Chapter Text
What a lovely normal day! The sun was shining over Natlan, Aether had recently finished the commissions Katheryn had issued, and he found the time to restore a few ley lines before the time he promised he'd meet Kachina.
It was originally Paimon who brought up that Kachina was like his apprentice in a sense, and since then he thought of her as such. Of course on top of being a friend. The girl has been in her village for a little while and wanted the excuse to go see her… sib- uh friends.
Presently, Kachina and Paimon were running ahead and excitedly chatting as they hopped over the wooden path to the village of the Scions of the Canopy. Aether lingered back, and grabbed every yellow berry he passed. It wasn't long before he'd lost track of the two small girls. It was fine, they're capable of handling themselves. At least Kachina is.
Even as he wandered into the village, the… energy seemed… off. In a bad way. Almost like a thunder cloud hung over the tribe.
“Hey, Aclla,” Aether greeted as he walked. Aclla made eye contact, and a light reignited on her eyes.
“Aether! Ooh, yes, just who we need!”
Aether paused. “You need me? What's going on, is everything okay?”
Aclla frowned. “No, Malipo Kinich, he…” Aether immediately stiffened. Something happened to Kinich. Is he okay? What was he? What happened? “He disappeared. Without a trace.”
“He… disappeared?”
Aclla nodded. A couple days ago, Ponche came to commission some task from him. Kinich left to go complete it, but never came back. We checked the site, his house, and went everywhere we knew he'd been that day, and there wasn't a single trace of him.”
“No trace? Where and how much did you look?”
“Yesterday, Chief Wayna sent out three search parties. When they came back last night, none of them had found him or any traces of him, and none of them have returned yet today.”
“This… is worrying. Thank you for telling me.” He walked down the path.
“Aether!”
Aether when Paimon screamed his name. Kachina and Paimon hurried to him. Kachina was crying.
“K-Ki-Kiniiiich!” Kachina sniffled, “he's gone!”
Aether crouched down and held her shoulder. “I know. And don't worry, Paimon and I have handled harder cases. He won't stay missing for long.”
“We have?” Paimon asked.
“Remember the whole memory thing with Caribert?”
“Oh yeah! But uh, well, was that harder? I mean, last time we had something to go on. You know where to look. But now…”
Kachina wiped away more tears angrily. “I'm a hero, heroes don't cry when their strength is needed most!”
“Kachina…”
Kachina straightened up. First, we get Mualani-”
“Already handled.” The trio turned as Mualani jumped off her shark and ran the rest of the way to the group.
“Oh good, you're all here,” Chief Wayna hurried down the nearby stairs. “I sent messengers for Mualani and Kachina since I knew he was closest to you.”
Mualani forced a polite smile. “Thank you, Chief, truly.”
“Yeah, the sooner we find our brother the bet-” she froze. “Can- can I say that? That he's my brother?”
Mualani’s strained smile melted into a soft but sad one. “Don't worry, I feel that way too. Let's tell him when we find him.”
Kachina wiped away the last of her tears and balled her fists. “Right, when we find him.”
Aether turned to Wayna. “Wayna, do you happen to know where Kinich was going for that commission?”
Wayna shook his head. “All I know is that Ponche commissioned him to check out some ruins of interest. After Kinich left, he hung around the village to wait. I don't know if he's still here, but you can try in between the stairs on the upper level, the ones near the climbing wall.”
Only after a quick but full hearted thank you, Kachina and Mualani tore off.
Aether thanked him as well.
“No need to thank me. I'd pay any price to see him okay and back where he belongs.”
“Speaking of which,” Paimon spoke up, “do you know anything else? Anything at all? At this point, even the smallest clue would be better.”
“No I-” he paused and looked down. “Actually, come to think of it, a man in foreign clothes came and made small talk with me as he waited for a package. He asked me something about dendro users in my tribe. Huni took the opportunity to brag about Kinich.”
“A strange person who asks about a dendro user…” Paimon mused.
“Right before a dendro user vanishes without a trace,” Aether finished.
“Honestly,” Wayna went on, “the whole thing wasn't that out of the ordinary. Stuff like this, or similar at least, happens every now and then. It's just that the coincidence is too uncanny.”
“No, yeah we know what you mean,” Aether replied.
“Well,” Paimon flipped and started floating after the girls, “thank you for the info!”
“No problem, and one more request. Please don't let Huni know about that last bit. If he really is to blame, I don't want Huni blaming herself for telling him about Kinich.”
Aether smiled and nodded.