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A fine day continues while the wind carries in the heart of Monstadt. With its people roaming freely, their safety is top priority as the Knights of Favonius keep on the lookout for outside dangers, including those who watch from behind the scenes.
“Hmm… according to these books, violet grasses have strong vitality with a sweet fragrance. Maybe if I could extract them and do a few test experiments, I could possibly create a concoction for stamina!”
Somewhere inside the headquarters, sounds of glass clinking and smokes puffing out between the gaps, the knights knew the alchemist was experimenting yet again. Even though it sounded dangerous, everyone trusts her abilities so they would not question it.
While she had full concentration into extracting the violet flower sample, she could see a red cap bobbing towards her from the corner of her eye. Her tiny hands reached onto the nearby stool and climbed on it, the little visitor observed the alchemist’s work with full excitement as she hopped about.
“Oooooh!! Klee knows this flower. One of the knights gave one to Klee before.”
“Is that so? I’m happy to hear you have knowledge about this flower, Klee,” the alchemist replied. Her eyes and hands steadily work on the extraction. “Aren't you still in confinement, Klee?”
“Klee’s confinement time just ended so Klee is now free to walk around!”
While nodding, the alchemist’s eyes started to sparkle as the flower extraction had come to the completing stage. Perfect! Carefully taking a few drops into a tube, the eyes of both knights observe it with awe. However, the little knight broke the silence with-
“Master Selene, do you think this flower can help Klee’s bombs explode more?”
The alchemist dryly laughed, “I don’t think that’s a possibility, Klee.”
“But Jumpy Dumpty needs more explosions!! The bigger it explodes, the prettier!”
Struggling to explain the dangerous possibilities of bigger explosion outcomes to a child is hard to simplify, especially when you just discovered a new material to test its contents. Right on time, footsteps walked through the door, revealing a familiar figure to the two knights.
“Master Albedo!!” The child happily skipped towards the man and hugged his legs. From Selene’s view, Albedo looked rather exhausted for a while before his lips turned to a smile as he patted the child’s head.
Selene sighed, “Albedo, I hope you’ve been taking rests these days.”
Albedo’s eyes widened at the mention before quickly averted them from her gaze. Yeah, she’s going to take that as a no.
Before her lecture comes about, Albedo clears his throat to pull her attention to his matters. “Selene, can I have a moment of your time? Unless you’re occupied with something.”
Even though she’s practically preoccupied with her current experiment, she couldn’t object to her master’s request, right?
“Sure. Is there something you need for?”
“I’m planning to hike back to Dragonspine. I was looking through some of my previous research reports and I realized some of the procedures are missing something.”
Strange. Albedo is the type to be very precise and collective about his research, so hearing an incomplete finding started ringing alert bells in Selene’s head. Plus, Dragonspine is an interesting location to research on more, so of course she would join in!
“Can Klee join in too?” Cute puppy eyes staring at Albedo, begging him to include her in the team.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come along, Klee.” Worried about the child’s safety, Selene refused.
“Klee will be extra careful in Dragonspine. And Klee will warm you up from the cold with Jumpy Dumpty!”
The chief alchemist chuckled, “I guess we could use a Pyro vision user during the journey, would it?”
Well, he’s not wrong about that fact. Walking around in sheer cold is a risky walk. Selene sighed in defeat after thinking through Albedo’s reasoning before nodding. Happily hopped around, the three set on their journey to the cold winter.
From passing through hilichurl attacks to Fatui ambushes, they finally arrived at the destination of Albedo’s curiosity. The intense heat emitting inside the underground cave, scarlet quartz scattered across the ground. Beholding upon them, there lies the source of the scarlet red colors in Dragonspine.
The Core.
Said it used to be the heart of Durin, no one knows how it still glows for thousands of years until now. Seems like Albedo’s interest in researching Dragonspine is still pumping up. Even to Selene, her eyes sparkled as she quietly stared to the core with awe.
“From my findings, the core still radiates high intensity of heat that could support the creatures living here. Somehow, I still wonder how it could affect someone with low resistance to it.”
While the two alchemists started their research, Klee roamed around with piqued interest as she looked at each and every scarlet quartz surrounding the cave. Poking on one of the quartz, she insisted on breaking some in hopes to work on a better version of her bombs. Nonetheless, it only emitted its heat in a short amount of time which disappointed the little knight. Trying to figure out a possible way to take these quartz home, her eyes darted towards the core. With a smile of excitement, Klee skipped over to the core while staring into the pumping object.
Meanwhile, the two alchemists were busy discussing what could possibly be the reason for its everlasting life until Selene noticed Klee getting close to the core. “Klee, don’t go near it!”
Her words fell on deaf ears, Klee has touched the core while admiring the red glow.
“Klee!!” Running towards the child, Selene’s worry of something fatal might happen to her. Until a scream was heard.
“Too hot, too hot!! Klee’s body is burning. Master Selene! Master Albedo! It’s too hot.” As the child cried over to Selene, the alchemist carried her small body to the cave entrance in hopes for the temperature to cool her down.
As Selene scolded the child, Albedo observed the event with interest, wondering that could be the answer to his hypothesis. Caressing the red glowing core, knowing that he won’t feel the same heat intensity from what Klee experienced, his expression sorrowed in wonder. Something about this research is… missing the most important piece of the puzzle.
With the unexpected incident falling on them, they decided to head over to their camp hideout to fix up a quick antidote to Klee’s temperature. As Albedo focusly extracted the liquid, his thoughts started to wander. He realized he didn't react to the incident of Klee a while ago. Witnessing Selene’s reaction is a normality to be worried about someone, but why didn’t he feel anything? Why didn’t he feel any sorrow or any swirling of emotions inside him?
Looking over Selene, who’s warming up the child on her lap with a blanket, he called out to her.
“How’s her condition, Selene?”
“Ah! her temperature has cooled down, but I think the heat drained her energy so she decided to take a nap for now.”
Albedo nodded, “That’s good to hear then.” Even though he walked over to check on Klee, he couldn’t understand this action of worrying someone. How does it feel to care for someone dear? He knew how precious the child is to him, especially to the people who he once was with in the past.
Selene must have noticed how conflicted his expression is, as she placed her hand on Albedo’s shoulder to comfort him. “Don’t worry, she just needed some rest.”
“Oh. Right.” As he sat beside Selene, he thought to himself that maybe asking her input could help with this question throbbing inside his mind. “Is it normal to be worried about someone, Selene?”
“Hmm?” The unexpected question surprised her, but knowing that’s Albedo’s character, she tilted her head in deep thought. “Well, worrying about someone is more of an involuntary instinct, so you could say it’s normal to be.”
“But what if you don’t?” He looked over to the sleeping child, softly stroking her hair. “What if you can’t feel any sorrow for a person? Would others think of you as selfish? Wouldn’t the person we look after be upset about it?”
Selene looked over between Albedo and Klee, somehow found the answers to those questions, “Not being able to worry about someone doesn’t make you a selfish person. Even though you couldn’t feel it, you just… know that you are.”
Albedo’s brows furrowed. Hmm, maybe a more practical explanation would help.
“Having the emotion of worrying is a normality to everyone, but even the actions you took for them is one too. Just like how you did for Klee! You stopped the research for a while for the sake of saving her and even made the antidote. Even though you couldn’t feel anything, your action is what matters too because that’s what others will see how much you care for them.”
With that, she beamed a genuine smile and even pushed the child’s lips to a smile, making the chief alchemist smirk. So even without possessing those emotions, the reflective actions to that itself shows his worries too. Even though it’s likely just Albedo’s logical thinking into resolving it, he must have not realized the latter too.
Maybe… that’s what the core underneath them had the same intentions. Because of the endless sheer cold surrounding this continent, a heat source is majorly needed for the creatures to survive. Maybe before the dragon’s body decomposed, the purity of the dragon’s heart still pumps with infinite power for those who need it most.
While his thoughts wander for more possibilities, a yawn is heard beside him. Witnessing her eyes slowly drooping to a slumber, he gently pulled her body to lean on him while her head landed on his shoulder. Mayhaps the heat from before overtaken her as well, he decided to let her rest for now. Ah, this could be another action of worrying then. The edge of Albedo’s lips lift as he watches over the two knights sleeping with the thought that he learned something new.
Either way with the current situation, it’s best to pause the research for a while. He couldn’t bear to wake them up by how peaceful their expressions look. Once there’s time to reflect, he will thoroughly look for the missing information of his research and analytics of the emotion he seeks.