My Dear Friend | Chilumi

The Mines

A couple of days later, the duo found themselves in the Chasm caves to mine for some ore and uncover some treasures. After their last cave expedition, they went straight to the adventurers guild to explain the situation. Lumine conveniently left out the part where Childe was involved and tweaked the story where she defeated the scientist herself. If she wanted to get paid she had to make it work in her favour. She also knew it was pointless to add him to her story when she didn't even see him. All she had was his mask sashed across her hips, reminding her of his omnipresence in her mind. Paimon had invented the wildest possibilities of what happened in the cave and why he did it. The girls couldn't stop talking about the horrible things they saw in the past few days. It was not going to be an easy-to-forget mission. 

A couple of hours had already passed and the girls had delved deep into the mine shafts. They had found more supplies than they were hoping for and decided to head back before getting too tired and before Paimon could get hungry and grumpy.
They were walking in an unstable part of the shafts when suddenly the ground underneath them started to quake.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING LUMINE ?" Paimon yelled as the walls began to shake.

"RUN! " She shouted back.

They tried to get further away from the crumbling mine but rocks started falling from de ceiling and the girls needed to take cover, they rushed to an old mining cart to hide underneath. As they approached the target, a giant boulder came down and Lumine pushed Paimon out of the way. More boulders came down before any of the two friends could reach each other and in seconds they were completely separated from each other.

"PAIMON, PAIMON CAN YOU HEAR ME ? "

She had no answer. She called out again and was answered by silence. She tried to power through the new wall but it didn't even budge. All she could do now was hope that her friend was safe on the other side.

All on her own, she decided to backtrack and try to find a way around the shafts. Thankfully the way behind her was not completely blocked off and she could squeeze through rocks. She found a little river running down another cave system that seemed to lead towards a possible exit.

Lumine was in a familiar section of the caves and remembered Katarina, the fatui mage who had a camp in the area. Even if she wasn't here, at least she could have a place to sit down and think. She set out to try and find the mage. Luckily, she found her bathing in the river not too far from where her camp is. She announced herself and Katarina seemed happy to see a friendly face.

"Oh, traveler! You came back to see me! Where is your little fairy friend? Did you eat her ? "

"No actually we were separated in a mine shaft collapse and I'm trying to find a way to get back to her. You still haven't found your brother yet ? "

"There are still places to explore in these mysterious caves, I won't get back up unless I find him or when I will have scoured every inch of this God's forsaken place. "

"I understand, I would do the same thing for my brother."

Katarina smiled, happy someone understood her instead of trying to convince her to go back up.

"Let me get dressed and we can go back to my camp."

Katerina put on her purple robes and The traveler followed her back to her makeshift home in the mines. She started a fire and the two women started talking, Lumine took out some supplies to give to the fatui girl and started cooking for the malnourished mage who could only have dreamed of eating a good meal lately. The mage noticed the mask tied around Lumine's waist.

"Tartaglia." She muttered to herself.

"You know of him? " Lumine inquired.

"The harbinger .. yes, I saw him recently roaming in the caves. He gave me a piece of bread. He didn't say anything and I did not inquire about his business. He is a very powerful and dangerous man, traveler, If I were you I'd get rid of that thing before he finds out you stole it. I heard he has a terrible knack for picking fights."