[ It's Master Diluc, it appears, who deserves the real credit.
Not that Zhongli has time to thank him. He's busy pursuing; in a flash, in simply a moment. It's Barbatos who tells him, but it was Diluc who made Barbatos, absent god that he is, aware in the first place.
The wind says to Zhongli with Barbatos' voice, sliding into the cadence he reserves for important moments of battle: 'It is in one of mine, I'm afraid / The traces of the land we had to rest laid' And so on.
Calvalry Captain Kaeya had long been suspected of trickery - one merely had to meet him, as Zhongli had briefly been made aware before - but somehow Barbatos as Venti had missed the obvious cues. No scent of the Abyss clung to the man, and yet the information sent from Master Diluc through his own intelligence network was damning - he was meeting with someone from Khaenri'ah, was headed there this moment.
'It's possible it's for family matters alone,' Venti had admitted, when they met briefly at their city-states' borders. His eyes had looked older than they had in the past several centuries of their rare visits, and he hadn't been gazing at Zhongli while he spoke. 'And I don't wish to pursue him, but...I couldn't withhold this choice from you.'
The fact that Venti, god of freedom and infamous in Zhongli's mind for so rarely taking up arms on behalf of his people, was telling him of this potential traitorous plot had been...touching, all on its own. They had held hands, briefly - Anemo energy and Geo pulses clashing in a way that set crystals out along their wrists - and then Zhongli had nodded and simply left.
Venti knew what he would do. He didn't come to stop him.
It is as Rex Lapis, as Morax himself perhaps, that Zhongli appears in the deep coniferous forest that the meeting has been rumored to be taking place in. And it is there that Rex Lapis hunts. The forest is dark and old, but not quite ancient - not much in this area truly is, except the soil. It's all had to regrow since being burnt down, carved out.
Kaeya is apparently a man of deep blue hair and a powerful yet inviting stance, when Rex Lapis comes upon him. A stone stele erupts from the earth in front of him, blocking the man's path and directly hitting the companion that had been leading the two of them forward. The other man slumps to the side, unconscious, and Rex Lapis doesn't break stride as he continues forward.
His polearm shoots forward as Kaeya turns around, and skewers through layers of clothing at his shoulder to pin him back against the stele. ]
It is mercy alone that means I am not holding you in place through your shoulder, [ he begins. The polearm is already gathering frost at the tip - he'd been warned this was a Vision user, someone blessed by Celestia despite coming from the Abyss' home. Rex Lapis' voice is cold and ancient and- angry. ] Do not test the mercy of one of The Seven.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-05-23 08:08 pm (UTC)Not that Zhongli has time to thank him. He's busy pursuing; in a flash, in simply a moment. It's Barbatos who tells him, but it was Diluc who made Barbatos, absent god that he is, aware in the first place.
The wind says to Zhongli with Barbatos' voice, sliding into the cadence he reserves for important moments of battle: 'It is in one of mine, I'm afraid / The traces of the land we had to rest laid' And so on.
Calvalry Captain Kaeya had long been suspected of trickery - one merely had to meet him, as Zhongli had briefly been made aware before - but somehow Barbatos as Venti had missed the obvious cues. No scent of the Abyss clung to the man, and yet the information sent from Master Diluc through his own intelligence network was damning - he was meeting with someone from Khaenri'ah, was headed there this moment.
'It's possible it's for family matters alone,' Venti had admitted, when they met briefly at their city-states' borders. His eyes had looked older than they had in the past several centuries of their rare visits, and he hadn't been gazing at Zhongli while he spoke. 'And I don't wish to pursue him, but...I couldn't withhold this choice from you.'
The fact that Venti, god of freedom and infamous in Zhongli's mind for so rarely taking up arms on behalf of his people, was telling him of this potential traitorous plot had been...touching, all on its own. They had held hands, briefly - Anemo energy and Geo pulses clashing in a way that set crystals out along their wrists - and then Zhongli had nodded and simply left.
Venti knew what he would do. He didn't come to stop him.
It is as Rex Lapis, as Morax himself perhaps, that Zhongli appears in the deep coniferous forest that the meeting has been rumored to be taking place in. And it is there that Rex Lapis hunts. The forest is dark and old, but not quite ancient - not much in this area truly is, except the soil. It's all had to regrow since being burnt down, carved out.
Kaeya is apparently a man of deep blue hair and a powerful yet inviting stance, when Rex Lapis comes upon him. A stone stele erupts from the earth in front of him, blocking the man's path and directly hitting the companion that had been leading the two of them forward. The other man slumps to the side, unconscious, and Rex Lapis doesn't break stride as he continues forward.
His polearm shoots forward as Kaeya turns around, and skewers through layers of clothing at his shoulder to pin him back against the stele. ]
It is mercy alone that means I am not holding you in place through your shoulder, [ he begins. The polearm is already gathering frost at the tip - he'd been warned this was a Vision user, someone blessed by Celestia despite coming from the Abyss' home. Rex Lapis' voice is cold and ancient and- angry. ] Do not test the mercy of one of The Seven.
Tell me what you are doing here.