Dark Secret

Prologue

The stupid harbinger. Did he not know the danger of calling upon the Overlord of the Vortex?! It was like Childe wanted to end Liyue; maybe even the whole Teyvat!

"Now that the interlopers are gone, we can commit ourselves fully."

The three adepti, Mountain Retainer, Cloud Retainer, and Moon Carver, combining their strengths, blasted the Overlord with a blast of adeptal energy, only making the Overlord angry, and causing him to lash back. Lumine gasped.

She ran. She ran as hard as she could, remembering the day that she had fought the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles. Even though she did so, she knew that these efforts might not be enough.

And she was right. She didn't make it in time. But then, she flashes teal-ish green. Xiao. It had to be. The young adeptis caught Lumine with both of his hands and teleported back to the platform of the Jade Chamber.

"Be careful now."

Lumine panted. She nodded.

"The Guizhong Ballista is destroyed... without its covering fire, retaliation shall be difficult." Cloud Retainer stated firmly.

"But the Jade Chamber is our last line of defense! We can't give another inch... no matter what..." Ganyu said, in desperation.

Ningguang teleported down from her place above them. "I have... another idea."

Ganyu's eyes widened. "What do you mean, Lady Ningguang?"

"...I'll sacrifice the Jade Chamber... if it means bringing down the god."

"What is the meaning of this?" Ganyu asked as the Jade Chamber was steered so that it floated right above the Overlord, lurking below them.

"I understand." Xiao waved his hand in front of his face, making his mask appear.

Lumine stepped forward. She knew what she had to do now.

"Traveler. Lend me a hand." Ningguang said sadly, as Lumine began to glow blue, then golden as she pulled out her sword with the energy of the adepti to assist her. "Farewell, old friend... goodbye for now. Let us meet again in the future."

Lumine tested the weight of her sword, and stabbed it into the platform of the Jade Chamber, allowing it to stop glowing, and blow up, defeating the Overlord of the Vortex.

Lumine jumped onto Cloud Retainers back just in time, before the Chamber fully fell, and when the blonde reopened her eyes, she found herself on a dock at Liyue Harbor. She dismounted from Cloud Retainer's back and rushed to the edge of the platform. After a short argument with the adepti, she went to the Northland Bank. There, she found Zhongli, Childe, and... La Signora.

"Hey, it's Zhongli and Childe! And... you. You're also one of the Harbingers..."

"Signora!"

"Ah. I believe we met before... the City of Bards, was it? Ah, right. Must have been rather hard to forget watching helplessly as something precious got stanched away from your friend."

"I still have time to take it back," Lumine growled as she summoned her sword to hand.

"No, don't let her get to you, Lumine... you've yet to gather the powers of all seven elements, and our last battle at the Golden House was almost more than you could handle... so it might be best to keep things peaceful this time, seeing that two of the Harbingers are here."

"Well if it isn't the Traveler. This is our first time meeting each other since Liyue nearly got wiped off the map. This is certainly a bit... awkward, wouldn't you say?"

"Hmph, Paimon knew we shouldn't have trusted a Fatui Harbinger!"

"Says the one who almost told Childe what we were trying to do all along..." I growled back at Paimon. Paimon backed up a little, sensing that Lumine was very angry right now.

"Aw, now don't say that. Sure, I may have misled you, but I never had anything against you... besides! I thought we were getting along quite well together, didn't you? Except for the little tussle we had at the end... haha. Nothing personal, we just have... different views, that's all. Of course, you may very well hold this up against me, but that's up to you... of course... the real deceivers here are Zhongli and Signora... curse them for leading me on."

"Zhongli tricked you?"

This conversation went on until Zhongli flung the doors open, gave the gnosis to Signora, and Signora left the bank and was only left with Zhongli, Childe, and Lumine.

"Well, I should go now," Lumine said after chatting a bit more with the Ex Geo Archon and the eleventh fatui harbinger.

"Are you alright, Ms. Lumine?"

"Yea, just fine!" Lumine said, lying. "I-I'll take my leave now. Bye!" Lumine said a bit too excitedly and turned to leave, but just as this action was done, Lumine fainted, and collapsed to the ground, making Paimon scream, and start flying about over the place.

"Lumine!" Childe called worriedly.

So.... maybe this fatui harbinger....

Zhongli walked over to the fallen girl.

"She should be fine. It's just a fever."

But...

"Let's bring her over to Baizhu right away."

Does this harbinger even know...

"Right!"

That he's fallen for the Traveler? But that's up to him if he wants to keep it, or destroy the contract that's slowly starting to bring these two together...