Chapter Text
It’s now ten o’clock. Zhongli explains that the yakshas have been doing something, and couldn’t get here immediately. You’ve been keeping a healthy five meters away from him, but he hasn’t shown much interest in you. He spent the time simply calling people on his old flip phone. Aether has been checking in on you about once every two minutes, making sure that nothing has happened. He's adamant in his distrust of Zhongli and his story, at least until there’s sufficient proof.
“You ok?” Another text from Aether. “Have you got your headphones back?”
“Don’t need them” Music is the thing that keeps you calm from the ever-so-present panic of life. When people speak too loud, or people touch you too much on crowded trains, or just people in general. Almost all of the music you listen to is instrumental – why try to escape from yelling people with more yelling people – but your headphones keep the calming agent to yourself, kept your mind where it should be. Just a police station in general, let alone new people, should have the stress rising in your throat, threatening to steal some senses and amplify the rest, yet Aether’s constant check-ups and conversations had kept it at bay. “Not yet at least. They might’ve been crushed”
“I’ll see if I can get a new pair tomorrow” Normally, you wouldn’t trust anyone else to get the pair of headphones you needed whenever you broke or lost one. However, Aether had bought enough of them to know the right ones for you. This pair had lasted the longest, eight months. Hopefully they hadn’t discontinued that type already.
Eventually, after a long wait, five people arrive at the Milleleth station. Immediately, you stand up, shock plastered on your face.
“These are the yakshas. They had an assignment to take care of the remains of a dead god, but they are here now... Why do you look so surprised?”
Before you, at the end of the yakshas, stands Xiao. In the same clothing that General Alatus wore when he saved you.
“Xiao?!” You gasp, exclaiming unintentionally, as you watch the same expression of disbelief grow on his face.
“You again!?”
“Do we have a warehouse or something, or are we just having him in the house?” Marshal Vritras, the four-armed man, asks Zhongli. After the whole fiasco of “Wait, you know each other?” and Indarius – who you assume must be General Musatus – being unable to stop laughing, the yakshas had begun to explain to Zhongli about your situation.
“It is up to you. A warehouse may be safer, but all of you will have to be there. The house may help him feel more at home,” Zhongli says. They act as though you aren’t here, as though you can’t hear them just because you’re sitting down, five chairs over. The yakshas, apart from Zhongli, walk over to you.
“We’re leaving,” General Chizapus tells you. The others are waiting, holding hands or putting their hands on others’ shoulders. She grabs your wrist, not hard, but enough to surprise you. You try to pull away, but before you do, your vision goes black. Wind rushes past you, and you open your mouth to scream, but you lose feeling of your entire body, as if it stopped existing momentarily. In an instant, it clears, green particles eating away at the darkness. This is General Alatus – no, Xiao’s – teleportation.
You are staring down at a rug, on your hands and knees as you fight the urge to vomit. The bile in your throat rises up and makes its way into your mouth and possibly up your nose, you can’t tell. Some liquid comes out of your eyes as well, but you’re pretty sure that it’s tears from the acrid taste in your mouth. The vomit comes with the sandwich you had for lunch, splattering across the floor and onto your hands. You fight the urge to run, both from these people for vomiting on their rug, but also to get the overpowering stench off your hands, to sprint to anything that could produce water and wash all of this off of you. You pull your hands back from the vomit, frantically checking yourself to make sure that the vomit didn’t get anywhere else.
“Oh. Right. Should’ve thought of that.” Xiao’s voice is clear above you. “Probably should’ve gone outside.”
You stand up, looking away from the others as they spread out into their house. The brown-haired man – General Kapisas, judging by the Geo vision clasped onto his jacket – goes and gets some cleaning products to the rug, coming back to you with a smile.
“It’s ok. Xiao’s teleportation can be jarring. I know I threw up at first, and although he won’t admit it, so did Bosacius.”
Even with that comment in mind, you feel guilty as you sidle out of his way. Who was Bosacius? Indarius and Xiao used different names than their yaksha titles, so maybe he is one of the other yakshas? It was a boy’s name, and the only other male in the yakshas is Marshal Vritras, the four-armed man, so it must be him.
The room you are in is large, split between kitchen and living room by a small, bare walkway that led into a hallway. The living room part, on your right, holds two couches, both lined up against a wall. Next to the hallway is a large flatscreen, opposite the ornate door and one of the couches. The other couch, the one that Chizapus is curled up on, is facing the kitchen instead. The rug only extends throughout the living room, stopping at the border between the kitchen and the living room. Of course, you have managed to vomit two steps away from the walkway.
A circular coffee table lay in the middle of the rug, a hole in the middle of the glass tabletop allowing charging cords to sprout from it. Through the glass you can see a second tabletop, nearer to the floor, covered in long-forgotten coupons and other things.
The kitchen island, a table grounded to the floor in between the walkway and the cupboards, has a sink and other stations used for cooking. Behind it, a stove is surrounded by several cupboards and a fridge. Kapisas is cleaning some things in the sink, possibly utensils used to clean the rug from your… lunch.
You stand there awkwardly, not quite sure of what to do, until the four-armed man – Bosacius? – walks out of the hallway that is placed between the tv and the kitchen. He is carrying a rather large blanket. He drops it on Chizapus, who lets out a shriek, attempting to claw her way out of the material. Bosacius laughs loudly, even as Chizapus threatens him with violence. Xiao walks out of the same hallway, dragging a pillow behind him.
“These are for you,” he throws the pillow at you, and you stare down at it in confusion.
“Uh…” you awkwardly ask, “Why?”
“To sleep on. What else are they for? You’ll have to sleep on the couch, at least until we get a mattress or something,”
Right. You are sleeping here. Bosacius starts to lay out the cover on the couch. For what feels like the fiftieth time today, you stand there awkwardly, unsure what to do. Eventually, the bed is set up. The yakshas decide to talk about how to protect you upstairs, as adepti need less sleep than humans. As much as you’d rather stay up and wait for the response, they went upstairs to let you sleep, so surely it wouldn’t hurt to close your heavy eyelids for a couple seconds…
You wake up to your alarm on Sunday. You listen to it beep for a minute, until you remember the events of yesterday, and scramble to turn it off before someone else wakes. The living room is illuminated by the light of your phone, blinding against the darkness. You turn it to the lowest brightness, but even then it’s enough to make you squint.
Twelve unread messages from Aether, ranging from eleven thirty to two am.
“What’s happening”
“Deon?”
“Are the yakshas here yet?”
“Are you ok?”
“Did something happen?”
“What’s going on?”
“I’m going to call the Milleleth”
“The yakshas did show up then”
“Just tell me how it’s going”
“Deon?”
“I’m going to sleep now”
“Text me when you’re awake”
You text him back, talking about how Xiao was one of the yakshas, and the events of yesterday. He doesn’t respond. He probably isn’t awake yet. If he went to sleep at two and he doesn’t have work today, he probably won’t respond for a while. Thinking of your work, what’s happening with that? Are you just… quitting? How much do the yakshas make, anyway? Are they paid by Morax? Do they even use money?
You are awoken from your thoughts when someone walks out of the hallway. You look through sleep-ridden eyes into the darkness, the light from your phone doing nothing to illuminate the outline of this person.
“I thought I heard something. Like an alarm.” He walks into the light, but it’s not enough to truly see him. “You know, yesterday I think I just said a bunch of names and didn’t introduce you to anyone. I’m Menogias. You already know Xiao and Indarius, but the guy with four arms is Bosacius, and the other lady is Bonanus.” It’s far too early to take all these names in, but you try your best.
“Uh, right. Did I wake you up? With the alarm?” Menogias doesn’t look half as tired as you are.
“No, no. I was already awake. I just went into my room to get something, and you must’ve woken while I was looking for it.” He shakes his head, and sits down on the couch that you aren’t on. You sit up a little.
“What did you all talk about last night?” Most of yesterday was coming back to you now.
“We decided that for your protection, at least two yakshas should be near you all the time. That includes when you’re asleep, but we can stay out of the room if you don’t like that all that much.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Bonanus and I were supposed to do it tonight, but she fell asleep. It’s fine though. Most of the people you’re in danger from won’t know yet, but in a couple days it’ll be more dangerous.” You grunt in agreement.
Bonanus runs out of the hallway, sees Menogias, and runs back the way she came. You stare at the hallway for a couple seconds before Menogias laughs and says;
“I’ll be sure everyone knows that she failed on the first day of staying up,” he lets out a laugh. You talk some more as the sun rises, and the day begins.