Life is a beautiful thing. It grows and flourishes, eventually affecting those around it. But when tragedy strikes, some falter. They are unable to endure their struggles so they rely on what's most important to them. Some use their religion, others their wealth.

For Aether, it was his sister. She was his rock, the one he could always turn to in his time of need. Now that she was gone, he had nothing. He felt empty. After the sorrow came the anger. He began to direct that rage towards the one who had killed her. A god, she said she was? Aether had killed many "gods" before, back when he and Lumine were travelling the worlds. This one wouldn't be any different. And so Aether started his quest for vengeance, seeking retribution from those who had ripped one of the only things that mattered to him out of his life.

Aether had woken up on a beach during the afternoon, hearing the sound of waves hitting the shore. Remembering what had happened just moments ago, he gritted his teeth and bit back tears. He had to kill that god in the most painful way he could. The only thing he had other than his sister were his fighting skills. Now it was time to put them to good use.

He slowly stood up, surveying his surroundings. After looking around for a while, he noticed something in the water off in the distance. He wasn't able to actually identify what it was, but he figured that it was probably something he could eat, and he was definitely hungry enough to eat anything. Aether wondered how he could reach the creature and realised that he had forgotten to see if his powers remained. In some of the worlds he travelled to, they were locked while he had full control of them in others. He tested his magic on the sand where hopefully no one was around.

Aether soon realised that he only had control of seven elements, Pyro, Hydro, Cyro, Electro, Dendro, Anemo, and Geo. Using his powers over hydro, he slowly raised the unidentified creature out of the water and pulled it towards him. When it reached him, Aether realised that it was very humanoid. He groaned, not wanting to eat something that resembled him. Holding it in his hands, he was shocked to find that it was still alive, just unconscious. He laid it on the sand and pulled out his sword. However just as he did this, the creature's eyes slowly opened. Taking in its surroundings, its eyes fell upon Aether's sword.

"Wait! Don't hurt me please!" the creature pleaded. Aether was shocked that it was a sentient being, capable of speech.

Putting away his sword, he asked, "So who are you and why were you in the water to begin with?"

"Well, I'm Paimon, and as for how I got into the water, I can't swim." The creature now known as Paimon replied. Aether noted that Paimon didn't actually tell him how she got into the water, just that she couldn't get out.

"I'm Aether." he greeted, careful not to disclose too much information, "Are you okay now?"

Paimon nodded cheerfully, "Yup! All better now."

"Say, Aether, you don't look like you're from around here." Paimon observed. Aether was surprised but quickly realised that his clothing probably didn't match what any of the locals were wearing.

"Yeah, you're right." Aether responded, quickly coming up with a backstory that was vague but believable. "I'm a wandering traveller."

Paimon asked cheerfully, "That's cool! I wish I could travel more, but I don't have the mora for it." Judging by the way Paimon used the word Mora, Aether was able to guess that mora was the currency of this world.

Then Paimon looked like she had an idea, "Hey, Aether. Seeing as you can clearly defend yourself and have enough mora to afford such nice clothing, would you mind if I travelled with you?" Aether wasn't sure what to answer. Would he really want someone who couldn't defend themselves as an ally to kill the Unknown God?

Seeing that Aether was hesitant to answer, Paimon quickly added, "I can be your guide if you want? Paimon knows all about Teyvat!"

Jumping at the chance to have an ally who couldn't betray him due to their lack of combat skills, Aether replied, "In that case, lead the way!"

Paimon looked around confusedly, "Well where do you wanna go? I can't really lead you somewhere without knowing where I'm going."

Mentally facepalming, Aether corrected, "Take me to the nearest city or town. I'll fight off anything we may encounter along the way."

"Alright!" Paimon cheered. "Time to go on an adventure!"

Noting his new companion's child-like qualities, Aether slowly followed the floating fairy towards Starfell Lake. As they walked, he realised that this world was beautiful. The green grass, the sunset overhead, the blue lake water were all so appealing. Back when he was traveling the worlds, he had seen some worlds of metal and smoke without any nature in sight. Thinking back on his travels, Aether began to feel sorrow as his sister would never be able to experience this world. How could such a beautiful world have such vile 'gods'? As Aether was stewing in his anger and misery, Paimon was oblivious to what he was thinking.

"Soooooo," Paimon asked, "I'm kind of hungry. Do you mind if we stop here near this lake for the day? We'll reach Mondstadt tomorrow afternoon."

"Mondstadt?" Aether asked, "What's that?"

Paimon responded, "It's the name of the city we're going to. You did ask me to guide me to the nearest one after all."

"Oh I see." Aether said, feeling a little embarrassed for not even knowing where Paimon was taking him. "Well what is it like?"

"I'll tell you during dinner. Speaking of dinner, did you bring any food with you? Paimon's hungry." Paimon requested.

"Luckily for you, I did bring some apples, but there's only two." Aether replied.

"Awww," Paimon sighed, "I wanted something better."

Aether shrugged. "Well if you want something better than we have to catch some food. Know any recipes you like?"

Paimon asked excitedly, "Well can you make Chicken-Mushroom Skewers? Those taste pretty good and all we need are some mushrooms and fowl!"

Figuring that it wouldn't be too hard to make it, Aether decided to go out to hunt some birds, while Paimon would go get the mushrooms. Meeting back up 30 minutes later, they checked the ingredients they had gathered.

"So we have 4 fowl and 6 mushrooms? That should be enough for 4 skewers!" said Paimon excitedly, "But wait, we don't have any way to light a fire to cook the fowl. Dang it! Paimon was looking forward to eating some Chicken-Mushroom Skewers."

Seeing the unlit wood before him, Aether debated whether to reveal his powers to his new travelling companion. Deciding that it would be safer to explain it now than during a difficult fight, Aether lifted his hand and pointed it towards the fire. Feeling his fingertips slowly heat up until there was a ball of flame in his hand, he launched it at the wood they had gathered.

"Woah! Watch out, you almost toasted Paimon!" exclaimed Paimon. "Wait since when could you do that? I didn't see a vision with you."

Assuming that a vision was what granted people powers in this world, Aether responded, "Well I just have my vision hidden. I've had it since birth."

Paimon, confused, asked, "There are vision bearers at birth? I didn't realise archons granted powers to babies."

Aether realised he had messed up. Apparently this world didn't give powers to those below a certain age.

Paimon, oblivious to Aether's inner dilemma, then said, "I guess if you have contact with a vision when you're young, it can react."

Aether, jumping at a chance to fix this misunderstanding, responded nervously, "Yeah! That's exactly what happened. My parents wanted me to have a vision so they gave me one to see if it would react. As you can see now, it clearly did."

Ignorant of Aether's nervous reaction, Paimon shrugged, "Alright. But like, can we eat now? Paimon's been hungry for the past 45 minutes."

"Sure, let's eat!" Aether said, glad that the conversation was over.

After eating their Chicken-Mushroom Skewers, Aether noticed that it had become time for him to sleep.

"Night, Paimon." Aether said, yawning.

He got no response as Paimon was already asleep. Resting his head on his arm, he slowly drifted asleep.

Honestly I really just wanted to see a stereotypical revenge story but in the Genshin universe. It's my first real attempt at a story so it's not gonna be good, but I don't really care. If I don't make it, then who will? Anyways, Aether in this story isn't really canon-like at all. He's smart, but he's emotionally driven. He's not thinking straight right now. His actions, I hope, will reflect that in the story. Right now, while he's with Paimon, he's relaxed. But you will see what I mean by emotionally driven in the next few chapters. Thanks for reading and drop a review. I'm curious to see what people think.