Xor 'Vozamai was wrong.

The book hadn't been written by a person of importance. It had been written by an insane individual that on all accounts should be locked up, let alone be granted such luxuries. Banishing a person to the moon? Moving celestial object on a daily basis?

Xor managed to get through five pages before the ludicrousy drove him away. He got a few hours of sleep, but the size of the bed made it next to impossible for him to get comfortable. It was his stomach growling that woke him up. He hadn't eaten anything for a day, and it was beginning to show.

Xor undid the barricade and opened the still small door to leave when he suddenly paused. He looked back at the book he threw back onto the nightstand. For reasons unknown to him, he got the urge to take it with him. Or at least, take another look at it again.

The feeling kept pestering before Xor finally relented. The Sangheili huffed and went back. He picked it up, opening it and idly flipping through the pages. He was about to closed the book and debate on whether or not he should take the book with him when something caught his eye. He flipped back to the page and scanned it. He quickly found what he was looking for.

When noon arrived, I felt the need to be self-sufficient. Deciding I would get my own food rather let somepony else might improve the mood I've been in recently. Unfortunately I did not know where the kitchen was, as every time it was time to eat, I had the meal sent to my room. They had recently moved it due to growling heard by the kitchen staff, disturbing their work.

I eventually did found out where they moved it to. The kitchen was now located on the most west side of the building I'm currently in.

While the possibility of finding unspoiled food was slim, Xor decided it wouldn't hurt to give the kitchen a look over. He also decided to take the book with him. He told himself it was to merely consult it if he took a wrong turn, trying to mentally denounce the strange feeling of necessity the book seemed to emit.

He ducked under the door and moved down the hall. The rug on the cobble stone floor was in tatters, and vegetation started to sprout upwards from cracks located on both the walls and floor. It was also dark. Not dark enough to warrant use of Xor's lamp, but enough to convince him that this place was long abandoned.

The atmosphere had an odd taste to it. It was...solemn. As if he was treading on holy ground. The end of the hall way split in a 'T' shape. Xor looked to the left and gawked at the massive hole in the stone. Curiosity got the best of him and he peered down.

Glowing grins looked back at him. It was at that moment Xor had a good theory on why this place was abandoned. Thankfully, the hole was too deep for the beasts to attempt to jump. Instead they just spat at him. Xor quickly decided he wouldn't go right.

With a pace that other Sangheili might've found embarrassing or dishonorable, Xor retreated to the left. He didn't want to think about how close he'd slept near a nest of those things. The hallway led on for a few Units before turning to the right. Before him was a door leading to...nowhere?

Xor couldn't believe it. He was stuck. Totally trapped. He was going to starve, if dehydration didn't get to him first. He might as well-

For the first time, Xor noticed a lever next to the wooden door. Please do something useful, Xor thought as he pulled it down. A faint rumble could be felt and the sound of stone moving on stone rewarded his ears as the stone wall on the other side lifted upwards. A library was now revealed. He could see book shelves through the small window in the wooden door.

Xor was hungry, and tired of this castle. All he wanted was to get back home.

Home. Home. A sudden feeling of urgency washed over Xor. He needed to get back home, and he needed to get back home now. Something important was there. He just knew it, and he knew he needed to get off this planet as quick as possible-

Sudden pain lanced through his head, causing the Sangheili to grunt as if he was shot. He fell to his knees, dropping to the book to the floor. A memory came to him.

He was in ruins of a city. The details were blurry, and he couldn't tell if they were Sangheili or not. Sounds of warfare assaulted his ears. Screams, gunfire and roars.

Before him in the vision was another Sangheili. Or what was left of him. Xor's eyes were immediately drawn to the glass container. Inside, to his disgust, was a Sangheili brain floating in fluid. Wires were crudely injected into the cerebral cortex, connecting the brain to the rest of the 'body'. The Sangheili's two hearts were on either side of the brain, physically thudding against the Sangheili's brain matter.

The container was surgically implanted inside the Sangheili's chest cavity. From the shoulders up, however, the flesh turned into metal. The head was gone, in place was a neck-like structure of metal jutting up and forwards. In the center of the end point was the Sangheili's original eye, at least one of them. It stared at him with an unblinking gaze, slightly twitching.

The right arm was cut completely off. In its place was a robotic mimic. There was no hand, instead the arm fed directly to an energy weapon. The left was spared. It appeared to be having a seizure, twitching violently.

From the hip down there was nothing. Instead of legs there were some sort of propulsion system. It was eerily silent compared to the chaotic sounds of desperate warfare around him. The abomination gave a full body jerk and raised its gun arm. The gun glowed an eerie blue as it powered up. Xor couldn't move. The gun fired, sending a lance of energy at Xor.

Xor jerked back into reality, breathing heavily. He gave a full body shudder, experiencing an emotion that Sangheili rarely felt. Fear. Fear for himself. Fear for his home. Was that why he felt the overwhelming urge to get back home? To fight these monsters?

A brief thought of the Parasite came back to him, and his mind tried to draw connections. The two, however, were on different levels of bodyhorror. The Parasite's changes in a host were natural, as odd as that sounded. It acted like an animal at times. The infection turned them into undead forms, yes, but they were naturally mutated. At least, compared to the monster he just saw.

The thing he just saw...there was nothing natural about it. It was an abomination, through and through. The Parasite's host was usually dead, their soul passed into the afterlife. But that monster...he saw intelligence in that single, familiar eye. He saw a soul, trapped in an unholy amalgamation of flesh and metal. And as the abomination's eye came back to his mind, he saw only one message. It was begging him to end its life.

Get up. Get back home. Xor groaned as he stood up, picking up the book as he did. He took a look at the door. With a growl aimed at the unfairness of this situation, the eight foot tall alien kicked down the door into splinters and squeezed through. He took one step forward before freezing. Someone had been here. Recently.

The layer of dust commonly seen throughout the rest of the castle was reduced significantly. Candles were lit, and not too long ago judging by how much they melted. A rectangular table led to another 'T' intersection. Bookshelves, with hundreds of volumes on them, lined the walls.

He unclipped his energy sword, not yet igniting it, when he saw a cloth bag on the table. He cautiously approached, eyes alternating between his motion tracker and what was before him.

The motion tracker showed nothing was moving nearby, but that would only reduce Xor's checking by a degree. He reached the table with the bag. It was small, even for an Unggoy. It was structured oddly, too. The entirety of the bag seemed to be split into two parts. The only connecting them was a band of cloth that was adjustable.

The bag was colored a light green. The actual bag part was simply, well, a bag. The only thing covering it was a flap with a image as a buckle. He had no idea what it was supposed to be. It comprised of an oddly shaped red circle with two smaller green ovals.

Curiosity again got the better of him and he opened the bag. It contained an archaic rope, a folded piece of paper, and two red orbs. The two orbs had an uncanny resemblance to the image on the bag, so Xor figured they were the same thing. He pulled one out.

It was lighter than he'd expected it to be, and was fairy small to him. Xor, checking his motion tracker one last time, clipped his energy sword to his thigh and turned the orb about in his hand. It was fairly smooth, and his eyes drifted to the top of the item. Two green shapes protruded from the top, and Xor realized that they were in fact leaves.

Is this a fruit? Maybe a nut... Xor pressed his finger into the orb. The surface easily gave way, and the Sangheili's finger sank into the object. Clear liquid seeped out around his finger before he withdrew his digit. Xor brought the orb to his nostrils and inhaled. Detecting the sweet scent, he concluded that this was likely a fruit.

Is it edible? His stomach growled again, making him think that he had gone longer than a day without food. It begged for anything. Hunger overpowered cautiousness and he jabbed the fruit onto his top teeth set. He moved his head, ripping a piece off. The mandibles came together to launch torn off food item down his throat, where a small set of jaws inside would chew it up properly.

The Sangheili made short work of the unidentified fruity object, throwing what he thought was the inedible core to the side. The other fruit followed its brother's demise, but still left Xor feeling unsatisfied. He growled and tossed the core over his shoulder.

Xor simply expected to hear two thuds. What he did not expect was a thud, clicking, the other thud, and the grinding of stone. Xor twirled around to see the stone opening closing. He rushed to the opening, trying in vain to stop its decent. It proved fruitless and Xor was forced to let go in fear of being injured.

Xor clenched his fists in frustration before spying a spherical bump by the side of the now hidden opening. It was the size of two of the fruits end on end, and was more smooth than the rest of the surrounding stone. Seeing that it looked like it had moving parts, he touched it. He was surprised to find that it slid to the side as he applied pressure, revealing some sort of mechanism.

Xor bent over and huffed. It was clearly a locking system. One that he had no idea what he password was let alone what the symbols meant. It had eight 'slots', each locking in place to only show one symbol at a time. Xor spun it in its horizontal direction to find that there were a lot of symbols, ruining any hope of figuring it out in a manageable time.

It was then that Fate decided to make things for Xor go from bad to worse. Xor stiffened when he heard noises approaching, "~~Why are we here again?~~"

Xor could tell they were voices, and were speaking in a language he didn't know, "~~Weren't ya listenin'? Twi wanted us ta clean up th' rubble so we can access new areas.~~"

Despite Xor having not a clue as to what they were saying, the language was oddly familiar sounding. He swore he had heard it before, but couldn't remember where, "~~I know~~ that~~. I meant why can't Twilight do it? Couldn't she, y'know, magic it away?~~"

He heard a sigh, signaling that the voices drew nearer, "~~She~~ told ~~us. She's real busy wit' preppin' th' Gala. So it's on us ta clear th' ways.~~"

Xor gave a huff-sigh hybrid and turned to see what Fate awaited him. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. This was either going to turn out well, or horrible.

The last thing he could possibly prepare for came around the corner.

Author's Note

Tfw Sangheili units of measure are more convoluted than the imperial system.