Under the Cover of Night

''“Save as many of them as you can, Sivo. But please, promise me you'll bring me my beautiful little Raio.” — Kel ‘Katamee.''

“Can't I pack my belongings?”

“There is no time, this Keep must be evacuated before the sun appears in the sky. It will be then that our adversaries will make themselves known.”

“None of this makes any sense. Why would we be in any danger?” Veia questioned as she grabbed the few things she felt were most dear to her. “Kel is an honorable and well liked Supreme Commander. Attacking our keep would only spark war!”

“I'm sorry to tell you this, Veia,” spoke the Ranger, Sivo 'Sufamee. “But Kel is no longer a Supreme Commander. The Hierarchs have named him Heretic as of yesterday.”

Sivo had no time to word it any better. Loyalists to the Covenant Empire would surely attack the families of all of Kel’s fleet, to make an example of them. Katam Keep would surely be the first to be attacked, at the crack of dawn.

“Heretic? Kel would never betray the Prophets!”

“We were ordered to exterminate an entire species, one that had already accepted our greater strength and had surrendered to spare their lives. None of us were willing to eradicate their planet.”

That was not entirely true. The crew of Kel’s flagship, the Harbinger of Reconciliation, was fairly divided on that matter. Sivo had fought back to back with the Supreme Commander in the resulting mutiny. Many unnecessary deaths occurred that day.

“How is everyone being evacuated?” Veia asked as she tried to carry some of the Katam family’s heirlooms. Realizing that she couldn't carry them all, she took one of the keepsakes, the helmet of a Kaidon long gone, and slipped her head into it. It's was a bit big for her, but she was still able to see out of it.

“We have landed a small wing of Phantoms in the valley to the east. We’ll use those to get back to the Thirst For Salvation, waiting for us in orbit. My brothers will guide you to the craft.”

Another, lesser woman of the Keep accidentally bumped into Sivo as she carried her sleeping child towards the front gate. He tried to ignore it.

“Your brothers? Why not you?”

Sivo decided it was best to answer her question with another. “Where is that beautiful swordswoman of yours? Your daughter, Raio?”

“What do you mean?” She asked rather quickly, almost dropping another object, an arum that appeared to have never been solved.

“When my brothers and I checked her room, she wasn't there. I promised him I would ensure her safety. He will see his daughter again.”

“She wasn't asleep?” Veia asked, worry in her voice. “Of all the nights in the world, why did she have to pick tonight to sneak out? If she's anywhere, she'd be practicing her art at the old dueling grounds near your village. That's where I found her the last few times.”

“Thank you, Keepmistress. Follow the crowd to the dropships. I must get going if I'm to find your daughter before dawn.”

“Be safe, Sivo.”

Raio 'Katamai was an odd one, for sure. From a very young age she showed passion for the art of swordsmanship, and her lifelong dream of earning the swordswoman suffix, a rather rare occurrence for a female due to their role in society, had finally come true as of six nights ago.

Even though she was still often treated as a child by her mother and uncles, she wasn't much younger than most of them. She was conceived when her mother was still young and careless, which meant that she was only a few decades younger than them.

Tonight, that "child" had snuck out of her room to continue to perfect her skills with the blade. She had set up a dozen dummy targets, made of cloth and stone, around the dueling circle, all of which had been dismembered or beheaded at this point in the night.

It would be dawn soon, and Raio had to make it back to her room before her mother found out again.

Before deactivating the energy blade within her dominant hand, she made sure to stab the colo she had brought with her though the side of its torso, killing it instantly and painlessly. It was a part she did not enjoy, but a drawn blade demands blood.

As she was beginning to pack her belongings back into the sack she had brought, she noticed the silhouette of another Sangheili emerging from the dark tunnels leading back towards her Keep. She initially assumed it was her mother, but as the figure drew closer it was clear that it was a male, and an armored one at that.

“Who-who's there?” she called out, half-preparing to pull her sword back out of the bag.

“My name is Sivo 'Sufamee. You may remember me from the times I'd visit your Keep while you were still quite young.”

The name was certainly familiar. Sivo was her uncle Kel’s friend, and if she remembered correctly, he and his two brothers had joined Kel as members of his fleet, with a roles similar to that of honor guards. They were known within the communities surrounding Katam Keep as heroes, but she failed to recall why that was the case.

“Why are you here? What do you want from me?”

“I come bearing bad news, Raio. Your uncle Kel has been marked as a Heretic by the High Prophet of Mercy, and you're in danger because of it.”

That didn't sound like her uncle at all.

“A Heretic?” She resumed packing.

Sivo ignored her question and continued his own explanation. “Your uncle sent a small team back to Sanghelios to evacuate as many people as possible. He asked me personally to find you and bring you to him safely.”

“Where are your brothers?”

“They are helping your mother and the rest of the Keep to the dropships. You need to come with me now, as Kel predicts that our old friends will attack us at daybreak. We barely have a twentieth of the night left.”

“How can I trust you?”

“I have no evidence, you'll just have to believe that what I say is true.”

“Where is my uncle? If he wished to see me safe so badly, why didn't he come himself?” She had finished packing her things by this point, and was only staying because of the Ranger. Had he been anyone else, she would have already walked away by his point.

“I know that we meet under less than ideal conditions. Just like you, I wish Kel was here instead of me. But the fleet still needed him as Supreme Commander, especially now.”

“He's still in control of the fleet? Even as a Heretic? Would they not have tried executing him? Assassinating him through a mutiny, perhaps?”

“The crew were loyal to him and him only, not the Hierarchs. My brothers and I stood by his side, even though the darkest of hours. Together we fought off the few that betrayed us. Back to back I witnessed him fight bravely and honorably for what he truly believed in.”

While she couldn't see the man’s face through his helmet’s visor, she was now certain he was telling the truth.

“Alright then. I trust you.”