"Risk death. Win glory and signs of Her Majesty's favor. But always remember that you are being watched, and tested." -Prison of Elders Grimoire card
Nestled in the depths of the Reef, the monumental structure loomed like a fortress. Cobbled together pieces of Golden Age wreckage made up the shell of the sprawling complex, with twisted girders jutting out like grasping fingers into the cold emptiness of space. Housed within its walls, the Awoken's perverse fusion of detention facility and combat arena stood in wait.
So this was the Prison of Elders.
Stretching out over the void, a magnificent bridge provided access to the Prison's entrance. One misstep to either side would mean an unfortunate end. The long walk up to the edifice was bathed in flickering artificial light. The whole thing was eerily welcoming.
Crossing the long causeway with her Awoken chaperone, a distant screech from some Hive creature set Meren on edge. Yasmin Eld had been with her since she had arrived, but the only thing Meren had managed to do so far was to sleep for one full cycle. She had been exhausted after the flight.
But Meren certainly wasn't tired today - she was eager to get something done. Her sabbatical wouldn't last forever and there was ground to cover before the Vanguard inevitably summoned her back to the City. Visiting the legendary Awoken prison had been at the top of her list. If Yasmin had been hesitant to take her here, she hadn't shown it.
They reached the gate. The Prison's entrance sprawled before them like the maw of some terrible dark beast. A pair of Guardians idled near the door, armed to the teeth. One of them turned and watched Meren and Yasmin as they entered. An unarmored human led by an Awoken corsair had to be quite the sight this deep in the Reef.
The inner walls of the facility looked like the same tangle of wreckage and debris that was visible from outside. Not much of a surprise there. They had barely stepped inside and she already thought it a place of horrible sounds and smells. No one should want to live in here.
Yasmine guided her onwards. The Awoken guard had surely walked this labyrinth a hundred times. A turn to the left, up some ramshackle stairs, left again. At every intersection they passed there were holding cells of every size. From those pods emanated the cries and growls of creatures in half a dozen alien languages.
As they strolled through narrow corridors, Meren was struck by the cruelty of the place. Did all these creatures, these beings, deserve such a fate? No, Meren reasoned, but it was not for her to decide. The Awoken shouldered any blame for this monstrosity. She kept quiet. There was nothing she could do.
The deeper they went, the more lost the professor became. The corsair stopped, finally, outside of a sealed door. They had evidently reached the end of their trek.
"Are you ready to meet the Warden?" Yasmin asked. Her voice was flat.
Meren nodded. The door opened.
On the other side of the door lay some sort of control room. Consoles and displays lined the walls, the lights dim. The whole of the opposite wall was a transparent viewport that overlooked what Meren could only imagine was the fabled arena. This would be where the Guardians tested their luck against the Awoken's most dangerous prisoners. Typical Vanguard bravado.
The room seemed so sterile to Meren. It took her a second before she even noticed the room's only occupant.
The Warden stood, hunched over a console, attention focused elsewhere. If he had heard them enter, he made no attempt to acknowledge it. The Eliksni was roughly human in size, his upper set of arms had been docked and replaced with mechanical ones. A mantle of soft fur sat about his shoulders.
"Variks." Yasmin's voice was stern. There was no fondness here.
He turned, then, to face them, head tilting in curiosity. Meren got a glimpse of his green tunic, the mark of the House of Judgement was upon his chest. Both upper hands grasped tightly the staff he carried. His eyes looked tired, but there was something else there, too.
Meren knew the look of an Ether-starved Eliksni when she saw one.
"Variks was working, yes?" he croaked.
To say his words came as a shock would have been an understatement. Meren's mouth fell open as he spoke. What she was hearing was technically impossible. She had never known an Eliksni to be able to speak in a human language. Surely he had to be using a vocal synth.
Yasmin continued as the human stood there dumbly, "This is Professor Meren Hale. She's here on business from the Last City."
Meren pulled herself together and gave him a respectful Eliksni gesture of greeting, inclining her head.
Variks didn't reciprocate.
"Greetings, Pro-fes-sor," the term was foreign to him, "what is the meaning?"
"It means teacher," Meren replied.
Variks' mandibles clicked together for a moment, a soft growl emanating from behind his mask. His reaction was impossible to read.
"Professor Meren will be in your care today, Variks," Yasmin spoke, "she is under the Queen's protection. Don't let anything happen to her."
"Always careful," he chattered.
The corsair turned away from Variks without another remark. She glanced at the human, and muttered "good luck" before taking her leave.
The control room was quiet, then, save for the soft hum of a generator coming to life somewhere. Meren felt like she could hear her own heart beating. Variks and the professor just looked at each other. Neither spoke for a long moment.
The Eliksni broke the silence first, "Pro-fes-sor Meren," a growl between words, "you come to teach Variks?"
"Not exactly."
His grasp of the language seemed remarkable. Remarkable by Eliksni standards, anyway. Meren wondered how both Cayde and the Speaker had failed to key her in to the fact that Variks spoke English. She would be sending Cayde a strongly-worded message later once she made it back to her quarters.
"What does Meren teach?" he shifted his weight between his feet, tightening his grip on the staff he carried.
"Eliksni Culture, Language, and History. I teach at the Academy. On Earth." She answered slowly, careful to speak clearly.
He made a huffing sound before he continued, "The language. You speak well, yes?"
"No." Meren shook her head, a thoroughly human gesture.
She could understand it, that was true. Translate, even. But when it came to speaking, she lacked practice. She knew words, phrases. Stringing sentences together took a long time. Her human tongue wasn't made for the Eliksni language and the words always came out sounding garbled and strange.
"I speak it, but not well." It was the honest truth. "I could use a teacher."
Meren wondered if he was disappointed by her answer because he was suddenly turning back to the console. "Very busy. Hadn't planned for a vi-si-tor."
"They said...you knew I was coming," Meren countered.
She distinctly remembered the Speaker telling her that Variks had been informed of her visit.
"Variks forgot." His response was too quick, his back to her. Whatever he had been working on disappeared from the display screen above the console.
The professor knew that Eliksni were neither stupid nor forgetful, a scribe of a noble house least of all. She kept her expression even.
"Maybe you could recommend someone, then," if he was going to be like this, she was determined to be just as standoffish as he was.
"Yes, Variks knows a teacher." A slow blink crossed all four of his glittering eyes. "The Spider," he growled, "good teacher. Good friend."
This was the first Meren had heard of this "Spider". She felt it was right to be skeptical.
"Who is the 'Spider', Variks?" Meren crossed her arms.
"Defected House Wolves," Variks rumbled, "now Spider is a friend to many, many people."
That piqued her interest. Meren eased her defensive posture.
"Since it seems you can't be bothered, where can I find him?" she inquired.
"Tangled Shore," Variks' mandibles clicked, "not far, yes?"
It wasn't far, relatively speaking. The asteroid wasteland lay at the Reef's edge, but that was about all Meren knew. Petra had said she was free to go anywhere in the Reef except the Dreaming City. There had been no mention of the Tangled Shore. The professor resolved to look into it tonight, right after that angry message to Cayde.
A sound from the adjoining arena drew both of their attention, then. Through the viewport Meren could see two Guardians enter the coliseum to square off against some massive Hive creature. Variks had straightened up a little, showing some interest.
"What is that thing?" her voice was full of disgust.
"Hive ogre," Variks' reply was flat, "very bad temper."
The Warden leered through the viewport, apparently eager for the ensuing fight. Meren, on the other hand, had seen quite enough bloodshed for one week. She didn't want to prod Variks any further, anyway. Irritated Eliksni were notoriously "bitey". Damn it, Cayde.
She turned away and headed for the door.
"I don't want to watch this," she said it more for her own sake than to anyone in particular, "I'm going to go see about this Spider."
Variks didn't bother to follow as his charge left the control room unsupervised.
Once she was out the door, Meren really hoped she could retrace the steps her and Yasmin had taken earlier. Otherwise it was going to be a long night lost in the Prison.
As she began to walk back through the labyrinthine passages, she finally took a moment to reflect on what had just happened. Her mind began to race with questions. How had a House Judgement scribe ended up as Warden of the Prison of Elders? How had he learned English? What was going on here?
Meren centered herself. Patience. When had an Eliksni ever been forthcoming on their first meeting? She would have plenty of time to ask questions once she built up some rapport with Variks. Baby steps. He had told her about the Spider, after all, a lead she intended to pursue.
She had effectively lost her chaperone, but Meren knew she could cover more ground without one. You're a decorated professor at the Academy, she reassured herself. It was going to be fine.
A turn to the right, down the stairs, right again. The exit from this horrible place was blessedly close. Something bellowed from deep within the Prison.
Did she trust Variks? No. But how bad could the Tangled Shore be?
