Chapter Text
Aether walked the beach slowly. The waves were calm as he roamed this mysterious place. It was not the first time he’d come here, and he was certain it would not be the last. Always he would find himself roaming this beach, its quiet serenity completely undisturbed as the vast ocean consumed everything from the shore to the horizon, its surface dark and mirroring the sky above, dark as night yet bereft of moon and stars.
Instead there was the sun, dim and wild, like a gaping wound in the sky. It hung there with grim beauty as Aether walked the shores, beside him someone else, another blond, yet their face he never could know. Aether walked the sands, where the water did not touch, and their companion walked where the waves reached, feet never dry.
Who the other person was, he was not so sure. It could have been his sister, he felt much of himself within this person, but he couldn’t exactly say it was her. It felt like it was someone else. Like he was walking beside himself.
“Careful,” said Paimon. “Aether does not like being woken up. Paimon suggests using a stick or yelling!”
“Really?” Amber tilted her head. Amber, dedicated outrider knight of the Knights of Favonius, had found herself in an interesting situation this afternoon when she came upon a small camp somewhere by the coast. It was there where she’d spotted an odd floating mascot that called herself Paimon and a sleeping man all the way out here in the hilichurl-infested wilderness. She crouched down, picking up a nearby stick from the bundle the man, apparently called Aether, had collected for his fire. With it, she would poke him once. “Hello…”
Within an instant, Aether’s eyes snapped open, ripping him from his dream as his hand reached out towards the stick, snapping it with a flick of his wrist. Amber yelped as the movement. In a singular moment Aether had gotten up already, retreating to the back of his small tent where he had his eyes on Amber, baring his teeth as he growled at her.
Amber looked at his face. She’d consider her handsome if he didn’t resemble a rabid dog. From his eyes to the fact that he was close to foaming at the mouth, his feral stance made it worse. Paimon floated in between the two and held out a stick of fish fresh from the fire.
“Aether! Aether! It is okay!” Paimon exclaimed, waving the skewered fish in front of him. “It is just us. This is Amber, an outrider knight from Mondstadt! Amber is a friend!”
Aether snorted as he reached out for the fish, taking it gently from Paimon’s hand as he munched on the fish. He slowly approached Amber, his snarl disappearing as his eyes entered a far calmer state. Okay, now, now he looks handsome.
“Uh… hi. My name’s Amber. As your friend just said, I’m an outrider knight for the esteemed Knights of Favonius,” Amber did a small bow, more of a slow nod really. “How may I assist you?”
“Amber doesn’t need to talk so funny.”
“There is nothing wrong with trying to abide by the way a knight should talk according to the Knights of Favonious handbook,” Amber replied defensively. Paimon just gave an amused smile. Aether on the other hand didn’t give much of a reply. Instead he just nodded to her and ate his fish.
“Uh… hello?”
“That is okay, Amber. Aether is not much of a talker. Paimon is honestly just surprised that Paimon even learned Aether’s name!”
“Oh, well, that might be a bit of a problem. I was hoping to ask what you two are doing here, camping during a time like this. I know Mondstadt’s nature is beautiful and all but considering recent events from the hilichurls to Stormterror, such a course of action isn’t exactly advisable.”
“...home,” was Aether’s response as he snacked on the fish, though he grew tired of it and handed it back to Paimon, who happily nibbled away at it. “Clouds gather often. Monsters rise up often too. Fight them all. As is the wild.”
“You’re homeless?”
“That is one way of putting it,” said Paimon. “Aether and Paimon are out here conquering the great outdoors! Aether is mighty fast and strong! And Paimon has brains that will make sure he stays out of trouble!”
Aether shot Paimon a look. He snorted. “Paimon. Emergency Food.”
“Huh?! Hey!” Paimon pouted. “Paimon is not emergency food!”
Amber giggled at the sight of the two, though she still frowned. “I don’t think being homeless, especially out here, is a way to live. Mondstadt has shelters for those misfortune enough to not even have shelter. Come with me, to the city, you don’t need to fight every day out there.”
“Paimon is pretty sure the homeless still struggle every day to survive.”
“Struggle less, then! It can’t be better here than it is there! You don’t even have a bed!”
Aether patted at what he called a bed, which in reality was the furry skin of a mitachurl he’d slain. Maybe two of them, even.
“You can bring those with you on top of getting a bed of your own.”
Aether closed his eyes and then exited the tent. He would stretch a bit, though he stretched more like a cat rather than a person. In the end he still stood upright though, for a moment Amber thought he was going to start walking on all fours.
“Rawr,” he then said. Paimon giggled as she looked at Amber. “Aether says yes.”
“Great!” Amber nodded as she too left the tent. “I’ll help you pack up and together we can head straight for the city. It’s much warmer there than out here, and though the hilichurls are trying to camp closer to the city, they’ve never breached the walls, and as an outrider knight I’m ensuring that it’ll stay the way!”
Amber playfully flexed her arm, Aether gazed at her for a bit and it would cause her to stop. A small blush on her face at the fact that she did that to a total stranger. How unbecoming of a knight! That wasn’t in the handbook at all!
The two would then go ahead and pack Aether’s tent. It wasn’t much to begin with. Just some firewood, some wild game he caught today as well as fruits, mostly sunsettias, as well as a dull sword, looted no doubt from a hilichurl camp. He’d pack them all inside the mitachurl skins which served as a crude sack for his travels.
Though as they finished, the winds blew. A potent gust ripped through the lands, uprooting flowers and knocking down trees as a fearsome shadow cast down upon all three of them. They quickly looked up to see a hulking blue figure soar across the heavens, a dragon that was headed further inland.
Amber’s eyes widened. “That’s not good,” she said. “We need to get back to Mondstadt. Stay with me. As long as you do, we’ll get back there in no time!”
There’s been a delay.
En route back to the lake city and its protective walls, the trio found themselves coming across packs of hilichurls migrating, moving through the trees. Mitachurls among them even, carrying all kinds of shields. Amber was astonished at the mere size of the horde. This many all at once, that was far from a good sign.
“We have to do something about these hilichurls. If there are this many out here, I can only wonder how many are getting closer back home,” was what Amber said. She wasn’t sure if the Knights of Favonius as it was could take on the surge of hilichurls running amok, with Captain Varka and a bulk of the force out on an expedition and all that.
Aether however took that as a sign to start killing, so he lunged out and attacked them all.
“Hey! Wait! Not yet!” Amber called out, but it was too late. In a single moment, Aether beheaded a few hilichurls with a single stroke, and then he vanished to another portion, clearing out more. He was like a golden tornado of blood and steel. Amber tried to reposition herself. She couldn’t possibly take all of these hilichurls down in a single go, but she couldn’t exactly leave Aether behind, as reckless as he was.
Fortunately it seemed Aether did return to her, standing by her side as the two started to fight with the hilichurls that swarmed all around them. Aether was still quick, his sword broke and he just picked up another one. Despite it being a sword he seemed to wield it like a dagger, moving so fast he appeared to wield fifteen instead of just the actual one he had. Amber on the other hand took her time. Focusing on the larger mitachurls making their advances, made even easier thanks to the one and only baron bunny ready to blow up and clear the horde at a moment’s notice.
The sky was painted orange by the time they were done. The angered hilichurl congregation had scattered in all directions, fleeing for their lives. Aether and Amber pursued some of their routed foes, but in the end calm took hold of the forest once more, and underneath the encroaching dusk was a sea composed of their black bodies.
Amber let out a tired sigh. “That was… that was pretty good,” she said as she sat under a tree. She watched Aether return to where he dropped his bag of things. Amber looked up to the sky and only then did she realize the twilight hour. They could move through the night, but they had no more energy to continue. It appeared they were going to have to camp for the night instead. At least the hilichurls weren’t going to return here just yet, not with the terror that had befallen them still fresh in their minds.
“Wow, Paimon is pretty tired after all that fighting!”
“You didn’t help at all!” Amber exclaimed. Paimon just laughed nervously as Aether cast aside some of the hilichurl carcasses and put down some firewood. Some trees were felled during the fighting, he could probably divide those into more wood for the fire.
Amber’s stomach made an audible rumble and the outrider would shyly cover herself. “Uh… sorry. I guess all that fighting has tuckered me out. You’re probably hungry too, huh? I know this is a tall ask, but do you have anything in your pack you can share?”
Aether pulled out the last of his stash, composed entirely of fruits he’d picked over the past couple days. He took the ones he picked earlier today and tossed it to her before grabbing hold of Paimon.
“Huh?” Paimon looked at her companion.
Aether opened wide as he got ready to take a bite out of her.
“Waaahhh! No! Paimon is not an emergency food!”
“Woah! Hold on a minute!” Amber reached out. “You don’t need to eat her! You can have all the sunsettias!”
Aether gave a chuckle and a small grin as he let go of Paimon. The grin quickly disappeared as he went back to a blanker self as he wandered off into the woods.
“Huh? Where are you going?”
“Meat. Hilichurl Meat. Bad. Want Good.”
“I can help with that,” said Amber. Normally, an outrider didn’t go anywhere without a handy dandy inventory packed with things for overnight patrols, but she wasn’t exactly armed with one right now since she was never supposed to be out there. Was that unbecoming of a knight and a violation of the Knights of Favonious handbook? Definitely. But hey, that was her little secret. She’s had little to no supervision as an outrider in general due to declining numbers, especially after Varka’s expedition, and as a result it’s clear she’d become reckless.
Reckless as she may have gotten though, she will always be resourceful. She was quick to spot cranes flying in the sky. Pulling out her trusty bow, Amber shot two down with a single arrow. She was only aiming for one, but when she witnessed them align for a moment, her huntress’ instinct took over. Now she had two fowls for Aether, who noticed her shot.
“There, that would do,” Amber said as she walked over to the fallen crane. She closed her eyes as she clenched them in her hands. Being an outrider, the yields of nature were a blessing, she must be grateful for the sacrifices delivered by the winds. She then held them out to Aether, who was standing right before her. “I can defeather these with you, they’ll make for a nice meal.”
“Aww, can Paimon have some?” Paimon asked with sparkling eyes.
Aether and Amber just looked at her.
“Uh… hehe, just kidding!” she said as she picked up one of the sunsettias, biting into it.
The moon aloft gleamed down upon the darkened earth as the fire crackled in the camp Aether and Amber had made. The former had gone to move the hilichurl bodies as far away from their site as possible so that the stench of their rot may not sour their appetites, leaving Amber to handle the rest of setting up camp.
By the time Aether had returned, there were some nice fowl cooked by the fire waiting for him. Amber smiled at him as she handed him one, and he bit into it, the juices and steam coming out as his teeth sank into the skin and meat. Aether tore off a piece for Paimon as she assessed some leftover fish that ended up in the bag in the end, while Amber enjoyed hers alongside the fruits.
Aether was actually quite silent as he dined on his meal, Amber would go so far as to say this was the calmest she’d seen him yet. No growling or dead stares, just the simple humanity found when snacking on a meal. Amber dared herself to scooch over beside him, and he seemed to pay her little mind.
“So… Aether, huh?”
Aether nodded. That was his name.
“Since we’ll be here for the night, I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to know more about you.”
Aether nodded again, followed with a small affirmative grunt. He picked a bone from his teeth, sucking any remaining meat out of it before throwing it near the fire.
“Well… may I?”
“You May.”
“Great! So… who are you?”
“Aether,” he answered. He didn’t seem to care at all that the food was hot, eating it as if it were simply warm. “Sister. Sister Lost. Finding Her.”
Amber’s eyes widened. “A sister? You’re looking for your sister? Is that why you’re out here?”
Aether shook his head. “I. From Here. Sister. Not. Find her.”
“Huh?”
“It is easy to get confused, Amber,” Paimon butted in. “Honestly Paimon is just learning this just now too! Paimon did not know Aether had a sister! See, Aether came from the sea!”
“He came from the sea?”
“Yep! Aether came from the sea! Paimon was struggling to swim in the ocean but then Aether suddenly appeared and grabbed Paimon and dragged Paimon back to the beach!”
“Huh… you came from the sea…” Amber looked at Aether. “What were you doing before then?”
Aether shook his head. “No Memory. Open Eyes. Drowning. Swam up. Emergency Food. Saw.”
Paimon pouted while Amber scooched a tad closer.
“You don’t remember anything at all?”
“My Sister. Remember Her. Her Only,” Aether said as he picked the last bone out before devouring the last portion of his fowl dinner. “She Took. Don’t Know. Where. Don’t Know. Who.”
“A kidnapper? What did she look like? The kidnapper, I mean.”
“Tall. White Hair.”
Amber nodded. “And your sister?”
“Like Me. Hair Lighter.”
“Well, I think I can set up flyers in the city to help you with that!” said Amber. “I don’t like the idea that your sister isn’t here with us either. I want to make sure she’s found too.”
Aether gave her a small smile before grabbing a stick of fish from Paimon’s hand. “Amber? You?”
“Hey! That is Paimon’s!”
“Who, me? Well… I’m an outrider knight! That’s all you really need to know about me. I roam past the walls of Mondstadt and keep weary travellers safe where I spot them, and face down brigands and vagabonds too. I make sure threats like hilichurls aren’t getting too out of hand, though as you can see, I’m not exactly doing a good job now aren’t I?” Amber gave a defeated shrug. “We outrider knights are undermanned. We’ve been undermanned for quite a while now. It was like that when I got there and it’s only thinned. I have a feeling I’ll actually see the end of it in my lifetime if this hilichurl problem gets out of hand enough that the public loses faith in our arm of the Knights.”
“That is so sad,” Paimon frowned. Aether looked away. His eyes gazed into the dark, just past those bushes were hilichurl bodies. He wondered how much more he’d have to kill to make sure that didn’t happen. Then again, perhaps the hilichurls too were part of nature. It would be odd then to upset it by carving into their population.
Then again, there were plenty of them. An overabundance.
Then again, the same could be said for man.
Eventually the trio decided to head to bed early. They need to keep their sleep short knowing the dangers of the night out here in the woods, and if they rose early they could have as much daylight as they needed to get back to Mondstadt. Aether slipped into his tent with Paimon, resting on his mitachurl furs, but as he did, he spotted Amber shivering by the fire as she bivouacked nearby.
Rolling his eyes, Aether rose from his furs and reached out to Amber.
“Hmm? Aether?”
Aether crudely took apart her little bivouac set up and picked her up.
“H-huh?! Hey!” Amber blushed as Aether just up and took her. He would carry her to his tent and place her by the furs wrapping part of it around her. The furs were much warmer than her little bivouac set could ever hope of being, especially for chilly nights like this. “O-oh…. Uh… thank you…”
Aether merely grunted as he laid down beside Amber, turning his back to her as he quickly fell asleep.
Another dream. The same beach. The same walk. The same mysterious companion.
Aether woke up next to Amber, he ended up laying on his back and Amber had moved her head onto his chest, covering up to keep warm through the cold. Night turned into morn as first light tore through in the east, welcoming the dawn as it rode further westward to commence a new day. Amber was still asleep, so he gently got off of her. Paimon too was asleep. He left the tent as he watched the darkness slowly fade. It was still most certainly dark. There were no lights other than the moon and stars out here in the wilds, and the sun’s glow was not going to completely crown a new day with its light just yet.
No matter. He just needed to stretch. Aether did some stretches to pass the dawn as twilight then took hold. It was now a good time to hunt. He dashed into the wilds where the stench of the hilichurls had begun to unfortunately swell. There was bound to be some kind of wild game here somewhere. In this case he found some boars nearby, scavenging on the carcasses of hilichurls. Aether never found hilichurl meat to be particularly good. It was so lean it was practically nothing and it just tasted awful. It was like eating slightly more solid ashes. Still, the boars were not going to pass up free feed.
Aether dashed upon them and slew one, the others scattered as he then dragged his kill back to camp.
En route back to camp however, he could feel the wind turn again, followed by a distant roar. It was the dragon again, even at this hour they were on the prowl. A restless force that made the entire nation vigilant. Aether could feel the unease in the fleeing birds, flapping their wings in an immediate exit. No creature here had a deep sleep of any kind, only shallow ones.
A thud could then be heard. That could have only meant one thing. The dragon had landed. Aether nodded to himself as he decided to go ahead and assess the dragon up close. Perhaps he could even slip into a crack on the earth and stab the dragon from underneath while the beast passed over.
Aether moved silently through the bush. Toes first, then the rest of the foot. He was quick in his movement, even with a boar on his shoulders. He eventually saw it, the dragon. Stormterror was the name Amber had given for them. He couldn’t recall, but he believed she described Stormterror as a male as well.
This Stormterror, he was even bigger up close. Colossal wings on an equally colossal frame, each inhalation vacuumed the morning mist, and each exhalation dispersed out into a blinding sea of fog. He surged with raw anemo power, enough to make Aether scratch his left wrist. He looked at it, with the mysterious black diamond mark right at the center of the volar side.
Stormterror dwarfed the mysterious figure in front of him. He held his head low as this greenish figure called out to him in a soft and tender voice, placing his hands upon his snout.
“It’s going to be okay…” the figure said with reassuring words, calming the great beast. The figure was green and clearly human, accompanied by ethereal gusts as his words were singsong.
Then, Stormterror smelled the boar on Aether’s back. No, worse. The black blood within Stormterror boiled, clashing with the soul within as Stormterror became alerted to the presence of an unfathomable evil. He turned, spotted Aether, and roared. The greenish figure disappeared as Stormterror conjured twisters which uprooted trees in his frenzy. He leapt up high, causing a vicious updraft. Aether was quick to run away the moment Stormterror roared, and he powered through the surging updraft as he quickly tried to get out of range, already able to intuit what was to follow.
Stormterror flapped his wings again, and as he did, unleashed a gale which flattened parts of the forest. Aether found himself blasted by the winds as he rushed out of the scene. Stormterror did eventually fly away, his fury having disrupted the peace of the early morning. Certainly not the first time ever since his series of attacks.
Aether managed to get out of there mostly unscathed, and returned back to camp.
By the time he’d returned, Amber had awoken, Aether’s absence was felt as she found herself with only Paimon in the furs of the mitachurl mat. She rubbed her eyes and stretched a bit as she too exited the tent, letting out a big yawn as she was then roused even more awake by the rancid smell of rotting hilichurls. Aether emerged from the woods dragging the dead boar.
And of course the whole moment earlier where Stormterror had flattened a portion of the forest like a child in a ceramics shop.
“Aether, what was that?,” Amber said as she pinched her nose. “The winds are upset. Stormterror must be out and about again. I see you went out hunting, too. I could have helped you.”
“Smell bad. Move Camp. Boar Later.”
Amber nodded. She’d like that a lot. Especially if Stormterror was active again already, they needed to hasten their efforts to return to Teyvat.
Amber packed up quickly. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any firewood left, and the fruits were also running out. She packed the sleeping Paimon in the mitachurl furs while Aether bled the boar a bit before carrying it on his shoulders. The two moved further southward so that they didn’t have to eat surrounded by an unappetizing setting.
“There’s a statue of Barbatos a little further from here, do you think you can wait a little longer before breakfast?”
“You?”
“I can handle it.”
Aether simply nodded. Off they went then. This Barbatos statue seemed intriguing. Eventually they arrived by Starfell Lake, where a statue stood tall on an islet in the middle. It was a hooded angelic being with broad wings, their hands outstretched as their visage invoked one of mercy.
“Here, we can dine before Mondstadt’s own god of winds!” Amber smiled. “You are from Mondstadt, right? Like, why else would you be here?”
Aether shrugged. “No Nation. No Gods. No Remember.”
Amber frowned. “Not even your own faith? That doesn’t sound right at all.”
Aether didn’t reply. Instead he simply put down the boar. He was going to wash some of the dirt and leftover blood off in the water and then get to skinning and then segmenting this pig so he can finally have a good meal.
“Hey wait a minute you don’t have any spare-” Amber couldn’t finish her reminder as Aether got into the water. “-clothes…” She sighed as she watched Aether wash himself before The Statue of the Seven. The lake was quite pure until Aether’s dirt and the boar’s blood poisoned it with his corruptive presence. Witnessing the act was rather… elementally disheartening.
Then, the winds surged even stronger than before. Amber looked up as a sea of clouds blocked out the sun. Ceaseless gusts took hold for a moment as Stormterror roared across the sky, soaring with a rancor redoubled. Long have the people of Mondstadt left the four winds unrevered, and while the other three withdrew to who knew where, the last had remained and answered their irreverence with an otherworldly vengeance.
As Stormterror disappeared into the distance, the statue began to glow with raw anemo energy. Amber watched as a gust surrounded Aether, lifting him from the water in a potent updraft. Amber watched as a pillar of wind connected the sky with starfall lake, and Aether deep within. The two girls lay witness to the man at the center, a brutish yet angelic force wrapped in the power of the heavens itself.
Aether, within the pillar of heaven, gazed at his wrist. The black diamond mark shown, and the emblem of anemo appeared before dissipating, though the anemo itself lingered, coursing through his veins in an electrifying way as anemo energy now coursed through his fingertips.
The pillar would disappear as quickly as it came, and Aether fell back into the lake.
“Woah!” Amber said as she rushed over to Aether, who tried to swim out of the pond. “What was that? It seemed like a blessing.”
“H-huh?! What happened?” Paimon exclaimed, sensing a surge of elemental energy. She turned to see a soaked Aether coursing with anemo power. Intrigued, Paimon floated towards them. “Aether seems funny.”
“I think Aether has the powers of anemo now, but I don’t see a vision anywhere,” Amber said as she assessed Aether. She then went over and got him one of the mitachurl furs in hopes of maybe drying himself.
“Paimon was not expecting to wake up to Aether gaining magical powers, but the gods are always listening somewhere, and maybe this is a sign that we can get help from the anemo archon as Aether tries to find Aether’s sister!”
“I don’t know about that, Paimon. Revere him or not, Lord Barbatos is a pretty hands-off type of god. Some even say distant, not that I can blame them.”
“Paimon believes! What does Aether think?”
“Rawr” was all Aether had to say as he focused on the boar rather than the fact that he’d just acquired elemental powers. It almost seemed natural to him, even. Or perhaps he was simply trying to get a grasp on the matter at his own pace.
After a hilichurl battle, a camp out, a big boar breakfast (which saw Aether leave no leftovers whatsoever, especially since Amber was able to make a delectable steak), and a detour here and there regarding odd floating objects that turn blue upon being touched, Aether and Amber had finally arrived at the city itself, Mondstadt, a bastion of freedom situated upon Cider Lake. Though the city had seen better days.
Its knights were more numerous, from those on foot to those on hoof, though they were fewer now. Amber recalled a time when they encircled the city in daily marches as if they were pilgrims circumambulating their totems of faith. They are gone for now. Even their knights at the main entrance seemed considerably puny, no doubt affected by Varka’s expedition. Right now, Swann and Lawrence were the ones to stand by Mondstadt’s gate at the end of the great stone bridge that connected the island with the mainland.
The winds howled as the trio approached. A faint roar in the distance could be heard, one of many, certainly not the first heard today, and unfortunately far from the last as well. Stormterror’s presence loomed like the sky itself upon the Mondstadtians, and each time it felt as if the east-winds were coming just a little bit closer. Some even say in tandem with the encroaching hilichurl camps.
“There used to be a boy out here on the bridge all day,” Amber said as she pointed at a random spot on the side of the bridge. “Little Timmy. He loves feeding the birds. His parents don’t want him outside with Stormterror ravaging the lands with his winds,” she frowned. “The birds are all upset too, every time I go out there I can see how restless they are, like they just can’t relax at all.”
“Lady Amber,” approached a knight. Lawrence, she knew him. “You’re back. Lady Jean was worried sick.”
“She was?” Amber perked up, “uh- I mean, yes. I apologize for my sudden absence and the worry that could have caused. Hilichurls are grouping in concerning numbers and I had to camp the night after I spent an afternoon in a sudden confrontation with them.”
“You’re not hurt, are you?”
“Just some cuts and bruises, standard fare, though I wouldn’t have done it without a new friend over here, he seems to be quite special,” Amber then gestured over to Aether who just stood there. Paimon laid on his shoulder, still a little sleepy. “Though to be fair, it is also Aether’s fault that the confrontation happened.”
“Aether, huh?” Lawrence rubbed his chin. “Interesting, well, be that as it may, it’s best you report to Acting Grandmaster Jean immediately. The Knights need as many outriders as it has left with all these hilichurls running around, and Stormterror, of course. Any idea about that?”
“Details about that too, though I think it’s best I get to her now.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lawrence stepped aside and let them in. No point in delaying them. Honestly he was just glad she was safe. The whole world outside these walls have become a dangerous mess. He wondered if that poor sod Godwyn was still out there faking his participation as he and Swann shivered with the next cold gust of wind.
Mondstadt’s mornings were usually far more delightful. Children played and music could be heard as mothers convened to cook for whatever festival was to come while fathers colluded in gathering materials beyond the wall. Instead, the bright city of freedom was jailed in a ceaseless cloud cover, winds blowing, the element of their nation threatening them. Suddenly, anemo itself was not a childhood friend, but like the bars of a cell. They were trapped here, for terrors of all kinds have spiked beyond the walls.
Terror within. Terror without. Aether could see that well as he walked up the steps. The offices have all closed come the terror-gust, their signboards creaking as they were swung back and forth. Eventually, Aether, Amber, and Paimon arrived at the fountain. Even it was empty. Void of youngsters playing, the elderly reminiscing of the past, and would-be pickers of the coins thrown in with each cast wish.
“Well, we’re here! I’ll guide you over to where the city can accommodate you, it’s better you’re here than out there,” Amber nodded. “I can tell you’ve got quite the martial skills. If you’re ever looking for work, the Adventurer’s Guild is right there!” Amber pointed at the small adventurer’s guild office. It was weird how small it was relative to all the other nations, but oh well. “But before we go, I do want to thank you for helping me thin those hilichurl hordes. You were definitely reckless, but clearly you’ve got that spunk that’s earned it, and for that I have to thank you. It’ll be easier taking them out now.”
Aether shrugged, meanwhile Paimon crossed her arms and gave a proud grin. “Amber is right. Aether and Paimon make a terrific team! No hilichurls can ever harm Mondstadt with us around, right, Aether?”
Aether didn’t respond, instead his eyes were assessing their surroundings. First down on the cobble streets, then around at the walls and shops, and then finally up at the clouds.
“As I’d said before, you didn’t help at all!” Amber pouted at Paimon. Then she reached into her own pack, “oh! And before I forget. I was thinking about giving you a gift!”
“A gift? For Paimon? Really?!”
“Nope!” Amber winked. “It’s for Aether! A small thank you, and maybe a welcoming present for coming to Mondstadt! I’ll help set up some flyers for your sister soon, I promise, but right now I’ve got some reports to make.”
Aether nodded as he took the glider. “Take your time,” he said. Amber giggled. Aether had a rather growly voice. Like a wolf trying to talk like a human. His grammar most of the time certainly put it that way. Still, he seemed courteous.
Then, the winds came. They came in the form of a massive wave which struck the walls of Mondstadt, rocking the dust off of it as it threatened to tear them down. Parents held onto their children, merchants onto their wagons, and knights onto both their brothers-in-arms and the innocents with no one else to hold onto them.
Twisters emerged all across Mondstadt as raw anemo swirled all across the city.
Aether’s eyes widened as he pushed Amber out of nowhere, but in doing so, would be carried up by a mighty twister conjured right from under his feet where she once stood. Paimon called out to Aether only to get sucked up herself, though fortunately Amber was able to nab her. This left Aether rocketing straight upwards.
Plucked from the very earth like an ant, Aether attached the glider to his back as he soon found himself surrounded by the clouds. Stormterror surged on through with great terror, and Aether felt a gale of anemo hit him, but rather than blow him away, he felt a deep power enter him. This power, now at his fingertips, allowed him to remain in the air as if his glider were a pair of wings.
“You can hear me right?” came an ethereal voice, similar to the figure from earlier. “You’re quite the troublemaker. I can feel it in you, yet I see something in you too. Think you’re up for the task?”
Aether watched as Stormterror was alerted to his presence. He nodded, knowing exactly what that meant.
Then, something caught Aether’s eye. A gap in the sky. Darkness was beyond the puncture wound of the cosmos as something fell down. As if instinctually, Aether reached out for it, managing to catch it perfectly. It was a sword which brimmed with power, having descended from a place beyond the heavens.
The wound in the sky closed as quickly as it came, as if it never happened, yet the sword remained. Without much time to question it, Aether focused on the task at hand. He took flight, ready to duel with the dragon himself.
All of Mondstadt down below watched as the heavens cleared for a moment, and two figures now danced with it as their battlefield. The larger one was Stormterror, the great dragon of the eastern winds. Long unrevered, turned into the great terror, emerging from out of nowhere and becoming the bane of every Mondstadtian born in the era where Barbatos daren’t show his face.
The smaller one on the other hand was interesting. It could have been Barbatos himself, though he did not seem to carry a kind of elegance one felt in their hearts when they laid their eyes upon their god. Clearly this was an envoy, an emissary, a champion from the heavens, having come to deal with Stormterror himself, wielding an earthly sword as he glowed as if he were a radiant sun.
Aether held his sword in his hand as he manifested a javelin of anemo energy and threw it at Dvalin. Dvalin would move, flapping his wings and unleashing cyclones upon Aether, though he would evade or part them with his own anemo before skewering him with his anemo javelins. Dvalin would turn and rush Aether, though he would evade, digging his sword into Dvalin’s scales as he rode upon his back.
Dvalin roared as the winds in the city itself weakened, all of them focusing higher up, called by Dvalin to aid him in smiting the blond stranger. As the winds cleared, more people came out, and the more people came out, the more people looked up and bore witness to the clash in the cloudy skies.
In Wolvendom, a boy and his wolf pack could see the clash.
In Springvale too, could nobles and peasantry alike witness the heavenly duel.
Jean, Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, alongside her subordinates Lisa and Kaeya, could not help but see what was happening.
“I want information on him immediately,” Jean told Kaeya. He nodded with a grin. He was enticed to know too.
Elsewhere in the lower streets of Mondstadt, the studious maid Noelle aided knights and people in the western side, while the snide tavern-keeper Diluc aided only the people, leaving the knights to their own discomfort. Atop Diluc’s tavern was a greenish figure who gazed upon the heavenly duel, strumming a simple mortal lyre as the battle continued. Truly, this will be a song the people shall know.
He only hoped that the dragon would come out okay.
Meanwhile at the cathedral, the sisters had gathered as well.
“Barsibato has made himself known.”
“Barbatos, sister Rosaria,” the deaconess Barbara snapped at her. “Though you are not wrong. An Angel of Barbatos has come to duel with rogue Dvalin. What an uplifting sight indeed.”
Despite its elegance down below, the violence remained chaotic up above. Aether struck the odd dark spike jutting from Stormterror’s back, but he would eventually be blown off. Stormterror would turn and race towards Aether as he flew through the clouds, only for Aether to strike him in the eye with a javelin of anemo before ascending above the clouds themselves. Stormterror would follow, attempt to bite down upon Aether, only to miss.
Aether would then dig his sword into Dvalin’s snout. The sword should break, but enchanted with a divine, and perhaps even a sinister, will, it struck true, piercing the scale. Aether would rock down, dragging the blade with him, leaving a gash that would run from Stormterror’s snout all the way to his eye. There, Aether felt a crystallized tear manifest from Dvalin, releasing first as a gust of wind before turning into liquid no different from blood, and then finally the crystal. Grasping it, Aether dragged the sword even further down, this time going from the eye all the way to the tail.
Bursts of anemo energy followed as Stormterror roared, he flapped his wings as he parted the clouds, rendering the skies empty for everything save the sun itself which shone bright upon triumphant Aether as he fell from the heavens like a bolt of lightning, all the while Stormterror himself fled back to the north.
Mondstadt watched in horror as their savior knight landed right at the uppermost area of the city, crashing right into the outstretched hands of Barbatos’ statue.
“Aether!” Amber yelled out as she raced onto the scene.
It was a terrible fall, from the skies right into the god’s hands. The fact that the statue’s hands did not break was a miracle in and of itself, but with Aether’s right arm dangling as he laid motionlessly in the monument’s palms, the only miracle Amber wished for was Aether’s survival.