The rainforest was still sparse, with patches of dense forestry dotting the path but nothing major. Overall, it wasn't a very interesting experience. The path was the same. The trees didn't look too different from back then. Insects were still annoying. It was good to see that some things hadn't changed.

But Faruzan knew that was not the case. She had changed. And not only on some psychological level but physically too.

"I do wonder, has your stamina always been so lacklustre?" He waited for Faruzan to catch, her breath completely disjointed. "Perhaps you've always been so slow and drowsy. It's been around four hours since you woke up, and you're already having trouble keeping your eyes open."

"I'm not tired… My body is just not listening to me." Faruzan stopped moving, her muscles sluggish and her mind slow. "My feet are killing me as well."

Not stopping until a few steps later, the Pupil turned around and walked back towards her. He looked at his vision before sighing. "We are still resonating. That's why you're getting so tired."

The visions noticed their owners' reluctance and stopped shining as heavily as before. The energy inside didn't swirl anymore.

"It may not use a lot of energy, but it's added up with time." He scrutinised her exhausted state before his eyes landed on her feet. "You're wearing heels? We should have bought you some proper shoewear in Ribat."

"You… didn't notice before?"

"If you haven't noticed, I care little for looks." His eyes wandered through her body before landing on her face again. "Hm. Your eyes are of a different colour."

"Pupil!" Faruzan was somewhat offended at his lack of attention. "You seriously didn't notice before? Also, it's called heterochromia."

"It can be called colouritis for all I care." He shrugged and observed the area, still sparsely populated by small patches of tall greenery. "This place is too open. Come, I'll find a spot to rest."

He kept on walking through the path, though Faruzan wasn't too keen on his constant pulling and overall paranoia over nothing.

"That suffix is for inflammation, it doesn't make any sense…" Quite aware that he wouldn't care for the explanation, she just followed him. "You know, we can walk beside each other? Like last night? Because now I feel like you're just pulling me around with a leash."

The Pupil barely acknowledged her complaints. "You were all depressive back then. Now you're not so walk faster."

"Seriously? Do I have to cry for you to be nice again?"

"Hm…"·Baffling Faruzan, it seemed he was actually thinking hard about it. "Yes. Grovel at my feet and beg."

Unable to see his face, she hoped that was a joke. "I'm beginning to think that if we had met in any other situation, I would have struck your head with a rock. In fact, maybe I should do that."

Faruzan was about to feint the plan, but he stopped suddenly and threw her plans off the rail. He stopped by a large tree, looking at something on the ground before shooing some invisible insect away.

"How long do you need to rest?" He tilted his hat and glanced at the canopy above.

"Fifteen minutes? With five minutes to either side. Let's disregard chance and go with twenty minutes." She approached him and looked up. There was nothing out of the ordinary. "What are you looking at?"

"Onion fairies. Just rest."

"The… onion fairies," Faruzan muttered, trying to find a place to rest on. The ground, though covered in ferns, was wet. "You mean Aranara, those tree spirits? Do you believe in such fairy tales? It's precious how you have so many odd dissonances."

Her teasing landed on a vast nothingness. Whatever whim he had, the Pupil ignored her words and continued to check the surroundings. It was a mannerism that was growing ever more bothersome, as he did whenever the situation got somewhat personal.

Faruzan just resigned herself to her fate but looked around in hopes of delaying the inevitable soggy future. Unlike in the desert, the wet clothing wouldn't just dry up in the span of minutes.

The trees of the area hadn't been placed naturally. It was a forest plantation of some sort. Each tree was placed in rows, some grafted together, others pruned in unnatural ways. The nearby town must have been using the place to create furniture and sell it, Faruzan guessed. Though, to see such a thing in Sumeru proper was strange. Back in the day… Well, actually, it happened. But not next to roads.

"You're not resting." Her Pupil suddenly said, stopping his staring into space. "Just sit down."

Faruzan shifted in place, clearly uncomfortable. "But it's wet. Dry it."

"Always so direct except when it matters. How do you want me to dry it exactly?" He walked over to her and crouched, inspecting the terrain. "It's not even that saturated. Just sit down. I'll dry you afterwards."

That was more similar to a threat than a promise.

"Ugh..." She gave a reticent stare at the ground beside the tree. "And my notebook?"

He paused, having forgotten that he had promised such a thing. With a flick of his wrist, a small notebook was summoned in his hand. It was tossed in her direction, almost falling into the mud before it fell.

Faruzan hummed and flicked through the pages. It seemed to be an accounting book from that forger. The numbers were fairly standard and uninteresting, but he had been filling his pockets for quite a while. Perhaps she should return after a few days and make sure his Pupil's work was enduring.

Regardless, she sat down on the wet but somewhat comfortable greenery of the tree and leaned against it.

"Oh, the qu—" The quill landed on the open notebook, almost sliding into her lap. "And the ink?" Again, the half-filled inkpot flew through the air, this time landing on the ferns beside Faruzan. "Be a bit more careful."

Nonchalantly nodding, he began to walk away. "I'll be making rounds. Just rest."

"Don't stray too far."

She watched him slowly appear and disappear between the rows of trees. It was a strange sensation. Something deep in her mind, like a primal sensation forgotten for city-dwellers, started to flare up inside her. Warning her. Reminding her of the helplessness, the unmitigated dread that being alone entailed. Just like in that chamber. And then she couldn't see him anymore. Nobody else was around. She was alone.

Fear. Though not sure why, she felt the chill that anticipated something terrible. Just like back in the desert when she faced that horrible chamber. And it would grow. It was growing into the same horror she experienced…

"What's wrong?"

Faruzan jumped in fright at the sudden voice. It was just her Pupil, appearing out of nowhere.

"Wh— What the hell! How did you do that?!"

"I flew." He stated as if it was obvious. "And you didn't answer me."

"I'm fine." A lie neither of them believed. "Don't scare an old lady like that again. You should stay within my eyesight range as punishment."

He stared at Faruzan's exceedingly strong grip on the notebook and cursed under his breath. "Whatever. Don't daydream into the abyss again."

Instead of patrolling around, he wandered around the approximate area, no more than a dozen metres away from her. And that was enough.

Feeling her heart beating fast, she looked at the notebook and started to write an idea that had been floating around her mind inside that prison. Because Faruzan was a Haravatat expert. Yet her love for language and mechanisms came hand in hand. A language was a puzzle which needed the right gears to function. And she too needed an extra gear.

She had thought up a device using Deshret's ancient technology. The main issue had been the energy requirements, as the source for most of his work was still unanswered. Now that she had a vision, that hurdle was completely erased. The prototype would be feasible.

While writing and sketching the work, she glimpsed at her Pupil and made sure he was still around. Perhaps because of that, her writing was messy. Her lines were curved and shaky. She had not written properly in almost a century. And writing with a pebble had destroyed her beautiful orthography.

It was frustrating. Depressing even. She hated looking at her writing. Every second that passed, she loathed it even more. So she snapped the notebook shut not even five minutes after.

Doing so got the attention of her Pupil, who was walking right by when she stood up.

"Are you done? You still have time." He said in his usual dreary tone.

"You should rest too." Her words were immediately met with a frown. "You said you didn't sleep last night. And if you're going to say something along the lines of not needing rest, or still being paranoid about whatever stalkers we have, save it. I already heard those lines enough times."

"You're so annoying."

He pushed her aside, walking towards the spot she had been sitting at. He basically dropped to the ground, sitting down with a thud. He raised one knee, resting one of his arms on top of it and lowered his hat to hide his face.

Faruzan nodded to herself, quite accomplished at her deed with as few words as possible. Now, what should she do? She'd stay guard for a bit, perhaps that would make him relax more. So she decided to patrol around like he did.

The moment she took a step away, however…

"Stay. You don't have any weapons."

He hadn't moved from his position, not even a glance at her. Somehow, he knew what she was trying and shot her idea down immediately. It would have been somewhat sweet if it didn't feel like he was pulling on a leash to keep her close.

"What are the magic words?" Faruzan answered.

"Stay, Faruzan."

"I wanted a please, but that's good enough."

There wasn't much Faruzan knew about the odd Wanderer. She was certain that he was trying to be nice in his own, awful way. And poor it may be, yet she wasn't about to let that go after a century of nothingness.

Peering down at her Pupil, Faruzan sat next to him. He glanced at her before leaning away. She wanted to say it was embarrassment. It was nothing of the sort, however.

"I don't like physical contact if that's what you're wondering." He closed his eyes, a considerable frown still remaining. "What happened last night was just an exception."

His admission came out of the blue. All this time, he had been reticent to even say anything about himself. And sensing blood on the water, Faruzan jumped in for more. "I'm going to ask you something."

"I believe you wanted me to rest. So I will do that."

That certainly backfired. "Don't be a sourpuss, just one quick question. And you have to promise that you will answer. Don't leave it hanging or ignore it."

"I don't promise anything."

"Idiot…" She muttered before raising one finger. "Where are you going after we reach the City?"

"Out of all questions to ask, you decide on the most stupid one? Aren't you smart enough to find this whole situation strange?"

Faruzan took hold of his arm and shook it. "You're doing it again! Answer me, you stupid hat guy!"

"Release me, you crazy woman!" He forced her grip off and moved away. "I'll continue repaying my debts. Happy?"

"Ugh, why are you always so vague? It's unnerving. Always with the I have my reasons. What do you have to hide that it's so important?"

The Pupil became a statue. His feet moved slightly, one wanting to move away and the other one forward. In that conflict, he did nothing and stood still. Instead, his head turned towards Faruzan.

"I have no problem telling you. However, let me tell you what will happen. I will say the truth. You will make up some excuse for it, and then call me … good boy or some other hideous shit like that."

"Well, because… you're a good boy."

He seemed to have died on the spot before his anger managed to revive him. "Stop it. Please. You don't know anything about me."

That was a stupid statement. She had learnt a lot, she had all the these pieces that fit correctly. Why, they all made a lot of sense. So it was stupid. Yes.

So why was it that it felt he was right? Of course, she knew he had a bad childhood. And he was wandering the desert for… for reasons? And he was moody but kind when push came to shove. So… was that not enough? Were those acts of kindness not important to him?

Faruzan had been busy fitting the pieces of his enigma, so why did it seem like she was gathering pieces for a completely different puzzle?

"I… I know a lot." Faruzan started to twirl her hair around her fingers in frustration. "Because… because… the bad childhood means… sweets are bad, so you don't like them—"

"… Huh?" There was no disrespect behind his moderate surprise.

"It fits like a glove." She wasn't too sure herself. And that just made her more nervous.

More than angered at her answer, the Pupil was purely frustrated. "You should stop seeing everything like a puzzle. It's the real world. Not a handcrafted chamber. And I'm a person with my own objectives in life, so stop treating me like a toy. Just because I want to help you doesn't mean I will do everything."

On instinct, Faruzan wanted to refute him. But she didn't have the heart to do so. He was finally saying what he thought. And perhaps she had been treating him more like a… treat rather than a normal person. A walking enigma, yes. But perhaps he was more than his allure.

"Is… that so? I didn't realise that I was… doing that. My mind is still switching gears… Er, switching perspectives. After a century of doing the same thing, over and over, always trying to find the cause and reason for everything. To suddenly switch my whole worldview is quite hard." Faruzan grasped the cloth around her chest. "I suppose I lost a bit of my humanity along the way. Am I even the same person I was a century ago? This is… unnerving to realise."

"It's shit, say it clear. But I understand that feeling. If you found out that everything you've done was because you had been manipulated years ago, it would be quite a pain to suddenly try to understand who the real you is." His posture slouched before he straightened his back. "My answer was… well, I already told you. To accept that as part of myself."

"Accept yourself, huh?" Faruzan hugged her legs and rested her head against them. She stared at her Pupil, who disliked being so heavily stared at. "That made me remember. A Haravatat professor was once asked to define what made a river a river. He gave a general definition, but when that definition was applied to one of Sumeru's rivers, the description fell apart. It had too many meanders, too little water. So what truly defined the river? Its characteristics? The semantics? The professor's answer was this: Everything has two descriptions."

Faruzan sat up and observed her hands. They were wet and finally different. "People are like that too. We have two definitions. The one we give ourselves and the one people give us. We want people to accept how we truly are, to accept that definition we made for ourselves. And sometimes, we need someone to help and guide us, but not to tell us who we're supposed to be. So I can't really tell you how or who you are. Just like you don't want to influence my future too much. But the tenderness and softness you display come from the heart, so… I'm glad it was you who found me. Maybe if we're together, we can help each other to be better."

Though Faruzan had poured her heart over the answer, his reaction was strange. He dug his nails into his arms, quivering with a mixture of hate and regret. Then, while maintaining a completely expressionless façade, he uncrossed his arms and shrugged.

"You talk too much." An odd objection under the circumstances. "It's not bad to hear your… opinion on the matter."

"You mean it's good to listen to me."

"I wouldn't go that far." He shifted and winced, growing more uncomfortable and distressed. This situation was the last thing he wanted to experience, or so Faruzan thought.

"You don't like talking about feelings." She stated as if it was a fact. "That's okay, we can drop the subject."

"It's fine. Under stress, we revert to training." Budging from his awkward position, he sat on his knees. "Talking about myself only brings trouble, that is why I don't do it. Nothing vast enters people's lives without a curse."

"That's how responsibility works. However… Are you implying whatever's worrying you will trouble me as well?" Faruzan straightened her posture as well.

"Is this an effect of being a professor? Do you repeat the obvious so the students don't miss it? Yes, that's what I was saying." He went on. "I keep telling you to not follow what I tell you to do, so why not. Let's continue talking and confess our secrets. But if I do tell you the truth… Well, let's see if you regret it."

Ominous, but toothless.

"Alright, then this is..." She pretended to claw for the right word. "A sharing circle. I'm not telling the truth either. Well, not wholly. If you recall, I told you I don't remember much of what happened in that chamber. But I do. Not… full memories. But I remember how it felt, it's stitched to my bones."

It seemed like the conversation would end there. He stood up and fixed his clothes. But then, he answered. "That's not quite the blessing, is it? Even if you don't remember, you can still feel the marks. That's… how it felt to me."

"That's right! Like… when we passed through Ribat, all the houses seemed hostile and unwelcoming. I know why I feel some aversion yet the details are all buried deep inside me. Yet I still have bottled up anger, frustration and hurt that I cannot shake off."

"I get it. It's like living with someone whispering terrible things in your ear while sticking a knife between your ribs. You turn around and that person's never there, but those awful sensations… they remain. And he always comes back."

Faruzan was a bit too engrossed in his words that she didn't notice that her Pupil had extended his arm to offer a hand up. She gladly took it yet… something was strange, inert. A revulsion that she ignored as she stood up.

"Say, Faruzan." He didn't let go of her hand. Perhaps he just wanted to share a moment. "What's the worst thing you've done?"

"Not coming back home." She squeezed his hand out of reflex. "And you?"

"I tried to become a God, attempted to murder the Dendro Archon and did many horrible things to even approach that dream. For example, manipulating people. Using them and discarding them. Or straight up murdering someone for no other reason than entertainment."

The tone change was quite pronounced. It was a strange joke. But her Pupil was a strange wanderer. And getting stranger. His eyes had gone glassy during the last sentence as if he wasn't quite sure of what he was saying. Or maybe he didn't know what he wanted out of this conversation.

"Some of those things I don't regret. I promised Buer to not kill anyone in Sumeru, so you should rest easy. But lately, I'm beginning to realise I've done something much worse. Do you want to know it?"

"I don't—" Faruzan's words got cut as he seized her by the waist and pulled her closer. She staggered and accidentally stomped his feet, but he didn't mind. Or recoil. There was no time to catch her breath, she glanced up to see her Pupil's face a fraction away from her own.

"I-Is it…" This wasn't good for her old heart. "Is it kissing an old lady?"

"What."

"Eh?"

He let go of Faruzan and took a step back. "You have the talent to ruin things, do you?"

Faruzan's entire face flushed red. She had completely misjudged the situation "Y-You are the one acting weird! I thought it was a convoluted, modern way of confessing your love! Why did you even grab me like that, I thought…! I-I was going to reject you, mind you!"

"I was confessing sins, not—" A click. He turned on the spot and backed away into Faruzan. "Silence."

Both Pupil and Professor noticed something was wrong. Their visions started to resonate without any prompt as Faruzan desperately looked around for the reason for their sudden irrationality.

The rows of trees made certain angles impossible to properly see. The Pupil had banked on this strategy, morphing that weakness into a strength. After all, bad opponents would waltz right in. The good ones would use the blind spots as cover, not realising that he could sense them regardless.

"Walk back with me." He commanded. Faruzan simply knew something was wrong, so she didn't try anything. "Those stalkers from the desert. They've somehow hidden their presence. I didn't detect them until now."

"Hide their presence…?" Faruzan muttered as the Wanderer again held her hand. "King Deshret's Primal Constructs can do a similar trick. They can't be just treasure hunters like you said. Perhaps… Relic Hunters salvaging Al-Ahmar's technology? But why are they following us? We don't have anything."

"They must be after you."

"Why though? They couldn't have seen me leave the ancient chamber… Otherwise, they would have captured me."

His grip on Faruzan's hand became tighter. That was enough for her. He knew the reason. The only reasonable explanation was that they were following him. And the moment they saw him save herself, they started their stalking. But if so, why were they following her Pupil? What was he searching for in the desert?

And if that was… he must have known from the very beginning that they were following them. And only made that knowledge clear after the Aaru village Guardian mentioned it, even though Faruzan had not heard it. He only mentioned it because he must have thought she listened to the Guardian's explanation.

That was too distrustful of her. That just couldn't be it. She had to be missing something else, something obvious.

A bolt suddenly appeared in Faruzan's vision, faster than anything she had ever seen before. It projected no sound as it cut through the air, directed right at them. Her Pupil didn't seem to notice it either as he walked back either. It impacted his neck. Faruzan's unexpected horror fizzled out as the bolt didn't even penetrate his skin, harmlessly bouncing off as if it had hit solid stone.

In response, her Pupil shoved her away and slapped away yet another bolt from the air like nothing. It landed near Faruzan, who saw that it wasn't anything special. A simple crossbow projectile. This meant that whatever launcher they were using was the issue.

"We're flying away." He seized her hand once again before abruptly shoving her into the ground.

A net appeared from thin air right above his head, shining with intense electro energy. It was big enough to engulf the two of them in its clutches. Faruzan wasn't able to react as an anemo wave pushed her out and away from the net, which seemed to absorb the energy and became even stronger. Her Pupil simply let himself be trapped, the intense electro energy forcing him down to one knee. Though… it didn't seem like he was truly hurting.

Faruzan's mind raced to find an explanation for the object popping in and out of reality. Deshret's technology, that was for sure. Understanding why it happened would help her rescue her Pupil. She had seen walls disappear but those were solid, unmoving objects. To apply that to humans… perhaps…

"Complete morons, all of you." A deep, rough voice suddenly appeared behind Faruzan. It was a tall man with a heavily built body and a flat nose. He wore the common Eremite clothing but with a strange gold-coloured belt. "It was shoot the boy, trap the relic. Not trap the boy and let the relic go."

Faruzan warily backed away until the electro net zapped her heel.

"I don't know what went wrong, boss. The projectile went off properly but it somehow lost enough strength to not penetrate…" A lanky man with Mondstadt clothing appeared out of nowhere, approaching both Faruzan and the Pupil. He was wielding a strange, intricately designed cannon the size of a crossbow. "Oh, she can see us. It barely lasts nowadays."

Another two people appeared, wielding more common weaponry decorated with shards of ancient technology.

"First of all, though I am quite old, I am not a relic," Faruzan said, clenching her fists. "Second of all, I recommend you release my Pupil before I get angry. I won't tolerate such disrespect."

The Boss answered with a hearty laugh. "Finders keepers, is that how it goes with you? Even if he was looking for you first, we can be quite persuasive." He inspected Faruzan's glare for a brief moment. "What, he didn't tell you? We wouldn't have told you either, to be fair."

The lanky man approached Faruzan, stopping by the trapped Pupil.

"Who cares about that, what do you do? Can you repair shit?"

"Only four?" The Pupil's voice stopped the conversation. He grabbed the electro netting trapping him and took the whole brunt of the elemental energy before shattering it with little effort. Everyone, even Faruzan, stood back in shock as he calmly got up with no noticeable damage on him. He dusted off his clothing. And then his eyes went wide. "So who wants to die first?"