hearthfire

“Who… are you? Who’s there, inside the frame? How did you get here?”

Chandra stared at the woman in a sort of disbelief, unsure how to answer. When most people of her world thought of the Tenno, they thought of the warframes being piloted. How did this woman, in this unknown colony, know that there was hypothetically somebody in here?

A second person appeared, this one a man with pale skin and curly dark hair, with brown eyes clearly scarred by things no man should see. She knew that look. It was the look of many of her fellows, of knowing something he shouldn’t.

He paused to look at the first woman, then back again. “What… the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know but I’m kind of concerned.” The first woman replied. “I don’t know how they got here.”

“… How do we put her back?”

Those words stabbed at her heart more than she would like to admit. It was the first bit of true peace she had known in a very long time, here decorating in these woods. She supposed it wouldn’t last, and she felt safer being armed either way, but she wanted to cherish this forever.

“I have no idea… but… look at that. She has the sword.”

“What?”

“The one that’s been stuck in this stump since we got here. The one that knocked me out when I tried to mess with the thing on the hilt and I woke up five hours later buried in snow.”

“I have no idea how you didn’t get frostbite.”

“Bold of you to assume I didn’t.”

“...Am I misremembering?”

“You’re remembering the bender.”

“… Right.”

“All I know is that sword had some serious bad juju.”

“Then why the fuck is she holding it? Shouldn’t we like, take that away from her?”

“No no no. Look.” The woman pointed at the sword. “The thing on the hilt is gone. The Heartless thing. It’s got the sigil on it.”

“So it does...” The man sounded a bit astounded. “We need to figure out what to do with this kid.”

“Does she even know she’s a kid?”

Chandra almost felt a little insulted. How dare they insinuate she didn’t have full agency? They weren’t supposed to know this, any of this. There were few who knew of the Zariman children’s true nature, some random colonists certainly shouldn’t. More and more she began to distrust these two. For all she knew, they could be Sentient mimics of some kind.

“Hey, do you know you’re a kid yet?” The man looked her dead on where her eyes would be if she were human right now.

“That is one hell of a question.” Chandra replied. “Do you know you’re being suspicious and I have no reason to believe you weren’t sent by something? You aren’t supposed to know that.”

“… So, yes, then?” The woman asked.

“Yes. I swear if you’re mimics-”

“Nah nah, not mimics. I just need to know your situation. I have a few more questions.”

Chandra would have squinted had her Ember form had eyes.

“Have you learned to walk independently? Learned that you can fight in your own body? Have you destroyed the Elder Queen?”

“You definitely shouldn’t know that. No one knows that but Teshin Dax. Are you both also-”

“Not… exactly.” The man answered.

“Then what are you-”

“We’ll get to that, I promise. I have one more question, and it might hurt.”

“I don’t like the sound of tha-”

“Where is the Lotus?”

“...” A sharp stabbing pain shot through Chandra’s chest, but not one that was physical. It was an emotional blade between the ribs. She couldn’t answer. She didn’t know.

“… That’s all the answer I need. Jason, I know what we do with her.”

“What?” The man, apparently named Jason, raised a brow at the woman.

“I’m adopting her.”

The sudden, sureness of the answer even took Chandra aback. Just like that? If this woman already knew so much about the Tenno, and about her personally, didn’t she know that declaring herself her mother was tantamount to a death sentence?

“Zor, are you even equipped to handle an entire teenager?” This Jason fellow asked.

“I married rich and our living space is fucking massive, mate. I’m equipped.”

“Is she even okay with you doing this? You can’t just run off with a whole person no matter where they came from.”

“Listen, she needs a place to stay, paperwork or no, until we either find a way to send her back or she chooses to stay here. I’m saying I can provide--”

“Where am I?” Chandra interjected.

“Er...” The woman who the man called ‘Zor’ cleared her throat. “Right I said I was gonna get to this. We are...”

“Earth that was.” Jason answered without a moment of hesitation.

“But… how? Is time travel suddenly just… a thing?”

“Not exactly… and this isn’t precisely Ancient Earth. It’s-”

“Then why did he tell me-”

“Because it’s a pocket dimension, between universes and timelines, and Earth that was is the easiest way to get into it. Everything you know is a video game, to us, and it’s one that I’ve been playing for at least five years. You know video games.”

“I do… I have all the ludoplex games that are out right now! And… I like to restore Ancient Earth electronics, in my free time… but… it’s weird to think that everything I know is just a game, I’ll admit...”

“Lots of things connect here. I’ve seen all kinds of different worlds come through here, it’s a very strange place. One that doesn’t often make sense, but we love it anyway. You must have gotten caught by an errant portal. Finding your home is gonna take a lot of time, but even if you choose to stay, we should find it anyway. Your orbiter would be cool to have around.”

“… How big is this place?”

“Huge, my dear. Every time we come here, we find something new.”

“… I have my own question.”

“Hit me.”

“What was with the book? I haven’t ever seen one of those intact...”

“Oh, then you’re gonna love Jackdaw, he’s a- what book.”

“It was leatherbound, and its letters shifted so I could read it. It was called the… ‘Blahblahland Dance’? What kind of name is that?”

Jason grimaced. “Oh god, she found the book.”

Zora looked back at him, then to her again. “Are… are you in Transference right now?”

Chandra focused on being herself again, and felt the metal-sheened armor melt away into her own skin, and her whole body shrink to her normal size. The two adults looked somewhat stunned.

“That’s… not Transference.”

“Nooooo. That’s someone who did the dance.”

“I am so sorry.”

“Why did it make me able to shapeshift?”

“Well...” Zora cleared her throat. “How do we put this eloquently.”

“Book’s magic.” Jason finished.

“… Magic.”

“Yes. Magic.”

“Surprise!” Zora waved her hands around a bit. “Magic is real and so are parallel universes. This place links up to… iterations? I guess? Based on the fact that you’re here, and not ourselves as teenagers.”

“… What?”

“Sooo… we have dreams of other universes, the both of us. They can be traumatizing so we have a sort of support group. In some other mirror of your world, we were the Tenno and we went through all that shit instead. That’s the other reason why we know so much.”

“So… nothing is here that’s going to try to kill me? Nothing I’ve been beating back for ages?”

“Not even a single measly Butcher. If you can fall through, so can they, but they’re easily dispatched, considering. You’re safe here. You can rest.”

“… I already don’t want to go back… but I know I have to at some point. I have unfinished business. And I’m gonna miss the next Nightwave broadcast. And I have to feed my kavat.”

“Understandable. But you could do both. You can be here and there. We know how.”

“… Really?”

“Yeah. And I meant what I said. I have the room for you, you’re free to stay with me until we can work things out.”

“That… means a lot… you just met me, that’s way more generosity than I’m used to.”

“Us Dreamers gotta stick together.” Zora looked around the campsite. “… Wow. You’ve been busy.”

“It was just so… plain. I couldn’t just not decorate, it felt wrong to leave it so boring.”

“Ahh, good old Zariman fashion culture. Yeah, that tracks. You did amazing. Top quality work.”

“Er… thanks.”

“We were actually here on a camping trip for a few days. There’s enough tents for all of us, so get cozy. I brought snacks.”