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He moves from the window and leans on the desk next to her, gazing out at the Traveler and the Last City as they settle into a comfortable silence. The pendulums on his desk continue to click and clack, the echo of a life lived long, long ago. | He moves from the window and leans on the desk next to her, gazing out at the Traveler and the Last City as they settle into a comfortable silence. The pendulums on his desk continue to click and clack, the echo of a life lived long, long ago. | ||
===IV. To Forgive or Forget=== | |||
"Niik tells me you have a question in need of an answer," [[Mithrax]] begins. "Please, sit." | |||
Amanda nods as she pulls up a folding chair next to the fire. She hadn't been back to the [[Eliksni Quarter]] since the Vex invasion. The light from the flames casts flickering shadows across the building's cracked concrete and exposed rebar. | |||
"Yeah," Amanda says quietly, "I, uh… it's about [[Saint-14|Saint]]. Sort of." | |||
She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Everyone in the Last City knows the stories. Hell, we used to call him 'Kellbreaker.' And Cr—" she stammers, avoiding the name. "I've heard what your people used to call him too." | |||
Mithrax hums a gruff assent as he settles into his own chair. Amanda wrings her hands together. | |||
"How did you all forgive him?" Her voice sounds small, but her words pierce the cool night air. | |||
"Not all of us did," Mithrax replies solemnly. "To this day, there are some in [[House Light]] who avoid him. Those who lost loved ones to his rage. Though he would give his life to protect them, nothing he can do will ever erase their pain." | |||
"So, they'll just… go on hating him? Forever?" | |||
Mithrax exhales deeply into his rebreather. "One cannot choose who forgives them and who does not," he answers. "That is the decision of those who were wronged. A choice each must make for themselves." | |||
Amanda nods to herself. "Was afraid you'd say something like that," she remarks sadly. | |||
As she gets up to leave, she turns to Mithrax one last time. | |||
"What made you forgive Saint?" | |||
The Kell of Light leans back in his chair and stares into the fire like he is looking for something amid the ashes. | |||
"Because," he says quietly, "I want to be forgiven too." | |||
===V. Regrets=== | |||
"Your regrets will follow you, Empress." | |||
The words grate on Caiatl like sand beneath her armor. The Vanguard could keep their wretched [[Nightmare Harvester|Hive witchcraft]]; she had sworn to defeat the [[Nightmare of Ghaul]] in single combat and cremate his memory on the pyre of victory. | |||
That choice had become yet another regret. | |||
A gravelly voice cuts across the room. "You called for me?" | |||
Caiatl turns to see Saladin Forge step onto the bridge of her flagship. Her honor guard salutes him and steps aside, making way for his approach as she greets him with a nod. | |||
"What are your thoughts on Eris Morn?" Caiatl asks him. | |||
Saladin raises an eyebrow. "She's endured horrors I can scarcely imagine. And she survived. She clawed her way out of that [[Hellmouth|dark pit]] and back to the Tower." | |||
"And what do you think about her use of Hive sorcery?" Caiatl seethes. | |||
"Many initially distrusted her for it. But were it not for her… expertise, the Last City would have fallen to the Hive long ago," Saladin replies. | |||
"That justifies consorting with such foul power?" | |||
At first, Saladin says nothing. Instead, he turns his eyes to the viewport; to the Cabal fleet, arrayed in a blockade surrounding the Leviathan. | |||
"None opposed allying with your empire more than I did." His voice is measured, almost introspective. "I hated the Cabal. Now, I serve on your War Council." | |||
His eyes meet hers once again. "Your soldiers wield the same weapons that slaughtered Guardians in the Red War. But that does not make you my enemy. Nor does Hive magic make Eris yours." | |||
Caiatl glances at her honor guard. When Saladin first joined her War Council, her soldiers regarded him with equal parts suspicion and contempt. Now they show him the deference and respect befitting the title of Valus. Ghaul would have never condoned it. | |||
But she is not Ghaul. And that is something she does not regret. | |||
"Open a channel to the [[H.E.L.M.]]," she orders. "I have matters to discuss with the Vanguard." | |||
===VI. Propaganda=== | |||
//RECORDED TRANSMITION VIA: HDN-SPLICE-332410205// | |||
//SIGNAL ORIGIN: UNKNOWN// | |||
//SIGNAL TERMINUS: WIDEBAND_OPEN_CHANNEL// | |||
//FROM THE AUSPICE OF [[Emperor Calus|CALUS]], DEPOSED CABAL EMPEROR// | |||
My loyal subjects. The Guardians believe they have defeated your glorious emperor. How foolish. | |||
They look at the bodies left in their wake and assume victory, at the blood and oil that runs from the battlefields they have ravaged and assume the territory conquered. They are like the old Cabal, sweeping over planets with no mind to the subjects that resist them. | |||
But I am not so cruel. The worlds I brought into our fold were showered in riches, given everything for their service as Cabal… as you are now. As you will be each time you serve me. | |||
Some of you were born here. You are young, blessed by my hand with a life of celebrated battle and luxurious feasting. You fight with the voracity of veteran [[gladiator]]s. You fight for your home—our home. I swell to call you my children. | |||
Others came to me from my traitorous daughter, who calls herself empress even while I still draw breath. Such arrogance. Such disrespect. You've seen her tuskless plans fail [[Torobatl]]. You've watched her cast aside Cabal tradition to bow to the City and their Light. She fights alongside the very soldiers who slaughter your brethren, while I bend them to my will. Who is the true leader? The answer is clear. If only she had followed me as you do. | |||
Finally. Exalted most of all, you elite few who have stood with their emperor from the beginning, who grew fat with strength in exile: we are blood. As you have shed for me, I will shed for you. My flesh, my riches, my goblets of royal wine. They are yours. You are honored above all, and when our new Cabal stands before eternity, you will be among the first. | |||
I have heard the rumors whispered between you, my subjects. Rumors fed to you by our enemies. Your hope that I have not been vanquished is well placed, for I am so very much alive. You fear that we are defeated, but nothing could be further from the truth. | |||
You wonder if I am a spirit, if I have become something beyond Cabal, if I have ascended like [[Acrius]] did when he cradled the sun in his grasp. Allow me to soothe your curiosity: yes, I have become all you have imagined, and so much more. | |||
The Guardians believe they hold victory, but soon, they will see the truth they have ignored with such determination: this road is long, but it only has one end. They served to set my plans solidly in the foundations of the universe. Their petty attacks, while tragic in their costs to my dear crew, cannot halt our purpose. | |||
So, my soldiers… I leave you this task: hold the Leviathan. Show no quarter to those who would walk the halls of your home as invaders. It is your final task before you may be uplifted to sit beside me at the end. | |||
I do not promise that every Cabal standing on the Leviathan will survive this journey, but under my loving watch, you will live and die in nothing less than greatness. What more can a warrior desire but an exciting life and a good death? Have I not given you both? | |||
-From the mouth of [[Amsot]], High Scribe to the unbound emperor, Calus, who none can contain: | |||
Rejoice! Praise Calus, who ascends. For he keeps you in his mind, and there you will never die. | |||
===VII. Legacy=== | |||
Calus sees her as he remembers her. Young and precocious, energetic and ambitious. A mind full of dreams larger than his own. | |||
Her intensity intimidates him. She imagines accomplishments he dares not entertain for fear of failure. | |||
The [[Nightmare of Caiatl, Princess-Imperial|Nightmare]] knows this fear. Its adolescent eyes meet his and bore into his soul, laying all his embarrassments bare. It sees him for what he is: a deposed ruler, entombed alive in a golden sarcophagus and left to rot in exile, replaced by one more beloved than he. | |||
"Always seeking the adoration of others," seethes the Nightmare wearing his daughter's face. "Even from the [[Witness]]." | |||
"Silence," Calus grumbles. He instinctively reaches for his chalice, but it has long since left his side. | |||
"It will abandon you. Just like the Cabal, just like the [[Dominus Ghaul|Ghost Primus]]." | |||
The Nightmare of Caiatl smiles, sweet and crimson and full of hatred. "Just like your daughter." | |||
"I said be silent," Calus sputters. | |||
His daughter's laughter is a knife between his ribs, as it always has been. | |||
"No one hears your edicts. No one obeys." | |||
Her voice fills his chamber and seeps into every crevice of his mind. | |||
"She is empress now. You are nothing." | |||
"I made her," he bellows. "I, Calus, the greatest emperor since Acrius. All that comes before me is a prelude. All that follows is my legacy. I am the sun itself!" | |||
"A dying sun for a dead world. A legacy of ashes, soon to be swept away by the wind that is Caiatl." | |||
"She will never surpass me!" he roars. | |||
"She already has," the Nightmare sings. "And soon, you will be forgotten." | |||
Calus's withered face contorts in anguish and angst. The Nightmare is wrong, he thinks. Caiatl will never be a greater leader. He will make sure of it. | |||
Even if all that exists must pay the price. | |||