Journey | Albedo's Descent Book 3

Chapter 36: Back In The Hallway

Kaeya was repeatedly wiping his tears onto his sleeves as he searched and searched through all of Albedo's notebooks. His hands shook terribly and he could hardly see what he was reading.
Someone else stepped into the camp and he quickly turned to look.
Klee stood with a determined look on her face, her little feet planted on the stone in a wide stance. Her eyes perspired when she saw that Kaeya was crying.
Her lips quivered, "Klee knows a spell that can help."
She had Kaeya help her line all the notebooks up on the ground, "Lisa sent word to Jean f-for reinforcements, too." She sniffled as she wiped her face, "but Klee knows some spells."
Kaeya squeezed her hand, breathless, "it's okay, just- just tell me what to do."
Klee closed her eyes, reciting an incantation. The books started floating and spinning around them, "give me a key word to search for."
"Kill... destroy..." Kaeya said.
Klee nodded and the books started spinning faster. A few of them flipped open, words hovering above them in a large, red, burning font.
Kaeya read through the pages as quickly as possible, soaking in as much information as he could.
He didn't like what he found.
Lisa perked up, having just expended a ton of magical energy in setting up an array around the entire mountain of Dragonspine. She needed the monster to think it could go wherever it wanted.
Lisa heard Kaeya's voice clearly in her mind, "I know how to kill it."
"Meet me at the Frostbearing Tree and I'll have Rosaria lead it here!" Lisa said back to him as she started running towards the tree, herself.
"Klee, you should stay here," Kaeya put his hands on her shoulders.
"No!" Klee said adamantly, "Klee wants to help!"
"Klee..." Kaeya hardened his heart, "this isn't something you can help with. It isn't a problem that can be helped." He added with a small smile, "even Dodoco wouldn't be able to help."
Klee sniffed, her eyes becoming waterfalls, "o-okayyy..."
"Lisa, can you have Jean send someone to pick up Klee?" Kaeya asked.
Lisa giggled, "of course. And you're mighty good at that communication spell! Who taught you to do that? I didn't know you could do magic??"
Kaeya hesitated, "no one thought me... I just reached out to your voice when you spoke to me..."
Lisa halted in her steps, having arrived at the tree, "what? Have you always been able to-"
"No, I just... I can feel you and speak to you," Kaeya sat Klee down on the couch, "no running off, okay?"
She nodded, wiping her eyes.
"Jean and the others shouldn't be long, but I don't know how many people she's gathered," Lisa started setting up a few spells, "I definitely weakened that beast, but it's still strong!"
"I'm on my way," Kaeya pushed the tapestries to the side as he passed through the camp entrance.

Albedo's eyes fluttered open. His hand twitched, feeling the soft texture of grass. There was light shining into his eyes.
He lifted his hand and blocked the sun as he sat up.
It seemed he was in the only patch of grass in the area. On top of that, he was indoors.
He recognized this place. He had been here before. Only, last time he was here there weren't any doors...
This was the same place he had been when he first started having hallucinations. Though, now, he knew that wasn't the right word to describe them. This was the inside of his mind, wasn't it?
He stood in that long hallway that was stretching out to forever in both directions. There were doors covering both walls, all with flowers on them where a number might be on a hotel room door.
Albedo noticed it wasn't silent. Normally it was ominously soundless, but this time he heard something.
The sound of crying. The sound of a child crying.
Albedo's instincts kicked in, and he started running towards the sound, "Klee?!"
As he went down the hall the crying grew steadily louder and the doors got farther and farther apart until he found the end.
The hallway stopped abruptly, not at all like he had just walked there. It felt more like he had been transported or teleported to where he stood. Or, like the door had been transported to him...
The door was plain, with no flower, number, or any kind of marking. It was just a simple door.
It was undeniable that the crying was coming from whoever was behind this door.
Albedo knew it wasn't Klee. This was the sound of anguished and defeated sobbing, not at all the screaming cries that accompanied Klee's tears.
Albedo put his hand on the knob and turned, unsure what to expect. Albedo didn't know many children, and what would they be doing here, anyways? And what reason would they be crying for?
He carefully pushed the door open, taking a wary step in.
The light behind him was gone, everything swallowed by a sparkling darkness, save for the doorframe and door.
Albedo saw the form of a young lady, she couldn't have been older than Noelle or Barbara. She was on her knees, sobbing into her hands with her long hair spilling over her face and shoulders.
She was no child, but her cries sounded like they belonged to someone possessing younger vocal chords.
Her hair was pure white, like the cleanest snow, seeming like thousands of clouds had been pushed together to create such a puffy and curly texture. Her skin was completely black, much like the darkness around her, littered with the brightness of stars. The only differentiation between the two darknesses was a faint blue glow seeming to come off of her person. Her clothes were of a kind that Albedo had never seen before. Long, flowing robes of blue and purple, it's colors shifting and changing as the girl shook.
She was repeatedly murmuring something into her hands as she sobbed. There was a large pool of water around her.
Albedo slowly approached. There seemed to be no ground, yet his steps were level and even. He warily sat down on his knees beside her, knowing who she was.
Albedo could clearly hear her voice, cracked and broken as it was, "I broke it! I broke it!"
She froze, halting her crying. She shook as she turned her head to look at the alchemist. Her blue irises were tiny against the shocking white of her eyes, which were wide in fear. Her eyes suddenly started overflowing with tears, "I broke it..."
Albedo gently put a hand on her arm, "what did you break?"
"I- I promised..." She pressed her palms into her eyes, "I promised and I broke it! I hurt him! I hurt him!!"
Albedo hesitated, "I don't blame you... it isn't your fault."
She shook her head, "I hurt him! I promised!" She looked up with agony painted on her face, "I hurt you."
"No. That wasn't you. ... Why don't you tell me who they are? You're afraid of them, aren't you?"
She hid her face in her hands again, shaking her whole body in denial.
"Then, why don't you start by telling me about you? Who are you? What happened to you?" Albedo gently squeezed her arm.
She violently wiped her eyes, "I- I don't know- I- Somebody put them in-inside me."
Albedo nodded, "you're from Khaenri'ah, aren't you?"
She halted, "I... M-maybe..." She wiped her face on her sleeve as she sniffed. Her eyes never stopped secreting tears.
"I think someone from there was trying to create their own Archon," Albedo spoke slowly, "that, or they wanted a weapon. Will you help me stop this?"
She used only her eyes to look at him with a guilty countanence, "I can't..."
"Why not?" Albedo asked, "don't you want to be free of them? Aren't they why you're crying? They made you do horrible things, didn't they?"
She stared at her hands, "I can't help you... They- they're the only one who- who care about m-me."
"That isn't true." Albedo took her hand, "I care about you. I want to help set you free. Haven't I been trying to help you this whole time? But I can't do that unless you help me get control of my body back."
"You can't stop them..." She said dejectedly.
"Of course I can't. That's why I need you."
"Me?..." her eyes widened, "you... need me?..."
He nodded, a smile coming to his face, "I do. I really do... I know you're scared. I'm scared, too. But I need you to help me, anyways. There are a lot of people I care about that they are trying to hurt. And I'm not about to let them keep breaking your promise." As he spoke he stood up, holding a hand out to her.
"What do you say? Will you help me set you free?"
She took his hand, her eyes finally drying up as she nodded.