8th of the 10th Cycle
The knights were a lively group, Aether could tell.
Except, that liveliness was dampened by the fact that they failed to save an entire village from complete destruction. They informed him that the hilichurls have been more and more daring with their raids - ever inching closer and closer to major human settlements. Amber seemed particularly irritated by the fact, despite her usually cheerful and optimistic character.
After asking around some, he found out that a long time ago the Favonian Order had struck an incredible peace deal with the hilichurls. The terms decided that to stop the perpetual fighting between the two kinds, the Order had ceded a large region of the Land of Wind known as Dadaupa Gorge over to the greatest of the hilichurl tribes.
In exchange, the tribes would unite the hilichurls and completely vacate the rest of the Land of Wind - with any hilichurls remaining the Order's territory only suited to be run down. The reason that Amber was annoyed seemed to be because her grandfather had played a major role in the peace deal.
Nevertheless, the knights had their own theories as for the hilichurls' actions. It appeared that the dragon he attempted to follow was quite a bit of a scourge plaguing the region, so much so that it came to be known as Stormterror - for its propensity of bringing raging winds wherever it goes. Their theory was that the dragon attacks have emboldened an organisation known as the Abyss Order, an ancient enemy of the Order, who are now rallying the hilichurls against the humans.
The knights wouldn't tell him any more than that, which was completely understandable.
They rode slowly, lugging the carts of bodies behind them. As the crested a hill, Aether could finally set his eyes on Mondstadt.
It was a grand thing, truly - a marvel of engineering.
Built atop an island in the middle of a lake - a lake large enough to be an inland sea at that. A great stone bridge allowed access to the walled city's one main gate, wide enough for five carriages to travel across abreast simultaneously.
There was a small town raised around the beginnings of the bridge on the mainland, which was curiously mostly abandoned. The knights explained that it was a 'winter town,' so-called because it was only inhabited during winter. During the other seasons, most smallfolk would be in the countryside farming and storing food for the coming winter. As such, outside of winter only 1 in 5 houses were occupied.
Two stone gatehouses stood vigilant over the two ends of the bridge. Their portcullises were raised open, allowing for the constant stream of caravans and travellers coming to and fro. The guardsmen stationed at the gatehouses saluted as their little column marched across the bridge, while the pedestrians and merchants moved over to the sides to allow for an unobstructed march.
Aether witnessed many of them bowing their heads in respect as the carts loaded with the dead passed by.
As they passed through under the second gatehouse, a large shadow was cast over them. The walls of Mondstadt were just as impressive as they were imposing, built of heavy stone bricks each the size of a stallion. Guardsmen patrolled the battlements utop the walls, where over a dozen towers were evenly spaced across the entire length of the wall. The main gatehouse was known as the Lion's Gate, consisting of two large crenellated bulwarks as well as two portcullises at each end of the entrance.
Between them, the walls were set with arrow slits in the sides, murder holes in the ceiling, and a concealed pitfall.
Banners fluttered in the breeze, most displaying the six-winged sigil of the Favonian Order - others proudly emblazoned the colours of the Four Winds, a purpure lion, a gules eagle, an azure dragon, and a vert wolf.
Once inside, he was assaulted by a hundred smells and half a hundred sights. The smell of smoke drafting from fireplaces and hearths, the potent scent of dandelions and perfumes, he could even make out the faint smell of fish wafting from the Northern Wharf.
Just after the gatehouse was a bustling marketplace, where merchants from all over the Land of Wind and beyond plied their wares. Aether saw fruits, silks and cloths, perfumes, jewelry, and foodstuffs on display as people haggled and bartered.
On their left was a street flanked by many blacksmiths, and the heavy scent of smoke wafted from there. The ringing of steel against steel was neverending.
Mondstadt was by all means a small city, its size limited by the island it sat upon. But its population never stopped growing, which made the city incredibly overcrowded and hell to navigate. Cutting through the city was a central avenue, with hundreds of twisting alleyways and paths branching out.
Amber informed him that newcomers use the Statue of Barbatos or the Cathedral as landmarks to orientate themselves, and Aether could see why.
They were massive structures, he can tell even from so far away, dwarfing the rest of the city below. And more importantly, visible from every corner of the city. Furthermore, windmills of all kinds sat and spun in the city limits, confusing Aether. What was the point of windmills inside a city? For he could not see any granary nearby.
When he asked Amber, she laughed and told him it was a common question.
"Those windmills don't grind grain, they draw water up from the lake for us to use!" She continued, "look around us, everywhere is crowded, yet Mondstadt doesn't smell nor is it filthy. This is thanks to those windmills, constantly drawing water up for us to clean, bathe, and drink."
"You'll find that Mondstadt is the cleanest city in Teyvat because of this, mark my words."
Aether decided to take her word for it.
They continued through the city, uphill. He learned that Mondstadt was built on a slanted island, and was as such consisted of four levels - the lowest for smallfolk, the second and third for aristocrats, and the highest was reserved for the institutes of the Favonian Order such as the Knights and the Church.
Passing by the central square dominated by a great fountain, they continued up to the highest level - where the massive Cathedral of Favonius overlooked the entire city. Off to the side was a smaller, but still impressive building - with four sides and four towers, the stone keep which designated the Knights of Favonius' headquarters offered a mighty silhouette.
As the corpses was carried into the building, Aether reckoned it was there where they would part ways.
He would find a suitable inn to stay before deciding his next action.
Before he could dwell too much on it, however, black clouds began to stir - rolling in from every direction. The winds picked up, but he saw that no civilian thought it was anything amiss; this was the Land of Wind after all, gales were a dime a dozen.
But Aether still felt something was amiss - so he closed his eyes and opened them, golden eyes beholding the world in its building blocks; the Elements.
And he realised that it was not merely wind blowing through the city, but Anemo.
His head snapped to the right, and saw that Amber was looking up at the sky with an uncharacteristically grim face.
"There's not enough time to inform the populace…" he heard her mutter, before she swivelled around and roared, "Get those ballistae loaded now! Ring the bell, ring the bell!"
It was too late. The gales turned into a squall, and then into a tempest, and an earth-rapturing roar reverberated through the skies.
"DRAGON!"
Like a comet, Stormterror dived from the storm clouds screeching its announcement. With every beat of its six great wings, the fury of the heavens was brought down upon the city. Aether watched as ballistae utop the towers shot great bolts at the dragon to no avail.
In the lower city, chaos ruled supreme. Mondstadters rushed inside their homes, screaming, crying, begging for the Anemo Archon's salvation. But there was none to be had, the dragon approached unmolested. With a mighty roar, tornados descended from the skies, ripping, tearing apart anyone who were too close.
The streets and stalls that Amber lauded for their cleanliness were awash with blood and body parts. Aether watched with sick fascination as a house was torn from its foundations and tossed into the sky like a toy, a child screaming for help on the veranda.
Suddenly, another tornado landed right in the before the stone keep - which did not even shudder, a testament to its construction.
They weren't so lucky. Amber, the knights, and him were plucked from the ground - carried by the whirlwinds raging gales. Aether hastily swivelled around, clutching Amber by the shoulders and flinging her back towards the keep with superhuman strength.
He watched as the cloak wrapped around suddenly expand into a pair of midnight wings, which allowed her to land safely utop the keep's battlements.
The other knights out of his reach weren't so fortuitous. As they were sucked in, they were ripped apart limb from limb by scythe-like winds, their screams of agony drowned out by the squall. If Aether was any other normal human, he would've met their fate as well.
But he was not.
Composing himself, he remembered that flight is nothing new to him, and willed his wings to manifest. But to his horror, they didn't, he had forgotten his powers were sealed away by that cursed god.
Like a doll, he was flung into the sky - where he could beheld the city in its entirety.
Then, he began to fall.
Hitting the ground wouldn't kill him, he mused, but it would most definitely crush his body into paste. Aether liked his current form, he was not keen on waiting another decade or two for his corporal form to knit itself back together.
Aether couldn't help but think Paimon had planned this out from the beginning. Of course she would force him to use his boons as quickly as possible, so that she may call in is debt.
O' great god Paimon, he called sarcastically, a little help?
"Leave it to Barbatos to not put a leash on his pet lizard," he heard her scoff, voice resounding from every direction, heard so clearly despite the raging winds.
"Alcyone sings, starwalker! Hear her call, and soar!"
He screamed in agony as an uninvited force wormed its way into him. Darkness, blackness… no, it wasn't darkness, it wasn't anything at all. It was pure nothing, the Devouring Chaos incarnate, the endless void.
Wings tore into his back, it was not the wings of the beautiful white and gold he had come to be familiar with, it was as if reality tore itself open to form them. The nothingness of the Great Beyond speckled with countless shimmering stars.
As he gathered his wits, he could finally appreciate the beauty of Mondstadt from high above. He noticed something odd, despite dozens of tornadoes crowding the Statue of Barbatos and the Cathedral, they stood unmoved like a rock in the tides. In fact, he saw many people standing beneath the Statue, unmolested by the raging winds.
Perhaps the Anemo Archon does protect his people after all.
"▂▂▃▃▅▅▇██▇▆▅███▅▇██!"
Stormterror descended like a falling star, wings swept back as its maw opened to devour him in a single bite.
Twisting his wings, Aether caught the wind - sweeping backwards and around - narrowly avoiding the dragon's dive. Angling his wings again, Aether plunged downwards after the mighty beast - Aphelion materialising in his right hand.
Just as he caught onto the dragon's tail and grasped it, Stormterror suddenly screeched and pulled up. Aether felt his stomach plummet as he was violently tugged upwards.
Gripping its tail harder, he thrusted himself higher by pulling the dragon down. Now flying parallel to the dragon, he swooped in and slashed with his sword - star-forged edge cutting through the beast's hardened scales and rending deep into the flesh of one of its front legs.
A cerulean mist expunged from the wound in place of blood, proving to him that the dragon was an Elemental creature.
In response, the dragon screeched and brought down its massive head to snap at him - only for him to ascend up and around its head, landing on the back of its neck and stabbing Aphelion deep into its flesh. The primordial howled in rage, angling its body upwards in an attempt to throw him off - so steep until it was essentially flying upside down.
Suddenly, the dragon stop beating its might wings - and they began to descend together.
Gritting his teeth as the raging winds rushed by him and tore at his skin, he wrenched his blade out of the dragon's flesh and kicked off.
In immediate reply, the dragon barrelled back and twisted its serpentine body midair in a single motion to face him - its maw wide open to devour him. Without time to dodge, Aether outstretched his hand to meet the snout of the beast, stabbing his sword into the roof of its mouth just as his feet impacted the dragon's lower lip.
Muscles straining to keep the dragon's maw open, the beast roared a massive torrent of icy winds which threatened his grip. Stormterror beated its mighty wings, flying higher and higher into the storm it had wreaked upon Mondstadt.
For a brief moment, Aether's world was surrounded by thick, charcoal clouds illuminated by the blinding flashes of lightning and the booming howls of thunder.
Nary a second later, they had broken through the storm - and before was revealed the upper heavens. A sea of snow white clouds covered the world below like a blanket, and the clear Sky of celestial blue wrapped around them. A chill set in his bones and the dragon continued ascending, undeterred by the thinning air.
Finally reaching the edge of his strength, Aether's muscles went slack - and the dragon slammed its maw shut with a thunderous crack.
But he had already slipped free - hurtling to the endless ocean of clouds down below. Aether slipped past the dragon's right flank, ducking under first and largest wing - before raising Aphelion right before the middle wing.
Celestial steel forged in the hottest of stars and cooled in the coldest moons - the blade's golden edge tore through flesh, muscle and bone as if it were paper. The sound of tearing filled his ears and Aphelion shredded the dragon's wing from its body, amputating the appendage entirely.
"▂▂▃▃▅▅▇▅███▅██▇▆▇██!"
Stormterror's agony-filled screech filled the upper heavens as its mist-like blood poured from the open wound.
Even while beating its five remaining wings frantically to stay aloft, the dragon began to descend nonetheless - before it gradually angled its serpentine body into a dive to gain momentum. Aether did much the same as he felt Aphelion dissipate into dust.
He hit the clouds with a soft thud, then continued straight through it. In his journey downwards, he found that the storm was gone, and nothing but snow white haze remained.
Emerging out of the overcast sky, Aether outstretched his arms in a spread eagle manner in an attempt to slow down his descent. Looking around, he could catch no glimpse of the dragon, and tentatively concluded that it had decided to retreat to nurse its wounds.
From his vantage, he could perceive the Land of Wind in its entirety. He spotted the might city of Monstadt utop its island fortress. He observed Springvale and Dawnton raised south of Mondstadt in the Windwail Highlands. He beheld the gargantuan tree which the city of Windrise was raised around, on the banks of the River Falke, which meandered down the great plains to Falcon Coast.
He could make out Starfell Valley in the north, where he had first descended - and the line of mighty fortresses that dotted the Stormbearer Mountains ever further north, first built to hold back the tides of savage barbarians inhabiting the Northern Wastes.
Finally, he spotted a massive city built on the foothills of Starsnatch Cliff, just northeast of Windrise. The great city was just as large as Mondstadt, if not even bigger - and curiously, the settlement looked abandoned. Wooden roofs had long rotted off the stone builds of houses, and the only structure left standing was a massive amphitheatre-like temple in the heart of the ruined city.
Tearing his gaze away, Aether focused back on the fact that he was still hurtling towards Mondstadt at unbound speeds. He angled his wings slightly, meant to slow him down gradually enough that he wouldn't rip his organs apart in the process.
He honed in on the Statue of Barbatos, and landed at the feet of the god to a cheering crowd of Mondstadters.
As Paimon's gift began to worm its way out of him, he felt the wings on his back dissipate - as well as the heat in his veins fading away. One, he felt his heart of hearts say, one out of seven.
Suddenly, Aether's legs gave out under him and he collapsed, now vividly aware of how utterly exhausted he was - and of how many muscles he had pulled. He reminded himself that with most of his powers sealed away, he might as well be human for all it was worth, and resolved to not pull such a stunt in the future.
The clopping of hooves against stone filled his ears, and Aether blearily looked up to see Amber rushing to him atop her horse - leaping off when she got close and pulling him up by the arms.
"Master Aether!" she called concernedly, "Are you unhurt!?"
"Exhausted is all," he told her with a reassuring smile.
"I am glad - the Order with reward you for your service, rest assured," she patted his shoulder.
Before he could reply, the crowd around them parted away as another voice spoke.
"Not so fast, captain."
Aether looked past Amber's shoulder to see a blue-haired, one-eyed man in flamboyant dress striding towards them, backed by at least a score of armoured knights.
He watched as Amber suddenly stand up straight at attention.
"Captain Alberich!" she saluted.
"I'm not here as captain, dame, but as Quartermaster."
Amber suddenly swivelled around to look at him worriedly, before biting her lip and looking back at the Quartermaster.
"Sir, this man has done nothing but-"
The man raised a hand to stop her, "I know that, we all do. But safety comes first, and recall that internal affairs are under my jurisdiction."
"Yes… yes sir," she wilted, and back away.
The man suddenly started, striding forwards and extending an arm for him - with Aether obliged to shake.
"Kaeya Alberich," he introduced, "I am to invite you to the Great Keep at behest of the Acting Grandmaster."
"Who am I to decline?"
The man's lone eye glinted in the sunlight, and he smiled sharply.
"I am glad to hear that."
Rewritten on 4/6/2022