"What do you mean?" Chongyun returned a nervous and puzzled stare.
"Hm," Lumine began picking dried blood from beneath her fingernails, "well, I doubt your friend wants to return to the commerce guild. You know, since his family is still at large? Take it from me, it sucks to sleep alone in an empty house." When no one said anything, she continued.
"It's just a thought. I'm fine with harboring fugitives in my teapot, so feel free to join me if you've got nowhere else, Xingqiu. Hi Shenhe."
"Greetings." Her expression matched her nephew's, but unlike Chongyun she didn't trouble herself for any details. "I have other business to attend to."
"Alright. Bye Shenhe." She leapt up the Chasm's multiple tiers without preamble and with practiced ease. It reminded her of Xiao, who was probably thinking of making a similar escape. Beside her, the adeptus didn't say anything.
"It looks like we all lived," Xingqiu counted legs from his seat on the ground, and he inevitably came up two short. Rather than say anything, he looked hopefully between Lumine and Zhongli. "Right?"
"Yes." Zhongli folded his arms. If she didn't know better she wouldn't have noticed the hesitation in his voice, "Venti sustained the fewest injuries, so he left to procure medical supplies from the pharmacy. Otherwise, we are all present and accounted for." Like the obnoxious bard he was, he winked at Lumine from the opening in Xiao's sleeve. Apparently they were continuing their act.
She didn't know how much longer they could keep it up, but if it could save the others some peace of mind she could play along.
"I can help!" Noelle's heel slipped causing Xiao to flinch with indecision. Eventually she caught herself.
"No," he frowned, and when he realized the attention was on him his voice quieted, "you should rest. Mortals are not made to withstand adeptal technology."
"That's true." Lumine stepped forward to her audience, doing her best to redirect the conversation. "Resting sounds like a great idea. I for one, have been craving Xiangling's cooking. If we go to Wanmin, we can do some brainstorming from there."
"Yes!" Xingqiu pumped his fist, "I mean…uh, that sounds nice." Zhongli smiled.
"I assume you'll want to go to the inn. Want me to bring you some tofu?"
"That's not necessary. Just keep me updated, and call me if you find yourselves in danger." He pointedly looked at Chongyun before he vanished in a puff of wind. They set off shortly thereafter, and as the sun began setting the dimming light only accentuated the Chasm's ghostly scenery. By the time they reached the entrance, Lumine's stomach cantankerously growled.
She willed it to silence which only made it grumble louder. Fortunately, the others seemed focused on their own thoughts.
"What are we going to do about their arrest warrant?" She shrugged,
"Hope? It's not like they have any evidence. Let's just lay low, and maybe we can talk with the Qixing in the morning." As the dust path turned to pavement, it seemed blending in would be easy for once. Liyue's illuminated front gate strode into view like a familiar friend, packed tight with pedestrians; Lumine could have cried. They hadn't rotted underground after all. The air was crisp, and everything was back to normal.
Well, except for the damage on Main Street. And the fact they were covered in blood. Lumine did her best to conceal the latter, but it only worked given former's distraction.
Much of the pavement had been taped off, and carpenters still attended to the store fronts despite the late hour. Though she couldn't prove it, she assumed Keqing had something to do with it. Across every region Lumine had never seen an ambitious construction worker. It was one of the universe's few constants. Everything changes, time is relative, construction workers are slow; healing takes time while breaking takes almost none.
"Oh my gosh!" Adding to the chaos, several plates smashed along the sidewalk. Xiangling didn't seem to care as she rushed to tackle her friends in a hug. "I thought you died or something! What happened?" She looked them up and down, "Are you okay?" Xingqiu quickly shushed her,
"We're still under arrest. Can we maybe not shout outside?" Understanding dawned on her face, and that's how they ended up in Xiangling's house rather than the restaurant. While only a staircase separated the two, the feeling of home was much stronger above. Photos hung from the walls, soft carpeting cushioned the arches of her feet, and the kitchen downstairs heated the house like a hearth.
She could imagine an even younger Xiangling growing up here. Entertaining Xingqiu and Chongyun maybe, while she watched her parents cook. It struck Lumine with a bittersweet sadness; this felt familiar, but she couldn't point to a place or a time. Just that Aether had been there, and now he wasn't. Would he get along with her friends? She often wondered what he thought of Teyvat, or if he yearned for the stars. Lumine didn't even know her own feelings.
She didn't mean to, but she tuned to anemo with a subtle flash. Since he was beside her at the table, Zhongli seemed to notice but he didn't say anything. Instead, he pushed the steaming teapot towards her and he plunked three sugar cubes into her mug. She recalled her guilt as Xiangling returned with her arms full of dishes, and Lumine returned towels bruised by the battle's aftermath.
They all looked incredibly worse for wear.
"You have to let me pay. If it were just the three of us that would be one thing, but I've brought other guests as well."
"Nonsense!" Guoba carried a pitcher of water as he trailed behind her, "You all just got done fighting on behalf of the city! You deserve a reward. Besides, I have to show our resident Mondstadter the best of Liyue's hospitality!" Noelle looked up from her napkin that she had been folding. It sat beside her chopsticks in the shape of a crane.
Lumine shook her head, but she couldn't hold herself back from gratefully digging into her plate.
"I'm still helping with the dishes."
Noelle covered her mouth between bites, "me too." She did surprisingly well with chopsticks.
"I won't." Xiangling playfully punched Xingqiu's arm before she returned to the staircase.
"Are you sure? Okay! Thanks Dad!" She took an empty seat beside Chongyun. "If you insist, I guess I can compromise on that. But only if you tell me what's been going on."
"Alright well, Chongyun exorcized two demons. Well, I guess it was only the one because it was the karmic manifestation of a fallen yaksha, and he sorta followed us around the Chasm while we tried to escape. But he prevented me from getting possessed, so that was nice!"
"You exorcized a demon?" Chongyun winced into his plate as his friends yelled at him from both sides.
"Oh my god! Chongyun, that's so awesome!"
"I told you you could do it with yang energy! And you didn't believe me."
"That might have something to do with your pranks," he wiped his face, "but yes. I did. I'm not sure how though, because I did everything the same as usual. I think Adeptus Xiao's karma might have something to do with it."
"Oh?" Zhongli set down his tea cup.
"Something strange happened where his karma was affecting him, so I tried to help by performing a similar ritual to the one I did on Lumine. But before I could finish I felt really hot and dizzy, and suddenly all of my yang energy went away. Like, my congenital positivity neutralized or something."
"Congenital positivity…that's a rather rare condition. I haven't seen anyone with that affliction since-"
"-probably since ever." Lumine tapped his foot under the table.
"Um, yes. I've never seen it. What I mean is, I haven't heard of a case where it impacts karma. I've only heard that it repels miasmas." Xiangling rested her head on her palm,
"It sounds like what we learned in alchemy. Like with acids and bases? Maybe it's similar."
"Mister Albedo might know about it."
"You may be on to something. He's the one who formulated Xiao's medication."
"Couldn't hurt to ask," Xingqiu laughed under his breath, "maybe you should go to Mondstadt too."
"Oh! That's right. Venti should be back by now, shouldn't he?" The room fell quiet enough to hear the plates clinking downstairs.
"Maybe he went to drop off Xiao's meds." Chongyun knit his eyebrows as he thought,
"But Mister Zhongli already dropped off his medication before we entered the Chasm." Xingqiu shrugged,
"I don't know. Maybe he needs more? If I had to fight a karmic version of my dead friend I'd want drugs too."
"No…something's not adding up."
"I think it makes sense." Through his water glass, Xingqiu gestured with his eyes to Lumine. She shrugged in response. What did Xingqiu know?
"Earlier you didn't want to tell us how you got here. Venti managed to help you get here all the way from Mondstadt where you started your morning."
"You were in Mondstadt this morning?" Like Lumine, Xiangling was quickly becoming the odd one out.
"Yes. He showed up at the Chasm this afternoon with Mister Zhongli, but neither of them could have known about the ley line opening because there was no one to report it. You said Zhongli would tell me what I need to know." Chongyun looked at him expectantly, giving Lumine a bad case of what Venti called fremdschämen.
"Miss Xiangling," he set his teacup down.
"Hm?"
"I would request that you leave the room for a moment."
"Uh-Oh! Okay. No big deal." She started for the stairs.
"I'll help with the dishes!"
"You should stay, Miss Noelle." Lumine could only imagine the awkwardness that was about to ensue.
