Dream Eater

Crescendo

Sun shining and birds chirping. The people of Sumeru City began to arise from their dreamless slumber. Some prepared for a day of festivity and celebration. Others prepared for a day akin to any other. And of course, it was exactly like any other.

With some tossing and turning in her child-sized bed, Paimon groggily opened her eyes, squinting against the glare of the sun in the room. She felt oddly burnt out. Despite just waking up, she felt as though she had never slept before. Her hands slowly reached her face, and she languidly rubbed her eyes, adjusting to the light.

She rolled onto her other side, now facing the rest of the room she slept in. Her eyes falling upon the blonde boy who lay curled up in his bed... or at least that was what she was expecting. Instead in her friend's bed lay no one. The duvet lazily left sprawled on the mattress.

The fairy furrowed her brows slightly, using her arms to push herself up into a seated position on her bed and rubbing her eyes again. Now more carefully examining the room around her. It looked far from tidy. Almost like someone had left in a hurry.

"Traveller?" She called out, wondering where he was. It wasn't like him to do anything behind her back. On the day of the Sabzeruz Festival nonetheless. Perhaps she had just slept in. But the Traveller would have awoken her, no? They were specially invited by Dunyarzad after all.

She had only just noticed, but the air in here felt, oddly thin, and she found breathing to be more difficult than normal. Her hairs felt on end, as if she was statically charged. Deciding she didn't want to be in this room any longer, and to search for her missing companion, she wriggled out of bed and floated towards the door. Exiting the building.

As for where our outlander was. He was back at the site of his battle with the Akademiya last night. His hair messy and unbraided, his face mixed with confusion, hysteria and paranoia.

'Why was he here?'

Not the Traveller. But 'him'

'How was he here? Why now?!'

Questions flooded his mind as he approached the Akademiya building, oddly few guards present, adding to his paranoia. Usually they gathered in the dozens.

He wasn't here to fight. Not with any soldiers or sages or Akademiya scholars no. He was here to calm himself down. After all it isn't everyday that you speak with The Balladeer.

Even just thinking the title left a bitter taste in his mouth. Fatui scum. Why was he here?! The cycle he had grown all too familiar with was beginning to crumble around him. He of course wanted to break it, but the sudden shift of atmosphere and change of power shook him to his core. Everything that he thought he knew about the cycles were wrong.

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The time spent between cycles was often nothing but blackness. Aether always felt so empty, and vulnerable during those moments. He knew that he would soon relive the same day again. He felt powerless to stop whatever force was upholding the time loops. But. This interlude was different.

"How many days do you think you've been trapped in here?"

H-he was here, talking to him. His eerie calm voice chilling the Traveller.

"Did you know, that this festival was made in honour of Buer?"

Who was Buer? How was HE here!? This isn't how the cycles were meant to go.

"Soon. It will be made in honour, of me."

What was he talking about? How was he talking to him in the first place!?