Chapter Text
When the deep blues and muted greens of the ocean became tinted with harsh, unforgiving crimson, Aether knew something was wrong.
He didn’t particularly care, though. The world of Teyvat was a strange place. Who’s to say red didn’t belong underwater? Corals were red. Crabs were red. Just because there just so happened to be more blue than red in the northern Fontaine waters didn’t mean that red was bad. Aether sighed, and with it, a sharp burst of pain flared somewhere on his right side. His gaze lazily wandered to where it came from.
Ah. That red was bad.
Somehow, Aether was bleeding. He didn’t know how, but there it was, billowing into the water like a sunset-stained cloud. It didn’t hurt. In fact, Aether didn’t feel it at all. He had absolutely no memory of being attacked or injured in any way. So he just kept swimming, moving at a pace so slow he might as well have been going backwards. It’s not like he could drown, anyway. He probably wouldn’t bleed out, either, it was just one little wound and the water was making it look worse than it actually was. He’d be fine.
Aether blinked, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on his back, surrounded by seagrass, watching the moon and stars twinkle from beneath the waves. The water roared in his ears in tune with his heartbeat, but Aether barely heard anything. The seagrass was stained red. It was taller than him. A few more decades, and it might just swallow him whole. He couldn’t drown. Maybe he’d let it.
Darkness danced at the edges of his vision. He didn’t know what the spots were, nor did he particularly care. They weren’t bothering him. No need to bother them. Aether let his eyes close and tried to take in a deep breath, only for it to catch a few times in his chest. He exhaled shakily. Something pricked in the corners of his eyes. Was it even possible to cry underwater?
Whether it was possible or not, Aether tried. Each inhale was harder than the last, the salt from his own eyes indistinguishable from the water he lay immersed in. His surroundings blurred until only the colors remained, blue and green, black and gold.
“Traveler?” came the voice, distorted from the strange underwater acoustics. Aether blinked hard at an attempt to discern the speaker’s identity.
Eventually, a figure donned in an all black wetsuit with gold accents came into view, ash blond hair sticking out against the night like a lone star. “It is you…” Freminet mumbled, just loud enough for Aether to hear.
Aether said nothing. He didn’t have anything to say to the Fatui. Freminet swam a little closer and poked at the seaweed nearest to Aether’s wound, shying back a little when the excess of red revealed itself. Worry fell over his features.
“Are you alright?” the diver asked.
Aether kept his silence.
“Do you need help?” he asked again. Not from him, he didn’t. Aether looked at his wound, then back at Freminet pointedly.
Freminet did not seem to pick up on his wordless cue. “Okay… Well, I can’t just leave you here…so…” he fiddled with the fastenings of his wetsuit. “I’m going to bring you up to the surface. You can’t leave that wound untreated.”
No. He didn’t want to go to the surface. Especially not with a Fatuus. Aether looked away from Freminet and tried to cross his arms, but his wound pulled painfully and he dropped them back to his side. But Freminet, blissfully oblivious Freminet, swam to Aether’s uninjured side and pulled one of Aether’s arms across his shoulders. Then he kicked upwards with more force than Aether thought was possible from the diver’s small frame and they were ascending, the water warming as they neared the surface.
Were it any other time, Aether would’ve fought back. He would’ve won, too. But not today. Today, he could feel the strength draining from his limbs, sticking to the seabed like sand to slimes, essentially becoming nothing but dead weight for Freminet. Curiously, the diver didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t even slow his pace even as Aether unwillingly slumped into Freminet’s complete and total mercy.
Soon, the moonlight crested their heads and the waves gently pulled them towards the shore. Freminet went with the current. When it was shallow enough for the diver to stand, he cautiously let Aether float beside him and waded to a rather large slab of stone that sat on the shoreline. He looked at Aether.
“I’m going to have you lay down on that rock,” he said. Freminet didn’t wait for Aether’s acknowledgement before hauling the Traveler out of the water and onto the rock, the action far gentler than Aether would’ve thought.
“Um, that wound looks pretty bad… Do you have any bandages on you?” Freminet still stood calf-deep in the water, his hands readjusting the fasteners on his wetsuit again.
Aether managed to shake his head.
“That’s okay…uh…” he reached into the bag secured at his back and pulled out a small, mechanical penguin. “This is Pers. He’s going to look after you while I go get help. If you need anything while I’m gone, press this button,” Freminet pointed to a button just above the penguin’s right flipper, then set the little robot on the stone beside Aether’s hand. Pers chirped and began to turn in small circles, occasionally beeping as he did so.
Without another word, Freminet turned around and dove right back into the sea, in the direction of the Court of Fontaine. It was all Aether could do to watch him go. Soon, the dancing black spots returned, stealing away what little consciousness Aether had left. Perhaps lying here was no worse than lying at the bottom of the ocean. At least up here, he could see the stars. The stars… He missed them. How had they become so far out of reach? To walk among the stars once more… Once more…
<~>
He never thought it would turn out like this.
He never thought his allegiance to the Fatui would be brought to light in front of the entire audience at the Opera Epiclese, by his own Archon, nonetheless. Well, he never thought he’d be put on trial in the first place. Impossibility after impossibility… He should be used to them by now, but he wasn’t. Not even a magician could learn to completely accept all impossibilities.
The one time he decided to branch out from the House of the Hearth and trust someone from outside its walls, the one time he decided to let them in just a little, everything shattered right in front of him. But still, even just the thought of befriending the ever illustrious Traveler from afar sent Lyney’s mind skyward, more so after they’d spent enough time together. Lyney and Lynette had been the first to officially welcome the Traveler to Fontaine. They had been the Traveler’s first connections, Lyney had even rashly decided to help the Traveler in his first confrontation with Fontaine’s strange laws. Everything was going so well. It looked like the Traveler was beginning to trust him…and Lyney trusted him in turn. How long has it been since he’d been able to trust someone other than his family?
He still trusted the Traveler, even now. Even now as he knew that golden gaze pierced daggers into his back, even as the room chilled with shock and restrained anger. Lyney didn’t want to see the look on the Traveler’s face. He didn’t want to see the clouds that obscured the sun.
When the Traveler decided to continue to represent Lyney and his sister in court, it caught him off guard.
Though, the Traveler’s decision was very fitting with his rumored character. Eager to help and rarely angered… Solving crisis after crisis in every nation he visited. Lyney was confident he would solve this crisis, too. Hope had filled his heart in the days since the Traveler arrived in Fontaine.
Now, he could feel it all rushing away in a flood of despair. It pooled around his ankles and left goosebumps on his exposed skin, fingers trembling slightly. Lyney watched the Traveler turn his back with a curt farewell, sweeping out of the Opera Epiclese with steps as light as a feather. Lynette placed a soothing hand on his back. Why did it feel as though his heart had shattered into a thousand fractured pieces? They’d only met a few days prior. Watching the Traveler walk away shouldn’t cause any harm. And yet, it felt like the Traveler was pulling his heartstrings until they were taut like a bowstring, absent of a gaze to find solace in as they snapped. Emotion pricked in the corners of his eyes.
“It’s not your fault,” Lynette said, her expression a mystery.
Lyney laughed bitterly. “Isn’t it?”
“We could not have known Lady Furina would reveal our affiliations. We could not have known how the Traveler could act. It was up to her, and it was up to him. This was out of your control, Lyney.”
Lynette was right. She was always right. But still, Lyney couldn’t find it within himself to agree. It was his fault for hiding the truth. But, would being honest from the beginning have changed the Traveler’s reaction? Surely not. Their performance would’ve still gone awry, and without the Traveler in the audience, Lyney would’ve been tried and convicted for a murder he did not commit. The Traveler had still helped, despite their belonging to the Fatui. It was selfless. Lyney found himself wanting to repay his debt.
“Let’s go home, Lynette,” he said instead of responding to her earlier statement, “I’m tired of this stage.”
<~>
Two weeks had passed since Lyney’s trial. He and his sister had spent every waking hour rebuilding their reputation, and progress was slow, but not stagnant. Their regulars had not abandoned them, and slowly, the people of the Court of Fontaine were remembering that Lyney was not responsible for any murders. It also helped immensely when the Traveler had unveiled the mastermind behind the Serial Disappearances Case four days ago. The case was still the top headline in the Steambird. Charlotte was really working overtime.
The Traveler… Neither Lyney nor any of his siblings had managed to even catch a glimpse of his golden aura in the time that had passed since they parted. It was like Lyney had somehow made him disappear…
That doesn’t mean the Traveler had disappeared from Lyney’s mind, however. Quite the opposite. Every time he turned a corner, every time he entered a building, he silently hoped the Traveler would reveal himself, a star bringing light back into his life.
Waiting for the Traveler was starting to become quite the fruitless endeavor. Lyney needed to focus on his original task, and now that Master Childe had been arrested as well, his additional tasks. Father would be having her discussion with Lady Furina and Monsieur Neuvillette in a few days time. He’d have to be ready for immediate orders to follow.
Lyney sighed deeply as he opened the door to the apartment he shared with Lynette and Freminet. It appeared he was the last to arrive home, and quite late at that, as both of their respective doors had been closed for the night. Lyney removed his hat and placed it on the kitchen table next to Lynette’s.
Not long after he had closed the front door, however, it slammed open once again, Freminet standing in the threshold. He was dripping wet and breathing raggedly, as though he had just run a marathon. Lyney rushed to his side.
“Freminet!” he said, “Are you alright? What’s going on?”
The diver took a few deep breaths before speaking. “I’m…okay. The Traveler…he isn’t. He’s injured.”
The words slammed into Lyney’s chest and nearly robbed him of coherency. “What? Is he with you?”
“No. Still by the water. I need to get medical supplies,” Freminet said, pushing past Lyney and into their apartment.
But Lyney was already a step ahead, swiftly gathering a slew of bandages and stuffing them in a bag. “Still by the water… Did you leave him there all by himself?”
“Pers is with him.”
That did not make Lyney feel any better. “I know you must’ve ran all the way here, but can you take me to him? We have to be fast.”
Freminet nodded and swept out of the house as quickly as he’d entered. Lyney followed suit, hoping their frantic scramble didn’t wake Lynette.
<~>
There were many reasons why Lyney and Lynette left underwater expeditions to their extraordinarily talented younger brother. One: both Lyney and Lynette disliked diving as a whole. Lyney could tolerate it more than his sister, but he still avoided diving whenever possible. Two: Freminet was really, really fast. Lyney immediately lost sight of Freminet only moments after plunging into the water, only doing so because Freminet insisted it would be faster. Well, faster for him, anyway.
Lyney hastily scrambled to catch up to his brother and followed as closely as possible. Thankfully, they didn’t have to swim for very long, Freminet turned towards the surface just a little ways outside of the Court of Fontaine. Lyney wrung the water from his hair and clothes, commanding his Vision to act as a mini-heater. Freminet seemed unbothered by his soaked hair and splashed frantically over to a large stone slab.
And there he was.
Sprawled on the rock in a rather unorthodox position lay the illustrious Traveler, his golden braid undone and splayed out beneath him like a carpet. Lyney felt his heart hit the floor.
“Archons, how did this happen?” he waded ungracefully through the shallows and stopped at the Traveler’s other side. Pers chirped vehemently near the Traveler’s ribcage, flapping his flippers in agitation. Freminet scooped the little penguin into his arms.
“I don’t know,” Freminet said, “He looked like this when I found him.”
When Lyney stood on his toes to peer at the other side of the Traveler, his worst fears were confirmed. A decent amount of blood had pooled beneath the Traveler’s right side, where Pers had been only moments before. Lyney shot a distressed look at Freminet. Without even so much as a nod of acknowledgment, the diver immediately pulled out their medicinal supplies and began looking for any other severe injuries. There was obviously the one near his ribcage, but Lyney wasn’t able to tell if he had any wounds anywhere else. He turned his focus to the task at hand.
To properly tend to the wound, they would first need to remove any and all obstacles preventing medical care. In this case, that was the Traveler’s cropped armor. Lyney felt terrible about removing it without the Traveler’s consent, but life over limb, as they say.
Freminet was busying himself looking for a way to unfasten the Traveler’s chest armor when the blonde began to stir, his eyes squeezing shut, then blinking rapidly. Being the closest object to the Traveler’s head, of course, his golden gaze locked on Lyney.
The Traveler’s eyes narrowed in a glare completely unbecoming of his usual carefree demeanor. “You. What are you doing here?” he spat.
“Saving your life,” Lyney said. Freminet calmly slid his hands away from the Traveler, though Lyney could tell that his brother’s breathing was uneven and frantic. Time was against them.
“Saving my life…” the Traveler muttered to himself. He looked Lyney in the eye and scoffed. “Funny joke.”
“How can you say that?” Lyney protested, “Freminet found you bleeding out at the bottom of the sea, for Archon’s sake!”
“I didn’t ask to be saved.”
Each and every one of the Traveler’s words was like a knife to his chest. Surely he was just being stubborn… But Lyney could see the reasoning behind his hostility. Maybe, if he were anyone else…
But he wasn’t. He was just Lyney.
He’s always been “just Lyney” for the Traveler.
Why couldn’t he see that?
“We won’t leave you here to die.” Lyney was not going to let the Traveler stall for time. “Now, we need to remove your armor to bandage that wound of yours.”
“I don’t want you here, Lyney. I don’t want to see you. And I especially don’t want your help. Leave me alone.” The Traveler turned his head away from both Lyney and Freminet, attempting to prop himself up on his elbows. It wasn’t going so well.
Lyney threw up his hands in exasperation. “You’re injured. Please, let us help you.”
“Why are you even here, anyway?” The Traveler brought his ice-cold eyes back to focus on Lyney. “We’re on opposite sides. I’m an enemy of the Fatui.”
“Because we care about you!” Lyney blurted. He looked down at the sand. “I…care about you.”
The Traveler’s chest rattled dangerously as he took in a startled breath. Lyney cautiously raised his eyes. As silence stretched between them, he could see the Traveler’s consciousness fade. He was so pale… Lyney hadn’t even noticed that before. His limbs shook under his own weight and his eyes held the memories of aeons, lifetimes Lyney could never even begin to fathom. How could a star as bright as the Traveler resign to his fate so easily? After so many years, perhaps many of his wounds have still yet to heal. Maybe he was content to let them fester.
And yet, this time, he would take the first step.
“Prove it,” said the Traveler.