Chapter Text
The sun had just started setting behind the Mondstadt Cathedral when Aether stepped into Sister's Grace Orphanage.
He'd missed the evening service, and Sister Grace's expression conveyed her full disappointment without a single word. Bowing his head to avoid eye contact, Aether ran up the stairs to the top floor. He slipped into his bedroom in the tiny attic, shut the door, and leaned against it with a sigh, his eyes closing for a long moment.
Home at last.
It had been a long day of running around Mondstadt—the countryside, not the city—to deliver food to random people—customers, he should say—for Sara at the Good Hunter. A terrible job to take in the middle of August, when the sun was at its zenith for light and heat. But as long as the pay was good, anything would do.
He didn’t really like the work, per se, but, even at the tender age of sixteen, he needed it. Yes, the school had a small budget set aside for less fortunate students, and, yes, tuition was technically free, but even a scholarship wasn’t enough to cover the price of all the materials necessary for class. Books, parchment, quills, glass vials to store potions… The list of requirements was always long, and long meant expensive.
Opening his eyes, Aether focused on the window and the brass cage sitting on the desk next to it. Both were open, exactly as he had left them that morning before going into the city in search of work. However, something was amiss: Paimon, the Silkwhite Falcon that Albedo had gifted him three years prior, was not there to wait for him as she usually would.
Aether squinted in the dying daylight, scanning the darkening sky for the shape of his falcon. Paimon had left earlier than normal—probably too impatient and hungry to wait for him to come home. Well, her loss; he would not share with her the leftover Sticky Honey Roast that Sara had given him on top of his pay for today.
He turned the lights on and walked the three steps needed to cross the room towards the desk. The small size of the attic, with its slanted ceiling under the roof, made the furniture look too big and almost oppressive, which was one of the many reasons why Aether spent most of his time outside, even when he didn’t need to work.
Aether dropped the bag containing his dinner on the wooden surface, and then noticed it. Half hidden in the shadow cast by the cage, lay a thick letter that had definitely not been there in the morning before Aether left. Picking it up, he checked the recipient: “Aether Reisende, Little Attic, Sister Grace’s Orphanage, Mondstadt City,” was written in bold green cursive letters. There was only one place that addressed their letters as such, and indeed, when he turned over the envelope in his hand, he saw a familiar wax seal—a crescent moon over a winged diamond. It was the crest of MondYue, as the students liked to call the Mondstadt and Liyue School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which was actually a mouthful of a name when one had to bring it up in conversation.
Aether had been attending the school since a kind looking woman with bright blue eyes and blonde hair tied up in a ponytail had come to the orphanage six years ago and announced: “You’re a Wielder, Aether,” as if it were the most obvious thing a child would want to be. But Aether had no idea what a Wielder was at that time.
That woman turned out to be Jean Gunnhildr, the Deputy Headmistress of MondYue.
She had explained to Aether that not only magic existed, but that it was the cause of all the weird accidents that happened around him whenever he felt strong emotions. Suddenly, the unexpected bursts of wind that helped him land safely whenever he fell, the random rocks spawning from the ground, and the lightnings falling from the sky whenever he was angry had started making more sense.
Professor Gunnhildr had invited him to enrol at the school, and naturally Aether had accepted. Then, she had showed him how to access the secret area of Vertik Alley from the statue in front of the cathedral; they had walked around the hidden street, as Professor Gunnhildr helped him buy his books and uniform using the school funds. And finally, she had accompanied him to buy the most incredible thing of all: his own personal Vision—which had lit up white at his touch, startling both Professor Gunnhildr and the shopkeeper—with the recommendation to never attempt to use it on his own outside school.
The months waiting for the first year to start had felt terribly long. Aether remembered reading all the books, trying on his new uniform at least once a week to admire it in front of a mirror, and rolling his Vision between his fingers, imagining the wonderful things he'd be able to do.
At present, of course, Aether knew very well that he could use magic and manipulate the elements at will with his Vision. Not that he could do that outside the school yet, despite being perfectly able to control it. According to the rules, one had to be of age, and his birthday wouldn’t come for a few more weeks, after the beginning of the school year in September.
Sitting down at the desk, Aether opened the letter and, as his stomach growled, the box with his dinner. He took a bite, but the Roast had gone cold in the time that it had taken him to walk from the Good Hunter to the orphanage. He wished again that he could use magic to heat it up. Only a few weeks left!
The letter contained the list of books and school supplies he would need for the year—which differed from the usual, as it included a set of formal wear that he would have to purchase with his meagre funds. He frowned. Why would he require formal wear at all?
As expected, inside the envelope he found an additional page bearing the results of the exams he took last June. He smiled at the high grades he received in all the subjects he wanted to keep in his schedule this year, and made a mental note to pen a thank-you letter to his friends from the Falcon House for being the best study buddies and helping him.
He had taken only a few more bites of cold Sticky Honey Roast when, in a flurry of white feathers, Paimon flew back in. She glided gently through the open window and landed on top of the brass cage, holding out a leg for him to untie the new letter she brought. Aether always thought she had an uncanny talent for coming home at the right time to steal the meat from his meals, but maybe this time it was accidental.
Or maybe not.
No sooner than he freed her leg from the burden of the letter, Paimon launched herself on his dinner with a screech.
“Paimon, no! Bad bird!”
The falcon didn’t stop at his protest, and he threw his hands in the air in surrender, knowing any fight with Paimon was a lost cause. Indeed, she looked at him straight in the eye as she pecked a piece of meat off the plate and swallowed it.
“Someday I’ll turn you into emergency food, mark my words,” he grumbled, giving up on his dinner. He moved to sit on his bed next to the desk and kicked off his shoes to be more comfortable. Once he was settled in—his back resting against the wall and his legs crossed—he opened the new letter and Mona’s calligraphy greeted him.
Aether,
The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least, but I have finally found the time to write you a note. I’ll be brief and to the point:
Our project is starting to bear some fruits. It pains me to admit it’s not enough yet, but it’s an improvement nonetheless. I managed to glimpse something auspicious during my divination last night, and I think we’d best talk about it face-to-face.
We shall also go buy our supplies together, so we can have this conversation then. You’ve received your school list, have you not? And I assume you’ll be free on Sunday, yes? I’ll meet you at the usual spot behind the statue of the cathedral at nine o’clock sharp, so we can descend into Vertik Alley together. Do not be tardy.
Mona
Aether reread the seconds paragraph three times, just to be sure he wasn’t dreaming. News about their project meant news about his sister.
He could barely believe it. After years of searching and scrying, Mona had finally got a result other than “Lumine is alive”. He pressed a trembling hand to his mouth to stop a sob that threatened to escape him, but there was nothing he could do to halt the treacherous tear that rolled down his cheek. He dropped the letter on his bedsheets and reached out a hand to grasp the Cecilia hairpin he’d bought three years prior and that always rested on top of his dresser at the foot of the bed.
Noticing the movement, Paimon stopped eating and turned her head to look at Aether. As much as she was annoying, always hungry, and always screeching at inopportune moments, Paimon was also incredibly perceptive and caring. She knew something had happened, so she flapped to land onto the bed next to Aether, hooting softly for once.
“We got something, Paimon,” Aether whispered into the bird’s feathered neck, hugging her carefully and stroking her snowy plumage. “We might find her, after all.”
Aether hoped he wouldn’t have the nightmare that night.
* * *
Aether had the nightmare.
He knew that the dream was way too hopeful and calm to last. In his sleep, he saw a possible version of his reunion with Lumine. He dreamed of happy tears, and arms around each other, caressing of blonde hair—hers had always been shorter than his and a shade lighter—and smiles that turned into laughter.
Then, he felt the shift.
In the blink of an eye, the young woman he held close to his chest was ripped away from his arms. He couldn’t see her face, and he couldn’t hear her voice, but he knew she was scared, and he knew she was shouting.
Flames roared all around them—and he was rooted in place.
(The nightmare was always the same, with little variation. Sometimes he would run towards his sister, but the door would keep getting farther and farther away. Other times, like this one, he simply could not move a muscle.)
He found himself being a spectator of the horror his mind had kept making him relive over and over again in the course of ten long years.
As usual, there was nothing he could do to stop the fire, the death, the loss: he couldn’t move, he couldn’t scream, he couldn’t cry, he couldn’t save anyone, but most importantly he couldn’t wake up. Not yet, not until this nightmare—this torture—ended.
He faced a young Lumine now, like she had been when she was taken. Her screams were deafening, but he could never discern her words. Her hair flew over her face as she thrashed about, trying to free herself from the hands—too many hands for it to be just one person—that dragged her away through the flames and out the door. Aether heard himself yell her name, beg the captors to give Lumine back, but the fire engulfed everything—including their parents’ now charred bodies he refused to look at—and then he inhaled smoke, coughed and…
He woke up in a cold sweat, gulping fresh air as if he’d really been on the verge of suffocation. Tears left a wet trail from the outer corners of his eyes, toward his ears.
The first time he’d had the nightmare, Aether had awoken alone in a hospital bed up in the cathedral, screaming and crying, and a nurse—a nun?—had rushed in to comfort him. He’d told her all about the dream, through endless tears, hiccups, and snot. He’d told her all about the parents that were not there anymore, and he’d told her all about the sister that had been taken.
At that, the nurse—the nun—had contacted the Knights of Favonius, but they had been confused. A sister? There was no sister. The house in the outskirts of Mondstadt City had been mostly burned down, the parents dead, the son miraculously alive. A girl, kidnapped? Impossible: Aether’s father had been a Knight himself, and he always talked about his beautiful wife and the son that looked so much like her. The family had only one child, Aether. Everyone knew that.
And so, Aether had slowly convinced himself that the sister he kept dreaming about—because he kept having the same nightmare every night, at least for the first year after the tragedy—was just a figment of his imagination, a way for his brain, possibly damaged by the lack of oxygen and the harmful smoke inhaled, to cope with the sudden parting of his parents, leaving him all alone in the world but with the hope of a long-lost sibling.
Well, until he’d found out he was a Wielder, because if magic existed, who was to say that his memories weren’t true? And then he’d met Mona, to whom he’d told—reluctantly—the nightmare when, after months of inquiring about the bags under his eyes, she’d grown tired of pretending his lies didn’t bother her.
“We are friends, are we not?” she’d asked. “Friends don’t lie to each other.”
Mona had been practical: one’s fate is written in the stars, but so is their past history. She’d used Hydromancy—a very complicated piece of magic itself, and definitely a great feat for such a young student!—to confirm that Lumine existed. Simple as that. But, well, she only existed in Aether’s past. Not that she did not exist in the present! For some unknown reason, Mona could not scry on Lumine, or see her past, or predict her future. She was just…there. Alive, somewhere. Hidden.
Hopefully, someday, they will be reunited.
* * *
Tired from a night plagued by nightmares, Aether dragged himself out of bed and into town to look for something to do with himself and earn some mora in the process.
Today was a special day. Not in the good sense.
It was officially ten years since the day he had last seen his parents and sister. Usually, he tried to spend this day as he would any other day, but it was difficult; the pain was always there, even if he got his friends to distract him. Not this year, though. Mona was still at her grandma’s, at the border with Fontaine. Albedo was visiting his Aunt and cousin. Sucrose, Xiao, and Childe all lived far away. He’d sent a note to Amber, but she was in Liyue with her grandfather.
He’d never felt so alone.
Trying to shake off the ache in his heart, he distracted himself by helping old Goth fix some furniture, delivering a meal to Springvale for Sara, and, since it was on route, dropping some raw meat to Brook. It was something that he did almost every week, if Hertha couldn’t find anyone else to deliver it.
Hertha had been his father’s captain, back when he was alive—when he was a Knight of Favonius. She knew Aether since he and Lumine had been tiny babies, and always greeted him with a smile that had a hint of sadness. And yet, she never mentioned Lumine. Nobody ever did, after all; they thought she never existed.
In the afternoon, Aether climbed up Starsnatch Cliff. He would have stayed there until the sun set, if only old Goth’s son hadn’t decided to take the spot for his secret date with Marla so much earlier than usual. Embarrassed at the accidental eavesdropping of their romantic conversation, he decided to just pick some cecilias and go back to Mondstadt City.
Cecilias were his family’s Windblume, a flower that signified love and kinship. It had been Mama’s favourite, and Papa always bought a fresh bouquet of them when he came home from work on Sundays. He would give the flowers to Mama, and then Mama would smell them and pick one out to tuck behind Lumine’s ear, and another to weave into Aether’s hair.
With trembling hands, Aether wove a Cecilia at the end of his long braid and began the trek back down the cliff towards the city.
Papa would always pout, because Mama didn’t give him a flower. “You gave them to me, and now you want one?” she’d joke. And then, she would pick one more from the bouquet and pin it on his lapel. “There,” she would say, “now you look even more handsome.” Aether and Lumine always made a face at that.
He brushed away a stray tear and kept walking towards Mondstadt. When he reached the city, he climbed the stairs to the cathedral, and approached the graveyard behind it.
“I miss you.” Aether sat on the ground in front of the tombstone that bore his parents’ names. Quietly, in the dimming light of sunset, he arranged the flowers he’d collected into a nice bouquet, exactly like the one Papa used to bring home.
“It’s been ten years, and I really miss you, every single day.” His voice came out in broken sobs, and more tears rolled down his cheeks. He hugged his knees, but kept looking at the names hewn on the stone.
“I got a message from Mona,” he said after a while. The moon and the stars were now shining overhead, and the night air chilled, bringing some reprieve from the August heat. “She didn’t say much,” he added softly, “but she has news about Lumine. I hope that—I hope I can meet her again.”
The first time he had come to the graveyard to speak with his parents, Aether had felt sort of stupid. They weren’t there after all, were they? How could his voice reach them? And yet, when he’d asked for a sign that they were listening, the wind had picked up in a quick gust of air that had brushed his tears away. It had reminded him of his mother’s soft touch.
The same wind made his hair move, a phantom caress from his parents, encouraging. It was as if they were telling him that “Everything will be alright.” He really wanted to believe them.
“I’ll come back soon,” he said as he stood up and wiped the last of his tears from his face. “To tell you what Mona predicted.”
With a sigh, he walked back to the orphanage.
* * *
“You know perfectly well that fate can not be changed, reversed, or accelerated,” Mona said as they descended the circular stone staircase magically hidden beneath the statue of Barbatos in front of the cathedral on Sunday morning.
It was a hot day in August, but thankfully Vertik Alley stretched underground, where the sun could not bother them. To make up for it, Vertik Alley was annoyingly full of stairs.
Before Aether could protest, Mona continued: “Knowing now or later won’t change the outcome, so I’ll tell you what I found over lunch, after we finish our shopping. There’s no need to be impatient—you’ve waited for years, what’s a few more hours?”
Aether had been waiting for this meeting for the past few days, and he had been waiting for any kind of news for the past few years, so of course he was impatient. He had every right to be impatient.
“If you didn’t want me to pester you to tell me, you shouldn’t have written, and I quote, that you ‘managed to glimpse something auspicious’ in your letter.” He scoffed when they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, and groaned when she began ascending another set of steps that led to the clothing store in the corner, the one that sold quality second-hand for very cheap prices.
“Well, had I not given you something to spark your interest, you wouldn’t have arrived at the set time, now, would you?”
“You don’t know that!”
“I do know that, indeed, and I don’t even have need for a scryglass to predict it. I know you.” Mona opened the door to the store with a creak and ignored Aether’s sulking as she approached the clerk to ask for the formal wear they required.
The store was small and cramped, but it had a large variety of garments to choose from, all high enough quality for the price they were sold. The only problem was finding the right size, as tailoring wasn’t an option for the poor. Aether often wondered how it would feel to have clothes made to one’s specifications and to one’s precise measurements so that they fit like a glove—not that he knew what a glove was supposed to fit like: his were always a little too big.
Even though this particular store was nice and the clerk had always been helpful whenever he needed a new school uniform, Aether hated shopping for clothes—especially for clothes that he would wear probably only once and never again. After all, what use would it be for him to have formal wear? He definitely wouldn’t run around the countryside delivering meals in it.
But if there was anything that Aether hated more than shopping for clothes, it was shopping for clothes with Mona.
In the time it took him to find, try on, and buy a set of decent slacks, a shirt, and a jacket to pair with—all in a very dark brown that Aether wasn’t sure if it was a washed out black or just the original colour—Mona had found, and tried on, at least ten different dresses, and she seemed to be nowhere close to buying any.
“What about this one?” she asked, coming out of the dressing room wearing a red ball gown. Before Aether could answer that the dress looked fine like all the others she had tried, she grumbled, “No, definitely not this one,” and disappeared back inside.
“Come on, Mona,” Aether said, crossing his arms over his chest and lightly thumping the back of his head on the wall next to the dressing rooms in frustration. “Just choose one and let’s call it a day. We still have to hit the bookshop before lunch.”
“That’s all you’re thinking about, lunchtime!” she retorted from behind the curtain, fabric rustling as she put on yet another gown. “You’re only interested in listening to my divination! What about my need to find the perfect dress?”
“Why don’t you make a prediction on which dress you will wear? Now that I think about it, you should make one also to understand why we need these clothes in the first place.”
“Absolutely not, you know that Divination is a sacred art that shall not be used to foretell the future for such futile reasons. Regardless, I thought we were friends, and I need your friendly opinion.”
“Well, you don’t even give me the chance to tell you my friendly opinion!”
Mona opened the curtain and twirled in front of Aether, wearing a purple gown made of a fabric that looked itchy and stiff. At this point, she’d tried every colour of the rainbow and more. She threw open her arms and lifted an eyebrow, as if to ask, “So, what do you think?”
“It’s pretty,” Aether said. “But I liked the dark blue one more. You know, the first one you tried on.”
Mona sighed and let her shoulders slump. “Yes, I think so too. I’ll take that one.”
Aether really hated shopping with Mona.
* * *
“Stupid stairs,” Aether cursed under his breath, sweat sticking his hair to his forehead and to his neck. He should have tied his hair up in a bun instead of binding it in his usual long braid.
He’d been following Mona, carrying both of their shopping bags containing clothes and books, throughout the busy streets of Vertik Alley all morning.
They stopped at a store where Mona bought an expensive looking telescope claiming her old one was, well, old, and ten minutes later they found themselves a table at a tavern named The Crystalfly’s Perch.
Aether crashed onto the chair, finally relaxing his aching limbs. The bags lay on the ground, between his legs under the table, to avoid them toppling over and tripping up the poor, overworked waiters scurrying around the place.
There was always a lunch rush on the Sunday previous to the new school year: the tavern was full of patrons, and Aether and Mona had been lucky to find a free table with two seats at all. Aether, who had worked in a similar business just a few days ago, knew how stressful the job could be. He checked again that their bags wouldn’t be of obstacle to the waiters.
The books had been expensive but much needed—unlike the fancy telescope, but Aether wouldn’t tell Mona how to spend her own money—so the two of them piled their leftover coins on the table and counted them. Just over a thousand Mora, which was barely enough for them to order two glasses of water and a pitiful looking Adventurer’s Breakfast Sandwich to share for lunch.
“Alright,” Aether said with just a tinge of exasperation, only loud enough to be heard over the noise of a busy tavern. “Are you going to tell me what you predicted, now?”
He had tried again to pry the news from Mona’s lips during the two hours spent in the bookshop hunting for second-hand school texts, to no avail. Instead, Mona had chatted about the month she had spent near Fontaine with her Seer grandma, with whom she didn’t have the best relationship (she called her “the old hag”), which explained why she had been so busy lately.
Across the table, Mona gracefully picked up her glass and stared at it, making the water twirl inside for a very long moment, which Aether used to take a sip from his own drink.
“The path she walks is fast approaching to meet yours.”
Aether choked on the water.
“What—when—how?” he managed to sputter in surprise through a coughing fit. Mona didn’t seem worried about his reaction, and he assumed that today wouldn’t be the day he died, drowned by a glass of water. She would have predicted it.
“I don’t know the details.” Mona shrugged nonchalantly and picked up half of the sandwich to start munching on it. “It randomly appeared two weeks ago in your future, and at first I thought I was mistaken.”
“But you’re never mistaken.”
“Exactly! I’m never mistaken. So I tried again, and again, and I got the same result every time. To answer your questions, I don’t know when, or how. I can try to gauge an approximate date for your reunion, but it requires more magic, and more scrying, and more maths.” She shuddered.
Mona kept talking about the intricacies of predicting the day he would see Lumine, but Aether just leaned back into his chair, too stunned to pay any attention to what exactly she was saying. He didn’t even process the fact that she’d known for two weeks and kept it a secret from him.
This was it. He would meet his sister again.
“It’s always so foggy when I try to See her,” she was saying, gesticulating wildly as she often did when she was frustrated. “As if there’s something blocking the stars from shining enough to give me a clear reading. I wonder why. And even when we find your sister, don’t think our partnership on this is over, Aether: we still have a great purpose, to understand how she—”
“Mona,” Aether interrupted her. If he could have, he would have hugged her. Instead, he did the next best thing: he gently grabbed one of her hands, squeezed it once, and then turned it upwards to place his half of the uneaten sandwich on her palm. “Thank you.”
Mona blinked, utterly speechless at Aether’s gesture. “While I do appreciate it,” she said in a soft voice and with a sparkle in her eyes, “I think you should eat this, Aether. Your hunger is not my reward.”
He ate the stupid sandwich.
* * *
Leaving the tavern, Aether cursed the stairs again. To think that a society of Wielders so advanced had not created some sort of magical or mechanical lift that could bring him—and their heavy shopping bags—up to the city above! Unbelievable. He heaved a sigh.
Mona resumed her chatting about her misadventures with her grandmother. Everything she said came down to three points: she lived near Fontaine, she was a famous Seer, and she was mean.
Aether was about to ask Mona to stop for a moment to watch a bard’s performance down the street—a break from both the endless steps and Mona’s complaints—when a child ran into his legs, making him lose his balance.
A few things happened in quick succession: he lost his grip on the bags containing their purchases—Mona’s fancy telescope would break!—as he flailed his arms trying to catch himself.
Then, a bright white flash came from his own Vision—accidental magic at his age?—and two of the three bags stopped mid-air, before slowly floating to the ground, safe.
(The last bag went tumbling down the stairs, and Mona quickly sprinted downwards past him and the little girl, screaming, “Oh, no, my books!”)
The little girl gasped in awe, as she was also stopped from falling. His own magic did nothing to stop himself.
He would have probably died, his head bumping on the edge of a stair step, if someone hadn’t grabbed his shoulders, steadying him.
“Careful,” Albedo’s gentle voice greeted him. When Aether spinned around to see him, Albedo smiled, his turquoise eyes glinting in the artificial light of the underground. Albedo took a moment to make sure the girl was fine; she was, of course. “Don’t do that ever again, Klee.”
The girl nodded and crouched to pick up an object from the ground.
Aether had never met her before, but he knew her name. Albedo often talked about his little cousin, both in his letters and in person. At school, he constantly received notes from Klee—which always made his day—and whenever they visited the village on the weekends off school, he made sure to buy presents for her.
“Albedo, look!” Klee called in a high-pitched voice. “Look, I found Dodoco! He’s not lost anymore!” She held up a dirty toy that resembled a… very round rabbit? It would have looked fluffy, were it clean.
“I’m glad Dodoco is alright,” Albedo said in a patient voice. “But remember what your mother said?”
“To not pick up things from the ground? But it’s Dodoco!”
“Well, yes. And what else did she say?”
“To not run away alone because it can be dangerous?”
“Also, yes. Don’t do that anymore, alright? I was scared you’d get lost or hurt.” Klee hugged the dirty toy to her chest and looked ashamed at the second reproach. Albedo gently patted her head before saying, “But what do we say when we bump into someone?”
Aether watched the interaction with a pang in his heart. There was something that deeply affected him there—he just couldn’t place it. Was it yearning? Was it envy? Yearning—or envy—of having relatives who took care of each other. He felt the same whenever Childe, the Captain of their House’s Glitchpit team in MondYue, recounted his Snezhnaya Summer Adventures with his family at the welcome feast every year.
But Aether didn’t have a family anymore—no parents, no cousins, no siblings. He wondered if his life would have been more similar to Albedo’s, had his house not burned down ten years ago.
“Sorry,” Klee said, startling Aether by grabbing his hand for a moment. “Klee won’t do it again.” She released him and returned her attention to her toy.
Albedo sighed, shook his head, and turned his gaze back to Aether. “Anyway. Nice meeting you here, my friend.” He gave him a pat on the back.
“Would have preferred a less hazardous encounter.” Aether pushed away all thoughts of yearning and envy, and gave Albedo a quick one-arm hug. They hadn’t seen each other since the last day of school. “Thanks for catching me, by the way.” He chuckled. “Hey, you could have told me you’d be here today! Then, I wouldn’t have had to suffer shopping with Mona alone! We bought clothes.”
Albedo also chuckled. “My trip today was, indeed, unexpected. I’m here with my Aunt Alice and my cousin.” He gestured to Klee. She was now cradling Dodoco in her arms and petting it clean of dirt.
“Are you here to buy stuff for school, too?”
Before Albedo could answer, Mona joined them again. Oh, right. Maybe Aether should have helped her. He watched her pant heavily as she dragged the bag full of books back up the stairs where Aether, Albedo and Klee were still standing.
“I suppose I have to apologise for making you walk around carrying these all the time,” she told Aether. He took pity on her and got the bag back.
“So you finished all of your shopping already?” Albedo asked. “I was going to have lunch with Aunt Alice and Klee at the Green Fountain Bistro first. Why don’t you two join us? I’m sure Aunt Alice won’t be opposed.” He nodded towards a restaurant on the other side of the road where the performer was singing.
A woman with long blonde hair and a tall, red witch hat sat at an outside table, one leg elegantly crossed over the other, chatting—and gesturing—animatedly with the manager of the establishment.
Aether and Mona exchanged a glance. Would it be too shameless of them to admit that they had already shared a pitiful meal and accept the invitation regardless? They could eat an actual meal. But would they have to pay for themselves? They couldn’t afford this particular place, it looked expensive. That would be embarrassing. Mona subtly shook her head. Aether nodded in agreement.
They had an understanding.
“No, thank you. We’ve already eaten,” Aether said with a smile, hoping it did look genuine and not pained. How he wished he was not poor.
“Oh, that’s alright. I can ask Aunt Alice to help you with your bags, if you’d like? Cast a Feather-Weight Charm, at least.”
“That would be much appreciated,” Mona nodded. “This year’s textbooks are so heavy.”
“They’re always heavy,” Aether remarked, but obviously Mona wouldn’t know it. During the years of their friendship-turned-partnership, Aether had always tried to be a gentleman and never let her bear the burden of climbing all the stairs of Vertik Alley with piles of books in her arms.
(The summer right before their second year, they had made the mistake of accepting the offer to have their books be sent home by magic, without knowing it came at a price. They had refused the service ever since.)
Albedo nodded and took Klee’s hand in one of his, and one of the bags in the other, before leading them all towards the Green Fountain Bistro.
“—And then I’ll need to rent the back room for tea tomorrow, as usual: the invitation letters have been dispatched already. Rhinedottir went to fetch Nicole, and you know how difficult she is to get a hold of! We’ll need the space to be perfect for our little get-together,” the woman—Miss Alice—was chirping as they approached.
Aether had no idea who Nicole was, but Rhinedottir was the name of Albedo’s mother, and a renowned alchemist. They lived up in Dragonspine, where it snowed all year around. Aether had never been there, but he could see the far-away peak of the mountain from his bedroom window at the orphanage.
“Mummy!” Klee yelled as she ran towards the woman, her hand slipping from Albedo’s grip like a wet bar of soap. “Look what I found!”
“That’s how she did it earlier,” Albedo sighed, shaking his head. “I was supposed to keep an eye on her, and she ran off.”
“My beautiful child,” Miss Alice said, halting her conversation with the restaurant manager to pick her daughter up to sit on her lap. “Is it Dodoco?” She made a dismissive hand gesture to the man, who left at a brisk pace.
“It is! I found him on the stairs. And when he’ll grow up, he’ll have a white Vision like Albedo’s friend! So he won’t get lost again!”
Miss Alice looked particularly intrigued by that piece of information, and Aether felt a shiver run down his spine when she lifted her gaze to watch him for a moment. “A white Vision, you say? Of course, darling, only the most special people have that, and Dodoco deserves one.”
“Aunt Alice.” Albedo approached the woman, his friends in tow. They stopped next to the table, which was already set for five—were they waiting for someone? Albedo had not mentioned them.
“Oh, and who might these be? Your schoolmates, dear?”
“Yes,” Albedo lowered the bag he was carrying on one of the empty chairs, and motioned for Aether to put his there too. “Aunt Alice, let me introduce you to Mona and Aether.”
“I’ve heard so much about you two! Please take a seat, I’ll treat you to the best—what would you like to eat, dear youngsters?” Miss Alice gestured to the empty chairs, and they moved on their own as her Vision—a small glass sphere encased in a Mondstadt-style metal frame—glowed red.
Aether and Mona exchanged another glance. Their understanding from earlier—and their resolve to decline a nice meal in fear of having to pay for it—crumbled. After all, Miss Alice said she would treat them. Mona subtly nodded her head. Aether, somewhat reluctantly, nodded back in agreement.
They had a new understanding.
“Thank you, Miss Alice,” they replied.
They sat down, and Aether found himself sitting directly across from Miss Alice. She kept a smile pasted on her face, and Aether felt another shiver run down his spine; his instinct was set on the fact that this woman could be considered dangerous. Of course, that went into contrast with the loving way she held her daughter.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Alice,” Mona said.
“Yes, nice to meet you,” Aether added, still unable to shake off the feeling that something was off.
After exchanging pleasantries and making Klee sit on her own chair with a now-clean Dodoco, Miss Alice called for a waiter to take their order. Aether, who had only just glanced at the menu, chose a random dish. Anything would be fine; he wasn’t a picky eater. At his side, Mona picked a salad, and Albedo selected a Sunshine Sprat. Of course.
“So tell me,” Miss Alice said, resuming the conversation after the waiter left. “How do you like MondYue? I also studied there, you know! Many years ago.”
“It’s a good school. Although, according to my grandma, its curriculum doesn’t include enough teachings about the art of divination. She is a famous Seer, you know,” Mona said proudly. Aether would have laughed at her; she had done nothing but complain about her grandmother for most of the morning, and yet here she was, singing her praises.
“Really? What’s her name? Maybe I know her, indeed.”
“Barbeloth Trismegistus,” Mona answered, knowing that the name was indeed awe-inspiring among the Wielders. “I learned from her from a young age, and now I am able to outperform our classmates in Divination.”
“Oh, goodness gracious! Your family must be so proud.” Miss Alice smiled sweetly at Mona. There really was something really odd about her—and then it clicked: unlike the smiles she had for her daughter, the ones reserved for Mona and Aether did not reach her eyes. “I had no idea that you had such relations, Albedo! Why didn’t you tell me? And what about you, Aether, dear?”
He was startled by the sudden question. What was she asking him about?
“Oh, I don’t dabble in divination, no.”
“Aether is very good with charms, and he’s the best of our Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Aunt Alice,” Albedo chimed in. “He managed to produce a Guardian Seelie, last year.”
“A Guardian Seelie! At such a young age? How old are you, dear?”
“I’m sixteen. I’ll turn seventeen next month.”
“Yes, all of us will turn seventeen by the end of September,” Mona said with a smile. “I, for one, can’t wait to be able to perform even the most complex readings on my own, without the assistance of the old ha—I mean, of my grandmother.” Aether snorted at Mona’s slip of the tongue. Her smile faltered, replaced by embarrassment. Thankfully, they were saved from any other awkwardness by the food that arrived at that moment.
The meal was definitely a step-up from the sandwich they ate earlier, and Aether sort of regretted spending money on that at all. If only had they met Albedo just a tad earlier!
When they had all finished eating and were getting ready to depart—Albedo, Miss Alice and Klee downstairs for shopping, Aether and Mona upstairs towards the city—Albedo asked his aunt to cast the Feather-Weight charm.
“Of course, dear.” She waved a hand and cast a spell. Suddenly, the bags became as light as feathers, to Aether’s delight. “It’s an easy charm, you’ll be able to do it yourselves next time you’ll go book shopping,” Miss Alice said.
And with quick words of thanks—for the meal, the spell, the company—Aether and Mona made their way back up the stairs and out into the non-Wielder Mondstadt.
As usual, Aether accompanied Mona to her house, close to the gates of the city. And since he was close by, he stopped at Flora’s shop with the intention of buying a Cecilia before remembering he’d spent the last of his money on the pitiful sandwich.
He regretted that purchase even more. Instead, he surreptitiously gathered some flowers from the flowerbeds along the way up to the graveyard again. He offered the improvised bouquet to his parents’ tomb, replacing the Cecilias that had already started to wilt in the summer heat. He sat on the ground and crossed his legs.
“You were right,” he said to the stone, touching the names engraved on it with his fingertips. “Mona said our paths will intersect soon. I’ll meet Lumine again, and I—” Aether’s breath hitched in his throat. He’ll meet his sister again. “I hope she’s okay.”
The soft breeze enveloped him, like a tender hug.
Everything would be alright.