I sat at my desk with the student roster in hand, scanning and flipping through the pages. There were a lot more students at the Academy than I thought there were. I guess I still have more people to meet down the line. After a few minutes, I was able to deduce that Aether was not amongst any of the other first-years, just as I expected. The other years took a bit longer to check. I spent extra time on the upperclassmen and triple-checked each sheet.

His name was nowhere to be found. Trying to not get too frustrated, I went back for a fourth time—just to be sure.

"Who are you looking for?" Kaeya asked from where he lounged on my bed.

He made himself cozy per his own request, and I was too preoccupied with the lists in front of me to care all that much.

"Nobody," I murmured.

"Clearly not a nobody," he countered. "Not with you being so desperate to find them. What's the matter? You don't look happy."

Of course, I'm not happy. Katheryne gave me one nugget of information on my brother, the best lead I'd had in years—not that I was searching for all that long. It was disheartening that even with this roster, with so many names available to me, none of them were his. This could only mean one thing.

"He's not here," I whispered. And from the looks of it, he never was.

"A he?" Kaeya sat up straighter. "Don't tell me you came to Celestia Academy looking for a distant lover."

I barked out a harsh laugh. "No, not a lover."

"Good," Kaeya settled back into my pillows. "There's already Childe to worry about. I can't have your attention being drawn away in too many directions—from the treasure hunt, of course."

I rolled my eyes. I'd already told Kaeya there was nothing going on with Childe, not in that way. Though, I suppose we've grown to be closer than I thought. Amber was right. He's not that bad, and Childe had a charm to him that most people failed to notice—his fault for being so chaotic. Or maybe that's what the charm was.

I finished my fourth round of studying the student roster with the same result. Nothing. I slapped the papers on my desk with a bit more force than intended, causing a few pages to flutter away onto the floor. As I bent down to pick them up, a sudden wave of emotion came over me.

I should have been nicer to him. When we were children, I would always find a reason to bicker and fight because it was fun. I loved butting heads with Aether, but maybe if I expressed myself as a more caring sister, as someone who would do anything for her brother, maybe his adopter would have taken me too. Maybe we could have grown up together. Spent our life together.

Madame Ping was like a mother to me, like family to me, but I missed my blood brother. Will I ever see him again? The memory of Aether's face flashed before me, same golden features as mine, chubby-faced as a kid and with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Am I to go the rest of my life without my other half?

"Hey," Kaeya moved off the bed and crouched beside me, collecting the papers himself. "Are you okay?"

I bit the inside of my cheek and willed myself to push it away. To push away the possibility of Aether truly being gone. "Mhm."

"He must mean a lot to you." Kaeya set the papers back onto my desk and pulled me up. "I hope he cares as much for you as you do for him."

My breath hitched, and I sat cross-legged on the bed before confessing. "Aether. His name was—is Aether."

"Aether," Kaeya repeated and sat next to me. "Can't say I've heard of him before. If you don't mind me asking…who is he to you?"

"My brother," I whispered and felt a sting in my eyes. Damnit, Lumine. Don't cry in front of Kaeya. He'll never let you live it down. "We were separated when we were children."

"And you haven't been in contact since?"

"No," my voice wobbled, and I cursed the single tear that escaped my eye. I turned my head to the side in hopes Kaeya wouldn't take notice.

I practiced taking in deep, controlled breaths to clear my head and stop the waterworks. Kaeya hadn't said anything for a bit of time, and I risked a peek in his direction only to find he held a handkerchief in his hand.

Ah, so he saw.

Wordlessly, I took it from him and wiped away two more runaway tears, sniffling. "I thought you said handkerchiefs were hard to come by, yet you've given me two in less than twenty-four hours."

More silence.

"I have a brother, too," he said at last. "You've met him. Diluc."

I suspected they were related, based on snippets of information Kaeya mentioned about family drama and not getting along with Diluc. However, I wasn't so sure since they looked so different from each other.

"I know what you're thinking," he sighed. "We're adopted. Or at least, I am."

"What happened?"

Kaeya laughed with no real emotion. "You mean why does he loathe me?" His eye darkened. "Things were better when we were children. I wish we could have stayed like that, but I screwed everything up. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I was young and foolish, arrogant and clumsy. When dad died I—" he cut himself off. "I wasn't a brother to Diluc. Not in the way I should have been. I deserve his hatred."

Kaeya's expression twisted from guilt to anguish, though he tried to hide it by turning his head just as I did.

"You don't," I nudged his shoulder with mine in earnest. "I don't know the details, but I know you don't deserve that."

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you find your brother," Kaeya shifted focus. "Even after all these years, I can tell you love him a lot. You're an amazing sister, Lumine."

"And you," I nodded to him. "You still care for Diluc. It hurts that there may be no possibility of me reconnecting with Aether again, not knowing if he's…if he's still around. You and Diluc are right here at the same Academy. Living under the same roof. There's a chance you can make things right."

"It doesn't matter." Kaeya shook his head and plastered on a fake smile. "Diluc is a stubborn man. I advise you never get on his bad side."

"I suppose stubbornness runs in the family, then?" I tried to joke. "You seem dead set on avoiding reconciliation."

"Believe me, I've tried," he murmured. "You know, this isn't how I imagined our first heart-to-heart in your bed would go. I was thinking it'd be less woeful and a lot more sensual."

"Archons," I rolled my eyes and tried to push him off. "Again, why are you like this? You've gone and ruined the moment."

Kaeya laughed as he hit the floor. "There'll be plenty of other moments. You can count on it."

"Out," I swooped up the student roster papers and slapped them into Kaeya's chest. "Shoo, shoo. All this treasure hunting hypothesizing and crying is making me sleepy."

He accepted the papers and looked at me intensely. "Will you be alright?"

"Mhm," I shifted my eyes to focus on the wall behind him.

"You're not going to cry yourself to sleep, are you?" he frowned. "If so, I can stay the night here. I've got a nice shoulder. Go on, cry on it."

"I think you mean well," I sighed. "But no, thank you. I want to be alone with my thoughts for a while."

"Just know you don't have to be."

"I'll keep that in mind," I nodded. "And Kaeya? Don't be too hard on yourself."

He opened my door and crossed over the threshold. "Sweet dreams, Lumine. You can keep the handkerchief. That way, I'll always have a reason to come back and pester you for it."

Kaeya shut the door before I could respond. I smiled, placing the new handkerchief next to the one already sitting on my nightstand. As much as sleep pulled at me, and as much as I felt the need to self-indulge myself in a pity party crying session, there were a couple of things I had to take care of.

The first was schoolwork—I wouldn't dream of falling behind. Classes were moving at a fast pace, and while I was doing exceptionally well at the moment, I needed to make sure I could keep it up. As for the second thing…well, I couldn't just discover new power and not hone it down in my free time, now could I?

The rest of the week passed by in a blur. Childe held true to his words and accompanied me for each meal—besides lunch. Our lunches were at separate times, and though he tried to change his schedule to make the timing work, I insisted that would be too much. His company was a lot nicer than I expected in the long term, and I'm sure not having to fend off an attack every five minutes was part of it. My Pryo friends were also beginning to ease up around him, too. Though, none have gathered the courage to drop the Tartaglia and call him by his actual name.

Each night, I'd passed out the moment I hit my bed as a result of spending an hour working with Anemo. So far, the most I could do was lift a sheet of paper into the air and wobble a tower of books. I wasn't sure how to manifest the same level of power as when I cushioned my own fall or swirled the dendro slimes to death, but I suspect it was an adrenaline thing. Still, lifting papers alone was enough to completely drain the energy I had by the end of the day.

Now that the weekend was here, the treasure hunt could begin. I woke up bright and early, so early that Childe wasn't even waiting for me in the dining hall yet. I wasn't sure if his desire to dine extended to weekends, so I mentally apologized in advance. After quickly finishing breakfast, I went to the meeting spot Kaeya arranged.

He was there already, out of school uniform since classes weren't in session. I couldn't get over the sheer amount of chest that the deep V of his shirt exposed. That was hardly practical, especially since the weather was beginning to get colder.

"There you are," he waved at me from the fountain on the main quad. "Right on time, too."

"You'd expect nothing less," I shrugged and pulled a map from my pocket. "I highlighted the areas I'm investigating. Does it look right?"

Kaeya took one corner of the map while I held the other, analyzing the markings closely before patting me on the back. "This looks perfect."

"Good," I smiled and folded it back into my pocket. "See you at sunset," for our mutual recon.

We separated and I turned in the direction of my assigned area of campus. Kaeya would be covering the west: the dining hall, administrative building, auditorium, fighting ring, gymnasium, and fitness center. I would take care of the east: library, lecture buildings, student dorms, laboratories, apothecary, greenhouse, and art gallery. It was a heavy list for both of us, but that's why we'll be spending so many hours inspecting.

I cross-referenced each location with the map containing possible hidden routes. The ones in the library were simple enough to find after Kaeya took me through one before. It wasn't easy shoving bookshelves around without drawing attention, though. I had to stop on more than one occasion each time another student came by looking for a text. Ultimately, there were nothing but abandoned study rooms that led to the administrative building—which also came up dry with only dusty stairwells and corridors.

The student dorms were something I looked forward to searching. After only seeing Visionless House and Cryo House, I finally had a valid reason to visit. Starting with Pyro House on the second floor, I wasn't surprised the temperature was several degrees warmer than comfortable. In Anemo House, I swear almost every room must have had its window open. A constant draft was tickling my skin, and I smiled at the thought of possibly being relocated here one day.

I found nothing—even after double-checking the map. The result was the same for the remaining Houses.

Defeated, I left the student dorms and tried to stay optimistic on the way to the laboratories. The doors were locked over the weekend, but Kaeya gave me a master key ahead of time. I didn't bother asking how he got that. No matter, there was nothing out of the ordinary in the nooks and crannies there.

I came up empty-handed with the apothecary and greenhouse, too.

The sun was lowering in the sky as I reached my final stop, the art gallery. The interior was all polished marble; save for the art, which ranged everywhere from landscape art to abstract sculptures of monsters. I noticed quite a few of the paintings were created by Albedo Kreideprinz. If my memory served correctly, he was an Alchemy professor.

He was quite good. I found myself getting distracted from my mission on more than one occasion.

"This one represents the duality of monsters," someone spoke at my side and I jumped. He was a man with turquoise eyes and ash-blond hair tousled in a half-up half-down style. "The dendrobium alludes to the violent nature of hilichurls, though their mannerisms are sometimes gentle."

The painting he was referring to was of a lone hilichurl lying in a meadow, holding a single dendrobium to the skies.

"Hilichurls being gentle?" I chuckled. "That's an interesting take. I wonder where the artist got the inspiration."

"By observing them in the wild, of course."

"Why observe them when we should be fighting them?" I frowned. "Why make art out of something so destructive and senseless?"

"How can we learn if we never observe?" He asked in return.

I pondered over the question, and I suppose he made a good point. "Are you a student?"

"In many regards," he nodded. "A student in life. Constantly acquiring knowledge new to us and uncovering what was lost to time. At the Academy, though, I am a professor."

He looked quite young for a professor. "What do you teach?"

"I oversee the Alchemy department as well as a few Arts courses."

"You're Albedo Kreideprinz." I put two-and-two together.

"In the flesh," he coughed. "Of a sort. We don't get many visitors at the art gallery. What brings you here?"

Totally not poking around at all the secret passageways the Academy might have to offer. "I was interested in the displays."

"Are you an artist?"

I grimaced. "Not really."

"I see," he murmured. "Given that I've yet to have you as a student, I assume you must be new here. Next year, I look forward to welcoming you to my class, Miss Admirer of Great Artwork."

"Lumine," I offered my name and he nodded to himself as if mentally filing it away.

"There's much work to be done back at the apothecary." He waved to the painting. "Please, enjoy. I will attend to my projects."

He left with haste, and I snapped back into action once I'd made sure the gallery was empty. Careful not to disturb and possibly wreck any artwork, I looked for anything promising. Nada.

With my route finished and the sun setting, it was time to meet back up with Kaeya. I hoped that he, at least, had a more productive search than I did. I left the art gallery and circled back to the main quad, where Kaeya was flipping a coin.

"Hey, you," I watched him flip the coin into the fountain. "What did you wish for?"

"That you would make your way back to me," he sighed wistfully. "That we could once again be together."

I rolled my eyes.

"And that you found something, anything interesting," he finished. "As I did not."

"Neither did I. Unless you count a professor doubling as a hilichurl romanticist."

"Albedo, eh?" Kaeya perked up. "Were you caught snooping?"

"Nah."

"Good. That man has a keen eye," Kaeya informed. "I'm going to head back to my room and write a report. You should find something to eat."

"You're not having dinner?"

"I might swipe some popsicles from Chongyun's stash," he winked. "That guy has too many for his own good."

For the second time today, Kaeya and I went our separate ways. I wanted to wash up a bit before going to the dining commons. Spending a day sleuthing around in dusty rooms had me feeling especially grimy.

After stopping by the dorms for a shower and change of clothes, I crossed the main quad as I went to dinner. The library was on the way, and I nearly didn't catch the figure standing by its entrance. My chess partner.

"Diluc!" I waved to him with a smile as I approached, and his head shot up in my direction.

He returned my wave, but not the smile. "Lumine, it's good that you're here. I'm afraid I won't be able to have our chess match after your dinner today."

"Oh," I paused. "Why not?"

"There's been a scheduling conflict at the tavern," he grumbled. "I have to go into town and handle the staffing shortage."

Diluc mentioned he owned Dawn Winery in Mondstat, a fact that I still found hard to believe since Dawn Winery ran a large business. He said that he had someone on the mainland managing business affairs while he focused on schooling here. Apparently, Diluc also managed Angel's Share also in Mond, but I wasn't aware there was a tavern on this island under his jurisdiction as well. He was a busy man, it seemed.

"That's okay," I smiled. "We can meet tomorrow, still."

"No, it's not okay," he frowned. "I quite look forward to winning our matches."

"And here I thought you liked my company."

"That too," he amended, finally with a smile. "I should get going, duty calls."

I shrugged as if to say Ah, what can you do? when an idea suddenly struck me, "Hang on. You're going into town?" I'd be so preoccupied with school, amongst other things, that I'd completely forgotten about the port town.

He nodded.

"Can I come with you?"