Work Text:
The stories she had been hearing about Inazuma in the months prior to finally arriving there made it very easy for Lumine to come up with all sorts of explanations for what could have been the cause.
Something had changed roughly a year ago to spur the land's Archon to round up all the land's Visions and stop deeming mortals worthy of them.
More of the evidence Lumine kept in mind as she thought were the people around her that she had met over the course of her journey. By now, Lumine had met enough people of the Archon's element to feel at least a little confident in their judge of character.
Before... whatever it was had happened, the Archon of Inazuma had at some point given Visions to the likes of many of her most trusted friends, and it was Lumine's trust in them that made her so sure that "something" had happened, that it wasn't just a natural event.
But what?
Was it another Fatui plot? Despite her occasional bouts with Tartaglia, she didn't have much luck with finding out the group's activities on her own-or maybe Tartaglia was just that out of the loop that getting information from him was a lost cause from the start.
Perhaps the Abyss was the culprit. Their machinations had caused harm all over, and what if, just what if, their brainwashing of hillichurls was just building up to something like trying to control an Archon, or maybe a whole city's worth of people?
Following that train of thought, maybe the Archon herself wasn't even the issue at all, but Inazuma-
Though maybe the answer was simpler than that.
What if the Archon had fallen?
Everything that had happened in Inazuma since could be the work of a new Archon, or perhaps an assassin that had since come into power.
Suffice to say, whatever had caused it, whatever had happened, the more she thought about it, the more Lumine felt like she would be able to prepare for it.
In hindsight, as she and Paimon found themselves being taken away by guards not minutes after coming onto shore, she supposed she should have thought about more than just the eventual encounter with the Archon.
Gallant.
Powerful.
Beautiful.
Peerless.
Inazuma's Archon was beyond every one of Lumine's expectations and then some.
Standing face to face with her, despite having been imagining how this moment would go for months... Now that it was finally here, now that she was face to face with the woman at last, Lumine couldn't even begin to tell how to bring up the topic.
Luckily, she wouldn't have to.
"Your brother isn't in Inazuma, Traveler."
With this being the very first thing out of her mouth, Lumine stiffened immediately. How did the Archon know? Normally, she might have just assumed word of her adventures had simply made the trip to Inazuma before she had been able, but it was because it was Inazuma specifically that she found something off with an explanation like that.
So what, then?
She didn't want to think it, but could it be possible? Could Aether be...? Was this a lie, or worse, was he...?!
"If I wanted to harm you, your head would already be rolling across the floor."
Her voice was sharper and colder than any blade, yet at the same time, Lumine could tell that there was also a lack of intent to draw that blade.
For now.
Whether or not Raiden or Baal or whatever she called herself could truly make good on that, Lumine decided it would be best not to give her a reason to try.
"You should be able to tell by how quickly you were captured when you arrived that I would know within the hour of his arrival if he were here. Obviously, whether or not you want to believe me is your choice, but since it is the truth-"
A sudden crack shook the room. Lumine spun around just in time to see a small bolt of lightning striking the door that she and Paimon had entered through only moments ago, making for a violent show of opening it.
"With that out of the way, this should conclude your business in Inazuma, shouldn't it?"
Lumine and Paimon exchanged dumbfounded looks.
That was it?
Given her treatment to this point, she had been expecting to be taken prisoner, to be challenged, to...
Well, something.
As if reading her mind, Paimon blurted out the question that had been beginning to gnaw away at Lumine for the past minute.
"How come you're not trying to do anything to us? What gives? Aren't you holding your whole country hostage?!"
Right. As far as that issue was concerned, her brother's being here or not didn't matter. Lumine couldn't just leave here knowing the state that the country was in, could she? There was no justifying that!
Still, all things considered, Paimon wasn't wrong- which was all the more reason she needed to make sure Paimon's interjection didn't spur Baal on and attempt to see if she really could get her head on the floor.
That pleasant thought in mind, Lumine stepped in front of her tiny companion and spoke up.
"Is there a reason you're doing this? Has something happened to you, to your people, that's caused you to change your feelings about granting Visions so much?"
It was an honest question, and one that Lumine felt would be the first step in finally answering the problems that this nation was currently dealing with. It was also a question that was answered with another question entirely.
"How badly do you want to see your brother again?"
It was as if Raiden had slipped the blade out of its sheath just enough to allow the flash of metal to blind her. Instantly, concerns over keeping things civil were gone. Was it a threat? A challenge?
It didn't matter. In a flash of stars, Lumine's blade was at the ready, her gaze harder and jaw set more than it had been since before she had first met Paimon all those months ago. If Baal so much as twitched in a way that Lumine didn't like, she would be all over the Archon.
Surprisingly, Lumine's silent reaction seemed to be just what the Archon was looking for. Rather than put up any sort of defensive stance of her own, she simply smirked knowingly- though the look was as gone almost as quickly as it had come.
"I've seen to the removal of every last Fatui that tries to abuse what little authority their 'immunity' allows them personally. The Abyss has been thoroughly taught that it's in the world's best interest keep its infestation off my shores."
In other words, she was saying...
"No one is manipulating me, no one has any power or control over me, and so there is nothing for you here to do other than go back the way you came."
Okay, so that explained... some things. Kind of. At the same time, if Baal really was in control as she said she was, then that raised new questions in place of the old ones this explanation had just answered.
"If you're that proactive about protecting your border, how did I get so far? It's not as though we were trying to sneak in, yet Paimon and I did at least get as far as to the docks before we saw any signs of you."
For the first time since their exchange began, Baal's expression shifted. It was just barely, but for a moment, she looked more... human?
Turning away, the woman's reply was as simply as it was vague and unhelpful.
"Your reputation for finding trouble has spread to even my ears, Traveler." Her words were those of a commander, a leader, her tone ruthless and to the point... but then, seeming to drop airs of majesty and power, she continued. "Really... I was really just hoping you, your presence, would be good bait."
... What?
Lumine was growing frustrated.
"Hey, is it Paimon, or does this lady make things even more confusing than the tone deaf bard does? None of the things she's saying have anything to do with each other!"
For a moment, Raiden's gaze turned exclusively to the fairy-like creature at Lumine's side. There was something...strange, intense about the way she was looking at Paimon. Before Lumine had a chance to ask if perhaps Raiden knew of her floating friend's origins, the Archon turned back to Lumine and spoke.
"The other lands have kept their noses out of my business, but I suspect that wouldn't continue to be the case if someone of your status happened to go missing here. Cetainly, while I'll gladly strike you down if you force my hand, I'll get nothing but problems if something were to happen to you before you get out of here."
The two companions exchanged a look. That...actually made a surprising amount of sense, at least if they set aside the fact that this Archon's "business" seemed to be some pretty foul stuff anyway.
"That doesn't explain anything about your whole Vision Hunt mumbo jumbo or how no one can have visions 'cause of your cooky decree thingy or-"
A chimeric noise somewhere between a snort, a laugh, and a snarl from Baal cut Paimon off. It was perhaps the first show of real emotion she had expressed since they had arrived, and Lumine honestly couldn't have been happier about it.
There we go. This was more in line with what Lumine had been expecting. It had taken a while to get here, but now that the root of their main topic had finally come up and taken center stage, now they would hear all about it.
There were even sparks of lightning crackling about the Archon's chamber accompanying the change in atmosphere to boot!
"A net."
"I'm sorry?"
"It's a net."
Repeating it didn't change anything. Lumine once again didn't understand. To her surprise, however, Paimon was gasping with the shock of someone who had just realized some great truth of the world.
"Paimon sees now! So you made it all up?! How come?! Paimon doesn't understand! What's worth doing this to your whole country, huh?!"
She almost couldn't believe her ears. Really, Paimon? You understood when she couldn't?
"Wait, what do you see?" the blonde inquired.
"Isn't it obvious?!" Paimon flit to and fro through the air, frantically pointing from Lumine to Baal. "If YOU were going to be her BAIT, and ALL OF THAT is a NET, then doesn't that mean she's just doing alllllll of this because she's trying to catch something?!"
Of course Paimon would understand an analogy related to food before she would.
No, wait, that wasn't what was important here! What was she saying? Net? Bait? But what could possibly be so important that you would resort to the means that this Archon had?
And as the answer suddenly came to her, Lumine's eyes widened. She couldn't contain her own gasp as the pieces finally clicked into place.
"Then... When you asked how badly I..."
Raiden turned away to gaze out of her chamber's windows, her mind clearly elsewhere. She was wide open. She was wide open, she was wide open!
"Exactly."
She was defenseless. She was all that stood between Inazuma and the freedom and normalcy of its people. She....
"If you had to choose... Is a world without your brother worth saving, Traveler? Is a world without him even worth living in?"
All it would take was a well timed lunge and... And then, all of Inazuma would be able to...
"This country, this world-my life-not so much of a speck matters if she isn't here."
The Traveler would like to say that she was not deterred by this. She would have loved to say that the people she had met here, over the course of these past months, had shaped her heart in such a way that she would easily choose the "right" thing if the choice was forced onto her.
"Do you really think what you're doing could possibly make her happy?" Rather than with her blade, Lumine could only manage to strike out with words of her own, and even those were growing harder and harder to wrestle out.
Lumine sincerely hoped the Archon would say she thought it did. If she said that, if she did believe that this madness could somehow bring someone happiness, then Lumine could strike at her with no qualms, for the Archon would have shown herself to simply be delusional and she could go on with her life without having to think on this encounter any more than-
"I'm sure it makes her miserable. I'm sure I've done nothing but add to the guilt she's already consumed by, even when she doesn't deserve any of it."
Oh no.
"Then...If you know that...why?"
When Raiden turned back to face Lumine, Lumine didn't see an Archon looking at her.
There was no shine of cold steel to be seen in the woman's gaze, at least none that Lumine could see.
"Because even if she comes to hate me, even if she and I never speak again, even if she comes to end my life herself, so long as I live I'll do anything-become anything-to keep her safe."
She saw herself, having woken up on the beach alone, looking into the sea, alone in a world that she would, in that moment, have been more than happy to trade if it meant she would have her brother back.
She saw the face of someone full of genuine, heart breaking, self sacrificing, unbridled love for another.
Thankfully the bitter reflection was quickly shattered by an outburst from the outworlder's trusty companion.
"Safe?! SAFE?! Hah! You call this safe? Paimon can't believe what she's hearing! Right, Lumine?"
Paimon looked to her friend, expecting one of Lumine's weird rebuttals, or maybe simply a rush to action.
What she got was Lumine looking defeated, sword already returned from whence it came, seemingly...no...definitely headed for the entrance of Baal's chambers.
Wordless though it had been, the Traveler's reply to her question had been the most direct and understandable Raiden could have received from her.
"That badly, hm?"
Raiden said nothing more as she watched the pair go.
As she did, though, a part of her deep down, the part of the Archon that longed desperately for nothing more than days of warm embraces and "welcome home!"s and beautiful blue eyes, the part that lived happily in days that would never be again- The part of her that would secretly watch the Adventurer's Guild out the window every day to see if that girl would finally come back to her-
Silently, the part of Raiden that had traded everything away without a second thought, the part of her that would hand the world to the first devil that came asking if it could give the Archon that girl back to her, safe and sound, offered a prayer.
May this Traveler find her brother before she ever has to make the choices Raiden had.
And may Raiden not come to regret allowing her to live long enough to debate having to make them.