---
John shifted, pulled a small pouch. Why he had them he didn't know. He just collected them from instinct.
Inside the pouch were harmless things. A pinch of dust. A few broken chalk crumbs. A tiny sliver of wood from a cracked desk corner from his room. Nothing valuable. Nothing that would make him cry if it vanished into endless darkness.
He closed his eyes again and formed the smallest void opening he could.
Not a doom ball. Not a weapon. Just a controlled mouth of void the size of a coin.
He pushed a chalk crumb through. It drifted for half a breath, then landed on the mana platform.
Nyx moved instantly.
It snapped the chalk crumb up, pulled it in, and the crumb disappeared into its body.
A faint shimmer ran along Nyx's dark shell, like starlight under thin ice.
John felt a tiny pulse through the bond-thread. Completion again.
Fizz made a pleased sound, like someone watching a child eat vegetables for the first time. "It is working," he whispered.
