Chapter Text
“Thank Archons,” You said to yourself, not thinking, putting your free hand to your chest as you caught yourself from tripping, “that could’ve been bad.”
You shook your head, clutching your documents for the tea party close as you continued the short walk through the corridor, only to be interrupted by a cacophony of voices with one louder than the rest before you could even take a step.
“If you continue to place your gratitude with those who do not deserve it, I may have to correct this behavior.”
A shudder involuntarily went through you, you were a witch and a scholar you didn’t deserve to be shackled to a mad man, and a Harbinger no less?!
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Bond Awakening
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You were, for lack of better terms: an anomaly. To the masses you didn’t exist, only being known by the few the Hexenzirkel interacted with personally or those you chose to reveal yourself to.
You lived a normal life, well, as normal as a life as a witch’s subordinate could live. And then, one day, during a tea party you heard it: the echo of several voices with one above than the rest:
“The experiment is a success.”
You didn’t comprehend the rest of it. At that tea party you came to two dangerous conclusions:
You had a soulmate
He was insane
Your second conclusion was proved true not even a moment later.
“Hm, perhaps you should just kill them all and start again if they’re going to be so annoying about it?”
“That would be a waste of resources, obviously he should do individual experiments on the lot of them, hehe that’d teach them a lesson.”
“Those fools are no better than those idiots at the Academia, if they cannot see the genius at play here”
“Silence, I have more important matters to deal with than the idiocy of my subordinates.”
Archons, was he…? Arguing with himself? You could work with having a scholar as a soulmate, he might even respect your research, but you can’t work with crazy?!
You brought a hand to your temples before you could even stop yourself.
In the years that followed you made a mental picture of the man you were shackled to, composed of vague descriptions, small glimpses and the one-sided scientific rambling you were often subjected to.
He was a lot of things, but mostly:
Arrogant
Unethical
And borderline insane
Even as a scholar yourself you couldn’t wrap your head around him. You’d once mentioned to a librarian, after he’d kept you up all night with his ramblings, that your soulmate was insane, so caught up in his own research that if he ever met you he’d mistake you for someone he could experiment on before he even saw you as a soulmate.
She simply gave you a sad look, patted you on the shoulder, and said “Sweetheart, someone that insane would only be in the Fatui.”
A part of you died that day.
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From Academia to Witches–Beginnings
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From a young age, even before joining the Hexenzirkel, you had a thirst for knowledge. You longed to know the mysteries of the world. For a while you dabbled in machines, finding ruin guards and the machinery of Fontaine and Sumeru interesting to tinker with. As you neared the end of your teenage years, however, you set your sights on a more taboo topic: Khaenri’ahn history and the principles that Teyvat has been forced to abide by.
Sumeru and Fontaine, beautiful as they were, no longer suited your current goals. While the Akasha Terminals were useful for research on the machinery within Sumeru and going through large documents within seconds, their access to the taboo was limited, and you didn’t wish to be regarded as Outcast by the Academia, so you returned to your homeland: Mondstadt.
You spent the remainder of your teenage years and your early 20s within the library of Mondstadt and in the ruins that the land hid, studying.
It was a normal Tuesday when you met Alice, a woman who found your interest in the taboo charming, claiming that it was ‘adorable,’ and followed her declaration with a job offer.
“It isn’t everyday you meet someone so curious about the truth of this world. How would you like to work for me?”
“What?”
“I’m Alice, Defender of Old Mondstadt, Great Adventurer of the Realms, Dodo-King, etcetera.”
“Dodo-King…?”
Alice simply smiled. “Yep, but the title that should be of interest to you is Witch of the Hexenzirkel.”
Now that had your attention, “You’re a witch of th—"
“Indeed I am; the other witches and I could use someone with your skills,” she paused, looking around the Mondstadt library. “And we could easily give you far more information on Khaenri'ah than the restricted section here has.”
You narrowed your eyes at her; you’d dealt with plenty of deals that sounded too good to be true back in your academia days. What was the catch behind her words?
“I can tell you don’t fully trust me,” she said, cheery tone never leaving her voice. “We at the Hexenzirkel do not wish to put your ambitions into a box; we simply wish to have someone who can do research and assist us as we need it.” Alice paused, putting a finger in the air as though a light bulb had just lit up. “You’d essentially be a fancy lab assistant to us, helping us when we need it but having access to the lab, or library in your case, when we do not! What do you think?”
You stared at her for a few moments. “Sure, how long would this arrangement last for?”
“As long as you would like, my dear, and we’ll be paying you, so you shouldn’t need to worry about finding other work!” Alice said cheerily, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.
“You’d pay me?” You asked, dumbfounded, "You should be paying them; having access to the library of the witches is worth more than any amount of mora to you."
“Of course!” She smiled, “I’m glad we’ve found a mutually beneficial arrangement; I shall bring you to the library now!”
“Wha-”
But it was too late; before you could even finish the word, you found yourself in a grand library, filled with more books than the eye could see.
“Here we are!” Alice said, snapping you out of your trance. "Since we don’t have anything for you to do, feel free to wander the library, the books on Khaenri'eah, and the heavenly principles over there." Alice pointed to a wall in one of the many corners of the library.
You turned your attention back to Alice to question her more only to find that she was no longer there.
“Figures,” you muttered to yourself, “you disappear the moment I turn my back to you.”
“Well, might as well take this time to see what kind of books they got.”
And so you headed towards the overabundance of books featuring the taboo and started your journey of being the Hexenzirkel’s helper.
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The murmurs of a madman (madmen?)–(Aka the life you had before and the moment you were tied to a madman)
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You were now 26 and had been working for the witches for a little over four years. In the span of four years you’ve been able to explore the seemingly endless bounds of the library, both for your own research and for assignments given to you by the witches.
Speaking of the witches, working for them has been surprisingly mundane. While each witch is excentric, they are more normal than Academia students after an all-nighter. And while you aren’t technically a witch, they still allowed you to attend their tea parties and meetings, making you privy to information that most couldn’t even comprehend.
Of the witches, Alice and Nicole are the two you work closest with, Barbeloth doesn’t want anything to do with you, and Rhindottir hasn't been to a tea party in many years (much to your dismay).
The first time you met Barbeloth Alice had told her to give you a reading, claiming she would be able to tell you whatever you wished to know of your future. While you don’t particularly care for fortune readings, you also didn't want to let Alice down and accepted.
However, as you began to draw the cards from the deck before you, Barbeloth went silent, seemingly lost in thought. After a few minutes of silence, even from Alice and Nicole, Barbeloth claimed that your future was unintelligible to her. Muttering something about how you were "tied to a madman, with a stained future.” Just as quickly as you met her, she was gone, leaving you with a single card, the moon.
Since then, at tea parties and meetings with the witches, she only appears as a small Dodoco with a purple hat.
Her omen stood ominously in the back of your mind for the next four years, until it started.
It started as whispers. Faint, almost like the soft breeze on Starsnatch Cliff, but with an air of superiority.
They seeped into your everyday life, soon even reaching your dreams.
You could never quite make out what they were saying, only that they seemed to be bickering and making observations. Even in your dreams, all you could see was a haze of machinery, books, and test tubes.
For a while you thought it was the witch’s realm and the plane of Teyvat brushing against one another. The theory made sense to you; the realm where you resided with the witches was distinct from Teyvat; it was a sort of pocket dimension. You just figured that the occasional whisper was from Teyvat, interference from the greater plane. After all, elemental energy was bound to seep into a dimension such as the witches’ abode and impact people differently.
Or so you thought. That was until you brought it up to Alice, who smiled and told you the 'Hexenzirkel's abode was stronger than that and wouldn’t allow for such interference.’
So your next conclusion was that it was induced by stress. You hadn’t had a vacation in well over a year and figured you were finally losing it. Last time you worked this hard was when you were in the Academia, and you were losing it then too.
But you had never heard things; no, that was new. Back in your Academia days you had strange dreams, sure, but they were only about the house of Daena coming to life and hunting you down for that one library book you lost, not machinery and labs.
Yeah, a vacation. You'd get the three S’s to get rid of stress: sun, sand, and something with alcohol in it.
Regardless, you mentioned the idea of a vacation to Alice (as she was essentially your boss), and she agreed, under the condition that you finished out the week.
Conveniently, all that meant for you was attending the witch’s tea party at the end of the week and taking notes of what was said.
Per usual, Barbeloth would be present in Dodoco form, while Nicole and Alice would sit around the table present as their true selves with a few seats empty for the other members who chose not to join.
You didn’t know why Alice had wanted you to come to the meeting; she had said something about the issues at the world’s borders being a reflection of the error of those to follow the rules of the world and that it would be something I should be interested in.
Regardless, you told yourself you’d go, especially since it wasn’t a hard job, sitting back, drinking tea, and taking notes. All skills you perfected during your days in the academia.
The various assignments of the week came and went, leaving the tea party as your final task before your much-needed respite.
However, the day of the tea party, everything that could go wrong went wrong.
You couldn’t sleep the night before, and when you finally did get a moment's rest, you heard murmurs of researchers, waking up with a dull headache and a mild hatred of the Academia (almost one that did not belong to you).
You shook it off and got out of bed to prepare for the tea party, only to take a few steps from your bed to trip over nothing, hitting your bookshelf in the process, knocking over a few books as you did so.
A journal on ruin guards, a book on the history of Teyvat (specifically over the Mondstadt and Liyue history post-Archon War), and a yearbook from the Academia that the librarian gave to you as they cleaned out inventory. She claimed that since you liked history, you ought to have it, since it’d just be thrown away otherwise.
As you put the other books away, your eyes lingered on the yearbook. A quick peak wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?
You went to open the book, fingers against the pages. You opened the book, just a tad, before Alice’s voice interrupted you, causing you to jolt, book in hand, and get a few papercuts.
“Are you getting ready for the witch’s tea party? We usually see you skulking about the library for your notes before.”
You glanced down at the book, then at your now bloody fingers.
“I’m coming; give me a few minutes.”
And so you left the comfort of your room, bandaids littering your fingers, and made your way to the library and then to the tea party.
As you entered the library, a cold draft caused you to shudder in your clothes. Then as you gathered your notes for the tea party and put your books away from the previous night, a book fell on your head.
You read the title out loud, “How to Understand The Musings of a Scholar: A Scholar’s Guide to Love.”
“You got to be kidding me.”
You sighed and returned the book to its rightful place on the shelf, grabbing your notes for the tea party and making your way to the location of the party as a bad feeling took root in your stomach.
As you walked through the hallway to the tea party, you felt an irritation towards the Academia once more, along with visions and… sleep?
You stopped walking, leaning against the wall for a moment to collect yourself.
You were losing your mind; that had to be it.
You were losing your mind, and the only cure was vacation; all you had to do was make it through the tea party, and then you’d be free.
“Whoever is wallowing in self-pity, please do it quieter; it’s interrupting my observation—"
What was that?
You jolted, eyes looking everywhere in the hallway.
“Who said that?”
You stood there for a while, hearing no response, and you shook your head.
“Okay, so now I’m hallucinating, great…”
And with that you resumed your walk to the tea party; maybe sugar and work would help distract you.
“You look tired, dear,” Alice noted, taking you out of your daze.
“Huh? "Oh," you paused. How do you even explain your situation? “It’s been a long day; I’m just looking forward to my vacation.” You said, giving her a small smile.
You really ought to pay attention to what the witches were saying, as your notebook was completely blank, but you couldn’t help it; you felt like there was another presence making itself at home in your thoughts.
“Omega, quit scaring your assistants; if I catch another one of them crying in the supply closet, I am going to make you the next experiment.”
You stared blankly at your tea cup.
“Shut up, Gamma.”
You added a sugar cube and started stirring; maybe this hallucination was from a lack of sugar.
“Both of you youngsters have no respect for research; you both ought to be silent; no one wants to hear your bickering.”
You stirred harder.
“You can’t talk, Lambda; get off your high horse; no one wants to hear your haughty attitude.”
You set the spoon down.
“Like you’re one to talk.”
You downed the cup and excused yourself from the party to go to the bathroom for a moment, not noticing Barbeloth’s lingering gaze through her Dodoco form.
Once you got to the bathroom, you began to splash water onto your face, hoping it’d help you clear your thoughts and silence the voices.
And you almost thought it did as you dried off until they started talking again. More like arguing, rather.
“Quit feeling sorry for yourselves; your petty emotions distract me from more important things.”
‘And they’re back at it again.’
As the voices bickered in your brain, you felt a migraine coming on.
“What reason would any of us have to feel sorry for ourselves, Phi?”
“Be quiet, Epsilon; he’s clearly trying to get under our skin. We all know how much time he's had since his budget’s been cut; he’s probably bored.”
You let out a small groan at that and knelt in the bathroom, applying pressure to your forehead, a futile attempt to get rid of your headache.
After a few more minutes the voices silenced and your migraine turned into a dull ache. With that, you made your way back to the tea party, which seemed to be reaching its conclusion.
As you sat in your seat, you couldn’t help but notice that Barbaloth had moved closer to your seat. Even in her Dodoco form you couldn’t help but feel her presence.
‘Have I done something to irritate her?’
“You’re in for a ride, child; I almost feel sorry for you.”
You opened your mouth to question her, but she was gone; the Dodoco before you was just a plush toy now, no longer hosting the great witch from before.
“Wha-t?”
“I don’t know which of you dares to blast their emotions for the rest of us to hear, but I swear I’ll find you and make Prime reprogram you.”
You let out a groan and grab your head; they’re at it again.
“Rho is right–”
“Oho, hell must’ve frozen over for Omega to agree with anyone–”
“Shut up, I’m just saying it’s distracting; unlike the rest of you, I actually have research to do.”
“Are you okay?”
“And unlike your research Omega, Prime’s research is far more important. I can’t wait to see which one of you he decommissions first."
“Perhaps it’ll be you, Rho, you sadistic bastard. I know you’ll surely deserve it.”
You try to ignore the bickering voices to focus on Alice. "Yeah, I think I’m hallucinating," you say, pausing and putting more pressure on your head as your headache pulses. “I have a migraine.”
Alice purses her lips, worry creasing her eyebrows. "Why don’t you call it quits for this meeting? You don't seem well, and turn in early for the day.”
You nodded and stood up, reaching for your notebook, when another voice chimed into the internal cacophony of voices.
“The experiment is a success.”
As he spoke, the rest of the voices, who were silent moments prior, began chattering at the statement; clearly, you weren’t in the loop.
“You can’t be serious.”
“What a ridiculous decision.”
“You’ve done it? You’re certain?”
Your headache surged and you fell back into your chair. Your vision went white for a few seconds as you clutched the chair beneath you before deciding to clutch your head instead, doubling over as you did so.
“They’re so loud, Alice; I don’t know what’s going on.”
You let out a half groan, half whimper at the pain from your headache.
You look to Alice through your fingers, trying to ask for help.
And then the world went dark.
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Somewhere in Snezhnaya
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Somewhere in Snezhynaya, Lord Dottore looked up from his findings.
There was something going on in the neural network, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what, but he could feel it, which meant it was only a matter of time before the others felt it as well.
No, he mused, they might’ve noticed it long before he did, after all he tended to shut out their bickering.
He looked back to his research, putting the observation on the back burner. He had more important things to deal with, it was probably one of his younger selves trying to mess with him.
This presence in the network, it felt warm.
He shook his head and put the feeling in a box and buried it deep, he didn’t need his segments getting any leverage over him.
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Operation: Trick a scholar is a go!
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When you woke up with three of the Hexenzirkel witches at your side you knew your vacation was on hold for the foreseeable future.
“What happened?” you asked, voice groggy as you sat up in bed, instinctively looking to Alice.
“We should be asking you that.” Barbeloth said, from the foot of your bed.
You stared at her for a moment, then looked at Alice and Nicole. “All I remember was hearing a bunch of voices before passing out.”
“A bunch?” Barbeloth inquired, showing more interest in you than she ever had before.
You nodded, “They were all similar though, as though they were related.”
Alice, put a hand on your thigh, “We think you may have a soulmate, or soulmates if there are multiple voices.” She said, her normal jolly tone gone, only seriousness remaining.
Nicole nodded beside her, “it is a rare phenomena now, but long ago it was rather ubiquitous for humans to be graced with soulmates. Some had matching marks on their bodies, some had their soulmate’s name tattooed onto their wrist, some could see a red string of fate, and some could hear their soulmate’s thoughts.”
You gave them a blank look, you knew of soulmates, everyone did. You’d come across them in your research in the past every now and then, but for you to have a soulmate, it wasn't something you could fathom. You were someone who turned their back on Celestia with your research into the taboo, and yet here was Celestia giving you a soulmate?
“It doesn't make sense.”
“Celestia often doesn't," Barbeloth muses, causing you to look to her once more, “but it's the truth, you’ve been bound to another by some twist of cosmic fate.”
“This has to be some sort of cosmic joke, then,” you paused, looking at her, actually looking at her, you couldn't remember the last time you saw her human form. “I don’t want to be tied to another who I didn’t choose, I–”
“And that isn’t your choice, nor is it his,” She said, eyes boring into your own as she did so, “You can run from the bond, hide from it, try to sever it if you like, but Celestia has its methods of making sure the two of you will end up together at the end regardless of such futile attempts.”
“Barby, be nice,” Alice said, sensing your growing discomfort.
“I’m just being realistic, your little helper is bound to a rather dangerous man.”
Now that got your attention, “What do you mean? Just who is this guy?”
“I can’t make that out,” she nodded towards the moon card from the reading that made its home on your bedside table, “but what I can make out is that he is a man shrouded in evil, and has great ambitions.”
“A man of great ambitions, shrouded in evil?” Nicole echoed.
Barbeloth nodded, “Yes, and the only one I can think of that matches that description is a member of the Fatui, and someone as ambitious as he is must be a Harbinger or something of the sort.”
“There is no way,” you looked at Barbeloth, then the moon card, then Barbeloth again, “I can’t possibly be bound to a Fatui Harbinger.”
You let out a laugh, at the absurdity of it all, "That's just not possible, they’re all mad, I refuse to believe it.”
“Whether you chose to believe it or not is your prerogative, I’m just giving you the truth as I saw from the reading.” and with that Barbeloth left.
Nicole was next, giving you a squeeze on the shoulder before she left.
“You’re more than welcome to seek sanctuary within the library, but sooner or later you must speak to him,” Alice said, pausing your spiral, “Whether he is a Harbinger or not, he is yours.”
And with those words she gave you a small smile and walked out the door, leaving you alone with your thoughts.
Well, not completely alone.
“Gamma quit your moping, it distracts me.”
“Moping?! Me, no I think you’re projecting Epsilon.”
Why must they always argue? At this rate you were going to get another headache.
“I must agree with his accusations, we all know you don't have anything to be distracted from.”
“Indeed, Phi is correct, you’ve been lurking in the network for anything of note, hoping that Prime will take pity on you.”
“Shut up Omega! Shut up all of you, none of you underst-”
“Silence, all of you.” A deep voice echoed in your mind, effectively silencing the voices, “Your bickering annoys me, what do you have to argue about? You all, save Epsilon, have tasks to be doing. Such bickering only takes away from any progress that could be made.”
Now that was intriguing. There was something special about this new voice, you’d heard him before too, right before fainting. Just who was this guy?
“Tsk,” his voice—the one from before, Prime you guessed—broke you from your pondering, “And keep such petty emotions to yourselves, I thought we’d purged such things long ago.”
Who was he talking to? Better question, who were any of them speaking of when they referenced emotions? They clearly couldn’t hear your thoughts, so what were they-
Oh, so that’s what they meant.
Your thoughts drifted back to both Nicole and Barbeloth’s words.
“Hear his thoughts, huh?”
If he was a harbinger, then you sure as hell didn’t want him anywhere near you. So you’d just stay silent, that was the safest option available to you. And you weren’t an academia student any longer, you couldn’t simply treat this as you would scholars giving you trouble back in those days.
You shook your head, getting out of bed and moving to your desk.
Or could you?
You had an evil idea, well you always had evil ideas, the scholars at the academia often called you a mad woman afterall. This idea was more mischievous than the rest, though.
Oh this would be fun.
You grabbed a notebook from your desk and began writing.
You were going to figure out exactly who this guy was. Harbinger or not he wouldn’t be prepared for this.
Operation: Trick a scholar is a go!
Trial one: Infiltration
Your duties as the Hexenzirkel’s helper took a different form as you tried to ‘work out the whole soulmate situation’ (as Nicole so eloquently put it). You maintained your post in the witches realm (afterall, you didn’t want to have another fainting incident alone in your home in Mondstadt), but your general duties now involved more research and you were no longer permitted to attend their tea parties.
Not that you minded, of course. The tea parties weren’t the most interesting thing to you, and now that the witches knew of your soulmate, they didn’t want to have any extra ears in their meetings. Which you respected, after all if you could hear him—er them—so loudly it was only a matter of time before they heard you.
And hear you they would.
You see, you were a woman of cunning, and more importantly a scholar. You knew patience from the hours you’d spend at the lab waiting for your concoctions to settle or from the long hikes you’d take to the desert to explore the ruins. And, on top of it all, you knew how to get under a fellow scholar’s skin.
“Omega, quit your plotting.”
Hearing you was one thing, but you needed to work on your emotions, they couldn’t keep sensing you like this.
“My plotting? I don't think you know the true meaning of the word.” and then he laughed as though Rho (or at least you thought it was him based on the voice) had said something utterly hilarious, “Plotting is for petty novel villains, I research, analyze and plan accordingly. There’s a difference, one that you clearly don’t know.”
There it was, your opportunity. You’d been asking Nicole questions when you saw her in the library. From these questions you’d found out that the voice your soulmate (soulmates? You were still unsure about that part) would hear from you could be altered.
Not always, but with enough concentration, one could change the voice their soulmate heard through the bond. Which naturally begged the question of whether or not you had multiple soulmates or one soulmate with multiple personalities who liked to argue with himself? Alas, that was a question for another day.
A you, many years in the future shakes her head, you were so close yet so far from the truth.
The more important thing at the moment was your infiltration into their conversation.
“Why you little-”
“Quit your bickering before Prime decides to decommission the two of you.”
Silence, utter silence in the bond, you were sitting cross legged in the library notebook closed in your lab, holding your breath. Did they catch you? Did they think you were another one of them? You’d planned this for a few weeks, listening to their arguments, taking notes as to who said what. This had to work.
“Funny you should talk about decommissioning Epsilon, because I believe you’re first on that chopping block.”
Epsilon? So they thought you were one of them, huh?
You opened your notebook to a new page:
Trial one: Success.
Onto the second trial you supposed. It was now time for you to gather intel.
Trial two: Introducing the independent variables
While you were still wary of getting caught, you’d been doing well at mimicking them. It took a lot of concentration, but you were soon able to take on the voices of the different scholars in the bond.
Nicole thought you were mad. Barbeloth had given up on talking to you, choosing to put distance between the two of you. And Alice, Archons bless her, gave you tips on how to drive someone insane.
Nicole did give you warnings about the nature of the bond, however. Namely that you should be wary of how often you reach out to them, listening was one thing, communicating through the bond was another. After all a soulbond is a two way street, initially very bumpy and hard to navigate, but with more use each soulmate is able to hear or even see more.
You shuddered at the thought, you didn’t want such strange people to have any idea who you were. But, you needed to know who these people were, especially if you were going to be forced to have them live rent free in your mind.
Cost benefit analysis or something like that.
Regardless, it was now time for the second stage in your plan: Introducing the independent variables. Or in layman's terms: probing and introducing the idea of camaraderie.
You weren’t dumb, they’d eventually catch onto something, so you were adding a buffer: Camaraderie.
If there was something all (or most) scholars lacked, it was a good friend and a sense of camaraderie with their fellow scholar. Most of the scholars from your days in the Academia were so willing to stab one another in the back if it meant bettering their research (or getting a chance to steal someone else's), and based off how your soulmates bickered, you were willing to bet they were similar.
There were plenty of chances to do this, afterall, they loved hearing the sound of their own voices. But you needed it to be something you were actually familiar with, namely something Khaenri’ean or something adjacent to it.
As you laid in bed you stared blankly at the ceiling, not wanting to express any deep emotions (as the others may sense it through the bond), opting to count the patterns littering the ceiling.
After losing count more times than you cared to admit your blank staring was interrupted.
“Phi, how many times do we have to tell you, stop blowing up the north wing of the laboratory, much more of this and Regrator will stop funding the repairs.”
You sat up in bed, Regrator? The Harbinger, Regrator? So they are related to the Fatui-
“It’s not my fault these damn soldiers don’t know how to handle Khaenri’ean machinery, they keep breaking them in transport.”
Khaenri’ean machinery?
“Why do you even bother with those old things? Your research would be more rewarding if you were to explore Fontainean Machinery. It has more potential than the scraps of a dead nation.”
“You just say that because the last time you worked with a Ruin Guard it blew up in your face and Prime had to repair you.”
“Why you–”
So they’re experimenting on Ruin Guards. You could work with this. Focusing your thoughts to alter how you’d sound through the bond, you reached out.
“Ruin Guards are programmed to explode if they detect threats. This issue is especially prevalent if they are restrained or if you have not completely disconnected their main processing center from their power source.”
“No one was asking for your input Epsilon.”
Ungrateful bastard.
“They were used to defend the Khanri’eans, if they aren’t able to fight with their limbs they are set to self-destruct. Unless you keep them completely blind to yourself and your subordinates, your best bet is to disconnect their power source. Unless you enjoy blowing up the northern wing.”
The bond went silent for a moment.
“So you’re not useless all the time huh, Epsilon?”
Before you could catch yourself, you felt a smile pulling at the corners of your lips.
“Don’t go getting smug, Epsilon. Just because you’re proving useful now doesn’t take you off the chopping block for being decommissioned.”
Bastard. You hope the next Ruin Guard he brings to his lab explodes.
Trial three(?): The slip up
It’d been some weeks since the Ruin Guard incident. Since then you’d taken up talking to them a bit more, helping out where you could.
It’d been eventful, fun even (if you exclude the sass from the various men), allowing you to share your research on all things Khaenri’ean. Right now you were in one of the silent periods with the bond.
Their bickering only came a few times a day, even then it would occasionally skip days, leaving you to your own devices. Typically you spent this time in the library pawing through the resources on Khaenri’eah or some other civilizations. Today however, due to the Witches' Tea party, you decided to stay in your room for the time being, where you were currently laying on your bed staring at your clock.
Your eyes wandered to the yearbook that had made its home on your desk. That could pass the time.
You went to your desk and grabbed the yearbook, and flopped on your bed to flip through it.
Sumeru Academia: Year of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The year had been rubbed off, you had no doubt it was old, especially if the Academia wished to get rid of it.
The first few pages included a table of contents, some notes from the scribe of that age, and notes on the Dendro Archon.
Once you got to the photos and showcases of research, the book became far more interesting to you. Some of the last names were familiar to you as well, causing you to think back to your days at the Academia.
So that bastard had family who went to the Academia before him? Huh, that explains his haughty attitude whenever I pointed out his mistakes in assignments.
Midway through the book you found someone who had done some research on Khaenri’ean history and more specifically their devices.
Interesting.
The way the yearbook way formatted, it had research highlights of a class, then photos of the class. Currently, you were midway through the yearbook, and the research highlights were dominated by one researcher in particular.
Your eyes glanced over the name, putting a bookmark on the page of research highlights as you began glancing through the yearbook pages to see what this man looked like.
Oh.
Finally, after a few minutes of flipping through the pages you found him, Zandik. His hair was a beautiful blue and fairly short, with bangs covering the majority of his forehead. He wore the typical scholar’s hat that you saw during your time at the Academia. But what stuck out to you most were his eyes, crimson in a way that resembled blood, yet furrowed in a way that could only be explained by anger. Was he angry here? The other thing that stuck out to you was the fact that he was hot. Capital H, Hot. Maybe it was because you knew you’d never meet the guy, but by archons you couldn’t help but admire his features.
His sharp jawline, the way his eyes seemed to pierce your own.
If he were in the Academia when you were there you have no doubt you would’ve had some fun researching with him.
“Zandik, huh, where was your research when I was in the Academia?”
“Oh? This is quite interesting.”
“Fuck–”
You brought a hand to cover your mouth, you’d been so careful to make sure they didn’t hear you, and now you’re going to get caught because of a man. A pretty man, but a man nonetheless. You slowly put your head down into the yearbook, kicking your legs into your bed in frustration.
“Damnit!”
“My, my, whatever do we have here?”
“An intruder?”
“I thought we were the only ones with access to the network, how is this possible?”
Your life was crumbling before your eyes, you rolled onto your back, looking at your ceiling with a feeling of dread.
“An intruder? No, this is quite… different.”
“You’re right, this presence is almost warm.”
“I’m going to die.”
“Oh, quit your moping—”
“I told you all, someone was impersonating me, and none of you believed m-”
“Shut up Epsilon.”
“No you shut up–”
“All of you shut up.”
The bond went taut, silence palpable in the mindscape .
“I don’t want to hear your arguing.”
“I don’t think you get to boss us around, especially after you’ve been listening in on us for so long.”
“He’s right, who do you think you are–”
Your eye twitched. You hated haughty scholars.
“Quit acting like a victim, I haven’t heard anything of consequence, your constant bickering guaranteed that. And let’s not forget who has helped you in the past with your Khaenri’ean research.”
“Do you really expect us to believe that–”
“Silence Epsilon, she’s right.”
“Wha–”
“She obviously doesn’t know who we are, if she did I doubt she’d be speaking to us like this, and she hasn’t done any harm yet so–”
“Phi, you’ve gone soft, do you know what this means?”
“What are you talking about? What, what means?”
“The presence of another in the network who isn’t one of us, it can only mean one thing, Phi.”
The bond jolted, going silent, and for the first time since you heard them, you felt an emotion besides irritation: discomfort and a mix of other emotions that you could not put your finger on.
“You’ve opened a dangerous box, I do hope you’re prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The impromptu introduction
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You swear you were just in bed with a book in hand, and now you find yourself in what seems to be a sumerian research facility.
“This has to be a nightmare, I did my time in Academia, I don't need to come back here.”
You muttered to yourself as you paced around the facility.
After a little while you found yourself in the control room, full of consoles and large windows overlooking what seemed to be a large ruin guard. You made your way to the windows, wanting to get a closer look at the ruin guard, you’d never seen one so large. Being careful of the consoles and cables on the ground, you found a window you could fully look out of without accidentally hitting a button.
They were Khaenri’ean, undoubtedly, you'd done your fair share of research on them, but you’d never seen one so large or been so close to it, you were practically against glass by this point.
“I’ve been waiting here far too long, but finally I have the chance to be alone with you.”
You jumped. What the hell?
You turned around, startled, you should’ve made sure you were alone, who the heck was this guy?
He was tall, even by Mondstadt terms, with striking blue hair. A mask covered his eyes, although it didn’t look like a normal mask, it looked almost mechanical.
“All the precious time I wasted has finally paid off. Indulge me, can I assume you have long been wary of me?”
As he spoke he tried to close the distance between you two. But you were indeed wary of him and did everything in your power to maintain the distance between the two of you, resulting in an awkward dance around the control room.
“Who are you?”
You put a large circular console between you and him.
“I should be asking you that.” He said, not answering your question in the slightest, instead opting to try to go around the console.
As he tries to get closer you go around the consoles, leading your dance in a now circular direction.
“You invade my neural network, causing chaos among my segments,” He pauses his words, a smile gracing his lips as it does, all teeth you note, “and you have the gall to demand to know who I am?”
He lets out a laugh, pausing his pursuit across the console, “I assume you already know the answer to that, but I’ll play your game for now, I’m Dottore of the Fatui Harbingers. But enough about me,” He resumes his pursuit once more, resuming the dance around the console, “Who are you?”
So he is a Harbinger, you thought to yourself bitterly, once again that hag was right.
As he neared your position you too continued to move, talking as you did so, not taking your eyes off him, “Nobody of concern, lord harbinger.” you said.
You didn’t want him knowing anything about you, you weren’t dumb, he’d probably want to cut you up and experiment on you. You’d heard rumors.
His smile widened, and you continued talking. “Where are we?”
“We’re in a dream, my dear soulmate.”
Conveniently as he said that your foot caught on one of the cables, causing you to fall to the floor with a groan.
When you looked up from your fall, you found him standing directly in front of you, your dance finally reaching its conclusion as he extended you a hand.
You glared at it.
“Go on,” He smiled at you again, leaning down towards you, “I’m not going to hurt you, and even if I was,” He paused, eyes presumably directed at you, “I could not do so in a dream. And I cannot believe your utter lack of faith in me.”
You resumed your glaring. And instead opted to grab onto the rim of the console to hoist yourself up. Dottore retracted his hand as you did so.
“Hmph, naturally, I won’t do anything dangerous that could potentially damage our, relationship.”
You stared up at him, then took a step back for good measure. “And yet you’ve threatened to cut me up on multiple occasions.”
He smiled again, “That was one of my segments, a younger version of me, you won't have to worry about that anymore, I’m sure after this they’ll know who you are, if they don’t already,” he said, taking a step to close the distance, only for you to match it, leaving you the same distance from him.
“You’re from Mondstadt.” he declared suddenly, deciding perhaps standing in your vicinity was better than the cat and mouse from earlier, you kept a neutral expression, or tried to, you needed to work on your poker face.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s evident in your clothes,” He said, gesturing towards what you were wearing, he continued, “Those boots, for instance, they’re only sold in Mondstadt.”
Maybe it was because you had dealt with several overconfident scholars from your Academia days, but a man making assertions about you with the confidence of an expert, brought you a mild sense of rage that you hadn’t felt in a long time. With the knowledge that he could not bring harm to you in the dream, you felt a sudden surge of confidence. You knew how to get under a scholar's skin and get them to question their own ideas. This would be fun.
“An astute observation, but one you made in vain I fear,” You said, mirth dancing in your eyes, “I’m not from Mondstadt, while these shoes are from there, I don’t think you have enough evidence to deduce my homeland or my location for that matter.”
“Hm?”
Hook, line, and sinker.
You were joking, naturally. The man before you was a Fatui Harbinger, you had no doubt that he could find you location if he had your name and your looks, and he had the ladder. But you were protected, you were in the pocket dimension of the Hexenzirkel’s creation, and you had confidence that he wouldn’t be able to find you there. So, maybe the idea of a vacation goes away for a while.
“I am first and foremost a scholar,” He said, teeth shining under the fluorescent lights of the room, “I think you’ll find yourself surprised by my abilities. But, if you truly wish to play such frivolous games,” he paused, leaning towards you, “I’ll bite.”
And then you jolted awake at one of the desks in the Hexenzirkel’s library.
“I look forward to your little game, let's see how long you can truly stay hidden.”
You put your head back down, muttering into the books, “What have I done?”
FIN PART 1