A single consciousness spun endlessly among a whole lifetimes worth of memories. It saw them and watched silently as they played repetitively over and over again. Some taking only a few seconds, others seemed to stretch over the span of a few years as they drifted through its mind.

Every time the consciousness focused on one such memory, it noticed only a single, solitary, recurrence.

One word…

A name…

Kei…

The consciousness felt drawn to the name, and seemed to hesitate from its constant monitoring when it arose in the many images that made up the memories.

Every time the word was spoken… Something stirred…

Something familiar… Yet so far away…

Kei…

"Kei Dragdoul!", A strange voice echoed through the darkness.


The conscious was pushed into the next memory. Shoved into the form of a small boy, no older that seven, dressed in stiff blue robes. It stood in what looked like some form of courtyard, on top of one out of many rectangular stones that laid in the center of a long pool. The pool extended the length of the courtyard and at the end was a balcony where a tall white-capped mountain was visible.

Directly in front of the boy was a tall dark woman dressed in longer magenta robes, her steely eyes stared directly into the boy's own. The eyes petrified the boy and the foreign consciousness within.

The woman tilted her head, as it sensing something was off. She stared deeply into the boy's eyes, peering into the essence of his very soul, "Hello there…" The consciousness that sat within the boy shuddered, it felt as if the woman were addressing It instead of the boy.

"I sense that you are not who you appear to be, lost soul.", she permitted herself a warm smile, strange to be seen in comparison to the cold stare she had been giving the boy earlier. "Or perhaps you are. Perhaps you have only become lost in the weft and weave of time and space."

The consciousness wondered in curiosity whether the person in front of them was speaking to the boy… Or rather seeing through the boy… To the lost consciousness within…

A small chuckle escaped her as she knelt down to be a little above eye level with the small boy, "Be free, lost one. I hope to the Traveler that you regain your purpose in this life, and continue on your path to greatness…" With that she reached towards the boy, taking his head in her hands. She took a deep breath in before releasing it sharply as she pressed a thumb firmly to the boy's head, sending the consciousness reeling as it shot out of the boy and sped away from the boy and into the bright blue sky above.

From its place in the atmosphere the consciousness watched as the boy shook his head, as if clearing it of a bad thought or feeling. Clouds suddenly drifted sideways, obscuring the view of the courtyard from the consciousness's view as the consciousness found itself spiraling into another memory.


"Focus Kei… Breath slowly… Can you feel the light? Is it calling to you?", it was the woman again, her eyes were steely but her voice was calm…

This time the consciousness had taken a different point of view, staring down at the courtyard from above. It watched as a familiar boy sat cross legged on one of the rectangular stones, eyes closed as he did as the woman commanded. The consciousness quickly noticed a change in the boy, he was a little taller, and sported a new buzzed hair style that made his scalp seem to turn grey compared to the rest of his skin. His face was scrunched up in determination, struggling to focus on clearing his mind as his master told him.

"Relax Kei, it seems you're so focused on clearing your mind that you have forgotten how to do it in the first place." The boy sighed and opened his eyes, slumping in place as he looked up at his teacher, "Remember Kei, in order to clear your mind properly you must be able to do it without effort. Let your mind flow as it wants, do not work so hard to bind it so tightly. This restricts your mind's freedom, and through that, its ability to choose its own path."

The nodded, resetting his posture before closing his eyes once again. Both the woman and the lone consciousness watched, patiently. This continued for a while, so long in fact, that it was almost sunset before anything changed in the courtyard. But when it did change… It was worth the wait.

The air around the boy began to glow with a golden light. The woman smiled as the boy began to react to the ambient light energy around him, growing brighter until he was shining more than the sun setting on the distant horizon.

"Ikora, what in the Traveler's name is going… on...", two voices faded as they walked through the circular doorway to see the boy's glowing form, shielding their eyes from his radiant glow. "By the light…", one of the newcomers, a tall Awoken, was unable to contain his amazement as he watched the area began to come alive with shoots of golden light, radiating outward from the boy like branches from a huge tree. They wound around the two vanguard leaders and snaked through the entryway from which they came, drifting to between the three towering vaults before flowing out over the edge of the balcony. The three senior Guardians watched as they followed an invisible path that seemed to lead straight to the traveler itself.

"Well that is somethin'...", the second, Exo, newcomer said in a somewhat amused tone. "Looks like you might have something real special right there Ikora…"

The boy's mentor nodded, smiling as she silently agreed with the Exo's statement, "Welcome to Guardianhood… Kei…"


The consciousness was then pulled violently out of the memory and back into the darkness of the void,"Kei…", it thought, "Who is Kei?"

"The answer you are searching for is not far at all, my student…"

The consciousness spun, its gaze flickered between the many memories before finally settling upon one that he had not yet seen.

The boy was an adult now, and stood between two other Guardians, a female Awoken and a male Exo, as they looked over the holographic projection of a large Fallen ship.

It started to remember...

"It's time to wake up… Kei…"