A lost friend's journey

Chapter 22

Well well, what do we have here? Is that a new chapter??? Ohhhh yes!

Do tell me... how many of you, dear readers, noticed that today is the 1st year anniversary of this fic? Happy anniversary!!!!

Gosh time passed by so quickly... I feel like it was only a few weeks ago that I started writing down the first drafts...

I am so very, terribly sorry for the long wait! I know, I know, this is getting old, and I know I'm leaving you guys with terrible cliffhangers, but I don't want to rush myself. If I don't have the motivation to write then I just... don't. Otherwise I'm afraid the quality of what I give you might significantly drop :')

"Arc 7: Archons' grief starts" here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By all means, Kaeya Alberich should be dead. Should have been a long, long time ago.

If he was being honest, he was never meant to live, but life decided it did not want to get rid of him.

By all means, Kaeya Alberich should have perished the night his home was destroyed. Oh, yes. He should have been buried under the rubles of the place he had once called his home. Kaeya Alberich should have died alongside the nation he used to call his own, alongside the people he used to call his friends.

If he closed his eyes and thought long enough, he could still recall the sound of laughter that he used to hear every day upon waking up. He could still see the smile of the gentle but old neighbor as she gave him an apple every single day when she passed by him on the streets or in front of his family's house.

If Kaeya thought long enough, he could still hear his mother's gentle laughter, feel his father's arms around him.

Kaeya Alberich had once resided in a nation that was targeted by the Heavenly Principles for the simple sin of being governed by human beings instead of the gods.

By all means, Kaeya should have died when the sky turned red and the elements turned against his home, his country.

He never should have survived long enough to witness his neighbors beings turned into monsters. He never should have survived long enough to reach an age when he would start killing those very same people he used to hang out and laugh with.

Dear Kaeya,

(...)

And yet, here he was, fists clenched around a crumbled piece of paper that he read over and over again.

By all means, Kaeya Alberich should be part of a legend, a myth, a long forgotten memory.

By all means, Kaeya Alberich should despise gods, hate their very existence, spit on their so called righteousness and virtues. All of them, without exception.

And yet, here he was, regretting a decision he made without even realizing it. Regret was a funny thing, he mused.

Kaeya Alberich had plenty of regrets. In fact, he had so many he couldn't count them on his hands, wouldn't stop counting until hours had passed. That was how much he regretted the choices he made in his life.

And yet.

He had allowed one small God to fray a way for himself in his heart without even noticing he was warming up to said God.

By all means, Kaeya should consider himself the enemy to every single God that existed.

And yet.

And yet, he could not bring himself to hate one Anemo Archon.