Chapter 12- Mystery Man

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Lumine POV

That night, she slept unusually peacefully. For the first time since she had been stranded in Tevyat, she had no nightmares or visions.

Unfortunately, her sleep was very rudely interrupted by a certain fairy, who had the stomach of a giant. "Lumineeeeee! Paimon is HUNGRY!" Almost as if to prove it, her stomach gave a loud rumble. She sighed and dragged herself out of bed.

As she did her morning rituals, she ruminated on what to do next. Rex Lapis, aka Zhongli, had suggested that she go to Inazuma next. Sadly though, it was under lock and key as of now. That's why she had stay put in Liyue. But she knew that she had to find a way there soon. She had to do it for both of her brothers.

*****

She was finished with her daily tasks- feed Paimon, do commissions, etc. Now she was at a significantly higher rank, so her commissions were better. Soon, she would have to do the AR 50 ascension quest.

She planned to go to Mondstadt after this, not only to meet Albedo, but also to catch up with her old friends. It was actually quite early- only 6 a.m. .  She carefully tiptoed to the balcony to see if Xiao was there. He wasn't. Oh well. She had hoped to say goodbye to him before going. 

She walked to the teleport waypoint, and placed her hand on it. Closing her eyes, she said, "2nd teleport waypoint, Mondstadt City." 

A gentle breeze drifted past, and she opened her eyes to find herself at the top of a familiar tower near Venti's statue. Smiling happily, she unfurled her glider, and stopped at the Knights of Favonius headquarters. She asked the guards to keep quiet about her arrival, and walked inside, heading straight for Jean's office. She knocked on the door, and heard Jean's gentle voice telling her to come in.

Though, when she thought about it later, she thought that their reactions to her arrival was comical. Lisa, Jean and Amber just stared at her open mouthed for a good 30-40 seconds. Then she was enveloped in the biggest bear hug ever. "Can't... Breathe..." she choked. They released her, faces flushed.

_________________________

For an hour or two, they had a nice long 'girl chat.' Of course, a lot of it was directed at trying to get Jean to talk to Master Diluc more often. She obstinately refused, saying, "He is a very busy man." She, Amber and Lisa looked at each other with a twinkle in their eyes, and smug smiles on their faces. Seeing this made Jean have cold sweats. Clearly they were planning something.

At the end, she sighed and said, "Guys, do you know where Albedo is? I need to talk to him about something." Lisa thoughtfully said, "Hmmm, I think he just returned from Dragonspine yesterday. I think he is in the library." "Oh alright, thanks and byeeeee!"

As Lisa had said, he was in the library. She carefully closed the door behind her, and said, "Hey Albedo, what's up? I was wondering if you could help me out a bit." He kept down the book he was reading, and tilting his head, said, "Oh Lumine, I wasn't expecting to see you here... What could I help you with?"

"You remember those potions you make for me once a month?" "Of course I do. Is there something wrong with them? Are they ineffective? Do they cause any side eff-" Lumine cut him off. "No, nothing of the sort. I was merely wondering if you could make an extra bottle per month. One of my friends need it." He stared at her before saying, "Yes, of course. May I, however, know who is this 'friend'?" After a pause, she said, "It is Xiao, an adeptus of Liyue." "Ah, that's good, so the potion won't harm him. If normal mortals take the medicine, then they cause consequences unimaginable." She thought about this and said, "Well, you needn't worry about that, he is immortal too."

Xiao POV

For the first time in his life, he actually felt... tired. As though he wanted to have a nice good nap. So he did.

*****

When he woke up in the morning, the sun was almost overhead. He stretched and walked off to get his usual almond tofu. He didn't fail to notice that where Verr Goldet usually was, Huai'an was standing now. He raised an eyebrow at him, to which Huai'an said, "Oh, Verr wanted some time off, she wanted to chat with Lumine. She just returned from Mondstadt." "I see, wait what? She has already been to Mondstadt?" "Oh yes, she has been up since 5 a.m." "Hmm... Alright."

He gobbled up his tofu as usual, then went out to the balcony. A usual day. He just stared at the scenery around him for a while, until he heard loud laughter coming from below. He peered down, and blinked. Two familiar figures, one with blonde hair and gold eyes, and another with brown hair and brown eyes.

He could catch bits of their conversation. Lumine was saying, "Oh Gods, then Lisa, me and Amber just looked at each other, and I'm certain that we all had similar evil grins on our faces. Poor Jean was sweating at the sight!" This was punctuated by their laughter. "Oh really? So does that mean that Jean actually likes Diluc?" "Not only that, but I'm also fairly certain that Luc also likes Jean. Hahaha, we are so going to get them together!" She said with a huge grin. Verr smiled and said, "Well, I am glad to know that you have such good friends in Mondstadt." "Hehe me too." She looked up. And caught his eye. 

She raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh Xiao, you're up finally? Great, I wanted to talk to you." She waved to Verr, and walked up. He leaned against the railing. When she appeared in the balcony, she said, "I have talked to Albedo, he will be giving you a potion every month that helps to counter the effects and side effects of karma. It only works on immortals, so take care of it." He nodded gratefully. 

"Lumine! You forgot to claim your daily rewards!" She swiveled around to see Paimon floating in the air, hand on the hips, pouting. "If you don't take the mora, then how will you be able to get Paimon all the best dishes? " He and Lumine both slapped their hands to their foreheads. "Oh, alright, I'll be back in a minute."

Lumine POV

She sighed as she walked to Liyue's guild. Paimon did have a point, they needed the Mora. As she reached there, after getting her rewards, Katheryne said, "Lumine, Mondstadt Katheryne has a commission that she would like to give specifically to you." She raised an eyebrow. "Specifically for me? Oh, sounds interesting. I'll check it out. Byeeee!"

Sh teleported to Wangshu Inn, and told Paimon and Xiao about this weird commission. "Soo, I am really intrigued, so we will be checking it out. Bye Xiao." He sighed. "Bye, and do tell me about it when you come back." "That's a promise!" she smiled cheekily.

Once again, she teleported to Mondstadt.

*****

This was... weird. Apparently, a blond man, with exotic clothes had come to Mond recently. At first, she had been excited, thinking that it might be her brother. Unfortunately, all her hopes were squashed. Katheryne said that the man looked nothing like her, was tall and had an eyepatch. She sighed. Probably some distant relative of Kaeya's then. This man had also declined the Guild's invitation.

And so she found herself in the tavern, with mouth-watering smells of wine which Diluc didn't let her drink. After waiting for sometime, she did see someone who matched the description Katheryne gave her. She walked down, and said, "Hello, I am from the Adventurer's guild." No response. "How do you do? I am an Honorary Knight of Favonius." Still no response. Paimon muttered, "Wow, he's really got no intention to pay us any mind, huh? "

She tried one last time. "So, uh, I'm a traveler." Finally, it elicited a response from him. 

"Hmph. A traveler... Why are you traveling." She wondered if it was okay to share such information with an unknown man. Paimon, however, had no such qualms. "She's searching for her lost sibling." After a pause, he mused, "Well, that's as good a reason as any... Sit down over there, then." Paimon mumbled, "So, guess we've broken the ice... What a weird guy."

Yeah, this certainly was gonna be interesting.

( 1448 words

Hmm, so forgive me if the quality of this chap isn't as good, i was kinda out of ideas. I have planned the chapters that come atleast 4-5 chapters after this lol. Toodles!)

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