Faded Harmony

Visitor

"You're quite steady for someone who just had fifteen glasses," said Lyra with amusement, as they headed down the street together. Diluc had handed Kaeya his bill, and Lyra had found a sadistic pleasure in seeing a surprised Kaeya staring at the bill with wide eyes.

"You should have seen how many the bard had. I doubt he'll be able to afford his own bill."

Lyra gave a nervous laugh imagining the chaos that would unfold in the tavern when Diluc presented Venti with the bill. The wind howled in the silence of the night, and while Kaeya's face may have been slightly flushed, his eyes were very clear. Lyra even wondered if he had acted drunk, but why would he?

"What were you doing in the tavern anyway?"

"Trying to get some information on the Darknight Hero."

"Got anything?"

Kaeya shook his head. "No one's seen him. All I heard was the same you told me earlier in the day."

"You already have a gander on who it is, don't you?" asked Lyra, seeing Kaeya's smirk.

He laughed in response as they headed up the stairs. "There's only one person in the city with those skills, and Diluc has been taking over all of the tavern's night shifts lately." Kaeya sat down on the bench and patted the seat next to him, as Lyra obliged. He looked up as if he were admiring the stars. "Diluc would never join the Knights of Favonius, so perhaps this is the only way he can protect his city."

"He hates all the Knights, doesn't he?" Lyra asked, remembering the hostility from the tavern a night so long ago. "Can't blame him. If I had a sword, I would have skewered you ages ago."

Kaeya grinned. "I wouldn't say he hates all of us; he does appreciate Lisa and Jean. But yes, he does have good reason for his... hostility." Kaeya leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees as he looked at the street, his thoughts elsewhere. "He was the youngest Captain of the Knights, and he had received his Vision at the age of ten. Adorable kid he was back then."

"You've known each other for a while then?"

"We're siblings." Lyra gave him a skeptical glance and he smiled again. "Adopted."

"And you fell apart." Lyra wondered if Kaeya had felt abandoned by Diluc.

Kaeya nodded. "If his dad hadn't taken me in that night, I doubt I would have made it through that storm."

Lyra had a fleeting image of a little Kaeya wrapped in blankets near a fire and she smiled. She wanted to ask him about his dad, but something about the air told her that any questions in that direction would not be welcome, and she had no reason to pry.

Kaeya stood up and held out a hand, as Lyra let him pull her up. Dropping him off at the Knight's Headquarters with a good night, she hopped down the stairs three at a time, stopping to scratch a little tabby cat under the chin. She sighed as she walked down the streets, remembering the cleaning she had to do.

When she opened the door to her home and switched on the lights, she stared in confusion for a second, before wondering whether she had walked into someone else's house. The table had been repaired—no, replaced—and the glass had been cleared. Walking into her room, she looked around to see the sheets changed and the mess gone. It was almost as if the heist hadn't happened at all.

A letter on her bedside table caught her attention.

You don't need to pay me back. — Diluc

Smiling, she set it down while saying a quiet word of thanks, hoping he would hear her. And somewhere in the tavern, Diluc found himself smiling for no reason at all.

                                *

Lyra sat at the top of the Cathedral, looking down at the city and counting the people in the plaza. She was even higher up than the statue at the center of the fountain. No one had yet noticed her, except for a couple of pigeons who had given her a curious glance as they crossed the sky, perhaps to join Timmie at the bridge. She wondered what would happen if the people noticed her. After all, they held Barbatos in high regard, and Lyra knew that either disappointment or disbelief would prevail if they had actually met him.

A flash of light behind her, and Lyra smiled. "Hello Morax. Or are you going by an alias now?"

"Zhongli," said the long-haired male, taking a seat beside her. His eyes seemed to hold the golden hue of the now-setting sun. "Although, you may refer to me in any way you'd like."

She gave him a good, hard look, taking him in from head to toe. "So this time it's a handsome male. I still remember that time you were an old lady. You could've given Madame Ping a run for her money with your acting."

Zhongli's lips quirked up. "Speaking of her," he said as he held out some Glaze Lilies, "She said she would have loved to see you, however, was too old to make the trip. She requested you and Nocturna to come by for a cup of tea sometime."

Lyra accepted the Glaze Lilies. The azure blossoms were exquisite, the scent spreading in the air around them, clinging to their hands and clothes. When she was still a child, Madame Ping and Morax had once told her that Glaze Lilies could sense people's emotions, and would bloom when they were happy, and would wither if they were sad. She still remembered Morax holding her hand like a father, when he had taken her around Liyue. Smiling, she held up the Glaze Lilies, wondering whose emotions they had gathered. "Nocturna isn't in Liyue either?"

Zhongli shook his head. "I'm afraid that the little one has not been spotted anywhere there."

Lyra was surprised he would call her 'little one,' before remembering that he was near 6000, as opposed to their own mere 3000, and he had literally watched both of them grow up. Nocturna was still well and alive somewhere, so that was enough for Lyra. "I wonder where she went," she muttered.

Zhongli looked at the sky, and Lyra could see the sun reflected in his eyes if she looked closely. "How sad, to have been sealed away in the shadows, for more than half your life."

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" She looked down at the statue. "I met him too."

"He comes to Liyue once in a while with some of Mondstadt's famous Dandelion Wine."

"He's interesting, isn't he?"

Zhongli's face changed to one of exasperation for a second, before he nodded. Lyra had a feeling the word he wanted to use was one far more colorful than 'interesting.'

They sat there together as the sun set and the city lamps lit up. A flash of light, and when Lyra looked back, Zhongli was no longer beside her.

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A/N: Okay, I don't think I have any readers, but this book will be on hold for a while because I'm suffering a case of Writer's Block again.