Milion dollar man

Chapter 4

The main reason as to why Aether was in Inazuma, was to have a little talk with the Raiden Shogun.

Problem was, that initially he had absolutely no idea as to where to start.

The figure of the Electro Archon was mysterious, to say the least. So known but so vague.

There were so many voices circling around her name, and her actions, but few seemed to really have an idea as to who the Archon was.

And when Aether had enough of the secrets and mysteriousness and he started asking around, it usually didn't include the best of stories.
People usually talked about how tyrannical the Archon was, about how she didn't have any mercy for her people, that she enjoyed seeing her people terrified.

Very few people talked about the infamous vision hunt decree.

Nobody really seemed to have a specific clue as to why the Archon was doing that, as it seemingly came out of nowhere. They usually gave their half-assed theory as to why she started it.

Some simply said because she wanted to be the only one in her 'queendom' to have access to some sort of vision, others said that by taking her people's visions, she was actually trying to protect them from something, or someone, for some weird reason.

Then many started theorizing about why she made Inazuma almost completely inaccessible.

And contrary to popular rumors, it was believed than rather than letting people in, she was trying to trap someone in Inazuma.

Honestly Aether did not know what to believe, he had some... ideas, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.

Apart from her actions, he also was particularly eager to finding out what she looked like, just because.

But he hadn't been as lucky with that, with people just describing her as a doll.

So stunning and ethereal but so empty and void. Incapable of feeling any sort of emotion.

And about that, Aether had his own theories.

¯-_-¯-_-¯-_-¯-_-¯-_-¯-_-¯

Apart from the exhausting task he had put on himself, he was also managing to enjoy himself and the new environment, which he had Paimon to thank for that.

The previous times he was so focused on his missions and goals that he completely forgot to actually exist a little bit. And that was mainly his problem, because he had everyone in the palms of his little hands, he was just terrible with grasping the concept of relax.

And of course, eventually people managed to drag him out of his head and make him have fun. Like when Kaeya used to drag him in the tavern for a couple of drink, religiously ending up in him bicker with Diluc while Aether was already to drunk to even say anything.
Or when Ganyu and Xiao took him on one of their little spiritual hangouts that somehow always needed him being sandwiched between the two in some random hot spring.

But even then, he always had his next mission in the back of his mind, that would not let him breathe.

But things strangely changed in Inazuma.

After Thoma had introduced him to Ayaka, him and the princess had grown extremely close.
It was mainly due to the cryo user eagerness to finally have friends. Because as he learned, she was as lonely as a damn rock.

Of course not counting Thoma.

And speaking of the boy...

Aether, being the oblivious dumbass he was, missed all the signs that the older boy was trying to send him.