...
They reached a wall that wasn't a wall.
It looked like stone, old and unremarkable, except that the longer Valerian looked at it the less certain he became that it was actually there at all—like staring at something underwater, the image shifting slightly with a current that didn't exist in the air around it.
"This is as far as I go," Braham said. He stepped back. "This is as far as anyone goes, except Aisha and whoever she brings."
Liliana stepped forward immediately. "I'm coming."
"You're not," Aisha said. Gently. "None of you are. The threshold only opens for a saint and the person she's bringing through. That's it. That's how it's always worked."
"Aisha—"
"I know," Aisha said, looking at each of them in turn—Liliana, Eva, Éve, Mephistopheles, Mariabell and Victor near the back. "I know none of you want to just wait here. But you'd be waiting here either way. At least this way I'll be with him."
No one argued further. But no one looked happy about it either.
...
