Chapter Text
The two archons sat facing each other, yet not exchanging a single word. They have been like that for quite some time. Although it would appear to a bystander that the 2 men had just finished a serious conversation, that was far from the truth. In reality, the conversation hasn’t even yet begun.
The smaller of the two, a bard hailing from Mondstadt, is hunched over the table. He has his head down, eyes closed, and hands crossed. The other is staring intensely with golden eyes and amber lashes. Suddenly, the bard’s eyes snap open. Zhongli, expression full of thinly veiled concern, somehow focuses even more on Venti.
“No wonder you couldn’t sense him,” The musician blurts out a little too loudly, “The Wind itself could hardly even tell he existed just by his elemental presence. It could only find him by his karmic aura.”
The God of Contracts heaves a tired sigh, "At least he’s alive, I really can’t have my last yaksha dying while under my care.” Guilt etches itself into his tone as well as his usually stone cold face. “Now I just have to make sure he doesn’t end up dying anyway.”
“Let me.”
“What?”
Venti stands up to emphasize his point, “I’m sorry old man but you’re not exactly the person I think he needs right now. His lover just abandoned him and fled our known world. He probably needs a friend he’ll feel okay venting to, not the man he feels he owes his life in labor to.”
As much as Zhongli wishes he could argue with the statement, he knows he can’t. Xiao had always held him on a pedestal. The yaksha would never come to him, because he thought it would be a burden. He believed he was a tool, unworthy of sympathy and utterly indebted to Zhongli for his freedom, to the point of sacrificing it to serve him eternally. Even through years of persuasion and complex rhetoric, the archon simply could not change his disciple’s point of view on the matter.
Taking his silence as agreement, Venti winks at him.
“Don’t worry old man, I’ll bring your disciple slash son figure back!”
“What?!”
And so the bard disappears into a poof of wind and feathers, a whimsical feeling left in his place.
~~~~
It has been roughly two weeks since Xiao had begun his monster massacre spree. Although, since the abyss was gone the only “monsters” were slimes and whopperflowers and other such nuisances. He has no clue what else to do with himself. After Aether found his sister he spent one night with the yaksha, his lover, and left with nothing but a brisk note to explain his absence. The man from the stars had taught Xiao that he can want things, and that he can be something other than a tool bound by debt and duty. That he can, in fact, allow himself to be a person.
Since then, no one has been able to find the general. Even the archon he has bound himself to cannot locate him. The few that know him in any capacity have not spotted him at his regular perching spots even once.
Knowing all this, Venti fully expects to find him caked in mud and blood, donning his signature cursed mask. However, he is instead welcomed with a gruesome sight. Xiao, face down in the dirt, his own black blood dripping from his mouth. Several cryo slimes are lying on top of him, leaving frostbite in their wake.
Venti quickly summons his lyre, playing a single note to bring the Wind and discard the unwanted creatures elsewhere. As soon as they are tossed away he again plays another note, this time to turn the yaksha on his back and fill his lungs with fresh air.
As Xiao comes to, his senses are immediately assaulted with the frigid air. He begins to cough violently, as though he were an old man who had smoked one too many naku weeds. The Wind God tries his hardest to guide his breathing but to no avail. The coughing fit continues until Xiao is blue in the face. Finally, finally, his lungs accept the air they were given and allow the general to rest.
“So,” Venti starts, “Wanna tell me why you’ve been concealing your presence even from Morax?” Xiao stays silent, turning his mask over in his hands again and again. His face, though bruised and pale, still holds its usual scowl. His cold exterior having returned in full force since the Traveler’s departure.
“Fine,” Venti sighs, “I suppose you could use some relaxation more than an interrogation right now.” He snaps his fingers. A bottle of dandelion wine appears between the two, its cold glass against his thigh making Xiao jump a little even through the fabric of his pants. “Have a drink, I won’t press any further.”
The two immortals sit together for a long while. After some time Venti summons another bottle of wine, this time Osmanthus. He has soon downed this too, all on his own.
“Soooo, Xiao, have a drink will you?” The God nudges his companion.
“No thank you, I wish to remain sober.”
“Awwww~ why?”
Xiao stays quiet; this worries Venti. He can tell, despite his inebriated state, that something is wrong aside from the Traveler’s absence.
“Xiao?” He tilts forward, teal braids swaying with the movement. The yaksha just shakes his head in a noncommittal way.
“I just feel discouraged from drinking alcohol right now.”
Venti can see that he is genuine in his unknowingness regarding his current stance towards getting drunk. So, he drops the topic, and continues to drink.
~~~~
As the morning dawns, so does Venti’s drinking binge cease. At some point Xiao had begun to seriously question where Venti had summoned so much wine from, expensive ones at that. Surely all the wineries in Teyvat must be empty with how much this tiny man drinks.
“Xiaoo~” Venti slurs his words, “I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Why is your elemental energy so different today?”
The inquiry catches Xiao off guard; he was unaware of any changes in his body or aura, besides a change in his karma’s presence. The voices are still there, and they are more constant than before the Traveler left. But, they are quieter now.
“What do you mean? I did not know it was different.”
“Of course little yaksha,” The nickname stuns Xiao a little, “When I tried to locate you earlier it was like you were just– just, ummmm….” He stumbles to find the word he is searching for.
“Karma?”
“Yes! All the Wind could find was your sharma– I mean karma. But now, actually being near you, it’s more like there’s something else covering your eleshmental signaturie!”
Xiao attempts to pull more information out of the drunkard, but he just shifts topics and eventually stops speaking altogether.
And so, Xiao is left in silence as Venti drifts off to sleep on the log they are sitting on. He tries to decipher what that might mean but can’t. He even tries to use elemental sight on himself, but it is as though something is masking everything but the karmic energy he exudes. He sighs and relegates himself to the next task at hand: getting Venti into a proper bed, and trying his best to lessen the archon’s inevitably massive hangover.