Zara contorted herself to slip into the narrow tunnel. The wall was both rough and viscous, like wet mold. The stinking smell of the worm penetrated the filters in her helmet, causing the Warlock to gag.

"I can go searching by myself, you know..." Koryl was floating next to her temple, his beam illuminating the path.

"Good idea." Zara paused to catch her breath. "And I'll just have to go home to Eris and tell her that my Ghost has been devoured by Hive worms."

"When you put it like that, naturally..." The small drone jumped up and advanced a few meters. "I'm detecting low sterile particle emissions on the right. This way!"

The Guardian followed him to a fork in the road, which led to a gut dimly lit by bunches of greenish crystals. She breathed a sigh of relief as she stood up and massaged her aching muscles. They had been crawling for several hundred meters.

"I feel like I'm trapped in the digestive system of a giant," Koryl said.

"I'II do without that kind of comment... Do you have a better signal?"

"Yup. It's right above."

Guided by her Ghost, Zara climbed up the narrow ledges that dotted the walls of the gut. Her feet slipped on the chitinous surface, but she managed to reach the top. Amid a pile of decaying bones was a black star-shaped gem, shimmering with a faint bluish glow. The Warlock smiled and grabbed the calcified fragment, let go from her grip, and wiped her hands with a satisfied look.

"That's one more. Koryl, can you transmat us out of here?"

"I'm picking up the signal from the Breach beacon. Stand by..."

The Ghost vanished and the duo was transmatted, leaving the Dreadnought's tunnels plunged back into darkness.

"Hold on a minute." Zara stared at Saturn's rings beyond the dark gothic structures of the Trench. "This is not the landing zone."

"Indeed," replied a hoarse voice.

The Guardian turned around. In front of her, a transmat beacon at his feet, stood a Hunter. His face was masked, and his cape went around his shoulders, falling just below his knees. Only one place was not hidden by the battered cloth: his hip, from which hung a finely crafted hand cannon, recognizable among a thousand.

"Shin Malphur. To what do I owe the honor?"

"It is I who ask the questions, Warlock."

Zara crossed her arms in a nonchalant manner, but her muscles were tense. Koryl remained hidden. When the Man with the Golden Gun showed up, it was rarely to chit-chat. Her eyes ranged from the impenetrable mask of the Hunter to the grip of his hand cannon.

"Fine, I'm listening."

"This fragment you hide. Show me."

She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and reached out her hand to the Hunter. She loosened her fist, and the man grabbed the black stone, which glowed at his touch, spitting out a cloud of pale sparks, like the embers of a dying fire.

"Do you know what it is?" The Hunter turned the object in his gloved hand, examining its ethereal reflections in the light of the distant Sun.

"Of course, I do. It is a calcified fragment. It contains a part of the Books of Sorrow, the sacred texts of the Hive."

"What do you plan to do with it?" He returned the gem to her.

"To study them." She put it in a pocket without taking her eyes off him.

"These texts contain great knowledge. As you know, Warlock, they go hand in hand with power."

"What are you getting at?" Zara resisted the temptation to take a step backwards.

Don't be suspicious... But what can I blame myself for?

"Do you know who else is in pursuit of this knowledge?"

"The Shadows of Yor," she spat. "I have nothing to do with them, if that's what you think."

"Oh, really?" The Hunter examined her from head to toe. Was he looking for something? "Since the death of Oryx, you have hardly set foot in the City. You have abandoned the missions of the Vanguard..."

"Because you yourself often take part in it?"

The answer came on its own. The man's mask straightened instantly. Zara did not need to see his eyes to know that he was looking daggers at her. For a second, his fist glowed red.

"I’mthe one asking the questions. I've been watching you lately. I know you spend whole days on this cursed ship, taking only a few hours to rest in Vesta. You haven't joined your fireteam since the Taken attacked. You are staying in isolation, searching for artifacts of the Darkness."

The man marked a break. His hand made a movement in the direction of The Last Word, and Zara had to make a tremendous effort not to grasp her sidearm. An icy shiver ran up her spine.

Will I be able to draw fast enough? And why do I ask myself this question?

"It's ridiculous," she replied, crossing her arms to avoid any involuntary reflexes. "You've found the person who has the least in common with the Shadows."

"You're not the first to say that."

"I don't have Toland's obsession or Dredgens' cowardice. My research is purely scientific."

"That's not what your Vanguard thinks. Your description of the sword logic has nothing to envy Eris Morn's."

"Was it Ikora who sent you to find me?" Malphur bowed his head slightly, and Zara smiled despite herself. "No, Ikora told you it wasn't necessary, and yet you came. We've known each other since long, before the beginning of your crusade. I am one of her Hidden, and she trusts me."

"That's why I came to check it out. Trust is too often blind to let a potential Shadow escape."

"We all have a difficult job..."

"Yet you love it." The Hunter turned slightly to the dark arches. "I can feel it. All this knowledge, all this power fascinates you. I've seen the most valiant Guardians surrender to the Dark. All it takes is a small impulse, a simple whisper... You are no different. You answer His call."

"There are many ways to respond. A howl can cover a whisper."

Malphur remained silent. His hand was still resting on the grip of his weapon.

"Before you pass sentence," she continued, "know one thing: The Hive fascinates me because it holds many secrets. But each word extracted from the Books of Sorrow makes me want to burn this Dreadnought to ashes. Its mere presence makes me sick. But it is not by ignoring its cause that an infection is eradicated."

Zara took out the calcified fragment. "There are already too many shadows in this place for you to imagine new ones, Shin Malphur. You weren't on the Moon when Crota wiped us out. I hate the Hive and the Darkness it serves. Nothing could make me happier than to see the ideology of Yor disappear."

The Hunter stared at her for a long time.

"In this case," he finally replied, letting go of his weapon, "we share the same goal. I give you a chance, Warlock. Dance with the Darkness. If you lose your balance, I will find you."

The Man with the Golden Gun disappeared, and a jumpship split space a few moments later. Koryl appeared before Zara, who was struggling to assimilate what had just happened.

"Did you just snub the most dangerous man in the Solar System?"

"Some people might take that remark badly."

"Zara..."

"He screwed up his job. Everybody makes mistakes..."

"I told you that you were too metaphorical in your reports. Do you think he does this kind of thing to all Guardians?"

"Hm. I will talk to Ikora about it."

"That said, he was right: you spend far too much time on the Dreadnought. He's only the second person to tell you that..."

Koryl winked and Zara smiled, outlining a gesture of surrender.

"All right, Little Light. If they don't quarantine us for bad smells, we'll be home at night."