Chapter Text
One foot forward, then another.
His vision was beyond blurred at this point; if he didn't have faith in his own abilities, he wouldn't have believed he could do this. But still, he pushed through the pain, fatigue and blood loss and got here.
Stormterror's Lair.
How beyond ironic, he thought. Not so long ago, he was around these lands, and now he came back right to where this all started. His existence must have one thing or two to do with endings and beginnings, if it likes them that much.
The pain was starting to get unbearable, even by his standards— which were possibly the highest in all of Teyvat, regarding this particular subject. If his vision was blurry before, now it was pretty much useless.
One step forward, but not another.
He collapsed right near one destroyed column, still panting heavily. This was certainly not one of the endings Dainsleif envisioned to himself, but he really shouldn't have expected better. It seems about right for someone like him, now that he thinks about it.
Still, spite still makes its way through his mind. Useless immortality. Well, it's meant to be a curse, in any case.
Maybe it was actually his fault. It really wasn't the brightest idea to chase Aether and his Herald down their portal, as that was literally stepping on the unknown. In hindsight, leaving the Traveler and her companion alone with no explanation whatsoever wasn't that good either.
He ended up getting info, though: the Abyss Portals worked in a similar way to Teleport Waypoints. Each portal was connected to an entire network, which somewhat explained the Abyss Order's near omnipresence.
But stepping inside was definitely not worth it. Not only did he miss the chance to reach Aether completely, but his inexperience with the portal network presented the Abyss Herald with an opportunity to stab him.
It didn't damage any vital organs. The aim was to give him a warning, probably on behalf of the Abyss Prince… Not that his servant followed the order perfectly.
Your mind always had a bit of cold steel inside, but this is completely new. Lumine would probably be disappointed in you, Aether, he couldn't help but taunt the man in his head.
Ah, yes, the Traveler. He has to wonder now how exactly she's been faring with the news of her brother's current… Occupation, for the lack of better words. He recalls the way Aether barely addressed her at all during their meeting (an accidental meeting, might he add) and how desperate to have him back she seemed to be.
He also recalls vaguely that she was too slow to get through the portal.
Dainsleif remembers how much Aether liked to speak about his sister during their journey together. It was his way of clinging to her, even if only in memory, and he would get even more talkative in proportion to his melancholy.
"Oh, you'll have to see her, then!" He had said, when Dainsleif once pointed out this particular habit of his. "She's a total crybaby. When something happens, she puts the blame on herself and doesn't let anyone say otherwise. If she starts doing that, the way to get her to stop is to cling on her like an octopus and refuse to leave, and make sure that you explain how wrong she is!"
Back then, he had smiled sadly, thinking about how Lumine was lucky to have someone to be by her side at all times. He said so to him, an attempt at comforting his companion. It had worked, or at least he thought so.
Look how things turned out to be. Why is he even thinking about these things at such a moment?
His consciousness fled from his grasp. Any moment now, and his eyes would not open again.
His eyes opened in a startle.
Immediately, he felt a soft mattress beneath him, and concluded someone carried him away. The wound wasn't hurting as much as it had before, and the fatigue mostly went away. If he had enough rest, he could be fully healed.
Keyword being if . He was not going to rest.
As soon as he pushed himself up, he felt his wound throb, as expected. He was going to push through that too, if he hadn't sensed another presence in the room immediately.
"Don't move!" A soft, feminine voice spoke, approaching him. It instantly made him tense up, because Dainsleif knew that voice.
She pushed him back down the mattress ( bed , he observed belatedly. He was inside a bedroom) and he simply obliged, due to his temporary shock. Blue eyes peered up, seeking confirmation, and golden eyes peered back impassively, if not a bit curious.
Then, not entirely ready to not chalk it up to delirium, he asked, "Lumine?"
"Yes?" She asked back.
That explains plenty. She was the one that carried him here (how on Teyvat she had strength for that was another story) and tended to his wounds. Which now begged the question… "Where are we?"
"Ah!" Lumine perked up. "Don't worry, it's safe here. No one can enter my teapot without getting my permission first."
Good, but… "Your teapot ?"
"Sorry, force of habit. It's actually an adeptal abode I got as a gift… Well, that's not the time to explain. How are you feeling right now?"
"Good enough to leave, I suppose. Thank you for your hospitality." He already got up and was ready to do good on his words, which left Lumine stupefied for enough time to let him get to the door. Walking while wounded was surely not as easy as he was making it out to be and even then he hissed a bit whenever it bothered him a bit more.
That effort went to waste when a flurry of stars appeared in front of him, looking outright outraged at his stunt. The Traveler's little companion huffed, though that wasn't intimidating in the slightest.
"How dare you!?" Paimon pointed at him. "Lumine saves your life and lets you stay in her house and the first thing you do is try to flee!? You have no etiquette!"
He could just as easily point out that she was the furthest thing from polite, but before that he felt someone tug at his cape.
"Where do you even think you're going, wounded like that? Go back to your bed!" Lumine exclaimed, perplexed by his attitude.
The mini tug-of-war that ensued wasn't enough to contain him, but that amount of movement was sure to bite back at him later. A small part of his brain complained about his own stubbornness, quickly overwhelmed by the constant thought of leaving and going back to pursuing that tool of a Herald. He was on that chase for who knows how long; giving up now was ludicrous.
Turns out that the bedroom was on the second floor. Dainsleif mentally told himself to just suck it up and go, and then he went down, traveler and pixie hot on his tracks.
He got to what he presumed to be the living room, already searching for the door… Only to realize that there were more people in the house. He was greeted with several stares, all of them slowly darting from his face to his wound, understanding the situation quickly.
Chaos ensued. Barbara Pegg (the young deaconess of Barbatos' church, if his memory serves him right) let out a rather high-pitched scream, followed by Bennett (the adventurer with astronomical amounts of bad luck) and Fischl (another adventurer, apparently impersonating a fictional character) running towards Dainsleif with the intention to stop him from going out. Behind him, Lumine and Paimon catched up.
"Dainsleif, don't do it! You'll just ruin Barbara's job like this!" The Traveler appeared positively pissed off now.
Dainsleif silently weighed his options. Should he stay and recover as he's being told to or run for it, risking being caught or worsening his condition?
Then he recalled that Lumine called this place an adeptal abode. Was it even possible for him to escape this place? If Lumine controlled who gets in, did that mean she controlled who gets out?
...What was he even doing, acting like a wounded deer? This was beyond absurd of him.
With a sigh, he resigned himself. "Fine, I'll go back." He said, turning back to the stairs without uttering a single word again. Lumine was surprised at his abrupt behavior once more and he agreed with her; this was way out of character for him. He was almost ashamed of letting the situation get into his head, but he also really didn't want the mission to go to waste.
Well, it did go to waste, at least for now. No use crying over spilled milk.
After going back to the bedroom, he laid down on the bed, still monitored by a pair of watchful eyes. They gazed at each other until Paimon broke the silence.
"What the heck was that!? Dain, weren't you supposed to be all calm and collected!? You freaked out and that freaked us out!"
"Paimon." Lumine chided, disapproving of Paimon's choice of words. Not that he minded. "But you are being uncharacteristically tense today. What happened?"
Dainsleif looked to the room's ceiling, already conformed with not leaving the place. "A surprise attack from an Abyss Herald."
Lumine delayed her answer for one second too long, which made him look over to her. Now, she was the one who seemed tense. He could faintly hear the hitch in her breath, too.
"...Was it that Abyss Herald?" Paimon asked in her friend's stead.
Once again, Dainsleif considered his options, but not for long. A lie would be useless here and she probably already suspected the truth anyway, so he went with it. "Yes, the same one. We've been chasing each other in the Abyss Portals for a while."
Now, Lumine stepped forward, closer to him, and he silently watched her body language. A worried expression and hand over her chest were all he needed to know her question.
"If you were in the portal, then… What about my brother?"
He held her gaze, despite something prickling at his skin and saying he shouldn't. Now this was ironic; hadn't he been wondering about how she felt a while ago? Now fate presented him with the golden opportunity to be the bearer of bad news.
"I lost him the moment I stepped into it. No sign of him ever since." He decided to not lie again. That would be even worse, after all.
He was close enough to see the tiny spark of hope in her eyes dull completely. She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "I should have guessed. Did my brother order the Herald to hurt you too?"
"Probably."
Lumine brought her legs closer with her arms and tucked them under her chin. She looked confused, sad and angry, all in one. "I don't understand. Nothing about this makes sense. Why would Aether do that?"
Then, she turned her gaze to him. "You understand, don't you? You know what happened."
"...Yes.". He was already waiting for her request: tell me, she would say. I can't, he would respond, for it was also the truth.
She took him off guard, in the end. "I thought so. You probably were involved, if Aether is so angry at you." And left it at that.
He spent some time deciding what to say. The need to defend himself about her accusation (if it really counted as an accusation, with how passively she spoke) was there, but his own curiosity eventually overcame that.
"You didn't ask me about what I knew."
Lumine raised her head. "Oh. Did you want me to?"
"No." He admitted.
"Well, then it's fine. I just realized recently that knowing this kind of stuff is dangerous. And I think Aether would want me to learn about it myself."
There was an answer on the tip of his tongue: you shouldn't bother with what Aether wants for you, especially now of all times. But he held it off, knowing it could very well upset her. Plus, she was right: the truth was dangerous, even if searched on one's own. Sharing it with others was tantamount to insanity.
…And the Abyss Order was recently seen stealing books of very suspicious caliber, no doubt planning to make use of their contents and further proving his last point.
It was better for the both of them for this conversation to be avoided. "Why are there more people here?" He asked.
"Well, I said I can give permission for other people to enter, didn't I? You're not the first."
That was honestly a bit concerning. It's not that he is incapable of functioning properly when near a lot of people, but he doesn't really want to spend his recovery time that way. "How many were allowed to enter?"
Lumine appeared sheepish at his question, fiddling with some of her hair strands. "...Ah, just my friends."
"That doesn't narrow the options down in the slightest." The Traveler was notorious for catching the attention of many. Her list of connections is pretty much endless.
And now she puffed her cheeks. "Well, it's my right to invite who I want, so feel invited!" Then, she added, quieter this time, "I can just tell them to be quiet, you know. I'm not going to let your rest be ruined."
"Hn." That seemed reasonable enough. Dainsleif went silent, incapable of maintaining the conversation.
"...You should at least thank them, though. If not for them, saving you would be harder."
That made him raise a brow. "Is that so? I do recall you saying that the deaconess was the one who healed me, but what about those two adventurers?"
She stared at him for some time, then huffed. "You know, I can't really get used to the fact that you casually know everything about everyone… Yes, Bennett and Fischl helped me carry you here. I was exploring with them when we found you."
"I see. Well, could I count on you to send them my regards?"
Lumine looked a bit disappointed with his refusal to thank them in person. "Okay, I will."
She got up and out of the bedroom, shutting the door close behind her. Only silence was left with Dainsleif.
The days that followed were quite monotonous, but refreshing in a way. For once, he didn't need to see the Abyss Order or work endlessly to ruin their plans, completely focusing on his recovery instead.
Lumine had been laser-focused on helping him heal properly. The day after his first in her abode, she went to Bubu Pharmacy and bought everything Dr. Baizhu claimed Dainsleif needed, along with some things he was certain he didn't, but Lumine shoved down his throat anyway.
The Traveler held his diet in an iron grip, too. Sometimes, he would catch Paimon looking sympathetically at him, lamenting his lack of freedom in regards to food. On his part, he really didn't feel like complaining about it.
Thanks to Lumine's rigorous watch over him, his wound was no longer an issue in a relatively short amount of time. Maybe the excessive amount of medicine actually did something.
Meanwhile, he kept hearing voices beyond the room's door, which he never trespassed. Most of it he couldn't recognize, but others he did. Lumine's guests ranged from Mondstadt nobles to the Liyue Qixing, passing through knights, adventurers, adepti and even… Gods.
Barbatos surely loved to pester the Traveler at inconvenient hours. Morax seemed to be particularly attached to her tea set as well.
It made Dainsleif somewhat… Displeased, the fact that she still held connections to the Archons even after the information she uncovered. Still, that was somewhat reasonable, given that they all became friends in the way. Lumine was not obliged to follow his choices and so, she stuck to what she believed in.
She never once spoke about his stay to them. It saved a lot of trouble for all the parties involved.
On the day of his supposed departure, she approached him, atypical in her fidgeting. With the serious way she held herself, it was as if she was about to give him the news of someone's death.
What she gave him instead was "Dainsleif, I… Want to make a proposition to you."
After half a second of surprise, he crossed his arms. "Very well. I am listening."
"Come with me."
That gave him more than a few seconds of surprise.
"I want us to travel together across Teyvat from now on.". She paused again, likely trying to order her thoughts better. She probably had trouble bringing this up, he concluded. "You want to stop the Abyss Order and I want to reach my brother, the Abyss Prince. Our goals are tied to each other and I think we should work together towards them."
Dainsleif considered what was laid out before him. He definitely was more accustomed to working alone, but his previous collaboration with the Traveler was not unpleasant at all (save for the horrible, horrible surprise at the end that led to his current situation). They understood each other pretty well and there was no animosity between them. That and she was right, their goals aligned perfectly.
Still… "And how do I know you're not going to try to take knowledge from me the first chance you get?" It was of extreme importance. One slip and Celestia may think that his hellish curse wasn't quite enough.
Lumine glared at him for that, clearly offended that he even thought of her taking advantage like this. "What made you think that!? Didn't I tell you before that I won't try to pry from anyone!? I know what happens if I do!"
You know, Lumine is friendly, but her moral code is actually pretty strict and she's really huffy for it. Try questioning her and she'll no doubt give you a piece of her mind, no matter who you are.
Huh. Dainsleif briefly wondered how accurate his vision of Lumine was, based entirely on Aether's tales of his sister. So far, it seemed pretty par with the course.
"So that was you trying to dispel my doubts back then? Had you planned on asking me to join you that far?"
She got even more riled up. "Huh!? I wasn't trying to manipulate you or anything! Sure, I have been thinking of this for a while, but why would I want to force you for anything! It's not actually like I can—"
All right, he took this way too far already. "It's fine, I believe you."
"Then why you asked—"
"I decided. I shall join you on your journey, at least for the time being."
Lumine eyed him warily, still prickly from all his arguments. Dainsleif supposed he should apologize, but he feels snark would be the only thing he would get in response.
"...You're sure of it?"
"Yes." Why in the world she was questioning his compliance to her request, he did not need to know. Was his line of questioning that offending?
After a while, she sighed and stretched her hand towards him. A handshake, proof of a deal sealed. "Then let's work together from now on."
He mirrored her actions. "Yes, let's work together."
During the short time where their hands kept joined, he briefly wondered how she was faring, as a traveler. She had much yet to discover, much yet to learn and most certainly much more to grieve. What would her answers for the great charades of the world be, once she faced them?
Well, he was on his way to find out.