Part 2 begins! I'm actually not 100% done with the entire section (some health issues got in the way of writing-time, bleh) but I'm mostly done and it should be rolling out on a weekly schedule until we hit Part 3.
As you might have noticed, the sort of metatextual theme of this story is "old books," and there are a lot of old books referenced in this story. The very first reference is in there before chapter one even begins.
Chapter 7 – Wild Land
It was late afternoon when they arrived on Venus, angling towards the surface until they were gliding over a forest that undulated below them as restless and seamless as an ocean. Walker-17 leaned back to take in the sight through the viewscreen in front of them. "It's so much greener that I expected…"
Venus had impressed him when he'd first arrived, years ago. There was something to be admitted in the way it stubbornly clung to the lushness it had enjoyed during the Golden Age, but even so, the signs of decay were there. It was evident in the sulfuric pools and the ever-growing patches of bare, yellowing ground. The vegetation of the world typically had an air of desperation clinging to it. It was resilient, but it was not lush.
This was another story altogether; the forest was wild and thick, with a deep emerald heart that brightened to lighter shades as leaves strained up through the canopy. Every now and then they saw water flashing briefly below them, a narrow teal ribbon that wound through the trees. Small flying creatures scattered as their ship dipped lower, and small nimble shapes darted into the shelter of the deeper branches.
At one point, the ground abruptly dropped away. Walker-17 and Flicker simultaneously gasped in delight at the sight before them: a sheer cliff, bristling with trees nearly to the very edge, and flowing between them, flinging itself down the cliff-face in a gauzy mist, was a breathtaking waterfall. They guided the ship lower.
"It's treacherous ground," Matthias finally declared. "We could try and drop you here, but I wouldn't recommend it." They flew along the narrow canyon formed by the drop for a few moments. Trees clung stubbornly to the rock face here and there, and in the slimmer gaps, the canyon was laced through with vines. "It is lovely, though."
The Thunder Child raised its nose to the air and arced back up over the forest, searching for a drop zone closer to their coordinate-range.
The canopy was nigh-impenetrable. The Thunder Child itself didn't have any mounted weaponry, so blasting their way into the forest wasn't an option, but nor, it seemed, would be landing terribly close to the facility. "It should be somewhere in this area," Matthias said, peering at the display on the viewscreen as the ground rolled by. "We don't have so much a pinpoint on where this place is we do a possible range of where it is." Walker-17 saw only trees, and the rare glimpses of the ground he could catch between them was smothered with vines and undergrowth.
Eventually they decided to set down; they had their general region to look through, and any more detailed searches would have to be carried out on foot. After some more flying, they found a clearing wide enough to admit the Thunder Child closer to the ground, and in a few flickers of light the Ghosts had everyone out. The jungle loomed all around them.
This was a far cry from the forest Walker-17 and Virna had crossed paths in days earlier. The Great Bear Rainforest had radiated an air of age, of a sedate world, gripped by cold, whose harsh edges had been dulled by time and the growth of green things. The forests of Venus were a wilder thing altogether. The air all around them was as warm as the breath of a living beast.
"The general direction we want to go," Matthias said, swiveling to indicate what he meant, "is that way."
Evoksis nodded and stepped forward without a word. Walker-17 watched him, and the way he kept swiveling is head this way and that, drinking in the sights and sounds all around him. He'd said he was from Venus. Was he feeling homesick? Nostalgic? It was impossible for him to tell. The Dreg finally turned to them, nodded decisively, and began to trot into the underbrush, pulling his knife free as he did. Virna's crow abruptly launched from her shoulder and, with heavy wingbeats, carried itself into the canopy.
It was slow going. The underbrush of the rainforest was just as unyielding as the canopy had been, dominated by great broad-leafed plants and choked by grasping creeper vines. Evoksis led them between the trunks, showing them with plants parted easily and safely to admit their passing and occasionally pointing out ones to avoid. "Thorns," he would say, simply. "Stinging insects."
The green-tinged shade provided by the trees gathered into a deeper, hungrier darkness as twilight rolled in. As they passed a particularly large, gnarled tree, Evoksis put his knife between his teeth and quite casually clambered up it, digging his claws into the bark, hoisting himself up with the branches and the vines that clung to the trunk.
Walker-17 was reminded, briefly, of the ease with which Virna had climbed the support structures that had been holding the Thunder Child, and was quietly amused. They waited in patient silence while Evoksis clambered out onto one of the branches and peered about, getting the lay of the land. "When do you want to camp?" he called down.
Nobody was particularly tired yet, but the onset of night would make the search difficult to the point of near-impossibility. The entire area had been eaten alive by the forest, and they might very well pass by the only sign of civilization without even noticing it in the dark. "Maybe in another hour or two, I'm guessing," Virna called up.
Evoksis nodded and scurried down the trunk, turning and leading them down whatever path he'd managed to scout out from the tree. They trudged on. The heat and humidity were still formidable despite the gathering shadows, which only served as a grim portend for what the weather was going to be like the next day, under the full force of the sun.
About two hours after sundown, they finally stopped. There was a brief discussion over the pros and cons of building a fire. It would be more for light and comfort than for actual need, and if there was anything dangerous lurking in the rainforest, a fire would make it much easier for them to be found. In the end, though, the risks were few enough to justify one. The worst they'd likely have to worry about was curious jungle fauna, and that was nothing they couldn't handle.
Virna and Evoksis were the only two who knew anything about properly building a fire, as neither of the Guardians had really ever needed one. Finding dead wood in such a lush place was a challenging task, but Evoksis managed it, and carefully arranged the tinder and the surrounding stones into as near a perfect circle as he could, pushing each of the border stones flush.
"Is there some kind of advantage to that?" Coyote-3 asked, watching with his hands on his hips at the painstaking care that went into creating the fire.
"For luck," Evoksis replied. When Coyote-3 only tilted his head sharply in silent question, Evoksis traced the shape of a circle in the air with his hands. "It is a holy shape."
"Oh."
After they'd established camp, Evoksis excused himself and left. Walker-17 watched him go, noting the ease and speed with which he vanished into their surroundings. He wondered, briefly, whether or not the Dreg would even come back. After all, he was from this place, wasn't he? And it wasn't as if he could return to the moon…
Evoksis did come back to camp, though, and when he did, he wasn't empty-handed. He was holding two plump, brown-feathered birds by the legs, and a large clump of broad, thick leaves. Walker-17 was no expert, but they reminded him somewhat of pheasants. "Dinner," Evoksis said simply.
"Did you not bring any rations?" Virna asked, clearly puzzled. Her crow had returned to her, and was perched above, an indistinct shadow rendered brassy by the flickering fire's light.
"Yes. Have them. But these are fresh." He strung the birds up on a low hanging branch and walked to the very edge of the firelight. The group watched in curious fascination as he began to clear a space. After a moment, Coyote-3 hopped to his feet and trotted over, offering his help.
"Did you get these guys with your knife?" he asked as he stamped down the brush. Evoksis nodded, and he laughed, unabashedly delighted. "Y'all should see this guy throw. A real deadeye."
As soon as the area was flat enough, Evoksis laid the leaves down, fetched his birds, and began to casually field-dress them with his knife, starting with the feet. It was crisp, brisk work, silent except for the occasional snap of bone. "Very thin skin," he said, glancing up to Coyote-3 who was squatting nearby, and Virna, who had leaned over curiously to watch. "Peels right off."
The leaves were soon spattered with blood—but less blood than Walker-17 would have expected—and loose feathers, which drifted off as the wind caught them. Evoksis casually gutted them in one fell scoop, separating some of the organs out and wrapping them up in smaller leaves. He fastidiously buried the offal that he didn't intend to eat and, less than ten minutes, had two ready-to-cook birds laid out before him.
"Impressive," Virna said, as he gave the birds a quick rinse.
Evoksis's eyes squinted slightly and he bobbed his head once. It looked like a gesture of pleased acknowledgement, but Walker-17 couldn't be sure. "Now, to cook them."
This required a rack, and soon everyone was up and casting about for sticks that would do. The group had been silent since they set foot in the rainforest, discouraged from talking by the less-than-pleasant weather and the tough going, and this activity broke it at last. It wasn't long before both birds were impaled over the fire on a crude, but serviceable rack, and the leaf-wrapped organ meat was sitting on the coals at the edge of the blaze. The smell of roasting meat filled the air—an odd smell, and not one that Walker-17 found particularly appetizing, but he could only imagine that it registered differently for his organic companions.
"Try some, when it's done," Evoksis said, nodding to Virna. "Safe for humans. Probably Awoken."
Coyote-3 looked to her curiously. "Are there some human foods you guys can't eat?"
Virna shook her head. "None that I've come across so far."
"So what's the big, y'know, difference? If you don't mind my asking," Coyote-3 added hurriedly. "Aside from the purple skin, and the glowing eyes and all."
"I don't mind, but I couldn't honestly tell you, except to say the Awoken are naturally Void-touched. If there's any more specific biological differences…" She shrugged. "It's never been something that came up enough for me to learn about."
"Hmm." Coyote-3 put his head thoughtfully to one side. The firelight glinted off the orange visor of his helmet. Walker-17 had put his own helmet away almost immediately, and once they'd made camp, almost everyone had shed a few layers—Virna had ditched her armored jacket, and Walker-17 had removed his heavier raiment—but the Hunter hadn't even so much as lowered the hood of his cloak.
"Did you learn this growing up here?" Virna asked. Evoksis nodded simply, reaching forward to turn the spit.
A brief silence fell over the group once more. The endless calls of insects and other small night-creatures filtered through the thick humid air. "I never noticed that Venus was so noisy," Walker-17 murmured. "I mean, naturally noisy—noisy because it's full of life."
"Instead of gunfire," Coyote-3 added helpfully.
Walker-17 nodded. For a few moments the only sounds were the chorus of the creatures of the night. "Quieter, in the dangerous places," Evoksis said. "Even when the gunfire stops. Nothing living there. Afraid of the Vex, of the Eliksni. And now, the Taken." His pale eyes narrowed and he looked into the heart of the crackling fire.
The silence that settled over the group was more somber, then. "Hopefully we won't see any while we're here," Matthias finally said, softly. "There's no reason to believe that they'll show up in the middle of nowhere like this, but they like to show up without warning, so…" he trailed off.
"We'll be ready," Coyote-3 said. "I've killed lots of Taken. I'll probably kill a lot more before the war's done." This was said without bravado or any measure of gravitas. It was a statement delivered lightly, as if he were talking about the weather.
Virna cocked a brow, either amused or surprised by this incredibly cavalier attitude regarding contact with reality-bending living nightmares. "If I never get close to one, personally, I'll consider it a victory," she said, "I don't have the same protections as you two." Here, she nodded at Waker-17 and Coyote-3. "I've never seen an Awoken get Taken, but frankly, I don't want to be the first to find out whether or not we can."
Evoksis poked the fire. Sparks lifted off from the blaze and streaked into the air. "Hive magic. Dark—darker than your Void. Best not to tempt it."
"You don't have to tell me twice," she replied in agreement. After a moment, Virna between the Guardians. "But I wonder—what makes you two immune?"
"I'd always assumed," Walker-17 said, "that it had something to do with the Traveler. I don't think Oryx can do anything to us as long as our Light is strong. But Guardians can lose their Light, if they're not careful."
"Maybe Oryx is so pissed off at us for the whole Crota thing that he doesn't want to Take us." Coyote-3's hypothesis held much less intellectual merit. "He just wants to kill us, instead."
"Being Taken, worse than death," Evoksis said, looking up from the fire. "Made to serve a false House. Filled with Oryx's will." The Dreg's mandibles rattled against his jaw, teeth clicking together rapidly, faintly. Walker-17 didn't have to be an expert in Eliksni body language to recognize it as a sign of agitation. "Better to die with your freedom. With your honor."
Flicker made a low "hmm" noise. "I'd always thought that it had to do with Guardians being fundamentally incompatible. That's one of the first things we found out about Taken—they require a living host."
There was a long pause. Very slowly, everyone else around the fire turned their head to stare at Flicker. He sensed that he'd perhaps said something odd, and his optic blinked, flicking rapidly between his companions' faces. "I mean, technically, most Guardians aren't. There are Ghosts who've met their Guardians while they're still alive, of course—I talked to a lot of them, in my travels, who later told me that they were released before their Guardian had even been born—but most of our Guardians have died at least once. Coyote was dead when I found him."
"As was Walker," Matthias added.
"I would think, in theory, that maybe Oryx could Take a Guardian who'd never died, if he managed to capture them and drain their Light but…" Flicker's plating rose and fell in a shrug. "For the rest of them, I think they're just not alive enough."
There was another long pause.
"No offense," Virna said slowly, "but that's just a little creepy."
"None taken," Coyote-3 and Walker-17 answered in almost perfect unison. They swiveled to face one another.
"That really didn't help, did it?" Coyote-3 asked, looking to Virna. "I swear we all don't operate on a hivemind or something weird like that."
"I'm not even sure how you'd classify an Exo who'd never died," Flicker went on, his voice low and thoughtful. "Are they born when they become an Exo? Or do they die when they stop becoming human?"
"Stop becoming human?" Virna asked.
"There's not a lot of hard evidence, as far as concrete records go," Walker-17 interjected, "but it's generally accepted that most, and very likely all, Exo were once human. The exact process by which we were made machine isn't really known."
"I've met some folks that say they remember it," Coyote-3 added. "For the record, I don't."
Walker-17 nodded. "Me either. But nevertheless, I have every reason to believe I was born human." He would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about his life before he was an Exo, but Walker-17 had known for a while that the odds of finding anything out about his distant past were low. But then again... this entire endeavor was evidence against that, wasn't it? So far, in the dreams, he remembered himself as an Exo, but what if that was just because it was his mind's only frame of reference?
What if the pavestones of these mysterious ways had been laid by him when he was still human?
"Ascension," Evoksis said. The sudden interjection brought Walker-17 out of his thoughts, and the group's attention back to him. "To… I don't know the word. Moving to a high existence. Towards holiness."
A few vocabulary suggestions (and their respective definitions) were offered before Evoksis settled on "apotheosis." Walker-17 and Coyote-3 seemed a little perplexed by this, so Virna offered what insight she had. "Prime Servitors aren't gods, per se—correct me if I'm getting any of this wrong, of course, Evoksis—but machines are venerated. I think the degree of such depends on your House."
"Wait, if machines are holy, what does that make us?" Coyote-3 asked. For the first time since their journey began, there was a faint timbre of discomfort in his voice.
Evoksis gave a huffing snort. "Not gods, if that's why you are bothered. It makes you… like." He struggled with the words for a bit longer. "A pilgrim. A disciple. I think. I don't know how holy you consider your great machines to be." The Dreg shrugged.
Coyote-3 relaxed, visibly more comfortable with the notion that Evoksis viewed him as some sort of alien analogue to a priest, rather than as some sort of divine figure. Once again, Walker-17 could see Virna regarding his companions with faint curiosity. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She's taking notes, he realized. Reading people in detail was probably necessary for someone in her line of work. He wondered how many times Virna had watched him that way, taking him apart in her mind?
The group fell quiet again, watching the fire, letting the calls of the nightbirds and the crackle of the fire fill the silence. "Maybe we should change the subject," Coyote-3 finally said, "to something a little less… heavy."
"Agreed," Virna chimed in.
"I mean—we're here by a campfire," Flicker said, his optic darting between his companions in a way that could only be described as hopeful, "we could tell a story, or something."
Virna and Evoksis were both a bit perplexed by a suggestion that seemed, to them, to be out of the blue, but Matthias assured them it was a time-honored Earth tradition. "Typically," he said, "campers like to offer one another ghost stories. But, really, anything would do."
Virna shrugged. "I'm fine with it."
"All right," Coyote-3 asked, "who'll start?" Nobody immediately rose to the occasion. The rest of the group didn't possess the Hunter's deliberately and resiliently casual air. The gravity of the topic had reminded them of their differences. They felt a little uncertain, a little awkward, and it showed.
The pause stretched on until Flicker bobbed in the air. "Well. I suppose it's only fair, since I suggested it. Besides, I've got no shortage of stories in my memory. Let's see…" His optic flickered as he turned his focus inward, apparently rifling through his internal database. "Ah, all right. I think this will do, for our current surroundings."
He required, it seemed, no further prompting. Flicker rose a little higher in the air, managing to affect a grand air despite being roughly the size of a softball. "In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of Saint Nicholas..." He paused for the briefest moment, taking in his audience. "There lies a small market town which is generally known by the name of Tarry Town."
Coyote-3 gave a light chuckle partway through Flicker's introduction, apparently recognizing the story. The other three fell into rapt silence, having never before even heard of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Flicker was a storyteller full of gusto and enthusiasm, extolling the narrative as much with his delivery as with the words themselves.
There was a brief pause in the middle of the story to take dinner off the fire. Evoksis simply broke the spit in half, offering one of the birds to Virna. "The whole thing?" she asked, somewhat taken aback. He made a clicking noise at her, to which she nodded, accepting the proffered food. "Thank you, Evoksis. That's very generous of you."
"One of those, too," he nodded to the leaf-wrapped packets of organ meat. "Best part."
"Ah, thanks, but I think I'll stick with this." She hoisted the skewered bird in a gesture almost like a toast and settled back down.
Evoksis shrugged, but didn't seem displeased by her refusal. They settled in to eat, and when Flicker took up the narrative once more, saying, "Ichabod was a kind and thankful creature, whose spirits rose with eating as some men's do with drink…" It settled over the party almost like a directive. Despite the uncertainty which had lingered moments before, despite the strange circumstances of their lives, despite how very different they all were, a spark of conviviality was born that evening.
Dinner ended well before the story. Evoksis had eaten his bird down to the bones, which he'd then snapped between his vicious-looking teeth and swallowed whole. Virna, who'd had no intention of doing the same, had wordlessly passed her leftovers over to him as well, to be summarily devoured. He saved the organ meat for last, lingering over it almost like a dessert, as he watched Flicker bob and dart across the air around the campfire in enthusiasm for his tale.
The entire camp was respectfully silent as Flicker drew to a close, lowering his voice measure by measure until it was barely softer than the crackling fire. "…and the plowboy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied Ichabod's voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes," he murmured, drawing away from the firelight, "of Sleepy Hollow."
Further unity was found in the groups' universal struggle to understand the language of the story. The writing style was so archaic as to be thoroughly confusing for Walker-17 at times, but there was enough charm woven into the narrative and enough plain descriptions of things and circumstances that he wasn't completely lost in this sea of unfamiliar names and places. He wasn't, as it turned out, the only one.
"Flicker, I speak this language fluently, and even I had some trouble keeping up with parts there," Virna said, sounding more amused than frustrated. "Still, I liked it."
"Oh, sorry about that," Flicker replied, abashed. "It's just a favorite of mine."
"When I understand all of your story," Evoksis said dryly, "I will consider myself fluent in your language."
"Me too," Coyote-3 chimed in.
This provoked a soft, but genuine laugh from Flicker. "Well. I did my part. Do you want to go next?" He swiveled towards Evoksis. The Dreg blinked at him, taken quite by surprise.
"I am… not sure. Hm." Evoksis looked down at the fire again. "There aren't many stories we tell, just for pleasure. Not many songs. There used to be. Lost now." He poked the fire again, sending a cascade of sparks swarming up into the air. Their brilliance chased elaborate lines in the dusk. "The closest I would have is the Starcatcher. But it's a small story. It is not like yours."
"I'd still like to hear it," Flicker said, very softly.
Walker-17 couldn't say for sure, but he thought that something in the gentle sincerity of the Ghost's voice is what softened Evoksis's resolve. The Dreg nodded and lowered his head, gathering his thoughts. "There is a story," he finally began, "that is as old as time. It was told before the Whirlwind. We knew it before we knew the Great Machine. The one who would catch the stars. He has never been named. He has always been."
He had started off in his usual halting, stilted way of speaking, but as he went on, the cadence of his voice began to flow more smoothly. Evoksis raised his head and looked from face to face, through the camp. "They say, the story was told when we were strong. When we were noble. Not Fallen, as you call us now. As, maybe, we are. But even then, the story told of a time when we would be lost. When we would need someone who could reach out and take the stars. And from the lowest, the… the least of us—what you call 'Dreg'—he would rise."
The entire camp was still, utterly rapt. Not a single one of them had heard a Fallen folktale before, and certainly not from one of the Fallen themselves. Evoksis looked into the fire. "And he would stand between his people and his enemies. He would look his enemies in the eye, and he would say, 'I am a marvel with ten thousand arms.' Ten thousand stars would burn in his hands. 'You will not hurt my people,' he would say, 'now, or ever again.'"
Silence followed in the wake of his story. Nobody seemed to know what to say… except, of course, the one among them who loved stories the most. "That's very stirring, Evoksis," Flicker said. "Would you mind if I archived that? For myself?"
Evoksis looked up and straightened, shrugging. "Go ahead. It is a lie; a story told to keep the unruly low in their place. A balm. A promise of something that will never happen."
"A fairy tale," Walker-17 said, "that's what we'd call it, anyway."
The Dreg tilted his head, his eyes narrowing in a way that Walker-17 was coming to recognize as amusement. "'Fairy tale.' Yes. That will do."
By that point, night had well and truly settled in, and it was time to start thinking of sleep. "I'm good for another forty-eight hours," Coyote-3 said, waving a hand. "I can keep watch."
"All right." Virna stretched out on the ground, using her rolled-up armored jacket as a makeshift pillow. "I'm going to trust you on this, but if I have to hop up in the middle of the night to fight some horrible beast in my civvies, I'm blaming you."
Coyote-3 laughed and gave her a thumbs-up. "I'll be sure to lure any and all horrible beasts as far away as possible."
Soon, stillness fell over the camp, broken only by the flickering of the fire. Walker-17 sat with his head lowered, silently turning over the day's events, and wondering whether or not they would find answers in the jungle. Regardless, he thought to himself, I'm not sorry to have come here. Even if this loose alliance ended by daybreak, it would make for an interesting story to tell, someday.
"This is nice," Coyote-3 said. Walker-17 chuckled at how synchronous their thoughts must have been. "It's been a while since I traveled with a team. Even longer since I traveled with you. We need to team up more often."
Walker-17 nodded absently. "It is nice." He saw the glint of the firelight on Coyote-3's visor shift out of the corner of his eye as his companion inclined his head. Walker-17 had kept his tone fairly neutral, but Coyote-3 knew him too well to be fooled.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing. Just… thinking. It's been a long time since Matthias found me." He spared his Ghost a fond glance. "After a while I think I gave up on figuring out what my life was like before… well. Before. It's put me in an odd state of mind, I suppose. At least, in the quiet moments, where I have nothing else to occupy my thoughts."
Coyote-3 nodded slowly. "I can see how that would be weird. Yeah, definitely."
"Have you ever spent time wondering about who you were, back then?"
Coyote-3 inclined his head slightly. "A little. Maybe." The reluctance in his tone was telling; odds were good he'd done more than "a little" thinking, if Walker-17 were any judge. "I know I must have been human, and I had to sign up for the Exo program, but that's about it."
"So, no more or less than the rest of us," Walker-17 said.
"Yeah." There was another, much longer pause. When Coyote-3 spoke next, his voice was very soft, barely audible over the crackle of the fire. "I think I was a soldier, maybe. I joined the program for a reason, after all. It's a hell of a commitment, y'know?"
Walker-17 merely nodded.
"If I was going to let them make me into a machine, I had to believe in something. There's a sort of..." he gestured vaguely with one hand, struggling to find the words. "Inherent... nobility? In giving up your body. I guess that sounds kind of conceited, but you know what I mean. Anyway. Everything I've got's speculation. But I think I might have a vague idea."
"Thank you for sharing that, Coyote," Walker-17 said softly, sincerely. The Hunter nodded, and they fell into silence again. Coyote-3 hadn't said it in so many words, but there was an obvious hopefulness behind his speculation. They lived in a dark, dangerous time. It was easy to lose sight of the Light. Clinging to a noble past—even if it was half-remembered—was one way to stay grounded, he supposed.
"Anyway," Coyote-3 went on, after a few moments had passed, "the only thing I can do to save myself after an embarrassingly honest moment like that is nap the awkward away. Might as well get some recharge while we can."
"I'll keep watch."
It didn't take long for Coyote-3 to fall asleep, which left Walker-17 alone with the flickering remains of the fire. As he looked over his new traveling companions, he was once again struck by the oddness of the scene, and smiled, despite himself.
"I'm sure there have been stranger alliances." Matthias said, sensing Walker-17's feelings. "And this is probably not going to be the strangest thing we do."
Walker-17 gave a short snort of laughter. "You're probably right. But, these are my memories we're chasing down. I'm pretty sure I'd know by now if I was involved with anything too unusual." There was a pause. "Or, at least, I hope I would."
Matthias bobbed a shrug. "Only time will tell."
They both fell into silence once more, letting the soft emotional impulses of the neural link convey their sentiments. The night passed peacefully, which was a rare luxury that both watchers took the time to fully enjoy. Virna was the first to wake. She looked to Coyote-3 and gave a snort. "'Keeping watch,' I see."
"He embarrassed himself so hard he knocked himself out," Walker-17 replied. Virna laughed, sitting up and giving a long, luxurious stretch that ended with a soft pop. Walker-17 blinked, alarmed. "Are you all right?"
"Hm?" She asked, blinking sleepily at him and relaxing.
"You made a noise."
Virna laughed again, and while she was assuring Walker-17 that popping her back wasn't doing any damage to her, Evoksis woke, too, with a wide yawn that would've made a shark run for cover. "It's not quite dawn yet," Virna went on, "but if you guys are ready, I am. We might as well make a little progress before the sun comes up."
Coyote-3 was soon up, and the group agreed. They left nothing behind but the remains of their fire, which Evoksis had fastidiously buried.
The quietness of the forest unnerved Virna at first. It was a far cry from the cacophony of life that they'd encountered upon first arriving, and she found herself pausing restlessly, again and again, to try and see if she heard anyone aside from her companions moving through the underbrush. Evoksis was leading the way again, this time sticking to the ground. He eventually noticed her frequent pausing, and when she explained, he shook his head. "Always quiet, before dawn."
That was a little more reassuring, but she remained on her guard. As they moved along, she thought she saw the first hint of dawn filtering through the trees in the distance, before realizing that the color was all wrong. It was too cool, too soft.
Something was glowing ahead: blue-green light was filtering through the trees. Virna froze, holding one hand out to halt her companions, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She stepped closer, slowloy. After staring for a few moments, she saw that the glow wasn't moving through the forest. It was flickering slightly, but the source of it seemed to be stationary.
Evoksis made a low, multi-toned trilling noise from behind her. "Not dangerous," he said. "Actually the opposite." He stepped nimbly around Virna and trotted boldly towards the light. Virna looked back to Coyote-3 and Walker-17, shrugged, and followed.
The trees ahead parted over a broad stream—possibly a tributary of the river they'd seen from the air, earlier. Thousands of flickering lights were floating on or just under the surface of the water, turning the shifting surface into something akin to a starfield. Walker-17 made a soft sound of surprise and delight, and knelt by the water's edge. "What is this? A chemical reaction?"
"No. Water is safe. Plants growing in it. But these—" He gestured to the glowing points of light on the surface of the water. "Are eggs. And those—" He gestured to the air above the water. "Are what made them."
Small, slender creatures were darting about in the night, skimming low over the water. They almost looked like living fern leaves, bereft of true limbs, but marked from head to tail by dozens of delicate feathery fronds that rippled as they moved through the air. They possessed the same steady blue glow that their eggs did, but every now and then a brighter flash would travel down the trunk of one's body, or through their long, trailing antenna.
"They're… worms?" Coyote-3 asked uncertainly.
Evoksis shrugged. "Something like that. They eat the flowers. Glints."
"Sprit blooms," Walker-17 translated. "So that's where they get their glow."
For a few moments they all just watched the creatures, preoccupied with their dance in the night, utterly enveloped in their own tiny lives and unconcerned with the rapidly-changing and dangerous world around them. Virna knew that simple creatures like this had a habit of enduring hardships that sent more complex organisms into extinction, and she wondered, briefly, if these small creatures would outlive them all.
The creatures began to pair up, matching the flashing patterns of potential suitors, and, intertwined, made little diving passes at the water, skimming the surface and leaving more glowing eggs behind. "Well," Coyote-3 said, at last, "that explains all the eggs. You go, little guys."
Again, Evoksis gave a soft trill of amusement. Virna watched him for a moment, in the faint glow of the stream and its inhabitants. She remembered the air of solemnity that had clung to him when they first met, the weight of grief that hung over Evoksis's shoulders. For the first time, she saw that weight lessen a bit. He said he'd grown up on this world: did the sight of these creatures provoke some fond memory? She couldn't be sure. Evoksis seemed, at the very least, soothed for the moment.
"Come," he said at last, "easier to walk along the bank. Travel faster, and with light."
The going was easier with along the bank of the stream, and made perhaps a little more so by the gentle illumination it provided. The soft blue glow didn't so much dispel the darkness as define it, outlining the verdant jungle's edge in watery hues. It was a strange, dreamlike trail to walk, and for a while they appreciated it in silence. The Ghosts flew off every now and then to give the region a fresh scan, but they returned with no news.
Virna was the first to break it. "So," she said, looking over her shoulder at Coyote-3, "you happen to know Evoksis and Walker. Pretty big coincidence. I know how you met Evoksis, but how did you meet Walker?"
The conversation was light, and Virna kept her tone friendly, but she was keenly interested in Coyote-3's response. So far, she knew less about him that either Evoksis or Walker-17. He seemed good-natured enough, open and friendly, but Virna still wasn't sure how to classify someone who'd casually cross the gulf of space to return someone else's knife.
"He showed me the ropes," he responded, without hesitation. "Back when Flicker first got me on my feet. Flicker introduced us, actually."
"I'd known Matthias for a while," Flicker explained. "Over a hundred years now, actually." He swiveled in midair to face Matthias, who likewise turned to face him. "Before you found Walker, even."
"Yes," Matthias confirmed, in his quiet, steady voice. Listening to the Ghosts talk one after the other made the differences in their respective timbres more pronounced; Flicker's voice was higher-pitched and animated. Matthias's was deeper, calmer. "Flicker and I kept in touch. When we heard he'd finally found his Guardian, Walker offered to help."
"He needed it," Walker-17 chimed in. Even in the dimness, Virna could see the squint of a slight smile in his eyes. "The Tower was big on team-building runs at the time. Still is, really. Figured I could help an old friend and a new one out at the same time."
There was that guilelessness again, that open, freely-given friendliness. It was hard to reconcile with the Stormcaller Virna had seen reveling in his own power, annihilating his enemies. She wondered if Coyote-3's gregariousness was balanced by similar vicious tendencies, and whether such juxtaposition was just a common idiosyncrasy of Guardians.
"There's where I got my sword, actually." Coyote-3 nodded to Evoksis. "The one I pulled on the Knight? Remember?"
"How could I forget," Evoksis replied dryly, "it was nearly as long as I am tall. And on fire."
"I never see you use yours, though," Coyote-3 went on, looking to Walker-17.
"I still have it."
"But you never use it."
"I use it," Walker-17 said, "when the occasion calls for it."
This devolved into some good-natured back-and-forth jabs between the Guardians regarding the respective fighting styles of Hunters and Warlocks. Walker-17 was obliged to ask Matthias to produce his sword and show it to Coyote-3 to prove that he had it, after which he simply slung it over his shoulder. Virna tilted her head slightly, meeting Evoksis's gaze sidelong. She grinned and gave a little shake of her head. Guardians.
Somewhat to her surprise, he huffed softly and repeated the gesture. Guardians indeed.
The glow began to dim as the stream widened and grew swifter, and the Ghosts floated off once more. It wasn't long before they'd left the breeding ground behind altogether, and now the stream churned against outcroppings of rock like a living thing. A distant roar could be heard, muffled by the trees. "The waterfall, it sounds like," Walker-17 said. "It must be nearby."
"Have we really walked that far?" Coyote-3 asked, incredulous. "Damn. We made good time."
"We had a good guide," Virna said, nodding to Evoksis. It took him a moment to realize what she meant, and when he did, glancing back, he seemed a little surprised. Nevertheless, he nodded back in acknowledgement.
Before they found themselves at the waterfall's brink, Flicker zipped through the forest and called them to make a detour. "I think we found something!"
They veered from the banks, and Evoksis found them a wider trail relatively quickly, probably used by the local fauna to get to the river. Dawn finally broke as they left the river behind, and by the time they reached the place the Ghosts were leading them to, the jungle was coming alive again, and the air was filled with weak, watery light.
"I think we're here," Matthias said, lifting his optic. "At last."
If they'd seen the structure at a distance, and hadn't known what they were looking for, they might have missed it. The building was nearly entirely consumed by the rainforest. Its low, blocky silhouette had been softened by endless streamers of creeping vines. A tree was growing straight through what was once the roof; Virna's crow glided out of the canopy and landed neatly on one of its branches. They couldn't even immediately see a door.
"Well, there's got to be a door here somewhere," Flicker said, darting about the building's front. "Maybe we can pry it open."
"All we really need is a window. You show me a window, and I can jimmy it open," Coyote-3 declared, turning and trotting towards the corner of the building. "I've never met a window I couldn't defeat. It's one of the few things I actually remember."
"Breaking and entering common in your line of work?" Virna asked, amused.
"More often than you'd think." Coyote-3 called before he disappeared around the corner. The rest of the group split up, keeping near the structure. Evoksis effortlessly scuttled up the chaotic network of vines, making his way to the tree and trying to see if it had torn a hole wide enough to clamber into, with no luck.
Virna was treading carefully, keeping her eyes to the ground. Walker-17 was beginning to make headway with a clump of vines that had plastered themselves to a wall. This all went on for several minutes before there was a low, metallic thunk somewhere inside the structure, followed by a harsh grinding noise as something beneath the vines moved aside. Walker-17 and Virna rushed to the spot, while Evoksis crouched above it on the roof. Under the layer of plant-life, a door had slid nearly fully aside.
Something shuffled in the green-choked gloom, and then an arm thrust out through a gap in the creepers, clad in shades of orange and giving a thumbs-up. "Found one. We're in business," Coyote-3 called. "Now stand back!"
Brilliant orange light illuminated the gloom beneath the vines and within a moment flames and sparks could be seen dancing just out of sight. It wasn't long before Coyote-3 hacked his way through from the inside with the flaming sword he'd been so proud of earlier. "There we go."
"You know," Virna said, slipping easily and nimbly through the small gap and into the room behind him, almost before he could even react, "we have knives. We could have cut these vines a little less dramatically."
"You have a knife," Evoksis added, dropping down to the ground from the roof and shooting Coyote-3 an accusatory stare.
"Hey, I live by the very simple and eminently practical rule that anything than can be done with a flaming sword, should be done with a flaming sword."
They moved into the verdant gloom, with Virna's crow bringing up the rear as it swooped in through the doorway. Wan slivers of light worked their way in through the small cracks between the vines; aside from that, only gently blue glow of the Ghosts' eyes and the flickering fire of Coyote-3's sword provided any light. Most of the floor of the building was buried under a later of dirt. The all-present vines twined their way around the room, consuming it as surely from within as without.
"Not much left, it looks like," Virna murmured softly. Anything that had once been furniture or fixtures had been smothered by the creepers. She looked questioningly to Walker-17.
He had stopped in the center of the room, resting one hand against the trunk of the tree that had twisted its way up through the roof. "I think I've been here" he said. His voice was barely louder than a whisper, and it had a hollow, trancelike quality to it. "But there… this building shouldn't be by itself. There was an entire complex here. Because of… because of the view."
"Walker?" Coyote-3 asked softly, very obviously concerned.
"The waterfall." Walker-17 blinked and gave his head a little shake, drawing himself back to the present. "There was a complex, built near the waterfall. Mainly for its hydroelectric potential, but also… well. It is a beautiful view."
"We didn't see any buildings near the waterfall," Coyote-3 pointed out.
"It's been a very long time." Walker-17 cycled a deep ventilation and seemed to snap to himself at last. "This is a storage facility." He began to move through the room with brisk, businesslike strides. "They kept records here and… and things." He moved around a mass that could have once been a desk, and Matthias zipped away from him, towards a wall.
"There's another door, here," the Ghost said, "Give me a moment."
Virna, Coyote-3, and Evoksis all drew up alongside Walker-17. "Are you okay?" Coyote-3 asked, still speaking in that very quiet, very concerned tone.
Walker-17 nodded. "Yes. It's… very disconcerting. But it's something to work with. I'm almost positive I've been here before."
"There," Matthias floated away, and a light could be seen radiating out from somewhere under the vines clinging to the wall. Using their knives (and their claws, in Evoksis's case) the travelers managed to clear away the vines, revealing a broad display panel and keypad on the wall.
Flicker floated closer, peering. "Looks like it's still working. Thank goodness for emergency power."
"We're, what, two for two on that?" Virna asked, crossing her arms.
"Three," Coyote-3 said, crossing his arms. "If you count everything that happened on the moon."
Walker-17 stepped up to the door. The outline of it was still mostly smothered by the plant growth, but it was still just barely discernable. He simply looked at it, standing in silence, for a few long moments.
"So," Flicker went on, "do you happen to remember the code to get in?"
"I'm sure we could hack our way through," Matthias replied.
"We're going to have to hack regardless," Coyote-3 said, gesturing to the vines.
"No need," Walker-17 said simply. He reached up to remove his left glove. For a moment the startling complexity of his mechanical hand was bared in the gloom, and in the next he raised his arm and pressed his palm flat against what looked like the screen of the display.
It flickered once, twice, and then flashed green. The door in front of them shuddered and, with a grinding sound, began to open. It made it partway before the mass of vines halted its progress, but it was more than wide enough to admit them. There was darkness beyond it, and a staircase leading down.
For a moment, everyone was silent.
"Well," Virna finally said, "There's one question answered, at least."