Chapter 2 - Get up Guardian!
Guardian PoV
I feel that familiar feeling that I have from my "fake" Destiny 2 memories that signifies that I am being healed or brought back to life by my Ghost. I think of them as fake memories, but the more I recall the mundane aspects and not the highlights I can't quite call them fake. My memories were of times that I was not playing the game as well. As I respawn, or I guess I could call it, revived by my ghost, I immediately have my Wish-Ender Bow equipped when I stand fully up straight.
A gorgeous looking woman who appears to be...yup that's an elf. She is staring at me and next to motherly look woman in priestly looking robes watching me with a rapt confusion as tears roll from her eyes. Another elven woman with a blindfold that also seemed to be other worldly beautiful, is standing on just the other side of the stretcher with was still floating, it was weird though, I can FEEL her sight on me, but she is truly wearing a blind fold. It's like Eris Morn on the moon all over again! (she was a blindfolded character in Destiny 2).
Ghost answers the staring faces, "I hope we didnt worry you, that crash really did a number on us, but we are definitely okay."
He then notices that the sounds of fighting as we both look to the other side of the clearing to see a pact of weird looking monsters attacking some other people, and I jump to go fight.
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The Light (power of the Traveller granted to Guardians) enables me to use my Warlock jump skill, which sends my flying where my momentum was taking me, to jump over the odd group of women. I fly above nearly 30 ft in the air, while tossing a Solar Grenade right into the middle of the remaining on-coming pack of nasty looking monsterous things...Like partially hairy bears with distorted skin underneath, running ridiculously fast.
I take aim with my long bow and as I let slide the arrow, I know that it will pierce through one of the blood filled eyes that are raging towards me. I land near an elf man who looks at me with wide confused eyes and a slack jaw, and I run past him and directly at the last few monsters.
The first one to step up, jumps at me and I use my second ability, which is a solar powered palms strike. Instead of hitting them with my palm though, a wave, a circle that is approximately 5 feet in diameter made of pure Solar Energy, blasts forth form the center of my palm launching the lead monster away from me at his remaining compainions. As the solar fire completely covers it and it dies, the monster explodes with a fury of Solar Light engulfing the 3 remaining beasts.
I don't know much about my situation right now, but the feeling of entering combat is somehow grounding in the face of uncertainty. As I think back, this is how my life as a guardian kind of started, thrust directly into combat after being dead. Interesting how that feels so real and slightly comforting.
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After the quick fight I look over to the group of 2 elves that must be brother and sister with their distinct bone structure and a massive ogre thing. I think I saw some arrows come from the trees over behind them during the fight, but I can't see anything now.
They are staring at me and talking quietly to each other, as another skinny man in dark looking robes also approaches with group.
The female elf says, "Her spell didnt hurt us, but it landed right next to us roasting those monsters." Hmm, they call them monsters too, not very creative....
The massive boulder rumbled about how I killed the monsters as fast as the other two "little elves" and the male elf slowly steps towards me. He was kind of handsome, with those piercing blue eyes, and those handsome elven ears...wait, what was that thought.... I shook my head to try to clear it, he stays just out of reach from me but nods his head. "Hey, nice fighting back there, what do you call that spell?" The elf-man askes me with a slight smile at the corner of his lips. I guess he is trying to break the ice.
I don't know if it was this weird melding I am still experiencing from becoming my Destiny 2 character or if I am just in shock, but I know my Destiny character never really spoke in game. I am now wondering if that is why I have this urge, or maybe a desire to just remain silent, it is a pretty strong urge....not as strong as the urge to dance, but either way I stowed my Wish-Ender Bow and move my left hand out from my chest with the palm up and my Ghost appeared ready to talk for me, which I realize I definitely prefer.
As soon as the small 3inch square of sized oddly shaped metal and blue object with a square eye appears the three ready their weapons as the Ghost replies to the question, "It is a Solar Grenade actually. She is a Dawnblade Warlock." I nodded as their blank looks are the only response, my ghost and I look at one another and the elf breaks the silence again.
"Sooo...I am Captain Aedra Mathias, of the Lunar Pact Guild, this is my sister Aethena, and my Sargent Draed Scarren." Each nods their heads as they look at me, Draed put his weapons away and removed his helmet. "What is your name?" Captain Aedra questions while still a little in shock that a nearly dead girl just joined the fight and cleared the field at that.
"I am Ghost, and this.....is....Guardian, I guess we don't really have names, but that what most people call her. It is good to meet you Captain Aedra, are you the leader of the Vanguard on this planet?"
The Captain seems more lost with every turn of Ghost's words..."She doesn't have a name? Why does she not speak? Are you her voice? What is The Vanguard?" Aedra asks with a confused frown. Aethena look skeptical, and the mountain, or Draed is almost stoic as he stares down at me.
"And how is she alive?? Shirina is not usually wrong with her medical diagnosis, and she said you should be dead?"
Ghost looks at me and I shrug my left shoulder a quiet signal of agreement.
Ghost started to explain, a voice rings out from the right side of each of their heads. Anyways, its projecting a voice that I can hear, "Captain we need to get going, there are at least 2 other ships closing in, if we leave now we can get around them, but we gotta go."
"Alright, everyone get on the ship." He turns to me and ghost and says, "Will you come with me and my squad? There are monsters and other people here trying to figure out what happened when you crashed and they will be here soon. I don't know why you are here, but my seer has predicted that I would meet you and work with you to some degree, I hope we can go into more detail after we get out of here." Captain Aedra says.
I nod and Ghost says, "That sounds good."
I unequip my longbow and it disappears into my light storage. I know I can hang a weapon on my back, but I love the idea of materializing my weapon directly into my hand before fighting. I also notice while dropping my bow into my inventory that I only have the armor and weapons my character directly had equipped at the time. It is kind of ironic, landing in an apparent fantasy world from a sci-fi one, and I have a bow, a sword, and only one gun that could easily be interpreted as some sort of lightning casting wand or something.
The Bow, The Wish-Ender is my favorite weapon, and using it as a way to send my sharp attacks to waiting enemy heads has only solidified that feeling. My second favorite, and honestly my more terrifying weapon, is the fusion rifle called The Loaded Question. While it is my only gun it isn't quite what we would call a gun with bullets. It has a few unique features that make it very dangerous for my enemies.
The Loaded Questions Features:
-It uses Arc Light (lightning energy created from the Light of the Traveller) to deliver "lightning explosions"
-When it is stowed it automatically reloads and has a super charged feature that the first shot does more damage when left to charge.
-The lightning explosions are only cause from the first super charged shots of the weapon, which only effects living or animated beings. Firing on the ground usually doesn't have any effects.
I'll talk about my sword later.
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I follow everyone back to the floating pad, it was at this time that I noticed the silent hovering....AIRSHIP above us!!! It looks like some epic fantasy air ship that has no sails or balloon of sorts on top. It looks like it could float on water just as easily as it sits in the sky. The base of it seems to be a white wavy matieral with gray lines similar you would find in a white marble stone. I can see an emblem on either side of the upward slanting hull. It appears to be some sort of dragon flying over a moon with blue fire coming out? I am definitely in a fantasy world, with elves, flying ships, and Dragons!!?...I am pretty sure that this isn't actually registering in my mind, but the thoughts are there anyways, it is a visceral scene that I took in with silence.
I stepped onto the floating pad expecting it to bob down slightly like my Sparrow would if I jumped on it. (Sparrows are the Destiny 2 word for Speeder bike, they float like the ones in star wars and there is one being my avatar in the cover photo of this story) When my full weight came down on the pad it felt like I was stepping on stone, immovable. All of us got on including a man with crazy reptillian eyes that never left me, he must have been that hidden archer, with that dark recurve on his back. I bounced up and down a few times like I would on an elevator...not with the intention of breaking it, but just testing the limits or so I told myself. Still the platform was perfectly still.
"It will hold us all, I promise." Captain Aedra said with a smile as he saw me examining the platform. I looked up at him then glanced away towards my burnt wreckage of a sputnik looking space ship...I am glad I didn't my favorite one, it would be in destroyed right now. I think about my other ships that I have saved and I look towards the moon to see that the portal I came through on the surface is not visible. I wonder If I just cant see it from the surface or if it closed.
Shirina, who was the one who was crying earlier was standing near me with wide eyes of concern, and I could feel her gaze lingering on my shoulder. I turned to look at her, and she just smiled, and asked, "Are you feeling okay?" She said with a hopeful tone that also somehow expressed doubt I nodded and I realized the platform started moving once all of us where there, but I could feel no pull on my body, only the view confirmed that we were quickly rizing up to the open bay doors at the back of the air ship. This world is fantasy, but has better elevators than we do? How does that even work?
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"Get us out of here as soon as the doors shut Smith."
"Aye, Captain," said a strong voice in their ears. I wonder if my ghost can get access to their
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As we cross the threshold into the ship, I can see what appears to be a cargo hold/loading area of some sorts with also what appears to be launching tubes for singular drop pads on either side of the hold. This ship is absolutely gorgeous, just glancing at the elegant designs in the marble looking stone floor was breathetaking, and it felt as solid as stone. The walls were made of the same white looking marble type stone that the hull was made of, and there were black, white, blue, and gold accents sporadically placed throughout the ship. It had to be a master piece.
I followed the group as they walk toward some stairs to the next level. The hooded man with gold eyes and the large brutish guy named Draeg I think, decided to go off to some rooms down the hall on the second level, but I followed the main group to the next one. there was a large glass room at the top of the stairs with a table a viewing screen against the hull wall that seemed to act like a digital screen for many purposes. The long table and chairs that seemed pretty evenly spaced but still enough for almost 20 people, had to be masterfully made, they werent on wheels or anything, but just standard chairs that were not bolted down or anything. We entered the glass conference room and took seats, the captain gestured for me to take the one on the left end, and he stood by the screen.
I mentally decided to take my helmet off and it dissipates into motes of light that wink out. It was pretty amazing to see while wearing it.
"So that is how it comes off." The first mature elf that I saw, she has this inexplicable aura of wisdom about her seemed to be just as much confused as wise. I then made eye contact with the Captain, who was staring into my eyes with a slack jaw. I know I am flushing red with embarrassment as we hold each other's eye. Wait red? I am not human colored anymore, what is my blush color... darker blue?
"You're blue." An unexpected yet awe strucken voice blurts out from a few chairs down. It was the human in the dark robes who was super skinny and tall and had kind of a hawkish nose about him. I raised an eyebrow at that. Shirina slaps him on the arm with a stern look and he appears chastised for the random comment.
Captain Aedra chuckles and says, "Dorr, please show an ounce of decency for once in your life. I am sorry about that, Dorr here is known to be a bit different than most." The Captains easy grin says, Dorr rolls his eyes.
"Anyways, I gather that you do not like to talk much so I suppose that I will start. I already introduced you to me, my sister, and the big guy Draed, so allow me to introduce the rest. To my left we have the amazingly talented seer Aliana, who foretold your crashing here from the moon." The kind Captain says, while nodding to Aethena at the mention of her name. She still seems pretty skeptical of me.
I immediately bring my ghost forward with the raising of my left palm, and he asks the blindfolded woman, "You fortold of our crashing here? Did the Traveler bring us here? Did you speak with it?" Ghosts animated voice bounces around the room leaving odd echos. Don't bring that up ghost...you will only confuse them....aaaaand yup they are confused.
"I don't know of this Traveller, but yes I had a vision of your coming and it doesn't quite add up to where we are now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, more on that later. I am Aliana Gray, the seer for the Lunar Pact Guild. It is a pleasure to meet you." I give a soft smile and slightly incline my head to her, she seems to be aware of my gesture and smiles warmly.
Next to Aliana, the regal older Elf woman speaks again. "I am Ellestrae Farigae, an Arcanist for the Lunar Pact. I will wait on my questions for now... go ahead Shiri."
"I am Shirina Belzard, Priestess of the Unbroken, healer of our squad, and I would certainly love to know how you went from a near death state to fighting at full strength with one flash of light!?" She started soft and slowly then grew more intense as if she said the whole sentence on a single breath punctuating some consonants.
I raised an eyebrow and the corner of my mouth lifts to respond. as Ghost responds, "Well that's because I healed her, I am her Ghost and Guardians are pretty much immortal as long as our bond stays connected. The light of the Traveler gives us the powers of our bond." He says this as if everyone should know, and I found myself bobbing my head in agreement.
Shirina looks stressed and perplexed by this answer that just brings more questions.
"You should have died, I was trying to ease you pain, how are you alive?" She continues with a need to be heard and answered.
"Well she has died many times so I wouldn't worry about it, I will bring her back if it ever happens!" His happy voice only served to disturb them further.
"You have died???" Aedra asks.
I just smile slightly, and Ghost answers, "You have to die to become a guardian. That is how it has always been." My eyes show them my solemn thoughts on it as the white glow of my eyes is the only acknowledgement I give. I feel like I am standing proud of my deaths as it is a mark of who I am, but it probably is horrible to hear for the first time.
"And that's why you are silent." Aliana says softly.
"Anyways, I'm Dorrin Bale, elementalist, and I have got to say whatever those fire attacks you had....err...solar grenade...they were incredible, but how did you do it without mana?" He seems to have changed in the time it took him to finish his sentence, it was almost as though he got distracted by things that didn't interest him, but it seems like "fire attacks" really got his attention.
Ghost responds with, "Well I am not sure what this mana is but our powers come from the Light of the Traveller." All to happy to talk about the Traveller.
Captain Aedra decides to step in, breaking the growing silence and says, "I hope this isn't rude of me, but what Race are you? I have never seen someone with such beautifully colored skin, and those moving white lines are incredible. And your eyes glow white? How is that possible? Not that its bad or anything, in fact it is quite beautiful." His voice slightly falters on the last word, but Aliana raises an eye brow over her fabaric blindfold while looking at the captain with a smirk.
Oh yeah my Destiny 2 character was an Awoken... I, am an Awoken. A race of people that used to be human and changed physically due to some mysterious events that are hidden through years of history. We are defined by our glowing eyes, blue-ish gray skin, and the patterns of light that dances across our bodies. The patterns could best be described by the light that comes through the disturbed water of a pool to show the pattern on the bottom of the pool. They are like that except smaller, and made of the pure white light the Traveller provides. It is hard to see in direct sunlight, but is very visible at night.
His sister Aethena who seemed to only have cold, skeptical, and uncertain looks for me, is now breaking out a beautiful, curious, and mischievous smile while looking at her brother. I could guess what she was thinking....why so nervous captain?
My ghost turns to me and I nod with a serene expression of acceptance on my face, and he launches into a quick explanation. "Well, she is what is known as an Awoken, a branch of humanity that was changed by some mysterious means a long time ago in deep space. They returned to Earth where what little remains of humanity resides, and helped to fight the darkness along side humans and exos in The Last City.
When I was created from the Traveller, I knew I had to find someone to raise to become my guardian, and I searched for a few years until I finally found her body outside of the city. I knew she was the perfect fit, I revived her and chose her as my guardian. Guardians are sworn protectors of the Light and and life itself that lives in peace. We have fought side by side for years, and it is unlikely that she can remember much, if anything from her past life." Shirina had her hand over her mouth with tears once again building in her eyes, the others else looked aghast at the dark revelation of my life. The rest of the observers seemed to be reeling from this.
"You brought her back from the dead like a necromancer? You..." Aliana puts her hand on the Captains arm as rage seems to boil through him, I have a different feeling than I am used to flow through me as I realized the Captain is mad on my behalf. He was staring at Ghost with hostility in his eyes, I could swear I could see some electricty crackling along his irises.
"It seems you have sacrificed much...guardian." Aliana says in her soft flowing voice as she tries out my title. I move my glowing white eyes to her Blindfold and make no othe movemnts. "We are a guild who fights for many of the same reasons you seem to fight for, so at least we have that in common, would you care to continue your story as to how you arrived here?"
As Ghost was about to start talking, Aliana puts her hand up and says, "Please, I would like to hear her speak." I break my eyecontact with her to gaze at the table in front of me, hair moving forward. My ghosts knows I do not enjoy talking, wow this urge to remain silent is very strong.
"Most Guardians are mute. Not all, and certainly not the leaders, but our hero here rarely speakes. In all the time we have known each other, She has said less than a few sentences to me and others. Discussing this with other ghosts seems to be a mostly common occourence. Exo, Human, or Awoken, however they do like to dance, which must be a source of Catharsis for them." There was a smile on my face, and I don't know how it got there, but yeahhhh, I love dancing! I would be rocking out right now at the mention of it, if I wouldnt be looked at like I am crazy.
"I see...." says Aliana now also skeptical about our strangness. I totally understand.
"Are you sure I have to call you guardian, it feels so impersonal and I want to get to know you, it seems I have some sort of destiny with you from Alianas visions. Would you please grace me with a name?" The Captain asks and I feel my will crumbling, or is it building to overcome this wall of silence that has enveloped me? I look down and away from the Captain, and he sighs and looks down as well. I also can't help but note the Destiny reference, I wish I had someone I could giggle with about it.
"For what it's worth, I don't know it either." Ghost replies and in the silence I manage to scale the walls holding my tongue at bay, and utter a single word..."Kira." Where the hell did that come from???? And Why did I sound so friggin' cute!?!!? I have always loved that name, and I cannot rememeber where I first heard it, but it's super fantasy so hopefully it will fit in her. My ghost whipped around to stare at me in its approximation of astonishment. Is that betrayal in your Diamond blue eye, I see? I felt everyones shocked eyes on me, especially the Captains.
I make eye contact with him to deliver a coy smile, he returned it with a large one after whispering the name to himself it seemed.
"You have a name? You have a name...and it's....Kira." My ghosts voice is almost reverant at the sound of my new name, and I breifly look up. Hmm not betrayal, but rather just amazed that I said anything. "May I call you that as well?" I actually suprised that he would want to, he never once asked or cared before, but sure, I nod to the ghost and then looks back to the audience.
"Thank you Kira, your name is beatiful, please, would you tell us your story?" Aliana once again tries to bring me out of my shell.
I immediately look down trying to hide behind my dark black silky hair, and say, "It is best for Ghost to tell it." If I talk too much I think my Ghost might explode. Before I only really talked if something important or dangerous was happening, but I am still me from earth, and there is I would have normally said, however the addition of this other half of my personality is dominating my shocked mind right now and I follow its fight or flight lead.
"I..yes, I will tell the story, where was I?" Ghost went all the way back to the beginning, telling of everything from the Red War, to Osiris, to the ShadowKeep, and eventually ends up on the day that we were sucked through the Travellers' portal."
"Kira...you have been through hell." The captain continues with empathy, "Listen I can't say that I can ever understand how you feel or anything, but if there is anything any of us can do to be there for you, please, do not hesitate to ask. I want to welcome you to our ship, the Blue Fire. We are currently headed back to our guild hall located inside The Gift. It's our main city of the Three main races. You will be welcome to stay at our guild hall as long as you wish....I saw your combat abilities, at least some of them, and I am very impressed. If you are interested, I would be honored if you would join my squad."
I smiled and nodded once after looking at the others. Aliana, was smiling in a knowing way and she nodded at my split second of hesitation while looking at her.
"Great! Okay well we have got to be getting close to the guild hall now, I am sure you would love to see what our city looks like, care to join me on the deck?" The Captain says, a little too excitedly. I smiled and nodded again...boy I need some new gestures of approval or I need to start talking.
Everyone leaves the room together dispersing throughout the ship. I follow the captain through the next 5 levels to the deck. It seemed that there was another set of stairs that I could follow to the bridge maybe. The top of the Blue Fire seemed like a modern day yacht almost, except for the huge guns at the front and back of the ship, as well as other things I could not identify in my quick scan of the deck.
Aliana seemed to follow us to the deck and we three stood at the front of the ship as the wind passed through my hair I could only smile. I looked ahead and saw a massive city with towering walls, and a Palace of white stone with blue crytaline capped peakes that was the size of mountain. I dont understand the impossible scale of this building, but it is a work of art. I can see the city sprawling ahead in the cloudless afternoon sunlight, and it was a scene that would be worthy of a wide screen monitor.