Act 2, Scene 16
27th of the 2nd Cycle
It has been a sennight since the Overlord of the Vortex was defeated, and Aether was still nowhere to be seen.
Locals have already begun to call the event 'The Day the Sky fell,' and saw it as the will of Morax. A last act, perhaps, saving his people from disaster. Mona knew better, they only believed that because they were still denying that their god is dead, or as Mona knew, has abandoned them.
But the name is not without good reason, nonetheless. As she walked down the harbourfront, she saw how the entire place was levelled, every building in the area burnt down to its foundations. On the ground, the shadows of the Millelith who did not evacuate fast enough were scorched into the ground, a permanent reminder of the day.
In the upper levels of the city, windows were shattered by the shockwave. There were people blind, deaf, or both, and hospitals were overwhelmed with those suffering from severe burns. The Jade Chamber too, was grounded, the only reason it survived was thanks to the quick thinking of the Tianquan, who erected a Geo barrier which mostly protected them from the blast, but the plaustrite keeping the craft aloft was still heavily damaged.
Every ship in the harbour at the time were completely vaporised, along with all their crews. And no ship will be able to sail the Sea of Clouds for the foreseeable future. Even after seven days and nights, the Sea was still steaming, boiling. Just the other day Mona watched a young boy drop a plank of wood into the Sea and watch it spontaneously combust into ashes.
Indeed, the smoke wafting from the waters created a blanket of fog over the Sea of Clouds, stretching from harbour waters all the way to Guyun. She doubted there's any sea life left in these waters.
Mona arrived at her intended location and began setting up her equipment. Since Aether said he had gotten the funds for a ship, she had spent her 4 million Mora on astrology equipment, the best money can buy. A telescope, alidade, and astrarium were among them.
She hadn't mentioned the main reason the event was called 'The Day the Sky fell' until now. As she angled her telescope to the space above the Forest, she could only think of how fitting that name was. Even after a sennight, she still wasn't used to the sight, no one was, how could they?
Above the Stone Forest was a massive hole in the Sky, like a shattered pane of glass the endless blue Sky was broken by the jagged aperture. And for the first time, she could see the Great Beyond in all its distant glory, countless constellations shone down at her, all she have never seen before. The astrologer in her was salivating at the mere sight of it.
Mona was no fool, she knew the Great Beyond was vast beyond her understanding, she knew that the constellations she looked at now don't belong to anyone on Teyvat. It was proof of distant lands and worlds, separated from them by void.
She looked through the telescope, searching for new constellations. She had six days to do this, her notebook was already brimming with notes and research and readings on new stars and skies. But she didn't know how long the shattered sky would last, so she must make the most of it.
A Scale, a Crab, a Centaur, and a Maiden. Four new constellations recorded today, she nodded in satisfaction. She jotted down their exact coordinates using her astronomical clock, and closed her notebook. Mona didn't need to find out everything about them now, she just had to know their exact locations, and she could find them again in the future.
She could already imagine the looks on the faces of her contemporaries, when they realise she has not one, but several books full of constellations and celestial phenomena not native to Teyvat. Everything she held onto now could change the future of astrology irreversibly, flipping the table so to say.
A long unproven theory in the astrology community has finally been proven, after all. The Sky has now been proven to be fake, like a blanket covering all of Teyvat. Whatever they see is what Celestia wants them to see, and the simple unassuming notebook in her hands, even gods would kill to have a mere glance of its contents.
She flipped through it, stopping on the most important constellations in her opinion. These were the only reasons she resolved to wait in Liyue. They were the Twins, the Viator and Viatrix. Aether and his sister's constellations, she took an educated guess. They showed every sign of life, this is how she knew Aether was still alive, somewhere. And she supposed when he returned, he'd be happy to know his sister is still alive as well.
She fiddled with her dioptra, sighing. The fake Sun was beginning to set over the horizon, soon night would fall, and the aperture will meld with the False Sky. How ironic, she thought, to only be able to see the true night in the middle of the day.
Mona sat down on a stone ledge, over the shadow of a Millelith fighting a Child. She untied her hair and let it fly in the warm breeze. Yes, she thought, she'd wait. She'd wait as long as is needed.
"Mama, look!" A young boy called out, he pointed to the horizon.
Mona followed his gaze, and saw great panes of glass lifting into the sky. The False Sky was fixing itself. She hastily brought out her kamera, and began snapping pictures. Even the broken panes of the False Sky showed stars, as they rose.
Piece by piece, the broken shards fixed themselves into the aperture like a celestial jigsaw puzzle. Mona continued taking pictures.
When the shattered Sky was filled, it was as if there was nothing wrong with it in the first place.
Yes, she thought giddily, it looks like she won't have to wait as long as she thought.
"Only Fate, or universal necessity, the inevitable 'Adrasteia,' the faceless countenance and hollow sound of unknown Destiny, was absolute." She recited to herself.
Yes, Fate cannot be changed, nor can it be reversed, it can only be accepted. That is why it is called Fate.
She won't have to wait long at all.
Author's Note:
That's the end of Act 2. Next up are the Interlude(s) where we will see what had happened in the intervening week before Scene 16.