Work Text:
The first thing that Venti did was selfish - he levelled the city.
Rolling fields now sprawl across what once was the grand buildings of Mondstadt, once standing upon a now flattened hill with its towers and arches of ivory and inlaid with emerald green.
The city was beautiful, people came from all around to views its grandeur and splendour, its churches and temples were a prime destination for the pilgrimages from worshippers from around the country. Mondstadt was devote to their god, god of wind and the freedom it carried.
In his name, the people defended their home fervently, invaders not welcome with their false gods and bastardised beliefs.
In his name, the people rose up against the heavens and rebelled against the destiny the gods above had planned for the city that belonged to the god of wind.
In his name, his people were enslaved.
Shackled and chained, the god's name was used to enfore the cruelty that smothered his people. The god of freedom's name used to enslave the people under his protection, their livelihoods ensnared in a web of deceit and greed.
The first thing that Venti did was selfless - he led the rebellion against the nobles once trusted by the god of wind to lead his city to prosperity and happiness. A rebellion spearheaded by his songs of defiance, his melody of hope infiltrating every crevice and crack in the city known as Mondstadt.
This was not the first revolution and it certainly wasn't the last that the god of wind would bless. His people, nay, his friends revolted against the nobles that he had trusted, who he had entrusted to protect and serve his city.
He blessed the winds of Mondstadt so that arrows sung true, a wind once used to spread song and joy, now delivered death and blood to the enemies that stood against the god's essence.
But what was true for the rebellion was also true for the nobles for they were all children of the wind, whether they rejected the god's teachings or not.
Venti knew this and yet he still sung.
"Fly my songsbirds, fly strong and true. The one from above can no longer hurt you."
The god of freedom stood by his friend's side; Venti's every song and word, the god wrote down. Venti understood his friend's power and strength, and did not begrudge him for the wind's blessing upon all of the wind's children.
Not even when an arrow sung true and delivered death to his heart.
The first thing that the god of wind and freedom did was selfish - he levelled the city and rebuilt it anew.
The second thing that the god of wind and freedom did was selfish - he took his beloved friend's name and wore it as his own.
Venti was a bard that strolled down the streets of Mondstadt, his cheerful and childish personality was infectious among the people. His swinging hair and his harp inlaid with emerald green a common sight in the city that was called Mondstadt. In his many books and pages laid the words of his best friend's songs and so he learnt and he sung the melodies of hope and freedom that his friend once did so many years ago.
And yet it was not the same, his intonation and voice different to his friend, with each passing song, he forgot the sound of his friend's singing, the memory of his laughter fading.
For his songs were no longer melodies of hope and freedom, but of longing and mourning as the wind carried them beyond the walls.