Chapter Text
There is a false god in Teyvat.
The winds know it and the earth knows it. The animals know it and the plants know it. The monsters and the storms and the clouds and the sea all are aware. Teyvat cannot be deceived. And yet, it cannot do anything to stop this false god. It is powerless against a higher power, a heretic sitting upon a throne of lies. All Teyvat can do is watch and pray that one day, the rightful owner of the title Creator will return.
The false god has tricked the people of Teyvat. Gods and mortals alike bow before them and swear their undying devotion to a puppet. They cannot see through the trickery of the heretic’s words. The false god stays in power and rules with a cruel fist with no room for mercy within their cold heart. Teyvat feels it and suffers. It weeps for its true Creator, the Almother Caratrice, to descend from her heavenly plane and smite the false god with her Veritas Incarnata, Truth Incarnate, a sword fused with the power to reduce Celestia to ash if need be. Alas, the Divine Creator remains absent from her world. And Teyvat continues to weep.
There is a prophecy, one written in the stars and banished from all forms of text by the hand of the false god. A prophecy that speaks of heroes, of battles, of blood and death and a fight between gods that will shake Teyvat to its very core and bring mortals and immortals alike to their knees. It speaks of the Divine Creator rising up and defeating the false god to reclaim her rightful throne and free the people from the chains of Madness with the aid of her nine champions. It is a prophecy of freedom. It is a prophecy of hope.
When the earth shakes and the sky crumbles,
when the blind’s hunt is done…
When the Truth and the Madness collide,
the battle for Teyvat will have begun…
From the night sky oh holy Caratrice will come and rise up to reclaim her throne.
With the help of the new Nine Choirs, Teyvat will welcome the true Creator home.
Lupus, Rota, Ocellus, Fila, Peregrinus, Alatus, Monoceros, Iracundus, and lastly, Palmatum.
Nine names, nine Choirs, defenders of the Ideals.
Find them, bring them together, the Truth shall be revealed.
The Creator and the Nine will free Teyvat from the spell,
and the heretic’s Madness shall be quelled.
And if the prophecy is not fulfilled,
blood will stain the earth,
and the world will suffer still.
3,000 years before the Archon War, the Creator was at war with Armageddon, the Destroyer, god of the apocalypse, her twin brother and corrupted counterpart. Teyvat was in ruins, and life was on the brink of extinction. The Nine Choirs, human beings who were chosen by Caratrice to rise to godhood and fight as her warriors, were tired. Humanity was tired, and the world was close to being consumed by the Destroyer’s darkness. So, the Creator, in all of her compassionate glory, sacrificed herself to save Teyvat. She gave up her light to chase back the Madness and died with the promise to return someday to finish off Armageddon once and for all. For this solution was only temporary: Caratrice’s light did not kill her brother, only wounded him. Beneath the earth in which the Crossroads was built is where Armageddon slumbers. Someday he will awaken, and the god of the apocalypse will rise once again.
The Nine, not only Caratrice’s strongest fighters but also her dearest friends, mourned her loss and disappeared without a trace. Teyvat was safe, but without its founder. Life could go on, but not without the possibility of Armageddon returning. Without its godly protectors, the darkness could be left to fester and constantly fight back against the light.
There is a false god in Teyvat. An imposter, an impersonator. This false god abuses the power wrongly bestowed upon them to trick the people of Teyvat with a veil of Madness. But this heretic’s time is limited. And they know, sooner or later, the true Creator will keep her promise and return to the world she conjured so many ages ago. Teyvat knows it, and it is prepared, ready to embrace the reincarnated Caratrice with open arms. The prophecy must be fulfilled. The Primal Light will awaken again.
She stood on a thin line, a sheer cliff that went straight down on both sides.
Surrounding her was a veil of darkness. Below her was the abyss. Above her was nothing but an empty void of swirling gray and black. There was no light except for the faint golden and purple glow that seemed to be emanating from her. Cara knew she was dreaming. Her body was numb and disconnected from her brain; she couldn’t move. It was strange, to be experiencing an out-of-body sensation such as this one, and yet having no control of how things went. With no choice other than to simply go along with whatever her subconscious mind was conjuring, she stood there, watching the abyss roil and the darkness churn.
“Caratrice?”
The voice that bellowed out from the shadows sent a deep vibration through her body. On its own accord, her head tilted up to the sky. The light within her pulsed and brightened.
“Can you hear me Caratrice?”
Something was descending from the sky. Cara saw the bright flash of wings and felt the burning gaze of something massive staring down at her. The light within her pierced through the darkness and responded to the foreign entity. Cara was blinded to the point where she couldn’t see anything at all.
“You must return to the world you left behind, Caratrice. Your creations need you.”
Her mind was alight with memories that did not belong to her. Beautiful blue skies. Green hills and towering mountains. Constellations and the voices of people she didn’t know. All she could see was gold and purple.
“Wake up Caratrice.”
“Wake up.”
“Caratrice.”
“Wake up!”
Cara shot forward with a gasp, a cry leaving her lips as she lurched out of the darkness and into an entirely different environment. She panted, sweat congregating on her forehead as she clutched her t-shirt and closed her eyes, struggling to control her breathing and calm herself down.
When she opened her eyes again, she observed her surroundings. She wasn’t standing on a cliff that was on the edge of darkness. She was sitting in her bed with her covers drawn over her legs. Morning light filtered through her bedroom shades. She could hear the chirping of birds outside of her window and the distant rumble of cars.
She was safe. The abyss, the golden and purple light, the voice. It had been nothing more than a nightmare. She was okay. She was alright.
That’s the fifth time this week.
They were growing more consistent, and Cara was not happy about it. Every time she shut her eyes and fell asleep, she was plagued by the same nightmare. She didn’t know how much longer she could handle this. Every single one ended with the same outcome: a loud booming voice yelling for her to return to her “creations.” She would wake up in a cold sweat, terror seizing her heart as she was forced out of sleep and back into the real world. She had no idea what these nightmares meant. There had to be some hidden meaning behind them. But what could it be? It was frustrating to wake up from the same dream every morning and have absolutely no idea what it was implying about her life.
Well, it didn’t matter anymore, did it? Sleep was impossible to grasp now, and after lying in bed for a few minutes with nothing to do but stare up at her ceiling, Cara sighed and slowly got out of bed to make her way to her bathroom. Switching on the lamp stationed above the sink, she blinked a few times to get her eyes used to the light, then turned on the faucet to splash some water over her face.
It was refreshing and cool. Cara enjoyed the feeling of the water, closing her eyes with a deep breath. When she opened them again, she took a moment to study herself.
Dark bags hung under her eyes, a clear sign that she had been having trouble sleeping for weeks. Her cheeks were pale, and her pupils were dull with exhaustion. To put it simply, she looked absolutely horrible.
These nightmares are going to be the death of me. Cara shook her head and turned off the light, trudging back to bed. She crawled back under the covers, but all hope of going back to sleep was gone. Maybe it was because the water woke her up, or maybe it was because she didn’t want to have another strange dream.
She groaned and buried her face into her pillow. Another sleepless night.
“Fuck!”
The sound of her friend’s scream ripping through her headset made Cara wince, her fingers stuttering over her keyboard and causing her to lose focus. She watched as the Cryo Regisvine they were fighting slammed itself into the ground and killed Xinyan, Yoimiya, and Diluc at the same time. She groaned in frustration.
“We died,” her friend, Nick, said sadly.
“Yeah, no shit we died.” Her other friend, Casey, sighed. “Guess we have to try again.”
“We wouldn’t have lost if you hadn’t screamed like a banshee and caused Nick and I to get distracted,” Cara commented.
“It was an involuntary reaction!” Casey protested. “What was I supposed to do, sit there and be happy we got killed?”
“This is why we never let you take charge of boss battles.” Cara teleported to the nearest Statue of the Seven. She clicked on Yoimiya’s profile icon to heal her. “Next time, I’ll lead the boss battle.”
Casey made a small noise of protest that immediately got drowned out by Nick. “Hey, I thought you said I could choose the next boss battle.”
“We still have to defeat the Cryo Regisvine,” Cara said. “I need to ascend Kaeya to level 90.”
“And I need to ascend Noelle. The Cryo Regisvine can wait.”
“Okay, okay, before you two start arguing, let’s form a plan,” Casey cut in. “Since we’re closest to the Cryo Regisvine, let’s take that on first. After we beat that, we’ll help Nick ascend Noelle. Sounds good?”
“Yes,” Cara answered. “Sounds like the perfect plan. Nick, you in?”
Nick, ever the peacemaker, agreed. “Yeah, that’s a good plan, I guess. You always come up with the best plans, Casey.”
Cara could envision Casey puffing up with pride in her mind. “Don’t encourage her, Nick,” she laughed. “She might start to take you seriously.”
“No, no, Nick, do go on, I insist,” Casey said. “Tell Cara how much better I am at this game than she is.”
The three of them laughed. These were the times that Cara enjoyed; on a cold winter evening with nothing to do, playing Genshin Impact with her friends. Casey and Nick had convinced her to start playing over five months ago, and ever since then, she was hooked. The game was fun, with interesting lore, enjoyable characters, and fun enemies to fight. Nick and Casey had truly gotten her invested, and they joined up over Co-Op to play together every week. When Cara wasn’t playing Co-Op and had free time between her busy work-college schedule, she would spend time doing quests and leveling up her characters. To say the least, she was invested.
As they were traveling back to the Cryo Regisvine, a tingle shot through Cara’s fingers. All of a sudden, a burst of static erupted from her headset, causing her to gasp and throw it off. The screen of her computer glitched, momentarily freezing her gameplay.
The glitch ended as soon as it had begun. Cara stared at her screen, heart pounding. Hands slightly shaking, she picked up her headset and slipped it back over her head.
“Cara?” Nick called. “Are you okay?”
“We heard a loud thumping noise,” Casey said. “Did something happen?”
“I-I don’t know,” Cara replied. She clicked her mouse a few times and moved Yoimiya around. “My computer suddenly just glitched. I don’t know if it was lag, or bad internet, but it just sort of broke for a moment.”
“Is it working now?” Casey asked.
“Yeah, it seems fine.” Cara shook her head. “That was so weird . I just checked earlier to make sure my computer has no viruses. What the hell was that?”
“Maybe you should check again?” Nick suggested. “Or it could be your internet. Is something wrong with your router?”
“Let me check the connection for a moment. I’ll be right back.” Cara took off her headset and stood up. She left her bedroom and headed into the living room of her dorm. Beside the television, her internet router was hooked up. When she knelt to check on it, she saw that everything was completely normal. The router wasn’t unplugged, nor did it seem like it was having any trouble producing an internet connection.
So weird, she thought to herself. Never had she had something like this happen to her. After looking over the router one more time, she got up and went back to her bedroom.
“The router’s fine,” she said into her microphone after she sat back down. “It must have just been a glitch then. I hope it doesn’t happen again. That was absolutely terrifying.” She paused, hearing, to her surprise, nothing but silence. “Guys? Are you still there?”
No response. Cara checked to see if she was still connected to the voice chat the three of them were in. Nick and Casey were still there, unmuted. She unplugged her headset and replugged it back in. “Guys? Can you hear me?”
Her keyboard felt warm to the touch, and she noticed that strange tingle had returned to her fingers. Cara studied her computer screen, noticing, for the first time, that Nick and Casey’s characters had disappeared. The only one there was Yoimiya, and for some reason, it looked like she was deliberately staring at her through the screen. Cara felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end; she got the distinct feeling that she was being watched .
What the hell is going on? Cara called out for her friends one more time. “Hey, guys? This isn’t funny, answer me!” My computer has to be glitching out. I should restart it.
She moved her mouse to shut Genshin Impact down. Abruptly, pain flared through her hands and shot straight up to her forehead. Her screen flickered again, more violently this time. A full roar of static rose up out of her headset. Cara fumbled to throw them off and get away from her computer, but found that she couldn’t pull her eyes away from the screen. Purple and gold flashed across her face; she couldn’t think, couldn’t move, could only continue to stare in shock and horror as everything went haywire.
“Caratrice.”
The voice was coming from her computer. “Accept your godhood Caratrice. This is meant to be. It is fate.”
“Return to your creations.”
“Save Teyvat.”
And then, her vision went black. Cara had the distinct feeling of being sucked into something before she passed out.