Chapter Text
Cyno wiped sweat from his face and sighed.
The sun was merciless, and even though it was filtered by lush leaves and canopy overhead, it still bore down onto his skin. He was used to the dry heat of the desert, but the rain forest presented a whole new level of humidity that he, while familiar with the climate in the area, was largely unequipped to deal with. It made his hair frizzy and his skin itch, and all he could think of was jumping into a cool pool of water back in Gandharva Ville.
It was a rare weekend off for him, as he had been relieved of his duties as the General Mahamatra for a short while. Cyno had initially protested leaving his position, claiming that he was perfectly happy doing his job, and he was, but Lesser Lord Kusanali wouldn’t hear of it. She’d insisted on this break, and had conceded to giving him these two days to do as he pleased.
“An overworked mind is not a healthy one,” Kusanali had argued. “And that includes yours. You’ve worked hard, and you deserve a break; the other Matra can pass judgment in your stead.”
He had opened his mouth to object.
“Two days, then. Just the weekend. That’s all I ask.”
And who was Cyno to argue with an Archon?
He’d begrudgingly accepted her offer, clocking out and leaving the Akademiya on Friday afternoon with her reassurance that the city would be perfectly fine in his absence. The other Matra had seemed overjoyed, though whether that was due to them sharing a similar mindset to Nahida or being relieved of being spared of his jokes for two whole days was unknown to him.
Naturally, Cyno had found himself heading in the direction of Gandharva Ville. Whenever he had time off, he’d always turn his feet towards the path to the woodland village. While there were merits to taking walks in the desert, and he seemed to feel the most content in his homeland, Cyno wasn’t always in the mood to be alone; sometimes, he wanted the company of something that didn’t scramble out of his way at the sight of him. The animals in the rainforest were not afraid of him, and the majority of the Forest Rangers greeted him with a respectful bow and relaxed shoulders. A welcome change to the flinches he received when wandering Sumeru City.
And of course, to top it all off, it was home to his two favorite people in all of Teyvat.
One of which was trekking just a few short feet in front of him.
“We’re almost there, General!” Aforementioned favorite person numero uno Collei twisted to look behind her as she walked, a sunny grin present on her face.
Despite his discomfort in the hot rainforest conditions, Cyno couldn’t help but smile back. It was significantly smaller, but a genuine (and rare) one nonetheless. Seeing Collei happy made his heart glow, even if he was sweating from every orifice on his body.
She’d been through so much at such a young age. She’d been experimented on, tortured, beaten, hurt, mocked, and nearly killed by Fatui over and over again. It made Cyno’s blood boil just thinking about what they’d done to her. He’d sworn up and down that if he ever came face to face with the Doctor or any of his cronies, judgment would be brought to them upon the harshest of scales. Yet, against all odds, the girl had bounced back. Cyno had initially felt worried that she’d feel lost and alone in an entirely new country with unfamiliar wildlife and faces. It was against his better judgment to leave her, but bringing her to the city was not an option. There were far too many curious and malicious minds that were just waiting for an unsuspecting kid to be dropped into the city, not to mention her time in Mondstadt would likely sour the experience of the area in some way.
As it turned out, his decision couldn’t have been better. It was clear that Gandharva Ville had allowed the once timid girl to flourish. Cyno felt his heart swell with pride at the sight of her. With her Eleazar cured, she was as lively as he’d ever seen her.
Cyno had never once considered having children. That was not in his job description, and anyone that got too close to him would be in danger simply on account of his occupation. The idea of having a family at all seemed an impossibility. However, seeing Collei happy filled him with a type of joy that could only be described as fatherly.
Shaking his head, Cyno breathed a small laugh before continuing to follow the green-haired girl.
“It’s just ‘Cyno’, right now,” He called. “I’m off the job.”
He watched her pause in her step before she replied.
“Oh, sorry. Force of habit!” She continued walking, no less pep in her step than before.
“Don’t worry about it, kiddo.”
Cyno wondered if he had made the situation awkward by correcting her, but he brushed that thought away hastily.
They trekked in silence for a bit more before coming to an abrupt halt. They stopped in a small clearing with brightly colored flowers growing from the nearby trees. Collei was peering around, craning her neck to search the foliage. Cyno joined her at her side.
“This is the place?” He asked, joining her in her search.
Collei nodded. “This is where master Tighnari said they should be. They might just be blending in.”
She coughed.
“O-or they could be somewhere else? I don’t know if they’re in this exact spot, just that they’re around here?”
Cyno hummed absentmindedly. From where he was positioned, he couldn’t see any of the plants they were meant to find. Which meant pulling a classic trick out of the pages of a mystery novel he had just read.
“Alright. Will you be okay if we split up? It might take us less time. We can meet back here if either of us finds anything, or if we can't find anything at all.”
Collei gave him a small nod and a miniature salute, which was enough confirmation for him to go traipsing into the region to the left. He heard her assume a path to the rightmost area. Pushing through the large leaves and flowers that blocked his way, he recalled Tighnari’s lecture on his query:
“Mushrooms. Small ones, mind you-”
“I’m sure they have a great personality.”
“Hush. Archons, you’re insufferable. As I was saying, they’re quite small. They come in a variety of colors, but I need the green ones. Not forest green, though. More like a sea foamish, or, perhaps, an Akademiya roof-ish, if you will.”
“If you’re going to be so picky about the color, then you maybe should get them.”
“I can’t be picking mushrooms and assigning tasks and making dinner and attending patrols and helping Haypasia and lecturing the ex-sages at the same time. You’re smart, you have eyes. I believe in you.”
“Alright, fine. I sea what you’re talking about. But if I bring back the wrong green ones, don’t forest that I’m not the plant expert here.”
Tighnari had made a pained face.
“Please, just go , so I don’t have to hear any more of your buffoonery. You can take Collei with you, she’ll know where to go. Try to keep your jokes to a minimum on the way, or else you'll kill all the mushrooms, along with any other poor life form that happens to hear them.”
Cyno couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. He was still quite proud of the jokes he’d concocted in such short notice, and, although Tighnari always seemed exasperated by them, Cyno could tell he’d been holding back a smile when he’d left. Or perhaps it was a grimace? He preferred the former. It was always a pleasure to bring joy to Tighnari’s day.
Familiar fondness for the Forest Watcher washed over him. Tighnari was Cyno’s closest friend and the person he trusted the most in all of Teyvat. He was brilliant, both in his knowledge of all things biological and in his general personality, which had been a breath of fresh air compared to the stuffiness of the Akademiya. He could hardly recall anyone other than Tighnari that had greeted him with so little fear, and Cyno thanked his lucky stars that his friend had been the one to watch over Collei all those years ago.
His daydreaming was suddenly interrupted by a snap underneath his foot. His heart jumped, and he instinctively took a step back, bracing himself for the worst; a crushed woodland critter, or a bird egg that had tragically fallen from its nest. Or perhaps he would glance down to see his foot bent at a 180-degree angle that Kaveh would inspect for a new design.
No such objects were present. Instead, he was greeted by a small stick adorned with a leaf of purplish-maroon. Upon further inspection to make sure it wasn’t a cleverly-disguised insect, he confirmed that it was, in fact, wooden. And also broken down the middle. Good thing it wasn’t alive. Unnerved by the realization that the stick could be a representation of his bones if he didn’t pay attention in the less-than-friendly terrain, Cyno continued moving with more active awareness.
As he wandered through the forest, Cyno was grateful that he had decided to pay more attention to his surroundings. He encountered no less than 3 camouflaged snakes on his trek, of which he couldn’t be sure if they were venomous or not. The rainforest was not the best place to be barefoot.
The sun was still high in the sky when he came across the mushrooms he had been tasked with finding. He found them sprouting from the side of a large tree, and had he been distracted, he was sure he would have missed them. Tighnari had been right on the mark; they were incredibly small. He noted the greenness of each mushroom, picking the ones that were as sea green as he could find. He paused, before hastily picking up a small assortment of mushrooms in different shades. Just to be safe, of course. He was totally and completely confident in his fungal-picking abilities.
Brushing more sweat from his forehead and rising to his feet, Cyno sighed in satisfaction. With any luck, he could rendezvous with Collei shortly and head back to the village before sunset. That would leave substantial time for a bath and subsequent dinner with Tighnari. Just the thought of eating made his stomach grumble, and he rued the fact that he hadn’t asked if the mushrooms were edible as-is.
Beginning his trek back, Cyno took care to place his feet gingerly and keep his eyes peeled for any danger, lest he come across any rainforest fauna that would land him in the Bimarstan for intensive care. He was grateful for his navigational skills and his experience in the jungle terrain, as crossing through the crowded forest as an amateur forest watcher or a rookie adventurer would’ve proven to be a nightmarish task.
Thankfully, he was able to make his way back to the designated meeting place without much trouble. It would also appear that he had time to spare, as Collei was nowhere in sight. Cyno hardly paid any mind to this. Although she lived in the rainforest and knew its paths better than he did, and her Eleazar had been cured, she was still recovering from the lingering effects of her illness and moved rather slowly, not to mention there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t get distracted by a vibrant group of flowers or a friendly tree frog. She was maturing fast and exceedingly responsible, but was still a kid at heart.
Cyno was not annoyed in the least. Now that he was in the shade and had the mushrooms, he was in a considerably better mood. Not that he could find it in himself to be irritated with Collei, of course.
Nonetheless, he began to get a little inventive to pass the time.
First, he counted the mushrooms. There were seventeen, give or take. It also could’ve been much less if the mushrooms he’d grabbed last minute were actually the correct ones.
Then he counted frogs, an array of bright colors and cheerful croaks. Twelve, counting the two that may have been toads. They appeared and disappeared together; a toad date, perhaps?
Next he counted the different colors of leaves. Although the dominant color in the forest was green, he was still transfixed by the amount of shades the color had to offer; he began to lose count barely after he had begun.
Following his rough estimate of the shades of green (there must have been at least 50), he counted birds.
This would prove to be a momentous task; the rainforest was well known for its plethora of avian wildlife. Just as with the shades of green, Cyno found himself struggling to keep the numbers straight in his head.
3 small green birds, tussling over a worm.
2 blue and red birds, perched upon a fallen log nearby. That made 5.
1 lonesome lime-colored bird, cooing from a low-hanging branch. That made 6.
A scarlet-plumed orange bird flitted through the trees, followed by a gray bird. That made 8.
A whole flock of brown birds flying above the treeline, chirping as they went. That made 22
A small troop of 5 birds: 2 lilac, one yellow, and the other 2 white as eggshells. That made 27.
1 woodpecker, which he did not see, but rather heard. That wasn’t cheating; that made 28.
4 baby birds in their nest, wailing for food. Their mother searched nearby. That made 33.
1 purple bird, sitting silently under a bush. That made 34.
34.
34.
34?
Cyno had been stuck on 34 birds for a good while before he realized that there were no more birds to count. Which he found odd. For the past few minutes, as well as all the time he’d spent in the rain forest throughout his life, the birds had been a great surplus. The forest was rarely quiet with the constant chattering and chirping of birds swooping and soaring overhead. The only time the birds seemed to disappear was during the late hours of the night, and even then, there was rarely a time when the forest was completely devoid of birdsong. Which made it all the more odd. Night was still a long way off.
During the middle of the day, sun high in the sky, it would make sense that birds were out and about in droves. Archons, he’d had difficulty counting the sheer amount of birds only minutes prior. In his confusion, and concentration on listening for any more birds, Cyno hadn't noticed the other changes in the forest. With the absence of the birds fell a deathly silence. Not only had the birds disappeared, but the frogs too. Even the wind seemed to have dissipated.
The very forest seemed to exude a strange sense of foreboding.
Cyno felt his skin prickle, felt his heart pick up. Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
A cold shiver ran down his spine, and he felt simultaneous sensations of being watched and being utterly alone at the same time. He whirled around. There was nothing in sight, nothing leaping out of the bushes to ambush him.
By all appearances, he seemed to be safe.
Yet every cell in his body screamed for him to run, or to hide, or to do anything but stay where he was. However, his training as the General Mahamatra urged him to do otherwise. His more reasonable side told him to stay put and figure out what was going on. For all he knew, this could be nothing. He couldn’t be totally positive that the silence of the birds meant anything at all. Maybe there was a specific time of the day on a specific day of the year when all the birds fell quiet?
A time in which every book Cyno had ever read, every scholar he’d ever talked to, and every conversation he’d ever had with Tighnari had failed to mention even once. But there was a chance, right?
Summoning his spear (just to be safe, of course), Cyno pricked his ears, listening hard. Holding his breath, he strained to hear any sound that would hint at what was happening. He hoped to hear a comforting sound, such as the sudden return of birdsong, or the approach of a forest watcher patrol. Even the sounds of conflict nearby would be better, because at least he would have some idea as to what he was dealing with.
There were no such sounds. His stomach lurched, and he exhaled hard.
Collei.
Somewhere, in this forest, she was alone. Completely alone. And while Cyno knew she could handle herself ordinarily, something about this did not seem right. It had taken her far too long to find the mushrooms now.
He had to find her.
Without a second thought, and gripping his spear in his hand like his life depended on it, he started running in the direction Collei had gone when they’d first split up. All the way, he was mentally kicking himself.
Split up? Really? You decided to send a kid who just recovered from a life-threatening illness into the rainforest alone? In what world is that a good idea? Archons, you must’ve been hiding behind a door when they were handing out brains.
He promised himself that, even if nothing was wrong, he would never use the phrase “split up” ever again.
As he continued, the forest seemed to get darker. Colder. His breath began coming out in short gasps, the very air around him beginning to feel suffocating. His eyes darted here and there, high and low, left and right. Anywhere that she could be. Shouldn’t he have found her by now? He kept running, pushing himself to go faster. He passed a cluster of sea foam mushrooms growing on the trunk of a tree in plain sight. No Collei.
He couldn’t hear her, couldn’t see her, couldn’t sense the usual presence of a Vision bearer.
Where the hell was she?
Cyno resisted the urge to call out for her. If she wasn’t nearby, she wouldn’t hear him. If an enemy was nearby, it would.
Cyno froze in his tracks, skidding to a halt, blood roaring in his ears. He was far from where he had started, now. Farther than Collei would've had to go to find the mushrooms. The surrounding forest was dark, gloomy, and unrecognizable. The silence was deafening now, the only sound coming from his sharp intakes of breath, the crunch of leaves beneath his feet as he shifted his weight between them, and the pounding of his heart in his ears.
And then, there was something else. The gentle swishing of leaves, the minuscule sounds of footsteps upon the forest floor.
Cyno barely had time to react before a voice materialized behind him.
“Looking for something, General?”
He spun.
The sight before him made his blood run cold, an icy talon running down his spine.
A squadron of Fatui soldiers, all armed to the teeth, weapons at the ready.
Collei, pale and shivering, her eyes wide and brimming with tears.
And Il Dottore, second of the Fatui Harbingers, holding a knife to her throat.