Inspired by Karen Lynch's Relentless and a love for the Genshin Impact characters.
Credit for Cover Image: Pixiv artist 青滔o-o
"Ah, my favorite customer."
Lumine tried to recompose herself after a sprint from the bus stop. "You haven't closed yet, have you Vlad?"
"I was about to, but I'll make an exception for you," he said in his thick Snezhnayan accent. "I assume you are here for the product you requested a few days ago?"
Lumine liked Vlad because of the fact that he prioritized trade over the person that traded. It was difficult to find a merchant that dealt in less-than-legal merchandise, and even more difficult for one to take her seriously due to her age.
"Yes, are we secure?"
With one push of a button, the shop they were both standing in locked itself. The glass windows and door tinted to black, and metal shutters secured all entrances.
"We are now," he said, letting her come to the back of the shop where he kept his most exotic wares hidden. "What sort of payment did you bring?"
She patted her chest where a small lump protruded in her coat. "Something that I think you cannot refuse," she watched as his eyebrow raised.
"I'm listening," he said, sitting down at a table and motioned for her to take the seat across.
She sat down, unwrapping the vial she had brought and gently laid it on the table in between them. "Half an ounce of fairy tears."
Vlad's blue eyes widened, and he leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table. Before he was able to grab it, Lumine reached out and took it back.
"Payment first, Vlad," she smiled. "You know how this works."
He grumbled quietly, "yes, yes, yes."
He stood and walked over to a vault in the wall, unlocking it and procuring the promised product, and setting the wooden box on the table. "As requested, one-hundred grams of Dendro-Processed Berries."
Lumine unlocked the box and examined the contents, a hint of raspberry and something foul filled her nose causing her to shut the box immediately. "All is in order," she said, giving him the vial.
She watched him take the vial tenderly from her hand, and examined the luminescent fluid closely with a loupe. "I would give you everything in this shop to know how you managed to acquire this... and lived to tell the tale."
She chuckled slightly to mask her unease, "who says I'm going to tell anyone?" She wrapped up the wooden box with cloth and tied the open end shut, then inclined her head toward the vial. "There's no way anyone can trace that back to me, right?"
Vlad had a wide network of contacts along with a reputation for discretion. But, the contents of that vial could bring a lot of unwanted attention.
He put the vial in his vault before returning to her, "as I have told you before, my business ventures would end soon if I were to give away the names of my contacts, and I must protect myself, too. My products are transferred through middlemen who'd take the names of their business contacts to the grave. There is no profit in talking. Rest assured, my lips are sealed."
"I'm glad to hear that," she said, standing up to shake his hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, as always."
"The pleasure is mine, especially if you continue to bring me quality products."
She turned toward the exit.
"You really should consider working for me after you are finished with high school," he called out to her.
"Not in a million years!"
His laughter bellowed as he unsecured his shop to let her leave.
The sun's glare blinded her after being accustomed the shop's dark interior, and she took a moment to look at her phone. She had two unread messages. One from her twin brother, Aether, and her best friend, Amber.
I'm going to be at school until the evening. Practice is taking a while. I told Jean already.
She replied with an OK hand emoji to Aether, then read Amber's message.
Our favorite band is visiting nearby soon! They'll be in Liyue Harbor, we have to go!
Amber had a bunch of excited emojis at the end of her message. Lumine smiled as she could feel Amber's excitement through the message.
I have to ask Jean if we can go. We'd need a ride since it's about three hours from Mondstadt.
Lumine put her phone away and made her way to the bus stop in time for the next bus. She didn't want to keep Paimon and Qiqi waiting. Heading to the back of the bus, she sat alone at the window seat, brushing her blonde bangs away from her face. She leaned against the window and watched the streets and buildings flash by, passing by a football field where a practice game was in progress. Her brother was in the midst of those athletes somewhere. She also saw a group of cheerleaders waving red and white pom-poms. Her hand went to the wrapped up box on her lap and the weight of responsibility she carried made her feel years older than the girls on the field.
The bus line ended near an old brewery that had gone out of business two years ago, and she got off the bus in front of the padlocked gates. No Trespassing signs hung along the wired fence, and the whole place had a sad, deserted look about it. Her nose twitched as it always did at the smell of sour barley that lingered there as she hurried past it.
Behind the brewery was an older subdivision of duplexes and two-story houses, most of them needing a fresh coat of paint. Five years ago this was a thriving neighborhood, before the brewery shut down along with the automotive parts plant that had employed half this area. Now, the lawns were overgrown and the cars in many of the driveways were badly in need of maintenance. A country song blared from someone's stereo, and in another house a young couple argued until a baby started to bawl loudly. She passed a group of younger kids playing road hockey, but they largely ignored her. She did stop for a moment to rub the head of a familiar dog that trotted up to greet her, but when he started to follow she shooed him back. He stared at her forlornly, but she was not able to play today.
At the last stop sign, she turned right and jogged down an empty street lined with tired looking, boarded up old houses and yards that backed up to the woods. She slipped between the last two houses and ducked under a broken board in the fence of the last house. Grass and weeds had taken over the backyard, while ivy strangled the ancient swing set and covered the back of the house. She followed a narrow path through the grass to the back door where she gave a quick look around and then slipped inside.
"Hello? Paimon, Qiqi? Are you still here?" Lumine called softly.
It was dark in the house, except for the dusty bands of light that spilled in between the boards over the windows. Thankfully, Lumine knew the house pretty well and she didn't need much light to find her way around. She left the kitchen and walked down a short hallway. On her right was the empty shell that used to be a living room, and on her left was the closed door to the basement. She pushed the door, and it swung inward on creaky hinges revealing a staircase.
"Boo!"
"Agh!" Lumine fell back when she found herself face to face with a floating fairy that decided it was funny to scare her.
Paimon flew around and caught Lumine's fall, pushing her to help her regain balance.
"Paimon! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Lumine slapped a hand to her chest, still caught off guard.
The fairy laughed and gave her a mischievous grin. "You're too young for a heart attack, silly! Where have you been?"
"I'm sorry, the bus schedules were strange today. I got to Vlad's shop later than I had planned, but got here as fast as I could. How is your friend doing?"
"Paimon thinks he's doing okay, but he keeps telling Qiqi that he's worried about you not being able to bring the herbs." Paimon sniffed and her nose wrinkled, "yup, Paimon knows you have it."
Lumine smiled and held up the wrapped box in front of Paimon. "Ta-da!~ When have I ever let you or Qiqi down?"
"Exactly what she needs!" Paimon said, pinching her nose.
She led Lumine into the basement where Qiqi was writing notes. The little girl looked up as Lumine and Paimon entered. "Hello, Paimon and Lumine," she said, pointing at Paimon and calling her Lumine on accident, and calling Lumine the fairy's name.
Lumine smiled at this and shook her head, "my name is Lumine, that's Paimon."
"One day, maybe she'll remember our names," Paimon sighed.
"I have the herbs you requested," Lumine gave Qiqi the wrapped up box.
"Herbs?" Qiqi tipped her head and looked through her notebook for a while, and found what she was looking for. "Qiqi remembers now. Qiqi will make the medicine. Give Qiqi the Dendro-Processed Berries, these are Qiqi's orders."
"Here you go," Lumine chuckled, giving Qiqi the wrapped box.
Not long after Qiqi began to ground the berries in a mortar and pestle, that foul smell mixed with raspberries filled the air, making Lumine pinch her nose. She didn't believe Paimon when Paimon told her that the berries had to be pooped out by Dendro slimes until now. Whoever had to acquire those berries for Vlad must have not had fun doing that. She watched with Paimon as Qiqi mixed in several other liquids.
"Qiqi is done," she said, picking up the bowl filled with the medicinal paste and headed for the stairs.
Lumine and Paimon followed her quietly, leaving the rest up to Qiqi to help her patients.
In the first room at the top of the stairs, a pallet of rags had been laid on the bare wooden floor and a small figure similar to Paimon laid curled up on the rags, whimpering. Paimon floated down to her friend and hugged him, moving the black hair from his sweat-drenched brows. Lumine's heart ached at the sight, and she regretted not being able to get the herbs to Qiqi sooner.
Qiqi knelt beside the pallet on the other side and laid the bowl on the floor. "Qiqi will be with you shortly," she said, pulling out her notebook to find what she was looking for.
"Paimon promises you will feel better soon, Aerin," she whispered, rubbing his shoulder and arm with her hand.
"Qiqi will now administer medicine, please have him sit up and open his mouth so he can drink. This is Qiqi's orders."
Paimon helped him sit upright, causing pained whimpers to escape from the fairy. Qiqi moved closer and held the bowl to his lips. Lumine could hear the struggle as the fairy drank the medicine, she could also see the anxiety on Paimon's expression and moved closer to put a hand on her shoulder.
"Drink," Qiqi ordered, and Lumine saw the medicine dripping from the tip of the bowl and from his mouth, Aerin no longer drinking it.
"Aerin?" Paimon shook him as Qiqi took the bowl away from him. "Come on, this is not the time to prank Paimon!"
Lumine could feel it at that moment, the familiar pulling sensation drawing her towards Aerin like metal to a magnet. She gasped softly, "he's dying." The first icy tendrils of death brushed her skin, and she knew she was too late, if only she'd gotten there sooner.
"Dying?" Paimon looked up in horror at Lumine, denial written in her eyes.
"Give him to me! Hurry, there's not much time!" Already, she could feel his life fading. She yanked off her coat.
Paimon moved aside to let Lumine come closer and pick him up, holding the boy fairy to her chest. She could feel the weak fluttering heartbeat and the coldness already settling into the small body. "Hold on for Paimon, Aerin," she murmured.
Please work.
She closed her eyes and focused, reaching inside of herself to tap into the power she possessed. It was like opening a furnace door. Heat flared in her chest and roared through her veins like a spark following a fuse. She didn't have to tell her power where to go, it always knew. Her body buzzed like a live wire as currents of energy raced along her nerve endings towards her hands and chest, any part of her touching the dying fairy.
Normally, she released the power in a controlled stream, letting it flow gently to find the source of injury or illness. It was so strong, so forceful that she worried it would shock her patients and kill them. But when a body was shutting down and preparing to die, a jolt to the system was sometimes the only thing that could help it. It was kind of like those defibrillator paddles they used in emergency rooms, only Lumine's worked on the whole body instead of just the heart. That was the only way she knew how to describe it. Her power didn't exactly come with an instruction manual.
The heat pooled in her hands until they gave off a pale white glow. Hotter and hotter, the fire burned until it felt like she was grasping a hot metal pipe, but she didn't stop. She bit her lip to keep from crying out and held on, waiting for the power to grow to the right intensity before she released it.
Power exploded from her hands, pouring into the little body, and she felt it race through veins and bones and weave through tissue, saturating every cell like a spring storm soaking the earth. Her power was an extension of her, so she felt it coiling around the failing heart, pulsing and surging. With each push it sent a spike of energy through the heart, causing Aerin to jerk and spasm before he went still again.
"Stop, you're hurting him!" Paimon cried out, but didn't try to stop her as she watched anxiously with tears in her eyes.
Lumine ignored Paimon's pleas, and sent wave after wave of power into his body, praying that each would be the one to mend the damaged heart.
She lost track of the minutes, but at least ten passed before she was forced to accept she could not save Aerin. Her power was the only thing keeping him alive, and she could not keep it up much longer. She had to accept that she couldn't save Aerin, no matter how much of her power was poured into healing him. She reluctantly met Paimon's gaze, shaking her head.
Paimon's eyes widened in shock before her broken sobs filled the air. The sorry sight of her would be enough to pierce the hardest of hearts. No one should watch their loved ones die like this.
Lumine was not going to let it end like this, it was her fault for being too late.
She pulled back the power to her until her hands grew hot again. The pain lanced through her, but she barely felt it buried beneath the anger building inside her—the anger she felt for her failure. She sent power surging back through Aerin with the force of a wave crashing against rock. That much energy could stop a heart completely, but there was nothing to lose now.
The power drained away, and Lumine was spent, vaguely aware of Paimon crying and Qiqi looking through her notebook as the little heart pressed against her own gave a long irregular flutter and stopped.
There was only silence.
Then... lub-lub, lub-lub, lub-lub.
The slightest of movements as Aerin's chest rose, and his lungs expanded with a breath of fresh air. The shifting of his body tickled her chest. She lifted him and watched in wonder as the fairy opened his eyes, and coughed.
Lumine laughed and cried at the same time as Paimon's shouts filled the room, flying to Lumine and examining Aerin. Eventually, Aerin had the strength to float on his own, and Lumine watched as Paimon held him in a tight hug followed by sobs of relief. Qiqi managed to get Paimon separated from Aerin so she could perform a wellness check.
Lumine sat back heavily and leaned against the dusty wall, the healing process drained her; it always did. But, bringing a life back from the brink of death was difficult, and her body felt like it had run a marathon. No matter how many times she used it, it did not get easier.
Lumine was six when she discovered it. In the beginning, she often overdid it, until she learned not to drain herself too much. It was easy to overlook her own welfare when she was trying to save a life. She had to learn how to lock her power away unless she needed to call on it. Otherwise, every time she came within a few feet of a sick or injured creature, the energy got sucked right out of her.
Now, when she healed, she let out just enough to do the job. Releasing a torrent of power like she'd just done for Aerin was almost like overloading a circuit, except there was no breaker to reset her energy. Her power always replenished itself. It just took a while.
Cool hands touched Lumine's arms. "Are you okay, Lumine?" Paimon asked, worry in her voice.
Lumine gave a weary smile. "I'll be fine, you know how I am. Just... need to rest a bit."
"Paimon will watch over you while you rest then," she said, floating over to where Lumine's coat was and folding it so she could use it as a pillow, and placed it under Lumine's head.
She heard Paimon talking to Aerin and Qiqi, and heard sounds of movement, but it all became muffled as she drifted off.
Somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, she felt a familiar stirring in the back of her mind. After expending so much power, she was not surprised it was on the move. It was always active after a healing when her power was low. Not that it would get far. Even exhausted, she had enough left in her to push it back down.
Lumine called it the beast. It used to scare her having this dark thing inside her head, even though she knew it came with her power. She read a quote once that said, "When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow," and she wondered if the same was true for her. Her power was the candle—bright and warm—and the beast was its shadow—sullen and dark. One of Paimon's friends said that most power was a balance of good and bad, and Lumine should not be afraid of something that was a part of her. She did not embrace the beast, but she had no choice but to learn to live with it.
The room was quiet when she woke up, and the long shadows told her it was almost evening. Turning her head to the side, she saw Qiqi doing fitness exercises, and Paimon watching her curiously. Lumine trusted Paimon to never leave her alone when she was like this. Despite her appearance, Paimon possessed knowledge of some powerful magic.
Lumine groaned as she got to her feet. Her body ached, partly from the intense healing and partly from lying on the hard floor, and she stretched several times to get the kinks out. Then she picked up her coat and went over to the fairy and zombie.
"You're awake!" Paimon said, turning around when she noticed Lumine. "Paimon has never seen you sleep that deeply before. Feeling better?"
"That was a difficult one," Lumine admitted. "But, it was worth it to see your friend okay."
Paimon smiled brightly, "Paimon is very grateful for your help and will find a way to return the favor. Aerin went home while you were sleeping. He says 'thank you' as well. Paimon and Aerin wonder if you're some kind of sorceress."
Lumine chuckled and shook her head. If anything, Qiqi was the true hero in all of this. She single-handedly took care of Paimon's sick friend while Lumine was struggling to get her hands on the necessary herbs. The zombie's knowledge of medicine never failed to amaze her. Qiqi once told Lumine that she was several hundred years old, and with the vast collection of notebooks she possessed, Lumine believed it. Though, she has yet to convince the little doctor to switch over to digital storage over notebooks. Not even her caretaker could convince her either.
Paimon looked outside and frowned, "it's getting dark. Won't your aunt and brother be worried?"
"I've still got an hour left of daylight, and I'm not afraid of the dark."
"But won't Jean be upset if you stay out too late?"
"Jean's not happy about most things I do," Lumine quipped. Paimon put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes, and Lumine quickly said, "you know it's true. I love Jean, but we're just so... different. She wants me to be someone I'm not. She wants a normal niece who does normal schoolgirl things like join the cheer-leading squad with Barbara, or join the archery club with Amber, or... something. That's not me, and it never will be. I'm not like Aether who has her approval for being a normal nephew."
"That's not true, and you shouldn't compare yourself to your brother. Paimon thinks that Jean just wants you to be happy."
Lumine raised an eyebrow. "Since when were you an expert on human relationships?"
"All good parents want their children to be happy! At least, that's how Paimon sees it when observing humans."
Lumine poked her in the chest. "You know, you're getting bossy nowadays."
Paimon giggled, "not even fairies can boss you around."
"And don't you forget it!" Both of them laughed.
Lumine said her goodbye to Qiqi, and left with Paimon. They crossed the yard and slipped through the fence. Paimon turned to me, "thank you again, Lumine."
She shook her head, "I only did what I felt was right."
"Well, Paimon is hungry now after all of that. Until we meet again! You know how to call for me."
Paimon smiled before vanishing from sight. Lumine always envied the way fairies could just use magic to hide. It would be a handy skill to have at times, like hiding from Jean's impending lecture when she got home.
The streets were empty when she walked back to the bus stop. Even though it was a Friday evening, not a lot of people were headed into town, so there were plenty of seats to choose from on the bus. The same driver always drove this route on the weekends, and he nodded at Lumine when she dropped her change in the fare box.
At least she could relax on the return trip, because she and Paimon had done what they'd set out to do. She helped save a friend's loved one's life. How many girls in school could say that? Not that she enjoyed having to watch her back every time she left Vlad's shop, doing illicit business with people who were the underworld equivalent of drug dealers. Just because she had enough wits to keep a cool facade and act like she knew what she was doing, it did not change the fact that she was in way over her head. But, she couldn't stop now, not when lives depended on it.
When Paimon and Qiqi asked her two years ago to help her find a Ley Line Sprout to help a dying wolf, she had no idea there was an actual black market for that, and practically anything else you can think of if you could pay for it. Since then, she had found half a dozen other items for Paimon and Qiqi, and she also got pretty good at negotiating since none of the items were cheap or easy to find. It's not like you can buy slime concentrate or a large hilichurl horn online. Well, not yet anyway.
They were lucky Qiqi and Paimon could afford to buy pretty much anything. Of course there were some things more valuable than money, like the contents of the vial Lumine had given Vlad, rare and nearly impossible to obtain unless you had a friend like Paimon. He'd sell everything in his store to know how Lumine had gotten her hands on it, but she would never tell him or anyone else. It was dangerous enough letting someone like Vlad know that she had some to trade. People killed for a lot less valuable things. And if Paimon's people ever found out what they were up to... Lumine shuddered at the thought.
Fairy tears were a potent drug and priceless to humans, not just because of what it could do, but also because there were few brave and foolish enough to try and get it. Fairies were not only secretive and elusive, but they were dangerous and had a reputation that kept humans and nonhumans alike from seeking them out, let alone trying to make a fairy cry.
It made Lumine nervous to even think about using it again for trade, but if you could get past the risks involved, it had incredible regenerative properties. It could slow aging and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, and it could reverse balding. Lumine heard it could even fight certain types of cancer. She knew from experience that it couldn't fix everything, but half an ounce, like what she had given to Vlad, could stop someone from aging for up to five years if used properly. It was basically the fountain of youth, and there were people who would pay anything to get their hands on it and the source.
The younger the fairy, the more potent the tears, but fairies were so protective of their young that it was nearly impossible to get close to them without meeting a horrible end. Paimon was close to being like a teenager among her people, and she had given me her tears to barter with on her behalf if items Qiqi offered for trade weren't enough. If any of the fairy hierarchy found out, they would be furious. Fairies didn't like humans like me, though for some reason the elders tolerated my friendship with Paimon. That didn't change my perspective of things though. I'm still just a human.
The bus pulled up to Lumine's stop in front of an old post office in Mondstadt. The usually busy streets were quiet now except for the people heading to the station outside of Mondstadt or heading home. She crossed the street at the light and cut through the small parking lot between two buildings to come out on the end of the city where the waterfront was. On both sides of her were the pier and the shops and restaurants that lined the lake. When they were little, Jean used to take Aether and her down there for fun play days. She was almost home, her house being located in Starfell Valley.
After the day she'd had, all she wanted was to curl up in bed with a book for the rest of the night. She had to make a mental note that her library book was due within a week, and she didn't want to make the librarian upset for it being overdue.
It was quiet as she crossed the bridge and onto the path towards her neighborhood several miles away when three shadows emerged from the trees ahead of her, and she froze as one of them spoke with a gruff tone.
"What's a little lady like you doing out this late at night?"