed to radiate a soft, gentle light, pushing back the unnatural gloom that had fallen over the plaza.

Lord Kael's jaw snapped shut. Queen Aria's eyes widened in shock.

"Prince Jin," High Queen Sylvara breathed, her composure finally cracking. "You have returned."

The young man, Jin, ignored them. His golden eyes were fixed on Liam, and on the black diamond he was still touching. A slow, almost amused smile played on his lips.

"Well, now," Jin said, his voice a pleasant, musical hum. "This is unexpected. I go away for a few months to handle a border dispute, and you all decide to execute the most interesting thing to happen to this Rite in a century."

He walked forward, his steps silent. The guards, who had been ready to kill Liam a moment before, now seemed uncertain, lowering their spears in the face of this newcomer's unnerving calm.

"Stand aside, Prince," Lord Kael growled, recovering his bluster. "This… thing is a menace. It has corrupted the Aether Diamond."

Jin stopped just before the dais, his smile never wavering. He looked from Kael's furious face to Liam's terrified one. "Corrupted it?" he mused. "Or revealed its opposite? You've always been a man of simple perspectives, Kael. All you see is fire, so everything else looks like fuel or ash."

He then turned his full attention to Liam. His golden eyes were not accusatory. They were curious, analytical, and held a depth that was terrifying in its own right.

"He is Shadow," Jin announced, his voice ringing with a strange certainty. "I am Light." He gestured from Liam to himself. "He is the question. I am the answer. Together,"—and here his smile widened, becoming sharp and dangerous—"we are either the balance this kingdom desperately needs, or we are your doom. And frankly, I'm excited to find out which."

He stepped onto the dais. The rulers tensed. Jin walked calmly to Liam and placed his own hand on the black, lightless crystal, right beside Liam's.

The moment Jin's hand touched the Diamond, a new phenomenon occurred. From his palm, a wave of pure, golden light radiated outwards, flooding the black crystal. It didn't fight the darkness; it flowed into it, mingling with it. The absolute black of the void and the brilliant gold of the light swirled together, creating a breathtaking pattern of a star-filled nebula inside the crystal. The screaming hum of the Diamond softened, replaced by a deep, resonant chord, a harmony of two opposing, yet complementary, forces.

Jin looked at the four stunned rulers, his golden eyes blazing with power.

"I am the Prince of Glaciera. By the terms of the Pentarchy Compact, I have the right to claim any aspirant, especially one of high anomaly." His voice was soft, yet it held the unyielding power of a glacier. "I claim this one."

He looked down at Liam, whose mind was reeling, unable to process the whirlwind of events. Jin offered him a smug, impossibly beautiful, and utterly terrifying wink.

"Don't worry," he whispered, his voice for Liam's ears only. "The first execution is always the scariest." He then raised his voice for all to hear. "He's with me now. And I will kill anyone who stands in my way."