The Spark [Xiao x Aether]

The unusual illness ||

The traveler found himself in an unusual space again. It felt familiar and he knew the second he arrived where he was. Though, he couldn't open his eyes for whatever reason. He was way too used to fainting at this point. He was so exhausted from everything to the point where he just wanted to head back to bed and sleep until everything is peaceful. Why couldn't he just live a normal life for once? The boy constantly asked himself.

"Come on dear. Open your eyes you know I'm not going to hurt you. I understand another meeting like this is strange but we need to have a little talk." A woman's voice spoke.

Yet, the boy refused to open them. He wanted to avoid the goddess and sleep casually. He knew how mean of a response this was but maybe he could trick her into thinking he was still unconscious.

The goddess wrapped her arms around the boy's body hugging him tightly. Her hands were still as cold as ever. Her grip kept getting tighter each second.

"Last time I helped you a lot, didn't I? It would only be fair if you could hear me out right now." She teased hoping to get him to talk.

After a lot of consideration, he finally spoke. He didn't want to get himself into another disaster so he tried to think of ways to leave the room the goddess of time invited him in.

"Hello, Istaroth. I'm not dead again, Right?" He Joked.

"Oh, no. Don't worry. I just wanted to talk a little. Please open your eyes. If you don't open them there's a chance of you losing consciousness."

He sighed and finally opened them. This was the first time he saw Istaroth in person. Last time they met she was keeping herself hidden. She looked nothing like the ancient arts so Aether was taken quite back by her beauty. Many said she was pretty but he never believed those old rumors until now.

She had very long white hair that was a couple of meters long. It was floating around the entire room. Her skin color was also very unusual, she was really white just like her hair. Only thing with color were her bright green eyes and hair accessories.

The feeling of her cold body pressed up against the blonde disappeared. She was sitting in the distance at what looked like a very fancy table for two. She was smiling at the boy, waiting for him to join her.

There were two cups of tea on the table. The traveler immediately recognized the smell of it. It was a very famous tea from Liyue. He just couldn't tell which one.

After admiring the goddess's beauty for a while he walked up to her and took a seat. He was nervous about what was going to happen. Whenever he had some dealing with gods it never ended up well.

"So why have you summoned my consciousness all the way here?" He asked while looking her straight in the eyes.

She was taken quite back by this. There weren't many who dared to look her directly in the eyes. The boy was quite brave.

"First of all, how have you been? I've been looking at you not as closely ever since our last meeting but I've noticed something wrong." She started with concern in her voice. She grabbed the teacup and took small sips as she spoke. "You don't have to hide anything from me. I will find out eventually so it's better to be straight up with me, dear."

Aether knew what she was talking about from the way she toned it. At first, he was about to wake himself up but he quickly stopped after realizing he couldn't talk to anyone else about it. Paimon wouldn't get it and he was unsure of telling Xiao. Opening up to a god he met not long ago also didn't seem really convenient. But at some point, he had to tell someone. Maybe Istaroth could help him.

"Let's face it, darling. There's nobody you can talk to. Whatever your problem may be then I'm the best person to vent it out to. Keeping emotions bottled up isn't good for your health."