Olivia woke up in her bed and immediately knew something was weird.

It took her sleepy brain a moment to figure it out. Her glasses were still on. She was laying on top of her covers. She was still in her clothes from last night, and her curtains weren't drawn across, allowing the full stream of morning sun to come blasting in through her window.

Now that she thought about it--how had she got home last night?

Olivia sat up, rubbing her face and feeling the small dent in her skin where her glasses had been pressed in by the pillow. She remembered having a seizure, remembered Thomas calling her parents and Ariel giving her the Liaiser. She remembered needing to leave, to get away from everything. She remembered looking at the stars...

Her heart skipped a beat.

Some, small, quiet, hopeful instinct made Olivia look back over her shoulder.

A figure made of shadows and smoke sat on the edge of her pillow, tucked away in the small corner of darkness that the sunlight left. The figure was no bigger than the size of Olivia's fist, garbed in crimson and grey cloth that covered everything except the smokey, detached limbs and the wide, violet eyes.

Come with me, Shadowheart, and Ascend the mountain.

"It happened, didn't it?" whispered Olivia, barely daring to breathe, let alone blink in case this creature disappeared. "It really happened?"

"Look at your chest," replied the figure.

Olivia flicked her eyes down, then quickly back to the figure. When it didn't vanish, she undid the first few buttons of her blouse. A crimson tattoo marked the skin at her sternum, flickering with some dull, inner light.

"So either I was really, really out of it last night after my seizure and made a questionable decision," said Olivia. "Or I'm...?"

"A Luminary," replied the creature, drifting forward into the sunlight. She didn't vanish or anything else quite as dramatic, but she did seem a little less here than she had in the darkness. "Skypillar has chosen you, Olivia Shadowheart, to Ascend as Banshee, the Shadow of Skypillar, and protect this City from the Other's influence."

Olivia let that process for a few moments.

A grin broke out across her face.

Olivia leaped out of bed, punching a fist into the air. "No freakin' WAY!" She jumped around to face the creature again, who'd drifted closer. "This--this is so freaking cool, uh--what's your name?"

"You may call me Viri," replied the figure.

"Viri, this is so freaking cool!" said Olivia, touching the tattoo on her chest again. "Okay, how do I transform? I have to check this out--and tell Ericka! I've always wondered what it'd be like to zoom across the sky or whatever--not that I can because I'm a Banshee--can Banshees fly? I don't--"

"Olivia," said Viri quietly, forcing Olivia to shut up to hear what she said. "I must tell you a few things before you transform. Firstly, you cannot tell Ericka, nor anyone else. Your identity must remain a secret. If it is compromised at any point, I will be forced to break the bond and render you Dark."

"Wait, that's really a thing?" said Olivia. "I figured it was just a rumour so people didn't try to figure it out. How is someone supposed to be a Luminary and keep their whole regular life going if no one else knows?"

"It is for you to find the balance between your civilian and Luminary lives," replied Viri. "As your bonded Ascended, I will be here to assist you in any way I can."

Olivia bit down on her lip. "And... what about my seizures? Like, I'm thrilled, but what if I'm fighting a Manifested and I have one? I mean, I'd risk it, but I don't want my partner getting hurt because I can't control something."

"You will not seize while transformed," said Viri.

Olivia paused. "Like, at all? Ever?"

Viri nodded.

Olivia sat down on the end of her bed and crossed her legs, holding out a hand for Viri to sit on, who elegantly drifted down to sit on Olivia's fingertips. There was something weirdly grounding in those violet eyes that watched her so intently.

"So, what else do I need to know before we give this thing a spin? What kinda powers do I get as Banshee?"

Viri blinked. "You will lose your powers, also known as going Dark, if you reveal your civilian identity to anyone. You will also go Dark if I deem that you are abusing your powers."

"No attacking random people or generally being a jerk," said Olivia. "Got it."

"As a Luminary, you will have significantly increased physical capabilities," continued Viri. "As Banshee, you are the Aspect of Shadow. You will be able to shift your body's physical density, wield the twin daggers, Grief and Joy. Your primary ability is Banshee's Scream, which will paralyse anyone caught in it for a short period of time. Upon using your primary ability, you will have a limited window of time--a few minutes, perhaps--before your transformation will dim, and you will be unable to transform again until the auroras recharge my energy, or you allow me time to recharge at one of the skyshrines."

"What do you mean recharge?" asked Olivia. "Like you're sorta the battery for my transformation?"

"In a way, yes," said Viri. "When you transform, our bond draws me into your tattoo. As Banshee, you draw upon my energy to access your abilities, but I possess a limited amount of energy. Similar to how you consume food, I must absorb auroralight, either directly from the auroras themselves, or from the auroralight that pools within the skyshrines."

"Is that why Lumi's aren't ever around during the auroras?"

"Ascended become inactive during the auroras while we recharge," said Viri. "You will not be able to transform during them, and if you are already transformed when they begin, your transformation will hold, but you will not be able to access your abilities."

Olivia bobbed her head in acknowledgement as Viri spoke.

Auroras. Abilities. Secret identity. It was a lot to take in, but it all felt right. It kind of sucked that she couldn't tell Ericka--they'd made a pact last year--but there wasn't a whole lot she could do about that with the secret identity thing. Olivia had about a million questions to ask, things to confirm, though she felt like she was still missing one key part of--

"Partner!" said Olivia as it hit her, almost flinging Viri off her hand by accident. She scooped Viri back onto her hand and drew her close. "Who is my partner? When do I get to meet them? Is it something that can fly? Oh starlight it'd be so cool to zoom around on the back of a Dragon or something and leap onto my enemy from above!"

"You will meet your partner soon," said Viri. Behind her mask, Olivia could have sworn the Ascended smiled. "It is custom for a new Luminary pair to announce themselves at the Starlight Hall, so the temple may select the new High Speakers and announce you to the City."

"Is there anything else I need to know?"

"For now, this information will suffice."

"Okay, well," said Olivia. She paused to take a breath, then bit down on a smile. "Does it count as an abuse of powers if I take this transformation out for a test run before going to the Starlight Hall?"

"Not at all," said Viri. "It would be ideal if you spent time adjusting to your transformation and learning how to use your various abilities."

Olivia scooted off her bed and stood up. "How do I transform?"

Viri drifted off Olivia's hand. "Cross your arms in front of your face, and speak these words with intent: Ascend, Shadow of Skypillar."

Olivia exhaled, crossing her arms and giving Viri one last, nervous smile. "This is really happening, isn't it?"

Viri's violet eyes gleamed. "Speak the words, Olivia Shadowheart, and become the Banshee that this City needs."

Olivia did not need to be told twice.

"Ascend, Shadow of Skypillar!"

*+*+*+*

Jason awoke in his bed beneath the covers, not feeling in the slightest bit overheated despite the fact that he still wore his clothes from the previous festival night.

He sat up and winced in preparation for the pain, but all he felt was stiff. He ran a hand over his ribs. They were tender, but certainly not as sore as he'd expected. The memory of Regan's strikes were still all too fresh in his mind, yet there was little evidence of them now. Perhaps he'd exaggerated the events in his own mind. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Don't you worry, buddy, I took care of those for you," said an unfamiliar voice.

Jason snapped to attention, straightening out his posture as best he could while still sitting in bed. He fumbled with the covers, cursing himself for being slow. He wasn't sure who was in his room, but it wasn't polite to be--

"Well, as much as I dared to, anyway," continued the voice. "Numbing should take care of the rest. Ice is kinda handy, isn't it?"

Jason staggered to his feet and looked around, desperate to meet the eyes of whoever it was--only to find no one present. His door was closed, as was his window.

Thinking that perhaps he'd mistakenly left his Liaiser playing something, Jason looked down to his nightstand, and promptly froze where he stood.

There was a small white and blue bird sitting on the corner of the nightstand, casually running its beak through its feathers like it didn't have a care in the world. Small, ice-like crystals sprouted in place of a tail and crest. A fine, snow like powder drifted through the air around it, and as the snow-bird fluffed itself out, releasing another miniature snowstorm, Jason understood where it was coming from.

The bird kept preening. Jason kept staring, unable to believe exactly what his brain was telling him--yet, despite the bird's current preoccupation with its feathers, it seemed unwise to keep an emissary of Skypillar waiting.

Jason gave the bird a deep bow. "Skypillar's blessing be with you, O wise emissary of the mountain."

The bird glanced up, like it'd forgotten Jason was there. "Hey, buddy. Wasn't sure when you were gonna wake up, figured you could use the nap though. Sleep okay?"

"I--" Jason struggled to hold on to the conversation. "Yes, quite well. Thank you?"

"You're welcome!" said the bird, fluffing itself out one final time. "So, what's the plan for today? Wanna go give the Luminary thing a spin?"

Jason pressed his palms together, squeezing his hands so tightly that it hurt. "Are you lost, O wise emissary? Do you require my assistance?"

The bird raised an eyebrow. "Uh, unless I like, managed to bring you to the wrong house somehow, nope, we're in the right place--not that I wanted to bring you here, mind you. But rules are rules, gotta follow 'em, you make decisions and we're just here to guide you and all that temple crap. Wow does it feel good to be sassy. I've heard it, but i've never had the chance to really--"

"Why are you here?" said Jason, his anxiety welling up enough to cut the bird's rant short mid-sentence. "I'm assuming a new Luminary was chosen. Is something wrong, or do you require--"

"You're the new Luminary, bud!" said the bird, puffing out its chest. "I'm your Ascended!"

"I couldn't be," said Jason. "There must have been a mistake, perhaps someone else--"

The bird released an exasperated sigh. "Nope. No mix up. You said all this stuff last night, too. You accepted the call. You climbed the mountain with your partner, you completed our bond, not that you'll remember those last two things because I wiped your memory of these events--with permission--but the quick version of it is that you're a Luminary and there's no mistake."

"I couldn't possibly--"

The bird narrowed its eyes in his direction. "Are you questioning the 'O wise and mighty emissary of Skypillar', mortal?"

Jason lowered his eyes. "I would never dream of it."

"Fantastic!" said the bird, flapping up with a lot of effort, landing on Jason's shoulder. "So, you're Cryophoenix, Aspect of Frost, protect the City from the Other's influence, all that boring stuff. My name is Sae. Any questions?"

Jason leaned his head away from the bird, unsure how he felt about that sharp beak being so close to his face. He knew that somehow, wise emissary or not, there had been a mistake. There was no way that he'd been selected to become a Luminary, unless perhaps it were a case to prove that Skypillar could take even the most unworthiest of individuals and make them something more.

Still, the bird didn't seem willing to accept the point at this moment, so Jason decided to play along.

"You are my Ascended," said Jason slowly, watching for the smallest change in the bird's behaviour that said he was displeasing it. He couldn't afford to be wrong. "While transformed, your energy is depleted when I harness my abilities, and recharges during the auroras. I must keep my identity a secret. I cannot abuse my powers."

The bird's beak opened wide for a long, stretched moment, before it shook its head and gave Jason a lazy, bored blink. "Yup."

Again, Jason hesitated, trying to work out what this bird wanted. He decided to continue to list his knowledge about Luminaries, wondering if it were a test.

"I transform by saying, 'Ascend', followed by the relevant Aspect of Skypillar. The powers of a Cryophoenix include the power to fly and freeze, while my primary ability is to freely manipulate the ice I have created. Once my primary ability has been used, I--"

"How the heck do you know some of this stuff?" said the bird. "Like, yeah, sure, you know the powers of a Cryophoenix somehow despite the fact that there hasn't been one in a few hundred years, but all the stuff about the transformation words? The Ascended recharging? That's not supposed to be public knowledge."

"I--I'm sorry, I--"

"Why are you apologising?" said the bird, raising an eyebrow. "Makes my job easier, so I'm okay with it. More just curious."

Jason swallowed. "I spend a lot of time on temple grounds, and my mother is a Speaker. She has ensured my knowledge of Luminaries and Skypillar is pristine."

"Ah. Yes. Your mother." The bird snapped its beak, and Jason's stomach coiled as for the first time, he sensed anger in those purple eyes. "We're gonna have to have a talk about that at some point, but that's for later when all the fun stuff is out of the way! What'dya say, wanna go for a fly?"

"I--I can't," said Jason. "I mean I couldn't. I have far too many duties, and after last night, surely someone has noticed that something is amiss."

The bird waved a careless wing. "Don't worry about it, I smoothed it all over. As long as you don't directly bring it up, no one is gonna ask you to explain anything you can't about last night. Some of them are going to be very certain they saw you on temple grounds long after you'd actually left."

"How do you mean?"

"That's for me to know, and you to not know."

Jason sat down on the edge of his bed, forcing himself to draw in a few, deep breaths as he stared at the floor.

If he didn't have duties to attend to today, then he had to focus on establishing himself as a Luminary. It was protocol for new Luminaries to officially introduce themselves at the Starlight Hall and begin the selection for a High Speaker. Then, of course, he'd have to introduce himself to the current Luminaries, ask for their guidance, and somehow not make a mockery of all the Luminaries and Skypillar stood for within this City.

Jason looked at the bird, once more preening on his shoulder, wondering how exactly he was expected to fight a Manifested when it hit him.

He already had.

There was something oddly familiar about the way the light glinted off the crystals sprouting from the bird's head. Like a glimmer of starstone, seen from the corner of an eye.

"You've been watching me, haven't you?" asked Jason quietly.

The bird stopped preening, peeking an eye out from beneath a wing to look at Jason. "Skypillar watches over all its children, my, uh, child."

"I mean that you've been watching me, specifically," said Jason.

"You're an observant one, aren't you?" said the bird, lifting its head. "But yeah, we had to do like, uh, I dunno a background check I guess on you to make sure you had what it takes."

Jason's heart sank--and he hated himself for it.

He'd known. He'd known that this was a mistake and yet--yet...

"Then you know that I am not worthy to be a Luminary," murmured Jason, squeezing his fingers together. "Is this my punishment, then? To be told I am to be a Luminary not seen for centuries, then made an example of?"

"Made a--what now?" said the bird. It flapped off Jason's shoulder and positioned itself directly in front of his face, grabbing onto Jason's nose with its wings. Despite Jason's best efforts to remove it, the bird froze itself in position and pressed one large, violet eye against Jason's field of view. "DO YOU THINK I HONESTLY COULD BE BOTHERED FLYING ALL THE WAY OUT HERE JUST TO MAKE FUN OF YOU?"

"You speak far too informally to be truly of Skypillar," replied Jason. "So perhaps you are of the Other, a cruel trick intended to Manifest me. I will not--"

"Oh please," said the bird, flapping away from Jason's face. "Look at your chest. Certified Luminary tattoo, right there." When Jason hesitated, the bird raised its eyebrows. "If you don't, I'm gonna do it myself, and I don't feel like we're at that stage of our relationship just yet."

Reluctantly, Jason undid his shirt, finding a pale blue symbol on his sternum.

The rune of a Cryophoenix, perfect and precise in every way.

"It could still be an illusion," said Jason. "I--"

"No, it's not, and you know it's not," replied the bird quietly. There was a sadness buried within its gaze, a sombre, howling breeze that only endless winter knew. "Listen, Jason. Listen."

"To what, you?"

"No," whispered the bird. "To the Song that binds us."

The bird began to whistle. Not the shrill, piercing sound that Jason heard flitting between the trees within the forest, but a darker, colder cry of the wind that was caught high above the clouds on Skypillar's peak. Bathed in sunlight, yet eternally frozen. As the melody grew, it was no longer the bird's whistle that Jason heard, but something else, something deeper, buried beneath snow and ice that was slowly clawing its way to the surface.

With more certainty than he'd ever had about himself, Jason knew that this creature before him was the Ascended of Cryophoenix, and that for whatever reason he could not grasp, the bond between them was true.

"Believe me now?" asked the bird.

No--not the bird.

Sae.

"I still have my doubts, but I believe you," said Jason, doing what he could to shove those traitorous questions away. He let one remain. "What would you have me do?"

"Transfooooorm!" said Sae, flapping up a little higher in the air. "C'mon, let's go, before--"

The tattoo on Jason's chest warmed.

"Awh, Starlight," said Sae. "She beat me."

"She?"

"Your partner," said Sae. "When your tattoo feels warm, your partner has transformed. When it's cold, there's a Manifested skulking about. Now c'mon, let's transform and beat them to the Starlight Hall!"

Jason glanced around the room. "Do you have any suggestions as to how best maintain my secret identity?"

"I dunno, go out the window?" said Sae. "People don't look up a lot."

Jason opened the window and leaned out. A cool breeze wisped past his face, brushing his hair from his forehead. He forced himself to breathe it in, to clear his lungs and expel the questioning words that lurked there.

He still had his doubts. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to be a Luminary. He knew the protocols, but he struggled to accomplish even the most basic tasks in ordinary life. Now, somehow, he was supposed to become a Luminary, to represent Skypillar and protect its citizens. All he'd ever been passable at was the violin, and only due to long years of practice.

Jason looked back at Sae, who was still flapping mid air, obviously waiting for the words that would trigger the transformation.

An Ascended had watched him. An Ascended had chosen him, and no matter how oddly he spoke, this Ascended was of Skypillar. It knew truths that Jason could only dare to guess at, and it had seen him, and it had decided there was something there.

Maybe Jason didn't dare to question it.

Maybe he didn't dare to hope.

Whatever the reason, one thing was clear: he had a duty.

Jason turned around, straightened his shoulders, drew a breath, and extended his arms behind him, palms flexed, and spoke the words that might just have the power to change his life forever.

"Ascend, Frost of Skypillar!"

*+*+*+*

A/N - So I'm a little behind on Nano, casual 24k words left and we're on day 23 :) 

....this is fine

distant crying