The tavern hums with morning light and the lazy, pleasant mischief of Venti. He's delighted by cliffnotes moments—heroes setting out, scenes of comradeship—and can't resist turning the group's departure into a little send-off song.
Paimon immediately objects. "Hey! Why does he get to stay in the tavern and just sing? That's not fair!"
Venti, eyes mild and earnest: "Playing a lyre requires hands."
Paimon, indignant, bestows him an insultingly adorable nickname—"the singing busker"—and stomps her tiny foot for emphasis. Su Mo (Su Mo = our black-haired trickster) agrees pragmatically: Venti ought to stay put; if he wanders out he risks being noticed by the Knights. Diluc, who prefers action to dramatics, moves to finalize plans. "We should hurry. Go now."
They eat, trade small talk, and Su Mo uses the breakfast break to relate the Liyue mess: the white-haired stranger, the Geo Archon's apparent death (or staged death), the sudden appearance of the old sea-wyrm, and a trail of baffling contracts and motives. Paimon—ever the foodie—worries most about where the next serving of honey-glazed carrot-meat will come from; Lumine (the Traveler) grows quiet and serious.
Lumine asks the key practical question: why would the Geo Archon fake his death? Su Mo repeats the rumors he picked up while having tea with knowledgeable people: whispers that the Archon and the white-haired killer entered a contract, a bargain concerning the people of Liyue. Su Mo cautions: rumor ≠ truth; it's just the scent of a deeper pattern. Lumine pieces together a timeline: the Geo Archon struck down at Lingju Pass, then reappeared later in the sea, while a primordial sea-monster surfaced and was suppressed—an elaborate chessboard of events. She's unnerved but determined: she must find her brother, and that means tracking whichever godlike stranger took him.
They set out to look for the strange crystal Venti mentioned—something tied to wind and to the Sky-Dragon. The city's outskirts are wide and the search area huge, so they split up: Su Mo goes his way; Lumine and Paimon sweep the skies. Paimon, full from breakfast, has trouble staying airborne—her frantic "I'm flying, wait for me!" is comic until the call for help crackles over the wind.
Paimon vanishes.
Lumine's heart drops. She screams her companion's name, scanning the sky, the cliffs, the sea—no answer. Panic spikes: she remembers losing family once; she refuses to repeat that helplessness. Then a portal unfurls mid-air—a black circle rimmed with purple sigils—and a voice she knows to hate rings from within. The white-haired girl is here.
Paimon is being dragged inside. Lumine, furious and terrified, charges.
The stranger appears—a white-haired, cold presence, the same one who stole Lumine's brother. She is calm, amused even, and answers Lumine's furious questions with insolent coolness: the brother "is where he chooses to be." Lumine lunges; Paimon squawks that she's fine, urges Lumine not to trust the stranger.
Su Mo, who had expected fireworks, is oddly collected. He conjures a cube—an endless, digital-feeling purple block that fans out like a corridor of glittering carpets: a virtual maze of cubic shapes. Lumine recognizes it instantly—this same kind of thing swallowed her brother once. She leaps atop the cubes to close the distance.
Su Mo's calm is deliberate and slightly theatrical. He flicks a finger. The virtual cube morphs into a pull: Lumine is yanked, then hoisted—caught in an invisible grip and brought close to the white-haired girl. Su Mo speaks with a tone both patronizing and faintly approving of Lumine's courage: "Your journey is only beginning. I'll be waiting at the end."
Lumine lashes out; the white-haired girl shrugs off the blow with an ethereal diamond-pattern barrier that simply deflects the attack. The stranger lifts Lumine by the throat—cruelly light—then flings her away after a small, almost bored admonition. She releases Paimon from an invisible clutch and opens a flashing portal, stepping through. Before she leaves she says, in a voice that practically oozes challenge: "I admire your courage. Don't disappoint me on the road."
Then she's gone.
Lumine crashes to the ground, breath ragged but alive. Paimon flutters to her, frantic but unharmed. Su Mo is already opening an ostentatious portal and vanishing—leaving only a trail of unanswered questions and the faint impression that he is never quite what he seems.
The chapter closes on that electric, uneasy aftertaste: a rescue missed, a trap avoided, and the knowledge that the white-haired stranger is not merely dangerous—she's playing a longer, colder game. Lumine has proof that the person who took her brother is a being with terrifying powers and inscrutable motives. Su Mo's intervention saved them this round, but his motives are opaque. He speaks with the authority of someone who's been told what to do by a system and who also enjoys the performance of being indispensable.
Paimon fusses, Lumine steels herself, and the band of would-be rescuers is left to plan their next step: find the fake "Wind-God envoy," bait the pretender, uncover the contract between gods, and—most of all—bring Lumine's brother home. The stakes have sharpened: allies are necessary, enemies are unpredictable, and gods are finally moving their pieces in plain sight.
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