@finiteflower ✧ Mistwood, Radiale Island
there were fewer faces that she want to see in Spirale less than his.
as much as she'd take great in knocking him down a peg for all the anguish he'd forced on others through his twisted schemes, it was the matter of being able to inflict such a thing which had become an evident problem. as the Second Harbinger, she was vastly outmatched — and her track record made clear as such.
tearing Scaramouche on the cusp of stealing a seat of godhood had been an effort of everyone in Sumeru, and it had been the Raiden Shogun who brought an end to Signora, while Lumine had been crucially winded. in a proper fight, she couldn't be certain of the result of a bout against Childe — and Dottore resided at the opposite end of the Fatui elite's hierarchy.
what he had done to the people of Sumeru, how he could compete with Nahida on an intellectual level as well as physical. it was honestly unsettling. but fear could not root her down — one day, she would need oppose the operators of their agenda. and she owed it to them — to Nahida and Wanderer, to Kazuha and Dunyarzad, as victims of his ploys spanning centuries. and if there was any chance Aether may have encountered him... if this man did anything to her brother—
no, it was best to calm down. acting irrationally would tip the odds into his favour easily — he was all about psychology and manipulation. forming her sword, the Traveler took her stance — anxious, yes, her heart thumped in her throat — but so long as she had any chance (even a single percent was enough, as Aether said), she'd stand between him and whoever else he eyed as potential guinea pigs.












