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It’s late night in Mondstadt, even the drunkest of citizens already stumbling their way home.
It had been a bright and sunny day, and the warmth in the air remained even hours after the sun had gone down. Every summer day in the nation felt like a hug. The streets would carry the scent of fresh fruit and the sound of music throughout the whole afternoon, and at night, the statue of Barbatos didn’t feel imposing. It was a comfort, the sense of being protected as long as you stayed within those city walls.
Kaeya can’t even recall how many memories he has of him under the sun, kissing his skin and making him laugh. How many times he’s walked the same path leading to the cathedral, the feeling of familiarity, belonging, home, making itself known deep in his chest. It wasn’t his nation, it wasn’t anything he could call his own. Yet he knew every store and every shopkeeper that hurried to greet him, yet he couldn’t imagine home being anywhere else anymore.
Tonight, however, is different. Kaeya’s given himself a mission. A selfish one, he’d admit. Spying on a Mondstadt native when he knew Jean had been asking for paperwork for weeks.
This was worthwhile, though. The song that called him in wasn’t one of any other bard, it was the sweet and defining melodies of Venti. The best musician the nation had to offer.
Venti had drawn Kaeya in like a moth to a flame. They had spent countless nights sharing drinks at the tavern, only leaving when Diluc threatened to lock the doors with them still inside. Kaeya had watched Venti perform time and time again, had watched Venti get away with an unpaid bill time and time again, had sat by his side on the wooden tables time and time again.
But he knew nothing about him. Venti was skilled at ignoring all of Kaeya’s pointed questions at his past. Some times he’d giggle as if Kaeya’s inquiry was ridiculous. Other times, he’d use his lyre to play a song no other Mondstadt native had heard of before, like a confession.
Kaeya had tried asking his informants of the beloved bard. He wanted anything he could hold on to. Anything to convince himself Venti was just one of plenty who lived and breathed music, who loved his God so much he’d even gotten a vision to prove it.
Nothing. It was normal for there to be useless knowledge about the citizens of Mondstadt. An older brother, a dead relative, a job, a friend. Venti had no such thing. There was nothing that tied him to anything real. He was loved so earnestly by all who lived there, yet his identity was unknown. A bard, a drunk, just another in the crowd.
The bard had tried so hard to be undetectable that he’d become ephemeral. If Venti were to leave the nation forever, he’d be lost to time, whisked away by the wind.
Kaeya had had enough.
Kaeya finishes his walk up the stairs, the sound of a lyre closer and closer to him.
As expected, he finds Venti there. The monumental statue stands proud and strong. Its hands, open to offer its love to the nation, now hold a figure clad in green.
The moonlight bathes the sight in a bright glow. The statue looks alive to the sound of Venti’s music, like he was meant to sit there. He looks like a shooting star caught by Barbatos’ hands.He’s both immortal and fleeting. Kaeya feels scared to look away.
Venti is focused on his music enough that he doesn’t notice as Kaeya sneaks behind a pillar, keeping a close watch. He doesn’t know what he’s expecting will happen. He
does
know something is different about Venti, and he’s fully intent on finding out.
It’s only a few more minutes before he watches as Venti swiftly stands up, stretches, and glides off to gently land on the floor below him.
Kaeya begins paying close attention to his movements. He uses the shadows to keep himself unseen as he follows Venti’s footsteps down the street. He looks completely unbothered, unaware of a second presence in the quiet night. Any wrong move from Kaeya, and he’d have a lot of explaining to do.
It’s a tense, careful walk leading outside the city walls. For Kaeya, at least. Venti has a hop in his step and even further away the knight can hear him humming to himself.
It becomes harder and harder to stay undercover. The nature outside of Mondstadt’s city is green and lively and so very open . Barbatos had built a nation with no need for battle. A nation where freedom ruled, where you could walk through the welcoming paths knowing no one intended to strike. It made
things specially hard now, when Kaeya fully intended to strike.
Windrise is beautiful, even at night. The crystalflies that surround Vennessa’s tree fly lazily. Even though Barbatos is long gone, in the dead of night, the wind still picks up. With everyone asleep, with lives having come and gone in the nation, the tree is still alive, alive, alive. Kaeya can feel how it breathes from every root.
Even if you left Mondstadt with nothing holding you down, Windrise felt like a breath of fresh air.
“You can stop following me now, Kaeya.” Venti’s cheerful tone is gone now, his words coming out like an order.
Kaeya stills. The other isn’t even facing him, simply pausing his walk as if he knows Kaeya isn’t a threat. He doesn’t like that.
Kaeya planned an excuse for something like this, and with it he follows. “Now, now, following you? That’s a bit of a-“
Venti gives him no time to continue. “What did you choose?”
Kaeya’s words die in his throat at the way the bard sounds. Something’s wrong with his voice. It’s louder than it should humanly be, it layers over itself like an echo. Something’s wrong. Terribly, terribly so.
Kaeya lets his blade form in his hand. “What?”
Seconds ago, there was only the night breeze. Now, the wind picks up. It’s heavy and rushed. Kaeya has to put effort into keeping his footing without toppling over.
It doesn’t affect Venti at all. Instead of the harsh winds attacking him, it twists and folds in circles all around him like armor.
“That night, when your brother lifted his blade. When you told the truth and ruined the home you both made.” Venti is slow in asking his question. He knows there is nowhere Kaeya can go. He looks over his shoulder to where Kaeya stands. His eyes shine. “What did you choose?”
The wind is aggressive on everything but Venti, on which they dance over his skin and hug him like a child. He doesn’t fully turn to Kaeya because he knows he doesn’t have to. He won’t be caught off guard, or maybe Kaeya would never be able to cause him enough harm. His gaze is cold and terrifying. The crystalflies have started instinctively floating closer, like they’re searching for light. Like they’re searching for their God.
And now, the same God asks a question, and Kaeya knows exactly what he means.
Khaenri’ah or Mondstadt?
Kaeya remembers the hatred in his father’s eyes. The kind that could only come after grief, the hate you only get when everything’s been taken from you.
Kaeya remembers it even more vividly on Diluc. He remembers the tears in Diluc’s eyes even as he lifted his claymore to deal a killing blow.
Kaeya remembers the war not vividly, but in flashes. Blood, loss, fire. Running away. A hand pulling him somewhere else. Arms lifting him up and holding him close.
He remembers living in Mondstadt in fine, precise details. How Crepus towered over him but offered him a warm smile all the way to the winery. How Diluc was quieter, but he still peeked from the stairs. How many days Kaeya had laughed with the maids, played with his brother, cried on his new father’s shoulder.
The smell of grapes. The sound of laughter. The comfort of his bed. Kind townsfolk. Music everywhere you went. So much love inside of Kaeya he didn’t even know he could store it all within him.
Kaeya remembered his decision to live behind lies forever not for the future of his nation, but for himself. He would never be honest with others if it meant he would never have to go through losing that kind of love again. He had made his decision for the love of Mondstadt to live inside him.
Even as their Archon stands in front of him like a bad omen, Kaeya knows what he chose. It’s what he’s been choosing every day he wakes up. He wishes it wasn’t so ridiculously easy to admit to it.
“Mondstadt.” And his voice rings loud and clear. There’s no hesitation, there never has been.
The winds die down. Windrise looks the same as it always has.
Barbatos has the audacity to giggle before finally facing Kaeya.
“I know. I needed to hear you say it, though.”
It’s hard to truly shock Kaeya into silence. This time, however, he doesn’t even know where to begin.
Venti smiles bright and happy as if nothing has happened. His hair brushes his face as a result of the relaxed nighttime breeze.
What?
He sticks his hand out, gesturing with his head for Kaeya to take it.
“Care to follow me, Kaeya?”
And maybe it’s because Kaeya had never said it out loud before and his heart still beats inside his chest, or maybe it’s just because he and Venti were already friends, and Barbatos is choosing him. Welcoming him like he had never doubted him in the first place.
Kaeya takes his hand.
Venti’s hand is warm and soft and Kaeya put his blade away ages ago. He’s letting himself get pulled as Venti brings them closer and closer to the tree, and Kaeya finds he doesn’t mind.
As they come to stand only a few feet away from the tree, Kaeya feels an overwhelming sense of contentment . He can’t tell if he’s just happy or if Barbatos has the power to make his ever-turbulent mind go quiet.
Venti giggles yet again as the wind lifts them gently and places them both on one of the higher branches. It’s playful and easy, and it lifts his hair from his face as if placing a kiss there.
Kaeya doesn’t know what to think.
Venti sits on the branch next to him, and his dainty fingers unclasp his cape and remove his hat, and they both get blown away with ease.
“Your…” Kaeya still doesn’t know what to think.
Venti’s voice is light and airy as his head rests on Kaeya’s shoulder. “They’ll come back to me.”
A crystalfly lands on Barbatos’ fluffy hair and stays there. Another snuzzles against his cheek before sparkling away.
If Kaeya’s heart still lived in the creaky floorboards and soft bedsheets of the Dawn Winery, then Venti’s was sure to inhabit the rustling leaves and calm waters of Windrise.
Kaeya watches in silence as Venti closes his hands and hums a melody, crafting a small Cecilia on the palm of his hand before letting it glide its way into Kaeya’s lap.
Kaeya has no concept of a blessing, wasn’t born with the intent of ever receiving one. Yet he feels he should whisper one thousand prayers of gratitude for whatever it is Barbatos is granting him now. He feels whole.
“You’re being too welcoming.”
Venti toys with a strand of Kaeya’s hair. “You are a child of Mondstadt. I can feel how you long to live here and to die here. Am I wrong? Is that not what you want?”
Kaeya prefers to view Venti as human, now, instead of other. He feels how the other’s hair tickles under his chin, and how his weight on Kaeya’s shoulder doesn’t weigh him down (Venti feels as light as a feather).
Kaeya feels how Venti truly loves Mondstadt.
They aren’t so different.
“It is. What I want.” Kaeya says it all in one breath, like a confession.
Now that he knows this is what it’s like to have Barbatos by his side, he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to function without it.
He’s also not sure if he is worshipping Barbatos, or if he just wishes to hold Venti closer. He’s not sure if there’s a difference. His heart sings the same.
A wooden lyre forms in Venti’s hand, and in the same second he begins playing a song.
Kaeya recognizes it. It once was a Khaenri’ahn lullaby. The sound of the lyre was similar enough to that of his mother’s voice, getting him to sleep.
A tear slides down his cheek. This small act from Venti is everything. He feels everything.
His eyes feel heavier and heavier.
“Sleep, my dear.” Venti speaks so low that not even the moon would be able to hear. This is for Kaeya only. A product of a godless land, a child of a nation loved by a god.
In Kaeya’s final seconds before he falls asleep, Venti says one more thing. By the time Kaeya wakes up, he will no longer remember it.
“I’ll keep you safe.”