The interior of the compound is as dim and cramped as the exterior is windswept and desolate.
I'm really doing this, she thinks as the dregs guide her through a twisting maze of corridors. I'm really about to negotiate with a Fallen captain. Too late, she realizes she hasn't been paying attention to their route. Hopefully Polaris is keeping track, otherwise she's never getting out of here.
The number of guards grows as they move deeper into the lair. More dregs, several vandals, and even a pair of middling captains join up. Great. If things go wrong, it would only take Polaris a few moments to transmat her gun into her hands. But those moments would be more than enough time for them to impale her six ways to Sunday. Hell, she probably wouldn't have time to throw a punch.
To distract herself, she studies their shawls and cloaks. Dark gray cloth with maroon and gold trim. Not the pale blue most Reef Fallen wear as a token to the House of Wolves. Is Khariss trying to start his own house?
After what feels like ages but can't have been more than a few minutes, they arrive in front of a broad armored door. One of the guards speaks a few words into a screen beside the door. It rumbles open a moment later.
There's at least another dozen Fallen in the throne room. Six vandals, two servitors, a pair of captains. And in the center of it all, a large chair facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that make up the room's back wall. The elbows of a large captain peak out around its edges.
Simin is there too, stripped to her under-layer and guarded by a pair of vandals near the side of the room. They have her kneeling, with her hands cuffed behind back and a muzzle strapped around her mouth and neck. The vandals hold shock blades to the hollows of her shoulders. She looks like crap, half of her hair out of her bun and a dark bruise across one eye. She watches as they march Linvana in, but makes no other reaction.
Linvana jumps a little when the door slams shut behind her. Shit. Telysa couldn't possibly have had time to slip in behind her. Shit. Shit shit shit. This was a terrible idea, it's just going to get all of them killed.
The guards notice her tense up and press their spears closer.
Damn it all to hell. The only thing she'll accomplish by panicking is get Simin a pair of swords rammed into her chest cavity.
She forces down a long deep breath and takes a cautious step towards the throne. "Khariss, um, Kell of Fortuna?" She does her best to imitate Telysa's stiff accent.
He ignores her, seemingly content to just stare out the window and make her wait. If it's a tactic to make her uncomfortable, it's working.
A stab of annoyance pierces the bubble of her anxiety. This reeks of everything she hates about politics; a petty display of control to fulfill some insecure power fantasy. Making her uncomfortable just because he can.
She's equal parts angry and bored by the time his chair swivels around to face her. At first glance he looks like an average Fallen captain. His cloak has a little more gold than his underlings', and his armor is a little less scuffed. He holds Simin's radio in one of his lower hands.
"No kell," Khariss growls, stroking the armrest of his throne.
"I'm sorry, what?" Linvana asks.
"Machine-thief say 'Kharisskell.' Khariss is no Kell. Kells are fools, stuck in days gone. Soon, no more Houses, only Eliksni. Suit Khariss very much, make him rich, yes?"
"…I see. So, uh-" What would Telysa say? "If it's making you rich, you should have some spare glimmer lying around for me, right?"
Khariss sits up in his chair, a slick and easy motion, and stares at Linvana for a long moment. "Khariss hears many things about machine-thieves. 'Filthy lightbearers are greedy,' Akraviks-friend say, 'only want spoils of war. Have no friends, do not care for anyone else.'"
There's a movement off to the side. Simin fidgeting in the guards' grip, who press their blades into her shoulders. Khariss ignores them.
"Khariss sees now it is true. Machine-thieves are selfish, have no care for life. Eliksni, Cabal, or even Awoken. You really no care for Awoken-bitch?"
Linvana takes three long breaths and forces herself to shrug. "I cared when she said she was going to pay me a share of glimmer for my time. But now she's worthless to me."
Just for a moment, Simin's face flickers with confusion. Then she sags in the vandals' grip, letting out a pained moan through the muzzle.
Khariss's slow, grating laugh fills the room. "Now Awoken-bitch sees. She thought Khariss her slave. She thought she tell me what to do. Now she realize, she is the slave. And Khariss is her master."
He settles all four of his hands on his armrests. "Now. Traveler-thieves want money for killing Vex-machine. Khariss will give fifteen-thousand weight glimmer. And in return machine-thieves never return. Machine-thieves tell other thieves that all of Fortuna belong to Khariss."
A part of Linvana is surprised at how reasonable his offer is. Typical bounty rates are five-thousand glimmer per Guardian for a day's worth of work. The rest of her is panicking as she realizes that if she accepts the offer, she won't have an excuse to stay in his compound.
Her eyes flicker back to Simin, who's now staring at the ground. Why would he kidnap a Corsair in the first place? And why would he have a muzzle for her?
She nearly jumps when the voice of Telysa's Ghost whispers in her ear. "Linvana, we've found a maintenance tunnel. We're almost there but you need to stall for a minute longer."
The whole room is watching her, waiting for her answer to Khariss's offer. Waiting to kill her if she says no.
Stalling. Right. "That's one way we could do this. Or…" What would Telysa do in her boots? Take a crazy idea and run with it probably. Yeah.
"This gig you've got here," she continues, "Salvaging and flipping Vex tech, can't imagine there's a lot of other captains in the business."
The Fallen captain crosses his hands. "Khariss is the only Eliksni in the Belt brave enough to take from Vex-machines."
"Well congratulations, but you realize it won't stay that way for long, right? Sure, you might be the only one out here for now, but when other crews start realizing how big of profit they can turn, they're going to try and get in on the action."
"What does it matter to machine-thief?" Khariss asks.
"It doesn't matter to me, but, well, it should matter to you. Keeping those other Fallen out will take a lot of man-power. And every crew that's doing that is crew that's not salvaging. That'll cut a pretty deep chunk out of your profits. So, you could hire me instead."
"Hire machine-thief?" Khariss's laughs again. "Machine-thief is funny, but not that funny. Take glimmer, then Khariss never see-"
The crack of the gunshot echoes through the throne room. One of the vandals holding Simin crumples, ether leaking out of the hole in its helmet. The other one chokes and gurgles and drops its sword. Telysa appears behind it in a ripple of light, one hand to its neck, the other holding a smoking hand-cannon.
Telysa yanks her knife out of the vandal's neck and it drops to the floor beside its companion.
"Excuse me," Telysa says. "Am I interrupting something?"
For half a heartbeat, everyone in the room stares at the Hunter.
Khariss roars and draws a shock pistol. Telysa kicks Simin over. His shot whizzes through the air where her head had just been. Telysa appears beside his throne and slashes at his guards with her Arcblade.
One of the dregs remembers that Linvana is there and thrusts its spear at her. She dodges a moment too slow and the electrified blade sizzles across her pauldron. The shock makes her arm tingle.
She grabs the haft of the spear with her other hand and yanks. The dreg stumbles forward and lands right on her elbow. It drops and doesn't get back up.
The room is pure chaos now. Telysa is still fighting Khariss's guards, a deadly back-and-forth of electric blades. Some of the vandals are trying to shoot the Hunter.
Most of the dregs are still in a scattered circle around Linvana. She tugs on her Solar source, drawing just enough heat to ignite her fists. No Hammer in here, not unless she wants to kill Simin with the explosions.
One of the dregs swings at her with a savage slash. She catches the spear with her hand and melts the blade off. A kick to its leg drops it, and she yanks the spear haft out of its grip as it falls.
Another dreg scores a hit on her back. Her armor deflects the blade, but the electricity sends pins and needles down her spine. She retreats, putting herself between Simin and the bulk of the throng.
The dregs form a loose line but don't attack immediately. Probably trying to figure out if they can take her out by rushing her all at once. The likely answer is yes, Linvana's trained with a sword but knows nothing about staff combat.
"Polaris, my shotty," she says. She extinguishes her flames and chucks the spear handle at the left end of the line. The dregs shy back as it clatters to the floor.
Linvana charges the right side of the line, shotgun materializing in her hands. She drops three of them while they're distracted. The fourth dodges her first shot but not the second.
If they were Cabal or Hive, the remaining three would probably retreat and come up with a different tactic. Instead they try a last-ditch charge. That might have worked when there were seven of them. Instead it just gets their skulls caved in.
Linvana backs up again and makes sure Simin is still behind her. The Corsair is kneeling over one of the dead vandals, trying to cut her cuffs on its shock-blade. Linvana scans melee that fills the other side of the room, checking if anyone else has noticed her and Simin.
They all seem to be focused on the crackling specter that is Telysa, so Linvana kneels beside Simin and draws some warmth to her hand.
"Hold still, I don't want to burn your wrists off," she says. Simin grunts through the muzzle.
Linvana pinches the links of the cuffs between her fingers and focuses her heat between them. The metal starts to glow red, then yellow, then white as it softens. She adjusts Simin's arms so that the molten metal drips onto the floor.
Simin emits a wordless shout. Linvana yanks her hand away. The Corsair's eyes are wide with panic, but she's not looking at Linvana. She's looking at the other vandal, the one Telysa stabbed through the neck.
The vandal who, gurgling as it fights to breathe, pulls a shock grenade from its bandolier and arms it with a click.
Shit.
Too close to get away. No time to find cover.
Linvana throws herself on the vandal and everything goes white.