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A lovely day in Mondstadt. The sun sprays its light upon the lively plains, and the gentle wind breezes through the City of Freedom. Merchants open their stores, people gather at Good Hunters for food, drunkards go to Angel’s Share waiting for bottles of wine, and Adventurer’s Guild posts its new commissions. Everything seems perfectly fine.
Aether has already woken up and claimed today’s commissions from Katheryne. Normally he will wait for a few minutes before heading to the Guild after other adventurers pick the easier tasks, then he goes to Katheryne for some more difficult and tricky commissions that worth the Honorary Knight to deal with. But today is different. Venti said he was happy to join Aether with his traveling and he promised to take the bard with him to do the commissions today.
The bard Venti, the Anemo Archon Barbatos, always captures Aether’s heart with his sweet smile and cheerful voice. Ah, Venti, always so pretty. Aether adores him, not as much as Lumine but close enough. In fact, he considers when he finds his sister, he’s going to take Venti with them and travel the numerous worlds together.
“Aether, Paimon thinks you shouldn’t go with Venti! He’s just a tone-deaf bard and a drunkard who gets too much wine at the bar every night! Paimon thinks you should find Amber instead!” Paimon pouts, showing her obvious disagreement on this matter.
“Yeah, but it’s his wish so why not,” Aether replies, “besides he is an Archon, despite a weak one. I’m sure he’s fine with a few combats.”
“Errr…” Paimon crosses her arms, still doesn’t quite believe Venti can handle himself well. “Fine… But where is he anyway? Paimon didn't noticed where he would go to after getting kicked out of the bar.”
“To Windrise. He usually sleeps under that big tree.” Aether says with much confidence. Venti always sleeps under that giant oak tree in the center of Windrise in memory of an old friend; Aether is aware of this. Still, he hasn’t seen Venti sleeping yet.
“Then go to Windrise,” Paimon says, “but if things get messed up, you have to give Paimon a Sticky Honey Roast!”
“I guess this is your excuse for grabbing more food from Sara. In fact you want to hang out with Amber 'cuz you want her to buy food for you.” Aether smirks.
“Hey! Paimon needs a lot of energy after spending a tiring day with Venti!”
With this, they head toward the massive tree of Windrise, looking for the bard.
-----
Venti wakes up and finds his body doesn’t function normally.
His vision blurs, the familiar green leaves and brown trunk now become blobs of the same color. He feels an eerie, unpleasant heat is running through his entire body, but all after that is just cold, like the heat has been sucked out to nowhere. He tries to get up, and barely succeeds, with a sense of light-headed and trembling legs. He leans his body against the tree, panting heavily for just a simple movement like standing up. Everything in his body aches, and the heat becomes worse and worse over time. All in all, it’s no doubt that Venti is badly ill and should go back to sleep immediately.
But he can’t sleep now, can he? The Outlander has agreed to let him join, what would he think when he suddenly says, “Sorry I can’t be with you today”? Will Aether ever allow him to join in his adventure? Will the Traveler and his floating companion think he’s a liar? That’s the reason he has to go with them –and he wants to be with the Traveler more, being the warm hero of Mondstadt, everyone loves Aether. Venti too, is a loyal member of his fan club; he loves to see Aether's face and golden hair and everything makes him look like a ball of sunshine. Okay maybe the latter reason is more significant.
Maybe Venti has thought for too long, because Aether and Paimon is already at Windrise, not too far from the tree. Venti attempts to greet them, but his throat feels like it's grilled on fire; all he can make is a hoarse and meaninglsss sound.
Venti doesn’t even notice they have reached by his side. Aether looks worried and Paimon is mumbling something like “I’ve told you so”. Venti can’t hear them much actually. Honestly speaking, he can’t hear anything right now, with his mind drifting way into numbness –
“Venti!” Aether shakes him with both hands on his shoulders. Venti seems to be a little more conscious, but still feels the world is spinning before him. “Can you hear me correctly now?”
“…Yeah. Sorry, I met a few cats in the tavern yesterday so ehe. Anyway where should our journey begin?” Venti tries to compose himself by talking as calmly as possible, however, using the correct words to form a sentence can be a tough challenge for Mondstadt’s best bard now. After his speaking, he looks up to observe Aether and Paimon’s faces. For once they don’t change and the next second Paimon bursts out:
“Stop pretending you’re okay! You can barely stand still! Seriously how can you get so sick by just meeting some cats…” Paimon puts her fists on her waist, showing an annoyed face.
“Well I’m highly allergic–”
“Paimon is worried of you! You should find a place and have a much-needed good rest!”
“Arghhh, but I’ve waiting for hours? Days?” Venti complains while trying not to fall down.
Aether sighs, looking at the bard with pity, “I know Venti is not okay, Paimon, but who is gonna company us now if Venti’s gone? I mean Bennett and Razor are out, other guys are definitely busying with their works now, we’ll be alone if we let Venti leave us.”
“You are strong Aether! Paimon believes you can handle the hilichurl camps all by yourself! Besides what can the sick tone-deaf bard help us in a battle?” Paimon replies, eyes close as she puts her head away.
“Traveling alone is not a good experience, Paimon,” Aether says while steadying Venti’s body, realizing his words are a little selfish, “Venti are you sure you can walk with us?”
“Yeah~” Venti answers with the most cheerful voice he can make at his current state. So he is not useless at all, at least Aether would like to finish commissions with him, even if he is sick or something. Venti must take this chance. He tries to fully stand up, after many redundant movements in slow motion, he makes it. Then he walks by several steps, meanwhile Aether tries to help him with this but gets rejected. It seems that Venti actually can walk by himself, albeit slowly and takes a lot of effort.
“Huh~ Paimon has a bad feeling about this…”
“Hehe.”
“What do you mean ‘hehe’ !?”
-----
The first commission locates in Dadaupa Gorge; the one claimed this should go there and defeat a Ruin Guard. Though Ruin Guards are ancient, huge, tough, scary and missile-shooting machines, Aether has seen a lot of them and he is familiar with all their abilities and attacks. To fight them isn’t such a hard business for him. He rolls forward to dodge a slam from the Ruin Guard, adjusts his sword and gathers the power of Anemo into a sphere of wind in his hand. Then he takes a step back, the Anemo power shoots out with his movement and hits the Ruin Guard on its back. The winds slash the mechanical structure like blades, the water from the shallow pond nearby infuses itself into the wind, forming a Hydro Swirl. The Ruin Guard makes a crackling sound and eventually falls down in front of the Traveler.
“Yay! Aether is the best!” Paimon announces joyfully, impressed by how quickly Aether strikes down the ancient war machine. Aether makes a smug face and turns for Venti –
Where’s Venti?
Aether looks around, no Venti in sight. The bard is nowhere to be found. Aether starts to get tensed. Did he get lost on the way? Did he want to avoid fighting so he hid somewhere? Did he feel too sick that he secretly went back to Mondstadt? Was there a chance that he got blown away by the Ruin Guard, and Aether was completely unaware of it? The point is, Venti is missing, and it’s dangerous if there’s nobody with him, considering the poor state of Venti currently.
“Hey tone-deaf bard! Come out, we’ve finished that Ruin Guard!” Paimon shouts. Hearing no response, she begins flying left and right to find the sick bard. After many pointless searches, Aether, realizing Venti will not show up here, speaks to Paimon:
“Maybe he is in another place. I say we should follow the route we came and look for him on the way. We haven’t talked much after leaving Windrise, chances are that he dropped behind as we didn’t notice him.”
“In another place… What… Do you mean he got kidnapped on the way here?” Paimon guesses with a terrified voice, “Oh no!”
“Shut up Paimon, he wouldn’t be kidnapped.” The Traveler says so, but he can’t help but be worried about Venti. After that, Paimon goes back to her pocket dimension and Aether sets off in search of Venti.
-----
Venti feels like his body is on fire.
Every corner of his body is filled with unbearable pain, with his entire torso emitting a great deal of heat as if he is steamed from inside. There are colorful spots covering his vision; it’s hard to tell what is true and what is false now due to the constant dizziness in Venti’s head. Cold sweat is streaming down his body. His eyes have layers of haze on them. His usual clothes feel too tight for him, and breathing becomes harder and harder following each second.
He stumbles forward, taking a step is as difficult as conquering the whole Dragonspine for Venti now. He feels powerless. He can’t move even a muscle of his leg and all of a sudden, he collapses.
His green hat rolls far away, his head hits the ground so hard that Venti loses all consciousness for a second. He tries to call Aether, but he feels too weak to do so. It’s not safe for him to just lay on the ground, and where is Aether? Venti doesn’t know. He must stay awake, all he can do is to keep a faint breathe and try to regain some strength.
Venti never finds falling asleep is such an amazing thing, not even at that night when he drinks thirty or more bottles at the tavern. And it’s a torment for him that he must not go to sleep.
-----
Aether notices Venti’s hat. By now his heart is beating in his throat, haunted by thinking about the vast possibilities of what could happen to the bard. And most of the hypotheses are bad, which makes him more anxious. I may ditch these meaningless thoughts and focus on finding Venti, he figures, and a moment later he finds a faint, debilitated Venti lying on the ground.
Paimon shows up earlier, it’s her who screams first and flies to Venti, with Aether following. The Traveler knees down quickly and cups Venti’s face, which is stained by the dirt on the ground. “Venti! What happened?! Are you hurt?” Aether yells frantically, scared by how pale Venti is.
Venti pants weakly for some time, “…I feel sick… I-I’m afraid I can’t go anymore…” Venti’s voice is almost muted.
“Venti. You’re too cold.” Venti himself feels very hot, but, as a matter of fact, his skin is freezing. Seriously, if Venti is not breathing, Aether will think he is dead. “It’s okay, we’re going back to Mondstadt now.” Aether gently tries to pick him up, but the bard is too powerless that he falls back to the ground after Aether releases, making a painful yelp.
A sigh, and Aether picks the Archon’s limp body up again, this time he carries it on the back, circling Venti’s arms around his neck. Aether feels he is carrying a lump of ice on his back. Nevertheless, the only thing he cares about now is to get Venti back to Mondstadt and find someone to cure him.
“…Thank you.” Venti doesn’t say more. The words die in his burning throat.
“Next time be more careful okay?” Aether says softly, “Stay away from cats.”
“Yeah, you will hurt yourself if you fall down like this again!” Paimon adds.
Venti hums in response. He quickly falls asleep with the severe dizziness. He is exhausted. He just wants to sleep his pain away.
-----
The way back is not peaceful, it’s quite the opposite instead.
When they reach a certain spot in Falcon Coast, the Traveler feels the ground shakes slightly and sees blue particles splash out of it. Not waiting for Aether to put Venti down, a Cyro Whooperflower jumps out of the land underneath them and knocks the two down. Aether uses his sword to stand up, before the enemy sinks back into the ground.
Aether’s head moves fast, and the next thing he sees almost makes him pass out like Venti did earlier.
The Whopperflower appears again, under the confused Venti and causes him to fly away towards a high cliff. With an immense amount of pain, the bard tries desperately to stand up, however, the next second a row of spikes emerges from the ground, piercing his precious white stocking and go deeply into his left thigh. As Aether dashes towards the villain, he hears sounds of fabric and flesh being torn open and Venti’s scream in agony. Aether hisses, swinging his sword but hits nothing, as the plant shrinks into nothing for a second time.
Aether rushes to the near-collapsed Venti, with Paimon just awoken and got out of her dimension. When she sees Venti’s leg and plenty of blood dripping down, she covers her eyes and makes a horrified yell. Aether holds Venti and stops him from collapsing. And to his surprise, Venti pushes him away, saying:
“Go… Away…”
Before Aether can figure out why, the Whooperflower comes out from beneath the ground and makes Venti fly again. This time with no ground under, he falls down straight and hopelessly, the blood from his wounded leg spills into the air.
Now Aether is really angry. Venti is sick so he ought to protect him. But now he is hurt and most of all, has the chance to die by falling off a cliff. The winds swirl furiously around the Traveler as he guides them to form a wind current. The swirling winds become a tornado, and it marches forward by Aether’s command. On the edge of a cliff, the plant has nowhere to escape. It gets sucked into the tornado and scattered in less than ten seconds, only leaving some nectar of honey-like liquid.
“Aether! What happened? Is Venti okay!?” Paimon asks, tears in her eyes. She’s not prepared for this situation, either is the Outlander.
“He’s not, got knocked off a cliff by a Cyro Whopperflower. I’m finding him.” With this being said, he jumps down the cliff near Falcom Coast and opens his Wind Glider. Paimon also flys down, being more terrified after hearing the news.
When Aether reaches the beach at Falcom Coast, he can’t see Venti anywhere. But the worst and most bizarre thing today is the next thing he witnesses.
Massive amounts of Anemo energy is going into the sea, making the air slightly thinner than usual. The winds in the sea create a space that allows breathing, which results in a sphere of water rising from the sea. The water sphere rises higher, eventually goes apart from the surface of the sea. It looks like the shield of a Hydro Abyss Mage, but much larger and thicker, and it keeps growing until the wind stops to go inside. Then somehow, somehow, it breaks and a green object is ejected from the inside. The object hits the sand with a thud, rolling forward until it hits a large rock on the beach. Aether reaches to it, and it is no one else but a drenched, retching Venti.
Aether reaches out, and he finds Venti is coughing violently, with water gushing out from his mouth. Aether doesn’t know what to do now; he could just pat Venti’s back and says comforting words to him. Some time later, Venti isn’t coughing out water anymore, instead he is spitting his own blood. Every time he coughs, Aether’s heart breaks further for how wretched and pitiful Venti is. In addition, the wound on his thigh opens larger, and Venti’s face becomes not white, but purple because of coldness and loss of blood.
“VENTI NOOOO!!!” Paimon cries, holding Venti’s arm tightly, like if she lets go, he will die in a second.
Venti looks truly miserable. Blood, there’s so much blood, his beautiful body becomes a mess. His fancy outfits are all wet and dirty which makes his temperature worse. The Cecilias on his hat is gone, with two braids undone. He crawls towards Aether like he is struggling for his life.
“So-sorry…” Venti whispers, his voice is barely audible, “It hurts… I-I want to… sleep for a while…”
“Venti I need you to stay awake okay? Can you hear me? Venti!” Aether speaks with panic roaring in his mind. As Venti’s head lolls to one side, the Traveler makes a desperate cry.
-----
The Favonius Cathedral, a consecrate place built for Lord Barbatos, is visited by Barbatos himself, though not by good means.
Aether holds a water- and blood-covered Venti, rushes towards the giant door of the Cathedral, ignoring the shocked look of the nearby knights. Paimon dives down from the air, uses her head to knock the door open and screams for Barbara.
“What-ah Mr. Bard!” The deaconess runs to them, worry in her eyes. They head to the infirmary of the church following Barbara’s lead, and gently, Aether puts Venti down onto the bed.
“What happened? Was he attacked by a monster?” Barbara asked, bandages in hand. “We-we found him sick in Windrise, but Aether takes him to do commissions. They he passed out on the road and we had to carry him back! But a Whooperflower attacked him and knocked him off a cliff! Aether you owe me a Sticky Honey Roast!” Paimon cries, voice loud enough for the whole Cathedral to hear her.
“Oh poor Venti…” Barbara almost cries too, but she holds the tears back. She uses bandages to wrap Venti’s leg, but they get stained red immediately and completely when they make contact with the wound, so Barbara has to use multiple layers of bandages. With much effort, Venti’s blood finally stops from leaking out, and the healer walks away for something.
“Will… will he die?” Paimon’s voice is shaky.
“With Barbara here, he won’t.” Aether assures her, but actually he can’t be sure about that condering how much blood he lost. By now Aether has absolute zero percent of passion to do commissions. All he thinks about is Venti’s safety.
Moments later, Barbara comes back with a large pile of blankets. “His body temperature is too low,” she explains, “these are almost half of the Cathedral’s blankets, hope they can warm him up. If that doesn’t work I’m afraid we have to call Amber and use her Pyro Vision.”
“Call her now, he is in danger.” Aether requests, watching the unnartual color of Venti’s face with distress.
-----
The only Outrider in Mondstadt was not doing her mission this afternoon, with Jean’s permission, she spent all of her time staying with Venti. Her effort worked a little, but he was still cold under five layers of blankets. Aether was staying next to Venti all the time, holding his hand and praying for him, though he is the god people praying to. Paimon seemed to forget the Sticky Honey Roast thing, she has hidden herself to nowhere after Venti got the blankets.
Seeing Venti has no sign of waking up, Amber left after wishing him to be alright soon. Paimon finally remembered the Sticky Honey Roast thing, and came out with Amber to find stuffs to fill her belly. Now there is only the Traveler keeping company with the hurt Archon.
The last light from the sun dissolves into the night sky. Merchants are closing their stores, people at Good Hunters say goodbye to Sara, lots of adventurers gather at the Guild to take their rewards, the bustling streets begin to calm down, but the bars have just started their buzy night. The City of Freedom, always so beautiful in the eyes of the Traveler.
Just then the Archon wakes up.
-----
Venti regains consciousness, though feeling not quite nice.
The dizziness is gone, but only replaced by pure pain. His whole body is dull aching, and he feels his left thigh is being bitten by a thousand bugs. Venti half-opens his eyes. The searing hot turns into freezing cold, it makes Venti want to curl up. The pain brought by attempt to curl up causes a hoarse yelp of Venti.
“Hey Venti,” Aether gently settles Venti to his original position, “Don’t move now, your body is still pretty weak.”
“What… Where am I…” Venti mumbles, the layers of blanket feel too heavy for him.
“You’re at the Cathedral’s infirmary, we got you here after you’ve ejected yourself from that giant water balloon… Seriously how did you do that?” Aether asked worriedly and curiously.
“I guess the winds were protecting me ehe.” Venti laughs for a bit, “they were afraid of that I may drown so they came into the sea to get me out of it.” Just then his stomach makes a gurguling sound, “Anyway do you have something to eat? An apple would be nice?”
“I doubt you have the power to bite an apple,” Aether says playfully, “you should have something liquid like soup, it can warm you up better. I’ll make some.”
“But I want apple!” Venti pouts, and Aether can’t help but find it extremely cute. Oh those soft cheeks, Aether wants to see how they will be like when Venti’s not sick, Aether wants to touch them and sqeeze them and bite –
“Shhh, you will have apples once you get better okay?” Aether forces himself to leave and to prepare some food for the bard. He should be taking care of him, not daydreaming about him. As Aether walks out of the room, Venti tries to rise from under the blankets, and with admirable efforts, he fails, leaves himself panting from lack of energy.
Aether holds a bowl and comes back to the room. Venti can smell the dish in the bowl is Barbatos Ratatouille, after all it’s his signature dish.
“I suppose you can’t eat by yourself, so please open your mouth and let me feed you okay?” When the Traveler gives him the first spoonful of soup, Venti’s heart is taken by happiness. But there’s also a sense of guiltiness. He wants to apologize to Aether, for him being an idiot and almost got himself killed –
“Hey, so…” It’s Aether who speaks first, which surprises Venti a bit, “I’m sorry for taking you to that stupid commission with me. I won’t ignore your situation from now on – and here’s another spoon okay.”
Aether is so caring, it is like… how he treated his sister? Like he is treating Venti like his family. Venti smiles, the soup is warm but the Traveler is much warmer.
-----
After eating up the soup, Venti feels a part of his strength comes back. Thank Barbatos! … Oh wait.
Just when Venti feels like he’s falling asleep again, a person sneaked onto his bed so fast that the bard is taken aback for a moment. Aether is now under the blankets with Venti, and without further ado, he hugs Venti gently.
“Promise me to get well soon will you?” the Traveler uses his soft voice that seems to have the magic of comfort. Venti puts his head on Aether’s shoulder, as if he is melting in the warmth of Aether.
“I promise.”
The two boys smile, and they soon fall into the peaceful realm of dream.