Chapter Text
Research Journal #326; pg. 172
On the Topic of Memory
Over the centuries, many scholars have attempted to uncover the true nature of human recollection. The processes behind how information is stored, recalled, and, ultimately, forgotten.
Some among them have likened it to an archive, shelves compiling records upon records, spanning years, or, depending on the Indvidual's mortality, centuries. Records dipped in ink, permanent, everlasting phrases across the mind. Except sometimes the brain would mistake a pencil for a pen, allowing for erasure and rewriting of the precise records. Or the klutzy archivist would spill a glass of water, smearing ink and soaking into the stacks of paper until they were little more than mush.
Others compare it to a forest of stone, the recalling mind walking through the mountains like a maze. Every ounce of information is reachable, assuming you knew how to climb mountains. Yet, as everlasting as mountains seem in comparison to a human's short lifespan, they are far from forever. In just a blink in the eyes of the primordial gods, every single peak and valley is ruined, built, and ruined again, beyond even the smallest sliver of recognition.
Others will claim memory's true nature is that of the wind. Winding and streaming past you in a flurry of instances, some currents circling around you forever more, and others veering away, moving on to newer fields. Yet, the wind flows in cycles, and every current, no matter how wayward, will find its way back to its original point, eventually, just as the most persistent of currents shall someday fade.
These scholars will argue and fight, claiming their own views to be superior. But in the end, these squabbles are entirely insignificant. The same note written in different handwriting will still deliver the same message, no matter how flowery one style is or straight forward the other.
The truth of the matter is that these are arguments from those who set out to understand memory and failed. Thus, they instead chose to write a new, fancy metaphor, claiming it to be something profound and new, always explaining what memory is, but never offering commentary on the how and why.
In truth, many scientists have studied the human brain extensively, and have located the centers at which memory is built. New connections made with each passing moment, recording every wayward moment in perfect detail. In fact, it is so perfect that scholars have yet to witness the process of forgetting, to see these connections break, to see them warp until the original message becomes muddled and dulled.
They've puzzled and groaned yet have ultimately turned up short.
I myself had a token issue in the topic, but only as the years wore on and the problem continued without resolution, I begin to show further interest.
Why is it that the functions behind forgetting have yet to be measured, despite the fact its effects are so clearly seen?
Well, the answer to that question, as I have found, is quite simple. Humans have perfect memory.
It's reality that's forgetting
(P.S. Sucrose, you seem to have misplaced Journal #293 the last time you went through my research notes. If you could place it somewhere I can find it, it'd be much appreciated.)
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A rolling boom pierced the gentle sound of pattering rain, enveloping the simple yet expensively decorated bedroom in a flash. The young girl residing there, perhaps seven or eight years of age, yelped, dropping her pencil and scurrying backwards. Her chair fell to the floor with a dull thunk. The girl picked herself up, carefully, and smoothed out her silver hair. (A trait she's gotten from her mother, highly uncommon in the Ragnvindr clan. This was something she'd often hear, whispered in snide tones when relatives visited. Her father had always treated those particular clan members quite coldly in response. )
Her glasses had been displaced in the fall, and it was as she was reaching for them that thunder struck again, and for just a moment, something in her vision altered in the light. She rushed to readjust her glasses, but when she'd secured them, the mirage disappeared. She turned her hand over in confusion. For a moment, she'd thought it'd looked entirely different. Almost... Inhuman. White with a sheen that spoke more of smooth pottery than skin. Accompanied by a hallway far colder than any place in the Ragnvindr mansion, the air tense and hardwood floors lit by golden light that was too dim and too bright all at once.
Maybe it was a trick of the light, or her young, overactive imagination that was making her see things.
The rain continued to patter softly, occasionally accompanied by a dull rumble. It didn't rain often in Mondstadt, legends said the Anemo archon regulated the weather and drove all the worst storms away, all so his children could enjoy long days in the warm sunlight, accompanied by a light drizzle when needed.
A knock sounded on her door, and the young girl turned to the door.
"Hi Adelinde," She greeted, head craning upwards to peer at the taller maid. They both curtsied, the scene lit only by what little sunlight made it through the thick sheet of clouds. They were doing their best to conserve what little candle wax they had left, the recent chain of storms knocking out the supply roots for longer than they'd anticipated, thus leaving the majority of the mansion in darkness.
It was strange, for a second she almost expected someone else. Father was working at the moment, so Adelinde was the only other person in the mansion. Strange. Just as it was entirely insignificant.
"Young mistress, I heard your shrieks. Is the storm frightening you?" The maid asked.
"N-no ma'am," She replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, slightly embarrassed at her terror. "It was nothing, just thought I saw something in the light."
Adelinde nodded affirmably. "Well, Supper begins soon, you'll miss it if you don't come down soon."
The silver-haired girl nodded once.
She made her way down the stair, jumping down two steps at a time despite the fact she wasn't allowed. Her previous worries were lost in the rush of breaking a rule. She really was the fiercest of rebels! Look out Mondstadt, cause' she was on par with Venessa in her daring. Nay, bolder than the entirety of the Mondstadt that took down Decarabian all those thousands of years ago!
Her rebellious thoughts were broken by a knock at the door, and Adelinde paused in her stirring of the cooking pot, frowned. "A guest? In this storm? I'd say this is the worse I've seen in ten years, who in their right mind would be out right now?"
The knock came again, more insistent this time, more desperate.
The young girl felt something in her shrink away in fear. Lightning struck again, looking yellow in a... violent way. That didn't make sense. She wasn't making sense. Was she going insane? She'd read about people seeing things that weren't there, stuff like hearing voices and seeing figures in the corner. Was that happening to her?
The knock came again, and Adelinde carefully set her spoon on the wooden counter and crossed the hall, then turned the brass doorknob with a firm grip.
The sound of billowing winds filled the halls in an instant, rain soaking the carpets and creating puddles on the hardwood floor in an instant. She hid behind Adelinde. Lightning struck, and the same shade of yellow from earlier took shape, a symbol she didn't recognize. The figure stood there, and for a moment, she thought she saw glowing yellow x's where their eyes should've been.
Lightning struck again, and the mirages disappeared.
The silver-haired girl's eye's adjusted, and instead of a sinister presence in the doorway, she saw a girl, just about her age, maybe younger. She was soaked to the bone, clothing plastered to her skin and dark hair, divided into four strands and bunched together with hairbands at the ends, dripping wet puddles onto the doorway. She took a wobblily step inside, then another, and then collapsed on the floor, body wracked in shivers. The silver-haired girl froze. Adelinde went pale.
"Close the door, young mistress, " She commanded, and the silver-haired girl did as she was told. It was an effort, the wind making it unreasonably hard to push it closed, but after some fighting, it finally clicked shut. Adelinde reached a hand out to the unfamiliar girl, only for her to scramble back, eyes alight with fear and distrust, hugging herself in a tight grip. Adelinde turned to the Silver-haired girl. "Go fetch some of the soup."
She stood up and did as she was told, deftly scooping some of the radish-veggie stew into a bowl and handing it to Adelinde, who then handed it to the unfamiliar girl. She wore an eyepatch, the Silver-haired girl noted. She had heard stories about pirates who robbed you left you to die at sea, tied up to the hull of a sinking ship. Somehow, she didn't think this stranger was a pirate
The dark-haired girl slurped up the soup with vigor, not seeming to be able to get enough. She coughed, causing the Silver-hairedgirl to flinch.
Adelinde eyed the stranger with soft, concerned eyes. "How are you feeling? What were you doing out in the rain?" The unfamiliar girl didn't look up.
Her mouth opened, but the effort of speaking proved too much, and she collapsed on the hard mansion floor.
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The silver haired girl peered over the bedframe curiously, Adelinde had carried her to the guest room after she'd passed out, staring at the unfamiliar girl as she slept.
Where did she come from? What was under her eye patch?
Nobody had answers to these questions, however. She sighed.
Her father, Crepus, was still out. Though, even if he were here, he'd probably be too tired to humor her.
The unfamiliar girl stirred, then jerked up, spotting her watcher immediately. The silver-haired girl squeaked, ducking under the bed frame. However, she wasn't fast enough, because the other girl stared intently at her previous location.
"I see you," the girl in the eyepatch told her, not a single hint of the terror that had infected her voice before. The silver haired girl turned red. But after a moment, her curiosity won, and she raised her head. They made eye contact. She ducked under again. This was a terrible idea, she should've just left-
"Um, thank you..." The unfamiliar girl said, interrupting her train of thought. She froze. The unfamiliar girl fidgeted. "For, um, helping me out earlier. That was... really nice of you." She glanced away suddenly embarrassed. The young girl peaked her head over the bed, and this time, didn't hide again when they made eye contact.
"The name's Tessa," The dark-haired girl informed her, holding out a hand with a small smile.
"...Vee," The silver-haired girl replied, still maintaining a steady eye-to-eye gaze.
"That short for anything?" Tessa asked, a statement that prompted a flustered reaction from Vee, much to the other girl's amusem*nt.
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"Hey, did you just fall asleep? Vee! Vee, hey, you can't just-" Vee was shaken awake by perfectly manicured hands with hot-pink nails.
"No," She blatantly lied. Lizzie huffed, flicking her ponytail dramatically.
They were out eating by the Good Hunter, sun climbing down the sky. "Well, if your done passing out because of insane nighttime stuff, you need to hear about this new boutique that opened in Fontaine."
Vee listened to her girlfriend prattle on about new fashion trends and the increasing prevalence of bolder, more principled designers in the industry, and tried to push the memories to the back of her mind.
She fingered at her roots, the slightly rougher texture evidence of her recent dye-job.
The memory of first dying it was hazy and layered in grief. Thoughts of her late father had clouded her mind. Everything that had happened that night left her wishing to leave everything about her past behind, as if the red would drown out her entire identity, as if it would protect her from dealing with the hard truths, the overwhelming emotions, and the grave mistakes.
She was in a much better place now, and dying it was more of a habit than anything. Even by the time she'd met Lizzie nearly four years ago.
Funnily enough, Lizzie was the main reason she hadn't stopped. She'd neglected to tell her girlfriend red wasn't her natural hair color, and then it reached a point where it would've been extremely awkward to admit that she'd been hiding her natural hair color, for years, for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Lizzie continued to talk. Lizzie was easy to be around. They could trash-talk the other citizens of Mondstadt until she felt all her worries wash away. Not to mention, staying in the loop on the gossip certainly didn't hurt.
Mondstadt was a small nation in which nearly every resident was at least vaguely aware of each-other's existence. Beyond the knights and the adventurer's guild, the job market wasn't particularly exciting, and while literacy rates were rising, not everyone could afford it nor had the attention span to read long novels, and people got bored.
Hence, the need for a gossip mill. Lizzie's family actually owned one of the top newspapers in the industry, The Mondstadt Ploys. Thus, they were heavily wealthy. When word got out about the owner of the Dawn Winery and heir to the popular Newspaper dating, people had started rumors about them doing it for money reasons. Those people had some particularly nasty gossip surrounding them in the next paper and tended to get horrendous cramps the next time they visited the Angel's Share. It really was a mystery, but on the bright side, those rumors died out quickly enough.
"And so, the story goes that Chiori told this muti-billionaire guy to wait his turn, and when he had a tantrum about it-"
Dishes shattered against the stone-brick floor as a human projectile practically flung itself across the table.
"I am so sorry," Nimrod gasped dramatically.
Vee blinked.
As the intruder was getting up, he shoved a piece of paper in Vee's lap in a manner he must've thought qualified as subtle. There was a click sound as Lizzie captured the moment with her Kamera.
"I am SO clumsy!" The guy continued, heart over his chest. Vee gave him a glare that could kill even the strongest of manly men. He paled and was gone in a flash.
The pair glanced down at the broken plates. "HEY, GET BACK HERE ARE PAY FOR THIS, YOU DINGBAT!"
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Vee culched the letter, crinkling it at the edges and thinking over its contents. So, the Abyss order was launching an attack on Mondstadt if she didn't quit her night job (Taking out any abyss encampments she came across. Under questionable legality, but what Jay didn't know didn't hurt her) and turn herself in.
She flung the sheet of paper aside. Ptff. Nothing she couldn't handle. Probably. They sure sounded confident, though. Not to mention they'd be well aware of her skill by now...
She blew the remaining Pyro off her great sword, then dissolved the weapon back into her vision, Hilichurl bodies still twitching around her. A scouting team for the invasion, she presumed. Nothing like setting a bunch of sentient beings ablaze to clear her head.
Lizzie was idlily writing down something in her newspaper journal nearby, not looking up even as she spoke "Are you sure this is something you should handle on your own? Like, I'm not doubting your skill, but this might be a good situation to involve the knights-"
Vee shot her a glare, and the blond immediately retracted. "I meaannn, of course you can take this on your own! Forget those losers, your stronger and hotter than all of them combined."
Vee snorted, and smiled at her girlfriend. "Thanks, your absolutely right, I am great," She gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Then she spotted a cryo vision out of the corner of her eye. She spun around before the figure could attempt sneak up on her. Fantastic.
"Tessa," She growled. The hostility slid off the girl like slime condensate.
"Why aren't you two cute?" She said smugly, leaning on her sword. Vee noted she'd switched her weapon of choice to a Harbinger of Dawn since she'd last seen her. A more offensive choice than her previous Skyward blade.
"Yes, we are," Vee replied hotly. Lizzie crossed her arms smugly. "What are you doing here? The knights not comfy enough for you?"
Tessa dissolved her sword. "I heard a comotion and thought I'd check it out. A racket like that will get you outed in an instant y'know, miss dark-knight-hero." She said it like she thought Vee was supposed to be impressed.
Vee snorted. "Is that what people are calling me?" She asked. Lizzie scoffed.
"I could come up with something way better."
"Smooth as ever I see," Tessa laughed. "Anyway, that bit about the Abyss order attack sounds mighty interesting, aye?" Vee scoffed.
"Nothing you need to worry about."
"But I do have your secret identity, don't I? Would be a shame if that got mysteriously leaked to the knights. I know how much you hate dealing with them."
"Give me one reason not to kill you right now," Vee growled. Tessa grinned.
"You love me too much!"
"Debatable."
Tessa's face went serious. "Look Vee, this sounds serious. I know you don't like dealing with the knights, and believe me, I have grievances myself, but this doesn't sound like something you can or should take alone." Her expression was soft and sincere. "I won't involve the knights if you tell me what's happening."
Vee sighed. "I don't have much of a choice in this, do I?"
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The small blade cut through the air, sailing across the ground and landing in the center of the bullseye. The silver-haired girl walked up to it, plucked the dagger from the target, and deftly spun it around her fingers and into the sheaf by her waist. Tessa, aged ten, gaped at her.
"Wow! Where'd you learn to do that?" She squinted her eyes at her. "Are you training without me?"
Vee flicked her hair. "Maybe I'm just that good,"
Tessa squinted harder, and Vee broke, pushing her index fingers together. "Okay, maybe a little bit..."
Tessa gasped. "Nooo! Betrayal! How will I ever recover from this??" She lamented. Vee giggled. "My only sister, gallivanting off without me?"
Vee matched her theatrics with ease. "Alas, the only way to heal a broken heart is to tear it out first."
Tessa squinted. "Was that a quote?"
"I sincerely have no clue. I think so?"
They chatted for a while longer, testing out sword techniques and practicing for the day they take the knighting exam, in say.... 6-ish years. That was pretty close, right? Best to prepare as much as possible.
"You may have raw talent," Tessa said at one point," But I have technological augmentation!" She dramatically attached a small device to her sword, causing it to hum with energy.
"I call it the power increaser- Vee, stop laughing at me! It's accurate!"
"I'm not! I'm not!" Vee insisted, clearly stifling giggles. "It's very... literal." Tessa spun her sword, actually managing not to drop it in the process. A feat.
"It uses raw elemental energy to pour energy in the strike, simulating higher power levels, drawing closer to that of a vision bearer- aGH!"
She yelped suddenly, dropping the weapon. Vee's brow furrowed in concern.
"Are you okay?" She asked. Tessa stuck her left hand in her mouth, the skin slightly redder than before.
"I'm fine," Tessa mumbled. "Just a minor elemental burn. A little too much power, though..."
Her brow furrowed. Hesitantly, she reached a hand towards the sword. It zapped her again, and she jerked it back. Vee grabbed her hand.
"Stop that!" She insisted. Tessa rolled her eyes, as if she was the unreasonable one.
"I'm fine! And I think I just figured out what I need to fix this little issue!" She said cheerfully. Vee leaned in in interest.
"All I have to do is use energy resistant material for the blade handle! I know feil-ruin guards are built to handle the elements. A piece of their plating should do the trick..."
Vee expected her to head back in the direction of the winery, where her supplies were located. Instead, she headed in the opposite direction.
"Come on, if we leave now, we can get to the Thousand Winds Temple by noon!"
Vee choked. "What." Tessa peered at her in confusion, like there was nothing at all wrong with the suggestion.
"There's ruin guards there, and I need ruin guard materials," she said simply. Vee wondered how in Barbatos's name she was supposed to explain why that was a bad idea to someone clearly so devoid of logic.
Archons, she didn't have a choice here, did she?
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Vee paused to marvel at the grand tree at Windrise. They didn't leave the winery often. Sometimes Crepus or Adelinde invited her to the city when they were running errands, but most of the time she tended to turn them down. People were scary, and the Mondstadt kids tended to ask too many questions.
For example: Jay was from the city. Jay was really annoying. Crepus was co-workers with the stuffy girl's father, and before Tessa, was Vee's main source of social interaction from kids her age.
Tessa, unlike Vee, had clicked with Jay from the moment they met and became best friends in an instant. Vee didn't understand it, and she didn't need to understand it. As far as she was concerned, it meant she was out of Jay's attention and that was all she needed.
Tessa plopped down the road cheerfully, jumping from stone to stone and avoiding twigs in small hopping motions. Vee handled the map because Tessa's sense of direction was, frankly, abysmal.
She glanced at the sun, then at her pocket watch. They'd been going for abbouuut.... an hour and 10 minutes, and looking at the map, it'd take them three more to reach the temple.
The temple of the thousand winds.
Where the ruin guards were.
Where they were going to fight a ruin guard.
How did Tessa talk her into this?
"Why are you like this?" Vee groaned offhandedly. Tessa froze as if someone had infused her muscles with Cryo.
One thing she'd learned fairly quickly about Tessa is her tendency to shut down if someone said the wrong thing. Improper and useless seeming to be some notable triggers they've discovered. She also seemed to hate yelling in general.
Crepus had hired a man from Sumeru a few months back, a "psy-cho-log-ist," They'd called him. Apparently, it was some new science on the mind, and some of them studied how to make people feel better. It was a very rare profession, and very expensive to hire.
A lot of words were thrown around, like "trauma" and "triggers" and other such things.
There was also a lot of mutterings about Tessa's life before the winery, even directly going to question the girl herself at one point. She hadn't budged on the topic, and after a while, Crepus convinced the man to halt his line of questioning.
They had learned how to calm someone down when they were panicked. "Hey, 1 2 3, 3 2 1, that's good, 1 2 3, 3 2 1... Yeah, that's better," Vee soothed, and eventually the dark-haired girl's breathing soothed.
"Sorry," she murmured. Vee hugged her.
"It's alright," She assured.
"You guys are... a lot better than everyone from before," Tessa said. Vee took the compliment, although she suspected it wasn't a high bar to clear.
Then she bounced to her feet, acting as if she'd never had the breakdown in the first place. "Well, alrighty then! Off to the thousand winds temple!"
Vee cave her a cautious look. "Are you sure." Tessa just smiled.
"Yep! I'm right as rain!"
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Three hours, a few dead hilichurls, and some suspicious sunsettias later, the duo arrived at the Thousand Winds temple... and discovered it was really quite hard to fight a ruin guard, actually.
Tessa ducked behind a piece of ruin as bullets barraged the stone behind her. Vee regretted all her life choices. she should've stayed home, she should've never taken up knighthood, she should've never left her room, she should've-
The eye of the thing was staring right at her. Vee panicked and through her dagger straight into it. To her surprise, that caused the creature to sputter, sparks flying from its eye as it buffered. Vee stared in wonder, and Tessa grinned from her spot across from Vee.
"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?? The eye is its weak point!"
She attached her volatile device to her sword, cranking something up a lot further than she did before, and chucked it into the guard's eye. It... missed. Tessa's face fell. But it wasn't over yet. The sword was careening in Vee's direction, and she leaped from her hiding spot to catch it. The metal of the handle was hot against her skin, and she didn't waste a moment throwing it at the guard, especially after Tessa's shout of "TOSS IT!"
The blade pierced the back of its head like butter, going deep enough to poke out of the other side.
The hulking machine sputtered, but didn't seem beaten yet, as a long, mechanical arm reached towards its eye and gripped the sword hilt. Vee's face fell, but Tessa only grinned.
The blade exploded, unable to handle the elemental energy coursing through it. The ruin guard's entire head and half its torso was blown to smithereens, and the Chaos core from its center rolled towards Vee. She picked the loot up numbly.
Tessa tackled her into a hug. "WOOOOOOOOO! That was amazing, Vee! Best Knights ever!"
Vee laughed, eyes stuck in an expression of confusion. "Y'know," she said, tucking silver locks behind her ears. "That was kind of fun."
"Dang right!"
They got home just after sundown, dirty and clutching ruin-guard parts like gold. Adelinde and Crepus rushed over immediately. "Where have you two been?" Adelinde gasped. "We've been worried sick!"
"We fought a ruin guard!" Tessa informed them cheerfully. They both buffered.
"It went down in scrap metal," Vee added helpfully.
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Rain pelted softly against the library windows. It wasn't a huge storm by any sense of the word, but it was enough for the atmosphere to take hold, enough for Vee's skin to crawl.
"Any chance those Abyss goons will delay their invasion until after the storm?" Tessa commented glancing out the window. Cyn's gaze lifted briefly from her book, A Beginner's guide to Ley lines and the Elements, the text mostly covering common knowledge someone would gain simply by growing up in Teyvat. A bit strange, but it wasn't Vee's place to dwell on the dubious origins of yellow-eyed freaks.
"Knowing the abyss order? I doubt it." Vee replied, leaning over the map they'd draped over the wooden table.
They'd found a timeslot where nobody would be present in the library and decided to use it to plan their next moves, the grand clock ticked in time with their thoughts.
The scene would be very serious and solemn if it weren't for the fact a certain Spark knight had been using the room when they arrived, and they didn't have the heart to kick her out. Thus, their meeting was accompanied by a cheerful Klee humming to herself and doodling pictures with well-loved crayons.
They weren't too worried about her blabbering, considering she was barely paying attention, and thus, the meeting went on.
"I gathered up some data from the knight's databases, and, historically, the Abyss order tends to storm the city head on from the front gate." She pinned that spot on the map with a red tack. "Although why they don't use the side-gate more often is beyond me. It's rarely ever guarded."
"It's the abyss order. They're rarely known to be particularly smart," Vee observed. She leaned back in her chair. At the head of the table, obviously.
"Well, whatever it is, we can take it!" Tessa said. She nudged Vee playfully. "Just like old times, aye?"
Vee rolled her eyes. Tessa turned to Lizzie. "Did Vee ever tell you about the time we blew up a ruin guard when we were ten?" She asked. Lizzie looked up.
"No, I sort of assumed she spent her entire childhood locked in her room without social interaction. She never even mentions her family." That statement was accompanied by a particularly pointed side eye at Vee.
The subject of the conversation actually had the decency to look ever so slightly guilty. If you squinted. Lizzie sighed.
"Don't worry, your forgiven for keeping secret family members, as long as you promise to take me to star-snatch cliff after this."
Vee leaned her head on her shoulder affectionately. "Okay, no more secret family members," she said.
Tessa squeed. "Family status re-achieved!"
The clock chimed, (That thing was grating on her nerves,) and Vee hoisted her great sword above her shoulder.
"Let's go murder us some abyss mages!" Tessa enthused.
Lizzie took a selfie.
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As they were walking out, Tessa spared a glance at the child in red carefully coloring in her picture. "Whatch ya' drawin?" She asked, leaning down to peer at the picture.
Klee looked up at her with round eyes and a beaming smile. "A scary monster!" She exclaimed.
Tessa looked at the paper again. It didn't look like a scary monster; it looked like a women with a blond ponytail and knights of Favonius uniform. Then again, it was labeled 'scary monster,' so who was she to judge?
She shrugged and turned to follow her companions.
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"Guards! Come quick! Something terrible's happened!" Lizzie gasped, collapsing dramatically just inside the gate, one arm reaching towards the sky. Swan and Lawrence, the two guards unlucky enough to have night duty that day, rushed over. "It's just awful! I can barely put it into words!" She made a big show of it, even managing to produce fake tears, a clear result of a long line of experience in faking things for attention. (If the fake tears were even necessary, considering the rain, was a question for another time)
"Ma'am, the knights of Favonius are at your service, whatever seems to be troubling you?"
Lizzie snuck a glance out towards where Vee was crouched across the bridge, then winked and shot her a thumbs up. Vee smiled.
Lizzie got to her feet easily, arm to her forehead in a swooning motion. "It's terrible, the thing that's happened! And it's in this direction! Come on, slowpokes!"
Knightly duty commanded they helped any citizens in need, and thus the guards turned to follow her into the city. Vee, Tessa, and Cyn stepped out onto the bridge, walking slowly up it. turning around just in time to see hilichurls rushing towards them.
Cyn shifted to a fighting stance, but Tessa held out an arm. "We've got this one."
The drone looked up in confusion, but stood down.
"I bet I can take out more than you," Tessa boasted. Vee scoffed.
"Oh, you wish," They turned towards the oncoming attackers, stepped forward in twin motions, and rushed the invaders. Tessa quickly darted between the hilichurls, striking three across the throats in quick motions.
Vee spun her claymore, infusing it with pyro and engaging in rapid-fire strikes. Tessa went back-to-back with her, striking wide swaths of cryo ahead. The glanced at each other, a shared gleam in their eyes. Vee produced a great construct of pyro that blazed across the bridge, steaming as it made contact with the rain. Tessa constructed a bridge of Cryo above her and shot overhead. She struck a few shots of cryo while still in the air, landing behind the last hilichurl remaining and swiftly delivering a strike of Cryo just as Vee shot it with Pyro.
Safe to say, the ensuing melt combined with vaporize reaction didn't mean good things for the hilichurl.
But that was only the first of the attacks, mitachurls of both the shield and axe-wielding variety charged up to the bridge.
Tessa brought up a wall of Cryo, and Vee struck out another blast of fire.
It hurtled towards the mitachurls, staggering back a few but was ultimately blocked, the shielders sacrificing their protection for an opening for the axe-wielders to lunge forward. The two dodged, spinning out of range of their rapid-fire blows. Vee ducked as one came this close to notching the top of her head.
Still crouched, Vee swung her claymore at the monster's legs, bringing it to its knees. Tessa had incapacitated a couple in ice, wiping a few beads of sweat from her brow. Vee kindly melted them, and they charged at the last axe-wielder. Steel clashed with steel, and Vee planted her foot on the ground. Tessa joined her, and together they staggered the thing.
"Fire blast it!" Tessa shouted, and Vee obliged with a grin. The resulting burst was large, but not large enough to take the thing out completely. She felt her breaths shorten slightly. She'd been putting in more power to keep up with the rain trying to dampen her blaze, but this mitachurl seemed to be sturdier than most.
Tessa shouted suddenly, prompting a raised eyebrow from Vee. The rain should've been making things easy for her-
Catching her gaze, the Cryo-user shot her a wobblily smile. "I'm fine, just phantom pains at the wrong time! I'm good!"
That caused Vee to pause. Phantom pains, what-
The shielders had used their fight with the axe wielders to regenerate their defenses, and more abyss goons piled on top of it. A Dendro and Hydro Samachurl appeared, as well as a small volley of pyro and electro shooters.
She looked at Tessa. There were monsters littering the area, and they needed enough time to clear them away before the guards returned, archons knew even Lizzie couldn't stall them forever. Vee really didn't want to deal with Jay's reaction to her 'unauthorized activities.'
Two abyss mages appeared to top things off, of the pyro and cryo variety. Fitting.
The Hydro Samachurl formed clouds above them, and the Dendro, a thick must of leaves.
"All out?" Tessa jerked a thumb at the mob. Vee hoisted her claymore, charging it with new energy despite the downpour.
The Cryo user dashed forward. Creating a bridge of ice with little to no energy, jumped, and froze every last one the shooters. Vee dashed for the shielders, burning their defenses in seconds.
Tessa swung at them from behind and Vee dashed diagonally to the Samachurls positioned at the edge of the field, putting them out of commission.
That left the abyss mages. They had to dodge numerous strikes, but eventually managed to wear down on their opposite element's shield and they caved from there, going out in a brilliant blast of ice and fire.
Tessa panted, smiling at Vee past the steam that was now rolling over them in thick clouds as the rain tried to clear away their elemental traces. "Well, that's that-"
A Mitachurl snuck up behind them, staggering through the mist. Vee blazed her claymore immediately, but Tessa hadn't spotted it sneaking up on her yet.
It swung faster than they could react, hitting Tessa directly in the wrist.
It went clean through.
Vee froze, time feeling like it was slowing down.
"haha, oops." Tessa laughed, the gloved appendage hitting the floor. Vee launched herself at the Monster, taking it down in a blaze of glory.
She rushed for Tessa, Cyn close behind her. "Are you okay- It just-" she didn't know how to finish the thought, because a monster just sliced off her sister's hand-The victim of said hand-slicing, for her part, looked remarkably unbothered. "Oh, it's fine. It was just my prosthetic."
"What?" Cyn asked intelligently. Tessa tore off the remains of her glove to reveal no blood, but a sparking mess from where a hand would've attached, copper machinery stretching to the middle of her forearm.
Since when had Tessalost a hand-
She suddenly became all too aware of the rain pelting her head, still fresh hair-dye beginning to run down her face, diluted with water.
Tessa had gotten an injury in that exact point, once.
As if the gods wanted to spite her specifically, the rain came down harder.
Lightning struck.
__________________________
The yellow flash flared across her vision, but she could hardly find the energy to even flinch.
Vee had just turned 18, and her life was about to start. She could officially join the knights. All that training, practice, studying... She was finally getting everything she'd trained so hard for. Even among the chatter and people at the birthday celebration, she beamed. Nothing could bring her down now!
Vee had just turned 18 and her life was over. Rain pelted around her, pooling in puddles that turned dirt to mud, warm substance turning the mud red, her boots sinking into the substance. She didn't know how much belonged to her, and how much belonged to her father. Mind swimming, her hand trembled over her father's chest, his eyes still shut from where his head laid on her lap. She couldn't feel anything. That... Wasn't right. None of this was right.
the wind howled, in the exact same way it had all those years ago, when she was eight years old and saw things in the flashes. A heavy feeling of wrongness she'd only felt once, a strange feeling like that of a dream, or like the world had come out wrong, as if she'd been displaced from where she was supposed to be. It only lasted a few short hours, back then.
That feeling was back and her father was dead dead dead-
She couldn't breath. This wasn't right this wasn't right none of this was real-
She barely responded to the sound of Mondstadt cavalry pounding down the road, to Favonius officers rushing towards her. One of them touched her shoulder, and some barrier broke. She started screaming, tears pulling down her eyes. Screamed until her lungs ran out of air, and even more still. Screamed for her father not to be dead, screamed to be 17 again, screamed just to scream, because it was all too much.
Nothing made sense, none of it made sense, this wasn't supposed to be happening, she couldn't, why-
She sat there, rain mixing with tears as she screamed until there was no air left, and even then, it kept going, screamed at her father to not die in her arms, not today, not ever. She wasn't ready yet. For lack of anything better to do, she dug her hands into her hair, and pulled, barely minding the pain.
It was pointless. It was all pointless. She barely looked up when the knights arrived, eyes vacant. It was too late. It'd been too late the moment Crepes wielded that damned power. Vee had no clue what it was, but she already hated it. Not that hate would do any good. Not anymore.
What she did notice was a sharp intake of breath, a muffled scream as a gloved hand covered a familiar mouth. "No no no no no no no no," Tessa chanted, speeding up as she approached their father's body. "Vee, Vee, look at me Vee, what happened?"
She didn't respond, instead clenching her fists and staring into the deep pools of red mud.
"Vee please, your bleeding, father's bleeding, we need a medic we need a medic now SOMEBODY GET A MEDIC PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE-"
Her sister's voice raised to a screech, echoing Vee's own cries just moments before. The noise pierced her ears like knives, striking directly into her brain and overloading every nerve inside it. "Shut UP!" she snapped, grief mixing with anger. She couldn't do this right now, not her sister, nothing was right anymore.
She slapped her. Simple as that. Vee's hand struck Tessa's face hard enough to leave a faint red mark. Tessa, predictably, flinched back, eye's going wide as she numbly lifted her hand to her face, flinching harder when she felt the tears that had started falling at some point, though neither of them were paying enough attention to know precisely when. Vee hardly cared; one person's emotions held no significance in the face of-
"He's GONE! There's NOTHING you can do, you're too late!" Vee got to her feet as she said this, wobbling on unsteady legs as if they hadn't been used in days and voice hoarse from screaming. Tessa was slowly backing off, and the guilt started bubbling, but it was all buried under the indescribable weight plaguing her mind. It was all too much.
She flinched back, turned tail and ran, mud-covered boots making soft squelching sounds in the leaf-rot and mud.
Tessa stood stunned for another moment, before her expression sharpened. "Vee- Vee wait! Come back!" But her voice faded into the distance as Vee's boots continued to fly over the mud despite the gooey liquid's attempts to trap her.
Eventually, she didn't know how much time later, she arrived at the mansion, pushing the door open and letting the wind and rain pour into the building. An intense feeling of Deja-vu hit her at the sight of the rain-soaked carpet and unlit main room. Looking up, she almost expected to see her younger self and Adalinde standing there. But there was no one there.
Unlike that night, the opening of the door didn't slot anything into place, didn't make anything make sense.
Lightning struck, and she saw a flash of dark black substance spreading across a hallway that didn't exist. She hardly noticed the feelings of disappear, betrayal, and fear that accompanied them. It wasn't anything new. Another white flash, and it was gone. She was already feeling that anyway.
Her breath quickened, the added stress of the returning mirages only adding to the unbearable weight on her brain. Her hair was completely soaked through with rain and mud. She reached up to it and felt where parts have been burned off or cut, an unfortunate result of the fight. Of the attack from that wretched-
She started laughing into the dark, sobs mixing with the hysterical unreality of it all. More things flashed across her vision, and she barely reacted. The taste of meat was tasted for but a moment, and she didn't had the energy to question it.
It was gone before she had a chance to analyze it, and Adelinde appeared.
"Mistress Vee?" Her childhood caretaker prompted. "Is anything the matter?" Then, in a voice so soft it hurt. "What's wrong?" Vee barely heard her, barely noticed her.
She was in Tessa's room. When did she walk in...?
Maybe she didn't, maybe the flashes carried her there. She didn't know. She thought briefly about turning around and going to Crepus's room instead, taking one last look at what remained, but she was stabbed with a violent spike of grief, and the thought was shut down.
Tessa was the only family she had left. A slapping sound followed by her own screaming voice flashed through her mind. Tessa would forgive her. She had to. She couldn't lose-
She stepped into the room. A small part of her hoped this was the action that would click the world back into place, that this was all a mirage like that of her childhood, but the storm continued to rage and the feeling of wrong held thick in the air.
Sometimes, as a child, when she was bored, Vee would shift through Tessa's things, finding small machine parts the girl had been experimenting with and snacks she'd stolen from the kitchen. Absent-mindedly rummaging through her drawers now, she found some candy wrappers that Vee had bought and mysteriously lost last week, that friggin traitor... as well as a wide assortment of knick-knacks. She pocketed a smaller one without thinking.
She went through more of her sister's stuff. There was none of the rush she'd experienced as a child, nor the curiosity, but it worked to dull the pain, and she found herself getting lost in the endless assortment of objects Tessa had never gotten around to throwing out. She always had hoarding tendencies. It was quite funny, actually, at least until they found out her former "mother" had a tendency to break her things whenever she made a mistake, resulting in a tendency to hang onto anything she had. If Vee ever got her hands on that hag-
Her hand brushed against cool paper, and she paused. Normally, she wouldn't have thought twice about it, the texture being no different from any other scribbled notes that made up the contents of the drawer. It must've been the air that made this note seem heavier. She pulled it out.
It was a small envelope. It was unopened, crinkled along the edges and bent around the middle, a small tear where someone had tried to rip into it, but seemingly thought against it. She turned it around, finding the label: "To: Tessa James Elliot." Elliot... Her mind stretched to its greatest limits, focusing on a point so far in the past it might as well have been ancient history. That was Tessa's birth-family name, wasn't it?
She opened it with little thought towards her sister's privacy, the curiosity providing a respite from the grief and guilt.
She didn't know if she regretted opening it. Some nights she thought it must've been fated by Celestia itself, not that there was such a thing as fate, she knew. The world acted cruelly and without reason. And it was cruel and without reason that Vee had found a letter from nearly five years before, when she was thirteen and Tessa was twelve.
She barely heard the footsteps pounding down the hall as she collapsed to her knees, mind stopping. As she read those cursed words.
"Vee! Are you okay?" A winded voice gasped. "Vee, what happened? Adalinde said-" Her voice stopped. Vee looked up from the paper frozen in her hands. Tessa had frozen completely, expression like shattered ice as her gaze drifted to the torn up, slightly yellowed envelope on the floor.
"You..." Vee muttered, voice cold as Dragonspine's peak.
Tessa took a step forward, holding out her hands. "I-it's n-not what it looks like-"
The world snapped back into place. Tessa barely had time to react, pulling out her sword an instant before Vee's claymore would've met her face. The wretched letter drifted to the floor behind them.
The information you've gathered has proven to be utterly useless, it's like you don't even know how to spy. Unless you want some unfortunate consequences, do one thing right and kill the member's of the household you've infiltrated-
"You!" Vee spat past her claymore as Tessa was pushed down an inch. "You killed-" Vee drew up a leg and kicked her with enough strength to down a horse. Tessa flew across the room, crashing into a bookshelf, books carelessly hitting the floor.
She tried to scramble back into a fighting stance, eyes wild. "Please! Listen to me!" She begged. "It's not like that-"
Blood. That was the only thought pounding through Vee's mind. blood betrayal blood blood betrayal why grief betrayal blood-
She didn't hesitate
Tessa collapsed, gripping her forearm in vacant agony, a gleam of white visible through the sudden spattering of blood. Vee just watched her, watch her crumple, watched her grip her wrist through panicked breath, watched her slowly bleed out on the bedroom floor.
"Vee-" She breathed, voice barely a whisp. Guilt was the last thing on her mind. She couldn't think clearly. She the second family member today pouring their lifeforce out in front of her. This was the worst day of her life. Red started pooling around her toes. A grin slowly started to spread across her face, a firey gleam lighting ablaze and burning everything around it to ash.
"You think your so clever," She sung. "You think you bested me, didn't you? You thought you were going to get away with this?"
She gripped Tessa's shirt collar, a snarl lighting her face. She really thought she could just- The murderer under her grip struggled, grabbing Vee's hand and trying desperately to remove it, eyes alight with terror.
"Vee, I know you, you're going to regret this-"
"Die." Despite her grin, her eyes were empty of any emotion, voice said with a finality that could shake the Goddess of Eternity herself.
She threw the other girl across the room and drew her claymore. Tessa winced, gripping her bleeding arm and staring up at Vee with a squinted eye.
She aimed it steadily above her crippled target, raised it above her head, and slammed it to the ground
________
She reeled back as a bright white light filled the room, dropping her claymore as frost rapidly spread up it and down her arms
Tessa survived
But not unscathed.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"One two three, that's right, just breath. Three two one, in and out, there you go. One two three, three two one, one two three, three two one..."
Vee snapped back to herself, Tessa tapping her palm in time with her words, and realized she was automatically doing the breathing exercise.
She took a second to take in the scene. Tessa had moved them to the nearby woods, prosthetic hand hastily shoved to the side where Cyn was crouched over it.
Vee slapped away the Cryo-user's hand, crossing her arms. "Never speak of this again."
"Aw, I wouldn't dream of it!" Tessa insisted. Vee glared at her.
"Don't we have some monster bodies to take care of?" She asked. Her companion waved her off.
"Eh, Cyn took care of it. Hey, since we're done here, want to stop by the Cat's Tail? On me."
Vee snorted. "I own Dawn Winery, idiot. I don't give compensation to my opponents."
"Okay, but consider; Cats."
"...Okay, fine, but Lizzie comes too."
They got to their feet, Tessa retrieving her prosthetic and began to walk back towards Mondstadt.
The Pyro-user's gaze kept glancing over to a certain limb, or rather, lack of.
Oh archon's, this would bug her forever if she didn't do it. "I'm...sorry,about your hand thing. Just wanted you to know that-"
Tessa let out an exaggerated gasp, and she was already regretting all her life choices.
"An apology, from the great Vee Ragn-" "
