The Final Chapter

Escaping The Past

Chapter 3

The bottle of wine was empty now. Probably a good thing, since he was pretty drunk by now. But that wouldn't last long. In half an hour he would be back to normal, as if nothing happened. But without any wine to change that. Being an archon sucked in terms of drinking.
The door behind him creaked as she was opened and someone entered the tavern. The person entering stopped for a moment and then closed the door coming in with heavier sounding footsteps then before. He angered them. Sure enough a harsh voice said: "So here are you hiding?" The bard took his empty bottle and chuckled drunk swinging it around: "Yep here I am!"  "Is that his wine?", the person asked again, coming closer and taking it out of the bard's hands, revealing the person to not be Diluc but Lumine starring angrily down at him. "Hehe, noooooo it'ss miinnne. I-III havvve it fromm a friennnd..." The Traveler looked at the bottle. It certainly was from Diluc's stash. The bard probably came here to get more and then found that all of it was already taken away, so no one could get blackout drunk and be useless. Like the suspect in front of him was doing. "Well it's empty now and you wont find any other here..." She put the bottle down and looked at the intruder, which looked at him with drunk and sleepy eyes. "Tooo baaad...", the bard said and layed head down on the bar. She took a seat right next to but not even batting an eye at him. "Aaarre youuu aangryy?", Venti babbled. He heard her scoffing before she said: "Sleep off your intoxication and then we'll talk" The bard gladly took this opportunity and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again the tavern seemed empty. He looked around a bit before stretching himself and letting out a big yawn. "Morning...", someone said. The bard locked eyes with them and saw Lumine yet again, coming from up above down and back to him. "Did you stay here just to see me wake up? Haha that's just too kind of...", he laughed akwardly but she interfered, "Venti. You know why I'm still here... I wanted to talk with you. With the sober you" The bard hopped from the bar hocker and turned towards the door waving: "Well now we talked. It was a lovely chichat. Inform me when the Angel's Share has new wines and I'll come by!" "So you are fleeing yet again... And I didn't believe Master Diluc when he predicted this", the Traveler said more to herself than to the bard, but it still got him to stop mid-movement. The hand at the door handle Venti stared down at the floor trying not to sob. Yeah, all he had done for the last hundreds of years was running away. Running away from the past, the pain, the grief... But it did not work. It never worked. Being cheerful and happy with others did not help in the slightest. She heard the bard sobbing quietly still starring at the exit. Slowly she went towards him hugging him from behind. For a little while she stood there, her arms around him. She was still angry, but seeing him like this she couldn't help herself but hug him tightly. "I've let everyone down, haven't I? Running away from my problems... I have let everyone down. First Mondstadt and now all of you... Even when Dvalin needed me the most I traveled and drank and tried to run away..." The bard fist hit the doors while he himself broke down crying. Behind him, still having his arm around him, was Lumine. Sympathizing with him. She always seemed like the 'mighty Traveler' as Paimon liked to call her, but she was scared too. How many times did she think about just settling down somewhere with her friends, because she was exhausted from all her travels. Especially after Paimon left. Yes she had been angry, however she knew how he felt. "No you haven't. Not yet at least", Lumine finally said, "You are here, trying your best to confront your problems. Yes it's hard. Nobody said it wouldn't be hard, but hope is never truly lost. Everything can be healed if you let it..." She let go of Venti who lifted his head to smile at the Traveler. "Thank you!", Venti hugged her tight and opened the door to exit the bar. "Where will you go now, Barbatos?", Lumine asked crossing her arms. A little startled Venti looked at him and then smiled broadly: "I think they need some more troups for the fleet..." Then sprinting out of the bar before She could say anything. That bard had an unfathomable mind. Maybe she should give Diluc and Kaeya a warning. Well at least Kaeya, Diluce already knew about him being Barbatos. Wouldn't be that bug of a deal, would it? Nope, she wasn't risking it. So she went out of the bar closing the door behind her, but then she stopped for a moment. Something wasn't right... She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. Although she inspected his surroundings thoroughly there seemed to be nothing there. Maybe Fatui? But what would they gain from that? They already had Venti's gnosis. Lumine shook her head. Had to be just another strange feeling.

Venti stopped. Since he left the Angel's Share he had the feeling that somebody was watching. And just now he heard something rattling next to him. "Come on, show yourself!" A shadowy figure stepped out of the bushes. It held a dagger. "Who are you?", the bard asked, charging his bow. "Your end, Anemo archon!", his opponent said and charged at him. Before Venti could react, his enemy turned invisible. The archon was startled and tried to react but he couldn't. Immense pain filled him and he sank on the ground. The figure appeared again and retrieved his dagger. Blood dripped from it. His blood. "One down. Five more to go...", it smiled, cleaning the dagger calmly and putting it away. "Bye bye Barbatos..."
Venti breathed heavily trying to get up, but he couldn't. That figure was right. This was his end and he couldn't do any thing about it. Neither save him, nor the other archons. The last thing he saw was Lumine standing still for a moment and then rushing towards him. He heard her cry his name as his vision faded to black.
And thus the war began.

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Here are the first three chapters of my fic. Hope you liked it so far ^^