(before we start, I just want to throw in a note: this is pre-Genshin time, specifically the time when Tartaglia (Ajax at the time) first meets Skirk)

Losing everything is a joke until it happens.

And it happened to you.

Sure, you didn't have much at first, not that you would ever complain, but after that fire that sprung out when you were 14, you couldn't find any trace of your old life. Your paintings, pictures, heck, even your parents' ashes... all blown away by some unseen wind.

For the year since that incident, you had been as cold as ice, trusting nobody, dragging people into alleys and making short work of them. If your life would just disappear, then your old self would disappear as well. You weren't Eris Schmidt, the young boy with hands of art. At least, not anymore.

One day, you just disappeared into the woods. Trauma had made you unpredictable. You were starting to tire out, slow down, but you persisted. You kept running, and running, until the ground disappeared beneath your feet, and you fell. For how long, you did not know. But when you landed, you knew.

This was no cave.

This was the Abyss, flowing around you, ebbing in this domain like waves. And it was pretty empty.

You began walking aimlessly, occasionally using the thick material of your gloves to sharpen the dull edge of your dagger. And, at some point, you just randomly bumped into her.

Skirk.