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“Oh, what a pretty room!”
Lumine and Aether were in a small room in the Favonius Library, the starting point for one of the mini events in Windtrace. It was a cozy room, with books messily scattered on the carpet despite the floor-to-ceiling bookcase covering one wall. Opposite it on the other wall was a window, offering a view to the sunlit courtyard outside. There was a comfortable-looking armchair positioned near the window, along with a small table decorated with a vase of flowers and some teacups and saucers for the participants; although, Lumine doubted that anyone would take interest in the refreshments, being too excited for the game to start.
“You know what to do, right?” Aether asked as Lumine just stood there in the center of the room, turning around in a slow circle as she admired their surroundings. He wondered if she was even listening to him. “Collect the bloom balloons. Avoid the Ersatz balloons. Those are the slime balloons and the fungi balloons. If you get caught, they’ll eat you. But don’t worry, this won’t be too hard. It’ll be easy!”
A 10-minute timer suddenly appeared, and the doors at the front opened to the event area. Game start .
“C’mon let’s go.”
They entered through the doors and split up, each taking a separate path, Aether going right and Lumine turning left. So far so good, they cleared the first area pretty quickly, collecting every bloom balloon in sight. Well—mostly Aether did. As usual, Lumine got distracted. Again.
“Woahhh~!”
Aether could hear Lumine’s voice echoing all the way to the other side of the library, and although he couldn’t see her, he knew she was bouncing around excitedly exploring the place, the immediate task at hand completely forgotten.
True enough, Lumine was running through the corridors between the bookshelves, taking everything in. The tables and chairs at the sides where people could sit and read, the landscape paintings thoughtfully arranged along the stairs, the large map of Mondstadt tacked onto one wall. Wreaths of flowers and paper triangles strung overhead added to the Windblume atmosphere, and there were even potted pine trees decorated with paper asters tucked at the corners of the room.
Her meandering was cut short as an announcement flashed “ NEXT AREA UNLOCKED ”, and she found Aether at the exit, his face in his palm, waiting for her to proceed to the next part of the event.
Heh , Lumine beamed an apologetic smile at him as they entered the next area, and this time concentrated on actually playing the game. She picked up a curious blue orb, and her skill lit up, signaling that it was ready for use. But how to use-?
“Uh…how do you use skill?” Lumine asked.
“They’re to destroy the Ersatz balloons.”
“Eh?”
Spying an enemy balloon up ahead, Lumine ran straight at it. “Oh— wheeee- ”
And Lumine found herself back at the starting square. She could hear Aether laughing at her, “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT.”
“I DON’T KNOW!”
“THAT’S DUMB!”
“IT’S FUN SHUT UP!!”
“PFFT-”
Footsteps, and she saw Aether run back to her at the starting square. “The slime balloons are cute!” she piped up.
“NO THEY'RE SCARY-”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SCARY-”
“THEY’LL EAT YOU AND SEND YOU BACK TO THE START, IT’S SCARY, I NEARLY GOT CAUGHT.”
“BUT GETTING CAPTURED IS FUN!”
“Nevermind-” Aether sighed. “I’ll teach you how to use your skill.”
“Oh yay!”
“Activate your skill, then run to the balloon. Like this.” An unsuspecting fungi balloon passed by and disintegrated into a shower of confetti as Aether immediately sliced through it.
“Oh fun-!” Lumine spotted a nearby Ersatz balloon, and following her brother’s demonstration, Lumine activated her skill and charged at the balloon, dooming it to the same fate as the previous one. Poof~
“Yeah, just like that,” Aether chuckled. “Fun right?”
“Yeah!!” …And Lumine was distracted again, running around popping hapless balloons instead of collecting the smaller ones.
“STOP!” Aether chased after her. “YOU DON’T HAVE TO KILL ALL OF THEM THEY’LL RESPAWN ANYWAY.”
“BUT IT'S FUN-”
NEXT AREA UNLOCKED.
The twins followed the quest indicator that directed them up a flight of stairs leading towards the next area at the second floor.
“Who would’ve known the library’s so huge?” marveled Lumine.
“Yeah. But stop getting sidetracked.” Aether suddenly stopped. “Woahhh~ the library’s so beautiful at night!”
Lumine agreed. It was as if they stepped into a different setting altogether. Instead of the warm, cozy feeling the library gave at daytime, everything shifted at nighttime.
Perhaps it was because the lights were off, or maybe it was because of the moon shining through the windows, casting the room in a new light, turning the familiar into unfamiliar, making it feel strange and magical. The twins fell into a hushed silence, in a wonder as they collected the rest of the balloons interspersed throughout the maze of bookshelves. The peaceful ambiance remained undisturbed, even with the soft patter of their hurried footsteps and the muffled creaking of the slime balloons patrolling the corridors.
Lumine drank everything in, preserving the scene in her memory. The owl statuettes perched watchfully on the bookcases, the heavy blue curtains pushed aside to let the moon illuminate the dimness, the hardwood floor washed in a silver glow... The cozy familiarity was still there, but the night air had spun the moment into something of a dreamlike state.
“Done!” Aether called out to her as they met up again at the end of the room. “I think that’s all the balloons.” He touched the floral ring, the final step to conclude the game.
“Alright!” Lumine caught up to him as the timer stopped, replaced with a new announcement: “ Exiting room in 10…9…8… ”
The twins waited at the floral ring, chatting and bragging their victories and close calls, oblivious to the Ersatz balloon advancing towards them.
7…6…5…
4…3…
“AGH-”
“EEK-”
Their celebration was abruptly put to an end by the sneaky fungi balloon. The two siblings were teleported back to the starting square, then collapsed in a heap laughing before they were promptly teleported again, out of the library. They found themselves back on the fresh grass outside of Mondstadt’s city walls, breathless and still laughing.
“That was fun!” Lumine bounced back up eagerly. “Let’s do it again!”
“But we already won all the rewards-”
“I don’t care!”
Aether shook his head fondly as he watched his sister run up to the event host to restart the game. Well, as long as she was enjoying herself. After all, this was the point of Windblume—to take a break from their wearying travels. To have fun, and to welcome the flowers that were starting to bloom, heralding a new spring. Strains of lyre music lingering in the air, dandelions floating on the soft breeze, the chatter of the townsfolk in the background—this was how he had always remembered Mondstadt. Returning here had always felt like coming home, and now, surrounded by family and seeing old friends again…something different bloomed, a warm feeling in his chest. Maybe, just maybe, he could consider this his home. For now.