Once is More Than Enough

Chapter 5

Alhaitham searches Hanahaki through his Akasha, hoping to find something. The only thing he finds is a few myths and fairytales about the Hanahaki disease. He clicks on the first site, quickly skimming through it before clicking on another, thinking it was nonsense. After all, a sickness from falling in love with someone?? It's almost more unbelievable than Kaveh falling in love with someone. He scoffs but as he goes through the information, they all say the same thing. And they all result in death unless the person goes through surgery where they remove the flower. The only downside of the surgery is that the person would stop being in love. That wasn't even that bad of a deal, given that the other choice was to die painfully. Should he go and confront Kaveh? Before he can decide, he hears a knock on his door.

To his surprise, a short, child-like, girl stands on the other side. "...Hello?" Alhaitham says uncertainly. It's not every day someone knocks on his door, let alone a child.

"My name's Nahida. May I come in? It's about the time loop." Alhaitham's eyes widen in surprise but it quickly becomes a look of suspicion.

"What time loop? Where are your parents, child."

Nahida sighs. "Look, I already know everything and I'm trying to help you save Kaveh." Alhaitham narrows his eyes at her. As a few awkward moments pass, he finally replies.

"Fine... We'll have to go somewhere else though. Kaveh is here right now." Nahida nods and Alhaitham puts on his shoes, walks out, and follows Nahida to a quiet place. She sits on the bench there, her toes swinging in the air. Alhaitham sits down beside her before she starts talking.

"As you might have realized, at the end of the day of the Sabzeruz Festival, you went back to the previous day."

Alhaitham nods. "This isn't something that normally happens but I adapted faster than I thought I would, given this is only my  second time."

"That's where you're wrong. This is already your 4th rerun." Nahida looks at him sadly. 

"What do you mean? Why do you know about the time loop? From what I've realized, the time loop has something to do with Kaveh's death although I don't know why I'm the only person who seems to have retained my memories."

Nahida looks at the ground. "That was my doing. The time loop, I mean."

"What do you mean? You're just a child-" Alhaitham stops himself as he stares at Nahida. At her appearance, the lack of Akasha, her wisdom despite the fact she looks 10.

"That's right. I'm Lesser Lord Kusanali." 

"Okayyy. Let's say I believe you. What's so special about Kaveh that you'd turn time back for him?" Alhaitham crosses his arms in disbelief.

"First of all, this isn't a time loop. It's a dream."

"A dream." Alhaitham stares at Nahida. "I haven't dreamt since forever and neither do anyone else. Plus, this feels way too realistic to be a "dream"."

Nahida ignores Alhaitham. "Second of all, it's not because of Kaveh that things have been repeating. He just happens to die the same day the dream repeats. As for you, It was during loop 3 that I gave you your memories back. Plus, haven't you wondered why you or any of the Sumerians never dream?"

"Okay so. Explain to me what's happening then."

"Basically,you'reinadreamandthescholarswanttousethesedreamsfortheirowngainssotheyusedtheAkashatoseparatepeople'sdreamsfromtheirconsciousness,puttingtheconsciousnessofthepeopleinaconstantsleepstateinsideonesingulardream."(Basically, you're in a dream and the scholars want to use these dreams for their own gains so they used Akasha to separate people's dreams from their consciousness, putting the consciousness of the people in a constant sleep state inside one singular dream.) Nahida takes a deep breath and peeks at Alhaitham, looking for a reaction. Alhaitham only stares at her, brows furrowed.

"...Alhaitham?" Instead of answering, Alhaitham pulls the Akasha off his ear, getting the gist of what Nahida is trying to say. As soon as the Akasha leaves his ear though, everything turns dark. To no ones surprise, Alhaitham wakes up in his bed, the time reading 6:00 a.m.

Done! If you want to read more about the time loop, I found a good reddit page that explains it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/wwsjd2/a_not_so_brief_summary_of_the_sabzeruz_samsara/