The Winds Bring with them Change (Volume 1)

10: Guardian of Dreams

Though Xiao felt that he could and very much would like to relish in the warmth of Venti, to let it consume him from the inside, he was also very aware of how confused the other man was currently. His mind was inevitably resorting back to the base feelings, too afraid to face the more complicated ones. Like the fact that he was eroding. Though of the Archons of Teyvat Venti seemed to be the most carefree, the least afraid of erosion, of change, Xiao knew he was scared.

His music was sad, it was afraid, it was everything all the others were vocally, but the Archon of Mondstat was seen as freedom incarnate, uncaring, carefree. Xiao understood those pressures more than he would like to admit. The pressures to be all the good things people said about you. The overwhelming urge to prove the bad things correct. But what were they to do? Immortal beings in a world of mortal aspirations, mortal wants, dreams. How could they continue to exist as they had, and yet change with the years?

He pushed Venti away gently, keeping ahold of his arms to pull him back into an embrace, where he undid his braids and brushed his fingers through the loose hair gently. "Go to sleep now Lord Barbatos." Venti only struggled for half a second before melting into his grip, cuddling into his chest carefully. Though he had not slept with another being in Morax knows how long, he soon found that laying down on the mat with Venti above him was not all that difficult. In fact it proved to be quite comfortable as he dozed off.

Though he wasn't awake per say, he was aware of someone entering the room as they slept, waking Venti. He was pulled closer into the thralls of sleep as Venti giggled at the person who came in and pulled them into their cuddle. While he slept, he also dreamt. He hadn't had a dream in a while, so it was probably one of the others dreams he'd been pulled into. He held Venti's hand in the dream, and they watched as Aether got hazy before them, his very existence being stripped away before their eyes. They were in a field in Mondstat now, and this was definitely Venti's dream. He was collapsed on his knees before a stone, a gravestone with Aether's name on it.

A tall woman walked into view now, her heels somehow clicking against the grass. Xiao watched as she tilted the Archon's head up, then left him kneeling as she walked over to Xiao. He watched her as he looked him up and down, and her smirk grew as she lay her hands on his shoulders. She spoke from directly next to his ear, but since it was not his dream, he couldn't hear the words that caused all of the blood to drain from his friend's face. Tears were falling from his wide eyes, and hands had appeared from nothing to hold him still on the ground. Xiao didn't understand. He couldn't help if he didn't understand what was going on.

Though he knew he couldn't feel actual lasting pain or gain real injury in another's dream, the sudden shove from behind had him reaching for a weapon that wasn't there. Venti was crying harder now, hands holding his head up so that he couldn't look away from Xiao. He understood now. This was why he was so frantic when he had found him earlier. She was what had him so afraid. She was the cause of all of this. He turned with a snarl, a slight breeze swirling around him as he gripped her around the neck tightly. Perhaps he would not hurt mortals. However, dream mortals did not apply.

It did not matter that this was not a demon, she was still evil in that she clearly tormented the man still crying on the ground. He pulled her head in towards his, then slammed her back onto the ground hard.

The lack of sound was beginning to kill him, his cursed energy flowing around his incorporeal form angrily. With the hope of leaving this accursed night terror, he thrust his hand into her chest, clawed fingers finding hold on her heart and pulling. He made his way over to where Venti still knelt, dropping the heart on the ground and wiping his hands off on the back of his pants carefully.

Xiao gathered his friend into his arms gently, letting him cry silently into something that wasn't just his own sleeves. He had known that getting his gnosis taken had been much more traumatic for Venti that it was for his Lord, but he hadn't quite realized how awful the experience had really been. He supposed he could probably talk with him about it, but maybe he wouldn't even remember this dream the next day.