Return to the Moon

Name: Return to the Moon · Type: Archon Quest · Region: Nod-Krai · Version Released: Luna III

1. Set out on the path back to the moon · 2. Discuss what to do with your companions · 3. Go outside and gaze at the moon

1. Where Does Her Name Rest? · 2. The Night the Moon Returns Home · 3. Return to the Moon

Nasha Town, Nod-KraiQuest Description: It's time to begin the journey home...Quest Objective: Set out on the path back to the moonColumbina: (In just a few moments... I will be gone...)Columbina: (I still don't know what to expect on the moon...)Columbina: (Will I really be able to send messages to my friends...?)Columbina: (The kuuhenki... The animals of Nod-Krai... I'll never get to see them again...)Columbina: (I wonder where I'll be when the next Moon-Prayer Night comes?)(Go towards the destination)Columbina: This is... this is where the people of Hyperborea used to communicate with the moons...Lauma: Eternal Moon, Frost Moon, Iridescent Moon... When the power of all three converge...Columbina: The gate to the moons shall open.Lauma: Mmhmm...The Knave: Moon Marrow preparations are complete. Only the final step remains.Columbina: ...I'm sure Nasha Town is livelier than ever at this moment.Paimon: Yeah... It's a shame you couldn't be there for it. But it's now or never, right?Columbina: It's fine. I'm more than happy with this... my last piece of luggage — my only piece of luggage.Columbina: ...Columbina: I can already feel the moon calling to me.Columbina: ...The Knave: Your home lies on the far side of this light, Columbina.Lauma: From now on, we will at last have a reason to pray to the true moon.Traveler: Columbina.Columbina: Yes. I'm listening.Traveler: Be sure to come back and see us when you get the chance!Columbina: Hah... Of course.Traveler: But if that chance doesn't come... Then remember that you have friends on this planet — people who will miss "Columbina."Columbina: Yes, I will. Thank you for everything you've done for me.Columbina: And remember... Come night or day, the moonlight shall always connect us.Columbina: ... Well then... Farewell, my friends.Columbina stepped into the beam of light within the Hyperborea ruins. But instead of returning to the moon, she was bound by Fatui Harbinger, The Doctor, who claimed the power of the three moons for himself. Using this newfound power, he froze time, rendering everyone completely immobile — except for you.In a bid to save Columbina, you engaged The Doctor in battle, but he proved too strong and you were thoroughly overpowered. As the situation turned dire, Columbina opened the Moon Gate and leaped into the "moon's reflection."As Columbina fell through the Moon Gate, the power of the three moons that The Doctor had claimed became incomplete, and he was forced to retreat...Quest Objective: Discuss what to do with your companionsLauma: Are you alright? Do your wounds still hurt?Traveler: ...Nefer: I had someone prepare a little medicine that could prove effective. Take it if you need to.Traveler: Thanks...Traveler: But I'd rather talk about what just happened...Durin: In that case, let me relate the contents of the call we made to Alice after the incident occurred.Alice: That Dottore is a crafty one... He distracted the Hexenzirkel by creating a huge fuss at Teyvat's borders.Alice: I'd assumed that the cause was an Abyssal intrusion from the outside world — which, in fairness, is a rather common occurrence.Alice: But after learning that you managed to influence the phantoms in Nod-Krai, I realized that perhaps this interference could have come from within Teyvat instead.Durin: But we weren't able to change their fates...Alice: True, you couldn't change how their stories ended. But you did build some "variables" around yourself.Wanderer: Variables?Alice: Yes — things you heard that you could not otherwise have learned, ideas that would otherwise have never crossed your mind... All these things are "variables."Alice: Of course, most variables usually pale into insignificance with the myriad of possibilities floating around. But the moment you start treating them as building blocks and intentionally stacking them, that changes things.Alice: That's what Dottore did, and it's how he created the necessary conditions so that when you activated the portal tonight, it played right into his plan.Nicole: However, we have no way of knowing exactly what he did.Varka: Yeah. We also need to ascertain Columbina's status.Durin: And that about sums it up.The Knave: As I suspected, Dottore has disappeared completely. If it's any consolation, he wasn't able to control Columbina as he might have wished to.Traveler: I'm afraid that's small consolation, given the reason why...Paimon: Oh no...Traveler: To disrupt The Doctor's plan...Traveler: ...She escaped into the "moon's reflection."Paimon: What? She did what!?Traveler: Wait, didn't any of you see her do that...?Paimon: All we saw was, Dottore appeared and used some kind of power... The next thing we knew, he and Columbina were gone, and you were falling into the sea.Traveler: (I see... The Doctor froze time, which is why only I could move freely.)Traveler: (From their perspective, the battle and Columbina's decision all happened in a single instant.)Traveler: (So that's the power of the three moons? But why wasn't I affected? ...Is it because I'm a Descender?)Nefer: So, Columbina intentionally opened the Moon Gate, and escaped into the same mysterious world as Rerir and Tholindis...Varka: Sounds like bad news.The Knave: ...Traveler: This must be why Dottore's been lying low this whole time.Traveler: ...He was biding time until he could execute his plan.Albedo: Seen in that way, the "Trilunar Syzygy" and Rerir's emergence... Dottore might have been pulling the strings in both cases.Albedo: According to Miss Alice, he is attempting to transcend his destiny and finish an experiment that only a god might complete.The Knave: ...An utter lunatic.Paimon: Wait a sec, where's Hat Guy? Seems like he'd wanna be here for this.Durin: He took off with the Dodocommunication Device after we spoke to Alice. He said he had a hunch that he wanted to investigate by himself.Durin: The look on his face was terrifying... I've never seen him like that before.Traveler: (Probably anger and frustration at the fact that Dottore was one step ahead, despite his best efforts.)Traveler: (And honestly, I feel the same way...)Wanderer: I'm back.Durin: Hat Guy!Wanderer: I went to look for the Hyperborean phantoms again. I think I've gotten to the bottom of it.Wanderer: I got them to talk to Nicole on the other end of the communications line. Turns out, the history they describe is different from how Nicole remembers it.Paimon: Really? But how? Surely Nicole can't have been wrong...Wanderer: Because the phantoms are the ones who were deceived. They speak of a "savior" who appeared in their history, one who never should've existed.Wanderer: This savior promised to create a new moon within the false sky, and even bring back their Moon Goddesses.Wanderer: Foolishly, they believed in him, and told him everything he wanted to know about the moons.Wanderer: It's obvious that this was Dottore's doing.Lauma: Now you mention it... The first time we entered the Hyperborean ruins, we heard the phantoms discussing their history, and I remember Nicole commenting that something sounded a little strange...Paimon: But Dottore shouldn't have been able to get in there in the first place!Wanderer: He didn't. Nicole said that this was an anomalous state triggered by disruptions in the causal connections between phantoms from the same era.Wanderer: The "variables" that Dottore put in place were substantial enough that they even affected phantoms that he never met.Nefer: So it's not that their memories were unclear... they'd been tampered with.Wanderer: That's exactly the possibility Dottore was trying to manufacture. He turned these variables into knowledge and engineered the situation so all that knowledge would fall into his hands.Wanderer: Then, he harnessed that knowledge on Moon-Prayer Night... to truly create a "false moon."Paimon: How is that even possible?Wanderer: To be precise, he exploited a weakness in the way the spell works.Wanderer: The spell senses kuuvahki to detect the moon's location. So, as long as the "false moon" more strongly resembled a moon than the Frost Moon beyond the skies...Wanderer: That gate would teleport Columbina to the false moon's location... in other words, to Dottore's side.Wanderer: Once he had her under control, the teleportation spell remained active, and he manipulated her power to seize both Moon Marrows.Lauma: At that moment, the Moon Marrows disappeared right before our eyes... It was already too late even as we were leaving the ruins.The Knave: By then, Dottore had already amassed the power of all three moons.Paimon: So... Where does this leave us? What do we do now?The Knave: I'd certainly like to know what Her Majesty thinks, now that the concerns I expressed to her have come to pass. But we cannot simply sit and wait for her to decide the matter.The Knave: And in any case, it is not the Fatui Harbinger, "Damselette," who sees us as her friends, but rather, Columbina Hyposelenia.The Knave: If, even in such extreme circumstances, Her Majesty will not lift the prohibition on Harbingers drawing steel against one another...The Knave: Then I will do as my heart demands. I will fight as Peruere instead.Paimon: Arlecchino...The Knave: Time is short, so I'll make the first move.Paimon: Whew, even Arlecchino seems to be losing her cool now...Traveler: (I'm sure she feels partly responsible for this... And so do I...)Wanderer: ...Durin: ...Varka: Alright, alright, alright. Lose those dejected looks for a moment, and let me get a word in.Varka: It looks bad, I won't lie. Very bad, in fact.Varka: So Dottore's pulled some real dirty tricks to gain the upper hand — for now.Varka: And yeah, it's to the point where even the mages say that his "variables" have affected destiny. I'm not so sure, though.Varka: Many have told me that Teyvat's destiny is fixed, and that does appear to be the case. Well, what makes Dottore so sure he'll be the exception?Varka: And since he was able to stack these "variables" up, who's to say we can't do the same?Varka: You, of all people, should not be discouraged, traveler from afar.Varka: This isn't over yet.Traveler: Mm...Traveler: Still... I can't help but blame myself.Varka: And you're not alone in that. Everyone here does, whether they've spoken thus far or not.Varka: But none of us are the type to sit back and wait for the sun to shine again.Varka: That's exactly how a knight should roll — they knock you down, you get back up and get back in it. Don't forget, Honorary Knight, you're a legitimate member of Mondstadt, too!Traveler: Hmm...Paimon: Varka's right! This is far from over!Paimon: Dottore's already way overdue a butt-kicking given his past shenanigans. And after this, he's earned himself a double dose!Varka: That's what I'm talking about!Varka: How's everyone else feeling?Lauma: I'll use kuuvahki to investigate Columbina's whereabouts. I'm not ready to give up either.Nefer: Leave the intel-gathering to me. Whatever happens within Nod-Krai's borders, when the Curatorium of Secrets wants to be in the know, we always find a way.Ineffa: Aino and I will do all we can to support you. We will attempt to reverse engineer Dottore's actions and seek a breakthrough that way.Durin: Alice and Nicole are busy dealing with an emergency at Teyvat's borders, so they can't return just yet...Durin: But they're both very angry about this. They've asked Albedo and me to act on the Hexenzirkel's behalf and do everything in our power to fight back against Dottore.Albedo: Are you ready, then? We're going to have to conduct a lot of research, even in the early stages.Durin: I'll do my best.Wanderer: As for me, I'm pretty familiar with Dottore's way of doing things, so I can try to predict his next move. I'll help with your investigation.Varka: Nice. Looks like we have our basic division of labor.Varka: I'll get in touch with Flins and Illuga, get them to have a chat with their Starshyna. Couldn't hurt to bring the Lightkeepers on board as well.Varka: At the same time, I'll pass on instructions to the Knights present in Nod-Krai to assist the Lightkeepers and other organizations in ensuring the safety of those living here.Traveler: Understood...Traveler: We've got to be prepared for anything.Paimon: Yeah! We'll show him!Varka: That's it, then. Good luck, everyone.Quest Objective: Go outside and gaze at the moonTraveler: (Columbina...)Columbina: I never thought that "Columbina" would become my real name.Columbina: It went being from a Fatui codename... to "something my friends call me."Columbina: And remember... Come night or day, the moonlight shall always connect us.Columbina: ...

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