Ferral awoke before dawn the next morning with the odor of dust in his nose. The wind whistled outside, swirling into their shallow cave.
"Dust storm?" he thought to his ghost.
"Dust storm," Banner confirmed. "It's a big one, too."
Ferral lay there and thought about this. The cave entrance was a slightly lighter shade of gray in the darkness. Lethia slept beside him, her breathing deep and even, buried in blankets. It was cold, but not as cold as the previous night.
When he had left Lethia the day before, Ferral had driven south in search of the Cabal base Banner had detected. He found it, all right. Golden Age ruins rose out of the sand: old skyscrapers, smaller buildings with only the supports still standing, piles of machinery rusted beyond recognition. The aliens had set up housekeeping in the ruins. He hadn't been able to get close because of their guards, but he'd seen their ships taking off and landing. Plenty of options for a hijack.
A dust storm would reduce visibility, hiding the Guardians from the watchful aliens. He'd have to make more detailed plans when he'd had a better chance to study the layout of the ruins.
"Ban," he thought, "something's been bothering me."
"What is it?" his ghost replied.
"That Cabal warship Lethia destroyed. How did it find her?"
Banner was silent a moment. "Accidental scan?"
"Would they have picked up my mayday as we crashed?"
"It was broadcast on all frequencies, so ... yes." Banner added hesitantly, "Do you think they were tracking us?"
"It's not outside the realm of possibility," Ferral thought. "And Lethia annihilated them. Damn, she's not even trained yet. Do you know how dangerous she is? A Voidwalker with no control?"
"She can direct it, I think," Banner said. "She's learning quickly. But yes ... one slip and she could kill us all."
Ferral looked at the featureless lump beside him. She may drive him nuts, but it had hurt him unexpectedly to pull the Hive thralls off her, only to find her protecting her ghost to the end. After she had hit her own ghost, he hadn't expected that. Maybe she wasn't as big of a waste of Light as he first thought.
Still, he was glad she hadn't actually tried to kill him. While dying was always unpleasant, dying to a Voidwalker was particularly painful, especially when he didn't completely die. More than that, he was glad to see that she wasn't a murderer. It was one thing to kill enemies who had attacked first, or to kill opponents in the Crucible, where it was expected. It was quite another to kill a companion in cold blood.
Slowly the light outside brightened to a dusky brown. The wind continued to gust, driving ripples and whirlwinds of dust before it. Ferral watched it, head on one arm, thinking about the ruins, how they might hijack a ship, and whether to take it to Meridian Bay, or run for Earth.
Lethia stirred and pushed back the blankets, rubbing her eyes. "My mouth is full of sand."
"Dust storm," Ferral replied. "Everything will be full of sand by the end of the day."
He watched as she lifted her ghost out from under the blankets, cupped him in her hands, and kissed his eye lens. Niki made a soft, electronic trilling sound, and his eye blushed pink.
"Young Guardians," Banner said privately to Ferral. "Always catching us ghosts off guard."
"I'm glad she finally decided to appreciate him," Ferral thought. "I can't stand it when Guardians mistreat their ghosts. Makes me crazy."
Lethia released Niki to float into the air, got up, and poured herself a drink of water. "What's the plan?" she asked Ferral.
He got up, too, and began to fold blankets. "Sneak into a Cabal base. Steal a ship. If it has a jump drive, we'll head to Earth. If not, then Meridian Bay. Either way, we have to report that lost Vanguard base."
Lethia watched him work, expressionless. After a moment, she said, "That still bothers me. We found evidence of Cabal, Hive, and Taken. But what really happened? Surely it wasn't all three at once."
"We may never know," Ferral said. "For myself, I think the Cabal attacked first, and the Hive came later. The Taken ... I don't know about them. They might have only been after us."
"Or the broken crystal attracted them," Lethia muttered. "It filled me with Void Light in the first place. It's why I was so scared."
Ferral gave her a sharp look. "You drew Light from a Hive crystal?"
She opened both hands. "Apparently I can draw it from anywhere."
No wonder she thought she was a monster. "Ban?" Ferral thought. "I thought Light came from the Traveler."
"It does," Banner replied in his head. "But it can be found in living things, too. That crystal contained Light from ..." He hesitated. "... something they killed."
Neither Banner or Ferral thought the word 'Guardians', but the implication was there.
Lethia watched him. "I know you're talking to your ghost about me. Do I even want to know?"
"The crystal," Ferral said, standing up with his arms full of blankets. "The Light in it was from ... something that had died."
Her eyes widened. "You mean those dead Guardians?"
Ferral didn't want to answer that. He packed the blankets into one of his sparrow's baggage compartments, instead. When he turned around, Lethia had curled into a ball on the floor with her fingers digging into her hair.
"You all right?" he said, because he had no idea what else to say. She was obviously not all right.
"Vile," she whispered. "I hate this power."
"When we get back to the Tower," Ferral said, "the Warlock Vanguard can teach you to switch disciplines."
"That doesn't help me now," she said, rocking back and forth. "Ice and Darkness. This is why I ran."
Ferral stood there awkwardly. "Banner," he thought, "what do I say?"
"Give her a hug, moron," his ghost replied.
"But she's Reefborn! They don't like that."
"Then ask."
Ferral cleared his throat. "Would you ... would you be all right if ... would you like a hug?"
Lethia looked up at him, her blue-green eyes filled with tears. Then she nodded.
Ferral sat on the floor beside her and put his arms around her. She folded her hands in her lap and leaned against him, closing her eyes.
Ferral wasn't exactly the touchy-feely type, himself, despite being Earthborn. He hadn't hugged anyone ... probably ever. Holding another person - especially a girl - was an entirely new experience. He sat perfectly still, embarrassed and terrified.
After a moment, Lethia sat up and pulled away, her blue skin blushing a faint magenta. "Thank you."
He nodded, again, not knowing what to say. This was a far cry from their little argument the night before.
Lethia searched his face. "Why are you being nice to me?"
Ferral shrugged. "You needed a hug."
She folded her arms. "I wanted to kill you last night. And this morning, you're so ... mellow."
He climbed to his feet and busied himself packing the sparrow. "You want to know why?"
"I did ask."
He grinned over his shoulder. "You made up with your ghost."
She blinked. "Why should that matter?"
"Because to a Guardian, ghosts are everything." He held out one hand, summoning poor, shell-less Banner, who floated trustingly above his palm. "Guardians judge each other by their ghosts. We pamper them, keep them polished and happy. Show me a Guardian with a rusty ghost, I'll show you a renegade on a spiral into Darkness."
Lethia gave Niki's bent shell a guilty look.
"When I fought the Hive off you," Ferral went on, "and you'd gone down defending your ghost ... Well. You showed me right then that you'll be a fine Guardian."
"So why did you snarl at me last night?" she snapped.
Ferral locked a cargo compartment and faced her, leaning against the sparrow. "Because I needed to understand some things. And because you've treated me like dirt since we met."
Lethia opened her mouth, closed it, and bowed her head.
Ferral didn't want to beat her over the head with it - not like last night. Funny, he didn't want to fight with her at all. He put on his helmet and began pushing the sparrow out of the cave, into the dust storm.
Lethia followed, winding a strip of cloth around her head to protect her face. She had no proper gear, and her clothing had huge tears in it from the Hive attack. Ferral shook his head. Nothing he could do about that now. Getting home was even more important.
He mounted the sparrow, and Lethia climbed on behind him. "For the record," she said softly, "I'm sorry I've treated you like dirt. We're both Awoken, and we're both Guardians."
"Apology accepted," he said, starting the engine. And he was surprised to find that it really did make him feel better.
Lethia was tired of being constantly ashamed. But despite Ferral's harsh words, he seemed gentler today, more willing to make up. Maybe even be friends.
As they rode along through the dusty wind, her eyes began to stream from the grime filling them. She kept them closed as much as possible. This gave her plenty of time to think.
"Niki," she thought, "any advice about all this?"
"About being a warlock?" he asked. "Or Ferral?"
"All of the above."
Niki chuckled. His mood had vastly improved since she had restored him, and her kiss that morning had meant worlds to him.
"Treat him the way you want to be treated, Guardian. It's not hard."
How did she want to be treated? With respect and dignity. Giving that same respect and dignity to Ferral was much harder, for some reason. A little voice at the back of her mind still whispered that he was only one of the Risen, a second-class being. "Guardians don't have feelings," it chanted. "They're not capable of rational thought. They're the Traveler's meat puppets."
Lethia forced herself to remember Ferral's face as he hunted for Banner's core in the ship's wreckage. He'd been devastated, the hole in his heart matching the emptiness in his eyes. Guardians had feelings, all right. Ferral had been a basket case for most of their brief acquaintance. That morning had been the first time she'd seen him close to normal. Of course, a few hot meals and a bath wouldn't hurt him, either.
"How long until we reach the Cabal base?" she called against the wind and sparrow noise.
"Another hour, maybe two," Ferral called back. "Visibility is terrible. I can't travel very fast or we'll get lost."
The horizon had vanished behind a reddish-brown curtain of dust. The sun was a red orb. Lethia could only see the rocky desert up to about fifty feet away-then it faded into the blowing dust.
"Niki," she thought, "could you help navigate?"
"Yes!" he said, pathetically eager to please her. "The dust doesn't affect my scans too much. I'll see if Banner would like help. He's the one navigating." After a few minutes, Niki reported, "Banner has an app for tracking the synthetic magnetic field. He's sending it to me, but it may take a while."
"Thanks, Niki." Lethia tried to keep her response kind. "I was thinking you'd track landmarks or something, not the whole magnetic field."
"It's no problem!" he exclaimed. "I want to do a good job."
He didn't actually say, So you'll like me, but Lethia heard it in his voice. A lump formed in her throat. How had she managed to damage him so much after only being a Guardian three days? Poor Niki. She owed him a lot more kisses.
The storm grew worse. Clouds of dust often swept over them that blotted out the world beyond the sparrow's nose. Ferral had to stop the sparrow and wait until it cleared a little. Their clothing and gear developed a brown coating. Lethia had to shake off her face cloth over and over.
"Free camouflage," Ferral remarked.
Lethia squinted at the back of his head. So much grit had gotten in her eyes that she had muddy tracks down her cheeks, and she could barely see. "This is awful, and you're happy about it?"
"The aliens won't be out in this, either," he told her. "They won't see us coming. We can walk right in and grab a ship."
Lethia wished she had his confidence. The longer they spent in the wind and sand, the more miserable she became.
After a while, Niki said in her head, "All right, the navigation app is loaded. Looks like we're headed for the ruins where the Cabal are. Banner is guiding Ferral. Good thing, too, because visual navigation is really bad right now."
"Can you see the layout of the ruins?" Lethia thought. "Maybe plan an attack?"
"Not super clearly," Niki replied. "I mean, I can see the general layout of the place. Looks like the airfield is actually an old sports field the aliens converted. I can see the goal posts."
"From the Golden Age?" Lethia thought incredulously.
"Sure!" Niki said. "Sports were a big deal. I think this particular field was for a game called soccer." He launched into a detailed explanation of the rules of the game. Lethia grew bored in the first few minutes, but didn't have the heart to tell him so. Niki so wanted to please her.
He didn't stop talking until Ferral halted the sparrow and said, "This is it."
Lethia forced her muddy eyes open. Through the haze of dust, she dimly made out the vertical lines of distant buildings.
"Have your ghost scan the layout," Ferral said. "We're going to use the sparrow to make a run for the airfield. But the ghosts will know where to go, and I won't."
"What if we get ambushed?" Lethia said.
Ferral patted the rifle slung over his shoulder. "I'll deal with them. Feel free to Voidwalker enemies if they get too close."
Ugh, he actually wanted her to drain the life out of people. It was an effective weapon, but it didn't mean she had to like it.
"I'm suggesting a route to Banner," Niki told her. "Looks like the route the Cabal supply craft use. Nice and wide. Couple of checkpoints, though. I can't tell how high the barricades are. We might have to travel on foot half the way."
"I could make it if I could see," Lethia thought.
Niki appeared in a spiral of blue particles. "Oh, Guardian, your poor eyes," he said. He played a healing beam across her face. The itching and burning faded from her eyes. She used her shirt to wipe the mud off her face, but her shirt was so grimy, it probably made it worse. But at least she could see again.
She gave Niki a brave smile. "Thanks. That's better."
His eye changed to a smile emote, and he twirled his shell happily. Then he vanished again and returned to speaking in her head. "Anyway, I think Ferral's getting ready to make his run. Get ready."
"Here's the plan," Ferral said, looking back at Lethia. "Cabal checkpoints are usually a couple of concrete posts with a gate pole in between. They're taller than we are, so they put their gates higher than we do. There should be room for the sparrow to squeeze underneath, if I lower the repulsors. We'll have to lie as flat as we can."
They practiced flattening themselves to the sparrow's frame. Ferral refused to move until he was satisfied that Lethia could get her head low enough.
"All right," he said at last. "Here goes nothing."