------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [b]Eris Morn, Part I:[/b] [i]A New Foe Emerges (A Monstrous Night)[/i] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Tomorrow is the day, “ Eriana said. “Indeed” I replied as I took a sip of coffee then lowered my mug back to the table. “Are you nervous?” Eriana leaned in, both hands curled around her mug as she took a sip of her steaming drink. “This is an operation the likes of which we’ve never seen. The worlds have never scene. How they are even able to coordinate this many of us is beyond me.” “I am not.” I sat back in my chair, crossing my arms and fully extending my legs beneath the table. “Let the hive come. We will knock them back. We have done it before and we will do it again. We are not tens or hundreds, but thousands strong. Nothing can withstand us.” Eriana shook her head, “I wish I had your confidence, but I can’t shake this feeling that something is off. That something is - waiting for us.” “Something is,” I scoffed, “but nothing we haven’t dealt with before. Get those thoughts out of your head before they keep you up all night. We have been in countless battles and this one will be no different. Just watch out for yourself, and your fire team, and we will survive. Speaking of keeping you up all night, I think it’s time to turn in. Tomorrow is an early start.” Eriana sat up, pushed her chair back and stood. Following suit, I did the same as she walked alongside the table. She raised her arms and as we embrace she whispered in my ear, “Something is wrong here Eris. Something is very wrong.” She stepped back and wiped a tear from her eye, gave a slight nod, and turned towards the door. Opening it she turned. “I…”, she paused and looked at me with a pleading look on her face. Whatever she was going to say she must have thought better of it and simply said “I’ll see you tomorrow,” and then was gone, swallowed by the night. Eriana. Eriana, the exo. Eriana, my friend. From the moment I met her she was always a little squeamish and had a hard time keeping her emotions in check. Maybe that is why me make such a good team - opposites sides of a single coin. We’ve been through a lot together, Hunter and Warlock, paving the way to a brighter future, and tomorrow would be no different. Of that I was certain. I took a moment to take the place in. It was a small domicile, allocated only for this campaign. Sculpted in a half-dome, it was comprised of two rooms: a bathroom, and everything else. A bed for sleeping, a table for eating, and a sink to do the dishes. It was overly simplistic, but it was mine, and I would miss it when this tour was all over. I turned down the lights, grabbed the mugs off the table and headed toward the sink. The door opened for a brief moment and then closed. It must be Eriana I thought. She was the only one accustomed to entering unannounced. “Eriana, I told you…” I sighed, emptied my hands into the sink and turned around, “everything will be fi…”. The person who stood at the door was not Eriana. “I’ve been watching you for quite some time Eris” he said in a low, gravely voice. He removed the ratty old cloak he had been wearing and I could now see that what stood before me was no man. In fact, it looked more like a skeleton of light and darkness. It was held together by translucent sinews and pulsed with a green glow that drowned the room in an eerie haze. On it’s shoulders were spikes of light and a crown of the same rested on it’s head. Beneath the crown were not two, but three eyes that blazed in fire. Hive? It had to be if it were here, that made the most sense. But it was not like any I’d seen before. “What are you?” I asked. “There is light and darkness. I am neither.” It paused, “I am both. I am more than those who have come before me and less than those who will eventually follow.” As he spoke I was amazed by what I was seeing. This - creature - who had walked through my door, upright, now stood a full foot taller and was growing even larger right before my eyes. “Okay. Who are you? What is your name?” I said, my voice even as I slowly began moving my right hand closer to the knife hanging from my belt. “Name? Why the need for a name?” He paused. “If you must trivialize my existence you could call me the destroyer, devourer of light,” he sneered, “annihilator of guardians.” His voice grated on, like a radio station with too weak a signal. I’d decided I had heard enough. It was time to act. In a single fluid motion I retrieved the knife from my belt, fully extended my arm and released it with a flick of my wrist. My knife flipped, end over end, and within a blink had found it’s mark and impaled the creature in its forehead, just as it had thousand times before to a thousand different enemies. Except, this wasn’t like before, and the knife didn’t dig into the creature’s forehead. My aim was accurate, the throw true, and the blade sharp, but upon impact it stopped dead and fell to the floor. The room was silent save for the blade’s vibration until it finally came to sit still at the creature’s feet. The creature lowered its shoulders and bull rushed me. I knew it would be on top of me in an instant and vaulted to the right. When it was no more than two steps away, at the pinnacle of my jump, I planted my feet, gathered the air around me and launched again, hard and to the left - a standard tactic taught to all guardian hunters. Quicker than I calculated however, the creature’s hand snared me by the ankle, pulled me back across its chest, and flung me clear across the room. I hit the wall hard, with a loud thud, and fell to the floor out of breath. I regained my composure and brought myself up to one knee, looked across the room and saw the creature just standing there. It had won its counter attack and seemed content to wait for my next move. We’d been fighting for only a few brief moments but I was already gasping for air, though I was pretty sure it was due to the multiple broken ribs I now felt. I’d never felt such strength before and knew that I had to end this battle - now. I closed my eyes and began to feel the steady pulse of the light within. Imagine a dam holding back water: open it slowly and you get a steady stream, open it all at once and the pressure can topple mountains. I opened the door with no restraint. I threw my arms back and allowed the light to take control. It began in my core and erupted in a cerulean brilliance, illuminating my entire being. It surrounded my body, my entire essence. I became one with that light and as I did so, it fashioned a blade in my right hand. It was intoxicating. My eyes flashed open and in an instant I was on top of the beast. The light blazed through me, its beacon of justice. I slashed with no discrimination: limbs, chest, face, eyes - they were all fair game. I had already lost count of the number of times I had struck it when the light started to fade and I felt my strength beginning to ebb. That was the problem with summoning the light all at once; it did not last very long and left you in a state of exhaustion. An all or nothing tactic. The light extinguished and my blade was gone. I was defenseless, but this fight had to be over. I raised my head and looked at the creature. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It didn’t have a single scratch on it. Then with lighting speed it grabbed me around the throat, spun around and pinned me to the wall, my feet dangling below me. I was starting to fade in and out of consciousness, darkness trying to take control. “Ghost…” I whispered, the creature’s massive fist around my throat. “I need you.” The room illuminated as my ghost materialized but then instantly went dark, a sound echoing off the walls like a gunshot. And then the creature rose its other arm to show me that no hope remained. Held in its clutches was my ghost as it struggled to get free. Throwing back its head the creature drew a deep breath and what I saw next chilled me to the bone. Tiny tendrils of light flowed out my ghost and illuminated the air, only to be drawn back in through the creature’s nostrils. I looked away and my mind began to swim, eyes rolling back in my head. Was it eating the light? How could this be? If he could eat the traveler’s light then that meant… My eyes grew wide as I looked back to the creature in horror. Eriana was right. This time was different. Something was waiting for us. And we weren’t ready. Its cynical face cocked to one side as it stared back at me. “There it is.” it sneered. “Now you understand.” With my throat still caught in its clutches, the creature pulled me away from the wall and drew me in close. It stared at me for a moment, took a deep breath and then slammed my head into the wall. Pain flashed through my skull as the wall behind me struggled not to give way. My world went black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/104376836/0/0]Part I[/url], [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/108098561]Part II[/url], [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/108098900]Part III[/url], [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/108099088]Part IV[/url], [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/108588739/0/0]Part V[/url] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edit: Bladedancers have a bluish hue, not purple. Fixed.