Amane

Her latest experiment, which focused on testing her latest fertilizer which was infused with dead ley line branches, had fallen apart in a rather fascinating way.

The plants were all dead, which is unfortunate but the fascinating part was that the ley lines branches were not.

A fact known to all who study ley lines is their volatility. 

Researchers were often left to scramble around trying to document its movements in an uncontrolled environment.

WIth the ley line system being as big as it is, it was not possible for any team to span the entire system nor, with its interconnected system, was it possible to study only one section.

The closest equivalent would be to pick up dead pieces of the ley lines and study those pieces.

However, never in the history of alchemy, or even biology had a researcher ever been able to revive a completely dead piece of plant, never mind a ley line branch. 

Not that ley lines are plants, they don’t fit the definition of a traditional plant but its the closest equivalency that researchers have found when describing its characteristics.

Regardless, the pots that Sucrose had planted, all with various forms of dead ley line branches, have changed to varying degrees.

The most noticeable culprit was the one she had buried an entire branch in with the sweet flower. 

The white branch had sprouted its own limbs and were wrapped around the original flower in a crude imitation of a hug.

Rather morbid considering that the sweet flower locked in its caress was now dead.

Not that any of the other sweet flowers had fared any better. They were all dead, with no discernible reason as to why.

“When did you notice this phenomenon, ” Albedo asked, turning to look at Sucrose who was flipping through her notes.

“Um, a- about two weeks ago.” She explained, “At first the experiment was running smoothly, the sweet flowers were growing normally ”

She flipped open her notebook to show him her notes over the days.

“But then all of a sudden they just started dying, and the ley line branches started growing.”

Albedo flipped through the notes, Sucrose was by no means a slouch when it came to her notes. She was always impeccably detailed and thorough when it came to recording data for her experiments.

There were no signs of the ley line branches adversely affecting the growth of the flowers for the first 3 weeks of their lifespan. 

So what could have possibly happened to make them die like that?

Albedo looked over at the various pots scattered around his workspace, this was going to take him a while.

The Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius looked over at his student, she was already starting to shiver slightly.

As a synthetic human, his body was more sturdy than that of average beings, especially as a synthetic human of Rhinedottir’s. . . 

Well, he is very sturdy. 

Sucrose is not, a fact made even more apparent by how she’s moving her arms around in an effort to warm herself up. 

He tends to keep the braiser burning low, to save on supplies. However the temperature comfortable for him seems a bit too low for his student.

“Why don’t you head back to the city Sucrose,” he suggested, putting her notebook down on his table. “This is going to take a while to figure out, and it may be helpful for you to examine your lab once again to see if there are any variables you missed.”

Unlikely, but then again her presence here wouldn’t help either of them in figuring this out. 

Him from preferring to work alone, and her from the weather conditions.

Also, she failed to bring any meaningful amount of supplies with her, if she were to stay, they’d both end up having to go back down the mountains in a couple of days regardless.

If she left, he’d have at least a week of peace and solitude to figure this out.

If he can figure this out.

He’s honestly quite excited to get started, it’s been quite a while since a case had perplexed him like this.

He waved goodbye at Sucrose as she headed out.

She was much faster on her feet the way out, no doubt propelled by her desire to leave the cold, and the lack of various pots and notes to haul.

Albedo on the other hand, well.

 His clear blue eyes sparked with excitement as he dove headfirst in dissecting Sucrose’s experiment.

It was quite a fascinating phenomenon.

By all means, the ley line branches were completely dead when Sucrose started using them in her experiments. 

Whilst that by no means meant they were devoid of power, Abyss mages have found great success in using it to augment their abilities, the fact that it can grow and presumably revive itself is groundbreaking.

Now that he really thinks about it, this is not the only odd thing that had been happening in recent times.

Some of the Knights of Favonius have reported odd patterns of Ley line disorders happening recently.

Not to mention his own research on the remains of Durin.

Hmm, what are the chances they’re all connected.

Well, he won’t deny that the arrival of the golden haired traveler heralded many shifts in this world.

From their dealings with the Archons, to the blessings of the creator.

They are truly an exceptional person.

Interestings things never stopped happening when they’re around.

Back to the experiment at hand, from the angle of the growth, based on Sucrose’s diagram, it seems that all the branches grew in the same direction. 

Going back to her notes, Albedo referenced a map, triangulating the direction the branches pointed too based on the placement of the pots in her workspace.

Liyue

The branches are growing in the direction of Liyue.

What could possibly be happening in-

A draconic roar filled the air, blowing his papers all over his camp.

Summoning his sword, Albedo looked around, seeing only the tail end of an azure dragon pass over his base.

Could that be-

“Dvalin wait!” a musical voice screams out, as a white blur chased after the presumed dragon.

The wind generated by that second figure hit his camp, and face full force. Knocking him a good couple of steps back.

The Alchemist is left standing there, his hair and camp in a disarray.

His papers floated around the camp like large snowflakes, while the liquids from shattered beakers slowly began to freeze over.

What did he just witness?

A small hissing sound catches his attention, one of his experimental potions had been blown off of its stand. 

It now lay smashed in a pile of papers.

Sucrose’s papers

Albedo dove for the spilled beaker with a muffled curse

It was one thing for his experiment’s notes to be ruined, but for someone else to lend their own notes in a bid for help and for him to ruin them himself.

No, absolutely not.

This potion was supposed to be a powerful stain remover, inspired by Klee’s recent foray into his paint supplies.

While it was successful in dissolving the stain, it also dissolved the clothing.

In other words, it would destroy her notes given enough time.

Thankfully he did manage to get to it in time.

Most of the damage he could fix on his own, given some extra ink.

The incident brought him back to his reality of a ruined camp.

As much as wanted to investigate what was going on, he really needed to clean up his camp before he did.

Thankfully nothing too valuable was destroyed. A couple of beakers here and there, but well, let’s just say Acting Grandmaster Jean would be more surprised if he didn’t need to order a batch of extra beakers than if he did.

What can he say, it was the price of conducting Alchemy

Back to his camp, while it’s by no means clean, he truly didn’t have the patience to wait any longer.

Who knew if the two mysterious figures were even still on dragonspine.

Grabbing his emergency bag, Albedo headed out in the direction he saw them heading it.

The Summit of Dragonspine.

. . .

He should probably bring some extra supplies, just in case.

~~~

”Hraagh!”

The last hilichurl ran away as Albedo lowered his sword.

It’s weird that there’s such a concentration of hilichurls on his way up the summit.

In fact, he’s met more hilichurls today on his way up than he has over the past month combined.

Hmm, it bears investigating. However right now his focus is on seeing if those mysterious figures were still hanging around Dragonspine.

He had his suspicions on who they were, but well.

He wanted to confirm it with his own eyes first.

He continued his trek up, being mindful of his environment. The air grew thicker, and not with snow, but elemental power.

It was strange, whilst the celestial nail that pierced Dragonspine held a good amount of power, it was not this strong that it could be felt from so far away.

Similarly the heart of Durin was almost on the other side of the mountain.

What could be causing this phenomenon?

The Chalk Prince hastened his pace up the mountain, using his Geo constructs to help him over some of the more tricky terrain.

As he ascended, the air became more and more oppressive. Truly an average human would be having difficulty breathing by now.

But regardless he pushed on, determined to find the source of this power.

Ignoring the falling temperatures that signaled the end of the day, Albedo clambered over one last cliff, before he stumbled upon a small camp, with a couple of familiar faces.

“Albedo!” 

A familiar high pitched screech greeted him.

“What are you doing here!”

“It’s nice to see you again Paimon,” he greeted, patting the snow off of his body, “and Traveler,”

“Another friend of yours, I presume,” a deep rich voice said. 

“Yep, that’s Albedo, Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius.” Paimon announced, introducing him to the owner of said voice.

“A pleasure, I am Zhongli of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.” He greeted politely, looking very out of place in his elegant brown suit, considering the location and weather.

Albedo steps forward, preparing to introduce himself a bit better when-

“Oho, I believe we’ve met before haven’t we, good sir.” A colorful bard interjects, his blue eyes sparkling as he blocks his view of Zhongli . 

Another familiar face, though more of a passing familiar face than a friend..

He’s seen this man around Mondstadt, Klee enjoys his music and has on occasion attempted to drag him out to go meet this ‘funny bard’, but they always happened whilst he was in the middle of experimenting.

Albedo opens his mouth to reply, only to be interrupted once more

“And who is this,” a clear unfamiliar voice rang out.

Albedo’s attention was drawn to the last member of the traveler’s party.

His breath stuttered.

An elegant figure standing on the opposite side of the camp. Their head tilted as they looked at him.

Their slitted eyes were beautiful pools of liquid silver, akin to melted mercury, or liquid starlight.

Their flowing white robe swayed with the wind.

Their body backlit by the setting sun

They looked ethereal, godly.

They felt powerful.

“-do! Have you fallen off a cliff recently or what!” Paimon’s angry voice jolts him back to reality.

Ah, it seems that he missed something.

“Ugggh, come one!” The fairy grabs his arm and drags him to the other side of the camp.

She has a surprising amount of strength for such a small creature. 

Not that size is any indication of strength, he’s met Klee before after all.

The traveler followed, but not before sending the other member of their traveling party a meaningful look.

It seems that they want to discuss something important with him.

He never really did find the two figures did he.

“Albedo,” the traveler addressed him, their tone uncharacteristically serious. “I need you to leave Dragonspine, at least for a few weeks”

A few weeks?

“What’s going on?”

The duo exchange glances. 

“I’m going to explain something to you, but I need you to not freak out.” Paimon warned, hovering close to his face.

“I won’t freak out,” Albedo promised, leaning back slightly from Paimon’s heavy stare.

They explained the situation.

About the creator, how they found them, their situation.

About a contract they made with the Adeptus of Liyue and how they needed some place where they were unlikely to accidentally hurt anyone.

It sounds unbelievable.

By all means it should be.

But there’s no reason for them to lie, nor would they come up with this explanation unless it was absolutely true.

“You’re not freaking out right?” Paimon asked quietly as they watched him process this information.

To the outsider, Albedo appeared as calm as can be.

On the inside however.

The idea of the creator of Teyvat, here on Teyvat.

Well, that’s

I mean.

“Would this be a bad time to mention that Durin may be coming back to life.”

“WHAT!!!”

~~~

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Thank you all so much for reading!

I will admit I had a little bit of trouble since I don't have Albedo and missed the events where he was actually plot relevant.

I was so close to getting him, except I lose the 50/50 and went all the way to pity before running out of primos.

Sigh, Albedo you sure like making my life difficult don't you.

As always my Askbox is always open for question, comments theories and more!

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