Le Fantome: lol breath please! Don't pass out! xD
It became a ritual over the next few days that once the Lighthouse settled down for the night, Osiris and Ellana would delve into each other's minds in order to explore this bond that they had. It was an exhausting adventure, leaving both to sleep off the symptoms on most days. Some days they would leave each other more upset than others. However after a few attempts they realized that specifically in order to not burden one another with something, they had to focus on the emotions themselves. The body remembered before the mind did, and memory was fickle at best.
They grew familiar with each other's greatest pains and little ones. They had to balance the pain with pleasure, happiness to be precise. For if one of them was in pain it started reflecting on the other, and could grow out of control very fast. They learned this like many people do, by accident.
When they weren't together they were with Ikora and the still sulking Brother Vance. The Matriarch was using the Light she'd stolen to keep the Vex from completely repairing the Machine below their feet.
The Vex had stopped paying attention to the Guardians, allowing them to roam almost freely down below in their Machine. Osiris left for a day and came back with news from his copies that the Infinite Forest was still deteriorating.
"This Matriarch has become paracausal to the Vex's realities. Have you found her nest yet?" Asher growled over the comms link.
"The scouts are finding some promising leads but they keep getting hampered by things shifting around due to the time fluxes in that area." Ikora rubbed her temple, "Almost lost one to a wall that just suddenly appeared... luckily his Ghost had been elsewhere at the time." the rest of the conversation was mostly Asher quipping about running out of time before the Warlock shut him off mid sentence to keep her sanity.
Ellana approached the makeshift command center, seeing Ikora in a little more distress than usual, "No luck?" she offered a cup of tea.
"No, and Zevala of course is giving me grief earlier about working this closely with Osiris." she accepted the cup and sipped it carefully, seeming to relax a bit.
"I mean... you did send me and a team off without his consent... not that it's the first time." she added quickly when she got the look.
Ikora chuckled coldly, "Titans are the bearers of order. That's why I don't always argue with him. Sometimes you need a pillar in a storm." she sipped her tea again before giving Ellana a critical eye, "You seem to be recovering well, how are you feeling?"
"Physically? Great! Especially now that I got all my gear back. Don't have to worry about the wind blowing my skirts up."
"Emotionally?"
Ellana thought for a moment, "We've stabilized our connection, if that's what you're really wondering."
"Good. Osiris was mentioning going back out there soon, and he made a point to tell me that he wanted you to be apart of his fire team. What say you?"
She bit her lip gently, "I say yes, because if we've learned anything it's that two minds against a silver tongue like the Ahamkara makes it all the less likely to give in to their antics. Plus the Matriarch hates Osiris I think he'd make great bait to draw her out." this earned her an amused smile from her elder Warlock. Ikora looked away, seeming to be concerned with something but instead she turned away.
"You... don't approve?"
"It's not that, Ellana. I'm actually happy he insists on bringing someone with him. The Osiris that left all those years ago would be gone by now." she chuckled, "Zevala says Osiris can't be trusted... perhaps not to follow the City's rules. But he fights for humanity. I'm happy to see him accept our offer of help... even from the Cultists."
"Well he needed a reminder of what he's fighting for... I think he'll be good for a while." Ikora gave Ellana a strange look, "What?"
"Never mind." Ikora pulled together several maps and pushed the hologram toward the other woman. Pearl appeared and caught the bundle of information.
"These are maps of the current areas that have been covered, also frequencies of all the other fire teams that are on this mission. Keep in mind that several of them are in different 'time zones' when you're coordinating. Also, let me know when you're leaving, I know Osiris doesn't like to be hovered over but I would like to have some sort of presence."
"No promises on the hovering but Pearl will let you know when we leave." Ellana said.
Ikora smiled and nodded, knowing this was the best she was going to get from someone being in Osiris' company.
"By the way, Ellana."
The younger Warlock turned on her heel comically and walked the two feet back to Ikora.
The other Warlock seemed to be struggling to find the words, "Just be careful, the both of you, don't push yourselves too hard especially with your new bond."
Ellana's face took on a more serious look as she gave her senior a little bow of acknowledgement.
With the noise of the conversation over, Ellana became very aware of the feeling of restlessness. Osiris had learned to project even when she wasn't in the same room. A thing she hadn't quite been able to get a hold yet. She was a quick study, but not as quick as Osiris. For the most part they could function day to day without putting up a mental barrier (which was quite exhausting) because most of the time were weren't feeling anything at the moment. Maybe the occasional sense of annoyance when Osiris had to deal with the Cult or his uncertainty around Ikora. Ellana just hoped that she was not wearing her heart on her sleeve every single second of the day.
Suddenly there was a loud burst of giggles and someone came flying around the corner and rammed straight into her. Before she recovered Ellana was immediately faced with a barrage of apologies by a hooded woman and her child who'd ran around the recognized them from around the compound, the mother helped in logistics and supplies.
"I'm so sorry my Lady please forgive my child for being stupid!" the woman was practically in tears. The child squirmed, obviously in pain from his mother's grip.
"Whoa whoa... relax." Ellana assured them, "It was an accident, no harm done. Your son was just playing." it took her another minute to insist that she herself wasn't upset. She was going to step away when the boy asked, "Are you the Lady Isis? That Osiris helped save when he returned to us?"
"Uhh..." Ellana looked to the mother who just turned away sheepishly, "Uhh for one little guy my name is Ellana, not Isis. And I'm just a Guardian, see?" she held up her hand and Pearl appeared at her bidding, he twittered happily at the boy who finally smiled, "I'm no one special. I just help Osiris stay out of trouble."
She thought about patting him on the head and then remembered Sagira talking about people feeling blessed when she so much as looked at them. So she withheld her action and went on her way.
Mercery seemed oddly quiet, even for a dead planet. It felt like that moment when you took one last breath before taking the plunge. Ellana followed Osiris' presence until she saw him, standing at the top of a hill not too far away with the torn canyon in the distance. It appeared he was talking with Brother Vance and Neema. The Hunter seemed to be more of a barrier between the two with the way her posture was.
Before she got within ear shot Brother Vance gave a low bow of submission and departed his God's company. He gave her what passed as a friendly look for him and continued on his way.
"...just make sure your team is ready." Osiris was saying to Neema when the Warlock finally made it.
"Oh they will be, or they'll be answering to me." she looked at Ellana, "Hey Isis." she snickered.
"Don't."
"Please don't." Osiris sighed heavily, "It only encourages them."
"I won't say it in front of them, it's just funny to watch poor Ellana squirm." the other Awoken smiled mischievously. Ellana could only glare at her friend.
Osiris' gaze lingered on the portal to the Infinite Forest, its smooth glassy surface indicating the problems still going on, "Brother Vance is going to send those who can't fight off planet for now. I have a feeling once we slay these dragons that the Vex are going to return en force for a while."
"Already planning a victory, I like this guy Ellana you should keep him."
"Says the Guardian who called him a'Grumpy-lock'." Ellana lovingly teased. It was very much Neema to somehow put her own foot in her mouth.
Neema chuckled nervously when Osiris glanced at her. Ellana could feel his annoyance quickly turn to amusement. He turned back around without saying a word. He tolerated the Hunter's disrespect as it showed to him that she didn't take him as seriously as the Cult she wore the brand for.
"Be careful out there, the Hunt is on!" Neema gave Ellana an obnoxiously powerful hug.
"Neema my bones! Please!" Ellana wheezed.
"I'm just getting the hugs in just in case it's another two years before we see each other." Neema winked at her, "Ciao, and happy hunting."
And with that the two Warlocks were left alone on the hill. At their feet the sand sang as the wind carried it tirelessly across the world.
"How long have you known your friend?"
She looked up, "Since I arrived at the Tower. Neema's been around much longer than me."
"You keep good company... even if she is a loud mouthed Hunter."
"Well I mean... she's a Hunter. Hunters have big mouths and big hearts." Ellana smiled.
"That's one way of putting it." Osiris turned to face her now, "Ikora just told me that the nest has finally been found, but it's been... ill advised to attack it without enough Guardians around to support each other. However we need to get rid of something else before we attempt to go to the nest."
"What's that?"
"The ex-Guardian that gave up his Light. We destroy him, the Matriarch no longer has a reason to keep digging up the Vex's nodes."
Ellana's stomach cramped a bit when she thought of that fight, "Yes, that sounds like a plan."
"His name is... or was Samuel, he's a human. This was way before the Vanguard was even a thing so there's not that many records." Pearl mentioned as he rifled through the files they'd found on the derelict ship. He hated dealing with time touched files as he called them, because sometimes their information would change or completely disappear on him. He didn't like having holes in his memory.
"Regardless of who he was that's not what he is now. His mind belongs to the Matriarch." Osiris shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Probably remembering when the dragon had filled his head with so much noise that he couldn't even defend himself.
She wasn't quite sure what prompted her to do it but Ellana reached out and touched Osiris' arm. This eased his restlessness and he finally stood still. Seeing and experiencing Osiris the way Ellana had, just made her respect him more, both as a Warlock and a person. The stories were so full of his great achievements they failed to remind you that he was still a regular person underneath it all. Fear was a regular guest to anyone's heart, but that didn't mean it had to rule the party.
Osiris gave her a look of thanks for her comfort, then pulled out those strange three dice, "Ready?"
"Always." she smiled.
The man paused a moment, "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Putting up with me. I can't quite forgive the Vanguard... or Ikora quite yet. However I can't dismiss the reasons behind HER decision entirely. Had she not chosen to guide the Warlocks even you wouldn't have arrived the day Panoptis found Sagira and I." he looked back at the Forest portal, "People starting to call me obsessed." he gestured toward it, "And yet here they are on our doorstep. They have been for several hundred years."
Ellana thought about her response carefully, "The roads you both took are now converging again. It wasn't the most elegant of partings, but I think for the sake of humanity it's working out." a minute past before Osiris nodded, "Ikora stood with what she thought was right. I think that's a trait she learned from the best."
Osiris smiled, not just any smile but one with a softness that Ellana had only seen once. He raised the dice and they flew up, spinning around each other before connecting and creating the portal.