Chapter Text
There was an ache in-between his eyes as Kaeya rubbed them again gently with both his hands for the umpteenth time today.
The clock was nearing 9 pm.
His shift was from 7 to 6 today.
Glaring at the pile of papers he still had yet to go through, he was a bit put out.
Jean was sick this week, coming down with the flu as he and Lisa, Eula, and Albedo were all appointed as substitute grand masters in the meantime.
Having a team of 4 was great, however, this meant that they had to delegate their other works and responsibilities to their other co-workers.
Many were not ready up to par for taking over their usual tasks.
However, with some swift gameplay from Kaeya, he was able to rank everyone into shape, appointing the ones most ready and likely to not crumble from this new schedule.
Noelle took over as acting Cavalry captain, finally getting a pass into the knights.
Kaeya was already looking forward to having such a promising assistant with him as he really enjoyed spending time with her. He recommended her to his position, knowing what a great gem she would be alongside him.
Noelle had already worked so hard for them, filling in all the empty spaces and lending a helping hand, whenever someone needed it.
One would simply turn and Noelle was there, ready to support.
Kaeya never really asked for her help, although he had been tasked by Jean a long time ago to watch over her more self-destructive tendencies, of running herself into the ground and over taking too many duties, if she simply couldn’t finish.
Kaeya felt like he was watching himself in these instances…which was why he knew when to gently stop her and urge her to take a break.
He almost always managed to fool everyone whenever he himself felt like breaking: from stress, from work, or from awful nightmares.
Noelle would simply look at him dead on, and she’d ask him if he was okay.
That simple action of being asked okay…was something he relished then…and also fearfully dreaded.
It was eerily reminiscent of Diluc’s stare back when they had been children.
Diluc would know as Lisa did.
As Jean did.
As Noelle did.
A look. A look at him. Past the mask. Past the fake.
And if he wasn’t hiding it well enough... well. A small slip in his mask would show the pain.
Then their eyebrows would crease, a question blossoming in their retinas…as they’d ask if he was okay.
If he needed something or help or company or guidance.
Crepus was also the same and Adelinde.
Crepus knew more so than Diluc did at the time…always hyper aware of when he was feeling depressed and or starving himself because he didn’t feel like he deserved such happy and warm things in his life.
Kaeya then gasped as he felt a single tear roll down his cheek.
Although, it had been years, he didn’t want to think about his father Crepus nor his birth father.
His mother.
The adults he had once loved…were still too tough to think about.
His father was who knows where.
And his mother was who knows where.
Yet, Kaeya knew.
Kaeya knew where they were.
A harbinger.
An abyss turned monster.
Both his parental figures simply far away, out of reach…
One with a plan and the other perhaps…with no memories of him at all, other than to rend all humans into the ground.
He only wished that he could see her…recognize her somehow.
She was a rift hound from the last he had seen her…all those years ago in the cataclysm.
She had lunged herself out of their apartment building in hopes to put much distance between him and her…before her mind would warp and erase all her humanity.
Kaeya still ached then…because he hoped that someday he would be able to see her up here…and end her suffering, if she was even alive.
Maybe she had already passed for all he knew…and if she did…then he still wished her all the peace the stars had to offer for them.
Kaeya put the quill back in the ink pot then, realizing he had too many tears in his eyes now.
The streak of ink was still slightly wet on the side of his palm, as he eyed it angrily.
It had dried mostly into his skin and he didn’t quite like it when there were marks on him like that.
It reminded him of the corruption from the abyss as it turned people.
His own memories are hazy from back then…but he was sure that he too had turned somewhat.
Cut, jagged, and snipped memories of his palms and feet turning black, as if he had submerged them in the blackest of inks, came to mind.
But he doesn’t remember.
He remembers something about piercing his neck with his own finger… because he was afraid that he’d go insane and kill everyone in the bunker that he had loved so much.
He couldn’t bare that. He wouldn't allow that.
He'd rather die.
How his father saved him…he can’t remember.
It’s all hazy.
And his memories seemed jumbled, out of sorts, incorrect.
He can’t decipher which to be true or false.
Memories of a hateful father he never saw…versus a loving father who was so kind to him and held him like he was all the lights in that cave, that ever existed.
Kaeya simply preferred to not dwell on the past then. Mostly because it didn’t make sense.
And because the family he had here in the land of the wind was much more recent. Pleasant.
Much more real than any of the feelings he had back then.
Sighing, he looked at the clock.
It was 9:40. When?
Ah. He zoned out.
Time just flew on by.
So much so that the sun had already set and his lights were off in his office.
The last summer rays of sunlight still lingered on his mind as he sighed.
Guess, he really should call it a day and head down to angel’s share and get a drink or two.
A strange pinch was then on the bridge of his nose, making him horribly congested.
“Oh? What the fuck?”
Kaeya just realized that perhaps he’s getting sick too.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he admonished the universe.
Did he really have to fall ill now? When there was still so much work to be done?
He had been getting antsy to go out in the field and reconnect with his spy network…instead of basically cloning himself to be Jean’s glorified assistant clerical worker.
“Shit,” he quickly hissed, already shaking his head in contempt for his stupid shitty immune system. Was never the best.
Quickly, he wiped his eyes, readying himself up as he groaned and placed his palms on his forehead.
Why was he feeling so heavy all of a sudden?
Then an unexpected vertigo hit him, straight in the face as he couldn’t help but shriek in writhing torment.
The pain enfolded and increased without warning that he gagged, choking on the air.
Sharply he leaned down on the desk, unable to get up, unable to utter a single word as he opened his mouth and had spit fling out.
Trembling terribly with every part of his body, he suffered in silence.
Kaeya tried not to panic as he blinked rapidly, the swimming sensation of his stomach and mind chaotically churning at every breath.
‘What in the abyss?’
He had never felt so sick, so fast…and then the worst of it came to pass as he felt like his mind was splitting open.
Voices then flitted in as he grabbed at his blue brittle hair and pulled.
The pain became so unbearable he could only shudder and gasp quick intakes of air…because he felt himself choking.
“Ah. Ah. Ah.”
Everyone was crying.
Everyone who was Khaenri’ahn and with the curse was mourning altogether as one.
Their souls were reaching out towards each other…the stars in their eyes…uniting their plight.
They were dying.
A sickening heat then smothered him. It felt as if his blood was boiling…as if corruption was swishing in and out like a cruel disease, wreaking havoc inside him.
He felt his vision violently brighten as pangs of frost burned his thigh.
Then everything became heavy, as if all his circuitry cut off.
The room darkened as he felt as if he was floating…or submerged in some strange trance, unable to break free.
And then, Kaeya could see from the eyes of one of them.
A tear was in the darkness that he swam and floated in…a blurry image and then familiar voices cut through the fog.
Why was the traveler there? Paimon?
He heard Dainsleif’s voice.
That was Dainsleif’s voice.
He…would never forget it.
Was he watching through Dain’s eyes? H-how?
He wanted to almost call out…ask him where he was…where they were…Paimon…Aether.
But he was unsure if Dain would even be able to hear him.
What was this magic?
Were they sharing their minds together as a link or bond?
Surreal as it was, Kaeya felt that he wasn’t watching the images alone….
He felt that all the monster kind were watching behind Dainsleif’s eyes, that singular focus onto whatever was drawing them all together.
They saw the soul of a serpent knight be released as the strange contraption turned off.
It was bittersweet because Kaeya felt like he saw that man before…but it felt like an echo…an eternity ago.
Then with a flick, the images dispersed, cutting all the cords that had kept Kaeya together.
He passed out on the desk, looking as if he simply was asleep.
Only a little dribble of blood flowed from his nose and ears, as he breathed in and out in small gasps.
The other knights who passed the hallway saw Kaeya’s office with the lights off.
Noelle had knocked on his door asking if he was there.
When she heard no answer, she simply said, “Guess, he left back home, as I didn’t see him go the knight’s dorm rooms.”
She walked away.
And if Kaeya remained out cold and suffering as his fever climbed…his body sore from that whole experience… did he remain on his desk.
At some point in the night when all was silent and cold, he felt himself become conscious again.
Even if it was ever so slightly, his crusted and battered eyelid slightly opened, adjusting to the blur that came in and out.
He saw the moonlight enter his room. Trail across the fika plant he watered every so often.
The leaves looked like glowing little crystals then. It was almost pretty, if he had the mind to enjoy it.
He had managed throughout the numbing pain to get his eye half open…however, he was unable to move or get up.
Everything hurt.
It hurt as if he had fallen from a high place and kept rolling down a cliff, hitting and smacking every part of himself over and over again.
That notion…felt familiar too.
Had he done something like that before? Thrown off a cliff? In battle maybe? He can't remember.
He remained there on the desk, as much as he hated this.
Grimacing he shuddered as he realized that he had to get someone’s attention sooner rather than later…anyone’s…
Anyones.
Would anyone even notice him missing right now?
No, his mind replied, and if he managed to bite his numb lip in self anger…did he at least manage to do so.
It was hard to breathe then. It had been getting harder and it was harder even now to do so.
It felt like his lungs collapsed and Kaeya noticed that his vision had been acting up since he saw those strange images.
Those chilling torrent of voices all screeching about the pain.
The pain that he shared with them.
Kaeya suddenly felt bad because every Khaenri’ahn was in this position then.
Every Khaenri’ahn left must be on the floor or ground, curled up in themselves…suffering like this.
He felt pity then…for the hilichurls, abyss mages, and lectors, mitachurls, and samachurls…not so much the rift hounds…
And as strange as it was, he also felt comfort in this.
Comfort that this pain he was suffering was not only his to hold.
His father…the one alive…was he in pain like this too?
Conflicted, Kaeya pushed the thought weakly aside.
It was…getting harder to think actually.
That alarmed him.
He felt too cold.
Groggy even, as he felt his own mental words slur.
It was cold.
The cold was hurting him.
The cold he knows so well.
His vision was hurting him.
But he couldn’t even take the pendant off…not even able to move his hand.
Or even flex a finger. He felt stiff. It was really beginning to hurt a lot more as the minutes passed on by.
Realizing that perhaps it was better to keep on sleeping, he let the silence continue.
Maybe the cold would shut off soon as he mentally chanted for his vision to turn off.
Usually, it would.
Did it? He didn’t know.
The soft ticking of the clock was then his only companion in the vague emptiness of the office.
His thoughts lingered as to why such a strange thing happened today out of all days.
As small tufts of cold air fell from his lips.
Why did he see Aether there?
Why did he see Dainsleif?
Where were they?
Why was everyone crying in pain?
What was that gadget? Would it turn on again and hurt them all?
Monster sounds and his old Khaenri’ah tongue were the only things that had been chanted then, all in hysteria and agony.
But everyone silenced when the soul of that knight rose up into space.
His own mental screams also becoming snuffed out as the pain sharply ended, as if it never had been there.
Kaeya coughed out, feeling iron and this thick liquid bubble from his mouth.
It tasted disgusting…and wrong as he tried to cough more of it out.
Realizing he was…a lot worse off than he thought, fear gripped him.
He can't go to sleep like this. No way.
Was he going to die like this?
In his stupid office?
Tomorrow was his day off.
Would anyone even notice him not well off or even still there?
Then Kaeya realized, he had to move.
He had to at least get to the hallway.
That way someone would be able to find him in the morning.
So as much as the pain erupted with each small movement, he tried to pry himself off the desk, rolling himself onto the floor.
It was only when he did and fell onto the carpet, did he scream.
He hadn’t prepared himself for the sensitivity of all his body.
It had felt as if he had been pumped with lead and couldn’t feel much of anything, as sluggish as he was, while he was on the desk.
But the moment his chin connected with the floor, he passed out again, completely out cold.
His vision then acted on his behalf, shimmering a shield in the dark, glowing with the hint of light blue that he had grown accustomed to always seeing.
Soft wisps of a green light sparkled around, healing him from the inside ever so lightly.
He coughed unconsciously, spitting out the blood that had ruptured when the pain overtook his body from before.
A purple hue painted itself under his eyes and on his lips then.
His nails also became slightly purple as not enough oxygen entered his body.
Kaeya’s vision remained on and active all night then, continuously working to save its owner from the exhaustion.
However, elemental energy itself was also something that couldn’t be safe to use for long durations of time.
Nonetheless, without its owner mentally turning it off, his vision blared on the whole night.
Exhaustion took its toll then as the room began to freeze.
The radiating waves of cold froze the chairs, encrusting everything with a light blue film of ice and frost. Snow then began to appear as it gently fell around, all around him.
It would have been a beautiful scenic sight had one not seen the poor state the cavalry captain was in.
That night Diluc closed his doors at 3 am, one more hour open than usual.
It had been strange that his brother never came through the doors and ordered his drink.
He had kept it one more hour open in hopes to have Kaeya come. But he didn't. He never arrived.
If there was anything he knew that Kaeya was loyal to, was in getting his supply of wine to unwind when the day was spent.
And he knew that Kaeya had been cooped up in the headquarters, covering for Jean all this week.
Albedo and Eula were out on the field much more often.
Amber was with the recruits teaching.
Noelle was doing Kaeya’s job currently as he ran into her all week.
She was modest, kind, and not ready to be any spymaster.
So, if Diluc found himself frowning and sitting down with her to go over Kaeya’s list of connections and his, did he do so only because he wanted Mondstadt to be safe and running smoothly.
Not because he wanted to actually help his brother out.
Be clear- That was not his intention.
No.
He was actually rather upset at how Kaeya threw all of this onto the girl. She at least needed to be prepared to enter the more shady and darker parts of Mondstadt transactions.
He was a bit relieved to see that Kaeya hadn’t really given her that much to do with the spy network or with dealings that were a bit heavier, handed off to her.
Just the lighter stuff. He was quickly able to train her then within two days while they shared lunch together at Cat's Tail.
And he put out his offer to her for guidance should her knucklehead of a boss fail to do otherwise.
She had chuckled into her hands, disagreeing, saying that Kaeya had hoped to teach her…but there simply was a lot on their plates.
That she had gotten a promise to learn more from Kaeya when Jean returned.
Diluc huffed, crossing his arms, but admired the fact that at least Kaeya had someone reasonable enough and able to defend his back.
It didn’t irk him in the slightest as he knew his ex-little brother was a handful when it came to evading things, he didn’t like…like shots and nurse checkups.
Didn't like fighting things that were cryo based…and from what he darkly noticed…also pyro based.
There was a quiver of fear whenever they faced fire based monsters in the abyss alongside Aether.
If they had to party together Diluc would see for a fraction of a second Kaeya’s carefully placed mask, crumble, when they had to face pyro: be it slime, mage, lector, regisvine, whopperflower, or other.
Diluc always felt bad then.
He doesn’t ever think Kaeya had a fear of them before…but he had made that so.
He planted that fear in him.
So even if Kaeya did have to fight those monsters…if they were at least in each other's presence, he at least tried to defend Kaeya's blind side.
If Kaeya ever noticed…he made no comment or action upon it.
And Diluc didn’t pry.
Closing up the shop, finally with the turn of his key in the door, he sighed.
It was warm tonight as he finally inhaled the air…as it was much cleaner than the smell of booze and wine.
Diluc was wondering if he should check in with Kaeya then.
Just to see how he was doing.
It was late.
Kaeya should be sleeping by now…but something…something was bother him about the fact that Kaeya never showed.
Did he get sick too from the flu and come down weak all alone in his home?
That would be something Kaeya would do.
Scowling, he stalked his way to the apartment near the most edge corner in Mondstadt, towards the right where the wall’s converged, before the stairs led up to the cathedral and its main plaza.
Diluc scaled the apartments walls and went over the balcony that was outside of Kaeya’s room.
The scent of calla lilies and lamp grass, as well as some spare cecilla’s and sweet flowers, wafted a nice scent from the pots on the floor near the railing.
A lone glass cup and empty bottle still remained on the small iron table.
Diluc sighed.
They weren’t exactly enemies anymore…but they weren’t exactly friends either.
They had been more on the friendlier side of things lately though…especially after Aether came to Mondstadt and bonded them as his traveling companions.
Amber and Kaeya were his first friends.
Diluc got to know Aether much later, but he enjoyed his presence and could sympathize with Aether searching for his sister.
As a once older brother, he could relate to those strong emotions of wanting to know if your sibling was safe, or happy, or emotional, or lost.
And then Diluc froze because as much as he didn’t want to admit it…he was doing just that.
He was checking up on Kaeya.
He almost wanted to berate himself as displeased as it sounds.
He shouldn’t be here.
Kaeya might have just wanted to head in early to sleep for something that would have him wake early.
He was such a moron.
If Diluc turned around, he realized that the bottle and the cup were still in his hands.
He set them down on the table and just decided to take a quick peek in the room.
Kaeya often left his window slightly open and the curtains also pulled apart.
He had reminded Kaeya from time to time that it wasn’t safe to do so.
Kaeya would just wave his hand in a dismissive way as if he suddenly couldn’t hear.
Diluc saw no one on the bed.
It actually looked made, as if no one ever got there today.
Strange, he questioned, quirking up his brow.
A little dry in his throat, he licked his lips, tugging at the glove on his hands, a bit from the hem.
Strange, he once thought again.
Then he thought, “Well, Kaeya must be passed out on the sofa.”
So Diluc climbed down and peered through the first-floor window.
Again, the couch was empty.
That was so perplexing.
Had the knight never made it back home?
Now alarm bells were ringing.
Diluc knew he shouldn't be snooping like this but suddenly he felt a vague sense of dread.
Stomping the fire out in his gut, he reasoned, “Kaeya must still be in his office then…or in his room up at the headquarters.”
He frowned.
Kaeya rarely stayed in the room of the headquarters from what he knew.
Although, it would make sense with the amount of work that had been placed onto him…that he’d reside there tonight.
Thinking he should just drop all of this now, he turned away and headed back home, unaware that he would face grim news later on this morning.
If things went more wrong, then he would arrive back to Mondstadt’s gates and open up angel’s share unaware of what befell his brother. And by that time, all help would be too late.
On his way back to the winery, it was a calm night.
There were no monster noises that he’d usually hear.
Usually in the night, the monsters weren’t as active, tending to their little huts and nests and also unwinding like they did.
This time, he found it odd.
It was oh so silent.
More than usual.
Something is not right.
So as Diluc switched tactics, he blended himself in the shrubbery, walking paper light as he had copied from Kaeya so long ago.
Diluc had always been the better of the two in both brute strength and agility.
It was only now after the years apart, that Kaeya had learned a trick or two with that strange warping teleportation speed.
Diluc himself had tried to mimic it, but it was a hard move to copy.
Still, he did brush up in dance and ballet in his spare time.
He wouldn’t be caught dead explaining this to the public, but he knew the importance of flexibility.
Especially when it came to life and death situations out on the field.
A second could derail a deadly knife or arrow or cut.
A twist of the ankle, a bend of the knee or hip, everything counted when one was fighting for their very lives.
And he had placed his life on the line again and again.
After Kaeya wasn’t there by his side anymore as his half and shadow... as his light…he had to defend himself alone.
The winter tundras and hills of snow and ice were always stark reminders of Kaeya, even when he didn’t want to see them represent him.
He could still see the faint snow falling all around them when he realized that his dawn of retribution had extinguished out like faint echoes.
The white smoke sizzled his flames out as it rose to the air lazily and unwanted.
And so, for all those years where he resided in that harsh winter land, watching the snow gather round, he hated it with all his heart.
He hated that for a moment when he saw the smoke clear way on that rainy day, he saw a burst of snowflakes twirl around them, brushing away the hair on his face gently.
The ice didn’t hurt him nor the cold and his mind reached because it had made no sense.
Everything froze around them, like jagged icicles…and the air was frighteningly frigid.
Yet, there was no harm to him and the cold didn’t bite.
Encased in wonder for those few seconds, before the rain pelted back down again on each of the once brothers, Diluc only saw the shield glimmer and break down like shards.
He saw the blood all over Kaeya’s body and the slashes.
He blinked and he saw how a slash had plunged through Kaeya’s throat and stomach.
He didn’t remember making that.
But the hilt in his hands knew.
He had just done so.
But flesh, could it be so soft?
Like paper?
Like grass?
One swift movement and then spurts of red water leaked out from the tissue so quietly.
Kaeya looked at him with fear in his eyes, as one was filled with blood and the other always so cold.
Lilac ice grey and blue.
The colors he always woke up to as they bunked together sometimes.
Tremors of fear seized him then because he knew then that he had killed him.
Kaeya spasmed, coughing out blood from his mouth while reaching in a daze for a huge pebble on the ground.
Then sparkles of green lit up around Kaeya as Diluc saw in real time, the cut on Kaeya’s throat knit together enough to stop the bleeding.
The gash on the chest also seemed to knit as Diluc realized that Kaeya had acquired a vision with slight healing powers.
It didn’t fully heal all the wounds as blood seemed to watercolor away, seeping into all Kaeya’s clothes.
A dead dull look was in Kaeya’s then, as he remembered his brother mouthing to him, while throwing the vision away back into the mud.
“I’m sorry. I should have died just. But my mind screamed…I want to live…you…you…can try again. I promise this time…I won’t…heal myself. Send me to the abyss, Luc. Send me there to where I actually belong. Hate me. I'm...sorry.”
And Kaeya smiled but before Diluc could even flinch or move, Kaeya lurched forward and fell face into the mud and rain.
Diluc still hates that day to the bone.
He doesn’t regret what he did afterwards however.
How he dragged Kaeya to the Winery despite his burning desire to burn the traitor to ash. Wish his life into the hell of Mare Jivari.
Condemning Kaeya’s soul to a place where the wind does not even blow.
Diluc knows that the smell of dandelion’s cling to all whom the lord Barbato’s claims as his children.
So even when Diluc trudged through the rain, with his unconscious brother in his hands, he couldn’t understand why the scent of the dandelions still clung onto Kaeya.
“Didn’t he just confess to you…and to me, Barbatos? That he is scum from Khaenri’ah? That godless, soulless place? So why?” He remembered crying out but the rain was too loud.
The water merged and swirled with his tears as he looked to the forlorn and forsaken sky.
“So why?! Why does this bastard still smell of dandelions and wine? Why does he still smell like us? Your real children of the world above? Why do you still forgive this sinner?”
Diluc screamed and yelled, crying and angry, his temperature sky rocketing, as he was sure he was burning Kaeya.
His hairs ignited only to be watered down by the rain.
“Why didn’t you save my father! Why did you bring this rat into our home! Why didn’t you just up and kill him before he ever came into my life?! Dad! Dad! What do I do? You were just alive…you were just here along with me…I love you so much…am I even…doing the right thing…bringing him back home? I tried to kill him…he deserves it.”
Diluc remembers how he let go of Kaeya and had him slump back down onto the mud. Rain pelting the sinner's face impassively
He remembers how he left and arrived home all by himself. He went to sleep, angry, upset, ignoring the bewildered cries of his maid’s and servants, wondering why he came back so bloodied.
He tried to smother their cries as to where Kaeya was and their own grieving and disbelief as to how his father was dead…and how they were going to proceed with even living a normal functioning life?
If he woke up hours later in the wee morning, while it still rained, did he.
He walked back to where he left Kaeya and Kaeya was still there. Kaeya was still alive.
At first, he just looked at him with scorn and took out his claymore once again.
He could barely see the light in the cryo vision, gifted by another insane archon…an archon…who even dared to pity and save a boy from a nation, they themselves destroyed.
He pointed it towards the sleeping boy, too broken, exhausted, and pale.
But Diluc couldn’t do it then.
The passion that enflamed and boiled his anger had tided over.
He…didn’t want to kill the last part of his once family.
He’d leave that to the gods or fate.
That was why he left then because he refused to see it.
He left Kaeya inside of the entrance, the blood seeping into the lavish carpet. Diluc scrawled a note leaving his wishes behind.
To ban Kaeya.
But to save his life if he dared to survive the wounds.
That Kaeya would be stripped from all the accolades of being a Ragnvindr and that he would return back home when he had answers on the item that his father used.
To which had backfired so horribly onto his beloved father…so much so…that the pain was so great…that he asked the greatest pain to be done.
He was asked with distressed eyes…gasping breathes…hands trembling on his wrists…to be killed. By him. His son. On his bloody birthday.
Crepus pulled out his dagger, with shivering hands.
“Son. K-kill me please. I’m…s-sorry.”
“No.”
“The pain…is s-so much. I love you…I love you more anything…but I can’t…I can’t hold on. It hurts too much. P-please end me.”
“No!” he roared with a desperation so strong.
“Son, it can only be you. I d-don’t want to d-die…like this…make it swift…make it p-painless. Son. Please. I love you…please…only you can do it. I’m sorry. I’m s-sorry. I love y-you.”
Diluc remembers still the soft touch of his dad’s sturdy and strong hands cup his face…trying to smile…for him.
“Please son…let me meet your m-mom again. I’m sorry. I’m a c-coward…the pain…is too great. P-please.”
Diluc kept it steady the dagger while his dad clutched both the wrist with his hands.
“You are my greatest gift Diluc. You and Kaeya. My treasures…I’m sorry. I’m sorry I used this. I’m sorry…I wish…I could see you both grow up. I…will be proud of whatever you do Diluc…please…
remember that. That I love you…always praying for you…wherever I’ll end up to be. And we’ll meet again…but live a grand life…live a life without regrets. Full of color. Kaeya and you…will get
through this. Together. Tell him…tell him I’m also sorry…that I have to leave…tell him…that it is okay…no matter his destiny…I still…loved him. Diluc…please…my love…let it end.”
“Father…”
Diluc steadied the dagger to slit his father’s throat…but instead…he couldn’t…so he aimed for the heart.
“Father!” He rose his hand, the glint of the blade unforgiving.
“Diluc…my everything…thank you…and I’m sorry. Forgive m-me…only…when you’ve lived a f-full life son. My sunlight…I’m sorry…that any of t-this…ever happened. Now go. Do it. I’m ready."
And his father smiled at him through the pain.
And Diluc did it.
He remembers how effortless it was.
Like paper.
Like grass.
So easy to slice into flesh.
And he saw his father’s eyes…their beautiful lights dim into a dull wine red he never wished to look at again. And to always look at.
His haven.
His treasure.
His father.
The last parting words echoed deeply.
And Diluc remembers it now once more as he walks on familiar ground.
He freezes then…because hilichurls are on the ground.
They’re dead.
Diluc raises his claymore, manifesting from the void…and walks around…looking for signs of struggle. Snapped branches and footprints. Indents on the grass or brush.
Nothing.
Deciding to keep going he finds more monsters all on the ground.
Some are alive clutching their heads and chest.
Many are dead.
“Was there a plague or illness of some sort?”
He noticed the blood coming from most of their nostril holes in the masks and their ears, staining the threads of hair on the sides with red.
It was unnerving to say the least.
Diluc all but decides to leave when he hears a weakened abyss mage.
Then another. There is a group and they were all shield less, hidden from view behind a thicket of trees.
Shield less in its natural habitat...something he hasn’t ever had the privilege to see before.
It was something he took for great value as he fired up his elemental energy to end their lives with one swift move.
He hears, “Ahhhh, that pain was so intense…to think…that the arch grand captain Dainsleif was alive…and well.”
Diluc froze.
He knows Dain. He partied with him a couple times already.
The strange pupil was always on his mind as he was the 2nd person, he ever saw with stars...other than Kaeya.
How did the abyss mage know of him? Is Dain in danger?
Diluc gave out a low growl, crunching the pebble below him, as he strode closer.
“Cough. I don’t think I’m going to make it till tomorrow. The pain was too much for me…I’m sorry Ekoris.”
The cryo mage whimpered as the electro one just took to patting limply the fur on the chest of the other one.
“I know. I don’t feel so good either. None of us might wake up tomorrow…that was…horrible.”
Another mage who was on its back spoke up bubbly and light, like a whisper, “It’s funny…the curse was getting lifted…I almost felt…like…we would have turned back into humans again…maybe our memories of that time would return too. To live like this…just condemned to live and become twisted…what a cruel fate.”
Diluc tapped his foot nervously as he felt the strangeness in his gut fold up.
What in the abyss were these monsters talking about?
He knows…not that they were once human? Human? They were once human?
A hydro mage pipes up, leaning still heavily on the slab of a rock behind it.
“Traveler and Dainsleif stopped the mechanism…and I’d almost curse them for it. We were at least…going to be released from this hell. Yes... always fated to die and respawn the next month, as if our lives never mattered. Always a little less of ourselves than before. If we were lucky with that contraptions success, we could have died permanently…finally be able to rest.”
He gasped.
What?
The first mage sighed huffing sadly, making a small noise of anguish and misery.
“Alas, only the ones with the most corruption can finally die and be at peace…although I know our souls go nowhere. For we are sinners…the stain of time.”
All the mages then chanted as broken…and as energetic as they could, dismal in their song, “Yes, the stain of time. Khaenri’ahn’s we were. Proud and strong. Under our king, under the eclipse dynasty. How he has changed. A shadow of himself. And the prince... even worse.”
Diluc felt his blood too loud as he tried to duck down, being successful in remaining unseen.
This information was important.
Something he didn’t think he’d ever have the luck of eavesdropping in.
Never does he nor the abyss fare well in pleasantries.
To hear…to hear…they were once…Khaenri’ahn’s!
It blew his mind.
Kaeya is Khaenri’ahn too.
What does that mean? How can these monsters be his people?
Curse. They mentioned a curse.
Is Kaeya under a curse too? How did Kaeya remain human then?
Diluc’s side temples throbbed as he had too much to think about. Growling low, he readied his weapon once more…as the abyss mages seemed to have depressed themselves after singing that little hymn of sorts.
Quieting down they did and a somber atmosphere hung around as the mages breathed quietly and in pensive thought.
“Do you think the cavalry prince also suffered this?”
Diluc blinked.
Kaeya?
Cavalry captain.
Prince.
…
Some thought crossed his mind in an explosion of sorts but he swiftly ducked out of its path.
His heart was not ready for revelations such as these, if it was even true.
The pyro mage laughed bitter, “Probably. Dainsleif suffered it and he remained human. Perhaps Pierro did too. Kaeya most likely did as well.”
Diluc’s eyes widened a little by little, fraction per second as he gaped.
What was he even hearing?
This can’t be true.
“Dainsleif cannot die. That is his curse. Pierro has the primordial primogem and the Tsaritsa’s aid. She must be healing him now. And well, Mr. calvarly Alberich…he has an unwavering attitude in fleeing death.”
“Well, not everyone remembers the dance of the mage and brute like you did. He kills us when he sees us.”
“So does Dain.”
“But they don’t kill us if we greet them with the first steps of the dance. They let us go because then they know…that we still slightly remember them…and remember our past lives.”
A wet hack was spit into the air as the electro mage said, “To think…the princess…the brother…the prince…and our once king…and our knight…and Gold…are the last remnants of the past. Tethering us into our destiny. Which one will succeed?”
“I think Pierro and the princess will make good use of us…although the princess has other needs.”
“She thinks she can save us. Still admirable.”
“Oh no! Do you think she switched that mechanism,” the cryo mage balked, stunned and floored with its fur puffing up and bristling.”
“Well…maybe…most likely. And Dainsleif had to turn it off. I thought…he’d want us to be released…so we’d all die…or at least be able to die on our own terms.”
“Maybe the curse is too irreversible…I mean look at us…look at what it did to the lectors too…we’re the only ones in our party that has…still survived.”
“Heh,” one laughed wicked, its squeaky laughter filling the silence of the night sky.
“Thus, the curse was finally being removed and then… it backfired. Hah. The gods or fate tempt us so. Such a wicked and cruel display. Still, it has killed most of us. Haha. It’s simply ironic.”
“We’ll respawn though…once again…”
“At least…we’ll be able to sleep for a while… I haven’t died in quite some time.”
“Me neither. Can’t get used to it…though I heard its nice to keep killing yourself…you can just…rest in nothing…not feel the curse in our veins…the hatred of the gods in our hearts.”
“That’s why so many parade themselves right in the open to the adventurers’ guild members and knights. So sad.”
“You know what’s most ironic of all?”
“What?”
“The captain of the knights…I met him once and I did the dance. He didn’t fight me. But I asked this.”
“What did you ask?”
“I asked him if he remembered me and he said no.”
“Did you know him back then?”
The dendro mage nodded, lifting its beak ever so slightly up and down, clearly exhausted. Ears were limp on both sides, displaying to Diluc that it was sad.
“Yes. Used to be a gardener back then in the palace. The boy…would come down and talk to me since his apartment was next to the garden patch I tended to. He’d talk to me for hours. You know his siblings bullied him. So, he’d often cry about that and about not being one of the prophecy children.”
Diluc remained there listening then…completely enraptured by all the words the abyss mages said.
He found out that Kaeya was a prince.
Kaeya had siblings.
He was bullied.
And he was/ wasn't apparently gifted with a power.
“It was a shame…he died. But he died finally having released us to the top of the crust.”
What?
Diluc’s lips trembled.
Why was he hearing this?
“I heard Dottore made the clone then. Over and over. Pierro couldn’t die too like Dain. But he slowly aged. He loved his son so he brought his son back again and again. And I was there with them for a while till…the grand argument ensued.”
“Heard about that. The lectors, mages, monsters all divided. Some remained loyal to the king. Others dispersed after being so tired after hunting down the mindless ones.”
“Kaeya was a good boy each time. He always forgot me and everyone each life. Hence why I was…a little happy then to meet him again. Sometimes in the lives he lived…he’d remember the first soul’s memories. He remembered me once a few lifetimes ago. That is why I know that it’s the same soul that travels along the new bodies. That’s why I asked him this time if he remembered me… but the stare in his lone eye told me…he knew me not.”
“Wow. That’s tough Ukuuyif.”
The mage only waved its small hand dismissively but failed, as it groaned.
“I think…we’re all going to die today, huh?”
Diluc noticed it then too, as 3 of the abyss mages seemed to have gone to sleep.
He didn’t feel their elemental power on them anymore.
They were gone.
One staggered forward in trying to reach for the other one. Eventually the last 3 abyss mages that were still alive, huddled in a group.
“It sucks dying. Hah,” one breathily laughed, ears flopping down.
“At least, we didn’t go out fighting. I hate when I’m killed by arrow, elemental, pike, or blade.”
“I hope our king lives though…despite…what happened between us all.”
“Maybe…the next time we respawn, we’ll respawn in the same location?”
“Hasn’t happened before,” one slurred, eyes narrowing down.
“Well, same plan as always. We’ll meet at 1000 wind temple and regroup there. Then we’ll be family again. Shame…we’ll forget a little more about ourselves when we come back.”
“I never want to come back,” said the pyro one so tragic and sad that Diluc gasped, sharply taken aback.
He never thought he’d ever have a shred of sympathy for the poor suckers in front of him.
Suddenly, he defragmented his blade as the lights bled away.
“Me too. But alas. We’re not corrupted enough…We still have a long way in the curse to go. Whenever it will let us rest…it’s sadly not now.”
“Goodnight then girls. I love you.”
Diluc shuddered then…he thought they were guys…or males in the least.
“Goodnight auntie.”
“Goodnight hun. May we all meet next time, safe and sound. Let us sleep a dreamless sleep, where all sinners go. Soul dormant. No music in us anymore…not even a heartbeat or the echo of a fleeting memory.”
And with single glance, Diluc saw how their bodies toppled on top of another like cord strings had been cut.
He could tell they were all dead.
But he couldn’t…he couldn’t remain there any longer as his slow strides, turned into quick ones.
Which turned into frightful long strides as he then just simply ran back to Mondstadt, aghast, terrified for Kaeya, his once brother.