Traveler: What is the Cost
What is the cost for a traveler in a land they had never been in, in a time they had never understood. What would you do when everything you know has been balled and chucked for the sake of 500 years and all you had left was some floating cupid who had as much an idea of where there existence came from.
Opening up and traveling new or possibly very old lands in a system of elemental powers that allowed you to morph to the land you were in and with all that to help the people of nation after nation with the problems ranging from the small to the gigantic. To find and face the old gods with one of the new and learning of the adeptus. Going to banish a decree sued against the citizens of a land known for eternity and look down what was the arrow shaft of possibly four more kingdoms that had to be visited at minimum.
Could you look at a situation that was being used for one person's gain and see the possible cracks in the structure. Think how many could come from it each with their own need of power and wanting to find it. Being those who were of great power and mind into a growing army of specialist each with their own stories and issues, and lives to live, could one really send them to die if that is what was needed on their mission.
All out of a need to find one's sibling, and yet from that a thousand questions had taken root and festered in different ways, some of course had rot in their path, and others were easily pruned. Time would also volunteer experiences from going to an archipelago and enjoying the mysteries by a powerful witch and explorer in her own right, or having to find the power of a cursed sword and what it could do. Such things came at cost, and when the cost could be the one of lives one had to make their decisions carefully with.
What would be the next move when it was found out the tragedy one all came from was know in history books and whispered in the halls of academia and those hunting for the knowledge, a whole culture outside of element and gods lost in the sands of time only for the few that could find evidence or in some case remember. If that was a quest that would poison the world could you stop? Would you stop? For a lot of people it would depend on the mission and closeness of the person at risk.
Still all that was just the tip of the iceberg for the cost was going to be high no matter what was done. Costs were going to be high and it would have to be paid and there were growing forces on the board they called the world of Teyvat that had silenced the greater minds. When the gods that became the purveyors of destruction had lived for long enough that a pair of them sans most of their power became part of the unit and the third could be on the way, did it mean enough to take their word and trust as friends or would playing them as pawns be more beneficial?
Sitting and looking out on the ocean, it was going to be clear so many more questions were going to be on the horizon and while dandelions flew in the breeze and the slimes would be bouncing around their mother in whatever elemental energy they could find. All of it was just another set of questions that had to be answered at some point and for some reason some of those answers felt like they would break the world they were enjoying and all those questions answered were going to cause some harm to more then just a couple people.
Knowing as much about the people under their banner, could they sacrifice Kaeya who was trying to find out what was their true legacy, or Diluc who had an adopted brother and cared after him as one of the family. Could Amber make her grandfather proud as an outrider or would she be lost to history as another who did not meet her potential. Jean and Barbara sisters and of a vaunted bloodline in Mond would be another set in history but would the story of their works end in a tragedy or with a rare happy ending.
People upon people were put in the sights and for every positive there so many more risks and made them want to chew their lip until it swelled, but then there was others they would want to keep safe, and being warriors themselves it would be an insult to put them in the soft positions just to keep them breathing.
Could Chongyun find a spirit, despite all the training? Would Noelle become a true knight for the land she loved so much. It was all so difficult when one single choice could ruin the people they had learned to take care of for they all decided to follow their banner and in that had made the choice themselves.
Venti would have to deal with the one thing they had been running away from for all of their lives and that was the element of loss of something so close. It drove him to drink a lot more then he would care to admit to anyone. Happy faces could be painted and songs could be as flowery as one wished, but alone with just him and a cup of alcohol or wine it wold be a somber tone looking back from the surface of the drink.
Zhongli or Morax as he was once called was someone that knew more then the originally said they did and that was already causing some issues in the group for it was common knowledge for the rest of them about what had happened. Except their was a contract involved, and that he as the previous god of such things could not break it no matter how long it was ago or if the variables had changed, but the somber reflection in his eyes when he had to deal with an old friend who was split in power and mad from being alone for so long had made him realize that could very well be his fate. Friends of his had to die as did Venti's especially in the combat that seemed to end with the sacking of another kingdom, but in doing so things had been done and deals made and sometimes the costs they had to pay with all that power meant they would rather not pay it another moment.
Ei had not been part of the group yet, but she was interested and from how many of her people had worked under the banner, it would be a great boost to have the goddess of eternity present in the ranks but even her had some problems that made one wonder if they were running from something. Hers was more on the nose and that if attempting to keep everything eternal only meant that nothing would exist truly. Would that mind change and the forces now under his flag fighting for his goals and theirs soon break off if Ei found that eternity could be realized?
The Gnoses was a wild card in the whole deal. Powers of a god boiled down to something that could fit on a game board and with it came the capability of so much more, but why were they being collected and would it do more damage or would it help end the senseless bloodshed. Their was little doubt that all of it was going to something that would only make things worse and from that more conflict would erupt. Each one was a tool of great power and currently their were four in play with three more unknown to all, four because of course the Tsarita was one of the seven and so had her own on top of at least two others that were collected. Godly powers in the hands of men made people nervous as it was people who knew how deep the depravities of each other could go.
How would the arts fall without some of them if they were sacrificed or lost during in the attacks. To their knowledge, a writer, a chef, and three musicians were in the group and each one had already made an impact in the artistic community. How would the culture suffer with them possibly gone one day? Would the food world mourn the loss of fearless Xiangling? Could the commerce guild mourn when the second son passed on and the finding out of all of his stories being popular in other kingdoms being known known for his business acumen but for the fiction he brought and so many others got lost in?
Xinyan and Barbara were like different sides of the same coin, where one was soft and melodious one was thumping and brash, would one over power the other if the avatar of their side was removed. Just from losing Barbara her older sister would be a nervous wreck so the ripples would be felt much further through the Mondstadt side, but Xinyan was beloved by fans and eventually the family would find out and there was no idea where they worked or lived.
All that could be done was simply shake away the pains that were accumulating and try to figure out what the next step was. They were together a powerful group and that was something to be feared by all who had to deal with them. It consisted of a member of the harbingers and had defeated no less then three at times but even then there was still eight more to go and there was still plan upon plan they would attempt all for some sake that could not be explained. More lands were to be found and explored the blessings collected and the cultures grown from soil and floors watered in blood in every corner it seemed but that did not mean that was the price to be.
Looking up the place that seemed to call was in sight but barely, and there was more ideas about it then the actual way of getting there, maybe some adeptus could be tasked to create to cover the great space moving upward, but as of right now no way had been found which meant there would be a quest and a cost for that as well. As of great quests, there would often be great costs as well. All that could be done was simply taking a step and playing it for each addition of new information.
Something made a lump in their gut squirm because the idea of Celestia seemed to be of angels and great powers, but from what they could see and had to deal with so far there was plenty of costs to be paid and the holy land supposedly did not feel like paying, which meant that it had to be paid by someone else. Would one truly give up their mission, the reason why they had made it so far if it was seen and found to be the wrong thing to do, for the sake of one may not mean much against the many, but when the many or loved ones then the decisions seemed to get infinitely harder.
A thousand stories of hundreds of layers in a few dozen people and that was just who was working directly with them. Each step further was something where the stories involved would branch out like a snowflake. All that could be done sitting and looking out over sky and sea was that they could do what they could, pay what needed to be paid, by hook or by crook, and do their best moving forward. It may mean family would be the foe they never wanted or that bigger powers were playing them all. What price had to be paid for it to be done, they wish they at least knew that.
