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I studied the far trees "Where there are bugs, there ht be birds," I said "Do you ever see birds?"

"They fly over"

"That ht be other ani at ht The Lady probably keeps al sorts of ani us We’re animals to them"

I didn’t knohat to say to that "We could hunt and live out there Make the Forerunners look hard for us, if they want us At least ouldn’t be sitting here, waiting to be snatched in our sleep"

Vinnevra now studied me much the sa, not one of the People, not completely alien "Look," I said, "if you need to ask permission, if you need to ask your father or mother"

"My father and irl," she said

"Wel, who can you ask? Your Gamelpar?"

"He’s just Gamelpar" She squatted and drew a circle in the dirt with her finger Then she took a short stick out of the folds of her pants and tossed it between two hands Grabbing the stick and holding it up, she drew another circle, this one intersecting the first

Then she threw the stick up It landed in the middle, where the two circles crossed "Good," she said "The stick agrees I wil take you to Gamelpar We both saw the jar fal froo see what it was I did, and there you were He likesnews"

This outburst of infor until she had er wanted in the vilage The na like "old father" How old was he?

Another ghost?

The shadow racing along the great hoop was fast approaching In a few hours it would be dark I stood for a , not at al sure I wanted to learn who or what Gamelpar was

"Before we do that, can you take ht be so I can find useful"

"Just you? You think it’s about you?"

"And Riser," I said, resenting her sad tone

She approached and touchedfacial ers I was startled, but let her do whatever she thought she had to do Finaly, she drew back with a shudder, let out her breath, and closed her eyes

"We’l go there first," she said "And then I wil take you to see

Gamelpar"

The site of my "jar" was about an hour’s walk She led h a spinney of low, heat-shriveled trees, where the air s leaves Up a low hil, and down again, we finaly carass-- farass had been burnt up in a fire and was now gray and black stubble The char and dust burst up around our feet and blackened our legs

Finaly, I saw a grouping of large, grayish white, rounded objects I took to be boulders--and then I realized they were not boulders, but falen star boats, larger than war sphinxes but much smaler than the Didact’s ship

Vinnevra showed no fear as we approached these vessels There were three of them, each split wide open, surrounded by deeper char and scattered debris She stopped at the periphery of the rough oval they for The huls were not complete, and yet they had not just broken apart or burned up--parts had sione away These boats, I remembered, were not just made of solid stuff They were spun out of teht

The Forerunners that had flown inside the first boat--six or seven of them, if I counted the pieces correctly--lay sprawled in the wreckage, most stil wrapped in their are attachathered along the joints and sea loose and landing on me--I backed off, hunkered down, and studied them carefuly from a distance The fleas didn’t move They were broken

The bodies stil smeled bad They had swolen out of their armor, what parts had not been cooked away by the impact

The emotions I felt were confused, exultant, and sad at once-- and then alarmed I walked around the first hulk and wondered if Bornstelar was a these dead

After a fewto be done here "In a while," I said

Now I moved a few dozen paces to the second star boat It was of a different design,its surface The Forerunners left inside--three of them--wore no armor and had been reduced to blackened skeletons They seemed different--different styles of boats, different types of Forerunners Had they fought each other?

If this Halo was a gigantic fortress--as it certainly had the potential to be--then perhaps it had its own defenses, and I was looking at a sad reer battle--what the People here caled the "fire in the sky" I could not know that for sure, of course I could not know anything for sure

Dead Forerunners, it seemed, decayed much as dead humans do, yet I knew that the armor, if active, would have done al in its power to protect them while alive, and even to preserve them after death Therefore, the armor had failed before the crash It seee flea- to do with this My oldof current Forerunner politics But I could feel an interior tickle of speculation, and wondered if there was any way I could coax it out--bring it forward

"Tel me what these are," I said, and shivered despite ood idea

Ar units

The old memories--the dominant old spirit within e

"Human-made--human weapons?" I whispered

Not human Forerunner Fratricide Civil war

I had been present on the periphery of a few Forerunner disputes and power plays Ten thousand years ago, the Forerunners had been united in their conquest of my ancestors Now, it seemed clear that they were even ot into the star boats and cracked the crew’s armor before the boats crashed," I speculated "Is that what happened?"

You are young I am old I ahts

"Yes, you are," I agreed "But I need you now to tel th of the inner voice staggered me I had never felt such a powerful presence inthe scarification cere suffused in sh the caves

"I feel you," I said, ht the Didact and surrendered Charu of this

We survived the Shaping Sickness Forerunners hoped to learn the secret of hoe survived the Shaping Sickness, but ould not give it to them, even under torture!

And with that, the old e The effect almost knocked me over, and I knelt down in the dirt, by the second vessel, clutching my head For sanity’s sake, I pushed back the old spirit--and heard Vinnevra caling from outside the elipse of falen star boats

"Why are you talking to yourself? Are you mad?"

"No," I caled back, and muttered, "not yet"