A thick, sluggish haze was still dominating Olivia's mind and body by the time she stepped out onto the golden starstone.

She wasn't quite sure how she'd got here. It was a fight back to the surface of her mental space. It was a struggle for clarity in every thought, to hold onto it long enough before it drifted off. She was fairly certain she'd repeated her need to get to the Core Chamber at least eight times and succeeded in confusing everyone around her except Jason.

Jason. The only thing she was certain of was that she trusted Jason, and it was Jason who'd suggested they go to the temple grounds in a voice soft enough to drift under the haze clinging to her mind. That was how she'd got here. She'd got here because she trusted Jason's judgement.

Despite the warnings of the nurses that she'd feel weak and unsteady and should take it slow, her body felt steady beneath her. She'd expected a blackout, but by some miracle, none came.

The temple grounds looked like a war zone.

People huddled in groups of various sizes, looking up at the newcomers with wary glares. The usual, steady glow of starstone had been replaced by the uncertain, flickering fire of the crude, wooden torches people had bound together for light. Blankets were heaped together. Stations that looked like they were giving out food had been set up.

Olivia felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up at Jason, she realised that she'd stopped. She hadn't even noticed...

"Jase," she said eventually. It was an effort to focus, an effort to remember why she was here. She reached out, grabbing his hand. Her legs were steady and strong, but they didn't feel like her legs. She was an imposter in this body. "I'm... I'm not feeling great, can you help me walk?"

Jason nodded, and without a word or fuss, slipped his arm around her waist and held her hand. It was like that they continued to cross the temple grounds. His touch grounded her, gave her something to centre herself around when nothing around her felt real. Without it, she suspected and feared that she'd have simply wandered off, distracted and lost.

Jason called out to a pair of Pillarguards as they passed. Olivia didn't quite catch the words, but the Pillarguards proceeded to follow them, one on either side.

Olivia squeezed her eyes shut tight and pressed her palm into her forehead. "Jase, talk to me-- kickstart my brain a little. I feel like I'm not entirely here."

His fingers tightened on hers, and after a moment's consideration, he spoke. "What's my name?"

She raised an eyebrow, wondering how that was supposed to help. "Jason Frostsong."

"What is the name of my Aspect's Luminary?"

"...Cryophoenix?"

"Now what do you call him?"

"Cryo?"

The smallest smile lurked on the side of his mouth. "That's what everyone else calls him. I'm referring to the name that Banshee taught you."

Olivia frowned, wondering if she'd ever... she snorted. "Featherbutt."

Jason glanced down at her, smile shifting to a smirk. "Does that mean I hold more respect in your eyes than Cryo?"

"Not at all," said Olivia. "It just means I don't need anything but Frostsong to mock you with."

"Why, Shadowheart, I'm offended."

"Really? I couldn't tell. You always sound like you're writing a strongly worded letter to your local official about how the starstone glows too brightly at night."

He squeezed her fingers again. "Your brain seems like it's working perfectly to me, Liv. Now, on the subject of nicknames, what on Skypillar's peak would possess you to call someone 'Fuzz'?"

Jason continued to talk to her, continued to push the haze a little further back with each word he drew out of her as they crossed the temple's outer courtyard. It wasn't long until several individuals appeared from the inner ring of buildings, heading towards her.

"Olivia!" called the one in front, the only one who was running, the picture of grace despite the long, flowing robe of whites and pale blues she wore. "Olivia! You're awake!"

The graceful woman reached Olivia, stopping before they crashed. The woman reached up, her gentle hands resting against Olivia's shoulders, running down her arms before one of her hands lifted up to Olivia's face as her other hand pressed against her own mouth, like somehow, it was supposed to seal in the tears streaming down her cheeks.

There was something about this woman, something familiar in the way her blonde hair was caught up in a styled ponytail... "Ariel?"

"Hey," said Ariel, swallowing down a sob. "Hey, Liv. Welcome back."

Olivia smiled, but nothing felt quite right. She'd seen Ariel so many times in the Serpent's hallucinations. She'd been so common. Sometimes she'd been screaming. Other times she'd been the one inflicting the pain. Olivia--Banshee--whoever she'd been--she'd tried to help her so many times. She'd stripped herself bare, giving every last scrap she had to save the people who hadn't even been real...

"Liv?"

Olivia blinked, realising Ariel had been speaking.

Ariel's worried eyes flicked to Jason. "Is... is she okay?"

"I think it's fair to say she's exhausted," said Jason. "She should be resting, but given the emergency we find ourselves in, she chose to come."

Olivia zoned out again as their ever-growing group proceeded forward. Jason explained to the people in robes of varying designs about Aurora, about the visions she'd dragged Olivia into. He didn't mention Olivia's belief that she'd been the one to hurt Aurora, only that the last time Olivia had left, Aurora had been injured.

"Olivia?"

Again, Olivia's focus snapped into attention. They were now within the inner courtyard of the temple, barely a few metres from the Core Chamber. The skies above them were dark, the first stars scattered and twinkling above the shrouded peak of Skypillar.

It wasn't right. There should have been silver where she now saw skies. There should have been light, a Song, snow--

"Olivia?" Jason said again. She frowned and turned to look at him, drawing up every piece of willpower she had to stay in the same moment as the other people around her. "Did you hear Ariel?"

"No," said Olivia. She drew in a deep breath. "Sorry, I'm... I'm just having trouble focusing."

After a quiet word from Jason in Ariel's ear, Ariel stepped forward and took Olivia's hand.

"Liv," said Ariel. "Do you have any thoughts about how we might heal the auroras, or Aurora, if what you say is true?"

"She was trying to teach me to Songstress properly," murmured Olivia. She squeezed Ariel's hand when she found her thoughts drifting. She made her voice louder, more here. "I think we're connected, because of what I did at the festival, though I don't really know how. I don't understand, but I know her Song. I think."

"Okay," said Ariel, ending the word with the slightest of exhales. "If you don't have a better idea, we believe it might be worth for you to try and commune with the auroras as we do. Come, the auroras should be out soon."

Ariel led Olivia a few steps further, out into the open space of the courtyard.

"It's a little different for every Speaker," said Ariel. "Some see, some listen, some feel, and some simply just know. For myself, I find the most meaning crafted from within the light itself. Let the light create the shapes, the words..."

Above them, the auroras began to appear.

Ariel's words drifted off, lost to the silence in Olivia's head. What everyone had told her was true--the auroras were dying. The barest slivers of coloured light fought their way for every inch of sky, almost drowned out by the starlight twinkling around them. It was like watching a dying woman's last breath, a plea, begging for someone, anyone...

It was so easy to lose herself in them. She dropped Ariel's hand and let her legs take her forward as her eyes drifted about the lights. The aurorasong was there, but it was so, so quiet, sung with a breath, not a voice. She could be that voice. She could give it life, release it, strengthen it.

She was singing the aurorasong before she'd realised she intended to. Her eyes were closed but she saw the lights around her, saw the brilliance and the wonder they wove as they danced around her fingers, streaming through the air as they climbed, stronger and higher, covering her hand, her wrist--

Searing, blinding pain shot through her wrist.

She collapsed with a scream, clutching her wrist with a trembling hand. Her eyes flew open to see the lights she'd woven crackle dark, like instead of the auroras, she'd called down the night. Her fingers found an unfamiliar, sharp edge among her skin.

She didn't understand at first. It took her mind too many seconds to realise what she was staring at.

"Olivia?"

Olivia. Her. He was talking to her.

She looked up.

"Olivia?" Jason said again. He was beside her, crouching, one hand on her shoulder that kept her tied to the present. "Olivia, what happened?"

Olivia lifted her wrist.

The black, ebony depths of the corrupted fragment seemed to hum with pleasure. Though it was still secured with a thin, green cord, the fragment itself looked almost imbedded in her skin. Olivia found herself clawing at it, hard enough for her nails to leave angry red trails across her wrist before Jason pulled her hand away.

"I forgot," she whispered. "They corrupted me."

"No, they didn't," said Jason. His hands were covering the fragment, but she could still feel it. "Olivia? Liv, you aren't corrupted. You're--"

"Then how did I do that?"

*+*+*+*

Jason followed Olivia's gaze and swore.

The auroralight she'd called down had not dissipated or faded. It had remained, drifting through the air, lost and vulnerable. Smooth curves snapped into sharp edges as the Other's darkness devoured the auroralight until the crackle of corrupted auroralight choked the air they breathed.

Jason pulled Olivia to her feet and together, they stumbled back a few, uncertain steps from the horror unfolding before them.

The High Speakers, still entranced by the auroras above them, did not react as the corrupted auroralight claimed them.

Jason's tattoo went cold.

"Behold!" called a horribly familiar voice.

He could hardly look.

A Banshee stood close to the peak of the Core Chamber, shadowshifted so deep that her markings burned crimson. She looked like something from nightmare as the shadowed edges of her body wisped like smoke in the weak auroralight, devouring, consuming, demanding the light that was no longer strong enough to banish it.

"This City's twilight has come!" the Banshee cried as the last of the colour in Olivia's face paled. "The hour of reckoning is at hand! By Skypillar's power, this City will be purged of the unworthy and be cleansed for the dawn!"

The Banshee crossed her daggers over her head. What little remained of the uncorrupted auroras was sucked into the blades, leaving them crackling with a dark, corrupted light.

"Liv," said Jason, trying to tear her glassy stare away from the scene, to get her to move, to get any kind of response out of her. "We need to move, Shadowheart."

Olivia just continued to look, pale and shaking, completely rooted to the spot.

On the ground, the Pillarguards had closed in. Some of them tried to pull the High Speakers away and were thrown backwards by an invisible force. The corrupted auroralight was spreading, hissing and snapping its way through the air as the High Speakers breathed it in.

Including Ariel.

Ariel's eyes were still open and glazed as her breaths became uneven. Her face remained upturned as the corrupted auroralight dove down her throat and changed her from the inside out, re-weaving her robes into something new--something familiar. Olivia lunged forward, screaming her friends name, and it killed Jason that all he could do was hold her back.

"She's Manifested!" he said, unsure if she could even hear him from wherever her mind was. "They're all Manifested, look!"

Olivia's gaze left Ariel long enough to see the other eleven High Speakers. Something sparked in her eyes as the features of the Luminaries they knew so well erupted from the robes of the Speakers at a violent pace. Golem's stones. Nereid's fins. DragonFae's glow. Cryo's wings.

Yet it wasn't until the long, feathered wings erupted from cloud on Ariel's back that it really seemed to click.

"I did that." Olivia blinked, releasing an audible exhale. "T--this is my fault."

"No, it's not," said Jason. "It's not your fault Liv. We're going to fix it, but right now, we need to get to the Starlight Hall. We need to leave."

Jason tugged on Olivia's hand and she nearly collapsed. The steel that had kept her steady was gone. Her legs barely seemed like they were holding her up. She half stepped, half fell towards Jason as he caught her by the arms, supporting the majority of her weight. He pulled her forward, trying to urge her into a run, but her eyes were squeezed shut.

"Not real," she whispered, so quietly that he barely heard her. "It's not real. It can't be real." She took a shuddering breath. "O--One. Two. T...three--"

A little piece of Jason's heart cracked at the plea in her words as at the top of the Core Chamber, the Banshee imposter continued her speech.

"Servants of Skypillar, your master calls!"

"Liv," said Jason, lifting one of his hands away from her arms to cup the side of her face. "Liv, please. I need you to move."

"Bring me Olivia Shadowheart, so she may usher in the new era!"

"Shadowheart!" She blinked as he said her name. He ran his thumb over her cheek, wiping away the tear before it reached her jaw. They were nowhere near far enough from the Manifested. They'd barely made it a few metres. They were too far from the Starlight Hall to outrun a single mobile Manifested, let alone twelve, but that didn't mean this fight was over. "Shadowheart, you trusted me once. You need to trust me again."

The sound of wings and rumbling stone answered the Banshee's call.

"This is real, Olivia," he murmured, pressing his forehead to hers. "I'm real. You're here, with me, right now. Stay with me."

Jason reached into his coat pocket and pulled out her pouch, pressing it into her clenched fist until her fingers opened enough to grasp it.

"Look inside," he whispered, closing her fingers a little tighter around the pouch as the twelve Manifested circled around them. "And Liv, I'm sorry. I'm sorry it had to be like this."

With one, last, steadying breath, Jason turned around to face those who made his tattoo burn like frozen fire.

He knew what he'd see before he turned, and yet, it still left him reeling.

The High Speakers had each Manifested into the Luminary that they served. None of them were exact copies of the original. Like Ella had while Manifested into Hydra, the twelve kept enough of their human features to remain recognisable. Their Luminary characteristics varied, even between the same aspect with some discoloured, exaggerated, or simply formed differently.

One Nereid. One Pegasus. Three Cryophoenixes. Three Golems. Four DragonFaes.

Part of him knew that, even if by some miracle, DragonFae and Golem arrived in the next few seconds and he managed to transform, this wasn't a fight they could win by regular means. To describe it as daunting to see his Frostspeakers bearing the wings of a Cryophoenix would have been to call Skypillar a hill.

He wanted so badly to risk one, last look at Olivia in the final moments before her view of him would change forever, but she didn't have time for him to be selfish.

Jason lifted his arms behind him slowly, hands flexed with his fingers spread as he drew in the breath that would cost him the closest friends he'd ever had.

Please don't hate me, he thought, and then his breath was over.

"Asce--!" he began.

The violet glows of the four Manifested DragonFaes intensified a hundredfold, drowning reality in an ethereal fog for a brief moment, and Jason's voice died in his throat. His lips moved, his throat vibrated, but the sound completely failed to appear. Twice more, he attempted to voice the sentence without success before realising what the DragonFaes had done.

And now, looking into the eyes of the Manifested that surrounded him, Jason was struck with the strange sense that they knew.

Slowly, he raised his hands, palms forward as if to surrender. The Cryophoenixes and DragonFaes were still airborne, and while the Golems had him surrounded, it'd only take him a second to grab Olivia and fly. All he had to do was tap Sae, to get his Ascended conscious enough to lip-read and hope that--

A gust of warm, humid wind blasted Jason from behind, strong enough to push his arms in front of his head. Caught off guard and eyes squinted against the wind, he didn't see the cloud lasso around his wrists until he felt them pulled together. Dread struck him dumb. He tried to pull them apart, to reach for his ear cuff, only to have his hands yanked forward hard enough to land him on his knees by the Manifested Pegasus still holding the lasso.

A second gust of wind washed over Jason's face as Ariel landed in front of him with two, elegant clops of her hooves on the starstone. The markings of Pegasus were proud upon her brow as her long, dark blue ears swiveled attentively under her usual fringe. Jason watched her, waiting for a stagger to exploit, yet she remained perfectly balanced, completely putting the actual Pegasus to shame as her dark blue, brown-and-blonde barred wings tucked neatly against her back.

It almost would have been funny, had the situation not been so dire.

Ariel wrapped the lasso around her wrist and held it close to her chest as Jason considered the possibility of waking Sae up by slamming his ear into his shoulder. Ariel narrowed her eyes, and with a quick movement, plucked a dark brown feather from her wings and threw it at him faster than he could hope to avoid. The feather struck his neck, and half a second later, his neck was covered by a cloud-formed collar.

Ariel, Jason tried to say, but no sound came out of his mouth.

He doubted she would have heard him, even if it had.

The Banshee leapt down from the top of the Core Chamber, landing just behind Ariel in a wave of shadowed smoke, her daggers still drawn. Ariel stepped aside as the Banshee dropped her shadow shift, just enough to return the slightest hints of colour to her garments.

Skinwalker. It had to be Skinwalker, but to be able to mimic Banshee's shadows was on a whole other level. It was one thing to imitate a broken, powerless Luminary limping through the streets. It was another to turn parts of yourself to smoke and shadow.

It really should have bothered Jason more, but all that was running through his mind was that he'd failed to protect Olivia all over again. It had barely been a few months since he'd last been here, kneeling and bound by Ella's spirit magic, pleading for her to fight it. Now, he was here all over again, another failure, another defeat, and this time, there was no one coming to save them.

The Skinwalker-Banshee stepped forward.

Though her markings no longer gleamed crimson, her eyes still burned behind the visor as she spoke. "This era of lies has come to an end. By the Song of the Shadowheart, Skypillar's chosen will--"

"Ascend, Shadow of Skypillar."

The Banshee froze.

Jason turned around.

Olivia was kneeling behind him, staring straight into her pouch with the clearest gaze he'd seen from her since she woke up.

But nothing was happening.

Olivia sucked in a nervous breath, her eyes flicking to the Manifested around her before plunging back into the depths of the pouch.

"Ascend, Shadow of Skypillar!"

Jason's heart sank.

The Banshee strode past Jason, easily dodging his attempts to kick her feet out from under her as she sauntered over towards Olivia.

Don't touch her! he wanted to scream, loud enough that whatever spirits lingered on Skypillar's peak would squirm in fear. His throat felt raw and dry as he raged, over and over again for nothing but the sound of perfect silence. Don't you dare touch her!

Instead, he was left, writhing on the ground as Ariel yanked her lasso once more and knocked him flat.

The Banshee stood over Olivia. "Skypillar's power has abandoned you. You are no longer worthy to bear the name Shadowheart."

Olivia pressed the pouch close to her chest. Her hands were shaking, her face was stained with tears, and her voice was barely audible as she said: "Well, if you're allowed to run around as a Banshee, the standard can't be too high, can it?"

The Banshee crouched down, leaning right in close to Olivia's face.

"You were given a chance to join our family once," said the Banshee. She lifted Joy, placing the tip of the dagger under Olivia's chin. The blade still crackled with auroralight--assuming that hadn't also been a trick. "You were prideful. You were arrogant. And do you remember where that got you?"

Olivia froze.

The Banshee grinned. "Shall I show you?"

The sound of cracking glass shattered through the air as Skinwalker shifted, changing from a shadowshifted Banshee to the Banshee that still haunted Jason's waking hours.

Her visor was cracked, her arms covered in bandages stained with blood from the inside. Her garments were torn. Grief was missing and Joy's hilt was slick with blood--her blood, the same blood that coated the walls that she touched, the wall she was using to hold herself upright--

"You were not broken then," whispered the Banshee, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth as she grinned. She grabbed Olivia's chin with a dirty, blood-covered hand. "But you are now."

Skinwalker's Banshee jerked Olivia's head to the side before releasing her and standing up. "My fellow servants of Skypillar! Now, we--" She flipped the daggers in her hand, lowering into a fighting stance. "Who is that?"

Jason expected Golem or DragonFae, perhaps even Pegasus or Nereid at a stretch.

He did not expect to see Stefan Frostcaller, standing halfway across the courtyard with his hands raised to the peak.

"Stop him!" screeched the Banshee. "Stop him, before he--"

Stefan began to sing.

One moment, the courtyard was dull, lit only by the violet glows of the DragonFaes, and the twelve Manifested were raising their ice, stones, clouds and water, aiming it directly at the boy who had wandered into a suicide mission.

The next, Stefan's silver hair was glowing like starfire. Light erupted from his body, carried on the waves of the all too familiar Song that was coming from his mouth.

Aurorasong.

Stefan's light split into ribbons of violet and teal that raced towards the Core Chamber, diving into the golden starstone and vanishing, leaving the courtyard in darkness and silence as Stefan wobbled, then collapsed where he stood.

The Skinwalker Banshee smirked. "Well, it looks like that little lightshow didn't--"

Auroras bloomed from the Core Chamber, far brighter and more brilliant than anything Jason had ever played witness to. The violet and teal streaks raced across the sky, illuminating the starstone beneath them. They drowned out the stars, the moon. There was nothing but a blanket of pure, dazzling light, banishing the night above them.

Beside Jason, the Skinwalker hissed like it'd been burned. Its Banshee silhouette faltered, revealing a hulking, furred body with curved antlers. Its head snapped around to stare at Olivia, no longer Banshee's visor, but the black, endless abyss of its mask.

All it'd take was one, quick strike. Those spindly, elongated arms had enough reach.

Instead, the Skinwalker turned and ran, leaping from the ground to the rooftops in a single bound, and was out of sight before Jason could ever hope to follow it.

The cloud around Jason's wrist lost their cohesion. He waved the remaining mist away with his hands and crawled over to Olivia. The blood on her face was gone, likely a part of Skinwalker's deception.

"Liv?" he said, helping her sit up. "Are you okay?"

The haunted look in her eyes answered that question for him. Her gaze was dead on the ground when she said in a monotone voice, "What happened?"

Jason looked up at the twelve Manifested High Speakers.

Those that had been airborne struggled to remain so. One by one, they were forced to the ground as the wings of the Frostspeakers began to melt, and the ethereal membranes of the DragonFaes began to dissipate. Chunks of rock were falling away from the Golems, the Wavespeaker's water spines were dripping. Ariel's wings were fading back to cloud as she clutched her head, finally staggering on her hooves.

Above them, the auroras still spanned the skies. The sound of celebration echoed in the distance as the City believed themselves saved, yet all Jason could think of was the silver barrier that had stretched over Aurora's skies.

Finally, Jason looked towards Stefan, who remained collapsed in a heap on the ground.

"I don't know."

*+*+*+*

A/N - ALL THE UH OHS FOLLOWED BY A NOT AS BIG UH OH? UH OH. 

We also had a Manifested Ariel who appears to be better at being Pegasus than Pegasus is. 

Have some Kibart. <3 

P.S: this is actually the chapter I was supposed to post last week so I still owe you guys another chapter in the next 7 days so LOOK OUT FOR THAT ONE