掠夺 | Genshin Impact

𝔄𝔠𝔱 8

The sun did not rise today.

The fourth day of the Lantern Rite was upon them, and the Fatui's attack was to be executed in two days. And yet, the way today's sun burned the clouds to a bloody red sent a more violent shiver up Asira's spine than the thought of the impending threat itself. Something... Something horrid would happen today. She felt it.

For the sky seemed to call back to her, a melody of forgotten scars and haunted screams that she once thought could only be heard between the snowstorms and gunshots of Snezhnaya. Yes, that rusty red color of the sky was the same hue as those button eyes stitched to the puppet that sat on her counter.

The same bloody eyes of the Harbinger she thought she had forgotten.

"He is here," a crash echoed in the distance, "The—"

"Surprise!" A voice sings from behind her, "My my, how this little birdie has grown! Columbina is a fledgling no longer, rather a main character ready to take the stage."

"Puppeteer."

Asira unsheathes her swords and thunder crackles across the room. How? "Come a step closer and I'll sever your head from the shoulders they sit upon!" How is he here?

His laughter is the first thing to break the silence, and even after so many years the gurgling sound causes Asira to flinch. His spine cracks backwards as the laughter gets louder, his neck snapping to the side as he stares dead into her eyes. "The dove shouldn't sing," Sandrone raises a hand, snapping his ring finger in half as Asira crumbles to the floor, wheezing desperately as her knees give out. "When in the jaws of a fox."

He smiles as Asira fails to respond, nails clawing at her throat as words gasp and choke out.

"Such pretty sounds. Now then, let us discuss the re-write of your play! I must say, as amusing at it has been to watch you mingle against those foolish Knights, you are beginning to reek like them. Not very pleasant, not pleasant indeed. Especially that funny dressed Khaenri'ah boy, he's been getting a little too close to my little birdie for my liking."

The room pulsed red, and a flash of lightning threatens to burst through the walls of the embassy. Asira is kneeling no longer. "I won't let you touch him. I won't. Tell your damn ice queen that if you fucking hurt Kaeya—"

But it was not the Cavalry Captain who flashes in her mind. No. The Kaeya that appears is adorned in royal white robes, woven together by the poisonous powers of fallen stars and corrupt gods, his eyes void of light as though they were sucked in by the navy jewels adorning the crown sitting upon his head.

The Kaeya she knew was hardly half of his truth.

She hardly knew him at all.

Sandrone's smile widens as she falters, his lips cracking as the tips stretch from ear to ear, crooked as he relished in her silence. In her shattering. "Hmm, what was that my sweet little dove? Oh my, sorry sorry, did Sandrone hit a nerve? The boy of the fallen nation has been a puppet for Her Majesty from the start, or did he neglect to tell you that as he sat like a dog between your legs?"

This time, there is no stopping that lightning that rains down upon them.

"You bastard!"

A flash of white and suddenly she's facing the sky. Falling. They are falling.

Shards from the window rain down, and the wind whips around them in tandem to the strikes of lightning, left, right, left, right. Sandrone shoots his arms out, and threads unravel from his fingertips, metal strings weaving through the air as Asira flails to dodge them.