Chapter Text
QUEST
Lost Kingdom’s Resurrection
Visit the Temple of Silence
The morning they left for Sumeru, Zhongli and Childe bade them goodbye within the former’s abode, while Xiao stubbornly escorted them to the other side of the Chasm.
The last few days had been filled with (mild) relaxation, along with important planning thanks to Zhongli’s knowledge of Sumeru, which he happily relayed to them after his shifts at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Though Aether wasn’t keen on listening to an old man’s ramblings about history (no matter how interesting that history might have been), those evenings gave him and Paimon a ton of information about Sumeru and its history.
Like how its current Archon had only come to power five hundred years earlier (five hundred years seemed to be a very important number for Teyvat based on how often it came up in conversations about a set of ruins or key figures in a nation’s history). Or how the Akademiya governed the rainforest and (theoretically) the desert.
“Of course, the desert folk refute the Akademiya’s claims of control,” Zhongli had told them. “It is understandable—I have heard the Akademiya forces Eremites to follow its cultural norms in order to receive any aid, and even then, Eremites are often second-class citizens in the rainforest. I have seen many a native of Dharma react with barely concealed disgust at the sight of an Eremite.”
He’d later gone on to describe how the people of Sumeru—desert and rainforest folk alike—valued wisdom, so much so that many of the nation’s residents could no longer dream. Aether found this utterly depressing, not to mention weird since Sharzad had mentioned being able to dream. There was probably something important going on there, so he mentally noted that down and moved on.
“We’re here.”
They’d stopped at a tunnel in the mountainside. It didn’t look all that special, beyond the glowing stones lighting the way inside. Based on the map Zhongli gave them, the path would emerge near a small settlement, from which they could either get a guide through the rainforest or just walk to Sumeru City themselves.
“Walk through there and you’ll be in Avidya Forest.” Arms crossed, Xiao frowned at Aether. “Do you have the map?”
Aether nodded, patting his bag. “Wouldn’t want to leave without it.”
“Good. Be careful, and watch out for enemies. The rainforest is the perfect place for monsters to hide.”
To say Xiao looked sullen would have been an understatement. He looked like he was just barely concealing his misery with his frown and crossed arms. He’s disappointed that we’re leaving, Aether realized. But he’s still trying to protect us all the same.
“Course,” he said, stepping closer to Xiao so he could nudge him. “We’ve got to survive for the Lantern Rite next year, right?”
Xiao’s mouth dropped open for just a moment, before he coughed and looked away from Aether, a rosy flush creeping past the high neckline of his shirt and onto his cheeks.
Despite how he’d been the one to provoke that reaction, Aether blinked in surprise, as he hadn’t expected Xiao’s reaction to be so . . . embarrassed.
Paimon was oblivious to this, flying up to Xiao with a large smile on her face. “Yeah! You can’t spend Lantern Rite alone again, and no matter where we are in the world by then, we can easily come back to Liyue.”
Xiao hummed. He hesitated for a second, before turning and hugging Aether. His breath just ghosted against his ear as he whispered, “Call my name next time you’re in Liyue, and I will be there.”
Aether’s brain short-circuited. He managed a short, “Y-yeah, see you around,” before Xiao stepped back and disappeared. His entire face was red, not that Aether could process that information since his thinking capacity had apparently been reduced to that of a worm.
Paimon stared at him, before a massive grin appeared on her face.
“Don’t–” he started.
“Oooooh, Sharzad’s going to love thiiiiiis,” the pixie said in a sing-song voice. “So that’s why you were having all those private conversations without Paimon!”
Instead of acknowledging that, Aether started walking down the tunnel.
“Hey! Don’t ignore Paimon!”
“Not a word to Sharzad,” Aether said.
Since she was floating instead of walking, Paimon could fly in front of him with her arms crossed and a mischievous grin on her face. “No promises!”
~~~
After about an hour’s worth of walking in near-darkness, the tunnel began to open up to dappled sunlight and vibrant leaves. The smell of rain filled the air, and the stone walls of the cave were temporarily replaced with the wood of a massive tree trunk. Just past the tunnel opening, he could hear water rushing from unseen waterfalls and a cacophony of birdsong and other animal calls.
“Whoa, it’s so loud already,” Paimon said. “And so green!”
“This is the land of Dendro, Paimon,” Aether said.
“Paimon knows that! Oooooh look at those flowers, they’re huge!”
Those flowers were so huge in fact that some could’ve probably fit Aether’s whole torso inside them. They were white, and even in the sunlight they glowed brightly, casting enough light to eliminate some of the shadows around them. Carving right through those flowerbeds, overflow from a river served as a water source and a way to soak any unprepared traveller’s feet, as it covered the earliest part of the pathway into Sumeru.
To the left, Aether could easily see the main part of the river, flowing eastward and down what was probably another waterfall like the one he could see on the more southern parts of the mountainside, while the path carved to the right, small lanterns and fences guiding the way and preventing any wayward adventurer from getting injured or lost.
As for the trees, they provided ample shade from the sun, though they did nothing for the humidity. Already, Aether’s clothes clung to his sweat-soaked skin, and bugs of all kinds—including dreaded mosquitoes—flocked around them. Massive roots carved through the soil, some even larger than the trees, and Aether could see some small animals burrowing there.
“Watch out for snakes, Paimon,” he said as they began walking down the path.
“Oh no! Paimon doesn’t want to–” she stopped, grabbing Aether’s shoulder and turning him towards the waterfall on the cliffside. “–look! Someone’s going towards the waterfall!”
“Hmm. Weird.” Aether frowned. “Do you think we should ask her for directions? I think the map we have is fine, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything in that area. Probably just a cave or something.”
“Are you sure?” When he nodded, Paimon turned away from the waterfall. “Okay. Maybe we can ask what that’s all about once we find the village Zhongli told us about. Paimon’s kind of curious. Oooooh, maybe that was a scholar from the Akademiya doing a super-secret experiment!”
“We’ll find out. Let’s go.”
They followed the path through the rainforest, occasionally running into scholars, adventurers, traders, and some people dressed in green calling themselves Forest Rangers. The latter type seemed to be there to keep people safe and prevent any accidents, which Aether thought was a smart move on their part.
Eventually, the earthen path turned to wood, and they found themselves walking on the roots of a massive tree. Slightly above them, he could see huts suspended from the tree’s branches, and people milling about the village center, which was paved over with wooden slats.
“Wow, this place is amazing!” Paimon gasped.
“High praise coming from the legendary Traveler’s companion,” came a voice behind them.
Aether jumped, turning around to find . . . well, he wasn’t fully sure what he was looking at.
For the most part, it was a normal man—pale brown skin, brown and green eyes, mostly black hair cut into a bob—but he had tall, furry, and black ears pointing out of his hair, and Aether caught a glimpse of a fluffy tail, also black though tipped with green, peeking out from his wide-legged pants. He wore shades of blue and black mostly, though the ornate, pleated sash around his waist and shoulder was mainly white. There was a Dendro Vision at his waist, which would have drawn Aether’s attention had it not been for the man’s recognition of them.
“You know who we are?” Aether asked.
“Sharzad’s written about you in her letters.” The man spoke Teyvan with fluidity, albeit an accent similar to Sharzad’s. “I’m Tighnari, by the way.”
The name was familiar, Sharzad had just never mentioned the ears. Or the tail.
“Ooooh, you’re Sharzad’s uncle!” Paimon gestured at herself and Aether. “Paimon is Paimon, and this is Helios. Sharzad’s . . . not with us at the moment.”
Tighnari frowned at them. “Oh?”
“She got kidnapped by the Fatui.”
One of Tighnari’s ears flicked, probably in annoyance. “Of course that happened again. Do you know where she is? Our family might be small, but I think all of us would like a word with her kidnappers. Preferably with our weapons.”
“Well, she escaped,” Paimon said. “We think she’s somewhere in Sumeru but we’re not really sure where.”
“Hmm. She’ll probably go find her fathers, although Kaveh’s been in the desert for a few days at this point . . .” Tighnari hummed. “I can tell you how to get to their place, if you want, that way you have somewhere to go.”
Aether couldn’t help narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “That’s kind of you.”
“Don’t look at me like that. You’re friends of Sharzad’s, and she has few of those, unfortunately. Just stop by Gandharva Ville at some point while you’re here. If you really want to pay me back for this, my daughter would like to meet you.” When Aether looked even more confused, he added, almost like an afterthought. “She’s friends with Amber from the Knights of Favonius.”
~~~
They unfortunately got stopped at the entrance to Sumeru City, even if the directions Tighnari gave them explicitly said not to go inside Sumeru City (for totally non-suspicious reasons that Aether immediately thought were deeply suspicious). The people at the gate gave Aether and Paimon a strange device called an Akasha and then let them walk away from the city gate and towards the house they were supposed to be going to.
The path to said house actually curved away from the city and into the forest again, something that made Aether and Paimon’s Akashas blink a few times and then stop working entirely. That change immediately made Aether take off the device, and it didn’t take long for Paimon to take hers off, too.
To be honest, he didn’t like how easy it was to get the device, or how quickly the guy at the city gate could tell they were strangers to the area (based on the Akasha system and not their clothes, obviously). He could certainly see why it was a useful system, but he didn’t really like the idea of it, finding it too close to technologies that brainwashed or removed critical thinking from communities on other planets.
Thankfully, the trees seemed to provide enough interference for the system to stop working, so Aether could easily take off the Akasha without worrying about the Sumeru government knowing he’d taken it off (assuming, of course, that like a lot of other governments seeking to eliminate their people’s ability to think, the Sumeru Akademiya wanted people entirely dependent on the Akasha, which would require them being mandatory at all times).
So they walked through the forest, passing by occasional paths leading to homes, until the trees on their right side eventually thinned out to a view of a two-story home with a cliff right behind it.
“This one,” Aether said.
Tighnari had said they’d recognize it because of the precision of every detail on the building, and he understood why. The house was clearly made to match the environment around it, something it somehow achieved despite its stone exterior. Only near the almost leaf-shaped roof (made of green tiles, of course) did the building transition to wood, and even then, it only enhanced the stained glass panes on the top floor’s windows and the mosaic designs above the windows extending out from the building itself. Even the garden in front of the building and the furniture on the porch seemed to have been chosen specifically because they went well together and with the environment, colours and textures varied but still playing off each other in a perfectly composed symphony.
“Paimon can’t believe Sharzad ever wanted to leave this place,” Paimon commented. “It’s really pretty.”
“I don’t know either,” Aether said as they walked up to the front door. He knocked on it a few times, but when no answer came, decided to sit down on the porch, back against the stone facade. There were plants growing in some places, moss and vines slowly climbing up the stone walls (though avoiding many of the windows, he noticed).
They sat and waited together, knowing that Tighnari had told them that Sharzad’s father worked at the Akademiya and would probably arrive there sometime after his shift ended. But, he had reassured them that this man—Alhaitham—would probably be willing to spare the guest bedroom for them until Sharzad arrived, since she had almost certainly mentioned them in her letters (Tighnari apparently didn’t know about Sharzad’s monthly visits). So they stayed, even as the day crawled on.
At some point during their wait, a small, cream-coloured cat with bright green eyes approached them and, purring, settled by Aether’s side as he petted her. Her rumbling purrs continued even through their lunch of dried meat and bread they’d brought from Liyue, and she didn’t leave as a figure finally, finally appeared on the path to the home.
This man was tall, probably slightly older than Tighnari but not that much (Sharzad had mentioned once how young her fathers were but Aether hadn’t expected this young). His grey hair, however, seemed to break the illusion of youth, only to be countered by the tight black shirt he wore, which showed off the toned muscles in his abs (wasn’t this guy supposed to be a scribe or something?). Turquoise cloth embroidered with gold had been wrapped around his waist and shoulder much like Tighnari, stopping just shy of his pointed boots. His accessories also seemed to be mostly turquoise and gold, including his shoulder cape—evidently a very Sumerian piece of clothing—and the few pieces of jewelry on his arms and fingers.
“You must be Alhaitham!” Paimon exclaimed once the man got close enough to see them.
“That depends,” the man drawled. “Who’s asking?”
“We’re Sharzad’s friends! She’s got to have told you about us, right?” Much like she had with Tighnari, Paimon gestured to herself and Aether. “Paimon is Paimon, and this is Helios.”
“Hmm. And where is Sharzad?”
“The desert,” Aether said before Paimon could say anything about the kidnapping. “We think.”
“You think?” Alhaitham said in what was probably the first bit of actual emotion he’d displayed.
“She got kidnapped by the Fatui just over a week ago, but she escaped. Since we know she stops by here every month, we figured we’d come to you and wait for her here.”
Just the mention of Sharzad being kidnapped by the Fatui made the man sigh. He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and began unlocking the door. “You’re lucky my husband is gone on a work trip,” he said nonchalantly. “Otherwise you’d be fending off a claymore and an angry suitcase.”
“Uhhhhh, how can a suitcase be angry, exactly?” Paimon asked hesitantly.
“The suitcase is alive. I’m sure you’ll meet Mehrak once they get back—my husband’s wanted to meet you two since Sharzad first mentioned you.” Alhaitham held the door open, not for them, but to speak a little longer. “Now, I have to pack some things and travel to Port Ormos, so you can either follow me and tell me what exactly my daughter’s been up to, or stay here and wait outside until I get back, which is going to be a few days.”
Aether, wisely, chose the second option, and within ten minutes, Alhaitham had returned with a bag full of food and Mora and, after locking the door behind him, began questioning them about Sharzad.
“First thing, is this Fatui kidnapping related to the Harbinger who was hired to kill her?”
And Aether, unfortunately, had the job of explaining that that Harbinger (aka Childe) had actually been instrumental in ensuring that Sharzad’s kidnappers could be tracked down.
~~~
Thankfully for Sharzad, Bamoun and Sethos seemed determined to only address her as Your Highness, so she didn’t have to worry about getting used to her new throne name so quickly.
Which was good, because they were both clearly trying not to bombard her with questions over the light meal they’d offered her, which she denied in favour of growing her own plants to eat instead. She didn’t trust them not to poison her, especially after what happened with the Fatui.
Thankfully, Deshret and Nabu’s presence (not that Bamoun could see them) seemed to deter the worst of the questions, though that was probably because they were, you know, legendary gods and not some obviously kid who’d fainted in the desert. The mild skepticism she could sense from both of them was honestly welcomed, however, especially after the Watatsumi Resistance’s (and especially Teppei’s) blind admiration.
They both spoke in Deshreti, which Sharzad guessed was their native language, and since she spoke it too, she saw no fault in following their lead.
“What is your plan with the Great Red Sand?” Bamoun asked her. They were kneeling around the stone slab she’d been lying on, which was apparently a table, actually. “Do you wish to rebuild Lord Al-Ahmar’s kingdom?”
“One day. But I want to build rapport with the Eremites first.” Her wings fluttered, some feathers puffing out slightly from the movement. “I doubt that many groups will be happy, even if I am the god-kings’ chosen heir. They want Al-Ahmar back, not someone new.”
Bamoun nodded. “Some factions are full of unenlightened fools who believe resurrection is possible.”
He’s just . . . insulting the other Eremite tribes like that?! No wonder they’re so disunited!
“It is never foolish to hope,” Deshret said firmly.
Sharzad pulled her wings back, conscious of her puffed-out feathers and the way they’d twitched outwards. “Insulting your fellow Eremites will get this nowhere. All of you, from the tribes in the north to those serving in the Corps of Thirty, will be my subjects one day. Are my subjects now, by some people’s definitions. And it is never foolish to hope for a better world, not when the people of this land have been treated as second-class citizens by the Akademiya for centuries.”
“The desert is a harsh place, Your Highness,” Bamoun replied, his tone just patronizing enough for a small growl to rumble in the back of Deshret’s throat.
“So is the rest of Teyvat,” Sharzad shot back. “There are monsters everywhere, even masquerading in human skin. That is no justification.” Because if it was, the world would have succumbed to war long ago. Because if it was, Sharzad wouldn’t have decided to let the Fatui on that ship live. “There is no wisdom in insulting your fellow descendants of my predecessors’ kingdom. And don’t–” she added when Bamoun opened his mouth. “–claim that the Dendro Archon’s ideal doesn’t apply here. Al-Ahmar was also a god of knowledge, and though I may have recently come into my power, I inherited that domain from him, too.”
Wisely (wow, he’s learning so fast, Sharzad thought scathingly), Bamoun shut his mouth.
“Recently, eh?” Sethos said, before drifting off into silence.
“Speak, young man.” Deshret ordered. “Or has that fragment of Ma’at hindered your ability to ask questions at last?”
“I’m only theorizing, Your Majesty!” Sethos held his hands up, before frowning. “Fragment of Ma’at? That’s a new one.” He dropped his arms. “What’s that?”
“The name for the Sages of Justice,” Sharzad answered. “Hermanubis was the last of them, but there were thousands who came before, and each of them took up that name when they took the job.” She tilted her head. “I take it the story’s been warped by time. What a shame.”
Both from an archaeological perspective and from a future-leader-of-the-desert perspective. Thankfully, Sharzad had a primary source in the form of said desert’s former leaders to help her out, so she had access to all that information, anyway.
“Huh,” Sethos said. “We thought Hermanubis was a god himself.”
Deshret and Nabu both laughed, as if the very idea was absurd. Bamoun, who seemed confused by the silence, leaned over to ask Sethos what was going on, to which the Electro allogene replied, “They’re laughing.”
“The Sages were chosen precisely because they did not wish for immortality,” Nabu explained after recovering from her laughter. “And Hermanubis did no such thing—in fact, he split the power of Ma’at into fragments like yours specifically to prevent mortals from seeking godhood with it.”
Deshret nodded. “And to prevent Eremites from coveting the full power of a Sage, like many have done since my death.”
“The records must have been warped by human bias,” Sharzad mused. She turned to Deshret. “And the true government records are either destroyed or preserved in your library.”
“Preferably the latter, though you did not stumble upon them during your nightly escapades, so it is a mystery for now. We can deal with historical records later, beti, though I know they pique your interest.”
The word beti made Sethos’ head tilt slightly, but he said nothing about it. Instead, he gestured at the door. “Well, Your Highness, would you like to see the rest of the Temple of Silence? If history interests you that much . . . we’ve preserved a lot of documents from Al-Ahmar’s era.”
“Quickly,” Sharzad said. “I’d like to be on my way by nightfall—I have places to be.”
~~~
There was a throne in the Temple of Silence.
There was a throne in the Temple of Silence.
There was a throne in the Temple of Silence and people were bowing to her and frankly, by the time Sharzad finally left the damn place, she was too mentally exhausted to care about decorum. The only reason she didn’t snap at the people there was because she didn’t want to risk accidentally killing anyone with the power thrumming under her fingertips. She’d barely managed to keep herself from blasting everyone with sunlight as she’d grown an orchard’s worth of plants for the Temple’s residents—a gesture of thanks for sheltering her from the desert’s weather as she recovered from the deal (not that they knew about it).
Keep your composure a little while longer, she thought fiercely to herself as Sethos saw her out of the underground labyrinth the Temple of Silence was located in. Bamoun hadn’t gone further than the temple’s entrance, which Sharzad took as a sign that a) he was too old to do much strenuous movement and b) he was probably plotting something. He’d clearly disliked her reaction to his claims that the other Eremites were—what was it—unenlightened fools. There clearly was inter-Eremite group politics involved that she wasn’t aware of, but Sharzad figured she’d be able to weed the information out from other Eremites.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Sharzad told Sethos as the tunnel opened up to the desert. “I won’t forget it.”
“We won’t forget what you did for us, either, Your Highness,” Sethos replied. He looked like he genuinely meant it. “The kids in the Temple will eat better than they have in years.”
“No one should starve, least of all my future subjects.”
“It’s interesting you don’t call us just your subjects,” Sethos commented. “If you can forgive me for being so bold,” he added at Deshret’s stern look.
“I don’t mind the question—we could all stand to be more curious.” The Akademiya most of all. She hummed, considering how to answer. “The main reason is that I don’t want to repeat what the Akademiya has done by imposing its rule on the people of the Great Red Sand, even when its authority doesn’t extend beyond the Wall of Samiel, for the most part. You—the people—will choose whether you accept me, though I have a feeling that some people will follow me on sight, regardless of how much of a stranger I am.”
“More will follow once the knowledge of your existence spreads through the desert,” Nabu added.
Sharzad shrugged. “And so will dissent.”
Sethos scoffed. “I doubt many people will stay against you once they see you.”
“What do you mean?” Sharzad asked as they stepped out into the open.
The last remaining rays of sunlight caught on her wings, reflecting off the gold and blue feathers like they were jewels embedded in her wings. Tiny spots of colour danced on the sand, catching the attention of a nearby sandcat (a species Sharzad hadn’t been able to name until that moment, mostly because she hadn’t known they existed). The small creature, which had clearly been emerging from its den in the stone cliffs, scampered over and began curiously pawing at the little circles of light.
“The wings are a big one,” Sethos said. “Can’t fake that. Or the power—there used to be a Dendro Vision holder at the Temple when I was a kid, but even she couldn’t grow as big a garden as you did, and I don’t think that’s just because she was old.”
“And you think that’s enough?” Flicking her wing to the side, she watched the sandcat freeze as the colorful dots moved, then pounce on one next to it. “Be honest, Sethos.”
He huffed. “Look, I’ve lived in the desert my whole life—which I’m sure is longer than you’ve been alive, though I won’t say anything more since His Majesty clearly wants me to shut up about that–” indeed, Deshret started glaring at him the second he started talking about Sharzad’s age. “–but the conversation about hope and believing in Al-Ahmar coming back we had earlier is more true than Grandfather wants to believe. The Eremites have been praying for our gods to return for centuries, and they’re back, in a way, guiding their kid to become the desert’s ruler.” Sharzad decided not to comment on that particular thing. “It’s what many of us have wanted for generations, and even if people are skeptical, just the sight of your wings is going to change all of that.”
The sandcat watched Sharzad with curious eyes, before crawling up her pant leg and into her arms. She scratched behind its ears, hearing a purr rumble out of its throat immediately.
“I guess that means the Temple of Silence is already on my side, isn’t it?”
“Some of us are. Grandfather . . . he’ll come around eventually.”
“He’s skeptical. Set in his ways, right?” Sharzad tilted her head at the cat in her arms. “Probably also doesn’t like the idea of the Temple’s main ideas about Hermanubis being overridden by some kid with the gall to talk back to him.”
Sethos hummed. “He’ll come around,” he repeated. “But in the meanwhile, you’re still welcome to the Temple of Silence if you need something. Those of us who support you already will be there to help.”
Those of us who support you. Sharzad considered asking more questions, but Sethos seemed keen on leaving for the Temple and, frankly, she had to go find Aether to tell him everything was okay.
While she’d been thinking, Sethos waved at her, turning back towards the tunnel entrance. “I’ll see you around, Your Highness.”
She waved back and, instead of waiting to see him disappear, unfolded her wings and took to the sky, zooming away from the oasis to a more abandoned cliffside. Landing in the sand, she pulled up the System immediately, searching for the tab with all her friendship and family bonuses.
“You let me talk way more than I was expecting,” Sharzad said into the silence.
“To do otherwise would have been unwise. I do not want you to seem dependent on us.”
“You handled it well,” Nabu added. “Even the comments about being our child.”
“I mean he heard you call me, beti, right? Wouldn’t have done any good to deny that.”
She scrolled down the System’s tab until she found what she’d been looking for: Aether’s friendship bonus.
Traveler: No Sibling Lost, No Stone Unturned - When activated, leaves a marker at the Traveler’s current location on the minimap that lasts for 5 hours. Can be activated every 30 minutes.
“Hmm. No Sibling Lost, No Stone Unturned,” she muttered before summoning the System’s map.
“And your throne name,” Nabu prompted. “How do you like it?”
“Maatkare?” she echoed. “It sounds cool, though isn’t it weird that part of it comes from one of your Sages’ titles?”
“Sobekneferu was also in the running for a while,” Nabu reminded her. She set her ghostly hand on Sharzad’s arm. “It had no bearing on our choice since reviving the Sages is your choice in the end. If you want different names, they will have different names. We just thought it was a better name than Neferure or Iaret.”
Sharzad blinked, not at Nabu’s statement, but at the map, which seemed to show Aether travelling towards Port Ormos. Interesting.
NEW QUEST
Reunion Calls
Find Aether in Port Ormos
“I guess we know where to go,” she mumbled. “Also, what does Maatkare mean, exactly? I have an idea, but I don’t know what you meant specifically by it.”
“Ma’at means many things, so it can be translated however you wish,” Deshret said. “Truth, justice, righteousness, virtue, order . . . but ka followed by re means the essence of sunlight. So however you choose to define the first part of your name, it will indicate your values.”
“Love that you still gave me a choice there.”
“It was fitting. You never listen, anyway, beti.”
The statement was kind of mean, but he sounded fond while saying it, and Sharzad could hardly miss the smile on the god-king’s face when he said so.
“If you say so.” She selected the Waypoint closest to Port Ormos (without actually being in Port Ormos). “Let’s go find Aether. I want to surprise him.”