One word, and the violet insignia of the DragonFae blazed into existence.

Invoke.

The word continued to echo in the back of Banshee's skull as DragonFae's magic took form. The flecks that usually lingered passively in the air around her came alive. They reacted, attentive to her every gesture as DragonFae extended her arms outwards. Her ethereal wings rose behind her, fluttering with a strength, a certainty they hadn't possessed since the Manifested attack had left her paralysed from the waist down.

DragonFae's gaze was glazed with violet. Living indigo patterns traced her scales as the magic embraced her.

Wyvern's face contorted. He threw his head back and cried out, "I accept the Ascension! Manifest me!"

It happened in seconds. Black, inky corruption crackled up Wyvern's arm, leaving his skin a dark, leathery brown in its wake. Wing membranes that stretched from his arms to his sides wrapped protectively around the bag in his arms. Horns swept his messy hair back. His jawline sharpened. His clothes hardened into near-black armoured plates across his shoulders, his chest, his thighs and his tail.

DragonFae's swing remained behind her as her boots hit the ground. Existence held its breath, waiting for her command, her will, as she stood there on her own two feet and spoke.

"Remove the corruption from Wyvern," breathed DragonFae. Not said or called or murmured, but breathed. "He shall not move, speak, or act until I will it."

Wyvern's tail was already back and ready to strike with only Golem between him and his fragile target, but it didn't matter. DragonFae's insignia appeared over Wyvern's head, and like that, reality was altered.

One moment, Wyvern was Manifested into his Luminary form.

The next, he wasn't.

Wyvern tried to hold onto his Manifested transformation. Banshee could see the strain on his face, the sheer, pure force of stubborn determination as it dragged as a screech from his lips, but DragonFae's magic was indomitable. It ripped the corruption straight from his body. It froze his limbs and mouth and mind, leaving nothing but the eyes casting a furious glare at the world.

With one command, DragonFae had ripped the Other's influence straight from Wyvern's body.

Banshee stepped back, reaching back to place her hand against Cryo's arm. She'd seen DragonFae's ultimate once in action, but then, DragonFae had only been delving for an hour at most. This--this was on a whole other level. For a lack of a better word, it was terrifying.

"Golem," said DragonFae. Power still whispered behind the words, but these words were spoken, not breathed. "Retrieve the bag. He is resistant, and I do not wish to affect the Ascended on accident."

With a nod that took a second of hesitation, Golem stepped away from his partner, quickly striding over towards Wyvern. Wyvern continued to glare, like he could ward Golem away with sheer force of will while the DragonFae insignia remained over his head.

"Well," Cryo murmured to Banshee as across from them, the Hunters appeared to be standing down, albeit reluctantly. "I suppose this situation has been resolved."

Banshee wanted to believe him, but there was an unsettling feeling building in her chest. "Looks like it." She paused. "...Kinda wondering why she didn't use her ultimate to find me if it can do this."

"She attempted to," said Cryo. "Scrying requires the use of her primary ability, but it proved ineffective. She never had the opportunity to delve long enough to attempt more." Banshee felt Cryo's claws graze her shoulder. "Believe me, if I thought there were more she could do, I'd--"

'I can see it.'

An ethereal voice drifted through Banshee's skull. Cryo's attention snapped around, his eyes sharp on each person. Each one of the Hunters jerked to attention, casting suspicious glances around the cavern.

And Golem, over by Wyvern, immediately whirled around, bag forgotten in his hands as his gaze landed on DragonFae.

Golem's gravelly voice was strained. "Fae--"

DragonFae's veins were rivers of light under her skin, weaving under her scales. Her boots were lifting from the floor as she floated within a cloud of glimmering sparks. 'I've felt it before, but this is the first time the veil has been thin enough that I can actually see it.'

The DragonFae insignia over Wyvern's head flickered and dispersed. Like Wyvern had already been fighting against it, his body jerked forward, straight into Golem. Wyvern snarled and seized the bag with one hand. The other ripped into the stones that formed Golem's hands in an attempt to pry it loose.

Golem cursed and yielded the bag, running to DragonFae's side.

'Two worlds,' breathed DragonFae's voice. 'Two worlds, one beneath the other, this is where they met. All linked by certain pathways through Elsewhere."

Golem was by her side now. "Fae! DragonFae!" He tried to grab her, but she wasn't quite solid anymore. His rocky hands passed through her arms, her shoulders, her head. "You're going under, I--damn it!"

The Hunter with the amber braid was shouting orders at the other nine. Her voice drowned beneath the magic flooding the cavern, as physical gave way to something... else. Something that Banshee couldn't quite grasp, not like she could sound or even her shadows, but--

'This wasn't how it was supposed to be. We are an exoskeleton to where the blight was expelled. All it'd take was the carapace to be infected, and the insides would rot.'

On the floor, Skinwalker's violet bonds faded. Skinwalker slowly pushed itself up from the floor, lifting that void-mask to carefully observe those around it.

Banshee felt it when it landed on her.

Banshee drew her daggers, keeping her eyes on Skinwalker as she said to Cryo, "I think we can all probably use some chilling out." When nothing happened, she risked a glance at him to find his arm extended dramatically with zero frost coming out of it. "Uh, Cryo? Ice?"

'That was altered. Changed. We are exposed, vulnerable. Yet a little deeper, a little further...'

"I'm trying," said Cryo calmly, extending a second hand to join the first. "My ice is not functional."

Banshee twirled Joy as Skinwalker regained its feet. "Fan-tastic."

"Fae!" Golem was shouting now. The mountain they stood in trembled and shook, though from the wild look Golem cast around him, it might not have been his doing. "Fae, what are you doing?"

'I must restore it to the way it was designed to be. The violet flared. 'A little further.'

"A little further and you'll disappear in it!" cried Golem, desperately trying to find something solid about his partner. He stomped a foot on the ground below him, raising the rock to level his chest to his partner's floating form. "Fae, I swear to the Other, we discussed this--you promised me! You promised!"

Within DragonFae's overpowering violet light, other colours began to emerge. Golem's stones gleamed with a ruby light. The icicles on Cryo's transformations looked more like emeralds. Banshee's own shadow shift left her skin shimmering the same cerulean colour as the runes covering the door. Skinwalker's fur was tinged with lime, while the faintest gleam of yellow flared from somewhere within the Hunters.

Skinwalker roared and charged Banshee.

'It's okay.'

Her shadows were slipping, but they were still there. Banshee shoved herself away from Cryo, away from the wall, closer to the middle of the room to lure Skinwalker from her partner.

'Here, death is silent, isolated.'

Banshee pulled at her shadows, hoping for one, desperate shadow shift that might be enough to get her clear. One step, two--but she couldn't get deep enough in the shadows. They were weak in DragonFae's light, inactive, dead. They peeled from her body as if they were no more than loose fabric draped over her arm, yet the cerulean on her skin remained, bright in the corners of her eyes as she looked up.

'There, returned to the All.'

Skinwalker's claws caught Banshee on the waist with enough force to send her flying backwards. Without her shadows, Banshee hit the wall hard. Her head cracked against the rock, blurring the world as she slid down and hit the ground. She clawed at the stone around her, desperate to stand up, to catch a sliver of something--anything that wasn't DragonFae's voice inside her head.

'The individuals are all parts of the whole. We continue through each other.'

The flash of a Lightblasters went off, once, twice, three times. There was a crash, a scuffle, a glowing emerald figure in front of her, wrestling a larger body to the floor. Cryo--Skinwalker. She could see blood amidst the spinning world. Heard the roar of her partner's pain.

Banshee dug deep, searching for the power to get up, the power to reach out and help him. The Shadowsong was there, but the shadows weren't listening. They weren't ignoring her--rather it was like they weren't there, weren't around... but there was something else, something new yet impossibly old, etched into the very beginning of her existence. A Song, but not.

With one hand on the wall behind her, she pulled on it.

Aqua light flared so bright that she had to close her eyes. Her fingers traced against the floor. Something new, an echo, perhaps, imprinted on the very walls of stone around her, whispered through her mind, over and over and over.

Azarin, he, who comes through night.

Zark'n, he, who guides the light.

But nothing was happening. Cryo was still fighting Skinwalker without his ice. Banshee tugged on the feeling again, still shaking as she tried to rise to her feet.

Laris, she, who holds the gem.

Rathril qil aish varen.

Braced against the wall, Banshee managed to get back on her feet. Her head was throbbing, but starlight be damned, she was going to stand up and fight even if she had to stagger around like a drunk infant to do it. The floor beneath her was shaking. Like the mountain itself was rebelling against whatever DragonFae's magic was doing.

Banshee stumbled, causing her to look down.

Black, ethereal haze coiled around her boots. It was drawn to her wrist--the wrist where the corrupted fragment was imbedded in her skin, hidden beneath her bracer. Leaking. It was leaking from the stone, the same wall her hand was pressed against, the wall where the runes had been...

Her gaze trailed up. The hundreds of steady, glowing, runes of blue light on the door to the ruins were gone. While the shape of the runes remained, etched into the stone, their light was gone, dripping down the pale green rock like watercolour paints. Little more than the outer circle continued to cling to their light.

Banshee staggered away. The black haze followed her, flickers of neon green reaching out, climbing, claiming. She kicked it off, thrashed and twisted with no effect.

It climbed higher.

Higher.

Highe--

Determined hands grabbed her by the arms and yanked her to the side. Banshee reached back for them, thinking it was Cryo, but as the hands shoved her away hard enough to crash her back into the ground, it was Wyvern's brown eyes that Banshee found locked on her own.

Not in a glare, but a gaze, with one, final, quiet message.

"For Maria."

The haze consumed him whole.

Banshee knew she should have moved. She should have moved, either to try and save Wyvern and pull him from the haze or to get further away before it came after her again, but she couldn't. She sat there, unable to move her hands or pull her boots closer, just staring at the place where Wyvern had been, the black haze that was slowly sinking back to the floor, still growing bigger, stronger...

"Banshee."

She looked up, finding Cryo standing over her. There was a cut on his cheek. Blood dripped down his jaw, catching on the ice that extended along it. His tunic was torn, the feathers on top of his head were a ruffled mess. He was breathing hard as he said her name again, reached down and grabbed her hand.

The ice that usually covered his forearms like sturdy gauntlets was different. The scale-esque shapes on top had extended into vine-like structures half as wide as his wrist, all pointing the same direction before they reached their shattered end a few inches from his arm. Not only that, but the ice crystals of his wings, usually so clear-cut and razor sharp, had warped, becoming flatter, broader, tiny veins etched onto their delicate surfaces. With the emerald hue still illuminating the ice, it almost looked like he'd sprouted crystal plants.

"Banshee," he said for the third time once she was on her feet. "Are you with me?"

She nodded, dragging herself out of the trance lurking around her thoughts. "With you." She glanced back to the door, a hard, numb feeling settling in her chest. "Wyvern--"

"I know," said Cryo. "But whatever that was, it spooked Skinwalker. It fled as soon as Wyvern disappeared. Did you see what happened to the bag with Kael?"

She had, but it was a blur, a shove and a look and two words, but-- "I think he was holding it."

Cryo swore. "We'll deal with that later. We need to leave before this place collapses."

As if in answer, the cavern trembled. The rumble was almost louder than the deafening roar of the waterfall. Head-sized chunks of stone dropped from the ceiling. The glowing runes on the door were entirely gone now. The hue of the dripping blue colour had faded from a bright aqua to a dark, almost black navy as it dried, dead on the wall.

His claws still wrapped tight around her hand, Cryo took them a few hurried steps away from the wall. The Hunter with the amber braid was busy organising her small group of ten to evacuate. Most of them were injured and bleeding. Two were unconscious.

At the centre of the platform, Golem stood on a raised platform of stone, getting him high enough to press his forehead to DragonFae's. She was still consumed by the violet light, her form made up of little more than colour and light. Her tattoo blazed on her sternum. There was nothing that indicated she was aware of the physical world around her.

"Golem!" called Cryo. "What's the plan?"

Golem's stones ground against each other as he leaned away from his partner. "Get yourselves and the Hunters out. I will remain behind and try to prevent what damage I can with my primary ability."

"This entire cliffside is crumbling!" said Cryo. "Ultimate or not, even you can't--"

"I can," said Golem. He reached for the stones that made up his chest, hastily rearranging them. "If I can reach Fae, I can add her power to mine, and we might have a chance at stopping this." Golem reached into his chest and removed a single stone, perhaps the size of a small fist. "She's mentioned this other world before, this veil. A DragonFae's pattern is to lose themselves in it, but I'm not losing her. Not like this."

The stone in his hand was smooth and polished, more gemstone than rock as it smouldered with an orange light, marked with Golem's insignia.

His heartstone.

"Go," said Golem, directing the command towards the Hunters. "I will keep the way clear until you are out."

As the Hunters scurried out, back along the bridge of stone, Golem gave Banshee and Cryo one, final look, resigned and aching and old.

"If Fae and I do not return," said Golem quietly. "We are infinitely sorry for the burden we place upon you two. We are proud of the Luminaries--the people you have become, and remember: your greatest strength will always be your own courage, and your partner. Trust yourselves and stand by each other. There is nothing the two of you cannot do."

Golem looked away with a nod and lifted his heartstone up to rest within the place where DragonFae's own tattoo blazed through the air.

Orange streaks crackled through the red gleam of Golem's stones as he activated his ultimate.

His words were one with the thunder of the crumbling stone around him.

"GO."

The rock which Banshee and Cryo stood on shifted, catapulting them towards the edge of the platform. The cerulean faded from Banshee's skin as the emerald faded from Cryo's ice. Both of them glanced at the passage they'd come in through, then towards the waterfall.

She could feel the shadows again, hear their Song in her ears, but it wasn't yet strong enough to meld with her and survive.

"Together?" asked Banshee.

"Together," answered Cryo.

And together, they dove from the bridge of stone, down towards the churning surface of the lake in the chasm below.

*+*+*+*

A/N - For anyone who has read Indigo... H M M M M 

Patreons of all tiers also got a short, extra PoV that occurs after the end of this chapter from Golem's PoV ;D All $1+ tiers have access <3 I had the urge to write it aaaa