Where...
Where was he?
Lumine?
Lumine!
Wait. Who... who was Lumine?
Aether shook his head. Time to get out of whatever this was, cold metal at his feet, cold metal in every direction. Ruined automatons lay beside him, a multitude of crabs abound their chassi; scattered and hewn across the bleak landscape of... of... just where was he again?
Every movement was costing more energy than it should, like someone had turned gravity way up. There was a chink of sunlight that made its way past the ominous grey clouds overhead; it was all the illumination he had.
And indeed was he emblazoned; In those streets he was the only beating heart, the only being of warm blood and flesh. The walls around him were doubtless home to many in the fairly recent past, yet now it was an unfamiliar maze to all that remained—his lonesome self. The lights of the temple to his front fell on the words that spoke to nobody, unaware that their audience had vanished, or that the streets lay silent beneath no boots at all, save his. It was as if God had stopped time, removed all the distractions so he could see it for real, see how it really was, what it really was. And in that moment all he wished for was another beating heart in this deserted city, another being of warm blood and flesh, one more pair of boots to walk next to his.
LUMINE WHERE ARE YOU?
He jumped the sudden shout. The ruins surrounding him shifted and he was back to where—when?—he was moments just moments ago.
Luminelumineluminelumi—...sister.
His twin sister.
Where was she? She should be here with him.
His surroundings changed again. Aether was atop a black river that refused to flow. He looked up, drawn by the cries of birds, to see that the clouds had disappeared and only the stars remained, stars that he could not recognize. Around him were bizarre machines ferrying opaque glass vats.
Turning back to see where he had emerged from, he saw... a box. A box with colors faded beyond all recognition —except the color red was seared into his eyes and he swears he'll dest—and behind it, the same shoreline that he had seen previously when first awoken.
The clouds were the kind of grey that would make any quarry rock proud, as if they were so pleased to echo the earth. All the grey, all that swirling water in the sky, condensation was bound to happen sooner rather than later.
He'd best be going before then. There was no shelter to be had on this decrepit island.
He called forth the wings formed of golden starlight ensnared that he so dearly loved; deliverance from the shackles of a doomed world.
And so, Aether called forth his beloved wings, only to feel a dull ache instead. Pressure enough to be an annoyance, it just sits there to the sides of his shoulder blades and inward toward the spine.
At least at first.
Aether called forth all his might; might enough to smite the malicious and inhuman sovereigns of the many universes. Instead of glorious power and ethereal wings fit to traverse the Sea of Quanta and ascend the Imaginary Tree—a stake was hammered into his back, the strikes radiating pain in a way that shatters the brain, or at least whatever was left of his.
Aether sat on the beach, stumbling as he went down. His eyes moved from sand to stone, from rock pools to breaking waves and scurrying crustaceans. He had thought himself awake, but clearly he couldn't be. This was a nightmare of the worst sort. His sister, their journey... what happened?
He began to cry. He didn't want to—he couldn't help it though. Aether felt alone and helpless. Like the time the inseparable twins had left their homeworld while eveyone... everyone had—He let out a sad, sorry laugh. The two of them weren't so inseparable any more, were they?
He wasn't strong enough then, and he wasn't strong enough now.
Eyeing the distant shoreline he could see opposite of where he stood, he considered the merit of swimming there. It would defeat the purpose of evading the storm... what little that mattered now, but it had to be better than staying here, right?
He went to stand, but for the moment his legs had given way to gravity, shaky, weak. Cursing, Aether had fallen back down to the ground.
Wait. Something was wrong. He's shaking but the sandy ground was still.
He looked up.
Everything stopped, the wind, the scent of the salty ocean, even the crashing of the waves against the beach. Everything but the rain that had started to pour down upon the island.
Where had the crabs and birds gone?
Aether pushed himself off the ground and turned around as quick as he could, ignoring the screaming pain in his legs.
Shit. His ears. What the hell was that sound? Metal on metal. Scraping. He was standing on a sandy beach yet his body felt upside-down, tumbling, pain... The daylight was gone, the precious little heat he had gone, dilapidated ruins and tumultuous ocean gone. This was new. Different. His limbs weren't the same, but stronger, stronger than they'd ever been. Then it was gone. Pain radiated throughout his skull and there was an odor he wasn't familiar with. Part of it was rotten food and salty dampness, but there was another stronger sense Aether couldn't place.
The heavy rain coming down then suddenly... stopped. The liquid droplets eerily hanging in the sky and color seemed to bleed out of the world. Right in front of him, the rain started to reverse, being drawn forth in slow motion from the ground and flying back to the clouds from whence it came
Whatever it was it wasn't natural and the fumes filled his lungs, his stomach. Every muscle of his gut contracted at once with a violent surge. A thin liquid passed through his lips in a spray and then everything resumed...
A chill ran up his back.
He was certain something had just been there behind him, watching him. Mere an arm's length away from the back of his head. He looked at the ground, only to find no hint of anything having ever been there.
It was past time to get off this Nameless Island, even if he had to swim across an ocean to do it.
So he swam.
He swam over the festering corpse of a civilization buried beneath the water.
.
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Aether sat in the pit that had become his world, the only decorations being his own nail marks on the floor from dragging himself into the cave barely the evening prior. Though he knew from earlier exploration that there existed the light of civilization at the top of these sheer cliffs further inland, it felt a million miles away.
He was not ready.
And so he instead let his eyes become accustomed to the dim light in the cave, brightened only by the pathetic mockery of a campfire he had made with driftwood to dry clothes and cook the freshly caught... fish, among other things.
The odd child—she was a child right?—he had pulled from the ocean would appreciate the food and warmth, he hoped. It was all they'd be getting until he managed to craft another fishing rod after breaking the original whilst rescuing her.
The Traveler glanced at the loose collection of recently acquired fungi in the corner of his new abode. Truly, they were ubiquitous throughout every world he had ever visited habitable to Humanity.
Unfortunately however, the two of them would not be eating these tonight. It would be most uncurteous to kill his guest mere hours after rescuing them, and embarrassing to boot. Lumine—Lumine was her name. He mustn't forget—would have a most harsh atonement prepared should he blunder so severely. As such, he still had to carefully discover which were edible and which were not over the course of the next few days.
He watched the unexpected guest sleep; he watched their fire burn low. Maybe she was lost too, Aether considers, thoughts turned quiet by the late hour and the lifting curls of smoke. Perhaps they all were. Always there were more paths than clues and not once had it lead to anything it was meant to, only trouble and more questions.
That woman who had once been so dear to him... to them both. "Your journey will become very dangerous from now on," so that person had once told him, more right than she'd ever know. "I don't know if this cloth will do anything to protect you, but..."
It was indeed so- In their long journey, he has seen the birth and death of stars as they passed by, Scattering the darkness briefly before being consumed once more. This cloth would block neither the heat of creation or the cold of the celestial heights, nor will it defend from curses and ill-will. But during the long nights on many a world, he would sometimes throw it on and find it to be most useful indeed.
And now, so would the small girl sheltered by it. He did not truly remember who it was who had treated the two of them ever so gently. Aether wished he could remember...
But he was certain, he was absolutely certain... that she'd have loved to meet the rambunctious girl he fished out of the ocean.
.
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Hello!
As of late, I've been enamored by Genshin Impact and particularly the world building going into it. Do note that there will be some differences in regards to the scale of the continent and many of the locations shown in game (there are limitations in-game for obvious reasons). There will also be some head-cannon stuff going on and I will be theory-crafting heavily with the all the current lore available. So for all intents an purposes, this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.
To be completely honest, however, I'm not sure just how far I'll be taking this. Perhaps more pressing—I'm not entirely sure if this will remain in third person or be rewritten in first person; quite the conundrum. Over the next few chapters, I'd love to hear all of your feed back on the subject. Either way though I hope you all enjoy!
[MULTIPLE LIFEFORMS DETECTED IN SECTOR RUBIA-80. #O# HONKAI ENERGY DETECTED.]
[QUERY: #O# AEON ACTIVITY. QUERY: #O# STATUS OF VOLUSPA. BREAK. BREAK. BREAK. IMMINENT DANGER TO AEONS DETECTED. AEON SURVIVAL IS PARAMOUNT.]
