It was on a cool autumn evening with clear skies that Carman found himself once again in his workshop, making the finishing touches on Clervie's duplicate.
Any awkwardness he had felt before had long been abandoned as meticulously brought it as close as he could to perfection.
"This is cruel, tricking Peri into thinking I died." Said Clervie in a corner as she watched Carman work.
"Yes, it is. And I am sorry for what will come after, I know you still had hope for your mother… but from what I understand, it is either you and Peruere, or your mother. For both of you to survive, she must pass on. If she lives, she will only continue to pursue her plan to create her ultimate agent, her "King" ; she has no plans to make a court, only a piece that can stand alone above all." Said Carman as he used a towel to wipe the cold sweat off of his brow.
"Why? Why is she so focused on that? Why does she pit everyone against each other?" Asked Clervie
"I do not know her personal reasons, but I believe it has something to do with the Fatui's main goal of overthrowing the rulers of Teyvat." Said Carman
"What do you mean rulers of Teyvat?" Asked Clervie.
"You are not strong enough to know yet, just know that even the archons must bow before them. To speak of them by name would risk drawing their attention to us, and given that I plan to change their set fate of the world… I don't think they will take it too kindly." Replied Carman
"Oh.." said Clervie.
"Anyways, we need to get you equipped for the upcoming plan. Have you mastered substitution yet?" Asked Carman.
"Yes, but I cannot keep things marked for substitution longer than 24 hours. You will have to bring the duplicate to me before the fight." Said Clervie
"I can work with that. Now come with me, I need to upgrade your kit." Said Carman as he lead Clervie into a store room where he stashed the weapons and equipment he had stolen from Vasher's warehouses.
As he walked through the aisles, he picked up a spear he had infused with Anemo aligned materials, the once dark grey metal had turned pitch black with golden details as he had infused it with the enhancement ores and other materials he had come across.
As he held it, he felt a faint sense of resonance. He put it into his item storage to appraise its qualities one last time.
[Item: Breath of Starlight (Anemo aligned Project Starglitter)
Quality: 4*
Atk:270
Energy recharge: 29.8%
Starspun Gale
When under starlight the wielder can activate the remnant astral energy within the weapon, doing so will cause Anemo elemental skills damage to be increased by 10%, additionally normal and special attacks are boosted by 8%, this boost persists for 4s after leaving areas of direct exposure. Once deactivated this ability cannot be reactivated for 1800s]
With a sigh of frustration Carman once again pondered how the weapon had ended up with such an exaggerated cooldown. This weapon had started out as a standard project starglitter, but Carman had imbued many Anemo infused materials into it along with designs he had found for Khaenri'ahn weapons. However, it had taken many attempts and had almost ruined the spear on multiple occasions as the "astral energy" within it eluded his ability to control even within his transformation and transfiguration circles.
It was far from any 5 star weapon that was for sure, but it was definitely above regular 4 stars despite it's drawbacks. As he held it, he could feel the resonance stir as though something within the weapon wanted to reassure him. In the end, he turned around and handed it to Clervie alongside a warning about its drawbacks.
While slightly confused by the specifics of the weapons Clervie was happy to swap it out for the basic iron point she had been using for training. As she held it in her hand for a bit, slowly moving it around to get used to the weight before she stored it within her vision.
While she was examining the weapon, Carman continued to dig through the piles of items he had raided from Fontaine's underworld. Among them there was a few trinkets, items that would easily pass off as a decorative piece if it weren't for their distinct appearance.
Up until he had found them in one of Vasher's warehouses of smuggled items, Carman hadn't had any conformation on their existence in this version of Teyvat, but soon, he pulled out a green and white feather charm with golden embellishments, and a small green hat with another feather of the same color scheme attached to the brim.
Of the ones he had in his storage, these artifacts were the most valuable, not because they were 4 stars, but because they were the only pair he had, the rest of them either were lower tiered or didn't have any others to match with to provide a set bonus.
He didn't even have any Unctions to upgrade them so at the moment they were at level zero, but he wasn't giving this set to her for the stats he was giving it to her for the set bonus as her Anemo infusion was going to be her biggest damage source.
"What are these?" asked Clervie as she held the artifacts, feeling a strange sense of resonance with them as they rested in her hands.
"These are what are generally referred to as artifacts. They can improve people's strength, and are uncommon to find, they also come in tiers from what I can tell with the more powerful the artifact naturally causing it's rarity to increase exponentially." Said Carman before continuing, "Each individual piece effects its user in a unique way, no matter how many copies one may find, the only constant that they share are what are referred to as set bonuses, caused by the resonating of artifacts of the same kind being used by the same person at a time. Think of it as cards in a suit in poker, the more of the same suit you have, the better they work."
"Can you use artifacts from multiple different suits then? Or are do they conflict with one another?" asked Clervie.
"You can, so far as I can tell, there aren't any combinations that cause actual detrimental effects to their user, you would simply miss the opportunity to use these set bonuses I mentioned earlier, however, if you cannot gather a set, mixing artifact sets can still give you a decent edge in combat, returning to poker it would be like having four of a kind compared to a straight flush" Said Carman "These particular artifacts are from somewhere in Mondstat and are known to have an amplification effect on Anemo energy when at least two pieces of its set is equipped."
"How does this amplification effect work? In fact, how do things like these even boost people's abilities?" asked Clervie.
"I am not sure, everything I have told you is things that I have found out from asking around. All I know is that they are the physical manifestation of memories and values contained within the Leylines. And don't ask me how esoteric things like memories can be condensed into physical form, as I have no idea." replied Carman as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
After some more gear selection, Carman guided Clervie to a room with his Transfiguration and Transformation Circles etched onto the ground, with some effort, he quickly reverted the changes he had made to Clervie's appearance, her brown hair returning to its original scarlet and her blue eyes returning to a vibrant green.
"Remember, keep everything within your vision at all times unless it is an emergency, and keep your vision a secret, even from Peruere, your mother and Peruere have to think you are still just a normal person until the duel for the plan to work." Said Carman.
With a nod and a serious expression on her face, Clervie recalled all of her equipment back into her vision before handing it over to Carman.
"And what is the story you are going to tell them when you are interrogated?" asked Carman.
"I was captured by some smugglers and was being transported around until the caravan was caught by a group of traveling adventurers who took me in after hearing my story. They trained me the best they could over my time with them improving my spearmanship with constant spars whenever we had time between commissions and travels. We recently had to part ways as they decided to visit a particularly dangerous region, and they trusted that I would be able to take care for myself after all their training. I having grown much stronger since I was last within the house of the hearth, decided to come back and try to stop my mother and show her the error of her ways like I have dreamed of since I was small." Said Clervie.
"Ok, once we are closer the Hearth's headquarters I am going to need for you to lower your mental shield to overlay some false memories in your mind this is to make your story more believable as you will even believe it to be true yourself, the memories will dissipate the moment you set eyes on your vision again. I will have Ryuzu monitor you and return your vision when the coast is clear." Said Carman as he and Clervie wandered through the underground tunnels towards the outer wall of the city.
Soon they reached a wall and, placing his hand on it and circulating the elemental energy contained within the hidden circle, Caman and Clervie exited the tunnel and walked towards the Herath's base.
Making sure the surroundings were safe and free of any potential spies, Carman placed his hands on Clervie's temples and looked her in the eyes.
Both of their eyes soon glazed over as Carman performed some of the mind arts he had experimented with after reading Snape's book on the subject. Carman was the first to return to reality and soon hid himself with his stealth skill before Clervie awoke, dressed in simple armor and carrying a 3 star Halberd. After a few moments, Clever's eyes cleared up and after looking around confused for a bit, stood on her feet and continued down the hill towards the house of the hearth.
-To be continued