Chapter Text
It was a quiet day in the mountains.
The howling wind was nothing more than background noise to him at this point, the cold reduced to a minor inconvenience. His fingers were numb and fumbled as he pulled his glove off, holding the dagger over his palm. He hesitated.
I need to know.
Then he slid it across his skin, watching the blood bloom in a single, straight line, crimson as the setting sun. He didn’t know what he was expecting. A sign, something, anything that would tell him what it was. What he was.
~~~
“Traveler! Over here!” Lumine turned to see a familiar face waving her over. Sucrose was standing by the alchemy table, a vial of who-knows-what grasped in her free hand. “I’m sorry to bother you, but…” She started, turning her gaze away. “Mister Albedo still hasn’t returned from Dragonspine. I-If it’s not too much trouble… could you make sure he’s alright?”
Lumine nodded. “Of course,” she said. Dragonspine was perhaps her least favorite place in Mondstadt, but Sucrose seemed so concerned, and she wasn’t going to turn her down like that.
“Ugh, Paimon thought we were going to Good Hunter for sticky honey roast!” Paimon pouted, gazing longingly at the restaurant across the street. “I can smell all the good food from here!”
Emergency food, indeed, Lumine thought to herself. Paimon was a decent travel guide and all, but her asking for food then forcing someone else to take up the bill was getting to be annoying. Much like someone else I know. She sighed, adding feeding Paimon to her mental to-do list as Sucrose thanked her extensively.
~~~
“Mister Albedo!” Paimon called out. “We’re looking for you!”
Lumine kept her mouth shut, shivering in the cold gusts of wind. According to her map, they should’ve been close to Albedo’s campsite by now. Not that the weather in Dragonspine was ever pleasant, but the snow was falling heavier today than usual, and she could barely see five feet ahead of her. She almost passed up the small cave where Albedo had set up shop, and she would have missed it entirely if not for the torches cutting through the white. Paimon yelled for Albedo again while Lumine looked around. No Albedo in sight.
She glanced at the top of the nearest table. It was absolutely covered in papers, books, and what looked like a few alchemical devices. Disorganized as ever. Lumine flipped through one of the books, finding a page where something had been underlined so intensely it ripped a small hole in the page. Heart of Naberius, it read. It wasn’t something she had ever heard of. She was about to ask Paimon about it as something shiny caught her gaze. After pushing aside some books to reveal the object - she hoped Albedo wouldn’t mind, though she also doubted he’d notice anything out of place in all the chaos - she picked it up and nearly dropped it.
It was a short dagger, with what appeared to be blood streaked on the side of it.
“Uh… Paimon?” she said, her hand shaking, either from the cold or nerves. “Do you think Albedo’s okay?”
“And why wouldn’t I be okay?”
Lumine startled, dropping the dagger. She felt her face flush as it clattered first on the table, then to the floor as she stepped away. “No reason,” she said.
Albedo stood with his arms crossed, smirking slightly. It didn’t hide the fact his face was pale and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “So, what brings you two here? Have you come to assist with my research again?”
Paimon shook her head rapidly. “No! Sucrose sent us looking for you!”
Albedo sighed. “Ah, Sucrose. I suppose I should have informed her I’d be extending my stay by a few days. If you don’t mind, could you let her know?”
“Hey,” Paimon said. “We just got here, and you’re already shooing us away!”
Albedo laughed, putting the dagger back on the table and closing the book. Lumine’s eyes couldn’t help but dart to what little of the text she could make out as it shut. “I’m rather busy at the moment,” he said, already moving on to something else. “Perhaps you could come back another time, if you are so inclined.”
“What are you working on?” Lumine asked, still eyeing the book.
After a moment’s hesitation, Albedo replied, “A project I’ve been working on for quite a while.” She knew he was holding something back, but why he wasn’t being completely honest was the real question.
“Well,” she said, feeling more awkward and out of place by the second. “I guess we’ll leave you to it, then.” Albedo gave a half-hearted wave, already poring over another book.
~~~
Sucrose was still at the alchemy table, taking care of the ancient sweet flower she had declared her Windblume. “Did you find him?”
“We did,” Lumine said.
“And he was working on some-” Paimon began.
“A project,” Lumine interjected, glaring at her travel companion. “He’s not going to be back for a few more days."
The damage had been done. If only Paimon wasn’t so loud, she thought.
Sucrose nodded. “Oh. Thanks anyway,” She turned back to her flower, thankfully too engrossed with it to take note of Paimon’s words. Naturally, she was already concerning herself with the previous promise of Good Hunter, and practically dragging Lumine across the street to get there. After Paimon’s lengthy order (which was much, much more than the original sticky honey roast), she fished an amount of Mora out of her bag that made it uncomfortably light.
She wished she could say this was unusual.
~~~
He was poring over that book again. The leather-bound tome was thick, but brittle from years of reading. Perhaps the notes he had scribbled in it had contributed, too. The words he had circled taunted him constantly - he could never find anything he didn’t already know. What could it have been to drive her away so quickly? We were…
Was that the right word? He thought of Alice and Klee and…
Klee. Archons knew what destruction she was wreaking without entertainment. Jean should have it under control, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty being away for so long. A little longer, he told himself. He intended to investigate Durin’s remains at least once more before he returned to Mondstadt. He just hoped the City of Freedom would wait for him.
~~~
Albedo returned to Mondstadt three days later, according to Jean. Lumine had been out on a commission involving a rampant ruin guard in Stormterror’s Lair. Why it needed resolving was still a mystery to her. It wasn’t exactly a popular tourist attraction. She supposed it just had to do with keeping the abyss
(Don’t try to stop me. Don’t try to stop the abyss.)
in check. Regardless, she was going to see Albedo and find out what he was hiding. It probably wasn’t any of her business. But still, she had to know.
~~~
“No, Klee-”
Lumine was nearly bowled over by the child. She was clutching something that was more than likely a bomb in her arms with a more than slightly tired Albedo chasing after her. She watched as Klee bolted for the door only to be stopped by Jean.
“Klee…” Jean said, arms crossed across her chest.
“I wasn’t going to bomb the fish! Klee was being a good girl today, I promise!” Klee said, hugging her bomb closer. Jean only stared, completely unconvinced. “Tell her, Albedo!”
Albedo sighed. “Yes, Klee has been a good girl today.” Klee grinned smugly at Jean, who was still unimpressed.
“Okay, Klee,” she relented. “Then I trust Starfell Lake wasn’t where you were headed just now?”
Klee shook her head furiously. “Nope! Klee wasn’t going there!” Jean nodded and continued towards her office. When she disappeared through the door, Klee let out a sigh of relief.
“You’re the best, Albedo,” she said. “You too, Traveler!”
“Hey! What about Paimon?” Paimon interjected, already pouting.
“I’m sorry about that,” Albedo said, nodding towards Klee. He looked exhausted.
Lumine smiled. “No, no worries. How’s the… project going?”
Again, he made that same small hesitation. “Slowly,” he admitted. “There isn’t much information on the subject matter. I have made some progress since we last met, though.” She waited for him to go on, but that was all the detail he offered. Odd. Normally, he’d be all too excited - or as excited as Albedo got - to tell her about it.
“What are you researching?” Paimon asked. So much for subtlety.
“I’m looking into an ancient artifact. I discovered it with my master, but she disappeared without a trace soon after. She left very little behind.”
“Oh… that’s terrible,” Lumine said.
Albedo gazed off at something. “It’s really not all that bad. She had taught me all she could.”
“So she was your family before you came to Mondstadt?” Paimon pressed.
“In a way,” he replied.
This was going virtually nowhere. At least, not in the direction she had hoped for. She didn’t want to, but… “What’s the Heart of Naberius?”
Albedo faltered. “That’s… the artifact I was speaking of earlier. I don’t know much of it. I take it you poked around in my research, then.”
Lumine felt her face flush. “Paimon did it.”
“Always a curious one,” he said, chuckling. She thanked the Archons he wasn’t mad, and that Paimon had the sense to keep her mouth shut this time.
~~~
“We should talk to Jean,” Paimon said. “She might know more about Albedo.”
Lumine considered it. Her interest was piqued, for sure, but she knew how busy Jean always was. She didn’t want to add anything more to her daily workload. It hadn’t been a massive success, but at least Albedo had said something other than ‘come back later.’
“Okay,” she relented. “But just for a little. Both Jean and I have other things to do,” she said, thinking of her other commissions. And Aether, she thought grimly. She tried not to think of it too often, mostly in vain. They had been so close, so near each other after all those years, and the time was cut so cruelly short. The memory still stung, each time she thought of it like pouring salt into the wound. And Dain…
She pressed at her temples, trying to clear her head. It had seemed like both days and years since then. It was eating away at her inside. She had only Paimon to talk about it with, and though she tried her best to cheer Lumine up, it never did the trick.
She hardly remembered the walk to the Knights of Favonis Headquarters. She hated that she was like this, that whenever she thought of her brother a tidal wave of emotions came over her. She had sparred with a Fatui Harbinger and came out victorious, and now she could barely think of anything without stirring up some memory of Aether. And once one memory came, a thousand others came with it. Every time she finally thought she was getting over it, she proved herself wrong.
Stop. Pull yourself together.
She wouldn’t get anywhere feeling sorry for herself. The time for that had long since passed, but…
Lumine sucked in a deep breath to clear her head. For now, she had to focus on Albedo.
Jean was at her desk, surrounded by papers and looking overworked as ever.
“Ah, Honorary Knight. You’ll have to excuse the mess, I wasn’t expecting you. Is there anything you need?” Jean said, tightening her ponytail.
“We were just wondering how Albedo came to be the Investigation Team captain,” Lumine said.
Jean looked at her, her confusion splayed out on her face. “It was actually Alice, Klee’s mother, who introduced us. I’m sure you’ve heard of her,”
Lumine nodded. She had never met the woman, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. If Klee was only a child, she would hate to see what her mother could do.
“She gave me a letter of recommendation from his master. I decided he would be a good fit for the Knights, and that’s all that happened.” Jean said, glancing anxiously back to her desk.
“Do you know anything about his past?” Lumine asked. At this point, she was grasping at straws for any sort of information she could get.
“Not really. I’m sorry I cannot tell you anything more interesting, but there’s not much to it.”
Lumine knew not to expect much, but still was disappointed. “It’s okay. Thanks anyway,” she said.
She didn’t know what Albedo was hiding - if anything. But she was determined to find out for herself what secrets the Chalk Prince had.
~~~
He heard it calling to him.
He had already known something in him resonated with Durin, but he was never expecting a reaction like this. The sliver of bone he had carefully chiseled off of the dragon’s skull pulsed with a sinister red glow that beat in time with the scar over his palm, as if they were connected by some corrupted force.
“Master… what is this?”