I haven't forgotten nor given up on this story, fret not. I can finally get back to it now that harvest hours are over. Farm and farm-adjacent work gets kinda crazy this time of year. But hey, this new job is WAY better than the last one. Harvest hours here are only 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for 3 weeks—rather than 16-18 hours a day, 7 days a week for about two months, with maybe 3 days off during that time...which is exactly what I had to do last year.
Anyway, thank you for reviewing and following! I do love seeing the questions in the reviews about certain elements of the story; it gives me this devious sense of glee knowing what the answers are and knowing they will come in time. :D
Without further ado, on to the show:
Poise: a Tenno skill developed by the School of Unairu. Many martial arts throughout history taught various techniques to remain steady and mostly upright when struck by some blow or other for readily apparent reasons, as being flat on your face is generally considered a disadvantageous position in a fight. These techniques are, also quite obviously, limited to matters of stance, distribution of weight, traction with the ground, position and form of the muscles and bone structure of the body, and other purely physical methods for not being knocked on your backside by a punch or kick.
Tenno, having no such limitations, had taken this skill to its far more arcane conclusion. Not only did they learn the basic mechanics of stance and structure, but by utilizing the power of the void itself, they had learned the means root themselves to a desired point in the space-time continuum via an ontokinetic anchor of sorts. No force in existence could move them from where they desired to go—indeed, a sufficiently strong force would obliterate both Tenno and warframe before their feet were disrupted from their path. And obliterating a Tenno was usually a rather terrible idea as it just made them angrier.
Of course, the word poise itself also implies a steadiness in manner and dignity, the ability to remain unflappable and steadfast in the face of the various grievances and nuisances life inflicts upon all. So it would stand to reason that our Tenno would attempt to use this skill in the face of a challenge that, for all his decades, or perhaps by now centuries, of experience fighting armies uncountable, enemies undying, and resisting incomprehensible forces from beyond the membrane of known reality, he was never prepared to face: an immensely uncomfortable confrontation with a stunningly beautiful and highly flirtatious woman.
And it was failing him utterly.
"...um…"
...was all he managed to reply.
"Don't be so bashful, gorgeous!" Lisa's lips curled in a positively wicked smile and her eyes gleamed like neon lights in highly questionable downtown locales. "I'm not going to eat you." She took a few steps towards him, and made exactly zero effort to limit the...curvature of her outline as it swayed back and forth in rhythm to her stride.
The Tenno—slayer of the Orokin, two-time winner of a system-wide war, the one called a void devil—flinched. This was all new to him, of course. The five Tenno schools didn't have anything in their repertoire for dealing with social interaction of this...nature. He gulped hard and averted his eyes.
"I'm...not concerned about that," he lied.
Lisa giggled, and not some schoolgirl giggle either. It sounded like lyres and songbirds, sirens and temptresses, angels and devils. "You remind me a lot of her, you know. Amber told me on the way about you and our dear cutie. I see the good looks run in the family," Her sultry voice slithered into his ears.
"We're not...actually related...more like adopted family…"
"Oh? So just everyone is gorgeous where you come from then?"
"Lisa, please," Jean finally interjected.
"Sorry, dear."
Like a switch flipping, Lisa's demeanor became all business. The curve in her pose, her seductive smile, and her rather naughty eyes all straightened out in a moment, and she now stood before them as Chief Librarian, a humble title for one with such academic accolades as herself.
"Forgive me for not properly introducing myself. My name is Lisa Minci, Librarian for the Knights of Favonius. It is an honor to meet with you, comrade of our Honorary Knight."
The Tenno had finally quelled the tingles running up and down his spine, and managed to answer.
"Likewise. You can call me Tenno."
"Lisa, we need to talk," Jean said sidelong to her. "Tenno, we have much to discuss, so if it would be agreeable, I'd be delighted if you could join me in my office. It should be a far more comfortable conversation there." As IF, Jean thought, this conversation will be anything but very UNcomfortable…
"Certainly," the Tenno replied.
"Indeed, the wind threatens to blow away my hat, not to mention its threat to the decency of my skirt." Lisa sent one more impish smirk in the Tenno's direction.
The Tenno, fully done with dealing with these uncharted waters, merely responded by calling his warframe to his position. Everyone around him jumped back with a start as it simply manifested its significantly larger and more intimidating figure around him out of absolutely nowhere with a whooshing sound. Steps heavy yet utterly silent, he began to follow the group off the bridge onto the main causeway, when a small stone struck the warframe in the back of the head.
"You scared off my pigeons, mister."
The entire city held its breath.
The traveler from beyond the stars, slayer of gods, turned his head to see a small boy on the bridge behind them, glaring at him. Neither he nor the boy took note of the terrified look plastered on the faces of every knight around them, save for Jean's; her face held a more...resigned look, as she prepared in her heart to have her city burned to the ground over a rock thrown by little Timmie at a demigod from the skies.
For a dreadful second, during which not one soul dared to breathe for a seeming eternity, the demigod of flesh and metal met Timmie's stare.
Sorry, kid. Won't happen again.
No voice came from the warframe, but everyone heard the Tenno speak as if inside their heads regardless. Timmie blinked and shook his head a few times at the strange sensation, but recovered quick.
"Well...at least you're polite about it. Pigeons need to eat too, you know. No one cares much about them. Treat them like pests. So if you could try not to scare them away when I'm trying to feed them, well, I guess that's fine."
The Tenno stood for a moment, then nodded. He then turned to face the group of Knights who suddenly remembered to breathe again, threat of impending doom dissipated, and they all made their way into the city through the gate.
Well, almost all. The Tenno instead opted to leap over the wall of the city as if it were the most trivial thing in the world to rocket off into the air like a bullet and clear a 30 foot wall.
Jean couldn't find it in herself to be surprised any more.
Jean's office, Knights of Favonius Headquarters
Turns out, the conversation wasn't as terribly uncomfortable as Jean feared. Long and tiring, for sure, but the Tenno turned out to be a highly intelligent conversationalist, once again belying his very youthful appearance. Morever, he clearly was a fan of brevity, a fact that Jean very much appreciated. His questions and answers were concise and to the point, and if he could not or would not answer for whatever reason, he simply said so.
Jean, Lisa, Kaeya, and Cyrus, the head of the local Adventurer's guild were all present. They answered every question they could, and by the Archons, the Tenno had questions. They told him about Teyvat, its history, its nations, its Archons, its elements. They told him all they knew of Lumine's exploits while she was in Mondstadt.
He in turn answered what questions he chose, as frustrating as that could be for the present company. They learned his warframe was called "Ash Prime, Koga variant", whatever that meant. He told them how he had known Lumine and her brother Aether for a very long time, and that they had gotten "lost", though he refused to elaborate on exactly what that meant.
"Listen," he explained, "it's one of those things that knowing actually changes the outcome. I'm not just being evasive with you here. This is for their sake, and in a way, yours as well."
Unsurprisingly, no one was completely happy to hear this. Lisa frowned and said, "So many interesting stories to tell, and you won't share many of them. But there is one point of confusion that I must insist upon you clearing up; this is after all, for Lumine's sake."
The Tenno's expression remained neutral, but he did not object.
"You say you have known the twins for a long time. I have spoken much with Lumine about many things, from cooking, to romance, to history, AND about herself and her life before she came here. And she never once mentioned you, or indeed anyone else other than her brother.
"Now, I'm certainly not accusing you of anything, I wouldn't dream of it. You've made it quite clear that you care deeply for the both of them, and I believe you. So I ask you this: why? Why does she not talk of anyone else from her life beyond the stars?"
The Tenno took a deep breath and looked very thoughtful. His golden eyes gazed out the window behind Jean's desk as the wind picked up, rattling the shutters slightly. The clock on the wall ticked, seeming all the louder for the silence that fell upon the room.
"She and her brother have...forgotten a lot. It tends to happen when everything for so long is, well…"
His eyes drifted from the open window to meet Lisa's.
"...like a d̸̡̀̍ͅr̵͓̪͌̊e̴̢͍͑a̴̖͑m̶̪̈́͘."
...
...
...
The world glitched for a single moment.
...
...
...
Then returned to normal.
Lisa, Jean, Kaeya, and Cyrus simply blinked.
The Tenno smiled a smile of relief.
There was a polite knock on the door.
"Come in," Jean called out.
In walked a young lady, clothed in what even the Tenno would call an odd combination of outfits. It certainly resembled a traditional maid uniform in most regards, but he had never heard of a maid wearing plate armor and carrying a sword nearly as large as she was on her back. She smiled a bright and eager smile and curtsied impeccably.
"My apologies for interrupting your meeting. Would anyone like some tea and refreshments? It would be my pleasure to serve you."
"Yes, thank you, Noelle. I'd love some," Jean said, the tiredness in her voice unmistakable.
"You are a dear, Noelle. You know how I like my tea."
"Indeed I do, Miss Lisa," Noelle replied sweetly.
"I'll have a black tea, with a little something to stiffen it up, please," Kaeya said with a wink, less subtle than perhaps he hoped, what with the eyepatch and all.
"My pleasure, Sir Kaeya."
"Coffee, if you would, my dear girl," said Cyrus.
Noelle bowed and turned expectantly to the Tenno, eyes gleaming.
Tea.
How long had it been?
Ever since that moment, that node in all the continuum where everything in the Tenno's world changed there on the Zariman, most things like 'nice meals' or 'refreshments' had largely disappeared from his mind, and certainly diet. He wasn't even sure if he needed to eat anymore; the void had changed his body in ways that neither he nor even the Lotus fully understood, but any food he had eaten since then had been rather...austere. Ration packs, odd fruits picked off the plains, the very occasional mutated fish...
But that one word brought back memories, memories of a better time—the whistle of a kettle on an oil-burning stove, living in a poor colony in the Origin system that he couldn't even remember the name of, or even what planet it was on anymore, so distant did it seem. Tea leaves, or what passed for them, grown in the bio-muck that the colonists used to fertilize the terraformed soil. The smell of the little packets his parents kept in a special locker, and the joy he felt when they pulled out a real treasure—sweetener, more precious than gold in many of the colonies.
Tea.
The Tenno smiled a smile of genuine happiness, and for the first time since he had arrived on Teyvat, the assembled knights and adventurers in the room felt he truly looked his apparent age.
"I...would really like some tea. Thank you."
"I'd be delighted!" The maid named Noelle beamed at the Tenno's childlike joy, and exited the room with a fair bit more excitement—and force—than one would expect of a maid merely performing her duties. Indeed, after she closed the door, the Tenno noticed the doorknob looking a little...crumpled.
He turned back to the group. "So! About where Lumine went..."
"So it seems my next destination is this place you call Liyue." The Tenno and company now stood in the main plaza next to the fountain.
"Yes indeed, young lad," Cyrus boomed, having never quite mastered the concept of an 'indoor voice.' He continued, "I can get a map for you to show you the way, as the road there can be quite treacherous in certain places."
"No need, thank you," the Tenno said, and as he held up his hand, a holographic map of the entire continent lit up the area.
Cyrus could hardly believe his eyes. "This...this is incredible! This even shows areas we have no maps for! How did you get this? Didn't you just arrive?!"
"I scanned the surface. It's rudimentary in this case, as much of my scanning capability is...not available here." He then muttered under his breath, "Which is why I have to look for those two the old-fashioned way..."
"What manner of technology could scan an entire continent so quickly? I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at your capabilities, seeing your manner of arrival here in the city, but to the best of my knowledge, this exceeds even an Archon's ability! No nation in Teyvat's history, not even Khaenri'ah, ever reached these heights! Oh, what I could do with such a map! So many domains to find, so many places to explore! Ad Astra Abyssosque, as we say!"
"Uh, right. Ahem, so this place here is Liyue Harbor, where the ones you call the Qixing are, right?"
"Correct. I'll warn you that they do things a little differently than we do here. Perhaps not as open-armed as our own fair city," Kaeya answered, all with that amused grin on his face. "But as long as you play nice, they should too, or at least I hope so...for their sakes." The grin certainly looked more strained at that last bit.
"Well, thank you all for your help. I won't take up any more of your time." The Tenno looked around at the group and gave a picture-perfect bow.
"Of course, we were glad to help," Jean put her hand on her heart and returned the bow. "We are genuinely delighted that our good friend the Traveler finally may be reunited with her brother. We know it has weighed upon her mind, and we would all see her happy."
"That's definitely the plan."
"Don't be a stranger, gorgeous. You wouldn't want to make me weep from loneliness, now would you?" Lisa crooned.
"Uh...sure…" By the void, maybe he should have a talk with Lotus about how the hell to handle this sort of...interaction.
Or maybe not her...Maroo? Hell no.
Varzia? He cringed even more.
Teshin? Yeah, no.
Grandmother...yes, Grandmother on Deimos. She'd have some good, and far more palatable, answers.
The Tenno looked around one more time, not only at the group, but at the city, the windmills, the cathedral, the peak of Dragonspine in the distance; he took it all in for a moment, then with wry smile, muttered mostly to himself, "This place really is something…"
Then he stopped and put a finger to his ear.
"Hang tight, Ordis, I'm pulling out now."
And he vanished like smoke from their sight.
Lisa sat on the outer ring of the fountain, legs crossed and back straight in immaculate posture, looking straight out of a painting from those fancy artists from Fontaine. There she waited for a moment, demurely perched and sipping a cup of tea Noelle had brought to her, when hopping out from behind The Good Hunter came the one she was waiting for.
"Ah, Razor dear, come have a seat next to me."
The young boy, scruffier than a sheepdog and smelling...let's say, very outdoors-y, half walked, half scuttled over to the fountain next to Lisa.
"That's a good boy. So, what do you think about our guest? Could you sense anything?"
"Hmmmmmmm…" The boy named Razor growled deep in thought. "I smelled him."
"Yes dear, that's good. And what did he smell like?"
"Grrrrrrrrrr, hmmmmm, he smelled like...starlight. Like the Traveler."
Lisa nodded. She had expected at least this much.
"But, grrrrrr, also...something…" his nose and eyes scrunched up as he wracked his brain trying to find the right way to express himself, "...something like...bad ones. Ugly faces with...magic? The ones...who hurt Lupical."
Lisa's eyes widened. Razor's nose was as sharp as any wolf, whatever biology might have to say on the matter. So the Tenno smelled of the Abyss? This was troubling.
"But...rrrrrah, not same. Smell like, but...not like?" Razor grabbed his hair with both hands and pulled on it a bit, as if doing so might pull more words out of his head.
"What do you mean? You can do it, dear, keep trying. Remember all the words I taught you," Lisa said gently.
"Hmmm, grrrrraaah...OH! Sweet!"
"...Razor dear, are you sure that's what you meant?"
"Yes, yes! So...sweet flower smell sweet. Right?"
"Right…?"
"And cake smell sweet, right?"
"Yes…"
"But cake and sweet flower...not smell same...but same. Yes?"
At this point, the poor boy's head began steaming. He pulled his hood over his head and curled up, clutching it and pulling it down to hide his face.
"Words so hard."
Lisa smiled and patted his head like one would a puppy.
"I know, but you did very well. Remember, the more you do it, the easier it will be."
Razor didn't look up, but the humming sound he made sounded happy enough.
"Sky boy not smell bad. Scary, but not bad."
"I do hope you're right, Razor. I do so hope you are right."
Jean didn't so much as sit down at her desk as she did crumple behind it. What a day. She had managed to avoid bringing up the topic of this Tenno's killing of a god from Celestia during their discussion, an action that would certainly have consequences beyond her wildest imagining, and quite frankly, she just didn't want to talk about it with him. It terrified her to her core, and there wasn't much that could scare her. Little was known about Celestia, and most people really didn't care what went on in the heavens so far above the common folk, so it wasn't like the Tenno had destroyed anything she or anyone else held particularly dear; but there was no way this wouldn't have some effect upon the "laws" of the world, and she had absolutely no way of predicting what kind of trouble was coming for all her people she very much did hold dear.
She had managed to mention it to Lisa in private after the Tenno had left, and Jean was able to derive at least a small amount of smug satisfaction watching Lisa go from teasing to dumbstruck in a single moment. Lisa, however, returned the favor when she mentioned what she had learned from Razor. By the Archon, did she make a mistake telling the Tenno where the Honorary Knight was?
She leaned back in her chair, trying to stretch her aching back and force her exhausted eyelids to stay open when she felt a breeze upon her face. It was cooling, soothing, and it seemed to liven her spirits...and was blowing on her despite the window being closed. Though that wasn't true for long, as a sudden and very precise gust blew the latch up and swung the window open. Not a heartbeat later, an arrow flew through the opening and thumped off the wall near her door. It had a blunted tip (somewhat considerate of the wallpaper, at least) and a note hanging from it.
Already knowing who it was from, Jean went to pick up the note, wrinkling her nose at the smell of it. She didn't mind wine, but this was...excessive. Untying it from the arrow, she opened it and read:
"Heya, as you might have guessed, we need to talk. Ol' Grumpy Wine Baron is coming too, so let's have him join us. And for a change, I'll bring the wine this time. We'll probably need it, hehe."
You know...he wasn't at all what Jean expected Barbatos, the Archon of Wind and Freedom, to be like. But she could not deny that her burden felt a good bit lighter now.
The Reservoir, Lua
"Operator! Ordis is elated to see you again! I never know if it's going to be for the last time whenever you disappear off to where my scanners can't find you!"
"Don't worry, Ordis. I always come back, don't I? Have some faith."
"I do, Operator, but that doesn't stop me from worrying."
The Tenno climbed out of a pod, identical to the one he had dreamed away the centuries in following the Old War, as it floated up out of the pool of protoamniotic fluid it had been immersed in. Right alongside it was another pod, though this one was unique: it was a double.
"Well, I have good news, bad news, and...weird news. Any preferences?"
"Ordis believes in starting with the good news first. Bad news can be saved for when it's time to d҉i҉s҉e҉m҉b҉o҉w҉e҉l҉ —to teach someone a lesson."
"Well, the good news is that I found them."
"That is excellent, Operator! Let's do the 'bad news' next!"
"The bad news is that they got separated somehow."
"Well...that is % #$!*^%...very disconcerting to hear. Cogitator algorithms predict a 2.4x10^-14 chance for a random causal event of that nature to occur, given the parapsychological connection the twins have. Given those odds, we can only infer intentional interference, one capable of up to a class 5 conceptual restructure."
"That's what I was thinking as well, though I didn't quite have the math down as solid."
"Ordis does hope that you can bring them back together, Operator. And I suppose we should hear the 'weird news' next."
"OK, well, the weird news is where they are. Those two didn't just dream up a place; it's a full-blown conceptual embodiment now...and I'm not 100% sure it's all theirs."
"Not all theirs?"
"Yeah, it's...immensely complex and alive. Those two always had good imaginations, but this...this is another level. Also...there's other entities there. Ones that don't belong. I learned a fair bit about the history of the place, and, well…" the Tenno paused in consternation, "let's just say it has some ugly fingerprints all over it."
"The void is extremely reactive to the minds of Tenno, this the data has established well, and it wouldn't be the first time such conceptual embodiments have been created. The existence of Duviri, as confusing as it is to Ordis, is evidence of that. So who else could possibly have had such an effect on the causal field as to make what you are describing?"
"I can't say for sure if this is the origin of that place, or if it's literally another world that existed on its own beforehand, and those two just stumbled into it, but I fought and killed a being trying to prevent entry to the world…" the Tenno's expression grew dark.
"...and she reeked of Orokin."
"Orokin? Surely that's impossible, Operator?"
"Eternalism, Ordis. Who knows. I could be wrong, but something about her just made me think. Perhaps an Archmedian on the Zariman, lost to the Void? An entirely parallel being based on one of the Seven from before? I have no idea. But she seemed off. Not from that place at all, that much I know for sure."
He stood up from his pod and hopped down onto the floor.
"But that's not the worst part of it. I'm heading back to the orbiter for a bit. I'm going to need some serious gear, plus a few gadgets I have in mind. I'll need you to draw up some blueprints for the foundry."
"Of course, Operator, but what will you be needing these things for?"
The Tenno stopped on his way out of the door, his back to the Reservoir.
"I got a sniff of something called the Abyss Order while I was there. And it's pretty obvious to me what they are up to."
His fists clenched.
"HE is trying to break in. And I need to find those two before he does."
Ha! How's that for some answers? Not all of them, for sure, but we'll get to that.
Also, you'll notice some things in here, like the description of the Unairu skill Poise, or the backstory of the Tenno, that you might be wondering, "huh? Where was that in the lore?" It's not. It's definitely some creative license I'm taking to try and flesh things out a little more. However, it's not NOT in the lore, if that makes sense. It could be. Hell, with Eternalism, it definitely is, somewhere.