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Lightning flashed. The dark clouds blocked the light of the sun from the ground. Giant, fast droplets of rain hammered onto the ground. In front of a mansion, surrounded by grapevines, was a dark figure, kneeling in the mud. A red-haired man stood menacingly in front of him. He looked at the glowing icy-blue orb in the other man’s hand with disgust.
“I can’t believe I ever called you my brother.” he spat. “Get out. Don’t ever return. You are nothing but a traitor.”
Kaeya did not look up, still staring at the vision in his palm. Raindrops (too salty for his taste) dripped down his cheeks, and onto the vision.
“Didn’t you hear me?!” he yelled, plunging his greatsword to the ground. “Get out of my sight!”
Not taking his eyes off his brother, Kaeya scrambled to grab his sword and ran with no direction, leaving Diluc standing in the rain. Without looking back, his legs took him to the nearest source of light there was. A Statue of the Seven.
Kaeya wondered, would Barbatos heal a traitor like him? Or would he simply strike him down? He laughed internally. The second option didn’t seem too bad at the moment.
Finally settling down, Kaeya sat facing the statue to let it do its healing as the impact of his actions finally came to him. He let the tears flow. Diluc had… disowned him. He didn’t want him. He was nothing but a good-for-nothing liar and a traitor. He had nowhere to go. Nowhere to call home. If he went to Jean, she surely would side with Diluc. Why would she stand by someone like him? So he cried. He let out all of his feelings, the pain, regret, sadness. He didn’t even realize the glow that began emitting from the statue.
“You’re going to get snot all over my statue if you cry like that,” said a voice.
Kaeya looked up. A hooded figure with white wings sat on the top of Barbatos’ head, chin on their palm. An ethereal glow seemed to emit from them.
Kaeya wasn’t dumb. The moment he arrived in Mondstadt, he had been taught about the Archon who protected this land. This was Barbatos.
“Sorry,” Kaeya said, lowering his head.
They silently stayed like that for a while, Barbatos looking at him intently. The rain still splattered all over the ground, yet the god’s figure was still dry. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Mond, I mean.” said Barbatos, looking at the surroundings.
Kaeya let out a soft hum of agreement.
“You would be a great anemo wielder,” he added, “It’s a shame that Tsaritsa got to you first.”
“What do you mean?”
“What is freedom to you, exactly, Kaeya Alberich?” he floated down, crouching, looking deep into his eyes. “What do you constantly reach for?”
“I- I don’t know.”
Barbatos smiled a little, “Maybe that’s why. Her allogenes, they mirror her.”
A bitter memory presented itself to the front of Kaeya’s mind. “Heartless and cruel?” He did not forget what the Fatui had done to his family.
“I am the God of Wind and Freedom. Morax of Earth and Wealth. And the dearest Tsar… she is ice. Ice and love.”
“Love?” he repeats, words hollow in his mouth.
“Love, child. I met the Tsar, a few thousand years ago, as she had ascended. It may not look of it now, but she was gentle and kind.”
“Why are you here?” Kaeya asked suddenly. His life had fallen apart and this city’s God was talking about his friend.
Barbatos looks at him as if he grew a second head. “Because of you, obviously.” Kaeya was a little confused by that explanation. “You are a Mondstadter, aren’t you?
“Sure, you were born in Khaenri’ah, and their blood flows in you, but you grew up in my nation, didn’t you? You went to the Windblume festival every year, and participated in all the 15 days of the Ludi Harpastum. Even though you do not believe in me, you still went to the Church every Sunday and prayed. Didn’t you do all those things?”
Kaeya opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when he felt the sting of the burns on his hand.
Barbatos sighed, before producing a roll of bandages. “Ragnvindrs always had quite a temper,” he explained, wrapping the cloth around his hand. “One as fiery as their hair. I do blame Diluc for lashing out at you like that, because don’t everybody have the right to explain themselves? But I cannot say it was entirely his fault.” He laughed lightly. “Honestly, revealing your identity not even an hour after your father’s funeral?”
“Yes, now that I think about it, it was very idiotic.”
Tying the bandage up, Barbatos started using his healing powers to numb the pain of the burn. Its teal light glowed brightly against the stormy atmosphere. “Please do be patient with him. There will be time– but don’t take it for granted. There will always be time in Mondstadt. But I believe that someday he would be open to the idea of forgiving you. I love my children very dearly. Neither of you are an exception.”
“Thank you, Lord Barbatos.”
He smiled and cupped one of his hands on Kaeya’s cheek, an unreadable expression on his face. “So long, my child,” and disappeared into a thousand winds, the soft touch still lingering.
-
Kaeya spoke to no one about his encounter with the wind god. He didn’t think anyone would believe him if he did, either. His relationship with his estranged brother grew complicated in the following years. Diluc had left the city for a reason he did not understand, and Kaeya replaced him as the cavalry captain of the Ordo of Favonius.
Sometimes, Kaeya thinks that it was not Barbatos he met that rainy evening, but a hallucination coming from his own guilt to comfort him. But, the wind never fails to remind him. Every week on Sunday Mass, he feels a soft breeze from nowhere in the cathedral. Whenever he rests in front of a Statue of the Seven, the winds lightly whisper to him.
So when a mysterious bard shows up one day in the tavern, he wastes not the chance to buy him a drink. He hasn’t properly been able to thank him.