Crow woke up with a strange feeling.
It was like a cross between being in an elevator and being pulled into a mindscape, except the elevator feeling was in entire nervous system rather than his stomach. He asks Glint to examine him first thing, and his Ghost confirms that something was definitely happening; whether it was just the others testing the waters with their plan, or if this was the prelude to the connection actually being made, he didn't know.
"We need to go back." Cayde says. "We don't know what this shit will do to you, we should be somewhere safer when they flip the switch on your magical sibling bond."
That manages to pull a laugh out of him; he hasn't heard it get called that before.
"This will make a great story once it's over." Glint comments, settling in the hood of his cloak as they shimmy out of the narrow cave entrance. "We're saving the universe with the power of family, it really is very fairy tale."
Cayde wheezes, and Crow accidently inhales his own spit as he chokes on a laugh.
"Glint!" he manages to get out between coughs. "Sounds ridiculous like that!"
"What, it's true!" His Ghost insisted, uncaring about the racket they were trying to suppress. They do eventually manage to collect themselves, Glint's satisfaction tangible through his link with his Ghost, and make their way along one of their trails back towards the portal. Part of it leads along the blank face of a cliff, looking out towards the smokey, twisted mountain that loomed over the valley.
They stop briefly to rest along one of the wider parts of the path, and it's here that the feeling Crow had woken up with fades.
"It's stopped." He'd thought the words 'wait a little longer' very loudly throughout their hike. He couldn't hear anything from Mara, just the faint phantom heartbeat that he always had, but she was more psionically sensitive than he was. He could remember never thinking anything of the heartbeat, before the memories. He'd thought it was normal, because Glint definitely would have been in a constant fit if he had some weird heart problem that his Light couldn't fix.
"Good, gives us more time to hole up." Cayde shrugged, eyes raking over the rock face, scrutinizing it like a painter would a canvas.
"Thinking of climbing?" he inquired.
"Thinking 'wish I had a trace rifle'." the other man said. "Not like we'll be using that cave when the others get here; Zavala would never fit, and it would be too tight for sleeping in."
"Seemed fine to me." Crow shrugged.
"Kid, I broke your jaw the other day. You know how much I roll around. Ikora would kill me a second time." he said, still staring at the cliff face. They spent a few moments in silence.
"I have a trace rifle."
In the end, they walked away from the cliff, grinning. It didn't matter if the Witness sent troops to investigate their 'art', they would never be using this trail again.