Mother Nature

Life Falls Apart

|Aether Pov|

I sat in the corner of the inn in an outside city I'm staying at with Paimon cuddling into and I start crying. "Let it out... " Paimon says to me in a soft tone. I cry until I can't produce any more tear from my puffy red and blood shot eyes, and my face covered in tear stains. I'm not some errand boy that came here to play hero. Granted I like to help people but that's not why I'm here this time. I want to go home with my sister, Lumine. But now, I have to learn the true meaning of this world before we can go home. I don't care what that meaning is, I just want to leave this place and hopefully take Paimon with us. I don't want to leave her alone again. I ended up starting the rebellion, I didn't want to be a part of, in Inazuma. I fought on behalf of the Geo Archon Rex Lapis to prevent his town from being destroyed, only to be shunned when I asked for answers, and I saved Mondstat from being completely destroyed by Dvalin.. I also helped clean up and get people back on their feet and saved Dvalin from the abyss. What the hell, I've helped everyone so much and all I ask is for a little help in return so I can find my sister. Dain helped me find her, yet our reunion didn't last. Lumine, I think I understand why you hate the gods so much, but I don't understand the nature of this world. Please tell me, so I can understand, and we can be together again... "Paimon.... I think I've finally reached my limit.... I don't know how much more I can handle... " I say in a hoarsed voice.

/After Aether tells Paimon about his feelings and thoughts.... I'm lazy and don't wanna write the exact same thing again... /

Paimon looks at me and says, "Well Paimon thinks it's time to start saying no and walking away for good. " I nod. I pick her up and lay her on her bed and hand her some clothes and tell her to go change get ready for bed. I change and lay down after Paimon is out of the bathroom. I drift off quickly due to how much my eyes hurt from crying for over an hour.

-In Aether's Dream-

The void is black and endless. "HELLO!! CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME!!" I shout. Just then some of the people I do commissions for appear and look at me. "Why should we help you?" "Yeah, we pay you to do our work for us errand boy." "Exactly, so suck it up Traveler." They say to me. Just then the floor beneath cracked, I looked down at it in panic then I looked back up to see my commissioners have disappeared. The ground shatters and I fall through, and land surrounded in all directions by Inazuma, Liyue, and Mondstat. I'm crying and asking for help, yet no one bats an eye. The gods appear and look down at me with a smirk before disappearing. The ground starts to shatter again, but I didn't do anything about it, I accepted that I was alone and fell again. Then again there she was, Lumine. I ran to her and as I tried to latch onto her for a hug she disappeared. Then reappeared behind me, she told me I was too late to reach her and must find out the nature of this world before we can truly reunite. I stare in disbelief as she makes a portal into the abyss domain and walks through leaving me behind once again. I sprint after her again.

I bolt awake in a panic; tears sitting in my eyes and sweat running down my face and body. "Aether, Paimon doesn't think you're doing well." Paimon says.  I look over to her and the tears swelling in my eyes fall down my red, tear-stained cheeks. "Let's head to Dawn Winery and ask Diluc if we can take a break there, I hope at least he will help us... " we pack our stuff and head out

We walk to the teleport waypoint closest to the inn. We teleport to the way point by the estate. We walked their and knocked on the door. Shockingly Diluc answered the door. It was late, yet there he was in his usual clothes with his bright red hair tied back fully awake and his beautiful red eyes full of confusion. He gestures us inside and motion towards the couch. We sat together. "We were wondering if we could stay here for a bit so we could take a break from everything... " I ask while looking at the floor in hopes he won't notice the redness on my face. Then the door opens, and we look over at it to see that Kaeya is here. Diluc is just as confused as I am. "I just came here to bug you Diluc, but hello Traveler. How are you doing, it's been a while?" says Kaeya. "... " I don't know what to say or how to respond, I just look down at the floor. I helped these people who never forgot that I too had a goal that needed accomplishing. "Hey Paimon, why don't you go to bed, I'll fill them in on what's going on..." I tell her with a hint of hesitation. She nods then floats away and towards the bedroom area, before turning around and opens her mouth to ask for directions, "Down the left hall, 3rd door on your right." Diluc says expecting her to ask. "Paimon knew that...!" Paimon says before huffing and floating down the wrong hallway. "The hallway on the left, not right!" Paimon floats by angrily past us and down the correct hallway. Kaeya and I laugh to ourselves while Diluc just sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Kaeya and I finally collected ourselves, and were breathing properly, Diluc didn't look surprised by our antics at all. "Alright now that we have finally collected ourselves, Aether. What's going on?" Diluc says with a hint of worry in his voice. "Well..." I start only to have Kaeya grab my chin and push my face to meet their gazes. They notice the puffiness that surrounds my eye my bloodshot eyes and the tear stains on my cheeks. They stare in shock as they see the tears stained on the sunshine boy's face. The boy usually smiling and helping everyone but himself was crying for a very long time at an awful rate. "How about you start from the beginning and not just the problem." Diluc says still staring at me. "I agree, I would like to make sure everything falls into place." Kaeya says softly, yet stern as if something was bothering him. "Ok, Here goes nothing." I speak. I take a deep breath then I tell them. "Well, Let's start with I'm not from this world, I'm from another world. We can get more into that at another time. Anyway, I came here to this world with my sister. That was 500 years ago, and we were here during the final dynasty of K'hanriah. We stayed in K'hanriah for a bit until I could feel something horrible brewing. As mortal outlanders, interfering with worldly affair too much is taboo, and you will slowly become part of the void. But before we could leave, the war amoung the archons began. I felt guilty about what was going to befall them, so I handed out protection crystals and created a barrier around the city. The barrier obviously didn't hold, but I was pretty weakened from almost turning into nothing inside of space and time. We ventured on and stood bravely against a God; the same God that I have been searching for as well as my sister, but I haven't really been lucky... I did find Lumine, but she told me that I needed to venture through this world and understand it's nature than find her again. But I honestly don't care about this worlds' nature, I just want to go home, but I don't think I will be able to find her for a while. I went to the three cities of Mondstat, Liyue, and Inazuma in order to find my sister. I didn't want to play hero, but that's what I did. I played hero so much, that nobody ever helped me afterwards anymore, I was just expected to help and be alright with it. I saved Dvalin in hope I could get answers from Venti, I saved Liyue in hope to get answers from Zhongli, and I started a rebellion in Inazuma that I didn't want to be a part of in the first place to try and get answers from the higher-ups around me, but each time I never moved a step towards my goal because they refused to help me, I stayed in the same spot and wasted time. I'm not some errand boy, I want to find this God, get my powers back, talk to my sister, and leave. I just want to leave, I'm so sick of this. I can't do this anymore..." I finish as tears fall out my eyes once more and unsteady breathing escape my lungs and pain-filled sobs cry out of my mouth. They stare at me for a minute before they both move closer to me and cover me in their embrace. I cuddle into their warmth. I've missed this dearly. I missed having someone to hold onto, I've missed having people who understand me, and I've missed having people who won't judge whatever I say. Paimon has always been there for me. " The reason we came here was to get away from it all... Ya know, Paimon told me on a daily to say no to what people ask me to do, but I just couldn't do it." I say into Diluc's chest. They pull away from and Kaeya looks like he has something on his mind. "Kaeya, is something the matter?" I ask him. "Actually, your story from K'hanriah about the stones. You gave them out to everyone, correct?" He asks me. I nod at him still confused on where this is going. Yet, something tells me I know what is going to happen. " I'm from K'hanriah. My parents would tell me stories about the place, as well as a blonde-haired boy with golden eyes that was as bright as the sun." he says slowly yet, filled with anticipation for my answer. Then it clicked, he was the same Kaeya I knew 500 years ago. I met his parents while wandering around looking for something to eat while Lumine set up camp. They were being attack and the husband was passed out and the wife had a crying infant in her arms. They were out of the barrier that I had created to protect the people and were almost hit by an attack. So, I encased them in a crystal and sent them to the future in hopes that they could live peacefully. " So, they really did live through the war." I say to myself with a smile. We filled in Diluc on what we were talking about, and he had the funniest expression on his face. Then Kaeya and Diluc looked at one another nodded and Diluc says to me, "Let's find a way to release your powers and you reek some havoc on this untrustworthy world." "Exactly, we will be on your side during this. We should also be filled in on what happened on your journeys and the whole story with you sister." Kaeya says while looking me in the eyes. Their eyes both show me hope and promise. I want to trust them and believe in them. "Alright then!" I say with an eye blinding smile to finish it off. So, I tell them everything about my adventures in Mondstat, Liyue, and Inazuma; my "reunion" with my sister; and even the nightmares, emotions, and words that tend to haunt me. They look so upset for, yet extremely angry. I don't completely understand why they're so mad, but I'm too tired to question it. I just want to go to bed right now I say as I drift off into a black void while falling onto something warm. 

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Hey everyone, this is a new story I'm working on. Full Disclosure (Addams Family Reference) I came up with a bunch of story lines and I plan to write for all of them, but it might take a bit. Anyway, in this story, Aether and Lumine are mortal beings this time, but they wield the powers of the gods. Thus, being known as Mortal Gods. Hope you enjoyed the story! Leave a comment letting me know if I misspelled anything, made grammatical errors, if you have a plot device and don't know what to do with it, or just to let me know how your day is going/ask me a question.   Take care everyone, seeya next time!