Earthrise was hours ago, and still the enemy did not appear. While Phoenix-14 did not believe in wasted missions, or fruitlessness as a whole, her team was handling the disappointment in different ways. She meditated on her wish for the peace of her companions, gazing on the warm Earth light, her back cold against the lunar rock. It pleased her to watch her strikemates in silent times, as she believed the best evaluation of a character was what they did while idle. Ren Tayosh was uncomfortable in stillness, and tapped one foot on bare rock, the other in the silver dust. Her fingers danced without rhythm along the reedlike barrel of her rifle. Junot Salvatori sat unmoving in his shell of bronze plasteel, with his gloved hand pressed to the temple of his helm. "This is a bust," Tayosh declared over their shared link. "How much longer are we gonna wait?" "Should we measure the wait against the final good of the outcome?" was Phoenix-14's response. "Stop with the zen nonsense. I've had to relieve myself for the past [i]hour[/i]. Salvatori, throw some dice or something." Tayosh found pleasure in the effects of a weak gravity. The titan was long in responding, silent when he lowered his hand. "I was reading," came his deep, measured voice. Phoenix-14 felt a warm glow diffusing through her cranial core. "Were you reading the Mantras?" Tayosh groaned into the link. "You sent it to him, too? Coming on a little strong with the Thesis stuff, Phoenix." Salvatori shrugged like a boulder in a gentle tremor. "It's interesting. Listen–" and before Tayosh could make her complaint known, he began to read: "Master Typhon-9 gave him the problem, 'hear the sound of one hand clapping,' and he meditated for–" The hunter's scoffing broke through his patient voice. "That question's older than the Traveler itself." Phoenix-14 forgave her blasphemy. "Tell me you're not–" Salvatori cleared his throat, and Tayosh was wise in silence. "He meditated for three years, but could not answer. One night he came to the master in tears, saying 'I will have to return to the City in shame, I cannot solve your test.' The master said to him, 'Wait one week more and meditate constantly.' Still, the student could not realize Ulan-Tan's Thesis. 'Try for another week,' said the master. Still he could not–" "How long does this go on for?" Tayosh could not hold her impatient tongue. "The student," Salvatori rumbled on, and Phoenix-14 was glad, for she was pleased at how the Mantras rang in his voice. "returned to the master in despair, begging to be released. 'Meditate for three days longer,' said Master Typhon-9, 'then if you fail to realize the Thesis, you should kill yourself.'" The hunter had stopped fidgeting. "On the second day, the student correctly answered the question." Phoenix-14 watched as the Earth waned half, equal parts light and shadow, and was sublimely aware of the discrete mechanisms of her body. "Well, what's the answer?" Tayosh asked. "I finished. That's the end." Her laughter was like a river, cold and loud. "[i]Garbage[/i]. Your garbage 'Thesis' only works under threat of death?" "Is that how you understand it?" asked the warlock. "Well, of course. He only reached enlightenment or whatever because he didn't want to die." "I believe he realized the Thesis because he wanted to live," Phoenix-14 replied. "Those are the same thing." "To understand the difference between 'desire to live' and 'fear of death' is to study Ulan-Tan's Thesis." "I think–" began Salvatori, but he raised his pulse rifle, because the hum of alien engines had reached them over the crags, and their individual Ghosts were stirring from sleep mode. They fought with alacrity and the awareness of Light, pulsing in every round and every impact. Phoenix-14 felt the cold song of the Void in her incomprehensible circuity. Salvatori pushed forward through the squad of Fallen like a ship through the night and Tayosh was accurate as a needle. Her shots bisected the vacuum inches from her companions, and not one of them felt fear. [i]All skirmishes end too soon[/i], and though this thought caused her disquiet, she allowed it to pass through and beyond her. She did not fear death, but neither did Phoenix-14 understand the need to live–beyond her desire to realize Ulan-Tan's Thesis. When she willed and struggled, with her team beside her and the City 382,000 kilometers below her, she thought she could sense Light and Darkness and the undiscovered [i]third[/i] moving through her. She thought one day, through battle, she might finally understand. "What do you think?" Tayosh asked. She kicked through the remains of a Fallen dreg, heedless of the chaos she caused in the dust. "Think?" Salvatori said. "About the dumb story." Phoenix-14 found the nerve-scan array they had been sent to retrieve, but remained crouched in the dust, listening. "I think he was able to answer the question when he thought the master had given up on him," the titan said. Tayosh made a vague sound. "I think," the titan said, "that when you have to do things for yourself, that's when you fight hardest." At once, the hunter turned to Phoenix-14. "What are you smiling about?" She demanded. The face of the warlock was concealed by her hooded mask, but she was in fact glowing, pleased and proud of her team. "The Mantras were created for discussion," she explained. "There are no right answers. To ask questions about the Mantras is to understand them." Tayosh was stiff with anger, but Phoenix-14 was happy to have had this moment to learn more about her companions.