Xiao's POV
We woke up quite early. The sun had yet to rise and we were already flying to our destination.
"Sorry for waking you up so early, Xiao Xiao. If it wasn't for the fact that we cant' enter after sunrise, I would have let you sleep some more." Venti petted my head as we flew.
I really don't mind though. I think he forgot that I don't actually need to sleep this much. I haven't even done anything difficult this whole week, just sleeping for a few hours would have been more than enough.
"Here we are." I heard his voice above me as we landed.
It seems like I got a little too absorbed in my thoughts to pay attention to where we were going. Where are we anyway?
I looked around. The place we landed looked like a small inhabited island. A long time ago, some kind of structure probably stood here, but all that remains now were ruins.
"This place looks rather horrible," Venti commented as he observed the surroundings.
"This is why I told her to cast a barrier not only on the sundial but also on the island." He continued.
Sundial?
After a few seconds, I finally caught sight of the only intact thing on the island. Well, intact is a little too much to say, although it was whole, it still looked like it could fall apart at any moment. Did it really have a barrier canst on it?
"Won't this fall apart if I just slightly hit it? That's what's written all over your face, Xiao Xiao. You seem to be looking down on a barrier made by the God of Time a little too much." An amused voice came from above me.
It seems like I was caught, but you cant' really blame me, the state of this sundial is a little...
"It won't break even if you use all your power to hit it. You'll be the only one getting hurt. Let me show you if you don't believe me."
Saying that he flew up and put me on the highest pillar. After that he stood in the middle of the island, facing the dial. He took out his bow and pulled back the string. I could see the power of anemo gather at the top of his arrow. It was a power equal to mine at first, but in merely a few seconds, my level of power was far surpassed.
Won't it be a little too dangerous if he fires that?
Just as I thought that, he fired. The arrow flew straight at the sundial, hitting it square in the center. but...
Nothing happened.
"Here it comes!" Venti said suddenly.
I didn't even have time to think about what he was talking about when I saw the place where venti's arrow had hit glow. It started glowing brighter and brighter, and then out of nowhere, a ray of light shot at Venti.
It was very fast and I couldn't quite identify it, even as it reached Venti. I only knew that it looked rather familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
I was very worried at first as I saw the ray hit Venti, but seeing the confident smile on his face made me calm down a little.
The ray of light hit him square in the chest, and at the moment of contact, it exploded into a great gale that blew over the whole island, even going as far as pushing back the sea surrounding it.
Soon the wind stopped, revealing Venti, who had been stuck in the middle.
As I caught sight of him, I could finally see the identity of the strange ray of light. Just millimeters in front of his chest, Venti was holding an arrow, his arrow to be precise.
So that's why he said that I would be the only one getting hurt if I tried hitting it.
Gulp.
"So, still think it would break?" He asked as he took me down from the pillar.
I furiously shook my head. that arrow was at least twice as strong as my strongest attack. Like hell I can break it.
"We should go in then, it's almost five already, if we don't hurry, we'll miss the time."
You keep saying go in, but go in where?
Just as I thought that, Venti pulled out a small pocket watch from somewhere.
"Why don't you do it?" He handed it to me, pointing at a small button on the top of the watch.
I pushed the button and the next moment the clock hands started moving backward. Along with the moving hands, the surroundings started to change.
The broken pillars returned to their original state along with the rest of the surroundings. Everything looked brand new. Just when I thought that that was it, the circle in the center started to crack, breaking apart and falling down into a dark nothingness below it.
"Let's go down before it closes," Venti said as he jumped down with me in his arms.
He looked like he had no intention whatsoever to fly, and at first, I doubted the depth of this who, but after falling for a few minutes I was rather shocked.
Does this never end?
We fell for another five minutes or so before we suddenly stopped. Right, we stopped. Just like that, in the air.
"There is a barrier here as well. The time is stopped for the next two meters of the fall, so even if someone gets in here one way or another, they would be stuck here forever if they don't have a key." He explained as he once again took out the pocket watch and pushed the button.
This time the clock hands moved the right way and the obstruction disappeared, letting au fall down the last two meters. We ended up in a dark hallway, though, it was dark only for a few seconds before the who place lit up without a warning.
We soon reached the end of the hallway, and now we were faced with a quite sturdy-looking door instead.
"As for this door... this one doesn't need a key, it's just a little stubborn sometimes."
Stubborn?
Venti tried pushing the door open a few times before sighing.
"See? that's what I'm talking about. At times like this, you just have to-"
He didn't finish his sentence, instead, he directly kicked the door in. This time the door actually opened.
So this is what he meant by stubborn.
We went in and ended up in a huge room. My first thought was, that this room was a mess. Papers were thrown all over the floor, messy cupboards, and tables were filled with even more papers and alchemy materials.
"This place is as messy as always." Venti seemed to agree with my thoughts, but the part 'as always' made me stop for a second.
From his tone, it sounded like he was already used to it, and he didn't make any attempts to clean up either.
"Don't let this mess fool you, Xiao Xiao. This mess actually has some sort of order to it... or so she said." He didn't sound so sure himself.
"Don't mind the mess, you can do as you please here just don't break anything, okay? I'll go find what I came for and then I'll show you around. I'll be back in a minute!" Saying that, he ran back into the hallway, probably going to one of the rooms we passed on the way here.
After Venti left, I just looked around, not knowing what to do.
What am I even supposed to do in this situation?
I started walking around the room aimlessly, glancing at the papers lying around. Just then, a piece of paper in a corner caught my eye.
The paper looked quite old, but compared to the rest of the papers lying around, it was newer. What caught my eye, however, was the drawing of a tree on the paper, somehow, it looked familiar.
I walked over and took the paper, or should I say papers. It was a set of six papers stuck to each other in the corner.
'Project Seed of Wind and Time'
Seed of Wind and Time? What's that?
I started reading, and the more I read, the more stupefied I became.
'To preserve and accumulate the power of the anemo archon, Barbatos, the Seed of Wind and Time was created. This seed shall be buried and it shall gather and accumulate said archon's power for long periods of time for emergency use.
With the permission of Barbatos, the seed was buried in his inner world. This caused a major decrease in his power, as well as long-lasting weakness effects. I had already expected this and even warned him about it, but he was very insistent this time.
With the power taken from Barbatos, the seed quickly grew into a small sapling, and over the next few hundred years, I expect it to grow into a tree of some kind.'
Buried in his inner world... Would grow into a tree...
Isn't that the big tree in the middle of Venti's inner world then?
It was shocking, to say the least. He did tell me that he had planted it together with her, but he never told me that it was so special.
I looked through the rest of the papers concerning the seed, but the rest was all technical stuff and I didn't understand a thing, so instead, I decided to look around some more.
After walking around the room for a good ten minutes, I didn't find anything else that caught my eye, so I went to find Venti.
Walking through the hallway again, I noticed that most of the doors were still closed, except for one.
I directly walked into the room which looked like someone's bedroom, but before I could take more than a few steps, I felt the space around me shift.
After regaining my senses, I was a little stupefied at first. I had clearly felt the space around my shift, but I was still in the same place, only the door was closed.
Just then, the door behind me opened, but instead of Venti, a woman walked in. I was shocked by the sudden appearance of a stranger, but the woman acted as if she couldn't see me, and directly walked up to the small closet on the other side of the room.
"Barbatos you stupid idiot! Such a great idea you have! What set aside some power for emergencies? What you don't have to worry about me? Aren't you the one stuck in bed right now? And you call yourself one of the seven archons." She sounded frustrated as she rambled, searching through the closet.
What? Venti was hurt?
Before I could open my mouth, the woman spoke again.
"The archon war only just ended for Celestia's sake! Can't you just wait a little longer?"
Huh? The war just ended? But that was already-
"The sooner it's planted, the better." A familiar voice came from behind me.
As I turned around, I saw venti leaning on the doorframe. He was wearing the same clothes as he wore during the archon war, his wings were visible as well.
"What the hell are you doing here? Get back to bed this instant!" The woman growled at him, only to earn a laugh.
"I can't stay in bed forever now, can I? Just like you said, the war has only just ended, if I'm not around for a long time, the others will notice."
"And you think they won't notice that you're as powerless as a roadside bandit?!"
"Istaroth, I can take care of myself."
So that woman was the God of Time, Istaroth. Then, this was probably at a time not long after the archon war. So this is where she was hiding then. But, what's wrong with Venti?
"I told you to wait a little longer before planting that seed, but you never listen do you? Just what is so important that you couldn't wait a few more years until everything stabilizes?"
"I'm not telling! If you want to know you'll have to look yourself!"
"You think I don't dare?"
"Why don't you do it then?" He sent a provocative look in her direction, but the next moment, a stunned expression filled his face.
Istaroth who had been standing on the other side of the room till the moment ago was now standing right in front of Venti, her hand on his head.
"This time, you crossed the line!"
The next second, her plan lit up, and Venti's eyes went completely blank for a moment. It only took a few seconds before the light disappeared and Istaroth stepped back with a confused expression.
"You're worried about him? Isn't he Morax's little yaksha? What are you worried about, it can't be that...?"
Silence.
"Barbatos you didn't, did you?"
"None of your business!" Venti's face was completely red.
"Even if you did somehow fall in love with him at first sight, why the seed?"
"He's a yaksha," Venti murmured barely audibly.
"It's not like all yaksha are destined to die."
"Then please do tell me, in the future you saw just now, did he or did he not die, Istaroth?!"
"How did you-?"
"Did you think I wouldn't know just what part of my life you're looking at? Aren't you looking down on me too much?" He growled at her, incredibly angry.
"The future is never set. It doesn't matter what I saw-" She was brought to silence by Venti's glare, and the room fell into silence once again.
"You could just outright protect him. There was no need for this." Istaroth mumbled, breaking the silence.
"You think that I didn't think about that? You think that with his personality, he would let anyone protect him?" he said in a self-mocking tone.
"You could have asked me."
"Can you prevent it?"
Silence.
"Exactly what I mean. Some things can't be fixed by time, Istaroth."
After he said this, the room turned silent again. this time the silence lasted a lot longer.
"I'm leaving." Istaroth finally said.
"Leaving?"
"I'll go find a way for you to save him without needing to use that seed and sleeping for at least another century."
"Istaroth..."
"Not this time, Barbatos. You're not the only one who can be stubborn." Saying this, she directly grabbed a bag from under her bed and walked out of the room.
"Istaroth, wait a minute, don't-" Venti's voice cut off as he left the room and I felt space, or more accurately time, shift again.
What was that?
Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! Have an extra-long chapter today.
As for those who said that they wanted to see some errand running, it will come soon, just two more chapters.
A lot happened in this chapter so if something was unclear at all, feel free to ask.