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Lumine had followed him.
Even after all that time, years apart, she still trusted him enough that she willingly did exactly what no sane person would have done and followed him into the Frostmoon Scions’ secret vault.
…he really shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d watched her pillage cabbages from unsuspecting fruit vendors, steal books from right under the noses of anyone and everyone, and killed a kid’s pigeons for fun. Heck, she’d stolen a lyre from Mondstadt less then a week after arriving in the city, maybe even the same day–he wasn’t exactly sure how long she’d been there. His sister was very good at petty crime. A little trespassing wasn’t above her at all.
As demonstrated by the fact she had opened one chest and was now rummaging through another, right after besting him in their little competition.
“Primos! Yes!” She cheered as she held up the shiny objects. “Aether, look!”
“I see,” he said. Internally, he questioned why she wanted the star-shaped things, and also could she hurry it up, they were kind of on a time crunch here. He wasn’t entirely certain the door had closed behind them.
“...and done! Okay, I’m good.” She said cheerfully as she stood up from thenow-empty chest. Aether breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s keep moving.” he told her.
He led, and she followed, though every so often he looked behind to see her pushing at the cave walls or poking at some shrubbery. A few times she ran in front to prod at the stones or the glowing plants.
She’d always been curious about everything around her. Maybe too curious, he mused as he watched her fumble with the Kuuvakki (hadn’t she made the bridge appear just fine?) and then smack facefirst into the still-opening door.
Lumine was really odd sometimes, in her logical sense. He guessed a lot of the reasoning had gone to him. More of the focus, too.
That was definitely not the sole reason he told Lumine to go look around. It was mostly because he did in fact know how to open the seal, from his own research and knowledge. But Lumine’s curiosity might be satiated if she could go and stick her nose into every nook and cranny.
He definitely didn’t take his time opening the seal. It wasn’t hard. But eventually he did.
“Found it. This should do the trick.” he announced as Lumine returned, a few new flowers sticking out of her bag. Probaby more then a few, considering he’d seen her pull all number of things out of that thing. Like her sword.
“Did you notice there’s sky above us?” she asked, pointing up.
Aether looked up, and–huh. That was definitely not a shade of blue cave roofs were usually colored.
“I think you can also get out of the cave via that back wall, with the design, if you were small enough.” Lumine added.
…that was not a thought he was going to entertain.
“Let’s go in,” he said hastily. “Lumine, can you–”
Lumine was already solving the puzzle, easily handling the Kuuvakhi. Aether wouldn;t admit iit, at least ot yet, but this whole thing wasn’t as "possible" without Lumine as he’d implied. He could open the door, but sometimes…some things were better done using their intended method.
Sometimes, he thought, as he watched his little sister run up to the giant moon-shaped wall and knock her fist against it halfway through solving the puzzle. Or maybe she just wanted an excuse to slide down the moss covering the steps.
“Great work, L'Umine," he said as the final piece feel into place and the moon-wall, now a door, opened up.
They joined hands as they entered the next “trial”, letting the streams of Kuuvakki take them to the next place.
It was beautiful. Although he wasn’t entirely certain if this was the way the Moonchanter had to go to reach the sacred relic…surely she had a hidden back door? THe path felt extremely long, but perhaps that was for ritual and protective significance…?
And of course, Lumine, none the wiser, was teasing him about being “less experienced”. Big talk for someone who had been napping while he’d been trying to keep a whole organization together for the past 500 years.
But then, they were at the final trial.
They’d only fought side-by-side once before since ending up in Teyvet, a world where they had never intended to stay but had now become a part of. Aether was the Abyss Prince, Lumine was the world-renowned Traveller. Aether fought for the Abyss and a lost land forsaken by the higher powers. Lumine played card games with archons while sipping tea.
But now…they could relive old times. Pretend they weren’t on different sides or a war that would one day come knocking.
He’d watched her during their competition. She fought as she always had. They would still work well together, if his own skills hadn’t changed as much as he hoped they hadn’t. It had been a while since they'd combined their powers in a joint attack--with luck, the enemy wouldn't be so easy they couldn't finish it off with a little bit of fun for old times' sake. If they didn't, well. He did need an excuse to go on more adventures with his sister, considering that the Abyss Order could probably run itself for a few days now and then and really, he should have given her a bit more of a lead on where to go. He'd found all those wanted posters in odd places really hillarious, truly, but...well. He could tell her later. After the trial. For now, he needed to say something good.
Something profound. This was, after all, the final trial, and possibly the last time they would be together, just the two of them, fighting the danger ahead for a while. They would uncover their past, and then...well. If the Frostmoon Scions hadn't noticed he'd tampered with their precious sanctum entrance by now...
Well. Other things were about to come their way.
“This is a night of miracles, an adventure that belongs to us. Let’s not weigh it down with worries and regrets,” he said, as they faced the final trial.
“This is our adventure.” And hopefully, not their last, he wished, as the Kuuvakhi bridge appeared as the twins stepped onto it.
…
“Lumine, don’t even think about it–”
“But I really want to know what’s below the mist-”
“I don’t care you have a ‘portable waypoint’, whatever that is. Do not take a dive right now, do you hear me–”