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Mercury has never been so loud or so cold. This was the last place Blaine had truly allowed himself to call home, and now he stands at the heart of the forge to see that . It doesn’t block out the sun completely here the way it does standing at the top of Brother Vance’s tower. The last Empyreal Magistrate isn’t sure if his heart could bear it if it did. There’s a pull in his chest that calls him away from the sun to the darkness of the vessel, and he hates it. Its call echoes through his soul trying to woo him toward the Darkness. The only place that the feeling is silenced is when he stands next to the heart of the forge as he does now. It is when he stands here that he gets to wonder if this feeling is the seed of grief and pain in his chest that calls for more or if it truly is the pull of the Darkness still.
His hand seeks out the forge of its own accord, and the sunforge comes to life under his touch. It sings and hums through him. In a way, that Light is comforting. It offers everything it can to ease his suffering, and the Guardian’s heart quakes against his ribs at the thought. He thinks for a moment that he might go to Osiris. They’d talk circles around each other; trying to plan the best course of action together. How can they save what is left of this broken world? Blaine doesn’t want to talk about strategies though. He wouldn’t mind it, but what he truly wants is the quiet companionship of just being close to another. Just standing in the presence of another Guardian and feeling their Light, alive in the sense the forge is, only both different and more. He wouldn’t mind Osiris’ endless mumblings to himself or his reflections. Pele and Sangria hovering around him to see what he busies his hands with. The thought feels too intimate. Osiris seems to know every time Blaine seeks him out for business versus for his selfish and vain needs. Pain always seeps into the corners of his eyes when it is the latter. The memory of it hurts. Osiris is probably the only Guardian left he gets to share this pain with. He had known the breakers for more than just business. They were tools to help him reach his goals, yes, but Blaine is not so foolish to see that under all that Osiris is just another man, warlock or not.
Blaine thinks of the broken body of the second Magistrate thorn between the present and the past with a shattered ghost beside him. Blaine hadn’t been able to finish the words when he saw Osiris next. Osiris had always mused that Aodh would have been a better warlock than titan. They had been much more like brothers than friends. They fought each other brutally and spat cruel words they didn’t mean, but Aodh would always be there to answer Osiris’ call. Blaine hadn’t been able to tell him. However, he didn’t need to. Osiris knew from the moment he said his name with a tremor in his lip that Aodh was dead. Another body for the pile of the people Osiris once relied on. He wonders quietly how large it will get before his own ends up among them.
Osiris turns from him back toward the Infinite Forest. “If that is all, I have other business to tend to.” It doesn’t sound as steady as Blaine imagines Osiris wanted too. His hands are clenched in tight fists with a slight shake running through them. Blaine had only ever seen his mentor’s hands shake in that way one other time.
-
They stand before the Consensus. Aodh is at their head with his kind eyes and gentle voice. He is acting Empyreal Magistrate because the First Magistrate lays dead in the rumble of the last battle. You mean war. Pele whispers in the back of his mind. Blaine hushes her softly with his hand, pushing her closer to his shoulder. He doesn’t disagree though. All of them had lost something precious in that battle. Liu Feng eyes him both curious and warning at the gesture to his ghost. They could not afford to look weak here. The Sunbreakers needed the City to need them, not the other way around. Aodh had asked both Liu Feng and Blaine to join him at the meeting to “show off their best.” Blaine wasn’t sure it was wise to show up with two Guardians that had refused direct orders in the last battle. Lord Shaxx seemed to have a soft spot for Liu after all the times she had pulled him from the blood and destruction. Perhaps that was what Aodh was betting on, the commander to side with them. That way they could assure they had at least one voice of support.
Aodh states their demands at length. They are lengthy. He demands the Magistrate be given a seat on the Consensus and that the Sunbreakers retain their freedom. The sun’s code had to come first and the City second. Blaine doesn’t think they are unreasonable demands, but he isn’t foolish enough to know that if the Consensus takes them it will weaken their power. If they give the Sunbreakers the leeway they ask for, what is stopping warlock or hunter groups from asking for the same? Blaine had watched warlord kingdoms fall for less.
They aren’t pleased by the demands, and the Titan Vanguard is the first to voice his distaste. Blaine wonders how such a volatile guardian got placed in such an important position.
Liu’s Light nearly burns him with her anger. She’s snarling low in her throat as the Titan Vanguard speaks.
“What gives you a right to such claims? You are mercenaries, not Guardians.” The words feel like venom, acid burning all three of them that stand before the crowd of Consensus members. It sizzles through their armor slowly to burn the mockingly human skin underneath. Aodh’s own anger is rising. Blaine can feel the weight of it as his Light builds, like a sea’s waves growing stronger. With every moment spent each wave grows stronger than the last as the storm rolls closer by the moment. Aodh keeps his composure as he speaks, but every Guardian in the room can feel his anger.
“Who promised we’d even hear such claims?” Zavala meets Liu’s snarl with a glare. Blaine closes his eyes, thankful for wearing his helm through the meeting. It is the only thing allowing him the privacy of his own rage at the silent challenge to Liu. He masks his Light the best he can even if it burns his veins to do so. At least the pain is distracting.
The Speaker’s head turns toward Osiris at the question. He’s mostly been silent, but his presence weights over the Consensus as if he were a dark cloud. Blaine can see the way he curls his fingers into a tight fist, posture unchanging from his relaxed position. Out of all of them, he is the one who cannot afford to lose his temper. Years without sound has left him observant enough to see the soft tremor in Osiris’ clenched fist.
He sits beside the rest of the Consensus, but it feels as if there's a wall built personally by the Speaker to separate him from the rest. Blaine wonders solemnly how lonely and infuriated he must be. Even the youngest Guardians know the rumors about him by now. Obsessed with the Vex. Obsessed with twisting the Darkness to his desires. Cold-hearted and cruel, caring nothing for the City. Caring nothing for the Traveler. His own student abandoned him in favor of the Speaker’s teaching. Isn’t that enough proof he’s turned from the Light? They were out of control and the Consensus did nothing to suppress them.
The meeting ends with exile.
-
Blaine considers the unopened messages. They’ve been there for years now. There is one from the Titan Vanguard, Lord Shaxx, Saladin, and any other guardian old enough to understand . They are soft and kind words that his heart doesn’t have the strength for. The seed of Darkness says that the words are meaningless and offer nothing. Blaine doesn’t argue.
He takes his hand from the forge with a sigh. Echos of Light reach out to curl around his fingers with the same appearance as solar flares. The sunforge chose him. It always had, but he still feels as if he is an imposter with the Magistrate’s blessing. The armor fits him perfectly. His crown is as bright as Ouros’ was, perhaps brighter. Yet, Blaine can’t help but think about how wrong it is when this power and blessing feels so right. His Light has never echoed through him this way. It feels vast and endless as if he draws his power directly from the sun, and the forge sings to meet his Light each time he steps back onto Mercury. But, this should be Ouros standing here.
The last Magistrate still comes when Osiris calls just as Ouros and Aodh had done before him. That’s why the Sundial had hurt so much. Osiris hadn’t called him.
Blaine reaches back for the sunforge. It feels like weakness, but the forge greets him with the same song as it always had. He can feel the almost comfort it offers. As if Aodh’s hand was on his shoulder, or Ouros had embraced him. Everyone before him or after echos through the song. Blaine can feel the traces left behind by their Light.
-
Osiris curses in his mother tongue under his breath. He’s hunched over his desk, gauntleted hands digging into the flesh of his face. The warlock’s voice is stern. “I cannot do what you ask of me.”
“It worked for Saint.” Blaine meets him up the stairway, following Osiris as he tries to retreat further to his machine. He’s talking with his hands, a soft smile on his face. Osiris’ stomach retches at how hopeful his eyes look. He hasn’t looked that happy since before .
He retreats further, but the titan follows him still because Osiris cannot have peace. “We would have help against the Darkness when it arrives. Ouros was one of the strongest titans to ever live. Liu Feng was an unrivaled smith. Aodh-”
“Enough!” Even though the echo of Osiris’ cry Blaine knows that the voice is calmer than his Light suggests he is.
Osiris cannot allow himself to admit he’d already tried and failed. It was a miracle the Sundial functioned well enough after the Legion’s take over to allow the Guardians to pull Saint back through. He still remembers the sight of seeing Saint breathing and not dead a top a thousand corpses. The most selfish of his inventions had brought him the most unbridled joy. He wonders bitterly when he’d gotten so soft.
Blaine looks up at him from his place on their stairs. Confusion. Desperation. Betrayal. The last Magistrate looks more like a child than a war machine with that broken expression. Blaine had always been too soft, too kind. That’s why Osiris and Aodh both had coddled him so.
“If I gathered a team-”
He lets his feet carry him further. Away from Blaine. Away from this. Coward , Sangria’s voice calls out to the back of his mind. He glares at her.
“Osiris-” The Sunbreaker is pleading.
“There would be no Light!” Osiris’ voice echoes around them loudly in his rage. “ You would just die with them!”
There’s a darkness that passes over Blaine’s eyes. That’s what he wants. Osiris feels his chest retch again.
Osiris mutters something soft as he addresses Blaine. It’s in his mother tongue. “To send you would be suicide. The others would be a great boon against the coming battle, but they are dead. All we have is what remains.”
He called you son. Pele’s voice is soft as Blaine watches Osiris pass through the Vex gate