Mondstadt: the city of freedom. Of wind and dandelion wine. A gem, it is, sitting nestled upon Cider Lake like a jewel upon a crown, bright walls and brilliant banners upon its face, beautiful windmills stretching into the sky, lying upon the slope that leads to the city's fairest monument, the grand Favonius Cathedral, temple of the Archon Barbatos.
Not for nothing is it called the city of freedom, for its ideal determines the way of life for all its citizens. Travelers can come and go, businesses ply their craft, and people can speak their mind and be left alone, with only the minimum necessary intervention from the Knights of Favonius, the city's protectors. Such freedom of course brings its risks, and the Knights were certainly aware of this fact—strict rules were in place in how to deal with suspicious actions and individuals, ways of ascertaining friend or foe, yet all without overstepping their bounds and compromising the sovereign ideal of individual freedom. Such auspicious principles require an even higher degree of vigilance than other nations that placed no such value in the rights of the individual.
So when the Stormterror incident occurred, it frazzled a lot of nerves. The unforeseen coming of the "Traveler" and her rising to the danger, deftly saving the city from disaster certainly gave relief and joy, but it did not dull the edge the Knights found themselves balanced upon. The world was getting more and more dangerous; rumors of ancient evils reawakening, movements of the Abyssal order, the Fatui stretching their claws into every land...well, it is to be expected that things would be tense.
So it should come as no surprise that when a strange craft, looking for all the world like a metal kite or some manta-like sea creature, blazed through the sky at dizzying speeds over the city, stopped and hovered momentarily over the bridge to the main gate, then dropped a single outlandish figure to the ground, the Knights of Favonius just about jumped out of their collective skins. Knights at the permanently open gates shouted the alarm, galvanizing everyone to action. Citizens dashed back indoors, fearing the worst had come yet again, security forces mobilized and armed themselves, and a messenger beat the pavement at high speed back to headquarters to report this event to Jean Gunnhildr, acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius. Jean however was already halfway down the thoroughfare, flanked by the Cavalry commander Kaeya and Outrider Amber, all three sprinting towards the gate in hopes of heading off whatever threat may or may not have just been literally deposited from the sky at their doorstep.
The figure in question, however, was still simply standing there on the bridge. As the Knightly trio arrived at the gate breathing rapidly from the mad dash, they got a good look at the figure for the first time. It was tall, exceptionally tall, and appeared male. It's body was...armored, perhaps, though the metal-like material that graced its body was so organically blended with its contours that it almost could have been considered its skin. It had an elegant and regal look, ornate flourishes in the shape of the armor and glints of energy spotting its body, though its design was completely foreign and highly outlandish. It gleamed with silver and dark blue colors. No weapons were immediately visible other than two very strange looking blades attached to some mechanism on the figure's forearms. A dark and rather sinister energy seemed to flit around it like smoke, slightly obscuring the shape and making it somewhat hard to follow with the eyes. Yet the figure made no movement and simply stood there, arms crossed and pose straight as a board.
Well, Jean figured she was up. Tense as the situation was, this was Mondstadt, and she was the acting Grand Master.
"Welcome...strange but honorable traveler, to the city of Mondstadt. May the Anemo Archon protect you. May we inquire as to the nature of your business here? We apologize for the...slightly inhospitable reception," She looked around at the near wall of spears that had formed at the gate's entrance, "but we are perhaps a bit on edge after recovering from some recent disasters. We do hope you will forgive our actions and see them as precautions and not hostility."
The figure looked around briefly at the group that had formed before him before nodding his head. Jean managed to maintain her composure and suppress an audible sigh of relief. At least the newcomer wasn't immediately hostile. Before she could speak again, Kaeya interjected:
"It seems you understand us. We'd appreciate it if you could answer our question, if possible," he stated, a false smile plastered on his face. Even his normally disarming and relaxed demeanor was being tested.
Then the figure...huffed in resignation. Or rather, it pantomimed the motion of huffing, though no sound of breath came from it. It then shrugged—
—and a young boy simply stepped out of the armored figure as if out of the ether itself. The knights lining the gate almost recoiled in shock, and Jean's gasp of surprise was completely audible this time. What stood before them looked to be a teenager, dressed in otherworldly garments of unknown fabrics and materials. Rich and resplendent they were, with dazzling baubles and impossibly fine craftsmanship in its composition. And it wasn't just the clothing itself that decorated his person; shapes of light and energy floated around him, following his movement as much as the clothes did, adorning him like apparitions.
His face was fairly ordinary in and of itself, minus some very strange scars with bits of metal embedded in them, but his eyes—they glowed golden, shimmering with an unlight that almost made one's eyes water trying to look into them. In fact everyone began to notice that this boy gave off some kind of uncomfortable energy, an itching, tingling sort of energy, one that could be felt in the roots of the teeth, under the fingernails, behind the eyes and, most disconcertingly, somewhere deep inside in a place that they didn't know they had before and wouldn't be able to find again, but they most certainly were aware of now.
"Sorry for scaring you."
The boy spoke his first words here, his voice unremarkable at first, though it carried a gravitas that seemed a bit out of place coming from one who looked so young.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt anyone. Just looking for some folk. You've almost certainly seen them."
"O-oh?" Jean answered a bit nervously. The request didn't seem unreasonable on its face, but who in Teyvat would some sky person want to find, and why? What would they do with them? She couldn't just acquiesce to this without more information, and plying this...being for answers felt dangerous. But she did have a duty to her people, a conviction that burned within her to protect all under her care. No sky beings would be making off with any of her people if she could do anything about it. She'd start by asking just who they were after.
"Who is it you are looking for?" she asked.
"Twins. Brother and sister, very blonde, probably look as alien to you as I do, about the same age as well. No doubt have many inexplicable abilities and the like. Their names are Lumine and Aether."
The reaction was immediate. Whispers along the lines of "the Traveler!" and "It's her, right?" flitted through the crowd, silenced immediately by a glare from Kaeya. The boy from the sky's piercing golden eyes bore through the crowd; it did not escape his notice.
Shorn of the option of denying anything, Jean clenched her jaw and answered him. Might as well lay her cards on the table now.
"As you have no doubt gathered, yes, we have met such an individual. Lumine, or the Traveler as she's known around here, has been of immense help to our city. In fact, we consider her a national hero at this point. However, neither she nor any of us here know where her brother is. She has been looking for him ever since she arrived in our country."
The boy furrowed his brow. Either he didn't like hearing that last part, or he just wasn't expecting it.
"Hmm. They've been separated? That sounds like trouble. What it would take to pull those two apart, here of all places..." he muttered to himself.
"Before we divulge any further information," Jean interjected, "we'd like to know who you are. You must admit, your arrival is highly...mysterious," she continued, carefully avoiding the word "suspicious" in case the strange boy reacted poorly to it.
"You can call me Tenno. Further explanation will honestly be useless, no offense, mind you," the Tenno waved his hand nonchalantly. "It's not that I'm trying to hide something from you, it's more that you have no frame of reference to understand it if I did explain."
"I must say, Sir Tenno, that I don't find that answer terribly satisfactory," said Kaeya. "You are after all asking for information on someone very dear to us."
"Yes, we'd all like to know what you intend to do with the Traveler and her brother once you find them. As we said, she is a friend to us, as a nation and as people. We are not willing to share any knowledge of her whereabouts with someone who harbors ill intentions towards her," Jean continued.
The Tenno sighed. "This is getting more complicated than I was hoping for, ya know," he said under his breath.
So I ask you—what do you want with her?" Jean found her fingers drifting towards her sword hilt. "If you would do her harm, by the Archon, you will face this city's wrath."
The Tenno looked around at the assorted knights, all of which were gripping their weapons tighter, spears lowered just a hair more, swords creeping out of their sheathes. They tensed up even more when all the Tenno did was give a wry smirk, neither haughty nor aggressive, but merely...amused?
"Relax. That one's an easy answer."
The knights didn't lower their guard, but they did pause expectantly.
"I intend to reunite them…" His golden eyes bored into theirs.
"...and bring them home."
