Memories, Veiled in Blazing Mist

Patch: 3.1 · Chapter: Light Slips the Gate, Shadow Greets the Throne · Mission 05 of 9Previous: Lamentations, Bring Not Empty Tears · Next: Passages, Knocking Echoes in Dreams Wiki: https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Memories,_Veiled_in_Blazing_Mist

Official summary

Tribbie sensed that Trianne had used divine power again due to being in danger. To ease her worries, she went to the baths with Aglaea for relaxation. Strangely, multiple visitors suddenly passed out in the baths. Hyacine's examination showed an unexpected reason: Overheated water. The culprit behind it turned out to be a ridiculous competition between Phainon and Mydei.

Synopsis

This mission is played from Tribbie's perspective ("Passages' Ripples") using the Fate's Ensemble system, and it runs in parallel with the previous mission: while the Trailblazer, Castorice, and Trianne are away beyond the Century Gate (m04), Okhema experiences the fallout — Trianne's distant use of divine power, a farcical crisis at the baths, and finally a political rupture between the Kremnoans and the Chrysos Heirs. It is a quieter, character-driven interlude that nonetheless delivers two major lore reveals (the true price of Tribbie's divinity, and the content of Phainon's and Mydei's Coreflame trials) and sets up the mission to come.

Marmoreal Palace — a fleeting scream of divine power

In the Marmoreal Palace some time before the present, Tribbie flinches: she has sensed Trianne use her divine power again. The signal is fleeting but very strong — it feels as though Trianne is "in some big trouble," and Tribbie can tell she has opened the Century Gate once more. Aglaea asks what is happening; Tribbie can only see it "fuzzy like always," but the enemy's aura has since vanished, suggesting the party moved somewhere safe. (This is the Okhema-side echo of the previous mission's events beyond the gate.)

Aglaea urges her to trust the Trailblazer and Castorice to keep Trianne safe, then catches herself talking down to Tribbie. Tribbie gently corrects her: she is well aware that one day Trianne will reach her limit and Tribbie herself will have to take over the role of gatekeeper. Her worry is not for the mission but for Trianne's state of mind — when the party left, Trianne could no longer even speak in short sentences, and Tribbie wants the chance to say a proper goodbye. Aglaea offers to pray with her, and Tribbie asks Aglaea to come to the baths to unwind: "It feels like neither of us have laughed for a long while."

The baths — a crisis of overheated water

Entering the Marmoreal Palace baths, Tribbie notices the air is unusually hot and heavy. Bathers murmur about "the Kremnoan" and how bad the situation is. The party finds people collapsed on the ground; a Lightheaded Bath Customer manages only to warn, "Watch out... for the Kremnoan..." before passing out.

Hyacine — a young healer from the Twilight Courtyard — arrives, relieved to see Aglaea and Tribbie. She had come to relax but found the room full of fainted people. Her examination shows they are not seriously ill: they have simply spent far too long in overheated water. The bath manager has vanished, and rumor blames the Kremnoans. Aglaea falls silent, then declares it "time to bring this farce to a close" — she has already guessed the culprit.

In the inner room they find Mydei and Phainon themselves half-conscious in a bath, having "dragged down quite a few innocent souls." Phainon, barely coherent, gasps that "the culprit... is... Mydeimos," while Mydei calls it "just another duel where I claimed victory." Aglaea is unsurprised: on the surface these two are the mightiest warriors in the holy city, but at heart they remain impulsive youths. She demands the full story.

Flashback — the sauna duel

The mission replays how the contest began. Phainon, recovering, emerges to meet Mydei. Their sparring is verbal at first: Phainon notes he feels nothing "special" from Mydei and asks whether he has passed the demigod trial. Mydei answers that the ritual hasn't reopened yet — and pointedly reminds Phainon that it hasn't been long since Mydei pulled him out of the trial. (This confirms the 3.0 finale outcome: Phainon did not complete the trial of divinity; Mydei extracted him from it.)

Phainon recites lines of poetry about Okhema — pilgrims drawn to her figs and olives, unaware "that they will step into flames, fuel to the fire, a burning brand" — framing it as a poet's yearning for a distant home. He and Mydei both circle their shared avoidance of the trial. Mydei explains his reluctance plainly: "My people are still relying on me. I can't ascend to godhood on my own without first resolving their issues." Phainon needles him about whether the crown prince of Kremnos truly means to defy a millennia-old tradition; Mydei admits only, "I'm still thinking about what I should do."

To break the mood, Phainon proposes they resume their old rivalry as an endurance contest: who can stay in the super hot bath longer. Mydei scoffs — Kremnoans bathe in "boiling water from sword forging" — and accepts, promising to teach Phainon "some royal etiquette."

A Bath Sprite narrates the ensuing "sauna battle" as an epic, the steam changing color from the warriors' resolve. Unable to actually show the contest, the sprite instead tells the legend of the Gorgo Lion: long before the dawn of Era Chrysea, on the plains of Tretos, a lion and an oryx began a timeless war — the lion seeing the oryx as prey, the oryx swearing to topple the lion with its antlers. For tens of thousands of years they chased each other without respite, some lives ending at dusk, some at dawn, and some "fated to perish under the blistering sun at noon." (The legend mirrors the two warriors' endless rivalry; Gorgo is Mydei's own mother.) At the climax, Bath Attendant Daros breaks the tension by offering to lower the water temperature — both Phainon and Mydei, barely conscious, wave him on.

Aftermath — cleaning up the farce

Back in the present, Aglaea surveys "a spectacle of folly." She points out that the two dragged innocent bathers into their game; Mydei vows to personally escort the fainted customers home. Phainon protests that the contest was unfair because Mydei "wore way less" — Hyacine notes with disbelief that Mydei fought the entire sauna duel in full armor. Aglaea sends both warriors off to make amends. In a coda, the text records that Phainon narrowly won this round 27 to 25 in trips escorting bathers safely home. Tribbie observes that, for all the chaos, the two of them have chased away everyone's gloom — a rare, serene, empty Marmoreal Palace results.

Take a bath — the price of Passage

Tribbie invites Hyacine to join her and Aglaea in the now-empty great bath. When Hyacine asks why Tribbie won't soak with them, Aglaea explains that "the blessings of Janus" mean Tribbie can no longer endure the pool's heat. Prompted gently, Tribbie shares her history — one of the mission's central reveals:

Tribbie: The truth is... a long, long time ago... we were a mature adult just like Agy. Then, because of reasons... we inherited Janus' divinity and gained the power of "Passage"... And in return, the price we had to pay was the splitting of our soul.

Aglaea adds that each opening of the Century Gate intensifies the strain on Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon — they are "gradually regressing towards infancy, both in body and mind." Hyacine connects this to the moment Tribbie opened the giant Century Gate above Okhema during the battle against Nikador. Tribbie accepts it as an unavoidable cost of the Flame-Chase Journey and admits she does not know what awaits at the end.

Hyacine — revealed to be a Nousporist, whose research focuses on the soul, its depletion, and restoring dispersed souls — refuses to accept this as fixed and pledges to search for a cure. Aglaea remarks, "You're indeed Anaxa's student," identifying Hyacine as a pupil of Anaxa (Anaxagoras). The mood lifts — until Tribbie is struck by the strong "feeling" again. This time it is not Trianne: "It's Trinnon! Trinnon is in danger...!"

Meanwhile — the warriors' trials

In parallel, the mission cuts to Phainon and Mydei resting after their contest. Their banter over ancient Kremnoan (Mydei can read and speak it but barely writes; he explains "scoundrel," his usual jab at Phainon, actually means "hyena") turns to their homelands. Phainon calls Aedes Elysiae "a tiny village that disappeared many years ago in the flames of war," which he now sees only in dreams — and in his trial from the Lance of Fury (Nikador). This is the mission's second major reveal: the content of the Coreflame trials.

Phainon describes what he saw:

Phainon: Aedes Elysiae ablaze, with everyone — my family, friends, and my kin — lying in a sea of flames. A blood-red half-sun hung in the sky, just like on that day. And before my eyes, that murderer... killed Cyrene. But I saw its form this time... A black cloak, an eerie mask, and a broken giant sword that carried an ominous aura...

He fought this figure (the Flame Reaver) throughout the trial and, despite constantly improving, could never defeat it. Mydei observes that Phainon was "blinded by hatred and almost lost yourself in that trial" — which is why Phainon is genuinely grateful Mydei pulled him out.

Phainon turns the question back: what did Mydei see, and what does he fear? After deflecting ("There is no word for 'fear' in the Kremnoan language"), Mydei recounts seeing Okhema and, above all, his five old comrades — who had stood by him ever since he returned from the Sea of Souls and shared ten hard years of exile:

• Hephaestion — his most trusted friend; scrawny but relentless in battle.
• Perdikkas — a maker of medicines and folk remedies.
• Leonnius — a swift runner and their most reliable messenger.
• Ptolemy — a bookworm who stole ancient tomes from the grand library (Mydei's own family's).
• Peucesta — silent, but a masterful musician.

All five died before the Kremnoan detachment reached Okhema, each with dying words urging Mydei toward the throne:

• Perdikkas was first, shot by a poisoned arrow from the people of Ladon in the second Month of Cultivation — "his remedies mended all but himself."
• Leonnius died in the fifth winter during a three-month snowstorm at Aidonia (the city that reveres Castorice as its Goddess of Death). Covering the retreat, his legs were cut off and his body vanished into a swamp, never recovered.
• Ptolemy and his cavalry were caught in a rebel ambush at Aidonia and burned amid collapsing obelisks — "not cunning schemes... but the immense weight of Amphoreus' entire history" defeated him.
• Peucesta lured enemies into the city of Aenionus with his music to buy time; enraged foes burned the city and Mydei's soldiers alive. His last words, on a fire-cracked clay tablet: "Mydeimos, don the crown."
• Hephaestion hid a relapse of his illness on the eve of Mydei's duel against his father Eurypon, and had only a breath left by the time Mydei returned victorious. His farewell:

Hephaestion: Mydeimos... our king... Do not shed tears for me. It's not befitting of your status. Farewell, my dear friend... You must... lead us back home...

Phainon finally understands why Mydei regards immortality as a defect or curse. Mydei explains that his father threw him into the Sea of Souls "to break the wheel of karma," never realizing it would grant him an immortal body and "summon a fated revenge on his head." After Eurypon's death, Mydei considered leading his people home, but Kremnos had become a wasteland where "only darkness and insanity thrived." Against much dissent — Krateros included — he kept the Kremnoan detachment in Okhema, warning that "the instant of 'Strife' shall inevitably arrive."

Phainon lays out the dilemma: if Mydei takes over Nikador (Strife), he must lead his people back to their homeland — and Mydei hesitates because he thinks keeping them in the holy city is safer. Mydei admits he does not know, adding that he has never been crowned and his five comrades were never given titles: "None is aware of their glory."

Phainon suggests Mydei seek counsel from others who faced comparable dilemmas — the Grand Craftsman Chartonus and his people, or Mydei's teacher Krateros — just as Tribbie bursts in, panicked: "Hurry up and go save Trinnon! ...She got abducted by Krateros!"

Vortex of Genesis — Krateros's blasphemy

At the Vortex of Genesis, the party finds Krateros, who admits he was "the one who exposed my vulnerabilities first." Aglaea explains: Krateros abducted Trinnon by force, forced her to bring him to the Vortex, and then "brazenly stepped into the trial of the Lance of Fury" — and, unsurprisingly, failed.

Krateros is unrepentant. He is done waiting; Mydei's endless hesitation "made me desperate." If Mydei will keep running from his destiny to become king, then someone else will "fill in the gap left by Strife" and lead the Kremnoans home. When Aglaea challenges his right to enter the trial and "blaspheme against the prophecy," Krateros unleashes an open political attack — a significant escalation of the Council-of-Elders fault line:

Krateros: You're a hypocrite... and a megalomaniac! The prophecy of genesis and the Flame-Chase Journey are just excuses for you to seize power... How many wars did people start because of her and her so-called prophecy? How many cities fell in the past millennium...? Even if this so-called "genesis" really exists, will there be a place for the Kremnoans in that new world?

By standing agreement between the Chrysos Heirs and the Council of Elders, trespassers on the Vortex may be judged by Aglaea alone, and she moves to pass sentence — but Tribbie and Trinnon intervene. Trinnon, whom Krateros never actually harmed, insists his anxiety stems from genuine concern for his people, and admits the Heirs' own failing:

Trinnon: We were so preoccupied with deciphering the fragments of prophecy that we neglected those of you not favored by its message... Your accusations were harsh but justified.

Trinnon proposes to earn the Kremnoans' trust by showing Krateros "the source of the prophecy" himself. Because that source "has no form," she will call on "that outlander" — the Trailblazer, who has connected with Oronyx and can completely replicate scenes from the past — to reveal it. The demonstration is set for the next day, at the Abyss of Fate in the Temple of Janusopolis (directly setting up the following mission). Krateros accepts; Aglaea's sole condition is that he be stripped of his freedom until then, and he consents, calling her "demigod" with contempt.

Privately, Krateros tells Mydei why he acted: ever since Eurypon died, the Kremnoans placed all their hopes in Mydei and "never received an answer." Mydei calls their obsession with returning home "a sickness," but Krateros challenges him to "prove it to me once more, Mydeimos... just as you did back then."

Flashback — Mydei kills his father

The scene shifts to Mydei's long-ago duel with Old King Eurypon. Defeated, Eurypon praises the "feeble Okheman's" heroism and demands an honorable death, only for Mydei to reveal his identity: "I am the leader of the Kremnoan detachment — Mydeimos! I'm here to finish you, father."

Eurypon recognizes him — "the beast spurned by all" who truly defied death, fulfilling the prophecy that he "will bring an end to my Kremnoan dynasty." Mydei corrects him: he did not defy death; rather, "Death fears me. It's the reason I have this body of steel." He indicts his father as the one who threw him into the Sea of Souls, "tried in vain to enslave a Titan," and "desecrated the body of a god." Crucially, Mydei refuses the crown:

Mydei: If there's only one end for the kings of Kremnos, then the crown means nothing to me... All I want is your life! To avenge mother and my comrades!

Eurypon insists that "the walls of Kremnos will not fall with me," that the two of them are the same — creatures who "feast on strife and fear" — and goads Mydei to strike, declaring, "The son of Gorgo is destined to be crowned in blood!"

Chartonus — the mother's ring

Following the advice, Mydei visits Grand Craftsman Chartonus, who says he already knew Mydei would come. Before answering any question, he presents a gift: a signet ring for the king of Kremnos that once belonged to Mydei's mother, Gorgo, which Chartonus recovered from the Sea of Souls and recast/restored — repayment for Mydei once saving him and his people. (The ring appears as the item "Strife, Dispel the Accompanying Fears Signet.")

Mydei lays out his fear. By all rights he should accept Strife's authority — it would satisfy the Chrysos Heirs, the Council of Elders, the Kremnoans, and the bards alike. But he hesitates because of his people's yearning for home and the trap it represents:

Mydei: The Kremnoans have been trapped in a cycle of bloodshed for the past one thousand years: They seek vengeance, start wars, become prosperous, then decline... If I accept that fate and become the totem of Strife, then lead my people into repeating the same mistakes... then of course I would be terrified. I'd be terrified of becoming king.

Chartonus's only reply: "A different kind of Kremnoan, you truly are."

Coda

The perspective returns to Tribbie. To reconcile the Kremnoans and the Okhemans, Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon decide to visit the Titan and retrieve their memories — the promised demonstration of the "source of the prophecy" that carries directly into the next mission, Passages, Knocking Echoes in Dreams.

Key characters

• Tribbie / Trinnon / Trianne — The three-in-one High Priestess of Janus. Tribbie is the POV character; she senses Trianne's distant peril, then Trinnon's abduction. Reveal: the three were once a single adult who inherited Janus's divinity, paying for the "Passage" power with the splitting of their soul and progressive regression toward infancy with each Century Gate use. Trinnon defuses the Krateros crisis by proposing to show him the prophecy's source.
• Aglaea — Accompanies Tribbie to unwind; diagnoses the bath farce; asserts her sole authority to judge Vortex trespassers, but yields to Tribbie and Trinnon's mediation. Identifies Hyacine as Anaxa's student.
• Mydei — Confronts the full weight of his destiny. Reveals his five dead comrades and their dying pleas, his view of immortality as a curse, and his terror of leading the Kremnoans back into their thousand-year cycle of bloodshed. Receives his mother Gorgo's restored signet ring.
• Phainon — Instigates the sauna duel; reveals the content of his Coreflame trial: the burning of Aedes Elysiae, the death of Cyrene, and the masked, broken-sword figure (Flame Reaver) he cannot defeat. Confirmed to have been pulled from the trial by Mydei rather than passing it.
• Krateros — Mydei's aged teacher and a Kremnoan veteran. Abducts Trinnon, fails the Strife trial, and openly denounces Aglaea and the prophecy as a power grab. Demands Mydei "prove it once more." Placed under detention pending the memory demonstration.
• Hyacine — Young Twilight Courtyard healer and Nousporist, student of Anaxa. Examines the fainted bathers and vows to research a cure for the Janus priestesses' soul depletion.
• Chartonus — Grand Craftsman of Okhema. Foresees Mydei's visit, returns Gorgo's recast signet ring, and counsels him as "a different kind of Kremnoan."
• Eurypon (flashback) — Mydei's father, the old king Mydei slew; frames the Kremnoan crown as an inescapable fate of strife and blood.
• Daros — Bath attendant who ends the duel by lowering the water temperature.
• Bath Sprite — Narrator sprite who recounts the Gorgo Lion legend during the contest.

Lore notes

• The price of divine authority (major reveal): Inheriting Janus's divinity and the power of "Passage" cost Tribbie the splitting of her soul; she and her aspects regress toward infancy in body and mind, and the strain intensifies with every Century Gate opening. This is the clearest statement yet of the "true cost a mortal pays to accept a Titan's divine authority."
• Content of the Coreflame trials (major reveal): The trial of divinity replays a Chrysos Heir's deepest wound. Phainon's shows Aedes Elysiae aflame under a blood-red half-sun, the death of Cyrene, and an unbeatable enemy — black cloak, eerie mask, broken giant sword (the Flame Reaver). Mydei's confronts Okhema and his five dead comrades. The trials threaten to make the taker "lose himself" in hatred.
• Phainon did not pass the trial: Mydei "pulled him out"; the ritual has not reopened. Neither Phainon nor Mydei is presently a demigod.
• Mydei's history expanded: His five comrades (Hephaestion, Perdikkas, Leonnius, Ptolemy, Peucesta), ten years of exile, and his refusal of the crown when killing Eurypon ("All I want is your life"). His immortal body came from being cast into the Sea of Souls by Eurypon to "break the wheel of karma."
• New places/peoples: Aidonia (city that reveres Castorice as its Goddess of Death; site of a rebel war), Aenionus, Ladon (hostile people), the plains of Tretos, the Kremnoan detachment, the Twilight Courtyard, the Nousporists (soul-restoration researchers), Anaxa (Anaxagoras, Hyacine's teacher), the Garbaniphoro Grand Library (Mydei's family's), the Abyss of Fate in the Temple of Janusopolis.
• Gorgo: Mydei's mother, a former ruler of Kremnos ("son of Gorgo"), tied to the legend of the "Gorgo Lion" (the Chryseus Leo). Her signet ring, thrown into the Sea of Souls, is recovered and restored.
• "Source of the prophecy": Formless; Trinnon intends to reveal it to Krateros via the Trailblazer's ability (through Oronyx) to replicate the past — a memory expedition to the Titan, seeding the next mission.
• Era Chrysea: Named era whose "dawn" the Gorgo Lion legend predates.

Open questions

• Who or what is the Flame Reaver — the masked figure with the broken giant sword who burned Aedes Elysiae and killed Cyrene? [?]
• Can Hyacine's Nousporist research actually reverse the Janus priestesses' soul-splitting and infant-regression, and what happens to Tribbie "at the end"? [?]
• Will Mydei accept Strife's authority, and if so, does it truly force the Kremnoans back to their bloodstained homeland? [?]

Connections

• Runs parallel to m04 (Lamentations, Bring Not Empty Tears): Tribbie's opening sense of Trianne "in danger" and using the Century Gate is the Okhema-side echo of that mission's events beyond the gate.
• Advances open thread 15 (true cost of divine authority; outcome of Phainon's trial, seeded 3.0 m08/m10): the soul-splitting price is stated outright, and Phainon is confirmed to have been pulled from the trial without passing.
• Advances open thread 13 (Phainon's Aedes Elysiae backstory) and thread 14 (Cyrene, seeded 3.0 m10): the trial vision names the Flame Reaver as Cyrene's killer and Aedes Elysiae's destroyer.
• Advances open thread 20 (Century Gate as a hard-limited resource, seeded 3.0 m07): each gate opening actively accelerates the priestesses' regression.
• Advances open thread 19 (Council of Elders vs. Chrysos Heirs, seeded 3.0 m07): Krateros voices the Kremnoan grievance that the prophecy is Aglaea's power grab, and Trinnon concedes the Heirs neglected "those not favored" by prophecy.
• Sets up m06 (Passages, Knocking Echoes in Dreams): the promised journey to the Titan / Abyss of Fate to show Krateros the "source of the prophecy."

Sources

• Memories, Veiled in Blazing Mist — HSR Wiki

Hindsight (full arc)

• Reread with the reveal: Phainon's trial vision — Aedes Elysiae ablaze under a blood-red half-sun, Cyrene's murder, and the masked, broken-sword enemy he can never beat — is later shown (3.4) to be Phainon fighting his own prior-cycle self (the Flame Reaver / Khaslana); "Cyrene" is ultimately the Demiurge = Mem = PhiLia093 (3.7), the being whose gaze sustains every loop.
• Reread with the reveal: Tribbie's soul-splitting price and the trio's regression are one face of the loop's cost; the "only one witnesses Era Nova" line the chapter keeps circling is reframed in 3.4 as the endless Worldbearing duty.
• [?] resolved: Whether Mydei accepts Strife, and whether it forces the Kremnoans home, is answered m07–m08: he accepts and ascends, but ends the dynasty and has his people assimilate into Okhema rather than return.
• Foreshadowing: Mydei's five dead comrades and his terror of the Kremnoan cycle set up his choice to break the dynasty and his sacrifice in the second Flame-Chase (3.5).