Ch. 19 – Defiled Statues

Sleep forces his eyes to stay closed as he's moved around by hands he doesn't know and hears voices he doesn't recognize. Someone has dried him off and something is snugly encompassing his body, that much he can tell. He's comfortable, warm, and thankfully, nothing seems to hurt when he moves his head around.

It takes all of Kaeya's strength to open his heavy eyelids and look around. Everything is dark and fuzzy around the edges of his sight, and there's a strange cold in his mind that is pulling at his consciousness, threatening to take him away once more. He doesn't want to go back to sleep. It feels like he's slept for a long time already; he's ready to get up and move around.

Someone moves near him, and before he can see who is there, a hand covers his eyes and sends him into complete darkness a second time. Their voice is deep and quiet but he can't decipher what they are saying. He wants to reach up and push them away, but his fingers only twitch slightly as his body refuses to obey him.

Cold takes him away into another dreamless slumber.

-x-

The next time he comes back to awareness, someone is humming near him. Their voice is light and sounds like the choir bells from the cathedral, pure and beautiful. Initially, he thinks that their voice is wonderful and that they must be a bard or performer of some kind.

He manages to open his eyes and the first thing he sees is a stone ceiling above him, cracked and gray with bits of moss clinging to the cornices. A light is nearby, lighting the room perfectly clear but not so bright that it causes headaches. This place looks nothing like the winery. He doesn't recognize where he is. From what he can tell, he's in a domain but it's no domain he's ever been to. He knows all of the known ones in Mondstadt. Is this a domain that hasn't been discovered yet? His stomach churns at the thought of not being in Mondstadt at all.

The humming catches his attention again and he drags his eyes over to the source of it. There's a girl sitting in a chair beside him with golden eyes and short blond hair cascading over her shoulders, a shade lighter than the Traveler's own hair. He thinks he recognizes her from somewhere before but he can't place where. Maybe he's seen her in one of his dreams that he can't recall.

She lifts her eyes when she notices him and stops singing. "You slept for a long time, Kaeya," she says. She sits up in her seat. "You haven't been sleeping well recently, have you?"

He doesn't reply. She likely already knows the answer anyway. Instead, he pushes himself up and winces. His whole body is sore, the strain of having sprinted for so long having caught up to him during his sleep.

She uncrosses her legs and stands up. "I took care of your wounds. While minor, I do not wish for you to catch an illness because of our neglect."

He looks down at his arms. His wrists are expertly wrapped in light bandages and there's a salve of some kind spread across his back that helps numb the burn. He doesn't know why she would help him. What's so important about him that the Abyss Order's leader herself is tending to his injuries? Maybe now he can finally get some answers.

The next thing he notices is that he isn't in his own clothes. They had taken them and put him into an off-white nightgown that covers his arms up to his wrists and he can feel the bottom edge brushing against his ankles as he moves his legs underneath the blanket. On one hand, he's grateful they took the soggy, muddy clothes and put him into something clean and dry but on the other, he doesn't like that someone he doesn't know had done so while he was unconscious.

They had taken his vision as well, and the fact makes him struggle to calm himself down again. He had just gotten it back but thankfully, he can sense it somewhere close by, although it feels like its power is muted. When he reaches out for the vision's power, it feels like he's stuck his arm in thick, elbow-deep mud and still can't reach it. Cryo doesn't come to his fingertips no matter how hard he tries to summon it.

When he sees the girl's body shift from the corner of his eye, he looks up sharply. She's right next to the bed in the blink of an eye and the movement startles him. He hadn't expected her to move so quickly and quietly. He instinctively flinches back from her when she reaches for him and slaps her hand away. He's had enough of unsavory people manhandling him to last a lifetime. "Don't touch me!" he snaps.

His shout surprises her but she backs off and lets her arm drop back to her side. "I'm sorry. You are probably confused."

It's the understatement of the year, but he keeps his mouth shut. He doesn't want to put himself in another Dottore situation; he prefers not to get smacked in the face again.

She smiles at him, kind and warm despite the heavy and tense air between them. "I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Lumine. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Kaeya."

He doesn't return the smile. He looks around, studying the room they're in. It's not overly large, but it isn't so small he feels claustrophobic. It would feel more like a bedroom if it weren't for the fact they're in a domain. "Where am I?"

"We are in a domain in Liyue. You are safe here."

His heart drops. The Knights of Favonius can't just enter Liyue when they want to for official assignments and missions, even in cases of emergency. Master Varka will have to send word to the Millileth, get permission from the Liyue Qixing, and if they grant access, then the Knights would have to wait for an escort. All of that can take days, sometimes weeks, to accomplish. Before they can even do that, they'll need to find him and figure out where he is.

It's time he doesn't have. He needs to find his own way out of here. He takes a breath to calm himself down and shakes his head. "I've never been here before."

She hums curiously, then looks to the wall where an open entryway leads into a dimly lit hall. "Perhaps you will recognize it if we have a walk around."

He hesitates before he stands up and shivers as the cold stone beneath them hits his bare feet. "Where are my clothes?"

She motions toward the corner. "Your old clothes were unsalvageable." That doesn't make any sense. He knows he got them wet and muddy, maybe his shirt got torn from the Fatui Agent's weapon, but they could just be stitched back together and washed in that case. "I had some new ones made for you." She turns around. "I will wait for you in the hallway while you change." She doesn't look back as she walks outside of the room.

Kaeya goes over to the small pile of clothes that sits on top of an old crate that looks like if he touches it, it would collapse instantly. The traditional Khaenri'ahn clothing makes him sigh but he puts it on anyway. A simple pair of shorts and a shirt are better than a nightgown, of all things. He puts them on and tries not to think about how they and the shoes that come with fit perfectly. They were prepared to have him here.

His right eye begins to throb. He winces as the pain slowly fades as fast as it had come. He stares at his palm, confused. What in the world was that? He shakes his head and finishes putting the clothes on. He has more important things to worry about.

Once he is properly dressed, he leaves the nightgown on the floor and looks around the room. He can't see any other way out other than the opening Lumine had gone through. He runs his hands along the wall, looking for some kind of loose stone that could be hiding some secret door he can escape through. He drops his hands from the wall when he is next to the crate again, looking at the open door with a frown.

There's no other way out except through there, where he knows Lumine is still waiting for him just outside. How far would he make it if he tries to run? He doesn't know how many enemies are lurking in this domain, he doesn't know his way around, and he needs to find his vision. All of these things make him sigh. He needs to think and be smart about making any escape attempts.

For now, he walks out of the room as calmly as he can and looks up at Lumine. He barely reaches her chest, and he narrows his eyes. "Where is my vision?" he asks as soon as she turns to face him.

She doesn't answer his question and starts walking, her footsteps light as a feather as she walks to his side and offers him her hand. "Come with me."

He hesitates before he takes her hand and lets her lead him through the winding halls. It would be good to learn the layout of this domain, that way he can determine the best way out of here. Holding her hand makes him feel tense, but he doesn't try to pull his hand out of hers. He has a feeling she would keep a hold of him anyway.

They eventually stop in front of a sealed door and he stares at it with wide eyes. This is the same door he saw in his dream, just before he woke up in the carriage. "What is this place?" he asks nervously.

Lumine puts a hand against the door and it opens without hesitation, being pulled down by a mechanism he can't see. He stares at the inside of the room and his breath begins to pick up as his fear builds.

The upside-down statue is chained in the back of the room, but thankfully, the body that he saw in his dream isn't there. The threatening spikes jutting out of the ground are there, pointing right at the statue and the orb it's holding is still lashing its power dangerously. He's pulled inside and dragged toward the statue, despite his attempts to dig his heels into the stone. His hand is trapped in hers in a vice-like grip. He grunts as they stop just in front of it. "What is this place?" he demands.

She turns around to face him, any hint of kindness gone from her gaze, and lets go of his hand. "You are the last hope of Khaenri'ah, and there is only one way to save it and our people," she says.

Pain sprouts from his eye again and this time he grunts and presses his hand against his eye. "You know what is coming, little one," the Sinner's voice whispers in his mind.

"What…?" he asks, looking up as he sees Lumine still standing there, and then alarm when he sees the sword she's holding. How did he not notice it before? How long has she been holding it?

"Let go."

Lumine stalks toward him, her expression blank and uncaring as he scrambles away from the deadly blade she raises.

His hands shake, struggling to call upon his vision. The most he accomplishes is making his fingers cold. He curses and his eyes flick toward the corner of the room when something else moves. The herald is standing there, glaring at him as it first did when he met it. It looks nothing like it did when it knocked him out, and didn't even try to bow like before.

The hilichurl's words suddenly ring in his ears. "Do not give in to his lies."

He stills, especially when the tip of Lumine's sword presses itself against his neck. Is… this a vision? He looks up at Lumine. Now that he's paying more attention, her eyes look like they're looking through him, as though she's watching someone else that's in his place. His eyes widen with realization.

This is another hallucination.

"This isn't real," he mutters. Still, he strains his neck away from the blade that's pointed at him, its cold, unyielding steel ready to pierce him if he so much as turns his head.

A heartbeat passes and there's a low chuckle in the air. "You truly are ready, little one."

-x-

Kaeya gasps as his eyes shoot open and he coughs as he rolls onto his side. His whole body hurts and when he looks, there are no carefully wrapped bandages around his wrists nor can he feel any kind of salve across the burn on his back. There is a thin blanket on him but as expected, his vision is missing. He grunts uncomfortably as his sore muscles yell at him as he moves around, his stiff clothes clinging to his skin by dried mud and grime.

"After all this time, and still you have little control?" someone asks.

He looks at the door quickly. Lumine is standing in the doorway, real as could be. She doesn't smile at him, kindness is long gone from her features. Her stone-cold expression doesn't change as he asks, "Why am I here?"

"You are a very special person, Kaeya. You remember a life that you should not have any recollection of." She steps inside the room. "He promised this wouldn't happen and yet…" She lets out a deep sigh. "This changes everything."

Kaeya feels himself growing frustrated. Why isn't anyone answering his questions? He's getting tired of being in a constant state of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

She doesn't reply immediately. Instead, she approaches him and takes a seat before she speaks again. "How much do you remember? Is it that one life?"

He listens to her words prudently and his brows furrow together. What does she mean by 'that one life?' He decides to choose his words carefully and replies, "I remember my last life and how I died."

"None of the others?"

He freezes. "What… others?" His voice is quiet, trying to guess what she means. She can't possibly mean he's died before—that's impossible. He would remember dying more than once since he remembers his last life, wouldn't he? He still has nightmares of being killed, he freezes up any time he sees that herald.

His eyes widen. The dream he had, where he saw the crystal. The Sinner had made it seem like he wasn't supposed to remember his past life. He looks at his shaking hands. Why is he suddenly remembering that now? He doesn't know what is happening to him. Why isn't he supposed to remember his last life?

Lumine rubs her chin with her fingers in thought, ignorant of his internal conflict, and mumbles to herself, "Then it really is because of your vision. But why would the gods choose you?"

"No, no, stop," he interrupts her, a bit louder now. His eye is starting to hurt, but he ignores it as she looks at him again. "What do you mean by others?"

She drops her hand back to her side. "You didn't know?"

He shakes his head. He doesn't care now if he sounds like he's begging for information when he answers her, "Please, just tell me something. Anything. I hardly know what's going on, and everyone else knows a lot more than I do."

Silence meets him as she thinks about his request. After a few more seconds pass, she nods once she makes her decision. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you."

Kaeya waits with bated breath as she crosses her arms across her chest.

It feels like an eternity passes between them when Lumine finally speaks again. "In the effort to obtain a special artifact only you possess, you have died numerous times already—168 times to be exact."

He's heard many things before in his life and has witnessed multiple world-changing events that rocked all of Teyvat from its foundations, but this is something he has never heard nor thought of before. He stops breathing, trying to take her words to heart.

It feels like the floor is ripped out from underneath him. "W-what?" he whispers.

He wants to not believe her, but… if he thinks about his recent dreams especially, it makes sense. He swallows hard, trying to wrap his head around this new information. He isn't sure what else to say except, "Tell me this is not some kind of cruel joke."

Her eyes remain steady, as if she's studying his reaction. She shakes her head, unamused. "This is not something I would joke about."

He still has no idea how to process this. His thoughts are racing at a million miles an hour with no way for him to catch up. He swallows again and then looks up when he hears heavy armor clanking against each other. The herald's large form appears in the doorway and he stiffens.

This herald must have known about all of this, too. Why else would it have targeted him before he even woke up from dying? It knew where to find him and the only reason why he woke up at the winery was because of Diluc and the knights. Then what about the Fatui? Why would they know about him? How?

His thoughts come to a jarring halt when the herald steps inside, places an arm across its chest, and bows politely. "Everything is ready, Princess," it says then it looks at Kaeya and its bow deepens. "My prince, it is good to see you awake."

Kaeya doesn't say anything back. His brain isn't formulating anything to say, still in too much shock. If he wasn't supposed to remember his last life, then how can he? What does it have to do with his vision?

Lumine turns to face him and the movement tears him away from his thoughts a second time as he looks up. "Come, we don't have much time," she tells him.

His eyes narrow into a glare. He's not about to just sit here and let them do whatever the hell they want to him some more. "For what?" he demands. "Where is my vision? That way, I can at least put up a proper fight before you kill me again."

She looks impatient and turns around to start walking for the door. "I can have the herald carry you there or you can walk on your own, it is your choice."

His eyes flick toward the herald. The monster remains quiet, but its eyes are locked onto him, no doubt willing to carry him like a sack of potatoes if need be. He stiffly gets up, muscles creaking as he follows Lumine out of the room. He'd rather not be carried by it again.

He quickly moves past the herald, unsurprised to hear it walking close behind as he follows Lumine through the dimly lit halls. His mind is keeping track of all the turns they make, trying to form a plan of escape as fast as he can with as much as he knows. He needs to get out of here, he doesn't doubt for a second that they're taking him somewhere that will likely be his final resting place—again.

He winces. Again? Has… he died here before? He pushes the grim thought away as their pace begins to slow down.

Lumine stops when she reaches a sealed door and just like the vision he saw, she raises her arm and presses her hand to the stone. The door goes down the same way, sliding against a mechanism underneath them and once it stops and the room opens up, she walks inside without hesitation. Kaeya, on the other hand, doesn't move from the entryway, staring at the upside-down Statue of the Seven that's hanging in chains.

Something about this room feels wrong. It's almost like when he saw the giant crystal, and although this orb is much smaller than the crystal, the power emanating from it feels very similar. The muddled feeling when he tries to call for his vision is worse here than in the room he had been sleeping in.

His eyes follow Lumine as she stops at the left wall and turns to face him. "You wished to know where your vision is," she says to him.

The herald's hand lightly pushes against his upper back to get him to keep moving and he shoots a glare at it before he slowly goes to her side. She motions up and he follows her direction with his eyes until it lands on something floating just above him.

His vision is right there, too far out of his reach and surrounded by a small dome of dark chains. "What did you do to my vision?" he demands, turning his glare back at her. "Give it back!"

"You won't need it anymore," Lumine interrupts. She turns her own cold gaze down to him. "We will keep it here, for safekeeping if you so desire."

His hands turn into angry fists. "It's my vision, you have no right to keep it like this!"

She scoffs, "It doesn't matter what you think or want." She glances back at the statue as the orb flares to life behind them.

Kaeya's own eyes look at it and he stiffens as he feels something underneath his eye move. He knows that if he looks in a mirror, those dark veins are creeping up his face and his eye is most likely changing colors. A low chuckle rings in his mind, one that doesn't belong to the herald or Lumine. "Come here, little one," the Sinner's voice says.

He looks at the statue as pain flares in his eye. He shakes his head, holding that side of his face with a hand. "No!" he snaps. He takes a step away from Lumine and the statue—he can come back and get his vision later, he needs to leave now. Whatever they want, he can't stay here a second more. He turns around, making a break for the door as fast as his legs can carry him.

Lumine doesn't look surprised, then wordlessly looks at the herald with a single nod.

The herald appears in front of Kaeya, but this time he's prepared and sidesteps around it to dash into the hallway.

What he isn't prepared for is his legs to suddenly lock up and his body to stop itself mid-step.

It elicits a yelp from him and even then, his throat closes itself up before the noise escapes. A heartbeat passes before his body turns itself around, far calmer than he feels. Panic makes his heart thump rapidly behind his ribcage.

This possession feels no different than the first time it happened, only this time, no matter how hard he struggles and pushes against the control, nothing happens. The hold is much stronger than before, and he gets dizzy as his eye starts hurting even more. He can only watch as his right arm raises itself and grasps one of the herald's fingers. It holds his hand like they're family, its tender hold fully covering his entire hand as it leads him back into the room.

Why can't he break free this time? He uses all his willpower just like before, and the terrifying thought of not being able to break free floods his mind. His eyes raise and lock onto the purple orb. Is that making the Sinner's hold stronger than before? Or is it the reason why his body moves of its own volition?

"You can stop this, little one," the Sinner's voice whispers to him.

He tries to strain against the control he has over him, but not even a whimper escapes his throat. I'm not your damn puppet! Let go of me!

His eye feels even worse the closer they get to the statue.

"I can make you happy."

He wants to laugh—the Sinner has already tried that and he was able to get out of that hallucination, and the one he just had. While he remembers how happy he was to be with Albedo and Klee again, it wouldn't be real. Should he fall into another hallucination like that, he would be trapped with no way of returning to the real world. He doesn't think he would be able to so easily break free now that he's so close to whatever this orb is. Why are you doing this to me?

The sensation of someone's hands place themselves on his cheeks. "You are my precious vessel. In return for freeing me, I will save your homeland and cure your people. Isn't that a good thing, little one?"

That's it? He doubts that's all it wants. There has to be something else it wants—why else could he see a hilichurl that is able to resist the Sinner's vast power? You're doing all of this to me just because you want to be free?

"You possess the power to accomplish a great many things. In return for your graciousness, I shall grant you the happiness you deserve."

Then why kill me this many times? Why don't you just kill me again?

The Sinner chuckles, and it would send shivers up his spine if he could move even a millimeter. "Oh, little one, you will not die. Not this time."

The statement terrifies him even more. He doesn't want to know why they don't want him to die this time.

"Are you certain you do not wish to willingly let go? The alternative is not a pleasant experience."

It's not like he has much of a choice. He won't let this Sinner use him like a puppet and trap him in a hallucination of whatever they want him to experience. Grief rises alongside his fear. He has a feeling that it will take more than just pure willpower to break free of this possession. With how many mental games the Sinner enjoys forcing him to play, he knows he will need help. If he doesn't get it, he knows he won't get to see Crepus, Diluc, or anyone else ever again. While he doesn't know what the alternative is and as much as it terrifies him, he can't allow the Sinner to possess him. He won't go down without a fight.

He steels himself, confidently telling them, I made a promise and I will not break it again.

The herald lets go of his hand and only now he notices how close he is to the statue. The pain in his eye grows stronger the more he fights back and his body is forced to drop down to his knees in front of it. His legs don't respond when he tries to stand and back away and his arms bring themselves in front of him. His hands clasp themselves together and his head bows itself into them.

"You have made your decision," the Sinner's voice says. His voice is loud, as if he's standing right in front of him. There's a soft and disappointed sigh. "I did not think it would come to this, but you leave me with no choice."

If he had any control over his body, Kaeya knows he would be shaking. His limbs remain still, frozen and locked in this uncomfortable prostrating position. He can't even lift his eyes from the ground. What are they going to do to him? He remembers seeing the dead man in his dream that was in this same exact position. Is he going to end up like him?

"You will not die, little one, although you will beg for it." Heavy footfalls come from behind him and the herald's large, cold hand grabs his hair and yanks his head up, forcing him to stare straight into the orb.

Kaeya can't move his eyes away from it. Something pulls his mind away, and it feels like he's falling although his body doesn't move.

"Death is a mercy I will not grant."