Stardust

K A E Y A

Present Day, Mondstadt, Statue of the Anemo Archon

Kaeya knew what it was like to feel a city fall. He remembered the ash on his tongue as Barbatos' bowstring shattered, snapping like a whip across his cheek. A whimper fell from Venti's lips as the god that blessed Mondstadt's walls finally fell.

Kaeya did not think. He felt Diluc's hands rip off his shoulders as his clothes shimmered. Abyssal power would bring their remnants to them–the clothes with the power of the stars woven into their very being. One of the many arts of khemia lost to time.

Venti was on his knees, hands drenched in blood as they slipped on his lyre. Even now, he was trying to string together a song to breathe life into his dying city.

Kaeya did not remember moving. His fingers dug into the soft velvet of the green cape. Venti was so small. His shoulders narrow, like a broken bird's wings, and his body lighter than he had any right to be.

"Wha?" Venti gasped, clawing at Kaeya's cape. Those emerald eyes shining with delirium told him to stop, but the bard was far, far too weak to stop him. Kaeya wondered if Venti chose this. To bear the weight of 2000 years of prayers for a dream as lofty as freedom. Just 500 managed to crack Kaeya beyond belief and he had not even been here for most of them.

On his knees in the concentrated heart of Mondstadt's ley lines, Kaeya slashed his sword across his wrist. The blood flowed freely and with it his power. As his shield cracked to life around him, Kaeya looked to the sky.

The statue of Barbatos' blocked out the light of the moon. 'What a shame,' Kaeya smiled. 'The view of the stars here is most exquisite.'

As his cryo shelter stabilized, Kaeya pushed. He felt it expand beyond himself, shaping to his will.

'Cover the city.'

Albedo was screaming. He never screamed. Kaeya could not focus on that now.

'If I was to be an Archon, lend me the power of one.'

His bones burned.

'Please vision, I beg of you, cover the city. Please gnosis, save them.'

His lungs scratched with every breath like shattered glass.

'Stars don't fail me now.'

Kaeya exhaled. One good, last breath of air filled his lungs and then the full weight of shielding Mondstadt fell on his shoulders.

'I think I'm burning again.'

The memory of that single inhale felt crinkled and rough, aged in the way that meant years had passed. How long? 'I-'

Months? Maybe. He truly could not say.

Kaeya ached in every breath, in every bone. His shield did not falter.

There was agony, then there was this. Kaeya only remembered to breathe, in and out, and relish in the warmth of the puffs of air on his cheeks. Then, Kaeya heard a familiar call.

Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes Kaeya's gnosis let him listen in on the heartfelt prayers of the people to their Archons. For the first time, all the prayers were all to Kaeya. Diluc was praying.

"Not my brother. Kaeya you better be okay."

In a city of people screaming and fighting, Diluc prayed for him. He could hear Albedo in his mind, clearer than the voice screaming in his ear and tearing at the Khemia-infused armor keeping him upright.

"Kaeya please."

Kaeya wished he could answer. All he could think or do was, 'hold.the.shield.'