|| The Harbinger's Guest ||

|| Part 11 ||

"How... how do you keep winning?"

Tartaglia stared down at his cards in disbelief, glancing up to meet with Aether's grinning face. They had been playing for quite a while, and Aether had won 10 out of 13 games. Aether smirked, picking up the character cards laid out in front of him.

"I think you're just... not that good at this," Aether admitted, sorting out his deck again. "Which is a bit concerning for a harbinger."

Tartaglia sighed. "This game has nothing to do with my performance in battle." He started grabbing his deck and packing away the rest of the game. Aether groaned.

"Don't be a sore loser," Aether grumbled.

Tartaglia chuckled. "Sorry, but we should probably pack this up anyway now."

Aether looked through the large window, realising the sky had turned dark. He should have changed into his nightwear a while ago. His undone hair was strewn over his shoulders and back, cascading with subtle waves from being in a braid for so long. Tartaglia had taken off some of his outer layers from the day, which where now strewn across the bed. He sat up and took the game set off the bed, along with his discarded clothes, and slid off the smoothed out sheets. Aether leaned back against the bed frame.

"Do you know how long the Balladeer is going to take?" Aether asked.

Tartaglia gave the Traveler a pondering look, yet he didn't question why he asked that. "I don't usually pay attention to what the other harbingers are up to, but Scaramouche is one of Dottore's test subjects. He might be gone for a few hours, or maybe even days."

Aether raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Tartaglia laughed nervously. "In this case, I don't think they will take that long."

"Do I need someone watching me tonight, if Scaramouche isn't here?" Aether asked.

Tartaglia chuckled. "I don't think so— if you escape, I don't think you'd make it that far anyway."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Aether asked.

"Well, you'd probably be stopped by the Ruin Wardens, to begin with. If you made it to the port, you would be caught trying to leave on a boat. You can't escape through the mountains or the wilderness because you'd probably freeze to death if you weren't prepared. It would take a while for you to come up with a good plan and gather what you needed to escape, but by that time you would have already been found by the Fatui," Tartaglia explained simply. He noticed Aether's disappointment. "I'm not doubting your ability, I'm just saying it would be very difficult, especially for someone as recognisable as you."

Aether decided not to mention his previous escape attempt, recognising how he didn't really have a good plan. Or a plan at all. He was too annoyed at Scaramouche to think through his actions first— something very unlike him.

"Didn't your brother sneak onto a boat to get to Liyue?" Aether mentioned, raising his eyebrows.

"That is the reason why it's now a very difficult task to sneak onto a Snezhnayan boat," Tartaglia frowned. "And... fair point, by the way."

"So, why did Scaramouche have to watch over me?" Aether asked.

Tartaglia thought for a moment, glancing down at the game board in his arms. "Well... as a punishment for him, maybe? Or, just to make sure you didn't hurt yourself, I guess."