Erun's cultural exchange was exactly what I expected.
He swung the baton in a wide and telegraphed arc as I, armed only with a stick, tried to parry it.
"The Didact's were great warriors at the apex of their society." He said, the baton clattering into my arm as my parry missed and cut through the air like paper, floating in the breeze.
A wild yelp of pain erupted as I clattered to the floor.
"The original was a great leader, banished from society for a great deed that those who opposed him could not stomach. The second, was a fool-turned-God. He became the leader his people needed in their time of crisis."
I pulled myself slowly and steadily to my feet, groaning in pain and steadying myself against the wall.
"He seemed remorseful" I panted, holding a hand up to stay his next swing.
"The journey required sacrifice. A great evil befell their empire in the final days, corrupting the mind and flesh. The impure were turned against the didact and his men, and they were left behind." He said, his belief was ironclad, and his conviction plain to see.
"He killed his own?" I asked, curiously.
"He did, both were ruthlessly efficient killers. Warriors of the highest order."
"Do you think he regretted that?"
"I'm trying to find out." Erun replied, ominously.
"Er, right" I replied, pulling my training blade close to my chest.
Erun nodded and dropped into a warriors stance. He fainted left before thrusting right. Seeing the baton close in on me, I dodged, throwing myself aside and parrying the follow up, bringing my blade to his baton and pushing it away.
Then came a spin, his hoof extended in a wide arc and I fell backwards, avoiding it barely as I clattered to the ground.
He pushed into a jab and planted the baton straight into my stomach, forcing another pained scream from me as he held it there with righteous vindictive fury.
"You learn quickly." He said, as though nothing had happened.
"Ughn"
"Still so… fragile." He said, kneeling beside me. "Why do the God's favour your kind?"
"Maybe they don't." I said, half wheezing, "Do we look favoured to you?"
Erun thought for a moment and scratched his chin, or whatever passed for a chin when it's just a split jaw.
"Why would the God's give us this gift and then unleash his most devout upon us? Why do they let you learn the secrets we do not understand? Why do they let you massacre us by the billions?"
Erun went to speak but I sensed an opportunity and wanted to press home his beliefs. If there was anything clear about these aliens, it was that their ignorance and hubris was a major advantage for us.
"Do you think the didact could ever pity us? Perhaps he wanted us to know what it was that was going to befall us, that we were destined for this?"
This seemed to have satisfied the hulking elite and he nodded, rising to his feet.
"A final insult to creatures designed to test us."
I swallowed. For all my reading and love for history, I'd never been confronted by a supremacist before. To see him talk about us not only with hatred but indifference, was terrifying.
I expected hatred and I'd seen glimpses of it in my father's disdain for the corps but the apathy was something I'd never even considered. Erun didn't care an iota about us. He considered nothing but the blockage we presented. We weren't sentient to him, deserving of no quarter or mercy.
Could I make him care? Just a little? Could I force him to reconsider us or at least question his own role in this sordid affair?
Probably not. It was a question worth asking at least. I didn't know exactly what a Zealot was, they appeared to be held in some sort of reverence but who was to say that equated to political influence?
I'd already been burned trying to strike out on my own and the image of the Prophet's chair on fire made me sigh.
I need to know more. I need to know what it is that scares Erun and Ketarus.
"We aren't much of a test, are we?" I asked, panting.
Erun, who was facing the door and deep in thought turned around as though he'd forgotten I had even been there.
They're careless.
His eye's narrowed.
"I-I mean how many victories have we really had? You're fighting for sport. We're just trying to survive. It seems like a lame test for the 'final journey'"
Erun paused and sighed.
"A fair point nishum, a point that has not gone unnoticed by our own."
And there it was.
My in.
"We couldn't match you in space if we had your technology" I sighed, relaxing as though I felt defeated. "Over the last weeks I've watched everything I love torn apart like a hot knife through butter and not once did your kind ever stop, or pause or break."
Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes but I beat them back.
I'm going to cry in the safety of a UNSC evacuation ship or I'm not going to cry at all.
"A brute mauled my best friend. My family is missing, my friends are gone or dead." I said, shakily continuing. "A-and all of it means nothing to you."
Erun shifted again and looked about uncomfortably.
"It is… not as easy as it looks." He admitted. "Yes, we butcher and wage war on your kind but… it comes at a price."
A bright pillar of beaming white light burst in my heart.
I'm glad it fucking hurts.
"Doesn't look like it from here" I groaned, sitting up against the far wall and yelping as the brand on my shoulder burned at the touch.
"Hmmph. You wouldn't understand."
Best not push it. Change the topic.
"Your religion has a lot of similarities with human philosophy, you know" I said as nonchalantly as I could.
Erun didn't seem please by that assessment but he was under orders to learn what he could from us.
"Human philosophy." He sneered.
I nodded. "Journeys have always fascinated us. We were nomadic hunter gatherers a very long time ago."
"I find it hard to believe you were ever an apex predator" Erun said.
"We're clever." I shrugged.
"Hmph."
"A-and we have many believers in reincarnation, too."
That caught his attention.
"Yeah, when we die, many believe we are reborn similar to how we lived our lives. We become reflections of our past lives. Maybe the forerunners reached the point where they became too good for this world?"
"Do they say how? Anything that might point to the involvement of the God's?" He asked.
I thought for a moment and sighed with relief. It really was an interesting thought.
How much of human philosophy really is influenced by the forerunners? A lot of holy texts have overlapping stories and similarities, after all.
"The spirit, I think."
"You think?"
"It's not my philosophy."
"And spirit features in it as well?" He asked, curiosity dripping in his voice.
I nodded. "Reincarnation, too. Only…" I paused for effect, "only one man ever returned from that place."
"And everyone else?"
"Well, when Christ died, he allowed all of man to follow him to heaven. I think you would call it the divine beyond. His spirit was pure and of God himself. The three of them allow man to be reborn after they pass."
"That man, Christ, he was a forerunner?"
God, could you imagine!
"I don't know, b-but he was better than all of us." I said, quickly.
Erun paced a little and I thanked God for a little rest. Thinking this hard and this fast was exhilarating for sure, but it took a hell of a lot out of me.
"Tell me more. What did he do? How was he received? What trials did he face…"
Erun looked nervous to ask the last question dancing on the four points of his jaws.
"How long ago did he appear?"
That, of course, was the million-dollar question. If Jesus was a forerunner, he'd have visited earth as recently as 2500 years ago.
A revelation like that? For Erun's people?
It would change everything.
"He faced the evil in our hearts. The sin we were all born with. He faced demons and the devil himself."
"Demons? Like the SPARTANs?"
"Worse. Beasts of the sea the size of a frigate, darkness that corrupts and consumes the weak and wicked. Beasts like Leviathan who influence us to this day."
"Leviathan?"
"He was a great manipulator. He made heresy sound like truth to the ears of even the most devout believer."
"Sounds like evil won"
I shrugged again, "maybe. It's never so simple, though, is it?"
Erun relented on that point at least and sat down finally. Taking a small box from his battle harness and opening it.
A honeyed cereal smell flooded into my nose and he dug into the snack, leaving my stomach enraged and yearning for a bite.
To my left was the crumpled pile of armour. I wondered for a moment if any of that cake had survived in its pouch.
"Do you think he was a forerunner? Christ, I mean." I asked, keeping up the pressure.
"They disappeared one hundred thousand years ago but… humanity is an exception to the rule where the forerunners are concerned."
"And that worries you?"
Erun folded his arms and I wished he was sitting further away because I couldn't press myself deeper into the cool purple wall if I tried.
"It does." He admitted. "Which is why I need to know humans. The Prophet of Redemption is wise for showing me that the way forward requires subversion. Dogma can only take a warrior to the field; it cannot swing his sword."
I blinked, dumbly. He had to believe that his beliefs were beyond me. If he put up his guard, it would never drop again, and hope would be lost.
"Having that responsibility to your men must be hard." I said, dumbly.
"I've only lost a handful of my warriors in this campaign, that is hardly a concern."
"I'm pretty sure I've killed more than a handful myself."
Erun looked a little confused and I felt foolish as he laughed loudly.
"You consider the fodder our equals?"
"Well, aren't they?"
"No. That scum wouldn't touch the viscera on my boots were it up to me."
I pulled myself to my feet, having recovered from the last beating. Erun rose as well and readied himself, dropping into that stance, fuelled by his killer instinct.
This time however, I moved first, jabbing and thrusting at his chest. I figured that if I kept close then the elite would lack the manoeuvrability to consistently parry my blows.
Jab.
Thrust.
Duck the follow up.
Turn into a swing…
Lunge,
STRIKE!
It was a small blow, only staggering him, but his surprise was plain to see. It quickly turned to rage though and before I knew it, he was upon me, laying blow after blow against my bruising skin, most of them teasing and exploratory strikes aimed to my centre. I was too exhausted to put up much of a fight, even if I had clipped him and with a powerful thrust at my tummy, I felt myself fly backwards and slam into the wall. Air rushed out of my lungs and left me a pained and gasping mess on the floor.
He didn't understand what yielding meant and kicked me in the stomach for disgracing myself.
"A grunt could never do that..." I groaned.
"Grovelling will get you nowhere with me."
"It wasn't grovelling. It was an observation." I said, spitting blood.
Erun grunted.
"Humans are observant," I said, laying on my back like a hapless turtle. "We watch and learn. Every day you don't kill us is another day for us to close the gap. To survive."
"You overestimate your strength. You are a nuisance and an anomaly. One day this galaxy will see the last of you, just as the God's intended."
Erun needed a push. He needed coaxing into heresy, or something. I couldn't take punishment like this for much longer. It had been weeks since I'd fallen from the sky and my shoulder burned from the charring, my torn-up forearm was covered in ghastly bruises, my body burned and pulsed with marks from the baton.
"Maybe, but it'd be better to not take any chances, I think."
"I don't care about what you think" Erun said, incredulously, "and you would be wise to keep your mouth shut, nishum."
I snorted, "and you would be wise to listen to me, especially if you want to know what I know."
Erun stalked over to me, and leaned down into my face, breathing his turgid and swampy breath into my face.
"Your usefulness to me is tenuous, child."
"It's a good job that I've been holding back then."
Erun's eyes narrowed and he ignited his blade.
"I grow tired of this. Talk."
I gathered myself and smiled.
"Halo" I said.
Erun stepped backwards.
He blinked.
Then, he stormed out of the room.
}{=}{
Laying on my back, I groaned, blinking my crusty eyes open. My great revelation didn't have quite the effect I wanted.
After Erun left, there were several glorious hours in which I was allowed to think that such a revelation had saved my life. As it turned out, I wasn't wrong; yet I had been naive enough to think that unharmed and alive were two very different things.
Thank you very much, Bornstellar.
Ketarus arrived to beat me into unconsciousness. The brute had convinced the prophet that they could induce more dreams in me, to learn more from me.
It struck me that there hadn't been any attempt to move me to a lab, or a more secure facility. Part of me wondered if it was because they didn't have them, their entire society did seem centrally controlled by the San'shyuum but…
They're probably after the orb as well, or some other artifact.
That was the thing with theocratic crusades: they often defied logic and reason to the outside observer.
Eventually my vision returned and I saw Miplap scanning me with some odd glowing device.
"Anything serious?" I asked, spitting blood from my lip.
"A lot of bruising, nothing broken, its internal bleeding I'm checking for. Here. Eat."
He handed me two bright purple pills but I shook my head.
"I will have them force you if you don't." He said firmly, referring to the two guards placed outside of my cell by the Prophet. They were giant hulking honour guard-like Elites, clad in shining armour that would have been gallant, were it not worn by genocidal theocrats and they remained perfectly still as I watched them, choking down the pills.
"What are they?"
"They help internal bleeding." Miplap replied.
The little grunt worked hard for the next hour, taking blood and running strange tests.
"So Unggoy are doctors?"
He nodded.
"That's crazy…" I exclaimed. I would never have guessed it from their treatment.
Miplap scowled. "Even the humans think little of us. You're scum, just like the others!"
I frowned, "no, not crazy for mistrusting you..." I replied quickly, "in human society, Doctors are revered. It's a proud and noble profession. I was surprised how little they considered their Doctors is all."
The little Grunt paused and regarded me for a moment.
"Your people sound wise." He whispered.
I laughed a little.
"I wouldn't go that far."
"Wiser than our masters, then. They do not value us, to them we are tools like rifles or bombs. We are useful or we are worthless."
"Erun laughed at me for including Grunt casualties with the Brutes and Elites."
"He would. He is a cruel master. I wish I could say he was different or particularly cruel but…" he shrugged.
"They're all like it?" I asked, sensing an opportunity to learn something.
"The San'shyuum, the Sangheilli, the Jiralhanae, even the Kig-Yar. Each hates the other in turn, but each hate's us the most; they make a point to show it, too."
"Are you always so numerous in their armies?" I asked, knowing full well they weren't.
"Usually they're at least smart enough to keep a ratio that they can control but this time they have not."
"Really? Why?"
"The Prophet of Redemption thinks he has discovered the start of the Journey. He was given this force by the Prophet of Truth."
"And this Prophet believes him?"
The Grunt made some kind of squeal that I took for a laugh.
"Truth is playing him, probably. He is a politician and theologian like no other. Anyone who takes him at his word is a fool."
I watched him, sagely. To see such insight in a Grunt was as mind blowing to me as learning about Bornstellar.
I leaned in close.
"Does it have something to do with Halo?"
Miplap frowned and looked around frantically.
"Where did you hear that word?"
"Erun and Ketarus mentioned it" I lied, "the Prophet as well"
The little doctor chewed his lip.
"Halo is what the Forerunners called the sacred rings. They are the catalyst for the great journey, it's what drives this whole crusade of ours."
My eyes bulged.
That doesn't sound good.
"They think I know something about it" I said, sitting up finally.
"No one knows anything about it. Other than those who built it, anyway. Their religion is propagated through mysticism and half-truths." He fumed, clenching his fists.
"Is it even real?" I asked, curiously.
"Who can really say that it is? I certainly don't think it is, and more of my brothers grow disaffected by the day."
Wait, is he saying what I think he is?
"Are you telling me… that the Grunts are about to rebel?"
He didn't answer straight away, but he didn't need to. As his eyes met my own an inferno exploded in their depths. It was as clear an answer as any utterance ever could be; for the first time since the covenant arrived, I found myself terrified by an Unggoy.
"Even grunts have their breaking point." He mumbled, using our slur for his people.
"How long do I have?"
The Grunt began to pack up his tools, slowly.
"Not long now."
"Will I be healed in time?"
"No"
"Will Jack?" I asked, watching the injured man rest nearby.
It shook its head. "Not fully."
I ran my tongue along the inside of my mouth, tasting blood, and chewed on my nail, nervously.
"I need to know exactly, so I can plan, you will break me out, won't you?"
The Grunt considered it for a moment.
"Aiding you hurts them. I will rescue you, try not to die." He whispered hurriedly, as Ketarus appeared at the door.
"Little insect, are you done fixing my toy?" He growled.
My stomach lurched.
"My lord, do not harm her needlessly, she is fragile. Did you secure the serum I asked for? It would be far more efficient in regulating her-"
Miplap half-dived out of the way as Ketarus passed him by. It wasn't enough to dodge the lazy kick swung at him, and he slammed backwards into the wall, coughing and sputtering as he checked his mask over and over. The brute glared at me. He seemed almost disappointed by it, but he nodded and revealed a small syringe filled with a clear liquid. With loud and heavy steps, he sauntered towards me.
I tried leaning away but he was on me too quickly. His fist clamped around my arm. I tried to scream.
Nothing came out. Only the shocked gasp of my tiny, squealing voice as the syringe plunged into my flesh.
And then…
Darkness.
}{=}{
Maddie wandered along the path, silently, and Maggie followed.
She snivelled and her sister struggled to keep pace with her.
"Maddie, what's wrong?" She asked.
Maddie couldn't reply. There was a knot of painful regret lodged in her throat that stopped her from saying anything.
Maggie broke into a run as the path opened up and they arrived at the crest of a hill.
"I know he meant a lot to you…" Maggie began to say.
Maddie stopped in her tracks, her fists clenched and balled up.
"How could you?" She said, tears streaking along her cheeks like vapour trails, her make-up, once perfect, was a mushed mess of sliding streaks, melting down the front of her face.
"Then show me! Make me understand!" She said, in a rare and stunning burst of life and energy.
"I…"
I don't even know how I feel. Maddie thought to herself as Maggie searched her eyes for anything that might give her a clue, an ounce of understanding.
The girls may have stood less than a metre apart, but Maddie felt a gulf between them stretch a mile wide.
"Can't" she said, finally, shaking her head and moving on.
Maggie balled her fists and followed.
"I know he meant a lot to you, Mads. He's gone away and that's awful. Please let me be there for you, hurt with you even." She pleaded, striding alongside her sister with the same grace and self-assurance that Maddie usually possessed.
Maddie said nothing as she walked onwards, the drying grass crunched lightly under her sandals and the sun battered daisies flaked in the wind.
In the distance, Maddie could see her ash tree, albeit through watery eyes. It swayed with the breeze as she approached with her sister in tow, a look of anguish on their faces.
As they neared, Maggie stopped and watched her sister as she sat down in the little crevice between two sections of growing roots. It formed a natural little armchair, which she occupied like a throne. With her long and graceful legs crossed at the thigh, and her long blonde hair shielding her reddening eyes from the world, she looked like a young dowager Queen, hiding from brigands in the forest.
"It's not forever you know." Maggie said, stepping closer, playing with her fingers awkwardly. "He may come back."
"How long though? How long will he wait before moving on? What if he already has?"
"Well… you'll never know, will you?" Maggie replied, honestly. She was a shy girl, but that was in part due to the fact she often said the things people didn't want to hear.
Maddie reached into her bra and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, which made her sister frown. With an expert precision, Maddie removed the thin tube from the pack, put it to her lips and flicked on the lighter.
"You can't live for others forever, Mads. Adam had no choice, you're both kids still. First love or not, there's nothing either of you can do."
"And I'm supposed to accept it and, what, live for myself?" She said, quoting Maggie with her fingers.
"Yes…" Maggie said, sheepishly.
Maddie sighed, billowing a plume of grey smoke into the summer sky.
"I just don't care anymore. Everyone is leaving me!" She groaned, fresh tears welling in her eyes.
With the same grace as her older sister, Maggie sat beside her sister.
"Is this about Alex, too?" She asked.
It had been almost 3 years since their eldest brother had left to join the navy and the family had taken it hard. Without Alex there, the Harper family had grown distant and dysfunctional.
All except for Maggie. Maybe I should tell her about Preston, he'll be leaving too soon enough.
Maddie thought about telling her sister about it. Maggie was a smart girl, the smartest of all of her siblings, if anyone could figure it out on her own, it would be Maggie.
She looked her sister in the eye and sighed, not knowing where to even begin. Maggie was also the most unaffected by Alex's departure and Maddie didn't want to ruin her childhood any more than it had been by the fallout of all that.
"I miss him." She said, finally.
"We all do. I guess it's easier for me because I'm just that little bit younger. We never had the relationship that you and Preston did…" she replied, regret echoed in her words.
"And now Adam…" Maddie replied, taking a long drag of her cigarette.
"He was your first boyfriend, it's only natural to feel cheated when it ends because it's out of your hands." She said, looking out across the valley.
"He wasn't my first boyfriend.' Maddie said quietly, "but he was my first…"
Maggie's eyes widened.
"Oh…"
"Yeah" Maddie laughed.
It was a frank admission. One that the pair would rarely admit to each other these days. To Maggie, her older sister was an idol, a beacon of maturity and something for her to dream about becoming. Maddie was confident, loud, striking, and daring. Although Maggie was happy with her close circle of friends and the quiet embrace of a good book, there was always a feeling that she was missing out, that Maddie was experiencing something that she never would.
"Was it… good?"
She laughed. "It was awkward."
"But you loved him?"
Maddie winced at that.
Loved? No, I'm still in love with him.
Maddie decided to let it slide, opting instead to enjoy the moment with her sister.
"I don't think that matters when they're your first. Not when neither of you knows what they're doing." Maddie said, a playful grin spreading across her face like spilled syrup.
"I thought you just kind of laid there" Maggie giggled in reply.
"Oh my God! Mags!" Maddie exclaimed, almost dropping her cigarette. "No!" She laughed, her chest heaving with laughter.
"What?!" Maggie replied, smiling too. The pair of them knew that Maggie had read enough romance novels to fill a swimming pool.
Even still, her ploy worked, and Maddie felt better already. That was when Maggie pulled her usual trick, and spoke.
"I know your friends want you to go to a party this week, Mads, but there's that new Trinity Saga film coming out and I was wondering if you wanted to come see it with me instead?"
Maddie shifted uncomfortably.
"Mags…"
"I know you think you need it, but you don't, you can move on in other ways. Better ways. Ways that don't start with the bottom of a bottle and ends the following morning in a stranger's bed."
Maddie stayed silent and the wind moved gracefully across the valley, bending everything to its will, barring the castle in the distance.
"I-I'm not like that" Maddie said, meekly.
"You will be if the others get their way."
Once again, Maggie had, with pin-point precision, understood exactly what Maddie and her friends planned to do.
"They want what's best for me."
"They want to get drunk and they want you to be there for it." She countered.
"What's wrong with that?"
"It's not what's best for you."
Maddie scowled. It was typical of Maggie to be right, logically speaking, but Maddie didn't feel like she needed her sister right now. She felt like she needed to let loose.
"You're 12, how do you know what's best for me?" Maddie demanded.
Maggie seemed to shrink back a little. "I-I'm your sister. I always know."
"No. You don't. You think you do, but you're not old enough to understand what I'm going through." Maddie replied tersely, her speech dripping with teenage angst.
Maggie sighed, a tear burst from her right eye as it always did. She would bawl her eye's out when she got home and that thought stopped Maddie from pushing it any further. She watched her sister turn to leave and wished she would stay, that she would fight her.
That's not her nature, though.
That's mine.
"I love you, Mads." She said softly, and left without waiting for a reply.
When she was out of sight, Maddie went to light another cigarette.
A sharp ping stopped Maddie from saying that she loved Maggie too.
[Nicola:]
[MADS PARTY TONIGHT?! NICO WILL BE THERE!]
Maddie thought for a moment and said yes.
When she hit send, she burst into tears.