My submission for @onelastwishzine vol. 2! You can read it on Ao3 here and see the full pdf with everyone’s incredible art and writing here. I’m so proud of all of us and very grateful that I could take part in this project <3
Sedia had been in meditation when the first stirrings had brushed against her consciousness. The presence was faint, translucent in her mind’s eye like ripples in the air. And it was unfamiliar. Nothing should be unfamiliar to her here in the Dreaming City.
So she stood up and followed it through the pathways and under the arches. People passed by her, giving her a wide berth. She hardly noticed them. She was focused. She moved like a wraith through the mists, one foot in the physical world, one in the metaphorical. The presence moved, too, winding between the rocks, up staircases. Sedia tracked the sensations like a shark following a trail through bloodied waters.
She came to herself standing before the Blind Well. The presence had stopped here. The wandering Techeun found herself with company; Shuro Chi stood poised and perfect next to her. Sedia felt the question in her mind.
“I detect a presence, but one not Awoken,” Sedia explained.
Shuro Chi shifted her weight. “I sense it too.”
“It wanders,” Sedia said. “Through the Gardens and the Mists. Along the leylines.”
“It is unknown to me,” the other Techeun admitted. “Come. Let us summon it and bind it here so we may seek answers from it.”
A risky move if it were dangerous. But Sedia did not think it felt dangerous. It felt like the brightest parts of starlight and the deepest reaches of the caverns. It walked lightly, leaving no footprints.
Sedia and Shuro Chi moved their wills together. Their augments glittered, casting small flecks of light on the pillars and the ceiling. The Blind Well was a gateway into other realms, a weak spot between realities. Chanting in unison, the Techeuns hooked the presence and pulled it through. They grounded it in reality, shifting frequencies until a form resolved itself into focus.
It was a Guardian. She stood on the rim of the Well, a quarter-circle to Sedia’s left, fluid in her stillness. Her hands were on her hips and her head was tilted back, studying the ceiling.
Both Techeuns were disturbed. A Guardian? In the Dreaming City? This was a secret place, yet uncomprehended by outsiders. (She wasn’t even Awoken. Her skin was pale, her hair dark, her eyes an unlit gray. The cloak on her back suggested the dappled leaves of Earth’s forests. An ordinary Human.)
The Guardian finally noticed the two Techeuns. She turned from inspecting the ceiling to inspecting them instead, hands still on her hips. “Huh,” she said conversationally. “Didn’t think I’d end up here.”
“You trespass, Guardian,” Sedia warned. They had pulled her through the veil, but the Guardian had been here, wandering through their city and their gardens.
“I was just dreaming,” the Guardian said in defense. She looked down at her hands, flexing them. “Though… this isn’t a dream anymore, is it?”
“This is Awoken territory,” Shuro Chi said.
“The Blind Well, right?” the Guardian said, gesturing to the pit set in the floor before them. “Weird. I didn’t think it worked like that.”
“It works as we command it to,” Sedia intoned. “What do you know of the Blind Well?”
The Guardian’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she brought up her hands in a peaceful gesture. “No need to be so hostile. Listen. I made a promise to Sjur Eido to not poke around uninvited. But I didn’t do this. You pulled me here, didn’t you?”
“What were you doing, wandering the Ascendant plane?” Shuro Chi demanded. Its very existence should be unknown to the Guardians. How had this one navigated the Sea of Screams to be here?
The Guardian shrugged, eyes distant with remembering. “Dreaming, like I said. I was following a sound… someone was singing.”
Suddenly, her eyes cleared and a look of frustrated realization settled on her face. “The Witch Queen,” she growled.
Sedia stiffened in annoyance. “Queen Mara is no-“
“Savathûn,” the Guardian clarified, voice low. Neither Techeun missed the resonance in the leylines as the syllables were uttered. The Guardian continued on, seemingly unperturbed. “Though to say her name invites speculation, and to speculate is to feed her. To make her strong.”
“Tell us what you know,” Shuro Chi demanded.
The Guardian didn’t seem to hear her. Her form was semi-translucent, just an afterimage of her existence. “Witches,” the Guardian said wryly. “Man, I’ll admit I’m not the right shape for this battle. All these… half-secrets and mind games. And you.” She spread her arms. “What even is this?”
“Hold her,” Shuro Chi said in warning. The Guardian was slipping the bonds. Sedia laid new ones on her and her form re-solidified.
“Maybe your Queen Mara will be better at it,” the Guardian concluded, eyes focusing back on the Techeuns. “Whenever she gets back.”
“Back from where?” Sedia asked.
“From…” the Guardian started. She paused. She looked around, taking in the scene again- the walls, the ceiling, the two Witches in front of her. Her eyes went wide. “What… year is it?” For an unnerving moment, her form stuttered like a shoddy recording.
Shuro Chi was the first one to realize. “What year do you think it is?” she asked in return. When the Guardian came from was much more interesting than where she came from.
The Guardian’s form solidified again. Her eyes were sharp, her shoulders set. “Too early- no. No! What are you even thinking?” It was unclear whether she was talking to the Witches or to herself.
Sedia tried bargaining. “Any information you can give us-“
“Will cause massive paradoxes,” the Guardian interrupted. “Even this- I should not be here. You need to let me go and forget you ever saw me. Our enemy- and that is an inclusive our, she opposes you, too- she only benefits from a weakened reality.”
“I have had enough games, Guardian,” Shuro Chi said, voice ringing like a tuning fork. “You cannot leave while we bind you here. You will answer our questions-“
“Fuck that,” the Guardian interrupted. “Not here. Not now.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Sedia pointed out.
“Don’t I?” the Guardian asked. There was a spark of mischief in her eye, undeniable. “It’s been just a joy hanging out with you, but I have some sleeping to get back to-“
“Wait-“
But the Guardian, somehow, was already gone, slipped her anchors and vanished back into incorporeality.
“Nobody gets in but they’re on the list. You on the list? No? Then scram. Shuro Chi ain’t got time for riffraff.”
(Prodigal Mask w/ Dead Orbit’s Fate, Prodigal Grasps w/ Refurbished Black Armory, Prodigal Vest w/ Refurbished Black Armory, Orpheus Rig w/ New Age Black Armory, A Cloak Called Home w/ Crucible Metallic)
