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You cannot make a fire with out fuel, oxygen and heat. The aspects of a fire triangle that was once plastered on a wall of a classroom Aether attended out of the curiosity offered to him are burned into his memory at this point. To kill a fire, you take one of the sides away. It’s the easiest thing to remember about any kind of fire.
But you don’t throw water over an oil fire, and Aether burns with a fuel source that will only be put out once all of it burns away.
So here arrives Natlan, burning too brightly for anyone to grasp, and here is Aether, his fingers curling around a burn left shiny and hurting.
Perhaps, in Natlan, where Pyro skitters across the wild dry grasses that it lays claim to, the multi-scale fire triangles of wildfires are a more appropriate measure.
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The first time Aether indwells a Saurian, it was an accident with a dying creature and it’s child. The feeling was that the world was too small and he was too large for such a small thing.
And when it finally releases him, Aether curls into the dirt, Paimon nervously rubbing a hand down his back as he clutches at the front of his chest and dry heaves into the earth.
The saurian hatchling only peers curiously at him, orange eyes boring holes into his own, head tilted as it coos at him. It makes a clumsy attempt at mimicking Paimon, and when it doesn’t work, it stubbornly wriggles its way under Aether’s arms, and it’s there, nudging the top of its head against Aether’s chin.
Aether takes several minutes in that strange domain to recollect itself, curled around a saurian and letting Paimon start undoing his hair to redo his braid.
And then finally, when the world rights itself and Aether no longer feels too big for a world too small for him, he gets up on shaky legs and staggers after the little Tepetlisaur Whelp, Paimon’s hand grounding him to the present.
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He names the little one Eltanin and Paimon, after figuring out what it means, almost yells at him for being uncreative before only grumbling and letting the matter go.
Eltanin doesn’t seem to mind, and is content to sit in his arms and grab at his fingers.
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But Aether, you cannot run with the hares and hunt with the wolves. Something has to give.
But Aether, this world is far too small, and you are too big. Oh Aether, aren’t you suffering such a terrible thing?
But Aether, please tell the audience this: how long does it take for radiation to fully fade away?
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As Kachina races ahead to meet with her friends, Paimon excitedly following after, Aether slows his footsteps until he comes to a complete stop at the end of the bridge, watching from the back as Kachina introduces Paimon to them, before pausing and turning around.
“Aether!” She calls, waving a hand at him. “You need to meet Mualani and Kinich!” she exclaims, jogging back to him and grabbing his hand. He lets himself be dragged to the two, stumbling after the energetic girl.
“So, you’re Aether, right?” Mualani asks, sticking a hand out to shake his hand. Aether only tentatively reaches back, the saurian indwelling experience still fresh in his mind.
Almost like – the world doesn’t feel very real, when he dragged back together the atoms that made up his body. “That would be me,” he manages to say, shaking her hand. “I’m guessing you’re Mualani?”
“Yep!” she says, talking a mile a minute. Aether lets her ramble, content in staying silent and letting Paimon take over the conversation.
He ignores Kinich’s eyes on him as he follows after the group into the stadium.
---
He sits in a quiet corner of the stadium and watches the proceedings, and he can only hope to wonder about it all when Kachina claws her way to victory.
War is such an ugly, ugly word, and Aether is an unfortunate veteran of far too many of them. He supposes that it’s a natural consequence of his existence, as old as he is. He wonders sometimes – when this sort of thing wasn’t something to worry about?
Natlan’s grass is dry. Fire is easy to create here.
---
When Atea is suffering from her abyssal wounds, consuming her as Mualani worries, it’s not even a thought spared when a starbursts and radiation forms on Aether’s fingertips.
“Do you trust me?” he asks, kneeling across from her, and she can only nod. Aether accepts her consent, and begins his long work.
And later, when she asks about how much time he’s managed to buy her, he is apologetic in what he could not do. “I couldn’t burn all of it away,” he admits, guilty. “I’m sorry.”
“But it’s enough,” Atea replies, her smile easy and free. “you’ve given me the gift of time.”
And Aether, starbursts burned into his palms, can only stare with wide, wide eyes.
---
And when Kachina is lost to the Night Kingdom, Aether’s only visible reaction wring his hands into his scarf, unsure on what to do.
And when Mauvika asks if he can help rescue Kachina and help her get home, what other choice would he even have?
The current north star of a world far from Teyvat is Polaris, a pole star that aligns with the northern axis, lined up to guide any ship home. No one in Teyvat uses the stars to navigate the seas, but Aether’s worked with less before.
No compass can find a magnetic north in Teyvat, but sometimes there used to be a misconception that moss grows on the north of trees and there is always a genetic memory leading every bird home.
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When the exit closes in the Night Kingdom, Aether almost reaches out, fully intending to rip apart the thin fabric of space that separates the surface from the Night Kingdom. The only reason why the starburst doesn’t leave his hands is Mauvika having ripped it apart herself, allowing all of them to return home.
Legacy exists in the holder, but Aether is only meant to exist as a witness, and not someone who impacts the events happening in front of him. He’s not supposed to leave behind something in the worlds he visits.
Of course, it’s Teyvat where he does such a poor job of it. A boy with too much love to give, is his guess.
He won’t speak much on the Night Kingdom, as terrible as the experience was. He truly has nothing to say on the subject, so please don’t ask him about it.
---
At the end of it all – after the Night Kingdom, after returning Kachina home to the Children of Echoes, Aether takes the time to explore Natlan’s wilds. He finds himself wandering these more often – as if the world of humans are beginning to tire him so. And yet – he cannot help but love them anyways, and so he will always return, no matter what.
A fire needs fuel, heat and oxygen to burn. For Aether, who runs on his own fuel, will only ever need hydrogen to burn away at his core, until nothing remains. But he’s here now, with plenty to spare.
Today, he’ll wander Natlan’s wilds and see all there is to see whilst he waits for the Pyro Archon’s plan to bear fruit. Tomorrow, he’ll ask Kachina’s parents if he can take her camping with her friends. And in the days after – he’ll try and live for himself again.