"When Oryx built his Dreadnaught, he pushed his Throneworld inside out, so that it bled into the material space of the Dreadnaught. They were coterminous and allied, his ship and his sin. The Dreadnaught was within the throne of Oryx, but the throne of Oryx was the Dreadnaught. Aiat!" - XLI: Dreadnaught
The first of Fireteam Calypso to enter the dining hall didn't cut a particularly impressive figure, at least on the surface. She had an incredibly small stature; Harley was pretty sure she didn't stand over five feet tall, which made her the first Guardian he'd met who was shorter than him. She had pale lavender skin that marked her as an Awoken, and short curly dark-purple hair.
On her right was a human Warlock. He stood taller than his Awoken Hunter companion — and taller than Harley as well, but he wasn't the tallest of the fireteam. That slot went to the woman on the Hunter's left, who towered over both of them. The look of steel in her gray eyes made her look like someone he wouldn't want to run into in the Crucible.
Together, the members of Calypso stopped a few feet in front of their table and the Hunter's golden eyes flicked over to Harley as she scanned his face. "You're Ace, right?" Her tone was as friendly as her words were blunt. She stuck out a hand with a grin. "Liv Marko. Hunter, in case the cloak wasn't a dead giveaway."
Harley blinked. "Nice to meet you," he said, shaking her hand.
Liv nodded and gestured to the Warlock. "This is Tristan." The Warlock offered a small wave. Harley nodded back. She gestured to the Titan. "And this is Kai."
"Hey," said Kai. Her tone was clipped, though it didn't seem to be meant in an unfriendly way. Her eyes slid to Kaedro. "You wanted to go to the City today?"
"Yeah," said Kaedro, "Ace hasn't seen much of it yet, so I thought we'd walk around, maybe visit some shops."
Liv nodded enthusiastically. "Nice! I'm good to go now if you guys are ready."
"Sure." Kaedro glanced at Harley. "You ready?" Harley nodded. "Jade?"
"Yep," said Jade brightly.
The Exo clapped his hands together. "Right! Let's hit the road, gang."
During his first visit to the City, Harley hadn't looked around much, being rather preoccupied with the imminent departure of his friends. But now he was starting to wish that he had.
There was so much to look at that he wasn't sure where to even start. Banners, flags, and lanterns were everywhere. Colorful signs and posters decorated the storefronts. People milled about in various styles of clothing, living out their lives under the Traveler.
It did something funny to him to realize that even while the Taken might be rampaging through the rest of Sol, people here were carrying on like normal. The idea was both humbling and gratifying.
"There should be a park just up ahead," Kaedro informed them.
"Perfect!" said Liv, "It's such a pain to eat and walk at the same time." She rotated her ice cream cone, making sure it wasn't dripping.
Kai scoffed. "Aren't you Hunters supposed to be good at things like that?"
"Eating ice cream while walking?" questioned Kaedro, "That's a pretty specific skill set." He narrowed his eyes. "Or you're trying to imply something about how much we eat."
The Titan shrugged. "I meant in terms of multitasking, but take it how you want."
"I'm about to multitask eating ice cream and kicking your ass!" Liv declared with a grin.
Kai smiled — even her smile looked dangerous — and said, "Big talk for someone who's three times smaller than me." She flexed her arm for Liv's benefit. "See this? It's called muscle. Also known as something that I have more of."
"Maybe, but where are you in the brains department?" Liv challenged.
"Trailing behind Tristan just like you," Kai shot back, gesturing toward the Warlock in question, who ducked his head with an embarrassed smile.
"Here we are!" announced Kaedro.
Harley looked up. The small square was filled with trees and fountains. Concrete paths snaked their way through the greenery, passing by benches and picnic tables. A few other City citizens of various ageswere enjoying the park as well — children chased each other through the trees while adults rested on the benches or strolled together along the paths.
He felt himself begin to relax — really relax — for the first time since he'd woken up. This place was so far removed from the violence outside the walls.
The others sat down at one of the picnic tables to finish their ice cream.
Kaedro leaned back against the table's edge. "Man… It pays to get outta that Tower sometimes."
"I'll say," said Liv emphatically.
"Mmm." Jade nodded. "...I feel like I could actually forget everything for a little while. The Hive, the Taken, the war… It's all just so far away here."
The other Guardians nodded in agreement before letting the conversation lapse into silence.
Harley began to zone out, eyes fixing blankly on whatever was in his field of view as he considered how it would feel to live in the City.
A flash of bronze snapped him out of it as Prism appeared beside him. "Everything going well?" He nodded. "You sure? You seem quiet, is all."
He shook his head. "I'm fine."
A touch of humor entered her voice. "Well, you might want to explain that to the lady you've been staring at."
"Huh?" He blinked and looked around.
Sure enough, a woman sitting some distance away was watching him with a slight crease in her brow. He realized with some chagrin that he'd probably been creeping her out with his blank stare. He smiled and gave her a small wave to try and reassure her that he hadn't been meaning to stare.
But rather than smile or nod back in return, the woman turned to the child that had just run up to her. She seemed to say something to them before pointing across the park at him.
His smile faded and he dropped his gaze under the weight of their combined stare. "...I think I'm ready to go," he told the others.
Liv shot him a questioning gaze, but Kaedro merely shrugged. "Sure, we can keep going. There's more to see, anyway." He got to his feet, pausing to stretch.
The rest of the Guardians rose as well. "Where to next?" asked Tristan.
Kaedro smiled knowingly. "That depends… Anyone feel like going shopping?"
"Sure!" Liv agreed. She glanced around at the others. "And I'm expecting one of you to buy me something good."
"Mooching off your friends?" said Kaedro, clutching his chest in mock astonishment. "Liv, I'm disappointed."
She rolled her eyes. "Please. I may not have known you long, but I know Cayde and I know you used to run with him, and that's the only info I need to know that you get more than enough Glimmer out of your escapades with him and whoever else. You probably make more from a night of poker or hustling pool than I make in a month of looting."
Kaedro frowned. "Ok, someone's been talking behind my back. How the hell did you find out about that stuff?"
Liv chuckled. "Like I said, I know Cayde. Him, Tevis… you've probably played against a lot of Hunters I know."
The Exo shrugged. "What can I say? Hunters love a good gamble…" He snapped his fingers. "That reminds me! Ace, didn't I say somethin' about teaching you poker one time?"
Harley frowned. He couldn't recall any such agreement. "When?"
"Beats me. Sometime after we kicked Crota back to kingdom come."
That didn't exactly sharpen his memory. "...Guess I forgot," he said apologetically.
Kaedro waved him off with a flick of his hand. "Doesn't matter! I'm game anytime. Probably won't happen till after we-" He cut himself off with a glance at Harley. "Never mind."
"What?"
The Exo shook his head. "Mission. I shouldn't've said anything. Last thing I want is to make you feel worse about bein' stuck in the Tower…" He nodded to the path. "Let's get going."
They began walking back toward the street. As they walked, Harley felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck, like someone was watching him. He looked to the left. No one was there. He looked to the right.
A teenager stood a short distance away, holding up what looked like a comm — or something similar to one. But the way he held it, it looked like he was taking pictures. Pictures of them.
Harley turned away and kept walking, head lowered. He wasn't sure why some random City kid would be taking photos of Guardians, but the idea of someone watching them like that made him uneasy.
Once they were further down the path, he glanced back to see the kid typing into the device. Was he sending the picture to someone else? Who? Who would care about a picture of some Guardians? Could the Guardians have enemies inside the City?
The fact that he couldn't say for certain was not reassuring.
"Tristan! Tristan! Look at this!" Harley watched as Liv dragged the Warlock over to some necklaces she'd been looking over. "...He says they're real Ahamkara teeth!"
Tristan frowned as he examined the jewelry. "Who said that?"
Liv pointed to the shopkeeper, who nodded his head eagerly. "Indeed, young man. You won't find these in just any shop. These are the genuine article! And a bargain at only 2000 Glimmer apiece!"
"Wouldn't it be sick to have a real Ahamkara tooth?" said Liv, "The other Hunters would be so jealous."
"Liv, they aren't real," Tristan broke in.
"Now, just a minute-" the shopkeeper began.
"I know you may not have participated in the Great Ahamkara Hunt, but you know they were hunted to extinction. Their bones and teeth are rarely found even among Guardians. If these were real, they'd be worth a lot more than just 2000 Glimmer. Besides, you can see the seam here…" He picked up one of the necklaces and ran his finger along the tooth.
Liv sighed in disappointment. "Damn. It did seem a little too good to be true. Thanks, Tris."
Harley wandered back out to the plaza to look for Kaedro, Kai, and Jade. The City had many market squares, all impressive to behold. Shops lined the sides and colorful stalls filled the rest of the space, allowing various vendors to advertise their merchandise — everything from freshly made foods to machine parts.
He had to work hard to get anywhere through the hustle and bustle of the shopping crowd, their bodies gently jostling his as they flowed around him like a river, or a churning sea.
Bad luck caught up to him when he attempted to sidestep a woman with an enormous basket. He caught his foot on a raised paving stone and toppled forward with a surprised shout. Someone grabbed him by the arm before he could hit the ground, hauling him back up.
The gray-haired man brushed him off, assessing him with a concerned gaze. "You alright there, son? That could've turned pretty nasty." He gestured to the shuffling crowd. "Easy to wind up getting accidentally trampled."
Harley nodded. "I'm alright, thanks. Sorry about that."
"Hey, no harm, no foul," said the man good-naturedly. But as Harley turned away to resume searching for his clanmates and Kai, the stranger spoke again. "Just a moment… Do I know you from somewhere?"
He turned back with a confused frown. "I don't think so?" It would be an accomplishment for this man to have recognized a Guardian who could count the times he'd entered the City on one hand. He tried for a smile. "I guess I just have one of those faces…"
He made to leave again, but the man stopped him with a hand on his arm, studying Harley's face. "No, no. I recognize your face, I'm certain of it…" His eyebrows furrowed. "Could've sworn I saw you on TV… Are you an actor or a news anchor?"
Harley shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he replied, still attempting to be polite despite the fact that he was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable, "You might be mistaking me for someone else."
"I don't think so," said the man, sounding quite certain about it, "I swear you were on TV… You're not a Guardian, are you?"
The question hit him like a speeding Sparrow. How would a random citizen recognize a Guardian?
His surprise must have shown on his face, because the man grinned. "That's it, isn't it? You're a Guardian! Must have seen you in a Crucible match or something of the sort. Who's your sponsor? Veist? Omolon?"
Harley blinked. "No. No, I um… I've never been in a Crucible tournament. I don't really play much in general, to be honest."
"Well, there's got to be some reason I recognize you," the old man said stubbornly, though more to himself than to Harley. "Let me think… Not one of the televised Crucible matches, so you were on TV for some other reason…" Suddenly, his mouth fell open, his eyebrows scaling his forehead. "Now hold on a minute! You're that Guardian, aren't you? The one from Mercury?"
He froze. The planet beneath him seemed to have dropped away — this stranger's grip now the only thing rooting him to the world. Why would a civilian know to connect him with Mercury? How did this man even know his face in the first place? He was distantly aware of a small crowd forming around them — a loose fence of onlookers drawn by the man's exclamation of "Guardian."
Harley scrabbled to collect his scattered thoughts and tried one more time to extricate himself. The apologetic smile he bestowed upon the man was shaky and cobbled together, but he hoped it would be enough. "I- I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else."
"Nonsense!" The man's grip on his arm was renewed with excitement. "You're him! Hayden! The one who helped kill Crota!"
They were already causing something of a scene, but the mention of Crota caused a wave of murmurs to sweep through the crowd. More eyes turned toward them, hands brushed mouths as words were traded in whispers.
He felt a touch on his other arm. "Is it true?" a woman asked him, "Are you really the Guardian from Mercury?"
"Yes it's true!" crowed the old man proudly, "I never forget a face! I said so!"
A new wave of murmuring broke out and the crowd constricted, pressing in for a closer look. Harley felt them tap on his shoulders, brush his arm.
"What was Mercury like?"
"Can we see your Ghost?"
"Tell us how you beat Crota!"
"Where are the other Hesperides? Are they with you right now?"
He stumbled slightly as the horde continued to push inward, jostling him. They pelted him with questions — personal questions, questions about being a Guardian, questions about his clan — the questions overlapping and blending into each other, forming a cacophonous chorus. Gone was the market square, the vendor stalls, the rustling crowd; in their place instead were the bone-walls of the Dreadnaught, the musty stench of decay, and the screeching of the Hive as they clawed at his arms, his legs, his shoulders, any part of him they could reach.
There was a stone on his chest. It weighed him down, dragging him toward the bottom of a vast lake, stealing his air and stalling his movements. Harley's panic rose as the Hive tore at him. He couldn't let them find Prism. He couldn't let them get her. She had to make it out. He didn't care what happened to him as long as she made it out.
He already knew what would happen next. The Hive would haul him back to Oryx, Lord of Shapes. Back to the Darkness. He would be remade again, remade in the image of the Deep.
He reached for the Light — the Hive drained it, would drain it, were draining it — and electricity crackled along his fingers, tracing the pathway of his bones. Relief. He still had the Light. The Traveler had not abandoned him. As long as he had it, he could make the Hive go away.
His hands curled, hilts of lightning-sharp knives forming beneath his fingers. Then something struck him from behind. He stumbled, losing track of the shape of the knives. A pair of powerful arms encircled him, pinning his own arms to his sides as he fell to the ground — the Arc energy that had been building up now dissipating in a flare of electricity.
The wind was knocked from him as his lungs were compressed between the ground and the crushing weight on his back. He struggled against it, but no amount of thrashing or kicking made it budge.
Suddenly, there was a voice in his ear. "Hadyen."
Harley renewed his efforts. He was trapped. He didn't recognize the voice and the voice was the thing trapping him.
It said something else, but he didn't know what. He didn't care. All he cared about was getting away.
He thrashed harder when something grabbed the back of his neck, shoving his face into the paving stones. Wait. Paving stones? He forced the eye that wasn't compressed by his cheek to focus on the ground beneath him. Paving stones, not Hive-bone. Not the Dreadnaught. Not the Dreadnaught?
The voice was back, this time in his ear. "Harley Hayden, you need to calm the fuck down," it hissed, "You're in the middle of the marketplace right now and people are giving us weird looks. I'll get off, but only if you stop trying to fight me."
Marketplace. Not the Dreadnaught. Not the Hive. He was in the marketplace and he was causing a scene. Harley forced his limbs to go slack, reeling in all of the fear and tension.
The hand on his neck lifted and the rest of the weight followed, causing him to gasp reflexively, filling his previously cramped lungs. He turned over to see Kai crouching next to him, her hands on her knees.
Whatever thoughts she harbored about what just happened didn't show on her face. "...You good, Hayden?"
Wordlessly, he nodded. She gave a small nod in acknowledgement and stood up, brushing herself off before offering a hand. He accepted, allowing her to pull him up as he fervently tried to avoid the curious, yet wary glances of the people around them.
"C'mon," said Kai abruptly, gesturing for him to follow, "The others are this way."
Harley trailed her through the crowd. Maybe if he was hunched down and stayed close enough to the Titan, they wouldn't notice him.
The other four were standing off to the side, away from the main body of the market.
Kaedro was the first to spot him. "Ace!" he called out in relief, peering around Kai at Harley, "Where were you?"
"About two seconds away from Arc Blading a bunch of civilians," Kai answered for him. Her tone was noncommittal but he could see a faint line of tension in her shoulders.
The Exo's eyes widened. "What?"
"Harley, what happened?" asked Jade, somehow managing to sound both concerned and grave at the same time.
He shook his head. What had happened? "I… don't know. I guess I, I must have freaked out…"
Kai scoffed. "Hell of an understatement."
"Guardians don't just go for the Light for no reason," said Liv pointedly, "Did something happen?"
He shook his head again, avoiding the shorter Hunter's gaze. "It was an accident! I couldn't- I wouldn't… I would never do something like that intentionally."
Harley hoped it would end there. He desperately wanted to get out of the painful spotlight, no matter how rightfully it shined. Now that the shock was over, the shame was beginning to creep in. He had nearly unleashed the Light on innocent civilians! What was wrong with him? What kind of Guardian was he, to turn his power against those he was supposed to protect?
The others nodded slowly, though he wasn't sure if they were convinced.
Kaedro shuffled slightly. "Are… do you wanna keep going or should we turn back?" he asked, his tone perhaps the gentlest Harley had ever heard it.
"Turn back," said Kai, just as Liv said, "Keep going." They stared at each other.
"He said it was an accident," Liv pointed out.
"Yeah, but who's to say an accident like that won't happen again?" Kai challenged, "And I might not be able to make it there in time to stop him if it does."
"We should keep going," he interjected. He'd already screwed up enough without ruining the rest of the day for the others.
In return, he got several doubtful faces.
"You sure about that, kid?" said Kaedro, "Kai's right, we don't know why it happened, which means it could happen again. And I mean, if it was bad enough that you nearly activated your Arc Blade…" Despite Harley's best efforts, Kaedro's eyes met his. "...Ace, Guardians are forbidden from using the Light on civilians. We're talking exile at minimum here… Can you tell us with one hundred percent confidence that you won't go off like that again?"
The kicker was, he couldn't. But Harley would be damned before he let it happen again, and he'd be damned before he ruined the outing any more than he already had. "I'm good," he insisted, possibly a little more firmly than necessary, "It won't happen again." He paused. "And if it does, you can just shoot me next time." He was originally aiming for a lighter tone, but the words came out sounding dead serious.
"I will," Kaedro told him grimly. Then he sighed. "You'd better be sure about this, kid… If you're wrong, you won't be the only one paying for it."
"I'm sure."
The Exo looked at him for a long moment, considering. "Alright," he said finally, "I guess we'll keep going." He still sounded doubtful, but at least he wasn't challenging Harley on it.
They began to walk once more, but even as the cheerful atmosphere gradually began to edge its way back, Harley couldn't ignore the fleeting glances and pinched brows of his companions. Nor could he stop thinking about the incident. Hot shame roiled in his chest. One moment everything was perfectly fine. The next, he had seemingly lost his mind. To the point where Kai had to tackle him.
Whatever the case, he knew Prism would have something to say about it, so he wasn't surprised when her voice sounded in his mind. "What happened back there?"
He sighed. "I just… I got overwhelmed for a moment." He paused. "...I'd really rather not talk about it."
She echoed his sigh back at him. "Harley, whatever that was, it was more than just getting overwhelmed. You were about to enter a Trance."
"Ok, sure, but I didn't."
"Only because Kai was there to stop you."
He huffed in irritation. "Prism, it isn't going to happen again, ok? Is that not enough for you?"
"You're sure about that?" She sounded skeptical.
"Yes, I am. Trust me."
"...Fine." She still seemed reluctant, but also apparently not keen on pushing it any further at the moment. "Just… if you start feeling that way again, tell me."
He just nodded. With any luck, the subject would be left to lie there, but knowing his Ghost, that wasn't likely. All he could do in the meantime was make sure that he didn't jeopardize the day any further.
A/N: There's always some kind of trouble to get up to in the City. I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. The next one will probably be out next Friday, so be on the lookout.
Until next time!