The city of the Fallen was built of scrap metal harvested from the human ruins of Eventide. The Eliksni could not reprogram the glimmer-built structures, but there was plenty of metal to peel apart, melt down, and recast. Inside the dome of Riis-Reborn, many smaller buildings housed foundries, workshops, shipyards, skunk works, indoor farms, nurseries, and living areas. The arcology had been a new start for the Eliksni race, far from human interference, as well as the other alien races. The ruins provided resources, and for a while, the Eliksni had built and lived in peace.
But Eramis and her cult of Darkness did not allow such peace to last long. They brought with them whispers of new wars, memories of old wounds, and a promise of revenge. Most Eliksni were confused and troubled by this news. The Darkness had destroyed their homeworld, Riis. Why was their Kell intent on serving it? Why was she rejecting their age-old worship of the Great Machine? The Eliksni hid their Servitors, hoarded ether, and watched the days darken.
The pyramid ships arrived, and the Eliksni were terrified at first. After all, two planets and two moons had disappeared into gravity anomalies. Black pyramids appeared on Europa. But Eramis communed with them and received power like a Guardian. She renamed her house the House of Salvation. Many young Eliksni, hungry for battle and glory, joined her in hopes of learning these new powers. After all, their elders told stories of the golden age on Riis, when the Eliksni people had used the Light. Maybe now was a new age, and instead of the Light that had abandoned them, they could use Darkness, instead.
But as the Darkness-wielding Eramis became more unstable and vicious, even turning on her old friend Variks, her people grew frightened. Rumors circulated of a new, young Kell named Mithrax, of House of Light, who still served the Great Machine, and he did it alongside Guardians.
When Fireteam Avalanche crept into Riis-Reborn, sneaking along rooftops beneath the arcology's outer dome, they caught echoes of this unrest. Eliksni hurried from place to place alone or in small groups, looking over their shoulders, murmuring to each other, gesturing rapidly with both sets of arms. The shipyards hummed with feverish activity, building new ketches and skiffs. There were few guards posted on the rooftops, so the Guardians navigated with care and stealth.
Their destination was the command building at the far end of the arcology. As they drew closer, the Eliksni traffic in the streets below increased. Jayesh quietly cupped his hands against a wall and built handholds out of ice. He climbed up quickly and easily, forming handholds as he went. Nell and Grant followed, making their own ice grips, or using Jayesh's. The aliens below would later notice an odd trickle of melting water flowing down a rooftop, the only sign of the Guardians' passing.
The fireteam drew in upon the command building, traveling slower now, trying to avoid being seen. Eliksni had better night vision than humans did, and the gloom inside the metal dome was no concealment. Jayesh led his team, planning their route with care, stopping sometimes to let Nell slip ahead, concealed in a sheath of Void Light. She would scout possible routes and return, whispering directions.
In this way, they reached the roof of the command building and slipped inside through a cargo loading hatch. Once inside, they crept through the halls, keeping to maintenance areas as much as possible, until they found Eramis's command room.
This was a room filled with computer equipment and free-standing consoles in the room's center. But Eramis wasn't there. She was on the balcony outside: a huge branching platform that protruded from the outside of the arcology. It might have doubled as a skiff landing platform in a pinch. The vast platform had no rails and curved away to the right and the left. Straight ahead, in the distance, the pyramid was visible against Europa's icy plain. It looked incongruous and threatening, like a shark fin emerging from calm water. Eramis stood at the far end of the balcony, fingering the pyramid splinter in her gauntlet, gazing out at the distant Darkness. As the Guardians stepped onto the balcony, Eramis turned and faced them.
"So," she said grimly, "the Light-bearing pawns have come to do away with me."
"You leave us no choice," said Jayesh, stepping forward. "You opened that Vex gate and let them through. Do you know how many of your people they've killed?"
"No more than you, pawn," said Eramis. "How many of my loyal followers have you sent to their ancestors today? You are here, within our city. I expect to receive reports of a trail of bodies any time now." She took a fighting stance, feet apart, claws curled. "Since it is to be a battle to the death, pawns, let us set the rules of battle. No weapons. Your Light against my Darkness. Only when the Light fades from your eyes, as I freeze your hearts, will you understand the power I wield."
Jayesh glanced at his team. "What do you think?"
"We can take her," Nell said. But her expression was distant.
Grant nodded. "I am willing to try. We defeated her lieutenants with Light."
Jayesh nodded, although deep down, he was uneasy. He seemed to see the Winnower biting into a red fruit and explaining that it was the Light. The Darkness aura on this platform was oppressive, too, as if the distant pyramid was closer than it appeared. His Light felt dim by comparison: a candle straining to light the void. Even his inner song was subdued, in a minor key.
But he squared his shoulders and faced Eramis. "We accept your terms."
"Fight with honor, pawns of a dead machine," she said, and hurled ice at them.
The team scattered across the platform. One thing they had learned in their fights with other stasis users was that staying close together was no protection. It was too easy for all three of them to be frozen in the same burst of frost. Eramis strode forward, conjuring ice with shocking speed, her four hands moving in tandem. Ice bolts flew at Jayesh. He flung up a wall of flame, and the ice vanished in puffs of steam.
Eramis pounded the ground, and a wave of blue-black ice rippled toward Grant, sprouting larger and larger crystals as it went. The Titan leaped into the air, avoiding being frozen to the ground. Lightning ignited and crackled over his armor. He plunged at Eramis like a missile.
Eramis threw up her gauntleted hand and encased Grant in ice. In midair, his lightning quenched with a hiss. He hit the ground, almost at Eramis's feet. The impact shattered the ice, taking his left arm with it. He rolled to his feet, groaning. Eramis laughed, tore the splinter from the grip of his broken arm, then kicked him, sending him sliding toward the balcony's edge.
Nell had slipped to one side and disappeared in a shimmer of Void Light. She reappeared in time to keep Grant from toppling over the balcony and dropping a mile to the ice below. When Eramis flung ice at her, Nell hurled Void knives in exchange, making the Eliksni duck. But several ice blades stuck in Nell's chest plate and shoulder. Frost crept over her armor. Groaning, she hauled Grant to his feet, then plucked out the ice blades.
Jayesh sprang to the attack, trying to draw the alien's attention from his wounded team. He conjured Solar Light and threw fireball after fireball. Eramis met each one with a blast of ice, quenching them in midair. She walked toward him, laughing. "Your flames are not nearly hot enough, pawn. I will freeze you through and through, and I will crush your Light-spawn before your eyes. Or perhaps I will let you live long enough to see me destroy your companions."
"You underestimate the Light," Jayesh replied. Orange wings burst from his shoulders, and he built a huge fireball between his cupped hands. He thrust out one hand and sent the globe of Solar Light roaring at Eramis.
The Eliksni lifted all four arms above her head. Ice crystals sprang from the ground and grew into a wall ten feet high. The flame struck it and melted a hole through, but the ice had protected Eramis. She laughed and struck the ice with one fist. Razor-sharp ice shards pelted Jayesh, slashing through his layers of gear and synthweave armor, opening wounds in the flesh beneath. He snarled and instinctively reached for his hand cannon. But he remembered the rules of battle and halted.
Eramis laughed. "The pawn dislikes pain, does it? Think of my pain as the Great Machine abandoned us. Think of the screams of my people as they died. This is but a fraction of our suffering."
Then she grunted and went flying across the balcony. Grant had shoulder-charged her and struck her like a truck. As the Kell recovered, Grant threw down a shimmering barrier of Light and turned to Jayesh, holding out his remaining hand. "Are you all right?"
Jayesh clasped it briefly. "Better than you, my friend. Does that hurt?" His gaze lingered on the empty socket where Grant's arm had connected to his shoulder. The broken wiring and joint looked disturbingly wet and biological.
"I'll live," Grant said shortly. "Don't try healing, it won't work. Don't let her-"
Eramis's ice struck the Light barrier and piled up on the far side, thick crystals spearing up and outward in every direction.
"Don't let her freeze you," Grant said with a little too much calm. He clenched his remaining fist, drew a deep breath, and lightning began to crackle over his body.
"Nell, distract her," Jayesh said over their radio.
"I don't think so," Nell said in an odd voice.
Jayesh and Grant peered around the ice wall, back at Nell. The Hunter stood alone, holding Grant's severed arm in both hands. Eramis turned toward her, expectant.
"I understand, now," Nell said, still in that distant voice. "Why someone would choose Darkness over the Light. Look at the power of it. Look how easy you can kill people. You barely have to try."
"Yes," Eramis hissed. "Maybe even a pawn can understand."
"The Winnower tried to explain," said Nell, turning toward Eramis. "How death is the endpoint of life. It's the final outcome of entropy. There's no escaping it."
"Light burns for a moment," said Eramis, "but Darkness is forever."
"Yes, exactly!" Nell exclaimed. She held Grant's arm casually in one hand, the fingers dangling. She seemed to have forgotten him entirely.
Jayesh and Grant watched her, their Light dying away in sudden despair.
"She's faking, right?" Jayesh whispered.
Grant slowly shook his head. "I think … this is too real."
"I've always been attracted to Darkness," Nell went on, addressing Eramis like a new friend. "Guardians aren't supposed to talk about it. But playing Gambit, using Taken energy all the time, I got used to it. It's different from the Light. Maybe more powerful. It kills quicker. In the Dark, no one can see you sin."
"The Darkness gives power to crush your enemies," said Eramis, clenching her gauntleted fist. "We may understand each other, pawn, but I still intend to end your life."
"That makes sense," Nell said. "You know what? I'm not even going to stop you. I don't want to use Light anymore. Only Darkness."
Eramis held out her hand and froze Nell's feet to the floor with a jet of mist. She slowly grew the ice up Nell's legs, but halted at mid-thigh. "You really mean to simply stand there? You, pawn, are ready to die?"
"I'm ready to accept the Darkness," Nell said, holding out her hands. Ice formed at her fingertips. It traveled rapidly up her arms, over her armor, encasing her in blue ice until she disappeared beneath it. Eramis stood still, staring in disbelief.
Grant made a soft sound, almost a sob. Jayesh laid a hand on his shoulder. What had they just witnessed? Nell committing suicide? What about all her talk about the Traveler and not wanting the Winnower's gift? It made no sense.
Eramis whirled to face the other Guardians with a laugh of triumph. "So, this is what happens when your kind falls to the Darkness! I will take pleasure in ending your lives, too."
She pelted them with ice, raising walls around them, hemming them in. Grant punched out through one wall and charged Eramis, but she knocked him off course by growing ice from the floor and ceiling, tripping him with jagged crystals underfoot.
Jayesh kept looking at the statue of Nell in disbelief. The sight of her took the heart out of him again and again. Even if he melted her free, what good would it do? She had rejected the Light. But a corner of his mind doubted. This was Nell. It had to be a ploy. The girl delighted in ploys and pranks and reversals. How long could she stay in that ice before it killed her?
His fire wasn't as hot as it had been. His pathetic flames hissed against the immensity of Eramis's ice. And suddenly, Jayesh was frozen to the ground, his boots encased, cut off from Grant by a wall of ice cunningly placed.
Eramis stalked toward him, her movements speaking of murderous intent. "One pawn has died today," she hissed. "Two more will follow. I know you carry a splinter. Here, at the end, show me your grasp of Darkness. It will make quenching your Light so much more satisfying."
Jayesh pulled out the splinter and tried to will the ice to free his feet. Instead, Eramis snatched the splinter from him and crushed it in her powerful talons. It crumbled into tiny, pyramid-shaped fragments that disappeared like dust.
"This is not natural ice," Eramis said, flexing her claws. "I can use it to extinguish your Light. You will die. Your little machine-spawn will attempt to work its magic on you, and I will freeze it, too. Ice can kill Ghosts. They are fragile, as my people have long known."
Jayesh drew on his Light and wrapped himself in a sheath of flame, like a shield an inch from his skin. The ice around his legs steamed and sizzled. "The Light is stronger than the Darkness," he said.
"Is it?" Eramis said. She grasped his throat with her icy claws. Stabbing, killing cold spread from her touch, upward into Jayesh's skull, downward to his heart. Eramis continued speaking, but he could no longer hear her. His ears crackled with ice crystals and contracting flesh. Pain exploded through his head and eyes as every vein contracted, his body trying to protect itself. He couldn't even scream-his mouth and throat were full of sharp, freezing crystals-
Healing warmth cascaded through him, thawing his head, clearing his mouth and airways. He drew a tortured breath into thawing lungs. Eramis's hand withdrew from his neck. She had encased him in ice to the chest, but now she had turned away. Because Phoenix-
Phoenix had saved him. Even though he knew that manifesting himself would likely be fatal, the little Ghost appeared and bathed his Guardian in healing Light. He pushed back the cold, buying Jayesh a few more minutes of life.
Then Eramis lifted her gauntlet and froze the Ghost solid. His red and yellow shell frosted blue-black. His glowing pupil disappeared behind a veil of ice. He dropped from the air and plinked on the floor like a child's discarded toy. The sight was a knife to Jayesh's heart. He tried to grab the Ghost, but the ice held him in place.
Eramis looked at Jayesh in triumph, studying his face, eager to see the hope and Light leave his eyes. And for a moment, Jayesh despaired. He was trapped in ice that was slowly killing him. His Ghost was frozen. His Light was draining away. The Darkness had all but won.
Suddenly, instead of Eramis, he seemed to see the Winnower standing there. Red flowers spread to the horizon.
"I told you," said the Winnower. "Darkness feeds upon the Light. You can never win with the Light. Embrace your hate, your survival instincts. Take up my gift of stasis. Use it to slay Eramiskell."
Cold crept into Jayesh's chest. Ice reached for his heart. He had only a few beats left before it stilled, and death took him. But he had already made his choice, and it strengthened him.
He drew a rattling breath. "I … am … a Guardian," he managed to say. "I fight … for … the Traveler. And … by the grace given me … I will fight against you … with your own weapon."
Jayesh seized the stasis power. Fire flamed through his heart: the fire of love, and loyalty, and faith. He grasped the entirety of the stasis power and peeled it away from Phoenix. The Ghost hung like a snowflake in his awareness, silent, motionless, beautiful. As Jayesh tore the ice out of him, Phoenix exploded into flames of Light. His shell sizzled, and fiery wings appeared on either side of his shell.
The Winnower vanished. Eramis stood there, her eyes wide in astonishment. Jayesh threw his arms wide and the ice exploded off him in a crash like breaking glass. He snatched Phoenix out of the air and held him protectively against his own burning heart. Light licked through the joints in his armor, burning through the tears in his robe. But in his other hand, the staff of ice appeared, glowing blue and white.
"I am a Sunsinger," Jayesh said, stalking toward Eramis. "And I am also a Shadebinder."
"Impossible," Eramis breathed, backing away a step. "You have no splinter. How are you able to use the power?"
"There are greater powers than hate," Jayesh replied. "Your obsession with revenge has blinded you."
Eramis snarled and flung out her armored hand. A blast of ice struck Jayesh, lifting him from the floor, impaling him with crystals like javelins. He gasped in pain, opened his eyes, and found himself frozen to the ceiling. His hand with his Ghost was frozen to his chest. But Phoenix burned there, beneath the ice, glowing like a small sun. Blood ran down the crystals, steaming with the heat of his body.
Eramis gazed up at Jayesh in hate. "I'll paint the side of Riis-Reborn with your blood, sorcerer. It will remain there forever, frozen to the metal, as a testament to my power."
Jayesh looked for Grant. The Titan lay on his side, buried to the waist in black ice. His orange eyes flickered with pain as he looked up at Jayesh.
Jayesh looked for Nell. Her statue was still there. But it was lighter than it had been, shining clear like an ice sculpture.
Nell had vanished from the ice.
As soon as he realized this, Jayesh scanned the frozen balcony for traces of Void Light. There she was, a shimmer of near-invisible movement behind Eramis.
Eramis sensed it and turned.
Nell faded into sight. She still carried Grant's broken arm, but she had frozen the fist into a huge block of ice. She clubbed Eramis across the face with it. "Jay's not a sorcerer, asshole!" She struck Eramis again. "He's a Blizzard Wizard!"
Eramis staggered backward. "How?" she shrieked.
"Psych," Nell said. "You didn't think I meant all that Darkness talk? The Winnower can burn in hell." She brandished Grant's arm. "And I'm sending you there for what you did to Grant."
Eramis slashed at Nell with a hail of ice shards. Nell raised a wall of her own crystals, blocking the onslaught. "Jay! Grant! Get out of that stupid ice right now!"
Jayesh wrenched his frozen arm away from his chest, freeing Phoenix. The Ghost burned at his shoulder. "Come on, my Shadebinder," the Ghost whispered proudly. "Time to use ice and fire together."
Jayesh exploded out of the ice trapping him, shattering the spears of ice that had impaled him. He screamed in pain and exertion as he fell, and his Ghost healed him.
The staff of ice sharpened in his hand. The icy crystals narrowed, sharpening, becoming a long, thin blade. Jayesh had lost his Dawnblade to Riven, and had been unable to summon a sword ever since. But now, the ice responded to his thought, shaping itself into the weapon he loved most. He dropped almost on top of Eramis and buried his blade in her back.
Eramis screeched and instantly shattered the sword, but blood and ether poured from the wound. She drove Jayesh backward with spears of ice, summoning them and hurling them with deadly accuracy. He took one in the thigh and fell. His robes trailed smoke and steam, the Dark and Light powers mingling within him until he couldn't tell them apart anymore. He shot a jet of steam at Eramis that blinded her, and used his own power to melt the spear and climb to his feet. There, he shot a blast of steam at the floor, propelling himself in a long arc, over Eramis's head, where he bombarded her with frozen darts from his staff.
Nell had run to Grant and broken him out of the ice. The injured Titan stood still, leaning on her, but his remaining arm frosted over, a block of ice forming around his fist. "I may only have one hand, but I'll take you anyway."
"How is this possible?" shrieked Eramis. The three Guardians stood before her, all of them wielding stasis without splinters. She whirled and screamed at the distant pyramid. "You said they could not use this power! You said they were weak! Yet, you granted it to them! You liar! You liar!"
Ice began to creep from her gauntlet, up her arm to her shoulder.
Eramis continued to rave. "You betrayed me! Your promises were false! You're no better than the Great Machine! I sacrificed for this power, and it was all for nothing! Nothing!"
Ice crawled from her shoulder, across her torso, down her limbs, and up her neck. Eramis let out a last, anguished cry before the ice sealed her face within it.
The three Guardians stood there, waiting for the Kell to break free of her prison. Instead, the ice continued to thicken. It encased Eramis in layer upon layer, as if her own power had gone crazy and was inflicting attack after attack upon herself.
Jayesh summoned his staff and sculpted it into another sword, just in case. "She's going to go off like a bomb. Be ready."
But nothing happened. The ice stopped growing. Eramis stood encased in her own ice, one arm forever raised in despair and betrayal toward the black pyramid.
"I think she's dead, guys," Nell said.
"Is she?" said Grant. He sagged a little more, letting the ice crack and fall off his remaining hand. "What happened, then? Why did she kill herself?"
Jayesh approached the statue and tapped it with his blade. "I think her own power turned on her," he said quietly. "Her control relied upon her emotional state and her gauntlet. When she saw us using stasis … without the props she needed … she was undone."
After a moment, he turned to Nell. "What was all that about joining the Darkness?"
"I lied," Nell said. "I wanted to see if she'd buy it. She kind of did. She left you guys alone, which was what I was going for. Evil bitch."
"How did you survive inside the ice?" Grant asked.
"Hadrian," Nell replied, grinning. "He's the fastest healer in the Vanguard. He kept me from freezing, healing cell damage as it happened. I sneaked out of the ice once Eramis started beating on you, Jay. I had to pay her back for what she did to Grant." She lifted Grant's arm back to its socket. "Can Sentry heal this?"
"It will take time," Sentry said, flashing into sight in a swirl of Light. "Press it into the socket until it pops. Jayesh, please help."
It took both Nell and Jayesh to replace Grant's arm. Then they had to hold it in place while his Ghost repaired the broken joint, synthetic ligaments, and musculature. Grant had the fortune-or misfortune-to be a late-model Exo with a high-tech nervous system. He could feel most sensations, including pain. While most Exos would not have minded losing an arm, Grant was as traumatized as any human would have been. As they called their ships, Grant sat on a chunk of ice and trembled with shock.
"You know, Four," Nell said, her arms wrapped around him as far as they would reach, "maybe you shouldn't have been a Titan."
"I am endowed with st-st-strength," Grant replied. "I am a Titan. But I do n-n-not handle injury well."
Jayesh watched them and kept an eye out for their ships. As he did, he held Phoenix and stroked the shell, which still burned hot against his gloves. "How did you survive?"
"Your connection with me was too strong," the Ghost replied. "The ice hurt me, but it would have taken a few minutes to kill me outright. I felt you take up Darkness and Light at the same time. You gave me the Light and you took the Darkness, but you … how did you do it? It wants hate, but you used love, somehow."
"I don't know how I did it," Jayesh said. "I was about to die, and with you frozen, there'd be no returning. You were my catalyst for controlling stasis."
Phoenix blinked rapidly, as if holding back the tears he didn't have. "That's … that's either horrible or wonderful, I don't know which."
"Stop," Aunor Mahal barked. "Repeat that. You used love to control Darkness?"
"Yeah, isn't that messed up?" said Nell. "That's what we found out. The Darkness digs emotional extremes, but in the end, you choose what emotional extremes you use." The Hunter paused, her eyes glittering. "Now, may I please have Hadrian back?"
Aunor regarded the three chained Guardians, tapping her stylus against her lips in thought. Finally, she glanced at her Ghost. "Send for the Hunter's Ghost."
Aunor turned to Jayesh. "So the pyramid splinters were destroyed by Eramis. Your love for your Ghosts is the key to using stasis. Right?"
The Warlock and Titan nodded.
Jayesh added, "Feel free to corroborate our stories with Eris Morn, the Drifter, and the Exo Stranger. We took Eramis's gauntlet back to them as proof of her death. The Stranger put it in her tent for study."
"And you three came home," Aunor said, tapping her tablet.
Grant said, "Not immediately. The exo stranger revealed herself to be Elsie Bray from an alternate timeline where the Darkness won. She is trying to mine Clovis Bray's encrypted records for his experiments with Darkness in Exo development. I hope to return to Europa and assist her further."
Aunor gazed at him, unblinking. "Perhaps you should."
The door opened and a guard entered with Nell's Ghost in a box. When he was freed, Hadrian flew straight into her hands. Nell clasped him to her chest and bent her head over him, whispering. When she looked up again, tears streaked her cheeks. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, rocking back and forth, clutching Hadrian.
Aunor observed this in silence. Then she rose to her feet and walked out. The heavy door closed behind her.
"Is your Ghost all right?" Jayesh immediately asked in concern.
Nell nodded, biting her lip to hold back a sob.
Hadrian wriggled free of her grasp and floated into the air. His basic shell was decorated with a hand-painted pegasus decal. He looked around at the fireteam and their chains. "This is wrong," he said softly. "Why are they doing this to us?" He turned back to Nell, opened his shell, and pulsed healing Light into her. "Don't cry, Guardian. I'm here, now."
Nell accepted the healing, then held out a hand. Hadrian closed his shell and flew to it. They gazed into each other's eyes, communicating mind to mind.
Jayesh watched, and he knew how she felt. They had all been through the worst mission of their lives, and unjust imprisonment afterward was so hard to bear. But their story was told, now. The Vanguard could make a decision about their case.
Hopefully, it wouldn't result in exile. Light, the thought made him sick.
Beside him, Phoenix said, "Don't give up, Jay. The Praxic Order may be harsh, but they're fair. They won't exile us for this."
Jayesh didn't reply, but in his mind, he pictured Kari as she had looked during her visit: exhausted, lonely, frightened. Phoenix read this thought, and his sorrowful sympathy bled into Jayesh's soul.
Jayesh added in his mind, "We're Dark Guardians, now. Assuming they let us out of here, what will our friends think? Will we have friends, anymore?"
"I don't know," Phoenix replied quietly. "Maybe other Guardians will learn stasis, so we won't be so alone. We can teach them to resist the Darkness, maybe."
Jayesh reached up and stroked Phoenix's red and yellow shell. The Ghost leaned into the caress, closing his eye.
Grant sat watching Nell. He tried to rest a hand on her shoulder, but the chains couldn't reach. He settled for saying, "Hey."
Nell opened her eyes and looked at him. They were glassy with tears.
"I love you, Firefly," he murmured.
Nell smiled and wiped her face on her sleeve. "I love you, too, Four. Sorry I'm turning into a pathetic puddle. I just … I had to relive Europa without Hadrian, and he's the reason I'm not out there, insane and murdering people …"
Grant nodded. "It meant a lot when Sentry was returned." He patted the pretty Ghost at his shoulder.
The door opened again, and the three Guardians straightened. Aunor returned, accompanied by three massive guards.
"You will give a demonstration of stasis before the Vanguard and Consensus," she announced. "Then we shall decide on whether to exile you."