Evergreen Point, Pacific Northwest
House Mist Territory
+157 Days
Nicole yawned and stretched out beneath the blanket; swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she stood up and pulled her undersuit back over her shoulders. The Eliksni lying beside her in the bed rolled over and flipped the blanket over the hole she had left behind. Things had been going well enough over the last four months since the two had begun sharing a bed together; those first few days after the battle had been both emotionally jarring and traumatic. They had bonded that night more than they had ever before, even if they had been practically living together at the time. She was not entirely sure how relationships went with the Fallen, but they were managing. Even if she did not understand where they stood to him, to her, they were very close.
Remaining cocooned in the warm blankets, Rykis rolled to face her. "What's the plan for today?" He asked in his native language.
She had hardly uttered a word of english ever since the battle in the pass. Her Ghost was the only one that refused to use the Eliksni language; it had become clear that he actually did know the language, just preferred not to talk in it. Her language lessons from Rykis had gradually stopped after the second month and now she was just learning by exposure nowadays.
"I think we're going after another camp," Nicole answered. "Scouts found another further north on another abandoned mountain pass."
The large House of Devils outpost they had cleared off of the old Interstate-90 mountain pass had not been the only one in the area. The Devils had evidently created small dens and chokepoints all over the mountain range and foothills to harass House Mist and the reported Human settlers in the region. Thankfully the first camp they had cleared out months ago seemed to be the largest thus far. Nicole had been going on missions almost weekly to remove them. Every time had been a success, but it was never long before another made itself known.
Most of the locations had actually been given up by House of Devils defectors. Jasix had told Nicole one evening that Dregs and some Vandals had been coming down the mountains bannerless ever since the local leadership had been decimated at the mountain pass. They brought plenty of intelligence in exchange for a place in a friendlier House. Nicole was a bit miffed about that, the Dregs were welcomed into the house much faster, and she was not. She had already done more for Mist than she had thought she would have to, and she was still waiting on approval. It was out of her control, she would just have to be patient.
"Another camp," Rykis shook his head. "How many more of them are there?"
"Not a clue, but there are fewer and fewer of them every time; eventually we'll be done," Nicole replied.
"Yeah… eventually." Rykis sighed.
"Alright, come on. We have to be at the highway by eight AM, and you know how long that walk is." Nicole finished strapping her boots on and stood up. "We don't want to keep Baron Asckis waiting." She pronounced the Baron's name as Ass-kiss just to spite him; she never used it in public, only in the comfort of her own home.
With another sigh, Rykis threw the blanket off of himself and pulled his armor closer. "Your Human timekeeping throws me off," he commented. "Why break up the day into twenty four bits, why not twelve like us?"
"Rykis, I can't answer for Human history, my clock was pre-set to it anyway. It's just what I'm use to. Besides, can you tell me why you use twelve?" She glanced back at him with a playful smirk.
"Well its... um well... no I cannot," he paused. "Its just how its always been."
Nicole laughed and stuck her tongue out, a decidedly human gesture that lurked in the depths of her subconscious. It had turned out that the Eliksni of Mist had a similar expression, but one that required the use of their mandibles, and of course a maskless face; mandibles that she did not possess. "Same for me, Rykis. All history."
"History neither of us know," Rykis shook his head.
Nicole mirrored the gesture and then looked up to her old room. "Ghost, Come down here!"
He hovered down from one of the few holes in the ceiling. His shell was still blackened in some places where he had taken the strike from an Eliksni arc grenade four months ago. She had tried to clean it off, but some areas had proven persistent. The arc zap had knocked him out for nearly five days, and Nicole had been extremely worried that he may never recover.
She brought it up to Baroness Tansis one night, and she came up with a potential solution; she would hit the Ghost with another shock, and hopefully that would reset the little machine's system. Tansis had brought over an old medical device, she likened it to what humans had apparently called a defibrillator. Nicole had not known what one was, but it had been explained to be a device that delivered a regulated electrical shock to someone to restart or restore their heart beat. Tansis charged the paddles and pressed them against the small machine's core. One quick jolt later, and Nicole's Ghost shot off the table and did a lap around the room.
Afterwards, he had been very adamant about who had held him while he was out. He apparently found the thought of being held by an Eliksni disturbing , something Nicole did not agree with at all. She had told him that her hands were the only ones that touched his shell, but that was only mostly truthful.
The Ghost came to a stop just in front of her, giving Rykis behind her a glare. "Yes Guardian, what is it? Oh!" He seemed to light up as he realized they were getting ready to go. "Are we headed out to another rough and tumble with the Devils?"
"Yes, headed out soon. Can you summon my gear the easy way, gotta beat slowpoke back there."
She flicked her thumb back at Rykis who was pulling his straps taunt with one pair of arms and wrapping his others with cloth at the same time. More than once she had wondered what it would be like to have a second pair of arms, so much more she could do... like carrying four guns instead of two.
"Got it," he Ghost replied.
"Laugh all you want Neh-cole, for I am just about..." Before he could finish his sentence, Nicole's armor vanished from the table and materialized on her body in a flash.
"Done," She finished for him.
Rykis just sighed and chuckled. "Okay fine, you win. Again."
Nicole unclipped her helmet from her belt where it had appeared and slipped it over her head. She reached out and gave her Ghost a pat on his shell. "Thank you Ghost. Come on Rykis, lets go." She pushed out into the corridor and found that the weather was pretty bad. Water dripped through cracks in the atrium skylight, Nicole's patch job up there was doing good enough.
The main stairwell had probably been the most intact part of the building when she arrived. She had swept up all the dirt and cleaned the remaining light fixtures recently, and wondered why there was so much dirt inside a seemingly closed space. This rain storm gave her the answer; the runoff had transformed the stairwell into a roaring waterfall, splashing down the steps and over the side of the landings.
"Guess the stairs are out of the question." She sighed in annoyance, they would need to be cleaned again. After the weather passed. She turned around and hopped over the railing overlooking the central atrium, and splashed into the marsh a floor below. Only in a few areas she could tell that this used to be the hotel's pool; a ceramic tile here and there, and the diving board poking out from a cluster of ferns and moss.
Rykis dropped beside her and grumbled, she had waterproof boots and all he had were woven wrappings. "Remind me to retrieve my proper footwear if we ever return to Seattle together."
"Why didn't you get them last time you went over yourself?" Nicole asked, trudging through the water towards the door out to the terrace. At some point long ago, a landslide had back flowed up and over the outside wall and created an easy slope down to ground level.
"I forget easily and you might remember where I do not." Rykis shrugged and followed her out into the rain storm, then they stomped down the fern covered muddy hillside.
Around the front of the building, Nicole noticed that there was an old Human truck parked under the overhang. It had not been there before; she had walked under that overhang countless times right where it was parked. She then noticed that it was rumbling quietly, and Nicole changed directions to investigate. Pinned to the back of the truck was a banner bearing the House of Mist sigil, denoting an official vehicle. She figured that was interesting. It looked a lot like the various rusted hulls that littered the roadways across Mist territory, only it was now obviously functional.
She got around to the front, and there was one of the small Not-Dregs that Mist had in the driver's seat. They looked out at her and then back to the lobby entrance, then honked the horn twice. Another Not-Dreg popped out of the doorway and bounded across the parking lot.
"Guardian!" the other Not-Dreg called. "Your presence has been requested by the Kell at the earliest of moments."
Nicole looked over to Rykis who just shrugged. "Him too?" she asked. There was no reason to refuse, a meeting with the Kell was important. Maybe it was finally her time.
"Yes, Guardian." The Not-Dreg said. "Please get in the back of the rig, we will take you there immediately."
"Its best not keep the Kell waiting." Rykis pushed passed her and climbed into the back of the truck, getting out of the drenching rain. Nodding in agreement, she hopped in behind him and the Not-Dreg closed the cloth flap behind her.
The truck pulled out from in front of the old hotel and splashed down the road. The rain was really coming down as they drove over one of the floating bridges that spanned the lake. Nicole was surprised that it was still so intact after so long had passed. She had only been back to the old Seattle ruins once since the day she had been resurrected, and that was only to visit the material market. A real reason never presented itself, so she was looking forward to that as well.
The heavily armed checkpoint on the other side did not stop them, they had already moved one of the tanks out of the way of the tunnel passage. They were just waved through and the truck continued onto the next road. The entire journey only took close to ten minutes before it came to a full stop along side the old theater hall the Kell used as a throne room. Normally, it would take her three hours on foot.
The rear flap swung aside and a Vandal in clean fancy armor waved her and Rykis out. He had netting draped across his chest, like many of the other House Mist Eliksni. The fishing gear look seemed to be something they all appreciated, except for Rykis. The area was protected from the rain by a large canvas of Eliksni design that ran over the street between buildings. Nicole and Rykis were ushered through a doorway and into a room that looked like it had been a back stage dressing room centuries ago.
More fancy armored Vandals were waiting with towels and brushes. They began to brush away the mud and dirt from their armor, making sure that they were presentable it seemed. "So what's going on?" Nicole asked.
One of the Vandals scrubbing the white plated areas on her chest plate chittered. "Our Kell has called you for a formal meeting. If we had given you more warning, I would assume you would have cleaned yourself. Either way, we will have you ready in just a few moments."
She looked back to Rykis and directed her next question to him. "Think this is good news?"
Rykis nodded once, "There was no way that the Kell would call you into a meeting to dismiss you. He must have decided to accept you into the House."
"I can only hope so." Nicole giggled, a bit giddy at the thought.
When the cleaning crew was finished, one final Vandal came in through a door and collected the two now clean and polished visitors. "Follow behind please. Stay three paces behind me, Guardian. Vandal Rykis, three paces behind the Guardian."
The Vandal guard retrieved an electrified spear from the wall, the blade cracked with energy, but it did not seem that its purpose was for combat anymore; the spear was decorated very similarly to their armor. Nicole complied and followed the Vandal out into the main hall had once seen orchestras and plays, but now served as the place of leadership of an Eliksni house.
Now that Nicole was more familiar with the Eliksni, she could take in the area more; although that did not mean that she was not nervous about whatever ceremony that was about to happen. There was still the slight chance that this was all going to be an elaborate refusal of her request to join the House. Even with all her time that she had spent with the House so far, that spur of the moment decision to request to join had been a horrible idea. She was still new to being alive and did not have all the cards in front of her, and had been to bullheaded. Now they were going to see what it was all about.
The theater hall had been cleared of its seats at some point, though there were still some at the edges of the room. They were occupied by none other than fellow Humans. Nicole was surprised; she had not seen a single human until this moment. They were dressed in what had the appearance of casual clothing, but wore tabards with the House of Mist sigil over them. The humans looked happy to see her, giving her a small wave as she entered the hall. She waved back to them, intending to meet with them after whatever this was had concluded. It made her feel better knowing that they were so happy to see her there, even if she did not know them.
She took notice of all of the Mist Barons that were standing at the base of the old stage. Nicole recognized Baroness Tansis and Baron Asckis talking with one another. Asckis scowled back at her, though his expression did not look as aggressive as the previous times she had met with him. She had gotten pretty good at reading the emotions off of the Eliksni faces, especially with only half the face showing most of the time. There were not many of the lower ranks though, Nicole could only count maybe six Captains and a handful of Vandals.
She was escorted down the center of the hall, and stopped at a raised platform a few meters from the stage. Flanked by more of the Kell's guard, the Kell himself emerged from the back of the stage. Everyone knelt down, and Nicole followed suit. The Kell lowered himself into his throne chair and addressed the assorted members of House Mist before him.
"Barons of House Mist, I have called you here so that you would all bear witness to my final decision on the matter of the Guardian." He looked down at Nicole. "The Guardian has already proved that they are willing to fight for us under the Mist banner, and they have followed every request we made of them. Baron Asckis, as you were the only one to oppose her initial request, what say you now?"
Asckis glanced back at Nicole on the platform and shook his head. "As much as I hate to admit it, but the Guardian has proved to be a useful tool in dislodging the House of Devils from our mountains. I still do not trust them to be completely loyal to us."
"I understand that complete loyalty will be something we will likely never see, the Guardian is ultimately loyal to the Great Machine." The Kell nodded to Asckis. "However, she has met the requirements that I placed on her privately for House Membership, and the Guardian has surpassed the normal milestones we place on other inductees to the House. Are you still advocating for refusal, Baron?"
"No, my Kell, I... withdraw my refusal." Baron Asckis said, looking down at the ground.
The Kell clapped his upper arms together. "Excellent, does anyone else have anything else to say regarding the Guardian?"
Baroness Tansis spoke up from where she stood. "Not regarding House membership, but I would appreciate it if she, and mainly her Ghost, could spend some time with me at the Vehicle yard."
Nodding in agreement, the Kell offered a hand in Tansis' direction. "I am sure that she would gladly assist you."
Another Baroness, one that Nicole had never met before rose from where she had been sitting. "I would like to see the Guardian make her presence known in the north. We are fairly isolated from our main den, and contact with Humans is exceedingly rare. It would be good for my boat crews to meet with a member of the risen before going out on the summer runs."
"That is another excellent idea, however with House membership, comes her right to movement in Mist territory, unless ordered she is free to visit on her own accord." The Kell said. "Anyone else? No? Very well then, with that I view this petition approved. Guardian Neh-cole, I welcome you to the Great House Mist."
Nicole smiled behind her facemask before removing the helmet from her head. A great worry left her chest, they were not going to kick her out to make it on her own, they were welcoming her in. She had been mentally prepared if they had chosen the other, but this was so much better. She knelt down on the platform, Rykis had told her a few weeks ago that it was what she should do, and she hoped he was right.
The Kell continued. "Every Eliksni carries their House Banner with them, and we are honored to have you carry ours with you." One of the fancy armored Vandals stepped over from the side of the platform with a folded sheet of cloth that could only be a small House Banner that the Kell was referring to.
"Even should you eventually depart on a quest to the Great Machine, you will retain your House status and will always be welcome to return."
Nicole stood up and accepted the folded banner. It was small enough to fit into one of her belt pouches, so she quickly placed it into the one closest to her side. "Thank you my Kell," She replied, kneeling once more.
"If you do eventually travel to commune with The Great Machine, please let it know that we have treated its new chosen with respect and have assisted them where we can to get through their whirlwind. I hope that the Great Machine will welcome us once again."
She nodded to that thought. As of yet, she had not actually seen anything that the House of Mist had done for other Humans; in fact no Humans had been seen anywhere in the Mist territory that Nicole had visited yet. They had treated her well, and Rykis had told her about working with other Humans, but still, there had not been any personal experiences yet to judge the statement against. Finally, she replied with a mild assurance that she would do what she could.
All of a sudden from stage left, a large Eliksni wearing similar armor to the Kell, but appearing to be older than anyone else's in the chamber marched across the stage platform. A large circular machine the size of a Vandal floated in behind them; it was a Servitor, one of the machines the Fallen used to make Ether. Nicole had seen one or two in the other outings she had done against the Devils.
The intruder fumed not anger but what appeared to be annoyance. "Sirakas I cannot believe you went through with this so quickly. I told you not to accept her into the House until I had a chance to speak with her." He jabbed a finger at the Kell in the throne chair. "Welcoming a chosen of The Great Machine is an important event and not something for a simple summons."
"Archon Marakis I would like to apologize for the assumed haste, but the wait for our Guardian sister has been longer than any other." The Kell chided.
The Archon seemed to calm, even though he kept the energy in his voice. "Fair enough, my Kell. I just wish to take the Guardian and speak with her at my complex; to help her understand the House that she had requested to become a part of."
"I see no problem with that, will you go with the Archon, Guardian?" The Kell asked her directly, the tone in his voice seeming to encourage her to leave with him as soon as possible.
Nicole looked to the Archon. "Of course, I would enjoy an opportunity to learn about Mist." Rykis had told her some, but if this high ranking Eliksni would like to sit her down and talk, who was she to say no.
"Excellent, you should come with me right away, my Skiff is waiting." The Archon motioned towards the door that he had come from.
She nodded and hurried up to the staircase leading up to the stage. The other Humans would have to wait until later, and they did not seem bothered by her quick exit. Rykis seemed to not know whether to follow or stay, and elected not to leave with them. The Archon led her out to the street through what had been an emergency exit door at one time. The ship waiting was a large Skiff, large enough to easily hold the much larger Fallen. It was hovering in the street, wobbling slightly in the heavy rain and wind.
"Please join me on board." The Archon said, climbing through an open hatchway.
Nicole felt really small sitting in the passenger compartment across from the Archon. Everything inside was sized for him or the Barons. She felt like a child, even though she could not remember ever being one, the feelings were still there.
The Archon sat and glance out one of the viewing ports as they roared over the ruins of Seattle. "This must have been quite a wonderful city before your Collapse." he commented.
She nodded and looked out at the overgrown roads and buildings. Some areas boasting trees that looked like they belonged in an old growth forest. "I do agree, but do not remember ever seeing it any other way than it is now."
Archon Marakis guestured a motion Eliksni often used as understanding. "So then it is true that the Great Machine's Risen do not remember the lives before, interesting." He grew silent again for the rest of the quick trip.
The view west, beyond the city that she had seen on the ground, was of old docks. Like the other ruins Nicole had seen while on the train, the port facilities and piers were high and dry. Trees sprouted at the bases of tall pilings that lead into a sort of valley. From this height, she could still see that water entered the old bay, but it was probably a good kilometer way from its historical location.
Nestled between the skyscrapers was a strange tower that stood over a low built park area. It was an old human design, red and rusty but some specks of white still were visible in areas; it was also leaning slightly towards the coast.
The large dropship came down for a landing at a cluster of buildings near the towers' base. More strange old human construction jutted out from a pond; probably some kind of art that was barely standing after all the years. The Archon got out and took her through a set of garage bay doors into a room filled with Eliksni styled furniture and machines.
"Come sit." He pointed to a small her sized seat across from one of his size. Nicole took the invitation and sat across from the Archon. "So Guardian, what would you like to know about our great House of Mist?"
Nicole looked around the space, and at the Eliksni infront of her. She summoned her Ghost and looked at him, thinking on what he had said about the Fallen when they had first encountered them. "Well, what makes you all so different from the others? Why are you so friendly?"
"Well, my Guardian friend, we can start there." The Archon chuckled. "I suppose it comes from what we were back on our homeworld, before the Whirlwind. I don't know too much about pre-Whirlwind Mist, but we were sea workers. We manned the ships, worked the docks, we were the laborers that maintained the supplies for our society. Mist had a Kell, and all the normal organization Houses had, but we were not at the same level as the others."
The Archon shifted slightly. "We close to the bottom rung of the social ladder of sorts. It made us close knit and more accepting. When we left our world in pursuit of the Great Machine we operated the cargo vessels which carried all our supplies. Then when the infighting began, and the old Houses started to splinter, Mist was split between the victors. We were allowed to exist as long as we maintained our posts and shed our house banners. Our original Kell fell to to Kings, and the leadership followed." The Archon paused. "When the Eliksni fleets arrived here, in this system, those of us that were still loyal to Mist mutinied and re-established our sigil. We recaptured a handful of carriers and cargo vessels, and managed to steal a ketch from the House of Winter."
"House of Winter?" Nicole asked. "How many Houses are there?" There was a lot of history the Archon was skipping over. Like how they managed to take that many ships. Though then when she thought about it, she had met a lot of House Mist members and the Archon had said they only captured a handful of ships. Nicole mentally shrugged; it worked out.
"There are many, though mostly four large Houses. The Devils, Winter, Kings, and the Wolves. Others that I am aware that survived were the House of Storm and Saints... well the Saints are gone now as much as I am aware."
"Wow, if they're larger than Mist, then there must be a lot of Eliksni here." Nicole said.
"Yes, I was not part of the original push, but it had been explained to me that we Eliksni took all we had for this mission after the Great Machine."
"That's a risky push..." Nicole shook her head, then decided to bring the Archon back to his original story. "The mutiny, is that how you ended up here?"
"No, no, after we took the ships we fled to one of the moons around the ringed planet where you Humans had constructed arcology structures. The ships were hidden under the ocean, and moved onto one of the structures. It was not my first choice, but it turned out to work well enough."
"So then how did our ketch end up crashed outside this city if you originally set up out there in the system?" Nicole asked.
"Well, that is simple, Guardian. We, as you Humans would say, 'pissed off' the House of Devils."