Chapter 3 - Fledging

For the first several miles from where Phoenix had awoken, he, Ashe, and Avokos continued silently. He glanced repeatedly at the bulbous, finned hovercraft that Avokos rode. It was less sleek than his Sparrow but similar in design and function, and nonetheless, it kept up with relative ease. He had called it a "Pike" or said that was the closest equivalent. The multi-barreled turret mounted under the vehicle's nose was what had Phoenix both unnerved and curious. He wished that the designer of his Sparrow had thought of something similar, wondering distantly if there was any way that he could modify the Sparrow himself until Ashe interrupted his thoughts.

"How about some music?" she asked into the silence. She hardly waited for an answer before beginning to play music of the same upbeat, poppy style she had the day before.
Avokos's chittering cut into the music, slightly muddied by the imperfect quality of Ashe and Phoenix's comm system. "This is… human music?" he inquired. The Eliksni sounded curious, but Phoenix also noted that his voice sounded neutral, seeming to be undecided about whether or not he liked the music.
"Well, just a bit of it, really," Ashe replied animatedly, "The music of humanity has a long history, and so much of it has been lost since the Collapse. Really, I've only been able to find some of the most popular pieces." The delight in her voice surprised her Lightbearer. He'd have to talk to her more about it at another time. "But what about your people, Avokos?" the Ghost asked eagerly, "Do your people have any music?"
"Some," the Dreg answered, "Most lost when Eliksni left Riis, but House Scar remembers much."
"Can you sing us some?" Ashe requested delightedly.
"Ah, I ask forgiveness," Avokos answered sheepishly, "Most require… What is word for 'sounds beneath words in music'?"
"Accompaniment?"
"I give my thanks. Most require 'accompaniment,' and to add, I do not sing well." He pronounced the new word deliberately, enunciating each English phonic as best he could.
Ashe scoffed, and in his mind, Phoenix could picture her rolling her sole mechanical eye with the sound. "Well, neither do I," she responded half-teasingly before adding, "But I won't make you. How about the human music, though? Do you like it?"
"It is very different from Eliksni music," he replied, "But I like it more than I do not."

Avokos was quickly picking up on English grammar, Phoenix noted. If he and Ashe talked more frequently with him, he wouldn't be surprised if Eliksni spoke it fluently by the end of the day. After all, he already seemed to have a solid understanding of the language. The lightbearer wondered if all Eliksni could learn as fast as Avokos. It would be a question he'd have to find out if he and Ashe decided to return to the city and help his House. For now, he continued weaving between the rockslides and abandoned vehicles alongside Avokos, humming along with Ashe's music as she sang. After some time, Avokos joined the humming as well.
As the human, the alien, and the construct rode ever northward, the air around them grew noticeably chillier. Though Ashe was unbothered by extreme temperature, and Phoenix didn't notice it too terribly through his armor, the frigid air cut through the ragged cloth of Avokos's clothing without so much as stumbling, made evident by the Dreg hunkering down lower behind his visor and tentatively releasing one hand from his Pike's controls to draw his tattered tawny cloak tighter around himself.

"Not a fan of the cold?" the lightbearer asked. He glanced briefly from the road ahead and gave the alien a cautious smile, quickly realizing the gesture was lost under his helmet.
"Do any beings?" Avokos said in answer. The alien smiled back at the human, and Phoenix noticed his teeth were numerous, long, and tapered to deadly points. "Cold does not kill Eliksni as it does humans, but we take better to warm places."
"Is your homeworld warm?" Phoenix queried, "What is your homeworld even called?"

From the initial reaction of the Dreg alone, he knew he had asked Avokos the wrong questions. The alien's three-fingered hands tightened around the controls, and his teeth ground together. He looked longingly upward, the Dreg's auxiliary eyes closing as a small stream of a faint blue-white gas wisped from them. He then silently wiped the remnants of the gas from the corners of his eyes. "I do not know Riis," the Eliksni said at last, "I was born during Long Drift, only know of it through stories and legends. Tales of pink skies and lush forests. Rise of Bythroskel and Archon Yoryn. Fall of Chelchiskel before Whirlwind." Avokos lowered his head, placing the tips of three clawed fingers over the center of his chest. He muttered under his breath in his language, "Nas go navos zu das den."
"What does that mean?" Phoenix asked tentatively.
"It is a prayer," Avokos explained reverently, "And a promise. It means 'house of houses will stand forever,' and it is last hope of my people. Riis was lost in the Whirlwind, but some believe that places on Riis can still be lived in. Many in House Scar hope this."

"'Scar' isn't a word in your language, is it?" Phoenix asked, trying to change the subject, "What's the real word?"
"'Ika,'" was the Dreg's answer, "'Ika na ika' means 'House of Scar.' The word means 'remembered wound.' When we found the word 'Scar' in this human tongue, we remembered it." Avokos's voice did not change much, but the relief was evident enough in his posture. It was much easier for the Eliksni to discuss lighter matters, like language, more than it was to discuss his people's ancestral home; even that much was evident to the days-old lightbearer. "Your people have many languages, unlike mine," Avokos commented curiously, "Do you speak any other than this one?"
Phoenix opened his mouth to respond but stopped himself before he could. He searched his mind and limited memories to see if he knew a definitive yes or no. "I'm… not sure," he answered honestly, "I don't even really know how I know this one."
Avokos's mouth drew into a grimace, his inner pair of eyes widening while his outer narrowed. Phoenix saw the expression in a glance the Eliksni threw him over his shoulder. Was it confusion or curiosity? Perhaps suspicion? Avokos's subsequent words confirmed that it was the first: "You do not remember being taught with other hatchlings?"
Phoenix shook his head, a wry smile touching his face under his helmet. "I don't remember anything until two days ago," he confessed to the alien.

Now, both pairs of Avokos' eyes grew wide, and his jaw dropped, an unmistakable expression of surprise. "Nothing?" he repeated, "You are… a hatchling?"
"Well, it's a little demeaning to call myself that," Phoenix answered defensively.
"But, not inaccurate," Ashe teased her Lightbearer, "There's still a lot we both need to figure out about how your power works."
"You don't even know?" the human asked incredulously.
"I have an idea, but it'd work differently for me than for you, right?"
"I guess that would make sense," Phoenix conceded, "But why would the Traveler send you to revive a Guardian without giving us any idea of how to use the Light?"
"It would seem to me," Avokos interjected, "That you have done well without the Great Machine's guidance."
The Eliksni was trying to be lighthearted, though Phoenix could hear the hint of bitter sadness in his voice. "Right," he answered, feeling guilt and regret strike his chest.

An awkward silence descended over the travelers. They had long since crested the mountain's perilously winding path and now drove across a road that gently meandered between the inscrutable ranks of trees around them. Few animal sounds could be heard over the whine of their engines, and even fewer could be seen. Still, as the minutes of silent driving passed, Phoenix noted the sparse birds flitting above, between, and through the towering pines that flanked the road. He could have sworn he even saw a deer bound leisurely through the deep forest and the eyes and snout of a wolf watching him from the thick underbrush.
"What about your people, Avokos?" Ashe finally asked, "How do they understand the Light?"
"Eliksni know Light as a life-tool," Avokos answered, sounding grateful for the break in the silence, "Light feeds our Servitors, feeds our ships, feeds our weapons. Without Light, we would have been forgotten in Whirlwind and Long Drift."
"Kinda like Humanity…" Ashe mused thoughtfully, "Well, what do you know about more of the… intricacies of it? The little details? Like, are there different kinds of Light?"
Avokos made a clicking sound that sounded distinctly uncertain, sounding to Phoenix's ear like he was trying to process what exactly Ashe's question meant. The human began to open his mouth when the Eliksni straightened. "Oh, yes!" Avokos said, "The Gostiimikras!"

At the Eliksni word, something in Phoenix stirred. The feeling was a soft warmth that spread through his body, a gentle sense of awe that filled every inch of his being. In his mind's eye, he saw a sunrise peeking from between hills, its rays gentle limbs reaching out to stir a lifeless world into wakefulness.

"The what?" Ashe asked incredulously.
The sense was gone as suddenly as it came, and the Eliksni elaborated, "It is a word of my people meaning… 'All of Great Machine's gifts.' It is… more than that, but that is as close as Avokos knows in this language."
"Oh! Like the Spectrum of the Light!" the Ghost said, understanding evident in her voice, "At least, that's what Humanity calls it."
"No…" Phoenix muttered under his breath before Avokos could answer, then added a little more loudly, "No, it's not like that at all."
"What do you mean, Nix?" his Ghost asked, veering from confidence in her assessment back to bewildered confusion, "Don't tell me you know that word."
"I don't know the word," he conceded, "and I don't know what I mean. It's just… a feeling."
"Lightbearer Phoenix is right," Avokos put in, "The Gostiimikras is much more than pieces of Light. It is the sum of all the things the Great Machine blessed the Eliksni with."

"I see…" Ashe replied, though, from the tone of her voice, it was more than evident to both the human and the Eliksni that she did not, "At any rate, I was asking about the 'pieces of the Light,' or the Spectrum. Phoenix can actually use that, so we need to learn about it as soon as possible."
"Ah, forgive me, Ghost Ashe," Avokos answered sheepishly, "I understand what you mean now. As Eliksni know it, the 'Spectrum' is split among three: Power of Suns, Power of Moons, and Power of Stars. The Suns embrace all, creating and destroying, giving life and taking it away. The Moons reject all, bestowing energy to the skies and motion to the waters. The Stars encompass all, enveloping that which is among that which is not."
"Solar, Arc, and Void," Ashe murmured, then added, "That's what Humanity calls it, at least. Solar light can heal allies and scorch enemies, Arc light creates lightning and energy, and Void light… I'm not too sure, actually. In theory, it manifests as the subatomic spaces between matter. Still, I think your people better understand it than Humanity did. But why do your people get moons from Arc and lightning?"

"It is old Eliksni legend," Avokos chittered, "When Riis came to be, the sky was always lit by three sun-rulers who lived in harmony, King-Father and his two Prince-Sons. The younger prince grew jealous of his father and brother. He wished to be honored by the people of Riis above them. So, the younger prince rebelled against them, growing massive with jealousy, creating great tragedy on Riis: long droughts, many fires, and countless deaths. It took much of the King-Father and greater Prince to stop him, and the lesser Prince was left but a husk of himself. It is said that the lighting which strikes from the skies of Riis are the remnants of the lesser Prince's wrath and that the brief nights which touch our home are the evidence of his absence."
"That's quite the legend," Phoenix remarked.
"It sounds like your people were born in a Trinary star system," Ashe mused, "one large, one mid-sized, and the third possibly being a white dwarf."
"Riis was a planet with three suns, yes," Avokos confirmed, "but the legend is old, and I know little of it. Perhaps you will have a chance to ask it of an Eliksni older than Avokos."

"Well, how do your people use these 'Powers?'" Ashe questioned.
"Some used the Great Machine's gifts to speak with machines," Avokos explained, "Others fought for our people with Light in hand. Others still, the Great Machine would give visions to. Eliksni use Light most in our tools. Moons give our Skiffs and Pikes life, Suns give our strongest weapons power, and Stars let us create Ether." "Ether?" Ashe queried, "What's- Oh, hey! The town is just up ahead!"

Phoenix's mind was suddenly torn from the cultural revelations as he grew excited about finally seeing more humans. He glanced around, only now noticing the trees clearing to make room for a collection of decrepit, overgrown buildings. His excitement was almost enough to cause him to ignore the evident trepidation that bloomed in Avokos. That temperance, in turn, gave him room to notice something odd. "Ashe," he voiced, "What's the range on my radar?"
"Right about 50 meters," she shared, nonplussed, "Why do you ask, Nix?"
"I'm not picking up anything," he informed both his Ghost and his traveling companion.
"Well, I'm not surprised by that," Ashe responded, still unperturbed, "We've still got about another mile or so before we can-"
"There is fire!" Avokos gasped, his twin pairs of eyes narrowing, "Your settlement is in danger!"

"There is-" Ashe began to repeat, then cut herself off. Both she and her Guardian finally noticed the smoke at the same time. "Punch it!" she ordered, her voice suddenly dire. Her Guardian was way ahead of her, leaving Avokos behind as he wrung as much juice from the ancient Sparrow's engine as possible. He raced along the road, hoping against hope that they were not too late to help. Phoenix rounded a final corner, barely able to remain in his seat, and then stopped his mad rush. It was plain to see that he was too late. Slowly, he inched his sparrow forward.

The city around him was in ruins. That was unsurprising, as much of the architecture looked to have been left over from the collapse. Some of the structures, however, looked to have been restored, and a few were even new, like the wall before him on the road, the wall with a broken gate and large swaths blown inward. Solemnly, he inched his way through the useless barricade. The restored buildings had windows broken in, smoke from old fires trickling out. At least one massive structure had wholly collapsed, still billowing smoke as all that was flammable inside was consumed. Simple shops had been trampled. Blood and scorch marks riddled the road they traveled over. Remains were strewn about the scene. They were not like the skeletons in the city of Phoenix; these bodies still had flesh and scraps of clothing, their skin grey and limbs stiff in death. Something rested in the epicenter of the perimeter made by the ruined wall.
Phoenix tried to keep his eyes off the thing, but as he inched ever closer to it, there soon became nothing else he could look upon. In the center of the ravaged settlement was a pile of bodies. Limbs stuck out at impossible angles. Lifeless eyes gazed unseeingly out at all around them: the sky, what was once their home, accusingly at Phoenix. At the top of the pile, resting impaled on a spear of obviously Eliksni design, was a single severed head, a colorful, now bloodstained sash tied as a blindfold around its eyes.
Phoenix said nothing. Avokos said nothing, staring in horror at the scene about them just as Phoenix did. Ashe materialized in a blue-white mist and was, in turn, speechless. After several long minutes, Phoenix dismounted his sparrow, his boots grotesquely squelching in the puddle of gore that had collected around the pile. Avokos did the same, somberly stepping toward the towering pile of bodies. In contrast, Phoenix did his best not to vomit his breakfast.

"Six hundred people lived here," Ashe uttered, her mechanical voice hollow, "and now they're all… How could your people do this?!" Her voice became accusatory and desperate as she flung herself toward Avokos, hovering right up to his face.
"Not mine," Avokos answered her grimly, "Yours." He gingerly placed a single clawed finger just beside a bleeding, perfectly circular hole left in one of the corpses. "No Eliksni weapon does this," he told the Ghost and Guardian.
"W-well, they could have been using stolen weapons!" the Ghost continued to accuse.
"He's right," Phoenix interjected. He numbly trudged up beside Avokos, and his hand hovered near the uneven burn wounds on one of the corpses. He felt the crackle of static as he held his hand close, and the Light within him responded with a gentle echo. "I sense Light here," the Guardian informed Avokos and Ashe in a daze.

Ashe had nothing to retort. Instead, she stared at the lone head for a long, painful moment before disappearing into the transmat haze. Phoenix stared into the empty gaze of one of the victims, lines of dirt trailing down the corpse's cheeks where tears once must have been. A clawed hand softly taking hold of his shoulder caused him to jump slightly and look over his shoulder at the Eliksni. "These have been one with the Great Machine three days," Avokos told him, "There is nothing you could have done to save them."
Phoenix said nothing, just nodding numbly and turning his gaze back to the horror in front of him. Avokos remained at his side for a few minutes, then turned away silently, walking off to investigate the ruins.

"Not just humans," he thought, "but at least one other lightbearer as well." They were the ones who had committed such brutality. They were the ones he was supposedly resurrected to protect and serve. He wanted desperately to rant and rave at Ashe, to ask her why she thought it was worth protecting such a horrific, violent race of beings. But he held himself back because he could feel something else: an echo of his disgust and anger that was not his own, mixed with sorrow far more potent than the lightbearer should feel towards people he had never known. Ashe's emotions, he realized, and she could likely feel an echo of his own emotions, which meant she could feel a bit of his anger towards her. In that realization, guilt swept over him like a wave. It was not her fault; why should he blame her for such a random, horrible atrocity happening to these people?
"It's fine," she spoke into his comm, her voice small and quiet but making it evident that she was doing her best to reassure him in such a difficult time. He was not to blame; this horrific scene before him caused him to act irrationally. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The image was burned into his mind's eye, but he did what he could to calm himself and return to reverent mourning rather than angry blame-placing. He did not have a chance to mourn for long.

A gunshot cut through the solemn silence, piercing his tranquility like a needle through a balloon. He whipped around to its source, catching a faint glimpse of Avokos scurrying madly away to cover, whisps of pale, white gas leaking from him at a worrying rate. His eye was then drawn to a flicker of movement near the top of one of the old ruins. The shooter stood, and though Phoenix could not make out much of him from this distance, he could certainly make out the long rifle in his hands and the slouch in his posture. The figure turned, saw Phoenix, and waved to him. Tentatively, Phoenix waved back. The shooter disappeared behind cover, and the Guardian took one last glance at the carnage before heading towards that same building, glad to have something else to focus on.
The shooter was thin and tall, with rough palms that sounded like sandpaper when he rubbed them together. The rifle strapped across his back slightly exceeded his considerable arm span. He wore a baggy shirt under a thick coat and had thick pants tucked into heavy-looking boots. Whisps of grey-green hair peaked out under a tattered ten-gallon hat, and his skin was the color of the sky. Faint pools of strange white energy shifted along his neck and cheeks, occasionally disappearing behind the unkempt grey-green facial hair that obscured his mouth, cheeks, and jaw. His violet eyes glittered when he saw Phoenix, and his beard parted as he smiled to reveal straight, slightly yellowed teeth.
"Ho there, stranger," he greeted the lightbearer in a soft tenor voice, "You wouldn't happen to have seen where that Fallen scuttled off to, did ya?" Phoenix shook his head. The blue-skinned man looked disappointedly over at where Avokos had run away. "Shame," he lamented, though he didn't sound beaten up over it, "Was looking forward to having some meat for a few days." Phoenix's stomach lurched at the thought, and his eyes widened in horror and disgust, though his helmet concealed the gesture. "Not that he woulda given much anyway," the other man dismissed, "Was just a Dreg and a scrawny one at that." The blue-skinned man turned back to the lightbearer. "Anyway, th' name's Zuren," he introduced himself, raising a grey-green eyebrow, "You got a name, stranger? How 'bout a voice."

"Both," Phoenix managed, "My name is Phoenix."
"'Phoenix'?" Zuren repeated with a chuckle, "Bit of an odd name, 'specially round here. Named after the city, are ya?"
"Actually, yes, that's why my parents named me that," he lied, "They thought Phoenix would be our best hope, and when they had me, they named me after it."
"And how'd they feel after they found out the place is crawlin' with Fallen?" Zuren questioned darkly, then barked out a laugh, "Ha! Crawlin' with Fallen."
"They died on the road there," Phoenix told him, "I found out the hard way."
"That how you get the piece on ya?" the other man asked, gesturing to the pistol on his hip.
"Yes, actually," the lightbearer said, glancing down at his weapon before returning his gaze to Zuren's countenance, "Got lucky, really. Barely made it out alive."
"I'd bet…" Zuren muttered, staring at nothing in particular and stroking his beard absently, "Oh, I'd bet…" He remained that way for some time, clearly contemplating some distant memory. "It's rude to stare, ya know!" he barked suddenly at Phoenix.

"S-sorry!" Phoenix apologized, taking a few steps back at the sudden outburst, "I've just… never met anyone like you before. You're not human, are you?"
Zuren laughed and shook his head. "No, I ain't, lad," he informed the human cheerily. He puffed out his chest, pounded it twice with his right fist, and proudly announced, "I'm one of the people of Queen Mara! An Awoken!" Slowly, he deflated and began staring at nothing once more. "Ah, but I'm not one of Mara's anymore, am I?" he asked himself. He began thoughtfully rubbing his beard again. "It's been so long since the Theodicy…" he muttered, "Or was it the diaspora? Or… I can't hardly remember… I can still hear her voice… calling me to service…" Phoenix stared at the confused Awoken, slowly trying to back away. "Don't go!" Zuren belted out. With surprising strength, the man lunged forward and gripped Phoenix's arms, beginning to shake him, trembling violently. "It waits in the shadows!" the lunatic moaned, "It waits, it glows, it crawls, it shrieks in triumph, paralyzing mind and muscle, causing flesh to slough from bone as it tears away your life!" The man got in Phoenix's face, his breath fogging up some of Phoenix's view screen. "The Aphelion!" he whispered hoarsely.

"Get away from my lightbearer!" Ashe shouted as she suddenly rematerialized between Phoenix and Zuren. She shone a light directly in Zuren's face, though he was already scrambling backward away from them.
"Y-Y-You're…" the Awoken stammered. He tripped over rubble but hardly seemed to notice as he started crawling away on his hands, keeping wide eyes on Phoenix and Ashe. "You're a Risen!" he cried in terror, "Like the one who came through here! Like the one who called himself Ciwena!" He swung his rifle over his shoulder to aim shakily at the Ghost. "You're with him!" the terrified man accused them, "Come back to kill me, just like all the rest!"

"No, I'm not-" Phoenix tried to say. A deafening gunshot cut him off, and Ashe went spinning through the air. Terrified for his friend and furious at this man, he stomped forward. The Awoken pulled the trigger again, the bullet piercing his armor and tearing through his side. Phoenix hardly even noticed it. He reached out before Zuren could fire again, gripping his rifle barrel in one hand, pouring Solar Light into his palm, and turning the long rifle into useless slag. Zuren screamed in terror and pain as molten metal dripped onto his leg. With his other hand, Phoenix reached out and took hold of his neck, beginning to channel more Solar Light into his palm.
"Don't, Phoenix!" Ashe called from behind him. The lightbearer looked back over his shoulder, and Ashe rose shakily. She wasn't harmed too badly, just a slight chip in her shell and a scorch mark where the bullet struck her. "Let him go," she pleaded, "Don't be like this Ciwena." Phoenix turned back to Zuren, whose rough hands were clawing desperately at his wrist, and let go of him.

With one hand, Phoenix gripped the wound in his side. With the other, he gestured to the Awoken, cradling his leg and moaning in agony. "Can you heal him?" Phoenix asked his Ghost through gritted teeth, "He might have shot you, but he's still just a confused old man.".

Ashe shook from side to side in a negative and healed her lightbearer."You might be able to, though," Ashe suggested tentatively, "Solar Light can heal just as much as it can harm."
Phoenix understood what she was saying to an extent. He could feel the twin purposes of Solar Light within him: to consume and to provide. The only problem was that he had no idea how to access the other side of that aspect of the Light. He sighed to himself. There was no better time than right that moment to try. He placed one hand on Zuren's shoulder to hold him still and the other on Zuren's leg. He closed his eyes and reached carefully within himself, passing through the Solar urge to burn and consume. It would be so easy to enact justice; just a single twinge of fire could set his thick clothes alight, and nothing could be done to save this foolish old man.
But, no. That wasn't right. This man was confused and needed Phoenix's aid and protection, not some deranged form of justice or vengeance. After all, it's what Phoenix was born to do: to protect those in need. Carefully, he filed the thoughts of revenge away and continued to reach into his Solar light until he finally found it: the fire of warmth, of daylight in spring, of hearths awaiting, warming lonely cabins caught in freezing blizzards. He poured that Light into Zuren and felt as the burns on the Awoken's leg were healed by his power.
He opened his eyes again and straightened back to his full height, finding that Ashe had healed him while he was focused on the Awoken. Zuren looked up at him in tentative awe. "I am not like Ciwena," he stated quietly. He wasn't sure if that was for his own sake, for Ashe's, or the old man's. Whatever way, it didn't matter. He turned, trudging back to the horror the other lightbearer had inflicted on the world. He swung his leg over Avokos's Pike and mounted it. Ashe said nothing, immediately understanding the plan and transmatting her lightbearer's Sparrow, then disappeared. Phoenix turned the Pike toward where Avokos had run and sped away from the town's ruins.

It was several minutes of weaving between ruins and eventually sparse trees before he found Avokos. The dreg was slumped against a tree trunk, cradling something Phoenix couldn't quite make out in his hands. The Dreg did not even acknowledge the human before Phoenix reached his side. The lightbearer inspected his companion's wound. A hole was in his chest, just below his shoulder, leaking dark blue blood. It seemed shallow, but even a shallow wound could get infected. Gingerly, he placed a hand over the bullet hole, healing it with Solar Light, finding it far easier the second time. As he pulled his hand away, Avokos sighed forlornly. "It would not matter if that killed me," Avokos told him, "I am already one with the Light."
Phoenix knelt beside the Eliksni, concern evident in his expression. "Why?" came his simple question. Avokos held out his cupped palms, presenting the ruined things within them to Phoenix.
They appeared to be cylindrical tubes of some kind of plastic, now obviously shattered but containing a strange sky-blue residue. "These were Ether Seeds," Avokos explained, "They store Ether, the lifeblood of the Eliksni and the only thing necessary to keep us alive. Now that the stranger's bullet has destroyed them…" Avokos crushed the ruined Seeds in his palm, snarling something that Phoenix could tell was profane. Then, the Eliksni calmed down, sighing and letting his hands drop, the splinters of plastic falling to the ground and into his lap. "I am doomed if I do not return," Avokos stated simply, "I must part with you here."

Phoenix shook his head. "No," he said simply, standing again.
"You would doom me to death!?" Avokos accused before Phoenix could finish speaking.
"I'm coming with you," the human answered, "Your people need help, and frankly, I don't think any humans nearby deserve my aid any more than House Scar does."
Avokos was speechless. "That's debatable, Nix," Ashe interjected as she rematerialized, her voice back to being chipper once more, "But considering the local welcome today… I wouldn't disagree." Her voice was bright again, but Phoenix could tell how much she had to force it. Her emotions roiled the same as in the town just minutes ago, but now with a faint fear towards him. His heart ached, but now was no time to broach the topic. Instead, he kept his eyes on the Dreg, waiting for his answer.
Avokos continued to say nothing for a few moments, and then he returned slowly to his feet as though in a daze. After several more moments, he finally said, "House Scar and I would be forever in your debt." His eyes narrowed, and his lips parted, revealing his numerous pointed teeth in an unsettling approximation of a human smile.

Hello there! Thanks for reading all the way through to the third chapter (unless you started in here, in which case thanks for even reading it at all!)
I've never really shared my writing publicly before, but hopefully all this didn't turn out completely unreadable. I have some plans for the future of Phoenix's and Ashe's story, all the way from now, in the Dark Age, well through to the defeat of the Witness and even beyond, but it'll be a long time before I can make it there. For now, I've gotta figure out how House Scar is going to act when Phoenix shows up at their doorstep.