The central Channel was situated in the middle of the Citadel on the ground level. They had deactivated it for the test since it was just below the only building that floated on the fifth and highest level of the city and therefore offered and ideal vantage point from which to evaluate the deployment of the Shield. Ergon and Diacos were waiting for them there. The two Justices were inside the square from which they would normally ascend to higher levels. The feathers on the wings of the four statues that rose up on the corners of the base of the central Channel were pointing at the ground and not toward the outside of the square as they did when the Channel was functioning.

  Uncertainty permeated the atmosphere in the Citadel like a thick mist. A wave of nervousness washed over Asius as he approached the Justices. The Counselor knew it was due to the exhaustive search they’d been carrying out to find the demon who had infiltrated the Citadel, pretending to be Diago. He’d thought long and hard about what had happened but could not come up with any justifiable reason for a plan with so few apparent possibilities of succeeding. What did they hope to achieve by getting just one demon into the Nest? It didn’t make sense. He imagined himself in the midst of thousands of Fallen, hiding somewhere, waiting . . . for what? Asius made a conscious decision not to think about it anymore. It was only a matter of time before they’d find the infiltrator and, right now, rescuing his friend was the only thing that mattered.

  “Welcome, Counselor,” Diacos greeted him. The Hero seemed glad to see him. Ergon merely raised his hand in an unenthusiastic wave. “Finally someone for me to talk to. I don’t know if Ergon will ever forgive me for voting in favor of this test,” he said loudly, clearly with the intention of making sure Ergon heard him. Diacos recognized he’d been getting the silent treatment.

  “How are you, Yala?” said Ergon, ignoring the Hero’s comment as he headed for the Twins. Diacos and Ergon were an odd pair when the third Justice, Renuin, wasn’t with them. Ergon was the personification of seriousness; the Hero, on the other hand, expressed himself in a much more relaxed and informal manner, as Asius had only just discovered since his assistant, Zaedon, had been sent to help him.

  “Very well, Ergon,” responded one of the Twins in his typical neutral tone.

  “Greetings, Diacos,” the other Twin said to the Hero in the same tone.

  Yala shook hands with both Justices at the same time, then stood beside them in silence. Zaedon slipped stealthily to the side of his master. He did not greet him nor was he greeted by him. Asius noted with a sense of satisfaction that the assistant’s silent nature had nothing to do with him after all; apparently he was like that with everyone. Diacos did not react to his assistant’s presence, an indication that he was used to him being around and not making the slightest sound. It had, at first, surprised Asius, but he’d quickly gotten used to it—though a few times he’d been startled to see Zaedon beside him when he could have sworn he was alone.

  “Let’s hope this is worth it,” commented Ergon sternly as he approached Asius and Diacos. “I don’t like wasting our resources.”

  “It will help us know if the Wave affected the Shield,” Asius stated nonchalantly, trying to play down the importance of the issue. He had no desire to get into it again with the Justice.

  “At any rate, it’s nothing to get worked up about,” said Diacos cheerfully. Just then, Asius understood that Ergon’s reproach hadn’t been directed at him, but rather at Diacos. The Justice was not used to Diacos voting against him, so it had no doubt been quite an unpleasant surprise. On the other hand, with Asius he’d known what to expect from the beginning. “There won’t be much of a delay; you’ll see.”

  “It will be at least a week,” Ergon asserted. “Even though we had to pull back a large number of those who were investigating the deterioration of the Nest, Renuin is still there, in the Fourth Sphere. There’s no doubt that it’s the stagnation there that’s altering the balance on our plane. They’ve also confirmed that the rest of the planes are equally affected. We are facing a problem that threatens our very existence. I’m not happy to be wasting time on this.”

  “One whole week!” Diacos exclaimed in a exaggerated, whining tone. “I assure you, my dear friend, that once this is finished you’ll have my full support. It should be possible to reduce that week to just a few days. If we stop the restoration of some parts of the Nest we can assign the Framers to the investigation.”

  “That’s not much consolation. You’re forgetting about Renuin’s last report. Our first estimates were wrong; the deterioration is advancing much more rapidly than we’d initially thought. We have to find a solution as soon as possible. And besides,” his voice hardened slightly as he made his point, “the other source of information we were counting on to explain the Wave was Raven, and now he’s lost in the Fog. Isn’t that right, Asius?”

  This time the reproach was indeed meant for him. Asius could not expect Diacos to help him with that question as he had with the test of Shield. He was in charge of the Minor’s capture and the responsibility was all his.

  “A regrettable consequence for which I must ask forgiveness.” He didn’t know what else to say. It was not his style to elude his responsibilities, and to do so—or even to attempt to do so—would only serve to infuriate Ergon all the more, and rightfully so.

  “Raven was, quite possibly, part of the key to all this. The Wave, the Elder’s disappearance, and the presence of a Minor in the Nest—in the Dwelling, more precisely—all happened at the same time. A Minor in the Dwelling! It’s almost impossible to fathom. But now we won’t have a chance to find out what he knew. The only thing left for us to do until the Elder returns is to continue with the investigation that Renuin is carrying out.”

  Asius fell silent. Ergon’s assertion about Raven was right, and he more than anyone regretted having lost him.

  “You’ll see, we’ll sort all this out,” Diacos interjected. “This is just a small setback. We have to remember we weren’t counting on a demon showing up.” Asius was shocked by the Hero’s unexpected aid. “They’ve never been able to leave the Hole. Even though the Wave changed the gates of Hell, we’ve still never come across one of them. And Nilia, no less! She’s not exactly just any demon.”

  “Thank you for the clarification. I would never have come up with that on my own,” growled Ergon. “Finally I understand why one of our Guardians is in the hands of the Fallen and a damn demon is here, hiding somewhere.” Ergon waved his hand angrily in a dismissive gesture and walked off.

  “Don’t worry—he’ll get over it,” assured Diacos. “You caught him at a bad time, that’s all.”

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  “I doubt that.” Asius shook his head, unconvinced. “Unfortunately, he has good reason to be upset.”

  A sound that was quickly increasing in volume could be heard above their heads. Asius watched as everyone else looked up—everyone except for one of the Twins—and he then did the same. The sound was coming from the building floating just above their heads—the Tower—the only building on the fifth level. Inside it were one hundred completely exhausted angels who’d used every ounce of strength they had to complete the ritual of activating the Shield. At the base of the Tower, which was the only thing Asius and those with him could see from where they were, the rune that identified it shone brightly. The sound got louder still and then died away with a loud bang that reverberated throughout the Citadel. It was a noise that had only been heard once before in their existence—the only time the Shield had been tested upon its creation after the War. And that had been millennia ago.

  Asius saw that the base of the Tower was beginning to turn; slowly at first, but then progressively gaining speed as the rune shone with more intensity. In a few seconds the Tower was spinning with such tremendous speed that the symbol was transformed into nothing more than a shining spot. The energy from the Shield began to flow from the Tower, appearing as a yellowish liquid slowly falling over the Citadel and gradually covering it. The Shield descended over the different levels as if it were running over an invisible dome. The air in the city was slowly getting warmer as the powerful barrier advanced. After several seconds, it had joined itself to the silvery exterior wall of the Citadel. The city was now covered by an impenetrable golden dome of energy.

  Asius looked at it, feeling safe and reassured. Though he was no expert, he would have bet his wings that it had all functioned perfectly. The test had been a success.

  The origin of the Shield was intimately tied to the War and was, as such, the saddest episode in its history. Shortly after winning the battle against Satan and the Fallen, security became a cause for preoccupation. The Framers presented a proposal to the Council to improve the Citadel’s defenses since it was the point of access to the rest of the spheres. The Council studied the viability of the project and agreed it should be undertaken. Its original dome-shaped design was the product of their intent to keep out enemies that could fly and therefore attack from any direction. Of course, no one could have foreseen that the Wave would eliminate such an attack from ever occurring. The Shield would serve to reinforce the exterior wall of the Citadel, and after the surprise of being confronted with a war, they could not be sure the enemy would not find ways to get over the wall or to attack from above. Though the Elder did not veto the Shield project, he was indifferent about it, so the Council authorized the Framers to create it. It took them three centuries to complete it during which the Citadel had had to endure several modifications, the most significant of which were the creation of a fifth level for the Tower and the elimination of some of the floating buildings on the third level that exceeded the zone the Shield could cover.

  “I hope you’re satisfied, Counselor,” said Ergon, coming closer to Asius and Diacos.

  “Of course I am,” Asius replied. “The test could not have gone better. I’m glad to see the Wave did not affect the Shield.”

  “We can all rest easier now,” commented Diacos. “The Citadel is absolutely impregnable.”

  “At any rate, they wouldn’t dare to attack.” Ergon’s anger had faded somewhat. “It would be suicide. They were defeated when they attacked from within, and since the Elder stripped them of the gift of healing there are no Healers among the Fallen.” His voice was steeped in pride. Ergon was a Healer and considered healing as a most important factor in all respects. “Our Healers are a better form of security than any system of defense.”

  “And besides, there are less of them than of us,” seconded Diacos. “So now we just have to hope the ones who activated the Shield recuperate quickly so we can concentrate on resuming our investigation.”

  “It will take several days,” Ergon stated. “I’ve thought about your suggestion to use the Framers to make up time and I think you’re right. The sooner we find out how to stop the threats caused by the Wave, the sooner we’ll be able to dedicate ourselves fully to returning the demons to the Hole—which is where they belong. I trust you won’t have any more suggestions that delay us, Asius.”

  “I don’t,” he lied. If it were up to him, he would carry out at least two more actions he considered to be indispensable. One was to bring all their forces together in the Threshold since he didn’t like the idea that, if they were attacked, they were spread out across all the rest of the spheres, but he knew Ergon would just as soon cut his wings off as delay his plans any more. The other idea didn’t need to be brought up since he’d already found a way to carry it out. At any rate, they did agree on one thing: the Citadel was truly impregnable.

  “Excellent. Find Diago, Counselor. I hope he’s still alive. I don’t want to hear about another failure on Earth.”

  “I know he’s alive. I’ll bring him back,” promised Asius.

  “Good luck,” said Diacos.

  The Justices walked away. Yala and Zaedon looked at him expectantly.

  “I’m going to go get Vyns and then we’ll leave immediately. Yala, get a Traveler. Zaedon, you go get Lyam. We’ll need a Healer. We’ll meet at the gate of the Citadel.”

  “A Healer . . . That means you’re expecting a fight,” reflected Zaedon.

  “Why do you think Yala is with us? I don’t think it’s likely that when we find Diago they’ll just hand him over to us, no questions asked. I’d love to come back here with him without Lyam having had to do a single healing, but I don’t see that happening.”

  He watched as Zaedon went off in the opposite direction. When Asius got to the third level, Vyns was waiting for him, looking rather impatient.

  “Asius! Are we going yet?” Vyns asked, not even taking the time to greet him.

  “Soon. First we have to talk.”

  “Okay. You know, it’s weird to see you without your shadow.”

  “Oh, yeah, Zaedon . . . I sent him to get Lyam.” It had taken Asius a few seconds to understand what he was talking about. Making allusions to shadows was common among the Observers who spent much of their time among the mortals, but for those who rarely left the Nest, it wasn’t natural to talk about something that didn’t exist on their plane.

  They went into a room and the Counselor closed the door. Vyns was about to say something but Asius quickly held up his hand to stop him. His forefinger lit up, and he drew a symbol in the air, then traced a circle around the two of them.

  “It’s just a precaution. I don’t want anyone to hear what we’re saying,” he explained. Vyns nodded. “Is everything ready? We can’t leave if it isn’t.”

  “Just like you asked, but it wasn’t easy.” Vyns was visibly worried. “You know I’m with you, Asius, but I don’t like doing things behind the Council’s back. If they catch us . . .”

  “They won’t,” he reassured him. “They’re too busy with the investigation of the Fourth Sphere and Ergon would never consider the Fallen a true threat. At any rate, if they find out it will mean that I’m right and, in that case, none of this will matter much.”

  “You don’t think the investigation that has everyone else so preoccupied matters?” Vyns could not comprehend Asius’s reasoning.

  “Of course I do. It’s vital for our survival and for the Minors’. The Wave and its significance should be the only thing we’re worried about. And the Elder’s disappearance, of course. But tell me one thing: what good would it do to discover the answers to all that just to perish in a new war against the Fallen?”

  “I see what you mean.” The Observer gently nodded his head.

  “One last time,” insisted Asius, “I’m trusting you, Vyns. I can’t take care of all this myself. Tell me again. Is everything ready to seal the Fog?”

  “Relax; everything is ready. You’re worrying me, Asius. You yourself said you can’t take care of it all. Forget about that one detail. I guarantee you it will work.”

  “Remember we shouldn’t say anything about this in front of Zaedon. He’s Diacos’s assistant and it would be the same as telling the Council.” Vyns made a face that indicated he didn’t need to be reminded of that. “Okay. One less thing to worry about. From now on we’re done with plots and conspiracies. Time to concentrate on the only important thing: getting Diago back.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more. I have to return that kiss to Nilia.”