The morning sunlight filtered through the high window lattices of the Sanctuary of Surasthana, scattering fine specks of gold across the floor.
Nahida was still asleep.
She was curled up inside a transparent container, clutching the light green egg tightly to her chest, her small body bent into a gentle arc.
For five hundred years, she had never slept so soundly—the warm sensation in her arms felt like a silent companionship, allowing her heart, which had always been suspended in uncertainty, to finally settle for the first time.
A faint shimmer flowed across the eggshell, as if responding to her breathing.
Then, the youth inside the egg woke up.
The first moment his consciousness returned, the youth—no, he should be called Amid now—just felt that something was wrong.
Everything around him was warm and very narrow, as if wrapped by something.
He could feel the light seeping in through some kind of translucent medium, soft and possessing the unique clarity of early morning.
‘Where is this?’
He subconsciously wanted to move, wanted to open his eyes.
And then he opened his eyes.
The next second—
A face was pressed right in front of him!
Very close.
Extremely close.
So close that the closed eyes, the slightly trembling eyelashes, and the small nose were almost touching his face!
“!!!”
Amid was so scared he nearly ascended on the spot.
Instinctively, he wanted to shrink back, but the eggshell was right behind him; there was nowhere to hide.
That tiny heart was beating wildly in his chest, and the entire egg shook along with it.
And the owner of that face—Nahida—was still asleep, completely unaware of how terrified she had made the egg in her arms.
Amid’s wildly beating heart took several seconds to slowly calm down.
He stared at that face inches away and finally recognized it—
Isn’t this Nahida?!
The Lesser Lord Kusanali he brought in his team every day, who applied Dendro first in battle, and who he had to bring along to beat up Dottore in every weekly boss fight!
‘Wait.’
‘Wait, wait, wait, wait.’
‘Nahida?!’
Amid’s brain finally started working.
He remembered the accident yesterday.
Power strip.
Water.
Electric flash.
And in his final moments of consciousness, Nahida frozen on his phone screen.
Then, total darkness.
And then, those vaguely heard voices…
“…My name is Nahida…”
“…Can I be your family…”
“…Amid…
My hope…”
Amid was stunned.
Those voices weren’t a dream.
They were real.
He had really heard Nahida speaking.
So…
he had died?
When this thought emerged, Amid’s heart sank abruptly.
He thought of his parents.
Two years ago, that car accident.
Since then, he had lived alone in that small house, going to school alone, eating alone, playing games alone.
During holidays, watching other families bustling with activity, he would just huddle at home playing allogene.
He had thought he would just muddle through to adulthood, graduate from college, get a job, and then live out the rest of his life alone.
Unexpectedly, just two and a half years later, he had died too.
Amid felt a bit sad.
But strangely, that sadness wasn’t as heart-wrenching as he had imagined.
Perhaps it was because…
that world really didn’t have anything worth lingering over?
He thought of his messy room, the games he hadn’t cleared, the hundreds of thousands in pocket money left in his phone—
‘Right, I haven’t finished spending my money!
And the Primogems I worked so hard to save haven’t been spent on pulls yet!’
The more he thought about it, the more of a loss it felt; he turned over inside the egg and sighed.
Forget it, forget it.
He was already dead; thinking about these things was useless.
Amid’s mindset had always been quite good.
When his parents first passed away, he had cried, made a scene, and locked himself in his room for several days without coming out.
But later, he realized—life had to go on.
Crying is a day, laughing is a day, so it’s better to live while laughing.
So now, he quickly accepted the fact that “he was already dead.”
‘Dead is dead, why think so much.’
He began to recall those blurred fragments of memory.
Nahida’s voice…
the name “Amid”…
and that sentence “My hope”…
‘So, I’m called Amid now?’
He recited it silently in his heart a few times.
Amid…
Amid…
‘What a strange name.’
As a native-born Chinese—no, a former Chinese—he still preferred those charming Liyue names.
But on second thought, this was Sumeru, so the name Nahida chose was naturally a Sumeru name, and it was a name chosen personally by the Dendro Archon, Nahida!
‘Forget it, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.’
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly felt something was off.
Wait.
What was his situation now?
Amid finally began to pay attention to his current predicament.
He looked down at himself and then froze.
His body…
had shrunk?
‘Could I have turned into a baby?’
Amid was a little panicked.
But immediately after, he discovered something even more wrong.
He turned his head to look around and found that he was in a narrow space.
This space was circular, surrounded by translucent light-green barriers, through which he could see the blurred light and shadows outside.
This shape…
This texture…
‘Why does it seem like…
an egg?’
Amid was dumbfounded.
But, if it was an egg, how could he see the situation outside?
He could clearly see Nahida’s face, see her hands embracing the eggshell, and see the high dome of the Sanctuary of Surasthana in the distance.
This wasn’t scientific—no, this wasn’t Teyvat!
Amid raised his hand, wanting to rub his eyes to confirm if he was still dreaming.
Then he saw a claw.
A small, light green, three-fingered claw.
Amid: “…”
He held that claw up to his eyes, looking it over repeatedly.
That’s right, it was a claw.
Not a human hand.
It was a claw.
He reached out his other “hand”—it was also a claw, equally small, light green, and with three fingers.
Amid took a deep breath, then raised his claw to touch his face.
It felt furry.
Soft.
It seemed there were also two antenna-like things extending from the top of his head.
He felt further down.
His body was small and round, not even as big as his head.
Further down.
Further down.
Amid felt nothing.
He paused, then felt again.
Still nothing.
‘It’s gone?!’
‘Where is my elephant?!’
‘Where did my huge elephant go?!’
Amid cried and made a fuss inside the egg, thrashing about until the whole egg was shaking.
Nahida was startled awake by the movement in her arms.
She opened her eyes, her first reaction was to look down at the egg in her arms.
The egg was shaking.
Not the kind of steady, rhythmic vibration, but in bursts, as if…
crying and making a fuss?
Nahida was instantly wide awake.
She propped herself up, carefully lifted the egg, and brought it close to her eyes to look closely.
The patterns on the eggshell were glowing faintly, and the little thing inside seemed to be tossing and turning, its movements too intense to be preparing for Shell Smash, but rather like it was…
Crying and making a fuss?
Nahida was a little panicked.
She had never hatched an egg, nor had she ever been a mother, and she had absolutely no idea if this situation was normal or not.
“There, there, what’s wrong?”
She reached out her small hand and gently stroked the eggshell, her voice soft and light,
“Don’t be agitated, are you scared?”
The egg was still moving.
Nahida held the egg more steadily, her hand stroking the eggshell over and over, like she was comforting a child having a nightmare.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
Her voice was soft, carrying a tone of coaxing a child,
“No matter what you encountered inside, don’t be afraid.
I will protect you.”
The movement inside the egg gradually subsided.
Nahida could feel that the little life was slowly calming down.
She breathed a sigh of relief, the corners of her mouth curving into a small arc, but her stroking did not stop.
“Did you have a nightmare?” she asked softly,
“Or do you want to come out?”
The egg did not respond, but that uneasy fluctuation had already disappeared.
Nahida pressed the egg against her cheek, feeling that lukewarm sensation, and said softly:
“It’s okay, you can come out whenever you want.
I will always wait for you.”