𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 [𝚐.𝚒 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚡 𝚐𝚗!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

XXXVI

The room was dank and dark, a typical movie dungeon cell. Stone surrounded you, your wrists in chains connected to the ceiling. You hung limply, your toes only just grazing the stone floor.

You supposed hospitality was not a necessity when being kidnapped, but ya know, it would've been nice to be able to sit down. Beggars couldn't be choosers. At the very least, you weren't being tortured.

You knew Lumine wanted you to give all the information you had, explain every single 'vision', have more visions. But you just couldn't answer her questions.

"What are the outcomes of major conflicts between the Abyss Order and others?"

"I don't know."

"Tell me the outcomes of our plans."

"I don't know your plans."

"How do you kill the archons?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to know?"

"How do we ruin Celestia?"

"What kinda visions do you think I have?"

She may have slapped you... once... twice... okay you spoke out of turn way too much for a kidnap-ee but what were you supposed to do? Just lay there and take it? You were already hungry, you weren't going to let her trample all over your dignity.

You groan when you feel your stomach rumble, shifting slightly to give your shoulders some kind of faux reprieve.

In doing so, you heard a creak from your cuffs.

-

Aether was sitting on his bed, staring at the note left to him by Polaris, thumbing the edges of the notebook scrap. At this point, he had re-read the words over and over to try and understand the message left behind.

A part of him - a small, very not dominant part of him - was a little jealous of Ariel's ability to immediately understand the nonsense written down but he shook his head to rid himself of those invading thoughts.

Ariel's known them longer. It's not a big deal. We'll find them together and then you can hug them and talk to them all you want again. It's fine. That ugly feeling settled down and determination filled him once more.

He looked at the p.s and held out his hand. "Ariel, what do you think this last line means? Why should I use my purification on Xiao?"

He felt the comforting weight of Ariel's hand settle in his palm. 'P-E-R-H-A-P-S T-H-E-Y T-H-E-O-R-I-Z-E-D S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G A-B-O-U-T T-H-A-T A-B-I-L-I-T-Y O-F Y-O-U-R-S I-N P-A-R-T-I-C-U-L-A-R.'

"Maybe." Aether tilted his head to the side, his undone golden locks shifting on his shoulders. "Maybe they thought it would affect Xiao's karma?"

"Oh!" Paimon perked up, her childlike face stretched into an exciting grin. "Your purification ability helped cleanse Dvalin of the poison he was infected with! Maybe [Y/n] thought that the purification would have a similar effect on the corruptive forces of Xiao's karmic debt!"

"But karmic debt isn't a poison." Aether's brows furrowed.

'M-A-Y-B-E T-H-E A-B-I-L-I-T-Y E-X-T-E-N-D-S F-U-R-T-H-E-R T-H-A-N P-O-I-S-O-N.'

Aether pulled his hand back to rub at his forehead. "How will we even get that stubborn yaksha to do it?"

"I have an idea!" Paimon chirps, a finger to her temple like she just had the greatest thought in the world.

-

"XIAO!" Aether called out for the millionth time. He was standing on the top of one of Liyue's great mountains, the chilly breeze rustling through his hair as Paimon floated by him, Ariel's hand wrapped around his own. "I'M GOING TO KEEP CALLING YOU UNTIL YOU ANSWER!"