Chapter Text
It's exactly as they described it to Lumine. It's gold-colored, and it glows faintly. It smells something like roses, but with a burn to it. What they left out is that it's hot. It's clear how Bennett found this place: surrounding the mineral deposit, there's no snow. It's not even that it recently melted. The ground is completely dry.
Lumine tries activating her Elemental Sight, but she has to drop it immediately. It's nearly blinding. "The energy here is crazy..." she says.
"Even I, the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, have never before seen such a source of great elemental power," Fischl agrees. "The populace of this realm would be at risk, should they reach this site by coincidence. Truly, Bennett, while your fortunes often trend poor, it was a moment of great fortune that brought you to this place."
"Heh, thanks Fischl!" Bennett scratches at the back of his head. "So what should we do now that we're here?"
"We're supposed to take samples," Lumine reminds them. "And see if there's anything we can do to secure the site. Paimon, you stay there, okay?"
"Paimon is staying!" the fairy calls, from a position high above the rest of the group.
The Guild's initial research suggested that the mineral they had found was likely to be Aureus Incendite, an extremely rare stone only created at the sites of massive elemental reactions. It's said to cause severe damage to non-Vision-holders who make direct contact with it, and up close, Lumine can very much understand how that might be.
Lumine pulls the sample jars out of her bag, and the three of them start gathering minerals to place in the jar. She almost doesn't want to do it. Even through her gloves, the rock burns a little to touch, and it's really too warm for her coat. But it's only the work of a few minutes to gather what the Guild was commissioned for. They're finished long before it feels like too much to handle.
After that, they bend over a map of Dragonspine, trying to decide exactly where they are rather than just remember a set of directions so that the area can be more effectively blocked off. Oz is sent up for a variety of aerial views. Bennett's the one who knows the trails. So Lumine mostly can't help so much.
And that's good, because within half an hour, Lumine has the awful suspicion that she has made a mistake. Her stomach is starting to swirl unpleasantly, and her hands have gone from fine after putting the rocks down to throbbing.
"Traveler, thy countenance has turned crimson, and thy body trembles," Fischl says. "Art thou well?"
"What Mein Fräulein means is, Lumine, are you feeling all right?" Oz translates.
"I'm..." Lumine isn't sure how to answer. "I..."
And oh, Lumine hates this. She watches Bennett and Fischl glance at each other, sees the naked concern on their faces, and she can't say anything to reassure them.
It doesn't help that this is the point where her stomach twists painfully. Lumine only just manages to stagger away from the group a few steps before the nausea completely overtakes her. She doubles over, vomiting onto the ground.
"Lumine!"
Moments after the gagging pauses, there are hands on Lumine's back. They hastily steer her away from the mess in front of her, and she thinks that's the point at first. But no, she's being rushed back onto the trail, away from the site entirely.
Lumine struggles. Her balance is bad, and her stomach is still not doing so great. She can't concentrate, but she hears chatter around her:
"-doesn't use a Vision, just channels-"
"-as far away from it as-"
"-still holding samples? Take those from-"
Lumine nearly barrels into a tree, then leans against it while her stomach finds more things to heave out of her. Once again, as soon as it stops, they're pushing her down the trail again. She loses her sense of time passing, just stumbling through the snow while everyone chatters worriedly around her, occasionally having to stop to be sick again. Eventually, Bennett and Fischl each have to wrap an arm under hers to support her and keep her upright. She feels too sick to be embarrassed. All she can concentrate on is making sure that each foot hits the ground, one in front of the other.
Finally, they come to a stop at a time when Lumine's stomach isn't forcing it. She looks up from the ground and sees Albedo's camp. And there's Albedo himself, rushing over to them.
"Lumine? What happened?"
She blinks at him, fuzzy and shivering. "We... were taking samples..." she tries to explain, and then has to yank her way out of her fellow Adventurers' grip so she isn't sick all over Albedo's boots.
When she's finished being sick again, Albedo steers Lumine into his campsite. He sits her down on a crate and sets a bucket at her feet. "Breathe deeply," he tells her, resting a gloved hand on her shoulder. "Try to relax."
Easier said than done, under the circumstances, but Lumine just nods. Albedo leaves her to talk with Fischl, Bennett, and Oz again.
Paimon rubs Lumine's back through relentless nausea. She's sick a few more times before Albedo returns to her side, stripping off one of his gloves. He rests the back of a hand against her forehead.
"It seems you have a fever," Albedo says gently. "Are you feeling cold?"
Lumine nods.
"I'll set up a cot and some blankets," he says. "Your guildmates are going down to the base camp for help. They will be back soon."
"You're worried," Lumine says softly.
"Yes," Albedo admits. "But you should not be."
"Huh?" Lumine asks, frowning.
"You will be fine," Albedo replies. "I will ensure it."
The words themselves aren't actually all that reassuring, but the tone is. Lumine nods.
"Paimon, please assist me," Albedo calls, and leaves to set up the cot.
---
There are so many things that Albedo simply does not know. Aureus Incendite is so rare that it might as well be mythical--and without analysis of the samples by someone with more expertise than himself, it cannot even truly confirmed that it is the agent at play. Lumine doesn't seem to be in immediate danger, but he lacks any particular talent for healing. For all that he knows, the function of her internal organs is...
No. It will do no good to dwell on that. Albedo focuses on what he can do.
He lays Lumine down on the cot he keeps in case his assistants spend the night, with a bucket set so that all she has to do is lean forward a little when she needs to vomit again, and covers her with blankets until she stops shivering. He forces her to drink water periodically, even though it almost seems cruel, because she's clearly losing a lot of water between the vomiting and the sweating that breaks out after an hour or so. He doesn't dare try to suppress the nausea, or try to administer pain relief when a headache breaks out--he doesn't know how anything could interact with whatever is happening in her body, or if the nausea is serving some kind of healing function, or anything of that nature.
The most important thing Albedo does, he thinks, is keep Lumine and Paimon calm. Even if he's repeating assurances that he can't possibly support with the facts. Paimon simply lacks the intellect to realize he can't know how this will end, and Lumine is far too consumed with fever and illness to think her situation through.
Help finally arrives in the form of a small group from the Adventurer's Guild. Albedo probably ought to recognize at least some of its members, but the only ones he can identify are Fischl and Bennett from before. Still, this will be enough to get Lumine back to Mondstadt.
"Oh," Lumine murmurs, sitting up with limited strength. "I have to..."
"Lumine," Albedo says, trying to be gentle. "They're going to carry you down the mountain in a stretcher. We don't know what condition your internal organs are in, and it's best not to risk any further damage."
Predictably, Lumine looks upset at the news. "I can walk," she insists.
"I don't doubt it," Albedo replies, even though he does, as badly as she's shaking just from sitting. She's deteriorating so quickly. "But it's better to be safe."
Lumine ends up vomiting again, which is a very efficient way to lose an argument related to health. She doesn't make any further arguments against being carried.
The trip down the mountain is long, too. The whole group has to pause frequently for Lumine to lean off the stretcher and be sick. Outside of the campsite, she shivers uncontrollably, but there's little that can be done to warm her.
They load her into a wagon for the trip back to the city, along with a basin, so they don't have to stop. Albedo is assigned to ride with her, given he's the closest thing to a healer available. All that he can really do is urge her to drink more water and rearrange the blankets over her shoulders after another round of vomiting. Even Paimon is of more use: tucked up against Lumine's back to provide warmth, murmuring soothing nonsense.
Albedo leaves Lumine to the real healers after giving the best explanation that he can. He takes one of Fischl's samples, in its glass jar and wrapped in several protective layers of fabric, to examine for himself in his workshop.
Then he takes a deep breath. First, he'll head to the library. Lisa was educated in Sumeru, so she's the most likely to know something that he doesn't. If that doesn't pan out, she'll have contacts, or he can search the stacks.
---
Kaeya isn't particularly alarmed when he gets home to discover that Lumine isn't home. Granted, an expedition not that far up Dragonspine solely for the sake of gathering mineral samples and mapping the location shouldn't take long, but it's possible that she's simply gone out with friends afterward. It would be good for her if she did.
An hour later, and Kaeya's wondering. Maybe she didn't get the note and she's looking for him? There's nothing around the door--did Diluc really leave anything at all? But no, he wasn't lying about that. Kaeya would have known. She found it. Maybe this is some strange petty revenge for him not going home last night? That's not like Lumine, but anyone will do anything under the right circumstances...
An hour after that, Kaeya's given in to the sinking feeling and walked up to the Church.
There's a certain hum of activity outside that does nothing to relieve the unease, but Kaeya ignores it. He steps inside instead. "Excuse me, is Lumine here? I'm her older brother-"
Paimon barrels into him, grabs onto his wrist, and tugs. "Paimon is sorry she didn't come get you, she's sorry, but Lumine-"
Kaeya's blood runs cold. He'd always thought that was a figure of speech before. "Show me," he says.
Lumine is in a private room, propped up to sit, a basin set in her lap. Her hands are both heavily bandaged. Her face is dark red, more like a sunburn than a fever. She looks up at him when he comes through the door, staring blankly, and doesn't say a word.
"Lumine?" Kaeya says, coming to sit next to her. "Lumine, what's happened?"
Lumine looks at him, face still blank. She blinks a few times. "Kaeya...?" she asks softly, clearly uncertain.
"Yeah," Kaeya says. He instinctively goes to take her hand, but then places his hand on her shoulder instead, mindful of the bandages. "That's right. Do you know what's going on?"
Lumine shakes her head. "I don't remember," she says. She moans softly, leans forward, and gags miserably into the basin. Nothing comes up.
Kaeya rubs her back. "Easy, now." When she calms, he continues, "Do you know where you are?"
Lumine looks around. "Church infirmary," she mumbles. Good that she can identify it, at least. "They stole my blood..."
Kaeya glances over at Paimon.
"They cut her finger and smeared the blood on a piece of paper," Paimon says quietly. "Paimon doesn't know why. They didn't explain very much."
Some kind of sample or test. The healers don't know what's happening, either.
"Paimon, can you tell me what happened?" Kaeya asks.
Paimon explains in hushed tones. A stone, one said to affect the bodies of non-Vision-holders. They had assumed that being able to manipulate the elements would serve the same function, but it clearly hadn't worked. And no one knows anything about it or why it has the effects it does, so Lumine is suffering like this and they're afraid to treat her.
"Albedo said he was gonna research it," Paimon says. "But he's not back yet."
"Has she slept?" Kaeya asks.
"A little," Paimon says. "Not well."
And it's not hard to guess why, as Lumine leans forward and gags again. Kaeya sighs.
"I'm going to go see if I can get anyone to talk to me," he says. "Stay with her, all right?"
"Of course," Paimon says.
But when Kaeya finds someone to talk to, they really don't know much more. They're compiling information to send to a specialist in Sumeru, but it will take at least half a day just for a carrier pigeon to reach the Academy. Albedo hasn't turned up with useful information. Lumine is getting worse.
Kaeya slips back into Lumine's room. She's dozing, so he makes sure to be as quiet as possible. He brushes her sweat-soaked hair out of her face with care, trying not to irritate the cherry-red skin underneath.
For now, his place is here. He wouldn't really be any help with research, and he can't get a letter to Sumeru any faster than a bird. But if Lumine gets agitated, he's the most likely to be able to calm her, at least. It's not much, but it's something.