Souls in Teyvat

"Did everything go well?" asked Guizhong with a smile, looking at the purple-haired child eating with pleasure in front of her.

"I think so" said Elea, gulping down everything she had in her mouth. "She didn't talk much, but I could sense what she was feeling."

"You might be the only person who can communicate effectively with her" explained Guizhong. "And probably the only one who can break her shell."

"So she will calm down then?" the voice of a calm boy with ash-coloured hair made Guizhong look at her son.

"Maybe" replied Guizhong, who couldn't affirm Shenhe wouldn't start rampaging at some point. "But no matter what, her talk with Elea has helped her a lot."

Creak

The door of the house opened, and a tall man with amber eyes entered with his eternal solemn expression.

"Good morning" said Elea with a small nod, who had lost any kind of fear of Rex Lapis after he had helped her in Inazuma.

It was later that Yae explained everything she needed to know about Ken's father, and how his stern expression didn't mean he was an unapproachable person.

"Hmm" Rex Lapis nodded, and looked at both her and Ken. "Are you ready?"

"We are" replied calmly Ken, who seemed to have inherited his father's calm demeanour.

"I'm also ready" replied Elea with a smile.

Rex Lapis nodded, and turned around to the door.

"Where are you all going?" but a frowning Guizhong stopped all of them.

"Ugh" Ken grunted, but receiving his mother's glare, approached her to give the short woman a brief hug.

But Elea had no such worries, and gave Guizhong a big hug, making the Goddess of Dust smile.

"Look at her, why can't you be as effusive?" she asked towards Ken, who looked away.

Gizhong then approached Rex Lapis and gave him a big hug that told every fear she had, but the firm one she got as a reply dissipated all her worries.

"We will be back in a week" informed Rex Lapis, making Guizhong nod. "I will be back by the time the next trade with Fontaine needs to be signed."

"I will tell Gnayu about it" replied Guizhong. "Ken, do what your father tells you. Elea, don't do what Barbatos tells you."

""Okaaay""

And the door opened, with 3 people leaving the house full of warmth.

----------------------------------------

"No matter how many times I see it, it's still amazing" commented Elea, looking at the path of scorched earth leading to Mondstandt.

"I heard it was the first Pyro Archon fighting against a rampaging Demon God" said excitedly Ken, looking at the carbonized ground they were stepping on.

"I read it was an ancient hero, who paved the way for humans to live in the distant lands later known as Mondstadt" argued Elea.

Meanwhile, Rex Lapis couldn't help but think about the ridiculously unfortunate boy who once accompanied Kenshin's parents to Mondstadt.

"Dad, who made this path appear?" asked Ken, and Elea also looked at the knowing man who seemed to know everything in the world.

"..." and Rex Lapis, looking at the 2 pairs of eyes looking at with expectation, made a decision. "Why couldn't it be both?"

"...."

"...."

And both children looked at each other, understanding it now.

"So the ancient Hero was the first Pyro Archon..." mused Elea.

"Hmmm" Ken also hummed in thought.

But both children knew that probably, this path had a completely different explanation.

And yet, sometimes, some secrets were more interesting while they were left uncovered, so they didn't ask.

The group of 3 walked while animatedly talking, while the landscape of enormous mountains and majestic valleys was left behind, being replaced by a lush forest and the smell of morning dew reached their nostrils.

"We are near" informed Rex Lapis, looking at his tired son, while Elea looked full of energy.

"Ken, you need to leave your house a bit more" commented Elea, looking at Ken's sweating face.

"..maybe...." replied Ken, with his hands on his knees, trying to make air enter his lungs.

"Yahooo!"

A bright voice reached them, and before they could realize it, a short boy with a green outfit appeared in front of them.

"Barba- Venti!" Elea immediately shouted, but corrected herself halfway.

"I have been waiting for you for a whole week" replied Venti with a pout.

"My mom-"

"Say no more, fair maiden" said Venti, raising a hand and nodding energetically, even if he couldn't hide his trepidation from the perceptive child. "I am already aware of the wrath of lightning."

"I doubt it" commented Rex Lapis with his usual calm voice. "Or you wouldn't have given her so many candies on her back."

"Speaking of which" said Venti, who took a bag full of colourful balls of sugar from seemingly thin air. "I have some presents for you."

"Ohh" Elea immediately took them with a sunny smile, knowing that she would need to end the full bag in a week.

Because her mother didn't like her eating this many candies, but as the letters her father wrote to Shenhe that she had read yesterday, 'Mondstadt was a bit special'.

So maybe....being a bit more 'free' was what she needed to do.

"Thank you" said Ken with a polite bow, receiving a similar bag of candies, and looking at his father.

"One a day" was all Rex Lapis said, making Elea smirk at Elea. "You too."

And Elea's smirk disappeared.

Both Guizhong and Rex Lapis were incredibly close to her family, to the point where her mother told her to obey both of them as much as Elea needed to obey her.

"Come on, this is Mondstadt!" argued Venti with a wide smile and a mischievous look in his green eyes. "The city of Freedom!"

"And yet, the ones who will leave with cavities won't have the freedom to wish for them to disappear" retorted Rex Lapis, making Venti sigh.

"Sorry you 2, I tried it" he helplessly said to the dejected Ken and Elea. "The big and mean dragon is too powerful for this simple bard to deal with."

------------------------------------------------

"And here we are" said Venti, opening his arms proudly. "Mondstadt, the city of-"

"Freedom, we know" said Elea, looking around the city that always held a surprise for everyone, even those who lived in it.

And this time, the surprise came in the form of all the decorations on it.

"Hehe, amazing right?" asked Venti, smiling proudly. "It's Oktoberfe- Windbloom, yes, Windbloom."

"It's Windblume" said Rex Lapis, making both children look at Venti with deadpan gazes.

"And like Wind, I must go" said Venti with a twitching smile, turning into pure air.

It had been a bit awkward, but he had the solution at hand.

It was Windbloo- Windblume, and like any other festivity in Mondstadt, it meant that there was going to be a lot of wine.

"Windblume is a festival in which people offer Windblumes to Barbatos and their loved ones, hoping for them to enjoy a fruitful life or health and love" explained Rex Lapis, receiving the stares of the deadpanning children.

"To him?" asked Elea, receiving a simple nod in response.

"As a mischievous and happy-going person he looks to be, no one cares more about Mondstadt than him" replied Rex Lapis, who looked at Elea. "You should have sensed it."

"Did you?" inquired curiously Ken, who had always felt curiosity about Elea's ability, but his parents always told him to don't ask about it.

"Hmm, yes" answered Elea, after thinking about what she had sensed from Barbatos. "But it's difficult to sense something from him, it's like he is always thinking about too many things at once, I think his emotions are always too dispersed."

"It's because his body is everywhere" explained Rex Lapis, who started walking through the town to allow the children to see it. "His body is pure air, so you feel his emotions coming from everywhere at once, and your ability isn't strong enough to perceive something coming from all directions."

"I see" mused Elea. "Could my father sense them then? I was told his ability was stronger than mine."

"He could" replied Rex Lapis succinctly, always reluctant to speak about his long-since departed friend's ability to those unaware of how big the world they lived in was.

"Dad, can we enter that building?" asked Ken, pointing at a certain place. "There is something that smells pretty good."

"....sure" Rex Lapis now knew that he needed to forbid his son from talking to Barbatos.

Because the place his son had smelt something good coming from was nothing else than the Angel's Share.

A bar.

But he, just like Guizhong, knew that the solution to avoid a disaster didn't pass through merely banning his son from everything, but by explaining to him the reasons and dangers of everything.

So the group of 3 entered the Angel's Share, and looked around in wonder as it was their first time inside such a place.

But Elea and Ken's gazes died the moment they saw a green-clothed bard at a nearby table, with a bottle of wine in his hands.

And said bard... also froze seeing the people who had just entered the tavern.

"Didn't you need to leave?" asked Elea with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed, I needed to leave to come here" replied Venti with a face expressing how obvious he thought his words were. "Think a bit."

"Welcome to the Angel's Share"

A deadpan voice reached them, and upon looking they saw a red-eyed man with long red hair, cleaning an elegant cup while looking at them.

"I would recommend leaving children out of these places" said Diluc, glancing at Ken at Elea.

"Oh, I know you" muttered Elea looking at the tall red-haired man, catching Diluc's attention. "You are Diluc, right?"

"Indeed" replied Diluc, dreading what was about to come, as he could recognize those bright purple eyes everywhere. "What have you heard about me?"

"That you were the only rival that could knock my father unconscious, and an edgy boy who liked to appear mysterious" replied Elea honestly, making a fragment of Diluc's soul wither. "But also a person who will always protect Mondstadt, even if you had to do it alone."

"...."

"Hehe" Venti laughed a bit seeing Diluc fall silent, and pointed at the seats in front of him. "Why don't you 3 sit for a bit?"

"I can't, I came here to see Jean" said Elea with a shake of her head.

"Don't worry, she won't leave any time soon, and she is working anyways" dismissed Venti with a wave of his hand.

"She always is" sighed Elea, but sat when Rex Lapis nodded.

"Hmm, this is a rare occasion" mused Venti aloud. "And as such, I must respond to said rarity with something even more rare. I will invite you all to a drink!"

"...."

"But only one" warned Venti with a frown.

"This is a tavern" said Elea with a pointed look. "I don't think my mom-"

"Okay, forget everything I said" Venti immediately backpedalled, not wanting to see what Beelzebub would do to him should she learn he let her precious daughter drink something from a tavern.

"Here"

tap tap

But 2 glasses full of a beautiful purple and pink liquid appeared in front of both Elea and Ken, who looked puzzledly at Diluc.

"It doesn't have any alcohol" was all the red-haired man said before returning to the counter.

Rex Lapis started rummaging through his pockets, wondering if this time he hadn't forgotten to take money with him.

After all, old habits die hard.

"No need" said Diluc without looking at them, who returned to his task cleaning the glasses. "I am still in debt."

And Rex Lapis, understanding his meaning, stopped looking for some Mora he hadn't found till the end.

"Aren't you going to ask something?" asked Venti, looking at the former Geo Archon. "This is the place where all that Osmanthus Wine comes from."

"No" replied Rex Lapis with a slow shake of his head. "I haven't drunk it in 8 years."

There was no need to relive old memories anymore.

----------------------------------------------------

"Look, it's almost mid-day" complained Elea once they had left the Angel's Share. "But those drinks were delicious."

"...." but Ken didn't reply, as he was still in shock.

He had seen people drink and drink without any control, and no matter how much he liked the smell of wine, the strange behaviours of the people in the tavern had taught him a very important lesson.

Don't ever drink more than a single glass.

Because the consequences of drinking more than that were too terrifying.

Rex Lapis looked at his traumatized son, and nodded in approval inwardly.

He was sure that Guizhong would compliment him for his parenting abilities, as he had made sure his son wouldn't ever get close to alcohol.

As for the true reaction the Goddess of Dust would show...that was still undecided.

"Hahaha, if it isn't the Princess' Princess"

"Oh no" said a pale Elea, just before she looked DOWN at Mondstadt. "Aaaaahhhhh!

"Hahahahaha" a big man, with muscled arms and wide shoulders, picked Elea up when she fell down from the sky. "I waited for you, little girl."

"I-I'm not little!" shouted Elea, still dizzy from being thrown to the sky without any warning.

"Hahaha, say that when you are as tall as me!" shouted Varka, energetic as always.

"...." Ken looked at the dizzy Elea, then at the gigantic Varka, and then at Elea again.

'Nope' thought Ken.

"Grandmaster Varka" greeted Rex Lapis with a small nod.

"Hmm!" Varka hummed with a vehement nod, and picked Elea to put her on his shoulders. "You came for Jean, right?"

"We did, so put me down so I can tell her what you did" threatened Elea with a glare, one that Varka didn't see, nor one he would have cared.

"Sure, let's look for her!" said Varka excitedly, who entered the Knights of Favonius' headquarters, leaving behind a silent Rex Lapis and stunned Ken, who decided to look around the town while Elea talked with Jean.

Everyone inside the headquarters waved at Elea, showing her smiles that she would have liked a lot, had she not needed to look down at them.

But Varka didn't care, and with heavy steps, arrived at the room Elea had always seen Jean in.

Just as Elea expected Varka to knock on the door, the bear-like man directly entered, making a blonde woman with green-grey eyes jump with an expression of pure fear on her face.

"Grandmaster!" shouted Jean, with a hand in her chest to calm herself down after getting jumpscared. "I asked you a thousand times to knock!"

"Hahaha, you did" nodded Varka. "But royalty never waits!"

Jean looked confusedly at Varka, only to see Elea's face screaming for help on top of his shoulders.

"Elea" greeted Jean with a happy smile approaching and taking the girl from the gigantic man's arms. "I thought you would come in 2 weeks."

"No, I arrived when I should have" replied Elea, sensing Jean's horror and resignation at having lost measure of time.

Again.

"Now, take the Princess' princess around" ordered Varka. "Grandmaster orders."

"But-"

"I said, Grandmaster orders."

"...thank you" Jean politely bowed, and left the small room filled to the brim with papers.

Leaving behind a solemn Varka, who looked at said papers with a frown, ready to work for once.

…...

But this was Mondstadt, so 5 minutes later Varka left the room with a bright smile, not having touched a single sheet of paper.

----------------------------------------

"How are you doing, Elea?" asked Jean, sitting in front of the purple-haired child on a table of the Good Hunter.

"Very good" replied Elea, looking at the fried egg in front of her with her stomach rumbling. "I talked with Shenhe before coming here, and I think things went pretty well."

"That's a relief" sighed Jean, smiling at the waitress who brought her Sweet Madame. "No matter how the rest of us tried to convince or talk with her, she ignored all of us."

"Mmmhh" Elea nodded with her mouth full, already knowing that Shenhe would have avoided them.

The only reason she had stopped was because she had mentioned the present, but she also knew that Shenhe's reason for avoiding her was quite different from the rest, as she had sensed Shenhe's fear.

"But everything is alright now" said Elea after swallowing the fries in her mouth. "She also showed me a lot of letters my parent wrote her."

"Did she?" asked Jean curiously, seeing Elea nod.

"And they were a bit....offensive." That had been a shock to Elea, who had seen how her father directly mocked who she knew was the black-haired woman with red eyes who was angry more often than not based on what she had seen and heard. "And I don't understand how my father and her ended up together."

"Her case was a bit peculiar" conceded Jean with a sigh, but with a shake of her head, a soft smile reappeared on her face. "But not for that was their relationship any less strong."

"But I have a question" said Elea, making Jean look at her with curiosity. "How did you end with my father?"

"Is it strange?" asked Jean, pondering about the reason why Elea would think that.

"Well, I know a lot of the people in Inazuma, and how they got together with my father" said Elea. "But you seem to be too different. You are very pretty, hardworking, always ready to help others with a smile and people here love you. While my father was.... well, my father."

"What does that mean?" asked Jean with interest. "Your father was also all of that."

"Was he?" asked Elea with a doubtful voice. "Don't misunderstand me, I think my father was amazing, but after reading those letters and hearing what he got up to in Inazuma, I can't help but think he wasn't a... quiet person."

"He wasn't" admitted Jean with a fond smile, while Elea felt her emotions, the same nostalgia and slight pang of pain she hadn't been able to keep out of her mind.

"He left to Liyue when he was 5 years old to avoid being punished" added Elea, feeling a part of her question the world she lived in just after uttering such words. "I don't dare to think what my mother would have done to me had I done that."

'Or what would she have done to Liyue had she learned her child was there alone' thought Jean, been aware of Elea's mother's true might.

"So what made you like someone as mischievous as him?" asked Elea, looking at Jean's pondering expression. "Mischievous is the last word I expect to hear next to your name."

"If you want a short answer, I would say that the Radiant Knight played a very important part" confessed Jean, which made Elea open her eyes in realization.

"Hm, I understand now" said Elea with an energetic nod. "Nobody could reject the Radiant Knight."

"It wasn't just those books" said Jean with an amused smile. "It was the meaning behind them. As you, and probably the whole Teyvat knows, your father based the Radiant Knight on me. That also means that what he saw in me pushed him to write those books, but also that he saw in me someone as amazing as the Radiant Knight."

"So those books were like a confession?" asked Elea, realizing that those books might have another reason behind them aside from merely telling a story.

"Maybe a small part of those books were a message to me" admitted Jean with a slow nod, her lost gaze reflecting how she was immersed in her memories. "But I asked your father about the reason for writing them, and he told me something quite different."

"What was it?" asked Elea, forgetting about her almost-finished dish.

"'You are amazing, so the Radiant Knight is naturally amazing too. I see in your qualities a way of living based on effort and hard work that I want people to know about. The biggest reason for me writing those books is to tell the world about that way of living, and maybe someone will be inspired by them. Obviously, there is also the purpose of telling the story and giving you a present in a twisted way, but I wanted to let people know that living like that is also possible'" said Jean with a fond smile.

Elea fell silent, pondering the meaning behind those words.

But she wasn't able to discern what they meant.

Of course, she had understood every single word, but she faintly sensed that there was another meaning hidden there, and she knew she would need some time to find it.

"Even if your father was, as you put it, mischievous at times" said Jean, catching Elea's attention again. "He was always trying to help, even if it was in an extremely convoluted and twisted way."

"I heard the same back in Inazuma" nodded Elea, even if the pranks he got up to were something her mother would have cut by the root.

"But looking back" continued Jean with a far-away look. "There was a moment in which the eyes I looked at your father with changed a lot."

Elea nodded, and finished eating her meal before it got even colder.

It was already cold, but her mother taught her not to waste food.

"You know your father was blind right?" asked Jean, not sure of how much the people close to Elea in Inazuma told the girl about his ability.

"Yes, and I also know he lost his sight at some point, and that it was to heal Aunt Guizhong" nodded Elea, knowing that much at least.

"I didn't expect you to know that much" admitted Jean, who realized that she might have been too absorbed in her job again to read Makoto and Yae's letters informing her of how Elea was growing up. "But if you know that, you will understand this easily. It was when he visited Mondstadt when he lost his vision, and I met him before he lost it."

Elea, once again, only nodded, inviting Jean to continue.

"And what I sensed in him just after he lost his sight wasn't anger, sadness or even regret" explained Jean. "Of course, there was a bit of all of those, but when I asked him if he regretted it, he told me he would never regret helping a friend, no matter the cost. Thinking back on it, that was the moment I developed my first crush, which later turned into something more.

"I...don't understand" muttered Elea in a subdued voice. "The more I heard from my father, the more confused I am. He could have the attitude you just described, but also chose to go to Liyue alone to avoid punishment. He seems to be like 2 different people."

"I don't agree with that" replied Jean, making Elea look at her. "As I see it, Kenshin was an extravagant person with a peculiar personality that exhibited some erratic behaviour sometimes, but all I see is a decided person who chose to follow the first thought that passed through his mind to the last consequences."

Elea looked puzzledly at Jean, which prompted the blonde woman to elaborate.

"If he wanted to avoid punishment, he would even leave the country to do so" explained Jean, making Elea nod in understanding. "If he wanted to help a friend, he would do so no matter the cost. If he wanted to solve the problem his country was facing, he would do so even if it meant fighting your mother. If he wanted to help Rex Lapix, he would do so even if meant fighting against him in a serious battle. Whatever your father wanted to do, he would always do it to the end, no matter the prize he needed to pay."

"...I see" was all Elea could say, thinking that it explained a lot of things.

"I don't" said Jean with a smile. "That was what he used to say when he heard that. His pranks could be a bit heavy sometimes, but he was also hard on himself."

Elea nodded again, but looked at Jean cautiously when she sensed the blonde woman's emotions.

Fear, regret, anxiety...hope.

"Elea" said Jean with a nervous look, one Elea had only seen once. "Did you...see that tree again?"

A question that Elea had seen coming, and one she didn't want to face.

Jean had been one of the most unwilling women to explain what happened to her as a mere 'accident' or 'confusion'.

And Elea knew why, Jean was unwilling to make that last hope disappear.

But before Elea could decide what to do, as Keith ahd advised her not to as people would only get worried about her meeting a suspicious man alone, someone approached.

"Ouch!" Jean reflexively complained when she felt someone hitting her head.

"What do you think are you asking a child?" Frederica, looking the same as she had been since the first moment Elea had seen her, scolded her daughter with a frown that quickly turned into a doting smile seeing Elea. "Don't worry, I will smack some sense in my daughter so you don't have to make that face again."

"W-what face?" asked Elea, only now noting how parched her throat was.

Which Jean immediately noticed, and Elea could feel her guilt and regret.

"Don't worry" was all Elea said, looking at Jean with a smile that made the woman sigh.

"Look, even a child is more sensible than you" said Frederica, picking Elea in her arms. "I see you have grown."

"...probably" muttered Elea, not used to being picked up, as her mother tended to prefer hugging her.

But people in Mondstadt were special after all.

"Hmmm" Frederica hummed, looking at Elea with an intense gaze that unsettled the child. "I don't like how Grandma sounds at all...."

"Mom?" asked a confused Jean, who dreaded the path Frederica's thoughts might be taking.

But Frederica was too busy thinking about what name she wanted Elea to call her.

"Mom is out of the question, your own mother would skin me..." muttered Frederica, making Jean start sweating. "Grandma doesn't sound good at all, I'm still too young for that..."

'You are not' thought Jean, but knowing better than anyone how... unstoppable her mother could turn out to be.

"Yes I am" said Frederica, having gleaned 'something' from Jean's face. "And I look as young as you."

'She has a point' thought Elea, looking at the 2 blonde women, noting that they could pass as sisters.

"Hmm, you have a good point" said Frederica, nodding at Elea who feared Frederica had some mind-reading power. "What do you call Jean?"

"I don't know, Jean?" asked Elea, not understanding what the older woman was talking about.

But suddenly, a lightbulb appeared above her head.

"Auntie?" she asked herself, trying to think of the position Jean occupied in her complex family situation.

Her father seemed to have a very close relationship with a few women, who occupied the same position as her own mother.

So...weren't they something akin to stepmothers?

But still, calling someone other than her mother, well, mother, was a bit strange, so maybe the word Aunt was the closest one she could use.

"Yes, that's it!" nodded Frederica with a nod. "If Jean is your stepmother, as her sibling, I should be called aunt."

"My sibling?" asked a shocked and alarmed Jean.

"I look like one anyways" said the unabashed Frederica with a shrug. "Now, Elea, I want you to show me what you have learned from your mother about swordsmanship."

Elea only nodded excitedly, as Frederica was also pretty good with a sword, and training had turned into something more than a hobby the moment she had fought with Keith.

It was one thing training with her mother, who always tried to teach her, but her fight against Keith had been her first 'serious' battle.

And she had enjoyed it a lot, maybe more than he should, as fighting had turned into something close to an obsession.

"But be warned" said Frederica in a stern tone. "If you can't show me results, I will take over the place as your teacher."

"....and my mother?" asked curiously Elea.

"She is stronger than me, but she is cheating" replied Frederica without hesitation. "So I can teach you how we fight with swords in Mondstadt. Swordsmanship created by humans for humans to stay against everything that seeks to obstruct our path."

"...." Elea didn't reply, but Frederica's words had a touch of something that left her desire for more.

So Frederica put her down, and guided her to the training area behind the Knights of Favonius headquarters.

"Ellin, fight her." Brazen as strict as she was, she ordered the girl who seemed to live there to test the child, who took a wooden sword, and with decided eyes, started fighting the woman in front of her, who only defended to allow the child to demonstrate her swordsmanship.

"Hmm, she is good" mused Frederica, looking at the child constantly moving her feet.

"Mom" said Jean, but Frederica raised her hand.

"I know Jean" said the older woman with a strangely calm voice. "I already made the mistake of trying to communicate with a child by making her train, and as proud as I am of you, I realize that was an error."

Jean only nodded, and looked at the eagerly attacking child.

"But she seems to enjoy it" added Frederica with a hint of a smile appearing on her face "And is my duty as a grandmother to aid my grandchildren in the only way I know."

"Mom, she is not my-"

"Might as well be, as you consider her as such" interrupted Frederica. "And so do I."

So without any more conversation, Frederica and Jean looked over Elea, giving some instructions that Elea committed to memory.

So every time Elea would swing her sword, a part of Mondstadt would always be with her.