Archive of Our Own ^beta

Every star has a contractual obligation to fulfill an extraordinary wish from their summoner. Until such a wish is fulfilled, they become earth-bound like the mortals. Walking, when they should be hung up in the sky; doing, when they should be watching over. Following demands, when they should be a guiding light.

Everyday, Lumine prepares herself to say goodbye to this world she learned to love. To fulfill an extraordinary wish from the bard that brought her down.

Ask me to topple the heavens. Ask me to turn blood to gold. Ask me to dream reality.

And yet, everyday, Venti asks for the mundane: a travel companion, a muse, a friend. Never a hero. Never a god.

"I can turn water into wine," Lumine grumbles, as she pours dandelion wine down both of their glasses. Tragically, the bottle came from the shelves of Angel's Share instead of her own magic.

"I know," Venti says. "But Charles always brings out the best bottles that the Dawn Winery can provide! There's nothing quite like a proper wind-fermented wine. Here, let's have a toast. You must try it for yourself!"

He pushes Lumine's glass closer, like she's still too sober for the conversation. The wine goes down easily. Bitter, with a hint of sweet. Lumine can replicate the taste and enhance its intoxicating effects with anything from tea to lemonade, if only Venti asked.

"You have a star at your disposal," she reminds him again. "You can ask for anything you could ever want. You can ask for the impossible."

Ask me to perform a miracle.

But all Venti does is tilt his head to the side. His eyes glow with the authority of the winds. "But I'm already an archon. What would a god even wish for?"

What is an extraordinary wish for someone of his stature? Lumine takes another sip of wine. It will take a while to find an answer.

Still, everyday, she waits for the time she must fulfill her duty. Surely, whatever wish Venti has in his heart is never too small for Lumine to nurture with her hands. After all, Venti has an admirably noble heart, and Lumine is one of the brightest stars in this corner of the universe.

Before she knows it, Lumine has walked on this earth for a year.

(Ask me to fill a cup of wine that never empties. Ask me to burn fire that never dies.)

Stars are gifted with the magic of impossibility.

Most people are limited by the laws and physics of reality. But beings like Lumine and Aether live in unreality. They can make the sun stop in its tracks, they can turn lies into truth, and they can reach the ends of infinity. But only if someone wishes it so.

To be a star is to live in a contradictory state of being.

Perhaps this is why a wish-maker like Lumine finds herself stuck creating dull conveniences at most, instead of grand, universe-breaking gestures. She lives a normal life with Venti and their pet bunny, Paimon. She tends their garden with ordinary human tools, instead of letting the soil and leaves soak up the star resin from her blood. They buy food at the marketplace, even though she doesn't need to eat. She sleeps, and she wakes, and she reads; and from time to time, she travels the world with Venti as he searches for the next story to pen.

It's a life different from when she guided travelers from afar.

But a star without a wish to fulfill has virtually no meaning.

Even now, Lumine spends the next hour willing their camp fire to stay alive amidst the howling winds of Dragonspine. But this is only a drop of what she can do. She can't do more without Venti's permission. Venti could stop the winds, and she could make the mountain verdant again, if only Venti wished it so.

"So you can keep the fire alive, just because you want to?" Venti turns to her with awe in his eyes. "That's super convenient! Of course, we could always ask someone with a pyro vision to come with us to Dragonspine too. But your abilities are way more impressive!"

The fire burns brighter in response. Licking flames shoot up higher in the air to provide more warmth, casting dancing shadows around the cave. It's not often that Lumine gets to show off, but the admiring whistle Venti lets out makes it worth it.

Venti bundles up in his blanket and asks, "Do you miss it up there?"

"Up there" is the cold void of space, where stars wait for their summoning. Suddenly, Lumine's heart beats with a newfound desire.

Ask me to stay.

How odd. A star can only stay while a wish is unfulfilled. And yet, if someone makes such a wish… what shape would Lumine twist herself into to make this paradox a reality?

"There is a certain excitement that comes with guiding worlds from afar," Lumine says. She does miss having that birds' eye view of things, and the comforts of solitude. There are no expectations to meet when you're alone. "But I do enjoy the summonings as well. It's thrilling to help someone achieve something they cannot do alone. The wishes that set us free from these summonings, these 'impossible wishes' — it's like solving a puzzle."

Venti nods in understanding. "You do like puzzles. You've done all the work in solving the ones from these ruins and I still haven't created a crossword that ticks you off."

Among many of Venti's odd jobs is coming up with the weekend crossword puzzles for the Steambird. Lumine has never spent more than five minutes on any of them.

A new determination burns in Venti's eyes. Or maybe it's just the reflection from the fire. "Guess I have to work harder."

"You're not slacking off this time?"

Venti grins, butting his head on Lumine's shoulder. "Well, that's why you're here, aren't you? You already make my life easy. It's no wonder I can't think of a wish to send you back. But I will, if you want me to."

"…No, it's fine. I don't mind that you're not in a hurry to think of a wish."

If Lumine was honest, she hopes she'd never have to mind at all.

(Ask me how to make flowers bloom for eternity. Ask me how to live, indefinitely.

Ask me. Go on, ask.)

Tonight, they are lying down on the grass. Lumine points out the constellations, teaching Venti how to spot them and how they move their positions in the sky as the planets move. She tells him all of this, while Venti plants cecilias in her hair.

Starsnatch Cliff is a fitting name for a place like this. They say that the first star to be summoned by a human was captured here, on the highest point of the cliff, where a sea of cecilias bloomed to greet them. A legend as romantic as this one is sure to inspire the greatest bard of Teyvat.

Stars require extraordinary wishes. Naturally, only extraordinary people can pull stars from the heavens and bring them down to their level.

"You know, I always wondered. If you could wish upon a star, what would you wish for?"

Lumine tears her gaze away from the sky. They say that dead stars will continue to shine as light takes time to travel. The information of its absence will take light years to reach one's eyes.

The Viatrix constellation grows dimmer each day. But Lumine's residual light will continue to shine even while she's gone.

The Viator constellation twinkles even more dimly.

"…It's been a while since I last saw my brother. Perhaps I would ask if I could spend more time with him."

Venti perks up at this new information. He does this sometimes. Whenever Lumine reveals something about herself, Venti sits straighter and listens earnestly. It endears her to him. Lumine spends her entire life listening to others, so it warms her heart to be the recipient of the same gesture.

"I didn't know you have a brother! I didn't know stars could have siblings, actually."

"He's been gone for five centuries, but his constellation is still up there. You can spot Viatrix now, right? His constellation is the Viator, and it is a mirror image of mine."

"Oh, you're right, it is!"

Five centuries is not a particularly long time for Lumine, but it is extraordinarily long for humans. How long has Aether been trapped here, unable to fulfill their summoner's wish?

He visited the void space only once, for a brief moment. Lumine doesn't know how he managed it. But he returned only to adorn a white flower on Lumine's hair. It felt like saying goodbye.

"Someone will come for you one day," he promised her. "And after that we'll meet again, Lumine. I wished for it myself."

Such an odd turn of phrase. Stars don't make wishes.

Venti hums in deep thought as he starts making tiny braids in Lumine's hair. "You know, this reminds me of a less popular story about Starsnatch Cliff. I heard that the first star who landed on Teyvat was summoned by a witch boy. That witch boy didn't really have a wish in his heart. He just wanted to meet a star and know what they're like. There isn't any romance to the story, which is why it's not well-known. Who wants to hear about someone wishing on stars for no reason at all? But still, what a curious guy, huh?"

The Viator constellation blinks teasingly from above.

Hm. Curious, indeed.

(But he never asks. Not for anything.)

Venti once explained to a dragon: "Freedom, if demanded of you by an archon, is no freedom at all."

And yet, as Lumine completes another commission for the Adventurer's Guild, she wonders. Is she free at all, now that she is chained to Teyvat by the law of the stars? So long as Venti never asks her for the impossible, she can never leave.

Was she ever free when she hung in the sky, listening to prayers? Watching and guiding, without being able to experience a life like the ones she looked after?

Lumine understands now. There is only one extraordinary wish fitting for a person like Venti. She tells him so while they're having a picnic underneath the large oak tree in Windrise Park.

"Ask me to be free."

Venti pauses in buttering the biscuits in his hand. "Oh, Lumine. That won't break the contract, you know."

"It will. What else is an impossible wish from the God of Freedom himself?"

"But do you want me to ask it?"

Lumine pauses in pouring the apple cider in their cups. She is unable to answer the question.

Venti puts away the utensils and gathers Lumine's cheeks in his hands. He looks at her with such fondness that it leaves her exposed. It's the first time Lumine wants to look away from him.

"Do you still not get it? You are everything that you wanted me to ask, because you wanted those for yourself. Why should the God of Freedom interfere? Everyone thinks freedom is this grand, noble concept that is difficult to grasp, but it really is quite simple. To be free is to be able to do what you want to do. To have the courage to follow your own heart."

To follow one's heart… does the law of the stars allow such a thing? Can a star truly have a heart of their own?

"Tell me that you want me to wish for your freedom, and I will. But Lumine, aren't you happier now than when you looked on from the sky, distanced from the world you wanted to love? What do you want, Lumine?"

Lumine was always bound to the laws of the stars. And a star never wants. The opportunity — the possibility — never occurred to her.

What do I want?

(I long to feel it. I want to experience it, that thing everyone always wishes for…)

It's another late night when Lumine finishes closing up the flower shop. It's Windblume Festival season again. Mondstadters and tourists alike have been especially keen on getting flowers today. Lumine has heard too many debates on what the true windblume really is, or what counts as an appropriate flower to represent freedom and love.

But now, Lumine knows she understands.

When she gets home, Venti has bags in his eyes and a pen sticking out of his hair. There are ink stains on his fingers. And yet, Lumine turns to him with pleading eyes.

Ask me to fall in love.

But all Venti answers back is, "Shall we visit Dawn Winery tomorrow? It's been a while, don't you think?"

And all Lumine can do is smile, and nod, and say, "We can drink dandelion wine. And catch crystalflies by the vineyard with Klee."

"That would be fun! You always know how to make the best out of our time together."

Venti's grin is wide, infectious, and it spreads all the way to Lumine's cheeks. He winks, for good measure, like he's imparting a secret without revealing anything. It makes Lumine's heart beat; it is strange, still, to think of herself as having a heart. It beats in time to the way stars twinkle in the night.

She wonders how much room it has to grow. If it can hold both her own wishes, and his.

"Of course." She realizes it before the words spill out of her lips. "I care about your happiness, after all. I—"

…Oh.

Venti pulls her up by the hand and leads her back to bed with an impish grin. "I know. I love you too, you know? Your wish is my command."

Ask me to fall in love.

She already has.