Ballad of Blushberry

(An instrumental I wrote and composed during my recent stay in Kyushu~ cinematic yet nostalgic with a trace of Japanese and Chinese folk. Partly inspired by some of Genshin’s Liyue music too ✨)

—————————

Have you ever felt so empowered yet so small at the same time?

It’s 10:33 PM as I write this—Miya’s fast asleep, much earlier than she promised, but with all we’ve done today, I’m not surprised she’s tired.

But being back here in Blushberry reminds me of the very first time I came here with my father. My real one.

Every time we went on trips, he was always like a tour guide who loved me and who saw telling me these stories and legends as his duty as a parent. And he was right, in a way; the way his face beamed as he recounted his travels, I’ll never forget.

The two of us hiking through Blushberry together was like one of those Crynthellian movies set in some ethereal, alternate planet, where utopian peace and cosmic horror blend together seamlessly, paralysing you as if your instincts have been numbed.

No matter how high of a peak we climbed, there was always a higher one just over the horizon, and with each one we tried to summit, we felt no “bigger” as people than we did at the very base of it all.

There was no end to Blushberry.

Mt. Syernon loomed over us like a grandparent long departed, but just like a lost relative, a meeting never seemed realistic. To gaze and admire from a distance was all we could do. He promised me back then that, once I was old enough, we could return together and join the elite few who have trounced that mountain’s summit, but as soon as I began to look forward to that, he was gone.

I’m writing this tonight in the very same cottage the two of us rented all those years ago, but in his place is Miya, and I can’t bring myself to lose her the same way I did him.

Together, we’ll just bask here in Blushberry as long as our time allows, and I know we will not regret even a second of it.

Maybe that mountain will be ours to conquer too someday.

That’s my wish, Miya—I know you can’t read this, but we’ll make it together.

Love you~

And dad, I’m thinking of you tonight. That I want you to know.

I’ll tell all your stories to Miya too once she wakes up.

Rumi, 30th of Thellian