Chapter Text
“So what exactly do these do again?” Diluc asked. Albedo had handed him, Kaeya, and Venti a ring with a red gem on it. “The gemstone is one I found while on Dragonspine, though the chemical make up is different from the scarlet quartz. Timeus fell asleep while helping me study it, and had a nightmare, and I wanted to see if it had the same effect on others,” Albedo explained.
“So why us?” Kaeya asked. He looked at the ring and was admiring it as if he was just proposed to. “I need different subjects. Diluc is my control. Venti is meant to show the effects on a god, Kaeya is from Khaenri’ah, and I’m a homunculus. I also sent one to Xiao and Hu Tao to record the effects on Liyuens and Adeptus. Sucrose was going to be my control but if the crystal incites nightmares, I’d rather spare her of them,” Albedo pulled another ring from his pocket and slipped it onto his own finger.
“So, we just… sleep?” Venti asked. Albedo nodded in response. “Sleep, and let me know what happens. Simple as that. I’ll let you know what comes out of it.” Albedo took another sip of the apple cider drink in front of him.
The room was silent for a moment before Diluc spoke up again. “So what can we expect from this ring?” Albedo hummed. “Well the short answer would be a nightmare, but the long answer would maybe be possilby your biggest fear,” Albedo said.
He shared the rest of his notes with them before he left the tavern. The crystals in the ring were different to the scarlet quartz, but they were similar enough to seem to have been an ingredient in making the crystals. Why they invoked the wearer’s worst nightmare, Albedo didn’t know. Yet.