Stardust

E P I L O G U E (H E A R T F E L T E D I T I O N)

Present day, Mondstadt, Favonius Cathedral

Just like Kaeya expected, Aether was off again as soon as his mandatory bedrest ended. It was ridiculous he was cleared to leave before Kaeya was, seeing as Aether was the one who spent nearly a month in the Abyss.

Of course Albedo somehow avoided bedrest all together. 'Traitor.'

Still, he visited everyday. Albedo would come and tell him about Mondstadt. How the rebuilding was going or something silly Klee did earlier that day. He would always bring something sweet in his pockets and Kaeya would steal them away for a reason to hold his hand just a second longer. With his sweets, Albedo brought sketchbooks.

Kaeya's heart burned looking at them, remembering how he watched Albedo rip them apart and scream. For the weeks Kaeya recovered, Albedo left him sketchbook after sketchbook.

They were raw and painful, years marked carefully at first, sloppily, and then never at all. Something about the sketches were off, the colors more muted. Kaeya couldn't put his finger on it until the first sketch of the Knights of Favonius. It was simple enough, Kaeya with a sword. Kaeya looking at something in his hands with a scrunched up nose. Kaeya with an unusually wide smile, talking to his knights.

Present Day, Sketchbook of the Chief Alchemist Albedo, Desk of the Calvary Captain