Life Within Truth

Undefinable Truth

"Sentinel, you arrived," Kazuha greets the towering man as he stands upon the bank of an ocean, "I haven't seen you in a while."

"Kaedehara, I apologize," the Warden begins, kneeling next to Kazuha. Chronos's dark armour and clothing have not changed, save for a flower with four white petals and one light blue, stiff and rigid, pinned just above his heart.

Rolling waves of water gently rush up the beach, crawling just below the two men before retreating back into the sea. A soft breeze flows through the air as the pungent scent of salt floods the air. The noon sun shines high above them, casting its powerful rays across the lands of Inazuma as they both face Amakane Island's gorgeous sakura trees, endlessly casting their blanket of petals into the wind.

"I was sent to Liyue's Chasm to find my past."
"There is no need to apologize, and please, call me Kazuha."

A blink of hesitation rises within the man as he cranes his neck slightly. His left eye glows its regular violet, rapidly blinking to show that he's thinking.

"If you insist, Kazuha, I would also like you to address me as Chronos. No formalities between us."

"Alright then. Is there anything you'd like to discuss, Chronos?"

The Sentinel sighs deeply, grabs a pebble by the beach, and chucks it with inhuman strength into the ocean, causing a frighteningly large splash for such a small object.

"Where do I begin..." he muses, pulling out Time's Conflux and analyzing the ninety-nine golden tallies etched into its pole.

"From the beginning, of course."

"That flower on your armour," Kazuha points, "I've never seen one so stiff yet... beautiful."

"An Inteyvat. When plucked from Khaenri'ah, the petals grow hard, but when it is returned to khaenri'ah, they will soften and return to dust."

"A symbol for a wanderer far from home..."

"Precisely as my former commander would describe it. Now, what happened then, 500 years ago..."

"A nation built by humanity alone, Khaenri'ah once stood upon the current seven nations. We did not rely on gods and their folly to carry us to greatness. Our lives were forged on our own. We need not gods that would wage war for us, because we would wage war on our own. We need not gods that would protect us, because we would protect ourselves. We had armies upon armies of machines to aid us into combat."

"Ruin Guards?"

"Yes, and the Sentinels, Destroyers, Cruises, Graders, Hunters; all immaculate creations cast over Teyvat, left to wander for eternity. I would have shared the same fate, but I am getting ahead of myself here."

"I was born into a well-off, middle-class family. I did not need to worry about food or shelter or water, but I also had to work for what I wanted. The day I was born, my father left my mother for another woman. According to him, I was a cursed child, which held no basis, but pierced my mother's soul heavily either way."

"That must've been rough to deal with, only having one parent and all..." Kazuha murmurs, snatching a passing leaf in his hands.

"It was difficult to manage missing a third of a functioning family, so my mother advised me to make do with the vast amounts of time I had. I spent most of my time admiring our Royal Guard; their armour, their weapons, their movement. All with such unforgiving precision I could watch day in and out. There and then I decided to become one of the Royal Guard, under command of the Twilight Sword."

"That's when you learned to use the polearm, I suppose?"

"Correct. The spear is superior to every weapon, save for ones that launch projectiles. You could slash with one end, and smash with the other. Incredible reach allowed you to strike enemies from safety. My mother sent me off to an academy to perfect my militaristic mind. We trained through every bout of weather in unyielding conditions, but it paid off. I became the commander of our peers by the time we were adults, learned the art of Divinitus, and gained my title; The Warden."