The Most Important Gear

Chapter 2

"hello balladeer, {name}," nahida greeted you both.

"hi nahida," you smiled at her. "did you need my assistance with anything?"

"well... yes and no. i have to speak with you after i finish giving the balladeer and the traveler their assignment. balladeer, i'm requesting for you and the traveler to go into irminsul to find information about the descenders."

"i see... so that's what you meant by saying it was a group effort," scaramouche grumbled from next to you. "how spectacular, partnering with two people who want me dead."

"just push that stuff aside for now," you put a hand on his shoulder. "there's no use being hostile. in fact, i think they're more wary of you than you are of them."

"wary? me?" he laughed. "how hilarious."

"traveler, paimon, there you are," nahida interrupted your banter, the two of them walking inside.

"nahida, bad news! we just saw the balladeer strolling around in public! did he escape or- AAH! it's him!"

"hmph, sure enough, you're here," scaramouche rolled his eyes. 

"{name}," the traveler noticed you. "you're here too?"

"hi traveler," you greeted. "nice to see you."

"i know you must have a lot of questions," nahida said. "please, allow me to explain. it was my idea to set the balladeer free. we made a deal, and he's gonna do some investigation for me."

"a deal?! you sure you trust this guy," paimon yelled.

"what did you expect? why do you think sumeru would keep me around otherwise," scaramouche interjected. "or maybe killing me is all you can think about. but if that's the case, why haven't you done it already?"

"don't flatter yourself," paimon said back. "it was... nahida said there's still some mysteries in you to figure out!"

"ah, so if it were up to you, you'd finish the job? guess i had you all wrong. there i was thinking you were just getting cold feet."

"that's enough scaramouche," you said sharply, making him look at you with slight surprise. "we've already talked about this. don't be hostile."

he grumbled under his breath but still complied with your request. nahida sighed, "well that escalated quickly. not a good start. could i ask you all to please calm down?"

"but paimon's worried about you nahida! don't let him trick you!"

scaramouche laughed, "it's not every day you see people questioning the god of wisdom's judgement. just when you think you've seen it all."

you deadpanned at him, making him shrug it off and obviously plan his next jest to aggravate the situation. 

"don't you dare try to drive a wedge between us," paimon yelled at him. 

"everyone just settle down," you said out loud. "stop acting like children, you all know better than that. nahida isn't asking for you all to become best buddies or anything, she just wants you both to cooperate and work with each other for now."

everyone took a second to calm down, then nahida spoke up again. "the balladeer's power was all but completely spent after your battle. he's no longer strong enough to be a strategic threat to us. that puts him in quite a precarious position. plus, he's a former harbinger with knowledge of many of the fatui's sensitive secrets. being suck here in sumeru could make him a sitting duck, depending on how the fatui plan to respond."

"wait a second... former? you mean he's not a harbinger anymore?"

"dottore has no intention of taking the balladeer back due to his failure," you spoke up. 

"you spoke with him? when," scaramouche asked you, surprised - and slightly offended - by what you had said.

"during the building period, we had a private discussion where we talked about the potential outcomes," you clarified. "and you of all people know he doesn't like failure."

"..." scaramouche didn't respond, acknowledging that you were indeed correct.

"so he tossed you out like trash," the traveler connected the dots.

"sometimes it's you using them, other times it's them using you. most human relationships are this way... certainly all the stable ones are. that's how it was between me and the fatui, and also between each of the harbingers."

huh... "using"? i wonder... is he using me, you thought. i know that we've both established that we care about each other, but i can't shake the feeling that this is his true outlook on relationships. ugh, this isn't the time for this, stop thinking about it.

"as long as you have some value to offer, nobody will ever abandon you," scaramouche continued. "but after recent events, even I have to admit that I'm not worth quite what I used to be..."

"what a crying shame," the traveler bluntly said. 

"hmph, well, if the fatui are gonna re-evaluate my utility, i need to have a backup plan for myself," scaramouche concluded.

"as we discussed," nahida said. "i don't like causing harm to living beings, and you said you need protection. so, why not join forces with us?"