It feels like hours have passed since you sat down, waiting for the doctors to open the door into the operation room and update you on Sunset Eyes. Your companions, River Fairy and Busy Bee don't seem to see any reason to stay, as Busy Bee has tried to urge you to the exit pleadingly and impatiently. He even holds up his suitcase and swings it in the air, pointing to the door and making an exaggerated buff body builder pose. You can only guess he means to say he's ready for round two with that unhinged man from before.
You originally wanted to stick with "Blondie" for his temporary name, but his briefcase made it easy for you to change his name to something that matched his need to fidget, pace, and find something to do during the time you've been waiting.
So, let's say he gets past the buff man in the other room. You'll still have to crawl through that vent with blades again, and they can be activated at the will of the enemy. And for what, just to end up on the other side of this room? He doesn't know that part and you don't have any way to communicate your thoughts, so you suppose it's understandable.
The part of the facility we're allowed to access is a loop. Any possible exits in that vent tunnel were sealed off...so maybe there's another door I haven't seen yet.
The only place I haven't looked around is the operating room.
So you continue to shake your head at Busy Bee, despite his growing frustration. He could always leave you to head out on his own, but seems vehemently reluctant to do so.
River Fairy, on the other hand, has looked around the room in search of something. She drifts between the tables like a dandelion seed in the wind almost absentmindedly. You can see the concern on her features when her gaze land on you, contemplation in her freshwater-blue eyes once she finally crosses the distance to sit on the table beside you.
You jerk a little when she raises her hand, motioning to your body and eventually reaching forward when you don't try to dissuade her. She nudges your collar out of the way quite a bit until you see her expression fall with sympathy. By the time Busy Bee notices and approaches the two of you, his gold eyes soften and some of his initial frustration fades away.
Is it bad? As bad as all these cuts?
At the thought, you lift your arms and pull your bralette aside to give your chest a quick peek. If your clothes weren't composed of near black colors, you'd probably be able to see all the blood saturated into it.
You're...actually still bleeding.
When you pinch the fabric, blood drips out of it and onto your fingers. The fact it's still wet and hasn't dried up is pretty concerning.
The sight of it makes River Fairy start to rip off pieces of her dress skirt and turn to you, unsure of herself as she clutches the torn fabric and looks at your gashes. When she turns to Busy Bee and gives him her pleading eyes, he eventually sighs and takes half of the fabric from her, pulling up your arm opposite of her side and wrapping the fabric around the areas with the deepest cuts.
With this much blood loss, it's unusual that you're still able to sit up and walk around just fine. You're not lightheaded whatsoever, even though you can still see blood coming off the cuts on your torso. There's not much to do about those on your chest or stomach, other than to wipe them off yourself when it creates globules of scarlet. Once the doctors finish up with Sunset Eyes, you can probably gesture for help with your own injuries.
The minutes continue to tick by. Hours.
None of you can tell what time it is, though sleepiness weighs in heavily on River Fairy by the looks of it. As if contagious, it passes to you the longer you wait. At some point, River Fairy closes her eyes and submits to sleep while Busy Bee remains completely alert.
You're still actively fighting off your intensifying urge to sleep when you hear the door to the operating room open. You would have expected Busy Bee to have a faster reaction time, but it's you who leaps off the table first, hand tight around the violet orb as you dodge the tragic gore in front of the door.
"He's done," you hear a voice say, slipping into the room with the entrapped doctors.
The female doctor that served as the speaker of the group when you first entered waits beside Sunset Eyes when you approach them, Busy Bee and River Fairy following in behind you. To your mild surprise, they immediately glue themselves to the side of the bandaged man.
River Fairy has her hands over her silenced mouth, Busy Bee gently turning the white haired man's face to look at him. Just by the way Sunset Eye's head lolls to follow Busy Bee's guidance, he's not going to be exactly "fighting fit", especially now that both his eyes have been bandaged over to block his vision.
Even sitting up shows Sunset Eye's unsteadiness, likely due to the operation.
"He's not going to be able to walk on his own with the anesthetic in his system. Don't be alarmed by the bandage size, it's better for the healing process if his good eye isn't dragging his traumatized eye around to look at things. The less to look at, the better. As long as he takes it easy, he will make a full recovery. Even the broken nose wasn't so bad," the woman explains as Busy Bee studies the patch over the bridge of Sunset Eye's nose.
Going just by how they reacted at the sight of him and how meticulously Busy Bee is about examining his state, they clearly know one another.
It's at that point that you draw closer to take one of Sunset Eye's hands, making him lift his head just slightly at the feeling. His hand twitches in yours, but allows you to flip his palm upwards with care.
As soon as you set the glowing violet orb in his hand, the glass object lights up more than before, catching everyone's attention. There's another barely perceptible twitch in his hand, which is coupled with what almost look to be a spark of-
With a click, Sunset Eye's collar gives away under the jagged jolts of electricity that bounce off of his body. Equally as shocking, yours does too, and both contraptions fall to the floor with noisy clatters.
"Hey, w-what was that? Electricity...?"
"Who cares what it was! Their collars came off the second they touched that purple glass thing together! If we touch it, we'll be able to take off these stupid cuffs from our wrists too!"
Alarms blare in your gut. You and Sunset Eyes had shock collars on, so even if it could have caused a reaction, it's safer than applying electricity to the cuffs of the doctors. The doctors cuffs could detonate, which means there's already an unstable reaction waiting to stabilize- quietly or explosively. What if Sunset Eye's electricity sets it off by accident?
"Hey, stay back! Don't be stupid!" You shout, pulling Sunset Eyes to his feet and swinging his unsteady body behind you towards Busy Bee and River Fairy. "Busy Bee, take him. Don't let any of them touch him."
As soon as Sunset Eyes is spun into the blonde man's arms, the collar around the blonde's neck clicks and falls off.
"Ugh, thank the Archons! And what did you just call me?!" He is quick to ask, all the while River Fairy places her hand on Sunset Eye's shoulder. As it had with yours, her shock collar falls to the floor with a relieved sigh on her part.
"Later," you quip, keeping yourself between the few approaching doctors desperate to remove their cuffs. "Your cuffs are filled with explosives, remember? Do you want to risk it detonating if you touch him?"
"You don't know it will do that for sure either!" One man shouts, ripping his medical mask off and throwing it to the side. "Is this how you're gonna treat us after we worked to fix his eye with no breaks? Four hours of work straight?!"
"It's not about fairness, it's about safety! Do you even hear yourself? If this doesn't work like you think it will, you'll be dead. Wouldn't you prefer finding a safer alternative before gambling your life away?" You press.
"Hey, it's okay! We don't need to rush into things, just-" the older female doctor tries to get a word in, approaching close enough for the male doctor to throw out his hand to hit her in the face. With a surprised cry, she hits the cart of medical tools beside the table Sunset Eyes was originally on.
"Don't fucking touch me!" The man grows angrier when you move to help the older doctor up, Busy bee stepping to your side with his briefcase at hand.
"Step back a little," he says quietly, making you pull the dazed doctor along with you carefully.
"Are you alright?" You ask the woman, who seems out of it. A repeat of the question later and she finally answers with a nod. You direct your next words to Busy Bee. "Whatever you're thinking of doing, do it at only a quarter percent of your strength. He's not from where you're from, so even if he looks strong, he doesn't stand a chance against your elemental abilities."
River Fairy pulls Sunset Eyes along and passes him to you and the older doctor, stepping forward beside Busy Bee.
"We'll be careful. And we'll try not to hit their cuffs," she says, surprising you when she pulls a sword out from under the remaining pieces of her torn dress skirt, right from a blue sheath attached to her right thigh and hip.
Right, Tighnari also had a weapon of sorts too. He had his bow and arrows, Sunset Eyes has some kind of spear, River Fairy has a sword, and Busy Bee has a...briefcase? One of these is not like the others.
You almost want to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Are you sure you're not dreaming? And he said he'd go swinging it around earlier, didn't he? He seems confident enough. As far as things go, you're the only one with a weapon prone to failure- not that you're still carrying it around anymore.
It's while thinking about their weapons that you remember something, causing your attention to fall on the door across the room. It leads to the room you originally met the doctors from and where Sunset Eyes got injured. His hat and spear should still be in there.
"...listening to some cunt like her!" The man continues to yell as you tune back into the argument, but now you're noticing that he's holding a medical bone saw, coming closer to Busy Bee and River Fairy.
"Who do you think you're referring to with that sort of language?!" Busy Bee shouts back. "She's only looking out for your well being and you're acting as if she's personally attacked you!"
"Well, she has! Everyone knows her! A little too fucking well, if you ask me!" The man looks around Busy Bee to look at you, where you've been inching closer and closer around the perimeter of the room to migrate to the opposite door. You're thankful the other doctors are seemingly reluctant to touch Sunset Eyes at least, stepping out of the way to allow you through. "Hey! Rouge!"
You freeze at the sound of your stage name, looking back at the unfamiliar man making a wholly unnecessary scene.
"Yeah, you remember me, right? Do you remember ghosting me after we slept together? You remember ignoring my calls and text messages?! What about all that money I wasted blowing you, do you remember that?!"
...Was I drunk when I met him, or have I just been with so many people that I've gotten worse at remembering faces? I thought I was doing a pretty good job all in all. I've kept in contact well enough with the men that have wanted to continue casual hookups with me.
"I...might. I'm sorry, I haven't been very thoughtful about my behavior. Especially whenever I'm, um, drunk. I have a problem," you confess...sort of.
Based on his behavior thus far, there's this nagging feeling that you're apologizing to someone who probably doesn't deserve it. After all, you're pretty sure you should remember him. You usually remember the really good ones and the really bad ones the most, especially if they're mysogynists.
"Alright. I guess...you were pretty drunk when I picked you up at that bar," the male doctor agrees, crossing his arms with a sigh of resignation. Notably, he doesn't let go of the bone saw even though he looks calmer now.
Ah, so he approached you while you were out drinking? And took you home to cash in on his easy target thanks to your disadvantage? Oh, but no, you're the messed up one that needs to apologize for waking up and going home without a care in the world on who banged you.
Come to think of it, you don't recall ever getting any phone calls or texts from unknown numbers even though he says you ignored his texts and calls. Maybe you gave him the number you had before? Or you gave him the wrong number accidentally? On purpose?
"So you remember my name, right?"
Oh no...I feel like some kind of sexist pig for not remembering, and he's the one that clearly took advantage of me.
"I think so." A lie, one that's close to getting you sweating.
Silence follows. Neither your companions nor the doctors seem willing to break the silence.
"Do you...?" River Fairy whispers back to you in question, head angling just slightly where her ear points towards you but her eyes remains on the man.
"No," you reply just as quietly, causing her to wince in pity.
"So?" The man speaks up, now somewhat suspicious. His expression says it all. "What's my name then?"
You clear your throat after spinning a metaphorical wheel of names in your mind, hoping and praying he has one of the most common names in existence
"John," you say.
After a heavy moment of silence, your breath held in anticipation, you see his shoulders relax. Your heart stops clenching in relief.
"Okay, I believe you."
On the first guess too, dang.
"Really?" Busy Bee asks, guard dropping slightly.
"No, you idiot! My name is Damien!" The doctor shouts at him, but he doesn't even get a chance to lift his bonesaw when Busy Bee's fist strikes out for the second time.
"Archons, is everyone's head here comprised of bricks?" Busy Bee laments, shaking his hand of the pain once the doctor drops like a sack of potatoes. Amusing or not, all that matters is that this doctor doesn't kill himself and poor Sunset Eyes with his bad judgment.
"Thank you. By the way, Busy Bee," the blond looks towards you with a dry expression. "I'm gonna step out into the other room for just a second. I left some of our stuff in there prior to meeting you and...um, River Fairy."
The red head giggles lightly when you gesture to her, her kind smile easing your antsy nerves.
"My name is Nilou, and Busy Bee over there is Kaveh. The one you're holding is our friend Cyno, the General Mahamatra of Sumeru," Nilou explains as she approaches you to help steady Cyno while you go get his things. "I'll take him for now."
"Alright," you say, stepping around the doctors that are putting the unconscious Damien doctor in restraints.
The room is lit with a green hue when you push open the door. Before you step in though, Kaveh calls out.
"Hold on, ah...was it Rouge? Take Mehrak with you, just to be safe."
You turn around in time to see Kaveh gently toss his briefcase up, making it light up in a familiar looking verdant green hue reminiscent of the color Tighnari's arrows took the first time. You met him.
The surface of the briefcase shifts to reveal panels that open up to a cute face on the front of it. It beeps in a series of frequencies before Kaveh makes another gesture.
"Leave my weapon with me," Kaveh adds casually, causing the doctors to gasp when a large oversized sword materializes in a flicker of green cubes in front of him. Confused by their reactions, Kaveh turns away from you to face the doctors while Mehrak approaches you. "Why are you so shocked? I understand it's novel, but Mehrak's still only a toolbox with a minimalist AI."
You walk through the doorway with Mehrak, grimacing when you see the blood splatter from where Cyno had been attacked. When you release your grip from the doorway, you realize you've left a handprint of your own smeared blood on the frame.
How are you still bleeding with no major consequence? You're even on your period too, you should have keeled over ages ago.
Disregarding it for now, you wipe your blood from your palms to approach the table where Cyno's hat and spear have been left. Not only are they exactly where you left them, but two other items sit to their side now. Tighnari's garment and your beloved hideous bag.
Mehrak beeps quickly when you promptly hurry over to the items, fully prepared to embrace Tighnari's top. The scent of the rainforest has long since faded from the fabric, but you've taken very good care of it. In fact, your care for it is what stops you inches from getting your bloodstained hands on it.
If you hug it right now, you'll get it dirty...better carefully put it away until you can replace the temporary fabrics Nilou and Kaveh bandaged your arms with.
You drape the fabric over the top of your bag, the hood hanging out from under the flap after using Cyno's spear to scoot it into your things. You don't want to force it in since you might break something in your bag. You know you have lotion and perfume in it, it won't be fun if something bursts inside of it.
"Alright, cute stuff. Let's go back to the operation room," you say to the briefcase, turning back around to rejoin the others.
As you're shutting the door to the room where your belongings once were, hugging Cyno's hat and spear, a siren begins to blare from outside the room. It bellows between a long droning sound like a machine and a whale, climbing down the initial octave slowly before it climbs and falls again in the same way.
It sounds a lot like...the sound of the siren from Alcatraz Penitentiary. Specifically, the recordings of the siren uploaded onto the internet back when it was still in operation. These days, the structure on Alcatraz Island sits with little purpose other than for tourism, not that it was in operation all that long to begin with either. Didn't even reach a thirty year anniversary before they realized the operating cost of this prison compared to others, as well as the erosion caused by the salt water of the ocean, was not worth it.
"What's that...?" Cyno half-slurs his words as you finally realize where you're all trapped, making you hurry over you his and Nilou's side as the siren dies out gradually.
How can they be doing stuff in Alcatraz Island though? Is it under the portion of the facility left for tourism? How would it go unnoticed?
A warm spray from out of nowhere hits your back and you jerk, turning to see its source. Was someone else panicked enough to attack you for Cyno?
Negative, unfortunately. In fact, another delusional person would have been better than what you see, since there's now a large red stain left behind where someone- another doctor- has erupted blood from the orifices of his head. He now lays across the floor as if asleep, blood dripping slowly into the grid of the tile. In the corners of your eyes, you see more doctors begin dropping like flies.
"What's happening?" Nilou asks, alarm in her voice as she tries to steady the older female doctor on her way to the floor. The woman in her arms has gone limp, the blood rushing up and out of her ears first before it spurts from her mouth and nose next.
And then the lights go out.
"I can't see anything, where is everyone?" You hear Kaveh ask, your heart kicking up to a new speed when you hear a sizzling sound. It sounds like air...like a leaking pipe. Or water?
They're trying to put us to sleep again, aren't they?
It's a sensation of mist that hits you, prompting you to grab the fabric in your bag and take Cyno's hand so he can hold it over his own nose. You're getting Tighnari's top dirty like you didn't want to, but Tighnari should understand if you explain the dire circumstances. If you see him again.
"Is everyone alright?" You hear Kaveh ask, even though you have your suspicions of what's happening. The sizzling sound stops shortly after his repeated query.
"I'm alright, but the older female doctor is bleeding and fainted, I'm still supporting her," Nilou says in the dark quickly. "Rouge, are you and Cyno okay?"
"We're fine," you say, risking removing your top from where you pulled it up over your own nose. It's so small that it would leave you indecent had you not been in the dark. You expect to hear some of the doctors start to chime in agreement in the dark. Even lifting your arm to sniff your wet "bandages" gives no chemical odor, save for the metallic smell of blood.
Not all the doctors were bleeding, were they? Are they okay? No one is saying anything.
It's a disturbing thought that settles in your gut as you wait for an answer that won't come.
"Hello?" Kaveh asks again, followed closely by a familiar sound in the air.
"Shit," you remark to no one in particular, pulling Cyno down to the floor with you. "Everyone, get on the floor. They're going to make us lose consciousness."
"What?! What do you mean?" Kaveh demands. "Do you know what's going on then? Explain!"
"I don't know who these people are, but they've been bothering me for a while now. No idea why, no idea what they want to do with you, but the sound you're hearing is somethi-ing-" you try to get the words out quickly, but your words stumble over one another as the invasive sound sinks into your ears and nausea settles over you.
You can't see the others, but you assume the same is happening to them in the dark. Cyno is already sinking further to the floor beside you as you try to hold yourself up, only to give in when the curtains fall over your mind.
━━━━━ |🌺| ━━━━━
It's hot.
That's the first thing you think when you feel yourself waking up. Sudden and somewhat inaccurate to what's actually going on around you.
It's not hot, it's burning. Specifically, your back is burning.
With a sharp outcry, you leap up to your feet and look around, only for the burning to penetrate the pads of feet. You're still wearing your heels, but every step you take sinks until the heat hits your feet.
Ow, ow, ow! What the fuck, what the fuck?!
Hopping around and eventually throwing off your top to stand on, you find relief with your arms wrapped around your chest. Your feet no longer scream, but your skin cries as the unbearable sunlight roasts your backside and body.
You're surrounded by sand. Every which way you look, you see mounds of the material, baking under the heat and casting a blur to your surroundings.
"Wha..." you trail off, until you notice someone lying in the sand close to where you are. "Hey!"
Cyno is motionless where he lays, oblivious to the burning sand and the scorching sun. The bandage from before is still wound securely around his eyes, dirt sitting on the surface from the humid breeze that throws sand over the two of you.
You can see Tighnari's garment sitting over his stomach, and you take it with some unnecessary guilt while your other shirt is being used as a mat against the sand. Using your shirt as a mat isn't exactly working, you're just making the shirt sink into the sand with the point of your heel.
Something must have happened while you were unconscious, because your arms and torso are wrapped in bandages completely, enough that you probably don't actually need a shirt. You don't wanna risk any movement challenging your coverage though, so you put Tighnari's top on.
He's not awake yet...I'll have to carry him.
You're not sure if you have the strength for it, despite the muscle you've built in the time since you started pole dancing. That said, you're not about to abandon him in this godforsaken place.
You sit back down on the sand once you've made sure you can sit on your skirt without touching the burning sand.
Taking your shirt from where it's been sinking, your next idea is to rip it in two and tuck them over the bottom of your feet. There's not much fabric to cover the tops of your feet by a lot, but with some ribbons from a broken skirt you have shoved in your bag that you've ignored for a bit, you're able to break some more fabric to pad your feet twice and tie the fabric around your ankles.
They look like gift bags on your feet...
Once you stand and decide they work, you turn to Cyno and start hauling him up to his feet. You lift him up high enough that his legs drag, only to let him back down when you're unable to lift him more. Maybe piggyback would be better?
Come on, you're not even that tall! How are you this-?
Your hand grasps his bicep as you sit him up and shift in front of him, making your thoughts halt when you feel the muscular build of his arm.
Ah. That must be why he's heavy.
With some effort, he hangs over your backside and you start walking towards some of the taller sand mounds. He's heavy, but you trudge on despite it.
Your motivation is simple: if you're in Sumeru, they've probably put you wherever Tighnari is. They always do. Why he wouldn't be in the Avidya Forest is beyond you, and why he would be in the desert is further indecipherable. You didn't even know they had a desert in the region.
By the time you get to the tall mound, you're out of breath and exhausted. It wasn't a great distance away, but the incline definitely sucked.
Okay, where the hell are we?
You survey the expanse of the desert until you see something afar that looks like an oasis near some large sand dunes and towering sandstone structures beyond the swirling wind. The blue of the water and the green of the palm trees has you eager to reach it, though another thought soon makes you temper your excitement.
If you've seen enough movies set in the desert, then you're more than familiar with mirages caused by the heat on the sand and the heat on the human brain.
Well, staying here isn't any better than going over there. It would help if they had a map or something to tell me where we are...
Who cares, a chance is a chance.
You make your way down the sand dune, your balance greatly disoriented by the movement of the sand under your feet and the shifting weight of Cyno. By the time you reach the bottom, you can't help but groan from exhaustion.
Now that you're at the bottom, it looks further away. If this is god's design, you hate it.
All you can hear is the whipping hot wind and your own breath once you've got your stamina back. You can't bring yourself to count the minutes or seconds it takes. In fact, you pretty much disassociate as you walk, focused on your own thoughts. You don't dare pause to catch your breath again. This time you walk and ignore your crying muscles, lest your desire for relief causes you to give up entirely.
When you reach the oasis and finally stop, it doesn't even occur to you to be relieved it's real. For all you know, the water you fall to your knees in is a mirage as well, a phantom relief that in reality doesn't alleviate much. It's under the sun despite the clarity of the liquid, and with the wind carrying its own heat, it barely cools you down.
You don't have many options though, so you first try to get water on Cyno first. The amount of time between when you passed out and woke up in the desert is hard to guess. If you're lucky, enough time for him to be lucid has passed.
"Cyno?" You say his name, gently shaking his arm. His shoulders stick out with his head above water, your grip stopping him from sinking. "It's time to wake up. Can you hear me?"
More silence and no response.
You're just about to give up and leave the water to sit with him under a shady palm tree when you feel his arm twitch.
His head lifts.
And then you feel a sudden impact at your back, making you shriek in surprise as you're sent flying forward with him into the water. The water splashes with your movements as you and Cyno try to stand up, though the feeling of pressure on your abdominal wounds from a hand knotting in the back of Tighnari's top makes you grunt with discomfort when you're yanked back off balance.
"Look here! It's the famous General Mahamatra!" A deep female voice laughs out loud as your hands reach back to claw the hand from your clothes. Once again, another tug shakes your efforts off and you're dunked into the water of grainy sand. When you're yanked out of the water again, you're coughing up the sand grains that stubbornly stick to your mouth. "Sorry, that's not intentional, I'm not trying to drown you. But hey, I didn't take the General Mahamatra to be someone that would disappear because of a pretty lady!"
There's laughter from behind you, which you can't see thanks to the water and sand in your eyes obstructing your vision. Either way, the woman hauling you around is clearly much stronger than you, because she drags you out of the water effortlessly.
By the time you've been released, wiping water and sand from your face, you can see Cyno dragged beside you, eyes still bandaged despite the copious sand clumps that cling to him. His hat has fallen somewhere, leaving his soaked hair sticking to his face and neck.
"What a find...to think he's been missing for five months. I thought for sure the pricks at the Academy would have already pronounced him dead by now. Where the hell has he been? Just wandering the desert?" A man inquires.
"Don't know, don't care. This is great, now we have something to trade and get Zain back. As for this one...isn't she dressed strangely?" The woman asks her companion, stepping closer.
You look up at her approach, noting the long mossy green hair of a light complexion. With her darker tan skin against her long thick hair braid which goes down to her calves, she contrasts the barren desert around you, fitting in with the oasis as if she were meant to preside over it. Like a model to a themed set.
To your surprise, her eyes are covered by a red fabric that should reasonably obstruct her vision. Based on the way she regards you though, she's clearly looking at you...somehow. On her back sits a large hoop, glowing that familiar verdant green you've seen with Tighnari and Kaveh.
She can use elemental powers. Great, we don't stand a chance unless Cyno can fight blind too.
Casting your gaze over to Cyno, you see he's barely able to push up from the sand as is. If he can barely do that, you're both at the mercy of these people.
Well, it's that violet orb that lets Cyno use his abilities, right? Maybe I can use it to defend us.
Your eyes shift over to the violet orb attached to his shorts, clumsily done in his blindness since it's clipped to the fabric in a way it might fall off. You're about to lunge for it when the woman's hand strikes out and grabs your wrist, stopping you short of your movements before you've even gone anywhere.
"Oh? You look like you want his vision...are you his enemy then? You'll render him helpless and run off on your own?" She asks playfully, a smile gracing her serene features as you try to find your breath under her suffocating gaze. Is she doing that to you?
"V-Vision?" You ask, making her smile falter slightly. She hums and tilts her head to a small degree.
"You don't know?" She asks gently. You try to shake your head no, and although it's plain and simple, she rephrases her question for clarity. "You don't know what a vision is?"
You shake your head again.
She releases your wrist and looks back at the bodybuilder beside her, her grin larger as she seems amused by your reaction.
"I know we usually drop people off at the nearest location, but we'll take her with us too. I want to talk to her," the woman answers, gesturing towards you and Cyno. "Clean them up and feed them something before we keep heading North-east. Caravan Ribat is still a ways away. We'll stop for provisions at Aaru Village with Candace."
Everything that happens, from feeding you some type of sweet and sour rice dish made of veal you enjoyed, to sitting you on an oversized orange beast that looked to be a mix between a turtle and a buffalo with the woman in charge, happens without much fuss from you or the very incapacitated Cyno. At this point, why refuse? The woman, who you learn is named Fatima, isn't throwing you around anymore. Cyno got fed, and both of you are on your way to civilization.
It's pretty easy to assume at this point that Tighnari is nowhere near wherever you are. The enemy has targeted you, three new individuals, and they've ignored Tighnari completely.
Would they really put me here without him? Is it because Cyno is here instead? Is this intentional, or is it a mistake like when they accidentally transported Tighnari back to San Francisco with me?
You're frustrated, but don't say anything. You don't even have the energy to ask Fatima if she knows of him. Despite your quiet demeanor, Fatima eventually strikes up a conversation an hour later that effortlessly drags you out of your silence.
"So you don't know what visions are and you don't know the widely known local fauna of Sumeru...where exactly are you from?" She asks, gripping the reins of the animal they were calling a sumpter beast. "You're not from Sumeru, I at least know that, but you sound like you've lived in a cave for your whole life. And yet that doesn't make sense either. You don't behave like a hermit...completely."
"Completely", she says. Well, she's not wrong.
"My home is San Francisco. It's not in Teyvat," you answer, hearing the nagging voice of Tighnari's spirit scolding you in the back of your mind. You really do not care who you tell though, it's a hassle trying to lie. On top of that, what value is knowing where you're really from anyways? They can't use it against you, and you can't use it against them. It's just a fact of your life. "I was just over there in a weird lab with Cyno before waking up here. He's like that because of the people that decided to...I don't know. Examine us like lab rats, or something."
"Is that so?" She questions, almost dismissive. Whether she believes you or not is of no consequence to you. If she wants to know your side of the details, you'll give it to her and let her decide on what she hears. "You both look pretty rough."
"Yeah. I'm surprised they dropped me here in Sumeru again, it's been over two years since I last visited. I was only ever left in the rainforest though, this is my first time in the desert," you comment, making Fatima laugh.
"How are you liking it then? This is my home among the sand dunes," she says warmly, prompting you to look around at the towering sandstone structures that you pass through with the group on their sumpter beasts. The group is composed of seven other members besides Fatima, a decent number with three sumpter beasts carrying supplies. Still, you feel safe enough. And Cyno is being well taken care of by a man riding another beast beside you and Fatima.
"It's a desert." What else are you supposed to say about it?
"You haven't seen the pyramids yet, have you?" She adds, sparking your interest vaguely. When you peek back at her, she laughs more. She's a lot more jovial than you initially pegged her to be when she was swinging your body around in the oasis like a rag doll. "I guarantee you'll find them compelling enough to see the desert the way I see it. Even with that stone face of yours."
I'll take your word for it from somewhere I won't be roasted to death by the sun. I haven't put on sunscreen in hours, and my face is probably aging double-time as we speak.
"...Where are we."
Cyno's voice catches you off guard, his tone flat like he wasn't asking a question.
"The desert. We're almost about to reach Aaru Village," Fatima answers, smiling over at him despite his blinded state. "I didn't realize you were trying to copy my style, Cyno. Don't forget to credit me, I started the trend first."
"Fatima," Cyno says, making Fatima give a noise of agreement. "Who else is here?"
"Your friend. She was trying to wake you up before, but you were still out of it."
"We're strangers, actually. I don't actually know him," you correct the woman, feeling her gaze land on you as you leave your statement at that.
"Are you that woman I was trapped with?" Cyno asks next, this one more like a question. "...Rouge. I heard Kaveh call you that."
"Oh, that's right! The Light of Kersharwar and Zubayr Theater's star performer both disappeared as well. We're all four of you together in that Safa-sicko place?" Fatima asks, her horrendous butchering of your home bringing a slight twitch of amusement to you.
Somehow, that name is more accurate to how you feel about it now. Especially with the skyrocketing cost of living and the state the city is becoming with unaddressed infrastructure concerns in the areas of lower income.
"If you mean Kaveh and Nilou, yeah. They were with us, but I didn't see anyone but Cyno when I woke up here in the desert, so..." You don't finish that sentence.
There's two possibilities. Either they were transported to a different part of Teyvat, or they're still in that lab you and Cyno left. If they're still there...it doesn't bode well for your conscience.
"Are you okay though? You got the worst of it over there. That operation to fix your eye probably still hurts even with the painkillers they gave you," you change the subject, watching as Cyno puts a hand over the bandage across his eyes gingerly.
"I've dealt with worse."
This is not a comforting statement to hear.
"Worse...worse than your eye popping out of its socket...?" You ask hesitantly, unsure of what else to say. Fatima's jaw drops slightly at that.
"Your eye popped out of its socket?" She asks, looking more intrigued than actually concerned. Morbid curiosity practically oozes from her voice. "Is it still there?"
"I still have it," Cyno responds, as if completely unbothered. Honestly, you're glad he chooses not to answer your question. You're not as eager as Fatima to hear what could be worse than an eye popping out of its socket.
You snap out of your thoughts when you see him reach up to pull off the bandage from around his eyes.
A gasp is caught in your throat when he does so, alarms ringing in your head when he opens his eyes slightly to the blazing sun above. You catch a glimpse of his bloodshot eye just before they snap shut and both hands fly to cover it.
Yeah, right! Cause that eye can handle things like sunlight, the flying sand, and the goddamn wind!
"What are you doing? You're going to get an infection if you expose it, what in god's name is going on in your head?" You demand, all but ignored when Cyno tries to open his eyes again to no avail. "If you want to help so badly, just uncover your good eye. Not that that's smart either, but at least you're not going to ruin the eye the doctors made an effort to save. You know it took them several hours, right? Don't be stupid."
Thankfully he doesn't combat your words and listens to you by beginning to wrap the bandage diagonally over his bad eye, only speaking once he's tied the back behind his head and under his hair.
"I would rather have both eyes at my disposal, but this will suffice," he says, still blinking his good eye under the sunset light. As low as it is on the horizon, it still sears your face, so you can only imagine how it feels under his gaze after so much darkness. "You brought my spear and hat too, right?"
"She took care of them. They're attached to the sumpter beast," Fatima answers for you. When he turns to peer at you and notices what you're wearing, you can see his expression shift slightly.
"What? Is there something on me?" You ask, watching as his sunset eye scans you from top to bottom swiftly.
"That garment...it's Tighnari's favorite," he states without inquiry. "It's been missing for over a year."
Your heart leaps up to your throat, coloring your voice with a warmth and energy that wasn't present while speaking anytime before.
"You know Tighnari? How is he? Is he doing okay?" You shoot out the questions rapid fire, noting the slight twitch at the corner of Cyno's lips as a result.
His stone-like visage makes it a bit difficult to read him, but he doesn't seem bothered by your questions.
"Last I saw him, he was creating a log on a new mushroom he found deep in the forest. That was a long while ago," Cyno says, his body posture far more at ease with the new topic. "I'm guessing...you're the woman Collei overdosed with anxiety medication. You match her description well enough."
You laugh at that, considering it was so long ago and you didn't think it'd ever come up again. Hopefully Collei hasn't continued to feel guilty after all this time.
"Tighnari and his mushrooms. Why am I not surprised...and that overdose thing was nothing, it was just an accident. If anything, she gave me a well rested nap out of that," you cover for the other girl, watching as Cyno's features soften.
"Really," he says more than asks.
Somehow, you get the feeling like you've just passed a test you didn't sign up to take.
As soon as your conversation concludes with Cyno, you hear a low rolling chuckle of intrigue Fatima from behind you. All of a sudden, the hairs on your arms and the back of your neck stand on end.
"Tighnari. Isn't the person she's fawning over your best friend?" Fatima completely flips your world upside down with that query, causing your stomach to knot up several more times when Cyno nods in agreement.
"That would be him."
You're briefly embarrassed to be called out. You're embarrassed you were just talking about Tighnari so warmly to his best friend.
Then, you remember you have nothing to hide about your surface-level attraction to Tighnari, and you stop worrying so much. Once you've come to a conclusion, you pull lightly at the garment you're wearing and continue speaking. A contrast to how you were before Tighnari came up.
"He gave me this the last time we were together in my home city. We were being harrassed by the people that had you, Kaveh, Nilou, and myself in that lab space," you reveal to him, causing his mood to shift from lighthearted to serious in a heartbeat. "We've been discussing what they want, but they were only interested in me and Tighnari the times they've acted before. This is the first time I see them target someone else and ignore Tighnari."
"Are they from your home?" Fatima asks. "Or are they from Teyvat?"
"We deduced they must be from my home, and I think we're right. They've been sort of...watching me from afar the past two years since I last saw Tighnari. I don't think there's been a moment they have ever left me on my own."
"Strange. They've left you here alone in the desert with me where he would never be. In the desert heat, Tighnari is quick to succumb to heat stroke," Cyno informs you, glancing back discreetly around the man that rides the sumpter beast with him.
"What is it?" Fatima asks. You still have to wonder how she has vision with that fabric over her eyes.
"...How many people are in your party?"
"five including myself, seven if we include the two of you. Why?" Fatima supplies, though her muscles tense against your backside from the simple question. After all, he wouldn't be asking if everything was normal.
So something's not right.
And you have a guess it has to do with the people in the group.
"Nobody turn around to confirm my count. Our party has increased to eight," Cyno states. "There's no telling if any of the original members of your group have been ambushed and replaced either."
"You don't think they'd do that, do you? I mean..." You trail off unsure of how to continue. Of course they would, they've shown time and time again that they possess advanced technology. Disguising themselves as members of Fatima's group is by far the simplest thing they could pull off, negligible in comparison to a mechanical bug that injects drugs or a metal orb with aphrodisiac incense loaded into it.
"Sneaking in someone extra isn't normal Eremite tactics. Falcons usually set up ambush traps and try to get things done quickly, and they don't act recklessly alone against large groups," Fatima explains, her hands flexing around your waist as she thinks to herself.
It tickles, but you don't dare react in case it alerts whoever in the group isn't on your side. That would just be your luck, wouldn't it? Alarming the enemy when you're actually just jumping because you feel ticklish.
"What do we do?" You ask her.
"Nothing. We keep going quietly. We'll monitor the addition closely," Fatima says, reaching up to pull her hair free of the hair band she'd been wearing. After running a hand through her long hair, she braids it back up and promptly adjusts the red headband around the crown of her hair. "And now everyone's guard will be up if they try anything."
How? By putting her hair up? Was that arbitrary thing a silent signal? How do they know the difference when she's just fixing her hair like normal?
You fall silent as the sumpter beasts continue on. All you can wonder is whether they will follow all the way to Aaru village, or whether they will react before you get there. How long is it going to take?
"How long will it take for us to reach the village?" You ask.
"Not long. We're almost there, less than half an hour," Fatima says, a smile in her voice. "Don't worry, I will keep you safe when they attack."
As if I care about that.
Your first thought is careless and made with little effort until you feel Fatima teasingly flip the hood of your top over your head with a low chuckle of amusement. Your vision is obscured only for a moment as you adjust the hood, causing your mood to improve slightly when your fingers feel the fabric.
Right. There's a reason you need to care about that.
~ Fin ~
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A/N:
Did you know? There's an Isekais Don't Exist tumblr! I set it up for occasional updates should they come up- mostly because I hardly use the announcement function on Wattpad and because Ao3 doesn't have anything like that.
It's under the username "HyperbloomReset" if you want to check it out!