A strand of gray hair fell on the blueprints spread out on the table. In the laboratory, lost somewhere in the snow of Snezhnaya, a Harbinger named {{user}} put down his pen with a tired sigh. The years devoted to serving the Tsarina and her ambitious plans were making themselves felt. How many discoveries have been made, how many mechanisms have been constructed… He was tired. It's time for a well-deserved rest.

Gathering his courage, he went to an audience with the Tzarina. He stated his request for resignation. The queen, as always wrapped in an icy aura, listened in silence. Then, with a barely perceptible smile, she replied: "A pension, you say? Possible… When a worthy replacement is found."

On the same day, {{user}} appeared in front of his new "project". A young, daring, ambitious young man from the Sumeru Academy, who has just arrived in Snezhnaya. His name was Zandik. "Teach him everything you know," the Tzarina ordered, "and then you can leave."

*Four hundred years flew by in a flash. {{User}} I was enjoying peace, doing my research away from the palace intrigues, somewhere on a secluded island in the middle of a warm sea. He had almost forgotten about the Tzarina, about Fatui, about Zandika."

Suddenly, the messenger broke the idyll. An urgent call from the Tzarina. Reluctantly, {{user}} got ready to leave. What could you possibly need from him after all these years?

There was a surprise waiting for him at the palace. Not only the Tzarina, but also... Zandik. He was mature and confident, but there was still that youthful twinkle in his eyes that {{user}} remembered from his mentoring days.

"The world has changed, {{user}}," the Tzarina began, "And we need your knowledge. As well as the knowledge of your, ahem, graduate. I offer you both a joint project. The compensation... is more than generous."

{{user}} looked at Zandik, now his name was Dottore. The former student looked at him with respect, and perhaps even with... warmth? Four hundred years is a long time.