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Amber
Kaeya returns to the city of freedom without much fanfare.
He isn’t really expecting one. Still, it is a stark contrast to the way he left the city. The phantom aches of old injuries remind him of the home he’s left behind, of the choices and mistakes he’s made, of the family he’s betrayed.
He wonders if he should head straight to the city or if he should pass by the winery first. He wonders how Diluc would react when they see each other now.
Would the Ragnvindr heir even recognize him? Would Diluc even know where Kaeya’s allegiances now lie? Would he care? He must know. If Diluc truly is now a member of the Kreuzlied, then he must have heard of the twelfth harbinger, and he must know of Kaeya’s new allegiances.
He feels Childe’s worry and his sulking like another heart beating in his chest. It has gotten easier somehow to distinguish between his own feelings and those that belong to the other Harbinger. Still, Kaeya cannot deny that Childe’s feelings are like a starburst in his chest, too bright and too intense to even fathom. Too beautiful and destructive. Too much of the Eleventh Harbinger that he knows and loves.
His lips curl into a smile at the thought, and he makes sure to pacify Childe through their bond. He doesn’t know when they’ll meet next, but the bond makes the distance easier. At least, with it, he’ll know if something ever happens to him.
Nothing will, if he has anything to say about it.
He chooses not to pass by the winery. He doesn’t need a confrontation with Diluc right now, and it is much more important to establish his presence in the city. He needs to ensure that Diluc would not be able to chase him out this time, not if he wants to accomplish his assignment from the Tsaritsa.
It doesn’t matter to him that they mean to test his loyalty. All that matters is that he still has promises to keep with Childe. Childe doesn’t break any of his promises, and Kaeya refuses to commit such a thing against him.
On the road to Mondstadt, he meets a familiar face. “May the Anemo god protect you, stranger.”
Kaeya already has a smile ready on his face at the familiar voice before he turns to face them, pulling his hood down while he’s at it. “Well, well, if it isn’t our outrider in training, or have you become an outrider in my absence?”
“Vice-Captain!” Amber exclaims at the sight of him, her eyes widening as she gapes at him. “You’re back!”
“And no longer the vice-captain of the cavalry, I’m assuming,” Kaeya shoots back with an easy grin. “But I’m back home indeed. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the Ragnvindr estate, so I was heading to the city. Care to escort this strange traveler and fill me in on what I’ve missed all these years?”
His words earn him a chuckle from her, and she falls into step easily beside him. Kaeya relaxes and smiles, feeling oddly nostalgic at the ever enthusiastic attitude from the knight. In his years in Snezhnaya and all his time travelling everywhere but Mondstadt, he’s told himself that he doesn’t miss the City of Freedom. Now that he’s back, he can tell that it had all been a lie.
No wonder Childe had been so worried.
He takes comfort from the still sulking feeling in his chest, the other half of his heart from miles away, and he smiles as he wonders what chaos Childe has already begun to create in Liyue.
Jean
The Grand Master’s office in the Knights of Favonius Headquarters has not changed since the last time he’s been there, except this time, it isn’t Varka he finds waiting for him.
“Kaeya,” Jeans whispers. She looks at him as if she’s seen a ghost, and Kaeya finds an apology almost falling from his lips. He doesn’t get to say anything at all when she engulfs him in a tight hug. “You’re back.”
Kaeya tenses in her hold. Despite how comfortable he feels with Childe, the rest of the Fatui have been dangerous, treacherous, and deadly. He hasn’t allowed himself to relax his guard around anyone but his other half in ages, and it shows now as he slowly releases his breath, patting the acting grand master on the back.
“I’m back,” he agrees with her.
“Were you with Diluc after all?”
He feigns confusion at her question. “Diluc? Why would we have been together?”
Jean’s brows furrow at his answer, and he wonders if she’s seen through his ruse. “Diluc left just like you did,” she explains, and he smiles to encourage her to continue. These aren’t things he hasn’t heard of before through his network in the Fatui, but any new information, any new perspective can lend him a new angle for his plans. “He only came back recently, just a few weeks before you did.”
And if Dottore’s reports are anything to go by, Diluc has been quite busy since he’s returned. Kaeya ensures that the surprise shows in his face before he frowns. “Diluc left?” He asks in a soft, confused voice. “But what about the winery? The estate?”
Jean looks at him with a pitying expression at that. “Diluc has sold the Ragnvindr Estate,” Jean tells him.
Kaeya is careful, so ever careful, not to show his anger at that. He did once after all when he had first received the news, so much so that even Childe had looked at him so strangely after his outburst then. He just couldn’t understand, now or then, why Diluc was so willing to throw away his inheritance, their childhood home.
The flash of anger must have reached Childe despite Kaeya’s control of his expression because he feels the placating, comforting though confused presence of the other wash over him just now.
He holds on to it like a lifeline for his control when he gives Jean another confused expression. “Sold it? Why would he?”
“Maybe the memories hurt too much,” Jean offers him. Kaeya wonders, had he stayed and matured here in Mondstadt, if he would have been able to accept Diluc’s decision to throw away one of the best things that connected them so easily.
So much for family and loyalty. So much for his brother calling him to be the traitor.
“Maybe,” Kaeya lets the bitterness show in the smile on his face. None of that, at least, is a lie. “Maybe he still won’t accept me then?”
“Won’t accept you?” Jean pulls him down to sit beside her on one of the seats around the table. “Kaeya, what happened that night?”
“Doesn’t everyone know? Master Crepus died,” Kaeya says so blithely.
“Kaeya,” Jean says with a warning note in her voice. It is hard to imagine that they used to be on equal footing under Diluc’s supervision when he had been in the knights. It is hard to remember much of his time in the knights at all sometimes.
“Diluc didn’t tell you?” Kaeya asks, still fishing for information. He is still partly surprised that he has been welcomed, that he has been missed. After the fight with Diluc, he had been so sure that the Ragnvindr heir would immediately report his findings about Kaeya’s origins to the knights and so to the rest of Mondstadt. Even after finding out that he hasn’t, Kaeya still expects to be turned away from the city.
That it hasn’t happened is a surprise. He still cannot decide whether it is a pleasant one.
“He hasn’t told us much of his time away or that night,” Jean admits. “We all thought the two of you went away together.”
“I never saw him at all,” Kaeya states plainly. That isn’t a lie either. Kaeya’s heard plenty about Diluc during his time in Snezhnaya. He’s heard the reports of the vagabond that had terrorized their bases. He heard about Capitano’s mission to hunt him down, and Kaeya kept close watch in every other Harbinger’s confrontations with Diluc. But he’s never once met him as Arlecchino. A part of Kaeya is certain that’s because many of their allies in the Fatui do not trust him not to defect when confronted by his brother.
Jean drops the subject when she realizes that Kaeya plans to be as secretive as Diluc has been, and Kaeya feels oddly relieved that she wouldn’t question him further. He doesn’t want to give her more lies than he needs to and doesn't want to treat an old friend as just another mark for his assignments.
Kaeya finds that Childe is still pushing at the bond between them, still questioning and worried from the earlier flash of anger. With a fond smile at both the acting grandmaster and his other half in Liyue, Kaeya allows Childe to feel the relief of being welcomed back.
“Where are you staying?” Jean asks.
“Well, I was thinking the Goth Grand Hotel,” Kaeya begins. “But Amber tells me the Fatui delegates have taken over the entire place?”
Jean nods, a troubled look crossing her face at the mention of the Fatui. “They have. Do you have anywhere else to go?”
“I’m sure I’ll find something somewhere,” Kaeya says, giving her the same grin he always had when they were knights together and he claimed to have a plan.
“Will you talk to Diluc at least?” She asks him hesitantly.
He gives her a genuine look of surprise at that. He had expected that she wouldn’t pry after learning that there was more to the night of Crepus’ death than either were saying. Especially after she realized that he hadn’t been travelling with Diluc as they all assumed these past four years.
“Maybe,” Kaeya relents.
“Kaeya.”
“Jean,” he says. “I don’t know if he even wants to talk to me.”
She places her hand over his own on the table. “Please try,” she urges him before pulling him to an embrace. “It is good to have you back, Kaeya.”
Childe’s worry is still so loud and all-consuming, and Kaeya remembers the other harbinger asking him if he would want to stay back in Mondstadt. Kaeya closes his eyes and clings tighter to his childhood friend.
“It’s good to be back,” he says, and he worries, just as Childe does, that it isn’t a lie at all.
Diluc
He meets Diluc again on a rainy night.
There’s a certain significance to it, the way these things in Kaeya’s life keep happening when rain is falling.
Kaeya forces a grin on his face as he meets the masked face of his estranged sworn brother. Diluc pins him harshly on the walls of the building. They’re in a secluded alleyway, perfect for killing, he cannot help but think. “Oh-ho, if it isn’t the Darknight Hero himself, what a pleasure!”
“Cut it out, Kaeya,” Diluc says, his mouth set in a grim line. It makes him look older, makes him look more like his father. Kaeya wonders if this is the look plenty of their subordinates in the Fatui saw before their demise against the former captain. “Or is it Arlecchino these days?”
“Did the Kreuzlied tell you that?” Kaeya asks. At the back of his mind, Childe presses against their bond in worry, no doubt alerted by the surprise and momentary fear that Kaeya had felt when he had been pulled away from the crowded street. With a short breath, Kaeya tries to ease the other, to assure him of the safety, safety that Kaeya isn’t really certain about.
Really, the bond makes it so much more difficult to lie to his beloved.
“They didn’t have to,” Diluc hisses at him. “Many in Snezhnaya were willing to discuss the newest additions to the Tsaritsa’s Harbingers. The Innamorati, was it?”
Kaeya’s grin is harsh and challenging as he tilts his head up, baring his throat and daring Diluc to do his worst. “Jealous, Master Diluc?”
Kaeya laughs at the pinched look on the vigilante’s face. “Why would I be?”
“It used to be us,” he taunts. “The inseparable pair, invincible and extraordinary.”
“The way I heard it, the Innamorati are reckless,” Diluc easily shoots back with a sneer. His grip on Kaeya’s collar tightens enough that Kaeya wonders if it’s going to rip. “Do you even know what they’ve done?”
“If you’re referring to Dottore’s schemes, I already have my own plans for it,” Kaeya wraps a hand around Diluc’s wrist, putting pressure on it. “I’m not an idiot, Luc.”
“How would I know?” Diluc’s bitter laugh is grating, so different from what Kaeya knows. It prickles at him, a cacophony where it was once a symphony. “You’ve changed, Kaeya.”
Kaeya smirks. “Have I?” He twists the wrist in his hand, not enough to break but enough to leave Diluc with bruises to remember their meeting tomorrow, and he pushes him away. “Well, so have you. No longer quite the golden child of the Knights, are we, captain?”
Diluc’s expression closes at his taunting, going blank enough that Kaeya cannot read much of him with the mask in the way. Kaeya wishes he has his own mask now, something to remind him of the allegiances he now holds. Then, Childe’s presence is there in his chest and in the back of his mind, insistent and so fond, and Kaeya doesn’t need any more reminders.
“What are your plans in Mondstadt, Arlecchino?”
“Come on now, Mr. Darknight Hero,” Kaeya laughs and relishes the cold of the raindrops on his skin. “You don’t think it will be that easy, do you?”
“Kaeya,” Diluc grits out. “Stop.”
“I’m getting tired of this game. You don’t tell me what to do anymore,” Kaeya says with a scowl. He fixes the same easy smirk as before as he turns to leave the alleyway. Before he does, he freezes the other man’s legs to his knees. Knowing Diluc’s physical skill and recently returned vision, it shouldn’t take him long to get out of it though it will be annoying. “I’ll see you around, Master Diluc.”
He takes comfort in the reckless energy that he feels from Childe, in the unrestrained glee and excitement that he’s come to expect from Childe in a battle. He should write to Ekaterina when he gets back to his rooms at the inn. He should make sure that Childe hasn’t gotten into any unwanted trouble.
The meeting with Diluc had gone better than he thought, and not once did the other try to kill him. Good things rarely come without a price. It just might mean he was due for some troubling news, and Childe should appreciate an early reply for his letter.
It’ll do well to comfort them both, and Kaeya needs all the reassurances that he can get.
Klee
Maybe Kaeya should be worried for the safety of Mondstadt for how quickly it took for people to trust him once again.
He’s changed enough that Diluc has reasons to question him, but even then, his former brother has seemingly decided not to inform anyone of his new allegiances. He’s changed enough, but Jean continues to treat him as if he is the same childhood friend she had. He’s changed so much, but Mondstadt treats him the same as they do Diluc--as the prodigal son that has come home.
It is enough to make him feel discomfited about working against the knights for some of his projects. It is enough for Kaeya to feel that Diluc has reasonable excuses for working on his own.
Even now, Kaeya stands in the entrance hall of the Favonius Headquarters, looking at Jean in surprise. “You trust me to watch over your charge?”
“Kaeya, you act like I should be suspicious of you,” Jean says with a purse of her lips. Ever since their discussion upon his return, she’s been trying to get him to talk to Diluc and to find his place in the city. She’s only recently stopped when he claimed, in no uncertain terms, that his discussions with Diluc ended with nothing good and that he plans to leave the city again eventually.
To see the rest of the world, he had told her. It hadn’t exactly been a lie.
“I trust you,” Jean says.
Kaeya smirks. “That’s not really a good idea,” he says and continues with a lie. “I have no idea how to take care of children, you know that.”
“Now, I know that’s a lie,” Jean says with a pointed look at him, no doubt remembering his antics during their time as recruits in the knights. He always did end up entertaining some of the children in the city during their patrol. At his nod, she smiled before turning around. “I’ll go get her.”
As Jean disappeared to one of the rooms on the ground floor, Kaeya found his eyes going to the other knight in the hall.
It shouldn’t be such a surprise to him that Dame Eula would have gotten Diluc’s former position in the knights. She was just as capable as Diluc and Jean, and no doubt, she received the same training as the other two as part of the three founding noble families of Mondstadt. But it said a lot about the grudge still held by the City of Freedom against the Lawrences that she’s been left in the city without a cavalry to manage, all of them taken by Varka in his expedition.
“I apologize for the interruption,” Kaeya tells her, and maybe there is hope for the city just yet since she gives him a look full of suspicion. Then again, few were courteous to the scion of the Lawrence clan in the city of freedom. It was entirely possible she was just suspicious of his friendly behavior.
Before the knight can reply, the door to the spark knight’s room slammed open and the youngest knight rushed towards Kaeya. “Big brother Kaeya!” Klee greets him with a grin. When he had left Mondstadt, Alice had still been regularly visiting, and the young pyro vision wielder had been much, much younger. “Grandmaster Jean says you’re spending time with me?”
“Yes, all day,” he agrees with a fond smile. “Do you have everything you need?”
She twirls around before gasping. “Dodoco!” Klee exclaims before hurrying back to her room.
Kaeya chuckles at the exuberance before turning back to the acting grandmaster. “Should I have her back by sundown?”
“Please,” Jean says. “And please make sure nothing gets damaged in your games.”
“Don’t worry,” Kaeya says with a smirk. “I’ve had practice with mitigating damages in the past four years.”
Jean gives him a curious look, but she doesn’t pry. Before they knew it, Klee has come back with her precious Dodoco, ready to start their time together. Kaeya leaves with a nod to both the acting grandmaster and the cavalry captain.
He follows Klee out of the city, and she talks to him of her treasures and going bomb fishing. Childe would like her, he thinks. But then he thinks of the chaos the two already commit on their own, and he finds himself shuddering. Maybe Teyvat would be all the better if he ensures the two never meet.
Kaeya chuckles when she takes him to the hiding place for her treasures, and he helps her pack them all up. Around noon, they find a place for lunch overlooking the Cider Lake. Kaeya tells her some heavily edited versions of his adventures with Childe, hoping he didn’t just create problems for Jean to solve later on.
Children’s curiosity and penchant for danger can be quite difficult to discourage. Kaeya’s learned his lessons from Childe and his siblings and the amount of trouble they got up to in their every visit. The Seven knew that if Kaeya had been a little less observant during some of their visits, Anthon and Teucer would have found some way to cause just as much destruction as Childe and Klee would have with their visions.
He misses him, really, and even as he helps Klee collect the flowers she wants from the forests around the lake, Kaeya makes sure to send a burst of affection through their bond. The cheerful though questioning feelings that come through from Childe makes him chuckle.
“Well, what do you want to do with the flowers?” Kaeya asks once they have sorted through it on their picnic blanket. “Should I braid some of them in your hair?”
“Can you do that!?” Klee asks excitedly, already taking off her red hat.
Kaeya laughs. “I learned from the best in Snezhnaya,” he replies, thinking of letting Tonia experiment with his hair while the boys had complained of not having Kaeya to play with. “You can do the same to me.”
“I will!”
That night, Kaeya doesn’t bother, unravelling the messy braid and the flowers from his hair as he writes his letter to Childe. When he sends his messenger falcon to Liyue, it holds several letters and souvenirs for the children waiting for their brother in Snezhnaya.
He can only hope that the gifts would arrive safely back home.
Lisa
Kaeya looks up from the books as the librarian settles on the chair in front of him. He hasn’t been close to Lisa before he left the city, and they must have just missed each other then, her arriving from her time in the Academia and him leaving to Snezhnaya.
In another life, he thought, if he had stayed, they might have become friends.
“Can I help you, my lady?” Kaeya asks, a charming smile ready like a weapon.
“Well, cutie, you’ve been awfully curious about things these days, haven’t you?”
“Is there anything wrong with curiosity?” Kaeya shoots back with a smile. “I hardly think someone who once pursued knowledge in Sumeru’s Academia should be one to lecture me on curiosities.”
“You’re a charming one, aren’t you?”
“Am I?”
Lisa hums, and when Kaeya turns to look back on the reports he’s been examining, Lisa stops him with a hand on the open book. “Why are you looking into our missions regarding the abyss order, Kaeya?”
“Shouldn’t I?” Kaeya asks with an innocent look on his face. “They’re public records. I encountered some of them during one of my trips with Klee, you see. I just wanted to make sure they weren’t a problem.”
“They aren’t,” Lisa insists.
“My brother thinks otherwise,” Kaeya tells her.
She laughs at that, one brow raised in question. “As I heard it, you aren’t quite brothers these days, are you?”
“You’re a curious one too, aren’t you, my lady?” Kaeya says. “Looking into my relationship with the esteemed Master Diluc? Perhaps, I should be the one questioning your...curiosities.”
She doesn’t look convinced about him. She looks at him with the same suspicion that Eula had, and Kaeya cannot help but wonder if it had been the cavalry captain who had warned her colleague.
“I’m just looking for answers,” Kaeya says, with no hint of the false niceties and innocence as before. He schools his face into something more neutral, something blank, ever careful to show her nothing to doubt. “The blessings of the Anemo Archon don't quite extend to what I need.”
“And what do you need, cutie?”
“Peace,” Kaeya answers, and he thinks of the promises of Cryo Archon. He thinks of Childe, of his devotion and how he had so willingly pledged himself to her cause, to the world she seeks. He thinks of broken towers and torn tapestries, of corrupted monsters and monstrous people. He thinks of all that is left of his homeland.
“I see,” she says, and her expression is equally guarded against him, unreadable. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
He watches her leave, and it takes a moment before he resumes his research into the Knights of Favonius’ encounters with the Abyss Order. He wonders if Childe is having just as much luck researching whatever they need to do about the Geo Archon. He somehow doubts it. The other harbinger is just too easily distracted.
Perhaps, he’ll visit and check on Childe, but those things can wait until he can figure out what to do in Mondstadt. Signora will arrive soon, no doubt expecting valuable information. His loyalties have been questioned, and he finds himself just as curious as they are about what side he’ll finally take.
Kaeya places a hand over his heart, at the intangible bond that he never once thought possible for him, and he thinks that maybe, there is no reason to question at all.
He shuts the reports close a little more forcefully than he would have normally, sighing as he tries to collect his thoughts. There hasn’t been anything troubling from Childe, neither from his letters nor the bond, but Kaeya finds himself fretting anyway.
He doesn’t think that it is Childe that’s the problem right now but rather the plans Kaeya has been making without Childe’s knowledge. Guilt, Kaeya thinks, can be quite the bitter thing. Then again, he’d rather keep Childe away from the machinations and plots of the other Harbingers, especially when Kaeya is planning to go directly against one of them.
With a sigh, he collects the books and reports on the abyss order, returning those he no longer needs in the shelves and tucking those he hasn’t read enough under an arm. He brings them to the front desk, giving Lisa the same charming smile as before. “I would like to check these out,” Kaeya says.
She levels him with another look, searching for something that Kaeya knows not. When she seems satisfied, she writes him a slip before pushing the books back towards him. Before he can take them thought, she stops him with a hand over his own.
“Kaeya,” she says, with none of the usual flirtations he’s come to expect from the Knights’ librarian. "Before demanding too many miracles from the gods, first consider if you are willing to pay the price they ask."
He arches his brow. “Where did that come from?”
“Oh, you know,” she says with a careless wave of her hand. “I think we both know.”
Kaeya gives a mirthless chuckle at those words. “I’ve long paid the price demanded by the gods,” he says with a sneer he cannot quite hold back. “I think I’ll be fine.”
Lisa hums noncommittally, but she tells him nothing more of that subject. “Return the books when they’re due. I do have a way to track them down if you don’t,” she says. “Have a good day, cutie.”
Diluc
Kaeya meets Diluc again in one of the Abyss Headquarters he’s found.
When Kaeya moves away from the abyss mage he’s just interrogated, he finds that the other has taken care of the mage he didn’t notice behind him. With a twist of his lips, Kaeya finds himself clapping for his former brother.
“Well done, Master Diluc,” he praises, a hand pressed close to his chest. “My hero,” he says, a touch too dramatically.
Kaeya notes that Diluc doesn’t bother sheathing his claymore, but it bodes well that he doesn’t point that blade towards him either. “What are you doing here, Kaeya?”
“Me?” Kaeya looks at the other with widened eyes, acting guileless and ignorant. “I guess I got a bit lost walking around.”
Kaeya tries to ignore the tick he can see in his brother’s jaw or the furrow between his brows. Some things never changed. Diluc was as easy to rile up as he’d always been when they were growing up.
“Let me rephrase my question,” Diluc says, slowly approaching him. “What are you doing here, Arlecchino?”
Kaeya finds himself laughing at those words. “Not everything’s a plot of the Fatui,” he says. That habit, he thinks with a wry grin, Diluc shares with Childe. His partner has always been and probably always will be complaining of the plots and conspiracies of the other harbingers. Kaeya walks around the winery owner, eyes searching the chamber for any evidence or information he’s missed. “I’m still surprised you haven’t said anything to anyone.”
Diluc’s eyes narrow at him, but he seems to accept Kaeya’s words. At the very least, he doesn’t ask about his purpose yet again. “There’s nothing else here. Let’s go.”
Or maybe he is just eager to be rid of Kaeya in his business. “They might have left something,” Kaeya suggests. “Something we can use against them.”
“This is not one of the holdings of the abyss order,” Diluc says shortly. Kaeya looks at the other in surprise, not knowing why he seems to be forthcoming with the information. “This is nothing more than a temporary base. You’ll find nothing here.”
“Well, you’re being suspiciously helpful, Master Diluc,” Kaeya jokes though he follows the other out of the base as requested. He can always find some other source of information later. “Say, do you have anything on their princess as well?”
“I will not help with whatever plots you have, Kaeya.”
It seems there is a limit to Diluc’s goodwill, after all. On their way out, they pass old mechanisms that have been broken down in both their attacks. He thinks of raids he conducted long ago with Diluc as knights, following his brother just as he is now, ever the faithful shadow. How easily things could change. Kaeya doesn’t want to think about how easy it felt to turn his back on Mondstadt, on the Ragnvindrs.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone, Luc?” Kaeya asks in the suffocating silence between them. He hears their steps echo among the old ruins, and in the long silence that follows his question, he almost wonders if he ever spoke at all.
But when they reach the entrance of the ruins, Diluc blocks his way outside. “Why didn’t you return to the city that night, Kaeya?”
“I assumed you planned to tell them of the duties placed upon me,” Kaeya’s lips twist in distaste at the thought of being abandoned, of the hopes of a nation being placed squarely on his shoulders. He takes a deep breath, trying to block out the connection to Childe so that the other would not worry. He cannot afford to distract his partner from their other mission. “I didn’t think I’d be welcome to return after that.”
“I was never going to tell anyone about that,” Diluc says, that same resolution he saw that night of the rain, of Crepus’ death and Kaeya’s betrayal, clear in his eyes. “I’d assume you would go back to the knights, that you’d take my position as cavalry captain.”
“We did assume a lot of things, didn’t we?” Kaeya says with a chuckle. “Looks like we didn’t know each other as much as we thought we did, huh?”
“Looks like,” Diluc agrees, and those words, Kaeya thinks with a bitter smile, should not make him ache as much as it does. Kaeya should have learned his lesson long ago under the pelting rain. Kaeya really should have abandoned whatever loyalties he still had to the Nation of Freedom when he swore his oath to the Cryo Archon.
But the Tsaritsa had known that his oaths were a lie then. What did it matter whether it was or not now?
“But my ties to Khaenri’ah aren’t the only things you’ve kept secret,” Kaeya points out curiously. “The knights are yet to treat me as a diplomatic envoy from Snezhnaya. You haven’t told them of my new allegiances?”
“The knights are incompetent,” Diluc replies stiffly.
“They were quite corrupt then,” Kaeya says, barely remembering the tragedy and all that came with it.
“And whose fault did you think it was?”
“Wasn’t a part of the Fatui then,” Kaeya shoots back with a roll of his eyes. He rolls his shoulders back, trying to ease the ache from all the fighting he did within the ruins. He understands Diluc’s presumptions though. Kaeya has read through the old reports and documents in Zapolyarny, and he’s quite sure the things recorded on paper are not all that is of the Fatui’s influence and schemes in the entirety of Teyvat.
“And now?”
Kaeya grins at the other. Since Diluc has been quite civil and even informative, he decides to provide information of his own. “The Innamorati have been assigned to Liyue,” he says. “I just decided to take a detour for a personal project. Besides, I missed the Death After Noon in Mondstadt. Snezhnaya’s liquor is just not the same.”
“Adelinde wants you to come to dinner some time.”
Though surprised at the sudden invitation, Kaeya gives the uncrowned king of Mondstadt a calculating look. “And do you?”
“I’ll be at the winery tomorrow,” Diluc says as he brushes past him. “Don’t cause any trouble.”
Kaeya's lips twist into a smile, but he doesn’t turn to look as he hears the other man walk away. It isn’t raining anymore, but when he walks away from the ruins, the ground is still wet from the afternoon showers. Diluc’s footsteps are clearly marked on the wet dirt back into the city. The other’s last words may be the closest thing he’ll get for an invitation or a reconciliation.
He lets the amusement bleed through his bond with Childe and resolves to figure his own answer out later.
He still has his own investigations to figure out, after all.
Albedo
Kaeya doesn’t know what possessed him to return to Dragonspine.
It would have been one thing if he was there to meet Childe, to help the other vent out his frustrations on the many dangers that were found in the ancient stronghold. But Childe was still in Liyue, and Kaeya had chosen not to inform him of this visit.
He thinks of the look of betrayal and confusion on Childe’s face when Kaeya had told him that he was going back to Mondstadt. With a grimace, Kaeya can admit that he is being selfish this time, that he doesn’t want to be at the other end of the expression once again. Not when even he doesn’t know if he would deserve it.
Things with Diluc have been surprisingly good since the dinner, and though Kaeya still sends his regular reports back to Her Majesty, he’s also found himself giving Diluc more information than he should be.
He’s been constantly on edge since, as if he’s carefully toeing the line between all his allegiances.
And there was still the matter of the Abyss Order, of what supposedly remained of Khaenri’ah.
Maybe it was no wonder that he doesn’t want to face Childe just yet.
Following the information from his subordinates, Kaeya finds the small base set up by the Knights of Favonius’ Chief Alchemist and Captain of the Investigation Team. The man seems to be alone when Kaeya stops just outside the small cave, observing all the alchemical materials strewn about inside.
For a moment, he thinks of the laboratory within Khaenri’ah’s hallowed halls, always bustling with the activity of countless scholars and alchemists. Rhinedottir’s child and student, that is what Kaeya has heard of the esteemed alchemist of the knights. He hadn’t expected it. He still doesn’t know what to expect of this meeting.
He clears his throat to get the attention of the alchemist, and when the man turns to face him, Kaeya finds his sight drawn to the sigil of the Eclipse Dynasty that lay innocently over the man’s throat.
“Can I help you?” Albedo asks, curiously, watching Kaeya with careful eyes.
Kaeya tries to give an air of nonchalance as he strides inside the cave, giving a casual shrug. “I wanted to meet the knights’ esteemed alchemist,” he says. “I’ve heard great things.”
“Is that so?” The alchemist says, his handsome features schooled in a bored expression and his tone flat. It was nothing like Dottore’s constant irritation at any interruption to his work.
“I’m quite curious, you see,” Kaeya says as he walks around the alchemy table in the base. The familiar symbols of Khemia and Alchemy etched on its surface reminds him of his lessons back home, of the legacy left behind by Khaenri’ah. “Especially about this choice of location.”
With that, he seems to earn the alchemist’s suspicion. His eyes narrow at Kaeya, and it is only a moment before those eyes widen in surprise. “Alberich?”
Kaeya gives a half-bow that is more mocking than any he’s ever executed in Zapolyarny or the Black Palace of Khaenri’ah. “Kaeya Alberich,” he says with a smile at the other. “And as you’re Rhinedottir’s legacy, I thought it was time for a visit.”
Albedo covers the notes on his desk. “And the true purpose of your visit?”
“I have some questions, that’s all.”
“If it’s about Khaenri’ah, then I might know less than you do,” Albedo says. “It isn’t something my master freely talked about.”
“I would hope not,” Kaeya says as he walks around the room, examining the trinkets and devices on the shelves. The alchemist doesn’t stop him, and he wonders if he simply doesn’t care to or if the authority of the Alberich still holds true with whatever remains of Khaenri’ah’s citizens scattered throughout Teyvat. “It’s a dangerous thing, that knowledge.”
“Is it Alchemy you’re interested in?”
Kaeya replaces an orb back on the shelf with a heavy thud before he turns to look back at the captain of the knights. “That,” he agrees. “As well as whatever else you know of the abyss order.”
The Alchemist looks at him curiously before he shuffles through his notes, hopefully looking for the information Kaeya had just asked for. “Are you searching for allies?”
Kaeya’s steps crunch on the snow as he crosses the space between them, looking over the Chief Alchemist’s shoulders to see his notes. The tidy writing details the activities of the abyss order in the mountain, things Kaeya had not paid much attention to the last time he had been here. At least not until Sal Vindagnyr. Not until he and Childe were already bonded. Not until Kaeya’s loyalties came into question with a supposedly innocuous message from Capitano about his estranged brother.
That was his mistake.
“No,” Kaeya says. He feels the beat of his heart in tandem with another far beyond the borders of this mountain. When he checks the bond, he feels the excitement and adrenaline he’s come to associate with battle, and he wonders if Childe was working on their assignment or on another debt collection for the bank. He has no need for other allies but the one he already trusts wholeheartedly.
“Then what is this for?”
Kaeya shrugs. “Restitution,” he says. Perhaps, to repay the burden they’ve placed on him, to let them reclaim the heart and power they so wish for. But that isn’t it either. Kaeya has no plans on letting them use him, on letting himself become some passive agent or figurehead. Childe had already taught him to embrace his legacy without clinging to his past. What he truly wants from his first homeland is… “Closure.”
The notes are handed to him without another comment from the Chief Alchemist. Kaeya still isn’t sure why Rhinedottir’s student has chosen to help him when she has long abandoned their nation. Maybe her own journey was its own kind of loyalty to the Eclipse Dynasty, a loyalty she might have imparted on her student.
“Thank you,” Kaeya tells Albedo, but the alchemist has already returned to his work, waving him away. He knows enough of scholars to recognize that dismissal.
Now that he has some new information, he can take the time to rest. Maybe he’ll surprise Childe for a visit. They were due to welcome some recruits in Liyue, weren’t they? Childe will be sure to appreciate the help in managing their cohorts.
Then after that, once he’s had his fill of his beloved, once he’s convinced that Childe is safe and sound where he is, Kaeya can get back to his work. There was no rest for the wicked.
Rosaria
The invitation to meet the knight’s reconnaissance captain came as a surprise for Kaeya. He almost expects an attack when he finally reaches the empty bastion of the city wall where they are supposed to meet.
Rosaria doesn’t seem poised to attack when he comes near. She’s leaning on the stone of the city walls, cigarette perched casually on her fingers as she blows out a smoke. Several bottles of wine and some glasses have been placed on the low part of the battlements, awaiting them both.
“Kaeya,” she greets with a casual air. He remembers trying to befriend her. He remembers learning how to make connections within treasure hoarder ranks and bandits with her experience. It is no surprise to Kaeya that they tried to fill the hole made by his absence in the knight’s intelligence by taking on Rosaria instead.
She never really quite suited the Cathedral.
“Sister Rosaria, oh well, it’s Captain now, is it?” he says with a grin. “Is this to welcome me back? A few months too late?”
She snorts and offers him a glass of wine, which he takes before boosting himself up to sit on the parapets. The city is winding down beneath them, the golden and reddish hues of the sunset bathing the people down below.
“Not so much a welcome as an investigation,” she says without trepidation, offering him a cigarette of his own. He takes it from her, leaning forward to the fire she offers from a match, bright underneath the shadows of the parapets.
“An investigation?”
“You understand, don’t you, Arlecchino?”
Kaeya snorts at that, breathing in and slowly blowing out the smoke from his mouth. He drains the wine in his glass, relishing in the familiar taste of the Dawn Winery’s specialty as he thinks of his answer. “I’m surprised you didn’t just come kill me,” he finally says. “Isn’t that how you used to work, Sister Rosaria?”
“Different times,” she says.
“Indeed,” he agrees as he replaces his glass with a full bottle. His last visit with Childe had gone well, and they now had a clear idea of where Morax is, of who he is. He wants to celebrate it somehow, wants to take the time to relax. If Rosaria wishes to kill him, she probably would not have arranged for all this. “What do you want to know exactly?”
“Are you going to answer truthfully?” She asks with a dubious air as he pops the cork from the bottle and takes a swig straight from it. “Betray your new archon?”
“Tartaglia would be devastated if I do,” he replies, letting the sweet hum of wine and nicotine in his body loosen his tongue. It’s been a tiring few months, and he cannot wait for a time where he and Childe can be reunited, and he can finally decide clearly on his loyalties.
Rosaria hums, swirling the wine in her own glass. “The Innamorati,” she says in a low voice. “I’m surprised they have a different diplomat in Mondstadt with you.”
“I’m not here on Fatui duty,” Kaeya admits. He’s said as much to Diluc in their previous meetings. He doesn’t think there’s any trouble sharing that much at least with the knights. It wouldn’t be that difficult for any of them to look closely enough, to trace all the research and things he’s done since he came back to know his purpose.
“You’ve been looking into the abyss order,” she points out, proving Kaeya’s own thoughts. “Planning to interfere with our operations just as your colleague is doing with Stormterror?”
“Is that Signora’s angle?” Kaeya says with a laugh. “I can’t say I’ve kept up with her.”
She gives him a hard look. “Why would you be interested in the abyss order if not for the Fatui?”
Kaeya shrugs. Diluc has kept his confidence until now, both with his identity as Arlecchino and his past from Khaenri’ah. It surprises him even now, and he finds that he doesn’t want to admit the truth himself, not unless it becomes necessary. It isn’t yet. “Something personal,” he says.
She hums but doesn’t pursue the issue. Once again, Kaeya is left wondering if the people of Mondstadt are truly that careless or if no one just trusts him enough to show too much of whatever leverage they had against him, against a member of the Eleven.
“How are the knights treating you?” He asks as he pours a glass for Rosaria. “Better than the Church, I hope?”
“Much more interesting,” she agrees as she takes a sip of her wine, the embers from the end of her cigarette like falling stars under the dying light of the sun.
“Still no overtime?” Kaeya teases, remembering her one clear principle that they used to joke about.
“Never,” she says with a chuckle, blowing out smoke from her lips and smirking at him. “You?”
“Always,” he answers with a grin, still feeling the happy thrum of alcohol in his veins. He takes another long drink from the bottle, letting the burn of it calm the swirling, loud thoughts that have occupied his head for days ever since he’s heard of the recent activities of Stormterror. “Childe’s going to be upset I didn’t bring him here,” he muses, thinking of the possibility that Mondstadt might have to fight one of Barbatos’ Four Winds and how much Ajax would have enjoyed being involved in such a fight.
“Tartaglia? Why?”
“He says he wants to fight a god,” Kaeya drawls, thumb tracing the rim of the bottle. Up here, high above the city, the wind howls. It isn’t like the usual places they used to meet up in, but he and Rosaria were younger and more unsure then--both of them children raised in sin and given an unbelievable chance by people who are far too trusting of the unknown.
“The Fatui has already made their offers to fight the Stormterror,” Rosaria says in a bored tone, flicking the ashes from her fingers to be carried by the wind.
“Not his assignment,” Kaeya answers. He’s giving away too much, but he’s been wound up tight recently. There’s been an invitation from the Abyss Order--proof that they’d notice him poking around their business--and he doesn’t know what to make of it. Considering he’s supposed to be observing Diluc and not the Abyss Order in this assignment, he cannot expect any back-up from the Fatui.
He laces his fingers around the neck of the bottle, and he smothers the worry that comes through like a knife in the bond between them. Childe will come. If Kaeya disappears, he’s almost certain that Childe will follow.
But another voice, small and unsure, tells him that Diluc hadn’t followed in the past. How can he expect anymore from others?
If he gives the knights enough information about his actions, he wonders if they’ll pursue it when he inevitably disappears. He wonders if Childe can follow the breadcrumbs that he plants behind him without thinking of it as a betrayal.
“You have plans soon,” Rosaria points out, not really a question, and she takes the bottle from his hand, taking her own swig from it. Kaeya’s mouth twists, thinking of his most recent dinner in the winery, and Diluc looking on in disappointment as he removes the wine from his hand.
“Soon,” he agrees. “I have a lead on the Abyss Order. They might have something to do with the whole Stormterror problem.”
“So you’re stepping into our business, after all.”
“Not as Arlecchino,” he says. That is all he can offer her. Maybe it isn’t enough. Maybe he should stop and leave, return to Liyue and into Ajax’s embrace until he no longer has to think of stars and last hopes. Until he no longer has to think of all he’s abandoned all these years, not just in Khaenri’ah but the City of Freedom.
Maybe he should expect the sting of a blade from Rosaria who’s always been too quick to kill.
But death doesn’t come, and she looks too closely at him as the lamps come alive beneath them, like the countless stars above, familiar and still so extraordinary.
Rosaria raises her glass towards him. “Welcome back,” she says as if he had not just said he was about to leave.
Kaeya grimaces and pours the last of the wine into his empty glass, and he raises it, letting the glass clink against each other. “To Mondstadt,” he says. To the city that gave the lost and the friendless another chance at life.
Diluc
Kaeya doesn’t know why he invites Diluc to the house he’s currently renting in Springvale, but it makes something in him ache to see his estranged brother in the place he now calls a temporary home.
“I have something for you,” Kaeya says as he passes him by into the spare bedroom that he’s turned into an office. The whole place is sparse. Kaeya has not given himself any chance to settle here. He had never planned to stay too long in Mondstadt, but it’s already been more than a year.
He has other promises to keep, and he cannot stay around any longer. The Rite of Descension will happen in a few more weeks, and Childe tells him that the researchers have already done their work.
Diluc looks suspiciously at the files that Kaeya hands him. It would be funny if Kaeya doesn’t feel too tired these days, like he’s stretched too thin. “What is this?” Diluc demands, eyes narrowed at the thick stack.
“Files from Dottore,” Kaeya answers with an easy grin. He thinks of the night he and Childe had stolen those files, of alarms blaring in the background and being caught kissing. He cannot wait to go back to Liyue and back to Snezhnaya, but another part of him feels reluctant to leave Mondstadt, to leave whatever restitutions he’s already managed to make here.
“Why?”
“For Master Crepus,” Kaeya answers, resolute. “I’m sure the Kreuzlied will appreciate additional information on our deranged harbinger. It was his schemes primarily that caused the drake’s attack.”
“You’re the Twelfth Harbinger,” Diluc repeats the truth as if it is enough of an explanation for all the suspicions and doubt he has. It probably is.
Kaeya shrugs easily. Most of his things are already packed in this house, and it makes the place look even emptier, especially without all the clutter he’s gotten used to over the years with Childe who always had to have his souvenirs for his family lying around. “It’s no secret that the harbingers hate each other.”
Diluc gives a stiff nod, and Kaeya watches him closely. He doesn’t think any of it is enough for the gratitude and remorse he feels for all the years between them, for all the broken promises and oaths. For joining the Fatui and choosing another person over the family he made in here.
But it’s a start, he thinks. Another step forward before he disappears for good.
Venti
In the space between Cecilia Garden and Wolvendom, before he can enter the Abyss Order’s base where he has been invited, he meets a bard.
Kaeya has met Venti in the Angel’s Share since he’s come back though he cannot remember him from before everything had changed. He figures that the bard is another of the travelers, lost souls like him and Rosaria, who’s finally found a home in Mondstadt in the years since he and Diluc disappeared from the city.
It doesn’t explain his presence in the wilderness so near one of the Abyss Order’s bases.
With Kaeya already feeling tense for his confrontation and having blocked off most of his bond with Tartaglia for this meeting, he isn’t in the mood to be interrupted. He just wants it over with, wants to understand where he now stands with the remnants of the Eclipse Dynasty and the Spiral Tower.
“Morning, Sir Kaeya!” The bard greets with a smile, hands braced on his hips.
Kaeya frowns at the greeting. “I’m not a knight,” he says with some amusement.
“Ah, but the children of Mondstadt will always be the children of Mondstadt,” the bard says with a laugh. “And Sir Kaeya hasn’t exactly stopped protecting the city, hm?”
“I don’t have time for any ballads or riddles,” Kaeya replies, still unsure about the bard’s presence here on the very day he’s planned to finally face the order and their so-called princess.
An usurper. But Kaeya should have expected that. No one came for him after his father had left, after all, and he still wasn’t certain that the remnants of Khaenri’ah was the same as the Abyss Order.
If there was any hope left, no matter what he’s been told.
“It’s not a riddle,” Venti says with a smile at him. “Simply a warning to a child of mine, a simple hope for him to come back for song and wine.”
“I don’t understand,” Kaeya admits though his heart is beating wildly in his chest at the thought that the bard knew more than he let on. The bard’s eyes and the tips of his hair seem to glow bright for a moment, and Kaeya thinks of Zhongli masquerading as a funeral consultant when Kaeya had visited Childe in Mondstadt. He thinks of the Tsaritsa and the same power swirling in her eyes and glowing bright in her hair.
Barbatos smiles at him as if there is nothing wrong with a god being known as a drunkard of all things in his own city. Kaeya feels a bit relieved that he is no longer staying in Mondstadt once this is said and done.
“He’ll come for you soon enough,” Venti tells him with a knowing glint in his eyes. “Come see me before you leave and we’ll have a laugh.”
Kaeya sighs and doesn’t bother to parse through the god’s words. If this is a warning, it is nothing that Kaeya hasn’t already expected when he decided to accept the invitation from the Abyss Order.
“I’ll think about it,” he promises the Archon. Above them, Stormterror heads towards the city, and Kaeya can see the careful orchestration of the Abyss Order in this plot against the city, can feel the corruption from Mondstadt’s guardian bleeding into the ley lines, into the very ground. “Don’t you have something to do? They’ll need your help.”
Barbatos laughs as he leaves. Kaeya prays for Mondstadt in the Tsaritsa and Morax’s names.
Tartaglia
Everything aches when Kaeya wakes, and he doesn’t recognize the room he’s in. For a moment, he panics when he cannot remember where he is or how he got here. But then he feels another hand holding his own tightly, and he follows it to see Childe sleeping on his folded arms at his bedside.
Kaeya smiles fondly at the other harbinger, taking his free hand to run it through soft ginger hair. He remembers asking Childe to stay after he woke up outside the Abyss Order’s domain, and he isn’t surprised that the other kept his promise.
Childe always keeps his promises. That’s what scares Kaeya when he remembers the oath so willingly spoken by Childe after he had saved him.
Always, for as long as I draw breath, Childe had said, and the very idea of Ajax dying brings a chill in his veins that he cannot banish.
“Kaeya?” Childe is groggy as he blinks the sleep from his eyes. Kaeya returns the squeeze from the other, their hands still joined, as he sits up from the bed.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Kaeya teases, messing with the hair under his hand.
Childe’s smile is brilliant and warm, familiar in the stark relief that he sees in it and the excitement. He thinks of their last mission in Snezhnaya, of waking in a similar way after he had been injured in the battlefield. “Good morning,” Childe breaths out.
Kaeya tugs at his hand and pulls the other to the bed, interlacing their fingers together. “Tell me what happened,” he asks of Childe, knowing making it into a report of a mission can help the rapid beating of their hearts. Kaeya isn’t quite certain whether the relief or the fear he currently feels belong to him alone, to Childe, or to both of them.
Either way, it’ll be good to have a distraction, and he still doesn’t know where he is.
He leans his head on Childe’s shoulder as the other Harbinger tells the story of how he charged into the city and followed the breadcrumbs Kaeya has left behind. Kaeya’s breath hitches in his chest when Childe tells him of encountering the Herald though he relaxes when he learns that the Herald simply left them on their own. Childe tells him of how he had brought Kaeya back to Mondstadt and to the Fatui in the Goth Grand Hotel.
If there is anyone who still doesn’t know of Kaeya’s allegiance and position in the Fatui, they probably know now.
“And Signora?”
Childe scowls and tugs at the strands of Kaeya’s hair before twisting it in his fingers. “Says we owe her,” he says with a scoff. “Who cares?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Kaeya says. It’s the least he can do when he caused the problem.
Childe nudges him, kicking his shin under the covers lightly, and he glares at the other. “Your turn,” Childe says, an unapologetic grin on his face. Kaeya wants to kiss it away, and another part of him just doesn’t want to move from their position.
“I was tracking the abyss order instead of observing the knights and Diluc,” he admits. He rubs his thumb over the pulse point on Childe’s wrist, letting the steady beat from it lull his earlier panic into something calm. “They sent me an invitation.”
“The Abyss Order?”
Kaeya hums in agreement. “The Princess,” he says. “I never did get to see her.”
“Rude,” Childe comments.
That startles a laugh out of Kaeya, and he snorts and giggles, still pressed so close to Childe, relishing in the presence that he’s missed all these months. “I talked with the Herald,” he says with a sneer, remembering the less than ideal result of that meeting. “They still think I might be needed.”
“And you? What do you think, Kaeya?”
“They abandoned me,” he says with such vehemence. He deflates and closes his eyes as he realizes the question he still wasn’t able to find an answer for. “Or they saved me. Can you believe I still don’t know?”
Childe’s lips twist, and he feels the tingle of Childe’s electro in the air. “The Abyss doesn’t give up its secrets easily or without a price,” he says, brushing the fringe of Kaeya’s hair away from his eyes, and Kaeya is suddenly so aware that there is no barrier hiding his cursed eye from view. “They were very interested that we’re bonded too. We’ll figure it all out.”
“Tartaglia doing research?” Kaeya lets his eyes widen in false surprise. “That’ll be the day.”
“How mean!” Childe says, but the smile on his lips betrays him. He presses their lips together in a soft kiss as he brushes his thumb over Kaeya’s cheek. “I should send a letter to Katya. I left in a hurry when I felt the bond cut off. Why did that happen?”
“Abyssal Spell probably. Some kind of ward. Another thing to research, hm?”
“Boring,” Childe comments. “We still have Liyue to handle. I may have ruined things.”
Kaeya sighs. “Send word to Katya,” he says. “I’ll come with you after we settle things here.”
Childe nods eagerly. “Better be out of Signora’s way when she executes her plan,” he agrees.
Kaeya remembers his standing invitation from Mondstadt’s archon, and a laugh bubbles out of him. He wonders if Venti will take the invitation and his welcome to Mondstadt back when Signora goes through with her plan.
It was a thing to worry about for another day. He pulls Childe close for more kisses. When they part, he presses their foreheads together and smiles. “We’ll do it together,” he says.
It is not quite the oath that Childe has sworn outside of the domain, but it is a promise all the same. They’ll stay together, and he refuses to let either of them die.
Diluc
“Master Diluc!” Kaeya greets, a few days later, when he finds the other waiting for him outside the rented house with his landlord. The landlord leaves after Kaeya has handed him back his keys with a nod from Diluc. “Come to see me off?”
“To Liyue, correct?” Diluc says with a challenging note in his voice. He stands stiffly outside, a hand behind his back in a way that suggests he is hiding something. “To target their archon the same as here?”
“Oh? Did you encounter Signora?” Kaeya asks eagerly. If the other Harbinger had failed, then it’ll be easier for Kaeya to find some way to make them even. “Did you meet our rhyming archon?”
Diluc snorts, which tells Kaeya all that he needs to know about Diluc meeting Mondstadt’s archon. Kaeya had felt just as exasperated. It was easier when he thought of Venti as nothing more than a talented and unruly bard. But this was much more interesting and fun.
He just had to be careful not to inform Childe, who already felt excited at challenging Zhongli to a fight. They didn’t need to delay their mission any longer.
“Your colleague succeeded,” Diluc says with a scowl, and Kaeya finds that he feels just as disappointed.
“Are you here to blame me?” Kaeya asks. “Planning to fight me and return the gnosis? I don’t have it.”
“The gnosis?”
“Ah,” Kaeya says in understanding. “You don’t know what was done to your archon.”
“He was attacked,” Diluc states with his lips pressed to a displeased line.
“But you didn’t know that something was stolen? Well, consider that information a gift from me then,” Kaeya says, though a part of him feels irritated at himself for letting such a thing slip by on accident. Mondstadt has made him soft. He needs to polish his skills once he’s left.
Diluc doesn’t pursue the topic any longer. “On the topic of gifts,” the uncrowned king says, and when he removes the hand hidden behind his back, he is holding a very familiar scabbard. “You left it behind.”
It is rare for the silver-tongued Arlecchino to be stunned speechless, but that is what he feels when he accepts the old, beaten thing that Diluc hands him. “Wh-why?” He finally manages to ask as he runs his fingers over the engraving that Master Crepus has done himself. It was a match, he knows to the one that Diluc holds--a gift for the boys when the had entered the knights as trainees.
“It belongs to you,” Diluc says gruffly. “I’m just returning it.”
Kaeya gives his brother the most amiable smile. He hopes it looks close to whatever smile he used to make when they were still partners together, when he was still Diluc’s shadow. “Thank you.”
Diluc gives him a nod of acknowledgement. It isn’t the same as whatever they had in the past, but it is enough. They can never go back to the way they were. He can live with that.
Aether
Childe isn’t waiting alone when Kaeya finally meets him in the Stone Gate. Instead, there is a young man with golden hair and a flying companion beside him.
“Kaeya!” Childe waves his hands over his head as he calls them to him.
“I see you’ve replaced me,” Kaeya jokes with a deadpan tone as he approaches them.
Childe only laughs. “This is Aether and Paimon,” he explains. “They want to see the Rite of Descension. I offered to take them with us.”
Kaeya gives a vicious grin. The Rite of Descension is a new beginning. Another challenge for the Innamorati. “The more, the merrier,” he agrees. He puts on the easy smile and grace that Arlecchino is known for, already leaving behind any idea of Sir Kaeya. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. The ceremony’s in two days. Let’s hurry.”
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