With Stefan's note still scrunched tight in her hand, Olivia followed DragonFae, Stefan, and Jason down the stairs and into the Starlight Hall as they headed to the room they'd decided was best for her to learn how to not be a complete, utter disaster at the one thing that might save them all.

The Starlight Hall was far from empty. Most of the High Speakers were present, and they turned with hopeful, half desperate looks. Olivia heard their voices, their questions as DragonFae approached them, and kept her gaze planted firmly on the starstone floor. After what she'd done to them last night--she didn't deserve forgiveness, or hope, or--

"Liv?"

Olivia looked up at Jason, who was watching her with the slightest crease between his brows.

"Are you sure you're okay to do this now?" he asked quietly. "For someone who was comatose yesterday, you've been pushing yourself rather hard."

"I'm fine," she said, managing a wave of her hand. A smile felt a little too heavy at the moment. "We don't have time to waste before the auroras tonight. Have to be able to do it without Manifesting another twelve people."

"That wasn't your fault, Liv," said Jason. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah, of course," said Olivia. This time, she pushed a smile onto her lips. "Just kidding."

A disbelieving look flashed across Jason's face before his usual impassive expression swallowed it whole. "If you change your mind throughout the day, all you need to do is let me know. I doubt anyone would blame you for taking a small break if the alternative is pushing yourself too hard." He glanced up as one of the High Frostspeakers called him over. "Please excuse me, I'll return in a moment."

As Jason walked away, Olivia stepped back, hugging her waist with her arms.

Watching the High Speakers, watching DragonFae and Jason and Stefan in their various conversations... it felt like a dream. Like any moment, it was all going to slip away, that she'd find herself back in a dark box, with bandages around her arm and Joy in her hand, its edge bloodied from carving line after line after line--

"How is it?" said a quiet voice beside her. "Knowing that nothing you do is ever going to be enough?"

Olivia turned her head slowly.

Wyvern stood beside her--well, lurked would have been a more apt way to describe it had she had the energy to do so. The plain, grey-and-brown clothes he wore looked like he'd been wearing them for a few days. Sleeping in them, too.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing," said Wyvern with a smirk. He turned his head as Golem, Pegasus, Nereid and the other past Luminaries came down the stairs and dispersed in various directions. "Just the ramblings of a crazy, dark Luminary. Thought maybe you could relate."

With that, Wyvern walked away to skulk in some other hallway as Stefan approached, his narrowed, green eyes tracking every movement Wyvern made until he was out of sight.

"Was he bothering you?" asked Stefan.

Olivia just shrugged. "No more than Wyvern usually bothers anyone."

Stefan snorted. He looked at Olivia, like he was waiting for a question, going so far as to glance at her closed fist when she remained quiet.

When it became clear she wasn't going to say anything, Stefan cleared his throat and leaned a little closer to her. "Just uh... don't show that to anyone else, okay?" Olivia raised her eyebrows in response, her eyes still on the floor in front of her, and he stepped away. "Anyway, ready to go? In the interest of not dying, it's probably good if we start these lessons sooner rather than later."

A heavy feeling settled in her stomach. "After you."

Olivia followed Stefan over to DragonFae, who cut her conversation with the High Speakers short with a promise to continue later. With Jason also excusing himself, their group of four headed through the temple corridors in relative silence. Olivia counted her steps as they walked just for the sake of something in her head, only to give up some time around the thirty-second step. What did it matter? She'd just keep walking until they stopped or her legs fell off anyway.

They reached the room, with Stefan agreeing to DragonFae's statement that it would suit their purpose nicely. It looked like every other room to Olivia, maybe a little bigger. Tables, chairs, carvings, a window positioned for optimal sunlight that just seemed to hurt her eyes.

As the other three talked, she walked over and pulled the heavy drapes shut.

"I was hoping I might be able to watch," said DragonFae. "There is much we do not know about Songs and their capabilities, and it may assist my own magic and understanding if I were able to listen while you teach."

Stefan ran a hand through his silver-white hair. "Luminaries have particularly strong Songs while transformed. It would make it significantly harder for Olivia to focus since they can be incredibly loud and distracting to people like us."

"Then you'll have no problem if I stay," said Jason, seating himself in one of the corners even as he spoke.

Stefan hesitated, chewing on his bottom lip. His eyes flicked to her closed hand once more. "I had assumed I'd be able to teach her in private."

"I will not interfere, and can relay any messages through Liaiser if required," said Jason. "Given recent events, effective communication seems vital, especially when you will both likely be distracted with your task."

Stefan scratched his head. "I suppose you have a point."

DragonFae inclined her head. "I will leave you to your teachings. Frostsong, if they require anything, please let me know through the contact you have."

DragonFae exited the room, closing the door with a soft click behind her. Jason was quickly settled in the corner, a quiet, observant presence, while Stefan set about re-organising the table, pushing it close to one of the walls and rearranging the chairs.

Olivia by the window, waiting for Stefan to finish. Her eyes drifted about the room, noting each exit and hiding space as she'd caught herself doing more than once since waking up.

Without the violet glow, the white overhead light of the room seemed exceptionally harsh. She hugged her waist, trying to stop herself from seeing the starstone walls of the Serpent's cage around her, from imagining eyes on the other side, just out of sight, waiting, watching for this next illusion to break her. There'd been so many just like this, a random room in the temple with people she knew, quiet and calm until one of them attacked the other, or something attacked them, or they disappeared with a cackle of hissing laughter.

"Okay, so, I have no idea how to start this, so I guess we'll just start at the beginning?"

Stefan's voice made Olivia jump. It snapped the walls--the real walls--back into focus. She forced herself to look at the room. This wasn't the Serpent's cage with the padded floor. This was a temple room, a real room that she could touch with people that were real, that would not disappear.

She reached out to the nearby bookshelf, running her fingers across its surface just to prove it to herself. "The beginning sounds good."

You could touch things there, too. That didn't make them real then, either.

"Is there anything you do know about the whole Songster thing?" asked Stefan, his attention down on the notebook in his hand.

She pressed her fingers hard enough into the edges of the bookshelf to send a line of pain shooting up her wrist as the echo of a thought kept running through her head.

Not real not real not real not real.

Olivia pulled her hand away.

Starlight, what was wrong with her? She was out. She'd escaped. She was alive. She was fine, yet she still wanted nothing more to get out of this room. She still felt like she couldn't breathe, couldn't speak. Fine, trauma was a thing, but she didn't feel traumatised. She just felt... numb. It was hard to grab onto anything through the haze, hard to ground herself, hard to feel anything except this constant ringing in her head.

"Olivia?" said Stefan again.

"Sorry," she said with a small shake of her head. "I was just trying to think."

With a determined, exact kind of movement, she yanked out the chair and sat down, forcing herself to feel each movement. She tightened her grip on the paper hidden in her hand. She had a job to do here. A puzzle to solve with devastating consequences if she failed. Even if the consequences didn't feel real, if everything just felt like a bad dream, she'd tackle it like she always did. Banshee or not. Corrupted or not. She'd annoyed the Serpent once, it was time to do it again.

Nothing else mattered.

She shoved everything away and drew in a deep breath, ignoring the looming walls. "I don't know anything solid. It's all just been instinct up until this point."

Stefan nodded. "Okay, then I'll start from the basics. Stop me if you have any questions or want me to explain anything further. It's not an exact science, so that instinct is a good sign."

Olivia listened as Stefan went over the basics. There were two realms--the physical realm, where they existed, and the ethereal realm, which was a realm of pure energy. Anything in the physical realm that was connected to the ethereal realm had a Song that linked them together. He explained how Songstering was an instinct, that you didn't listen to these Songs with your ears but another, deeper sense that not everyone was attuned to.

"Luminaries are usually people who have a stronger instinct for Songs than most," continued Stefan. "They aren't Songsters by any means, but they're closer to it than most, especially with their Aspect's particular Song. It's why all Luminaries have their Aspect in their chosen name--even if they don't realise it, they're drawn to that Song. What makes a Songster different is that our instinct is strong enough to hear all the Songs. Does that make sense?"

"Yup."

With a series of confusing sketches, Stefan continued about how it wasn't as simple as Singing to draw energy from the ethereal realm. It had to be pulled through a gateway--something that acted like a tunnel between the two realms. Each gateway had a different Song, and which gateway you drew the energy through changed how the energy appeared in the physical realm, and what could be done with it.

"For example, if you Sing the Shadowsong, you access Banshee's gate. It's how Luminaries transform--their Ascended uses that Aspect's Song to open the gate, draw energy from the ethereal, and transform them. If a human isn't attuned to that Aspect's Song, it makes it a whole lot harder for the energy to stick. The better their attunement to the Song, the easier they can draw on their power."

Stefan pushed his notebook over, giving Olivia a closer look at his most recent diagram. Two horizontal, parallel lines, with one big vertical tunnel connecting them sat at the centre of the page.

"Physical, ethereal" said Stefan, touching the parallel lines one after the other. "This big tunnel in the middle is Skypillar's gateway." He drew a bunch of smaller circles, all attached to the main tunnel. "Every single gateway that the Luminaries use to transform is connected to Skypillar."

Stefan directed a meaningful look towards Olivia's hand that still held his note from earlier.

She frowned, trying to pick up on what he was hinting at. "So... any energy they draw from the ethereal realm is linked to Skypillar?"

"Yes," said Stefan, looking more than a little relieved. "The way Aurora explained it, Skypillar is the brain, and the Luminary gateways are the rest of the body. Ultimately, the brain controls them. Completely."

And if Skypillar was corrupted, as Stefan's note had claimed...

Olivia wasn't sure exactly what that meant except that it probably wasn't a good thing. With the way things had been going for her lately, she really hadn't expected anything else.

"What about the aurorasong, then?" asked Olivia, figuring there was no reason not to get to the point. "Is she attached to Skypillar's gateway too?"

Stefan chewed on his lip. "Not exactly. It's a little more complicated. I need to explain a few other things before we get to that. Okay, now--"

As Stefan talked about the physical consequences of drawing on Songs--bigger gateways took more out of your physical strength, bigger gateways were harder to control and maintain, bigger gateways were more powerful--Olivia's tattoo went cold. She was only half-listening to Stefan as thirty seconds later, Jason's Liaiser vibrated. His face grew concerned as he typed out a reply, stopping only to glance up at Stefan and Olivia, who finally stopped listening to Stefan as Jason stood up.

Stefan stopped mid-sentence to look at Jason. "Someone Manifested, didn't they?"

"Yes," said Jason. "One of the High Breathspeakers Manifested into a corrupted DragonFae again, and triggered at least two others to Manifest around her."

"The auroras didn't purify them," whispered Stefan. "Aurora's still hurt." His eyes flicked from Jason, then to the table, then finally, back to Olivia. "We have to get you ready to sing the aurorasong--tonight if possible."

"I'll be back shortly," said Jason, passing Olivia the Liaiser before he reached for the door. "If the Manifested find you, call the top contact."

Only once Olivia nodded did Jason finally push down on the handle and exit the room, the door firmly closing behind him.

Stefan was quiet for a moment, his head slightly tilted like he was listening for something. Olivia just sat there, watching him as her fingers ran over the edges of the Liaiser. Some thirty seconds later, Stefan drew in a sharp, quick breath and reached towards Olivia.

"Do you still have the note?" he asked.

She nodded and handed it over to him. Stefan took it, moving as if he intended to shove it in his pocket before grimacing and awkwardly shoving it in his mouth instead. A shudder and a rather interesting expression later, and all evidence of the note was gone.

"Just in case you were wondering how serious I was," he said quickly. His next words were quiet enough that Olivia had to lean forward to catch them. "I wanted to explain sooner, but every person who knows the truth is another risk to what might be our last hope to stop Skypillar and the Other. I don't know how much time we have, so I'll make it quick, but just to be clear: you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you--especially not the Luminaries. Okay?"

"If we can't tell the Luminaries because their power comes from Skypillar, is it a good idea to tell me?" said Olivia. She held up her wrist. "I don't know if you remember, but the Manifested High Speakers right now are entirely my fault."

Stefan pressed his lips together. "Aurora showed you the visions, right? You've seen her City? Her memories?"

"A few of them."

"Then she wants you to know," said Stefan. "Her methods can be a little... difficult, given her limited options, but if she's shown you, then she knows better than I do." He ran a hand through his hair, pulling his fringe down over his eyes and rolling his head towards his knees. "Where do I even start?"

"How about on the 'Skypillar is corrupted' bit?"

Stefan nodded. "Okay. Skypillar. It's been corrupted by the Other--or if you want its true name, Envy. A long, long time ago, like we're talking eons, Skypillar and Starsong used to be one being called a Titan. Apparently they found this planet where Envy was running rampant, feeding off the memories and emotions of the humans, and they decided to help. They crashed down a piece of their heartstone--a sort of anchor for their power in the physical world--which created the first Ascended from Songsters to fight off Envy's monsters. Eventually, Envy got strong enough and attacked the heartstone directly. There was a battle, the Ascended all died, but Skypillar crashed the rest of their heartstone into the planet, sealing Envy's chasm and creating that ridiculously huge mountain our City sits under today.

"However, even with Envy sealed, Starsong's half of the heartstone--the first piece that came down--her Song was still tainted by Envy. So, Skypillar placed Starsong in a stasis that would last until she was pure once more, and sealed her within the Core Chamber, the walls of which blocked Envy, Skypillar, and Starsong's energy from getting in or out. The only way to open it was a lock that required a Songster to open."

"Why a Songster?" asked Olivia.

"Because we're not like them," said Stefan. "They were made in the ethereal and touch the physical. We were born in the physical, but can reach the ethereal. They needed to make sure that Envy couldn't affect Starsong further while she was vulnerable, but also that if Starsong was unable to purge Envy's corruption, that she could not escape."

"Let me guess," said Olivia. "Starsong wasn't the one who was corrupted when she woke up."

"Exactly," said Stefan. "When Starsong eventually woke up some time during the first civilisation, the now-corrupted Skypillar didn't recognise Starsong's Song anymore, it decided that she was the corrupted one. Only, with the Core Chamber in place, Skypillar couldn't get in, and Starsong couldn't get out. Aurora believes Envy was killing the Songsters, and so, it ended up as a stalemate, and eventually, Skypillar simply ignored Starsong's existence.

"The City was thriving in spite of Envy's monsters and Manifested. Skypillar made the Luminaries by reincarnating the power of the first Ascended. They were unlimited and unbound, as long as they paid respect to Skypillar. Displease Skypillar, and starlight save you, but it didn't last. Envy's grip on Skypillar grew stronger, until eventually it got so bad that people tried to leave. Only, Skypillar didn't like that, so it erected a barrier around the City to stop people from leaving. It said it was to contain the Other's influence, but really--"

At the sound of a large explosion outside, Stefan stood up and walked over to the window. He peeked through the drapes, and after a moment, gestured for Olivia to come join him below it.

"I'm gonna try and sum this up because I'm not sure when we'll have another chance," Stefan breathed. "Aurora was born after the barrier was already in place. There were no districts, just territories of Luminaries. Most only cared for their own power, demanding offerings for both themselves and Skypillar. It was chaos.

"Aurora knew she was different. Manifested were attracted to her. She could sense them coming, and eventually, she learned how to summon Luminaries by their Songs, even if she didn't understand it. They hated her for it, would have killed her if they didn't fear her so much. Eventually Starsong found her, trained her, and kept her alive. Starsong taught her about Skypillar, about Envy. Starsong told Aurora that, if she could escape the Core Chamber, she could save Skypillar and bring down the barrier around the City.

"So, Aurora turned herself into a Skypillar fanatic. When she turned sixteen, Skypillar chose her as a Luminary--a Cryophoenix, and their plan began. With the help of a few Luminaries who still believed in something better, Starsong had Aurora enter the Core Chamber and become the physical anchor for the last, uncorrupted sliver of Skypillar's Song by attuning herself to it.

"With that safe, Starsong changed her own Song, creating a new gateway entirely, and escaped the Core Chamber. Starsong engaged Skypillar, but with Envy's backing, even with all their precautions, Skypillar was too strong for Starsong, so, well..." Stefan took a long breath. "Starsong did what she reasoned to be best: she drained the active Luminaries of their energy, killing them, but giving her enough power to force Skypillar into a stasis where it would hopefully cleanse itself. The resulting blast wiped out the first civilisation, instantly vaporising everyone within the City."

It took Olivia a moment to process. "Starsong did that? She killed that many people?"

"Titans aren't human, Liv," said Stefan, sounding like he hated himself for excusing them. "They don't understand empathy, or the individual mind. They see humans as tools. They come from a realm where everything is one, where everything is linked together. Imagine if you every time you blinked, you found yourself in someone else's body, and you begin to get close to what a Titan experiences."

"I guess it's done now, anyway," said Olivia. Another explosion had the walls around her trembling. She forced herself to breathe, to shut her eyes and focus on the information. "So, does this mean Aurora's corrupted too, since she shares the same gateway as Skypillar?"

"No," said Stefan. "Aurora is the key to the last, uncorrupted part of Skypillar's gateway. She's the only reason the Luminaries aren't instantly corrupted when they transform. Inside the Core Chamber, Envy's influence can't get to her, but it also greatly limits what Aurora can do to help us. Now you're attuned to Aurora, it looks like Envy or the Serpent might have found a way to block her ability even further."

Olivia touched her wrist.

Stefan squeezed her shoulder. "It's not your fault, Liv. The Serpent came after you because it knew you could be a threat. It wanted you out of the way, and the fact that you're still here is a feat in itself."

"What is the Serpent?"

"I should let Aurora tell you that," murmured Stefan. "But... the Serpent was one of the Luminaries that Starsong killed."

"So it wants revenge? On Starsong?"

"It's more likely that it wants the same thing Envy wants: to secure its grip on Skypillar's power, once and for all by claiming the last piece of Skypillar's Song that Aurora holds."

"And that's why all the secrecy about Aurora?"

This time, a smile crept onto Stefan's face.

"Not quite," he said. "Skypillar knows that Aurora exists. What it doesn't know is that she's awake, and that she's figured out how to control the gateway. If Skypillar even suspected that Aurora was a threat, she'd be in danger, Core Chamber or not. We need the chance to catch it by surprise before Skypillar figures it out."

"Seems risky," said Olivia. The sound of fighting had died down outside, but her tattoo was still cold on her sternum. "If Aurora fails, Envy has the entire gateway under its control."

"Oh, it is," said Stefan. "But the pattern is coming around again, and if we don't want Starsong to solve it the same way she did the first time, we have to find a way to break it. It's all or nothing."

The million replays of Aurora's memories flashed through Olivia's head. The boy, the loss, the agony, the grief that ripped her open each and every time. Aurora had been showing her what she'd lost the first time, what Olivia now had to lose.

The nightmares clicked into place, the dread and the fear all tangled up inside her chest.

"So... what does Aurora want us to do?" asked Olivia.

"For now, we figure out how to fix the aurorasong," said Stefan. "Once we do that, we hope that Aurora has a plan."

The weight of the task settled on Olivia's shoulders. She wasn't entirely sure what it was that stopped her from being crushed by it into a pancake on the floor. She didn't know if she was grateful to it for extending her existence, or hated it for keeping her going.

Why me? She hated the pitiful thought, but it was only getting louder each time she shoved it away. She screamed it again, as loud as she could within her mind until it felt like her eyes were going to burst out of their sockets. WHY. ME?

A gust of frozen air stirred the drapes covering the window. Drawn by something she couldn't quite explain, Olivia found herself standing up and pulling back the curtains despite Stefan's protest that they needed to stay hidden from the Manifested.

There, hovering some ten metres away, framed almost perfectly by the window was Cryo.

The hard, gleaming edges of his crystalline wings moved in a precise harmony, stirring the fabric on his torso. The tattoos across his face glowed ever so slightly, enough to give his snow-white hair a pale blue tinge in the daylight. The winter breeze swirled around him, reaching out and brushing against Olivia's cheek, enough that she could almost feel his touch on her skin.

He was already watching her. His violet eyes were peacefully quiet, the only hint of the soft, fragile beauty that was buried deep within the layers of ice and frost, ready and waiting to bloom.

Olivia gripped the curtains tight between her fingers as the moment ended, and Cryo launched himself into the sky once more.

Why her?

Because she'd take it a million times over before she'd let it be him.

Olivia stepped away from the window and turned to Stefan.

"Okay. Where do we start with learning how to fix the aurorasong?"

*+*+*+*

A/N - HEY LOOK MORE ANSWERS. With more questions? ;D