Chapter Text
The Rerir crisis was over. Nod-Krai was safe; they could all go back home now.
…
“Lumi, Lumi~!! Wake up~!”
At the sound of her companion’s voice, Lumine slowly dragged herself off the bed, groaning at the bed sores she was getting. Her golden gaze drifted around her room in the flagship.
Another place she was staying for its bed and a roof over her head.
Stone cold floors, rickety furniture, mismatched interior - it was the bare minimum here in Nasha town. Her bed screeched with worn down iron and steel, the rough textures of the wall creating a bad taste on her tongue but she knew she couldn’t complain. The air was thick with moisture seeping in from who knows where, the sharp tangy smell of rusting metal reminding her of blood. The lighting was shadowy, murky, and dim with the LED and sunlight - kuuvahki praying on her senses. The whole place looked like it was able to collapse.
Old plates of stale bread sat on one of the tables, alongside bottles of liquor - a luxury treat gifted by the flagship.
One time, she thought about drinking herself cold in this dingy room, just so she could feel less like herself.
Lumine spotted her flying companion, wearing a look of worry on her face.
“Are you still in pain? Hopefully the abyss didn’t have any lasting effects on your body! That fight with Rerir was a really tough one!”
“Uh, yea…”
Her legs shuffled beneath the bed. She still felt sore. In pain. Boneless.
Not like herself.
“Paimon was so worried you wouldn’t wake, y’know? You slept for three whole days in a row, and Paimon had to eat all alone! She was really worried you were starving yourself!”
Maybe that's because she didn’t want to wake.
“Lumine.”
She was in a different bed, her body draped in soft pale sheets instead of orange ones, gazing at a man with turquoise blue hair and crimson-red eyes. A blue, needle-like earring rattled from his ear.
His features were sharp, his eyes baggy, but he was warm.
His hot breath tingled against her bare chest, the fingertips of his scarred hand resting against her naked hip. She realized he wasn’t wearing anything either.
The way he looked at her was how one would wish upon a star.
“Lumine, you know we can’t stay here forever. It’s almost noon..” He sounded slightly annoyed, yet his eyes were as soft as rubies, treating her like the most fragile gem. Of course, he knew she was much stronger than that.
“Zandik, just another thirty minutes, okay?” Lumine could still hear herself whispering those same words to this day. She knew his response before he even said it.
“Another thirty minutes then, tarak prakash,” he murmured, bringing her close and sharing his warmth.
For someone who wasn’t human, she wondered how his skin was so warm.
She hated how cold this bed was.
“Lumi? Are you sure you’re okay? You know Paimon can’t relax when you’re not your usual self!”
“Yea.. yea,” the words felt empty on her tongue. “I’m fine. I’m back to normal.”
“Then we should really get moving! Albedo and Durin swung by earlier. They said they wanted to invite you to celebrate our victory! Everyone is waiting for you!”
With that, her companion flew out the room.
She stared blearily at the door her companion had disappeared through, catching the shadows cast by the flickering light from the LEDs and turning them into monsters.
Lumine finally got up from the bed and moved to the doorway. It slid open with a shuttling noise and she made her way down the halls.
She could already hear their celebration from the other side of the door: the strumming of lyres, the clinking mugs, and the drunken, messy roar of this town’s entirety.
The door slid open without her command.
She immediately spotted Paimon hanging over Albedo, Durin, Jahoda, and Ineffa, already enjoying cups of grape juice and beer.
The Curatorium worker’s eyes lit up upon seeing her.
“Ooooooo~ Travelerrrr! There you are!” Jahoda sang, offering her a toothy grin. “We were just saying how there is no way we could hold a victory celebration without you!” she nudged the battle automaton beside her, her cheeks a rosy pink. “R-Right, Ineffa?”
“Precisely. However, Jahoda here couldn’t keep herself from indulging in a little grape juice along the way,” the robot woman smiled, ignoring the way the bounty hunter tugged at her.
“H-Hey! Ineffa!”
Lumine subtly smiled.
“Thats right! We were all so excited to celebrate with you!” Durin said. “Are you alright? I know that battle with the Rächer of Solnari all left its scars on us.”
“I’m fine,” Lumine said, rehearsing the words again.
“We are happy to check over you at any time,” Albedo murmured.
“Yea! Once the Grandmaster wraps things up here, we all plan on going back home to Mondstadt. I think the Knights of Favonius would be so glad to see us and the expedition return! We hope to see you there too, Honorary Knight,” Durin exclaimed.
Home, yes. That's what everyone had. A place to return to.
“Have any of you guys seen Nefer?” Paimon asked, directing the conversation already.
“Oh, Nefer? She’s right over there!” Durin said, pointing toward one of the other tables.
There were other people she recognized in the flagship. She saw Dori, Flins, Lamua.
She even saw Dainslief, dressed in his starry blue robes and looking like a sore thumb against the rusty brown backdrop of the flagship’s architecture.
“Traveler,” the bough keeper said. Paimon was already flying over.
With hesitant steps, she approached the Khaenri'ahn.
“I know that our relationship has been at times tenuous, but I hope our fight with Rerir has lessened that conflict between us.”
“It's alright, Dain! You fought the toughest battle!” Paimon chirped. “No one should be pitted against their friend like that!”
“Hm. It was a necessary cause. I am glad you two were able to play your part.”
“Thanks, Dain. If you need anyone to talk to, you can always count on us!”
Their next stop was Nefer. She spoke of the Ibis king Thoth as a father, a cunning liar - a snake - and a granter of wishes. Lumine listened with a silent contempt.
“Would you ever forgive a liar, Traveler?”
She had been lied to her whole life. By her brother. By him. But how could she call him a snake when he only wanted to love her?
“If you ask me,” Nefer murmured, a sharp glint in her emerald-green eyes. “I think a liar’s soul is worth nothing.”
Lumine bit her lip.
He had kept secrets from her - doomed himself to protect her - and honestly? Lumine hated it.
But she couldn’t bring herself to hate him.
Even after everything he had done.
“After that fight, I’m sure everyone here was able to cozy up for the time being.”
A small black cat was curled in Nefer’s clawed fingers, letting out a small meow as the Sumeruian sat on her desk. Jahoda stood beside her as her starry-eyed employee.
In the chamber of the Curatorium of Secrets, all participants of the Rerir crisis were gathered.
“We all had time to celebrate our victory, but right now, there is no time for that,” Nefer announced. “First things first, we need to clean up the mess Rerir caused in Nasha town and throughout the other settlements in Nod-Krai. Ineffa, Aino—”
“On it!” the little girl exclaimed and Ineffa nodded.
“Additionally, we need to eliminate any further Wild Hunt threats, but I am sure the lightkeepers have already gotten a hold of that task,” she said, glancing at Flins, who also nodded.
“Secondly, we need to figure out how Rerir came to be. We already know that someone was gathering his body fragments which caused the upsurge of Wild Hunt activity. While the culprit's motive remains unclear, we now have enough evidence to point fingers at who is responsible,” she turns toward the other blonde in the room and he nods. “Grandmaster Varka.”
“It’s just as Nefer said,” his voice booms. “We just received the latest intel from a member of the Akademiya who also intends to visit Nod-Krai in the coming weeks.”
Durin's eyes lit up at that.
“Y-You mean hat guy is—!”
“Calm down, Durin…” Albedo smiled.
Varka bobbed his head. “I don’t know much about the guy, but he supplied us with the information that the Akademiya has its eyes on Dottore.”
The name brought grim looks to those who knew it.
“D-Dottore? Is he like another sinner we have to face?” Jahoda whispered.
“No, but he is a colleague of Sandrone and I,” Arlecchino suddenly said. “He holds the position of the Second of the Fatui, and the Tsaritsa sent him here a while back when the Design Bureau was built.”
“Now that you mention it, I recognize that name in Mondstadt’s logs,” Varka murmured. “He was the one of fell Ursa the Drake who had been terrorizing Mondstadt for decades and made the Knights indebted to the Fatui. But only a couple years later, he caused a ruckus and tried manipulating the inner workings of the knights of Favonius through Eroch, our former inspector. In the end, a valued member of our society was murdered by his hands,” he said with sorrow.
Lumine only felt apathy. At the same time, her stomach felt like flipping on itself.
“-we only found out later on that there were multiple versions of him causing the chaos inside Mondstadt,” Varka said.
“Uhm, second of the… Fatui?” Jahoda gulped. “Just how much do we have to worry about this guy…?
(Seriously?! And just as she was gonna go on paid leave!)
“It’s nothing we should worry too much about,” Arlecchino said. “I made sure to contact the Tsartia that our work here in Nod-Krai was done and she could call back all the harbingers as there was no need to be three of us in Nod-Krai at once.
“Accordingly, she responded back in time and Dottore has returned to Sneznaya,” there was a small smile on her lips as she murmured those words. “However, we should still stay on our guard until further notice.”
“So is he the one who orchestrated the Rerir crisis? Who would do such a thing?” Lamua said.
“Another snake, or even worse,” Nefer said coldly, making Lumine inhale sharply. “As for why he did it, we cannot be too sure.”
“Well I find it very obvious,” an exasperated voice grumbled. Then appeared the Seventh harbinger, a visible frown on her humanoid face.
“For a while he has been investigating the ancient moon’s remnants. I can only guess that Rerir’s revival was a ploy to cause enough chaos - as he always does without thinking about the damage it might cause - in order to get his grubby hands on the moon marrows! I still have no idea what he plans on doing on them though,” the automaton said with a frustrated groan.
“I have no doubt about what you say, Sandrone. His complete inaction during the affair made me very suspicious,” Arlecchino said.
“How horrible,” Lamua murmured. “So many people got hurt in the process.”
“Indeed,” Flins said.
“Oh you have no idea the amount of disregard he has for the sciences and every regulation!” Sandrone shrilled and the Knave gave a quiet nod.
Of course they would feel this way.
Despite the knowledge she held, Lumine quietly listened.
She felt like an imposter among these people - her allies, her friends.
Her inhuman heart shook with secrets only she knew, and her belly churned with the inevitability of another reunion like the one in Sumeru.
Lumine wanted to argue that he wasn’t like this, but it didn’t matter.
Every so often, she felt Paimon’s eyes darting toward her as the room boiled over with the animosity of a snake spewing its venom.
She should hate him. She should.
But she couldn’t.
The meeting ended abruptly when Nefer dismissed them with a wave of her golden fingers. Some stayed behind while others filed out of the room. Paimon was already starting up another conversation. Lumine, however, chose the latter, escaping the suffocating room completely.
She didn’t realize she was running down the halls until she nearly ran into an oblivious dove.
“Colum..bina?” she murmured.
The moon goddess’s wings flutter behind her back. Her eyebrows raise in the slightest act of acknowledgement.
“Traveler. My kuuvahki sensed you all were in that room,” she whispered airly.
So Columbina wasn’t in the meeting…
The goddess’s brows scrunched up. “You don’t seem well. Your chest races like a galloping Frostnight Scion, while your mood… like a river disrupted by a small pebble, forever changed.”
“I–I…”
“What ails you?”
“It's.. nothing, Columbina.”
“Hmmm.”
“Are you looking forward to Moon-Prayer Night?” Lumine said instead, easily diverting the conversation.
The Damselette’s wings perked up at that. “I am very excited. I don’t think I have ever celebrated it before though.”
“I’m sure we will be able to celebrate it together, Columbina,” Lumine murmured despite herself.
The moon goddess smiles. “Anyways, were you able to see Sandrone?”
“I think she.. should still be in the room.”
The dove happily skips into the meeting room she had left, singing a new song she came up with.
Lumine retreats into her room no further.
Loneliness was something Lumine was already familiar with. Trapped in Asmoday’s bubble for eons, traveling through the seven nations when she didn’t know the language, and even now, sitting in her dark bedroom while everyone else partied outside in the flagship.
Durin and Albedo had come to check up on her earlier, and after telling them the second time today that she was okay, she was finally left to her thoughts. Alone.
She had done this to herself.
Moonlight streamed through the lone window above her, catching against the dull glass of liquor bottles and burned out LED lights. Lumine rested against the bed’s pillow, staring up at the mismatched ceiling. The moisture in the room seeped into the pores of her skin, raising the little hairs and freezing her cold. The shadows coveted her, waiting to consume her entirety.
She wanted to go to sleep forever, just so she didn’t have to wake up the very next day.
Lumine knew it was wrong. Yet her fingers twitched at her sides, restless at the mere thought of him.
Every utterance of his name - his forbidden one - stirred something inside her, and each time, her fingers reached out, desperately trying to cling to the past and feel again.
Turning on the nightstand’s lamp, Lumine reached into her astral space. Her fingers glide past multiple objects, relics both long forgotten and basic essentials she used on a daily basis.
Then she finds it.
A slim notebook appeared between her palms, bearing no signature but the wear of time.
With bated breath, she opened the forbidden relic.
It's a simple notebook, covered in messy scribbles that revealed its owner’s fleeting curiosity and restless thoughts, struggling to keep their focus and follow a singular path.
Sandrone had called this trait of his nasty, chaotic - a flaw that needed fixing, but Lumine thought it was what made him him.
She had stolen it from his desk long ago along with other things she wanted to keep as mementos.
Their home in Liyue was still theirs. To this day, Lumine still paid the bills that the landlord sent (the man had asked where the original owner had gone, much to Lumine’s ills), leaving her flying companion constantly wondering why they don’t have any extra funds.
The notebook still smells like him: antiseptic, minty, and sterile. Lumine detected a faint scent of herbs to keep it safe from mold and humidity.
No wonder it was able to last this long… she thought to herself. It was probably as old as him.
She delicately flips one of the pages open with the tips of her fingers, squinting at the drawings inscribed within the pages. Lumine had looked at some of the pages before in her lonesome, but sometimes it felt like the notebook never ended.
Theories, equations, endless experiments…
There was very little she understood.
She spotted one page that had a drawing of her with… wings. She remembered telling him about them. Lumine smiled to herself and continued flipping.
She stopped at one particular drawing, displaying a drawing of three moons.
The moons…
Lumine remembered how much he used to talk about them, chatting away at his desk before they even fell in love with one another.
At that same desk, she recalled his admiring smiles while she wrote, and the sharp, fleeting slip of his sharp teeth.
She recalled the warmth of his lips against hers - their soft exchanges forever ingrained in her memory - while they squeezed into one chair, him helping her write.
(How did it become like this… were they doomed from the very start?)
Without much thought, the golden traveler delved deeper and deeper into the pages of his research on the moons.
There were words she didn’t know - trilune, syzygy, authority - scribbled pictures showing a moon ripping through the sky, labeled with words such as life, death, and space - reminding her much of his heresy and treachery.
His whole life’s research was devoted to twenty pages, all for her to soak in with greed, and it was the last thing he ever researched before he-
The door to the room suddenly slid open, a long rectangular strip of yellow light extending into the room like a red carpet. With horror, her traveling companion flew into the room.
Paimon immediately spotted the notebook cradled between her palms, and Lumine fumbled to hide it under her sheets, but the damage was already done.
“L-Lumi, you kept his… notes?” a quiet terror had seized the little girl’s face. Her pupils were wide and unrecognizable.
Lumine stirred amidst the sheets like a deer caught in headlights. The guilt on her face reminded herself of a child caught in the act of putting their hand in a cookie jar.
But she knew it was far worse than that.
Desperately, she tried to defend herself, but no words came out.
“Paimon–”
The fairy’s lips opened and closed wordlessly. “Just a few hours ago we talked about him in that meeting—”
“Paimon. I know,” she stressed through gritted teeth. She already felt her eyes begin to water, and she struggled to rein in the tears at being caught. Exposed.
Her darkest secret.
“Then you know we can talk about it together. Keeping this all botted up isn’t good,” Paimon murmured. “You know it feels wrong, Lumi. We should- we should tell them everything-”
“Paimon!”
The fairy flinched; Lumine hadn't raised her voice in a while, not since…
She was already sweating against the sheets. Her hand was twisted in her blonde hair, her breaths coming out as heavy pants against the room’s cold air. Her heart felt like seizing.
“Just go,” her voice cracked.
It's not like they would understand..
Her companion looked like she wanted to say something, but the words died weakly in her throat.
“I… okay.”
Despondent, the little fairy floated toward the room’s exit. The door abruptly shuts behind her, coating the room in darkness.
It's quiet. Crushing.
For the first time since settling in Nod-Krai, Lumine cries.
In a flurry of stars, Paimon flew through the desolate halls, wholly wishing to leave that encounter behind in the dark corners of this world.
She knew it was wrong, but things had been difficult for them ever since-
“Hey, Paimon!”
An uplifting voice barks her name and she turns to see the Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius, holding a tankard of alcohol. Probably his seventh drink for tonight.
“I saw ya go back there! Checking up on the Honorary Knight, huh? Is she okay?”
Though his speech was slightly slurred, his care for others still showed through.
“O-Oh? The Traveler? She’s fineeee!” Paimon lied, squeezing out an awkward smile.
“She seemed a little shaken up after that meeting,” a velvety voice suddenly spoke out of the blue. A purplish-blue lantern appeared and out came a familiar Lightkeeper.
“What the- oh! Hey F-Flins!” Paimon squeaks.
“Shaken up, huh?” Varka slurred with closed eyes.
“S-She's just a little tired from the fight, that's all!”
“Ahh, Flins!” Varka turned his attention toward the Fae, tossing a strong arm around the Lightkeeper’s shoulder. “Are ya ‘ere to drink with me till we drop dead till sundown?!”
“Indeed I am. However, if it is a challenge you are asking then you shall not underestimate me, Grandmaster.”
“Hahahah! You and your sly words, Kyryll Chudomirovich Flins!” Varka barked.
Paimon soaks back into the shadows. The flagships’ festivities boomed without her. She spotted Albedo and Durin toasting tankards in the air, Jahoda out cold on Ineffa’s lap while the automaton fed Aino, and Nefer and Lauma sharing a drink.
Like an ignorant fly, she flew above it all. In this very room, she saw the new friends they had made in this nation, yet no sign of her traveling companion.
Paimon finally found a high, secluded window to sit by, the stone pale bathed in the moonlight’s glow. A full moon hung high in the sky.
Her brother was still out there, somewhere.
For six years they have been searching for her estranged brother, but these past three years have been different.
Her memories were fuzzy at best as she tried to recount the events that happened in each nation. Paimon did her best to remember every single moment that made up their journey together so that one day when they did reach the end of their journey, she would always have memories to look back to.
But this singular person, this singular man and every memory he occupied was a mere blur…
Was she starting to forget his face?
Maybe that was because she tried forgetting everything about him after discovering who he really was in those notes…
Paimon remembered complaining to him so much about the unfamiliar spices he kept putting in his food, the bags he had under his eyes, and the dietary restrictions he assigned her. But she also remembered the moments when he tucked her on the coach at night and even cared for her when she came down with the flu.
She remembered how much Lumine loved him, and how she had started to smile more around him.
And Paimon… she had started to like him too.
She should have noticed the signs way sooner like his ties to the Fatui so that they could have spared themselves from the pain it was causing them now.
His demise was… sudden, and the single letter he left behind for Lumine changed everything about their lives in ways they didn’t understand.
Paimon had never thought the Second Harbinger’s hands would entrench themselves so deeply into their lives.
Il Dottore had taken the face of her lover. No - Dottore was the blueprint of her former lover.
She’d been there when they returned back to Liyue. She’d seen the distress on her travelling companion's face, the quiet tears as she clutched his letter between her fingers.
She’d witnessed Lumine’s slow realization, then her rage as she ran to the nearest teleport waypoint to Sumeru.
Paimon had seen everything - the shouting, the tears…
After that, their lives never went back to normal.
It was like caring for a child. For days, Lumine grieved to the point of neither eating nor drinking, leaving Paimon to look after her.
She had bedridden herself, sobbing in the bed they used to share, and at one point, Paimon thought their journey had reached its final tipping point.
She had witnessed her friend’s breakdowns firsthand,seen her go through the five stages of grief - but she never did make it out of the last stage of truly accepting.
Yet one day, she was able to move forward through an inexplicable force.
It was hard to keep her going on her journey.
Each nation held new secrets and horrifying truths, adding on to the scars that hadn’t healed.
Even Mizuki’s therapy wasn’t able to help her; she was pushing everyone away. Even Paimon was starting to feel the effects of her absence. Her brother was still avoiding her.
When they entered Nod-Krai, Paimon thought everything would go back to normal. Even though Rerir had taken the form of her brother, she thought Lumine would be able to get back on her feet, just like she had many times before.
Yet The Doctor had made his return. Though there were few, if any, signs of his involvement in Nod-Krai’s affairs - and despite the Knave’s intel that he had gone back to Snezhnaya - Paimon had a bad feeling about the entire situation.
If they ever did have another close encounter with The Doctor in the future, she wondered: would it be just like Sumeru, or something far worse?
What would become of Lumine? What would become of the new friends they made? How would they feel?
For the rest of the festivities, Paimon chose to sit by the window sill, keeping her thoughts to herself.
It has been three years since Lumine found blood stained on the hardware floors of his home.
Three years since she found out the truth.
Three years since his death; three years since she read his letter to her, smeared with his blood.
Within that letter, there were 5 messages he wanted her to know, 5 truths that had led her journey ever since:
- He was 400 years old.
- He was a segment created by Il Dottore, the Second harbinger of the Fatui.
- He hailed from Sumeru.
- He wanted her to go to Sumeru and find his notes.
- He wanted her to stay away from Dottore and The Regrator as much as possible.