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i'm so close to the end of this book im gonna cry i don't want to let go of it. 

i mean the reason i kept updating was the comments and since no one comments on here anymore ig i can let go more easily.

if the book goes to plan, it'll end with a stack of chapters. (64.)

and to think I FUCKING PREDICTED ~100. (i wrote in lumine as a more prominent character to help this not be a possibility.)

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the ride to the cemetary was a silent, long one.

xiao was staring out the window, as they passed empty fields. aether wasn't buried close to liyue's main city, and more out in the more rural parts of the region. xiao sighed, as he noticed the past inn that he and zhongli had stayed at, shortly after the other was murdered.

"we're close. do you need anything before we do?"

"i wont head in right away, i'm going to stop for a smoke first."

"didn't you quit?"

"i still do. just, every time i get stressed or reminded of the night, i smoke."

"i understand. this whole thing's been stressful, hasn't it?"

"mhm." xiao nodded, leaning into the carseat, as he glanced over at lumine.

"want to talk about it?"

"talk about how i've had everything ripped away from me, or how i haven't been able to be happy since i had our time's venti?"

"if you want to, either."

"no."

lumine sighed, "alright, and, you can smoke in the car, as long as the window's down."

"i don't want t-"

"xiao, this universe, if everything goes right, will be completely shattered and destroyed. i can't return after this, and you're lives and memories will be completely changed."

"that's morbid."

"morbid yet true."

lumine smiled softly at xiao, before looking out the window.

"do you want to hear about how the timeline would've gone?"

"sure."

modernity - xiaovenWhere stories live. Discover now