Linvana was flying.
She danced effortlessly through the air, born of the winds themselves. She dove, plunging through a cloudbank. The wisps of vapor felt cool against her shin.
The clouds parted, and she emerged back into the sunlight. She soared higher, effortlessly riding the swell of warmth.
Something else flew with her. A bird, nebulous wings made of glowing mist. For a while, they danced together, circling the pristine white orb that made the land swell with life and beauty. They were kindred and free.
The spirit dove, and Linvana followed. They skimmed the ground, racing over rocky ridges blooming with new life. Then they were past the hills and skimming the water. A lake, deep and dark and clear.
This was what she was meant to be. A spirit of Light, unshackled by the rules of the universe. She was always-
The winds lifting her vanished.
She panicked as her graceful dive turned to a tumbling fall. Her breath caught in her throat as she hit the water.
Hands reached out of the depths. They clawed at her, pulling her down, to the shadows. There were faces too pale and sunken. Dead.
Linvana spun, trying to pull free of their grasp. She lunged towards the surface, but she was blocked by a tangle of twisting, sharp, impossible edges. Pyramids of pure shadow.
She was falling again, plummeting through nothingness. Shapes flashed past. The World-Eater. Celestial implements of war, forged from starfire. Other forms too terrible and twisted to comprehend.
The bird. It flashed past, quickly shrinking in the distance. She reached for it, snatching the trail of Light it left in its wake. It puled her along, dragging her out of the shadows, and towards the moldering remains of the orb that had once been so white and perfect.
Linvana awoke with a gasp.
She bolted upright, chest heaving as she sucked down gulps of cold, dry air. She was drowning. Lungs on fire. Shaking body covered in cold sweat. Temples pounding in rhythm with her racing pulse. Shadows enveloping her, crushing her. A whirlwind of images, dark and terrible, crashed against her thoughts, too much to make sense of.
Telysa, woken by Linvana's sudden movement, rolled over with a start, hand-cannon in her grip.
"What is it?" she whispered, eyes darting nervously around the low room.
Linvana stared at the shadows in the corners, searching for some hidden foe that wasn't there. Finally, the churning sea of memories and darkness released its grip on her mind. Wisps of other dreams flickered at the edge of her thoughts. She reached for them, but they evaporated under her scrutiny, like mist in the morning sun.
"Nothing," Linvana said quietly. "Just a dream."
She slumped back down on the narrow double cot. Her body ached in a dozen places, bruises and scrapes from the battle. No, it wasn't a battle, it was a beating, and they had been on the receiving end.
Telysa laid back down next to Linvana, tucking the hand-cannon under her pillow. She nestled her body against Linvana's, and before long, her breathing steadied as she settled in to a light and fitful doze.
Sleep eluded Linvana. Her thoughts churned with an uncertain mix of pain, anger, worry, and sheer disbelief. She laid awake, her wife in her arms, until the gaps in the walls began to brighten with the coming dawn.
Her body protested as she pulled the covers off and slipped out of bed. The uneven metal floor was freezing against her bare feet. Her initial worries about sleeping in a Vex structure had passed, though she still held some reservations. Every Guardian had herd tales of explorers slowly going mad because hey spent too much time among the machines' ruins, but that just seemed so insignificant compared to their other problems. Heh. The threat of imminent extinction tended to do that to your priorities.
She rummaged through Telysa's supply crates in the corner and found some foil-wrapped protein bars. She grabbed a handful and opened one as Telysa finally stirred.
The Huter swung her feet onto the floor. She remained sitting on the bed, head bowed, dislocated arm tied in a sling.
Linvana offered a protein bar to Telysa and pulled a flimsy metal chair next to the bed. She sat on it the wrong way, arms folded across the back, as they silently ate their tasteless breakfast.
"Okay," Linvana said as she chewed her last mouthful of the thick paste, "You said you have an idea that might help us get our Light back. It'd better be a good one, because reaching the Traveler is going to be literally impossible."
Telysa shook her head as she swallowed. "Not the Traveler. Well, sort of. Remember the Chamber of Night? The Hive were using a shard of the Traveler's shell to siphon the Light, because all Light is connected, blah blah blah."
Linvana nodded. "I remember. Are you saying there's another shard out there?"
"There's probably lots of them. We've all seen the scars on the Traveler's shell. But the important thing about this shard is it's here."
"Here, as in here on Mars?"
"Here as in here in this valley."
"Wait…so you mean that's why the Vex…" Linvana began.
"Built a cloaking field over the region? To hide the shard they found? That was Azul's theory as well."
Linvana sagged as she realized the implications. "Tel, were in no shape to fight a bunch of Vex. What good is this shard if we can't get to it?"
"We won't have to fight," Telysa insisted.
"You expect me to believe that the Vex successfully captured a shard of the Traveler, built a whole cloaking field around it, and just left it unguarded?"
"Well…sort of."
Linvana gave Telysa a flat stare.
"Do you trust me?" Telysa asked.
"Of course I do," Linvana replied immediately.
"Then trust me when I tell you we won't have a problem once we reach the shard. Getting there though…that might be a problem."
Linvana stared up at seven meters of sheer red sandstone.
To the left, the thin waterfall that fed the pool splashed over the rock. It poured out of a V shaped split in the cliff face. According to Telysa, that shard of the Traveler was at the distant head of that ravine.
"So how did you get up the first time?" Linvana asked. The stone was smooth, un-climbable.
"First time was easy. I just double-jumped right up."
"Oh, right," Linvana mumbled.
She glanced at the waterfall. Over the years, it looked like the stream had carved down through the rock, following and widening an existing seam in the stone. The crack was barely a few hairs wide at the base of the falls. A few above head level though, it was wide enough for her to slip her fingers in, if she could just reach it.
"I have an idea," Linvana said. She eyed the waterfall apprehensively. There wasn't much water, but climbing with it splashing in her face would be incredibly difficult. "You sure we won't need to fight when we get there?"
"Yes," Telysa replied, "I promise."
Linvana began undoing the straps to her armor. Most of the plasteel plates were broken anyway, so they wouldn't provide much protection in a firefight. They were just dead weight. She set them in a stack beside the pool and gingerly handed her backpack to Telysa. The bag held her dazed and incoherent Ghost.
"Alright, hand me the rope, and your knife," she said.
Telysa slipped off the thin coil of cord looped on her shoulder and gave it to Linvana. Somewhat more reluctantly, she proffered her knife.
Linvana slipped the rope over her shoulder and approached the waterfall with the knife in hand. The water quickly soaked her hair and face. She ignored it and examined the crack. At eye level, it was a little narrower than her little finger.
She slid the knife into the crack and pulled down, wedging the blade between the sides. It held when she pulled with her weight.
Here goes nothing, she thought. She gripped the knife with both hands and pulled herself up. Her joints groaned as she reached one hand and wedged her fingers in the crack. Then she released the knife and jammed her other hand above the first, anchoring her weight to the wall.
She needed to get her feet on something. Her arms wouldn't support her weight very long. The wet sandstone gave no traction for her boots, so she carefully pulled up her legs and rested one foot on the knife handle.
Hands still wedged in the crack, Linvana slowly stood up, foot balanced on the knife. The water rushed in her face, and her limbs already trembled from exertion. The pain in her temples pounded at her brain. Dammit, why was this so hard? She should've been able to scrambl up the wall in seconds.
Ghaul had taken more than her power. He had somehow taken the strength of her body too.
"Lin, you alright?" Telysa called from below.
Linvana jumped and nearly lost her balance. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said. Just climb the damn wall.
It got easier as she got higher, which was good, since she was burning out fast. The crack continued to widen, allowing her to reach in with her entire hand. She focused on the process of climbing, wedge one foot in, push up and find a place for her hand, secure the other foot, reposition her hand, rinse and repeat. She didn't even notice she was near the top until she heaved herself over the edge.
She collapsed in the burbling stream of water, drained and exhausted. Titans were supposed to be powerful and mighty beyond reason, even without their armor. Was it really just the Light the whole time? Was her strength just some secret dependence on a dead god that hadn't even helped them during their hour of greatest need?
She sighed and stood up. She didn't have time for an existential crisis.
Her red and gray fieldweave had repelled the water, but that hadn't stopped her face, hair, and the rope from getting soaked. She moved to the side of the ravine, so she could pull Telysa up without her getting wet too.
Telysa caught the end of the rope that Linvana tossed down. The Hunter tied it around her waist and signaled to Linvana that she was ready. Linvana looped it around a jutting rock and pulled, using the stone as a crude pulley. A few minutes, and no shortage of effort later, Telysa was standing next to Linvana.
Linvana swayed and leaned against the wall. She finally took her pack and her Khvostov from Telysa and turned to examine the ravine. Vex blocks jutted out of the walls in places. The hard, square lines were a sharp contrast to the flowing, water carved walls. The thin stream filled the width of the passage, the bottom lined with gritty silt.
Telysa started walking up the ravine. With some trepidation, Linvana followed.
It took them three hours to reach the head of the ravine. It was barely ten kilometers long, but bit felt so much longer. She couldn't tell if it was because of her exhaustion, or because the proximity to so many Vex structures warped her perception of time. She could barely muster enough energy to care.
The narrow canyon wound up the shallow mountainside, a gash torn in the rocky Martian badlands. They passed several solitary pillars of stone and metal as they walked. They weren't near as complex as the ruins of Telysa's hideout, but they marked the Vex's presence nonetheless.
The ravine straightened for the last kilometer. They could see all the way to the where the narrow canyon ended in another sheer wall. The stream emerged from an ominous dark split in the stone.
Telysa pulled an electric lantern from her pack when they reached the tunnel entrance. She turned it on and stepped into the shadows.
The daylight quickly faded behind them as the rough stone passage twisted through the rock. The lantern cast a pool of yellow light around them, a tiny island in the darkness. A shot distance later, they came across the source of the water. It gushed out of a hole at the base of the wall. The tunnel continued past the spring, so they kept going as well.
Blocks of Vex stone and metal jutted from the walls in some places. Linvana had to turn and squeeze past, careful not to snag her mark on the sharp metal layers.
Linvana suppressed a shiver. The tunnel was eerily similar to the Vault of Glass. Endless passages and chambers, delving deeper and deeper through the Venusian crust and bewildering Vex realities. The silence enveloping them had a physical presence, almost like it was aware of them trespassing. It only reminded her how terrifying the Vex were. As if she could ever forget.
Telysa navigated the darkness with obvious familiarity. She had traversed the tunnel before, and she had emerged alive and unscathed. That much at least, Linvana could trust.
Telysa extinguished the lantern, and Linvana realized she could still see. A faint blue glow emanated from further up the tunnel.
They turned the corner, and the tunnel opened up into a narrow cavern. The chamber was a diagonal slash through the rock, one side slanting lower than the other. It was only a few meters across, but several times longer. The light came from the bizarre plants that covered the floor and ceiling. They were unlike any flora she had seen before. Twisting, bulbous polyps, spiky "trees" with spindly, crystalline branches and no leaves, creeping vines with feathery fronds. All of them glowed, a whole rainbow of colors, though the majority of them were blue and green.
"What the hell…" Linvana whispered. The cavern was so utterly alien, it made the Black Garden look normal.
"Azul said it all came through there," Telysa said. She pointed to the back of the chamber, at a Vex portal Linvana hadn't noticed before.
"You mean that portal connects to another planet?" Linvana asked.
"Not just another planet, another galaxy. Azul tried mapping it. It leads somewhere outside of the visible universe."
Linvana swallowed. "I really don't like this place."
"These caves are all still on Mars," Telysa promised. "We're not in danger of getting lost in the dark corners of time or whatever. Just…don't touch any of the portals. You already know that though."
"Portals? As in more than one?"
"There's dozens. They each connect to a different time and place. Azul called this a fractal nexus, a vertical crossroads for the Vex network."
"So which came first, the shard, or the nexus?" Linvana wondered aloud, gears turning, "Did the Vex build this place around the shard, or did the shard…come from a portal?"
"I don't know, and I honestly don't care. The Vex will do whatever they do. If you want to know why, ask a Warlock."
Telysa crossed the cave, carefully stepping through the carpet of luminescent plants Linvana followed and traced Telysa's footsteps as best she could.
She paused in front of the gate. The vortex of energy pulsed gently, hypnotically. For a moment, she held the impression of a distant landscape, with a broken horizon and three suns. The light shifted, and it was gone.
She scrambled to catch up to Telysa. The Hunter was squeezing through a crack in the back wall, one of many similar openings. Linvana turned sideways and slipped through after her.
The other side was a narrow Vex corridor. The walls were lined with panels of silvery white metal, etched with faint circuit patterns. The passage only went a short distance before it deposited them broad chamber.
Instead of alien plants, the cave was filled with Vex ruins. Blocks protruded from the walls, and rows of square columns lined the far corners. A pool of dark water sat in the middle, surrounded by a handful of green ferns. The entire chamber was illuminated by a web of yellow filaments hanging from the ceiling. . They stood on a narrow ledge a few meters above the floor.
What truly dominated the space however, was the jagged shard of white matter that filled the back of the room. It wasn't huge, no more than ten meters across, and it had a roughly triangular shape, but its presence dominated the small chamber. One face was smooth and flat. The rest were torn and uneven.
How did it end up all the way down here? Linvana wondered. The Traveler had supposedly fought the Darkness as it fled from Jupiter back to Earth. Any debris would have fallen on the planet surface.
Telysa started walking down a stone lip that led down to the floor. As soon as she stepped off the ledge, a cloud of mist filled the cave.
"Telysa…" Linvana warned, raising her Khvostov. Electricity snapped through the cloud as skeletal figures began to form.
There were at least two-dozen of them. Too many. This was it. They were going to die.
"Easy," Telysa said, resting a reassuring hand on Linvana's shoulder, "They won't hurt us."
"What?"
The Vex dropped out of the mist, spindly figures clad in jagged, metallic dark blue armor. They were different from the Vex Linvana had fought on Mars. Their armor was smoother, more saturated with color. Their eyes glowed bright yellow instead of the usual red. Strips of silver metal ran down their limbs and across their chests.
The entire squad of goblins, hobgoblins, and a single minotaur, turned to face the two Guardians. Telysa pulled out Azul and held the Ghost up like an offering.
The machines regarded the unconscious Ghost with discerning eyes. In unison, they lowered their weapons.
Linvana gaped. "What the hell…"
"They did this the first time I came here," Telysa said, "I don't know why, but as soon as they saw Azul, their aggression evaporated."
"Telysa," Linvana said slowly, "I've seen docile Vex once or twice, but they always grow angry when we're near. What the hell is going on here?"
"I wish I could explain it," Telysa replied, "but I haven't the faintest idea. They should let us approach the shard. They did last time."
She led Linvana down the stone path, around the side of the room. The Vex followed them with their cyclopean eyes. They made no moves as towards the Guardians as they stepped between their ranks and crossed the floor.
There was something vaguely familiar about the machines. Most of the Vex on Mars were dark blue in color, but these ones were more exotic looking. Jagged patters along their head fans, and strips of metal down the frames, like conduits…
Just like the crimson Vex she had fought on Mercury.
"Telysa," Linvana whispered urgently, "These goblins, they have conduit networks embedded in their armor."
The Hunter frowned, "So?"
"So I've seen this before. The Incendiary Revision, the Vex that built the Monolith. They were designed to channel Solar energy. Elva theorized there might be similar collectives for Void and Arc energy. I think…this must be one of those collectives."
"That makes sense," Telysa replied, "The Vex have been trying to channel Arc storms here for years. They stand out in the open, build giant hydras specifically to capture the power. These Vex could be the next step." Her frown deepened. "But why would they be down here guarding a shard of the Traveler?"
Linvana shook her head. "Elva could tell us something something, but…she's not here"
"I'm not going to question it," Telysa decided, "and I don't want to linger long enough for them to change their minds."
Reluctantly, Linvana let Telysa lead her across the center of the room. They moved deliberately, careful not to touch any of the Vex.
They wove their way past each machine, until only the solitary minotaur stood between them and the shard, blocking their path.
It stared at them with its single yellow eye, skin shimmering faintly underneath a translucent energy shield. It simply stood there, hulking and powerful. Even with her abilities at full strength, minotaurs were difficult to handle. If this one decided to attack them in their weakened state, well, it wouldn't even be a fight.
Linvana swallowed and consciously forced down her panic. If these Vex wanted to kill them, they would already be dead. They just had to step around the side, between the pillar-
The minotaur stepped sideways. Linvana snapped her rifle up, combat instincts taking over, but the giant Vex didn't attack. It just moved over to the side, back against the pillar.
Linvana glanced at Telysa and saw she was thinking the same thing. Did the minotaur really just make way for us?
Telysa just shook her head and slowly edged past the minotaur. Linvana followed. She cast an apprehensive look back at the room full of Vex. Vex that now stood between them and their way out.
The shard loomed above them. It leaned against the back wall, balanced on its edge.
A soft chirp came from Linvana's pack. She slipped it off her shoulders and scrambled to pull out Polaris. The little Ghost turned to her, segments of his shell trembling.
"Guardian," he whimpered, "The Light…I can feel it."
Uncertain what to do, she held him up to the shard. A faint web of blue lines appeared beneath the surface. They flowed across the shard and converged underneath Polaris. The Light stabbed out of the shard and struck the Ghost with a snap.
Polaris yanked back with a gasp. He spun franticly in the air, confused, but lucid.
"Quick," Linvana said stepping aside so Telysa could reach the shard. The Hunter held Azul over the glowing spot. Another pulse of Light struck him. His optic pulsed once, twice, then started glowing with steady light. He gently turned in Telysa's hand.
Polaris calmed down, the segments of his shell settling into place.
"Linvana?" he said, his voice shaking, "I'm…back?"
Beside him, Azul slowly spun around and scanned the room. "You brought us to the shard," he said, "Smart move."
"Where…where are we?" Polaris asked, still confused.
"We're on Mars," Telysa explained, "Claritas mountains. We brought you to a small shard of the Traveler's shell down here."
"A shard? How…Oh right. The Traveler." Polaris visibly deflated. Linvana knew exactly how he felt, waking up and realizing it wasn't all just a bad dream. They really had lost everything.
Not quite everything though. Ghaul had ripped a piece of her soul when he stole their Light. Now she had that back. She had known Polaris her entire life, all three years of it. This didn't bring back any of the lives lost, or rebuild the Tower, but…it was a start. Nothing more, nothing less.
Linvana smiled and hugged her ghost, pulling his shell against her cheek.
"I don't think that's necessary," he protested.
"Oh Polaris," Linvana choked. She sniffled as she wiped tears out of her eyes. "Just...don't say anything for once."
"Okay," he grumbled.
Beside them, Telysa was having a much more sedated reunion with Azul. They simply stared at each other and shared the moment.
Linvana finally released Polaris. Feeling triumphant, euphoric even, she reached deep inside her chest, searching for her Solar source. She almost missed it at first. It was just a tiny little spark, nothing like the familiar simmering flame. She took hold of it anyway and summoned a grenade to her hand.
A phantom flicker of warmth pulsed through her hand for a moment, and then it was gone.
"Polaris, what's going on? Our powers…"
"There's not enough Light," Azul said quietly, "This shard very small, and it's not connected to the rest of the Traveler. It's been down here for years, cut off by the Vex. It has nowhere near the paracausal capital needed to access your abilities."
"Oh," Linvana said flatly. She glanced at Telysa, who just shrugged.
"There is more Light left in this shard," Azul continued. "It might be enough for a single resurrection…"
"Wait," Linvana interrupted, "Leave it."
"Why?" Telysa asked, "If we have the Light, we should use it."
"A single resurrection won't get us very far in a war against the Cabal," Linvana explained, "But a handful of fully operational Ghosts could transmat supplies, repair weapons, infiltrate Cabal systems…"
Telysa smiled as she realized what Linvana was suggesting. "If we can get a network of Ghosts together, we can organize, search for survivors, scout the extent of the Cabal's forces."
Linvana nodded. "We need to find our fireteam."
"Right," Telysa agreed, "Let's get out of here."
They turned around and walked right into the Minotaur.
Linvana yelped and raised her Khvostov. Telysa reached for her hand-cannon.
The minotaur regarded them with a stony gaze. Slowly, it knelt and raised its hands to the two Guardians. It held a triangular shard of jagged sky-blue crystal, with thick wires set into the edges.
Behind it, the rest of the Vex knelt, arms raised in supplication.
For a moment, Linvana and Telysa stared at the minotaur, too shocked to speak or move.
"Uh…what's going on?" Telysa asked.
"I think it wants us to take the crystal," Azul said.
"Why, in the name of the Traveler, would a Vex robot give us a blue rock?" Telysa balked.
"I don't know, do I look like an ancient time-traveling murderous-gone-pacifist robot?" Azul snapped.
"Guys," Linvana interrupted before they could keep arguing, "I've seen a crystal like this before. Dellander ripped it out of the Incendiary Revision's axis mind. Elva said they used it to channel Solar power…"
She reached out and touched the crystal. The minotaur didn't react. She gently lifted it out of the minotaur's hand. The broad Vex immediately stood up and moved aside. Behind it, the rest of the strange blue Vex parted, leaving a pathway to the exit
"So…" Polaris said, "We just walk out?"
"If they want us to go, I'm not going to argue," Telysa replied.
Linvana slid the crystal into her pack, and they left the way they came.
"I don't like it," Linvana declared as they emerged back into the sunlight. It was just past midday, and the sun shone straight down the ravine. "We just saw something terribly wrong. That wasn't just non-aggression that was…worship?"
"I agree," Telysa said, "But they seem content to leave us be, and they did just give us some weird crystal. We're going to have to leave it for now. We have other problems to tackle."
"Right. About that," Linvana continued. She took a deep breath and mentally resorted her priorities. "We need to find our team, but we also need to get back to Earth. We've already been away for too long."
"We know where most of them should be," Telysa noted, "but you're saying we don't have time to go search for them."
"Exactly. And we need to bring them here, so they can get their Ghosts back to full capacity."
"If you take me to our ship," Polaris chirped up, "I can use the high-gain sensors to send a message. Tell them to rendezvous here."
No objected, so she let a companionable silence fall over the group. Linvana felt refreshed as they walked down the ravine. Azul had repaired the damage to Telysa's arm and shoulder. She walked confidently, her footsteps firm.
"Telysa," Linvana asked after a while, "Did you know we could use the shard when you told me to set a course for Mars?"
"Sort of," Telysa said, "I was more worried about getting to safety, but yes, now that you mention it, I chose this hideout because of the shard."
Linvana nodded. "I guess I didn't give you enough credit. This whole time I thought we were cowards running away from a fight."
"Well that doesn't surprise me much. You are after all, still a Titan."
Linvana snorted. "Oh shut up already."
Telysa glanced back at Linvana with a sly smile. "If you want me to stop talking, you'll have to make me."