Alright folks, looks like I'm starting my third piece. I will warn you all though that this one will probably be a good deal longer than One Night Out and What the Speaker Didn't Say. I blame myself for reading too many grimoire cards relating to Exos, warlocks, FWC, and Vex. Hopefully this part one (and those to come) are of the same quality you all have come to expect. As always, thank you so much for reading. “Next question Applicant: Prior to your initial death and Light-born resurrection, did you partake in reading?” “Excuse me? I… Well, I don’t have to read, ma’am. As an Exo, I am able to download information such as reading material and analyze it in digital form.” “Allow me to rephrase the question then: Did you download any fictional novels during the time period I suggested.” “Yes ma’am.” “Did any of them end in terms that were unsatisfactory to you? Specifically, did any leave you wanting in terms of what happened to those characters after the story ended?” “Yes ma’am; however, it seemed that such cases were the authors’ intents.” “Here at the FWC, we do not stop at Design’s intent. We seek out the entirety of the truth whether it has been written or not.” “I thought… It was my understanding that the FWC’s focus was on upcoming conflicts. Preparing for them, waging them, and benefiting from them.” “Correct Aegis-43, that is one of our focuses; however, War is simply one character among many, all of whom have been neglected by Design. It is our mission to… expand on these characters beyond initial intention. Does this intention align with your own?” “Who are the other characters?” “We all are, Applicant, each of us as individuals, all of us as a whole, and even those that are outsiders. Everything from the dirt on your shoes to the Traveler’s Light is a character.” “Then our intentions align.” [i] Fifteen months, twenty-seven days, four hours, thirty-eight minutes, and four seconds later.[/i] He stepped carefully through the ruins of what he imagined was previously a cellar system that connected all of the buildings in the Ishtar Sink, at one point at least. Granted, the murky waters of Venus had slowly corroded away the concrete and caved in sections, creating a claustrophobic artificial cave soaked and grime-filled. He pushed hanging vines out of the way as he felt the orange, Venetian liquid slowly filling his boots and staining the bottom of his long coat. Silence welcomed him as he pushed through the sludge, even as he found an incline leading out of the broken cellar. “Aegis, we’re approaching the energy patterns Ikora requested data on. It looks like we’re…” The Ghost didn’t have time to finish its thought. The Exo continued up the rough ramp and stepped into a massive library. The floating companion followed close behind and finished with a sense of awe, “… in the Ishtar Academy. Do you know how long it’s been since anyone has been here?” The room was four stories tall and lined with digital and analogue reading materials. Nature had done damage to the structure, but the majority of the room seemed intact. Grass grew up through cracks in the floor and vines hung down from the broken skylight, but many buildings on Venus and the other inner planets had fared much worse. The middle of the room was left empty down the length of it to increase the feeling of size and grandeur, but time had allowed another object to fill the space. Unlike the signs of erosion and plant growth, a tower of light pushed up through the ground and almost to the room’s high ceiling. Aegis-43 stepped closer to the structure, his hooded and covered face scanning the length of it. The tower was hollow and, rather than distinct walls, had lines and blocks of light, which gave the impression of a massive circuit. Although it glowed with distinct light, he could feel something otherworldly about it, something far from the Light of the Traveler. “This must be what she sent us for! I’ll scan the structure and we can get back to her.” The Ghost moved forward and shot a blue electron beam into the tower of light, trying to interface with it. When it couldn’t connect or get readings immediately, it began to flit around the tower, scanning and bombarding it with electrons at various angles. Aegis’s voice said quietly, “I’ve seen this before.” “Before? In the Dreaming? Or is there a record of it?” The machine continued to work diligently as its companion shook his head and replied, “Neither. I’ve seen one of these towers or… a piece of one in person.” He stepped closer to the monolith, trying to inspect it further, trying to tease some meaning from the random lines. He reached out, only to have his hand stopped as if the tower was made of solid matter. It took time, but the Ghost finished scanning and turned towards Aegis. “If that’s true, then you’re lucky to be alive. This is a Vex conflux, a relay station of sorts, a way for their single mind to permeate their throngs. They-” Aegis cut it off, “Yes, I know what the Vex are; I’ve studied the collective grimoires, remember? Now, what else do these things do?” The Ghost looks annoyed for a moment, but then stared back at the conflux in near reverence. “Well, it certainly does more than just let them communicate. These towers connect to Vex nuclei, a kind of seed planted in planetary cores so that Vex can teleport to them at any time.” The warlock stared at the machine for a moment and then said sternly, “We have to get back. Now!” The Ghost looked confused, “Why? What’s happened?” The air darkened and lightning seemed to cackle behind the conflux. A single red eye beamed out of the black fog. “Because the one I saw was on Earth.” Fifteen more red eyes appeared and the hum of weapons charging filled the room. “Ghost! Orbit! Now!” Thanks again! Let me know what you think! Scroll down for part two!