Chapter Text
The hall was quiet and cold, the few candles that still remained lit shivering with the wind coming through the cracks in the windows.
Kaeya put his arms around himself, shivering along with them. The world was frigid now that Crepus had gone. The Winery itself now seemed liminal and empty as a crypt.
And when Kaeya had realized he would now have to live in a world without him… it had brought him back to that corrupted world he thought he’d already outrun.
He hadn’t. And it was back to haunt him.
Another father, gone.
The beautiful fields and skies of Mondstadt suddenly seemed far too vast. The mountains closed in on him. The world became an unknown place thrumming with withering and corruption. He couldn’t imagine how Diluc felt.
Kaeya saw a flash of the skeletal branches of a wilting tree in his peripheral vision, and a fright went through him. He tried to catch his breath.
There were things he needed to confront that night. He continued on his way, his chilled breath fogging up the air in front of him.
His boots slowed as he approached the door, as if to tell him he could still turn back. But he forced himself to continue. His hand lingered for a minute in the air before he knocked, yet he persisted. His fingers collided with the hard wood of Diluc’s door. Now was the time.
It opened instantly. There he was, tousled red hair and tear stained cheeks. Kaeya's heart broke. Seeing him made it all too real, all too quickly... he was actually going to tell him.
“Diluc,” said Kaeya with difficulty. Relief filled Diluc’s face. He embraced Kaeya and buried his head in his shoulder.
“Kaeya. There you are.”
Kaeya held him gently, wondering how he was going to shatter him.
“Are you okay?” He sighed. “Stupid question. Sorry.”
“Better now that you’re here,” murmured Diluc.
Kaeya pulled away. “Diluc, I have to tell you something.” he had said it. Dread hardened his heart.
He nodded. “Anything.” his eyes, red from crying, shone with understanding.
Would it be the last time he looked at him like that?
“I… never told you where I’m from.”
“I didn’t ask. If it’s not important to you, then it’s not to me.”
“It is important to me.”
Diluc looked up in surprise. “Then tell me.”
“You won’t like it.”
Diluc grabbed his hand. “Tell me.”
This was the end. He stared at the ground, refusing to look at Diluc. If he did, he would break.
“There’s something you need to know… about me,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “The first time I came here… I was with my father. He sent me here as a part of a plot against Mondstadt. To be a man on the inside, if anything happened. He told me I was the last hope of my nation… Khaenri’ah.”
The word hung in the air. Kaeya closed his eyes. Diluc would never look at him the same again.
Khaenri’ah. He was a son of Khaenri'ah, and he did not deserve the life he had been given.