ShadowSong [Book 3]

Chapter 3 - Split Focus

Cryo watched Banshee leave and felt his brief measure of joy vanish with her shadows.

He ran a clawed hand over his face just to feel their sharp edges on his skin. Just like Banshee's shadows had grown noticeably stronger in the last six weeks, his frost felt deeper in his bones than ever before, to the point where he was almost numb to pain entirely.

Sae told him it was normal after the one year mark of being bonded. Until that night after the festival, neither he nor Banshee had been completely bonded to their Ascended. Though they may have felt the whispers of their Lumi's patterns before, only now would they have truly been set in motion.

It was part of the reason why Cryo had come to the temple's physical library earlier today.

He picked the book he'd been reading prior to Banshee's arrival up from the table. Though it was true that he found some solace among this physical library, it was also true that the full entirety of this library had not been recorded in a digital format. After coming across several references to texts he could not find in the temple's database, he had come to the library in search of the index that he now held.

Cryo flicked it open to the page marked with a thin strip of starstone.

The index was for Luminaries. It had a section for each Aspect of Skypillar, where it gave a few paragraphs summarising the notable traits, and then proceeded to list every single one to have Ascended since the current civilisation arrived at the City. Every individual Luminary had their own short summary, detailing any notable feats, the duration of their Ascension, and other relevant texts in which they were mentioned. Given that not all of their identities were known, most were simply marked as their number in the list.

There was one section that Cryo had been over what felt like a million times.

The Shadows Of Skypillar: Vengeance Incarnate

The Banshee is an oddity amongst her Ascended peers, and remains as such in her Luminary incarnations. Perhaps it is due to the short span of her Ascension. Unlike other Ascended, who survived for centuries after their original Ascension date, Banshee's spirit returned to Skypillar within hours.

Like a mortal's shadow, Banshee's spirit is inescapable. A piece of it follows each of us, created by the same light that would seek to banish it. Her spirit is balanced on a scale, represented in her daggers, Grief and Joy, and when it tips, her Vengeance will be wrought through the dark.

Cryo continued reading down the list of Banshees until he got to the blank space, ready and waiting for the next Banshee's name to be filled in, though Cryo was fairly certain this index hadn't been touched in at least twenty years. Neither the Harpy or Wyvern he knew had been recorded, nor the Luminaries that had come before them, and the book itself had been rather dusty.

Regardless, a few hundred years of data was enough for him to make some calculations. The numbers hadn't changed from last time. They still held the same pattern. The same doomed fates.

He'd checked the other Lumi's. Their average Ascension span was usually between eight to ten years.

Banshee's was three.

Vengeance killed most of them. Banshee #12 had made it a year and a half. Her partner had been killed by an uncommon group of Manifested, upon which Vengeance had triggered and killed both her and the Manifested.

If Vengeance didn't get them, death still found them within a year of going dim. Amelia Shadowdance, Banshee #17 for six years, had died seven months after going dim, though it didn't say how.

The book began to freeze under the tips of Cryo's claws.

She has two years. Two years before I lose her.