Chapter Text
Aether opens his eyes with a bleary groan, the sky a mess of white and grey.
The world around him is cold, and the statue that looms over him is eerie in its stillness, the sleet-filled wind battering ceaselessly against darkly pulsing stone.
“Aether—” someone shouts, and Aether blinks more, raises a hand in front of his face and sees a glove of black leather and gold. Wet snowflakes catch against it, melting against the material, and there’s another shout as the voice—low and concerned—draws ever closer.
Aether sits up.
“Gods, Aether—” the man breathes, his words sharp as he slides across wet stone to where Aether sits against the statue he woke up beneath. The man’s hair is a messy blond, partially hidden by the hooded cloak that’s been pulled up and over his head, yet his eyes are a stunning shade of blue, and Aether stares up at them as the man blinks down. “There you are, thank the gods. How much do you remember?”
Aether blinks. “How much do I remember?” he repeats, frowning as the man kneels down in front of him, and sudden worry fills the eyes that stare back.
“Do you remember what your name is?” the man asks, and Aether nods.
“Aether,” Aether replies, before pausing and tacking on, “I think.”
He’s fairly certain that’s his name, yet the man’s insistence is unsettling, and Aether’s mind feels a mess of static and white.
The man nods. “And mine?”
Aether bites back a frown. This one, he isn’t so sure. The man feels familiar, yet Aether’s attempts to put a name to his face continue to fall short, and Aether eventually shakes his head. “I don’t know,” he replies, the words even, and the man’s worry deepens, causing a strange sort of fear to curl deep in Aether’s gut.
“Then, do you remember where we are?” the man continues. “Or what we were doing here?”
Aether shakes his head again. “Though, I’m guessing by your reaction that I should?” he replies, trying for something light, and the man’s resulting answer is distressingly short.
“Yes, Aether,” he says, quietly. “You should.” The snow drips cold against Aether’s skin, and the wind feels even colder. “Do you remember anything about Mondstadt? Or of Teyvat? Or of your sister?”
Aether opens his mouth, then closes it again.
“I have a sister?” he asks instead of answering, and the other man’s face goes white, his blue eyes wide as he turns, expression furious, towards the statue that sits behind them.
“Xiao—” he snarls aloud, “Adeptus Xiao—” and there’s a flash of dark smoke as a new individual appears to the man’s left, a horned mask shattering off his face like luminous shards of glass. His eyes are painted a vibrant red, and smoke continues to emanate from his form even in the heavily falling snow.
“Xiao?” Aether tries, the name familiar as it rolls off his lips, yet strange as he searches for its place in his mind. “Xiao, and—?”
“Albedo,” Xiao replies shortly, kneeling next to them both and staring intently into Aether’s face. “Is he alright?”
“No,” Albedo replies, before Aether can even think of anything to say, and Aether looks between the both of them, confusion and fear sitting heavy in his gut. “He doesn’t remember Lumine.”
“Lumine?” Aether cuts in, and this name feels familiar too. “Is that my sister’s name?”
Xiao nods slowly, breathes out a quiet, “Oh,” and looks a little bit lost as he glances between them both. “I. Yes, that’s her.”
“Lumine,” Aether repeats, then: “Albedo. Xiao. And you mentioned two others—?”
“Mondstadt and Teyvat: our region and our world,” Albedo murmurs, then glances back to the statue. “And speaking of Mondstadt, perhaps it would be better if we finish our conversation there. Mondstadt will have much less snow, and a room with the Knights would be considerably more comfortable for this conversation.”
Mondstadt, Aether thinks, then asks, “Who are the Knights?”
“Friends of ours,” Albedo tells him simply, “and friends of yours.”
Aether looks between Xiao and Albedo, watching Xiao’s frown tighten a bit at the words. Still, he nods a second later, and his eyes flick back to meet Aether’s.
“I know you don’t remember us, Aether,” Xiao says, quietly, “and I know you don’t remember the Knights. But we’re your friends, and we can fill you in on everything that’s been happening once we’ve gotten you back to the city.” He pauses, and his hands tighten into small, gloved fists. “Once we've gotten you somewhere safe.”
Aether glances back between both of them, and swallows dryly.
It’s true he doesn’t remember a thing, and it’s true that he has yet to know if he can trust either of the men that are kneeling down in front of him. Albedo and Xiao, he thinks, his mind still coming up blank despite clearly knowing their names. Xiao and Albedo. Mondstadt. Teyvat.
Lumine.
And yet—Albedo’s eyes are large and blue and wide with worry, and there’s concern in the set of Xiao’s shoulders: stiff and trembling. Aether doesn’t know either of them, yet it’s obvious that they care for him more than he realizes, and for now, that care is more than enough.
Aether straightens, his nod measured slow. “If you promise to tell me everything once we get there,” Aether tells them, “then alright. I’ll come back with you to Mondstadt.”
And the relief in their faces is clear. “Good,” Albedo breathes, “good,” and Xiao holds out a hand for Aether to take.
The snow continues to billow about them—shades of grey and white pressing angrily into the corners of Aether’s vision—and Aether stares at the gloved hand for a moment, his heart beating heavy up his throat.
The wind whistles soft, and Aether reaches out to take it.
Mondstadt is a large city, with tall stone buildings that sit surrounded by the sea. Albedo seems to know his way around the city better than Xiao does, and Xiao mentions offhand that it’s because Albedo works as a Captain for the city’s military force—the Knights, or, as Albedo clarifies for him later, the Knights of Favonius.
“I wouldn’t really call us a military,” Albedo amends, glancing back at them both as he leads them through the cobblestone streets. “We’re more of a governing body than anything else.”
Xiao grunts as Aether looks back between the two of them, and Albedo continues to talk of what the Knights of Favonius do as he leads them up a flight of stairs to a large, castle-like building.
“The Favonius Headquarters,” Albedo notes, and he holds the door open as Aether and Xiao step in. “I’ll set you up in a room near my office, and I’ll speak with Jean—our Acting Grandmaster—about what happened after that. You’ll be safe here until we figure out what’s going on.”
The room he leads them to is surprisingly nice—likely, Aether notes, some sort of guest suite for dignitaries—and Aether sits on the side of his bed with a sigh, looking out the window to where Mondstadt’s citizens bustle about below.
“Do the Knights often have people visiting them?” Aether asks, gesturing about at the room that he’s sitting in, and Xiao frowns at the question, then shrugs.
“Maybe,” he says. “I don’t know. I don’t concern myself with what the other nations of Teyvat do.”
“Are you not from Mondstadt, then?” Aether asks, and Xiao gets a strange look on his face, then huffs a laugh.
“No,” he replies. “I’m from Liyue.”
“Liyue,” Aether tries, and that name feels rather familiar, too. “Is it nice there?”
Xiao’s expression softens as he replies, leaning up against one of the pale stone walls. “Yes,” he says quietly, “it is.”
Aether looks away. He gets a feeling that he’s seen the softening of that face a dozen times before, for he can feel his heart beat slow and heavy in response to it, and an uneasy warmth moves to fill his cheeks. Aether blinks down at the side table next to his bed, and wonders what in the world his old self had managed to get himself into.
After all, Albedo and Xiao don’t seem like bad people. It’s obvious that the three of them were close prior to Aether’s loss of memory, and—in spite of Aether having no recollection as to how the three of them met—it seems that they genuinely care for him. It’s strange, having no memory of the people who love you, and Aether breathes out a sigh.
“Is this the first time I’ve lost my memory?” Aether asks, glancing back over at Xiao, and Xiao’s face contorts.
“No,” he replies, “it’s not. It is, however, the first time you’ve lost so much of it. You’ve been losing bits of your memory each time that you die, and I suppose this death was just... a bit more intense than the rest.”
“Each time I die?” Aether repeats, unable to hide his shock, and Xiao’s dour expression cracks just a bit.
“Mm,” Xiao replies, “each time,” and Aether bites his lip.
“How long has this been happening?” Aether asks, and Xiao furrows his brow, his eyes sliding to meet Aether’s after a moment of contemplation.
“About a year now,” Xiao tells him, his voice quiet, and something in Aether’s stomach turns wildly over itself. A year, he thinks, meaning that he’s been in this world—here in Teyvat—for even longer. The thought leaves him feeling a strange sort of breathless, unsure why the idea of staying in one place leaves him feeling so bereft. Aether closes his eyes, and wonders what his life has been like, since then. “We’ve been doing our best to keep you from dying,” Xiao continues, “but we know that danger is inevitable when it comes to adventuring... and there have been times we’ve been unable to prevent it from happening.”
He trails off, and Aether asks, “I’m an adventurer?” with some amount of interest, cracking his eyes back open and looking to Xiao.
Xiao nods back. “Traveler, adventurer—all around helper.” He pauses. “You used to jump universes before you settled here: searching for the sister you lost.”
Lumine, Aether thinks, and somehow, all of that seems right. “What did I do while I was traveling here?” Aether asks.
And Xiao finally sits down—in a chair not far from Aether’s bed—and begins to tell him.
By the time that Albedo returns, exhaustion clear in his face, Aether has learned far more about himself (and of Liyue) than he’d originally expected he would. And yet, with each new question Xiao’s scowl gets less intense, the stress visibly seeping from his body, and Aether finds he likes the effect. Both of them look up when Albedo opens the door, and Albedo smiles small as he sinks into a chair next to Xiao, a set of confectionery boxes in his hands.
“Dinner,” he says, and Aether watches Xiao’s eyebrow raise.
“From Noelle?” he asks, and Albedo smiles and nods, then turns to Aether to explain: “A maid within the Knights of Favonius.”
Aether takes the box with careful hands, and watches the two of them as he eats, continuing to ask questions as he does so. The both of them are awkward—Xiao having fallen back into himself with Albedo’s return, and Albedo is visibly tired as he gives his lengthy replies—yet Aether feels comfortable enough as the evening continues, Albedo updating them both on Aether’s current status within the Knights.
Apparently, he’d been a hero among these people, having dealt with a dragon named Stormterror and consequently bringing peace to the city of Mondstadt. With the title of “Honorary Knight,” the Acting Grandmaster—or Jean, as Albedo had called her—had been more than accommodating in setting up Aether’s stay, and he’d be given room and board as long as he might need. Albedo had told her that both he and Xiao would take turns bringing Aether up to speed: working with him to regain the memories he had lost, and doing their best to help him figure out its cause.
It’s sweet of them to care for him still, even after he’d been relocated somewhere safer, and yet... the thought of remaining here, in this small Favonius guest suite, feels oddly constraining, and he can’t help but feel disappointed.
An adventurer, Xiao had told him he’d been. Aether eats his pancakes, and wonders if that might be why.
“So,” Aether says, once the three of them have finished eating and silence descends once more. “To recap... I know that I’m not from this world, but I’ve been here for some time now.
“I know that I have a sister that I’m looking for named Lumine, and I know that the two of you have been trying to help me figure out what’s going on with my memory since it started deserting me upon death about a year ago.”
Albedo and Xiao nod, and Aether takes a breath. “I also know that I know very little about who I am or about either of you, yet I still find myself trusting you all the same... and I can’t help but think that that means something.”
Albedo blinks, and Xiao looks away. “Please help me regain my memories,” Aether finally asks, the words an inquiry of them both, then smiles small. “And please keep me from dying again, until I do.”
There’s a flush on Xiao’s cheeks as he finishes, and Albedo’s hands clutch at the fabric of his coat.
Gods, Aether thinks. Was I dating either of you before this, or is there something I just don’t know?
It’s so glaringly obvious that they care for him, and—if the implicit trust he seems to have in them is anything to go by—it’s likely he used to care for them, too. The questions sit at the tip of his tongue, and he wants so desperately to ask; yet he does nothing more than smile wider, listening to each of them promise to help in their own unique ways, and he thanks them both before they leave.
The sun has set by the time they do, and Aether leans back against the wall behind him, staring out at where the stars have just begun to emerge within an inky purple sky. Mondstadt is a strange city, and the history he’s created here—both with and without the two men who brought him here—feels even stranger.
And yet, Aether finds that his trepidation and fear from earlier in the day have smoothed out into something that feels closer to excitement, and Aether smiles at the setting sun as he sinks into a strange sort of contentment.
His memories may be gone, but he was an adventurer before this—wasn’t he?
(And if this isn’t an adventure, then Aether isn’t really sure what is.)