ShadowSong [Book 3]

Chapter 40 - In the Absence of Light

Chaos began as a fragile, tense silence that cracked open through the crowd upon the first question: where were the auroras?

The Speakers who tried to offer an explanation had no real answers. The rest just remained, standing, staring at the skies, like if they just kept looking, eventually, somewhere, somehow, the auroras would appear. As the questions from the crowds grew louder and more demanding, the Pillarguards stepped in, attempting to calm the panic.

It wasn't enough. From their front row seat within the inner ring of buildings, Jason and Lucian had a front row seat as the crowd became a mob, banding together in their fear, their panic, and marched straight towards the inner courtyards.

Lucian's hand was on Jason's shoulder, pulling him away even before the mob started towards them. "They're going for the High Speakers. We gotta warn them before they get trampled."

Lucian broke into a run as Jason continued to just stand there, barely able to tear his eyes away from the mass of people heading for him. There wasn't much he could do as Jason that Lucian couldn't already--but as Cryo, he had a chance, assuming he could transform in the aurora's absence.

Lucian stopped, turning back to Jason with a note of desperation in his tone. "Frostsong, come on! If you stay here they're gonna trample you too!"

"Warn the High Speakers," said Jason. "I'll go to the Starlight Hall and see if a Luminary can diffuse the situation."

Jason didn't wait to see if Lucian agreed or not. He took off at a run, headed straight for the Starlight Hall. He didn't let himself linger on what the absence of the auroras might mean for Olivia. He had to focus on what he could prevent, who he could help.

"Sae?" muttered Jason as he scanned the corridor to see if he was alone. "Can we transform?"

Sae didn't reply, and the icy cuff on Jason's ear remained inanimate. Maybe he'd been wrong in assuming that without the auroras, the Ascended would be awake, but he wasn't ready to give up yet.

He pulled the cuff off his head and rubbed it with his fingertip. "Sae, wake up!"

This time, the cuff slowly morphed into claws, a tail, and a pair of snow-fluffed wings from which a sleepy looking bird head lifted itself out of. As Sae's violet eyes slowly blinked open with a frown, to say the Ascended looked out of it was an understatement. "Hmm, wha--wha's goin' on?"

"Can we transform?" said Jason.

Sae blinked--a slow, heavy movement accompanied by the turn of his head, like he was trying to figure out where he was. "Um, I guess? What time is it?"

"The time when the auroras are usually out by, except that they aren't, and an angry crowd is about to crush the High Speakers."

Sae flapped his wings, stretching the icy feathers wide. "Sounds important. Let's give it a shot."

Jason spared the corridor one more glance. The long, narrow space was empty, but it was far from ideal for transforming. Not only were Cryo's wings too large to fly, but it'd be far too easy for someone who'd seen Jason enter and Cryo leave to put the pieces together.

Hoping he had the minute to spare, Jason pulled his coat off and turned it inside out, swapping the pale green exterior for the dark brown lining within. Throwing it over his head to conceal what he could, he ran to a nearby window that faced the outer courtyards and quickly nudged it open while hiding behind one of the solid starstone parts of the wall. Then, with Sae in one hand, Viri's pouch in the other, and his inverted coat wrapped tight around his head, Jason jumped out the window and into the garden below.