Tenrai III has come to Halo Infinite, bringing with it a new Story Shard.

Hosted here on Halo Waypoint, Duality is a single-part Story Shard that takes the form of a Tenrai-themed retelling of the Halo Legends episode "The Duel," featuring art from William "Pixelflare" Cameron and Duncan Shaffer.

“This tale begins with an act of defiance. A great clan leader’s refusal to bend the knee to an occupying empire. But not all showed such courage.”

Despair emanates
From defiance in honor
Refusal to bow 

“The clan leader’s brother sought to persuade him to yield, or they would all face retribution for his defiance.”

Seeking to counsel
His brother feared punishment
Words drift upon wind 

“Ambushed on his pilgrimage, the Covenant came to eliminate this lone warrior. They did not succeed.”

Ambushed by the horde
The Covenant came to kill
The field lies silent 

“But his keep was destroyed, and all who lived there were slain.”

A strategic feint
For his home was set upon
Turned to ghosts and glass 

“When the clan leader returned, he found the carnage and vowed to exact his revenge. He would answer their call to violence.”

Hastening to warn
His brother, found amidst blood
And would claim vengeance 

“He journeyed to face the other of his kind who had taken all of that which he held dear.”

Across sea and sky
He journeyed to face his foe
Who chose servitude 

“Well, what happened then?”

The Sangheili lost the young girl's voice as he scanned the area. For a moment, it had sounded as if the shouting and gunfire was getting closer to the warehouse, but he soon lowered his sword and retreated from the alley.

He recalled the story’s end. He knew it well, for it had been told a thousand times since he was a hatchling—and many thousands of times more for centuries before then.

And both would perish
A lesson learned only by
We who remember. 

In the old tale, the noble Arbiter, Fal 'Chavamee, and the Covenant’s enforcer both fell to each other's blades—an end that served nobody but the Prophets and their manipulative designs as the title of Arbiter became a mark of shame.

But, as the Sangheili looked into the round eyes of his young human protectorate, he realized that this story did not speak to the spirit of the times in which they now lived.

The Covenant had fallen, with various pretenders vying to lay claim to its rotting remains. And former enemies, the humans and Sangheili, had—in uncovering the truth about the lies of the Prophets—found some measure of reconciliation with each other.

As the final Age of Reclamation passed, it had been replaced by one of kinship and, perhaps in time, even forgiveness. The lesson to be heeded from the story as it had been told during the time of the Covenant was no longer simply the fear of punishment for disobedience, but that, when facing a great force that seeks to divide, true strength is found in unity.

“Apologies, child,” the Sangheili spoke. “It seems I have forgotten how the story ends...”

The human child made an exaggerated gesture of stroking her chin with two fingers as she studied the toy clutched in her other hand—a figure of a human Spartan, clad in stylized armor that evoked a period of their own ancestral history.

“Maybe we can come up with a new one together?”

What was forged then was the ending the Sangheili wished they could have once had to their centuries-spanning tale of blinding, all-consuming vengeance—and this is what it was...

At the great temple
The clan leader saw the truth
Without and within 

He cast down his blade
And asked that his foe listen
To winged wisdom 

So full of hatred
That we have become blinded
To what we should be

I discard my wrath
Let us forgive and share gifts
I name you brother.