If you missed the last chapter of REEF MOB, you can find it [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/221768898/0/0]here[/url], or if you need to find a previous chapter, you can find them all in the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/218618986?sort=0&page=0]Table of Contents[/url]. Please give a bump or leave a comment if you enjoy this and any other chapter! ***  Fallen are scattered. Dignity fading. Loyalty broken. But hope always with us, and new hope may lie with old enemy. Ketch approaches Vesta. I call to Corsairs to halt. “[i]Cannot take creature to court,[/i]” I tell them. “[i]Great danger to Queen. Call Petra.[/i]” One of the Corsairs nods and does as I command. Petra answers over comm. “[i]Variks, what did you find?[/i]” “[i]Darkness,[/i]” I respond seriously. “[i]Ancient evil awoken. Forgotten ambitions will be remembered.[/i]” “[i]So it’s as you feared.[/i]” “[i]Worse[/i],” I growl. “[i]SIVA has indeed returned.[/i]” Petra draws breath over the comm. I share her apprehension. “[i]So what are we to do?[/i]” Petra asks. “[i]Cannot take creature to court,[/i]” I repeat. “[i]Must be met elsewhere.[/i]” “[i]Interamnia,[/i]” Petra answers quickly. “[i]Nothing but rock and abandoned settlements.[/i]” “[i]Must meet us with zero-point field[/i],” I tell her seriously. “[i]Cannot allow creature to touch any surface[/i].” “[i]Right, the whole ‘consume, enhance, replicate’ thing,[/i]” Petra answers sagely. “[i]I’ll notify the Crows and we’ll meet you there.[/i]” “[i]We will be waiting[/i],” I respond, clicking the comm off. Turning to monitor, I watch the creature in docking bay, floating in space, red tendrils working deeper into ketch. [i]Great enemy[/i], I ponder, watching him. [i]But not greatest. Greatest enemy to Fallen is pride.[/i] Virixas. Irxis. Parixas. Skolas. [i]All fallen to pride. Not deserving of the name Eliksni. Pride will not restore glory. Only persistence earns glory. And persistence requires patience.[/i] I watch creature on monitor again, thinking both of its creation and purpose. [i]Who brought SIVA back? No word from Kings, Devils – who could…[/i] I feel cold shiver. [i]Talons.[/i] For weeks, the rumors of Vesta have swirled around whispers of old menace. [i]Red flowers bloom forever…[/i] So enamored was court with rumors, they missed rebellion brewing in their midst. I tried to warn them. I always try. [i]Not much different than Fallen in that way. Greatest enemy to Fallen is pride. But to Fallen, greatest enemy is all who are not Fallen. Or those who serve not Fallen.[/i] I grasp staff tighter, anger coursing through me. [i]Glory over survival,[/i] the old warriors believed. [i]Death comes for all Eliksni, but those who earn glory live forever.[/i] But that was before Fallen started to chase godhood. Thought they could conquer death altogether, and only have glory. They are dead now, and none remember their names. None but me, who must remember their names, who must remember their sins. I watch creature closely over monitor, thinking about Fallen who would worship it as a god. [i]No god[/i], I think vehemently. [i]Creature of the Darkness. Too powerful to live, but too powerful to kill.[/i] I feel swoop of fear that’s become too familiar lately. Too much uncertainty, too much death, and now this… [i]Perhaps Reef is meant to die. Perhaps it was never meant to be claimed by any.[/i] There was old saying on Eliksni homeworld: [i]a seed seeks the ground to grow. An animal seeks the seed to eat it. Larger animal seeks smaller animal to eat them. Eliksni find larger animal and eats the seed.[/i] Eliksni long believed it ended there, that none were above Eliksni. But now we know. [i]We are just another animal.[/i] The red creature remains motionless on screen, but I watch him closely. [i]This is the creature that eats Eliksni. This is the creature that eats all seeds, for none can eat it.[/i] Rumors always around Vesta, circling like the Reef itself. Rumors and whispers of rebellions, of plots against Queen, of Wolves – [i]But Wolves cannot kill creature…. And Devils would worship creature….[/i] … A new hope with an old enemy indeed…. I turn from monitor and move back to bridge. Corsairs working controls, steering ketch into Reef, following trajectory to Interamnia. Corsairs and Paladins think we will win against Wolves. Anger fuels them. [i]Anger good, but will not save them.[/i] I do not wish for Awoken to be defeated. I wish no death or pain on any of them. But pain and death are the way of the universe. No escape from this. No matter what I wish, Awoken will die. Eliksni will die. But creature will not. …. So we must learn from it. And to learn, I must speak with Talons who found SIVA. Making note, I order the Corsairs to our new destination, feel the ketch tilt as we break course from Vesta. Watching the Reef outside ketch, I think of all Fallen attempts to conquer death, to ensure only we are the seed-eaters. [i]I do not wish to conquer death[/i], I think as I grip my staff tighter. [i]Merely ensure Eliksni can meet it with dignity. It takes strength to meet death with dignity, and it takes strength to rule a divided people. And creature is strong. So it must be learned from.[/i] My staff taps loudly on the floor as I make my way to captain’s chair on bridge. Ketch once belonged to House Judgment before Taniks stole it. With a feeling of pride, I retake seat that belongs to my House. [i]Feels good to reclaim what was lost,[/i] I think as I run my metal hands across the seat. [i]Perhaps we can be seed-eaters once more. Or perhaps I’m a fool, after all. Only time will tell.[/i]