Chapter 4: Mondstadt, Part 2

A/N: So apparently I've been spelling Mondstadt wrong this entire time... halfway through writing this chapter, my sister realized and revealed to me that it was MondSTADT and not MondSTAT. I might go back over the previous chapter and fix it... but I also might never get around to it and you'll just have to DEAL.

I really did think it was spelled Mondstat though...

Oh well :)

Also, I was finally able to celebrate my birthday! We had covid for a while, and had to keep putting stuff off, but last Sunday my mom totally shocked me with an amazing surprise party, it was so cool! And, "Night" finally finished sewing the last parts of my present from her - which I can't remember if I've mentioned before but I probably have - so, my Lumine-inspired dress is done! It's sooo pretty, she even made a scarf and a flower hair clip and everything...

Well at any rate, it was a pretty good (very late) birthday! :)

~Golden out~

The following evening, Lumine and Paimon headed to Angel's Share to meet with Venti and Master Diluc.

As they approached, Lumine saw that, although the sun was only just now setting, the tavern was strangely deserted. Then, she realized that Master Diluc - as the tavern's owner - had probably closed early to give them a private place to talk.

She and Paimon entered the building, and were greeted by Venti, Master Diluc, and - for some reason - the Acting Grand Master, Jean.

After Lumine and Jean got over their initial surprise at seeing each other, Master Diluc announced that Jean had agreed to help them save Stormterror.

In the short time since Lumine and Master Diluc had last seen one another, he and Jean had combined their resources and managed to discover the location of the Fatui hideout where the Holy Lyre was being kept.

"The number of Fatui that have come to Mondstadt is far from limited," Master Diluc informed them. "I've already managed to... coerce a few reports out of them. I have determined that the Holy Lyre is not being held in the Goth Grand Hotel."

"They probably wouldn't want to hide it where it could be found so easily," Lumine realized. "If too big of a scene gets made, this will become a huge diplomatic issue, right?"

"Exactly," Master Diluc agreed. "Hmph, such is the diplomacy between the seven nations."

"I'll be staying here with Venti," Jean informed her, "so as to avoid any issues between the Fatui and the knights."

Master Diluc made a slight sound of derision but didn't comment. Turning to her, he asked, "Traveler, ready to go?"

"One moment," Venti interrupted. "Paimon, would you like to stay here with me and Jean?"

"Why would Paimon do that?" She asked.

Venti made some sort of strange gesture to Paimon - which she obviously understood better than Lumine did, because her face lit up and she said, "Ohhh, right! Sure, Paimon will stay! That way, Night and Master Diluc can-"

"I think I understand now," Jean interrupted. "Paimon, why don't we all talk about this after they leave? They really do need to get going, it'll be dark out soon," she said quickly.

"Alright, then..." Diluc said, raising an eyebrow. He seemed slightly confused, but overall unwilling to investigate any deeper into whatever they were talking about. "Well, are you ready to go?" He asked Lumine once more.

"Yes," she replied. And with that, they left.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Lumine asked as she and Master Diluc headed towards the city gates. "Why not go to one of the Teleport Waypoints in town?"

"One is on the roof of the Knights of Favonius headquarters. The other is in the middle of the city, and there are always Fatui diplomats nearby since it's close to the Goth Grand Hotel," he answered shortly, and they both fell silent.

As the dusk fell, they walked across the bridge connecting Mondstadt to the other side of Cider Lake, neither one able to break the awkward silence. Lumine wanted desperately to strike up a conversation, but she had no idea how to begin. Finally, she decided to simply say something just to try and make things less awkward.

Casting her mind around for a topic, she remembered the strange moment between Master Diluc and Jean in the tavern before. "So, uh... how long have you known Jean?" She asked casually, trying to subtly dig for a little information.

"Ah... we were best friends as children, but then I left Mondstadt for three years when I was eighteen, after... well..." he trailed off, his face hardening as he looked away.

"Oh, I- I didn't mean to... pry, or anything... I'm sorry, you don't have to- I mean, well..." Lumine stammered.

Master Diluc let out a slow, sad sigh, and looked back at her. "Don't apologize, it's not your fault. I left Mondstadt after - no, because - my father... died. It was, well... I don't like talking about it."

Lumine placed a hand on his arm, looking up at him sadly. They both stopped walking, and he turned to face her.

"I don't want your pity," he told her roughly.

"No, no! Not... not pity, just..." she trailed off, frustrated. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to say it in your language!"

So, she said it to him in her language, and he smiled. It was that true smile of his, the one that she'd only ever seen twice before. He should smile more often, it looks nice...

"I think I understand," he told her. Then, he gestured in front of them. "We're here."

"Oh... so we are," Lumine agreed.

There was a moment of awkwardness, as they both simply stood there in front of the Teleport Waypoint. Then, Master Diluc reached out and took hold of her hand, placing his other on the Waypoint and teleporting them away.

A few minutes later, the two of them stood in front of what seemed to be a regular cave.

"Is this how the Fatui disguise all of their hideouts?" Lumine joked.

"You'd be surprised," Master Diluc answered dryly. "But, speaking of disguises... here, take this," he said, pulling something out of his pocket and handing it to her. "A mask, to protect your identity. Put it on now, before we run into any Fatui," he explained, pulling out a second one and placing it on his own face. "Unfortunately, they are still one of Mondstadt's allies... at least that's the facade we're maintaining. Our actions are going to get them stirred up, and I don't want you to implicate yourself on a personal level."

With that precaution in place, Lumine and Master Diluc entered the cave.

Immediately, they came face-to-face with two guards, who were taken out instantly before that even had time to react.

"Be on your guard, Traveler," Master Diluc warned. "Once the Fatui realize that something is amiss, we'll have an entire army crashing down on us."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," she assured him.

"Good," he said simply. Then, he took out his claymore and strode down the long, narrow tunnel that had the 'cave' had been hiding. Lumine quickly ran after him, unsheathing her sword.

As they ran down the tunnel, she realized how similar it was to the other Fatui hideout she'd been inside of. She was expecting to come out on the same sort of big, cluttered room at the end, so she was rather surprised to find instead a smaller room, which had nothing in it but a few Fatui and the entrance to a hallway which led deeper into the hideout.

Master Diluc was already charging forwards, sword blazing, so Lumine quickly darted after him and threw herself into the battle at his side. Together, they made quick work of the three enemies.

"Good work," he told her. She smiled, and opened her mouth to answer, when a loud alarm suddenly started blaring. "They must've discovered the unconscious guards!" Master Diluc yelled over the noise. "That means they're behind us - we need to move before we get boxed in!" Lumine nodded, and together they sprinted down the hallway to the next room.

Strangely, it was completely unoccupied. In the middle of the room, there was a long bridge, which spanned a pit of lava. There were a few pillars on each side of it, and a short stairway at the end leading to an arched doorway. Other than that, there was nothing inside.

She started to go forwards, but Master Diluc grabbed her arm. "Careful," he warned, "they wouldn't make it that easy. I think I see some sort of mechan-"

He yanked her away from the bridge just in time. Right in front of where she'd been standing, a section of the bridge had suddenly flipped over to reveal a huge, round machine, which slowly started to spin around as it shot flames from each side.

"Th-thanks," Lumine gasped, fully aware that she would've been burnt to a crisp had he not been so quick to respond.

He turned to her with a worried look on his face. "Are you okay?"

She was about to answer but was interrupted by a yell coming from the other side of the bridge. "There they are! Intruders!"

It seemed the Fatui had arrived: five of them had just come through the arch on the other side of the bridge. They were separated from Master Diluc and Lumine by the flames, but they wouldn't be for long... and, as the two of them stood there waiting for the platforms to flip back over and the flames to disappear, she could've sworn she heard pounding footsteps coming from the room behind them.

"We're about to be boxed in, we need to move now!" Master Diluc muttered to her tensely; it seemed he had heard them too.

The platforms flipped back over, and the two of them sprinted forwards, meeting the Fatui halfway across the bridge. Inch by inch they started slowly pushing the enemy back towards the doorway, trying to gain a better position before they were surrounded.

Then, three more Fatui emerged from the hallway behind them.

"I'll hold them off!" Lumine yelled, darting around to face their new opponents. Using her Windblade, she managed to knock one of them off the bridge before they managed to set shields. She went on slashing and dodging, simply trying to keep the Fatui from getting past.

Suddenly, she heard a panicked voice behind her. "Move!" In a split second she realized what was happening as the platform beneath her feet started tilting, and jumped. As the platform flipped it slung her sideways, and she just managed to catch hold of the side of the bridge, barely avoiding the same fiery death that had happened to the two Fatui she'd been fighting moments before.

The relief she felt at not dying faded instantly as she realized that her grip on the bridge was failing. She was supporting her entire weight with her left hand - since her sword was still clutched in her right - and her hand had started to slip. "H-help!" She choked out.

"Hang on!" Master Diluc yelled. She was hanging on by just her fingertips now.

Seconds before her grip would've failed and sent her plummeting into the lava below, two strong hands closed around her wrist. She gasped in relief, her numb fingers finally letting go of the bridge. Master Diluc grunted slightly as her full weight came to hang in his hands instead, but easily adjusted to the extra weight.

"I can't pull you up, the flames are in the way," he told her. "Get ready - I'll do it when the platform flips."

"Okay," she agreed.

They waited there for almost thirty seconds - though it felt like thirty minutes to Lumine, as her arm hurt more and more - but finally, they both felt the platform start to turn. With one huge heave, Master Diluc hoisted her back up, picking up his discarded claymore and rising to his feet as he turned to face the few remaining Fatui in a single motion. She scrambled to her feet behind him, holding her sword aloft with shaking arms.

"Stay back... I'll handle this," he told her, twirling his claymore dramatically with a vengeful smirk on his face. She would have protested, but he had already thrown himself at the Fatui in a huge wave of flame.

The fight was over within a minute. "Let's go, before they send any more," he said.

She looked at him in wide-eyed astonishment. "You're a really good fighter!"

He was standing in front of her with his back turned, so she couldn't see his face, but Lumine could've sworn she heard a hint of embarrassment in his voice as he answered. "It's nothing, I just have a lot of experience is all."

"O-kay, if you say so," she smirked.

He cleared his throat and said, "we must keep going, Traveler. We've still got a lyre to find, after all."

"Alright," she agreed, and together they climbed the steps and went through the archway to the next room.

After interrogating and fighting a number of guards, Lumine and Master Diluc finally managed to retrieve a key which unlocked the next door, leading them to an elevator.

"We must be getting close, right? We're pretty deep in," she asked him as they stepped onto it.

"If my guess is not off, we may be approaching the room where the Holy Lyre is being kept now," he answered, activating the mechanism that sent the elevator upwards.

As it came to a halt, they could see a big, empty room with a pedestal near the back wall. Resting atop the pedestal was the Holy Lyre der Himmel.

"This is a trap, isn't it?" Lumine whispered.

"Probably," he answered, taking out his claymore and striding boldly into the room. Lumine had no choice but to follow, raising her sword and preparing for a fight.

Instantly, metal bars came down from the ceiling around the Holy Lyre, cutting them off from it. A voice came from the corner of the room next to the elevator. "Where did you rats scurry out from..."

"You Fatui are the real rats, sneaking around in the shadows and stealing from your supposed allies," Master Diluc replied scathingly, turning to face the source of the voice.

"You do realize that Signora is not going to tolerate this kind of interference in our affairs?" The Fatui Agent stepped forwards into the light, completely ignoring Master Diluc's jab. "So, I'll be the one to take care of you - save her the trouble of having to deal with you herself," he finished, sending three blades of fire whirling around himself.

Master Diluc ran forward and sent a fiery slash at him, but the Agent blocked. He pulled his claymore back to strike again, but hit nothing, as the Agent quickly turned invisible.

Lumine looked around wildly, trying to tell where he'd went. She heard footsteps on her left, and quickly sent a gust of wind in that direction. It knocked him to the ground, dispelling his invisibility. She immediately slashed at him, trying to catch him off guard before he could regain his footing, but he dodged. Her second swipe caught his arm, and he roared in pain. Charging up his blade, he lunged forward in a fiery streak. Lumine jumped out of the way just in time, and he merely singed her clothes.

Master Diluc was waiting for him, and sent him flying with a well-timed swing. He managed to recover before they reached him, springing to his feet and summoning fiery blades once more. The two of them managed to get outside the radius of the spinning wheels, and the Agent smirked before disappearing again.

Lumine listened carefully and heard him circle around behind them. This time, she was ready; as he re-appeared she summoned a small wind vortex in her palm, which swirled with the flames around them, and sent it forwards in a fiery gust. He dodged most of it, darting right past her and vanishing again. Before he was able to move from the spot, however, she quickly gathered her energy and leaped into the air, spinning a mini tornado around herself and letting it fly forwards at the Agent. It too swirled with the flames, making a blaze of spinning fire that carried the Agent across the room.

He dropped to the floor, and Master Diluc rushed forwards and struck once, twice, thrice with his flaming sword. Before the Agent - who was somehow still alive - could stand up, Master Diluc sent his giant, fiery phoenix flying forwards, sweeping him all the way to the opposite end of the room before swooping upwards and vanishing.

The two victors approached the Agent cautiously.

"Is he... alive?" Lumine asked.

"He is merely unconscious - a shame," Master Diluc answered, bending down over him. "In my opinion, the only good Fatui is a dead one - but," he added, glancing over and seeing the look on her face, "I do not go killing in cold blood, and if that's what you think of me-"

"No, no!" she interrupted quickly. "I just... well, you seem to really, really hate them. I was... surprised, I guess," she explained.

"Hate them?!" He let out a humorless laugh. "The Fatui are the reason my father is dead," he said bitterly, and his hands - which she realized were surprisingly small beneath the gloves, almost delicate - clenched tightly into fists.

Lumine gazed at him, her heart going out to him in sympathy. He avoided her eyes, looking resolutely downwards. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and he took a deep breath before turning to face her. "Here. This will probably open the cage," he said, holding up a key he'd found in the pocket of the unconscious Fatui Agent. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, so she nodded and took the key.

Walking over to the pedestal, she grabbed the lyre. "I guess that's it, then..." she mused, a part of her having expected it to be a little more dramatic. She turned around, and realized that Master Diluc had followed her over. "Well, the lyre is back in safe hands, I guess?" She said, shrugging.

Happening to glance over at the side of the room where they had left the unconscious Agent, she realized that he was gone. "Wait, where did that guy go?!"

A loud clank came from the elevator, as a metal grate slammed down in front of it between them and the Agent. "Signora is going to end you! The songs bards sing of your demise will be so terrifying - the people of Mondstadt will never sleep again for the nightmares they give them!" His threats faded into silence as the elevator slowly descended.

Lumine scoffed. "Yeah, big talk for a coward who had to flee in the end."

After a moment Master Diluc finally said, "we should get back to the tavern, and figure out the next step of the plan."

"Yeah, okay," she agreed, following him towards the exit. Then, she stopped. "One moment..." he turned and looked back at her. "I don't know if I've said it before or not, but... thank you, Master Diluc. If you hadn't believed us - if you hadn't agreed to help us - I don't know how we would have ever gotten the Holy Lyre back."

"Yes, well, there's - there is no need for that," he replied, almost bashfully.

She smiled. "Yes, I think there is."

"Well, let's - let's be off then, Traveler," he said, and this time she followed without hesitation.

When Lumine and Master Diluc walked in, they saw Jean, Venti, Paimon, and Kaeya all sitting at the bar and talking together. "So then he was all flustered, and told her that 'I was simply... doing my job,' and-"

Venti clapped a hand to Paimon's mouth, then said loudly, "Ah, you two are back! We were just-"

"-Helping yourself to my best wine, no doubt," Master Diluc growled. "What is he doing here?" He said, jerking his head in Kaeya's direction.

"Oh, I was just leaving," Kaeya smirked. "I'll let you have your secret little meeting in peace. And by the way," he said, looking at Lumine, "that's an interesting lyre, Traveler. Have a nice evening!" And with that, he whisked out the doorway before she could say a word in reply.

Master Diluc rounded on the other three. "What did you tell him?!" He demanded.

Jean sighed. "We didn't tell him anything - he just walked in while we were talking." Seeing the stormy look on Master Diluc's face, she quickly added, "we were talking about a totally unrelated subject! He simply... found the topic interesting, and joined the conversation," she explained.

For some reason Paimon and Venti started giggling.

Master Diluc ignored them and glared at Jean. "He obviously knows something, are you sure you didn't let anything slip?"

"Maybe he just saw the lyre that Night - the Traveler - was carrying?" Jean suggested.

"Oh, the Holy Lyre! You managed to retrieve it!" Venti finally noticed.

"Um, yes, last I checked that was the whole point in all of this, wasn't it?" She asked flatly.

"Well, actually-" Paimon started.

"Yes, of course!" Venti cut in. "Of course. I was just-"

"What do you think, can you summon Dvalin with it?" Jean interrupted.

And with that, they were officially back in business mode. Lumine sighed internally, and resigned herself to another long conversation, in which she would probably get to stand there and listen to Paimon talk for her, before being volunteered into a bunch of stuff. She sighed again, then plastered her default innocent expression on her face.

"What do you think, Traveler?" Master Diluc asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Lumine looked up at him. "Oh, uh..."

Paimon started to answer for her. "Well, obviously Night agrees that-"

"I asked the Traveler. I'd like to hear her answer," he cut Paimon off.

Lumine blinked. He actually noticed! Unlike anyone else, Master Diluc had noticed... she smiled at him gratefully, and - for once - began to speak, and to tell them all her opinion.

After they had established a plan, the conversation devolved into Paimon giving Venti ugly nicknames. While everyone else was distracted, she sneakily moved closer to Master Diluc, not really wanting to draw everyone else's attention. "Thank you," she whispered quietly, so that only he could hear.

He didn't reply, but as she stole a glance up at his face, Lumine realized that he was smiling.

Bonus:

Diluc and the Traveler left the tavern to find the Holy Lyre, and Venti listened carefully until he was sure they were well out of earshot. Finally, he turned back to Jean and Paimon. "They're gone!" He announced.

"So - Paimon, Venti, you think there's something going on between those two?" Jean asked. "I mean, didn't they only meet yesterday?"

The two giggled together like children.

"Well apparently he saved her once, before she and Paimon even met," Venti told her. "They were being all cute about it."

"Ooh, and he was covering up for her to those knights when they got suspicious!" Paimon added.

"Yeah, and when she first walked in and they saw each other, they were gazing into each other's eyes," Venti put in.

"And - when Master Diluc was pretending Night been there for ages because of the guards - he offered to 'escort her to her lodgings,' it was so sweet!" Paimon and Venti seemed to have forgotten that Jean lacked any context for this - in fact, they were so busy shipping their friends that they seemed to have forgotten she was even there.

"Oh, what's this I hear about the Traveler and my dear brother?" The three of them turned in shock to see Kaeya leaning on the door, smirking. "Here was I, thinking the tavern was closed - then I saw the two of them walk out together, and decided to investigate. And what do I find? You three sitting here, talking about them," he said, walking to the bar and sitting on an empty stool.

"Uh..." Jean stared at him, flummoxed.

"Yeah, we were just talking about how cute they are together!" Paimon announced.

"Well, count me intrigued... do go on," he replied with a huge smirk.

Venti smirked back. "See, it all started yesterday, when..."

A/N: So, it seems Kaeya and Jean have joined the Dilumi shippers, hehe~

In case anyone was wondering, "Night" is my sister's "gamer name," therefore also her nickname on her Genshin account. I decided to make that the Traveler's nickname in my story, since I probably will be reserving my nickname for some Thomalumi fic that I might write someday - if I ever get a good idea for it! But anyways...

8XxAnimexX8, I dunno if I've said it already, but tysm for the reviews! To anyone reading this, go check out 8XxAnimexX8's story Celestia Academy if you aren't already reading it, because well you SHOULD be!

Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out! It's such a pity... I thought my inspiration would carry me a little further before it came to this. But alas. The time has come prematurely. You may ask "Before it came to what? What's happened?" The answer? The bane of our existence: "writer's block." It's your arch-nemesis for life, appearing without warning and inflicting a pain worse than death upon the writer. They sell their souls just to get their muse back.

Did I just write a whole paragraph paraphrased from a quote in Yae Miko's story quest?

Yes. Yes I did :)

~Golden out~