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Aether wakes up well-rested alone. Aether has been enjoying his time at the Windblume Festival for the past few days now. After spending a few days hanging out with the town's folk, he decided to go do his daily commissions from the Adventurer's Guild.
He walks towards Katherine, in which her gaze follows his figure with a knowing smile.
He'd donned a Flower Crown, made with Cecilias and Windwheel Asters, which he'd gotten from Klee earlier in the morning when he'd met up with his new friends from the Knights of Favonious.
"You've been celebrating, I presume", Katherine says towards Aether. "I have some news regarding a Blond you've encountered before! He's back in town and he's asked about you, traveler!"
Paimon retorts "Well, what's the point of coming back if he's going to be vague again?" Aether hums in reply giving her a look. She doesn't notice and continues babbling away. Meanwhile, Aether thinks back on his previous encounter with Dainsleif. He'd been talking about some creatures he hadn't encountered before.
What was it again? "Abyss Herald?" he mutters under his breath.
Paimon hears him say that and exclaims "Oh yeah! Didn't that guy say those are super duper strong? Maybe he found one and wants to show us!"
He agrees and asks Katherine to tell Dainsleif to await in "Angel's Share", as they had previously met.
He also asks about his Daily Commissions and proceeds to do them before running towards the Tavern, slamming the door open as if waiting to see a beast inside.
Charles looks exasperated and sighs, reminiscing of simpler times. Aether scans the bar and sees him, Dainsleif sitting towards the back, and goes to greet him.
He's interrupted by Dainsleif as he holds up his arm and says to Aether "Enough, you've wasted enough time, we don't have much longer. Do you recall what I was looking for last time?" Aether nods with a slightly confused look on his face. "I've found an Abyss Herald, and I know exactly where it's hiding, you're coming with me because you need to see what you're up against."
Aether gets confused towards the last part but nods excitedly, looking at his gear to make sure he had everything needed, not wanting to lose such an opportunity to see Dainsleif fight.
They head towards an area he didn't recognize and sees an entrance towards a domain. "What you'll see here is not to be passed along the common folk, keep your guard up," Dainsleif says before entering the unknown domain. Aether and Paimon share an uncertain look, and Paimon says "I don't feel too good about this... Maybe we can come back another day?" but Aether shakes his head, muttering that it would be wrong after they'd followed Dainsleif, just to abandon him.
But before they could get their courage to go further inside, a loud thud echoes towards them in the entrance, captivating their attention.
"Oh no! What if he's hurt!?" Paimon squeaks loudly in terror. Aether takes off towards the sound, with Paimon shakily trailing behind him, before encountering a dilemma.
The way where he was heading had two different doors, which rattles him, pausing him and rising the levels of uncertainty.
He takes a deep breath and takes notes, the first being that one was closed and the other one seemingly being ajar. He points towards the open one and Paimon nods, understanding that they'll probably go towards that one.
They approach the open one and soon realize that it is empty, but Paimon decides to look around the room for treasure. Aether looks towards the center of it and sees it.
Aether approaches the statue and touches the chains holding it upside down. He looks puzzled toward the way the statue is hanging. He recognizes the statue underneath the whirlpool of energy as one of the Anemo Archons. His hands glide towards the statue and he suddenly folds. He gasps loudly, grasping his chest immediately.
"Aether! What's going on? Are you ok?" Paimon's by his side, sudden questions making him confused, his sudden illness taking him towards the ground with a loud thud.
Paimon frets around him, unknowing what she should do. "Wait here! Paimon's going to look for Dain! She'll be back before you know it!", she hurriedly flies further into the domain, through a small opening she saw while looking around the room.
He moans with hurt clear in his whine, the throbbing not stopping. The pain feels as though it has spread all over his body, without having a particular source. He opens his eyes, squinting, unaware that Paimon had left his premise, and looks for her. He painfully gets up, using his sword as leverage to hold himself up, and trots toward the closed door, at a crawling pace.
He pushes the door with all his might, and he sees a light reflect before he's suddenly being pushed toward the ground with a sword next to his head. He grows rattled and follows the sword to its user, and he sees it. This was it, the herald Dainsleif was looking for. "Well, I definitely found you" he grumbles in annoyance. He grips his own sword and swings towards the Abyss Herald's feet.
The Herald stands proudly and doesn't speak a word to him in his weakened state. Aether looks at it and grins despite being in pain "Well since you're not going to say anything, I'll beat those words out of you!" and he strikes his sword 5 times towards the Herald, it manages to escape the strikes with ease. "Huh, that's a first" he'd never seen any Abyss creature manage to evade his attacks. The Herald prepares his Hydro attack and manages to nick Aether twice, resulting in two small cuts on his temple.
They fight, they clash but the Herald is still stronger than Aether. The Abyss Herald pushes Aether with his sword toward the ground and hits him in with the hilt of his sword in the temple. Aether tries to evade the attack but is brought to unconsciousness.
"Your highness, he's become infected with the Abyss" The herald suddenly speaks, summoning a portal for Her. She passes through and sighs, looking at her brother worryingly.
"If only I could have you with me... But that's not I planned things to go" She grabs hold of his head and combs through his dismantled hair and wipes away the blood on his face. "Just wait a little longer, dear brother. Wait until you've gotten a bit stronger, maybe then, you can see me again." she kisses his forehead, using the powers that rivaled the gods of this world, that she managed to keep, unlike him. The small cuts and bruises shine a bright white, slowly erasing their pain, his face growing into a soft content smile. He holds onto her in his slumber, bringing her closer than she's been for the past hundred or so years.
Her eyes tear a little, dropping some little drops on him and his clothes. She smiles, "You were always the cuddly one, not me" she muttered as to not wake him.
"Your highness, there's life forces approaching" the Herald warns her, "We shall proceed back to the main base." She hugs on tight to him one last time, and before she realizes, she takes a flower off the Crown he'd worn and attaches one of her flowers to it.
She gets up and follows the Herald back towards the portal, looking one last time back towards him and she promises him "We'll reunite soon, my dear brother" and she crosses the portal.
Aether is laying on the floor still, with a flower crown on his chest with a smile on his face.
"Oh no! He must be hallucinating! Why is he smiling!" Paimon hurriedly comes back with Dainsleif, who had gone further into the domain when he hadn't seen the Abyss Herald.
"Quick, we must return to Mondstat before he grows more ill." Dainsleif carries Aether, with some worry in his mind but with slight relief when he saw the flower crown that Aether was holding had one of her flowers.
Aether wakes up well-rested, surrounded by worried faces. "Traveler, are you feeling better?" Jean, who was leaning against the door asks. "Yeah! When Paimon came asking for help, we were so worried!" Amber chimed in. He looks confused at them, and looks for Paimon "Paimon? What happened?" he asks her.
"Weeeell... That scary place we went to apparently was run by the Abyss and uh I'm gonna shut my mouth now" she says feeling a gaze through the window, where she sees a blond figure looking at them from a tree. "Oh, yeah that happened... Well, to answer your question I'm alright!" he answers.
"That's great to hear! After being asleep for so long we were worried you wouldn't wake up! After all, it's quite uncommon for one to sleep more than a day" Barbara says with her tired voice. She'd been tending to him and it had been genuinely concerning.
"What do you mean more than a day? You really mean I slept that long?" "That's alright though! You clearly caught something and needed to heal properly" everyone agrees on it.
Aether smiles, knowing they have his back whenever he may ever need it again. "Thank you, guys... You don't know how much that means to me"