A Mother from the Stars?

The sun sank toward the west, and a cool breeze carried the faint scent of roadside Padisarahs. Nahida walked slowly ahead, with Xingsu quietly following at her side.

The two passed through the Akademiya's rustic timber doors and headed straight into the most renowned sanctuary of books in all of Sumeru-the House of Daena.

A vast sea of books greeted them. Standing beneath the shelves, Xingsu watched them rise toward the dome, more than a dozen times his height, densely packed with yellowed ancient texts and finely bound volumes. Before this mountain of knowledge, he felt so very small.

Warm, gentle daylight poured through the openwork skylights above, making the tiny drifting motes of book dust clearly visible. A handful of scholars bent over long tables, the soft scratching of pen tips on paper the only sound in the space.

Under the Akasha's influence, very few people in Sumeru still visited the House of Daena to read physical books.

Most of the few scholars before them were merely seeking a quiet place to write their papers.

There was, however, a young man sitting with his legs crossed and holding a book in one hand. He gave Xingsu an interested glance before lowering his head to continue reading.

Nahida took Xingsu on a brief tour and found him several books suited to his needs.

Explaining Characters and Distinguishing Words, An Introduction to the Common Tongue of Teyvat, A Handbook of Sumeru's Sights and Customs, and so on.

A thick stack of the House of Daena's introductory literacy books lay open on the wooden table. Xingsu sat sideways at the table, his fingertips lightly touching the characters on the pages as he read with particular concentration.

Nahida sat quietly beside him, touching the pages with her slender fingertips as she broke down the pronunciation, shape, and meaning of each character. Rather than directly feeding him complete answers, she guided him in breaking down the characters himself and piecing together short sentences.

Xingsu's ability to learn was astonishing. A single explanation was enough for him to remember a character's shape and pronunciation, and merely knowing the meanings allowed him to understand and independently assemble them into sentences.

At first, he still relied on the Akasha Terminal to help identify characters. Before long, however, the terminal beside his ear went completely dark, and he relied entirely on his own memory and understanding to read and comprehend.

Time flowed quietly amid the soft rustling of turning pages. In just a few short hours, he had thoroughly mastered the entire set of literacy primers, from the most basic individual characters and nouns to complete sentences.

Xingsu lowered his head to look at the literacy book in his hands again, his fingertips brushing the smooth paper. He kept feeling that he had a brand-new life of his own, and at last had the pen and ink with which to write it.

"Speaking of which, this Akasha Terminal really is a great invention. Learning is so fast with the Akasha's help, and looking things up is convenient too," Xingsu said with a smile as he stretched.

Nahida's expression instantly turned serious. Her emerald eyes fixed intently on the boy, her tone solemn, without a trace of humor.

"Xingsu, I must give you a serious warning. The Akasha Terminal is certainly convenient. It can instantly provide answers when you look up words or search for knowledge, and it's a great help as you begin learning to read and understand the world."

"But you must never become dependent on it. Rely on the terminal for too long, and people gradually lose the ability to think independently. Whatever answer the terminal gives, they accept it all without thinking, never questioning whether it is right or wrong, much less sitting down to seek the truth in books themselves."

Xingsu nodded earnestly, then removed the Akasha Terminal he was wearing and placed it on the table beside him.

Nahida smiled with relief at his response, then said a little apologetically, "Sorry, Xingsu, but you may have to make do with spending tonight in the House of Daena. By the way, the House of Daena is recruiting work-study students. The pay in Mora is low, but the work is easy. You can ask Miss Katayoun, the librarian by the entrance, about it tomorrow. That would count as having a life of your own in Sumeru, too. Goodbye, Xingsu."

The instant her words faded, Nahida's form abruptly dispersed without a sound, vanishing from Xingsu's sight in the blink of an eye.

The House of Daena was quiet. The scholars who had come and gone had long since all left, and only a scattering of floor lamps cast warm pools of light through the vast library. Xingsu spread his arms across the book-covered wooden table and rested his head on them, drifting off to sleep without realizing it.

Night suffused the sky, and scattered, gentle starlight pierced the dome, falling in strands across the boy's slender shoulders.

A faint, ethereal call drifted down from the depths of the starry sky. Though indistinct, it struck straight into his empty consciousness.

"Xingsu... Xingsu..."

With his face buried in his arms, Xingsu's brows knitted slightly, and his fingertips curled unconsciously. He tried to lift his head toward the starlight, but his eyelids were too heavy to open.

"Who... are you...?"

Sensing that it seemed to be a voice inside his mind, he tried to communicate with it the way he called upon the Akasha Terminal.

"Holy shit, you really aren't dead!"

"??? What do you mean? Have I died once before?"

Xingsu was a little dazed. Why is some voice cursing me to die in the middle of the night? Is the House of Daena haunted?

"The House of Daena isn't haunted, and I'm not cursing you to die. You really have died once."

*"???"* Xingsu was a little bewildered, but since he could communicate with the other party, he could find out what had happened. "Um, let's both calm down first and talk this through properly. First question: who are you? Why can you speak inside my mind?"

"Hmm... In a certain sense, I'm your creator. As for why I can speak inside your mind, you can think of me as the mothership of a fleet, and yourself as an escort ship in that fleet. I send you elsewhere to carry out missions, but you're still under my command."

Though he did not understand what a mothership or an escort ship was, Xingsu nevertheless understood his relationship with this mysterious voice.

"Then what should I call you?"

"Rain nourishes the trees, the trees form a forest, and the rain falls without end. You can call me Lin."

"So... Lin, are you... my mother?"

*"???"*

Wait, does this child have some sort of fixation on mothers?

"Although I'm your creator, as a mother... I certainly wouldn't qualify."

"Then my second question: what is your goal?"

"Memories. As a Memokeeper, I'm passionate about collecting all kinds of memories throughout the universe. To put it in terms you can understand, I like all kinds of stories, so I sent you and many different versions of you to collect all sorts of different stories across the universe.

"Incidentally, as a child of memory, you also receive memory's blessing. For example, your ability to learn is much stronger than an ordinary person's."

"Then my third question: since you said I died before, why have you only contacted me now?"

"Because normally, after you die, your soul returns to me carrying your memories. I don't know what happened over there, but after you died, you inexplicably came back to life there. Also, the signal where you are is unbelievably awful, and the Corporation hasn't installed more signal towers there. There aren't many planets the Corporation hasn't developed these days."

"The Corporation?"

"Not important. All right, little Xingsu, you've already asked me plenty of questions. It's my turn to ask you."