Mortal Chains (Albedo x Aether)

Ch. 4 Elemental Reactions

Albedo stretched, letting out a quiet yawn. Memories of the day before filled his head, and he hoped Aether wouldn't end up hurt again.

"Hmm... Guess I should do some research while I'm up. Despite the fact that I already know a lot about elemental reactions I know practically nothing about Dendro." The alchemist rambled to himself, leaving his house in Mondstadt and making his way to his lab in Dragonspine.

After hours of walking Albedo finally made it to his lab, he grabbed a piece of paper and laid it out in front of him on his desk. He then grabbed a pen and began to write.

'Research Project: Dendro reactions. Dendro + Pyro: ??? (Maybe prolonged burning?)
Dendro + Cryo: ??? (Most likely nothing)'

He continued to write, questioning all the element reactions when paired with Dendro, he would replace the question marks with his research once he began to experiment. Albedo grabbed a pyro potion out of the potion holder stationed on his desk. Since he only had a geo vision, potions were the only way he was able to test elemental reactions. He had already made plenty of Dendro potions about a week before in preparation. The alchemist held a Dendro potion in one hand, the Pyro potion in another. He poured just a drop of Dendro onto a contained area on the ground. A small vine grew up from the ground, sprouting cracks amongst the stone. It slowly went up, and then stopped. Albedo poured another drop of Dendro onto the vine and it grew even taller. Albedo hummed curiously and eyed the Pyro potion in his other hand. He dripped some of the Pyro potion onto the vine. It caused the vine to immediately burn up, the reaction much quicker than he had been expecting.

"Hm... Maybe it needs to touch someone to have an interesting reaction?" He wondered out loud, looking at his arm, already exposing some skin as he prepared to test it out on himself. He held the Dendro potion first letting a small drop fall onto the back of his forearm. He hissed quietly in pain, it stung, but only a little. A small vine began to grow and wrapped around Albedo's arm, and when he moved it aside to peer at the skin underneath, it left a green residue. He nervously held the Pyro potion above his arm and bit his lip.

This is gonna hurt.

He poured some of the Pyro potion onto the vine. It burned quickly, trailing the vine and burning it all until all that was left was black ash and slightly raw skin. Albedo shook out the flame quickly, shoving his arm into a pile of snow just outside his camp. He sighed in relief as the burning sensation stopped. Albedo turned back to his desk and wrote down the elemental reaction of Pyro paired with Dendro. 

Faster burning, bigger flame. Be cautious around Pyro and Dendro. Do not mix.

Satisfied with his research between those two elements, he grabbed a Cryo potion and another Dendro potion. Holding each in one hand just as he did before. He then poured some of the contents of the Cryo potion onto the ground, it froze some of the ground around it. Just as he was pouring Dendro onto the Cryo, he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Albedo! I've finished my commissions!"

Startled by the voice, he poured more Dendro than he meant to and glanced up at Aether. "Wait stand back!" Albedo exclaimed when he noticed Aether was still coming closer, but it was too late. A huge Dendro vine wrapped around Aether's leg and ice from the Cryo potion froze the vine in place, keeping Aether's leg placed firmly on the ground. The vine grew higher, slowly wrapping itself around Aether's torso. The higher the vine grew, the less ice there was, meaning it would be easier to pull off.

"What is this?" Aether asked, unable to move. He grabbed at the partially frozen vines, slowly pulling them off his torso. Albedo rushed over to help, pulling off dead vines and dropping them onto the floor carelessly. 

"Albedo, what were you doing?" Aether asked once the vines were off of him and he was free.

"I wanted to see what the reactions were when Dendro and other elements were paired," The alchemist explained as he set the potions aside and looked at Aether.

"I see." Is all he responded with, looking around. "Want to grab something to eat?" He asked Albedo, who nodded in response.

"Something sweet please," he told Aether with a grin. Aether nodded, mirroring his friend's grin as well as they began walking back towards the city of Mondstadt.

AN: Probably the most boring part yet but necessary for later in the story