"Only Lisa can answer," Lumine said, sitting with Paimon at a table on the terrace of the half-empty tavern, where she could see if someone overhearing them, not like in a rented apartment with thin walls, or in the city streets or outside the city, where it was easy to hide behind bushes and trees. "She may be totally sex-preoccupied, but Lisa is no fool! She is very cunning, clever, and calculating. And Lisa hates Celestia. So only she might know something worthwhile about this overly mysterious institution. Maybe Lisa even knows if the Goddess, who kidnapped my brother, is the Celestiaian or not. Celestia is evil in any case, or there would be no point in her being so mysterious and closed off. And Lisa probably knows more about Celestia than anyone else in Mondstadt, if not in all Teyvat."

"But that doesn't mean she'll tell you anything," Paimon objected.

"Lisa has too low a price for the Abyss Order. Otherwise, she'd be there instead of here. But Lisa finds the Abyss more lucrative, striving there, and wants a better place. She needs a unique means of advancement. And I can show her magic unavailable to other Abyssians and Teyvatians."

"Paimon thinks Lisa is a very weak magician."

"Lisa is weak magically, but she uses the little things she has very skillfully. And she is an excellent cracker of any codes and seals. Lisa is extremely resourceful in combat spells. They are tiny, but they kill monsters that an elite combat unit cannot handle. A person like that can't help but know a lot about what she considers an enemy." Lumine added thoughtfully, "But I don't understand why Lisa would want the Abyss."

"The Abyss Order," Paimon clarified. "It's not the whole Abyss."

"Let it be so. Why would Lisa want the Abyss Order if she's a Counselor to the Grand Master of the Order of Favonius?"

"Paimon thinks Lisa wants high status. She is now a Counselor and Honorary Knight, but she has no more value than the petty trader Marjorie or the second-rate bard José. And the whole Ordo Favonius is no more valuable than the Sweeper's Guild. Lisa wants to be a lady, she is always exquisitely dressed and observes dames' rituals like evening tea and morning walk better than the noblest aristocratess Jean, but no one is interested. And if Lisa begins to flaunt her aristocratic behavior, she is immediately reminded that her mother was a penny-stock prostitute on the docks. Lisa is really very smart, and as soon as she went to school she immediately figured out how to get out of the shit she was born into: she began to study well, and the city school put her in a boarding class, away from her mother. Then she got a scholarship to the most prestigious university in the world. Lisa could have been the most famous scholar in Sumeru, but for that, she has to sleep eight hours a night, not eighteen. And she should have been working in the activity period, not having fun hunting monsters. But in the Abyss Order, hierarchy decides everything. If you get to the top, everyone grovels before you, even if you're a lazy hanger for rags. Lisa will become more of a lady than the Mondstadt aristocracy in the times of its reign."

"I guess you're right," Lumine answered slowly.

"Paimon's always right. And Paimon thinks just because you can get Lisa to tell you everything doesn't mean you can get her to go away and not harass you."

"Don't worry," Lumine grinned. "I've taken care of the remedy. Lisa will run away from here ahead of her shoes."

"No one has yet been able to cope with Lisa. But Lumine is different from her predecessors. It's interesting for Paimon!"

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long: Lisa appeared as soon as Lumine was finished talking to Paimon.

Lisa sat down with emphasis gracefully at the table and ordered tea.

"What important business is going on here?"

Lumine moved her fingers to create a battle crystal, but not the colored one that they all had in Teyvat, it was gray. Lisa immediately conjured up a scanning sphere around it and gasped in amazement. Lumine smiled rather smugly and said:

"It's a very weak magic in your world, but no one can see it, because it can't be blocked. That's why you can use it to escape from captivity or to cover your tracks when running away from a pursuer. There are a lot of useful uses for it."

Lumine absorbed the crystal in the palm of her hand, and Lisa asked:

"What do you want?"

"Has there never been any word from Vennessa because Celestia killed her, or did Vennessa run away from her husband and children to Celestia since they will never get her there?"

"What a fantasy you have!" Lisa laughed. "Vennessa was killed by Barbatos. He used her to gain autonomy from Celestia, turned her into a powerful weapon, and destroyed her as soon as she became independent and, more importantly, more popular than Barbatos."

"That makes sense," Lumine nodded. "A common savage from a beggarly nomadic tribe with no writing, she could swing a sword well, but if she learned to read, it was only in captivity. And her education didn't advance beyond the inscriptions of goods in the shops, and if she could manage anything, it was only by wiping her ass. This isn't Spartacus, who was first brought up as the heir of a rich tribal chief, that is, he read and wrote in several languages, was trained in diplomatic negotiation, was versed in matters of strategy and peaceful government, and after the neighboring empire seized his lands, Spartacus went to expensive mercenaries, gaining warlordism experience in several wars. It isn't surprising, therefore, that when he was captured and enslaved, Spartacus was able to raise one of the largest rebellions in his world."

"I don't know who you're talking about, but these are the right thoughts," Lisa smiled. "Add to that the fact that Barbatos only came to help Vennessa after her entire tribe had been killed in the gladiatorial arena. She had no one to nomad with, she was a stranger to everyone and unnecessary. And then, just in time, the whole of Mondstadt learned that the aristocrats had made a pact to sell all citizens, including merchants and soldiers, to Archon Morax."

"What is this delusion?!" Lumine was indignant. "Why would the aristocrats sell out those on whose tribute they live and those who make people obey them? Especially when one commoner rebellion succeeds another in their country."

"People think with their asses," Lisa grinned contemptuously. "They knew that Morax was destroying contract breakers and, lest they be enslaved, the army and the wealthy of Mondstadt decided to destroy the aristocrats, thereby annulling the treaty. Again, people thought on their asses: if a treaty is signed, the death of one of the parties changes nothing. But all rebellions in all worlds were won only if not only the army but also the rich farmers and merchants took their side. And here the persons of money and armed persons fervently supported Vennesa, who, obeying Barbatos, called for rebellion — there was nothing else for her: she knew nothing herself, not even how to make a mercenary contract, and she would have starved biting without Barbatos. Many years later, people realized that the treaty with Morax was fake, but they still haven't figured out who the one who benefited from the fake was."

"There was no way Celestia couldn't stop Barbatos?" Lumine questioned.

"It was a little busy with other things," Lisa grinned. "Morax gave Abyss the funds for another conflict with Celestia, so, being covered by this noise, he himself could get out of Celestia and create his own world. Morax didn't succeed, but he got Liyue away from power Celestia and became its sole ruler. And Barbatos helped Morax and profited from it."

"But why did Barbatos kill Vennessa?" Paimon squeaked.

"Because she was a savage, not a fool," Lisa said. "Vennessa was studied, gaining influence, making friends among merchants and wizards. She became more revered than Barbatos. Even the Gunnhildr Clan, who had once led the petty air elemental Barbatos to his divine power, and who had always clung to him for profit, wondered if they might change their master. If before it was impossible to do without a deity, after the rebellion an ordinary queen would suffice. The Gunnhildr Clan supported Vennesa's rebellion immediately, but their reputation was still tarnished, and they would not have gained supreme power directly. So why not sneak to the top behind the back of everyone's favorite heroine? And at this wonderful moment, Venness miraculously found herself in a remote spot in the mountains, where she ascended to Celestia, with whom there had been no connection since the rebellion." Lisa sipped her tea gracefully and said in a judgmental tone: "It was Vennessa's own fault. She had to make allies not only among humans."

"Are you talking about the Abyss or the power rival factions within Celestia?" Lumine already knew the answer, but Lisa had to be pushed to the main point of the conversation.

"If your brother has a brain," said Lisa, "and he's using it, you should look for him anywhere but Celestia. I knew right away what you were getting at. And all Celestia can really do is destroy the country that's catching up with her in magic and technology. But it itself comes on the brink of death because the flow of the Elements is disrupted. And while Celestia could afford to take such risks before, since the appearance of the Abyss, Celestia has no weapons left against humans, much less the gods. Celestia has always been motionless sterility. There is no life or development there."

"My brother was kidnapped by some goddess," Lumine reminded her.

"And she dragged him anywhere but Celestia. Anyone with a mind and a will to act, to change things, is deadly to it. And it's impossible not to want to change Celestia, unless you're dead. Even the Raiden sisters, the Archons of Inazuma, and the monstrous buzzkills, obsessed with eternity and permanence, have escaped from there."

"How dangerous is Celestia to Teyvat?" - Lumine asked.

"What's really dangerous is Snezhnaya, which needs a war with Celestia for some reason. This flying misunderstanding — I mean Celestia, she's an island floating in the air — can be neatly isolated from the world without disturbing the flow of the Elements. Celestia would not be able to resist. And the world would be forever free of her influence.

"As long as there's something, you can't be free of it forever," Lumine remarked.

"It would be possible to carefully and slowly cut off Celestia's streams of Elements. It'll disappear on its own," Lisa leaned toward Lumin. "And you wouldn't have to worry about it, little cutie."

Paimon fidgeted uneasily. But Lumine only smiled at Lisa. And the next moment there was Amber's enthusiastic shriek:

"Counselor Lisa, I'm so glad you'll be practicing fireballs with me!"

"Why?" Lisa jumped up. "What fireballs?"

"The Grand Master is waiting for us in the training area," Amber ran up to the table. The few visitors rushed away, shouting to the waiters to send them the bill.

Lisa faked a smile.

"I will. Only I have to check on my students restoring a very valuable book. Wait in the training area. Now!" And she teleported out of the tavern.

Amber jumped over the terrace fence and ran toward the training area. She dropped her fire bomb on someone's shopping cart on the way but was always full of adventurers with magical powers on the streets, so some Cryo mercenaryswoman instantly doused the flames, no harm done to the goods. And she willingly lingered to testify to the city guard, who issued a fine for Amber — the donkey-eared troublemaker was annoying everyone. And a satisfied Lumine ordered a cocktail for herself and Paimon.