It's been two days since the anemo archon joined our party and when it comes to why Zhongli described him as annoying... I could kind of understand him. I didn't consider myself as stoic and calm as the man himself and I really liked having fun most of the time, but the green dressed bard was something else. He was a deity so it made sense that he did not need food to live, however sometimes i felt like if he spent one day without drinking overwhelming amounts of wine - he would feel like the world is ending. Therefore as much as it bothered me when Zhongli and Paimon wanted to stop to eat something - it was justified, some of us still needed food to live, but the fact that we had to make many more stops to get Venti to sober up because he would drink more than he planned to... That was innecesary and slowed us down much more than stops for the sake of our physical needs.

"I see you managed to learn how to use chopsticks." Said brown haired man to which I nodded. Of course I mastered them... I may be ugly rich but the fact that he made me buy chopsticks for one-hundred-twenty-eight thousand mora made me want to actually make this money worth it.

"Chopsticks are *hic* dumb." Added the bard sitting across from Zhongli on the opposite side of the fireplace to which the man himself gave him a deadly glare immediately increasing the pressure around us... "Where did Paimon *hic* go anyway? *hic*" ... but got ignored completely.

"She said she's tired or something and went to sleep by now." I answered pointing at one of the two tents behind us. I was kind of glad that i decided to take more than one with me but if I knew I will be forced to share it with Zhongli - that no matter what was said, refused to sleep in one tent with anemo boy that for another matter wouldn't come closer than needed towards me - I would've made sure I had more of them.

I sighed, not paying attention to the drunk deity trying to crawl inside the tent and mumbling something to the floating elf about wanting to play, but seeing how it instantly became quiet, he probably fell asleep as soon as he came near the matress.

"He sure doesn't feel like a three thousand years old god..." I whispered to Zhongli making sure that none of the two heared me just in case they were still awake. "Is his love towards wine the fact that you didn't want him to tag along?" I added.

"No."

"Then what was it?" Suddenly Zhongli put his tea cup down and looked in front of him making a serious face that I hardly ever saw him make. It almost looked like he had a will to murder in his eyes - which was actually a completely unknown to me expression coming from him.

"He called me a stiff once."

It would be a lie to say that I didn't want to burst out laughing. The fact he said it with a deadly serious face like it was something that he held a heavy grudge for only added to the lack of seriousness in whole situation. I didn't even want to ask how many years ago it was but it surely weighed heavily on my friend's heart.

"What's with that face?" He asked looking at me as I could feel my whole face getting red from holding in the laughter to which I only waved, gesturing that it's nothing and stood up from the log I was sitting on exhaling heavily.

"I'm gonna go do a little reconaisance." I said walking towards the woods as he nodded and picked his tea cup back up.

We've been quite a distance away from Liyue vicinity by now and from what I could tell, it would take around a day to get to Sneznhayan surroundings if we were going with a normal pace... With our current one - probably two to three. I sighed again - I found myself doing it alot since I started this venture. Lumine's friends really were something else... It got me thinking, since she was completely different. Calm, but not overly calm like Zhongli - still she was pretty far from Paimon or Venti and she definitely wasn't a drunkard for that matter, but I guess it could be expected from the entity from the city of wine. I wondered, how did it happen that they met... How did it come to Lumine aquiring anemo powers from him... How much time did they use to spend toghether that he decided to came to Liyue after not seeing her for awhile... I couldn't help, but become a bit jealous at the thought of all that, which shouldn't be a surprise to me at this point. I already came to terms with my feelings and there was no point pondering over it anymore, I guess it did give me the right to become a little bit jealous... But then again I should learn to deal with it seeing I also already came to terms that me and her could never... Be toghether like that.

It made me a bit sad, not gonna lie, however I worked for it with what I did and it was a consequence that I had to face. I wondered, what would happen once we meet her. It's not likely she would join Fatui - she hated the organisation - and I doubt even someone as gentle as Tsaritsa could convince her to cooperate... But I hoped she was still kept safe. I remembered how Signora took her away and I couldn't do anything to protect her. Heck, I even weakened her making her vulnerable for capture. If I could redeem myself in at least a tiny bit by helping her out now - if she even needed my help - then I would do that, even if it meant fighting Signora. It's not like she was stronger than me so it wouldn't be hard... However, what will I do if it will mean going against Tsaritsa's will? Will I be able to go to such lengths?

Once again I sighed coming closer back to our tents to see that Zhongli was no longer sitting by the fireplace - that had no fire burning on it anymore for that matter. I opened the tent we shared and found him there lying on his back with closed eyes. Assuming he's asleep I crouched to the other side of the tent and slowly lied down - trying to be quiet so I wouldn't wake him up. I never thought that gods even needed sleep, they did have mortal bodies I guess but I don't remember ever seeing Her Majesty getting tired and she did work quite a bit - always maintaining her beautiful and healthy appearance. I wondered a bit about, what was going to happen the next day, sometimes rolling my eyes as I heard Paimon complain to Venti about the smell of alcohol in the tent to which he always answered with a "hehe", that for some reason made her even more angry and loud. It was going to be another long night...

I didn't know, where I was. I was supposed to go gather information about abyss, meanwhile I was stuck in a weird glass container filled with a weird green liquid that for some reason didn't make me feel like I was drowning. Maybe it was because of all the cords connected to my body. I didn't remember, how I got there and for some reason I couldn't even try to remember. I could see and hear, what was happening around me, but I couldn't move... or rather I couldn't even think of moving. All that was in my mind was whatever was happening around me. I could see that there were more glass containers around me, but they were empty... No, actually one of them wasn't. The one in front of me had a naked person in it, I couldn't raise my head to examine anything about this person... but for some reason I could feel that I knew what they looked like.

She looked like me.

"Man, it really is getting colder and colder. Paimon's going to freeze if it keeps getting this way." Said the pixie crossing her arms and shivering a little.

"From Sneznhaya with love..." I mumbled then turned to her. Using the same magic I usually did to summon a weapon, to this time summon a few capes and coats and handing them over to Zhongli, Venti and Paimon in that order, then putting the last one on myself. "We're going to enter the colder lands soon. It means no more possibility of camping outside. Unless we want to freeze to death that is." I shrugged. "Luckily there are inns every few kilometers."

"That is indeed fortunate." Said Zhongli clipping up the dark brown hooded cape laid out with fleece on the inside. I had the same one as he did and was pretty amazed with the fact that someone that never headed into these parts of the world actually knew how to properly use this thing, almost as if he was used to wearing it instead of a coat most of the time. Paimon's cape was dark-cream coloured and a bit oversized for her, since it was the one I usually gave to my youngest siblings if the weather suddenly got worse when we went out somewhere. Venti on the other hand had a perfect sized one, it looked almost as if it was made for him. White colour highlighted his black and green hair and green hat... You almost couldn't tell that he was a boy to begin with and now even less when he wore the outerwear that was sewed for my sister Tonia...

"How long are we going to stay on the road then?" Asked the bard.

"If we keep up the pace we should get to Sneznhaya in around a day and a half, then a little further to the Zapolyarny Palace, where Her Majesty is and hopefully Lumine as well." I said taking a few steps forward and gesturing them to follow.

"Ah Tsaritsa... Been ages since I met her..." He mumbled, but I couldn't sense hostility in his voice, which was good. If he tried to badmouth or hurt her I would have to make him pay for that... Not that I would mind - I always wondered, what power does this particular archon have... Though he didn't seem particularly strong to be honest.

The next day we were moving alot faster. I wasn't sure if it's because of the cold or because I wasn't the only one who started to get a bad feeling about what was going to happen. The wine loving bard didn't even try to take a taste of alcohol today as if he was making sure that nothing will slow us down. The fact that I got no orders or information about anything from the Palace probably got them even more nervous. If there was some serious business with Lumine to happen, I - one of the harbingers - would be sure to get informed, but there was silence. I hoped that the only reason for it was because they still didn't decide what to do with her or Her Majesty only wanted to learn more about her and didn't plan anything from the begining. Signora would want to capture her weak even if there was nothing bad about the whole endeavor... But there was still alot of distress to the whole situation and i couldn't explain why.

"I really hope Lumine's all right..." Said Paimon without her usual excitement in voice. I could tell that the closer we got there the more worried everyone was getting. Well it's only fair seeing it's been days since she was taken. I also hoped that she was alright... Or that she didn't get to meet Dottore. That would probably be the worst that could happen. He was always oddly fascinated with powerful people - even I was once asked if he can take a few samples from me because my strength fascinated him. If by some weird accident Lumine got to work with him I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I would want to get to her as soon as possible and make sure that she didn't become a new subject to his inhuman experiments. Then as if called out to... Lumine appeared in front of us, heading our way as if nothing ever happened. But something was wrong... Her eyes were completely dead and she acted almost soulless... And then I saw the person walking beside her with his usual disgusting smile. Dottore.

"Just great" I thought.

Author's note; As always thank you so much for all the reviews! I'm going to try to update every 2-4 days now that I have alot of time to write again so hopefully we'll get to end the story before christmas... Maybe there even will be a sequel - that depends on You though, but I guess I'll ask about it once we reach the ending here. Please leave a review and I really hope you enjoy the story :3