The moment we enter the library within the knights headquarters, we are greeted by the distinct smell of bound paper and wood.
Rows upon rows of books are organized into an orderly manner within the countless bookshelves of the library, with several tables placed near them. Mounted on one side of the wall is a shield with the emblem of Favonius crossed with two swords on its back.
There are papers and parchments strewn atop the nearby tables next to the candelabra, the faint burning smell indicating that someone had been working all night on them; several ladders are placed all around attached to nearby bookshelves. A necessity, given how high they can be.
Beyond the wooden railings were the lower floor of the library, which can be accessed by the two staircases across from the entrance, decorated with yet another symbol of Favonius alongside three red banners, with one of them containing the symbol of the head of a lion.
The downstairs area has a lot more space, with four long tables fit for multiple people, though they are currently empty, save for a single person busying herself with all sorts of books, placed into a single stack taller than the person in question.
With a figure akin to a child, the brown hair tied into a symmetrical braid gave away the identity of said person as none other than the expert in hilichurlian linguistics, Ella Musk.
"Ah, you two are here, good. Please, have a seat."
Turning towards the source of the voice to our right is the librarian Lisa Minci, dressed in her usual purple witch outfit minus the hat, which is currently placed on top of her desk, exposing her disheveled brown hair.
"Hi, Lisa! You look… uhm… actually, are you okay?" Paimon, who was waving at the librarian energetically, suddenly turned quiet after taking a closer look at her appearance.
"Pulling an all-nighter, Ms. Lisa?"
"Fwah… not really. See, one of the perks of being a librarian is that other than managing and categorizing books and documents, there's not much else to do. And because of that," sitting up from her chair, she proceeded to stretch her languid body, "I get to laze around most of the time."
"Should you really be saying that?"
"What a dream job that sounds like."
"Ah, someone who understands." Ignoring Paimon's remark, she snapped her fingers and pointed her index finger in my direction, all while nodding in satisfaction.
"Granted, I was originally responsible for managing the stock of our potions, but with a bit of negotiation with our cavalry captain, it's now someone else's job instead. Work delegation is such a beautiful concept, don't you think?"
"Not so much when you're at the other end of it, but yes, I agree."
"Fufufu, you and I are going to get along just fine, Mr. Yuu."
Making our way towards her desk, the two of us sat down across from the librarian, while Paimon opted to sit on top of Lumine's lap, to which the blonde traveler immediately started to pat her head, causing the crown on top of her head to tilt sideways.
"Now then, I've finished examining the ley lines for any information on your brother, and… well, I have some good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first, Lumine?"
"The good news, please."
"Alright. The good news is that according to what I saw, your brother was indeed in the Mondstadt region at some point, specifically somewhere around the old capital in the northwest." Pulling out a map from her drawer, she spread it over her desk before pointing at the location I am all too familiar with. "Here it is, Old Mondstadt. Though nowadays it goes by Stormterror's Lair."
"I see. Having a place to start is already a lot more than I was expecting. What's the bad news?"
"I'm not exactly sure what happened, but… every time I tried to look closer into your brother's whereabouts, something went… wrong?" Taking a moment to formulate her words, I can see the frustration forming in her face. "I don't really know how to describe it. Some kind of static? Like something is preventing me from looking any further."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Lisa lets out a sigh, before giving Lumine an apologetic look. "Sorry cutie, but this is as much information as I could gather. I wish I could help you more, but unfortunately, there's not much else I could do."
Although her disappointment was clear, she was nonetheless grateful for the librarian. "It's fine, Lisa, you've tried your best. Besides, I have a general area to go through now, so it's not really a loss."
"Thank you for your understanding, Lumine."
"Mm. Is there anything else?"
"One more thing. Mr. Yuu, Jean passed this onto me earlier this morning." Rummaging through a different drawer this time, Lisa pulled a sizable bag and dropped it into the table. The multiple clinking sound it made is music to my ears. "Your reward, as promised. It amounts to somewhere around ten million Mora if I'm not mistaken."
'Hell fucking yes.'
Hearing the amount of Mora inside the bag made Paimon's eyes shine. Freeing herself from Lumine's lap, she floated closer to the bag, rubbing her hands on top of it.
"Hehe, hehehehe, think of all the food… wah!"
Grabbing the salivating fairy by the scruff of her neck, I couldn't help but scoff at her behavior. "And just what do you think you're doing, hmm?"
"Whoa! Uh… ehehehe, surely, you wouldn't keep all this to yourself, right white mask?"
"Well, it's my reward after all, so—"
"But! But… uh… we're uh… a team… yeah, we're a team! So… it's only natural for the reward to be evenly divided between us, right?!"
'Oho, is that how it's going to be? Well, unfortunately for you, two can play at that game, Paimon.'
"Hmm, I suppose you're right."
"Huh? I mean, of course Paimon is right. Now then, how about—"
"Lumine did help me a lot, so I'd feel bad if she got nothing in return. Hmm, let's say sixty to forty in my favor, what do you think Lumine?"
Turning towards the blonde traveler, I can see the gears turning inside her head before a teasing smile starts to form. "I don't mind. Thank you, Yuu, that's very kind of you."
"Mhm. It's the least I can do." Looking at the confused Paimon, I almost couldn't hold back my laughter. "Thank you for the reminder, Paimon. It would've been quite terrible of me if I were to let a valuable team member go unrewarded."
"…"
"Paimon?"
"Huh? Uh… yeah. Yeah… whatever you say white mask."
'Yeah, that's what I thought.'
Hearing a slight snicker coming from the side, I saw that Lisa was trying her hardest to hold her laugh. Glad that someone's enjoying the show, I guess.
"If that's all, then we'll be taking our leave, Ms. Lisa."
"Yes, that—fufu—will be all. Have a nice day travelers."
Waving her hand goodbye, Lumine took hold of Paimon's hand, who was listlessly following us from the back, and pulled her closer so she wouldn't get left behind.
Exiting the knight's headquarters, I led the other two towards the empty training area behind the building.
"Can you store this for me, princess?"
"Fufu, gladly."
Taking the bag away from me, she immediately store it inside her inventory. Before I could suggest using the teleport waypoint on top of the tower next to us, I saw Paimon lying on the ground, staring at the skies with dead eyes.
'Oh man, it's Fallen Qiqi all over again.'
Glancing towards Lumine, I pointed at the fallen fairy, only for her to shake her head in response.
'So troublesome.'
Resisting the urge to click my tongue, I crouched in front of the fairy. "Helloooo, Paimon, old buddy old pal, are you there?"
"Haaaaaa…."
"God fucking—" Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to calm myself down.
'Stay calm, stay calm. Think of her like a needy cat. Hopefully, you'll less likely to want to punch her in the face.'
I couldn't help but sigh. I suppose the joke has run its course. "Alright, alright. I guess I wouldn't mind dividing some of that Mora to our lovely flying mascot."
"Really?!"
As if a switch has been flipped, her sulky behavior is gone, replaced with a bright smile alongside the bubbly gestures she uses to express her happiness.
It irritates the shit out of me.
"…yes."
"Woohoo! As expected, you're the best white mask!" As she said that, she floated on top of my hat and started to jump in joy.
'Stay calm. Stay calm.'
Resisting the urge to let out yet another sigh, I put my hands around Lumine's leg and back, before carrying her in her usual position. "Let's just… go."
"Fufu, you're surprisingly patient."
"You have no idea how much I'm holding myself back."
The moment I took flight, Paimon fell from my head into the clutches of the blonde traveler.
'Tch. Almost.'
After putting Lumine down in front of the waypoint, she grabbed both my and Paimon's hand before reaching one of them towards the ancient device.
With that, I felt a shift in the surroundings before finding myself standing on a grassy area.
To our right we can see the back of the Church of Favonius off on the horizon. Ahead of us, the ground entered into a slight incline, which ended in a cliff not far ahead.
"Hmm, Stormterror's Lair should be somewhere to our west, I think."
"Let's get going then, shall we?"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Firing a concentrated anemo energy towards the Ruin Guard's back, the missile it's about to launch was interrupted, causing the entire machinery to light up with sparks. With its function halted, the Ruin Guard is now paralyzed, a perfect chance to permanently disable it.
Not wasting the opportunity, Lumine quickly dashed towards it, heading towards its lowered head before stabbing her sword straight into it. With a resounding crack, the spider web of cracks around the eye of the field tiller started to spread, before eventually it broke into several pieces.
With a final mechanical cry, the Ruin Guard collapsed into the ground.
"Well that was anticlimactic. I thought you said this is a war machine."
"It is. Keep in mind that we're only fighting one of them. On top of that," after giving the machine one final kick and seeing no response, I nodded in satisfaction before continuing our way towards Stormterror's Lair, "I told you about its weakness beforehand. Is it really a strange thing that we managed to defeat it that fast?"
"I guess. It's just that when you said they were a machine made specifically for warfare, I kinda got my hopes up. I could probably defeat that thing on my own, too."
"Sigh. For things like this, you really shouldn't think that way, princess."
'Let's see how you deal with Ruin Hunters on your own. Have fun getting bombarded with no way to stop them.'
With the coast clear, Paimon came out of her personal hidey-hole and floated next to Lumine, her eyes looking around in wonder, particularly at the deactivated Ruin Guard.
Following the broken stone pathway sandwiched between two rocky walls, we made it into a cliffside overlooking the ruins of the old capital.
Standing within the center of the ruins is a tower surrounded by a barrier made out of anemo that once belonged to the God of Storms, Decarabian. A tyrant who ruled Mondstadt of yore with an iron fist, with an obsession to control nearly every single aspect of his citizens' life. A control freak, so to speak.
'At least, that's how I remembered it being. It's funny how this sort of knowledge just sticks to me while anything else is already thrown into the bin the next day.'
All throughout the tower's surroundings are several broken bridges connecting the edges of Stormterror's Lair towards the center. Scattered throughout the entirety of the area are several tipped over pillars, broken walls, disconnected pathways, and ruins of a building on its outskirts whose purpose is long forgotten.
"Any ideas on where to start, Yuu?"
'I remembered that the Traveler ended up finding a sign of their sibling atop one of the cliffs surrounding the Stormterror's Lair. Maybe I should start there?'
"Let's start circling the outside before going further in."
'Not that I remember which cliff it was. It all looks the same to me.'
"Sure thing."
We spent the next few minutes cruising through the air, looking around the area carefully for any sign of her brother. She was, anyway, I'm just trying to find the spot where it probably is.
After going through roughly half a circle around, I finally found the spot. And it seems she too felt something different about this particular place.
"Can you set us down there?"
"Sure thing."
The moment I set her down, she gave Paimon to me and started searching around.
"What do you think she's looking for, white mask? There doesn't seem to be anything up here."
"Who knows? Perhaps her gut feeling will find something useful."
Just as I said that, she suddenly stopped.
"Oh! Did you find something, Lumine?"
Instead of answering, she crouched down and reached out to something on the ground. Walking towards her, I saw her gaze transfixed into a single stalk of dandelion.
"Lumine?"
The moment she touched it, her body stopped moving, her gaze unfocused, as if busy looking at something that's not there.
'That must be how I looked to her back then. If I didn't know what's happening, I'd freak out too.'
"Wah! Lumine?!"
'Speaking of freaking out….'
Seeing how unnaturally still Lumine is, Paimon flitted towards her and started shaking her in an attempt to snap her out of it.
"Oi, wake up, Lumine!"
"Calm down, Paimon."
"Calm down?! How can Paimon calm down?! She's not responding!"
Crouching in front of the blonde, I waved my hand in front of her face before nodding. "She is indeed not responding."
"How are you so calm about this?!"
"Well, I'm not. In any case, the only thing we can do is wait. If this goes for too long, we'll bring her to the Church of Favonius, okay?"
"…okay."
Though the fairy seems a bit calmer, I can see that she's still fidgeting. Not that I blame her, but it'll probably do her good if she thinks less of the situation.
'Doesn't help that she's making me anxious as well.'
"Come here, Paimon." Grabbing the fairy, I brought her some distance away from Lumine and sat ourselves on the edge of the stone pathway. "Let's talk about Liyue, shall we?"
"…Liyue? Why?"
"Well, though I know enough about the land of contracts, it would be better if I have the best guide in all of Teyvat refresh my memories, no?
"And besides," taking a quick glance at the still unmoving traveler, I gently pat Paimon's head, hoping to calm her down some more, "I might learn something new from you."
Though she looked a bit reluctant, she nonetheless agreed.
And once she started talking, it wasn't long before she lost herself in our discussion. There are times when she would get all excited explaining about some things, though given how they all relate to food is honestly unsurprising.
"…and there's this celebration that happens once a year. The people call it the Rite of Descension!"
"Right, it's when Morax descended to give the people of Liyue predictions for… something?"
"Paimon's not quite sure of the details, but that sounds about right!"
"Do you know when it'll happen?"
"Uh… Paimon's not sure. Maybe in two or three weeks?"
"I see."
Though I need actual confirmation, it's probably safe to say it wouldn't be that far of an estimation. Which, if true, means that my identity is still in the clear.
'Unless the Fatui have means of teleportation, which they shouldn't, if the fact that Dottore uses a boat in Sumeru is any indication.'
In any case, that's one less thing weighing down my mind.
While both of us were busy talking, I heard rapid footsteps coming in our direction. Before I could react, both of us were suddenly tackled to the ground.
"Whoa!"
"He was here! He was here!"
"Wha—"
"My brother! He's still alive!"
"That's good and all, but," trying to wiggle myself out of her death grip, I can hear the muffled scream of Paimon sandwiched between us, "if you don't let go, you're going to end up killing Paimon."
"Mmm!"
"Oh. Shit, sorry Paimon." Hurriedly separating herself, she picked up the panting fairy before gently patting her back. "I'm so sorry Paimon, I was just so happy and—"
"It's—cough!—fine. Just… don't do that again, okay?"
"Of course. I'll even treat you to some food as an apology."
"Really?! You're the best, Lumine!"
Looking at the fairy vibrating with excitement, I could only smile wryly. Oh well, I suppose a celebration is in order.
"What now, princess? Should we continue our search, or would you rather call it off here?"
Looking towards me, she mulled it over for a bit before coming to a decision. "We might as well continue. There might be some other clue here and I'm not about to miss it."
"As you wish. Come on then, hop on."
We spent the next several hours carefully combing the rest of the outskirts before moving inside.
Occasionally, we would fight some hilichurls and Ruin Guards that we came across. Though we don't really have to, Lumine was so excited after finding out that his brother is alive that she would go out of her way to… spread some of that happiness around, so to speak.
The most annoying thing about all of this turned out to be navigating through the central tower.
Since it was blocked by a wind barrier we have to walk around it, finding our way inside like it's a maze in a theme park.
After scouring the entirety of Stormterror's Lair, we ended up on the highest floor of Decarabian's tower before deciding that it was time to go.
"Sigh. It's a shame that we didn't find anything else."
"Mhm. But hey, now you know your brother's still alive. I'd say that's a pretty good find overall."
"Yeah…."
"What's wrong?"
Seeing that she was somewhat lost in thought, I patiently waited for her to speak.
"I saw some things back then. Only fragments, but I can see something akin to a… recollection of what happened up there.
"Of course, my brother was there. Though I'm thankful that he looked just fine, there's something… different about him."
'Oh. Right. The whole sibling-is-the-abyss-leader part. I forgot about that.'
"He seemed… disappointed, for some reason. And he was talking to someone else, but I couldn't make out what they looked like."
"I see. Did you hear what he was saying?"
"...something about failure? I think? I'm not sure."
'...should I tell her?'
But… is there a point? Even if I tell her, would she even believe me? Realistically, she would rather trust her knowledge of the brother she'd known for her entire life compared to the person she only knew for, what, several days? A week?
"Don't worry too much, Lumine! Your brother is alive and that's all that matters for now."
"...I suppose you're right. Thanks, Paimon."
I should probably tell her right? But… what if she doesn't believe me? Would she say that I'm just spouting nonsense and dismiss the idea? Would she hate me because she thinks I'm insulting her brother or something?
"Let's go, Yuu."
Dammit.
"...yes." Trying my best to maintain my composure, I am thankful that I'm wearing a mask. It would've given me away otherwise. "Let's go and celebrate then! And there's only one place to do so."
"Are you ever going to get tired of visiting Cat's Tail?"
"Nope. They have great foods, drinks, and cats. What's there not to love? Unless you have a better place in mind?"
"Fufu, not really."
"And that's that."
Putting my hand around her legs and back, she grabbed hold of Paimon before I flew us higher than the barrier's reach.
…which I probably should've done from the very beginning.
'Fucking idiot.'
Berating myself for missing something so obvious, I continued our flight towards the city. While on the way, I couldn't help but think of my prior decision to not tell her the truth.
'Sigh. I can only hope this doesn't bite me in the ass.'