Chapter Text
Il Dottore had not expected the Tsaritsa’s summons.
The Doctor suppressed an irritated sigh as the message came through the internal link he shared with his various segments. Now, of all times? Can this wait?
No can do, the segment stationed at Zapolyarny Palace thought back. Her Majesty wants all of us here, and she wants us here now. Or as soon as possible, if “now” isn’t reasonable.
Is she aware of my present activities?
Yes, I have already informed her of your stakeout of the Sanctuary of Surasthana. Her Majesty became noticeably more agitated upon hearing of this, and repeated her request for your immediate return to Snezhnaya.
Is this for a general gathering of some sort, or…?
Just us, as far as I can tell. All of us. All of you? Me? Whatever.
So he was being recalled, then. Wonderful. Was there a reason given?
No, she seems to want everyone here for the explanation. I suppose she’s not interested in repeating herself.
Fine. He paused as the air around him seemed to ripple with energy – at least his target seemed to have better timing than that self-inflated fool of a Cryo Archon. I’ll be on my way just as soon as I’ve finished up here.
… very well. Her Majesty says to make it quick.
The Doctor cut off his internal link as a young, female voice drifted out to him from the center of the Sanctuary. A shame, really; a rare opportunity to speak with the elusive God of Wisdom, and now it was being cut short. The Tsaritsa was normally a patient woman, but when she wanted something done quickly, she wanted it done quickly.
Her Majesty would not take kindly to him stalling for a leisurely conversation.
He didn’t bother with the device he’d appropriated from those idiot Sages; there was no need, and it might have cost him the element of surprise. Buer turned at the sound of footsteps behind her, but she was far too slow, and the tiny god gasped as his hand went straight through her chest. The white-haired fairy behind her shrieked in horror as the Electro Gnosis fell from the Lesser Lord’s hands.
He paused. Where was the other Gnosis?
He didn’t get much time to ponder that question. The Traveler, that golden-haired pest who’d plagued seemingly all of the Fatui’s operations for the past year or so, had already reacted to his sudden appearance, and her blade was approaching with surprising speed. No matter; the power she’d demonstrated against the Shouki no Kami was impressive, to be certain, but still no threat to the Second of the Fatui Harbingers.
The brat’s sword clattered to the ground as its wielder was unceremoniously flung into the side of the Sanctuary’s central platform. She never knew what hit her.
Still, even as that dimwitted fairy looked frantically between the other two females in the room, evidently struggling to decide who she should try to help first, the Doctor frowned. Where was the Dendro Gnosis? Was this child not actually the Archon Buer after all? There’d been some speculation when the Fatui were doing their research for their Archon hunt, that maybe she was a just a decoy for the true God of Wisdom, but there’d been no actual evidence to support any of those theories…
A sudden flash of green light pulled the Doctor out of his thoughts, and he silently cursed his forced haste as his mind processed the information his eyes were taking in.
The Dendro Gnosis had appeared in front of the Lesser Lord. It floated between them for just a moment, before abruptly whipping around him, almost too fast for his eyes to follow, and flying out through the Sanctuary’s doors. The closed doors.
He’d missed.
There was no time to figure out how to chase the thing down; the commotion inside the Sanctuary had apparently already drawn outside attention, if the confused shouting he could just barely hear from outside was any indication, and even he knew fighting his way past an entire nation’s military force was a bad idea, regardless of how easy it would be. Even if Her Majesty were more willing to wait on him, the situation was no longer tenable.
It took a few seconds longer than expected for him to extract himself from the situation; while he’d been distracted by the Dendro Gnosis, Buer had grabbed onto his wrist with one hand, and her grip was surprisingly tight. The little god locked eyes with him for just a moment as he yanked his arm free, and he found himself suppressing an involuntary shudder.
How strange. The Lesser Lord was no threat to him, but something about her gaze – those large, faintly-glowing emerald eyes – still made his skin crawl.
It was like she could see right through him.
No matter. He swatted the tiny god aside like the insignificant pest she was, and quickly retrieved the Electro Gnosis from where it had fallen. The Sanctuary of Surasthana’s interior was far too bright a shade of green – even just thinking about the place made his eyes hurt – but at least that made it easy to locate the one piece of the Shouki no Kami that was worth his time and effort to salvage. He was already cutting this rather close; having to stop and search for the Gnosis would have been less than ideal.
Reaching into his coat pocket, the Doctor pulled out the emergency escape device he’d prepared for just this sort of situation. Any good scientist knew how important it was to always have an evacuation plan.
The Sanctuary’s doors swung open, but he was already gone.
***
In the gardens of Pardis Dhyai, a lone scholar looked up from his late-night observations of the plants, just in time to catch sight of a bright streak crossing the night sky, coming from the direction of Sumeru City and vanishing somewhere over the western horizon. The scholar took a moment to marvel at the ethereal beauty of the heavens, then returned to his research.
Briefly, he wondered if it was unusual for a shooting star to glow green.
***
“Lumine!”
Lumine winced as she forced herself to open her eyes, to stand even as the world seemed to spin dangerously around her. Her ears were ringing something fierce, and she forced herself to focus on Paimon’s voice calling her name.
The Doctor… the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.
The world finally stopped spinning, and her eyes finally focused on the white-and-green figure on the ground in front of her. Nahida. The tiny god didn’t move or react in any way as Lumine stumbled over to her, and wisps of Dendro-green light poured from her chest and back. For a moment, she feared the worst.
No. Gods don’t die quietly in this world. If Nahida died, everyone would know.
A male voice drew her attention. “Lumine, Paimon. What happened?”
“Cyno!” That was Paimon. “It was – it was the Doctor! We’d just gotten back, and he just showed up out of nowhere and…!”
Cyno’s eyes widened. “The Doctor? But didn’t you and Dehya say…” He paused and shook his head. “No, this isn’t the time. Is the Lesser Lord alright?”
“I don’t know,” Lumine heard herself say. Her voice sounded strangely distant in her mind, like it was coming from someone else. “The Doctor… he…”
She’s alive now, but probably not for long. There has to be something… Venti went to Windrise, but does Nahida have anything similar? And would it even work? Signora hurt Venti pretty badly, but that was nothing compared to…
She paused, and turned to look back over her shoulder.
Rukkhadevata’s meditation bubble. Maybe…
No. They’d just freed Nahida from that awful prison. They couldn’t just turn around and put her back again, not when they didn’t even know if it would do anything to help… but…
But it might.
Lumine turned back around, and immediately knew from Cyno’s expression that they’d been having the same thoughts. The General Mahamatra took a deep breath, then turned to the two guards watching nervously from the Sanctuary’s doors. “Hana, go find someone – not one of the former Sages – who knows how to operate this thing, and take them to the controls. I will send Payam when we’re ready to have it turned on.” The guards nodded, and one quickly left as Cyno turned back around. “Let’s hurry. I doubt we have much time.”
Lumine nodded, but immediately winced as the world seemed to tilt from the movement. “Sorry, I… I think you should carry her. I think I hit my head…”
Cyno only paused for a moment before nodding back. “Right.”
Lumine watched as the General Mahamatra carefully lifted his god from the floor and carried her to the Sanctuary’s central pedestal, forcing herself not to focus on the seemingly-increasing flow of light from that awful wound. Don’t panic. Panicking doesn’t help. Stay calm, pay attention in case Cyno needs you to do something else…
Her head pounded. The world suddenly seemed to blur. Dimly, she heard Cyno call to the remaining guard.
Paimon floated into her line of sight. Lumine thought she heard the fairy say something, but she couldn’t tell what anymore. Everything was running together…
The world went black.
***
She awoke to birdsong, and the distant sound of rushing water.
Lumine blinked, then slowly raised one hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Her head hurt, but not as bad as before. What had she been…?
The Balladeer. Irminsul. The Doctor.
Nahida.
She barely resisted the urge to immediately try and sit upright. That would probably have been a bad idea, especially coming off of what she guessed was a probably-recent head injury. Take your time, you’re clearly not in the same place as before. Check your surroundings, try to analyze the current situation and act accordingly.
Looking around, Lumine saw that she was lying on a bed in a small, vaguely familiar wooden building. It took her a few moments to recognize the interior of Tighnari’s house – it had been nearly two months, not counting the unknown amount of time she’d been unconscious for, since she’d last been there. Paimon was asleep next to her, wrapped around Lumine’s upper left arm like a child around their favorite stuffed animal.
Voices drifted in from outside.
“… chaos… a lot of uncertainty…”
“… a lot of work to be done…”
Lumine considered trying to sit up – slowly, of course – but quickly realized that doing so would be tricky with a certain fairy still clinging to her. She wondered what would be the best way to extract oneself from another’s grip without disturbing the other in the process.
Fortunately, the answer to that question was quickly rendered moot by Paimon happening to choose that precise moment to wake up on her own.
“Lumine?” Paimon blinked, sat up, and rubbed her eyes. “Lumine, you’re awake! Paimon was so worried, you were all wobbly and then you suddenly passed out and…” The fairy paused for a moment, and then her eyes lit up. “Oh! Right, um, this is Tighnari’s house – Cyno brought you here, that was a couple days ago – and he’s been waiting for you to wake up, so Paimon will go let him know! Be right back!”
Paimon was up and out the door before Lumine had even processed her words, much less thought of anything to say in response or protest. Oh well. She did finally sit up as Paimon called for Tighnari in the next room; to her relief, doing so did not prompt the world to attempt another impression of a merry-go-round.
Paimon returned a moment later, Tighnari following not far behind. “Good morning, Lumine,” he said. He seemed much better than he had been when they’d last seen each other at Pardis Dhyai, which was good. “It’s good to see that you’re awake. How do you feel?”
“I’ve had worse, I think. Paimon said it’s been a couple of days…?”
Tighnari nodded. “That’s right. You appeared to have taken quite a hit to the head. Just to check, what’s the last thing you remember?”
Lumine paused for a moment before responding. “We… we’d defeated the Balladeer, and healed Irminsul. We’d just gotten back to the Sanctuary of Surasthana, Nahida was talking about… about her plans for Sumeru…” She took a moment to collect her thoughts. She hoped Nahida was alright. “Then… the Doctor appeared, all of a sudden, and… attacked Nahida.” She didn’t know if Tighnari knew what a Gnosis was; better not to talk about that for the moment. “I tried to help, but he did… something… and I got thrown across the room. That was when I hit my head. And then he just… disappeared. At that point Cyno came in with a couple of guards, and we figured we couldn’t just leave Nahida on the floor like that, so…”
Nobody said anything for a few seconds, before Tighnari finally broke the silence. “Anything after that?”
Lumine nodded slowly, taking another moment to finish gathering her thoughts on how to continue. “In the Sanctuary… there was this sort of… energy bubble, that the Sages had kept Nahida in. It was – ” She paused. No, I shouldn’t mention Rukkhadevata. Nobody remembers her now that she’s been erased from Irminsul. “We didn’t know what else to do, so… we put her back.” Another pause. “Or at least… we were going to put her back? I don’t… I don’t actually remember if we managed to or not…”
Tighnari nodded. “Well, that pretty much lines up with what Paimon and Cyno told me, so it doesn’t sound like you have any memory issues, at least. I’m still going to advise you to stay a few more days, just in case; let me know if you have trouble remembering anything, or notice anything else strange.”
Lumine nodded again. “Okay. Thanks, Tighnari.”
“You’re welcome. Oh, and there is one other thing. Cyno apparently has… some kind of message for you? He insists on delivering it to you personally. Would you like me to let him in now, or tell him to come back later?”
Lumine blinked. “Uh… now is fine. Thanks.” What kind of message could that be…?
Tighnari nodded and left. Lumine heard him talking quietly to someone, and then Cyno came into the room, closing the door behind him. “Hello, Lumine.”
“Cyno.” She paused. Cyno looked… well, maybe not exhausted, but definitely visibly tired. Bags were starting to form under his eyes, and his shoulders seemed to slump a little for just a moment, before he caught himself and straightened up again. “Have… have you been busy these past couple of days?”
Cyno stared at her for a moment before responding. “Was it that obvious?”
“Not really? It was kind of just a guess.”
A sigh. “Sumeru City is in chaos,” he said. “People were… unsettled… after hearing about what happened on Jnagarbha Day, but the Matra and Corps of Thirty were able to keep things relatively under control.” Lumine remembered that; she and Paimon had heard some of the whispered gossip as they wandered the streets in search of a good place to eat after their first true face-to-face meeting with Nahida. Everyone had seemed… concerned, by the news that their government had just been all but overthrown, but not excessively so. Mostly there was just a lot of talk about what the Sages had apparently been up to. “But then the incident with Lesser Lord Kusanali occurred, and the Akasha suddenly went down. The situation deteriorated quickly after that, especially after word got out about the attack.”
Lumine winced. “So… things are bad?”
A nod. “Very bad. There’s a lot of concern about the government situation – suddenly losing four of the Six Sages is no small matter to begin with, and now the Archon has been incapacitated as well. The fact that Lesser Lord Kusanali was attacked by a Fatui Harbinger is also highly troubling; many people are afraid that the Fatui may make another attempt at taking over the nation, now that the most obvious deterrent is indisposed.”
“Is Nahida okay?” Paimon asked. “She hasn’t… you know… has she…?”
“It’s still impossible to tell at this point in time. The Lesser Lord remains unconscious, and has been unresponsive to any stimulus we dare attempt to apply through the containment field. For what it’s worth, her condition doesn’t appear to have gotten worse, but there are no obvious signs of it getting better, either.”
“Oh… well, um… at least there’s still hope, right?”
“Of course, but the city needs more than just hope right now.” Cyno paused, and sighed. “And then there’s the matter of the Akasha.”
“Are people really that upset about it?” Paimon asked. “Paimon knows it was really useful and all, but with all the bad things it was being used for…”
Cyno shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s not so simple to get rid of something people have grown so accustomed to. The abrupt shutdown has had a lot of unforeseen effects, and with so much of the Akademiya suddenly under investigation, there simply isn’t enough manpower to handle all of the problems that have arisen. Not when the sudden collapse of the government and the potential threat of the Fatui are much greater concerns.”
Lumine nodded. “Right. I can see why you would be busy, then.” She paused. “So, you needed to deliver a message of some sort to me?”
“Yes. Lesser Lord Kusanali did briefly regain consciousness, just as final preparations were being made to reactivate the containment field. She asked me to give these to you.”
Lumine blinked as Cyno handed her two Knowledge Capsules – one gold, one white. “Knowledge Capsules? But… didn’t you say the Akasha…?”
“Yes, the Akasha is currently out of operation, but Akasha Terminals can still be used to draw information from other sources. I was asked to tell you to use the gold capsule when you are ready, and that it would contain instructions regarding the use of the white capsule.”
Lumine nodded slowly. “I understand. Thank you, Cyno.”
Cyno nodded back, then briefly adjusted his headpiece before turning to leave. Lumine looked down at the Knowledge Capsules in her hands as the door opened, then closed again.
When you are ready. Those words stuck out to her for some reason.
She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what she learned.
***
Hello, Lumine. It’s me, Nahida.
By the time you receive this message… I think I might already be gone.
You’re probably wondering what exactly happened with the Doctor. How he appeared so suddenly, why he was here when you’d personally seen him leaving for Snezhnaya. I doubt I have the answers to all of your questions, but I did manage to look through some of the Doctor’s memories before he fled, so I do have some information for you.
It would appear that the Fatui Harbinger known as Il Dottore, or the Doctor, controls a number of separate bodies, or “segments”, created at various points in his life. These segments can operate independently, allowing the Doctor to, in a sense, be in multiple places at the same time. You did indeed see the Doctor leave Sumeru, but that was just one of his segments; a different segment remained behind, waiting for an opportunity to strike. It also seems that the Doctor’s segments have a sort of internal link, allowing them to communicate with each other over great distances.
I also came across some information about you. It would seem that the Fatui have been watching and studying you for some time, specifically your origins as a traveler from another world. The Fatui call people like you – those who don’t belong to this world – “Descenders”, of which you are apparently the fourth, and thus far, the last.
Curiously, I noted that your brother was not on the Fatui’s list of Descenders. I was not able to investigate further, but perhaps someone else can help you with that.
I wish… I wish I had more time. I wish I could continue to watch over you on your journey – I’ve learned so much from watching you, and I’m sure there’s way more that I still have yet to learn. But…
After the Doctor attacked me, the Dendro Gnosis left my body. I think it sensed… that I won’t be around much longer. I can only assume it has gone to find my successor.
With that said, I have… a bit of a selfish request.
Please stay.
I’m not asking you to stay forever; I know you have your own goals, and that they will eventually require you to leave. But… if I’m right about the Gnosis going to find a new Archon, then whoever it chooses to take my place, I would like you to try and help them. Help them lead Sumeru into a better future.
Help them like you’ve helped me, and others before me.
You should have received a white Knowledge Capsule along with the one containing this message. It contains a message for my successor – whoever they might be, where and whenever they might be found. Please keep it safe, and pass it along for me.
I’m sorry that I can’t do more for you. For everyone. I’m sorry that this has to be the way I say goodbye.
Goodbye, Lumine.
Ad astra abyssosque!
***
It took Lumine a moment to realize that Paimon was hugging her.
It took another moment to realize that the tears were her own.