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| [For a long time now, the forces of the Abyss have been instructed to attack and kill Dainsleif on sight. It isn't surprising, even if Dainsleif is every bit as Khaenri'ahn as the other cursed, twisted leaders of the Abyss: relations between their current prince and their former captain simply soured to the point that Aether decided Dainsleif was better off dead than allowed to suffer until such time as the curse of Celestia was purged from their souls at last. So they were ordered. So they were told.
(And really — really, there isn't any logic in it. Really, the reason Aether had initially taken up the mantle of defying the gods to restore Khaenri'ah to its former glory was because of Dain to begin with. Because he wanted Dain to smile at him again; because he wanted them to be able to travel together again; because he'd lost something the same way Dain had, that day the skies came crashing down. Because he couldn't stand the thought of ever seeing Dain like that again, on his knees, almost in penitence to the cruel gods, crushed with the weight of what he'd done.)
Still, other than the order to kill him on sight, Dainsleif was never made a target of the Abyss's forces. Until, without warning, new orders came from their prince on high: Call off all other operations. I want our armies to take Dainsleif alive.
Aether is bathing in his quarters when the Abyss Mage comes to report that they've captured Dain, as ordered. It wasn't easy, of course. Dain was never going to make it easy. But they have ways of subjugating him, now that they've run experiments on that device they discovered in the Chasm. Even Dainsleif can't escape the curse of Khaenri'ah, and Aether planned to use that to his advantage.
The losses are as follows: two contingents of their soldiers, a lesser dragon, thirteen homunculi. But even so, the operation was a success. The Twilight Sword has been collared and chained, Your Highness, and awaits your judgment in the dungeons.
Interesting, Aether says in response. And then, in a tone that is almost distracted but could never possibly be for how ruthless the Abyss knows him to be: Good. You are dismissed.
The Abyss, predictably, is a dark place, with little in the way of natural life, but Aether's "palace" boasts what few luxuries their forces can manage. The lifeless branches of petrified trees decorate the cold stone walls, as if in imitation of floral arrangements; rugs of tattered silk line the halls. Defying gravity, streams of water run upward along the walls in violation of the laws of Celestia. For five hundred years, this has been his home. And for five hundred more —
Aether's footsteps take him to Dainsleif's cell, where he stops and simply stares at his prisoner with eyes of cold amber.]
...Dain.
[Aether's voice is soft and quiet, perhaps even unexpectedly so. He lifts one hand, and the magicked bars dissolve; as he steps through them, they re-form behind him. He isn't bothered. He doesn't mind being in the cage of the beast so long as he still holds its leash.]
I never thought I'd see you like this again. | |
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| [The gods of Celestia have fallen, and all is right with the world.
Aether and Lumine are the new gods of Teyvat now.
It's the sort of thing that he should be happy about, but the way he feels hasn't really come into it yet. For the time being, they haven't yet reshaped the world to suit their ambitions, if only because there are too many bits and bobs to sort out before changes are made. Visions and Gnoses run on Celestia's power, but Lumine has not yet erased them for the widespread chaos that revoking them would cause. The false sky is still in place for the same reason; people would panic if they knew what lay beyond the blue skies. And the barrier between the abyss below and the paradise above has been destroyed — but Aether's own abyssal forces have not even dared to breach the former border they so long dreamt of tearing down.
What would we do beneath Celestia's sun, my liege? they ask him, in their defeated, half-envious tones. We have no need now to walk in the light.
(Is he happy? Yes — or maybe no. It's hard to tell. There's relief, certainly, that his long journey is finally over. Relief that he can finally rest — that the great injustice of the world has finally been addressed. He should have never doubted that Lumine, perfect, beautiful Lumine, would be the one to see it through to its end at long last. And yet — even though he loves his sister more than anything else in all the worlds — how typical, that she was the one to save this world. How typical, that in the end, he accomplished nothing, and she changed everything.)
The thing he can't get over is this: in the siege against Celestia, when everything was crumbling to pieces beneath their heels, Aether, his wings tattered, fell off the edge — and Dainsleif dove off the edge to save him.
Dainsleif dove off the edge to save him, and then there had been a rush of wind and gravity and — and the only thing Aether had been able to see was the blood and the shaft of light jutting out from beneath Dainsleif's ribs as one of Celestia's archers cruelly aimed a second arrow and fired at her target again.
He's alive now, but barely. Four of Lumine's companions had to help stitch him together with their healing magic, and even then it was touch-and-go. Aether hasn't left Dainsleif's side, in all the time it's taken for him to recover. They tried to dissuade him at first — told him to get some rest of his own — but now they don't bother. Aether's silent vigil over Dainsleif is the one war he still wants to wage.
It's a good thing that Dainsleif hasn't woken, the once and former prince of the Abyss thinks. He wouldn't even know how to react if Dain's eyes opened. Good morning and I'm sorry are two of the most honest things he wants to say, but an apology won't fix the hundreds of years he spent pushing Dainsleif away. The more he looks at Dainsleif's closed eyes, watches the slow, weak rise and fall of his chest, the more he realizes that the gap between them might now be impossible to breach.
More than anything, he wishes that it didn't have to come to this. He wishes that their journey together had never come to an end. In those days, he only ever had to wonder when Lumine would wake from her slumber and how to make Dainsleif laugh, but now they're long gone, and he is a different person.]
You really are a fool.
[There it is, that cold, pained voice that's plagued Aether ever since he looked upon the plight of those forsaken by Teyvat and cast into the dark sea below. The traveler's tone softens, his hand squeezes Dainsleif's as it lays unmoving upon the bed, and he buries his face into the man's chest, just barely avoiding the gauze wrapped about his ribs.
His voice is soft in a way that he hasn't been for a long, long time.]
...You're such an idiot, Dain. | |
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| [It isn't ideal that his sister is still sleeping, stuck in stasis inside the star that carried them both here — but at the moment, Aether is trying not to think of it as a downside. It gives him time to scope out the lay of the land, that's all — and the kingdom of Khaenri'ah has even kindly loaned him the captain of their royal guard as a companion for his journey. See the whole of Teyvat, Rhinedottir told him, and when you have seen all that there is to see, come back here and make your decision.
It's not politically expedient to tell people that they're from Khaenri'ah — people react too suspiciously to the godless nation for that — so Dainsleif and Aether decide on simple cover stories: they're outlanders, and they'll arrive in Mondstadt seeking work as adventurers. Easy enough. The Anemo Archon is supposedly in a state of slumber right now, so it will be best to briefly visit Andrius, the great wolf of the north wind; if they are lucky, they may see Dvalin flying in the skies overhead.
The land of Mondstadt is lush and beautiful; temperate weather and blue skies make the climate ideal for growing grapes. Once he's out in the verdant wilds, Aether takes a deep breath while stretching, relishing the scent of wet grass in the air. He turns toward Dainsleif, eyes bright with trust. He's eager to explore.]
Oh — Dain, it's raining!
[Maybe that's the almost-disturbing part — Dainsleif is, by all measures, a difficult man to get to know, and Aether himself, by his conduct in the throne room and in other spaces, appears to be the more measured, guarded type. And yet he's treated Dainsleif with such strange affection from the start — practically buzzing around him, excited for their journey, calling him Dain as if they've known each other forever. Aether shows no shame, no bashfulness.
Maybe it's... not unpleasant.]
We'll have to wear our rain cloaks, huh? [A sunshine smile; a flash of white teeth.] Like we're real adventurers. Haha! | |
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| [Truthfully, Aether's not entirely surprised that it didn't work out.
It had been a bit of a surprise when Lumine pulled this Dainsleif from — from somewhere and then introduced him to Aether as her boyfriend. Naturally, Aether had been suspicious and cynical. He could never really get the picture of how they met, whether it was at school or work or somewhere else; he could never really get a sense of Dainsleif's history, of where he worked or what the man did before he met Lumine and became her lover. But the skepticism had worn off in the end, because it soon became quite obvious that Dainsleif, past his stoic and slightly awkward demeanor, loved Lumine. He worshipped her like a goddess. He would have done anything for her.
And so, in the end, Aether approved.
But then again, that was just the problem, wasn't it?
Lumine was never going to be satisfied with the kind of man who agreed with her every decision like an obedient pup. Aether loves his sister, loves everything about her — but, to put it very cynically, she didn't need from a boyfriend the kind of behavior she could get from her twin brother. Someone pliant, someone loving, someone who would do everything she asked, fetch her a blade of grass from Inazuma or a single berry from the wilds of Sumeru if she so much as mentioned a whim for one... Lumine didn't need someone like that when she had grown up with that kind of behavior by her side in Aether.
And so, in the end...] | |
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