Hey guys, super sorry for this ridiculously late update. I've had to balance work and school lately, and then Fallout 4 came out :| Don't worry though, I'm having too much fun with Uldren to just let this story slip under the rug. Anyhow, enjoy!
9
Surrounded by his murder of crows, Prince Uldren was lounging in his room—a dark corner in the Vestian Web, filled with a network of monitors and sleek dark feathers scattered everywhere. He sat fixated at one screen in particular, memorized as a single clip played over and over. It was scavenged from one of the devices he had hidden within Kore's jumpship, before the warlock had tactfully found and removed them. The moment of footage mirrored a scene from earlier—Kore with the faintest smirk stretched across her lips. Except this time she was inside her ship, staring into the minute lens of his camera before ripping it from the framework and crushing it in her palm.
Uldren breathed out a chuckle and leaned back into his chair, he hadn't been prepared for the Guardian's skills of perception. Even when his crow had followed her to The Wall, she had recognized the anomaly and what it meant. Regardless of her keen eye, the Prince still managed to sneak some of his spying past her. And the things he had learned...
"Yes?" Petra and her eye patch appeared on one of his screens after he called for her.
"Has my sister finished with the Guardian?" he asked.
There was a surprised pause on the Emissary's end. "Miss Kore?" she clarified, "Why yes, and I'm afraid she's already left for Earth."
Left? Uldren was sure the Queen would of insisted the Guardian stay again—he was expecting it. "When?" he questioned, now looking at Petra through the video feed.
"Well, it was a while ago. The Queen gave her some information regarding that eye she has and then she left," Petra went on to answer, "She's probably already back at the Tower by now—"
He turned the computer off without warning, suddenly overcome with an unsettling anger. It wasn't like she needed his permission to leave, but Uldren had hoped he would have the satisfaction of just that. Out of frustration he shut down the rest of his monitors, leaving himself in silence and darkness.
"Master?" a crow warily chirped, its red eyes staring back at him.
"What is it..." he had little interest in what the tiny drone had to say at this point.
The crow perched itself on top of a monitor and tucked its feathered wings against its sides, "One of us is still inside the Guardian's ship—she speaks of the Black Garden."
This perked the Prince's interest and he immediately leaned forward, with his elbow on his knees and his chin propped against his knuckle. "Tell me..." he ordered. And it did. The crow's tiny mouth opened, projecting a voice that was not its own, but the soft tone of Kore. Her words were muffled by movement and indecipherable at first, but then the interference was lifted and the Guardian's conversation with her Ghost was echoing through his room.
They spoke of the Gate Lord's eye, an item he tasked her to collect himself, which resulted in it being dead and needing a charge. But as he listened, it would appear his dear sister had pointed Kore in the right direction. Beyond the Scablands, she would need to find the Garden's Spire, and there she could charge the eye. And one that was done, the warlock would have her key into the Black Garden.
"—we should tell Zeus..." Uldren suddenly heard the Guardian's ghost suggest.
He waited, strangely anticipating her answer, but there was a long pause before she finally gave a curt, "No." No? The Black Garden was no menial feat, surely she did not intend to enter alone? Once she entered the gate, there was still the task of fighting her way to the garden itself, and then she could make her grand entrance. He doubted she would even make it past the gate's steps.
"Isn't it time Zeus knows about the stranger and—and the Garden?" Ghost protested, begging for Kore to see the logic of working in numbers, but she never said another word. The warlock answered him with silence and continued with whatever she was doing, rustling and moving through the jumpship. Uldren glared at his crow. He was expecting the Guardian to find his device hidden in the shadows, and make a sarcastic comment about it through the speaker. Yet nothing came, except a surprising suggestion from Ghost. "Well, if not him, then how about the Prince—"
Uldren heard as the Ghost's voice grew incredibly loud through the speaker before abruptly cutting off. Regardless, he was sure he had been the subject of that very comment. The Prince leaned back into his chair, ignoring as it ground against his floor. He'd been watching the Black Garden's gate for some time now, ordering a number of crows to follow whoever dared to enter. The crows hardly returned with any useful information, except that the Vex were growing restless, and the Heart stronger. Mars and beyond was bound to be in trouble soon. Knowing this, and everything else, Uldren knew he'd be the perfect companion when it came to entering the Black Garden, and even that drone of Light knew that.
"The Prince..." Kore's voice was darkly serious, and incredibly loud. "Is sure to invite himself, isn't that right?"
Busted.
His monitor screen suddenly lit up, and the bright lens of Ghost was staring down the crow's camera. The Guardian's companion flew away, and in its place was Kore staring up with her arms crossed. "You must be awfully bored on your throne of crows to continue your game of espionage?" she quipped with that unfamiliar smirk that sometimes graced her face, leaving Uldren without a snappy return of words himself. "Unless this is about some sordid perversion of yours." The Prince didn't know what to make of Kore's obscure boldness, or the fact she was dressed lighter than usual. He masked his surprise with a a scoff and leaned back into his chair.
"You may have earned an ounce of trust from my sister," he started, meeting her piercing gaze through the monitor, despite the fact she could not see him. "However, I'm not that easily swayed."
The Guardian's voice carried from off camera, but Uldren couldn't make out what was said. He watched the warlock's smirk slip and then her gaze dart back to the crow. "So I'll be meeting you there then?"
This surprised him. "And what makes you think I'm interested in the problems of your Traveller?"
"Oh I know you could care less," Kore responded, "but you have a habit of showing up anyways." He could not argue that, and again could not supply her with a sardonic reply. Noticing this, she smirked one last time and ended the conversation as she grabbed the crow and smoothed its feathered wings closed.