Lumine, wait!

Paimon shouted for the fourth time since their chase began. Chongyun and Xingqiu were ahead, following closely behind the blonde; while Diluc and Childe were guarding them from behind.

Breathing heavily, Lumine climbed the last stretch of some debris and took a breath to catch the breath she felt lost. Beside her, the albino and the blue-haired man watched the lone figure standing static in the distance. The blonde hair dancing in the wind, the ruins crumbling around her thin, dust-covered silhouette.

─ Aether!

A muffled scream followed by silence. Lumine didn't wait another second; three years had been enough.

No one tried to stop her as soon as she jumped and began a new, desperate run. Tears covered her face and blurred her vision, hindering her steps. She stumbled; once and three times, but still she continued, that was nothing compared to everything she had to endure before, not if she could once again hold her brother in her arms.

The aforementioned responded to the call, turning his head slightly and observing the young woman. She was his sister and yet he felt her as a stranger.

Wasn't she supposed to have been enemies? How could she run so calmly to him? Wasn't she afraid? Didn't she hate him? Did she trust him after all?

But the contradictory feelings were building up more and more inside him, forming a real mess; like those storms that lashed Teyvat more and more frequently. He was happy to see her, he was happy to feel the warmth of those slender arms around him again, and he had a thousand words he wanted to say, but they only remained stuck in his throat, choking him along with the guilt.

He had watched her countless times, had watched from afar as his little sister faced her own, wielding her sword without fear of death. An expressionless face, blood covering her body along with wounds that would mark her skin eternally.

Guilt was dragging him into an abyss, and yet he said nothing.

Silence reigned once again, only being broken by the blonde's crying. With those tears that epapating the major's shoulder, he let out all the pain and frustration of the hell he must have endured all that time.

In the distance, five pairs of eyes watched them silently. Paimon wiped away the small tears that threatened to come out; he had experienced a great number of adventures in the blonde's company and was truly happy to have fulfilled the promise he had made to her the day they met, what would the future hold for them from now on?

─ Lumine...

Aether's voice finally came out in a broken whisper. As soft as the breeze that enveloped them. The blonde smiled through her crying, she was aware that this was not the brother she lost that day, but she would go to great lengths to save him from the darkness that still surrounded him.

She would do it, after all, it was a pending matter that she still had to fulfill no matter what it took.