Hello, here's a new chapter where you can see in detail how Mondstadt is dealing with the crisis.

As for the game, I had a hard time getting Furina, I lost the 50/50 by getting Tighnari and I had to explore almost all of Fontaine to get a new Pity, but it was worth it. And Charlotte with her, so that's cool. Funny thing is, I've been playing for almost two years now and I still don't have Keqing and Diluc (I started playing in 2.4), so I'm hoping to get them one day if I ever lose Pity.

Since Furina arrived in my account and a day before the end of the banner, I'm sending this chapter as a celebration, as I would normally send the chapter at the end of the week.

Also, I was wondering, why do English speakers pronounce Foçalors with the "c" pronounced like a "k", whereas in French the "ç" is pronounced like an "s"? I say this because my native language is French, so if anyone can explain...

Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy the chapter.

"I have summoned you here for something that deserves your attention."

Jean had called in her office Lisa, Kaeya, Amber, Eula and Diluc, who even if he was not in the ranks of the Knights of Favonius, knew that he was an asset not to be neglected, especially when it comes to problems related to the defence of Mondstadt.

The user of the Anemo element briefly but quite accurately explained the situation, while showing the letter she had read the same evening, and that the current condition of the Traveler according to Ningguang. It is true that at the front, some found it a little strange to send this as a major emergency, when there was talk of a kind of change in behavior, but Jean highlighted the consequences of this on Aether, Mondstadt, and Teyvat in general, always according to the warnings of the head of state of Liyue.

"Okay, indeed, I understand why you called us. I guess you did it on purpose not to warn everyone. " asked the red-haired man.

"Indeed, I did not want it to be known because the inhabitants could be panicked by the situation that the Honorary Knight would be in a rather chaotic state."

"In truth, I don't understand why you worry so much, just bring him back with us, and make him see a psychiatrist. He may have accumulated too much stress in his travels and it will be better once he has rested." asked Eula, not understanding why the situation is so alarming.

"Do you really think it would be as simple as that? I think that if it were like that, Eula, there would be no need to send a letter to warn us of the situation, and they could very well have done that to Liyue." answered Kaeya.

"Hmh... I was just trying to help, and you talk to me this way,... Marks my words, revenge will be mine!"

"To go back to what Jean said about cutie, I think it's better like that. But to be honest, you should first analyse your condition before doing anything that could be dangerous. " added Lisa, concerned about Aether's behavior.

The conversation continued between Lisa Jean, Kaeya, Diluc and Eula, not without some frustration in their faces, showing their willingness to contribute to the proper development of Aether's mental health, even if they had no idea on the subject. However, Amber has not said anything since she had been in the Grand Master's office, her eyes had been emptied of her glow when she heard the blonde woman's words.

Amber had spent enough time with Aether and was close enough to him to tell her some secrets, and his mental condition was one of them. She liked the fact that he trusted her enough to talk about his problems, and she tried to advise him as best she could. Sometimes, it was she who confessed, and Aether who listened. But she always appreciated this kind of thing, where the two companions could unload their bags, understanding that the other's life is not as easy as they thought.

The Outrider knew that they could not have this kind of exchange for a while, Aether was still busy finding his sister, and when he stayed in Mondstadt, he left immediately. As for her, her work also monopolized her. But since the last time they had seen each other and had kind of make you secret, he had told him in fact that he felt a great anger and frustration not to advance in his research because of the inability of people from different nations not to want to manage their problems by themselves, and that they were so lazy, that he even took advantage of the guild to be able to send adventurers, in this case him, to go shopping at the grocery store around the corner. She also found that some missions were stupid, and advised him not to do them, but had brought her the problem of notoriety, which had caused him a lot of stress and fatigue that was accumulating, in addition to other external factors.

And now, she should have insisted on him that he rest, and that he must not lose hope. She tried not to cry, knowing that it would be useless, and her fist tightened, knowing that her best friend and her crush is in a bad way. She was angry that she had not made more effort, and hoped that he would not take the path of revenge to find his sister. The Pyro archer fully trusted Aether, but she knew how much he could make decisions out of anger or under intense emotions, and that, not a lot people knew that.

After a dozen minutes, the other people noticed that Amber had her head down for some time, her look was both sad and mad and her usual happiness was no longer present since they were talking about it.

"Amber, are you okay? " asked Eula, worrying about her.

"Aether, sorry... I promise to save you... "

Not everyone in the room understood the situation, and why Amber was saying her words.

"What? Please explain to us!" said the Acting Grand Master.

"No enough time, if you really want explanations, you have to leave quickly towards the border between Mondstadt and Liyue, because this is the place we will find clues... This is the last place where he was seen, is that right?"

"According to the letter, yes... But wait..."

"No, Aether needs me! " and she left the office and headquarters of the Knights of Favonius running with all legs, trying to go as quickly as possible to the destination she had previously mentioned, under the surprised and questioning eye of her friends.

"Has anyone understood what just happened?" replied Kaeya

"No, but I think we should follow, we don't have much choice, don't we?" added Jean.

"Indeed. Jean, dear, I think you should go with them." proposed the Electro witch.

"I can't, Lisa. Who will continue to review all these papers?"

"I can take care of this for one or two days, it doesn't bother me. I just want cutie to get better, so do your best to make him happy, that's all I want."

"Don't worry about that, Lisa. That's what we all want. So let's go right away. "

Except for Lisa, everyone left to join Amber, who despite her short lead, was not very far, she was in front of the main entrance of the city, and stopped when she saw the others arrive, warning them to hurry, clearly showing the concern that was growing in the young woman.

" This is where the tracks stop... It therefore means two things, either that he voluntarily masked the traces from here, or that he had to restore himself for a moment. However, I don't think he can stop fighting all at once, while he continued to leave blood trail all the way... "

Yelan was thinking about how he had spoken and made the connection with his behavior, which would make no sense if he had deliberately stopped. If he wanted, he could very well have left no trace since his meeting with her until now.

She walked looking around, only to see at the end of a hill the estate belonging to Diluc, and she had thought it would be useless for him to look for additional problems with people who could recognize him, because he had made her specify that he did not want anyone on his way.

To the west, she saw only vegetation, with a few decimated trees in the distance, and others uprooted or without leaves, and she understood that there was no strong enough wind in Mondstadt to create this, apart from Dragonspine. In addition, wreaking so much havoc on such a specific part of the region seemed inconceivable to him. She quickly understood what the person who could have done this could be.

"Aether... Why? You don't have to go it alone... If you wanted help, you just had to ask... "

Yelan was moving as fast as she could, because as long as the clues were still present in the combat zone, she wanted to take advantage of them, and what could put Aether in such a state so that part of the forest was decimated at once.

Arriving there, she stopped directly, seeing not only the devastated landscape, but also a body on the ground not far from where she was. She approached slowly, fearing to see a new corpse, before realizing that the body to whom the person was none other than:

"Xiao!? What is he doing here? And why is he so in a bad way? "

She approached his face and checked his pulse before sighing with relief when she saw that he was still breathing and that he was only in a state of fainting. She checked where the most dangerous injuries were, and used the limited ressources she had to briefly bandage the injuries to minimise bleeding, before carrying him on her back and taking it to the nearest post she thought, that is, the village of Qingce. She knew that she would waste time, and that Aether could go more and more north, but she could not leave the Yaksha in this state, she had already almost lost a friend who was dear to her, so she will do everything not to lose another one. She made the journey back, knowing that he would be treated properly and fairly quickly, and she also knew that if Xiao was in this state, it was necessarily because of Aether.

A few hours later, around mid-afternoon, she arrived in the village, asking the competent people to take care of the Anemo user they knew well, because he saved their village several times from the surrounding monsters, certainly harmless, but quite invasive. They took him to a room practising rudimentary medicine, but who had already proven himself, knowing that Xiao was quite robust and that he had a metabolism that would pick up quite quickly.

She wanted to take him to the Bubu pharmacy from the start, but the road would be too long and the whole journey she would have taken to find Aether's trace would be useless, and she didn't want to start from scratch. Xiao could give her quite important information, so she waited for a while before trying to understand Aether's intentions who could have fought Xiao, and also show her that she sincerely cares about him, because even if she tried to ignore it, it always grieved her to know that the Traveler thought that she didn't care about him or that she was used by Ningguang to bring him back to Liyue, as if he had nothing to say.

When Xiao woke up, more or less stunned, he saw that he was not in the bush of Mondstadt, but in a room with decorations and style from Liyue. Then he saw that his wounds were more or less recovered, but that there were scars and some sequelae. He put his hand on his forehead, still having a little headache, and began to speak:

"Where am I?"

"In the village of Qingce, in an inn."

Xiao was surprised after the voice, and immediately recognised it, because he never forgot the people he met.

"Yelan? What are you doing here?"

"And you, Mondstadt is not usually in your field of action?"

"I know, but..."

"Listen, I don't want to rush you... You have just been recovered here, and most of your wounds have been stabilised. According to the inhabitants, you will be operational tomorrow."

"I see... Hmm, I guess I have no choice but to stay here, I wish I could have left because time is running out for me. However, thank you for bringing me back here, I guess that's why you're in front of me."

"Indeed. You're welcome, I wasn't going to leave you on the side of the road... I have already left a friend in this state, and I still blame myself..."

"You're talking about who I think..."

"Yes... That's the real reason you were in Mondstadt, isn't it?"

"Exactly. I had left to save Aether. And when you spoke, I remembered something, he told me that before seeing him again, you came to talk to him, that's why I deduced the reason why you were able to meet me in Mondstadt."

"I understand, he surely told you that he didn't trust me or something like that..."

"That's about it."

"I suspected it a little... I guess we have the same goal, so what would you say that after your recovery we both go to look for it? Usually I don't work as a duo, and in my opinion you too, but it's a serious problem, and you know him as well as I do, so I think the third time will be the right one. "

Xiao hesitated, because he did not like teamwork, and he did it only if necessary, as during Liyue's rescue against Osial, but he knew that it would be the best thing to do, because otherwise they would block the road for nothing at all. In addition, Yelan's ability to observe and deduct could greatly help him, so he nodded and answered the question of the Hydro user:

"It's okay... We have to convince him before it's too late, and then I owe you that, you made me treat."

"Good. Now that the partnership is done, I would like to know how your conversation with him went, since you already know what happened when he spoke with me."

"In fact, the conversation did not last too long, I tried to convince him to discuss and explain his problems to me in more detail, but he told me that it was too late to receive help, that we should have helped him before, when he implored him. And now, he thinks I'm taking him down because Paimon told us some mishaps he had."

"What kind of mishaps?"

"They lost loved ones on his journey to find his sister. I can't say more after respect for the deceased and out of respect for Aether's privacy."

"I see, it must be quite difficult for him and Paimon, mourning is not something that is easy to perform. Maybe that's why he doesn't want to meet other people, he doesn't want to make bonds with someone anymore and then take the risk of losing them."

"I didn't think about it, but it may be that. Anyway, it ended badly... But I'm the one looking for it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I am the one who started the fight. I told him that if he didn't understand, maybe fighting with him could solve the situation. I didn't plan to win, I knew he was stronger than me, but I wanted to exhaust him enough to then discuss smoothly, but you have to believe that he was much stronger than expected."

"It's totally stupid and useless. You make the same mistakes as at The Chasm, do you sincerely believe that by sacrificing your body you will solve the problem?"

"I know it well... But what do you want me to do, I don't have much experience in healing someone's emotional wounds, especially when the person is so complex."

"You should have stopped there and asked competent people, you talked about Paimon, where is she now? If you talked to her recently, she must not be far away."

"Currently, I don't know. Two days ago, she was at Wangshu Inn, accompanied by Mor-, I mean Zhongli."

"Zhongli, the consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor?"

"Yes... He is also a great friend of Aether."

"I see, is he the one who takes care of her?"

"Indeed."

Xiao refrained from talking about the fact that he was an acquaintance of Zhongli, and that he was also with the other Archons, because Yelan could have enough information to understand that the cultivated man Zhongli was actually Morax, the Geo Archon.

"At this point, I would have liked to be able to contact them, but I know that it will take too long... We will have to continue by ourselves... To return to the initial conversation, no longer try to use your strength as a last resort, I don't think people who know you would like to see you die or seriously hurt you. After all, you matter to them, and to me too, and I'm sure that Aether would also tell you the same thing. You said that he had suffered trauma related to the deaths, so do you really believe that killing yourself would solve his problem?"

"You... You are right... I admit that I was not focussed... But it also explains why he didn't kill me."

"Hmm, please develop your words."

"In the end, he left me fainting by electrocuting me if I remember correctly. The last words I heard before going to sleep were related to the fact that he respected me for my efforts. By "efforts", he means that he respected that I tried to convince him to prevent him from taking a dangerous trip, where no one could help him, and where he would manage alone."

"In my opinion, this indicates that there is no need to worry about possible absurd hypotheses."

"Huh?"

"Well, Ningguang thought he could take revenge or something like that on us or on part of the population, because he was not sufficiently encouraged and appreciated for his fair value. He had told me about the fact that he was considered a tool in the eyes of the population. He could have killed you, even worse, but he didn't do it, even though he had the opportunity. I just think he's exhausted and I understand some points, but from there to cut himself off from the world, it's extreme."

"Hmm, you know I'm here? " remarked Xiao, who had adopted this way of life for centuries.

"Sorry, I didn't want to insult you. You're used to this kind of self-sufficient life, but Aether is not that kind of person, that's why I say that."

"Apologies accepted. It's true, in any case, it's already a relief that he couldn't fall so low. One last thing, he told you about a problem related to the way of which he is perceived by people, but I can assure him that no one thinks this way, especially when we talk about him as a hero."

"He does not think in this way at the time of speaking. I can't forget the cold look he gave me, I had never seen this from him..."

"It's true that now that I think about it, his look was terrifying, especially from him... But I don't want to think about it, it won't lead to anything to languish. Can't wait for me to finish recovering so that we can make up for the lost delay."

"You're right. I'll let you rest, I think you need to be alone to find your thoughts, and me too."

"Thank you again for treating me."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow and have a good recovery."

"See you tomorrow."

Yelan left the room where was besieged the Yaksha, leaving him alone. He looked at the wall in front of him, then at the window in which he saw the sunset gradually arrive. Xiao was not used to relaxing, but he knew that he needed it physically, but also mentally. He was thinking about what Yelan had told him, and began to think about his next meeting with the Traveler, and what he could tell him to convince him to return to his normal state. He had always respected Aether for the way he handled adversity, without failing even if it was difficult, and his tenacity in his quest to find his sister was impressive, and it was hard to believe that he could no longer keep up after all the adventures that there were.

He sighed, and got up to open the window, letting the wind come to him, as he looked at the landscape to calm down, trying to find the way to redemption for his friend, as he had done before.

Aether gave an update on his situation, not with regard to his goal, which was already clearly set, but on how he would implement it. He saw that the supply of resources to venture alone was not enough to even cross the border serenely, because he had used the food he had left, knowing that he had lasted two to three weeks with it, and that he tended to forget that Paimon had eaten a good part of the provisions before his solo trip.

In addition, with the fight against Xiao, his weapon was no longer in a condition to be used, he knew how to do a lot of things, but certainly did not create a weapon from scratch, so he understood that he was going to need to go to the forge to recover a new sword that will be more resistant, even if he had found that Dull Blade had served very well and that it was normal for it to be wrong after so many events.

Seeing all this, he thought that the only good option from there was to do what he tried to avoid, enter Mondstadt.

"Fuck... We have to go back there... And of course everyone will recognize me, cursed title of "Honorary Knight"..."

Aether was irritated to make a detour, knowing that two people had already been seen trying to moralise him, and that there might well be others to bother him. On the road, he thought he was going to hit a Treasure Hoarders as there are so many in Teyvat, and that he was going to take a cape or a veil to hide his clothes and face, so that he would be unrecognizable, and even if he thought he could have found better, it was the best thing he could do at the moment.

The gold faded haired man changed his plans and therefore went towards the city of freedom, with the idea of buying in addition a few potions and drinks that could be used for him to avoid injuring himself, or in any case to reduce the wounds to the maximum because the Statues of the Seven were not as numerous as it seems, especially if the territory concerned is very large.

A few hours later, when the sun had already been gone for a long time, he saw in the distance a group of people talking, whose ear saw a woman who had in her tone sadness and a little panic, while the others tried to calm her more or less successfully.

Aether thought it was not much, only a group of adventurers, and would just pass in front of them like any other person, knowing that he was now covered in a cape hiding his plain clothes with a hood. However, less than a hundred meters from him, he saw distinctly and even if it was in the dark, the people, and was surprised for a few moments, before regaining his calm. He did not expect to see them, and hoped that their conversation would not make them pay attention to him, but they had good eyes and were not airheads.

"Sir!"

"Are you talking to me? " Aether asked the person in front of him, whom he knew like his pocket. Her voice that he recognized kilometers away, the first person he met after Paimon, Amber. He had felt frustration and sadness in her voice just by being called.

"Yes, sorry to bother you, but will you not have seen in the vicinity a blonde man, with golden eyes, with brown clothes, commonly called the Traveler? "

Under his cape, Aether will be the fists of pain. He understood that she was desperate to find him and talk to him. He did not know how she had heard the news, but given her reaction, she knew what he had decided to do, and he understood that Ningguang had alerted his behavior to the Knights of Favonius as if he were an enemy to be tracked down or a Harbinger coming to cause diplomatic problems and this nervaded him even more, convincing him even more in his decision, especially since he would have preferred Amber not to know it.

Seeing that he did not answer for a few seconds, Amber repeated the question, freeing him from his thoughts:

"Sir? Are you here?"

"Ah, sorry, I was just lost in my thoughts. Regarding the Traveler, I didn't see him, sorry I couldn't help you." he replied, while seeing Amber's gaze twist with pain at the psychological level.

"No problem. Good evening to you, and don't stay too much in the dark, it's for your protection."

"Thank you for the advice and have a good evening."

Amber moved away from him, heading towards Eula, Diluc, Jean and Kaeya, who were trying to make them understand that there was no point in alerting people as she did from the beginning. Aether understood, having listened to a fragment of their conversation that Amber had been trying to find him for a long time, and that she had asked all the people in the perimeter for an indication of where he could well be.

When he moved a little further away, he looked one last time in the distance, before sighing.

"I have to avoid any contact from now... "

The hooded man continued on his way to the city of freedom, hoping to meet as few people as he could.