Hidden Dossier



The Hidden Dossier is the book contained within The Witch Queen Collector's Edition. It is a collection of documents, messages, and other relevant files from Hidden Agents, compiled by Ikora Rey

Text in this color indicates handwritten notes made by Ikora Rey.

Letter From Ikora
Guardian,

I hesitate. I am touched by doubt.

We must speak clearly. But you can't talk precisely without knowing precisely who you're talking to. (Think of everything we said to Osiris—) I feel as if I know you. But have I ever allowed you to know me?

I used to act as fast as I thought, and sometimes much faster. That's youth. Eventually I made too many mistakes to ignore; that's youth too, ignoring your mistakes until they pile up and topple. I dug myself out. I learned to keep myself hidden. Hidden purpose, hidden knowledge. A hidden Ikora, and for the world, a face of perfect composure and intent. Even when we lost the Traveler, I went to Io to hide my confusion.

I am going to try to un-hide myself.

I may frighten or confuse you. I am not an easy person to know.

This is a folio of intelligence reports from my Hidden network. It will illuminate the events leading up to the current apokalypsis. In the original Koine Greek, that word means unveiling, and also revelation.

In the spirit of unveiling I have also included fragments of my own personal writing about the nature of Darkness and Light. They are less the work of Ikora Rey the great Warlock Vanguard than of ikora rey, the unfashioned and uncertain woman.

In the early Books of Sorrow, Savathun scribbles a warning that Oryx's text is full of lies. Mara Sov's hagiography and self-indictment, the Marasenna, warns the reader to remember that it is narrated in the first person, even and especially when it pretends to be objective.

Truth is always edited by the truthteller.

I give you no such warning. This is the unaltered truth of what I know and who I am. May it bring you to the clarity I have sought.

Ikora

((01))
Beginnings offer you no power. It is what you do that is in your power; it is how you end which counts.

((02))
 ACCESS: MOST RESTRICTED DECRYPTION KEY: Z2TET3C4WZTLRL8NV5KS$IKO-006 REP#: 1851-GHOSTS-SUS AGENT(S): CHA-319

SUBJ: INITIAL REPORT ON UNPAIRED GHOST COMMUNITIES 


 * 1. Hey friend!


 * 2. I know I'm not allowed to say that to the Warlock
 * Vanguard or to IKO-006, but given that we're under
 * double-trouble encryption, I'm going to say it anyway.
 * How's your whole mess in the City? Glad I missed all that...


 * 3. I've completed my "Ethnographic Survey of Itinerant
 * Unpaired Ghosts Who Prefer Intra-Ghost Interactions."
 * It'll make a neat paper. As a cover story, it was pretty
 * good! These Ghosts tend to be thoughtful and introverted,
 * so like most introverts, they respond well to people who
 * are interested in their thoughts. And they seemed to find it
 * very self-affirming to dislike me! I guess it's nice to confirm
 * you still prefer yourself to other people.


 * 4. These introverted Ghosts spend a lot of time hovering in
 * circles, philosophizing. The longer they've been away from
 * people (sorry, Human people—Ghosts are people, too),
 * the less they care about hovering at head height or facing
 * each other when they talk. After a few months, they'll just
 * scatter around a space facing every whichway, like they're
 * each posing for a photo. When they're not talking, I get the
 * feeling that they're just... sensing. The same way they can
 * divine the character of a long-dead corpse. Whatever you
 * want to call that faculty, they're using it.


 * 5. Speaking of, are we still doing the sunyata friendship
 * thing? Treating each other as sacred voids? If so, I'm
 * allowed to say anything to you, and you are allowed to say
 * anything to me, and we each trust the other to receive it
 * without hurt. So I'm allowed to say—I'm not sure people
 * out here like you very much, Ikora. They don't know who
 * you are; they don't have a sense of what you stand for.


 * And you know, I do get that. I had to sneak up on you
 * in your private library to surprise you and (I know you
 * INSIST I didn't really surprise you, but still...) even then,

((03))

 * you talked to me about circles. Circles! Do you know
 * what the Traveler's reawakening meant for the geometry
 * of circles? You told me it changed everything about the
 * semiotic role of circles in some paracausal invocation of
 * the Light. And I'm going to tell you the truth, which is,
 * you didn't want to talk to me, so you talked about circles
 * instead. I know people who can talk in circles, but you're
 * the only one who can do it by talking about circles. I really
 * admire your efficiency.


 * 6. These Ghosts without Guardians argue about two things.
 * One is the exact nature of their connection to their
 * undiscovered Guardian. Is each Ghost predestined to find
 * one and exactly one soul to raise as a Guardian? Or does
 * each Ghost have a taste, a set of preferences that many
 * dead people might satisfy? Could a Ghost potentially raise
 * anyone? Does the choice of a partner lie within the Ghost,
 * or is it a mission assigned by the Traveler?


 * 7. They also argue over how one should interact with their
 * chosen Guardian. Should Ghosts accede to whatever
 * their partner demands? Or is a Ghost's relationship
 * with a Guardian a negotiated bond between equals and
 * codependents? Heavy stuff. But I guess it's the same
 * argument people always have about their relationships. Is
 * there such a thing as true love, or just the love we decide
 * we're going to make work?


 * 8. What is this thing we do, Ikora? Are you my one true
 * love, am I yours? We agreed it's not love like most people
 * have love. Nobody's getting married or turning up arm-
 * in-arm at the Crimson Ball. It's a special and radical kind
 * of friendship, right? That's what you said. An endogenous
 * need to strike the lies away from another soul. It's the
 * promise to seek truth in each other without mercy or fear,
 * but always with compassion.