The silence was the first thing that told Taylor that she was not awaking in her bed. The school dorms were, at best, quiet, but she had only heard this silence once before, and the thought of it made her skin crawl. So when she found herself somewhere she could not be, fully dressed in the daylight, it was nothing less than what she had expected.

She stood atop a grassy hill, along what appeared to be a break in a hiking trail. A large statue stood in front of her on a pedestal, with several signs providing information she couldn't make out, couldn't bring into focus. There were trees along the path beside her, but even though their branches swayed in the breeze, she could hear nothing. The world felt almost empty, but she knew it wasn't.

Taylor turned, finding a fenced ridge with viewfinders lining it, as well as a small boulder at the furthest corner, where countless dads insisting on enjoying the view and breathing the clean air of nature must have stood, much to the annoyance of their children. Rachel stood leaning against one of the viewfinders, smoking a cigarette and looking down into the valley. Or at least, it certainly looked like Rachel - the torn plaid, the skinny jeans, the long, golden hair. Maybe, now that she was a witch, Rachel would be a part of her dreams. She hoped so.

Taylor approached Rachel quietly, as every move was uncomfortably loud in this place. Rachel did not react, even when she was finally standing beside her. Taylor followed her eyes down into the valley, hoping for some clarification.

There, along a thin stream that snaked its way through the valley as if to cut it in half, a large oak tree stood burning. The fire was big enough that it should be spreading, it should be scary, but although they just stood and watched, the tree alone burned, its corpse wilted black underneath the flames.

Rachel exhaled slowly, smoke curling out from between her lips like a dragon's maw. As she lowered her cigarette, she said, "Welcome to Culmination State Park."

"Rachel?" Taylor whispered, "i-is that you?"

Rachel smiled, raising the cigarette to her lips again. "Sorry," she said before taking another drag. "This-" she waved a hand over her torso, "-is more of a symbolic gesture, I'm afraid. To congratulate you."

The voice wasn't quite Rachel's - its cadence rose and fell steadily, slipping into the Raven's voice every time it fell. Of course. Taylor rubbed at her arms for her warmth, suddenly feeling much more alone.

"Congratulate me for what?"

Finally, Rachel - the Raven - turned to look at Taylor, glancing up and down her body in a way with a smirk. "For finding your Oracle. And for saving that boy - or yourself, as the case might be. Either way, you did well."

Taylor nodded slowly, confused, and then: "Oh! Right, 'the oracle born in moonlight' or whatever. I mean, you - God, she - found me first. And she's the one who took down Logan slash the demon guy, so I didn't . . . really do anything?"

This, too, seemed to amuse the Raven. Taylor wondered if they had been this smug the whole time, she just couldn't tell because ravens don't have facial expressions.

"Oh, I wouldn't say you did nothing. Perhaps nothing sane, running out to that park all alone, but you're making progress nonetheless."

Taylor started to speak, but the words got caught in her throat. She sighed as she tried to find the right ones.

"So this means . . . I'm not crazy, then?" She asked uncertainly, arms just hugged over her chest now. "Like, it's all real - me being a witch, boys being demons, some god being asleep and also wanting to kill us all?"

"I wouldn't say that, quite," the Raven said, their voice distorting even more, "but there are worse things to be. But these things are real; Rachel would tell you so, if you asked."

"Ha . . . yeah, I guess we can't both be crazy, right?" Taylor replied. She hadn't ever considered that Rachel might be crazy, too, until just now, but she tried her best to suppress the paranoia.

Taylor cleared her throat, hoping to skip right over that rabbit hole. "So, there's one more witch, right? The Warrior of . . . Storms?" Taylor shrugged.

"Storm and Skies." The Raven reached up, tucking hair behind their ear as they thought. Finally, the smugness seemed to fade, replaced with worry. "I fear what will happen if you do not find her soon. She is close to one of them, these 'shades', and she is in grave danger. She has no idea what she is, or what fate awaits her."

Taylor breathed out slowly, followed by a, "Shit." She rubbed her arms for a second, then asked, "So, how do I find her? Rachel and I can keep her safe, we just have to know who she is."

The Raven nodded, now pensive. After a moment, they said, "Perhaps it is best to find the shade first. He will lead you to your warrior and, if pressed, she may reveal herself on her own."

That caught Taylor off guard. It was clever, definitely, a two-birds-one-stone approach, but it also meant treating someone like bait. The Raven seemed awfully comfortable putting people in harm's way - Taylor could not forget what she had been asked to do. To let the storm come. To stall. People getting hurt was not just a possibility, but a goal.
But if she didn't find this girl and wait to intervene . . . what would happen to her? Or to Arcadia Bay?

Taylor nodded, finally, and said quietly, "How do I find it?"

"He hunts you even now as you sleep. He knows who you are, but not what you are. He will give himself away sooner or later. You will have to keep yourself safe if you are to keep your Oracle and Warrior safe as well."

Taylor shivered with dread. Warren. The door to her room was locked, sure, but would that really stop one of these things if it wanted to get to her? Was a lock all that was keeping her safe?

Then Taylor remembered: "Oh! I actually had a question for you."

The Raven quirked their eyebrows, but said nothing.

"Rachel said she had a vision of Arcadia Bay burning, she never had a vision about the storm. Why?"

The Raven inspected their cigarette for a second, then flicked it away. Even if it was just a dream, Taylor felt a twinge of guilt about the litter.

"The force that guides her is not the same that guides you, child. You are born in darkness and she in light; as much as you are partners, you are also opposites. Complements. You foresaw the city cleansed, but Rachel saw it die. That grim world is what awaits us all if you fail."

"What-" Taylor started, but again paused to find the right words. "Like, if Rachel and I are opposites, what about this third witch? How does she . . . fit in?" She was trying to find a way to not make them sound like a clique, but she didn't exactly get how any of this was supposed to work.

The Raven shrugged, but immediately answered, "She is not bound to you by fate, but by circumstance and need. Just as she needs your help now, so too will you need hers - only she can conjure the storm. Just as with you and Rachel, she exists at an extreme, opposed by someone who guides the Maiden." The Raven smirked, and added, "Though, 'guide' is something of a euphemism, I suppose. They may guide her through the storms to come, or they may guide her to her death. The Guardian of Time is unpredictable by their nature."

"S-so . . ." Taylor paused. "Are they, like, my enemy? Or like, a friend?"

The Raven chuckled, but it died quickly, and their smile was replaced with strain. "Perhaps both?"

Taylor swallowed, her discomfort rising again. "And what are you, then?"

The Raven just blinked for a moment, as if they couldn't believe the question. When they spoke again, the distortion was gone - a woman's voice, lower than Rachel's came through clear. "Surely you don't believe you're the first to bear the burden of the God's darkness, do you?"

Taylor mulls that over for a moment. First, does that mean the Raven is a witch? Second, are my powers coming from the thing I'm supposed to be fighting?

Before she got a chance to clarify, though, the Raven looked away from Taylor, back down at the burning tree. "Just as the Oracle of the moon banishes the shadows, you feed on them. This timeline likely only has a chance because you awoke so early. Or perhaps that is why it is doomed. We shall see."

Um, what? "This timeline? What does that mean?"

Much like in her first vision, the sky suddenly darkened faster than it ever could in reality. Only this time, it was not dense stormclouds that formed in the sky, but the moon. And after it, a second one winked into existence.

The Raven gestured up at the sky.

"The two moons have come before, child. Again and again he awakes, but He has never been killed, only sealed. And you - well, others like you - have never been so powerful before. I'm afraid that more will be required of you than those who have come before."

"Those who - what? Who came before?" Taylor shrugged, then offered her gestured at the Raven. "You? What are you talking about? This isn't like a 'once in every generation' sort of thing, is it?"

The Raven chuckled. "More than once, I'm afraid." Distortion was returning to their voice, but Rachel's was nowhere in it.

They seemed to notice it, too. "Out of time. The rest of this conversation will have to wait."

"Wait!" Taylor exclaimed. She still had so many questions. But maybe there was one more she could fit in. "How can I contact you again when I need to? How do I come back here?"

Now even Rachel's body seemed to waver as they talked. Taylor could feel this world narrowing - she knew there were only seconds left. "Once the coven is formed once more, I will reveal myself. Be patient. Find the warrior. And good luck."

This time, Taylor snapped up from her dream with a gasp, panting and grasping her blankets. Leaving her vision felt like falling, and she just needed something to hold on to.