42 A cold meeting

In a carriage, near the Zapolyarny Palace, a white-haired woman was reading a book she had copied from the alchemist of a certain city.

"Hmm, so that's how he sees everything" Signora was reading the book with rapt attention. "If Dottore knew about this boy, he would stop at nothing, not even the Tsaritsa's orders to get that boy" she passed another page.

"'How to deal with curses affecting souls', I can't believe it, this book is a treasure" she laughed hysterically. That boy didn't understand how precious this book was. If he came to Snezhnaya with this information, even the Tsaritsa herself would step down from her throne. The war against the Divine was near, and this book was the key to victory.

She could only mock those Gods. The boy was clearly smart, that much was obvious, so it was clear that he wrote this book without understanding how dangerous it was.

The more she read, the more excited she was.

Even while reading this book she could feel how her world was being expanded. She now knew about why the Visions grew stronger with time and their relation with the soul.

"Hahaha, I can't believe that waiting in that loathsome city for that joke of a God allowed me to get this jewel. This is even more valuable than the gnosis" she smirked. She hadn't felt this good in decades.

That boy was not aware of a lot of things, but she was. And the boy wrote things that if a normal person read it, he would find it extremely surprising, but when someone in the know read them, they revealed even more things.

"Let me see" Signora felt like a child, opening presents on her birthday.

'How to move souls from their body'.

'How to sever the connection between soul and body'.

'Mould a body to be adjusted to the soul'.

The more she read, the more exultant she was.

'The Art of Khemia from a Soul viewpoint'. and suddenly she wasn't that excited anymore.

She still remembers the war that came from the abuse of this art, still, it was interesting.

'Where do souls come from', oh, this was getting better.

'The Being', oh, what is this?

'The Being. I don't know how to call, it, maybe my brain will also evolve at some point, letting me call him with another name, but it's what you get it for now. I spoke to you about this, but I only told you the surface. For the love of God, Albedo, don't lose this book or I'm fucked. Guizhong, write this. No, not this. What the hell are you doing? Stop!. Anyway, I will call him the Being for now. It's what made me lose my sight'.

Oh, this is the first time I heard about this. My agents told me that the boy lost his sight, but I didn't know how. But what is this Being?. Even I, who know the Truth of the World, have no idea of this.

'I already told Guizhong to write about that dark plane before, so I will tell you about what it filled with. The Being, that all I saw there.

I thought Morax's soul was strong, and Barbatos' big, the guy is literally wind. But when I saw this thing, I truly understood how wide is the world'.

Hmm, even we Harbingers know that Morax is extremely strong, one of our biggest obstacles to collecting the Gnoses, alongside Beelzebub. But now this Being looks even stronger.

'The Being is big. Yes, I know, the church of Mondstadt is also big. But this thing is the very definition of the word. As I wrote, I'm not even sure I was using my eyes, I suspect not. I will describe it with an example, you are in front of a wall, a wall you can't see the limits of. You want to see the whole wall, so you do the obvious thing, you move away from the wall.

But you still can't see the limits, so you move even further, and further...until you hit your back with something. You can't move away, but also can't see the limits of the wall. That was what I felt, I had no space to retreat, and yet, I couldn't see the entirety of the wall'.

This is turning into something terrifying. I'm not sure I want to know more.

'Until now I was okay. Scared and panicking, but okay. And then imagine. The wall suddenly looked at you, yes, looked at you. Not with eyes, a wall doesn't have eyes, but still. You are obviously a foreigner here, you shouldn't be here. Even now I don't know how I arrived there, but that's for another chapter. The important thing is that you are 'other' in that place, sorry if it's confusing, but I don't know how to say it.'

'It's not a problem of race or species, it was a more fundamental thing. There had never been something from our world there, and there won't be ever again. The Being was doing his thing when he 'sensed' something, something strange, something weird. Almost as if you see a talking shadow, it's obvious there is something wrong there. And I think the Being sensed that 'wrongness' so it looked at me'.

'I knew pain then. I didn't break my arm or bite my tongue, it was as if I was being crushed. I don't think the Being was hostile, it was just somehow put off by my existence. From the previous example, if you see a talking shadow, you look at it, but the reflection of the light in your eyes is making the shadow banish. I felt like that, the mere fact that such a powerful being was looking at me was making my soul slowly disintegrate. I can mock Morax to his face, or make him angry with me, enraged even, but my soul won't be affected by his. That's because we are both living beings living in the same plane. But his thing was not at the same level'.

'I am completely and absolutely sure that if Morax, whose soul is the strongest I've seen, were to face this pressure, he would be erased just like me. This thing was a superior existence'.

This is terrifying. Erasing an Archon's soul just by noticing them, not even the Heavenly Principles can do that. I don't think I should be reading this. Not even the Tsaritsa should.

'That's what the Being is. I don't even think it's a living thing, it would be an insult to refer to that as 'alive'. It was so much 'more'. And I think I have a clue of what he is'

Now I need to know it. If I don't read this, I won't be able to live thinking that there is something like this out there.

'Obviously, I can't affirm it, but I think I have an idea. Where do souls come from? From the Being. I went to the Church and looked at a woman giving birth, of course, I could only see souls and I did from outside the church, but you get it. The moment the child was born, the boy's soul shined with an orange glow, but before he was born, the fragment had been transparent. Maybe that's not the word, but it was somehow 'neutral'. I learned that everyone's soul had been transparent before being born, but everyone's soul was different. How could this be?'

'When the baby is born, they still don't have experiences so why did the baby's soul turn orange, and not green or red? I think I'm losing the thread of the topic, but anyway. I suspect all souls come from the Being. The Being was black, and black is the mix of all colors. My theory is that when a baby is conceived, it receives a fragment of this being, and depending on the fragment, your soul will turn into one color or another. So here it is, the Being is the origin of all life!'.

I feel dizzy now. I need to think about this.

'But there is more'

No, please.

'I saw a boar dying. It was bleeding from an arrow a hunter shot, so I asked the hunter to let me see how it died, and he allowed me, Mondstadt is that weird. Watching him die, I could only think of how delicious the steak he was going to be was. I'm joking I felt a bit queasy just looking at it, waiting for it to die, but I needed to confirm it. Eventually, it died, and I followed his soul'.

'Of course, it didn't 'fly into the sky', it was disappearing inside the body. How did it disappear?. I saw how some areas of the soul were being sucked into something. And I recognized that something, it was the same kind of 'hole' the soul came from in the Art of Khemia. I'm sure even you are tired by now, so will be brief. The boar's soul went to the Being, the same place it once came from.

'It's obvious by this point, right? The Being was the afterlife. If you want to be practical about it, you could say that the Being is where souls go when their body is not alive anymore. In other words'.

'The Being is *********'

I can feel my already white skin paling even more. I shouldn't be reading this.

"Madam, we have arrived" the guard came to tell me.

I shoved him aside and went into the Zapolyarniarny Palace.

Even now I'm debating about what should I do. I'm loyal to the Tsaritsa, but this book is touching on something nobody should mess with.

Even as much as I hate Celestia, touching this topic is something I feel terrified of.

I eventually reached the meeting room, where everybody was waiting for me, but I couldn't care about this right now.

"Signora, you are late. We were ready to nominate a new candidate to Arlech-" the ever stoic Pierro couldn't help but be surprised when he saw my serious face striding past him and go directly to the Tsaritsa, who looked at me with her never-changing straight face.

I could feel the intrigued and somewhat alarmed looks everyone was giving me. Walking near the Tsaritsa was a show of disrespect, and walking towards her directly? Even worse.

The Tsaritsa looked at me in apathy and didn't even look at the book I was giving her.

"Please" it was all that I could say. I didn't want to keep this thing in my hands any longer.

She slowly took the book and looked at it. She looked at me again, and finally, she decided to open the book.

I knew I was going to be punished, but I couldn't care anymore.

The room stood silent while the Tsaritsa read. Her look of apathy didn't change, but I didn't expect her to.

The first chapters were about more general things, things we all knew about.

Suddenly, a cold air swept through the room, and everyone looked at the Tsaritsa, she was the only one able to make the cold air in the Palace be even colder.

And now, as I expected, she had a look of intense concentration. She even grabbed the book with her 2 hands. Of course, this made everyone in the room take a mouthful of air. It had been centuries since the Tsarita's face changed.

"This is priceless" she opened her mouth and talked.

"Signora, what did you bring?" asked the usually stoic Pierro.

"A book" was all I was ready to say.

"That's aaall?" Columbina drawled with her usual voice.

"Yes" I nodded again.

"We would be quite grateful if we could know what is that book about" said Dottore with his usual smirk.

"You would, but I won't be the one to tell you, and I don't think the Tsaritsa is going to". I would prefer to die than to let this psychopath know about the Being.

"Shut up" the Tsaritsa ordered us, making everyone surprised again. Even Columbina straightened up.

I looked around and saw that everyone was looking towards the Tsaritsa's verdict. I saw a young girl, maybe 12 or 13, look around in nervousness. So she is the new Arlecchino. Well, I don't care, and I didn't like the previous one.

"Where did you find this?" asked the Tsaritsa, still reading the book's middle pages.

"In Mondstadt" I faithfully replied.

"You know what I want to hear" she simply said, and I knew she wanted to know everything. Who had it, who wrote it, when, who knew about it.....

"I got it from Mondstadt this same morning. I implore you to finish reading before I answer anything else" I said. I don't want to give some of the bastards here some clue about the kid. I don't care that much for him, but I fear what he can do. Even if he didn't say it, I know he can seal the soul of a thing, and also 'draw' strength from that Being. If that alarms the thing...

"Signora, the Tsaritsa spoke" I could feel Columbina's threat. I could already feel her blade on my neck, even when she was at least 10 meters away.

"Shut up. Your Majesty please finish the last chapters" I pleaded, but she didn't reply.

She just stood silent, reading at her own pace with a focused stare.

The rest, including Columbina, took that as a tacit agreement. We waited for a few hours before she suddenly had a look of astonishment clearly visible to us all.

"Your Majesty?" Pierro asked unsure of what was happening.

And she was just starting the last part.

"Signora, come" she ordered me, and I was happy to comply. It meant that she was taking these seriously. "What is this about, is it true?".

"I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about" there are too many things written there.

"Look" she said, and showed me a page, one I didn't see before.

It was a very good painting, one that made me admire whoever drew it.

It depicted a yellow orb being sucked by some random places.

'This is an approximation of what I see. Obviously, I'm not drawing it, just asking Guizhong to draw it, but even if she is a useless Goddess, she should know how to draw with some single descriptions'. The chapter went on about the 'other place' as the kid had described it.

"I don't know for sure, your Majesty" I replied. "It could be the writer rambling, but based on the rest of the book, I am inclined to believe it". I need to be careful when speaking. If I say 'kid' someone here might get the idea of investigating, thing I'm sure they are going to do anyway.

"Have you met the writer?" she asked, still reading the chapter.

"Yes, a few times" I nodded. "I abused my authority and invited him to the Palace, I hope Your Majesty forgives me".

The others looked scandalized, but the smart ones looked intrigued.

Nobody could wantonly invite people to the Palace, it was the Tsaritsa's home and its location a closely guarded secret, so inviting a stranger here was asking for death. And yet...

"You did well" she simply said, still reading. Ah, she was approaching the last chapter now. "Do you think we should let the rest read this book?".

She was too focused to lay a trap of this kind, but the fact that she was merely asking was revealing enough. I'm not so arrogant to think I'm the strongest one here, nor the smartest one. If someone like Dottore got a hold of this book, Teyvat could end up under his hand.

He is that smart, he would learn everything the book had to offer and make a soul-killing poison gas, and he is such a psychopath that he could make the Being appear in the middle of Teyvat only to satisfy his curiosity.

"Absolutely not" I replied. I knew this would earn me the enmity of a few Harbingers, but I couldn't care less.

The Tsaritsa looked at me calmly and then kept reading, and then she arrived at the page.

'The Being'.

Even the God of Ice was paling. When she finished the book, she had the same haunted look I must have had. Seeing it in our God was quite shocking.

"Your Majesty?" asked Pierro.

"I wonder if we could know the contents of such an interesting book" said Dottore with a badly hidden look of greed. If this book was able to make the Tsaritsa look like that, it must be something incredibly groundbreaking. That's what this bastard must be thinking.

The Tsaritsa looked at him, and reduced the book to microscopic particles, leaving everyone stunned, and Dottore seething at losing this chance.

For my part, I was glad nobody would read it again, and glad that it wasn't my problem now.

"Change of plans" the Tsaritsa suddenly said. "I want the writer of this book here now" she commanded, leaving the rest confused.

"What a drag. Now that our operation in Inazuma was going good" said Scaramouche. This useless puppet with mommy issues.

"Are we not going for the Gnosis now?" asked Capitano, hidden under his helmet. As always.

"Yes, we are, but now we have an additional target, more important than any Gnosis, I want the writer of this here. Signora, tell me where is he now".

I pleaded with my gaze, but she insisted. I have no choice now.

"He is in Liyue, but will return to Inazuma soon" I said in resignation. I can't stop guys like Dottore now.

"Tell us everything, we would be pleased to hear more about our additional target" said Dottore with a smile. This bastard...

"He is called Kenshin, and should be around 12 years old" I started saying.

"He is a child?" everyone looked at the surprised Tsaritsa. "Did a child write this book?".

"Yes" I nodded.

"What should be our goal?" asked Pierro directly to the Tsaritsa.

"Bring him here" she replied.

"Please wait" I interrupted. At this point, nobody treated this meeting as a normal occasion anymore. "I think we should try a more peaceful approach. He seemed to have some hostility against us based on how we conducted our reactions in Inazuma, but he had no problem talking with me. I think that maybe with some time we could get him to collaborate with us willingly".

The Tsaritsa seemed to be thinking deeply about it.

"What can you tell us about him". She seemed to be considering it for now.

"He is extremely curious, as I'm sure you know by now. He is attracted to unusual souls, he said mine was the strangest one he had seen. I think he would be pleased to do some information exchange. We have a lot of peculiar people here, maybe we can treat our relationship on a deal-by-deal basis. We ask him to do something or some information, and we let him study our peculiar individuals" I proposed the best plan I could think of.

"Why are you so interested in cooperating?" asked Pulcinella in his irritating voice. "We could just kidnap him".

"You?. I doubt it" I scoffed. I think the boy doesn't even realize how strong he is. He wrote that he could seal souls, but based on everything I read, he could obliterate them just as easily. And in this world, a sure way to protect your soul does not exist.

"Ooh, now I'm getting more and more curious" said the biggest bastard here, Dottore.

"Enough" the Tsaritsa said. "I need to think about this. For now don't make a move, and make everyone in Inazuma come back" she finally put an end to this topic.

"Let's then proceed with the meeting" Pierro said impassively.

At least I don't need to think about this anymore.