[i]Chapter 23, The Maze Part 3[/i] As soon as the Gorgons weren’t looking, Hunter cloaked himself and dove off of the boulder, landing gracefully despite the height he fell from. It took only a moment for him to reach the tiny tunnel entrance and peak in, then uncloak and wave us over. Warlock followed first. Drew tried going immediately after, but I caught him by the arm, pointing at an incoming Gorgon. Hunter and Warlock were watching us, unable to see as much as we could, so Guardian waved at them to take cover inside the tunnel. After that Gorgon and one other passed, I set Drew loose with a warning to stay quiet. Sierra came after him, leaving Guardian and I to wait for the next break in patrols. With a nudge and a nod, I let Guardian know I wanted him to go first. The Titan gave me a thumbs up and quickly made his way to the others as soon as a gap came. My turn came, and my legs coiled beneath me in preparation for the leap. But as my feet lifted off the rock and my descent began, I heard the soft beep of a Gorgon’s equipment. Only an instant passed in the air, but in that time I spotted the Gorgon, saw that it was heading my way, and realized that even the small sound of my landing would draw its eye. I thought of trying to make the run before it could turn to me. I thought of risking a midair jump to reach cover sooner. I thought of trying to fight. Making my choice, I extended my arm towards the tiny hole in the wall where the others hid, feeling as if I were moving in slow motion through the air. My fist closed, and I pulled myself through space. Coming out of the Blink with the silence-breaking slap of shifting matter, I found myself standing in front the gap, meeting the gazes of the other five Guardians. “Run,” I whispered, then ducked inside with them. The soft pounding and scraping of boots accompanied us through the narrow slit in the wall, which slowly grew to permit us proper standing room. It grew darker the further we went, and the sudden lack of lights didn’t help. We were led downwards, sometimes running down the inclined path and other times bounding down sudden short drops. Finally, immediately after one of said drops and in the shelter of a few protruding rocks from the ledge above, we paused. Guardian and I kept our eyes on the ledge while the others took a moment to collect themselves. Sierra kept glancing back, too, tapping her index finger against her hand cannon nervously. After a minute or so with no sound or movement on our radars, we figured they hadn’t followed us and moved on at a walk. Silence hung over the group in the wake of what we had just experienced, and we kept constant watch in front and behind us in case something came from either direction. At last, the tunnels ended and we once again found ourselves in a massive cavern. We stood at the edge of a cliff that fell down into unseeable depths, an expanse of empty darkness before us. A ways off I could make out a small Vex spire and a couple jagged points of stone rising out of the depths below, but other than that and our own little platform sticking out of the wall of rock, the only possible place we could go was a massive Vex structure that blocked much of our view to the right. However, the uncrossable chasm made reaching either place impossible, and there was nowhere to go on our end except back. “Darkness consume it all!” Sierra seethed. “Not the best choice of words here,” Warlock stated, peering down into the abyss. “This… How…? Why would…?” Guardian’s Ghost took a moment to find what he wanted to say, “What do we do now?” I tried coming up with an answer. Free climbing? Backtracking to look for a different path? None of the options were good. Suddenly, a garbled and loud sound similar to the whoosh of a Blink or Vex teleportation rose in the air. A few meters in front of us, suspended in the air, a single Vex platform appeared in a flash of white. I blinked a couple times, not sure it was actually there. “I’m not the only one who saw that, right?” I pointed at the floating block. “I see it,” Hunter answered. “Yeah…” John echoed. Everyone else mumbled in response. Everyone except… “Saw what?” Drew was looking straight up, apparently searching for a way to climb higher, “Did you guys hear that thwarp noise?” Sierra took Drew by the shoulder and roughly made him look at the Vex construct in front of us. “That wasn’t there a minute ago, right?” Drew nodded towards the platform. Sierra rubbed her hands over her helmet like she wanted to tug her hair in frustration. Another warping sound announced the arrival of a new platform, this one appearing lower and off to the right but within jumping distance of the first. A moment later, the first structure disappeared, and a third formed even further down and to the side. Following the direction they were heading with my eyes, I spotted a large ledge on the massive Vex structure to our right. That was the way. “There,” I pointed down to the path, “We follow these platforms to there.” “You want to jump on those vanishing death traps without knowing that they’ll get us there?” Rush scoffed, “We don’t even know how they work.” “They appear to be affected by the converging of time and space in the Vault,” I observed, “Slipping between our reality and others.” “Ok, so we know how they work, let’s go,” Warlock rolled her shoulders and shook her legs out in preparation. “But if that’s what’s going on, then they could stop showing up here at any moment!” Rush protested. “Exactly why we can’t miss this window of opportunity,” I held my ground. “As much as I hate agreeing with Rush,” John interjected, “The numbers aren’t on your side here. You’re probably all going to plummet to your deaths.” “Oh stop being such little wimps!” Sierra growled, “You guys can fly!” “But if any of you fall, even if we’re with you, we won’t-“ Guardian’s Ghost began. “It’s just a little puzzle!” Hunter interrupted in his exasperation. “A jumping puzzle,” Drew elaborated, clearly getting tired of standing around. “Guys…” I had watched the disappearing platforms go through a few loops while we were talking, and the first one was about to reveal itself again, “We’re going. Now.” “When?” Drew perked up, eager to start. “NOW,” I signaled, and leapt out over the abyss just as a wire frame of white light was forming. My boots hit solid ground, followed by the scuffs of five other pairs, but I didn’t pause to make sure everyone was together. I couldn’t. There wasn’t any time. After a few running steps I was in the air again, falling down to the next platform just as it was materializing. I slowed my descent and gave myself a bit of forward momentum with a small burst of Light from my feet, allowing for a quick bound in the direction of the next floating refuge. I glanced over my shoulder just long enough to see where everyone was. Drew was right in my tail, but gave me a scare when his foot barely made it onto the platform we were on and caused him to stumble haphazardly for a moment. Guardian, Hunter, and Sierra were keeping up easily, and Warlock was behind them. I continued downward, and after a final, long plummet, managed to land on the ledge of the Vex structure. Drew crashed down next to me, jogging forward a little from his landing point because of his momentum. Hunter came and got out of the way for the others as I turned to make sure everyone made it. Guardian was just jumping off of the last platform while Sierra was speeding across it for the jump, but Warlock was only just jumping down from the second to last. The platform she had just left was already gone before she made it to the last, and the rest of us all watched worriedly as her feet touched down. She made one running step. On the second, the gridded frame of the construct began to glow. By the third, the entire block was glowing and fading at the edges. The fourth was the last she needed to make the jump, but her foot found no purchase. She slipped through the fading haze of white light and came out with a steady stream of energy flowing from her feet to keep her suspended in the air. But she moved forward slowly, and her descent was quickening. The glow around Warlock’s feet faded, and her plummet began. Hunter was already moving for the edge as Warlock neared our level, but he wasn’t close enough. I dove, flying out and down several meters before I slammed into Warlock. Wrapping one arm around her, I reached back towards the ledge and closed my fist. An instant later I was facing straight up instead of down, the edge of the shelf that everyone else stood on suddenly right in front of me as I reached upward. It was so close. My fingers slid against the carved stone, just inches away from purchase. Gravity dragged down on us, and our refuge slowly began to slip away. Ch23 Pt2: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/251014163/0/0 Ch23 Pt4: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/251014201/0/0 ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0