Chapter Text
“Meet me at the Stone Gate, 4:30 pm tonight.”
Diluc looked at the invitation in confusion. After the last… meeting had gone so wrong, he didn’t think he - or anyone else - would see one of these invitations again.
Albedo immediately recognized the handwriting. What did Aether want with him, and why the Stone Gate?
Zhongli sighs. Another invitation. And if he has one, it’s a fair bet Xiao does as well. He teleports to Wangshu Inn.
Xiao is annoyed by the Traveler’s continual request to distract him from his job. He plans to ignore it, until Rex Lapis shows up with an identical invitation.
Childe receives the invitation and laughs. What does Aether want with him this time?
Venti also laughs at the invitation. After the disaster of the last one... This will go well, he thinks.
At the Adventurer's Guild, Bennett sees a commission posted for him. This is a rare occurrence - few people are willing to risk his curse. “Arrive at the Stone Gate at 4:30 tonight. Details will be provided upon arrival.”
Bennett arrives first, ten minutes early. He always tries to show up early, in case something goes wrong - which happens far too often.
“Hello, Bennett!”
This is a surprise. What cause would Aether have to commission Bennett - or anyone for that matter?
“Aether? What do you want with me?”
“I have been looking into your curse, and I believe I know how to break it.”
“How? I’ve been looking for a cure for years, with no success.”
“Or perhaps with no luck?”
“Of course…”
Albedo arrives nice. “Aether. Bennett. Why do you want me here tonight?”
“You always were straight to the point. As far as you can know, you’re here for a party. Just be observant.”
“As far as I can know… Interesting.” He doesn’t miss the strange look Bennett gives Aether, but that is, apparently, a question for another time.
“I know your mind. I’ll tell you as soon as I can, don’t worry. In the meantime, you’re here to enjoy yourself.”
“That, I can do,” Albedo says, as Venti glides in.
“Aether! What can I - hic! - do for you?”
“When I summon you, it isn’t always for favors. Tonight, you enjoy yourself. Perhaps you should go easy on the wine, though.”
“How dare you! I never - hic! - get drunk!”
Diluc, who showed up without anyone noticing, scoffs at this. “The number of times I’ve had to kick you out because you’re too drunk...:”
“That’s just because you don’t like me.”
By now, another group is arriving from the other side of the Stone Gate. Seeing them, Diluc grows. “Why did you invite a Fatui Harbinger?”
“He’s a friend.” Turning to said Harbinger, Aether continues. “Perhaps a better question would be why did you come in uniform?”
“It’s a party, and I didn’t expect the Darknight Hero to be here.”
At this, everyone from Monstadt - and Zhongli, strangely - turns to look at Diluc. “You’re the Darknight Hero?” they ask, almost exactly at the same time.
Gritting his teeth, Diluc responds. “Yes, I am the Darknight Hero. Not a fact I bandy about at will. I am surprised Abedo didn’t know, considering what you get up to with Kaeya - he’ll do anything for you.”
“Perhaps I didn’t ask,” Albedo replies calmly - inhumanly calmly.”
“In any case,” Aether says, trying to change the topic before Diluc or Childe attacks someone, “I gathered you here tonight for a party, and to test a device I was given.” Producing a teapot seemingly from nowhere, he continues. “Hold out your hands, and touch the teapot, everyone.”
Bennett does so without hesitation, and the rest of the group follows suit - some with more hesitancy.
“How did you get a reusable dispatch?” Zhongli asks. “I thought one could only bring one person in at a time?”
“Tubby - my teapot spirit - gave it to me. I don’t understand it myself.”
“You have a teapot realm?” Xiao interrupts.
“Yes, it was a gift from Madame Ping. Now, let’s get inside.”
Inside the teapot, Aether continues his explanations.
“For those of you who don’t know, this is a teapot realm. It’s an adept secret on how to make one - I don’t know how myself. The dispatch allows you to enter at will, when you have access to the teapot. Tubby-” he gestured to the teapot spirit “-is the caretaker of this realm. You’re here to test the dispatch, and for a… housewarming party, I suppose.”
“A realm like this could be very useful to many people,” Albedo says. “I’m surprised you’re so open about it.”
“No one can enter without my permission, and it’s impossible to steal. By the way, it’s also impossible to harm me in my realm. Not so much for the rest of you, so please leave your weapons.”
With a various amount of grumbling, three swords, a greatsword, two ancient adeptal spears, two bows, and six of Childe’s hidden daggers are left in a pile at the door.
“I said all your weapons, Childe.”
“How did you know how many daggers I have?”
“I took them off you once, remember?”
At that, Childe blushes. “I remember, but why were you keeping count?”
“That is beside the point. Your collapsible spare bow, too”
Childe leaves his other daggers and bow behind, and the pair of them enter the house. Aether takes Bennett’s sword and mounts it in the entryway, calling for Bennett as he does so.
“Where are we going, and what are you doing with my sword?”
“Your sword, I believe, is what carries the curse. When we return, we’ll see what happens when no one is wielding it. We’re going outside, I’ll explain more there.”
Outside, in an adventurer’s camp, Aether finally explains the cursed sword. “It was Kayea that put me onto the idea. Your sword is the Harbinger of Dawn, correct?” He pauses while Bennett nods. “Apparently, an identical sword that he owned only ever killed one person - it’s wielder.”
“My sword… why have I never thought about this before? Now that I think about it…” He trails off, thinking about when his luck started, and when he first acquired his sword. “Huh.”
“That’s why I left it back there - so it won’t influence us, and so we can see how it affects those around us. Now, we need a reason to have left. No one other than the two of us knows why we’re really here. I’m going to get food for the party, and claim that you joined me. I think that you should try adventuring, but with another sword. You can borrow one of mine - I have far too many.”
“Right… And why do you need to keep this secret?”
“Because I need to see how your sword affects other people.’
Meanwhile, back at the house…
“Now that the peacekeeper is gone, who knows where, I believe you and I have a score to settle,” Diluc says to Childe. “You know that the Darknight Hero isn’t something to bandy about at will.”
“Oh? If it’s something you do, I don’t think you should keep it secret.”
“Hah! That’s rich, coming from a Harbinger!”
“Now you’re just asking for a fight. You know as well as I do anything I’ve done.”
“That’s what you want me to think!”
At this, Childe creates his water swords - thinking how strange it is that Aether didn’t insist he left their Visions and his Delusion - and attacks Diluc. Diluc calls his flaming phoenix, before Zhongli calls a barrier between the two of them.
At this, both of them turn on Zhongli.
“I have a score to settle with the Fatui!”
“I’ve been waiting far too long to fight the Darknight Hero!” The two of them speak at the same time, and then glare at each other.
“We’re not here to fight -” Zhongli starts, before being attacked from both sides of the barrier. Childe can throw his water knives, and Diluc can blaze his way through almost anything. Xiao, after seeing what happened, jumps to try to protect Rex Lapis, but doesn’t get there before Zhongli is knocked out.
At this, Xiao attacks both Childe and Diluc, trying to stop the two of them fighting and harming everyone else. The two of them together could easily destroy everything in this house, and probably the rest of the teapot as well.
Unfortunately, the two of them together can also defeat almost anything they turn their minds to, especially with Childe’s advantage of his Vision being able to create weapons. Xiao is unarmed, and he’s been fighting for two thousand years with his Primordial Jade-Winged Spear. He relents, and turns to protecting the rest of the crowd.
Meanwhile, Albedo is taking his mandate to observe rather seriously. Casting his Solar Isotoma, he rises above the chaos. Watching what is happening, he thinks that Aether should return soon, otherwise there won’t be a house to return to.
Below, Childe and Diluc are still fighting. The barrier disappeared when Zhongli passed out, and Xiao isn’t getting in the way of the two of them, choosing instead to guard Zhongli. Venti has passed out for some reason, which is strange, given his inhuman alcohol tolerance.
“On second thought, I need to return now. With how volatile the crowd is in there, even without the curse there might be something wrong.” The part Aether doesn’t say is that he has wards set up around the house that shows when elements are summoned, and there’s currently Hydro, Pyro, and Geo, with Hydro and Pyro clashing. “I’ll return now, if I need you, I’ll find you.”
“Okay? Why don’t I just come with you?”
“Because you have another task, because I don’t want you blamed for this, and most importantly, because I don’t want you harmed. With everything that’s going on in there right now…”
“Right. Umm… are you sure everyone’s going to be safe in there?”
“Yes, I am. The part I didn’t say is that no one can be permanently harmed inside my teapot if they entered with my permission. It’s another thing I don’t really understand about it, but it works.”
“Huh. Mind if I stay in your teapot full-time?”
“You’re a fellow adventurer - you’d get bored in there. You can always come visit, if you have the time. In any case, I need to go now.” At this, Aether enters the teapot.
Running up to the house - and ignoring Tubby for the time being - and opening the door, he sees a room in chaos.
“What the hell happened here?”