The Winds Bring with them Change (Volume 1)

46: We Were Destined Love

AN: This is your warning, this is the chapter. If you need to stop reading here, I completely understand. Also, fun fact, I listened to Lonely St. on loop whilst writing this, soo.....

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He was quick to get back to the teapot, the second he had left the foot of the mountain, he was gone.

Their home was... demolished for lack of a better word. The walls of their home were blown out, pieces of broken glass and wood everywhere. He felt panic rising further up his throat, years of experience keeping him from getting sick right then and there. Kazuha was unconscious under the rubble with a cut on the back of his head that bled sluggishly.

His hands shook as he tried to remember how he used to bandage his own wounds, except that he didn't. He wasn't mortal as the samurai, he didn't need to worry over a little head wound. Now, it seemed that his hands moved too slowly for the blood that was continuing to flow into white hair. His breathing was as steady as ever even as his dearest friend bled into his hands.

Finally, he was bandaged properly, his pulse beating at least evenly now. Xiao allowed himself a brief moment before he realized what must have happened. Venti had done this once before, only definitely not to this extent.

But if he didn't remember anything, if it was only Barbatos left in there, then this reaction was almost sensible. Though his breathing was still steady, his hands seemed to be portraying everything he felt as he raked them through his own hair.

If it was only Barbatos, Venti's bare instincts and fear and nothing else, then the only logical place for him to have gone is home. Mondstadt. His heart dropped further, and he spared a glance toward his friend.

Despite his worry for all of Mondstadt, Kazuha came first. It took nary a fraction of a second for him to leave the limp Inazuman at the herbalist's in Liyue before he was to Mondstadt. He'd never traveled so fast in his life, not even before Morax, not even in all the wars he'd fought. He'd never been this afraid.

The countryside seemed peaceful, but the closer he got to town, the worse everything clearly was.

Hordes of people were hunkered in the woods, Razor and his wolves watching over them in a way Xiao couldn't say he had expected. Little Klee, her bag clutched tight to her chest, informed him that they were going on an adventure, but that her 'big brother' needed to stay behind for work.

He was sure that wasn't at all true.

The bridge came into view, and with it, the dread in his chest seemed to capsize, blooming into a new, fresh type of horror. He recognized flaming red hair, the flash of a sword and a chill coming over the area. He cursed the knights for a moment, before realizing that this wasn't even most of them. There were only two actual knights standing there, alongside golden hair that whipped as Aether dove. And Venti.

His dearest, his most beloved. He had shown Xiao his wings once, quickly, explaining after that they were more suited for a Mondstadt of the past. But now, they shimmered in the light, beating strong gusts towards the alchemist and Aether. His whole being radiated wrong.

This was something Xiao knew all too well. This was something he had killed others over, all too many times in the past.

But at the moment, he simply stood frozen, staring at his most cared for as he attacked his people. As he attacked their friends.

Venti tilted his head the tiniest bit, sending a harsh gust towards Aether, and finally Xiao could move. His mask stayed firmly at his side as he scooped him up and deposited him behind Albedo. Kaeya's eyes narrowed at him the tiniest bit before he turned back, sword raised defensively.