[center][h1]The Disappointing Truth[/h1][/center]

[center][h3]The Previous Night - Snowdin - Survive Bar[/h3][/center]

Feat. [color=darkgreen]Linkle (8/90)[/color] [color=red]30%[/color] and [@Lugubrious]
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Albedo’s relief was practically palpable as Linkle escaped her slump with renewed confidence. Most days he didn’t know what to make of people, let alone say to them to life their spirits, but somehow he’d chosen the right words for the job. Her resolve allowed her to reconsider the path of resurrection with renewed clarity, which also spelled out that she had been asking for her own sake, rather than that of a lost comrade. The alchemist had assumed that the procedure would be for someone already gone, which made more sense than dying on the hope of coming back anew. The realization surprised Albedo a little, but it wasn’t much of a leap in logic to conclude that she only considered that route out of momentary desperation. As long as she didn’t lose her grasp on herself, it seemed, she wouldn’t actually consider such a risky plan. 

It was getting to be late in the evening, and even after receiving the rejuvenation of a Friend Heart Albedo felt his body longing for rest, but more important matters were at hand. The Skullgirl offered to shed some priceless light on the vital subject he’d spent so much time on, and he wasn’t about to tell her to save it for the morning. First, she asked him a question, and when he strove to remember an answer he found it easier to recall the past than ever before. It was though a fog on his mind had been lifted, or perhaps a radiance so bright that it had forced him to look away. 

“The last thing...I was in Mondstadt, the City of Freedom. It was the Windblume Festival. That morning, the Honorary Knight collected the ingredients by which I could restore an ancient flower to life for the sake of my assistant, Sucrose. She was happy for hours, well into the afternoon. We were running some experiments, but she seemed embarrassed by something, and kept making things explode. I attempted to console her, but she told me there was something she wanted to ask me. We went out of the city toward Windrise. Before we got there...the sky was filled with light, and everything disappeared.” 

His brows narrowed as he remembered the look of abject fear on his poor assistant’s sweet face--the way she turned and held him, so tight he felt like he would choke. Then everything went away. Albedo couldn’t help but glance at the door, thinking that if she was out there, she would need his help.

Linkle nodded along, deliberately choking back an “awwww” at his situation just before Galeem had intervened. She could add breaking that up to the pile of grievances she had with the Lord of Light. “If it makes you feel better, there are plenty of places like Snowdin she could have ended up.” She said sympathetically, following his gaze to the door.

“But, that light you saw? That’s what brought us all here, and it’s not just something that happened like rain or fire. It’s an enemy.” She said solemnly. “You can see it if you go out there and look up. It’s the sun. Galeem, the Lord of Light. It took all of us, mixed us all up into this world, and put a bunch of light into each of us so we wouldn't realize it was there. That’s the stuff you’ve been noticing in everybody. It’s actually amazing you were able to figure out something was wrong.”

Although Albedo didn’t appear too comforted by his new friend’s assurances and compliments, he refocused himself on the present to think about what she said. “That does explain a lot of things, not the least of which is that I may have gotten far closer to understanding things than I realized.” His mind raced back over all his accumulated findings, his theories, his hypotheses, his conclusions. “In my own world, and assumedly most of them, the answer to the eternal question of creation is the deepest and most primorial secret. Yet in this World of Light things seem far less enigmatic. Dust, the matter of creation, and spirits, the essence of character. In my own way, I suppose I’ve followed in the footsteps of Galeem.” He stood and walked to the window of the bar and peered outside, searching for the entity Linkle mentioned. When he found it, he peered at it with his arms crossed. “Hm. Has it done anything since you’ve been aware of it?”

“No.” Linkle said, following him to the window. “Well, maybe? I’ve had a couple of weird dreams that felt like they weren't mine, kind of like how I can tell the Skull Heart’s voice apart from my thoughts. They were trying to make me give up and accept the world as it is, and I think if I had the light would have gotten back inside me. It happened to a friend of mine. But as far as actually moving or attacking? Never.” 

She thought for a bit. “We have been harassed by this hand, though. It shows up whenever we get too close to a Guardian. Like a glove, like mine, but all white and it talks! I think it might speak for Galeem. When it tells people with Light inside them what to do they have to do it, they don’t have any choice. It makes people fight us.” She looked down, sadly. “Imani was one of them.” Suddenly, she looked back up as a thought occurred. “It didn’t show up for the Stranger though. Maybe he’s too wild to risk being around?”

The alchemist thought for a moment. “I see. The Stranger I can’t speak for, but he certainly seems unhappy with his current situation. He was willing to let me carry out several experiments to see if I could ‘make him feel’, even, which is oddly self-destructive behavior. As for Galeem…” He turned away from the window, frowning. “It’s almost disappointing. Discovery is a wonderful feeling, but finding that a subject has nothing else to offer afterward is a cruelty. The realization that the ocean you stared into with wonderment is only so deep…”

“I guess. So far it just seems like your typical bad guy to me. Grab what you want, set up a bunch of stuff to keep the hero from getting at you, then sit back in your dark castle all day.” Linkle said, turning from the passive ball of light in the sky. “I’m sorry the truth turned out to be such a cliche, but at least that means the way to fix everything is simple.”

Back in his seat, Albedo raised his eyebrows. "Oh? There's a way to fix everything?"

“Yeah.” Linkle said. “There always is, right? You beat all the minions, break through all the defenses, and take out the bad guy. That’s what me and my friends have been doing since we got freed. Did you see that barrier around Galeem? Every layer of that barrier is connected to a Guardian somewhere down here. That freak that wants to feel something? He’s one of them, that’s why he came after me. If we beat all of them we’ll be able to fight Galeem, and when we beat Galeem everything should go back to normal again. Everyone gets to go home.”

After a few quiet moments of contemplation Albedo gave an all-encompassing nod. "Then we have busy days ahead of us. I'll need to rest well tonight."

Her ears perked up when he said we, and her smile spread across her face. “Yeah! Though…” She wasn’t all that sleepy, but that was normal for her.  She hadn’t really had a plan for what to do tomorrow, but it was definitely late enough that she probably couldn't do much now. “I guess the most important things are finding out more about the Stranger, trying to get in contact with my friends, and meeting the guy in a black cloak that shows up at Grillby’s sometimes. Those guys are involved in this somehow. That seems like stuff we can handle in the morning.”

Albedo stood and placed some money down for the bartender, enough to cover the bentos of both guests. He drained the last of his water and prepared to leave. “Very good. I’ll show you to the little motel I’ve been staying at. Not the nicest or the roomiest, but since it never has more than one or two permanent guests, it’s as clean and as cozy as one could ask for.” He waved to Mr. Kashiwagi and held open the door for Linkle.

Linkle gave the man a wave as well as she exited. “You know, this is the first time I’ll have slept in a bed since I got free.” She said as she followed the boy down the snowy street. He was right, they had a busy day tomorrow. Worries like the Skull Heart and the Stranger still loomed in the back of her mind, but for the night at least they would be held at bay.