[i]Chapter 23, The Maze Part 4[/i] 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. A hand caught my wrist and the combined weight of my body and Warlock’s fell on my arm. If I hadn’t been a Guardian it would’ve been dislocated for sure, but with my enhanced body it was nothing more than a sharp tug on my shoulder. Hunter looked down at us as from the ledge, half of his body hanging out into the air because of his lunge to save us. If he hadn’t been a Guardian, he surely would’ve fallen with us and earned himself a dislocated arm as well. Warlock rightened herself under my arm, holding on tight to my collar and my robe to keep from falling. “Not a word,” she growled up at Hunter. “Quiet as a backstabbing Vandal,” Hunter vowed his silence, then grunted as he began to heft us up. Guardian grabbed Hunter from behind to help him to his feet, then took my arm as well as I came into reach. The two dragged me over onto the shelf, and Drew helped me pull Warlock up. “That was close,” Hunter patted my back as I tried to make myself stop thinking of the infinite black below us, “Would’ve looked bad if I hadn’t gotten either of those saves.” “We wouldn’t want it looking like you wanted anyone to die,” Warlock joked along with him, then looked at Guardian and pointed her thumb at me, “This one’s a keeper.” Guardian gave a thumbs up and nodded in agreement, then started looking around. I let my gaze wander as well, thankful that we had a task to distract me from how terrifying this all was. There was only one way to go: we could jump up to a higher ledge on the wall that appeared to stretch all the way across the side and turn around the corner. With the desire to finish the mission and escape here noticeably starting to effect everyone- even Drew was more skittish than eager -we climbed up and looked out over our path. “Son of a Dreg…” Hunter grumbled. “Hunter talked!” Drew announced. “Light!” Hunter cupped his hands over where his helmet covered his ears, “Will you stop that!” The ledge was hardly even deserving of its name. It protruded a foot or two from the wall at its widest points, but was frequently brought closer because of gaps where pieces of the structure had fallen or broken off. We’d be lucky if we could get across single file. “Screw it,” Sierra holstered her cannon on her hip and stepped up to the edge of our platform. “Careful,” I warned just as she was shifting her first foot out onto the sliver of stone. Her head snapped around, and I knew she was giving me an angry glare underneath her helmet to tell me not to break her concentration again. Taking one last moment to make sure she was stable, Sierra moved out onto the ledge and slid along the wall, shoulders turned so she could keep away from the drop and feet deftly falling in line one after the other. Guardian looked at Hunter and nodded his head towards Sierra. “Nah, I’ll go last,” Hunter told him, gesturing with his hand for Guardian to go. The Titan stepped out without argument and followed Sierra, gun still held in his right hand as he moved with a balanced and sure stride. I went next, stopping with one foot out to look back at Drew. “Come behind me,” I told the Titan, knowing he would have the most trouble due to his large size and less balanced step. “Fine, as long as you don’t want me to hold your hand, too, kinderGuardian,” Drew clearly assumed that I wanted him at my back for my own security. “Hah! I told you I’m not the only one who says it!” Hunter exclaimed as Drew and I inched out over the abyss. “Doesn’t mean it’s not dumb,” Warlock elbowed him roughly. “Are you guys talking about kinderGuardian?” I asked. I had no idea what it meant and had never heard anyone but Drew utter it. “Yeah, everyone says it nowadays!” Drew replied, almost tipping over as he stopped focusing on balance. He had his back facing out to the cavern, his chest and widespread arms pressed against the wall as if he thought he could latch onto it if he fell while shuffling sideways across the ledge. “No, they don’t,” Sierra grumbled from up front. “I do,” John spoke up. “That’s because you guys aren’t in the in-crowd,” Hunter jabbed. “I don’t want to be in any crowd you guys think is cool,” Warlock sighed as her turn to file onto the ledge came. “You’ll see, even outcasts like you will be saying it soon,” Hunter promised, coming right behind Warlock. There was some commotion up front and a surprised gasp from Sierra, then I saw her off in the air a few feet to the side of the ledge. She used her Light to bound back over to the wall and landed precariously back on the structure. Guardian stopped in front of me, making the whole line halt. “What the ffffffFenchurch was that?!” Sierra raged, for some reason not swearing even though she clearly wanted to. It didn’t take me long to find out what it was because Guardian jumped out away from the ledge and then glided through the air to land several feet further away, revealing a large gap. The broken edge stuck out a little at a slant, so it was obvious that Sierra had tried to walk across carefully rather than jump over. It was hard to see in this dimness, but the broken face looked slick from time wearing it down. Waiting only a moment for Sierra and Guardian to give me space to make the jump, I hopped out away from the wall so I wouldn’t bounce off of it and steadily floated through the air until my boots touched down lightly on the other side of the gap. Shuffling out of the way, I looked back just in time to watch Drew clumsily jump off of the little ledge and barely get his feet into the next part without slamming into the wall. The Titan’s arms waved around a little as he rocked on his toes, but by the time I got a hand up to help him he had already found his balance. Warlock and Hunter followed suit, and soon we were at the corner of the structure. The ledge ended there, but it widened out and we all bunched up to look at what lay ahead. Across a short jump and to the right there was finally something aside from flat stone walls. The structure opened up, creating a space that reminded me of some grand hall in a palace with thick supporting columns. We couldn’t see far in from here, but it was the only way to go, anyway. Everyone made this jump easily, and soon enough we were all gathered between the towering square pillars. We walked between a couple rows of them before the aisle split, allowing us to keep moving around the perimeter of the structure or turn and venture into the depths of the structure. There, further within and a couple dozen or so meters ahead of us, past a few more columns that gave way to uncut stone walls and then up a short flight of stairs, a triangular metal door blocked our path. It was near-black with other triangles placed within each other decorating its surface, and I felt a Darkness seeping from it that seemed to want to tear my Light from my body. Just looking at it made visions of glass and glaring Vex eyes dance behind my eyes. “This is it,” I told everyone with certainty as we stood in the middle of the hall, the few red lights in the walls here hardly giving us enough illumination to see each other, “The heart of the Vault.” “I thought you already killed the Vex Heart?” Drew asked more than stated. “That was the Black Garden’s Heart,” Rush replied matter of factly, “And that was actually a heart. This is just the center of the Vault…I think.” “The Glass Throne,” I named it for them. Imagine my own surprise whenever I had found that Kabr had spoken of a Glass Throne at the heart of the Vault. It couldn’t have been a coincidence with my vision. “Light, it’s a miracle we made it this far,” Sierra grumbled. I couldn’t help but sigh in agreement with her. We didn’t exactly seem like the stuff of legends. Ch23 Pt3: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/251014190/0/0 Ch23 Pt5: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/251014232/0/0 ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0