modernity - xiaoven

37.

i'm disappointed in myself for not updating. but my phone getting taken away took all of my motivation.

ill be getting my phone back tmrw.

ALSO INGAME XIAO IS WRITTEN TOTALLY INCORRECTLY BUT THATS BECAUSE WHEN IM IN CLASS I HAVE TO CHANGE NAMES AND I USED MY OCS NAMES SO I KINDA GAVE HIM SOME OF MY OC'S PERSONALITY??? IDFK

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venti had somehow made it to being sat in dawn winery's office, with jean by his side.

"so you're telling me, the drunkard i've been serving for months, is lord barbatos, and he's switched bodies with himself from another universe."

"i'm no-"

"yes, we are."

diluc sighed. "i'll help you, on one condition."

"what is it?"

"tell kaeya to stop being a dumbass and finally confess. i'm tired of his drunken rambling."

"alright, but he'll rant even more if they do get together."

"atleast it's better than his pining ass."

jean chuckled, and sighed. "it's nice to know you still care about him. now, we should get going, the knights have tracked stormterror to his domain."

"that's good. let me inform adelinde, and collect my claymore before we set off."

"we'll meet you at the knight's headquarters. i need to inform barbara and lisa of my absense."

diluc nodded, and jean left, venti following close behind.

"with the little amount of anemo help i've been able to give you, i don't know how much you can help. i did send a letter to the liyue qixing, explaining the situation, and asked them to send over someone with an anemo vision, if they could. i also managed to get a letter to rex lapis, liyue's archon, and explained your situation"

"thank you-?"

"mhm. we'll be spending atleast a month outside of the city, continuing the tracking, so if they can get us an anemo vision holder, it'll help speed up your training. i, unfortunately, as i told you, am not qualified for this. i rarely use my vision, unless nessessary, so i can't help you."

venti nodded, as they walked into the woman's office, and she collapsed into her chair. "i have no idea how we got the letter to rex lapis, but even writing those two letters were tiring."

"when did you send them out?"

"last night. one of the messenger birds was sent out with it, because they're urgent. i've gotten one letter back, and they explained that they would only be able to send one person that can control anemo."

she searched her desk for a few papers, before smiling, "there it is. his name is xiao, and he's one of the yakshas, and adepti. he's apparently the only anemo member there, besides a travelling samuri from inazuma named kazuha, though kazuha is currently travelling on a fleet of ships captained by ms captain beidou."

"i recognize all of those names."

"were you especially close with any of them?"

"kazuha and xiao are some of my close, friends, beidou is kazuha's mom in my universe."

"why did you hesitate?"

"i didn't hesitate?"

jean sighed. "which one of the two isn't your friend?"

"well, technically xiao and i are frien-"

"let me guess, you either have a crush on him, or-"

"yeah, we're dating-"

"alright, i'm going to advice you to be careful. our you is single, alright?"

"okay."

"that also means no flirting."

venti sighed. "that's going to be difficult."

"just, be careful. and, if my sources are correct, xiao will get here tomorrow morning, so you will be spending the night here, so we'll be fully prepared to begin our journey."

"okay!"

----

the next morning, venti was woken up quite early, to find that jean was outside speaking with both xiao and someone else, who was supposed to simply accompany them for the sake of the qixing, was assumed.

jean glanced inside before beckoning venti over, as she continued the conversation with the two outside.

"i would welcome you inside, but the headquarters is quite, hectic, due to the stormterror attacks. once venti arrives, i'll leave you two with him, because i need to inform the knights of me departure. then we should head towards dawn winery to get diluc."

almost as soon as she finished her sentence, venti had got there, so she nodded to the two and rushed towards her office.

"barbatos, if this is another one of your tric-" the man besides xiao spoke, before being cut off.

"nope, i'm still getting used to being called that outside of work."

"alright then. so you wouldn't know this, but i'm morax. and this is xiao. because you need to be limited to only a few specific moves with your element, i'm going to be requesting one thing from you. it shouldn't hinder you, though i will return it after this plight."

and so, morax, or zhongli as he was supposed to be refered to in public, instructed venti to place his hand over his chest, and draw out a chess piece, called a gnosis, from his torso and into his hand. it took quite a bit of elemental energy, and he felt exhausted afterward, but he handed it over.

"your gnosis is your connection to celestia, and the origin of your power, in some cases."

"lord morax, please contain your habit of spreading unnecessary information, we'll be departing soon, and we're not supposed to compromise your identity."

"i assume i should be containing myself, and we should have multiple chances that i can take to debrief venti on his archonship."

xiao nodded, and jean returned, with a vigor in her step. "it's time to pay master diluc a visit."