Silvan awoke on a cot in the barracks tent. Sunlight illuminated the roof in muted yellow. The cot was only slightly softer than the rocky ground. Above her floated Bramble, his purple shell dusty and smudged, his blue eye studying her anxiously. When he saw her eyes open, he twirled his shell and emoted a smile. "Good morning," he said softly.

Silvan smiled, reached up, and drew him in for a kiss on his shell. Then she lifted her head and looked around.

The bed next to hers was occupied by Madrid. He was wrapped in his cloak and snoring, lines of exhaustion etched in his blue skin. Beyond him was Jin, also stretched out on a cot. But the Exo was awake and poking through his Ghost's holographic display.

Between Silvan and Madrid's beds, Jayesh sat in a folding chair, a tablet in one hand, an energy bar in the other. He was gnawing on it absently as he studied his tablet. At first, Silvan couldn't figure out why he was there. Then she realized that a healing rift rippled on the floor beneath all three beds. Jayesh was maintaining it with his feet. He sensed her gaze and glanced up with a smile.

"Feeling better?" he asked in a low voice.

Silvan sat up and stretched. "I'm all right." Her body felt strong enough, anyway. Her mind still felt scattered and bewildered. Part of it was still at that tea party with Toland and Dredgen Yor. She glanced around for the nightmares and didn't see them.

"Oh, they're outside," Jayesh said, understanding her look. "They won't enter a healing rift, for some reason, but they're not gone."

That was a relief. Silvan rubbed her eyes. "What happened? Last thing I remember, we were running through the dark with some monster chasing us."

"A witch attacked your mind," Jayesh said. "Madrid carried you out. We never did see the Zulmak thing, but I'm afraid we've stirred up something we should have left alone."

Silvan nodded. Her temples ached. No wonder she'd had such strange dreams. "We got the Cryptoglyph, didn't we?"

"It's with Eris," Jayesh replied. "She's studying it. She actually smiled when we handed it over. I don't think I've ever seen her smile before."

"It'll help us block out the nightmares," Silvan said. "Speaking of which, do you have any?

Jayesh nodded toward the other side of the tent. There was a door there-a wooden door with a knob. It didn't belong in a tent made of cloth. A little red haze flickered around it.

Silvan watched the door. At first she was inclined to laugh at the silliness of such a fear. Then she realized that doors could open. Anything might come out. The thought of that door slowly opening with horrors creeping over the lintel sent chills racing through her.

"Why a door?" she asked.

Jayesh glanced at the door for a moment, then turned back to his tablet. "A traitor Guardian came to my apartment and tried to murder my family and me." He said it casually, as if remarking about the price of milk and eggs. But the combination of the words and that looming nightmare door told Silvan everything. She had met his wife and two children before, and the very existence of the nightmare brought home to her how deeply afraid Jayesh must still be.

"Oh my gosh, what? When? Are you guys all right?"

"A few months ago," Jayesh said. "We're fine. I guess the pyramid decided to pick that particular trauma to use against me." He lifted his head and studied her. The blue glint in his eyes was very bright. "Who is the nightmare following you around? A Hunter?"

"Dredgen Yor," Silvan replied. "I met him at Twilight Gap and the memory still creeps me out. It was a long time ago, though. I don't know why the pyramid's dragging up that memory. I have lots of worse ones."

"Hm." Jayesh studied Madrid, who snored on, oblivious to their conversation. "Any idea why I'm Madrid's nightmare?"

"That's why I messaged you, to find out," Silvan said. "He said it was because he killed you. Or he thought he killed you. I wondered if getting the story straight might help him."

Jayesh gazed at Madrid for a moment, then sighed heavily and stared at his tablet. "Do you know what happened the day Prince Uldren was killed?"

"He was shot by Madrid, wasn't he?" Silvan said. "Served him right for what he did to Cayde and his own people." She held up a finger and thumb, took aim at an imaginary foe, and imitated a gunshot. "Wish it had been me."

"No, you wouldn't have," Jayesh said. "Uldren was beaten. It wasn't even a fight. See, he was trying to bring back Mara Sov. But he'd been deceived by Riven, the Ahamkara. And he was Taken. It was awful." He paused and stared at nothing, seeming to peer into the shadows of his own memory. "What Uldren brought through the portal was a giant Taken Servitor. Huge meatball with a mouth where the eye was. It ate him right in front of us. Then Madrid tried to feed me to it, too."

Silvan clapped a hand to her mouth and stared at Madrid, then Jayesh.

The warlock nodded wearily, as if telling the story was hard work. "I stabbed it with my fire sword, which killed it. It almost killed me. But it dropped Uldren, and … after going through that, I couldn't kill him. He should have stood trial. But Madrid finished the job." He glanced at the Hunter on the bed, asleep in Jayesh's healing rift. "But that's over and done with. We made up when I came out to the Dreaming City. Madrid paid for what he did and I've forgiven him. I don't know why the pyramid thinks that I might make a good nightmare."

Silvan leaned forward and held out a hand. After a moment, Jayesh took it. Silvan simply held his hand for a moment, gazing at him. "I'm sorry you went through that," she whispered. "I didn't know. I didn't want to know."

He released her hand and stood up. "That's the big secret, I guess. I came all the way up here to tell the story and apologize again, if necessary." He glanced at Madrid and shook his head. "I'm going back outside. Get some rest, Silvan. That's the best thing you can do for now." He left the tent, and his footsteps faded in the direction of Eris's post.

Silvan lay back down for a while, but sleep eluded her. For one thing, Jayesh's story kept running through her head, gaining horrific details in her imagination. For another, the nightmare was nearby, and its presence weighed on her. After a while she sat up and reached for her boots.

Madrid shifted on his bunk, rolling onto his back. He blinked at her, his yellow eyes bright and alert.

"Now you know," he said.

It took Silvan a moment to figure out what he meant. "Oh. You were awake the whole time."

Madrid sat up, rolled his shoulders, and popped his neck. "Not the whole time, but I heard enough. See why he's my nightmare?"

"No, actually," said Silvan slowly. "Not if you two made up. Do you dwell on it all the time or something?"

"Not really." Madrid began pulling on his own boots, which were still damp. "Guilt's a funny thing."

Silvan's eyes widened. "Wait … are you guilty about killing Jayesh … or killing Uldren?"

Madrid avoided her gaze and didn't answer. He tightened the straps on his boots and left the tent.

Jin, on the next bed, was lying with his hands behind his head, observing all this. He looked at Silvan, his purple eyes glowing brightly. "This fireteam has a crapton of drama."

"Tell me about it," said Silvan, and followed Madrid outside.

Madrid found Jayesh talking to Eris Morn. Eris had arranged a table with the Cryptoglyph floating above the basin of essence. It looked exactly as it had down in the catacombs, but some of its looming menace had been lost. The instruments of evil were somehow smaller and less threatening outdoors, under the glaring light of the sun.

"Sunsingers are despised by the Hive," Eris was telling Jayesh. "You disrupt the death song."

"Uh, that's good, I guess," Jayesh said. He gazed toward the scarlet keep in the distance, then shuddered and turned away. This brought him face to face with Madrid. "Oh. Hey."

"Hey," said Madrid. "Did Silvan mention how she sprung my bail?"

"Ikora did," said Jayesh, his voice dropping to a low, deadly murmur that Madrid had never heard before. "Silvan is not going to take your place in the Dreaming City. That's the other reason I came up here. Phoenix is carrying parts for as many weapons as he could load."

"You'll help build a weapon of Darkness?" Madrid said, incredulous. "You?"

For a second, Jayesh's face changed, becoming harder, older. "I can't do it for you. But I won't let you do it alone. You faced the whispers alone last time. No more."

In that second, Madrid realized that Jayesh was no longer the bewildered new Guardian he had been two years ago. This warlock was a man who had faced the horrors and shocks of military service and matured along the way. Madrid had never met this new, tougher Jayesh. He didn't know the Sunsinger at all. But he'd seen him in battle, heard his song, seen his deft hand with both weapons and Light. There was no other warlock he'd rather have watching his back.

Behind him, the nightmare of Jayesh shrank, folded in on itself like a piece of cloth, and vanished.

Madrid didn't notice. A lightness of new hope entered his heart. "I picked up some artifacts in the catacombs. Let's see what we can build."

Phoenix transmatted a roll of canvas into Jayesh's arms. Jayesh unrolled it, revealing a bundle of tools. He spread out the canvas on a flat rock to use as a workbench, then laid the tools on it. "You said you found artifacts?"

Madrid opened his ammo pouch and began pulling out the unknown objects he'd snatched off the table in the temple. Silvan and Jin walked up to take a look. They were followed by Eris Morn, her green eyes glowing brightly through her mask.

One object was a small, carved figurine of a crouching Hive acolyte. Eris picked it up and turned it over in her hands. "Useless," she proclaimed. "This is a ritual totem. It has no power in itself." She laid it aside and picked up a smooth, polished piece of orange crystal like amber. There was an insect of some kind trapped inside. "This is alive with Light, not Darkness. Useless for your purposes, but … interesting." She held it up to the light to examine the insect, then set it down carefully. Last, her fingers closed around a diamond-shaped metal object. It looked like it ought to attach to the top of a staff or some larger instrument. She turned it over and over, looking at the tiny chip of stone suspended in the middle of the metal working. "Ah," she said. "This. The object within this focus. This is what you need." She handed it to Madrid. "Look at the fragment in the center. That is a piece of the pyramid. Like a fractal, the pyramid can divide itself into ever smaller copies. Each possesses the power of the main body."

"I thought you said it would be too dangerous to use a pyramid," said Silvan. "Like harnessing the whole Traveler."

"I have reconsidered," Eris said. "The Cryptoglyph is an article of more powerful magic than you understand. With enough essence, we can bind this fragment into a weapon."

"What would it do, exactly?" asked Jayesh. "What power does the Darkness use? Just … black bolts of nothing?"

"Ice," said Eris, drawing the word out in a hiss. "The Darkness craves silence, and stasis, and a final shape frozen for eternity. It desires the end of energy, of absolute zero. A weapon of Darkness will be a weapon of such extreme cold, the user will be in danger of immediate frostbite." She smiled. "But you will not use it. The Queen will find it acceptable."

There was a moment of silence as the team looked at that tiny chip of a pyramid, itself a pyramid.

"Right," Madrid said. "I'm thinking trace rifle. Beam of cold. What do you think?"

There was a short debate as they discussed the merits of different kinds of rifles and ammo. A fusion rifle was also a choice. But in the end, Madrid got his way-Jayesh's supplies would allow for a trace rifle, not a fusion rifle.

As Phoenix transmatted parts in an orderly row on the canvas, Silvan picked up the chunk of amber. She cupped it in both hands and peered into it for a long time in silence. The Light it emitted was so strong, it warmed her hands.

"What are you?" she whispered to the insect inside. "Some new species that stores Light? Are you Hive?"

It looked like a spider, but with extra little crab pinchers. A whip scorpion, maybe, but with no whip. Every hair on its tiny body had been carefully preserved. Many insects lived in Hive lairs, but this one looked terrestrial. Some creation of the Traveler's, maybe, engineered for survival on one of the planets or moons.

Bramble appeared and scanned it. "It's not amber," he said. "It's crystal. But it's been polished like amber. Probably meant for some machine. Or an ogre was going to swallow it and carry it around in its belly."

"Ogres have been found with crystals inside them," Silvan said, every inch the Gensym Scribe. "But none with Light this strong. Maybe the crystal itself is derived from some Light-powered source."

"Try your psychic sense," Bramble suggested. "Does it pick up anything?"

Silvan opened her mind, which she'd kept shut tight against her nightmare. Her mind was sore and raw-feeling from the witch's attack in the catacombs, and before that, Besurith had shredded her like broken glass. Opening up now was difficult, like flexing a broken limb that was rigid and swollen. But this was Light, and its touch soothed the pain like healing balm.

"Who are you?"

The voice was strong and masculine. Silvan jumped and looked around. But her team were bent over their workbench, and there was nobody else near. Her nightmare didn't sound like that. Maybe she had contacted someone through the Light. She focused on the amber again. "I am Silvan Nerisis."

"Are you a Guardian?"

"Yes."

"I see you. Hi there, pretty lady. I'm not in that Hive lair anymore, am I?"

Silvan blinked at the insect in the crystal. She was in clear view of its tiny eyes. "To whom am I speaking?"

"Omar Agah, of course," said the voice. "Oh, I know they did something to me. Stripped out my Light, murdered my Ghost. But when they poured my Light into a crystal, they got my soul, too. So here I am. A bug or something."

"Eris!" Silvan cried, nearly dropping the crystal in a spasm of horror. "Eris, uh, look at this?"

Eris rushed to her side and took the crystal. "What is it? Did you discover something?"

Silvan stood with both hands over her face, peeking through a gap in her fingers. "Speak to it. With your mind. The bug."

Eris frowned and lifted the crystal to eye level. She stood stock still for nearly a minute. Silvan and the team watched her, holding their collective breath.

Eris did not cry out, but she drew a sharp breath. Then she clasped the crystal to her chest and bowed her head over it for a moment. Slowly she turned to face the other Guardians, cradling the crystal in both hands, as if it were very precious. "This is all that remains of my friend, Omar Agah."

Madrid, Jayesh, and Jin gathered around to look at the encased insect.

"Weird!" Jin exclaimed. "How did the Hive turn him into a bug? Could they turn me into a bug?"

"Perhaps, yes," Eris said. "The witches tear the Light from Guardians to feed to their brood. It seems they intended to encapsulate Omar's Light in a living host, such as an insect, encasing it in conductive material. But they captured his soul along with his Light."

"What do we do?" Jayesh asked. "Does he want to be freed?"

"Put out of his misery, more like," said Madrid. "You can't get that bug out without tearing it to pieces."

"Hush." Eris bent her head over the amber again. The group fell silent, waiting.

At last Eris raised her head. Her lower lip trembled a fraction. "He wishes to be made into a gun. A machine gun, to be exact. He said that he wants to kill every last member of the Hive."

"Can we do that?" Jayesh asked, turning to Jin and Madrid.

"We can try," Jin said. "You two work on the trace rifle. I'm going to repurpose my machine gun, over here." He had his Ghost transmat in the huge weapon, which he laid on the canvas and began to disassemble.

Silvan sat on a rock and watched them work. Eris walked off with the amber and its occupant. Her cloud of nightmares followed her. But as Silvan watched, one of the nightmares folded in on itself and vanished. Eris was having closure for Omar Agah.

"I wish I could make mine go away," Silvan thought, not looking at the cloaked and hooded Dredgen Yor who lurked behind her. "Bramble, any thoughts?"

"Well, Eris is collecting trinkets," her Ghost replied in her head. "Things that remind her of them. She's able to talk to poor Omar. Is there any way you could think of something good about Dredgen Yor?"

Silvan rummaged through her memory. "He did save me at Twilight Gap. I think it was only because my Light wasn't worth feeding on at the time." She thought about the way he had taken her by the hand and led her across the battlefield, killing anything that crossed his path with the cursed hand cannon Thorn. She had been in great danger, and yet she had probably never seen safer in her life.

Silvan glanced around for the nightmare. It was still there.

"What do you want?" she asked it. "Why are you here? You don't make any sense. Dredgen Yor was bad, yes, but he didn't hurt me. Why are you taking his form?"

The nightmare slowly reached up and pushed back its hood.

The face that emerged was not the grizzled, wasted face of Dredgen Yor. It was the young, handsome face of Shin Malphur.

"I am Dredgen Vale," he whispered in her head. "You watched my slide into Darkness. You blame yourself. That is why I have come."

Silvan stared at the nightmare for a long moment. Then she rested her face in her hands. "So that's why. The pyramid peeled me apart like an onion, didn't it? It knows things I don't even know."

The nightmare drew closer, Shin Malphur drawn in shades of red. He stooped over her to whisper in her ear. "You did fail. I followed in Dredgen Yor's footsteps. I am as corrupt as he was. You could have stopped me, but all you did was watch. What makes you think you can help anyone here? You're a liability to your team."

Silvan pushed the nightmare away, her hand passing through its cold, semi-corporeal form. "Stop it. Go away." But her gesture and conviction were both weak. The nightmare loomed over her, growing bigger.

Her Ghost appeared in a swirl of Light, spinning his shell aggressively. "Get back!" Bramble opened his shell, wrapping himself in a bubble of Light, and zipped straight through the nightmare multiple times. The nightmare recoiled and backed away, raising its shredded hands to fend off the Ghost.

Silvan sat up straight, watching. "Bramble! What are you doing?"

"These things don't like Light," Bramble replied, returning to her. "I can't kill it, but I can fight it off." He spun to watch the nightmare as it floated at a respectful distance. "I'm watching you." He positioned himself between his Guardian and the nightmare like a little glowing shield. He had always been protective of her, probably owing to finding her as a child and watching her grow up.

Jayesh walked up, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Are you all right over here?"

"Just nightmare problems," Silvan said, forcing a smile. "Bramble took care of it."

Jayesh peered at the nightmare. "Is that Shin Malphur?"

Silvan nodded.

Jayesh smiled grimly. "Worried about him tracking you down?" He extended a hand to Bramble's Light field, his fingertips glowing with Solar Light. Bramble's field grew brighter and wider as he accepted the additional power.

"Why would Shin track me down?" Silvan said blankly. "He's out hunting Guardians who fall to the Darkness."

"Well." Jayesh folded his arms and looked at the nightmare. "He was after me and my friend Nell for a while. We got mixed up with some guys who were manufacturing weapons of sorrow."

Silvan blinked at him. "You did? What happened?"

"We're both still alive, if that's what you're asking," Jayesh said with a half-smile. "But the weapons manufacturers disappeared. Funny how that happens. Is that why he's your nightmare?"

"Oh. No, that's not it." Silvan drew in her knees and rested her chin on them. "I met him when I was a kid, and he was a kid, too. Just a messed-up teenager, and he was in so much pain. I felt so sorry for him. Dredgen Yor murdered his mentor and his stepfamily and his whole town. Shin never got over it. His pain just hardened, like a shell. Then he went off to study Dredgen Yor's methods, and he became Dredgen Vale. He and his little group all took the Dredgen name."

Jayesh's face lost all expression. He stared at the nightmare in stunned silence. Sick anguish rolled off him in such waves that Silvan felt it. Mixed with it was something else that she couldn't make out. Compassion, maybe?

"I was sent to observe their actions," Silvan said. "I watched them for months as they changed into … well, not exactly Guardians, if you know what I mean. Shin gained a lot of knowledge about the Darkness, but he paid a high price. I always wondered if I should have stepped in. Talked him out of it. If I had said something, would that have changed things? Could I have stopped what he became?"

The nightmare grinned and grew a little larger. That guilt was fueling it.

Jayesh sat on the rock beside her and pulled out Lumina. "Here," he said, handing it to her, grip-first. "Hold this for a moment. I have a story to tell you."

He told her about battling Shin Malphur for the lives of his friends. The battle ended in a draw, but he must have won Shin's respect, because later on, he'd received a letter. "He said he was retiring and wanted to be rid of the original Thorn. He wanted to pass it to me to destroy or remake. Kari and I wound up tearing it apart and rebuilding it. That's what Lumina is. We took a weapon of sorrow and created a weapon of hope. I think you shouldn't grieve for Shin too much. He chose his own path, and you couldn't have stopped him. I think, maybe, he's found peace in some way. If it bothers you that much, you ought to get in touch with him and try talking to him. I doubt he'd be much threat to you."

Silvan sat for a few minutes, thinking about this. The idea of her hero Jayesh battling Shin Malphur to a draw was the most wonderful, horrible thing she'd ever imagined. She turned Lumina over, looking at the fine details on the barrel and the cylinder. Her fingers traced the long flower petals and found the lightweave thorns that protruded between them. A weapon of horror had become something beautiful.

"I think I'll do that," she said softly, handing Lumina back to Jayesh. "I've been too afraid to try talking to him. I didn't know you fought him. Did he hurt you?"

Jayesh grinned and dipped his head in a deep nod. "But I messed him up, too, so we're even. I don't want to meet him again, though." He rose to his feet and patted her shoulder. "Don't let that nightmare get to you. We need you over here at Weapons Manufacturing Inc., if you don't mind. You and Eris are the only ones who can talk to the bug. Omar, I mean."

Silvan followed him back to the canvas-covered rock, glad to stop dwelling on her guilt and the oppression the nightmare brought with it.