"Venti come on! We have to go see Jean!" Paimon yelled up the tree.
Meanwhile, Lumine was pulling herself up the trunk of the tree trying to follow Venti who had flown up into the branches.
"Do you see him?"
The tree was enormous and Venti was...rather small. She had only reached the first branch and there was no sign of the little wisp. Lumine hopped onto the branch and sat down to pause and replenish her stamina.
"No, he must be higher up or in the leaves." She responded to Paimon.
"Venti! Please come down." She begged looking further up the tree. There was no response other than a light gust of wind that Lumine wasn't expecting, and the surprise almost knocked her off the branch. She recovered quickly though and stabilized herself again. The rustling of some leaves on a branch above her head caught her attention, and out flew Venti.
"There you are! I nearly fell out of the tree."
The wisp hung his head and a slow breeze came from behind him gently ruffling Lumine's hair and tickling her cheek. It was both an apology and reassurance that neither he nor the wind meant any harm.
She chuckled. "It's okay Venti. Come on we really need to go see Jean. She and Barbara have been taking care of you all day. We should go show her you're okay. Besides, Zhongli put me in charge of taking care of you, and I'll take that job seriously."
Venti knew she was right, but he didn't want to show his true weakness to Jean. He didn't want to show it to anyone, but he was happy it was Lumine here now.
Venti didn't mind if people saw him the way Diluc did. In fact, he preferred it. He wanted to be seen as one of the many carefree drunkards of Mondstadt who sang and delighted the crowd-always with a smile on his face and could take care of himself despite always scrounging for mora. Because that's who he wanted to be. It wasn't a facade. Though sometimes, when the need would arise, and he had to show his true colors, faith was born. He didn't care about channeling that power anymore, rather he just didn't want to let down the people who believed in him, especially Jean.
He truly cared for his people, and when they really needed him he would be there. Barbatos, the anemo archon had been absent for many many years, and Mondstadt did not rely on him like they once had. Did they even need him now?
"Is this how Morax felt?"
"Venti?" Lumine called his name and pulled him out of his thoughts. "Are you going to be okay?"
The wisp slowly nodded its head and pushed another soft breeze towards her.
"Hehe, I guess that's how it's going to be then. Let's go~."
Venti stayed by Lumine as she climbed down the tree and met with Paimon.
"There you are! Jeez, you're a piece of work in any form Tone-deaf bard!" Paimon exclaimed as the two came into view. The wisp bounced in the air and made a face at her.
"Hey! Don't stick your tongue out at me again! You think you're sooo adorable in that form. You have Lumine fooled but you won't get to Paimon!"
"Alright you two, break it up. We have to head back to the city." Lumine interjected.
"Good idea, we should report back to Jean." Lumine nodded at Paimon and then at Venti before starting back towards the bridge to the city.
"Soooo," Paimon began, "This is what you looked like before, huh?" The wisp looked at her but didn't respond in any way.
"Well you're more contained this way I guess."
The three made it back to the Knights of Favonius headquarters and asked a guard standing outside if Jean had returned yet. He nodded and stated that she should be in her office. Lumine thanked him and opened the door.
It was quiet and empty inside the main hall, but both the door to the library and Jean's office were closed. It wasn't that late yet, usually both were open at this time. Lumine cautiously knocked on Jean's door and a few moments went by before she heard Jean's voice.
Jean was distracted. Feeling suffocated, she stood up and opened the window behind her desk to let in the fresh air. She just couldn't focus on the stack of papers at her desk. It was a long log of tasks she needed to delegate both to the Knights and Adventurer's Guild. The Windblume festival would be coming up soon too. All of this had to be done before then so she could go on patrol and ensure the safety of the people during the festivities. It had been a while since she had gotten out of that room and away from her administrative duties.
When Amber ran up to her that morning with a green figure on her back, her heart sank. She would have been just as worried about anyone else found collapsed in that state. But it was Venti… It was Barbatos.
Jean had seen Venti fight- not at his full strength perhaps- but she knew he could take care of himself. The worry she felt was mostly for him and his condition. But another thought crossed her mind as well. If something could put Venti in that state, it meant there was likely something very dangerous lurking outside the city.
Or maybe, there had been, and Venti took care of it, winding up in that state in the process. Based on everything she knew about Barbatos, and about Venti… "He would do something like that," she thought.
She knew. At the heart of all of Venti's actions was a love of Mondstadt and for the freedom it stood for. She sincerely hoped Lumine and Zhongli were able to help him somehow.
Suddenly she heard a knock on her door.
"Come in."
Lumine opened the door and walked in. Paimon flew in right beside her, but Venti hovered back for the moment.
As soon as Jean saw the white of Lumine's dress she perked up. "You're back! Is everything alright?"
Lumine stepped to the side revealing the small wisp hovering in the doorway. Realizing he had been exposed, Venti ducked behind Lumine sticking only his head out from behind her back.
"Hey! Come on, it's just Jean. You don't have to be embarrassed, Venti." Lumine side stepped revealing Venti again, and held out her hands for him to land on.
Jean's eyes widened as stood up slowly. "That's...Venti?"
"Mr. Zhongli said that he needed to recuperate some energy. He spent it all fighting an Abyss mage." Paimon explained.
"An Abyss mage?! Then it attacked in the same place as last time?"
Lumine recalled that time with Jean when an Abyss mage attacked them at the tree. They used dirty tricks, kicking people while they're down.
"I see there is still more work to be done in wiping out the nearby Abyss Order threat." Jean contemplated. "Anyway, I'm relieved to see you're alright Venti." She smiled in the direction of the wisp.
Venti fidgeted in Lumine's hands for a moment before taking flight once again, and suddenly he darted forward past Jean and out the open window.
"Huh?!"
"Venti!"
"Tone-deaf Bard! Come back here!"
"Paimon can you follow him?" Lumine asked. "Keep an eye on him. I'll find you!"
"Got it!" She nodded and flew out the window after the wisp.
"I never thought I'd see a real wind spirit." Jean spoke with hands at her chest still shocked.
"Yeah, Venti told me that he had just been a wisp before he became the anemo archon, but I didn't exactly know what he meant. What he normally looks like is… well he said he took the form of a friend."
"I see." Jean lifted up her head. "There's a legend passed down among my family. It's said that in Old Monstadt, the Gunnhildr clan was disillusioned by Decarabian's storm barrier and so they confronted him. Eventually, they left, but the rest of Mondstadt was frozen and barren, much like how Dragonspine is now. The clan leader's daughter sent prayers out into the wind as a cry for help from the bitter cold, and before her appeared a wind spirit that the clan called the Elf. She and the rest of the clan prayed to the spirit, and from that faith and power were born. It was the power to protect." Lumine listened attentively.
"When the Archon War ended, it was that wind spirit, Barbatos, who was crowned as the anemo archon and Gunnhildr who stood by his side. So that was the form of Barbatos that my ancestors knew..."
"Traveler, I can't thank you enough for your help. Once again you've proved yourself to be fitting of the title Honorary Knight. I'll go back to the church and see if one of the sisters can arrange something like a group prayer. Perhaps that will help him recuperate some strength."
Lumine nodded. "Sounds good. I'll go find Venti then." And she ran out the door and out of the building to find her friends. The Knight's headquarters was relatively high up in the city, but it didn't offer the best view and she didn't see Paimon anywhere.
"Okay, where would Venti go?" Lumine wondered as she ran up to the railing. Her line of sight was blocked by the Goth Grand Hotel and a spinning windmill.
"Maybe the statue? Or Angel's share? Would he want to be alone or in a crowd?" She didn't know. Normally he'd love being the center of attention, yet it was that outgoingness that made him blend in to Mondstadt. No one here was just a part of the crowd. Lumine appreciated that, but she didn't have time to think about the atmosphere of Mondstadt. She needed to find Venti.
She headed up to the plaza wondering if Venti had gone to the "usual place." She reached the base of the statue of the anemo archon and looked up. The setting sun blinded her view, but she wouldn't be able to see the statue's hands from down here anyway. Lumine sighed and made for the bottom of the stone robes so she could climb up. If they weren't up there at least she'd get a better view of the city.
"Lumine wait!" Lumine spun around to the sound of Paimon's voice. She flew over to the statue where Lumine was, and just behind her was-
"Venti! There you are!" He was right behind Paimon.
"Paimon could barely keep up with you!" She crossed her arms and glared at the wisp. "Why'd you have to fly off like that anyway?"
The wisp didn't respond in any way. He just flew back over to Lumine and waited for her to put her hands out again, which she did with a warm smile.
"It's alright Venti. You just had us all startled. How about this, Jean is busy setting something up, and I still have to do some work for the guild. Would you like to come with me while I take care of some commissions?"
The wisp nodded its head.
"Perfect, let's head out then." Lumine moved Venti onto her shoulder and began heading back down the city to the gate.
Eventually they reached the main plaza and marketplace near the entrance. Passing by the Katheryne, Lumine gave a wave and announced that she was heading out now to take care of the commissions she'd been given for the day. She wasn't sure how the two Katherynes of Mondstadt and Liyue communicated back and forth, but somehow both of them knew what assignments had been given to her, and were happy to offer a reward when the job was done.
Fischl was standing by Katheryne's booth, and stopped them to inspect the "strange creature descended from the heavens above to bless the windborne outlander" perched on Lumine's shoulder as she put it. Oz seemed quite intrigued too and recognized it as a wind wisp, a spirit said to have died out long ago. The trio dodged most of the questions thrown at them saying that they needed to finish up their commissions before it got too dark. Fischl was reluctant to let them go but eventually said farewell in a sincere, out of character, manner.
"Let's see...there are some pyro, electro and cryo slimes that need to be taken care of over near the winery. That shouldn't be too hard."
The group made their way along the path past Springvale and down towards the stream where the slimes were said to be. Lumine drew her sword and sure enough the cryo slimes that had been freezing the water bounced over and began attacking. Lumine fought back using both her anemo and geo powers. Not long after the fight began, a few pyro and electro slimes joined in. Perfect for swirling.
Lumine gave it her all, though slimes weren't the biggest threat to her, at least not ones this size. She cut down a pyro one only to turn around to see an electro one right behind her. She readied her blade but suddenly a burst of wind and anemo energy launched the helpless slime into the air. The anemo swirled the residual pyro energy in the area and finished off the slime.
Lumine looked over at Venti who was bouncing around producing little gusts of ameno aimed at the slimes. Lumine had seen his ability to create vortexes capable of drawing in enemies, this seemed to be a much smaller release of power. Finally, all the smiles were defeated.
"Thanks for the help. Though you really are supposed to be resting and not wasting anemo energy." Lumine chastised the wisp.
"Yeah, how are you ever gonna get better if you don't take it easy?" Paimon added.
"I know. Why don't we go look for some more anemoculi? I bet there are some around here." Lumine suggested. The group got to looking around the winery area and eventually Lumine found another.
"The statue of the seven isn't far. It's on our way back to the city too." Lumine led the way up the cliff to the statue. Just as she had done before, Lumine knelt down and offered up the anemoculous. Its form dissipated into the breeze and swirled up the statue before coming back down and flowing into Venti.
Lumine stood up and watched the wisp buzz around happily.
"Recharged? Let's head back then."
The sun was gone now leaving only the stars to provide light. It was a beautiful clear night at least. As they approached the gate one of the knights called Lumine over.
"Honorary Knight, I have a message from Master Jean. She says preparations are nearly complete and that it might be best to seek a vantage point."
"Understood!"
"A vantage point?" Paimon asked, confused.
"You'll see soon Paimon. Come on, let's head to the usual place." Lumine winked.