Chapter Text
The faint glow of torches flickered along the ancient stone walls, casting long shadows that seemed to dance with a life of their own. Aether’s footsteps were the only sound in the eerie silence of the ruins, save for the occasional drip of water echoing from unseen cracks in the ceiling. He had been in enough ancient sites by now to recognize the air of foreboding that clung to this place, but there was something different here. Something older. Something… watching.
Paimon floated nervously beside him, her usual cheer dampened by the oppressive atmosphere. "This place gives Paimon the creeps," she whispered. "Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?”
Aether nodded, his golden eyes scanning the path ahead. The tip from the strange scholar in Liyue had been vague but promising—these ruins supposedly held a fragment of an ancient prophecy. One that might lead him closer to finding his sister. And for that, he would brave any danger.
The passageway opened into a vast chamber, dimly lit by the moonlight piercing through cracks in the stone ceiling. The room was clearly old– and abandoned, with rubble all across the floor in which he walked through avoiding stepping on any broken tiles. Ivy climbed up the walls until they reached the ceiling, some leafs constantly swinging from side to side, pushed by the cold wind that embraced the place.
Paimon quickly backed away until she was right behind Aether when a few fireflies flew out of some bushes. Aether’s golden eyes followed the tiny lights until they disappeared down the corridor.
When they reached the main chamber, both of them couldn’t help but allow their eyes to wander around the uncommon scenery before them. A room full of every sort of artifact, from metallic open doors that only faced a wall, to metallic gears scattered all over the ground. Though without doubt, the most flashy artifact that claimed their attention was right in the middle of the room, the moonlight lighting from the vault on the ceiling right above it.
In the center of the room stood a massive mirror, nearly twice Aether’s height, and easily 5 or 6 times Paimon’s size. Its surface shimmered as if the glass was made of liquid. It was unlike any artifact he had seen before, or even around the room, ornate symbols drawn around the frame, glowing faintly with ethereal lighting.
The mirror didn’t speak, but Aether felt as if an external voice was drawing him in. Lulling him into a state of curiosity which forced him to approach the mirror. Paimon was in a similar state, her blue eyes shining the same way as when she saw a luxurious chest after a difficult mechanism.
Paimon hovered closer to him. “Look at that mirror! It’s... kind of beautiful, but also super weird. Do you think it’s connected to the prophecy?”
Aether stepped forward cautiously, feeling a strange pull toward the mirror. The air seemed to hum, as if the ruin itself was holding its breath. He reached out, his gloved fingers almost brushing the spotless glass that reflected his image perfectly.
A sharp voice cut through the silence. "I wouldn’t touch that if I were you."
Aether froze, recognizing the voice instantly. He turned around just in time before his finger actually reached the mirror, and there, leaning casually against the far wall, was Wanderer. His familiar dark hair and piercing dark blue eyes stood out against the ruin’s ancient stone, and his expression was as indifferent as ever.
A high-pitched scream filled the room, and Aether’s eyes were barely fast enough to catch a glimpse of a white mess flying right towards him. Paimon’s first impulse was to hide, and what safer place to hide behind rather than the traveler himself? She didn’t even doubt.
There was a beat of silence which Aether used to let the air that he had held in at the sudden appearance of Wanderer, out. His clenched fists slowly relaxed until he was not applying any force on them.
“You scared Paimon half to death! You–, you–..! ” Paimon’s voice shifted from scared to angry in less than a second after recognizing the dark haired boy. “ Ughhh! You deserve a bad nickname, Paimon will come up with the worst of the worst in nicknames for you!”
Wanderer’s expression didn’t shift, yet Aether could almost imagine a roll of eyes just from the subtle shift on his demeanor. His golden eyes followed him when he pushed himself off the wall and stepped a few meters closer. Yet not enough for any of them to touch even if they reached out.
“I didn’t expect for anyone else to know the existence of these ruins.” He started, his voice still held that edge of distance Aether had grown used to during their trip together a few months ago. “Much less for any of them to visit the ruins when they hold so many dangers.”
“Was Nahida the one that sent you here?”
The curiosity laced his words as Aether finally spoke after their little scare. His eyes held visual contact with the boy in front of them. He could hear some of Paimon’s muffled complaining noises from behind him.
“Nahida does have something to do with me being here right now, but it’s mostly a personal reason more than a request from the Lesser Lord.”
Aether observed how the other’s eyes shifted towards the mirror’s direction and narrowed in caution. It was safe to assume that Kuni did know a bit more than them about this place, and the mysterious mirror.
Aether’s head tilted slightly to the side, almost unnoticeable. "Are you looking for something in these ruins as well?"
"That’s none of your business." Wanderer stopped a few feet away from the mirror after walking past him, his eyes narrowing as they flicked toward the artifact. "But if you must know, this ruins holds the answers I’ve been seeking. Something about forgotten memories, lost fragments of a self that was… discarded."
The tension in the chamber thickened. They had worked together in the past, but Wanderer had never been easy to read— sharp-tongued, aloof, distrustful, and always carrying an edge of danger. Aether had learned to be cautious around him most of the time. Not because he feared him, he knew better than anyone that Kuni had changed, but because he always felt like he was at the shortest side of the straw every time he was with him.
But Kuni’s atmosphere that day was… different. Something about his presence here felt more personal, more urgent .
Before Aether responded, he turned around on his feet, staring directly into their reflections, standing barely just a few feet from each other. His golden eyes locked onto his own figure, and he could see the other staring right into himself as well. Kuni had never been able to hide well enough from Aether, the disappointed edged tone that escaped him every time he talked about himself.
The traveler was about to add something to his words, maybe question him about the place, but before he could open his mouth the mirror began to glow brighter, its surface rippling like water disturbed by a stone. The symbols around the frame flared to life, casting the room in a strange, ethereal light. One that felt like it wasn’t from Teyvat, but from another world.
"What’s happening?!" Paimon yelped, backing away from the mirror.
Her ability to fly gave her the upperhand between the three of them when they all attempted to get out of the mirror’s reach. And it also made her the only one that succeeded in doing so.
Aether and Wanderer exchanged wary glances, both instinctively stepping back as the mirror’s glow intensified. But it was too late. Aether felt a sudden pull, it reminded him of the subtle calls that he felt when his eyes first glanced upon the mirror, but this pull was way more intense than before. As if the very air around him was being drawn into the mirror, depriving him from oxygen. His body tensed, and he instinctively tried to summon his powers, but they felt sluggish, distant.
The world around him spun, the room blurring into a swirl of light and shadow. He heard Wanderer shouting something, but the sound was swallowed by the mirror and blurred by the rush of energy engulfing them both.
Then, Aether was braced by sheer darkness.
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Aether’s eyes fluttered open, his body feeling strangely heavy, as if he was being weighed down by an unfamiliar force. Groaning, he pushed himself up from the cold stone floor. Sitting on his butt as he tried to get his mind straight. The first thing he noticed was that his hands—his arms—felt different. He stared at them, his breath catching in his throat. They were pale, slim, and… not his. His forearms were covered by some black gloves that let his fingers exposed to the outside. Not his everyday wear ones.
He felt his body tense up instinctively, a pang of uncertainty clouding his judgment. Forcing him to be on edge, prepared. He scrambled to his feet, only to be greeted by an unfamiliar dizziness. Aether gathered forces to raise his head and… Barely a few feet away, Paimon was shaking an also disoriented figure who was only sitting up from the floor.
His eyes widened in shock as he stared at Wanderer– no, not Wanderer, but himself, starting to wake up from the same faint he suffered. Paimon’s calls were starting to clear from his blurred state of mind.
“Traveler? Traveler, please wake up!”
The other boy– himself??, groaned as he opened his eyes. One of his hands raised to his face as he started to wake up from his disoriented state. And it was then when his eyes widened, looking at his own hand just like how Aether had reacted a mere seconds ago.
“Oh, thank god you are alright! Paimon was super worried about you when you two suddenly fainted at the mirror’s light!”
The floaty girl flew to his side as she attempted to help him up.
“I’m… not the traveler.”
Aether could never describe in his words how weird it felt to see and hear yourself from outside. It was as if someone else had just stolen his identity– even if it wasn’t on purpose. And it was–... His mind was a complete mess.
“Paimon… Uh— what?”
“I’m here, Paimon.” He finally spoke, his eyes locked on his own body, now possessed by the boy he also was possessing… Was this a dream??
The girl turned her head around to stare at him with a confused look. His eyes followed how she turned to look between them a few times with a conflicted expression.
She crossed her arms. “Are you two pulling a hoax on Paimon? It’s not funny.”
“This isn’t a joke.” Kuni– from his body, stated. Finally standing up from the ground, glaring daggers into Aether, which could only assume that he was as lost and frustrated as he was.
Aether’s heart raced. His voice. His body. He looked down, his hands clenched into fists when saw Wanderer’s attire, Wanderer’s body, staring back at him in disbelief. He didn’t even know what he was feeling, it was an ugly blend of unpleasant emotions which he was forced to swallow at once.
"This… this isn’t possible," Aether— no, Wanderer, murmured in his own voice, his hand coming up to touch his face as if to confirm what his eyes were telling him. The words followed by a loud groan.
He quickly glanced in the mirror’s way, which light was slowly dying off until it finally disappeared. Turning into the same ‘normal’ mirror-looking which was before that happened. He stared right at the artifact which obviously remained motionless, he almost felt as though it was mocking them.
“What did you do?!” Kuni stepped his way. His gaze was piercing, almost intimidating. Aether watched as his body stepped his way as he pointed at him accusingly.
Huh.
"I didn’t do anything!"
Wanderer, now in Aether’s body, snapped, his usual calm demeanor cracking under the weight of what had just happened. His eyes flashed, and Aether could see the fury building behind them. "This is your fault! You were the one touching the damn mirror."
Aether opened his mouth to argue but stopped himself. The anger in Wanderer’s—his—eyes ticked something inside him which he wasn’t really able to put his hand in. But right now, he had other worries. For example, trying to figure out what to do when he felt his world crumbling beneath his feet with something that’s totally out of his control.
Aether took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. "We need to figure this out. Blaming each other won’t be of any help."
"Easy for you to say," Wanderer spat, folding his arms—his movements awkward in Aether’s body, as though he wasn’t used to its fluidity. "You’re not stuck in a body that isn’t yours."
"I am , actually.” He shot back as one of his hands reached his own face, resting on his forehead as if his head weighed more than he was used to. His movements, his… breathing? was he breathing?
It was technically impossible as Kuni was a puppet, not a human. He shook off that thought, he was absolutely not in the moment to dwell on that… world.
It just felt too weird, too frustrating.
“I think we’re both in the same situation here." Aether countered, his voice steady despite the confusion churning inside him.
Paimon, who had been floating just out of reach, finally found her voice. "Wait… so you two—swapped bodies?! Really?!” Her voice was even more high-pitched than usual. And Kuni– still on his body– who stood by her side flinched when she screamed in his ear. “How does that even happen?! This is bad, really bad!"
"Clearly," Wanderer muttered, glancing down at his—Aether’s—hands with a bitter expression. "You need to fix this. Immediately."
Aether shook his head, frustration bubbling to the surface. "We don’t even know how it happened. Why would I have an idea of how to solve this?”
Wanderer scoffed, though there was less venom in his voice now. “Are you telling me you just came here blindly, and then reached to touch an obviously dangerous artifact like that–” He raised his hand to point at the mirror. “That forsaken thing?”
“We understood that here there were some remains of an ancient prophecy. And.. it held some links to my sister. We were just wanting to find any sort of clue, I’m not the one to blame here.”
Kuni remained silent for a moment, glaring at him before looking at his– Aether’s– hands. His expression had relaxed the slightest, just enough not to show the high levels of anger and frustration he was before, but it still held an edge of annoyance and confusion.
“We have to figure this out. As soon as possible.” He started after a beat of silence.
“I figured that out myself.”
Aether replied quickly, a soft sigh escaping his mouth. His body felt weird. Cold. He felt as if he was found in a foreign land, in the middle of the snow. When he started to dwell into his own mind, and more and more thoughts started to pull him out of reality he shook his head, focusing himself to stay alert.
Paimon had already floated to his side. Her shiny big eyes staring at him with an edge of uncertainty. He held that gaze himself.
“Let’s return to Sumeru.” The traveler spoke up once again, this time to contribute into the conversation with his own ideas. “We won’t gain anything by arguing and staying here without doing anything.”
“...Fine. Asking Nahida is a good start I guess.” The other boy spoke up. Aether is still not getting used to hearing and seeing himself from afar. “Let’s keep moving. Now . The faster we get out of this… issue the better.”
As they stood in the eerie glow of the Mirror of Duality, neither of them could have known how much this strange turn of fate would change them both—how, by seeing the world through each other’s eyes, they would come to understand the world around them like no other.
Kuni started to walk, quickly stepping into the corridor to exit the ruins, not even waiting for them or even glancing back to make sure they were behind. Aether stood in his place for a few moments, staring into Kuni’s— or his own, back motionless after he finally reacted.
He glanced at Paimon one last time which was looking at him the same way before they both followed after him.