//------------------------------// // 06.5- Freiheit // Story: The Chalk Prince and the Clover // by FrostTheWolf //------------------------------// In the world of Teyvat, the city of Mondstadt was no stranger to handling conflict and crises that would normally shake a nation. The history of the city had been written through the tales of rebellion and revolution. Yet these days, many tales have been lost to the passage of time, flowing away like dandelion seeds after a gentle breeze came through. Bards would sing songs about the legacies of heroes, but many folk these days see their words as just songs rather than tales of someone’s life.  Yet, even after what transpired with Stormterror and when unreconciled stars rained from the sky, Mondstadt endured. Not just because of the action of the Knights of Favonius, but an honorary knight who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Though, as of this moment, a different kind of crisis was taking place. It was originally thought to be rather small at first, but as time passed, the acting grandmaster of the knights, Jean Gunnhildr, grew concerned. Two members of the Knights of Favonius have been missing for some time. Albedo, Chief Alchemist and the Captain of the Investigation Team and Klee, the Spark Knight. At first, she was led to believe that Albedo was looking for Klee after she had escaped her confinement cell to go play. However, when one of Albedo’s students informed her that the two of them went to go inspect a project that he had been working on in the ruins of the Thousand Winds Temple, the dandelion knight used whatever means she could in order to try and get some answers. Unfortunately, her efforts to try and shed some light on the situation did not work out the way Jean wanted. When she had the outrider, Amber, go investigate the ruins to see if there were any signs of them, all she could find was the body of a ruin guard blown to pieces and whatever was left of Timeaus’ project. When Jean tried to talk with Albedo’s other assistant, Sucrose, about what might’ve happened, she was too scared to even speak to her. Lastly, when she tried to talk to Mona, the astrologist who had only moved to Mondstadt some time ago, her attempts at reading the constellations of both Albedo and Klee didn’t entirely fill her with confidence. Mona was able to see their constellations, but couldn’t get a reading as to where the two of them were at the present moment. Though, the grandmaster of the knights was not going to give up that easily. If anything, there was one more person she had yet to ask. Originally, Jean had thought about asking them first, but decided against it because of the lack of information that she had at the time. Now though, she had a decent amount of information to go off of to explain everything a bit better. Yet, who they were looking for was not at the giant tree by Windrise. Instead, they were on the first floor of the Angel’s Share tavern, face down at the bar as they were trying to speak coherently. “D-dear me! Another mug of you f-fine dandelion wine, if you please-?” “You’ve already had more than enough tonight,” the grandmaster heard a familiar voice as she noticed that Diluc Ragnvindr was behind the counter at the tavern tonight instead of the usual bartender. Though, he did not seem to notice her presence yet, “If you drink anything else, you’ll end up making a mess all over my floor.” “Oh, come on, just this one! Tonight’s already been so much fun.” At first, Diluc was going to respond to the bard. Though, that was when he looked towards the door and saw Jean as she was walking in. “Well, if it isn’t the acting grandmaster. Didn’t expect for you to be here tonight.” “Hello Diluc,” she greeted him, “Charles isn’t here?” “Had to call in sick tonight, so I’m filling in,” the owner of the Dawn Winery told her, “Is there anything I can help you with?” “Actually, I was hoping to talk to Venti, if you don’t mind,” Jean’s words happened to surprise both the bartender and the bard. Though, the tone of the grandmaster’s words gave the implication that what she wanted to talk about was rather important. Much like when they were all gathered here with the honorary knight during the Stormterror incident. Of course, Diluc just only replied with a groan, relieved that the drunken bard was at least someone else’s problem for the time being. “The upper floor is free for if you two wished to talk by yourselves. I still have customers to attend to down here tonight.” The grandmaster smiled, before helping Venti to his feet. The bard was having trouble trying to walk on his own after all the drinks he had, so Jean took it upon herself to assist him up onto the second floor. Though, when they were out of the sight of prying eyes and the other patrons at the tavern, Jean felt Venti touch her shoulder. What she took that as a sign to let go of him as she sat down far away from the stairwell. “It’s been a while since I last saw you,” the bard told her, his voice no longer trying to rhyme like he was singing a song as he looked to the Dandelion Knight, “I believe the last time I was here, we helped put together that thank you celebration for all your hard work.” “That I remember and I appreciate everything that all of you did that day,” Jean replied, before looking at the bard, “Though, unfortunately, I’m not here to reflect back on good times.” “Oh? Then what brings you to me this evening?” Venti raised an eyebrow, his overall appearance looking as if he just shrugged off the impending hangover that he looked to be in moments ago. “Over the last couple of days, two members of the Knights of Favonius have gone missing,” Jean said, before pulling out what looked to be a rough sketch of two people as she handed it to him to take a look at, “Albedo, the Chief Alchemist of Mondstadt, and Klee, the Spark Knight. I’ve already tried various other means in order to try and find out where they were, but all of them have either ended up being dead ends or raised more questions than answers.” Afterwards, Jean took a bit more time to explain the situation more in detail to bring Venti up to speed. Many would think that the grandmaster sharing this kind of information to a mere bard wasn’t the most ideal way to get to the bottom of this. Though, Venti himself was no mere bard. In reality, he was actually the anemo archon Barbatos. The secret involving his identity was something that he only shared to Jean, Diluc and the Honorary Knight that was with them when they were trying to stop Stormterror before he could attack Mondstadt again. In fact, the bard himself treated who he was in the eyes of others… and his true form as two separate entities.  Once Jean was finished, Venti looked back to Jean with a grin on his face. “I see,” he simply replied, “And what do you make of all of this?” “That’s the thing,” Jean explained, “There are a lot of things that we still don’t know. Not only that, but the possibility of foul play cannot be ruled out, even if it’s rather unlikely.” At that point, the windborne bard began to think. While the grandmaster’s concerns were justified, he did not think that someone would have intent behind this. If anything, what was described to him led him to come to another conclusion. “Well, personally, I think that the cause of the problem is different. Elemental energy can be vastly unpredictable when condensed in a rather small space. I’ve learned that from experience.” “I understand what you mean,” the grandmaster acknowledged, “Though, nothing is really going to be done if we just sit here and contemplate what did and did not happen… Do you think you can help us get to the bottom of this? Or at least point us in the right direction?” At first, the bard did not have an answer. Though, a thought soon came to his mind. If nothing about this situation made sense, then why not bring in a friend whose specialities don’t make any sense? “I don’t think I can… but I happen to know an old friend that might.” Later… “So let me get this straight,” the dandelion knight spoke as she and the bard walked up the path towards Thousand Winds Temple. While they were walking, the bard was explaining about who they were going to meet, and hopefully have them get to the bottom of what was going on, “You know a friend of yours that can help us… and this friend is a god? Not one of the archons, but someone else?” “Yup, that’s right,” Venti replied. “T-that doesn’t make sense though,” Jean told her, “Aside from the seven archons and Mondstadt’s four winds, weren’t all the other gods defeated in battle?” “That’s where things get a little… iffy,” the bard let out a sigh, “While there were many gods that participated, there were also many gods that did not take part in the war. Each one of them had their own reasons for doing so, whether that be because they saw themselves as unworthy of the responsibilities that came with being an Archon or because they did not want to see their people get harmed. Though, there is one that even the archons were aware of, but refused to admit it.” “Who would that be?” “Well, instead of just finding a remote corner to sit down and hide, he instead escaped into the endless void. What is now more commonly known as the Abyss. Many gods choose not to venture inside there because of the fear that prolonged exposure would change who you are and twist your personality into someone you no longer recognize,” Venti explained, just as the two of them arrived, “But to him? It didn’t affect him. In fact, you might say that he calls the abyss his home.” “D-doesn’t that mean he’s associated with the Abyss Order though?” the grandmaster asked, concerned that meeting this particular figure would do more harm than good. “Actually, much to the surprise of everyone else, he hates them,” the bard replied, “He feels that everything they’re doing is pointless and that they ‘act like a bunch of children that desperately seek for attention’. His words, not mine.” That left Jean with a lot of questions. Just who exactly was this god? How exactly were they going to help them? More importantly though, how exactly did they know Venti? These questions continued to bounce around inside their head as the bard looked around to make sure that the area was clear and that nothing was lurking around to ambush them. Then, he brought forth the lyre at his waist and began to strum a melodic tune. Follow by the words that came with it.  From chaos comes change,  Where damaged scars can mend.  With this tune I arranged, Hear my voice old friend. At first, nothing seemed to have happened. Though, after some time, the two of them saw what looked to be a vortex in the fabric of reality open behind them. Jean was tempted to draw her weapon, but a motion from Venti had her reconsider.  Then, someone emerged. They looked human, but their choices of clothes were rather disorderly. They were a gray dress shirt with a brown vest over, with darkened slacks and shoes and no sign of a vision on their person. Their facial hair was a noticeable grey, but the hair on their head was pitch black. Yet, that was not the most notable detail. That would happen to be their eyes, where the sclera was a light yellow and their iris was red in color. “Barbatos, buddy!” They said with glee as they went over to Venti, “How long has it been since I’ve last seen you? You look like you haven’t aged a day!” All the bard did was smile as he looked back towards the figure, “Indeed, it has been too long since I had last seen you my friend. It’s good to see you again.” “Same here,” the stranger replied, before noticing Jean and hesitating a small bit, “Oh… I’m so sorry, I was caught up in the moment-” “There’s no need to apologize, my friend. She knows who I am,” Venti insisted, before turning towards the dandelion knight, “As for introductions, this is Jean. The current acting grand master for the Knights of Favonius. Jean, this here is Discord, the god of chaos and change.”