𝐀𝐦𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐚 || Zhongli x M!Reader

☆ 2.

"Have you ever been to Liyue before?" Asked Aether as they emerged into the light of day. (M/N) blinked many times, trying to adjust to the brightness of the sun, which he couldn't remember seeing for a long time.

    "Not sure..." the (H/C) man gave another unsure answer, as he had many times so far in their conversation, "It sounds familiar, though." Aether took this into account, wondering how he should explain this to Zhongli.

    Paimon pointed out various spots and landmarks as they progressed towards the city. (M/N)'s head was on a swivel, trying to take in everything around him. It all seemed so familiar, yet he couldn't remember ever seeing any of it.

    The two adventurers talked amicably about their journey and current situation, chuckling at how bewildered (M/N) seemed. It was like a child discovering the outside for the first time. In Aether's opinion, it was pretty cute.

    "Paimon thinks we could take him to Xiao too," the floating girl suggested, pointing at the distant shape of some inn or another on the horizon. The introduction of this new name tickled some distant part of (M/N)'s brain. That, he was sure he'd heard before.

    "Xiao...?" he asked, still searching his mind for anything at all.

    "He's an adeptus," explained Aether, "he fought in the Archon War too, so if our theory is right, he might be able to help as well. You do know what an adeptus is... right?" (M/N) nodded, knowing that for certain as a realization hit him.

    "Yeah, I do. Apparently, I'm part-adeptus too." He wasn't sure where he'd fished this deep thought out of, but he knew for a fact that it was true. Seeing the surprise on his companions' faces, he added quickly: "But that's all I have, no new memories apart from that."

    "So your memories can be triggered by words?" wondered Aether, sharing a meaningful look with Paimon. (M/N) shrugged, going with whatever the other two decided.

    And so, for the entire trip, the adventurers hurled random words and phrases at (M/N), some hitting parts of the target, others missing completely. Currently, it seemed their thoughts were still extremely jumbled, specific words only triggering part of a realization.

    "Warrior," "battle," "tea," and "dragon" sparked reactions in (M/N), but many were only thin wisps of the bigger picture (or so he assumed). It wasn't until Paimon said her next word that something new happened.

    "What about 'Morax?'" she asked. (M/N) thought hard, fickle droplets of thought almost visible on his forehead. This name triggered something in him, but he wasn't sure what. There was a tug in his heart, a faint pain in his head.

    "He's the god of this land... right?" (M/N) guessed, a couple blurry images forming in his mind, "A great dragon with... golden horns... I think I met him before..." He could tell his words had an effect on his companions. Paimon's eyes lit up while Aether fell even deeper into the abyss that was his thoughts.

    "Well that's perfect because the person we're going to see is actually- mmph!" Aether covered his friend's mouth before she could finish her sentence, muttering something about the weather loudly to distract (M/N).

    "Hey! What was that for?" exclaimed the girl, stomping midair in anger. The blonde then whispered something indistinct to her of which (M/N) only caught the words "dead" and "don't know." From this alone, he formulated a couple thoughts that something bad had undoubtedly happened to Morax. He wondered vaguely why he felt so worried at the idea.

    "Did something happen to Morax?" (M/N) asked innocently, making Aether wince at how little he knew. The adventurers exchanged a couple hurried whispers again before turning to give the (H/C) man answers.