Chapter Text
Mondstadt — Windrise
The first indication that something was wrong was the silence.
Not an ordinary silence, either.
The wind had stopped.
Aether stood beneath the enormous oak tree at Windrise, one hand resting against the trunk. Leaves hung motionless above him. Beyond the shade of the branches, the grass had ceased its gentle swaying.
Even the birds had gone quiet.
"Paimon doesn't like this."
His floating companion hovered beside him, looking toward the distant city of Mondstadt.
"Didn't Venti say the wind was supposed to be especially nice today?"
"He did."
"Well, someone should tell him it's broken!"
Aether looked upward.
Something had appeared between the branches.
At first, he thought it was sunlight reflecting from an unusually smooth surface. Then the shape moved, and he realized it wasn't reflecting anything.
It was a thin, vertical line hanging in the air.
A line that appeared to be getting longer.
"Paimon."
"Hm?"
"Can you see that?"
Paimon turned.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she slowly drifted behind his shoulder.
"Okay. Paimon has decided we should go back to Mondstadt."
The line widened.
There was no explosion. No tremendous flash of elemental energy. Nothing resembling the familiar manifestations of Abyssal power.
Instead, the air quietly separated.
On the other side was a room.
A very comfortable room, actually.
There were polished wooden floors, plush furniture, tables, warm lighting, and enormous windows overlooking what appeared to be—
Stars.
Thousands upon thousands of stars.
Aether stared.
He had seen strange domains before. He had visited places that existed outside the ordinary boundaries of Teyvat. He had encountered ancient mechanisms, forgotten civilizations, and beings capable of bending reality.
But those places usually made some effort to look mysterious.
This looked like someone's living room.
"Paimon thinks it's another domain."
"Maybe."
"Then we're not going in."
Aether took a cautious step forward.
"Aether!"
"I'm just looking."
"That's what you always say!"
From somewhere beyond the opening came a woman's voice.
"March? Could you come here for a moment?"
A second voice answered.
"Coming!"
Footsteps approached.
A young woman with pink hair appeared on the other side, holding what looked like an unfamiliar mechanical device.
She stopped.
Aether stopped.
Paimon looked between them.
The stranger blinked.
"Uh."
Aether raised a hand.
"Hello."
The pink-haired girl stared at the enormous tree visible behind him.
Then at his sword.
Then at Paimon.
Then back at the tree.
"...Himeko?"
"Yes, March?"
"I think we have a problem."
Astral Express — Parlor Car
Himeko had expected many things when March 7th called for her.
Another disagreement between March and Dan Heng, perhaps.
An argument concerning Stelle's increasingly strange collection of objects.
Possibly an incident involving the food supplies.
What she had not expected was a doorway opening onto a sunny meadow.
Especially because there had never been a doorway in that particular wall.
Welt adjusted his glasses.
"Remarkable."
Dan Heng remained several steps behind March, his attention moving between the strangers and the aperture.
Stelle, meanwhile, was looking directly at Paimon.
Paimon was looking back.
"Why are you staring at Paimon?"
Stelle considered her answer.
"Can you fly indefinitely?"
"What kind of question is that?!"
"Just curious."
"Well, yes! Obviously!"
Stelle nodded thoughtfully.
March leaned toward her.
"That's the first thing you wanted to ask?"
"I had others."
"Maybe save them for later."
Himeko stepped forward.
"Welcome aboard the Astral Express. My name is Himeko."
Aether hesitated.
"The Astral Express?"
"A train," March supplied helpfully.
Paimon looked around the beautifully furnished room.
Then toward the windows.
Then at the floor.
"Wait. A train?"
"Yep!"
"In space?"
"That's right!"
Paimon's mouth fell open.
Aether looked toward the windows again.
The stars beyond them were moving.
Slowly, steadily, impossibly.
He felt a familiar ache in his chest.
For so long, he had been traveling through Teyvat, seeking answers about his sister and the world that had trapped them both.
Now he was looking at something he had once known intimately.
The vastness beyond a single world.
"You're traveling between planets?" he asked.
Himeko noticed the change in his expression.
"We are."
Welt stepped closer, studying the opening.
"And judging by the unusual circumstances of your arrival, I suspect your home is not among the destinations ordinarily accessible to us."
"Paimon doesn't understand any of this."
"Neither do we, unfortunately," Himeko admitted.
That was when Pom-Pom arrived.
"What is all this noise about?!"
The little conductor marched into the parlor car.
"Passengers are reminded that—"
Pom-Pom stopped.
There was a tree visible through the wall.
There were two strangers standing beside it.
One of those strangers was floating.
Pom-Pom's ears stiffened.
"WHO INSTALLED THAT DOOR?!"
March winced.
"We don't know!"
"Pom-Pom did not approve any renovations!"
"It's not a renovation," Welt said.
"THEN WHAT IS IT?!"
"That's what we're trying to determine."
Pom-Pom looked toward the strangers.
Then toward March.
Then toward Himeko.
"Is everyone forgetting that this is a TRAIN?"
Stelle crouched slightly to examine the lower edge of the opening.
"Technically, we could use another entrance."
"NO!"
Aether covered his mouth.
Paimon didn't bother hiding her laughter.
For the first time since the opening appeared, some of the tension dissolved.
Himeko invited the visitors inside.
After a moment of consideration, Aether sheathed his sword and stepped across the threshold.
Paimon followed closely.
The floor felt solid beneath his boots.
The air was warmer than it had been beneath Windrise's oak tree. There was a faint aroma of coffee, polished wood, and something sweet.
Aether turned.
The doorway was still there.
The enormous tree remained visible on the other side.
He could even hear distant birdsong.
"Does this happen often?" he asked.
"No," Dan Heng replied immediately.
"Not usually," March corrected.
Dan Heng glanced at her.
"What?"
"You make it sound like absolutely nothing weird ever happens to us."
"This is different."
"Okay, fair."
Himeko motioned toward the seating area.
"Perhaps introductions would be a good place to begin."
Aether sat.
Paimon remained hovering beside him.
Stelle took the seat opposite them.
March produced her camera.
Dan Heng opened his data bank.
Welt prepared to ask several questions.
And Pom-Pom began inspecting the newly appeared doorway with the grim determination of a conductor who had discovered an unauthorized structural modification.
For nearly twenty minutes, they talked.
Aether described Teyvat.
He spoke of Mondstadt, its Knights of Favonius, the Seven Archons, and the elemental powers that shaped the land.
He explained Visions as best he could.
When he mentioned that gods sometimes walked among ordinary people, Welt became particularly attentive.
March wanted to know whether dragons were common.
Paimon attempted to explain that this was a complicated question.
Stelle asked whether Teyvat had trash cans.
Aether looked at her.
"Yes?"
"Interesting."
Nobody understood why she sounded so pleased.
Then Himeko described the Astral Express.
She spoke of the Nameless, the Trailblaze, the vast civilizations scattered throughout the cosmos, and the extraordinary worlds the crew had visited.
Aether listened with growing interest.
Here were people who knew what it meant to cross the stars.
People who traveled not merely between nations, but between worlds.
And yet none of them recognized Teyvat.
Dan Heng eventually lowered his data bank.
"I can't find a corresponding world."
"Not even something similar?" Welt asked.
"No reliable match. The available information doesn't support identifying its location."
Aether leaned forward.
"Could it be somewhere your train hasn't visited?"
"Certainly," Himeko said. "There are countless places we haven't explored."
"But that wouldn't explain this doorway," Welt added.
He looked toward the opening.
The edges were beginning to distort.
Thin ripples moved across its surface.
And the view beyond it was no longer quite right.
The great oak tree flickered.
For an instant, the meadow vanished.
Something else appeared.
A street.
Tall buildings.
Bright signs.
Vehicles.
Aether rose immediately.
"That's not Mondstadt."
The image vanished.
Windrise returned.
Then the doorway contracted with a sound like glass being drawn across stone.
"Paimon!"
She darted toward Aether.
He lunged for the opening.
Too late.
The passage collapsed into a narrow line.
The line folded inward.
And then it was gone.
Where there had been a doorway, there was once again an ordinary wall.
Silence filled the parlor car.
March slowly lowered her camera.
"...Oh."
Aether stood in front of the wall, his fingers pressed against the smooth surface.
There was nothing there.
No familiar elemental energy.
No trace of the tree.
No path back to Mondstadt.
Paimon hovered beside him, unusually quiet.
Himeko approached.
"We'll find a way to reopen it."
Aether looked at her.
She did not promise that it would be easy.
Only that they would try.
Welt turned toward Dan Heng.
"Start recording everything we observed."
"Already doing it."
March put away her camera.
"Well, at least we're all okay."
Something struck the far side of the wall.
Everyone froze.
A second knock followed.
Pom-Pom's ears stood straight up.
Then a muffled voice came through.
"Hello? Can anyone hear us?"
It was not Aether's voice.
Nor Paimon's.
And it certainly wasn't anyone from Mondstadt.
New Eridu — Sixth Street
At Random Play, Belle was having a perfectly normal afternoon.
This meant that she was supposed to be working but had instead spent the last forty minutes reorganizing her personal collection of movies.
Wise knew exactly what she was doing.
He had chosen not to intervene.
It was easier that way.
"Belle, did you finish checking the returned tapes?"
"Almost."
"You said that twenty minutes ago."
"I'm being thorough."
"You're watching one."
"Research."
Wise looked over the counter.
Belle was sitting on the floor with a stack of cases beside her. A film was playing on the nearby television.
He recognized it immediately.
"You've seen that one six times."
"And now I can appreciate its deeper artistic themes."
"Which are?"
"Explosions."
Wise sighed and returned to his terminal.
A small mechanical chirp sounded from behind the counter.
Eous emerged carrying a package.
"En-nah!"
"Thanks, Eous."
Belle reached over and patted the Bangboo's head.
From the speakers near the H.D.D. terminal came another familiar voice.
"Master."
Wise looked up.
"Yes, Fairy?"
"I have detected an irregularity in our network environment."
"What kind?"
"An unidentified connection."
Wise frowned.
"From the Inter-Knot?"
"Negative."
"An outside device?"
"Negative."
Belle glanced toward the terminal.
"Somebody trying to hack us?"
"That possibility cannot be established from the available information."
"Wow. That's reassuring."
"You're welcome, Second Assistant."
Wise opened the network diagnostics.
The screen displayed a collection of unfamiliar symbols.
He stared at them.
They were not corrupted characters.
They were not recognizable machine code, either.
The symbols seemed to rearrange themselves every time the interface refreshed.
"Fairy, where is the signal coming from?"
"That is the irregularity, Master."
A pause.
"The signal does not appear to originate from any identifiable network."
Belle joined him behind the counter.
"Could it be another Hollow-related phenomenon?"
"Insufficient evidence."
"Some kind of experimental transmission?"
"Unknown."
"An Ether interference pattern?"
"Unknown."
Belle folded her arms.
"You know, for an incredibly advanced artificial intelligence, you're saying that a lot."
"Would you prefer an answer unsupported by evidence, Second Assistant?"
"No."
"Then I recommend patience."
Wise opened another diagnostic window.
"Can you disconnect it?"
"I have attempted to isolate the connection."
"And?"
"It is not connected to us in a conventional sense."
That got his attention.
"Explain."
"The system is receiving information from an external source. However, no corresponding pathway can be identified."
A new image appeared on the monitor.
It showed a room.
An elegant room with polished wooden floors and enormous windows.
Beyond those windows were stars.
Belle leaned closer.
"Is that from a movie?"
"No."
"Live transmission?"
"Apparently."
"Where?"
"Unknown."
A figure moved across the screen.
A young woman with pink hair.
Then another person entered the frame.
A gray-haired girl carrying something that looked suspiciously like a garbage can lid.
Belle squinted.
"...What?"
Wise reached for the keyboard.
"Fairy, are you certain this isn't somebody's stream?"
"Positive."
On the screen, the pink-haired girl turned toward the camera.
Her mouth moved.
There was no sound.
Then the image abruptly changed.
For an instant, it showed an enormous tree standing in a beautiful green meadow.
Belle straightened.
"Okay. That's definitely not New Eridu."
Wise began recording the transmission.
"Could be some kind of fabricated environment."
"Or a really impressive movie set."
"That's another possibility."
"Or—"
"Belle."
"What?"
"Please don't say aliens."
"I wasn't going to say aliens."
He looked at her.
She grinned.
"I was going to say interdimensional aliens."
Before Wise could respond, the lights flickered.
Eous stopped moving.
The Bangboo's ears twitched.
"En?"
The terminal emitted a sharp tone.
WARNING: UNIDENTIFIED SPATIAL ANOMALY
Wise stared at the message.
"Fairy?"
"Master, I strongly recommend moving away from the rear storage area."
A low vibration passed through the building.
One of the display cases rattled.
Belle turned toward the back room.
"Why?"
"Because the spatial measurements of that room are no longer internally consistent."
Wise was already moving.
"Belle, stay here."
"Yeah, that's not happening."
They reached the storage room together.
It was a small space containing old equipment, cleaning supplies, several boxes of unsorted merchandise, and a spare television that Wise had been meaning to repair.
Or at least it had been.
Now there was a doorway.
Not an ordinary doorway.
A perfectly rectangular opening, standing in the middle of the room.
No frame.
No hinges.
No surrounding wall.
Just a passage into somewhere else.
Beyond it stood the elegant room from the transmission.
Belle stared.
Wise stared.
Eous made a deeply confused electronic noise.
On the other side, several strangers were gathered near the opening.
A pink-haired girl.
A tall woman with red hair.
A bespectacled gentleman.
A dark-haired young man.
A gray-haired girl.
And two particularly unusual visitors.
One was a blond swordsman.
The other was a tiny floating girl.
For several long seconds, neither group said anything.
Then the floating girl pointed at Belle and Wise.
"See?! Paimon told you there was another place!"
The pink-haired girl threw up her hands.
"How was I supposed to know?!"
Wise looked toward Belle.
Belle looked toward Wise.
The video store's back room had apparently developed a direct connection to a place containing stars.
There were people standing inside it.
One of them was floating.
Another was wearing a conductor's uniform and appeared to be growing increasingly upset.
Belle opened her mouth.
Wise raised a finger.
"Don't."
"I haven't said anything."
"I know what you're thinking."
"No, you don't."
"Belle."
She looked back at the doorway.
A delighted smile spread across her face.
"This is the coolest thing that's ever happened to us."
Wise closed his eyes.
From somewhere inside the strange room came a shrill voice.
"WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP OPENING DOORS ON MY TRAIN?!"
Belle burst out laughing.
Wise decided that whatever this was, he would very much prefer to understand it before his sister attempted to befriend everyone involved.
Unfortunately, Belle was already stepping forward.
"Hi! Welcome to Random Play!"
The red-haired woman on the other side looked pleasantly surprised.
"Random Play?"
"Our video store! I'm Belle, and this is my brother, Wise."
The pink-haired girl brightened.
"Oh! A video store? That's actually really cool!"
"Right? What's your name?"
"March! March 7th!"
Belle paused.
"...Like the date?"
"Yep!"
"That's awesome!"
Wise had the terrible feeling that these two would get along.
The blond traveler approached more cautiously.
"I'm Aether. This is Paimon."
"Paimon's his travel companion!"
Belle waved.
"Nice to meet you!"
Wise glanced at the doorway.
Then at the people beyond it.
"May I ask where you came from?"
Himeko stepped forward.
"The Astral Express."
Wise waited.
When no further explanation came, he asked, "And where exactly is that?"
"Currently?" Welt said.
He looked toward the enormous windows.
"Somewhere between worlds."
Wise considered this.
"That's not particularly specific."
"No," Welt agreed. "I'm afraid it isn't."
The ground trembled again.
The opening widened slightly.
Fairy's voice emerged from a nearby speaker.
"Master. Additional anomalies have been detected."
Wise turned sharply.
"Additional?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"At present, seven distinct spatial irregularities have been identified within the limits of our available observations."
Belle slowly turned toward him.
"Seven?"
"That is a preliminary count, Second Assistant."
On the Astral Express, Dan Heng's data bank began displaying a series of unfamiliar readings.
At the same moment, Aether felt a faint surge of elemental energy.
Not from the passage in front of him.
From somewhere farther away.
Something was happening beyond this room.
Beyond the train.
Beyond the two worlds they had already encountered.
Wise looked toward the terminal.
"Fairy, can you identify their locations?"
A pause.
"Not all of them."
"What about the ones you can identify?"
"One anomaly is currently forming near an inhabited commercial district within New Eridu."
"And the others?"
"Unknown."
The system flickered.
A new image appeared on the terminal.
A city of pale stone beneath an enormous blue sky.
Then another.
A vast, luminous complex surrounded by futuristic machinery.
Then a third.
A harbor crowded with ships whose designs Wise had never seen.
The images vanished almost immediately.
Himeko stepped closer.
Welt's expression became grave.
Aether recognized one of the places.
"Liyue..."
Belle looked at him.
"You know where that is?"
"Yes."
"Is it near here?"
Aether shook his head.
"No. It's in my world."
Wise stared at the screen.
He had been trying to understand how a single impossible doorway could connect a video store to an unfamiliar train.
Now there appeared to be several more.
He looked toward Belle.
She was still smiling, but her attention had shifted to Fairy's readings.
For once, even she seemed to recognize the scale of what was happening.
Outside, life on Sixth Street continued.
Customers passed the storefront.
Vehicles traveled along the road.
Somebody shouted about a missing package.
A Bangboo crossed the street carrying groceries.
None of them knew that the room behind Random Play had just become a meeting point for people from three entirely separate realities.
And far beyond New Eridu, other openings were beginning to form.
Above ancient mountains.
Within futuristic stations.
Beside cities that had never appeared on the same map.
At places where gods, soldiers, merchants, and ordinary citizens had yet to realize that the boundaries of their worlds were changing.
Wise looked at the gathering in his storage room.
Then at the readings on Fairy's screen.
"Belle."
"Yeah?"
"We need to contact someone."
She nodded.
"Definitely."
"Someone who knows how to deal with this."
"Absolutely."
They stood there a moment longer.
Neither moved.
Because neither could think of anyone.