Chapter Text
Lumine was so incredibly tired.
She was sick, she had a fever. She was hungry, she had no food. She had no idea where she was, but she couldn’t collapse now. Especially not when people needed her. Paimon needed her. Everyone needed her.
She didn’t care about Paimon needing her, Paimon was her friend. She annoyed Lumine sometimes, but she was still Lumine’s best friend. Paimon would do anything for her. Lumine would do anything for Paimon.
But with other people…
Everywhere she went, it was help help help help help and she was tired. Everyone always needed something from her. From Inazuma to Fontaine, there was always someone in distress, someone in need, someone who needed something that only she could provide.
Her journey had lasted far too long. It had been four years since she set out to find Teyvat, and she was still so far from finding Aether.
Aether. Her brother. Her beloved twin brother. The only one other than Paimon who understood her. The abyss prince, so he’d been called. In her search, the world had been turned upside down and back again, but she was no closer to finding him than when she had started.
Scars lined her body from the neck down, marking each and every battle she won. There were the scratches from Dvalin, the lasting damage from both Osial and Beisht, lightning scars from the Raiden Shogun and her Mosou no Hitotachi. Her legs were littered with burn marks from the knave and the balladeer, arms damaged from fighting hilichurls and the Fatui and Childe.
She had dealt with enough for several lifetimes. That was undeniable.
And when she heard that Natlan was the nation of war?
She shut down.
No. Nonono. No no no no no no nonononononononono.
Not again. Not more fighting.
She was a nearly immortal being, but she could only take so much. Lumine’s body shook with each step, fever beginning to overtake her mind. Not now, not now…
She trembled. Lumine’s sword fell out of her hand, and her knees hit the ground. Dirt path. She was on a dirt path, but she didn’t know where it led. It felt familiar, but the origin of the memory was so distant in her mind.
“Tr- v- ller? Hellllooooo?”
Her hair covered her eyes, vision becoming blurry. She reached for her sword. It wasn’t there anymore. Where did it go? It was right there…
“…T- veller? Are y- okay?” The voice asked again, trying to lift her face up.
Tiny hands…
Lumine blinked, vaugely Paimon’s tiny figure trying to lift her up. “C’mon, Traveller! Hey! You gotta get up!”
Why did she have to? What was left for her? More work?
“Traveller, please!”
She hated those words. ‘Please’. There was nothing left for her in this world except more begging people who needed her to put her life aside to solve their little issues.
Was there anybody who knew her name, even? Everyone called her ‘The Traveller’.
She hated that. She hated that name, Traveller. Even if it was accurate once, she didn’t want to travel anymore.
She just wanted
“Wake up!”
To finally be
“Paimon’s worried- please!”
At peace.