Dragonspine || A few days earlier.

A blinding flash of light stuns the knights and temporarily stops the fight between them.

Although Albedo recovers sooner than anyone else, he’s unable to figure out what happened in those three seconds of blindness.

On his side stands Kaeya. He has one of his hands blocking his face, a reaction Albedo had as well when the light suddenly blinded him. Kaeya’s other hand holds his sword defensively in front. His back faces the spot the Creator had been in previously.

Now all that remains is the white snow fox. It too seemed to be affected by the flash of light.

Albedo turns his face around from the end of his cave to the other Primordial human at the entrance. Another artificially created life form. The mark on his neck is similar to his. Alice had told him that these marks are seen as proof of the maker's fine handiwork. This Albedo must be the prototype.

Both hold their swords a bit tighter. Albedo can’t attack him. The other knights are still slowly recovering their sight and they stand between the two. Should he attack, they’d most likely get caught in the crossfire.

The other Albedo seems fine with the stare down as well. It’s only when Eula recovers her sight that he averts his attention back to the others.

“Stand down.” Eula holds her claymore at the ready. Albedo can’t see her expression but he hears assertiveness in her voice.

The other Albedo looks back into the cave. It’s only for a second, but Albedo still follows his gaze. When he looks back from the empty spot to the front of the entrance, he’s gone.

Back into the mountains, Albedo assumes.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.” Eula lowers her claymore. She doesn’t turn around, still vigilant on the wait for the other Albedo to return. To her side is Amber, who’s still recovering from the blinding light and exhaustion from the previous battle.

Albedo lets his sword dematerialize into the air.

“Alright. I must admit, I myself am confused as well.” He turns around toward the place he’d last seen you. It’s the spot the other Primordial human last looked at. He takes a moment to carefully assess the area.

No blood.

At least you hadn’t been harmed.

Though, disappearing suddenly isn’t ideal either. Albedo remembers you mentioning Liyue sometime before, and although he assumes you’re still on Teyvat, it’s too much of a shot in the dark to head over there himself.

Back at the entrance of the cave, Eula turns her attention over to Amber. The young outrider wasn’t hurt, just very exhausted. Their previous climb to Albedo’s hideout took a lot of energy from her, and the fight didn’t help either.

“Are you alright?”

Amber hums. Her bow dissolves into particles when she dematerializes it. “Just exhausted.”

She shoots a smile towards Eula. As confusing as the situation was, she was glad that it was just the four of them again. Before she could return the question, she heard a loud thud.

“Kaeya?” Amber calls out to the cavalry captain.

His body is crouched over the floor, his hand clenches onto his jacket. He seems to be in pain. When he doesn’t answer, the other two knights get alerted as well.

Albedo is the first to rush over.

“Kaeya?”

His chest heaves up and down and he gasps for air, “Can’t breathe.”

Albedo turns his head to his alchemy table. There are no visible wounds, and Kaeya doesn’t have anything noticeable in his medical history, so he’s unsure what urged this to happen.

Perhaps a hit to the chest causing trouble with breathing? There is no trace of elemental energy on him, he disregards his first idea.

Instead of gambling the outcomes of a potion, he forces Kaeya to sit upright onto the floor. Albedo kneels behind him and wraps his arms around his chest, pressing his hands together as he places them under his midriff.

With some force he pushes back.

Kaeya successfully gasps for air.

Had he been panicking?

“Are you alright?” Amber frowns and crouches down next Kaeya. His body is relaxed again, although still catching up to the lost air.

He forces a smile, “Yes.”

Kaeya stands up again. His eyes move around the cave as he brushes the dust and dirt from his clothes.

“Where is The Creator?”

The group is silent.

“Let’s get back to Mondstadt.” Eula continues, “You two have a lot to explain to Jean.”

There’s a silent agreement between the four knights to let Kaeya take some rest when they arrived at the headquarters. And while Eula remained furious, she ordered a healer to check up on him.

With Kaeya and Eula gone, only he and Amber remained. The headquarters seemed busy. Knights ran back and forth. When he asked Amber about it she’d answered; ‘Jean wanted to resolve the imposter situation before word got out. Mondstadt has been through a lot recently. I think she wanted to protect the people.’

This was further confirmed when Lisa approached him. She’d taken him to Jean, and to his surprise Diluc Ragnvindr had been there as well.

He seemed equally as frustrated as Eula. Albedo wondered if it’d be the right call to have him in the office as he explained what happened. Still, he kept silent.  

“You’re telling me you possibly endangered Mondstadt because you had a ‘feeling’?” Diluc rubs his temples in frustration as he paces in front of the exit.

On the other hand Lisa seems more amused by the situation, “Oh my. I never imagined Kaeya would go to such lengths because of a mere feeling.”

Albedo hears how Diluc stops in his tracks. A heavy sigh is followed by some silent curses and Albedo hears the door open before it closes again.

Jean seems stressed out. Her smile is forced, but she still lets him explain.

“Albedo, you’re a well valued captain, but you need to tell me what’s going on.”

He hums, “It seems like we found our real imposter. It is difficult to draw a definitive conclusion for now, and of course, it's entirely natural for you to be sceptical of my story.”

Albedo stops for a moment, carefully proceeding with his next words,

“There is insufficient evidence to assert what happened with any certainty at this point. Given how serious the situation is, I intend to investigate it myself, even if you decide not to pursue it any further.”

Jean sighs, “We’ll close Dragonspine until the situation has been resolved.”

Albedo watches the Acting Grand Master furrow her eyebrows. Explaining the situation any further wouldn’t bring clarity to the current situation. He needed time himself to process what happened, and Mondstadt had barely gotten time to calm down since the Stormterror situation.

They’re out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Albedo tries to ease the situation, “Should I find anything, you’ll be the first to know.”

“You’re free to go Albedo. Be sure to send me reports.”

“Of course.”

Lisa places a book back into its original place on its shelf between the others. Albedo had left barely a minute ago and Jean was already rushing towards the exit.

“What’s the hurry?”

Lisa turns from the bookshelf and leans onto the railing.

“Master Diluc left so suddenly before. I should inform him about the situation as well.”

Lisa hums, “I’m sure Kaeya filled him in already.” She lifts her weight from the railing. “Don’t you find it interesting that our dear knights saw an identical Albedo?”

Jean turns her head towards the door, quite obviously pondering her options in the tight situation.

“Are you still waiting for that bard?”

Jean turns her head to Lisa.

After everything that happened weeks prior, he might bring light to the situation.

All in all, a god should be able to sense another.