Olivia Lydiasdaughter was lying in bed, blanket pulled up over her head to block the morning sunlight from reflecting off the screen of her Liaiser as she scrolled through her newsfeed, scouring every link for more information.

The same headline was everywhere: Confirmed: Hydra and Centaur have gone Dark. Yet for the life of her, Olivia couldn't find any information that was actually helpful.

Olivia flicked through yet another article whose preview hinted that there might be photos of Hydra's civilian form inside before quickly realising that just like all the others, it was little more than clickbait.

With a huff, Olivia closed the article and dropped her Liaiser on the bed beside her. She rolled onto her back, staring up at the roof for a long few minutes.

There'd been whispers for weeks. People waiting--expecting, almost--for Skypillar's newest Luminary pair to meet the fate of the previous six and go Dark before their first full year. It was a pattern that Olivia had both dreaded and, if she were honest, hoped for. She was sixteen now, the age when all Luminaries were chosen, and some small, selfish part of her had been desperately hoping for a spot to open up.

Olivia rubbed her fingers under her glasses and forced herself to sit up. She reached for her medication without looking at them--she'd looked at those sad, lonely pills enough in the last three years--and gulped them down with the water she kept by her bed.

It was dumb, this small, tiny hope that maybe, maybe, Skypillar would pick her. There were more than enough sixteen year olds in the City. Healthy sixteen year olds whose bodies didn't just randomly decide to black out or seize up at a minute's notice. In a million years, there was no way that she'd ever be chosen to save the Manifested that the Other coughed up when her parents couldn't even trust her to leave the house alone.

Olivia dug her fingers into her palms and forced herself to relax before she worked herself into a blackout. She checked the time and realised with a curse that she only had fifteen minutes before Ericka arrived.

It was supposed to be ten minutes if they stuck to schedule--but well, Ericka was never one for being punctual.

Olivia had her clothes on and her bag together and slung around her waist in five minutes, darting down the stairs while expertly avoiding the squeaky steps. A quick glance inside the kitchen showed neither of her parents around, and Olivia allowed herself a small sigh of relief before stepping out.

"Where are you off to on this fine morning, Olive?" came her dad's voice from the lounge.

Olivia pressed her lips together for a moment before she replied. "Going out with Ericka to do some more study on the chosen name stuff." She put on a smile and walked over to the couch. "Y'no, important since it's in like two days or something, right?"

"I thought you'd already decided on your chosen name?" said her dad, sitting up on the couch. He leaned an arm over the back. "Voicesong, wasn't it? Siren's aspect?"

Olivia shrugged and wandered over to the fridge, sticking her head inside to see if there were any easily accessible leftovers she could devour in five minutes. "Maybe. I dunno. I still kinda like Phoenix, or maybe even Djinn."

As Olivia pulled out a half-eaten sandwich from yesterday, she heard her dad's soft sigh. "A wish would be nice, wouldn't it, Olive?"

Olivia stuck the sandwich in her mouth to save her from a verbal reply and nodded.

"Well," said her dad. She heard the effort in his voice, the strain to drop the issue before it started the next argument. "Just be careful with Ericka, you know how over excited she gets sometimes. And remember we've got your doctor's appointment tomorrow to talk about the new medication. Just keep activity at a minimum today, okay, Olive?"

Olivia mumbled out a sure dad, then gave him a half-hearted wave before she disappeared through the door, taking her anger out on the stairs with heavy, thudding steps all the way down to the ground floor.

Keep activity at a minimum today, okay, Olive?

Olivia rolled her eyes. Like they didn't expect her to keep her life at a minimum all the time. Don't go out alone. Make sure we know where you're going. No rollerblading near the edge of the canals. Even now, they expected Ericka to meet her at the door, like Olivia was some kind of child.

Olivia stopped at the side door, taking a minute to strap her rollerblades on before she bladed out into the alley. Sandwich in one hand and Liaiser in the other, Olivia flicked open her messages to Ericka.

[Olivia]: I'll meet you in the usual spot <3

It was only a minute or two before the reply came in.

[Ericka]: IM RUNNING LATE, SORRY. BUT I HAVE SOMETHING SUPER INTERESTINGGGG

[Olivia]: What, the door got stuck again? Epic battle against the handle to free yourself?

[Ericka]: THAT WAS LIKE ONE TIME but no ok seriously you're gonna love it

[Olivia]: DYING OF CURIOSITY OVER HERE

[Ericka]: YOU CAN WAIT LIKE TEN MINUTES WHILE I GET THERE IM SORRY

More than a little amused, Olivia arrived at their usual meetup bench and sat down, continuing to flick through various Hydra and Centaur related articles as she finished off her sandwich and waited for Ericka.

At some point, a quick pinprick of light caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Olivia glanced up, half expecting to find Ericka angling her Liaiser screen to reflect sunlight into Olivia's eyes, but nothing was there. Just the starstone sculpture that sat where it always did, under the shade of a large, potted bush.

Olivia stared at it for a few more seconds, sure she'd seen something. She tilted her head, trying to get the sunlight to reflect again, before realising there was no way it could have. Curious, she pocketed her Liaiser and stood up, about to get a closer look at the statue when Ericka's voice echoed out across the courtyard.

"Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvyyyyyy!"

Olivia glanced around to find Ericka flailing a hand above her head, looking like she was about to topple over on her rollerblades from momentum. With the way the other people on the path moved to avoid her, Olivia knew she wasn't the only one thinking it.

Ericka drew close enough, grabbing Olivia by the arm. Olivia braced herself as Ericka swung around, trusting Olivia to be steady enough to bring her terrifying momentum to a halt.

Olivia grinned. "Well someone is finally here."

"Okay, look," said Ericka, leaning forward and slapping her hands down on Olivia's shoulders. "You know I'm always late, it's a surprise to absolutely no one at this point, but todaaaay I was actually going to be on time until I found a message on one of the forums I told you about last week!"

"Rikky," said Olivia. "We spent hours on those things. We decided they were a load of crap, remember?"

"Well, yeah, they are crap," said Ericka, leaning back and pulling her Liaiser out. "But I found something that might actually have some merit to it. You know that Hydra and Centaur went Dark, right?"

"I think it'd be harder to not know with how many stories are going on about it."

"Well last night, I was browsing around the boards--you know, because there was nothing new on the other ones I guess--and I found a rumour about where to find one of them!"

Ericka paused, her eyes wide as she bit down on her lip, clearly expecting some kind of reaction from Olivia.

"Um," said Olivia. "Yay?"

"What do you mean, 'yay'?" said Ericka, frowning. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to find something that might be legit?"

"It's not legit, Rikky."

"You haven't even looked at it!" Ericka shoved her Liaiser screen in front of Olivia's glasses. "Look!"

Olivia squinted, but it was hard to tell exactly what the photo was supposed to be of. "What am I looking at?"

"There's Harpy's wing," said Ericka, tracing the royal blue and gold blur across the foreground of the photo. "Golem's here, that brown splodge over there is Wyvern, I think, and you can see DragonFae's violet glow in the background."

"And this relates to Hydra and Cent--"

"I'm not done!" said Ericka. "See here?" She pointed to what looked like, at best, a black-haired ponytail, maybe a dark coloured jacket, and a blonde point. "Civilians!"

Olivia could kind of see it. If she used her imagination a little. The black-haired ponytail looked like half of the back of someones head, and... well, that could maybe be a blonde haired person next to them? Maybe a hand wrapped around a waist a little lower--there was definitely enough room for a full person or two.

"I know the guy who took the photo," said Ericka. "He says he took it just after the Lumis emerged from whatever that super secret thing they were doing yesterday was. Whoever these two civilians were, they were down there with the Luminaries--and according to the timeline, Hydra and Centaur went Dark down there. We know they didn't die, because the temple always announces that, and no one else came out of that door, so then... where did Hydra and Centaur's civilian selves go, hmm?"

"That's a pretty big stretch," said Olivia. "And all we have to go on is a really blurry, half-blocked picture of the back of someone's head."

Ericka plucked her Liaiser back from Olivia's hands. "Well I figure we can go talk to the guy who took the photo. He'll either have more, or he might have seen other details."

"I thought we were supposed to be entering that rollerblading race that starts in an hour," said Olivia.

Ericka held out her hands either side of her and turned her palms skyward. "Rollerblade race, versus finding out the identity of Hydra or Centaur," she said, weighing the options in either hand as she spoke. "Are you honestly gonna tell me that you wanna race when we could be Lumi hunting?"

Olivia pursed her lips. "I was kind of looking forward to that race. Not to mention, we aren't really supposed to be hunting Luminaries, Rikky."

Ericka rolled her eyes. "Wow, big surprise. Little Olive wants to follow the rules."

Olivia folded her arms. "Yeah, that's why I want to go race in a thing that my parents would literally lock me in my room for a month if they found out."

"We race all the time though!" said Ericka, bouncing up and down. "How often do we get to learn more about the Luminaries? You've said yourself that Hydra seemed pretty cool--imagine how awesome it'd be if we could actually meet her!"

"You're going with or without me, aren't you?"

Ericka smirked. "I might do. But you're coming with me anyway, aren't you?"

Olivia tilted her chin towards the sky, wondering what she'd done to earn herself a friend like Ericka, but when she looked back at the frizzy haired girl in front of her, a wide grin began to spread its way across Olivia's face.

Ericka did have a point. They could enter a race any time. But chasing Luminaries, the one topic that was always guaranteed to start an argument with her parents?

"Well I did tell my parents that we were going to do some more study about chosen names," said Olivia. "What better way could there possibly be than first-hand experience and talking to someone who was actually chosen by Skypillar?"

Ericka echoed Olivia's grin as she opened a map. "I wouldn't let your parents hear you say that, Olive. They'd be rather upset to hear you had first hand experience with Luminaries."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "They'd be upset to know I had first hand experience with life. Where are we going?"

"First stop, central Sylrael!" said Ericka, linking her arm through Olivia's.

*+*+*+*

A/N - *THROWS CHAPTER* 

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