#caitl

"How are you recovering from your... malady?"

"I'm doing better. Listening to Freija giggle after being blown up is helping. She's always enjoyed the Iron Banner, and I didn't have the heart to tell her no."

Caiatl snorted a laugh. "Would I find her identifiable amongst the many matches?"

"Oh, no, not at all. I mean, she's a little odd, there's a lot of times where she'll just stand in her barricade and annoy people during Fortress, but I doubt she's the only one that does it. We had a real pretty white and red outfit with goat horns for most of it?"

"Nothing remarkable," she agreed.

"How's warfronts?"

"I much prefer my conversations with you to exclude the war fronts."

"Sorry. How's... things?"

Caiatl rumbled an irritated sigh.

Sunny sank to shoulder level. "Ah, so you actually did look for me, at least a little."

"I am fortunate," she agreed. "I worried you and your guardian would still have withdrawn."

"I'm well-loved and well supported," Sunny promised. "Sometimes against my will. Do you want to hear about my digging into my guardian's history? Only you can't tell anyone. Freija doesn't know much, and she's actually mad at me for what she does know, so we're kind of dancing around the rules a little bit."

"What have you learned?"

"Well, she was born on Earth in the Tower, but from what I can glean, she spent more days on the road than inside. Her parents were from the Dreaming City, and they wanted to help."

"This is fairly recent, considering the timeline of your existence."

Sunny dropped two feet. "Eight hundred and fifty years, I searched for someone that hadn't been born yet!"

"Depending on your method, the nine hundred years would have been inevitable. She died young for Awoken."

Sunny dropped a few inches and hovered in a circle. "Assassinated along with most everyone else that didn't marry out of the family."

"Interesting. Royals?"

"Nah. Politics, though."

"Hmph!" She didn't ask further, giving Sunny a side-eye.

It had been so long that she forgot the cue. "Oh! Her parents are the ones I've found stuff about. They eloped and came to Earth to help the humans here. Established routes around the Tower's base, some cartography. It's been... fun, but my research is about to get me into trouble, I think."

"Hmph! Your disregard for boundaries and authority likely lend to this."

"Likely," Sunny agreed sheepishly, swaying low. "I kinda wanna look around on Earth, but I think that might be too close to home. Found out Petra had a crush on her dad, that was funny to think about. Found out that she-- okay, so you know how I told you guardians all hate water? And drowning? I'm not entirely wrong, but I didn't realize that Freija's is way more pronounced than average. First- most guardians don't like swimming, but the helmets can keep them from drowning up to impressive depths, so the fear of water isn't nearly as common as I thought. We never had occasion to get into water deeper than her shoulders, but she really, really hates water. Or any other liquid deep enough to swim in, where she can't touch the ground anymore."

Caiatl rumbled a laugh. "Oh?"

"I don't want to talk too much about her, 'cos I don't want her mad at me for snitching, but she is terrified of swimming. She says it's because she can't swim, but she can, but she doesn't believe me!"

"Swimming is not an activity for panicked minds," Caiatl stated, giving Sunny another sideways look. Even under the helm, she managed to make the expression chastising.

"She won't try!"

"She needs not," Caiatl rumbled.

"Are you defending her?" asked Sunny, bobbing to see Caiatl's face. "Are you really-- isn't your species aquatic? How can you see reason in hydrophobia?!"

Caiatl narrowed her eyes at Sunny and shifted her weight heavily from side to side. "I do not understand your guardian's fear, but I see no reason to force oneself through facing one if they need not. Is there occasion for swimming?"

"Probably not, now that we're done on Titan."

"She could force herself through the situation without truly overcoming the fear?"

"I guess, if you count those fits as pushing though. The missions got done."

"Then I stand firm on my position."

Sunny froze, considering the notion.

"You were telling me about the history of your guardian?" Caiatl reminded her, stumping firmly onward.

"She had a dream! It's happened twice, where she's dreamed pieces of memory! It's fascinating, but I can't talk to anyone about it cos I'm already breaking the rules. But so she had a dream where she--well, her previous sister-- almost drowned. And I think that's led to a phobia in this life."

"That is indeed interesting. I forget to consider a guardian's first life. The guardians seem content to act similarly, as we have discussed. What inspired you to break these rules?"

"You, kinda."

Caiatl's pace faltered and Sunny felt the eyes digging into her. "How so?"

Sunny giggled. "When you asked me about the guardians' memories of their first lives, the first thing you said was that remembering only the last ten years would be an unpleasant lifetime. So I wanted Freija to have a life that didn't have war. But like you also said, there's no such thing. So I wanted to know who.... Honestly, Freija keeps calling herself and Sarah as different people, but from this angle, I'm not sure I didn't just wake up and rename Sarah. But I wanted to know her first life."

"Have you satisfied this urge?"

"I'm getting more and more sure that I'll never be able to," she admitted with an exasperated drop. "I know more about her parents than her. I want the dreams to keep up but she hates them."

Caiatl didn't answer, lumbering ahead silently as she contemplated the middle distance.

"What?"

"Periodically, Sunny, Ghost of Freija, you show a dark side. I enjoy it greatly."

"What?!"

"Wishing nightmares upon your guardian to answer questions," she chortled. "The desire to remove a phobia unnecessarily."

Sunny bounced to and fro in frustration. "It wasn't unnecessary! It is now, but every time we went down there, she kept panicking! And it wasn't even swimming! It was just moving through a liquid! She swears it's a fear of drowning, but her helmet keeps liquid out! And she kept screaming and throwing fits! She was doing so well with her behavior before the methane!

Caiatl rocked her weight back, amused smile in her posture. "You expect much. If rationality could solve it, she would not have the fear at all. Completing the mission in spite of abject terror is admirable."

Caiatl opened the Hangar door, revealing Zavala and two guardians at the doorway, with two Cabal soldiers sheepishly peeking around behind them.

"I stole the empress away!" Sunny sang, surprised to see the waiting entourage. "Sorry!"

"Good afternoon, Sunny," Zavala called cheerfully. "The empress made clear her intention to speak with a friend privately."

Sunny froze in the air and Caiatl chortled. "I appreciate the effort," she rumbled, taking her place between her guards.

Zavala smirked wryly at the ghost. "I do not, and I am taking note of your willingness to lie for a friend." Sunny drooped, but his smile warmed up again. "I expect to see you and your guardian lighting the pyres with the rest of us."

"Yessir!" Sunny chirped, flying in a big loop on her way back to Freija at higher speeds than should have been reasonable.

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