The Ghost

"Intruder bearing 127, you have passed into the realm of the awoken. State your business or be fired on my order of the queen"

"We are from Earth, we are here to seek the counsel of the awoken"

The voice that replied shook the wrath. She scolded her imagination, but gave pause when her instruments revealed signatures of light energy onboard the ship. Her breath caught in her throat. She swallowed it down. "Conform to my trajectory, any deviation will be taken as an act of aggression"

Turning her ship, she input the Queen's sequence into her console, her finger hovering over the confirm button. A hundred attempts at phrases to explain what she had heard came to mind, but none seemed appropriate. She clicked the button anyway and cleared her throat.

—

The creature who approached the throne was not her. It moved the same, looked the same, spoke the same way, but it wasn't her. Or so the prince kept telling myself, "So these are the trespassers demanding an audience"

"We didn't mean to trespass"

He drags his gaze over the ghost, wondering how fragile that shell is. "The queen herself judges who may or may not enter the realm. Me?... Hmph," He found himself lingering on the guardian's armor covering her neck to her toes. So foreign was the menagerie of Earth styles against her awoken skin. It was just like her, however, even down for the colour choices… "I see no reason she should be available for whatever washes up at the reef" He meets her eyes for the first time. He catches his expression before it falters. She’s missing the scar above her right eye, but it's undoubtedly her. "but here we are"

"We've come to ask for help"

He regards the dead thing for a moment, studying her eyes carefully, barely noticing the scurry of movement behind him.

"Fallen!"

At her ghost's cry, a familiar flash crosses her face. With unnatural speed, she unhoists the shotgun from her captor's belt, her eyes fixed on something over his shoulder. Uldren grabs her arm but his knife stops short, feeling the heat radiating from her throat. Luring him in. She stares at him in confusion, desperation, and then resolve, but his blood is frozen. It's her. It's not her. But it is.

"It is afraid of the fallen. It does not understand these ones are mine"

Mara's voice brings the prince back to the present, just in time to notice the guard aggressively retrieving their weapon. He slowly lowers my own, already thinking of ways to spin his lack of resolve into something intentional. A frown passes over the guardian's features, and it is only when the guardian jerks her arm out of his grasp that Uldren realises he was still holding on to her. He takes a step back and composes himself, "Apologies, your grace"

The queen watches on intently as the dead thing steps forward, "I am a guardian, from Earth. We're searching for the black garden"

His brow furrows at the thought of the guardians destroying that sacred place. Of her, destroying it. "Why?"

"We seek to destroy the darkness, at its heart"

Of course. A chuckle escapes his lips. So alike, these light bearers. "You want to turn it into a battleground. How unimaginative,"

"Do you know where it is?"

"Everyone knows where it is,” Even you, he thinks to himself. “The hard part is getting in,"

"Can you help us?"

There it is again, a flicker of her within this dead thing. A pang strikes his heart and he grits his teeth, "And why. Would we. Do that"

"The queen requests council with her brother"

His sister's voice clips his wings and he withdraws, kneeling at her throne. As he looks up, her eyes are full of cunning, her voice low in his ear, "If it wishes to find the Black Garden, let it earn its passage,"

The prince slowly gazes over his shoulder at the guardian. Thousands of years of experience turned to nothing at all. A newborn. A false copy. Even with her ghost, she's surely give up before she succeeds. "Hmph… Yes, that's good, that's good." He mutters, rising to his feet, "Why not? We'll make you a key, how's that? All we need is the head of a Vex Gate Lord"

Its ghost is taken back, abashed with fear, "A Gate Lord? Uh, we…"

But the guardian is resolute. "Why do you want a vex head?"

"Oh we don't, and I doubt we'll get one either. But it's your only hope of getting into the black garden,"

She remains unflinching, accepting the challenge without faltering. "We will return,"

"Or die in Venus, either way,"

As she turns and leaves the chambers, Uldren feels the smug facade leave his face. He can't help but clutch at the vision of her leaving.

—

Mara's attention shifts completely, the prince's words falling on deaf ears. "It is alive," she says, "and still has its ball"

Uldren glances over his shoulder to see the guardian approaching, relatively unharmed. They grace the floors with red dust, but no other evidence suggests they made it to Mars. Their eyes are tired, but they step with purpose.

"There is no shame in running away, guardian." He gloats before this dead thing. Katryn would have never backed down. It's not her. "Apart from the cowardice and failure of it, it is an excellent strategy "

But she cuts him off, "We didn't run"

The prince pauses to sweep his eyes over them, but it would be difficult to hide a trophy as big as a Gate Lord's head on their person. Mara gestures in his direction, "Was no Gate Lord slain, brother?"

"Oh we slayed a Gate Lord" the ghost pipes up, and the prince grimaces at its presumptuousness. With a nod from its guardian, it summons a transmat field in front of them. Their trophy materialises, crashing down at the foot of the throne.

The guardian raises her chin and flicks her eyes to Mara, "We need to find the Black Garden"

"Huh…" Uldren chuckles, bewildered at their ignorance, "they don't even know where it is,"

"Let us tell them," Mara declares, turning to him, "Search the Gate Lord for that which gains them entrance"

His anger betrays the prince, and he whips around to face his sister, "Why? If you wished them certain death just kill them here"

Her gaze sends a chill down his spine, "…Often when we guess at others' motives, we reveal only our own"

"My motive is simply loyalty… to a people, to a queen and a sister"

"Then please, take what is required"

He bitterly turns and descends the stairs to the remains. Unsheathing his knife, he cuts and tears into the scrap, with more aggression than required. As he holds up the severed eye, he can't help but give a small smile as the life sizzles out of it, "Dead, unfortunately," He turns to Mara with childish victory, "a wasted journey I’m afraid,"

"Perhaps, but I think this one's resourceful. We gift it, in sympathy for their Traveller."

Uldren turns away from Mara, studying the eye in his hand. It wasn't all that long ago we were here under different circumstances. What would Joly think of all this? He looks the guardian dead in the eye, "Mars, 84 north, 32 east, Meridian bay"

"I have shown you benevolence, guardian. Should the awoken ever need an ally I will call on you… and expect you to answer"

"She's saying you owe us, guardian"

The guardian flicks the prince an amused glance, and her ghost makes a movement not so dissimilar from raising an eyebrow. "I understand," She says, drawing her attention to Mara, "Your grace." Before she turns to leave, she looks back at the prince for a second, a hint of a grin on her face.

For a moment, he imagines recognition, but if it was there, it was only fleeting. "Good luck," He taunts through a facade hiding gritted teeth, before lowering his voice so only Mara might hear him, "getting through the exclusion zone,"

TIMELINE

Book: Of Starlight and Darkness

The Ghost

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TIMELINE