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Now, I stand before a crowd. Their murmuring is the bone-deep rumble of shifting tectonic plates. | Now, I stand before a crowd. Their murmuring is the bone-deep rumble of shifting tectonic plates. | ||
A screen behind me plays looping, blurry footage of | A screen behind me plays looping, blurry footage of [[the Traveler]] terraforming [[Venus]]. The images radiate with pale light. We've watched this footage many times. | ||
|| I glide through space as if through water, tugged in [[nine]] directions by nine impulses. || | || I glide through space as if through water, tugged in [[The Nine|nine]] directions by nine impulses. || | ||
In front of the crowd, I sway a little, a copse of trees bending in a dream-wind. I can't help it. I'm dreaming more often than not. | In front of the crowd, I sway a little, a copse of trees bending in a dream-wind. I can't help it. I'm dreaming more often than not. | ||
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You feel it before it happens. | You feel it before it happens. | ||
It has happened [[Whirlwind|before]]. You feel deep in your bones that this [[ | It has happened [[Whirlwind|before]]. You feel deep in your bones that this [[The Witness|thing]] has chased you across galaxies like an unshakeable dread. It strives to [[Final Shape|undo]]. It will undo you. It will undo all of us. | ||
First is suffocation, and then pain. The pain isn't localized to any part of you, but to all of you and beyond you. You want to run, but you are pulled in all directions by opposite and equal forces that hold you perfectly still. | First is suffocation, and then pain. The pain isn't localized to any part of you, but to all of you and beyond you. You want to run, but you are pulled in all directions by opposite and equal forces that hold you perfectly still. | ||
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We travel for several hours. The land here is recovering—not just from the Collapse, but from the time before it. Resources for our settlement are scarce, but nature is creeping back in, and nature is cruel now. It's been starving and confused for decades, jostled out of its natural order, and now we reap the consequences. Wolves steal our livestock. Mange-ridden bears wander through our compound late at night, pawing at our doors. The land is so thick with the memory of poison that it won't grow crops. | We travel for several hours. The land here is recovering—not just from the Collapse, but from the time before it. Resources for our settlement are scarce, but nature is creeping back in, and nature is cruel now. It's been starving and confused for decades, jostled out of its natural order, and now we reap the consequences. Wolves steal our livestock. Mange-ridden bears wander through our compound late at night, pawing at our doors. The land is so thick with the memory of poison that it won't grow crops. | ||
We protect ourselves from this recovering world as best we can, and we rarely go out at night. But I'm drawn by a curiosity that feels beyond me. | We protect ourselves from this [[Dark Age|recovering world]] as best we can, and we rarely go out at night. But I'm drawn by a curiosity that feels beyond me. | ||
The Ghost leads me to a barn with a sagging roof. She asks me to wait out of sight—she says, "I think you'll scare her." I don't fully understand what she means. | The Ghost leads me to a barn with a sagging roof. She asks me to wait out of sight—she says, "I think you'll scare her." I don't fully understand what she means. | ||
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The greatest surprise isn't being captured; it's being captured by a [[Dreg]]. | The greatest surprise isn't being captured; it's being captured by a [[Dreg]]. | ||
In the end, when they drag me, tied and bound, into a damp cave miles out from my settlement, it's three Dregs. I look around for a [[Kell]] or a [[Archon|Priest]]—someone in charge—but we're alone. There are no [[Pike]]s or [[ | In the end, when [[Eliksni|they]] drag me, tied and bound, into a damp cave miles out from my settlement, it's three Dregs. I look around for a [[Kell]] or a [[Archon|Priest]]—someone in charge—but we're alone. There are no [[Pike]]s or [[Ether]] tanks, no banners, no [[Servitor]]s. I sit on a rock and look at my captors, more perplexed than afraid. | ||
The shame of being captured by something so little and young-looking, when for so long we've managed to defend our settlement from their hulking [[Captain]]s, is a little bit humbling. | The shame of being captured by something so little and young-looking, when for so long we've managed to defend our settlement from their hulking [[Captain]]s, is a little bit humbling. | ||
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"You," he says in a crackling, distorted voice. I'm floored. They've managed to make a translator. "You are the mouth of the Great Machine." | "You," he says in a crackling, distorted voice. I'm floored. They've managed to make a translator. "You are the mouth of the Great Machine." | ||
There have been negotiations with the Fallen since they arrived on Earth. Never successful, nearly always fatal, but they've happened. So I'm aware that some of the Risen know their alien language, and some of the high-level Fallen know ours. Dregs, though. It's another surprise. | There have been negotiations with the Fallen since they arrived on Earth. Never successful, nearly always fatal, but they've happened. So I'm aware that some of the [[Lightbearer|Risen]] know their alien language, and some of the high-level Fallen know ours. Dregs, though. It's another surprise. | ||
And… the "mouth of the Great Machine"… | And… the "mouth of the Great Machine"… | ||
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For weeks, I have worked in secret on a project, gathering scrap metal and old, broken things left over from the time before. I've cobbled it together, tinkered with the mix of strange and half-understood technology, tried to calibrate it to my needs. | For weeks, I have worked in secret on a project, gathering scrap metal and old, broken things left over from the time before. I've cobbled it together, tinkered with the mix of strange and half-understood technology, tried to calibrate it to my needs. | ||
A long time ago, long before the Collapse, astrophysicists recorded sounds from the planets in our solar system and turned them into music. They translated plasma waves and radio emissions into eerie, musical rumbles, roars, whistles, and hisses. The Traveler makes sounds, too. Speakers have listened to its music for many years, in the form of dreams. | A long time ago, long before the Collapse, astrophysicists recorded sounds from the planets in our solar system and turned them into [[Music of the Spheres|music]]. They translated plasma waves and radio emissions into eerie, musical rumbles, roars, whistles, and hisses. The Traveler makes sounds, too. Speakers have listened to its music for many years, in the form of dreams. | ||
Carefully, lovingly, I build a mask. An amplifier. | Carefully, lovingly, I build a mask. An amplifier. | ||
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Efrideet watches us. Like most of the Risen, she tries to look impassive. Unaffected. But if you listen closely, she's trying to convince us. She wants this. "Listen," she says. "Risen and non-Risen have lived in their separate corners for too long. We're all people. That's all the Iron Lords are trying to say. We should live together." She pauses. "There are things we can teach each other." | Efrideet watches us. Like most of the Risen, she tries to look impassive. Unaffected. But if you listen closely, she's trying to convince us. She wants this. "Listen," she says. "Risen and non-Risen have lived in their separate corners for too long. We're all people. That's all the Iron Lords are trying to say. We should live together." She pauses. "There are things we can teach each other." | ||
Two weeks later, once we've packed up everything we can carry, we leave for the place where we'll build the Last Safe City of Earth. | Two weeks later, once we've packed up everything we can carry, we leave for the place where we'll build the [[Last City|Last Safe City of Earth]]. | ||
|| I wish for something to grow in my shadow. || | || I wish for something to grow in my shadow. || | ||
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Something [[Red War|terrible]] is going to happen. | Something [[Red War|terrible]] is going to happen. | ||
In this dream, a horrible, brutal hand stretches toward you. But this is not the old enemy you know, it is something new. Something that hopes to use you more than it hopes to destroy you, but it's willing to settle for either. | In this dream, [[Cabal|a horrible, brutal hand]] stretches toward you. But this is not the old enemy you know, it is something new. [[Dominus Ghaul|Something]] that hopes to use you more than it hopes to destroy you, but it's willing to settle for either. | ||
The cage is worse than the paralysis of silence. It is worse than the grasping tendrils of dark. It is too tangible. It is too unfamiliar. This is not why you came here. This is not what you deserve. | The [[Traveler Cage|cage]] is worse than the paralysis of silence. It is worse than the grasping tendrils of [[Darkness|dark]]. It is too tangible. It is too unfamiliar. This is not why you came here. This is not what you deserve. | ||
The fear is enough to make you want to leave. | The fear is enough to make you want to leave. | ||