Depression is a mental state of low mood and aversion to activity. Classified medically as a mental and behavioral disorder, the experience of depression affects a person's thoughts, behavior, motivation, feelings, and sense of well-being.

Rhinedottir growled as she pushed another body to the floor of her Alchemy lab. Another failed experiment. This one took a breath before it stopped. The others had been able to sit up before dying out. What was she missing?! Not caring about stepping on the failed bodies of the experiments she had started. Rhinedottir made her way over to her notes. She was working on a project called the Primordial Human Project. In this she was attempting to make the perfect human, no, Golem, she was attempting to make the perfect Golem to become the vessel of her greatest plan yet. The Great War. Morax had warned her that this could have a great impact as she attempted this research. Perhaps the Geo Archon was correct and this project would be too risky.

Rhinedottir crossed her arms as she looked at the many emptied bodies in her lab. All of them of course were hand picked by her hand to be used. Gutting the corpses was nothing that Rhinedottir wasn't familiar with, but she had to admit the smells were getting to her nose.

"All of them…failures." She spat as she stomped on the head closest to her foot. Hearing the skull crunch under her heel sent a pleased shiver up her spine. Though the stickiness of the body was gross to her skin. She glared at the crushed head as her eyes widened. It wasn't a head anymore. It was a dark sticky mud. She carefully knelt down as her hands touched the mud. Dark energies leaked from it as she smiled.

Perhaps it wasn't what she wanted, but it was a breakthrough.

"You will be known from now to the end of time as Nigredo Lute, and we must feed you."

"Rhinedottir, my sister in Alchemy, what have you brought me?" Morax asked as the man was merely enjoying his tea outside of The Chasm. He looked at the blonde haired woman with surprise, she hardly ever traveled here from her cold icy mountain top. So the surprise was much needed.

"I have a gift for The Chasm. Nigredo Lute." She explained as she held out the glass cage that had been resting at her side. The dark mud was inside, though it was not moving.

Morax raised a brow at the box, "Nigredo Lute? A new experiment of yours?"

"Correct. Although it doesn't not do well in the cold so far, I have my own case of the Nigredo Lute within my Lab to truly test its abilities on my mountain top. A warm place is where I would also like to test it as well." Rhinedottir explained as she set the container down

Morax was colored impressed, after all, the woman had been at her wits end trying to make her Primordial Human Project bloom to life, though he didn't have much hopes that creating human life from Chalk was possible.

"Can you promise that it will stick to staying only inside the Chasm?" He asked as he stood up, his golden colored eyes looked into dark blue

"I can promise you. This one only likes dark places."

"This is all I know currently." Xiao said lightly as he finished up explaining how the Dark Mud came to be.

Viox was trying to wrap her mind around this all. The Dark Mud, no, The Nigredo Lute, as its correct name came to be, was a part of Rhinedottir's failed projects when she started her Primordial Human Project. Which meant the Nigredo Lute was older than both Albedo and his 'brother' Primordial.

"Do we know where Rhinedottir's Lab was? You kept saying that it was a mountain covered in ice. So far, only Dragonspine is the only mountain I know of that is covered with ice, or in many cases when reading over research reports, snow that never melts. Could Dragonspine be linked in a way to Albedo? And maybe…The Nigredo Lute?" Viox asked as she turned towards her notebook, she was busy at work writing all she could about the Lore that Xiao told her. This was a larger breakthrough than what she had gotten.

"I believe from history, The Nigredo Lute was created on Dragonspine. Rhinedottir not only kept some but she also gave some to the one named Morax. Morax was the God of Gold and Contracts. Much like Rex Lapis, though he was mostly the God of Contracts. So this means…" She paused, fear entered her body as she trembled, "Primordial is alive."

Albedo stared at the pink haired woman who seemed to be in a world of her own. He had come back with Klee in tow as they were stopping by for a late lunch with Viox. Though it seemed the woman was upset about something. Perhaps she was still angry from this morning? He watched her pick at her salad.

"Viox?" He tried collecting her attention

"Hm?" She replied back

Albedo blinked, "Is something on your mind?"

Viox shook her head, "No, just a little…sad in a way."

"Big Sis Viox? Why are you sad?" Klee piped up from eating her fried shrimp balls.

Viox smiled a little as she looked at the younger, "It's nothing I should worry over. Sorry, we only have a few short days left till we go home. I guess you can say I'm a little depressed that we're halfway done with our journey."

Albedo had to agree, he too was somewhat feeling a bit saddened at the fact that they only had a few days left, though he couldn't truly feel the sadness or as Viox put it, depression. Though he could also be feeling something else that was dancing around in his shell of a body. Maybe he was merely upset that for the past few weeks he had gotten no research done about the Dark Mud. He could easily blame Miss Alexie for that.

"I can't believe we've been together for almost three whole months. What are you going to do when we get back home, Klee?" Viox asked as she started to take some small bites of her food.

"I want to go see Razor and Kaeya! Oh maybe see if my friends from the Knights have some time to play, and maybe go fish blasting! Oh do you think Master Jean will be back from her trip?" Klee looked at her older brother

Albedo shook his head, "No, Master Jean and Lisa had issues to attend to in another part of Teyvat, they will be gone all the way up till we get back from Dragonspine." He explained

Viox paused in her eating when Albedo spoke. She could feel her hand shake a little as he was recalling such a simple memory. She set her fork down. Did he have the ability to recall more?

"Viox, did you want to come with us into town tonight? I've noticed that the heat has been getting to you as of late, and many stalls are still open at night time." Albedo asked

Viox took a deep breath, "Yeah, I'd love to."