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The floor beneath her cracks violently, and she loses her footing as the platform connected to the Jade Chamber breaks. Fear builds in her chest as the feeling of falling takes over. Lumine is used to large falls while adventuring, but even this seems like a little too much for her to handle.
A flash of green appears at the edge of her vision before Lumine realizes she’s being carried. She would probably feel embarrassed if the danger of falling to her death wasn’t so real.
Moments later, they reappear on a dock in Liyue Harbour. “Be careful,” is all he says to her. Lumine nods in response, still dazed.
In between the blur that is Ningguang’s plan to sacrifice the Jade Chamber and the eventual defeat of Osial, the one thing that Lumine remembers clearly is the warmth of Xiao’s hand around hers.
“The Lantern Rite is coming up soon, isn’t it?” Paimon chatters excitedly as they travel to the location of their next commission. “I’m so looking forward to it!”
“Let me guess, Paimon,” Lumine says teasingly, “You’re excited about all of the tasty festival food, aren’t you?”
“Ohhhh… you know Paimon too well!” the fairy declares sheepishly. “But I also heard that people make wishes during the festival! We should go and write down our own wishes, hopefully they’ll come true!” Lumine hums in agreement, lost in thought. Paimon would probably wish for something like “ a lot of yummy food! ” or “ a ton of mora! ”. As for herself, she would likely write down the same wish she’s had since she woke up in Teyvat, alone...
Noticing sadness begin to creep into Lumine’s expression, Paimon quickly adds, “Why don’t we invite some of our friends from Mondstadt to come with us? I’m sure Amber would love the festival! And Jean probably needs the break. Oh, but they might be really busy with important work for the Knights of Favonius… It might be better to ask one of our friends here in Liyue...” her floating companion trails off, deep in contemplation.
“I know!” Paimon exclaims after a moment, head snapping up in realization. “How about that Vigilant Yaksha, Xiao? He’s always so serious, so Paimon thinks that-”
Lumine’s travel companion is cut off by a loud, startling roar. Paimon squeaks in surprise, and Lumine fumbles for her sword as the source of the noise hurtles toward them.
The breath is knocked out of her lungs as a large creature barrels into her. It’s larger than any mitachurl she’s seen before, with glowing rock-like armour. Before she can recenter herself, something, or rather, someone plunges down from the sky, seemingly out of nowhere.
She squints, not really believing what she was seeing. Xiao? Speak of the devil.
The adeptus makes quick work of the armoured mitachurl, expertly dodging its attacks using quick bursts of speed.The spinning of his polearm is almost graceful, in a way.
“Ugh… I’ve never seen a mitachurl like that before…” she mutters, scrambling to her feet and dusting herself off. She’s sure she would feel the after effects of that encounter in the morning.
“That was a stonehide lawachurl,” Xiao interjects sharply. “Did you already forget what I told you before?”
“I- sorry, what?"
“Hmph. You need to be more careful,” Xiao crosses his arms in front of his chest, shaking his head. “Mortals like you are fragile.”
“Hey, wait a minute…” Paimon interrupts, “Lumine is one of the toughest people I know!”
“Paimon, that’s-- nevermind. Thanks for the help Xiao,” Lumine utters at last. He nods curtly, moving to turn away and leave.
“Ah- wait!” she calls out. “If you’re free, would you like to have lunch with Paimon and I? You can think of it as thanks for helping us out just now.” To her surprise, the adeptus actually agrees, if somewhat reluctantly.
Lumine learns three things that day. One, stonehide lawachurls are no pushovers. Two, Xiao is apparently looking out for her. Three, Xiao doesn’t like the duck pancakes she made for lunch.
(“ Ugh. Humans these days do not know what they’re doing. ”)
“Hmm… looks like this is the place our informant marked on our map,” Paimon comments. “Let’s go talk to those two treasure hoarders!”
“Sorry, but Liyue Harbour is the other way,” one of the treasure hoarders says dismissively as they approach.
“Show us the anonymous letter!” Paimon demands boldly. The two men look taken aback.
“Letter...? How do you two even know about that?!”
Lumine forces her expression into one of careful neutrality as Paimon flusters for an explanation. “Well… that’s ‘cause we were told by… by one of Liyue’s adepti!”
The first treasure hoarder tries to stifle his laughter. “Oh really? Somehow I doubt that-”
“You should not doubt it,” says Xiao, appearing out of thin air behind her. Lumine nearly jumps out of her skin.
“Gah! You weren’t here a second ago!” Paimon startles, “But I guess that’s an adeptus for you, huh?”
One short skirmish with the treasure hoarders later, and the anonymous letter is handed over to them. The letter itself is a struggle to understand, but planning the next course of action for dealing with the threat to the Lantern Rite takes little time.
Meetings with Xiao usually end the exact same way. They talk about something (usually a threat to the safety of Liyue), then Xiao disappears immediately. He's a very solitary person, shying away from conversation and other people, but despite this, Lumine calls out to him one more time.
“Xiao… Let’s watch the mingxiao lantern together the next time we meet.”
He sighs, voicing his distaste for crowds, but ultimately agrees. And Lumine can't help but feel like this is a small victory.
“Hey, Xiao?”
He looks up from the plate of almond tofu that the traveller definitely did not bribe him with. Lumine is sitting across from him at the table, leaning her head onto one hand. She smiles gently before continuing.
“How do you always know where to find me when I need help?”
He stiffens ever so slightly. “...You must underestimate the adepti if you think that we cannot locate the people of Liyue when they’re in need.”
“Right,” she responds, now grinning, “So you were following me?”
He feels his face start to heat up and looks down to avoid making eye contact. Mortals can be so annoying, and so infuriating...
“I was just making sure you were okay…” he mumbles. She seems to like his answer when she starts beaming at him, and he can't help but note how beautiful she looks like this. Objectively speaking, of course.
“You should join me on my travels sometime,” she suggests. “It doesn't have to be a huge commitment or anything. We can do some commissions together, and you don't have to follow me from afar like some kind of… puppy!” He feels his face flush at her last comment.
“...I’ll think about it.”