Somehow, Olivia managed to arrive at the meeting spot before Ericka.

Or at least, she hoped she'd arrived first, because otherwise, Ericka had apparently just up and left without bothering to wait.

Olivia huffed and rearranged her hair, stepping back a little further into the shadows.

She didn't like waiting around in the open when she snuck out. All it took was one person on their way to the restaurant to recognise her and mention it to her parents, and she was busted. Ericka always told her to relax, but she didn't get it. Olivia was fairly certain that most days, you could explode a firework ten metres from Ericka's mother and there was only a fifty-fifty chance she'd even notice. It was a running joke between them that if you merged their mothers, it'd be perfect.

Or at least, they both pretended they were joking.

After another two minutes of Olivia anxiously patting the spot where her Liaiser usually lay in her bag, Ericka's frizzy mass of hair finally appeared. She wore clothes that Olivia had never seen before, and there was a giant bag awkwardly slung over one arm that kept throwing her off balance until she finally stopped in front of Olivia.

"I'm late, I know!" said Ericka, panting as she tried to catch her breath. She dumped the bag on the ground in front of her feet. "But I had an idea--look!"

Ericka reached into the oversized bag and pulled out a long, white wig, presenting it to Olivia, who took it and glanced back at Ericka.

Olivia looked at the wig for a moment, waiting for an explanation that never came as Ericka continued to dig through the bag. "And your idea is what, exactly?"

"Disguises!" said Ericka proudly. "I figured, people apparently dress up all the time for festival night, right? And if it makes you a little less noticeable in the first place, maaaybe you'll be able to relax for once and have some fun!"

Olivia pressed her lips together. "Isn't the idea to like... blend in?"

"By standing out! If people remember you, you'll just be that white haired girl over there, or maybe the girl in the white wig. Your parents are never gonna figure out that it was you just by hearing about it."

"They might if that girl in the white wig was hanging around a crazy frizzy haired girl."

"Which is whyyyy," said Ericka, pausing for a dramatic reveal before she pulled a grey wig out of the bag. "I have this! And I've made us both some Luminary themed stuff to go over your usual clothes, so your parents won't be able to recognise those, either."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "This is a lot of effort just to sneak out of the house, especially since I'm already out."

Ericka just winked in reply. "Nothing but the best for my girl. I gotta make sure you can actually enjoy yourself rather for once. Now, what do you say we go put all this on?"

Olivia thought about it for a moment, then her smile cracked into a grin.

*+*+*+*

When people said that festival night celebrations on temple grounds was unlike anything else in the City, they really hadn't been kidding.

The golden starstone gleamed with an inner light, like it knew tonight was special, or maybe it was just responding to the sheer energy of the people around it. Everywhere Olivia looked, there were people. Crowds danced to wild tunes that flowed from what felt like a hundred different instruments, singing and twirling into a mess of robes and colours. Other groups were quieter, struck with a reverent calm as they gathered around a Speaker, or simply caught their breath from the flurry. There were performances, recitals, crafts and a million other things in the perfect chaos of the festival night.

It didn't take long for Olivia and Ericka to lose themselves in it all.

They flitted from crowd to crowd, following the music that called them. Olivia lost count of how many dance partners she had, spinning and twirling through dozens of hands as she threw caution to the wind. She sang with every chorus that rose up, where every individual drowned out by the tide of the all, like if they worked together, they might just be loud enough to let Starsong hear them.

Perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise when Olivia found herself beside the Starlight Hall, woven among the others who lingered outside, hoping for their chance to see a Luminary.

"D'ya think they're in there?" murmured Ericka, nudging Olivia with her elbow.

"I mean, where else would they be?" replied Olivia. "They have that thing they apparently do every festival night, right? Where the elder pair disappears into the Core chamber for a few minutes?"

"True," said Ericka. She paused. "What do you think they even do in there?"

"Maybe they talk to Starsong," said Olivia. "You know, and that's why Starsong's moon disappears after tonight. It's like, some kind of ritual where they throw her back to the heavens for another year, safe from the Other's reach."

Ericka raised an eyebrow. "You were listening to way too many of those Speakers outside, weren't you?"

Olivia stuck her tongue out. "Oh sure. Like you weren't completely sucked in by it all too."

"Well I think they're--" Ericka cut off, and grabbed Olivia's arm. "Uh oh. Second place singer just behind you."

"Second place--" Olivia's stomach dropped. "Naomi?" she whispered.

Ericka bobbed her head frantically.

"We gotta get out of here," said Olivia. "Is she looking this way?"

"Nope."

"Fantastic," said Olivia, grabbing Ericka's hand. "Exit stage right"

Ericka didn't need any encouragement, and by Ericka standards, the exit was perfectly subtle, with only one backwards glance to glare at Naomi's telltale black hair swept into its high ponytail. Olivia quickly pulled Ericka's attention forward.

"She's always ruining everything even when she has no idea," muttered Ericka, pulling out her Liaiser as they walked away. "Oh hey, Thomas and a few others from school are here. Wanna go meet up with them?"

Olivia puffed out her cheeks. "I mean--"

"If you say something about blowing your cover, I'm gonna remind you of this little thing called lying," said Ericka, booping Olivia on the nose with her finger before tapping out a reply on her Liaiser. "Just tell him your parents let you out with me, as a present for finally choosing your own name. You could even tell them your parents are here somewhere. If you're not stressing about it, they won't suspect anything."

Olivia folded her arms, wiping her nose on the shoulder of her sleeve. "There's a difference between sneaking out and actually getting caught while sneaking out, y'no, Rikky."

"Really?" said Ericka, eyes on her Liaiser. "Hadn't noticed, you stress no matter whether you get away with it or not."

"It's because I'm careful about not getting caught that I don't get--"

"Oh hey, they're right over there!" said Ericka, looking up from her Liaiser. She lifted a hand above her head, getting a wave in response from a few familiar looking figures at the edge of a crowd some hundred metres away across the courtyard. "What a coincidence, ey, Liv?"

Olivia just huffed, figuring it was too late to complain about it now, and followed Ericka over to the others.

Ericka was already in the middle of a conversation with a few of their school friends when Olivia caught up. Though Olivia lurked behind Ericka, hoping it'd excuse her from the questions she didn't want to answer, it didn't take long before Thomas made his way forward and caught her eye.

He grinned at her. "I'm surprised to see you here, I didn't think your parents would let you out with what happened the other day."

Olivia forced a smile. "I'm as shocked as you are, but they said it was as a present for the whole chosen name thing finally happening." She glanced back over her shoulder, making a show of looking through the crowds behind her. "They're here somewhere, probably sitting near a snack bar complaining about how their food is better than temple food will ever be."

"Sounds about right," said Thomas. "How much longer are you going to stay? We were going to try and catch a glimpse of the Luminaries when they do their secret ceremony thing during the auroras."

"Rikky and me were in the crowd near the Starlight Hall before we found you guys," Olivia said with a shrug. "I don't think we're gonna see much with that many people around."

Thomas glanced towards the Starlight Hall, as if he were only noticing exactly how many people were gathered. "Guess you're right." His attention fell back on her as pity of all things stained his eyes. "Probably a good idea to stay away from super crowded areas with your condi--"

Olivia jabbed a finger at him. "Don't even say it."

"It's true though, isn't it?" he asked with a frown. "Your parents always--"

Olivia rolled her eyes and huffed, turning away from him and grabbing Ericka by the shoulder.

"C'mon, Rikky," Olivia muttered through Ericka's protests. "We're gonna go find somewhere and dance again."

"Liv, I was halfway through a conversation!"

Olivia kept walking. "Looks like the end of it to me!"

"Wait!" said Thomas, following after them with a few confused glances from their other friends. "Liv, I'm sorry, okay?"

She stopped and turned to glare at him.

Thomas just held up his hands. "Promise! No more mentions of the two who shall not be named, nor--"

Olivia cut him off. "If you stop talking now, you might keep the few points you just scored back."

"Noted!"

Olivia dropped her grip on Ericka, who narrowed her eyes in Olivia's direction.

"Livvy does have a point though," said Ericka. "Dancing does sound pretty great right now. You guys hear any good musicians playing nearby?"

"We heard a violinist coming from inside earlier," said one of Thomas's friends--Nate, wasn't it? "We were gonna go check that out, but it sounds like they've stopped."

"Auroras are soon," someone else in their group said. "Most of the musicians will probably stop until they're over."

"Damn," said Ericka, pouting. "Well, I guess we can just--"

"LUMINARY!"

The shout came from somewhere in the crowds, and that was all it took. Conversations halted. Heads turned. The word echoed on hundreds of lips as eyes turned skyward, searching for the source of the call--the chance to see a Luminary up close and personal, to talk to them, to touch them.

Someone started running. Olivia wasn't sure who or where, but within seconds, the crowd was moving. Olivia was shoved from behind, sending her crashing into someone else. Her heart sped up as she was pushed again and swept into the swarm of people whose attention was elsewhere. She lost sight of Ericka, of Thomas and anyone else she knew. She couldn't keep her balance. Her frantic rollerblades landed on running feet more often than starstone. She grabbed at anything she could to keep herself up--shirts, arms, bags--and was rewarded with an elbow to the side of her head.

Even before the elbow struck her, Olivia knew she was going to have a seizure. The chaos around her had gone quiet and hazy, the sounds of the mayhem drowned beneath the buzzing that filled her floating head. Something warm and red was dripping down her face.

As Olivia drowned beneath the sea of people, she saw a face--a girl who towered over the rest, who was shoving her way forward with her eyes locked on Olivia. The girl beat back the next wave of people, yelling something at them before realising that they weren't listening, and shoving forward again.

The girl reached out.

Olivia's head hit starstone, and she blacked out.

*+*+*+*

Olivia's head hurt more than usual when she came to.

Her body felt tingly, which was better than numb. Her right hand clenched for something to squeeze, finding only the bottom of her pouch to feebly grip onto. The lethargy told her it'd been a full seizure, not just a blackout. She could still feel the blood pounding through her head with every heartbeat.

She was on her side in the recovery position, which was a good start. It took her a few moments to lift her head enough to realise someone had moved her against one of the courtyard walls. The clamour of the crowd was still loud in the distance, flaring into uproar with each explosion of violet sparks.

Olivia pushed herself to sit up, grabbing at her head. Her forehead felt wet, and upon inspection, she found blood on her fingers.

Fantastic. With her track record of head injuries, that was exactly the kind of luck she needed tonight.

Maybe it was punishment for sneaking out, muttered some corner of her brain.

What'd I say about staying conscious and having an opinion?

"You're awake," said a calm voice. "That's a good sign."

Olivia glanced behind her to find the tall girl she'd seen in the crowd. The tall girl gathered her skirt and kneeled beside Olivia, offering her a damp cloth and glancing towards her forehead.

Olivia took the hint, giving the girl a grateful nod as she accepted the cloth. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," said the girl. "Are you okay? That was quite the seizure."

"Common event around me, bad timing," mumbled Olivia, wiping her forehead. It was a small miracle her glasses had stayed on. "How'd you even see me?"

"My height has some advantages," said the girl with a small smile. "What's your name?"

"Olivia. Uh, Shadowheart." Olivia narrowed her eyes, trying to think through the haze still clogging her brain. "I think I've seen you around school a few times, but you're in a different class to me."

The girl held out her hand with a straight, proper posture. "Ariel Cloudspeaker. Pleased to meet you."

Olivia wasn't quite sure what it was, but there was something about Ariel that made everything feel okay. There wasn't a hint of condescension or pity beneath her words. Her concern felt... genuine? Olivia couldn't quite figure out the word, but whatever it was, she liked it.

She took Ariel's hand and shook it with a smile.

Seizure or not, maybe not everything about tonight had been terrible.

"Did you--" began Ariel, when someone else cut her off.

"Oh my Starlight--no, no, it's okay! She's awake now!"

Olivia's smile vanished.

She turned to look but didn't get to finish it before Thomas practically collapsed beside her, grabbing her shoulder and staring her in the eyes--not to look at her, but to check her pupils or whatever stupid nonsense he always went on about.

But all she could look at was the Liaiser pressed against his ear.

All she could hear was the frantic, frightened voices on the other end.

"Yes, yes, she looks okay! She's bleeding from her head a bit, but she seems like she's lucid and sitting up by herself," Thomas was saying. "Liv, are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you feeling any--Liv? Liv!"

Olivia's face felt numb. She braced herself against the wall and stood up, the damp cloth Ariel had given her clenched in her right hand. All she could hear was her heartbeat pounding in her ears, feel the rush of her breath as she pulled each one in through her nose and locked her jaw.

"Okay, okay--I know, she's not answering me!" said Thomas into the Liaiser as beside him, Ariel stood up. "She's--"

"You called them?" muttered Olivia.

"What do you mean?" said Thomas. "Of course I did! You said they were here, and when you got trampled by the crowd we got you to the side, I looked for your Liaiser but I couldn't find it, so I used mine to--"

Olivia pressed her fist into the wall behind her, hard enough that it hurt. She turned her eyes upward, just to look anywhere but that Liaiser he was holding. "I was fine! You didn't have to call them, Thomas!"

"You stopped seizing, and you didn't wake up, and you were still bleeding, and I was worried that--"

"Who cares!" screamed Olivia, locking her attention onto him as she stepped forward. She shoved a finger into his chest and almost fell over, reaching back for the wall. "At least then I'd have died somewhere other than my Other-cursed room! One night--I just wanted one, stars dimmed night to myself without my parents hovering over me, and you couldn't even let me have that!"

Thomas brought the Liaiser away from his ear, enough that Olivia could hear a few of the words coming from the other side as Thomas froze.

"I thought I was helpi--" he began.

Ariel caught the Liaiser in his hand right before it fell, swooping it up to her ear and stepping away, speaking in a low, calm voice.

Right then, Olivia couldn't have cared less if the Other itself exploded the Core chamber.

"Well, you didn't!" said Olivia, attempting to stand up a little straighter, to try and shove some of the anger that was burning her from the inside out up into her spine to stand how she damn well felt. How could her legs still shake so much when the rest of her felt like it was going to explode? "You've just ruined it all, acting like they do!"

A few steps away, Ariel's quiet words flowed like the stilled undercurrent to the river that raged on the surface. "No, ma'am, I assure you that an immediate Gleamer pick up is unnecessary. Your daughter is well and capable."

Thomas pressed his lips together. "You're just tired after your seizure. You need to rest, and then--"

"Starlight, does no one listen?" Olivia pressed her hand against her head, trying to force herself to breathe. "No one listens. No one listens to me when I tell them that I don't need you to treat me like a kid. You don't need to babysit me. I have seizures. That doesn't mean I need an escort. That doesn't mean I have to sit in my room all day. It means that I can do things, that I can rollerblade through this damned City wherever I want, and that sometimes, I might black out for a minute or two. And you know what?"

Olivia pushed away from the wall. She almost fell over a second time--almost.

"That's exactly what I'm gonna do for the rest of the night," she continued. "I'm gonna rollerblade around this City wherever the heck I want all by myself, and when I come back alive in the morning, you're going to see that I don't immediately die when I drop off everyone's radar."

"Liv, come on," said Thomas, trying to block her as she went to roll past. "You can't just run off--"

Ariel placed a hand on Thomas's arm, bringing it down. She lowered the Liaiser to her chest before saying, "Let her go."

"What?" squeaked Thomas. "You can't expect me to just let her go! Look at her, she's--"

"Her parents are coming, thanks to your earlier freak out," said Ariel. "They're mad. She's mad. Everyone needs to cool off before they talk about it. It's festival night--she's not going to die if she's by herself for a few hours, and there won't be any Manifested tonight. She'll be fine."

"But--"

Ariel stepped forward, pulling something from her own pouch--a Liaiser, which she placed in Olivia's hand. "On the off chance you get stuck somewhere, I've attuned my Liaiser to his, or if you don't feel like talking to him, you may call any of my emergency contacts to locate me. If not, give it back to me at school. I can live without it for a week."

Olivia just nodded, placing Ariel's Liaiser into her pouch before blading off.

She didn't have a destination. She just kept moving, away from Thomas's protests, from Ariel's reasoning, the sound of the festival celebration until golden starstone became a familiar rose beneath her rollerblades--but it all chased her.

Everywhere she looked was a happy face, an excited squeal, a couple dancing. Music and songs so overlaid and twined that they crashed into each other, taking something beautiful and shattering it into discord. Melodies that belonged felt sharded and lost. Scattered notes dug into every piece of anger, every doubt and flicker of self-hatred that wormed its way up Olivia's throat until she wanted to scream at Skypillar for doing this to her.

She didn't stop. Didn't do anything but press her hands over her ears and keep moving, throat tight with the scream she wasn't willing to let out.

Because she wasn't angry at Thomas. She wasn't angry at her parents. She was angry at herself, at her body, at everything that was supposed to be hers but wasn't. At the one thing she was supposed to have control over, that everyone else had control over, that she didn't. The one thing that'd taken away everything else in her life--her freedom, her hobbies, her parent's trust, her sister.

It was her fault. All her fault.

Olivia finally rolled to a stop at the edge of some lonely Cevinari canal.

It was dark here. Silent. Quiet. Even the starstone of the buildings around to her seemed dimmer, like they knew the City's life was elsewhere, gathered at the heart.

Her body ached. The seizure had left her lethargic. Sheer, stubborn will had kept her standing, but here, alone by the water, Olivia couldn't hold onto it anymore. She let her legs collapse beneath her at an uncomfortable angle and didn't bother to fix them.

She sat there, staring at the starlight above her, mind empty and numb for how long, she didn't know.

And then, the starlight moved.

Olivia squinted, adjusting her glasses to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but no. One of the stars she'd been watching was getting closer.

She adjusted her legs, bringing them beneath her and pushing herself up from the ground.

The star didn't get much bigger. It floated down, stopping when it hovered at Olivia's chest height. It looked more like a gem, though maybe a crystal was a better description. It was a long, narrow shape with multiple facets, and though the colour was hard to distinguish in the low light, Olivia was pretty sure it was clear.

It seemed to be waiting for something, and never being one to keep a mysterious, floating crystal waiting, Olivia reached out with one hand and grabbed it.

The crystal flashed, not with light, but with something else--shadow, she realised. She felt the crystal in her hand shift its form, becoming something less rigid within the cloud of shadow-smoke that surrounded it.

Olivia knew she probably should have been alarmed, that it wasn't uncommon for Manifested to look all dark and spooky, but something stronger was holding her gaze in place.

Hope--a desperate, unbelieving, hope that maybe...

Within the smoke, a pair of violet eyes opened. The shadows coalesced, quickly pulled in to form the four limbs and a head of a small figure no bigger than the size of Olivia's fist. Its limbs weren't entirely connected to its body, floating separate, yet clearly connected somehow to its torso.

"Olivia Shadowheart," said the figure, its voice clear despite the dark grey cloth that covered its head--everything except those striking, violet eyes. "Skypillar calls you. Will you answer and Ascend as the Shadow of Skypillar, to fight to defend this world from the Other's corruption?"

Maybe Olivia had hit her head harder than she'd initially suspected. Maybe she'd drifted into some kind of coma-esque fever dream where her wildest wishes were all coming true. Maybe she'd gone insane from being inside her room too much.

Whatever it was, she didn't care. This chance--whether it was real or not--was enough that Olivia was going to reach out with both hands and seize it.

"I'm not sure if there's words I'm supposed to say in reply to you," said Olivia, rushing on before this piece of starlight could realise its mistake. "But yes--I accept, with every piece of who I am, I accept. I'll become a Luminary, and fight to protect this City from the Other's corruption."

The shadowy figure with the violet eyes was silent for a moment, like maybe it was looking for something. Olivia held its gaze, absolutely ready to do whatever she had to to make sure this figure didn't leave her, that this chance did not slip her by.

There was something different, something strange. Like the way her head floated before a seizure, but different. Like the world around her was smoothing out, completely focused on this figure right here in front of her.

The starlight in the sky was brighter. She could hear them--and not just them. She could hear something else, far atop the Celestial's Falls. It called to her, a muted sound, muffled by stone, yet still so impossibly loud that it drowned out everything except the words of the figure before her.

"Then come with me, Shadowheart," said the figure, violet eyes wide and alluring. "And Ascend the mountain."

*+*+*+*

A/N - We've seen Olivia's lowest point, and in the next chapter, we're gonna see Jason's. P r e p a r e.

ALSO IT'S NANO TIME AND YOU KNOW WHAT, HECK IT. WOULDN'T BE A SKYHUNTRESS NANO IF WE DIDN'T GET THE CHANCE FOR BONUS CHAPTERS.

150 votes on this chapter before Wednesday & I'll upload a bonus chapter this week <3
Hearts on the Patreon chapter 5 will count for two votes towards the total, and if you're on the Discord, will be a mini bonus thing there for anyone who is super dedicated to making me write words :D