"Katiri? Yeah, she's one of my housemates." Palmer smiles. "She and her Ghost."
Then he sobers again.
"Here's the gist of it. Last winter, things got weird here. Portals on the fritz, anti-violence field down. There was the worst winter storm I'd ever seen outside of Antarctica. Then strange, nasty creatures started showing up, and we found bodies in the snow with their heads cut off. We fought them a few times - intelligent, but vicious and not very chatty. We were hungry and weakened by cold, while they weren't bothered at all, so we were at a disadvantage. Blaze-37, our resident Guardian, later identified our attackers as Fallen raiders from House Winter. It all came to a head when the Fallen took food that had been left out for us. It was obviously a trap, but folks were starving, so we decided to take the chance. We won and brought the food home, but they made us fight for every inch of it. We lost a few people on the way - Josh, Blaze - but they lost more of theirs.
I thought they were just a bunch of assholes, keeping food from hungry people that it turns out they didn't need. But after the battle one of us, Loki, brought a message from the Fallen leader, Baroness Pelsor - and Blaze-37's head. When Blaze was taken down in the fight, Pelsor's crew scavenged her remains and took her Ghost prisoner. She offered us a deal through Loki: marked territory in the Wilds for her House in return for a ceasefire and Blaze and Ghost's lives. That land would be barred from non-Fallen on pain of death. If we said no, well, she didn't say what would happen, but we assumed she'd kill her hostages and order her forces to overrun the Nexus. So we took the deal. Pelsor gave us Ghost and Blaze back. That territory's marked off. No one goes there now. We haven't seen them since, but they can turn invisible, so..."
Palmer knows Katiri said Guardians have ways to detect Fallen, but they can't be everywhere at once. The fact he hasn't seen one doesn't mean they aren't out there, or that they haven't been watching from a safe distance.
"We weren't able to identify everyone who was killed, since the Fallen took the heads back home for trophies and we ain't getting them back. Katiri thinks they're using us Nexus folks as insurance to make sure you Guardians go along with their truce. There's enough of you to wipe her crew out, if you chose to. But if you attack them, they burn everything down." Palmer draws a finger across his throat. "I dunno much about Pelsor personally, but she's smart and dangerous. She was one step ahead of us all winter. I wouldn't be surprised if she's keeping tabs on us somehow. You Guardians especially. For what it's worth, I have the impression the Baroness thinks she won, or at least got what she wanted."
There are other people in the Nexus who would probably be as much or more of a potential threat to the Eliksni in terms of raw power, but the Guardians are their oldest enemies, so it makes sense that more of Pelsor's attention would be on them.
"The last thing is we don't really know how they got here. Blaze thinks they followed her in somehow. Katiri figures Pelsor might've had help from somebody in the Nexus. I thought they could've had spies already placed here in secret, who called in the main force during the storm. It wasn't a bunch of stragglers who stumbled in by accident - Pelsor brought a small army with gear, weapons, and ships, and didn't waste a second. I don't think it was a coincidence they showed up when we were already having a rough time, either. This stunt was planned."
no subject
Then he sobers again.
"Here's the gist of it. Last winter, things got weird here. Portals on the fritz, anti-violence field down. There was the worst winter storm I'd ever seen outside of Antarctica. Then strange, nasty creatures started showing up, and we found bodies in the snow with their heads cut off. We fought them a few times - intelligent, but vicious and not very chatty. We were hungry and weakened by cold, while they weren't bothered at all, so we were at a disadvantage. Blaze-37, our resident Guardian, later identified our attackers as Fallen raiders from House Winter. It all came to a head when the Fallen took food that had been left out for us. It was obviously a trap, but folks were starving, so we decided to take the chance. We won and brought the food home, but they made us fight for every inch of it. We lost a few people on the way - Josh, Blaze - but they lost more of theirs.
I thought they were just a bunch of assholes, keeping food from hungry people that it turns out they didn't need. But after the battle one of us, Loki, brought a message from the Fallen leader, Baroness Pelsor - and Blaze-37's head. When Blaze was taken down in the fight, Pelsor's crew scavenged her remains and took her Ghost prisoner. She offered us a deal through Loki: marked territory in the Wilds for her House in return for a ceasefire and Blaze and Ghost's lives. That land would be barred from non-Fallen on pain of death. If we said no, well, she didn't say what would happen, but we assumed she'd kill her hostages and order her forces to overrun the Nexus. So we took the deal. Pelsor gave us Ghost and Blaze back. That territory's marked off. No one goes there now. We haven't seen them since, but they can turn invisible, so..."
Palmer knows Katiri said Guardians have ways to detect Fallen, but they can't be everywhere at once. The fact he hasn't seen one doesn't mean they aren't out there, or that they haven't been watching from a safe distance.
"We weren't able to identify everyone who was killed, since the Fallen took the heads back home for trophies and we ain't getting them back. Katiri thinks they're using us Nexus folks as insurance to make sure you Guardians go along with their truce. There's enough of you to wipe her crew out, if you chose to. But if you attack them, they burn everything down." Palmer draws a finger across his throat. "I dunno much about Pelsor personally, but she's smart and dangerous. She was one step ahead of us all winter. I wouldn't be surprised if she's keeping tabs on us somehow. You Guardians especially. For what it's worth, I have the impression the Baroness thinks she won, or at least got what she wanted."
There are other people in the Nexus who would probably be as much or more of a potential threat to the Eliksni in terms of raw power, but the Guardians are their oldest enemies, so it makes sense that more of Pelsor's attention would be on them.
"The last thing is we don't really know how they got here. Blaze thinks they followed her in somehow. Katiri figures Pelsor might've had help from somebody in the Nexus. I thought they could've had spies already placed here in secret, who called in the main force during the storm. It wasn't a bunch of stragglers who stumbled in by accident - Pelsor brought a small army with gear, weapons, and ships, and didn't waste a second. I don't think it was a coincidence they showed up when we were already having a rough time, either. This stunt was planned."