You've begun to feel like home. Xiao x Aether.

Unexpected meeting.

Traveler was slowly walking towards Wangshu Inn. The scenery of Liyue even outside the city was breathtaking – trees, rocks, abandoned buildings – all of them were greeting Aether in their calm manner. The atmosphere helped the blond to rest his thoughts and enjoy his short walk. Fortunately, there weren't any people on his path, so that he hadn't worry about talking to anyone before entering the Inn.

"I will have to apologize to all my friends later on, when I am ready." – he said to himself. – "hopefully they won't get mad or annoyed."

When Aether reached the Inn, it was already past midnight, so everyone was calmly sleeping in their rooms. He carefully walked up the stairs, and entered the room, where Verr Goldet usually greets people with her strict voice. This time, there was no one, seems like the owner has already finished her job and decided to rest a bit. Even though Aether was grateful for missing any communication, he still wondered should he just enter any room or wait until the morning to talk to her.

Traveler checked the counter, and saw a paper, where with glowing ink his name was written. Well, not exactly his name, but rather his title "traveler".

"I wonder why everyone keeps calling me this nickname even after I tell them my actual name. Seems like no matter how hard I try to help everyone, I am still considered to be a passer for this world." – he let out a sad sigh, while gently taking the piece of paper in his hands.

"Dear traveler, I heard the news that Beidou's ship has arrived at the Port of Liyue not so long ago, so I assumed that you were on it and have finally arrived back in Liyue. As you requested, I reserved a room for you, so if you arrive to the Inn, and I will be absent, you can just take the keys and go to it straightaway. The room is located near the rooftop, so you will not miss it. Happy arrival to our most beloved city.

Best Regards,

Verr Goldet"

Aether took the letter and put it in his pocket for everybody not to notice and read it accidently getting to know that Traveler has returned. For a couple seconds, the boy has been looking for the mentioned key, and finally found it. Aether was grateful, that the owner did not mention anything else apart from the information he needed, not to mention how thoughtful of her it was to even leave the letter for the nighttime.

The room was enormously big, seemed like Verr Goldet was prepared that he will stay for a long period of time. Aether put his sword and his stuff near the huge bed and walked towards the mirror near the small table standing in front of the bed. He looked at himself and immediately turned away from it. His face felt unfamiliar – lots of scratches and tired eyes were glancing back at him with the unknown expression, the mix of sadness, sorrow and helplessness was all he saw in the reflection. He wondered what his body looked like after such a long trip, and most importantly, how does his scar look like. During the ship trip he could not help but trace the scar with his fingers imagining the shape of it, but there was no exact shape. However, he did not find the strength to look back at the mirror, so he saved that idea for later.

Suddenly, the wind blew from the opened window and urged him to put his thought aside to look at it. Only now was when he realized that his room has a balcony. He slowly approached it and now was standing on the edge of the balcony, his both hands lightly gripping on the fence. The wind was calming his mind, carefully touching his hair letting them flow to the sides of his face. During the daytime the land of Liyue was already spectacular, but in the night the atmosphere was even more pleasant – the subtle lights of the lanterns near the Inn, the slight rustle of the leaves on the huge old trees – everything was so peaceful. Aether could not help but get affected by the ambience of it all. He grabbed on to his braid and slowly started to unbraid the long glowing hair for it to rest in the wind as well. When he was done with it he looked away to the mountains for a few seconds. The areas were not filled with usual camps of Hilichurls or any other monsters, which was surprising the blond boy, he could not help but feel worried of there they have all disappeared.