Echo sat in the Helm's rafters, quivering and hoping not to be seen. She was transparent now, a rare use of void light to keep her hidden from the people below. What had happened? How had she ended up like this??? All she'd done was what she always did when she wanted to burn off energy and started pacing with thoughts and ideas of 'what if?' but when that thought became an action and then a form, panic set in and sent her into the rafters.
"So quick to wish," cooed a familiar, creaking voice. "so quick to fear... are you so flighty as to turn away from your own desires, oh hatchling mine?"
Echo lifted her head. She didn't answer, but she felt her heart sink into her gut. She didn't remember wishing, she didn't remember asking for anything like this. But somehow, she'd made the mistake of making a wish that Riven could hear. Was it when she was helping gather the wish dragon's eggs?
She had to admit... she had had conversations with Riven about the nature of wish dragons, but being careful never to make wishes around her or even bring it up. No, everything was always in relation to what would be done for Riven's eggs, and how she could prepare for them, to defend as well as care for them.
The dragon seemed intrigued by her earnestness though something in their conversations always carried an undertow of danger. But she never said anything that could lead to this.
She remembered her breakdown with Mist over feeling small and alone in the galaxy fighting against the Witness. How even with the Light, she still felt like she couldn't match up to what everyone needed... and if a guardian couldn't measure up, what good were they? Even worse, when a guardian couldn't measure up, when they just couldn't fight anymore who was there to back them up?
Caiatl, Misraaks, Devrim, and others were all there, all warriors and citizens now in their own right... but what were they to the magnificent power of the Black Fleet...? Against the devastating power of the Witness? 'We need help...' she'd told Mist. 'I just wish I could do more...'
Another conversation came to mind, one she'd had near the aquarium on the other side of the Helm... She'd been writing, scribbling all she could on what she could do to help the cause, to help the cause at scale, when Drifter came over with an ether spritz and a statement of "Sister, I gotta say, if I worked as hard as you, I would've worked myself inta the ground by now. Here, have a drink. Better cool down those servos before they melt. Don't want your ghost to have to rezz you from that."
Echo had accepted the drink, rationalizing that it was just a spritzer and she could hold at least that much.
Unfortunately, it apparently only took one or two of the spritzers before Echo had her head on her forearm, barely able to hold it up. She mumbled something into the crook of her elbow, something she'd wanted to say but couldn't even remember it as she said it.
She'd heard Drifter say something. He sounded weird in with the spritzer buzzing in her ears but before her positronic brain could decipher what he said, the guardian slumped over and conked out.
The fish were swimming idly when she woke up, her head cushioned with her own cloak rolled up for her on the seats beside the aquarium. her head ached and whisper hovered over her. Dread filled her as she realized what she'd done to earn this hangover, but instead of a scolding, she felt Whisper scan her and the headache ease.
At Echo's stare, Whisper huffed and rattled her shell. "Look, don't think I like what you did just because I'm doing this. If it were anyone else, I would've bitten your audio fins off and left you to deal with it until you'd learned your lesson again about drinking. But…" the ghost paused and looked at her guardian. "you needed this talk… with Drifter, I mean, and he wasn't going to get anything out of you sober. So for this once, I'm letting it slide."
Echo stared at her incredulously and she rattled her shell again. "Hey! Don't look at me like that! I have a heart too y'know!"
Echo had given a startled chuckle. "Yeah, where Baribus keeps his!" she said with a grin, earning an offended chuff from her ghost. She gave her ghost another grin before heading out walk off her hangover and get some food and fluid in her.
But that was all she remembered.
"Do you wish to remember?" came the cooing voice of the wish dragon.
Echo thought a moment and made a reluctant decision. "I wish I could talk to you without anyone hearing us," she whispered and earned a sinister chuckle.
"Ahhh you're very free with your wishes, how refreshing…"
'What happened? What did you to me?'
"I granted your wish," Riven said simply.
"What wish?" Echo asked, "I don't remember making a wish."
Riven made a noise, and Echo got the impression that she was canting her head, as if egging her on to do something.
Whisper rotated her shell agitatedly. "Echo, I don't know what you're doing but if you're going to wish to know what the hell Riven is talking about, hurry up and do it, and maybe let me in on the conversation too?"
Echo lifted her head and blinked at her ghost, "Oh, sorry," she apologized, but even as she spoke, her voice came out weird, disjointed… not quite solid…
"Oh, my little whim… what a pace you must grow… you who gave up your guardianhood… to become one of mine…"
"I didn't give it up!" Echo hissed at the disembodied voice. "I still feel the light, and I still have Whisper!"
"Oh, but you have… a price is a price… though yours…. has exceptions…"
the pair gazed at each other in dread as they tried to make sense of Riven's words. They heard the dragon's chuckle, deep and warbling in their thoughts.
"But… I am willing to give, as you have been in aiding my eggs… Come… I will guide you, for you…. will be my eldest, my guardian wyrm…"
"Wepl, I don't like the sound of this," Whisper said, shaking her shell.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice," Echo answered, leaning over the rafter grate.
"Oh, you always have a choice," Riven's voice cooed, "you can either learn or die. Wish dragons cannot live in between."
Echo huffed. "Squished, might get squished. Still not much of a choice. But better you than death by Shaxx or Eris."
The hunter balanced precariously on her perch, gazing down at where she wanted to go. But how was she going to do this? how was she going to get by without alamring everyone in the Helm?
She thought about asking Riven for help but she didn't want to get more indebted to the dragon than she already was. What could she do to get by without panicking everyone? She couldn't keep a stable form to save her life! All she wanted was to go down and go back to normal!
"Riven?" she quieried silently. "how do I do the shapeshifting thing?"
"How? Did you not change your shape to what you are? Did you not follow your own whims, oh, hatchling mine?"
Echo blinked and considered the question. She frowned to herself and shifted nervously. She supposed she had, pacing around, thinking about what she could do if she were one species or another. She'd done it when Eris was a hive god, thinking about what it would be like to be one herself. She'd done it while working with Mithrax and Eido, wondering what she'd look like if she were Eliksni… and she'd done it now… moving on impulse to hop to the rafters in her own little idea of a wish dragon.
'Imagination…?' she wondered and recalled theories about dragons shifting to match the desired expectations of the prey they hoped to gain wishes from. Echo hummed to herself and shifted on her perch. Expectation… the others saw a hunter jump up into the rafters… they'd expect one to jump down…
She took a breath and began imagining herself… as herself… She thought of her armor, her cloak, her turquoise plating. She thought of everything, even the mods she'd gotten from an exo modder in the City. She filled herself with what she remembered it being like to be herself and imagined herself, cloak and all, as she hopped down from the rafters.
Boots hit the floor and a swell of relief rolled over her.
"Echo!" Whisper breathed, and pressed against her head in a ghost's form of a hug.
Echo pressed a hand against Whisper's shell, returning the hug. "Ohhh I'm glad that worked," she whispered to her ghost. "Otherwise, that might've ended really badly."
A low, rattling chuckle echoed through the hunter's thoughts, drawing her attention to the nearby chamber where Mara's throne sat. The pair looked at each other, and with the hesitancy of a guardian on a dangerous, unwanted mission, the pair of them made their way to Riven's chamber.
The chuckle echoed louder as Riven lifted her whale-boned head. "Ahhh, so you've come, oh hatchling mine… I knew you'd find your way eventually. Guardians and ahamkara always do…"
"What's your angle here?" Whisper demanded, flying up to snap her shell at Riven. "What did you do to Echo?"
"Nothing that she didn't want done herself," the dragon replied easily. "After all, that's what we ahamkara live for, to grant wishes. And my whims could not wish for a finer elder in their midst…" She looked down at Echo and canted her head almost smuggly. "After all… that's what big sisters do… Isn't that right, oh hatchling mine?"
