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To Albedo, there is no place in- or below- Teyvat that is more perfect for him than Dragonspine. The quiet seclusion of the mountain reminded him of the feeling he had traversing through domains with his master when he was still fresh to this world, but it was above ground, allowing it to be bustling with the natural life of flora and fauna. It bordered Mondstadt, the nation Albedo supposed he should consider to be his home, yet it was littered with the ruins of past civilisations, machines and runes scattered about as reminders of his actual home. Not to mention the remains and still-beating heart of the dragon the mountain was named after, his brother, and his only remaining connection to his master other than the copy of the Opus Magnum she had left for him before promptly disappearing from his life.
Of course the mountain wasn’t entirely perfect. For as much as Albedo enjoyed spending his days working away at the compact laboratory he’d set up in a cave on the mountainside, there were a handful of certain drawbacks. The first, and most apparent, was the frigid atmosphere that clung to the peak no matter the time of year. Initially it had excited Albedo, specifically the effects it had on the development of the wildlife that grew on the mountainside compared to the same species of flora and fauna that thrived in breezy Mondstadt or humid Liyue, conducting several experiments to find the differences between them. But soon enough the chemical differences became a hindrance on Albedo’s work, where he’d usually be able to stop by Sucrose’s hydroponic lab or simply step outside of the Knights headquarters whenever he needed something while working in Mondstadt proper, collecting materials while working on the mountain meant either sending an order down to the base camp at the foot of Dragonspine, or traversing down the mountain to collect them himself- both matters that took up several days rather than the mere hours it usually would.
Then there was the case of Albedo’s apparent… neighbours. Dragonspine was crawling with both treasure hoarders and Fatui envoys, the former group taking advantage of the uninhabited land to seek out as many buried artifacts as they could, and the latter using the chilly atmosphere to cool off, their bodies not yet acclimatised to the warmth of Mondstadt and Liyue in comparison to their snowy Snezhnayan homeland. At least they were easy enough to avoid, both groups foregoing the dangerous climb of the mountainside to instead stay around the much safer base. And of course there were plenty of monsters scattered about all over Dragonspine, much braver than their human counterparts. Many of the hilichurl tribes that were local to the mountain had evolved in such a way that infused their bodies with abundant amounts of cryo energy to combat the natural climate. As much as they piqued Albedo’s interest, it was much safer for him to skirt around them, only engaging in direct combat when he absolutely had to.
Since the Traveler’s arrival to Teyvat, Albedo’s quiet mountain research life became much livelier than it had been before. He actually didn’t meet the Traveler for quite some time, the enigmatic Honorary Knight already out on his quest to save Mondstadt by the time Albedo returned to the city to assist with protecting the citizens from what had apparently been a coordinated attack on the city. Once the aftermath of the coordinated attack and Dvalin’s winds had been settled and he’d been given his dismissal from active duty, Albedo hurried back to his Dragonspine lab, missing the Traveler’s return to the city entirely. Albedo mentioned his curiosity regarding the Traveler in passing when Sucrose had come up the mountain to deliver some materials he’d requested from her, and lo and behold, she sent the adventurer to find Albedo only a few days later.
After helping Albedo with his research regarding the mysterious seed from another world and the sword inlaid with Durin’s blood, the Traveler- Aether, as he’d introduced himself, would often return to the mountain to explore and uncover its ancient mysteries. There never seemed to be any particular pattern to his Dragonspine visits, always coming to the icy peak purely because he felt like it. Whenever he visited the mountain Aether always made a point of stopping by Albedo’s lab to see him, either to bring him materials, artifacts he’d discovered on his travels that he thought would be of interest to Albedo, or even just to check in on the alchemist and cook him a meal while he worked. Aether’s visits never came as a surprise to Albedo either, his mere presence on the mountain disturbing the peace more often than not. Albedo could hear Aether coming from a mile away entirely based on the sounds of combat and Paimon’s shrill voice when she’d occasionally pop out of whatever pocket dimension she disappears to to discuss something with Aether. It was nice to have the warning, he supposed, knowing that Aether was on Dragonspine gave the alchemist time to tidy his lab and make it a bit more presentable to his inevitable visitor.
Albedo was pulled from his research one afternoon by the sound of Aether arriving to the mountain, the din of metal clashing against metal and the crackling of electro energy carrying up through the hollow of Wyrmrest Valley to the mountainside lab. Aether was fighting with the Fatui envoys today, it seems. Albedo couldn’t complain, he’d been wanting to down to collect samples of Durin’s crystallised blood for quite a while now, so the Traveler clearing the area out took quite a lot of pressure off his shoulders. Not that Albedo couldn’t hold his own in combat, of course, it was just easier if he could avoid it completely in the first place.
The alchemist set aside his work and made a start on tidying up the lab, the echoing sound of battle eventually dying out. He didn’t get very far though, the mountain’s natural silence once again being broken causing Albedo to pause mid-movement. A loud yelp from Aether and Paimon yelling at the Traveler to look out carried up simultaneously, directly followed by the crash of something breaking the surface of the water surrounding the foothills. If they were anywhere else, Albedo would be more than happy to leave the situation be, knowing that the Traveler is more than capable of looking after himself. But this was Dragonspine, the frigid waters not too forgiving to living beings- that is, if you ignore the Spindrift Knight and her odd habit of treating the icy lake as if it were an Inazuman hot spring. Strapping on his wind glider Albedo sprinted out the mouth of the cave and made his way down to where he assumed he’d find Aether, weaving through Durin’s piercing ribcage in an effort to find the honorary knight before any irreversible damage could be made to him.
Planting his feet on solid ground, Albedo took a quick survey of the surrounding area, happy to find that there weren’t any Fatui or stray hilichurls loitering around to get in the way. Quickly locating Paimon he hurried over to where she was floating back and forth above the pier in a panic, not knowing whether she should stay there or go find somebody to help. Noticing the alchemist coming over the pixie perked up, clearly relieved that her crisis had been averted.
“Albedo! Thank the archons you’re here!”
“Paimon, what happened?” Albedo came to a halt on the pier, shucking his heavy coat knowing that it’d only become a hindrance once wet, and that the cold water wouldn’t have as much of an impact on his homuncular body as it did to the Traveler. That, and it’d probably be good to have something warm and dry to wrap around Aether once he’d been retrieved from the icy pool.
“Aether was just running to pick up some stuff one of the Fatui dropped, but he didn’t realise the pier was wet so he slipped and fell in.”
“You did a good job waiting by him Paimon, you can go back to your subspace now.” The pixie nodded and disappeared into thin air, leaving Albedo to hop off the pier and into the lake. The water really wasn’t deep at all, if he were to stand on the ground the water level would only succeed Albedo’s height by half a meter or so. Still, to somebody as small as Paimon, the water probably seemed deeper than it actually was- if Klee were to be in this depth of water alone Albedo would absolutely be worried for her.
Locating where the Traveler was trying to gain his bearings under the surface, Albedo paddled over to him, diving down and grabbing Aether by the bicep to drag him back up to the surface. The two men made their way to the shore, Albedo standing bent with his hands on his knees to support himself, while Aether flopped over onto the snow, coughing up the water he’d accidentally swallowed.
“You know,” Aether started while still panting for air, “I thought it was supposed to be the knight that saves the prince, not the other way around.”
“You’re forgetting that in our situation, the prince also happens to be a knight.” Albedo stood, moving to pull Aether to his feet as well before wrapping his still-warm coat around the Traveler’s shoulders. “Come now, we should go to my lab to dry off.”
Back at the cave, Albedo set up a pot over the fire to prepare some tea, promptly sitting the Traveler down in front of it to warm up after giving him a dry change of clothes. Albedo sat behind Aether, carefully running a towel through his now-untied hair in an effort to dry it faster.
“You were pretty worried about me back there, huh.”
“Of course I was, you’re lucky I was up here and able to hear you falling in.”
“I suppose it wouldn’t be good for you if anything happened to your favourite test subject, after all.”
Albedo frowned, pausing his motions. “Is that how you think I perceive you, simply as a living being to run experiments on?”
“What? No,” Aether twisted his torso, turning to face the alchemist as he spoke. “I was only joking, Albedo. I know you genuinely care about me, or at least I hope you do.”
“I do,” Albedo pushed at Aether’s shoulder, coaxing him to face forward once again, not wanting to have the Traveler’s eyes on him while he spoke about such personal feelings. “I consider you to be one of my closest friends, Aether. Though I won’t lie, there are many mysteries about you that I want to find the answers to.”
“Why don’t you ask? We’ll be here for a while, it’s a good opportunity.”
“I’d feel guilty, taking something from you while offering nothing in return.”
“How about for every question you ask me, I get to ask you one? That way we both get to know more about each other.”
Albedo thought about the proposal for a moment, trading the now damp towel for his hair brush, determining that Aether’s hair was dry enough. “Alright. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to answer whatever you ask me, though.”
Aether sat up straighter hearing this, Albedo could only assume that he was grinning. “That’s fine! You can ask first, if you want.”
Albedo hummed, trying to decide where to start his impromptu Traveler interview. “How old are you?”
Aether laughed, shoulders shaking with the melodic sound. “You know you should never ask a lady his age, right?”
“You’re not the only person in this cave who is much older than they appear to be.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” Aether leaned back on his hands, silent with thought. “I don’t actually know, sometimes I feel like Lumine and I were there before even the stars were born.”
“That makes a lot of sense, actually. You do carry the aura of the stars, after all.”
“What about you, how old are you, mister Chief Alchemist?”
“I don’t know the exact number either, I lost track of time at some point… at least 400, but no older than 500 years old.”
“And yet you don’t look a day past 225,” Aether laughed while Albedo rolled his eyes, despite knowing the Traveler wouldn’t see it anyway. “Any reason why you’re so certain you’re no more than 500 years old, though?”
“Do you recall what I told you about the steps taken in Alchemy?” Aether nodded. “Then you’d know I am named after the second step, Albedo. This isn’t a coincidence, I had an older… brother, let’s say, who I can only assume that my master had named Nigredo. From what I can tell, he was created around 500 years ago.”
“Did you ever get to meet Nigredo?”
“I do believe I haven’t asked you a second question yet.” Aether muttered an apology, quick to pick up on the fact that Albedo wanted to change the subject and divert the conversation away from his past. “Have you always looked like this? As in, is this the form you always assumed while travelling from world to world.”
“I don’t think so… I feel like Lumine and I sort of automatically changed to fit in with whatever world we were travelling through, but if I try to look back and remember what we looked like, I can only imagine us appearing how we do in Teyvat.”
“How interesting… it’s as if the two of you were biologically designed with a sort of natural camouflage. It explains why the tests I performed on you came back with results that were no different to the ones that would be returned by say, Timaeus, if I did the same to him.”
“I like how you always use big words,” Aether sighed contentedly, leaning further back into the alchemist. Albedo had finished brushing out the ends of Aether’s long hair and was now working at his roots, the comb massaging Aether’s scalp as he ran over it. “Can you always brush my hair for me?”
Albedo softly laughed, placing the comb down to replace it with the tips of his fingers. “Not the question I was expecting but of course, any time you’d like me to do this I will be more than happy to oblige.”
The two sat in silence after this, Albedo continuing his ministrations until he’d noticed Aether’s breathing deepen, having fallen asleep. The alchemist gazed down at the man in his arms, completely enamoured with the enigmatic being he had somehow been lucky enough to form a bond with. Albedo leaned down to place a gentle kiss atop the crown of golden hair, before carefully scooping Aether up and carrying him to rest on the cot in the back corner of his cave.
It was a little disappointing that their tea went on to be forgotten, but that didn’t matter so long as it meant Albedo could grant Aether some well deserved rest.