The Priestess (Venti x Lumine) [Genshin] ON HOLD

Chapter 10

The opera was stunning. Dance, music, and dialogues were used to convey a story, things that Lumine had never seen before. The story was one of ancient times, of the god Barbatos, the Anemo Archon, and the people's faith towards him.

"May the Anemo Archon protect you!" the actors shouted as they bowed. The audience shouted the phrase back, and Lumine found herself joining the chorus. The play finished, and they headed out of the opera house.

"That was amazing!" Lumine's face glowed with happiness, and Aether smiled at her. He was unusually nice to everyone. He'd helped many people he'd met on the way, which explained why everyone loved him even though he was a noble.

"Whats prince Diluc like?" Lumine asked. Aether sweatdropped at the question but proceeded to answer her.

"He's grumpy, angry, tends to be violent, and is a bad boss. He's not fit to be a noble, but he's good at making decisions and taking care of things related to state." he explained. Lumine had heard things about Diluc in the city, how none liked him, and wanted Aether to be the ruler of Old Mond instead. What had Diluc done to get so much hate showered upon him anyway?

"Next, let us go to a restaurant!" Aether said excitedly as he once again led the way. They stopped in front of a fancy restaurant the likes of which Lumine had never dined at. Kazuha usually cooked food for them, for which they bought ingredients from the towns they passed. They slept outdoors under the open sky most of the time too, and rarely slept under a roof, unless they could afford it that day.

The restaurant's interior was just as flashy as its gold plated outside, and it had expensive vases and pink and yellow flowers covering the counters and lining the walls. This was a place for nobles to eat, several of them were seated on tables, eating daintily unlike her. Lumine had gotten used to eating with her hands.

Aether seated himself on a table and waved to the waiter, who, after noting down their order, headed to the kitchen.

"I've never been to such a fancy place before." Lumine said, gawking at the expensive interior and comfortable ambience of the restaurant. Aether chuckled as he leant back in his seat.

"Its not really fancy. Its food is better than other restaurants', but thats because they have a better chef here. Sometimes, there are some cheap places that sell way better food too, but most good chefs tend to work in high end restaurants." Aether explained. Well, that did make sense.

When the food arrived, Lumine could see what he meant. The noodles were sticky, the soup was kind of greasy, and it just tasted kind of . . bad. Aether seemed to be enjoying it, but it tasted kind of bad and awkwardly salty and spicy to her.

"Kazuha cooks better than this." she put the bowl of noodles down. Aether looked a bit startled, then smiled.

"Now I'm curious how Kazuha cooks." he chuckled lightly.

"He's a pro cook." Lumine lifted her thumb upwards with a proud smile.

"Let me have his food sometime then." Aether said. Lumine nodded her head.

Once they, or rather Aether, was done eating, they headed out of the restaurant and back towards the palace. However, now, Lumine could faintly hear voices.

He's here.

The prince.

Lets take him.

Take.

Take.

Take.

Destroy.

Prince? Were they talking about Diluc? The voices grew louder in her head like a ringing sound, till it hurt so much that she clutched her head and fell to the ground.

"Lumine?!" Aether knelt down beside her, and rubbed her back with worried eyes. She weakly raised her head to look at him, then her eyes grew wide as she pointed to the now grey sky. A hand reached down out of it, and clutching Aether in its grasp, took him with it, and the voices cleared out of her head as tears rolled out of her eyes.

"Aether!" she cried but her brother was there no more.