Chapter Text
Dragonspine was cold but forgiving to someone like Albedo. Where others would shiver at the idea of being holed up on a frozen mountain, the cold solitude proved to be meditative for him. When he was on Dragonspine, absorbed in his work, he could ignore the lingering dread that tugged at him from deep within his heart and mind.
The warm lab nestled into the side of the mountain was a respite away from the chaos of Mondstadt; the equipment sat idly by as he gently traced his fingers along the spines of his research notes. He stopped on one from not too long ago, hesitating for just a moment before he pulled it out by the spine.
As he sat down at his table, the leather was stiff from the cold, and the pages turned crisp as he flipped through them. The ink on the pages formed neatly written notes, diagrams describing his discoveries. And soon… He was there. The potion results.
It had done everything as expected for the traveler; confirmed that their energy flow was internal and completely normal when compared to a typical vision-wielding denizen of Teyvat. But when he’d tested it on himself… Something was off. A sinister purple residue left over in the bottom of the flask.
Beyond the pages detailing the workings of the distant traveler, there was another section. He had run tests on the residue; if it froze, what elements it reacted with, and all manner of other things… And when the results had come back… He’d been left with only one conclusion. Whatever it was that had manifested in the bottom of that glass was alchemically similar to the substances that made up Durin’s remains.
It wasn’t quite the same thing. No, there were subtle differences, notably in the way that it interacted with Albedo’s geo vision. Other geo constructs, more natural geo constructs like the crystals formed by the geovishap hatchlings that roamed on the outskirts of dragonspine that bordered on Liyue, didn’t react in quite the same way as the crystals Albedo was able to form. Where the residue would coat the geovishaps’ crystals like one would expect water to, it would seep into the grains of the formations, like water would seep into wood.
But Durin’s extract would act only like a watery liquid against both forms of geo manifestations. So there was something about the residue that was intrinsic to Albedo himself, outside of Durin’s influence, despite boasting the same bright purple color as the humus’ final marks on this world.
He needed to run the experiment again. This he knew. If he could replicate the potion to the exact specifications as last time, he could see if the amount of residue had increased by any margin, however small. If it was the same, then it was rational to conclude that whatever it was was simply an effect of his and Durin’s artificial nature, and had no bearing or significance outside of spectacle. But should it have increased… Then something was amiss. Something that Albedo had been dreading since the day he stepped foot through those city gates.
He turned the pages back, back to the potion design itself. It was a simple tonic, really, made out of stuff from around the lab and slivers of the starsilver that was found along the jagged peaks of Dragonspine. Designed to channel energy through the body to measure its path and potency. With a small crystal he weighed down the journal to keep it open.
As he went to stand up, however, he was instead stopped by the sound of feet crunching in the snow outside. He turned his head, watching as two figures came into view at the mouth of the cave, one clad in blue and the other dressed in green from head to toe.
The latter elected to stay just outside of the lab itself, warming his hands at one of the braziers that served as a barrier between his warm lab and the snowy outdoors. But the man in blue, Captain Kaeya, decided to take the liberty to stroll right into the lab.
“You know,” he started, leaning against an empty spot of the table across from Albedo, “I figured I’d find you here. Klee’s been wondering when you’ll get back.”
Albedo turned his gaze away from the other knight to instead linger on the recipe open in his notes. “Nonsense. I told her I’d be gone for a few days. This isn’t the first time I’ve come here alone.”
“Yeah, yeah. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss you,” he teased, before picking up one of the instruments off the table, turning it around in his hands. “So. What is it this time? More mysteries of the universe you’re trying to uncover? Anything from other worlds fall into those hands of yours?”
Albedo sucked in a breath. “No. I’m just here to replicate old experiments and update any findings.” It wasn’t a complete lie, but it was important to conceal the truth.
Glancing up, he saw Kaeya had raised an eyebrow. “Really? Nothing grand or important? You sure you’re not just here for a vacation?” He snickered, electing to put the piece of equipment down after failing to figure out what it was for.
“With all due respect, Captain, this work is plenty important. If something were to come up as different from the tested results, then it’s cause for reevaluation of our conclusions. Furthermore, if I find something that contradicts previous studies, we’d need to make serious corrections to-”
“I’m going to stop you right there. I got it.” Kaeya chuckled, rolling his shoulders back and cracking his neck from side to side.
Albedo closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath; he was never too fond of being interrupted. “What are you doing out here, Captain?” He put on a strained smile that Kaeya seemed to pick up on the distress of.
“Oh, I just came here on a commission. Was checking up with the adventurer’s at the camp down at the foot. Turns out one of ‘em had gotten lost. So… I volunteered to go rescue him.” He nodded toward the man who seemed to have stopped shivering by that point, now content to just warm up and watch the two converse. “So I’ll get out of your hair if you really don’t want me here.”
He kicked himself away from the table, making his way back to the mouth of the cave, “Come on, Tommy, let’s get going.” The adventurer nodded, fumbling with his things to get ready for the trek back down the mountain.
As the two started to leave, Albedo almost wanted to call out to them, to wish them safe travels, but he knew they’d be fine. But just before they crossed beyond the cave’s threshold, Kaeya looked back over his shoulder, his one icy eye piercing right into Albedo’s own. “Oh, and by the way. You know you don’t have to call me ‘Captain’ all the time. We’re the same rank, after all.” He gave a sly grin before finally disappearing out into the snow.
Albedo sighed, slumping down in his chair. He and Kaeya had never been close, and they’d never had any reason to get close, either. Kaeya was in charge of their cavalry(however lacking these days) and quartering, and Albedo was in charge of alchemy and investigation. It was only very rarely that their knightly work overlapped.
But even so, every time Albedo saw Kaeya in the halls of the headquarters, every small interaction like that… There was something familiar about him. He knew what it was, of course; there was no way he could miss it. It was in the way that he looked at him, nestled right in the center of his eye. That diamond.
He reached a hand up, gloved fingers tracing the outline of the very same diamond plastered onto his neck in brilliant gold; a symbol and a reminder of what he was. An indication of who he truly served, and who he owed his very existence to. It was the symbol of a dead and dying nation; of turmoil and of dwindling hope.
Kaeya was from Khaenri’ah. And Albedo knew that he, too, knew of Albedo’s own origin. It was torture, in a way, knowing that he had someone so close to him yet so far away. Did Kaeya align himself with Khaenri’ah truly? Or was his loyalty instead to Mondstadt? He intrigued Albedo, there was no doubt about it. He’d just have to get closer, then, to answer the question that had been lingering in his mind from the day he first laid eyes on the man:
If Albedo were to lose himself, destroy Mond… Who would Kaeya Alberich side with?
The results were worrying. He’d replicated the elixir perfectly; he’d even run a test on a cryo slime that he found wandering the path by his lab. And after he used it on himself… There was more. It was the same dose, the same exact test, and yet… There was a ten percent increase in the volume of residue left in the bottom of the flask.
The next day, he did it again. He ran through the experiment carefully, meticulously measuring and re-measuring every aspect of the design… And the results came back the same. This wasn’t good. Whatever it was that was manifesting in the flask, disturbing his elemental flow… It was increasing in volume.
Though it was unclear what it was, he could draw only one conclusion: regardless of what it was, it was dangerous. No matter if it was something innately harmless, if it was increasing at an uncontrolled rate, it could cause unrest in Albedo’s mind and affect his other studies. He needed to monitor it, keep track of it. If it was increasing at a steady rate, then he had time. But if it was exponential…
As he picked a nice leather bound journal from the shop’s shelf, a shrill voice called him to attention, “Big Brother Albedo, you’re here!” And just before he could turn around to see the bright red clothes he knew would meet him, he was tightly hugged around the waist by two little arms. “You’re back!”
Albedo pulled the journal from the shelf and gently set it atop the other books before he reached down to lightly tussle Klee’s hair through her hat, “Hello, Klee. Sorry for keeping you waiting so long. I just got back into town.”
Klee giggled at Albedo’s mussing up of her hair, before a lower, smoother voice came from the door of the shop. “Ah, look what the cat dragged in. Didn’t think we’d see you for another few days, Mister Chief Alchemist.” As Klee separated from Albedo to go look around the shop, Kaeya took her place by Albedo’s side, dangerously close.
“Ah… Yes, I finished my studies early. I’m just here to grab another research journal; the rest of the experiments can be done here with the equipment I have in my lab at the headquarters.” Albedo reached up to once again grab the journal he’d selected, but Kaeya was quicker and snatched it up off the shelf before he could. “Ah-”
Kaeya hummed, carding through the blank pages with his thumb. “You must come here a lot, then, hm? Every time I see you and your labs, you’ve got at least three more of these lying around.” He chuckled, waving the book in the air.
But Albedo just furrowed his eyebrows. “You count them?”
Kaeya lightly tapped Albedo’s shoulder with it, laughing softly before handing it back to Albedo, who was now incredibly confused, “Of course not. It just feels like there’s more every time.”
“Ah… Right.” He took the journal and held it to his chest, “Well, there are lots of things I need to keep notes on, and it’s all very organized. So of course I’m going to have a lot of them.”
Kaeya didn’t seem too convinced, leaning against the shelf and raising an eyebrow at him, “Organized? Really? Everything always looks like it’s just been tossed around.” Before Albedo could interject, Kaeya kept going, “Ah, I’ve got no place to blame you. My office is just as messy, after all.”
Albedo thought back on it, and came up empty-handed. He’d never been in Kaeya’s office before. While he’d been in Jean’s plenty of times, there had never been a matter that required him to go to the Cavalry Captain’s office before. Though, that was just another consequence of their work hardly ever involving one another.
Realizing the awkward silence that had ensued, Albedo gently cleared his throat, “So why are you and Klee here?” He turned his gaze away from Kaeya and back to the shelves(it certainly wasn’t good for his character to be staring at Kaeya; though, it was incredibly exhausting to deliberate over every aspect of interaction), starting to gently drift away from the other man. Unfortunately, despite Albedo’s efforts, Kaeya followed closely behind.
“Ah, I offered to take Klee out for the day. Jean has a few meetings she needs to go to, so I figured it was the least I could do to keep her out of her hair, yeah? She’s a real handful; wouldn’t want her causing trouble during the meetings.”
Albedo nodded. The Acting Grandmaster was always so busy, and Albedo understood Kaeya’s desire to keep Klee away from that type of important business. Not to mention that it was always good to keep an eye on the little girl; if she was left unsupervised, who knew what could happen.
In that sense, he appreciated Kaeya. Kaeya was one of the only other people who Klee seemed to connect with in the same way that she did Albedo. Though, Kaeya seemed to have quite a bit of influence on her, much of which Albedo didn’t appreciate.
Most of his knowledge of Kaeya came from Klee, in fact. The stories she’d tell of the mischief they’d get up to when they spent time together; Klee recounting the tales as she scribbled doodles on some parchment while Albedo was watching her in the library or around the headquarters.
Speaking of Klee…
“Big brother Kaeya, look, look!” Klee exclaimed from the other side of the shop. Kaeya shared an almost sly glance with Albedo before he slipped past him to go see what Klee had found. From what Albedo could tell, it seemed to be some sort of rudimentary drawing kit. Certainly not the best quality, but perfect for a child who was still learning.
But... the way Kaeya looked at him… It made something seem to bubble up in Albedo’s chest. What was this feeling? Was it jealousy at the way Klee gave Kaeya the same sort of affection as she did Albedo? Did Kaeya know he was making Albedo feel this way? He’d heard rumors about the man, of course. About how he was a heartbreaker, a manipulator… But Albedo wasn’t about to believe all of those rumors without substantial evidence.
And if anything, this strange way that he was making him feel, being so close to Klee, one of the few people he cared about… It made him want to learn even more. Something beyond just learning of his true allegiance.
With his mind made up, he grabbed a second journal from the shelf and brought both of them to Marjorie who he gladly paid. She waved him farewell before he slipped out of the shop, not paying any heed to Klee nor Kaeya; they would surely understand that he had more important things to do.
As he sat down at the desk in his lab, he opened both of the journals and titled the first.
“Residue Log XX/XX/XXXX -”
And as he opened the second one, he started a type of field journal he’d never tried before; an individual study, one not rooted in the way that something or someone behaves, but in his own experiences with them and his own emotions he’d never thought to explore.
“Kaeya Alberich: A Study in Emotion”