A Butterfly That Brings Fear: Aether Contract

Verr Goldet

The whispering was everywhere. Rumors of return, of salvation, of possible hope. And no matter how much Verr Goldet tried to ignore these baseless ideas, she couldn't help but to wonder.

It had been about 5 years and 10 months since the infamous traveler left Teyvat and started the Aether Contract. The thought going around was that the golden beauty had supposedly returned to their now ruined world. But Verr knew that nothing was happening. The hope of the traveler's return had been going around since the contract started, however the rumor was never this strong. But Verr didn't believe it. She knew he wasn't coming back. The traveler she knew would have returned by now if he wished to. All the community could do was pray they could survive another day, let alone the rest of their lives.

Xiao had disappeared from the inn 5 years ago, she hadn't heard of him since. She remembered those days. When the inn glowed with beauty and elegance, a golden leafed tree that spun and coiled around the foundation of the red roofed building. Now the burnt husk of what used to be her home had fallen, she now lived in a salt made shack made of spare items she picked up from the fall of the inn, barely being able to get enough food to live. Everyone left was doing the same. She was lucky to even have lived through the destruction of Liyue.

So here she was, arms deep in a pile of rubble, ceramic and wood scraping her already bloody fingers as she felt around desperately for the softness of bread. "Softness" was incorrect, however. The stale blocks of grain were barely edible, hardened and cracked.

She had been at this all day, along with most of the other survivors, begging to find something edible in this post-apocalyptic wasteland. Verr knew though, it wasn't the worst to come.