Chapter Text
the beginning: amber and eula (i)
Whether it’s her tongue or her heart that lacks the talent to string words that have no visible connection with each into a metaphor, the fact remains that the way of poets and bards and romantics remains one of the few things out of reach of Paimon’s grubby hands.
Save when a certain tone-deaf bard mocks her lack of skill in such matters, there is no moment that something like that bothers her more than when Lumine changes.
Ritou squares her shoulders and the Grand Shrine adds a grimace to her lips that softens only once they reach the main city. But leave Narukami Island and grief and discomfort stitch themselves permanently onto the lines of her face.
Jueyun Karst and even Wangshu Inn are only somewhat nicer. The grief is less pronounced, so much so that it doesn’t seem strange at all when they enter the bustling streets of Liyue Harbor and a simple wave brings out a simple, easy smile that Paimon has missed dearly amidst the purple landscapes.
Come Dragonspine and its proximity to Mondstadt alone is enough to drive away the tension held between the hard streaks that outline the silhouette of her best friend.
And when they cross the bridge that leads to the City of Freedom, shouting half-hearted apologies at Timmy as they scare his pigeons off, Paimon can believe for a minute, with all her heart, that she’s the same as a few years ago.
Less angry, less resigned, and curious about the world for the sake of being curious, and just—
Happier.
It’s as if—to quote the words of a wandering samurai who is third of his kind when it comes to anemo wielders who definitely like-like Lumine—the city that started it all is a balm for her soul, a place for it to rest undisturbed and shielded from the horrors of the outside world.
Paimon suspects the higher frequency of friendly faces helps greatly in that respect. Walk through the gates and you have Quinn on your right, Flora and Katherine up ahead, and chances are high that you’ll run into a friend or two at Good Hunter.
“Look, it’s Amber!” she points out, tugging at Lumine’s dress with wide eyes.
Alongside Amber’s signature red ribbon, her squinted blue eyes can make out a head full of hair in a shade of light blue that Paimon recalls seeing on only two of their friends.
And seeing as Chongyun has little reason to venture into Monstadt—or that Amber’s never met him before—Paimon slaps a tiny fist onto her tiny open palm, swiveling back to face her friend, and confidently concludes: “And Eula too! Guess it is time for lunch.”
“Hm?” her friend murmurs, pausing briefly in her exchange with Flora to look in the direction that she’s pointing in. “Oh—it looks like they noticed us too, thanks to your yelling.”
Paimon has grown a lot in the past two years, but not enough to avoid taking the bait.
“Paimon was not—”
“Lumine! Paimon!” Amber calls out, waving at them. “Are you free? Come join us for lunch!”
“Give me a second!” Lumine responds, waving back. She ignores Paimon’s angry huffing with the roll of her eyes—an action that is markedly fond in nature, Paimon notes, her shoulders sagging with relief.
Flora giggles. “I suppose we’ll have to continue this later, Traveler, huh. Next time, we’ll definitely find a bouquet for you!”
Lumine waves her goodbye as they walk off, but not before profusely apologizing for wasting her time. The little girl’s response is as Paimon expects—she brushes off the traveler’s apologies with a reminder of their once frequent runs into Dragonspine.
“Wonder what the special today is,” the floating pixie wonders as they grow closer to the restaurant, and the smell of delicious, yummy food flies straight into her nose. “Smells yummy.”
“Let’s ask Sara once we get there,” her best friend says. She walks a step behind Paimon as usual, watching the drooling fairy with an amused expression. “Try to contain yourself.”
“Paimon can’t help it!” she exclaims, vibrating with visible excitement. “Ooh, forget saying hi. Let’s get something to eat first.”
The pixie’s flight picks up speed as they near the end of the stairs, and she makes a beeline for Mondstadt Sara, completely missing Eula’s remark.
“What?” she says, snapping out from her hunger daze when she hears laughter coming from the table. “Wait, are you all laughing at Paimon?”
“No!” Amber assures her.
“Eula’s not laughing,” Lumine remarks, standing by Amber and Eula’s table.
“Eula’s not laughing because she received no acknowledgment. How rude,” the noblewoman interjects, huffing. Her chair moves back as she stands up in a hurry and makes her way to Sara. “Honestly...What is it that you two want? Hurry now. Remember that—”
“You can’t have your revenge if we’re not healthy,” the traveling duo choruses.
“Precisely. The fact that you didn’t even greet me is proof that you aren’t doing a very good job of that—both of you,” she says, doing an admirable job of ignoring Amber’s giggles and Sara’s knowing look. “Well? I have to eat as well. Now sit and tell me.”
The two comply without protest.
With a serious expression that would’ve been silly on anyone else, the Spindrift Knight repeats their orders to Sara and hands over the required amount before the other woman has a chance to tell her the total.
Mondstadt Sara smiles and says, “Alright, I’ll let you know when your food’s almost ready.”
As Eula seats herself back on her chair, the conversation inevitably turns to their unexpected appearance in the City of Freedom.
“So, what brings you two here?” the brunette starts, twirling her fork amongst the spaghetti. “Last I heard, you were in Inazuma, right?”
“We heard all about it from Albedo,” Eula adds, fixing them with an annoyed glare in true Eula fashion. “Honestly, at the rate you’re going, I’ll never get revenge for my kin. Facing off against an Archon? Who do you think you are?”
Paimon nods her head along to the knight’s words. “Yeah, you tell her!”
Lumine shoots her dark glare.
Amber, noticing the exchange, continues, “What Eula means is—and I’m sure you know this—that we were all worried about you! Facing an Archon is completely different from running away from some Milileth.”
The blonde sighs, glancing back at Mondstadt Sara. She slumps in defeat, and Paimon is certain it’s because she’s weak to sincere people. It’s happened before with Bennett and Chongyun, and even Venti to a lesser extent.
“It’s not like I set out to!” Lumine protests weakly, muttering a small thanks as Sara places their order on the table. “I just got wrapped into it.”
“That seems to be a repeating pattern,” Eula observes, taking a bite of her steak.
“Yeah, but the previous archons weren’t as mean as Ei!” Paimon complains. If her feet could touch the ground, she would’ve stomped against the cement. “Ven—”
Her best friend pinches her side and immediately, the pixie understands—she’s said the wrong thing. Glancing nervously between the two knights, she waits to see if they’ll make the connection.
“I suppose so,” Amber comments with a sigh, stuffing a particularly large helping of spaghetti into her mouth. “But more on why you’re here. Did something happen?”
Squinting at the Outrider, Paimon pauses in her pursuit of devouring her skewers, noting the way Amber changed the topic. Her previous blunder fresh in her mind, she decides not to pursue her next question.
“Well, that—that can be answered by Paimon,” Lumine deflects.
“Yes, it can and yes, Paimon will,” the pixie huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “In fact, once you hear Paimon out, you’ll definitely side with her!”
“Let’s hear it then,” Amber encourages.
She relays the story of how she had all but forced Lumine to take a break from adventuring to relax and how the traveler had instead decided to extensively decorate her teapot out of spite.
Sure, decorating the teapot is much better than any alternatives but it’s not very relaxing when you have maps and blueprints lying everywhere!
“I’ll have to agree with Paimon on this one.” Eula sets her dirtied utensils down and wipes away any crumbs near her mouth with a napkin, having finished her lunch. “To tell you the truth, I was afraid my vengeance would never come to fruition, but it seems I underestimated Paimon. Although—how exactly are you building a house inside a teapot?”
“Oh,” Paimon says, rubbing the back of her head. “Paimon forgot you didn’t know.”
“It’s apparently some sort of Adeptal device,” the Outrider fills in, cutting the lone meatball in her plate into tinier sections. She stabs her fork into a few of them and takes a bite out of her food. “The Adepti of Liyue gave it to her as thanks. I’ve never been inside it, but I’ve heard that there’s a lot of options for decorating.”
“That’s the gist of it,” Lumine confirms, stabbing into her own steak almost as if she’s imagining something else in its place. “We came here looking for some furniture and a few flowers to brighten the place up.”
Paimon can only hope she’s not thinking of Paimon.
“Mhm. So that’s how it is.” Amber rubs away the sauce on her chin. “How’s the decorating going?”
The traveling duo exchange looks between them, and after a brief telepathic conversation, Paimon sadly shakes her head. “Bad! It all just looks so sad ! Not even the plants are helping that much.”
“We figured some new furniture might help,” Lumine confesses, resting her cheek on the palm of her hand.
Eula frowns, catching her chin between the thumb and finger of her right hand. “Hm,” she says and looks at Amber. “Lumine, you have a Kamera, don’t you?
The brunette, evidently, understands exactly what the other knight is trying to say. “Maybe it needs a personal touch. Like some mementos from your journey—stuff like photos of your friends or of landscapes.”
“Photos, huh?” Paimon mutters, looking at Lumine.
Ever since the Kamera came into their possession, they’ve used it for a singular purpose: to document strange symbols that might reveal something as they explore an area further. Other than that, it’s one of those things that Paimon doesn’t even remember having on a regular day.
But maybe…there are a lot of things worth remembering on their journey. Photos would help with that, wouldn’t they?
Amber stands up abruptly, slamming her palms against the table. “Wait. Eula, what time is it?”
From one of her pockets, the Spindrift Knight produces a small pocket watch and flips it open. “It’s a few minutes until two.”
“I have to go,” the Outrider says hurriedly. “I promised Jean I’d go investigate a Hilichurl camp nearby this afternoon. Sorry, you two! Think over what I said, okay?”
As the three watch their friend take her leave, Eula too begins to stand.
“I should get going as well,” she tells them, pushing both hers and Amber’s chairs back in. “Just so you know, Albedo is in town. If you want to take us up on our suggestion, now’s probably the best time to do it.”
“Thanks, Eula,” Lumine says sincerely. “I’ll try not to make it too hard for you to take your revenge.”
“Hmph, and now you’re pitying me? I’ll have to take it sooner than I was expecting,” she retorts, turning around.
Mondstadt Sara, having come to their table to pick up their plates, stifles a laugh, quieting down when Eula shoots her a glare as well. “Is that all for today?” she asks, once Eula’s gone as well.
“Seems like it. Thanks, Sara,” her best friend says, standing up as well. “The food was great—as usual.”
“Glad to hear it.” The woman grins. “You probably don’t want to hear this from me after all that, but you could stand to come over once in a while. I won’t be beating your friend in Liyue anytime soon but I’d like to think Mondstadt has a leg up on the atmosphere. We’re not as stuffy.”
Paimon nods her head vigorously before the traveler has a chance to respond. “Yes, yes, we absolutely will! Lumine can definitely afford it!”
“Bye, Sara,” the blonde says, her annoyance at Paimon making the light-haired woman laugh. Lumine rolls her eyes as she pushes her chair back in. “Come on, Paimon. Let’s go.”
With her face scrunched up in confusion, the pixie flies behind her. “Wait, where are we going? Didn’t you want flowers for the garden?”
Lumine smiles. “Let’s go see Venti.”
Kamera has been equipped.