A lost friend's journey

Chapter 13

"Once done, please activate the altar and come back here."

Turning back around, she waited until the three of them nodded, before signaling for Morax to follow her.

"Where are we going?"

"You see that waterfall?" she waited until Morax found the place she was pointing at. "There is a cave beside it."

The process was rather fast. All they had to do was glide to the cave, get the sigil and activate the second altar.

Then they would go to Enkanomiya.

Makoto wondered, would she finally get to know more about Istaroth? Was she even a being that existed? Makoto feared Istaroth was just a being that she had imagined because of her strange obsession with the God of Time, she feared she was leading all the archons to their impending doom because really, that was what awaited them when Celestia would figure out they went to Enkanomiya to search for forbidden knowledge.

Makoto knew, though, that she had no other choice but to find Istaroth.

She could only reassure herself with the fact that they weren't necessarily searching for something that was forbidden, rather they were searching for one person who - Makoto was pretty sure - would enlighten them on Barbatos more than anyone other than the Anemo Archon himself ever could.

There wasn't even a single doubt in her mind about that. She knew very well that the God of Time used to rule Mondstadt before she mysteriously disappeared, shortly replaced by another God that fell at the time Barbatos' reign started.

Reign, if she could even call it that.

It only made sense in Makoto's mind that wherever the God of Time was, she still kept an eye on Mondstadt. 

"You are strangely quiet, Makoto," Morax said, interrupting her train of thoughts.

She hummed. The two of them were walking to the altar, having successfully gotten the sigil.

"And so are you," she replied.

Makoto liked to think she was a rather observant Archon - even if she couldn't manage to figure out the obvious concerning Barbatos, Venti. And now he was gone, corrupted, slowly eaten from the inside by a force that surpassed him.

However, she also knew he had fought the corruption once. She hoped he would be able to do it again.

Makoto desperately tried to ignore the voice at the back of her head that told her he would have done so already if he could, he probably wouldn't have succumbed  to the corruption if he had been able to fight it.

But looking at it from another angle, Barbatos had also been very weakened when he was sitting in that chair. It was already hard to overcome corruption, so it would only make sense for a weak and drained out Archon to be unable to resist long.

Ever since Barbatos had disappeared after that one faithful meeting in Jueun Karst... none of the archons could say they were still the same.

Rukkhadevata had revealed to them she had a child, told them how guilty she felt because she of all people should know not to judge a child too quickly - and even though Barbatos wasn't really a child, he was still he youngest Archon. They should have known better.

Tsaritsa started slowly becoming lonelier, colder. It wasn't until they started their trek for Mondstadt that they all really noticed how much she had distanced herself from them. Makoto never got around to ask her, but she knew she should. She knew, because none of them cared to ask Barbatos how he was, if he needed something, how he felt.