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Before they had been summoned and met the Nameless Bard and Gunnhildr and Ragnvindr, he had been one with the winds.
They had been one with the winds for a long time. They had only emerged once before, to the calls of a boy on the fields of the now Qingce Village.
An adeptus boy. Just about everything about him was golden, from his eyes to his horns to the tips of his hair, and even his arms glowed golden.
The winds had danced around the boy tittered and hummed with joy, the boy’s own laughter filling the area with a much light hearted energy.
Whilst Barbatos had never appeared to people before, they had observed humans long enough to understand their languages.
“A wind spirit!” The boy’s voice was quite gentle. “Do you wanna come with me?”
That was how it began, with the offer of companionship. Barbatos found themself trailing after the boy, floating behind him in silence, as the boy’s mother reprimanded him for bringing a wind spirit home, but welcomed them nonetheless.
It was then that he found out the boy’s name was Zhongli.
Many moons later, the Archon War broke out, and Barbatos found themselves drifting off into the calls of the wind once more.
The last day he spent with Zhongli was the day before the Adeptus was off to protect the village.
“I have to go and join them in protecting Qingce,” The golden arms cradle their small form. Zhongli is much taller now. “You cannot come with me, it is too dangerous.”
Their form drooped a little, something Zhongli must’ve seen. “If… If I survive the Archon War, will you come find me? And if I don’t… please, forget me, my little wind spirit.”
They bobbed their head, and Zhongli held them closer, before the wind spirit fades back into the winds.
The Archon War is over. The Seven Victors had been decided.
At what cost, though? Barbatos asked themself. A dear friend had perished in order for the wind spirit to ascend to a bloodied celestial throne of Anemo.
The wind tells them tales of the Raiden Shogun in Inazuma and Yanwang Dijun, Rex Lapis, in Liyue, tales of the other Archons filtering in.
They would have to meet the other Archons someday, but they had to make Mondstadt hospitable for their people.
Barbatos only wishes that Gunnhildr and Ragnvindr would not look at him so pitifully.
They had taken the form of Carmen after all. To immortalise his visage forever.
The citizens of his land would have to stay at the destroyed city for a while longer, as he eliminated the snow capped mountains, reducing several down to size, leaving only one tall mountain home to an entire civilisation.
They reshaped the land completely, no longer had Mondstadt looked so much like a region that should not be travelled, but more of sprawling fields of grass that bloomed with flowers.
They meet the Archons a half century later, when their regions are a bit more stabilised and formal introductions are made out of necessity at first.
Yet, they find solace in each other’s company. Equals who all had the bloods of other Gods on their hands, allies and enemies alike.
Morax’s golden is so similar, yet so different from Zhongli ’s golden.
Zhongli’s gold was a happy, honey gold, but Morax’s gold was more amber, like the Cor Lapis of Liyue.
Perhaps this is why they lingered around him so much afterwards, bringing him all sorts of gifts and trinkets from Mondstadt. Who are they, but a wind wisp who only missed their first companion?
They learnt more about the Stone God in the process.
The Traveler tells them of Morax, of the foolish act that the man had decided to test his region.
“Traveler.” They stop the star’s rambling, “...What did you say his name was now?”
“Zhongli!” Paimon supplies. “He never brings his mora! He’s even worse than you are, tone deaf bard!”
Lumine shushes her, gazing upon their conflicted face. “... Are you… alright, Venti?”
They laugh it off, but there is a swell at where their heart would be.
“Maybe… I’ll go pay the old buffoon a visit, don’t mind me, Lumine!”
They dash off, a hope burning in their chest.
Barbatos arrives in the Harbour city a day later, even with the wind at his beck and call.
The city is lined with bustling merchants, albeit a bit sombre with the departure of their God.
They look for a man with golden tipped hair.
It is not a particularly difficult task, as the Traveler had told them the instructions to the Funeral Parlour, and that the retired Archon left his window unlocked.
“I once knew a boy who laughed and the wind around him sang with joy. Sometimes, I wonder what happened to him. And yet… it is the Traveler who tells me that he still lives.”
The man looks up from his work, his eyes softening slightly at the sight of the bard.
“Do you… truly not remember, Zhongli ?” Their eyes hide a layer of hurt now.
“Venti, I do not know what you are speaking of. I have heard your tale many times-”
“There was a boy I once knew, a boy named Zhongli, who made the very air around him sing with laughter, and had sent me off because it was unsafe during the Archon War.”
The man’s eyes flicker slightly, recalling memories.
“I… I had thought you gone, Zhongli. Morax was so similar but in so many ways, he wasn’t you.”
The gentle, loving eyes of the young adeptus boy compared to the stone cold eyes of the Archon, the way the adeptus’ smile had lit up the room and then there was the Geo Archon’s unreadable face-
"You who has been with me since I was young, even when we parted for several thousand years, you still found me again..." Zhongli chuckles, bringing him into an embrace like he had six thousand years ago, “It took you long enough, my little wind spirit.”
Before the Anemo and Geo Archons, they had just been a boy and his wind spirit.