Chapter 2-4

"The central point here, Pratius," Ephor Mardas said, "is that you have gotten yourself into trouble, and you want the rest of Molzhure to bail you out."

Ephor Mardas was widely considered the standard-bearer of Covenant loyalism on New Celanur. His loyalism was based on an uncommonly powerful resentment of homeworlder Turians. Mardas was a veteran of the Revanche Battalions that New Celanur had sent to the Coreward Front. Sixty thousand Celanurians had gone to fight the Turian Hierarchy in the hope of reclaiming Old Celanur, and a few hundred had returned. Out of those few hundred, Ephor Mardas had gone on to be elected leader of Cailcua Polity, where I flew immediately after the interrogation of Uxatl Axiperrat. Only two hours after Mardas had greeted me warmly, he was contacted by Ephor Pratius, who hoped to rally support for something he called a "Celanurian League." Mardas invited me to secretly listen in on the call.

The miniature hologram of Pratius was edited to give him organic eyes, normal proportions, and traditional Ephor's garb. He appeared as a Turian politician of conventional appearance. The holographic facsimile of Pratius frowned. "How do you mean?"

"It's very straightforward. The infamous synthetic peril of the Perseus Veil is coming to Molzhure. We don't know exactly what their goal is, but we know it has something to do with you, and your antecedent trinket. You want the rest of New Celanur, the Varavis junta, and even the Batarians to all help save your hide. Well, why should we? I'd be shocked if the rest of your cult even wants to help you."

"It isn't a cult. I have never once asked anyone to believe anything that is not straightforwardly correct."

"You chopped your own limbs off and plugged a synth into your brain, citoyen. It isn't something well-adjusted people do."

"The Geth are coming because something called a Yonhet, which is yet another kind of devious Covenant- hang on. How do you know all that?"

"The off-worlder Batarian told me. He told everybody." This was true. It was the first thing I had done upon arriving in Cailcua Polity.

"Oh." Pratius tried to make sense of that. "He had agreed to work with me to prepare Molzhure for the Geth. He shouldn't have… out of context, these things may be misunderstood and make it more difficult for others to accept my help."

"We are all preparing together. It is only that you are not invited, not so much because of your lunacy as because this situation is your fault."

"I see." Pratius sighed. "I don't know why I expected any different of Covenant collaborators. Mardas, there is more at stake here than you may realize. If the Geth Collective gains access to the Forerunner Domain through my carapace and its Durance, the Collective may form a new quantum metarchy and leap to a World Builder Tier of-"

"Don't know what any of those words mean."

"It will be bad. Is that simple enough for you? It will be bad, for everyone."

"Alright. Kill yourself."

"I'm sorry?"

"Kill yourself and tell your followers to destroy the armor afterwards. That solves everything, and the Geth will have no reason to come to Molzhure, yes? I'm not joking, citoyen, it seems to me like the easiest fix to the problem. Show that you care about New Celanur more than yourself or a mythic alien race that got crushed one hundred thousand years ago."

"Mardas, you are asking me to destroy the single greatest trove of information in the known galaxy. The Domain, not the Covenant or the Citadel Council, is our best hope for a brighter future. Everyone's best hope for a brighter future."

"Anything in there that could help with a Geth problem?"

"Not directly, but… actually…" Pratius stood shock still. "Hang on… I hadn't considered…"

There was a long, awkward silence.

"Thank you, citoyen," said Pratius. "You've been very helpful." The transmission cut out.

Ephor Mardas looked at the transceiver and grunted. "Odd guy." He looked at me. "You alright? You look half-dead."

"I'm fine." I had not slept since I had left for the Taragae Parliament, about forty hours earlier. The combat drugs I had taken before Eorucho Hill had worn off.

"Cailcua Polity has a state guest house if you need rest. We'll all be fine without you for a few hours. I'll reach out to other Ephors, the Varavis junta will call their associated gangers to drill, I imagine Blessed Protector Kassur will try and work out some kind of service-for-amnesty deal with the Bassavists. We're all talking to each other. Molzhure has always worked a lot better when under threat."

I pointed to the transceiver. "Is this superluminal? I sent a short report out on a one-way wave hours ago. It must have gone up to my bosses' bosses. High Charity has sent me a summons."

"It is. I'll leave you to it. And congratulations on reading that Writ out yesterday, in Taraga. Our Covenant did what the Polities should have done a long time ago, so far as I'm concerned."

I thanked him and he left. I turned on the superluminal transceiver and put in the codes I had received from High Charity's summons.

Two holograms winked on. One was of Janza Arqorit, leader of the Anuranite Lustration and foremost Batarian in the Covenant. I had spoken to him perhaps half a dozen times before. Under more ordinary circumstances he would probably have remembered my last name, but not my first. The other hologram was of the Prophet of Sagacity, whom I had once seen give a speech. I dropped to my knees.

"It's all right, get up," Sagacity told me. "It looks ridiculous over the hologram, anyway."

I rose. "B'Norai. What hard evidence is there that the Geth approach Molzhure?" asked Arqorit, not wasting any time.

"A signal device. It was retrieved by the native Turian cultists, but I persuaded them to give it over to me. It matches descriptions of salvage from the Perseus Veil perfectly."

"You persuaded the same cultists you were sent to disperse?"

"They hoped to ally with the gendarmes and other Covenant loyalists on Molzhure until the Geth threat was ended."

Sagacity rose his hand. "Would that offer have been made in earnest? Do the peoples of the Relay Ecumene really have such fear of the Geth that it would compel them to put aside all other enmities?"

"Yes." Arqorit and I answered at the same time.

"Interesting. I must remember that. Tell me more about this Ephor Pratius. Tell me about his carapace, and its supposed access to the Forerunner Domain."

I gave a summation. Sagacity stroked his chin. "Scriptures do not speak of the Domain often, but they do speak of it. Access to it would be something priceless. Is the alliance the cultists offered you moving forward?"

"No, Prophet," I said. "Only moments ago, I watched Ephor Pratius end a call with the loyalist Ephor Mardas. Pratius is unhappy that I shared his secrets with the other leaders of Molzhure, and they are equally unhappy that his secrets have attracted the synthetic peril."

"I see. Can you confirm whether Pratius really does possess forgotten knowledge?"

"He knows the truth of the Relay Dissension."

"Ah." Sagacity's eyes hardened. "You say that a few moments ago he was calling through the same transceiver you are now using yourself? Call Pratius back and keep me connected. I want to speak to this heresiarch."

I could not think what Sagacity might hope to gain from such a conversation, but I did as he asked. The false hologram of a wholly organic Pratius winked back on.

"Mardas, what is it? I've just now come up with a plan to… you!" Pratius glared at me. "You know full well that no one is responsible for that Geth signal except your Covenant's Yonhet! And still, you want to scapegoat…" He noticed Arqorit and Sagacity. "What is this?"

"It is my honor to introduce the Prophet of Sagacity, Hierarch of our Covenant and Patron of the Anuranite Lustration," Arqorit intoned.

Pratius took a breath. "It is one thing after another today."

"You are the Turian merchant, politician, and cult leader who has stumbled upon access to the Forerunner Domain?" Sagacity asked him.

"You are the cult leader. I am Ephor Pratius."

"Ephor Pratius, you are being offered amnesty for any crimes you may have committed or profanities you may have promulgated. Surrender yourself to B'Norai, come to High Charity, and speak to me in person."

"Why should I do any of that?"

"Obvious reasons."

For one second Pratius looked like he was thinking Sagacity's offer over. The second passed. "And why should you, a hypocritical despot who has made a slaughterhouse of all the galaxy, make me such a 'generous' offer? I am exactly what your empire is most incapable of abiding- a truth-teller!"

"That is very simple. I want access to the Forerunner Domain. What is it that you want in return, Ephor Pratius? Tell me. I may give it to you."

"Order all your armies out of the Terminus Systems. Blow the Haivattan Gate, so that the nations of the Relay Ecumene will hear from your lying Covenant no more!"

"Mmm. Try again."

"You think you can bully me? In this Forerunner carapace I have found an actual miracle. I am ageless, I am sleepless, I can fly. I could slay a Mgalekgolo with my bare hands, I could stand in the center of an explosion and trust that my shields would hold. I can peer into the Forerunner Domain. It is like beholding Heaven. This carapace makes me, this is no boast, the closest thing to a higher power that anyone alive will ever meet. You are a hollow shell of that. All the power you have comes from falsely posing as what I am in fact. Are you a liar, or are you genuinely deluded? Tell me. I really am curious."

"You go on, you keep going," Sagacity said. "Get it all out of your system."

"You are in over your head. Do you realize that you're going to lose the war you started? The Turian Hierarchy beat my own ancestors, it beat the Krogan Warlords, and every empirical metric of warfare shows that within the decade it will beat you. The Citadel Council has more resources, more people, and has largely rectified its initial technological disadvantage. Whether or not you've figured that out, your Sangheili and Jiralhanae have. They have lost all thought of victory over the Citadel Council. Even now they are readying to lunge at the throats of one another! The Covenant, for very prosaic reasons beyond your power to change, is losing."

"You're done now?" Sagacity shrugged. "Have you properly unburdened yourself? Good. Realize our respective positions. Forget all else. Forget your carapace for a moment, for as miraculous as it may be, it is not enough to protect you- or your world. I am the Prophet of Sagacity, sometimes loved and sometimes hated, but always known, in every part of civilized space. You are an Ephor, which I understand to be some kind of glorified mayor. Consider this carefully- which of us ordered Koer burned? Which of us might order Molzhure burned? And so, which of us should be anxious that he has attracted the notice of the other? Be my friend, Ephor Pratius. You do not want me as an enemy."

Very early on in the war, when I was still a child, the Balkrut Clan had refused annexation into the Covenant, and so the Covenant had glassed the Terminus Krogan planet of Koer. To this day, no one can be certain whether that action did more to help or hinder the Covenant war effort. Dozens of Terminus worlds surrendered at once, but Koer also ended all chance of Hanar neutrality or of rear attacks on Council space from the Krogan DMZ. Rumor had it that the Terminus Exarch believed that Koer was a mistake, although he never publicly questioned the Hierarchs' decision.

At the thought that Molzhure might go the way of Koer, Pratius finally looked struck. He opened his mouth but did not respond. He stood still, not responding, for five seconds. Then his hologram flickered once, and the facsimile organic Turian politician vanished. Pratius-Dinvat appeared now as I had seen them earlier, encased in ornate armor with unblinking orange eyes.

Dinvat smiled. "When I was alive I saw the Maethrillian Armada closing in, the ships outnumbering the stars around them, every one spelling doom for Charum Hakkor. And when I was dead I saw the Shaping Sickness, which was far worse. Pratius does still have some capacity for fear of mundane planetary extirpation left within him, but I do not."

"This is the Durance speaking? How exactly does this work? Does your host release control to you, or do you seize-"

"Do you know who stood at Charum Hakkor?" asked Dinvat, ignoring Sagacity's questions. His smile was different than the horrible rictus I had seen from him at Ondyurut, almost soft. "It was not Man alone."

"What happens if one of you decides to work with me, but the other-"

"I have only just now remembered something. Something from my life. A San'Shyuum friend. I had a San'Shyuum friend. Vas'Sakhitot tore his name away, but I can remember the rest of him now. You have reminded me of him."

"What? What are you talking-"

"I look at you and I think of my friend. But you aren't him, are you? You're nothing like him. You worship the people who killed him. You worship the people who killed me, and that's one thing, but you worship the people who killed him, too."

"Are you implying-"

Dinvat was no longer smiling. "Look at you. I have been wallowing in self-pity for so long; but look at you. What the Forerunners did to Man was not so bad after all. Look at what they did to you. Look at what they did to the San'Shyuum. You are like a dog, where my friend was like a wolf."

"Are these animals? I don't understand the-"

"The Association of Erde-Tyrene. A compromise. Pratius told me we would wait until the Covenant inevitably loses its war to the Citadel Council, and then he would publicly reveal me and our followers would share the Forerunner technologies found within the Domain with all the galaxy. I explained to him that I resent the Forerunners, that I resent this armor I inhabit, that I resent being a Durance, and that any information the Forerunners left in their Domain was information best left buried. Pratius suggested that rather than credit the Forerunners, we could credit Man, and in this way he flattered my pride at the expense of my better judgement, and we came to a compromise. But what has happened? The likeable citoyens of New Celanur, so rightfully proud of themselves and their independence, see us fly and they fall prostrate. They become more like the wretched four-eyed slaves of the other side of their planet, whom they always looked down upon. Even shorn of the Forerunners' name, even shorn of Covenant-style obscuration and mystification, the grandeur of Forerunner technologies still provokes self-abnegation. The greater cult of the Covenant, the lesser cult of Pratius-Dinvat. Share the Domain with you? I should never have even allowed myself to be talked into sharing the Domain with Pratius. Everything… everything the Forerunners made leads to you. It leads to a galaxy of dogs."

Dinvat finally fell silent. Sagacity squinted at him. "Explain the earlier implication that San'Shyuum were not always disciples of the Great Journey."

"The Great Journey is just death," said Dinvat, and his hologram cut out.

To this point the Prophet of Sagacity had done his best to project icy calm, but now he looked from me to Arqorit in obvious exasperation. He was not used to people hanging up on him. I waited for him to say something. Sagacity drew himself up and made his face impassive once more.

"It is clear the Forerunners intended to punish this Man by making a Durance of him. I think that he has been punished long enough. He is clearly mad. He is a nuisance we must end. B'Norai, you have done well. You have done everything that might be expected of an Anuranite agent. The rest will be up to the fleets. Get yourself out of New Celanur." Sagacity turned to Arqorit. "I imagine you'd agree that glassing the native Batarian continent, what is it called, Taraga, will not be necessary?"

Arqorit nodded.

"So be it. I will find some ships to divert to Molzhure. Once there, they will burn the continent of New Celanur, along with its Turian cultists, their forbidden secrets, and their haunted carapace."

Arqorit nodded again.

"Prophet," I said, "Many of the Celanurian Polities, such as Cailcua, are loyal. The Ephor here stood with the Arbiter at Etzik-Las. To destroy the carapace and erase Pratius' influence on the population it should only be necessary to destroy Ondyurut Polity, perhaps a few others."

Arqorit shook his head. "We must erase even the memory of Ephor Pratius. Better to play it safe and wipe Molzhure's Turians out."

I should have bowed my head and agreed with him, but I was too exhausted to think straight. "The vendettas between Krogan and Turians are the only thing keeping many Terminus Turian worlds loyal. We cannot afford to give the Martollan propagandists a gift like this."

The Prophet of Sagacity considered that. "We will have some time until the ships reach their destination. I will think the matter over. B'Norai, you should be more worried about the Geth. They may reach Molzhure before our own fleet. Ensure that they do not seize Pratius' carapace."

"Yes, Prophet."

"B'Norai, I bless you. The Forerunners shall illuminate your path. And get some sleep. Even over the hologram, you look half-dead."

"Yes, Prophet."

The transceiver went silent once more.

I knew that if New Celanur were glassed, it would not be my doing. All I had done was pass information on to my superiors. What my superiors- the Prophet of Sagacity himself- chose to do with that information was hardly up to me. There could be no point in my dwelling on this. I set aside any sense that I might be partially responsible for something horrible. Such a baseless feeling must only be the product of sleep deprivation.

But there was information that I had not passed on to Arqorit or the Prophet of Sagacity. And so I left for Cailcua Polity's state guest house, but before I rested I summoned Nravian, Ruz, and Va to meet with me in a secluded room. These three had listened to my interrogation of Uxatl Axiperrat. They, like me had heard that four of the seven Halos might be destroyed, and that a fifth may have been seized by the Quarians of all people. We had to decide whether that was information that ought to be advertised.

Ruz, who had been casually blasphemous for as long as I had known him, was now in a state of religious shock.

"Godhood!" he cried. "Godhood defiled! Four-sevenths of the Halo Array, lost! Who is to say if the remaining three Halos work properly? If they are lighted, do we become only three-sevenths divine?" He looked at the rest of us. "Don't you all care?"

"Of course," I said.

"Not really," Nravian said.

[Concern Middle], rumbled Va through the translator.

Ruz rounded on Nravian. "Is it just ignorance? Do you not realize what it means?"

Nravian shifted. "You are an inquisitor's aide. B'Norai is an inquisitor. How freely are we speaking here?"

"Say whatever you want," I told her.

"I think there are good odds Pratius was right that you two know more about the Relay Dissension than you let on. I think you two have probably suppressed solid information about galactic prehistory before; in the name of High Charity politicking that I don't understand or care to understand. That is fine. It has nothing to do with Molzhure, and Molzhure is what I care about. But I don't see why I should pretend that you two are apolitical spiritual types or earnest xenoarcheologists approaching this stuff with open minds and simple good faith."

"THE HALOS!" Ruz shouted. "I am a much humbler pilgrim of the Great Journey as of twelve hours ago, when WE LEARNED THAT THE HALOS ARE REAL."

"And they're in the Attican Blank, and beyond that we don't know where they are, and it doesn't really matter. Even assuming what we heard was at all true, which we shouldn't. Look. You've already decided that you're comfortable sitting on information like this, right? You've already decided that."

"No!" Ruz objected. "Not information like this!"

"Yeah? Who built the mass effect relay system?"

"I don't know!" Ruz spat. "Who cares?"

"Every holo-preacher on the Covenant airwaves cares. And you do know, even if you truly didn't know before, because Pratius told us. It was the Reapers. Not that Pratius is necessarily reliable, but he's at least as reliable as the Yonhet scrapper."

Ruz looked at her suspiciously. "Separate the empires. Back at Ondyurut Polity, you said it would be a good thing if our Covenant destroyed the Haivattan Gate, because it would separate the empires."

"And? Even the Prophet of Diligence agrees with that."

"It's disloyal. You should want our Covenant to win. You should want it to rule the galaxy and find the Halos. You are wearing the armor of a Covenant gendarme, but you don't act like it."

"The Covenant would be better off if it were at peace, the Citadel Council would be better off if it were at peace, the Terminus Systems would be better off if we hadn't been made into a doormat for the Citadel and High Charity to fight it out on. That's it. Listen, we may not know each other well, but I'm perfectly aware you only just discovered this sanctimony a few hours ago, because of the Halo thing. It's temporary. It will wear off you, like it did for the Yonhet."

"Halo thing? Halo thing? We are talking about divinity! It is real! I didn't… I didn't… Martollan! You are talking like a Martollan, saying the empires are just the same!"

"Don't be ridiculous. I am for a peaceful and prosperous Molzhure. Which means no Krogan, which means no Martollans. And I'm Celanurian, which means I think we Turians had a good thing going before the homeworlders ruined it. And so, as long as there is a gigantic galactic war, I hope the Covenant wins it." I wondered whether it might be the last time I ever heard a Terminus Turian talking like this. I had heard this same line of reasoning from Terminus Turians countless times before, but I could not imagine it withstanding the Prophet of Sagacity's Glass Judgement. Nravian went on, "It is only that I do not necessarily like the gigantic galactic war. Surely, this is firmer ground for loyalty than… well."

"Well, what?" Ruz demanded.

"I met a few Kig-Yar gendarmes, before they went off with the Jiralhanae. Even for the Terminus Systems, you guys are a… practical bunch. One of them boasted to me that his loyalty would never be bought, but that it might always be rented. Another died, because he tried to eat a ganger he shot, and he didn't realize the Turian biochemistry would be incompatible."

Ruz's voice rose. "You don't get it! The Halos are real! It isn't a racket! They're real! What if these Quarian creatures become gods, while the rest of us all stay mortal? What then?"

"Then good for the Quarians! You realize that if the story is true and that pilgrim really did take that information off Axiperrat it was still a net win for the Covenant, right? For homeless beggars, the Quarians had a lot of warships. That whole fleet disappeared right along with them."

"Boss," Ruz said, looking at me, "tell her. Tell her that this is the most important thing anyone has ever learned."

"Nravian is right," I said to Ruz. "It would be one thing if this was information that anyone could act on, but it isn't. We are not going to be rewarded for saying that four Halos are gone, not when we cannot say where the other three are. We could very well be punished for it. We would certainly be thought mad. This is information that if made public would incite mass panic, while providing no one with a single thing of use. Even our superiors… I cannot predict what they would think. And so, the four of us should forget that Axiperrat ever said anything."

Ruz looked at me in shock. "Why is this happening to me?" he muttered. "It should have happened to somebody devout. It should have happened to somebody of good caste. Why is it happening to me instead?"

"We're burying it. Do you understand?"

"Yes. Yes, boss. I understand."

I looked to Nravian. "We're agreed?" She nodded.

I looked to Va. "What about you?"

[Geth Enemy?].

"Yes," I said, despairing of catching the Mgalekgolo up to speed, but satisfied that it wouldn't be able to spread Axiperrat's story even if it wanted to. "The Geth are our enemies." I stood up. "This meeting is concluded. None of us ever heard anything about Halos being destroyed or colonized by Quarians. All of us must focus on preparing Molzhure for Geth incursion. We'll leave New Celanur first thing tomorrow." Don't want to be here when Sagacity's ships arrive. "Nravian, were you born on New Celanur?"

She gave me an odd look. "Galpurich Polity, but we moved to Varavis when I was eight. Why?"

"Tell any friends or family you have on this continent to get to Varavis as soon as they can. Don't want them caught up in any fighting with the Erdans."

"There aren't any Erdans in Galpurich Polity."

"It doesn't matter. Do yourself and them a favor. Tell them to evacuate."

Her expression of confusion had a trace of suspicion in it, but she nodded.

"Do that, and keep in touch with the junta chiefs. Make sure they're behaving sensibly. Ruz, we're going to need to take Erdan doctrines more seriously. Find everything they've publicly published about galactic prehistory. Maybe there's something useful in there. If you find something that doesn't just describe the Halos, but suggests where they might be, let me know. It might change the decision we have just made." That ought to keep the two of them occupied and happy enough. "Va…" I struggled to think of anything useful that the Mgalekgolo might do.

[Challenge Enemy].

"Sure," I said, not sure what Va meant, but the spirit sounded positive enough. I left the three of them, walked to the Cailcua state guest house's master bedroom, and collapsed there.

After four hours of rest I awoke to something heavy and metal thudding on my door. I quickly rose, and found Va alone outside in the hallway. Va's knocking had left great dents in my door. [Call], it rumbled. Va gestured with its assault cannon to the omni-tool awkwardly build into its shield arm, which it could only manipulate through the assault cannon's clumsy poking. A communication line was open.

I looked at the Mgalekgolo's omni-tool wearily. "Who is calling?"

From the omni-tool a perfectly even and expressionless voice responded, "This is the Geth Collective."

I fervently hoped that I was still asleep, and merely trapped in some horrible nightmare.