Light, Stasis, and Ice

Chapter 4: Context

Rick set a glass of water down on the table to the Knight's Of Favonius meeting room. "Okay...so...Here we all are. Now, I've kept some stuff from you all. Not because I don't trust you with the information...but more so..." Rick paused. "It sounds...crazy."

"With all due respects, Mr. Anderson, we've had our fair share of crazy. I think we can handle a little more." Master Jean said.

"Well...could you handle it if I said the creatures we are here to talk about are aliens?" Rick asked. The knights in the room all perked up at the information. "Because they are."

The man with blue hair, Kaeya, laughed. "Are you expecting us to believe that?"

Rick shrugged. "I mean, you all have had your fair share of crazy...so..." He sighed. "Alright...I'll just make this simple. Short meetings are the best kind of meetings."

Rick reached into his satchel and pulled out a datapad, he entered some information, before tossing it onto the table. Above the datapad, an Image of a Taken knight appeared. The knights looked stunned.

"These creatures are called Taken. They are a manifestation of darkness. How they were created, I'm not sure. But a long time ago, my fellow Guardians found the leader of these things." Rick pressed a button on the pad and the image switched. He could see the apprehensiveness of the Knights at the thing that was being projected.

"This is Oryx, The Taken King. He was slain about seven years ago."

"But...these...Taken are still active?"

Rick nodded. "Oryx had two siblings, Xivu Arath, and Savathûn. If I remember correctly, Savathûn was the one who took control of the Taken, but there have been some reports that they are following the orders of Xivu Arath."

"How much of a threat are the siblings to us?" Master Jean asked.

Rick thought for a second. "Well...I couldn't say that. But like I said, the Taken themselves are a big threat. They have claimed the lives of many a Guardian."

The room was silent for a second, before Eula spoke up. "So these Guardians are special warriors created to fight these Taken?"

Rick nodded. "Yeah." While that was not technically wrong, there were many more reasons Guardians existed, but Rick wouldn't say anything about it. "In any case, I'll give you information on the way they attack, the different types, and other basic info. But I will stress this." Rick looked at them with intensity. "Under no circumstances approach them without proper intel. These things will not hesitate to kill you."

With that, the Knights began filing out of the meeting room. Only Eula had stayed behind.

"So...is this the truth? The absolute truth?"

Rick nodded. "At this point, there is no reason to deny it. They're aliens, and they want to destroy everything here."

Eula nodded, and began pacing around the room. "You said this...Oryx...was slain seven years ago?" Rick nodded. "How come we've never heard of any of this? Or seen any of these Taken until now."

Crap. Rick had to think of something fast. "We Guardians did our best to keep things under wraps. If the whole of Teyvat had found out about these things, chaos would ensue. So we tried to deal with them as quickly as possible."

"But then they got by your defenses, and they sent you to deal with the situation." Eula hummed. "And what about the crater?"

"Oh...that? A Taken creature had fallen from the sky somehow. It charged at me and I killed it as soon as possible."

Eula hummed once more and nodded, before looking at the datapad. "You Guardians have some pretty...interesting technology. It's nothing I've ever seen before."