"Oh come on. It's not that bad. I only had two." Maria took another gulp of the beer while the white and orange ghost looked down at her disapprovingly. She groaned. "Get off my back, Ghost, I've had a long enough day."
Ghost's body shook, as if he were shaking his head. "Well, I was going to tell you that-"
"I knew I'd find you here!" The voice was familiar, not particularly warm but warm enough for her to turn around on the bar stool with a drunken wide grin.
"Osiris! Nobody said you'd be in town."
"I didn't plan on being here." He nodded to Ghost. "And, Ghost was supposed to keep you sober."
"I tried, Osiris."
Maria shrugged. "I've only had two."
"And a half," Ghost added with a snarky tone that made Maria stick her tongue out at him.
Osiris sat on the bar stool next to her and plucked the half of bottle of beer out from her hand. "I'll take that." He slid it on the other side of himself. "Ikora tells me you've been wandering the tower more recently…and stealing her books."
"Borrowing."
"I told you she'd notice." Ghost barely got away from her hand as it came up to hit him.
"Yes, she wanted me to tell you to stop it." He drummed his fingers on the bar. "And be more careful how much alcohol you drink, or I'll stop bringing you things."
Maria's back straightened. Miraculously, she hardly looked drunk now, and Osiris slid something across to her. "It's been a year now. An anniversary present, I guess." He shrugged.
She laughed and tucked her practically white hair behind her ear as she opened the box. Inside was a huge black book filled with pictures and information on the Hive. "I asked in for a couple of favors since it looks like it's been the Hive books you've been stealing."
Maria's already flushed cheeks turned even deeper. "She…noticed that part, huh?"
"You aren't sneaky, Maria. Just ask next time. Ikora's not that scary."
"Maybe not to you." Maria grumbled as she flipped through the pages. "Thanks, Osiris. This is great."
Ghost felt at ease with Osiris around Maria. Without him she was lost in the world. Without her, Ghost was lost too. When Maria found him he was hopeless, depressed, he hadn't found his Risen and he was so sure he was the only ghost that didn't have anyone. She had insisted he come along with her, even as Osiris demanded she leave him behind because they didn't have time to stray from the path they were on. In truth, he was secretly glad she had picked him up, despite his own protests, and marched on, ignoring as he called her the cruelest things he'd only heard from others in passing. They were good friends, maybe even closer than most Guardians were to their ghosts.
"And there's something else, since you've been studying so much. I'm hoping you can help me…over at the Tangled Shore. You'd have to stick close, I've seen you firing your weapon and you're still no good at it but-"
Maria was on her feet before Osiris had even finished, and she snatched Ghost from the air, this time he wasn't nearly as fast to get away. "Every. Time." Ghost sighed.
"Let's go. And, for the record, Shaxx and Saint have been helping me with my aim, sometimes in the hangar, no thanks to you."
"At the horror of Amanda Holiday, no doubt."
Maria opened her mouth to quip, but slowly closed it.
With a last laugh, Osiris led them to his ship.
The monument was huge, but not nearly as big as the towering buildings of the Last City, and still even they paled in comparison to The Tower itself. "Wow," Maria and Ghost whispered in unison. "I've…I've never seen anything like it."
"Yes, yes, I'm sure there's many things you haven't seen. For gods sake, put on your rebreather, will you? The air here is thick enough. You're going to pass out. You aren't used to the different air systems."
"Right, right," Maria could feel herself running out of air as she spoke, despite the walk to the tower-like structure being short. She tugged on her mask, something that Osiris had somehow fashioned to mimic his own mask. "But that isn't what I mean, Osiris. I mean, out of everything I've read-out of everything I know-the Hive have never had a structure like this."
"How can you tell it's even Hive?" Osiris folded his arms, never taking his eyes off the structure. "There are many Fallen around these parts. How do you know it's not one of their strutctures?"
"You can just tell. The Hive, unlike the Eliksni, have the appearance of both insects and zombies-it's a pre-Golden Age era legend that isn't worth discussing, just listen. Anyway, the Eliksni often fashion purple, I suspect purple dyes are easier to come across in the other systems, but Hive fashion brown and green, anything that represents decaying. Not to mention the air around it is…heavier."
Osiris sighed, disappointment dripped in his voice, "So you don't know what it is. Eris Morn didn't know what it was! Petra Venj didn't know! I couldn't gather what it was after observing it for more than a week!"
"Did you see what happened in your observations? If something got too close to it?" Maria folded her arms, grasping her elbows as she found it to be softer and less closed off than if she were to mimic Osiris.
"Not really." He sighed.
Sagira appeared by his side, something that still amazed Maria even after knowing the pair for a year. Where do they even hide? It seemed like magic to her. "Except for when you got too close." Without waiting for Osiris's response, Sagira came closer to Maria, her bright blue eye examining her closely, "When Osiris got too close…something about him changed."
"Tell me more." Maria turned her back to Osiris, looking up at the glowing monument.
Osiris chimed in, "Just violent thoughts."
"Interesting…" Maria started forward, but Osiris pulled her back by her elbow. "Why?"
"Unlike me, you are lightless, Maria. If something does change you, there's no guarantee that we can pull you back."
"Well, we need a test subject of some kind! Obviously not Ghost, not Sagira, and you aren't telling me much."
"You didn't press it." Osiris quipped.
Maria rolled her eyes. "Fine, describe these violent thoughts, Osiris."
Osiris was quiet for a moment, his eyes never wavering away to search for his thoughts. He stared into her soul. Did he not think she was smart enough to figure it out? Did he think she was too smart? It was hard to read him. Finally he said, "The voice was sweetly dark, and it showed me bloody images of the things I could do because of the Light. Then Sagira stepped in."
She looked back at the structure. "I see…and Sagira, you said he had changed?" Sagira dropped low in a sort of nod.
"What are you thinking?" Ghost whispered.
"I'm thinking…this thing can change someone. Into what, I'm not sure. Can I stay here to observe it longer?"
"No," Osiris said sternly.
Maria slumped. "Come on, Osiris! Is there really some other place you need to be at? You can't be bothered to babysit for a week?"
He shook his head. "No, I've put you in more than enough danger by bringing you this close to this…thing. Come on, we've got to head home."
Maria frowned, but followed him. "Fine," she sighed. "Hey, can you at least tell Shaxx to cool it with the drills?"
Osiris laughed, "I'll see what I can do."
A sound like heavy footsteps made her stop and look around warily. She was sure she saw a little ghost hiding behind an Eliksni structure with a symbol that looked suspiciously like a spider.
Osiris's footsteps stopped as well. "Is there a problem?"
After a moment, Maria shook her head and jogged to catch up. "No, thought I heard something."
