Genshin Impact | "The Eagle Solstice" | Alhaitham x Lumine

Fontaine, Part 4

Part 4

Lumine and Paimon strolled past the Fountain of Lucine. The splashing water from the fountains around the Opera Epiclese made for a rich backdrop as the pair rounded a corner. Aife, the Melusine stationed at the front doors, waived at them and the two waved back gleefully. But the Opera House wasn't their true purpose.

"Traveler, where are we headed? Paimon thinks we should resume our shopping. Hehehe."

Plue bounced in Lumine's arms.

"We can do that later. There's someone I want to visit."

They stopped at the back of the Opera House where a door, which may be mistaken as an exit to the opera, stood. Two Gardes standing on both sides were chatting lightheartedly when they approached.

"We're here to visit one of the people you're holding. His name is Childe. I'm-"

"She's the Traveler and Paimon is Paimon!"

The Traveler nodded. "Basically, what she said." She jerked a thumb at Paimon.

Lumine had been meaning to talk to Childe before they transferred him to the Fortress of Meropide where he was to be incarcerated until Neuvillette figures out the truth behind the Oratrice's verdict. The guilty sentence shocked most, if not all, of the people present at the proceeding, and that included the Traveler, who had held her breath when the Chief Justice handed down the verdict.

She couldn't blame Childe at all for everything that had transpired in the Opera House. He had previously admitted that he'd been in a bad mood due to some mysterious power stirring inside him. So it did not come as a surprising that he would take drastic steps to get himself out of a sticky situation, thus receiving a blow from Monsieur Neuvillette.

The Gardes who seemed to have recognized the Traveler nodded and let them through.

"That was easy. Paimon thought they will bar us from meeting him."

The two marched inside a well-lit room where they found a temporary holding cell for prisoners.

Another Gardes was sitting behind a desk next to the cell, sifting through papers. When he heard the doors open, he looked up to see a curious young woman enter accompanied by a flying creature.

"Comrade!" Childe jumped up. The chains cuffing his wrists clattered on the floor as he drew closer to the bars with surprising enthusiasm, a sight to behold despite his current state. His fetters were fastened to the floor by some huge iron nail. Lumine had no doubt Tartaglia could easily break the cuffs in his Foul Legacy form, as he did not possess his vision at the moment, but he seemed to have adapted and was behaving until they send him to the Fortress. He grasped the steel grates separating him from his enemy-turned-friend, gazing at her with eyes shining with hope.

Lumine quickly asked the warden for permission to talk to the prisoner privately. The man simply shrugged. "Make it quick. He's scheduled to leave any time now."

She faced the Harbinger, unsure how to begin, still in disbelief that the day would come that she'd be talking to him in prison. If this were a scene that happened after the fiasco with Liyue, it would've been completely believable, but a lot of things had happened since then, and they had ended up befriending each other despite the bad history.

He noticed her silence and hesitated, eyes wandering between Lumine and Paimon then to the otter in her arms. His face fell. "...you're not here to gloat, are you?"

"No, I'm not here to gloat." Lumine sighed.

"Paimon is here to see how you're doing."

"You didn't even know where we were headed just now."