Souls in Teyvat

cling cling

The tingling of a bell sounded in the empty store as the door separating the warm insides from the admittedly cold outside opened, and 3 people entered.

"I can't believe you guys" grumbled March, glaring at both Stelle and Keith. "How did you mess up so much? And why did I have to be looked at with such disgust?"

"Things happened" replied Keith, more interested in the insides of the store. "This is amazing, isn't it? I swear there are more leftover pieces here than in Stelle's head."

"Why are you saying that to me?" asked puzzledly Stelle. "You would normally say that to March."

"Well, I'm afraid that if I keep saying these things to her, the prank will turn into bullying, so I have to change targets for a while" revealed Keith, making March shake her head in exasperation. "Still, are you sure Dan Heng didn't want to come with us?"

"I asked him before leaving the hotel" nodded March, walking towards the counter in the room filled with gears and clockwork. "He said he feared witnessing the acts of such barbaric and thoughtless people, and that he could live without seeing the city if that meant retaining his sanity for a bit longer."

"I don't know if I should be offended, or praise him for his foresight" intervened Stelle, approaching a wall of the store to look at one particularly big clock with a duck as the clock hand. And thoughts about the unduckely duck returned to her mind.

"I feel impressed that the quiet guy spoke that much" said Keith with an uncaring tone.

"Oh, he didn't, he just looked at me with a dull gaze" replied March, shaking her head. "I told you what I got from that stare."

"Well, his loss" shrugged Keith. "Maybe we could take another look when the Stellaron thing has been solved, both Stelle and I had our fun already."

"Did we really?" asked Stelle with a small frown.

"You got the box, shut up."

tap tap tap

A hurried set of steps reached the group of 3, and the clerk of the store appeared in their sights.

A beautiful woman with long blonde hair with a single strand of purple and blue eyes looked at the new customers with a smile.

"Sorry, I was busy with something" said the woman apologetically. "Can I help you with something?"

"Maybe" nodded Keith, approaching the counter. "I'm looking for an alarm clock that will sound every single hour, and the only way to turn it off is by breaking it."

"...…"

"Why can't you be normal?" complained March, looking at the stunned woman. "Just ignore him please."

"Hey, I really want that" replied Keith, looking at the woman once again. "We are new to Belobog, we were looking around."

"New?" asked the woman with clear confusion.

"We come from up there" replied Stelle, pointing at the ceiling of the room.

"From the stars!" shouted a smiling March.

"From outside this world?" asked the woman with a stunned gaze, but she shook her head and looked at the group with a smile. "Well, that's not my business, and you entered the shop just like everyone else. I'm Serval, a mere shop clerk."

"I'm March 7th" said March, ignoring the weird look she was getting from Serval. "And they are Keith and Stelle. They are good people, but those around them won't be able to be for long, they sometimes make me want to beat them."

"Heh, I would like to see you try, human-shaped ice cube" said Keith with a mocking smirk, passing his arm along Stelle's shoulder. "You might be able to beat me, but I have the Galactic Batter on my side."

"Do you?" asked Stelle, glancing at Keith.

"Just ignore them" sighed March, looking at the amused woman.

"Nah, it's fine. We could do with a little more of fun in this place" said Serval with a small shrug. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Even if it sounds like a joke, I would really buy that alarm clock" said Keith with a serious look.

The idea of sending a clock to a man with an endless life appealed a lot to him.

"I can make it" nodded Serval, much to March's dismay.

"Can you pay for it?" asked Stelle, looking at Keith. "I doubt these people use the same kind of money you have."

"You clearly lack experience in dealing with otherworldly transactions" replied Keith. "I might not have the same money this city uses, but humanity didn't always have money, did it? The solution is clearly not paying with money, but bartering with favours. So, pretty lady, can you tell me what am I required to do in exchange for that marvellous clock?"

"If you ask me that all of a sudden...." muttered Serval, trying to think of something she might want from this man.

"I can make an offer" continued Keith, making Serval look at him curiously. "How about we deal with this snowstorm?"

"Can you?" asked a shocked Serval. "How can a human deal with a meteorological phenomenon?"

"Lady, the universe is way wider than what you think" replied Keith with a smile. "I'm afraid that not only can humans deal with this kind of things, they can even cause them."

"You are so shameless" muttered March, who then looked at Serval. "Don't listen to him, we are here to deal with the storm in the first place, there is no need for you to give him anything."

"In fact, he will just stay on the side looking while others do the whole job" added Stelle, knowing that she would be no different.

"I don't have a problem with that" said Serval with a hopeful look. "If you can allow us to see the sun again, I don't mind putting a few pieces together."

"A lady of reason, I see" nodded Keith in approval. "Well, if you are that grateful, I might want to ask for something more. Can you make that clock indestructible?"

cling cling

The door opened again, and a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes entered.

"If it isn't the captain of the Silvermane Guards" greeted Keith with a nod, making Guepard look at him blankly. "You must have it tough, dealing with those kinds of chemical hazards in your trash cans."

"Don't remind me" grumbled Guepard, surprising Serval as she knew the man wasn't one to complain. "We had to throw it outside the city, even the monsters outside got melted."

"You know each other?" asked Serval, making Stelle nod.

"My team was the one who found them in the Snow Plains" explained Guepard, not wanting to explain what Stelle and Keith were up to, as even now, he had no idea.

"Are you 2 related?" asked March, seeing the similarities between the 2 of them.

"Guepard is my little brother" nodded Serval with a proud smile.

"And little brothers will always be little, no matter how much they grow" added Keith, making Serval nod with a grin and Guepard sigh.

"We will leave you 2 then" said March, always sensible except when she wasn't. "We don't want to intrude."

"No need, I will leave soon" said Guepard with a shake of his head. "I only came here to see how my sister is faring, I need to return to the frontline."

"I already told you that you don't need to come every day" said Serval with exasperation. "In this city nothing ever changes, I am doing like I was doing yesterday, and the day before that."

"A little brother's worry, deal with it" said Guepard with a straight face.

cling cling

Guepard left the store, leaving behind a tired big sister who couldn't help but appreciate her brother's care.

"Come on, sit" said Serval, pointing at the small stools in the counter. "If you are new here, you must have tons of things to answer."

"Not real-"

"Thank you" said March, interrupting Stelle's words, realizing that Serval just wanted someone to talk with.

"We don't have that many questions, this city is fairly simple" shrugged Keith, making March glare at him. "On the other hand, you might be the one with questions."

"Well, if you have some time, I have a lot" nodded Serval, excited about hearing what lay beyond this planet desolated by the Eternal Freeze.

"Ask away. We don't have the most beautiful, the strongest, or the smartest with us, but fortunately, we have the most knowledgeable one."

"You aren't going to let that sleep, are you?" asked March with a sigh, but recovered her smile looking at Serval.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"So basically, you people are discriminating and condemning people to hunger and illnesses in that suburb you call Underworld" summarized Keith, making Serval sigh.

"It really sounds horrible when you put it that way" muttered the blonde woman. "I don't think I will be able to sleep soundly again after hearing that."

"Why shouldn't you?" asked Stelle curiously. "Lions eat the female's children when the former leader of the pack dies, why would humans be different when we are all animals?"

"Are you turning into a biologist or something related?" asked Keith with a pointed look, but Stelle only shrugged.

"What I want to say is that obeying your animal instinct an-"

"Stop there Stelle, I really, REALLY don't want to hear it" interrupted March, raising her palm towards the grey-haired girl.

"March, you can't deny the facts" added Keith. "They even call it Underworld, while this city is the Overworld. That sounds exactly like what a racist, xenophobic or any discriminating minority would call the places they live in. 'We are better, we are closest to heaven, because we are the privileged ones, so Overworld. You, on the other hand, are just trash destined to dig stones for me to sleep warmly, so go live in that ditch we decided to call Underworld'."

"That's even worse" muttered Serval with a sigh hinting at her dark feelings about the topic. "But to be fair, things aren't that easy. To stop the Eternal Freeze, we need Geomarrow Crystals at a constant rate, so we decided that a group of people would live there in turns. Hundreds of years ago, there was a particularly violent attack by those Fragmentum, and both sides got isolated, we only survived thanks to the reserves of Geomarrow. By the time the blockage disappeared, let's say that the society had split into 2."

"So the Overworld sends food to the Underworld, while you got Geomarrow Crystals" said Stelle, prompting Serval to nod.

"I guess both sides need each other" intervened March, trying to calm things down a bit. "Can't you make things... I don't know... a bit more equal?"

"I think the word you were trying to find is 'fair'" said Keith, making March grimace. "And you are basically blackmailing them. No stone, no food. Now start digging, before my toes freeze!'"

"There have been a lot of tries to do that" replied Serval, conveniently ignoring the latter part. "But we need more Geomarrow every year, it seems the Eternal Freeze is getting stronger, so we need a lot of people digging it out. Despite how big this city seems to be, what you see is all there is, there is simply no more space to live in."

"You have a gigantic Hotel on a planet completely isolated" pointed out Stelle. "Mind telling me who are you expecting to visit?"

"....."

March opened her mouth, just like Serval, but even she couldn't argue about that.

"What little I heard about that woman whose name has voluntarily chosen to leave my mind, we are the only visitors this planet has had for centuries" said Keith, making March look at him with a wary gaze. "Which means that we are the only tourists who used that hotel. Which means...."

"That someone built that hotel exclusively for us" ended Stelle with a nod.

"Who was that woman?" asked curiously Serval.

"The Supreme Guardian, Cocolia" said March curiously. "You know her?"

"March, this is the only city on this planet, and it is not even that big. Do you really think there is someone who doesn't know someone else?" asked Keith with a facepalm.

"S-Shut up! I was asking if they knew each other at a personal level!" shouted a red-faced March.

"Well, I do" intervened Serval, having seen enough from this peculiar group to know that once they started arguing, it would last for a while. "Or I did."

"Hmm, drama alert" muttered Stelle, earning herself a hit from March.

"Did something happen?" but much to Stelle's surprise, it was Keith who asked.

"..." Serval seemed to hesitate, but with a sigh, revealed her impressions. "We were childhood friends."

"Lady, I'm afraid that's the only thing we don't understand" said Keith with a wry grin. "I have no memories of my childhood, Stelle lost hers, and March was found floating in space inside a cube of pure ice. Neither of us has a childhood, there is no way we understand what a childhood friend is."

"We were very good friends" said Serval after a brief pause or surprise. "We grew up together, and-"

"He is just messing with you" interrupted March with a frown directed at Keith.

"I am not" Keith defended himself with a stare that collided with March's. "We all know what childhood friends are, but we don't understand what having one means."

"Just continue" said Stelle, looking at Serval. "You were good friends while growing up, until you weren't."

"More or less" admitted Serval with a sigh. "It's just that we... distanced ourselves, I guess. She was named the Supreme Guardian, I started seeing her less and less, and the little time we had together, she had changed."

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" said Stelle with a nod.

"She just turned a bit colder" continued Serval. "No longer was she the smiling girl that I chased around in this same plaza, she was a lot more... extremist, let us call it that."

"In what sense?" asked March.

"We all grew up seeing the differences between the Overworld and the Underworld, or at least we were aware of it" explained Serval. "Every child knew that something was wrong with these differences between areas, and everyone thought of changing it when we turn into 'grown-up people'. Later, things fall into their place, and we gradually lose that will and enthusiasm, tacitly accepting the situation and making excuses to ourselves."

"I think that's fairly normal" commented Keith. "I am probably the most experienced one in our group in what seeing different planets is involved, and all this Overworld and Underworld thing is not that strange. What starts as an anomaly that needs to be changed gradually turns into another facet of life, and soon, you don't even consider it an anomaly."

"But Cocolia wasn't like that" argued Serval, a small frown directed at her own past. "She was the most decided out of all of us. Even when we reached our teenage years, she was still preaching about solving this problem, even when the rest of us stopped caring, as callous as it sounds."

"When did she change then?" asked Keith curiously. "I don't dare to guess your age, but Cocolia doesn't seem to be that old, maybe 30?"

"Are you sure?" asked Serval with a smile that carried too much evil to be one.

So Keith quickly backpedalled, a woman's ire was a dreadful thing.

"29 then" nodded Keith. Even if he backpedalled, he would retreat as little as possible. "Anyway, the less you want me to go, the easier you are making it for me. She doesn't seem that old, and following your words, she was still wanting to solve the discrimination when she was a teenager."

"She is a year older than me" said Serval, making the group of 3 nods hearing the steel in her voice. "But I get your point."

"She was been ruling what, 10 years at most?" asked Stelle. "I find it hard to believe a 17 or 18-year-old girl would be chosen as the ruler of the city, even more knowing how much responsibility that position carries."

"She has been ruling for 10 years" revealed Serval. "But I know for a fact that she was still believing in equality in her first years of ruling. It was the time when the most tries to solve the problem were made, but they all failed for different reasons. But the definite proof that she had changed came when she withdrew all the Silvermane Guards from the Underworld and ordered a lockdown, trapping people inside."

"That's a very big change" commented March with a pondering look in her eyes.

"I don't think it's that strange" commented Keith with a shrug. "Even if the people in the Underworld lead a hard life, Cocolia is without a doubt the person with the biggest pressure on her shoulders. She needs to control the food, the Geomarrow, the army, sanitary measures that are obviously failing, and a lot more things. Living with that kind of pressure is enough to make everyone crumble."

"Ugh, I don't even want to think how busy she is" said Serval, feeling tired just by imagining it. "But yes, maybe you are right. I guess we grew up in different directions."

"There is always time to approach her again" pointed out March, the forever believer that there was a possibility of everything ending up perfectly.

"I hope so" muttered Serval, knowing better than March how closed Cocolia was now.

"As much as I enjoyed this conversation, we need to leave now" said Keith, looking through a window. "We have a busy day tomorrow, and it's already night."

"It's true" said March with surprise, not having realized how much time they had been talking.

"Thank you for the talk, I had a fun time hearing about those other worlds" said Serval with a smile. "Maybe one day you can take me to one of them."

"Give that alarm clock, and you have a deal" replied Keith, making Serval nod. "Make it indestructible, and I will even take you to one about to explode."

"Why would anyone want to be there?" asked a confused March.

"You can consider it as a very big firework" replied Keith with a wide smile. "It's amazing."

'Hopefully, we won't have to see this planet turning into one' thought March with horror growing inside her.

With Keith and Stelle involved, everything could happen.