ShadowSong [Book 1 & 2: Complete] [NaNoWriMo16/17]

Chapter 17 - Called Out

Olivia followed Jason through the corridors of the temple's outer ring of buildings completely and utterly in awe of everything around her.

She'd thought the Starlight Hall and the skyshrines were grand, but they had nothing on the detail that had gone into the decoration of the corridors she now walked. Though the walls and doors were entirely made of seamless, golden starstone, efforts had been made to introduce other materials that covered and protected it in the most elegant way possible.

Door frames were edged with a pure white stone. The walls were covered in a transparent, silvery material that was then further decorated with specks of what could have been stars when they caught the light just right. Pictures hung from the walls, murals and artworks of the highest calibre of everything from people dressed in Speaker robes to previous Luminaries themselves. As she bladed down the halls, it felt like an entire history was rolling by.

To say it was overwhelming would have been the understatement of the year.

"Generally, rollerblades are not looked kindly upon within temple grounds," said Jason after a minute or so of Olivia's mouth hanging open, distracted by the grandeur.

Olivia glanced down. She'd just assumed Jason didn't have his because he'd ridden the Gleamer in and didn't seem to have a bag to keep his blades in. "Oh, sorry. Would you rather it if I took them off?"

"It would certainly prevent one thread of the lecture I suspect I may receive when we arrive," said Jason. "But they are not forbidden, I will leave the decision to you."

Olivia stopped, unclipping the blades from the bottom of her boots and placing them carefully in her bag. "I think I've done enough to get you in trouble today I think. I'll give you a break--for now, anyway."

She'd meant it jokingly, but for a moment, she could have sworn that suspicion flickered his otherwise neutral expression. It wasn't the first time--she'd seen it before when she'd come over to inspect his violin. He was tense. Stiff. Like he expected her to jump out and turn Manifested at any moment.

Maybe it was because the storm still raged outside, even if its thunder was barely a quiet rumble inside the starstone walls. Maybe it was just some aspect of the whole formal temple way of doing things that she hadn't wrapped her head around yet. Maybe this was just him and how he was around new people, but she could have sworn that he'd made a joke earlier about her being prepared. That he'd actually smiled, no matter how small it was.

Olivia bit her lip and kept silent as they kept walking.

Her side was far less painful now, having split the wound with Viri before, which she was grateful for. The last thing she wanted to do was pass out again in front of everyone, but if she could just keep herself calm, she'd be okay.

She blew a piece of hair out of her face. Who was she kidding? She had six weeks dealing with people that looked up to individuals like the Shadowspeaker. There was no way they weren't going to set her off at least a few times.

Olivia glanced at Jason. But maybe there was hope. He didn't seem as bad as she'd originally thought.

She wasn't going to go into this hating it from the beginning. For Jason's sake if nothing else, she'd give it an honest shot. Stars permitting, maybe... maybe there'd be a silver lining to this.

They reached a set of double doors where Jason paused, his hand on the handle.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

Olivia nodded. "Yup!"

Jason met her eyes. "As your guide, I will give you another piece of advice so your may have a chance of surviving among the others. People will... expect certain things of you. Whether you give them that or not is entirely up to you. You have a choice."