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She could see almost everything from up there,
The wangshu Inn, the Stormterror lair, if she squinted she even could see Mount Yougou.
Lumine didn’t like Dragonspine, it was too cold for her liking, & it was just so solitary, she couldn’t understand how Albedo could survive up there. But sometimes, when the world was too much, she just liked to climb to the top of Teyvat.
There was something weird, when she tried to look at the rest of the regions, she just couldn't see a thing, it was just a bunch of grass, no building, no trees; nothing. That didn’t make sense, right? She should be able to see Sumeru, or Fontaine, or whatever region was boarding with Liyue & Monstadt. But she couldn’t, so the traveler just admired what she could see.
Seeing the Stormterror lair made her nostalgic. Monstadt was the first place she visited there. The first of her problems. The first place she looked for Aether.
Her brother came to life in her mind, smiling & caring as always, as he always was with her. She didn’t know what he lived while she was asleep, what he knew that she didn’t. He seemed to hate the archons for something they did years ago.
Why did Aether wake up before her? Why didn’t she wake up with him? What did the Archons do for him to join the Abyss?
Khaenri’ah
It all was summarized in that place. Whatever happened, was what made him leave her. He also said that he saw all Teyvat, did that mean that he met her?
The unknown god who cursed them, separated them.
She sighed & looked over to the Wangshu Inn.
Morax. Rex Lapis; Zhongli.
He knew.
He knew what happened there, he was there. He did something. But also, he made a contract to never tell whatever the archons did in Khaenri’ah. When he told her so, she was mad, she wanted to fight him, wich would be a totally idiotic act, he was an Archon, even if he gave up his Gnosis, he still was powerfull, & she couldn’t do mutch against him, maybe in the future…
Zhongli’s Gnosis.
What in the world did the Cryo Archon give Morax for him to give up his Gnosis? She knew he wanted to “retire”, he wanted to see if Liyue could maintain his peace without him, but his Gnosis… that was something not even Venti, who was a carefree spirit, wanted to give up.
La Signora had to literally rip it out of his chest for her to obtain it. But he just… gave it to them.
& of course, he didn’t tell her, it was a contract after all, & not only it was a contract, it was his last
contract as the Geo Archon. Not a chance to obtain more information from him.
Venti, on the other hand, he didn’t know a thing. More than that, he couldn’t have known a thing. During the Archon war he was still a wind spirit, so he couldn’t know what happened there. The only way he knew something was if the other Archons told him about it, which was highly unlikely. Maybe Zhongli told him something about it. They got along well, even if they denied it, she saw Venti in Liyue during the Lantern rite, & on Zhongli's birthday, even if they tried to not bring attention to them. She thought, in those moments where her mind was running wild, that they were the closest between the archons. They were neighbors, & the only other Archon she knew was Ei, but she was closed on herself, Lumine doubted that Ei broke her enclosure just to say hi to some old friends. No. Those two shared a special bond. She smiled, maybe they even shared ‘that’ kind of bond, she saw the way Venti smiled to the Geo Archon, like he was the freedom he had wanted all these years ago. Which was ironic, since Zhongli was quite the opposite from freedom.
She had heard about the other Archons, the Cryo Archon, the one that led the fatui, the one that made a contract with the God of Contracts to obtain his Gnosis in exchange for something worth the same value. She wanted to meet her. She wanted to ask her so many questions, but she had the impression that Snezhnaya was going to be the last place that she was going to visit.
Why?
She wanted to go now, grab her things & cross the limits of liyue, go through the Chasm & arrive at Snezhnaya.
Paimon’s word came to her head, “How about we explore the area ahead of us later?”. She didn’t want to explore later, she wanted to explore it now. She needed to find her brother, wanted to reunite with him.
But she couldn’t.
Her next stop, Sumeru.
The Dendro Archon who supposedly was dead. She only knew one Dendro user, Baizhu of the Bubu farmacy, she hadn’t seen anyone else with that Vision, & for some reason, when she wanted to see the green haired male, she couldn’t find him. But, if she thought about it, when she went to Sumeru she would have to absorb the dendro energy, so she was going to be one of the dendro users.
She didn’t believe it, Lumine was sure he was alive, if she had learned something from Morax, the Archons liked to test the humans. So, she was going to Sumeru, with the mindset that the Dendro Archon was alive, although she was sure he wasn’t the God she was looking for. She was sure none of the 7 were going to be that unknown god,
There was something that was bugging her, why was she looking for her inside the 7 Archons. After all, there were more gods, small gods, like Havria, the salt Goddess that was sacrificed by her worshippers. Maybe she wasn’t one of the 7, maybe she had to look somewhere else.
The blond lifted her head, & Clestia came into her view.
Celestia, lands of the gods.
Venti didn’t like it there, he said that it was too boring, but, maybe she was there?
Could Lumine even go up there? Does her travel allow her to go there? Meet the gods? Celestia didn’t look big, there couldn’t be a lot of people up there, that Goddess could be there.
She didn’t know. The only thing she could do was wait until her own travel would come into view.
The cold air was seeping through her lungs, but she couldn’t feel it, she was too deep in thought for her to bother about it3, not like she was going to die from the cold. On the highest point on dragonspine she couldn’t, for some reason.
Where was he? Aether.
She missed him, but now, she was unsure. Their travel must have gone on, but the people she met during her journey marked her, & she was sure she was going to miss them. Even Tartaglia, tha fatui child, he was insane, but he wasn’t a bad person, he had a reason why he did the things he had done. He kind of reminded her of Aether, he was doing the things he was doing for one reason, even if she didn’t know what that reason was. Ajax was a brother too, he took care of his brothers. She kind of felt bad for treating him so badly, well, he the ginger was kind of weird, with that liking he had for fighting, he was exhausting.
Everything was.
Exhausting.
Lumine felt tired of helping everyone, fighting in wars that didn’t concern her, even if she was applauded afterwards, she was tired. Lumine just wanted to go through a nation without fighting with their god, or a giant dragon, or solving whatever crisis the nation is going through. Even sending letters was a burden now. Why couldn’t they send a simple letter? Or ask anyone else? Why always her? She was an outlander, she had a mission, & everyone knew it, they knew she was there to look for him, but nobody seemed to care.
She worried if someday, she wouldn’t care anymore. About the people in the nations, about the friends she made along the way, about herself… about her brother. Someday she may become an empty shell, who just went on and on without an objective, just following the stream of people that were around her.
Erosion.
Maybe that was what it was. Not only the memories, but the ability to care for other beings, that was what the erosion bringed. She had more than 500 years, she wasn’t as old as the Geo Archon, but she… they both were old, Aether was her twin after all. He lived more, yes, she was asleep, but they were the same age.
She trusted that Paimon wouldn’t allow her to rot. Even as annoying as the fairy was, she helped her, maintained her on the ground, even comforted her somehow, Lumine was grateful for that. They would separate? Someday, she thought, they would have to separate, or she may want to come with them, to see the world, new dimensions.
She would see.
For now, she needed to resume her journey.