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The sun shined down onto Jean’s face, warming it on the slightly breezy day. Mondstat was bustling with people as always, things running a lot more smoothly after the Stormterror incident being soothed down. All along the paths were kids running about, flying kites or playing tag.
It was nice to see the kids out on the streets again. Due to the Stormterror incident, many parents weren’t allowing their kids outside, fearful that the gentle former guardian of Mondstat would swoop down and steal them from the sky. But now they have returned, with the help of Aether, Diluc, and Barbatos himself.
“Speaking of…” she muttered. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Aether. Helping out Randall, he was carrying a large, heavy looking box. From her table outside of the Good Hunter, she amused herself with watching him struggle to put it where Randall wanted it, for he couldn’t make up his mind. Aether would put it down, look expectantly at Randall, who would shake his head and cause Aether to groan and pick up the box again as Paimon floated back and forth frantically. She laughed lightly.
“Hi Master Jean!”
Amber approached Jean to the right, waving hello. Jean smiled, returning the gesture. “Hello Amber.”
The outrider sat down at Jean’s table. “It’s rare to see you out and about, so what’s the special occasion?” she laughed, joking around.
Jean laughed along with her. “Oh, nothing much. Lisa told me it’s a beautiful day and forced me to go outside and take a break. And like the Traveler said, I need to take more breaks, so no better day than today to do so.”
“That’s good, it’s nice to see you take care of yourself.” Amber smiled, then changed the subject. “So, mind if I join you for a bite? I was just stopping by to say hello, but I might as well get something to eat for lunch before continuing my duties.”
Jean shook her head. “Be my guest, it’ll be much nicer to have company than to eat alone.”
After Amber finished ordering and paying, she rejoined Jean at the table, making idle chit chat. “I love that the kids are much more active nowadays. When there’s nothing to do, I love to play with the kids!”
Jean nodded. “It’s very nice, though I can still barely trust Klee out and about. Give her a little bit of freedom, and you’ll find out that she accidentally set Inazuma on fire or something of that caliber.”
Amber laughed at Jean’s joke, though she knew that it was a possibility. “Yeah, but I’m glad that Inazuma is now an open nation. I bet Albedo, Klee, and Venti had a nice time in Inazuma-.”
Jean choked on her water, sputtering it everywhere. Amber frantically grabbed a towel from Sara to clean up the mess. When Jean caught her breath, she said, “Venti went to Inazuma?”
Amber looked at her confused. “Yeah, he was invited with the rest of the bards, that’s why there has been a lack of bards at taverns. Not that Diluc is complaining though, he has expressed he enjoys the silence more than once.”
Jean wanted to strangle him. That stupid bard, as an archon, he can’t just go wandering into other archon’s nations. Then again, knowing him, he probably already has done that. You know, I should probably write a letter apologizing to Liyue’s archon, because he probably has been there.
While Jean was thinking, Sara had called for Amber, for her and Jean’s food was done being prepared. A mushroom pizza for Jean, and a medium rare steak for Amber. Amber grabbed the food and returned, picking up the conversation after Jean’s interruption. “To be honest, a lot more nations have been easier to access nowadays, we get visitors all the time.” She cut into her steak, revealing the slightly pink insides.
“Oh, have we had that many visitors recently?” Jean asked, removing a slice from the pizza.
“Well, a decent amount. The most recent ones I can remember were two visitors from Liyue. One with white hair, another with a geo vision, they both asked for directions to the Angel’s Share,” she paused. “Now that I think about it, that was about the time of the Bartending class, when Aether was serving drinks at the tavern.”
Jean chuckled. “It seems he’s made friends in other nations, that’s good. I feel bad that we can’t do much to find his sister, so I’m hoping that someone else knows more about her.”
Amber nodded whilst sticking a piece of steak in her mouth. “I’ve tried putting up missing person posters, but those can only go so far. I would personally go out and look for her, but I couldn’t abandon my duties here.”
Jean looked behind her, looking back at Aether. It seemed as if he finally got it where Randall wanted it, because it appeared that Randall was giving him a small bag of probably Mora. She sighed. “It’s a shame, really. He’s super nice and helpful, yet I feel as if we’re using him. He’s done so much for us, yet we’re unable to return the favor.” Jean looked down at her food, then up at Amber. “I just wish we could do something for him.”
Amber shook her head. She opened her mouth to say something, but then didn’t. Instead, she looked past Amber and waved happily to someone. “Hello Aether!”
Jean turned around, and sure enough, Aether was coming their direction. She sighed in relief when she saw he was too far away to hear her. She wanted to express her gratitude to him, but she felt as if he wouldn’t appreciate her pitying him.
Aether smiled. “Hello Amber, Master Jean. Sorry, I can’t talk long, I was just going to grab something to eat for me and Paimon before we go out to mine materials for Wagner,” he said, walking past them and looking at the menu at the Good Hunter.
Jean, not wanting Aether to hear her talking about him, started eating more of her pizza, studying him. His loosely braided hair was a frizzy mess from that morning’s work, and would only get worse throughout the day. Jean honestly was impressed with the amount of work he could do with fairly long hair. If my hair gets too long, it gets all up in my face, and he does it all with long hair and in a cropped top.
She noticed his lack of cape today. She figured that since he knew he would be doing lots of hard work, he left it somewhere so it didn’t get dirtied. However, she noticed a detail about him that couldn’t be seen when he wore a cape.
Along his back, scars could be seen. She wouldn’t have questioned it if it weren’t for the pattern that they were in. Instead of being small, scattered ones from doing so many quests, they were two, symmetrical long scars that extended into his crop top. Jean was honestly surprised she hadn’t noticed such an injury before.
Aether left with two mushroom skewers, handing one to Paimon as they ran for the gates of Mondstat. Jean put down her food..
“Are you alright Jean?” Amber asked.
“Has he always had those scars?”
“Scars?”
Jean nodded. “Along his back, did you see them? They were two, long scars.”
Amber’s eyes lit up when she finally realized what Jean was talking about. “Those! Yeah, I believe so. I noticed them when I first gave him a windglider. As he tried it on to make sure that size would work for him, I saw them underneath his cape. Why do you ask?”
Jean shook her head. “Pure curiosity. I’ve just never paid attention to that, so I was a bit caught off guard when I saw them. They’re so symmetrical, so it leaves you wondering if it was done to him intentionally.”
Amber thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t know much about them, but I can say they don’t really seem to affect him… most of the time.”
“Most of the time?”
She nodded. “Yeah, if you spend an elongated period of time with him, you’ll see that he sometimes rubs his back right in the central region of it. And I’ve seen other instances that may be connected to the scars on his back.”
“Such as?”
“Well, if you get too close to his back, he’ll apologize. But if you ask what he’s apologizing about, he gets flustered and apologizes again. Then one time, I saw him jump and forget to deploy his windglider, falling right into the fountain right over there.” she said, pointing at the nearby fountain. “The weirdest instance was when he was trying on his windglider for the first time though. After getting it on and trying it for the first time, he started crying.”
“Crying?”
“Yeah, it was very weird. I tried to ask him what was wrong, but he didn’t reply. Instead, he insisted that he was perfectly fine.”
Jean rubbed the bridge of her nose right between her eyes. “So you think these events are possibly connected?”
Amber nodded. “They’re all weird, and they all have the connection of his back. Now whether it’s the scars of just his back is another story, but that’s all I really know.” She put the final piece of steak into her mouth, and stood up. “Well, I’m sorry to leave so abruptly Master Jean. but I have to get back to my duties. Thanks for allowing me to eat lunch with you today.”
“Mhm, have a nice day Amber.”
And with that, Amber ran for Mondstat’s gates also, leaving Jean alone with her half eaten Pizza. She sighed, contemplating. She packed away the remains of her lunch into a box provided by Sara, then headed back for headquarters.
*******************************************
When she arrived back, she had already devised a plan. In her office, Lisa sat in an armchair, reading a book.
“Well welcome back Dandelion,” she smiled, looking up from her book. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too early for you to be back from your off-day?”
Jean smiled, then kissed Lisa on the head. “Not right now Sweetie, I’m just grabbing something then I’ll be gone again.” She set the pizza box down on her desk, then grabbed a small notepad and a pen. “I’m leaving this food here for you whenever you get hungry. If you don’t eat it, I probably will when I get back.”
Lisa laughed lightly. “Don’t tell me you’re going out to do more work! That’s not the point of an off-day.”
“This isn’t work, it’s a personal experiment,” she assured Lisa. “I promise, I’m not doing anything associated with the Knights or helping Mondstat.”
Lisa smiled, feeling content with this answer. “Well I guess you can go then.” As Jean left again, Lisa called out, “See you later!”
*******************************************
Jean was not one to usually snoop in other people’s businesses. She never really had the time to. But the symmetrical scars on Aether’s back left her curious, and she was hoping to get some answers from somebody.
Her first stop was somewhere where she could always expect to find someone close to Aether, who it was would be a roll of the dice. She stood outside the Angel’s Share, holding her breath. Should I really be lurking around like this? It’s his business, so what right do I have to go snooping in it? She shook her head, clearing it of negative thoughts. No, it’ll be fine. You’re simply asking your friends what they know, then you’ll draw a conclusion based on the evidence. Nothing more, nothing less. She opened the door to the tavern, knowing that there was no turning back.
To her disappointment, her respective archon was not in his usual spot at the tavern, meaning she had absolutely no idea on where to find him. However, she was right in the fact that she could find someone to answer her questions.
Diluc was behind the bar, cleaning out glasses. Her childhood friend seemed to pay no attention to her, not looking up from cleaning glasses. It was not until she said hello to him that he looked up. “Hello Jean,” he greeted her. Looking behind her, he asked, “Where’s Lisa? Usually she has to drag you by your ear for you to come here for a break.”
Jean laughed, opening her notebook to a blank page. “Well, she made me take a break today, but I’m here for my own personal research. If you’re not too busy, can I ask you a few questions?”
He nodded. “It’s never busy this time of the day, so yeah, I can answer a few questions. Don’t take too long though, I still have to clean the tables before the huge crowd arrives. And no, I will not be joining the Knights of Favonius, so if that’s what you’re going to ask, don’t even bother.”
“It’s about Aether, not the Knights.”
Diluc cocked his head, slightly confused. “The traveler? What do you need to know about him that you have to ask me and not him himself?”
Jean sighed. “Well, I’m not sure if he would tell me, and I know that sounds bad, just… here, just listen to what I have to say and you can decide whether or not you’ll tell me anything.”
Diluc eyed her suspiciously, “Fine, but if it’s that personal, I don’t think I’ll know much more than you.”
She nodded, thanking him. “So, today when I was getting lunch, I noticed that Aether has huge scars going down his back. Amber told me that he often forgets to deploy his windglider and will apologize if people get too close to his back. Do you know anything about that?”
Diluc pondered that thought for a minute before replying. “I know nothing about the scars or the windglider, but I’ve noticed something possibly pertaining to the getting too close to the back issue.” He set down the glass he was cleaning and made eye contact with Jean as he told his story. “He absolutely hates being in tight spaces. He always looks so nervous in enclosed spaces, especially the Dawn Winery. He’ll constantly look behind himself, as if he’s checking if he knocked something over.”
“Knocked something over…” muttered Jean. She finished scribbling down Diluc’s story, then stood up. “Thank you for your time, but I’m going to get going now so you can get the tavern ready.”
Diluc nodded. “Yep, have a nice day. Tell Lisa I said hi.”
And with that, Jean had another story. Unfortunately, there was no one else in the tavern who could provide a valuable testimony, and two stories were definitely not enough to make an accurate conclusion. So, she set off to find someone else.
When walking by the fountain near the Good Hunter, Jean spotted someone out of the corner of her eye. By the crafting table, Timaeus and Sucrose were conversing about something. Jean approached them, knowing who she was going to ask next.
“Hey Sucrose, Timaeus! Do you know where Albedo is?”
*******************************************
Outside the Mondstat walls, Jean was walking along the path that eventually led to the Dawn Winery. Sucrose had informed her that Albedo had gone to pick some flowers along the path to the Dawn Winery, so here she was.
The breeze picked her hair up a bit, causing it to flow behind her as she walked down the path. She looked down at her notes, deciding if she would give Albedo the same spiel she gave Diluc or if she would shorten it.
She heard a crash, and she ran ahead. In the distance, she saw someone fighting it out with a Pyro Whopperflower. As she got closer, she recognized the blond hair of Albedo. With a windburst, the Whopperflower was uprooted and thrown to the side. Albedo quickly finished it off with a quick slash near the head.
“Hello Master Jean,” he said, gathering nectar from the flower. “What brings you out here?”
“Well, I was looking for you,” she replied.
“Hm? For what reason?”
“I have a few questions, pertaining to the traveler,” she said, opening her notebook and titling the new page ‘Albedo’s Story.’
Unlike Diluc, Albedo didn’t question her motives. Putting a cork on the bottle of nectar, he said, “Sure, what do you want to know?” Jean told him the same story she told Diluc, and he sat there for a minute. “Well, unfortunately, I know nothing about what you’re asking. I’ve seen none of those happen. However, I do have something that may directly relate to the scars.”
He took a deep breath, then started his story. “When Aether first came to Mondstat, I wanted to find out how he could wield elemental magic without a vision, so we conducted many tests in Dragonspine. While I couldn’t find the answer, I did notice a strange behavior of his. Whenever he stretches, he starts out like anyone else would, such as pulling his legs back and stretching his arms above his head. But then he arches his back, like a cat.”
“Like a cat?”
“Yeah, kinda like this,” he stood up and put his hands on the ground. Then he arched his back. “But he arches it while standing up, it’s really strange.” He stood up, brushing his hands together to rid them of dirt. “There’s no way that can be comfortable, unless he was to have another limb there he needed stretched.”
Jean muttered, “Another limb,” as she finished writing his story down.
“Yes, another limb. I haven’t really thought about it, should I ask Aether about it?”
Jean shook her head. “I don’t want to make him uncomfortable, and we don’t know if he’ll tell us.”
“Oh, alright.”
Jean smiled. “So do you need any help carrying flowers back to Sucrose?”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t come out here for the kind of flowers you think I’m collecting. I’m collecting whopperflower nectar, not actual flowers. But don’t tell Sucrose, haha.” He waved goodbye, then ran off.
Jean watched him leave, disappearing into the distance. She looked back down at her notes, then groaned. “I’m now left with more questions than answers.”
*******************************************
Jean was back at the same table as before in front of the Good Hunter, staring at her notes. As a stray cat rubbed against her leg, she wanted to slam her head against the table. That day, she had gotten three more stories, yet she seemed to be stuck in a circle of questions.
The first two stories came from Klee and Kaeya. When returning to Mondstat, she saw Kaeya watching Klee as she played. She decided to talk to Kaeya, to see if he had any information concerning Aether.
Unfortunately, Kaeya only strengthened Amber’s story. He claimed, “Yeah I’ve seen him forget to deploy his windglider before. He barely does it now if at all, but when he first came to Mondstat, I’d see it once a week at least.”
Right when Jean thanked Kaeya, Klee came up to her and said, “Are you talking about Mr. Honorary Knight?”
Not seeing much to lose, she said yes, and asked Klee if she knew anything about the scars on his back. Klee made a loud thinking noise, before exclaiming, “Oh yeah! The area is very sensitive. One time, Mr. Honorary Knight was playing tag with me, and when I tagged him on his back, he practically jumped out of his skin. I asked him if he was okay, and he said he was fine, just don’t touch his scars. He then showed them to me, and told me he got hurt in a fight!”
Jean was impressed, and grateful she got so much information from Klee. She thanked Kaeya, then continued her way back to Mondstat. The only flaw with her information was that it came from Klee, so who knew how much of it was true.
Finally, right outside of Mondstat’s gates, she saw Bennett leading the way, behind him were his two electro vision-wielding friends, Fischl and Razor. She waved hello to the group of them, and decided that they were close enough to the Traveler to ask them about the mysterious scars. However, Bennett and Fischl said they knew nothing about it.
Razor then spoke up and told what he knew in his very broken English. He told her about when he was out and about in Wolvendom one day, they saw him running around. He followed Aether, then saw Aether jump from a cliff with no hesitation. Razor thought nothing of it until he heard a crash.
When he went to check on Aether, he saw him sprawled on the ground in front of another nearby cliff. When he woke up, Razor asked if he was okay, and he muttered something about “forgetting it was a windglider.” Razor had come to the conclusion that Aether had jumped off the cliff and glided into the other nearby one.
So now she was back, petting the stray cat and she studied her information. All of it seemed to connect somehow, but she didn’t know what tied it all together. She sighed, and headed back to Headquarters, hoping to get the opinion of Lisa.
Instead, she stopped in front of the chapel. When walking past it, she realized there was someone else she could ask.
Inside the chapel, Jean could see the sisters bustling about. She looked around for her sister’s blonde pigtails, and sure enough, she saw Barbara lecturing Rosaria.
“You missed this morning’s prayer…again!” Barbara exclaimed. Rosaria muttered something, trying to wave Barbara off of her. Barbara must have seen Jean out of the corner of her eye, because she turned to face her. “Jean! What brings you here?”
Jean smiled. “I just have a few questions about Aether, do you have a minute?”
“Yeah!” she said. Rosaria eyed Barbara, before trying to sneak off. Barbara noticed, and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. “Oh no you don’t, I’m not done with you.”
“Aether has huge, symmetrical scars down his back, do you know anything about them?” asked Jean, sensing she should hurry so Barbara could get back to… work.
Barabara immediately looked Jean dead in the eyes. “You know about those?”
Well, that’s not the answer I was expecting. “Yeah, I noticed them today. I was asking around to see if anyone knew anything about them. It appears you do know something about them?”
Rosaria scoffed. “Yeah, he sometimes comes in complaining about the pain, asking for Barbara’s help.”
“When he first came in, I was shocked about what happened. But when looking at them more closely, they were very old. I asked him what happened, but he didn’t reply. Now whenever he comes in complaining about the pain, I try to heal them up, but the scars won’t fade. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re so old, or maybe his body just won’t accept the healing. Either way, the scars still cause him pain.”
“Pain,” Jean muttered. Barbara confirming that they still hurt him made Klee’s story reliable, and now there was really only one person left she could see about this. She scribbled her last word down, then started running, calling out to Barbara, “Thanks a lot! I’ll see you later, good luck Rosaria!”
Barbara waved goodbye, turned to Rosaria, then was shocked to see that Rosaria had gotten away. Jean burst out the chapel doors and ran out of Mondstat’s walls. She ran as far as her stamina could take her, then walked until she could run again. She reached the Statue of the Seven, and sure enough, he was there, gathering pinwheel aster.
“Acting Grand Master Jean, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Aether was smiling, iron dust smeared across his face from the day. She walked over to him, clicking her pen. Well, here goes nothing.
“Hello Aether, where’s Paimon?”
“Paimon went to gather snapdragons nearby. I know right about where she is, so I can go get her whenever, why?”
She sighed. “I have a question for you, do you mind answering it?”
“Depends on the question,” he joked. “I’m just messing with you Jean, I’m sure whatever it is, I can probably answer it.”
“...the scars on your back. How did you get them?”
His face fell immediately. Whatever he was expecting her to ask, it sure as hell wasn’t that. He turned to the red flowers, staying silent. Jean immediately knew she had messed up.
“I’m sorry, that’s too personal, isn’t it?” She apologized. “I’ll just go, just…forget I asked.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I should have expected this question sooner or later.” He sighed, then explained, “Yeah, it’s a bit personal, but the story may seem a bit more unbelievable then anything.”
Jean smiled weakly. “Well, I spend a lot of time with Klee, I think I’ve heard unbelievable” she joked, an awkward laugh escaping her mouth.
He sighed, “Well, if you really want to know, I guess I should start by asking you a question. Jean… do you know what nation I come from?”
She shook her head. “That’s because I’m not from Teyvat,” he explained. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Khaneri'ah . Well, during the war with Khaneri'ah, we tried to leave Teyvat, it was no longer safe. But… we were stopped by an unknown god. Whether it’s an archon or someone from Celestia doesn’t matter. She separated me and my sister, putting me into a five hundred year slumber.”
“Five hundred years?” she said in disbelief.
He laughed weakly. “Yeah, I know, I don’t look that old. But as I’ve said before, I’m a lot older than I look. I mean, I was alive for a while before I got put to sleep, so yeah, I’m pretty old. But in the time I was asleep, my sister also travelled Teyvat, and ended up joining the Abyss Order as their Princess. I don’t know why, but I know the god stole something from me and my sister.”
Jean held her breath, as Aether sighed. “She stole our wings.”
Wings, of course! “That… makes sense,” she muttered.
He looked at her shocked. “Makes sense?”
She nodded. “I’ve been… asking around if anyone knew about your scars. Based on some replies in this notebook,” she said, hanging him the notebook, “it makes sense that you used to have wings.”
He laughed, flipping through the pages. “You had an off day, and you spent it working on finding out about my past. Jean, you just never change, haha.”
He closed it and looked towards the setting sun. Jean sat down next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. They sat in silence for a while. Neither of them really knew what to say in a situation like the one they were in. Eventually, Jean broke the silence.
“Do you feel like they’re still there?”
He sighed. “Yeah, sometimes. Like your journal says, I’ll forget to deploy my windglider because I feel as if they’re my natural wings, or I think I’m knocking stuff over in the area they used to be. And with Albedo’s stretching comment, it’s just a habit I can’t break. Almost, in a sense, stretching like that reminds me that they were once there, and maybe, one day, I’ll get them back.”
Aether looked down at the pinwheel aster in his hand, as if he was trying to hide his face from Jean. She saw a tear drop from off his face and onto the flowers, signaling that he was crying.
Without warning, she hugged Aether, an instinct of hers to comfort him. He didn’t push her away, but instead accepted the hug. Jean felt motherly towards the Traveler, despite him being much older than herself.
“Are you going to tell everyone?” he muttered.
“Do you want me to tell anyone?” she asked, whispering. He shook his head, so Jean said, “Then I will not tell anyone. It is up to you when you tell everyone, and if you and your sister leave Teyvat without telling another soul, I’ll take this secret to my grave. I promise.”
He smiled, and the two of them sat there as the sun went down. From up in the tree, the bard clad in green watched the two of them. He smiled, then sent a small gust of wind their direction, blowing dandelion seeds into the sky. Jumping down from the tree, he approached his floating, white haired friend.
“He’s alright Paimon,” Venti murmured, smiling. “Your friend is going to be just fine.”