Thora choked on a scream, tears falling down her face, before realizing the tentacle, the roaring, and the wind were gone, replaced by a light breeze, soft grass, and whistling. Her eyes popped open. She knew that song. She was o-blam!- hillside, the sky above her empty and grey. She ran up the hill. On the other side, somehow, was the place where they used to live. All the houses near theirs were still beat up and old and half caved in, but their house, instead of standing proud and clean and new, was no more than a pile of ash with a figure standing in the middle of it. Could it be-? Thora walked down the hill as fast as she could, breaking into a run. "Daddy!" He turned to face her with tears in his eyes. "Thora?" She stopped at the edge of the remains of their house, gazing at him uncertainly. He took a swift step forward, reaching out for her, grasping a strand of her red hair between his fingers before crushing her in a hug. She clung to him, a sob tearing through her chest, burying her face in his shoulder. "I wish this was real," Daddy whispered. "I'm sorry, Thora. It's my fault you're gone. I... I found these ruins a week ago and I haven't been able to stop dreaming about it, every night since." "You're dreaming?" Thora asked, puzzled. That didn't make sense. She was real. "But I'm dreaming too." "Really?" "I think so.. I don't know if I'm safe, but Mama and Lidy and Cal are, unless Riven got to them, too." "Riven?" "Yes, I think I died," Thora decided sorrowfully. "Riven got me." "No. No, you can't be dead! How you be in my dream? But.... there [i]was[/i] the time when...." Daddy studied the hill beyond them. "That hill isn't... that hasn't been part of my dream before. There isn't a hill where our house was." "I came across it to get here." "Strange. I swear, it's the same hill!" "Same hill as what?" "Well... I did have one dream like this before. It was after... it's a long story." "Tell me, then." Thora sat down in the grass. "I'm scared. I don't want to be dead. Surely I couldn't be dreaming if I was dead?" "In my other dream like this I talked to someone who had been dead for years. Cayde-6. A guardian I....I killed, before... before I became a guardian." Thora looked up at him. He had never told her that before. "You killed someone? Did Mama know that?" "Oh, yes." Daddy frowned. "She was there. It's complicated. But anyways... I had this dream, after the first time I asked her to marry me, and she said no. We both had this dream, actually, at the same time. We went into a forest and talked to Cayde and he forgave me for what Uldren- my past self- did. Or he said it wasn't my fault. And boy, did he give Petra a talking-to." Daddy chuckled. "After that she agreed to marry me, and we made our own home out here, and had you and Lidy and Cal." "But why did she say no, the first time?" Daddy looked thoughtful. "Well... she had loved other people before me, but they didn't love her. They left her. She was afraid I would leave, too. But [i]I[/i] was serious. None of them wanted to marry her, like I did." "But... you did leave." "I'm sorry. I regret leaving the way I did. Even if it was the right thing to do... not in the middle of the night, after..." "After fighting with Mama." Thora shook her head. "I watched you leave. You didn't even say goodbye." He looked stricken. "Oh, Thora... I'm so sorry, princess... I tried to come back...but all of you were gone. I... I can't fix this. I don't...." "It's okay," Thora assured him. "You can still go back to Mama and Lidy and Cal. They're back in the Reef, on your old house on Hjura-1. I don't know if..." she was about to say "I don't know if Mama still loves you," but seeing the hopeful look on his face, she couldn't. "I don't know if they'll be home when you get there. Mama was doing something for Queen Mara and Lidy and Cal are at the temple with Queen Mara and another lady. That's where I was supposed to be. But I went somewhere else when I talked to Riven." "But... are you really dead? Oh, Thora... it's my fault, all of this. Will they forgive me?" "I think it's the Queen's fault," Thora decided, "since she's the one who told me to talk to Riven. But it's also my fault, I guess, for wanting to help Riven. I'll be okay. Don't be sad." "Don't be-" he choked, hugging her tighter, then whispered, "How could I possibly not be sad..? Thora..." "They need you. Please, just go back to them," "I will," he promised. "I will. Don't leave yet! Stay here with me as long as you can!" But the grass and the hill and the ashes of their old life were fading away. "I'm sorry, Daddy, I think I have to go. I love you...will you tell Mama and Lidy and Cal I love them, too?" "No, don't go!" He begged, clutching her tighter as she faded away, tears running down his face. "Goodbye," Thora whispered, laying her head on his shoulder and resting in her father's arms one last time, before the dream was gone, and there was only light.