Gilded Precept

Transcript

The Guardian discovers the entrance to the Lost Sector

The Ghost: Looks like this goes all the way inside the ship. I'm going to send some of this telemetry to the empress. She might be able to tell us something about what the Cabal here are doing.

Caiatl: You are pressing further into the Shadow Legion's territory? I see.

The Ghost: It's not like other Cabal ships we've been inside.

Caiatl: It wouldn't be. Calus has abandoned much of what made us Cabal. Still, there may be... worthwhile intelligence.

The Guardian bypasses the checkpoint leading towards the arena

Caiatl: What is the Earth idiom? Through a... mirror?

The Ghost: Empress?

Caiatl: Calus forbade the Rite of Proving... bureaucratically. An ancient tradition dying by inches. This suggests... it's as if the soldiers here have tried to reconstruct that rite, but have forgotten why it began.

The Ghost: Fighting just to fight?

Caiatl: Perhaps fighting only because the fight is forbidden.

The Guardian completes the Lost Sector

The Ghost: I can still restore you, Guardian, but I don't feel that comforting presence of the Traveler behind me when I do. The Light still comes, but it's from somewhere... deeper. If that makes any sense. or

The Ghost: Done and done. That's got to thin out the ranks some, right? I'll let Nimbus know what went down. or

The Ghost: I guess we can't keep the Cabal out of their own ship, huh? But we CAN make sure they don't enjoy being here. Not one bit. or

The Ghost: That wraps things up with those fighters. Caiatl will want to know they came back, though. I'll send a quick report. or

The Ghost: I know we've got the Crucible and all... but this feels different. I don't like it.

Caiatl: Valus Forge has had much to say about the Crucible. What do you see as the distinction?

The Ghost: At the end of the day, Guardians fighting to test their capabilities, or their teamwork... they have us. Ghosts. These Cabal don't. When they lose here, they lose badly, painfully... I don't understand it.

Caiatl: It is easy to believe there is purpose in pain when one has no other. They are to be pitied. or

The Ghost: Before, I couldn't imagine why these Cabal would throw their lives away for a momentary thrill, but ever since the Witness... Since the Traveler's battle with the Witness, there's this empty spot inside me. I'm beginning to feel like I'd do anything to distract myself from it. or

Caiatl: Calus loved the rewards of conquest without the effort of it. Praising gladiatorial victories without considering the months of discipline preceding.

The Ghost: Do you think that's why his Legion has been doing this? Training?

Caiatl: That might have been their purpose once. These arenas now look more like they fight each other only because they can. For entertainment.

The Ghost: Cabal and Guardians do that pretty differently... or

Caiatl: Traitors and deserters, the lot of them. You do the Cabal Empire a great service, Guardian.

The Ghost: All of them?

Caiatl: Any Cabal who have wound up here are no longer Cabal. There was ample opportunity to turn back. or

Caiatl: I see your report on Calus's Shadow Legion. You had a question?

The Ghost: I've been wondering: Can they really have just stopped being Cabal? Just like that? Even the Humans we don't particularly like are still, you know, Human.

Caiatl: This Shadow Legion has chosen to set aside centuries of our history to revel in destruction at the command of a despot. Would a Guardian who turned on your Last City still be Human?

The Ghost: ...I don't know. or

Caiatl: Another group of Calus's legionnaires dispatched. You handle yourself well, Guardian.