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You jumped up, looking around quickly. Your chest hurt, it felt like it had been impaled by-... oh.
How are you still alive? Like, you literally got impaled in the chest. You took a small peek under your shirt and saw no bandages or scars.
Perhaps it was all just a dream?
But it felt so real, plus your chest hurts. So it must've happened, right? And now... you don't hear the beeping of a monitor anymore. Maybe that's it, maybe this is just a dream after all.
New memories flooded into you again. The 3.3 archon quest, Scara- no- Wanderer's and Faruzans release, the erasing of wanderers existence, bringing back memories and getting to test him out, being able to give him a name...
Your head hurt. You looked around, it doesn't seem like anybody is here. Getting up from the floor, you walked around until you saw a large door in the wall.
Opening it, you felt yourself step forwards and you started to walk around the place. From what you remember, the exit should be somewhere here somewhere...
Once you were able to get out, you found yourself in the sanctuary of sursasthana. You looked at where Nahida was once encased to see a former harbinger and a dendro archon.
Nahida was the first one to notice you, she looked shocked for a moment before she signaled you to come over. And you did just that.
Your light steps were heard and the former harbinger looked at where the sound was coming from, and his eyes lead to you. He only glanced at you before he went back to whatever he was thinking about.
"We thought you had died, are you feeling well?" Nahida asked, tilting her head slightly in worry. Your empty eyes looked into hers, yours held no emotion yet you gave her a small smile.
"I'm okay, thanks for asking." You said in a soft tone. Nahida went to you and signaled you to crouch, and you did just that. She placed a hand softly against your chest as if trying to feel something.
"Does your chest still hurt?" She asked and you shook your head, the small dendro archon nodded and removed her hand from her chest after hearing the entrance to the sanctuary open and then close.
"...Y/n?" Aether stopped in his tracks and looked at you. There was no blood, your clothes were clean, no rips... nothing. It was like you hadn't been impaled at all.
Aether quickly ran over to you and tightly hugged you, tears staining your shoulder. He sobbed into your shoulder while you were standing there, doing nothing.
"Where were you?! We thought you died!" Paimon said, she hugged you too. You nervously stood there, the two other characters just watching.
Scaramouche was jealous, why wasn't he hugging you instead? He brushed off his thoughts.
"Don't just leave us like that again! Got it?" Paimon asked, you nervously laughed and nodded with an uncertain smile on your face. She pinched your cheek before floating to a good distance near you.
After a while, Aether finally let go of you and Paimon turned to Nahida. She looked a bit rushed.
"Nahida, bad news! We just saw the balladeer, strolling around in public!" Paimon said, not noticing Scaramouche blankly staring at her and the traveler. Aether didn't notice him either.
"Did he escape or?..." Paimon trailed off, her eyes darting around before they landed on the former harbinger standing there, waiting for the two to recognize him.
"Aah! It's him!" Paimon screamed, her arms tucking into her small body and eyes widening at the sight of Scaramouche.
"Hmph. Sure enough, you're here." The uninterested individual said with crossed arms, adding a bit of a more provoking tone at the last two words of his sentence.
"Hey, what are you doing in the sanctuary of surasthana?! Aren't you supposed to be locked up?!" Paimon looked suspiciously at the male, Aether giving a cold stare to the former harbinger.
"I know you must have a lot of questions. Please, allow me to explain." Nahida stepped in. "It was my idea to set the balladeer free. We made a deal, and he's gonna do some investigation in irminsul for me."
"A deal?!" Paimon asked. "Huh, you sure you trust this guy?" Paimon asked.
"What did you expect? Why do you think sumeru would keep me around otherwise?" Scaramouche asked, his arms still crossed. "...Or maybe killing me is all you can think about?" He added.
"But if that's the case, why haven't you done it already?" He asked, his hand making a movement that showed confusion or question.
"Don't flatter yourself. It was..." Paimon placed both hands on her hips. "Nahida said there's still some mysteries in you to figure out!" She continued.
"Ah, so if it were up to you, you'd finish the job?" Scaramouche crossed his arms again. "Guess I had you all wrong. There I was thinking you were just getting cold feet."
Aether kept silent, still giving a glare to the individual. Nahida entered the conversation again. "Ugh, well that escalated quickly. Not a good start..." she trailed off. "Could I ask you all to please calm down?" She asked.
Well, this is gonna take a while... you thought to yourself, more memories flooding into your mind.
Indigo eyes stared at your figure, your head tilted downwards with a slight frown on your face. Hmph... he watched you sigh before listening to the small green figure.
