The Final Chapter

Secrets

Act II: The Story Of The Dead And Forgotten

Chapter 26

There are four principles that push life forward.
The time that moves tirelessly, pushing you to action.
The fear of nearing death forcing you to live your life.
Love that you find alomg the way making yourlife worth living.
And [...]
This is the way the world works.

"Traveler?", Paimon asked and softly touched her shoulder with her tiny hands. Now with her memories back her body felt so unfamiliar. Her old life clashed with the one she had formed without her memories. She hadn't always been so tiny and stupid like she had been as a travel guide. She had been a powerful god, had been an archon before archons had been a thing. But Amalie had destroyed it. Because she was selfish. And because she had been selfish, Paimon had lost her nation. Amalie had drawn attention to Khaenri'ah, had manipulated her.
Lumine came out of her own world and looked at her. "Hm?"
"Do you think we can do it?" The Traveler looked at her. "I mean... She is pretty strong. And we have both lost before against her..."
Lumine thought about it for a moment and then tried to smile: "That will not stop us!" But Paimon saw instantly that it wasn't that honest. However her floating companion nodded too.
The Traveler looked up to the floating city, that hid the real entrance to Celestia. She had to reach it this time. She couldn't fail again. This time her brother's life would depend on it. The Principles were able to do everything to him. Even kill him.
Lumine shuddered. Killing a god. A thing so unimaginable, but they were able to do that. Her brother and her had seen them do it with other god from other worlds. So they would definetly do it to him. A dirty traitor, who had destroyed the order, they had so meticulously established. At least that's what they would say. Maybe even blaming Khaenri'ah's destruction on him.
They were so cruel. The Principles were nothing but arrogant powerhungry gods, that put themselves over the others. But they were the most powerful among all of them. In the face of such raw brutality, they had just bowed their heads and let everything happen. But Aether had convinced her to not longer endure that. So she had to do that for everyone else.
She got up and nodded at Paimon. Her travel companion nodded back, so she spread her wings and readied her blade. But then a voice entered her head.

"So you crave revenge?"

○○○○☆○○○○

"Who?", the Dendro archon asked after nothing but silence had filled the room for a few minutes.
Zhongli's look searched for Venti's, both of their eyes widened in shock.
Amalie. They had heard that name before. For both of them she had always been a myth. The personification of hatred. A story to tell at a fireplace to scare the children. But Aether and Lumine had been the same. The twin stars. The black and white. The embodyment of balance and the unity of all elements. Nothing more but a myth. A folk tale about the stars, because if they had been real, the archon war would have never happened. They would have interfered. So they believed. Such powerful gods would have no reason to not do that.
But they had to begun to know better, the second they had entered Celestia. When they got their gnoses to be controlled. That day Zhongli had looked around, only to see all those gods at the hand of the Principles. Gods even more powerful than any of the ones in their myths. Embodyments of the principles of life, so fundamenral to anything. Of course their stars hadn't been able to take action faced against death, time an love.
"Amalie...", he wispered, "She shouldn't be more than a myth..." The focus in the cell shifted from Aether to the Geo archon. "You know her?", Nahida asked again. Her light still emitting a green shine on the surroundings. "Actually we both do. Kinda...", Venti brought himself into the coversation.
From the back end in the cave came the echo of someone clearing their throat. The Tsaritsa came closer to the group. "I know her too..."
"And who is she exactly?", the Hydro archon asked. She had short dark hair with blue tips that matched the color of her eyes.
"A hateful woman who is desperate for revenge. Amalie claims to be Khaenri'ah's rightful archon took the cataclysm very personally. A few hundred years ago, she tried to get me into a deal but I refused", the Cryo archon answered bitter, "But our Prince had a deal with her"
With a swift hand movement she lead the focus back to Aether. He sighed and then nodded: "I did... She took over my body to execute her plans"
Silence filled the prison cell again. "But...", Nahida got curious again, "Morax, you said she was supposed to be nothing more than a myth. What did you mean?" Her eyes focused on the archon who had crossed his arms in front of his chest and held his head down with closed eyes. The Anemo archon moved and turned towards the others.
"I think, I can explain that...", he said and chuckled. But then his eyes turned sad as he thought of a time, he wished to forget. "Back in the day when I was just an elemental being that only dreamt of being as powerful as a god, I first encountered her. She was nothing more than an evil spirit that was whispering into the the ear of Decarabian who had Old Mondstadt in his grasp. She filled his mind with hatred and fueled his cruel reign. That was the first time someone had ever seen her..."
Zhongli joined in on the story: "After exchanging information we figured out that a lot of us had seen her too and that she was pulling the strings behind a lot of things..." The Hydro archon crossed her arms and thought for a moment before she looked around. "But how can she be Khaenri'ah's archon if nobody has any memory of it?"
The green light flickered as if something troubled the Dendro archon. However she didn't say a word to anyone, just curiously listening. At least seeming like she listened. Irminsul. She tempered with it. Was she also behind Aether's record in Irminsul? Did she interfere with his and Teyvat's fate? Was she that powerful?

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This fic is baaaaack! I finished Act II a while ago, but then I learned about the existence of Istaroth and debated rewriting a bit, but I decided against it.

That however does not mean that there is no lore in this ;))