I woke up under a strange sky. It was neither the blue of Mondstadt's mornings nor the golden haze of Liyue at dusk. The light hung low, fractured, as if the heavens themselves were broken. Dust drifted lazily through the air, sparkling faintly like forgotten stars, and the wind… the wind was gone. Not absent, exactly, but hollow. It whispered through the ruins, carrying memories of a world I once knew.
I tried to move, and my body answered with a stiffness that reminded me how long I had been lying there. My hands brushed against the cracked stone beneath me, and I felt the pulse of the world—or rather, the absence of it. Everything elemental, vibrant, alive, had dimmed. I had expected devastation after the war, yes, but this… this silence was heavier than any battle I had fought.
And then, as I rose on unsteady legs, a name whispered in my mind, a thread pulling me through the emptiness. Aether…
I swallowed hard. I hadn't spoken it aloud, yet somehow it felt like the word had always been on my lips. It was impossible, and yet… I could feel him. Not just in memory, not just in longing, but here, faintly, like a heartbeat beneath the dying pulse of Teyvat.
I remembered the war.
We had fought together against Celestia's last decree, the gods who had turned on the world we loved. Their crowns shattered, their thrones overturned, and yet the victory had come at a cost. I remembered his hand on mine, warm and firm, holding me close as the world trembled around us. I remembered the promise we had made — not as heroes, not as gods, but as twins who refused to abandon each other.
And then the final moment.
I had screamed. He had screamed. And then everything went black.
I don't know how long I had lain here in this post-war silence. Hours, days, weeks? Time had lost meaning. The cities I had loved—Mondstadt's free winds, Liyue's steadfast stone, Inazuma's stormy oceans—were now husks. I wandered first through what remained of Mondstadt. The windmills stood broken, the streets cracked, the fountain dry. The kites that once danced in the sky hung tattered from their strings, motionless. I felt the absence of Venti, the absence of Barbatos, as if the world itself had forgotten them. And yet, through the ruins, I sensed something alive, something faint but enduring.
I followed it, not knowing where I was going. Perhaps I was chasing a memory. Perhaps I was chasing him.
Liyue came next. Or what remained of it. The Harbor was in ruins; the contracts that once bound the city's people, etched in stone and magic, had crumbled into dust. I walked among the remnants, my boots stirring clouds of ancient ash. And there, on a jagged fragment of what had been a wall, I saw it:
A message carved in stone, familiar and unsteady, as though the hand that wrote it had trembled with desperation.
"Lumine… if you survive this, find me. Not in light, not in shadow… but where the stars still speak."
I sank to my knees before it, tracing the letters with my fingers. Aether's handwriting. Impossible. And yet undeniable. My chest tightened. I could almost feel him reach for me through the stone, a warmth that defied the cold silence around me.
Tears came unbidden, hot and furious, and I pressed my face to the wall, inhaling the scent of dust and rain, of old stone, of memory. "Aether," I whispered, barely a breath. "I'll find you. I promise."
The sky darkened as dusk approached. Even in this broken world, Teyvat remembered its rhythms. Shadows stretched across the ruins, long and thin, and in their darkness, I saw something flicker—a light, not elemental, not ordinary, but… familiar.
I stood, gripping the hilt of my sword, heart hammering in a way I had thought lost. The light pulsed, like a heartbeat in the distance. And then I heard it: a voice. His voice, unmistakable, carried on the empty wind.
"Lumine…"
My knees went weak. I could not run fast enough. I could not even walk without trembling. But still, I moved toward it, each step a prayer, each breath a promise. The ruins of Liyue stretched endlessly around me, but I did not care. I did not fear. I only wanted to reach him, to feel the warmth of his hand once more.
I remembered the day before the war had ended. We had been on a cliff above Mondstadt, watching the clouds. He had smiled at me, that easy, unguarded smile that made every worry melt. "No matter what happens, Lumine, we'll face it together. Always together."
And now… the gods had fallen. The world had changed. But the promise remained. I would face everything alone if I had to. I would survive. I would find him.
I followed the light through the ruins, the windless streets, past empty fountains and shattered temples. Every step was a memory: the way Aether laughed when I stumbled, the way he always looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered in the world, the way our hands had fit together perfectly, as if made for each other.
Night fell fully, and the first stars began to shine, pale and scattered through the fractured sky. I knelt beneath them, feeling their faint pulse, and whispered his name again. "Aether…"
And then the impossible happened. The stars above me shifted, rearranging themselves, forming a constellation that I had known since childhood. The shape was unmistakable: twin stars, orbiting each other, one bright, one fading. My heart leapt. It was a sign. Not magic, not divine, not elemental—but a sign that he was out there, somewhere, waiting.
I rose and brushed the tears from my face. My sword was light in my hand, but my heart was heavy with hope. I had survived the war, survived the silence, survived the end of the gods. And now, I would survive the journey to him.
I do not know what awaits me. I do not know if the world will ever be whole again. I do not know if I will find Aether alive, or if he has become something beyond my reach.
But I do know this: I will not stop. I will not falter. I will follow the heartbeat of the stars themselves if I must, until I find my twin, until I feel his hand in mine once more.
The road ahead is long, and the world is broken. But the bond we share… the bond that has endured centuries and calamities… is stronger than any fallen god, any shattered contract, any ruined city.
I step forward into the night, guided by the faint light of twin stars, and the whisper of a name that has haunted me through silence:
Aether…
The journey has begun.