EN | An encounter she will never forget | ᴄʜɪʟᴜᴍɪ

20 - You are alive, right...?

The sunlight filtering through the curtains was the first thing Lumine noticed after opening her eyes. She was lying on something soft, most likely a bed, and the ceiling above her was pristine white. She tried to move, but all she felt was a slight pain going through her entire body. She thought she heard something, but she wasn't sure. Her brain was running in slow motion. After a moment, she decided to straighten up. She leaned on her arms to straighten her upper body so that she was sitting up. She saw a hand on her left arm to help her, but she felt nothing, heard nothing. It was as if Lumine was trapped in a time bubble, hearing nothing and feeling nothing.

As she sat upright, head down, staring at the sheets that covered her, she saw shadows pass by both at the foot of what actually looked like a bed, and at the sides.

Gradually, second after second, Lumine began to hear the sounds that were part of her environment. Birds were singing. The wind whistled through the leaves of the trees. Footsteps were coming closer. She thought she heard her name being called by several different voices, from several different people, but she didn't know who was calling her. She thought she saw a hand on hers, but she didn't know who it belonged to. She thought she heard a door open several times, but she didn't know where the door was.

Finally, as she heard the different sounds more and more clearly, she looked up. Several people were in the room, people she knew well. Barbara, Lisa, Amber, Kaeya and Venti were somewhere between the door frame and her bed. They were all staring at her with worried eyes. The hand on hers gave a slight pressure, to which Lumine reacted by turning her head to the figure next to her. It was Jean. She smiled faintly at her before asking, "How are you feeling?". This time, Lumine heard the question and opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

She wanted to ask where she was, what had happened, why everyone was worried, but no sound came out of her mouth. She was lost, couldn't remember anything, and couldn't even ask for more information.

As she stared at Jean, who was looking at her with a smile that betrayed her anxiety, all of Lumine's memories came back to her. Everything that had happened. Her fight, her brother, her world. Everything.

The sudden rush of images into her head cut off her breath, forcing her to hold her head in her hands. She could hear her friends screaming her name as she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. When the wave of memory disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, Lumine finally managed to articulate something understandable.

"How is he?"

A dead silence fell over the room. Lumine looked carefully at each of her friends' expressions, but all she saw was confusion. They didn't seem to understand her question.

Before she could ask another one, she heard hurried footsteps coming towards the door.

Black boots, gray outfit, black gloves, burgundy mask and scarf, and orange hair stopped in the doorway.

Childe.

Two figures followed him, belonging to Zhongli and Diluc.

Lumine met the orange-haired man's blue eyes. Without being able to contain them, tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Ojou-chan..."

Paying no heed to the glances every single person in the room threw at him, Childe quickly approached the edge of the bed.

"Are you alive and well? Then I didn't—I didn't—"

That word she refused to say still echoed in the heads of the two—previously—opponents, like the detonation of the burst of compressed air used to exterminate the water narwhal.