"But Lidy and Cal- my younger two- they can't stay home alone!" Mama protested.
The woman in the robes shrugged. "That is not my problem. Queen Mara has summoned you for duty, and your elder daughter for a lesson."
"Is there any way I could bring them with me?"
"Unfortunately, no, it would not be safe for them. Queen Mara said that they may, however, go with your elder daughter to the Temple."
"A temple?" Lidy asked eagerly. "What's a temple?"
"A place of worship and learning," the techeun began, "and- well. If you don't hurry, you'll be late. I will escort the children to the temple."
"Thank you, Austyn," Mama replied, briskly hugging each of them before throwing her cloak on and heading for her ship. "I'll be home in time to make dinner, hopefully. If not, Thora, you can help them make sandwiches or something. Don't use the stove."
"I'm ten," Thora said, hurt. "I can use a stove."
But Mama was gone. Thora sighed and followed the techeun, Austyn, to a jumpship piloted by two corsairs in helmets. Lidy started poking at something in the floor. Thora pulled her away from it, whispering, "Don't touch anything. They'll get mad."
Lidy made a face. "How come the Queen wants to talk to you and not us?"
"Because I'm older," Thora lied, unsure if she was supposed to tell her little siblings her secret.
"But you'll always be older!"
"But you won't always be little. Someday you'll be ten."
"Like you?"
"Yeah, but when you're ten, I'll be fourteen."
"Fourteen! That's so old."
"Is that how old Mommy is?" Cal asked curiously.
"No, Mommy is older than that. Something else with a four in it." Lidy said.
"Let's not talk about Mama's age. It isn't polite." Thora told them. "Let's talk about something else."
"Okay." Lidy shook her hair away from her head. "Where's Daddy?"
Thora felt her stomach twist. "I don't know."
"When will he be back?" Cal inquired. "He didn't even come and say goodbye!"
"I don't know," Thora repeated, feeling sick. "Let's talk about something else..."
"But that's what you just said! We did talk about something else!"
"I don't want to talk about Daddy, okay? Do you guys like our new house?"
"Oh, yes. I think there's fairies here," Lidy said eagerly. "If there were ever a place to have fairies. Teeny little fairies that could stand in my hand, with sparkly wings and skirts made out of flower petals!"
"Have you spotted any yet?"
"No, but I'm going to. I'm looking everywhere."
"Fairies aren't real," Cal said, disinterestedly. "I think there's a monster in the lake. But it's a nice monster."
Thora sat in silence as they began to quarrel over fairies and monsters and whether or not they were real. Cal was right. Fairies weren't real, but monsters were. Thora had seen plenty of those. Monsters they had very narrowly escaped, monsters she still needed to know how to fight. Not nice monsters.
"Hush, children," Austyn said severely. "You're disturbing the pilots."
"Let's play the Quiet Game!" Thora suggested quickly.
Her very competitive siblings spent the rest of the flight making faces at each other to try and get each other to laugh or say something, leaving Thora to ponder her dreams and visions. They landed somewhere in the Reef and followed Austyn out of the ship and across a bridge. Thora gazed up at the temple in awe.
"Woah," Lidy whispered.
"I win!" Cal shrieked triumphantly.
"What? I forgot!"
"Actually, I won." Thora said, tousling Cal's dark hair.
Austyn stopped them outside the door. "These two come no farther. I will watch them."
"I... okay... what will they do?"
"They may play in the garden."
"Oh, alright..." Thora gazed up at the towering temple.
"Queen Mara will be waiting for you. Up the stairs."
Thora nodded reluctantly, leaving her siblings behind and continuing alone. Inside the temple there was a huge device of some sort, composed of rotating platforms that looked like planets. Thora could hear a strange whispering coming from it. She began to climb the stairs, wondering how far up she could go.
"Over here, child," she heard the voice- Mara's voice- call. Mara was sitting on a bench on a balcony, waiting for her. Thora came over.
"This is the Oracle Engine," Mara told her. "My techeuns used it to communicate with me while I walked the ascendant plane. Today we will communicate with another trapped in the ascendant plane: Riven."
"The... the voice in my head?"
"Yes. But first... tell me... how often does she speak to you?"
Thora thought about it. "Well, whenever I was really little, she used to talk to me during my dreams and explain things, and during the day she'd tell me things I should do and things to watch out for. But she stopped talking to me as much, and now, well she mostly just gives me the dreams and I have to figure them out."
Mara nodded, satisfied. "Good. She is growing weak. We knew something had happened to her when the curse was finally lifted, years ago."
Thora felt a little prickle worry. In a way, the voice- Riven- had taken care of her. She had warned her against lots of things she'd later seen her siblings do, and she'd seen the consequences, like when Lidy touched a pot on the stove. If something had happened to her, Thora wanted to help. "What's wrong?"
"We aren't sure. She was killed by a team of guardians over fifteen years ago, but Ahamkara's spirits never truly die. Her spirit is now in the ascendant plane, and ever since she broke free from Savathûn..."
"Who is Savathûn?"
"One of our enemies, who has turned many friends against us. She has been dealt with, however. That is how Riven broke free of her. Before Savathûn Took her, she was loyal to me... I need to know if I can persuade her to our side. Her wish-magic would be a powerful tool."
"Okay.."
"I need you to talk to her, since Savathûn severed my bond to her. She has, for whatever reason, established a connection with you. So far, it has allowed her to see into your thoughts and feelings and influence your dreams, but now you will be able see into her thoughts. Find out what is wrong with her and whether she will serve me again."
"Okay. I'll try. How?"
"Stand here," Mara instructed. Thora stood in front of the big screen as Mara turned something on. The planet-things on the Oracle Engine spun faster and then slowed down. "Now speak. Close your eyes, and reach for her."
Thora did so, calling "Uh..Riven? Riven...?" A few times, feeling very foolish. She could hear Mara moving nearby.
Then suddenly, she couldn't. Wind howled past, chilling her to the bone and the light behind her eyelids disappeared. Thora opened her eyes, surprised. She was somewhere dark, where everything seemed to be both solid and vapor at the same time. Something lay nearby. She moved toward it. It was a creature with many tentacles, bleeding and dying. It opened one great eye and stared pitifully at Thora. Thora heard the voice.
Child, help me...
"H-how?"
Want. Don't you want to help me?
"Yes..."
The eye closed. Want harder! What else do you want?
An image came to Thora's mind unbidden. She was starting to wonder whether she'd ever see Daddy again. That was all she wanted, really. For him to come home. She closed her eyes to stop a tear.
She heard a roar and a noise like something stretching and breaking. She opened her eyes. Riven was growing to a terrifying size, no longer helpless and dying.
Thank you, child, she purred, This is why I have guided you here. Your Want has returned my strength. She looked at Thora with a hideous grin before adding, And now I shall have a taste of power, the fraction of Queensblood in you, before I go after the Queen herself. I am in your debt.
Thora let out a scream, turning to flee as Riven reached out for her with a long, grasping tentacle. How could she escape this place? Mara hadn't explained that. What if she wanted to leave? Would that do anything? Thora thought hard about Daddy again, and then yelled, "I want to leave this place!"
Riven laughed, a terrible laugh, and wrapped her claws around Thora, lifting her up into the air. Everything went black.
