As if Xiao had violently hit his head, his environment shook in a triplicated haze. Something tightly squeezed his wrist, and before his instincts could pull him away a blast of ice pricked the underside of his skin. Karma overwhelmed his senses and blind spots dotted the periphery of his sight; a temperate warmth diffused from the point of contact, and suddenly the pain subsided. Was he bleeding out? He didn't remember being struck in the arm.
Releasing his labored breath, Xiao diverted his attention from Lumine to the amateur exorcist.
"Sorry!" Chongyun released him.
"What," he glanced around the room, to his arm, and back, "did you do?"
"I exorcized the karma from Lumine. She was at risk of possession, so it was our best option given the circumstance."
"That's not what I mean. What did you do to me?"
"...I'm not entirely sure. You were hallucinating, so I thought the mantra I performed on Lumine might affect you as well. I didn't make things worse, did I?" Xiao paused in self evaluation. The warmth circulated with his thundering pulse, and it lifted the weight from his shoulders like the timbre of Venti's flute. Except Venti wasn't here.
"No. The karma from before, it's gone." Only the weight in his chest remained, but he was used to that. He could manage that.
"Oh. Well that's good!" Chongyun beamed, "I don't know how, but my yang energy feels much lighter too! They must have canceled or something. Maybe. This has never happened before in my entire life. I have no idea."
"Likewise."
Beside them, Lumine groaned in exhaustion. She lifted herself with her elbows and then scooted onto her knees,
"What the hell just happened?" Chongyun helped pull her to her feet, smiling the entire time.
"I just exorcized you!"
"Oh. Okay. That's good. Wait- you exorcized me? Like…evil spirit go bye-bye exorcize?"
"Yes!"
"Oh my gods!" Lumine suddenly tackled him in a hug, "You did it! Holy shit!" As the two celebrated, the last member of their group returned. She brushed the dirt from her skirt, although most of it still clung to her like a magnet. Aside from a tired limp she appeared uninjured.
"Mister Conqueror of Demons Adeptus Xiao," she still curtseyed, "Your physical condition seems to have improved."
"...It has."
"Wait until we tell Xingqiu!" Lumine playfully punched Chongyun, "I bet he's gonna be super impressed!"
"Well, I don't know about that. I'm just glad you're okay." He rubbed the spot she struck absentmindedly, and to Xiao's relief they both recovered from their temporary elation. Lumine offered a quick word of thanks before she addressed him and Noelle. She mellowed her energy considerably when she spoke,
"Xiao! You seem to be feeling better. Are you?" He nodded. This was the third time he answered this question within the past minute. "That's good. I almost broke an ankle running after you. Not literally," she quickly corrected herself, "but I was worried."
"We all were. I'm glad I could help."
"Right. Thank you." With his karmic energy temporarily neutralized and the fight now abolished, Xiao glimpsed the world through a non combative lens. The spire dangling over their heads was ominous to say the least, and though he couldn't trace why or how, the atmosphere felt pressurized. More so than in just the literal sense.
If he closed his eyes, he could imagine himself back in the Archon War right after his introduction to Rex Lapis. Confused and numb. Surrounded on all sides by the dead and soon-to-be dead.
"Oh yeah," Lumine must have been talking for awhile and guiltily, Xiao returned to the present, "if you don't mind me asking Xiao, who's Bosacius?"
They continued for another several hours before Xiao decided he was comfortable enough to answer. Talking cost him energy not unlike a vision, and with everything going on he was far from charged. Talking about the past was even worse. Especially in the company of mortals he barely knew. Although Lumine did tend to make things easier.
And he didn't know what she was.
"Bosacius was one of the five yakshas who fought alongside myself." He flashed the adjuvant at a bit of corruption. It was far off the path but it gave him something to do. "As yakshas we formed a contract with one another. It stipulated that anyone who remained must know how the others passed. If it were possible to determine, to ensure their sacrifice wouldn't be forgotten."
"So you want to know what happened to him, because he went missing." Lumine took a sip of water from her rations. She offered him some but he declined.
"You read that overglorified fanfiction, didn't you?"
"Fanfiction? I thought it was a history book."
"If you're referring to 'Yakshas: the Guardian Adepti,' then it is a history book. My instructor in school referenced it frequently." Xiao rolled his eyes.
"It's over romanticized." Lumine and Chongyun exchanged a glance; Lumine shook her head as if to say typical Xiao. Can't even take credit for his own work. "But yes, Bosacius' death was never determined. He had gone mad, as did Indarias. Except he did not immediately succumb to the madness as she did. I've searched everywhere, and it is now that I find myself with the time to search again."
"That must be difficult. I cannot fathom the pain of losing a companion." Logically Xiao knew that Noelle only meant well, but her pity sparked a flash of annoyance. Rather than say something he regretted, he decided to shut his mouth. It was then that they arrived at the second seal, broken as was the first.
"Did the wolflord really emerge from down here? I feel like it would have smashed more holes as it traveled to the surface."
"The seal may have been destroyed by something else. We have no way of knowing when it broke."
"True."
The four of them stood over the subsequent crater. He tried not to let it remind him of the others. He failed.
"Bonanus and Menogias eventually turned on each other, believing the other to be a demonic entity in their madness. We lost two on the day that they perished."
"Now we find the last." Lumine nodded encouragingly, her expression unreadable.
"Yes. Now we find the last."
Everything ached. That was the first thing he noticed. His arms from his recent battles, his legs from his absurdly long peregrination, and his head from dehydration. Probably. Or maybe blunt force trauma. He couldn't remember.
The next thing he noticed was that he was outside, laying on his side, and smoke poured from the open entrance of a cave. The cave they had just entered. The domain. Far too quickly Xingqiu sat up again, giving himself temporary vertigo. The sky spun around him, and he threw his arms back to catch himself before he could fall completely backwards.
"They have significantly more vacancies which makes the work on my end far more difficult. I may not be affiliated with the Knights, but those who still reside remember which faces are new."
"So you're certain there are less than before?"
"Quite. According to the Acting Grandmaster, they've also been sending fewer each week." Zhongli hummed in thought.
"Uh, Venti the uh…your friend's awake." Kaeya tapped the bard on the shoulder, and the two of them paced into his line of sight.
"Morning buddy!" They were both slathered in soot, although Venti appeared less so. He probably had a better time of avoiding the smoke than him.
"You passed out from smoke inhalation, but don't despair too much. If it weren't for you, all of us would have burned to death. Probably." Kaeya shrugged.
"Yeah. That machine messed with all our heads real good. Ah, good times." Venti brushed off his hat sprinkling ash into the grass around them, and he offered him a hand. Zhongli and the red haired man finished conversing, and they approached with heavy, solemn steps.
"So…were the visions real?" Everyone fell awkwardly silent. "It's just…mine seemed to foreshadow something. Two of them had him," he gestured to the redhead, "except we've never met."
"Well, I suppose that's about to change then," he offered his hand, "Diluc, of Mondstadt." Xingqiu shook; his grip was surprisingly gentle.
"Xingqiu. I'm," he paused, "from Liyue."
"I can tell. Your way of dress is quite distinguished." Diluc offered a polite smile, though he was sure he looked awful. "We should probably head indoors. I'm sure our guests are tired from their long journey."
"Yes, sir!" Venti grinned ear to ear, and he stuck to his side like a stubborn thorn. Diluc didn't even spare him a glance,
"You are not a guest. You live here."
"Not at the winery," he raised his eyebrows mischievously, "besides I put out a fire that you would have had to otherwise!"
Zhongli folded his arms, "Sir Kaeya put out the fire. You just swirled the ice around."
"That still counts!" As the day turned to night not even the stars believed him, so they amicably bickered amongst themselves. Distracted.
Xingqiu couldn't help but feel that was Venti's plan all along. The bard was entirely too skilled at diverting attention. But maybe he was wrong to be suspicious. Maybe Venti didn't trust Kaeya and Diluc enough to speak openly. But that didn't seem to be the case. He actively worked alongside them, and he invited himself in as if they were old friends.
"How long have you known each other, Master Diluc?" He could tell the question caught him off guard,
"Well, Mondstadt is a relatively small city. Venti's name floated around for a while before we actually met," Diluc took a moment to think, "it's only recently that I've begun tolerating his presence. That was around the time the traveler arrived, so maybe a year or two?"
As the winery came into focus, Xingqiu recognized the winding path. Several carts carrying supplies were parked along the outskirts of the property, and the vegetation along the road looked exactly the same. It looked unsuspecting, but surely his vision hadn't been entirely fake.
Venti scoffed, "Rude! After all I do for you." He folded his arms.
"Like what?"
"What do you mean, like what? I play the lyre at your tavern every day!"
"For a hefty price. I could pick any bard off the street right now, and they'd be a million times cheaper than you. That, and I could pay them in mora like normal people."
"But they wouldn't be the Voted Number One Best Bard in Mondstadt, now would they? And besides, I have undeniable brand loyalty."
"Humble too." Diluc nodded to a few passing maids, "Anyway, I'm not sure if your loyalty stems from you or your cat allergy. You'd be at the Cat's Tail too if it weren't for that."
"That's so not true and you know it." They approached the front step where a servant stood at attention. Her hair was tied into a bun where not a strand was out of place, and her uniform was incredibly well-kempt. Like the grapes that encompassed the property, her unwrinkled dress was a deep purple rather than the standard black.
"Welcome back. Your excursion went well I presume?"
"As well as it could have gone," Diluc sighed, "I hate to trouble you so late into the day, but it seems we have some unanticipated guests. Adelinde, this is Young Master Xingqiu and Mister Zhongli." She smiled invitingly in a way Xingqiu had never seen before. At his house the servants bore the same tired frowns as everyone else.
"Welcome."
"Adelinde is the head housemaid. In the unlikely event that I'm not around, you may feel free to request her assistance. The tea she brews is unrivaled." Diluc smiled.
"I'm not sure about unrivaled, but I do know my way around a kitchen. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be preparing your rooms." The maid vanished into the manor as they followed.
"Where's Sir Kaeya?" At some point he had disappeared too.
"Eh, he probably just had other stuff to do." Diluc offered Venti a grateful look, but Xingqiu felt far from relieved. There was a secret they all kept, and he was getting to the bottom of it.
