Dedicated to 46kibahime for the amazing character sketches (SORTA UNINTENTIONAL OR NOT). Do you know who all four of them are? ^_^ 

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Leah slid back down the sun tunnel, slowing herself just enough so she didn't crash into the floor at the end.

She left her empty notebooks in the corner. She had more important things to do.

Back on the spiral stairway, she descended further, away from the skies and the promise of Light. She went through the door that was once secret, now permanently open, letting anyone into its twisting, narrow tunnel, into the place she'd once found sanctuary in, alone except for Shade and the Light of the Spire.

It was far from a sanctuary now. Various crystals and Radiant equipment was scattered around its floors. Every inch of it had been studied. Documented. Translated--using her code. Once, she might have been proud of that.

Leah made her way to the door of the inner room. The ritual room. The place where they'd taken Kieran and broken him. She swore when she found the door closed. She had to get inside, to sabotage it. She might have been too late to save Kieran, but she could at least stop them from using it on other Radiants.

No matter how hard she tried, the two crystals were too far apart for her to activate herself. Hardened Light didn't work. Only her hand lit the crystals. She needed two Radiants.

Leah stepped back, observing the door. If she couldn't get in, maybe she could make it so the other Radiants couldn't, either. If she took out one of the crystals... maybe she could overload it, or--

"I was hoping I wouldn't find you down here."

Leah jumped. She turned, everything slowed around her, to find Emrys standing barely three metres away, his arms folded, watching her with an expression that would have sent even the most battle-hardened Teridian running for the hills.

"I checked your room, and when you weren't in there, I knew," said Emrys. He didn't move. He just stood there, and somehow, that was so much worse than if he'd rushed at her. "So what now, Leah?"

Leah forced her brain to push past the layer of fear clogging up her thoughts. He couldn't hurt her. Not really. The Mark would stop that, assuming Asriel wasn't wrong. All he could do was Shatter her--but even then, she might still be outside of his control. That's what he'd said so many nights ago with Sef. Her Teridian blood kept her from his influence. He couldn't touch her.

But sunlight, was it hard convincing the instinct to turn around and run of that.

"Why are you down here?" asked Emrys. "You can at least tell me that much before you kill me. Though I'll tell you this now, you're going to have to do it yourself. I won't be letting the Mark take away your guilt over it. If you want me dead, you're going to have to walk over here and stab me yourself."

When she remained silent, unable to do anything but stare at him and try to work out what he was playing at, Emrys shook his head.

"When you first arrived at the League, I never thought you'd end up getting involved in this, Leah," he said with a sigh. "You're too intelligent to get strung along. I don't know what Kieran promised you, but it's not worth it. Whatever your plan is for that Mark, it won't end well."

"Kieran didn't promise me anything," said Leah, finding her tongue. "I didn't even know about the Marks until a few days ago!"

"So then you're gullible," said Emrys. The condescending tone made her gut twist. "Leah, it's not too late to fix this. Work with me, help me find a way to drop your Mark! It's not--"

"Help you?" said Leah, clenching her fists. "Help you? Like you helped Kieran, I guess you mean?"

"The ritual cured him," said Emrys, patiently. "I know you were attached to the parasite, but--"

"That damned parasite isn't real!" screamed Leah. She took a step, a pointed finger escaping her fist. "You're breaking him! Whatever you did to him, that isn't Kieran! Your influence over him isn't that strong yet, Emrys. He still breaks out of it at night." Emrys's face was blurry through her tears. Her own voice was choking her. "Even if you smother him completely, I'll know. And I won't let you do it to anyone else. I don't care if you Shatter me. You'll never control me, and you damned well know it."

Leah heard Emrys approach, slapping his arm away as he reached out for her. Daylight, she hated herself for crumbling so easily. A little bit of fear and suddenly, she was in pieces. A coward that no one could touch. She couldn't handle this. She wasn't Kieran.

"Leah, I don't know what he told you, but that parasite is very real," said Emrys as she wiped her eyes on a dirty sleeve. "As for controlling you, I promise you I have no such intentions. The only thing I want is to save our race from extinction. I have no intentions of smothering Kieran as you put it, though I'm interested in hearing what you said about him breaking out of it at night."

Leah just glared at him, channelling every bit of the hatred she had for herself onto him. "I don't think so, Emrys. You can lock me in the Chamber again and I still won't tell you."

Emrys seemed genuinely surprised by that. "The Chamber? How do you know about that?"

Leah hesitated. "You put me in there. With Kieran. After the trial." She suppressed a shiver. If he'd been willing to put her in there, he obviously didn't care if she Shattered or not. "The Slayers put us in those white robe things and shut the door. I think I tore something in my shoulder trying to get out before Kieran stopped me."

She glanced up when Emrys didn't reply, wondering what it was she'd said.

"The Slayers put you in there?" murmured Emrys, his lips tight. "I would have known, surely--Is this why you mentioned your phobia the other day?" Leah slowly nodded, and Emrys's eyes dropped to the ground. "That explains the distance, but then why..." His eyes flicked back to her face. "I think Kieran was trying to Shatter you. If he was the one controlling the Slayers, if the ritual didn't work and he can still break out of it, then--"

"Controlling the Slayers?" said Leah, cutting him off. "Kieran?"

"Yes," said Emrys, a little less patience this time. "Kieran. When you appeared with the Preserver Mark, it just confirmed my suspicions that someone's been trying to take over the League and the Command Mark. But of course, you have the Preserver Mark--you can't be the mastermind behind it all. You wouldn't take the Preserver Mark, you would have made someone else do it. There had to be another, and with the way Kieran was so close to you, the way he'd taken you under his wing--when I found out he was Lightless, I knew it was him. There's no point trying to hide it now, Leah. I won't let him go now I've got him. In the end, if I can't cure him, I'll kill him to kill the parasite within him."

The conviction behind the last few words made Leah's Light run cold.

She was ashamed to admit it, but doubt was leaking into her mind. She thought back over every encounter she'd ever had with Shade or Kieran, wondering if he had played her, manipulated her--

"No," said Leah, speaking her thought out loud. "No. Kieran didn't do that."

Emrys just stared at her. "You realise how naieve you sound. Accept the truth now, and maybe we can still salvage something from this wreck of a situation."

Logic told her she was wrong. Logic told her that Emrys's words made perfect sense, that she had no reason to trust Kieran's motives. That logic was cold. Frigid. Unyielding. And something deep in her heart couldn't accept it.

No--it was deeper than her heart. It was in her blood. The part of it thickened by her Teridian ancestory knew that Kieran hadn't lied.

Yet something still wasn't right. She couldn't bring herself to believe that Emrys was lying.

Leah forced herself to think.

If Emrys was the voice--if he'd put her in the Chamber, what did he stand to gain from that? She could have just been bait for Kieran, but she had a feeling the trial was little more than a formality. Somehow, Emrys was sure of Kieran's Lightless status. Through Sef, the voice had thanked her for finding the place. The voice hadn't known where it was.

Emrys thought she was some kind of co-conspirator to Kieran's plot to... what? Take over the League? The Slayers? So why was Emrys so worked up over her Mark? Five Slayers were more than enough, immortal or not, to deal with a single Lightless. He had hundreds of other Lightless he could have used to test the ritual, but he'd used Kieran.

If Emrys had been looking for the Preserver Mark, there were too many holes, but if he'd been--

It hit her.

"Emrys," she said, cutting him off in the middle of yet another sentence she hadn't been listening to. "Did you know where the Preserver Mark was before I found it?"

He looked at her like she'd gone insane. "Yes. I was trying to protect it from people like you and Kieran who don't understand the kind of power you're playing with."

Leah ignored the insult. "Where was it?"

"Back wall of the ritual room at eye level, centered to where the Spire Light falls."

Leah was sure she hadn't told him. Kieran had warned her, so she'd been reluctant with the details. And by withholding that information, she'd only made them look that much more suspicious to Emrys. He must have thought she was taunting him, walking around with the orb beside her. No wonder he'd been prickly.

Which also meant that Emrys had been so dedicated to protecting the Preserver Mark that he'd been willing to leave the ritual undiscovered. Slowly, she was untangling everything, Emrys's priorities included.

"Okay," said Leah, biting her lip as she collected her thoughts. Her hands unfurled. "Okay. So, let me see if I've got this straight. You think that Kieran--or the parasite in him, whatever--is trying to assume control of the League. I'm guessing you've already lost some control of the Slayers if you didn't know about the Chamber. I appeared with the Preserver Mark, you found out Kieran was Lightless, and now you're thinking that Kieran being 'cured' is some kind of elaborate ruse on his part to lull you into a false sense of security. Is that about it?"

Emrys gave her a shallow frown. "I suppose."

"So if you were protecting the Mark, then who in the ever-dark mouth of the abyss was the voice that took over Sef?" Leah hesitated. "Speaking of which, if you aren't the voice, why hasn't it taken you yet? If it can possess people like it did Sef, it could have just Shattered you by now and--um, sorry."

"The control," said Emrys slowly. "Does not work on me because I have mastered my Light, and the way the parasite in Kieran asserts its control is through Light."

"Can you at least think outside the daylight for a moment and consider that Kieran isn't the one behind all this?" said Leah. She paused. "Speaking of which, doesn't it sound a little odd that a parasite supposed to have an aversion to Light is using it to control and Shatter other Radiants?"

Emrys didn't seem concerned about the fact. "The parasite is far more evolved than many Radiants are aware of, yourself included."

"And why are you adamant that it exists?"

"Because there have been Radiants Shattering on full Light for far longer than anyone has been trying to wrest control of the Slayers from me," said Emrys. "There is no other explanation than an external force."

"So how do you explain the voice?" asked Leah. "Before Sef Shattered, his hair turned white, just like Kieran's is now, and he spoke in a voice that wasn't his." She frowned. "I know you don't have a reason to believe me, but--"

"Actually," said Emrys. "I do. If you'll be so kind as to assist me with opening the ritual room, I'll show you why."

With the ritual room opened, they walked inside. Leah's mind was far from her Hilt as she took the room in, still untainted by the study of the Radiants.

Emrys approached one of the walls. His palm lit with a blinding radiance, he touched the crystalite surface. Shadows of figures began to move around them, passing straight through Leahs body--nameless, timeless. Exactly the same as the ghostly figure she'd seen after Emrys had brought her down here.

"The Command Mark was designed to control the Slayers," said Emrys. "And the Slayers were the ones who built every Radiant structure you see. Every crystalite wall was crafted by their Light. There is a strange interaction between them that not many know of. These walls absorb Light used around them. That same Light they absorb remembers those that pass through, and I am able to call their image back."

Leah's eyes went wide. "So... there's memories, in the walls?"

The figures were clarifying, like Emrys was sifting through them. "Yes."

Leah saw the image of her past self appear, entering through the doorway with Sef close behind. She saw his face contort, his hair go white, his entire body shudder as her back was to him, her own past attention too enraptured on the wall--the Mark--in front of her to care. Seconds passed as past-Sef straightened and past-Leah summoned the orb.

Leah's past self turned, her lips moving--freezing as her eyes locked on Sef's hair.

The memories kept talking. Leah could barely watch. Even without sound, it was agony. Knowing what would happen was somehow so much worse, knowing she couldn't do anything to stop it.

She buried her face in her hands.

"This memory is the only reason I'm speaking with you at all," said Emrys gently. "None but myself know about this ability of the Command Mark. Your shock here, that can't be faked. This is the one thing I can't figure out. If this voice you're talking about spoke through Sef, then you weren't aware of it. If Kieran--"

"Kieran wasn't here when this happened," said Leah. "He--he was one of the Lightless trying to free the ones you captured. One of the others saw him there."

"Leah--"

"No, listen!" she said. "It doesn't make sense! Kieran can't use Light without it being painful, so why on earth would he bother possessing Sef anyway? Why would a parasite want a Mark that requires Light--the thing that's supposed to counter it--to use in the first place? This person's control is weaker at night, not stronger! It doesn't make sense, Emrys!"

"Then, what?" said Emrys. "If we go with your logic and the parasite is nonexistent, that there's someone else--not Kieran--behind this, how do you explain it?"

Leah rubbed the bridge of her nose with both hands. "Who else knows about the Marks?" She blinked. "Oh, sunlight. It's Asriel. I'm an idiot."

"Asriel?" said Emrys. "That makes no sense. Why would he bother? As my second-in-command, he would have inherited my Mark anyway. He has no reason to--"

"But he's the one that told me to kill you a few nights ago," said Leah. That stopped Emrys's protests. "At the very least, Asriel's a pawn for someone else, but he's the key. If Asriel's working for someone else, maybe he's decided to strike out on his own. If the only way to drop the Marks is to die, then maybe he's decided he doesn't want to anymore? Maybe--"

"That isn't the only way to drop the Marks," said Emrys. "It's the most effective, Preserver excluded, but it's possible for a non-Shattered Radiant with a Mark to drop it by performing the opposite effect of the mark intentionally. So for the Drain Mark, you'd have to infuse Light, and so on."

Leah glanced at her orb. "So why is the Preserver Mark so dangerous, then? Couldn't I just drop it now?"

"The opposite of preserve is to destroy," said Emrys. "The Mark itself stops that before it happens."

"How many Preserver Slayers were there?" asked Leah.

Emrys raised an eyebrow. "One. They never got the mark off the first high priest before he Shattered."

Leah looked at her arm. "And these opposite rules don't apply to Slayers, right?"

"No. They can only die or be forcefully imbued."

"I'm guessing the first Preserver wasn't keen to drop the Mark, either," said Leah. She hardened a shard of Light to her hand, ensuring its tip was extra sharp. "And since then, no one bothered thinking about it."

Emrys was looking at her shard by now. "What are you doing?"

"Guessing."

Leah held her breath, lifted up the edge of her shirt, and dragged the hardened Light across her skin. The line was barely more than a scratch, but for a pure, agonising moment, it was white fire that raced across her skin and coalesced in her heart. She choked down on the scream as the shard in her hand clattered to the floor.

When the pain cleared, she was on the ground and Emrys was standing over her, the shard that had made the cut now resting across his palms.

Her orb was gone.

Leah glanced up at him. "Did it work?"

Emrys just stared at her Light, hardened in his palm. "You dropped the Preserver Mark."

She groaned as she stood. She couldn't help but feel a little smug. "Leah's mythbusting, at your service. Do I get a little credit on the Asriel thing now?"

"How?"

"Well," said Leah. "The wall didn't drop it when I ruined my shoulder. I think the harm has to be self-inflicted with intent. The Mark obviously recognises my Light, so I figured it'd know I was the one doing it, right?" 

Emrys lifted his eyes to hers, and for the first time, she felt like he was looking at her--not her two missing crystal patterns or how close she was to Kieran--but her.

"I know there isn't a whole lot of evidence right now," said Leah. She felt so much lighter. Freer. "But give me the chance to prove it. Keep the Preserver Mark. I don't want it, and I'm pretty sure that without it, I'm completely at your mercy if you decide I'm working the wrong angle."

She took a breath.

"But all I'm asking you to do is believe me, that even if Kieran was or is still infected with the parasite, that whatever that ritual did was not a cure. If Asriel can sway your control over the Slayers, then you know it's not impossible that he did something else to Kieran during that ritual. Even if not for me or Kieran, you can't just let this go. Asriel, or someone controlling him, wants you dead, and Kieran and I have nothing to do with it."

Emrys didn't reply straight away. Leah held his gaze the entire time, begging him with every thought to listen--to at least give her a chance.

She only hoped she wasn't going to waste it.

*+*+*+*

A/N - Hey look a super big mess of a chapter, wew! 

TWO MORE.

Also, lookit! The amazing 46kibahime drew some character sketches of a few HL characters! LOOKIT. From left to right, Leah > Kieran > Sef > Emrys (I'd just like to say that 1) her art is just phenomenal and you should check it out and 2) GOD DAMN THEY'RE SO ACCURATE IT'S AMAZING. 

Check my profile for character sketches of Indigo's characters, too ;D (Shift is adorable holy crap) 

http://46kibahime.deviantart.com/ seriously go look at her other stuff too. Now.