Chapter Text
What price does one have to pay for knowledge and wisdom?
For some, it is simple as the first blink in the morning, or hearing the roosters' crowing. But perhaps for some, it is a treacherous journey in the name of knowledge.
Yet a life with dreams unfulfilled is not worth trading the risk for comfort and stability. Thus, you find yourself at Watatsumi Island, in the hopes of finding a novel topic for your term paper.
The longer you stayed on the island, you heard more tales about Orobaxi, an ancient god who the people of Watatsumi worship instead of the Electro Archon. You also heard tales of Enkanomiya, where the ancestors of Watatsumi used to live—those who lived without true sun and moon. Surely, these tales must be recorded in ancient runes. Lost languages and stories waiting to be decoded, that have yet to grace the journals of the Akademiya, would soon run at the speed of light through the Akasha—if your term paper makes the cut.
Sunrise creeps in your rustic apartment shared with your schoolmates from Sumeru Akademiya, illuminating the smile of the ever-enthusiastic Kaushik as he flexed his little archaeological nab from somewhere within this island.
"See this totem? I dug it up in the wild. Ha, this evidence must support my hypotheses earlier!"
"...Enkanomiya?" You perched your fingers to your chin, before sipping some sakura bloom tea, "I suppose you have been there before?"
"Hmm... Can't say I have. But think of this… What if... we descend to Enkanomiya?"
The tea was sweet in a small sip. Yet, the wild idea made your tongue gulp a mouthful, embracing the subtle bitterness of the woody notes of the tea.
"Interesting," a spark illuminated your eyes, “let’s go?”
The flame in Kaushik’s eyes seemed to be swept by a gust of doubt as he blinked twice. “Yeah, wait… no, really?”
The portal to Enkanomiya sat below the Sangonomiya Shrine; it is a pool of water swirling down to depths you could only imagine. The moon sprinkled its glazing light to the calm vortex and gilded the shrine with silver against dimmed coral pastel colors.
But regardless, Kaushik reluctantly agreed to your idea. Or rather, his idea was validated by your shared interest without fear… or desperation. We’ll just jump right in there, and nothing bad will happen, right?
Throughout Watatsumi Island, Sangonomiya samurai kept watch of the village and the shrine. The village’s wide vantage points however are full of bushes and undulating cliffs as blind spots, a landscape feature that you and Kaushik utilized like ninja on an espionage mission. Bags fully packed slung on your backs are filled with climbing equipment, Kamera, spare notebooks, snacks, and the widest 21-rib umbrellas that can act like gliders you could find on hand. You then found yourselves treading at the side of a cliff when a samurai from one end of the bridge caught sight of you.
"You two, it's dangerous to go there!" A yell that couldn’t be louder threatened to resound and draw attention to you and your companion with visibly fidgeting hands.
Kaushik's grip tightened on your arm, but his nails only went as far as tugging your long sleeves.
"A-are you sure we can do this?"
Curiosity kills the cat, folks say. However, fascination overcame any slight of fear on your end, being washed out by the whirling waves of water at the murky pool below.
You then shifted your vision to the samurai, whose face grew pale as the moon. Apparently, he seemed to be the only samurai stationed at the moment.
"A-apologies if I did not introduce myself earlier," the samurai held to the ropes of the hanging bridge before taking a step on the wood, "I-I am Koyama, a Sangonomiya samurai. P-please halt... t-there… Shibata! There are trespassers going to Enkanomiya!"
“You shouldn’t have said that place…” a heavy Sangonomiyan curse dragged between Shibata’s whisper.
Koyama took time to land another step as he tensely held to the bridge ropes, until he fell to his knees and began to crawl towards you, in an attempt to resist his apparent fear of heights. And as Koyama reached the middle of the bridge, you unfolded your umbrella, having a gut feeling that perhaps now is the time to dive in or never.
Kaushik tried to hold back his screams, and in the descent you felt like you were going fast, ditto with your pulse taking pace rapidly. What if we end up sinking into deep waters with no shore to cling to?
With one click, the umbrella comes to life in its full span.
Like dandelions succumbing to gravity, your descent is a testament to the aesthetic of heritage Inazuman umbrella making and Fontainian engineering, and your jump a breakthrough…
.
.
.
Shwack...!
Lukewarm water with a strange tinge of cold cushioned your fall, that would have broken bones if it would be on land. Kaushik’s umbrella presumably broke with a nearby crunch of metal and ripping silk, but yours would not close again. Regardless, the rods were durable enough that you could retrofit them as makeshift swords, except that these are just sticks with a pointy end. Some of the stretchers of Kaushik’s umbrella hit your head, combing your hair violently in a tangle as the local specialty paper crowned a slapdash crown filled with mystery water on your temples. The water is a little below six feet—that you could estimate barely with your toes hardly able to touch the uneven rocky surface below. A stray ray of sunlight pointed to a shore as you dragged your waterlogged clothes, yet regret quickly floods with the realization of wearing Sumeru Akademiya uniforms for such spelunking but supposedly for identification should other scholarly kindred spirits be nearby.
"Enkanomiya… this is it?" You wrung water from your clothes and sighed as your spare notebooks were all wet. Perhaps it was a good idea to leave the rest of your papers aside after all, in Alrani's care. Unfortunately, your special curry onigiri from Vahid had been submerged as well, but luckily some raw ingredients were tightly sealed.
"Wow, I feel like we're in an endless cave. Let’s go spelunking! We should have invited Alrani and the others! …Though we should be looking for traces of civilization, eh? Pfft, I think I can just be a caveman instead of renewing my residency in the Akademiya!” Kaushik heartily laughed, but to your end it was proof of his life and not losing any limb.
"Kaushik," you pull him back to the shore, jogging him back to reality, "where did your bag go?"
You and Kaushik wondered where the bag went; Kaushik crossed his arms almost as if hugging himself as fishy slime left an icy touch on his scratched skin. The clear water only showed rays and akai scrambling to return to the usual placid swimming. But there was still no trace of Kaushik's bag at all.
"Oof. There goes my research. Perhaps we should get going, or... maybe we should just climb up again…?"
"And what? Get caught by the Sangonomiya samurai while we're empty-handed again?" You scoffed and lightly pressed your elbow to Kaushik's arm.
"Ha, of course not! Now's the time to prove my studies, which have been making great progress so far! In the name of Orobaxi, I will find my bag soon!"
A faint trail of splashing water grows louder as it approaches you, from the direction that goes deeper in Enkanomiya’s bowels. Illuminated by a handheld torch, a tall man wearing gray traditional Inazuman attire, chin-length hair with slightly slid-back pointy center-parted fringes, and lower half frame black glasses came close. On his right shoulder slung Kaushik's bag, and between his slender fingers a scroll with ideograms you cannot decipher. The gaze of the stranger’s light gold brown eyes seems to be gilded with the same moonlight that bathed the chasm you are now trapped in thanks to a term paper that demands “fresh discoveries”.
"Ah, I take it you two are clerical staff from Sangonomiya? Because that would be great—Sangonomiya after all is not so short-handed!" A toothy smile decorated such a handsome face perhaps only weathered by eyebags, yet you instinctively feigned a cough to shake off the “observation”.
Kaushik fiddled his fingers, "Why—"
"Yes," you replied, although you were unsure of what ‘clerical staff’ meant. Let the wind lead, you thought, as a breeze with a smell reminiscent of the seaside blew around, we gotta pretend we know this place more than we actually do!
"We are… authorized researchers," Kaushik loudly whispered, “from the prestigious Darshans of Haravatat and Vahumana of Sumeru Akademiya.”
"Ah... Right! Part of being clerical staff does include research too. By the way, nice to meet you. I go by Enjou, and though I am a mere clerk to supervise a ritual held exclusively in these depths for Sangonomiya Shrine, I… focus on the Byakuyakoku language as my field of study. And welcome to Enkanomiya… although that is hardly a warm welcome with the way you dove into the cold waters of the Serpent’s Bowels. It is your first time here, I suppose?"
“Yes…” your eyes subtly averted his gilded sanpaku gaze by resting on his broad forehead, “Enjou.”
The cave waters were silent, but the cold, uninhabited air remained pronounced. It was momentary silence, until Kaushik pointed to the backpack slung at Enjou's shoulder.
"Hey dude, that's... my bag.”
"Oh yeah, it’s… definitely yours! You’re lucky you got an honest tour guide with you this time.”
Kaushik’s bag is now dry.
Much of the stones in the cavern were slippery, but Enjou’s careful strides and torchlight showed the way deeper into the cave.
Scholarly instinct graced your tongue with a question. “Byakuyakoku? What’s the deal with this and Enkanomiya?”
“Byakuyakoku is the real name of Enkanomiya.” Enjou adjusts his glasses like a bespectacled professor would. “...this is the nether-realm where sins piled-up high in the ever-night—or Tokoyo—are to be cleansed, revealing their true colors."
Of course, you wrote down every answer this super random clerical staff from Sangonomiya said. Trust the locals, they said, they are sensible. Enjou’s eyes seemed distinctively Inazuman sparking a blend of mystery, with a well-proportioned nose suggesting a multi-regional parentage.
"It is perfect timing that you crashed here," Enjou chimed with a grin, "as it is fated for a hero to undergo trials here in a few days. Oops, I mean... there,” Enjou points to some faraway landmark within the depths, “but please come with me… I will make sure you two will never get lost!"
"Good sir, where are we headed to?" Kaushik adjusted the backpack to his bag, and then carried your drenched bag.
"To the library," you spoke with a low voice.
Enjou’s lips curled into a grin, “Exactomundo, dear scholar!”
Clutching your bag to pull out a paper and pen, you realized everything was dry to the core, except for the ink of your pen in a sealed bottle.
“Going to the library by foot will only tire us before we can even begin digging,” Enjou continued speaking, “I know of a shortcut, so we won't have to walk all the way. Just close your eyes, and we'll get there... In a while... Hold still… Hold your breath so the abyss may not steal that—"
Enjoi’s words were dissolved by a faint, dissonant whirring of something that reminded you of static from a radio imported from Fontaine.
And when you blinked, you found the three of you in front of an entrance that seemed to be carved on a corner.
"This is it... the library of Byakuyakoku." Enjou gestured to let you and Kaushik enter first, before he continued showing you around, and expounding on the place... "The people of Watatsumi archived Byakuyakoku's facilities after they left—and this is one of them."
The library appears to be desolate and largely covered in dust. The shelves barely held books, but there were several unopened boxes containing manuscripts, scrolls, and other things. You scanned some of the books, but the pages are all brittle and the ciphers are, as Kaushik puts it, otherworldly. He pulls his Kamera out, hoping that the hard case he bought was enough to withstand his messy fall from earlier. And voila, he managed to snap some of the legible yet undeciphered texts and sculpted symbols from the crumbling scrolls on the shelves.
Kaushik asked Enjou about the totem he picked up from Watatsumi. With a feisty smile and a nod, Enjou spoke, "I can say you are right about Orobashi, although there is a difference between Orobashi and Ourob—"
You heard footsteps and a quiet twinkle from outside accompanied by an indistinct high pitched chatter. "Ah, please excuse me, I think the hero has just arrived… I need to attend to their presence quickly."
"Do you need our help?" Kaushik inquired “bah, if I had a Vision, I’d have volunteered as hero!”
“There’s always time to become the main character… in your dreams! Kidding aside, I may need your help later,” Enjou then headed to the mezzanine where the map was. As you peered through the shelves, you saw a light yellow-haired Traveler and a tiny floating being with a starry cape and a trail of sparkles, who followed them like a companion.
"Hey, look over here!" Quickly you turned to see an excited Kaushik. He managed to salvage some rough drawings of serpents and other symbols from the dilapidated shelves. "There's so many artifacts here... Give me a sec, I will snap pictures..."
You let out a sigh, your Kamera refusing to boot up despite being dry in its protective case. Ah, thank the archons for I can still use my spare storage card here and not the other one here…
"...is it not possible to share a term paper?" The weight of the course requirements of your term at the back of your head was soul-crushing.
Silence filled the room for a while. You have barely grasped the Inazuman language, let alone Liyuen and a local variant of Mondstadtian tongue... and now you are taking the risk to research Byakuyakoku?
"Eh, how about you focus more on the Byakuyakoku language and it as a medium with Enkanomiyans’ historical interaction with their environment?"
You raised a brow, "do I look like a linguist to you?"
"If there's a will, there's a way; otherwise, reasons will be all you have," Kaushik smirked, "after all, you picked Haravatat as your Darshan for a reason. Well, Enjou seems to be a good guy and a Watatsumi local, so why don't you give it a try and ask him?"
Kaushik does have a point.
…Or perhaps he just said that, because Enjou saved his bag?
A rushed inventory of all your belongings later, Kaushik handed you a spare notebook. He told you to pursue the matter, and that you do not have to pay him back. In return, you promised to make him a dish you learned from Liyue—though you haven't decided on which dish to cook him yet, if that time comes.
You went up to the mezzanine, where there is a large map of some sort etched on the wall.
“You want to explore the area ahead of us later?” Enjou walked up to your side, pointing to a coordinate on the map where you stood. “Later, we can check out each of those areas. But we must be careful not to find ourselves fighting a horde of monsters later!”
Some minutes or hours later, Enjou, Kaushik, and you huddled in front of a fireplace which luckily was free of any monsters. Kaushik prepared some Sautéed Matsutake Rolls with some seasonings from Sumeru, which you provided him with some of the ingredients.
“Teach me how to cook without burning the pan next time, please?” Enjou’s puppy eyes conjured a request.
“Sure… if you can teach me how to start a fire very quickly within ten seconds using their broken umbrella and a stone.” The silks of your decommissioned umbrella must have met its final fate, leaving only the pointy structure for supposed self-defense in the future.
After the little feast, Kaushik returned to the Library, leaving you and Enjou for the meantime. Kaushik reminded you to do as he said earlier, with a slightly mischievous smirk.
"Say Enjou… What made you pursue learning the Byakuyakoku Language?"
“Ah… well… I am simply on an adventure to look for certain historical writings.. One of which predates the times when the gods walked the earth.”
“Oh, that's a deep fixation for a mere clerk,” you gaze above to be met not with a starry night sky to look up to, but with the hollowness of a neverending chasm cloaked in dim night light filled the background.
“Well, you seem… interested in the language itself, aren’t you? Actually, I can help you learn the whole thing,” Enjou let a shy grin, “but knowledge is a heavy crown. Although I’m afraid it would be quite risky, I’m sure you—we will have safe passage. And it won’t take much of your time, though you might feel otherwise.”
“That’s so sus,” you hissed, and your fingers gingerly held to the blunt end of your broken umbrella earlier.
"I-it's okay if you don't want to," Enjou stared at the dying campfire, before he spoke again, "Although my research is not yet done, I might be able to show you what it is, too. But anyway, I think I can answer your question. My interests generally lie in probing the secrets of Enkanomiya and its eternal night... And an ancient tome that would be a most groundbreaking find."
"About learning the Byakuyakoku language... Is it really that perilous?"
”Well… yeah. But if something bad happens, it’s on me! I wager it'll be quite the experience.”
You frowned, “where is that? And… you don't seem to have powers… care to prove my null hypothesis?"
Enjou stood up, "I know a thing about combat or two, but why would I fight you? I’m afraid fighting might lead to us hurting one another, and we don’t want to see me turn into a cursed flame-flinging monster that you’ll have to spill buckets of water on, right?
“I definitely didn’t come here for a fight.” This guy is unbelievable.
“Okay… I guess I have to consider how I speak next time better. My apologies, dear scholar. Anyway, you can hit me with your fake sword and we can just leave one another here, but then we wouldn’t be able to find your friend, nor could I help you learn the Byakuyakoku language…”
Looking back at either side for a solid three seconds proved Enjou’s acute observation—Kaushik is nowhere to be found. Where did he run off to this time?
Once in a Rtawahist journal, an article details a researcher’s close-call encounter with a being presumed to be from the Abyss Order… a starry portal resembling the vast night sky, and a feeling that detaches you from an already lost sense of time, and a suspicious sound that is rough to the auditory senses…
The same gritty radio static sound from earlier was now accompanied by a starry portal surrounding you and Enjou as you kept your eyes half open.
You quickly hung the backpack to your shoulder as you stood up by yourself.
“Are you nuts? You’re a member of the Abyss Order!” you yelped and stepped back, keeping the splintered stick pointed to Enjou.
“Right, y-you could say I'm one of the quote-unquote bad guys... but I did not say I would kidnap you or anything, right? I… just wanted to help out, is all.”
"You sound like you’re down to be bad, but… alas, you’re not bad enough, I guess. Because you keep saying you’re a bad guy, and yet you’re keeping me alive!"
"Aw, that would be no fun. Besides, I firmly believe you're… rather interesting. An excellent protégé of Byakuyakoku, if I may. Besides, it's a shame to lose someone brave enough to talk back to their archnemesis slash teacher!"
"And if I agree to come with you? This isn’t about trust nor letting you bribe me with ‘free’ learn-this-quick lessons!" Dude, you’re speaking with a desperate and super delayed researcher.
"...Are you sure about that? You know, if I'm very untrustworthy, you could just slap me and run away." Enjou raised both hands, “but think of this… where will you run to? You’ll probably get arrested for trespassing Enkanomiya, and worse, get deported for your crime as you leave this place empty handed.”
Maybe this is just a mind game to see who is deserving of accessing long-lost knowledge.
"Enjou, I'm not kidding. I agree," you then let out a deep breath, lowering the stick, and your gaze fixed on the starry void circling in the portal.
"Neither am I. I'm not lying that you’ll be safe, I promise!"
There will be little consequence if you decide to be bad, or evil enough rather for you and me.
“...And we’re here!”
As you blink, you and Enjou stand in a place quite alike to the Library of Byakuyakoku. Or could it be the same place? That is, because the books here are neatly arranged.
On racks against the wall are stacks of books, with some ideograms similar to the Byakuyakoku language... And there is a new book with the label Practice Module. The lighting fixtures were glowing stones resembling amber or yellow calcite.
"I didn't know writing something like this could come in handy. By crafting something like this, I was able to master the language while also leaving something precious behind," Enjou's body language was like peering through a clear glass closet: his shyness is obvious that you think he could be flustered anytime. Why exactly that is, you cannot think of a reason... yet.
Maybe he’s just a nerd with a bit of an awkward side, no? Maybe he really used to teach in Inazuma until he decided to live a more low-key life as a Sangonomiya clerk.
You glance at the book, but hesitation pulls your fingers back. The thought of, say, the book is spiked with a curse shot in your mind. You are unsure if it is your brain playing tricks, or it is because of the fact that you ended up in a dimension you are yet to acclimate in, messing a bit with your senses.
Yet strangely, there was also a feeling of assurance that wrestled with your curse theory. Well, you have already made up your mind to tag along with this guy in desperation for a new thesis topic, so let's deal with the consequences later, you thought.