Return to the City

"Hello There" -- Characters speaking

'General Kenobi' -- Character thoughts

"You are" 'a bold one' -- Invocations, Thoughts/Conversations in flashbacks

The Negotiator -- Titles

"Ah yes, the Negotiator" -- Xeroc speaking

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Exiting from the Temple of the Lion, two women emerged from the entrance portal, one of them wearing a relaxed expression while the other acted downtrodden, a sulking pout on her face as if her dog had just made off with the last slice of pizza.

"Haah, I told you this before, but the temple was emptied out years ago. You'd have a much better chance at meeting Lord Barbatos, than finding any important relics or antiquities left behind within the temple." The witch in purple sighed, chastising the woman walking beside her.

"But still, I looked everywhere. Everywhere! Yet, I couldn't find a single antique anywhere!" Like a petulant child, she began stomping her feet on the ground, kicking up some dust as she left imprints on the ground. "...Seriously, why couldn't they leave a few behind?"

"Because those relics are tributes to one of the Four Winds, namely Vennessa—the Lionfang Knight. She was the first Grand-Master, and the one who established the Knights of Favonius after spearheading the rebellion that freed Mondstadt from the rule of the old aristocracy," Lisa explained to the sulking woman.

Calamitas nodded heavily, not uttering a word as she let out a small grunt in response. She crinkled her eyebrows, the expression mirroring her annoyance with the past situation, as she'd spent an entire hour scrounging through the temple, yet her search yielded no results.

Before her temper could flare up any further, she shelved the thoughts and her irritation regarding her failure of a search, distracting herself with something else that'd been bothering ever since she exited the temple.

Namely, the fact that she could sense Erden sneaking up from behind her and Lisa, yet she didn't hear any footsteps approaching them. Calamitas looked to her side, noting that the witch in purple did not stop walking, oblivious to the presence of the unexpected, yet welcome figure.

She didn't call him out, nor did she stop and turn around. Curious as to what he was trying to do, she just kept on walking alongside Lisa, her demeaner being quite relaxed, compared to moments prior. Steadily, she felt him approaching, getting closer and closer, until...

"I like ya cut, G."

As soon as she heard those words, she turned around as quickly as she could, but unfortunately for her, Erden was slightly faster.

Pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat.

All of a sudden, she felt his hand land on top of her head as he aggressively began to give her head-pats, while ruffling her hair in a rough manner.

"Argh, do not!" she shrieked, grabbing his hand, prying it off of her head. Lifting her leg, she then brought it down on his left foot as hard as she could. Regrettably, it didn't do anything as he was wearing boots made from a material more durable than the likes of titanium and adamantite.

Pat, pat, pat, pat.

Using his other hand, he started patting her head again, his touch a lot softer this time, at a much slower pace. Even then, she looked quite miffed, yet she didn't tell him to stop as she took her sweet time enjoying the more relaxing head-pats.

"My goodness, you scared me! Had I not stopped in time, you'd have been hit with a really deadly bolt of Electro." Looking towards his left, he saw Lisa standing there, arms folded under her ample chest, gazing at him with eyebrows furrowed in indignance, while her grimoire floated behind her.

He stopped patting Calamitas's head, evoking a reaction as she fumed silently. Staring at Lisa for a second or two, he raised his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it as he tilted his head, letting out only a single word.

"...Ehe."

Hearing his response, she could feel her lips twitching, a reflection of her simmering vexation as she massaged her temples, trying the dampen the surfacing headache. 

"Anyways, please don't sneak up on us like that again, because if you do, let's just say that the outcome... would be quite shocking," she cowed, unintentionally making a pun. "Furthermore, where is Kaeya? Last time I saw him, he was supposed to be with you."

Crunch, crunch.

A scrunching noise brought the group's attention off to the side, finding Kaeya standing perfectly still, a bag of potato chips in one hand, the other scrounging inside for some more chips as he chewed on some potato chips.

"Uhm... hey?" He waved his hand, greeting them upon being discovered after he swallowed the chips in his mouth. Lisa and Calamitas looked on unimpressed, while Erden stared at him, the corners of his lips turned upwards as he tried to hold back his laughter.

'The art of standing so incredibly still that he became invisible to the naked eye... pfft— hehehe... I can't believe he actually tried it out.'

"...How long have you been standing there?" she asked, having an inkling of how long he'd been present, but she didn't come to a conclusion, as said conclusion would just annoy her even more.

But much to her chagrin, the response he gave happened to be within her expectations as he spoke, "That is... from the moment he began sneaking up from behind you."

"Phooooo... and you simply just stood there, without saying anything... why?" she probed, her eyes half-closed with a cold smile on her face, searching for an answer that wouldn't further heighten her irritation.

Seeing the expression on her face, a cold sweat dripped down his neck. He knew that look—it was the same look she gave him that day when he forgot to return a borrowed book on time. Remembering what she did to him that day... 

With a burning resolve to avoid having a repeat of that day, he put on his best poker face as he talked, though there was slight nervousness in his expression that couldn't be hidden. "W-Well... I was just wondering how long it would take for you to notice me... yeah, that's it. Nothing more."

Squinting her eyes, she scrutinized him carefully, searching for any hints of deceit. She spent a few moments sizing him up, and would've continued to do so if something else hadn't caught her attention, causing her to just drop the matter altogether, much to the relief of Kaeya.

Finding something amiss, she looked upwards, catching sight of the dark, stormy clouds that covered the blues, realizing that the last temple had yet to be dealt with.

"Haahh... seeing as you're here, and with the sky looking like it would drop a storm on us, I assume that Amber, Lumine, and Paimon have yet to succeed in their endeavor," she spoke, releasing a sigh of exhaustion.

"Then, should we go over there and help them out? It's best we all return as soon as possible, no? Wouldn't want Jean to lose sleep over this, that worrywart." This time, it was Kaeya who spoke, realizing that he was no longer in danger of being electrocuted by a fuming witch.

"I suppose that would be the best course of action." Lisa accepted his suggestion, and turned towards Erden, finding that she wasn't the only one to take his advice into consideration.

With a snap of his fingers, Crysthamyr appeared once more, this time flying out directly from his shadow and landing down on the ground. 

No one said anything, because there was nothing that needed to be said. Without a word, they all mounted Crysthamyr—with Lisa having some trouble due to her wearing high-heels—the shadow dragon being large enough to carry all of them while still having some space left over.

Once the entire group was adequately perched on the back of the dragon, Erden gave the signal for him to take off. The dragon, flapping his jet-black wings, started ascending and flying according to Erden's instructions, who was guided by Kaeya.

Along the way, Crysthamyr kept a lower altitude compared to before, mindful of the passengers on his back while keeping an eye on the whipping gales that raged across the sky.

Due to the turbulent storms and the murky, dark clouds covering the sky, it was hard to tell exactly what time of the day it was. Luckily, Erden's Cell-Phone came with a multitude of functions other than just playing music.

Taking it out of his Inventory, he noticed the screen displaying the current time, according to Teyvat's standards.

'5:30 PM, huh. We left Mondstadt around 2... so that means it took Kaeya and I, three hours to reach and deal with the Temple of the Wolf. Not as fast as I would've liked, but it is what it is.'

"Looks like it'll be some time before we get there." Sitting in his lap right in front, Calamitas spoke, her legs straightened out as she leaned into him.

"About an hour, according to Kaeya." Wrapping his arms around her frame, he rested them on her thighs. "What took you so long in that temple? We were done with ours within an hour, and got here fifteen minutes ago."

"We also got finished within an hour. But I thought it'd be a waste if we were to leave just like that, so I decided to explore through the rest of the temple," she said, telling him the reason for her tardiness.

"And...?"

"And it was a complete waste of time! There was barely anything to see, almost every room and corridor was identical, with barely any differences. Not to mention, I found no relics or antiques that we could keep as souvenirs!" Her voice was particularly loud at the end, drawing the attention of their fellow passengers.

"Woah there, you alright?" Kaeya asked, a concerned expression on his face.

He had a vague idea about her sudden mood change, judging from the few words he heard in the last sentence, and also from Lisa, who had already briefed him about what happened in the Temple of the Lion, which wasn't exactly much, as nothing noteworthy had happened on the excursion.

Similarly, Kaeya told her about his time in the Temple of the Wolf, drawing her full attention when he mentioned the presence of an Abyss Mage, and the appearance of a certain red-headed claymore wielder.

"Not to worry, everything's alright." Calamitas waved off his concern, centering her focus back on Erden, who had a disappointed expression on his face.

"You... do realize that we didn't go to the temples to sightsee, right?" he questioned, hoping to jog her memory, and remind her why they each went to one of the temples.

In the face of his inquiry, she grinned shamelessly, responding with not a single hint of remorse in her tone. "Oh, I know, but you also know how I am when it comes to anything that piques my interest, especially ancient landmarks..."

Unexpectedly, she lowered her voice significantly, whispering the next few words into his ear, her breath caressing his ear, sending slight chills down his spine. "Besides, we're in a new world, you can't tell me I can't explore ancient ruins and temples in a new world! That's blasphemy!"

"Haahh, I get what you mean, but we could just go and explore on our own time. There's a time and place for everything, Callie."

His advice fell on deaf ears, as she kept that same grin on her face, shaking her head in refusal.

"...Good grief, just forget it." He shook his head, sighing at her stubbornness. 

"Hehehe, anyways, what about you? You find anything? Did something interesting happen on your end?" Giggling at his reaction, she asked for his side of the story, wondering if he had any luck finding anything worthwhile.

"Mostly found slime condensate and hilichurl masks from the ones we dealt with. Though, we did run into an Abyss Mage at the end..." He briefly recounted his experience to her, trailing off at the end of the sentence.

"Uh-huh, and...?" Calamitas noticed the slight hesitance, leading her to probe for an answer, all the while poking his cheeks to annoy him, hoping that he'd give in.

"...And we happened to run into Batman..." While saying that, he was able to keep a straight face for the most part, although his voice did crack momentarily as he tried to hold back his laughter.

Hearing the nickname given to his adoptive brother, Kaeya chuckled, still remembering the baffled expression on his face when Erden called him that. He was sure that for as long as he drew breath, the look on his brother's face was a memory he would never forget.

"Who...?" asked a bemused Lisa, not familiar with the name.

"There was only one person present, other than us." Kaeya, being the "helpful" knight that he is, tried to playfully enlighten her on the identity of the recipient of the nickname, dropping a hint, yet choosing not to reveal his name.

Lisa gave it some thought, recalling Kaeya mentioning the appearance of the red-haired, former knight-turned-winery-owner. 

"Wait, by that, you don't mean... you're not referring to Diluc Ragnvindr, are you?" she asked, looking at the both of them, repeatedly swiveling her head. 

She kept alternating between Kaeya, who had a shit-eating grin on his face, and Erden, who chortled at her reaction. The looks on their faces told her that something humorous and mortifying had happened, that is... humorous for them, and mortifying for Diluc.

The realization left her massaging her temples at the silliness of their actions.

She'd learned a few things about him from Jean, who was his subordinate during his time in the Knights of Favonius, and according to her, Diluc used to be quite the upbeat and energetic person, only becoming how he is after the incident of his father's death.

Although she had the pleasure of meeting the man herself on a few occasions whenever she'd drop by for a drink at the Angel's Share Tavern, she'd mostly known him to be a stoic, and gruff person.

Of course, it didn't help that he'd always act so indifferent towards everyone, always wearing a blank expression on his face.

"I just hope that whatever you did, did not end up leaving him irate, considering that he is one of the most influential individuals within Mondstadt," she advised, hoping that their newfound, temporary allies, did not create conflict with the tycoon of the wine industry.

"No need to worry, Lisa. I know Diluc well, and I know well enough that strange nicknames wouldn't anger him." Kaeya spoke, reassuring her. "At best, he'd be slightly flummoxed by the incident, but then he'd move on like nothing happened."

"I sure hope so." She didn't sound entirely convinced, but that was understandable. After all, she did not know Diluc as well as Kaeya did, for their bond was once as strong as steel. But bathed in mindless flame, even steel can become brittle enough to shatter from the lightest breeze.

"Uhh, sorry to butt in..." Bringing their focus back to her, Calamitas pointed her finger up towards the sky. Turning their gazes to where she pointed, they noticed the storm starting to wane and lose momentum.

It took a few minutes, but gradually, the dark clouds that engulfed the region of Mondstadt began to part, revealing a clear sky with a healthy hue of blue and orange, signifying the current state of the day.

"Looks like they were able to get it done after all." Erden mused, a minute smile on his face as he acknowledged their efforts, before moving on, deciding to think and plan over the next course of action.

"Yes... and now I feel silly for worrying over them, especially Amber." muttered Lisa, her tone regretful, yet there was a small smile on her face. Kaeya didn't bother saying anything, but his relaxed shoulders said all that needed to be said.

'It's a relief that nothing happened to her. After all, out of all the members of the knights, she's the most fun to tease.'

"With the storm no longer being present, I think we can finally speed up," announced Erden, grinning to himself.

"What are you talk—!" Kaeya questioned what he was on about, but the realization hit him when he saw the devious grin on Erden's face. "Oh crap... don't you dare!"

With the storm having passed, there was no need to worry about the tempestuous gales that reigned through the sky. On Erden's signal, Crysthamyr began flapping his wings at a much faster rate than before, accelerating and ascending to a higher altitude.

The knights on his back were doing their best to stay seated, taking hold of his scales while making sure their belongings stayed where they belonged, like Lisa's hat, which she made sure didn't get sent flying away. 

On the other hand, Erden and Calamitas calmly sat in their spot, not even having the decency to look bothered, at all.

"Too fast, too fast!" screamed Kaeya, trying his best to talk over the buffeting wind, as his hair and earring swaying wildly from the winds generated by the speed at which they flew at. A few seconds later, the dragon began slowing down, returning to its prior pace.

Seeing as they were no longer in danger of freefalling straight into the ground, the two knights breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, they looked at Erden covering his mouth, his shoulders shaking and eyes crinkled—he was laughing, they were fighting for their lives just moments prior, and he was laughing.

Seeing his reaction, their lips started to twitch. Lightning crackled around them, and the air began to freeze, as the present members of the Knights of Favonius set about getting their revenge. But their revenge was never meant to be. As soon as he saw them preparing their "attacks", Erden unfurled his wings, hightailing it out of there.

His sudden choice of actions left them dumbfounded, and the budding sparks of electricity and ice waned, until they were no more. The staggered knights looked towards Calamitas for answers, but she just sat there shrugging her shoulders in a manner saying 'what can you do?'

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After the miniscule fiasco, the rest of the flight went by quietly, and without any hiccups. The two knights gave Erden the silent treatment for the rest of the ride, even after he ended up apologizing, albeit reluctantly, muttering to himself, "It's just a prank, bro."

Traveling at a steady pace, it took them about half an hour to reach their destination, that is the Temple of the Falcon.

Approaching closer to the temple entrance, they saw the blonde traveler and the Outrider walk out of the entrance, their guards up and faces tense.

Scanning her immediate surroundings, Amber looked upwards, finding the shadow dragon hovering above, along with her fellow knights sitting on his back, waving at her. Seeing the familiar faces, Amber let down her guard, a relieved smile showing on her face.

Taking a few steps back, the two cleared the area, giving the dragon enough space to land on to the ground, a few meters from the temple entrance. The two then stepped closer, walking towards the dragon, while the others got off of the dragon.

"Lisa, Kaeya, it's good to see you! Wait, if you guys are here, then that means you've already dealt with both temples?" Amber exuberantly greeted her seniors, also raising a question about their sudden appearance at the same time.

"That's right. Although there were a few bumps here and there, we were able to deal with both temples without any major problems. What about you? From the looks of it, It seems that you two took your sweet time strolling through this temple."

Kaeya, being the ever roguish senior, took the chance to bull— tease his junior. Her reaction turned out to be as he expected—puffing her cheeks while staring at him in indignance, all the while trying to deny his claim.

"We did not take our sweet time strolling through the temple! We just... traversed the temple at a slower pace, that's all!" she said in the most serious tone she could muster, while Lumine merely stared at her with the driest look possible, not believing what she'd just heard.

"...Then, I suppose all those stories and details regarding Mondstadt's history that I learned about, must've been from the wind whispering to me..." she drawled out slowly.

The statement from the blonde traveler caused the Outrider to pale significantly, all the while her seniors just stared at her with varying emotions—Lisa released a disappointed sigh, while the grin on Kaeya's face reached his ears, having found some blackm- teasing material.

Lacking the vigor to start scolding the spiritless Outrider, who was currently trying her best to look as small as possible, Lisa adjured, "We will talk about this later... while Jean is present." As soon as she said that, Amber became still as a statue, only one thought going through her mind.

'Ah... it's so over for me.'

While the knights bickered with each other, Erden quietly walked up beside Lumine and greeted her with a nod. Once she responded back, he asked, "So, how'd things go on your side? Encounter anything out of the usual?"

"Other than the temple being infested with hilichurls, and Stormterror's power source being a suspiciously placed rock of elemental energy, there was nothing out of the ordinary," she said in a deadpan tone, giving him a sideways glance.

"You sound... cranky. Is everything alright?" he asked, curious about the reason behind her irritation.

"I'm not cranky, you must be imagining things." she stated, her tone hinting at slight annoyance, as she started getting defensive all of a sudden. 

"Okay, now you definitely sound cranky," he joked, but she didn't seem to treat as such as she unexpectedly snapped, and began talking to him in a belligerent tone of voice. "And what if I am? What's it to you?"

Her reaction brought a frown on his face, causing him to retort back. "Hey, no need to get so upset, I was simply asking out of concern, but looks like there is no need for me to do so."

Saying his piece, he turned away from her and started walking towards Calamitas, completely missing the regretful look on Lumine's face. Approaching Calamtas, he found her scratching underneath Crysthamyr's chin, a frown visible on her face.

"That girl, Lumine... she didn't need to be so rude to you," she told Erden, feeling dissatisfied with the blonde traveler's behavior. Erden shook his head, putting out her simmering vexation before it set about festering into something worse.

"So you heard that, huh? Well, I'm also at fault for pushing her buttons needlessly, even though she told me to stop. So let's just drop the subject completely, and let her cool off a bit," he suggested.

"...Fine, If that's your choice." Accepting his suggestion, she tugged at his sleeve, gesturing over to Kaeya who was waving at them, while Lisa had seemingly decided on Amber's fate, the girl in question staggering over, as if she was a zombie.

"Are you guys just going to keep dilly-dallying, or are we finally going to return to the city?" The Cavalry Captain asked the two, sarcasm lacing his tone. Lisa on the other hand, seemed just about done with everyone's shenanigans, and simply wanted to turn in for the day.

Both Erden and Calamitas rolled their eyes at his question, nevertheless he dismissed Crysthamyr and turned towards the blonde traveler, while Calamitas walked over to the knights to finally prepare for a direct return to the city.

A distance away, Lumine stood alone, her attention taken by a multitude of thoughts within her mind. She was only brought out of her musings when out of nowhere, someone shook her shoulders.

Snapping back to reality, she was met with a black robe covering a broad chest. Tilting her head upwards, she found emerald-green eyes staring at her.

"We're leaving...! You coming or not?" Erden asked in a somewhat loud voice, startling her. It took her a few seconds to respond, but she was able to nod in affirmation, giving him an answer.

Letting go of her, he walked away satisfied. Watching him stroll away along with the others, she once again found a few thoughts conflicting inside her head. Only this time, she shelved them to the back of her mind, choosing to ponder over them later as she followed after the group.

And so, casting the eventual rays of light onto the land, the setting sun dipped beyond the horizon. Spending a few minutes walking, the group returned to the city that had finally been freed from the clutches of Stormterror... or had it?

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fin

Anyways, have you guys ever felt that you have a whole idea planned out in your head, but when you sit down to write, your head just goes empty, or is it just me?