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For the first time in a long time, Kaeya dreamt of the night he left his home. Only this time there was no maid to knock on his door and Diluc had long since abandoned him. It seems to be a recurring theme. Being abandoned. In his bed, covered in a cold sweat, his body writhes upon the sheets. With no one to wake him, he’s trapped in his mind, a clever and cruel prison that will only let him go once it’s had its fill.
✦♛✦
Kaeya is being pulled through the halls of the palace which were normally so beautiful and ornate one could hardly tear their eyes from them. The stars and runes carved into their stone were so complex that even after spending ten years of his life here, he always found something new. Now he could hardly see the decorations beneath his feet. Each step he took landed in a puddle of blood or the stone cracked under a distant pressure. His home once beautiful and opulent was falling apart. Outside, the sky is a blinding red that doesn't suit the city of blue and gold. It's ominous and evil.
“Quickly now,” his father says. His real father. Kaeya can only see his backside-- his hair, long like Kaeya’s was matted down against his royal robes from blood and debris. He does his best to keep up with him but his heart is pounding and his knees feel weak. His home is collapsing around him and everywhere he looks he--
Kaeya accidentally makes eye contact with a figure. Her form twitches unnaturally in ways and directions that shouldn't be possible. The bones beneath her skin warp under the flesh with sickening cracks and pops that send shudders down his spine. When she looks at him, tears are trickling down her face in inky streams and though her mouth is open no words come out, only inhuman moans of agony. Luckily his dad draws his sword and cuts down the corrupted woman before her ichor-covered hands can reach them.
"Pay them no mind," his father tells him. But even years later Kaeya can’t forget her face, or the sounds that she made, or how his father’s hands were starting to look like hers. Clawed and inhuman. He pushes it to the back of his mind as they dodge more monsters on their way to the Gold Room.
“Your Majesty-,” One of the royal guards shouts at Kaeya’s father, opening the door as he struggles to fight off the monsters, "I'll hold them off. Get to safety." Kaeya recognized him. The Twilight Sword. One of his arms looked broken but the other clutched a sword more beautiful than anything in this world and he used it to protect them as they dipped through the crowd. The two slipped into the Gold Room and the din and clatter of battle and wretched cries of horror were finally smothered by the door, allowing him to get a moment of rest and breath.
“Hurry,” his father murmurs to him.
The royal alchemists stop their work to hurry over, “Your Majesty… Our defenses are crumbling. We have to send you two away for safety.”
The king listens with a furrowed brow, “What about the other thing?”
“It has been done, your Majesty.” They remove a small wooden box from a cushion and politely hand it over to their King who opens it up hastily to inspect their work.
Inside is an eyepatch made of leather and gold. It’s soft and beautiful but he turns towards Kaeya. “Come here son,” he kneels. Everyone was getting infected. Even him. His right eye had already started to change but his father fastened the eyepatch around his head, covering the eye and obscuring half of his vision and the corruption underneath. “This will keep the curse at bay,” he murmurs hastily.
“But what about you-,” Kaeya begins to protest but his father turns away and ignores his concern to speak about more pressing issues.
"How is the spiral gate."
One of the alchemists speaks up, “The warp is unpredictable. We’re not sure what the result will be. But we promise you, my King, we will come for you and his Highness after this is done. They won’t get away with this. We will regroup and avenge our empire.”
The sounds which had been muffled before grow louder. The howls of the damned begin breaking through the door and soon the alchemists are shuffling the last of their royal bloodline to a large stone circle. Kaeya had heard of the gate but he’d never seen it up close. Patterns of gold and blue, the colors of Khaenri’ah, adorned its face and at its crown was Solomon’s knot embedded into its surface. The symbol represented the union of man and god, time and eternity.
“Wait for us, my King.”
A crackle of energy spills forth, and the portal comes to life, a glorious blue swirling in its center. Kaeya’s eyes shut tightly as his father’s cold hand leads them into its chilling abyss. Just two steps in their feet don’t meet the solid ground. Father and son fall down a near twenty feet of air to the cold ground with a thud. Kaeya coughs but immediately regrets it. The fall must have broken a rib because it hurts to breathe. His father seems to have sprained an ankle. But the two are alive and that’s what matters. Around them is nothing but grass and moss-covered ruins.
Soon he realizes that something is very wrong judging by his father’s expression. “Where’s the temple,” he shouts, “There should be a temple here-”
“Dad,” Kaeya moves to try and comfort him but his hand is slapped away with a snarl that frightens even him.
“I’m sorry, Kaeya. I’m sorry, my son,” his hands no longer looked like hands but they cupped his son’s arms in his.
The boy shakes his head, “I’m alright.” Except seeing his father like this was painful… and terrifying. The corruption was taking him faster than they would both have liked. Those who were infected would not only change in appearance but would change in heart as well as the curse tainted the mind over time and the magnificent emperor of Khaenri’ah was no exception. His father wasn’t being himself. “It hasn’t spread much in me,” Kaeya begins to reason as he removes his eyepatch, “You should wear it-”
“No,” his father grips his hand a little too tight and Kaeya freezes. “Kaeya, promise me you’ll never remove that eyepatch.” His eyes are wild as he shakes Kaeya by the shoulders, “Promise me…!”
“I-- I promise, father,” Kaeya manages shakily.
“Good-,” His father seems soothed by that thought and his grip lessons enough for Kaeya to take a few steps back out of his reach. His voice softens in relief not even realizing how scared his son is of him, “Good…”
✦♛✦
“They’ll come for us, Kaeya. When they do we must tell them everything we can.”
He’d been saying this for two nights now but they’d seen none of the royal alchemists or the Twilight Sword. Even though his dad keeps repeating that they’ll come, a part of Kaeya can’t help but think they never will. Maybe they’re dead. Or maybe they’ve all turned into monsters. His eye glances towards his father's hands with unease growing in his stomach.
✦♛✦
One night Kaeya is woken up by hands gripping his neck.
His instinct is to thrash and push, the only defense a child can muster, but whatever is on top of him is far stronger and its teeth gnash and click together as they stretch to try and bite at him.
“No-,” Kaeya screams in alarm, “Father-- Dad! Help!” He calls for his father the best he can with his throat nearly closed off by tight hands. But the clouds overhead shift and he realizes as the moon shines down over them, with a pause in the attacker’s movements, the one he’s calling for help is the one strangling him.
His father looks just as horrified as he does and quickly removes his claws from his neck. “Kaeya-,” he breathes, “Kaeya, my boy-” When he reaches for his son Kaeya flinches away instinctively and his father stares at him with hollow and grief-stricken eyes. “I’m sorry, my child…” His broken figure turns away, “I am… so sorry....”
Neither slept for the remainder of the night. His father was afraid he could not control himself and Kaeya afraid his father couldn’t either. They don't have much time left and neither the alchemists nor the Twilight Sword has come to get them.
✦♛✦
It was another day of walking. Kaeya was dirty, tired, and hungry. Rain was pouring down over the land making him cold to the bone and mud clung to his boots as much as the cold clung to his skin. Lights flicker in the distance and the two can barely make out a sign.
“Dawn Winery,” his father smiles but it's tired and worn, “This is your chance. You are our last hope.” Kaeya gets a sinking feeling but he says nothing. His father isn’t even looking at him, and the hands holding his shoulders feel like a stranger’s or more like a noose. And then his father left him all alone in this strange world very different from his own, in the pouring rain with nothing but an empty feeling in his chest and the soul-crushing feeling of loneliness.