Foreword: I've been especially active in the r/DestinyJournals subreddit as of late, and began writing a number of different shorts. I'm going to start re-posting them here.
TYPE: Transcription
DESCRIPTION: Communication with person of interest
PARTIES: Three [3]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Rhodes-6 [R6]; One [1] Ghost-type, designate Apollo [AP]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI#0247)
ASSOCIATIONS: Darkness; Luna; Mahal, Aunor; Ohr, Wahei; Praxic Archives; Praxic Order; Sword Logic; Tango, Charlie; Toland; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon
//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS//
[R6:01] Do we have the reports from the latest Tex Mechanica tournament?
[AP:01] I've looked at them, doesn't seem like there's much to worry us there.
[R6:02] Perhaps, but some of the latest C.I. reports suggest there are some would-be Dredgens using Crucible to farm Light for their heresies.
[AP:02] Ah, right. "Traveling Sorrow's Road," they call it, right?
[R6:03] Gotta look over the reports to be sure. Send the files to my tablet?
[AP:03] On the way--
[incoming call notification]
[AP:04] --oh, incoming call.
[R6:04] [sighs] I thought you put us on "do not disturb," Apollo?
[AP:05] I did. It's bypassed the block.
[R6:05] [pause] Only people with the authority to do that are either other Praxics--
[AP:06] And they know you're catching up on reports and paperwork, so they wouldn't interrupt you unless it were an emergency...
[R6:06] --or it's the Vanguard, and if it were the Vanguard, you'd have said. Did they hack us?
[AP:07] I don't recognize the encryption on the transmission--
[pause]
[R6:07] Apollo? What is it?
[AP:08] I tried to back-trace the transmission, and I can't quite tell, but... I think it's coming from Ohr.
[pause]
[AP:09] I'll get a recording going.
[R6:08] Good. Put her through.
[transmission opens]
[R6:09] Wahei Ohr.
[WO:01] Rhodes-6.
[R6:10] It's been... what, three years since we last spoke?
[WO:02] Since the Red War.
[R6:11] I'd given up trying to get in touch with you. You weren't returning any of my calls.
[WO:03] We were all in a strange place over the last few years. Between Lightloss, Cayde, the Nightmares...
[R6:12] I had noticed you were way more involved in field work in recent years. Not doing as much research as you used to be.
[WO:04] I've been doing plenty of research. It just tends to be in the field. Studying the enemy, sort of thing.
[R6:13] I see. You know, we do have extensive records for that sort of thing.
[WO:05] Yes. But you wouldn't give me the records I wanted.
[pause]
[R6:14] Wahei--
[WO:06] And I know you're trying to trace this call. Any second now, your Ghost will pipe up and say that I'm in the Dreaming City--
[AP:10] Rhodes, she's in the Dreaming City!
[pause]
[R6:15] Thank you, Apollo. [beat] Wahei--
[WO:07] Save it, Rhodes. I know you're trying to track me because of the break-in at the Archives.
[R6:16] You-- [sighs] Yes, there are standing orders to bring you in for questioning.
[WO:08] "Questioning." Is that what you call it now?
[R6:17] We aren't in the habit of torturing people, Wahei.
[WO:09] Then what happened to Sola?
[R6:18] Sola... wouldn't come quietly.
[WO:10] Good.
[R6:19] Excuse me?
[WO:11] Oh, I don't mean "good" that she didn't come quietly.
[R6:20] You... approve of what we did to her?
[WO:12] Sola was too easily swayed. The only thing I'll offer in her defense is that the great enemy can be... very convincing.
[pause]
[R6:21] We're trying to rehabilitate her Ghost.
[WO:13] Good. But don't ignore everything that it has to say. Insight is never unwelcome.
[R6:22] "Insight." Is that what you're looking for in that damned book?
[WO:14] Do you know, I don't think that "damned" is a viable descriptor for a book. A book is just an object, it has no morals, so it cannot sin. And "sin" is a subjective thing, depending on one's beliefs. What was a sin to the followers of one god, is not a sin to the followers of another, and that's before you get into differing sects among a god's followers--
[R6:23] Wahei. You know ordinarily I'd enjoy having a philosophical discussion like this, but when we're talking about Toland's unfinished compendium, the description of "damned" is appropriately apt.
[WO:15] Again, that's debatable.
[R6:24] Wahei!
[WO:16] No. Listen. I'm not defending Toland's ultimate philosophy. There are flaws to that way of thinking. The Logic of the Sword is, on its surface, a viable approach to amassing power.
[R6:25] What?!
[WO:17] But only up to a point, and past that point, the costs of adhering to it become clear.
[R6:26] It's a slippery slope, Wahei. And it's not always easy to see where the line is when you start walking in Darkness.
[WO:18] Have you ever heard me disagree, Rhodes? I'm not advocating using Sword Logic as a means of growing in power. At best, it is a means of turning our enemies' power against them. And even then, only if augmented with the power of the Light.
[R6:27] Wahei, you can't trust what's written in that book.
[WO:19] Discounting Toland's discoveries about the nature of our enemy is a mistake. If it hadn't been for the things that he had divulged to Eris Morn-- or the things that she learned herself, down in the Hellmouth-- then Crota would have arisen to slaughter us all, and if not him, then certainly Oryx would have.
[R6:28] Toland was a madman. He was exiled for a reason, and you know that there are a lot of people in the City who believe that he got the rest of Eriana's fireteam killed.
[WO:20] I... can't say one way or the other whether that's true. Certainly, his writings-- even the proscribed ones-- don't give any indication what his intents were. Apart from wanting to hear the Deathsong.
[R6:29] Yes, and now we're getting reports that his spirit-- or whatever it's supposed to be-- is lurking in the Ascendant Realms and on Luna, trying to lecture Guardians about his beliefs. What worries us is that people do seem to be listening to him.
[WO:21] Good. As long as they keep in mind that his is only one perspective, there's nothing wrong with hearing him out.
[R6:30] He advocates embracing the Sword Logic. And that one of the Lightbearers who slayed him should assume Oryx's Throne.
[WO:22] As if the Hive would ever follow our will.
[R6:31] And yet you're saying that Toland has good ideas?
[WO:23] Not necessarily "good" ideas. But ideas that are still worth hearing out, and the things he's learned about the Darkness should never be disregarded.
[R6:32] The Darkness wants to wipe us out.
[WO:24] Spoken like a true Praxic.
[R6:33] Do I need to remind you about a little apocalypse called "The Collapse?!"
[WO] And out of the Collapse came the Ghosts, whence came Lightbearers. And it is the Lightbearers that are the only things keeping the Darkness from just rolling over us right now. Because we intrigue it.
[R6:34] And... what? You want us to keep amusing it until we can find a way to kill it?
[WO:25] You're talking about a paracausal entity from the primordial pretemporal metaspace whose power is, at best, several magnitudes above us. I think trying to kill something that is intrinsic to the universe is punching well above our weight class.
[R6:35] Then why even bother trying to understand it?! The way you're talking, you make it sound like it's impossible.
[WO:26] Maybe it is. But the alternative is letting it kill us all. So until a way to forestall that ending can be found, we must understand the enemy.
[R6:36] And you don't see how dangerous that is?
[WO:27] If you stand too close to the Light, it will blind you to things. I'm not advocating abandoning the Light or the Traveler or the City.
[R6:37] Wahei--
[WO:28] I'm just making this plain, Rhodes. I am not what Aunor thinks. I'm not a Dredgen. If we're going to survive, we must know more about the Darkness. What it wants and what it values. There must be a way to know it without succumbing to it. To surpass it without destroying it.
[R6:38] Wahei--
[WO:29] I don't know about you, Rhodes, but I am so terribly curious to know.
[transmission ends]
[pause]
[AP:11] Sorry, Rhodes, I tried to back-trace her, but it was bouncing around between satellites and relays. I didn't have enough time to untangle it.
[R6:39] Thank you, Apollo.
[AP:12] Should I raise Aunor on comms?
[R6:40] No.
[AP:13] What?
[R6:41] Keep the recording, but bury it. Encrypt it and stick it in the private server. If anyone asks, we don't mention this.
[AP:14] Rhodes!
[R6:42] I mean it, Apollo. Worse comes to worse, we can dig this up and present it to Mahal. But damn me, Wahei must just be right.
[pause]
[AP:15] I really hope she knows what she's doing.
[R6:43] You're not the only one.
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