The perimeter of the Oakhaven valley was secured by indestructible celestial steel wards erected by Kael, and hidden within an unyielding labyrinth of pitch-black shadows woven by Silas. It was mathematically impossible for a hostile cosmic threat to breach the boundary.
However, mathematical impossibility occasionally failed to account for accidental, microscopic spatial tears.
It was a quiet, overcast afternoon. Elara was operating outside the immediate observation of the Warlord. The seven-year-old void lord was walking through the dense northern woods, utilizing the ambient darkness to skip across the forest floor without making a sound.
She stopped when she felt an unusual ripple in the localized void.
Elara merged into the trunk of a massive oak tree, her silver eyes scanning the shadowed brush. Ten feet away, a jagged spatial tear was flickering in the air.
Something unoptimized fell out of the tear.
