There was a silence in the chamber that had nothing noble about it.
The thing the Abyss Order had dreamed of. The thing that could answer five centuries of unanswered prayers. And in the eyes of the Five-Nation Alliance, it was not even worth the effort of picking up off the ground.
The Abyss Mages sat with that thought. It did not sit comfortably.
Aether let the silence run for a moment, then exhaled slowly and shook his head.
"So be it. If the Alliance places so little value on it, that only means they won't think twice about handing it over."
"For us, that makes it an opportunity. As long as they don't guard it, we can acquire as much as we need."
"The dream of restoring Khaenri'ah , we can finally take a real step toward it."
The Abyss Mages nodded, persuading themselves, one by one, to accept this. It helped. Somewhat.
"Is there anything else I should know?"
Aether asked the question without much expectation behind it. He was therefore unprepared for Endis to nod , immediately, and with unmistakable emphasis.
"Yes. Something important, Your Highness."
Aether straightened in his seat.
"At the Sabzeruz Festival, four Archons appeared and signed a pact with Lesser Lord Kusanali. Among them , from Inazuma , was Baal, the Thunder God."
"Baal?"
The name left Aether's lips like a crack in stone. His eyes narrowed to near-nothing, fixed on Endis with something between disbelief and scrutiny.
"You are certain? That is impossible. I watched Baal fall with my own eyes , she was run through by the power of the Abyss. There is no conceivable way she survived that."
"Beyond that, our operations in Inazuma have spanned five hundred years. They were careful, yes, they concealed it well , but we confirmed it. Multiple times. Baal's death was not in question."
Endis gave a deep, unhurried nod.
"I have no doubt, Your Highness. I was on that battlefield when the Thunder God fell five centuries ago. I would not mistake her aura for another's. She is not dead."
A pause.
"Or rather , she has been restored. I am certain of it."
"When I first suspected it, I was shaken enough that I looked twice, then again. What I sensed was the aura of multiple Archons , at minimum, two whose aura carried the Thunder God's character , along with other presiding gods. And beyond them, at least twenty or more divine retainers."
"That was the moment I decided not to linger in Sumeru City. I left as quickly as I could without attracting attention."
There was a flicker of unguarded relief in the Herald's bearing as she said it. It was fortunate, she reflected privately, that every pair of eyes in that plaza had been fixed on Lesser Lord Kusanali's words. Had any of those gods turned their attention toward the crowd, there would have been nothing left of her to report back with.
That many Archons and celestial retainers gathered in one place , even her dust would not have survived.
As it was, lifting the box of alchemical elixirs from outside the Akademiya gates had required such careful footwork that she had barely breathed the entire time. One wrong sound, one misplaced step noticed by any of the assembled presiding gods , the entire crate would have stayed on the ground, and so would she.
"Do you recall the specific auras?"
Aether leaned forward, his eyes intent.
Endis took a moment to consider before answering.
"Two auras belonging to the Thunder God, as I said. Several other presiding gods were present. And among them , one whose aura carried the quality of dust and wind, and another who gave me a sense of threat that stood shoulder to shoulder with Morax himself."
Aether grew still.
His voice, when it came, was barely above a murmur.
"Guizhong. Azhdaha. The Adepti…"
He turned the names over quietly, half to himself.
"They restored quite a few. Even Azhdaha , that kind of irreversible erosion should have been permanent."
"Milk. All because of milk."
He settled back into his throne, letting the shadows fall across his face. The chamber fell quiet save for the measured sound of his fingers against the armrest , a slow, rhythmic tapping that did not stop.
His thoughts had begun to move.
What the Five-Nation Alliance was building , that much required no deep analysis. Any conclusion a thinking mind could reach pointed to the same place. In the whole of Teyvat, they were now the dominant force, and they had not bothered to appoint themselves as such. They simply were.
The Abyss Order would have to navigate around them.
Six presiding Archons with authority in the mortal realm. Eight Gnosis-holders, with Archon-level combat power. Among those eight: Zhongli. Venti. The Cryo Archon. Ei. Azhdaha. And atop them all , Zhongli and Azhdaha together, who, if they chose to act in concert, could reasonably put the enforcers of the Heavenly Principles on the ground.
No one needed to argue about peak combat capability. That tier was settled.
Below them: the Adepti. Over twenty confirmed. Likely far more unaccounted for. And what happened when you gave beings of that calibre enchanted weapons and alchemical elixirs? Did their power scale to match an Archon's? Aether did not know the precise answer, but he thought the odds were reasonable. High, even.
The Five-Nation Alliance was not missing firepower. If they chose to treat the Heavenly Principles as their enemy and moved accordingly, the only obstacle left was the Principles themselves. Everything beneath that , every enforcer, every mechanism, every subordinate force , would simply not be enough.
The Dragon-Rider Corps alone could pacify the known world if it was ever pointed at someone.
Aether finished untangling his thoughts and went still.
Then a different kind of cold settled in.
The Abyss Order had spent centuries on its great work. The Loom of Fate. War-beasts. The Inverted Statues. Plans stacked on top of plans, revised and rebuilt across five hundred years of loss and patience.
And in a handful of months, a man named Ryen had arrived from somewhere outside, and the Five-Nation Alliance had moved further toward defeating the Heavenly Principles than the Abyss Order had in all that time. Further, and faster. By a margin that was not close.
If the Abyss Order moved against the Alliance right now , not even in full force, not even with everything the Order possessed , Azhdaha could arrive with a contingent of Adepti and the Dragon-Rider Corps and end it. A single day. Perhaps less. Even if the Abyss revealed its most dangerous card, the force that tore at its wielder as much as its target, the Alliance would simply send more Archons to the field and hold the line.
And then there was Ryen.
Aether had not forgotten what he had felt from the man , the one who had punched a hole through space bare-handed, reached through the spatial turbulence into the depths of the Abyss, and crushed an Abyss Mage in his fist like it was nothing. The one who had stood inside dimensional collapse and come out the other side irritated rather than injured.
He was the true foundation of the Alliance. The hidden depth beneath every layer.
Aether was not certain the Heavenly Principles could survive a direct confrontation with that man, let alone his own Order.
The calculation resolved into a single clean answer.
Fighting the Alliance meant death. There were no alternate outcomes to model.
The Alliance's odds of defeating the Heavenly Principles were, conservatively, a hundred times greater than the Abyss Order's.
And the old dream of toppling the five nations, of avenging what was done to Khaenri'ah , the day the Abyss Order acted on that dream, the Alliance would end it. The morning after, at the latest.
So.
The seven nations were untouchable.
The five nations, especially, were not even worth the thought.
What the Order should actually be hoping for was that the Alliance simply had no interest in them , because if the Alliance ever did decide the Abyss Order was worth their attention, the Order would have no choice but to comply with whatever was asked of them. They would not be in a position to refuse.
Aether exhaled and let the tension leave his frame in pieces.
He found, when he examined his reaction honestly, that the grief was not as deep as he might have expected.
The nations had not been complicit in Khaenri'ah's destruction. The seven gods had come , yes. But they had been coerced. The Heavenly Principles had held the existence of their own nations over them, and they had made an impossible choice under that pressure. There was, if not forgiveness, at least a shape to the thing that made it comprehensible.
The real enemy had always been the Heavenly Principles.
And against that enemy, the Order might one day need to stand beside the Alliance rather than behind it.
After a long silence, Aether raised his head.
"Every plan the Order has maintained against the five nations , set them aside."
"Your Highness!"
One of the Abyss Mages stepped forward, the objection half-formed on his lips, something he could not quite put into words fighting to come out.
Aether's wave was tired rather than sharp.
"The Five-Nation Alliance is too strong. The depth of their resources, the reach of their capability , they could dissolve the Abyss Order on a whim. We would not survive the decision."
"They are not enemies we can afford to make."
"At present, we and the Alliance share a trajectory that is pointed, however loosely, in the same direction , toward the Heavenly Principles. They can afford to ignore us. But the moment we give them reason to stop ignoring us, they will deal with us before they ever march on the Principles."
"I will ask you plainly: do any of you believe we can face five peak-tier Archons, several dozen divine retainers, and hundreds of Dragon-Rider cavalry at the same time?"
His gaze moved from face to face.
One by one, they looked away.
Aether's tone softened.
"Let it go. They are not enemies we can reach."
"What we should be worrying about now is whether they will decide to come for us unprompted."
"The Abyss Order has endured for centuries. The people of Khaenri'ah now have a real chance , perhaps the first real chance , to reclaim their humanity and rebuild something. That is not something to throw away over a vendetta that the other side of this war is better equipped to avenge than we are."
"Moreover , the seven gods marched on Khaenri'ah, but the seven nations did not send a single soldier. And the gods were moved by the Heavenly Principles' compulsion, not by will. There is a distinction. Our true enemy has always been the Principles themselves."
"If the day comes to settle that account, we may find that we need the Alliance's strength behind us."
It should have been an unbearable thing to hear. The Abyss Mages knew it, and they listened anyway.
But the words landed differently than they might have, a hundred years ago. Because Azhdaha was walking again. Baal breathed again. Twenty Adepti who had faded from the world had returned to it. The Blight had been cured with something freely given from a cow. And the same cure could undo what the Heavenly Principles had done to every last Khaenri'ahn soul alive.
Revenge could be deferred. Humanity could not.
To be a pragmatist, it turned out, was easier when your pragmatism was pointed at survival and restoration rather than loss.
"As you command, Your Highness."
The response came back unified. Aether nodded.
"All current plans , suspended. The Order's focus shifts entirely to these resources and what they represent."
"Do not move to acquire anything yet. First, gather everything we can learn about the Alliance , their structure, their reach, the full scope of what they have access to."
"Once that is in hand, I will go to them myself."
A ripple of unease moved through the assembled Mages. Aether forestalled it with a look.
"There is nothing to worry about. I have standing contracts with both Morax and Barbatos. And Lumine is my sister."
"They will hear me out."
What he did not say aloud was that he was no longer certain he could have fought his way clear even if he needed to. In the past, he would have held that confidence without question , faced with Zhongli, faced with Ei, he could have moved and been gone before they closed the distance. But the Alliance had changed in ways he could not measure from this side of the encounter. He did not know what Zhongli had become now, or what Ei carried after her restoration. He did not know the full count of who would be standing in that room.
Eight Archons. An uncounted number of Adepti.
And Ryen.
If that last name was anywhere in the building when things went wrong, there was no version of the situation where Aether escaped under his own power. Not even into the Abyss. The man had already demonstrated he would simply reach in after him.
His only genuine guarantees were the contracts, and Lumine.
He would rely on those, and keep his hands visible, and say what needed to be said.
If the terms were not unreasonable , and he would accept a wide latitude on that , he would agree to them.
The resources the Alliance possessed were too valuable to approach from a position of pride. It was as simple as that. Whether for rebuilding Khaenri'ah or for eventually confronting the Heavenly Principles, there was no path that did not run through these people.
He dismissed the assembled Mages with a slow gesture and sat alone.
After a long while, he reached inside his coat and drew out the recovery elixir. He turned it in his fingers once, then uncorked it and drank.
The light that gathered in his closed fist afterward was clean and steady. White without shadow.
"As I thought."
His grip tightened slowly.
The brightness between his fingers grew purer.
"Even wounds of the soul can be healed…"
He opened his hand and looked at the light.
"Five-Nation…Alliance…"
A breath.
"Ryen…"