Petra leads Austyn, Sjari, and Ylaia through the halls of Eleusinia, guiding the Techeuns through Taken corruption and across perilous rafters spanning an unending depth below until reaching a tall marble carving of a woman. There, Mara Sov awaits them. Petra and the Techeuns bow in the presence of their queen.

"An agent of the Nine reached into your dreams as they did in mine, offering…" Mara Sov's voice washes over the party before pausing in an uncharacteristic tremble. "Commune with me under the gaze of Sjur's effigy. Let us see if their offer carries true or false hope."

The three do as they are told. Days pass as they scour Sol, until a faint image of a tall huntress catches Sjari's notice in a distant dark fold of space, standing beside Xûr of the Nine. Mara pounces at the opportunity, casting the party towards it. But when they arrive, only Xûr of the Nine, backed by the great mass of Saturn looming behind him, is present.

"What game is this, messenger?" Mara asks.

"Daughters of Light and Dark who come seeking, Queen Regent of the Dead Reef… the Nine have heard of your plight and offer a bargain."

Austyn begins to step forward, but Mara grips her shoulder. Austyn freezes, stunned that her queen would deign to touch her, before processing the danger of Xûr's proposition.

"Have you finally come to claim your responsibility, tool?" Mara's voice is serrated with restrained bloodlust.

"I am only a messenger. VI of the Nine offers an end to your pain: Sjur Eido remains, lost in time."

"It is easy," Mara says, "to claim such a thing. 'Lost in time' is a terribly convenient state." She is fishing. Her stoicism she keeps by bare inches.

"This is how it was," Xûr says, and he tells her.

"The Nine arranged for an anointing of a weapon, creation through battle. They placed their pieces, and they reached out."

Huginn and Muninn she fought, and strove bravely, a last dance between old comrades. And on the precipice of victory—the Nine touched that space. One two three, Huginn and Muninn and Sjur Eido, all in that moment overcome by the Nine's reach. Together faltered. Drew. Loosed. Fell.

"And as Sjur fell, perhaps it was a wish— Or was it? Whatever her final thoughts were, they feasted as they fell still for the last time. And Sjur is sent onward, to the place where she began.

Is that enough?"

It is a message carried a long way, scripted to play on the heart. Mara holds perfectly still. It is truth enough. She puts composure on like a cloak.

Xûr continues, "You will not assist the City on Earth. Adhere to this offer, and your search will find purchase. Deny, and your search will never end."

"Is the future so unclear when your specks of dust are unaligned in their motives?" Mara smirks. "You would not make an offer I could refuse, and so I DO refuse. Your offer has given me the hope I need and the knowledge to peer into time, not place. Why do you think I permitted your entrance into the snare of our dreams? What punishment awaits your failure?"