The door to my shop chimed, and I looked up to see a blonde man in white traveling clothes step inside, followed by a floating... thing. A tiny white fairy-like creature with a strange star-shaped hair ornament.
Emergency food, my brain immediately supplied unhelpfully.
I've been running this shop long enough that very little surprises me anymore. A goddess of death? Sure, come on in. A counter guardian wanting to escape eternal servitude? I've got a clerk position open. The literal manifestation of humanity's will to survive? She's currently cooling her heels in the back while I figure out what to do with her.
But this? This was genuinely unexpected.
The Traveler. Aether himself, in the flesh.
I could tell immediately this wasn't the Abyss Prince from some darker timeline. This version had the same tired-yet-hopeful eyes I'd seen in countless playthroughs, the look of someone who had been searching for what felt like forever, but hadn't yet discovered the darker truths of Teyvat.
"Aether, right?" I called out from behind my counter, flashing my most professional shopkeeper smile. "Welcome to my humble establishment."
His body tensed immediately—years of experience making him wary of strangers who knew his name without introduction. His hand drifted toward the sword at his hip, and Paimon hid behind his head, peeking out with wide, suspicious eyes.
"Who are you? How do you know Paimon's traveler's name?" the little fairy demanded, her voice high-pitched but trying to sound threatening.
I spread my hands in a gesture of peace. "Easy now. I know a lot of things. Comes with the territory of running a multiversal shop. You wouldn't believe the kind of clientele I get."
Aether didn't relax, but he also didn't draw his weapon. That was progress.
"This is a shop?" He looked around, taking in the shelves filled with impossibly powerful items—Excalibur sitting casually next to a complete set of Infinity Stones, a Death Note beside a floating Keyblade. I watched his expression shift from caution to genuine surprise, then to something approaching awe.
"I've traveled through many lands in Teyvat," he said slowly, his voice carrying that weight of someone who had seen kingdoms rise and fall. "Seen things that would make the Seven sit up and take notice. But this..." He shook his head. "I've never seen anything quite like this."
Paimon floated forward, drawn by curiosity despite herself. "Paimon has never seen so many shiny things in one place! Are they all real? Can Paimon touch them?"
"No touching without buying," I said firmly, and Paimon immediately retreated back behind Aether with a pout.
Aether's eyes swept over the shelves one more time before returning to me. His posture was still guarded, but the sharp edge of suspicion had dulled somewhat. "You said you sell everything. Is that true? Everything?"
"That's the claim, and I stand by it." I leaned against my counter, adopting the casual confidence that came naturally after countless negotiations. "Of course, everything has a price. Nothing in this universe—or any universe—is truly free. But if you have something valuable to trade, and if what you're looking for exists somewhere in the infinite multiverse..." I spread my hands. "I can get it for you."
Aether was quiet for a long moment. I could practically see the gears turning in his head, weighing the possibility of this being some elaborate trap against the desperate hope that had driven him across Teyvat for so long.
Finally, he spoke, and his voice was different now—quieter, more vulnerable, stripped of the careful control he usually maintained.
"There's something I want. Something I've been searching for since I woke up in this world." His golden eyes met mine, and I saw the weight of his journey in them. "My sister. Lumine."
Paimon floated closer to him, her expression soft with understanding. "Traveler's sister... Paimon knows about her. You told Paimon right at the beginning, remember? That you were looking for her. Paimon has been helping you search ever since."
Aether's lips quirked into a small, grateful smile. "Yeah. You have."
I raised an eyebrow. So Paimon was in on it from the start. Good to know.
"I don't have much to offer," Aether admitted, and there was a rawness in his voice that made me pause. "I'm a stranger in Teyvat. I don't know its secrets—that's why I've been seeking out the Seven, hoping they might have answers. I don't have treasures from other worlds. When we arrived, we lost everything."
He spread his empty hands, and for a moment, he looked exactly what he was—a wanderer who had crossed the stars only to crash-land in a world he didn't understand, clutching nothing but hope and desperation.
"But I can work. I can fight. I've helped nations, toppled corrupt regimes, faced down gods. Whatever you need done—whatever task, whatever mission—I'll complete it. That's my offer." His golden eyes met mine, steady despite everything. "Service for information. Tell me where my sister is, and I'll pay back the debt in deeds."
I blinked.
Now that was an interesting proposition. Not knowledge—he'd already admitted he didn't have any worth trading—but action. The Traveler's services. Considering what I knew this guy was capable of... that was actually pretty valuable.
And technically, the Lumine sleeping in my back room wasn't from his timeline anyway. If I pointed him toward the clues I remembered from the game—the Abyss Order, the mysterious sibling working with them—that would be accurate information for his world. I'd be fulfilling my end of the bargain, and he'd have a direction to search.
The words were already forming on my tongue. I could spin this beautifully—give him just enough to go on, collect on his service debt later, and everyone walks away satisfied. That's how business works, after all. I'm not responsible for the multiverse's complicated family dynamics.
"If you want information about your sister," I said carefully, "I can help with that. The Lumine from your timeline—I can point you in the right direction. Consider it a consultation. We can work out payment later."
Aether's eyes lit up with desperate hope. "You know where she is?"
"I know how you can find her," I corrected. "The path forward. The clues to follow. It won't be easy, but—"
And then the door to the back room slammed open.
I didn't even have time to react before a streak of gold and white shot past me faster than I could track. My Observation Haki screamed warning, but it wasn't aimed at me.
It was aimed at Aether.
Lumine crashed into her brother with the force of a hurricane, wrapping her arms around him so tightly I was briefly concerned she might actually snap his spine. She was crying before either of them could speak, tears streaming down her face as she buried it in his shoulder.
"AETHER! AETHER! AETHER!" She screamed his name like a prayer, like a desperate incantation that had finally, impossibly, been answered.
Aether stood frozen for a single heartbeat—just one, the briefest moment of shock—and then his own arms came up and crushed her against him with equal force.
"Lumine." His voice broke on the word. "Lumine, Lumine, Lumine..."
They sank to the floor together, holding each other like they were afraid the other might disappear if they let go. Both of them were crying now, great heaving sobs that racked their entire bodies. Paimon's tiny face went through a rapid series of emotions—confusion, recognition, and then pure, overwhelming joy.
"TRAVELER'S SISTER!" Paimon shrieked, zooming around them in excited circles. "PAIMON FOUND HER! PAIMON FOUND TRAVELER'S SISTER! PAIMON IS THE BEST GUIDE EVER!"
"I thought—I thought I'd never see you again," Aether choked out between sobs. "I searched everywhere—every nation, every corner of Teyvat—and I couldn't find you—I couldn't—"
"I'm here," Lumine wept. "I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. Brother, I'm here."
"You disappeared. That god, that—I couldn't stop her, I tried, I tried so hard but I wasn't strong enough—"
"It's not your fault. It was never your fault."
"I should have protected you. We've always been together, always, and I failed—"
"No. No, no, no." Lumine pulled back just enough to cup his face in her hands, forcing him to meet her tear-filled eyes. "You didn't fail. You never failed. We were separated, but you never stopped searching. I felt it—across the stars, across the worlds between us, I felt you looking for me. That's why I'm still here. That's why I never gave up."
Aether's face crumpled. "I missed you so much. Every day. Every single day."
"I know. I know. I missed you too. Every second."
They collapsed back into each other, and I...
I just stood there behind my counter like an absolute idiot.
Well, I thought numbly, watching two immortal siblings have the most emotional reunion I'd ever witnessed. There goes my sales pitch.
—
A/N - Howdy it's been a while!