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It was one of those days for Venti, when he just wanted to disregard a physical body and mind, letting his soul drift with the wind, bringing him to whatever corner of the Earth until he regained some thought.
He did just that, as any self respecting, free wind spirit would. That is until a shaky note played from a Dihua flute shook him out of his state of nothingness. Venti was a curious being, and when the Dihua flute brung sweet memories of playing to his favorite Yaksha, how could he not go see who was playing, and maybe give them some tips if needed?
Venti condensed his form into that of his former wind spirit look and floated downward, following the sound. It turns out he was on some island near the top of Jueyun Karst, with Wuwang hill due northwest. He stopped looking over the horizon to join in the golden leaves of a sandbearer tree, close to the source of the flute, but not too close to alert anyone, possibly superhuman, to his presence.
With a small warning in his head not to startle the being playing, he looked through the leaves to get a better look at the flutist.
Oh.
Well color him surprised. A passing thought made Venti glad he didn't come in a more human-like form, because the gasp he would have let out surely would have spooked the Anemo Yaksha who he had saved long ago, depriving him of the chance to talk once more.
The adeptus held the flute, clearly self taught, painstakingly reciting a beautiful melody. Venti listened closer, and what he heard almost made him cry. The Yaksha was playing the song that Venti once played when saving his life, essentially but effectively beating back his karmic debt with a stick named music. What made Venti want to cry however, was the fact that through the horrible pain, confusion, and emotions the Yaksha was going through, he still remembered the song. He cared about it enough to try to pick out each note from memory, and for the most part succeeded.
Venti knew his music was good. Whenever he went to Mondstat for a drink in his usual bard garb, the people constantly complimented his skills, enjoying the music, and in some cases of other bards, being mildly jealous of his musical skills. But for a song he had created on the spot as an effort to help someone who was suffering, meant so much to them, it was more surreal than the image of Morax as a human.
He didn’t know how long he watched the younger rehearse the song he made, but the sun was setting before he knew it, and the adeptus looked ready to go back to his duties. Venti, impulsive as ever, switched into his physical archon form, and sat on a lower tree branch as the other turned around to start walking in his direction.
With a smile that could rival the sun, Venti opened his mouth for the first time since he had started watching and listening. “That was beautiful. I can’t wait to know what your flute will sound like once you’ve had more practice. My name is Venti, what's your” His head tilted with a soft smile on his face, probably too soft since their first meeting was when the other was on the verge of death.
The adeptus’ face flushed lightly as he clearly tried to process what had happened. “Xiao. Adeptus Xiao. That is my name.” He said, after several seconds of mental debate.
If it was possible, Venti’s smile just got ten times brighter.
Xiao. It was a wonderful name, if you asked him. He couldn’t wait to get to know about the being it belonged to, who he had saved all that time ago.
Venti finally had a name for the mysterious Yaksha, and he couldn’t be happier.