Chapter Text
It happened with Venti first.
It was a sunny afternoon in Mondstadt. People were going around, exchanging greetings and conversation. Merchants were boasting of the usefulness and durability of their products, and bards were filling the air with their enchanting melodies. The scent of sticky honey roast wafted from afar.
In the middle of all of this, a musician in green stood out. His charismatic smile and rather playful demeanor drew people in, and the song he was playing made them stay. Once he was done, he waved to his audience and bowed.
"Thank you, thank you!" Venti said while laughing.
He's always enjoyed performing in public. It brought joy not only to himself as a bard, but to the people of Mondstadt, his audience. His cape swayed in the gentle breeze, and he closed his eyes to savour the moment.
When he did, he immediately sensed a slight pertubation in the wind. It was an unfamiliar power. He felt it permeating into the ley lines, slowly but surely. He sighed.
'Was this a new trick by the abyss?'
He excused himself from the crowd and quickly left the city to investigate. Anything that concerned Mondstadt's ley lines was something serious.
As he arrived at what he felt was the source of the disturbance, he gasped in a rare display of shock as he saw something he'd never witnessed before.
A black ley line. As dark as can be.
Venti knows this isn't a good sign. Still, he starts the ley line. Instead of the corrupted monsters he was expecting, a single obsidian-and-purple portal spawns out of nowhere. He gasps faintly in surprise, definitely not having foreseen this. His panic mounts as he felt the swirl of darkness sucking him in slowly. He tried to get out with the assistance of the anemo surrouding him, but it was in vain.
Venti sighs and resigns himself to his fate. Before he was fully engulfed, he plucks a singular bloom from his hat and blew on the petals, sending them flying over the yonder.
Once that was done, he closes his eyes and quickly loses consciousness as he gets dragged inside.
-
The rest of the Archons soon followed. Zhongli was next.
As he stood on Yujin Terrace enjoying the beautiful view of the sunset over Liyue Harbor, a faint sense of unrest fluttered over him. He concentrated on his surroundings, trying to find something abnormal. He gasped as he felt the Anemo Archon's presence flickered once, twice, and thrice before completely dissipating from Teyvat's surface.
His eyes widened in rare surprise, taken aback. Is Venti dead?
No, that couldn't be possible. That drunkard is crafty and cunning, even if he oftenly hid it under an unassuming facade. He couldn't have been eliminated that easily.
Zhongli shuts his eyes, and the soil of Teyvat starts to thrum, imbued with his power. He slowly blinks, irises glowing a molten gold. As he searches through the memories of the earth, he stops on a specific spot in the Whispering Woods.
Anemo residues could be sensed around the area, scattered in the air and lingering on the grass. As if someone had fiercely tried to defend themselves from something, only to eventually be dragged off. He concentrated his sight towards that singular place and got a clearer image of the scene.
"...How is this..."
His pupils shook. Never in the 6000 years he had spent walking this earth has he ever seen such a phenomenon. A black ley line. He digs through his memories, trying to recall a single instance of having witnessed a ley line of such peculiar colouring, but none came to mind.
As he frowned, deeply in thought, a lone white flower landed right on his head. He took the plant in his hands, and the crease between his brows deepened. This was clearly the accessory on Venti's hat. The petals were imbued with his fellow Archon's distinct power. Zhongli didn't even have to muse. He already had an idea of why and how this flower had traveled this far.
Venti had needed assistance. Whatever happened there was so severe that not even the Anemo Archon could have handled it. The thought sent a weird feeling down his spine. Venti was definitely not as weak as he pretended to be, after all. To be able to overpower him...
Just what was happening?
-
Ei, Nahida, Furina and Mavuika arrived in Liyue the next day. The former Hydro Archon was accompanied by a distinguished gentleman in blue. He introduced himself as Monsieur Neuvillette, the Chief Justice of Fontaine, and the one who currently ruled the country in the Archon's place. Furina assured Zhongli she was the one that brought him along, which subtly hinted at the fact that the man did not want to be here. The Geo Archon felt slightly bad for involving him. Nevertheless, he proceeded with a brief summary of the situation at hand.
Venti had vanished, and it was very possible that the mysterious ley line had something to do with his sudden disappearance.
The mood was somber. They were inside the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, where the Geo Archon had ushered them in the moment they had arrived, in diverse disguises, as to not attract unwanted attention. Nobody spoke up against the oppresive atmosphere. Not even Furina, the ever-boisterous and flamboyant actress.
It was the Pyro Archon, Mavuika, who eventually broke the silence. "So. Barbatos is gone. And we have no idea where he could have possibly went."
The others nodded grimly.
She continued on. "And right now, there's a black ley line in the middle of the Whispering Woods, in Mondstadt. Which could possibly be the reason why Barbatos is gone in the first place. Is that the current situation, Morax?"
Zhongli inclined his head in a gesture of affirmation. "Yes, it is as you have summarized." He said with a dark expression.
Nahida stayed silent for a second before interjecting. "I went through Irminsul the moment I recieved Morax's message, but there were no traces of him. It's as if he was erased without a trace."
The six other people in the room stopped at that. Gone from Irminsul. Erased. How could this be?
Nahida spoke once more. "Usually, when someone is erased from Irminsul, it means that the world won't be able to remember them anymore. But somehow, we were able to retain our memories of Barbatos perfectly."
"That's... strange." Ei said quietly. "Can you confirm if other people apart from us also remember him?"
"There is no need. I have already had a conversation with Xiao this morning. He did not lose any of his memories concerning that silly bard."
Ei nodded. "Then this complicates the situation by quite a lot."
Furina, sitting there debating wether to summon a slice of cake or not, perked up. She exchanged a glance with Neuvillette before opening her mouth. "Why don't we go and pay Mondstadt a visit then? We could go check the ley line by ourselves. Is that not right, my dear Chief Justice?"
Neuvillette blinked up at her, silently amused by her antics, but choosing not to comment, seeing the gravity of the situation.
Zhongli thought for a second before nodding his head pensively. "Yes, indeed. We could probably go check for ourselves, but the problem is that we don't know what'll happen once we get there. We might be sucked in just like Venti and disappear. What would happen to our respective nations, then?"
"...Right. I forgot about that." Furina said ruefully.
Zhongli continued. "Even so, Venti has been my comrade and a fellow Archon that I respected for millenias. It would be a betrayal to his trust if I decide to stay in Liyue and refrain from taking action."
The others agreed with him easily. Every single Archon was someone essential to Teyvat's wellbeing. If one of them were missing, the consequences could be dire.
"We could temporarily entrust our nations to people that we trust. Mondstadt and Liyue are already being watched over by the Knights of Favonius and the Qixing. Inazuma is ruled by the Raiden Shogun, and I could delegate Sumeru to the current Grand Sage." The Denndro Archon reasoned.
She turned to adress Furina, Neuvillette and Mavuika, then. "Do you think your respective nations could rule themselves for a few days?"
-
And that's how, a few days later, the six people were standing in the Whispering Woods.