Two Faced // Tartaglia (R18)

Bone Of The Sword

Love is the most twisted curse of all.
-Gojo Satoru

A couple of days have passed, Astreanova was running some errands alone in Liyue before she noticed Tartaglia and Lumine were walking in an opposite direction. The Honorary Knight and The Warmonger or Harbinger of War exchanged glances for a while, yet they didn't talk and the silence was interrupted by Tartaglia, who had been noticing her from afar.

"It seems both of you haven't been talking to each other for a while. Is everything alright?" Childe raised an eyebrow.

Paimon sighed and flew away, feeling so done with the Harbinger's obliviousness.

"No worries, nothing is up." Astrea swiftly answered and crossed her arms. She thought of an excuse.

"I've just been a bit busy sorting up some final affairs."

"Final affairs?" Lumine frowned.

"Yeah, I'll be departing to Antares once I've got some documents sorted. Probably in another week." She lied, covering up the fact that she might have to depart to Snezhnaya first to rescue a childhood lover.

Tartaglia mused for a second before mentioning, "On second thought, I've been rather busy and we haven't been talking for a while, Astrea. I'll see you around, sometime? Today I'm accompanying Lumine for a quest."

"E-Eh it's not necessary, Childe. I mean, I can do it on my own. Do you want to spend time with Astrea?....." The blonde felt uncomfortable and would rather steer clear from any misunderstandings. She looked at Astrea, who had a stoic expression on her face.

Before Tartaglia could even speak, the black haired girl waved at the two as she held her sword in her hands.

"Actually I still have some work to do with Zhongli xiansheng, it seems some Treasure Hoarders are at it again. See you guys later, bye."

Astrea spoke and walked away. She believed the excuse was enough to get out of the messy situation, both Childe and Lumine didn't know she wasn't even going to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. The Warmonger decided to spend the day gathering some intel about her eventual journey to Snezhnaya and the war that was about to ensue.

During the process she met two Fatui agents who were Tsarevich and Vlad somewhere outside Liyue and they were fussing about a blocked path by a couple of hilichurls.

"How about I help both of you traverse this path and you shall exchange a couple of information with me regarding Snezhnaya?" Astrea bargained.

"Fair enough. We just want to get things sorted out. Now go do your job then." Tsarevich ordered rudely. Astrea didn't argue and proceeded to annihilate the hilichurls and clear the path.

Ajax was caught spacing out on his own when he was taking a break from fighting a couple of enemies with Lumine. They were sitting in front of a bonfire while the blonde was cooking up some Mondstadt Chicken Mushroom Skewers. Paimon was hungry and eager to eat.

"What's on your mind, Childe?" Lumine questioned, even though she had a couple of guesses in her mind.

"No, nothing. Just some random thoughts of home." He smiled, hiding the cold hard truth.

The blonde then gave him four of the skewers and wrapped them neatly with a food bag.

"Why, thank you Honorary Knight but these are too much for me alone." Ajax blinked.

"It's for you and Astrea. I think you should go check up on what she's up to. Let her know that I'm not mad at all regarding the letter. It's just complicated to know what happened in the past and present." Lumine explained and looked at Paimon. Paimon nodded.