Chapter Text
The vacant halls of they’re favourite meeting place provided Alice with a sense of security she has come to cherish, despite being caught between two worlds a lot of the time she knew she just had to return to teyvat, because an event of the atmost importance to the hexenzirkel and all of teyvat was about to commence. An old woman sat at the far end of the decorated hall looking into the large astrological projection ahead “I wasn’t expecting a visit from you so soon Alice, have you grown tired of dealing with earth’s ’secret affairs’ so soon” Alice chuckled “my, you haven’t lost your tongue one bit lady Barbeloth” the old woman snickered “I have missed you dear, a lot has happened since you left” Alice sighed “I figured as much” barbeloth pointed towards the projection in-front of her “the event we’ve been preparing for even before your mother had you join us, the first signs of it are finally starting to occur” Alice took a seat next to the old wise woman to observe the large orb closer “what are we looking at?” “Six highly important celestial forms, each corresponding to an individual on teyvat” barbeloth pointed towards a certain set of constellations on the orb. “The dove and the great wolf are close to coming into alignment, the new moon of nod-Krai will be the first to rise”. “My mother told of such an alignment, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that barbeloth?” “I am afraid I know far too much, your mother is correct” The old woman cleared her throat “Ever since the fall of the moon sisters 6000 years ago, the wheel of fate has yearned for an alignment to come, where three new moon will rise along with three new guiding stars to protect them. But it seems there is growing opposition from the abyss and those who serve it”. “So what do we do” Alice asked “We wait, for our perfect opportunity” the crone smiled “to grant them our assistance, but for now, we can just observe, then I will personally see to it that any threats are dealt with”.
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Liars they all were, the so called saints of khaenri’ah, did they not see the potential issues of letting the new moons rise, no, they must of, then why did they keep denying me, I was the son of the king, they were my subjects for crying out loud! And yet it ended exactly the same, those who were pure blooded ended up cursed and those who weren’t pure blooded turned into hideous unrecognisable beasts. It in the end though was all his fault, making him the king of all sinners. Hroptatyr thought it better to take action than just dwell in the plane of his restless thoughts, he snapped his fingers rearing the abyss around him back to full attention. “Bring me The Racher of Solnari, I have a job for him” the creatures that emerged from the darkness answered his call immediately sprawling away into another direction. A smaller one of the octopi like monsters settled on his shoulder “do not worry, Rerir is the most contentious of all the sinners, he’ll arrive soon” just as the sinner spoke a faint red light with hints of purple formed In the distance getting brighter and more intense as it came closer, soon the light came to a stop a few feet from Hroptatyr “you have summoned me, what do you require?” Rerir said in a plain monotone, the emotion his voice once harboured stripped away through years of cold denial and pain. The light his body emitted had dimmed to a pale purple mixed with darker shades of the same colour with hints of shimmering magenta. “It is about time for the alignment to begin, I’d like you to intercept the moon maiden and her star guard before it’s too late” Rerir nodded “understood, my abyssal forces are already in nod-Krai, I shall depart”. The moon hunter turned to leave “wait, Rerir” he turned back towards Hroptatyr “what is it?” “I want to know, how has your recent hunt been?” “The usual” he stated calmly “well, if you want something extra interesting to hunt, I heard the monster you wished to face long ago, he now has a domain in nod-krai” Rerir turned to face him fully “I’m listening”. The king of all sinners smiled “he’s supposedly working on one of the islands helping build a machine of some sort that’s meant to tear down the old moons remains” Hroptatyr extended his hand that was previously hidden, in it he held a mended polearm “so you can kill two bird with one stone, and test out your newly repaired polearm” Rerir gave him a faint smile “thank you friend” the carefully took the polearm “I will not let you down”. With that Rerir was gone descending down into teyvat with one mission in mind, capture the dove, kill the crow.
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Kaeya couldn’t help but feel discombobulated as he entered the flagship tavern alongside the traveler Lumine and her trusty companion Paimon, ever since he got to nod-Krai he has felt off, and his dreams have been odd to, he wanted to tell Lumine but I felt like it would just worry her more. Lumine approached the counter where a red haired woman was serving drinks, she smiled as she saw them and beckoned them over. “Hello there, you must be Mr Varka’s guests, he reserved table twenty eight over there for you” she pointed towards a table with comfortable cushion chairs situated next to a large window “would you like any refreshments while you wait for him?” Paimon nodded “ooo, yes please, could I have the premium sunsettia juice please” Lumine smiled “I’ll have the same as paimon” Lumine looked to kaeya who seemed distracted “oh, sorry, I’ll have the mild mint and sunsettia cocktail please” “alright, if that’s all feel free to take a seat, your drinks will be out in a few moments”.
The three took a seat at the table, kaeya watched as a group of Fatui soldiers were getting blasted but one of the members wasn’t drinking, we was simply sitting at one of the chairs seemingly scanning the room, kaeya figured he was probably the one in charge of making sure everyone else in his group were alright, soon however the waitress called his table “table 5 your next set of drinks are ready” the pyro fatui skirmisher looked overly frustrated in his posture and the way his hands clenched into fists as his side, clearly he was not enjoying his time here. The man made it to the counter, but as he was paying for the drinks he noticed he was a few mora short, that’s when he got angry “seriously! Why does everything keep going wrong today!?” He was on the edge of tears and it appeared the waitress was having trouble navigating the situation. A large comforting hand was placed on the soldiers shoulder “don’t worry I’ll pay for the rest, you get some rest Novak” the soldier sighed “thank you Varka, but what about the others?” “I’ll make sure they get home safely, don’t worry about that” the soldier sighed in relief and made his way out of the bar, Varka placed down the two pieces of mora needed to complete the transaction and made his way to the table where the traveler and they’re companions were sitting. “Hello there, traveler, I’ve been waiting ages for the chance to meet you” he shook Lumine’s hand excitedly, he was very strong even in a light handshake and Lumine could tell. “Ahhh, Kaeya my boy, how has mondstadt been?” “Ehh some hick ups here and there, but jean’s handled it wonderfully so far, I don’t doubt her abilities what so ever” Varka chuckled heartily “that’s my Jean, I knew choosing her was the right choice”. “Speaking of which Varka where are the horses?” Varka’s expression went blank for a moment, than became anxious “well about that, we kinda sold the most of the horses for a boat” Kaeya began seething “you what! You sold the horses, those creatures were my entire livelihood how dare you” Lumine chuckled, Kaeya being upset was in all honesty preferable to him looking distracted and depressed. “Well I left some of them with us, they’re heading back to mondstadt tomorrow” Kaeya released a sigh of relief “yeah all three of them” then the break down continued “all three! All three! You only left three!?” “Yeah that was all we could manage, we were in desperate need of a boat” Kaeya felt like he was about to faint from shock “what type of boat costs 20 horses!?” “A big and sturdy one that’s what” Kaeya sat back down placing his head in his hands muttering to himself half angrily half emotionally. Varka turned to the traveler and paimon “so are you guys interested in searching for a moon maiden with me?”.