Leah woke with a start as her door flew open.

"Let's move, Leah!" said Kieran's voice as he approached and pulled her blanket off. "We're leaving in five minutes whether you're dressed or not!"

Dumping her blanket on the ground and leaving her suddenly cold, Kieran exited the room, slamming the door behind him.

Leah didn't bother getting upset over it. Her eyes were still sore from last night. She rubbed her face and grabbed her clothes, pulling them on without bothering to check if they were straight.

At this point, she didn't care if she had them on backwards.

Her stomach growled as she picked up her smaller bag, shoving her drawing kit and two empty notebooks in with the map and other navigational and marking equipment already inside. Within three minutes of Kieran's wakeup call, she was outside in the foyer, arms folded, waiting for the others to leave their rooms.

Kieran exited a hall, headed for the door. Upon seeing her, he stopped.

"Next time, use your alarm," he said. "You won't get five minutes next time if I have to wake you up again. Understand?"

"Yep," muttered Leah.

That only deepened his scowl. "I don't know what you thought this was going to be, Leah, but I expect the same thing from everyone on my team. You aren't going to be waiting here on some cushy lounge while we bring you back information to document at your leisure. You'll be down in the ruins with us. Everyone pulls their weight, and that includes you."

Leah averted her eyes. She couldn't meet his stare. "Fine."

Yet still, Kieran wasn't done. "I lost a good documenter because of you. He was never late to a meeting, but because he's not a pureblood, he apparently wasn't good enough for Emrys. So far, you're a poor replacement, and I'll be sure to let him know that."

A harsh laugh made it way out of Leah's lips at that one.

"Something funny?" asked Kieran, daring her to reply.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the hunger cramping her stomach, but Leah snapped back.

"Yes, actually," she said. "I wasn't good enough for Emrys' cure team, so he put me in here. Wonder what that says about your little expedition team if all you get is his rejects?"

Kieran's mouth opened, but his words had dried up. She figured he hadn't been expecting her to bite back, and honestly, she hadn't been expecting it either, and nerves twisted in her stomach in the aftermath. His lips made a thin line as she stared back at him, waiting for him to reply.

"For a bunch of rejects, we get the job done," he said as he turned away, apparently done with her. "And if you think I'm about to let you ruin that, you're sorely mistaken."

With that, he was out the door, approaching the driver who waited outside.

Leah released her pent-up breath. The conversations in the bedrooms had fallen silent, but she was past the point of caring now. Let them hate her. She could handle three more days of silence before she was back at the League with the other Radiants. Maybe they'd be the push she needed to demand a spot on the research team from Emrys, because Kieran was certainly pushing her somewhere.

She pointedly ignored Sef's glances as he milled around the foyer before Kieran finally called them outside.

The hint of her shadow followed her outside. She probably should have recharged her heart yesterday, at least have opened the window or something, but she hadn't had the energy to move. At least she hadn't used Light since recharging it last, that she was only missing what had naturally decayed.

The group piled on the bus, but after a short trip to outside the town, Kieran ordered them off. As Leah tried to figure out why, she caught sight of seven bike-looking things laying on their sides.

The rest of the group seemed to know what to do, walking over in pairs and lifting a bike off the ground. Even so, they were like no bike Leah had ever seen. They vaguely reminded her of something she'd once seen in a book of ancient Radiant creations, small crafts carved out of crystalite that could literally surf sunlight like it was water. These bikes contained no visible crystalite, but the design was the same--one leg either side, no wheels, crystal at the front, and enough room for two people.

"Leah!" called Kieran. Despite wanting to ignore him for the rest of her life, Leah obediently walked over to where he was pulling the seventh bike off the ground. "You ever seen one of these before?"

"No."

"This is a glider," said Kieran, gesturing over the sleek shape. "They're powered by Light, have a crystalite base, and work based on human crystal-fusion tech I don't entirely understand so I'm not going to bother explaining it. The only thing you need to know is that Light goes in, glider goes forward. The more Light, the higher and faster it'll go, so don't go overboard."

"Don't go overboard?" asked Leah as the others took off around them in the same general direction, guided by maps the person behind held.

"It's two to a glider," said Kieran. "Only need one person to power it, and since you're the closest thing to a pureblood Radiant between the two of us, you're it."

It was with no little amount of horror that Leah realised she was about to share the glider with Kieran. "I--can't you?"

"What did I say about being part of the team?" said Kieran, swinging his leg over the back. "It's a requirement that everyone knows how to operate a glider, since we use them a whole lot to get to the ruins we're studying." Still, she hesitated. Kieran wasn't having it. "On. Now."

Careful not to kick him or bash him with her bag, Leah lifted her leg over the seat. It was fairly comfortable, but once the stability of her legs was gone, she wasn't entire sure how it was supposed to stay up.

"Great job figuring out the seat," said Kieran. "Hands on the crystal in front. It acts as the receptor for your Light and the stabliser. Wherever your hands are, the bike will centre between them. To turn, you'd slide your hands--yes, exactly like that. Good. Now, when you're ready, let some Light trickle into the crystal. Get a feel for how much the glider wants before you go full out on it."

"I'm not sure about this."

"Too bad. Go. We have to catch up to the others."

Leah's fingers tightened on the crystal as she made sure her hands were even. She'd never had her father's talent for imbuing Light into crystals, but she could do it. Sort of.

She fed Light into the crystal, and the glider shot forward.

Leah squealed and lurched forward, hands slipping forward on the crystal at the unexpected movement. Kieran cried out as the glider began to tilt forward, his weight crushing her against the crystal as his feet dangled above the ground.

"Hands back!" he said as she elbowed him in an attempt to move her arms. The glider's back end came back down too far, extracting an oomph from Kieran that would have been satisfying had her heart not been beating out of her chest.

But they were moving. Forward. And the glider wasn't falling over.

Behind her, she heard Kieran right himself on the seat before the rustle of paper met her ears. His expected insult didn't come, and Leah assumed that she'd done something right when he didn't comment on her performance and gave her directions instead.

She had the hang of the glider by the time they caught up with the others, even to the point of enjoying it.

"Thought you'd never get here!" called out one.

Kieran dismounted the glider. "Put it with the others, laying down is fine, just make sure it's covered." Then he turned to the group. "You lot all set up?"

Leah drifted the glider to where the others were and followed Kieran's instructions, slinging her bag over the other shoulder. There didn't seem to be much here besides sand, sand and more sand, the only exception being a hut about the same size as the bus. It wasn't like her ruins back home--they'd been partially above grounds. They'd what she'd been imagining, and she was suddenly realised that she'd never asked how big these ruins were--if they fit in the hut, this expediton was about to grab the shovel and start digging through her current rock-bottom of expectations.

"All good to go, Kieran."

"That's what I like to hear," he said. "Okay, I know you all know the rules by now, but here they are again: two teams of five, one of four, captains are myself, Sef, and Imlia. We'll brief you on your sections inside. Stay within sight range of someone at all times, communications won't work near that concentration of crystalite, thank you ancient Radiants." For whatever reason, that got a laugh. "If you're trapped, about to run out of Light and have no other options, use your Displacer to get out, we'll meet you back at the League. Any further questions? No? Good. Timers start, and team one, lead on."

Five of the group stepped forward and made their way into the hut. Sef remained behind, and Leah found herself hoping she'd be in his team.

Kieran promptly ruined that hope. "Leah, you're on my team. Let's go."

Sef remained behind, and this time, Leah let her eyes linger on his as she stepped inside the hut.

There was something that resembled a well inside. The last member of team one disappeared down the ladder and into its depths as Leah entered the hut. Her expectations had hesitantly dropped the shovel, for now at least.

Kieran went first. Leah went fourth. Her feet made the metal clank. She made every step careful, making every effort to ignore the shadows as they got deeper around her, pushed back only by the faint glow off her skin. The urge to let her crystals gleam was growing.

After what felt like an eternity, she reached the bottom. Kieran had a lantern, but it was barely enough to make out his figure by.

"Can I glow?" asked Leah.

"If you have enough Light for it," said Kieran. "Just keep in mind how long it's going to take to get out of here, but you'll have an hour or so of light to recharge when we leave so manage it accordingly."

"Am I going to need it for anything else?"

"You shouldn't need to. The excavators found two Shattered, but they took care of it."

The idea of not being able to see one of those if they ran at her was enough to convince Leah. She let the Light stored in her skin-crystals ignite and gleam until she was effectively a walking glowstick.

Her first glimpse of the ruins took her breath away.

Every wall was crystalite, exactly like the League, but underground, buried in sand, it felt different. Ancient. There were strange glints to the intricate carvings that laced their surface, and they were nothing like the ruins she'd found back home. Those had been on the brink of collapse, held up by only tree roots. These walls... after all these centuries, they barely had a crack.

Leah glanced up. In fact, the hole in the roof appeared to have been specifically carved for the tunnel they'd come down through. Who knew how many tonnes of sand rested on top of the transparent ceiling, and yet, these walls still stood. 

"Looks like we found a use for you after all," said Kieran, turning the lantern off. "We'll set up slow-burning crystals as we head to our section. They lasted most of the three days last time, so that should take some of the pressure off Leah."

Leah headed the group at Kieran's discretion as he passed out crystals and the others ignited the Light inside into a soft glow. When they reached the end of a corridor and came to a larger crossroads room, she retrieved her notebook and began sketching the borders that skirted the room. She recognised some of the symbols, but she hadn't thought to bring her reference journal so she'd have to--"

"What are you drawing?" asked Kieran, glancing over the top of her notebook before dismissing it. "We've already documented these halls. Even if we hadn't, there's more important things to spend time focusing on rather than borders."

"I--" Leah closed her notebook despite her itch to complete the row. "Okay, Kieran."

He eyed her for her tone but said nothing on it. "Go stand in that hall, we'll follow with more crystals."

And so it continued for another ten, twenty, thirty minutes. Leah would move ahead at Kieran's direction, and Kieran would have the others light the tunnel. Twice he placed a green-glowing crystal, and it was when he placed the blue-glowing crystal and he announced their official arrival to section two that excitement truly overtook the five of them. 

"We'll light a few corridors first, copy our findings down, then move on to the next ones," said Kieran. "Our wrists will probably appreciate the breaks in between times. Keep in sight of someone at all times, keep a weapon handy just in case." He tapped the sword sheath Leah had failed to notice previously. Where in the shadows had he pulled that from? "May, you're on map duty, recording locations of everything." The Radiant with purple streaks nodded. "Leah, any questions?"

"Am I allowed to copy down the borders?"

Kieran's lengthy breath was enough to tell her he was holding back. "Finish the main murals first. If you're done with your area before the rest of us are ready to move on, then yes, you can. Anything else?"

"No."

"Then let's light it up."

After another ten minutes of lighting the sand-covered floors, Kieran assigned them all an area of wall and they set about copying it down.

Leah gave herself a minute to admire her first mural. Judging by the lines, the art style, this temple was one of the more recent, if you could call ancient ruins recent. The symbols in the backgrounds of the pictures were similar to the ones she'd been recording at the ruins near her home, but they were more refined, linked together. It helped that the mural was still in tact, but that was a minor detail.

She set to work.

Despite Kieran's earlier dismissal of Light useage, Leah had a much more effective method than simply attempting to copy a mural onto the page.

She stood up and lifted her arms, fingers edging the top left and bottom right corners of the mural in her field of view. She called her Light, hardening a pale sheet of it in the space between her fingers. Quickly, before it hardened, she imprinted the mural into its surface, the darker lines sinking into the Light, and moved her hands closer, shrinking the mural so it was the size of one of her notebook pages.

After that, it was a simple trace job, copying the mural onto the page in every perfect detail.

It wasn't long before she moved onto her next mural. So focused on getting through them, she told herself she'd delve into the details later. She wanted those borders copied down. Needed them copied down if she was ever going to expand her reference journal.

Even so, the details were hard to ignore. They jumped out at her, called to her, begged to her with every stroke of her pencil. She wanted to make her scribble copies--the ones she wrote her notes over to save the original sketches--and attempt to figure out what these murals were, why the ancients had put them here.

Later, Leah, she told herself. The sketches aren't going anywhere. They won't walk off the pages. 

She finished her murals and was lost somewhere in the borders when she realised someone was looking over her shoulder.

Leah glanced up to find Kieran. "Are we moving to the next area?"

"The others are still copying theirs down," said Kieran, glancing at her pile of used Light-sheets. They were dim since she'd drained the Light from them, salvaging what she could. "Interesting method of copying them down. Did you come up with it yourself?"

"Mmhmm."

"Can I see?" Leah handed her notebook over. "I'm impressed. I can't tell the difference between your sketch and the mural. Though I have to ask, why the obsession with the borders?"

"I think they're the ancient's language," said Leah, chewing her lip. "The symbols, I mean."

"We already know what language the ancients spoke," said Kieran. "It's the one we're speaking right now. Y'no, because they more or less declared themselves the perfect beings back in the day and effectively enforced their ways on the rest of the world?"

"I know we're speaking Radiant," said Leah. "But it's common Radiant. I think. That's what I've been calling it, anyway. It's a lot simpler, more basic, structured." She waved a hand over the borders. "But look at the symbols. They repeat. There's patterns that occur in them, and they're not just in the borders--they're in the backgrounds of the murals, too, subtle enough to pass off as decoration."

"So you think they had a code?" asked Kieran.

"I think the ancient Radiants had another language--one they didn't teach the humans or Teridians, and I think they represented it with these symbols."

Kieran looked like he was considering it, which was something. "Is this why Emrys wanted you on the team so badly?"

Leah made a face. "I haven't told anyone about this except you yet."

"Why not?"

"It's incomplete, and I'd kind of like to be pretty sure I'm right before I tell the League. I don't think I'd live it down if I was wrong." Leah exhaled. "I've made enough of an idiot of myself already, I think."

The last bit slipped out before she could stop it, but Kieran was nodding. "It's a valid theory. I'll tell the others to get as much border as they can in when we meet up with them again tomorrow, though you'll probably have to do most of the work with that. They'll organise their own murals to make it easier for you to document. Let me know if they don't and I'll get on them about it."

Leah recognised the peace offering and smiled. "Thanks, Kieran."

He nodded and stood up once more. "I'll come back for you when we're ready to move on to the next area. Keep up the good work."

Kieran walked away, leaving Leah with the slightest trace of a smile on her lips as her hand flew over the page.

*+*+*+*

A/N - This was a relief to write, not gonna lie xD I NEEDED TO GIVE HER A BREAK. 

Next chapter is going to be interesting ^_^ Any guesses? => 

Wordcount: 22,562