Chapter Text
Nahida walked down the streets of Sumeru city, taking in the scenery, gazing at the birds, watching her people shop, play, work, drink, and everything else under the sun. Everyone is happy and at ease, no longer having to worry about the tyrants that once ruled the land. Though Nahida’s smile falters at the memory, she is quickly distracted by a sound up ahead.
“Everyone, come! Ms. Nilou is starting her performance!”
Crowds of people began to swarm towards the entrance of the Grand Bazaar. Though there was no shoving, some people tripped and fell regardless. One of these people was a young boy, no older than the age of 10, with messy brown hair, a green vest and blouse, and shoddy looking shorts. He was quite dirty, and the people passing by acted as though he didn’t exist at all.
Nahida looked through the crowd at the boy, trying to find a way over without being trampled as well, but decided she wouldn’t be able to get through. With a sigh, she lifted up her arm, her hand vertical. Shortly after, several small, glowing green streaks wafted from her palm and towards the boy. Even though Nahida herself couldn’t be seen, the people around could see the accumulation of the dendro element grow around the boy, and they soon gave him a wide berth and watched as a translucent shield came up around him. Many of the viewers were incredulous, many were awed, and the boy himself was absolutely shell-shocked.
The spell that Nahida had up to keep her concealed from everyone came undone, and she walked toward the boy. Everyone in the crowd moved away from her. Even though she could hear the whispers, she ignored them in favor of checking on the boy. Passing through the shield, she held out her hand for the boy to take, but he didn’t.
“Are you alright, young one?” Nahida asked, kneeling down a bit and stretching her hand out further. The boy flinched away from her, and Nahida startled a little. Slowly, she put down her hand and kneeled on the ground to fully be at his level. The small leaf on her head started to glow as she searched Irminsul for information about the boy. While she did this she asked him another question, “What is your name?”
The boy hesitated, his bright eyes flicking from Nahida’s face to the leaf in her hair.
“Kuro…” He said after a while, moving his eyes away from Nahida. Nahida smiled outwardly, but inside she was grimacing. For some reason Irminsul, the world tree, the singular being that was supposed to have information on every being of Teyvat, could not find a sole instance where this boy had even existed on this world.
After a while of searching she gave up, the leaf’s light fading into nothing. She made sure her expression was completely schooled, however, to make sure to not startle the boy. Could he be an outlander? She thought as she stood, Only the traveler has been this unknown to me, but I could still find them in Irminsul’s files. How could a boy be this mysterious? At this point, the crowd had mostly dispersed, favoring watching the performance rather than this. Nahida dropped the protective barrier around them.
Still smiling as serenely as possible, she asked once again, “Are you alright?” Kuro nodded. Nahida continued, “The crowd was rather large, wasn’t it? You must’ve been quite afraid. Come, come, let’s get you cleaned up, okay?” She gestured for him to follow, and he stood somewhat shakily and followed after Nahida as she guided him to the Akademiya. Her leaf glowed once again as she searched for healers currently in the Akademiya.
After a while of walking they finally made it to the Akademiya; a large building built into the Divine Tree. The Divine Tree is an immense tree located at the center of Sumeru city. The building at the very top of the tree is the Sanctuary of Surasthana, Nahida’s home. The Akademiya is built just below the Sanctuary, and in the roots of the tree is the Grand Bazaar.
Walking inside the Akademiya is almost always a small shock to Nahida. It’s not just the architecture that gets her, it's the fact that a building this large could be this well hidden in a tree. The building itself is giant, and the inside makes one feel as though they're still standing outside in the sun, even though there is barely any sunlight that enters the building.
The Akademiya is always full of students, teachers, and researchers alike. Fun fact, the Akademiya has the largest library in the entirety of Teyvat. It's called the House of Daena. Everyone is welcome in the pursuit of knowledge by reading through the books held here, but only students and teachers can rent them out. Sumeru isn’t called the nation of wisdom for no reason.
After letting Kuro look around for a short while, Nahida guided him to a side room where the healers are. She knocked 7 times, (1, 2-3, 4, 5, 6, 7), to indicate who she was, and heard a small come in! Nahida looked back and smiled at Kuro before entering, holding the door open for the boy.
“Lesser Lord Kusanali! How have you been faring? Who’s this little guy?” The healer, Shifa, exclaimed as Nahida walked toward her with Kuro in tow. Shifa is a young woman in her early twenties, with long brown hair that is always tied in a bun, long white robes with a teal shawl draped over her shoulders, and a pin indicating her darshan, Amurta, keeping the shawl in place. A hydro vision lay resting on her side.
“I’ve been faring well, thank you!” Nahida responded, smiling and gesturing for the boy to rest on a chair to the side of the waiting room. “Your eyebags have become more noticeable. Make sure you get enough rest and water, okay? You can’t heal anyone when you're as dried out as a Sumpter beast in the desert.”
Shifa has just remembered how blunt the lesser lord can be. She turned her head and coughed into her fist before saying, “Right, I will make sure to get more rest.”
Nahida smiled, “Thank you, Doctor Shifa. Now, to get to the point, the boy I’ve brought with me-” she gestures over to Kuro sitting in the chair and kicking his legs, “-his name is Kuro. Today, when Ms. Nilou was starting her performance, this boy was tripped in the crowd and almost trampled. I wanted to bring him to you so you could make sure he was alright. If you could do a check-up on him, I would greatly appreciate it.” Nahida didn't add that she was suspicious of the boy, maybe because she didn't want to believe that someone this young could be a threat to Sumeru.
Shifa was basically bouncing up and down in excitement. Lesser Lord Kusanali, the goddess of wisdom herself, brought this boy to me to take care of instead of any other healers? Am I in Celestia?! Her eyes sparkled, and her lips twitched in a large, toothy smile.
“I won’t let you down!” She said loudly. She may have been a little too loud, since Kuro essentially jumped out of his seat in fright. Shifa looked over and curled in on herself in slight embarrassment. She let out a small, “Oh! Sorry…” *ahem* “Please, follow me, you two.” Shifa quickly composed herself and walked into one of three small side rooms.
Nahida grinned a little and walked over to the boy, holding her hand out to help him up, but being completely rejected as he dodged around her and walked toward the room. She followed shortly after with a dejected smile on her face, wondering why the boy is trying so hard to not be touched by her. Will he let Doctor Shifa examine him? If he doesn’t, this may get tricky.
Turns out, Nahida didn’t have to worry about that. Kuro let Shifa check his pulse, his breathing, his eyes and throat, and his hands and knees all without complaints. She did other tests as well, such as depth perception, eye tracking, and a memory game. She also checked his reactions to elemental powers.
Though Nahida didn't watch the check-up very closely, she was suspicious of his reactions to the elements, but she didn't have to question for much longer after Shifa walked over to her with her clipboard in hand.
“Lesser Lord Kusanali, will you come with me?” Shifa moved to the door, her hand flipping the light switch off as she exited the room. Nahida glanced over at Kuro. He was laying down on the cot with a small blanket, staring at the ceiling.
Walking out the door and closing it, Nahida looked up at Shifa, “Is something wrong with the boy?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No- well, yes. I mean, he has a minor concussion and some scrapes and bruises along his arms and legs, but it's nothing life threatening…” She cleared her throat and continued, “I wanted to speak with you about his elemental sensitivity.” Nahida gestured for her to continue. “You may have noticed before that he was avoiding your touch like the plague. I think I have an explanation.” Nahida already had a hypothesis to her previous questions, but listening to Shifa may provide her with extra insight on the boy, so she made sure to listen intently.
“I’ve had other patients with elemental sensitivity, and I normally can use my vision in small amounts without causing them more harm, but this time it's different. When I used my vision to heal his scrapes, I may have been a bit careless and used too much elemental power, but he reacted as though he ate something disgusting and was trying his best to not vomit it back up. Though I’m sure you noticed this behavior, I also noticed something else.” Nahida perked up, “Whenever I used elemental powers on him, a glowing ring of light would shine around his pupils, the same color as my vision. I brought over some other items with small amounts of elemental power in them; a mist and flaming flower, and some sakura blooms, and, lo and behold, his eyes reacted, changing color based on the element. I didn’t want to force too much energy at him, so I got him a blanket and laid him down to rest. When you helped him earlier, or when you got close enough to touch him, did you notice anything strange with his eyes?” Shifa stared intently at Nahida, waiting for an answer and tapping her pen against the side of her clipboard.
Nahida raised a hand to her chin in contemplation. Now that she thinks about it, Kuro's eyes were strangely bright whenever she was close to him. When she put up that shield she didn’t notice anything amiss, she was too focused on the whole Irminsul thing. Besides, his eyes could have been reflecting the color of the shield, which is why Nahida didn’t notice something wrong. But how did she not notice the other times she got close enough to clearly see his eyes? Why didn’t her mind tell her that something was strange with the boy’s eyes?
Nahida didn’t have an answer to these questions. For some reason, she felt like these questions won’t be answered for a long time.
After a while she finally responded, “Looking back on it now, I do remember something strange with his eyes. I used a shield to protect him from the crowd of people running into the Grand Bazaar, but I was too focused on making sure he was okay rather than staring into his eyes.” Nahida looked up, smiling awkwardly, “Though, I doubt he would have been very comfortable with me staring at him as though I was opening up his soul like a chest.”
Shifa laughed a little, “Right…” she said quietly. Then, after clearing her throat, she started again, “If you would like, Lesser Lord Kusanali, I could take him under the Akademiya’s care to run some tests on his sensitivity? Ah- don’t worry! We won’t do anything to hurt him! He will have plenty of breaks with treats, food and water when needed, toys and books for when he’s bored, and-”
“I know, don’t worry.” Nahida raised her hand, stopping Shifa from ranting once more. “I trust the Akademiya and its researchers to help the boy, not hurt him.” Nahida smiled. “But we must find his parents first. I'll send a message to the Corps of Thirty and tell them to keep an eye out for anyone who may be missing a child. If you could, please take him to the Corps and have them take care of him. Now, I have some research of my own to get to. Take care, Doctor Shifa, and get some rest!”
Shifa nodded and waved as Nahida walked away. “I will, Lord Kusanali! Good luck with your research!”
Nahida did not have much luck in her research.
Even though she spent a long time meditating in the Sanctuary of Surasthana, connecting with Irminsul to try and find even a sliver of information about Kuro, she couldn’t find anything. She once even connected to the traveler through their dreams to hopefully get some insight from them, since they are the one descender she had contact with. The traveler didn’t know much, but when Nahida told him about Kuro's glowing eyes, they did tell her that parts of their clothing glow depending on the specific element they’re wielding. Though it wasn’t much, at least Nahida knew there was some sort of connection between Kuro and other descenders and outlanders.
Nahida spent time in the House of Daena looking up books on the elements and their effects, but it did her no good. She even tried the forbidden part of the library, books that were only accessible to the Grand Sage, trusted help, and herself. Of course, she came up short here too.
With all this failure, you might think that Nahida was growing more and more disheartened, that she would give up after not finding what she was looking for. Well, you’d be wrong. Nahida was growing even more enraptured. She’s never had to deal with something so confusing before! It made her feel human; or, as close as she could get to human.
After five days of this, she left to visit the Corps of Thirty to see if Kuro had been claimed by any family yet.
Nahida entered the Corps of Thirty headquarters, walking straight towards their consultant, Asfand, a silver haired, red robed man.
“Lesser Lord Kusanali, welcome!” Asfand put his hand on his chest in greeting, “What brings you to the Corps of Thirty? Has someone been causing trouble in the Akademiya?”
Nahida smiled at the man, “No, there's no need to worry about that. I was wondering if Kuro was still here? A young boy with messy brown hair and a green vest?” Nahida brought her palm out to draw a small version of Kuro made of dendro for Asfand.
Asfand raised his brows in recognition, “Ah, yes, that boy. He is still here, and no information has been passed about his parents. The boy doesn't talk much, so I'm afraid getting information about his family has not been fruitful.” Asfand brought a hand to his forehead.
Sadly, Nahida expected that. The boy worried her just as much as intrigued her, and she hoped that they could find the boy someplace that is safer to stay. Though she trusted the Akademiya with research, she didn't fully trust many of the researchers to take care of a child his age.
Nahida sighed and said, “I see. Well, where is the boy being kept? I would like to visit him, just to see if I could gain any information from him.”
“Of course, right this way.” Asfand gestured to a building to the side and started to walk over, Nahida in tow behind him.
The building they entered was small, and the inside felt even smaller; bunk beds lined every wall, chests sat in the middle of the room, blankets and pillows were strewn randomly around the area. Though the place was clean of trash, it was quite crowded. There were some people laying on the beds, reading books, and playing with toys. It took Nahida some navigating to find Kuro, curled up and tucked under a blanket, in one of the beds in the back of the room.
This place can't have been good for his concussion, Nahida thought as she walked over to him.
“Kuro?” Nahida tapped the bedside table next to him, careful to not get too close. Kuro lifted his head out the blanket and stared at her. She stared back, and saw for herself a glowing green ring forming around his pupil. Nahida took a step back.
“How have you been holding up here? Have they treated you well?” Nahida knew they had, but she wanted to make small talk to gauge his condition.
Kuro only nodded, moving his blanket to cover the bottom half of his face. He didn't answer the first question, Nahida noted, and she started again.
“Has Doctor Shifa come over to check up on you?” Kuro nodded again, but this time he showed his hand, where bandages started to wrap up his arms. Nahida looked up at his face, where a bandage was on his eyebrow and cheek.
After looking over the boy, Nahida made a suggestion, “Would you like to go on a walk with me? I'm sure getting some exercise and sunshine will help you feel a bit better!” She hoped this could help get him talking about his family, to see if he had a home to go to or not.
Kuro had not stopped staring into her eyes, but this did make him blink a few times before he eventually nodded. Nahida clapped her hands together and smiled as Kuro started to stand.
“Would you like to get changed first? I can wait outside until you're done?” Kuro nodded and walked towards a chest full of clothes. Nahida walked outside and informed Asfand of their plans, then left for their walk.
They visited many places both in and outside Sumeru City - Puspa Cafe, the Akademiya and House of Daena, the Grand Bazaar, Yazadaha Pool, and around the edge of Chinvat Ravine. During the walk, Nahida tried to talk to Kuro about his family, his home, and anything else she could to get information about him, but nothing worked. Kuro completely refused to talk about his past, so Nahida stopped trying to push it.
Around the end of their walk, when the sun started to set, they ended up at strange ruins right outside the city, under the Divine Tree. It was strange because it wasn't there before; not that it was hidden by King Deshret's ancient technology, but because it really never existed before they bumped into it. There was no information about it in Irminsul, just like Kuro.
Before Nahida could suggest that they turn back, Kuro walked straight through the doors of the domain and promptly disappeared. Nahida, after standing and staring for a while, sent a message to the General Mahamatra, Cyno, to inform him about the ruins and to tell him to block off the area while she investigated. She followed Kuro not long after, pondering why he walked in without a second thought.
I wonder what new information this domain may hold.