History repeats itself (a Genshin Impact OC insert)

Chapter 17 - Illuminated Adepti, hear our message

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Lyra slowly returns back to the direction of the rite. That is when she sees her travelling companions with a stranger. As she goes closer to them, she can hear what they are saying. "Phew... Paimon's exhausted..." – "I am even more beat.", Aether says in between pants. "So insensitive! You have no idea how tiring floating around- wait! Just who are you exactly?" – "I was also wondering that, Paimon."

The group turns around to see Lyra standing there unamused. "well, regardless, I am happy to see you managed to get away without me. I had to console myself after seeing Rex Lapis' Exuvia... I suppose you can guess why." Paimon and Aether nod to her, signalling they could guess that she was referring to one of her past lives. She did tell them that she was close to most of the archons at some point, so they guess the geo archon has to be one of those.

"back to the original question. Who are you?", Lyra asks the stranger. "call me Childe." – "Childe? What, so we're supposed to dote on you?", Paimon asks. "Haha, no no, not at all. It's an alias of sorts. In Mondstadt, I don't suppose you came across a 'Signora' by any chance?", Childe asks back.

"Signora... Childe... You're Fatui! One of the Harbingers!", Paimon exclaims. Lyra scoffs. "oh, great. I am getting sticked into fatui business once more...", Lyra mumbles quietly, still audible to the others. "oh, no. don't worry, I'm not looking for a fight. Signora gave you quite the bad impression huh? Tsk, that woman... Can't say I'm fan of either."

Lyra looks at him unamused. 'I know not all Harbingers really get along... I mean, even though I managed to get along with all of them, they didn't necessarily like each other... and I didn't always agree with their methods and actions, even if I got along with them...', she thinks to herself.

"Right. Let's forget all about her, shall we? I'm here to help you." Lyra scoffs. "Help?", she ask with venom in her voice. "yes, help. I'm not a bad guy... okay perhaps I'm kind of a bad guy, but I'm not here to give you any trouble.", Childe says, clearly scared of Lyra's tone of voice, worried about what she could do.

"would it be too much to ask for you to keep the sword sheathed?", Child asks. Lyra takes her hand off her side slowly and lowers her stance, but still keeping her guard up. "Haha, I thank you for your knightly nobility, Lyra. I heard of your deeds in Mondstadt, so I couldn't help but notice you during the proceedings back there. and because I had my eye on you the whole time, I know it wasn't you. Someone else was clearly behind it."

Lyra's death glare turns into her unamused look once more. 'Well~ I do not know if you know about the contract or not, but if you do turn out to actually know about this, then I'll give you an A for acting skills.' Lyra then focuses again on what Childe and the others are saying. "But right now, if you want to clear yourselves of any suspicion – you need to get to Northland Bank." Lyra sighs.

"I suppose staying here is really not an option. After all: 'the walls have ears.'", she says.

~•~•~

"Northland Bank...", Paimon says as they enter the bank. "Correct. This bank was opened here in Liyue by Snezhnaya. Though everyone knows Liyue is the most enterprising in Teyvat, Snezhnaya is not short of change either." – "yeah well, poorer nations don't seem the type to have diplomats that come around acting the way yours do towards the Knights of Favonius.", Paimon deadpans.

Childe looks away. "Eh-hehe hehe..." – "Paimon, don't push it." Paimon straightens up at the mention of her name by Lyra. "anyway, here, let me give you this.", Childe says as he takes out some kind of Sigil. Lyra's eyes widen as she sees it. "This is a... Sigil?", Paimon asks.

"where did you get that?! Sigils of Permissions are not something an ordinary person should have, let alone a fatui harbinger! So I will ask again. Where. Did. You. Get. That.", Lyra demands. This time, it was not only her voice that was filled with venom. Childe could practically feel himself sink 6 feet under by the venom in her eyes.