Hope. A deceitful emotion. It creates a false image, an illusion of the ideal outcome for someone, only for it to fall through in the end. The Traveller had long since abandoned all hope. He was left forlorn. The grasp of the Sabzeruz Festival being too constricting.
Admittedly, the recent abnormalities to the Samsara had piqued his interest. However, he still maintained a pessimistic viewpoint that he would still be trapped here for all of eternity. No God of Wisdom able to put his mind at ease...
Sun shining, birds chirping, very little clouds in sight to blockade the aquamarine sky's gaze. An all too familiar breeze briskly entered the guest room of the Traveller, and his companion through the partly opened window.
Aether was the first to awake of the pair, groggily opening his eyes, rubbing them languidly and sitting up in bed. He felt tired, despite only just waking up. This was the norm though over the Samsara's, and so he was mostly accustomed to it.
His eyes led him across the room, to the figure of his travel guide, laid curled up innocently in her little bed underneath the duvet. He couldn't help but feel guilty about his actions during the previous cycle. The look of abject horror and trauma on Paimon's face was a haunting image that he doubted would leave him anytime soon.
She in question wasn't handling the mental drain of the Samsara as well evidently, as the fairy groaned as she tossed and turned in bed, bringing the duvet over her head to shield herself from the piercing light.
"Why does Paimon feel so tired? Paimon feels absolutely knackered despite only just waking up." She moaned before begrudgingly kicking at her blanket and peaking outside at the Traveller.
"Well you better be ready quickly. Don't want to keep Dunyarzad waiting after all." Aether said. He wanted to get Paimon to leave him alone so that he could meet up with Lesser Lord Kusanali as agreed upon previously.
He didn't believe that she would be of any use however. Whilst it was noble of her to try to be a hero, she didn't carry any sort of authority or noticeable power despite being an Archon. A childish Archon at that.
"The Sabzeruz Festival! We better not let all the food get cold!" Paimon exclaimed, seemingly finding energy from nowhere and jolting out of her bed. She lazily slung her covers back upon the mattress and floated in front of the exit.
It was interesting just how energetic Aether's companion was. She just seemed to have a seemingly endless supply of it. Her want for food being able to push beyond the drain of sustaining oneself in the Samsara.
"Come on! What are you waiting for?" She further exclaimed.
"Hold on. I need to grab a few things, go and meet up with Dunyarzad, I'll be right behind you." He lied.
Lies.
Straight to her face.
How dare he feel any guilt for scaring her yesterday. Only to nonchalantly equivocate to her face. The hypocrisy.
"Hmph. Lecturing Paimon about being ready when you're not even ready yourself!" Paimon huffed, crossing her arms in the process.
"But alright, someone has to keep Dunyarzad company." She sighed. Dropping her arms and opening the door before leaving the building, closing it behind her.
Aether remained seated for a minute. Just thinking through everything that was happening and had happened in the past couple cycles.
He could remember his first loop all too well, and his second one even more vividly. He could recollect the overwhelming sense of déjà vu that initially consumed him when selecting the box he thought, or more over knew contained the sunsettia sweets.
Over time, he grew restless, as he became more and more confused over the repeated sequences of events of each day being identical.
He remembered searching for answers. Scavenging to find a way to break free from the chains of the Sabzeruz Festival.
And now look at him. Hesitant to meet with the Dendro Archon herself all because his soul had been sucked out of him from his constant psychological anguish.
Breathing a small sigh, Aether clambered out of bed, neglecting to tidy it. Before absentmindedly leaving the small hotel room.
Hopefully for his last time.
Whether it be by the hand of freedom, or the clutch of death...
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Nahida had gone through great lengths to get into the position she was in now. The Akademiya had always kept such a watchful eye on her, but recently, the amount of surveillance they had was far inferior.
Furthermore, as the Samsara ran it's course, she could feel that their attention was being drawn elsewhere, later coming to the realisation that they intended to create a synthetic God of The Balladeer from her own investigations. She was to be replaced.
Of course this wasn't hugely surprising, more so was it impressive almost that they were able to harness the power of a gnosis. She knew that she wasn't favoured amongst the Akademiya. They were still infatuated by the late Greater Lord Rukkhadevata despite her passing being multiple centuries old.
And naturally, her infant appearance and personality didn't seem to fill the power vacuum the Greater Lord left behind.
That didn't mean that she wasn't worthy to hold the title as Archon of Sumeru. She dedicated every day of her existence to learning how to be a better Archon to her people, in spite of the Akademiya believing otherwise.
Here she sits however, atop a small stone wall shielded by crops. Abstractedly waving her legs back and forth, awaiting the arrival of the Traveller. They were such a unique individual. Nahida had never heard of someone being able to wield numerous elements, without a vision at that.
She was aware of who he was though. Despite being locked up like a bird in a cage, the tales of an otherworldly figure vanquishing opponents spread across Teyvat like wildfire. And as such it was to no surprise to her to find him in this predicament.
Looking up from her trance, she could make out a certain blonde approaching her from a distance. Squinting slightly confirming that it was her guest. Smiling, the Archon waved at him from across the patch of vegetables and invited him to sit down besides her by patting the cold cobbled wall.
Aether meanwhile, rolled his eyes a little at her extravagant wave. This was meant to be secretive no? But regardless seated himself besides his final light in this darkness.
"So," he began, blankly staring out in front of him, refusing to look at the girl. "care to explain all of this?" He questioned simply.
An answer. That's all he's ever wanted.
From the corner of his eye he could spy Nahida fiddling about with her hands, before she hesitantly responded;
"I'm not sure if it's wise to tell you straight up. Your mind could blow if you found out the truth so suddenly! Like bursting a balloon with a needle." She explained, mimicking said explosion as she spoke with her hands.
That was harder to hear than Aether was expecting. There was absolutely zero chance that he was going to wither in this place for another while because it's Archon thought that he was weak.
The Traveller heaved a sigh before saying;
"Look, Kusanali-"
"Please, enough with the formalities. I'm just Nahida to you." Nahida interrupted, attempting to establish a bond between her and the outlander.
"Well, Nahida, let me share with you my story. I've duelled with Gods, Dragons, Fatui, The Abyss, and now this. All meanwhile searching for my sister who is now my enemy. I'm not weak. Whatever you have to say can't possibly be that damaging."
With that Aether stretched his arms out behind him on the wall, leaning back against them, his carefree attitude evident from his posture.
He turned his head to face the girl besides him. She had her brows furrowed, with one of her arms across her chest, the other rested on it and propping up her chin. She appeared to be deep in thought, contemplating something.
"Are you sure you want me to tell you?" Nahida asked suddenly, her voice lower than usual. Highlighting her seriousness.
Aether turned back to face ahead of him, leaning forward from his laid back position. Closing his eyes, he nodded.
A small sigh could be heard from the girl besides him.
"Well... To put it bluntly. This is all a dream." She revealed.
A dream? You mean this wasn't real? Of course looking back on it, a time loop did seem a bit farfetched, but had Aether's last, seemingly forever, of suffering really been non-existent?
A multitude of questions raced through his mind. He could understand Nahida's concern about his mental wellbeing now.
"Am I dreaming?"
More of a nightmare
"Why Can't I wake up?"
You're weak
"Why is the Balladeer in my dream?"
He's always watching
"How do I wake up?"
You can't
He bombarded the young Archon with questions, causing her to recoil slightly.
"You've heard that no one in Sumeru dreams, right? Well the Akademiya can use the Akasha to harvest people's dreams, like a bear stealing the honey of bees." The lesser Lord elaborated, smiling to herself at her simile.
"If the Akademiya steals dreams then how are we in a dream now?" Aether questioned. It was hard to wrap his head around the fact that he was supposedly dreaming. Nahida could always be lying. But alas he'd decided to run with it.
"To lay it simply, all of the people in Sumeru are in one big dream. No one is aware that they are dreaming. Maintaining this dream is a host, if the host realises that they are dreaming, then the Samsara is broken." Nahida answered, quickly brushing over the general information necessary to inform the Traveller with.
"And so to break free you want to find the host?" Sounds simple enough. If anything it was more annoying that he hadn't accidentally done something already.
"Precisely." The girl confirmed, she now looked away from the Traveller, well aware of the question that was about to be posed.
"Well who is it then?" A hopeful question. With the answer deciding the fate of his life.
"Well..." There was a decently long pause here as Nahida stretched out her opening, sheepishly twiddling her thumbs.
Just great.
"Actually, I was kind of hoping that you would help me with that." She revealed hesitantly, daring to peak at him out of the corner of her eye.
Couldn't have been that easy could it?
"Terrific." Aether sarcastically retorted.
"Do you have any resemblance of a plan?" He asked almost bewildered.
"Logically, the host has to be someone who is unaware of the Akademiya's plans so that they aren't self aware." Nahida said, ignoring the Traveller's tone.
"However it would make sense for this target to be easily monitored." She refuted, looking at Aether as if that was meant to help him at all.
"That narrows it down." He commented satirically.
Nahida either chose to disregard this or didn't understand his meaning as she continued.
"My hypothesis is that the host may be a random Akademiya Scholar; they are close enough to be monitored without being knowledgeable of their ploys." She concluded. It seemed like a decent enough idea. But even he could see some flaws.
"What if it's someone like Nilou?" He posed. Daring to question the God of Wisdom's intelligence.
She hummed and cocked her head slightly, probing him to elaborate further.
"The Grand Sage and Setaria could act as surveillance on her during her performance preparation." He had seen Nilou argue with the pair of them far too many times to count. He remembers them like the back of his hand.
"Hmm..." She pondered, returning to her thinking position.
"Whilst it's a good theory, a lot of the beings present in the Samsara are puppets. As such I doubt that he is truly there." She finally countered.
Puppets? What on earth is she on about now? At this point though, there isn't much point trying to grasp anything now.
"Well, enlighten me Nahida. Should we ring alarm clocks, or find a Cockerel?" His voice was now drenched in sarcasm. Nahida almost seemed to consider these options before shaking her head.
"I was thinking more so that you could enter the Akademiya, and, 'cause a ruckus' so to speak." The Archon suggested, employing air quotations to her phrasing.
"Like when I killed the Corps of Thirty guards on the bridge?" Aether queried nonchalantly. This plan seemed a lot more violent than he was expecting from Nahida.
"You did what?!" She squeaked suddenly, jumping slightly.
Clearly not.
"Moving past that, what exactly is the plan?" He briskly asked.
Nahida eyed him suspiciously but nevertheless explained the plan.
"You wont be allowed entry into the Akademiya as you are not a scholar. As such you'll need to brute force your way in. There is no other entry." Nahida instructed, laying out the foundation for their scheme.
"Once we are in, I can use my powers to determine if someone is the host or not. We'll be met with resistance however no doubt so you'll have to cover me." Right, so that's what she was implying earlier.
"From there We'll have deduced the host and be able to shed the truth to them. It's not a fool proof plan but it'll do." She finished, now hopping down from the wall and walking away a little bit before turning around and extending a hand.
"So, care to dance, Traveller?"
Right, well here goes nothing. Aether had spent way too much time, rotting away in this dismal landscape.
It was time to act.
For better or for worse
This story reaches it's conclusion today.
Today? This Cycle? This loop?
Who cares.
Regardless, he'll be set free.
Whether it be from the Samsara, or the effort of escaping it.
Let the great escape commence.
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Sorry about the wait. I've been putting this off a lot lately. It might be because I keep adding chapters to space out the story but oh well. At this point I just want to be done with this story, I'll try to finish it somewhat soon but I offer no promises