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Diluc gasped, pain and heat racing through his body as he dropped to the ground, gritting his teeth while his Vision flickered at his hip, growing horrifically dim for several long moments then flaring brightly with each flash of pain before settling.
It had been almost a week now that he had been training with Dainsleif, and every time he used his Vision or claymore it was as though it backfired on him.
It hurt .
Panting into the grass, he slowly dragged himself up to his knees, sitting back on his heels and brushing sweat soaked locks off his face as he looked up at Dainsleif.
“Explain,” he demanded, his voice hoarse and raspy. “Why–why does this keep happening?”
“I did explain,” Dainsleif said, with more patience than Diluc thinks he would have had in this same situation. “Your Vision is divine, Master Diluc, and Khaenri’ah is not. You’re killing yourself trying to use both. So long as that star is with you, you cannot use your Vision or claymore.”
Diluc swallowed thickly. “I don’t want to rely on the Abyss,” he murmured.
“Until we can find a safe way to be rid of it, I’m afraid you’re not going to have a choice. If you continue to use your Vision in combination with the star, eventually it will overload and kill you. It will leave such abyssal markings on your body, on your corpse, that there will be no doubt in the Anemo Archon’s mind of who killed his favorite mortal.”
Diluc shifted. “He wouldn’t hurt Kaeya.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Diluc narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t spent months watching Kaeya and Venti become drinking buddies, both knowing damn well who the other was, for Dainsleif to imply such a thing.
“ Yes .” He replied firmly. “I am sure.”
Dainsleif hummed. “I suppose denial is a prominent mortal feature,” he murmured. He sighed. “Regardless, Master Diluc, your death would not be quick or painless. It would be slow and agonizing and you would suffer through every single second of it.”
Diluc grit his teeth, forcing himself to his feet. “You’re already manipulating me into this,” he growled. “Stop trying to scare me too.”
“I am trying to save your life.”
“No, you’re trying to save Kaeya’s .” All at once, all of Diluc’s anger faded out of him in a rush and he sighed, shoulders slumping. “Which is the entire reason I’m allowing you to manipulate me in the first place.”
Silence fell between them for a long time. “In the end, it is ultimately your choice,” Dainsleif said. “But if you were to choose the wrong option–”
“Kaeya would suffer.” Dainsleif nodded. “He hates me, you know.”
“And that is reason to ensure his death?”
“No.”
“Do you hate him?”
“Diluc…I’m from Khaenri’ah.”
Diluc didn’t hear him right. Surely he hadn’t heard his brother right, surely the storm was too loud. But no, Kaeya was looking up at him with sorrow in his eyes and Diluc knew, without a doubt, that he had heard his brother loud and clear.
Their fight was too fast and too long, the wet of the rain and heat from his Vision blinding Diluc to his actions and the true consequences they would bear. He was only snapped out of his rage by the ice of Kaeya’s brand new Vision freezing the flames on his blade and sending him flying back from his brother.
Neither of them moved then, for a very long time, as they stared at the Vision hovering above Kaeya. When his brother accepted it and the true reality of what he had just tried to do sunk down on the Ragnvindr heir, Diluc slowly stood and stalked over to Kaeya who frantically got to his feet, fear in his eye.
“I want you out,” Diluc said. “Out of the house, out of the family, out of my life .”
Kaeya trembled before him. “Diluc–”
“I hate you!”
With his own words echoing in his head, Diluc drew in a soft breath and let it out slowly.
“No,” he finally replied. “No, I…I don’t hate Kaeya. I never have.”
“Yet you told him–”
“My father had just died at my own hand,” Diluc said firmly. “His injuries were caused by a rogue Fatui Delusion that I have officially been gifted by the Cryo Archon and which now sits in the bottom of a drawer in my desk. His timing was…” Diluc laughed breathlessly, weakly. “The worst possible time he ever could have chosen. I thought…based on his timing, I thought–”
“That he was admitting to killing your father.”
“I thought he was saying that the Drake was his plan,” Diluc murmured. “He stood there telling me he was from Khaenri’ah, that he’d been sent to spy on Mondstadt, and all I could think was that he was telling me because he had killed my father and wanted to tell me.”
“Prince Kaeya and Khaenri’ah had nothing to do with the death of Crepus Ragnvindr–”
“I know,” Diluc cut in. “I know, I do. I know that now, but at the time I didn’t and at the time I really just saw him as the traitor he wanted me to see him as and I gave him exactly what he wanted and…” Diluc sucked in a breath, letting it out in a rush as he squeezed his eyes closed. “Kaeya can’t know about this. Not because you asked me not to tell him you’re here, but because he’s already accused me indirectly of being a traitor.”
“Perhaps it would be wise to not meddle with things you cannot handle on your own. I won’t always be interested in stepping in to help someone who has sided with the Abyss.”
“And I don’t need to give him any more reason to think he’s right.” Drawing in a breath, Diluc reached up to retie his hair. “I won't use my Vision anymore. I’ll still wear it, of course, everyone will grow suspicious if I don’t, but…” he glanced down at it before closing his eyes. “I won’t use it anymore.”
Dainsleif nodded solemnly. “I’m only thinking of your health, Master Diluc.”
“Yeah,” Diluc murmured. “I’m sure you are.”