Mm. That's true. [ A brief pause. ] I still wish... there was some other way.
[ And that's a kind of admission in itself. The idea that Teyvat's rational, logical traveler — the man who had himself proposed, in unyielding terms, that he would be the Hydro Archon's prosecutor — still wishes there was something he could have done for a madman who had killed his entire village, beyond the reach of justice or mercy.
A lot of Inazuma was unjust like that. And it's not as though Ei needed to personally journey through her own land, solving the problems of her people; it's not as though Yae Miko could have been held personally accountable for the actions of one madman. But there were ways in which the people of Inazuma were neglected when Ei withdrew to her eternal meditation, like toys rotting at the bottom of a sick child's toybox. That's the kind of thing that Aether wishes there had been alternatives for.
Abruptly, Aether realizes his leg is sort of hanging off of Wriothesley's, so he moves it. Now he's in the man's lap, bracketed between his thick thighs. Aether settles, and finally feels warm. ]
The worst ones are the ones who want to do it. There aren't many cures for that.
[ Their conversation is so somber against the howling of the wind. Aether looks out at the snow and thinks about how they should talk about something else. Something more lighthearted.
What comes out of his mouth instead is this: ]
A lot of people died on this mountain too, you know. There was this really interesting murder case from a couple hundred years ago... I could never figure it out.
no subject
[ And that's a kind of admission in itself. The idea that Teyvat's rational, logical traveler — the man who had himself proposed, in unyielding terms, that he would be the Hydro Archon's prosecutor — still wishes there was something he could have done for a madman who had killed his entire village, beyond the reach of justice or mercy.
A lot of Inazuma was unjust like that. And it's not as though Ei needed to personally journey through her own land, solving the problems of her people; it's not as though Yae Miko could have been held personally accountable for the actions of one madman. But there were ways in which the people of Inazuma were neglected when Ei withdrew to her eternal meditation, like toys rotting at the bottom of a sick child's toybox. That's the kind of thing that Aether wishes there had been alternatives for.
Abruptly, Aether realizes his leg is sort of hanging off of Wriothesley's, so he moves it. Now he's in the man's lap, bracketed between his thick thighs. Aether settles, and finally feels warm. ]
The worst ones are the ones who want to do it. There aren't many cures for that.
[ Their conversation is so somber against the howling of the wind. Aether looks out at the snow and thinks about how they should talk about something else. Something more lighthearted.
What comes out of his mouth instead is this: ]
A lot of people died on this mountain too, you know. There was this really interesting murder case from a couple hundred years ago... I could never figure it out.