Chapter Text
Albedo sat amongst the roots of the impossibly large tree, hoping they’d be able to fix their wings enough to get at least a gliding start, they hated being grounded, especially after how many times they’d fallen out of this archons-forsaken tree. They were visited briefly every few days by their archon, Barbatos, who had told them that their saving grace would come soon, but they really didn’t want to wait. They didn’t even know how they got stuck here; all they knew was that their feathers had begun to fall out and they weren’t growing back. They were terrified, to be honest, and terror was an emotion they had only felt once before; the day they died. That was such a long time ago, they barely remembered what it felt like, but in this moment, trying to fly but feeling their own weight send them tumbling to the ground made them remember all at once.
It was an uncomfortable and saddening memory to have buried in their mind, but one they held closely nonetheless. They supposed they could have let it fade away years ago, but for some reason, they kept thinking about it. Before they could get lost in their thoughts, however, they heard the statue of Barbatos come to life, and a whispered curse. With some mild panic, they tried their best to climb into the tree and out of sight before they were noticed.
Nobody typically came to Windrise now, so having someone just… appear worried them. A quiet gasp left them when they heard someone call out to them; a man, it sounded like. The voice wasn’t that of their archon, but a part of them hoped it was the 'savior' their archon had told them about. The fact their archon hadn’t told them when only made their failed-flight anxiety worse. Peeking through the branches, Albedo was able to pinpoint the source of the voice; a man with red hair, a nice coat, and seemingly angry. For some reason, the man seemed familiar. They couldn’t quite tell why, given that they were higher up than he was, so they made a risky move, shifting themself so they could reach the branch below, carefully traversing the branches as quietly as possible, but much to their dismay, they brushed a few too many loose branches and caught the attention of the man below, causing them to abandon the branch they were on just then to one slightly above, just out of view.
Thank Barbatos.. Albedo thought to themself, thanking their archon for the luck they had to not be seen, but in their thankfulness, they let themself lean too far to the side in another attempt to see the man, and almost fell from their branch, rustling the leaves again, and this time, the man had begun to approach the tree, calling out to them.
Before Albedo could move, the man began to climb the tree, and Albedo watched in curiosity, sneaking their way closer just in case the man slipped; they really didn’t want someone getting hurt on their watch.
Thankfully they did, because not long after thinking that, the man lost his grip and would have fallen had Albedo not shot over and managed to grab tightly onto the man's arm. As soon as the man looked up at them, they froze, fear in their eyes. Their hair was wild from moving around in the branches (and sleeping there, not that they’d admit they slept in the tree), and they were scared of what would potentially happen next.
Once the man had regained his footholds and could hang onto the tree on his own, Albedo let go, pulling their hand back into the leaves. With a quick glance at how the man held the tree, Albedo was sure he’d be okay on his own, and so he attempted a retreat, hearing the man speak.
“Who..” the man began, before pausing and seemingly trying to find the words. “Who are you…” he finished, and Albedo stopped in their tracks. Pursing their lips into a line, they paused. Could they answer? They barely knew this person, but what if it was the savior their archon had mentioned? Could they risk it? Was it too dangerous? With a quiet huff, Albedo decided to answer.
“I am… Albedo.”
Their words were simple and sweet, their voice a little hoarse from disuse. In this quiet moment Albedo was focused on everything and yet nothing all at once, and they were about to flee once again until he spoke once more.
“My name is Diluc. What are you doing here?” He spoke, and Albedo glanced back into the safety of the tree before letting out yet another quiet huff and answering again.
“I’m stuck. My…” the angel caught themself before speaking, debating on how to answer. As they paused, the red-haired man that Albedo now knew as Diluc, climbed into the tree, sitting on the branch below them, listening closely. “My feathers are falling out. I can’t fly.” They answered, and one wing lifted to expose the problem. As the wing lifted, even more feathers fell out, justifying their point. Diluc stared in awe, having never seen someone with actual wings before.
Albedo lowered their wing as carefully as possible, and they watched the feathers drift below, lamenting their loss immediately. “Where did you come from?” Diluc asked, and to his own surprise, he felt curious, which lead to him feeling bad for the figure in front of him. What even were they? “What are you?” He asked, voicing his confusion almost immediately. This caused the angel to pause, looking at Diluc with a small smile. They found his questioning amusing, a welcome distraction from their predicament. So they shifted a little bit, settling into a more comfortable position.
As the wind blew warmly through the tree, Albedo seemed to open up a little more, knowing their archon was watching over them. “Do you believe in the Anemo Archon?” Albedo spoke, and watched as Diluc scoffed a bit. Their appalled look lasted only a moment before Diluc spoke.
“Believe in him? He’s the biggest thorn in my side. I see him every day trying to convince me to sell him booze.”
Albedo calmed, chuckling a little bit. They’d spoken to their archon shortly after their fall, right after the vision, actually. Barbatos went by Venti amongst the citizens of Mondstadt, and Albedo had learned that Venti was a frequent patron of the Angel’s Share Tavern. That’s where Albedo remembered him. They’d never seen him personally, but Venti had shown them a photo of himself, a young-looking boy with blond hair that had been introduced as Aether, Diluc, and a blue-haired man introduced to them as Kaeya, Diluc’s adoptive brother.
“He told me quite a bit about you..” Albedo said, a soft chuckle escaping them as they spoke. Diluc’s brow furrowed in suspicion, quickly quelled by Albedo’s assurance that it was all good things. “Anyway, Archons have angels, we assist in passing out Visions to those with strong wills or desires. I am one of those angels. I don’t know why but my feathers began falling out and now I can’t fly.. So I’ve been trapped in this tree for about a week and a half now.” Albedo said, their voice wavering at the thought of being stuck. They didn’t want to be stuck in Teyvat, they wanted to return to their home-realm. It wasn’t quite Celestia, but it was home to all of the Seven’s angels, and they wanted to return home more than anything.
Diluc hung onto their words intently, and as Albedo mentioned being stuck for a week, his face paled a little. Was this why Venti pushed him to come to Windrise? Did Venti expect him to help Albedo somehow? Where would he even begin? How does one even begin to help an angel of all things? His only experience with the divine was Venti appearing in his life and exposing his real identity. He was most definitely going to be speaking to Venti upon returning to the city, and oh boy did he have some words for —
“Well, well, well… Look at you two getting along.”
“Lord Barbatos! What are you doing here?” Albedo said, their face brightening at the sight of their archon, and Diluc turned with a sour expression, one that was met with a joyous grin from the Archon in question as he settled amongst the branches with two in front of him.
“Hello Venti.” Diluc greeted curtly, and Venti feigned hurt, clutching his heart and leaning back so that he slipped from the branch, lifted quickly back onto it by a small burst of wind. “What are you doing here?” His voice was far colder than Albedo’s, which caught the angel’s attention, keeping their eyes on Diluc for only a moment before returning to their archon’s face.
“ Well , I thought I’d stop by, see how two of my favorite people are coming along,” he hummed, glancing between Diluc and Albedo, seeing just how stark the differences between the two of them were. One looked at him with adoration and praise, and the other looked at him like he wanted nothing more than to throttle him then and there. “You two seem to be getting along well, looks like I made a good choice.” He chuckled, crossing his arms and grinning.
Albedo glanced back at Diluc, and it clicked to them. Diluc was meant to be their savior…
Diluc met their eyes and the look of annoyance faded. What had Venti meant about ‘making a good choice’? Did he seriously plan them meeting? He couldn’t believe it, but upon looking at Venti once more, the evil twinkle in his eyes told him everything he needed to know. Of course he had. This was Venti, what would make him think anything different?
“Don’t look at me like that, Master Diluc. You make it seem like I’m some kind of criminal, yeah?” Venti teased, and with a huff, Diluc began to shimmy his way off of the branch, climbing back down the tree. Albedo followed slightly, moving on the branch they sat on to watch him as he made his way down. It was clear they were tempted to follow, but they didn’t want to risk getting hurt on the way down. “Go on. Go get him.” Venti said, leaning forward to shoo them away, and after a moment, Albedo nodded and went to shimmy down the tree, being careful of their wings.
As they touched the ground, their bare feet against the wood of the tree’s roots, they quickly turned to see where Diluc had gone, sighing in brief relief when they saw him standing against the Statue of the Seven; clearly he had been trying to leave but, thanks to Venti once again, the Statue wasn’t responding. Albedo took this opportunity to approach him, realizing now how much taller the other was. “Master Diluc?” They spoke, not entirely sure what they were going to say to him, after all, they’d only just met, and Albedo held the knowledge that Diluc was meant to help them fix their wings. Diluc had no idea what Venti had planned for the two of them, and to be honest, neither did Albedo. What was Diluc going to do differently that Albedo couldn’t? Their feathers kept falling out and not even they knew a cure for it.
Diluc turned to face them, and seemed a little surprised that Albedo had followed him out of the tree. When he glanced back into the tree, he noticed that Venti had disappeared again, and huffed a little bit before looking back at the angel. “Yes? Is there something I can do for you? Better yet, do you know what Venti meant by ‘making a good choice’?” he asked, and Albedo nodded. After all, they did; but did they tell him? What if Diluc didn’t want anything to do with helping them?
“Well… what Lord Barbatos had meant by that was…” Albedo paused once again, because even thinking of telling Diluc about his supposed role as their ‘savior’ scared the life out of them. “Was that you’re meant to help me somehow?” They finished, their sentence curling into a question at the end, almost as if they didn’t understand their words either. “To help me fly again…” Came the final bit, and Diluc’s eyebrow rose in disbelief.
Before Albedo could refute the sentence, Diluc began to speak. “I’m supposed to help you fly again? How exactly am I supposed to do that?” the redhead asked, but the look on his face showed no disdain at the idea. “It’s not like this is an everyday occurrence..” he said, and Albedo nodded. They knew it was true. Angels didn’t just appear often, it was a rare occurrence to even see them. Albedo didn’t know how to answer, so all they did was shrug. Diluc sighed and just gestured for them to follow him.
“Come with me. I’m sure we can figure it out somehow.” Diluc said, and Albedo followed immediately, and just as the two began to walk away, the Statue roared to life once again, and Diluc let out a relieved sigh, making his way over to the statue. “Here. Take my hand.” He said, offering a hand to Albedo, and both were shocked when Albedo reached out and took it. Although it was a bit hesitant, Albedo held his hand and shut his eyes tight as they felt the wind whip around them.
Once they felt Diluc let go, they opened their eyes, looking in awe as the Mondstadt scenery filled their vision. The most they had ever seen was the tree at Windrise, so seeing such beautiful scenery made them smile. With a click of his tongue, Diluc caught Albedo’s attention once more, gesturing for him to follow once more as the two made their way down to the Winery.
“What is this?” Albedo asked, glancing towards the taller man.
“This.. is the Dawn Winery. It will also be your home until we can figure out what happened and how to fix it.” The taller man explained, making a vague gesture towards the grandiose building. As the pair approached, Albedo had only one thought in mind.
This is not my home