"I apologize for the sudden silence. I shall continue the retelling.", Xiao said a while later, sounding both apologetic and serious, "Lord Atharva soon shared the information he found with Lord Kusanali and everyone else: Since the Samsara is made artificially and is repeating over and over, it causes mental fatigue. If left alone it might lead to the dreamer's mental decline and in "special cases", such as terminal illness, even death."
"This is where I remembered about Dunyarzad, realizing with dread that she is one of the people most in danger if we don't break the dream loop in time.", the Traveler added, sounding sad, "That's when Nahida sadly admitted that she saw Dunyarzad before, with the woman looking a little pale and having slower movements, yet still glad to see her god and friend, promising that the festival with be the best ever.", they recalled, before a deep sigh was heard, "Nahida looked so sad when she recalled this, regretfully mumbling that she couldn't help her friend and greatest follower out more, one of the few who accepted her."
"Lord Kusanali truly looked like she was blaming herself for what happened, cursing her apparent inability to do more.", Xiao agreed, sounding a little solemn, yet still serious, before there was a small pause, "Lord Atharva reassured her that it's going to be okay, as he did "ask" for information on how to break the Samsara, as well: we had to find the dream's host (who should be unaware that they are in a dream), make them realize it's a dream and break the Samsara by fulfilling their "sincere wish".", he continued in a more serious voice, "That made Lord Kusanali resurge in determination, saying that we had to find this person, even if we have to scour the "dreamscape" for hours on end. Not only are her people in great danger(with Dunyarzad being one of the greatest victims), but everyone else staying in the city at this moment, "high importance" visitors included. Were any of them to die due to the Samsara, it could draw Sumeru City into an all out war."
"Nahida really thought of all the possibilities, even the consequences if we fail to break the dream loop!", Paimon added, sounding quite impressed.
"Not long afterwards, we went on our search for the host, adamant about finding them as soon as possible.", Xiao continued the retelling, "And during that time, between talking to different people, we exchanged stories between one another, starting with Lord Kusanali and Lord Atharva."
"Oh, Paimon remembers that! Apparently the Sages installed a "fake Archon" so that people wouldn't ask unnecessary questions! It would be pretty weird if a nation's Archon never appeared to their people, even once, right...? And they also gave him the Dendro Gnosis(which Radames can't use, since Nahida is still the Dendro Archon), just so it could have a "host" and continue powering "The Akasha Terminal". Those sages really thought of every...!", The Pixie commented, sounding thoughtful, before her words suddenly broke off for a few seconds, "...Almost everything. Nahida is still connected to the Dendro Gnosis and thus to the Akasha Terminal, so she and Radames can communicate through it! Thanks to that, they soon became good friends and "partners in crime"!"
"It appears that they can communicate through it, yes. And yet, there seems to be some disagreement between them as to what to do with the Sages. ", the Yaksha admitted, before there was a small pause, "Lord Kusanali was locked up, forsaken and replaced by the sages, yet she is reluctant to punish them for their sins. Lord Atharva on the other hand, would have surely killed them or at least mutilated, if not for Lord Kusanali making him promise not to. She truly is way too merciful, just as Lord Atharva said..."
"And then we found out that the "weird acting Katheryne" was in fact Nahida! She can take over the body of anyone wearing an Akasha Terminal!", the Pixie added, sounding a little annoyed, "She could have taken over one of the sages bodies and freed herself long ago! They betrayed her, so why is she so reluctant...?!"
"Paimon, you know as well as I do that even if she wanted to, she can't.", the Traveler interrupted her, sounding sad, "You heard it yourself, from both her and Radames: The Sages tampered so much with the Sanctuary of Surasthana's meditation chamber, that it could no longer be deactivated, even from the outside. He already tried to free her from her confinement and failed."
"...Paimon remembers. But Paimon still can't help feeling annoyed about the whole thing.", the Pixie slightly reluctantly admitted, sounding sad, "...Being locked up like that, unable to leave and only seeing the outside world either through dreams or by using Katheryne's(a puppet's) body...Even Paimon knows it's not the way to live." she mumbled in even more sadness, before a heavy sigh was heard, "...Paimon's going to be fine. Paimon seems to have also been affected by what happened...Traveler, can Paimon have another hug...?"
She calmly and slightly tiredly asked,
Soon getting completely quiet...
"...Of course, Paimon.", the Traveler soon reassuringly said, before there were a few seconds of silence, "...We will stay like this as long as you need..."
"...It appears that the retelling is up to myself again.", Xiao noted, sounding both serious and slightly thoughtful, "After Lord Kusanali and Lord Atharva shared more about themselves, the Traveler retold their time in Sumeru city. That included hearing the Ayn Al-Ahmar clan members say that Lord Rukkhadevata betrayed King Deshret and took his rightful place as the Dendro Archon. Lord Atharva seemed to be taken aback at this information, before his expression soon shifted to a more calm one...", there was a pause, "...I had my suspicions about it, but still...Can something like this really happen...? If so, then so many would have already...Perhaps it was a secret agreement...? A special exchange...? But something of this nature...", his words soon broke of, as there was soon a slight pause, "...I am not 100% certain of my theory, so it would be best to ignore it for the moment.", he decided, before there was a short pause again, "...Though he did seem to have spooked a few Eremites with his true appearance (and him evilly grinning) and when asked to "stop scaring them, please" by Lord Kusanali, Lord Atharva simply mumbled that "...If anything, this should help them get of their high horse" and..."
"Wait, Xiao, is that what really happened?", the Traveler suddenly interrupted, sounding quite surprised, "I noticed that some Eremites looked uncomfortable, but I didn't know Radames was grinning, about this small exchange between him and Nahida and what he mumbled at the end!", they continued, before there was a small pause, "...So after we finally broke the dream loop and everyone woke up, the weird way that some Eremites (even from the Corps of Thirty) were acting, fighting between themselves about wherever to leave the group or not, saying that King Dershet is back and is mad at them and some suggesting to "burn the Akademiya down to the ground"...It was actually because...So "Rhadames" could be...But how...? It's been countless millennia already and...!", their words soon cut off, as there was a long pause, "...I should definitely get to the bottom of this, but not now. We should continue with the retelling first. Sorry for interrupting you, Xiao."
"It's quite alright, Traveler. The issue of Lord Atharva is quite the complicated one.", Xiao soon reassured, sounding a little thoughtful, "During our talk on the way, we were also told more about General Mahamatra and his association with the two gods: As the one closely following Justice, upon hearing of the two's circumstances, he promised to help them as much as he possibly could. Hence when Lord Kusanali found out of the Sumeru Akademiya keeping a blind eye to the Fatui's doing in Sumeru (Even if it is kidnapping children and experimenting on them, as in Collei's case) and told Lord Atharva of her findings, Mahamatra Cyno was the one who ultimately dealt with the Fatui members and their experimentation lab. Apparently, a lot of blood was shed that day.", he recalled, sounding pretty calm, "Mahamatra Cyno's sense of justice is truly admirable, doing what is right even if he has to go against his official superior's (the Sages') wishes.", he added with respect, before there was another slight pause, "...As we walked the city in search of the dream's host, we met many people. Thankfully most of them have already realized they were in a dream, seeing the place got distorted earlier and agreed to join the search for the host, so that we all could leave the place earlier...", he soon continued, sounding glad, "...So trying to eat the dream was helpful, after all...", he mumbled, before there was another pause, "At one point we also met with Dehya, who appeared to have a headache. She soon joined our group and what told about what is really going on. She promised to find and look after Dunyarzad while we search for the host, which reassured Lord Kusanali somewhat. Not long after we reached the Sabzeruz festival stage, where Nilou was arguing with "Azar" and his "entourage". It didn't take us long to drive them off, as it was soon found they were merely puppets.", he continued the retelling, before there was another pause, "That was when we noticed the light purple flowers decorating the place. Lord Atharva was truly shocked to see them."
"Of course he would, they went extinct long ago! Though I am not sure why he is still hiding the fact he was alive when they still existed and even personally knew their creator.", the Traveler added, sounding a little annoyed, before they sighed, "...He is under some kind of unbreakable contract, isn't he...? Just like Zhongli, when I asked him about my twin...", they mumbled, before there was a small pause, "...It turned out that those were the "True Padisarahs", which are of the original shade of purple that the Goddess of Flowers once made and as I said before, should be long extinct. We also soon found out that Nilou was in fact the dream's host and her sincere wish was to perform the Dance of Sabzeruz. She danced it and it was beautiful...The only thing I would love to remember from the time in that place...", they added in some warmth, before there was a pause, "Then the dream was finally broken and everyone woke up. Thankfully, since we found out in time what was going on and hurried to find the host, the people in the city were mostly in different states of tiredness. Thankfully, we managed to break the Samsara before there could be casualties.", they couldn't help but gratefully add, before there was a long pause, followed by a deep sigh, "And then we went to check the Sabzeruz stage, where the preparations for the festival should have already been mostly made. But when we got there...THOSE F*CKING SAGES!"
They suddenly yelled out, sounding enraged...
"Let me continue from here, Traveler.", Xiao soon said, sounding a little worried, "It turned out that while most of Sumeru was in the dream Samsara, Azar made sure that all the Sabzeruz festival decorations were either destroyed and/or burned. It was clearly a malicious attack on Lord Kusanali, as well as Dunyarzad, Nilou and everyone else who were preparing to celebrate the festival.", he soon explained, sounding a little mad himself, "...Seeing what the Sages did, the Traveler took the Akasha Terminal off their ear and broke it in rage. They were planning to march into the Akademiya and "tell the sages everything they think of them", before being stopped by "Katheryne". It was Lord Kusanali and she asked them to "please, calm down." and that it's fine, that she "already expected something like this to happen.", while sounding like she was about to cry.", he recalled in a more somber voice, "Afterwards Lord Kusanali reassured that the Akasha would be unable to host an event of such size for some time and that she and Lord Atharva are already planning to investigate what caused the Sages to step out of line. She also added that she is going to thank you for the help, Lord Barbatos. Then, before the Traveler could tell her anything, she left Katheryne's body, with the puppet soon getting surprised about why she wasn't in her usual post."
He ended the retelling with this,
Before there was silence once again...
...
"...So much has already happened in my time in Sumeru, from meeting Rana and helping the Aranara and to...This...And I can't even punish the Sages, because Nahida is against it...", the Traveler said after a while, sounding tired, "...It was a brain screw after brain screw that left everyone with more questions...Especially that dream Samsara, that could have actually killed innocent people if not stopped in time, which we don't even know why the Sages even held! What in Teyvat's name are they planning?!", they suddenly yelled out, sounding frustrated, "...Is there any more brain screwing secrets I need to know about?!"
-At some point in time, for a short while, the whole world was reset. -Venti suddenly said, as if in a trance, before he suddenly blinked. What was that just now...? -I apologize, Traveler. I am not sure what came over me just now.
He soon said, starting to feel guilty,
Though as much as he waited for the Traveler's reaction, it didn't come...
"...The Traveler looks a little weary right now, Paimon is pretty certain...", The Pixie soon said, sounding very worried, "...Paimon thinks that we might need to take another break after what happened and your last...Comment, tone-deaf bard..."
"...By this point, we might as well just ask the Aranaras for help...Since we helped them, they should help us back, right...?", the Traveler suddenly said, sounding a little unhinged, "...Maybe we could storm the Akademiya, catch up all the Sages, put them all into a big sack and throw them into the sea, preferably into some monster's maw so they would be chomped down...Yes, that sounds like a great plan...~", they cheerily added, before there was a small pause, "...But first I need to find a big enough sack, which would fit their obese and smelly asses...", there was another pause, "...Or maybe I should throw them in acid...But where can I find some acid...? Preferably a slow acting one..."
"Chief Alchemist Albedo, there is something we wish to discuss with you.", the Winds suddenly said, sounding dead serious, "...Do you still remember what Barbatos said at that time, months ago, before falling into limbo...?"
They asked pretty much out of nowhere,
Which made Albedo wonder what this was all about...
*But considering how sudden this is, it must have been something serious, right...?
...
But wherever he remembered what the Archon said at that time,
He did have quite a good memory, but seeing how long ago it was...
...
...
"...I remember almost everything, but small details here and there...Like I sometimes forget about being the Anemo Archon! Other than that...I can't remember everything that happened five hundred years ago...I remember being woken up by the people, fighting Durin together with Dvalin and then going back to sleep again...Yet, my memory between those two events is blank, as if it was erased or sealed...
...I think I rushed somewhere, that I saw the other six Archons on one side and another person on the other...
...I think I saw everyone's horrified expressions and someone yelling my name...?
The next thing I remember was lying in someone's lap...And looking up to see the shocked (And horrified...?) expressions of the other 5 Archons...With the Dendro Archon...Nowhere to be found...There was...Wetness...From above...She...She...Was..."
...
...
Oh, he did remember,
That time, he couldn't help but panic...
*How could he not, when Venti suddenly...
...
...
But what did it have to do with their current discussion...?
*Did something else happen, perchance...?
...
"It did. And up until now, we forgot all about it.", the Winds soon admitted, still sounding dead serious, "Not just the Equivalent Exchange, but there was another "side effect" of HER reviving Barbatos: SHE split, which brought her power out of control...", they slowly started, before sighing, "...Which reset Teyvat's TIME to at least days if not a week or more prior, with some changes made from the "first timeframe" continuing onto the new one.", there was a long pause after these words, before a deep sigh was heard, "...And now the TIMEline itself is a complete mess..."