Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A LIST OF CHARACTERS FOR BOTH YOU AND ME TO CONSULT, BECAUSE YES, I'M KEEPING TRACK. YOU CAN'T STOP ME FROM DOING THIS

• MONSTADT (19): 
• PYRO: Bennett, Amber, Diluc, Klee(4)
• HYDRO: Mona, Barbara (2)
• GEO: Noelle, Albedo (2)
• ANEMO: Jean, Venti, Sucrose (3)
• CRYO: Kaeya, Eula, Mika, Diona, Rosaria (5)
• ELECTRO: Fischl, Razor, Lisa (3)
• DENDRO: (0)

• LIYUE (21): 
• PYRO: Gaming, Xinyan, Hu Tao, Yanfei, Xiangling (5)
• HYDRO: Xingqui, Yelan, Childe (3)
• GEO: Zhongli, Ningguang, Yunjin (3)
• ANEMO: Xiao, Cloud Retainer (2)
• CRYO: Ganyu, Qiqi, Chongyun, Shenhe (4)
• ELECTRO: Keqing, Beidou (2)
• DENDRO: Baizhu, Yaoyao (2)

• INAZUMA (16) :
• PYRO: Thoma, Yoimiya (2)
• HYDRO: Kokomi, Ayato (2)
• GEO: Itto, Gorou, Chiori (3)
• ANEMO: Kazuha, Sayu, Heizou (3) 
• CRYO: Ayaka (1)
• ELECTRO: Shinobu, Yae Miko, Raiden Ei, Kujou Sara (4)
• DENDRO: Kirara (1)

• SUMERU (13):
• PYRO: Dehya (1)
• HYDRO: Candace, Nilou (2)
• GEO: (0)
• ANEMO: Faruzan, Wanderer (2)
• CRYO: Layla (1)
• ELECTRO: Cyno, Dori (2)
• DENDRO: Kaveh, Alhaitham, Tighnari, Nahida, Collei (5)

• FONTAINE (12)
• PYRO: Arlecchino, Lyney, Chevreuse (3)
• HYDRO: Neuvilette, Sigewinne, Furina (3)
• GEO: Navia (1)
• ANEMO: Lynette (1)
• CRYO: Charlotte, Freminet, Wriothesley (3)
• ELECTRO: Clorinde (1)
• DENDRO: (0)

ALL IN ALL: 80 characters... WTF???

Chapter Text

[Monstadt Congregation]

As far as Kaeya was concerned, he had just been sleeping. 

He was having a peculiar yet hazy dream that reminded him of vineyards, of child-like laughter and of toy swords made of wood—a comforting yet saddening dream—when all of a sudden, without even waking up, he found himself being unceremoniously pulled out of it.

“Augh!” 

He groaned as he crashed down onto solid floor, the pain in his shoulder very, very real compared to the dizzy ringing in his ears, and he was not the only one.

“AAAH!” 

“Oh, shit!” 

“What the-OW!”

“Uhh? Uhhhh???”

All around him, sounds of confusion came as flashes of bright light appeared one by one. Some of the voices above the crowd were familiar (Was that Bennet howling in pain just now?) but some others, much more muted, were foreign--which was strange. 

Disheveled just like everyone else, Kaeya looked around himself in cautious and confused wonder. 

Was this a dream, still? 

“A-ah, no! Jumpty dumpty!”

“W-wait, Klee!”

A large explosion suddenly occurred way too close for comfort near Kaeya, eliciting several people to scream in surprise. 

Kaeya was almost sure that being so close to the radius of the explosion, he should be dead right now, even if he’d subconsciously activated his vision and gave himself a cryo shield as a last form of defense. 

But to his surprise, he didn’t feel the excruciating horror that is death by bombing when the explosion hit him. Instead, all he felt was a warm wave of air tickle his legs and his face. 

‘...Yeah, this was a dream, still.’ 

“Kaeya? Kaeya!” 

He had to blink several times as if to reboot his eyes and his ears when he heard the familiar cry in the distance. When he looked up he saw a blondie running towards him with concern in her eyes. 

“Oh, geez… Kaeya, are you alright?!” 

“Master Jean?” Kaeya almost dumbly asked before smoothly going back into his default bastard mode and smiling reflexively, “It’s nice of you to visit me in my dreams but I believe I did not sign up for overtime.”

The dandelion knight gave him a flat stare for that statement as soon as she reached him

“I think we’re both aware that overtime is not the correct term for whatever is happening right now, Kaeya.” 

Okay, so maybe not a dream. 

“Actually, now that I think of it, that is correct.” Kaeya nodded his head, flipping his opinions as easily as flipping a switch, but he couldn’t quite let go of his joking line of thought just yet as he grinned wider, “If this was overtime, our dear librarian would not be with you, after all.” 

A chuckle and an eye roll later, Lisa’s head popped out from behind the sighing Jean, an easy-going pleasant smile on her face. 

“Well, don’t you know me well? Hello to you, too, Kaeya.” 

“Jean! Lisa! Kaeya!”

The trio whipped their gazes at the cry of their names and found a brunette girl in red waving towards them energetically before running to meet them. It was Amber and jogging right next to her was the ever-displeased Eula, lips pulled into a frown.

“Thank Barbatos you guys are here, too! We heard the explosion! Actually, we saw it more than heard it, and I figured if Klee was here then, other knights might be here too…” 

Amber spoke quickly but visibly relaxed in their presence, while her icy companion stepped forward with a stern question.

“Oh, forget that! Does anyone here know what in the world is going on?” Eula demanded.

“ Kaeya !” 

Another familiar cry came out before anyone could answer the spindrift knight and soon enough, Kaeya found a small little ball of blonde hair and red clothes bounce into view. 

“Kaeya, you’re here!” Klee, the ever-adorable little thing she was, said before examining him thoroughly with her ruby eyes and gasping, tugging at his sleeve slightly, “And I didn’t cook you!”

And thank the seven that she didn’t right? 

“Oh, it, indeed, seems that you didn’t.” Kaeya played along, putting one gloved hand on top of the little menace’s big red hat. He tilted his head a little to look and found, to his surprise, that Klee wasn’t alone.

“...What are you looking at?” 

It seems that Cat Tail’s little star, Diona, was here, too, and as prickly as ever towards alcoholics, as well.

“Um, Klee, p-please don’t run…!” 

A girl whom Kaeya recognized to be Sucrose stammered her way into the conversation with a small voice, having been at the girl’s tail out of worry. And shortly behind her was Albedo, face still as indifferent and peaceful as stone despite the situation, and two visibly tense people, faces as pale as day.

“I… uh, really don’t know what’s happening, but, um, at this point,” Mika stuttered as he looked around wildly, before locking eyes with Noelle, “I think I’m, uh , too scared to ask.”

“It’s… the same here, but…!” Noelle nodded, but tried to muster a strained smile, “Surely, It’ll be alright! After all, a lot of Monstadt’s key persons are here! It… it should probably be safe!”

Just as Noelle finished talking, another explosion occurred not too far away from the monstadt congregation. 

The maid made a noise that sounded like a dying geo slime at that coincidence and all eyes automatically turned towards Klee who was still clinging to Kaeya with innocent round eyes. 

“Um, that wasn’t Klee?”

“Yes, indeed, it wasn’t.” 

There was a loud thud as everyone turned to look at the new arrival and were surprised to see the ever-stoic Master Diluc, carrying two unconscious teenagers under one arm and a passed-out bard in green over one shoulder. 

Diluc promptly put down the two teenagers on the floor, revealing the famous bad-luck wonder of the adventurer’s guild, Bennet, and…

“Gasp! Razor!” Klee squeaked as she ran towards her unconscious grey-haired friend. 

“Um, who?” Amber raised an eyebrow, skeptically, staring at the disheveled and barely covered teenage boy with the wild, wild hair. Her query was smoothly ignored. 

“I’m not sure how he managed it nor how he survived it, but one of these two are the culprits to that one explosion for sure.” Diluc explained without much fanfare. 

“Oh, um, thank you, Master Diluc… wait, is that a bard?”

“A Monstadtian straggler, I assume. They were passed out sleeping on the floor so I took the liberty to move them before they got stepped on and received irreversible brain damage.” The red haired young master said with a deadpan. 

“Well, isn’t that gentlemanly of you, Master Diluc?” Kaeya said before he could think.

As if only realizing now that his adoptive brother was also in the room, Diluc looked down at him and promptly scrunched up his nose.

“...Why are you on the floor?”

That… is a good question.

“Oh, great. Everyone important is here.” 

As if the surprises weren’t enough, a nun suddenly appeared out of nowhere when everyone’s attention was too focused on the brothers. Rosaria, still in her uniform and twirling her dagger in boredom with one hand, dropped two unconscious packages from under one arm just like Diluc. 

The manner in which they did it was so similar it was actually disconcerting.

“You guys can have these two, then.” She declared, gesturing to the two girls fainted on the floor. 

“...is that an eyepatch?” Mika quietly whispered to Noelle.

“Oh, isn’t that Fischl from the adventurer’s guild?” Lisa commented casually, but there was curiosity in her eyes as she watched the girl groan and slowly stir from being unceremoniously dropped, “And… Mona?”

“You mean, the astrologist?” 

“Um, hello, everyone.” A little voice peeped out from behind Rosaria and the deaconess, Barbara stepped out of her fellow sister’s shadow with a sheepish smile, “I’m not sure what’s happening but it’s nice to see all of you.” 

“Alright, everyone,” Jean clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention, going to work mode quickly, “Let’s assess the situation. Lisa, if you could please get a headcount? Barbara, do you think you can look over the unconscious and check their conditions?” 

“Sure. Fall in line now, sweeties.” 

“Y-you can count on me, sis… M-master Jean!”

Jean smiled and nodded appreciatively towards the two before turning to the reconnaissance personnel among them, “Eula, Mika, if you don’t mind?” 

“We’ll scout the area.” Eula declared before turning away and summoning her great sword in hand as she stalked away.

“A-ah, yes.” Mika looked between the two ladies before hesitantly bowing a little to Jean and following after his captain, a polearm materializing in his hand. 

“Albedo, Sucrose.” Jean turned towards the two, “I need the two of you to get testimonials of what everyone was doing before they found themselves here. You can leave Klee and Diona to Noelle for now. If that’s okay with her, of course.”

Jean wouldn’t want the knight-in-training to overwork herself, but…

“I…! I will do my best to do my part and help!” Noelle enthusiastically said, balled hands to her chest as she giddily accepted the two children’s company and started answering the alchemy department’s questions. 

“Kaeya, are you feeling like getting off of the floor now?” Jean put a hand on her hip as she addressed the Cavalry captain who was watching her work with a small grin in his eyes. 

He let out a faux sigh as he moved to stand up, “Well, if the acting grand master tells me to…”

Jean stifled a chuckle and rolled her eyes, but there was a line of tension in her shoulders.

Although Monstadt was not in the best situation with Stormterror out and about and the fatui putting pressure on them, at least here in this unfamiliar space, Jean would make sure that Monstadt would not be easy to mess with. 

But for that to be achieved, she had to answer one question.

Why were they all brought here?

[Liyue Congregation]

“BIRD! BIRD!!! ” 

Xinyan screamed as soon as she came to and found herself face to face with a large white crane almost twice her size. She almost instinctively called upon her weapon of choice and the fire power of her vision in her surprise.

“ BIG BIRD! IN THE ROOM !!!” 

This wasn’t what she was expecting to see after she’d jumped, scared shitless after almost tripping over a frog in the side of the road on her way back home. 

Somewhere in the other side of the room (or was it just a space? Xinyan doesn’t know), there was a familiar confused questioning sound of someone yelling “ What ???” before the white bird in question flapped its wings furiously, and oh boy. 

“ BIRD? BIRD?!?! WHO DARES --”

“Cloud retainer- Cloud retainer, calm down!” A familiar face suddenly appeared as if falling down from the sky and cried out, hanging unto the bird’s wing in an effort to appease it.

Xinyan belatedly realized that it was the half-adeptus, half-human secretary of the Liyue Qixing and ooooh, boy. 

‘Oh shit, did I just call a revered adeptus, a big bird?’ 

“Xinyan!” 

Two pairs of hands grabbed Xinyan suddenly before she could make a startled sound, dragging her away from the angry white bird who looked one step away from blowing a fuse at her. 

When she looked to either side, she found her two friends, Xiangling and Yunjin, their faces pensive. They locked her arms with theirs and watched the adeptus in front of them warily with fear. 

In front of her was a frantic Guoba, saying several different kinds of nonsense that neither of the three girls could understand towards the bird. 

…But it seemed like Guoba was defending her?

“Hey, what’s going on here?!” 

A purple-haired girl demanded and lo, and behold, Lady Keqing, and by the looks of it, Lady Ningguang and Captain Beidou as well ended up being involved. 

“Oh, that’s one big bird, alright…Ow!” 

The Captain of the Crux whistled only to get hit in the head with a smoking pipe. 

“Quiet, you.”

“I was just saying ???” 

“Please listen to your superior if you want to keep your life, Captain Beidou.” A young man with a streak of red across his white hair smiled slightly with a hint of exasperation, sighing a little behind the captain. 

Back to the adeptus and the secretary of the Liyue Qixing, the younger was still having a hard time holding back the former, from spitting out profanities and curses.

“Cloud Retainer, she didn’t mean it --”

“ SILENCE! ONE SHALL NOT CONDONE SUCH UTTER DISRES--”

“Auntie Cloud Retainer???” A little child with two brown buns of hair perked up upon hearing and seeing the bird, while the pink haired half-adeptus nearby froze up a little before mechanically turning back.

“Oh, dear .” 

“Master, what’s going on?” A white-haired lady with the air of an adeptus rushed past the chaos of people and urgently asked, polearm already in hand. 

“I-I-I-I, I-’m so sorry, ma’am, miss, madam adepti…!!!” Xinyan cried out an apology, taking a step back, terrified of the bird’s fury, while her  friends crowded around her as if to shield her determinedly.

The commotion was getting so big that the people from Liyue in the immediate area were naturally drawn to it, and it could only grow bigger.

“Is that the sound of a customer I hear or… wait, Xiangling? Guoba???” 

“Yunjin? Oh shoot, Man chai! The Yunjin is in trouble!” 

 “………”

Two pairs of amber eyes stared quietly at the scene, one looking unsure of what to do and the other not sure of whether to be exhausted or amused. 

‘Cloud retainer…is truly Cloud Retainer.’ 

“Dear me…” 

The only doctor in the room couldn’t help but heave a sigh as he watched the situation unfold with one hand holding unto a little purple-haired girl’s hand.

 “I really hope they tone it down… even I don’t think I can completely heal a person the adepti have torn to pieces if it comes down to it…”

“Pieces…” The little girl echoed, her voice sounding slow and lethargic, “…Bird--”

The doctor gently covered the little girl’s mouth before she could doom herself, sweat running down his tensely smiling face.

The talking white snake coiled around his neck like a scarf admonished, special purple eyes staring at the little zombie judgmentally.

“...Please have a little bit of concern for your own safety, child.”

Back to the problem at hand…

“I didn’t mean to call you a bird, ma’am adepti! Madam adepti! I’m sorry!!!” 

Xinyan shrieked as she covered herself and her friends in a pyro shield to defend against the harsh winds that were surrounding them-- evidence that the bird lady was still pissed. 

“Cloud retainer!” 

Ganyu shouted, pleadingly, while the white-haired lady by her side remained in place, slightly confused, but apparently ready to fight whenever.

“Everyone, calm down!” 

Keqing tried to bring order to the chaos, looking around desperately for someone much more capable of conversing with an adepti diplomatically than herself.

But that’s when two blurs suddenly ran past her and straight at the adeptus at the blink of an eye. 

“What the- Hey, wait, a minute!” 

She screamed in panic when she saw two boys rushing towards the crane with weapons at hand. 

The adeptus sent a sharp gust of wind towards the three girls once again, shattering the shield and causing the girls to brace themselves and huddle together with a scream. The majestic and very infuriated crane had raised its wing to deliver one more blow to teach these mortals a lesson when suddenly-

“A touch of frost!” 

A boy with soft light blue hair declared as he slammed down his claymore in front of the three humans in trouble. 

Immediately, a domain of slow-falling frost expanded from the point of contact and the force of the cold wind created by his swing dissipated the adeptus’s coming blow. 

“...Chongyun?” Xiangling’s eyes widened with pleasant surprise and her eyes landed on the other boy who was back to back with the exorcist, “Xingqui! You guys!” 

Xingqui flashed her a reassuring grin, leaning behind his shoulder briefly, before turning his eyes towards the adeptus and saying in a deliberate, slow and diplomatic manner.

“It’s not very chivalrous to kill a person just because one has gotten mad.”

“That’s right…” 

Chongyun supported, heaving his claymore over his shoulder with a resolute expression before suddenly pausing as his eyes land on the white-haired woman in the corner of his vision– “ Wait, a second. ”

“Not the time, Chongyun…”

“ Auntie ?????”

“Wait, what? Wait, that’s her ?!” 

The situation was devolving so fast it was going off the rails. Whatever direction this confrontation initially had; it wasn’t going in that direction anymore. 

Things have gotten so mixed up that even the adeptus had to pause and stare at her white-haired disciple and then at the light blue haired child standing in her way. 

Not that far away, a woman in blue wearing an extravagant white coat could only watch the amusing exchange with a quirked eyebrow.

“...Well, isn’t this quite the mess?” 

Yelan shot her superior a pitiful look.

Lady Ningguang, in turn, grimaced in agreement, trying to tune out the way Captain Beidou was betting on whether the fight would continue or not with her fugitive crewmate from Inazuma.

‘Rex Lapis…. give me strength.’ 

In the midst of the watching crowd, a tall man in black and brown could only sheepishly blink as he found himself hearing a prayer he could not answer.

[Inazuma Congregation] 

“Um, everyone?” 

Yoimiya heard herself laugh but she couldn’t really feel it as she kept her hands cautiously raised in the middle of the hostile atmosphere around everyone.

“How about let’s all put our weapons down and talk in a civil manner? For all the civilians involved?”

There was a telling silence in response to her subtle cry for help. 

The general of the Tenryou Commission, Kujou Sara, remained with her bow pulled taut and pointed at the other side of the room, where the general of the resistance, Gorou, pretty much did the same. 

Behind them, was the esteemed Raiden Shogun, the electro archon, and the leader of the resistance and divine priestess of Watatsumi Island, Sangonomiya Kokomi, respectively-- quiet in an uncomfortable way that could cut flesh.

A little ninja with a bowl cut had her daggers out in her hands and looked just about ready to do a ninjutsu. 

The two members of the infamous(?) arataki gang had their claymore, sword and dancing cow(?) out as well, a vigilant line of tension tracing their bodies. 

The young leader of the Yashiro Commission had his sword pulled out and was standing in front of his sister whose hand was gripping the hilt of her own sword. 

It was so, so silent that it was starting to sound loud in Yoimiya’s ears. Not loud like fireworks but like when someone’s trying to suffocate you and you suddenly can’t hear coz you’re too busy trying to get air. 

Not that Yoimiya has personally experienced that or anything.

From behind the two children of the Yashiro Commission, Yoimiya could see a tuft of monstadtian blonde hair peeking out.

‘Sorry,’ Thoma mouthed from behind his employers, shamefaced. He held his polearm at the ready although a bit hesitant like most others. 

Yoimiya deflated a little, but shook her head to tell him it was fine. Maybe she should pull out her bow, too?

Meanwhile, watching the showdown between confused and hostile parties, a pink-haired fox was eyeing everyone with a hint of amusement and cold ruthlessness in her electrifying violet eyes. 

It was a mystery how things came to this but things were getting really interesting--especially since a certain someone was pulled out of her realm for this.

Unfortunately, not everyone would share her thoughts.

“...I just wanted to deliver a package for Miss Sangonomiya… hic!” 

A yokai with two tails and cat ears hiccuped, having not signed up for this kind of internal national conflict. 

“...Why am I here.” 

A brunette with a ponytail declared in the most emotionless deadpan ever, having not even been in Inazuma for a while now. 

It was not a very good day for everyone today.

“Hm? What do we have here?”

Except for maybe one?

A young man with mahogany red hair and twin moles under his green eyes stood in front of the transparent walls away from everyone else, mind running nonstop as he stared through the walls and found that he could make out different groups of people in the other side. 

Detective Shikanoin Heizou curled his lips into a smile as he put a finger to his chin in contemplation.

“Well, isn’t this one interesting case…”

Chapter Text

[Sumeru Congregation] 

“...And that’s why there is a high likelihood that we are not in fact in reality but in someplace else. Like a domain, for instance.” 

While all hell breaks loose in several areas, a group of people were having an intellectual debate on the spot and trying to ascertain the nature of the space in which they were in by exchanging words without restraint.

At the words of the forest researcher with the vulpine ears, a young-looking woman in a pristine white dress scoffed.

“But in a domain, we should still be vulnerable to taking damage, especially if it was an unexplored one, youngster.”

She fired back immediately with crossed arms.

“In my opinion, we’re most likely inside an ancient ruins of some sort. I’ve been to one before, I would know how weird it can get.”

“If we were in a ruins, I’m pretty sure we should be seeing some form of architecture here, Madam Faruzan. Not to mention, engravings or traces of cultures long gone. If anything this feels more like we’re in a dream .” 

“As lackluster as his argument is, Kaveh’s right. Architecture and language are highly intertwined especially in ancient cultures. The fact that this place is as bare as a newly built room suggests that it most likely isn’t a ruin, but something else.”

“ Lackluster… ?! Dammit, Al haitham, why, you--Wait, did you just agree to what I said?”

“... Anyway -”

“Oh, no, you’re not getting away from that one.”

As the two men started engaging in a strange intellectual debate of their own, the forest researcher and Madam Faruzan were left to their own devices to continue where they left off, used to these tangents of fighting already. 

“Uh, um, excuse me! Master Tighnari! M-madam Faruzan!” 

A green-haired girl suddenly raised her hand.  

She was seated with a few others who were quietly relaxing while the others tried to dig into the identity of their location. 

“Yes, Collei?”

“You can speak freely, Collei, dear.”

Collei turned a shade of beet red but shook herself out of it and blurted out, nervously.

“Um, what is the difference between a domain and a ruin…?”

“Oh, I can answer that one.” 

A man with white hair spoke evenly, face not very expressive as he went straight to answering.

“A domain is usually a separate space from the world we know and is denoted with strange or unusual occurences caused by the ley lines. They are also primarily found near ley line trees, depending on what kind of domain you’ve stumbled across. Sometimes, domains reflect an ancient civilization’s past, using the memories of their existence from the ley lines, however, these are usually simply symbolic and visual in nature.”

“That’s correct. Thank you, Cyno.” 

Tighnari nodded.

“A domain is usually supernatural or at least magical in nature, using elemental magic and ley line energy to maintain form. Ruins, on the other hand, don’t usually have to be supernatural for it to be a ruin. Ruins are, as they suggest, traces of a civilization that is now lost or ‘ ruined’ and can range from being an entire kingdom underwater or just an abandoned temple lost to time.”

“O-oh, I think I get it now.” 

Collei blinked in surprise at how easy that got absorbed in her brain despite being two paragraph’s worth of dialogue.

“I mean, it’s a no-brainer when you’ve actually seen both.” 

The brown-haired desert dweller seated near her shrugged and Collei felt her face flush at that. 

“...Dehya.” 

Another person who seemed to be from the desert spoke as if in a warning tone, turning heterochromic eyes towards her companion.

The call of her name alone was enough for the dark-haired woman to realize what her words must have sounded like.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it as anything bad!” 

The woman, Dehya, clarified immediately.

“It’s just that when you’re a mercenary like me who encounters both of them a lot depending on your client, the difference between the two becomes as obvious as night and day.” 

“I-I see.” 

Collei sighed in relief but then felt a prick inside her heart. 

She quietly admonished herself for reacting stupidly while the mercenary, Dehya, and her companion observed her with concern. 

“Um, I don’t know much about all of that, really, since I’m just a dancer, but why does it have to be one of the either between a domain or a ruin?” 

At the sudden voice that joined in, all eyes turned to the redhead wearing quite the costume who had spoken up.

“...It doesn’t necessarily have to be one or the other.” 

Faruzan started, falling into contemplation as she muttered.

“But they were the most probable things we could think of.”

“That is, unless, this is a collective hallucination brought about by ingesting harmful substances unbeknownst to all of our knowledge.” Tighnari bluntly said. 

“????????” 

Nilou, the dancer, stared at the forest watcher with wide eyes.

“T-that’s a possibility? Is that bad???!”

“O-oh, I know the answer to this one! Oftentimes, sweetwater mushrooms and other forest commodities tend to m-mutate in a way that would make it harder for their predators to prey on them! In this case, sweetwater mushrooms can cause you to see hallucinations when ingested and, um…” 

Collei, who had suddenly started spouting out her lessons, froze up when she realized everyone’s eyes ended up on her.

“…I’m talking too much now, aren’t I?”

“No, no, no—” Dehya insisted, along with Nilou, who seemed interested in what she had to say, “Keep talking, keep talking.”

“O-oh, um…” Collei blinked, not expecting that reaction despite… it being obviously the polite thing to do in this situation. 

Oh, archons, she was making this so, so awkward, but they look so, so expectant so now she has to rack her brain and try to remember more of the stuff Master taught her.

“…At this point, I think, only the two of us can truly be free to discuss the nature of our circumstance here.”

Contrary to Madam Faruzan’s words, she was speaking quietly in a whisper as if she did not want Collei to overhear them and stop. 

Tighnari smiled slightly at this.

And then Faruzan continued talking.

“…Unless of course, the merchant over there finally has something to say.” 

Tighnari dropped his smile immediately, remembering the existence of the short business woman lounging on top of what almost looked like an electro slime in the corner of the room, having the absolute time of her life.

“Nah, I’m just a merchant, I don’t really give a lick of mora for any of what you folks are talking about.” 

Dori the merchant shrugged nonchalantly, waving their attention away with her jewelry-adorned fingers. 

Tighnari shot Faruzan a look that said “ well? That’s what she said” at that, but that was when all of a sudden.

“…Um, you guys know I’m here too, right?” 

A voice spoke up out of nowhere.

Faruzan and Tighnari blinked and then turned to find someone who they definitely thought was passed out in stress just a few minutes ago, completely awake and level-headed now. 

“Oh, you’re awake.” 

Tighnari said in surprise, but the girl with blue hair shook her head.

“Um, no, technically, I’m still asleep. I’m just sleepwalking. But enough about that—I think I’ve been here long enough to hear what I needed to hear. The name’s Layla, by the way, and since I’m here, I figured I’d add in my mora to the basket.”

“…Okay?” Madam Faruzan confusedly shifted one eyebrow up. 

The girl who claimed that she was sleepwalking, Layla, smiled at the two’s reaction, stifling a little giggle before continuing.

“Have you guys ever considered that perhaps instead of trying to determine where we are by finding fitting definitions, we should be figuring out the manner in which we arrived to limit the scope of our possible location?”

‘Oh, the girl has a point.’ 

The two full-fledged researchers exchanged glances and then urged the girl to continue.

“Go on.”

Layla leisurely stuck out one finger as she started explaining her train of thought. 

“Well, if you think about it, all the people here were not in the same specific area prior to being brought here. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the only thing we all have in common in this room is the fact that we were all within Sumeru, but that is far too broad.”

She smiled slightly.

“How could we have all been taken by someone at the same time and then dropped into a ruin or a domain?”

“Not to mention, if I recount correctly, before my other self was brought here, she was most definitely pulling an all-nighter for her papers…implying that it would have been night time. Assuming that everyone else here was also taken around the same ungodly hour, then some of us should be wearing our sleeping wear , correct?”

“But for some reason, we aren't seeing anyone who looks like they’re in their pajamas in particular, now, are we?” 

Tighnari and Faruzan’s eyes widened, seeing where this was going.

“ Would our kidnapper seriously change our clothes for us, even the most complicated of outfits, just to drop us into a ruin or a domain?” 

It was a silly question. Of course, not.

“All of these truly begs the question,” Layla continued nonchalantly, “What is the reason behind all of us being gathered and brought here? What is the motive?”

“We can neither answer nor speculate both questions properly, because of these weird little things in our situation.” She sighed, “It almost feels like the work of the divine.”

Then she paused.

Because everyone in the room seemed to have stopped talking in favor of staring at her as if she was beyond this planet. 

In response to their stares, the blue-haired girl simply spoke with a straight face, unperturbed.

“If this ends up being the work of a mortal being, I will eat my shoe. Heel included.” 

Tighnari grimaced.

“I don’t think you should go that far…”

“Um, excuse me.”

Another hand came up to the air, but the voice was not something that was familiar to the people in the room. 

This caused Tighnari’s ear to twitch a little as he found himself blinking and turning towards the small voice like that of a child.

Upon close observation, Tighnari was quite surprised to see the speaker—a little girl with white hair, big green eyes, and skin so pale it almost looked like she hadn’t been under the sun for so long. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t notice that you were there.” Tighnari blinked in surprise.

The little girl simply blinked back in return, confounded by the apology. She then shook her head as if she was only now remembering that she was having a conversation with someone.

“Ah, no, it’s fine. I’m used to not being noticed. I just had something I wanted to say.”

‘Used to not being noticed?” 

Tighnari stared at the little girl funny before giving an enquiring look towards Faruzan. 

The century-old researcher simply snorted and gestured for him to do as he pleased. 

“What is it that you want to say?” Tighnari asked the girl his question immediately.

“Why did you guys dismiss Kaveh’s idea that this was a dreamscape immediately?” The little girl curiously asked. 

“Oh, that’s a good question.” 

“Archons! General Mahamatra, you scared me, I almost forgot you were here!” Faruzan shrieked as the white-haired general from the desert had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Cyno simply inclined his head as if to ask “ what the hell are you talking about” and stared at Tighnari expectantly, leaning unto the transparent walls while waiting for him to answer. 

“Because the people of Sumeru don’t dream” was already at the tip of the forest researcher’s tongue but then when Tighnari stared into the little girl’s eyes, he found himself stopping. 

It was strange. It was a known fact in Sumeru that once you grow out of your childishness, you stop dreaming entirely. It was widely regarded as a sign of intelligence among the people, so this shouldn’t even be a question.

But then again, the person asking him this was a little child.

‘Her line of thinking isn’t wrong, to be precise. Actually, her question has merit.’ Tighnari realized once he thought of it deeper. 

Because, surely, losing the ability to dream… was not a natural occurrence in other countries at all, now, is it? 

If this was all a shared dreamscape, then that would explain everything that Layla pointed out, now.

“…What’s your name?” 

The little girl stared at him in surprise. It seems she didn’t expect him to ask that. 

‘Concerning,’ Tighnari noted to himself with the furrow of an eyebrow, ‘ but I don’t know enough to conclude anything yet.’ 

The little girl stirred in silence for a bit before finally introducing herself, an unreadable emotion behind her vibrant green eyes. 

“My name is… Nahida.”

[Fontaine Congregation] 

“Hahahahahahaha!” 

Laughter filled the area as a pair of twins enacted one magic trick, producing flowers out of nowhere through their hats and releasing pure white doves into the wind. Several people were seated on the floor, watching the show with relative relaxation.

And above all of them, it was the Hydro Archon, herself, Furina de Fontaine, who loudly enjoyed the show the most. 

“Excellent, excellent. I suppose this is just about enough to help all of us squander our time.” 

Furina clapped dramatically from where she was seated. 

Her words almost made it sound like all they’ve really been doing was entertainment until now–

But that was far , far away from the truth. 

‘What the heck is happening?’

‘Why, in the seven waters of Teyvat, where we all brought here?’

‘No, better question, why is SHE here?!?!’ 

Internally, the Hydro archon was screaming her heart out in terror.

The “she” that she was referring to was none other than the nonchalant woman watching the magic show with dark eyes. 

The Fatui Harbinger known as Arlecchino. 

‘Okay, okay, calm down. It’s alright. She hasn't said anything since everyone’s last attempt to mess with the walls so it should be fine.’

‘Everything is fine.’ 

Furina repeated that over and over and over again in her head like a mantra while outwardly, she seemed to be relishing the magic show, giggling manically. 

Although she looked thrilled outside… in reality, she might as well pass out from fear right now. 

Within the confines of this mysterious enclosed space, there were at most a dozen fontainians with her. 

When they all arrived here in a flash of light first, since a significant portion of the people involved were either government officials or leaders in their own way, no one wasted time and started investigating their current circumstance immediately.

The result was rather disappointing but they learned a few things:

Don't mess with the walls. 

Although no one can inflict damage upon each other within this space, it seems that messing with the walls with violent intent can inflict an area of effect kind of damage to people nearby, regardless if they were the origin of that intent or not. 

Imagination can get you a long way if you use it right. 

This was discovered when a certain Spina expressed a desire to have at least brought macarons with her, only to unintentionally summon a freshly baked batch out of thin air. 

There are others in this place and they’re kind of… wild? 

Furina won’t lie, she doesn't exactly understand why a giant bird seems to be fighting three girls in one area through the transparent walls…

Nor why this other area seemed to be having more explosions than most…

Nor why this other area seemed to be at some stiff stalemate, everyone within it holding a weapon and yet unmoving…

But, at this point, she doesn't think she wants to understand any of that. 

‘ Oh, mirror-me, I hope everything is going to be okay.’ 

Furina quietly prayed to her other self, closing her eyes briefly as her worry bled out of her mask for just a split second. 

“...Furina, are you alright?”

“Yes? Ah, yes! Of course, I am, my dear Iudex, why would I not be?” 

To her side, her dearest Iudex seems to have noticed her unease.

Lying about her fears came out before Furina could even think about it. It made her feel guilty but her resolve was strong. 

‘You must not crack. You must not show weakness.’ 

Not with that woman here.

Neuvilette leveled her with an expressionless stare as he drawled out his answer, not quite believing her, though.

“We are in an unknown location, brought here by an unknown party of unknown motivations. And there are explosions shaking the walls.” 

As if on cue, the walls shook slightly as another explosion occurred somewhere in the other areas that were only hazily obscured from them. 

Although it made Furina tense slightly, it was child’s play to slide into her ever-present mask.

“...Psh! Do you really think that I, Focalors, the ruler of the nation of hydro, be so easily disconcerted by something as silly as mere explosions?”

The explosions simply continued. 

“...Okay, but honestly, I'm starting to wonder who in the world is causing that.”

“I could never agree more, Miss Furina.” 

From among the audience, a pink haired journalist sighed quietly in assent along with a few people who have long stopped paying attention to the magic show. 

The twin performers, too, seemed to agree with the Hydro Archon, not even minding that no one was watching their performance anymore with all the loud sounds coming from that one room.

“Do you think perhaps some brash people out there are just hitting the walls continuously for fun?” The older brother, Lyney, curiously wondered. 

“Doubt it. No one’s stupid enough to keep hitting after the first try, brother.” The younger sister, Lynette said with a dull tone. 

“You don’t know that.” 

Lyney quirked a smile before turning towards their third member and their magic assistant, who was hugging a mechanical penguin in his arms.

“How about you, Freminet? What do you think?”

“I… don’t know what those people are thinking but maybe they’re doing it out of panic?” The freckled boy timidly answered. 

From one side of the room, Navia snorted, twirling her umbrella playfully between her hands. 

“Well, I don't know about you, folks, but personally, I'm starting to be concerned.” 

“Indeed, they have been at it for… quite some time now.”

An awkward distance away from her, the champion duelist, Clorinde nodded in agreement.

“Is it really so concerning?” 

The Duke of Meropide chuckled darkly from where he sat with the Melusine nurse, Sigewinne, who was also staring at the explosions in the distance with curious ruby red eyes. 

“Back in the fortress of Meropide, a person could brawl with a boxing glove for hours for all we care and it would be totally normal.” 

“Say that sentence again and emphasize Meropide more, why don't you?” 

A girl with an eye patch sighed while munching on what seemed to be a bag of snacks. 

This caught the journalist, Charlotte’s attention, and when the girl named Chevreuse noticed, she offered her bag ever so slightly.

“You want some?”

“Oh, um, no thank you. I don't think imaginary food would be too filling.”

Chevreuse cocked her head, “It's not imaginary though?”

“...wait, you mean you really have that in your person?” 

Chevreuse shrugged and just popped another round of snacks inside her mouth. 

She absent-mindedly turned her gaze towards the other areas, looking at each chaotic spot one by one before wondering idly to herself. 

‘I don’t seem to see Chiori here… hm, what a shame.’ 

This would be a way nicer experience if the brunette was with her.  

—

[????? Congregation ?????]

In the place that was designated to be “nowhere in particular”...

“You wretched little…!” 

“Oh, wow, did you seriously just call me little? ”

Manic laughter and murderous screaming seemed to be happening in real-time as two people– a ginger and a man with a big hat– duked it out and fought in the desolate area provided to them. 

It was safe to say that they were absolutely destroying everything but each other in the process of blaming each other for the situation at hand. 

“Look in the mirror, Balladeer! You’re short as fuck!” 

The 11th of the Fatui Harbingers, Tartaglia, also known as Childe, yelled in time with a hydro-powered slash of his recreated melee weapon. 

Not long after uttering that, the ginger got hit by a vicious strike of lightning and got sent backwards.

“You shut your mouth, you worthless piece of dross!”

The 6th of the Fatui Harbingers, Scaramouche, also known as the Balladeer, screamed at the ginger who practically crashed into the wall and caused quite the explosion. 

“What the fuck did you do?! Why am I stuck in this fucking room with you?!?!”

The 11th spat out some blood before uttering, incredulously, “Me?! I should be asking you that question! I have no idea what's going on !” 

As if to emphasize this, he raised a literal whale made out of hydro from the ground of the unfamiliar room and sent it hurtling towards the puppet right across him.

The 6th couldn't even scream before he was drenched violently in aggressive waters. 

Childe laughs uncontrollably at that, but ended up getting hit with a big and solid hat at high speeds not long after.

“ DON’T FUCK WITH ME!”

“I WOULD NEVER DREAM OF IT! GROSS!”

“WHAT THE FUCK, THAT’S NOT WHAT I– ARGH!!”

“ONE POINT!!!!”

Explosions rang out as the walls, the floor and the ceiling got caught up in the fierce yet petty and unnecessary battle. 

Any other mortal would be bloodied meat by now, but not these two. 

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, TAKE THAT!” 

“OH, YOU ROTTEN– YOU DARE?!?!” 

A battle between two Fatui Harbingers was a battle, indeed, as concerning as it may be. 

More than 50 people, stuck within a dreamscape. More than 50 people who barely know each other and don't know what’s going on. 

As a black door appears in an area in the middle of all this, two twins stand side by side. 

It seems that many fates will be intertwined tonight. 

Chapter Text

Aether and Lumine have no idea what’s going on.

Standing side by side, hand in hand, in front of a giant black door that suddenly appeared within the transparent walls of this unfamiliar place– Aether couldn’t help but recount what they were doing before this all happened in the first place. 

As far as he's remembered, he and his sister had just recently left their previous world. 

The two were seeking out a new place to stay for the meantime, when all of a sudden, they were dragged into an unfamiliar room with transparent walls mid-flight. 

By the time they came to, it wasn’t the multitude of stars and worlds that greeted them– but each other, on the floor, passed-out and groaning.

“Ugh…”

Lumine shifted after that violent collision with solid ground. 

Aether was in no better condition but hearing and seeing his sister’s condition had him waking up from his post-crash stupor immediately.

He jolted up and started fretting immediately.

“Lumine!” 

“Hu-hwha?” The girl in question responded, half-way still unconscious.

Aether shook his sister slightly, fear all over his face. 

Did she hit her head? 

Did she shake her brain? 

He tried to check if she happened to have a concussion or an affliction that made it difficult for her to open her eyes, but there was no such thing.

All he managed to do in the end was annoy the girl enough for her to wake up fully and with fury.

“I’m awake, already! Stop shaking me!”

Lumine kicked him off of her body, eyes bloodshot.

Aether made a little “ow” noise as he hit the ground again, but quickly recovered with tearful relief in his face.

“Lumine, I thought you cracked your head open…!” 

“Hey, I’m not that delicate!” 

“I didn’t say you were, I thought you hit your head and bruised your brain!” Aether frowned. 

Lumine gave him a questioning look before her face suddenly turned neutral.

Oh, right. 

Going to another world. Flying through the sky. 

Huh, the memories were pouring in. 

Confounded by the sudden wave of context, Lumine absent-mindedly touched the side of her head.

And then promptly winced.

“Lumine?” Aether started, worry all over his face once again.

“...Okay,” Lumine took a deep breath as she took her hand away from her head, and promptly declared, “Maybe your worries this time are on point, dear brother.”

“...YOU HIT YOUR HEAD???” 

“Ah, I'm okay, I'm okay! Stop worrying so much, Aether!”

That didn’t really do anything to placate the older boy. 

Lumine huffed a little as she slowly sat up and dusted herself. She gave the room they were in one look before furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

“...Where are we, exactly?” 

“I’m not… quite sure, either. I don’t exactly remember landing in any world in particular.” Aether answered reluctantly, scanning the room as well.

Huh. Well, isn’t that curious?

Lumine contemplated for a bit before stalking straight towards the nearby wall, her brother close to her tail. 

She spread out her hands across the wall, feeling its texture and solidness in contrast to its transparent visual, and then frowned.

And pulled out her sword. 

“Whoa, whoa! wait, wait, wait, Lumine, don’t–” 

Too late, Aether.

Lumine’s sword struck down on the transparent wall and caused an explosion. How? Neither twin knows, but the ensuing boom was strong enough to send the two hurtling backwards. 

“Gwah!” Aether shrieked as he landed on his back the wrong way.

“Uck…!” Lumine winced as she practically rolled on the floor from the force of the explosion.

Both twins remained there on the floor for some time, breathing heavily, while staring at the equally transparent ceiling, showing them nothing but black. 

“...Well, at least we know the walls are dangerous?”

“...Please don’t do that ever again.”

Aether put a hand over his face, back still on the ground.

“And here I thought I was the reckless one.”

The twins eventually recovered after a while. Although Aether’s back hurt terribly, the two were now sitting up properly and observing the environment beyond the transparent walls. 

Specifically, they were examining the “areas” they found surrounding their small little room.

“...one, two, three, four, five, six…”

While Aether counted, Lumine stared at the strange empty space encompassing a portion of the area around their room. 

‘ Six areas presumably filled with people and around 2-3 more areas currently empty of people.’ 

It was hard to make out just who these people were. If they were people Aether and Lumine personally knew or if they were new, they couldn't know, but one thing was for sure: 

It seems that just like the twins, all these people were stuck in their own little rooms as well.

Why, though? 

Aether couldn’t help but wonder.

What for? 

Lumine, similarly, pondered. 

The twins could only count in one hand the reasons why a being of greater power than theirs would grab them and a bunch of other people and throw them all into one room. 

But then again, they haven't offended anyone lately to warrant such an experience… right?

It was while the two twins were busy surveying their surroundings…

A loud explosion occurred within one of the six occupied areas, shaking the transparent walls greatly.

Or so, they thought it did, until they realized something had changed within the room.

“...!” 

The twins turned around and found a black door in the center of one of the walls. 

A black door that was most certainly not there before. 

The siblings exchanged looks of suspicion.

There were too many questions to be answered.

Do they open the door or stay here and keep it closed? What would be waiting for them outside of this room, if they were to open it? What would become of them if they never do? 

Lumine hesitated for a moment in front of the door, turning her eyes towards the floor in an effort to harden her resolve. But that was when she suddenly felt a hand take hers. 

When she lifted her gaze, she found her brother smiling reassuringly towards her, eyes alight with the same determined fire. 

Oh, right.

She found herself staring into her brother’s amber eyes, a mirror of her own, as she remembered something important.

They were outlanders.

Travelers. 

This much amount of risk was just right for a pair of twins who don’t have a home. 

This much amount of uncertainty was nothing compared to the life they’ve had to live until now.

A smile bloomed slightly on her face at that thought and she squeezed her brother’s hand.

The twins didn’t need to knock at the door or say any special password to get the unfamiliar black door to open. 

Simply standing there, side by side, and hand-in-hand, was apparently enough to make those large black doors part ways for them.

As the twins braved the unknown, and took the first move and took the dive…

A bright flash of light blinded the twins for a moment.

And as soon as they stepped outside…

“What the hell is going on?!” 

A panicked voice cried out followed by the loud and indistinct chattering of several people, confused and distraught.

Lumine and Aether blinked at the sight of more than 50 people gathered together  before exchanging looks once more. 

What the hell? 

“Kazuha!” 

A boy with… with… is that dog ears? 

A boy with dog ears cried out in pleasant surprise from across the divide between areas.

A white-haired individual on the other side of the room seemed to respond positively to the shout with the same wide-eyed reaction. 

Red eyes wide, the boy looked pleasantly surprised.

“Xiansheng!” 

A ginger with… oh my stars, what happened to this guy’s face?! 

A beat-up ginger with a bloody nose, ripped up clothes and several different scratches and bruises happily bounced towards the edge of their area, waving enthusiastically towards an elegant-looking man somewhere far away.

The elegant-looking man with the amber eyes couldn’t help but double-take at the ginger’s appearance.

But that was just about the only reaction he got. 

“Wha–hey! It’s you!” 

A pink-haired girl with antlers gasped as she pointed at an icy blue-haired woman in another area.

Said-woman promptly stared at her and blinked in her own special way of recognition.

“Huh. I remember you.”

Next to the icy woman, a brunette in red suddenly shrieked.

“ COLLEI?!”

A green-haired girl gasped from the other side of the room. 

“ AMBERRR!!!!”

“Oh. Chiori. Whatcha doing over there?” 

A girl with wild purple hair and an eyepatch casually inquired over the border of areas while munching on some snacks. 

A brunette with a resting bitch face and a ponytail stared at her dully and answered bluntly.

“Don’t ask me. I didn’t ask to be put here.” 

All around, the people who have been trapped within the rooms have finally been let out, albeit they were still divided by room by an invisible border. 

It was a large enough audience that the twins almost felt a little bit faint–it was more than 50 people here! 

If everyone started doing introductions, how in the stars were they supposed to remember their names?!

With this amount of people it was so, so easy to fall into chaos, but thankfully there was no need to let that come to pass. 

“Now, now, everyone, pipe down! You’re making my ears hurt! Let’s all calm down and do this in an organized manner.” A dark-haired individual with long upright fox ears spoke up loud enough for most people to hear.

‘How are you going to organize this?’ The twins thought as one as they stared faintly at the sea of people.

With this many people, aren't conflicts of interest bound to occur?

Much to their surprise however, several cooperative people nodded their heads towards the fox-eared man’s suggestion.

“I agree. Personally, I think we should all introduce ourselves to each other… as a group, rather than as individuals. I could go first as the representative of my area.” 

A blonde woman with a sword suggested, before placing a hand over her chest and introducing herself.

“Our group is primarily made of people residing in the nation of freedom, Monstadt. I am Jean, the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius and half of our entourage here are of similar affiliation.” 

A woman with long white hair draped in a dress with hints of gold spoke up next, her face as still as stone.

“We are primarily citizens of a single nation as well. I am Ningguang, the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing, and I will be acting as representative for the people of Liyue in this fiasco.” 

“I am Kamisato Ayato, the current leader of the Yashiro Commission in Inazuma.” A man with light blue hair and a regal attire stepped up and introduced himself, “As one of the only parties in the nation of eternity to not have an official side in our on-going… conflict , I will be representing the people of Inazuma for now.”

He waited patiently as if expecting a few protests but thankfully there was none from both sides of their heavily divided group.

“Great. I’m Tighnari, a forest ranger and researcher who graduated from the Akademiya.” The fox-eared person from earlier introduced himself, professionally.

“I am not really a leader like the lot of you, but most of us people from Sumeru are either civilians or uninterested in politics, thus I hope no one finds it in themselves to make it difficult for me to be the representative of this group just because I’m not a sage.” 

‘Huh, how blunt.’ Lumine positively noted, thinking she’ll like this man.

‘...His tail looks so soft.’ Aether absent-mindedly noted, eyes distracted by the swishing of the fluffy dark green tail behind the forest researcher.

A tall elegant man clad in blues and holding a staff declared with brevity, not beating around the bush.

“I am the Chief Justice of Fontaine, Iudex Neuvilette, and I will be representing the nation of Fontaine.”

“Huh, I see.” Tighnari murmured as he put a hand to his chin.

Ayato shot him a curious look, “See what, Mr. Tighnari? Care to share?” 

“Well, it seems that some very important people have been brought into this dreamscape– not to mention divided according to nation.” Tighnari explained.

“ Dreamscape ?” Ningguang questioned, her face twisting a little in confusion.

“I knew it.” A black-haired man from the Fontaine Area declared moderately.

Neuvilette ignored the man in favor of interrogating Tighnari with drawn eyebrows, “Would you care to elaborate your statement, Mister Tighnari?”

Tighnari waved off the Iudex.

“Just Tighnari is fine, and it’s not a conjecture I formed on my own. Some of you may have already noticed but damaging one’s self is impossible within the confines of this area. Add that to the fact that the last our people have checked the time, we should all be wearing pajamas and yet we are not… we simply came to the conclusion that perhaps this place was the land of dreams.” 

“But I thought it was common knowledge that the people of Sumeru did not dream?” 

Ayato spoke up, not exactly in a challenging manner but even as he smiled, he sounded like he was being difficult on purpose, anyway. 

“Um, sorry to interrupt, but is no one going to be talking about the condition that guy is in?!” 

A blonde girl with a wild ponytail exclaimed in disbelief from behind the Yashiro Commissioner, hands gesturing towards the sixth area that not only contained just two people, but also had beat-up attires. 

Jean blinked, belatedly realizing that there was indeed a sixth group still. She turned towards the only two people in that group and asked politely.

“Ah, my apologies. The two of you are from–?”

“Snezhnaya.”

As Ningguang suddenly spoke those words, it was like the atmosphere was drenched with ice water. The Tianquan’s face looked as unperturbed as always as she spoke, but it was clear that there was an edge to her voice as she eyed the ginger in the sixth area.

“I don’t know about the shorter boy, but the man bleeding out of his nose and smiling like a maniac is a fatuus we of Liyue know well.”

“Shorter boy?” A barely audible voice growled out, but was cut off by the sound of laughter.

“Awww, you touch me, Miss Ningguang!” 

The ginger beamed brightly, and it would almost be endearing if not for the fact that he was bloody injured and should not be laughing.

“That’s right. I’m Childe!” The man introduced himself, bloody nose forgotten, “And this… is Scaramouche!”

He gestured to his only mate in the area, only to be harshly slapped in the arm. 

A boy with a comically large hat glared at Childe and then at everyone else present, before huffing and looking away with an arrogant demeanor of turning his attention away from insects. 

Jean spoke, suddenly feeling tired.

“I see. I suppose that explains a lot.” 

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” 

As murmurs broke out across the different groups of people, it was only after a large white-haired man jabbed a pointer at the twins and gasped, “HEY, WAIT, THERE’S ANOTHER GROUP OVER THERE!” that the people thought to look at the direction of the twins.

‘Oh, shit.’ 

The twins both froze up like deers in headlights as all attention fell on them.

“Huh?”

“Well, aren’t they wearing quite the unique clothes?” 

“Which nation are those two, from? Natlan?”

“...!” 

Aether and Lumine tensed up and took a step back, hands still together. 

It had already been a surprise for them that they were in the same situation as more than 50 people, but the fact that they could vaguely understand their language despite not having learned it yet…

Things were just getting weirder and weirder, are they?

“Please do not be afraid. We come in peace.” Neuvilette declared with a straight face. 

“......”

Aether and Lumine exchanged glances before suddenly covering their mouths to stifle a giggle at the choice of words, much to everyone’s confusion.

“What’s so funny?” Childe asked, face beaten black and blue scrunching up, perplexed,  “Am I missing something or…?”

Just as Childe asked that question, a great tremor suddenly shook all the areas.

"W-what's going on?!" 

A white-haired girl with a blue hat and mismatched eyes shrieked as the ground shook beneath her feet, an uncharacteristic fear in her face. A stoic woman with purple-black hair immediately braced the girl to keep her from falling out of balance, eyes vigilant as the tremors grew in intensity. 

"Klee, hold on to me!" A man with platinum-hair urgently said as he scooped up a little girl and huddled closer to several people with the same motif in their uniforms. 

"Freminet, stay behind me!" A pair of twins threw their arm in front of a freckled boy, expressions hardened. 

A scary woman clad in regal white attire like her white hair suddenly appeared behind the three and put a hand on the eldest's shoulder. 

The eldest of the twins, the boy, stared up at her in surprise and relief, "Father!"

"Father–??" Childe and Scaramouche both whipped their heads in time to lock eyes with the scary woman, who glared at them calmly, blood red bleeding through the black of her pupils.

‘Actually, you know what, nevermind.’ 

The two men quickly backed away and decided to deal with their own situation first.  

"Brother!" 

A girl with light-blue hair called out as the older boy next to her nearly stumbled, only to be thankfully caught by the blonde closeby.

"I gotcha, my Lord."

"Aaah!" 

A white-haired little girl cried out in surprise as dust started to fall from the ceiling, and the two desert dwellers and the red-haired dancer near her immediately hovered above the child, protectively. 

"Keep your heads down!" The desert dweller with a shield yelled at the people, fearful that the whole place might cave in on itself. 

Several people fell out of balance and had to lean on each other to keep standing as the rooms started moving and changing one by one. 

Eventually, however, a large bird among the crowd could not take it anymore and bellowed loudly in fury. 

"This one has had enough! All of you who cherish your life, jump this instant!"

The people around her didn't even hesitate, but that might just be because she was a terrifying thing to be next to. Several people jumped, not just in the bird's area, but in the other areas as well, funny enough. 

A boy with brown-hair in a half-ponytail near the furious bird launched himself up to the air immediately, a floating little thing chasing after him frantically while another boy with a single red streak on his white hair leaped with the touch of the wind propelling him upward, the ghost of maple leaves seemingly appearing at his wake.

As soon as their legs took off from the ground, a powerful gust of wind swept across from under their feet and propelled them higher up and kept them afloat. 

"Whoa!" 

A blonde man with a teal feather shrieked as he practically crashed on a grey-haired man mid-air, the two hitting heads so hard they were both struck speechless and groaning.

"Oh, this is cool!" 

A large white-haired man with red horns cackled as he found himself above ground, standing on nothing but wind. The green-haired girl with the black purple mask near him almost rolled her eyes at his childishness.

"Huh? Huh? Wait, where am I, what's going on?!" 

A blue-haired girl with curly hair blinked and started panicking upon finding herself elevated, cryo shield already around her.

"Less talking and more helping!!" 

A little pink-haired girl with cat ears screamed as she found herself floating past said-girl while inside a paw-shaped shield made of cryo. 

A girl in an armored maid uniform squeaked, having a sturdier geo shield of her own set up, while trying to run after the rolling girl.

"D-diona, wait!”

At least one-third of the people had jumped at the bird's initial order but when the rest saw that it was keeping everyone afloat, several more jumped in while some others decided to help up those who were unable.

"Stay still, you two." 

A woman with midnight blue hair just right above her shoulder sped past a coughing green-haired man with spectacles and a purple-haired little child, wrapping them both in illuminated strings. 

She took one big leap into the newly created safe zone in the air and hauled her strings, and subsequently, the man and the little girl, up into safety as well. 

"Gotcha." She said with satisfied relief.

Just as a blur of brown and green ran past her, squealing, and crashed unto the purple haired little girl, almost sending both back down.

“QIQI!!!!”

“...!”

It was only a miracle that she hadn’t taken off the strings just yet– or else those two kids would have plummeted to their deaths for sure.

‘Oh, this place is a mess.’ 

She sighed to herself as she watched the little children hug each other while chaos brewed all around.

Down below, some representatives were still on the ground, aiding the transportation.

"We have unconscious people in our midst! Everyone, please carry at least one of them up!" Jean hollered out commands.

An icy blue girl in Jean's area-- Monstadt, was it?-- did not have to be told twice. 

"Huph!" 

She heaved two unconscious girls over her shoulder and leaped unto the air immediately, breaking no sweat.

Similarly, a red-haired man in their group moved to do the same with three unconscious people at the same time but upon taking off...

"...!"

He lost his grip on one of them-- a boy with dirty blonde hair and bandages all over-- and if luck would have it, the one dressed like a bard also tipped over and fell while he jumped.

There was a flash of bright teal as a person who was already above danger suddenly disappeared and reappeared fast enough to catch the unconscious green-clad bard and seemingly teleport back to safety.

"Bennet!" 

A blonde girl with twin tails cried out in horror at the edge of the safe zone. She could only stare, horrified, as the boy started to plummet down to the still shaking and rearranging ground. 

It was when the boy was about to splat on the ground like an egg-- that a hand managed to snag him by the arm before he could break his head. 

"I got him!" 

It was Aether, golden wings out, who spoke with reassurance towards the people who had reached the safe zone. 

Just like him, his twin sister, Lumine, was helping out, wings unfurled and shining, as she picked up those who seemed too scared or too disoriented with the screaming and shaking to jump on their own. 

"A-ah, thank you!" A green-haired girl with round glasses said as Lumine delivered her to safety, clutching her hat tightly.

"Tighnari!"

"Master Tighnari!"

Tighnari winced a little as he is immediately bombarded with worried shrieks after being brought to safety by Aether, the noises too loud for his ears. 

"I'm okay, I'm okay, my ears just hurt a little. Is everyone alright?""

"As alright as we can be." A short girl with pink hair and golden shades casually said. 

"Is anyone here a healer?!" Someone yelled from the Liyue area, a small group of people crowding around a man with green hair who was uncontrollably coughing. 

"Oh, I'm--" The blonde girl with twin tails tried to say but was cut off by the arrival of a girl with soft coral pink hair with bluish ends.

"Please show me the patient."

The girl said, not beating around the bush, as she let small pulses of hydro come out of her vision in the form of Jellyfishes. 

"...o-oh." The blonde girl with the twin tails shrunk a little, hand suddenly coming up towards her own hydro vision.

"I believe this bard is one of yours?"

"AH!" 

The blonde girl almost screamed in surprise as a boy with piercing golden eyes and teal hair appeared behind her like a ghost, a green-clad bard settled quietly in his arms. 

The boy didn't react to the fact that she looked like she almost slapped him in surprise. 

"That... Oh, ah, yes, that bard is one of ours." 

The blonde girl said as soon as she calmed down, taking the bard off of the mysterious boy's hands, concern written all over her face. 

"Well, take better care of your people." The boy bluntly said, not really sounding harsh but using words that might seem so. 

He disappeared with a flash of teal light again, before the girl could give him an answer.

"...huh." The girl quietly murmured to herself as she looked down at the bard in her arms, who was sleeping as sound as a baby and weighed as light as a feather.

It was not long after that that the twins landed on top of the safe zone the big bird has made. Their wings immediately dissipated as soon as they put their foot down. 

"Everyone's been brought to safety." Aether said for both of the twins when the representatives of each group looked towards them expectantly.

“Good.” Ningguang said, “It would probably be for the best that we still hold a-”

"LOOK! The tremors are dying down!" 

She was cut off by someone gasping and pointing down below. 

All eyes turned downwards to look immediately, and just as was announced, the quakes have ceased and their rooms have all merged into one large room.

Chapter Text

“What… in the world is that?” 

Keqing, the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, didn’t quite understand what she was looking at. There were several people peeking down just like her over her shoulder but it was not easy to see what exactly happened below them from this height. 

To her right, her coworker Ganyu simply regarded the view below with curiosity, adeptus sensitivities making it far clearer for her than most others.

“Huh. Did the rooms just merge together…?” 

“They did?!”

“Hey, move a little, I can’t see!”

“What the- Ow! Watch where you put your foot- Waah!” 

Keqing and Ganyu barely managed to grab a blondie that seemed to come from Inazuma before she could fall down the edge of the artificial safe zone. 

The white-haired man with the red tattoos who had almost accidentally pushed her in got two pairs of judgmental eyes after that as he blinked with wide eyes and then raised his hands up.

“…Em, Uhhhh… Oops?”

Not so far away, Ningguang of the Liyue Qixing was also looking down at the newly formed room with scrutiny alongside the other representatives who have banded together. She exchanged looks with the representatives, a silent agreement coming to pass between the five of them before turning their gaze unto the last party who remain unintroduced and overlooking the fatui in the area accordingly.

Ningguang has met several different people in her experience as Tianquan, but never has she met a pair that dressed and acted as strangely as these two.

However, since they had given up hiding a card as useful as the ability to fly just so they could help people to higher ground, Ningguang was ready to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them more trust than the fatui could ever get from her and her rule. 

Seemingly understanding the look in her eyes (intelligent, the two of them, it seems), the twins themselves seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes as well before turning back to Ningguang and nodding slightly, hands clasped together. 

If everyone in this room wanted a better look, they needed to go down.

Thankfully, it seems everyone important thought so.

Without wasting another world, Ningguang and the others turned towards the one responsible for keeping them afloat—the illustrious adeptus taking the shape of a crane as white as snow. 

The mighty adeptus gave the people who called themselves “representatives” a side-eye before seemingly scoffing. It was a bit disconcerting, actually, to hear it sound more human than crane, but that’s why they’re called adepti. 

“This one will be bringing you all down now.” The adeptus snobbishly declared with the slight flapping of wings. 

It happened gradually at first, the wind dying underneath their feet bit by bit and carrying them down with the glimmering teal glow of anemo, but eventually the descent rapidly grew in speed. By the time most people were nearing ground level, some people had decided that maybe plunging down on their own would be safer than simply letting the crane be. 

It was quite the experience… although several of them crashed unto either faces or butts. Sometimes not quite their own. 

“Ow! Ugh, what the—AAAAAAGH!” 

“Quiet. You screamed right into my ear-”

“AL HAITHAM, WHAT THE FUCK, GET OFF ME, YOU LITTLE-”

Of course, there are those who, by some divine miracle, meet the ground as clean and unphased as a freshly dried towel, but sadly, that just can’t be for everyone.  

“ Tsaritsa above - Xiansheng, that was so cool ! I didn’t know you could do that- Oh, is that a polearm?! Xiansheng, let’s spar sometimes-!!!”

“…Childe, your face is covered in blood. Please wipe your nose.”

Keqing helped the captain of the crux, Beidou, carry one of their own unto solid ground, making sure to keep one of each of Doctor Baizhu’s arms in their hold as they jumped down, while Ganyu carried little Qiqi in her arms gently as she followed shortly after them, each hop of her step towards the edge slightly frosted with ice.

“I’m telling you, I’m fine…” The green-haired doctor tried to protest when they carried him towards the edge but sadly, the women with him got to where they were by not listening to idiots.

That, of course, included the pure white snake with unsettling human eyes wrapped around his neck, hissing and scolding him and saying something along the lines of, “you are definitely not fine” and “do you want to die?!” which was honestly? 

Very relatable, actually? 

Wait, is this snake another adeptus??

Keqing brushed off that thought, not really holding the adepti in much high regards as she and Beidou braced themselves for ground. 

They landed safely, with Ganyu and little Qiqi at their tail, but it was only after their half-adeptus secretary put down the little jiangshi that they realized they weren’t the only ones helping down the unable.

“Qiqi!” 

A brown-haired little girl practically toppled the little jiangshi over with a tearful cry, and Keqing belatedly realized it was the one they had to separate from Qiqi and Baizhu during his coughing fit’s commotion. 

“You should have really thought twice before separating those two.” 

Keqing blinked and turned her face in time to see Yelan in the distance helping out the Monstadt people bring down their unconscious safely with her illuminated strings. 

The woman’s blue eyes looked over her, nonchalantly, but there was an upward quirk to her lips as she spoke, “What? Do you have anything against my little diplomacy here, little miss Yuheng , or are you just into the strings ?”

Doctor Baizhu practically seized- was he coughing or was he laughing?

Well, Captain Beidou was certainly laughing like she was dying.

“Oh my god! You didn’t just say that in front of the kids!” 

Keqing didn’t have time to question it nor be offended by it, and neither did the kids get a chance to be confused about it, because no sooner than the captain’s guffaws, another person that was very not Doctor Baizhu started seizing over there among the group of Monstadt citizens Yelan was helping down.

It was natural that the nearest Monstadtian citizens- as well as the nearest Liyue ones- would panic.

“Holy Barbatos-”

“Oh shoot, what’s happening?!”

“Hold her down! Hold her down!” 

“She’s shaking herself awake!” 

—

Mona was not having a good day.

It was one thing to come back home with an empty wallet and an empty stomach after escaping all this way to Monstadt to get away from her master, but it was another to wake up in the void and get caught headfirst into some kind of otherworldly explosion. 

She only had the memory of a mere 13 seconds of confusion before she heard a blood-curdling scream, got caught in a blast, and then blacked out. 

It was… utterly embarassing.

But well, how could she have divined that?! Give her a break! 

She was an astrologist, not a clairvoyant!

Honestly, Mona can already feel a headache brewing… and maybe a stomachache and a back ache and all the other aches in the world too… no, actually, why in the world does her entire body hurt???

“Ho… Barbato…”

“…shoot, wha…..ppening?!”

“…old her down! Hold her….!” 

Voices drifted in and out of Mona’s consciousness as she found herself steadily finding it hard to breath, feeling like she was stuck in a state of sleep paralysis until she realized—

‘Oh, for celestia’s sake, you got hit by a blast! Of course, you’d be disoriented and pained!’ 

Mona Megistus was ready to curse herself to the high heavens, because surely she could have put that together if she’d actually tried. 

“She’s shaking herself awake!” 

Well, obviously?!

Mona’s eyes flung open as she finally jolted awake with a gasp, feeling herself be freed from the clutches of whatever sleep paralysis demon decided to feature in her dreams today.

“She’s awake! She’s awake!” 

Okay, nevermind, there were so many people crowding her that she might as well still be trapped in her own unconscious body. 

“You’re finally awake! Guys she’s finally awake!”

“She’s awake?”

“ Who’s awake?”

“Took you long enough.”

“Are you feeling okay? Does anywhere hurt?”

Mona blinked rapidly, feeling dizzy as the questions came in nonstop one by one. She put a hand over her temple, brushing her dark bangs away from her head as she tried to flap her mouth open only to be only slightly intelligible.

“Hu… wha?” 

“Okay, back it up. Back it up, you folks.” 

From behind the blur of colorful people, a blondie appeared and took the reigns of the situation like a tired owner grabbing her kittens by the back of their neck. 

It took Mona’s mind a couple of seconds of rebooting before she realized it was the Acting Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius, Master Jean, a person she’s divined before out of curiosity. 

The one with the constellation Leo Minor .

“Hey, there,” The acting grandmaster gently said as she approached Mona with caution after making the rest of the people crowding her back off, “You’re Mona, right? Mona Megistus? I remember your name from one of the paperworks you’d passed when you moved to Monstadt a while back.” 

“Ah, yes…” Mona nodded blankly, “Yes, that is me. Um, where…?”

She wanted to ask ‘ where am I?’ even though she was clearly surrounded by Monstadt folk, so she almost bit her tongue as she belatedly realized that maybe stupid. But then, she saw the looks on the people’s faces and found her face falling when the Grandmaster herself looked at her with slightly pity. 

“Unfortunately… we know as little as you do. You were hit unconscious by a blast nearly two to three hours ago along with three other people. You’re the first to wake up from it.”

So, she did get hit by an explosion! And now they don’t know where they are?!

Mona wanted to open her mouth to ask more- like for example, where is my hat? But sadly before she could speak, there was a call from the other side of the room. She gaped slightly when she saw the familiar style of Fontaine clothing in the distance, but promptly shut her mouth close.

“Is everyone accounted for? All representatives got a headcount done?” The man she recognized to be the Chief Justice of Fontaine, Iudex Neuvilette, declared in a low baritone, slamming his cane down in an attention-catching manner while remaining poised with elegance. 

Jean turned away from Mona immediately and reported clinically with a serious expression, “Monstadt is complete. We have 4 unconscious but we believe they may be recovering soon enough.” 

“Liyue, incomplete.” A woman clad in white and gold from Liyue spoke with brevity, “We have one missing person and one who needs medical attention.”

“Inazuma, complete. Your person migrated here, miss Ningguang.” 

A man with a beauty mark just near his lips smiled politely, long white sleeve held close to his chest as he informed Fontaine’s chief justice.

“One of ours similarly asked permission to migrate to Fontaine, so we are still the same number.”

“Sumeru, complete,” A man with long black fox ears announced, surprisingly stoic-faced even as several worried people were glued to his side like a vice, “A few startled folks but otherwise, nothing of concern.” 

 “Fontaine, complete. Nothing of note aside from that.” Neuvilette declared.

“Don’t forget us! We, the fatui, are complete, too!” 

Huh? Fatui? 

What in the world are the fatui doing here?

Mona sharply turned to stare at the all-too-happy ginger in the corner with blood on his face and tears on his clothes and the fiery looking shortie next to him with the ridiculously big hat. 

(Mona doesn’t quite realize yet… that she usually wears a hat of similar size to him) 

“Me and my brother are accounted for, as well.” A blonde woman reported evently from the opposite side, right next to a similar-looking man close by.

“Well, that’s good. With everything accounted for, we can finally ask the important question…” Jean sighed as she let her gaze go from the people around her and towards the thing that was in the middle of one of the walls of the big room, “and figure out what in the world that is.”  

—

“…What is that?” 

Although Gorou asked her a question, fluffy brown ears twitching warily as he stared intensely at the black surface seemingly melded together with the wall, Kokomi had no answer to give him. 

She didn’t know everything in the world, she knew that. But it was still quite unnerving whenever something she’s never prepared for beforehand appeared out of nowhere and blindsided her countless plans and preparations.

There in the center of one of the walls was one sleek black metal occupying almost all of the wall with only slight margins. It looked reflective in nature, bouncing off light that was coming out of somewhere but aside from that, its most notable feature was how massive it was in size.

While she was taking it all in, observing and taking note of as much information as she could gather from both the screen and the unfamiliar crowd, Kokomi almost didn’t hear it when across the mutterings of the many people in this room, an answer to her general’s question was spoken out loud.

“It’s a screen.”

Kokomi stared in surprise at the boy who had answered. He was a bit short in stature, not much taller than his companion who seemed to be related to him by blood given their shared golden hair and honey-colored eyes. 

She wasn’t the only one who was taken aback by his answer however.

“A screen?” 

Several people broke out into contemplative murmurs as his words sunk in.

“Uhhh, and what is a screen supposed to be?” A dark-skinned girl from Liyue sheepishly asked above the chattering, “I mean, aside from being hella big apparently…not that being bigger than normal is any way bad.” 

The big bird in the room let out a huff audible across the entire room.

Kokomi… feels like she’s missing something from that interaction, but perhaps it's not her place to figure that out. 

“Oh, uh , Screens are devices that emit different kinds of light in order to project images on its surface.” The golden boy answered almost timidly like he didn’t realize that his information was not common knowledge. 

Strange.

Next to him, squeezing the boy’s hand with her own, the woman who looked identical to him by a bit elaborated further for him with her free hand, “Most screens aren’t… usually that big, however, so we were surprised. They’re usually just around this small.” 

Someone uttered a soft “Oh, thank celestia” just as a refined-looking gentleman in traditional Liyue clothing contemplated out loud.

“Huh, a screen, you say. This is the first time I’m hearing and seeing this… device, you speak of.”

“Well, that’s certainly interesting.” 

A brown-haired girl with twin tails for hair appeared right behind the man like a ghost in a flurry of golden butterflies and licks of fire, plum red eyes staring at the screen with curiosity.

“If Wangsheng funeral parlor’s know-it-all doesn’t know about it, then it must be really obscure. But then again, it truly sounds like a one-of-a-kind feature to have on a wall… maybe we can put one on a coffin?”

She tossed a look at the pair that provided them information about the rare device before cocking her head with a feline grin that almost felt dangerous.

“Hey, tell me, dear customers… where in teyvat did you find such a curious device? Would you care to share?”

The duo exchanged glances at her question, apparently used to being questioned this way, before they came to an agreement and spoke to the girl with scrunched up faces. ( Honest faces, if Kokomi’s instincts could be believed)

“…First of all, did you just say Coffin ?”

“…….”

‘…..’ 

Yeah, actually, Kokomi didn’t catch that the first time, too interested in the implications of the first half than the riot that was the last half. Kokomi stared at the young woman, perhaps no older than 24 or so, and almost couldn’t reconcile the idea of a coffin maker being this young.

“Second of all, my name is Lumine and this guy is Aether, my twin, and if your job is what I think it is, I don’t think we want to be your customers.” 

The presumed Coffinmaker girl stuck out her tongue and uttered a little “boo” at their response, at around the same time the man apparently named Aether sputtered out a choked out “ Lumine !” towards his twin sister.

“She’s from a funeral parlor, Aether! I’m not about to bury you six feet under the ground– at least, well, not yet.” 

Not yet?

“That’s not…” Poor Aether’s face was just downright exasperated now, “You just gave away our real names…!”

“Oh, shit!”

The twins had a brief moment of panic, suddenly pointing fingers at each other for their sudden lapse in judgment, when the representative of Sumeru went between them to smooth over the situation. 

“Now, now, everyone, let’s handle this properly like adults.” Tighnari spoke with a voice that reminded Kokomi of the caretakers she used to have who taught her all about her duties as shrine maiden when she was little.

“Aether, Lumine. It’s certainly nice to meet you properly, especially after you helped me, but would you mind further elaborating on what you know about the screen?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s no problem-” Aether happily said, and Kokomi belatedly remembered seeing him bring the Sumeru representative to the safe zone earlier. 

“We don’t mind sharing information.” Lumine, in contrast to the warmth of her brother, coolly answered the actual question, “I think it’s for the best interest of everyone that we share as much as we can in this strange situation anyway.”

Apparently, there are several types of screens but the most common ones the twins have encountered (and isn't that interesting that they’ve encountered this more than once) were ones who were remote-controlled and touch-screen. 

“The remote-controlled ones are bigger than the touch screen objects.  They’re usually attached to a wall just like this one, but they’re not nearly as big.” Aether had explained, “Meanwhile, the touch screen ones are generally not pasted on walls and are instead small enough that they can be manually carried.” 

As of now, the large screen in the room was “turned off”, as can be deduced from it's lack of activity. To open it, usually, one must find the power button or simply touch the screen. 

It was dangerous however, to operate under the assumption that the screen was not put here to harm them- many people could easily tell that. 

Unfortunately, one person from Sumeru didn't seem to get the memo. 

“Oh please, what are you lot even waiting for?” 

A young-looking girl with soft cyan-colored hair in twin tails declared as she marched past the representatives with a roll of her eyes. 

Kokomi found herself stuttering in her actions when she saw the girl just breeze past everyone and go straight to the screen, fair hands already reaching forward, because ‘no! We don’t know what will happen if we-’ 

Her fingers touched the black screen, causing a ripple of teal-green light through the massive black surface. 

Everyone’s eyes could only look on in shock as a galaxy of stars materialized over the surface, dotting the screen with so many colors lightning up the midnight blue night sky. 

“There. That was easy, wasn't it?” The young girl huffed as she turned back to everyone else, not having truly witnessed what she just created. 

Upon finding that everyone was staring at the screen with their jaw dropped, she almost raised an eyebrow. 

But when she turned back, she jumped so high she almost fell on her butt in surprise. 

Well… it seems maybe it was not dangerous after all?

— 

“It’s on, now, right?” 

Wriothesley turned his gaze away from all the stars and towards the Blondie that had taken up the space near him for the sole purpose of cooing at his head nurse, Sigewinne.

The grand duke was almost tempted to cock an eyebrow up at the friendly demeanor being thrown his way, but just chuckled in the end, arms crossed before him. 

“Well, it should be. It’s lighting up now, isn’t it?”

The Blondie gave him a brief scrutinizing glance before casually materializing macarons from thin air, thoroughly abusing the imagination rule that their side has discovered a few hours back. 

“You know, I never did get your name even though I'm pestering you like this. I got Little Miss Sigewinne’s but not yours, Monsieur.” 

“Well, I didn't hear you tell me your name either, but I wasn’t complaining now, was I, Mademoiselle?” 

There was a snort, a little bit undignified for high class Fontaine society, but eventually it turned into a giggle as the Blondie finally gave up acting coy.

“I am Navia. The Spina in the Spina de Rosula.” She introduced herself and oh, suddenly that makes sense. 

He wasn't nearly as active above ground than he was in the Fortress so he wouldn't have been able to guess she had a position like that from her looks alone. 

‘Two can play that game, though.’

“Wriothesley,” He decided to give his name in return just to be polite before dropping the great bomb that is his position, “The grand duke of the Fortress of Meropide.” 

The Blondie made a sound that seemed awfully questioning more than disbelieving but otherwise stared at him with wide eyes. 

‘Wriothesley - 1, Spina De Rosula - 0.’

“Um, I'm sorry to interrupt but is something supposed to happen now?” 

Both him and the girl named Navia turned to look at Sigewinne, who had been sitting on Navia’s lap this entire time and was now staring at the two with big ruby red eyes. 

“The screen is on but nothing of note is happening.” 

Now that she pointed it out, it was strange. 

Shouldn’t something happen now? Like a film or perhaps an explanation? Anything? 

Wriothesley sneakily glanced towards where the representatives had gathered together and started talking among themselves. He could see the twins arguing mildly with the Inazuman representative, whose face was only mildly concerned. 

The Monstadt representative dove between the two parties then and there and said something, but unfortunately, Wriothesley wasn't close enough to hear what it was that she said to get everyone to shut up. 

“Hey.”

Oh, here we go again. 

“Did you notice that there are four stars on the screen that aren't shining as brightly as they should?” Navia whispered to him conspirationally.

Why this girl decided he would be a good gossip partner, he doesn't know. 

Wriothesley lifted his gaze towards the screen, staring carefully at the twinkling dots over the night sky and found that there was merit in what she was saying.

There were four stars shining fainter than the rest, as if they were… simply… sleeping… .

A loud zapping sound of thunder crashing unto the floor cut off his thoughts. He, Navia and Sigewinne whipped their heads towards the Monstadt area with wide eyes just in time to see a woman with a purple white witch motif standing above a heaving blonde girl in purple.

Crackling electro energy lingered briefly in the air around the witch-like woman. 

‘...Did they just zap one of their unconscious awake, what???’ 

If a purple raven faintly made of electro energy suddenly materialized right after that phenomenon, Wriothesley had no time to think about it because to his side, Navia had suddenly gasped.

“Look!” 

One of the four faintly shining lights had suddenly increased in strength. It was a bright purple, like electro, glowing in the dark of the night. 

“...no way.” Wriothesley found himself muttering as a sudden thought came to his head. 

Someone who was unconscious was woken up, and a star suddenly shone brighter. There were 3 people currently unconscious, and 3 faint stars on the screen. 

Two consecutive zaps later and a cry that sounded a bit like “REVEAL YOURSELF” for some weird reason, two more stars in the sky recovered their full brightness. 

Two boys from the Monstadt area were now wide awake, albeit groaning and on the ground. There were no physical trace of the zap they experienced but it seems the electro energy did it's trick. 

“Hey, you don’t think…?” Navia started, seemingly falling unto the same conclusion as he did with wide eyes. 

And they were not the only ones who had noticed the connection. 

…the zappings weren’t really very quiet. 

“ The stars…”

“Maybe it's like that?”

“There’s no refuting it!”

What were the chances that each star in the sky represented one of them? 

It was almost exhilarating if not for the fact that it was a bit creepy since no one still understood why exactly they were brought here. 

“...if we wake everyone up and light up all the stars, do you think something would happen then?” Sigewinne, ever the observant one, asked the two with her, innocently. 

Navia and Wriothesley exchanged glances and then looked around them. At this point, everyone has become either too idle or too chaotic depending on which group you belonged in. So far, the people of Fontaine were pretty relaxed, however, over in Sumeru, a group of women looked to be panicking and looking for somebody- a person who strayed to another nation’s crowd, perhaps. 

There was no telling if something would actually happen if the last of the unconscious were to wake up, but they couldn’t tell Sigewinne that.

Because they themselves were sorta hoping something would. 

“...Yeah. Something is probably going to happen.” 

Wriothesley put a hand over the human-shaped Melusine’s head and looked towards the last of the unconscious, a crumpled green figure on the floor. 

Here’s to hoping something good will come out of this.

—

Lisa was a bit concerned. 

“...He’s not awake?” 

“No way, you already hit him with lightning like three times! Why is he still not awake???”

“Is he dead?”

Lisa tuned out the other knights of favonius slightly, their noisy panic making her head hurt a little as she tried to focus on the situation at hand. 

It didn't take a genius for the representatives of each nation to notice that the amount of stars shining fainter than the rest on the screen matched the number of people who were unconscious. 

The Inazuman representative had immediately brought up shocking them awake with hydro or cryo energy, essentially freezing them enough to make them wake up, but the twins, Lumine and Aether, who apparently had no idea what elemental energies were, had argued with him about the drastic measures.

Apparently, the twins were convinced that the Inazuman was willing to attack the unconscious with hydro and cryo for the sake of progress. 

Lisa was not sure if that was true or not, but at the moment the Inazuman man who went by Ayato did not truly intend to make them believe that. 

So that's when Jean stepped in. 

Offering Lisa’s controlled shock therapy that she sometimes uses on rather naughty knights who don't do their jobs properly, Jean managed to smooth over the situation before the eccentric twins could go wild and show more than just their flight ability (because for sure, there was more to them than wings).

Of course, Lisa had to promise that she wouldn't actually hurt anyone and that it would merely just be a shock. 

Three zaps and three awake but slightly traumatized teenagers later however, Lisa was suddenly faced with a major problem. 

“Are you sure this bard is even breathing?” 

“Yes, Eula, the bard is breathing. Stop poking him with your foot like he’s garbage you found outside.” 

“Si- uh, Master Jean, if I must say, the bard is a bit too light. Perhaps he has a health condition like the man from Liyue keeping him from waking up…”

“Or he might already be dead.” 

“Eula!” 

Lisa stifled her laughter at the sight of their resident Outrider, Amber, incredulously squawking at the Lawrence girl’s outlook. 

Eula had the gall to tilt her chin up at the name call. 

“What? I’m just trying to be realistic. If a malnourished teenage bard gets caught in an explosion and gets zapped several times by pseudo-lightning, the chances of him being dead is more than high.” 

“Well, yes, but you don’t have to phrase it that way!” 

Barbara awkwardly shifted a little from where she knelt next to the unconscious bard as the outrider and the recon captain started an intense staring contest until Eula seemed to give up and roll her eyes. 

“Yes! I win!” Amber squealed.

Win what? 

Lisa really sometimes does not understand these two. 

“Haaa…” A sigh came out of nowhere and Lisa leaned her head over her shoulder enough to see Jean dragging a hand over her own face, “Well, nothing’s going to ever happen to us if this bard continues to sleep. But if we increase the power of the shocks… I’m not really comfortable with doing that to a sleeping person.” 

“He could be a dead person.” 

“Albedo, not you, too!” Amber screeched, betrayed, while the alchemist merely inclined his head slightly, but Lisa knew better- that guy was doing this on purpose. 

“Is something wrong?” 

All childish bickering disappeared in an instant once the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing came into view, approaching with mild vigilance and looking around. 

“Ah, Lady Ningguang. If your doctor could look over this person…”

“I hate to say this, but our doctor is currently out of order, Master Jean. He needs a doctor himself.” Ningguang answered stoically but still regarded the matter delicately, looking down at the unconscious bard on the floor, “I take it, something is keeping your citizen from waking up?”

“It’s a matter of great concern at the moment, Lady Ningguang. The boy weighs like a feather- even the kids could probably carry him if they tried. If we do more than we have, I fear permanently damaging something within him.” 

“...I see.” Lisa watched as a crease formed on the Tianquan’s impeccable face, “This is rather bad. If you’d like it, I could relay a need for a healer or an examiner of sorts to the other representatives to find someone who can check on him, so we can-”

Ningguang notably suddenly stopped speaking at that moment, as if she’d been frozen solid. 

“...Lady Ningguang?” 

Jean asked with much confusion, blue eyes darting between the Tianquan’s face and the surrounding as if to figure out what went wrong, until she let her eyes drift a bit lower and oh. 

Lisa can see it too. 

The little white-haired girl that was tugging at the edge of Lady Ningguang’s pristine dress and looking up at her with wide green eyes. 

For a moment there, Lisa thought it would be funny if the little child asked, “Are you my mom?” and if the Tianquan’s stone cold face suddenly broke. She’s always pegged the Tianquan to be the ruthless business woman type, the kind of person who’s got no time to be dealing with little kids and thus, have little experience on how to handle them, so she was expecting an awkwardness that would make the Tianquan feel human.

That was not what she received. 

As soon as Lady Ningguang locked eyes with the child, it was like the frozen peaks of Dragonspine melted then and there. The Tianquan, merciless woman of power, had immediately swooped down and bent over to reach the little girl’s eye level, and in the softest voice Lisa has ever heard from her in the short time she’s met her, Ningguang spoke. 

“Are you lost, dear? Do you need help going back to your group?”

Lisa blinked but stayed still as the interaction happened. She threw her gaze over at Jean but Jean only looked pleased to see that her fellow representative had a soft spot for children, and concerned about the child itself. 

The little girl, to her credit, did not suddenly start crying nor babbling about one thing or the other. It was a stark difference from Klee and Diona, who, although you wouldn’t find it easy to catch them crying in a crowd, had a tendency of obsessing over certain things that it’s almost the only thing they could talk about at length.

Like bombs, and apparently… destroying the Monstadt Wine Industry. 

No, this child had an air to her that almost gave off something… mature in nature. Maybe it was the way she remained calm even as she was surrounded by strangers, all alone, or perhaps it was the thing in her eyes. 

“Oh,” The little girl simply blinked in response to Ningguang’s question, a bit taken aback by the questions, “Oh, no, no, I can go back on my own. I’m just here because they said that the last one who was sleeping was here and we most likely needed everyone awake to start.”

Ningguang didn’t seem to understand what that statement means to convey, because she drew her brows together.

“...They sent you here to check on him?”

“What? No! I came on my own.” 

Okay, now, even Lisa doesn’t understand the situation. 

Somewhere in the Sumeru group, there were a few women who were calling out varied tones of panicked, “NAHIDAAAA” over and over again, trying to comb the crowd of more than 80 persons. 

Ningguang immediately recovered from there, face schooling into a neutral expression as she stood up and offered the little girl her hand, “Here, why don’t we get you back to your group before they start flipping over everything just to find you?”

“No!”

The little girl shook her head vigorously, putting her hands near her chest as if she could not trust herself to not take the offered hand.

“Listen, kid, I don’t know what your group members told you, but the adults will handle this, okay?” Jean tried to placate lightly, but it was then that the little girl simply… exploded with words.

“It’s plausible to think that we’re gonna need everyone awake to activate the device you called a screen! If this is truly a dreamscape, and not a real room, then it would make sense that the device itself would be taking energy from us… thus the diminishing of light of the stars on the surface. If Layla’s theory is correct, then the device may be stuck in charging mode, simply because it has not finished taking energy from the unconscious just yet! And so-!”

‘Oh, my.’ 

Lisa suddenly felt a bit bowled over by the words coming out of the little girl, but before she could come back to her senses, the little girl had already ran past her to get to the unconscious bard on the floor.

“What the- hey!” 

Jean tried to swipe the little girl but had to do a double take when she only touched green light with the edge of her fingertips. Barbara showed a brief moment of panic, being the nearest to the sleeping bard, but she did not stop the little girl, in fear of hurting her by accident. 

The little girl slipped past all the adults and then grabbed the sleeping boy on the floor. 

As soon as her hands touched his unmoving figure, a green light seemed to glow from her hands. Dendro energy, Lisa later realized, was flowing out of her fingers like water, materializing as a soft and warm green aura that sometimes formed the shape of white flowers or leaves. 

The light wasn’t so bright nor was it so harsh that people would know what was happening immediately. In fact, aside from the few who kept their eyes on Monstadt in particular, like a certain blondie from Inazuma, most wouldn’t notice the commotion going on. 

It only took a few seconds. Just a few seconds of Lisa, Jean and even Ningguang herself not daring to stop the girl in case she actually manages to wake the bard up. 

But at the end of it, when the light stopped glowing, and when the little girl detached her hands from where she held the sleeping boy…

A pair of aqua green eyes slowly fluttered open and the last star in the sky shone brightly along with everyone in the fold. 

All 82 stars lit up the night sky.

Chapter Text

In hindsight, Nilou considers that maybe it was a mistake to let a small little girl out of her sight.

But well, what was she supposed to do? She didn’t exactly want to be an overly controlling babysitter and Nahida was just so, so small! She just turned her head away once while she was talking to Collei and then before the both of them knew it, poof!

Nahida was gone!

“Nahidaaaa!” Miss Dehya shouted above the chattering of the crowd of people. With her bold red outfit and her mane-like hair, she looked like a mother tiger hollering for her kid with a vengeance.

Beside her, Miss Candance was calling for the missing little girl similarly, a fiercely worried expression in her heterochromic eyes.

“Nahida! Nahida, where are you?”

“Waaaah, I’m so sorry, Nilou, Dehya, Miss Candace-”

Collei cried out while trying to keep in pace with the two mother hens who were practically speed walking across the room and ready to grab some random Fontainian or Inazuman if it meant they would find the missing girl.

Her purple eyes turned misty as her hands flew around in a frantic frenzy, her voice coming out a bit choked.

“This is all my fault!”

What?

Nilou sputtered, hovering by the green-haired girl’s side in an instant, “No, no, no! What are you talking about, I was supposed to watch over her! Please, calm down?”

“But you stopped watching over her because you were talking to ME!”

“Girls. Less talking, more finding.” A curt male voice came out of nowhere, making both Nilou and Collei startle a little in surprise.

They turned just in time to see the Scribe, Alhaitham, giving them the eyebrow raise, face as neutral and unperturbed as stone. Behind him, the blonde architect, Kaveh, was hollering “NAHIDAAAAAAAAA” at the top of his lungs so badly that his voice was cracking.

Right. Nilou forgot that in their panic, they may or may not have dragged these two into their search.

Well, to be completely honest, it was Candace who decided they’re dragging them alone because, and Nilou quotes: If all you two are going to do is argue the entire time we’re here, then, Deshret forbid, you better put your time somewhere far more important- like, for example, finding a girl- or help me, I will throw the both of you into the walls!

Kaveh didn’t need much persuading past “finding a little girl”. Nilou figured he’s always been quite the good guy.

On the other hand, Al haitham was unreadable up until Candace threatened his state of existence. Whether or not he really wanted to find the girl, it seemed like trying to avoid an uncomfortable time with the walls gave him extra motivation.

Why these two seemed to be at each other’s throat verbally every other two sentences, Nilou is not sure. At the very least, to her, it didn’t seem like they hated each other… how should she say this?

‘To be honest, they sound more like a bickering old married couple…?’

“Focus, youngsters!” Faruzan’s shrill scolding brought Nilou abruptly out of her thoughts. The Haravatat scholar was glaring at the floor like it personally offended her, stomping down her leg a few times impatiently in the midst of contemplation.

“Trying to search for her this way just won’t do. We can’t cover enough ground and ask people if we’re all together in a group.”

“Uhhhh, what is happening?” Layla quietly squeaked, eyebags heavy as she tried to demand answers and failed in one corner of the little Sumeru group, “Where are we? Can, um, can anybody please explain to me-”

“Not now, Layla dear. Hush.”

Layla wilted visibly, but if you look closely enough, you could almost see her mouth words in confused, shocked passion.

‘How did you even know my name?’

“Collei?”

Even though it was only one person that was called, the entire group turned their heads in unison just in time to see Tighnari jogging towards them, perplexed, with the General Mahamatra, Cyno, next to him.

“What’s going on?” Tighnari carefully questioned, “I saw you all leave your area together and leave Dori behind, what-”

He hasn’t even finished his question yet when Collei promptly burst into tears.

“I’m so sorry, Master Tighnari!”

“What the-”

“Nahida is missing.” Nilou quickly explained, “It was my fault, i wasn’t paying attention as I should have-”

“Only because she was talking to me-”

Nilou winced and shot Collei an awkward look, “Can we please not do this again?”

“Nahida isn’t with you.” Cyno cut in, red eyes as sharp as the swords NIlou would practice with for her performances.

“Nahida is missing, General Mahamatra.” Dehya repeated with more emphasis before once again breathing deeply and screaming another, “NAHIDAAAAAAAAAAAA” towards nowhere in particular.

“Wait, and Dori?” Tighnari took back reins of the conversation.

“She didn’t really feel like helping much? So, she said she’ll stay behind and hold the fort.”

“...Yeah, that sounds like her.”

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” Layla whispered again, but of course, no one answered her.

“This is bad.” Tighnari frowned, eyebrows furrowing by a bit, “How long has she disappeared? Did no one really see where she went?”

“It’s one thing if she just got lost in this crowd, but with all your hollering, she should have found her way back by now.” Cyno added with a serious expression.

“That’s the problem.” Al Haitham spoke up, arms crossed and face neutral as he reported, “As you can see, she hasn’t.”

“NAHIDAAAAAAAAA-”

“Would it kill you to quiet down?” Al Haitham shot Kaveh a withering look.

“Would it kill you to put more effort into finding her?” Kaveh shot back, similarly like a mirror.

“Boys, sit down.”

“...Yes, madam Faruzan.”

Tighnari looked at the entire group of headless chickens and started sighing, putting a gloved hand over the bridge of his nose.

“Okay, let’s do this. I’ll go to the other representatives to ask permission for you guys to snoop around in their area and once I get that, you guys split into groups to find–”

Several people suddenly gasped.

The people from Sumeru found themselves turning their heads only to be met with a blinding flash of light originating from the screen.

***

“Ah!”

Some of the more sensitive people screeched, clutching more than covering their eyes as they looked away in a hurry.

No one was spared from the sudden bright light that enveloped the room. Whether they were from Monstadt or Fontaine, all were subjected to the flash.

That included the outlander twins, too.

“Aaaagh!” The twins cried out practically in unison as they shielded their faces just like all the others.

By the time the light died down, it was like for a brief few moments, the entire room had become coated in pitch black.

It was then that a voice all too familiar to Aether spoke within that moment of darkness.

[We had no time to say goodbye…]

To be exact, it was his voice, but solemn and quiet.

Broken.

[…so let’s not call it that.]

“…Aether?”

Aether blinked out of his thoughts and found his sister, Lumine, staring at him with a worried expression, processing the words he spoke faster than Aether could.

Before Aether could open his mouth, soft music suddenly started playing, and color started to slowly appear within the screen.

“Oh! Oh, look! It’s two shooting stars!”

“Klee!”

One of the members of the Monstadt group that Aether and Lumine recognized as the guy named “Kaeya” scooped the kid up from the ground but her statement was not wrong.

There upon midnight blue, two stars were shooting across the sky like a promise, the clouds parting ways as if making way for their arrival.

“Whoa.” Amber exclaimed, having never seen twin shooting stars before. To her and to many others, it was like a rare experience.

But at least one person was skeptical of the stars’ true nature.

“….”

Mona quietly watched the shooting stars move across the sea of clouds and space, hand reaching out slightly with a glow of hydro, but just as she was about to divine the twin stars, a deeper voice that did not match the twins flowed out of the screen.

[The war has already begun. It’s just a continuation of past battles.]

The starry sky faded into an image of a field of white flowers swaying to a gentle breeze.

[The gods goad us on with the promise of seven treasures. Rewards for the worthy. The Doorway to divinity. Yet buried in the depths of the world lies the smoldering remains…]

White and blue. Black and gold.

Two golden-haired travelers appear in the field, standing atop the teal-green leaves and white flowers with their hands intertwined.

[A warning to those that dare trespass.]

Lumine and Aether both took a sharp intake of breath then and there, fingers still locked with each other, because… because… it was them, on screen.

At that moment, they could immediately feel a few eyes fall on them, questioningly.

‘So much about hiding our identities…’

 Lumine quietly sighed.

“…My waist is not that thin.”

Aether murmured, causing Lumine to snort slightly.

It only works at breaking the tension in their bodies by a bit.

[“That throne in the sky is not reserved for you.”]

“…Pretty.” A purple-haired little child in Liyuen clothing marveled as she stared at the sea of white flowers, and the green-haired doctor by his side could only bring the girl closer.

[But mortal arrogation never stops.]

The child saw the flowers but the doctor could hear the words.

‘This doesn’t sound good.’

[None shall escape the flames…]

Small white petals flutter through the air, as the deep-voiced speaker continued with a serious tone. The screen was turning dark again.

[See for yourself.]

Upon the black surface of the screen, words flashed into existence on top of a faint green emblem—a white shimmer rippling across the screen, weakly.

Act. Prologue

The Outlander Who Caught the Wind

The moment the word “Prologue” flickered and was replaced with the word Monstadt, the citizens of the said-nation visibly perked up. Of course, there were still a few stragglers who were disoriented and trying to keep up, but the mention of their homeland was enough to pique interest immediately.

[The dragon of Monstadt finally faces his perturbation.]

“Oh, dear.” Jean paled immediately at the introductory words of their nation. It seems their national problem is about to be broadcasted to the other regions soon.

Fire spread across the screen, burning away the words and giving way for the visage of a single red-eyed dark hero turning his head at the sound of a bird of prey’s cry.

“Holy crap—It’s Master Diluc!” Amber cried out while Eula whistled appreciatively.

Albedo clapped, while Kaeya smirked as he watched his adoptive brother slowly start to regret ever waking up in this dark room.

“Of course, our rising Tycoon, our Master Diluc gets to be the dashing hero.”

“Well, maybe, if the Knights of Favonius were more efficient, you could have gotten the spot instead.” Diluc snapped back, calmly.

Kaeya raised his hands in surrender but his smile lingered for a little while.

Meanwhile, a little Katzlein child was turning his nose up to the air with a huff.

[What does Freedom really mean when demanded of you by a God?]

On the screen, Diluc was holding a great sword over his shoulder with a serious expression as fire surrounded him and finally turned into a phoenix just as he prepared to swing.

“I just woke up and I don’t really know what’s going on, but that,” Bennet started, trying to heave himself up from the floor and pointing at the screen, “was really cool.”

“Please go back to lying down.” Barbara worriedly said.

There was a flash in the screen as the phoenix grew bright, and then almost as abruptly, the screen once again fell into darkness. And then, words flashed into existence on top of a faint yellow emblem once again.

“I’m guessing it’s our turn now?” Yelan exclaimed coolly from the side, turning to find her superior only to find her position empty of anybody, “….Uh?”

The captain of the crux who was not that far and saw her expression casually pointed at the Monstadt congregation as she stuffed her face with food, having discovered the joys of dreams and imagination in this room.

“She went that way.”

“…Thanks.”

Act. I

Farewell, Archaic Lord

As soon as those words appeared on the screen, several eyes turned into slits—especially those who knew who the archaic Lord should be, well.

“One does not like that title.” Cloud Retainer announced, annoyed.

[The God of Contracts senselessly slaughtered as his people watched on in horror…]

“One does not like this machinery!”

“Cloud Retainer—Cloud Retainer, stop…!”

Thank the archons Ganyu has the sense of mind and the thousands of years of experience with the crane adepti to put off her own violent reaction in favor of stopping her significantly more violent one.

“Slaughtered?!” Xiangling shrieked, jerking away from the screen as she turned to her friends in question, “Wait, did I hear that right—did it just say the God of Contracts gets slaughtered?”

Xingqui, ever embodying calm waters even through chaos, answered her simply, as everyone else in their age group was stunned into silence.

“Yes, it just said the God of Contracts will get slaughtered.”

Chongyun’s popsicle fell to the floor as the exorcist spaced out at the revelation.

Keqing staggered a little next to the mess that is Ganyu and Cloud Retainer, her murmurs getting lost in the noise of their argument as she stood there shocked.

“Rex Lapis… what?”

“N-no way!”

From the other side of the Liyue congregation, Yaoyao was teary-eyed as she processed the words that had been said. Next to her, Yanfei looked contemplative as she patted the child’s back and bit her lip at the news.

“Huh.”

Meanwhile, Hu Tao stared at the screen quietly before turning her eyes towards a certain brunette near him, who has to handle the reaction of a gingerhead fatuus to that divine death.

“I could have sworn…”

“MORAX GETS WHAT?!?!?!”

[In the end…]

A gloved hand pointed downward, and at the shine of golden jewels, the illuminated visage of the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing, Ningguang appeared. There was a jade screen made out of gold, obsidian and all of her wealth behind her as she appeared in the screen as if she was coming down from the heavens, a slight smile on her face.

[He will sign the contract to end all contracts.]

The people of Liyue couldn’t even find it in themselves ot react to the appearance of their tianquan—not when they just got hit by the information that for some reason, their god is dead.

Or is about to.

Well, Ningguang herself couldn’t really be bothered to react to her own appearance. She was more surprised the version of her in the screen had the gall to smile even after such news.

She was so preoccupied with the screen, just like everybody else, that she didn’t notice the conversation that was happening behind her.

As a green clad bard and a green-eyed little girl whispered softly to each other, hugged each other, and then parted ways.

“No….”

On the other hand, at the very back of the Liyue congregation… A young-looking man with teal colors in his hair stared at the screen like he was lost.

“Rex Lapis… it couldn’t be… it couldn’t, but… how could this be?”

He could only stir in on his silence as the last bits of Liyue disappeared on the screen, turning back to black.

---

“…For an act about someone’s death, the music used for that section was far too lively.”

Navia couldn’t help but comment.

“Now that you mention it, I do see what you mean.”

“Agreed.”

At this point, several people have joined her little gossip group with Duke Wriothesley, who does not look very impressed.

Act. II

Omnipresence Over Mortals

“Oh, great. Here comes my homeland.”

Chiori, one of the new additions to Navia’s little circle, let out a longsuffering sigh as she looked down and examiner her fingers as if it would spare her the sights of what her country has become during its ensuing war.

To her side, Chevreuse merely handed her a bouquet of popcorn as emotional support.

Sure enough, it was Inazuma’s turn next.

[In the secluded land of the immortal Shogun, the Bakufu rules eternal.]

Unlike the Monstadt and Liyue region, who were pretty loud and open about their reactions, believing their archon to not be with them to witness it, the Inazumans in the room could only stare at the screen in silence with a hard gaze in their eyes.

Yoimiya facepalmed as the tensions rose again between the divide in their group. Just when she thought things could be calm now!

“Well, aren’t things getting interesting now?”

Yae Miko grinned as the emblem of Electro faintly glowed underneath the ripple of words in the screen.

“That depends on what you would consider interesting… Guuji Yae.”

“Oh?”

Yae Miko turned and grinned, “If it isn’t the genius detective of the Tenryou Commission.”

The redhead, Shikanoin Heizou, merely gave her a polite and professional smile, but did not answer. His eyes flickered to the screen, just as the words were starting to disappear, an anticipating look in his eyes.

[But…]

A fan was flicked open with one movement on screen, and even through the tension of the two sides of Inazuma, the gasp that came out of those who were familiar of that fan could be heard well.

“…Young Lady! You’re on screeeen!”

[What do mortals see of the eternity chased after by their god?]

Ayaka gaped a little, a small blush on her cheeks as she tried to cover her mouth at her sudden appearance, looking as cool as ice and as poised as a heron about to fly.

She couldn’t dwell long in her own thoughts however as she almost tumbled backwards when a certain fireworks girl tackled her, happily. Thankfully, her brother was nearby to support her before she could fall down.

“Oh archons above, Ayaka, you’re the representative of the nation!”

Her face turned pink, surprised by the situation.

“Eh? Um? Wait, no, my brother is the representative of Inazuma right now, not me, I’m—”

All words died in her mouth when she felt a hand patting her head. When she looked up, she found that her brother was… smiling proudly at her. And to her side, Thoma was, too, although his grin was more teeth than his brother’s.

“Just accept the compliments, Ayaka.” Ayato chuckled, “Its what friends do.”

‘Friends.’

Ayaka felt a bit dazed, but then remembered that Yoimiya was still very much hugging the breath out of her, that if she hadn’t been a vision bearer, she would have already most likely died.

She blinked quietly before finding herself smiling.

Yeah, she thinks she likes that.

The Kamisato clan’s festive cheer was so great that it almost distracted many people from the words that were actually being implied on the screen.

Kujou Sara did not particularly like the question that the young lady seems to pose for.

Who were mortals to judge gods, after all?

But, who was she to break such a warm atmosphere when all that their presence seemed to give the people of Inazuma thus far was hostility and discomfort?

Kujou Sara may be a soldier under the Raiden Shogun’s command, but she can read the room.

So, she merely turned away from the happiness radiating from the Yashiro commission members and their peers and said not a single word.

As long as Sangonomiya and her general do not pick a fight, she would not either. Not here.

Consider this a treaty… unless the almighty shogun says otherwise.

Meanwhile…

“Mmm… maybe I should… go to Fontaine too…”

Poor Kirara could not handle the tension any longer.

She was a tough yokai, sure.

But if she had the choice to stay away from these kinds of political drama, then she wouldn’t hesitate on what to pick.

---

Act. III

Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana

[The God of Wisdom’s enemy is wisdom itself…]

“Nahida!”

Green eyes turned just in time to see a blue-haired woman of the desert swoop down and scoop her up from the ground.

“Thank Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, you’re okay! You had us worried!”

[…and the oasis of knowledge is a mirage in the desert of ignorance.]

Nahida, who had just been picked up like she was a cat, couldn’t help but blink several times in confusion as she was carried by Candace like a kid.

A technically 500-year-old kid who is very much not human… but still a kid.

[In the city of scholars, there is a push for folly… yet the God of Wisdom makes no argument against it.]

“So this is the girl?” Al Haitham asked, nonchalantly.

He was arriving right next to Kaveh, who was just relieved, a hand hovering his heart, “Oh thank god, the kid is fine.”

“Candace, hand over the child.” Tighnari deadpanned, following not too far away, “She’s not going to be fine until I actually check that she is.”

That was Tighnari’s doctor voice right there.

The guardian of Aaru village immediately handed over the child, cooperatively, after that.

“Nahida!” Collei sobbed as she flitted around the little girl while her master was taking a look to make sure she was fine, “I’m so so so so sorry!”

“…? Wha- Why are you sorry?” Nahida couldn’t help but ask, high-pitched and puzzled.

 “Um, please don’t mind her.” Nilou sheepishly said.

“You guys….”

“Hm?”

All eyes turned away from Nahida at that moment and towards the General Mahamatra who was standing the furthest away from the little girl with a blank expression as he spoke with a deadpan to his voice.

“…You just missed my really important moment.”

“…Okay???? Anyway, Nahida—”

‘Oops.’

Nahida covered her mouth as she realized who must have represented their nation on screen.

She would apologize to him later… she really didn’t mean to take away his spotlight…

The screen darkened once again, giving her only a glimpse of Cyno poised on the ground, polearm in hand, surrounded by whirling sand before…

Act. IV

Masquerade of the Guilty

The next act revealed itself.

‘Guilty?’

A few key persons from Fontaine did not tense up at the particular choice in word, but they did feel their heart skip a beat at the sudden appearance of such a term.

To be exact, it was the twins of Fontaine who immediately felt panic in their bodies but remained still—an action only possible after years of acting for the sake of their “magic show”.

‘It’s okay.’

The two sought each others’ hands and connected them, even without taking their eyes off of the screen as to not bring up suspicion.

Their “father” was here after all, standing in front of them. And their younger brother was there supporting them from behind, too.

And if that wasn’t enough… no matter what happens during this “act” of theirs…

They at least had each other.

‘So it will be okay.’

“Masquerade of the Guilty, huh? What an apt title for the nation of justice.”

Charlotte muttered to herself as she pondered on the meaning, having already seen a pattern in the acts that had come before.

[The God of Justice lives for the spectacle of the courtroom, seeking to judge all other gods.]

A spotlight shone unto the screen, and the mischievous face of a young and talented magician known by all winked at the camera, hand on his hat, before passing the spotlight unto his feline sister.

“Oh, it’s Lyney and Lynette!” Navia cheered.

The twins smiled at her enthusiasm even as the organ playing in the background sent shivers to their spines.

Meanwhile, at the side, Furina was uncharacteristically quiet.

This caused not only Iudex Neuvilette but also her close bodyguard, Clorinde, look at her curiously, trying to find a reason for concern.

However, the god’s expression was flawless.

Not giving away anything even as she stared blankly at the screen and let the next words take her attention away.

[But even she knows not to make an enemy of the divine.]

On the screen, the twins held each others’ hand even in mid-action, with Lynette seemingly leaping down unto the floor from somewhere, but both of their eyes were unto the camera.

And the spotlight was entirely on them, making it look like they were in the middle of a heist.

The sound of a ticking clock rang about.

Darkness came back to the screen.

Freminet tugged the frills of the twins’ outfits slightly—a form of consolation given the uncertainty of what exactly happens to make these two— of the house of the hearth—be the representatives for Fontaine in this message.

Lyney and Lynette looked back at him and then shared a small smile with each other.

‘It’ll all be fine.’

Act. V

Incandescent Ode of Resurrection

[The rules of war are woven in the womb… the victors shall burn bright while the losers must turn to ash.]

Upon the surface of the screen, a young girl with white twintails and a large bandana stomped on the ground so hard it cracked. The force of her stance was making

“Oh, that sounds quite a bit like Natlan.” Wriothesley commented off-handedly.

Similar sentiments were being expressed all over the room, since it was common knowledge that Natlan was the nation of war.

Or at least… it was common knowledge for everyone except the traveler twins, who were currently staying in between Monstadt and Liyue with a serious but quiet look in their eyes.

Waiting for the end of the story to come back to what would… become of them.

Since that was kind of the only thing they think they’d understand at this point, with their lackluster knowledge of this new world.

‘So that’s why there were more empty rooms.’ Aether thought to himself, absent-mindedly while Lumine…

‘Does it mean that more people will be appearing in the space later?’

While Lumine worried over remembering more than 80 names.

‘We’re already having a hard time tracking more than 80 people at the same time, right now. What more when the people from Natlan arrive?’

[When the God of War shares this secret with the Traveler, it is because she has her reasons.]

‘…Secret?’

Unbeknownst to many, three archons of wind, earth and lightning, couldn’t help but be stirred, eyes slightly glowing as they stared at the screen with new light.

It has already shown it before but it truly seems like no secret will be safe with this screen’s existence.

The young girl in the screen looked like she was just about to punch the screen before it went dark once again, and a silence fell over the people in the room.

“…Is it over already???”

Childe incredulously asked before dodging away from Scaramouche’s irritated backhanded slap before it could connect to his skull.

“We obviously still have Snezhnaya, your homeland, you moron!”

‘Obviously…’

The traveler twins kept their faces blank.

‘…We have so much to learn.’

Just as they had this thought, the voice came back through the darkness once again.

[She is a god with no love left for her people…]

The words flashed unto the screen—the emblem of a snowflake underneath the glowing snow white words.

Act. VI

Everwinter Without Mercy

[Nor do they have any left for her.]

As if their earlier playful demeanor was a lie, a frigid atmosphere seemed to envelope the two fatui harbingers as they suddenly smiled with something unreadable in their hardened gazes.

All at once, the representatives of all the nations couldn’t help but warily stare at the two, who stood tall… although one representative knew well that there were actually three.

[Her followers hope only…]

The flash of a blizzard passed by, transitioning the scene into that of a throne room in what looked like a cathedral covered in chunks of blue ice.

A shadow of a man sits on the throne, flanked by fatui personnel all over, a single eye alight with an intimidating glow.

[…to be on her side when the day of her rebellion against the divine comes at last.]

“…The day of her what?” Dehya blurted out.

“I thought we just established in Fontaine that we do not make an enemy from the divine?”

Xingqui calmly wondered to himself out loud, only to be shushed by his friends who were heavily invested in the message already.

‘Wait, no, no, the kid has a point.’

Yelan almost wanted to say when the surrounding Liyue citizens effectively shut up the young second heir.

Not so far away, in front of her children, Arlecchino merely stared at the screen with an uninterested expression, while the screen zoomed into the man’s darkened face, revealing a universe within as the voice continued to talk.

[In the perpetual meantime of a sheltered eternity, most are content to live and not to dream.]

At the center of this universe, the origin of everything, a single star shone sporadically, as if weakly breathing.

Seeing this, it was clear to everyone that the message wasn’t quite finished yet—but that sparked quite the commotion among the folks.

“Wait… it’s not over yet?”

“One, two, three, four…”

“We already covered all seven nations didn’t we?”

“….five, six, seven…”

“There’s more?”

“It would be very awkward if it turns out that there is an underground nation underneath Watatsumi island that happens to still host some important citizens of Teyvat. It’s just that the gods can’t see them underground.”

The people stopped talking all at once and then turned to look at the charming redhead with the twin moles who was casually looking at the screen with a hand on his chin.

“…What?” Shikanoin Heizou asked the people but his grin was giving away the fact that he was probably doing this on purpose.

General Gorou of Watatsumi, who very much knew about the existence of Enkanomiya underneath the island, almost wanted to pass out and foam in the mouth.

Kokomi just blinked a few times, not quite sure if she should be impressed or terrified, but not willing to confirm any of the man’s talk either.

[But in the hidden corners where the gods’ gaze does not fall, there are those who dream of dreaming.]

“BRO.”

Arataki Itto was just about ready to subscribe to whatever freaky mental magic Shikanoin Heizou had at that moment, history of being imprisoned in Tenryou commission jail cells be damned.

Heizou, to his credit, simply shrugged with a smile as he said, “What can I say? I just made an educated guess.”

‘No, that guess may be right, but that’s not how this works.’

Kokomi did not say that, but she really wished she did.

Because as the screen suddenly turned white…

Act. ----

The Dream Yet to Be Dreamed

Many were surprised to see an actual next part to appear, but most were even more surprised by the glitching act that quickly turned into the word Khaenri’ah in a blink of an eye.

“Khaenri’ah…?”

Noelle murmured to herself, finding the word foreign to her lips, and not noticing the way the Cavalry Captain of the knights of Favonius suddenly stopped breathing altogether when she tried to read the word.

[Some say a few are chosen and the rest are dregs]

“Oh…”

Meanwhile, Nahida took the word Khaenri’ah and inadvertently remembered all that she knew about it.

“Hm? Is something wrong?” Tighnari asked her, from where she was seated comfortably in between him and the General Mahamatra who was watching the message with a curious expression. After that disaster with Nilou and Collei, the two decided to be on Nahida duty.

It made the little god a bit guilty, considering they don’t even know who she is yet.

“No.” Nahida shook her head, and smiled a strained little grin, trying not to show her contemplation of the words spoken by the screen, “…It’s nothing.”

[But I say…]

A man with blonde hair, an eyepatch and a single blue pupil like that of stars appeared on the screen, looking down unto a blackened hand with blue lines climbing up to his fingers.

In the Monstadt area, Kaeya closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Klee, who was cradled in his arms, stared at him oblivious to his inner turmoil and not quite noticing the similarities between him and the man on the screen.

‘And maybe that’s good.’

Considering how Diluc reacted to him being from Khanri’ah a while back.

Kaeya booped Klee’s nose, putting aside his own feelings for now, finding them useless. He decided that it was better to just keep watching.

His adoptive brother stared at him all the while.

(There was no place to hide in, now)

[We humans have our humanity]

He clenched his hand and then promptly stared forward.

[We will defy this world with a power from beyond.]

The man threw back his arm, leaving a trail of blue aura in its wake. It was not quite hydro but it was not quite cryo nor pyro either.

It’s an element from beyond, many people realized.

Sounds like forbidden knowledge, Al Haitham, the linguistics guy, mentally surmised.

That sounds like us, the twins telepathically told each other with exchanged glances.

It would explain why they were involved after all.

[Now, you who has set foot in this world.]

A sea of flowers once again come to view, but it was like a memory drained of color, only monochromatic in hue.

Lumine and Aether both felt chills, realizing one of them was surely being addressed with that.

[Your journey has reached its end, but one final doorway remains.]

The field disappeared into a white noise, but the voice continued with vigor.

[Step forth, if you have understood the meaning of your journey.]

The flower field appeared once again, just like when it first appeared on the screen. But instead of night, it was dusk. And instead of two siblings…

There was only one.

Aether could feel many eyes falling on him once again as he finds himself on the screen, but he could not care about those when his own eyes trembled at the vision he was seeing.

[Defeat me, command me to step aside, show me that you are worthier than I to rescue her.]

“…Lumine?”

Aether’s voice cracked a little as he slowly turned towards his twin sister as if to see if she knows what the hell was going on with this situation.

Why was he alone?

What happened to his sister?

From what does he need to rescue his sister?

He doesn’t like this message. Was it too late to try to break free from whatever confinement area they are in right now, consequences be damned?

[Then, the threads of all fate will be yours to re-weave.]

Okay, he can care less about whatever the fuck that is.

‘What happens to my sister?!?!?!’

While Aether was getting himself worked up, Lumine could only tighten her grip on her brother’s hand as she watched the image of her brother, all alone in that field, with dazed eyes.

Flower petals flew across the sky… like the one she wore from the beginning.

[My memory has all but faded completely… but I will always remember how much she too, loved these flowers.]

The voice of the man on screen sounded like… he was grieving.

It made Lumine question who this person was going to be to her.

The screen turned dark then, and returned to being a sea of faintly shining stars on the wall.

As if it didn’t just give them a possible view of the future.

With no context.

“….I’m sorry but, what the actual fuck?”

What the actual fuck, indeed, Captain Beidou.

It didn’t take that long for the room to fall into chaos shortly after that.

Chapter Text

“Order!”

The sound of a cane loudly knocking against the floor immediately made everyone shut their mouths.

It hadn’t been that long since Captain Beidou’s loud swearing kicked off a series of late violent reactions to what they just saw, but the look on everyone’s faces made it looks like they’ve aged a few years just watching it.

Neuvilette leaned on his cane with a frown as he glanced at the people of the room who were now shifting uncomfortably under his gaze and exchanging looks with one another in silent conversation.

“If you wish to discuss what you’ve just seen, then do so in an orderly manner so that you will be understood.” He announced and then turned sternly towards his own group of people.

“And if you have the gall to gossip about another nation’s problems, I suggest you do so quietly.”

The fontainians shrunk a little, nervous smiles and all, while Duke Wriothesley just crossed his arms and let out an, “I told you so!” to his seatmates. It was utterly disrespectful to be talking so loudly about another nation’s crisis, especially when the nation itself was so dead silent that their atmosphere was almost depressing.

In the Liyue congregation, all the citizens except for one crying little girl were silent.

Some of them were extremely shocked, some others were still processing what had been said while the rest were in a state of denial. It was a bit pitiful to see in the perspective of an outsider, especially since Liyue was notably the only nation who got bombarded with such a reveal during the whole projection.

“There, there, it’ll be okay…”

Yanfei whispered, holding her caretaker’s little disciple in an embrace, gently. She patted Yaoyao’s hair as she tried her best to comfort the girl.

“The adepti would still be here, even if Rex Lapis wouldn’t be, baobei. It’ll all be okay.”

She spoke these words with confidence, knowing how loyal the adepti were to Liyue, but unfortunately, Yaoyao’s only concern is that the biggest adepti of them all was slaughtered senselessly in the first place.

“Yaoyao…?” To her right, she finds that Qiqi had finally noticed her best friend was crying, from where Doctor Baizhu was hiding her behind his legs, “Yaoyao is hurt…? Doctor Baizhu…”

“I’m afraid this is not the kind of hurt I can heal, dear.”

Doctor Baizhu’s face was morose as he looked at the crying Yaoyao and then turned his attention to the rest of the Liyue congregation who, although not crying, were in a similar state of unrest.

“Master, what does this mean? Rex lapis is dead?”

“Shenhe, please be quiet for a moment, I am processing the situation myself…”

“…To think Rex Lapis would be slaughtered in front of an audience…”

The large crane and her two disciples were flocked together a safe distance away from the rest of the people, whispering to themselves in slight horror, while the Liyue Qixing had a similar conversation.

“Lady Ningguang!”

“…This is bad. Not just because of the death of our archon, but also because of the threat of something that could kill one in the first place…”

“The adepti will surely try to seize control of Liyue to honor their contract with Rex Lapis even after death. What do we…”

As serious conversations where happening left and right, the teenagers of Liyue could only stare at each other in horror, huddled together in collective silence while hoping the adults figure out how to deal with this so that they, being young as they are, don’t have to.

That is, until Hu Tao started talking business again, as tactless as ever.

“Does that mean I get to bury a god?”

“…! Is that seriously what you’re thinking about right now?!” A scandalized Chongyun shrieked, a slight flush visible across his cheeks as the excitement of the room was slowly triggering his condition.

“Uh, no, wait, Hu Tao’s on to something. Rex Lapis is technically a dragon right? Do you think he might—”

“Yes, Xiangling, our archon will mind if you try to eat his meat.” Yunjin sighed.

“And technically, he is just a dragon-shaped qilin so, not actually a dragon.” Xingqui corrected.

“…Wait, I thought he was half-dragon, half-qilin?” Gaming blinked.

“Eh. Semantics.”

“Why are you guys so calm about this?!?!” Xinyan screeched, the only other person aside from Chongyun who was freaking out slightly from this.

Hu Tao shrugged, “All life eventually leads to death, anyway.”

“So, technically, Rex Lapis is half-dragon, then?”

“Xiangling.”

The once quiet group of teenagers soon became rowdy as bickering ensued, and not a single one of them noticed that they were completely audible to a few… special people in the area.

“….”

Xiao has reasons to believe there is something wrong with this generation of Liyue people, but then again, he’s been too detached to the human realm for far too long.

“Noooooo! Xiangsheng, Morax died before I could even ask him to fight meeee!”

“Childe… It is the natural course of life. Even the strongest rock eventually becomes dust.”

‘Also, it would be lovely if you thought of your mission before asking a fight…’

“…Wait. If someone managed to kill Morax, doesn’t that mean that there is someone out there that is stronger than Morax?”

‘Oh dear.’

“…I was kidding, Xiansheng, please get rid of that look on your face.”

Yes. After eavesdropping on some more humans, Xiao is fairly certain that there is more than one thing wrong with humans nowadays.

In the Monstadt congregation, several people were awkwardly watching the Liyue citizens with thinly veiled amusement on their faces.

Kaeya, for one, could not help but think that they were quite the interesting bunch.

“I thought the death of an archon would affect a nation far more than just five minutes of depression, but I guess humanity has some really weird strengths.” He said, not to anyone in particular as he adjusted his hold on Klee.

Eula furrowed her eyebrows, trying to find something not to agree with in that sentence before giving up and saying, “To be fair, we survived this far without even a glimpse of Lord Barbatos.”

“But we still follow his teachings to the T.” Jean sternly said, a bit of a warning tone on her voice as she eyed her knights, “The people of Liyue are used to seeing Morax every year and depend on him for good fortune and wisdom. Though the younger ones may not feel the effect of this event yet, his death will surely bring about changes that will have to sustain them in the absence of their dependable god.”

“Soooo… they’ll be like us, then?” Little Diona managed to butt in with curiosity in her eyes but sass in her body language, arms crossed.

To her side on the floor, Barbara winced a little, “Um, not exactly.”

“Since Lord Bartobas isn’t dead.” Rosaria said with complete confidence, face expressionless as she nodded along.

“Barbatos.” Barbara corrected gently, like this wasn’t the first time.

“Ah, yeah, Lord Barbatos.” Rosaria amended, but the damage was already done.

Diona was now staring at the red-haired lady, looking her up and down from head to toe.

“…Are you really a nun?”

A green-clad bard in the background who had just woken up sneezed severely, like he’d been wronged.

“So… what happens now?”

The one who asked this question amongst the knights was none other than the maid knight, Noelle, who was shifting from one foot to another, unsure what to make of the situation.

Should there be a kitchen or a broom here, she could have found respite in pushing her energies into doing housework to cope with the stress of uncertainty, but given that imagination has made kitchens absolute useless now… oh, but she can still think up a broom if she wanted…

“If I m-may speak,” Sucrose’s whisper-like voice snapped Noele out of her train of thought as the alchemy assistant quietly said, “I believe that after expending energy earlier, the device must be in charging mode or something similar…”

“A fine observation.” Albedo commented, “Although half of the things that happened to us so far do not seem to follow the laws of our world, I’m sure all things, including the object they called a screen, follow rules, still. Just rules of their own.”

“Hm, that would explain why the screen came back to the starry sky at the beginning.” Lisa pointed out with a slight smile.

‘Well, that makes sense.’ Everyone thought in unison.

Except for Klee.

Klee was, for some reason, feeling exhausted.

‘Klee wants to take a nap.’ The little girl thought, yawned, and promptly let her head fall on top of Kaeya’s shoulder.

“…Huh.” Kaeya blinked when he found the little girl fast asleep already, but did not find anything weird about a child being tired, especially during a boring discussion between adults.

“Then, what are we supposed to do now, then?!” A little feisty katzlein complained loudly, having followed the adult conversation pretty well for a little kid.

…Diona is an exception, Kaeya quietly accepted in his mind.

Jean clapped her hands, taking the attention of everyone, including the newly awakened people and Master Diluc, who had refrained from participating in the conversation until now.

“Alright, everyone. While we wait for something to happen, I suggest you all take this time to sit down and rest your legs. I’ll go talk to the other representatives, try to establish a few things, and clarify our situation, and hopefully figure out a way for us to either get out of here or be comfortably settled until we can get out.”

“Roger that! As expected of Master Jean!” Amber cheered, giving the acting grandmaster an applause.

Little did she know that inside the acting grandmaster’s head…

‘Oh Lord Barbatos, I already do paperwork in real life, but now I’m going to be doing paperwork even in my dreams.’

Jean doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry as she summoned paper and pen with her imagination and wandered off towards the other representatives who had the same idea as her and had started to gather.

A green-clad bard in the background once again sneezed, but milder than before.

That did not make him less confused as he tried to wipe his nose, still a bit disoriented and sleepy while the two sisters of his church attended to him and the others who had just woken up.

‘…Did someone talk shit about me?’

---

“Master Jean.”

Tighnari greeted the blonde representative of Monstadt as she approached, his ears having caught wind of her arrival earlier than the others.

The acting grandmaster of the knights of Monstadt simply gave him a polite smile while holding unto a few pieces of paper dotted with fresh ink and characters, “Mister Tighnari. I bring some key points mentioned in the Monstadt group’s discussion.”

“Tighnari is fine, and feel free to join in on the conversation.” Tighnari ushered her closer to the group huddle where the Liyue representative, fresh from grieving, and the Fontaine representative seemed to be in a bit of an argument, “We were just discussing how to divide the room now that our individual areas have been merged together.”

‘Sounds a lot like a territorial battle.’ Jean couldn’t help but tiredly think.

“Please just call me Jean, as well, Tighnari. Monstadt is fine with just a tenth of the space in this room for our keeping. We are mostly knights and close-knit friends so we can improvise on how we rest.”

Seemingly having overheard her statement, the representative of Inazuma, Ayato, smiled slightly as if surprised, “Oh? I thought the nation of freedom would fight for more space for their individuals to act freely if it came down to it.”

Jean chuckled a little before shaking her head, “No, we’re fine. We are a family in Monstadt. Almost everyone knows each other.”

‘That, and with the addition of Natlan, Snezhnaya and Khaenri’ah, the possibility of bigger areas having to give up territory to let them in is high. It’s better to just stay small like this—they can’t expect us to give more if we already have the minimum size allowable.’

Not to mention, they don’t know yet if more people will be joining them anytime soon.

But even if someone new joined the Monstadt area, the chances of them being an acquaintance or a friend was high, so it would be fine.

She can already imagine how people were going to be piling up on each other or invading each other’s personal space regardless of territory size if it was her people involved. Having a little kid like Klee in their midst has made sleepovers a very familiar event among the vision-bearers within the knights. Maybe if the room allowed it, Varka would end up being part of these sleepovers too.

…Although, now that she thinks of it, she’s a bit concerned of how Kaeya is going to survive if he wandered off to his adoptive older brother’s side of the “bed” in his sleep.

“…We’ll be fine.” Jean repeated like a mantra.

Tighnari raised an eyebrow because it sounded more like she was convincing herself but Ayato seems to accept her answer as is, so the topic simply moved on.

“By the way, what about the twins?”

At Jean’s question, the two representatives exchanged looks as if trying to figure out who should break the news to her. Eventually, Tighnari pointed towards one corner of the room, announcing only one thing.

“They’re over there.”

“…??”

In the said-corner of the room, there were two blonde travelers just clinging to each other like koalas, unwilling to get off of the floor, while seemingly aggressively arguing with each other over something with no real heat. If Jean focused her senses enough, maybe she would hear a few exotic swear words, but seeing as the moment seemed to be a private thing for the twins, she decided to move her eyes somewhere else.

“…I suppose that’s one way to react to what they’ve seen.”

“Indeed,” Ayato nodded, empathetically, “As an older brother myself with a little sister, I can understand where they’re coming from.”

Tighnari stared at Ayato, not quite able to imagine him and his sister affectionately roughhousing each other on the floor, but decidedly did not speak further.

Seeing as the Liyue representative, who must be pretty sensitive right now due to their grieving, and the Fontaine representative were still not coming to an agreement about their respective territories, Jean was just about ready to sit down or butt in, when all of a sudden, Ayato raised his hand to catch the two representative’s attention.

His long white sleeve swaying slightly as he raised his arm with a political smile, the Kamisato head spoke up, “Pardon my interruption, but I think this argument about sleeping quarters is going nowhere.”

“Sleeping quarters?” Jean’s smile couldn’t help but quirk up a little in amusement.

“Fontaine folks.” Tighnari whispered in response.

Ningguang huffed at Ayato’s statement, “Liyue is plenty fine with sleeping on the floor or even sleeping mid-air, however, as the nation with the most population in this room, I simply can’t surrender that much amount of space to the one with the fewest, as of now.”

“It is not a matter of number, Lady Ningguang,” Neuvilette sighed, closing his eyes, “It is a matter of propriety.”

“Well, I do not see Inazuma fighting over more territory to separate the two sides of their war.”

Tighnari is pretty sure it wasn’t that Inazuma was not fighting for more space to accommodate their division, but more that Ayato was not fighting for it.

Ningguang pushed forward, expressionlessly, “I simply do not see why you should strongly insist in a wide berth of space just to separate men and women when every other nation seems perfectly capable of a mixed accommodation.”

‘It would be weird,’ Jean thought to herself, ‘If Fontaine gets to have more space for a reason such as that.’

Surely, Iudex Neuvilette was sensible enough to figure that out, so why…?

Before Neuvilette could say another word in return to the Liyue representative, expression strained, Ayato once again decided to butt in with a diplomatic smile.

“If I may, if it is simply the sleeping quarters that you are concerned of, then I may have something to show that could benefit us all in that regard.”

All representatives’ eyes immediately fell on him at that.

The Kamisato head smiled and then immediately started ushering everyone towards the temporary Inazuma area’s adjacent wall, where a redhaired young man was waiting patiently for their arrival.

“Ah, finally.” The redhead exclaimed at the sight of the representative group.

“Everyone, this is Shikanoin Heizou, a detective of the Tenryou commission.” Ayato introduced, and on cue, the redhaired detective waved boyishly with a “hey~”, not even the slightest bit perturbed by the gathering of (mostly) politicians, “He came to me earlier during the viewing with some findings of his regarding the inner workings of the power of imagination in the room.”

Well, if the detective’s charm wasn’t enough to get their attention, that certainly did.

“Detective Shikanoin was testing many hypotheses regarding the summoning ability we are capable of doing within the room, as discovered by the Fontaine community, and the effects of the walls in general,” Ayato explained, “when he discovered an interesting mechanism that may prove beneficial for all of us.”

Mechanism?

As if able to read the question in every representative’s mind, Ayato turned towards Heizou who, in turn, took his gaze as silent permission and immediately placed a hand onto the nearby wall.

“Restroom.”

Upon uttering those words, the space underneath Heizou’s palm immediately shifted and changed, slowly turning into a door, capable of letting in a single person.

Heizou then twisted the knob and opened the door to reveal what was inside—a toilet.

A real, actual toilet—something that some representatives thought they would not see or need for a long while.

Before the representatives could say anything about it however, Heizou closed the door and spoke once again, saying, “Wall.”

At that moment, as if the door was just an illusion, a solid black wall once again appeared underneath the detective’s hand, leaving behind no trace of what was once a comfort room.

The detective repeated this a few times, saying several different words that ranged from “kitchen” to “garden” to “bedroom” up until he was about to say “graveyard”, before Ayato stopped him with his hand and simply turned to his fellow representatives who had fallen silent in the face of Inazuma’s discovery.

“…I suppose the sleeping quarters problem will be resolved now?”

Consider it more than solved. This just opened up a lot of possibilities for everyone even with only a minimum amount of space assigned to each group, as long as they were next to a wall.

---

After Shikanoin Heizou’s discovery, the arrangements for everyone’s resting areas were handled pretty quickly. Everyone was updated on the recent functionality of the walls and also warned of using the word wall while someone was inside a room.

Although it would not necessarily hurt anyone and just leave them stuck outside, it was still a rather cumbersome thing to deal with as you need to think up a room exactly in the space where the stuck person is, lest they be just stuck outside of the viewing room forever.

Accompanied with the fact that they did not know what will happen to the starry sky screen on the main wall if they were to lose one of them to the void, having someone get stuck outside was just bad in general.

Of course, not even ten minutes after the warning, a fool did not quite believe so he had to try it at least once.

“AAAAAAAH! SHINOBU! SHINOBU, I WAS KIDDING! SHINOBU, OH ARCHONS, SHINOBU GIVE ME BACK THE DOOOOOOR!!!”

Anyway, most of the people have started relocating within these doors with the guidance of their representatives, and for the fatui harbingers… well, they figured it out regardless of their lack thereof.

Which leaves only… the twins, sitting side by side in front of the starry sky projected by the screen, looking down at the ground with sullen eyes, and not talking to each other.

Was this a sibling fight? Well, in a way, you could say that it is.

Or, well, it was?

“YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO SACRIFICE YOURSELF FOR ME, EVER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

“WELL, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO SUFFER IN MY PLACE, EITHER! STOP BEING SO STUBBORN ABOUT IT!”

“NO, YOU STOP BEING STUBBORN ABOUT IT—”

The two twins cringed in unison upon remembering how much they were screaming at each other while rolling on the floor earlier. But they could not really help it.

From what they gathered so far, they figured out something.

The screen… although it did not specifically say so, it was showing everyone here the future.

Or, perhaps just a possible future.

Where, apparently, one of them disappeared, leaving the other to have to travel all seven nations just to be stopped by a random man just as they were about to save their twin.

Keyword: save.

The twins, being of the same mind, immediately had the same thought.

What if the twin that disappears becomes the twin that is put in danger?

Although in the viewing, it seemed to be Lumine, the thought opened up a possibility in Aether’s mind where perhaps, if he knew the circumstances of the disappearance, it could be him who disappears instead.

That, maybe, if he chose right, he could spare his sister whatever pain would happen to the one who becomes simply… gone.

The development of this thought, of course, did not go unnoticed. Not when his sister and him have been together for so long that they act in almost the same manner, save for their fighting style, which differed in order to cover for the other.

“You.”

Aether wanted to say he was surprised when his sister grabbed him by the scarf around his neck with a furious expression, but considering how he would react if it was the other way, he really wasn’t surprised when his sister started yelling after.

“You are not going to do something stupid just because apparently, according to some fortune telling screen, I will be going missing, you understand?!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Aether lied, easily.

Unfortunately, the person he was talking to was his little sister and she’s known him his entire life.

“Aeeetheeeeer!”

Lumine aggressively shook him around by the scarf, as though if she shook him hard enough the stupid ideas inside his head will fall off of his head and no stupid acts will be done anymore in the future.

“Hey, you can’t expect me to just sit down and let you be whisked away, especially now that I know that you’re going to need to be saved of all things.” Aether argued back, wrapping his gloved hands over the hand his sister was using to shake him violently, “My strong little sister needing to be saved? What the actual fuck happened?!”

“Well, obviously, something did, but that doesn’t mean I need saving, you dimwit!”

“The guy at the end literally told me I needed to be worthy enough to save y—”

“Well, he’s just some guy we don’t even know! This could just be misleading! Like when people try to bait the audience to watch movies by making provocative trailers!”

Aether had to raise an eyebrow at that.

“Really, now?”

“Hey, it looked pretty much like a trailer to me.” Lumine defended.

“……”

Silence befell the twins for a bit.

And then Aether came to a solid decision, amber eyes looking directly at his sister’s with resolve.

“As your older brother, I claim the right to sacrifice myself for—”

He couldn’t finish that statement as Lumine started screaming with a vengeance, and the two ended up roughhousing and having an even louder argument after that. It was the exact same argument that Jean and the representatives bore to witness before the discovery of Shikanoin Heizou’s door magic.

Looking back on it now that everyone else has emptied out the main room, the twins can’t help but feel their cheeks flush with shame.

But the both of them still held on to their stance.

“You’re stupid.” Lumine blurted out without looking at her older brother, eyes firmly glued to the beautiful galaxy spread across the wall’s screen and the countless lights on its wake.

“You’re my sister.” Aether simply said, as if that answered everything in the universe.

“…Are you trying to tell me I’m stupid, too, because you’re my brother, or are you still insisting it’s your brotherly duty to protect me?”

Aether shrugged like the answer to that question didn’t matter.

But it did. It really mattered a lot to Lumine to know.

In the end, Lumine could only huff a bit of laughter as she hugged her knees and buried her face on them, unable to talk back anymore.

It wasn’t like she wasn’t having the exact same thought process as her brother—ready to give herself up if it meant her brother would be safe.

“…As your twin sister, I claim the right to reject your offer of assistance. I will be fine.”

‘And you would be safe.’

“I wasn’t really offering it, Lumine. I’m gonna do it, whether you like it or not.”

‘So that you could be safe.’

For the first time since the two got up from rolling on the ground trying to convince the other with physical force, the siblings turned to look at each other, exchanging a silent conversation through their eyes before promptly bursting into laughter on the spot.

“We’re both hopeless.” Aether concluded, tears in his eyes as he chuckled with a hand over his stomach.

“Nah, I’m awesome.” Lumine snorted and then giggled, in a similar state as her brother.

The two were not about to let go of the other so easily—at least, not without a fight. Ready to fight the world and even each other if it mean they could stay together or keep the other safe…

They were truly undoubtedly siblings, not just of blood but of the heart.

“Um, uh, excuse me?”

Lumine and Aether startled, turning around swiftly at the third unfamiliar voice that joined in their conversation.

Behind them, a boy with curly bright blonde hair and blue eyes squeaked slightly but not before continuing his statement as if with a mission.

“Master Jean, uh, told me to tell you… that you should probably rest instead of, um, fight each other.”

The boy paused for a moment and then quickly added.

“Her exact words is actually… ‘Please use the power of imagination to clean yourselves and take a bath’ but she also told me to try and, um, tell you that you can fight later if you were still fighting so….”

As if automatically, the twins immediately looked down at their outfits but found nothing wrong with it.

They gave the boy a questioning look.

“…Yeah, I think Master Jean forgot that logic doesn’t work in this space.” The boy simply said in resignation.

Aether pitied the boy who seemed to be a bit of an errand runner of sorts, and decided to speak then, “We’ll go get a room to sleep in soon. We overheard the announcement. We know how the door magic works.”

As if that was all he wanted to hear, the boy nodded, fidgeted a little and then left.

It seems that the boy deemed Aether a responsible and reasonable person… and boy, was he wrong.

“…Hey, how funny do you think it would be if we said wall to every single door that exists right now?”

“Aether, no—”

“Aether, yes—”

Needless to say, both twins immediately fell asleep like twin logs inside a black and white room soon after.

---

The next (presumed) morning…

A certain young man from Liyue was yawning on his way out of the Liyue door, a little glowing floating little fellow following after him with far too much energy for morning.

He was the first person to wake up this morning—or at least, he was the first person to dare to go back into the main room shortly after waking up.

“Aw, man, I thought yesterday for sure was a dream… To think I get to meet the Yunjin… huh?”

The young man, having sharp eyes, was just about to do a morning lap around the large room to wake himself up with some physical activity when he noticed something that was definitely not there last time everyone was gathered in the main room.

“Huh. What’s this?” He curiously moved towards the black table that suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, a little bit careful in his approach.

At this point in time, the screen’s 82 stars were just about in the process of waking.

As soon as the young man’s hand touched the black table, something was ejected from its surface, much to his horror.

“OH, SHOOT—” He screamed as he immediately dove to catch the object before it fell on the floor. Thankfully, he reached it on time and no mysterious supernatural objects were broken… uh, now that he thinks of it, can these things even be broken?

Sighing in relief regardless, the young man carefully stood back up with the object in his hands, looking it over quite a bit. It looked like an ordinary black tray, except it felt much thicker and it couldn’t really be ordinary.

Not when it came from this very not-so-ordinary room.

But in the end, the young man felt it too dangerous to fiddle with it so he simply sat back down on the ground in front of the black screen and put the item back.

Once he did that however…

“….Uh???”

The young man stared at the large screen attached to the wall which had suddenly changed. Instead of the starry sky, the screen had suddenly turned completely white.

His eyes were wide as he wondered if he should call for someone, perhaps a representative or something, to report this situation, when suddenly…

Two unique-looking words appeared on the screen, much to his confusion.

“…What in the world is Genshin Impact?”

Chapter Text

When Collei woke up, she was sure she would find herself back in her room in Ghandarva ville with familiar aching all over her body.

That was not what happened when she opened her eyes.

“Oh. You’re… awake.”

Collei blinked a couple of times as she was greeted by a sleep-deprived looking akademiya student. Sleep-deprived akademiya student being Layla, who was staring at her glumly while sitting on the floor with her knees drawn to her chest.

Seeing this person who definitely has no business being in Ghandarva ville in front of her, Collei had to rub her eyes a few times to confirm that this was in fact reality.

She turned her eyes towards the left of her sumeru-designed bed to find her Master discussing something with Cyno, Kaveh and Al Haitham. She turned towards her right just in time to see Nilou coo alongside Dehya and Candace as they put a flower crown on top of little Nahida’s head.

Collei especially paled up when she caught sight of the little girl and the two desert dwellers whom she had only met last night.

‘Last night… was real?!?!?’

The poor girl was shocked. Many things happened yesterday after all, so much so that she was really sure that it must have been something out of her imagination.

But, no.

This was real.

They were really stuck inside this place.

Oh, and they were seeing the future apparently.

Collei put a hand over her head as she started trying to process that with what little brain cells were active in her brain this morning.

Probably sensing her distress, Layla seemed to take pity on her as she unenergetically murmured with much empathy.

“It’s hard to wrap your head around… isn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh, ah, yeah.”

Collei hopes neither Master Tighnari nor Madam Faruzan ask her questions or a reflection paper about what might be the reason why they were all here, because she’s not even fully convinced this was reality just yet.

Not knowing the direction Collei’s thoughts were going, Layla nodded her head like she really understood the mental pain.

“I have exams tomorrow… and I have a thesis to hand over the day after tomorrow too… and my project… oh, my project…”

“…..”

Now, it was Collei’s turn to look at the whimpering student in concern, finally noticing just how  heavy the bags underneath her eyes were.

“…Wait. Layla, did you get to sleep last night?”

Layla made an aborted noise that suspiciously sounded like a very sad and high-pitched whisper of “no”.

“How can I fall asleep? If I don’t get back in time in the real world, I won’t be able to pass my paper. If I don’t pass my paper, I will get a failing grade. And if I get a failing grade, I’m going to be one step closer to being expelled. And if I get expelled, everyone back home will be so, s-so…!”

“Hooo—kay, u-uh, c-calm down!”

‘Oh, archons, she looks like she’s about to either get a panic attack, or faint!’

Collei frantically rolled out of bed just to get closer to the poor Layla who was starting to suspiciously sway like she was going to collapse at any moment. It was only when she got close that she noted the other details the poor student was exhibiting.

“Layla! You’re so pale! Why are your hands white, where is your blood going?!”

“Huh?” Layla dumbly exclaimed as if this was the first time she was asked such a question, but Collei continued with her fretting, long hours of her master’s teachings running through her brain.

“Master said sleep is a very essential thing needed to recover one’s body, and also to consolidate memory! If you’re not getting enough, you’re going to get brain damage— you’re going to die!”

“HUH????”

Layla actually looked frightened by that one.

“You need sleep!” Collei finally blurted out in her worried frenzy. It took her a solid 30 seconds to realize what she had just said and look absolutely mortified, but the words had already gone out of her mouth—death diagnosis included.

The sleep-deprived Layla already looked so wide awake out of sheer fear that she might not be able to sleep even if she wanted to.

“…I can’t force myself to fall asleep even more after that…!!”

Collei winced.

‘Yeah, I figured.’

It was while Collei was regretting her words, a voice suddenly butted in, laced with amusement.

“Well, you don’t really have to force yourself to sleep, do you?”

Both girls turned around in time to see Dori lazing about on top of a giant purple cushion that resembled a slime. The little merchant adjusted her shades with a mischievous smile as her eyes glimmered a little.

“After all, if this place can make rooms and food out of nowhere with only the power of the mind, you can just will it and maybe you’ll find yourself a sleepiness potion, too.”

“…Well, as much as that sounds like it might make sense, I don’t think that’s how it—”

Collei stopped.

Layla was already half-way through chugging what seems to be a suspicious glass bottle decorated with stars.

“…Layla, what are you drinking?”

As if caught red-handed, Layla started drinking faster, finishing the drink in under a minute. Collei was just about to open her mouth when the student stared into the distance and then passed out on the spot.

Needless to say, Collei did not like seeing that.

“LAYLA! OH MY GOODNESS—DID SHE JUST DIE?! LAYLA! ”

“Welp,” Dori started, taking a bow and then moving to pull her cushion somewhere else, “My job here is done.”

“LAYLAAAAAA!”

---

Layla, in fact, did not die.

“Zzzzzz….zzzzz…..zzz…”

After Collei’s screams summoned half of the Sumeru citizens into the bedroom area, Layla was safely tucked into bed, sleeping away, dead to the world. She was 100% knocked out cold by whatever abyssal concoction she created.

It actually terrified Collei a bit.

The forest ranger in training has been worriedly stationed to Layla’s bedside for at least an hour now. She was starting to wonder if the rest of the people in the other rooms was awake, when the main door connecting everything to the main room burst open to reveal the boisterous Madam Faruzan without a single hair out of place.

“Everyone! It’s time to get up! Tighnari, you’re keeping the representatives waiting!”

“Oh?” Nahida chirped with curious wide eyes, a flower crown still on her head as she turned to Faruzan, “It’s time to come out already?”

Madam Faruzan’s eyes seem to soften a little as she looked at the little girl, however, that did not keep her from putting her hands on her hips and huffing towards everyone else, “It’s better for you, youngsters, to see what’s happened for yourselves. Come on, it’s bad manners to keep everyone waiting!”

Leaving those words hanging, she quickly turned around to leave just as quickly as she arrived, leaving Tighnari to simply sigh.

“Ha… you heard her everyone. We all ought to check this out if she says we should. Chop, chop.”

Collei tensed up at her master’s words, eyes flickering briefly towards the sleeping Layla, but just as she was starting to worry if she could carry the akademiya student herself, she felt a calming hand on her head.

“I’ll carry Layla out. She doesn’t need to wake up. She obviously needs the sleep.” Dehya told her with a relaxed smile before ruffling her hair into a mess, “You worry about yourself, now.”

A flush spread across Collei’s face at being treated like a child, but… it didn’t feel too bad.

Before Collei could even say anything, Dehya effortlessly picked up Layla, put her over her shoulder like a potato sack and then started walking away with big steps.

“Chop, chop!” She hooted, enthusiastically.

Collei blankly stared at her retreating figure and the sleeping and dangling Layla on her shoulder for a bit until Kaveh passed by her with a concerned look on his face.

“Uh, Collei, you alright?”

“Huh? Uh, yes, I’m fine—wait, no! Wait, Miss Dehya, I forgot to say thank you!” Collei suddenly shrieked, embarrassment coloring her face to the roots.

She made a run quickly to the door, leaving Kaveh behind to gawk at her, and as she stepped foot outside of the door, she found herself returning in a world where everything was black. It was a bit of a startling transition and she was not used to it, but from here, she could see where the other Sumeru residents have gone, and so she tried not to think about the discomfort.

“Collei! Watch your steps!” Tighnari called out to her as soon as he saw her rushing towards their group.

“Don’t twist your tail over things, Tighnari. There’s nothing in the room, she won’t trip on anything.” Dehya joked, good-naturedly, as she gently laid down her potato sack—I mean, as she gently laid down Layla on the floor.

“If you genuinely think that, then you severely underestimate her.”

As Tighnari was saying this, it just so happened that Collei tripped over air and fell on her face just before reaching them.

“…..”

Dehya was speechless.

‘Somebody, please end me.’ Collei internally cried.

Things went pretty much smoothly after that. The sumeru cast rushed to help one of their own quickly and reassure her that it’s fine, but halfway through Tighnari was called over by Jean herself and so he had to leave.

The room was both chaotic and peaceful at the same time. You can practically hear everyone’s voices overlapping with each other in the room and making a buzzing noise in the background of each other’s conversation, and yet there were no loud conflicts worthy enough of most people’s attention. In fact, there were little to no international interactions, if you count out those who knew each other despite being from other countries before.

It was a natural thing that not much of a connection was occurring. At the moment, even though they’ve all already spent a night with their fellow citizens, most of the people in the room still found it more comfortable to stick with them during the day.

Aside from that, however, there was one other thing about the room that stood out.

Specifically, the fact that the screen was no longer showing a starry night sky but instead a moving image of a white road creating itself while white columns in the distance pass by one by one—as well as the fact that there was music.

There on the screen was an image framed with the blue sky, as if to signify “day”, and it was a far cry from the previous starry sky they saw before.

However, breathtaking as the picture was, the music that filled the room was a whole level of different. It was like a song that was trying to tell a story. A lullaby by angels that someone would sing. That was what people thought of it until they kept hearing it for around 5 hours, in which case, they got used to it.

At the bottom of this moving image was a moving progress bar already nearing the other end of the screen. 

The first to discover this was someone from Liyue, and so they naturally reported it to Ningguang as soon as possible, and Ningguang naturally brought it to the representatives.

“We don’t know what will happen after the bar fills up.”

Ningguang told everyone as they stood around in a circle at the spot nearest to the protrusion that was found this morning.

“Yip Gaming reported that there were no further instructions, only the word “Downloading”, on the screen after the ejection of the mini device we have right now. At around the 4-hour mark, the word changed into “verifying”. There were also the words “Genshin Impact” however, that in itself sounds like a bizarre construct or phenomenon that we aren’t equipped to figure out.”

“The fact that there was a word on the screen is an improvement on itself.” Ayato bluntly pointed out.

“Ayato has a point,” Tighnari nodded, “Last time, we had to piece together what the stars were supposed to be, now we can safely assume that the screen is currently installing new data big enough to take at least 5 hours to collect.”

Neuvilette frowned, “Are we really sure that nothing dangerous will happen after the downloading ends?”

Ayato shrugged, “To be fair, we’re putting a lot of faith in the one who put us here by simply assuming that they aren’t trying to trap our minds in the imaginary world forever.”

“Please don’t say it like that.” Jean tiredly sighs, “It’s nerve-wracking to be so unsure.”

“Worst case scenario, we all die horribly for this.”

“I know, Tighnari.”

 “What’s the bar’s progress?”

Ningguang neatly cut through the conversation with a stoic face, and everyone immediately instinctively turned their heads to the screen.

“Just a few minutes left, most likely.”

“Shall we end our discussion here for now, then?”

Neuvilette asked around the circle and everyone nodded. They might as well, since they still have a group of people to manage.

In Tighnari’s words…

“Let’s do that and go our merry way.”

The loading screen was only a pinch away from the end at this point.

“Knights of Favonius, make a circle around the children and civilians!”

“Everyone sit in an orderly manner around the revered adepti so that you can be within reach...”

“Your Excellency, please pick one side of our space first and sit on it. The others can sit wherever they like, far or close from you, afterwards.”

“Not all of you can sit beside Nahida! Go get your own seats and be mindful of the sleeping one!”

“…I see that you are all already seated. I will sit down now as well, then.”

As everyone with a representative were wrangled into their seats, the travelling twins who woke up late were yawning at their own little carved space.

Meanwhile…

“…They totally forgot to include us on anything, didn’t they?”

“Balladeer, I think we’re both pretty hard to forget.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“…And who exactly were you talking to, then? The wind?”

“Oh, you damned orange—”

Two harbingers were tussling once again, although the vigor was comparably less than before.

They probably got tired of seeing each other quickly.

It was about time.

The young guard and Wushou dancer, Gaming, was a bit uneasy. He was at the forefront of the Liyue cast and by extension, the entire room, since he was situated right in front of the black table with the black device in his hands.

“…Are you sure you people want me to be the one holding onto this? I only found it because I woke up earlier than a grandma in Qiaoying.”

He muttered, only to get a sigh from Xingqui who was sitting by.

“Gaming, are you seriously asking that a few minutes before the bar ends?”

“…Okay, you have a point there, but I still have doubts…”

“I can take it off your hands, if you don’t want it.”

Xinyan offered genuinely, but then a voice whispered to her ear, ominously.

“Are you sure you’d be able to handle whatever supernatural thing pops out of that device there, Xinyan?”

Xinyan screamed a high-pitch that almost got many heads turning, thinking someone died.

“WAAAAH! HU TAO, STOP DOING THAT!”

The musician girl complained, face pale after being frightened, but unfortunately, Hu Tao was only laughing to herself like she pulled a good joke. Gaming raised an eyebrow at Hu Tao who had almost induced a Xinyan Heart Attack, but then he met the dead eyes of Chongyun who was settled next to Xingqui.

“Just think of holding that for us as a way to keep her from holding it.” The exorcist exclaimed, not even bothering to point out which gremlin he was referring to.

“…Okay, yeah, I’ll bite that—oh, holy piece of char siu!”

Gaming startled a little at the loud sound that resembled a tower being built.  He quickly put his attention back at the screen only to find that while being distracted by the people around him, the progress bar had disappeared and the moving perspective of the projection had stopped.

Now there was a door in the middle of the polished marble-looking road, and there were words in the place of the progress bar.

[CLICK TO BEGIN]

At the same time as this, Gaming could feel the black device in his hands vibrate and suddenly turn on. And when he looked down on it, he found that the black device had a mini version of the screen in front of him.

He could tell immediately that this was the part where he does his job.

Everyone else in the room except for the representatives were confused, not knowing if they were supposed to slap the screen and call it a day, or if someone was supposed to do something.

So, no one was expecting the full-on assault that would happen as soon as Gaming pressed on his little screen.

Not even Gaming himself.

The door opened.

“…?!?!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“MY EYES, MY EYES, MY EYES!”

The world had suddenly become a world of light—okay, that is an exaggeration. This kind of suffering is simply what happens when you try to turn on a really bright light in a dark room, very, very fast.

Let us take a moment of silence for all those with highly sensitive eyes in this room.

---

For once in her life, Kirara wished she was not a Nekomata. Being a cat youkai often means you have feline characteristics, after all, and one of those characteristics was sight.

“MRRRAAAAAAAAAWWW!”

Everyone beside her could hear her yowl in pain but this was a moment where every man, or yokai, was for themselves.

“MY EEEEEYYYYESSSSS!” Itto screeched without restraint while knocking on the floor below him like it would decrease the burn his retinas felt from that sudden flash of light.

There were other people in similar conditions, although to be completely honest, this oni was more of the extreme case of dramatic. Most people adjusted quickly to the light although it did catch them by surprise.

Lumine and Aether were one of the first to recover, so they were also one of the first to see it.

At that moment, without even waiting for everyone to recover, color started to come back to the screen and a faint music started to play.

There was a drawing of two stars on a sandy beach, drawn by a stick on the screen.

“So, what you’re trying to say is that you fell here from another world?” A young voice asked, like a narration.

The two stars on the beach changed into two bright stars from far away descending from the sky. It shot over the brightly colored lights of Liyue and the windmills of Monstadt, like arrows released from a bow.

It was a sight that gave both outlander twins goosebumps as they had a creeping feeling. This was like watching themselves descend from an outside their own body.

Just as they thought, they finally saw themselves appear in the screen, on a platform above the clouds surrounded by columns. Their other self was so clueless, so similar and yet from the moment they landed in this room instead of Teyvat, their fates could never be the same.

“But when you wanted to leave and go to the next world…”

Like a streak of black and ominous red lightning, something appeared in the sky above them at that moment, opening up and crackling with crimson sparks like the gates of hell.

A woman with bright and long flowing hair stepped out of this gate, standing on nothing but air. Her skin was as pale as ivory and her dress consisted mostly of white and black, with only a splash of crimson and a streak of pale gold.

“Your path was blocked by an unknown god?”

Everyone in the room suddenly felt the hair in their arms stick up at that moment, eyes wide as the woman flicker her wrist and transformed the gates behind her into four-pronged stars leaking gold in all directions.

The god’s dead eyes alight with gold as she spoke.

“Outlanders. Your journey ends here.”

The music raised like a death sentence to a hero who has come so far.

“Who are you?”

Lumine watched as her alternate-self demanded answers from above.

“The sustainer of heavenly principles.” Much to their surprise, the “unknown god” answered her plainly and immediately went on with her own intentions for this conversation, conjuring up a red-black cube in one hand, “The arrogation of mankind ends now.”

Like a warning signal, the cube pulsed a bright gold.

Just as a cube of similar nature could appear and swallow up the twin outlanders, they both managed to leap out of the way although they got separated. Bright golden wings unfurled from their backs and they both summoned and brandished their swords against the unknown god without delay.

‘Fearless, quick-minded, and their stance cover up each other’s weakness. To be expected from a pair traveling together as long as they have.’ Albedo quietly assessed from the Monstadt side of the room as he watched the twins practically rush a god.

“Woah…” Klee marveled as she watched the scene on the screen on Albedo’s lap on the floor.

The Unknown God raised her hand indifferently, and a surging wave of seemingly molten-colored cubes with weird markings shot towards the twins with dangerous speed.

Both Lumine and Aether evaded, running away from the cubes only to use their flight ability to turn backwards in a surprise attempt at slashing at the unknown god’s life. They were completely in sync.

A bright light exploded from where their swords clashed with the god’s hand.

Nobody in the room could breathe.

To be completely honest, none of them knew what to expect even though they’ve already seen a glimpse of what lay beyond before. They already knew that the twins would be separated because of one reason or another, they just didn’t know how it would be.

Seeing the two foreigners—the aliens who came from a distant land—fight fearlessly against a deity left many hearts in the room trembling, and some others sneering with faint mockery for the attempt.

None of them tried to think about it before, but if the twins became enemies of Teyvat, the battles to be fought would have to be hard won.

‘Thank barbatos, they’re quite nice.’ Lisa sighed in relief, one gloved hand over her chest.

However, at that moment, she felt something off.

The screen… it was not progressing.

“Um…. Lady Ningguang?” Gaming’s unsure voice could be heard over the whisperings of those who realized the same thing, and at the forefront of everyone in the room, Gaming stood up with the tablet in hand as he spoke, “It’s telling us to pick.”

“What?” Ningguang, who was not far away from him, couldn’t help but utter.

It was at that moment that people zeroed in on the instruction at the bottom of the screen.

[Select a Twin.]

‘Oh, no.’ Many hearts sunk after understanding what was about to happen and what decision is about to be made. They hadn’t expected that they would be making a decision like this—they thought they were just going to watch…!

Gaming understood that the decision was far too personal and important for him to make, so he had opened his mouth, ready to turn it over to the representative of his region for discussion, but at that moment.

FWISH!

Two pairs of golden wings suddenly unfurled from a distance away from him and a blur of gold charged at his direction, both aiming for the device in his hand.

“…..?!”

Only years of training himself to act quick when he is about to fall from the poles saved Gaming from being pummeled by the two outlanders who suddenly rushed at him like a storm. With practiced ease, Gaming jumped over the twins as though he was simply performing, the device clutched in his hands above his head instead of a Suanni head as he summersaulted across the air.

The teenagers of Liyue quickly scrambled out of the way as soon as it became obvious their spots would be the landing sight, and the front of the screen would be a battlefield.

“You two! Please cool off for a moment, we can talk this over some dim sum and tea…!”

Gaming frantically tried to say to the twins as soon as he landed, but his words fell on deaf ears.

“AH!” The young wushou dancer winced, as he felt the blunt side of a sword smack against his wrist, causing him to let go of the device in surprise.

A pale hand snatched it immediately, which of the twins it was however could not be known as the hand was immediately hit with a kick that sent the device flying across the room like a projectile.

Golden streaks of light rushed at it once more with a fury, battling it out and keeping the device in the air, unharmed, even as they clashed swords with each other with gritted teeth.

From an outsider’s perspective, it looked like a fight to the death, but from the twin’s perspective, this was much worse than that.

It was a battle between siblings, an argument between two hearts and minds, and it was a battle so fierce that the room that should be indestructible was getting scarred the longer it went on.

People from all over the room started to scatter as soon as they saw this, scared shitless. Fontaine, who was right underneath the sibling fight, could feel debris from the room falling from the ceiling and glitching as though it were an error.

It wasn’t just the Liyue people who are part of this battlefield now, by the rate things are going, not a single person would be spared.

“Lumine! Aether! Calm down—uhk!” Jean covered her face as a violent gust of wind was created from another collision between the two siblings. She wanted to stop them, she really did. She may not have as good of a relationship with her sister as these two had with each other, but surely, there was a better way to settle this than with an exchange of blows!

Just as Jean was hoping to come closer with the gamble that no life could be taken from this room since it was a dream, Kaeya suddenly stopped her, blocking her with his arm so that she could not go further.

“Kaeya!” Jean called out in frustration at the obstruction.

But the Cavalry captain merely shook his head, and said over the sound of fighting from above, “You need to let them settle this by themselves, Master Jean.”

Jean frowned, “But surely—!”

“They know there is a more peaceful way to do this. They are not willing to do it. It goes to show how deeply they care for each other. We have no place in such a fight.” Kaeya explained gently with a solemn expression on his face, “You have to let them fight it out and settle it on their own.”

Jean really didn’t want to, but she thought about it clearly.

Even if she could somehow use the power of imagination to knock out the two of them, the decision still needs to be made. One twin will be chosen and another will not be. It was not something that Jean wanted to be done with something as cold as a voting.

So, although it frustrated her, she could not help but lower her head and agree.

Back in the sky of the black room, Aether had just kicked his sister by the ribs and reached out for the device in the air that had been stuck in a perpetual falling motion because of their combined efforts.

Unfortunately, Lumine launched herself at him as soon as his fingers touched it, leading to the two of them tumbling back down to the ground so hard, if the material of the room was not special, a crater would have been formed in the ground.

“Give it up, Aether! You saw it yourself! We already know how this is going to go! Just let me decide it for myself!” Lumine cried out as she held down her brother, pushing her knee on his back so that he could not get up.

Aether did not reply with words but only a grunt, making his wings disappear and then reappear so abruptly it almost got into his sister’s eyes. As soon as her hold loosened, Aether ripped himself away from her grasp and ran for the device that lay helpless on the floor.

He snatched it off of the ground, but then Lumine tackled him, and it was gone again.

This was starting to be routine by now—both twins were not letting the other have the tablet for so long.

“I said, give it up!” Lumine yelled furiously.

“I don’t want to!” Aether ended up yelling back as he flipped them over and then started running away with the device in his hands, but unfortunately, Lumine grabbed the end of his scarf and pulled. “KEUGH!”

“You’re making this harder than this should be.” Lumine hissed as she practically strangled her brother with one hand and then made a grab for the device.

“Well, you’re being unnecessarily self-sacrificial that it’s just annoying at this point!”

“Aether, brother, we talked about this last night—”

“I’m not going to send you off to some dangerous place alone!”

“You don’t know that!” Lumine cried out, tears of frustration starting to build up in her eyes as the once-grand battle between the two of them was reduced to the kind of roughhousing children would do at home, her hands gripping her brother’s scarf tightly.

“That’s right! I don’t!” Aether angrily shouted as he tried to take off his damn scarf, “But I’m not going to risk it. You’re my sister!”

Lumine bit her lip, finally coming to a decision before changing targets and pulling her brother’s long braid instead of his scarf so that she could get rid of his balance and bring him down to the floor.

Now the two of them were at the floor, and the device was falling.

They’ve already exhausted each other at this point, but there was still no glimpse of giving up in their eyes.

As the device hit the floor, the two twins reached out for it at the same time, a burning fire in their heart, not for themselves, but for the other.

---

“What am I going to do if you really disappear, Lumine?” Aether had asked like a broken thing underneath his dark-colored bedsheets, eyes red and puffy after crying for so long.

Lumine stared at him from across the room, her eyes clear and decisive, as she answered him with one word.

“Live.”

‘You gotta live and then save me, okay?’

Chapter Text

Liyue was the first to scatter when the twins started exchanging blows with a scary focus on the black device. The adepti in the crowd had whisked the regular humans away to safety before the fight escalated to a concerning one.

Monstadt was far enough away that most of them were evacuated to the safety of a door as they had children and teens in their midst, although there was one unlucky straggler who got hit by a glitching rock on the back of the head before he was dragged by the collar to safety.

Sumeru was in the middle of filing away to safety through the fiercely protective guidance of Tighnari, who was trying to ignore all the noises, ears flat behind his back, as he yelled, “In to the door, now, now, now! Do not involve yourselves!” while simultaneously keeping count. He pointed specifically to Cyno who already had his polearm out and looked ready to intervene when he yelled that last part, glaring at him enough that the General simply backed away.

Inazuma, being the farthest, could have started evacuating too—

Actually, Kokomi of Watatsumi was already doing that for the few people who had chosen to sit by her side, opposite of the shogun.

However…

“Your excellency…”

Kujou Sara couldn’t help but call out to their archon with unease as the shogun continued to stare at the screen with a blank expression. That’s all and normal, as she was normally not expressive in the first place… or at least, as far as Sara was concerned.

However, right now, her eyes were filled with a purple glow that Sara almost never sees.

Was this a good sign or a bad sign?

Kujou Sara doesn’t know.

‘Should we not retreat?’

Golden eyes flickering from the Shogun’s back and towards the fight that was occurring above the room with an intensity like lightning, Sara bit her lip as she battled the instinct to withdraw and prioritize the forces, an instinct born from her time as general.

The Kamisato head had told them no one could be hurt within the room, but considering what Sara has seen, it seems like that rule was not very consistent. She knew it would be wiser to retreat but she was not the highest order in the “battlefield” right now—If the shogun does not command it, should she really command it?

At that moment, Sara glanced at the direction of the door where the resistance was evacuating everyone too. Most people have already gotten in, she notices, just as she found herself locking eyes with Sangonomiya Kokomi, herself.

“….”

There was no conversation to be had, except for an exchange of expressions. Sangonomiya’s face was troubled. No, she looked torn as she stared at those who were staying behind with the Shogun in the danger zone, and her expression became worse when she met eyes with the enemy general.

Kujou Sara doesn’t know what expression she must have on her own face, but she can imagine that it must be like looking at a mirror.

‘…The will of the shogun must always be done.’

Repeating that mantra in her head, Sara broke eye contact by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. By the time she opened her eyes, her mind was clear.

“…You’re not going to evacuate?”

She calmly asked a certain redhead who was standing behind her, arms crossed and face smiling.

“And miss the chance to see otherworlders fight with my own eyes? That would be very disappointing. We don’t know when otherworlders might come around again, you know.” Shikanoin Heizou said with an almost enigmatic smile.

Kujou Sara raised her eyebrow at that but he did have a point.

“Besides…” Shikanoin continued with a quirk in his lip before gesturing towards the pink-haired head priestess who was approaching the shogun with deceptively leisurely steps, “If anything happens, I think we can count on the protection of the Narukami shrine even here.”

Sara would sooner believe Guuji Yae would laugh mirthfully at the first inazuman to get hit by debris, rather than protect them, but that would be a very disrespectful thing to say, so she just settled with a quiet and unconfident, “…Of course.”

She was silent as she watched the head priestess tug at the shogun’s sleeve and her excellency, the Raiden shogun, turning around with wide eyes.

‘…Wait a second, come to think of it, wasn’t her excellency trying to avoid her the entire duration of last night inside the doors?’

Seeing the brief look of panic in her archon’s eyes as Yae Miko whispered something quietly to her with a sweet grin, Kujou Sara couldn’t help but feel less of the otherworldly fight and more of the discomfort of someone somehow managing to elicit such a reaction from the Raiden Shogun herself.

‘…It was probably just my imagination.’ She shook the thought away as she prepared to stand her ground here.

Moments later, the Raiden Shogun suddenly issued an order to retreat.

ShikanoinHeizou did not look disappointed.

Kujou Sara was utterly confused.

‘…What?’

She would continue to be confused even as she was ushered into the Inazuma door by a dramatically sighing Heizou, an anticlimactic retreat.

The tengu warrior just couldn’t wrap her head around the sudden retreat part.

---

‘It hurts.’

A hit to the wrist and the device was once again in no one’s hand, soaring through the air just as Lumine practically flipped Aether over her shoulder through the base of his scarf.

‘It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.’

The surroundings were quiet—of course, it was. After the twins broke into a fight in the Liyue section, most people frantically ran to their region doors to not get more involved in the explosive sibling fight.

‘Lumine…!’

‘Aether…!’

Aether and Lumine are at their last ground already, stamina too tired for flight, but instead of the pain because of the battle between them, there was a pain that overshadowed all else deep within the two’s hearts.

Landing on the ground harshly, air getting punched out of his lungs, Aether groaned but didn’t let himself stay in one place for more than a second. Even when his entire body burned within this dream, even when he was covered in scratches from the explosions they’ve been setting off by damaging the walls of the room, Aether rushed at Lumine from the ground and tackled her just as she got a hold of the tablet once more.

“Agh!”

The two rolled on the ground, unceremonious and barbaric. Both had a hand on the tablet but no one yielded it to the other, instead, with only a bit of their stamina left from their intense fighting, they were pushing at each other’s faces and screaming at each other to let go.

“AETHER, GIVE IT UP!”

“SHUT UP! JUST GIVE ME THE TABLET ALREADY—”

“OVER MY COLD DEAD BODY! I WILL LITERALLY KICK YOU IN THE BALLS, AETHER, I DON’T CARE IF I DON’T GET NEPHEWS OR NIECES—”

As if to make do with that threat, Lumine started randomly kicking, frustration set between her eyebrows, and despite himself, Aether reflexively closed his legs with a healthy amount of fear typically known as “castration anxiety”.

The family jewels were mostly secured but at that moment he got hit with the tablet squarely on the face, with enough strength that had it been a normal person their skull might have cracked.

He shrieked in pain at the slight explosion that happened at the collision—of course, he should have expected this tablet to be made of the same material as this damn explosive room—and in the process, he let go of his twin, who at the first opportunity, quickly scurried away.

“My eyes…!” Aether covered his face, eyes forced shut no matter how much he willed them to open. Whenever he did, he could feel tears building up from the sheer pain of it all. He should have expected to be hit in the eye—this was Lumine. Lumine was vicious.

He could hear Lumine talk.

“Aether, you can’t change my mind about this.”

Just a few words and the distance that the voice implies made Aether’s heart drop and his blood run cold.

‘No.’

Panic settled into Aether’s body as he tried to grope his way through the floor with one hand and desperately scratch at his teary eyes as he tried to make them open and stay open, “Uhk, no, no, no, no… Lumine…! Stop…!”

It wasn’t working, his vision was too blurry and distorted, he could see a blob that might be his sister, white, blue and gold, and she was moving and there was a large shadow behind her and he was way too far away—

“Lumine, please!” Aether screamed, voice cracking at the border of begging.

Pushing himself off of his feet, regardless of whether his eyes and ears were working properly or not from that explosion, he threw himself forward, hand outstretched, and at that moment.

“Its over, Aether.” Lumine quietly whispered, an icy cold sentence that could freeze hearts.

Aether forced his eyes open one last time just to see a large unidentifiable shadow fall on him closer and closer, and his golden eyes widened. He felt it before it even happened—there was a crash, an explosion, a ringing in his ears and everything went black.

The fight between the siblings was over, and only one could be the victor.

---

‘Holy mother of Furina de Fontaine.’ Chevreuse couldn’t help but break out into a cold sweat from where she was huddled with the other Fontaine people just by the open door, spectating the events just as the battle was concluding.

Aether couldn’t see it after getting a hit to the eyes, but the rest of the people with working eyeballs could.

The snacks in Chevreuse’s hands that she had conjured with the power of imagination fell to the floor as she stared at the segments of black cubes and the major big cube that was descending on to the poor golden-haired boy at his sister’s command.

Lumine had used the power of imagination to finish the battle off with a bang.

Unfortunately, that bang was obviously going to be so powerful that if they kept watching it, dreamscape or not, there was a very real possibility they would die.

“CLOSE THE DOOR!” Clorinde yelled urgently and slammed the door close—Wriothesley doing the same and keeping it close by pressing his shoulder into it—and it seems like they did it just at the nick of time.

The very normal metal door crumpled and an impact that could go through walls practically hit every standing member in the room, eliciting many tumbles and many screams. Chevreuse herself only managed to brace for the impact before being practically thrown over towards a very unprepared Navia, who had stabbed her umbrella into a nick in the floorboards to keep standing but could not anticipate the extra weight. The both of them went down quickly.

Chevreuse can clearly hear Chiori’s colorful inazuman swearing.

It continued on like that for several minutes—which was several minutes way too long, in Chevreuse’s opinion, what in Celestia is Lumine doing?! Is she killing her brother?!?!?!—but eventually, the pressure stopped.

Whatever was happening outside was finished.

Monsieur Neuvilette, who was protectively holding unto a slightly frazzled Sigewinne with wide ruby eyes somewhere near a very displaced couch, stood up like they did not just fight for their life a few minutes ago.

None of the other fontainians could do the same. Wriothesley had needed to create a slight jagged ice structure continuously by his feet to keep him from being swept away and to keep pushing back at the door with his shoulder and inhuman strength. Clorinde’s hat had somehow flown away during the chaos, her hair a mess, and she was pushing her back to the crumpled door with heavy breaths. How did she not get flung away? Easy—she had lodged her heels unto the floorboards and prayed to Furina, who was currently vomiting rainbows after the frightening ordeal, hoping that she would not die.

She did not die. That was a lot to be relived about.

“I… Do you guys think everyone got into a room before that finishing move…?”

On second thought, there is nothing to be relieved about.

Charlotte’s shaky question had started a chain reaction of sorts between the people in the room, despite everyone’s current state of weak legs. One after another, people exchanged looks and scanned around to see if they were missing any familiar people. With everyone doing it like this…

“Uhm? Wait a minute, did we leave the Fatui Harbinger outside?!” Furina cried out in horror from where she was bent over, green-faced, near a vase.

“I’m sure a person chosen by the Tsaritsa herself would have not died from that.”

Neuvilette tried and failed to calm the internally panicking Furina down as he let Sigewinne down from his arms to tend to the frazzled and possibly wounded.

‘But what if she did?!?!’

Diplomatic consequences of this action aside, the “hydro archon” did not know what to feel—If Arlecchino died from that, Snezhnaya might use it to attack them, but if Arlecchino survived that horrific experience without the safety of a door, then that just makes her scarier and more dangerous than anyone could have imagined.

Unbeknownst to Furina, she was kind of the only one imagining that in a dark light right now.

“…I’m sure she’s fine.” Wriotheseley breathlessly said as he slid down the crumpled door and finally rested his ass on the floor with a sigh, ice melting underneath the soles of his shoes, “Even if she’s not fine, it’s probably fine.”

“…That doesn’t make any sense.” Clorinde commented, dully, but she herself was already sitting on the floor and catching her breath.

Sigewinne sauntered over to the two before everyone else and looked at them once.

“…The both of you were very reckless.”

She said it like she was reprimanding two unruly patients (actually, it bordered more on unruly dogs), but her face was straight and sweet as ever if not a bit lacking in emotional cues when she wasn’t actively willing it.

Wriothesley winced and Clorinde apologized. The two were the first to be treated for obvious reasons.

As everyone slowly got up and recovered from their nasty falls, with Navia trying to soothe the “hydro archon” even if said “hydro archon” keeps denying her help and weakly calling her too bold, there was a certain pink-haired journalist who couldn’t move on from the answer to the question she herself posed.

“Huh… if a fatui harbinger can truly take the amount of damage such a battle could cause to their collaterals, then maybe there’s a story to be had on just how powerful a fatui harbinger is to survive it…” Charlotte murmured with contemplation as she nodded to herself, “Maybe I should investigate a bit on their—?”

“Please do not investigate Fatui Harbingers just to get a scoop.”

“AHHH!”

Charlotte jumped, startled, and whipped her head around to find a sheepishly smiling Lyney and a bored-looking Lynette. The one who spoke was the charming magician, Lyney, but Charlotte’s eyes fell on the person who was hiding behind him almost immediately.

“Ah! It’s you! You’re the guy who saved my life!”

The person in hiding behind the smiling magician (whose smile seemed to have gotten wider) flinched and shifted a little, hat visible over Lyney’s shoulder. The person seemed to hesitate between showing himself or hiding himself, but eventually he came to a decision.

Freminet, who was trying not to put attention to himself, collected his courage and stepped out of his brother’s shadow.

“…Um, hello. Technically you saved my life back, too.”

“I guess you can say it that way but, nevermind that. Hi! Thank you so much back there, still—I really thought I was about to die. You have a cryo vision too, don’t you? You were awesome!”

…it seems as though his courage was not enough because he found himself flushing red and slinking back to his brother’s shadow bit by bit, avoiding eye contact with Charlotte. Lyney, being the supportive brother (and the traitorous bastard that he is), however distanced himself from Freminet before the diver could go back to becoming one with his shadow.

This action not only took away Freminet’s escape route but also made him extremely exposed to the onslaught of enthusiastic positivity coming from Charlotte.

‘Socialize!’ Lyney mouthed to his brother with a mischievous wink.

‘Don’t die.’ Lynette managed to tell Freminet with just her bored expression and her eyes.

Freminet was very tempted to just put his helmet on and then dive into an ocean somewhere, as deep and as far away as he could go.

Unfortunately, the closest thing this room has to an ocean is a water basin.

“You were like bam! And then you hit that piece of debris like you were aiming for a homerun! With a giant sword! I must say, I was really impressed by you, you know?”

“Uh….” Freminet switched between turning pale and turning pink every other second, not sure what to say after being showered so much with praises, especially by a girl he just met, and his siblings only watched on with humor as he struggled to make a reply.

While Freminet suffered, Lyney and Lynette exchanged looks.

The others already figured out just now that their father, Arlecchino, didn’t go through a door, but they had known since the moment they saw Freminet rush to save a certain pink-haired girl whose leg was pinned down by debris from getting crushed by more debris.

Flashback…

“Freminet! Where are you going—?!”

“It’s dangerous! Freminet!”

Lyney and Lynette gave out twin cries as soon as they noticed their youngest sprinting out of their reach and headfirst towards where the debris was falling he most.

The two hadn’t realized that there was a person there at first, not until Freminet started rushing towards there to lend a hand to what seemed to be the famous journalist, Charlotte.

He had managed to bat the first debris away and then free Charlotte’s leg but, in the process, he almost got hit by debris on the head, too, if Charlotte had not tackled him out of the way—so yes, it was a mutual saving that ended with the two of them rolling on the floor, too disoriented to see the next piece of debris coming for their heads.

Before the two knew it, Lynette was already just about ready to throw her sword at the debris if it meant it would redirect it, and Lyney already had his bow pulled taut—but there was no need for that.

Swish!

Because faster than they could blink, the debris had been cleanly cut into tea and burned to a crisp by a bloody red scythe.

Black eyes bleeding with red didn’t even stop to regard the two people behind her that she had saved, she simply grabbed her scythe once more and then kicked off into the sky without another word, and at the same time she did, Lyney and Lynette were already scooping Freminet and Charlotte out of the way respectively, and running to the Fontaine door for their lives.

There was hesitation at first.

Lyney wasn’t sure of going into the door without father, but Lynette did not hesitate. She wrapped herself with anemo energy and beat Lyney to the door without looking back.

When they had gone in the door, and Charlotte was deposited to Sigewinne for checkup, the three of them gathered together, a bit worried.

“Do you think it was okay to leave Father outside?”

Lyney had signed discretely to keep their conversation from leaking.

“Father will be fine.” Freminet relunctantly said with his hand movements, face just as conflicted as Lyney’s. ‘Father knows how to create another door.’

“Even without the door, Father will be alright, Lyney.” Lynette sighed exasperatedly as she gestured, “Father has friends.”

Lyney paused for a bit after hearing that, and then slowly but surely…

“…Business friends?”

He signed with much confusion because as far as he knew Father didn’t really have many genuine ones. Would Miss Rosalyne count since she’s apparently been visiting the House of the Hearth since Father was given the title Knave?

Reading his thoughts by his expression alone, Lynette tilted her head slightly because that was a good question.

“…Yeah, let’s go with that. Father has business friends here.”

That ginger and the boy with the big hat weren’t very secretive about their affiliations.

Lyney thought about it some more and then nodded to himself.

He signed to Freminet with a smile.

”Father will be fine.”

And even if the Knave wasn’t, she would not go down without a fight.

Flashback end…

In the present, Lyney and Lynette exchanged knowing looks once again just as everyone was discussing opening the door and seeing the damage.

Their statement still stands.

---

“Haa… haah…”

Broken debris falling down belatedly to the ground. Smoke covering the entire room from all the explosions that occurred. Only the sound of breathing, the faint crackle of electricity and the tapping of heels across black stone could be heard in the mist of danger.

“Hmm…”

At the furthermost wall from the center of the battle, a certain ginger wiped at his bloody nose, slumped onto the cracked black wall with a crazed smile and not a single bit of light in his eyes.

“Impressive.”

Tartaglia had sensed the danger before it happened but he didn’t even try to run away. Instead, he had wholeheartedly embraced the fight like a masochist—no, like a person with no self-preservation instincts whatsoever—and he did it with a wide grin on his lips and eyes.

“Both of them are seasoned warriors that are above the rest.”

A crackle of purple lightning was the only warning he got before he heard a scoff nearby.

The smoke parted, revealing a slightly scratched up Balladeer, standing on his feet and stretching his wrists with a disdainful expression as he spat out his words. “If you’re trying to look cool, give it up. You’re as battered as a training dummy of the lowest quality.”

Tartaglia’s smile went from 100 to 0 in a split second, as he stared at the shorty with dull eyes.

“Oh, great, you’re not dead.”

“Hah! It’ll take more than that to kill me.”

Pretending like he didn’t just hear the excessive self-praise, Tartaglia plastered a smile back on his face as he turned to look at the center of the room which was still obscured heavily by the smoke—it was where the blows were most concentrated after all.

“If I ask them nicely, do you think I’d get to fight them?”

“Sure, you will.”

The answer was deceptively sweet-sounding.

“If you’re that desperate to die.”

Ah, yes, there it was. Tartaglia saw that line, that attitude and that sneer coming a mile away.

That doesn’t mean he still won’t get offended though.

“Hey, I’m not going to die—”

Just as he started speaking, a blood red scythe suddenly cut across the air above his head, effectively destroying a debris that was about to hit him in the head the same way the twin outlanders could. It cut the debris as elegantly and yet as powerfully as the last harbinger’s descent from the smoke, expression cool and unbothered and not a single hair nor piece of clothing out of place.

Tartaglia went silent.

The Balladeer snickered, slightly, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that—hey, ow!”

Tartaglia yanked one of the things hanging onto Balladeer’s hat, tipping it harshly.

The Balladeer was one step away from grabbing Tartaglia’s single earring and yanking it just to teach him a lesson.

Arlecchino, the owner of the scythe and the last harbinger of the room in question, stared at the two of them, at Tartaglia’s boyish all-teeth grin and the scowling Balladeer’s youthful appearance as she let her scythe disappear in one hand.

‘…There are worse people to be stuck with in this room.’ She decided, face expressionless.

It was easy to think of them more as children because of their unruly attitude than anything like the Doctor, so that was already a plus on her good graces.

She sighed at the boys’ antics before inclining her head minimally towards the center of the room, “You’ve won the battle, girl. I would say I’m impressed if it didn’t take you so long to pull out your trump card.”

“……”

No response came from the smoke within the center. Not even a hint of movement.

But Arlecchino did not care about that.

“Is your brother still alive?” She asked, tone carefully laced with disinterest although the matter felt pretty important to her. It was not the same as what she had gone through, she knew that. However, she still asked this question despite knowing that the end result was different than it was for her all those years ago.

“…Of course, he’s alive.”

A voice murmured from within the smoke and finally, out of it stepped the scratched up and beaten-up visage of Lumine who, with slightly shaking hands, was clutching the device to her chest like a vice.

Her golden eyes were not shining and instead felt dark in the almost empty room that she herself broke, but there was no remorse in her eyes. There was just conflict.

“I just made sure he won’t wake up for a while so that everyone can watch my decision in peace.”

That had always been Lumine’s plan from the moment she realized that he and her brother would have to fight for different outcomes like this. She was confident that she could win it—she had always been more of the agile attacker than her brother, after all. She had always leaned towards being the damage dealer while her brother had leaned towards something else entirely—her protection.

Aether was defensive, Lumine was offensive.

Although there had been the risk of Lumine losing stamina before she could defeat her brother, who, although he deals less damage then her, was equally matched with her, that was what the backup plan was for.

Lumine had always been more creative at finding out ways she could use her surroundings and the rules of the world to win and defeat the enemy at all costs.

“A good plan.”

Tartaglia and the Balladeer raised an eyebrow at Arlecchino as soon as she said that. That was, after all, high praise from the 4^th strongest, and even Lumine herself seemed to recognize it for what it was, as she clutched the tablet tighter.

“Can… you tell everyone to come out for me?” She asked quietly, her voice wet but her eyes dry and turned down to the floor.

Arlecchino nodded understandingly, face unchanging from its disinterested tune.

“I’ll clear the place first of dangerous objects before calling anyone back out.”

Lumine seemed to deflate in relief at her agreement, not really trusting her legs to work to do that job anymore after the emotional and physical effects of that fight, and she collapsed unto her knees on the floor with a deep breath.

Arlecchino did not pay her any mind and just walked away.

‘…It hurts.’

She numbly thought to herself as she stared down at the black ground, registering pain form all over her body, not from her brother’s hits but from the room’s explosions. But for some reason, as the pain lingered, she could only think of her brother’s current unconscious state, sprawled in the ground as though he were dead.

‘…I’m sorry, Aether.’

But she had no regrets.

---

When everyone was called out to come back into the main room, it was like the fight had never happened. Arlecchino had completely torn the stray debris out of existence with her bloody red scythe like it was a normal Tuesday in Teyvat, while the room simultaneously shook and tried to reset its broken insides back to working condition.

Several glances were shot at Lumine’s way, especially when she was just quietly staring at the tablet in her hands instead of staring at her unconscious brother who was beside her on the floor.

Everyone knew the lengths she did to get the tablet in her hands.

But no one dared say anything. It was not their place to say a single word about a personal affair as grave as this.

Ayato, personally, thinks that this might not be the first time this would be happening if this screen was truly showing them the future.

“Everyone’s back in the room.” Tighnari reported, standing amidst the sitting Sumeru crew.

Nodding to him in acknowledgment, Ayato put on his usual smile as he called out to the quietly brooding outlander.

“Miss Lumine, everyone is settled down.”

“…Right, right.”

Lumine muttered, expression unreadable as she stood up at that moment and faced the large screen where her and her brother’s faces were plastered, frozen in mid-fight.

This was it.

She chose her brother.

A choice to give her brother a name suddenly appeared.

‘…Aether.’

There was no other name she could give him—at least, right now, when she knows that she wouldn’t be there to joke about it with him inside the screen after this. She wouldn’t be there for anything, at all.

She typed in the name slowly, letter by letter before finally, finally, entering it.

And then the previously frozen fight that everyone witnessed started to move at the sudden low drop of blaring music.

Upon the screen, the unknown goddess’s eyes flickered towards Aether’s direction. Aether caught it, and didn’t hesitate to get back as soon as possible, even if it meant abandoning his sword to the molten black cubes, but Lumine—

Lumine noticed it too late.

Blocks of molten black red quickly crept up her arms starting from her sword, keeping her in place and making panic shoot up her spine.

“Lumine…!” Aether shouted in alarm as he tried to reach out for her, and the Lumine on the screen looked up with fear as their golden eyes met moments before she was completely encased by the molten red black cubes.

And then promptly torn apart.

“…!”

“What the heck?!”

“NO!”

A song much like an ominous requiem started playing.

Many people covered their mouths, frightened, as what was once Lumine returned towards the Unknown god’s palm as nothing but one golden concentrated cube—obviously containing the girl, but whether she was dead or alive was unknown.

On the screen, Aether seemed to realize it too, as he quickly flew behind the unknown god with one hand covered in crackling golden lightning and tried to hit her.

The move surely hit something—an explosion rang out with a split second black and white blast and a large cloud of black smoke and fire.

From the smoke, Aether breathed heavily, eyes set with a determined gaze and hand still outstretched.

But as the smoke parted, his eyes turned wide.

It had not been smoke that was covering his vision. Not entirely.

An imposing large clump of moving molten red blocks loomed over him, having absorbed everything he had thrown, and they were approaching quickly, merging together into one concentrated golden cube right into his outstretched hand.

‘His power.’ Lumine realized, fingers digging into the tablet.

Aether was not letting the cube go.

Whatever happened next came so fast that no one knew if it was any different. The unknown god did something. Aether was swallowed up completely by molten red black as the singing intensified like a doomsday choir.

“Wait, don’t go!” Aether desperately screamed as he was completely being gobbled up by the cubes, his hand still outstretched. Bit by bit, his vision started to be covered in cubes as well and the only thing he could do was scream as the unknown goddess watched, “Give my sister back!”

‘…Oh, Aether.’ Lumine sadly thought as she watched the screen turn dark.

Aether had been defeated, completely.

Not long after, words started to appear on the black screen as Aether’s voice flowed into the room.

“And just like that, the god took away my sister.”

Several people find themselves startled to remember that this entire sequence had actually been a flashback. Perhaps it was because of the chaos that happened in between because of having to choose a twin, but they completely forgot this started with storytelling!

“Some kind of seal was cast upon me and I lost my power.”

Lumine stiffened then as she whipped her head up to the screen with round eyes. “Wait, sorry, you what?! I thought you managed to hold on to it!”

“So, while we used to travel from world to world, we are now trapped here.”

“How could you lose your power like that?!?!”

“Um, Lumine, calm down…” Jean cautiously told the outlander who looked a few inches away from throwing the tablet at the screen.

“No, you try to calm down. I knocked out my brother into a coma, for this!”

“I’m sure it’s fi—wait, your brother is in a coma?!”

Lumine open her mouth to speak but then the sound of shuffling came from the screen and both her and Jean were quick to turn their eyes to it in time to see a very simplistic drawing of the unknown god and her cubes on the sandy beach.

“How many years ago was it?” Aether appeared on the screen once again, sitting by a rock over the drawing with a stick in hand, face solemn as he let go of it, “I don’t know.”

Balling his hand into a fist, he looked into the distance with determination in his eyes.

“But I intend to find out.”

“Okay, nice. Years. Somebody write that down!” Lumine yelled.

“Are we not gonna discuss the fact that you put your brother into a coma?!”

“Hey, wait, whose that white thing?”

“White thing?”

“Oh, look there’s a white thing!”

“What white thing?!”

“Everyone, shut up!”

“When I woke up, I was all alone—until I met you two months ago.”

The white thing in question was a small child-like fairy with white hair who happened to be floating and who happened to be, apparently, Aether’s companion.

“Yeaaaaah…” The little pixie sheepishly said, tone slightly pitched as she scratched her cheek and looked away, speaking in third person, “Paimon really owes you for that one….”

There was embarrassment in her voice and the reason why showed itself in the next second as the screen showed a picture of how exactly she and Aether “met”—with her being fished out of the water by a surprised Aether.

“…Otherwise, Paimon likely would have drowned!”

“…Who is this girl, why is she floating and why was she randomly floating at sea?!”

“So,” Paimon smiled and put her hands on her hip, proudly, “Paimon will do her best to be a great guide!”

Aether on the screen smiled back at her, although just lightly, as she continued speaking.

“We should head off… Let’s get going!”

Chapter Text

To say that Lumine was shocked would be an understatement.

I mean, how are you supposed to react if you had to feel the rollercoaster of emotions she did? The protectiveness, the anger, the grief, the fear and now, the disbelief—as she stares blankly at the buttons and icons that appeared in the screen (where her brother was breathing, awake and alive) while the rest of the world around her disappeared in a white noise.

A video game.

This entire thing was a video game.

Lumine’s hold on the tablet was so strong at that moment that it might as well crack.

She did have an ominous feeling from the moment when she saw herself and her brother from an outside perspective, descending unto teyvat. Of course, it wasn’t a “Oh my gosh, we’re gonna be in a video game” kind of feeling, but something more vague. She thought this was just a viewing of the future—there was no way she could have known it, but now she wished she did.

Her mind flashed to her brother’s state, his beggings and the tears they both cried as they fought like their life depended on it.

If this entire thing was just a video game and not reality…

What did she even do all of that for?

“…umine… Lumine!”

A hand grabbed her by the arm, jostling her out of her thoughts abruptly.

Golden eyes wide, Lumine turned towards Tighnari who was staring at her with furrowed eyebrows and concern.

“Lumine, hey, are you alright?”

Right. Right, right, she wasn’t alone here.

(But not that she’d knocked out her brother, its almost like she is. She’s the only one who understands what’s happening from this point onward, after all.)

“I’m fine.” She answered, turning her eyes away from the fox-eared person.

Tighnari, to his credit, scrunched up his nose like he could practically smell the lie she just said.

“You don’t look fine.”

“Just give her a moment to collect herself, Tighnari.” Jean said, and Lumine was only realizing that the blonde woman was standing next to her when she spoke empathetically, like she understood Lumine’s predicament right now, “She’s had a tough day.”

“Yeah, well, there’s no use lying about it.” Tighnari snorted, but his hold on Lumine’s arm loosened significantly, although he didn’t let go, “Come on and sit down. The representatives want to have a talk.”

Lumine nodded, expression somber, and let the Sumeru and Monstadt Representative lead her towards the small group the representatives made.

It was only after she sat down that the chaos of the environment around her finally registered.

“I’ll be honest with you all, I have not a single clue what on earth those emblems are supposed to be.” Ayato started, sitting so formally on his knees on the ground, the long excess of his white sleeves carefully put to the side.

Neuvilette sighed next to him, the two light-haired people being a funny thing to see side-by-side.

“As much as it breaks me to say it, I am in the same situation.”

“Well, that is a relief,” Ningguang said with a pokerface, “because I don’t know what all of that is, either.”

While all the representatives of Teyvat sighed blearily to themselves, unsure and uncertain about this unfamiliar thing before them… Lumine sat a little bit straighter upon realizing something kinda horrifying as she sat there with them.

‘Oh, god no… I have to explain what a video game is to everyone, don’t I?’

There was no going around it—she was the only one who knows what’s going on right now, and she’s the only one who has an idea of where they were going.

Well, she wouldn’t be if she hadn’t knocked out her brother but… agh, that’s besides the point.

“…Lumine?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m just…” Lumine sighed as she let a hand cover her face, “Okay, what I’m about to tell you is gonna be really weird for you guys, and for me, too, so listen very carefully and… don’t have an existential crisis, okay?”

---

“I’m sorry, your brother is currently a what in a what based out of our what?”

“LET ME FINISH EXPLAINING—”

---

“…You know, you could have started with telling us that it’s just based off of our world and we’re not actually fictional characters in a game.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Miss Ningguang, I never needed to explain to a person why my brother is inside a video game before,” Lumine grumbled, arms crossed, “And even if I’ve had to explain it before, this is not the kind of situation it would have been like. Most people get paid for just appearing in games!”

If one could hear an eyebrow raise, Lumine would have already heard the Tianquan Ningguang’s brow skyrocket at her last sentence with the economic sound of mora on the floor.

“Is that so…?”

“We are getting off topic.” Neuvilette quickly intervened.

“Um, excuse me. Correct me if I’m wrong,” Jean starteded, expression a bit disturbed, “What you were trying to say is that right now what we are about to experience is mostly likely going to be a game, right?”

“It’s not just likely. It’s definitely going to be a game.”

After all, ‘If not game, why game-shaped?’ Lumine distantly thought with a straight face. 

“And… you believe that game is most likely going to be using the concepts of our world, Teyvat, as well as its landmarks and nations in the process?”

“Once again, I’m telling you, Master Jean, it’s not just likely. It’s definitely going to be using your world’s happening as a basis.” Lumine patiently said as she callously pointed towards the large screen and the landscape it was projecting, “It’s doing it right now.”

Jean’s eyes flickered towards the screen, “How did you know that’s from Teyvat if you haven’t been to Teyvat before?”

“Because your people aren’t quiet and some of them have started theorizing that whoever Paimon is supposed to be, she’d probably been fished out around a place of yours called Cape Oath.” Lumine gestured towards the Monstadt congregation flocking one side of the screen with a deadpan, “They’re talking about it right now!”

“…Okay, touche.”

Jean puts a hand on her face as she sighs in acceptance, although her expression looked like she was one step away from withering away.

“Then that means our national problems are really gonna be out in the open for everyone to see, huh?”

Yeah, Lumine could care less about their national problems since she’s got nothing to do with them anyway and politics sucks, but that must be harsh.

“Worry not, Miss Jean,” Ayato patted the knight, a saintly smile in place, “At least your archon is not here to be disappointed in you when the things you’ve done airs out.”

“I beg to differ. Fighting a dragon seems like a very brave thing to do.” Neuvilette said just as he takes a sip from a cup.

Ayato blinked, grin a bit stupefied.

“I did not mean to offend. I was pertaining to the fact I will either die or get arrested when my archon sees my actions in the future.”

It was said so confidently and so bluntly that the chief justice of Fontaine promptly choked.

“How about we try not to die?” Tighnari said with an expression of longsuffering, “ I don’t really want to change representatives any time soon, not after I already got used to seeing you lot at least 50% of the day.”

“He probably won’t die.” Lumine helpfully amended, “I don’t think his nation wants to send another representative anyway.”

“Everyone, let’s get back to the point.” Ningguang sighed. She turned towards Lumine, curiously, “From what you’ve explained, what we’re about to experience is like… a game where we get to control the actions of the main character of a story. Did I understand that right?”

“Yes, it’s exactly like that!”

“I, cough, I see…” Neuvilette, who was still recovering from choking on water, tried to say, while the culprit for his troubles, Ayato, innocently patted his back as if to help. He cleared his throat after a few more coughs, before scrunching up his face into something contemplative, “It is… like a game I’ve heard before that integrates story telling but we don’t have to use our imagination to conjure a scenario, since the screen provides premade film for us.”

Lumine made a mental note that Fontaine has developed enough to have films just as Ayato seemed to ponder over the Judge’s words and find a reason to speak out loud.

“Does that not mean we essentially picked your brother to become the main character of this game’s story, then, Miss Lumine?”

“…Are you sure you guys don’t know what a video game is?” Lumine laughed a little, “You all are picking up on this and understanding it faster than I thought you would.”

“Well, I grew up in the land of lightning and light novels, Miss Lumine.” Ayato just grinned, before shaking his head, fondly, “It’s not hard for me to picture you twins as main character material—but I must say, I’m surprised the twin who survives the encounter was not set in stone.”

And just like that, the smile in Lumine’s face suddenly falls just like the stone inside her stomach.

Right. Right.

If this was just a game, and if this was showing the future, then Lumine didn’t really do anything in the end to make sure her brother would be safe. Despite everything, despite what she’d done just to ensure it, in the end, she had guaranteed nothing.

Nothing, at all.

A feeling of unease once again welled within Lumine but the conversation around her was none the wiser.

“Huh, it’s a little bit like how we picked and chose who will be Rebels and Hunters for Windtrace. It’s a game we have in monstadt, although its physical… not, um, literature. Metaphorical? I’m not exactly sure how to call this, but in Windtrace you could be a hunter in one game but a rebel in another…” 

“That awfully sounds like how we choose which character cards to use for Genius Invokation. It’s entirely up to the player who gets to be played in battle. You could use a card now but not use it in the next game. I know there are some people who use only their most trusty cards in their usual deck.”

“In Fontaine, there is a role-playing game that functions similarly.”

As the representatives shared their experiences and compared and contrast, eventually, there came the important question.

“So, how do we ‘play’?”

As if on cue, all eyes turned towards the only person in the room with experience when it came to “video games”. Said-person could only sheepishly smile as she sat on the floor contemplating how gently she should let these people down.

“I….” Lumine shifted a little as she gave a shrug, “Don’t actually know? Not yet, at least? It’s not a big deal—most of the time, there would be a tutorial, anyway, and even without one, well…”

‘…We can always fuck around and find out how things work…?’

Lumine opened her mouth, closed it, and then proceeded to put a hand on her forehead.

“Yeah, we’ll probably be fine.”

Everyone stared at her as if they aren’t quite convinced about that.

Lumine turned away from them, a bit embarrassed from their stares.

Someone took a very, very, long inhale, and then…

“…Let’s all pray to our archons that this room isn’t secretly out to consume our souls.” Tighnari prayed, eyes already closed and the other representatives were nodding to his statement, “Anyway, with that out of the way, it’s safe to say we need to move on to our next agenda.”

The fox breed gently took the tablet from Lumine’s hand and then dangled it between his fingers in the air like a fearless man as he asked the big question.

“Who is going to play?”

From here on out, it was uncharted territory for them. They will be unable to control what would be thrown their way, but what they could control was who the person behind the screen would be.

Only one person could use the tablet at a time.

“Yip Gaming,” Ningguang started with a hand raised and then shot Lumine an exasperated look, “does not wish to hold on to the device any longer.”

The outlander winced because yeahhhh, that makes sense especially after he almost got squished between an otherworldly sibling fight. The guy had incredible self-preservation skills and dodging skills but it seems like he was also smart enough not to test his luck.

“Inazuma abstains from that decision. I do not think it’s a good time for us to be calling the shots.” Ayato declared, hand raised as well, although he started sipping on the boba tea on his other hand as soon as he was done talking.

“I agree with Mr. Ayato’s statement.” Neuvilette glanced at Jean, while tapping at his cane slightly, “To be honest, I believe the only people who can play as of now with the most knowledge in-universe would be the people of Monstadt since the area of the game itself seems to be from monstadt, too.”

Somehow, Jean doesn’t know if she should be concerned or flattered.

“…Are you sure about that? Because we are quite the rowdy bunch.”

To the Acting Grand Master’s credit, she was very self-aware of how their citizens take advantage of permissions and freedom.

As she was speaking, after all, there was an audible boom at the edge of the large screen where the devils in question were herded together, followed by a loud and distinct, “That was not Klee!”.

(It really wasn’t—it was a combination of an ever-curious Sucrose, a determined Diona, and an unlucky Bennett who just wants to help.)

And that wasn’t the only thing happening, either.

“Lemme just… what the…?! Wait, no! My hat! My cape! W-what the—MY CLOTHES—”

“Razor! Razor, you’re not supposed to eat thaaaaAAAAT—LISAAAA!”

“Has anyone seen Amber? Oh, she’s with Collei… wait, that’s like in the other side of the roo—”

“ACHOOOOO! AH! CAT!”

Tighnari gave the Monstadt congregation which was metaphorically in flames one look before turning to Jean like he just got himself a grim diagnosis, “Are they like this everyday?”

Jean did not answer because anything she answered would be offensive to her own countrymen, but her face spoke enough without actually speaking.

…And here Tighnari thought Sumeru had it bad with their troublemakers.

“I can see where you’re coming from and I sincerely give you my condolences for having to deal with all of that.”

“Um… Thank you? But seriously, I don’t think you’d want one of ours behind the screen…”

“Pfft, it’ll be fine.” Lumine said, “It’ll be really fine, probably. It’s just a game.”

“Indeed,” Ayato smiled, “How bad could they really be?”

---

And that’s how a stupefied Kaeya ended up behind the tablet.

The Cavalry Captain looked at the conscious twin who was staring at him, and then at the unconscious twin sprawled across the floor in a comatose because of the conscious twin’s incredibly strong will to protect them.

He turned back to the tablet before letting out a slightly nervous bubble of laughter.

“Should I die, I will die in the hands of gods—”

“Just shut up and sit down and play, already.”

---

“Okay, everybody! Back to your seats, back to your seats, we’re continuing now. Your representatives will brief you in the current situation!” Tighnari hollered along with the loud clapping of his hand as he shooed away the people flocking the screen too much.

“For the record,” Kaeya, who was already positioned in a spot right in front of the large screen with the tablet in hand, blurted out, cross-legged on the floor, “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing, Master Tighnari sir.”

“Don’t worry about it because we don’t know what we want you to do either.” The fox answered without as much as looking back.

“That does not soothe my heart.”

“Kaeya, listen,” Jean started while she was in the middle of setting a perimeter around their ‘player’ so that they don’t get accidentally… jumped on and attacked like last time, “the options were very, very limited, and you know how we all could get—”

“Master Jean, I sincerely admire your hard work and effort—but I do not see how I ended up being the best option from the crops.”

“It’s not about being the best option, but being the most likely to react fast to anything that could happen. Should anything happen.”

The Cavalry captain fell into silence, digesting those words quietly.

“…I’m the sacrifice, aren’t I?”

“Yes.” Ningguang, Ayato and Tighnari all say at the same time as Neuvilette and Jean hurriedly tried to say “NO.”

Kaeya closed his eyes in resignation. Welp, he wouldn’t wish this upon anyone.

“Majority rule—Sacrifice, I am.”

“Kaeya, no—”

---

It took a while for everyone to settle down but eventually they did. People waited for the signal, honestly. They waited for the loud cue that would show that the “game” as briefed to them, had finally started.

There was no such cue, because the majority of the beginning of the “playing” of the game was just watching the awake version of Aether walking around in circles, jumping and then going the opposite direction of Paimon.

“…You know, after that intense opening, this is kinda anti-climactic.”

Captain Beidou whispered not-so-discretely to her inazuman crew member through the borders between Liyue and Inazuma, and the young man could only sigh. Beidou grinned at that elicited reaction, and elbowed him fully.

“But I bet you’d still find something like this fascinating now, don’t you, Kazuha?”

The young man, Kaedehara Kazuha, turned to regard his captain slightly before managing a faint smile.

“…Yes. Yes, indeed. The scenery is quite lovely, and the slow pacing is a restful blessing after spirits have been shaken and sunken low.”

Witnessing a fight between otherworldly beings was certainly not in his list of things to do while wandering the world, but it was still quite the event to see. It was a powerful and magnificent display of power, enough to make people who were grounded amazed and tremble with fear.

This moment of simple curiosity as the respectable man from monstadt tries to explore and maneuver his way around the screen—the comfortable speed at which they simply skip through the entire thing, like a song that lulls us to the sleep required after a night of restless work—it was one that seemed all the more beautiful after experiencing something along the lines of a crisis.

Of course, Kazuha did not deign to say this out loud as he preferred to watch than converse extensively.

Beidou picked up on that quickly. She’s good at doing that.

She simply smiled wider, a bit more teeth and fang than one should, before turning to the screen once again, in time to catch sight of something in the background of Aether trying to go the opposite direction from where “Paimon” was.

“…Hey, isn’t that one of those random pillars scattered out and about?”

Overhearing her question, Yelan who was sitting nearby moved a little forward to see with a glint on her eyes, “You mean the ancient pillars that no civilization of ours could destroy so we ended up just building our houses and cities around it? The ancient pillars of whose purpose we don’t know until now?”

“Yeah, I’m talking about those pillars—that’s the only kind of pillar that looks like that!”

“Well, there’s more than just one kind of pillar peppering Teyvat, you know.”

“But this particular pillars certainly are a mystery,” Faruzan whistled from the Sumeru area, leaning behind her shoulder as she did so, “Why, back in my day, we were sure that someone would figure out what it was for a hundred or so more years into the future, and yet we still have nothing.”

‘So much for the progress of knowledge…’

The 100-year-old woman sighed, not realizing the stares that she’d garnered.

“Back in my day?” Beidou mouthed unbelieving, doublechecking with Kazuha to see if the more sensible person had heard the same thing from the young-looking teal-haired girl.

“Oh, enough about pillars!” Someone huffed and stood up and lo and behold, it was the Balladeer, having had enough of watching Aether run around in circles on the screen, “Get on with it already and follow the floating white fiend, Eyepatch! Stop stalling!”

Kaeya whipped his head around in mock offense.

“Excuse you, this eyepatch has a name. Besides, I’m trying to get used to the touchscreen controls.”

“Well, don’t! It’s not like you’re going to be the only person holding on to that thing, anyway!”

For a moment there, a tension ended up forming within the black room, and a rather sudden realization hit some of the representatives at once. Representatives were made for the sole purpose of keeping inter-group arguments such as this from breaking out, especially when malice and contempt could be easily detected, but they had neglected one thing.

‘The Fatui Harbingers do not have a representative.’

Jean couldn’t help but feel a sense of horror upon realizing this, and she quickly shot a glance at her Cavalry Captain, hoping to Barbatos and Celestia both that he wouldn’t start anything that could end in another unconscious body so quickly after the siblings’ fight.  Trust as she may in her knights, Kaeya had a habit of riling people up despite being perfectly capable of being an angel to grandmas and tame civilians and the like.

‘Please, please don’t start something right now—’

Thankfully, it seems Kaeya picked up on the same things she did and answered her pleas with his trademark coyness, a carefully fabricated reaction on the spot to appease the harbinger.

“Okay, okay, I’m going to go to our white friend now, okay, already.”

Hat Guy. Kaeya couldn’t help but internally tack on, in preparation for sweet, sweet vengeance.

But, any kind of retaliation against rude people like him could come later, when proper measures have been put into place to keep conversations really safe and fight-free. For now, Kaeya honored his word and started heading back to Paimon, who had been waiting in the distance.

As soon as he moved Aether so that he would reach Paimon, the mysterious floating girl started moving once again, and this time towards the direction of the glowing red pillar near the bottom of the cliff.

[Wanderer’s Trail]

Follow Paimon, it says. Kaeya moved to catch up immediately.

After messing around a bit, the Cavalry captain had acquainted himself quite well with the basic movements so far, despite not reaching a “Tutorial” just yet. He knew how to sprint, how to change directions when walking, and how to jump—and after all the fooling around he did, he also discovered one thing.

The orange bar that quickly runs out when he tries to sprint.

In Lumine’s words as soon as they figured that one out—it seems it was a “Stamina bar.”

‘Good to know that a game still has somewhat realistic logic.’

Kaeya sprinted until his stamina bar was all but gone, getting to Paimon’s side quickly in a short amount of time, but as soon as he did—a slime suddenly appeared out of the beach’s shore.

“…..”

‘….I didn’t think these things would appear here, but damn.’

If there is mint in every corner of Teyvat, there must be a slime wherever the elemental energies go.

‘Okay, how do I kill it?’

---

It was a bit weird to see Aether’s fighting style through a screen.

Lumine has seen it before, obviously. She’s seen it thousands of times and fought alongside with it, covered for his blind spots while he did the same for her own move set.

(She’d fought against it and won and now her brother is asleep)

However, there was something truly disconcerting with seeing his fighting style be boiled down to something so simple and repeatable. Something that could be controlled by a “higher being”.

A shiver came down Lumine’s spine at the thought.

If her brother had won their fight, she would have been the person they were controlling right now. She doesn’t know how to feel about that.

Kaeya killed the slime.

(It’s really not a surprise for her to discover that slimes just about exist in every magical world, including this one)

It barely took anything, just a few taps, and isn’t that weird, too?

She’s not the only one who must be feeling this way.

The slime disappeared, popping into what seemed to be harmless water, and a small blue ball of energy flew out and towards Aether. Lumine is curious what that was supposed to be, but no one else was questioning it and Paimon’s already far away, so she could only watch as Kaeya moved Aether towards the place where Paimon was waiting on standby—a spot next to a red pillar.

Movement suddenly stopped. The angle changed for a good few seconds.

“…Are they trying to tell us to come near the pillar?” Someone whispered.

“Aether” moved towards Paimon.

Nothing happened.

Kaeya moved Aether to the pillar.

And all at once, noise exploded from the room.

“You’re kidding me… You’re kidding me!”

“That’s what those things are for?!”

“Holy mother of Tsaritsa—”

Lumine covered her ears, startled by the sudden ruckus all around her. When she turned around to look she found that even the representatives themselves who were typically level-headed looked wide-eyed and intrigued by what was on the screen.

‘What? What’s going on?’

Being an outlander, she doesn’t really know what’s normal and not in Teyvat. Being an outlander certainly sucked a lot.

She turned her eyes back to the screen.

[Teleport Waypoint]

1. Open the map
2. Select an unlocked Teleport Waypoint to teleport to that location.

‘Teleportation?’

“Kaeya, open the map, right now!”

“Open the map right now, Kaeya, we need to see how many waypoints there are and how far we could go with this!”

It was a good idea to set up a perimeter around the “player”, as two enthusiastic inazumans got a bit too close in their excitement.

“Miss Yoimiya, Itto, calm down. We have yet to unlock any other waypoints as the twins have only arrived, so there is no need for that.” Ayato reprimanded the two mildly as he shooed them away from Kaeya who was internally grateful.

“Oops, right, sorry.” Yoimiya sheepishly scratched the back of her head.

“Oh, come on, you could at least try to check.” Itto groaned, petulantly, “Who knows? Maybe we’ll learn something new about these thingamabobs, and learn how to use them when we get back!”

Kaeya opened his mouth, closed it, thought for a bit and then opened it again.

“…Actually, now that you mention it, maybe we should try.”

It was to everyone’s united disappointment to find out that the teleport waypoints only work for outlanders as they read its flavor text.

But after that, they finally got to get a proper move on.

---

While Kaeya was having the time of his life exploring the world through another person, on the monstadt area, there was a certain green-clothed bard who couldn’t let out an open-mouthed yawn.

“Ugh… so sleepy… and my nose is so runny from the cat, too…”

“If you had allergies against cats, you should have said so the moment you realized you’d probably get a reaction from the people here, Venti.”

Barbara, the deaconess, sighed as she looked down at the sitting bard who was still on the ways to recovery after the… strange phenomenon that happened to wake him up. Noelle and her had decided to take turns in watching over the fragile-looking bard last night after everything. He had been so light that it became a cause of concern for Barbara, and she feared that perhaps the bard had a condition that he did not like telling other people so she had tried to remain patient.

With enough patience, even the hardest of hearts could open up… or so she believes.

“Well, whaddya know? I’m just so tired that it slipped my mind to say…” Venti said, once again with a yawn as he tried his best to remain seated despite the way he was nodding off.

Nothing interesting was happening in the screen, as of now. In the beginning, everyone was at high alert, waiting for the next shoe to drop, but after a while, people just… started getting bored. The children were the first to let their attention drift away, while some adults found a better use of their time talking instead of paying attention.

If Barbara had a say in it, she’d rather have her cat-allergic patient to take this time to rest some more as he clearly hadn’t had enough if he was still so tired despite being so hard to wake up this morning.

All Kaeya was really doing was hitting trees, discovering things, picking pinecones and sunsettias and chasing after lizards and squirrels. If Barbara didn’t know better, she’d say the Cavalry Captain looked like he was enjoying his time!

(He was. He actually was.)

Another yawn escaped the bard on the floor. At this point, he might become a chronic yawner.

“…Perhaps you need to go back to sleep, Venti,” Barbara tried.

“What?” Venti blinked, drowsily, eyes a bit glazed over with ocean blue and a teal green, only to clear up a little as her words registered, “Oh, no, no, I’m fine. Sleep is naught but a concept of time.”

“What?” The deaconess responded in confusion.

“What?” The bard responded to himself like he just realized he spoke nonsense.

‘Okay, this only proves my point even more.’

Barbara sighed, trying to think of a way she could get her message across more thoroughly, but just as she was starting to form the words, she heard Klee, who had previously been playing carps and bombs with a quiet and patient Albedo, squeal happily.

“Oh, woooow!” Paimon says as they admire the scenery.

“Look, Albedo! Look, it’s Monstadt!”

The little girl in red pointed, and immediately, Venti and Barbara turned their eyes to the screen in curiosity where a breathtaking panoramic view of Monstadt, the fortress city, could be seen from far away, framed by the natural environment.

“Yes, yes, Klee…” Albedo said, with a small fond smile as the little girl seemed ready to bounce up and down like a red bunny at the sight of her home.

Honestly, they see Monstadt everyday so this shouldn’t be special…

“Woah…”

In the far corners of the Sumeru area, a seemingly young little girl was staring at the picture painted on the screen with big sparkling green eyes.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it, Nahida?” Dehya grinned down at the little girl on her lap, “I haven’t personally been there before, but it leaves up to its reputation. It looks peaceful.”

“Like a castle in the fairytales.” Candace added, seated primly next to the lionmane.

‘It’s prettier in real life than in people’s dreams, that’s for sure.’ Nahida couldn’t help but think as she absorbed every bit of color, every line and every leaf blown into the wind as Aether and Paimon started talking about Monstadt.

“That’s a statue of the Seven.” Paimon pointed towards the statue glowing red in the distance, “There are a few of these statues scattered across the land to show The Seven's protection over the world.”

 “Among the seven gods, this god controls the wind.”

“Paimon's not sure whether the god you're looking for is the Anemo God, but... Paimon'll take you to the Anemo God's place first, and there's a reason why~” Paimon grinned.

“Hold on a minute,” Diluc suddenly said with a skeptical expression on his face, “Don’t tell me the goal of this game is to meet every single god so we could have a rematch with the one that separated us from our sister once we get a name to match her face.”

“Don’t be absurd, Master Diluc.” Kaeya huffed, hand on the tablet ready to move, “That would be too farfetched.”

“And the twins are winged beings from another world.” The redhead deadpanned, “You never know with these things.”

Next to the redhead, overhearing the brief and dry exchange, Noelle worriedly put a hand on her chin, “Huh, it seems it hasn’t really sunk in to me that the twins are actually foreign in nature.”

Diluc rolled his eyes before turning towards Lumine.

“You.”

“Lumine.” The golden-haired foreigner corrected with a squint.

“Miss Lumine,” Diluc amended, not a bit fazed as he asked his next question, “Is there something in particular we need to know about your constitution as an alien to Teyvat? Any dietary requirements or things we should avoid?”

“Hmmm…” Lumine assessed the redhead who seemed a bit rude at first but seemed to mean no harm from head to toe before deciding it shouldn’t hurt to divulge information that can only benefit her brother on the other side of the screen, “Honestly, we don’t have anything we particularly need. If we needed something specific to survive, then me and my brother would have died on the second or third world we stepped on. Not all worlds share the same resource after all.”

“How about your consititution?”

“Oh!” Barbara suddenly chimed in, frantically, “Do you have any allergies? Please tell us in advance—”

“Unlike a certain someone!” Diona grumbled, having been put at the very edge of the Monstadt area, the complete opposite direction to where a certain bard was, and in glorious timing, the bard once again sneezed violently.

‘Allergies?’

Lumine mulled it over for a bit but came up short.

She and her brother had always had a special kind of constitution that made them perfect for world-hopping. They were pretty resistant to many corrupting forces, and were pretty capable of bending rules here and there—the perks of being from outside the system. Not to mention, the two of them had pretty tough bodies that were hard to pierce through, although they still felt the pain like a normal person (or so she assumes? Aether has always had more endurance than her who focused on sharpening her blade and becoming quicker on her feet).

Letting her eyes follow her brother on the screen as Kaeya maneuvered him, Lumine started speaking, hesitantly.

“Well, about that, I’m not actually su—AAAAAAAAAAAH?!?!”

On the screen, Aether just jumped off a cliff.

Not a very high cliff, but still… quite high. He lost almost more than 80% of his health bar.

“…!”

“KAEYA, BE MORE CAREFUL, OR I SWEAR—”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was an accident!”

Now, if only that was the last time such an accident happened.

Kaeya tried to climb back up the top of the cliff to go get Paimon. A combination of fooling around and also inefficient methods had him losing his stamina bar near the top. Lumine thought she was gonna have a heart attack when “Aether” suddenly let go of the cliff, but when he started sliding down, she felt relief.

And then after sliding down seemingly safely to the foot once again, “Aether” suddenly died.

“…Aeugh-”

The noise that came out of Lumine’s throat was incomprehensible as she watched her brother’s form practically dissolve and disintegrate on the screen.

‘Yeah, no, I’m not about to dwell deeper into that image.’

GAME OVER

Always assess your stamina levels when climbing.

You will take damage if you fall from too high.

“KAEYA!” Lumine screamed like a banshee, horrified by what she just saw.

She wasn’t the only one. As soon as the game over screen came up, multiple worried faces started to appear in the sea of at least 80 people, wondering if they had just failed before they could even start.

“I’M SORRY, I DIDN’T KNOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN!” was Kaeya’s panicked response as the murmurs of the crowd started to increase.

“BRING HIM BACK!”

“CAN I BRING HIM BACK???” Kaeya shrieked.

“IT’S A GAME SO IT SHOULD BE POSSIBLE—THIS SHOULDN’T BE THE END, SO BRING HIM BACK!” Lumine screeched, only partially held back by a brave Jean who latched onto her arm before she could try to stand up and take the tablet from Kaeya’s hands to do it herself.

After some panicked tapping from Kaeya, a minute or two later, Lumine’s words were found to be correct. Apparently, in a video game, dead people to an extent could be brought back, but it seems that only 35% of their health was retained and they were brought back to the only teleport waypoint they’d unlocked, adding another list of useful benefits to be had with the pillars.

Unfortunately, with only 35% of his health, it was made even easier for “Aether” to die again via accidental jumping.

“KAEYA!”

“I’m sorry!”

Another jump, another death.

“Maybe… I wasn’t meant for this world…”

“KAEYA!”

“I’m trying my best!”

“This is not the end…”

“KAEYA, JUST STICK TO PAIMON!” This time it was Jean who yelled at the frazzled Cavalry Captain while holding comfortingly a spacing out Lumine who seemed to have finally reached the end of her line.

Lumine is going crazy.

“I’M STICKING TO PAIMON! I’M STICKING TO PAIMON!” The Cavalry Captain cried out as then people around him urged him to just stop using the jump button nor the sprint button entirely if he can’t keep Aether alive for more than 5 minutes near a cliff.

As it turns out, staying close to Paimon was easily one of the safest ways down the cliff.

“As we all know, poetry and language flow like the wind...  There'll definitely be someone there who knows about your sister. At least, that's what Paimon thinks!”

“Whether the gods actually answer you is a different story. You never know unless you try.”

Lumine let herself take a breath of relief as finally her brother stopped disintegrating on the screen. Paimon’s disembodied voice was a relief to hear—that means they should be safe from here on out as long as they stay close.

“So, let's hop to it!”

As soon as Aether reached the lake at the center, however, a foreboding feeling came over her.

“You can swim right over!”

‘Swimming. Swimming, right. Swimming needs stamina, right?’

Eye twitching, Lumine creaked her head ever so slowly towards the direction of their “player”, golden eyes pin pricks on her face as she telepathically sent him a message with her fearsome expression alone.

‘Go on. Try to fuck this up.’

Kaeya shook like a leaf, terrified.

Aether drowned.

“….”

“You lived a good life, Mr. Eyepatch.” Hu Tao cheerfully said, hands drawn together as if in prayer.

Jean sighed and promptly let go of Lumine in her grasp.

She gave Kaeya a ten second headstart before the golden-haired foreigner shot towards him like a crazy bullet with a promise of an ass-beating.

---

“Ugh…”

Aether’s entire body hurt.

He had a really weird and yet short dream where his baby twin sister seemed to be yelling profanities left and right for no discernable reason and to no one in particular. Yes, he had a dream where his sister was throwing hands at the air… or he supposes it was throwing feet, since his sister’s style focused more on her legs.

To be honest, he doesn’t remember clearly what led him to fall asleep in the first place—there were bits and pieces there, a pain in his eyes, a fight with his sister, but perhaps it was because of the dirty trick his sister pulled, his recollection of the last moments before the battle were hazy and blurred at best.

So forgive him if he was kinda confused as to why he could still hear the curses of his sister even now that he should be “awake”, okay?

“Ah, you’ve finally regained consciousness…”

Golden eyes cracking open a little bit, Aether found a green-haired man looming over him with a closed-eye smile. Aether’s vision had to adjust a little bit to the peculiar lighting of the black room once again, but he could have sworn the man’s white scarf moved.

“Who are you calling a scarf?! And here I thought you’d be better than your brute of a sister!”

‘Ah, did I say that out loud?’ Aether calmly blinked.

And then blinked again.

‘Hold on, did the scarf just talk?!?!’

“Changsheng, calm.” The green-haired man said, soothing the white scarf—no, now that his eyesight recovered a bit, Aether realizes that the man was actually talking to a white snake wrapped around his shoulders like a scarf, not an actual scarf.

The white snake hissed slightly before letting out a humph and turning away.

‘A snake with attitude…’

Well, it’s not the weirdest thing Aether has seen.

“Are you feeling better now, Mr. Aether?”

Suddenly, to the green-haired man’s left, a small brown-haired child appeared while hugging what seemed to be a stuffed yellow bunny, brows drawn together in concern.

“I’m…”

Aether started only for his head to hurt just in time. He winced, hand flying towards his temple to soothe it.

“Please don’t overexert yourself. You just woke up from what seemed to be blunt head trauma and, well, some damage to your eye. Thankfully, it seemed like the theories of the Sumeru folks were right. This space is akin to a dream, so the damage was reversed over time as though nothing happened.” The green-haired man explained to him.

“Hmph! You and your sister just had to play with the one thing we know hurts people in this room!” The white snake coiled back to say, disgruntled.

‘Oh, right.’

Now, Aether remembers.

Lumine had used constructs of the same material as the black room’s walls itself to attack him and knock him out fully. She had taken advantage of a weapon that had been there—a weapon Aether had neglected to consider.

‘Well, since I’ve been knocked out…’ Aether bitterly thought, ‘It must mean Lumine won, already, huh?’

She won fair and square. She deserved it.

It doesn’t make Aether feel less sad.

“Mr. Aether, don’t be sad!” The little girl suddenly cried out, and Aether realized that he may have started tearing up.

Nope, nope, nope, don’t be a sore loser, Aether. You’re a big brother, not a sore Loser.

(But Lumine—)

“Oh my, is he finally awake?”

A young man’s voice asked curiously, and when Aether blinked, he found himself having more people looming over him from where he was laying down than necessary.

The group of teenagers stared at him with interest, worry and amusement.

Aether has no idea who they are.

“…Hello?” He tried, only to wince again.

“Oh, dear.” A young black-haired girl with a large hat said with worry alongside a dark-skinned girl attached next to her with spiky ornaments on her hair.

“Hey, hey, are you feeling better now? You only slept for a little bit, but your state looked nasty!” A blue-haired girl in yellow said like a rapid-fire artillery, eyes wide and searching.

“As nasty as the living could be, at least.”  A brunette with plum blossom eyes commented, off-handedly, disinterested.

“It’s probably not a good time to be awake right now…”

A boy with soft light blue hair murmured with a hint of unease, eyes directed to the side, and wait, what do you mean by that?

Curious, Aether disregarded answering any of the questions and followed the boy’s line of sight only to find… his sister cursing like a sailor while relentlessly chasing after someone that he vaguely recognized to be from the Monstadt group. Was his name Guy? Gaya?

Why is his sister trying to commit murder in public?

Aether shot the teenagers, the kid and the green-haired man a questioning look, baffled by what he’d seen.

“…Congratulations, Mr. Aether. You just became the main character.” A boy with navy blue hair cut unevenly said in the most formal tone Aether has heard since coming here and that’s saying something because he’s interacted with Neuvilette.

“And condolences.” The brunette girl with plum blossom eyes scoffed, “If this wasn’t a game, you’d have died 4 times over.”

“What?”

Aether’s confusion was not lessened even a bit.

He turned to look towards the light blue haired boy as if to ask for an explanation, and the boy sighed.

“…Okay, this probably won’t be a long story to explain.”

Needless to say, by the time the teenagers had finished explaining what he missed, pitching in every now and then to explain the game mechanics they’ve learned as well, Aether found himself feeling a bit less sad about the “Lumine” behind the screen being taken away.

From the sounds of it, too, it seems that his real Lumine wants to take back the decision she made.

Chapter Text

After somehow managing to calm down an angry Lumine and ensuring a certain Cavalry Captain does not die, it became apparent to Jean that she’s gonna have to get someone new to play the game.

“It’s non-negotiable.” Lumine had insisted with a fierce expression, hand holding her brother’s hand in a tight and crushing grip while Aether gave a small sheepish and pained smile.

Jean figured it wouldn’t do anything good if she tried how much she could push the golden-haired girl who went as far as almost killing her own brother to save him, soooo… Kaeya was now legally grounded from playing until he figures out how to be more careful with his “character”, or until there’s no other choice but him.

Yes, legally. They had a lawyer from Liyue write it out and stamp it and everything.

Funny enough, when he learned about this “punishment”, Kaeya had no complaints to say. In fact, he signed the contract too quickly. When Jean shot him a prodding look, he just raised his hands and shrugged as if to say, “There’s no helping it.”

…Jean has a suspicion that although the first death was accidental, he may have done the rest that followed on purpose for the exact purpose of being in this position—banned from holding the freaky device that could determine the life and death of a real life person they knew.

The Cavalry captain was just too happy about this, but well, jokes on him.

There’s no reversing this.

Not unless the angry traveler twin with the power of god and video games lets it go.

But well, despite all that, Jean can’t really fault him for not wanting the device in his hands.  

She wouldn’t say it out loud but she still finds this entire ordeal a bit… unsettling. Seeing “Aether” controlled through the screen like nothing more than a puppet the first time, perhaps because she was more cautious than curious, she felt a bit repulsed to the idea of it. It made her skin crawl.

To her, something like this should not be something that “we can do.”

But well… imagination was never just about sunshine and rainbows and macarons.

Thankfully, as a representative, Jean was not allowed to be a player right now. She had to be on standby should anything happen, so she can’t be playing. Not until they found an organized way to handle this newfound routine they’ll have to do from now on.

Anyway… a new player.

‘Let’s review our options.’

After the fiasco with Kaeya almost ended very badly, Jean would have really preferred to hand the player position to another country. She wasn’t one to shirk on responsibilities, but well, its not like Monstadt was doing well. Among the five nations currently in the black room, it was Monstadt who had the most amount of “injured”, if they could even be called that.

The people who had been knocked out at the beginning had been having recurring fevers since last night—Jean would know because she ended up being one of the people to look after them on their sickbed as the fever flared up at random intervals through the night.

Perhaps it was a testament to how reckless and free-spirited her people can be, but the consequences of their recklessness have come to bite them in the butt. With five people down and four more preoccupied with nursing the others back to health the best they can in this dream world, that left only a few.

Kaeya is grounded so he’s out.

Amber… Jean actually has to pinch the bridge of her nose just thinking about this one. Although she’s more behaved than the Cavalry Captain, she actually has potential to be worse, if all of the times she’d gotten her gliding license revoked was to be believed. Jean doesn’t want to risk Amber being Lumine’s next target after an attempt to glide without a glider.

Eula could have been a viable option too, but she had already asked her before Kaeya last time and the blue-haired girl coldly rejected her. She was not interested in playing “this game”, she had said, not until she knew more about it. The whole thing with Lumine’s moment of murderous rampage definitely wouldn’t have convinced her to play, so she’s out.

Aside from those two, she had also tried asking Albedo, banking on the chance he might be curious about the screen and the experience, but the alchemist declined her in favor of looking after Klee who was starting to realize the wonders of the power of imagination for future explosive techniques.

Later, when she asked him if Sucrose would be up for it, in his stead, he’d turned all awkward.

“Sucrose is a wonderful and earnest student but I wouldn’t let her have the device until I’ve put on… sufficient countermeasures to make sure I can forcibly part her from it when she becomes too fixated on it.”

Ah.

Jean vaguely remembers hearing a report about this once—a forced vacation, was it? Albedo really put out all the stops and kicked her out of the workshop.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Albedo had added, quickly, “If you ask her outright, she’ll most likely say yes. I just… do not recommend letting her have it unless you’re sure you can handle her when she becomes obsessed with solving what the device is and what would be the best course of action when playing. There’s a reason why I limit the textbooks she can read at a time.”

Welp, there goes another candidate.

That takes out all the knights left with her and leaves her with only the civilians—but she can’t have them do it. Most of them were either still in recovery for further observation, or are part of the people watching over them.

Of the civilians, the only one not involved in this would be Master Diluc and just like Eula, he politely declined.

Aside from Diluc, most people like Mona and Fischl were still under observation for side effects, and the other civilians like Diona, Barbara and Rosaria had their hands full keeping an eye over them, especially after that one bard got a severe allergic reaction from one of them.

Oh, and when poor Bennett ended up breaking into a fever for some reason last night.

Frankly, Jean does not feel comfortable having any of the previously unconscious people play, nor does she feel comfortable pulling out any of their nurses, so she’s at an impasse.

She can’t decide.

“Jean?”

Startling a little, Jean turned towards the person who had suddenly tapper her shoulder and she found Lisa behind her, blessed Lisa, gloved hand hovering just a few inches away as she stared at Jean with mild surprise and concern.

“Are you okay, Jean? I could see you pacing from the other side of the room.”

“I’m fine.” Jean said, automatically, before earning a doubtful look from the librarian.

She ended up sighing instead and saying the truth.

“Okay, so maybe I’m a bit stressed. And conflicted. I need to find a new player and also make sure they don’t become the second coming of Kaeya.”

“If it’s really urgent, I can do it for you.” Lisa offered, but Jean chuckled.

“Lisa, that’s sweet of you, but I don’t want you to be put on the spot especially when you don’t actually feel like it. Handling angry foreigners with the power to apparently destroy a near-unbreakable room is not in your job description.”

“Neither is it in yours, but I don’t seem to hear you point that out.” The librarian quipped.

“Actually, I think this is pretty much in my job description… but even if it isn’t, as the representative of Monstadt right now, it’s still something I have to do, but something I wouldn’t burden anyone else with.”

“That sounds just like you.” Lisa smiled, then added with a serious tone, “But also, that sounds needlessly complicated to think about.”

“Tell me about it.” Jean rolled her eyes.

“Here, what if I help you pick someone out? I have a good idea but I’d need to see who you’ve asked first.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

She quickly recounted her attempts to narrow her selection pool to Lisa. The longer she went on, the narrower her friend’s eyes seem to get. Did… did she do something? That’s the “You’re being stupid today, Jean” look. Lisa looked tired, but why would she be tired when Jean was the one who was talking?

Was this because Jean didn’t consider her even once during it all? To be fair, Lisa does not hide the fact that she’d rather lounge around and laze about than do anything that isn’t mildly urgent.

Anyway, by the end of Jean’s summary, Lisa was full on squinting at her like she was trying to make sure her brain was still working. Jean doesn’t know if she should be feeling embarrassed or offended.

Seriously, what did she do?!

“Jean. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt because you’ve been stressed but I think you’re seriously forgetting an important person that could have very well been the answer to your problems.”

“…Pardon me?”

Lisa sighed, gloved hand running along her face, “The current point of the game is to explore Monstadt. If we’re going to be exploring Monstadt, we should have a Monstadt expert in-charge!”

“I mean, naturally?” Jean blinked, still confused, “But all of our best explorers left with Varka for the…”

Like something clicked in place, Jean stopped talking altogether.

“…I can’t believe I forgot him.”

“Huh.”

“…I literally talked to him yesterday! I told him to tell the twins to clean up! I gave him orders!”

“Yes, yes, you overlooked him.” Lisa boredly said before snapping her finger, “Jean, how many hours of sleep did you get last night?”

“…Enough?”

Suddenly, Jean felt like she was being held at knifepoint.

“We don’t have a clock!” She explained herself frantically as she could practically feel the electro popping off from Lisa’s body, the area around them suddenly turning darker as a result of her power, “I couldn’t tell the time!”

“Even if we had a clock, that wouldn’t have stopped you from sleeping less!” Lisa reprimanded, before finally giving in and muttering to herself helplessly, “Your bad work habits are starting to get to your brain and slowing you down. Honestly, I can’t believe I have to teach someone to relax.”

On the plus side, Jean figured out who the next player will be.

“Hmm… If you won’t relax yourself, why don’t I… give your body a little bit of encouragement?”

“O-okay, I need to go get the new player now, thanks for the help, bye Lisaaaa!”

“…It’s just a little zap.”

Jean successfully avoided being electrocuted a little today.

---

“Ugh…”

Mika looked through a freshly summoned first aid kit’s contents, rummaging for the item he forgot the name of and thus could not summon properly himself, while the person laid next to him on the floor tossed and turned, feverish.

“Come on, come on…” Mika murmured as he combed through the first-aid kit to no avail.

It hasn’t been long since he started helping out the girls with taking care of the downed people. Although he wasn’t quite what you would call a healer, he had earnestly learned all sorts of skills that would be useful for exploring even the most dangerous crevices of Monstadt, so he was confident that he could contribute something when it became evident that the healers were lacking one more person to take care of the sick.

The patient assigned to him was a young adventurer named Bennet who seemed to have a lot of scars. Pre-dreamworld scars, it seemed, since they looked far too old to be recent, but considering his youth, Mika actually felt a little nervous when he saw them.

‘What did a little kid do to get all of these wounds?’ He thought to himself.

He’s gotten his fair share of scars from his attempts to map out dangerous areas and he’s gotten into training accidents while sparring with his brother in several times before, but even the scars he had from before he joined the Knights of Favonius looked younger than the ones on Bennet’s body.

It was, to say, concerning.

“Mika?”

“Ah, yes?” Mika stammered as he turned to meet Barbara, who had her own hands full with circling note-shaped hydro energy around her own patient, a bard that was half awake and half asleep.

She was originally taking care of both Bennett and the bard but then the bard had that allergic reaction…

“I just wanted to thank you for helping us out with Bennet. To be honest, of all of the patients we have, he’s the one to look out for the most because of his… tendency, but this bard…”

“Young lady, I have a beautiful name.” Said-bard interrupted with a singsong.

Mika watched the bard nod off a few times before finally passing out on Barbara’s lap and drooling.

Barbara stared at the bard on her lap and then cleared her throat.

“Okay, so, about this bard. I’m not sure yet, but there seems to be something wrong with him, so I’m trying to make sure we have all our bases covered.”

“There’s something wrong with him? An underlying condition?” Mika worried.

“Like I said, I’m not sure, but… for one, he’s light.”

“…Eh?”

Barbara frowned, “He’s light enough that I think even Diona could carry him… if he doesn’t start convulsing from the cat fur, first.”

“HEY!”

A certain Katzlein girl squawked in offense where she was forcing a half-awake Mona Megistus to drink one of her hand-made drinks.

“Oh, this actually tastes good.” Mona mumbled with pleasant surprise, before getting another forceful bottle of herbal medicine into her mouth.

“I think you’re overthinking it, Sister Barbara.” A yawning Rosaria said as she fanned lazily at the feverish Razor on her lap with a bored expression, “The kid’s built like a twig sure, but I don’t think that bard’s got a physical problem. Whatever you’re thinking, it must be a mental thing.”

“Oh, like a thinking disorder?” Noelle gasped.

“Mmm, yeah, something like that.” Rosaria nonchalantly said, while Mika started sweating.

‘Somehow, she made his situation sound worse.’

From where he was seated, Mika could clearly see the slight strain in Barbara’s face at the subtle dig at her patient, but Rosaria looked like she hadn’t meant anything to hurt. She just said it how she thinks it is. Or maybe she did mean it to hurt and Mika is just being bad at reading people…

“Mika?” Noelle’s voice snapped Mika out of his trance, and he saw the maid pointing at somewhere, “I think Master Jean is calling for you.”

He turned around and yes, it seems so.

Well, Mika would never turn down the opportunity to be more useful elsewhere—Talking is not really his thing.

“Noelle, can you watch Bennett for a bit? I’ll b-be back.”

He told the nurses a quick goodbye before heading off towards where the acting grandmaster had been gesturing for him.

“Mika!” The Acting grandmaster’s eyes seemed to light up as soon she saw him.

“Master Jean.” He responded similarly with a small salute, trying not to give away how nervous he was about suddenly being called away. “Did you call me for something…?”

“Ah, yes, I was hoping to ask you for a favor…”

She told him the short version of it. Kaeya getting banned was not exactly a secret, so he understood the need for a new player more or but it’s just…

“Y-you want me to be the new player?”

He had to doublecheck if his ears were working.

“That is correct.” Jean stated with a professional smile on her face, “The major thing we have to do right now is explore the in-game Monstadt so I figured, it might be a good thing for you to be the one to lead. The player position is the most upfront among all the front seats in this game, and it will give you the opportunity to compare the in-game monstadt from the real one.”

“So… it’s a bit like a preliminary survey? Do you need me to draw a map…?”

“Oh, I think the game provides its own map but you can do that too if you want. Though I’m not sure your Multipurpose Front-line Surveying Device would work through the game screen…”

“I’ll do it.”

Mika doesn’t need his Surveying Device. Even before he came up with this alongside the technicians of the investigation team and Albedo latest alchemical creations, he’d already been scouting areas and drawing maps by hand. It certainly made life better and the device was a bit more accurate, but if his device was to suddenly stop working, he was ready to use his own two hands to chart what needs to be charted.

He's been thinking about it—how he could be most useful to the group here in this small and constricted black room. Although he’d made sure to learn many things in case of emergencies, his skills lied in running ahead and scouting the surroundings, so this room had made his greatest skills effectively useless.

If being a player means that he can elevate the group’s performance by even a bit, then, even though he was not a fan of spotlight positions, he would do it.

Of course, before that…

“B-but I’ll only do it if the o-other nations can provide two extra healers or minders f-for the patient I was supposed to take care of. That is, um, non-negotiable.”

Jean gave him an amused expression, but Mika can’t just leave his patient behind.

“Okay, sure, but why two?”

“My patient… it’s Bennet.”

It seems the name was enough of an explanation—Jean’s face quickly stuttered into something serious as she said.

“Make that three, just in case. I’m seriously worried for that boy.”

Huh, that worked better than Mika thought.

“Well, then,” Jean smoothed out her expression before saluting Mika the Monstadt way, a wide smile on her face, “I look forward to working with you, Mika Schmidt.”

“Yes.” Mika nodded, seriously, but then realized that was a mistake on his part and fumbled a salute right back, “I mean, the pleasure is mine. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Now… try not to die, okay?”

Oh, right.

Suddenly, Mika was all too aware of the pair of golden amber eyes burning holes into his navy blue coat jacket.

He nervously laughed.

“I… will try my best.”

---

If someone had told Lumine that having the current player play as his brother would reduce the death rate to the very bottom—to zero—then maybe she wouldn’t have glared at the young man too much as he fidgeted and squirmed in front of the device, like a scared little mouse. A very yellow and blue mouse.

It didn’t take much for her to go from daring this person to try to kill her brother to grabbing Jean by the arm and pleading that this person be in charge of her brother forever.

Okay, that sounded wrong—that sounded like a marriage proposal—but, listen! He got “Aether” all the way from the starting point back to the point where he needed to swim! Without taking damage or dying even once!

Anyway, what Lumine means to say is…

She loves Mika.

For her brother.

Or at least, the alternate version of her brother on the other side of the screen.

“Lumine, are we not going to talk about the fact you put me into a comatose, apparently?” Aether couldn’t help but ask, face scrunched up as he tried to shake his sister out of cheering for the new player’s sense of self-preservation.

“Whatever do you mean?” Lumine asked with a bright smile on her face.

“………”

Yeah, it’s been like this since Aether woke up and almost got run over by Lumine in her quickness to run to his side.

Aether grabbed the side of his head, “Ow…”

“What’s wrong?! Does something hurt?! Do I need to get Baizhu?!”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Aether lied boldly. Actually, it wasn’t much of a lie, compared to how it was when he first woke up, the headache he was getting was starting to weaken in strength so he was definitely getting better, but for the sake of guilt-tripping his sister, he played around and inflated the pain a bit, “My eyes just felt weird for a moment. It’s been like this for a while, but I can’t understand why it’s not healing as fast as the rest of me.”

The blood from Lumine’s face could not drain faster.

‘Yeah, that’s right, feel guilty.’

If Lumine doesn’t want to talk about it, he’ll make sure she thinks about it until she can’t help but have to.

For a moment, Lumine’s mouth flapped open like a fish trying to get out a word, but before she could speak, the people around them started to shout in disbelief. When both twins lifted their gaze, they found that while they were talking, Mika had managed to fulfill the task they needed to do, and was currently talking to Paimon but there was something they did not understand.

‘Why are people screaming…?’

“NO WAY, BRO GOT THE ELEMENT?”

Element…?

The twins looked around them for a bit, curiously, and their curiosity was even more aroused when they saw the representatives of each nation looking at the screen with varying degrees of disbelief.

Neuvilette seemed to notice them staring though, so he faked a cough and smoothed his expression quickly, “Ah… I suppose since you are outlanders, you wouldn’t understand the significance of what your other self just did… Allow me to explain.”

…Huh.

“Ooh! Did you just feel the elements of the world? Seems all you had to do was just touch the statue and you got the power of Anemo!”

So apparently, getting elemental powers just by touching weird statues is not normal. Who knew?

‘Not us.’ Aether and Lumine thought in unison.

It wasn’t like they got a Teyvat handbook as soon as they touched down.

“As much as they may want it, people in this world can never get a hold of powers as easily as you...”

“Oh, look, Aether, you get to talk.” Lumine pointed to the dialogue icon and giggled at her brother, “You don’t get to have a choice though.”

“I think I know why, it's because...”

“Ah-ha, it's because you're not from this world to begin with.” Paimon finished for Aether.

“This can't be good...”

“Hm? Is there something wrong with your ability to gain power?” Ayato asked, bewildered by the dialogue choice, but Aether and Lumine could only exchange looks and give a shrug.

This was an alternate version of one of them—not a one-to-one replica.

Unless they experience the same things that they did, they wouldn’t be able to know about that.  

“It's a bit rude to say that about the power the gods just gave you!” Paimon warned.

She then turned towards a certain direction as she continued speaking, “If we keep heading west from here, we'll eventually reach Mondstadt, the City of Freedom.”

“Mondstadt is the city of wind, because they worship the God of Anemo. So perhaps, because you got power from the God of Anemo, you can find some clues there. There are also lots of bards there, so perhaps one of them has heard news of your sister.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that easy…” Someone from Liyue murmured and the twins agreed.

But, well, if they were in the same situation, they would do anything just for the slightest bit of knowledge about the other.

“Let's move then! The elements in this world responded to your prayers and Paimon thinks that's a lovely sign.”

“…? Oh, OH!”

“MOBILE LEGENDS!” Both Aether and Lumine screamed as soon as they saw the buttons that appeared in the screen once the cutscene was over.

“…Mobile what?” Ningguang echoed in confusion, but the twins were already gone.

“No, no, wait, it’s like… Zelda!”

“Breath of the wild!”

“No, but look at that, that’s clearly a skill button and an ult button—”

“You don’t know that, maybe one of them is a recall button.”

“Why would you need to build up energy to recall?”

“Uh, guys???” Mika screeched as pyro slimes suddenly appear near the statue of the seven. He was confident in fighting, but hearing all the nonsense the twins were saying was making him hesitate using any of the buttons aside from the normal attacking button—

“Just press E!” Aether yelled, helpfully.

“You’re doing great, sweetie!” Lumine screeched afterwards with all the passion of a supportive mother.

‘But there is no E???’

Well, the buttons are likely not self-destruct bombs so pressing the only other thing available aside from normal attack should be fine!

“Woaaaaah! That was sick!”

“WIIINDBLAAAAADE!”

“Oh my stars, you yeeted those poor slimes!”

Mika followed the instructions of the screen to a T, tuning out the twins and focusing only on learning more about the mechanics as much as he could. He made quick work of the waves of slimes quickly like that.

“So, outlanders can get these kinds of power from the anemo god’s statue of the seven, huh?” Tighnari commented with interest.

At his comment, suddenly, the twins who had been geeking out about games before turned quiet.

“…Aether.”

Lumine grabbed her brother’s shoulder.

“Does this mean that if I were to imagine that powers as something within me, I would be able to windblade you out of this black room right now?”

Aether, sensing another danger to his life so quickly after the last one, seemed to think deeply on this question before opening his mouth.

“NO.” All the representatives say for him at the same time.

“No, as in I could, or no as in I shouldn’t do it?”

“Sit down and behave!” Tighnari practically growled, “No roughhousing and experimenting of any kind without adult supervision!”

‘…Should we tell them?’ Lumine glanced at Aether’s direction.

Aether shrugged, ‘Nah, it’ll be funnier when they realize we’re older than most people here later.’

Back in the screen, Mika was making sure to follow the task first before doing any unnecessary exploring. He picked up everything that was on the way but did not go back or delay just for a sweetflower or a piece of mint. He figured that they’d be given time to explore everything later, when the tasks are done, so he tried his best to push “Aether” through to Monstadt quickly.

It was while he was having “Aether” sprint through the fields of Monstadt…

“Wow! What is that!?”

“What in Celestia’s name!?”

“There's something huge, in the sky!”

Several people within the room exploded into shouts as a large azure dragon flew overhead.

“Oh, no.” Jean winced.

“It's headed towards the heart of the forest. We must proceed with caution.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Diluc suddenly stood up from where he was as he spoke, with a grave tone, “Proceed where? The heart of the forest where Stormterror was just heading towards? Why is the golden navigation button on the heart of the forest?!”

“Aether,” Tighnari suddenly held one of the outlander’s hands in his like he was a parent trying to gently break the bad news to a child, “I know we said your skills and your powers are awesome, but you do not need to fight a dragon. You will not win.”

The outlander to his credit could only give the sly fox a deadpan.

“...I’m not about to fight a dragon for no reason!”

“Why are fighting a dragon so early for no reason?!” Lumine shrieked, by his side.

“I said I’m not about to fight one!” Aether cried out, but unfortunately his voice was drowned out by the noises of the Monstadt people and the other nations talking among themselves and placing bets.

1,000 mora. He’s gonna fight a dragon, for sure.

As soon as Mika got them to the location of the new task, the screen turned blank and a cutscene followed.

Paimon and Aether are walking through the forests when Paimon notices something and points Aether to that direction.

“Huh! Look at that!”

Hiding behind a tree, Aether and Paimon exchange glances before slowly peeking behind the tree to see…

There’s a sound of a loud clang coming from the patient ward of the Monstadt congregation, and when several people turned to look, they could only find Barbara wrapping a newly summoned thick and opaque blanket around someone at a quick speed.

“Oops, sorry, I d-d-dropped…” She tried to say but quickly paled when the cutscene continued.

“Don’t be afraid…”

There was a boy. He was a bit short and he had braids in front of his face, with the tips being blue just like the sky. He was holding out his hands for the dragon, Stormterror, and speaking with a soothing voice.

“It’s alright now… I’m back.”

A soothing voice that Barbara can unfortunately remember.

‘Oh, Lord Barbatos, he’s even wearing the same bard uniform.’ Barbara couldn’t help but pray to Barbatos for help as she wrapped up the bard so that no one would recognize and bother him, as best as she could.

Aside from the wide-eyed nurses seated beside her giving her stares of disbelief but trying to keep their mouths shut, too.

(The bard in question sneezed inside the blanket, but thankfully, no one seemed to connect the dots yet.)

“Is he talking… to a dragon?”

Paimon asks right next to Aether only for Aether’s glowing ornaments to suddenly flare up with a flash of teal light.

“OH?” She shrieked.

The dragon sense the Traveler’s presence and roars loudly—at both the traveler and the boy.

“I-I-I don’t think I’m fully equipped to fight a dragon right now!”

Poor, poor Mika was screaming while holding unto the black device for dear life, having gone as pale as a piece of marble.

“I’m not going to fight a dragon!” Aether insisted, once again, only to be ignored by more betting in the background.

“Who’s there!?” The mysterious boy demands, face wary, but then the dragon starts going on a rampage, swiping at everything left and right.

Seeing as the dragon is too busy roaring, the boy took this opportunity to step back, bit by bit. Teal feathers seem to manifest within every step he took, and after a point, his whole body glowed and he disappeared.

Aether, who was trying to guard against the dragon’s roar, saw this, but at that moment, the dragon made its next move.

It screamed loudly, a sharp sound that rang throughout the entire forest, and then lifted off to the sky, leaving Aether and Paimon behind on the ground to only gawk at it.

The screen turned black, and the cinematic became another conversation.

“That was close! Paimon almost got blown away!” Paimon said, hand on her heart, “Luckily Paimon managed to grab hold of your hair! Thanks.”

“Oh, thank Barbatos, we didn’t fight Stormterror then and there.” Jean let out the breath she was holding, her hands intertwined in front of her face as if she’d been praying really hard for a moment there.

“Of course, he wouldn’t have fought Stormterror then and there, Master Jean.” Madam Faruzan crossed her arms and snorted, “And even if he did, he would not have died. This is a common thing in pieces of literature—introduce the big baddie first, and the main character absolutely cannot die. It was the same 100 years ago, and it’s still the same today.”

“Okay, how were we supposed to know that?” Kaveh quietly whispered to Nilou from where he was seated cross-legged on the floor behind the 100-year-old researcher, and the dancer nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, with the twins…

“I told you guys I wouldn’t be dumb enough to fight a dragon!”

Aether was pumping his arms in the air in triumph while Lumine stared at the screen with her chin resting at the back of her palm.

“Huh, look, Aether, you get to have a choice this time. It still feels useless though. Also, why aren’t you actually speaking?”

Lumine was looking forward to hear her brother’s exploits, but for some reason, although he has a dialogue box, he’s not actually talking.

Mika figured the choice of dialogue seemed inconsequential enough that he can just pick whichever, so he did exactly that.

“Good thing the dragon didn’t notice us…”

The conversation between “Aether” and Paimon more or less flowed in the direction of worry and suspicion. The twins, although travelers of worlds, can’t seem to believe that dragons existed here. Whether or not it was because the travelers have never seen dragons before, the people of the room could not know as the twins had gone quiet in favor of listening in properly.

Of course, talking about the dragon naturally lead to talking about the mysterious boy, too, and if it was normal to talk to dragons.

It was not, obviously.

“Huh, I feel like I’ve seen the boy before but I can’t quite pinpoint where…” Ayato murmured to himself.

It was quiet enough that it could be classified as private speech but it was also loud enough that people with advanced hearing could still pick it up, so when a certain katzlein from the Monstadt group started hissing out of nowhere, no one else knew why.

But Ningguang and Jean who were stationed near Ayato around the Player Perimeter also overheard and both exchanged knowing looks.

They may not know what the boy is in the grand scheme of things but they both agreed that it would be better to protect him from prying eyes.

“Oh? What's that?”

Once again, the conversation was derailed as Paimon jumped from one thing to another.

“There's some kind of shiny red thingy on the big rock over there... Let's go take a closer look.”

“That kind of behavior is the death of many adventurers…” Kaeya leisurely commented  from where he was playing with Klee next to Albedo.

“Um, Mister Albedo…?” Sucrose, who had been brushing Dodoco’s tail as a means to preoccupy herself since there was nothing to be researched about inside the room, adjusted her glasses as she examined the thing Paimon saw, “Doesn’t that look like…”

“Corruption.”

Albedo’s tone was even as he finished it for her, but his expression was grim.

“I’ve seen one of these in Dragonspine before.” Eula added to the conversation, while Amber curiously mouthed ‘Corruption’ next to her, “Or at least, something that looks like it. Could it be…?”

“Be careful! Paimon doesn't have a good feeling about this...”

Well. This opens up new possibilities for what may have caused StormTerror to be like this.

Mika had “Aether” come near the red crystal, and a new conversation was triggered as soon as he did.

“Paimon's never seen a stone like this before, so Paimon can't tell what it is.” Paimon said nervously as she looked over the crystal, “All Paimon knows is that it's dangerous. Best we put it away for now.”

“But you’re going to just put it in your bag like that?” Tighnari couldn’t help but question.

 “Okay, we've got it! Now let's get out of here.”

“Of course,” Tighnari rolled his eyes, “They can’t hear me. Why do I even bother.”

“I’m sure it will work out.” Jean reassured him while she leaned against the perimeter to better watch the vast world within the screen as Mika had “Aether” move along to the next location, sprinting all the way when he has stamina to spare.

In the monstadt congregation, Amber, who had been quiet up until now, couldn’t help but comment about the detailedness of the world.

“Man, I know that this is supposed to be Monstadt but I didn’t think it would be so accurate. I’ve been to this place before several times during patrol!”

“It’ll surely be helpful to us since that means that most locations in-game can certainly be found in real life.” Eula poked her with a small smile.

“True!” Amber laughed.

She leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder with a pleasant smile as she continued watching the screen, but then…

The screen suddenly faded to black.

“Oh, is it another cinematic?” Eula raised an eyebrow. ‘So quickly after the last one?’

Paimon and Aether appeared, strolling through the forest, when suddenly a voice called out to them.

“Hey you! Stop right there!”

Eula and Amber both froze.

“Uhhhhh…”

The outrider herself stared at the screen with round eyes.

In the screen, two red ribbons could be seen bobbing in the air as a brown-haired girl sprinted across the ground and leapt off from above.

A wonderful tune played, one akin to wonder as Paimon and Aether stared at her, entranced, as she traveled through the air.

She landed with a roll on the ground, almost tripped, but managed to get her balance in time to whip around and face the two of them.

“…Oh, archons, it’s me!” Amber squealed and pointed at the screen, excitedly while shaking Eula’s shoulder, “Eula, Eula, look, that’s me in my uniform!”

Eula was frozen in her spot, still, even as the excited outrider shook her vigorously.

The spindrift knight had only one thought in her mind.

‘Oh, no.’

“May the Anemo God protect you, stranger!” The Amber on the screen saluted Aether and Paimon as she introduced herself, “I am Amber, Outrider for the Knights of Favonius.”

Amber made a little happy noise.

“You don't look like citizens of Mondstadt. Explain yourselves!”

“Yeah, that sounds like Amber all right…” Kaeya said to himself, laughing as “Amber” on the screen proceeded to interrogate the two travelers, relentlessly.

“We're not looking for trouble…!” Paimon hurriedly tried to say.

 “That's what all the troublemakers say!”

“Pfft.” Jean covered her mouth.

‘Ah, Amber, never change.’

“Hello, I'm Aether.”

“...Doesn't sound like a local name to me.” Amber squinted at Aether before turning to look at Paimon, befuddled, “And this... mascot, what's the deal with it?”

The dialogue options that came after would later redefine every exchange with Paimon from here on after.

“Emergency food?!” Kaveh shrieked at the same time as several people, but his voice was probably the loudest. He looked appalled. “That’s a joke right? Of course, Paimon is our friend!”

“No, no, the game has a point. We always need to be prepared…”

“Alhaitham, stop joking around!”

“I’m not. But the game surely is joking with you, dimwit.”

“I d-do not think eating human flesh is an acceptable way to survive in the wild…” Mika blurted out seriously, even turning around just to level the two of them with a concerned look.

Ayato held his chin in contemplation, “Is Paimon a human, though?”

“Abuhsgdsh--That’s besides the point! She looks human enough! She looks like a child!” Kaveh stumbled through his words but powered through in argument.

The exchange was completely unserious despite the possible notation of cannibalism—it was funnier because both members of the exchange were in no way close to each other in the room, and so they were speaking at a level that everyone can hear just so the other could understand what was being said.

Basically, they were yelling at each other across the room.

Although, Ayato didn’t really yell as much as he just raised his voice with a smile.

Mika picked the friendlier option.

“We’re friends.”

“We've only been traveling partners for two months, but…” Paimon puffed up her chest with pride, “We've already become the very best of friends!

“Look at her—You want to cook this child?!” Kaveh gestured to the screen.

“Huh, now I wonder what Paimon would have said if we picked Emergency Food.” Collei muttered to herself, trying to make sure Layla, who was still sleeping, does not startle awake.

Amber still seemed a little unconvinced but in the end she gave up with a sigh, “So to sum it up, you're traveling partners, right? Well look, there's been a large dragon sighted around Mondstadt recently. Best you get inside the city as soon as possible. It's not far from here, I'll escort you there.”

“Oh? Aren't you out here for some other reason?” Paimon asked.

“I am. But not to worry, I can keep you both safe while doing that too.” Amber reassured, before giving them the look again, “Besides... I'm still not sure if I can trust you two just yet!”

“Well, that was very rude of you, Amber.” Kaeya told the Outrider with mock-disappointment to which the brown-haired outrider sputtered over.

“Hey, it’s a perfectly reasonable way to handle strange-looking strangers!”

“That's a rather rude way to speak to guests.”

 “Oh, ahh... I'm sorry. Probably not something I should say as a knight.” Amber awkwardly attempted to salute again, although hesitantly, as she looked to be trying to remember a specific set of words, “I give you my apologies, uh... strange yet... respectable travelers.”

“That sounded so fake…”

Paimon muttered to herself, but unfortunately it did not escape Amber’s ears.

“Do you have something against the type of language usage prescribed by the Knights of Favonius Handbook!?

“Pffft—hahahaha!” Kaeya couldn’t help it as he held his side and tried and failed to stifle his laughter. She wasn’t wrong—it really was part of the handbook to call foreigners that way, but it was still so funny how by the books she was trying to deal with this.

Jean wasn’t any better. She was hiding her face on the perimeter lane and not making a sound but her shoulders were definitely shaking. She didn’t wanna laugh at Amber—the outrider’s face was already red in embarrassment already—but really?

Honestly, meeting Amber like this is the most Monstadt welcome one could ever have.

The screen changed to black as the conversation ended, but before  it could return to the normal exploration mechanic, a picture of Amber flashed at the screen.

She was aiming at something and she seemed to be in mid-air with a determined smile.

“At the Ready!” Her voice exclaimed.

“…Wait.” Kaeya’s smile fell.

“Oh!” Amber said in surprise as the words on the screen right after gave her an idea of what’s going on, “I’m… also a character?”

‘Oh, dear…’ Eula winced a little, her thoughts having been proved right.

Now, “Amber” could be controlled by the “Player” as well!

“…Should we be worried about this?” Sucrose quietly asked Albedo, having seen the Cavalry Captain and the Reconnaisance Captain both lose their good humor very fast at the appearance of a “playable Amber.”

Albedo gave the two a glance before turning away, “Don’t mind them. They’re just uncomfortable about this.”

“And… you’re not?”

“I don’t know how to feel about this yet, but I don’t think this has to be a bad thing.” Albedo shrugged.

A new character meant a wider array of abilities for the player to utilize in battle. Even now, as Mika was trying out and getting himself accustomed to the playstyle of a bow user, “Amber” opened up all sorts of new possibilities for the player, and opened new skills to use.

It opened up the possibility of “Teamwork” and “Group Play” for the player, in a way that made sense realistically—as they were sprinting to the next location once again, after all, Amber was holding a conversation with Paimon, who was speaking for Aether, and it seemed that she’s slowly lowering her guard bit by bit.

She even offered to help put up posters for his sister.

“What exactly is it you need to finish doing first?” Paimon asked curiously.

“It's simple. You'll understand in a bit.”

“I’m calling it, we’re fighting hilichurls.” Tighnari declared.

“Ah! A hilichurl!”

 “Quick! Get it!”

Tighnari raised his hand like a victor.

With the new character in tow, Mika made quick work of the hilichurl using what he knew about elemental reactions. Pyro and Anemo was a perfect combination for big fires, so soon enough, the hilichurl was disintegrating into nothing.

It turns out, Amber’s task was to clear out the hilichurl camp nearby. Jean and several others couldn’t help but feel alarmed upon seeing the hilichurl camp stationed so close to the city—when they last checked, the hilichurls hadn’t wandered off that close to the city yet, but now, seeing as this was set in the near future…

‘It’s going to get worse before it gets better.’ Jean thought to herself sadly while Mika absolutely destroyed the hilichurl camp, leaving nothing behind with a fiery tornado.

Aether’s conversation with Amber afterwards put a bit more detail in how grave the situation has become, and Jean at least could feel glad to know that in the near future, they’d be given a lending hand.

“Come with me! A responsible knight must make sure to see you to the city safely.”

---

“Let me officially introduce the city of wind, dandelions, and freedom — Travelers under the protection of the Knights of Favonius — Welcome to Mondstadt!”

“Waaah…” Yaoyao exclaimed as she looked at their neighbors through the screen.

She’s never been to Monstadt before… the trip was a bit too long for someone like her, and well, her master and the other adepti wouldn’t be able to protect her if she went outside Liyue, so she tended to avoid that unless she was sure she had an adult like Beidou to take care of her should something go wrong.

Her parents might go crazy if they found out she was going somewhere without either an adepti or an adult and that wouldn’t be good.

Adventures aren’t all just fun and games after all.

Sometimes, adventures means you get lots of owies. It can hurt. Yaoyao would know.

She learned how to heal owies because she knew that!

Although, hmm… she wonders, if she trained hard enough would she also learn how to fly like Paimon?

 “Finally, no more having to camp outdoors!” Paimon declared but then lost her cheer slowly as she looked around, “But... the city folk don't look too cheery.”

 “Everyone's been put out of place by Stormterror recently.” Amber explained.

Yaoyao frowned. That’s not good.

Monstadt looks like such a pretty place. It would be sad if the people there are too scared to smile and enjoy.

“But everything will turn out fine as long as Jean's with us!”

There was a sudden loud cough right ahead of Yaoyao, and she blinked as she looked at who was it. That almost sounded a bit like Mr. Baizhu’s coughs, and that was not a compliment, it was a point of concern.

 “Jean?”

“Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius — Jean, Defender of Mondstadt.” Amber enthusiastically said, “With Jean on our side, surely even the vicious Stormterror will be no match for us.”

“Amber…”

Right ahead, Yaoyao could see a blonde knight from Monstadt trying to cover her face as she bemoaned the confidence Amber had in her.

“She’s not wrong.” To make matters worse, the player (was his name, Mika?) said this off-handedly, not having realized he was heard by many, so now, Jean could only laugh and accept the compliments being thrown her way.

‘Oh,’ Yaoyao stared at the sheepish knight from Monstadt, figured that she must be Jean, Defender of Monstadt, and found herself thinking.

‘I wonder if I can be as strong as her someday?’

“Before I take you guys to the Knights of Favonius Headquarters, I have a present for you, Aether. It's a reward for helping me clear out that hilichurl camp.”

“He-Hey! Why doesn't Paimon get a reward?” Paimon sulked.

“Ahh... Because this reward is useless to you, Paimon.” Amber sheepishly said.

 “But I'll treat you to a traditional Mondstadt delicacy — Sticky Honey Roast.”

“Sticky Honey Roast!” Paimon was immediately won over.

Amber smiled, “Come with me, we'll head to the city's ahh... high ground.”

“My, my, brother, getting rewards from a girl…ow!” Lumine teased only to be hit in the rib with a jab of an elbow by her twin brother.

“Shut up, that’s a real person you’re shipping me with!”

The representatives closest to the twins promptly tuned out the siblings’ good-natured bickering in favor of looking at the city properly through the eyes of the game.

It was… well, it certainly was not like any other country. The city was guarded on all sides by tall castle walls and they were surrounded by a body of water for good measure. It was quite literally made like a fortress—and yet the atmosphere inside seemed pretty lively, not at all dull nor restricting.

For the people from the other nations, this was the closest to “sight-seeing” and “tourism” that they could do right now, but for the people of Monstadt watching this…

“Did we just pass by Cat’s Tail?”

“Look, it’s Sara from Good Hunter!”

“O-oh, Mr. Albedo, it’s Timaeus!”

They were having a fun time playing where’s Waldo in an attempt not to think of the… physical difference between the characters in the game and the people they actually knew.

‘Somehow… were these people always so plain?’ They couldn’t help but wonder.

Maybe it was a matter of translation of features. They can’t expect this game to be able to perfectly replicate… everything.

“This used to be a bustling street... But with so many Stormterror attacks recently, the usual crowds are nowhere to be seen.” Amber said, “Except for the local tavern near the city wall over there. They haven't been affected. If anything, their business is better than ever.”

As Mika had “Aether” walk by the fountain plaza, Amber’s voice started to flow into the room with worry. It was only after she pointed it out that people realized that, true enough, there weren’t much people outside.

This was especially weird for the People of Monstadt who were used to the crowds that would flock around Bards or even Barbara’s performances, or just get together for no particular reason.

“It’s a problem when more people are drinking than having fun outside!” Diona declared.

She wasn’t wrong—there was something to be said about higher alcoholism during a time of crisis.

It didn’t take long for Mika to reach the marked location as instructed and as soon as he got there…

“So, the present I want to give you is... A Wind Glider!”

“YES!” Amber and a green-haired girl from Sumeru both exclaimed at the same time, jumping to their feet with cheer.

The people around them chuckled at them fondly.

“Outriders use them to ride the wind, and the people of Mondstadt love using them too.” Amber excitedly explained, “I brought you here to give it to you so you can experience it right away!”

“Oh, you're really excited about these wind gliders, huh!”

“Well that's because the wind is the heart and soul of Mondstadt!”

“Damn right, it is!”

“Alrighty then, enough talk! Let's give it a whirl! It's easy to use, but you still need to pay attention to my instructions.”

“Thank celestia, we’re going to get gliding in-game! I thought we’d only ever be able to walk forever!” The Outrider laughed heartily as she took her seat once again.

“Be very, very careful, Mika!” Kaeya playfully warned with a chuckle, “That’s one more way to die now!”

“Oh, shut up, Kaeya! Let him play in peace!” Eula yelled.

Kaeya raised his hands in surrender but his smile betrayed any sign of remorse.

Music started playing as soon as the Gliding tutorial started. Mika misclicked the first time so everyone screamed when he almost fell to his doom but thankfully the screen stopped as if to make sure he would not fall to his death.

Somehow, Kaeya can’t help but wonder where this feature was when he was falling to death left and right. What kind of favoritism was this?!

Anyway, Mika did not fall. In fact, he flew, and he did it with no mistakes.

It was actually fun to glide, apparently, especially when you do it atop the city and get to see the world from above. It was exhilarating—if you ignored the ever-present fear of plummeting to the ground.

And the fact that they probably shouldn’t be gliding like this in the city without a license.

“Oh, archons, wait, I just realized we don’t have a license for this!” Mika shrieked.

“Don’t worry, Mika! If worst comes to worse, I give you permission to throw me at the problem!” Amber encouragingly said although her words did not really sound encouraging to the Frontline Surveyor at all.

“How am I supposed to do that?!”

It was a bumpy and long-winded roller coaster of a ride, but eventually, they neared the marked location for touching ground.

Mika thought he could finally let out a breathe of relief.

The screen faded to black.

He was very wrong.

“The sky...” Amber grew tense and worried as she looked upwards.

The sky turns dark as a growl could be heard from a distance. The dragon from before arrives with the accompaniment of low piano keys, cutting through the thick fog around Monstadt as it flew above Monstadt with a shrill cry.

“Oh, shit!”

It knocks over some buildings with its wings as it flies around Monstadt.

People screamed and ran for their lives as debris fell from the sky. And one person almost bumped into Aether as the golden-haired outlander looked towards the sky.

“Are we going to fight the dragon, now???”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Aether covered his ears while the cutscene continued.

The dragon flew to a stop just above Monstadt and took in a deep breath before letting out a loud and shrill cry. Several dark colored tornadoes infused with elemental energy manifested all around the city, the biggest being stationed right at the hands of the statue of Barbatos.

Several people ran and cried out in fear as they tried to run away from a particular tornado in the plaza, where Amber and Aether were also following after them, but then—

“Ah!”

Amber stopped and turned around in shock to see Aether pulled out of the ground by the wind. She tried to grab him, but he’d been whisked into the Tornado before he could even scream and thrown into the sky.

“…!”

Aether opened his wind gliders immediately before he could plummet to his death, and tried his best to stabilize himself high in the air.

“THANK YOU, AMBER, FOR TEACHING HIM HOW TO USE THAT THING!” Lumine practically screamed.

Aether looked at the city’s condition from above for a moment before hearing the dragon once again. His eyes widened as he saw the dragon rapidly approaching him with its jaw open, and he quickly swerved to the side.

He got batted by a wing, but considering he recovered from that, it was better than being killed.

The screen turned black.

“Aether” was stuck high up in the sky at the tail of an angry dragon with only his wind glider and elemental powers on the screen after that. Mika doesn’t know how he was not falling, but he was thankful—at this height, there was no question to be asked. If “Aether” falls, he will surely die!

Paimon’s voice could be heard even as Aether was all alone up in the sky.

“Huh? How are you staying afloat like this with just a Wind Glider?”

“I'm preventing your fall with the power of a thousand winds.”

“That voice…!” Mika’s eyes widened. He’s heard that voice before!

“Now, concentrate. See yourself grasping the wind. Harness its energy.”

The mysterious voice instructed, and on the screen, Aether started shooting the dragon from behind with energy while Paimon’s voice panicked.

“Who... who said that!?

“It’s the boy from before!” Kaveh exclaimed in surprise.

“I’m shooting the dragon!” Aether yelled over him.

“Go, Aether!” Amber screeched from where she was seated, enjoying the game much more than she thought she would.

The damage of whatever the heck “Aether” was doing was negligible on its own, but since he was attacking several times and continuously, he was effectively wearing down the dragon at a fast pace. The dragon tried to shake him off his tail many times, but Mika was quick to reposition the outlander for maximum efficiency.

Soon enough, the dragon had enough and with a loud roar, it escaped, leaving “Aether” behind in the sky, brown wings of his glider still out.

“We did it!”

People cheered.

“Okay, neat, now how do we get down?” Tighnari deadpanned.

The screen turned to black before showing Aether descending safely to the ground.

As soon as he touched down, Amber rushed to him frantically to check on him, “A—Are you hurt?”

“Not a scratch!” Lumine happily said.

“Stormterror hit me with a wing.” Aether said.

“Only a scratch!” Lumine corrected herself, her joy not dimming in the slightest.

What’s important is that Aether’s not dead.

Aether didn’t get to give Amber an answer because at that moment, the two of them noticed someone walking towards their direction while clapping.

This person…

“Hm?” Kaeya blinked.

“Of course.” Jean sighed exasperatedly.

“You've actually got the power to go up against the dragon...”

On the screen, a person with navy-blue hair and a dark complexion approached the two with a small reserved smile and a glint in his eye. Yes, eye. This person had an eyepatch.

“Are you a new ally... or a new storm?”

“Dramatic much?” Diluc huffed.

“Kaeya! It’s you!” Klee happily said as she pointed at the screen.

The Cavalry Captain to his credit, stared at the little kid and then at the screen only for a minute or so before clearing his throat and nervously laughing.

“Ah, yes. I can see that Klee.”

‘Well, damn.’

Somehow…

Kaeya feels like he’s gonna be the next person to be available for the player’s control…?

Chapter Text

“Stormterror... is attacking Mondstadt itself!” 

“Yeah, we can see that, Amber.” Tighnari commented dryly. 

On the screen, Amber panicked as everything dawned on her, and she quickly looked towards the two people with her, “Kaeya, Aether, you've come at the right time. We must...”

“Hold on, Amber.” Kaeya said patiently, his arms crossed as he looked straight at Aether, “Are you perhaps forgetting to introduce us?”

“Welp. Congratulations, Kaeya.” 

Albedo stoically told the Cavalry Captain who was sprawled on the floor, playing doll with their resident child pyromaniac. The alchemist tapped at the sketchbook in his hands as he continued with slight amusement lacing his voice.

“You are now the third person Aether has ever met.” 

“I…” Kaeya, to his credit, looked a bit strained even as he maintained his no-good smile for the others around him.

“Well, I suppose, I’ll take that as a badge of honor.” He says but his internal thoughts were running in a completely different direction.

‘Oh, this is weird. This feels really truly weird.’ 

Kaeya looked at himself in the screen, the amount of details in his clothes and the, er, lack thereof in other areas, and he felt the need to look away.

This was way too strange of an experience! How could Amber and Aether look at their other selves with a straight face and be unbothered? He can see his body from a third person’s perspective—he can see it moving on its own and everything. This is way different than seeing your reflection in the mirror, because obviously, the reflection was doing something different!

A shudder came through Kaeya’s spine but still the easy-going smile on his face remained.

‘This is why I tried to get out of playing…’ 

But guess there was no use after all. 

He could only internally sigh, before lifting his gaze and finding that someone was staring at him. Someone very specific. 

“…Why are you looking at me like that?” 

“…….”

Diluc was staring at him with narrow eyes.

It wasn’t anything new—Diluc has done the same thing several times to Kaeya ever since he came back from his whole soul-searching (fatui hunting. It was actually fatui hunting. Kaeya finds it funnier to call it another thing though). 

Kaeya was about to crack a joke or something at the seriousness of the Diluc’s stare when he suddenly opened his mouth and said something that got Kaeya freezing up. 

“…You haven’t changed in the slightest.” 

…What’s that supposed to mean? 

Also, why the hell does the redhead look so annoyed while saying that?

These questions plagued Kaeya’s mind as he stared at Diluc with a raised eyebrow, but the grumpy guy was saved by Mika, who had decided it was about time to continue the dialogue in the screen at that moment. 

“Oh... right. This is Kaeya, our Cavalry Captain.” Amber quickly made the introductions, “These two are travelers from afar, Aether and Paimon.

‘From afar? Is that all we know of them?’ 

“Now, who’s the untrusting one?” Amber scoffed as she rested her head on Eula’s shoulder, her arms crossed as she made a show of turning away from Kaeya. 

It earned a few giggles all around, but the target of her statement was not responsive.

‘Oh, great. Even my thoughts are in display.’ 

Kaeya feels like this day cannot get any better than this, and he feels it sarcastically. 

“Long story short...” Amber tells Kaeya the whole story...

“I see. Welcome to Mondstadt — though you haven't arrived at the best of times, I'm afraid.” Kaeya finally greeted Aether properly. 

“It is such a shame this is the first thing he’s seeing upon arriving.” 

Sucrose mumbled to herself, tapping a yellow and green pen unto her chin. Her words rang true to many of the monstadt citizens near her, as they all knew how warm and lively the city could be under different circumstances. 

Thinking about the cause of the loss of that, people found themselves feeling a bit somber. 

 “I understand the anguish of being separated from family.” 

Kaeya put a hand over his chest briefly, a serious expression on his face, but then…

“I'm not really sure why you're looking for the Anemo God...” Kaeya grinned mischievously, “But everyone has their secrets, right?” 

“A smart boy.” Faruzan nodded with approval, “Quick on the uptake, huh? Did Amber say he was the cavalry captain?”

“That’s funny,” Kaveh squinted his eyes at the screen, “I think I’m yet to see any horses so far.” 

“I-I’m sure they’ll appear one day… I think?” Collei nervously said, and Dehya was quick to support her with a smile. 

“Yeah! We’ve only been here, what, a day? You’ll see your horses one day, Kaveh.” 

“…I didn’t really have a desire to see one, Dehya, I just found it odd.” 

“Sure, whatever you say.” 

“Hey, don’t butt in conversations that don’t include you, Alhai—hold up, is that a book in your hand? Did you seriously use the power of imagination to make a book that you’ll already know the contents of???” 

“Can all of you shut up?!” 

It took Tighnari hollering that statement for the Sumeru crew to shut their mouths, and finally let the nervously sweating Mika continue.

‘Oh no… should I tell them?’ Mika thought, mind going back to the expedition and Varka briefly before decidedly biting his tongue instead. 

…It probably wouldn’t matter in the long run. 

“Haha, relax! I won't press you for more.” Kaeya laughed light-heartedly, “First and foremost, on behalf of the Knights of Favonius, I would like to extend our thanks to you for your help just now.”

Mika completely ignored the other rude option and opted for the more polite one. 

“Well, we couldn't just leave the situation to fester.” 

“You could have asked for a reward, you know…” 

“Your fight to defend the city against the dragon just now was witnessed by no small number of citizens.” Kaeya explained, “The Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius is also very interested in meeting you, and formally invites you both to our headquarters .”

“Wow, you’re letting him in fast.” Yoimiya from Inazuma whistled in surprise, “I don’t think any random person would be allowed in the Tri-commision estates, much less Tenshukaku as fast as this…”

“Ahem, ahem.” Itto, beside her, smugly smirked, “You know, you’re looking at the guy who’s been to the Tenryou Commission more times than you can count.” 

“Yes,” Kuki Shinobu confirmed with a straight face, “To go to jail.” 

“Or challenge Kujou Sara.” Thoma sheepishly added. 

“Or pay a fine for all your unapproved activities in the street.” Kujou Sara glared. 

Itto practically closed his mouth like a clam. 

“To be fair, I think they’re only letting him in because he proved himself mighty enough to lend a helping hand against their current trials and tribulations.” Kazuha calmly said, smile as easy as the breeze. 

“…Psshhh, all he did was shoot wind at a dragon! Ushi would probably hit harder than tha—oomph!” 

“I’m sorry, please, ignore him.” Kuki Shinobu grimaced as he informed all the spectators that had become interested in the conversation because of Itto’s loud mouth. With a hand held tight over Itto’s mouth, she promptly yanked him down to the floor before he could come over to anyone’s personal space.

Itto pulled away from the hand the first chance he got but before he could open his mouth more to speak, he was interrupted by a sudden wave of murmurs from the crowd around him. 

When he looked at the screen, he found that the dialogue was now over and there plastered in the center was a new icon that looked much like a hanger. 

[Dressing Room] 

“Oh, hell, naw!” Lumine abruptly stood up, with a furious expression, “Flirting is one thing—No one’s stripping my brother!” 

“Why did your mind immediately jump to that?!” Aether screamed, horrified and undoubtedly red to the roots, but like little sisters do, Lumine ignored him and his embarrassment in favor of making a show of rolling up her non-existent sleeves to pick a fight.

She was about to spew something about how there was no way they’re making her brother a dress-up doll out of nowhere, when she finally read the description, and suddenly calmed down. 

Dressing Room unlocked. 

Collect unique wind gliders and outfits to alter the appearance of your characters.

Oh, okay, they need to collect things first. It's not a dress-up doll. 

‘This must have something to do with the wind glider.’ 

She thought absent-mindedly, not noticing the embarrassment that was shading her brother’s face the longer she stood there, propping her chin on her finger as she scrutinized the screen. 

‘Lumine, for the love of stars, sit down, everyone’s looking at you!’ 

Ever since their not-so-little spat, was it just Aether or was Lumine being extremely protective? Its like she’s an attack bird ready to fly at someone’s face at the first signs of threatening behavior to Aether’s mental and physical well-being! 

‘This is weird!’

Aether buried his face in his hands as he internally screamed.

Being ready to throw hands at anyone who dares do something to his sister was Aether’s job—He’s not used to it being the other way around!

“Ohhh! Mika, check it, check it, I wanna see the windglider I gave them in more detail!” 

“Oh, um, okay?” Mika answered reluctantly to the excited Amber, searching the screen for the telltale signs of an instruction, ‘But how… Ah.’ 

A few clicks later…

“Um.” 

Mika stared blankly at the character screen that was suddenly shown to him, and the numbers over the spaces. 

He wasn’t the only one. 

The representatives and the people at the front row seat were having a blast trying to comprehend the sudden numerical translation of Aether’s abilities being shown on screen. 

“…Is this…” Ningguang evenly said, faltering only a little as she pointed a finger at the screen, “…Normal?” 

Her question was directed to none other than Lumine who was still standing in the midst of a sitting crowd. 

“Oh, yeah, that’s normal.” She casually said, not too surprised.

“No, it’s not!” Aether abruptly said with a look of concern, “Those cannot be my stats. I don’t know what measure they’re using for this, but I swear, I’m—”

Lumine casually grabbed her brother who started ranting by the shoulder, expression unchanging as she gave Mika the thumbs up, “Just keep going, and learn the ropes. I’ll explain some things to him later.” 

“What things?” Aether questioned, suddenly alarmed.

Given that he was asleep for a portion of the beginning, it had slipped away from people’s mind to think that Aether might not actually know the condition his “game self” was in. Specifically—the part where his powers had been sealed. 

Lumine smiled innocently at her older brother, flowers blooming with warmth, but the words she said, although sickeningly sweet, were the most passive-aggressive words Aether has ever heard from her lips.

“You put this upon yourself, brother.” 

The blonde outlander girl will tell her brother about the reason behind his downgrade and she will enjoy doing so—after she’s frustrated him enough. 

“Okay…?”

Well, staring at the twins, Mika guesses that he will have to just take this as another new development in the game—a feature maybe?

“Weapons, Talents and artifacts, I understand, but constellations…?” He muttered under his breath in confusion as he scrolled through what was basically a dumbed down explanation of what Aether, as a person, could do. 

“Hey, Mika…” 

Only after seeing Aether’s capabilities summed up by numericals did Amber suddenly feel a sense of concern for the existence of her game self. 

“My face is also an option, so does that mean…?” 

Indeed. 

When Mika checked, it was the same for Amber as it was for Aether. Her capabilities were practically condensed into something comprehensible—and yet weaker than it actually is. It would have offended Amber if she hadn’t learned that there was a system to make her stronger still: The leveling system. 

Mika still does not quite understand it. 

Was this a side effect of trying to replicate something and being unable to do so in its entirety?

‘If I exist in the game, do I start with such low numbers, too?’ 

Mika was never one to look at the world through numbers, preferring to see the world through lines, so he felt a bit curious about how these numbers were translated to represent Aether and Amber’s power. They didn’t look very accurate but…

“Um… the wind gliders!” Amber cut off Mika’s train of thought with a nervous laugh, “Mika, didn’t we go here for the wind gliders?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, I just got—”

“No, don’t worry about it, come on.” 

It was awkward, to say the least. If seeing herself in another point of view didn’t do the trick on Amber, it seemed the numbers did the job of making her realize the discrepancies. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to dwell that much in the discomfort, prompting instead to drink in the details of her little gift with gusto. 

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the rest of the crowd in the room. 

‘Oh, no, no, no, no.’ 

Lyney didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or to die. No, wait, he can’t die—he can’t leave Lynette all alone in this stupid world, and he certainly does not want to see the look on Freminet’s face if it turns out both he and Lynette will only be at peace if they were together in life and death, like the twins they were. Two halves of the same coin. 

The conversion of abilities had been a shock to learn, but that had been okay. It was simply a measure of strength after all, and it turns out everyone becomes a weaker version of themselves first, so it didn’t matter. It was something they could change in the future if they didn’t like seeing the low numbers on their characters. 

But the character profile and stories? 

Oh, the magician doesn’t know if he would be one of the playable characters in the game one day, but he sure hopes he doesn’t have to be one! Just one glimpse of this would be enough to blow not just his cover, but Lynette and Freminet’s too!

‘Hey, isn’t this a bit of an excessive breach of privacy?’ Lyney couldn’t help but think as he leaned back and forth, squirming next to his siblings. 

Just one look would be enough for anyone to know who your affiliations lie with—not to mention, the stories you keep hidden. It was a free for all—everyone would easily see it all over the character stories. 

Right now, it didn’t seem like a problem since there was barely anything unlocked but… 

Lyney bit his lip, but not before making sure that no one would see it. Even the slightest slip in acting could be a problem.

“I think it’s about time we move on.” 

Surprisingly, the person to push through with the game was Furina.

The hydro archon was seated at the front of the Fontaine cast on a macaron beanbag with a bored blank look on her face.

Hearing her, Neuvilette, the representative, cleared his throat and promptly relayed her message to the other representatives, and after some hesitation, they finally had Mika exit the character screen with varying mixed feelings. 

They don’t think they want to open that anytime soon again but… they might not have a choice. 

“Onward, to the Knights’ headquarters!” Amber suddenly cheered, breaking the tension that had built up within the room from the unnerving conversion of people into “characters”. 

She smiled brightly with a hand in the air, and seeing her, Klee, who was nearby let go of her crayon in favor of mimicking her, similarly beaming. 

“Onward!” The little child squealed. 

The people around cracked a grin, feeling the tension melt off of their shoulders. It was just a simple distraction but it seemed to do wonders because people started to relax one by one after that—including Mika, who was feeling suffocated by the silence, from where he was seated.

Mika sent Amber a grateful look, and the outrider winked at him. 

He’ll have to make sure to pay back Amber for this one.

—

It didn’t take long for Mika to find the headquarters. Having memorized the real Monstadt’s layout, he didn’t even need to look at the game’s mini map to navigate his way around the city. No, it didn’t take long to get there, but you know what did take long? 

Trying to unlock the damn teleport waypoint on top of the building. 

“Who’s idea was it to elevate the teleport waypoint that high into the building and not put stairs?!” 

“Please don’t ask us, our ancestors built that building.” Jean sighed, exasperatedly as she looked towards the one who was complaining—huh, of course, it would be the architect of Sumeru.

Kaveh’s complaints were valid, but as a non-monstadt citizen, he has to understand. Monstadt doesn’t have the same focus on architecture as Sumeru—no, if anything, they operated by a simple “if there is a will, there’s a way” code and just winged it. Literally. 

The only way to get up here is to probably utilize wind gliders—but to use wind gliders, you need a wind current. 

We don’t have that. 

“In monstadt’s defense, I don’t think any of the founding members of the knights thought that the teleport waypoint did anything.” Albedo commented calmly, pointing a pencil at the screen where “Aether” was slowly, bit by bit, losing his stamina halfway through scaling the building.

“Can you relocate it downwards?” Lumine asked, voice dry, as “Aether” went into the red and yet the end of the building was still yet to be seen. 

“I don’t think relocation was easy.” Aether squinted his eyes at “himself” on the screen.

“…We don’t have nearly enough stamina for this.” Kaeya amusedly quipped, mirth dancing in his eye as he watched the climb. 

It was easy to tell what was in his mind. 

“W-wait, no, no, I got this…” 

Mika frantically said as his eyes darted around, having stopped “Aether” from moving onward. Sweating profusely, he looked towards every crevice he could afford to reach with what little stamina he had, and his eyes focused as something dawned on him.

“I have an idea, I just need to…” 

He inched “Aether” upward so that his foot would be higher than what seemed to be a window frame, held his breath and…

“…! We did it!” 

“You smart son of a—nice woman, the stamina is recovering!” 

“Aw, boo.” Kaeya stuck his tongue out. 

Diluc had half a mind not to hit him in the end before one of the twins do, when suddenly, while everyone was distracted cheering, something caught his eye.

“Wait, what was that?” 

“What was what?” Kaeya was the first to whip his head at the screen, having been the only one to hear the redhead’s quiet murmur.

“I thought I saw a star or a gem on the screen for a moment.” Diluc narrowed his eyes. 

He thought he saw a blue-pink gradient flash across the center of the screen but by the time it registered in his brain, it was gone. It was around the time the teleport waypoint was unlocked, too.

“I don't see anything except a great view of Monstadt from above.” Kaeya raised an eyebrow.

Diluc took this response and pursed his lip. 

He could have sworn… 

Was he just seeing things?

Well, it was probably nothing if he was the only one in a room of more than 80 people who saw it. If there really was something , surely someone would have noticed?

Right?

“Oh, this position is actually not so bad.” 

Back with the crowd, Eula was leaning a bit more towards the screen, her expression seemingly interested as she crossed her arms and assessed the new perspective from above.

“The founders may not have known the function of the waypoint, but they unknowingly maximized its benefits by putting it at higher ground. From here,if you have a windglider, you can practically glide to almost anywhere.”

“We don't have a license.” Mika reminded, apprehensively.

Amber snorted and waved him off. 

“Eh, you can get it later. For now, go to the headquarters already! I wanna see Master Jean!” 

Jean, at the back of the player perimeter, turned a shade paler all of a sudden. 

‘Oh, right, I’m most likely in the headquarters.’

Unfortunately, before she could have second thoughts on the matter and ask Mika to give her time to mentally prepare, the Surveyor already went into the headquarters and through the door. 

And a cutscene started playing. 

A blonde woman stood leaning against a wall anxiously. 

‘Aaaaaaaaaaah…’ 

Jean was not mentally prepared to see herself first and foremost. Forget everything she said about seeing her friends as characters, this was a different level of strange. 

She glanced at a clock on the wall, before pulling herself up, as if to go outside to seek the people she was waiting for before a brunette in purple stopped her.

“Jean, what's the hurry? I thought we agreed to meet them here.” The brunette scolded mildly as she shut her book close. 

“Lisa!” Klee happily gasped. 

“Huh.” Lisa stared at the screen, pleasantly surprised by her appearance, but then stretched, yawned and went back to lying comfortably in a couch in the Monstadt area. 

“...you could at least react properly to your own appearance, you know.” Keqing from Liyue murmured to herself, a judging expression on her face, only to jump when she received a not-so-subtle “Shhh!” from the big bird in the room, trying to absorb as much information as possible. 

“If one has the time to dawdle, one should keep to their own business!”  

“There have been sightings of Stormterror outside the city.” Jean exclaimed with furrowed eyebrows, gaze on the floor, before looking her coworker in the eye, “Once we meet, we must–”

“Relax.” Lisa cut her off with a sweet smile as she languidly draped herself unto the side railing by the bookshelves, emerald green eyes crinkled, “I'll lend a hand when the time comes.”

“Jean, I've brought them.” 

Kaeya walked in, waving at the two slightly, and behind him, Aether and Paimon were curiously looking around the office. 

Both ladies turned to look at their new visitors. 

“Here we go.” Kaeya sighed as he leaned backwards. 

The cinematic ended with Kaeya telling Jean all about what happened–a report and a testimony. 

“...And once it was over I brought them straight here.” Kaeya finished off with his arms crossed over his chest. 

Amber keeps silent next to Jean as the Acting Grandmaster soaked in everything and contemplated in silence, a hand near her chin. The silence didn’t last that long as Jean promptly dropped her guard and finally welcomed the traveler properly.

“Mondstadt welcomes you, windborne travelers. I am Jean, Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius.” She greeted politely and then gestured towards Lisa, “This is Lisa, our resident Librarian.”

“Oh! Are you sweeties here to help us out?” Lisa sweetly smiled with pleasant surprise in her eyes, “You're both so adorable!”

Her mood took a 180 as she started sighing right after though. 

“...Sadly, the timing is regrettable…”

“Tell me about it.” Aether tartly quipped, expression dark.

“Stormterror has caused quite a ruckus in the region since its recent resurgence.” Lisa made a gesture as if to say what can we do about it, eyebrows drawn into a furrow, “ Simply put, Mondstadt's elemental sphere and ley lines are now akin to a yarn ball in the paws of a kitten.” 

She put a hand on her temple, and grumbled.

“For a mage, it couldn't get much worse. My skin is one elemental particle away from a full-blown breakout.”

“...am I the only one who didn't quite get what she just said as a whole?” Chongyun of Liyue muttered in the middle of eating a popsicle. 

“No, I understood all her sentences separately but I got lost along the way, too.” Yunjin sadly whispered to him, seated prim and proper next to the exorcist, while the rest of the Liyue group hung unto the screen’s every word. 

“If it weren't for this interference, the Knights of Favonius would have better ways to help you than just putting up missing person posters.” Jean took back the reigns of the conversation, “We simply ask that you repose in Mondstadt while we help you seek out your sister.” 

“Professional and responsible as ever. I may not have known you for a long while but i truly wish you do not change, Master Jean.” Ayato addressed the Monstadt representative with a smile. 

Jean sheepishly bowed her head, “I try my best to be dependable.” 

Meanwhile…

“That’s it? We just defeated a dragon and they don't want to ask for our help fighting it?”

“Thoma, hush!”

“Oh, a dialogue choice.” 

“I really should help out as well.” Aether said, politely.

Only because Mika was too kind to say the alternative dialogue and leave the Favonius knights to deal with things on their own. 

“I don’t understand why rude options are available if they’re not even going to be picked… does this mean, we could have not helped them?” 

At the Fontaine group, Wriothesley had a good point. 

 “Paimon will help too!” Paimon giddily offered. 

“Good.” Kaeya crossed his arms and swept his eyes across the room with a serious look, “In that case we need a plan.”

“With Stormterror now directly attacking Mondstadt, we may have an opportunity to cut this problem off at the source.” Jean shared her information immediately, “Lisa has revealed the sources of Stormterror's power with her detection magic.”

The real Jean abruptly stood up straight, garnering curious eyes from the representatives with her.

Except Ningguang. 

Ningguang summoned a fresh set of pen and paper and gave it to her without any prompting because the Tianquan understood.

The acting grandmaster is gonna want to write this down. 

“Is that so?” Kaeya skeptically asks. 

“They're located in the abandoned Four Winds' Temples. Stormterror's ability to whip up these kinds of storms can be attributed to it drawing power from the temples.” Lisa answered

“Of course…” Amber’s eyes widened, “Only the energy and blessing of the anemo archon would allow it to make such storms…!” 

Diona, who was all the way back in the healer area, overheard this and gave the other older nurses a questioning look. 

“Hold up, is that how elemental monsters work?” 

“Diona!” Barbara scolded. 

“What???” The Katzlein child said, indignantly. 

“I know stormterror isn’t the best right now, but don’t just compare stormterror to an elemental monster!” The deaconess said in hush tones, as she layered more blankets unto her bard patient, who was already wrapped enough as it is. 

“...Why not???” 

“Our objective is to deal with three of the four temples.” Jean declared, looking towards her coworkers sternly, “I trust everyone understands why we are only dealing with three.”

“Paimon doesn't.” Paimon blurted out. 

“I don’t either.” Navia from Fontaine blinked several times, confused. 

“It must be a local thing…” Aether whispered to Paimon.

Jean shot Navia a sheepish look, “It will probably be explained later.” 

The version of Jean on screen started to give the knights a bit of a pep talk before the meeting was adjourned, and Jean tried her best not to cringe. Her pep talks usually sound better in her head, but it's embarrassing to hear as a third person.

With the conversation having ended, Jean was just about ready to call for a meeting among the representatives again, when all of a sudden. 

“...huh?” 

“It’s like the thing with the wind gliders!” Collei gasped, pointing at the blue star symbol that suddenly appeared in the center of the screen. 

[Wish] 

Wish feature has been unlocked. Wish upon the sky filled with a blanket of stars, and pray that they would peek down at earth and grant you various characters and weapons. 

Somewhere in the sea of 80 people, two outlanders’ faces suddenly started twitching.

“…Wishes…? A blanket of stars…?” Nilou quietly scrunched up her face, staring at the sparkling  star symbol while Layla who was sleeping between her and Collei suddenly stirred awake. 

“Did someone say stars?” The sleep-deprived Rtawahist student said with abruptly wide awake golden eyes. 

“Layla, you’re awake!” 

“Am I the only one who’s wondering who ‘ they ’ is supposed to be in this context?” Chiori stoically asked, glancing at her seatmates as she popped another snack into her mouth. 

Chevreuse wiped her mouth and shrugged her shoulders, before talking, mouth full. 

“Ishn’t it sha gawdsh?” 

“Please don’t talk with your mouth full.” Little Sigewinne reprimanded with her big ruby eyes on Clorinde’s lap. 

“Are you sure?” Navia pointed at the screen with an unsure expression, “Because it almost sounded like we were talking about the blanket of stars, itself. If it was talking about gods, why didn’t it just straight up mention the gods?” 

“Suspense, I assume.” 

“...Seriously, Clorinde?” 

“This can’t be happening.” 

Lumine has lived a long life but even something as absurd as this has never happened to her before. She truly wishes that she was wrong in this matter or else she would not know how to cope with her life. 

(That’s an exaggeration–as the survivor of a long-lost people, she’s gotten too used to changing.)

(To coping.) 

Aether was no better.

“Lumine, you think…?” The golden-haired boy pensively started, gesturing subtly to the screen as he trailed off and let the situation speak for itself. 

‘Do you think this is what I think it is?’ 

Although pained to admit it, Lumine could only tearfully nod as she let the twin telepathy take over.

‘Yes. It’s definitely what we think it is.’ 

Aether put a hand over his mouth, looking as white as a sheet of paper in a split second. 

‘Oh, stars above. I don’t wanna be the one to explain this one to them.’ 

‘Maybe we don’t have to?’ Lumine raised her shoulders with a bit of doubtful hope in her eyes. 

Just as she said that, someone from Inazuma loudly asked, “Wait, Characters? Characters as in us? Hold on a minute, this wish thing can give us… us? I’m confused!” 

Aether shut his eyes closed like that statement physically hit him. 

Lumine put a hand over her face, in an attempt to keep it together and not answer.

‘We’re gonna have to explain this, but also? I don’t wanna.’

Once the reaction finished, Mika continued, pressing on the device only for another icon to be unlocked all of a sudden.

[Shop]

Shop unlocked. Let the stardust and starglitter you've collected take new shape adn grant you power.

“Um…?” Navia from Fontaine looked at the icon and its label, unsurely. 

None of the people in Teyvat were very skilled nor informed about video games so in the end, the only thing most could do was look to the two people who did have some experience. 

“…Why are you all looking at us?” 

Aether squinted at the many inconspicuous stares thrown their way, shifting closer to his sister as he did so, while Lumine sighed to his side. 

‘I knew this was gonna happen…’  

“Mika, just keep going.” She urged, her hand interconnected with her brother’s, as she dismissed everyone with a surprisingly calm expression on her face, “You don’t need to check those features immediately, you can just ignore them and talk again to the knights.”

“O-oh,” Mika blinked, uncertainty clear in his face as he glanced at the twins, “Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, you can trust us, Mika. We’re the only ones who know about video games here, after all.” Lumine said, a bit too matter-of-factly. 

Aether elbowed her. 

Lumine shot him a look. 

The twins had what seemed to be another telepathic conversation that consisted of the two just glaring at each other for some reason. 

‘...Why does that exchange suddenly make me feel less inclined to trust you two?’ 

Mika doesn’t have anything against the twins but as of the moment, they were being strange. 

Well, he doesn’t have a death wish. 

Although the screen was trying to coax him into checking the wish button, Mika did as the twins told and talked to the knights in the game, although the conversations did not sound as productive as he hoped.

“You’re not bad with that wind glider. Your gliding style seems familiar…” 

“Familiar how?” Eula raised an eyebrow, before turning to Kaeya with wide eyes, “No way you’ve met one of the twins before.” 

“You’re jumping to conclusions. I could have just meant he reminds me of Amber. Amber taught him, after all.” Kaeya reasoned, raising his own eyebrow just to match the recon captain. 

“Oh, there’s dialogue choice!” Amber announced, hands cupped around her mouth to get the two captain’s attention. 

“How'd you get your eye patch?” Albedo read the options out loud with a bored look, “Why is Jean the Acting Grandmaster? Goodbye?” 

“You know, I’m actually curious about the eyepatch question.” 

Kaeya rolled his eyes at Amber’s quip, fondly, as the conversation quickly spiraled into a question of whether or not Aether had the right to question Jean’s position as acting grandmaster, Amber being fiercely defensive of the blonde while Eula just watched on in exasperation.

While this was all happening…

‘Frick, frick, frick, frick…’ 

Although externally smiling, Lumine was cursing extremities inside as she gripped her brother’s hand like a vice. To her side, Aether was not any better. 

‘Lumine, you can’t keep it from them forever!’ Aether tried to tell his twin, trying to ignore the fact that Lumine was practically cutting off the oxygen supply in his fingers. 

His sister, the sweet soul that she is, groaned as she let go of his hand and shot him a look. 

‘I know that! But you don’t want to deal with an existential crisis, right?’

‘Its just a feature of the game for engagement and interest probably…’ 

‘Or, we could both be video game characters and our lives were all pre-planned from the very beginning–destiny and ending set in stone too.’ 

‘Okay, that’s just a stretch,’ Aether’s eyebrow shifted high into the sky, ‘At most this could just be a very complicated prophecy or glimpse of the future, you know.’ 

‘Says the guy being controlled by random strangers on the screen right now.’

‘Hey!’ 

“Is something wrong, you two?” 

The twins did not jump but it was a close thing. Tighnari had practically snuck close to them, tail swishing around curiously as he stood there behind the two with his hands planted on his hips and an unreadable expression on his face. 

“You’ve been very quiet… but facially expressive, as of late.”

The twins made a face. 

“Well, it’s just, about the–” Lumine started, voice high-pitched, but this time it was Aether’s turn to resort to violent means as he stomped on her foot, abruptly cutting her off. 

‘I thought you didn’t want to tell them about it?!’ Aether quickly signaled with just his microexpressions–an impressive feat especially under the scrutiny of the forest ranger. 

‘I thought you wanted to tell them about it???’ Lumine protested with offense as she recovered from staggering a little. 

“...Guys?” 

At Tighnari’s voice, the twins straightened themselves and Aether cleared his throat abruptly.

“Ahem, hi, Tighnari.” 

“Okay, that was definitely not suspicious.” Tighnari deadpanned, “What are you two hiding?”

“Hiding? What would we be hiding?” Lumine innocently said. 

“We’re just having a silent conversation, Lumine and I. It’s a twin thing, Tighnari.” Aether took over with a surprisingly virtuous look on his face. 

He wasn’t so good of an actor that he could save her sister from her slight blunder, but if there was anything the two were good at, it was keeping their mouths shut. It was a necessary skill when you’re an outlander in the wild. 

‘I’m such a good actor….’ Aether praised himself internally.

“I may not have a twin, but I know bullshit when I see it.” Tighnari’s ears flattened as he stared at the two, scrutinizingly, “You two have been acting strangely. Lumine, understandable, but Aether, you’re too obvious. What are the two of you hiding right now?” 

‘Understandable ?’ Lumine mouthed with an affronted expression.

‘I am not a good actor…’ Aether corrected himself, awkwardly. 

Cornered by Tighnari, Lumine and Aether exchanged looks for a brief moment. A telepathic conversation later, they decided to pull out their ultimate hidden card.

Smile. 

“...You guys aren't going to answer me, are you?” 

The twins just smiled and did not answer. 

‘We have the right to remain silent.’ 

“...Seriously?” Tighnari crossed his arms, unimpressed by their tactic. 

At this point, Mika was just about to finish talking to all the characters, and not many were paying attention to the twins, but Tighnari was sharp and as a representative, he’d made sure to keep an eye on the twins considering what amount of damage they could do. 

He may not know what they were hiding and he may not be able to pry it out of their stubborn lips… but he has a vague idea where to start.

“Mika, go to the wish screen.” 

Like they’d suddenly been electrocuted, the twins came to life, with varied shouts of “WAIT!”, “NO!” and “MIKA, DON’T!” 

Mika, who wasn’t even paying attention to the forest ranger and the twins, was startled in surprise by the sudden passionate protest, whipping his head at the direction of the two desperate outlanders all of a sudden.

And at that moment…

Tighnari smugly grinned.

“I knew it.”

The twins, realizing their mistake, paled noticeably. 

They’d just accidentally given the forest ranger enough clues to act on his suspicions. 

“MIKA– mmph !” 

Tighnari had opened his mouth to speak, but he was stopped by the twins who, with inelegant squawks of protest, rose and tried to shut him up before he could say anything. They tackled Tighnari to the ground, alarming several representatives and even some of the Sumeru crew, but they covered his mouth too late. 

“Tighnari, shut up–”

“Go to the wish screen, Mika– mmph!” 

“Tighnari?!” Kaveh shrieked as he watched his fox friend fall down under the weight of two outlanders, while Nilou gasped in surprise at the sudden chaos going on, with the twins practically wrestling Tighnari into submission.

Cyno already had his polearm out, ready to charge, when the twins let go of Tighnari hastily in favor of running towards the wide-eyed Mika. 

It was like a repeat of last time, although less intense. 

Mika, feeling a danger towards his life, grabbed the device, pressed it against his chest and moved to flee, immediately. He loved his life, thank you very much, and he was not about to follow Kaeya’s footsteps and be slow to run. 

There was no need for that though. 

Before he could get fully out of the player perimeter, three representatives appeared right next to him, alongside a large black wall protruding from the ground. The wall separated him from the twins who skidded to a stop in alarm at the sight of it. They knew what it was, Lumine, especially so. 

Ayato, Ningguang and Neuvilette stood with cubes of the black room surrounding them, shielding Mika behind them. 

“How the tables have turned…” Ayato grinned politely at the twins even as he had a Haran Geppaku Futsu pointed at them. 

“Pardon the roughness of this method, but we cannot allow you to recklessly do something of this sort again.” Neuvilette lowly said, cane touching the floor with a blue glow around him. 

“That is correct.” Ningguang calmly said, golden gems swirling around her like comets. 

They were using the outlanders’ own strategy–the power of imagination in battle–against them. 

“Sit down, Lumine, Aether.” 

Jean demanded as she held Mika by the shoulder, the boy having been shaken by the sudden turn of events. 

Lumine and Aether both frowned.

“...Jean, you don’t want to know what’s on the wish screen–” Lumine tried to convince her, but Jean cut her off with a gloved hand.

“What I want does not matter in the face of my responsibility.” Jean declared with a hard tone as she stood up to her full height, her voice laced with exasperation, “Why do the two of you always seem to jump to violence so quickly?” 

Lumine blinked at the question, looked at Aether, and then shrugged. 

“It’s the universal language we’re most fluent in.” Aether joked under his breath, sheepishly, thinking of all the times it was easier to exchange fists once they touched down on new lands rather than learn that land’s new language without being criminals for 6 days.

Hearing him clearly, Neuvilette similarly muttered under his breath, “Well, that certainly explains a lot.” 

“Uhhh, what’s happening right now?” 

Remembering that they were not alone, the representatives’ force and the twins all turned to see a bewildered Amber standing, alongside a few groups of people who seemed to have just had flashbacks and backed away immediately. 

They may not know what was going on but they were not taking their chances. 

Wriothesley and Clorinde were already halfway to the door, with Sigewinne carried under the Grand Duke’s armpit like a potato sack.

Realizing what this looked like, the representatives took a moment to clear their throats before someone dared explain properly–they didn’t exactly communicate while doing this, it was just reflexes as responsible leaders to move when they need to. 

“...For some reason,” Ayato started explaining, sword brandished with a bright blue light as he eyed the twins, “Aether and Lumine don’t want us to open the wish screen.  To the point they would even pin down a representative who desires to do it.” 

“Tighnari, are you okay?!” Kaveh shrieked, staring at Tighnari. 

The forest ranger was still lying on the floor with a grimace. 

“Remind me never to do this again–I feel like my spine could have broke.” 

“Then, don’t antagonize godly twins next time.” Candace said, without an ounce of empathy towards the Sumeru representative, looming over his body with crossed arms. 

“I didn’t think they would push me to the grou–OW!” 

“...Why don’t you want us to open the wish screen?” Keqing from Liyue suddenly spoke up, taking attention away from the Sumeru crew. Her magenta eyes were untrusting and incredulous as she regarded the twins warily, like they were a pair of uncontrollable animals.

Lumine met this gaze with a steel gaze, before she bitterly spoke.

“You guys didn’t like it when you saw the numbers, didn’t you?” 

“...!”

At Lumine’s answer, the room fell silent.

Lumine leveled them all with a stare.

“I know you guys didn’t like it. I didn’t like seeing that on my brother, and neither did my brother like seeing those numbers represent himself. That’s not what he is after all–he’s not some… playable character. Not in real life. I know you guys felt the same, too, especially you lot from Monstadt.” 

Jean had to stay quiet for this time, but the way she and her people squirmed was enough of a confirmation. 

Lumine was right. They didn’t like the numbers. 

Klee and Diona may be a bit too young to understand what those numbers make them feel, but the rest of Monstadt did not have positive feelings about seeing themselves converted to something so numerical like that. 

They did not like the way the people they knew in their day to day lives looked like lifeless dolls with scarce details on their bodies. They did not like that the competence of certain individuals were reduced to numbers on a flat cold screen. 

They did not like that their “story” seemed to be laid bare on the screen. 

They did not hate it–but they did not like it. 

“Dramatic, the lot of you.” 

At the sudden sharp and scornful voice that interrupted the solemn moment everyone had, people turned towards the fatui in the far corner, the one with the big hat and the unpleasant expression. 

“You’re still here?” Yelan, sarcastically, shot back. 

The fatui harbinger gave her the middle finger. 

Aether cleared his throat.

“Whatever is behind that Wish screen, it’s worse than numbers. We can’t be sure what it is, but it can’t be anything good. It’s not something you’d want to see. I know if I had friends and family aside from my sister suddenly appearing there, I would not want to see it. The thing behind that can’t be any good.”

“You just said you aren’t sure. How could you be so against it, already?” Ningguang blew at her smoking pipe, indifferently, “Besides, it’s not your decision alone that is needed to open the wish screen.”

“That is correct.” Ganyu spoke up, earnestly, brows furrowed, “We have representatives and more than 80 people for a reason. Everyone has a right to vote for this decision and be heard.”

“We may not like it, but the game wants us to see it.” Albedo from Monstadt calmly added.

“Sometimes it is better to just swallow bitter pills.” Baizhu sadly smiled.

Murmurs and chatter started arising from the crowd of 80 people, all of which were mixed between wanting to see it and having no choice, and the twins could only watch and listen to all this with round eyes. 

“Do you see the boundary you overstepped now, outlanders?” Kaeya snickered, jokingly, at the two. 

It was not just the twins playing this game. 

“....” 

Aether looked at Lumine, feeling a bit conflicted although he understood the people around him. 

His sister could only purse her lips.

A sign to give up.

Raising her hand, the Tianquan Ningguang made a stoic announcement.

“Who is in favor of seeing the Wish screen?” 

Hands flew to the air, far more than one could count. Excluding those who were not conscious, almost everybody wanted to see the wish screen. 

Despite the twin’s warning.  

“It’s a majority vote.” Neuvilette announced, and the twins wilted visibly.

“...Next time, let’s do this without having to pull out the black wall and wrestle each other, please?” Tighnari weakly said while the General Mahamatra Cyno peeled him off of the floor.

“You only brought that upon yourself.” Ayato beamed, kindly. 

“...I hate you.” 

That was how a new feature… ended up being introduced to the people of Teyvat, ultimately changing their interaction with the screen forever. 

—

“Hit it, Mika!” was not the last words Aether wanted to hear before the world turns upside down on them, but unfortunately, Amber just had to say it. 

She meant well, but boy, did the transition from party pop excitement to sheer existential dread and mathematical confusion hurt Aether’s brain just right. 

“...What… what is this?” 

Everyone looked at the screen with round eyes. Four banners, familiar faces. A pinkish blue gem symbol, and a wish. 

“Welp, this is the worst.” Lumine blurted out, expression dead. 

Aether groaned as he put a hand on his head. 

It was as they feared.

“This thing,” Lumine sighed, “is a freaking gacha game. ”

BONUS: 

“What in the…” 

Hearing Rosaria’s voice trailing off in confusion, Noelle tore her gaze away from her patient and looked at the screen just to see herself plastered unto it, wearing her usual maid uniform and armor. 

Noelle blinked. 

She rubbed her eyes several times.

She processed. 

And then she squealed. 

Chapter Text

“So, you’re telling me,” Ningguang started, red eyes narrowed into slits, “That in some world out there, there are people who have created video games that involve players spending in-game currency or real money to obtain fictional characters, equipment, or units through a virtual lottery, often in the form of randomized rewards known as "gacha pulls".

“Uh-huh.” Lumine dejectedly affirmed.

“And in the worlds that you’ve visited before, this is usually a marketing tactic done by video game producers in order to lure people into spending more money than they should just to hoard fictional characters they have attachment to?”

“Yep.” Aether chirped, although he did not quite have his heart on it, “Exactly like that.”

Ningguang went quiet.

After opening the wish screen, many people did not like what they saw. Actually, there were more people who did not quite understand what they saw, which prompted the need for another representative meeting to set the facts straight.

Having shooed everyone back into their doors in order to get some “rest” after simply sitting for about two hours or so, the representatives had gathered around ready to hear what the twins had to say and well…

Here we are.

“This sounds quite a little bit like human trafficking in my perspective.”

Iudex Neuvilette lowly said, and the Acting Grandmaster Jean, beside him, covered her head with her hand as she groaned at the same time Lumine did.

The twins had tried their best to explain it to the representatives first, hoping to delegate the task of explaining it to everyone to them, as they would know best how to announce something as mind boggling as this without getting large friction for its foreign mindset.

From the moment they saw the description of the wish screen, the two had already been convinced of what this game really was, but they wanted to deny it for their own sanity.

God alone knows how much gacha games have ruined their lives in the brief time they’ve known it.

It was so bad they had to stage an intervention. 

For each other.

On thirteen different accounts!

“We ended up broke like that for about a week because we got addicted…” Aether tearfully explained, practically having flashbacks as he spoke, while Lumine took the effort to explain with a bit more solemnity.

“It was a… rough period for the both of us.  It didn’t help that we had a big fight when we only had each other to rely on to stop the other, and well…”

“We get it.” Tighnari said, rolling his shoulders with a wince, “You guys were lonely, weren’t you?”

“Lonely enough to seek the comfort of fictional beings.” Ayato mused.

Neuvilette remained silent, eyes fixed on the twins with something unreadable within.

“To think that there would be people cunning enough to capitalize on people’s emotions by presenting them with fictional characters that match their fantasies… it’s like a joke waiting for a punchline if it wasn’t also something that would 100% work. This kind of strategy could be considered brilliant in some areas, but also criticized in much more.” Ningguang muttered under her breath with a sharp kind of focus in her eyes. If the twins didn’t know better they would think she was impressed.

She wasn’t. Not fully.

“Still, it seems to be actively pushing people into pathology by taking advantage of their desire for companionship.”

“Yeah, capitalism kinda works like that.” Lumine bluntly said.

“But some games have to operate in this manner in order to generate profit and avoid falling down to the reds.” Aether helpfully added with a helpless smile, “I don’t think a company is behind us being here, though…”

If multibillionaire companies have somehow received the ability to trap their own characters in a black box, color Aether surprised.

“Welp.” Tighnari crossed his legs on the floor, “You were right. I did not like knowing this information.”

“I told you so—”

“But,” Tighnari pointedly looked at Lumine, jabbing a finger at her direction, “There is a but, Lumine.” Lumine stuck her tongue out at him while he simply sighed, “I am very grateful that you guys shared it with us because now we are more informed about our situation.”

“That situation being…?” Jean questioned, resting her head on her knees.

“Our untimely commercialization to the masses, apparently.” Ningguang answered, straightforwardly.

Aether took a deep breath, hands clasped together.

“…I mean, she’s not wrong, but at the same time, that sounds worse than what it actually is…”

“It doesn’t seem to be that terrifying of a situation, to be honest.”

All eyes suddenly looked at Ayato who had spoken casually. The nobleman blinked at them, unperturbed by the attention before tucking a strand of his hair behind his ear and continuing like it was nothing.

“The game in itself took our likeness, yes, but if we look too deeply into the existentiality of anything in this world, of course one would go insane. However, if I may reckon, I’d like to think the game only reflects us, not that it is us.”

“That is a way easier way to look at it…” Jean reluctantly murmured.

Ayato just smiled at her before inclining his head slightly, “Think about it this way, Master Jean. What do you think this entire fiasco is for?”

What is it for?

This whole entrapment in a magic black box with 80 something people? The conversion of what they believe to be real life into numbers in a game?

Taken aback, Jean blinked and took a few seconds to answer.

“…It’s to prepare us for the future.”

In her hands, she crumpled the paper Ningguang had given her—the sheet that had scribbles of all sort written on it, trying to jot down every single detail that may save Monstadt that it could hold.

“…At least, that’s what I believe this is all for.”

“It’s not a bad answer.” Ayato nodded in acknowledgment, “The information given to us at the beginning gave us insight on the broad purpose of this all—there is a future lying ahead of us that may warrant the help of outlanders from beyond this world, of all things. However, the future should not be so easily shown to the crowd we have now, don’t you think?”

Neuvilette’s eyes lit up in realization, “It would not be permissible. Not when it may interfere with fate as we know it.”

“Correct.” Ayato snapped his fingers, “I was wondering why it has to be shown to us in this manner, in particular, and after you explained to me how these games work, I believe I finally understand why it must be so.”

“…Really?” Aether and Lumine exchanged dubious glances.

For the two of them, a game was a game, they hadn’t really thought deeper than that.

“Firstly, the combat feature.” Ayato started, “By allowing us to fight these monsters with versions of ourselves in the game as proxy, we are being given insider information on not only the monsters’ attack patterns but also their weaknesses and the best kind of team and strategies to send after it.”

“Secondly, the dialogue and the story.” He continued, putting up two gloved fingers in front of everyone like a peace sign, “By giving us a ‘compelling story’, the game can disguise future knowledge as simply game knowledge and prepare us better for what’s to come.”

“And last but not the least, the protagonist of the story.” Ayato once again looked towards the twins, “Teyvat has at least seven big problems, if every nation is as in danger as we’ve been made to believe. By having a game centered around the one person who does not have ties to any one nation, specifically you—”

He pointed at Aether, who tried his best not to flinch under his gaze.

“We are allowed the chance to ‘coherently experience’ all seven nations’ problem in one ‘game’ and think of the bigger picture.”

“You mean to say that every aspect of this game, even the ones that look unnecessary or just left behind as design, is for our benefit?” Ningguang doubtfully put a finger to her chin but she was starting to be convinced, “To exploit a loophole?”

“Indeed.”

The representatives fell into a contemplative silence, each one pondering over Ayato’s statement and comparing and contrasting it with their own ideas.

Meanwhile, Aether was trying not to let out a long whistle out loud.

‘Wow, did he just gaslight the entire representative group into thinking that this is for our own good?’

Lumine shot him a skeptical look, ‘I don’t know, he’s starting to convince me, too.’

“Huh, I think I get it.”

It was Tighnari who broke the silence, the fox looking a wee bit impressed as he squinted and looked at nothing in particular as his mind processed everything.

“By commercializing our ‘characters’, the game makes it so that if we obtain the characters, it is through fair trade, not an ‘obvious attempt to help us’. Making it an exchange of goods instead of a one-sided affair, makes it less likely to arouse suspicion whatsoever—and as long as we pay with equal value for the ‘chance’ of getting a character instead of the character itself…”

“…Whoever is responsible for this game has already passed through several restrictions.” Jean finished off with an exasperated sigh.

Meanwhile, the twins were wide-eyed.

“I think Tighnari just explained the essence behind the features of a gacha game.” Lumine whispered in awe to her brother.

Aether could only nod, dumbfounded.

Ayato suddenly piped back up with a smile, “So, now, onto the important question…”

“Money.” Tighnari said with understanding, expression suddenly dark. 

Ningguang put down her smoking pipe in favor of leisurely tapping it on the floor instead, “There is the matter of our… mode of payment.”

“Mora is going to be useless.” Jean sighed, “We don’t have real mora here, only dream-conjured mora. It would not be a very fair-trade.”

“Riches and wealth will not help us in this room.” Neuvilette nodded, “However, if we go by Sir Ayato’s logic, then the game may introduce us to a new feature that may involve this.”

“So… should we bring everyone back in the main room to continue to explore now?”

Looking towards the screen, Neuvilette couldn’t help but sigh.

“We might as well.”

---

“Guys!” Xiangling screeched, “Did you see that?!”

Liyue’s youth have always been a bit of a closely-knitted bunch, but at the moment, everyone stuffed and trying to squeeze themselves over the long couch and the table of Liyue’s personal room, they were a bit too close in the literal sense.

Chongyun had to close his eyes when the unpredictable cook’s saliva went flying.

“See what?” Xingqui feigned ignorance as he leisurely flipped through the book, even though Hu Tao and Gaming were literally fighting for what little space was left on the comfy couch by Yunjin’s empty side, “The person with the braids that talked to the dragon or one of our representatives faces on the screen?”

“My face!” Xiangling happily said, not even slightly fazed by his response, “It was only for a moment, but I saw my face!”

Hu Tao made a “meh” gesture, “Xiangling, you see your face every time. It’s called a reflection in the water, the windows, the—Oof!”

Gaming won the empty seat.

The Funeral Director whipped out a staff and pointed it at him with a straight face.

“Wait, wait, I’m only gonna rest my butt for a few minutes…!” Gaming squeaked, hands in the air.

“That’s nice, Xiangling!” Yunjin cheered, genuinely, not paying attention to the duel happening next to her, but then her words seem to catch up to her, because her smile falters and…

“Wait, doesn’t that mean you’re gonna be controlled by the player next?” Xinyan shrieked.

The rock-and-roll girl practically summed up Yunjin’s own realization.

“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds weird.” Xiangling pouted, “But listen, you know my fighting style right?”

“Of course?” Yunjin blinked, confused, “We both use the spear, Xiangling.”

“Yeah, well, you know how Guoba always tends to fight with me, sometimes?”

Yunjin looked down at Xiangling’s little helper, who was currently on her lap, staring at her with impossibly innocent white eyes.

“Yes?”

Xiangling grinned.

“Do you think my fighting style in the game will incorporate that too?!”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Hu Tao pushes her back as she almost toppled over after reaching too close to the people seated on the other side, “Slow down, girl.”

“Shouldn’t you be feeling more existential dread than this?” Chongyun concernedly eyed her.

“I can’t help it if I’m curious! Also, do you think cooking is possible in-game? I saw a campfire and some cooking materials on our way to Monstadt earlier, but Mika was too focused on getting to the destination so we couldn’t even investigate if it was possible!”

‘Ah, yes, Xiangling being Xiangling.’ Yunjin fondly thought as Xiangling’s rant quickly devolved into what was practically a tornado of survival recipes.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anyone be so excited to be converted into mere numbers…” Chongyun muttered to himself as he inched closer to Xingqui, being careful not to get the popsicle in his hand too close to the fragile paper in the boy’s hands.

Xingqui just let out a little hum in response to the exorcist boy as he flipped the pages once again.

As shocking as it was, he didn’t really want to dwell on that part of the game if he could.

As of now, the adults, or at least, the adults and the almighty adeptus, were handling it. He’d rather they be the ones to worry about this so he could reread one of his books in peace.

“You shouldn’t have given up your player rights!”

“Well, sorry? My life was in danger!”

“Gaming has a point, Xiangling.”

“We can’t die in the dreamscape though!”

“Tch.”

“That’s just conjecture, you don’t really know that!”

As the conversation around him quickly devolved into madness, Xingqui smiled a little as he rested his head suddenly unto Chongyun’s shoulder.

The exorcist practically froze.

To be honest, Chongyun was already struggling a little to stay in this wild, wild atmosphere. He’d been on his tiptoes since the moment he arrived here, unable to cope with the large amount of people without feeling the fear of ‘flaring up’ because of his congenital positivity.

It felt unfair.

Everyone else got to live out the fantasy of this whole thing being a dream, while he alone was faced with the reality that no matter what he did, the condition of his soul would cause trouble for him no matter what.

Even he wanted to have some fun with his friends, too, but if he flares up…

“Do you want to go get a quieter place to read in, Chongyun?”

Chongyun was taken out of his thoughts as Xingqui asked him a question. His friend was looking at him earnestly, having pulled away from his shoulder the moment he went deadly still.

‘…I’m not reading, though?’

Xingqui gave him an innocent smile that spelled nothing but trouble before winking at him.

‘…Oh.’

Somehow, no matter how troublesome he could get, Chongyun can never find it in himself to regret becoming friends with Xingqui when he’s like this.

“Yeah.” Chongyun quietly said, a small grin on his face, “I think I want some silence and space.”

“Ehhhhh? What’s this?” Hu Tao appeared beside the two of them suddenly, her plum red eyes crinkled into a smile as she teasingly put a hand on her mouth, “Can the exorcist not handle a bit of socializing with some frie—”

“Shut up, Hu Tao!” Chongyun squawked, red-faced.

“Uh-oh.” Xingqui noted, recognizing the signs of an incoming flareup when he sees one.

“Everyone!” The door opened, revealing Ningguang by the doorway, “You can come back outside now. We are resuming now that we have an idea about the game’s features.”

“Finally.” Keqing exclaimed in relief from where she was stuck in a conversation with an adeptus, a half-adeptus, a pseudo-adeptus and Yelan.

“Neat!” Gaming happily jumped to his feet, pumped up with energy, “I wanna see who turns*!”

“Despite what you might think,” Changsheng reprimanded loudly from all the way back at the bed that a coughing Baizhu was sitting up from, “Controllable people are not zombies!”

“Aether died several times.” Hu Tao pointed out.

“The outlanders are foreign, incomprehensible and thus, are an exception.”

“Dibs on the front seats!” Gaming cheered as he jogged his way out of the door, followed by an excited Man chai.

Xiangling excitedly pulled up Xinyan and Yunjin to follow after him, and Hu Tao, having let go of her weapon at the moment, was about to follow when she noticed the two boys who haven’t made any attempts to move yet.

“You coming, Xingqui? Chongyun?” She curiously asked.

Xingqui smiled and gave her a shooing motion, “We’ll pass and just stay here for a while. It’s not like its gonna be lore heavy out there, anyway.”

“You sure?”

The blue-haired boy nodded and shooed her once again.

Hu Tao made a face, but then sighed.

“Well, its your loss.”

She sauntered her way up to the door right after a small little Yaoyao helping Baizhu out, and then she shut the door behind her, leaving the two boys all alone.

Xingqui turned to Chongyun with a smile.

“Well, is it quiet enough now?”

“…Yeah.”

Chongyun turned away with a bashful expression as he ate the last of his popsicle.

His chest felt very warm.

---

“What are we going to do?”

In Monstadt’s little clinic—a room behind the monstadt door specifically for the injured and the nurses—there was an emergency meeting going on.

Being an honorary member, Mika could only stand there, fidgeting while tugging at his sleeve.

“You can’t… hide the bard for long.”

What he was saying to the small group of people gathered here together was something everyone already knows. There were people who had interacted with “Venti” before this. Mika was fairly sure that Jean, Ningguang and also Lisa may have already connected the dots between the “bard no one could wake up” and the “boy who talked to a dragon.”

“I saw all the wishing screens before the representatives cut us off and sent us away.” Mika started, expression grave, “The rest of the representatives and the other people from Monstadt may not have recognized him because his appearance went by so fast, but if we’re continuing the game, his face and name will be all over the screen.”

He had connected the dots fast because as one of the healers, he had seen him close hand… and as for the other people who have seen him before…

“it’s only a matter of time before Master Diluc or Captain Eula catch on, as well.”

“…..”

From across him, Barbara was biting her lips, pensive.

“Barbara,” Rosaria said with a languid tone as always, dropping all churchly honorifics, “You, Noelle and one of our patients are on that screen with him too. Even if, by some form of stupid godly miracle, no one who’s interacted with him before connects the dots, they will, if they look at the healers’ wing too closely since all of you are there.”

“Are you suggesting we leave him here inside the door all alone?” Barbara furrowed her eyebrows.

Rosaria gave her a serious look, “I don’t have negative nor positive feelings for this bard, Barbara, but I do know that he’s been through a lot already. Inside here is better than outside there. Not all problems are because of monsters—sometimes, people are trouble. And in that sea of people outside, there’s no telling.”

“I don’t like him.” Diona declared, and then huffed, “But I’m not so cruel that I’d feed him to the dogs without hearing out his side of the story. If he’s safer here, I agree with Sister Rosaria. He should stay.”

That was two votes.

Barbara helplessly looked towards Mika’s direction, but the surveyor had to let her down with a nervous fidget.

“I’m sorry, but I have the same opinion as them.”

Three.

Even if Noelle spoke up now, it was already a majority, it seems.

Barbara could only sigh.

She doesn’t quite understand it herself, but a part of her doesn’t seem to want to let the strange bard out of her sight. It was a bizarre feeling, that irrational anxiety that had popped up in her head ever since the unconscious bard was delivered into her arms by one of the Liyue adepti.

For some reason, she had this feeling that the bard was a fragile thing that could disappear at a moment’s notice. Someone as light as him could easily be snatched away by the wind, is what she thought to explain this impression she had of him, but when he had seized up when Diona first approached him, she was truly terrified.

They had barely managed to wake him up the first time, and he was near impossible to look after properly considering he barely talks about anything that isn’t poetic or sounds like nonsense.

Barbara had really thought no one would ever match Bennet’s level of difficulty as a patient…

“I suppose if it’s what everyone believes is fitting…”

They’ll have to leave the bard here, as they say.

“Um, everyone?”

At Noelle’s sudden voice from the doorway, the entire emergency team seemed to jump in surprise. Diona quickly dashed to the furthest point of the room away from the sleeping Venti to keep him from sneezing and blowing his cover under the blankets, while Mika, for some reason, decided to pull out a crossbow.

Understandably, this had Noelle blinking quite a bit from where she stood.

“Uhhh, there is a gentleman outside that wishes to speak to us… He’d been knocking quietly and politely the entire time we were discussing so I thought to entertain him first lest he goes away and well…”

“Ahem.”

“Oh, yes, of course, I should probably introduce him first…” Noelle sheepishly said, and then turned to the tall man in her shadows, “What was your name again, sir?”

“You can call me…”

He said as he stepped out of the shadows with a face as stoic as stone.

“Mr. Zhongli.”

“Right!” Noelle cheerfully said, “Everyone, meet Mr. Zhongli. He already knows!”

“He knows?” Barbara paled.

“He knows?!” Diona screeched from the corner.

“K-knows what?” Mika tried to feign ignorance to the topic and failed, viscerally.

“Noelle…” Rosaria winced, hand running down her face.

‘Please explain properly…’

“Ah, yes! Mr. Zhongli came here earlier to extend some help with keeping the bard undercover! I was skeptical at first too, because I don’t recall him interacting closely to the bard, so I tested him quite a bit—he really does understand the situation and is willing to help!”

“Hold your horses, or your lack thereof.”

Rosaria had to put a foot down on this while she could (ugh, she can’t believe she has to be the one to do this).

“Forgive me because I’m about to say something rude, but why on earth do you want to help us, sir? Do you know this bard personally?”

It was one thing to see them struggling and then offering help, but it was another to actively seek the healer wing out and offer to help take care of one specific person among the patients. Years of sharpened instincts were telling Rosaria that something about this abrupt offer was… off.

Looking at this Mr. Zhongli closely, he looked sophisticated and well-learned. If Rosaria’s memory serves her right, he must be some sort of expert, considering that he seemed to have been well-respected among the people of Liyue. His outfit seemed to scream nationalism too, if the elemental symbols designing his coat was anything to go by—so he must be a real lover of his homeland. He shouldn’t have any ties with a windborne bard.

What does a well-groomed scholar have to do with a scrawny little bard who can’t even keep his own mouth close in his sleep?

“I, in fact, do not know him.” Zhongli said with a straight face.

Okay, that sounds like bullshit.

“Not personally, as you say, but I recognized him. Many people will tell you that I have a characteristic of being sharp in memory, and I will agree with them on that account, for it is indeed true. Although I only saw him briefly on many encounters prior to this, I made the connection upon witnessing his appearance on the screen.”

Okay, that sounded a bit more believable, but forgive Rosaria if she has some doubts.

“The people are gathering already outside. The game is about to be continued,” Zhongli explained further with a straightforward pace, “I wish not for harm to fall upon any of the patients. I only wish to be of assistance, and if my word is not enough to guarantee my trustworthiness regarding my motives…”

The man unlatched something from behind his back with relative ease and then handed it to Noelle, who was the closest to him.

“Then I will offer up my vision as collateral so you may be rest assured that I will not do anything untoward to your patients.”

“…!”

All the healers in the wing, including Mika, stared at Zhongli in shock.

“You must have already noticed it,” Zhongli calmly said, examining their expressions, “There are only two things that are real in this dreamscape. The manifestation of the soul body and the vision or a person’s power, which is connected to it. Everyone can will their belongings and everything else away but their body and their vision.”

It was the reason why the adeptus in Liyue could still use their power even in a dream where logic and rules should not work. Their power was real, not just a pigment of illusion in this dreamland. It was also the same reason why Barbara could still manipulate hydro in the same manner she would with a vision to treat the sick—her vision’s power was real and it was with her in this dream, being connected to her soul and all.

“I willingly relinquish my power in the hands of Miss Noelle.” Zhongli announced, “Should I divulge any information about the bard in your hands prematurely or throw danger upon your and your patients, she has the right to refuse to return it to me on the day the bard’s secret can no longer be kept through normal means.”

Noelle stared at the geo vision in her hands that seemed to shine brighter than her own, petrified with her jaw dropped on the floor at the sudden words coming out of Zhongli’s mouth.

“W-wait, Mr. Zhongli, surely there is no need to—”

“Let this be a contract set in stone,” Zhongli simply replied, still serious, “and may the breakers of this oath face the wrath of the rock.”

Now, Noelle could only shut her mouth close in slight terror.

But then…

With a slight tremor in her body, she moved to salute the gentleman in front of her the Favonian way.

“If that is truly what you wish, then I will honor this agreement as well. I shall safeguard your vision until the time to return it comes, Mr. Zhongli, and should I fail, may the consequences apply to me as well.”

Zhongli seemed to blink at her for a moment.

Before breaking into a small smile.

“Very well then.”

“Um, hello??? Noelle, what do you think you’re doing, that’s not just your call to make!”

The chivalrous atmosphere between gentleman and knight-to-be was promptly shattered as Diona started screeching at the strange exchange the two just made.

“No, no, I think Noelle is right to accept it. I wouldn’t have been very comfortable leaving the bard all alone, anyway…” Barbara reasoned with the little Katzlein, while Mika seemed to scratch his head.

“T-this feels a bit too extreme of a method to beg us to let you help…” Mika murmured.

Zhongli cleared his throat.

“Oh, wait, sorry, sorry.” Mika frantically bowed his head, “That was incredibly rude—”

“But not as rude as I could be.” Rosaria interrupted; arms crossed.

She seemed to have a bit of a small face-off with Zhongli this way—if they were going by ages, she estimates they might as well be in the same age group so she doesn’t think it should be too much of a disrespect. Among the people in the healer wing, Rosaria, despite not quite being a healer herself, was the only one who could be trusted to guard the patients and the healers from those with bad intention.

(Also, among the people in the healer wing, she was the tallest by height. Like seriously, it’s like she’s surrounded by dwarves and kids in here…)

“Noelle will keep your vision in her hands, but the moment I learn you did any funny business in this room?” Rosaria made a slitting-neck gesture, eyes cold, “You can kiss your collar goodbye, Mr. gentleman. I’m not one for pleasantries.”

“Sister Rosaria!” Barbara scandalously gasped.

“What? I’m being forthcoming with him, he needs to know what to expect.” The nun simply shrugged.

“Indeed.” Zhongli, surprisingly, agreed with her, “I will keep your words in mind, young lady.”

“We’re practically the same age.” Rosaria squinted.

“…You look young for a lady.”

“…Close enough, flatterer.” Rosaria rolled her eyes and then turned to get her patient and her things in order, “Mika, come help me position Razor on my shoulder won’t you?”

“A-ah, y-yes, coming!” Mika spared only one glance back at Zhongli before rushing to help.

Similarly, a grumbling Diona was starting to wrestle a half-awake Mona unto her feet with the help of Barbara.

They ended up going in and out for two rounds just to get everyone but the bard out of the door, and by the time it was time to leave…

“Mr. Zhongli?”

Zhongli who had been propping up a newly conjured chair near Venti’s bed turned to look at Barbara who was still at the doorway with a concerned look on her face.

“If anything strange happens to the bard, like… for example, he suddenly disappears with no warning… can you please inform us outside? It may be a bit of a breach to the contract you just made but…”

The deaconess trailed off and then bit her lip anxiously.

Zhongli, noticing this, gave a nod, immediately.

“I understand. I will inform you, should anything happen, so rest assured.”

Barbara looked at him guiltily, “I am sincerely sorry you have to miss the game for this.”

“Do not fret. I have very talkative peers who would be willing to fill me in.”

“…If you say so.”

Barbara looked at him and then the bard one last time before closing the door shut.

Now, there was no one else in the room but the bard and the gentleman.

Or so, you might think.

“Xiao. I know you are there.”

At the sound of his name, the vigilant yaksha appeared in a torrent of teal energy akin to flames. With his mask hanging by his side, the adeptus quickly kneeled in front of the gentleman known as Zhongli with reverence in both action and tone.

“Lord Lapis.”

Sitting upon a chair with a book open, Zhongli turned his head to the adeptus who looked like a young man with an indecipherable expression as always.

“Since when did you know?”

“Of Lord Barbatos or of yourself?” Xiao seemed to bitterly say.

“Both.” Zhongli easily answered.

“…When I caught him from the fall. I knew then. As for your identity, I had suspicions from the moment I saw your eyes, my lord.”

Zhongli blinked.

“…Was I that obvious?”

“…Yes.” Xiao seemed to want to cringe as he answered that question truthfully, “You always make it the same color. Every time, my lord.”

Unfortunately for the entire world, Rex Lapis was a bit too consistent with his mortal disguises.

“…That is a problem I will deal with later.”

Xiao seemed to sigh a little hearing this, but then Zhongli looked towards the drooling bard on the bed, and so the yaksha’s eyes naturally followed.

“Will he be alright, my lord? Barbatos, I mean.”

Zhongli hummed, tearing his eyes away as he flipped a page, “He is recovering. He woke up quite abruptly, and if I may surmise, he may have even woke up before his due time. It should wear off over time… but it seems that fate just never quite aligns with this one.”

No matter if it was 2,000 years ago or 500 years ago, or even just a day before, it seems this drunkard bard is still a troublesome friend to his core.

“I’d prefer it if he recovers without being disturbed by nosy people. I have a word or two to say to him once he is fully awake.”

Xiao nodded to his archon, but then seemed to hesitate slightly.

He had… several questions. About what had been told to them regarding his future death. About the form, the name and the so-called reputation he had garnered now. About the so-called talkative “friend” he claimed to have.

Was that supposed to be Cloud Retainer… or was that the bloody ginger fatui?

…Or, actually, was it the young missus of Wangsheng?

He had many questions, indeed, but knowing the precarious situation they were in and not wanting to breach Rex Lapis’s boundaries, Xiao decided to shelve his questions. He was quite good at that, especially since questions had no place in the midst of battle.

So instead of questions, he bowed instead.

“I will make sure that no one who comes looking with ill intentions will reach him.”

With no Liyue to protect, this can be his new duty.

Perhaps sensing his thoughts, Zhongli seemed to sadly smile at him from above.

“See to it that you do, then.”

Xiao nodded and then turned to leave, but then stopped as one question worth asking popped into his mind.

“…My lord, just one thing. I’m not allowed to tell Cloud Retainer about this, am I?”

“Oh, she probably already knows.”

“…She what.”

---

“ACHOOOOO!”

“Kyaaaa!”

Several people surrounding the Liyue assembly jumped and shrieked in surprise as a strong cold breeze suddenly swept across them when the big bird in the middle of the Liyue assembly suddenly sneezed.

Personally? Aether didn’t even know that birds could sneeze until today.

“I can hear what you’re thinking and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to lump her with every other bird in existence.” Ningguang warned him.

Aether raised his hands in surrender, while Lumine snickered next to him.

The representatives and the twins were just about to finish setting up everything. Mika was already within the player perimeter ready to go, while the rest of the groups were already seated.

Perhaps it was because everyone has become comfortable so far, there were not much formalities anymore. No reporting, no headcounts.

(Little do the twins know, this was not a unanimous decision but something that Jean and Ningguang started to hide the bard’s disappearance.)

“Okay, does everyone understand what we’re going to be doing here?” Tighnari called out, hand cupping his mouth, after having disseminated the information that the twins had given to them, “’We’re going gambling!’ is not an acceptable answer to that question, Mr. Arataki Itto!”

“Aww, man.” Itto lamented while Thoma comforted him with an awkward expression.

“Well, if we have no more questions.” Neuvilette started, turning around to finally face the wishing screen that encompassed almost the entire wall in front of them, “shall we begin ‘pulling’ now?”

‘Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, oh gosh, he said it with a straight face.’

Lumine struggled to keep her mouth shut, while Aether had his hands on his ears as if he refused to hear such a modern word come out of medieval-looking Neuvilette’s mouth.

“Let’s do this!” Yoimiya happily cheered when no one else answered the Fontaine judge, and her cheer was followed by several others.

Seeing the thumbs up from Ayato and the other representatives, Mika gathered up the courage to look into the wishing screen once again.

When everyone else was away, the twins had messed around with the controls a little bit in order to seek out every crevice of the features available to them now. Although they only skimmed several parts, they had discovered the mail option eventually, and at that point, they found the thing they needed in order to pull.

There were four banners: The beginner banner starring Noelle, the banner of the bard, Venti, containing Fischl, Xiangling and Barbara, a weapon banner, and finally a banner containing faces such as Jean, Diluc and more.

The representatives had all made the unanimous decision to start with the beginner banner, considering they were, in fact beginners.

(It had nothing to do with Noelle’s excitement as she stared at herself through the screen, Mika can assure you, kind of.)

“…Here goes nothing.” Mika murmurs to himself as he puts a finger above the button and finally.

He pulls.

Chapter Text

It was like the heavens opened.

A space carved into the sky, untouched by clouds just for this one moment. The same midnight blue sky that must have encompassed the entirety of Teyvat cleared all for the arrival of a dazzling star.

“Waaah…”

Shooting stars have always been a sight to behold, an occurrence one can rarely see. Cutting across the sky like an arrow alight, it captivates everyone in its vicinity.

Some would say that it was just another natural phenomenon worth seeing. Others would say it was a gift from the gods, but there was one thing that was for sure.

“That star…”

A pale-faced Mona stammered as she watched the brightly shining body from underneath the wide rim of her hat, hand outstretched in a quick act of hydromancy. The hydro glow of the circle did nothing to cover up the shock on her face.

“…Is falling from the sky.”

“Uh, huh, yeah, sure—wait what?!”

Her attending nurse, Diona, who was only half-listening to her mutterings ever since she woke up fully, dropped a wet towel right into an unconscious Fischl’s face with a splat in shock.

The star was going down, for sure. Even if Mona didn’t point it out, the angle showed that it was certainly descending.

“It’s… it’s going to split, as well.” Mona added, weakly, and then shrieked, “Ah!”

A bright light flashed in the screen as the star exploded into a burst of several smaller pieces of light, streaking across the sky, haphazardly and random.

Needless to say, that ignited a few surprised screaming from the watching crowd.

“OH, FRICK ME SIDEWAYS!”

“LANGUAGE!”

“It’s like fireworks!”

“A person is going to come out of that?!”

Keqing brows furrowed as she shouted that last statement, volume elevating as she looked at this situation like it was absurd. Because, for the record? It was. It definitely was absurd to her!

It’s one thing if gods of all things descended, but if Lady Ningguang and those representatives were to be believed, then ordinary people should be coming out of this “gacha game” or whatever in Morax’s name they call it.

Keqing just can’t wrap her mind around how this was supposed to work—but then again, who is she kidding?

She’s inside a black box trying to show her the future of the world in the most inefficient way possible.

(No matter what that representative of Inazuma had to say about it, she wasn’t falling for it.)

Meanwhile, with the twins…

“Huh, I guess it makes sense that a ten pull would result to ten shooting stars…”

Aether was muttering to himself as he stroked his chin, dramatically.

He was contemplating to himself and reflecting on his gacha experience. From what he remembers, and from what they saw by fooling around with the controls during the short break, then there should be 3-stars, 4-stars and 5-stars in this game, right?

But what exactly would be their difference? In which aspects will there be drawn a line?

Strength? Rarity? Character design? Lore and Backstory?

There were 7 streaks of light tinted a sky blue and 3 colored like pinkish purple.

If Aether were to guess…

“3 four stars, huh? Luckyyyy.” Lumine elbowed her brother as she whistled out her own observations, casually, and Aether paused.

He turned to look at his sister, helplessly, like a kicked puppy.

‘I was about to get there…’  

“It’s going down!!!”

Aether’s thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shrieking of the Katzlein child from Monstadt, who seemed incredibly on edge, for some reason, clinging to Noelle with a vice grip.

“The stars are gonna fall!” She screamed, a tad bit hysterically.

Noelle, in front of her, just blinked several times with a nervous expression as people started looking at her. However, true to her nature, she simply tried to shield Diona with one arm to make sure that she wouldn’t have to be inconvenienced and further distressed by the attention.

This action caught Aether’s attention while he was just absent-mindedly matching her appearance with something from his memory.

‘Oh.’

His eyes lit up slightly as he connected the dots and found himself smiling.

‘What a coincidence.’

The star of this pull was healthy and wide awake. How would she react seeing her face on the screen, Aether wonders?

“Wah! What’s going on?!”

Mika, although given the responsibility as a player, had little to no knowledge of the tastes of gacha games when it came to special effects, so all he could do was make aborted noises as the sequence pulled through, unsure about what’s going to happen next.

A noise cut through the peaceful venture of the stars across the sky and with a loud sound, the screen abruptly turned black.

‘Here we go!’ Lumine excitedly leaned forward.

‘Who’s it going to be?’ Tighnari curiously eyed the screen.

‘How lucky will we be?’ Ningguang amusedly tilted her head as she let out another smoke from her pipe.

Anticipation practically sore through the crowd of 80 as the silence stretched over them.

And then, with a dramatic unveiling, one of the stars came to life from a black silhouette.

“…!”

“…?!?!”

“…Oh, yeah.” Lumine’s excitement dwindled a little as she briefly remembered how this usually works for everyone except the most blessed of society.

Everyone stared at the screen with a bit of puzzled shock until a small young voice suddenly spoke.

“…It’s not a person. It’s a claymore.”

The person who spoke, Sayu from Inazuma, had said it slowly and clearly for all to hear, from behind an equally startled Ayaka.

Her words startled the rest of the crowd out of their reverie, and started a chain of rationalizations from all sides.

“Oh… uh, yeah, it did say…”

“The description for the wish…”

“…Did it say something like that? I wasn’t really… paying attention…”

Meanwhile, with the representatives…

“It’s a weapon, not a person?” Ningguang said with a surprised expression, smoking pipe just a small distance away from her mouth to hide her disappointment.

Neuvilette coughed unto his fist, awkwardly, “Well, what little instructions we had did say weapons were involved in this fiasco, Lady Ningguang… Though I suppose perhaps we can reason that we were just not lucky…”

“Now, now, let’s not be too hasty to judge our luck.” Ayato appeased, pleasantly smiling as always as he stood by the player perimeter.

“Yes, Ayato’s right, we’re expected to get many of this in the process of pulling.” Aether explained to the other representatives, but when he said that, some one in Liyue couldn’t help but overhear.

“So, what you’re trying to say is that we’re gonna get more of these… debate club, in the future?” said a teasing voice in sing-song.

Hearing the sudden provocation, Aether turned around and saw a brown haired girl that looked vaguely familiar.

“…Coffin girl.”

It was that girl who wanted to know more about screens and how one could paste them into coffins. He thinks.

“Aiya, you remember me?” The girl said in shock.

Or should Aether say, fake shock? It certainly sounded like she was reacting just for the sake of showing a reaction, and making small talk. Although with what he knew about her, he’s not sure what is the scope of a “small talk” for someone like this.

“You have a very memorable face and a kickable sense of timing and choice for words.” Lumine abruptly answered the girl, eyes squinted.

But the girl just looked pleased.

“Why, thank you!”

Aether scrunched his nose and then whispered to Ningguang unsurely, “In a scale of 1-10, how liked is this person where you guys come from?”

“Negative 15.”

Ningguang answered without so much as batting an eyelid.

“…You know I can hear you, silly-churls, right?”

No one answered the Coffin Girl as the rest of the crowd put their attention back to the screen.

Mika was quick to learn how the results of the pull were supposed to be revealed. The twins had helped him through some of the mechanics so he breezed through them really fast—as they said, some of the things in this game were truly just there to add a dramatic flair to the event.

The silhouette and dark background, for example, made it so that you get the urge to guess what you received.

It was simply for the sake of vanity and aesthetics alone, really, though.

There was no practical necessity for it.

“Oh, Jean, look, it’s a Favonius sword.” Tighnari pointed to the screen.

This was their 4^th pull so far, and while Tighnari was curious at first when bows started to appear, he quickly recognized them to be the types he doesn’t particularly use so he lost interest quickly.

The appearance of a sword with the Monstadt Order’s name on it however, seemed to bring his curiosity right back, so it was easy for him to spot something different now that it had his full attention.

“…The backdrop is purple.” He murmured, noting the change.

Did that mean anything?

“That’s probably because it’s a 4-star.” Aether informed him, and Tighnari had to look at the outlander and not let his ears give away his confusion as he asked.

“…4-star?”

“Ah, yeah, I guess we forgot to tell you guys about that.” Lumine realized, hand flying towards her temple with a sigh, “Basically, they’re like a ranking of rarity in gacha games. The more stars you have, the rarer you are—but to be honest, its not just rarity that divides the stars into classes. Sometimes, its also a way to differentiate the strong from everyone else.”

“Wait, so the things we’ve been getting so far…” Jean’s brows drew together.

“Since they’re blue, they must be 3 stars.” Aether answered calmly, “And since this is purple, it must be much rarer. A 4-star, most likely, since gold is reserved for 5-stars.”

“Yeah, that’s like… a golden rule. Kind of.” Lumine explained further, only to end uncertainly, “Anyway, the more stars you have, the higher the quality and the stronger that weapon or person is, but as I said, stars higher than 3 are rarer to get.”

“Huh.”

‘So that means that the Favonius sword… is a step under a 5-star, huh?’

Jean was a bit surprised.

The Favonius sword was merely a standard sword issued by the Order to their knights. Of course, while that is its status today, Jean knew that it was no ordinary type of sword—its creation having been brought about by the finest craftsmen of Monstadt after studying Monstadt’s Anemo. It was a weapon with a long history, and one that was made light and agile for the sole purpose of blending well with Favonius Bladework.

Even Jean, once upon a time, started with this weapon when she first trained in the bladework of the order, and when she was first admitted into the order.

To think that it was deemed lower than a 5-star was no surprise, because as the Acting Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius, she’d gotten used to seeing it around. It was no longer quite a rarity to her.

But to know that something her knights held, something she used to hold, was still far better than ordinary swords you may find all around…

“Hm,” Now the acting grandmaster of the knights of Favonius, Jean couldn’t help but smile a little, looking at both her current sword, sheathed to her side, and at her own progress from knight to master, “I suppose it is quite a bit like a gift from the heavens.”

“Wait, back up a sec,” Tighnari broke through Jean’s touching moment with her weapon, a quizzical and somewhat alarmed look on his face, “Aether, Lumine, did you just say weapons or person?”

That… got people looking as soon as it entered earshot.

“…………”

The twins exchanged looks, a telepathic conversation that miraculously did not involve any mentions of attempting to silence a sharp fox, before Lumine groaned.

“…OK, this is not gonna sound good however I say it, but rest assured that there aren’t any 3-star characters as of late?”

“We’ll be divided into 4-stars and 5-stars?”

Eula’s face twisted a little as she thought of the implications of this newfound info.

She had an idea when the numbers were first introduced—there was no way that there wouldn’t be any comparisons between people’s numbers once more people came out and the need to find the “best-suited” for the situation become apparent.

However, this was worse than what she thought, because now it was clear:

There would be an official divide between weak and strong.

She wasn’t the only one thinking of this, she realizes as she turns to look at the other folks in the crowd who had gone silent in deep contemplation.

In this ensuing silence, Aether tugged at Lumine’s skirt.

‘…When do you think we should tell them about… the 50/50s?’ He communicated nervously with his face and gestures.

Lumine bit her lip and shook her head vigorously.

‘…They’ll learn about it on their own eventually. Let’s not make more trouble for ourselves and just cross that bridge when we get there.’

A few more weapons followed after that, but none of them were much interest to anyone, probably because of the revelations that had been revealed.

Sure, a few names were familiar and had some people turning, but so far, most of the weapons were generic weapons with generic names.

Like, for example, Cool Steel.

Kaeya made a point to laugh a little at that low-effort name.

(Lumine made a mental note to somehow persuade Mika to equip the Cavalry captain with that weapon forever once he’s acquired in game as a character.)

There were also some names with surprisingly funny stories behind it—namely, the Harbinger of Dawn.

“Wait, so you’re telling me,” Aether started with an incredulous expression on his face as he let the story he heard marinate his head properly, “that everyone who has ever wielded this sword have won their battles—except for one guy who raised it just as the sunrise happened, making it shine so brightly that enemy archers found him quick enough to bombard him with arrows.”

“Yep.” Albedo, who had taken the liberty to share this fun story, passively affirmed.

Aether put a hand over his own mouth.

“…You know, I see the downside of this weapon now.”

“All weapons have their downsides.” Albedo shrugged before returning to his drawing—a rather lazy portrait of the scene in front of him, where Klee was playing with Sucrose, Amber, Lumine and Kaeya.

Aether says ‘lazy’, but it was surprisingly highly detailed. Aether didn’t even notice that Sucrose had a long ponytail until he’d seen it in the drawing.

Weirdly though, Kaeya just seemed to be a stickman with an eyepatch, drawn in 3 quick strokes…

“Do we have another four star yet…?” Lumine boredly asked as she played with Klee’s little imagined dodoco plushies and promptly smashes it right unto an unsuspecting Kaeya’s horse plushie, bringing the little minitature version of himself above it fall down to the ground in the process.

Sucrose glanced at the screen, adjusting her glasses, “Um, this should be the… 9^th pull, so if we have 3 four-stars and only have 2 left, then…”

Amber snapped her finger, enlightened, “Mathematics. We just need 3 left.”

“…What kind of math is that?!”

Sucrose couldn’t bear herself to correct the red outrider, so Kaeya had to be the one to rub it in that she had made mistakes.

“…It’s the math I use to make Baron Bunny! Kaeya, do you want to know what it feels like to hug baron bunny?” Amber suddenly ominously offered with a dark expression as she pulled out the stuffed toy explosive from out of nowhere and stalked closer to the Cavalry Captain.

Before she could get closer, though…

“It’s here!” Someone gasped.

On the screen, what everyone waited for had finally arrived.

“Finally!” Lumine grinned, dropping the toys.

A full silhouette of a person appeared in the screen.

---

In the Fontaine area, a few minutes ago…

“Huh, it did say in the wish screen that we might get characters and weapons so I shouldn’t be that surprised, but how do I put it…” Navia started with a face of scrutiny as she examined the 5^th weapon, another claymore, once again. She put a finger on her chin in contemplation, “Doesn’t this feel a bit…?”

“Anti-climactic?” Chevreuse helpfully supplied before munching on another snack.

“Tutorials do tend to be that way.” Clorinde commented with a stoic nod.

“No, no, no…” Navia shook her head and frowned, “Think about it, we pulled the same bow twice, and the same claymore twice. They were practically copies of each other. If my guess is right, there should be more weapons out there, in whatever place they’re getting this from, but the distribution of it…”

“Huh, it doesn’t feel fairly distributed,” Charlotte inclined her head, seeing what the Spina di Rosula leader meant, “Doesn’t it?”

As a catalyst user who has not seen a single catalyst weapon yet, she understands.

“It would suck if there weren’t polearms here.” Chevreuse absent-mindedly thought to herself and then added as an echo of a thought, “Or guns. It would suck without the muskets for sure.”

“Perhaps the distribution is random.” Clorinde offered.

She, too, realized the skewed balance in weapon distribution at around the 7^th pull, but she figured perhaps it was simply the issues of randomly generated items. Perhaps this had something to do with what the Inazuman representative tried to advocate to the other representatives regarding the purpose of all this.

“…I know that one guy from Inazuma was joking,” Chevreuse chewed, swallowed, popped another snack in her mouth before seriously looking at Navia as she spoke, “But I’m start to think he has a point. This really does feel like gambli—IIIING????”

Chevreuse almost choked on her snacks as a very-not-weapon-like silhouette appeared on the screen next—It was the 9^th pull. Chiori’s hand was quickly on the choking person’s back, hitting it in an attempt to help, while Chevreuse made dying noises as she coughed unto the floor.

“IT’S A PERSON!” Navia gasped loudly, even amid trying to conjure water for the poor guard by her side.

“No shit, sherlock, I can see that!” One of the people from the fatui yelled back, and Navia promptly shut her mouth.

“Well, that was unnecessarily rude…” Clorinde muttered in her friend’s stead.

“Forget about him! Who’s that?!”

Charlotte excitedly questioned; eyes filled with stars as she pointed at the character on screen that had appeared in a flash—colored in and everything. She’s already associated herself with so many people since coming in here so she was sure this wasn’t a citizen of Fontaine by any means.

“Those clothes… That design…” Chiori, ever the expert when it came to cloth and fabric, looked over the character with sharp eyes, as she evaluated with a bored tone, “He seems to be a person from Liyue?”

Only Liyue and Inazuma would utilize these designs, but her upbringing as a native of Inazuma was telling her that the overall design was not from her homeland, so from Liyue he must be.

“Oh.” Yelan blinked, surprised, from where she was leisurely seated on the floor, leaning unto the fluff of her jacket as she saw the familiar face—one she’s had to investigate before just for safety reasons—gain color behind the screen.

“…Isn’t that…?” Keqing, who was standing next to her, having been in a conversation with Ganyu prior, squinted her eyes in recognition, while Ganyu herself, covered her mouth and stared at the image with wide eyes.

The white-haired woman next to Ganyu lifted her gaze and just silently looked at the screen with her blank eyes.

Just at about the same time as the entire Liyue adolescent group practically leapt to their feet with roars of belated surprise.

“IT’S CHONGYUN!!!”

On the screen was the literally frozen image of a young light-blue haired exorcist mainly in white, holding a talisman between his fingers and with chunks of ice shaped like swords around him.

Many people couldn’t recognize him so they tried to search for him in the crowd.

Unfortunately for them, the boy was currently resting where there were less people to deal with.

Lucky him!

(“Achoo!” Chongyun sneezed from where he was seated on the couch.

Xingqui’s head poked out of the other side of the couch immediately with a look of concern, “My dear friend, did you inhale something weird or did someone just talk badly about you somewhere?”

“What? No, I don’t think so…?”

“I guess you’re talking shit about yourself then. Time to square up—”

“Wait, what? Wait, that wasn’t a no to both questions, wait, Xingqui, no—AAAAH!”)

“An ice-user?” Lumine inquired Ningguang, noticing quickly the Liyue aspects of the boy’s clothes at first glance, as it shared similar patterns to Ningguang’s own but with hints of blue instead of gold.

Ningguang gave her a nod and a look of approval, “One of our vision bearers. He’s an exorcist of ours who wields cryo and walks the trails along the mountains regularly.”

“Well, he has pretty eyes.” Lumine casually commented.

“Everyone in Liyue has pretty eyes...” Aether whispered controversially to Lumine.

Lumine brushes it off, even though it wasn’t really wrong.

“I guess that makes him our third playable character then.” Lumine pouted, “I can’t believe we got a Liyue person before we can get Kaeya!”

She was looking forward to seeing Kaeya get a taste of his own medicine, but oh well, she can wait.

Back to the pulls…

While the Liyue youth were having a serious discussion on whether or not they should risk going back inside their respective region door in order to drag the exorcist on the screen out, it finally came time for the last pull to reveal itself.

Using math, anyone could tell that it would be a character, so most waited for the reveal with bated breath.

Except for the representatives and the twins.

‘As expected.’

Both twins thought at the same time looking at the screen with dim eyes as soon as it was revealed.

On the 10^th, as expected by the twins and the representatives, they pulled Noelle—a knight-in-training who doubles as a maid within the Knights of Favonius apparently, according to Jean’s input. The group had expected it so they didn’t really react much, but of course the person herself… she had every reason to be surprised.

“I… did not expect my face to ever be plastered on something as big as this screen.”

Noelle muttered to herself, tone high, confused and embarrassed as she stared at her own portrait in the screen, holding a claymore and surrounded by her trusty shield.

“Way to go, Noelle!”

Diona headbutted her arm, fondly, smile blinding as she genuinely congratulated the knight for what seemed to be a milestone. But the still baffled, pink-cheeked knight continued to only respond to praise with variations of “…I don’t think I did anything in particular to deserve this…???”

It was to the point that the Katzlein child, who was trying to say something nice for once, couldn’t help but start twitching a little in annoyance.

‘…Just take it or leave it! You’re going down in a spiral!’

Ningguang, seeing the silently fuming Katzlein child and the worried knight, quickly tugged Jean into a whisper.

“That a knight of yours?”

“…The one with cat ears or the one with the heavy armor?” Jean let out a sad sigh.

The answer to both is technically “No”.

“She’s feisty.” Ningguang commented, not quite answering Jean’s question, but that alone was enough for Jean to know who she was talking about.

Jean let out a sad sigh before shaking her hand fondly.

Forcing her eyes back to the screen, Jean could hear her younger sister and the church sister, Rosaria, congratulate Noelle, and she couldn’t help but purse her own lips.

With this, they’d have completed their first 10 pulls in the beginner banner and the story should continue…

(Should it be a good thing or a bad thing that she hasn’t seen the bard even once since starting?)

---

“Okay, so we have cryo for ice via Chongyun.” Lumine recapped with narrowed eyes as she counted on her fingers one by one, “Geo for earth via Noelle. Anemo for wind via my brother, and Pyro for fire via Amber.”

“That’s four characters!” Aether declared happily, the character hoarder inside of him preening at the small milestone.

With this, they’re finally able to play with a team of four characters!

“Should we put the new characters to the test?” Ayato asked the other representatives serenely, and several of them exchanged glances.

“…I would prefer it if we continued with the story first and test them on the way.” Jean quietly suggested as she straightened the creases on her paper with a solemn expression, “it’s not like we’ll be able to refund them, anyway, right?”

Although speeding up the story might make revealing the bard happen faster than her sister would find comfortable, they can’t run away from the story forever. They might as well do what they can now.

“Oh, I wish.” Aether whispered to himself in response to hearing such a statement—mind away in a distant memory of thousands of money spent for characters that were not even that useful throughout the game.

Ningguang ignored the outlander boy’s mutterings and instead leisurely raised a hand in assent, “I’m with Jean on this one. It saves time.”

Similar agreements went around, and finally, Neuvilette tapped at the ground with his cane.

“Alright then, it’s decided.”

From here on out, the story will continue onward with these four characters.

“Now,” Ayato turned towards Mika, who was at the very edge of the circle of representatives, gripping the tablet in hand, and then he smiled, “which quest will you do first, Mika?”

Mika looked down at the ground as he organized his thoughts.

There were three concurring quests that appeared right after he got back from the wish screen and each quest required you to meet with a different person amongst the knights in order to accomplish it.

Winds of the Past could be completed through Amber. Crash Course sounded befitting of something Captain Kaeya would give a new member of the order. Sparks Amongst The Pages on the other hand was a clear representation of Lisa’s role as librarian.

All three quests needed to be done, but there was no particular order, meaning, it shouldn’t be too important.

So, instead of thinking more about this, Mika simply sighed and let it happen according to chance.

It’s alright if it’s random anyway.

“I want Captain Kaeya, Amber and Miss Lisa to do rock paper scissors to decide for me… please.”

---

“Ready?”

Amber grinned with her hand outstretched.

Kaeya had a pokerface on as he waited for the signal to come.

Lisa yawned, not really interested in how this would go.

“Rock, Paper, Scissors Go!”

Chapter Text

“Victory is with the Outrider!”

Amber pumped her fists in the air and smugly smiled at a neutral-faced Kaeya, while Lisa just laughed at the display of rivalry between the two (Although, it felt a little one-sidedly skewed on Amber’s side).

On the carefully expressionless Kaeya’s head was a yellow cone that says: I lost Rock, Paper, Scissors Twice, emphasis on twice in red crayon.

The result of the battle was this:

AMBER – 2 wins

LISA – 1 win, 1 loss

KAEYA – 2 losses

To be completely honest, the purple-clad librarian could have done better than this. For all the randomness rock-paper-scissors is supposed to give, it’s not actually random once you have a good understanding of the human psyche and its tendencies.

How to say it… In truth, Rock-paper-scissors is more like a mindgame, once you get to understand the basics.

Say for example, when given little to no time to think and made to rush a decision on the spot, most people are more likely to play “scissors” compared to everything else. Although knowing this doesn’t guarantee that you’ll always win, the knowledge gives you an edge against others who are not aware of their tendency—their weakness.

Knowing these things, Lisa could have won against both Kaeya and Amber, but… well, it doesn’t really matter how the results would play out, now would it?

And honestly, thinking so fast on the spot is too much effort.

So, Lisa settled for just playing the middleground, losing to Amber as a way to make up for the times she’s made the Outrider run errands, and defeating Kaeya just because.

(It was not just because. From an outsider’s perspective, the moment Lisa played scissors after projecting that she was going to play rock, the sky darkened and the air had electrified. There shouldn’t even be a sky inside the black room, so for a moment, even the traveler twins were scared by the librarian’s sweet smile.)

(She hasn’t forgotten that time Kaeya didn’t return his borrowed books in time.)

(It never hurts to make sure that the Cavalry Captain, too, does not forget.)

Oh, but to Amber’s credit, she wasn’t so bad, herself, considering she was aware of the scissor tendency.

“Of all the things you could be good at…” Kaeya looked down at his scissors with a pang of regret, looked up at the beaming Amber, and sighed from the depths of his soul, “Why are you good in rock, paper, scissors in particular?”

“I’m more surprised you aren’t.” Amber bluntly answered, “I thought mind games would be your thing!”

Kaeya laughed, “Let me guess. Because of my striking personality?”

“No, because you’re shady.”

“Okay, but seriously,” Kaeya helplessly rested a hand on his own hip, “Your intuition’s no joke.”

Amber raised an eyebrow, “Is that sarcasm?”

“…I’m taking a seat, do with that what you will.”

The Cavalry Captain wasn’t joking—he’s had this suspicion for a while now since he’s worked with the lively outrider enough.

Actually, he knew about the scissors thing. That’s why when he was up against Lisa, he made sure he wouldn’t do scissors, no matter what, because he honestly, true to celestia, wanted to measure himself up against the librarian who could have become a captain just like them, if she had really wanted.

With Amber, he thought the outrider wouldn’t know of such a thing. It was a miscalculation on his part—he underestimated her and let his guard down, and now he’s stuck with this cone on his head.

Did Amber know she was being underestimated?

Her intuition had always been something. While she was straightforward, she always seemed to manage to get to the right path even if in an outsider’s perspective, what she was doing was a mistake.

“Nice, Amber!”

At the sound of a cheerful cry, Kaeya found himself glancing towards the Sumeru area, where a familiar green-haired girl had given a standing ovation, cheeks rosy in enthusiasm and purple eyes sparkling like water in a neatly-lit well.

It was so strange how someone could become so different from who they used to be—the scrawny feral little girl with no light in her eyes, the monster that he’d considered a threat to Monstadt was now a full-fledged girl with ambitions, following after her savior’s footsteps separately, in her own homeland.

It was a refreshing sight to see—even Lisa, who’d won and lost all the same, couldn’t help but smile seeing the once reserved girl that had now come out of her shell, bit by bit.

‘I’m glad it wasn’t a mistake.’ 

He sincerely thought to himself with a small hidden smile, while Amber soaked up the victory, happily, throwing a peace sign at Collei with the brightest grin she could muster.

“Well then,” Tighnari clapped his hands together to gain everyone’s attention, “This will now be the order of events—”

He explained the sequence to everyone in a loud voice and then proceeded to instruct and aid Mika along with the twins, the “game experts”, just as Kaeya moved back to his spot near Albedo and Klee, only…

“Your luck is terrible.”

To find a certain redhead sitting not so far behind with a stoic expression.

‘Ah, how strange to see someone be so different indeed.’

Kaeya couldn’t help but suddenly silently mourn in his heart, because honestly, where did his passionate, sparkle-eyed brother go? Why must he be such a reverse Collei?

(No, he knows why.)

“As of now, we have 4 people out of the 80 something they have here.” Back to Tighnari, the forest researcher was murmuring under his breath, “Do you think all of us will be involved in this somehow?”

This was a question directed to the twin outlanders, but honestly, even they could not be sure about the answer to that.

“We’ll find out, eventually, Master Tighnari.” Ayato replied to him instead, only to elicit an annoyed expression in the forest ranger’s face.

“I told you already to just call me Tighnari…”

“My apologies.” Ayato smiled.

Tighnari’s ear twitched, in lieu of his eye, as he squinted.

‘This guy is just smiling 24/7, regardless of context, isn’t he?’

Mika took to the exploration part of the game like a fish to water. He reached Amber’s quest quickly considering it was not that far from a waypoint, and wasted no time to start her quest quickly—they had 3 quests to finish after all.

“This is…” Jean trailed off, as she recognized the domain where Amber was waiting, noting its close proximity to the city.

“This is it.” Amber declared, “One of the deserted temples of The Four Winds.”

 “It’s a temple?” Dori from Sumeru eyed the domain incredulously.

For a temple, it didn’t look anything but a good old domain.

Standard and square, even on the map!

“These temples have been left to waste for years now. The people of Mondstadt almost never come here.”

“….Oh.”

That explains a lot. Bummer.

“There's a chance there's a monster nest or a hilichurl camp inside.” Amber informed and then sighed disappointedly to herself, “Even Stormterror has given up on its own temple.”

“Wait…” Aether blinked.

“Stormterror?” Lumine, functioning in the same wavelength as him, turned to Amber with a face that seemed to almost reach enlightenment.

• Wait, did you just say "its own temple..."?

Amber, in real life, coughed, feeling as though perhaps she shouldn’t have let that slip.

It was a bit of a… delicate national issue, after all.

Unfortunately, unbothered by the real Amber, the Amber on screen continued, “...Yes.  I also find it hard to accept, but... Stormterror was once one of The Four Winds.”

 Paimon shrieked, “Ehhhh!?”

“Wait, really?” Diona stared wide-eyed at the screen.

“You didn’t know?” Noelle asked the little Katzlein child, surprised.

The knight-in-training thought it was supposed to be common knowledge—it’s part of history tests after all, and certainly, even though most bards deal with poetry nowadays, some of the more historical bards should have talked about it.

Diona frowned, “How could I have known? I live in springvale with the hunters and my dad! I only stay at the city for work, and Margaret only hires good singers, not history teachers!”

“Stormterror is part of the four winds?” Ningguang asked Jean, similarly surprised by the news.

The other representatives were no different, and the twins, too.

The truth of the matter has always been known to Jean so she neglected to think how people would react to this. In the end, all she could do at first was look away with a complicated expression, before answering shakily.

“Was. He… was.”

That confirmation was all the representatives needed to realize just how bad of a national problem this was—that one of its own protectors had turned against them in the crisis.

But among the representatives, it was Neuvilette who seemed to react badly the most.

“That dragon is a god?”

The judge had a look of disbelief, a puzzled expression flickering over his face for a moment.

“No, no, no! The four winds are not really gods. They’re helpers of the Anemo archon and guardians of Monstadt’s territory.” Jean corrected quickly, before pausing, “Unless… we count the Wolf of the North as a god? But he was a god before the four winds, and the rest aren’t, really. They aren’t—”

“That’s correct,” Diluc cut in with crossed arms before Jean could work herself into a frenzy, elevating his voice above the rest as he added his own two mora into the conversation, “If the four winds were gods, then the highest ranking leader of the Knights of Favonius would count as a god despite being entirely human. If you ask any Monstadt citizen, the status of the four winds is more like the status of the Liyue Adepti.”

At the mention of adepti, all eyes turned immediately to the most conspicuous one among the bunch.

“Hmpph!” The bird huffed, annoyed, “Just because one receives offerings does not mean one is higher than Rex Lapis himself! One is no god!”

“That’s what she says.” Gaming announced without much fanfare.

“…I see.”  

“Wait... Did you just feel that? The wind here... Something's off...” Amber on the screen suddenly said with alarm, “Let's go in and take a look, Aether. Be careful, the dragon's power is disturbing this area.”

“Well, god or no god, that dragon is going down.” Itto declared cheekily with full-bellied laughter, and Kuki Shinobu next to him simply stared at the screen with sharp purple eyes.

Her mind was wandering towards the question that some people seemed to overlook saying out loud.

‘Why would one of the four winds, a guardian of Monstadt, turn against it and the anemo archon he serves?’

She’s studied law in Liyue before, she has an idea of the loyalties the adeptus have towards their prime adeptus and archon, Morax. For the adepti in Liyue, the land of contracts, honoring their contracts to protect Liyue was an honor and a duty that one can’t simply throw away.

Remembering the words at the beginning of their time here in the black box—the one that foreshadowed each nation’s crisis, including this, Kuki found it odd.

‘What does freedom really mean when demanded of you by a god?’

Monstadt, the land of freedom. The four winds, supposedly appointed to protect it.

…It seems to her like this wasn’t a simple case of “kill the dragon.”

And by the looks of a certain someone in the Inazuma area stroking his chin with a smile, her guess must not be so far off.

“Let’s get on with it.”

Ningguang urged Mika, and the Surveyor was about to follow when he remembered something important, and squeaked.

“W-wait, I n-need to level up the characters…!”

If he doesn’t level up the characters, then he risks going to battle with a disadvantage, and if he goes into battle with a disadvantage, he risks accidentally killing Aether’s character…!

Feeling a sudden omen of doom, Mika moved like lightning, leveling Aether and Amber up by reflex, and then equipping every member of the team with a corresponding weapon.

It was the effect of a healthy fear of death.

‘Aether, absolutely, cannot die!’

(Lumine watched him throughout all this, amused.)

As soon as he had the characters set, considering that there were just enough people to make a team, there wasn’t much need to change anyone in so as soon as Mika was in the domain, he was ready to go.

He didn’t really know what he expected once he was in. It was just like a standard ruin, just like what that girl from Sumeru said. It even had monsters, specifically, hilichurls, inside as well as old crates and chests.

It was a bit depressing to know that this used to be a temple though…

“Huh.” Faruzan was actually impressed as she observed the gameplay.

Mika used everything at his disposal to achieve every task he needed to do, and so she and all the other members of the viewers had full access to many new discoveries Mika did trying to play the game.

The more she watches, the more she finds herself satisfied that the “game” seemed to use real life logic at the very least. If it wasn’t for someone controlling the character and the frequent tutorial instructions, Faruzan figured this would just be them watching a person named “Amber” do all these in real life.

As for the limited amount of characters as of the moment though…

“Steady as stone!”

“Baron Bunny!”

“A touch of frost!”

“Windblade!”

Well, Mika seemed to be doing fine with what he had, even though it was obvious from his face that he wasn’t entirely sure yet if this is how things should go.

“Oh no! A horn!” Amber yelled.

“Reinforcements. True to life, I suppose.” Ningguang commented.

No matter how many more hilichurls came, it was like the setting was set to easy—Mika got through them with relative ease, especially under Noelle’s shield.

However, at one point, as he was pushing them towards a corner…

“Is—Is that an explosive barrel? Wait, Mika, be careful—”

KABOOM!

Tighnari couldn’t stop the boy in time—he accidentally hit the barrel with a greatsword.

A cloud of black smoke obscured the screen, and Mika had to blink several times.

“….uh.” He started, and then looked down at the hp bar, that hadn’t been covered up byt the explosion, and sighing in relief, “Oh, hey, I’m still alive.”

Not only was he alive, there was not a single bit of damage on his body.

‘Thank you, Noelle, for being a shielder.’ Mika briefly sent his gratitude telepathically. Not that the girl would be able to hear it, unfortunately, but he’s in a bit of a bind here and he’s bad at talking so he’ll have to settle for this.

After several more fights and chests opened and closed…

“It's so high... Seems like there's something up there.” Amber spoke.

Mika found himself by the edge of a chasm looking toward the end of the domain—which was apparently on the other side.

He needed to cross.

“But how do we get across?” Paimon whined before stopping, “Isn't this... a Pyro Monument?”

Well, that only means one thing.

“If we hit it with a powerful Pyro attack, we might trigger it!”

The only pyro character on hand right now is Amber so Mika supposes it’s time to start aiming.

Pew.

Pew—pew!

“……..”

The representatives and the twins fell silent at Mika’s attempts to light up the monument. For the record, there were several unsuccessful attempts, not to mention how Mika almost fell down the side of the chasm while doing some of them.

Not a single shot landed—at least, not on fire.

Tighnari was the one to break this silence with both fury and disbelief.

“Pardon my language, but rukkhadebata forbid, your aim is worse than our trainees in the forest! And some of them are very young!”

“I-it’s hard to aim in this device…” Mika started, only to be cut off by Diona’s own set of disbelieving remarks.

“Aren’t you a bow-user?! Even I can shoot better than that, and goodness knows I have shorter arms!” Diona shrieked, and it was at this point that Mika can’t help but start flushing from the roots out of embarrassment, being scolded by a literal child.

“I use a crossbow, and that’s as a side weapon! I mainly use the polearm!” Mika loudly defended.

“JUST STOP MOVING AND AIM FOR THE—!”

A few minutes later…

“Was it so hard, Mika?!” Diona demanded from the healer’s wing, voice loud, clear, judgmental and crisp.

The pyro monument was lit, but at what cost?

“Oh, Mika, there’s a hidden chest over there.” Eula pointed out, not even batting an eyelid at the fact hat her underling had practically been cussed out by exceptionally offended bow users.

If this was real life and real archery, Mika knows he wouldn’t have flopped this hard. But also, if Mika wasn’t a knight, he’s sure he would have already cried.

Flying towards the end of the domain with a few more chest rewards and a heavy silence after being criticized for his bow skills, Mika swore in his heart he’ll adapt to the bow-style touch mechanics soon enough.

“Dragon's breath! Is that where the power is coming from? Great, let's smash it!”

He destroyed the crystal in the end of the domain quickly, and a cutscene started.

“Phew, I'm tired. But, at least this way we've helped Jean out.” Amber optimistically said.

“In the past, we were at least able to defend the city and keep it safe. This, of course, is mostly thanks to Jean. But now with Stormterror directly attacking the city itself...” Amber’s brows furrowed before she struck a thinking pose and seemingly thought deeply.

"The winds change, so too should our tactics."

“Sounds deep,” Aether said, “Did you come up with it?”

Amber grinned.

“It's what Lisa likes to say.”

“Oh, sweetie, you remember.” Lisa said with a teasing grin, her eyes droopy as she bumped Amber a little from where she was laid behind her and Eula.

The outrider just beamed at her, because the truth is—that’s probably one of the only things she remembers from Lisa’s rare enlightening talks.

“Speaking of which, The Four Winds we were discussing earlier...” Amber suggested, “If you want to learn more about our history, you can ask Lisa.”

As if a thought suddenly startled her, she was quick to add however that:

“...I'm not saying I don't know our history! It's just... I mean... A librarian is supposed to be more knowledgeable than an Outrider, right?”

“…Miss Amber. Do you not know your country’s own history?” Kaveh carefully asked Amber such a question from far away, and the outrider quickly retorted with a red face, as red as her ribbon.

“It happens sometimes! You can’t tell me you remember yours!”

“We have a field of study for that!” Kaveh confidently declared.

“A field of study you’re not even a part of.” Alhaitham added, needlessly, immediately earning the blonde architect’s ire.

“I like learning!”

“Learning everything but your life lessons, apparently.”

“Okay, that was severely uncalled for—”

“There they go again…” Candace sighed, having been forced to be stuck with the two men bickering behind her this entire time. She’s still quite not sure if they are enemies or friends.

But at the very least, it seemed that the quest was now done.

‘Only two more left, and maybe I’ll catch a break from their arguments and commentaries…’

---

After climbing and struggling to unlock teleport waypoints and jumping instead of running when stamina’s been depleted, Mika finally reached the domain where Lisa was waiting.

“Hey cutie.” Lisa greeted with crinkled eyes, “You're going to help me out too? How kind of you. Don't hesitate to come to me if you need anything.”

“Aether, Lumine, don’t be fooled by that voice,” Kaeya suddenly announced, face serious, “If you don’t bring your books back in time, that woman becomes a mon—"

A current of electricity suddenly comes up his leg.

“—moooonstadtian role model.” Kaeya bit his tongue and proceeded to sit back down and behave, “That’s right. She teaches you the proper book ettiquettes. Nicely, if I say so myself. Very nice, indeed.”

Lisa, who was lying down and living her dream of a day off, simply smiled.

“…Is she really the librarian?” Lumine questioned Albedo in a whisper.

She’s not one to forget faces, she remembers Lisa being the one responsible for electrocuting unconscious citizens awake when they first arrived here.

“I still believe there’s a hidden reason for why she took such a lowkey role when she could do better,” Albedo whispered back in conspiracy, “but yes, she’s the librarian.”

Lumine stared at Albedo who had suddenly said so many words in one try, eyes alight with surprise.

“You seem to think highly of her.”

“Of course, I do. And I’m not the only one. She did graduate from the akademiya in just a few years.” Albedo explained, “Not that you might understand how big of an achievement that is, since you’re outlanders, but she’s the best student the Akademiya has ever had in 200 years.”

200 years? What kind of records did she break to even beat dead people to that title?

“Huh.”

Lumine quizzically started to inspect Lisa’s appearance a bit more after that, wondering to herself if perhaps she was more than what she makes herself out to be.

“Why would a librarian be at the ruins…?” Aether asked.

Mika picked that question to ask between two questions because he was a bit curious.

Before he’d left with the expedition, the most he’s interacted with Lisa was the librarian offering to teach him and give him useful references as he first learned how to draw maps, especially military ones. At the time, manpower was sufficient, and Lisa’s job was simply to stay in the library, reorganize and manage the books, but now…?

‘It never did come across my mind before… but she’s not just a librarian, is she?’

“Hmm... Good question.” Lisa grinned, “Well, because Jean trusts me. So you should as well.”

“Well, she isn’t the legendary alumna of the akademiya for nothing.” Tighnari helplessly shook his head at the indirect answer to the question. She was truly one smart witch—she even knew that giving herself credibility could be done easily by just mentioning Jean’s name.

(In truth, Lisa just didn’t want to waste energy explaining further than that, when she could throw the ball to Jean instead)

Mika quickly got into the domain with the same team as before, but stopped a bit when he saw the architecture.

“It’s different…”

It was still old but it was certainly a more unique looking ruins compared to the temple from before.

He gave himself time to just look around as he walked towards Lisa, but as soon as he was close enough… A small cutscene suddenly appeared.

“I guess I could give this a go.” Lisa suddenly exclaimed.

“Huh?” Everyone blinked.

And that blink was all it took for the black screen to come and go, revealing that in the team, on a 5^th spot…

“W-we got Lisa!”

Everyone was shocked for a bit because they were sure that Kaeya would be the next person, but turns out Lisa beat him to it—Lisa was now the 5^th playable character they have.

“It’s a trial character.” Lumine muttered to herself, “We might not be able to keep her if that’s the case but…”

Come to think of it, it happened with Amber too, didn’t it?

They just got Amber randomly, and it helped them clear Amber’s domain because prior to that, they didn’t have any pyro characters. The game must have known that the chances of having certain elements from the get go was low.

Following that logic, then… they’re going to be needing an electro character, aren’t they?

“I knew it.” Lisa’s voice suddenly declared as the camera panned unto a faraway location marked in the map, “There is a strong elemental energy coming from deep within this temple.”

 “Paimon, are you able to float across?” Lisa asked.

“Can't do much even if she does.” Paimon shrugged.

 “Good point. We'd better start looking for a way to get up there then.

“Okay, I wouldn’t have thought of just sending Paimon there—I forgot Paimon literally floats.” Aether wryly said.

The domain went as swimmingly as Amber’s domain, honestly. For one, the only difference is the fact that Mika now had 5 characters at his disposal instead of 4, and soon enough, the addition of electro in their team proved to be especially needed.

“It's an Electro Monument.” Lisa exclaimed, “No wonder. Let me try to activate it with a bit of Electro power. Stand back, sweeties.”

With the addition of electro in the team, a few more kinds of reactions became visible to everyone watching. With the combination of Amber and Lisa, there could be overload. With the combination of Lisa and Chongyun, there was superconduct. With Lisa fighting near a body of water on the other hand—

ZAP, ZAP, ZAP, ZAP, ZAP!

Mika had just been experimenting on holding her elemental skill while surrounded by Noelle’s shield but the end result was lightning descending from above and absolutely skewering several hilichurls that had been marked all at once.

“…UH.”

Many people stared at the screen incredulously.

‘This woman is supposed to be a librarian???’

“When it comes to Wet enemies, I've got them covered.”

“Yes, you sure do, madam.” Wriothesley applauded from where he and Sigewinne were having tea—except he’s not touching Sigewinne’s tea even at the cost of his life.

“Chain lightning can be set off between Electro-Charged opponents.”

Lisa had explained later when they got deeper into the domain. It was a good explanation as to why the effect of her attack worked so well—it was like a stack of multiple attacks all at once.

Lumine was almost about to be impressed, but then…

“The electrical discharge caused by friction is only a little less shocking than love at first sight.” Lisa said in a honeyed voice, and if her face was visible, you would think she’d have winked.

“…Ma’am, are you flirting with my sibling???”

Lumine immediately asked the real librarian who was stretching her arms and enjoying a self-conjured couch.

To say the golden-haired outlander was shocked would be an understatement. She could be wrong and could be reading into this too deeply, but that was a bit too forward no matter how you look at it!

Lisa, blinking drowsily, and then gave a sweet, sweet smile.

“I could flirt with you instead, if that’s what you’d prefer.”

It was such a spontaneous attack from the left field. Lumine was utterly and absolutely gobsmacked.

“Okay, no one is flirting with my little sister!” Aether dove between the two as Lumine turned red and silent. He screeched, similarly red-faced for a different reason, “Hands off, Lady!”

“Why, the two of you are such cuties! Cut from the same cloth!” Lisa laughed.

“Lisa, give them a break…” Jean sighed, watching this all unfold from the sidelines.

“Alright, alright…” Lisa chuckled to herself before lying back down and enjoying the softness of the couch to its full extent, “Next time, please bother me again in more acceptable hours. Thanks in advance.”

And she was gone—completely ignoring the world.

It was Amber next to her that looked at Jean with a sour confused expression as she quietly mouthed, ‘We don’t have a clock here, how would she know if it’s acceptable hour?’

How is Jean supposed to know? Lisa just has a body clock, probably.

“Really…” Jean couldn’t help but facepalm, exasperated beyond measure.

Lisa says those things but Jean’s fairly sure she’ll wake up the moment a good piece of knowledge comes out into the open. Frankly, Jean is surprised it took her so long to talk to any of the twins considering they may be the most mysterious people here—worthy of study at least.

“Oh, you want to know about this gem?”

“Gem?”

It was Lumine who curiously asked this after getting out of her trance.

Lisa turned quiet for a bit before her tone suddenly became that of disbelief, “You're kidding... You're seriously asking? This is a Vision. It's used by the chosen to draw on elemental powers. In terms of mysticism, I suppose you could call it a "magical lightning rod."”

“Oh, yeah, you guys don’t have these, right?” Tighnari absentmindedly said before showing them his dendro vision hanging from his purple waistband.

Ayato did the same with his hydro vision that was hanging near his pant pockets, “We frame it differently depending on which nation we’re from, but some people also customize it.”

“Oh, so that’s where your elemental powers come from!” The twins exclaimed at the same time. 

They thought it was an inborn thing…

Apparently, it’s not?

 “What... You've never seen a Vision? Just where exactly are you from...?” Lisa muttered as a witness of absurdity, “Are you a hilichurl with some level of reasonable intelligence?”

“They’re not from this world so it makes sense they haven’t seen visions before this.” Kuki Shinobu muttered to herself while she played with Ushi’s legs out of boredom.

“No, I doubt it. After all, hilichurls aren't exactly known for their smarts.” Lisa quickly took it back before correcting herself, “And you, you'd more or less qualify to be a magister's apprentice.”

‘She’s really quite the smooth talker…’

Kuki Shinobu paused in her actions, a weird feeling of de javu suddenly coming to mind.

‘Huh. Why does she remind me of someone?’

“Break it and we can head home and relax. The thought of putting my feet up and relaxing has me all fired up!”

Kuki Shinobu frowned as the illusion of familiarity was suddenly shattered.

‘Nevermind, I must have been mistaken…’

Just like before, Mika destroyed the crystal at the end of the domain and a cutscene quickly followed after it.

“Dragon of the East, Lion of the South, Wolf of the North, Falcon of the West... They are the Four Winds of Mondstadt, affiliated with Barbatos, the God of Anemo.” Lisa explained.

“Oh, neat, we’re getting a history lesson!” Arataki Itto exclaimed with naïve gusto.

There was absolutely no need for an Inazuman like him to know about the specifics of Monstadt’s old religious system, but who was Shinobu to stop him from expressing enthusiasm in a rare subject?

If anything, knowing this could serve well in competitions of bragging rights.

“The Dragon of the East, Stormterror — its real name, is Dvalin.” Lisa solemnly informed, “Though most in Mondstadt seem to have forgotten that in all this "Stormterror" business.”

“Dvalin…” Neuvilette mouthed the words quietly.

A name forgotten by everyone in favor of a label given to a “monster”.

“So now you know why Dvalin is only able to channel three of the Four Winds' power.” Lisa sadly sighed, “Because it has been consuming itself from the beginning.”

“Why would it go to such lengths?” Aether asked.

Lisa shrugged, but answered anyway, “Because of hatred, I presume.”

“Hatred...?” Paimon weakly asked.

 “Hatred for Mondstadt.” Lisa affirmed, “Hatred drove it to become something more powerful than the wind itself — to become Stormterror.”

 “But why would one of The Four Winds...” Paimon frowned, “Hate the city it was supposed to protect?

And wasn’t that the million mora question?

For a long moment, Lisa was quiet.

The people of Monstadt shifted uncomfortably in their seats, knowing the answer.

“As a child of Mondstadt, it's something that's really hard to say aloud.” Lisa murmured, and then handed over something to Aether, “Here, take this. It's a very old story from more than a century ago.”

It was a book.

And as soon as they received the book, the cutscene ended, and Mika left the domain.

After clearing two temples, the sky seemed to clear a bit. The grey clouds parted and the screen tried its best to show that right after exiting the temple.

“…She wasn’t temporary, after all.” Lumine couldn’t help but quietly say as she watched the new character’s silhouette flash across the screen—the silhouette of a witch they now knew well.

It seemed that Lisa has finally and truly joined the team as the 5^th playable character.

---

“It’s the last quest. I feel like we should have done Kaeya’s first before Lisa, honestly, it was much closer.” Tighnari sighed as soon as Mika started moving towards the last temple to be raided.

The temple Lisa was in charge of raiding was simply too far away.

The librarian herself didn’t seem to like walking and working for too long but he supposes it just goes to show the severity of Monstadt’s situation if even the lazy ones start to walk the distance.

“Well, you know what they say,” Kaeya casually leaned back and enjoyed the gameplay show, “Save the best for last.”

“You've arrived.”

As soon as Mika arrived in front of the temple assigned to Kaeya, the Cavalry Captain started talking nonsense on the spot.

“Come closer. Can you smell that?” Kaeya asked in a tone of conspiracy.

“…I can't smell anything.” Aether replied.

“We barely five minutes in and you’re already messing with the traveler?” Albedo questioningly stared at Kaeya before blowing the bits of eraser he had on his sketchpad page, and Kaeya faked a hurt noise, but there was still hints of a smile on his face.

“Hey, now, it’s not my fault he can’t smell well!”

“Something must have happened in the temple. I imagine there will be slimes, hilichurls, and... whatever is giving Stormterror extra power.” Kaeya said with anticipation, “Oh yes, it is going to be lively in there indeed.”

“Will it be dangerous?” Aether asked.

 “As bustling as it may be — no, I can't imagine it will be dangerous at all.” Kaeya stated, “It's a pity that the Temple of the Wolf has been disturbed by such an atrocity.”

Rosaria looked up from where she was tending to a still unconscious Razor.

 “Let's head in, Aether. No one makes offerings to The Four Winds anymore, yet the old winds never vanish... We need to clear out the temples, for The Four Winds.”

“For the four winds.” Jean nodded, immersed.

“For the four winds.” The other knights echoed with a kind of gravity as the third concurring quest went on. It was only right to give back to the guardians who helped shape Monstadt to what it is now.

“Ah.” Mika suddenly turned to the representatives, “Master Jean, now that we have five people…”

They could finally switch up the team now and integrate electro into their battles through Lisa.

But who will Lisa replace?

“You can take me out for now.” Aether volunteered, hand raised, “You’ve been playing as me from the beginning anyway, you must be sick of it already.”

“I don’t feel sick.” Mika frowned.

Aether just grinned, teasingly, “It’s a joke, and it’s just one time anyway. All I can show is swirl, so it’d be better to take me out instead of Noelle. She’s our healer and shielder. Besides, if my guess is right, you’ll get Kaeya after this anyway.”

Mika’s frown deepened a bit but he had to acknowledge that Aether was right.

He can’t replace Noelle unless he’s confident he won’t die.

Which he isn’t. Everyone is still so squishable.

“…If you say so.”

Shelving Aether for Lisa temporarily, Mika got into the temple and just as Aether said, Kaeya became a trial character soon enough.

“Let me show you how the Knights of Favonius conquer our adversaries!” Kaeya declared.

And that got the real Kaeya some strange looks from the other knights real quickly.

Eula in particular had her arms crossed, a look of passing judgment on her icy cold face, as she looked at him.

“Are you seriously trying to show off at a moment like this?”

“What, would you rather I be glum like the rest of the knights during a crisis?” Kaeya quickly defended, and Eula could only huff at his glib tongue.

“Hmm. If I'm not mistaken, the end of the temple should be up there.” Kaeya points out as they enter the first room, and Paimon makes a confused sound.

 “Wait... How do you know?”

 “Heh, experience.” Kaeya neutrally said before going serious, “...The kind of experience you get after years of dealing with things like this for others.”

“…I thought he was the Cavalry Captain?” Aether confusedly whispered to Albedo.

Albedo, getting a faint sense of de javu, could only hesitantly nod, face expressionless, “He is our Cavalry Captain.”

…That was it? Aether swore that Albedo had more things to say than that, but he seems to keep it well.

“No, it’s just…” Aether started, hoping to get more from the alchemist, only to stop because how even is he going to explain why he’s sensing weird vibes from the man?

For a moment there, Kaeya sounded pretty grim, and he implied that he was often “dealing with things like this”, but what exactly is “this”? Monster-fighting? Treasure-hunting? Domain-exploring?

Only one of the three seems to fit very much in Aether’s limited idea of a Cavalry Captain, but that doesn’t seem to be what Kaeya is trying to say.

It gave Aether a sense of… incongruency.

“He’s just being overdramatic, Traveler.” Amber, apparently having overheard their short exchange, butted in with a pout, “And shady, too, but that’s nothing new.”

Aether turned to Amber puzzled.

“You know I’ve been meaning to ask this but why do you and Kaeya seem to have this whole frenemy thing going on…?”

“Because whenever something’s off about anything within the knights, it always has Kaeya’s traces all over it!” Amber passionately declared, before pausing and coughing into her hand, “Um, don’t get me wrong, he’s reliable when he wants to be—Jean trusts him so I do, too, but sometimes he’s just…”

“I can hear you, you know, Amber?” Kaeya blandly said.

He was seated near Albedo and Klee. He’s been able to hear the conversation this entire time.

Amber stuck out her tongue before brushing him off.

“Well, I didn’t say anything wrong. Anyway, this guy tends to mess with the headquarters in a weird but harmless way. Jean respects him so much, and yet he’s always up to no good!”

“Just admit, your jealous that Jean thinks highly of me.”

“Wha—I am not—”

The conversation continued like clockwork, with Amber almost pulling out her bow and arrow, even, in reckless abandon, but she never really goes through with it. Watching the outrider and the cavalry captain bicker…

‘Ahhh, I see.’

Aether stroke his chin as he finally saw the big picture.

Somehow, they’re like the perfect picture of an older brother always messing with his uptight little sister. Aether could clearly see it—Jean is the eldest, and Kaeya could be the second, and Amber could be the youngest.

‘Wait, but what about Lisa?’

No, wait, Aether’s own mind is going off the rails…

“Thank you, Amber. I think I get it now.” Aether cleared his throat, and the fighting stopped.

Amber raised an eyebrow, questioningly, “You do?”

“Contrary to popular opinion, Amber isn’t entirely inept at using her brain, Aether, so if you just lied, I suggest you send your prayers now… Ow!”

Kaeya received a good whack for that slight dig.

‘Yeah, definitely siblings.’ Aether nodded.

Meanwhile, with Albedo…

The alchemist suddenly stopped drawing as something belatedly dawned on him after his interaction with Aether.

‘It was like my conversation with his sister about Lisa.’

What were with these outlanders and sniffing out hidden talents trying to shy away from the spotlight?

“Traveler... Unless I'm mistaken, you don't seem to have a Vision. So how exactly is it that you're able to channel elemental energy?” Back at the screen, Kaeya asked Aether this question.

Paimon answered for him, though. Barely.

“It was a very strange phemomeno… phenomemo…phemone… Ugh! Something strange happened!”

“You really can’t convince me that Paimon isn’t a child after that.” Kaveh declared with a frown.

“I wasn’t trying to.” Alhaitham answered, without even caring to check if he was the subject of “you” in this conversation, “I was just trying to open up other possibilities.”

“Ugh, finally... we're here.”

Paimon groaned as they reached the area Kaeya had observed before except…

 “Seems the path ends here.” Kaeya observed, seeing a dead end, and then suggested, “Let's use the wind currents to fly up.”

“Thank Celestia for wind gliders!” Amber grinned from ear to ear.

How could people live without this before, honestly?

“Says the person who keeps breaking wind glider rules…” Kaeya muttered under his breath, just loud enough for the Outrider’s ear to pick up, and within minutes, Amber was sputtering.

“It’s called the spirit of being free!”

On their way to the end of the domain…

“Water!” Paimon gasped as rain came down within a small area of the domain after a hydro crystal was destroyed, “We can use this to put out fire!”

 “Good idea. That's some keen observation.” Kaeya teased, “We should get Jean to give you a title and make you a knight.”

“Was that sarcasm?” Collei squinted from where she was seated.

She used to think she knew sarcasm by heart when she was undergoing her prickly development as a teen, but living with her Master has taught her a new world of sarcastic statements that she can practically spot one from a mile away.

Still can’t seem to figure out a joke, though… but maybe that’s Cyno’s fault.

“Oh, oh, oh, be careful!” A timid voice from Inazuma suddenly spoke out as they reached an area with spikes hidden underneath the water.

Ayaka was quick to cover her mouth after realizing she got carried away watching and actually spoke up like all the others, but seeing as Mika stopped sprinting just in time to not fall, she found perhaps it was worth it to speak aloud like that.

“Crazy… we could have killed Kaeya.” Lumine muttered at the quick save, while Aether looked at her with concern.

“Why do you sound so disheartened when you say that?”

“How are we supposed to cross this? I don’t think jumps with a running start would be enough.” Tighnari asked with an incredulous expression, wondering who in their right mind would put spikes underneath water, inside a temple, of all things too.

It may be abandoned, but what in the name of Rukkhadevata—Were they a psycho?!

“Oh, I know how to do this!” Mika’s eyes lit up, “I see Captain Kaeya do it all the time!”

“Do what all the time?” Neuvilette inquired, confused.

“Ice-bridging!”

As if to show his point, Mika used Kaeya’s elemental skill to cross the first set of underwater spikes with ease, jumping unto the other side safely.

“…Of course.” Tighnari blinked, “I forgot because we don’t get cryo-aligned students and vision bearers that much…but this was practically elemental basics, isn’t it?”

This continued for a bit more, with Mika going as far as using Chongyun with Kaeya to further test how much water he could freeze at a time.

---

“Chongyun, are you sure you want to go back into the main room now?”

Xingqui asked the exorcist boy just as they reached the door.

It had taken a bit of alone time, and also some cold hydro-infused energy from Xingqui to get the light-haired boy’s flareup to backdown and cease and desist, but barely anytime really passed since they separated from the others to stay behind.

Honestly, Xingqui wasn’t all too thrilled with the number systems himself, so he wouldn’t mind if they stayed longer inside.

But Chongyun insisted with guilt all over his face.

“You like stories like this the most. I don’t want to keep you here when I’m already fine. I can just stay a bit away from the others as you watch.”

Now, that, is not a reason Xingqui would like to accept.

“…I do like stories, but it wouldn’t be very chivalrous of me to leave you alone now, would it?”

Xingqui finally came to an internal decision and grabbed Chongyun’s hand before turning back towards the door.

“And it wouldn’t be very chivalrous of you if you leave me to my lonesome as well, so come on. I’ll accompany you where you wish to go.”

“…! That’s not really necessary—”

“True, but it’s all about principle, Yunyun. So, come on. I’ll lead.”

Chongyun pouted, technically losing the argument altogether when he simply didn’t want to burden his closest friend, and Xingqui only snickered upon seeing it.

“Honestly,” Xingqui rolled his eyes as he turned the doorknob, “We’ve been away for such a short time that I’m sure nothing much has happened in the main room just yet, so there’s no—”

“A touch of frost!”

Xingqui has never slammed a door close faster his entire life.

“Uh, Xingqui…?!”

Facing a confused Chongyun, Xingqui clamped the exorcist’s cheeks with his hands and said with the most serious face he could muster:

“My dear Chongyun, for the love of light novels and heroism, I beg you, give me five to ten minutes before you dare open this door.”

Because him becoming a “character” dumbed down to numbers was one thing he’s prepared himself for, but he has not prepared himself to see his exorcist friend as a controllable character on screen just yet.

“…Okaaaay?” Chongyun answered, uncertainly, but Xingqui knew the boy would keep his word.

So, now, he was free to grab at his temples and have his ten-minute crisis, right there, slumped against the door.

“Xingqui?!”

“Oh, rex lapis above and below…” Xingqui muttered as he massaged his temples.

“Xingqui, you’re scaring me!”

Just give him ten minutes. Ten minutes and this crisis will be gone soon enough.

---

“Speaking of, did you know? Stormterror was once one of The Four Winds.”

“Why do you sound so smug when you say that? Lisa and Amber both already told them that.” Eula huffed as the story finally picked up where it left off after that random ice experiment Mika started.

“I’m guessing since its concurring events, they made it so that no matter which you picked first, you’ll still get the most important information in every interaction, nonetheless.” Albedo answered in Kaeya’s stead, because honestly, how would Kaeya know what his screen-self is thinking?

Even Aether doesn’t know what his screen-self is thinking as we speak.

“I'm not aware of the exact details. If you're interested, you can ask the Acting Grand Master about it.”

“Oh, it’s the crystal!” Amber, sharp as ever, pointed out, and Mika was quick to change to her exact character and attempt an aim.

This time it only took him 3 tries!

Improvement!

“Bravo!  What a performance!” Kaeya on the screen applauded, “You are, to my surprise, a well-trained knight. The battles you just fought were sights to behold.”

“Thanks, that's nice of you to say...” Aether responded.

“Haha, I see you already have the knightly virtue of modesty.” Kaeya laughed before finally saying with a smile, as if like a promise, “Stories of your heroic deeds to save Mondstadt from destruction shall be known throughout the City of Freedom, well into the future. Please do visit me at our headquarters when you have the time.”

Then, having a better idea, he quickly tacked on.

“I also know a lovely tavern, if that's more your thing.”

“Drunkards recruiting drunkards!” Diona hissed from the healer wing.

“Don’t worry, I have an idea which tavern he’s talking about and I’m making sure they’re banned from the establishment.” Diluc loudly told the Katzlein child, but this only confused the Katzlein child.

Because she can recognize the sight of her enemy—the face of the wine industry—any day!

‘Wait, ban them from the establishment… gasp! Don’t tell me this guy is colluding with Margaret to send specific drunk people from Cat’s tail to his tavern so that he can make them drunk even more! And love alcohol more than staying sober!’

A whole plot was running in the little child’s mind, while in reality, Diluc was just looking for an excuse to kick out a certain someone from Angel’s share temporarily, if only to regulate the man’s alcoholism.

“Wait.”

Mika suddenly declared as the screen on the device and on the wall turned black, an epiphany coming to him.

At around this point, they should already be leaving the domain and getting Kaeya as a character—just like with Lisa. That was the pattern that would have stayed true, after all, if Amber hadn’t joined the team so early already.

However, at this moment…

“There’s more?” Mika curiously gasped as colors came back to the screen, revealing a cinematic.

Kaeya was brushing dust off his gloved hands and his coat, body turned away from the Traveler and Paimon as he declared, “Quite rewarding, no?”

“We've seized another temple from Stormterror's grasp!” Paimon celebrated, leaping in the air and spinning, at their achievement.

Kaeya turned to the two and crossed his arms, demeanor calm and reliable for once.

 “I can take care of the rest here. You go take care of other things while I'm at it.”

Aether and Paimon didn’t even hesitate. Aether was quick to turn around while Paimon did a quick wave, saying “See you later then, bye-bye~!” before following after the outlander.

Kaeya briefly raised his hand to reciprocate the wave with a smile—

But then a noticeable burst of energy could be seen appearing just behind him, and the smile fell from his face as a serious, perhaps even angry expression took hold.

“There's no way hilichurls organized an ambush like this themselves — not with their limited mental capacity...”

Jean, who had been paying too much attention to the screen lately and neglected jotting things down, found herself reaching for her paper quickly, as she felt more than heard the incoming drop of information from a mile away.

A hydro abyss mage, laughing in a pitched monstrous manner, appeared from behind one of the columns of the domain, as if to mock Kaeya.

Kaeya turned towards the abyss mage with a hostile look:

“Thus YOU were behind this.”

“The Abyss Order?” Diluc exclaimed with thinly veiled shock.

“The what?” Lumine and Aether, ever missing the context, confusedly said at the same time, because all they can see is a chubby, fluffy bird-bunny thing the size of a teen or a child at most, and it didn’t help that the next few words said bird-bunny would say were utter nonsense for them.

“Gohus, Chiso Vonph.”

Like starting a ritual, the Hydro Abyss mage summoned up elemental energy with its staff in one hand and the chin of its mask held high, but before it could finish, as if sensing a disturbance, it quickly turned towards the door—

Where a burst of red-orange flames rushed towards it in a frenzy, only to reveal later as it got closer that it was not in fact just flames, but a man with hair colored red just like fiery flames.

The man practically grabbed the Abyss mage by its head, spun around and threw it across the floor, like a ragdoll.

Now, Lumine and Aether have no idea who or what the abyss order is, but they definitely know who that guy is.

“Senio—Master Diluc?” Jean blurted out absent-mindedly in surprise.

“Diluc? Diluc Ragnvindr? The Wine tycoon?” Ningguang interrogated with similar astonishment, considering she hadn’t even caught wind that the red-haired young master of the Dawn Winery was a capable fighter. To be fair, she has not needed to investigate him before.

“Wine tycoon?” Lumine echoed, confusedly, before the puzzle pieces clicked, head whipping towards Diluc, who was averting his gaze from everything and everyone pretty badly, “Is that why you told the cat kid earlier—”

“I’m Katzlein!” Diona hissed.

“What’s a wine tycoon doing in a domain supposedly to be raided by the Local Government Unit?!” Aether asked aloud, flabbergasted by the turn of events.

On the screen, the poor hydro abyss mage skid across the floor, past Kaeya, who remained standing still, unfazed by Diluc’s appearance, and he continued to stay unfazed even as Diluc rushed past him.

A brief picture of the two in the same frame together slowing as Kaeya watched Diluc chase down the abyss mage without any show of hesitancy.

The hydro abyss mage fell to the floor, and tried to get up, but Diluc, summoning up a greatsword, punted it into the air before jumping after it, sword held high with the intention to cut.

With its staff in its hand, the abyss mage tried to parry, only to be sent flying back down to the ground anyway, with a resounding painful bounce and a hit to the same column it was hiding from.

“Yeowch.” Tighnari muttered but with no real empathy, while Aether was slowly losing his mind.

Seriously, first a Librarian who could be more if she wanted to be, second a Cavalry captain who does seem more than what he says he is, and now, an apparent civilian who’s obviously not supposed to be in this place at all!

Aether could have sworn Diluc was one of the Knights but apparently not?!

Diluc landed on the floor, sword still ablaze with flames.

A single note seemed to play as the cutscene continued, a relentless single note that seemed to play over, and over, and over again, as Diluc rose to his full height, willing the flames away while not once glancing at Kaeya, who had started clapping.

“Knights of Favonius… Always so inefficient.”

“Agree to disagree.” Kaeya leisurely answered, fixing his gloves as he turned around with a glint in his eyes.

“But, your involvement in this just made things a whole lot more interesting.”

Chapter Text

Shenhe does not quite understand why this must happen.

“RANK UP! RANK UP! RANK UP!”

It has been approximately two to three days since they first appeared in this mysterious black room, approximately 24 hours since Cloud Retainer and Ganyu were able to hold her back from trying to brute force a hole into one of the walls of the Liyue room to see if she can “exit” the black room that way, and approximately an hour since a red-haired man on the screen beat up an abyss mage so ruthlessly that Shenhe was almost impressed.

Who was keeping the time?

Of course, it was not Shenhe. Cloud Retainer and Ganyu preferred keeping track so it was mostly them doing the approximations and calculations.

Such a task however is extremely difficult when you also have to keep a certain person from interacting more than necessary with beatable parties.

“Shenhe.”

Cloud Retainer, in huge bird form, scolded without even looking at the white-haired disciple as the crowd around them, consisting of people from all nations, continued to cheer and chant like a bunch of banshees, jumping around and squealing too.

Call it a Mother’s instinct, but Cloud Retainer does not need to see the look in her disciple’s face to know that Shenhe already has her polearm out for reasons that are not very palatable.

“…Master, this noise is extremely annoying me.”

“This one shares the sentiment, Shenhe.”

“It would be very easy for me…” The white-haired disciple slowly said with not much emotion as she adjusted her grip on her weapon, eyes zoned in on the loudest person in the room as of now—a white-haired man from Inazuma with red horns, “… to silence it, Master.”

“This one knows, Shenhe.”

It has been an hour since the “cutscene” and the reveal of a task that Shenhe honestly can only call “pointless.”

“The next part of the story is locked?!”

Shenhe doesn’t know who screamed it at the time, but too many were talking over each other so perhaps there was no way to know. She does not really care who spoke either.

Up until this point, Shenhe was “behaving” properly as to not tarnish her master’s reputation among the Liyue politicians—at least, if trying to kick the door to the doctor’s room, trying to kidnap a certain chef’s companion and contemplating encasing someone who may be her relative in ice (for medical reasons), counted as “behaving properly.”

Ganyu had given her a crash course to human society in the brief time they’ve been here, and her Master encouraged her to follow as Ganyu says for now, so Shenhe was truly trying her best.

Even when she can’t for the life of her understand why you have to knock on a door to get someone to open it when you can simply… open it by force yourself.

No more locks, no more obstacles.

No more knocks, too.

Why make things so difficult?

Anyway, returning to the matter at hand, Shenhe was able to behave properly—or as proper as she can get—because of the relative silence that existed in the beginning of their stay here. However, the further they got into the “story”, that silence slowly but surely died, like a sick old person.

Coughing and convulsing all the way… Or at least, that’s what Ganyu taught Shenhe about the dangers of old people.

(She does not get it. Is Cloud Retainer not old?)

When the cheers started, it was bearable. Shenhe simply… needed to go back inside the door until she’s not annoyed by the noises anymore.

However, today… the Liyue door was locked.

It shocked Shenhe—although if you close up on her face, nothing much of her expression would give it away.

Of course, since she was Shenhe, she tried to break the door immediately after, not even bothering to knock nor ask out loud if there was anyone there. All she received were two frightened screams that sounded like they belonged to two young men, and quickly, her mind remembered one of the latest lessons she forcibly received under Ganyu’s tutelage:

Intimate personal relations between men.

Something one must not interfere with.

Usually done behind doors.

Such as the door which Shenhe is about to break.

Shenhe decidedly figured she does not want to intrude on what could be beasts copulating, so in an attempt at human decency, she combed through the many things she learned recently to find a proper way to respond.

Ganyu did say one must thoroughly and properly greet people who experience such intimate relationships.

So, withdrawing herself and taking a step back from the door, she said aloud:

“…Con…dolences.”

And then walked away.

(Xingqui and Chongyun who had started making efforts to freeze the door the moment Shenhe tried to break it, were rightfully baffled at the complete radio silence that came after that random statement.

And then promptly became panicked.

Because they just froze themselves in and everyone out.)

That’s how Shenhe ended up back here, in the main black room’s crowd, surrounded by insufferable and noisy people, while her master tries to telepathically will her not to stab any of them in order to induce temporary yet valuable silence.

“RANK UP! RANK UP! RANK UP!”

As someone who has lived most of her life in the quiet mountains of Liyue with the adepti, with only Cloud Retainer’s clear voice as noise, Shenhe had an extreme urge to throw her spear at one or two persons speaking at the moment.

Cloud Retainer should be the same, but as expected of her master, the adeptus was calm and composed even in the face of such a racket.

Thinking about it deeply now, for once in her life, Shenhe finds herself recounting the rules Ganyu had given her:

• No killing
• No mauling
• No aggressive behaviors
• No hurting anyone. In general.

‘Since it’s a dream, would it not be fine if I throw someone at least once to get everyone else to shut up?’

Shenhe can’t really unintentionally disarm anyone in a literal sense as in lost of limbs in such a fickle environment. She may not care much about what was happening around her, but she was still registering information—she was well-aware that you cannot truly hurt one another within the confines of this place.

So, really, what are Ganyu’s rules for?

“I think silence is a very possible option if we use force.” Shenhe once again declared, loud enough that not only Ganyu but also the purple haired girl next to her overheard her blunt and expressionless statement.

Said-purple-haired girl looked at her, dumbfounded, before giving Ganyu a questioning look.

The half-adeptus secretary of the Qixin could only cover her face, cheeks burning red from embarrassment.

‘I knew teaching her too much in one go wouldn’t do any good!’

Ganyu lamented.

She was not very close to Shenhe but she’s heard the occasional stories from their shared master—Human as she may be, Shenhe was an absolute disaster waiting to cause havoc to humankind. Why else would her soul be bound in red strings like so?

Oblivious to the secretary’s sentiment, Shenhe looked at her seriously and repeated herself once more, but with more volume to her voice.

“Ganyu. Since it’s a dream, I cannot really break any of the rules—”

“Stop.” Ganyu raised her hand while using the other to cover her face, “Stop, please. We really can’t afford an international crisis, today—stop eye-ing the red-horned inazuman!”

“My apologies.”

Shenhe said, unapologetically.

“Would it be fine if I shoot down the blonde man in red instead?”

“You are not shooting anybody!”

This was neither the first nor the last of this argument.

Ganyu sighed, giving Shenhe a look of pity before turning to the screen with an apprehensive look in her face.

15 minutes ago…

“Adventure Rank?”

When Ganyu first saw it on the screen, she thought nothing of it. She hadn’t really been paying attention to the screen much—in terms of jobs, that was not her job as of now. It was Yelan’s.

No, her job was making sure the adeptus in the room and the non-adeptus co-disciple of hers did not get their nation into any sort of international problem.

When Ningguang tried to explain it to the people of Liyue after they had been “quest-locked”, or so the twin foreigners say, Ganyu hadn’t thought that a need to get to Adventure Rank 10 would lead to anything remotely wild.

She was mistaken.

She severely underestimated how many people could get so addicted to the “grind”.

“Ganyu—”

The secretary groaned, pinching her nose and raising her hand quickly, “Shenhe, please—”

“Ganyu.”

A voice that was definitely not Shenhe’s spoke dryly and suddenly, Ganyu’s eyes were snapping wide and turning in time to see a certain golden-eyed adeptus right behind her. It took everything in her willpower and thousand-year existence not to scream, but she did jump in surprise.

“Xiao!”

The Vigilante Yaksha merely inclined his head in response to that, not giving her much of the time of his day before turning to the huge bird that was Cloud Retainer.

“You knew.”

He simply said with his arms crossed over his chest but for some reason Ganyu felt like there was an accusing tone to it.

Cloud Retainer, seemingly understanding what his budget of words meant, puffed out with pride.

“Whatever does that mean?” The huge bird coyly asked, feigning ignorance.

“?????”

Ganyu stared at the two in confusion, not having all the puzzle pieces for the full picture, while Shenhe merely observed the two with slight curiosity, face unchanging.

The two adepti then proceeded to have a silent battle—a staring contest.

Before, finally, the Vigilante Yaksha relented with a scoff and turned away.

It was at that moment when Cloud Retainer was about to celebrate that the crowds around cheered once again, leading to Ganyu, Cloud Retainer and Shenhe wincing all at once.

Xiao stared at the cheering crowd at the distance, flocked around the player perimeter, before giving Cloud Retainer a puzzled look.

“What’s happening here?”

“Is that your personal curiosity or something you have to report? Because one does not quite want to waste my breath illustrating meaningless stories from another land when one does not quite have the gall to care.”

Brows furrowing, Xiao murmured, “You don’t wanna talk?”

He spoke those words like he was actually asking this:

‘It’s that bad?’

Cloud Retainer huffed, and Ganyu sighed as she explained in behalf of her master.

“Don’t listen to her. It’s just some personal stories of people from Monstadt. They’re not bad. Very inspiring, in fact. So far, they’ve been the stories of the people related to the main quest.”

At the mention of Monstadt, a look of contemplation fell on the yaksha’s face.

“…He is awake and inquiring about what’s going on now…”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Ganyu blinked, not quite catching what Xiao said despite her adeptal sensibilities—Or at least, not quite understanding what that’s supposed to mean in this context.

Xiao looked at her as if to measure her worth for a moment before finally demanding.

“Tell me everything that happened.”

And well, who was Ganyu to refuse that, right?

“Well, I think we’re gonna have to start with the first one then…”

---

“Let’s do Amber’s quest.”

At Eula’s sudden declaration, the Favonius knights who were gathered around in a circle in their area couldn’t help but give her a side-eye.

It was known to everyone, the relationship that the ice-cold spindrift knight shared with their fiery outrider. They were not very subtle about it. Only a few people get nice words from the knight who came from the Lawrence clan and only a few people would stick around after being talked down to by a frosty woman with a large sword.

Now, if Amber was here to hear this bold declaration, she would have been mortified beyond words—but thankfully, she wasn’t.

Ever since the “locked quest” appeared, after all, the representatives had decided to make their own door for once: The representative door—strictly made for the purpose of arranging meetings, compiling information and… interrogating the twin outlanders until every piece of game knowledge they have are sucked dry.

Jean preferred being prepared, and apparently, that was a preference shared across the nations.

“It saves time… and surprises.” The Acting grandmaster declared, after getting the 2835024^th hit on the head because she could not quite grasp the many kinds of games that apparently exist beyond their world.

(Candy crush? Block Blast? Battle Cats???)

They delegated the task so that there can be a person watching the screen, a person compiling, and a person interrogating all at the same time—in both the representative door and in the main room.

However since there were only 5 representatives as of now (not counting the twins and the fatui), they took one volunteer.

That volunteer was the ever so enthusiastic Amber, always happy to help.

So, while she usually would be found next to Eula on any other day where the two have a reason to be in the same room as the other, Amber was currently separated from the frosty knight and thus, was unaware of what she was doing.

“Are you guys listening? Let’s do Amber’s quest—”

“Yes, yes, we heard you the first time.” Kaeya waved away Eula’s words before pouting, “What suddenly brings this up? You know I also have a quest right there, right?”

“Well, for one, Amber isn’t here.” Eula said as if that was a telling answer already, before coolly adding while propping up her chin to make a point, “And secondly, because I feel it might be easier. Whatever her quest may be. With how straightforward she is, I can’t imagine a long and complicated quest for that girl.”

‘Okay, same.’ Kaeya found himself thinking as he allowed himself to imagine it and fail, ‘I don’t think Amber can survive a 3-hour long murder mystery quest filled with complex characters and betrayals.’

“I have no idea what you’re thinking about,” Eula squinted at Kaeya, “but I don’t like the look on your face.”

Kaeya raised his hands in surrender.

On the other hand, Albedo didn’t even bother to give her a look as he continued sketching the drooling Lisa who was currently asleep on what seems to be a floating fluffy hammock contraption made of imagination.

“I think,” He spoke as he gave the sketch another stroke of charcoal, “that this decision is not ours to make.”

A vote would have to happen, won’t it? Just like with the outlanders and the wishing screen.

So honestly, what’s the point of locking in on a quest now when the decision can change later because of the majority?

“Listen…” Eula groaned, “What is Amber to you guys?”

“A righteous bunny?” Kaeya chirped.

“The best of the best!” Klee exclaimed happily.

“A little girl who grew up too fast for my comfort?”

Everyone turned to look towards where Lisa was supposedly sleeping, only to find her opening one emerald eye towards Eula.

“I agree with you on the account that Amber’s quest may be easy, simply because of her straightforward personality. She’s not the kind to beat around the bush—she would shake things out of you if she thinks it would help her understand what she needs to get done, and she has her own reckless streak, too.”

Lisa then, yawned.

“However, I must agree with Albedo, as well, that this is not something we can arbitrarily pick ourselves.”

Eula scoffed, “Do you honestly think the order in which we do things really matter at this point?”

So far, they’ve figured out cooking, forging and apparently, adventuring, all in random order. If the game wanted them to follow a certain order in these quests, then surely, it would have said so, right?

---

“So, they went with the fiery red girl’s story quest first, then?”

“I-I’m getting to that part.” Ganyu stammered as she racked her brain in an attempt to summarize it, “We did end up choosing her overall once it got around that it might be easier and faster to finish—just based on the kind of person she was. But what we didn’t expect was that… there would be a lot of flying.”

“Gliding.” Xiao immediately understood.

Monstadt was the city of wind.

Ganyu winced.

“Yes, and as you may remember… our player, Mika, once mentioned licenses for that.”

“One which we do not have.” Cloud Retainer added in.

“So, the outlander gets arrested?” Xiao raised an eyebrow.

“Thankfully? No.” Ganyu laughed nervously before saying all in one breath, “Butacriminaldidendupruiningtheglidingexamsoamberdecidedtofinishtwobirdswithonestoneandmakeuscapturesaidcriminalfortheexam.”

Xiao’s brow shifted higher.

“…It’s hard to explain if you haven’t seen it before! There was a beautiful story about birds that can’t fly!”

At the description, Xiao’s expression stuttered to a close.

“I don’t want to hear about something as trivial and as unimportant as that. Next story.”

“Uh, huh? Oh, um, okay, so for the next…”

---

“Let’s do Kaeya’s quest.”

Every one of the knights of Favonius turned to look at Eula like she had just grown a second head when she declared, yet again, another sentence out of nowhere.

This time however, she cared not if the named person in her statement could hear her or not.

Sputtering, the real Kaeya whipped his head at her direction with thinly veiled disbelief in his only uncovered eye.

“I thought you didn’t want to do it, considering Amber comes first and everything!”

“I changed my mind, and we just finished Amber’s quest.” Eule shrugged, “You’re the only other unlocked quest available so what did you expect?”

“You’re scaring me, Captain Eula.”

Kaeya said in mock-fear only to shriek when Eula almost threw an ice sword at his direction.

“I’m trying to be proactive in a situation where we have no choice but to remain passive, and this is the thanks I get?” The Spindrift knight fumed, lips pursed, and Kaeya was quick to yield and drop the act.

“I was joking, Captain! It’s just surprising for you to be so active, that’s all.”

“Wrong choice of words.” Eula growled as she materialized a great sword that made the color on Kaeya’s face drain faster than a hilichurl could run.

“Wait, wait, wait—”

“Vengeance will be mine!”

---

“Why does that one-eyed human keep getting into trouble like this?”

Xiao couldn’t help but incredulously ask, unable to understand it. Does this person have no sense of self-preservation? No survival instincts? Or are they simply that suicidal?

Ganyu shrugged.

Whatever answer Xiao could come up with might as well be the same as hers—just a guess.

“I think he’s actually a pretty decent person, despite his seemingly adept tendency at lying, masking and making stories?” She tried to add for the sake of politeness because really, it’s not like Kaeya’s that bad, “His story quest mostly revolved around him making Aether go on a goose chase so that he can trick some treasure hoarders into going to a certain place where they can be arrested.”

“So, dirty tricks, then.” Xiao dryly said, before trailing off and looking confused, “Who’s Aether?”

Ganyu opened her mouth and then closed it.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Keqing to her side muttered quietly in disbelief at the absolute lack of peopling and hearing skills this adeptus had, considering how almost everyone knows who the twins are now.

“Aether’s the name of the outlander we’re playing as, Xiao.” Ganyu tried and failed not to sound disappointed.

Whether or not Xiao sensed this however, the Yaksha simply inclined his head, stoic in expression.

“So basically, another trivial piece of information—just like this one-eyed man’s story.”

‘Well, that’s a rude way to put it.’ Ganyu wilted.

Shenhe, meanwhile, pointed at Xiao as she turned to Ganyu with round eyes.

“He gets it.”

“Urgh…”

Ganyu gives up.

Both human (Shenhe) and adeptus (Xiao) alike… they’re all hopeless.

“So, what happens next?” Xiao inquired, oblivious to the complicated feelings stirring in Ganyu’s heart.

Ganyu let out a deep sigh before gesturing towards the shouting crowd.

“This is what happens next. The whole point of doing the story quests was so that we could go back to the locked main quest immediately once we ‘rank up’, so now that that’s over…”

“RANK UPPPPPPPPP!”

A white-haired man with red horns hollered at the top of his lungs like a rock star in the middle of the sea of people crowding around the player perimeter.

Shenhe, eyes on that man, took a step forward, polearm in hand.

Ganyu, eyes on Shenhe, grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back, expression tight.

“It’s time!” A blonde girl with a large hat squealed, opening a parasol from within the crowd as she laughed aloud, “We’re finally going back to the main story, folks!”

“Locked story my ass, it only took an hour.” A blonde man in red and white snorted, although he was laughing as well too as he leaned unto his seat to see the fruits of their (Mika’s) efforts.

“Woohoo, let’s hop right to it!” A girl in yellow cheered and wait… is that Xiangling?

“WOOHOOOO!” The rest of the Liyue youth cheered in tandem with her, all raising their voices above the rest as if in competition to see who can be the loudest.

In the midst of all this, a timid Mika was wincing at the loudness but smiling awkwardly all the same at everyone’s support and enthusiasm.

It took a while to get there but finally, they’re back on track.

“Let’s continue where we left off now, shall we?” Ayato, stationed by his side to keep the other people from going past the player perimeter, smiled at Mika with sparkling eyes, and Mika gave a determined nod.

It’s time to go back to the headquarters.

---

“I’m back.”

Xiao exclaimed as he arrived back in the Monstadt Infirmary in a flurry of teal and black smoke.

Almost as soon as he arrived, two heads turned towards his direction from where they were seated—One on a bed, and the other on a chair by the bedside.

Zhongli, looked at him in surprise, glowing amber eyes widening for a minute.

“Xiao.”

“Xiao!” The person next to him happily exclaimed, aqua green eyes crinkled into a smile so soft and blinding that you wouldn’t guess it came from a person asleep hundreds of years prior.

“How did it go? What did we miss?”

Awake and alive, the lord of anemo sat on his bedrest, pale and yet grinning as he asked this question.

With an awkward look into his eyes, Xiao shifted a little as he let out a breath of exasperation.

And opened his mouth.

“Well…”

Chapter Text

“Isn’t that Jean?” Paimon asked.

Sigewinne stared at the screen, ruby eyes unreadable, when a low voice above her suddenly spoke in mild surprise.

“Oh, it’s starting already?”

The shadow over her was enough to give her a hint that the others of Fontaine were back from their short break back in their room. Sigewinne blinked and then looked towards Wriothesley, who was at the forefront of the returning group, cracking his neck boredly.

“It seems so, your Grace.”  She smiled, steady and cute as ever.

It hadn’t been that long since they teleported back into Monstadt city in-game. At least for Sigewinne, it was like a blink of an eye. After all the racket that led up to this moment, most people had mostly calmed down and returned to their seating arrangements from before, and that included the Fontaine gossip group.

The Melusine nurse’s eyes flitted towards the group of girls behind Wriothesley, with a small bit of amusement. Ever since deciding to band together, he and the girls have been inseparable.

‘Monsieur Neuvilette is gonna be in for a surprise. His grace is one of the girls.’

Wriothesley, as though telepathic, suddenly stopped in place and then stared stiffly at the smiling head nurse of his turf, unsurely.

“Huh…”

Form immediately behind him, Navia furrowed her brows, as she approached with the others not far behind, a tray of macarons in hand.

“Paimon had offered us the option to return to the headquarters immediately after the concurring quests with the domains. I’d have thought that the story would come back from there…”

…But we’re yet to go back to the Favonius Knights headquarters.

Navia let her voice trail off and her silence speak for herself as she settled down next to Sigewinne.

“I don’t think going back is exactly necessary.” Clorinde stated, face impassive, as she settled down to the other side of the Melusine nurse, “Sometimes, things can happen ‘on the way’ to the described location. It’s a realistic take.”

“Seems she’s talking to someone… Let's let her finish, then go say hi?” Paimon suggested, harmlessly.

Sigewinne stared at the scene showed by the screen, silently, but her eyes were searching. She can easily recognize Jean after having seen her a lot since coming here, but the other person on the screen was giving her reason to be cautious.

‘That uniform…’

She has no prejudice against the organizations around Teyvat, having sworn to treat all life medically regardless, but she was not unaware of the machinations of the other nations.

Especially Snezhnaya.

She can only surmise that those people must have gotten stranded here when the dragon started wreaking havoc, and of course, when you’ve been inconvenienced for enough time as it is…

“...which is what has brought us to this point in the first place.”

The person on the screen talking to Jean, a diplomat named Anastasia, spoke harshly and with contempt.

“If you are unable to promptly deal with the Stormterror threat, then leave the defense of Mondstadt to the Fatui. We can put an end to Mondstadt's dragon issues. All we need to do is bring that monster to the—"

"Monster?” Jean repeated, voice strained in barely contained anger and offense.

‘You try to find your own answer.’

Sigewinne had thought it strange. She may not be human but she’s observed humanity and their habits for hundreds of years. There was no way that people would be taking the dragon’s behavior lying down forever.

“Oh, this woman has done it now.”

Kaeya murmured with some level of amusement, putting down Klee’s toys, meanwhile, the red-haired man next to him suddenly stared at the screen with a dark expression.

“Yes.” Anastasia said, matter-of-factly, expression unseeable behind her fatui mask, “What's your point?”

 “Ah...”

Jean’s face was stone cold as she said her next words.

“I'd expect a more professional attitude from your diplomats. Yet here you are saying you want to "put an end" to one of The Four Winds of Mondstadt? I won't have any of this nonsense in front of the Knights of Favonius.”

“THAT’S RIGHT!”

A door slammed open, startling everyone and revealing a disheveled Amber exiting the representative’s door just in time to see Jean in action. It was like the Outrider had been summoned by her idol’s sudden screen time.

“GO GET HER, JEANNNN!” Amber said as she scampered towards the Monstadt seating arrangement, her job being temporarily done for the moment. It was technically just a short break with the men of the group taking over, but she’s intent on enjoying every last second of it!

‘Paperwork was hard!’

Behind her, a mortified Jean was covering her face, as she too, exited the representative room.

“…Amber…”

She, unlike Amber, had been booted out of the room against her will. It was a unanimous decision, all against her, considering everyone could practically feel her worrying about the in-game Monstadt, even as she jotted down necessary information faster than one could blink.

“What was that? Did you guys hear something?”

Kaeya feigned ignorance to the embarrassed Jean’s plight before suddenly clapping his hands with a look of bliss, nonsense coming out of his mouth.

“All I can hear is the applause that I have for our great Acting Grandmaster.”

“You’re the same as ever, Jean.” Lisa smiled fondly.

“Master Jean is the best!” Klee squealed.

“Gunhildr, do you deal with such insolent people every day—”

“Please,” Jean raised one hand, making the frosty noblewoman halt on her words, “You don’t’ want to know my answer.”

The monstadt people complied, shutting up quickly, but not without the knights having varying degrees of sunny smiles plastered on their faces at being complete once again. Just like a set.

“…They look like self-satisfied cats who’ve found the sun.”

Lynette bluntly pointed out as she watched the Monstadt group from all the way at the edge of the Fontaine Gossip group.

To her side, Lyney laughed.

“Well, don’t they all seem so close?”

 “Heh... Hehehe... It's not as crazy as you make it sound.” Anastasia sneered before dropping the topic altogether, “Fine. That's enough negotiation for today. At this stage it's simply... an amicable exchange of constructive opinions, no?”

“I'll be sure to make... thorough notes...”

“This is the fatui?” Lumine asked, skeptical, after having heard of the group in passing until now. The only reference she had for what a fatui is were the two guys that everyone else called “harbingers” but while the girl didn’t look like much, she sure acted big.

Meanwhile, Aether’s attention was elsewhere.

“This is a negotiation?” The outlander boy incredulously stared at the screen.

If anything, this sounded more like a thinly veiled threat. What kind of constructive opinion suggests something as destructive as killing a…

Oh, wait.

Aether paused as he remembered all of the times they, the audience, had believed they were going to be killing the dragon.

…It’s weird how just finding out the dragon’s original status in monstadt could subconsciously change how they viewed it.

After the conversation ended…

“Oh, Aether, you’re back.” Jean said in surprise, “Thanks for your help. The elemental flow is finally stable. The aftermath of Stormterror's last attack is finally settled for the moment. However, the pressure from the delegation has become too big to be ignored...”

“Delegation? From Liyue Harbor or Inazuma City?” Paimon curiously asked.

 “Snezhnaya.” Jean answered, “They choose to follow the God of Cryo. Their envoys go by a particular name: The Fatui. Heard of them?”

“Oh, them. They are super famous… Wait, infamous is more the word...”

“I knew those people would cause nothing but trouble.” Diluc grumbled, arms crossed as he stared daggers into the screen as if that would do anything.

“I don't think killing Stormterror is the right course of action.” Jean said with a grave tone, “The Cryo God's Fatui have always coveted the Anemo God's power. I don't believe they have Mondstadt's best interests at heart.”

“They’re that bad?” Aether genuinely asked, without realizing how loud his question could be.

“If I had to choose between being thrown into a volcano or joining the fatui, I would rather be crushed to death by a meteorite.”

The twins, the knights, and all who heard of this statement all turned to Diluc with wide eyes.

‘…Isn’t that a bit too extreme?’

Freminet, Lyney and Lynette all thought similarly, feeling a tad bit faint, all of a sudden.

“Ho?” Scaramouche sneered at the dramatic response, but kept his reaction to himself, while Childe couldn’t help but look at Diluc with interested and appraising eyes.

“Well, he looks fit enough to join. Do you think he would—”

“No, he would not spar with you. He will outright try to kill you.” Arlecchino answered before Childe could even finish his question, and the youngest of the harbingers beamed with glee.

“That sounds perfect!”

“…Do you not know who that man is to the fatui?”

“…Hm?”

“Speaking of power...” Aether suddenly started, making Jean blink.

 “What is it, Aether?”

“There's something I need to show the Knights of Favonius.”

“Something we need to…” Sucrose whispered to herself, before her eyes lit up, “Oh!”

At around the same time, Amber snapped her fingers, the same realization dawning on her.

“The red crystal!”

 “Oh? Let us head back to headquarters then.” Jean offered, before looking around, “We shouldn't discuss important matters... out in the open.”

Things were coming back full circle, but this was just the beginning.

“On to the headquarters we go, Mika!”

Mika didn’t have to be told twice.

“On it!”

---

Once inside headquarters…

“It's a crystal embedded with some kind of power... Lisa, are you able to analyze it?”

“Let me take a look... Hmm... I can see impurities in the crystal, but upon further inspection... No, I'm sorry, I can't make a proper analysis at the moment. Give me some time. I'll take a look through the library's restricted section.”

“Hey, this might be a little late to ask considering how early we received it but…” Yoimiya started, legs crossed as she propped up her face to stare holes into the screen, boredly, “what is that red crystal anyway?”

“Well, I mean,” Itto, lounging on the floor next to her, shrugged, “How should I know?”

“It’s obviously related to the dragon, and obviously related to why the dragon betrayed Monstadt.” Kuki Shinobu bluntly replied, “And based on what Lisa said, it’s possibly a corrupted force.”

“…Heck yeah,” Itto cleared his throat, nervously laughing, “I knew all of that.”

“…Really?” Yoimiya eyed him, brow raised.

“Right. I'll leave the research to you then, Lisa.”

 “Understood. I'll notify you all if I make any progress.” Lisa said,  “Though I wouldn't go getting your hopes up. They are incredibly ancient texts, not to mentio— Ouch!”

“…???”

“Wait, wait, what happened?” Yoimiya scrambled closer to the screen, latching unto the primly seated Ayaka who squeaked, flushing pink at the sudden overly familiar action.

“Gosh, that hurt!” Lisa cried out, “The impurities in the crystal... It hurts when I get close...”

“Does that mean it’s bad…?” Thoma hesitantly let out his own question.

“Come on, Thoma. It’s red, of course it’s bad.” Itto laughed.

“Itto… you’re a red oni.”

“Why, yes, of course. My statement still stands. After all, I’m bad—badass—”

“Some people are trying to listen and understand what’s being said, you know.” Kuki Shinobu reprimanded, voice an octave lower, and eyes a bit sharper.

“I see... It appears to react to Visions. The impurities and the elemental energy we embody repel each other.”

“She got that all from that one interaction?”

Ayaka was surprised.

She wasn’t much of an elemental energy expert despite wielding it. She was more of a person of the sword arts, so it was hard for her to think that she’d be able to reach that same conclusion had she been in the purple librarian’s place.

“It's strange, though. Aether has elemental abilities as well, but doesn't seem to be affected in the same way.”

“...”

Aether remained quiet.

Lisa sighed, “Anyway, the crystal would be better left in the hands of my cutie. It will just be a pain if left with us — both literally and metaphorically.”

“Cutie?” Aether stammered, pink-faced, at about the same time Mika picked the same dialogue as option.

“Wow.” Lumine dryly said.

These kinds of interactions were not in her mind when she decided her brother should be the one saved instead of her.

Thankfully, the conversation stirred to a different direction soon enough.

“Well, then, Aether... The Knights of Favonius have another favor to ask of you.” Jean smiled, “Please accept the title of Honorary Knight... and the gratitude of the Acting Grand Master.”

 “Honorary Knight... of Favonius!?” Paimon shrieked.

“We ask for your continued assistance in finding some answers. Stormterror's rage... and strange crystals... I know Mondstadt's peace hangs in the balance.” Jean saluted, “May the wind open your eyes to the truth. We'll meet back here if you find anything.”

“DUUUUUDE!” Itto pointed at Aether while everyone else expressed their surprise.

“…this is all happening too fast for me.” Aether muttered.

“How many days has it been since you first arrived in Monstadt?” Lumine suddenly asked him with a serious face.

Aether blanked out for a moment, forgetting math altogether.

“Uhhhh…”

“This is the fastest promotion I’ve ever seen happen with my own two eyes.” Shikanoin Heizou chuckled from where he was leaning on the Inazuma adjacent wall, arms crossed.

“Faster than your promotion?” Kujou Sara questioned, finding it in herself to engage in a bit of banter now that nothing else is left for her to do.

The Tenryou detective grinned.

“What, is another promotion on the way, General Kujou?”

Sara huffed, “Work a bit harder and maybe you’ll get one.”

“How heartless!”

As the detective laughed, Aether just finished calculating and remembering the approximate amount of time that should have passed in game, and was gawking at his fingers.

“I’ve only been here for less than a week!”

He really entered this city and became a kind of hero overnight.

“Well, damn! Give me your luck!” Kaveh jokingly yelled, but then suddenly to his side, Al haitham spoke, addressing Aether specifically as he says:

“Don’t do it, he will waste it away.”

“….”

Kaveh turned to his roommate, a nerve jutting on his forehead.

‘Do you want to die?’

‘I’m just telling the truth.’

“Okay, okay, everyone, quiet down…” Jean stood up and started calming everyone down, as Mika had the characters leave headquarters, when…

“There's something you didn't tell them.”

---

Have you ever had a dream so weird and abstract that while you can explain it, you also can’t, for the life of you, understand it?

Well, Venti had one. In fact, he’s pretty sure he’s in one such dream right now.

At first, it felt hot.

It felt like being wrapped around a really thick blanket after having the best and warmest round of wine down his throat. It was a comfortable feeling of safety and security… also, it was very cozy.

But then, like a switch had been flipped, everything felt ice cold.

Like, said blanket was torn away and Venti had been kicked out into the streets to survive the frigid northern winds for the night. Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic—it’s not like it was as cold as dragonspine all of a sudden, but it was cold enough!

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, for some reason, instead of the greenest of grass underneath his body, he felt that he was instead laying on the hardest stone slab to have ever slabbed in the history of stone slabs.

Suffice to say, that was extremely uncomfortable.

And so, that’s how he ended up waking up, eyes fluttering open, back sore, and mind confused.

‘…That was one heck of a prophetic dream… wait am I still dreaming right now?’

Venti pinched his own arm through the fabric of his sleeve.

It didn’t quite hurt but…

“…Tickles.” He murmured to himself, drowsily, aqua blue eyes like ocean green water glazing over and threatening to put him back to sleep.

If there were no urgent businesses, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to take a nap…

“…!”

Or so he thought, until he heard a rather audible shocked noise near him.

Shit.

He wasn’t alone, was he?

Opening his eyes slightly once more, he couldn’t really quite see. The light blinded him for a bit. He guesses that he must have been asleep for quite a really long time this time if he’s having such a hard time adjusting to bright light, but as soon as that thought popped into his head, the figure of a person covered the light from above.

“You’re awake.”

Venti groaned, thankful for the cover of the person’s shadow, but he also squinted at the figure above him like a grandmother with no spectacles as he found that in a strange twist of  events, his vision was blurry.

“Whomst?”

“…I am merely a passing concerned citizen tasked with watching over your unconscious body.”

Now, any other time, Venti would have believed that excuse, not even questioning it in the slightest, however it has to be noted that: One (1), you don’t just find Venti’s unconscious body somewhere, he shouldn’t be anywhere at all during his healing sleep, and Two (2), that tone and wording was too suspicious to come out of a random concerned citizen.

Venti frowned, and narrowed his eyes into slits as he tried to make out the face. He could make out brown, dark brown, light brown, lots of brown… and amber eyes?

Now that he thinks about it, that color, that dull choice of color, and that familiar voice, the personification of a stick in the mud that’s more flexible with morals than you would think…

Eyes widening slightly, Venti blurted out a guess before he could think it through.

“…Morax?”

The person seemed to still for a moment before saying calmly, too calmly, in a deep, deep voice.

“Who is Morax?”

Oh, yeah, if Venti wasn’t confident of his guess before, he sure was now, and he’s not gonna be humble about it.

“Morax! It’s nice to see that a blockhead like you never changed!”

The person—or, well, to be exact, Morax, the geo archon, opened his mouth as if to say something before closing it, and pinching the bridge of his nose with a resigned sigh.

“What gave it away?”

“Has anyone told you your eyes are very distinguishable from routine gold?” Venti pointed out, smugly smiling from where he was still laying on the bed, weak and all, which to be honest wasn’t the greatest picture to show the archon of another nation who happened to be visiting and well—

Wait a minute.

“Oh, archons, how are you here?!” Venti scrambled up to a sitting position with much struggle, words coming out of his mouth like a barrage of arrows, one line after the other, “You almost never leave Liyue, you old jerk! Is it the end of the world?!”

Morax, unimpressed by the flurry of arms and blankets suddenly flying everywhere in the air, hummed a little, contemplating his answer.

“…I suppose you could say it is.”

“What? You’re joking with me—That was a joke, right?”

The Geo archon had the gall to simply shrug in reply.

“Wait… don’t tell me…”

Venti suddenly trembled, hand over his mouth.

“Did you actually come to visit little old me?!” Venti cooed, teasingly, tone as light as a feather, when suddenly he stopped for a moment, looked around the room he was in, blinked a few times, and then drew his eyebrows together in concern.

“Or, wait no… actually, where am I? I’m assuming this is Monstadt, but now that I think of it…”

As Venti trailed off, Morax let out another sigh. He is often in want of doing that a lot in the presence of the other archon.

He thought that the anemo archon would at least remember the interactions he had with some of his citizens while he was lucid in their care, but if he even needed to ask that… there’s a lot of explaining waiting to be said and done.

Gathering his hands to the front of his face, the brunette took a deep breath as he stared the God of Freedom right in the eye and decided the sooner he starts, the sooner the end.

“…This is going to be a rather lengthy story, Drunkard.”

---

“There's something you didn't tell them.”

Paimon’s voice came back as the two stood outside, her expression confused.

“The dragon and the crystal weren't the only things we saw.”

…Did Sigewinne just imagine it or did several people in the room stop breathing after that?

‘No, it’s not my imagination.’

Melusine senses were sharper than human senses, especially the eyes and the ears. Sigewinne knows she couldn’t have sensed it wrong.

Something was amiss—and this time, it wasn’t on screen.

“I don't think he's a bad guy.”

Mika chewed on his lip as he picked that dialogue choice in hopes of priming everyone for what he suspects is to come. He knew they couldn’t hide him forever, but maybe like this…

“So you do remember him, that green guy!” Paimon exclaimed, before pointing down the plaza where a person in green happened to be running away, “He looked just like that guy down there!”

“The exact same shade of green, what a coincidence.” Aether nodded.

 “See? See?”

Paimon stopped.

 “Wait... Hold on a minute...”

Many people in the room faceslapped, while some stared at the screen in dumbfounded disbelief.

Is this really how this is gonna be revealed?

“That…” Kaveh started, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache brewing.

“That person…” Keqing sighed as she covered her face with one hand, unbelieving.

“I-Isn’t that…?!” Collei stammered, eyes wide and pointed at the screen.

“That... That's the same guy!”

Half of the room’s population shrieked in unison with Paimon, some pointing at the screen in disbelief, while some others were smacking their faces with one hand.

‘Well, it was nice knowing you, unconscious bard.’ Rosaria sarcastically thought to herself as she conjured for herself something to smoke.

---

“Oh.”

Venti, now sitting on his makeshift bed, exclaimed a bit too nonchalantly, after being caught up on the situation he was in. His face was a bit solemn but otherwise, he didn’t look a wee bit distressed, aqua green eyes the same exact emotion as before. So untroubled.

“Okay, let me get this straight: I’m still in a dream, but this time I’m sharing it with around 80 or so people, including the geo archon, the electro archon and the hydro archon. We have two outlanders in the room, whom of which almost killed everyone when they started fighting to sacrifice themselves for each other. And you are currently disguised as a young scholarly gentleman from Liyue who happened to have memory so good that you managed to talk your way into taking care of me?”

“I go by Zhongli.”

Venti nodded, expression fixed in a sort of seriousness unbefitting of the situation.

The anemo archon has no idea why the geo archon suddenly decided to take on human form now and live amongst humans, but he can get behind that fake character.

“So, my identity’s going to be in trouble really soon, huh?”

“Unfortunately.”

To be completely honest, both archons have come to see that it couldn’t really be helped with the nature of this place so there’s no point worrying about it.

‘Besides… by the sounds of it, I suspect this is all for the best.’

Venti smiled wryly for a split second at the thought that plagued his head before replacing it quickly with a bright and more natural-looking smile directed towards the quiet Zhongli who had turned to find a towel not so far away.

“To think something like this was happening while I was asleep… Thanks for updating me, you old timer. Honestly, what would I do without you, old friend?”

Zhongli, who was crouched in front of the medical kit with his back faced towards the anemo archon, paused.

A gloved hand wrapped around the towel in the kit a bit too tightly.

There was something that Zhongli hadn’t told his old friend.

He should probably tell his free-spirited friend about it. A voice in his head that suspiciously sounds a bit like Guizhong’s wisdom is persistently telling him to try, but… he’s already told the drunkard too much information for someone who had just newly awakened from a nap.

Perhaps, he’ll come clean about it on another day.

Yes, indeed. There is no need to rush. He convinced himself, as he went ahead and took the towel and acted like normal—as though he was not running away. Because he’s not. That’s ridiculous.

“Where’s the brutally honest blockhead trait of yours when you need it?”

Silence, Guizhong.

Guizhong’s memory laughed.

Zhongli’s brows crease at the fact that his own mind was betraying him.

Thankfully, Barbatos was too preoccupied with his own problems to notice the sudden twist in the geo archon’s expression.

“Oh, shit. I’m gonna be so screwed once I get out of this room! Uh, how did you say these doors work again, old friend?!”

“…Pfft.”

“…?! Are you laughing at me, right now?”

The bard said in fake shock as Zhongli covered his mouth with one hand and smoothed his face over as though he did not let out a snort, but it was all in good spirit. Venti squawked heartily as he moved to smack Zhongli lightly, trembling in an attempt to not laugh hard.

“This is serious, Morax! They’re going to interrogate me!”

“Woe is you. It might be best you prepare your answers in advance already, then, drunkard.”

“Aww, come onnnn~!”

If Zhongli can’t run away from this inevitable, Venti can’t too.

Chapter Text

“Over there!” 

“Climb up, climb up!” 

“FASTEEEER!” 

As the crowd all around heatedly yelled and shouted, jabbing fingers at the large screen, on the comfort of the cool ground was a little ninja, hidden in waiting. 

Hood over her head, and expression serious, Sayu couldn’t help the bead of sweat that fell down her face as she sat where she was, unmoving and frozen like a statue. 

Yes… this Ninja was patiently lying in wait.

Lying in wait… to get the hell away from where she was without losing her privilege to exist!

“My, my, what a lovely crowd.” 

At the mirthful laughter coming from above her, Sayu stiffened. 

Yae Miko, with an air of self-satisfaction, was grinning from ear to ear as she had one hand over Sayu’s hood-covered head, gently patting it, and another hand caressing her own face. On her lap, against her will, Sayu lay. 

As the gentle patting continued, Sayu couldn’t help but tremble.

‘How could this have happened…?!’ 

To answer such a question, we must go back in time to that very same morning, when Sayu first woke up in the Inazuman Sleeping Quarters. 

Considering the national situation in the quarters, compared to Monstadt and, say, Sumeru, whose sleeping quarters were closer to each other and fewer doors-within-doors in number, the sleeping quarters of Inazuma had an almost infinite number of doors within. As such, there was no need for sharing rooms—everyone gets to have their own room and their own privacy!

What a joy!

And what a great convenience too, considering how much conflict could happen in one night if two warring parties had to share one bed.

(Sayu had no way of knowing the stress that was carefully hidden underneath Detective Shikanoin Heizou’s carefree smile when he had first created the door at the behest of the Inazuma Representative.

‘Please have multiple rooms. Please have multiple rooms. Please have multiple rooms.’ 

The detective chanted it internally like he was going crazy—and it was not for naught! 

His intuition served him well in manipulating the door’s internal structure, and practically making an introvert’s dream.

Suffice to say, her highness, the Almighty Shogun, was beyond pleased.)

To be honest, Sayu wasn’t really doing anything important at the time.

While yes, she had a whole room to herself, it was also rather barren, as if waiting to be decorated by an owner, so there was nothing much to do except sleep and breath inside. 

Bored out of her mind, she had just been doing some stretches, relishing on the cracking sounds that came about with letting loose, when all of a sudden, a presence she had not detected suddenly leaped forward and practically fished her out of the ground by means of her hood!

That was how Sayu ended up seated on Yae Miko’s lap like a damn pet with no chances of escape.

“It would be really bad if you sleep through the events of the game just like yesterday, don’t you think so, little one?” Yae Miko grinned sweetly at Sayu but for some reason, all the little ninja could see was a predator—a dangerous fox. 

‘I can’t even pay attention to the game at all, now!’

“Miko, you’re making her uncomfortable.” 

Another voice spoke, and Sayu stopped breathing, face impassive but lungs gone, as she remembered the second presence that was making it hard to pay attention to the game. 

Purple glowing eyes and a calm visage, the Raiden Shogun shot a stoic but seemingly scolding look at the Kitsune playing with Sayu.

‘Oh, Master, Teacher, Sensei…’ 

Sayu decidedly figured perhaps if she closed her eyes, she can pretend that neither the Divine Priestess of the Narukami Shrine nor the Almighty Electro Archon, the Raiden Shogun, were here. 

“Who’s making who uncomfortable? I’m simply making sure children pay attention to class.” 

‘I am not a child…!’ Sayu huffed internally, but to be honest, her pint-sized height begs to differ.

There was a sigh.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Missus I’ll-go-away-for-500-years-and-not-say-hi-to-Yae-at-least-once.”

Now, Sayu may not be looking but she’s pretty sure she can hear a grimace.

‘…? What’s that about?’ 

Sayu can’t help but feel intrigued enough to crack open one of her eyes, only to shriek as a pale hand descended on her to pat her on the face, and make her open both eyes. 

“Now, as I was saying…” Yae Miko hummed, completely ignoring the guilt-ridden Raiden Shogun hanging her head on the side, before directing Sayu by the chin to look up at the screen, “Best to keep your eyes open for the good parts.” 

Sayu’s reddish eyes couldn’t help but widen a little.

Emerging from the black screen, the scenery of the Monstadt Cathedral’s plaza could be seen from above, large and spacey, with the accompaniment of a soft and familiar tune. At the foot of the statue of Barbatos in the middle of it, a green bard was playing and attracting a small crowd of people to listen.

“It’s HIIMMMM!” The louder, more energized part of the audience screamed all at once, to the dismay of the quieter bunch seated properly on the floor. 

Aether and Paimon came into view, curiously weaving their way through the crowd.

And while running his fingers through the strings of his lyre, for the first time since his first appearance, the green-clad bard they’ve been chasing for finally appeared in full, eyes closed and focused on the melody, bobbing his head here and there as the crowd watched.

One of the people in the quieter bunch was Barbara—but the dismay on her face was not from the same reasons as everyone else. 

To her side, Rosaria put a hand on her shoulder, tongue clicking in slightly annoyance. 

“Well, there’s no turning back now.”

Barbara opened her mouth as if to say something, winced and then decidedly put a hand over her mouth instead to keep herself from talking. 

‘Oh, Lord Barbatos…’ 

The deaconess internally cried out, a plea for help through prayer.

“Wait… This song…” Gaming started with sudden realization, golden eyes wide, “It’s the song that was playing when we were waiting on some snacks for the loading bar to clear up that one time at the beginning of everything!”

Xinyan’s face lit up, as well, as the same recognition hit her. 

“Now that you mention it, no wonder it sounded so dang familiar! It was the tune we had to listen to for hours!” 

The rock and roll performer had thought her mind was just playing tricks on her!

‘Huh.’ 

Well, that would explain why Sayu also thought the tune was vaguely familiar, although not with the same intensity. 

‘What a pretty tune…’ The little ninja couldn’t help but think to herself as she listened to the song.

If Sayu didn’t know better, she’d have thought the beautiful tune coming out of the screen must be a kind of magical lullaby. Her petite body, which seemed to relax a bit more despite being in the presence of both Guuji Yae and the Raiden Shogun, certainly seemed to register the tune as one. 

It’s hard to find a tune as warm and inviting as this in Inazuma nowadays… 

Not that Sayu’s one to complain about it. She knows her nation’s situation.

Sayu sighed, wistfully, eyes falling close once again and threatening to put her to sleep, when suddenly the melody that was beckoning her to dreamland trailed off into a stop. 

‘Eh? My lullaby, where’d it go?’ 

Naturally, Sayu had to open her eyes confused after that disappearing trick.

Only to find that the screen had once more turned to black. 

“What is to be sung transpired in days of yore.” 

A voice declared, like a poet. 

“When the divine archons still walked the earth.”

“…This…” 

Diluc’s face suddenly twisted in a complicated expression.

As the owner of a tavern, the redhead knew far more bardic performances than he’d like to admit, and he’s come to hear many stories told in the form of poems in the past, but this was his first time hearing about a song like this within the free-spirited embrace of Monstadt—

A song that talked about the times the archons were still around. 

(The times their archon was still around) 

A small white flower floated into the darkness before brightly shining, leaving behind clouds of blue ink over the pitch-black surroundings as the voice continued.

“A dragon cast his curious gaze on the world below,”

The white and blue wafted about and moved to create the shape of a bright azure dragon. At first, it seemed solidly blue until at a closer look, one could see details that made it seem painted like a window through which two creatures could be seen together. 

“As he parted from the heavens that gave his birth.”

A soft-looking youth clad in white, face framed by dark hair weaved into blue braids, and a sky dragon with wings like that of birds, faced each other, with the hills and the silhouette of a windmill and a cathedral behind them. 

‘…Is that… Lord Barbatos?’ 

Jean stared at the image on the screen with slightly wide eyes. 

There was no mistaking it—The wings, the lyre, and the closed eyes reminded her of the stories and the statues that were left of the god of freedom. Granted, she’s never had a colored version of the archon in her memories because paintings of the archon almost didn’t exist on the same level as their archon’s statues, but she can connect the dots herself.

‘…You’ve got to be kidding me.’ 

And exactly because she can connect the dots herself…

The acting grandmaster couldn’t help but feel pale at the conclusion she’d reached, eyes shooting an unreadable look towards her younger sister, who looked equally as pale, but sported a more confused look than an enlightened one.

“The dragon sought truth amongst common folk,” The voice continued, as the details of the two became more defined, and the bright light from within the painted window, much like stained glass, shone brighter. “But mortal trifles only fogged his mind.”

Zooming through the wings of the dragon, a scene much like a forest, filled with green, was suddenly set.

“The windborne bard strummed his strings dolce,” 

Lines of music and notes swirled into the darkness at the far horizon of the woods, around the elegant shape of a glass window where the youth in white and the dragon were. 

“And the Holy Lyre answered his questions kind.” 

In the youth’s hands was a golden white lyre.

“Hey…” Dehya murmured, eyes turning into slits as she stared at the more detailed depiction of what seemed to be the anemo archon on the screen, “Is it just me or… does this guy look like…” 

Nilou shifted unsurely, squinting her own eyes, “Well, now that you mention it…”

”…It does seem like they look alike…” Collei muttered lowly, wary.

“…” 

Kaveh who had been loud up until this moment stayed silent. Al Haitham, to his side, glanced at him, face sporting an indifferent look, but there was a kind of intensity in the man’s eyes, like he was picking the blonde apart.

If there was anyone here who would notice the difference and similarity of the green-clad bard and the anemo archon, it would be the famed architect and artist, the light of Kshahrewar. 

However, the architect was not a genius for nothing. He had tact.

’It’s not that they look alike. The fact that he’s telling this story suggests that they are the same person.’ 

But Kaveh won’t say that. 

It’s not his place to make such baseless heretical assumptions after all. 

“The dragon was but a child full of wonder, And soared the heavens free from care.” The voice solemnly spoke, as the picture became clearer and clearer, and flowers of azure blue seemed to bloom along the screen, “The bard's songs invited him to sing along, for he yearned to let all perceive him fair.”

‘Is… Barbatos a girl or a guy?’ Aether internally asked as he squinted at the all too little shorts the archon seemed to be wearing.

He was the only one asking such a question in this solemn crowd of onlookers, shifting uncomfortably on their seats in anticipation of important information—one that they would not be able to find in an ordinary man’s lifetime.

“Enchanting legends the bard and dragon were, But the tides of despair soon engulfed the land.” 

Darkness overtook the sky, and rain fell, obscuring the glass window as the voice telling the story proceeded to say in a grim tone. 

“The lion fang perished and the falcon flag slept. As a vile dragon approached Mondstadt in lone stand,”

A dragon looking incomplete with skeletons and flesh haphazardly brought together emerged from the smokes of a fire. 

“…!!” 

Albedo and Sucrose both flinched. 

Anyone with passable history knowledge in Monstadt would know who this was, but the two alchemists were far more intimate with the knowledge of this particular person thanks to their proximity to the place where it had fell. 

“Durin.” Amber said, voice as hard as stone as she stared at the visage of the dragon from 500 years ago. 

“Over the Cathedral loomed death and his friends. Of the people's agony the bard soon sang.” 

Fire raged around the dragon before finally, the back of a blue feathered creature could be seen. 

“The soaring dragon heeded his grave calls, And amidst the windstorms a brutal war sprang.” 

Two dragons faced each other and then everything turned black.

“…According to our history books, the sky dragon, Dvalin, arrived in the heat of the battle with Lord Barbatos by his back, and together, they brought down the dragon of disaster, Durin, in the place that we now know as Dragonspine.” 

Lisa was sitting properly now as she talked, as if to give one of the four winds of Monstadt, the City’s old protector, respect. 

“However… after that…” She trailed off, her gaze falling unto the large screen. 

“Blood of venom sent the sky dragon into slumber.”

Dvalin’s darkened body was sprawled across the screen, his wings and body littered with glowing toxic purple blue. Two particularly large areas that seemed to glow an ugly violet were just under his nape and his tail. 

“Only to awake to be expelled in abhor.”

“I see. So that’s why…” 

Yelan started, feeling the puzzle pieces finally snapping into place. 

Battles can never be won without sacrifices. For the humans of that time, it had been their own lives, but for the sky dragon, it had been time. 

“You thought he was dead… didn’t you?” 

Yelan didn’t say it in an accusatory way. No, in fact, her tone was a bit pitying, a bit soft-spoken. After all, while she may be talking to the Monstadt citizens of today, who she really wanted to speak to were the people who saw this battle first hand and experienced the sudden disappearance of the sky dragon themselves. 

“…Records say people saw both dragons fall at the same time.” Lisa quietly said in return to Yelan’s rather loud statement. 

“ ‘Why do people in this age loathe me so?’ ”

Eerie music seemed to play as the voice retelling this story seemed to tremble and waver. The dragon was looking towards what seemed to be an old window that framed Monstadt, similar to before, however…

“But the Holy Lyre replied no more.“ 

The boy with the lyre wasn’t there. The sky dragon was looking at it all alone. 

“…The battle against Durin was the last known sighting of Barbatos.” Jean admitted, casting her gaze on the ground as the knights around her stayed silent, “And up until ‘Stormterror’’s appearance, Mond was no longer so familiar with the story of the dragon of the east that they would recognize Dvalin as an ally rather than a dangerous monster.” 

It couldn’t be helped, and it wasn’t really the current citizen’s fault as they were only living life in a world prepared by their ancestors, who had abandoned Dvalin’s temple and stopped telling stories about him. 

However, it was still something that was shameful to admit, especially knowing that Dvalin disappeared for this future of peace and prosperity in the first place.

Because he had loved humans.

Dvalin, the sky dragon, just wanted to be a loyal friend. 

And he was forgotten.

”…I’m ashamed to admit,” Jean started, hand over her chest in solemn remorse, “that it took us a while to figure out that he was no mere monster, but in fact, our old protector. And by the time we did…”

The relationship was already irreparable.

”Wrath and woe, vigor and venom, Poured from the dragon's bitter eyes.” The voice said firmly as clouds of black and dark red poured and surrounded the dragon, completely overtaken by the sickly purple glow, along his wings and neck. In the dragon’s claw was a single bright flower—the one that had first appeared to them from the very beginning—a symbol of innocence.

“The dragon's curse sprawled in silence.”

The voice grimly declared as a single red tear fell down the dragon’s face. The bloody tear drop fell, and solidified like a familiar crystal.

“But the Lyre could no longer soothe his cries.”

The screen turned dark then, leaving everyone to gape at the realization of what exactly the red crystal is. 

“…It was his teardrop.” Noelle whispered, face in disbelief, hand covering her mouth, “He was crying…”

“Stormterror… is sad?” Klee asked, confused.

Everyone had told her that Stormterror was bad, after all, but if it was sad…

”The Dragon of the East had always been one of Barbatos’s closest and oldest friends. He has been Monstadt’s closest ally, too, even before Vanessa, since the Wolf of the North is not too keen on entertaining humans.” Lisa explained with a solemn look, “Being abandoned by humans was alright with the falcon who had already forfeited worldly things after ascension, and with the wolf who didn’t care, but since the Dragon was the closest to us, as a nation, it was also hurt the most by the temples’ abandonment, so it’s not surprising…”

“Wait, wait, wait, something doesn’t make sense!” 

At the sudden shout, everyone turned to a certain pink-haired lawyer who had abruptly stood up from within the Liyue circle, antlers low and brows furrowed. 

“If i’m getting it right, Dvalin’s personality is that of a gentle-natured and friendly dragon who was both loyal to Monstadt and the anemo archon. The abandonment is hard yes, but it doesn’t make sense that instead of finding the anemo archon and consulting him, he goes against his duty as one of the four winds and rains hell on Monstadt!” 

“She’s right.” Yelan supported coolly, arms crossed, “There’s something that we’re missing, and I think it might have to do with what the dragon’s curse is supposed to be.” 

“Hold on, now, you’re unto something!” Amber gasped, “Venom! They mentioned venom!” 

“The vile dragon, Durin, was said to have had blood made of venom in his veins, and by extension, a dangerous heart.” Albedo provided, with a serious expression, “While we haven’t tested on what is left of him in Dragonspine, historical records had said as much. That was why the anemo archon had to step up in the first place, I surmise.” 

“And by killing the dragon Durin…” Eula’s eyes widened, “Dvalin fell into what could be a healing sleep to combat the venom.”

”And the anemo archon who fought beside him must have been in the same state,” Diluc gravely added.

Sucrose frowned, as she spoke up in a small voice, “But the venom couldn’t be a curse, could it?”

“That’s something we can’t really know… but one thing stands out.” 

All eyes fell on Lisa, still on her hammock, who had a gloved hand by her chin and a look of hesitant contemplation on her face. 

“If Dvalin has completed his healing sleep already… and couldn’t find Lord Barbatos at all, then it would make a little more sense that he would spiral out of control. But if they had been affected by the same venom at the same time, does that mean that Dvalin woke up earlier than he should have and didn’t heal completely, or was Lord Barbatos more affected by the venom, thus why he is still asleep at this time?” 

That…

The knights exchanged looks with each other. That was a good question that opened up the possibility that Dvalin was still not completely healed, but it was also a question with uncertain answers. 

Rosaria watched this silent exchange and sighed to herself, considering how complicated this entire ordeal was, when suddenly she heard a small voice muttering.

“Sleeping… Sleeping?” 

The nun blinked and then turned around to look at Barbara, seated on the floor next to her, with a patient that she was no longer focused on, and instead with a pale face and a confused, conflicted and haunted look in her eyes. 

‘What the..’ 

“Bar… Sister Barbara?” She hesitantly asked, eyebrow raised, but Barbara flinched and then looked down at her patient, a sleeping Bennet. 

The deaconess thoughts were going out of control. A war between what was starting to be very obvious and what she believed. 

“No, it couldn’t be…” She said, breath hitching as she put a hand on her head and another on her chest, feeling faint and suddenly finding it hard to breath, and that was all Rosaria needed to understand the situation. 

“Diona, knock her out.” 

Barbara blinked, her haunted eyes staring confusedly at Rosaria as she croaked out a weak, “What—“ before getting smacked across the back of the head by an all-too determined Katzlein child. 

They’d already done so much to try and hide and protect the bard. If Barbara were in the right state of mind, Rosaria knows the deaconess would regret giving away the truth so easily. 

“Geez, now we have one more patient and one less nurse.” Diona complained, while Noelle who had been distracted by the Knights’ conversation, turned towards them, unawares of what happened.

”Oh, my!” 

Noelle gasped at the sight of Barbara (whom Diona laid down carefully on the floor). 

“What happened?!” 

“Don’t worry about her Noelle, she’s just exhausted. Anyway, can you do us a favor and go tell Master Jean that we might need more healers?” 

“Ah, huh? Oh, um, sure!”

Leave it to Noelle to not have seen the similarity between the bard and Lord Bartobas at all. 

As Noelle rushed away to fulfill her orders, Diona and Rosaria exchanged glances before sighing deeply, exasperated.

‘I’m the only normal person in this group…’ 

They both think at the same time.

—

“Okay, okay, turn it down a little, people! We’re still playing the game!” 

Tighnari clapped his hands to get people’s attention and make the clamor after that cutscene die down. 

“I know that there are many things to think about in this situation, but please remember that we can’t figure out everything without proceeding and seeing it ourselves. So, please, if you have any questions—“

”I have a question.” Aether raised his hand. 

“—make sure they are very important, because otherwise, I’ll feed you to a sumperbeast myself.” Tighnari glared sharply at the blonde outlander, but the outlander remained unfazed.

”What is a sumpterbeast?” 

Ah, that explains why he’s unfazed.

”Is that your question?” Tighnari dryly asked.

”No.” 

“Then, ask your real question properly because you don’t wanna know.” 

“Okay.” Aether nodded, still unperturbed. 

The blondie then proceeded to stand up, brush his baggy trousers, face the monstadt citizens, take a deep breath and then…

“Your archon is wearing short-shorts.” 

Of all things to blurt out based on observation, this was the one observation Aether had not planned to let escape from his mouth at first but it seemed like life had different plans for him, as the uttered words immediately sent Kaeya coughing and a few knights’ faces scrunching up in a manner torn between being offended and being regretful that such words are about to change their perspective forever. 

Aether put a hand over his mouth, but the deed has already been done.

And a pregnant silence filled the air.

Short-shorts.

“…..” 

The knights turned away from each other, shoulders trembling, as they feared that looking at anyone in the eye will make the incredulous and slightly heretical laughter break out of their chests.

Short-shorts…. 

Even those from other countries didn’t know what face to make, and so had to look at everywhere but the screen and each other. 

Head tilted completely towards the floor, Dr. Baizhu struggled not to fall into a coughing-laughing fit as he covered the clueless Qiqi’s eyes reflexively after the new and possibly irreversible point of view given to him. 

Short… shorts………

While the rest of the world within the room tried their best to look away and look unbothered, surprisingly, it was Lumine who had the gall to break the silence.

“Short-shorts? Aether, no.” 

Lumine clicked her tongue, disapprovingly, like a connosieur of fashion taking on a tone that could be called stern. 

“?!?!”

Somehow, to everyone’s surprise, it seems that she was scolding her brother’s sense of propriety?

Lumine sighed, shaking her head, as she pointed at the screen and with a straight face declared:

“That’s obviously a bikini—”

“PFFUHA—” Hu Tao guffawed, unable to help herself.

Like a dam had broken, many people collapsed in the weight of that serious statement—Had it been a joke, it would be fine, but the problem is that it was not a joke, but simply a factual observation! A statement!

“No, listen here, Lumine,” Aether frowned, “The guy obviously isn’t wearing much up there, but that doesn’t make it a bikini—"

“Shut up, crop top!” A nun with wine-colored hair suddenly yelled, crumpled unto the floor by laughter just like the others who seemed like they were dying, crying and more.

Do they laugh? 

It hurts too much to laugh. 

Do they cry? 

It also hurts too much to cry.

Honestly, it feels like the thing they need the most right now is air.

“Bikini—” Charlotte wheezed, eyes teary, as she struggled to get up from the floor, hand clutching her aching side. Immediately, as soon as she mentioned it, Clorinde, who had just gotten up and regained her stoic face, fell to the floor once again, face hidden but shoulders shaking violently.

Even Mika, who was at the forefront, was covering his face and quaking in his coat at the sheer willpower needed to not—to not let such a statement change anything about his religion and belief and also his personal image of their god—oh, god—

“Hey!” 

Aether yelled back in offense at the nun, brows drawn together in confusion as he finally realized the state everyone around him seemed to be in.

“…Why are you guys on the floor?”

“BWAHAHAAHHAHA!” Hu Tao cackled, arms around her stomach as she kicked her feet and rotated 360 degrees on the black floor.

No one was well enough to answer that. 

“…You lot are idiots.” Cloud Retainer declared, being in the middle of a circle of Liyue youth sprawled on the floor, succumbing to the pain of too much laughter.

Beside her, Xiao, with a dark expression and folded arms, was rethinking his decision to be out here instead of inside the doors.

”Aether! That was, pfft, that was not a question!” Tighnari reprimanded, but his ears were flat and trembling on his face and he was no better than the others, face having turned a bright red in his effort to not burst into laughter. 

“But it was a very good observation.” Al Haitham added, unhelpfully.

That earned him a solid smack from both Kaveh and Cyno, but frustratingly enough, the scholar was not moved even a single bit.

”I’m getting there.” Aether frowned, “I just really wanna ask, is this how he’s usually depicted to you guys? Is this what children see growing up?” 

“Oh my god, make him shut up.” 

Kuki Shinobu struggled to say, hands on her face all the way in the Inazuma area. 

“That is—pffhehe—No, that’s not…” Kaeya tried to answer only to fall into a fit of giggles again, teary-eyed. 

“Aether, please be reassured that Monstadt’s image of Lord Barbatos consists of more clothing covering his body than that.” Lisa stated calmly, the only calm person left in the Monstadt area.

“Wait, then does that make this a faulty depiction of Lord Bartobas or the accurate one?” 

At that statement, suddenly a few faces who had already learned “the truth” as they would later call it, turned pale. Most notable of them was Mika whose grip on the tablet was so hard that if he wasn’t wearing gloves, people would see that his knuckles had gone white, and Acting Grandmaster Jean, who took one look at her unconscious sister, questioned not how she became unconscious and instead thought to herself, ‘How tempting it is to just pass out and not think about this now.’ 

“BARBATOS!” Kaveh screamed to correct the outlander and he wasn’t even from monstadt. 

It continued like that for a while as people tried to calm themselves,

And promptly continuously failed.

No one noticed at that moment how a certain golden-eyed adeptus stared quietly at the image of the green-clad bard plastered all over the screen. 

No one noticed when a certain golden-eyed adeptus disappeared from the crowd. 

—

“PahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA?!” 

Xiao stared at the fully awake Venti who was hunched up, his lower half on the floor and his body draped over his bed. The anemo archon has been cackling in laughter… or maybe dying of laughter was the more correct term… for the past ten minutes immediately after Xiao relayed the full events that had happened in their absence. And Lord Lapis has been sporting an exasperated face for the same duration.  

“Oh, Lord Barbatos, this is the next best thing to happen since Dandelion Wine!”

“You drunkard, you are Barbatos, at least find it in yourself to feel some semblance of shame.”

“Yeah, no, I don’t wanna hear that from Monsieur abs.”

Chapter Text

When the people finally calmed down, the game could finally continue.

On the screen, the green-clad bard turned towards the approaching Aether and Paimon with a look of mild surprise.

“Wait, you guys are…”

“Finally!”

Kaveh raised his hands up in the air because finally!

He doesn’t know if it’s because of the peculiar passage of time inside this dreamscape or if he’s subjective perception of time was just messed up, but for some reason, it felt like it had been months since they first saw the suspicious bard.

And now they’re finally having their first proper conversation with him in-game—considering, well, the first time they heard him speak didn’t count and neither did listening to him sing.

It took so long, but finally, they were here. Is it so bad for a man to celebrate?

“Do you think he remembers us?” Behind the architect, Candace discretely whispered to Dehya who gave her a shrug and a lackluster response.

“Ehhhh, I mean, we’ve technically already made our first impressions…”

“Oh, that’s right! You’re the ones that scared Dvalin away.”

“THAT’S HOW YOU REMEMBER US?!”

At the dumbfounded Dehya, Nilou could only sheepishly try to look at the bright side.

“…Hey, at least he remembers us?”

“What a way to make a bad impression—” Faruzan sighed, arms crossed, before pausing, expression odd. “Wait, he doesn’t know we’ve been trying to hunt him down the past few minutes right?”

Her statement caused a ringing silence to come about in their area.

“Well, considering he’s… probably, you know…” Collei awkwardly pursed her lips as she tried to beat around the bush about the “Truth”, or at least, their theories of the truth, but then deciding it wasn’t worth it, she shook her head, “You know what, never mind. If he doesn’t bring it up, we can pretend that didn’t happen.”

Now that they know “the Truth” about the green bard, and saw that whole cutscene, Aether disturbing the bard’s talk with the dragon suddenly comes in a new light. Looking back on it, it’s embarrassing because it feels like they intruded on a sacred ritual—a reunion of two divine friends or something—a conversation that could have solved Monstadt’s problems in a snap of a finger had it continued…

Collei suddenly stopped, purple eyes turning strange as a thought came to her.

…Or would it have?

“Poison…venom…” She muttered, feeling like there’s something they’re forgetting, something they’ve overlooked.

“Collei, you okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine!” Collei blurted out, but inwardly she felt like sighing.

Maybe she was barking up the wrong horse…

(wait, that’s the wrong word.)

“Dvalin? Who's that?” Paimon blinked, brows furrowed.

“That's Stormterror's real name.” Aether told the flying pixie, “Lisa told us already, weren't you listening?”

 “Huh? ...Oh, right. Most people seem to call him Stormterror.” Paimon stared at the green-clad bard and warily asked, “Why do you call him that... are you two meant to be close or something?”

“…You know, it suddenly hit me.”

In the Inazuma section, standing at the very back of the divided entourage with a silent Kujou Sara, Shikanoin Heizou put a finger on his chin as a genuinely contemplative expression crossed his face.

“Do Paimon and Aether see the cutscenes we see? My intuition is telling me there’s something up with that bard especially after what we just saw, but they didn’t see what we saw, did they? Unless the Sumeru Representative has reason to declare one or either of them hallucinating such a vividly rich and detailed vision of the past…”

“Please refrain from asking questions no one here can answer.” Kujou Sara pinched her nose bridge with a sigh.

Of course, Heizou does not refrain from asking.

“Do you think the twin outlanders not having a physical vision is a good enough reason for them to have hallucinatory visions?”

He asks with a wide grin and Sara groans.

Shikanoin Heizou was having way too much fun with this.

“Oh, so close...” The bard answered with a smile.

Paimon makes a face, then shuffles closer to Aether and whispers, “Hey, Aether. Paimon thinks this guy has a screw loose...”

“This kid has no fear.”

Chevreuse blankly pointed out, not sure if she should be concerned or impressed considering Paimon has no way of knowing if Venti was a beggar in the streets sidelining as a bard or a secret big shot who can hunt her down for offending him.

The people at Fleuve Cendre could never take the risk.

“It’s a valid conclusion.” Navia argued with a frown, “She’s a kid after all, do you think she’d know better than conclude that?”

“Is she really though?”

 At the sudden question that came out from the usually quiet Lynette, the gossipers of Fontaine ended up whipping their heads at her direction in surprise, feeling like their worldview suddenly got shot with a fontainian shotgun.

Unbothered by the looks, the cat-eared assistant only gave them a flat stare.

“We don’t really know anything about… what was her name again? Ah, yes, Paimon.”

“Wuh—I m-mean, yes, we don’t, but if you just look at her—” Navia stammered, losing confidence in her own arguments, until the stoic magic performer carefully raised one gloved hand and then pointed it towards somewhere.

She was pointing straight at the people of Liyue, who were all seated except for two people—If you could even call the bird part of that “people”.

“….?”

A purple haired little child with a pale face languidly turned to look at all the fontainians who were also, for some reason, looking at her, the only person standing, since she was supporting the back of a green-haired doctor.

“…That’s obviously a kid.” Navia stonily said, confidence just below the maximum quota available to her for the day.

Clorinde tugged at her arm and whispered something to her ear.

“…You’ve GOT TO BE KIDDING ME—”

“Ahh...” Aether finally addressed the elephant… er, the bard in the… plaza, “Hi.”

“Talk about awkward?!”

“Good day, outlander. Seems we meet again.”

“And the bard takes it in a stride! This is an anticlimactic conversation to have after seeing him rub shoulders with a dragon!”

“Shut up!”

If Faruzan almost threw a high energy anemo-infused shoe at the Liyue youth group that had suddenly began to make commentaries, because they found nothing else to do, that’s only for the people of Sumeru (specifically, Collei, Nilou and a sluggish Layla) to know about, considering they’re the ones who had to stop her.

“Wait… meet again?”

At the sudden sound of Lumine’s voice above the crowd, a silence perpetuated in the room as if to let her words echo and sink into every heart and mind. Confusion spread among the faces of the audience like wildfire, and in the center of it all was Lumine, with her brows drawn taught, and one hand over her mouth as speculations run wild in her head.

She stared at Aether, who quickly jumped at her gaze and raised his hands high.

“Don’t look at me—If you don’t know him, I don’t know him!”

Yeah, Lumine figured as much.

But what if…

“I’m sorry, you are…?” Aether hesitantly asked.

“You don’t know him…” Lumine muttered, quietly thinking to herself, “But what if he’s met you before? He has, hasn’t he?”

“Once again,” Aether declared, staring straight at the screen and avoiding all the other eyes that had fallen on his direction after Lumine’s own head turn, “I have no recollection whatsoever who this guy is.”

Well, that doesn’t discredit Lumine’s theory at all, but she’ll bide her time until she has more to support it.

 “I'm Venti the bard.” The green clad bard introduced himself with a beaming smile and a playful haughty flair as he added, “Three-time winner of the "Most Popular Bard of Mondstadt," to be precise. So, what do you need from me?”

“There isn’t an award like that.” Diluc said darkly.

Rosaria, regular tarven-goer and drunkard community member, raised her hand with a grim face like a bearer of bad news.

“Actually—”

In the forefront of the Monstadt group…

“Venti…”

Jean tried saying the name, testing how it sounded out of her mouth, as did some others in Monstadt silently. Her mind immediately turned towards the memory of an unconscious bard thrice zapped, a patient that her sister was nursing.

So, that was his name…

It was… nice. To finally have a name for the face.

 “Given you recognize us, Paimon doesn't believe we need to explain any further.” Paimon huffed, “Of course it's about Stormterror!”

“Storm...?” Venti the bard gave a puzzled look.

 “Hey! Cut it with the amnesia act!” Paimon pouted, “Aether, show it to him.”

“Show what to wha… Oh.”

Itto fell silent as Aether in the screen pulled out the crystal from earlier.

Forest ranger and Withering Zone frontliner Tighnari has never stood up so fast with a stupefied expression before.

“The corruption is gone?” Albedo, in a similar state, says in surprise, dropping his sketchpad but maintaining an only slightly surprised expression unlike his assistant and student whose face betrayed the way her mind suddenly went overload by all the possible causes and all the possible implications of this sudden development.

“That’s… impossible!” Tighnari said, louder than he’d intended, face twisted a little, “Corruption doesn’t just disappear like that?”

 “Oh! Isn't this—” Venti’s eyes widened.

 “What!? The crystal has been purified!?” Paimon shrieked as she stared at the bright blue crystal tear, “When?!”

“Not sure how this happened.” Aether answered, “The last time I checked, it was full of impurities.”

“It’s not when, it’s how!”

“Tighnari, calm down—” Ningguang tried to say.

“No, too many rangers have been encountering more withering zones lately. If this is something that can be replicated, the forest—"

“You,” Albedo grabbed the attention of one of the twins immediately, while Tighnari was agitating himself to the point of putting his tail on ends, and then pointed at the screen with a deeply focused expression, “Did you do that?”

Aether, the unlucky twin, blinked like a gaping fish.

“Uh…”

“—and then! If it’s like this, what if even Eleazar—”

Staring at the overly passionate ranting Forest Ranger by the player perimeter, and the intense gaze he was getting from the Chief Alcehmist, Aether swallowed dryly.

‘Researchers are scary.’

“Albedo, you’re scaring him.” Jean stated.

The Chief Alchemist blinked, realized he had already gone a bit too far into the outlander’s personal space, and then quickly apologized.

His retreat made Aether relax, but then he felt an intense gaze suddenly come back but this time from somewhere else.

“…Why are you looking at me like that.”

Lumine held his gaze with suspicious and serious golden eyes.

“Brother, do you like guys?”

“…Lumine, what the fuck?”

“Dvalin, he...” A tinge of sadness seemed to appear in Venti’s pinched expression as he stared at the crystal tear, “The anguish he feels... has brought him to tears...”

 “Tears...?”

Venti took the crystal within the palms of his hands, letting it levitate from there as he looked down upon it solemnly.

“He was once such a gentle child. Now so full of rage and suffering...”

Lisa sadly watched the scene from her hammock, a look of knowing on her face. She had guessed as much after remembering the stories of the Anemo Archon and the Sky Dragon’s friendship, but this act of sadness born from thousands of years of affection cleared all doubts.

Meanwhile, at the far side of the room…

“Tch.”

A short man with a wide hat turned away from the screen like he’d just seen the worst joke ever.

“I also came across a Teardrop Crystal.” Venti looks at Aether, a small pleading expression on his face, “Can you purify it?”

“It can’t be that simple.” Lumine murmured, frowning a little.

Purfiying something when they don’t even know if they have such an ability is a high task to ask. Plus points in difficulty if you have literally no idea what you’re supposed to be pushing out of the “corrupted” thing too.

Venti hands over the crystal and Aether purifies it for all to see.

“Ehhhh!?” Paimon shrieked.

“Holy shit.” Kaveh covered his mouth, unwittingly cursing in a whisper out of surprise, only to hear a loud bang and chaos explode in the other side of the room.

“Oh, are you serious? Just like that? That easy?!”

“L-Lumine, sit down…”

“YOU HAVE DETOXIFICATION, PURIFICATION ABILITIES?!”

“Tighnari, put your butt back to the floor!”

Albedo stared at Aether who was trying to get the suddenly fierce Lumine back down so that the others behind her could watch comfortably. Sucrose, who had been hiding by his half-kneeling form, peeked out to stare at the twins too, adjusting her glasses.

The two exchanged glances before seemingly nodding.

“…If they’re acting like this, it’s more likely an acquired trait rather than inborne.”

“I HEARD THAT!” Lumine yelled, frustrated, “We’re NOT THAT OP! Why is your planet giving us bullshit talents?!”

“What’s OP?” Diona scrunched up her nose in confusion.

“What’ bullshit?” Klee innocently echoed, finger on her chin and brows drawn together.

Everyone suddenly fell silent, as the little child’s crisp pronunciation, a perfect imitation of Lumine’s swearing, seemed to echo in the hall.

After receiving some pointed glares, all researchers and angry outlanders were forced to sit down and repent for their actions.

 “You... really do have some wonderful abilities...”

Venti said, half in awe, and yet also with what seemed to have been half-expectation.

“Someone like you is going to end up getting written into a bard's poem.”

“Well, that’s high praise but the bard could just be him so…” A general with dog ears uncomfortably shifted, ear twitching, from the Inazuma group, only to notice that a portion of their people had suddenly gone quiet, suspiciously so, except for the loud Oni who was loudly commentating every now and then.

Frowning, Gorou watched as the members of the Kamisato household in particular exchanged looks with the Naganohara girl and Lady Sangonomiya as if exchanging some kind of secret.

‘…Did I miss something?’

Gorou can’t help but feel like there’s something off about the bard and everyone already knows about it, but at the same time, he can’t really understand what’s making him think this way.

 “Oh, a hero so bright, should (‍he/she‍) stand in the light. Though stand in the shade, and you'll be met by a blade... Alas... I've really not the time to compose a melody for you at this moment.”

“He says he didn’t have time but he made time to rhyme, still?! Is this the habit of a pro—No, not even a pro—A respected Ancestor?!”

Amber gasped, but Kaeya didn’t buy it.

“Have you heard that bard play in your tavern before, Master Diluc? Is he any good?” Kaeya shot a certain redhead a question, only to be shut down by what seemed to be a heavy iron wall.

“No.”

“No to playing or no to being good?”

“To ensure my security in case of the worst-case scenario, my answer,” Diluc sarcastically said, arms crossed over his black suit, “is no comment.”