Taking over the Abyss

66- A Graveyard of Stars

"And... you're sure nobody will see us here?" For what felt like the tenth time in a few minutes, your friend expressed his doubts about your decision to relax in plain sight. So what if it was the palace royal gardens, which were off limits to basically everyone?

You could only laugh at his skepticism, "It's fine, trust me. I do this all time and nobody notices!"

"Or they chose not to confront you about it..." Your friend mumbled, turning his head to the side to avoid your pure, unbridled joy from piercing his heart anymore than it usually did. Alchemists like you were prone to having their more questionable choices in life ignored, for the most part. Lying in the middle of a royal guardian with grass grown personally by you would be regarded as relatively normal in the grand scheme of things.

"There's other places we can go, y'know. There's actually this section of the palace that they closed off recently..." you trailed off, thinking of your brief escapades around that section. It was perfect for avoiding annoying people, since it was widely assumed nobody would be stupid enough to wander in there.

"No way," your friend staunchly refused the idea. Laying around in the grass was one thing, but getting caught in a restricted area was completely different. "The sages are finally taking me seriously."

You hummed, staring up at Khaenri'ah's rocky ceiling, "... yeah, fair point."

Placing your palm against the soft grass, you closed your eyes and slowed your breathing. Though learning Khemia was a goal you set for yourself early on in life since your reincarnation, the unique sensation felt new every time. In time with your breathing, the grass around you and your friend grew enough to cover the two of you from any prying eyes.

You grinned victoriously at him, "There. Now nobody will catch us. And the gardener gets to earn some extra money mowing this lawn."

Your friend inspected the freshly grown grass, "... that works. I was going to suggest we both go somewhere else, but... even I can't deny that it feels nice to lay down in the grass."

"Even better since there's no ticks around!" You cheered. Your friend still seemed apprehensive about the whole thing, eyeing you skeptically.

"You always say strange things," he commented, not knowing what a tick was, but assuming it was good since you were happy about the absence of it.

"I don't think they're so strange," you said, huffing at him playfully. You thought he was lucky to never have to worry about getting a tick. Though that was in part due to the lack of natural flora and fauna, so... well, it was silver lining.

"That's because your life is strange," he replied, turning to join you in ceiling-watching. With nothing more to add, you joined him in looking up. The rocky ceiling sometimes had drops of water and glowing fungi to mimic glimmering stars. After a minute of quiet, your friend breathed life into the conversation again, "Speaking of... has anything strange happened to you lately?"

"Mm?" You peeked over at him, trying to recall anything. Remembering some stupid encounter you had this morning, you were barely able to stop yourself from jolting upright by grabbing at the grass. Alerted to your sudden jump in energy, your friend watched you expectantly, "There was this one thing! A member of the Alberich family harassed me while I walking to work this morning..."

"Alberich family?" Your friend prepared himself for whatever nonsense they'd spouted to you. For the past while, they'd been acting strangely. To say it was annoying was the understatement of the century.

"Yeah. Basically they tried to pull some stupid 'you have the honor of marrying into the family because of your reputation' shit," you said, happily recounting the tale of your annoying morning encounter. You were, of course, still irritated by the whole mess. Not to mention the underlying worry of what exactly the Alberich family could be up to. Outside of Kaeya's appearance in Mondstadt as a child, you knew no other background about them, and anybody who did know anything wouldn't tell you.