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Eris dodged a shot from an Acolyte Eye and sliced through a Taken Thrall with her sword as she spun. The shadowy Ogre in front of her stomped on the ground and she lost her footing as a Knight sliced down with its sword. Eris rolled. The blade landed just behind her head.
She threw a knife into the Ogre just as it was about to send a gout of Arc energy out of its eye. Her aim was true and it knocked the ogre’s head back briefly. Her Stasis-covered Ahamkara bone smashed through the Acolyte Eye that was shooting at her, shattering it in a burst of light.
Eris parried the Taken Knight’s sword with her own and rolled to her feet, slicing upwards, placing the knight between her and the ogre. The knight shoved her back and she fell down to one knee. Eris twitched her fingers and her frozen sphere slammed into the back of the knight’s head, killing it.
As the knight went down, Loud Lullaby barked eight times hitting the exact centre of the Ogre’s face behind it and it, too, fell back dead.
Beside her ear, the Drifter’s ghost emitted its single tone softly. Eris nodded.
***
“I should’a figured it out when I realized whoever it was, was targeting Spider,” the Drifter said from the chair he was now seated in, wiping his face with a damp cloth.
“That would’a been a good indication, yeah.” Miri poured the cognac into five glasses and slid them across the table to the Drifter, Pickleface and the two Cabal. “But I have been trying to be subtle, and everyone does think I’m dead-dead, so...” She shrugged and took a sip. She smiled, looking down at the glass. “You did bring the good stuff! Nice.”
“You do realize you’re hurting the entire House of Light too when you’re doin’ what you’re doin’, right?” he asked her.
Miri glared at him over the top of her glass. “If you dance with the devil, you’re gonna get burned.”
“We ain’t just talkin’ about pirates, kid,” the Drifter continued. “We’re talkin’ civilians and children. Now I know…”
Next to the Drifter, a Hive portal appeared. Asp-quick, Miri was standing with a submachine gun trained on it. The two Cabal, also standing, had blades in their hands. Pickleface dove under the table.
“Nonono! It’s ok! She’s a friend!” The Drifter stepped between Miri and the portal, his hands open and his arms wide as Eris Morn tumbled through the malachite-coloured oval, still panting.
The portal disappeared.
The Drifter looked down at her quickly and saw her frozen Ahamkara bone. “Shit, Moondust, you been fightin’ somethin’ over there? You ok?”
“Taken blights… all over the area. Hundreds incoming. You have… perhaps a few minutes before they arrive.”
“What?” the long-haired woman asked, looking from Eris to the Drifter and back again, her submachine gun still ready.
“Miri, this is Eris. Eris this is… Admiral Miri. And kid,” he turned back to Miri. “I strongly recommend you get your people outta here while they still breathin’ or they won’t be breathin’ very much longer.” He crouched down next to Eris, his eyes flicking over her, looking for injuries.
“You’re serious,” said Miri.
At the sound of Miri’s voice, the Drifter’s ghost flew out of Eris’ pocket and hovered above her, clicking and blinking its light before excitedly emitting its tone over and over again.
“Yes,” Eris said between gasps, wiping a small amount of blood from a split lip, her paracausal tears smeared on her cheeks. “They are manifesting from the Ascendent plane. The blights are growing rapidly. Once they attain sufficient size, they will breach and everything waiting on the other side will emerge. You have very little time.”
***
Miri frowned and looked at the Drifter. “I don’t trust you.”
He shrugged. “That’s fair.”
Miri looked at Eris. “And I don’t know you.”
Eris sighed in exasperation.
“But you,” Miri pointed at the Drifter’s ghost. It spun its shell excitedly, opening and closing the flaps as it did so. “You, telling me this is legit?”
The ghost bobbed up and down quickly.
Miri took four steps, pressed several buttons on the arm of the high backed chair, put an earpiece into her left ear, and began giving orders in a mishmash of Eliksni, Ulurant and a human language Eris did not recognize.
Less than a minute later Eris felt the ship they were on begin to move.
“We are abandoning your ship?” she asked the Drifter as he helped her into a chair and handed her the glass of cognac.
“Your engines are damaged.” Pickleface said, emerging from under the table, punctuating his words with insect-like clicking sounds. “And your ship is attached to ours, yes? It will come with us.”
“I've got reports of Taken on deck on three ships. Captain.” Miri’s tone reminded Eris a bit of Zavala. Calm, authoritative, strong. “One of them’s yours. Go see to your crew.”
Pickleface stood and bowed to Eris and the Drifter slightly, bowed deeply to Miri, pulled out four Arc blades and transmatted away.
“Mung, Vizzen, you're with me.” The two Cabal grunted their acknowledgement.
“You need help, kid?” the Drifter asked from beside Eris.
“Yeah.” Miri looked back at him as she walked to the door. “Help me out by staying the fuck out of my way.”
“Figured you’d say that. Offer’s open if ya change your mind.”
“The way you go through crew, my people are better off askin’ the Taken for help. Sit tight, grandpa. We'll come get you when it’s safe. Don’t want ya to trip an’ hurt yourself.”
“Oooh!” the Drifter put his thumb and index finger against his lips and mock-flinched. “Still full of fire.”
Miri raised her middle finger in the air facing behind her toward him as she walked out the door, submachine gun ready in her other hand, the two Cabal close behind.