Chapter Text
There was something empowering about spying from above.
Screams punctured the stillness below, a corpse of a god laid strewn among chaos that surged through the Rite of Descension, and his target was trying to slink away from the scene — yet Tartaglia was above it all, in control, and already plotting his next move. Eyes fixed on the blond traveller and his floating companion, he leapt across green-tiled rooftops in chase. The harbinger would find an opportune moment to get on the traveller’s good graces, perhaps play hero and scratch the itch to battle, blissfully unaware of the gaze tracking his own movements.
“Who is that ginger monkey spying on the traveler?”
“The eleventh harbinger, Tartaglia, sire.”
The abyss mage bowed its head to avoid taking in the princess’ displeased frown. It did not know what a monkey was, for it was a being from another world, but the mage held back such an insignificant query. The princess may not react kindly to displays of ignorance.
“What is your command, your majesty? Shall I call upon a lesser battalion to intervene?” The mage offered instead.
“We don’t have to,” Lumine decided. The fatui, as much of a hindrance they may be, are part of this world as well. She would allow Aether to be acquainted with their wickedness… to a certain extent. Her seemingly calm demeanor was betrayed by her white-knuckled grip on her sword hilt. The abyss mage knew better than to push her in this state.
“As you wish, my liege.” The mage bowed in its unspoken dismissal, promptly vanishing and leaving Lumine to observe how the rest of the scene unfolded below.
Aether had somehow managed to sneak away from the millelith and right into the pesky harbinger. Lumine could barely make out their expressions from her perch on the mountaintops, much less eavesdrop on their back-alley discussion. From the violence she anticipated, she was ready to reciprocate, to personally bash Tartaglia’s head into the concrete in the event of Aether being knocked unconscious.
Lumine’s frown deepened when no such conflict occurred. Aether’s posture remained wary, as anticipatory as hers, but all the harbinger did was hand her twin an item she could not discern from this distance. Eyes narrowing, the princess cast aside her blade in a glimmer of abyssal magic. She was familiar enough with the fatui to predict their course of action: immediate aggression, or eventual brutality. The latter was usually the more sadistic option, and Lumine could already think of seven different ways her brother would dig himself into greater danger for colluding with a harbinger on seemingly friendly terms.
Aether held the same suspicions, but he had no need to voice them out loud. Paimon was doing a great job on her own.
“Why would we trust the fatui?! Do you know what that other harbinger did? She turned Paimon into an ice cube!” She stomped her feet in midair to emphasize her point. “Paimon doesn’t want to have anything to do with you! Let’s go find our own leads, Aether!”
Tartaglia had his face contorted into the most convincing expression of hurt he could muster. Before he could open his mouth and spin some lie to defend himself, he was interrupted by Aether.
“I don’t trust you, but I’ll go find the adepti as you asked,” he nonchalantly pocketed the sigil of permission before looking Tartaglia in the eye. Ignoring Paimon’s protests, he continued, “because I have my own agenda as well, and if this quest you’re stringing me on drags my search into the furthest corners of Teyvat, it only helps my cause.”
Interest piqued, Tartaglia leaned against the alley wall, relaxing his stance in what he hopes to be something neutral and open. “Are you looking for someone?”
“Yeah. My twin sister.”
“Hey! Listen to Paimon! Why are you giving that information away to the bad guy?!”
“It’s not a secret,” Aether replied smoothly, just as Tartaglia protested, “Hey! I’m not a bad guy!”
Unbidden, an image of his own baby sister surfaced, running amok through Tartaglia’s otherwise collected thoughts. “So you’d do anything to find her? Even work with fatui?”
“Yep.”
Tartaglia hummed, casually throwing his gaze over his shoulder in a mock attempt of looking around the deserted alleyway, as if a second blonde midget might pop out from behind an empty fruit stand.
Something was off.
When someone enjoyed people-watching as much as he did, they too would be familiar with the sensation of being watched. Despite being shielded by the privacy of the dark alleyway, Tartaglia could not shake the feeling that made his hair stand on end. His line of sight trailed up the nearest mountain, higher and higher, until he could pinpoint the source. That white dress really did not do her any favours for her attempt at stealth.
The harbinger turned back to Aether with an apologetic smile.
“Unfortunately, you’re the only blond shortie I’ve seen around here. I’ll let you know if I see anything, though!”
Lumine did not flinch when her eyes met Tartaglia’s. Nobody else was around to object to that fact, and the harbinger was too far to see the subtle jerk that absolutely did not rock her shoulders. After a second of staring in disbelief, the princess tore her watchful gaze away from the pair and retreated in the opposite direction with as much confidence her royal self could flaunt. She only allowed herself to breathe again once she was well out of sight.
“Escort,” Lumine commanded into thin air. Dutifully, the abyss mage reappeared with a soft pop. “I’ve changed my mind.”
The fatui wouldn’t miss a few members if they got mysteriously attacked by hilichurls.
Spywork did not suit Lumine at all. Though the abyss order was well-versed in working behind the scenes and pulling strings, this approach was often uniquely exploited by the fatui themselves. Why then was the abyss princess hunched over an unconscious fatui recruit, stripping her of the dark uniform, and mulling over how she was going to infiltrate northland bank? She questioned herself severely, since her subordinates dared not provide a second voice of reason.
Aether was set to return from his current mission in Jueyun Karst and rendezvous with the harbinger again. Lumine’s presence was required in order to eavesdrop on the pair, which was perfectly reasonable in her opinion. She did not doubt Aether’s capability to fend for himself against treachery, nor was she oblivious to the fatui’s true plot (the mages that scouted the area have given her daily reports on fatui activity, specifically their manufacturing of sigils). She was just unsure how Aether would fall into their plans. All she knew was that her twin had a knack for barging in to foil and complicate matters, a trait that had already clashed with the abyss order’s own inner workings.
“Your Highness, what are your next orders?”
A trio of abyss mages had remained on standby as the princess looted their victims. Lumine regarded them with little interest, mind clearly elsewhere.
“Back to your usual duties. Guard the ruins, investigate ruin guards, patrol Liyue,” she directed, waving at them halfheartedly. “And deposit this fatuu elsewhere, preferably around Stormterror’s Lair. Dismissed.”
Lumine watched as they scrambled to haul the unconscious woman through a portal, her mind scrambling with them. It had been centuries since she last bothered to set foot into any city of sorts outside the abyss. The prospect of having to socialize with humans again did not necessarily frighten her, as there were abyssal horrors much more terrifying than the awkwardness of a mistimed greeting or gesture. It simply felt out of place in her routine of commanding troops and scheming alongside abyss lectors. The princess idly wondered how the harbinger managed to juggle similar duties while committing to a daytime persona.
She cleared her head as she donned the fatui uniform, concluding that she would find out soon enough.
Lumine was swift to reassess her assumption about social interaction. When the daytime guard of the northland bank threw her a shy smile and invaded her personal space to place a letter in her stolen coat pocket, the princess thought about how better-equipped she was with battling abyssal horrors. She stiffly took the guard’s spot, fumbling to read the letter in case it contained some kind of secret code among the fatui. It instead revealed to be a love letter to a certain Nadia from a certain Vlad. Nadia, certainly, must be very confused about her current whereabouts and her lack of clothing. Wincing, she dared not read past the first few lines in fear of darkening the flush that was surely crawling up her neck.
The abyss princess, flustered over being an accidental voyeur to a secret romance. No one was around to witness the burn in her cheeks, but she shifted the uniform’s mask lower on her face anyway. Lumine straightened when she heard the footfalls of someone running up the stairs.
“Nadia, let the traveler pass into the bank from now on. We have an appointment tomorrow n—”
Tartaglia paused, his gloved hand halfway from reaching to the entrance handle. Lumine did not even dare to breathe; her mind was racing a mile a minute. She had gotten the timing and location off, and Aether had probably already met up with the harbinger elsewhere. He had confirmed that there was a second meeting tomorrow, but given the current unforeseen predicament...
Before she could decide between drawing her sword or escaping, she felt the cold edge of a blade pressed against her throat. Lumine closed her eyes, wishing for the abyss to swallow her a second time. And then she could be far away, wrestling an eldritch monster with seven heads into submission.
“Hey girlie. Where’s Nadia?”
It was unwise to take your eyes off an enemy, so the princess snapped them open to take in the harbinger for a brief assessment.
He had her crowded into a corner, the corridor to the bank deserted besides themselves. The dagger against her skin was a curiously solid form of water. A delusion was casually sat on copper curls. She could grab him by the wine red of his collar, or the scarf. Lumine was momentarily distracted by the dangling earring — though it was also a potential grappling site. There was also a carelessly exposed bit of flesh by his vision. She could dig her sword through that triangle of skin, and at the right angle—
“Eyes up here.”
Lumine’s brow furrowed, feeling her ears burn with adrenaline. She noted that Tartaglia’s eyes were blue, which was irrelevant in her deductions on how to best the harbinger. The princess was confident that it would not be too difficult to strike him down right here, and leave his corpse to be found by Vlad in the morning. That would, however, render her entire covert operation for naught.
“I can explain in your office,” she said carefully. Tartaglia raised a brow, lips curling into an amused smirk.
“I don’t think you’re in the position to be making demands, girlie.”
Frustrated, Lumine went with an approach that she was more familiar with. She ignored how the blade pressed deeper into her neck as she moved to tear the stolen fatui mask off, then threatened, “I know what your plans are, and I can warn the Qixing about your motives.”
He had the gall to laugh in her face. “I’m pretty sure half the city suspects us of the same fishy business, but none of you have any evidence to prove it,” he retorted. Lumine fought the urge to tear out Tartaglia’s tongue for his insolence. If the harbinger wanted to play dangerously, then so shall she.
The abyss princess summoned an age-old memory of begging Aether to let her keep a fluffy creature from a different world and promptly burst into tears. Tartaglia’s grip on his dagger actually slackened in surprise.
“I-I’m just looking out for Aether!” Lumine faux-sobbed. “You’re evil fatui! You’re gonna hurt him if I don’t do anything!” Panicking, the harbinger hastily discarded his blade and slapped a hand on her mouth in an attempt to muffle her cries.
“Hey! Hey, calm down, okay—” Tartaglia grimaced as her tears soaked into his glove. “Alright, we can… discuss things in my office, if you’d like.”
As the harbinger carefully guided the sniffling spy into the bank (“First day on the job, you guys know how it is,” he chuckled to the curious employees), Lumine evaluated her performance behind the cradle of her hands. Her mission had barely begun and she had already been a voyeur, held at knifepoint, and had tried to be civil, intimidating, and now… just desperate, after everything had gone off course. Sometimes she forgot how the overworld can be more mentally taxing than the endless, maddening descent into the abyss. The sobs that wracked her body were becoming less falsified by the minute.
The click of the locked door behind Lumine cued her to focus on the harbinger, who strode forward and leaned against the desk. Given the generous breathing room offered to her, the princess figured Tartaglia had his guard somewhat lowered.
“So, you’re the traveler’s lost twin sister.”
At her nod, the harbinger considered his options. He could easily kill her right here in his office, and let Aether perpetually roam Teyvat in search of a ghost. However, Tartaglia was inclined to simply return her to Aether, so he’d no longer have a reason to keep sticking his nose into fatui business. He had a feeling the girl would object, though.
“Why are you sneaking around dressed as fatui while your brother is ready to upturn Liyue to find you?”
The twin fidgeted, suddenly enamoured by a tile on his office floor. She was clearly struggling to lie her way out. “It’s complicated,” she mumbled. “I have a… job. That my brother won’t agree with.”
Tartaglia grimaced at her admission. Well, doesn’t that hit uncomfortably close to home.
“Wait a second,” he gasped, a salacious grin stretching across his face. Lumine’s eyes snapped to his, her fingertips almost twitching for her blade in anxious fervor. “You work for Ying’er?”
She gaped back at him. The nerve of this man was gnawing away her already-frazzled ones.
“Hey, perfume-making is nothing to be ashamed of,” he consoled, innocently resting his chin on his open palm. “Unless you know about her underground brothe—”
“I’d rather work with hilichurls,” Lumine blurted. Tartaglia raised his brows impossibly higher, looking about a hair’s breadth away from laughing. It had been a long time since Lumine so fervently wished to suck word vomit back into her throat.
The harbinger took pity on the rather cute shade of horrified red Lumine’s cheeks had adopted. “Well, I can keep your hilichurl-related activities a secret,” he began. Before Tartaglia could name his price, the princess sealed it with a threat.
“I can keep your sigil-related activities a secret, too.”
The temperature of the room seemed to dip as the harbinger’s mirth was wiped blank. She quickly assessed his posture; the breaths were still slow and even, his leg still crossed over his other, hip still leaned on the desk, arms were still loosely folded across his chest. There would be no spur-of-the-moment brawl, then. She could work with silence, too. Lumine thought the tension was a welcome change from the previous embarrassment she had walked right into.
“We have a deal!” Tartaglia brought the cheer back so suddenly that she definitely flinched this time. “So stay out of my way, girlie.” The princess regarded him for a moment, unused to the rapid shifts of mood. She settled on a reserved smile before slipping out of the office.
If unpredictability was the harbinger’s intimidation tactic, he could not fathom the sort of terror she was able to manifest.
In all fairness, Lumine had been ready to stick to her word. She returned to her distant observations, refraining from directly meddling with Aether’s plight in Liyue. She watched from cliffs and mountaintops, which were thankfully in abundance, and never lifted a finger. The princess was content to watch him assault her own abyss mages to get to chests. She watched him being led around the city by the incognito archon, oblivious to Morax’s little prank. She watched as he ascended to the jade chamber, doubtlessly learning of the fatui’s manufacturing of sigils on his own. She stayed static right until Aether’s vain quest for the milk of a nonexistent adeptibeast.
This time, Tartaglia had made his final reappearance as a neutral ally to Aether. He had doubled over in laughter, probably from performing some uncomfortable villain-esque monologue and stirring a small ruckus at the Bubu Pharmacy entrance. She knew from the way he strode off with such purpose and confidence that her deal with the harbinger was done. The abyss princess mirrored her twin, both moving to intercept the obvious climax at the Golden House.
Lumine came to a stop at a scenic spot that overlooked the harbor, towering over the city cradled by the mountains beyond. She paused to watch her brother darting through the bustling streets. The harbinger was well out of his sight, rapidly approaching his destination. Drawing a quiet breath, she raised her sword and tore a clean gash through reality itself.
Tartaglia had only experienced it once before, over half a decade ago. Yet the pull of the abyss was unmistakable, as abrupt and ominous as it had been when he was fourteen. He had just rounded a corner on the way to the Golden House, then he was falling forward. The only thing he could do was brace himself in preparation for a second round of hell.
“Harbinger,” a cool voice declared, “I’d like a word with you.”
The billowing of his scarf indicated the presence of a breeze. There were no breezes in the abyss, where the air was still and heavy. When Tartaglia opened his eyes, it was to green grass and moonlit sky. He whipped around in confusion, before settling on the girl in the white dress. This was definitely not the time to admire how her silhouette was framed in the distant city lights.
“Did you just teleport me, girlie? You know I’m a very busy man, I have places to be right now.”
Lumine ignored him, and even had the nerve to turn her back to him like a stereotypical antagonist. “You’re about to confront my brother,” she stated plainly, “do not harm him.”
“Or what?” He taunted, taking a defiant step towards the girl. This was the prime opportunity to take her out, or hold her hostage to force Aether into conceding before any kind of conflict began. Tartaglia was not sure what kind of element she could wield, but she was surely no match for the element of surprise.
“Your brother is fond of ruin guards, isn’t he?”
The harbinger froze. She shot him a look over her shoulder, something almost demure — save for the sly curl of her lips.
“How did you…” He hated how his voice shook, low and breathless. The girl turned away to regard the view in front of them once more. Whatever expression he was making probably goaded something beastly inside of her, because her next words threatened to devour him whole.
“A fair warning, Tartaglia,” she murmured, her hushed tone full of promise. “I have eyes everywhere.”
The darkened mountains beyond the harbor lit up like the night sky above, every blinking star the glowing core of an awakened ruin guard.