Wahei's head jerked up as she heard the clanging on the door to her sanctum, quickly releasing the tension in her arm, then flicking a finger at the wall. A curtain dropped to cover the space across from her, and she blinked a few times to lubricate her eyes, dried out after a long unblinking stare. She tapped her comm. "Who is it?"
"Wahei, it's me." Eris Morn. "This is urgent. Please!"
The Warlock took out her umbral rosary and tangled it in her fingers, making a few flicks across its hand-carved beads, shifting her wards down out of defense mode, and then unlocked the door. Eris did not enter as it swung open, instead looking firmly at her with her thrice-green gaze. "It is as I feared," she began. "We were too late."
Wahei did not need to ask. "Calus. He's ascended?"
Eris shook her head. "I do not believe he has yet, but the Lunar Pyramid has surged to life in spite of our efforts. It has begun resonating. I believe Calus is assuming control."
Wahei immediately turned to her equipment racks, pulling on her armor and robes. "We'll have to stop him. Do the others know?"
"Yes. If we strike now, as one," Eris continued, "at the heart of Calus's presence within the Leviathan, we may yet be able to prevent him from turning the power of the Pyramid against us."
The Warlock nodded. "I'll contact my fireteam. Morgan, Rega, and Shaman together should be able to help burn through any resistance you encounter on the Leviathan."
Eris Morn was no fool, and she noted Wahei's choice of words. "You are not coming?"
She shook her head as she considered her weapon rack. "I will be attacking from a different angle. Calus's psychic imprint is huge, and he's trying to slither out of the Leviathan like a crab grown too large for its shell. I'm going to cut him off before he can reach his new one." Wahei contemplated her weapons again, and decided that there would be a deep irony in using the trophies that the exiled emperor had given her as payment for services rendered. She holstered an Austringer on her hip, then checked the clip on an Epicurean, and examined the edge of her Death's Razor.
Eris blinked. "You're going into the Pyramid?"
Wahei slammed her sword into its sheath. "It's the only way to be sure I can catch his psychic shadow and force it into the Light. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to be sure he won't overwhelm me." She began to pack some items from her work table into her satchel as she went. She paused, and picked up a jar, one festooned with sigils and wards, iron wiring wrapped around it. Its contents shimmered faintly with a sanguine luster. "There should be enough power in this phantasmal energy I bound after a few containment rituals to kick off one final severing." She handed this to Eris, before sliding a second one into her pack. "And one for me, to use inside the Pyramid."
The Light's Witch examined the jar. "Egregore, bound and contained," she noted. She looked up again. "You've been paying attention to my work," she noted, with no small note of pride.
Wahei smirked. "You may be the foremost expert on Hive arcana, but I'm fast catching up."
"I've no doubt you'll see great things with your insights," Eris said, and clasped her forearm. "Be careful, Wahei. Going into a Pyramid always carries risks."
"I'm a Guardian," the Warlock shrugged. "Trouble follows."
