Coppelia looked at the silent Columbina and asked, "How about it? Do you want to go?"
Columbina turned her head, avoiding her gaze, and lowered her eyes, falling into thought.
Seeing this, Coppelia spoke no further. She simply sat quietly by the edge of the bed, waiting for the other to make a decision.
A few minutes later, Columbina finally raised her head, looked back at Coppelia, and whispered, "Traveling... doesn't seem necessary."
Coppelia was stunned for a moment, then softened her voice. "What are your considerations?"
Columbina thought for a moment and said, "I feel that if it's just to find answers, we can go directly to ask those with the ability to answer, such as Greater Lord Rukkhadevata..."
She paused, then voiced her greatest concern. "This world is not always safe. I'm afraid of unexpected accidents during the journey, of bringing you into danger. Just like..."
She didn't finish the sentence, but Coppelia knew she was referring to the encounter deep underground in the desert.
Columbina continued, "When we went to Liyue last time, we could still see many out-of-control monsters there, as well as sandstorms that blotted out the sun... Liyue doesn't look safe; it's not very suitable for travel."
Coppelia smiled helplessly. "I understand. Indeed, I didn't think it through."
Columbina paused, her voice becoming even gentler. "Is it because staying in the Court of the Silver Moon all the time has made you feel a bit bored, and you want to go out and see things?"
Coppelia pondered for a while before speaking. "I like this place very much. But I really don't want to stay here forever, letting you do everything while leaving me lying in bed alone, doing nothing. And..."
Speaking of this, she glanced at Columbina, who was staring at her intently, waiting for what followed. Only then did she continue.
"I know that in many matters, I can't help you at all now," Coppelia admitted frankly. "But I don't want to be idle. I want to do something I can do. Like taking you to see little-known beautiful scenery, talking about the past and future, and the interesting stories that happened in those places."
Columbina listened patiently, understanding her meaning. In the beginning, when Coppelia took care of her with such meticulous attention, she had felt something similar—hoping to contribute something, rather than waiting for the other to finish everything. Doing nothing made her feel uneasy, made her feel useless.
Coppelia must think the same way... Columbina lowered her head again, thinking about how to satisfy the other's needs.
Seeing her fall into deep thought, Coppelia felt her previous explanation seemed insufficient. She decided to speak more clearly.
She took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, calming her mood and organizing her thoughts.
"I want to take you traveling," she began. "Actually, the purpose is quite selfish."
Columbina raised her head, looking at her with some astonishment.
"We will eventually part ways," Coppelia said, looking at her. "But I don't want to leave you right now. Otherwise, I wouldn't be reconciled to it."
She smiled, the smile carrying a trace of bitterness. "I don't want to leave so many regrets. That feeling... is really too hard to bear. I hope to use such a journey to make up for these regrets. I want..."
At this point, she suddenly felt it difficult to continue, her eyes heating up without warning. She hurriedly turned her head, blinking quickly a few times to prevent the moisture from spreading.
Seeing her emotional fluctuation, Columbina sat closer, reached out, and gently touched her head.
Coppelia turned back, continuing to look at Columbina.
Columbina withdrew her hand, folding it in front of herself.
"I also want to leave more memories for you. Very happy memories," Coppelia said with a determined tone. "When the moment of parting comes, you will inevitably recall the past. I hope that when that time comes, the things you think of in your heart are all happy, that you won't be too sad, and can... smile while saying goodbye to me."
Having finished these words, her heart felt much more settled. However, she did not tell Columbina that she actually couldn't return home at all.
She looked at the other, waiting for the final decision.
"I understand," Columbina said.
Then, she thought for a while before speaking again. "I hope to see you fulfill your wish. So, I will accompany you on your travels."
She paused, then added, "However, I have one request. Let me determine the destination of the journey."
Her tone became serious. "If I discover interesting things, I will take you there. If there are dangers I cannot resolve, then we won't go."
Coppelia nodded in relaxation, a smile appearing on her face. "Good. Let's do it that way."
After confirming the travel plan with Coppelia, Columbina rested briefly, and her figure disappeared from the Court of the Silver Moon once more. She headed south, going to Natlan to continue prying for news related to the war.
The human settlements were located in the extremely distant south. With Columbina's current teleportation ability, she could not arrive in one go; she needed to cross a vast area shrouded in a heavy sea of fog midway.
Visibility here was extremely low. The grayish-white mist was like solidified cotton wadding, winding around the ochre-red rugged rocks. Occasionally, one could see some massive, pure white mechanical creations sliding silently in and out of huge caves hewn from the rock walls, or patrolling slowly over the surface covered in thick ash.
Columbina guessed that the Dragon race ruling this area had established their main territory underground. She had once infiltrated those underground spaces for a simple investigation and indeed found traces of activity from creatures resembling giant lizards, their bodies covered in scales or bone plates.
Those should be the dragons.
She remembered Coppelia's warning and did not attempt to approach or make contact.
This time, she only simply identified the direction and teleported directly away from this mist-dominated area. There were no signs of humans here, and the required intelligence could not be obtained, so there was no need to stay.
Crossing the boundary of the dense fog, Columbina's figure appeared out of thin air at the peak of a steep mountain further south.
She looked down. On the vast crimson earth, several deep canyons were embedded like cracks in the land. At the foot of the mountain lay an open plain covered in ash and bare rock.
When she came here last time, she had only roughly observed the situation in various places. Some humans dwelt in perilous high mountains and dense primeval forests, relying on complex terrain to evade the dragons' patrols; some struggled on the barren land covered by volcanic ash, seeming to barely survive by relying on some fragile contractual relationship with the Dragon race; still others hid in natural caves deep within the mountains, leaving only under the cover of night to find food, striving to avoid direct encounters with the Dragon race...
Humanity had split into dozens of small tribes, living scattered on the fringe zones of this area, occupying those lands with scorching temperatures, rugged terrain, and scarce water sources.
From the scattered information heard last time, although friction had already arisen between humans in certain places and the Dragon race, it was far from reaching the level of large-scale conflict, let alone setting off an all-out war.
Columbina stood at the edge of the cliff, looking around. In her mind, she recalled the possible locations of those tribes marked last time—the shady side of a certain high mountain, the concealed entrance of a certain canyon, an inconspicuous settlement on a certain plain. She planned to investigate them one by one to obtain more detailed movements. It would be even better if she could discover traces of that individual named "Xbalanque."
After roughly outlining the route in her mind, her body drifted lightly away from the rock face, flying toward the continuous mountain ranges, intersecting deep valleys, and vast plains in the distance.
...
Columbina's figure appeared at the edge of a rocky ridge above a wide river valley.
She hovered in the air a few meters above the ground. Below was a dried-up riverbed, the soil cracked. Only in the center of the river valley did a thin, narrow stream remain, the turbid water traveling with difficulty between the rocks.
Sounds of quarreling came from below. Two groups of people were confronting each other across that thin stream.
One side had about thirty people, wearing clothes simply sewn from some dark brown animal skins. Their skin was roasted to a deep bronze by the scorching sun, and they held crude stone axes and sharpened wooden spears in their hands.
The other side had fewer people, about twenty or so, but they were draped in simple armor woven from dried vines. The weapons in their hands had clearly been polished many times, their edges glinting.
"Last month, you took three extra buckets of water!" roared a tall man with a scar on his face from the animal-skin group. "According to the rules, it's our turn to take first this time!"
"Rules?" At the front of the vine-armor group, a woman with hair braided into countless fine plaits sneered. She held a long spear in her hand, weighted with a stone tied to the end. "Talking rules with water thieves? Last time, while the watchman was dozing off, you stole from our cistern and dug open the dike!"
"That was the water flowing over by itself!" a young man beside the scar-faced man shouted.
"Water can grow legs?" The braided woman's sneer grew louder. "Then why didn't it flow into your cracked fields?"
The cursing continued to escalate. The looks in the eyes of the crowds on both sides were very ferocious; they were all slowly edging forward, feet kicking up dry dust. Apart from the fishy smell of the riverbed silt, the air was mixed with the thick sour smell of sweat.
Columbina floated higher to observe.
It was unknown who threw a stone first. The fist-sized rock smashed onto the shoulder of a young man in the vine-armor group, letting out a muffled thud.
After a split second of silence, all the suppressed hostility exploded.
"Hit them!"
Both sides roared almost simultaneously and pounced on each other. The sounds of stone axes and wooden spears colliding, the muffled thuds of fists on flesh, the grunts of pain from those hit, and the roars indistinguishable in origin amidst the flying dust—all kinds of sounds mixed together.
The battle lasted shorter than Columbina expected. Perhaps because neither side could afford the physical loss of a prolonged struggle. After two more people from the vine-armor group were knocked down and tied up, the braided woman blew a sharp whistle.
The vine-armor warriors who were still standing began to retreat while fighting. They dragged away the two tied-up people from their own side and also took three captives from the other side, including the young man who had thrown the stone first.
The animal-skin group attempted to pursue, but the scar-faced man roared, stopping his companions. They counted their numbers, helped up the injured companions, and watched with gloomy gazes as the other party disappeared around the rock wall bend upstream of the river valley.
Columbina looked in the direction those people disappeared. Her body turned silently in the air, and she followed, hiding in the shadows of the rock wall and behind protruding stones.
They walked upstream along the river valley for about half an hour. A relatively shady valley appeared ahead.
In the center of the valley stood a group of rough buildings piled up with thick logs and giant stones, enclosing an irregular circle. On the empty ground in the center stood an unusually tall totem pole. The pole's body was covered in twisted patterns painted with some dark red mineral pigment, and the top was carved with a hideous dragon head.
The captives were dragged into this circular ground and thrown onto the dusty earth. Some people were already sitting or standing at the edge of the grounds, mostly the elderly, women, and children. They were sallow and emaciated, looking at the new captives with hollow eyes, without much expression on their faces.
The braided woman walked to the totem pole, knelt on one knee, and lowered her head to say a few indistinct words. Then she stood up and turned to the crowd.
"Count the sacrifices!" Her voice echoed in the valley.
Several strong warriors began to inspect the captives. They pried open the captives' mouths to look at teeth and pinched the muscles of arms and thighs.
The animal-skin warrior with the injured leg was roughly dragged to the side. He struggled a few times, but after taking a few heavy punches, he went limp.
"This one, and this one, send to the mine." The braided woman pointed at two relatively robust captives, including the scar-faced young man.
Then, her gaze fell on the other three captives.
"Sacrifice them to the 'Guardian'." The braided woman's voice held no inflection.
Hiding behind a crack in a massive rock, seeing everything in the field, Columbina's fingers unconsciously gripped the rough surface of the rock wall.
Several warriors dragged the two injured vine-armor captives to directly in front of the totem pole. Their struggles were very weak; injuries and binding had consumed most of their strength.
An old man wearing a tattered robe, his face painted with dark red patterns similar to the totem pole, shambled out.
He held a stone bowl in his hands, filled with some dark, viscous liquid. He walked to the totem pole and began to chant in a strange language.
Amidst the chanting, two warriors pinned down the first vine-armor captive. The old man dipped his withered finger into the liquid in the bowl and drew a twisted symbol on the captive's forehead. The captive trembled violently, making gurgling sounds in his throat, but could not speak.
The old man's chanting became high-pitched. He took a step back and pulled out a short knife polished from obsidian from his waist. The blade shone with a sinister light under the afternoon sun.
Columbina's heart contracted fiercely.
The old man raised the knife and stabbed it into the position of the captive's heart.
The captive's eyes were terrified, struggling desperately, but he was held down firmly. His fresh blood gushed out, flowing down his body, dripping onto the land in front of the totem pole, and was quickly absorbed by the dry soil completely.
Columbina dared not watch any longer. She activated her teleportation and fled from there.
Having left the scene of the terrifying sacrificial ritual, her heart was still beating rapidly, her body trembling slightly uncontrollably, and a sensation of turmoil came from her stomach, unable to subside for a long time.
It took quite a while for Columbina to recover.
She recalled those prostrate figures, recalled the hideous dragon head carving on the totem pole, and that life which had passed away so easily.
This is sacrifice... The dragon carved on that pole is their "Guardian"? They sacrifice a living person's life to obtain "protection"?
Columbina roughly guessed that the purpose of those people's actions was to pray for asylum from the powerful dragon. Just like when people in Mondstadt prayed for asylum from the God of Storms back then.
However, these people's way of praying for asylum was too terrifying... Columbina did not feel that relying on this kind of scary ritual would be useful, but she was still somewhat concerned about whether the dragon would respond to those people.
She teleported back to the position where she had just hidden and saw the prostrate crowd beginning to rise one after another. The ritual seemed to be over. The totem pole stood quietly, the dragon head carving casting a long, twisted shadow under the slanting sunlight.
The braided woman directed the warriors to drag the three corpses to a shallow pit already dug at the edge of the valley and bury them hastily. Then, leading the others, they escorted the two captives who would be sent to the mine toward a cave entrance on the other side of the valley.
The crowd gradually dispersed, and the valley returned to emptiness, leaving only the faint smell of blood and dust in the air.
No divine miracle appeared.
____
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