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

Chapter 58 - A Dance of Words and Shoes

Olivia had barely been home for an hour by the time Jason came by to pick her up.

It hadn't given her much time to hide the aurorastone, so she'd decided to keep it in her bag with Viri.

She gave him a tired wave. "How was your night?"

"I didn't sleep particularly well," he replied. "I apologise if I don't seem particularly enthusiastic this morning."

Olivia climbed into the sidecar, carefully positioning her legs around Jason's violin case before she rested her head on her arm and closed her eyes. "Mmhmm. Me neither, don't worry. Who knows, I might shut up for once in my life."

At the temple, they went about their usual routine: checking the Lumi's inboxes. To no surprise, Banshee had left Olivia a message, to which Olivia spent the next few minutes replying to. Jason finished replying to the message Cryo had left him long before she was finished.

"Are you writing your own notes again, Shadowheart?"

Olivia just poked her tongue out. "Shush, Frostsong, or I'll take even longer when I come up with something witty to slay your good mood with."

"Oh?" said Jason. "I doubt you can think of something much worse than what I was called last night. And no, I'm not telling you what that was."

Olivia narrowed her gaze, fighting the urge to call him Featherbutt. It probably wasn't a good idea to reuse Banshee's unique insults. "Yeaaaaah I'll get you later, mister."

"Of course you will."

After that, it was performance practice time.

Jason went off with his violin, and Olivia spent the next two hours attempting to keep her eyes open as Ericka talked her ear off about the exact events that had prevented Olivia from getting any sleep.

"Isn't it just amazing?" said Ericka. "These photos, just wow. They're all over the net I wish there was footage of the actual battle, but no one seems to know where it happened. There was reports of seeing the Lumis leaving Kaladrel around sunrise, but none of them actually arriving, which is really weird for that district. I mean surely someone would have seen them, right? The Lumi hunters are super annoyed."

"Lumi hunters?"

"Yeah!" said Ericka. "Y'no, the group I'm always showing you stuff from? They're the ones that follow the Lumis around and try to keep up to date with what they're doing! They've pretty much redoubled their efforts recently, especially after last night. I mean Banshee getting by them, sure, but Cryo? They're annoooooyed!"

Olivia ran her hands down her face. Great. Lumi hunters. Another thing she needed to worry about. "Isn't that like, illegal. You're not supposed to follow or try to work out Luminaries."

"Yeah, but people still do," said Ericka with a shrug. "I mean, we kinda have the right to know what our city heroes are up to, right?"

"Aren't you supposed to be finishing that Starsong dress?" asked Olivia, gesturing to the pile of fabric she didn't have the energy to steal.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it," said Ericka. "But seriously, look at these photos! Harpy was missing for what, a few days? And look at the state of her. I'm just super glad that the Lumis found her, honestly."

Ericka shoved the Liaiser in front of Olivia's eyeballs, flicking past photo after photo after photo of a million angles of Cryo holding Harpy just outside of the Starlight Hall. Some of the photos had Banshee in the background, standing beside her partner like a silent shadow. She hadn't realised how exhausted she'd looked. The fight in the pit had really taken it out of her.