"I remember thinking, 'How long have I been gone? Eva shouldn't be back for some time, why is the City glowing?' You could see it even from over the horizon, far before you could see the City itself, just this huge shining and blinking swell, it was like a second sun. Wasn't until we broke the clouds around the City that we realized it was fire. Asked, most people'll tell you that it was the Traveler they can't forget seeing, mantled against a horizon on fire. Can't blame em', watching that Cabal's clutch wrap around our Traveller... it was unsettling, something we had never considered. Me though? I'll always remember how much bigger the flames were than the home they were devouring. We built our walls to stand on the sky and fire followed us to the very top of them." [i]'How different from here'[/i] He raised his eyes, white light therefrom drowned in the impossibly black sea that seemed to seep through the small transparent canopy. [i]Nothing prepares you for how loud the silence is out here[/i] He eased the boat into a roll, the canopy now showing glittering waves of matter and flotsam, fluid dynamic apparent in how closely it resembled the ocean floor. [i]The Reef, how appropriate.[/i] To say that those waves glittered was to shame them, the Reef [i]glowed.[/i] This was a sea made not of water but of crystals and the light therein. And yet, despite it's impossible brightness, there existed a clear contrasted line between the Reef and the Sea, an unyielding and visible threshold where the spilling light reached no further, from sheer colour to a striking lack of it. "I'm glad you can still appreciate the beauty of this place." Came a quiet chirp. His hood shifted slightly, but offered no response otherwise. "We're without sanctions; there's no cavalry coming this time, we're on our own." A silent shrug this time, palpable; [i]What's new?[/i] Silence. Deafening, oppressive silence. The Ghost clicked and floated forward, back side comically whirring away as it received a transmission. Petra's distinctive lilt filled the Javelin's cabin- [i]"Found him"[/i] Both Ghost and Guardian's gaze met for a moment. The sound of the engines began to swell as he tapped the panel and spun his cannon onto his hip. "Cayde would've told you not to do this..." the Ghost warned. "No he would not." The Ghost sighed defeatedly as he dematerialized, "No, no he would not."