Author's Note
The last chapter was copied twice, sorry about that, it must have been confusing. It has been fixed, or at least it will be soon when the edit uploads. The glitched stats are fun, I'm not actually sure how many people have taken an interest in this as I only had like 2 1/2 chapters worth of data but you know what, that's alright!
I hope you enjoy this one :)
Beidou
Shit, they looked younger when they were clean. The dripping gore added a few years, and the siblings didn't look out of their teenage years. Beidou was only 21, but considering how many bodies they have been found with, 17 seemed young. They were both staring at her eyes, and she looked very curious. It was similar to the looks she got from children or the especially non-magical when she used her signature.
Unfortunately, the mists took their sweet time to return to normal and the Eyes of the Storm Lord never cleared until the changes in the atmosphere had subsided. It would be a few minutes at least. Beidou uncomfortably shifted her gaze away from them, to the general. It wasn't like they could tell, her pupils weren't visible.
"It's nice to meet you both, I'm Beidou," she spoke, letting her voice carry.
"Hi!" they both responded, at almost the same time.
The text she had gotten from Kaeya only read; "everyone is chill (except they have no memories) meet at the tavern?", so she wasn't exactly caught up.
She gave the siblings a smile, and looked back to General Gunnhildr; "To the tavern, yeah?"
The other woman nodded and invited Beidou to lead the way.
The girl, whose uniform was too big, walked up beside her. "You were one of the five people who rescued us, right? Thank you," she smiled warmly.
She seemed authentic, but Beidou that was an oddly specific question, which meant that she probably remembered the lightning at least. The headmistress didn't seem surprised, so they had clearly both been told to some extent how they were recovered. But how much should she reveal? How much did they remember from before?
At that moment, Jean intervened; "Beidou was leading the team, as a matter of fact." Suspicion flickered across Lumine's features, so she must have been looking to ask about the clearing after all.
Beidou threw open the doors of the Sunrise tavern and led the group into the building. In the center, there was a keyhole-shaped bar protruding into the middle of the floor, and there was a partial ceiling directly over it. On top of the upper level, there was a stage that fit perfectly over the shape of the bar. Sunlight was warming the room from the long windows on two of its sides and various large potted ferns and flowers sat amongst the tables.
While Beidou didn't see Diluc immediately, the sound of clinking glasses and sliding of boxes betrayed his position under the circular section of the bar. He stood up and took in the entering party. His face had been marred by a heavy scar running through the end of his eyebrow and towards his ear, and it made him look very adult despite the fact he was less than a year older then her. He was wearing a black button-up shirt and a scarf that was as vibrantly scarlet as his brother's had been shimmering white. His hair was permanently dyed to match by magic, for a person so morose he made colorful hair choices. One of his irises was black due to his signature, and the other had the same bright blue color as Kaeya's eyes.
"I hadn't even gotten far before we were called off, so I assume you didn't either?" he called out, Beidou realized, to the siblings. They both paused at the door, so Beidou kept walking up to the bar.
"No, your brother caught up with them and we talked," General Gunnhildr answered in their place. She moved around them and they both followed her, side-by-side, into the taproom. Beidou sat back on one of the barstools and leaned her trident against the bartop. This was such a weird situation, what were they even doing?
Diluc's face tensed briefly at the mention of Kaeya, but he made no comment. They really needed to either get along better or just avoid each other. Not that they could seem to really do either but damn.
Beidou introduced Aether and Lumine and they sat beside her, Aether sat down to her immediate right and Lumine took the stool on his other side. The general took a seat at a nearby table.
"This is Captain Diluc Ragnvindr. He owns the winery that supplies these taverns, which are managed by Kaeya," she added, once everyone was seated.
The twins looked like they were trying to take in a lot of information all at once, but they didn't seem confused. Beidou watched Aether, he had the same eyes as his sister. Did he have a signature of his own? His eyes looked the same, but they couldn't have the same signature. NO signature existed in two people at once, but their eyes were almost identical. It's not like it mattered much now, they'd find out later.
"It's nice to meet you," Lumine spoke up, "Are you a captain also with the church?"
"I am, yes. I graduated from the academy this year," Diluc responded, switching his gaze back and forth from brother to sister.
"They've lost their memory," Beidou informed him.
"Yes, it's a difficult situation," the general added.
"Yep, we did that," Aether nodded sagely.
"Hmm. Do you know much of Mondstadt?" Diluc inquired, watching the siblings.
"We're either from far away or we've lost all of our regional knowledge as well because we don't recall anything. We've been told a little bit about magic principles and that this is Mondstadt," Lumine disclosed. Beidou noticed that she was playing with the zipper of her jacket nervously, and Diluc must have as well because he went about pouring apple cider into two tall glasses.
"We also learned how we were found in the woods, dead and stuff," Aether added.
That was new to Beidou. I mean they looked Mondstadtian, they had Mondstadtian names. If they didn't remember anything, maybe they had lived somewhere else?"
"That's quite the diverse portfolio," Diluc said as he set the glasses in front of the siblings.
"We aren't entirely sure where to start on the whole recap process," Beidou interjected.
"For starters, I'm a captain in the Mondo-Liyuean military, which works with the Favonious Church and the Liyue Qixing to defend our countries,"
"That contained a lot of terms," Aether interrupted, "And I did not follow at all, I'm sorry. Mondo-Liyue is Mondstadt and Liyue, right?"
They should probably save the geography shit for the academy but how much background did they need now?
"Liyue, where I'm from, is a country to the south that's ruled by a number of individuals known as the Qixing. Mondstadt's government is largely based within and around the Church of Favonius, which worshiped the old Archon of Wind in the past. The gods aren't around anymore, there was a god war and shit. We believe that signature holders are reinnations of minor gods, or at least that they hold their power as it passes through generations but that's a whole other thing. Mondo-Liyuean stuff is just whatever is governed by both: so the military and the academy mostly," she clarified.
"Okay, thanks. So the church is less a church now and just a government?" Lumine asked, starting to catch up.
"Yeah, more or less. It still has the faith of the people, just for different reasons."
"Okay. How did Favonius die? Did the gods fight amongst themselves? How many were there? How many are left?" Aether continued, looking from person to person.
"Oh nah, Mondstadt's archon, or main god, was named Barbatos. I don't know where the name Favonious comes from. But there were 7 archons, one per nation in Teyvat. They all wound up dead. They fought each other but they did have physical forms that could theoretically be killed by mortals. This was a long time ago, myths differ, but the Tsaritza of Snezhnaya started harvesting the power of the other gods through various means and eventually, she had to be stopped. Some shit went down, there was a war, and now all the archons are dead. There are still some gods, there were always a lot of those, but they don't have the presence they once did and nobody knows how to find them," Beidou paused to catch her breath as the siblings took in all that she'd said.
"Okay, thanks," Aether nodded to her and thought over the information for a second.
Beidou leaned back to look at the general, who shrugged as if to convey that she didn't know in what direction to go with the discussion.
"Vy ponimayete menya?" Diluc asked suddenly, squinting at the twins. They both looked at him with a completely blank expression. Beidou sighed, that crossed off that possibility.
"Aether and Lumine aren't Snezhnayan names. They're both Mondstatian, Aether comes from Fontatian roots," the headmaster spoke up, "So they probably weren't locals anyways."
Seeing the sibling's confusion Beidou chimed in again, "He just asked something in the language of the nation you were found in."
"Oh, yeah I didn't get that. Are we speaking Mondstatian?" Aether asked.
"No, it's the trader's language. It's more common than any nation's old language. Old Mondstadtian is one of the least commonly seen, it's basically a dead language," Jean informed him.
"Sorry I feel like we've gotten away from something; where were we found? What was around the woods?" Lumine leaned forwards toward Beidou and Aether swiveled to look at her as well. They had to be signature eyes, but she had a one-eye signature. Confusingly; both eyes on both siblings were the same exact color, but that was another thing they could revisit later.
"Technically Snezhnaya, the same country we all went to war with way before, but there's a pretty large swath of unhabituated warzone between us. We've got the mountains and they've got a cold as fuck climate so neither side really gets into the main nation. The war is pretty calm as wars come, but someone's always plotting something. Nothing will change until something big shakes it up," Beidou relayed. She could add that the eviscerated Snezhnayan bodies around the twins probably provided a few more hints, but she didn't think the general wanted to share that detail right now if they didn't remember it.
The siblings looked disappointed, Beidou didn't blame them. It was a pretty unhelpful assessment.
"Okay, that makes sense," Lumine nodded slowly to herself.
Diluc had been quietly taking in the conversation from a few feet away from where he was reorganizing wine glasses on the shelves that dropped down from the stage-ceiling, but he spoke up; "You should probably tell them about the Academy."
"Yeah, about that," Beidou gestured for General Gunnhildr to take it from there.
"I'm part of the leadership at an Academy that trains talented students in various means of combat and magic. Captain Ragnvindr is adopting a teaching position as he has graduated to a military role, and Ms. Zhou and Mr. Ragnvindr, er, Kaeya, Captain Ragnvindr is Diluc here, are currently studying with us. Seeing as you are a rather special case we were planning to help you, and we were actually going to take you to our infirmary but you recovered exponentially quicker than expected," The general paused to gauge the kid's faces, which Beidou had been trying to do. Lumine looked unsurprised as if she had gathered as much already, and Aether was grinning broadly.
"That sounds cool! We're not magic though, I think. Are we? I was wondering about it," he commented.
"Magic requires knowledge, so you may have lost that, but it would be unusual for people so young to have extensive knowledge. If you had signatures, which we suspect you do, you would theoretically be able to understand them naturally," the general answered.
Lumine's face flickered in realization, and Beidou smiled. She absolutely remembered the clearing then. They could bring that up later. The general must have realized too.
Meanwhile, Aether had leaned so far forward that his stool was near-to-falling. Lumine reached out to pull him back as he started asking questions again.
"You think we do? How do we figure it out, and why do you say so? How do signatures work? You said early that signatures were passed down by generation, are they genetic? Could we locate our family that way?"
Beidou couldn't blame him, everyone she had talked to remembered being fucking psyched to learn they had signatures.
"Unfortunately, they aren't genetic. No signature can be in two people at once, but signatures typically reappear in some random baby a handful of years after their previous owner dies. Your eyes nearly guarantee that you've both got one. Every signature manifests in the eyes. The weakest kind of signature appears only when used, the strongest appear constantly in one eye, and most signatures are visible in both at once onwards from when you gain it. Gold isn't exactly a natural color. If you look at mine you'll see the same thing. Diluc here is a special boy, he's got a fancy one-eye signature," she explained.
"Can we ask what all of your signatures do? How would you use them?" Lumine inquired.
"Mine are in the middle tier. They're known as the Eyes of the Stormlord. I can change the weather slowly over time, which I know sounds lame. However, it's pretty valuable in naval situations, and the last person to have these Eyes summoned a tornado in the middle of a battle before they died," Beidou flaunted. Even though she might never get that strong, she took pride in what her predecessor had done.
"I can't do that yet, but you have to build your signature up over time," she added.
"Kaeya has an invisible signature, one that you can only see when it's used, but he will never tell you what it does, and he has sworn me to secrecy. On my part, I don't have one," Jean added.
"I possess the Eyes of the Bandit, which are rather difficult to explain. Here;" Diluc stepped towards the counter and as he did a pure-black figure appeared beside him. It had no highlights, no recesses, just a blank black form identical to Diluc's outline. Black mist slowly seeped from it, and it put it's hands on the counter to lean towards Aether.
"Signatures are only as strong as you are. Some signatures simply have more potential for growth," the voice was unmistakably Diluc's unenthusiastic yet sharp inflection, but he hadn't moved. It was his shadow that spoke instead. There was not enough detail to it's face for Beidou it's lips to move but Beidou had seen Diluc do worse with his projections. The siblings were not so prepared, and Aether let out an involuntary laugh. Then, with a sort of exhale, the shadow dissolved into mist and fell away into the natural shadow Diluc cast.
"I can make my shadow into a clone under my command," Diluc stated. He wasn't exactly bragging but he wasn't downplaying his abilities. He was certainly gifted, Beidou didn't really hold it against him.
"That's awesome. How common are signatures like that?" Lumine asked, just as enraptured by the magic as her brother.
"Signatures in general are exceedingly rare. At the academy we help those with signatures to realize their power, meaning that anyone from Mondstadt or Liyue possessing a signature is welcome. Even then, there are only a few dozen students of your skillset. There are many adults between our countries, of course, but a signature is one in a thousand. Captain Ragnvindr is somewhere around one in ten thousand and only about half of the other signature users have more powerful visible signatures like Ms. Zhou," Jean informed him.
She sounded like she was teaching when she talked to the twins. They had to know stuff, but it was fucking summer and Beidou was tired of learning right now. She missed the training ground, and the massive kickass academy armory.
"Oh, wow. Congratulations," Lumine looked curiously at Diluc. "Does using a signature often hurt? I mean how hard is it?"
"If you overexert yourself it can be dangerous, just like magic. However, they tend to be easier to use, and more natural," Diluc answered. "You'll be able to experiment to confirm that you have signatures and what they are when you get to the Academy. I wouldn't worry about it now."
At that moment the door opened and Kaeya stepped in. Sunlight washed over his back, casting a long shadow into the bar. "This is a bit sudden but I need a little bit of help, the short story is that Sucrose has accidentally given a few cats super strength and they have to be rounded up."
"I want to see!" Aether jumped down and looked to Lumine, expectantly.
Beidou in turn looked to Jean, who just subtly motioned for her to stay put. Was this her strategy for getting Lumine alone? What in the fuck? Cats?
"We'll go, you three can keep talking," Diluc said, quickly striding towards the back door of the bar.
Aether looked nervous, as if he hadn't expected Lumine to stay behind. Beidou needed him to just go, they should really talk to Lumine alone. Apparently, Aether did indeed choose magical cats, because he smiled at Lumine and then ran out the front door.
Kaeya winked at the general and shut the door behind them, dropping the taproom back into the dim but warm ambient light.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get you alone," the general said softly, smiling at Lumine.
"How did you know Aether would leave?" she asked, slightly on edge without her brother.
"I just told Kaeya to come up with something, I don't know why that worked," Jean said, shaking her head, "But you don't need to worry, we just want to talk a bit about the clearing."
"Oh, alright. But, why can't Aether be here for that?" Lumine asked, still nervous.
Beidou didn't really know why she was so nervous, weren't they siblings? What siblings got along like this? She had always thought her brothers were complete assholes.
"We just want to talk to you first, cool?" she asked.
"Okay." Lumine responded
"Alright," Jean smiled warmly. "So Lumine, you might know that you were a bit more than just collapsed in the woods. There were Snezhnayan soldiers surrounding your bodies, and they were all dead. Once the team moved you, more soldiers pursued you and the team was forced to dispatch them."
Beidou picked it up there, "We weren't expecting you to wake partly through that battle. How much of that do you remember?"
Lumine met her gaze evenly, calmer now than before; "I um, I remember all of it."
"Okay, that's good. That makes things a little easier," Beidou cracked her knuckles.
"Is Han Lim okay?" Lumine asked. How the hell did she know her name? She really did remember the clearing then, which was good, but Lumine never learned that information.
"Yeah, she'll recover. Another member of our group was able to help her on the way to the infirmary back at the academy. So don't worry about that. I have to ask though, how did you know her name?" Beidou questioned.
"A few times when people cast spells I could just…. tell who did it and what the spell was. But my eye started to hurt a lot and I covered it. Then when that the thing happened at the end, I don't know what I did. Was that a signature? It worked again with you and Kaeya," Lumine asked, indicating General Gunnhildr.
"Was it a signature? Yeah, and probably among the strongest ones we've ever seen. Most signatures are already recorded, from previous iterations and owners. A copycat signature, especially one that can read magic too, is amazing even as single-eyed signatures come, and it's completely new," Beidou laughed aloud. She had made one hell of a discovery.
"We did not know of your divining ability, but from the reports from Ms. Zhou and her team, we gathered an understanding of the replication that you were capable of. We couldn't find any matching records. That was high-level magic, to copy it instantly and without experience is marvelous. Furthermore, we think you did the same thing with the healing magic that was helping to mend your wounds. Both you and your brother recovered twice as fast as expected," Jean explained.
The girl looked shy, she had the strongest signature Beidou had seen and she was being all timid about it. It was a good fucking thing Beidou had chosen to take them back, Xiao was not hearing the end of it, ever.
"That's really good to know, but who were those people?" Lumine fidgeted with the rim of her glass, dragging her finger along it and speaking softly.
Beidou sometimes forgot that not everyone was used to being almost killed from time-to-time.
"They won't come back. They were Snezhnayans. We don't know why they were after you, but they can't get into Mondstadt. The border is too well-guarded to move troops over it and the Academy is thoroughly warded against arcane entry. The war has been kept at bay for this long, so that won't change. We didn't even have any trouble from them on the rest of the journey over to here," she relayed.
"Okay. Do you think it was because we were around those bodies? How many were there when you got there? And also just, how long ago was that" Lumine asked.
Beidou nodded for the general to speak: "Yes, that may very well be it. We don't know what injured all of you, or if you were with the soldiers already before the incident so it's hard to say. You might have been their ally they were trying to recover but it seems they were after your life so that is a bit unlikely. There were ten of them."
Lumine looked shocked by the number but just nodded: "So, we're going to the Academy both because we have visions and for protection?"
"Well, you're not being forced into enrollment, but it's the best we can do for you and I think it is a very good path to be on," the general was trying to look as uplifting as possible. "And just so you know, you were found four days ago now.
"Okay," Lumine smiled tentatively and looked up at them again.
At that moment there was a distorted yelp from outside and Kaeya went flying past the window in midair as if he had been thrown by something with the strength of a gorilla.
General Gunnhildr jumped up: "Do we need to help them with that?"
Beidou paused. It was only cats, they'd be fine, "Nah."
"So yeah Lumine, you've got a kickass signature, no more Snezhnayans to worry about, and a lot of people from my guild to meet," Beidou stood up and extended and hand toward the girl. "Are we good? Shall we go find your brother and inform him?"
As Lumeine took Beidou's hand and stood, Jean spoke up; "Your guild?"
"Yeah, I mean I'm the head now. Albedo and Rosaria graduated so we're up to four unfilled positions. Plus, finder's keepers."
"Well we don't know yet exactly where they will fit best," Jean frowned.
"Sure. But like, it'll be my guild. The other heads wouldn't dare draft them if I say so," Beidou grinned and snatched up her trident.
The general gave a heavy sigh: "Yes, in all likelihood you will be with Ms. Zhou, assuming both of you are on board."
"I'm sorry what?" Lumine had been looking back and forth between the women and failing to follow the conversation.
"The academy has different guilds for vision students and prowess students. Vision guilds are composed of students who have signatures, and prowess guilds are for students who got in because they have magic or physical talent. Or, in some cases, who were born into the military. When the school takes on missions, small groups from each of a few guilds join together but you live and train with your own guild. Vision guilds have 10 slots, but mine is down to 6, now that our fourth years are gone. So, I'm claiming you both," Beidou said.
Lumine broke into a legitimate smile, and Beidou laughed. Not only did she want to see what they could both do, she liked them and they needed strong members. This would be fucking fun.
