Before they could imagine, the small team had arrived back at the city's entrance. The guards at the front gate greeted them as usual, and before they could even ask, Amber quickly clarified they'd take the side entrance as they had to carry 'something' urgent to the Knights' headquarters.

Needless to say, one thing was arriving at the city with a covered cart and a bunch of slightly bruised youths; said youths carrying some suspicious-looking bag upstairs was quite different. She wasn't sure whether the citizens of Mondstat were too used to minding their own business or if they were already used to some oddities happening in the city that no one approached to ask what was going on.

Well, that was until they arrived at the Knights' headquarters.

The knights guarding the entrance gave wary looks at the group as they approached the Knights' headquarters. Nonetheless, they opened the front gates, allowing the small group to bring their 'mysterious loot' to Jean's office.

The Acting Grandmaster's face went pale as she saw the small team arriving without their guest, yet carrying a suspicious looking bag. Her horror only increased once she saw who was inside, severely fractured but somehow still-conscious. Phos should have known best to be prepared for those reactions, the poor woman seemed like she was about to pass out at any moment.

"... the Mitachurl was stronger than the average, it wasn't until Noelle lent her strength that we managed to take it down." Amber had explained everything that happened to Jean, from the moment they left the city for Phos's training to the moment they encountered the mysteriously strong enemy. "Bennett and Razor gave the final blow, generating an overcharged elemental reaction with their visions… I assume that was what ultimately made Phosphophillyte's body to uh… break."

Jean was rubbing her temples in an attempt to prevent a worse headache than her current one. Not only had someone under their care gotten severely injured, but said encounter was probably not the last one. Kaeya and Lisa had already suggested abnormal activity from the Abyss Order and its possible connection to Phosphophyllite's arrival. It wouldn't be surprising if such activity also caused the appearance of abnormally strong foes roaming all around Mondstat.

"I see, thank you for the report, Amber," the blonde woman gave her a kind yet tired smile. "I'm afraid we'll have to be prepared for more of these sightings, if we're lucky enough they'll guide us towards the source of everything."

"I-I'll do more patrols if it's necessary, Grandmaster Jean! I'm worried that this sighting was so nearby Springvale…"

"Indeed, I'll send more knights to scout the area, any unusual activity shall be noticed immediately..."

Realizing there were only the two of them in the office, Jean coughed awkwardly, she'd have to explain the situation to the knights, they were already short-staffed and had just overcome the Storm Terror situation, another incoming threat was the least they needed, but she had been left in charge until Varka returned from his expedition, she'd find a way to overcome this incoming crisis, too. Kaeya was probably already doing some intel work on his own, and she was sure a certain tycoon wouldn't take too long to jump into action, as well.

"Ahem… master Jean?"

She was so lost in her thoughts that Amber's voice took her by surprise.

"Oh?"

"I was asking you if you thought Phos would recover… you know… after 'that'" Her voice was quieter than usual, as if she was talking about some forbidden knowledge. Jean dropped her shoulders, resting against her desk.

"Albedo is taking care of their… wounds, so don't worry, I'm sure they'll be fine." She tried to give her a reassuring smile. Noticing Amber's defeated look, she placed a hand on her shoulder. "You did a good job at managing the situation, Amber."

"Yeah, but…! They were my responsibility." The pyro-wielding girl looked visibly upset.

"And you did as much as you could." Jean replied. "You didn't know there would be abnormal activity from the Abyss on such a location, neither you knew -none of us knew- about Phos's… proneness of getting hurt in that peculiar way."

The younger female seemed still upset, but it seemed Jean's words were enough to ease Amber's guilt.

"So… do you think Albedo will know how to uh… treat Phos?"

"He's a brilliant alchemist and one of the brightest people I've known. If there's one person among the Knights who can aid our guest, it is him."

It would be an understatement to say the Chief Alchemist was taken by surprise when the small group of youths entered his laboratory. Although he had suggested Phos go on adventure as a means to gather information about how well their body could handle the environment in Teyvat… he didn't expect to get such… peculiar results so early.

Bennett seemed as if he would hyperventilate at any moment, even after reassuring him that, indeed, Phos was going to get better. Razor had to drag him by the collar for good, the feral boy seemed oddly used to handling his friend's emotional bursts. Amber had bid him farewell first, claiming she had to give Jean a report on what had happened, Noelle followed her soon, mumbling something about returning a cart to Springvale before noon.

That was how Albedo had ended up there, staring curiously at the opened sleeping bag that rested on one of the tables. Phosphophyllite's shards had gotten mixed with their golden alloy, making the insides of the bag look like a very sparkly soup. The blonde alchemist lowkey thanked his creator for not being able to get particularly irked by anything. Odd thoughts aside, it seemed the best option was to first separate Phos's shards from the alloy, the latter could be then moved from the sleeping bag to a more adequate recipient, he remembered having a couple of buckets in the lab's storage room, hopefully they'd be enough. Just as his hand reached towards the bag, he was startled by a sudden movement coming from inside the bag.

"Ugh… uh…" Phos's cracked-but-mostly-complete head let out an incomprehensible mumbling, as their eyes blinked sleepily, trying to focus on the alchemist in front of them.

"How… interesting." Albedo's voice showed a glimpse of curiosity. "It seems the inclusions in your body allow you to maintain consciousness at a certain degree even after getting shattered."

"Uhum…"

Despite their current condition, the gem was able to hear the weak sound of a pencil scribbling on paper. From their position they briefly managed to overlook the notebook on the alchemist's hands before he put it back inside one of his pockets.

"Fascinating, it is as if those inclusions worked as a colony of organisms, working together in order to survive."

The blonde man was quick to return to the important matter, nevertheless.

"I was about to begin the task of separating your shards from the golden and platinum alloy before looking for a… let's say 'treatment', as I do not have the proper information about how your kind gets put back together in case of these incidents." He explained. "However, now that it seems you are awake I'd appreciate it if you could give me something to work with."

The peppermint-colored gem blinked heavily once, twice, babbling something more before their head seemed to finally put itself together to say something coherent.

"Back… at the school, Rutile used resin… to paste our shards back together…" Their voice came weaker than they wished it would, but it seemed audible enough, as Albedo began taking notes once again. "I… don't know if we can find resin like that… here… sorry."

Albedo hummed, seemingly satisfied with Phos's explanation. "Do not apologize, Phos, so, I assume that the resin this Rutile individual used was not so different from the one present in the trees in Teyvat." He made a pause, approaching one of the shelves in the laboratory before shortly returning with a small handful of different-sized jars and bottles that he carefully placed on another desk. "But if it were the case that we can't use the resin from here in the same way, I could guess any other adherent material could serve nearly the same way, don't you think?"

Phos gave him a puzzled look.

"I… I suppose so."

"Good, now, I apologize for not asking beforehand, so, how are you feeling now?" Finally putting himself in action, Albedo began with the whole process of repairing Phos, in the meantime, he guessed it would cause no harm to keep his patient conscious just in case, engaging in a conversation seemed like an appropriate method to do so. "Do these sorts of incidents provoque any form of pain to your body?"

"Not really… not much…" They replied, their mind getting foggier, it was probable that most part of their body had gotten fractured, hence their inability to maneuver the golden alloy. "Sometimes it's… uncomfortable…"

"Uncomfortable? How so?"

"I don't know… it's scary, I guess." They were having a harder time finding the proper words to describe it. "You suddenly feel really tired… and forget names… faces…" The words came slower, clumsier.

"I see, that would make sense, considering how you mentioned to me the inclusions function, if they store your memories and keep you awake as a whole, it seems logical that the body getting some pieces detached will most likely cause some temporary memory loss and overall exhaustion." By the time Albedo finished his reasoning, he realized Phos had once again fallen unconscious.

It wasn't until early in the morning of the next day that Jean received updates on their guest's condition. Honestly, it had been a bit embarrassing, as Lisa was the one who gave her the good news, only to find her sleeping on her desk, arms resting on a pile of documents.

As both women made their way to Albedo's laboratory, the librarian considered cautious to give Jean some information before seeing Phos. Firstly, she had said Albedo spent the whole night working on what she called 'an extremely tedious procedure' so she had sent him to the library to take a well-deserved nap (Albedo had refused at first, but seeing how seriously Lisa took rests he didn't push his luck). Secondly, while yes, Phos was seemingly doing better, there were some details regarding their appearance that still needed to be treated (Jean noticed a variety of makeup powders on Lisa's hands as they walked). Finally, she expressed alongside an amused chuckle that the Knights would have to afford more resin and gluing materials, as they had just ran out of stock.

Wait, what?

Lisa was the one to open the lab's door, opening wide enough for her and Jean to slide through just fine. Once inside, Jean both felt relieved as well as deeply concerned as she looked at Phos.

The gem was sitting on the table, their body naked. What Jean soon found out to be powder had been gone, showing Phosphophyllite's actual composition; their whole head and torso were made of phosphophyllite, while their legs seemed to be made of another mineral, the golden alloy that at first seemed to be only on their arms extended further inside their body, filling some minuscule cracks, giving the impression of being golden roots extending all through Phos's body. Only their face retained some patches of white powder. Jean also noticed the lack of any further detail on the gem's body; it seemed smooth, like a sculpture, or a mannequin.

"O-Oh… good evening, Grandmaster Jean" Phos mumbled, clumsily moving aside as if they were freeing space on the table.

"Good evening, Phos." Despite the confusion that had invaded Jean's mind ever since Phos's arrival, she couldn't deny the gem had their very peculiar charm. "I'm glad to see you're doing better."

"Yeah… Albedo did a good job last night… but…" The gem had made a pause, seemingly flustered as they deviated their sight, swinging their legs as they dangled off the table. "I don't think the… people will like to see me like… this if I go outside. Even back at home we don't wander around without our powder, it's… ugly."

Before Jean could reply, it was Lisa who took the upper hand in the conversation.

"Ah, don't worry about that, sweetie." She approached the table, gently placing the small arrangement of makeup powders alongside some brushed next to Phos. "I doubt the plants used to produce the same powder even exist here, but I'll see what I can do, perhaps one of my contacts from Sumeru can help." The librarian gave them a kind smile before taking one of the makeup boxes to open it. "In the meantime you can try these ones. Their composition isn't as thick as the powder you use… but we could tweak it so it has roughly the same functionality, don't you think?" She let out another light-hearted chuckle as she saw Phos's face light up with relief and confusion, Teyvat's otherworldly travelers are all surely adorable.

The makeup that Lisa had provided, although not as efficient as their trusty powder, was good enough to cover most of their body without looking odd. They were sure the librarian did tweak some things on the recipe, as they saw her walking to the library a couple of times just to return with some materials. Jean had as well walked out of the laboratory a couple of times as well, and Albedo had returned shortly after they finished applying the powder substitute and were now dressing up with a newly-borrowed uniform (it seemed the previous one had gotten pretty badly damaged after the fight, they vaguely remember Noelle entering the lab late at night, saying something about getting it fixed).

Soon, the laboratory was crowded with more people, as both Amber and Kaeya came in, although the latter stayed by the door, leaning against it. Why were they all there?

"Ahem…" Jean caught their attention, taking a step forward. "I'm sorry for asking you to gather here instead of my office, I wanted to make sure our guest was mostly recovered before we could talk about the matter properly". The Acting Grandmaster began, she glanced at Albedo, gesturing at him. "I also want to thank Albedo for his efforts. Without him, I fear we wouldn't be able to manage most of our current situation."

"You flatter me, Acting Grandmaster," the Chief Alchemist's voice came calm, as usual, " no need to be so formal all the time. However, if you consider it adequate I'd like to give further updates and details about Phosphophyllite's condition."

"Is it really… that important?" Phos mumbled, suddenly feeling uneasy.

"It is." This time Jean took the word. "Our duty as Knights of Favonius is to protect our people and the city. That includes you, as you are currently under our protection, Phos." The woman took a deep breath, placing a hand on her chest. "I hope that way we might be able to prevent another incident like yesterday."

Phos wasn't so sure he liked the path the conversation was heading to.