Destiny Grimoire

Tighten your grip.

The metallic limbs of the Vex Goblin flailed wildly in the air as Saint-14 held it high above his head. The Titan dropped abruptly to one knee, bringing down the writhing Vex and cracking the radiolarian chamber at its center against his massive thigh.

The red light in the Vex's eye flickered out as the cooling radiolaria trickled down Saint's boot. He stood, satisfied, and cast the dead frame aside.

"Do you see?" he asked brightly. "I use the very weight of the creature against it!"

"Whoa," came Failsafe's voice over the comms, low and impressed. Saint's visual feed held her full attention. She adjusted her filter, and her tone became cheery. "Please show me again!"

"You cannot get this close to them all the time, but it is wise to save ammunition when you can," Saint said. He dusted off his hands and chuckled. "And it feels good to crush a Vex! It is very therapeutic!"

"Ah, I believe I understand!" chirped Failsafe. "Is there a power transfer during this thanatotic expression that explains how you are able to maintain such high uptime on your socialization filters?"

Saint slid his helmet off and the comms transferred seamlessly to his built-in Exo earpiece. "What is it you mean?"

"I will rephrase," Failsafe replied. "What percentage of your processes are dedicated to positive outlook preservation?"

Saint squinted at the stone outcroppings of Nessus and turned his helmet over in his hands. "Failsafe," he began kindly, but she interrupted.

"Ugh, okay," she started, her tone somehow portraying an eyeroll. "I mean, you're in a good mood, like, all the time, so obviously you overclocked your joviality banks or something, yeah?"

Saint broke into a wide smile. "Exos are not like AI. I am just who I am, Failsafe. It does not take anything extra to be me."

"Oh!" Failsafe exclaimed after a moment. "How lovely that must be for you!" Her sunny voice did little to hide her envy.

"Now for you, I understand it is different," Saint said, patting his helmet as if to soothe it. "But I think that maybe you should not have to spend extra power to talk to your friends."

A heavy silence fell over the comms.

Failsafe's voice was soft and reserved. "Saint-unit?" she said quietly.

"Yes?"

"Did you once headbutt a Kell?"

Saint burst into laughter. "I have headbutted many things!"

"I'm checking on your files, and uh, yeah, you really have," Failsafe said. She scrolled through a vast sea of Saint's accomplishments, all complete with uploads of his visual feed… except one.

"Weird… Saint-unit, there's an unconfirmed VanNet report here about an unsanctioned solo operation in Savathûn's throne world sometime last year. According to this—"

"Who made this report?" Saint asked.

Failsafe accessed a VanNet profile and was met with a stream of account flags. "A heavily restricted user account, MRU, who claims firsthand knowledge of the event."

"Pfah," Saint said dismissively. "You cannot believe every report in the system." He slid his helmet back on and walked purposefully toward a shimmering radiolarian stream where Vex were beginning to emerge.

Failsafe recognized the subtle inflections in Saint's tone: the conversation had become suddenly troubling to him.

Probably not enough juice in his cordiality partition, Failsafe thought, and dropped the subject.

Untethered Edge Grips

Savathûn flew heavily through the shifting skies of her Throne World. She struggled to build speed; her wings seemed frustratingly stiff following her resurrection. She felt slow and uncoordinated, as if her body was not yet entirely her own. She frowned and drifted to the side, favoring her right, and did not see the spinning disk of Void energy until it caught her low in the thorax and sent her tumbling to the ground.

There was a terrible noise, a flash of purple metal, and then… it was over.

Immaru materialized in a burst of Light. He looked down at Savathûn, and then up to Saint-14, who stood over her body.

"Already?" Immaru muttered in disbelief.

Saint's face was hidden beneath his helmet. The lavender ribbons on his armor swayed and trailed with each heavy breath. It took him a moment to acknowledge the Ghost.

"I heard you were in Vanguard custody," Saint said.

"I'm not a prisoner," Immaru sniffed. "More like an insurance policy. Anyway, I could sense something happened and Eris let me come down and check it out."

Saint nodded, his focus still on Savathûn. "Something happened, yes," he said, and nudged the pile of broken chitin and crumpled wings with his boot.

Immaru hovered close to Savathûn. "I'm not even gonna ask," he said while channeling his Light.

Savathûn rose to her knees. She took a raspy breath, opened her eyes, and found Saint. She smiled. "For Os—"

Saint stopped her.

Immaru flew into Saint's face. "All right!" he shouted. "You've made your point!"

Saint wiped the steaming ichor from his visor with a thumb and gestured to Savathûn's remains. "Again," he said pointedly.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Immaru replied and initiated his transmat.

Saint suddenly flared with Void energy. He threw his palms out to his sides, and a violet Ward of Dawn dome burst from him.

Immaru felt it ripple through him like a pressure wave, disrupting his transmission. He bobbed unsteadily—he was unable to see. But he could feel, and now Saint's armored hand gripped him so tightly that a hairline split ran through his shell.

"You will bring her back," Saint said.

"I'm getting a little tired of you people threatening to kill me," Immaru said into the muffled void.

Saint's fist loosened by a fraction. "You will bring her back, and I give my word that you and she will both leave when I am finished."

"When you're finished?" Immaru echoed, and he felt Saint release him. He sensed for Savathûn's form hidden in the blackness. He grimaced, focused his Light, and Savathûn began to rise once more.

"Savathûn," Saint said, and killed her.

"You are very new to resurrection as a Lightbearer."

"In the beginning, there is a weakness when you first come back."

"Like waking from a deep sleep. From a coma."

"That is why I can best you; you are still unsteady."

"You are Hive, and you know suffering. You come from death. It is nothing to you."

"But I think, maybe, you do not know how it feels to be helpless."

"I will teach you."

---

After a long, long time, Saint was finished. The dome vanished, exposing the Exo, the Ghost, and the god to the murky Throne World sky.

Saint slowly keyed in his transport request and removed his helmet. As he transmatted out, he looked once more at Savathûn.

"This was not for Osiris," he said, his voice hoarse and ragged.

"This was for me."

---

When Saint returned home, Osiris met him at the door. "You were gone for a while. That must have been quite the patrol," he said. "Are you hungry?"

And Saint-14—the greatest Titan who ever lived—fell into his open arms and wept.

Proportionality

An immeasurable change.

"Thank you," Saint-14 said, and in the same casual breath, added, "I love you."

The Consensus office was quiet but for the gentle hum of the terminals displaying Guardian feeds. Saint sat at his desk, where Osiris had just handed him a datapad with the day's list of tactical reports. That was all. It was something he had done so many times in the course of their work that he could not number them. Now his partner was moving through the data idly, seemingly unaware of Osiris as he stood there staring.

"… Excuse me?" Osiris said, as if he had simply misheard. Then he softened. "Saint…"

He had never heard those words from Saint before, had not known until this moment the Exo's precise feelings. Not in those terms. The Titan looked up at him with an inscrutable expression before smiling coyly.

"Ah, did I surprise you?" Saint asked. "I only say what I am feeling in the moment. But it is true, Osiris. What I am feeling now."

"I…" Osiris said, lost for words. There was a long silence, the moment stretching taut to breaking before Saint spoke again.

"The great Osiris himself," Saint said, chuckling, his voice full of wonder. "Speechless!"

Osiris looked at him. Despite his tone, there was a hint of uncertainty in Saint's eyes. But then the Exo's expression softened, and he reached for Osiris's hand. The Warlock took it.

"Say it only when you are ready," Saint said. "When you feel it too. Not a moment before."

He squeezed Osiris's hand once before letting it go and turning back to the reports.

Osiris looked at his partner. He had done something so small that he hadn't given it a second thought. But there had been so many other gestures and feelings that had come together in this moment. Little favors and kindnesses that he had performed for him, also without a second thought.

Perhaps that was his love.

Semitone Shift