The Altar of Reflections looked the same, and Arizona still stopped to admire the shadow of Savathun. "What is it?" Ghost asked her when she lingered for too long.
"I…have a feeling…ah, but it's nothing, okay? Just…an eerie feeling." She continued forward. He carefully extracted the Tablet, and it appeared in her hands in a white light. She carefully laid it on the Altar, and it remolded itself, just like Sagira's shell, into a huge Hive.
"I will never be the Taken Queen. I refuse to play second fiddle to my brother Oryx. When Oryx carved the Tablets of Ruin, he described the ability to create the Taken. But Oryx's chisel was affected by viral power from the Deep. I studied its vermicular path. I read between the lines. The Tablets hide a riddle. The answer to this riddle is something greater than the power to Take. It is the power of the Witness: to move worlds from one reality to another. This is what I will do. I will not Take. I will give. I will grant the Traveler a safe haven away from its enemies. And when the Traveler hangs in the sky of my Throne world, I will seal it away."
Ghost could feel Arizona's heart rate spike and her eyes widened. She looked up at the shadow, which peered thoughtfully, its eyes squinted. "Arizona?"
Argonaut put his huge hand on her shoulder, and she turned around. "She's planning on taking the Traveler! And if she does that…" she looked at Ghost with a panic in her eyes. He came closer to her, tilting his top panel to her forehead, and he could sense that the touch calmed her pulse. Her hands came up and cupped his body, her eyes glistened in the faint light.
"We won't let her do that!" He reassured her. "We must report this to Ikora."
Fae and Argonaut agreed.
Mars's red surface was hardly a comfort anymore. Ghost had sent every detail of what they had learned to Ikora ahead of their arrival. The three of them stood side-by-side, but Arizona hugged Ghost to her head, and for some reason it brought her great comfort.
"So, it's not the Darkness that's responsible for the planets' mass abduction, but an entity behind it: The Witness. And it seems I might be responsible for Savathun's theft of the Light. I won't lie. I…anticipated this."
"Ikora," Arizona let go of Ghost and folded her hands in front of her, "from my understanding, Savathun deceived everyone at the Tower. This shouldn't be just on your shoulders."
Ikora smiled, "I appreciate that." Her smile disappeared, "But, the truth of the matter is I was the one who welcomed her into the Tower. Who gave her access to the Vangaurd Archives, something I didn't even allow…" she shook her head.
"Something…you didn't even allow Maria to access?" Arizona asked thoughtfully.
Ikora nodded, "Yes, but it seems my instincts should've told me to do the opposite. And now, humanity is at risk of losing the Traveler to the Hive. If I truly am to blame here, I need to know. Before Savathun gets her claws anywhere near the Traveler. Your friend Fynch, Arizona, has been in touch with a new lead. I'm not so sure about this one, but right now we can't afford any hesitation. Connect with him in the Throne World. Find the answers we need…no matter what it takes."
This temple, much like many of the others, was filled to the brim with Scorn. Scorn were still mostly unknown to Arizona, though she couldn't wait until she could get back to the Tower so she could read more on them…if such books existed, anyway. She only knew they were a fairly recent creation of a man named Uldren Sov, Queen Mara's brother.
This temple looked much like a castle more than a temple. "Shouldn't surprise me that she would've built the biggest one for herself," she sighed.
"Waddya mean?" Argonaut stared at the massive building almost as much as she did.
"Well, think about it, the other two temples were bigger on the inside, sure, but nothing like this…castle. It looks very similar to the castle-like structure she built for herself, but this one is less…light looking and darker. Much more serious."
Fae took off in one direction. "Stay here until we can lower the bridge."
Arizona gave a thumbs up as Argonaut followed her. They looked as if they floated on air, and Arizona watched until they disappeared. Something inside her steamed. She hated feeling useless, forced to stay the sidelines while the others did all of the work to get ahead. "Ghost, why does Zavala hate the darkness so much?"
Ghost's panels twitched. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, because…that time I punched Argonaut, I couldn't find the doors without their help. And even now…they can see things I can't, and even interact with whatever they see, so…Darkness can't be all that bad, right? So, if it's helping us…why is it Zavala hates it so much?"
Ghost's panels whirred. The white of his shell was becoming dirtier than she'd ever seen it, the dirt even grabbing hold of the orange stripe. "It…isn't just Zavala. We ghosts hate it just as much."
"But…Juggernaut and Nymph don't seem bothered by it."
"Of course not, because that's the path their partners have chosen. The two of them would follow their Guardians into the sun if it meant protecting them, but the truth is Juggernaut hates the feeling she gets when Argonaut uses Stasis. She's afraid there will be a day when she's unable to bring him back…it almost happened once before."
"Really?" The thought of Juggernaut being scared surprised Arizona more than hearing that Argonaut got himself into trouble.
"Yeah…he was part of the team that fought Eramis. He was almost frozen and she…she did freeze Juggernaut. Nymph, however, isn't as bothered now by it. Like Eris Morn, he sees a purpose in which to use Darkness."
Arizona nodded at Ghost, "And you? Where do you lie on this scale?"
Ghost was deep in thought, but before he could answer the bridge came down, much to her disappointment. "We aren't done with this conversation, Ghost." Arizona warned as he vanished.
The deepest part of the castle was a dead end. There was a statue of Sathona holding a worm. "Wow, just like in the Book of Sorrow," Arizona whispered, staring intensely at the statue.
"What?" Argonaut blinked.
"The Book of Sorrow. You know, it's the compendium of the Hive's history."
Argonaut stared at her. Arizona pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You can't use words like compendium, Arizona!" Fae called while looking around. Nymph was by her side, scanning the area.
"Point taken. It's a collection of the Hive's history. According to the story, Sathona was the one that warned her sisters about a catastrophic event, and she led the way into The Deep."
Fae looked at Nymph, "Ikora…I don't think there's anything here."
Arizona stared at the worm Sathona held. "That worm…that might be a depiction of the worm Sathona's father took care of."
"You…really memorized the Book of Sorrow, didn't you?" Argonaut seemed impressed, which made Arizona lighter.
"Fynch, please don't tell me my Guardians did all this for nothing." Ikora seemed irritated.
"No, no, no! Something has to be there!" Fynch's voice sounded pleading. "Wait! What if the object is the statue itself."
Arizona nodded, "That would make sense."
It seemed as if Fae and Argonaut started shooting wildly, but it also seemed as if they hit something unseen. Once again, she felt useless. She hated feeling useless. "This is Savathun's temple after all." Fae got to the statue first.
"How do we move an entire statue?" Argonaut and Fae asked in unison.
"You don't." Arizona pointed. "Grab the worm and let's get out of here."
Fae nodded, and took the petrified worm, and pulled it, and as it disappeared all went dark.
"Um…I don't like this." Arizona took out her shotgun, expecting more scorn to appear. Instead…it was a worm.