Taking over the Abyss

63- Live Aether Reaction

You'd left shortly after obtaining the Dendro gnosis and returned back home to Enkanomiya. While Nahida cleaned things up over the next several days, you'd agreed to keep Scaramouche with you temporarily. You didn't mind too much, finding Leiptr watching over the unconscious puppet housed in the courtyard behind the Dainichi Mikoshi.

"Hmm..." you stared down at Scaramouche with a pensive hum, trying to think of where to put him. Even though he probably wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, you didn't want to put him in with Signora just in case. No need to inspire a minor rebellion, even though Signora was reluctantly fine with her 'vacation'.

Ahh, Snezhnaya...

You winced, reaching up to run your temples. You had so much to do... you were so taking a vacation. Leiptr, thinking you were in pain, frowned worriedly, "Milady? Are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm alright," you refocused your attention back on Scaramouche, "... I guess we can put him... ah, there's a small tower in Yachimatahime's Locus. That should be suitable."

"As you wish," Leiptr bowed, hoisting Scaramouche up and moving to find some others to assist him in the transfer. Taking the gnosis out of your pocket, you stared at it.

Holding it felt a little... wrong. Before, you'd just chalked it up to feeling guilty for taking Nahida's gnosis, but now? Looking at it made you feel a little ill. Well, you as may well find somewhere to store it. Not wanting to put it somewhere obvious like your room, you headed off to the library, careful not to accidentally drop the gnosis.

Predictably, Enjou was hanging around the library. He opened his mouth to say something when he saw you, then froze at the sight of the gnosis, "... How did you get that?"

"Traded some wisdom for it," you replied. Enjou got up to follow you, peeking over your shoulder at the gnosis to both use you as a shield and get a better look at it.

"I never thought I'd see a gnosis in person," he commented, pushing his glasses up when they started to slip down his nose, "what are you going to use it for?"

"I'll think on it. For now though, I'm putting it in storage," you headed to the upstairs part of the library and over to the portal of dubious origin. Uncovering it, you stared at the portal for a moment before looking back at Enjou, "... hey, do you think this spot is too obvious?"

Enjou paused to think, then gave his honest opinion, "A little, yeah."

"Damn," you cursed quietly, turning around. The gnosis pulsated quietly in your hand, making you glare it. "Where's the least obvious place we could hide it?"

"We have the basement under that maze," Enjou said. You stopped and looked back at him. Enjou stared at you, "... you know, the maze? The one with the invisible roof and the rotating walls?"

"Ooh, that thing," you remembered what he was talking about. You nodded, "Yeah, the maze. Alright, that's a better place for it."

With Enjou in tow, you found the maze. It was pretty close to the Dainichi Mikoshi, and since you had Hydro you could solve it pretty easily. Finding a proper place to hide the Dendro gnosis in for safekeeping, you made sure to reset all the puzzles on your way out. You could, of course, teleport down into the basement and yoink it before anybody could really steal it.

Since your will was to keep the gnosis safe, none of your subjects could steal, touch, or knowingly divulge its location without your express permission. As bad as you felt using your Abyssal Authority to make super specific demands, protecting a gnosis required you to take a lot of security measures. 

Enjou was the only one who knew where it was, so he was the only one who was really affected by it. Thankfully he didn't seem to care too much, having no plans to betray your trust anyway. The benefits of taco night were many.