Light of my life

Chapter 26: Suffer

Aether's POV-
His statment repeated in my head, numerous of times
"Die" am I really gonna die?

I asked myself. I tried to examine where the scara guy is but I can't see anything cause of the dark, that is until I felt someone playing with my hair

-Stella: You have such pretty hair Aether! Xiao must really love playing with it

-Aether: Let go of it Stella

She slightly giggled letting go of my hair. I felt a bit irriatated dispite the situation I was in, she decided to play with my hair

I felt a finger at my chin slowly lifting my head up, I realized that the person was scara he examined my face for a bit before speaking

-Scaramouche: You have a good looking face, I can see why my cousin Xiao fell for you

He pulled his hand away and examined me up and down

-Scaramouche: What a shame. Such an amazing body, only to be covered with blood and scratches soon

He left along with Stella leaving me there stil tied up. They came back soon after with a few treasure hoarders with them

-Scaramouche: Take him

The treasure hoarders came charging at me, yet I couldn't fight back since my hands and feet were tied up. They sprayed the same spray that Stella sprayed at me and I passed out again...

I woke up this time at a different location much deeper in the Chasm. It was surrounded by rocks and had a waterfall with it, we were in an abandoned brocken monument. Instead of me being tied up at a chair, this time it was at the pillar of the brocken monument, luckily it wasn't as dark since it has a source of light provided by a seelie 

I tried to see if anyone was around but I couldn't even spot a single figure. I just waited there for hours and finally saw Stella, dragging a big cart while scara sat at the cart

They talked for a moment then they both turned to me. Scara pressed some kind of button, and the walls around the monument rose up

I gasped and purple black smoke started filling the room. It had a strong smell that could give someone headaches ( This is the part at the Inazuma Archon quest with Scara at the delusion factory) the more I was exposed to the smoke, the more it messes with my brain, and gave me an intense sharp pain in my head. It was also getting difficult to breath since there was no open space and the atmosphere around was filled with the smoke. This continued for minutes and I couldn't bare the pain anymore, I passed out

Xiao's POV-
After class me and Lumine went to Proffesor Diluc to ask him something

-Diluc: Ah Xiao Lapis and Lumine Viatrix. Is something the matter?

-Lumine: Actually sir...

Lumine explained the situation with Aether to Proffesor Diluc, and he was as shocked as I am

-Diluc: I see.... I didn't even knew Aether works at Angel's share. We can go there follow me

We followed him onto Angel's share, and saw the bartender Charles. Diluc had a talk at the bartender about the current situation

-Diluc: Unfortunately. Charles knows nothing about where Aether might be, where was he last seen again?

-Lumine: At Dawn Winery

-Diluc: At my mansion...

We went to the mansion as Diluc had a talk with the maids

-Diluc: It seems like some of my maids have seen Aether before he went missing, you two can talk with them

We were thrilled to find out that we can at least get a few intel on where Aether could be. The maids came and they explained to us what they saw that night

-Moco: Well I was sweeping outside that time and Hillie was watering the plants, when I saw a blonde boy pass by

-Xiao: Can you describe him?

-Moco: Well as far as I can remember. He has long blonde hair in a braid, his outfit was um..... I can't remember....

-Hillie: His outfit was he was wearing denim pants that had chain attached to his black crop top shirt

Me and Lumine looked at each other and agreed that who they saw really was Aether "Please tell us more"

-Moco: Well he was walking probably on the way back to Liyue

-Hillie: Yeah me and Moco watched him for a bit of time, and we saw that someone pulled him by his waist and covered his mouth then he was dragged in a car

-Moco: Me and Hillie didn't thought much about it since it was a car and not a van. The guy that dragged him inside the car had a full on black outfit with a mask and we can only see his eyes and hair

I thanked them, since they were a big help fo probiding this much intel. Me and Lumine went to my uncle's company to ask him for help

-Venti: LUMINE!

Venti said as he hugged Lumine, he turned to me and gave a judging look

-Venti: Hello there my emo nephew

He said teasingly "I so badly want to kill you right now"

-Venti: You're just like your father. So what brings you two here?

Me and Lumine explained the situation and he agreed to help us locate Aether

-Venti: I'll call the knights for assistance, I'll call you guys back after 5 days for the intel. Take care

(5 days passed)
5 days have passsed yet we don't have a single clue where Aether is. I was at my room that time doing a research on where he could be, my uncle haven't called yet to give us an intel

The first thing I did was figure out on who the kidnapper could be. I have two sources of answer for that; one is either I get answer for his friends, and second is scrolling through Aether's account

I called Ganyu to do the second job and scroll through Aether's social media account and get all the information she can find about Aether's rivals and friends on the media. Ganyu gave me the list of all Aether's close friends and colleagues, and I asked all of them one by one

I got the same exact answer from every single one "Aether doesn't have a rival" I decided to ask Lumine and of course same answer. I got not a single intel on who the kidnapper could be

I stayed there laying on my bed waiting for my phone to ring, so Venti can give me information. 3 hours passed and my phone finally rang

-Xiao: You got it?

-Venti on the call: You bet. Sorry it took me long Grandmaster Varka was busy. The system here was not hacked unlike the one in Liyue, and I was able to get the car's plate number. It's AUA 6921 (I just made the plate number up don't come for me) the car was last seen heading north on the way to Liyue. Try your luck again, I'm out

I thanked him and immediately went out to the see Ms. Yu again and track the car down

-Ms. Yu: It's.... IT'S HEADED TO THE CHASM?!