Chapter Text
Summer rain fell heavy on Liyue, bending blades of grass beneath heavy droplets and turning the earth into pools of rich mud. The mountains were shrouded in gray clouds. The forests shuddered in the storm, and the shaking of their leaves became a whispering chorus that swept across the valley.
The creatures of Liyue had long since sought refuge in the dry, hidden places known only to them. From crags and caves, nests and burrows, they listened to the storm rage in quiet reverence.
Nothing stirred, nothing but for Aether and his pursuer.
The trees groaned in anger as Aether slipped through their ranks in flight. The soles of his shoes slid on heaps of wet leaves and sank deep into muddy pools. His lungs burned as his chest heaved, urging him forward faster, faster.
He could hear the abyss herald at his back. The heavy slosh of their footfalls, the metal clang of armor as their towering form lumbered after him.
It had been pursuing him for days at his sister’s command. He had no time to rest, to recover, to nurse the wounds from their last encounter. He had no time to think about why she had turned on him. For that, at least, he was grateful.
It was all Aether could do to keep ten paces ahead, and find the courage not to look back.
The trees around them thinned and all at once gave way to reveal a rocky hillside. Aether dug in his heels but the wet earth offered no resistance, and he tumbled down the slick slope. His vision spun and spun until the dark earth and the blue sky were a single swirl of color.
At last he reached the bottom and felt the cold grip of mud. Aether fought to rise to his feet. Without the shelter of the trees overhead the rain beat down on him, running into his eyes as he lifted his face to the place he had fallen from.
The abyss herald stood at the slope’s edge, its expressionless mask leering down at him.
The rain streamed down its arms to the two sharp swords mounted on its gloves. It pooled and swirled around the metal, and slowly began to glow. Nature was no longer its master.
The herald aimed its blades at Aether, and the rain seemed to hang in the air between them.
A glowing arc of water, thin as a razor’s edge, formed at the Herald’s side. It began to spin, faster and faster.
Aether thrashed, mud flying as he fought to get to his feet.
The arc hurtled towards him.
He threw his weight backward, and the wet earth released him with a pop. The attack whistled past, so close his braid flitted in the gust it created. It carved a gouge in the earth behind him before the water lost form with a splash.
The wind howled, and the leaves of the trees quivered in fright.
Aether drew his sword from his hip and raised it at the Abyss Herald. He tried to reach his thoughts out to the wind, to channel a blast that would knock his opponent off of their feet. But his mind was too agitated to focus. Even as he reached out to the wind, he saw his sister’s face flash behind his eyes. He heard her voice, clear as crystal despite the patter of rain all around him.
Don’t try to stop me. Don’t try to stop the abyss.
His arm trembled, trying to keep the blade aloft. The wind would not come to him. He was exhausted, and defenseless.
Aether ran, ran until the forest was behind him and nothing but an empty plain stretched out before him. There was nowhere left to hide, and no obstacles left to block his pursuer’s attacks. Arcs of water swirled past him, each closer and closer to its mark. They carved trenches in the earth around him, and his footing fumbled over the uneven terrain. Mud and rain hung heavy to his clothes, dragging him down.
Aether ran until there was nowhere left to run.
The plain ended abruptly in the precipice of a cliff. Beyond it stretched an endless sea of swirling mists that obscured the distance to the ground below. Far in the distance, the high peaks of Huaguang Stone Forest emerged from the mist like solitary islands.
Aether skidded to a halt barely ten paces from the chasm’s edge and turned to face the abyss herald.
The towering enemy approached him unhurriedly. There was nowhere left for its prey to run. Its bladed arms raised to Aether in a deadly salute.
Aether’s hand brushed the hilt of his sheathed sword. He chanced a desperate glance at his back, at the bottomless drop below.
There was only one chance he had left. He took a steadying breath and formed a single word, a name. Aether could barely hear himself speak over the pounding of the rain. It didn’t matter.
Xiao would hear it.
The abyss herald began to draw the rain to his blades once more, charging his attack. Aether held his breath, and prayed it would not be too late.
Suddenly his vision of the herald began to distort, the empty plain between them shimmering and forming a dark vapor.
The abyss herald hesitated, lowering his blades.
A figure stepped from the darkness between them and emerged into the rain.
Xiao looked slowly between Aether’s frightened expression and the herald poised to strike. His amber eyes glowed with their own light, like lanterns in the darkness of the storm. They narrowed as understanding dawned.
A jade-carved spear shimmered into existence in his outstretched hand. He pointed the weapon at the herald and grounded his stance, heels sinking into the mud as he blocked its path to Aether.
The abyss herald hesitated only for a moment, caught in Xiao’s ferocious glare. Then it burst back into life, slashing its blades through the air. Two razor-thin arcs of water sliced towards the adepti.
Aether took a frightened step backwards as he watched the attack sail towards them. He could feel the emptiness of the cliff at his back.
Xiao swept his spear upwards towards the sky, summoning a phantom gust of wind that blew the herald’s attack into scattered shards that exploded outward in every direction. A few escaped over Xiao’s shoulder and went whizzing towards Aether. He flinched, turning his face away as they sliced over his skin, stinging like pieces of glass. He watched with wide eyes as his braid, whipping in the breeze behind him, was sliced clean through.
Aether reached for the strand as it sailed through the air, chasing after it without thought. He took one step forward, then another.
His foot encountered no resistance, only air.
Aether let out a panicked gasp.
Xiao’s head turned to the noise as sharply as if it were the crack of a firework.
He turned just in time to watch Aether’s body tip and disappear over the edge.
The wind roared in Aether’s ears as he fell, faster and faster, until the raindrops seemed to hang still in the air around him.
Mist was all around him. There was nothing to be seen, not the ground below or the sky above or the cliff at his back. There was no way to know how far he had to fall.
The only thing he could see was the severed strand of braid, fluttering, falling just ahead.
Aether reached for it blindly.
He had nothing more to lose.
“Aether!”
Xiao’s voice was at his back, so faint past the roar of the wind. One arm seized around his waist, drawing him into the adepti. Xiao’s other arm held his spear, aimed at the invisible earth below.
“Hang on,” Xiao commanded.
But Aether reached still for the strand of hair, his thoughts racing too loud to hear the order.
Not this. Even if he had lost everything else. Even if he had lost Lumine. Not this.
Xiao looked to the endless mist below them.
“Aether!”
His voice was strained with urgency. Aether’s fingers grazed the strand of braid. He had nearly caught it.
Then the mist gave way, and they both caught sight of the ground below.
It was so close Aether could count the flowers in the field below them.
Xiao’s arm tightened around Aether’s waist so quickly his breath left him in a gasp. His fingers faltered, and the braid danced out of his reach.
Xiao thrust his spear downward with a ferocious cry. Aether could feel the sound reverberate through his chest. He could hear it echo off the ground below and rise back up to meet them.
He screwed his eyes shut against a sharp gust of wind. There was a sudden crushing pressure in his chest, and the breath left his lungs all at once. For one small, frightening moment he thought they had struck the ground.
He opened his eyes once more, and found himself drifting slowly to the ground.
Xiao had arrested their fall with the summoning of a powerful updraft. Aether could feel the adepti’s chest heaving, and his spear arm shaking.
Their feet touched the floor, and Xiao released Aether to sink to his knees in the soft grass.
He stared at his empty palms, trembling with adrenaline.
Xiao cast a gray shadow as he loomed over him, breaths ragged.
“Are you insane?”
His voice was a snarl, and Aether lifted his chin to the sound. The rain fell heavy on his face, blurring his vision as he gazed up at Xiao. The yaksha’s golden eyes were slits, his brows furrowed in anger. Damp strands of his hair clung to his forehead and cheeks. His hands were white-knuckled fists where they gripped his spear.
“I told you to hold on.”
Aether turned away, his eyes gazing out across the landscape surrounding them.
“Can you look for it?” he asked. His voice was hollow despite the pounding in his chest.
“What?”
Aether’s eyes kept roaming aimlessly over the ground, searching.
Xiao’s anger flickered and died. He noticed all at once how different Aether appeared from when last they had seen each other. The fresh red lines of the herald’s attack were nestled alongside freshly formed scars. His eyes were dull and dark, and his shoulders bowed with exhaustion. This wasn’t the Aether he knew at all.
The spear in his hand fizzled and faded out of existence. Xiao crouched before Aether, forcing the other to look him in the eye.
He held out his fist and unfurled his fingers. Aether’s severed braid rested in his palm, reduced to little more than a ragged clump of strands.
Aether snatched it away, and clenched it so tightly in his hand that his nails carved lines into his palms.
“What’s happened?” Xiao asked hesitantly, but Aether shook his head.
Xiao studied his expression before he sighed and stood.
“I’ll take you back to your friends at Liyue Harbor.”
“No,” Aether said, too loud. “I can’t… I don’t want anyone to see me like this.”
Aether’s hand felt at the ends of his own hair, now an uneven line that barely brushed his shoulders.
Xiao might have scoffed at that, might have told Aether that it was only hair, if it weren’t for how miserable he looked.
“I won’t leave you here,” Xiao said, frowning. “You’re injured.”
Aether looked up at Xiao, and got to his feet unsteadily.
“Take me with you then.”
Xiao recoiled.
“You need treatment. I should take you to an inn, or…”
Aether began shaking his head rapidly.
“There must be somewhere you go to rest. An adeptal abode.”
“Rest is…” Xiao trailed, abandoning the thought. “Adepti abodes lack mortal comforts.”
Aether set his hand on Xiao’s shoulder, pleading through the gentle touch.
“Please…” Aether said. “I don’t need comforts right now. I just… don’t want to be around anyone else.”
Xiao looked at the place where Aether’s fingers pressed against his skin and then up through the mists, to that distant cliff where the herald loomed.
“If I take you with me, you’ll tell me what’s going on.
It wasn’t a question, but a demand. Aether’s throat bobbed, but he nodded.
Xiao closed his eyes, and they disappeared from the earth in an emerald shimmer. Only the impression of their shoes in the bent blades of grass gave indication they had been there.
<< >>
“This is an adeptal abode?”
It was nothing like the ones Aether had seen before. Cloud Retainer’s home had been a beautiful oasis: gleaming blue skies, blossoming orange trees, floating islands strung together with bridges of shimmering light. It was effervescent, and somehow impossibly more beautiful than the mountain peaks its entrance stood atop.
Xiao had transported him into darkness. They were standing on a rocky ledge that loomed before the open mouth of a black cavern. The ledge stuck out from the face of a seemingly endless mountain. It stretched as far wide and high above them as Aether’s eyes could see, and surrounding it on all sides was the blackness of night. Scattered stars burned in that blackness, twinkling in unnatural hues. Red as coals, green as vines, deep blue like a stormy sea.
“It’s my abode,” Xiao replied.
“I’ve never seen one like this,” Aether said in hushed tones.
Xiao followed Aether’s gaze out to those distant stars.
“I don’t spend much time here.”
Aether wasn’t surprised. The place felt desperately lonely.
Aether had more to ask, but Xiao didn’t give him time to strike up a discussion. He strode forward into the darkness of the yawning cavern, and Aether cautiously followed after.
It was so dark he could only follow the scrape of Xiao’s footfalls and the swish of his garments. He ran his hands along the wall beside him, and felt a corridor carved in stone. It seemed to last forever, growing more and more narrow until finally Xiao turned and disappeared around a corner.
Aether followed him out onto the floor of a cavernous central chamber. The walls reached high above them, giving way to a domed ceiling of stalactites. The mineral formations were embedded with small, glowing shards of green crystal that lent strange light to the space.
He could feel Xiao’s eyes on his back as he spun in slow circles, assessing the space.
“I told you it wouldn’t be comforting.”
As Aether’s vision adjusted to the dim green glow he began to make out shapes and forms. In the center of the cavern was a golden brazier, massive but unlit. It was surrounded by tables and chairs, each exquisitely carved with wooden reliefs of creatures he did not recognize. Some bore long inscriptions in characters Aether could not read. Aether had never seen any furniture as intricate and ancient in the whole of Liyue Harbor. He was sure it must have been as old as Xiao himself.
Aether turned to the adepti, smiling faintly.
“It’s strange but beautiful.”
Xiao’s eyes widened before he ducked his gaze.
Aether shivered, and looked down at his clothes so caked in mud he could barely see the fabric beneath.
“Do you have a bath?” he asked.
Xiao pointed to the walls of the cavern, where small openings signaled the start of more passageways.
“There’s a spring, and the water runs hot.”
Xiao led the way to a small chamber clouded in steam. At its center was a rocky pool fed by a crag in the wall. Water streamed forth, so rich with minerals it was a translucent blue.
Aether stepped to the edge of the pool and gazed down at his reflection. He winced at the hollowed-out face that looked back at him. Aether stripped off his shoes and dipped his toes into the pool. It was pleasantly warm, like a cup of tea.
“I’ll leave you alone,” Xiao said quietly, and turned back towards the corridor to leave.
“Wait,” Aether called. “Will you stay and talk?”
Xiao’s feet shuffled over the stone.
“I’m not much of a conversation partner.”
Aether let out a laugh that was barely a breath.
“It doesn’t matter. I just need a distraction.”
Xiao didn’t reply, but he didn’t leave. He kept his gaze carefully trained on the floor as Aether stripped bare and waded waist deep into the pool. His aching muscles cried out in relief.
Aether let out a pleased hum, and Xiao could not help but glance up at the sound.
He could see the narrowness of Aether’s waist and the gauntness of his chest. His ribs came into sharp relief as he took a deep breath. Bruises covered him, ones hidden under his clothes that Xiao had not seen before. He dipped his head underwater and reappeared, wet hair clinging to the length of his neck and sending water streaming down the indent of his spine.
Their eyes met, and Xiao’s breath caught in his throat.
Aether beckoned him closer, patting the rocky ledge at the edge of the pool.
Xiao obeyed the summons, kneeling rigidly on his heels at the water’s edge.
“When did we see each other last?” Aether asked, breaking the silence between them.
Xiao hesitated, recalling a distant memory. They were sitting on a rooftop, looking up at a sky lit with the glow of paper lanterns.
“The lantern festival,” Xiao replied without hesitation. As soon as he said it he recalled the way Aether’s eyes had shone, reflecting the lantern light like stars.
He watched Aether run water over his wounds, and his throat burned.
The Aether in front of him was devoid of that light. Xiao needed to know why.
“What’s happened?” he asked.
At the question Aether’s expression hardened. His hands froze in front of him, the water cupped between them leaking away between his fingers.
“I found my sister,” he said at last. There was no joy in the revelation.
“Is she well?”
“She is,” Aether replied. “She sent that thing after me.”
Xiao’s hands fisted in his lap.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
“I don’t either.”
Aether met his gaze just long enough to offer a sad smile. His eyes were clouded with his troubles.
“When I found her… she didn’t want to come back. She spoke to me like I was a child who didn’t understand. Like I was the one who had forgotten myself, instead of her.”
Aether’s fears strained his voice and shadowed his expression. He traced his hands restlessly through the water as he spoke.
“I’m so afraid that she’s right. What if I’ve spent so much time stranded here on Tevyat just trying to find a place to belong that I’m not myself anymore?”
“That’s why you didn’t want to return to Liyue Harbor,” Xiao said, understanding dawning with Aether’s growing look of shame.
“I just needed time alone, to try and remember who I was before Mondstadt and Liyue and Paimon.”
Xiao could only guess how long he had been alone in the woods, how many sleepless nights and days he had spent fleeing his attacker. It was no wonder Aether looked so gaunt, his energy so faded.
He did not know what to say, but he knew from Aether’s silence it was his turn to speak.
“Who were you then?” Xiao asked. “What do you remember?”
“Little things,” Aether said bitterly. Unimportant things…”
“Tell me.”
Xiao was surprised at the firmness of his tone. Aether was too, judging by the sideways glance he offered Xiao. He feared he had gone too far until Aether slowly strode across the pool towards Xiao. He folded his arms on the stone ledge of the pool and rested his chin atop them.
“I remember the smell of the flowers that bloomed around our house. My sister would grind them up and rub them on her wrists as perfume. I remember the first time I ever traveled from home. I was scared by something in the woods, and when I went to swing my sword my hand slipped and I threw it way into the trees.”
Xiao let out an amused huff.
Aether smiled at the sound. His voice grew soft, clouded with memory.
“I remember my mother braiding my hair.”
“Your hair has meaning to you.”
It was an obvious thing to say, but Aether still looked embarrassed.
“It must seem silly. It’s just that where I come from…” Aether hesitated, and when he continued it was clear there were things he had decided not to tell. “Well, no one here has ever seen me without my braid. I don’t want them to.”
Aether’s ears flushed pink.
“It feels like I’m naked without it.”
Xiao’s gaze lingered on the remains of Aether’s hair.
“I can braid it for you, if you want.”
He spoke the words before he had time to question whether they were wise.
Aether lifted his head to look at Xiao, eyes wide with surprise.
“You know how?”
It was Xiao’s turn to look embarrassed.
“Not well,” he amended quickly. “But when Ganyu was a child she would sneak down to the villages and watch the women do each other’s hair. For half a century she made us braid her hair just the same.”
Aether laughed, and for the first time there was true happiness in the sound.
He waded in front of Xiao and turned his back to the adepti, leaning against the pool’s edge until his shoulder blades brushed Xiao’s knees.
“Go ahead then,” Aether offered, shaking his head so that the damp strands fell loose down his back.
Xiao swallowed against a dry throat.
He leaned forward with hesitant fingers and began separating the three strands. Water dripped down his wrist to his elbow.
Xiao felt it was his turn to speak, to offer what little encouragement he could. Even if it was only to distract himself from the fear of fumbling the task at hand.
“My memories are like that too.”
Aether tilted his head to the side curiously.
“Of being mortal?” he asked.
Xiao gave a hum of acknowledgment. His hand brushed the skin of Aether’s neck. It was pleasantly warm.
“They’re all of small, meaningless things. Cutting my hand on a farmer’s scythe. The smell of the village livestock. But there’s no one left in Liyue to remind me of who I was back then.”
He finished the braid and let it rest against the nape of Aether’s neck.
“If your sister’s chosen another path, then there’s no one left to tether you to the past.”
“What do you mean?”
Xiao pulled a golden thread from the pendant around his neck and used it to bind the ragged ends of Aether’s hair.
“You don’t need to know who you were back then. Just who you are now.”
“I…” Aether began, then hesitated. In the silence he reached back and ran his fingers over the braid, inspecting Xiao’s handiwork.
“I guess you’re right,” he said at last. He looked back over his shoulder at Xiao, and his expression was warm. “Thank you.”
Xiao nodded. The cave suddenly felt very small around them.
“You can stay here for the night if you want,” he offered, held hostage by Aether’s golden eyes.
“I’d like that,” Aether said, and he stood waist-deep in the water.
“But first,” he began, and offered the adepti a sheepish smile. Aether looked to the heap of muddy garments he had left at the pool’s edge. “Do you have any clothes?”