The Alchemist and The Traveler | Albedo x Aether

Chapter 1 | Outlander's Crossing

To Cyrus: My best friend in life and the only person genuine enough to say how they really feel. You are one of the only people left in this world who actually has a heart. Never change. I love you.

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Stars are beautiful, raging power plants. They produce and use their own fuel, until they die in a brutal implosion. Then they destroy everything around them. It's an awaited event for every star out there, that all have an inevitable end. No matter how big or small the star is, they all die. This is what a man living in a cold place knew, writing notes onto his clipboard silently at his home, which was merely just a small cave filled with lab equipment, knew about the world.

Nothing lined up, though. Stars couldn't be the truth to the world. It felt almost too easy. He placed his clipboard down, and rubbed his temples with a sigh of frustration while thinking to himself. Maybe it could be that the truth to the world is death? No He thought. No, that's too depressing. Master must mean something more complex than that. The man stood, relieving himself away from his biggest project, and began packing his things. Perhaps going into town and clearing his head may allow for some sort of chance to resolve this more easily at a later time. Not to mention the stress caused by this centuries-old problem, which also needed to be offloaded. The scientist decided that the best person for this problem would be none other than his little sister. Though she wasn't really his little sister, he saw her as such regardless and didn't even need to question whether she saw him in a mutual feeling or not.

The man left his abode on the icy mountain and traversed the well traveled path, efficiently making his way to the main city in the region of the element Anemo, Mondstadt. While walking, the man was lost in his thoughts. He ran the steps of alchemy through his head, over and over. Nigredo... Rubedo... Albedo... Citrinas... Until it hit him, and he stopped in his tracks. Was perhaps the meaning of this world, for things to change? Was his master prophesying that by naming him after the step 'Albedo' that Albedo would bring change with alchemy and correct the mistakes his master made? That couldn't be it. There is no reason for him to be a key, and he spent enough time with his master to know that she, too, was also learning. Albedo continued to walk, stepping onto the familiar stone bridge into the city as he felt like he was being warmly embraced with the familiarity of a home away from home away from home. Home truly lied with wherever his master goes, so his home on the mountain was temporary. Though, he had grown very accustomed to it as well as his little sister and his assistant.

Albedo figured the best place to start would be addressing his stress, so he walked toward the Knights of Favonius HQ where his little sister was, no doubt, being held "hostage". This would also be a good chance to drop off his reports from his most recent research, which was delving more into the elementary-level technique of simply turning paintings into real objects. He had known how to do this for quite some time, but with the lack of official reports in the archives, this required touch ups on his own notes and research. Albedo could easily just relay to the Librarian how the research went, but it was more formal if he just provided fresh and detailed descriptions, which were resting in his folder as well as his sketches and notes. As he approached the door, he caught sight of the Acting GrandMaster outside, overlooking the view of the city on what he assumed was a break. He cleared his throat, preparing for the approaching conversation he would do his utmost best to make brief. Albedo walked up, and pulled papers from his folder. "Hello, Jean. I'm sorry to intrude on your break, but is Lisa in today?"

Jean was initially startled by the alchemist's presence, but turned and jumped right back into work mode. "Yes, I believe she should be. She's just going around with our new honorary knight collecting the late books. They shouldn't be too long. Are you also here to see Klee?"