Chapter Text
Kaeya had long since lost track of how long the group of hilichurls that had captured him had been dragging him along behind them and he had long since stopped caring where they were taking him when they finally stopped, throwing him roughly forward into the circle of firelight produced by two small iron braziers. Bound hand and foot, he had no way of stopping his fall, and he cried out in pain as his cheek scraped against rough stone. He felt the presence of the hilichurls behind him retreat slightly, and he took it as an opportunity to take stock of his injuries. He could feel each and every cut and gash left on his body by hilichurl claws pulsing with pain, and his good eye had swollen almost completely shut, reducing his visibility down to almost nothing. Great. Even if he managed to break his bonds, he’d have no chance of fighting off his captors and escaping in this state.
“I thought I told you not to rough him up too badly,” spoke a voice from the shadows, and Kaeya felt a chill race down his spine. He knew that voice. He had been hearing it in his nightmares since he was a little boy. “He’s of very little use to me injured.” In what was left of his peripheral vision, Kaeya saw the hilichurls bowing and scraping in the direction of the voice, muttering what were no doubt apologies and excuses in their strange, guttural language.
“It matters little, now that he’s here,” the voice from the shadows said dismissively. A pause, then, “Get him up.” At those words, sharp hilichurl claws closed around Kaeya’s upper arms and hauled him roughly upwards into a sitting position, their owners retreating from the area immediately after the task was done, the sound of their footsteps receding into the distance. For a moment after the hilichurls left, everything was silent and still. It was as if the whole world were holding its breath, expectant and waiting. Then, a man stepped into the circle of firelight where Kaeya sat- tall, broad shouldered, his long dark blue hair swept over one shoulder and shot through with streaks of silver, his face an older, warped version of the one Kaeya saw in the mirror each morning. His father.
Immediately, Kaeya’s mind rebelled at the thought. No. Crepus Ragnvindr was his father. Crepus Ragnvindr had been the one to take him in,to raise him, to give him a home and a family and a place to belong, for how little long it had lasted. He had no connection with the man before him beyond their shared blood.
Lord Alberich- Kaeya no longer remembered his birth father’s given name, if he ever knew it at all, but he remembered his title- circled around behind him, taking in every detail of his appearance. It may have been simple idle curiosity, but Kaeya couldn’t shake the feeling of being examined like a specimen under a microscope.
Lord Alberich moved around in front of Kaeya again, coming to a halt and studying him further, seeming to search his face for something that Kaeya couldn’t and didn’t care to identify. He took a step toward him, and then another, and though he tried to lean back away from him, there wasn’t anywhere for him to go, and then he was reaching out to grab the edge of his eyepatch. He gave it a rough tug, and a faint snap sound was heard before it came away in his hand.
“Oh my boy,” Lord Alberich murmured, taking in the sight of Kaeya’s damaged, blinded eye and the scarred and ruined skin around it. “What did they do to you?” As if he cared about Kaeya. As if he loved him the way a father should love his son.
“Like you care,” Kaeya spat, anger rising up as a defense against how vulnerable he felt in this moment. “You abandoned me here in the rain when I was barely a boy.”
“I was merely trying to put you in the best possible position to fulfill your duty to our people,” Lord Alberich replied smoothly, seemingly unbothered by the venom in Kaeya’s voice. “And the time has come for you to do so.”
“If you wanted any chance of that happening, you shouldn’t have left me in Mondstadt without any resources and no guidance as to what my supposed ‘duty’ was meant to be,” Kaeya said. “Mondstadt is my home now, and its people are my people. Whatever it is you want from me, I won’t give it to you.” At that, Lord Alberich threw back his head and laughed, a bitter, humorless sound that seemed to echo until a chorus of voices mocked Kaeya with their laughter.
“Still as insolent as ever, I see,” he said. “I had hoped that your time in Mondstadt would have taught you some obedience, but no matter. I prepared for the possibility that it had not.” He lifted a hand above his head and snapped his fingers twice in a beckoning gesture. There was a long pause before grunts and the rustling of cloth were heard from the shadows- the sounds of a struggle. A moment later, two armored men- Khaen’rian soldiers- emerged into the firelight, dragging someone in between them. Kaeya caught a glimpse of fiery red hair and felt a pit open itself up in his stomach.
Try as he might, Kaeya had never been very good at maintaining the facade that he no longer cared about Diluc. Whenever he wasn’t paying attention or got caught off guard, his true feelings slipped through the cracks. So, when he saw that glimpse of fiery red, he was unable to stop himself from crying out his brother’s name. Diluc lifted his head at the sound of Kaeya’s cry, and when they locked eyes, a flash of guilt crossed his face, only for a brief moment before he managed to school his features back into a neutral expression, but Kaeya saw it clearly. Unfortunately, so did Lord Alberich.
“Ah, so it was you ,” he said, stepping toward Diluc. “ You were the one who did this to my son. The one who maimed him.” At that, Diluc flinched, a momentary crack in his carefully emotionless facade, then immediately froze when Lord Alberich reached out and grabbed him roughly by the jaw, forcibly tilting his head upward until he had no choice but to meet his gaze.
“I’ll admit, I had no personal interest in capturing you,” he said. “I merely intended to use you as a bargaining chip to force my son’s obedience.” He leaned in close to Diluc, his voice dropping to a harsh, angry whisper. “But I think I’m going to enjoy what I’m about to do to you very much.”