You and Kaeya trekked to the temple, a comfortable silence resting between the two of you. The conversation with Venti still left you shaken, putting your hands in your pockets to hide the subtle trembling. Thinking about his eyes, his smile; it sent an unpleasant shiver down your spine.
“Something wrong?” Kaeya snapped you from your thoughts and you saw his head tilted towards you, a listening ear waiting.
You huffed a breath. “Just a tense conversation.”
“Mm, with the person you left me for?”
You rolled your eyes with a smile, missing the way Kaeya’s lips twitched with satisfaction. “I did not abandon you, I just went to go talk with someone about the Dvalin situation.”
“And you’re going to keep this mysterious someone a secret?”
You paused. Though you figured you yourself could trust Kaeya, Venti’s secret of being Barbatos was not your secret to tell, and Kaeya didn’t help in the original archon quest anyway, so did it really matter? No. But you still felt bad for lying.
“Unfortunately so.”
Kaeya hummed and you could feel the displeasure running off him in waves. “Alright.”
“Kaeya I don’t mean to hide this from you, but this person’s identity is not mine to tell.”
Kaeya turned to you, a soft look in his eye. “It really is alright. I understand.” Kaeya smirked, a glint in his eye that replaced the softness. “Is the traveler off the table? He’s quite the curious subject.”
You tilted your head back n’ forth. “Amber and I met him on the way to a hilichurl camp bust, he and his little fairy are traveling companions looking for his sister, who, apparently, is missing. He said he was going to the city his little companion led him too. According to her, they’re looking for the Anemo Archon to ask about his sister.”
“Ah, but does he know the Anemo Archon has not visited Mondstadt in many years?”
“I may have neglected to mention that.”
Kaeya raised his eyebrow. “You are interested in this traveler as well?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“You are being very vague today.” Kaeya swung his arm around your shoulder, a grin resting on his lips that let you know he wasn’t truly mad. “Are you planning something?”
You chuckled, leaning into his embrace. “Maybe.”
“A surprise I suppose it will be.”
-
You swiped your hand through your hair, blowing back any stragglers and flipping your sword so it rests on your shoulder. The temple was a mess, infested with more hilichurls and other monsters than you remembered, but you and Kaeya breezed through the hoard, taking out all the creatures with easy swings.
It was different fighting with someone rather than against them, especially Kaeya who you had only ever spared. The switching movements made you somewhat anxious but when he effortlessly covered your back as a particularly large group surrounded you two, you easily extended the same trust and ease to him, something you didn’t notice left a light smile on his lips and dust on his cheeks.
You shook your head, your hair whipping you in the face, to get your own heat rising to your face to die down. So it was nice to have someone watching your back and who trusted you enough to do the same for them, nothing to get too worked up over, but you couldn’t deny the flutter in your stomach.
“You doing okay over there dearest? This last hoard too much for you?”
You scoffed and rolled your eyes, a fond look, unable to be suppressed, raked over the other’s form as he sauntered over to you with that ever present smirk. “Give me a little credit Captain, I think I held my own rather well.”
Kaeya nodded, his lithe fingers reaching out to fix the mess that was your hair. “That you did, ever so gracefully may I add.”
“Appreciate it, but should we address the abyss mage in the room?” The sound crackling elemental energy reached your ears as said abyss mage emerged from behind one of the intricately carved stone pillars of the temple.
“As yes,” Kaeya mused. “The mastermind behind this ambush, given that hilichurls themselves couldn’t do it, what with their limited mental abilities.”
The abyss mage chuckled, at least that’s what you think it did. It’s voice crackled violently, a static noise that grated your ears uncomfortably. It was a hawking sound, almost like there was something stuck in its throat that it was choking around.
But the mage barely had time to prepare its shield before a flurry of flames came from the entrance to the room. They surrounded the creature, burning its fur and instead of laughing, it screeched so loud you were tempted to cover your vibrating ears.
Diluc appeared from the cover of flames like the phoenix of his most special attack, one you haven’t even seen yet, despite being in this world so long now. He paid no mind to Kaeya or you as he manhandled the creature, knocking it out with his clean strength.
“Knights of Favonius, always so inefficient.” He grumbled, turning towards the both of you with an unimpressed expression.
“Woah, hey.” You chuckled, raising your arms in surrender. “I’m not a knight.”
“Leaving me to the wolves aren’t you [y/n]?”
You looked at him with amusement as he pettily crossed his arms. You looked back to Diluc, who had been looking at the two of you impassively, luckily though without the common annoyance Diluc normally had whenever Kaeya opened his mouth. Progress, you guessed.
“What are you gonna do with it?” You nodded towards the snoozing abyss mage, despite already having an idea of what’s going to happen.
“Interrogate it. Learning as much as I can about the abyss is crucial. It’s a dangerous organization that needs to be stopped.” Diluc’s eyes were firm, a hand resting on his claymore.
“All right.” Kaeya conceded. “We have a few to meet up with anyway, but fill us in on anything you learn later?”
Diluc paused for a moment before nodding. “Of course.”
Kaeya smiled, though you noticed there was a kind of happiness there you hadn’t seen in a while. “Good.”
The two of you walked out of the temple, the last thing you see being Diluc turning towards that poor mage, uncaring of its beauty rest.
-
"How was your bust?" You called to Amber and Aether as they stood by the bridge leading to Mond. They were chatting, Aether chuckling as Amber's exuberant personality and motions took him through, no doubt, a riveting tale. Paimon floated beside them, looking more enraptured than amused at Amber's storytelling skills.
All three of them snapped to you two, Paimon jumping a little in surprise. "It was good!" She wiggled, a beaming smile on her childlike face. "Aether and Amber were suuuper cool and we got down in no time!" She stuck her hands to her hips, a proud tilt to her chin.
"That's good." Kaeya clapped. "Now Stormterror has lost access to two sources of power. All we have to do now is wait for Lisa."
"I hope you cuties weren't milling about so long." Lisa approached the now five of you, a typical, sensual sway to her hips and a satisfied smirk on her lips. "I bear good news."
"You cleared out the temple by yourself?" Amber jumped. "You're incredible Miss Lisa."
Lisa batted her hand, that low, raspy chuckle falling from her. "Oh stop, it was no big deal."
"Well, now that that's dealt with, we should go report back to Jean that we completed our task." Kaeya said as he made his way across the bridge.
"Actually," Aether called out. "May I speak to [y/n] alone for a moment?"
You locked eyes with Kaeya and those silent questions of 'why?' and 'will you be okay?' hung in the air. You nodded and Kaeya continued on his way, followed by Amber and Lisa.
Now it was only you, Paimon, and the traveler. One looking confused and the other the most serious you'd ever seen. His eyebrows were furrowed, a small frown pulling his lips, and arms were crossed across his chest.
You faced him, keeping your eyes locked on his. "Is there something you need to speak with me about?"
"How did you know a voice would speak to me after I was brought to the air by Stormterror's tornado?"
No bulllshit then. Okay. "Sometimes I get premonitions, often in the form of dreams. A little while ago, I had one of you. It was mainly our meeting and the tornado attack. I saw what would happen to you in the air and knew that someone would be there to protect you, and I wanted to warn you so you could keep your cool."
Aether's frown deepened. "Why would you care about my safety? We hardly know each other."
You blinked, not expecting that. "It doesn't matter. You were in a dangerous situation and I had the capacity to help, so I did." His face never changed and you sighed. "It's really that simple."
"Mhm." Aether uncrowded his arms, putting them on his waist instead. "These premonitions of yours, how do they work exactly?"
"Uhm-" you kinda wanted to cry. Aether’s golden eyes bore holes into your soul. It was taking everything in you not to look down or fiddle with your finger. His gaze was intense and you felt a shiver crawl your spin because of it. "Ya know it- they come as dreams, like I said. I can't really plan them, or force them, they just kinda happen. I've seen you, I've seen others, I've seen animals, it's a toss up really."
"Can you see anybody?" Ah, you had a feeling where this was going.
"You want to know if I've seen your sister?"
Aether didn't even look embarrassed when you asked, his brows still drawn and eyes narrowed, slitted like a feline.
It couldn't hurt to tell Aether about his sister, after all, even though you love em, you know archons will do fuck nothing for the poor guy. Besides, now you had the dream excuse. You could now comfortably tell some future information with no problems. Well, minimal problems. Hopefully.
"I've seen pieces." You admitted. Aether’s eyes gleamed but he kept his face straight. "I don't know where she is exactly, or what she's doing, but I do know that currently, she's the leader of the Abyss Order."
"The Abyss Order?"
You hummed, feeling a pang at Aether’s hope. Though he hasn't yet been destroyed by three archons and several immortal beings having no idea where his sister is and refusing to give him information, he still had spent multiple months worrying about and wondering when he'd find even a sliver of info on where she could be. You knew what you gave to Aether was scarce, the Abyss Order and Khaenri'ah was really only theorized to high heaven right now. Not much other than the destruction known and other things were heavily speculated. You didn't want to give Aether any wrong information, so you refrained from spouting all the theories you had heard, for now at least.
"Yeah. The Abyss Order is connected to the hilichurls and other similar creatures. They're quite the malevolent force and have been hurting people for a while now. I've seen your sister speaking and commanding these kinds of creatures in my dreams and came to the conclusion that she's the leader or at least of a high ranking in their system." You sighed. "You're best bet to finding her would probably be through leads on the Abyss or Khaenri'ah."
Aether looked saddened. "So the archons would be no help?"
You shook your head. "I wouldn't say that. Traveling the world and gaining connections is still a good idea, especially if those connections are very old, powerful beings like the archons."
"Thank you." Aether's eyebrow finally unfurrowed, instead of making him look relieved, only made him weary. He seemed younger than ever at this moment. You always saw his youth, but now he was closer to a scared animal, one looking for comfort. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes drooped. "But what is Khaenri'ah?"
"Ah." You scratched the back of your head sheepishly. "I unfortunately don't know a lot about Khaenri'ah. It was a godless nation a long time ago, until it was destroyed. Five hundred years ago, there was a cataclysm that caused great damage, not only to Khaenri'ah, but to the other seven nations. I know the Abyss and Khaenri'ah are connected, and that's about it. I can do my own research and tell you about it though."
Aether shook his head. "You've already given me so much, I couldn't ask that of you."
You waved off his worries. "Hey, it wouldn't even be a favor, I want to learn more about the Abyss too ya know?" You ruffled his hair and he huffed a laugh. "I'll pass along any info I got."
"I can't thank you enough."
"Ya can, and you've done so already. I don't need any more thanks than this. Although I wouldn't be opposed to you lessening that glare of yours. It's a wicked one."
It was Aether’s turn to rub at his nape in embarrassment. "Sorry about that. I guess I've just been on edge for a while now, and I'm still not used to this world yet."
"Don't worry about it, I get it." You motioned for him, and the oddly silent fairy (you guessed she was going to dissect everything you said with Aether later) to follow you. "Why don't we head back to Mond?"
A sincere smile graced the precious boy's face. "Yeah, okay."