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"This must be confusing for you," says the red-haired man crouching in front of Kaeya. It's the first sensible thing Kaeya has heard anyone say since he woke up under this terrible open sky.
He doesn't say that, of course. He only nods. Giving anything away to these people would be a bad idea.
It's a good thing, in a way, that the first thing he'd seen upon waking up here was the woman now standing behind him. Her, and the open sky above her, and the symbol of the Ordo Favonius--their ancient enemies, the crusading scourge that followed the first disasters of the Cataclysm--emblazoned upon her armor. She had seemed to take both his scream and his frantic grab for the sword beside him in stride, though she had wrestled the weapon away. She had claimed to know him.
Kaeya knows no Knight of Favonius, but as long as he goes along with her claim, she seems disinclined to kill him. So he can't do anything that will prove her wrong.
"I thought that he would be more comfortable here at the Dawn Winery," she's telling the red-haired man now, wrapping up the explanation that he had interrupted. "He's been very shy, and I think being around so many armed knights is frightening for him."
"He was afraid of knights when he first came here," the man agrees. Which means he thinks he knows Kaeya, too. "We'll look after him until your alchemists come up with a solution."
"Thank you. I know he'll be happier with you."
Kaeya stiffens when she puts a hand on his shoulder, but all she does is squeeze. When he looks up, she's smiling at him.
"We will work tirelessly to repair this," she tells him. "For now, simply enjoy your time here at the Winery."
Then she turns and walks away, leaving Kaeya here in this softly-lit room with the man looming over him even crouched low. It's still better than being surrounded by Favonian knights.
"Has Jean explained the situation to you?" the man asks.
She'd told him that she knew him as an adult, that he was a captain in the Knights, and that some Abyss Mage had ensorcelled him in a fight to make him a child again. She'd told him that he was her best friend. Kaeya doesn't believe any of it, of course. But she does.
His own best theory, right now, is that the Abyss Mage switched him with that friend. Why, he doesn't know. How his name can match her friend's, and furthermore how he can look enough like the man she knows for her to believe it, he doesn't know either. But he doesn't understand magic very well; maybe it was necessary for them to be that similar for the trick to work. Or maybe the Mage had gone out of its way to ensure that its spell made them think there was a resemblance.
Mages are always capricious. All Kaeya is sure of is that this one snatched him from where he slept at his father's side and substituted him for this Kaeya of Mondstadt, and that one way or another the magic worked such that they believe him to be so. It's far more plausible than an Alberich becoming a Knight of Favonius. Or, worse, the friend of one of those butchers.
Kaeya doesn't tell the man any of this. He just nods again.
"Then I won't try to pretend that I'm Father. Not that there would be any point in that. I am Diluc. I'm simply fifteen years older than I was when you arrived."
He seems to expect some kind of answer, so Kaeya nods a third time.
The man nods back. Then he stands, abruptly, to his full height. It takes all of Kaeya's effort not to flinch.
Passing Kaeya, the man--Diluc--opens the door. "Let's go find Adelinde. She can get your room set up and feed you. I'm sure you're hungry."
That's the second sensible thing Kaeya has heard anyone say today, so he follows.
The blonde woman Diluc takes him to seems ecstatic to see him. In minutes she's hustled him down to a kitchen, set out food, and left him to eat while she goes to, she says, air out his room. Before she leaves she sets some sort of pie at another seat and tells Diluc to eat, too.
He sits and picks awkwardly at his pie while Kaeya carefully examines his plate. The woman's fussing had unnerved him, but at least the kitchen is comfortably underground, with no windows, and stone walls, and a fire burning warm in the hearth. She'd turned the tiny table in a corner and rearranged the chairs so that he and Diluc can both see the door, and he has plenty of space to push his chair back and move quickly if he has to.
"Adelinde made those sunsettia tarts herself," Diluc says, as if sunsettia tarts are something he expects Kaeya to like. As if sunsettias aren't nearly mythical in Khaenri'ah.
They aren't mythical to his Kaeya. Kaeya takes a careful bite.
It's good. He forces himself to eat slowly, not to wolf the food down, first the tarts and then the meat and pasta and vegetables, all delicious beyond anything he's tasted before. Their Kaeya would be too familiar with all of it to be so greedy. Diluc watches him oddly enough that Kaeya slows further, glancing nervously at him until he turns his attention to his own pie.
Adelinde comes back before he finishes his plate. Kaeya scrambles out of his chair when the door opens, then pauses, not sure what to do.
"Are you done?" Adelinde asks, and Kaeya nods. She and Diluc exchange a look, and then she picks up his quarter-full plate. "I'll bring this up with us and leave it on your dresser with a cover over it, just in case you get hungry later on."
Kaeya isn't sure what to say to that, so he nods again. Adelinde smiles and reaches out towards him. It takes Kaeya a moment to realize she wants him to take her hand. He does, gingerly, and she leads him back out of the close comfort of the kitchen and up two sets of stairs. Diluc doesn't follow. He's not sure whether or not to be relieved.
The room she takes him to is at the end of a hall, past two others. Through the open door he sees it's a corner room, with two windows. Involuntarily he glances at the next door over, the room that should have only one.
"Master Diluc doesn't sleep there any longer," Adelinde says. "Though under the circumstances, if you want someone there, I could ask."
Kaeya shakes his head. If he needs to escape--and maybe he should escape--he doesn't want anyone close enough to hear him.
"If you do need anything, for tonight I'll be right down the hall," she says, pointing at a door near the top of the stairs. "All you have to do is knock." She waits for him to nod, then smiles down at him, squeezes his hand, and tells him, "Good night, Master Kaeya."
No wonder the knight thought he would be comfortable here, if their Kaeya is also 'Master' to Diluc's servants. He must be some relation to this man. Another thing for Kaeya to keep in mind about the person they think he is.
The thought that he should try to escape remains. He waits until Adelinde's closed the door behind him to look out the windows. One has nothing but sheer wall below it, with hard cobblestones beneath that would kill him in a fall, but the other has vines winding past it and bushes below. He could safely climb down.
Beyond the bushes, in the front courtyard, Diluc is standing with a lantern in hand. He looks up and stares straight at Kaeya. In the lantern's glow, his eyes seem of molten fire, burning through Kaeya like he can guess his every thought.
Kaeya ducks back from that stare. He'd seen the lake beyond the vineyards, and the cliffs past it in three directions; the fourth just leads back into Mondstadt's settled areas. There's no way he knows of getting from here back to Khaenri'ah without resources he doesn't have. All he could do is get lost, and be found again by the Knights. They might lock him up this time. It's a risk he can't take.
Maybe that's cowardice. But as he tosses and turns in the dim light of distant, false stars, the lantern-light passes by his windows over and over, as if Diluc is circling the house. Kaeya thinks of those burning eyes and can't convince himself to dare that watch.
It's hours before he manages to sleep. The windows are too open, the stars of a false sky peering in. He misses the comfort of his father curled around him and his mother, always grieving the latest lost child, singing them a mournful song. He rises and eats his remaining food first, hating the thought of it wasted, then drags the blankets off the bed and curls up under it. With the solid weight of it looming above, he's finally able to drift off.
At first light he comes awake, still unused to such brightness in the sky. He does his best to arrange the blankets back in place. Adelinde enters as he's tucking the last corners in.
"Good morning, Master Kaeya. Are you ready for breakfast?"
At Kaeya's nod, she takes his hand again, leading him down the stairs. Not to the kitchen again, unfortunately, but to a table in the center of the building's grand entrance hall, with no walls close enough to get his back to. At least she puts him at a corner near the cellar door, where he has windowless wall at his back and can watch the door to outside.
The other walls all have so many windows, and through them the sun shines pitiless and bright.
Diluc is here too, just across the table from him, already eating. He looks tired, bags under his eyes and his skin sallow. That doesn't keep him from fixing Kaeya with a piercing gaze as he sits down.
"Did you sleep well?"
Kaeya nods and drops his eye. There are platters on the table, piled high with meats and eggs and various breads and pastries, but he's not quite sure what he's allowed to take. He eyes the food, uncertain.
"Here," Diluc says, leaning forward and starting to scoop food onto his plate. "Take as much as you want. There's no point in letting it go to waste."
Adelinde smiles behind her hand. "He really has changed since he was a child, hasn't he? And you haven't at all, Master Diluc." He gives her a dour look, and she giggles and adds, "Not in this respect."
Diluc only grunts, sets a last fried egg on top of the pile, and sits back to watch Kaeya eat.
He makes sure to go slowly this time, too, one bite at a time, despite the delicious flavors and the instincts telling him to eat as much as he can before they're discovered and have to flee. It's happened all too often, in the tunnels that were once Khaenri'ah. Hilichurls need to eat too. Here, he reminds himself, he's benefiting from the bloodthirstiness of the Ordo Favonius--as long as he continues to make them believe he deserves it.
The whole time, Diluc is watching him. Kaeya resists the urge to squirm under his gaze. Their Kaeya probably likes Diluc, to go by Adelinde's comments. He should pretend to do so as well. When he finally finishes the pile, almost uncomfortably full, he deliberately makes himself look up and smile at the man.
Diluc stands up like his seat has burned him. "I have to inspect the southern slope today," he tells Adelinde. "Can you make sure Kaeya is entertained?"
"Of course. Though he might want to go with you."
"The southern slope is close to Dragonspine, and there are Fatui camps up there again."
That seems to suffice as a refusal to Adelinde, who bows her head to him as he starts towards the door and then turns, smiling, to Kaeya.
"What would you like to do today, Master Kaeya? The weather is going to be quite good."
Kaeya freezes. What is there to do here? Their Kaeya would know.
At the door, Diluc glances over his shoulder. "Let him help Tunner harvest the western slope. He used to enjoy following him around with the basket."
Quickly, Kaeya nods in agreement, trying to look eager.
It must work, because Adelinde nods in return and holds out her hand for him. "Come along, Master Kaeya. Tunner is a little slower now than you'll remember him being, but he'll be very happy to have your help again after all these years."
Tunner is the oldest human Kaeya has ever met.
He smiles at Kaeya, though he's squinting like he has a hard time making anything out. His back is stooped like a lawachurl's, though he doesn't look half as strong, and he walks with a faltering gait. Back home he would long since have been killed by a monster. If he hadn't already changed into one himself.
This is the bargain they make on the surface: Celestia's chains and ever-watching eyes, in exchange for a life lived past the point of usefulness and strength.
"By the thousand winds, the girls weren't pulling my leg! And here I was hoping they were playing a trick, and I could offload the picking on you. You're far too short for that now, though." He chuckles and reaches down to ruffle Kaeya's hair, and Kaeya finds himself reminded of his grandfather.
Who had died at his father's hands when the dark armor enveloped him and he mistook Kaeya for an enemy. All the same, it's impossible to be frightened of Tunner.
Dutifully taking up the basket he's handed, Kaeya follows the old man out into the vines. It's hot in the sun, but he quickly finds that he can duck under the trellises to get some shade and cut off the far-too-open sky. On a day this clear, with no stars to remind him of its falseness, it feels like an infinitely deep well overhead that he could slip from the earth and fall into.
As they work, Tunner talks about the grapes, their varieties and their life cycle, how to tell when they're ripe, the best methods of harvest. "I know you know all of this now," he says, apologetically, "but when I have youngsters with me, I can't help it. You know that, too! And as you are, you might not know everything I've taught you since... ah, this is confusing. Please don't mind me."
"I don't," Kaeya says cautiously, trying his best to imitate the Mond accent. He must do well enough to pass Tunner's muster, because he gets a fond chuckle and another pat on the head in answer, though it may just be that the old man's ears are as bad as his eyes.
The rambling is reassuring, in its own way; Kaeya doesn't have to talk when he can simply widen his eye and listen. He's unexpectedly fascinated. Deep in Khaenri'ah's ruins, only mushrooms can be cultivated, and his parents have only been able to tell him tales of the world above. Even his mother, who had once dwelled there, lived in the desert and never planted or harvested. Tunner's talk of soil and weeding and trellis maintenance is a window onto a completely different world.
Not one that Kaeya belongs to, though. It's their Kaeya who will benefit from this land and this knowledge. He's simply an interloper. Still, learning what he can will help his cover, so it's all right to be interested.
By the time the sun is directly overhead, they've finished the slope. The cart at the top is stacked with baskets, each piled high with grapes, and Kaeya is sweating and tired from running back and forth. Tunner seems pleased with him, though, so the effort was worthwhile.
"I remember when you and Master Diluc used to race each other to fill the cart," he says fondly, hand back on Kaeya’s head. "He was stronger, but tried more foolish things. How your father shouted that time when he tried to carry three at once and crushed two of them.... You were slower but steadier. I always preferred having your help," he adds with a wink. "And you just showed why. I knew you would have been faster if you hadn't been trying to let him win."
Kaeya isn't sure why he's startled by that. Their Kaeya isn't him, after all, and would have grown up in this fat land, where they can pile plates high and still have food left over. If he was a 'Master,' like Diluc, he wouldn't have had to prove himself worth feeding. Clearly Tunner, at least, doesn't think of it as a problem.
Perhaps that's why their Kaeya is a knight, and Diluc has the authority at the Winery. The member of the family who worked hardest in the fields would have earned mastery there, and their Kaeya... might have wanted to be a Knight of Favonius more. Distasteful as it is to Kaeya, he can recognize the cunning in throwing such contests.
As Tunner leads him back up towards the great house atop the hill, Kaeya thinks of Diluc's eyes, last night, burning in the dark. For all his parents' efforts, he's never had more living kin than the two of them and, before he transformed, his grandfather. But he's heard that family can be as cruel to each other as they can be kind. Maybe their Kaeya had other reasons to throw any such contests, too.
All the reassurance he'd felt in Tunner's presence fades at the sight of new strangers in the courtyard. Adelinde is setting food out on a table, and two men in fine clothing are already sitting there, one grey-haired and one brown-haired with a mustache. Both of them turn and smile as they approach.
"Hello, Master Kaeya," the mustached man says, elbowing the other. "Have we gotten that new Kamera in for the product photos yet? I'm sure it could use a test run."
"We would need Master Diluc's permission first. And Master Kaeya's, too, or we won't get Master Diluc's."
"Haha, that's true. Tunner, how's the harvest going?"
"Finished, for now. The western slope will need another sweep later in the week, but Master Kaeya and I have already gathered everything worth picking today."
"And the northern slope needs another week, while Master Diluc will be telling us when we can harvest the southern slope," the mustached man says. He and the grey-haired man exchange significant looks that Kaeya doesn't understand at all.
Then the grey-haired man smiles down at Kaeya, gesturing to a chair. "Will you join us for lunch? It's me, Elzer--I know I'm dressed up much fancier than you're used to."
Kaeya nods and climbs into the chair beside Elzer, doing his best to look like he's reassured by being told this is someone he knows. The table is right out in the open, fully exposed, with the yawning sky above them and nothing nearby he could easily duck behind except the grill Adelinde is working at.
"I don't have anything else Master Kaeya can help with," Tunner says. "I'll leave him to you, gentlemen, Adelinde."
With a bobbling bow towards the table, he takes his leave. Kaeya's chest goes tight at the sight of his departing back.
"Here you go, Master Kaeya," Adeline says, setting a plate in front of him. "I hope you haven't spoiled your appetite with all those grapes."
"I seem to recall Master Kaeya's appetite was- is impossible to spoil, at this age," the man named Elzer says, and the mustached man chuckles.
"Speaking of unspoilable appetites, I'm still trying to figure out how Diona made that special cocktail taste so good. It wasn't the Springvale calla lilies, so ours should work just as well, and she used lizard tails from our own stock, caught right by the lake. I'm wondering if the trick is that they have to be perfectly fresh. I wouldn't trouble Master Kaeya with this under other circumstances, but since he is free, and Master Diluc wanted us to entertain him, I thought he might like to come along."
The man turns and looks at Kaeya, who tries not to finch under the weight of expectation in his eyes.
"Master Diluc said to entertain him, not to exploit him," Elzer says, and turns towards Kaeya too. "I have some work that needs to be done in the Winery office. If you'd like to sit inside this afternoon, you're welcome to come along and read whatever you like off the shelves while I work."
For all that Kaeya would, very badly, like to be out from under this bright sky, terror rolls over him at the kindly offer. He's only just grasped Dahri script; he can't read Mond. Even if he manages to pick out a book that their Kaeya would like, the moment Elzer asks him a single question about what he's reading, he'll be found out.
Swallowing, he steadies his voice and fights again for a Mond accent and says, "I can catch lizards."
He can. It's a useful similarity, right now, between him and their Kaeya. He's grateful for that.
"Then let's finish up lunch. I'm sure Adelinde can find you a hat and boots suitable for the lakeside."
"Of course," Adelinde says. "Don't rush him, Connor. Let him take his time enjoying his lunch."
At least now Kaeya knows the name of the man he's going to be traipsing off under the clear blue sky with. Ducking his head, he applies himself fiercely to his meal. All his apprehensions can't keep him from, indeed, enjoying it.
Less than an hour later he's wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a pair of waxed leather boots. Both are a little too big for him and have a faint musty smell.
It's easy to disregard. All of Kaeya's attention is on the lake stretching out in front of them, glittering in the sun. He can't say he's never seen such an extent of water, but the still silence of drowned caves and the deadly rush of underwater rivers are nothing like this gently lapping expanse of sunlit waves.
"I'll gather calla lilies while you catch those lizards," Connor tells him. "I brought along all the equipment I need to replicate that drink. Once we're done, I'll start right here and now. There's no reason you can't play in the water while I work."
Kaeya isn't sure he wants to play in this water, with its too-bright glare and the wind pushing it every which way, but he nods. It's clearly what Connor thinks their Kaeya would want to do.
Once he's far enough away from where Connor is splashing through the shallows, it's easy to find the lizards. Simply look for the crevices they hide in, then creep up slow and silent, from an angle they can't see. The trick is to grab the body, not the tail, and dash their head on a stone before they can wriggle away.
Five lizards in, Kaeya gets overconfident. This one is out in the open, right on top of a rock in the glaring sun. He's certain he can slip up from the rock's blind side, but as he rises to reach for it, the lizard bolts. Frustrated, Kaeya gives chase. It scrambles into the water, then flails as it gets too deep. Kaeya snatches it up and, without a nearby rock, twists it spine with both hands until he feels bones crunch and the tiny body go limp.
"Master Kaeya!"
When he turns, Connor is staring at him in horror. He freezes. Did he do it wrong? That method will have damaged the internals; maybe Connor wanted it intact. Or maybe their Kaeya would have done it differently from the start.
"Master Kaeya, look out!"
There's a burst of cold and a malicious cackle at Kaeya's back. Connor rushes towards him, but as he steps into the water, a burst of ice freezes him in his tracks. Kaeya already knows what he'll see as he turns around.
Abyss Mages are capricious, at best. They're as much nobility as he is, but the change they voluntarily undertake does something to their minds; his father has warned him time and time again that they can be allies, but never friends. His parents have to fight them at times when they prove foes. This one's chill energy is familiar: the same aura that had been around him when he'd woken at that Favonian Knight's feet.
"Well, well," it says, cackling. "A little Alberich, hunting for his Celestian masters like a rifthound for a mage."
Kaeya draws himself up as best as he can. The cold radiating off the Mage's shield has frozen a sheet of ice beneath them and is seeping through his clothes, chilling his feet and starting to freeze his wet sleeves to his wrist. The dead lizard is stiff in his hand.
"An Alberich's first duty is to survive, for the dead cannot serve their people," he says. The words sound emptier coming from him than they do from his father, but he tries his best to channel his father's authoritative air. "To rise again from the embers, a spark must remain. I have to play a role in this land to survive."
"Heehee! So you do remember what you are, pushed back far enough. Yes, yes, I can work with this. Come with me, little Alberich, and we'll begin again. This time, you'll burn properly, instead of sputtering so disappointingly out."
That kind of half-sensical ranting is typical of an Abyss Mage. Kaeya hesitates, unsure what to make of it. There will be a core of truth there--they can't truly lie--but it may be twisted. And he hasn't mentioned something very important.
"I want you to take me back to my father."
The Abyss Mage cackles wildly. "I will, don't you worry! Indeed I will, little Alberich. I'd love nothing more than to see the two of you reunited."
Kaeya knows he should search that for a catch. This Mage may be one that hates his father, and this only another part of its plot. But that answer seems so straightforward. And he can't resist the hope that flares in him at the thought of being back with his father. In his arms, at his mother's side.... He takes a step towards the Mage.
Behind them, ice shatters, and Connor shouts again, frantic and loud. "Master Kaeya!"
There's movement in the corner of Kaeya’s eye--not behind him, but up and off to the left, where a bluff leans over the lake. A figure in black leaping from it in what should be a suicidal jump, except that wings flare behind him and he swoops like a bat. Fire wreathes Diluc's claymore as he comes crashing down upon the Mage.
Scalding slush splashes every which way, the Melt splattering all three of them. Reeling back, Kaeya bites the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out in pain. The Mage, shield half-melted, squeals in fury and blinks away, reappearing a safe distance from Diluc and pointing a finger his way. A sharp-edged chunk of ice appears overhead and plummets.
Diluc dodges sideways. Not out from under the ice, away from Kaeya, but towards him. He drops his claymore, catches Kaeya up, and rolls through the water to get them both clear as the icicle hits and the water they'd been standing in freezes over. Coming smoothly to his feet, he snatches the hilt of the claymore from beneath the edge of the ice and holds it one-handed. He keeps Kaeya, still spluttering from the unexpected dousing, held tight in the crook of his other arm.
"You dare to pursue him to the Dawn Winery itself?" His voice is a rift-wolf's snarl, and there's flame again gathering along his blade. "That mistake will be your undoing."
With an almost casual flick of his wrist, he tosses that gathering flame. It takes shape as it leaves the sword behind, a huge flaming bird rushing down upon the Abyss Mage. However lightly launched, it's enough to finish off the shield and sorely wound the Mage behind it. Who has made that calculation as well; Cryo energy rushes in towards it, tinged with the nigh-imperceptible edge of Abyssal magic that means this is a full departure, not a short blink.
"Wait!" Kaeya shrieks, forgetting all caution as hope turns to horror. "Don't leave me here!"
He tries to wrest himself loose from Diluc and finds the grip on him too implacable to fight. A blink of his own is beyond him as yet without his father nearby to bolster him. Maybe the Mage could, if it was a little closer, if Kaeya could reach out--but it's too far, and he can't quite reach, and then, as the fire screams through the space where it had been, it's gone.
"Master Kaeya!" Connor rushes up to them. "Master Diluc! I am so sorry. I never thought such a monster would show up here, or I would never have brought Master Kaeya with me."
"It's not your fault. Master Jean warned me that it had already tried the Ordo's defenses to get at him. I should have passed that warning along."
Diluc readjusts his grip on Kaeya to hoist him up by the waist and start carrying him back to the shore. His strength exhausted, Kaeya doesn't try to escape again. He simply hangs over Diluc's arm, feeling a certain kinship with the lizard thawing back into limpness in his hand.
"Is Master Kaeya all right? He was shouting like he was in pain."
"Splashback from that first Melt." Diluc isn't snarling anymore, but there's still an edge to his voice. "If I'd gotten here faster.... It doesn't matter. Adelinde can patch him up. Leave your equipment. I'll come back and get it later, once I'm sure the Winery is secure."
"Yes, of course."
As they head away from the shore, Diluc adjusts his grip on Kaeya again, tucking him up against his side. He doesn't, however, sheathe his claymore. Kaeya can guess why. Connor might have mistaken it for a cry of pain, but Diluc had glanced down at him when he shouted with a look of far too much comprehension. He knows, at the very least, that Kaeya speaks the Mage's language.
Which means he knows, at the very least, that Kaeya isn't his Kaeya.
By the time they reach the manor, the chill numbness left by the Mage's Cryo has worn off. Kaeya can feel the scald of the Melt on his skin, worse under his sleeve where the fabric was soaked with hot slush. It's only made more painful by being pressed right up against the heat radiating off Diluc. He bites his cheek and blinks back shameful tears and bears it as an Alberich should.
An Alberich should also escape when in the grip of an enemy. He should have tried to run last night, and this is his punishment. Kaeya holds himself ready, waiting for Diluc to set him down, or even just drop his guard enough for Kaeya to wriggle loose.
That grip doesn't falter until they reach the front of the manor. Two girls out there exclaim loudly at the sight of them, and while Diluc only tells them curtly to fetch Adelinde, their noise catches more attention. Kaeya continues to hang deliberately limp over Diluc's arm as the man fields frantic, worried questions, feeling the muscles slacken ever so slightly in his distraction. Then Adelinde comes out the front door, and Diluc's whole body relaxes.
Kaeya kicks off his hip, flails briefly, and is free. He hits the ground hands-first, scrambles to his feet, and flings the dead lizard at Diluc before bolting at top speed for the woods. If he can lose them and hide, the Abyss Mage might, just might, come back and take him to his father.
Diluc snarls a bit of Mond that Kaeya doesn't know; from the noise and commotion, he's being tripped up by his own people. Kaeya scrambles over the stone wall at the edge of the courtyard and aims for the vines beyond. If he can stay under their cover until he reaches the woods-
Coming up from his blind side, Tunner lunges at him before Kaeya entirely knows he's there. The old man may be stooped and unsteady, but he's far faster, in this moment, than Kaeya expects from his age. Stronger, too. Kaeya fights furiously, but he can't squirm loose in time. Seconds later Diluc is there, grip implacable once again as he sweeps Kaeya up off his feet.
This time he gives Kaeya no leeway, pinning him to his own body with encircled arms. Kaeya can't get the leverage to kick or punch; with his face pressed into the front of his coat, he can't even bite through the fabric to get flesh. Diluc carries him back up to and into the manor as if he can't feel Kaeya struggling at all.
"What happened?" one of the girls asks.
"An Abyss Mage."
"Master Kaeya must still be frightened," Adelinde says, much less curt than Diluc's bitten-off answer. Her voice is still firm as she carries on with, "And then everyone crowded him. It's no wonder he was overwhelmed. Everyone, clear out. Hillie, Moco, that means you too."
In moments the grand front room is nearly empty. Diluc sets Kaeya down at last in a chair. He doesn't let go, though, one hand heavy on Kaeya’s uninjured shoulder.
"The Mage nearly had him before I got there. He was injured when I attacked."
His voice is still flat and curt and tight, and Kaeya doesn't dare look up at him. He looks at Adelinde instead, meeting her eyes and trying not to show how he's shaking. She so clearly cares for their Kaeya; once Diluc tells her he's an imposter, he can't expect any mercy from her.
Adelinde gives Diluc a look Kaeya doesn't understand, pitying but kind, then opens up a box on the table and starts to remove jars and tools.
"Where are you hurt, Master Kaeya? I see some blisters on your cheek, but that can't be all."
If Diluc isn't going to tell her the truth yet, Kaeya would be an idiot not to take advantage of her care. Besides, the scalds really, really hurt. He takes off his jacket--Diluc finally lets go to let him do it, though he hovers too close for Kaeya to imagine bolting--and rolls up his sleeve so that she can see the blisters all down his arm. Diluc starts to step in as they're bared, then back again, tense as a caged mitachurl bracing to charge on release.
"It's not that terrible," Adelinde says, dabbing at the blisters with a wet cloth that stings on contact and following immediately after with a thick layer of soothing cream. "I've seen much worse. It should heal quickly, and without any scars. Though it wouldn't hurt to ask Master Jean or Sister Barbara to help it along."
"I'll have to ask Jean to come out here regardless. And bring Lisa with her. That Mage's appearance should answer several questions Lisa said she had about this situation."
His voice is low and grim, and Kaeya holds very still and tries not to scrunch down in his chair at the sound of it. He feels sick. That's why Diluc hadn't told Adelinde yet, and had wanted her to tend to Kaeya: he's calling in the Knights. He wants his prisoner in shape to be interrogated, and the questioning unfouled by whatever she might give away.
"Why don't you write them a letter while I take Kaeya down to the kitchens for some medicinal tea? I may have some cake down there, too." She winks at Kaeya.
"Fine."
When Kaeya stands, he can't avoid glancing over at Diluc. He's frowning at Kaeya, those piercing eyes hooded, brow furrowed as if he's thinking over a problem. Kaeya quickly looks away. Even as Adelinde leads him down towards the kitchen, though, he can feel the weight of Diluc's gaze upon his back.
Now that Kaeya has roused Diluc's suspicions, everything that had been comforting about the little kitchen instead makes it feel like a cage. Buried, windowless, with only one exit--it had been stupid of him to take comfort in that in the first place, without his father here to guard the door for him. His parents told him so many times not to hole up alone in any place he can't escape.
The only guard on this door is Adelinde, and her position will shift as soon as she learns that he's taken her Kaeya's place.
"Are you sure you aren't hungry, Master Kaeya?" she asks for a third time, looking at his untouched cake.
Kaeya knows he should play into the facade as long as it gives him any advantage, but for the third time, he shakes his head. He can't stomach the thought of eating right now. He can barely force down the tea, managing only because it does seem to be dulling what remaining pain the salve hadn't touched. That it's bitter tea helps, oddly enough.
She smiles gently at him. "All right. You don't have to eat. You should finish that tea, though."
Before she can pour him another cup, there's a thud from the stairs down the hall, and a voice Kaeya thinks might be Elzer's calls, "Adelinde? Master Diluc has some questions I'm afraid I can't answer for him."
Adelinde starts to move, then pauses and looks back at him. "Would you be all right if I left you alone for a few minutes? I think it would be best if you stayed down here."
Kaeya nods, trying not to let any anticipation show on his face. It must work, because Adelinde's smile is relieved.
He waits for the door at the top of the stairs to close behind her before he climbs down from his chair and creeps from the kitchen. The hall leads two ways, and he sets off in the opposite direction.
He's hoping for a door to the outdoors. The stairs he eventually finds, after passing pantries and storerooms and far too many rooms filled with racks of wine, only go up to another section of the house. But it's a darker, quieter section than the parts he's been in so far, so there's every chance he can escape unnoticed through an unguarded window.
If he can find a room that isn't locked. Most of them are. Kaeya goes along, creeping quietly, trying them one by one. Then, rounding a corner, he sees light beneath the next doorframe, hears Diluc's voice coming behind it, and freezes.
"You mean we don't actually know his age?"
Adelinde answers him. "Ten was only a compromise. He did keep insisting he was your age, but the sisters wouldn't have let the Seneschal record him as twelve, so ten fell right between his claim and their best guess."
"I can't blame them. I'd forgotten how small he was." Those are Elzer's mild tones. "He didn't seem as young when I was younger myself, but now I can see why my mother put so much work into feeding him."
"He grew fast enough after a few years of her cooking," Diluc says, and his tone is almost a grumble. It settles back into the curt, tight tone as he goes on. "But you do agree. The Mage must have aimed for before the Sumeru incident."
"That makes the most sense to me," Elzer says. "It explains everything we've seen."
There's a murmur of agreement from Adelinde, then a long pause. Kaeya's heart pounds so hard in his chest that he half-expects them to hear it. He can't risk moving while they're so quiet. Questions swirl through him, jangling against growing panic. Sumeru is the only place where a door out of Khaenri'ah still opens. Has something happened? Did the Mage snatch him away from his father just before some disaster? Is that what it meant by 'sputtering out'?
Does Diluc know he's not just an imposter, but from Khaenri'ah? From the land the gods condemned, object of the Ordo Favonius' cruel crusade? Mondstadt's bitterest enemy?
"And now I've injured him, and frightened him badly enough that he tried to run away. Jean certainly won't be impressed."
"I'm sure you can apologize."
"And tell him I won't do it again? That would be a lie."
Diluc's voice has gone harsh with anger, the same snarl that he'd aimed at the Abyss Mage right before he'd pelted it with fire. A chill runs down Kaeya's spine. He takes one step back, then another, retreating around the corner. He bolts under the cover of Adelinde protesting, "Master Diluc-"
One turn, then another, and a choice between an upward stair or back the way he came. Kaeya chooses up; maybe he can find a window to climb down from. He scrambles up it, rounds a corner, and finds himself overlooking the grand front room just as Diluc and Adelinde come walking out from a side-door below. Diluc looks up before he can retreat.
"Oh, Master Kaeya!" Adelinde looks up too. "Did you finish your tea?"
Defeat rolls over Kaeya like a wave, and he slumps in its grip. He wants to cry. Diluc is watching him too closely for him to dare run again, and even if he does, they'll know this house far better than he. Another opportunity lost, and he's no closer to making an escape.
Maybe there's no escape to be made.
Despite what Diluc must have told her, Adelinde is still carrying on with the masquerade. Diluc must have ordered her to keep playing along. He'll want Kaeya's guard down when the Knights arrive.
She makes a few more encouraging noises about the cake, then sets it aside and promises him the cooks will make lighter fare for dinner. Next she sweeps Kaeya off to a storage room to find him clean clothes that will lay lighter on the bandaged scalds. Somewhere in there Diluc peels silently off and leaves Kaeya to her well-feigned kindness.
When they emerge from the cellar, Adelinde still insistently holding his hand, Jean is there with another at her side. Kaeya recognizes the woman in purple from the terrifying three-quarters of a day he'd spent in the Ordo's headquarters, at the very heart of Favonian power. Lisa had done a number of strange and bewildering things in the name of studying the magic the Mage had used upon him. None had hurt, but he'd spent the whole time petrified that the mage-knight's arts would tell her that he wasn't who she thought he was.
Maybe now that she knows, she'll be able to switch them back. They'll want their friend back, won't they? That hope is soured by the certainty that they'll still want to question him first. Switching them back might not even require that he be alive.
"Kaeya!" Jean exclaims, dropping the quiet discussion she'd been having with Diluc and Lisa to start his way. "Diluc says you were injured when the Abyss Mage approached you. I may be able to heal that."
Adelinde's grip on his hand keeps him from pulling away. She tucks up the sleeve of his new shirt so that all the blisters are exposed, then catches his shoulders to keep him from backing away as the knight kneels down and reaches for his scalded arm.
He stiffens, glancing about for an escape route, but the windows are all closed and Diluc and the Lisa are blocking the path to the door. The moment Jean takes his wrist, he knows it would be useless; her grip isn't as implacable as Diluc's, as she manipulates his arm with surprising gentleness, but he can tell that it could become so in a split second if he tries to run.
Her Vision lights up, and Kaeya, trapped, turns his face away as Celestian magic is worked upon his flesh.
It does soothe the scalds, at least. When Jean releases him again, the only sign of the injury is a faint shine to the new skin left behind. Adelinde quickly tugs his shirt back into place, and Jean smiles at him before she stands.
"Lisa has a few questions for you," she tells him, stepping back. "If you can answer them, she may be able to fix this."
So Lisa is his interrogator. Kaeya looks up at her and swallows.
"Come over here, sweetie," she says, taking a seat at the far end of the table and patting the corner chair next to her. "Adelinde had some delicious tea brought up. I don't know if it's to your taste at this age, but there are also these little cookies to go with it. I couldn't possibly eat all of them myself."
Hesitantly, with Diluc and Jean watching him like they're just waiting for an excuse to break the friendly act, Kaeya sits down. Lisa nudges the plate of cookies a little closer to him. He folds his hands in his lap.
"How far away from the manor were you when that Abyss Mage showed up, sweetie?" she asks.
A soft question. Kaeya is bewildered by how gently they're approaching this. He hesitates, as confused by how to answer the question as he is by its tone.
"I wasn't counting," he says at last.
"They were at the shore just before the bluffs below Dragonspine," Diluc says.
"Thank you, cutie. Now, Kaeya, had you seen the mage before at any point? Even just a glimpse in the woods?"
That seems safe to answer. He shakes his head.
"Did you have any warning before you saw it? An odd feeling, like dizziness or a chill?"
At that one, Kaeya hesitates. That's something his father can do: sense Abyssal creatures and influences nearby. He's teaching Kaeya, but only slowly. Kaeya could barely tell that the Mage was calling on the Abyss at all when it escaped, and he was looking. Is there something she's trying to get him to admit?
"Connor warned me," he says at last. It's true, after all.
"But no odd feelings?"
He shakes his head.
"Okay, sweetie. According to Master Diluc, Connor says the Abyss Mage spoke to you. What did it say?"
"Nothing," he says, and can see from the way she purses her lips that she doesn't believe him. Of course not, when Diluc had heard him speaking the same tongue in return. "Nothing important. It- it made fun of me for catching lizards."
"That's all?"
He nods, shrinking miserably in the chair. Any moment now they'll decide the gentle approach has failed, and then.... He's heard his parents whisper about how the Abyss Order questions its more recalcitrant enemies. The Ordo Favonius will certainly do worse.
"Then what did you say to it?"
"Nothing," Kaeya says again, shoulders hunching. He can see the frown on Lisa's face. Her Vision is glowing faintly as she reaches out towards him, and he blurts out, frantically, "I'm not working with it! I don't know anything! I wasn't part of its plan!"
He cuts himself off there as Jean exclaims, in what sounds like genuine dismay, "Of course you aren't! Why would we think you were?"
"It would be ridiculous," Diluc says, his voice tight and strange. "Jean, this isn't useful. Connor and I can answer any other questions Lisa has. If you have more questions for Kaeya, they should go through me."
"Mr. Connor did offer to take us to the site." Lisa stands from her chair. "I was hoping to avoid the walk, but I think I will have to take a look myself."
"I'll come along," Jean says. She hesitates a moment, looking at Kaeya with such wide-eyed worry that it's almost believable, even with the Favonius crest emblazoned on her armor. Then she looks up at Diluc. "I am sorry for any fright we caused."
"It's been an upsetting day," Diluc tells her. "He needs time to calm down."
She nods and heads out the door.
As the knights leave, Diluc steps up and puts his hand on the back of the chair, looming close and trapping Kaeya under his too-sharp gaze. "Are you all right?"
Kaeya's head is spinning. The strangely gentle questioning, the pretenses they're all making of kindness and shock--he doesn't know what kind of trick they're playing, and it's all the more frightening for that. He especially can't understand why Diluc, having called the Knights out here, would so quickly shut down their questioning the moment it approached their true concerns. He looks up at Diluc and wants to cry.
He should nod, or shake his head, whichever one seems more likely to smooth things over a little longer until he can get another change to escape. Instead he wraps his arms around himself and blinks back tears and hears himself say, "If you're going to punish me, then do it. Don't pretend that you care."
Diluc's narrowed eyes widen, just slowly enough that under other circumstances it would have been funny, as he untangles the Mond from the accent that, this time, Kaeya hadn't bothered to smooth out. Then his expression crumples the way Kaeya's wants to. He takes a step back, his hand falling to his side.
"Adelinde, please clean up Miss Minci's tea," he says, flat and dull, and a moment later he and Kaeya are alone in the room.
Kaeya dares glance back once at the door to the cellar, but Adelinde had closed it behind her. The front door is closed too, and Diluc is still too close to risk trying to run.
"Kaeya," Diluc says, and, unexpectedly, kneels down on one knee, just as the knight had. "I know it's difficult to trust me. But I have no desire to punish you for anything."
His face is all twisted up. He takes a deep breath like he's going to say more, then stops and stares with those fierce, burning eyes.
Maybe this is a trick, too. Maybe all of this has been a plot to get him to confess. If it is, though, he doesn't see the point. They could force it out of him just as easily. Which means Diluc has some other motive in mind.
"Why are you protecting me?" he asks. "What do you want?"
"I want you to be safe. That's all."
Kaeya blinks back tears of pure frustration. "Why?"
"Because I care about you." Kaeya's disbelief must show on his face, because Diluc's expression twists up even more. "Kaeya, I... made some bad decisions, some time ago, that damaged my memory. I don't recall well what must be recent for you, but I do know I wasn't best pleased at first to share Father. Is this difficult to believe because you remember me as unkind, or," his throat works, "do you have another reason?"
"I don't even know you!" Frustration and anger come spilling out, overriding all caution. Kaeya would rather they torture him than keep treating him like an ignorant child, easily tricked by fake kindness and false blessings. "I'm not your Kaeya! Stop pretending."
"No one here is pretending. I know you don't recall being here long, but for the people of the Dawn Winery-"
"I've never been here before. I've never met anyone here before. I don't know you." Kaeya's eye is burning; he can feel a shameful dampness on his eyelashes. "I'm not stupid. If you want something, tell me. But don't make me keep acting like I'm your Kaeya when I'm not."
He hears his voice crack and hates it. Diluc is staring at him in utter bewilderment, the twisted expression replaced with blank shock. Kaeya scrubs hard at his eye. Bad enough to cry at all; worse yet to cry in front of an enemy.
"You're right," Diluc says after a moment. "You're not our Kaeya. He would never be so straightforward."
There's something odd in his tone, but the shock is fading from his expression. Kaeya dares to push just a little bit further.
"If you want your Kaeya back, you can let me go and tell the Knights I escaped. I'll find the Mage again. It already told me it would take me back. I'll make it switch us. You'll get him back, and I'll-" Kaeya's voice catches again and he swallows. "I'll be back with my father."
"Your father-" Diluc starts to say, his voice odd and rough.Then he cuts himself off, shakes his head, and rises to his feet. "Never mind. We can work that out once Jean and Lisa return. If it's still about, they may find traces."
"What if they don't?"
"Then we'll find it ourselves. No matter what happens, I'll make sure you're home when this is finished," Diluc says quietly, and Kaeya almost wants to trust him.
The wait feels interminable. Adelinde brings up the cake he hadn't been able to eat before, but Kaeya still has no stomach for it. Diluc keeps rising to pace before catching himself and returning to the table.
Eventually Elzer, crossing through to a desk in one corner, takes notice.
"Are you certain you don't want something to read, Master Kaeya? We still have The Fall of the Faded Castle. Or the guide to Sumeru that you used to borrow... if that's all right with Master Diluc."
Kaeya freezes. He doesn't want to play at being their Kaeya any longer, but even if Diluc is willing to bargain, he doesn't know how his servants will react to the truth. If they tell the knights behind his back-
"That's fine," Diluc says. "We could both use a distraction. Get me last month's accounts while you're in there."
He doesn't realize. If Kaeya doesn't confess now, he might still give himself away to Elzer, who had offered him a dark quiet room, or Adelinde, who's quietly clearing away the cake and replacing it with something unnervingly slimy. Better to tell the truth where Diluc is here to enforce their agreement. He swallows hard.
"Thank you. I can't read Mond, though."
Elzer looks startled. "But-"
"You speak it," Diluc interrupts him, frowning.
"My father only taught me Mond because...." Kaeya glances at Elzer, then ducks his head. "If the Knight of Favonius came back, they'll know I'm human. I don't need to read it for that."
He hears a hiss from behind him, where Adelinde stands. When he dares a glance up, Diluc is frowning harder.
"That's the only reason?"
"Yes," Kaeya tells him, confused. "What other reason would he have?"
"A good question," Diluc says. When Kaeya looks up, his expression is odd and unreadable. It's a relief when he looks away, directly at Elzer, and says, "Everyone here knows full well that you're human. You don't need to fear the Knights."
"Even if you weren't, we wouldn't tell them," Adelinde adds, close enough that when she puts her hand on his shoulder he has enough warning not to jump.
She squeezes gently, and Elzer, now smiling faintly, meets his eye and nods. Kaeya feels a wave of relief so strong it nearly makes him dizzy.
"Now, mint jelly is soothing for the stomach, so see if you can get it down. You too, Master Diluc. I know you missed lunch."
Kaeya still doesn't think he can, but despite its resemblance to slime concentrate, the jelly is delicious. He's finishing off a second bowl when Conner comes through the door.
"Master Jean and the Librarian spotted the Mage's tracks and are going after it," he tells Diluc."They told me to come back and let you know."
Kaeya drops his spoon. It clatters too loudly in his empty bowl, drawing all the adults' attention. He looks frantically up at Diluc. "What if they kill it?" Dead, it can never undo what it's done.
"Then we'll find another solution." Diluc must see how little comfort that is, because he goes on, "But we'll go after them, and see if we can discuss the matter first."
"Both of you?" Adelinde asks.
Diluc's face is set. Standing, he holds out a hand. "Kaeya wants to be involved. I swear I won't let him get hurt again."
Kaeya climbs out of his chair and takes his hand. Excitement and terror are tangled inside him, twisting up his stomach. He might be about to go home--as long as they catch up in time.
Even through his glove, Diluc's hand is unnaturally hot. Kaeya glances sideways as they walk out of the manor and start back down the path to the lakeshore. His Vision, that eye of Celestia, glows bright, pulsing red at his hip.
At any time, Kaeya could pull away and run. Or try to, at least. Diluc's grip is almost painfully tight, and he knows these woods well. If Kaeya runs and is caught again, Diluc won't trust him to keep their bargain. Which means he won't let him go with the Abyss Mage. He'll tell the knights the truth, and let them do whatever they think is best instead.
As they approach the lake, Kaeya hears the sound of distant battle. Diluc hears it too; he stops, pulling Kaeya to a halt, and listens intently.
"They aren't facing any Mages," he says aloud. "It must have rounded up some hilichurls from Dragonspine to serve as distractions for its plans. And they aren't the only ones." He lets go of Kaeya's hand to draw his claymore.
Kaeya scrambles instinctively sideways, away from the bared blade and the fire running down it. Hilichurls come rushing towards Diluc waving clubs and shields of ice, a single mitachurl bounding after. Not nearly the force the knights are facing--he can hear the hollow hooting of a lawachurl from the lakeside--and sorely wanting against Pyro. Kaeya winces at the thought of their fate before Diluc even makes his first swing. But they're enough for a brief distraction.
Enough for him to go scrambling for the underbrush, out of their sight and Diluc's alike. He might pity the hilichurls, but they'll attack him as gladly as they will Diluc. More importantly, he can see the gleam of a Cryo shield nearby.
"Here you are, little Alberich!" the Abyss Mage crows. "It's time to take you back where you belong."
Back to his father. Kaeya holds out his hand, and the Abyss Mage draws closer.
"Kaeya!"
When Kaeya looks over his shoulder, Diluc isn't charging furiously up on him as he'd half-expected. He's casting about as he fends off the mitachurl, and there's worry in his voice and in his eye.
"Heehee, don't worry about him! We'll let you come back and deal with his temerity in person, once we've restored you to your proper place. We'll let you deal with all Mondstadt."
All Mondstadt. The people here are his people's enemies. Yet-
Diluc fells the mitachurl and swings about, still not seeing them. Very possibly the Mage's doing. "Kaeya! It's safe now. You can come out."
"Switch us back," Kaeya tells the Mage. "You exchanged us in the first place, didn't you? Did you need me, or him, because we share a name? It's the only way it makes sense. I don't know if you needed him for the magic or if this was about my father, but you need to switch us back."
The Mage startles back just as its shield starts to melt away so it can take Kaeya's hand. It bobs up into the air again and bursts into cackling laughter.
"What you don't know about magic could fill a thousand tomes, little Alberich. Don't tell a Mage how to balance its spells! I'll take you and keep you, and these Celestians can wail about their loss all they like."
"Kaeya! Are you hurt?" Diluc is starting to sound frantic. Of course he is; he can't get his Kaeya back without Kaeya here to exchange. His worries shouldn't matter.
"Switch us back," Kaeya says again. He takes a step back and drops his hand. "I made him a deal, and I intend to keep it. Swear to me that you'll switch us back and return their Kaeya to them, or I won't go. My word as an Alberich is at stake."
The Mage bobs in silence for a beat, then another. When it speaks again there's no laughter in its voice at all. Only a deep, hissing malice.
"Even this far back, you're already a traitor. It seems I'll have to reunite you with your father even sooner than I promised."
It lifts its leyline branch high, and Kaeya barely dodges out of the way in time as a bolt of ice comes flying towards him. It passes so close to his ear that he can hear it humming in the air and crashes into the tree right behind where he'd stood.
The sound of the shattering ice breaks whatever baffle the Mage had placed over the two of them. Kaeya hears Diluc shout his name again and come crashing through the underbrush.
"What do you mean?" he shouts at the Mage, shock giving way to bewildered fear as he scrambles out of the way of another bolt of ice. "I'm an Alberich! I swear on Irmin's name, I'm not a traitor!"
"You think your name will protect you?" The Abyss Mage is laughing again, shriller and nastier than its giggling of before. "You've always been a lying little wretch- Ack!"
Before it can loose a third bolt, Diluc tries to come crashing down upon it with his blazing sword. It lets the spell go and blinks away. Landing awkwardly, Diluc scrambles to his feet and glances around for the Mage. It blinks back on Kaeya’s other side and raises its wand again.
This time the icicle comes from above. Kaeya ducks sideways. When it hits the ground and shatters, cold mist surges out of it, wrapping around Kaeya’s limbs and seeming to sink into his bones. He sees the Mage raise its wand again and knows another icicle is coming, but he can't coordinate his chilled limbs in time to dodge.
As the ice descends, Diluc hurls himself into the mist and pulls Kaeya close, deflecting the second icicle with his own body and then dragging him barely clear of the third. The only sound he makes as the first icicle hits his shoulder is a low, harsh "hah", but as they step free of the mist, he throws flame from his sword. For the second time today Kaeya sees the Mage rushed by the flaming bird.
This time, it doesn't teleport straight away to the Abyss. Instead it blinks clear of the bird just in time--almost too slow, reappearing with its shield half-melted--and sends a flurry of ice-bolts towards them. It's laughing that shrill nasty laugh.
Wind whips up, furious and fierce, blowing the bolts awry as Jean comes running up through the trees. Lightning lances down, and the Mage's half-melted shield is suddenly riddled with cracks. Diluc shoves Kaeya at Jean and sprints towards it, blade upraised and flaming.
One strike shatters the shield. It hits the ground flailing, laughter cut off in a high-pitched yelp. Diluc steps down hard on one of its stick-thin arms. Taking a captive, is Kaeya's first thought, but then he raises his burning sword high.
Jean puts a hand over Kaeya's eyes, as if he hasn't seen a similar fate befall his parents' foes. He hears Diluc snarl, "Let this be a warning to all your ilk to leave him be," and then a dull thud and brief crackle of flame.
When Jean lets go of him, Diluc is walking over, the last traces of oily black smoke curling into the air at his back. He drops to his knees in front of Kaeya, eyes fixed in all their terrifying focus on him and him alone.
"Are you all right?"
Kaeya nods, though he's not sure it's true. He still feels cold all over, and he can't stop shaking. Tears burn hot in his eye, and with excruciating shame he feels one slipping free to trail down his cheek.
"It called me a traitor," Kaeya tells Diluc, barely managing a whisper. "And a liar, and- I don't have the word in Mond. And I think my father...."
"You aren't a traitor," Diluc tells him, low and fierce. "You were the one betrayed. Stranding a child among people he believes enemies is nothing less. You cannot commit treason against those who have already abandoned you."
Another tear spills over. Before Kaeya can wipe his eye, Diluc is looming closer--no, folding in, arms wrapping around Kaeya, pulling him close in a hug. He's furnace-hot, the heat of him easing away the last of the misty chill. When Kaeya presses his face into Diluc's shoulder, the scent of smoke is almost overwhelming.
"I am your Kaeya, aren't I?" he whispers into Diluc's ear.
Diluc goes stiff, his arms iron bars across Kaeya's back, his chin digging into Kaeya's shoulder.
"If we were different people, you would have needed the Mage to switch us back. You had it caught, and you could have forced it to. But you killed it, because it attacked me."
Diluc's stiffness has turned into stillness--no longer pinning him in place, but waiting, listening, tense not with surprise but with anticipation.
"Earlier, you almost said something about my father. The Mage said some things too. Is he dead?"
"I don't know. He disappeared after he brought you to Mondstadt."
"Then he's dead." Kaeya's father would never abandon him. "Everyone thinks they know me because they do know me. They know the me after my father brought me here."
Diluc lets out a long breath. "I knew you would work it out eventually. But I wasn't going to convince you where Jean and Lisa hadn't. You had to convince yourself."
Kaeya still has so many questions, but he's not sure he wants Diluc's answers. Not knowing his father's fate is bad enough. Why his father brought him here, how he ended up a Knight of Favonius, what he is to these people--none of it matters anyway, he tells himself, and wriggles out of Diluc's grip.
"What happens now?" he asks, careful not to let his voice waver. "Without the Mage, you can't fix this."
"The Dawn Winery remains open to you," Diluc starts to say, rising to his feet.
"Excuse me, cuties," Lisa cuts in. "Don't forget about me. I got a good look at that Mage's spell-style before it sent its minions our way. Now that it's dead, unwinding its work should be simple."
"Good," Jean says, smiling with relief. "I knew we could count on you. Where would be the best place to do this?"
Kaeya feels oddly floaty as he follows the adults back to the courtyard of the manor. It's like he's slightly outside of himself, all in his head, disconnected from his body. He keeps thinking of all things he doesn't know about the future he's in, then trying hard to push them away again. They make his head hurt.
"Are you all right?" Diluc asks, when he gets distracted enough to trip. He catches Kaeya by the arm and steadies him before the knights, in front of them, can notice.
Kaeya nods. He's not going to ask. Diluc might not even know more than he does, at least about why Kaeya came here. He's already said that he doesn't know what happened to Kaeya's father. There's nothing else Kaeya wants to know.
Almost nothing. As the courtyard comes into sight, Adelinde waves. "Master Diluc! Master Kaeya! And Master Jean and Miss Minci, of course. Did you find anything useful?"
"Quite a bit," Lisa says, casting about the cobbled yard. "This space back here should work well. I do need a few materials, cutie, if you can help me out."
She and Adelinde disappear into the house. Jean gets waved aside by Elzer, talking about something formal-sounding that Kaeya doesn't have the Mond to parse. That leaves him and Diluc alone at the back of the house.
"I have a question," he dares to say.
Diluc has started to prowl around the edge of the yard looking out into the gathering twilight, very much as Kaeya had seen him do outside the window the night before. At Kaeya's words he stops and drags his gaze from the shadows beneath the trees. The full focus of those burning eyes fixes on Kaeya, and even now he has to fight the urge to quail.
"Then ask."
Kaeya takes a deep breath. "Who am I to you? I know I'm a Knight in the future, and Jean's friend to her, and this place's 'Master Kaeya'. But you said you might have been unkind, and you told Adelinde you couldn't promise not to hurt me again. The way you act.... I don't know what being your Kaeya means."
"That's a complicated question," Diluc says, slowly. He's silent for long enough that Kaeya is about to make some noise of assent just to get out from under that gaze. Then he sighs. "And if I leave it at that, and you remember later, you'll take it the worst possible way."
He says that in the same odd tone that he had said his Kaeya would never be so straightforward. Kaeya still isn't sure what it's supposed to convey.
"It would take more time than we have to explain how matters have fallen out between us. But the simple answer is that, as far as I'm concerned, you are my brother."
Kaeya contemplates that. If his father had vanished, and this place had taken him in.... Diluc had spoken of having to share his father, and it would explain why he's 'Master Kaeya' to everyone else here. Maybe it explains, too, how frantic Diluc had been when the Mage ambushed them. Kaeya has never had a sibling his father hasn't had to put down at birth, but it still hurt to have them all taken away.
Diluc won't be taken away. That's obvious, because he's here now, still looking down at Kaeya, giving him all of his attention. It's still daunting to be the focus of those eyes, but Kaeya thinks he could get used to it. His future self has.
Maybe that Kaeya, the Kaeya he will be, calls Diluc 'brother' too.
He nods. "Thank you."
Jean returns before Diluc, visibly uncomfortable, can say any more, and Adelinde and Lisa emerge from the manor with their arms full of jars a minute later. There's a flurry of activity, during which Kaeya is instructed to stand in the middle of a complex circle they're drawing on the cobblestones. Lisa positions Diluc and Jean and Adelinde at specific points around the circle, steps up to a fourth, and smiles at Kaeya.
"Are you ready, sweetie?"
Kaeya's stomach lurches. He isn't sure. In this second he still wants more than anything to be back in Khaenri'ah, in his father's arms, his mother singing to them both. He can't be there, though. That may be the home he remembers, but it isn't the home that exists for him now. This place is.
He glances around, at Jean, then Adelinde, then at Diluc. The first two smile encouragingly; Diluc gives him a little nod, meeting his eye with the same focused intensity he always does. Kaeya turns back to Lisa and nods too.
She snaps her fingers. Kaeya waits, the world blurring around him, to become the person they all know him to be.