Fragment: Buried Embers
May. 14th, 2018 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rekindledtitanThis follows the 'At Dawn' prompt and is set between the Nexus Spring Equinox battle and the Halloween Nightmare event.
Ulysses-10 was as hard to track down as any Nexus-goer, but at least Blaze knew how to reach his preferred universes. She caught up with the Warlock while he entertained himself inside the gates of the Black Garden. She called out to him as she approached. Not four hundred metres behind them were the red sands and dust-tinted skies of Mars. But here, inside the pocket realm built by alien robots, lay a labyrinth of bare stone spilled down to every horizon, pillars and walls draped with strange foliage as green as the sky above. It had been sealed away from prying Light for eons- but no more.
“Back already?” Ulysses asked. A minotaur stamped out from among crumbling stones and swung its metal fist at him. His shotgun ended it. Serenely. “How is a man meant to get any meditation done?”
“I went to Mercury,” she said, scanning their surroundings for a target. The Garden’s time and space were locked to Mars now, but there was still something profoundly wrong about the place, like a never-ending sense of vertigo. It wasn’t a place she’d willingly linger without something worth killing. Or an answer worth learning. “I found something. A source of Light like I’ve never seen before. What is it?”
“You were there. Why are you asking me?”
“Because I couldn’t figure out how to commune with it. It was solar Light, the same as I felt before, but I… felt like there was something I was missing.” She looked down at her hands wrapped around her rifle, trying to make sense of what she’d felt. The yearning. She said without being sure of why, “It wasn’t time.”
“You weren’t ready.” He reached out a hand, and three goblins erupted in flames hot enough to warp and melt their Vex-alloy frames. Reinforcements warped in behind them. Annoyed by the Warlock’s non-answer, Blaze stowed her rifle charged for their midst, fists crunching through central cores and crested heads until there were no distractions left. She felt better when she strode back to Ulysses, too.
“I was using those,” he sighed. She waved him off.
“Come on. I want to know the truth. You know Shaxx holds Crucible matches out there? I tried asking some of the other Titans who’d fought there. None of them knew what I was talking about. They probably think my circuits are crossed.”
“That’s not surprising.” Another squad of goblins was already marching out from the pillars ahead. He readied a grenade.
“Ulysses.” Her fluid-smeared hand closed over his. Ulysses looked round, the blank mask beneath his hood meeting her gaze. She could feel the grenade’s molten heat seethe between their palms. “Explain. How did you learn to summon that Light? Is that the place you went? What do I have to do? What does it need from me?”
He shook his head. “The Forge is not for Warlocks. Do you mind-?”
“The Forge?”
“Blaze, your hand is smoking. I’ll tell you where to look if you let go.” She pulled away, and he tossed the fusion grenade onto the next minotaur to appear. “You’re lucky these don’t arm until I let them go.”
“Really?” She clapped her hands together to put out the smolder. “Oh.”
He synthesized a sigh. “….What do you know about the Sunbreakers?”
“I’ve never heard of them. They’re a fireteam?”
“Slightly more than that. They got caught up in Osiris’s dispute with the Consensus and-”
“Oh. Politics, then. Just tell me where to find them.”
He seemed to hesitate, stymied before he could hold forth. Then he shrugged. “Well, you can hear it from them. Try looking on Venus, I’ve heard they resurfaced there not long ago. They keep to themselves, but they can teach you.”
“’Venus’. That’s it? You know I thought your directions before were vague but that’s a whole new level.”
“I said they keep to themselves. I can’t be more specific. I suspect you’ll find them around Collective facilities or Vex strongholds, but I’ve never even seen one in person.”
She nodded reluctantly. It was always frustrating to hear, but that was the world they lived in now. Chasing rumors and half-remembered scraps of knowledge for any advantage they could unearth. “Guess that’ll have to do, then. Transmat us out, Ghost. And Ulysses- thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said.
Venus, then.
Mars hid its secrets beneath dunes, Venus beneath trees. She’d been avoiding the place since the Nexus had made it uncomfortable, but now Blaze and her Ghost spent months there, splitting patrols between the surface and the Nexus, delving into volcanic caves and chasing out Fallen pirates, following ancient roadways to colony settlements the jungle had long devoured. They found signs of other Guardians, now and then: sometimes their old camps, sometimes wandering fireteams pursuing their own quests. None of them could tell her anything about Sunbreakers. Ghost tried accessing the City archives remotely and found nothing openly available. He brought up the name Osiris a few times, though there didn’t seem much to that and Blaze wasn’t interested in an internal Tower dispute three hundred years old.
She had more immediate concerns. Honing her skills, keeping watch over the Nexus. Looking out for Tina in spite of her own unease about being around a kid. Adia’s tales of the Cylons and their cruelty. Glimpsing other Earths through the people who escaped them, every one a strange and troubling reflection of the world she knew- or the world she’d known, once. Wondering which of those visions her people might have become, without the Traveler’s intervention.
Answering the call when Khan launched his attack on the civilians of the Nexus, and the months spent grieving the friend they lost in that battle.
Hunting her way across Venus was an outlet. Hope of greater power and the lure of mystery gave a direction to anger and sorrow. But it wasn’t until well after Steve’s return that she finally set her unease aside and went to the one part of Venus she wanted to avoid.
The Ishtar Sink had always traced the boundary between fascinating and eerie for her. On the one hand the ancient colony was a monument to the Golden Age glory waiting to be recaptured, an enticing labyrinth of mysteries and long-lost secrets. On the other, it was a ghost city of once-grand towers and overgrown outbuildings shimmering with the pale light of spirit blossom, every other scene and jagged skyline conjuring the sense of something almost recalled. She’d ignored it before. Cities were always lousy with stray associations. You couldn’t let them get to you. But now…
There was too much of Bryn Marshall still in her head. Too many whole images, snatches of complete memory dumped back into her mind, waiting to spring out. Too much grief. She’d come to view the wreckage left by the Collapse at a thousand years’ remove; now she felt the emotions of a newly-risen Exo tug at her again. The streets crammed with rusting cars, the gaping windows and deserted transit stations, the flickering terminals still trying to speak… she couldn’t pretend they were mere curiosities any more.
It was best to think of it all tactically. She let Ghost play with the data caches, but he learned not to share too much of what he found. Better to avoid reading things; to keep her head down and focus on hunting down the Fallen that stalked her through the ruins.
She was glad to hear an old friend on her comms. Less glad when Kaolin Sorn showed her where he’d camped atop one of the towers. He set an ancient chair upright and stoked a fire while she paced through the overgrowth and spoke of her kills and looked out across the tossing bay. The wind was warm and sharp-tasting, the waves dull and near as yellow as the overcast hanging above. Ceramic shards crunched under her boot. A reminder this was a garden once. People from the apartments below would gather up here on evenings just like this. There was food, I think, and music…
Did she
Did I live here?
“Relax,” said Kaolin behind her. She thought she could feel the Hunter’s eyes on her back. The eyes of both their Ghosts. “We’re too high for snipers.”
“Yeah.” She looked away, past the skyscrapers of the ancient colony. Against the looming volcanoes, the Vex citadel was a black shadow towering into the clouds. Impossibly tall, impossibly branching. “Just don’t like sitting around. Hey, Kaolin? You’ve been mapping this place for a couple years. Ever meet any Sunbreakers?”
“Sunbreakers? No.” A pause. Blaze clocked the recognition in his voice and turned, her eyes widening just before he confirmed it: “Why are you asking about them?”
She strode back and looked down at the Hunter, startled and excited. “So you’ve heard of them? Ulysses said they could teach me how to use Solar Light - I’ve been trying to find them for months now!”
Kaolin stared up at her, the fire casting shadows across his hooded face. She couldn’t see his expression well, only the luminous glimmer of his eyes, the irises pale green as the spirit blossoms around them. But he never gave much away.
Finally he said, “Yeah. I guess they could. Blaze, talk to Zavala about this. Before anyone else. I mean it. He’ll want to hear it from you. And you’re loyal enough that’ll matter to you.”
“
“Been asking a few people,” she said, brow plates going up. “What has my loyalty got to do with anything, Kaolin? Who the hell are these people?”
His eyes flicked back to the fire, and he gestured at her to sit down. She hunkered down on the closest lump of rubble and leaned in close as he talked.
“They’re an order of Titans,” he said. “Used to work with the City, once upon a time.”
“What, an entire order? How can nobody tell us that? There’s nothing in the database about them!” Her mouth was open as she stared at him. With the lack of official information she’d figured them for some obscure fireteam. Researchers, maybe. Not a full-blown order like the Firebreak or the Pilgrim Guard.
“They got tied up in the Osiris mess way back. Before my time, but it’s still a sore spot for a lot of folks back at the Tower. They don’t like to talk about it. Most City folk won’t remember. Like I said: ask Zavala. He’s got history with the Sunbreakers.”
Blaze gave a slow nod. Her gaze dropped to the cracked tiles beneath their feet. She asked quietly, “Why would they be kept out of the records?”
Kaolin grunted, and his cloak shifted as he shrugged. “Bad memories, rookie. Sometimes there are things you want to forget.”
They met Zavala on the main plaza atop the Tower, on the western side where it faced out across the city. Blaze strode across the lawn to join him, saluting in the ancient Exo gesture when he nodded over his shoulder. The Vanguard Commander was an imposing figure in his red and white fieldplate, his skin pale blue, eyes glowing the same color as that of the Ghost beside him.
“Commander, sir. There’s something I need to ask you about, if I’m not interrupting.” She glanced at his Ghost in its crested shell.
“No, Guardian. I was just enjoying the view.” His expression was grave as always, but there was a kindness to his voice. He gestured for the Exo to join him at the railing, looking back out at the lights and trackways of the city below. The early light slanted over the mountains behind them, casting the shadow of the Wall over the grassy slopes beneath them, and tinting the sprawl of the city pale gold beneath the Traveler’s shining silver bulk.
“It’s always good to be home,” she said.
“This is one of the few things I still have time to enjoy,” said Zavala. “This is what we fight for, Blaze. The dream of the City. To be a Titan is to be a part of it. Its walls are your temple. Its people are your blood. Whatever distant battlegrounds you fight on, you carry that dream with you. Never forget that.”
Blaze nodded, looking back up at the man by her side. “There are Titans who don’t belong to the City, though. Aren’t there? Like the Sunbreakers.”
“Sunbreakers?” His head swung her way. She’d never seen her commander look startled before. Zavala pursed his lips with concern and, she suspected, unease. “Why do you ask about them, Titan?”
“Because I’m looking for them.” She was half aware of how she drew herself up, ready to argue. “I summoned Solar Light in battle, sir. I can’t do it intentionally, and I don’t know how to control it, but I want to.” From Kaolin’s evasiveness to the way Zavala put the question, all of this was making her circuits jump. But what could she do other than answer honestly? “I know the Sunbreakers use it. I need to find them, and I want to know why they aren’t in the City’s records. My Ghost found the Consensus minutes withdrawing their recognition, but there’s nothing besides that.” She scrutinized Zavala’s face. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
It seemed to her a long moment before he sighed. “Perhaps it would be difficult to understand, now. The Sunbreakers are a very old order, from before the founding of the City itself. They were powerful allies, once. Vigilant and unstoppable in battle, bearers of a weapon called the Hammer of Sol.”
Well, she’d been bracing herself to hear bad news. “What happened, sir?”
“Osiris.”
“The Exile?” She snorted. “I was starting to wonder when his name would come up.”
Zavala nodded. “The Sunbreakers were mercenaries. Many years ago Osiris brokered a contract between them and the City, one that bound them to his allegiance. After his banishment, however, I found the terms… unacceptable. In response, the Sunbreakers chose to turn their backs on the City for good. They followed Osiris into exile, pursuing a cause even they barely understood.
“They abandoned the City?” Blaze frowned, her eyes narrowing. Personal loyalty was a powerful force. But to walk away from the last bastion of humanity? How could any loyalty win out against their duty to the very survival of their species? “Doesn’t speak well to their honor, but- I still don’t see why they’ve been hidden. If all they did was dissent…”
“It was the decision of the Consensus,” he said. “Osiris and his teachings… it is hard to express to you how sensitive the matter was. At the time, the Speaker believed it was necessary to seal all the information connected with it. I concurred with his judgement. Now… I look back, and wonder. If this news is correct- are you certain of what you summoned?” He looked from her to Ghost.
“
“We found this… source of Solar Light out on Mercury,” Blaze said. Ghost shot her a look for some reason. “Ulysses called it the Forge. It felt the same, commander. Felt like it was… calling to me.”
“I… see.” He looked away, up at the silent, looming sphere hanging above them all. He brooded for a long moment. His words were slow when they came. “Perhaps it is a sign. After all these years… maybe the time has come. No matter our differences, the Sunbreakers are still Guardians. Their fire belongs in the City…” He turned, gaze falling on her once more. “And someone must bring it home.”
“Sir.” She straightened under his gaze, pride easily displacing the last of her uncertainty. “Whatever it takes, I’m more than ready.”
“There have been rumors of the Sunbreakers’ reappearance. I’ll give your Ghost the most recent reports. Return to Venus and see if you can locate them. But Titan… Blaze. If you find them, do not make direct contact. Not yet.”
Blaze tilted her head, trying to fathom his reasoning. “You think they’re dangerous, commander?”
“Without more information, we cannot know. We’ll do this carefully. When the Sunbreakers cut ties it was… not amicable. It has been centuries, but their anger was always slow to cool. And just as we have changed, there is no way of knowing what the Sunbreakers – or Osiris – have become in their exile.
“Understood.” The details didn’t matter. Her circuits were buzzing with the thrill of being entrusted with this. More than a mission: this was a quest. She would track down their lost brethren and learn about power they wielded. Not just for herself. For the City itself. “I’ll find them, commander. I promise.”
Ulysses-10 was as hard to track down as any Nexus-goer, but at least Blaze knew how to reach his preferred universes. She caught up with the Warlock while he entertained himself inside the gates of the Black Garden. She called out to him as she approached. Not four hundred metres behind them were the red sands and dust-tinted skies of Mars. But here, inside the pocket realm built by alien robots, lay a labyrinth of bare stone spilled down to every horizon, pillars and walls draped with strange foliage as green as the sky above. It had been sealed away from prying Light for eons- but no more.
“Back already?” Ulysses asked. A minotaur stamped out from among crumbling stones and swung its metal fist at him. His shotgun ended it. Serenely. “How is a man meant to get any meditation done?”
“I went to Mercury,” she said, scanning their surroundings for a target. The Garden’s time and space were locked to Mars now, but there was still something profoundly wrong about the place, like a never-ending sense of vertigo. It wasn’t a place she’d willingly linger without something worth killing. Or an answer worth learning. “I found something. A source of Light like I’ve never seen before. What is it?”
“You were there. Why are you asking me?”
“Because I couldn’t figure out how to commune with it. It was solar Light, the same as I felt before, but I… felt like there was something I was missing.” She looked down at her hands wrapped around her rifle, trying to make sense of what she’d felt. The yearning. She said without being sure of why, “It wasn’t time.”
“You weren’t ready.” He reached out a hand, and three goblins erupted in flames hot enough to warp and melt their Vex-alloy frames. Reinforcements warped in behind them. Annoyed by the Warlock’s non-answer, Blaze stowed her rifle charged for their midst, fists crunching through central cores and crested heads until there were no distractions left. She felt better when she strode back to Ulysses, too.
“I was using those,” he sighed. She waved him off.
“Come on. I want to know the truth. You know Shaxx holds Crucible matches out there? I tried asking some of the other Titans who’d fought there. None of them knew what I was talking about. They probably think my circuits are crossed.”
“That’s not surprising.” Another squad of goblins was already marching out from the pillars ahead. He readied a grenade.
“Ulysses.” Her fluid-smeared hand closed over his. Ulysses looked round, the blank mask beneath his hood meeting her gaze. She could feel the grenade’s molten heat seethe between their palms. “Explain. How did you learn to summon that Light? Is that the place you went? What do I have to do? What does it need from me?”
He shook his head. “The Forge is not for Warlocks. Do you mind-?”
“The Forge?”
“Blaze, your hand is smoking. I’ll tell you where to look if you let go.” She pulled away, and he tossed the fusion grenade onto the next minotaur to appear. “You’re lucky these don’t arm until I let them go.”
“Really?” She clapped her hands together to put out the smolder. “Oh.”
He synthesized a sigh. “….What do you know about the Sunbreakers?”
“I’ve never heard of them. They’re a fireteam?”
“Slightly more than that. They got caught up in Osiris’s dispute with the Consensus and-”
“Oh. Politics, then. Just tell me where to find them.”
He seemed to hesitate, stymied before he could hold forth. Then he shrugged. “Well, you can hear it from them. Try looking on Venus, I’ve heard they resurfaced there not long ago. They keep to themselves, but they can teach you.”
“’Venus’. That’s it? You know I thought your directions before were vague but that’s a whole new level.”
“I said they keep to themselves. I can’t be more specific. I suspect you’ll find them around Collective facilities or Vex strongholds, but I’ve never even seen one in person.”
She nodded reluctantly. It was always frustrating to hear, but that was the world they lived in now. Chasing rumors and half-remembered scraps of knowledge for any advantage they could unearth. “Guess that’ll have to do, then. Transmat us out, Ghost. And Ulysses- thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said.
Venus, then.
Mars hid its secrets beneath dunes, Venus beneath trees. She’d been avoiding the place since the Nexus had made it uncomfortable, but now Blaze and her Ghost spent months there, splitting patrols between the surface and the Nexus, delving into volcanic caves and chasing out Fallen pirates, following ancient roadways to colony settlements the jungle had long devoured. They found signs of other Guardians, now and then: sometimes their old camps, sometimes wandering fireteams pursuing their own quests. None of them could tell her anything about Sunbreakers. Ghost tried accessing the City archives remotely and found nothing openly available. He brought up the name Osiris a few times, though there didn’t seem much to that and Blaze wasn’t interested in an internal Tower dispute three hundred years old.
She had more immediate concerns. Honing her skills, keeping watch over the Nexus. Looking out for Tina in spite of her own unease about being around a kid. Adia’s tales of the Cylons and their cruelty. Glimpsing other Earths through the people who escaped them, every one a strange and troubling reflection of the world she knew- or the world she’d known, once. Wondering which of those visions her people might have become, without the Traveler’s intervention.
Answering the call when Khan launched his attack on the civilians of the Nexus, and the months spent grieving the friend they lost in that battle.
Hunting her way across Venus was an outlet. Hope of greater power and the lure of mystery gave a direction to anger and sorrow. But it wasn’t until well after Steve’s return that she finally set her unease aside and went to the one part of Venus she wanted to avoid.
The Ishtar Sink had always traced the boundary between fascinating and eerie for her. On the one hand the ancient colony was a monument to the Golden Age glory waiting to be recaptured, an enticing labyrinth of mysteries and long-lost secrets. On the other, it was a ghost city of once-grand towers and overgrown outbuildings shimmering with the pale light of spirit blossom, every other scene and jagged skyline conjuring the sense of something almost recalled. She’d ignored it before. Cities were always lousy with stray associations. You couldn’t let them get to you. But now…
There was too much of Bryn Marshall still in her head. Too many whole images, snatches of complete memory dumped back into her mind, waiting to spring out. Too much grief. She’d come to view the wreckage left by the Collapse at a thousand years’ remove; now she felt the emotions of a newly-risen Exo tug at her again. The streets crammed with rusting cars, the gaping windows and deserted transit stations, the flickering terminals still trying to speak… she couldn’t pretend they were mere curiosities any more.
It was best to think of it all tactically. She let Ghost play with the data caches, but he learned not to share too much of what he found. Better to avoid reading things; to keep her head down and focus on hunting down the Fallen that stalked her through the ruins.
She was glad to hear an old friend on her comms. Less glad when Kaolin Sorn showed her where he’d camped atop one of the towers. He set an ancient chair upright and stoked a fire while she paced through the overgrowth and spoke of her kills and looked out across the tossing bay. The wind was warm and sharp-tasting, the waves dull and near as yellow as the overcast hanging above. Ceramic shards crunched under her boot. A reminder this was a garden once. People from the apartments below would gather up here on evenings just like this. There was food, I think, and music…
Did she
Did I live here?
“Relax,” said Kaolin behind her. She thought she could feel the Hunter’s eyes on her back. The eyes of both their Ghosts. “We’re too high for snipers.”
“Yeah.” She looked away, past the skyscrapers of the ancient colony. Against the looming volcanoes, the Vex citadel was a black shadow towering into the clouds. Impossibly tall, impossibly branching. “Just don’t like sitting around. Hey, Kaolin? You’ve been mapping this place for a couple years. Ever meet any Sunbreakers?”
“Sunbreakers? No.” A pause. Blaze clocked the recognition in his voice and turned, her eyes widening just before he confirmed it: “Why are you asking about them?”
She strode back and looked down at the Hunter, startled and excited. “So you’ve heard of them? Ulysses said they could teach me how to use Solar Light - I’ve been trying to find them for months now!”
Kaolin stared up at her, the fire casting shadows across his hooded face. She couldn’t see his expression well, only the luminous glimmer of his eyes, the irises pale green as the spirit blossoms around them. But he never gave much away.
Finally he said, “Yeah. I guess they could. Blaze, talk to Zavala about this. Before anyone else. I mean it. He’ll want to hear it from you. And you’re loyal enough that’ll matter to you.”
“
That really isn’t reassuring,” Ghost murmured by her shoulder. She shook her head. “Been asking a few people,” she said, brow plates going up. “What has my loyalty got to do with anything, Kaolin? Who the hell are these people?”
His eyes flicked back to the fire, and he gestured at her to sit down. She hunkered down on the closest lump of rubble and leaned in close as he talked.
“They’re an order of Titans,” he said. “Used to work with the City, once upon a time.”
“What, an entire order? How can nobody tell us that? There’s nothing in the database about them!” Her mouth was open as she stared at him. With the lack of official information she’d figured them for some obscure fireteam. Researchers, maybe. Not a full-blown order like the Firebreak or the Pilgrim Guard.
“They got tied up in the Osiris mess way back. Before my time, but it’s still a sore spot for a lot of folks back at the Tower. They don’t like to talk about it. Most City folk won’t remember. Like I said: ask Zavala. He’s got history with the Sunbreakers.”
Blaze gave a slow nod. Her gaze dropped to the cracked tiles beneath their feet. She asked quietly, “Why would they be kept out of the records?”
Kaolin grunted, and his cloak shifted as he shrugged. “Bad memories, rookie. Sometimes there are things you want to forget.”
They met Zavala on the main plaza atop the Tower, on the western side where it faced out across the city. Blaze strode across the lawn to join him, saluting in the ancient Exo gesture when he nodded over his shoulder. The Vanguard Commander was an imposing figure in his red and white fieldplate, his skin pale blue, eyes glowing the same color as that of the Ghost beside him.
“Commander, sir. There’s something I need to ask you about, if I’m not interrupting.” She glanced at his Ghost in its crested shell.
“No, Guardian. I was just enjoying the view.” His expression was grave as always, but there was a kindness to his voice. He gestured for the Exo to join him at the railing, looking back out at the lights and trackways of the city below. The early light slanted over the mountains behind them, casting the shadow of the Wall over the grassy slopes beneath them, and tinting the sprawl of the city pale gold beneath the Traveler’s shining silver bulk.
“It’s always good to be home,” she said.
“This is one of the few things I still have time to enjoy,” said Zavala. “This is what we fight for, Blaze. The dream of the City. To be a Titan is to be a part of it. Its walls are your temple. Its people are your blood. Whatever distant battlegrounds you fight on, you carry that dream with you. Never forget that.”
Blaze nodded, looking back up at the man by her side. “There are Titans who don’t belong to the City, though. Aren’t there? Like the Sunbreakers.”
“Sunbreakers?” His head swung her way. She’d never seen her commander look startled before. Zavala pursed his lips with concern and, she suspected, unease. “Why do you ask about them, Titan?”
“Because I’m looking for them.” She was half aware of how she drew herself up, ready to argue. “I summoned Solar Light in battle, sir. I can’t do it intentionally, and I don’t know how to control it, but I want to.” From Kaolin’s evasiveness to the way Zavala put the question, all of this was making her circuits jump. But what could she do other than answer honestly? “I know the Sunbreakers use it. I need to find them, and I want to know why they aren’t in the City’s records. My Ghost found the Consensus minutes withdrawing their recognition, but there’s nothing besides that.” She scrutinized Zavala’s face. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
It seemed to her a long moment before he sighed. “Perhaps it would be difficult to understand, now. The Sunbreakers are a very old order, from before the founding of the City itself. They were powerful allies, once. Vigilant and unstoppable in battle, bearers of a weapon called the Hammer of Sol.”
Well, she’d been bracing herself to hear bad news. “What happened, sir?”
“Osiris.”
“The Exile?” She snorted. “I was starting to wonder when his name would come up.”
Zavala nodded. “The Sunbreakers were mercenaries. Many years ago Osiris brokered a contract between them and the City, one that bound them to his allegiance. After his banishment, however, I found the terms… unacceptable. In response, the Sunbreakers chose to turn their backs on the City for good. They followed Osiris into exile, pursuing a cause even they barely understood.
“They abandoned the City?” Blaze frowned, her eyes narrowing. Personal loyalty was a powerful force. But to walk away from the last bastion of humanity? How could any loyalty win out against their duty to the very survival of their species? “Doesn’t speak well to their honor, but- I still don’t see why they’ve been hidden. If all they did was dissent…”
“It was the decision of the Consensus,” he said. “Osiris and his teachings… it is hard to express to you how sensitive the matter was. At the time, the Speaker believed it was necessary to seal all the information connected with it. I concurred with his judgement. Now… I look back, and wonder. If this news is correct- are you certain of what you summoned?” He looked from her to Ghost.
“
We’re certain.”“We found this… source of Solar Light out on Mercury,” Blaze said. Ghost shot her a look for some reason. “Ulysses called it the Forge. It felt the same, commander. Felt like it was… calling to me.”
“I… see.” He looked away, up at the silent, looming sphere hanging above them all. He brooded for a long moment. His words were slow when they came. “Perhaps it is a sign. After all these years… maybe the time has come. No matter our differences, the Sunbreakers are still Guardians. Their fire belongs in the City…” He turned, gaze falling on her once more. “And someone must bring it home.”
“Sir.” She straightened under his gaze, pride easily displacing the last of her uncertainty. “Whatever it takes, I’m more than ready.”
“There have been rumors of the Sunbreakers’ reappearance. I’ll give your Ghost the most recent reports. Return to Venus and see if you can locate them. But Titan… Blaze. If you find them, do not make direct contact. Not yet.”
Blaze tilted her head, trying to fathom his reasoning. “You think they’re dangerous, commander?”
“Without more information, we cannot know. We’ll do this carefully. When the Sunbreakers cut ties it was… not amicable. It has been centuries, but their anger was always slow to cool. And just as we have changed, there is no way of knowing what the Sunbreakers – or Osiris – have become in their exile.
“Understood.” The details didn’t matter. Her circuits were buzzing with the thrill of being entrusted with this. More than a mission: this was a quest. She would track down their lost brethren and learn about power they wielded. Not just for herself. For the City itself. “I’ll find them, commander. I promise.”
