Running through the words of the benediction in his mind, Jayesh fired at the other Taken, erasing them and leaving the woman isolated. She sprang up the hill at him, firing with whatever weapon she carried this time. Jayesh wove and dodged, and sidestepped her initial attack. Uldren had been right - she traveled in a straight line up the hill before she halted and whirled.
Uldren dispatched the other Taken, then stood nearby and watched with a bemused grin.
"May the Light shine upon you," Jayesh began.
The woman screamed in rage and filled the air with energy bolts. Jayesh avoided most of them, but took one in the right arm. Teeth clenched against the pain, he continued, "May it purge the Darkness as dross is purged from gold."
She shrieked again, covering her ears and dropping her weapon, which vanished.
Jayesh reached for that mote of Light inside him - that blessing of the Traveler. His hands began to glow. Like it or not, he was going to have to touch her.
She sprang at him, screaming like the brakes on heavy machinery, fingers curled to slash his face. Jayesh caught her wrists. The heat of her enraged hatred burned through his damaged gloves and into his palms.
Trying to push through the pain, Jayesh said, "May you enter the blessed Light and may its glory surround you. Lift up your-"
The woman tried to headbutt him. Jayesh spun her sideways, keeping his feet moving, keeping her off balance. The glow in his hands was beginning to creep into her wrists, blazing gold like two shimmering bands.
"Lift up your face," Jayesh panted, "for your redemption is at hand."
The blessing passed into her, washing away the Darkness. For a second, she vanished entirely. Then she reappeared in a blaze of Light, an Awoken woman in tattered Corsair armor. She stood there for a second, staring at Jayesh as he still gripped her wrists. Then she made a little moaning sound and sank to the ground, where she lay on her side, gasping for breath. Jayesh let her down gently. Then he backed away a few steps, not sure whether she might attack him again.
"I think you did it," Uldren remarked. "Nice footwork. Who is she?"
"I don't know," Jayesh said. "The Traveler only showed me what she looked like." He stripped off his ruined gloves and held out his burned hands and arm for his ghost to heal.
The woman was slowly sitting up, blinking around her, disoriented. "I've landed," she said, her voice low and musical. "After so long adrift." She looked up at Jayesh. "You. Your voice and Light maddened me. Who are you?"
"I'm Guardian Jayesh," he replied, kneeling to bring himself to her eye level. "I was sent to bring you back from the Darkness."
"It was costly," she whispered. "The Light paid such a price. But I'm here. The nightmare has ended." She closed her eyes and drew a long, slow breath. When she opened them again, they glowed a steady silver. She pushed back her tangled white hair. It had once fallen past her shoulders, but it was now a wild mane that frizzed about her face. She felt it and frowned. "I'll have to cut this off, now."
As she climbed to her feet, moving gingerly, as if distrusting her own body, Jayesh studied her face. Something about her seemed familiar. Had he met her before? If so, where? He didn't know many non-Guardian Awoken.
"I'm Ruith Zyrran," she said, hugging herself, as if the cool breeze chilled her. "I was Taken when Oryx attacked. How long has it been?"
"About fifteen years," Jayesh replied.
Ruith bowed her head. "So long," she whispered. She looked at the ground a moment. Then she gazed around her. "Where are we? This looks like the Dreaming City." Then she caught sight of Uldren. Immediately she snapped one arm before her face in an Awoken salute and bowed. "Prince Uldren! Forgive me, I didn't know of your presence."
He raised a dismissive hand. "At ease. Seeing a Taken be rescued was ... educational."
Ruith straightened, studying him anxiously. "The Queen! What of Mara Sov? Was she Taken?"
Uldren shook his head. "I'm not ... exactly sure." He gave Jayesh a questioning glance.
"She's alive," Jayesh said. "But she's not here." That was the extent of his knowledge on Mara Sov's whereabouts. He had a vague idea that she had a throne world and Madrid had spoken to her there, but he didn't want to explain something he didn't understand.
On the other hand, he had completed his mission. As Ruith peppered Uldren with questions he had forgotten the answers to, a sense of elation began to fill Jayesh. He'd completed his mission. He'd used a Blessing of Light to redeem a Taken, and he hadn't even been hurt that badly. He could go home again and stop being so homesick for Kari and Connor. Maybe other Guardians would be able to wrest more Taken from the Darkness. Think of how many hundreds or thousands of people they could restore. And the armies of Taken would diminish.
"Phoenix," he thought, "notify Madrid that I've rescued the Taken woman. Have him meet us at our ships."
"We sure don't have room for passengers," Phoenix replied. "Hopefully he's not too busy fighting Hive. I'm picking them up all over the Dreaming City right now. Lots of ghost chatter about them."
Jayesh turned to Uldren and Ruith. "Let's go back to the ships. We'll get you out of here to someplace safer."
"It's not safe?" Ruith asked, bewildered.
"It's cursed," Uldren said cheerfully. "I'll tell you as we go."
Jayesh let Uldren tell the story and didn't bother to correct him when some details were wrong. He was finally escaping the Dreaming City. He couldn't wait to shake the dust off his shoes and run for Earth.
They reached the misty lake shore where Guardians landed their ships. Madrid was there, his scout rifle in one arm, waiting with a disgruntled expression.
"About time," he said as they approached. "They need help at the Monastery. We should take care of that before-"
"Madrid?" Ruith breathed.
He broke off and stared at her, taking in her matted hair and shredded clothes. "Yes?"
Ruith pressed a hand to her mouth. "It can't be. You died ... so long ago. After the Emergence."
Madrid's eyes widened. He shrank back a step. "How do you ... you know who I am?"
"Great Skies," Ruith said, her voice dropping to a murmur. "You came back as a Guardian. Of course you wouldn't ... Madrid, you're my brother."
The blue tone of Madrid's face went ashen. "You're my ... and you were Taken?"
Uldren broke in. "Why don't we conduct this touching reunion elsewhere? The edge of an airfield isn't the most intimate of surroundings."
Madrid seemed to wake up. "Oh. Right. I'll give you two a lift back to the ... Light, you're not a Guardian." He nodded at Ruith. "You can't escape the time loop the way we can."
Jayesh slapped his forehead. Of course, why hadn't he remembered that? If they put Ruith on a ship and tried to fly out, she'd either die in transit, or disappear from the ship and reappear in the Dreaming City on the next loop.
"How about the Corsair hideout in the Strand?" Jayesh suggested. "They have those caves where she could stay."
"All right." Madrid summoned his sparrow. "Ever ride one of these?"
"I had one, yes," Ruith said. "How long have you been a Guardian?"
"One hundred and eighty-eight years," Madrid said, mounting the sparrow. "Hop on."
"That long!" Ruith said, sliding into the seat. "I never knew. I've missed you all these years. But you don't know me, do you?"
Madrid revved the engine and shot across the misty lake without answering.
Jayesh summoned his own sparrow and jerked his head at Uldren. "Looks like we're not done just yet."
As they flew through a crystal-studded tunnel that led down to the Strand, Jayesh clung to his hope of returning to Earth. But a nagging fear began to eat at him - that this was more complex than he had thought, and his mission wasn't over. The Traveler had asked that he redeem a Taken, right? Well, he'd done it. He wasn't supposed to look after her once she was free.
But his conscience bothered him, anyway.
The Corsair cave was in a cliff high above the misty lake shore. They'd staked it out as a base of operations because it stayed the least damaged through all three weeks of the curse. By the final day of the time loop, all buildings were unlivable masses of tarry black Taken corruption.
The cave wound deep into the mountainside with plenty of rooms and nooks for people and gear. It was most busy early in the morning and close to sunset. Now, at mid morning, there were only a few Corsairs manning the field equipment. When the Guardians walked in with Ruith, the Corsairs stared, dumbfounded.
"Hey, everyone," Madrid said, one hand hovering awkwardly near Ruith's shoulder. "This is Ruith, my, uh, my ..."
"His sister," Ruith said, gazing around. "You. I know you." She pointed to the Corsair in the back. "Jenna?"
"Ruith?" the other woman murmured, stepping forward cautiously. "It can't be. You were Taken. I saw it happen."
The other Corsairs felt for their weapons.
Jayesh hurried up, hands raised. "Whoa, hold it. It's all right. I used a transcendent blessing of Light to bring her back."
"You?" gasped Jenna. "But that's impossible. Our Techeuns could have restored a Taken - maybe - but they're all Taken, too."
"It's not impossible for the Traveler," Jayesh said. "It sent me. But it wasn't easy to do."
"Yes, I hurt him," Ruith said, touching Jayesh's arm with a sad smile. "I'm so glad you didn't give up."
For a moment, she gazed at him with sorrow in her eyes. With a jolt, he remembered her words about the Light having to pay a high price for her. What did that mean? He'd have to ask her later.
The Corsairs eyed them both, distrustful. "This could be a trick," said one.
"It's not part of the time loop," said another. "This has never happened before."
Ruith spread her arms. "Scan me. I carry no traces of Dark energy any longer. I can feel it in my being."
Jenna approached her with a blue orb in both hands, its surface swirling with code and images. She passed it up and down Ruith's body, watching the orb's readings. Then she stood for a moment, spinning the strange circles and lines across the orb's surface. "Her readings are in the normal range. No Taken energy at all." She pushed back her helmet visor and peered at Ruith. "Your mind, though. You were under the command of a greater being. That alone should have broken your mind."
Ruith touched her temples. She closed her eyes and stood there for a moment, meditating. "I was broken," she whispered. "Crushed and twisted, glorious suffering. Power and pain. But the Light came and freed me. It healed me, though I'll carry the scars forever." She rubbed her arms, as if such damage showed on the outside.
"But Oryx is dead," Jenna said. "Who controlled you?"
"The secretive sister," Ruith murmured. "She of the whispers and the lies."
"Savathun," the Corsairs murmured.
Jayesh watched all this, taking mental notes for the Archives. Aside from the achievement of restoring a Taken being, he was beginning to have faint inklings of the strategy involved. The Traveler had not chosen Ruith at random. So he watched and listened, keeping his mind open, trying to catch the possibilities as they drifted past like snowflakes.
The Corsairs led Ruith into the depths of the cave to replace her tattered gear and find her some food. Madrid, Uldren, and Jayesh loitered in the front room, Uldren with his hood pulled over his face.
"I guess I'll be headed home," Jayesh said, just to make conversation.
Madrid looked at him sharply. "Now?"
"I've done what I was supposed to do," Jayesh replied.
"But what about Wren?" Madrid exclaimed. "You told me you'd help try to save her on the next loop."
Jayesh hesitated. He had given his word, hadn't he?
"Besides," Madrid went on, "the fighting gets hotter from here on out. After we put down the Hive incursion, the Taken invade in earnest. The only strategy that makes any difference is to use the Blind Well to draw them in."
Uldren gave Madrid a sharp look. "You've been in the Blind Well?"
Madrid nodded. "It's dangerous as hell, but we Guardians dare use it when the Awoken refuse."
Jayesh looked from Madrid, to Uldren, and back. "What's the Blind Well?"
"It's a trans-dimensional rift generator," Madrid replied. "It was built shortly after the Awoken arrived here, and the secret of its construction is long lost. It was last calibrated when Oryx took over, and they still don't know exactly where it's trying to open a rift to. We've spent whole cycles pouring Light into it to charge it."
Jayesh gathered in more possibilities, like catching snowflakes in his outstretched hands. "Have you ever opened a rift with it?"
"Small ones," Madrid replied. "They last about twenty minutes."
Jayesh turned to the cave mouth and gazed out across the Dreaming City, trying to put the snowflakes together like puzzle pieces. After a while, he shook his head. "Getting there's not the problem. Navigating is."
"What are you talking about?" Madrid snapped.
Jayesh turned to him. "The only way a non-Guardian can leave the time loop is to escape through the Ascendant Realm. But I can't navigate that dimension. I think, if we knew how, we could go anywhere in the universe."
"You're right," Uldren agreed. "And you're also insane if you think you can pull it off. I've been to the Ascendant Realm. Compasses don't work. Computers crash. There's no celestial bodies to steer by. You navigate by instinct. Great for ascended beings. Not so great for us."
"Wren dies on day two," Madrid added. "That's not enough time to charge the Well."
Jayesh looked thoughtful and didn't answer.
In his head, Phoenix said nervously, "Jay, I know what you're thinking. Don't do it."
"I never said I'd actually do it," Jayesh replied inside his head. "It's just one option."
Aloud, he said, "Uldren, have you figured out your supercharge yet?"
"No," the prince replied. "Not like I've had much time to experiment."
"Well," Jayesh said, "let's go fight Hive. And experiment." He gestured for Madrid to lead the way.
Madrid gave Jayesh a long look. "What are you planning?"
"Something crazy," Jayesh replied. "Something secret."
In reality, he had the scattered pieces of a plan and no idea how to make them work. But if he didn't know what he was going to do, the Hive gods and Riven couldn't predict his actions, either.
The Hive's only foothold in the Reef was a crashed tombship in the Tangled Shore. They had opened a portal from there and streamed into the Dreaming City. The thralls attacked anything in sight, but the upper ranks - the Knights and Wizards - sought out and pillaged the Awoken buildings. They invaded sacred spaces, stealing everything they could lift. The Guardians hunted them and returned the stolen items to the Corsairs. The same relics were stolen from the same places every time loop, so Madrid knew exactly where to go and what to look for.
Uldren tried and tried to call upon the Light, but couldn't seem to do it. "It's not working!" he exclaimed in frustration, after trying for five solid minutes to summon a simple grenade. "We're sure I'm a Guardian, right? I really do have Light powers?"
"Ask your ghost!" Jayesh replied, firing his graviton lance from behind a nearby pillar. "He's your connection with the Light!"
A gang of thralls charged Jayesh's position. He shot some at point blank range, and laid about him with a fistful of fire. Oblivious, Uldren sat glaring at his open hand, willing a grenade to appear.
Madrid appeared and lent his knife to freeing Jayesh from his attackers. "Get with it, kid!" he snapped at Uldren. Then he dashed back across the hall, firing at a knight.
Jayesh scrambled into cover with Uldren, who had found a hiding place between two huge stone urns. "Focus on your ghost, not your hand. He'll show you."
Uldren growled in frustration and closed his eyes.
Jayesh reloaded his rifle and happened to glance down. A statuette stood between the two urns, back in the shadows. A cat striped with all the colors of cats.
"Hey there!" Jayesh whispered, stroking its head.
Uldren glanced at it. "That's just a manifestation. Leave it. It can't help us."
"I found a different one in a cave," Jayesh said. "I like them." He rubbed the thin, sculpted ears. "I have to go back to work, kitty. See you later."
Uldren rolled his eyes.
Jayesh ducked out of their hiding place and returned to fighting. Uldren gave up on Light powers and added his own weapons to the fight.
They killed the thralls and knights that had crept into the stone halls of the Seclude. But as soon as Madrid plucked the stolen relic from the curled hands of a slain Knight, a black Hive portal curled open in midair. Out of it dropped a wizard, filaments swirling around it like a robe. After it crawled an ogre.
Ogres were hulking monsters, about ten feet tall, with powerful limbs, and a compound eye that could kill with its gaze.
"Don't look at the eyes!" Jayesh exclaimed. "Shoot them!"
"How am I supposed to shoot something I can't look at?" Uldren growled between shots.
Across the room, Madrid shot the wizard through the head, dropping it to the floor. The ogre howled in rage and turned its deadly gaze in his direction. The stone smoked everywhere it looked. Madrid dove for cover behind a pillar and kept it between himself and the monster.
Jayesh and Uldren poured lead into the ogre's thickly-muscled back. It barely seemed to notice this, but after a while, it wheeled and trained its eye in their direction.
For a split second, both Guardians looked into the monster's eye. The bleak power of death roiled inside it, burning cold, dragging them toward death and silence. It was a Hive death song turned psychic.
Jayesh reeled backward, hit a wall, and slid to the floor. Uldren ducked, cursing, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Pork, correct my aim." Eyes shut, he lifted his rifle.
"Up!" his ghost chirped in his head. "To the right! There!"
Uldren fired three times. The ogre roared in pain.
"Put out half his eyes!" Pulled Pork cheered. "He's stamping toward us. Aim higher. That's perfect. Fire!"
Jayesh blinked his seared eyes and saw the ogre galloping toward them on all fours, jaws open, black blood dripping from its compound eye. He scrambled to his knees and unloaded his graviton lance into its face.
The ogre roared, swerved sideways, and crashed into a stone pillar. It staggered, groped at its ruined eye, then collapsed to the floor, its whole head breaking into smoldering green flames.
"I did it with my eyes shut!" Uldren exclaimed. "That was incredible! Pork, fist bump." His ghost bumped his shell into the proffered fist.
Jayesh scrambled to his feet and stood still as Phoenix healed his scorched eyes. "Ogres are my least favorite aliens to fight. Seriously."
"I could have taken him out solo," Uldren bragged. "My ghost is the perfect wingman." He closed both hands around his ghost, opened them to reveal they were empty, then pretended to pull the ghost out of the collar of his cloak. Pulled Pork danced up and down, delighted.
Jayesh laughed. "Soloing an ogre with your eyes shut? I'll let you take point next time." He was going to add more, but he turned to see Madrid standing there, glaring at them.
"If you two clowns are done showing off, we have work to do."
"Never done," Uldren said, tossing his ghost in the air and catching him. "But lead on, Guardian. We'll kill the next batch blindfolded."
Madrid stalked off, his every movement declaring his disgust. Jayesh and Uldren took a moment to search the bodies of their foes for ammo or loot, found little, and followed Madrid.
"That could have gone badly," Jayesh thought to his ghost in the privacy of his head.
"I know," Phoenix replied. "It's too bad Uldren has such a reputation. He's a daring fighter. He could teach the Vanguard a thing or two."
"They'll never accept him," Jayesh thought, checking his rifle's magazine. Again, he had mixed feelings, friendship and enmity, laughter and fear. But mixed into them was an undercurrent of sadness - sadness that it had to be this way, that so few Guardians would look past their own grief and prejudice.
"If nobody else will help him," he told Phoenix, "I will. I don't know how, exactly - but I want him to have a chance. And the solar system is a big, lonely place when you're alone."
"What will Kari think?"
"I shudder to think."
Jayesh had only sent her hasty notes over the last few days to assure her that he was still alive. He hadn't told her about Uldren, mostly from a fear of putting the information into writing. What would her opinion be? She had been there at the end, too. She had argued for Uldren's execution, even though afterward, she had regretted it as much as Jayesh had.
Telling Kari - trying to help Uldren, Wren, and Ruith - his mission was completed, but it had only become more complex. Had the Traveler known this would happen?
Somehow, he had a feeling that it had. And it had sent him anyway.
