"The first law of thermodynamics states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Instead, energy changes form through physical and chemical reactions. This is the foundation of alchemy, and more importantly, our world.

In reaching our final energy, our goals and aspirations, we must first begin with a single step, a change."

- Albedo, Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius


"Fuck!" Lumine sprinted after Xiao without thinking, and the room fell darker and darker as the distance between them grew. The adeptus could see so he escaped that much faster, and Lumine quickly lost her dexterity. Her foot caught on a spare metal rail, and her shoulders fell over her waist before Noelle managed to catch her. The clanging of her armor ricocheted around the Chasm.

Chongyun panted as he caught up to them, "There's no use chasing after him. We'll have to catch up once we have another light source."

"Hang on," Lumine fought for her breath, the stale cavern air wasn't doing much for her, "I think I've got it." She removed two potions at random from her pocket, one for electro resistance and another for cryo, and she popped each of their corks with her teeth. Pouring one into the vial for the other, she covered the opening with her thumb and shook vigorously.

The superconduct reaction spewed effervescent light, and it illuminated the shocked faces of her companions.

"You didn't think of like…small lamp grass first?"

"I don't know! Come on, he's getting further away!" They started again at a brisk pace, not quite running and not quite walking, and Lumine's anxiety distracted her so well she nearly fell an involuntary several stories. She neglected to notice the massive mining equipment, and now they were in the thick of it. Wood panels rotted beneath their feet and stank profusely, the stench mixing with the odor of wet cave.

"We should really be careful, Lumine. I know you're worried about Xiao, we all are, but our efforts will do us no good if we fall to our deaths before we reach him." Of course Noelle had a point, but that didn't ease the tightness in her chest.

"This way!" Chongyun gestured to their left, and he began down a path carved into the side of the cliff. The miners who came before had paved the path with wood, and the boards creaked like arthritic bones as they passed over. Despite the structural integrity afforded by the rock beneath, it didn't make her feel any better.

"Does everyone in Teyvat just leave stray bombs in the middle of their workplace? This is ridiculous!"

"The safety protocols must have been more relaxed back when the mine was active. I don't know how long the Qixing has closed this area off, but it's at least my entire lifetime. Not that that's super long, but still."

"I get what you mean." The trio skirted one by one past the spare explosives, and they continued past oceans of corruption which percolated into the decaying wood like liquid death. Lumine held her nose which distracted her from taking the lead. As she approached Chongyun, he squinted at a diagram tacked to a notice board.

"I can't read Liyuen, what does that say?" The pages were stained deep brown by time, and they were torn around the edges. Chongyun pointed to each of the characters as he read aloud,

"This is the engineering operations center. All uninvolved personnel, please stay out."

"Welp, we failed that part. Next?"

"Most of the engineering platforms and the related machinery have been dismantled. All involved personnel, please return to the surface to await further instructions." Lumine hummed under her breath,

"So this must be from before the Qixing closed the Chasm. It seems like it's been shut for longer than just a few Chongyuns."

"I guess so. That must be why Xiao wanted to come here, but I never heard of the adepti being here."

Noelle shifted uneasily between them, "Something must have happened to force them to dismantle everything, right? Something bad enough to trap evil spirits down here."

"Probably. Whatever it is, it's nothing good."

"I'll say. Let's not kill ourselves as we glide down." Lumine leapt from the scaffolding and into the dark.


Xingqiu woke again to the blinding sun in his eyes and a sore neck. As he leaned forward, he was surprised to find Zhongli still sleeping in his original position. He breathed so seldom and sat so still, that at a distance one could mistake him for a statue. Deciding not to wake him, Xingqiu carefully tip-toed away.

Venti still sat beneath the sandbearer tree, and he fiddled with a flute of some kind.

"Look who's finally awake. Took ya long enough."

"I thought you were going to take shifts?" Xingqiu sat beside him, content to eat one of the spare apples the bard had picked.

"We were, but I didn't want to bother him. He threatened to hit me with a meteor if I woke you up, so I figured it wasn't worth the risk. Also," he frowned at the apple in his mouth, "who told you you could have that?" Xingqiu shrugged,

"Want me to play you a song?" Venti scoffed,

"Just because I work that way, doesn't mean you get to." He swallowed,

"Why not? Hand me the flute."

"You don't actually play, do you?" He waited until Venti placed the instrument in his open hand, and he held it to his lips. At first he couldn't produce a note, and the flute stuttered as if it couldn't clear its throat. Ignoring the subsequent judgment, he continued until he found the right place along the mouthpiece, and he finally produced a note.

He couldn't really remember anything fancy, since the last time he played he was only six, but he knew enough to play a simple scale and its corresponding piece. He didn't think he played particularly loud, but apparently it woke Zhongli since he approached during the final line. Venti clapped as if he had just performed a concerto,

"That was pretty good!"

"Mmm, but your standards were pretty low. Here," he handed the flute back and continued eating.

"Good morning, Mister Zhongli! Did you enjoy your beauty sleep?" Venti flashed him a cheeky grin which he promptly ignored.

"You violated the terms of our contract."

"So I did. Want an apple?" Zhongli only shook his head,

"We should depart if we want to make it to Mondstadt before dusk. I imagine the treasure hoarders we encountered yesterday won't be the only ones with their eyes on the Gorge."

"You guys fought treasure hoarders?" The two caught him up as they began walking.

"Master Diluc told me he would investigate around Mond to learn more. His contacts suggested Dadaupa, and my gut tells me there's something going on there. There's lots of unnecessary Fatui traffic and the place usually crawls with hilichurls."

"That's never good. Is Master Diluc going to be meeting us?" Xingqiu wasn't in the state to meet anyone, especially not Teyvat's largest wine tycoon.

"Maybe. He's monitoring the hotel they stay in, and he's working alongside the Knights of Favonius. I guess it depends on what he finds." Venti continued talking, at first about events relevant to the case, but eventually he ran out of material in that department. Fortunately, Zhongli seemed to take interest allowing Xingqiu to sightsee.

Being convicts, they stuck to the wilds for cover. As the hours slugged by, the towering mountains began to mellow, and they lay against the earth like sleeping giants. The stagnant air grew stronger until the tailwind could push him along making the walk less strenuous. Despite that, it took far longer than necessary to reach the border, so by the time they arrived his feet ached with every minute movement.

At the very least they hadn't encountered any issues.

"Hey, Kaeya! Is that you?" In the distance, a very tall, very irritated cryo user approached the entrance to a domain. His eyes, or rather his eye, fixated on the ground like he was tracking something. Sure enough, tiny pyro footsteps trapezed along the dusty path. They seemed to belong to an abyss mage.

"Venti? I thought you left with the Traveler."

"Yah well, I'm back now. I brought some friends too! They're wanted criminals, so you don't have to worry about them." Zhongli facepalmed beside him.

"Oho, criminals you say?"

"Yep. Can you believe they've been trafficking illegal delusions? Absolute Fatui scum, these two."

"Oh! You must be the young man from the commerce guild then, and the funeral parlor. Don't worry, I'm no officer of the law. Word just spreads fast." He smirked. Something told him he was an officer of the law.

"Well, they're only wanted in Liyue anyway. Now, what are you up to? Did you and Diluc find anything?"

"Why not come in and find out? I'm sure you've seen the tracks by now."

Venti turned to them with heavy sarcasm in his voice, "Oh goody! A real live abyss mage! I can't wait!"


Lumine wished she had the foresight to bring a watch. They could have been walking for hours or minutes, and she wasn't sure which was worse. The sight of scaffolding had grown old quickly, and every stone looked the same. Her eyes crossed from using her elemental sight for so long; she hoped she was just tired and it wasn't that Xiao's footsteps were growing stale.

"The karma!" Chongyun suddenly shouted which caused Noelle to shudder. "I can sense it!"

"Is it in the same direction as Xiao?" She passed the luminescent potion to Chongyun who eagerly led the way.

"It seems so, yes." He quickly trotted down the tunnel and to a collapsed heap of boulders, "Behind this."

"Here?" Noelle eyed the portion of the pile with the least integrity, and upon confirmation she swung her claymore against it, toppling them. Several loud crashes echoed as the boulders flew down the incredibly large mineshaft. Chongyun's eyes grew wide.

"What…what is that?" Lumine's stomach dropped as she gazed through the newly formed opening. A spire shrouded in corruption hung from the ceiling like an oversized stalactite; immediately her mind flashed back to the stolen statue of Barbatos, except this was far worse.

"Khaenri'ah."

"What's Khaenri'ah?" Shit. She hadn't meant to say that out loud. She stuttered,

"Don't worry about it. I-I don't even know for sure." Noelle and Chongyun exchanged a glance,

"If there's something you're not telling us…"

"No, no. It's fine. It might not even matter. I promise, I'll explain more later. Right now, Xiao's energy is a lot closer. Let's go." Lumine jumped through the opening and spread her glider. Her smooth path was interrupted as she shifted her weight. Corpses. All of fallen hilichurls. There had to be hundreds of them littering the ground, and they were far too decayed to be recent.

Corruption ran so thick that for a moment she wasn't sure if it was safe to land. But then she saw it. A clear path illuminated by the adjuvant, and in the room's very center, Xiao. She plunged and sprinted beneath the massive spire, and she fought back the wave of vertigo that accompanied the sickly mud. Xiao engaged in battle with someone actually real, an abyss lector.

"Shut it!" His movements grew slower as he continued dodging an onslaught of electricity. The hair on Lumine's shoulders stood at attention as she emerged from the lector's blind spot and slammed the hilt of her blade against his shield.

Noelle emerged from behind her in the nick of time. The geo shield countered the oncoming blast of electro, and Noelle's dress gracefully spun as she channeled her energy through her claymore. The lector's shield began to chip as she continued to hack at it, and it finally shattered as Chongyun's frozen blade plummeted on top of it.

In her mind, Lumine imagined the open fields of Mondstadt. The way the asters spun against the air's swirling tide, the scent of the winery's vineyard as it fluttered past, and the undeniable aura surrounding Vannessa's tree. She summoned a blast of anemo energy, she willed all the air in the chasm to bend to her will, and in the subsequent vortex of snow she thrusted her sword through the lector's chest.

A dark cloud descended on her, and her vision suddenly flickered like a candle. Heat rose to her temples, she lost sensation in her arms and legs, and her skull pulsed in time with her racing heart. The candle blew out.

Chongyun forced his mind to focus on the task at hand; Lumine dealt the final blow, and given her proximity the karma first flowed to her. There was precious little time before it infiltrated her mind. If he had to exorcize it, her body would take substantial damage, and they couldn't afford the loss of her sword.

"Lumine!" He crouched beside her, and the dark energy faded around them as it fought her psychic defenses. Xiao was beside him in an instant, his yaksha mask adhered to his face under a layer of spilling blood.

"Bosac-L-Lumine!" There was nothing left for him to fight. Through his methodology vanquishing the spirit meant vanquishing her along with it.

Heart be pure,

Evil be erased.

Mind be purged,

World be…saved!

Lumine clawed the earth, and she released a guttural scream that would surely leave her voice sore. Like a touch of soap in murky water the energy dissipated immediately; he didn't miss the burning sensation as it lingered for just another moment.

"Xiao, your karma-" It still rolled off the adeptus in waves. If only there was something he could do. He reached out, and Xiao's wrist smoldered like an open stove. Seemingly from nowhere, Chongyun's yang energy flushed his cheeks in a feverish wave, he held his breath as he anticipated the subsequent migraine, the total loss of his autonomy, but it never came.

Instead, a familiar chill replaced the sudden heat, and a refreshing cold washed over him. His yang energy neutralized instantaneously, and suddenly his popsicle coping mechanism felt pathetic. Beside him, Xiao's mask melted from his face, and he breathed deeply as if for the first time.