"I-I'm sorry." Lumine whispered, hiding her face in her hands. "I wasn't-, I didn't mean to hug you and cry like that."
I smiled. "It's fine." I said, gently patting her head. "It looked like you needed it." I smiled. Even without using [Windblume Festival: Resonance], I could feel that the poor girl had gone through a lot. I'd hug her more if I could, but she seemed like she was about combust if I continued.
It was a few minutes after I'd caught Lumine, and we were now back at the small camp I'd made. I'd refueled my campfire with some [Wood] I'd kept in my Inventory, and I'd made a few cups of warm chocolate for the two of us. I would've also made some food, but I had none stored in my Inventory at the moment.
"So," I took a sip of my warm chocolate. "You said you got stopped by an unknown god?" I asked. She nodded slowly, shivering slightly as she remembered what'd happened. I frowned. "An unknown god, huh? So definitely not someone from down here in Teyvat."
Which only left,
I looked up and narrowed my eyes at the floating island hiding amongst the clouds. It was the most likely possibility; Celestia themself had struck Lumine and her brother down. But why? And more importantly, why did they only seal most of Lumine's strength instead of killing her? I knew Celestia was more than willing to cause regicide if they needed to, so why this?
I winced slightly. My head was beginning to hurt.
"Venti?"
I shook my head. "The one that sealed you and your brother is likely Celestia." I explained, pointing a finger at the floating island in the sky. "They're the only ones that could do something like that."
The moment I said that, Lumine's eyes shined with hope. "So you know who that god is!?"
I frowned slightly. Did I? Lumine had described what this 'unknown god' looked like, and my chest itched at how familiar it was. White hair, golden eyes, the creation of red blocks—I could've sworn I'd seen that somewhere, if not in this life then in the previous one.
"Venti?"
I closed my eyes. Remember. Remember! This was important to Lumine. She had placed her trust in me, and I wouldn't dare let it go unanswered.
And so I grit my teeth and dug as deep as I could, trying to parse through my growing headache. I was sure I knew the identity of this 'unknown god' from Celestia, and all I needed to was to find some keyword.
A god. So, authority? Strength? HeaVEn-?
I latched onto that word. HEaveN, something about heaVen. I personally wouldn't call Celestia heaven, but maybe it was something they called themselves. Heaven, heaven, heaven. Something about heaven-?
A sUStAIneR of hEAvenLY pRIncIpLES-!
A-
…
I grit my teeth. Not this time! I pressed my hands onto my eyes and immediately began using [Sunlight Healing]. I could already feel whatever it was I thought slipping away, but I wouldn't let it go this time.
I was prepared. Guizhong had shared some time back that I tended to lose my train of thought at times, and though I couldn't remember anything, I knew it to be true.
So I kept healing myself as I repeated the fading words, trembling slightly as I waited for the headache to slowly cease. And it did. Through constant healing and endurance, the ringing headache began to fade without taking my I just remembered away with it. Once my head fully quieted down, I finally stopped healing myself and pulled my hands away.
And blinked when I saw that my hands were covered in red.
"VENTI!" Lumine shouted, and I blinked wetly as I saw Lumine kneeled beside me, tears in her eyes as she shook my shoulders.
"Lu…mine…?" I croaked out. I looked down, and blinked once more when I saw that my robes had been stained red with blood. I coughed slightly, and more blood fell from my mouth. "What…?"
Her eyes shook as she heard me speak, and her tears finally fell. "V-Venti? You're okay?" She hugged me close, uncaring that it'd stain her own dress. "I don't-, please stop. Please. You don't need to remember anymore. Not if it hurts you like this!"
I weakly laughed as I rested my chin on her shoulder. She was right—if I tried to force myself to remember everything from my past, I'd probably cause my head to explode or something. I was constantly using [Sunlight Healing] on myself the entire time, and I still felt like I was three steps away from the grave.
I took a slow breath. "Sorry." I said, my throat a little less clogged with blood. "I won't be so careless anymore."
Lumine sniffed as she pulled away. She smiled shakily as she saw the red staining her dress. "H-Hey, my clothes are all dirty now." She gave me a mock glare. "You better take responsibility."
I giggled. "I will, I will. There's a river not too far from here." I went quiet for a moment, before I sighed. "I managed to remember, you know."
She blinked, before her eyes widened when she realized what I meant. "Are-, you sure? You won't die if you say it, right?"
I smiled wryly. "Is that common?"
She nodded seriously. "Surprisingly common. I've seen many different curses as I traveled."
Huh. And I thought I was special.
I grinned. "Mm, I think I'll be fine. I can still remember it right now." I frowned as I began wiping my hands. "If I'm not wrong, the one who stopped you and your brother is the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles, one of the main leaders of Celestia." I gave my hands a shake after I'd wiped most of the blood on my robes. "You can think of them as a police force that covers the entirety of Teyvat."
Lumine frowned. "But why would they attack me and Aether? We didn't do anything!"
I hummed. I had an idea already. "It's probably because you didn't fit into their script." I shared. Lumine's eyes narrowed, clearly not liking what I was about to say. "I'm not fully clear on it, but they have a thing about keeping Destiny shackled. And so they probably wanted to seal and include your Destiny into their script as well."
Lumine's fists were clenched tight as she listened. "...I see." She eventually said, her distaste clear. "So, now I'm another character in their movie, huh?"
I tilted my head at the odd word, but I then smiled as I glanced away to listen to the notification my Genshin System just sent me.
[Detected a significant shift in Destiny of the character -Abyss Princess: Lumine-. Achievement -Fate Defiance- has taken effect. Rewards have been moved to the Inventory]
"No." I said confidently. "I think you're a bit too special to be included so easily."
"Flatterer." She said as she rolled her eyes, clearly not believing.
I giggled, before I looked back down at my robes. I smiled wryly. "Well, we should probably go and wash our clothes." I jabbed my thumb to the West. "There's a river not too far away. Wanna come?"
Lumine glanced at her own bloodied dress and nodded. "That sounds good." She then glared at me. "Don't peek."
I rolled my eyes. "Relax~" I held out my hand, and a swirl of wind appeared atop my palm. "We won't need to even take off our clothes! My Anemo can react with water to cleanse us both."
She hummed as she watched my winds disappear. "Anemo, huh?" She smiled. "Is this some kind of elemental mixing or something?"
I grinned. "I'll explain as we go."
She nodded, and soon we were both walking towards the nearby river. And all the while I shared what I knew about the Elemental Reactions that could occur here in Teyvat. Or at least the ones I'd seen. Lumine was more than happy to share her ideas with me along with some examples she'd observed from other planets she'd visited.
Before long, we reached the river I was talking about. Lumine was eager to see what my Anemo could do, and I grinned as my winds came to life. The winds swirled all across the river, turning deep blue as the winds quickly absorbed the water's essence. I then pulled the water-infused Anemo back to us both, and I let the winds blow through us.
And as I said, the winds seeped right through, cleaning away the blood staining both our clothes. I dispelled my winds soon after, our clothes now cleaned and left with the fragrance of early Spring.
"Woah." Lumine looked down in awe. "That was quick."
"One of the reasons why Anemo is better than Geo." I said with a small grin. "Anemo's way more fun in comparison."
I then sat down on the grass and patted the space next to me. Lumine smiled slightly as she sat down as well. The air around was warm—a leftover from the Anemo I'd just used. The sounds of the river's rushing waters filled the silence between us.
"Say, what are you going to do next?" I asked.
Lumine looked down. "I…haven't thought of that."
I nodded. "That makes sense." After all, it hadn't even been a day since she fell from the skies. She was probably still confused about everything.
"And what about you?"
I hummed. "I'll continue exploring." I still had my job as Liyue's Storyteller and all. And before I'd gotten sidetracked, I was on my way towards that underground village I visited once.
Lumine went silent, before she shyly smiled. "Can I join?"
I returned a warm smile. "Of course. I would love to have company." I chuckled. "My job does get a little lonely after a while."
She smiled. "Thank you, Venti."
I winked. "Anytime, Lumine~"
She giggled, and I soon joined her. And after, we then spent the rest of the night sharing stories about our previous adventures.