Xiaolumi S4: Edge of Dawn

"Take My Hand, Deshret."

A/N: I hope you enjoy the song for Nahida and Deshret, this chapter. by the way cause it fits so well with their friendship. Deshret and Nahida being super close until his final sacrifice is one of the most beautiful but bittersweet relationships I've seen in any RPGs in a long time. To celebrate this amazing pair I made this fanart cutscene of Deshret & Nahida.

"You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise."
~Maya Angelou

Móðir = Old Norse/Viking for "Mother"

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Well that was quite the fall. Xiao, Paimon, and Lumine were the first to come spitting out sand and coughing. Xiao was still holding her close as they sat there in the sand at the bottom of this sinkhole. He looked baffled as he whispered, "Lumi did you just—!?" Before he could finish Dehya and Cyno had bolted up from the sand. At some point Xiao and Lumine's familiars had vanished into their vessels before it got too dangerous. Not far away Alhaitham was dusting sand out of his hair and emptying his headset. Isak and the elderly keeper were also thankfully fine but the Ermites didn't seem as lucky and were rather rattled.

"Everyone alright?"coughed Cyno.

"Sand in weird places but otherwise Paimon's ok. Xiao and Lumine are fine too....uuh...Paimon's dizzy."Paimon called, emptying her boots of sand.

"Ugh, it's going to take archons know how long to get all the sand and dust out of my feathers."hissed Xiao in annoyance as he and Lumine got to their feet. The urge to groom his wings was strong as he instinctively ruffled them.

"I got sand in places I didn't know sand could go."grumbled Lumine.

"Guess you could say this is a sandy situation we are in now."hummed Cyno taking in their situation. Only to get a smack over the head from Dehya. "Ow!"

"Your jokes suck, wolf pup."sighed Dehya.

"Everyone else, ok?"Lumine called. Each one of them giving a brisk nod. Making Lumine sigh in relief as she dusted herself off and got as much sand out of her hair as she could. Thankfully her dress was loose fitting and not tight. Her under garments were a different story though she'd handle later.

"Great, this day just keeps getting..."grumbled Dehya but caught herself before she could finish that sentence. Last thing she wanted was to jynx themselves further today.

"What a nuisance this has become."sighed Alhaitham crossing his arms.

"Looks like the sand dune collapsed."pointed out Cyno as he looked up. They could see above to the sky through the massive hole. But another detail of interest especially to Lumine was the evidence of old ruins. Ruins that had been buried by eons of sandstorms. "I saw an energy field come from the scholar but also something enhanced it...The Village Keeper protected us but something else was helping to ensure the odds were in our favor.."Cyno looked over at Xiao and Lumine and everyone. "It glowed green with dendro but the gold light...it's an element I don't know. But that energy field may have well been the remains of Lesser Lord Kusanali's powers inside the scholar's body as for the other I'm unsure where it came from."

Xiao however knew very well where that gold light had come from as Lumine looked just as confused. Had Lumine tapped into her latent powers over fate subconsciously or was this pure instinct of a primordial at play here? He did not know. But this girl, this amazing petite goddess that was his mate kept surprising him. Once again also the dendro archon had saved them. That was three archons now he owed his gratitude towards. Lumine must have realized too she must have done something unknowingly and sweatdropped. "Gotta divert them from me."she thought swiftly.