Patients and Mourn
It’s been three days, ever since Tighnari, Kaveh, Faruzan, and Candace had ventured off to find Anis.
As well known as those four are — it’s no suprise that people start to catch on from their sudden disappearance.
”Where do you think they went?”
“I went to Aaru Village to try and find Candace but…they said nobody saw her there”
”Faruzan was gone as well, do you think something’s going on..?”
Rumors and concern fill the air through the Akademiya, turning into one of the hottest topics to talk about.
Fontaine has overheard about the rumor and published it onto their own news board.
Soon after — Inazuma and Liyue had started to publish news about the disappearance and tried to help by putting up posters.
Sage Naphis started to worry, but had to trust Nahida’s word. He knew that Tighnari knows what he’s doing, and he sides by that. Except he can’t help but be overprotective of what Tighnari could be setting himself up for.
Cyno was passing by, doing his normal and usual job as a General Mahamatra, and to no surprise, he overheard the rumors as well.
He was confused, and thought of it as a inside joke, even though he didn’t know why people would joke about that.
That was until they started to mention other people he knew. They even sounded genuine, letting Cyno know that this may as well be serious.
He starts to ask the other scholars for more details into the situation. They gave him everything they knew, but there were unfortunately no good leads.
He talked to three Kshahrewar scholars but all they mentioned was about Kaveh promising them about a field trip.
”Cyno” That familiar voice had snapped him out of his conspiracy thoughts. He lifts his head up to see Alhaitham.
”What? I’m quite busy right now, there’s a serious rumor going around the Akademiya-“
”Have you seen Kaveh?”
He stares at Alhaitham. “..no..? Why?”
Alhaitham sighs, “where did that guy run off to now..?” Cyno stands up to listen to Alhaitham.
”He hasn’t come back to our house in three days, we didn’t really have a huge argument I’m pretty sure” Alhaitham didn’t sleep for a day, he waited to see if Kaveh would come home this time.
”Are you kidding me? Rumors around the Akademiya stated that Faruzan and Candace also disappeared..”
This was all too strange for Cyno, and so sudden as well. “I do remember three Kshahrewar scholars saying they last talked to him about a promise, something about a pyramid in the desert”
Alhaitham had no clue what that meant and, to be honest? Neither did Cyno
”Do you know anyone else we could ask about regarding their disappearances?” Cyno thought for a bit and then nodded.
”Tighnari has been friends with those three since Akademiya days if I’m not mistaken, we could ask him”
Alhaitham decided to go along with it, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t concerned for Kaveh at the moment — despite having a calm facade from the outside that is.
This was also kind of an excuse for Cyno to see Tighnari, it’s been a very long while since they’ve spoken to one another. Cyno misses him, and that’s the truth.
Alhaitham and Cyno headed towards Gandharva Ville, eager to get to the bottom of all of this.
”Tighnari, me and Alhait-“
They both paused.
Gandharva Ville was corrupted, the huts have covered in vine thorns, branches and trees collapsed.
The signs were broken in half, and a withering zone was starting to appear from it all.
The whole Avidya Forest on the other hand….was gone.
It was as if someone from Celestia took a big bite of it, and now it’s a huge hole.
Cyno was distraught to say the least, his inner self was starting to panic and so was it showing from his outer self.
”What…the fuck…”
Now he was ‘really’ panicking this time.
Edo opens the large doors, “Anis? It’s Edo — I brought some people you may know”
The place was quite huge for an underground hide out. There were plenty of people there, as if it were a abandoned.
Kaveh was amazed by how well made the underground place was, it was as if there were also some architects down there.
”Edo? Who did you bri-“
That voice, it felt ancient yet quite memorable.
Tighnari and Anis stop walking at the same time as they looked at one another in shock.
Anis’s ear twitches as she had to double check if what she was seeing wasn’t a illusion.
”You actually came…I can’t believe you even saw my letter from years ago..”
She went up to Tighnari, now smiling as she hugged her. “I’m so glad you did, we need to put a end to this”
Tighnari nodded in agreement. “..I can’t believe you’re alive..” Quite humorous in this paragraph if you ask me.
“We have a ton of questions Ms. Anis” Kaveh starts. She laughs, “Please, drop the honorifics, just call me Anis”
She invites them all to sit down in her room, Edo leaving to go back to whatever he needed to do.
“Go ahead you…four? I’m all ears” She looks at Mehrak and smiles sweetly, it seems like she’s already familiar with mechanical life forms.
”This pyramid we’re in right now…what exactly is this supposed to be for?” She nods, “ahh I understand”
”This pyramid was meant for historical purposes, the original idea was a tourist gallery walk but that backfired from the Akademiya and their ‘opinions’.”
She hands a paper to Tighnari, a sketch of how it was all supposed to look like.
”Edo was gonna make statues of Valuka Shuna’s as well, but because the Akademiya sued us and took most of our budget, we couldn’t do anything for years, and we had to figure out ways to bring our history back”
Faruzan was confused, “bring your history back? What do you mean?”
Anis explains, “Us Valuka Shuna’s were silenced right? The Akademiya themselves had thought about thing at first, after the principle was long gone, and decided to change a ton of things.”
”One of them was including our history. They said it was a waste of time and isn’t relevant to anything, which is untrue, our first generation, Alhina sacrificed a lot for Sumeru to remain as it is”
”They then added false rumors, then stupidly — for some reason forgot they made up false rumors and believed that what they heard was true, about Valuka Shuna’s being bad people”
So that was how Valuka Shuna’s became a target. The Akademiya wanted them to go extinct, because they were a ‘threat’.
To Tighnari, it really was a lot to take in. Candace, Faruzan and Kaveh could tell. “I am, so sorry you guys had to go through all that” Kaveh sighs.
”Nono, don’t worry — we’re here to stop all of this right?” They all nod.
”Also, I assume you know about the Cyno statue huh? How does it look? Edo wanted constructive criticism” She says to Tighnari.
”Oh! Uh-“ “He was most definitely drooling on those hard rock abs, a ten out of ten” Kaveh snickers.
Tighnari glares at him, only for Anis to smirk. “Oh? Is that so? Perhaps I could get Edo to make a personal statue for you then” She jokes.
”I- No- Ugh, we’re friends” Anis can only look at him with a smug expression. “Yeah, sure…you are aware that there is a fourty seven percent chance of a General Mahamatra to fall for a Valuka Shuna right?”
”Please, I’ve heard about that from one of Collei’s light novels from Fontaine don’t do this to me” He groans.
”Wait seriously?” Candace was intrigued as Anis nods. “Some of our ancestors have dated General Mahamatra’s back in the pass”
Not all but some, either they were great friends or lovers. History is what brought those two together.
Tighnari was still in his own world, wondering about one last question circling through his mind.
”Tighnari? It seems like you wanna say something” Perhaps it was a Valuka Shuna instinct since she could tell.
”Yeah…I just wonder why my parents didn’t tell me all this, that was before they disappeared” He sighs.
”Let me guess, the Akademiya killed them huh?” Faruzan frowns after saying it, she didn’t wanna believe it but it’s a entire pattern.
”No, actually” Anis says. “No? So their alive?” Tighnari says happily , having hope into seeing his parents again.
Except the way Anis looked at him, it’s as if she didn’t wanna say anything. “Tighnari…it’s not something to be happy about”
She didn’t say that because him seeing his parents after they disappeared wasn’t a joyful thing — but more on the fact of what had actually happened”
She sits down on her bed, thinking for a second. “…How do I say this..”
”Okay, Tighnari’s mother was a Valuka Shuna and his father wasn’t, the reason why I bring this up is because it would be relevant to what I’m about to say” He also explains to Kaveh, Candace, and Faruzan….and Mehrak.
“They were both scholars from the Akademiya, and during that time, they were already dating”
”Tighnari’s father spoke to one of the sages about her and showed how much he loved her. The Sage he spoke to was now retired, but what was important was that he learned about the false rumors about us Valuka Shuna’s”
”In the end, he believed it. He panicked, he was starting to overthink everything. By the time you were at the age of walking, your father couldn’t handle it”
”He said he felt insane for marrying and having a child with a Valuka Shuna, so he took her to a honeymoon”
”and killed her”
”her body was hidden in a boiling room, he waited for some promised men to take her, because he no longer had any use for her”
”Tighnari, while he and your mother were away, as a child — you were curious and managed to leave the house alone”
”You ended up in the desert as to where Sage Naphis found you. When your father returned, he was furious to see that you weren’t at home, because he was planning on killing you too”
”He’s still out there Tighnari, and we need to be careful, he hasn’t heard about us yet, but he knows that both of us are still alive”
Tighnari felt sick, tears drop to his cheeks. All of this was too much for him.
“Tighnari…” Candace could feel how hurt Tighnari was, how betrayed he was. His own father.
Kaveh hugged Tighnari in a comforting way. Everyone was shocked, and felt pity for Tighnari and everything he now has to deal.
It was too much, it was a lot of pressure. Everyone was dependent on Tighnari, but it was only now that he had just found out about all of this.
”This is why, we need a plan, okay?” Anis gives him a tissue. He takes it and wipes his tears away. “Yeah…there’s no use crying now”
”..and there’s nothing wrong with crying…wanna take a breather before we do anything regarding our main goal?”
He nods, it was best that he does. Especially since it’s been three days of walking to find Anis.
It’s tough, but soon, it will all begin.