Darxhis was the last one to sit, eyes sober. He looked uncertain what to say, but spoke anyway. "Good night, fair warrior and husband."
Sekris looked up and Canikos laughed, lightly shoving the smaller male. "Careful with your words, machinist, to call her fair is to risk the wrath of Sekris. Why the formality?"
Darxhis closed two eyes, but the expression was half-hearted. "I know not, only that I was summoned with a… not-light heart." He looked to Miriks, concerned, who watched them all.
"I think there is more than that," Sekris stated, and Miriks winced internally. Sekris was impatient, having waited for first her husband then Darxhis to arrive. Canikos had noted this, and put an arm around her. She grudgingly let it remain.
The ring of Eliksni was small, four of them facing each other away from most of the others, many of which were sleeping. The kiks were already asleep, less than five feet from their circle, and they spoke quietly so not to wake them.
"Yes, why did you want us to meet, Miriks?" Canikos was more curious, but Sekris's eyes were piercing.
Miriks looked up. "There are… some reasons. One of them is the answers to your questions, Sekris."
"Which ones?" she rejoined with narrowed eyes.
"Why I am here, and what the Eliksni taught me on my journey to Earth." Miriks met her eyes. "You still desire answers to these things?"
Sekris nodded slowly. "Yes. But I do not understand why you are answering at night, and why my husband had to find a trade for his watch duty." She crossed two arms.
Miriks leaned forward, trying not to show her worry. "Because it is you three I trust most. There is a weight on my heart that I have to let go, and it is potentially a danger as well."
There was a silence at that point. Darxhis nodded. "Well, I am ready to hear whatever you desire to tell.
She nodded to him, grateful. "I… I do not know where to start. But I know that I must say this." She looked around the circle, meeting eyes in turn. "The Eliksni are dying."
There was a grim silence. Canikos seemed uneasy at the dark subject, and Sekris merely looked down.
Darxhis nodded. "We've been dying since the House Wars."
"Your captain said something to me, yesterday. That if we don't stand together and fight, then we will all fall in the Darkness. I've seen it, time and time again. Who have you lost?" She looked around, then motioned. "It was not a vain question, who have you lost? I lost my husband Vanox and kika Eriska to the Vex. Dead by Hobgoblin snipers."
Canikos raised a hand, the motion almost shy. Miriks nodded. He lowered it and entwined his fingers, gaze dark. "I lost my father Alkatis to the Cabal. The Incendior laughed as he burned."
"My sister Karis," Sekris said, her voice hoarse. "Swallowed by a Taken Blight."
"My mentor Lantiks, who once served the Archon of Kings." Darxhis did not look up. "Thousands of years of knowledge, life, soul, gone with one human bullet."
They paused to consider the lost, and the darkness around them seemed to press closer. Miriks shivered. She had called upon the dead to testify. She could not hide their testimonies now. "When I was still young, our Ketch was attacked by a fleet of Hive. The House of Stone was strong, and we fought them, destroying several of their ships. Sensing our strength, the flagship emerged from the void in which it hid. Their commander boarded our ship, to claim our lives with his own sword. We were called upon, all who were able-bodied. I had been taught to fight, and answered the call eagerly, against my father's clear instructions. My brothers and I ran to aid him as he sought to bring down the Shadow."
Miriks clenched her fists. "I had faith that the Light would aid us. I had faith that, with our pure hearts and sure hands, against these, the vilest of enemies, that we would be victorious. We fought through hordes of Hive, falling one by one, until only I remained."
Miriks's voice broke, and she bowed under the weight of memory. Darxhis placed a hand on her back, and she accepted the reassurance gladly. But she could not stop. "We ran to the helmroom, feeling the reverberations of mighty blows shaking the deck beneath us. I entered to see my father fighting Oryx, the King of the Taken." The other Eliksni gasped, but she went on, disregarding them. "The Archon was dead against the wall, crushed like a dreg, and I feared." Miriks's breath caught, and a light mist of ether began leaking from the corners of her eyes. No matter how hard she closed them she could not stop it. "By the Machine, how I feared." She swallowed and went on. "My fears were not in vain. And as my father fought, I heard his words, his last, shouted plea." Miriks forced herself to look up, meeting the other Eliksni in the eyes. They returned her gaze. "'Where is the Great Machine? Where is the Great Machine?'"
Miriks forced herself to continue, fighting against the choke of her throat. "His last words, spoken in sorrow, in despair. Oryx killed him, and Chelchis, the Kell of Stone, the guardian of the houseless, leader of those who had fallen, was no more. And then Oryx looked to me, sword in hand." Miriks saw again that terrifying three-eyed gaze, the complete disregard of Light, of any life, and the awesome power tangible in the weight of the air, that had crushed planets and ended entire species. She shuddered, but the mist had gone from her eyes, and a determination had replaced it.
"And he turned away. Because he knew we had not the Light, that we would be nothing to him. And he was right. So I ran. The Hive fleet let us go, knowing that we would only be a burden to the other Eliksni of the system. I lost my faith in the Light on that day."
There was a long pause, as the words were heard. Canikos exchanged a glance with Darxhis. He spoke gingerly, as if he knew the words would be unwelcome. "So, you are… the last daughter of a Kell... yes?" Canikos clarified.
"That is not my point!" Miriks snapped. "What the humans call us, what they have always called us, it is true! We, the Eliksni, are fallen, from the Light, from the Machine's grace, and from each other. When did the Machine leave us? Do you know?"
Sekris answered slowly. "During the Whirlwind, yes?"
"It was after." Darxhis's words were somber. "When the Houses began to fight amongst themselves, when Rain was destroyed by Devils."
"And we have been lost ever since." Miriks took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm. "We have been losing as well. Family, friends, houses, lives, purpose, everything. We came to regain the Light of the Machine, not knowing we were no longer worthy of it, and now we are scattered. Do you see? Do you see my words?"
"I do." Darxhis was quiet.
"First Stone, Winter, Devils, Kings, and Wolves," Canikos counted them on his fingers. He looked up. "When will Dusk fall? I see your words, Miriks of none."
"I see your words, but not your purpose for speaking them." Sekris's voice was a growl. "Why do you say such things? To remind us of what we have lost? To rub our pain in the eyes of those that came before? Why, Miriks." Sekris stood, eyes narrowed and burning, stance readied. The small red glowlight illuminated her fiercely, but Miriks did not fear her, returning her gaze eye for eye.
The tension was very suddenly interrupted by a small figure. Liriks wandered into the circle of light, small mouth opening wide in a yawn, arms stretching and eyes small and drowsy. Without a word, she stumbled into Mirik's side and attempted to clamber up her leg. Miriks took the kika in her arms and held her gently, and she was soon asleep again.
Sekris had deflated at that point, and sat again. She did not speak, only stared into the light.
"You also asked how I and these survived, Sekris," Miriks began again, voice soft and calming. "Now, I will answer that. On Venus, just after I lost the two of my family, we were cornered by the pursuing Vex. Again, I feared. I had lost the light, my father and mother, my husband and daughter, and now I would lose these too? And then, something strange occurred." She took a breath, shaking her head. "We were saved by a Guardian."
"What?!" Canikos almost fell off his seat leaning forward, then at a trio of accusing glances, he made appeasing gestures in the direction of the sleeping kik, speaking very softly. "Sorry, um, what?"
"I'm not entirely sure he meant to, at first. The warrior tore through the lines of Vex, the Light in his fists, ending the threat to our lives in almost an instant. And then he saw us."
Miriks remembered the towering armored being, a massive repeating rifle in his hands, its barrel red and smoking. She remembered his obvious shock and curiosity upon seeking the kiks, and her fear. She laughed softly. "The human, using limited communication, pointed out a way out of the ruins, away from the Vex. And then he was gone. We took the path, and did not see another Vex thereafter."
"I have heard some stories of that like," Darxhis said. "Humans and their Guardians are much like us, in that they have mainly been interested in survival and defense for the majority of the time we have known them, not conquest."
"And I have heard stories of the opposite, of them relentlessly destroying the Eliksni, in whatever form we took." Sekris's voice was hard, and low. "Their Saint-14, the greatest hunter of Eliksni. Killed the Kell of my parent's house."
"And what of our Taniks, who massacred hundreds of humans and Eliksni in his battles hunting Guardians?" Miriks rejoined. "None are blameless here, and that is also beside the point. I was spared by a human." She looked around. "And they were chosen by the Light. We've all seen it, the power gained by worthiness, used to destroy darkness and Eliksni alike. Like my father realized, we are no longer worthy of the Machine's blessing."
Silence followed her words. Darxhis was nodding slowly, and Canikos looking warily at Sekris, who stared at her feet. Miriks took a slow breath, hoping that her words would be enough.
"But, we do not have to remain fallen."