Leah woke, breaching the surface of consciousness slowly, her body cold despite the blankets and full force of the midday sun beating down on her through the crystalite ceiling.

Her thoughts were muddled as she tried to push herself upright and collapsed right back down on the bed.

"Careful," said a familiar voice. "Take it easy, Leah."

In her delirious state, Leah thought for a moment that it was Shade, but the rapid blinks to clear her vision revealed Kieran sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. It was a medical room too, but she knew she hadn't fallen asleep here. In fact, she'd been down in the temple with Sef, and they'd opened the door, and--

"Oh sunlight," whispered Leah, memory winding her. Her eyes stung as a hand went to her mouth. "Sef. Sef, he's--I--"

She'd killed him.

He'd Shattered, and she'd killed him.

Kieran was on his feet and beside her bed before her breaths turned to sobs. Her mind felt fuzzy, clearing the slightest bit as Kieran's hand on her shoulder helped her sit up, steadying her.

"Leah? Leah, I need you to take a deep breath." His skin was so warm, so much warmer than hers, and it was enough for Leah to find a small measure of comfort. "Good. Just keep breathing. Focus on it."

It helped. Soon enough, Leah had her composure back, even if she couldn't help the tear that slid down her cheek. "I'm sorry."

"Considering the state I found you in, I don't blame you," said Kieran.

"No," said Leah. "Not about that--I'm sorry for what Illiya said yesterday. I wasn't lying to you when I said I wanted to be on the expedition team, I just--with Dale and everything, it scared me, and I--"

"It's okay," said Kieran, fingers squeezing her shoulder. Leah breathed and nodded. He released her. "But that wasn't yesterday. You've been out for almost two days."

"Two days?"

"I found your note," said Kieran softly. He took his hands away when she was steady enough on her own. "I went to your room. Your door was open and you weren't in there and no one at breakfast had seen you, so after seeing your notebooks on your desk about some hidden temple, I used them to find it." He stopped for a moment, a distant look in his eyes. "When I found you I thought you were as dead as the Shattered on top of you. You were so pale and the blood, I..." He cut off with a shake of his head. "I pushed the Shattered off and looked you over, but it was the strangest thing. The skin around the wound on your back had crystallised."

Leah couldn't help it. Her hand went to her back where Sef--the Shattered had ripped her skin open and found it nearly perfectly smooth.

"It's gone, isn't it?" asked Kieran, taking her stunned silence as the affirmative. "Since I couldn't wake you up down there, I carried you back up here and got you on supportive care. The medical team were stumped, but I figured you'd wake up when your body was done healing, even if that crystallised skin thing is a new one." Kieran's gaze shifted behind her. "I thought it might have something to do with your little friend, though."

Leah glanced behind her to find the orb still hovering behind her. She'd mistaken its Light for the sun, but now she'd noticed it, it was back to being obnoxious from the corner of her eye. "It's still here?"

"Leah," said Kieran matter-of-factly. "What in the name of the ancients happened down there?" When she didn't answer straight away, he leaned forward. "Where did you find a Shattered?"

Leah managed to choke a few words out. "That--that was Sef." The truth of everything was slapping her in the face. If Kieran had been around, would that voice have Shattered him instead? Losing Sef was hard enough, but if it'd been Kieran? She was ashamed to admit her relief. "I, um, found that temple when I was exploring the League and saw the symbols but the inner door needed two Radiants to open it and I couldn't find you so I brought Sef down and..." She buried her face in her hands. "Light, Kieran--I killed him. I killed Sef."

"How did he Shatter?"

Leah shook her covered face. "I don't know. There was a voice, and it congratulated me for finding the room and said that I'd done my part and then I told it to let Sef go and... and then he Shattered."

Kieran paused for a moment. "A voice Shattered him?"

"You don't have to believe me," said Leah, dropping her hands to stare at her fingers. "But that's what happened."

She couldn't tell from his tone if he did or not. "And the orb?"

"There's a ritual hidden on the walls," said Leah. "You have to look through Light to see it, but it tells you how to pull Life from Light." She gestured at the orb. "And that's what comes out. I don't know what it does, but it's important. I know it is."

"That I'd believe," said Kieran. He glanced at the door before he spoke in a lowered voice. "Emrys has been more than a little interested in the orb since I brought you up. I've been keeping watch to make sure he doesn't try anything, but something isn't right about him. I just can't put my finger on it."

"What are you saying?" asked Leah. "Don't tell him about the temple?"

Kieran shook his head. "It's too late for that. I had to show them where I found you and I'm pretty sure Emrys has had people going through your notebooks on the subject, but if there's anything you can do to slow him down, it'd give me a chance to figure out what's weird about this whole thing before he gets what he wants. What did you have written down in those notebooks?"

Leah closed her eyes. "Everything. Everything except how to see the hidden symbols."

Kieran swore. "Has anyone told you that you're way too efficient?"

"It's just how I think," said Leah. She shuffled, wishing Kieran would put his hand back on her shoulder. She felt so cold, the shiverless ice that spread through her body when she ran dangerously low on Light. "It can't be that bad though, can it? Emrys has only ever wanted a cure. If he's interested in it, then maybe it can help?"

"Maybe," said Kieran. "Hopefully that's all it is." He didn't sound convinced, and Leah was sure he was about to press the point when he said, "Leah, about that voice, was it--"

He didn't get a chance to finish his question. The door opened and Emrys swept inside.

"Ah! She's awake!" boomed Emrys, his arms going wide as he pushed Kieran aside and took his place at her bed. Leah found herself wanting to curl into the wall to retrieve her space. "How are you feeling, my dear?"

"Uh, fine."

"Good, good," said Emrys. He turned to Kieran, the friendly note dropping from his voice. "You are dismissed, Kieran. Prepare your notes for this afternoon's gathering. I expect your attendance."

Without another word, Emrys turned back to Leah, leaving Kieran working his jaw behind him. Kieran found Leah's eyes and mouthed something at her she didn't catch before leaving the room.

Emrys then wanted to know the same things she'd already told Kieran--how she'd found the temple, how she'd worked out the symbols were another language, and more importantly, everything and anything about the orb. He asked how it felt, how it acted, how she'd summoned it--and unlike her brief conversation with Kieran, these didn't feel like questions.

It felt like an interrogation.

An overly-aggressive interrogation with the friendliest overtone she'd ever encountered. Emrys didn't let her skimp on any of the details, poking and prodding at every piece of information she had in her head. Leah suddenly understood what Kieran had meant by Emrys was acting weird about the orb.

She had to know. "What do you think this orb is?"

"I believe it is the key to what we've been working for all these years," said Emrys, only too happy to answer. "It's been seen all too often in the ancient's murals and it's held a personal interest to me. It is the Life in Light, and though we've come close to brushing the surface, none of my team, even myself, have managed what you have, Leah."

Leah attempted a shrug. "I, uh, guess I just got lucky."

"No," said Emrys. "There is more to this than luck, my dear. I believe you may have been guided by the sun herself to your destiny. You may be the one who guides us all into the new era where we can conquer this parasite once and for all to reclaim out homeland, but we're not out of the shadows yet. I have a team working the temple below, but I'm afraid their progress has been much slower than I would like. Do you feel up to the walk?"

Knowing she couldn't exactly say no, Leah accepted.

Emrys led her down, often having to reach out and steady when her muscles lacked the energy they needed to hold her upright. Every time he caught her, it only made her more determined to stand on her own two feet. The ice in her bones set in deeper when Emrys touched her skin, the orb behind her flashing.

They made it to the dead-end room with its open corridor. From Kieran's recount, it didn't surprise her than they'd found the way to open to it with her notebooks. Their footsteps echoed down the long, twisting corridor to the room nestled against the Spire from where rose the murmur of voices.

The space that had once been her secret space shared only with Shade had been violated.

At least fifteen Radiants covered the outer room, studying and recording and testing the walls. Sef's Shattered corpse had been moved to the side and laid out like it was a bundle of rags. To say it made Leah uncomfortable to watch and hear so many people inside her once safe space was an understatement. Her muscles were stiff seeing them work, and no honeyed words from Emrys made it better.

"This is amazing," said Emrys. "We knew about the room near the spiral staircase, of course, but to think that there was this hidden behind it the whole time!" He swept her along, taking her to stand beside the Spire window, facing the innards of the central room where more Radiants were gathered. "Truly, this is fate. Do you know what you have uncovered?"

"I wasn't sure, no," said Leah.

Emrys waved a hand over the air before him. "This, my dear, is what the ancients referred to as an Enlightening Chamber. We have several records of it, though we have always been missing a few crucial details. We believe that it was, at its core, the ancient's way of curing the Lightless. Saving them, if you will."

Leah's skin crawled as Emrys continued, though for the Light of her, she couldn't figure out why. Something... something felt wrong. So very, very wrong.

He led her into the room beside the altar. "The Lightless would be restrained to the altar, since as you can imagine a Shattered would be rather difficult to work with. The high priests would them call upon the Light of the Spire itself to return Light to the Radiant it was stolen from. Until now, we didn't have the knowledge of the crystal structure they used, and--"

Emrys continued with his explanation that covered exactly why Leah's discovery had been the key to realising the true purpose and success of this procedure. She tuned most of it out. All she could see in her mind's eye was a Shattered--a Lightless, thrashing on the table as five figures gathered around them forced Light back into their body to restore a shambling figure with a dead look in its eyes.

Leah blinked, and the image went away. What--

"But with this discovery, we finally understand," said Emrys as Leah tuned back in. "Though, I must ask, how exactly did you learn how to summon the orb behind you? There's no mention in your notebooks, and my team is struggling to find a mention of it in the murals."

Kieran's words rang in her head. "I, uh, don't remember. I think it appeared when I fought Se--the Shattered, but I can't be sure."

Though Emrys nodded, there was a frown mixed into his expression. "I see, I see. If you recall anything, don't hesitate to mention it, no matter how insignificant it might seem."

Leah inclined her head. "Of course."

"Good, good," said Emrys. His eyes stared through her. Behind her, to where the orb hovered. "Of course, it goes without saying that you will be a part of the cure team from this point on. You will have full access to the research lab and this temple, and it seems only fitting that we should include the mind who decoded the symbols."

Internally, Leah cringed, but there was something more important to her than pleasing Emrys right now. "I wish to remain part of Kieran's expedition team, if you wouldn't mind. As you said earlier, I believe I can do the most good there."

Emrys raised an eyebrow. "Only a few days ago, you were asking for a place on my research team, were you not?"

"I was," said Leah. "But the past few days have had me reconsider my options." She attempted a smile. "Besides, I hadn't thought my little decoding project could yield so many results, and now look where it's taken us."

It took a moment for him to speak, and Leah got the feeling that he wasn't happy, but he couldn't argue against it either. "I can understand your reasoning, Leah, though I must say I am disappointed in the decision." He sighed. "Though, I suppose it can't be helped. In my younger years, I yearned for adventure too. I only wish I could stay down in this temple longer and conduct the research myself, but alas, there are matters to be handled in the sunlight still. I wouldn't wish the responsibility of this gathering on anyone else."

There was something in his eyes as Emrys looked at her that had Leah wanting to run, but she held her ground and put on her best confused expression. "A gathering, Emrys?"

"A six-month meeting where I confer with various teams and divisions within the League," he said. "A chance for myself to hear any concerns from within the League, or without. Since your expedition team is one, your attendance will be compulsory."

"I'll... be there," said Leah slowly.

Emrys flicked his eyes away. "Good. Then allow me to escort you back to the surface."

*+*+*+* 

A/N - Little bit of a shorter one, sorry! 

PLEASE NOTE: Updates from this point are probably going to be ~once a week. I've just got Indigo back from the editor, so that takes priority. That said, I'm not going to pull a Mythic and leave HL un-updated for 2+months either. It WILL continue, it might be more than once a week depending on how I'm feeling, but I'm making no promises. 

Please bear with me => 

<3 Kelsey

(also HL hit rank 29 in fantasy woooo! ^_^ *Cookie confetti* 

(also also--next chapter. You'd better have your cookies at the ready because it's gonna be interesting. *cough*)