3rd person's POV
Once the time to act arrives, Aether and Paimon infiltrate in the cathedral. Venti holds guard for them sitting on the rail to admire Mondstadt. His first thought goes to his dear Sensei, envisioning himself visiting the city with her makes him giggle and wiggle his legs in the air like a crushing girl. He feels his chest all warm after centuries and he can't help himself but to blush in happiness for living to the point of reuniting with her. Despite all this excitement and joy though, there's still a thorn in his heart, and it painfully stings at each beat. Yes, his beloved mentor is back but Venti noticed that something was very different from the Sensei he remembered.
When I heard her voice, it was like the warm and scented wind carried me back to those days where I obtained my first shape thanks to her powers. Yet when I saw her... He sighs, stops wiggling his legs to raise his gaze to the sky. Her lineaments are sharper... Back at those days a single gaze would melt me like a cube of ice under the sun for how full of love, care and gentle feelings it carried. Now it's not the same, and I wonder what could have happened after she disappeared. Something changed my Sensei and it worries me. Did she get corrupted? Did she fall ill? I want to know so I can help her to smile as brightly as before. Later I will test a few things, I might need her help to quicken Dvalin's rescue, which is two pigeons with one stone. If only that stupid Ahlstarr- A sound interrupts his flows of thoughts.
When Venti turns, he sees Aether and Paimon fleeing from something. The duo is fast to announce they got busted, therefore they need to make a run for it. The bard seizes the situation rather quickly and leads them to a safe shelter by gliding over Mondstadt. During the flee though, the musician catches a group of people walking with long cloaks and with a smirk, he calls for Aether.
"Traveler, we have accomplices~!" giggling, he let himself drop down into the streets, leaving the blonde boy no choice but to follow his example. "Sensei!"
Is he really gonna involve Lady Y/n in this? Aether runs behind Venti, as he body slams himself against the Noble. So shameless, I cannot believe he's a god as well. I had a complete different image of godhood.
"Sensei, we need your speed to hide. I'll explain later, follow my lead." Venti jumps and happily finds out that his mentor still chooses to catch him in her arms rather than anything else.
"Understood, but it better be worth it, little one." the Noble adjusts the bard on her arms and then turns over her team. A simple gaze and a few words are enough. "Izel, my boy."
"As you wish, my Lady." the tallest politely grabs Aether and holds him as the entire group starts to run, shocking the Traveler.
Not only they're very fast on their feet, but they all move so silently! He watches how after turns they arrive at Angel's Share and burst into the door, encountering a bartender and a young man with long red hair. Oh no...
"Yes, hi! We'd like a seat in your- Um... Least conspicuous table, thank you!" Venti quickly speaks up and waits for an answer, hoping it will come fast enough.
The young man is puzzled by what stands before him. The famous bard held like a child in someone's arms as a whole gang is behind him. "The second floor has less customers, I believe that will be conspicuous enough. But aren't you a bard? Why not a table-"
"Hahaha, let us save the paid perfomances for another time!" Barbatos cuts the other off with a nervous laugh and points upstairs. "Then we'll go there, see you in a bit~!"
As the group climbs the stairs, the Noble and her servants' sharp earing catch the man's orders for the bartender, making them raise their guard higher than they wanted. Not letting them worry too much, the woman makes sure that Venti, Aether and Paimon are seated near the wall while her and Izel stay close to the balcony to keep an eye on the floor underneath. At the same time Ahlstarr, Arius and Jala creates a false chatting table, giggling and pointing fingers at the menu to deceive the other few tables, thing that makes Venti very happy but it confuses and worries a bit the outlander. Shortly after, two Knights of Favonius burge in and head straight to the red haired man.
"Master Diluc, have you seen two thieves around?" at the sound of that sentence, Arius slaps the hat off Venti's head served with a strict and scolding gaze barely visible through his hood.
"Did you steal, you broke idiot?" inquires Ahlstarr with a voice lower than a whisper, but the bard tries to hold down the horses, especially since Izel's beastly eyes shine through the hood and they mean nothing good.
"Silence, boys." as always, the servants abandon the matter as their master speaks or raises her hand, which tonight did both. Will Diluc sell us? He doesn't trust any of us after all. The woman attentively watches the developing of the conversation downstairs, already prepared to give the sign to Arius and Jala to take the possible culprits somewhere safer for a little interrogation.
"What happened? Why have you mobilized so many guards?" Diluc crosses his arms and pretends to listen carefully about the news. "Steal the Holy Lyre? How odd." such answer intrigues the Noble, in a pleasant way.
"Isn't it? The Holy Lyre is a treasure that was played by the God of Anemo themselves! Such a precious piece of cultural heritage-"
"Why steal something they can't sell off? Would pay better to steal from my cellars." Diluc rolls his eyes, almost bothered that someone would be that stupid in terms of business, but then recollects himself and guides the Knights in a random direction.
"I like that guy, he has some humor." Ahlstarr laughs with himself, as his companions too giggle or simple give out a tiny chuckle. "He has a nice style too, we might get along pretty well."
Once the guards leave, the group moves downstairs. Venti goes to the counter while the rest looks around, especially the Noble who's busy tracking down the guards to be sure they weren't tricked.
"You better put back the bottle you stole from behind the counter." Diluc speaks with a firm voice, but before he can continue his interrogation, the Noble delivers a big surprise.
"Sit." the gentle deity grabs Venti's clothes and almost slams him sat on the stool. The gesture itself turns the bard a few shades paler, and as he puts the bottle back, he also removes his hat and avoids the woman's eyes. "You two as well."
"Y-yes, ma'am." Aether scoops out a stool and sits with such rigid posture his back is screaming for mercy. Paimon lands on his lap and the three are now before the Noble who seems deciding how to approach the events just occurred.
"M-may I, S-Sensei?" Venti raises a hand looking like a scared child in school.
"Proceed." with a leg, Y/n pulls out the last stool and sits herself, still with her arms tightly crossed.
The intimidated bard begins to explain what he said to Aether hours before the incident, but the difference is that this time he chooses his words with caution. Not because Diluc is listening and could turn them in, but because he fears his mentor's punishment more than anything. Paimon scolds Venti, addressing him as a liar; recalling that he said the Noble would have sided with them, but it doesn't look like so. The flying little girl gets scolded and put back to silence by the deity herself.
"So you wanted to steal it to help your friend?" Paimon raises her hand to ask permission to speak this time, and patiently waits for the green light. "You may proceed."
"The one who stole the treasure is still out there." she elaborates what happened and why they had to make a run for it.
"Are you planning on getting it back?" the three silently and quickly nod numerous times, hoping they're forgiven now. "Master Diluc, in behalf of my boy here I apologize for the trouble caused to you. I sincerely hope he didn't do anything else while I was not with him."
"Actually he has a little debt here, he seems to keep buying beverages he cannot afford." Diluc smirks when Venti begins to sweat and nervously laughs. "But that can be put on a hold, madam. On the other hand, there's a way I could close an eye on this little debt, after all I am not after money."
"I am open to suggestions, young Diluc." the Noble listens with interest, which lowkey surprises the red haired boy.
"I would like to quench my doubts-"
"I will answer in Sensei's behalf!" Barbatos jumps down the stool and looks dead serious into Diluc's red eyes. "If I tell you everything with a perfomance, will you believe me?"
"It depends. I will make my own judgement." Diluc gets slightly irritated when the troublesome musician asks to be paid. "Depending on how convincing you will be, you might get 5 Mora or the Holy Lyre."
Set the price, Venti calls out his lyre and puts up a show worthy of the highest rewards. After all, his dear mentor is watching; the bard wants to show her how much he improved his musical skills, hoping to slide in his few tests he intends to do to put his heart at peace if she quietly seeks help or not.
One step at the time, first bring the winery owner to their side.
"What did I just witness?" Diluc inquires with a shocked and thoughtful expression. "This is classified information, why did you tell me?"
"Yeah, mister Venti!" Ahlstarr reached his limit and steps closer to the bard, threatening to punch him without regrets. "Why did you tell him about us too, hah!? We're trying to keep a low profile!"
"Well, I'm sorry but Sensei blew it up." the Anemo God raises his hands in defence and continues fearlessly, blindly trusting his old friends will stop Ahlstarr and his very short temper. "The whole city is talking about a god of harmony who quenched Stormterror's anger with a melody. Many think it was Barbatos, others think it was the Knight of Favonius Hot-shot, while others have a wider imagination and think it was an unknown deity."
"I walked around this morning to check if anyone saw Milady's face and could recognize her or any of us, but nobody spoke a word about this matter."
"Aw my friend, you checked the wrong part of town, hehe~. Gossip always start in a tavern, you should've cheked here first. Losing your touch, Ahl?"
"First of all, I don't remember allowing you to shorten my name. Second of all, even if now you are bigger, it doesn't make it any harder for me to snap your neck, broke bi-"
"Have some manners, brother. We are in presence of highly profiled guests, bite your tongue." not only Izel follows the Noble like her shadow, but it seems that he holds the same authority in the group. "Please excuse the interruption, mister Diluc." the mortal shakes his head to sign the right-hand that he didn't take any offense about what happened, in fact he enjoyed the scene quite a bit.
"Sensei, I have a favor to ask. Actually, two." Venti rests a hand on hers and slightly bows like a gentleman. "May I have the honor to duet? I believe now we can harmonize our voices better, we don't have to dance around like we used, I will happily accept a simple song before I go."
"The second favor, little one?" The Noble caresses his face and a bright smile can be seen from the light that enter her hood.
"When we have the Lyre, we need to play it in a place where the weather isn't this bad so that the wind will carry the melody far enough to reach Dvalin. Can I ask Sensei to take care of stabilizing the weather to speed the rescue mission?"
Mh? Why everyone got so worried all of the sudden? Diluc's sharp eyes notice right away the change in the deity's servants. They were fast to shut it down before anyone could suspect a thing, but I saw it. They are hiding something that even an old friend is not allowed to know. I wonder what it may be.
"At my own conditions those requests can be granted, yes." the lady leaves her back bending a little, sign she's relaxing herself more. "Do you have a plan on how to take back this lyre?"
"Master Diluc will handle this, Sensei!" Venti poses towards the other, but chuckles nervous when the woman raises a brow in a scolding action. "We can't help it at the moment..." his voice dies down to a timid level, while he tries to explain why he's putting most of the plan on others' shoulders. "He has a lot of connections, he can move and act fast unlike us..."
"Let us meet here when the tavern is closed." Diluc interrupts the two, foreseeing another scolding on the way. He watches how the Honorary Knight and the annoying bard leaves, but not the mysterious group. What's wrong with them? They look so on guard all of the sudden. "May I help you with something else, madam?"
"Apologies for such sight, young Diluc." the goddess sighs tiredly. "May I ask to stay until the agreed time?"
"Are you feeling unwell? Should I provide something-" Diluc gets cut off when the woman sarcastically laughs at his offer. She laughs, the others don't. Maybe is worse than I can understand at the moment. "You may remain as long as you wish for, milady. If you feel hungry, feel free to order whatever pleases you, or any drink could quench your thirst. Is on the house for tonight."
"You are too kind, young Diluc. But I do appreciate it very much, you have my gratitude."
"I leave the guests in your care, Charles." Diluc quickly exits the tavern and makes his moves. As he does so though, he cannot stop the flow of random thoughts restlessly crossing his mind. I never saw a deity behaving like the Noble. Like I never knew, nor expected a god to show such charity and selfness towards others. I still doubt that she's the one who bewitched Stormterror with a simple song and a caress, she doesn't hold a godly presence either. Her men are more intimidating, she feels more... Safe to be around? It's intriguing how bizzarre I felt when near her. Her men radiate with the safeness one feels when aware they are guarded by the strongest around, but the Noble is on another scale. She radiates with a sense of safeness of a warm home... What a bizarre group we stumbled upon this time.