Frozen Heart

Chapter 58: The Nation that never burns

You three arrived at Azaleas hideout, it was very strange to you, that this woman you two haven't seen before knew where the hiding spot of an Archon was. The woman led you two into a different section, opening the door and letting you guys in. Azalea was sitting at a table with a bunch of maps laid out, she looked a little stressed out and didn't notice you come in.

"Lady Azalea, your guests have arrived." the woman bowed. Azalea was startled and looked up from the piles of paper in front of her, her tired face jumped to a happy one when she saw you two.

"Y/N! Signora! I'm glad you two came" she smiled and walked over to you two, "I'm sorry that I couldn't pick you up at the harbour...I am a little busy at the moment.." she sighed, "I hope that Dehya didn't put you into any mistrust."

You and Signora looked at eachother, shaking your heads at the same time, "Nope, definitely not. We were pretty much chill with her bringing us here" you said, smiling nervously.

"I'm glad!" Azalea turned around and sat back down at the table, "Your letter didn't say much, just that you two needed my help with something." she scribbled something out from a map. You walked over to the table and saw all the other things scrapped out, only the big tree wasn't. The scrapped out parts had symbols of the Fatui drawn above them, making your heart drop.

"Yes..we do need your help with my Delusion..." you looked down at what she was writing.

- Possible attack
- Harbinger
- former Akademiya Student

'Harbinger? Former Student in Sumeru? And a possible attack?! What is going on??'

"Did your Delusion break? I did see a lot of gods in there so the possibility isn't very low for it to break" she asked without looking up from the paper.

"No, it didn't. I don't even want to know what would happen if it did. But it's the Delusion itself, the God that is possessing it."

Azalea finished writing and stood up, pinning something on the board behind her and staring at it.

"She is starting to creep me out.." Signora whispered while staring at her.

"I honestly have to agree with you..." you whispered back. "Azalea, before you help us. Is there something you need help with? You seem, very, VERY, stressed.."

She turned around and blinked slowly, rubbing her eyelids while yawning,

"I'm fine. I don't need any help, I can do this on my own." she said and put her hands on her hips.

"You're very tired though, I have never seen an Archon ever be tired. I don't even know if that's possible..." you walked over to her and looked at the board she just hung up the paper on. In the very middle was the tree of Sumeru, around it the different parts of the Nation, the desert, the forest, the cities and the rest. The tree was marked in a circle with a thick red marker, around the circle were patterns of flames. While you were examining the drawn pictures, Azalea started to draw more flames, how they were spreading from the tree, down to the forest area. She then began to cross out cities, including flames around them too, there was also another drawing which wasn't crossed out, it was a big ruin guard, bigger than the one you have ever seen before. She had written something small next to it,

- impossible

'Impossible? Impossible what?'

You understood the half of the picture. The Tree was going to be set on fire by one of the Harbingers who once attended Sumerus Akademiya, but for what? They were given the Gnosis and had what they needed from Azalea, so why would they want to burn the tree?