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“I do not want your title! I do not need it, nor do I desire it! If you truly wished to make this right you would bring him back.”
He screamed at the being known as Celestia as his arms surround the bleeding body of the man who’s face, he now wore. This was not fair; she was not fair. Bestowing a small spirit a title he didn’t desire after refusing to help during the war his friend had died for. And her solution? Offering him his friend’s body to wear so that the young mortal could see the new world despite being dead.
He plead with her to change her mine, bring him back, give him the title of Archon but all she cared to respond was “what freedom would he have if forced to return to the world of the living” before disappearing once more, leaving him with the damage, destruction and death.
“freedom? You wish to speak to me of freedom? As you wish my lady. I shall be the granter of freedom to all”
And so he had done.
After relocating Mondstadt and helping the people start ruling he had grinned looking at Celestia as he walked away, off to rest for a hundred years.
But she had not cared, and the people had prevailed in his absence. At his return, after being awakened by the call of Celestia he had found that the Knights of Favonius were in charge, guiding the people and ensuring they were safe and happy. He had questioned her need for his presence until he met a young blue-haired child and smiled at the discovery. He then met A young Alchemist…A creation, a Khaenriahn one and smiled again. Finally, while walking back out of the city he met a two blond people dressed strangely, one wearing black and blue tones and the other white ones and smiled a final time.
“Do they not have the freedom to be in my city? After all you made me its ruler, and I promise them safety as long as they are withing my city.
Then he had fallen back asleep only to be woken up again to find Dvalin cursed, his city in danger and Celestia calling for him to protect his city.
“I do not wish to help. Do I not have the freedom to chose? Is that not what you wanted for me? Freedom, to give is also to have.”
And so he had waited, hoping she would help, but she didn’t. for it is not helping she desired, it was control over the puppets she had put at the heads of the cities she fabricated. But her calls became louder, and the pain became larger and so he took a final trip to his city, and there he found a new blond fighting Dvalin and protecting the city and he understood.
“It is not the city you wish to protect…but that is the only thing I will do.”
And so he had helped save his city not wishing for anything in return but something had been given to him or something was taken from him.
“Beauty is a waste when the beholder has no taste”
He said between wheezes feeling for the first time in centuries like the person he was before but also emptier than he had ever felt.
And after bidding farewell to the traveler and meeting new friends in his city he finally realized: the emptiness had never occurred because she who gave him the gnosis was there in him before it ever was, spying and waiting but she no longer could.
And so the lone bard after years of resting, could finally say his freedom he now was possessed.