Chapter Text
Tighnari wished for many things.
He wished his fur wasn’t such a dark shade of green so the hot desert sun wouldn’t feel like it was turning him into a deep fried Valuka Shuna as it unsympathetically continued to beat down on him. He wished he played outside more as a child so that maybe his lungs wouldn’t feel like they were about to burst like overblown balloons as he ran through the sand, as it turns out, running on sand takes more effort than running on the ground or through trees. He wished that there were more clouds in the sky to take care of the sun problem that he already mentioned. He wished there wasn't a mushroom apocalypse happening in the rainforest, then he wouldn't even be running for his life in the first place.
And most of all, Tighnari wished that Cyno was running with him instead of after him—
Electro shot past him. Tighnari had less than a second to react with tossing a Vijnana-Phala Mine before changing directions. The Matra who were pursuing him that were caught in his trap instantly became confused, buying Tighnari some time to duck behind a dilapidated stone wall to catch his breath.
The section of the desert they were in was barren. With only a few stone ruins dotted through the sand being the only cover Tighnari could afford to find at the moment. He knew if he ran further west he'd be headed for the Hypostyle Desert- A popular choice for fugitive scholars on the account that if they could survive and evade being captured by the Matra they could escape to Natlan with some looted treasures from King Deshret's temples.
Emphasis on the if. No scholar ever made it past the Land of Lower Setekh... Especially with him on the trail...
With his pointed ears pressed against his scalp, Tighnari panted. His mind reeled as he tried to think of a strategy to get away. He knew it’d be too easy for him to get caught by one of his most basic creations. His hypothesis was proven correct when he saw violet electro particles begin to form in his peripheral vision. Tighnari gritted his teeth and shot out from his makeshift cover as a electro infused spear hit the spot from where he stood less than a second ago.
Tighnari kept running, sprinting straight for the desert Hadramaveth. Despite his rapid heart rate and the panic setting in from the breathless sensation of not being able to get enough oxygen from breathing too fast, Tighnari's mind couldn't help but go back to the days where the sages had Sumeru's knowledge in a chokehold and how he'd occasionally muse over over potential escape plans if the sages ever tried to lock him up over the supplemental rainforest survival courses he taught for free.
Out of the three hundred and fifty eight emergency plans he came up with... Only two were involved with fleeing through the desert.
To be honest, he never ventured this far into the desert. All he really knew about the subarea of the Great Red Sand was that the Tanit Tibe who used to live here were wiped out almost single handedly by a warrior who could rip apart a man like a piñata (though according to the traveler's account it was 'totally' in self defense), There was an oasis hidden within Mt. Damavand- but who would want to brave a sand vortex just to go sight seeing? Tighnari certainly didn't!
Oh, and there was a dendro dragon who hated humans that lived somewhere beneath these sands.
He also knew that the Girdle of the Sands was to the north of the unforgiving desert. The only place in the desert aside from the small scattered oases with dense vegetation that could give him a sliver of an advantage. And any advantage would be his only chance at getting out of here alive.
But to venture into the unending sandstorms unprepared was on par with having a death wish. The former forest ranger could only hope that the raging sandstorms would deter his pursuers as much as it did himself.
Another bolt of electro shot out as Tighnari didn't slow his pace as he summoned his bow and loosed a dendro infused arrow. Tighnari didn't look back to see if the arrow hit its mark or if his pursuer was still chasing after him.
Another thing he wished for was that his eyes wouldn't water so much when he was stressed...
Tighnari didn’t dare to look back. All he could do was run forward.
And he'd keep running until he found the truth…
Flashback, roughly one week ago (Though it already feels like it's been over a year...)
Tighnari woke up with a throbbing headache.
That was the preamble to his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. As he rolled out of his bunk, Tighnari’s ears picked up the distant sound of thunder and the heavy scent of moisture hung in the air hinting the approaching thunderstorm.
Great.
Tighnari always hated storms on the account that the thunder clapping was for TIghgnari what it felt like to hear nails being dragged across a chalkboard for everyone else. What’s worse, ever since the he got struck by lightning in the Jnagarbha day operation, every time he saw lightning strike across the sky, Tighnari would involuntary brace himself for the feeling of being struck with another three million volts of electro.
Then, Collei failed her writing exam that morning, Though it was more his own fault for introducing advanced materials too soon. But that didn’t stop Collei from being in a state for the rest of the morning.
“Hey Collei, I made your favorite.” Tighnari placed a plate of those Mondstatter radish balls Collei loved on the table. The scent of radish and pepper wafted through the air did nothing to draw out Collei from lying on her bed with her head buried under a pillow. Tighnari couldn’t help but let out a tired sigh.
“Failure is a part of the learning experience.” Tighnari said as he tried to console the moping forest ranger trainee, “Now you’re aware of the mistakes you’ve made and you won’t make them again.”
“Except when I do…” Collei’s voice was muffled by the pillow so only Tighnari’s ears could pick up on what she was saying. Finally, Collei lifted her head and with her eyes filled with distraught she asked, “Have you or Cyno ever failed your exams?”
“Well…” Tighnari hesitated, truth be told, he was always at the top of his class and he was pretty sure Cyno was too, at least while in the Akademiya. The General Mahamatra only ever brought up his childhood before Cyrus brought him to the Akademiya a handful of times to Tighnari…
He knew it’d probably make Collei feel better if she knew that she wasn’t the only person in the world who ever failed before but he just couldn’t think of any good examples…
Tighnari took too long to answer and his silence was all the confirmation Collei needed to burry her head back into her pillow.
And then, the reports started coming in…
When he read the first few messages from the dusk bird messengers, Tighnari’s first thought was the adventurers were hallucinating from eating poisonous mushrooms again. So he dragged Collei out of bed and took a patrol to investigate Apam Woods…
It was pouring by the time they reached the towering tree filled forest. Tighnari pulled his hoodie over his ears and made sure to slow his running pace so Collei wouldn’t slip and fall into the rainwater that pooled at the trees roots.
With their dendron visions, Tighnari and Collei could easily move from tree to tree with the four leaf sigils until they came upon the adventurer’s camp to the far west end of the woods.
At first glance, Tighnari thought a stumper beast had plowed through the camp. Supplies and equipment were scattered on the ground haphazardly and the bedrolls and tent were torn to shreds…
A faint groan drew Tighnari’s attention to a man huddled behind a half smashed crate. The man wore the forest green adventurer’s uniform that like the camp was also in tatters, but the only sign of injury was the way the man clutched his head…
As the rain continued to beat down, Tighnari knelt to inspect the adventurer, “Excuse me, sir?”
The groaning man stilled… and turned around…
Lightning flashed—
Tighnari jumped back. In his sensory overloaded state, he processed multiple things at once:
Collei screaming.
The adventurer’s facial features, which at first Tighnari thought he’d somehow glued several Rukkhashava Mushrooms to his head until he realized they were growing out of his facial orifices.
The man lunged at TIghnari who instinctively threw a Vijnana Stormheart. The dendron infused seeds grew on contact and easily confused the aggressive adventurer allowing TIghnari to better assess what was ailing him.
“Master Tighnari!” Collei cried as she ran to join Tighnari with her bow in hand, staying a good meter away from the edge of the dendro field he planted, “Wh— what is that thing? What’s going on?”
Tighnari’s mind was already hard at work processing the information. Tendrils grew out from the adventurer’s mouth which meant that this was how the fungus spread while the mushroom itself grew through his skin… Tighnari had studied species of fungus that were parasitic and could burrow into the nervous system— but that was for insects!
Was… was this a mutation? Could a parasitic species of fungi have jumped the species barrier and were now colonizing humans?
“We need to get to Sumeru City.” Tighnari barked out the order as he summoned a dendro vine to keep the infected in place, he didn’t want to cause any irreparable damage until he knew for certain that the infected couldn’t be saved…
Tighnari ran north, this time he couldn’t afford to make sure Collei could keep pace with him. In this stage of a pandemic, time was of the essence. And knowing Cyno… he’d either be the first one infected or the last person to leave…
“We have to warn the Akademiya— before it’s too late!”
Everyone… Tighnari nearly slipped off the tree branch he landed on, it was Lesser Lord Kusanali’s voice.
I need all of you to be very brave right now what we are experiencing is a very new and very dangerous event. But as your archon I will protect you all with the best of my ability. What I need from you is to move as quickly and safely as you can away from the rainforest. Once I’ve detected that there are no survivors in the rainforest or if an infected is close to leaving, I will expand a domain to keep the fungal infection contained. Please, watch over and protect each other.
Tighnari glanced at Collei, who blinked a few raindrops out of her amethyst eyes. She was scared, but who wouldn’t be? Parasitic mushrooms were about to consume the human population!
That, and Collei always seemed to have an aversion to mushrooms, no idea why about that thought...
But Tighnari could see that from the way she stood firm, Collei possessed a resolute nature for someone well beyond her years. She could get through this— they could get through this.
Despite everything… they made it all the way to Caravan Ribat. Which was of course an unorganized, overcrowded mess of a bottleneck.
Which of course attracted infected humans…
“Master Tighnari!” Collei shouted as a dendro infused arrow whizzed past Tighnari’s ear, “Behind you!”
Tighnari notched an arrow and spun around as he infused dendro tanglevines into the arrow’s shaft, “I hear everything!”
The vines from the arrows wrapped around their targets: four humanoid beings covered in Basidiomycota, which Tighnari guessed was some sort of cross between Starshrooms and red Rukkhashava. The vines slowed down their fungal foes, but they continued their pursuit with inhuman levels of stamina. Which made sense, if Tighnari’s theory that the fungi colonizes the nervous system is correct, the body dose’t have to respond to sensations of pain or fatigue.
The infected lunged as Tighnari threw one of his Vijnana Stormhearts.
Heh, can’t see? Tighnari thought as he fired his dendro infused arrows aimed at the infected’s kneecaps.
Tighnari and some of the other forest rangers who happened to be in the area, like Rana and her Aranara friend Arana, volunteered to hold the line with the Corps of Thirty and some Eremite mercenaries while the civilians evacuated.
“That’s the last of them!” Tighnari barked one the infected were incapacitated, “We need to retreat!”
Right as he gave the order— another hoard of infected surged from the undergrowth. Tackling one of the forest rangers and biting into his flesh
“Oh my gods! They got Kamran!”
Tighnari clicked his tongue and notched more arrows while Rana let out a defiant yell as she charged at the hoard with a dendro infused great axe.
As the fight waged on, Tighnari’s senses grew more and more frayed, he knew the longer they fought against the infected, the more likely one of them would make a fatal mistake and suffer a fate worse than death.
“Collei!” Tighnari shouted as he shot another arrow, “Get out of here now! Rana and I will cover you!”
“WHAT!?” Collei squawked as she threw her floral brush at another wave of infected, “I am NOT leaving you here!”
To prove her point Collei threw her doll Cuilein-Anbar. The doll bounced along the ground dendo energy to burst from the green fabric.
“Collei, this not up for debate! Go now—“ Tighnari was cut off when an infected male tackled him to the ground. Thinking fast, Tighnari brought up his forearm against the man’s neck to keep the infected’s gnashing teeth out of his face. Unfortunately, this made throwing the guy off really really hard.
Well, guess this is how I die. Of course it’d be mushrooms that’d do me in…
“Your penance is due!”
Electro surged through the air and suddenly the infected that was centimeters from biting Tighnari was gone. In their place was a boy slightly older than Tighnari infused with a divine spirit and a ton of electro. He turned and slammed his claws into the ground causing three duststalker bolts to erupt, spreading farther along thanks to all the dendro energy in the air, and electrocuting all the infected in the area.
“Cyno!” Tighnari wanted to cry and tell Cyno how much he loved him in that moment. Feeling beyond relieved that his friend made it out alive, but in an attempt to try and act cool, he simply huffed out, “You know I had that under control.”
Rather than refute his baseless claim or crack a terrible pun filled joke, Cyno remained rooted to where he was staring at the charred remains of their fungal foes.
“The Wall of Samiel’s closing. I’m here to escort you the rest of the way.”
In hindsight, Tighnari should’ve known Cyno would be in work mode at a time like this…
Cyno led the way through the now empty outpost. As soon as they crossed into the desert geo vision bearers created a barrier to barricade the opening they passed through moments ago.
The sun was beginning to set, which was a small comfort for Tighnari so at the very least since he hadn’t the foresight to pack any of his special desert sunscreen.
After walking through the sand filled roads for a while, Collei tried to fill the heavy silence that settled between the group, “So, General Cyno, the traveler sent me a few new books from Fontaine. They don’t have any pictures like the ones from Inazuma, but he said in his letter that Piamon was easily able to imagine what was happening in her mind!”
Cyno remained silent which caused Collei to visibly deflate and hug Cuilein-Anbar a little tighter as she retreated back into her mental shell.
Tighnari eyed the General Mahamatra. He couldn’t imagine what the past twelve hours have been like for Cyno, but this aloof, especially around Collei, that was unusual even for his busiest work days.
TIghnari picked up his pace and elbowed his friend in the side.
Cyno didn’t react.
Undeterred, Tighnari leaned over and whispered, careful to keep his voice low so no one could overhear the question that was gnawing at the back of his mind, “Are you okay? Were you bit?”
Cyno shook his head and kept his gaze fixed on the red sun setting on the horizon.
Okay, fine. It’s the mushroom apocalypse and the child we’re coparenting is trying really hard to keep it together, but you can go ahead and be an edge lord!
Not long afterward, the village situated at the center of a desert oasis came into view. Aaru Village was understandably packed, but thanks to the years of the old Akademiya sending mad scholars to the desert without any warning, the locals had already set up temporary shelters and organized the refugees into orderly groups.
“Hi Collei!” Chirped a familiar voice. Tighnari turned to see Nilou weaving her way through the crowds towards them, “They’re giving out Charcoal-Baked Ajilenakh Cakes! Do you want one?”
“Nilou!” Collei threw her arms around the dancer and squeezed her, “I’m so glad you’re okay! How are you so calm?”
Nilou blinked bemusedly, “What do you mean? Isn’t this just a big get together with the desert folk and the people of the rainforest?”
“Nilou, there’s a pandemic happening. A fungal infection’s spreading and causing people to mindlessly spread the spores.”
The dancer blinked as she processed what Collei just said, after a few heartbeats she breathed out, “Oh… How did that happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think my parents and everyone in the Zubayr Theater are okay?”
“Nilou, you’re asking questions that I don’t know the answer to.”
Tighnari placed a comforting hand on Nilou’s shoulder, “I don’t know how to right now, but I’ll do everything in my power to find a cure and make things right.”
The sound of Cyno clearing his throat, a bit too harshly to sound natural, brought the conversation to a grinding halt.
“Why don’t you go with Nilou and get some cake.” Cyno suggested to Collei.
Collei tilted her head in question, “What about you? Are you not coming?”
“Candace needs to see us at the village chief’s house.”
Without so much as a warning or even a goodbye, Cyno grabbed Tighnary by the arm in an iron grip and all but dragged him towards the home at the center of the village.
By the time they reached the scarlet doors to the house, Tighnari had had enough and lurched free from Cyan’s grasp.
“What is you problem?” Tighnari demanded, he could already feel his tail fur standing on end, “Collei’s doing her best not to have a melt down in what’s basically her worst nightmare and you’re acting like she’s not even there! Like I’m not here!”
“I’m working.” Cyno responded stiffly, his only visible eye was fixated at a scrub that was plotting along on the ground.
“Look, I really need you to stop being ‘work Cyno’ and just be Cyno for like one minute!” TIghnari took a deep breath and let out an exasperated sigh, “I… I’m sorry. I just… whatever happened to you today. Whatever you saw, it’ll be okay. We’ll get through this.”
As though his words finally got through to him, Cyno finally tore his gaze from the ground. What he saw in Cyno’s scarlet eyes was barely subdued grief and agony. Cyno opened his mouth to say something when a barrier composed of dendro energy bloomed in the distance.
Compleatly surrounding and encapsulating the rainforest.
Cyno turned away and opened the doors.
“It’s over.”
Candace’s home was as beautiful as it was spacious. The main foyer was decorated with potted plants of various desert species of flora. And like the rest of the village, it was crowded. Oddly though, the village chief was nowhere to be seen. Tighnari could hypothesize that Candace and Dehya were assisting with the organizational efforts.
As soon as Tighnari stepped into the house, he felt as though all eyes turned towards him, making his fur prickle uneasily. Cyno led the way to a more private room at the side of the house that may have been a study at one point before all the sages in Sumeru got crammed into one house.
Books filled the shelves and the desk was stacked with paperwork, behind the desk was none other than the acting grand sage.
In front of the desk was Kavah who paced around the room.
“I am freaking out!”
“I noticed.”
“How are you not freaking out!?”
“Because I have more important things to do.”
“Ugh! That is so on brand of you to say! I can’t believe out of everyone in Sumeru, you survived the rainforest apocalypse!”
“I am the highest ranking Akademiya official, it’s rather natural to prioritize my survival to lead the remainder of the population.” Alhaitham said from his place behind the mountain of papers before adding, “Look who finally decided to show up.”
The uncomfortable feeling over everyone staring at him returned as Tighnari shifted his weight from foot to foot and replied, “I didn’t realize you were waiting on me.”
“Really?” Alhaitham’s voice carried a hint of surprise when he finally looked up, his expression was unreadable. Alhaitham glanced towards Cyno who now stood a couple of paces behind Tighnari.
Shrugging, Alhaitham stood and said, “Tighnari, I’m sure you’re aware that the root cause of the pandemic that began today is fungal in origin.”
With a growing sense of unease, Tighnari nodded.
“Are you also aware that the species of mushroom was in fact cultivated from a Amurta project?”
“What!?”
Tighnari couldn’t— actually, he totally could believe this mess could all be because of the Akademiya meddling with nature.
But why is Alhaitham telling me this? Tighnari wondered, this had to be highly confidential material and Tighnari was a forest watcher with no ties to the Akademiya except being a Amurta Alumni.
Is Alhaitham asking for my help in finding an antidote? But that still didn’t make complete sense, Alhaitham wasn’t the type who’d put faith in people to keep secrets without signing a non disclosure agreement first.
Alhaitham stood up and picked up one of the slips of parchment paper on the desk, and walked towards the forest ranger, with each step he spoke out, “According to the Akademiya’s records there was only one researcher signed on this project. A project that has now completely destabilized the rainforest ecosystem and now threatens the human species.”
Tighnari felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach as the acting grand sage approached him and everything began to click into place in his mind— the icy looks, Alhaitham’s choice of words, Cyno’s behavior…
“You.”