The morning sun bathed the Jade Chamber in a brilliant, unforgiving light. It was a day of clarity, yet as Ren and Ganyu ascended the floating platform, the air felt heavy with the weight of secrets about to be spilled.
They entered Ningguang's office. The Tianquan was standing by her desk, her expression unreadable but her posture alert. Keqing stood by the window, arms crossed, looking out at the harbor she had sworn to protect. And seated in a chair usually reserved for visiting dignitaries was Xianyun.
The Cloud Retainer looked up as they entered. She was in her human form, her glasses reflecting the morning light. The moment she saw Ren, the stern lines of her face softened. She stood, her movements fluid and graceful.
"Master," Ren whispered.
He didn't wait for protocol. He walked to her, and she met him halfway. She knelt, pulling him into a hug that was surprisingly fierce. It wasn't the suffocating, frantic embrace of Ganyu, but a solid, grounding hold. It was the embrace of a teacher who had feared her student lost to the currents of a chaotic world.
"This one has heard the reports," Xianyun murmured, her voice vibrating against his chest. "Ningguang has spoken of the patents, of the politics. But… hearing of your safety from a distance is not the same as seeing it. You have grown, Ren. And you have endured much."
She pulled back, her golden eyes scanning him, looking for hidden wounds. "We will speak of your engineering triumphs later. For now… your eyes tell a different story. A heavier one."
Ren nodded, stepping back. He looked at the four women gathered in the room. Ganyu, his sister. Xianyun, his master. Ningguang and Keqing, his protectors and allies. They were the most powerful people in Liyue, and they were all looking at him with absolute, unwavering focus.
"I have something to tell you," Ren said, his voice trembling slightly. "Something… I haven't told anyone. Not fully."
Ningguang gestured to the chair he usually occupied. "Sit, Ren. We are listening."
Ren sat. He took a deep breath, counting to five, centering himself. He looked at his hands—hands that could wield elements without a Vision, hands that didn't seem to age.
"You know I am from another world," he began, his voice quiet but steady. "That was the truth I knew when I woke up on Mt. Aocang. I thought I was just… a traveler who got lost. A soul in a new body."
He looked up. "But my trip to Sumeru… it changed everything. It gave me pieces of a puzzle I didn't know I was trying to solve."
He started from the beginning. He told them about the dream in the alumni house. He described the void, the voices echoing in the dark. The girl who promised to save him. The man who spoke of his blood receptiveness. He described the mirrors shattering, showing him a past of cold rooms, of Fatui symbols, of pain.
"I'm not just a transmigrator," Ren said, the words tasting like ash. "This body… it has a history. A history of experiments. I am… I was… a Fatui test subject. My ability to absorb elements, my appearance, the fact that I don't grow up… it's all engineered. I am a product of the Doctor's research into creating… something beyond human."
A sharp intake of breath came from Ganyu. Keqing's hands clenched into fists. Xianyun's expression darkened, a storm brewing behind her eyes.
"But that was just the start," Ren continued, pushing through the fear. He told them about the fight inside the Irminsul. He told them about the younger Dottore, and how the Harbinger had recognized him. "The anomaly Omega wanted me to keep an eye on."
"He knew me," Ren whispered. "To him, I wasn't a stranger. I was a loose end."
Then, he dropped the true weight of his revelation.
"And then… Time stopped."
He described the frozen world, the ruby lasers hanging in the air. He described the woman who appeared—Istaroth, the God of Moments, the Ruler of Time.
Xianyun went rigid. "Istaroth," she breathed, the name carrying a weight of ancient, forgotten eras. "The Thousand Winds. Rex Lapis… he has spoken of her only in riddles. She is a power from before the Archon War. A shade of the Primordial One."
"She saved me," Ren said. "She wiped Dottore and the fire from existence. But she also warned me."
He repeated Istaroth's words verbatim, searing them into the minds of his audience. "An anomaly who transcends Time and Space… Your existence should have been rejected by this world… You must find the truth of your own history."
He looked at Nahida's part in the story next. "The Dendro Archon… she looked for me in the Irminsul. She told me that while the world sees me as a native… my past is severed. Broken. And… I have no constellation."
He looked at Ningguang. "Even the Traveler has a star map in the sky. But I am blank. I am a ghost in the system."
The room was silent. The implications were staggering.
Ren took a shaky breath. This was the part he feared most. The part where he explained what he was.
"I've been thinking," he said, his voice small. "About what Istaroth said. About being an 'affront.' I… I think I know what she meant."
He looked at them, his eyes wide and vulnerable. "There are four ancient powers. The Shades of the Heavenly Principles. Istaroth is Time. Then there is the Ruler of Space—the one who stopped Lumine and her brother. There is the Ruler of Life, who created the species of this world. And the Ruler of Death."
He swallowed hard. "I died in my old world. I should be dead, yet I am not. That breaks the rule of Death. I came from another universe. That breaks the rule of Space. I am stuck in a body that doesn't age, and my past is severed. That breaks the rule of Time. And my body… it was modified, engineered, maybe even created artificially. That breaks the rule of Life."
Tears began to well up in his eyes. The fear he had been suppressing, the terrified child inside the brilliant inventor, finally broke the surface.
"I am an affront to the world," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I break all the rules just by existing. I am a glitch. A mistake."
He looked down, unable to meet their eyes, terrified of what he might see. Disgust? Fear? Rejection? He was a monster made by the Fatui, a cosmic error that the gods themselves found offensive. Why would they want to keep him?
"I… I understand if you think I'm dangerous," he stammered. "I understand if… if you don't want me here anymore."
The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating.
Then, there was the sound of footsteps. Not hesitant, but firm.
Ren felt a hand on his head. He looked up through his tears.
It was Xianyun. She wasn't looking at him with disgust. She was looking at him with a fierce, burning defiance.
"An affront?" she scoffed, her voice ringing with the arrogance of an illuminated beast who answered to no one but her own conscience. "Let the Heavens be offended. What do they know of the heart?"
She knelt down, forcing him to look at her. "You are not a glitch, Ren. You are my disciple. You are the one who warmed the homes of the poor. You are the one who saved a city from a god. If the Heavenly Principles find fault in that, then it is the Principles that are flawed, not you."
"Ren." Ganyu was there too, dropping to her knees beside him, grabbing his hands. Her amethyst eyes were fierce. "I don't care about rules of Life or Death. I don't care about space or time. You are my brother. That is the only truth that matters. Nothing—not the Fatui, not the stars, not even the Primordial One—is going to take you away from us."
Keqing stepped forward, her arms uncrossed, her expression resolute. "Liyue is a land of contracts, Ren. But it is also a land where humanity writes its own destiny. We stopped relying on gods to tell us our worth a long time ago. You exist. You are here. That is fact. And you are one of us. If the world wants to reject you, then we will fight the world."
Ningguang walked over, her heels clicking on the jade floor. She stopped behind Ren's chair, placing her hands on his shoulders, a solid, immovable weight.
"You have given this nation wings," she said, her voice calm and powerful. "You have given us fire and ice. You have given us a future. Do you really think we would discard our most precious treasure because of some ancient, celestial bureaucracy?"
She squeezed his shoulders. "You belong here, Ren. In the Jade Chamber. In Feiyun Slope. In Liyue. Your past may be broken, your stars may be missing, but your place with us is absolute."
Ren looked at them. The Adeptus, the Half-Qilin, the Skeptic, and the Tianquan. They formed a wall around him, a fortress of love and loyalty that defied the very laws of the universe.
The fear in his chest shattered. The tears fell freely now, but they were no longer tears of terror.
"Thank you," he sobbed, leaning into Ganyu's embrace. "Thank you."
They stayed like that for a long time, a family huddled together against the cosmic dark.
Eventually, the emotional storm subsided. Ren wiped his eyes, feeling lighter, anchored. But the problem remained.
"I still need to know," Ren said, his voice steadying. "Istaroth said I have to find my past to stabilize my future. If I don't… if I don't understand what Dottore did to me, what I am… I might cause a disaster."
"The Irminsul was silent," Ningguang mused, returning to her strategic mindset. "The Archons cannot help. Where do we turn?"
"The Hexenzirkel," Ren said. "Nicole Reeyn… the voice in the void. She's a member. They study the Irminsul, fate, and the stars. They know things even the Archons don't."
"The Circle of Witches," Xianyun nodded slowly. "Powerful. Reclusive. They gather at tea parties, it is said, but their location is a mystery."
"I know how to reach them," Ren said, a small, hopeful smile touching his lips.
"You do?" Keqing asked, surprised.
"Mona," Ren said. "Mona Megistus. The astrologist in Mondstadt."
He explained. "She is the apprentice of Barbeloth Trismegistus. The Great Astrologist. One of the elders of the Hexenzirkel. Mona speaks to her master. She has a way to contact her."
He looked at Ningguang. "If I can get to Mona, I can get a message to Barbeloth. And maybe… maybe she can tell me why Nicole spoke to me. Maybe she can help me find the memories the Irminsul hid."
"Mondstadt again," Ningguang murmured. She looked at the map on her desk. "It seems your journey is circular. You return to the city of wind to find the answers to everything."
"It is the safest bet," Ren said. "And… I miss them anyway."
"Then you must go," Xianyun decided. "This one does not like the idea of you being near the Hexenzirkel—they are unpredictable beings, chaotic in their own way. But if the God of Time herself commanded you to find your past… we cannot ignore it."
"I will prepare the travel documents," Ningguang said efficiently. "And I will send a message to Jean. We will frame it as a follow-up on the patent distribution, to keep your true purpose hidden from prying eyes."
Ganyu squeezed his hand. "Will you be safe?"
"I'll be careful," Ren promised. "And I have the hoverboard. The trip will be fast."
"We will support you," Keqing said. "Go to Mondstadt. Find your witch. Get your answers. But remember to come back."
"Always," Ren smiled.
He looked out the window of the Jade Chamber, towards the northeast. Towards Mondstadt. The mystery of his existence, the horror of the experiments, the girl in the mirror… the answers lay with a broke astrologist and a coven of tea-drinking witches.
It was time to fly again.