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Aether,
Today, I walked alone on the beaches of Guyun Stone Forest and picked up several Starconches along the way. I heard that they contain secrets and can be used to send messages. But when I put them to my ear, I heard no voice, just the hollow sound of the wind.
No matter.
The wrath of evil spirits, omens of calamity… and your voice.
That’s all I need to hear.
When you’re free, come talk to me about what you’ve heard from the Starconches.
Xiao.
Aether reads the letter maybe two or three times. It came this morning, pinned to a package, flying gently through the air as if carried by the morning breeze. It did not carry a name, nor an address, yet he knew it was for him – it had a small ‘A’ scrawled on the back in elegant writing, and landed right in front of his salad.
It’s Xiao’s. Of course it’s Xiao’s – after all, today is his birthday. Aether has booked a two-day trip to Liyue Harbor and rented a room in Wangshu Inn just for the occasion. Paimon seems rather happy about it, floating from guest to guest and chatting with everyone who’s willing to listen about their time in Inazuma. He’ll join her, later. For now, his attention is solely fixated on the small package in front of him. It’s a delicate box similar to the ones stocked at Mingxing jewelry; he remembers purchasing one just like this when he first visited Ningguang at the old Jade Chamber. He wonders, just for a moment, how Xiao was able to get his hands on this box. The thought of Xiao going into the city just to buy this for him is utterly strange, yet elates his heart in a way only Xiao is able to do.
He carefully lifts the lid off the box. It appears to be mostly empty at first, but when he peeks inside, he finds five beautiful large and blue Starconches. They must have been the ones Xiao picked up at the beach, and he smiles involuntarily. He takes them out one by one, placing them on the table to study them carefully. They’re all similar in shape and size, yet slightly different all the same. A few of them have cracks; a remnant of sea creatures worming their way inside, or humans being careless. It doesn’t matter to him. Xiao chose them, which means they’re perfect either way.
The largest one of them all is, surprisingly, the only one without any cracks or holes in it. It has the same dark blue color as all the other ones, but upon closer inspection, he finds that it’s embedded with a pattern of lighter blue colours running around the curve of the Starconch. It’s quite pretty, and he slowly places the other four back in the box to study this one more.
It’s shiny in the early afternoon light. There’s a bit of sand on it still, and he rubs it away with his glove. As he does so, a soft sort of echo comes out.
He freezes, trying to figure out if the sound really came from the Starconch, or if it was just a hallucination. A figment of his imagination, a manifestation of the hope he’s buried deep inside his heart. Just like Xiao, he knows that people believe Starconches carry messages. Perhaps he’s just hoping Xiao left one for him, and that’s why his thoughts are running wild.
Carefully, he rubs the Starconch again, hoping that he isn’t hallucinating.
And he isn’t – a muffled noise comes out, lasting longer than the one before yet fading when it finds no listening ear. He has no idea what it means or what it says. Didn’t Xiao say he only heard the sound of the wind? Was he simply not able to hear the things Aether could hear? Or perhaps…
Aether puts the Starconch to his ear. Just like Xiao, he only hears a faint rustling noise, similar to the sound of the ocean, or perhaps the wind. On a conscious level, he knows that the noise is neither of those things. But he also knows that there’s a strange noise trapped inside the Starconch, and he wouldn’t be him if he didn’t try to figure out what it was.
He rubs the Starconch. This time, the sound is much clearer. It’s a voice, soft-spoken yet firm. And a familiar one, too. And it doesn’t stop once it finds a listening ear.
“Forgive me,” comes the voice of Xiao, sounding hesitant. “I do not know how this works, or if it works at all. But just in case it does…”
He pauses. The insecurity in his voice shoots a shiver down Aether’s spine – he’s never heard Xiao speak so vulnerably before.
Xiao’s voice picks up again. “I wish to meet you at Wangshu Inn tonight, if you have the time. There’s a personal matter I must discuss with you.”
A soft cough. Perhaps he cleared his throat.
“I’d like to spend time with you on this day. Birthdays aren’t important to me… but they are to you, and I’d like to understand why. You fascinate me in ways I do not understand. Rex Lapis calls it… affection.”
He’s quiet for a moment. Aether is sure that he’s red all over, feeling his face warm up from Xiao’s words. He’s always liked the Yaksha more than he cared to admit, which all of his friends liked to tease him with. But could you blame him? He cared for Xiao, he wanted to help Xiao. That combined with Xiao’s kindness toward him and curiosity about the world, made it only natural for Aether to grow attached to him the way he did. Xiao made it harder and harder every day not to fall for him, and he wasn’t even doing it on purpose. Eventually, Aether just gave in.
“Anyway.” Another scrape of the throat. For just a moment, Aether allowed himself to hope that Xiao was just as nervous leaving the message as he is right now, hearing it. “I will wait for you. If you wish to meet me… you know what to do.”
And that’s it. Aether keeps the Starconch pressed to his ear for a few more minutes, but the sound within has returned to the windy noise from before, and he knows there won’t come any more words out of the Starconch.
He looks up to Xiao’s balcony. As expected, there’s no one there. But that’s fine. He can wait for a few hours.
“Paimon!” he calls out, placing the Starconch back inside the box and shutting it. When his friend floats over to him, he raises it in the air. “Keep this safe in my teapot, will you?”
“Oooh, is it treasure?” she asks, gasping in delight. He can practically see hearts forming in her eyes as she looks at the box, excited about the possibility of treasure and endless Mora.
He smiles, remembering Xiao’s delicate words and handwriting. Tonight, they will meet. Who knows what will happen? Aether knows what he’s hoping for, at least.
“Yeah,” he says. “You could say that.”