Leah spent the free hour she had before dinner searching for Kieran.

She checked the training hall. She checked the study halls. She checked almost every room and hall and library and storage room he could have possibly had an interest and found him absent. Despite her initial reluctance, she even started asking anyone she passed if they'd seen him. Linking them together probably wasn't the smartest idea if something unfavourable was behind that door, but she had to find him. Not just to open the door, but to fix things. To apologise for what Illiya had said.

It was her own damned fault. If she hadn't been so preoccupied with her woe-is-me attitude, she would have spoken for herself. She'd probably still be stuck on herself if Ash hadn't--

Leah stopped herself.

It'd happened. She needed to get over it. Not forget that it'd happened. It was too important. The key thing that'd kicked her ass into gear, or more accurately, her brain. It'd rekindled the questions that Dale's attack had almost killed, the questions that were driving her steps and fuelling the growing confusion behind the entire Lightless situation.

It was getting ridiculous, though. With the new Lightless being detained, there shouldn't have been anyone, especially not from the expedition teams, outside the League.

So where under the sun was Kieran?

Leah returned to her room and grabbed her notebook. If she couldn't go to him, then she'd stake out the dining room until he came to her.

She set up at a table that wasn't in the direct line of sight of the entrances.

The wait began.

People trickled in as the dinner rush approached. Leah glanced up inbetween scribbles, both productive and not, trying to make inspiration strike. The hidden symbols in the temple below were almost burned into her brain, and she found herself sketching them out, turning them around, playing with the words to try and get them sounding like plain Radiant.

More people arrived, the dining room over half full, and there was still no sign of Kieran.

Leah tapped her pencil impatiently as Sef sat down next to her.

"Looking for someone?" asked Sef.

"I was hoping Kieran would show up for dinner," said Leah. "I really need to talk to him about something."

"I'm pretty sure he's busy with League things at the moment," said Sef. "He usually is around this time of the week, it's like a weekly report or something. He could even be at another Spire inspecting our next ruins."

Leah threw down the pencil. "Great. Super."

Sef caught it at it rolled off the table, placing it back in the crease between the pages. "Is this something related to what's been stressing you out?"

"I guess, yea." She sighed. "I just... I think I've found something big, but I need to talk it over with him. He's sort of aware of what it is, so he'd my go-to, but I think he's annoyed at me."

"Kieran gets annoyed fairly easily. Holds grudges, too," said Sef. Leah tensed. "I wouldn't worry, though. You're on his team. He won't--"

"He would," said Leah, sinking down into her seat. "Illiya told him I didn't even want to be on this team, made it seem like I was some kind of lying jerk. I told him I still want to be here, and I do, but I'm pretty sure he hates me. "

"Ah," said Sef. "Um... yea. You might want to get on that apologising thing. I'm sure he'd let you explain yourself."

"Let's hope so," said Leah. If not, she was planning on dragging him down to the temple and hoping he'd forget about being angry at her long enough to forgive her.

Sef stayed with her through dinner. Leah kept scanning the room, well aware of his gentle prods that wanted her to tell him more about the thing she'd found. Leah kept her mouth firmly shut, artfully dodging the questions with more of her own.

But eventually, she'd had enough of waiting and avoiding Sef's well-intentioned but gradually annoying prodding.

"I don't suppose you know where Kieran's room is?" she asked.

"It's close to mine," said Sef. "Why?"

"I might just leave him a note," said Leah, flipping to an empty page. "He has to go back to his room eventually, right?"

"I guess so."

Leah dropped her usually neat handwriting into its rather chaotic, significantly more slanty form in the hopes that Kieran wouldn't instantly recognise her handwriting and tear the paper into pieces.

Kieran - I've found something important with the border symbols and I need to talk to you about it as soon as possible. What Illiya said isn't true, and I shouldn't have let her speak for me. I can explain if you give me the chance. I'll be in my rooms unless I'm on Lightless duty - Leah.

Leah scanned the note before deciding it was good enough and carefully tearing it out.

She glanced to Sef. "Care to escort me?"

"With pleasure."

Leah memorised the route to Kieran's room as they walked. It wasn't hard, and soon enough, she'd slipped the note under his door and quickly walked away, not wanting to hear the rustle of paper if Kieran was on the other side and picked it up.

"Did you need anything else?" asked Sef, hesitating outside another door a few metres from Kieran's that she assumed was his. "I can take you back to your room or something if you don't remember the way?"

"I remember," said Leah. "Thanks for your help, Sef. Sorry if I've been a bit of a mess. I've just bitten off a bit more than I can currently chew, but I'll manage."

Sef didn't seem happy, but he nodded. "Just remember--if you need me, it doesn't matter what I'm doing or what time it is, I'll help any way I can. Okay?"

"Okay," said Leah, giving him a small smile. "Night, Sef."

His eyes lingered on her face, only breaking when she awkwardly turned to leave. "Goodnight, Leah."

*+*+*+*

Leah sat in her room for what felt like an eternity.

In reality, it was barely an hour. She kept glancing at the stars through the ceiling, trying to figure out exactly how long she should wait. If Kieran was in his room, she tried to tell herself that he'd need time to consider the letter, maybe make up his mind. If he wasn't, well, for the sake of her sanity she needed to get this door open tonight.

To distract herself, she turned to her notebooks on the underground temple. She'd drawn in the sun tunnels on each level and drawn so many maps and sketches of the layout anyone could have made a three-dimensional model from the details. She linked their recorded murals to their section of wall, and when she got to Shade's, her fingertips brushed the page.

In a moment of clarity, she understood what Gale had been trying to do when Leah had shown her Pirra's page. Shade's essence was on this page, and a dull ache in her heart made her accutely aware of how much she missed him.

If he was free and alive as Gale had said, he'd be trying to get them out. Surely, that was the reason for his absence--he didn't want her involved. She could barely defend herself, she'd be a burden to protect that wouldn't have much use in the first place... but that didn't mean she couldn't miss him, right? Couldn't he at least have left her a note?

Her finger smudged one of Shade's lines. She didn't bother erasing it to fix it.

Leah stared back up at the stars. Deep down, she knew that a note would have only made it harder. She just needed one more chance to explain herself. If their last conversation was that fight born out of her own fear and ignorance, it was going to haunt her forever.

Another hour, and enough was enough.

Kieran, if he'd seen the note, had ignored it. That left it to her to reinforce the urgency of the situation, even if she wasn't sure why it was so urgent. Something was burning in her, driving every thought she had back towards getting that door open. She had to know, and it was more than curiosity at this point. It was a compulsion, one she wasn't strong enough to ignore.

She turned away from her notebooks on the desk. Remembering what had been behind the first secret door, Leah grabbed her Hilt, a new notebook and a pencil and left her room with quiet steps, heading straight to Kieran's room.

The corridors were lonely, and in the silence, Leah was almost sure she could hear the sound of crying coming from the halls closest to the research lab.

As she reached the male half of the dorms, Leah's imagination faded in the place of nerves. It wasn't that she wasn't allowed to wander these halls, it was just that, well, it was going to be questionable if someone caught her.

She found her way to Kieran's room and, feeling more than a little stupid, got down on her shins and placed her cheek against the floor, trying to peer under his door to see if the note was gone. She couldn't tell with the darkness, so she brought her forearm, the one with the crystal pattern, to rest alongside the door and lit the crystals.

The paper was still sitting there, exactly where she'd put it.

With a huff, Leah sat back on her haunches. So, Kieran wasn't there. She wasn't sure which she preferred, this or being ignored entirely. At least if he'd ignored her, she could have sat outside slipping pieces of paper under until he had to open to the door just to get her to go away.

But with no Kieran, she needed option B to open the door. She stood up, took a deep breath, and knocked on Sef's door.

Leah winced. The sound was deafening in the surrounding silence. Once more, she lit the crystal patterns on her arms, intending to flash them under his door to try and wake him up when it opened.

Sef squinted at her. "Leah?"

Leah shut off the Light in her crystals. "I'm--did I wake you?"

"No," said Sef. "I couldn't get to sleep. Kept wondering... well, doesn't matter now, does it? What's up?"

"I need your help," said Leah. "But it might be dangerous. I don't know. But it's important."

"Is this the thing you needed to talk to Kieran about?" She nodded. Sef reciprocated the action. "Okay. Give me a second." He closed the door, emerging a few minutes later fully dressed with his own Hilt hanging by his side. "Do I need anything else?"

"I don't think so," said Leah. "Let's go."

She led him to the basement staircases without a question. Sef seemed content that she'd brought him into it at all. He hesitated as she started down the spiral staircase, but when she gave him a reassuring smile, he followed.

When they reached the dead-end room and she was certain no one had followed them, Leah started explaining.

"I found this when I was... exploring the League," she said, turning to the leftmost wall and finding the usual patch of crystalite, checking and double-checking it before she pushed it in. Sef's intake of breath was audible as the passage opened. "There's... symbols in the ancient's ruins, the borders than we recorded at the ruins? They're not just decorative. They're messages."

"Is it safe in here?" Sef asked as he followed her into the winding corridor. "I really don't want to Shatter down here if we get trapped."

"I've been down here a few times and nothing yet," said Leah. "This leads to another locked room right by the Spire that needs two crystals at opposite ends to open, which is why I need your help. I need to get into that room."

"This room is by the Spire?" said Sef, sounding more than a little like she was crazy. "Lee, are you sure?"

Leah crinkled her nose at the attempted nickname. "I'm sure, Sef. There's no mistaking it."

"If you say so."

He shut up when the corridor opened out into the room with the window to the Spire.

Leah couldn't help herself. "Told you."

"This is..." Sef drifted forward, placing his hands against the window. His face was covered in awe. "This is absolutely amazing. This is why I joined the expedition team in the first place to find stuff like this! Leah, we have to tell the others, tell Emrys--"

"Not until I see what's in this room, we don't," said Leah. She grabbed his wrist and took him to one side of the room where the crystal linked to the door was imbedded. "When I tell you, you Light this crystal right here. None of the other ones, because they're probably trapped. Understood?"

Sef nodded. "Yep."

"Good," said Leah, walking to the other side. She placed her hand on her crystal. "Ready?"

"Ready!"

"On three!" called Leah. "One! Two! Three!"

She lit the crystal.

The familiar line of Light drained from the crystal, racing through the wall until it hit the door at the same time as Sef's. The two lines melded and merged, trickling into a crystal imbedded in the crystalite of the door, its outline only visible due to the glow. Light fractured and split, spreading across the room, until finally, the door slipped into the ground.

The Light from the Spire lit a thin path into the room. Leah held her breath as Sef joined her to stare inside. There was no growling, nothing that would indicate a Shattered.

Even so, Leah formed a blade on her Hilt before she moved forward.

Sef grabbed her shoulder. His own Hilt was lit. "Want me to go first?"

"It's okay," said Leah, shrugging him off as she stepped inside. "I think we're good."

The egg-shaped room was empty of Shattered or skeletons this time. The line of Light from the Spire laid perfectly across what looked to be an altar with the same five pillars set out around it. Leah gawked, placing her bladed Hilt on the altar and forming a sheet of Light between her fingers.

Unlike the outside, there wasn't a whole ritual written on these walls. There was one symbol on the wall at the far end of the room, right where the Spire's path of Light came to an end.

It was the perfect merge of the Life in Light symbol, and Leah knew upon looking at it that it was the missing piece of the ritual, the reason why she hadn't been able to complete it without entering this room. It clicked in her mind the same way the symbols on the outer walls had formed that connection with her mind, and she just knew.

Leah dropped her sheet of Light and raised a hand in front of her.

She pulled at the energy mixed with her Light in her heart, and with an understanding that would slip through her fingers if she tried to consciously grasp it, she pulled it out, covered in a thin shell of pure, white crystalised Light. It hovered over her fingers before orbiting around her hand, her elbow, finally coming to rest above her shoulder.

It was exactly like the Radiants from the murals.

She'd done it. Something no one else had been able to do in thousands of years, she'd done within her first few weeks at the League. She hadn't needed Shade or Kieran or anyone--but a sobering thought pulled her off the high.

What exactly had she done?

"Hey, Sef," said Leah, turning. Her new orb of Light didn't seem to drain more Light than usual, but it was a little annoying being able to see its glow from the corner of her eye. "Can you see if you can--"

Leah cut off.

Sef's hair was white.

Dead, bone white with no trace of its former teal. Sef himself stood straighter than usual, his chin tilted upward as his eyes locked on hers. Leah's orb flashed. Sef grinned. A chill ran down her spine.

"You know, I wasn't sure if you'd manage to find this place." This wasn't Sef. This voice was too silky. Too confident and... and something else she couldn't put a word to. "But congratulations. The one thing you take pride in was able to work to my benefit after all."

Leah was all too aware of how far away her Hilt was. "What did you do with Sef?"

The thing inside Sef chuckled. "I give you a compliment and you brush it aside? So typical of the Teridian blood. I suppose that's the only reason I wasn't able to get inside your head instead. Pity. It means I'll have to waste this vessel, but I suppose it will have a use."

"Waste the vessel?" said Leah. "Let him go, or--"

Sef tilted his head, amused. "Are you sure? You won't like what happens if I let him go."

Fear slipped into Leah's words. "Please--don't hurt him!"

"Oh, I won't hurt him," said the thing inside Sef. It made him smile. "But I can't promise he won't hurt himself. Goodbye, pawn." 

"Wait--!" screamed Leah.

She was too late.

The thing left Sef in a rush of something ethereal, something beyond Light that knocked her off her feet. Leah cried out as her hip slammed into the ground, but it was nothing compared to the agony of watching Sef Shatter.

His screams were wild. Raw. He ripped his hair out in chunks with one hand as the other clawed across his heart, scraping the surface with a keening noise that made her skin crawl. His fingers dug into his skin, clawing it out in chunks as the remaining Light in his heart exploded in a singular, brilliant burst that forced Leah to look away.

"Sef!" she tried, already knowing what she'd find. She wiped away her tears regardless, dragging herself forward, towards him. "Sef, please!"

Her vision was still blurry, but in the Light of the Spire, she could see his crystal patterns had gone dark. Sef's breathing was ragged in his throat, climbing from his crystalising lungs in gasps and wheezes.

His heart crystal was no longer. In its place was a gaping hole, removed out by his own crystal claws.

Shade's words were echoing in Leah's head.

What if there were other ways to make them hit that insanity?

"Oh, sunlight," breathed Leah, right as the Shattered form of Sef locked its backlit eyes on her heart and charged.

She didn't think. Kieran's training took over as she threw herself to the side, to safety. She had to get to her Hilt, to at least give her a chance of taking this thing down. It wasn't Sef anymore, and if she treated it as such, it was going to kill her right here and now and her body was going to lie here until the next Radiant figured it out.

The Shattered swiped at her from where it'd collided with the wall and caught Leah from behind. It sliced open her back. She screamed. Blind instinct made her harden a shard of Light to her hand and stab wildly in its direction, to get it away, to give herself more time. By some miracle, the shard connected, and the Shattered lurched away.

Leah scrambled for the altar. Her back felt sticky and warm, and every movement made her vision flash at the edges. The orb moved with her, but it didn't seem inclined to help. Leah pushed herself up to the altar height and grabbed her still-bladed Hilt, only to have it knocked from her hands as the Shattered rammed into her.

It knocked them both to the ground, its claws over her shoulders, pinning them to the ground. Pain lanced up her back. She didn't have the breath to scream. Her vision was fuzzy.

The Shattered crouched over her, eyes on her heart, savouring its prize.

After all this, she was useless. She was still a burden, unable to defend herself, needing to rely on others to get things done.

She wasn't okay with that.

The Shattered leaned in.

The orb flashed.

Her Light swelled. In one thin, white pillar, it lunged from her heart and pierced straight through the Shattered's skull.

The Shattered slid down the length of the Light pillar, dead.

By its own will rather than her own dwindling consciousness, the Light melted and sank back into her heart as if she'd never hardened it at all. The Shattered's body thudded down on her own chest, crushing her ribs, constricting her already tiny breaths, but Leah didn't have the strength to push it off.

She'd done it. She'd proven herself. She'd killed it.

With that final thought inside her mind, Leah let go and slipped into the waiting blackness.

*+*+*+*

A/N - Told you you wouldn't see it coming => 

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