My Time in Teyvat [Tales of Luna, Book 2]

Chapter 20 - The Wolf's Puppet

"Return my puppet to me." The half growling, guttural voice of Andrius demanded. "And I shall allow you to leave this place with your lives."

"She is one of ours." Albedo explained. "Noelle went missing a few years back. When we couldn't find her, we assumed she had been killed by Barbatos."

"So?" Yuna asked as she readied her sword once again. "You heard the Wolf, this is his Puppet. We stick to the plan, kill her and kill him."

"No!" Yuji suddenly blurted out. "He said he carved out their minds. This was done against her will. She's a knight of Favonius!"

"I don't know what carving their minds entail, little one." Yuna said, her sword still pointed towards Noelle. "But that sounds like she is no longer herself. Being forced to serve a psychotic god wolf, we would be saving her an eternity of suffering."

Yuji wondered if that was true.

"Is there a way we can find out?" Yuji asked as she looked at Yuna and then to Albedo. "Like- if her mind is still there?"

"We don't have time for that, I'm not sure how long my ice wall will hold." Yuna said, taking a look at the Wolf behind the gigantic frozen barrier she had made with the help of Tartaglia.

"Luna could tap into other people's minds. Can you do that too?" Yuji asked and hoped.

Yuna opened her mouth but hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"You are not going to just let this go, huh?" She asked before looking at Albedo as well. "Well? You got any way of telling?"

"Sadly, I do not." Albedo stated as he put a hand on the unconscious Noelle's forehead. "Maybe if we could take her to my lab, but that's all the way up in Dragonspine. And like you said, we don't have the time."

"Fuck!" Yuna said under her breath before she made her sword disappear and put her hand in front of her chest, her fingers open as if holding an invisible orb. "Okay, but y'all need to shut the fuck up about this. Don't tell anyone, not even to Luna."

A golden glow appeared in front of Yuna as some kind of golden artifact materialized on front of Yuna's chest. It was a circular artifact with a triangle in the middle, upon which was a golden eye which Yuji had seen on Luna's spear. Hanging from this artifact were five pointy cone-like needles, which resembled Yuna's swords.

"I mean that, Yuji." Yuna said, looking at Yuji with stern eyes. "Do not tell Luna about this."

Yuji didn't like that, but she nodded anyway.

Closing her eyes, Yuna hovered both of her hands over the artifact as its glow became stronger. The five needles on it start to shake before pointing towards Noelle's head. Suddenly, the symbol of the golden eye appeared on Noelle's forehead before almost instantly disappearing again.

"It's as I thought." Yuna said as Yuji noticed she had her eyes open again. "Come with me."

Without waiting for a response, Yuna touched Yuji's forehead with two fingers.

When Yuji blinked, she found herself in a dark blue forest. She couldn't put a finger on what she was feeling but it was as if she was home.

Upon closer inspection, she realized the trees had all of her favorite snacks and sweets growing on them like fruits. And at a distance, there was a lone gateway unconnected to anything, sealed by heavy and rusted chains.

"This is your mind." Yuna was suddenly beside Yuji. "Now come with me."

And once again, Yuji had no time to object or respond as Yuna grabbed her hand and almost immediately they found themselves in complete darkness.