By the time she'd finished talking, he was on his feet, with the grin on his face at its most charming.
"Well, I haven't either," and Skandra rolled his shoulders. "Guess we should give up. Maybe you'll have some wine with me."
"He's joking," Shantar said loudly. "We might have an idea of what it is. Or at least, what caused it."
"What makes you think this didn't happen randomly?" Skandra asked belligerently.
"Ex nihilo nihil fit," Shantar tapped the side of his nose; at Skandra's exasperate expression, the elder Immortal went on. "Nothing comes from nothing."
Skandra could recall reading about it in one of Shantar's crazed textbooks. The idea that nothing could come from nothing and nothing could become nothing was a bit ridiculous on the face of it. The first thing ever created, the first thing ever to exist, had to come from nothing, didn't it? Otherwise something had always existed - which did not seem possible unless time was an endless circle feeding on itself. Given how Shantar insisted that time travel was impossible, it seemed to fit that time was linear, since time as a sovereign force could propel you to another point on the wheel if you harnessed its energy properly.
History was not doomed to repeat itself, but Skandra always thought that argument proved that something could come from nothing.
"I can safely promise one thing, at least," Shantar stood up as well. "It isn't deadly in and of itself. Passing through the sphere-"
"Passing through it," Skandra repeated darkly.
"-is harmless."
"Passing through it!" Skandra snapped.
"It's the only way we're going to determine what it is," Shantar smiled again; Skandra wanted to punch him in his stupid smile. "You want to know what it is, don't you, Skandra? Isn't that why you're here?"
I'm here because I could never say no to beautiful women. I'm here because that's always been a problem of mine, and one that I've worked hard to try and solve. I'm here because you're a nonsense philosopher who thinks the world ought to conform to his way of thinking. I'm here because.. well, fuck. It didn't matter in the end, did it?