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For the past weeks, Lumine has been avoiding sleeping. She knows she shouldn't, currently, with her powers gone she can no longer obtain energy and vitality by absorbing it from her surroundings. Food, and sleep, those are the things that make her regain her energy, and while sleeping it's an activity that she doesn't need to do as frequently as mortals do, she still needs to.
And as for today, she finds one again in the middle of the night avoiding sleep.
She shouldn't, she has been allowing herself no rest for the past weeks, and it's just a matter of time before it comes to her.
Tiredness makes room for mistakes, and while fighting and exploring she can't allow herself to commit mistakes.
She knows that one wrong step could mean the end, even for her.
But still, not even with the thought of an eventual demise if she keeps on with her behavior is able to get her to fall into the embrace of sleep that she has been avoiding already for so long.
Because she's scared.
Scared that she'll be trapped inside a dream again. Scared that she will find herself once again trapped inside the machinations of others. Her Akasha terminal has been changed she knows it and now she's unable to become trapped in the dream.
But the fear is still there.
The possibility of it happening once again haunts her.
The feeling of helplessness, of being forced to be nothing more than a puppet that can only do as others had planned.
Just the tough of it alone has her feeling scared and sick.
Restless but tired she gives up and instead rises from her bed, outside in the darkness of the night the only thing that can be heard are the songs of the crickets and the croaking of the frogs. Maybe if she is lucky she will find a forest ranger out on patrol and maybe she will be able to join them, she is well aware that the rangers of Gandharva Ville will not reject her offer. The need for more eyes and capable fighters is always high.
But she quickly discards the tough, joining someone right now would mean interactions that she knows she doesn’t have the energy to take part in.
Over the bed Paimon rolls now that she has more space, and she ends up resting above all of the pillows, making it now impossible for Lumine to lay down once again without waking the pixie up.
She has almost no options, there’s really nothing much that she can do in her room without waking up Paimon, but going outside would mean high chances of having to interact with someone.
What she needs is a place where she’s alone but she has space and is free of doing as she pleases.
And the answer comes in the form of the Adepti Tea Pot.
She leaves it resting over the desk in the room, Paimon will see it first thing in the morning if Lumine is still inside for some reason, and from that, if someone asks for her she will be able to create a lie that covers her true location.
Without thinking about it more she allows the magic to surround her and around her the reality bends, and soon she finds herself inside.
Emerald peaks greet her, with the thousands of fake stars and the sound of the waterfalls and the running water of the rivers. She decides if she should enter the main house (where her room is located), or stay outside and rest under the night sky.
In the end, her body takes the decision for her, and before her mind processes it she’s already laying down on the wooden floor of the porch beside the back of the house. It has a view right into the garden, which is decorated with many ponds full of different fishes and in between all of them, flowers from all over the regions grow.
But right now she pays no attention to the view and instead closes her eyes even though she knows she will be unable to fall asleep.
For how long she lays there she doesn’t know, but after what may have been hours another presence joins her on the Tea Pot, she feels the moment they enter, the way in which reality bends and twists to allow them entry.
She has hopes that they are simply here to rest, and will soon walk into whatever room is the one that they have chosen as theirs and so, they will leave her alone. But her hopes quickly die when instead of walking to any of the buildings they walk right to where she is.
Still, as they get closer she still remains unmoving, and doesn’t bother opening her eyes, considering that once they entered the Tea Pot they came straight to her, she thinks she already knows who they, might be, not many of her companions have the ability to simply find someone in the way they have done.
Finally, they arrive at where she is and they stop beside her.
She keeps her eyes closed and tries to give no signal that she’s awake even though she knows that there is no way in which he can fool him.
“I would have tough that abed would be a better place to rest instead over the floor.”
A long sigh is her answer and slowly she opens her eyes and towering over her, she’s met with Zhongli’s eyes.
“But, the fact that you aren’t actually resting could be a factor in your choice of current location.”
She says nothing, and truth to be told she has nothing to say, by this point, there’s no way that he doesn’t already know what is plaguing her, and the whys of her action.
“But then, there’s also the matter that resting right now is not one of your priorities. That alongside sleeping.”
Slowly he moves to sit at her side, she waits until ha he’s completely down, and with weak arms, she lifts herself up, she then pushes herself to a sitting position and lets herself fall against his side.
Her almost weightless body is fast to collide against his solid presence, he moves his arm out of the way, allowing her support against his chest, and his arms then moves around her back and his hand ends up on her side.
“I have been focused my time on things that are more important.”
His hold tightens around her, as if afraid that at any moment she will fall.
“More important than sleeping? My precious gem you look exhausted. And for a fact, I know you are.”
She doesn’t even know why she bothered, trying to hide her current state from him. Literally, all it takes is a simple look at her to see how exhausted she looks.
“Do I really look that bad?”
She closes her eyes and snuggles against his side.
“Tired, and exhausted, is how you look”
“And I am.”
“When was the last time you sleep?”
Some days ago? Weeks? A month? A month sounds right, of course, if she wanted to get technical then she can answer that she just slept 3 days ago, but she knows that just 1 hour of sleep amongst a month of almost not doing it, isn’t really that good of an argument.
“Why are you asking for something that you already have the answer for?”
It’s not like he hasn’t been able to tell, she knows this, after all, ever since she had to first leave for Inazuma a year ago every time she sleep he visited her in dreams. And now, with her lack of sleep, it means that there is no time for her to dream. It means no dreams for her dragon to visit her.
“What haunts you my dear? You avoid sleeping as if scared that nightmares will be the only thing that you will find. What have you seen that shakes you to the core, and has you in this state?”
There are no more reasons for her to keep it quiet now, she supposes. And so she talks.
She talks about being trapped inside a fabricated dream, a lie that still felt real. She tells him about the hundreds of attempts at breaking free of it with no results. Tells him about the desperation borne of believing that she hadn’t been able to save a friend.
She talks and talks, all of the attempts that ended with her forgetting and the cycle repeating.
And she ends her tale, telling him how for now she’s free but there are still hundreds of souls in danger of the occasion repeating once again. And how for now she’s unable to do something to put a stop to it.
She ends and the exhaustion seems to have multiplied her eyes are barely open, and around her, the world sometimes blacks out. There’s still that need, to stay awake and not succumb to sleep, there’s an urge fueled by her fear that is trying its best to don’t allow her to go to the land of the dreams.
But once she ignores that, the only thing that is left.
“Rest my star. From now I will guard your dreams.”
The only thing left is his presence, massive and solid beside her, the stable mountain that offers refuge, and the beast that will destroy all that harms her.
And so, for the first time in weeks, she allows herself to close her eyes and don’t fear what is to come.