Episode 20: Journey of Yesteryear


Aether: a name that was well known in every corner of those old lands. Not always known by his proper name, The Traveler from another world had played such an important part in many people's lives when he appeared suddenly over five years ago. His travels had led him across the lands of Teyvat, leaving behind many memories.

But now, years had passed since the Traveler had left behind the countries of Mondstadt and Liyue. Those relatively carefree days were now just a distant memory. His journey had continued from there to Inazuma, where many things happened, so many that countless books could be filled and still not tell it all. After that, he left for Sumeru, where a whole new adventure awaited. It was around that time that many of his old friends lost contact with him.

Many of those stories are for another place and time, but what follows is an abridgment of what happened back then: the tale of a Traveler that never found his destination.


Opening Theme: My First Story - Home


On the eve of the final day of the Summer Festival, Aether stood amongst his friends, saying his farewells. His time in Inazuma had come to an end. This island nation that had rejected him at first now felt a lot like home. So many familiar faces surrounded him: the brother and sister who had been so kind to him, the suspicious shrine maiden who had helped him along the way, the Tengu who had once been his enemy, and most surprising of all, Raiden Ei herself.

"Thank you for everything, Traveler. I wish you nothing but happiness on your journeys from now on."

Yae Miko was speaking on behalf of everyone, as they took turns handing him their parting gifts.

A huge variety of things had happened since he came to this island nation. He had fought in a war, scoured the depths of the earth, and discovered an ancient city deep underground. He had met a "shrine maiden" who used the final vestiges of her fading existence to help heal her land.

He had watched the fireworks with Kamisato Ayaka. He had visited the untouchable realm of Raiden Ei, and lived to tell the tale. He had even obtained a very unique collectible item that he would surely cherish from now on.

In the end, he had helped Ei find a new perspective on "eternity", one which considered the feelings of her people and her beloved sister. Truly, this had been his biggest adventure since coming to this world. But all things must eventually come to an end, and now, it was time to move on.

He still valiantly sought information about his sister's whereabouts, and the path ahead now led to Sumeru. There was simply nothing left to do here in this land of "eternity" but bid it a fond farewell.

So, after a long night full of goodbyes, his ship set sail across the ocean, bound for that mysterious land of deserts and jungles on the other side.

It was aboard that ship, though, that he met someone he hadn't seen in a while.

"Hey, Aether, is that guy who I think he is?" Paimon said, speaking up out of the blue around midnight as the ship quietly sailed onward.

The cool night breeze tousled Aether's long pigtail as his arms rested on the side of the boat. This ship had quite a few passengers, and he had taken note of all of them before they left. He turned to look where Paimon was pointing.

This man wasn't one of them.

"Dainsleif?"

At the bow of the boat, a dark-clad man with blond hair stood imposingly. His cape fluttered in the breeze, occasionally shining like the stars above.

Paimon floated ahead, and Aether followed her, making their way towards that man. They hadn't seen him since the incident at The Chasm in Liyue, and they couldn't help but wonder why he was here now of all times.

"Traveler, well met. Strange meeting you here."

"What?! You clearly came here to meet us!" Paimon practically yelled.

"I see I can't get anything past your illustrious partner here."

Aether rolled his eyes, then spoke up for himself.

"What brings you to a place like this?"

"I suppose saying "I wanted to enjoy the sea breeze" wouldn't cut it, eh?"

"Of COURSE not!" Paimon squealed.

"Fair enough. In truth, your little floating friend was right. I have a piece of information for you, something I'm quite sure you'll be interested in. It involves your sister."

"My sister? Lumine? What's going on?"

"I have discovered her new location. It is somewhere within the jungles of Sumeru, deep underground. It might be difficult to get there, but I'm willing to assist however I can. I, too, can't stand to see her with the Abyss Order."

"So she's there after all. I see…"

"We should prepare to go there as soon as possible!" the floating companion said.

"No, I think it would be wise to prepare yourselves beforehand. Going in alone would be too dangerous, even if she is your family."

"Dainsleif is right, Paimon. There's a lot to do before then. But…"

Aether trailed off. Under the moonlight, sailing across the mirror-like ocean, he wondered what his sister was doing now.

Lumine, I promise I'll help you this time. Then, we can finally live together like a family should. I hope you'll wait for me…


Months later, in a darkened hallway deep underground, Aether looked on in horror at the scene from hell before him. It was a sight so awful, it almost seemed like it was perfectly made to destroy him.

Lumine was there, her hand on her sword. Beside her was an army of Abyss Order members. And between him and her, there was a sea of red.

There were islands of flesh among that sea, the remnants of beloved friends that Aether had met along the way. A young man from Sumeru, a former treasure hunter from back at Inazuma… that small group of fighters had become almost like family to him. Now, they were all dead, brutally murdered by his very own sister… his real family.

"A-Ahhhhh!" Aether choked out a garbled scream.

His trusted companion just stared with empty eyes at the leftovers of the massacre. She could do nothing, not even speak.

Lumine's face held a complicated expression. She looked at Aether with pity, yet offered him no words of comfort.

"What did you expect, doing something like this? These are my comrades too, you know…?" she muttered under her breath.

"NOT THIS!" Aether yelled at the top of his lungs, spit flying wildly. "Why did you have to kill them all?! How could you, Lumine?!"

"You forced my hand! You shouldn't have come here looking for a fight!"

"I just wanted my beloved sister back! Hey, tell me, where is she?!"

Lumine fell silent, lowering her head, before spitting out venomous words that Aether would never forget.

"She isn't anywhere."

An otherworldly scream echoed off the halls of the underground complex, as Aether's sanity slipped away into the abyss.


For all intents and purposes, the Traveler's journey ended there. Broken over the loss of his friends, and hopeless due to his sister's betrayal, he disappeared from the public eye. But once he managed to get back on his feet again, in secret, his journey continued. His destination: that icy land that seemed to hold all the answers to his questions.

The months and seasons passed, and slowly, Aether began to regain a semblance of the person he was before his sister ripped his heart out.

Somewhere, deep in the mountains of Snezhnaya, a secret meeting took place one evening. This meeting would hold incredible significance, though neither participant had any inkling of that back then. To them, it was a simple exchange of information, a common tactic among those who would be seen as "troublesome" by society.

As a hearty fire roared away in the fireplace, Aether heard a peculiar pattern of knocks on the door of the remote cabin he had stayed in for the last few months. The guest had finally arrived.

"Come in."

A blue-haired man with a strange hat entered the room quickly, shutting the door against the cold wind. He shivered pathetically, before rushing to the fireplace where Aether sat. The Traveler addressed the strange man with a sarcastic greeting.

"Good to see you again, Scaramouche."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Haha, I see you're still a prick. Don't worry, though. I have no reason to stand against you any more."

"That's what I was told," Scaramouche said flippantly.

Aether gestured towards the ratty couch across from his chair, where Paimon was stretched out like a lazy cat. Scaramouche pushed her out of the way, rolling her over like a can of vegetables.

"H-Hey?! That's no fair! Paimon was comfortable!"

"Shut it. We're having an important discussion right now," Aether said.

"Are we? Is that why you called me to this backwater shack?"

"Yeah. You see, I never forgot that little thing you said years ago. You know, about the sky being fake." Aether said, his eyes sharp and inquiring.

"Oh that? Haha, don't tell me you took that tasteless joke seriously?"

"Don't bullshit me," Aether said, dead serious. "I know you know something about what's going on in this world. Now start talking. I just happen to have something very interesting to exchange for your cooperation."

Scaramouche looked at Aether's face, judging his options. Finally, he spoke.

"Fine then. What do you want to know?"

"You can start with why this world is fake."

"Why? Even I don't know that much." he said, waving his hand carelessly.

"…Then how did you find out it was fake?"

"Ah, that's easy. I saw it with my own eyes. This world isn't what it seems. It's upside down."

"See, I've heard whisperings of that in my travels, but I don't understand what it means," Aether replied, looking thoughtful.

"It's simple. Up is down, and down is up. The farther you go underground, the closer you get to the "original" world."

"Original world? Then what is that place?"

"To put it simply, no one really knows. Perhaps that was the real location of Khaenri'ah."

A frigid wind assaulted the walls of the cabin, rattling the windows, as snow piled up outside. Paimon jumped at the sound, but Aether ignored it, pushing deeper.

"But wait, when Celestia destroyed Khaenri'ah, it existed in this current world, right? The upside-down one?"

"You might think that, but I haven't found any evidence that Khaenri'ah was only a part of the upside-down world. Maybe that original world was where the real kingdom of Khaenri'ah was. Maybe still is."

Aether was surprised by this. His eyes widened, as Paimon looked more and more lost.

"That doesn't make sense, though!" I thought the ruins of Khaenri'ah were everywhere in Teyvat?"

"You've been underground. You know as well as me that the ruins extend as deep as you can go, probably much deeper. It seems likely that Teyvat is in fact underneath the true world, positioned upside down."

Aether was deep in thought. A log in the fireplace crackled, falling over in a shower of sparks.

"This is all a bit outlandish if you ask me. Why would Celestia create an entire false world on the bottom of the real one, then destroy it again? Why would they have a motive to hide that "original" world?"

Scaramouche flapped his hand extravagantly again, emphasizing his next words.

"Ah, now that is above my pay grade, my friend. If I knew that, we'd probably be in the same pickle that Khaenri'ah ended up in five hundred years ago."

"It's that important, huh?"

"It's likely the most important secret this world holds, and Khaenri'ah paid the ultimate price for it. But what did they know? Why did Celestia have to end them? None of it really makes much sense."

"You got that right."

"For the first time in this conversation, Paimon can agree with something you said!"

"Anyway, you shouldn't take the opinion of a mere puppet too seriously. What do I know, after all? I'm just a failed toy that got thrown out with yesterday's garbage."

"I'd say you know more than you like to let on, you sneaky bastard."

Scaramouche recoiled as if he'd been shot, gasping in mock despair.

"You found me out."

"So the sky is fake, huh?" Aether continued, trying to redirect the conversation.

"Yeah, and now that I've noticed it, I can't unsee it. I mean just look at it sometime, it looks like it was pasted over something else, like a curtain or something. Messed up if you ask me."

"Paimon just got chills…"

"So what's the real sky then?"

"It's at the "bottom" of this world. That's how I figured it out. The bottom of the Spiral Abyss… that's the real sky. The real moon and stars are there, too. And I heard some strange rumors about a door down there, but I couldn't find it, so I'm not sure about that one."

Traveler shook his head in awe. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, but it all jived with the stories and whisperings he had accumulated over the course of his journeys.

Just what the hell is going on in this world?

"But if the Abyss is upside-down, how do you get to the other side? The "original world"?"

"That remains unclear. Hell, I couldn't see anything but endless space down there."

Traveler was lost in thought. He tried to paint an image of what that world would look like in his mind. Then, his thoughts inevitably went to his sister.

"I don't get it, though, why would Lumine fight with the Abyss Order if this whole thing is just a sham? What is the significance of this world? There's something I'm not getting here."

"Well, can't help ya with that one."

"Seems like your usefulness has run out already," Aether said bluntly.

"How rude. Don't forget you owe me something in return."

"I haven't forgotten."

Aether reached into his bag, searching for that item. He pulled it out, and when he saw what it was, it flabbergasted Scaramouche.

"What the hell? That's all you have?"

The object that Aether held was a small seed, shriveled and weak. But surrounding it was a steady glow of multicolored light. Somehow, that tiny, pathetic-looking seed exuded a powerful aura, an unexplainable hope, a reassuring vibe that was almost overwhelming. Scaramouche's countenance changed when he felt it himself.

"So you can feel it too," Aether said in a low voice.

"Yeah… What in Teyvat is this?"

"I'm not totally sure myself. I found it in a strange, overgrown chamber of The Chasm, sealed by three different elements. I've seen a lot of strange things in my travels, but that place gave off such an indescribable feeling… like it was trying to tell me something, somehow."

"So? What's so significant about that?"

"Maybe nothing. But after I lost my friends in that… that massacre, this thing changed. It started glowing, and this peaceful aura…"

"Paimon can feel it too. It reminds her of… home."

"You don't even know where your home is, though," Traveler retorted.

"That's true, but still. That's how Paimon feels."

"I see. So this thing might be important after all. But what's your point, are you planning on giving it to me?" Scaramouche said, looking confused.

"No, I can't do that. I'm not done, though. I searched through the libraries of Sumeru after… after everything fell apart, and I finally managed to scratch up something. In a book about the history of Sumeru's god, there was a story about a strange "seed"."

Scaramouche leaned forward, his ears perking up.

"According to legend, that god sealed the seed underground due to it's inexplicable power. Little was said about why it was sealed or what that power was, other than a mention of "averting a lapse of fate".

Scaramouche was quiet for a few seconds as he stared at Aether's grandiose expression.

"Well, that isn't very helpful. I thought you were going to give me something good. You know, I can still take the seed off your hands if you want."

"I'm not feeling that generous. One piece of information for another, seems like a fair trade to me."

Scaramouche sighed, but couldn't argue.

"You've given me something to research, if nothing else. I'll get the rest of your payment later."

Scaramouche stood up, stretching his legs.

"Not looking forward to getting out in this storm again, that's for sure. Why'd we have to meet here again?"

Just then, though, a strange knock came at the door. All three present whirled towards it, on high alert.

*knock* *knock knock* *knock*

"Hey, you weren't expecting anyone else, right, Aether?" Paimon whispered, hiding behind him.

"…No."

The trio listened intently, but no more sounds came from the door. After a minute or so, Aether began to advance towards it, his hand firmly wrapped around the hilt of his sword.

All was quiet on the other side.

He shoved the door open, ready for anything. And awaiting him on the other side was… nothing at all.

"Huh?"

Only the howling of the wind and a sheet of white greeted them outside the door. Aether looked around hurriedly. A single pair of footprints were left in the snow, quickly filling in due to the blizzard. He tried to follow them, but immediately realized that would be impossible. There were only two, standing right in front of the door.

"Paimon doesn't like this…"

Aether noticed something else there, almost covered by the piling snow already. He reached down, dragging a slightly damp letter out of the ice.

"This is…"

Aether took one last suspicious glance at the world of white outside the cabin, before slamming the door shut.

Once he was back inside the protection of those four walls, he ripped the letter open, perusing the contents with his face drawn. The contents within turned out to be beyond his expectations.

The letter was a summons to a place he hadn't been in years: the country of Mondstadt.

And signed at the bottom of the letter was a name that brought apprehension to his heart.

Dainsleif.

"What's wrong, Aether?" Paimon said, looking concerned when she saw his face.

"Looks like we're going to have to make another journey."

"Eh? Paimon doesn't get it!"

Tuning out the raucous voice beside him, Aether's thoughts drifted back to his memories of that enigmatic man. Even after all these years, he still didn't have a good appraisal of Dain's motives, so this summons was worrisome. Gazing into the dwindling fire, the Traveler had too many unanswered questions swirling in his mind.

Dain, what are you up to now?


Ending Theme: FELT - find the light


Next:

Episode 21: A Story, Abbreviated