Chapter Text
“Aunt Nicole? Albedo said you wanted to see me.”
Ah, there you are! Yes, I have a little mission for you. Come in, sit down.
Durin followed his aunt through to the theatre room, pausing in brief surprise when he recognised the other person sitting at the tea table. “Hat Guy. I didn’t know you knew each other.”
“Barely,” grumbled Hat Guy, tapping his spoon impatiently against his cup. “I owed her a favour, that’s all.”
Table manners, please, came Nicole’s silvery voice, and the spoon flew out of Hat Guy’s hand, then came to a neat rest on the saucer. He muttered something rude, but apparently didn’t quite dare retaliate.
She sat down across from them. Durin was used to how this aunt of his operated by now, and took his time indulging in the various sweets on offer, knowing that she wouldn’t get to business until she was sure he was satisfied. Hat Guy, meanwhile, sipped irritably at a single cup of bitter tea, poorly disguising how much he liked the blend.
Only once Durin was truly full did Nicole - sensing this somehow - finally speak again. Now, boys. Do you know a child named Prune?
“Prune?” repeated Durin (Hat Guy’s frown deepened.) “I’ve played with— um, talked to her before. Does she need our help with something?”
In a sense, said Nicole, and waved her hands. At her behest, the teapot moved aside to make room for a dusty beam of sunlight, and Durin leaned forward to get a closer look at the projection.
Within it, Prune was walking through the Wolvendom. At first sight, anyone who didn’t know her probably wouldn’t think anything was wrong, but Durin spotted what was wrong in an instant. Prune usually walked with her head held high and a deliberate weight to her steps, so that her big boots went thump, thump, thump - as if to make sure no one could overlook her. But the little girl in the projection was dragging her feet, gaze wandering, and almost looked lost.
“Is she alright?” He asked worriedly. “Where is she going?”
All the way back to Nod-Krai, so I’ve heard, Nicole said. Varka caught her leaving early this morning. She was quite reticent as to why, but I have my suspicions.
“Aunt Alice,” Durin said with a sigh. It wasn’t a question. Nicole nodded gravely, though her eyes twinkled with some amusement. “Does Klee know?”
Someone will find a way to tell her, I’m sure. That’s not important. I’d like to ask the two of you to watch over little Prune on her way home.
“Us?” asked Hat Guy incredulously. “Why?”
As both an angel and a witch of the Hexenzirkel, I can’t possibly let a young child cross Teyvat alone, can I?
“Then go yourself.”
Little Prune is a Witch-Hunter, and I am a witch, she said, gesturing ironically at herself. What’s more, she knows that I’m friends with Alice. Any direct intervention on my part would only upset her.
“We could convince her to stay instead,” said Durin a little reluctantly. The last long journey had left him with quite achy wings. “Why does she want to go all the way back to Nod-Krai?”
To her parents, we presume. You do know she came here alone?
It didn’t surprise him, but it did alarm him to have it confirmed. “...she never mentioned that.”
He glanced at Hat Guy to gauge his reaction. His friend was staring into the projection with an oddly thoughtful look in his eyes, although his expression was still pulled into an irritable frown.
Durin didn’t know Prune particularly well. He knew that she was Klee’s friend, part of her ‘Little Hexenzirkel’, and he knew of her grudge against Alice. She gave him the impression of a very small scholar, always quick to rattle off a list of esoteric facts, complete with citation by chapter and page number. Albedo had an easier time with that, and seemed quite fond of her, but Durin had never quite known how to keep up with her in conversation.
But Prune was still small and naive, even if she could swing that hammer with enough force to make his eyes water, and there was no telling what trouble she could run into on a journey this long. He’d never made it without a companion himself - and he was sure that, even if his current self was technically newer to Teyvat, he definitely counted as Prune’s elder.
Think of it as another piece of homework, said Nicole. And think of your hatted friend as your supervision for the trip. Two sets of hands are better than none, after all.
“I never said I’d do it,” snapped Hat Guy. “Neither did Durin.”
Ah, but you didn’t say that you wouldn’t, either. Nicole clicked her fingers. A little bag - no bigger than a Mora pouch - appeared from nowhere and landed on the table before them. Here. A lucky bag of tricks to aid you. If there’s trouble, you’ll find whatever it is you need in here.
Hat Guy stared at her hard for a moment. Then, muttering something about Durin’s attention span, he snatched the pouch from the table and tucked it into sleeve.
Wonderful. I’ll drop you off outside Dawn Winery, and you can catch up with her before she leaves Mondstadt. Ah - but try to keep your distance. I believe it’d be best if you didn’t let Prune know you were following her. Perhaps you could arrange a coincidental meeting somewhere in Liyue?
“We’ll figure it out,” said Hat Guy impatiently, getting to his feet. “Let’s go already. No sense in dawdling around.”
In a moment, replied Nicole, unfazed. Durin, truly, watch over her well. Prune is a precocious child, but she is a child nonetheless. Children’s hands are very soft, and prone to scrapes.
“...I understand, Aunt Nicole.” Durin stood with a determined glint in his eye. “We’ll make sure Prune gets home safely, no matter what.
Prune had had enough.
She’d had enough of Alice’s riddles and debates. She’d had enough of trying in vain to get the adults around here to take her seriously. Most of all, she’d had enough of Mondstadt and everything about it - even Klee.
Klee didn’t understand that Prune wasn’t like her - wasn’t magic in the same way, wasn’t whatever kind of witch-elf she was that let her escape from leveling small hillsides unscathed. Nor did she understand the importance of species populations to maintaining ecosystems, no matter how many times Prune tried to explain it to her.
“Huh? I don’t get it…” was her usual reply, eyes wide and innocent, before promptly wiping out another shoal, or setting off an explosion that singed the ends of Prune’s hair off. She was lucky she hadn’t gotten any serious burns yet! She’d read about how to care for them before, but the way the medical textbook described it still made her squirm.
…it wasn’t really any one thing that set her off. Prune simply woke up at dawn this morning and decided she had to get out of here. So, here she was, trudging her way back home.
She had the route all planned out already. It wasn’t much different to the journey here in the first place, except that the Sumeru trade point she’d travelled through last time was closed now, and she hadn’t been able to find any merchants taking routes coincident with hers. That meant she would be doing a lot more walking, but she had a plan for that as well. Prune’s Anemo Vision could make her luggage feather-light, and she could use it to take the weight off her feet when she grew tired.
Her map was stowed at her hip, carefully annotated: everything from the amount of time it’d take her to reach each checkpoint, to which snacks she’d eat and how long she’d rest for. She was confident that she could make it home in less than a week. She didn’t need help from anyone, not even Grand Master Varka - and most definitely not Captain Kaeya, who had been pretending not to follow her since Springvale.
Prune had been gracious enough so far not to confront him, but he was terrible at being subtle. Shortly after she ignored Varka’s offer for escort on her way out of the city, Kaeya had coincidentally come striding up the path behind her, maintaining a distance of barely ten paces. Every time she turned to look at him, if there was a tree nearby, he stepped behind it. If there wasn’t, he stuck his arms behind his head and started whistling.
She sped up. Behind her, Kaeya’s footsteps sped up as well.
That was it. If he planned on following her all the way to Liyue, he had another thing coming.
Prune whirled around with a glare. “What are you following me for?!”
She was a little proud to see Kaeya actually look startled for a moment, but then his face fell back into that smug grin she hated so much. “I’m just out for a nice walk, Miss Prune. I’m not following you at all.”
Did he think she was stupid? Well, clearly he did, the way he’d always talked down to her about her witch-hunting plans… “The Grand Master sent you after me, didn’t he? I told him, I know what I’m doing. I don’t need help.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Kaeya, eye wide, the very picture of innocence. “I’m just on my way to visit my brother at the winery.”
Prune pointed down the path behind him. “Dawn Winery is that way.”
Kaeya was silent for a moment. He glanced back, then raised his eyebrows theatrically. “Goodness me! I seem to have strayed from the path. Well, too late now. I’ll just have to keep going.”
“Keep going? You missed the winery, so you’re going to walk all the way to Liyue?”
“Yes,” He said, completely seriously.
“Okay then.” She set down her hammer. “Well, I’m taking a break. You go ahead.”
Kaeya immediately sat down. “Oh, I’m quite exhausted as well. Why don’t we rest together?”
Prune narrowed her eyes at him, then picked her hammer back up. “...actually, never mind. I need to go collect something in Millhaven first.”
“What a coincidence!” He got up again. “Our lovely librarian asked me to pick up a fragrance for her. We can make the trip together.”
They looked at each other for a moment, caught in a stalemate. Prune was beginning to get the feeling that she was fighting a losing battle. Kaeya was an adult beyond reasoning with, and he was a Knight, which meant it was illegal for her to threaten him with her hammer.
Well, technically it was illegal for her to threaten anyone with her hammer, but Prune had read enough old law casebooks to know that laws like this were only really enforced when the victim was an enforcer. Still, she could claim self-defence. Kaeya was definitely following her, after all, no matter how much he liked to play the fool.
“Tell you what, Miss Prune,” said Kaeya, apparently detecting her internal debate. “If you could do me a small favour, I’ll be on my way to the winery in no time.”
She gave him a look. “...fine. What is it?”
“I promised my brother I’d bring him some Mist Flower Corollas,” He said sweetly. “He uses them for some delicate brewing processes. But, you see, my Vision happens to be of the Cryo variety. So I can’t pick them myself.”
“I can’t either,” said Prune with some irritation. “You need Pyro.”
“Oh, is that so?” Kaeya squinted into the distance. “I see some Pyro slimes over there. If I chase one into them…”
“No way. Mist Flowers are super delicate.” (B. Rufus, Northlander’s Almanac 7th Ed.; 23(1); 234-236). “You need a person’s touch, ideally, for the tacticity—”
“Here’s an idea!” interrupted Kaeya. “I’ll bring a slime over, and you swirl the Pyro onto the flower!”
He was off before Prune could stop him, left spluttering in his wake. He jogged some distance away and made a show of blowing on his palms, coating them with ice, before darting in and bodily grabbing the smallest Pyro slime with both hands.
“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” He jogged over to the Mist Flowers, making an attempt to gesture Prune over. “Come on, quickly now!”
“Make your ice thicker,” She said crossly as he pretended to hop from foot to foot in pain. “Quit burning yourself.”
Nevertheless, she was gracious, and went along with his stupid idea. As Kaeya held the struggling Pyro slime out, she leaned up on tip-toe and guided a swirl of wind from its burning exterior to the flower; the delicate ice crystals melted away, and she plucked the corollas with a deft hand.
“There,” She said impatiently. “Now will you leave me alone? I’ve got to get to Wangshu Inn by sunset.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Kaeya hummed, inspecting the corollas. “You’re free to go, Miss Prune.”
Prune nodded in satisfaction and turned to pick up her pack and hammer again. Kaeya, true to his word, didn’t appear to intend on following. She hefted the pack onto her shoulders and glanced at him. His hand was glowing - wait, was he using his Vision on them?
“Stop that!” She exploded, storming straight back up the path to him. “They’ve already got innate Cryo - if you put too much back in, they’ll implode! Just carry them gently— what are you doing?!”
Kaeya gave her a look that had all the appearances of a deer caught in headlights. “Carrying them gently.”
“You’re crushing them!” She smacked his arm until he withdrew them from his pocket. “You see? The petals are already bruising! Ugh—”
She shook her head and started marching back up the path. “I’ll take them to Mr Ragnvindr myself!”
With her pack still on her shoulders, her hammer in one hand and the petals cradled gently in the other, Prune strode without breaking pace straight to Dawn Winery. Kaeya, who had been so talkative since being discovered, was suspiciously quiet the whole way there, simply placed his hands in his pockets with an enigmatic smile as he loped along beside her.
At the steps into the Winery, Prune looked around for one of the maids that usually stood in attendance, but none were to be seen. With a sigh, she hefted up the hammer in her right hand and knocked it firmly against the great wooden door. She was expecting a maid to appear then, but the person who opened it a few moments later was Diluc Ragnvindr himself.
Many other children might have fled before his stern face, but Prune was not a child. She set her hammer down, stretched out her hand with petals in palm, and said smoothly, “Here are your Mist Flower Corollas, Mr Ragnvindr.”
Diluc blinked several times. His eyes slid from Prune’s hand to her face, to Kaeya at her shoulder, and then back to Prune’s face again. “...hello, miss…?”
“You asked me for the corollas yesterday evening, yes?” butted in Kaeya. “How very foolish of you, trusting such a task to a man with only a Cryo Vision - but luckily Miss Prune here was able to help me.”
Diluc’s eyes slid to him and stayed there for a moment. “Yes,” He said slowly. “That’s right.”
And he bent forward and held out a hand for the petals, which Prune dropped carefully in his palm. He, at least, knew how to handle them. “Thank you very much for your help, Miss Prune.”
“You’re welcome,” She said, very politely, and hefted her hammer back up with both hands. “I’ll get going now.”
“Right…” He still sounded a little bemused. Prune turned to hop back down the steps, but then he abruptly said, “I mean - wait a moment. Have you eaten yet?”
Prune turned back to him. “...why are you asking me that?”
“Adelinde is setting out a brunch, of sorts,” He said awkwardly. “Would you like to join us?”
She looked at him. Then her eyes narrowed. Nice try, old man. “Um, no thank you. I should really get going…”
“Let us provide you with lunch, at least,” He tried again. “The meat will make a good sandwich. Kaeya and I will step out, and you can wait in the front with Moco. Would that be alright?”
Prune’s eyes remained narrowed. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that his maids were safe simply by virtue of being women, but she also wasn’t sure that he was dangerous for being a man. He had an excellent reputation in the city, and Kaeya was a Knight of Favonius… but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Besides, she’d already planned out her meals and snacks for the journey.
“I’m fine, thank you,” She said, and took a step back. “I need to stay on schedule. If I leave now, I’ll get to Wangshu Inn in time for lunch already.”
“Wangshu Inn?” Diluc’s brow creased. “You’re going all the way to Liyue?”
“I’m going home, if you must know,” She replied, impatience creeping into her tone even as she tried to keep it respectful. “And I’d be on my way now if it wasn’t for your brother.”
Diluc’s eyes remained on her, but he said sidelong to Kaeya, “For shame. Apologise to her.”
“I’m very sorry, Miss Prune,” said Kaeya obediently, in a voice that indicated that he was not very sorry at all. “But, you see, I’m under strict orders from the Grandmaster. No child in Mondstadt should take an unsafe journey alone.”
“I’m not a child, and I’ve already planned everything out, so it’s not unsafe,” She snapped. Adults really were all the same! “I’m leaving now.”
And she turned and strode determinedly down the steps. Still hovering in the doorway, Diluc leaned over to Kaeya and whispered something that sounded like a question.
Prune was just out of the courtyard when she heard his voice raise: “Nod-Krai?!”
There was a thunder of boots on cobbles, and Diluc came up behind her with a similarly thunderous expression, while Kaeya followed with a smug one. “Prune, you cannot possibly expect me to let you journey to Nod-Krai alone.”
He’d dropped the ‘Miss’, she noticed - of course, she was still just a little kid in his eyes. She scowled now, all pretences of being polite and demure gone. “What’s it to you?! I know the way there - I’ve got everything planned out. I know what I’m doing!”
“Not everything will follow your plan,” He said, visibly making an effort to remain calm. “I— look, I’ll let Adelinde know, and then I can accompany you.”
“I don’t need accompaniment!” She stormed, longing very much to swing her hammer into Kaeya’s shin and wipe that look off his face, then run away sharpish and leave Diluc in the dust. “I came all the way here, and I can go all the way back!”
“You did what?!”
“Um,” a new voice broke the tension. “Prune?”
She blinked and turned. A familiar boy was hovering a little awkwardly further down the path. “...oh. Hello, Durin.”
“I heard you were heading to Liyue,” He said a little sheepishly. “Um, Albedo asked me to go there to collect some local specialties, but I’m not very confident about the route... so I wanted to ask if you could show me the way?”
Prune stared at him for a moment. Durin’s cheeks went a little pink, and his eyes darted to and fro as if following a fly. Occasionally his head would begin to turn, as if to look back into the copse of trees behind them, but he would stop himself each time.
“Okay, sure.” (He visibly deflated with relief.) “Just you?”
“Um, yes,” He answered. “A friend’s meeting me at Wangshu Inn, so…”
Diluc looked up, over Durin’s head, at something in the trees. Then he said, “Are you sure, Durin? Albedo didn’t ask anyone to go with you?”
“Not this time.” He scratched the tip of his nose a little anxiously. “He’s taken me that way before, and it’s not that far… it’s just, um, I’d rather have someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Diluc nodded thoughtfully. Prune noticed that he didn’t tell Durin that he wasn’t to make this journey without further accompaniment, even though he was much more of a child than she was - Klee told her that he’d only been born last year, which made Prune a whole decade older than him.
“Well, let me send you two off with some of Adelinde’s sandwiches,” He said, suddenly looking much more at ease. “It’ll take half an hour at most.”
“Adelinde’s sandwiches?” Durin brightened. “I’d like that! Oh, I mean— Prune, is that okay?”
Prune held his pleading gaze for a moment. If Durin trusted Diluc, then… well, maybe that would be okay. He was both too good-natured to be in on anything nefarious, and also strong enough to raise a defence if anyone tried anything. Once, while scavenging on the lake shore, a crab had pinched onto Prune’s finger, and the tiny yelp she let out was enough for him to incinerate the poor thing.
…she’d lectured him about harming local wildlife and the importance of biodiversity afterwards, but she had to admit that it was nice of him. Plus, Durin was much more receptive to that lecture than Klee.
“Fine, we can get sandwiches,” She sighed, feeling very much as if she was acquiescing to a younger brother. “But if it takes more than half an hour, we’re leaving. It’s dangerous to be out on the marsh at dark.”
“You can wait outside, if you’d be most comfortable there,” said Diluc, turning to lead the way, no longer frenetic and worried.
“I don’t suppose there’s a portion for me?” asked Kaeya, still trailing behind them all like a bad tail. “I like Adelinde’s sandwiches as well, you know…”
Prune watched the two brothers proceed up the path, her nose scrunched. Was that what it was like to have siblings? Kaeya and Diluc didn’t even seem to like each other on the best of days. What a hassle it must be.
Durin stooped and picked up her fallen hammer for her, then offered her a toothy smile. “Come on, Prune. We’ll leave soon, don’t worry.”
“...okay.”