Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Tap, tap, tap!

Albedo awoke from his fitful sleep to the sound of rampant tapping on his window.

Klee stirred beside him, having passed out curled up with him after staying up late to see if Kaeya would return. Albedo’s soothing and promising words of ‘he’ll be back, he always comes back,’ had done little to comfort the girl.

They hadn’t comforted Albedo, either.

Tap, tap, tap!

Klee wined in her sleep as the incessant tapping continued to bang against the window. Albedo slowly slid out of her grasp as she slipped back into a fitful slumber.

He padded over to the sound, recognizing a small songbird as the source of the tapping.

Albedo opened the window with a sigh, the cool air on his face chasing the last strings of sleep away from him. He was planning to shoo the small bird away and attempt to get a few more hours of sleep, but the bird just stared at him, unfearful. Albedo could reach out and touch it if he wanted.

The alchemist watched in confusion at the strange bird’s behavior, the songbird taking a few hops forward.

Finally, he noticed a small, slightly torn slip of paper tied with a thin string to the bird’s leg.

Albedo gently reached out to grab it, the bird losing its previous uncanny calm as it began to flap and struggle frantically as Albedo attempted to free the small note. The string used to tie the paper was knotted and impossible to untie.

The string finally snapped as the tattered paper fell into Albedo’s hands. The bird hastily fluttered away the moment it was free from the alchemist’s grasp with a small chirp.

Albedo looked down at the curious paper, there wasn’t a single smooth, clean cut on the thing, all of its edges torn and tattered. The small, now snapped in half, string was sitting on the windowsill. Upon further inspection, it looked to be a tread of fabric, the type one could unravel from their clothes.

It was blue…

“…What did the bird want?”

A drowsy, weak voice spoke up from behind him. Klee was rubbing sleep from her eyes, watching her brother with interest.

Perhaps she hadn’t been as deeply asleep as Albedo originally thought.

“I’m not sure…” He mumbled in response, approaching his sister and sitting back down on the bed. He lit a small candle and squinted slightly at the paper in the dull light.

Klee snuggled up against Albedo’s shoulder, peeking at the note. She blinked at the unfamiliar writing with a huff.

“Albedooo… I can’t read it…” Klee complained, pushing against her brother in an attempt to get his attention.

“It’s in Hilichurlain.” Albedo’s eyes stayed locked on the paper as he spared his sister a quick explanation.

“Ohh…”

Albedo’s gaze was glued to the strange note, face shifting occasionally with conflicting emotions as he read. Shock, confusion, relief, panic, surprise… When he finally finished, his face settled and relaxed into a determined glare.

Klee was still leaning against his side, a bit of her remaining sadness returning to her features now that she was fully awake. Albedo gently grabbed her hand.

“Klee, I need your help with something.”

She looked up at him with big eyes, “Like… Right now?” She whined, “I’m tired, Albedo…”

“Not right now,” He gave her a soft smile, “But tomorrow. You said you wanted to help find Big Brother Kaeya, right?”

Klee jolted upright, suddenly not seeming tired anymore. Her eyes lit up with hope and excitement.

“Yes! Yes, I’ll do anything—!”

“Good.” He gave a quiet laugh at the girl, cutting off her loud babbling and gently encouraging her to lower her voice.

“It won’t be a hard job, I promise, but it is very important. Do you think you’re up for it?”

Klee nodded, eyes glowing.

“Good, now listen closely. Do you remember the man you met the other day? The one at the tavern…”

Every second that ticked by on the clock was torture.

Klee would be here any minute now.

Diluc has no idea what to do, he doesn’t have the first clue on how to babysit a child, especially one as—Interesting… That might be the right word—as Klee.

Diluc had asked, practically begged, Charles to take his shift for the day in exchange for extra pay, which he, luckily, agreed to. Albedo may be fine with it, but letting Klee into the tavern was not something Diluc was comfortable with.

Now, Diluc waited for Klee to appear at the Angel’s Share, helping Charles for the time being and planning on taking off to the Dawn Winery when the girl arrived.

“Diluc…! Come on…! Just let me have one drink…!”

And, of course, Venti was there as well, as per his agreement to help with watching the eccentric ‘Spark Knight.’

The bard was quite literally whining and throwing a tantrum, face down on the table. Diluc hadn’t realized beforehand that he would be babysitting two children today.

Perhaps Venti’s help would turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing…

“I’m not giving you a drink, Venti. You can’t be drunk while looking after a child.”

“But Diluc…!” The bard let out an exaggerated groan, “Why am I even at the tavern if I can’t have anything to drink!”

Diluc rolled his eyes, “Because we’re waiting for Klee, and you agreed to help. I know for a fact that you’ve not actually forgotten.”

Venti groaned louder as Diluc simply rolled his eyes.

“—Ah, excuse me, Master Diluc,” Charles cleared his throat, stopping Diluc from continuing his back and forth with the distressed Archon, “But would that be that ‘Klee’ child you’ve been waiting for?”

The bartender gestured towards the small girl standing in the doorway of the tavern, watching the plethora of drunkards scattered throughout the building with huge eyes.

“That would be her, thank you.” Diluc gave Charles a quick nod and headed towards Klee hastily, giving the Anemo Archon a small push as he passed him, “Come on, Venti.”

Venti let out a final dramatic groan before storming after Diluc. Klee finally seemed to notice them through the background roar of glasses clinking and people's voices, she gave them a genuine smile.

Diluc hadn’t expected her to be quite so happy about her brother leaving her with two near-strangers…

“Mister Grumpy-Face! Mister Idiot!” She cheered, face lighting up, “Hi! I’m Klee! Do you remember?”

Venti gave a small laugh, “Of course we remember you! How could we forget?”

Klee beamed at the bard's words, “Yeah! I mean I guess I am pretty mem—mem… Mem—boar—ral…?”

“Memorable.” Diluc corrected.

“Yeah! That!”

Venti laughed and began stepping towards the door, Diluc and Klee followed close behind.

“Very memorable.” The bard teased.

The small group slipped out of the bar as they continued to chat, Klee skipping and hopping alongside the two men.

“You seem quite happy today,” Dulic commented, a weak attempt at small talk, but an attempt nonetheless.

Despite Diluc’s well-meaning words, Klee’s face fell.

“Well, I’m actually really sad…” The kid made an exaggerated pouty face, slowing to a snail's pace beside them.

Diluc and Venti shared a look, the bard looking up at the taller man for guidance. Diluc frantically shook his head and glared down at him. Venti’s eyes darted back and forth between Klee and Diluc for a moment before he leveled the taller man with a nasty look and cleared his throat.

“Do you wanna talk about it…?” The bard awkwardly asked.

“Well, um, I’m not supposed to talk about it because it might mess up my super-secret important mission…” Klee nervously pulled on the edges of her dress before her face grew determined, “And my mission is really, really important because it’ll save both my big brothers. So I really can’t mess it up.”

…Both?

“Hey, wait, I thought you only had one brother—“ Venti began to ask before quickly getting cut off. Klee had looked up at the sky, seeming to notice the placement of the sun with a gasp.

“—Ah! Mister Grumpy-Face, Mister Idiot! Can we please go to Starfell Lake? Like right now? Please, please, please—!”

“Whoa, whoa calm down, Klee! Why do you wanna go there?”

“Because! Um—uh, because…!” She scrunched her face up, lost in thought, “Um, because it’ll… It’ll make me less sad?” She ended uncertainty, before suddenly lighting up, “Yeah! Yeah, it’ll make me feel better! We can go fish blasting and there’s always so many Calla Lilies there for me to pick and there are cool rocks and frogs and the big shiny statue—!”

Diluc didn’t know how he felt about the ‘fish blasting’ comment, whatever that entails. And he didn’t quite like how much Klee’s ‘it’ll make me less sad’ comment sounded like a fake excuse… but…

Venti giggled, “Hey, why not? That sounds like a pretty nice place to have a picnic or something.”

“A picnic!” Klee practically screamed, “Yes, please! I wanna have a picnic!”

Diluc glanced at Klee uncertainty, “I’m not sure, there may be Hilichurl camps near there, and—“

“Oh! Oh! Hilichurls are nothing to Spark Knight Klee!” The young girl bragged, “I've fought like… Infinity and one Hilichurls all at once before! Like, so, so many!”

Venti shared a glance with Diluc, the bard’s face scrunched up as he fought back laughter.

“Wow! That’s impressive!” Venti looked away from Diluc, a soft chuckle managing to slip out from his lips.

“Yeah, I know!”

The bard glanced back at Diluc as Klee crossed her arms proudly, “I mean, you heard her, Master Diluc. I think we’ll be fine. Besides, with the both of us there I’m sure any Hilichurls that try to mess won’t pose any real threat.”

Diluc sighed but nodded, “Alright, fine, If that’s really what you want—“

“Yes!” Both Venti and Klee screamed in unison.

Yep, Diluc had been correct. He was babysitting two children today.

The small group had made a quick stop at Good Hunter to grab picnic supplies before quickly heading off to Starfell Lake.

Diluc had ended up paying for it all, of course. Neither Venti nor Klee seemed at all guilty about that.

They didn’t have a basket, or even a blanket for that matter, so Klee had ended up shoving all the to-go dishes in her backpack.

“Come on! We’ve gotta get there quick!”

Klee was very insistent about getting to the lake as fast as humanly possible, and Venti seemed on board with the said idea as well. The archon had summoned a wind current to take them straight there.

Klee had stared at him in pure amazement and admiration when he made it, Venti had simply winked.

That bard was going to get caught one day, showing off his godly powers as if he wasn’t meant to be undercover.

The wind current did help despite Dulic’s complaint, quite a lot actually. The group made it to Starfell Lake in record time, hopping across the water to get to the small island in the center. The Statue of Seven stood proudly on it, a clear carving of Venti, Barbatos, standing on top.

Diluc often wondered how anyone could miss the visual similarities between the God of Wind and the tone-deaf bard. Although, even he had found it hard at first to connect the mighty Archon of Freedom and the childish, drunken bard in his head, so perhaps it wasn’t inconceivable that no one else had figured it out.

“Come on! We don’t have much time, we gotta have our picnic!”

Why didn’t they have much time? It was barely noon…

“Okay, okay!” Venti replied, chuckling, “How about you help me set everything up beside the statue, Klee?”

The girl nodded excitedly and grabbed all the food out of her bag. Venti and Klee leaned against the pillar, using it as a makeshift seat.

Diluc would be worried about potential sacrilege, but clearly, the Anemo Archon couldn’t care less.

“Master Diluc, come on, have a seat! The food is gonna get cold!”

Venti smiled at the taller man, but Diluc couldn’t quite find it in himself to relax. Something about all of this felt… off. He knew logically that whatever Klee was alluding to was probably just normal kid mischief, nothing genuinely mean-spirited.

He knew this, and yet alarm bells wouldn’t stop going off in his head. A constant wail of panic. Something was wrong with the way Klee kept talking…

He needed a moment to himself.

“Actually, I think I’ll just—walk around for a moment…”

Venti looked at him, concerned. Klee began to pout, “Nooo…!” She whined, “It won’t be a proper picnic without Mister Grumpy-Face!”

The bard looked like he wanted to agree with the girl, but he also seemed to notice Diluc’s discomfort.

“Hold on, Klee. This actually might be good for us…”

The girl looked at him like he was insane,

“How?”

“Well,” Venti began, “One less person means more food for us, right?”

“Ohh…!” Klee realized, face lighting up. She nodded seriously, lowering her voice as if she were trying to only let Venti hear, but failed miserably. “Yeah, that’s a good point. My big brothers taught me that sharing is caring, but also sharing sucks.” She smiled, “You’re kind of smart for an idiot… I think I’ll call you Venti again.” She declared.

The bard fought back a laugh, “You’re far too kind, Klee.” He warbled out with a shaky voice. Klee nodded.

“Mhm! I am pretty nice!”

Diluc sighed, “Alright, well, I’ll be back soon. Don’t take your eyes off of Klee, Venti, not even for a second.” He warned, “… And save some food for me, if at all possible.” He added last minute.

“I’ll try, Master Diluc, but I can’t guarantee anything!” He teased, “I mean, it all looks just so good!” Klee giggled in delight at the bard's teasing.

“You remind me of my brother!” Klee said, beginning to lean against Venti.

Diluc huffed and began to walk away.

“Really? The alchemist?”

“No no, not big brother Albedo, my other brother. Oh! Here! I can show you the picture I drew of him—!”

—Diluc splashed through the lake as he walked out of earshot of the two’s conversation. His clothes hung heavy on his shoulders, weighted down with fresh water. The orange leaves around him glowed in the sunlight as he trailed out of view of the lake, the grass crunching beneath his feet with every step.

It should have been calming, but…

What in the name of The Seven was that child planning?

He took a deep breath as he subconsciously wandered deeper into the woodland and rocky cliff sides, the Statue of the Seven where he had left Venti and Klee growing further and further away.

What was Klee planning? A harmless prank? Or something more dangerous? Was he really worried about what a nine-year-old might do to him?

In all honesty, he knew that wasn’t the only worry crawling in his head. A child’s slightly ominous words and fake excuses weren’t enough to disturb him this badly. A far worse, creeping unease haunted him, mixing with Klee’s general strangeness to form an anxiety-ridden snowball effect.

Whatever the case, he couldn’t lie and say that Kaeya’s disappearance wasn’t a near-constant unnerving thought in the back of his mind.

He really shouldn’t care, and at first, he thought he didn’t. Despite his initial panic at what the Chief Alchemist had told him, he had honestly nearly forgotten about it by the end of their conversation. He had been far more concerned with the fact that he’d have to watch Klee.

But the fact that his—That Kaeya was missing kept reappearing in his head. A fitful sleep broken by violent dreams of a bloodstained corpse somewhere out there, alone. Diluc was far too familiar with the imagery, especially in nightmares. But instead of the usual red-haired man that haunted him, he saw a broken, icy blue figure just out of his reach.

He shouldn’t care. He shouldn’t care that Kaeya was missing. He shouldn’t care that Kaeya might be dead, could be dying at this very moment…

But he did care, and it was awful because he shouldn’t. Because Kaeya wouldn’t care if the tables were turned.

Kaeya never cared, not when their—Diluc’s father died, and he wouldn’t care if Diluc died either.

He shouldn’t care, he didn’t care—

—an arrow whizzed past him, just barely missing Diluc’s head by a hair.

The tall man spun around, having been broken violently from his thoughts, looking around frantically for the arrow’s owner.

His eyes fell onto an archer Hilichurl, standing on a crudely built archer tower, the next arrow already cocked in his bow. The monster was guarding a camp, only about five other Hilichurls stood nearby.

Oh.

He gave a quick glance behind him to confirm that, yep, he was far too far away to call for Venti’s help.

Luckily, with how few Hilichurls there were, he clearly wouldn’t need it—

—He dodged the next arrow flung at him with ease, sprinting towards the camp as he summoned his claymore.

The Hilichurls let out garbled shouts as they charged to meet him halfway, wooden clubs and shields drawn.

Flames erupted from his hands, coursing through his sword as he slammed into the first wave of monsters. He swung the burning sword with a grunt, tearing through the bodies thrown at him. Arrows soared past, Diluc’s focus split as he attempted to dodge both the attacks from the enemies directly in front of him and the projectiles raining down on him.

The battle became a blur, adrenaline coursing through him as he fell into the familiar song and dance of battle. It should have been over in mere seconds.

Key word, should have.

They weren’t fighting the way he was used to. The beasts just kept throwing themselves at the man, barely even attacking. Simply slamming into him repeatedly until he struck them down. A never-ending swarm surrounded him.

Had there been this many Hilichurls when he first spotted the camp? Where had they all come from? Had they been hiding nearby?

Diluc’s arms began to ache with fatigue as the minutes ticked by, the crowd of attackers never dwindling. He had burns scalding across his skin in strange, patchy patterns, half of them from pyro wielding Hilichurls and half from his own flames.

He was getting overwhelmed, where did they all come from?! There were more Hilichurls than he had seen in his lifetime, he couldn’t keep up—

—the crowd backed away from him all at once, like a hive mind.

Diluc stumbled forwards, his claymore falling in front of him.

The man hit the dirt with a hiss, his wounds burning. He groaned as he sucked in a breath, frantically trying to scramble up and take in his surroundings, figure out what had just happened.

He clambered to his knees, looking around at the completely frozen Hilichurls. There were hundreds of them, all unmoving, staring off at something behind the man they were previously attacking.

Diluc froze as well as pure confusion and terror climbed up his veins. What were they looking at—?

—His question was instantly answered as all the Hilichurls fell to their knees perfectly in sync, bowing as something slammed into Diluc from behind.

He fell forward as he frantically tried to turn around to no avail. His attacker yanked the tall man towards them, wrapping a very cold, very human arm around Diluc’s neck while he was still reeling from the sudden movement.

Diluc panicked, writhing in the violent grip as it only grew tighter around his throat. He desperately tried to look behind him, only for the attacker’s other arm to secure itself behind his head, halting his ability to turn.

He could still breathe, but it felt like he couldn’t. Dark specks were beginning to slither into the edges of his vision already. He scrambled against the hold, digging his nails into the arm around him and tearing through flesh, feeling blood well up under his fingertips as he broke his attacker’s skin.

He heard a small hiss behind him.

“Now, now, Master Diluc. Just give in…” The voice behind him was strained, snarled through clenched teeth, yet confident.

It was terrifyingly familiar.

Darkness began to swallow his vision whole as he let out weak, choked garbles of breath. His hands were merely scrabbling his attacker’s arm at this point, too weak to continue his frantic scratching. Buzzing numbness trickled through his limbs as his arms grew weak and fell limply to his sides, leaning fully against his attacker now for support.

He had no idea where he was, what he was doing, who he was. The monsters bowing around him meant nothing, the abyss mages beginning to appear were nothing but blurry shadows in his eyes, the arm around his throat was nothing but a light pressure he could not fight, the bright, teal eyes he swore he could see peeking from behind one of the camp’s towers—

—He allowed the creeping darkness to swallow him whole, he felt nothing.

“This is my other big brother, Kaeya!”

Klee had pulled out a crude drawing of the Cavalry Captain. A three-line drawing, one for the head, one for the eyepatch string, and one for the eyepatch. Some hair was scribbled on with a blue crayon.

“Wow, I didn’t know Sir Kaeya was your brother!”

Venti glanced over at where Diluc had disappeared into the trees mere moments before, suddenly extremely grateful that he had decided to wander off.

“Yep! He wasn’t always, though.” Klee began to explain, “I used to just have big brother Albedo, but then Kaeya was nice to me and took me fish blasting and stuff—“ She rambled, “—and then he and Albedo hung out a lot, and Kaeya stayed over in Albedo’s lab and got really sad like me whenever he goes to Dragonspine, and then they fell in love and now they kiss and hug and stuff and it’s kinda gross but I don’t care because it means that Kaeya gets to be my big brother too!” Klee babbled without taking a single breath, taking in a gasp of air as she finished.

Venti blinked, he hadn’t realized the ‘Chalk Prince’ and Khaenri’ian spy were romantically involved, he hadn’t even known that they knew each other outside of strictly professional matters.

“Wow, that’s lovely! How long have they been together?” He forced a chipper tone.

“Oh, for years now!” Klee clarified, “They always give each other gifts on their… ann-of-versary.” The girl struggled with the final word before lowering her voice, “Just between you and me, I’m pretty sure I’m way better at giving gifts…” She giggled menacingly.

“Really? That’s a pretty long time!” Venti smiled before lowering his voice to a whisper as well, “And yeah, I bet you’re way better at gift-giving.”

Venti wondered if Diluc had any clue about the relationship status of his ‘not-brother,’ considering how long the blue-haired man had apparently been in a relationship. Then again, he knew how far Diluc went to avoid the knights, so it was quite likely he had no idea.

“Yep! I am! Glad you agree with me, Mister Venti!” The girl puffed her chest out with pride, “And yeah, a year is like… A long long time. Like, I’m nine and a half whole years old and I’m already basically a grown-up. And they’ve been together for… like, probably a million trillion years now I think! So yeah, a really, really long time!”

Venti fought back the urge to laugh, “Oh? Yeah, that is a really long time!”

“Mhm! I know!”

Despite her chipper words, Klee’s face suddenly fell, leaning back against the Statue of Seven with a sigh. She grabbed the crudely drawn picture of Kaeya.

“…That’s actually why I’m sad, you know…” Klee explained in a whisper, “I miss Big Brother Kaeya. Albedo had just gotten back from being at Dragonspine for a long time, and Kaeya was supposed to come back the very next day… But it’s been a whole week and he’s still gone…!” The girl looked on the verge of tears as she continued to babble, “And Big Brother Albedo said that he had a plan to find him, but what if it doesn’t work or if I mess it up and he’s gone forever…!” Klee curled up into a ball.

Venti didn’t quite know how to comfort the child, but he put his hand on her shoulder awkwardly, “I’m sure Albedo’s plan will work, and how could you possibly mess his plan up? Are you part of it?” He questioned.

Klee nodded, “Yeah, I’m a really important part of the plan. Like, I had to make sure Mister Grumpy-Face was here at the lake before sunset.”

Venti squinted, “Why’d you have to drag Mister Grumpy-Face here? What does he have to do with the plan?” He laughed a bit, trying to force the small bit of anxiety bubbling up in his gut.

Klee looked at him and hesitated, fingers curling around the drawing of Kaeya. She broke eye contact and fidgeted nervously.

“Um… I’m not supposed to tell anyone… but…” She looked down at her shoes, “Kaeya sent a letter to Albedo two days ago, and he said that he needed Mister Grumpy-Face… or something.”

Venti felt a sudden jolt of fear shoot up his spine.

“Why… Why does he need…?”

“I dunno.” Klee mumbled, looking back up at him with big eyes, “…You’re not mad, right?”

The bard swallowed, “…No, no, I’m not mad.” He forced a shaky smile.

“…You seem mad…”

“I’m not mad, I promise… Not at you.”

That ‘Chalk Prince’ on the other hand…

Venti stood up, trying to shake off his nerves. He turned to Klee, a fake smile still firmly in place.

“Hey, how about we go find Master—Mister Grumpy-Face?”

Klee looked between the bard and the half uneaten food still lying by the statue, “What about our picnic…?” She pouted.

“We’ll bring him right back here and let him have some as well. We’ll be back before any animals can get to it.”

“…Hm… Okay!” Klee squeaked, shaking off her sadness easily, “Let’s go find Mister Grumpy-Face!”

“Mister Grumpy-Face! Oh Mister Grumpy-Face, where are you!”

Klee’s voice echoed against the cliffs of Starfell valley as she and Venti continued their search for their missing friend.

They’d been looking for hours. Somehow, Klee hadn’t gotten bored or tired yet.

Venti reached out with the wind every few minutes, searching desperately for Diluc. Not a single trace of the red-haired man rode back to him on the breeze.

The bard wasn’t the type to get nervous, he was as carefree as the wind, but in this particular situation, he wasn’t faring well.

He didn’t like the idea that a Khaenri’ian spy with a possible grudge against Diluc was behind all this. He didn’t like that the Khaenri’ian homunculus was behind this as well.

He took a calming breath as Klee continued to call for ‘Mister Grumpy-Face’ beside him.

He reached out with the wind again—

—and finally found something.

Venti sucked in a panicked breath at the sight of a group of abyss mages some ways away, the image having been carried on the breeze. There were at least ten, far more than were natural to see all grouped together at once.

“Klee, I think he might be this way.”

The girl looked up at him, confused.

“Why? Did you hear something?”

“Yeah, something like that…” Venti mumbled. Klee nodded and hopped up beside him excitedly.

“Great! Lead the way, Mister Venti!” Klee suddenly gasped, “You should make another wind current! Last time it was super fast and super cool!”

The bard let out a strained laugh, “Sounds like a perfect idea! One wind current, coming right up!”

Venti made a small gesture with his hand as a mighty gale suddenly tore through the woodland, leading directly to the group of abyss mages. Klee clapped, jumping up and down in place.

“So cool…!” She whispered, eyes shining with amazement.

The wind swiftly took them near the suspicious group, Klee giggling the entire flight. They landed near the outskirts, being able to see the abyss creatures without allowing them to notice their presence.

Klee’s eyes had gotten wide when she noticed the strange creatures, giggles dying down and voice dropping to a sharp whisper.

“What’s up with those guys?” She looked at Venti, “Do you think they know where Mister Grumpy-Face is? Did you hear them talking about him?”

Venti never took his eyes off the abyss mages in front of him but gave a small nod in response. Klee looked at him for a few more moments before turning back to watch the abyss creatures as well. A few embers began to spark from her hands as she grinned.

“So, are we gonna fight them? I’m really good at that.” She giggled, a mischievous smile growing on her face. Venti gave another nod.

“Yep, on the count of three…”

The bard’s voice was a mere whistle in the breeze as the wind began to swirl around him, softly at first, but quickly picking up speed. A few of Klee’s sparks got picked up by the gust, glowing dangerously in the storm.

“...One…”

“...Two…”

“—Three!”

The gale that had formed around the Anemo Archon erupted from their hiding place, slamming into the abyss mages with enough force to knock them over.

The creatures let out crackly, warped wails at the unexpected attack, frantically zipping around in a panic

Klee let out a joyful laugh and threw her bombs towards the mages. Venti grinned.

“Watch this, Klee!”

The bard swept up the child’s bombs in a gust of anemo energy, slinging them directly at the abyss mages with a loud boom!

Klee started, absolutely starstruck, “Whoa! That was—That was so, so cool!”

Venti responded with a genuine laugh, previous uneasiness getting pushed to the back of his mind as the thrill of battle took over.

He turned, wind beginning to pick up again as the abyss mages—

“—Mister Venti! They’re getting away!”

Venti’s eyes snapped up at Klee’s words, frantically taking in the scene before him. The group of mages were all darting away in a panic, small shimmers of abyssal magic dusting around the area.

The battle had barely even begun, and their only leads to where Diluc may be were already retreating.

Panic rolled through Venti as he shot after the escaping abyss mages, powerful winds pushing him along at inhuman speeds.

“—Wait! Venti—!”

The bard barely heard Klee call after him, he was gaining on the mages with every heartbeat, a particularly slow Cryo Mage beginning to lag behind the rest in its group—

—The Cryo Mage swung around with a crackly, inhuman snarl as it attempted to hit the pursuing Anemo Archon with a blast of ice. Venti dove out of the way, the hurricane of wind that was following him slammed full force into the attacking mage, picking up its own shards of ice and stabbing them back into its own body.

It let out a wail as it was knocked off balance, collapsing to the ground with a thud. Venti wasted no time in descending upon it, grabbing the monster in a vice-like grip, preventing it from fleeing once again.

The creature recovered from its fall quickly, beginning to panic and struggle in the Anemo Archon’s grip, enraged and screaming as it tried to call for help. Fortunately, the rest of the abyss mages had successfully fled, seeming completely unbothered in leaving one of their own behind.

Although abyssal creatures had never been known for their… Empathy, Venti couldn’t help but find it odd that they had been so desperate to get away to the point where they wouldn’t even spare their panicked fellow Abyss Member a glance.

He wondered what was so important for them to get away with that they would flee from a battle that quickly, not even bothering to put up a fight.

...Celestia, please let it have nothing to do with Diluc.

The bard was snapped from his thoughts as a sharp, freezing burn began to spread up his arms. He let out a pained sound as ice climbed up his limbs, burning with painful intensity before slowly numbing him, pins and needles stabbing in their wake.

The abyss mage was snarling beneath him, sounding feral enough that Venti wouldn’t be surprised if the creature began to foam at the mouth.

The archon narrowed his eyes as anemo energy once again surged around him. He was an Archon, for Celestia’s sake, he wouldn’t be bested by an abyss mage’s cryo powers…

…But the pain from the climbing ice only increased every second, his grip beginning to loosen on the mage, much to his panic, as his fingers and hands began to numb. The mage never seemed to tire from its frantic wiggling and struggling in the bard’s grasp, uncaring of the anemo energy relentlessly beating down on it. Every moment it made an attempt to free itself caused Venti to lose more and more of his grip on the monster, the ice digging into his flesh and fusing with his skin only adding to the bard’s struggle to continue holding on to the mage. It was going to get away, it was going to get away—

A blaze of fire roared to life next to Venti, getting swept up in the wind around the bard and causing the flames to swirl around him.

The Cryo Abyss Mage shrieked as it was relentlessly burned by the flaming hurricane, the ice on Venti’s arms melting away as feeling slowly returned to his weak limbs.

He released the mage for a mere second, the injured, screaming beast in too much pain to even register that it had been freed for a moment. The archon quickly grabbed the Abyss Mage again in a far more secure grip, allowing the glowing, burning winds around him to slowly die down.

Venti risked a glance to his side after a moment, locking eyes with Klee, who had an insane grin on her face, arms crossed proudly as her palms still dimly glowed with dormant Pyro energy.

Venti pushed down the small feeling of disappointment that it hadn’t been Diluc who had summoned the fire.

“Look! Look, Mister Venti! I helped you catch him! You almost lost him, but I came in and saved the day—!”

The fiery child was practically jumping up and down in excitement, dress twirling and arms flapping wildly.

“—And I was really upset and scared when you left me to chase after the fluffy guys, but I knew it was important so I guess it's okay, I forgive you—Oh! But then I chased after you and I even lost you for a bit because you were going so fast! But I found you and that icy, fluffy guy was about to get away and—!”

“—Yes, yes, thank you so, so much, Klee.” Venti said, disappointment from a moment earlier melting away as genuine relief, fondness, and gratitude took its place, “But, do you mind giving me another quick helping hand? It’s a little hard holding this mage down all by myself!” Venti let out a small, strained laugh as the Cryo Abyss mage began to weakly struggle against his grip again with gurgling, haunting snarls. Ice attempting to once again climb up the bard’s arms.

Klee noticed this with a gasp as she ran forward. Despite Klee’s immense strength and power when it came to her Pyro Vision and her bombs, she was still a child, and her added grip to the Abyss Mage in all honesty did little to help. Luckily, Klee was a smart kid, and she allowed threatening warmth to seep from her palms where she held the mage. The heat wasn’t hot enough to properly hurt but was clearly on the precipice of giving the Abyssal creature a nasty burn.

The mage let out a wobbly, pained choking sound as Klee joined the effort to keep it imprisoned in the Anemo Archon’s grip, pulling back its Cryo powers so that Venti’s arms were once again free of ice.

Venti turned to Klee and grinned, “Thanks.”

Klee nodded and smiled back at him, a small giggle shaking out of her before she turned back to the Cryo Abyss Mage with an exaggerated glare.

“Okay, now—” She began, “—Where's Mister Grumpy-Face!?”

“...Wha—t…?

The monster’s voice crackled inhumanly, distorted and creaking unsettlingly. Despite this, his tone was still surprisingly distinguishable as confused. Venti sighed.

“Master Diluc, what have you done with him?”

The Mage let out a small, wobbly hiss, finally going completely limp in Venti and Klee’s grip.

“...W—ho…?”

Klee groaned in offended annoyance, “You know who! I know you do!” She practically yelled. Venti bumped her with his shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Actually, I’m not sure why an Abyss Mage would know Diluc’s name…” The bard narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment, before suddenly looking back at the creature.

“...How about… The Darknight Hero. That name ring any bells?” The archon gave a smug grin as he felt the mage flinch in realization beneath him. “Ah! So you do know who we’re talking about! Red hair, ponytail, kinda tall, dark, broody clothes…” Venti listed his friend’s attributes as he felt the Abyss Mage stiffen with each new descriptor.

“…Darknight—Hero…” The mage began to growl, “He…“ The creature hesitated, “…Nothing—Know nothing.”

“You do know something! Stop lying!” Klee wailed, fire beginning to form in her grip subconsciously, causing the Abyss Mage to yelp. Venti let his smile grow wider, ignoring the worry reappearing in his gut.

“Klee is right, you definitely know something, and listen, I’ll make a deal with you…” Venti explained, “Tell us what you know and we’ll let you go, easy as that!” The bard smiled.

“…And if—Don’t tell…”

“Well then, obviously, we won't let you go.”

Wind picked up and roared around the Archon with sudden, terrifying speeds, very clearly and purposefully avoiding Klee’s small form. The kid felt the powerful breeze ruffle her dress and grinned maniacally.

The Cryo Abyss Mage wailed and weakly struggled once again in their grip, before curling up and falling limp in surrender.

“…Fine—! Fine—!” It shrieked, “Will tell—! I—Will tell…”

The anemo power swirling around Venti came to an abrupt stop, much to Klee’s visible disappointment. The Mage writhed slightly with a defeated huff.

“N—eed… Needed—Needed him…” The monster began to weakly choke out, “Too—k him… Take—him to… Take to—prince…”

He heard Klee gasp softly beside him.

“...Who… Who’s your prince?” Her voice was hesitant, uncharacteristically quiet.

“—Prince… P—rince Alberich—”

“—Stop! Let go of the fuzzy guy!” Klee wailed out of nowhere, interrupting the Cryo Abyss Mage’s explanation.

Venti didn’t even have time to question, or even process what he had heard before he felt Klee slam into him full force.

“Let him go!”

Venti stumbled in shock, grip on the Abyss Mage loosening for a mere heartbeat—

—But that was all it took. The Abyssal creature shot out from under him at frighting speeds, a terrifying blast of ice stabbed through both Venti and Klee as it frantically flew away. Klee let out a pained yelp at the sudden attack, stumbling away from where she had pushed Venti.

The bard fell back as well, snapping his head up to find the escaping Abyss Mage without even allowing himself to take a breath. The Mage was soaring away, distorted cackling echoing around the Anemo Archon. He frantically tried to stand up, hands and feet kicking up dirt as he attempted to dart after the monster. Abyssal sparks were already surrounding the area, terrifying portals that he could not let the mage escape through—

“—Stop! Let him go!”

Venti looked away for barely a second, meeting eyes with Klee, still laying in the dirt. She was staring at him, determined and angry and—

—When Venti finally looked back at where the Cryo Mage had just been, it was already gone. The only evidence that it had been there at all was a few frostbitten blades of grass near Klee.

Cold dread swarmed inside Venti and swallowed him whole.

Light, quick footsteps padded up behind him.

“I’m sorry Mister Venti, but that fluffy guy was actually part of my really important secret plan to save my Big Brother Kaeya! I didn’t know at first but… Yeah, it makes sense… Probably why I had to make sure Mister Grumpy-Face was here today…”

Venti barely heard the kid over the panicked buzzing in his ears. He wasn’t a fool, he knew the Cavalry Captain's last name. Kaeya was the prince of Khaenri’ian. Kaeya had kidnapped Diluc, a man who he could very well hold a grudge against, with the help of the Abyss Order and he had no idea where he could be, or what they might want with him—

“...Mister Venti…? Are you okay...?”

Klee’s nervous voice piped up, hovering over Venti’s shoulder. The bard took a deep breath.

“Klee, why do you think Sir Kaeya might have ‘needed’ Diluc?”

The kid was his last chance, maybe she knew something, maybe she knows more about the plan than she’s been letting on.

“Um… I don’t know. Probably just needs to talk to him or something. Then he’ll be saved! Probably!”

Klee sounded genuine, and Venti’s stomach dropped.

She had to know more, she had to know what was going on, she had to. Because if she didn’t…

She had to.

“Klee, please.” The bard began to beg, “Please, you have to know what Kaeya wants with Diluc, you have to know where they might be.” Venti was desperately trying to keep his voice even, but it threatened to break with every syllable he choked out, “Albedo had to have told you something, anything, that might hint at where they are.”

Klee started to look genuinely scared, shaking her head and backing away.

“I don’t—I don’t know, I swear! Big Brother Albedo just told me to bring Mister Grumpy-Face here, I don’t know anything else—!”

“—No, no, please, you have to know! Please, you have to tell me, Diluc could be hurt or—”

Klee stared in terror at the bard, eyes beginning to well up with tears, “Why—Why would he be hurt?”

Venti hesitated, “...Your brother Kaeya doesn’t… He doesn’t really get along with Master Diluc and—”

Realization dawned on Klee’s face as it sharply screwed up with anger.

“—No! No! Big Brother Kaeya wouldn’t hurt him! That’s dumb!”

Venti felt pity well up in his chest for the child’s naive trust in her ‘brother.’ the bard’s disbelief must have shown on his face, because Klee's expression crumpled into pure rage, embers subconsciously blazing out of her palms.

“Kaeya wouldn’t hurt anyone!” Klee quite literally screamed, tears beginning to roll down her face, “...He would never hurt anyone…!”

Venti felt a sudden wave of sickening guilt wash over him. It wasn’t Klee’s fault that she was involved in all this, she didn’t even truly know what was going on. He swallowed hesitantly reached out towards her.

“...You’re right… I’m—I’m sorry, Klee.”

She most certainly wasn’t right, even outside of the context of Khaenri’ian and the Abyss, the Cavalry Captain had been known to be sharp and downright cruel to his enemies. But Venti wouldn’t bring that up, not now.

Klee stared at him before breaking away from his gaze with a sniffle.

“…I wanna go home…”

She weakly flung herself against Venti’s side, face screwed up and cheeks puffed out, tear tracks stuck to her skin. She was very purposefully avoiding the bard's gaze, fists clenched by her side. Venti felt another small wave of guilt roll through him as he forced a smile, holding his hand out towards Klee.

“…Yeah, let’s go home.”

Klee stared at the bard’s outstretched hand for a moment before hesitantly reaching for it. Anger still painted her features, but exhaustion and resignation was beginning to catch up with her.

Despite her weak grip on the bard’s hand, she obediently fell into step with him as he began to walk away.

The two silently began the trek back to Mondstadt, the crunching of leaves under their feet as they trudged along sounding like booming, snapping explosions in the dreadful quiet. The Archon had half a mind to summon a wind current to speed up the trip, the sun already beginning to dip behind the horizon, but he couldn’t quite muster up the strength as his mind began to wander.

Venti would find Diluc, that was non-negotiable.

He wouldn’t lose another friend, not like this.

However, as a sickly feeling of dread grew in his stomach, he remembered he had not even the vaguest hint on where to start looking.