Harmony

"So be it." [♪]

It would never not be beautiful. It would never not be resplendent. Octavia would always regret the way by which she was forced to resist such a heavenly melody, all-consuming and overwhelming as it was. Rani truly was light itself, for how every note breathed with confidence from lips long since dead lit her soul and cursed the air. Where Octavia had clung to strings as a catalyst for her boiling blood so many times over, Rani needed no intervention for the radiance that bubbled from her fingertips. It was as striking as it was terrifying, and she truly was what Octavia could only imagine as an angel of death. It would make sense.

At the very least, she hardly needed to fear hollow eyes anymore, alight with something far more splendorous as they were. Rani was emptied, her small body a vessel in the truest sense of the word. It was haunting. It was enough to leave the Ambassador's own eyes wide and the fingers around her bow hesitant, given how fast the subsequent brilliance that besieged her was. Octavia struggled to wrap her head around it the entire time she struggled to dodge, much the same. It was all she could do to throw herself out of harm's way, the same bursting luminescence bearing down on her yet again. She wasn't the only one.

There was a relief that came with the realization that she was capable of landing flat upon "nothing". To move quickly, let alone to fight in such a vast and incomprehensible place, was still a concept Octavia hadn't fully tried to unravel. Part of her had feared one misplaced step or fickle fingers at risk of fumbling the bow would see that which was material succumb to that which was not. She fell, and yet she hadn't truly fallen. It was a promising start, vulnerable as she knew herself to be in the face of her angel of death. It took effort to push herself to her feet, and more still to position Stradivaria onto her shoulders yet again.

Where she no longer found the endearing hues and colorful luminescence she'd grown to adore, the Maestros left in their wake were far more of a comfort. She wished they were closer. She understood why, given the way both explosive waves of radiance had largely surged upon them without hesitation. It was all they could do to escape the blinding sea, and she was extremely relieved to see that none of them had been burned by light she wished she could love.

For what she knew of the prowess of that which she did cherish, it was white-hot and unforgiving. Even in her own hands, it was a worthy threat. For the Lord of All, it was a death sentence, a holy judgment offered without remorse. Octavia shuddered. Just the thought of touching it was enough to make her feel ill.

"Okay, this is not how I expected this whole thing to go down!" Renato shouted.

"What are we supposed to do?" Viola asked, her words far calmer than Octavia would've expected. "That's the Apex of Heart. I mean, that's their Lord of All. Can we even do anything?"

"We can keep her away from Octavia!" Harper cried, already raising Royal Orleans to his lips once more.

His timing was not only impeccable, but incredibly necessary. Again, Rani was upon them, the dazzling song that saw her words woven into brilliance bubbling from the skin of her palms yet again. Octavia had always hesitated to use the term "magic" when referring to Harmonial Instruments, let alone the Maestro world at large. She could think of few others terms to describe what she was witnessing, really, for how unnatural the sight truly was.

It hardly mattered. She noted the way by which every blast was indiscriminate, equal parts sizzling and sonorous. Blinding stars and the scorching embers in their wake left only milky afterimages as they burst against nothing in particular. Every desperate Maestro was equally at risk in their luminous line of fire.

It was of the utmost importance that their reaction times were sharp, and some had more room than others. Octavia couldn't afford to gauge their reactions. She could only trust in the familiar and beloved notes that raged against Rani's own, an almost lovely dichotomy. She could hardly trust in Stratos, and yet his stolen light was as powerful as ever. She had exactly one thing to thank him for, nonconsensual as it was.

The reprieve they found was limited, for how often Octavia was forced to offer up rebellious radiance of her own again and again. It crashed and surged much the same, her ebbing sun swelling against the foreign sea. She had a vague idea as to the presence she felt rushing up behind her, hurried and trusting in her song. It only fueled her drive all the more, and she welcomed the scalding stars that bubbled in her blood.

"How are we supposed to stop her?" Madrigal yelled above her stormy harmony, her gales whipping desperately against the pouring luminescence before her.

"I don't know why, but her light is tangible against all of your legacies," Josiah reasoned back. "She's different!"

"Well, she's got a friggin' Apex, for one!" Renato added harshly. He, too, had his work cut out for him, for how he was once more shaking as he raged against the unforgiving tide. Again, he was his own explosion, forceful and resilient with defenses unseen. Rippling golds of radiance rushed to meet his repulsive resistance in the most jarring of veils. For the pressure it took and the strain on his face, Octavia wondered if it hurt.

"But maybe it's something to work with!" Viola tried. "We don't have to stand still and take it!"

The chill of Silver Brevada's gorgeous melody trilling high above even Rani's own cooled Octavia's skin from afar, and she was grateful. It did little to chill her veins, boiling with the burning wrath of the sun as it spilled onto the strings. For that, too, she was grateful. To resist light with light was disorienting. She'd done it in passing, and never to this degree. She played faster. It was the most she could do.

The raging flames of Royal Orleans, at least, were somewhat beautiful against that which burned more fiercely than themselves. Harper's scathing inferno colliding with Rani's surging radiance was almost ironic, and Octavia found herself cheering for hellfire over the light of Heaven. "Can we kill her? Should we kill her? I-I mean, she's…just look at her!"

Rani wasn't the first thing Octavia's eyes went to at any given point in time. Witnessing the girl who cursed them with a brilliant sea, rippling and rushing still, would leave her struggling to overlook the light every incomprehensible word brought forward. Truthfully, it was difficult simply to keep her eyes open. Harper's words were loaded, ultimately, and she weighed their consequences in her head multiple times over.

Josiah, to his credit, unraveled them on her behalf. "She's a Harmonial Instrument, but she's also a Maestra! She's already dead, remember? If we can destroy her body, maybe we can take down the Muse inside of it, too!"

"Okay, there is no way that's gonna work," Renato argued. "How the hell do you expect us to kill a friggin' Muse? It's a Muse, dude! That's not happening!"

He shook his head. Octavia could feel his body heat as he moved closer to her, still unseen as he was behind the safety of her back. "A Muse without a Harmonial Instrument can't fight back! We don't have to kill the Muse, we just have to break its vessel!"

"But can a Harmonial Instrument even be damaged? In all the time we've done this, I've never seen that happen!" Harper cried again.

It was Madrigal, to Octavia's surprise, who took over. Her fingers still flew across every string of Lyra's Repose as she spoke. "She's part human! Maybe that's different, too! We can still try!"

"It's worth a shot!" Josiah agreed above the beautiful cacophony.

Octavia alone dissented, close to him as she was. She was relieved he could hear her, given how desperately she continued to play. "Josiah, that's their Lord of All! He can mess with the spider web! He already has! He might be able to fight back anyway, vessel or not! The same rules don't apply here!"

She heard Josiah groan, of all things. "That's the whole freakin' point of the spider web, isn't it? We'll have to figure it out the hard way!"

She'd never expected it out of him. It was reassuring. It was warm.

"If we do stop him," Octavia began hesitantly, "what happens then? Where…do we go from there?"

"This comes first!" Viola shouted. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it!"

It wasn't worth arguing with. It wasn't as though Octavia would've been able to offer a better answer. Her greater concern came in the form of their collective stamina. Breath control and physical effort would only get them so far against the endless, surging tide of Rani's luminous song. Her muscles were nowhere close to aching, and she doubted the others were even slightly cursed with anything akin to the same just yet. Still, it was a creeping concern she couldn't shake well in advance. They'd need everything they could get. Advancing was impossible, just as retreating was unthinkable. For all intents and purposes, they were pinned in place.

Rani wasn't the only one with radiant confidence at her fingertips. Octavia had long since learned how to aim. Distance was irrelevant, and she didn't even necessarily need to make a solid shot. The Ambassador embraced every scalding pulse of the stars themselves that boiled beneath her skin, and the rays she'd once considered to be born of collaboration were now stolen. She didn't regret it one bit. It was with great care that she steadied her balance, cocked her head alongside her bow, and sent her borrowed brilliance sailing high above the burning sea. She prayed.

She didn't hit. She'd expected as much. It was, regardless, enough to make the Maestra falter. Her song was cut short momentarily, fingertips dipped in starlight catching Octavia's rays with a startling boom. It was gorgeous in its own way, speckles of a dying nova bursting clean from Rani's skin and scattering into thin air. In that way, she was still every bit as resplendent even under fire. The hollow, cold eyes she knew to be buried beneath a blinding gaze never became Octavia's to match, and the girl's glare burned white-hot all the same. For how the tide slowed and stilled, it was the only thing Octavia had wanted. She'd never been so glad to see nothing at all.

Her element of surprise would only work once. Octavia refused to squander it.

"Now!"

She wasn't the only one who could aim. She was somewhat amazed Madrigal could reach that far, although her fearlessness served her well in closing the gap.

There was no need for communication, largely, for how well they'd grown to know one another's songs. It was with fleeting glances alone that they came to advance, some more hurriedly than others. They were beautiful in tandem, whether melodic or otherwise. They always were, and Octavia's heart raced for a thousand reasons.

The relief Octavia had earned had left a far smaller window than she would've hoped to garner, and she somewhat lamented her inability to widen it further. The versatility of a spirit of wind was faster than she'd expected, frantic fingers in time with rapid footsteps weaving gusts that rustled her braids from afar. There was a downside to tangible light, vulnerable to legacies the Lord of All had surely grown to know well. Octavia knew exactly where Madrigal was going with this--or so she at least thought. Silver Brevada was a surprise.

The shrill, tingling notes that pierced the air resonated perfectly with Lyra's song, as Octavia would've expected. The corresponding crystal, coagulating and shimmering in the wake of what dying starlight still persisted, was an equal blessing to Lyra's Repose. It didn't take much but their quick fingers in fluid harmony, fast upon every string and key as a Soulful melody and a Spirited ballad overlapped in utter unison.

Madrigal stole all the girl had to offer, every glistening shard ensnared in whirling gales that Viola could never hope to resist. Octavia doubted she'd ever want her precious ice back, given how every bursting breath into Silver Brevada brought forth yet more and more. She'd once recalled Madrigal as the sun, infernal and dazzling. Now, she was a blizzard, devastating and still just as focused. For how those round, gorgeous eyes still shimmered with the light she loved, Octavia's own went wide. It wasn't Lyra, for once, who kept such a ruthless chill from glazing Madrigal's skin.

Of the chill the Spirited girl was given, then, she used everything she had. It was on the absolute cusp of Rani's pause that Madrigal rebelled. Each strum sent wave after wave of spearing shards sailing down onto the Maestra in a hellish hailstorm. It was the first time Rani had budged, and not of her own volition. It wasn't so much that the little Maestra had dodged as she had strayed from the path of Madrigal's frozen fury, still surging upon her even now. Soft sidesteps became yet more effortful motions as Rani evaded every piercing blow, retaliation briefly unnecessary. Madrigal's glare was almost as terrifying as the dead child's own. It didn't quite stack up entirely.

"Madrigal!"

He had a surprisingly good throwing arm.

The little knife that sliced through the air did so with a whoosh that left steel spinning high above, set solely on a collision course with distant, icy gales. Josiah cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Go for her throat! Keep her from singing! Remember, she's already--"

If Madrigal had forgotten, then the speed with which she adapted to his idea was all the more horrifying. For her peace of mind, Octavia very much hoped she was incorrect. The innocent little blade was no more immune to her wrathful storm than the jagged hail she'd already trapped within, although it was the latter that she opted to unleash in full. Like a weapon, Madrigal offered Rani every ounce of stolen frost she had left over. Still, Rani didn't strike back.

Octavia wasn't ignorant, regardless, to the same gentle glow painting her fingertips. For what she couldn't hear of the song that surely escaped the girl's lips, she could at least see cryptic and untranslatable words mouthed in silence. In that way, every shard was lost on her. Octavia hated that that, too, was lovely. Each crystalline burst beneath Rani's searing touch was enough to tint the air with sparkling beauty not unlike snowflakes. It made for a solid distraction. Octavia wasn't sure exactly what part of her had been content to think Madrigal would've actually grabbed the knife.

It was far faster when wrapped in her vicious winds, a projectile Octavia could hardly track with her eyes. It was outright unpredictable, wielded with such precise control that it genuinely terrified Octavia. Madrigal's song was all the more violent, her guiding gusts all the more streamlined and narrow as they served to strike down the Maestra before her.

Where Rani could stand up to multiple blows, fingers alight and teeming with brilliance as they were, Madrigal's speed was relentless. Even Octavia couldn't tell how she knew where the blade was at any given point in time, surely trusting in Lyra's melody above all else. Her fingers were an equal blur, and Octavia had half a mind to wonder if they'd snap clean in half under the weight of every note.

Rani couldn't catch what she couldn't see. It didn't spare the delicate cloths that draped her deceased body, shredded at edges and hems. Every blow to the mortal material came with such force that Octavia briefly wondered if it was Madrigal's winds alone that were responsible. She knew better. She wasn't even sure that it was intentional, given the velocity that continued to build with every last spin of Madrigal's demonically-fast vortex. There was a knife in there, somewhere.

And when the Spirited girl was satisfied, Octavia found it much the same as Rani. She wasn't content to simply slit, outright slashing at the little Maestra's throat again and again. It was violence on every side, be it left, right, or even bursting hard against the place her vocal cords called home. She encircled, she stabbed, and she beat upon the dead girl's tender skin over and over with a ruthless speed that left Octavia breathless. Her control was perfect, her aim more so. The way by which Rani was powerless to do more than turn her head beneath the recoil was promising.

The lack of blood wasn't. When Madrigal's assault stilled, it came with a little blade stolen by immortal hands. Rani didn't need speed, content to embrace patience alone as she withstood every blow. Not a scratch rested on her skin, and Madrigal audibly gasped. It was all the girl could do to retreat, backpedaling as fast as her feet could carry her as her stormy song persisted.

Octavia wasn't sure if she'd noticed the way Rani's hands were just as patient, fizzling out with the onset of her stilled lips. Her eyes, for what Octavia could see beyond veiling luminescence, landed on the knife, fingers curling around the hilt gently. They uncurled just as gently, too, and there was nothing to clatter upon as the blade fell to what little rested below.

"Are you serious?" Renato shouted, his voice more so tinted with aggravation than fear.

"Don't let up!"

It wasn't a soul of ice that came to offer up all it had to Madrigal's gales. This duet, at least, Octavia had seen recently. It was still every bit as gorgeous as it was in Velpyre, each ember that Royal Orleans could blast into the open air snatched up without hesitation by a gusting storm. If it wasn't Lyra that steered Madrigal's hands, then this was all the more intimidating. Octavia held her breath.

As before, her control was perfect, and Harper's power was divine. The unforgiving flames that burst forth into her gusts sent every stream surging with glorious scarlets and oranges. His breaths were just as perfect as the girl's motions, and he lit her up with everything he had. Madrigal didn't flinch beneath the blaze, enveloped as she was in his unfathomable heat. It was a miracle that her winds didn't outright melt.

Rani surrendered her patience. Her close range to the Spirited Maestra, her fingers almost buried in the roaring flames that passed her by time after time, left little room for the same surging luminescence. Instead, the brilliance that bubbled to the surface of her palms was more than enough, the child's skin besieged by light that once again proved to be as holy as her Muse. Octavia still had half a mind to wonder if Madrigal could steal it, somewhat tangible as it was.

She cocked the bow against the strings of the violin regardless, steadying her aim as was necessary. She'd canceled out light with her own twice over. Tangible or not, Rani's should've been no different. This time, granted, her aim would matter far more. She never needed it, as it turned out.

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The fiery, stolen wrath that rode upon every gale erupted against the stars in Rani's palms as the Maestra cursed Madrigal with them in earnest. Royal Orleans was an unwavering blessing, and Harper's breath was just the same as he gave all he could give time and time again. He was fuel to her sun, and Madrigal crashed against the bursting radiance with such ferocity that she threatened to birth new stars of her own altogether. The resulting display was downright blinding enough that Octavia could hardly look, and the urge to shield her eyes was overpowering. Still, she didn't dare lift the bow from the strings--not for how every searing ray lie in waiting just inches away from her steadied fingers.

Should the Spirited girl falter, Octavia resolved to strike without hesitation. It wasn't as though she could see well enough to do so otherwise, for how the rage of the wrathful sun itself burned fiercely against light equally scathing. Every lashing flame and every exploding flare was a nova born between them, hellish and heavenly all at once. Where Madrigal pushed, Rani pushed back. For how she struggled to gain ground, her teeth gritted and her fingers taut upon every string, Octavia watched Madrigal's eyes narrow ever further.

"Viola!" she cried.

The Soulful Maestra in question flinched. "Are you sure?"

Madrigal nodded, never once tearing her eyes away from Rani. "I can take it!"

For the apprehension Octavia saw Viola swallow regardless, Silver Brevada on her lips once more was a solid answer. "R-Right!"

If Madrigal was devoid of the touch of an Apex, Octavia couldn't quite process the idea. It took only one song, even if her grip against the harp was to tighten ever further, to split her gales nearly in half. It wasn't quite even, given the stray gusts that still escaped her rippling streams. The embers that fled from her well-controlled, still-stolen inferno weren't caught again, fizzling quickly into the open air. It hardly mattered, for how much more occupied her attention became. It was two powerful breaths in tandem that she now claimed as her own, two melodies and legacies so opposite one another that came together in her hands.

Octavia could hardly believe her eyes, given how effectively Madrigal once again stole every ounce of crystalline violence Viola could offer to her raging storm. She was ruthless, descending onto Rani on every side with hellish fire and ice alike. It was as dazzling as it was brutal, and Harper's Willful flames left Viola's Soulful hail shimmering gorgeously as they spiraled forth.

Rani still didn't falter, although there was something exceedingly satisfying in seeing the little Maestra forced to put up a stronger fight--not that Octavia would've wished it. Her hands were aloft, the senseless verse that tumbled from her throat bringing yet more incandescent sparkles budding onto her fingertips. The brilliance surging along her skin, gracing her palms in full, wasn't localized for long. Yet again, it cut a path to the onslaught of legacies before her. Heaven's light at her leisure was devastating, every white-hot star that bubbled and boiled at her touch equally destructive at birth.

For the assault they'd launched on her, she was a light in and of herself that shone right back. Had Madrigal's gales not been as rapid and rushing as they were, Octavia again wondered if relentless radiance would've been enough to strike her down. The thought was horrifying--as was the realization that Rani was somehow capable of standing up to three legacies at once. There was only so much to be done with a steady stream, and Octavia feared for its predictability.

She raged against it, then. She'd never been a solid fighter up close, and Stradivaria's light was more than lethal even from afar. It wasn't worth canceling out Rani's own, which still continued to elude her eyes directly even now. To strike at her hands would've been most effective. Buried in radiance as they were, lost in the abundant novas that pulsed along every inch of her touch, Octavia could hardly hope to find them at all--to say nothing of the other three legacies blighting her at nearly every angle.

She'd already been disruptive once, and it was a strategy she could go for again. She'd never lost her rays, readied as they were along the strings. It took only seconds to cock the bow and still them like the arrows she knew them to be, the swift motions of her wrist that followed enough to send them sailing onwards. Once more, she didn't necessarily have to hit. Still, to do so would've been a plus, and Octavia was grateful to have gotten extremely close. Rani only had two hands, after all.

It wasn't enough to shake her, but it was more than enough of a distraction. Where Madrigal's storm of soul and will besieged the girl from the left, fiery spirals and crystalline spears still ruthlessly targeting the little Maestra, Octavia was just as brutal on her right. Every hurried slash of the bow across each string brought forth what of her own radiance she could draw to challenge the Apex of Heart, humble as she knew it to be by comparison. She braced herself as best as she could against the nothingness below, trusting in the little she could cling to beneath her feet. It was stolen light, too, which she was forced to trust in as she took all that Stratos could hold.

Again and again did Octavia embrace the throbbing brilliance that rushed through her blood, the stars pulsing beneath her skin and bursting from her fingertips. Sometimes, she met Rani's own, and the resulting boom came far too close to the Maestros who fought nearer than she would've liked. She was intangible. Rani was not. Still, light was light, and she'd had practice. How fast she could play was of greater concern, compared to how quickly a Maestra could sing. That, too, was a thought weighted enough to make Octavia sweat.

For all it must've taken to carry the violence of two songs alongside her own, Octavia could visibly see Madrigal's muscles straining somewhat. Her heart raced, and she struggled to play yet faster to compensate. Every vicious note she possessed struck deep into the fray, exploding on contact with luminescence still brighter than her own. She had half a mind to wonder if the residual embers that twinkled in the wake of her assault were a threat, for how they lingered endlessly.

There was fear in her heart, largely born of the concept of wasted effort. Under no circumstances would Harper or Viola have the capacity to face Rani head-on. Madrigal was a lifeline, a catalyst by which their fiery and frozen melodies were augmented and delivered with punishment in mind. If she faltered, there was little they could do--even in tandem. Still, Madrigal pushed with everything she had, her speed surprisingly sharp even in the wake of her strain.

"Let me have it!"

"Right!"

For every boom Octavia had brought down onto Rani's light, there were those that were far, far stronger than her own. Her soldier didn't let a single shard or ember go to waste, let alone the stormy velocity that Madrigal had so carefully gathered. Every unhesitant slash and swish of his wrists brought with it bursts that sent their efforts forward at speeds unmatched.

What had once been hurtling streams now became full-on bullets in earnest, each boom landing Rani squarely in his line of fire. Renato hardly needed to channel his momentum in any capacity, not for how the intermissions of vivid explosions at his back brought him surging forward like a comet. He was, perhaps, even more rapid than Madrigal's vortex--a sight that never failed to be mildly terrifying each and every time Octavia had seen it.

It paid off splendidly, given the unfathomable force with which the will of fire and a soul of ice crashed down onto the little Maestra. He showered her with a hailstorm of crystal and flames alike, the latter outright splintering into a searing rain that flickered viciously. For how Madrigal still squeezed out every last note she could, Renato, too, clung to as much velocity as she could give him. Octavia was absolutely stunned by the quality of his aim, and each lightning-quick boom still somehow evaded the Maestros in the process. He threaded the needle with aplomb. It was Rani alone who endured every blow.

To her credit, she did so with startling grace. Still, it was enough to push her back, and that in turn was enough to make Octavia's heart skip a beat. The girl's focus was split, her repulsive radiance equally so. She struggled to keep up with the icy inferno besieging her at a blinding speed. It wasn't so much that Rani solely clung to defense as it was that the tides had turned, and Octavia refused to lose the window she'd been given.

She played faster. She moved closer, even with Josiah locked firmly in her shadow. The way by which he did the same, even utterly unarmed with his knife by the wayside, was both admirable and worthy of scolding. Octavia didn't have the time to indulge the latter, and she indulged in the comfort of his warm support instead. She could only pray he wouldn't contribute in the same manner as their last bout with light.

Where both Willful and Soulful breaths were fragile and limited by time, powerful as they were, her soldier was relentless. The well of stamina he possessed was abnormal to a horrifying degree. Octavia resolved to exploit every last bit of it, and she hoped he wouldn't mind. It was what he'd signed up for, after all. When she saw him roll up his sleeves in the slightest, with or without prompting, she had her answer.

"Back me up, braids!" Renato shouted.

"Promise that you trust me!"

Even from here, the confidence behind his splitting grin was contagious. "Not a doubt in my mind!"

Octavia knew he'd dodge. He'd done it before, even if she never quite knew how.

She was half-convinced he could outright sense every bursting beam that raced far too closely past his skin, surely grazing him at least once over every ten or so times. Still, it didn't surprise her one bit that he was undaunted all the same. Again did Renato forgo his prior reliance on gathering momentum the mortal way, embracing the unbelievable recoil that accompanied deadly speed. The Harmonial Instrument that turned him into a weapon himself was enough to counter Rani's frontal assault--one-sided as it had largely been up until now.

The strength of sound beat down upon the little Maestra from above, behind, left, right, and every direction in between. Boom after boom at nearly point-blank range was enough to force her back. Rani was ambulatory, more than likely against her will, as she backpedaled beneath the weight of his blows. It wasn't enough to still her hands, and the radiance surging through her glimmering palms was offered up to the Strong Maestro from far too close a distance. Octavia wasn't ignorant to the way he unsuccessfully flicked his wrists upwards beneath Rani's own no less than thrice--a failed attempt to shatter the very hands that sought to take him down. She could see a glance of true irritation pass fleetingly by Renato's face at least once.

The fact that he had the courage to face the Apex of Heart head-on was as terrifying as it was emboldening, and she met his bravery with all she could offer. Octavia wove between their gap as carefully as she could, accommodating his reflexes where applicable. Her rays collided with Rani's hands once over, crashing brutally down onto the same fingers Renato had fought to snap in half just moments before. It wasn't nearly enough to do the same. Still, it was more than enough to send Rani's pulsing beams scattering like fizzling starlight. It was as gorgeous as it was validating.

Renato's grin, too, was brilliant enough to challenge the light that assailed him. For how fast his bursting smile had accompanied Octavia's aid, she doubted success was the only reason. Octavia's heart surged with equal confidence. She doubted she could reciprocate the same smile, given the situation. Instead, she honored Renato's skill with what speed she could give him to match, playing as quickly as her frantic fingers would allow.

What she couldn't cancel, he could catch. Octavia wasn't sure if it was intentional--although she knew his reaction time to be horrifically quick. The tip of Mistral Asunder forced back Rani's erupting starlight with eruptions of the boy's own, every flick of cherry oak returning her violence with a remorseless boom. At close range, the result was striking, for how Renato practically left a nova of his own in the wake of his blows.

The pooling clouds of radiance that hung in the air between the two Maestros was questionable. Octavia feared Renato would be burned outright, and there was little she could do to counteract the dazzling debris. If Renato cared, he didn't show it, and he moved ever faster. He was most definitely hitting Rani, whether with his own prowess or that which he returned to its rightful owner. Whether or not the delivery was meaningful was impossible to tell from her current distance, even nearer as it was. Octavia knew that he, too, couldn't go forever--Strong or not.

"She's losing ground," Josiah observed hurriedly, his voice almost in her ear.

"But I can't tell if we're actually doing any damage!" Octavia countered, never halting her lustrous song as the Strong Maestro kept up his assault.

"Your light is strong enough to counter hers," he argued anyway. "If you hit her with everything you've got, we might get somewhere!"

Octavia's eyes widened. "That's what I've been trying to do! That's what we've all been trying to do!"

"No, listen! I already know she's not normal. Her light is vulnerable against their legacies, but yours isn't! You and Faith, you were evenly matched. Tangible or not, your light canceled hers out. With one exception, no other legacy can fully counter your light except light. In this case, if it's you against her, it's possible that you're the strongest weapon we've got! If you give her everything you have, and I mean everything, you might be able to overpower her!"

"I'm just one person, Josiah!" she cried.

"You're the Ambassador!" he shouted, too close for comfort so near. "I've seen what you can do! You did it on the train, you did it in Velpyre--"

Even in the midst of her song, Octavia shook her head. "That's not how that works! That wasn't me! I didn't do it alone!"

"Your light is your light! I know what I saw!"

It wasn't at all what he'd meant. She knew that well. For how she'd taken it, it was no less true.

Octavia had always asked. She'd always pleaded for Stratos' permission. She'd always been content to be his conduit, to soak up what her body was capable of enduring and little more. He'd stretched her to her limits, and it was exactly what she'd needed. It wasn't even slightly under the same circumstances, and he'd blessed her blood with far more care--or so she liked to imagine. Of what she continued to steal from the Muse, even as she considered Josiah's unintentional sentiment, he hadn't resisted. Octavia wondered if Stratos had a choice, really.

If he could steal all that she possessed, sending her life crumbling to pieces, then this was the least he could do to repay her. It didn't make the concept any less daunting, let alone cement the idea as any more promising. To overpower the Apex of Heart, out of harmony with her own deceitful Muse as she was, was a deranged concept. She had little to lose, for all that was left to cling to.

Octavia had everything to take, then, instead.

She took a deep breath, flexing her straining fingers around the bow. "What's the one exception? What's the…other legacy that can deal with light?"

Josiah was brave to meet her eyes, given how vulnerable it left him. Octavia followed the path they flickered along, and her heart raced just the slightest bit faster. She caught the edges of a smirk across his lips, fleeting as it was. It clicked in a way that made her blood burn, stars streaming in her veins notwithstanding.

"Renato, back off!" Octavia screamed, already shifting her shoulders in a different direction entirely.

The Strong boy did as he was told without question, either tip of Mistral Asunder erupting with a force that repelled him in reverse. He landed on his feet a ways away, safely out of striking distance of the little Maestra whose pulsing touch never wavered.

Again, Octavia took a deep breath. She almost hesitated to exhale, for how she feared the question would be rejected.

"Viola."

The Soulful Maestra's eyes snapped to her own, Silver Brevada rising to her lips almost on instinct.

"Do you…think you can take everything I have?" Octavia asked tentatively.

Of all the ways Viola could've answered her, she did so with a grin upon the mouth of a flute. "Thought you'd never ask."

Octavia nodded, her heart pounding in earnest for a thousand different reasons. For once and once only, she found a smile in the midst of Heaven's wrath.

She'd hardly needed to elaborate to Viola, and Josiah was silent much the same. She'd never seen so much crystalline glory gracing the air at once, firm and shimmering in the presence of Rani's distantly-sparkling light. It was absolutely resplendent, angled cleanly and precisely in a way that left Octavia's eyes wide with disbelief. It was perfect. It put every last sparkling shard of glass Octavia had ever seen in her life to utter shame, spread wide and accommodating all she could've envisioned.

Viola had more or less read her mind. Flecks of scattering frost danced delicately down to the nothingness at her feet, and the chilling aura of the incredible glacier above was palpable even below. Octavia prayed it wouldn't break. It was all she could do to trust in the ice that her heart knew so well.

For how she could already hear Rani's indecipherable words blessing the boundary with unfortunate beauty again, she had little time to close her eyes. She thought to berate Stratos. She thought to warn him of what was to come. She thought, for a brief moment, to ask anyway. She'd never done it alone, and she'd never taken what wasn't rightfully hers to have.

Octavia thought back to each time she'd become his sun, crushed and crumpled beneath the weight of the radiance he'd poured into her veins. She considered the sensation of her hands engrossed in his light, by which her skin upon the strings still tingled and fizzled even at rest. It was a breath in and a breath out, and he'd not given her time to breathe. She could hold her breath. It wasn't as though he'd need it.

It didn't make it any less of a trial by fire, and she resolved to cast only her song high. Octavia's eyes were firmly forward, and her mind rested somewhere in the depths of her heart. For all that she was, for the light she hoped to become, she wouldn't ask him after all. She had a prayer, a vessel, and a soul of ice she trusted in with all of her being. That was all she'd need to work with. She settled the bow over the strings, braced herself against the emptiness below, and swallowed what fear she could.

It was more of a threat than anything. If her words were lost on them, she didn't care. They weren't for those she loved, anyway.

"I'm the Ambassador, damn it," Octavia growled aloud, "and I'm taking everything you have!"

She inhaled with her blood, her soul, and her heart all at once. Her true breath was irrelevant, and it was largely a lust for an unbending burn that kept her fueling a fire she couldn't fathom. She didn't dare stop once to consider if it was working. She didn't dare do anything except embrace what scathing warmth she could feel rushing through her veins and flooding her pores. It was strong, surging, a pressure not quite instant. It wasn't the crushing blow she'd felt in Velpyre all at once, and yet she wasn't ignorant to the way it grew heavier all the same.

She was straining, she was searing, and she submitted to the sun scorching her soul from the inside-out. It didn't hurt, although keeping her eyes open was just as much of a challenge as ever. To move her hands was a struggle, and to let her fingers fly was much the same. Octavia gritted her teeth, more than content to surrender to the scathing heat that grew fiercer, fiercer, fiercer still inside of her heart. It was hers, and she soaked up every last bit that she could handle like an infernal nova.

Octavia could hear Rani. She could hear the same song birthed once again, and she knew the distance to be great enough to pose more than an ample threat. The unrelenting tide of radiance that had blighted them before was a viable fear, especially given the way Octavia watched the little Maestra slowly raise her glimmering hands aloft.

She had no time for her heart to race yet faster, for how it was already bursting with scorching starlight she embraced in full. Octavia wondered at what point it was truly everything he had, let alone whether she was fully capable of stealing it all at once. She wondered if he'd ever been fully honest about just how much he'd given. The brighter she burned from within, the more she contemplated the latter. It felt that much sweeter, subsequently.

And where Rani's heavenly melody cursed her with the surging sea of luminescence she'd feared, an angel of death casting judgment in the most lustrous way, Octavia challenged her with the wrath of a supernova. She was explosive, unable to resist the scream that ripped from her throat in time with the bow tearing across the strings. All that she had, blinding and hot enough to melt her soul, erupted upwards in a blaze of glorious radiance that shamed the sun. She didn't dare look, nor did she need to. She found it again instantly, crashing down with heavenly judgment of her own into the searing sea.

Octavia's song brought with it iridescence that split and shimmered, sharply focused in the most beautiful display of color she'd ever seen in her life. It was no less deadly and no less wrathful, abundant and haphazardly divided as her vivid rays smashed into Rani's own radiance head-on. It was an even match, if not a striking difference in visuals.

Never had Octavia witnessed her light as anything aside from the soft ivories and gentle golds Stratos had blessed her with. Now, her violent rainbow left her blessed with the feeling of every Muse she'd ever guided in her hands once more. The splintered quantity was immense, scattering and streaming in the most resplendent of tidal waves. Silver Brevada's desperate harmony amongst her own was perhaps even more gorgeous, fighting in tandem to support the sheer weight of one another's prowess.

Octavia didn't tire. She surged, and she surged, and she played, and she was a catalyst for light in and of itself. She didn't let herself fixate on the way Rani's own radiance was receding beneath the onslaught of her own, lest she grow complacent and let the sun rushing through her veins falter. She could hear them contributing.

She could hear Royal Orleans. She could hear Lyra's Repose. She could hear Mistral Asunder. She could hear them raging of their own accord in perfect harmony with her own unbending, pouring radiance. She could feel Josiah in her shadow where he warmed her the most, his confidence in her undoubtedly contagious. She could feel love where Stratos offered her none, and it was perhaps the only thing that teemed more thoroughly through her bloodstream than adrenaline and starlight.

For them alone, Octavia wanted to live. She so, so desperately wanted to live.

In the moment where her unyielding onslaught of luminous hues met with zero resistance, she briefly had the heart to believe in victory. She made the mistake of indulging in hope, even if she still opted to cling to the burning breath of radiance that pulsed throughout her body. She alone was not radiant. There was a way by which time slowed as Rani threw her arms wide, the volume of her song far too loud for what could be expected of such a small child. It practically seared Octavia's ears--to say nothing of what sustained, crystalline notes did to her body.

The single, sweeping pulse of brilliance that surged forth surpassed the prowess of her own by miles, far more befitting of the Apex of Heart. It was more than enough to dispel all that she'd so carefully crafted, summoned, and stolen. It didn't truly burn, and yet it swept her clean off her feet all the same. Even devoid of true, searing agony, the pain Octavia encountered was immense, and she cried out as her feet left the safety of nothingness below. Stradivaria came with her, and her loosened grip brought the violin and bow crashing down beside where her body came to rest.