Smile Like A Broken Star[Canceled]

Race Against The Clock

[A/N: SURPRISE!!! You get Chilumi just a bit early and happy holidays and Happy 2022 everyone!  But that is partly due to the fact Ajax's Antidote Arc for Sumeru will be first while we wait. Will we see the harbingers? hm no not until Dendro Archon quest starts maybe. For now we gotta save our cheeky boi! Hurry girls, hurry Cyno!!]

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She hated it.

So many emotions raced through her as the young blonde raced through the sea of sand. The scorching heat of the relentless desert sun on her head as she adjusted the shawl that provided the only shade she had. Her one pristine white dress caked in dust and the blood of her victims she had recently slain. Her ominous sword of violet and black, forged from a slain venomous dragon of centuries past in hand as it glistened a reflective light. Eyes of honey amber full of fury and determination. 

"Lumine wait up for Paimon!"came a hasty cry from the celestial fairy behind her.

The heat making no better or easier on the small silver haired being with her. But Lumine could not afford to slow down or stop. Not when back in the city of Sumeru a certain Fatui deserter lay dying raked with poison educed fever. So weak he could no longer stand, his own body now his gilded cage and enemy. The memory from hours ago fresh in her mind....

......Ajax just gave her his signature carefree smile, the same kind he got whenever they had a sparring match each week. "I'll come out of this alive, th-this...this is my battle to fight. You...you have yours."

"Ajax what are you saying?"Lumine was starting to worry even more again.

"I made a mistake going out there alone, I admit and I am sorry. I'm so, so weak...my body won't listen anymore and it terrifies me. But still, I-I must place my dreams with you to safe guard for now."he whimpered already getting dragged back into the darkness of slumber. "I don't want to die this way...Lumine...."

Her eyes grew wide before she could feel a quiet anger to whomever had done this to him begin to simmer and bubble under the surface. She then did the one thing Ajax had not expected as she bent down and kissed him passionately and deeply. It was her promise to hm. "You won't die."she whispered as she parted resting her forehead against his. With her this close he could see the rebellious fire burn and smolder in her honey amber eyes at her words. "I'll hold you...to...it..."came his frail reply as his eyes fluttered closed..... 

With a furious snarl her grip on her sword tightened as the ruins came into sight. That was where she had to go to retrieve the part from the elemental thing the poison had been constructed out of. The dark ominous ruins sitting in this sea of what little green was left in the once lush land of the dendro archon. With the dry season the nights grew very frigid and the air stale and dry and hot. 

"What do we have left to get on our list Paimon for Cyno and Shanika?"Lumine asked as she started to chop away at the thick foliage in their way.

"Just the Dendro Hypostasis's core and venom from some Sumeru cobras....ugh...Paimon's nervous about that last one. Why more poison to counter a poison?"Paimon whimpered timidly.

"I'm no doctor or herbalist Paimon how should I know? If you are this scared go back I can do this alone if I have to."Lumine firmly informed. She was usually not this sharp-tongued but desperation and anger and torrent of other emotions prevented her from speaking calmly. This was a race against the clock after all and time was not their friend.

"Ok no need to snap at Paimon...geez grumpy aren't we? But Paimon can understand."the fairy huffed however something caught her attention up ahead. Something slithering in the brush. "Paimon sees some snakes!"