There was absolutely no way that Jason could have heard the man correctly.

The Shadow of Skypillar just tried to kill your mother.

No. No, there was no way that Banshee would ever--

"Well I'm sorry, son, but there are witnesses," said the suit in front of him, and Jason realised he'd spoken out loud. "We have at least seven confirmed civilians from the temple. Two Speakers, two High Speakers, and a handful of civilians. All of them gave the same report that match the grave injuries on the Shadowspeaker's person."

"Miss Shadowheart," said the second suit. "We're going to need more information. Why was Banshee last seen on your balcony?"

"She drops by every so often to give me updates on things," said Olivia. "But I didn't get to speak with her tonight."

But she had. Jason knew she had, because Banshee had given Olivia his Liaiser.

His Liaiser suddenly felt like it was burning a hole straight through his pocket. He resisted the urge to grab it, to give these government people another piece of evidence to wave against his partner until he had her side of the story.

Because surely, there was a side to her story. Unless... unless for whatever reason, she'd triggered Vengeance and gone after his mother because of him, because of his scars, and now she was alone, waiting on some rooftop as the last of her energy drained out. Jason shook the image out of his head. No. Banshee had seen Olivia after Aurelia. Vengeance was pure focus. It didn't bend to return some idiot's Liaiser before it died.

As a million motivations for Banshee going after his mother swirled through his head, the suits and Olivia continued to argue back and forth, the first insisting that she had to know something and the second adamant that she didn't.

"Regardless, miss Shadowheart," said the suit, waving one of the police forward. "Given your resistance towards our investigation, I believe we're going to be taking you in for questioning until--"

"Actually, you won't," said Jason, rubbing the side of his head. There were too many things. Too many problems. "Aside from Banshee last being seen on her balcony, do you possess any other evidence that Olivia was actually in contact with Banshee tonight?"

The suit narrowed his eyes as Jason waited for a response.

When he didn't receive one, Jason continued. "You're aware that Luminaries identities are secret, correct? And that, though Olivia may be her preferred civilian liaison, that does not make her privy to every detail and aspect of Banshee's lives. If Banshee hadn't wanted to be followed, I have no doubt that you would have found the task impossible."

Though, that did raise the question: why had Banshee lured trouble back to Olivia's home?

"Or," said the second suit. "Perhaps miss Shadowheart here is indeed the Shadow of Skypillar herself, and was simply returning home after her crime?"

Even the first suit seemed appalled that his partner had seen fit to ask such a question. "Paul, perhaps that may be going a little too--"

"As soon as a Luminary begins attacking civilians with no cause, they are no Luminary at all in my eyes," said the suit, adjusting his jacket. "Miss Shadowheart, I apologise for being crude, but if you fail to prove that the skin on your sternum is devoid of a tattoo, I will assume that you are indeed hiding something and take you into custody."

Olivia just stood there, one of her folded arms lifting up as her fingers played with something--a necklace?--hidden under her shirt.

"Is that a refusal?" asked the suit.

"She's a minor," said Vincent. "If you think I'll allow you to come into my home and bully my daughter on the ridiculous claim that she is a Luminary who has brutalised another person, then you are sorely mistaken."

"Sir, I will bring you under charges of obstructi--"

Olivia's voice cut through his, cold and sharp. "Here."

Her fingers were already undoing the top few buttons of her shirt as she spoke. She glanced at Jason for the briefest moment, holding his gaze with the barest hint of a wry smile before she pulled open enough of her shirt to reveal her sternum.

No tattoo.

Jason's brow furrowed. Why didn't that seem...right?

"Happy?" said Olivia, her eyes on the ceiling.

"I believe they've all seen enough," said her father. "Now, if you gentlemen would be so kind, please evacuate the premises in a calm and orderly fashion so we may finish this dinner service." He turned to the customers, spreading his hands wide. "My deepest apologies to everyone for having your meals so rudely interrupted. I'll speak with each of you personally about compensation for the trouble."

Olivia buttoned her shirt back up and mumbled something about going to sleep before she turned and disappeared up the stairs without another word.

Jason just kind of... stood there, everything a little too frozen in his head until a gentle touch on his shoulder snapped him out of it.

"Jason?" said Mark. "I'm here if you need me. My shift will be over soon, and--"

"Your shift can be over now," said Vincent as he walked back over, wiping his hands on a tea towel before slinging it back over his shoulder. He nodded towards Jason. "You take care of him. I can wrap things up here for the night, and I believe you've both earned an early mark. Jason, if you need a break tomorrow, you have every permission from me to be excused from your shift."

Vincent gave them both a final, firm nod and walked back into the kitchen.

"You're still staying at the temple grounds, right, Jason?" said Mark.

Banshee tried to kill your mother. "I am."

"I have a small, two bedroom place that I rent not far from here," said Mark. "You are more than welcome to stay the night if you want."

Banshee tried to kill your mother. "I appreciate the offer, but I have a few things I find myself needing to attend to tonight."

"If we attune Liaisers, I'll message you the address and instructions on how to let yourself in," said Mark, pulling out his own Liaiser. When they were attuned, he hesitated. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

Banshee tried to--Jason blinked. "No. I'm not sure of much right now, but I need to see if I can locate answers."

"I understand," said Mark. "Message me if you need anything, okay? And don't work yourself too hard. I find that most problems seem far smaller in the morning after a good rest."

Jason inclined his head. "Thank you, Mark. As always, your hospitality never fails to amaze me. If you'll excuse me however, I have a call I have to make."

Jason glanced outside the restaurant's front windows to find the two suited officials still outside, pointing at various places about the street. Instead, Jason opted for the side passage, keeping his head low as he flicked open the messages on his Liaiser.

All of his contacts were there, but any previous messages had been wiped clean. Some dreading, gnawing feeling in his gut told him that his mother had been looking for his way of contacting Cryo. He didn't doubt that she'd expose a Luminary simply to take revenge on the son who'd demoted her.

Jason said:
[Olivia, if you aren't asleep, could you get a message to Banshee asking her to meet Cryo at the Starlight Hall?]

Jason hit send and began walking down the street, his head ducked low as he managed to escape the notice of the officials still buzzing outside the restaurant. It was a long shot, hoping that Olivia had some way of contacting Banshee, but if Banshee's Ascended were still silent, it might be the only chance he had.

A minute later, a reply buzzed in.

Olivia said:
[She says that she'll meet Cryo in Outer Cevinari, in that large tree near the skyshrine.]

Jason frowned. If she didn't want to meet at the Starlight Hall...

Jason said:
[I'll let him know. Do you know when she'll be available?]

Olivia said:
[If Cryo can get there in the next hour or so, that'd be fantastic.]

Jason said:
[Thank you for the assistance. I hope you sleep well.]

Olivia said:
[You too, Frostsong. Don't run yourself too ragged doing whatever it is you're doing over there.]

Jason looked up from his Liasier and back down the street, finding an auburn-haired figure leaning on her balcony railing. Even from this distance, he could see her as she lifted a hand in greeting and went back inside.

He stared at that empty balcony for a long minute before he was able to walk away.

Worry gnawed at his gut.

Something wasn't right.

*+*+*+*

Thirty minutes later, Cryo arrived at Banshee's chosen meeting place and tapped his tattoo twice despite knowing she couldn't feel it.

He felt blind without the bond that linked them. Only now that he was unable to feel her transformation, to sense her direction, to feel her touch echo across the tattoo, did he realise how heavily he'd come to rely on those things. How much security they gave him.

The leaves rustled from the force of his wings as Cryo landed on one of the thicker branches, digging in his claws and trusting the darkness to keep him from being too obvious. He tucked his wings close to his back and waited, hoping that it wouldn't be long before Banshee joined him.

Five minutes later, he heard footsteps crunch on the ground below him, looked down, and found Banshee there, staring up at him.

"You coming down or what, bird boy?" she said, her voice barely loud enough for him to hear.

She turned and walked back behind the tree she'd come from without another word, leaving Cryo to his frown. He leaned forward into a glide, circling the trunk of the tree before landing beside her.

Cryo left his wings frozen to his arms. The leaves crunched under his claws. "Why could we not meet at the Starlight Hall? Why the need for such secrecy?"

Banshee gave him a flat look and leaned against the tree trunk. "You're smart. You can probably figure it out."

Cryo couldn't pick a single question. He didn't know how to find the logical beginning of this conversation amongst the confusion and worry threatening to melt him. "Just... tell me, Banshee."

She drew Grief and flipped the dagger in her hand. Spin and catch. Spin and catch. "I went to get back Jason Frostsong's Liaiser after his mother stole it from him a few weeks ago. She wasn't exactly... happy to see me, so I had to get a little creative to make her tell me where it was."

"What, exactly, is your definition of creative?"

Banshee caught Grief by the hilt, but this time she didn't throw it back into the air. Instead, she lifted the tip of the dagger in front of her face, pointing it towards the sky.

Even in the shifting, shallow dark, Cryo could see the blood that stained the bright metal of the blade.

"She told me she wouldn't be threatened by a kid," said Banshee with a smirk. "I told her I didn't make threats I didn't intend to keep. She tried to walk away from me, so I stopped her."

"What did you do?"

Banshee eyed him. "I'm surprised you haven't been to the hospital first to see her. Not that you would have got much out of her. She wasn't exactly doing much talking when I left her. Whole lot of screaming and crying, though."

A strange kind of cold was creeping through Cryo. "Why?"

"I figured we should probably have a way of communicating since the bond has been cut off. If I hadn't, you'd never be able to find me."

"That isn't what I meant!" said Cryo. "Why hurt Aurelia?"

Banshee's smirk stretched into thin-lipped amusement. "If you knew what she'd done, you'd know that she deserved it."

"I know better than anyone what she's capable of, and I still would have told you to walk away!" said Cryo. He closed his eyes, drawing in a long, cooling breath through his nose. Calm. Calm was what he needed. One of them had to stay grounded, for her sake. "Banshee, what you did wasn't right. We protect this City from the Other. It isn't our place to decide what civilians deserve for their personal crimes."

"Ah, so you're saying I should have just let her get away with it, just like you let her get away with abusing Jason," said Banshee. She watched him for a reaction as he went completely still. She tapped Grief against her lips. "There's no way you didn't notice, so maybe you just didn't care."

"You don't know anything," whispered Cryo.

"Oh, I know a lot more than you think I do, Cryo. Aurelia is abusive. She's controlling. When she lost control of Jason, she spread rumours and sent thugs after him to beat him unconscious."

"What do you mean, she sent thugs after him?"

"When I rescued him from the basement," said Banshee. "He wasn't initially attacked by the Serpent's followers. He was attacked by four thugs, paid by Aurelia to rough him up, to make her rumours of his fighting in taverns look more convincing. They weren't expecting him to put up so much resistance, so it got out of hand faster than it should have."

Cryo couldn't find it in himself to deny it. He knew his mother. He'd known the rumours were from her. He'd assumed she'd taken his Liaiser, would eventually give it back as some power play. Paying people to assault him wasn't much of a stretch. "How do you know this?"

Banshee snorted. "She thought that's what I was there for, initially. When I started on her... it was the first thing she admitted, thinking it'd save her. Thinking a confession was all I wanted." Banshee's gaze turned back towards the city as her smirk returned. "But Aurelia was just the first. Why should she be the only one to pay? There's so many other people who deserve--"

Cryo grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her around to face him and lowering his eyes to her level.

Banshee let him. She kept Grief's blade between their faces, pressing it to her lips as the edges of her smile leaked out from either side.

"Banshee," said Cryo. "Something is wrong with you. Whatever the Serpent did--you've never hurt a civilian before, no matter how much you hated them. You're the one who tries to talk to every Manifested we face before we harm them. This is not you."

"Maybe it is," said Banshee. "I mean, all the other Banshees, the ones in those books you've been reading--" Cryo pressed his lips together. Had she been into his room at the Starlight Hall? "--They all mention Banshees who are cold. Efficient. Terrifying. Maybe I've just had enough. Maybe I'm tired of caring about a city full of people who don't deserve it."

"No," said Cryo. "This is different. For you to have such a dramatic change in attitude as soon as the Serpent released you from an ambush is too much of a coincidence."

Banshee's smile disappeared, and she fixed him with a hard stare. "That wasn't the only thing that happened that night, Cryo."

"What do you mean?"

"You left me," she whispered.

Cryo stopped.

"You left me," she said again, a little more force behind the words. "I had to fight a Manifested. Alone. It stripped all the skin off one of my arms until I could barely hold my daggers because they were slick with my own blood. You left me alone with the choice: to save Pegasus from being killed, or save Jason from being kidnapped. You left me alone in that ambush when I went down to save Jason, and you're not even going to consider the possibility that it wasn't only the Serpent's fault that I've suddenly decided to damn this whole cursed City to the Other?"

"I'm sorry," was all Cryo could manage.

But Banshee just laughed. "Oh, great, you're sorry. That fixes everything." She knocked his hands off her shoulders but her crimson eyes held that damning stare. "Maybe I just decided, hey, you know what? I don't need a partner who leaves me to face a Manifested alone. I don't need anything but this."

She held up Grief.

"Banshee," said Cryo. "I can't even begin to imagine how I let you down. If I could redo anything I would. I would have gone Dark to help you, but I couldn't." He swallowed, taking a moment to squeeze his eyes shut and hold himself together. "I didn't even know you were transformed. I never felt your taps, but that doesn't excuse my absence."

Banshee's eyes left Grief to look at him.

"How could you have not known?" she said quietly. "I called for you. So many times I called for you."

His fault. It was his fault she was like this. "I wasn't conscious. I... I don't know if it's possible to say that it was the Serpent's doing, but I was out for several hours."

Banshee held his gaze for a moment longer before looking away and sheathing Grief once more. "So... I failed you first. I was wondering why you never came. I thought the worst might have happened to you, especially after our bond disappeared."

"You didn't fail me, Banshee. You never have."

She slid her back down the trunk of the tree, resting her wrists on her knees bent in front of her. Cryo remained standing, flicking his gaze to either side occasionally, unable to shake the feeling that something was still wrong.

"I need to ask you something," said Cryo. "If you hadn't been discovered, would you have actually killed Aurelia?"

Banshee grimaced, picking up a stick and beginning to break it into tiny pieces. "I wanted to."

"But would you have?"

She didn't reply straight away, the sound of the stick snapping in her hands forcing Cryo's imagination to something else that could have snapped in her hands tonight. "No. I wouldn't have killed her."

Cryo closed his eyes and breathed a prayer of thanks to Skypillar that some part of his partner was still there.

He knelt down beside her as she picked up a second stick and set about breaking it. "Did your Ascended tell you why it went silent?"

"Nope," said Banshee. "They never tell us anything. Why would they start now?"

"My Ascended informed me that they go silent when their human is in danger if the bond were to be active," said Cryo. "You don't have to speak of them, but do any situations like that come to mind?"

Banshee raised an eyebrow. "Yours managed to find a way around the rules?"

"He seems to be somewhat of a rebel," said Cryo. "He often exploits loopholes to give me hints."

"Hints about what?"

Cryo was on the brink of recounting those he could remember when he stopped himself. "It's not important now. What's important is whether you can think of a reason as to why your Ascended would go silent."

Banshee tossed the last piece of stick aside. "I guess I can't think of one off the top of my head. Why?"

"Because if you can't think of a reason, it means it's far more likely that the reason is something the Serpent did," said Cryo. He considered the options quickly. What would give him the most information? "We need to go back to the place the Serpent ambushed you."

"You really think the Serpent would have been careless enough to leave behind evidence? He's been doing this a whole lot longer than we have, Cryo."

"I'm willing to bet that the Serpent isn't used to being followed," said Cryo. "But even if I knew that basement had been completely cleansed of evidence, I'd still go. I will not leave any stone unturned if it could mean the difference in ensuring that you are safe."

Banshee stood up, not bothering to brush the back of her garments. "I wouldn't bother with it."

"There aren't many things I wouldn't bother with when they concern you, Banshee." Cryo flared his wings. "Would you like the chance to run, or shall I fly us there together?"

"You're going to go whether I come or not, aren't you?" She huffed. "You're going to have to fly me. My abilities have been more than a little unreliable today."

Cryo lowered his wings and looked at her. "You should have mentioned that before."

"Consider it mentioned."

A long silence passed before Cryo was able to lift his wings again.

Without a doubt, something had changed in his partner. He wasn't sure if he were the sole cause, if... if perhaps Vengeance had claimed another piece of her in Cryo's absence yesterday, but there was something else. Something else in some deep part of his mind that knew this wasn't right. That something else was going on.

He just hoped it wasn't just that--hope.

It took Banshee an awkward minute to climb onto his back. She didn't have the usual surety in her movements. It'd been a while since they'd last flown together, but there was a lack of confidence in the way she placed her hands on his shoulders, like she couldn't quite remember how to hold on.

He froze her hands and feet to him, just to be sure, and took off.

Cryo soared through the dark skies, a new kind of desperation driving his frozen winds forward. If he found nothing at the ambush scene, what was his next step? It worried him that he had no idea. There were so many questions, so many problems, and he didn't have enough information to solve any of them, but without his bond to Banshee, none of them mattered. The Luminary's information leak was negligible. Nereid's broken Ascended came second.

The thought struck Cryo harder than lightning in a storm.

Her Ascended going silent.

Her powers being unreliable.

What if the Serpent had learned how to break a Luminary's Ascended while they were transformed?

Cryo turned his head to look at Banshee, clinging to his back with her eyes closed. It wasn't impossible, but it'd mean that the Serpent had somehow got to Nereid without her realising. If he were right, what did that mean for Banshee? For Vengeance? But Nereid's Ascended had been a mere crystal. Surely if Banshee had noticed such a change, she'd have mentioned it.

Wouldn't she?

The thought refused to be shoved back to simmer in his subconscious, but mid-air wasn't the place for this discussion, especially while she wasn't shifted to shadow.

Later, he told himself. Later.

They landed street level on Kaladrel as quietly as he could manage. Banshee was soft but not silent as she slipped off his back and remained standing there, her arms folded and her gaze somewhere off in the distance.

I just hope she snaps out of it if there's another ambush waiting inside.

Cryo's claws clicked on the starstone street as he made his way over to the door he remembered Banshee carrying Jason out of only last night. From an outside glimpse of the building, he wasn't entirely sure of its purpose. It had small windows hung with heavy curtains. A few small potted flowers rested on the windowsill inside.

He recognised two of them; the red, Phoenix's Down, and the smaller, white-blue flowers of the Starlight Constellation. An unusual combination, especially paired with a yellow flower he didn't recognise, and a smaller looking fern with curled, narrow leaves and tiny flowers of dark blue.

Cryo stepped forward to closer examine to the flowers when Banshee walked in front of him and lured his attention away.

Her hand went to the handle of the door. "Look, if we're doing this, I'd rather get it over and done with. Let's go."

Cryo spared one last look at the flowers before following her inside.

The inside wasn't much to look at. For the most part, it seemed to be an empty house. There wasn't a whole lot of furniture to be found, and the entire interior was immaculately clean.

Banshee stood in the middle of the central room and spread her arms. "Well?"

"It's the basement I wish to inspect the most," said Cryo, taking a second to remember where the door was before he strode over.

"Have you been here before or something?"

"No," said Cryo. "Jason was able to give me a detailed report."

"I bet he did," muttered Banshee.

Cryo chose to ignore the comment and descended into the basement.

A nervous energy had him readying his frost, preparing to unleash it and sink the whole room into winter at the barest hint of movement. He tried to tell himself that it was simply his bad experience yesterday, but he just couldn't shake it. His breath came out unsteady, an airy, uncertain melody to the beat of his claws on the stairs until he reached the basement landing.

It was empty.

The entire basement was empty.

"Was it like this when you were here last night?" asked Cryo. "Jason was unconscious and didn't remember."

Banshee reached the bottom step and remained leaning against the doorway with her arms folded. "There was some randomly scattered furniture. They used it to hide themselves in then flooded the place with light. Jason was in a chair over there."

She pointed to a blank wall.

"So why empty it now?" murmured Cryo.

"Does it matter?" said Banshee. "There's nothing here anymore, just as I told you."

"It does matter," said Cryo. "It took significant effort to move furniture up from this basement, at the risk that Luminaries or other curious individuals may come down. Why bother with that, unless there was something here?"

"Still doesn't change the fact that there's nothing here now. Whatever was worth the effort is gone."

But some doubt, some piece of instinct that he usually kept buried was rising up in his blood like the frost waiting in his veins. There was something here. It was here, and hidden, and he swore that he could hear something--a scream, a cry, a whisper--in the pounding of his heart.

Cryo strode into the centre of the room before he knew what he was doing.

He closed his eyes and focused on that frost in his veins. He dove deep, calling to the soft snow that laid delicate blankets over all it touched, the snow that was gentle enough to protect a sprout from the storm. He let it fall across the room, covering everything it touched.

"Cryo?" called Banshee, but her voice sounded so far away. Like she wasn't beside him, but across the other side of the City with a million walls of starstone between them.

Cryo opened his eyes.

Banshee was still in the doorway, brushing snow out of her hair with an annoyed look. Nothing else in the room appeared to be covered the way she was.

"And the point of covering me in snow was what, exactly?" she asked, annoyed as she noticed his smile.

"I didn't just cover you," said Cryo, feeling the rest of the snow, invisible to his eyes but settled around the rest of the room. "I covered the entire room."

He lifted a claw and snap-froze the settled snow.

The hallucinations shattered under his grip, revealing the now ice-coated furniture pushed against the walls of the basement. It was rough. Hasty. Hurried.

"Well that's a neat trick," said Banshee, stepping forward.

"And if he felt the need to hide it, it means there's something here," said Cryo.

"I guess so," said Banshee. "Where do you wanna start looking? I can take this wall--"

But Cryo's heart was pounding, his frost was calling, and he walked over to the section Banshee had just indicated she'd be searching, pulled by that same instinct that had made him doubt.

A tall bookcase had been shoved shelves-first against the wall where he stopped. Cryo hooked his claws into the wood and dragged it away, wondering if this nagging sensation was coming from an object contained within it, but he found it empty.

Instead, there was a cloth-covered object mounted on the wall.

Cryo tried to lift it away, but the object wasn't mounted as he'd originally assumed, but stuck. Dread gripped him as he used a claw to slice the string holding the cloth in place and pulled away the material.

Grief, buried in the starstone wall right up to its hilt.

The deep, endless glacier that rested at his core began to move as he wrapped an icy, claw-tipped hand around the hilt of Banshee's dagger and pulled it free of the wall.

Then, he turned.

He glared at the one who wore her face.

"What have you done with my partner?"

The Banshee-thing did not reply.

It simply smiled and vanished, leaving nothing but a black crystal that shattered into green smoke as it hit the floor.

And Cryo's glacier exploded.

*+*+*+*

A/N - That should answer a few questions and give you another one.

Where is the real Banshee? 

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