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Khaenri'ah was... gone.
This thought had stayed in the forefront of Aether's mind over the past twenty years.
The Gods needed to pay for what they had done. He and the other survivors had slowly but surely started to try and form some kind of force that would be able to fight back against them.
The gods would one day fall, Aether was determined to make it happen.
But there was also someone else, someone that he was sure was also to blame in some way.
An alchemist that he had only come into contact with a handful of times.
Rhinedottir.
She was... strange.
Cold, detached, in Aether's experience, she seemed to only care about herself and no one else.
The night that Khaenri'ah fell he had remembered seeing strange creatures. They had looked familiar to him, but he couldn't exactly place why at the time.
But he had soon come to a realisation only a few weeks later, they were Rhinedottir's very own alchemical creations.
Ever since then he knew that needed to find her, he needed to know the truth.
Was she part of the reason for everything that happened?
He needed to find out.
A year after the survivors had been able to establish some kind of settlement the next thing that they needed to do was to create as many connections as they could with each of the different nations throughout Teyvat.
They needed to set up some kind of network, gaining more knowledge of the rest of the world would be invaluable for their cause.
Another year soon passed, and the hard work that the survivors had been putting into getting the network up and running had started to pay off. It was at a pretty slow pace, but information had finally began to come in.
Most of it seemed like fluff, but some of it had most definitely helped them when it came to getting more of an understanding of the current state of the Gods and Teyvat in general.
A few more years had passed since then and Aether finally felt that it was time, he soon started to let his informants know that he needed the alchemist found.
They were only to relay her whereabouts to him, nothing more, he would deal with her himself.
He waited
Years passed and throughout this time there had been no sightings of Rhinedottir whatsoever, it was almost like she had disappeared off of the face of Teyvat.
But not long into the twentieth year since the Cataclysm began an informant from Sumeru had arrived, urgently requesting to speak with him and during this meeting they ended up giving him the one piece of information that he had been wanting for years.
Aether set out for the nation of Sumeru as soon as he was able.
According to the informant, Rhinedottir had been spotted amongst the outskirts, in the desert, alone.
It seems that she wanted to stay hidden.
Aether had thought about what he would do and say upon meeting her for a very long time.
On multiple occasions, he had even thought about what the look on her face upon seeing him could be.
Would she be shocked?
Would she still be indifferent?
He wasn't sure but he expected either option.
But neither of them ended up being what he got.
A little while later, after thinking once more about her potential reaction, Aether had finally noticed Rhinedottir while he was completely hidden a safe distance away.
She looked more or less the same as he remembered, just as refined in her choice of outfit and the way that she carried herself, her expression one of uninterest.
The male started to get ready to move forward, he was so close to finally doing the one thing that he had wanted to do for years.
But then, a voice.
"Master."
This new sound stopped Aether in his tracks.
Not long after, a blonde male started to walk up to the alchemist, allowing Aether to note that Rhinedottir was at least a good couple of inches taller than him.
Looking at them, Aether spent a few moments trying to rack his brain to see if he recognised them, but he couldn't think of any time where he would have.
Realising that he was getting distracted, Aether shook his head, he needed to focus, he shouldn't be dwelling on this.
He started to move forward again, still fully hidden from sight when the male turned his head in his direction, Aether freezing up once more the moment that he could clearly see the blonde's face.
They were the most beautiful person that he had ever laid eyes upon
Aether could do nothing more other than watch as the two conversed with each other before they started turning to leave the area, the both of them soon disappearing from view.
'Wait.'
Aether shook his head, coming back to his senses, realising what he had just done.
He... he had just let Rhinedottir leave.
Moving from where he was hidden, Aether ran as fast as he could in the direction that they went, but no matter what he wasn't able to find any kind of trace of either of them.
That was, until, he found a waypoint
Aether's posture deflated as he slumped his shoulders before he let out a sigh in annoyance as he quickly understood what had happened to them.
"Dammit, they could have teleported anywhere."
After that little incident, Aether once more went back to waiting for any kind of info about potential sightings of Rhinedottir.
He was angry at himself for how he had acted back then.
He was the leader of an entire group of people, he shouldn't have let some pretty face distract him from his goal.
Yet, at the same time, he couldn't get the image of the male's face out of his mind and at that moment he just didn't know what to make of that.
Another 5 years passed before he finally found another chance, but unlike before the only person that he found when he arrived at his destination was the male.
He was sitting on a rock with a sketchbook in one hand and a piece of charcoal in the other, head moving back and forth between the book and a couple of nearby foxes that he seemed to be drawing.
But this wasn't what stood out the most to Aether, his breath hitching and heart beating a little faster as he observed the look of contentment that was on the male's face.
'It's... breathtaking.'
Staying exactly where he was hidden, Aether spent the next few hours just watching the make sketch, completely in awe of how serene he looked and unable to bring himself to do anything that could change that.
This soon came to an end, however, as a voice rang out, one that belonged to the very person that he had come there to find.
"Albedo, we must leave."
Aether watched as the male jolted before he started to collect his belongings, following after the source of the voice not long after.
Panicked at the thought of losing his chance again, he moved forward.
Not long after he started moving from his initial spot he accidentally walked on a twig, causing it to snap, the male too focused on catching up to them to have noticed it.
Hearing this caused Rhinedottir to perk up before she quickly reached out her right hand, grabbed one of the shorter male's own and began running off, the two of them soon going out of sight.
Aether ran after the two, getting faster once he started to hear the familiar sound of a waypoint being used.
Soon enough, he came to the waypoint only for a mixture of disappointment and annoyance to run through his body as he realised that he had once again missed his chance.
It looked like he would need to tell his informants to keep looking. No matter what, he needed to find Rhinedottir and...
Albedo...
It sounded pretty, it suited him.
This cycle continued for the next couple of decades.
At first, Aether tried to tell himself that he was stalling, that he needed to find out more about what Rhinedottir was up to.
To keep an eye on her so that she didn't cause any more harm or destruction.
'And what better way to do that than by finding out more about her apprentice.'
Once Aether started to try and focus more on her apprentice he slowly found himself becoming more interested in studying the male than keeping watch of Rhinedottir herself.
This allowed him to begin finding out more and more about Albedo as the years went on.
Like how whenever he discovered something new his face would light up in excitement, his eyes sparkling in delight.
Or how he tried to sketch as often as he could, a lot of the scenery throughout Teyvat seemed to captivate him, often leaving the male speechless as he took in its beauty.
How during the rare times Albedo and his master would go into populated areas he would stick close to her, seemingly afraid of or unwilling to interact with other people.
During one of the times that he was watching the pair, he had even overheard that Albedo was actually an artificial creation of Rhinedottir herself.
All of this and more was what Aether had slowly been able to uncover.
But one thing, in particular, had grown to greatly concern him.
As the decades he'd spent watching Albedo slowly turned into centuries he had often noticed that Albedo was eager to try and please his master.
His love for her was easy to see and it made a lot of sense to Aether, Rhinedottir was essentially the male's mother.
But Rhinedottir had always come across to him as uninterested, uncaring, cold.
Aether at first chalked this up to the fact that despite having spied on the pair for as long as he had, he was still only ever really seeing small snippets of their time together.
Yet as time went on the spark of genuine want that Albedo had to try and make Rhinedottir happy or proud started to fade, any sign of it becoming more and more infrequent.
Rhinedottir herself had also started to show an increasing disinterest in Albedo as time went on as well.
At first, Aether wasn't sure about how he wanted to proceed, he had started to feel something for Albedo over the centuries but he wasn't sure if actually getting to know him and finally interacting was such a good idea.
Life wasn't always easy in the Abyss, the order that he had started with the other survivors would one day be seen as a major threat throughout Teyvat.
On top of that, their goal to one day topple the Gods would end up becoming way too dangerous for the blonde alchemist to be involved in.
But... Aether kept thinking back to how defeated and upset Albedo always seemed with how Rhinedottir had seemingly stopped caring.
He just couldn't stand the thought of Albedo being sad anymore, he had witnessed it for far too long at this point.
'Lumine was right, I always did think with my heart.'
A few months later he had finally come up with a plan that he was happy with.
Well... a basic outline of one at least.
He would find a way to get Albedo away from his master... somehow.
Then he and Albedo would get to know each other... hopefully Albedo wouldn't hate him.
Finally, Albedo would become a prince alongside him and they would rule the Abyss order... if Albedo agreed that is.
Aether sighed before bringing his right hand up to rub his forehead, he was starting to worry and overthink way too much.
He just needed to spend at least a little more time trying to work on his plan, maybe then he would feel confident enough to proceed.
One more month passed.
An informant had spotted Rhinedottir in Mondstadt.
It was finally time for Aether to make his move.
It was finally time to meet Albedo face to face.
Strangely enough, Rhinedottrir was actually alone when he finally found her, but this quickly changed as a woman soon walked up to her.
They seemed friendly enough with each other from the way that they were interacting, Aether could've sworn that he even saw a bit of emotion actually appear on Rhinedottir's face for once which he found to be strange.
Both Rhinedottir and the other woman soon started to walk away from where they had been standing and talking, prompting Aether to start following the two of them from the shadows.
After a few minutes of this, both women soon arrived at a small house that was tucked away in a corner of the city.
Once they had both entered the building, the two women headed for what looked to be a kitchen while Aether situated himself near one of the open windowa of the house, staying out of sight as much as he could.
For the next couple of hours, Aether listened to the two women talk, the topic that they were discussing of great interest to him.
Rhinedottir, it seemed that she wanted to hand Albedo off to the woman she was talking with. According to her plan, she was going to leave him by himself while he was asleep with nothing more than a letter that would instruct him on what to do next.
Throughout this conversation Aether started to become overjoyed, it looked like he had accidentally stumbled upon an excellent opportunity to get Albedo to come with him.
He would just need to wait for Rhinedottir to leave.
As the sun started to set, Aether heard the two women start to say their goodbyes, the two embracing in a small hug before Rhinedottir began to head off, giving one last verbal goodbye as she went.
Staying in the shadows, Aether followed Rhinedottir, with her soon starting to head outside of Mondstadt, her destination becoming clearer as she eventually began heading up into Dragonspine.
Throughout the time that he followed her up into the mountain, Aether did his best to be as quiet as he could when it came to using any heat sources that he came across, this entire process ended up making the tailing that he was doing take much longer than he felt was necessary.
Rhinedottir, on the other hand, was acting like the cold wasn't affecting her which only served to confuse the male.
Soon enough, Rhinedottir came to a small campsite that was situated about halfway up the mountain, Aether's heart stopping at the sight he was greeted with.
There he was, he was finally staring at Albedo again, he was sitting on a small sleeping bag that was currently folded up, his attention focused on a book that he was reading.
At this point, Aether took the time to quickly hide before he started to do the one thing that he had become pretty familiar with by this point which was watching the two of them go about their tasks.
This continued for a few hours before they both started to turn in for the night, the two of them getting into their sleeping bags before falling asleep.
Well, Albedo did anyway.
Once she was sure that Albedo was sleeping, Rhinedottir got up from her own sleeping spot and started to quietly pack away what little belongings she seemed to care about.
Before leaving the campsite she reached into one of her coat pockets and produced a letter, this, she put near Albedo's sleeping form.
Then, in a flash, she was gone.
Aether knew that he needed to get that letter, if Albedo noticed it then his 'plan' would be ruined, but he couldn't bring himself to move, he was frozen in fear
This was ridiculous, he had been thinking about this moment for a very long time, the day that he and Albedo would finally get to properly meet.
But at that moment, the doubt that had been in the back of his mind for so long now was starting to overwhelm him.
He needed to stop the negative thoughts swirling through his mind, Aether took some time to think of anything that could help with this.
After a while, he was eventually able to find himself an answer, one that he was more than content with.
He could make Albedo happy.
He could make him smile again.
He could give him what Rhinedottir seemingly never had.
An honest, loving connection with someone.
The image of Albedo being happy. Genuinely, truly happy because of him, it was enough to temporarily dispel the doubt in his mind, allowing him to be able to move once more.
Sneaking forward, he soon arrived at the base of Albedo's sleeping bag, slowly and carefully, he started to reach out for the letter.
H stopped a few times during this process because of the small noises that Albedo was making. Still, eventually, he had what he wanted as he gripped onto the letter tightly before repeating the same process to bring it towards himself.
Feeling relief, Aether stuffed the letter into one of his coat pockets. He would have one of the Abyss mages burn it later.
Once he was done he briefly looked around the campsite before deciding that his best course of action would be to wait by Albedo's side until he woke up in the morning.
Finding a small patch of somewhat soft ground not too far from the other, he sat down and waited. Aether felt that seeing a stranger sitting in what Albedo considered to be a safe location may be better than him randomly showing up out of nowhere while he was confused about his master's whereabouts.
Or... Albedo would be even more scared and confused because of Aether sitting somewhat comfortably nearby when he awoke.
Dammit, he was overthinking again.
The hours passed and Aether's nerves only continued to get worse, he just wanted the wait to be over with already.
By this point, the male had started to poke the remains of the campfire with a stick, the boredom settling in.
Then out of nowhere a small groaning sound could be heard, breaking through the silence.
Quickly turning to look at his sleeping companion, he saw that he was starting to stir. Seeing this, Aether started to go over the details of his plan in his head time and time again.
'Alright, just like I planned. I tell him that I'm an old friend of his master and that she has decided to have me watch over him while she goes and continues doing... well, whatever it is that she does.'
Just as Aether finished this thought, Albedo started to sit up, the blonde stretching a little bit before he opened his eyes and spent a couple of seconds looking around. The male's gaze soon landed on Aether causing a look of shock to appear on his face.
At that moment, all Aether could think was that Albedo's eyes were even more beautiful up close.
'Alright,' Aether thought, snapping out of his trance.
'Here we go.'