Chapter Text
Lumine had not expected to be thrown in a cell the instant she stepped into Mondstadt. For all she had heard about the city of freedom, she was feeling pretty… unfree right now.
She had only arrived in Teyvat a couple of weeks ago, the pain of her missing brother still fresh as she gained her bearings in the wilderness surrounding the city. She hadn’t rushed straight into civilisation, instead taking her time to converse with the few travellers and merchants she came across outside.
From what she had heard, things were pretty tense in the city and she didn’t think they’d take kindly to a stranger showing up in the midst of things, especially one granted with strange powers she didn’t yet understand herself.
For nights on end, huge gusting storms had swept the grassy plains, tearing branches from trees and ravaging the vegetation for miles around. She supposed that was the reason she’d barely bumped into anyone at all. Sometimes in the night, she saw something huge soaring in the sky above, the ominous shadow of its belly seeming to cast misfortune wherever it appeared.
That wasn’t the only strange thing she had noticed in the area. A green clad figure had appeared multiple times in the distance on her travels, yet every time she had tried to get close, they had disappeared before she was even within hearing range. For someone who lingered so much in the outskirts of Mondstadt, she was hoping they would share some insight into the situation within city walls.
Although, considering their elusiveness, perhaps they weren’t to be trusted…
According to Mondstadt, she was not to be trusted either. As soon as she had stepped onto the bridge leading to the city, she had felt eyes on her. There were only two guards posted at the entrance, but just as she was about to announce herself, two spears had blocked her path. Before she knew it, they were shouting for reinforcements and she had barely gotten a word out before a tall knight, supposedly called Kaeya, had appeared, shackles in hand.
Leading to her current situation. She had been handcuffed and virtually thrown to the floor in a room she supposed doubled as a cell. The cell was damp and chilly, with a cruel draught slipping in from some unknown crack in the walls.
Upon the sight of her shivering, Kaeya had chuckled softly, closing and bolting the door with a cruel smile.
‘What’s wrong? Can’t handle the cold?’
He had left without waiting for a reply, nor giving her a chance to explain herself, not that she believed she had anything to explain herself for.
Lumine’s knees were scraped and sore from where she’d been thrown to the ground and her wrists ached mercilessly with the poor fit of the shackles. It was broad daylight outside, yet not much light reached the room, which only added to the chill in the air.
She fretted that she was going to be left there for hours. Surely they would question her eventually? But the more time that passed, the more fraught with anxiety she became. Her hands were feeling tingly from the lack of circulation and she could barely move her shoulders from the stiffness that had settled in them from the strange positioning of her arms.
What a miserable introduction to a new region.
Footsteps sounded in the distance, accompanied by voices she couldn’t place to Kaeya and the two guards she had met earlier.
‘Preposterous! You cannot be serious about putting me in solitary confinement, Diluc! I already said I’d pay my tab, I don’t need to be taught any lessons!’
‘Shut up, bard. I warned you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the bottles of dandelion wine you’ve been swiping from behind the counter too.’
Lumine had been straining to hear their conversation, hoping for details on her situation, but the two of them sounded rather… pathetic. Regardless, she shuffled into the corner, apprehensive. Perhaps this was a ploy to lower her guard in some way.
‘Diluc, reconsider! You don’t want to lose your most loyal patron- woah! Watch where you’re dragging me, I could’ve tripped!’
The pair came to a stop outside the cell and she heard a key turn in the lock. Had they not seen her there?
‘Consider this your retribution, bard. Use this time wisely, perhaps to sober up.’ Bard? Not the most intimidating of titles. At least it didn’t sound like a criminal was being put in here with her.
‘Okay Diluc, this really isn’t funny anymore. Not that you’re a particularly humorous- hey!’ With a shove someone came stumbling into the room and Lumine heard the door swing shut, locking again. Just as the person turned to face her, the footsteps of his companion began moving down the corridor.
Lumine’s eyes met shocked green ones and with a jolt she realised this was the person she’d been seeing all around Mondstadt for the past few weeks.
‘You! You’re-’
‘Venti the bard!’ He placed a hand on his chest. ‘Voted most popular Mondstadt bard 3 years running! Very lovable of course, ehe~ so… please don’t hurt me, fellow inmate.’ Great, so he thought she was some sort of criminal.
‘You’ve been following me for days now!’ Lumine tried not to sound too creeped out; she’d need some rapport with this guy if she was to get any information out of him. ‘Plus, I couldn’t hurt you if I tried.’ She added, turning to demonstrate her shackled hands.
‘I wasn’t following you, I was keeping an eye on my- on Mondstadt! Just because you’ve been popping up all over the place! You’re the suspicious one if you ask me, surely you’ve seen the storms around as of late?’ Despite his words, he wasn’t eying her with caution, or even suspicion. He definitely knew more than he was letting on.
‘Do you really think I have the power to do something like that, when I got thrown into jail by a single person?’ Lumine caught his eye and noticed he looked like he was trying to hold back laughter.
‘I’ll bet it was Kaeya that put you in here. Very unfortunate, I too, was thrown in here by his brother. Ruthless… it must run in the family.’
‘At least you seem to know them! I don’t know why I’m in here. Because I’m an outlander?’ Lumine said, stress tinging her voice slightly. ‘He doesn’t seem particularly eager to question me either, considering how long I’ve been in here already.’
‘Threat not, Traveller! The city is on high alert at the moment, but you’ll be cleared of suspicion soon enough. I’ve seen you around after all, I can vouch for you.’ Venti seemed genuine and Lumine grudgingly decided to trust him. ‘Want me to rid you of those nasty handcuffs?’
‘You can?’ Lumine asked, bewildered. His change of heart seemed too sudden, had he been testing her?
‘Of course! Turn around and allow me…’ She did so reluctantly and in a second, she felt the metal of the cuffs shatter around her wrists, falling to the ground. Or, less so shattered than sliced? What kind of terrifying power was that? She decided not to question it.
‘Wow! He really was harsh with you, your wrists are all cut up!’ He gestured at them and she realised he was right. Now she thought about it, the metal had been pretty jagged and old, but she had been more focused on the fact she was imprisoned in a city she didn’t even know.
‘Oh… yeah.’ Lumine didn’t really know how to react. Was he expecting her to cry or something? Nervous, she stretched her arms out and they both winced simultaneously as her shoulders cracked and popped. ‘Shit, that was unpleasant.’ She rolled her neck and a fresh set of cracks echoed off the walls.
‘Stop, stop! You’ll paralyse yourself! You’re meant to stretch slowly.’ Venti said, rolling his neck in an exaggerated circle.
‘What, so you have experience in being handcuffed?’ Lumine blurted out, regretting it as soon as the words left her mouth.
‘Ehe~’
Lumine would happily ignore that.
‘Anyway, that looks pretty bad. You should probably see to it before it gets infected, no?’ He said, gesturing at her wrists and knees again.
‘Well… there’s not much I can do about it here.’ She said, eyes lingering on the locked door.
‘Want me to bust us out of here?’ He was grinning like an excited kid. ‘Don’t worry about Kaeya, I’ll explain to him next time I see him.’
‘Are you sure that won’t start a full on manhunt? Being arrested once is enough for me.’ Venti winked at her and Lumine tried not to feel infuriated. At least he seemed to have good intentions.
He raised a hand and suddenly the draught started feeling a lot more violent, her clothes rustling while his braids remained completely still against his shoulders. So he could also use wind powers? Maybe he could explain them to her.
She watched in awe as the door dented in on itself and then flew off the frame.
‘Hoo, boy, maybe I overdid it a little. Come Traveller, we should really get moving.’ And with that the two of them were sneaking out, creeping past the door that apparently led to the Grand Master’s office. He’d pressed a finger to his lips and pretended to make shushing motions in a way that was so theatrical she’d had to stifle a laugh.
From there, escaping the city had been surprisingly easy. A few loosened roof tiles and scaled walls later, they were already heading towards the big tree Lumine had visited before, the name of which was Windrise, according to Venti.
‘Okay! We won’t be bothered here. They say the anemo archon watches over this place. I’m sure he’d sympathise with our plight.’ Lumine took a seat at the base of the statue while Venti stood looking down at her. ‘We managed to escape, which is great and all, but you don’t exactly seem the type to carry medical supplies.’
Lumine blinked, remembering that was the reason they had broken out in the first place. And Venti wasn’t exactly wrong, she was used to travelling light and she hadn’t yet had time to establish her supplies. She avoided Venti’s disapproving gaze.
‘Okay, wait here. I’ll go get some from my good friend Edith, she’s just a minute's walk away. Don’t move from the statue.’ So he could be bossy too? Although she did understand the sentiment - there was blood running down her calves and hands and she probably looked worse than she felt.
Not that she felt particularly great. Sleeping outside for nights on end eventually takes its toll. She still felt chilly from her time in the cell and she was certain it hadn’t been this cold before Kaeya had dragged her all the way across Mondstadt.
If she was coming down with something… well that would be a pain in and of itself.
‘Helloooo? Earth to the Traveller? I never did catch your name by the way.’
‘It’s Lumine.’
‘Well Lumine, I brought the first aid kit. Here, see?’ He waggled it in front of her eyes and she reached out to take it. ‘Woah, nuh uh, allow me! After all, it was my friend who did this.’
‘No, I couldn’t possibly ask you to-’
‘Nonsense! It’s not a problem!’ He kneeled down in front of her and started shaking out the contents, allowing them to fall to the ground in a small heap. Venti started sifting through them and exasperated, Lumine reached out to grab his hand.
‘You’re not meant to let them touch the ground, it’s unsanitary. Even if it’s just the packaging, see?’ She gestured at a small pair of scissors that had fallen away from the pile. Lumine glanced up to gauge his reaction, worrying she had offended him when she was met with eyes staring right into hers. ‘Uh…’
‘Ah, of course. My apologies.’ He pulled his hand from hers, looking surprisingly bashful considering how obnoxious he was being just a few seconds earlier.
He fumbled with a small packet, an alcohol swab and she watched cautiously as he made a tear and pulled out the swab, dropping the packet onto the ground.
‘Can I see?’ Venti pointed at her wrist so she held her hand out to him, willing it to stop shaking. She was definitely colder than she should be. ‘Sorry, this might hurt a little.’
He looked about as nervous as she felt, so she didn’t comment, stifling her wince when he pressed the swab onto her wrist. He set about cleaning the blood from her skin. Lumine hadn’t been expecting him to be good with his hands considering the small war he’d had with the packaging earlier, but he took a surprising amount of care to be gentle with her.
By the time he was pulling her other hand into his lap, she had already forgotten about the sting, the chill and the confusion of her arrest. She stared at his furrowed brows and the small, pink tongue just barely poking out of his mouth. Of all of the people who could’ve been thrown into confinement with her, she was glad it was him.
‘Okay… now gauze…’ He was mumbling to himself. This was obviously something he didn’t do often. Lumine watched as he placed gauze around her wrists, then began to secure it with bandages that he definitely over-wrapped. Just as he was finishing up the second one, he spoke up.
‘Where are you from?’
Lumine was slightly taken aback. She hadn’t been expecting Venti to ask her that and she wasn’t sure exactly how to explain.
‘I suppose you could call it another world? Or planet? To be honest, I’m not sure how I ended up here.’ She left it at that, not deliberately being ambiguous.
‘Oh? And yet you carry the powers of this land with you?’ His eyes were searching and under his scrutiny, Lumine panicked a little.
‘Yeah, I noticed you had them too. I’m not entirely sure where they came from… I touched a statue kinda like this one.’ Venti raised his eyebrows.
‘Really? Could you show me? Your powers, not the statues.’
‘Uh, sure but…’
‘But what?’
‘You have to let go.’
Venti’s hands had lingered on hers after he finished wrapping the bandage and noticing this, he jerked away. Lumine looked off to the side.
Would it be cruel to point out his red face?