Chapter Two

The heady surge of adrenaline dissipates so quickly that Kaeya feels as though his head might float away as he sags on his knees in the small clearing.

Only a deadly grip on his sword, point stabbed firmly into the ground is keeping him from falling on his face. He coughs wetly.

He uses the sword as a crutch to drag himself the short way to a tree across from him and sits back against it heavily. His breath is coming in short gasps intermingled with quiet whimpers he can't completely stifle.

He reluctantly releases his sword so he can carefully pull back his shirt to survey the damage.

Three deep gashes run from the center of his stomach outwards to the right, ending in horridly jagged lacerations in his side. The third claw mark raked across his hip as well. The edges of the wound are tinged a disturbing black that is visible even through the alarming amount of red.

An unnatural heat emanates from the wound. He can feel the same sickening fire pulse through him leaving him weaker by the second. He lets the edges of the shirt drop and leans his head back against the tree. Bark presses uncomfortably at the back of his head.

Kaeya begins to consider the possibility that's he's not going to come back from this. Alone in a fairly hostile forest, rapidly bleeding out and succumbing to a venom he isn't completely sure of the effects of.

He's not expected back at headquarters until at least late tomorrow and obviously there is no one who would miss him before then. He has no engagements, he lives alone.

His is a lonely existence, surrounded by the attention of the people of Mondstadt yes but lonely none the less.

No one is coming for him.

He looks up at the waning evening light. It swiftly signals the beginning of a treacherous night alone in Wolvendom with enemies still potentially nearby when he can no longer walk, let alone fight. He stares out into the dark area between trees in the distance apprehensively.

Rifthounds and their whelps travel in packs. That's what he was taught as a child, that's what he has learned in Teyvat from the literature that was written after the great rampages of the past. If this is so where are the rest?

He's been on edge since the first one appeared, wondering if and when the rest would burst forth from the dark. He'll be done for if they do.

There is no way he can defend himself in this state.

He summons his sword back to his hand nonetheless, even as the other hand falls limp to the ground, loose bits of moss and pine needles adhering to the drying blood on it.

He sits there for too long, losing awareness. He jolts awake suddenly, peering into the encroaching dark again. Ears straining to hear any signs of danger.

Sitting there, bleeding out, watching the little light fade away between the tops of the trees, Kaeya realizes that if he doesn't gather himself together, to pack the wound and put together some shelter for the night, he stands no chance of survival as improbable as that already is.

As it is, a wound like this, even with the Deaconess's miraculous healing, would leave him out of active duty for at least a month.

He feels the tendrils of sick heat steadily flowing from the gash and the pain seems to be intensifying by the second. If he doesn't move now, he wont be able to again.

Kaeya heaves to the side gritting his teeth to keep from yelling out and attracting more danger. He uses the point of his sword as a brace to drag himself up on to his knees again, but that's as far as he can get without passing out from pain.

Dizziness forces him to close his eye and he wavers in place. He holds on to the sword in both hands with an iron grip to keep from falling. If he goes down, he will scream and then every hilichurl, rifthound, and run of the mill wolf will fall upon his location.

Perhaps even the treasure hoarders he was misleading not so long ago. He wonders how they would react to him now.

He steels himself and forces his eye open, dragging himself deeper into the woods by the hilt of his sword. When he reaches the short cliff wall just ahead that leads one to and from the stomping grounds of the great spirit Andreas, he stops, heaving for breath but triumphant.

The stone wall will serve as the strongest wall of a leaf and twig lean-to, it is the best protection to have at his back. His number one priority is surviving til morning. He'll figure out what to do next if he makes it there.

First things first though, the wound itself.

He sits back against the cold stone, unable to stifle a tortured moan of pain. His hands shake violently.

Biting his lip to keep quiet, he gingerly moves his shirt out of the way again. The wound burns fiercely and the black corruption infused in the edges is unnerving. He shakily takes off his jacket breathing hard through his nose and haphazardly balls it up to press against the gashes.

Kaeya nearly blacks out. He comes back to himself gasping. Its too much. He bites down on his arm to stifle the keening sound coming from his lips. He uses the other hand before loses his nerve to squeeze the makeshift bandage to the wound to stem the bleeding.

He startles back to awareness for the second time. He doesn't know how much time he's lost. The wound drips steadily refusing to be stymied. He can't squeeze it again.

He looks ahead again nervously, seeing something purple moving a few feet away. His heart pounds, making the wound pulse harder. The shape seems to move closer before disappearing.

He gasps and looks around frantically, holding his breath against another hit. The one that will end him. His ears strain for the sound of growling, but it doesn't come. He blinks and sees the shape again but it blurs and fades away.

He realizes after a few more moments that it's not actually there at all. He's seeing things.

This makes things worse.

He reluctantly looks away and continues where he left off, hands shaking almost too much to be effective, he takes the captain's cape as well and wraps it around his middle to hold the jacket in place, but it isn't tight enough and he knows it. He falls back utterly exhausted.

The damning cold chills him to the bone despite the heat in his side. An abyssal fever has no doubt set in, blurring his mind and leaving him too weak to think.

The pain is so intense it scares him.

He drifts in and out of consciousness despite intending to move and erect a shelter of sorts around himself and doesn't become fully aware again until a loud sound rips through the relative quiet of late evening in the forest.

He sits stock still, shivering.

"Who's there?"

Kaeya jolts in surprise and nearly responds before immediately realizing how improbable what he's hearing must be.

Diluc?

In the forest?

At this time of the evening, coincidentally at this location? It sounds ridiculous even in his head.

The smell of blood must have attracted more dangers and his mind has twisted it. Even now his surroundings don't look right. His senses have grown deceptive. Diluc here to save him? The idea is laughable even more so because of how badly he wants it to be true.

It's actually embarrassing; big brother Diluc coming to save the day is a thing of the very distant past. Kaeya had been inclined to fight his own battles soon after he and Diluc became brothers, very long before the same bond had been fizzled out in a clash of fire and ice.

Diluc has no reason to be in Wolvendom at this time. But there are many other things that do. Kaeya can't afford to encounter any of them.

The pounding of his heart has intensified the pain to unbearable levels again, but to succumb to the screams clamoring up his throat before whatever is out there has passed, would spell the end for himself. So Kaeya steels himself and stuffs the fingers of his non-sword hand into his mouth biting down desperately to keep from announcing his position.

"Hello?"

Kaeya whimpers into his hand, torn between calling out to potential help or death. The voice sounds wrong as well, far off and watery, as though coming from deep under the sea. A moment later Kaeya hear a thud as well, close by and resounding. It sounds like a mitachurl's foot falls. But what if…

No.

Kaeya clenches his teeth harder and reasons that had it been anyone else; Razor, Bennett, another adventurer, even a treasure hoarder, he would have believed it. But for him to be hearing what he wants most, it can't be.

__________

Diluc stands still in the cool breeze of the evening, listening carefully amidst the other sounds of the forest for the quiet whimper he'd heard a second ago.

Although he's called out twice now, no one has answered but this is hardly indication that there is no one stranded in the surrounding area. The troublingly strong scent of blood cant' be ignored either.

He summons his claymore to his hand, the motion pulls on a few of the bruises from his bout in the arena with Andrius. Its some of the best combat practice to be had when the Abyss decides to keep their distance and this time of evening is the best time to have it. On the evenings when he engages with the old wolf, he usually sleeps best.

He calls out once more and hears a stifled whimper again. He decides to carefully advance in the direction of the sound, ready for whatever may lay beyond the long shadows of the trees.

He makes as much noise as possible, announcing his approach before emerging into a very small clearing next to the cliff wall that leads from the hilichurl's camps near the bank of Cider Lake, up to the boundaries of Andrius's domain.

There is a dark stain of blood low on the rock. He examines it from afar, weary of what may be hiding in the shrubbery beneath it. A second later he notices the amount of additional fluid on the ground. The blood on the ground shows evidence of something being dragged and not for the first time he wonders if he's simply happened to witness the end of a kill belonging to Razor's pack. But his instinct insist he investigate further.

Carefully pushing aside the dense brush at the foot of an ancient old pine, Diluc is struck with an image so incongruent with logical reasoning that he stops short.

Before him, slumped against the tree trunk and appearing half dead, is Kaeya. His face is haggard and exhausted, his eye unnaturally bright in the dark. His normally complicated clothes are now torn and missing from his shoulders. Instead, the whole jacket is crudely crumpled into a ball that has been pressed into and tied to his side. He has the side of his hand, fingers tinged with dry blood, stuffed into his mouth, biting so hard it is bleeding as well. He looks absolutely terrified.

The whole image is so disconcertingly horrifying that Diluc has to turn away for a moment to collect himself. The smell of blood is overwhelming.

When Diluc finds Kaeya in Wolvendom

What the hell happened here?

When he looks again, Kaeya is still staring at him with a wide confused eye, he's shivering violently. He looks as though he's been beaten almost to death and then left to languish in a bush. An old indignance at Kaeya ever being hurt or otherwise set at a disadvantage claws its way to the forefront of his mind despite years of carefully cultivated detachment.

"Kaeya?" He asks cautiously, not approaching because he isn't yet sure why Kaeya is looking at him as though he is about to rip him apart. It's so disturbing Diluc feels his heart pounding in his chest and his throat tightens, this situation is so wrong it aches. Despite everything they have been through and what they both became to one another it has never been like this, not even on that night.

Kaeya has never looked at him with that kind of fear; not really.

Kaeya seems to recognize him, yet the fear persists.

"Kaeya, its me."

Kaeya slowly takes his hand out of his mouth. Diluc winces at the teeth marks left in it. He stares at Diluc still confused. "Are you real?" He eventually asks in a hoarse whisper. He clears his throat and tries to ask more loudly but his voice barely changes. His lips are cracked and bloody.

For an instant, Diluc is shamefully relieved. If delirium is to blame, not surprising with such a vicious wound, then not all is lost. Nothing has been broken that can't be fixed. He has not in someway done something to make Kaeya fear him.

Diluc stays back and explains himself slowly and plainly.

"Yes Kaeya, I'm real. I was in the woods tonight because I had just visited Andrius. I heard something on my way back and I came to investigate. I'm glad I found you, what happened?"

Kaeya looks at him so hard and for so long that Diluc begins to believe that something he'd said in his short explanation was wrong. Then Kaeya dismisses his sword, which Diluc only now realizes had been tightly gripped in the hand laying on the ground, and places both hands on the horrible bandage letting his eyes drift shut.

"Hey!" Diluc involuntarily shouts in alarm, which unintentionally startles Kaeya. "I'm sorry," he holds out a placating hand, "I'm sorry. Let me help you." The sense of urgency pressing at Diluc doesn't surprise him in the least. Kaeya looks to be on the brink of death and Diluc has never ever hated the man to such a degree.

Kaeya leans back from Diluc as far as he can.

Diluc frowns. The motion actually physically hurts.

"Kaeya what are you doing?" His voice takes on an unintentional snappish note. Kaeya doesn't seem to notice.

"I was caught unawares by a rift hound." Kaeya answers weakly

Diluc gasps involuntarily. If this is true that explains the horrid state Kaeya is in and further exemplifies the fact that they don't have time for any nonsense.

"So you cant' touch me." Kaeya finishes gravely

Diluc is already shaking his head, assessing and dismissing the threat as of no consequence. "That's nonsense Kaeya, you're dying. Let me help you."

Kaeya leans out of reach more violently when Diluc nearly touches his arm and then involuntarily screams. He brutally cuts it short and swallows thickly.

"You can't Diluc," He pants closing his eye and then tries again "You can't. The…stuff" he shakes his head frustrated, still leaning away "…the evil…"

Diluc shifts forward again, trying to grab him. He has heard of and had the misfortune to see such horrendous creatures up close. If the wound Kaeya is covering is as grievous as he thinks it is, he needs attention now.

The corrosive effect of wounds afflicted by the hounds and its potential to spread, is not foreign to Diluc either but again, it is of no consequence when considering the severity of Kaeya's injuries.

Kaeya's delerium must be to blame for his confused reluctance to accept help.

Kaeya shifts just out of reach and screams again.

"Diluc! Diluc, please!.... Please." He looks to be on the edge of consciousness "Stop it. You can't. " His breathless pleading forces Diluc to rethink his strategy. Whatever Kaeya is on about, he's liable to kill himself over it which is not Diluc's intention.

"You can't." Kaeya continues, panting. "The badness… it spreads through touch. You'll get sick." He finishes helplessly.

Diluc takes pity on his misguided concern and moves back a couple paces.

"Kaeya, you're very hurt and confused. I know about the corrosion, and I can handle it. If I don't, you'll die." He explains patiently, maintaining his distance "Its not as bad as you think."

"No Diluc, " Kaeya gasps out, he forces his eye open to meet his brother's. His right hand hovers listlessly over the wound as though unsure of whether holding it or avoiding it will provide more relief from the pain. "You never listen. I can feel it. Just listen to me."

"Kaeya," Diluc doesn't want to snap at him, he really doesn't. In all honesty he just wants to get him to safety before it's too late and then generally forget this ever happened. But Kaeya has a tendency to get under his skin, even when he's dying and trying to be good, it's still in his nature to contradict everything. As long as Diluc believes to be the right course of action.

"It would get into you too and make you sick." Kaeya insists

"Kaeya stop worrying about me and listen to what I'm saying."

Kaeya doesn't seem to hear. "And that wouldn't be good."

"Kaeya, stop talking for one minute and listen to me." Diluc snaps anyway. "I can handle whatever you think will happen."

"No, Diluc. Its better me than you," He says breathlessly letting his indecisive hand fall to his side in exhaustion "Better me than you."

Diluc grows furious, frustrated "Could you quit speaking nonsense for once in your life Kaeya" he bites out harshly "just once, could you shut up and listen."

Kaeya opens his eye startled. "I always listen Diluc," he says quietly. "You just never hear."

Diluc ignores him. "No one is going to die here, if you let me help you."

Kaeya regards him with marginally more clarity in his eye than before, but he looks disappointed, as though Diluc has missed some crucial point that's been obvious throughout their conversation.

"If you get sick Diluc, we'll both die." His eye drift shut again "You have to be strong… for me to live."

Diluc grows deadly silent.

This is not strictly true, but he had not considered it.

How much the strength sapping effect of the corrosion of the Abyss would weaken him is anyone's guess. Certainly not as much as Kaeya who seems to have lost more blood than he should be able to and live. But can they afford the chance?

He looks up to the cloudy night and knows that to make it through the notoriously dangerous woods of Wolvendom at night, while under the influence of this venom, could be a trial on his own, but with a helpless, vulnerable Kaeya? It may be impossible.

But what's the alternative? Hunker down? Bank on Kaeya surviving the night when he looks as though a stiff breeze will kill him?

"Diluc," Kaeya says having opened his eye to watch the conflict play across his brother's face. "Its okay."

Diluc frowns at him. Why did he insist on using such nonsensical language? Absolutely nothing about this situation is 'okay'.

Kaeya smiles at the familiar expression "We'll wait till it passes," he says calmly, slurring "We'll be alright."

"At least let me see it." Diluc bargains. No matter what Kaeya says. It needs to be addressed, if he won't let him touch him to redo the dressing then the least Diluc can do is walk him through making a better one; What is there is beyond pitiful.

Kaeya shakes his head. Diluc clenches his teeth. "No. If I do… you'll be… you'll get…" he let's out a pain filled gasp that has Diluc shifting towards him before he remembers himself and drops his hand.

"You'll get… um… bigger," he frowns as though his mouth is being uncooperative "you'll get mad." He settles on this and falls silent.

Diluc sighs heavily, the smell of blood rankles in his nose.

"And the poison stops it." Kaeya adds belatedly

"Stops it?"

Kaeya groans, frustrated "only vision healing,"

Diluc eyes widen in surprise. "I see,"

Diluc shifts on the balls of his feet unsure how to proceed. He's been crouched in this position for the last few minutes, ever since finding this bloody, bedraggled Kaeya cowering in a bush. Its all so surreal it feels like an intensely unsettling dream.

To make matters worse, he knows deep down that Kaeya is right. Even now, the few minor injuries from his session in the arena are in need of some attention. They could easily intensify and fester as they corrode, hampering their ability to navigate the dark forest, stopping him from carrying Kaeya to safety.

Its inevitable. He will have to watch Kaeya, unable to provide any relief until the corrosion has run its course. There is no guarantee that Kaeya will survive either course of action.

Diluc has only ever felt this helpless once before. Is he forever cursed to witness family members die with his hands tied behind his back?

Kaeya sits still and quiet, eye closed but conscious. The pitiful bandages around his middle are saturated red, dripping even. His normally tan skin is a lifeless gray. His breathing is shallow.

Diluc's throat tightens. He rises to his feet looking away.