Banshee stuck to the rooftops, practicing her various acrobatics as she meandered her way across them to the temple.

She stopped on the roof of a building in the outer temple ring and overlooked the crowds gathering in the main courtyard below. The air didn't seem as nice as it had before, and the sun just seemed annoyingly bright. Knowing her luck, the Other was planning on Manifesting her mother in the next half an hour, but there wasn't a whole lot she could do about that one except make good on her promise to clean her room.

Which is not happening anytime soon with everything else I have to do, Banshee thought, scanning the people below. Where are they... ah, there!

Banshee stepped off the roof, twisting on her heel as she did with just enough push to launch her into a flip. She hit the ground with barely a whisper and, not wanting a repeat of last time, dropped her shadow-shift a few metres away from the trio of Shadowspeakers and waved her arms in the air.

Ever since Aurelia's removal, Banshee had begun to realise just how many other Shadowspeakers she had. Before, it'd been rare for her to come across another one unless she was completely out of place.

"Hellooo!" she called out, causing the Shadowspeakers to glance around. "Over here!"

One of them noticed her, and despite her efforts, still seemed startled. "Shadow of Skypillar!"

Banshee walked over. "Seriously, call me Banshee or I'm gonna give you three nicknames too, and I'm sure that Fuzz and Fluff have told you how well those tend to stick."

"Our apologies, Banshee," the first one said, inclining their head. Nichi, if Banshee remembered correctly from the glasses and the length of her hair. "Do you require our assistance today?"

"If you three could help me out again, that'd be amazing," said Banshee. "You, Anna, and Lira did an awesome job at the last Offerings even though I kinda just dumped it on your head five minutes beforehand."

"It was Anna's quick thinking," said Lira. Banshee remembered her because her striking eyes. They just seemed so... pure was the word for it. Though brown in the shadows, they were almost garnet in the sun. "We only followed her instructions."

"Well whatever you guys did, it worked," said Banshee, patting them on the shoulders. She glanced at the shadows, curious to find that Cryo was no longer at the Starlight Hall. "I'm not gonna head over to the Starlight Hall yet, but all three of you have my blessing and so on so forth and I'll be there before it starts, seeya!"

"May Skypillar be with you, Banshee!"

Banshee touched two fingers to her head before shifting to shadow and flinging herself backwards onto the wall of the building she'd just leaped down from.

From there, she climbed to the roof and began her run, following the shadows along the rooftops of the temple's outer building ring all the way from Cevinari's side to Velawea's. There, the shadows trailed downwards, into the building, and so Banshee obliged by dropping deep into her shadow shift and slipping straight through the roof.

Inside, the shadows caught her boots on the floor, solidifying her enough to walk on the floor once more. The room was quiet and dimly lit, and the ceiling was so low she could have reached up and touched it. Rows and rows of books--actual, physical paper books--lined the shelves of intricately carved starstone with just enough room for two people to squeeze past each other between them.

Velawea was primarily the research district. It was where the entrance to the archives lay, so it made sense that this portion of the temple's grounds contained such a rare library.

What didn't make sense is what Cryo was doing here.

Banshee followed the shadows, gently trailing her fingers along the spines of the books she passed until she found her partner sitting at one of the larger study desks pushed against a wall. He had a chair turned sideways to accommodate his wings, though with the way he'd tucked them tight against his back and frozen them, the ice crystals resembled two, giant blades rather than wings.

She watched him for a moment, allowing herself to conquer the multiple, conflicting feelings that climbed up her throat at the sight of him.

Because I love you, Olivia Shadowheart.

Those words still echoed through her head every night. They still didn't seem quite real, and she still didn't know how she was supposed to pretend like Banshee didn't know about any of it, like she didn't want to just wrap her arms around his neck and plant a large, annoying kiss right on his cheek.

She hadn't got the chance to do that the last time she'd seen him as Olivia almost two weeks ago, they'd spent hours just wandering the forests doing nothing in particular. He'd seemed... off, somehow, so she'd babbled on about pretty much anything she could think of that wasn't depressing. She'd told him about Ella and Ariel, but steered clear of any mentions of the whole Songstress thing. When he'd said farewell, he'd seemed better, yet three days ago when Banshee had hunted him down out of curiosity, he'd been even more distant than usual.

Now, that distance only seemed to have grown. His expression was eerily blank, devoid of the little quirks that she'd memorised somewhere along the line.

"Hey, Featherbutt," said Banshee, approaching from behind and taking it upon herself to lean on one of his shoulders. Aside from that, she managed to hold herself in check. "Whatcha doing up here?"

"Hello, Banshee," said Cryo, turning the page of the book he held in a clawed hand before making a note on his tablet. "I'm continuing my studies of lore, as you may have guessed."

Banshee raised an eyebrow and stepped away from him, leaning closer to the table to see what he was reading. "Didn't you tell me last time that all this information has been catalogued by the temple into a digital format already? You had it all stashed in your room at the Starlight Hall three days ago."

"I still have that information there," said Cryo, closing the book and placing it title-down, much to Banshee's annoyance. "In truth, I found myself quite perplexed this morning, and I find this environment comforting. The busywork helps me clear my thoughts."

Banshee sat down on the edge of the table. "What's bothering you? You've been transformed a lot in the last week."

Cryo gave her a small smile that told her what his answer was even before he spoke. "I'm afraid it's a civilian problem. It's nothing I could easily explain without revealing myself."

Banshee dropped her gaze, sucking on her pressed lips with a small shake of her head. She pulled out her Starsong amulet, narrowing her eyes at the glowing red Banshee insignia on its surface. This one, palm-sized piece of starstone was the sole thing that could let her help Cryo, but instead, she'd had to watch him struggle.

"These amulet rules are beyond stupid," she said, tossing her amulet on the desk beside her. "I should be able to help you, not just sit here while we tell each other 'I wish I could tell you but nope'. You get to cope all by yourselves!"

Cryo picked her amulet up. "I'm sure there's valid reasons behind the rules."

"Yeah, well I'd love to hear how Starsong reasons it out. Maybe I could ask my Ascended--oh wait, she won't tell me anything either."

Cryo passed her amulet back.

Banshee accepted it after a moment, staring at the piece of starstone with mixed feelings. "Y'no, Cryo--"

"If you suggest that I should consider giving my amulet to someone else again, please don't," he murmured, his attention directed back at his notepad. "You know my decision."

His decision: that he wouldn't give it to anyone but her, though how he thought he was going to get around the loophole was beyond her.

"I'm just worried about you," said Banshee, putting her amulet away and lacing her fingers together. "Even if you can't tell me the details, I'm here if you need a hug, okay?"

Cryo inclined his head and continued writing. It wasn't a good enough response for Banshee, so she leaned over, plucked the pen from his fingers, and waggled it in the air in front of his face until he sat up straight and gave her a look that said, 'really?'.

Banshee raised her eyebrows and pointed the tip of the pen towards him.

"Understood," said Cryo with a resigned huff. Banshee returned the pen, but he only placed it back on the table. "Why have you transformed early? I thought you'd be at free learning sign ups, given our afternoon is largely occupied today."

"I had to escape some people," Banshee said with a shrug. "Why weren't you at sign ups? Or did you decide to go all dressed up like this?"

"I had several classes already lined up from previous interactions," said Cryo, his eyes drifting to the windows.

"You have a sponsorship?"

"It's a complicated situation," said Cryo. "I'm unsure if my situation has changed, its something I'll have to confirm tomorrow. I didn't particularly have the strength to deal with it today."

Banshee threw open her arms and twitched her fingers. "Need that hug?"

The corner of Cryo's mouth tweaked into a smile. "I have a strange feeling that isn't a question so much as a demand."

"You would indeed be correct!" said Banshee, hopping off the table.

Cryo rolled his eyes and raised them to the ceiling, but he lifted an arm off the table and held it out towards her.

Banshee resisted her first instinct to hug him from the front and instead stepped over to his side before throwing her arms around him. She rested her head on his shoulder as she squeezed him with just a little bit of her Luminary strength.

He smelled like snow. Crisp, cool, snow. "I'm always here for you, even if you can't tell me details, okay?"

"I know," murmured Cryo. She felt his arm wrap around her waist, a touch that sent a thrill through her. "Thank you, Banshee. I promise that I'm okay, and I'm always going to be here if you need me, too."

Banshee released him and stood up, forcing a smile onto her face as her stomach turned into knots.

Starlight, it's not fair. It's just not fair.

Banshee laced her fingers together and stretched them above her head as she turned away from him. "Hope you know that means hugs on demand, Featherbutt."

"Oh, I understand the implications quite well, Shadow of Skypillar."

She looked back at him, narrowing her eyes. "You better not start that."

The ghost of a smile crept onto his face. "My apologies. It must be my featherbrain getting the best of me."

Banshee folded her arms.

He was just like Jason, calling her Shadowheart when he was making fun of her. Complete and utter Featherbrains, the both of them, with their formal nonsense and names and--Jason!

Banshee was pretty sure she scared Cryo when she suddenly lifted her hand through the air and pointed a finger at him. "Oh! Yes, important! Liv contacted me earlier and asked where Jason was. Apparently she hasn't been able to get a hold of him, have you seen him today?"

"I saw him earlier today. He informed me that he has misplaced his Liaiser, but he was otherwise well."

Banshee frowned. Misplacing something, especially his Liaiser... that didn't sound like Jason, but at least he was okay. Still, she was left with this nagging urge to see him for herself. "Do you know where I could find him? I was looking for him earlier in the week but he's one slippery individual. Everyone seemed to think he was somewhere else running tasks for you."

Cryo went back to his notepad, tapping the tip of the pen on the tablet. "He currently has a room in the main dorm section, but to my knowledge, he isn't there often."

Banshee thought about it for a moment. With all the Lumi stuff planned for today, she couldn't track him down today. "Since he doesn't have a Liaiser, think you could ask him to meet me tomorrow morning at the Starlight Hall, or leave a note with someone about where he's waddled off to?"

"I can."

"Thanks, Cryo," said Banshee. "And... try not to run him too ragged, kay? He might need a little time to himself, even if he's trying to make sure he doesn't."

"I force him into nothing," said Cryo. "He seems to appreciate that the tasks keep him busy."

"My point exactly," said Banshee with a small sigh. "We should probably head over to Offerings soon before Pegasus inevitably takes out our High Speakers in one magnificent swat of his wings."

"On the note of the Offerings, I have something I'd like to ask of you."

"Mmm?"

Cryo picked up his tablet and swiped to another screen.

It was a photo of a man dressed in oddly plain, oversized clothes. He had the most unremarkable haircut ever and dark sunglasses that hid the majority of his face. In fact, the only thing remotely notable about him was that he seemed to have no idea that he was being photographed--that, and judging from the golden starstone, this photo had been taken on temple grounds. There were zero security cameras on temple grounds as per the rules, which only made it all the more interesting as to how Cryo had got this picture.

Banshee leaned over, intrigued.

"This man approached me at the last Offerings, two weeks ago," said Cryo. "He didn't seem to have a clear purpose in speaking to me. He didn't ask a boon, nor did he make a request or seek reassurances. He kept his hand in his pocket the whole time, though he didn't seem nervous."

"Aaaand this is concerning, why? There's always one or two weirdos in the Offerings." Banshee wrinkled her nose. "I've had marriage offers before. One guy straight up asked me to murder his wife. Super fun."

"There was something in the way he spoke," said Cryo. "It was... strange, as if he were attempting to bait me into something. Afterwards, he hung around temple grounds, attempting to interact with the High Speakers until he was politely asked to leave."

Banshee glanced at Cryo, not quite getting where he was going with it yet. "And... you're thinking thaaaat... he could be one of the Serpent's crew? Maybe related to why all the nests seem to be warned ahead of time? I didn't sense the Serpent aura at Offerings last week."

"I considered that, but I'm not sure what the Serpent could hope to accomplish," said Cryo. "I was hoping you might be able to find out a little more about him. He's on temple grounds again today."

"You want me to follow him."

"More or less, preferably without being seen. I'll press on my tattoo if he approaches my platform today at Offerings. See if you can follow him and figure out who he is, or who he may be working for."

Banshee touched two fingers to her forehead. "Yes, boss."

Cryo raised an eyebrow at her.

Banshee's hands flew to her face and she quickly dropped into a curtsey.

"My deepest apologies. I should have said, yes, your Highness." Banshee straightened, but was unable to hold her expression straight as it cracked into a smirk. "Is that better, Princess Cryo?"

Cryo exhaled with a small shake of his head. "I curse the day that Skypillar gave me a partner who could shadow shift her way straight out of any block of ice I might put her in."

Banshee smiled and nudged Cryo in the arm.

"You love it," she said. "I'm gonna go see if I can't find me a suspicious looking individual and get a feel for him."

"I praise Skypillar for the moment of peace and quiet."

"I'll throw Grief at you in a minute!" Banshee called over her shoulder as she stepped towards the wall. "I'll see you at Offerings, Cryo!"

With one last look at him saved into her memory, Banshee launched herself up through the ceiling and began her search for Cryo's suspicious individual.

It was almost enough of a distraction to keep her mind off their pair of starsong amulets as her tattoo continued to sit, warm on her sternum.

*+*+*+*

A/N - Sorry chapter is a lil late <3 Wasn't happy with c4, had to rewrite it, but stuff happened and I turned into a giant potato. Poof!