Jayesh drew Lumina and took cover behind a tree that had grown straight through the courtyard's pavement. Up over the edge of the railing came more of the winged demons and the Psion-like weavers, all hunting for him. Jayesh shot two of the demons, but this exposed his hiding place. The nearest weaver conjured green strand and flung it at him, intending to ensnare him. But Jayesh held up his free hand, caught the strand, wrapped it around his wrist, and yanked the alien across the courtyard. It staggered toward him, surprised at having its powers used against it. Jayesh punched it in the face with a blast of Void Light, killing it instantly.

"You can use strand and void?" Phoenix gasped in his head. "But we've never trained in those!"

"The Traveler changed me," Jayesh laughed aloud. He holstered his gun and faced his enemies with only his powers. He lassoed one demon with its own strand and pulled it to the ground, where he froze it in place, then blasted it with lightning. He set three more on fire with a snap of his fingers, then threw down a bubble shield such as Titans used and stood inside it as his enemies beat against it. When all of them had gathered around the bubble, he collapsed it and unleashed a shockwave of fire that burned all of them to ash.

Laughing and exhilarated, Jayesh turned to look for more enemies, and halted with his heart in his mouth. Just off the courtyard railing, a whirl of black pyramid splinters was forming. But instead of stacking together to form a pyramid, instead the face of the Witness looked out at him. Jayesh stared up into its waxy white face, it's dead black eyes that reflected no light. Smoke continually billowed from the top of its head, forming millions of ever-changing faces. Whatever the Witness's original race has been, it was very similar to humans. It was fascinating and repellent at the same time.

"Why do you struggle so?" said the Witness in its harmony of whispering voices. "You carry much pain, Jayesh Khatri. All of it is inflicted by your so-called Traveler to whom you think you owe so much."

"No, all of it is wounds fighting you and your ilk," said Jayesh, drawing himself up. "You're not the Winnower. Your voice is different."

"The Winnower," whispered the being. "How strange you know it by such a name. Fear not, Jayesh Khatri. We will end your pain."

The splinters formed together, the face of the Witness disappearing. Instead, they formed the shape of a tall, slender creature, clad in close-fitting green armor and carrying strange weapons. First it was only a shadowy outline, then it flashed with Light and became solid. It stepped into the courtyard and turned its tall, narrow head in Jayesh's direction, then bowed gracefully, as if to an opponent.

"Did the Darkness just create you?" he said to it. "The same way I created a path through the portal?"

The creature hissed a string of words in a language he had never heard before. It lifted a strange weapon and rained fiery blasts upon him. Jayesh fled for cover behind a moss-grown building.

"It's tagged as a Subjugator," Phoenix said in his head. "I think it's the same race as Rhulk, the Disciple of the Witness our fire teams met inside one of those pyramid ships."

The Subjugator strode around the corner, hunting them. It was unbelievably tall, with long legs that bent backwards like a dog's. It gave the impression that the alien was walking on tiptoe.

Jayesh flung ice at those long legs, freezing it to the ground. The alien cursed him and fired. This time Jayesh summoned a Titan shield to one arm. Holding it up to ward off the blasts, he sang a short benediction. "Lift up your face, for the Light is upon you …"

Before he finished singing, the sword of a Dawnblade appeared beside him. It was his own Light, lost to him when Riven tore it away. But the Techeuns had found it wandering the Ascendant plane and had learned to call it with Jayesh's own benediction. But because it was his own Light, he could call it to him from anywhere.

"Strike the Subjugator," Jayesh said to the sword.

Fire blazed down the blade as it leaped to obey. By itself, it whirled through the air, stabbing and slashing, opening wounds on the alien that bled blackness. The Subjugator screeched and tried to snatch the sword out of the air, but the sword sliced its grasping hand off at the wrist. As the alien shrieked, the sword buried itself to the hilt in its chest.

At once the Subjugator dissolved back into the immaterial thought that had formed it. In its place, black roots erupted from nothing and zigzagged outward, like a tree growing and dying all at once.

"They turn into bushes when they die," Phoenix remarked. "Good to know."

The fiery sword whirled back to Jayesh and floated at his side, ready for more battle.

"Good sword," Jayesh said, patting its hilt fondly. "Stay for a few minutes. I'm not sure the Witness is finished with us."

He peered around the building, but no more enemies appeared. The Witness's floating face had gone, and an oppressive sense of darkness had lifted. A fresh breeze blew through the courtyard, ruffling Jayesh's sweaty hair.

"I guess we won," he said to Phoenix. "Sword, you're dismissed for now."

The sword obediently vanished.

"Now what?" Jayesh said, sitting on a mossy bench with a sigh. "We've been learning all sorts of things, but we still haven't found our team." He winced and flexed his wrists. "Using every Light power is fun, but I've never trained with any of them, so I'm not as effective as I could be. Also, Titan shields are heavy."

"A little practice wouldn't hurt," Phoenix replied.

"Now that things are quiet, I'll do another scan." Phoenix opened his shell, expanding into a sphere of blue Light with his core at the center. "Good reception up here," he remarked, sending out a pulse of Light. "This is the highest point in this area. Let me see. Interesting. I'm picking up a transponder signal down the south end of the Tower. Toward the direction of the Speaker's room."

Jayesh rose to his feet, brightening. "A transponder signal! That has to be the Vanguard. Of course they'd set up camp here. Probably Crow." He eagerly set off across the courtyard and entered a hallway, following Phoenix, who flew ahead of him.

They rounded a bend and entered the old Speaker's study. A window looked out over the landscape, and a lone figure stood there with his back to them, playing a harmonica.

Jayesh halted and stared in silence. Phoenix shrank back behind him. They couldn't see much of the person except his cloak. A black cloak with a red stripe and the Ace of Spades on it.

The figure turned his head. A well-known voice said, "You need to get quieter boots, Crow. I heard you coming. Now Uldren, he was sneaky. Never heard that bugger until it was too late."

When Jayesh continued to stand there without speaking, the figure muttered, "You're not Crow." Then he whirled and threw the harmonica at Jayesh's face.

Jayesh whipped a hand up and caught the harmonica, but it had been a distraction. The Hunter had used it as cover to draw his hand cannon, and proceeded to shoot Jayesh twice in the chest.

The armored vest stopped the first bullet, but the second entered the gap under Jayesh's raised arm, passed through his body, and tore out the back. Jayesh staggered backward and sat down hard, curled over the wound. "Cayde, it's me," he gasped. "Jayesh Khatri."

"Jayesh?" Cayde-6 said, lowering his weapon and grinning. "No kidding! Sorry about the quick draw, the Witness keeps sending things in here."

Phoenix was already hard at work pulsing Light into his Guardian, healing the wound, cleansing and closing it, stopping the bleeding. Jayesh sat waiting, drawing even breaths. This wasn't the first time he'd been wounded and healed. He grinned up at Cayde. "What are you doing here?"

Cayde walked up and knelt beside him, grinning as much as his Exo face allowed. "Beats me, kid. Are you part of that fireteam Crow's been talking about?"

"Yes, I came in with Zavala and Ikora, but we got separated."

"So everybody's here," Cayde said, glancing around as if expecting to see his old team walk in. "If you picked up my transponder, maybe they will, too. I put it out for Crow, actually. He went out scouting and isn't back yet. Kind of getting worried."

"You've been working … with Crow?" Jayesh looked cautiously at Cayde's expression.

Cayde only grinned wider, the lights in his mouth flashing. "Come on in here and I'll tell you about it." He helped Jayesh to his feet, and together they walked into the Speaker's study.

Jayesh looked around carefully, for he hadn't seen this room in years. The study had always been a small elevated platform with a railing around it. Two walls were paneled in bookcases, while the railing overlooked a giant, spinning gyroscope of a machine called the Vitalis that hung above a small pond. In the Traveler's version, the pond was still there, now overgrown with lily pads. The Vitalis was missing, and so were the bookshelves. The space resembled the real one, but with the details left out. Moss and ferns grew in every corner, and a couple of folding chairs where the Speaker's desk had been. A small transponder beacon was staked nearby. Cayde took it down and folded it up. "No point leaving this here. Stuff will track us in."

Jayesh sat on one of the chairs, pleased to find it was real metal and not some stone construct. "Tell me everything. For science, you know."

"Eh, you warlocks," Cayde said, settling himself on a chair opposite. "Always curious about things best left alone."

Jayesh opened both hands. "What can I say? I want to know things." He hesitated, then added, "You were dead. The Traveler said it ushered you into the realm of Light."

Cayde nodded. "Yep, that's where I was. Seems wrong to talk about it. Words don't do it justice, you know? I was at rest. My Ghost, Sundance, she was there too. And she was part of me, or I was part of her. Other people there, too. Guardians. Humans who passed on. All at rest. We were dead, but … we didn't mind. Hard to talk about without sounding loony."

"The Thantonaughts will go crazy for this," Jayesh said. "You know, the Guardians who die over and over to explore the other side." Jayesh lowered his voice. "I've read their dissertations. When I published my own paper pointing out that the whole Thantonaught experiment is useless because our souls are tethered to our Ghosts, I got the whole sect mad at me."

Cayde laughed aloud and slapped his thigh. "That took balls, kid! Whatever happened to that scared little warlock who had the Cult of Osiris after him?"

Jayesh grinned. "He learned how educational it is to poke a dragon in the eye."

"Yeah well." Cayde sobered and gazed out the window for a moment. "So there I was, at peace. Then something grabbed me and dragged me out. Something powerful and … I want to say Dark but Dark isn't right. Something with a will stronger than mine. I woke up in this body, with no Ghost, no way to use the Light. I'd barely got my bearings, was just figuring out that I was inside the Traveler, when here comes the man who killed me." He raised his thumb and forefinger and drew a bead on an imaginary foe.

"Did you shoot him?" asked Jayesh with intense interest.

"Tried," Cayde said. "Turns out he's a slippery little Hunter. Didn't realize he was a Guardian until I had him on the ground. Out pops his Ghost and gives me the surprise of my life. I'd thank you for putting down Uldren, but I understand that honor is reserved for Madrid."

Jayesh flushed and looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well I … it's nothing to be proud of."

"That it ain't," agreed Cayde. "Well, we talked it out like adults. Crow's a pretty decent guy now, lots more mellow than Uldren. We agreed that Darkness infecting the Traveler is probably the end of everything. So we might as well try to stop it. I got brought back for a reason, you know?"

"It's true," Jayesh agreed with a nod. "I wish I knew if the Witness brought you back for some reason. Mind if my Ghost checks you out?"

"Sure," said Cayde, standing and opening his arms. "Take a look, make sure I'm really me. I'm a little curious, myself."

Phoenix flew around Cayde, sweeping him from head to foot with his scan beam. When he finished, Cayde sat down again and looked at him expectantly. "Phoenix, right?"

"You remembered!" Phoenix exclaimed, bobbing cheerfully in midair. "Yes, that's my name now. Anyway, let's take a look at this data." His shell spun left, then right, like a hard drive. After a moment he said, "Well, it's strange. You're definitely Cayde-6. You have all your proper Exo markers and tags. But you're made out of Light, like a Ghost. Light straight through."

"No kidding," said Cayde. "Surprise surprise. Everything in here is made of Light, even me. Guess I fit the scenery."

Jayesh gazed at the Exo, at the worn blue paint on his face, the hood and cloak that had seen better days, the scuffed leather armor and boots. As Phoenix asked more questions and Cayde answered them, Jayesh watched them both and tried to wrap his mind around the situation. A powerful will had resurrected Cayde-6? Yet he was made of Light, so the Traveler must have allowed it. A flood of memories filled his mind, of being a new Guardian, freshly arrived in the Tower. He had no idea what to do or who to talk to. It had been Cayde-6, on his way back from the foot court, who had stopped to ask if he was lost. When Jayesh admitted that he was, Cayde took his arm and steered him into the command center, where he was greeted and briefed on Vanguard protocol. Jayesh's friendship with the Hunter Vanguard had begun at that moment, despite working under Zavala and Ikora. He remembered fondly the time he had returned from a tough mission and Cayde had given him a 'patrol' that was actually a fishing trip. This had happened several times, whenever Jayesh began to show signs of PTSD. Cayde had always been there for him. His loss had been a hole the Vanguard had never been able to fill.

Without his Ghost, Cayde couldn't use Light, and this hurt Jayesh's heart. But maybe there were workarounds.

"Let me try something." Jayesh rose to his feet and took Cayde's hand. Fire swept around his hand and into Cayde's. Cayde withdrew and for a second his Golden Gun flickered in his hand. Then it went out.

"Light transfer," Jayesh said. "That wasn't enough. Here, try to form the full Golden Gun." This time he fairly blasted Cayde's hand with a fireball and hummed at the same time. A bright, solid gun made of fire appeared in Cayde's hand. He fired it at a tree in the distance and a flash of fire impacted on the trunk.

"You did something," Cayde said, turning to Jayesh with narrowed eyes. "I heard that tune you sang. That's Sunsinger stuff. You holding out on me, here?"

"Oh yeah, I'm not a Dawnblade anymore," Jayesh said with an embarrassed laugh. "Sorry, I should have mentioned it."

Cayde threw his arms wide. "But that's great! Do you know how powerful a Sunsinger's song could be inside of the Traveler itself? You could sing the Witness right out of here! Battle of the bands!"

"Oh, I'll have to tell you about the musical guns I helped make in the Reef," Jayesh said. He glanced around the empty, silent room. "Where's Crow, anyway? He made them, too. He wouldn't want to miss out on this story."

"He should have been back by now," Cayde muttered, stepping to the railing and peering outside. "He was skirting around the outside of some Darkness thing he found. Guess we'd better go find him." He motioned at the chairs and a crate of supplies. "Mind loading these into your Ghost? They're Crow's and I can't transmat them without a Ghost of my own."

"Right." Phoenix obligingly stored the items, and together they hiked out of the Tower and down into the surrounding countryside.

"You know," Cayde said as they walked through a glade of shady oak trees, "I had a bet on with the old Hunter Vanguard, Andal Brask. He asked me one time what I thought might be inside the Traveler. I said nothing. He said, 'Well then, I bet everything'." He heaved a disgusted sigh and shook his head. "Lucky guess."

Jayesh chuckled. "I mean, it's Light. It's all about creation and life. Of course there's going to be stuff in here."

"I know that now," Cayde said. "You have to remember, kid, we didn't know much about the Traveler or the Light back then. Everything was theoretical. For instance, no dumb kinderguardians had climbed up inside the Traveler and asked it questions."

"If I see some, I'll be sure to ask them about it," said Jayesh.

They rounded a bend and came upon an area made of the shimmering blue crystal that featured so heavily in the landscapes of the Reef. Jayesh even recognized a few arches and doorways with Awoken architecture.

"Looks like Crow's memories," Jayesh said, running a hand along a blue pillar. "I swear I've seen this same area in the Dreaming City."

"You've been in the Dreaming City?" Cayde asked. "Man, you really get around, kid."

"You've been dead a while," Jayesh said. "Let's find Crow and I'll tell you some stories."

They walked a little further and came to another Darkness barrier over a tunnel into the rock. Floating outside it was Glint, all by himself.

"Glint!" Jayesh exclaimed. "Where's Crow?"

"He went on alone," Glint said anxiously. He spun his shell the same way a human might wring their hands. "There's so much Darkness in there, he didn't want it to quench my Light. But I'm scared. He's been gone three and a half hours now. If he's dead, there's nobody to revive him."

Jayesh looked up at the barrier for a moment, thinking of the other one he had opened. "One of the Witness's creatures will have the key to this. Didn't Crow use one to get in?"

"It didn't appear until he was inside," said Glint.

"Trap," said Cayde. "Obvious trap."

Jayesh drew Lumina and flicked off the safety. "Right. Let's hunt the Witness's monsters."

Opening the barrier was harder than it first appeared. As it turned out, this barrier required the manipulating of a device that required a psychic link. It was guarded by more of the strange creatures created by the Witness, and required a fight even to reach it. Then Jayesh worked with it for a long time with his Darkness powers before he finally established enough of a link with it for it to respond.

"At times like these, I wish I was Awoken," Jayesh said, sweat running down his face and freezing into frost. Both his hands were frozen to the elbow in Stasis ice, and he gripped the controls of the device with them.

"Ice looks pretty unpleasant," Cayde remarked from nearby, where he was standing guard. "Why don't you use that green string stuff that the baddies use?"

"I don't know how," Jayesh said. "I mean, I can grab it if something tries to string me up, but I don't know how to summon Strand or make it do what I want."

"Strand." Cayde spun the Ace of Spades on his finger. "Stasis. Man, the Vanguard really went downhill without me. All this Darkness."

"Shut up, I've almost got it." Jayesh squinted and pushed with his mind. The dial on the machine swung to extinguish a swirling column of blackness halfway along. In the distance, the barrier over the cave mouth vanished.

"Hey, good work, psychic boy," Cayde said as Jayesh's ice melted away. "Don't fry your brain, now. You're only human. Unless you've got some fancy implants you haven't mentioned."

"Nope, only all-original brain meat," Jayesh said, tapping a temple. He turned to Cayde. "Since you're made of Light, you'd better wait out here so the Darkness doesn't quench you like a Ghost."

"I'll keep scouting around," Cayde agreed. "Don't take too long, Guardian, and stay in touch."

Glint had been hovering nearby, twitchy and anxious as Jayesh had worked at the machine. Now he took a position at Jayesh's other shoulder, across from Phoenix. "I'm going with you."

"Glint, no," Jayesh said. "If something happens to you, Crow will kill me with his bare hands."

"If you don't let me go, then I'm following you," said Glint doggedly. "We might as well stick together so you can protect me. I'll stay phased inside your Light. You're very bright, you know."

Phoenix gave his brother Ghost a narrow look, as if jealous of sharing Jayesh this much. But after a moment he relented. "We'll both protect you, Glint."

Glint disappeared, his particles swirling into the space occupied by Jayesh's chest. "There, total camouflage," he remarked over the radio. "Lead on, Guardian."

Jayesh took a moment to breathe and center himself. He was taking responsibility for Crow's Ghost, and he needed to be at the top of his game, here. Deep inside, he recoiled from the thought of flinging himself into the corruption of the Darkness, staining himself with it once more. After being purified by the Traveler, his own partial alliance with the Darkness disgusted him. But Crow was in there with no Ghost. This thought sent anxious energy flowing through Jayesh's limbs. His faithful friend, the man he had tried to protect after his resurrection, the young Hunter whom Jayesh had helped teach about Light, had ventured into the deepest Darkness without a lifeline. Jayesh would be that lifeline, just as Crow had been for him in the Ascendant plane, when Riven had carried Jayesh away and torn out his Light.

Jayesh entered the cave, Lumina drawn and ready to fire. He had barely gone three steps before he recognized the black roots of the Witness's corruption. They spiraled across the floor, walls, and ceiling.

"This feels cancerous," Phoenix murmured, also hidden in phase. "Like a Taken blight. But it's … different somehow."

"An incision," hissed a voice.

Before Jayesh could say a word, Darkness such as he'd never felt before seized him, crushing him. Phoenix was ripped out of phrase and floated in front of him, just out of arm's reach.

The whispering voice of the Witness said through Phoenix, "Guardian, you were thrust into an unending life … of servitude."

Jayesh gasped, pushing back against the Darkness. He couldn't even speak, for it had closed off his lungs, probably to silence any possibility of a song.

"It's in my mind!" Phoenix gasped. "Trying to tear me apart!" He appeared and staggered in midair. A black miasma crawled over his shell.

The voices spoke through him again. "Let us free you from this architect of your enslavement." The Darkness crushed closer and tighter around them, drowning their Light, quenching it like a horrid flood. Jayesh could almost feel the black roots spiraling through his being, choking out his very life. Nearby, Phoenix struggled as roots crept over his shell.

"No, you can't take him," Jayesh gasped. He groped for Phoenix and missed, unable even to straighten up. Pain bent him double.

"No!" Phoenix screamed. He flung his shell open and Light blazed from him. The black roots burned away and fell into nothing. At the same time, they also withdrew from Jayesh. He straightened and gasped air into his tortured lungs.

"I … I did it," Phoenix gasped. "I fought it off. Shut it out." He turned to Jayesh, and Jayesh was horrified to see a jagged crack across the Ghost's glass eye, as well as three more through his red and yellow shell. The Witness had tried to destroy him right there.

"Phoenix," Jayesh whispered, holding a hand under him.

Phoenix phased into nothing at once. "I'm all right, Jay," he said over the radio. "Don't worry about me. Glint, are you with us?"

"I'm here," came the other Ghost's voice. He sounded small and frightened. "It would have taken me next."

The whispering voices spoke into their minds, gentle and emotionless, as if it made no difference whether Jayesh kept his Ghost or not. "No matter. Our voice will suffice."

Jayesh drew a couple of shaky breaths, gripping Lumina, which seemed small and weak compared to the magnitude of an invisible being that could reach out and kill his Ghost with a thought. He took a step, then another, deeper into the cave. Nothing attacked them this time. Jayesh's footsteps grew steadier. Soon he entered a cavern with two statues standing silhouetted against a glowing orange stone. Jayesh squinted and ventured a little closer. It was Crow and Mara Sov holding hands, both of them smiling at each other. A tame crow sat on Mara's shoulder.

The whispering voices said, "It is but a facsimile. A testament to loyalty. An expression of longing. Crow. We see his heart held in talons. We hear it beat with his twin sister's still. Within the final shape, we offered a vision of her pride. Of yours. Friends, looking to him with trust. But, like you… he chose pain."

"You used the Darkness to exploit Crow's memories?" Jayesh said in disgust.

The Witness's voice could have been that of a dear friend in conversation. "And the Light… to give them form. Don't you see how beautiful it all could be?"

"A life frozen in stone is no longer a life," Jayesh said. "It's a tomb."

A passage led away from this cavern. But here the walls were made of grimacing faces frozen in stone. Crow's face, copied and overlaid in grotesque art, all frozen in the pain the Witness claimed he had chosen. At one point Jayesh had to walk across such a face, and whispered an apology as he stepped on its cheek and forehead.

Another cavern appeared with another sculpture. This one was a perfect replica of Mara Sov's towering throne of marble, but Crow sat upon it.

As Jayesh studied it in silence, wondering if he was going to find Crow, himself, turned to stone in one of these dioramas, the Witness whispered, "We offered to erase Prince Uldren's stain from the Dreaming City…to grant Crow dominion of the Reef, the Awoken, and all the stars beyond." It paused, as if shaking its millions of invisible heads. "But he chose pain."

"Pain means you're alive," Jayesh said. "Better to suffer joy, love, and sorrow than to feel nothing at all."

The Witness didn't reply, and Jayesh found his way down another tunnel. The faces here were nightmarishly jumbled, all of Crow's face frozen in a gasp of pain. Had the Witness tortured him to create these? Jayesh was afraid to find out.

Presently he emerged in another cavern. This one had a pedestal with the axe of an Iron Lord artfully posed on it. Three stone wolf statues stood around it, all heavily stylized and composed of diminishing slices of stone. This must have to do with Crow's training under Lord Saladin, the last of the Iron Lords.

"The Witness fancies itself an artist, doesn't it?" Jayesh thought to Phoenix. His Ghost giggled nervously.

The Witness's breathy whispers filled the cavern. "Crow believes he is resisting temptation, as do you. That material is immaterial. Only purpose can cure his heart, and he believes that his capacity for pain is that purpose. It is why he subjects himself so completely to your Traveler. This belief was taught. Conditioned into you. It can be unlearned."

Jayesh rolled his eyes. "If you believe your own doublespeak, there's no reasoning with you. At least the Winnower made sense. Good and evil will always exist, no matter how much you persuade yourself they don't. If you can't understand that what you're doing is evil, then it's my duty, and Crow's, to fight you to the end and put you down. We stand on the side of the Light, and what's more, the Light stands on the side of righteousness. All the Darkness can do is take what is good and corrupt it. It has nothing of its own. Even here, you sculpt images of good things twisted into your own vision and try to say they are better than the uncorrupted forms. You're so lost in lies that you no longer comprehend truth."

The Witness did not grace him with an answer.

Sweat broke out on Jayesh's forehead as he realized that he had just lectured a psychic god that could snuff out his Light and had attacked his Ghost. He crept between the stone wolves, found another passage, and edged along it. This one was thankfully free of the horrible faces in their artistic arrangements.

He turned a corner and came upon Crow, the real Crow, standing in a tall, narrow cavern. Built into this wall was a statue of a veiled figure, twenty feet tall. Jayesh halted, his heart lurching. He'd seen those statues before, and the Darkness that accompanied them always choked him. But Crow stood before it, head bent, listening.

"Crow," Jayesh said in a low voice, hurrying up to him. "Are you all right?"

"Shh," said Crow, holding up a finger. "It's saying something. I can't quite make it out."

Glint phased out of Jayesh's Light in a burst of particles and flew to Crow. "Don't listen to it!"

Crow looked up, his yellow eyes a flash of color in that dim place. "I told you to wait outside. This place will harm you."

"I don't care," Glint exclaimed, half-hysterical. His voice quivered as if he was about to burst into tears. "You don't get to make those decisions for me. We're supposed to be a team. Guardian and Ghost. That's how the Traveler made us."

Crow gazed at his Ghost for a moment, and his expression softened. "I'm sorry." He held out a hand, and Glint flew into his palm.

"Don't ever leave me behind again," Glint whimpered. "Promise?"

Crow cupped him in both hands. "I promise."

Phoenix made a tiny sound in Jayesh's mind. A shared memory flashed between them: of Jayesh entering the Ascendant Plane without Phoenix, knowing the Ghost was terrified to enter it … and while there, Jayesh had had his Light torn out and his eyes blinded by the cruel claws of a dragon. Their reunion afterward had been much like this one, only with more crying on both sides. Jayesh's heart beat painfully at the memory.

"Let's get out of here," Jayesh said. "This cave isn't very big, and Cayde's waiting outside."

A grin spread across Crow's face. "So you met Cayde, too. Tell me you got the drop on him, at least?"

Jayesh shook his head. "You and I both need better boots."

Crow laughed, and in that place of Darkness, the sound rang out like a peal of bells. The veiled statue seemed to lean over them as if it had never heard such a sound before.

Crow didn't seem to notice. "Let's get out of here and I'll tell you how we met. He started shooting at me the minute I hit the ground …"