Liv watched with detached uninterest as Xaras, Greed of Xivu Arath was once more sent screaming back into the void. Just over a month ago, the sight of the hulking Taken monster had sent shivers down her spine. Now, it was almost like an old friend. Well, an old enemy, at any rate. This was her third time defeating it.
As she left Harbinger's Seclude once more, Rhys spoke to her through their bond. "Don't you get tired of killing that…thing?" Neither of them had been able to come up with a good enough word to describe the monster.
Liv shrugged, slinging her sniper rifle back over her shoulder. "As long as it keeps coming, I'll be here to stop it."
"You can't mean that," said Rhys indignantly, "What if it never stops?"
"It will," she said confidently, "Just a matter of time… Besides, it's one of the few reliable ways of keeping track of time here."
After word had reached Liv about Harley killing Uldren Sov, she had left her post on Mars to reach out to Petra Venj, the Queen's Wrath. When they had met in the Tangled Shore, Petra had asked for assistance in wrangling the Awoken's Dreaming City.
"The things I will tell you are told in confidence. Nothing of what I say here must reach anyone else, even your Vanguard… Do you understand?" Petra's tone was grave and uncompromising.
Liv nodded and raised her hand in an Awoken gesture: fingers together, palm facing out. According to Rae, it was a gesture of openness and trustworthiness. The Hunter saw fleeting surprise in Petra's face as the other woman returned the gesture.
As she lowered her hand, Petra cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the Spider before continuing. "When your friend Harley Hayden was last here, we tracked Uldren and the Fanatic to a place called the Watchtower. You might have seen it when you arrived."
Liv nodded. She had taken note of the gleaming tower on the Shore's horizon.
"The Watchtower is an entrance to a sacred place — the Dreaming City. It has become clear to me that an evil has infiltrated the city, the same evil linked to Uldren's… sickness. I'm asking you to accompany me to investigate and eradicate the threat."
Liv considered it. What Petra was asking was clearly of deep importance. It was also a big deal for an Earthborn Awoken Guardian to be invited into Awoken space, let alone a sacred place.
"Count me in," she replied.
Petra's expression eased slightly in relief. "Excellent. I'll get my ship…" She paused, considering Liv. "I must confess, I'm not sure if your Awoken heritage will be enough to grant you access to the Dreaming City… We Awoken were born of both Light and Darkness. In your case, being a Guardian, your Light far outweighs your Darkness." She paused again. "...There were once items that could gain the bearer access to such places. Talismans of Light and Dark."
Reaching into one of her armor pouches, Liv produced a carved totem that glowed with subtle power.
Petra's eye widened upon seeing it. She reached out but stopped just short of actually touching it.
"How did you come by this?"
"A friend gave it to me," Liv told her, "Is this what you were talking about?"
Petra nodded, her eye still locked on the talisman. "A rare friend you must have that would possess one of these… and an even rarer one that would willingly give it up…" She was now staring past Liv, as though she were looking at something far off in the distance. After a few seconds, she seemed to snap out of it. "Yes, that should grant you passage… When you get to your ship, follow me to the Dreaming City."
Rae had been the one to give her the totem. She had originally tried to convince the Warlock to come with her, but Rae had let her know in no uncertain terms that she wasn't interested. For reasons she had never revealed, Rae had severed her ties to the Awoken.
Liv was the complete opposite. She had always harbored an interest in the Awoken. They were her people once, after all. Though she knew it was forbidden for a Guardian to investigate their past, she had spent many of her early days finding out all she could about the Awoken's history and customs. It hadn't been easy, as they were secretive and guarded such knowledge strongly. To them, she was an outsider at best. Rae's refusal to accompany her had been a sore blow, as she could have benefitted from the knowledge of a Reefborn Awoken.
As it was, Rae had shared some information with Liv, but when it came down to it, the Warlock was nearly as closemouthed as the rest of the Reefborn. When she had explained her intentions of assisting Petra, Rae had given her the totem, yet had refused to divulge its purpose to her.
Evidently, that purpose was to grant the bearer access to certain important Awoken spaces.
When Liv had first arrived in the Dreaming City, she had marveled at its beauty. The city sat on a vast island suspended in space. It was covered in sheer cliffs and vegetation — a paradise world that flourished under the light of a gravitational magnification lens. But as she had spent more time in the city, she had come to learn that many dangers lurked within its shining walls. Scorn, Hive, and Taken alike all constantly tried to overrun its gleaming spires and blooming gardens. But even these enemies were small perils compared to what had been awaiting them when they'd first entered the city.
"So why come here?" Liv asked Petra as they picked their way along a rocky trail she would later come to know as the Spine of Keres.
"You may recall the Battle of Saturn," Petra replied.
Liv nodded. The fate of the Awoken fleet at the hand of Oryx's Dreadnaught had rippled across the solar system. Everyone knew what had happened to the Queen and her army.
"Before Queen Mara went to war with Oryx the Taken King, the orders she left me were to protect our people, hide our secrets, and believe in the plan," Petra explained, "Since then, I have endeavored to follow those orders. But too much has happened that requires explanation. Uldren's madness, the evil in the Dreaming City, the fate of my Queen… I must find the answers to the questions I hold. I must know."
"What exactly was wrong with Uldren?" Liv asked curiously. Petra had mentioned Uldren's "sickness" before but had never given a full explanation.
The Queen's Wrath got a faraway look in her eye. "Too much," she intoned, "...He was thought to have perished in the Battle of Saturn. As everyone in Sol now knows, that didn't happen. His ship crashed on Mars and he sought out the Kell of the House of Kings. To what end, I don't know. But I do know that he was plagued with the deaths of his people… and the thought of Queen Mara's own death. Something corrupted him. Something got into his mind and sewed festering thoughts there… I'm not sure how much of Uldren's own mind remained at the end."
Liv considered that. Like almost all of the Guardians, she despised Uldren Sov for taking Cayde from them. But she knew that Petra spoke the truth, or at least believed she did. It rang in her voice.
She needed more information. "You keep mentioning Mara Sov as though she's still alive. I thought she died in the battle."
"As do most." Liv was pretty sure she detected a note of bitterness in Petra's voice.
"So she survived? Do you know for sure?"
"I know nothing for certain anymore… But I have faith in my Queen." Her tone was now firm, brokering no argument.
As they climbed into the fog, Liv saw towering cliffs far out to her right, rising in a mighty wall as if to touch the array of colors in the sky.
"What about the evil in the Dreaming City?" she asked, "I mean, what do you think it is?"
Petra pursed her lips. "I think that whatever was in Uldren's head now occupies the Dreaming City. I think it drew him here for some unknown purpose."
"Do you know what it is?"
"...I have my suspicions."
After Liv and Petra had met with Mara Sov using the Awoken's Oracle Engine, Liv had learned that the evil she and Petra were hunting was none other than an Ahamkara. The Ahamkara's name was Riven of a Thousand Voices, and she had been Taken along with three of the Queen's Techeuns.
Mara had ordered Petra to assemble a team to kill Riven, opening the Dreaming City to the rest of the Guardians. Liv had been the one to lead the team into the heart of the city. There, they had saved two of the Techeuns and extracted Riven's heart, which now lay purified in a chamber of the Queenswalk. She had experienced the might of Riven's power firsthand, as the Ahamkara taunted her and her team with the voices of their friends and allies.
But despite succeeding in their goal, they had not anticipated the aftermath. As Petra later told her, Ahamkara transcended death. When they had slain Riven, the dragon had granted a final wish, cursing the entire Dreaming City to become Taken. Since then, the city had been victim to a three-week curse loop. Each week, Liv would fight the same enemies. Each week, Corsairs would die. Each week, the curse would build, plaguing the city with more and more Taken blights until the end of the third week, when it would reset just to begin anew.
No one knew how to stop the loop. Even Mara herself was at a loss, though she would never admit it outright. Riven's death had been the clear catalyst, but many of them suspected there were other forces influencing the Dreaming City. Dul Incaru's presence in the shattered remains of Mara's Throneworld made that indisputable.
Furthermore, Liv had encountered powerful Taken bound to Savathȗn and Xivu Arath — the sisters of Oryx. The last thing they needed was more Hive gods exerting their will over Sol. The Guardians had expended a lot of effort in stopping Oryx and stemming his Taken invasion the first time around. A repeat of that would be extremely unwelcome, to say the least.
Yet now it seemed that Liv was doomed to live in repeats. Every three weeks, she chased after stolen Awoken relics. Every three weeks, she failed to prevent Zeyea Yiv, one of the Corsairs, from getting injured. And Zeyea wasn't the only one. They suffered casualties and losses each week, only for the loop to reset and force them all through the motions once more. Liv was determined to find a way to alter events, even just a little bit. She tried each week, so far with no success. But she wasn't about to give up that easily. She was a Guardian. She would overcome this like she had overcome everything before it.
"Are you going to use the Confluence?" asked Rhys.
Liv considered it for a moment. The Confluence was a labyrinthine series of chambers below the Dreaming City accessible via portals in several different locations. It could be used as a shortcut from one side of the city to the other, assuming that the user knew their way around. She had visited it before to get into Mara's Throneworld.
"Not this time," she decided, "I don't know my way around it well enough yet. It would take me too long to navigate."
"Using it is the best way to learn." said Rhys, "Besides, I have it mapped from last time… Some of it, anyway."
"...Later. I need to check in with Petra."
The Queen's Wrath was on top of a lone hill in The Strand. Like the ever-shifting pathways of the city itself, Petra never stayed in one place too long. She preferred to change locations each week, with the rotation of the curse. Liv couldn't blame her. She figured the sights would probably get old eventually, so changing up the scenery was a good idea. Being still relatively new and unused to the city herself, Liv had yet to get tired of it. Despite the Darkness at its heart, the Dreaming City was a beautiful place filled with many wonders.
"Petra!" she called as soon as she was within earshot.
The Awoken woman brightened slightly when she saw Liv. "Cousin," she nodded.
Liv had been thrown off the first time she'd heard the greeting. She hadn't thought that any of the Awoken would feel enough kinship with her to view her as anything more than another Guardian outsider, yet Petra along with several of the Corsairs had started using the affectation for her.
"I trust you were able to eliminate Xaras?" asked Petra.
Liv nodded, coming to a stop at the top of the hill. "It's gone. The relics are safe."
Petra nodded, not looking surprised. "Good work…" She sighed. "I just wish the impact was a bit more…"
"Permanent? Me too. Look on the bright side, though. If I do it enough, I'll be able to start speedrunning. You can time me."
Despite the grim undertone to the situation, a small smile formed on Petra's face. "Perhaps…"
"Anything else you want me to look into today?"
The Queen's Wrath shook her head. "Not at the moment."
"Ooh! Then how about we play cards? I know a bunch of games."
This time, Petra's smile was slightly wistful. "So do I," she said, "I suspect we had a mutual friend in that regard…"
Liv's breath caught for a moment. There was only one person that Petra could be referring to. She tried to mask it and pass it off like it hadn't happened, but the brief flash of sympathy in Petra's gaze told Liv that she had caught it.
"The wound is still fresh, isn't it?" said the Queen's Wrath, sorrow fluttering at the edges of her words, "...He was a good friend of mine. A good leader."
Liv nodded, once again wishing that she had been able to pull the trigger on Uldren herself.
"Perhaps some of the Corsairs will take you up on your offer," Petra suggested, "Card games are a good way to pass the time."
"...Good idea. I was planning to visit them later anyway." She shifted her weight, casting her gaze across the misty land below. "If there's nothing else you need me for…"
"Actually, there is one thing," said Petra, "I received a transmission while you were hunting Xaras. Another Guardian was asking about you."
Liv frowned. "Local?"
Petra shook her head. "He was new. I believe he landed in the Mists a few minutes ago. Shall I tell him to come?"
Liv thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I'd better go meet him at the landing zone and bring him back here myself. I know how easy it is to get lost here when you're not used to it."
"Very well," said Petra, "Look after him, cousin. He is unaccustomed to this city and the many dangers it holds."
Liv nodded. "I'll be back soon."
She waited until she was halfway down the hill before summoning her Sparrow and barrelling off toward the Divalian Mists. At one time, she would have just launched herself off of the hilltop. Perhaps some of the Reefborn courtesy was rubbing off on her.
"Who do you think it is?" asked Rhys.
She chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I don't know," she replied, "We must know him if he was asking about me. Maybe he came to help with the curse."
"Maybe."
As her Sparrow zipped through the pass between The Strand and the Divalian Mists, she set her gaze ahead, scouring the rocks around the landing zone. Sure enough, she could soon make out a lone figure standing atop one of the flatter boulders, his head tilted back to take in the towering cliffs behind her. Upon her approach, the Guardian's head turned toward her and she felt a burst of delight in her chest. It was Tristan!
Liv jumped off of her Sparrow, launching herself at the Warlock. Tristan barely had enough time to brace himself before she slammed into him, causing him to stagger backward.
"Tristan!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his midsection.
The Warlock cautiously hugged her back. "It's good to see you, Liv."
She pulled back, looking up at her friend's face. "I'm so glad you came by! How are you? How's Kai? How's the clan?"
Tristan blinked, seemingly caught unprepared. "I…"
"Oh wait! I need to take you back with me to meet Petra. I told her I would."
"I could have come to you," he said.
Liv shook her head. "This place is super confusing when you're new. On my first day here, I got lost seven times in two hours… Besides, we wouldn't want you going through a portal and winding up in the Ascendant Realm."
"What?" Tristan looked alarmed.
"Kidding! Well, sort of. I mean, it could happen. The barrier between dimensions is really thin."
He glanced around. "Really? The environment appears normal. At least, what I assume constitutes as normal for the Awoken."
"Yeah but you're human, so obviously it would look normal with your bad eyesight." She grinned to let him know that she was joking.
Tristan's eyebrows drew together. "This place looks different to the Awoken?"
Liv shrugged. "A bit. I can pick up on aberrations easier. And when the barrier is really thin, I can sometimes see flashes of the Ascendant Realm." He looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but she changed the subject before he could. As much as she appreciated her teammate's curiosity, she had told Petra that they would be back soon. "Grab your Sparrow," she told him, "I'll take you to Petra."
At long last, the next part of CF is here! Expect to receive updates weekly on Saturdays. This story deals with the Dreaming City after the events of Forsaken, but as always, things aren't so 1:1.
For anyone interested, I run a discord server called Creation Station! We have a bunch of fanfic writers and artists, many of who enjoy and make content for Destiny, though the server is NOT exclusively Destiny content. Feel free to join! /HDwpzQb
I'm also on tumblr!
Main blog - Destiny stuff, DSMP stuff, shitposts, etc
Writing blog - Fic updates, future story things, fic-related art, etc
