Chapter Text
“Lumine!”
When Celestia had finally shown its true colors… When Aether and the Abyss has risen up in retaliation… Everything had collided in a blinding display of otherworldly power that even Vision wielders could only cower in fear when faced with the sight.
“Is there a doctor? A healer? Someone? Please!”
When the dust had finally settled… When the battle was at its end… No one had expected for their beloved starlight to suddenly fade away. The bright, always smiling Traveler had graced all of Teyvat with her radiance, but now they found themselves longing for what was lost.
“You can’t die! You promised me!”
Crimson blood stained her snow white dress, blooming like a deadly flower as she had laid in her brother’s arms. She had long since taken her final breath, but he couldn’t help but cling to her cold body…
Something was wrong.
The moment she opened her eyes, she could tell. Her mind was hazy, but through that, she could still remember clearly the moment she’d taken her final breath. She knew that she had died, yet… as she blinked slowly, there was no denying she was alive in some way, somewhere.
Is this the afterlife?
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, her vision had cleared just enough to view her immediate surroundings. She was kneeling in a dimly lit cave, with symbols drawn in blood surrounding her. Confusion swirled deep within the recesses of her mind, and as she tried to move, she found her body wholly numb and unresponsive as she slumped to the ground. She didn’t feel any pain, not even when her head landed heavily against the rock beneath her.
If this is the afterlife… why is it so dull? Is this some kind of punishment? For what?
She wracked her brain, desperately trying to piece together what was going on as slowly but surely feeling crept back into her limbs. At first, she could wiggle her fingers a bit, until finally she could pick herself up off the floor and back into a sitting position. It was then that she noticed the bandages around her right arm, and she winced when she applied pressure.
When did my arm get hurt?
The moment she had died, the only injuries sustained had been to her back and chest, nothing at all on any of her limbs. Yet, clear as day, as she peeled back the layers of wrapped bandages, there was a jagged cut stretched across her arm. It looked painful, something she most certainly could not have forgotten about, and judging from the way it was already beginning to bleed again, it was relatively fresh. Covering it back up, she glanced around again. The cave was unfamiliar to her, and she couldn’t recall how she got here in the first place.
If this isn’t the afterlife… then what is going on?
Lifting a hand to her throat, she opens her mouth. Her tongue was still a bit numb, but she was able to let out a low groan. The pitch of it surprised her, lower than normal, but she chalked it up to whatever odd situation she was in right now. Now that her sense of touch was returning, she could feel her hair brushing against her lower back, and she shivered at the foreign contact. Her hair had always been kept short, the longest it had ever reached was just to her shoulders, yet it was long enough to touch her back? On top of that, she felt an odd draft around her abdomen, sending a chill down her spine.
Her dress covered those parts, so what was going on? The most it revealed was her upper back and her collarbone. As she glanced down, taking in her appearance, her breath caught in her throat.
Are these… Aether’s clothes?
The outfit was exactly the way she remembered it. After all, it felt like only yesterday she had been lying in his arms again, even if she had been dying. The next thing she noticed was just how… flat her chest was. She was shaking now, her body trembling as she struggled to get her feet underneath her. Glancing around the cave, she spotted a small bucket filled with water, and she stumbled over to it, kneeling beside it as she gazed down at her reflection.
“Ae… ther?” As she spoke, tears filled her eyes, reflecting in the image she saw. There was no doubt in her mind now as Aether stared back into her eyes, shedding tears just as she did. “N-No…” It was most certainly his voice, ringing out clear as day whenever she spoke.
What did you do, Aether?
“Aether?”
She jolted at the voice, her mind scrambling to identify it as she turned to face whoever was there. Standing in the entrance was a familiar boy with blond hair and brilliant blue eyes. Cradled in his arms were countless books and scrolls, but they tumbled to the ground when they locked eyes. “Al… bedo?” she croaks.
Albedo’s gaze drops to the symbols scrawled across the floor. “Did you really… Aether, did you really go through with it?” He drops to one knee, reaching out to drag his fingers across one of the symbols. “It’s already dry…”
“Albedo,” she repeats. “What’s… going on?”
For several moments, he looked just as mystified and lost as she did, but as he stood straight again, he masked his expression. “Lumine, right?” he asks. When she nods smally, he lets out a small sigh. “You died twenty years ago. Ever since then, Aether had been searching for a way to bring you back, and… he finally figured it out, it seems.”
It took several moments for his words to register, and within seconds her entire body went numb with shock. “He… did what? ”
“Lumine!”
The last thing she saw was Albedo running towards her as the world tilted before going black. Sometime later, she found herself laying on a makeshift bed, a wet, cool cloth laid across her forehead. She lay there for some time, trying to process everything she’d heard earlier. If it was true, then it meant Aether was dead all because of her. If he had truly given up his life in order to bring her back… what was she supposed to do now?
“You should at least try and eat something if you’re awake.”
Turning her head to the side, the now faintly damp cloth slips off her face as she spots Albedo sitting down at a desk. She recognized this place as she looked around: it was his workspace on Dragonspine. Not far from him, laid out on a table, there was a bowl of something warm, the steam rolling off of it bringing with it the scent of a warm broth. Forcing herself to sit up, she slowly shoves the blanket away from herself as she swings her legs over the side of the bed. Gingerly, she stands up before slowly making her way over to the table to sit down.
As she lifted her hand, she noticed just how much it shook as she grasped the spoon. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to go still, taking several moments before she moved again. This time, her hand didn’t shake one bit as she let the warm broth fill the spoon. It wasn’t long before she had emptied the bowl, only then realizing just how hungry she had been. Everything that was once natural suddenly felt so foreign to her in this body. It was surreal just being alive again, let alone the fact that this was her brother’s body.
“How are you feeling?”
Glancing up, she stares at Albedo’s back as he doesn’t so much as look up from his work. Standing again, she carefully walks to his side, beginning to slowly get used to walking again. “You said… I died twenty years ago?” she asks.
Finally, he puts down his pen as he sits back, turning his head to look up at her. “Yes,” he says gently. “It’s been a little over twenty years since you died that day after the battle against Celestia.”
“How is Teyvat?” she asks.
“Prosperous,” he says. “But that should be something you should see with your own eyes.”
“My eyes?” she muses before scoffing. “These can hardly be called mine…”
Albedo stands, regarding her carefully. “Your brother has given you everything he had to offer, so yes, they are yours now. They belong to you. Not anyone else.”
She finds herself unable to reply, lowering her gaze. He leaves her standing there silently as he sits back down and returns to his work. In a daze, she shuffles back to the bed, sitting down on the edge as she gazes down at her hands.
Hers.
The hands that once belonged to her brother… were now hers? Trying to wrap her head around that fact was near impossible. She spent several days in the cave with Albedo, only ever moving to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom. Even that had been a chore to figure out, something she’d have to adjust to soon enough if she was really stuck like this.
“You should bathe,” Albedo says. “You haven’t washed yourself in nearly a week and it’s noticeable.”
Hugging her knees close to her chest, she shakes her head. “I’m alright,” she insists.
Albedo frowns at the girl, confused. “What’s the matter?”
“I… don’t want to see my reflection in the water,” she sighs.
“Are you asking me to help you bathe--”
“No!” she snaps. “I just… don’t want to be reminded of what I’ve taken away from Aether…”
Crossing his arms, Albedo sighs with frustration. “He spent every waking moment searching for ways to bring you back,” he says. “Aether always had bags beneath his eyes and he reeked because he insisted he was too busy to worry over something as small as bathing. Are you really going to mistreat the body he left to you?”
She tightens her grip on her knees, hugging them closer. “I…”
“He skipped countless meals in order to keep working. You could hear his stomach growling in complaint from miles away,” Albedo mused with a small grin tugging his lips. “Aether gave everything to bring you back, Lumine. Think hard before you decide to throw that away.”
As he walked away, pulling his jacket on to go run some errands in Mondstadt, she was left alone in the cave with her thoughts. A couple of hours passed before she stood up.
By the time Albedo returned, she was fast asleep, damp hair splayed out across the pillows.
It would be several more days before she finally adjusted to her new body, able to move about with the same swiftness and grace as before. Despite the progress, however, she was reluctant to leave the cave at all, content to be confined in the snowy mountain.
“Come with me,” Albedo said to her one day.
She looked up as he stood in the entrance to the secret chamber she’d first awoken in, waiting for her to follow. After a few moments of hesitation, she stands, slowly following in his wake. The cave had since been cleaned of the blood Aether had used from the cut on her arm to draw the symbols that called her back. She hadn’t set foot in here since then, too scared of what she might find, and she found she was right in fearing so.
Stopping short, she halted as she peered up at the far wall. She hadn’t noticed it the first time, but the wall was covered with a black cloth. Albedo didn’t hesitate to walk up to it, grabbing a fistful of the fabric. Without a glance at her over his shoulder, he tugged it down, revealing a chunk of ice. Sealed within the ice was a face she was all too familiar with.
“That’s…”
“I convinced Aether to have your body sealed away in order to preserve it,” Albedo says. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk him out of trying to bring you back, so I decided to do what I could to help him instead. We tried all we could to call back your soul to your body, but nothing would work. Nonetheless, Aether never gave up.”
Swallowing thickly, she takes a step back. “Why… are you showing me this?”
“I can continue your brother’s research,” Albedo says. “There’s still a chance for you to return to your own body, albeit there’s nothing I can do for Aether. All I ask of you in return is that you fulfill his wish for you…”
“What… was his wish?”
Turning to face her, Albedo’s smile was bittersweet. “‘To be happy and alive’ was all he said…”
Less than a week later, she was shouldering a bag full of supplies as she stood in the cave’s open mouth, the cold mountain air brushing across her skin. She had at long last discarded her brother’s old clothes, instead asking Albedo to have someone make her something new on one of his errands to Mondstadt.
It had long sleeves that clung tightly to her arms, white fabric embroidered with golden thread like a starry sky. It blended into her gloves which protected her hands from wear while fighting, a soft, golden color spreading out to her fingertips. Her top stopped just below her ribcage, reminiscent of Aether’s old top, but an undershirt covered her skin with a black fabric. She wore a pair of pants, too self conscious to try and get away with a skirt in this body, and the fabric clung tightly to her legs and tucked neatly into the tops of her boots that stopped just below her knees. Hanging from her left ear was her brother’s earring, too precious to be simply tossed aside, and tucked onto the right side of her head was her signature flower clip.
“Are you sure about this?” Albedo asks.
She turned around to look back at her old friend, smiling. “You said it yourself, that I should fulfill Aether’s wish. As much as I want to turn back the clock and give him back all he’s sacrificed to me, it’s too late now. I could hardly live with myself if I just wasted away here, waiting for nothing.”
Albedo shared her sentiment with a small nod before motioning to her hair. “Allow me,” he says, chuckling softly as he watches the long strands blow wildly in the gentle breeze.
As she turns her back to him, she stands patiently while he runs his fingers through her hair, combing out the tangles as he slowly but surely braids it. It doesn’t take him long to finish, and it was only then that she realized just how much Aether’s hair must have grown in the twenty years he spent searching for a way to bring her back. Even braided up, it nearly reached her feet, stopping just above her ankles. Even the locks of hair that were kept neatly trimmed far shorter than his braid had grown out a considerable amount, but Albedo had deftly weaved them into the thick braid that now hung down her back.
“Maybe I should get it trimmed a bit,” she jokes, tugging the braid over her shoulder as she admires it. “Did you… braid Aether’s hair for him, too?”
“I did,” Albedo says simply.
Frowning, she turns back around to meet his gaze. “Can I ask you something?” When he nods for her to go on, she clears her throat, nervous to speak. “Why exactly did you… help my brother?”
He closed his eyes, deep in thought for several moments before he spoke. “A small part of me was curious,” he admits. “I wanted to see if it were truly possible to bring back someone who had died. For the most part, my curiosity was sated, albeit it was disappointing when we were unable to bring you back to your own body.”
“And the other reason?”
“I suppose… another small part of me wanted to see you again. Of course, I was hardly alone in that matter,” he says with a grin, opening his eyes. “You touched countless lives all across Teyvat. The moment you died, it was as though the brightest star in the sky had suddenly disappeared. Even if we weren’t paying attention, even if we couldn’t remember where that star had been, even if it were the middle of the day, at that moment, all we could do was call out in an attempt to bring back the star we’d lost.”
Chuckling weakly, she scratches the back of her neck, somewhat embarrassed. “And the other reason?”
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t expect me to believe there were only two small parts of you interested in helping my brother considering how much you did for him,” she points out.
His blue eyes betrayed his stoic expression. “I… cared for him,” is all he says…