Night after night, a darkness cradled by light and a choice.

A choice that was stolen from her, a choice she had never had, a choice where the answer had been decided by beings far beyond her reach.

But they hadn't been the ones to pay the price. They hadn't been the ones who had felt the break. They didn't know, didn't understand, and she didn't believe they wanted to.

She would show them, though. She would make them see.

She would lead them to their misery and watch them drown in it, no matter how many millennia it took.

They would see.

And then, they would burn in her light.

*+*+*+*

Jason woke up the next day, dressed himself in one of the outfits the shop assistant had suggested, and walked to the restaurant that Olivia's parents owned.

It took him a solid ten minutes to summon the courage and walk the last block. A hundred and one things were running through his head, a thousand things they could say to him, a million things that could go wrong. It ate him up piece by piece until some little voice that sounded suspiciously like Olivia clawed its way to the surface and said the three words that he had been trying to rebuild himself around.

You are enough.

So, hiding every little piece of anxiety and fear behind a well trained expression, Jason strode in and asked how he might go about applying for a position at the restaurant. He was asked to wait, and five minutes later, Olivia's father, Vincent, appeared in person.

He shook Jason firmly by the hand, sat him down, and asked him a questions that Jason had definitely not been prepared for. He'd been ready for the usual questions--What would make you a valuable addition to our team? How would you handle a difficult customer?--but not the other ones, about himself, about Olivia, about what he wanted from the restaurant. It was... strange, to say the least, but he managed to pull the words together for a coherent reply.

After some twenty or so minutes, Vince nodded and stood up. He once again shook Jason's hand and told him that he would have been offered a job on the spot had it not been for another applicant in particular, but that they'd be in contact soon to let him know.

Jason left the restaurant wondering if he'd just imagined it all, if this was just one of the scenarios in his head playing out in vivid detail. Just to prove it to himself, he touched the starstone wall beside him, running his fingers over its edges. That simple, added detail, something that he'd never have a reason to simply imagine, allowed him to take a deep breath and stride away from the restaurant with his chin held high.

Small steps, he told himself. Each one was still progress in the right direction, even if it wasn't very far.

His mind didn't exactly agree. It kept wandering back to worst case scenarios with his application. That maybe Olivia didn't want him there, that she'd just been making polite conversation. That her father felt obligated. That Jason had overstayed his welcome. That since he still didn't have his Liaiser back, they'd think him unprofessional. That they'd heard the rumours that had spread about him and--

On and on it went, and so, to distract himself, Jason decided to spend the rest of the day staring at the two, glaring problems of Cryo's life.

The first: When had Nereid's Ascended been broken?

And the second: How was information about the Luminary's movements being leaked, to both the Serpent and the public?

It frustrated him beyond belief that he didn't have the information he needed to solve either of them.

In the safe, secure space of Cryo's room, he'd written the problems out in a million different ways. He'd drawn maps of words and arrows that ended so convoluted they were nearly impossible to read. He'd sketched, which hadn't ended well for the paper or his pencil. He'd talked it over with Sae, who had stayed annoyingly close-beaked on the subject.

The fact remained no matter what way he put it: he just didn't have enough information. To figure out when Nereid's Ascended had broken, the next logical step was locating Wyvern, who still hadn't been seen. By now, many at the temple were starting to wonder if the man who'd been Wyvern was dead. Jason had considered that--considered that maybe, the Serpent had found him, broken him.

Still... there was, perhaps, another means to finding Wyvern. A small, slim chance that rested with the death of a little girl twelve years ago. And, as for the second problem... Jason looked over his spread of ideas, the scribbled words where his mind had moved too fast for his hand to remain neat.

Yes, for the second idea, there was definitely something else he could do about that.

Jason gathered his belongings and headed off towards the Starlight Hall, wondering where he might find Ariel at this time of day.

*+*+*+*

A week passed, in which a couple of things happened in Olivia's life.

Jason applied for, and successfully secured, a trial position as a waiter at the restaurant (though her parents refused to let her 'test' his customer service skills); Cryo continued transforming sporadically during the day, which was somehow related to his plan to reveal the information leak though he told no one exactly what it was (at this point Banshee was starting to consider tailing him just to find out); Nereid continued training almost daily with whatever Luminary was free (there was a new body of water on the third floor of the Starlight Hall that was nearly big enough to be a lake in its own right); and free learning began (which kind of put a damper on the stalking Cryo plan).

As for Olivia herself, she'd taken to planning her waking hours to ensure she was well and truly inside by the time the auroras bloomed across the sky.

Today, however, with her butt still in a temple chair in some cosy, tucked away room near the Starlight Hall and the skies beginning to darken, her plans had gone a little sideways.

Unlike every else, Olivia had only received her free learning timetable the day before the classes started. As such, she hadn't known that her Songstress-specific class scheduled at the Starlight Hall with DragonFae was going to cut it so close to the auroras, especially after a Manifested had decided to push the lesson back by half an hour.

And so, instead of being back home, locked in her room with the curtains tightly shut and her head under a pillow, she was still at the temple, sitting on the opposite side of a desk to DragonFae and her attending High Breathspeaker.

Olivia tapped her heel against the floor as DragonFae made a note of something.

The Luminary's handwriting was incredibly elegant, but by Skypillar's peak was it slow. It didn't help that Olivia hadn't slept well, but watching her pale, lavender-scaled hand flow across the page felt like it was taking years off Olivia's life, and as Banshee, she really didn't have many of those to spare.

They'd covered the groundwork of the whole Songstress thing in their allotted hour. DragonFae had given her the overview of any information she'd been able to find, which had been nothing Olivia hadn't known already. The vague power to sing any Song, to wield Skypillar's power as her own. With that in mind, they'd gone over pretty much every Songstress-y encounter or moment that Olivia could recall, which wasn't a lot.

There was Ella on festival night, when Olivia had been knocked straight out of the physical world and into whatever dimension the Spiritsong existed in, though the experience was little more than a white-blue blur. Shortly after that, there was her short stroll into the auroras with Cryo, but though that memory was a little clearer, its edges protected from the abyss by a protective frost, there still wasn't much they'd been able to figure out from it. Then, the night after, when the aurorasong had consumed her so completely, swept away every single part of her into light and sound.

Of course, there was also the moments with Harpy and Wyvern, the minutes that their Songs had formed on her lips, but she couldn't tell DragonFae about those. Not when it'd been Banshee who had sung them.

Olivia released a loud exhale through her nose, unable to keep her eyes from flicking to the window, where the sky was preparing its inky canvas for the aurora's nightly performance. She wasn't scared of them. She refused to be scared of them. She just... didn't like the idea of them having power over her, of being able to drag her mind into oblivion without her even realising it'd happened.

What if they walked me into a canal, or off a building? And what if it happened when I was Banshee? There'd be so many questions, so many--

"Am I boring you, perhaps?"

Olivia blinked and flicked her attention back to DragonFae. The Luminary had lowered her pen and had her delicate features fixed into mild amusement.

"Sorry," said Olivia, her gaze drawn to the window once more before she dragged it away. She wasn't getting home before the auroras started, so she may as well focus on what had kept her here. "I just had somewhere I was supposed to be by now."

"I apologise that I was delayed," said DragonFae, a fleck of violet light dancing across the table before vanishing. "I thought it better to ensure the Manifested was saved successfully."

"It's okay," said Olivia. She hadn't been able to slip away herself, not with the High Breathspeaker watching her so closely. She felt bad about replying to Cryo's twin taps with only one of her own, but since DragonFae's avatar and Golem had pranced off to help anyway, she supposed it'd all ended up okay--except that it'd pushed her lesson even further back.

"Do the auroras speak to you?" asked DragonFae.

It was only then that Olivia realised she was once again looking out the window, her gaze among the stars. She pulled it back with a violent shake of her head, tilting her chin up and trying to play it off with a laugh. "Oh, no. They're just pretty. They don't bother me at all."

DragonFae tilted her head, causing the violet veil of light to shimmer over her horns. "I didn't ask if they bothered you, but it is interesting that you choose those words. Have you felt a connection to them since you sang the aurorasong on the steps of the Starlight Hall?"

"Nope, no connection," said Olivia, shrugging. "Haven't really tried to make another lightshow though."

"Mmm." DragonFae made another elegantly slow note. "Perhaps we should explore the potential tonight. It could be related to a connection between the temple's starstone and the auroras."

Olivia's stomach went tight. "Why? Doesn't seem like a whole lot of point. All it did last time was the light. Nothing else happened, I don't think it'd happen this time and I gotta get home."

DragonFae paused. "You are worried about them."

I am not scared of them. I refuse to be scared of them. "Nope."

"What is it you are holding back from me, Shadowheart?"

Olivia opened her mouth to deny it... when she realised there wasn't much point. The more defensive she got, the more DragonFae would suspect. "Nothing important. Just two or three times when the auroras have been out, I've lost time. Not long, just a few minutes. Start at point A, wake up in point B, having apparently walked there myself."

"That is certainly interesting," said DragonFae. "It indeed seems like something we should explore."

"I don't really want to explore it."

DragonFae's wings shifted behind her. "Do the auroras feel... wrong?"

Olivia glanced at her. "No? Why would they?"

"I am only concerned as to why you seem so intent on avoiding them."

"It's just annoying." Annoying. Yes. That's all it was. Olivia took a breath. "I'm already getting looked at like a weirdo. People still recognise me and throw their million theories in my face. Last thing I want is to be wandering around during the auroras like some moon-crazed idiot and give them more things to whisper about."

"I see." DragonFae made yet another, agonisingly slow note. "If I promise to ensure you are secure, would you be open to exploring the connections?"

Olivia glanced at the window. They were close. So close. "Not tonight. I have somewhere to be."

DragonFae inclined her head. "I understand. I will make arrangements for the future. Thank you for your time, Shadowheart."

"Just call me Olivia," she said, standing up from her chair and holding her bag close to her chest. She stopped herself from racing off immediately, forcing herself to meet DragonFae's pink eyes and smile. "Thanks for the lesson, Fae. I appreciate you taking the time to help me with this."

"It is of no problem to me, Olivia. I thank you for being so open with me."

Olivia ducked her head in thanks and stepped towards the door. "I'll see you next time, Fae."

With that, Olivia left the room. She held her bag tight as she walked, risking a few glimpses inside at Viri to ensure the auroras weren't yet in effect. Finding her Ascended still very much alert, Olivia turned towards the Starlight Hall. It wasn't far, and she had to check Banshee's communication box--she'd started leaving herself various, unrelated notes after realising it could be suspicious that her two identities only bothered checking the box when the other one had left a note.

Even so, as Olivia crossed the threshold of the Hall and nodded her head to the two High speakers attending the area, preparing for the nightly Speaking ceremony, she couldn't help the nervous feeling burrowing into her stomach. Maybe she was just overthinking it, but the starstone seemed breathe around her, like it was drawing one, mighty breath with which to serenade the auroras.

Olivia huffed and stood in front of Banshee's box. She refused to hurry. She would not have hurried before the festival, and she did not need to hurry now. She was not scared of the auroras. What they meant. What they could do.

She looked over her shoulder, where the two High Speakers were walking out of the Starlight Hall, heading out into the open air of the inner courtyard to greet the auroras. Something pulled her towards them, whispered at her to come closer before Olivia turned back, snatched a fresh piece of paper from the pile and scribbled a reply across it to Banshee.

There was nothing to be scared of. Even if the auroras did pull her out of her own head, even if she did lose time, she needed to learn to control it at some point. She shouldn't have run away from DragonFae's offer, but today, after three nights of raging, thrashing dreams that woke her up sweating, she wasn't in the mood to give up what little control she had left.

Another day, perhaps. But not tonight.

Olivia pulled out a note that she'd never seen before. It was hastily folded, and the writing inside matched, looking like it'd come from a rather heavy hand with good intentions.

She read it over a few times, a smile tugging its way onto her mouth despite her mood. In all honesty, she'd forgotten about this request. It'd been... what, three, four offerings ago now?

Olivia folded the note and placed it in her bag. She glanced at Viri inside, her Ascended's bright, violet eyes gleaming from within the shadows.

Well, she deserved a bit of fun, didn't she?

*+*+*+*

On his first, official night off from training at the restaurant, Jason was spending it reading at the temple's library.

He'd found this book tucked away in the corners of the library. It had been so well hidden that, had he not already spent a ridiculous number of hours combing each and every book on that floor, he would have missed it. He'd got the feeling that whoever had set this book down last had decided it'd be best if no one ever opened it again, yet hadn't been able to bring themselves to destroy it. So, instead, they'd hidden it and left it undocumented, hoping the information would remain lost until time pulled the letters off the pages.

It was the detailed, intricate tale of a Banshee roughly two hundred years ago, named Celis Shadowstep.

Celis was everything this City had come to expect from a Banshee. Where Jason's was empathetic and wild, the book described Celis as cold, distant, and scarily efficient. Her hair had been almost completely bone white, with only the barest hint of amber hanging on at the end.

However, she was unusual for one, main reason: she'd had two partners, and the first one had been a female.

Her first partner was a Wyvern, who had gone Dark of her own accord after the first year, and the second, a Dragon--a full, scale-and-fire Dragon--who had been killed during a festival period in Banshee's fourth year, triggering Vengeance and leading to her death.

At first, Jason had assumed the book to be written by a High Shadowspeaker. The language was formal and well paced--at least in the beginning. Yet as the book went on, weaving an intricate, detailed scene of Banshee and Wyvern's exploits against the Manifested, his suspicions grew.

Then, at the end of the section detailing the night that her Wyvern went Dark, Jason found his suspicions confirmed.

I understand that the purpose of this book is to preserve the details and history so our future generations may learn from our mistakes and our strengths, but in truth, I write this to preserve something far more precious. I write to preserve the memory of my partner, of my Banshee who I failed when I broke the bond with my Ascended. I write to preserve her in death as I could not do in life.

The world did not know her as I did. The world did not see the way her soul cracked after every life we failed to save. The world judged her cold and cruel, merciless and heartless, but the truth is that she was not always so. She only cared too deeply. She could let nothing go. I saw it pulling her apart, and I realised it was to be the thing that killed her.

I regret my decision to go Dark. I regret telling her that I would not stand next to her as she slowly but surely died. I regret seeing the hurt flash in her eyes, for not realising in my own selfish pain the power that I had to break her. It was only on that day that she truly became what the City thought she was.

Celis was my poison, and now, may the essence of her soul on these pages rest within the Archives forevermore, and Skypillar's mercy embrace her.

After those four paragraphs, Celis's story, penned by her first partner, continued on as if it had never paused.

Yet Jason did pause. He stared at the words, not quite ready to let the next sentence sweep him along.

How much of him would be left without her, he wondered. How deep would the cracks run, how cold would the frost burn? How long until a flower dared to bloom amongst the silent winter storm?

At some point, he let the story pull him past the thoughts. He continued to read of the starsong amulets, of their task to locate an item that had been stolen. A starstone lock, one of eight that guarded the entrance to the archives. The story claimed that the Serpent had stolen it, seeking the information that lay inside, but there were things that didn't add up to Jason about that theory.

The archives were not locked--Guarded, yes, but locked, no. They were not available to the general public, but the majority of the information had not yet been decrypted. The language of the first civilisation was a beautifully complex thing, and that was decounting the several layers of security they'd placed on the majority of their databases.

Perhaps there was some piece of context he was missing. A lot had changed in two hundred years, despite the temple's best efforts to keep it otherwise. Terminology had changed. Procedures were different. Maybe there'd been--

Jason looked up as the starstone tablet he'd borrowed from the temple on Cryo's behalf softly buzzed on the desk nearby. He placed the bookmark between the pages of the book and set it down, turning his attention to the tablet.

An alert flashed across the screen, a message of two parts.

One he'd been waiting for.

The second was entirely unexpected.

[HUNTERS ASSEMBLE:

CRYO WILL BE IN OUTER AELEDRAE IN ONE HOUR AT COORDINATES ON MAP.

BANSHEE WILL BE ATTENDING A SEPARATE EVENT AT KALADREL LOCATED AT COORDINATES ON MAP. POST-AURORAS, THOUGH TIME OTHERWISE UNSPECIFIED.

REMEMBER THE CODE. REMEMBER OUR GOAL.

HUNTERS UNITE.]

Jason set about gathering his things, setting aside the mystery of the archive lock for a later date. He pulled on his coat and checked that an aurora-stunned Sae was still in his pocket before tying up his hair and heading out the door. The scribes nodded to him as he passed them, a gesture which he returned.

He hadn't quite planned for the Lumi hunters to get wind of Banshee's movements tonight, but regardless, it wouldn't matter a great deal.

Jason ducked his head and started his walk towards Kaladrel.

Either way, it was still going to end with a group of hunters sorely disappointed with their efforts.

*+*+*+*

A/N - *looks at Patreon chapter that just went up*

....*prepares the bunker*

Also I'd just like everyone to take a moment to appreciate this FREAKING AMAZING ART OF HYDRA & ELLA BY BluCheetah because wow.