Chapter 16: The Hidden

"Your discovery is perhaps the greatestofour time. If the Hive were able to infect the Traveler through this long-lost shardofits battered shell, Ulan-Tan's theory may be true - all Light remains connected, across space and time. We cannot let our enemies use this power against us." - Ikora Rey

The Tower buzzed, its general air of apathy shattered with frenetic energy. Fireteams assembled in pubs planning their next moves, squads of Redjacks marched in neat formations, and vendors called out loudly, explaining how their wares were absolutely necessary for any fireteam to be prepared.

Above them in the Speaker's office the mood was more muted, but still cautiously optimistic. The Speaker turned from his packed bookshelves and looked over the assembled fireteam. "Excellent work, Fireteam Guardian. Word has already spread of the great victory on the moon. You, and the other fireteams who participated, are being praised across the City. Yet our victory was less than total."

He stepped over to the window where he looked up at the Traveler, hovering silently over them. "The immediate threat has been removed, but the Traveler remains as it was. Broken and flawed… much as we are." He paused for a moment, then continued with a deliberately brighter tone, speaking more briskly. "But today, for a brief time, the Traveler's Light glows a little brighter. You have stoked the ember of our hope. Your legend grows. And with it comes my thanks." He nodded to each of them in turn. "And now, I believe the Vanguard wishes to speak to you."

They turned and saw all three of the Vanguard members standing near the doorway. Zavala jerked his head, and they followed behind him on the short walk to the Vanguard's headquarters. "Excellent work you three. You may not have struck the final blow, but you found us the target we needed. Unfortunately, however, our work is not yet finished."

"As the Commander said, there are some lingering concerns," Ikora continued. "We suspect that the Hive were waiting to mount their invasion until the ritual was complete, but with the ritual disrupted, there is a chance that they will launch it anyways. Something dark stirs in the depths of the Hellmouth; we can feel it. A Hive abomination bred for unthinkable evil."

"And," jumped in Cayde-6, "the best way to prevent them from attacking us is to shoot them in the face. Their leadership, I mean – shoot their leader in the face."

Zavala emitted a long-suffering sigh in Cayde's direction, then turned back to the fireteam. "From your reports, combined with what we've pulled from the World's Grave, it appears that the Hive were preparing a massive ogre to be the point of the spear for their invasion. Even now, it is being prepared in the Summoning Pits deep in the Hellmouth."

Vistrek cleared his throat. "Does this mean that the interdiction on Luna is being lifted, Commander?" he asked carefully.

"No, but it will be soon. The interdiction was put in place to avoid provoking the Hive into attacking Earth. Now that we know they were preparing to invade anyway, the interdiction no longer serves its purpose. Now, here's what I want to have happen. If you lead the assault from the south…"

Cayde-6 quietly put a hand on Whisper's shoulder and guided her off to the side. "Hey, nice work out there, kid," he said softly. "You've done great. Zavala's right that this, and a handful of other strikes, need to go down, but the time-critical element is over. You've had what, a week off since you woke up? You're too important to burn out on us, so take a few days, or even a few weeks. Get to know the City and what you're fighting for. We'll handle things here."

…

"Whisper, Whisper did you hear!?" Emilia waved with the frantic energy of youth as she darted over while a half-glimpsed parent hurried off to work in stained overalls. Emilia threw herself into the swing next to Whisper, making the chains squeak. "The guardians saved the Traveler! Did you hear?"

"Uh," mumbled Whisper, taken aback by the child's enthusiasm. "I guess I did hear something about it. But what have you heard?"

"It was amazing," exclaimed Emilia dreamily, leaning back on the swing to look up into the sky through the narrow, ivy-covered walls. Far above, a single jumpship soared clear of the Traveler's shadow and raced upwards towards the stars. "A whole bunch of guardians attacked the monsters that watch us from the sky while we sleep and saved the Traveler!"

Whisper stared at Emilia, perplexed. Part of her wondered how in the world the rumors had spread this fast, but another part of her winced at that description. What would it be like as a child to look up into the night sky and be able to point and say there, there, right there is where the monsters that want to kill us all live. It couldn't do good things for their psychology, to say the least. Whisper considered the girl, rocking back and forth with a dreamy expression on her face while she imagined guardians laying waste to Hive. "Emilia, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

The girl blinked, coming back to the present. "A guardian, duh. Only papa says I can't be one." She grimaced. "My second choice is a fighter pilot. I heard that the best pilot in the whole City is a girl just like me!"

Whisper smiled at her infectious energy. "I heard that, too."

Emilia looked back up at the moon, making jumpship sounds as she imagined doing battle and defeating the terrible things that had threatened her every moment since her birth.

…

Vistrek looked down at the edge of the Hellmouth and swallowed nervously. This had seemed a lot safer with twelve guardians – now he found himself attached to a single fireteam. "Come on," said Crimiq-5 confidently. The exo gave Vistrek's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. The guardian nodded and joined Sola Scath and Katake as they readied themselves and approached the Gatehouse, weapons drawn. He hoped Alice was having a better time of it.

…

On the other side of the Hellmouth, Alice was also distinctly nervous, though not for the same reasons. Aunor Mahal glared daggers at her, then wrenched her gaze away and went back to pretending Alice didn't exist. The Praxic leader looked at the other two members of her fireteam. "While the other fireteam breaks the Hive's blade, we move against the hand that wields it. Before his disappearance, the warlock Osiris learned something of this place. Bahagari," she said, gesturing to her ghost.

Bahagari hummed and played an old, scratchy voice recording that must have been made centuries ago. "Every end crawls from the same pit, rising from the schism to swallow matter, Light, and life. It will not be stopped, but here it can be slowed. The Shrines of Oryx must be destroyed.

Aunor shrugged. "We know little of what this Shrine of Oryx might be, but our analysis of data recovered from the World's Grave gives us a location. Our… associate here," she added, her voice turning bone dry, "has some slightly greater experience on Luna than we have, and will be accompanying us on our journey."

Taeko-3 and Marlenx-3 each nodded in understanding. Taeko cast a surreptitious glance at Alice, but neither was fool enough to ask any questions of Aunor in her present mood.

"We will accompany the others as far as we can, then split off to our own objectives. Let's go."

…

Whisper sat in her favorite spot high on the Tower overlooking the Last City when her thoughts were interrupted by quiet footsteps. Ikora Ray stopped beside Whisper and stood silently, hands clasped behind her back, joining her observation. The quiet lasted for several minutes before the Vanguard member finally spoke.

"Beautiful, isn't it? So many people, so many lives, each one so previous, so easily lost. They need to be protected… watched over."

Whisper nodded cautiously. "It's a good thing the guardians are around, then."

Ikora smiled minutely at her deflection. "Guardians are a force to be reckoned with, certainly. But for most their reach is limited to effective rifle range. First they have to know where they need to be before they can do any guarding."

"And this is where your Hidden come in, right?"

Ikora nodded. "Yes, this is where the Hidden come in. Have you given any more thought to it?"

Whisper shrugged uncomfortably. She had thought about it, some, but she was still distinctly uneasy about it. "Tell me more about the Hidden. Did you make them? And why do you need them?"

Ikora thought for a moment, composing her words carefully. "I… organized them, yes. As for why they are needed, some of the reasons should be self-evident. Most obvious, perhaps, is that knowing what your enemy is doing is half the battle in defeating them. There were sensor networks operating before you reactivated the primary array, but we can't place too much trust in them. Rasputin is connected to everything from the Golden Age, and he has always been hard to predict. He may be reduced to little more than an automatic response shell, or he may be at full capacity and simply changed his objectives. We know little about him, even now, and he hasn't responded to any efforts to reach out to him. So we need our own eyes out there."

The Vanguard Warlock took a slow breath, then pressed on. "The second reason for the Hidden is the need for… accountability. A long time ago, I was a student of the warlock Osiris. He was… he was many things, but perhaps most of all he was focused. Everything else faded away while he was focused, even obsessed, on an interest. And that focus left aspects of his job as the Commander of the Vanguard unfilled. He began to rely more and more heavily on me, more even than I realized at the time. Many on the Consensus wanted Osiris removed from his position for different reasons."

She paused a moment, looking up at the Traveler as if for inspiration, and continued. "Some saw him as leading guardians astray. He interest was intense, but often shifted. Thanatonautics, ahamkara-lore, chasing Xur and the Nine, launching expeditions into the Reef with irreplaceable jumpships. His passion… inspired others. Some felt his example led hunters to pursue visions instead of refugees, titans to chase the Vault of Glass instead of Fallen raiders, and warlocks to study the nature of Darkness while we still knew so little of the Light."

"But the last straw was the Great Disaster. The Vanguard had no idea what we would face on Luna. With something so important, I had assumed that Osiris was covering it, and he had assumed that I was… if he thought about it at all," she said with a hint of bitterness. "And that failure of intelligence turned the battle into a disaster, and gave Osiris' enemies on the Concordat the ammunition they needed. They argued that intelligence gathering was the Warlock Vanguard's responsibility, and with the friction between Osiris and the Speaker, no one was willing to point out that they'd made that up on the spot. And they had a point – he was the Commander. And the Speaker exiled him for it."

Ikora's face tightened marginally with remembered pain, but she pressed on. "I was made the Warlock Vanguard that day, and I promised myself I would never let something like that happen again. Someone needed to be responsible for keeping track of our enemies, to be the one clearly responsible. So yes, I organized the Hidden, adding them to the ghosts of the cover spectral network.

"The Vanguard does have scouts though, like Shiro-4," Whisper pointed out.

"That is true, and they provide a very valuable service. But if you have the insight and perspective I think you have, and that you must have to fill this role, you should already know what the difference between them is. So, you tell me," she challenged.

Whisper turned to look out over the City once more, thinking. "There are too many enemies out there," she said finally. "Knowing where they are, even what they're doing, will only get you so far if you can't do anything about it. You have to keep most of the guardians close to the City, able to respond to any threat, which means you have little reach beyond Earth itself. That means if a scout told you some Fallen were gathering to attack the City, it could mean anything from a raid to an alliance of all the Fallen. You need to know not just what 'the Fallen' are doing, but what each faction, each House is doing, and why, so you can keep them fighting each other instead of focusing on us."

"Exactly," said Ikora with a tight smile. "The solar system is an island in the galaxy – even if we wanted to run, as Dead Orbit do, we are nowhere near prepared for it. So we must live here, surrounded by our enemies. Our existence depends on maintaining the fragile balance of power. Any of them, if they marshaled all their power, could destroy us, though at terrible cost, but they would be destroyed in turn by the others. The Hidden must see and understand that balance so it can be maintained. The times we have not have very nearly destroyed us – The Battle of Six Fronts, the Great Disaster, the Battle of Twilight Gap… in each of those pivotal moments we allowed our enemies to draw their entire focus onto us. We cannot let that happen again."

Whisper nodded slowly. That… made sense. Hopefully there would come a day when they could defend themselves effectively, when they weren't forced to play their enemies off against each other, but with a single surviving city they could afford no mistakes, and they couldn't run. And if Ikora was right, the Hidden would have a better idea of what was really happening than anyone else. "So… what, exactly, would I have to do?"

Ikora couldn't quite hide her sigh of relief. "There are two types of Hidden agents. The first are, in essence, spies. They volunteer to be broken down and molded into a new form, and inserted throughout the system, reporting what they find. It is more suited to lightless than the guardians, however – we have a harder time hiding who we are or sitting idle, which may be part of why ghosts choose us. Perhaps more importantly, we can't afford to take any guardian out of the field. So what I would ask of you is to be a field analyst. Gather whatever information you can as you fulfill your normal duties as guardian, but unlike other guardians, you would have access to the reports from other agents in order to analyze them. Compare them to the reality you see out there beyond the walls."

Whisper thought about it for long moments, but the truth was, she's been thinking about it ever since Ikora spoke about it. And she'd been thinking about the guardians, and everything she'd seed out there.

At last, finally, she nodded. "Alright, Ikora. I'll do it. I'll become a guardian and a Hidden."

"Excellent," said Ikora, as she favored her with a rare smile. "The oath of the guardian was established in the early days of the Last City. I can give you the oath now, as I suspect you would prefer that to a more formal setting?" she asked, and Whisper nodded. "As I thought. Repeat after me. Imbued with the Light of the Traveler, I devote my life to defending humanity from all that would harm us. I hereby swear to be a defender of the Last City and a Guardian of the people."

Whisper repeated the words, and that was that.

"When you have a chance, speak with Shiro-4 about administering the standard battery of tests for new guardians. It's not mandatory, but it gives us an idea of your strengths and weaknesses and can be helpful when making assignments. As for your serving as a Hidden, I'll put you in touch with Chalco Yong, who will give you access to our secured network and archives, including our introductory courses. And finally, I already have your first assignment. This will be primarily for you to learn, but I am curious what insights you pick up."

"And that assignment is?" asked Whisper a touch anxiously.

"Rumors are flying thick and fast about Luna. The most prominent is true, that the interdiction will soon be lifted. Many guardians are preparing for the return. The most eager, however, is Lord Shaxx."

Whisper frowned. "Wasn't he the one most worried about invading the moon?" she asked, recalling his objections in the recorded Consensus meeting.

"Yes, and his newfound eagerness to establish a crucible location has some on the Consensus worried. Tomorrow morning the Speaker is going to launch an inquiry into Lord Shaxx's intentions and, more broadly, his beliefs."

She held up a hand to prevent Whisper's sudden burst of questions and continued. "I don't think the Speaker has any doubts about Lord Shaxx, but things have been… quiet for some time now, long enough that many members of the Consensus don't have any memories of Lord Shaxx. His hanging onto the 'Lord' title doesn't help in that regard, but he always was stubborn." She smiled briefly with fond exasperation. "I suspect the Speaker's goal is to… expose those on the Consensus to Shaxx and reassure them of his total reliability and trustworthiness. Still, we haven't survived this long by taking anything for granted, so I want you to learn about Shaxx, learn about who he is and where he came from, and listen to the hearings. That might sound boring compared to working in the field, but I promise you this, nothing is boring where Lord Shaxx is concerned."

…

Whisper didn't get quite as many side-eyed glances from robed warlocks under the high arched ceilings of the Fu'an Institute Library. She ignored them and sat down at a terminal in an out-of-the-way desk with privacy screens and got to work.

Her first task was to look through the Hidden information, starting with the Creed. It was… involved.

Step One: Find thy self

Accurate knowledge is impossible if you do not understand the device by which knowledge is obtained. One of humanity's most monumental achievements is the metric system, an enduring system of measure usable by all people in all situations. But the metric system had a flaw: its units were defined by physical objects. The standard kilogram was an ingot of platinum and iridium. This ingot changed over time, as all material things must; and therefore, it was unreliable. The metric system was not completed until the kilogram found a truer, more absolute definition based on pure knowledge: in this case, Planck's universal constant.

In the future, we may discover that Planck's constant varies between different volumes of the multiverse. If we do, we will need to find a truer definition of the kilogram. So it is that this is the first step—finding thy self— so that you may know the instrument by which you obtain knowledge, and it is ever ongoing.

Step Two: Know thy self

When you have reliable instruments of measurement, you may then measure yourself. Truth is universal, but universal truth can only be acquired through personal truth. This is the foundational paradox of Gnosticism. To know anything beyond the self requires self-knowledge, but the self cannot be known without understanding the laws that drive it, which can only be known by observing the world. How do we escape this cycle?

This conundrum offers an escape from the Boltzmann-brain solipsistic trap. The trap asks us, "How do you know that you are not the only thing in existence, and that the universe you perceive is not a random moment emerged from chaos?" The answer is that a randomly emerged illusionary brain, the product of a probabilistic demiurge, is cosmically unlikely to contain both the memory of and imaginary universe and knowledge of consistent mathematical and physical laws of which describe that

whole. If the world is an illusion, then why would it produce the illusion of a physics that can be consistently explain its existence? Which is more probable: that we and all we see are an enormous coincidence, or that reality is in fact determined and evolved by a consistent set of laws? The existence of an objective reality is more probable. If objective reality really exists, we exist in it. The truth that we see in the world around us allow us to induce the truth of our own persistent existence.

To know thy self is not to only look within but also without. It is impossible to know thy self without knowledge of the universe.

Step Three: Destroy thy self

When you have located your self, destroy your self. Grip your self like a hand shaking a hand, find the weak places, and squeeze. Throw your self at yourself like a rising tide upon an ancient fortress. Do not stop when your soft places are eroded. You must continue until nothing remains. In this manner, you will gain two vital gnoses: the revealed knowledge of your own strengths and failings, and the practiced knowledge of how to reconstruct your self when destroyed.

In one Gnostic tradition, our universe is the creation of Barbelo and Sophia, whose mimicry of the Unknown God's emanations gave rise to Yaldabaoth, the lion-headed serpent. Yaldabaoth the Demiurge crafted our world and the Archons that rule it in mimicry of the true spiritual world, which is called pleroma. Upon creating humanity, Yaldabaoth declared itself the truth creator, unaware that it itself was only a mimic of the Unknown God.

The key understanding here lies not in the fabulism, nor even in Yaldabaoth's failure to destroy itself and reveal the truth, but in the relationship between the Gnostic tradition and the Book of Genesis. This Gnostic tale comes before the traditional Genesis, totally recontextualizing it—even destroying it. In retaliation for this transformation, the Gnostics were destroyed by more orthodox faith.

We cannot understand ourselves unless we know our own origins; and we cannot accept our origins unless are willing to destroy ourselves.

Step Four: Shed thy self

Rub at the thin, dry outer parts of yourself. Crawl shining and wet from that outer husk.

All misjudgement is caused by the failure to shed the self. We constantly make poor decisions, knowing that they will hurt us and isolate us, because these decisions allow us to sustain our stories of who we are. When we are angry, we choose to act in anger, even if we know we could de-escalate. When we are wounded, we make the choices a wounded person would make, even when we know these choices will deepen the wound. Who would do otherwise? To refuse the choice we want is to make is to refuse our self, and that makes us afraid. We are afraid to change who we are. Unless we have a habit, a natural capability to escape our own nature. So we must acquire that capability.

It is impossible to escape the cage of the self by any means except shedding.

Step Five: Embrace a new skin

When you have left behind the dry husk of your self, you will find yourself in the strata of dry husks, an infinite compost of uninhabited might-yet-be. In order to don another self, you must enter it and embrace it wholly. You must accept it without reservation. This is terrifying, because to wholly accept transformation is to wholly accept death.

This is the confrontation with the ego death, the psyche death, the collapse of connections between the mediotemporal and higher cortical brain networks.

Its successful resolution comes with the understanding that there is no persistent self, only a set of rules by which we temper our own changes. That which does not change at all is dead. That which changes wholly explodes. We are the middle course. We are the place between the dead coal and the blazing fire.

Step Six: Become the many

This step is simple, which is why it is the hardest of all. When you have mastered the ability to escape yourself, and then take on a new self, you will then abandon the need to be a self.

This is easiest for the dawnblade, who understands the "self" as a perturbation of a field, like a vortex in water—a place of constant change, not separate from but continuous with the surrounding universe. For hunters, this step may arrive from study of the natural world, or from immersion in the human communities around us. For titans, devotion to duty or to the perfection of certain acts is the natural path.

All must arrive at this realization in their own way.

Step Seven: We are as unseen. We are as death

Death comes unseen to all of us, and we do not know the hour of its coming or the face it will wear.

We are the Hidden, and we must be as death. They do not know the hour of our approach or the face we will wear. All knowledge ends in us; and yet, we are beyond knowing.

But as Hidden, we must also accept that we do not see all, and we do not know the hour of our own death. We are the final repository of knowledge, as the grave is the final library. But we cannot know our own death until it has taken us beyond all knowing.

How is it possible to fully know oneself when oneself will not be finished and complete until death?

There is a right answer to this paradox.

Wow. That was a hell of a lot of naval gazing for an intelligence gathering operation, but she was starting to come to expect that from warlocks. The next tab was an introductory lecture by Ikora's ghost, Ophiuchus, entitled Advanced Forensics Introductory Lecture. Maybe another time.

Whisper turned to Lord Shaxx instead.

Unfortunately, again, the records were far from complete. Still, as minutes turned to hours, she started to piece things together. The earliest mention she could find was an offhand reference to a mountain ruled by Lord Shaxx during the time of something called the Iron Lords. Then Zavala mentioned in his entry in the History of the Vanguard that when he first arrived at the mess of tents huddled beneath the Traveler that was the beginnings of the Last City, Lord Shaxx was already there, though with two horns on his helmet. He was there during the Battle of Six Fronts, he argued against the invasion of the moon in the Great Disaster, and he was there again during the Battle of Twilight Gap, after which he formed the Crucible, lifting it up from a quasi-legitimate dueling ring into a formal training ground… or slaughterhouse, depending on how you looked at it.

Whisper sat back in her chair, unconsciously steepling her fingers in front of her in thought. The records told a little of his exploits, showing Lord Shaxx to be an incredible fighter, both one-on-one and in larger pitched battles. He had been a steadfast presence in the City literally for centuries. And yet… they said nothing about the man himself. From the basics (was he a man? An exo?) to his personality (was he always that… energetic?) to his motivations, the records offered only hints, at best. She needed to get out there, talk to people. Wonderful.

…

"Lord Shaxx? He's… well, he's Lord Shaxx."

That precocious description had come from Cayde-6, and nobody else seemed to have more to say about the titan. He was so ingrained in the minds of the people of the City that they didn't quite take him for granted—more they seemed to treat him as a force of nature, an unchanging presence, rather than a person. That meant, ultimately, she had no one else to go to but Shaxx himself.

Whisper walked cautiously into Shaxx's headquarters, stepping around large screens showing multiple battlefields preparing for upcoming matches, while the largest showed the ongoing battle. Whisper watched silently as it turned into a bloodbath. The guardians hurled themselves into the fray with reckless abandon, each side trying to push forward with raw momentum to gain control of the arena's central area. She winced as one of the guardians finally managed to secure ammunition for a rocket launcher.

The battle ended shortly after that and Shaxx turned away from the screen and finally stopped shouting. "Ah, Whisper! I knew you'd be back. I think we can squeeze you into the next—"

"I have some more questions for you, I'm afraid," Whisper half-shouted over his words before he could shove her into another shuttle.

The titan eyed her curiously for a moment, then nodded. "Arcite," he said, waving over a Redjack frame wrapped in furs, "prepare the next battlefield. Make it legendary!" The frame nodded jerkily as Shaxx motioned with his head towards a nearby balcony. Whisper trailed after him warily.

They looked over the City for a moment before Shaxx spoke in something approaching a normal conversational tone. "So, you're one of Ikora's. Interesting choice."

Whisper managed, barely, not to twitch in surprise. "What?"

Shaxx chuckled. "Ikora and I have played this game for a long time, guardian. She hasn't managed to sneak one past me yet. So, you've been sent to investigate me. What do you want to know?"

Whisper considered how to approach this. It didn't take long to conclude that with Shaxx, the direct approach was best. "I guess I won't bother to deny it, then. Why do you want to open a Crucible arena on the moon?"

"Hm. What do you know about me, Whisper?"

Whisper blinked at the non-sequitur, then decided to run with it. "You have been a guardian, or perhaps I should say Lightbearer, for a very long time. You ruled a mountain once. You fought during the Battle of Six Fronts, argued against what became the Great Disaster, and fought in the Battle of Twilight Gap, then turned the Crucible into… this," she said with a vague gesture towards his headquarters.

Shaxx shrugged. "That's what I've done. What do you know about me?"

"You are loud, confident, and enthusiastic. You seem driven, even obsessed, with training guardians in the Crucible. You have little patience for needless discussion."

"It's a start, at least. I will tell you what you want to know, but as before, I will answer only in exchange for your answer to a question of my own. Why are you afraid of the Crucible?" Whisper froze, but the titan pressed on relentlessly. "You are no coward and you are not afraid of battle, not with your record, yet in the Crucible you shut down and hid. What is it that bothers you?"

Whisper stood there, stunned. "I… I don't know."

Lord Shaxx nodded. "Acknowledging your limitations is a noble trait, guardian, yet it remains a partial answer. So I offer you in turn a partial answer. Everything you need to know about me you can learn by studying the Battle of Twilight Gap. Now, I must return—the next battle begins."

Referenced Lore

Grimoire:

Chamber of Night

The Summoning Pits

Osiris

Armor:

The Dragon's Shadow (D2)

Sparrows:

Curse of Foresight (D2)

Quest Descriptions:

Guardian of the People

Lore Books:

Ghost Stories: The Watchful Eye

Other:

The Hidden Dossier (Witch Queen Collector's Edition)

Ghost Scan: Tower in the Hangar (mentions Vanguard history books)