"Ah, you made it, and you even brought Ms. Divyasree with you-! How exciting!" 

Sure, exciting. It's definitely exciting feeling like you're gonna puke every time you're near a Vision. Even worse, you have a Delusion - that's literally killing me from the inside out-!

-Is what Divyasree would have liked to say, but she had too many filters ingrained into her brain to actually say that. The only reaction to Childe's words were a polite smile and a nod. Childe glanced at her in mild interest, but didn't bother too much and focused his attention towards Lumine. 

"As promised, I have found someone who can help you. Someone who can help you solve the mystery of why the Liyue Qixing would hide the Geo Archon's vessel."

Fake vessel, my guy. 

Divya was perhaps, a little too sarcastic within the confines of her mind, but who could blame her? It was taking everything in her to not bolt back to the confines of Wangshuu Inn because of how potent the Harbinger's delusion was. Her body was 'apparently' adapting, so it was 'good' for her to take a walk in Liyue Harbor.

Dr. Baizhu, you aren't the one with mind-numbing body pain and nausea, alright?

"Come, I'll introduce you." 

Lumine shot the brunette a mildly worrying glance, but decided to follow Childe into the pavilion. Said brunette trailed after the three, her mind in the clouds. She wondered what Zhongli would look like? Would he look like he did In the game? Maybe more handsome - considering the sheer otherworldly nature of Xiao's beauty that was severely underscored in game animation?

Turns out, yes. Yes the game DEFINITELY didn't do justice to Zhongli. 

HOW HAVE PEOPLE NOT REALIZED HE'S A DAMN ARCHON-?!?

Either Teyvat and earth had different definitions of what makes a person beautiful - which probably makes sense - or people in Teyvat were a different level of dense.

Seated at the head of the long, dining table, was a tall, well-dressed gentleman. Gold, amber, mahogany, and other rich, deep earthly tones decorated the man. His eyes were the most divine - literally and figuratively. Divya could not fathom how anyone, let alone Lumine and Childe, were not able to figure out that the man seated across the room was a God. 

Maybe she was more receptive of that fact because she knew almost every major plot line up until the 3.3 update.

Or maybe it had to do with the fact that she now had a sudden, violent urge to throw up - no doubt a result of Zhongli's gnosis. 

Damn this condition of mine.

It took a while, but after realizing everyone was already seated and she was the only one standing like a dumbfounded idiot, she scurried to her seat - far away from both Childe and Zhongli. Did it help? No. Did she do it anyway? Yes. 

"Allow me to introduce Mr. Zhongli, consultant to an organization known as Wangsheng...and a trusted partner of the Fatui." 

Er dude- maybe don't say that last part to someone who clearly has bad experience with the Fatui?

It was understandable that Lumine instantly grew wary of Zhongli, raising her eyebrow at Childe with a suspicious glare. 

"Associate of the Fatui?" Even Paimon had her arms crossed as she glared at the hidden deity with poorly hidden suspicion - like she expected the guy to blow up the place or something. 

"They're a Funeral Parlor." Divya piped up quietly - not wanting to sit through one of these two's gimmicks and their playful yet irritating plot of messing with Paimon. 

All eyes zeroed in on the brunette, and she regretted ever speaking a word. Childe and Zhongli's eyes simultaneously widened, though the former was not at all slick with it. A couple of minutes passed in awkward/suspicious silence, before the Harbinger burst out into laughter. 

"My my, it seems Ms. Divyasree has done quite a lot of research in the time we didn't see each other hm?" 

A teasing glint and a playful voice, but both the blonde and the brunette knew better. Childe was wary of Divya. 

"I got handed a coupon by a young girl for free coffins." Divya commented dryly, raising an eyebrow at the harbinger. 

Eyes shifted from Divya to Zhongli, faced widened in disbelief. The man at least had the common decency to look mildly appalled and mostly embarrassed. He coughed into his fist with a mild pink dusting his cheeks. 

"....My apologies, Miss. Divyasree. That 'young girl' - did she have long brown hair with pigtails, and orange eyes?" 

Sir yes sir. Hu Tao really jumped on me the other day. 

Divya nodded, playing with the food on her plate and taking a small bite of the rice. She was so damn grateful that there was rice, the almost dozen meat dishes would have surely made her vomit on the spot - considering how close she was to it already. 

Zhongli coughed into his fist again softly, a brighter pink tint on his cheeks.

"....I must offer my most sincere apologies miss. That would be Hu Tao, Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's 77th Director. She....is a bit eccentric like that."

"You don't say.." Instead of the brunette replying, Lumine drawled - very clearly skeptical regarding this 'Wangsheng Funeral Parlor' and its employees. She was beginning to doubt this 'Mr. Zhongli' and his expertise. 

"Ahem- Regardless, the times have changed. You two must have felt it as well when you were at Jueyun Kharst."

Aaaaand that was Divya's cue to zone out. She more or less knew what this entire conversation was going to be - and she really did not want to be rude to a literal god but GOOD GOD WAS THIS GUY ALWAYS SO NIT-PICKY ABOUT THESE THINGS?!

She busied herself with softly playing with the food, just eating small spoonfuls of the rice at any given time interval and keeping an ear out solely for the reason that if anyone Called her, she could answer. 

"-Childe says too much-" Lumine huffed out in irritation, rolling her eyes at the ginger and pointedly staring at him. Said man was too bloodthirsty to simply take the jest as is and instantly pounced up from his seat.

"Oh? In our line of work this means you want to silence me...very well. Draw your sword, we shall-"

A disapproving glare from Zhongli and a tired frown from Divya shut him up, and he hesitantly sat back down, waving a hand and playing off his excitement for battle as a joke. That in itself was a joke altogether. 

After a lot of talking - and a lot of self-restraint from Divya to hold herself back from puking her guts - Lumine and Divya parted ways outside on the streets of Liyue. The blonde patted the brunette down, quietly but sternly telling her to book it straight to Wangshuu Inn before it got dark with the added flutter of Paimon childishly threatening to tie the girl to the bed. 

..Which would normally not be a bad idea but Divya was too proactive and anxious to actually sit in one place for too long.

"Yes, I'll go right back to the Inn. Be careful and stay safe you two, okay? If it gets too tedious, you can always ask Mr. Zhongli to come back later." Divya said with a tired smile, waving at the group before walking away. 

Lumine nodded with a smile - which dropped to a worried and unsure frown. The warning was oddly vague, yet weirdly precise - almost like the one she gave back in Mondstadt. The nineteen-year-old really did not want to doubt her friend but the scar on her neck and the weird warnings were a little too mysterious. 

...maybe she's just intuitive like that? 

The scar was clearly not a mistake - but Lumine figured that if the brunette didn't want to talk about it, she didn't need to know about it. 

In the meantime, Divya was walking slowly through the city, avoiding all of the crowded sections - which was almost impossible considering the recent occurring throughout the city. Even so, the eighteen-year-old did her best to avoid large crowds - in fear for accidentally encountering a vision holder and destroying her digestive system once and for all. 

The brunette had never walked for a long time before on Earth, the most she'd ever walked was to the road-side shop by the corner of her apartment that was only 10 minutes away. In the collective days of staying in Teyvat, she'd probably walked more than she ever did in her life. 

Did endurance build within a week or so? She couldn't tell. 

Divya did know that she arrived at Wangshuu Inn sooner than she thought she would. Night fell just as she entered the Inn - and she'd expected to reach later during the dark. 

Happy she just reached the inn, she trotted up the stairs after waving at Verr Goldet before shuffling under the covers, passing out almost instantly and completely forgetting about the fact that she had to eat dinner. 

And in the dead of the night, where the line between dreams and realities blur together and become one, endless canvas - Divya heard voices of individuals she should have never met. 

"...get-together between friends, sipping the finest tea and watching..."

"...hosting a Lantern Rite music festival..."

"...make the Iridescence Tour: Lantern Rite Grand Concert..."

"...souls of those who have gone before us will hear the..."

"...matters regarding human evolution, to attempting the forbidden..."

"....outsider-!...."

"....a nightmare that I can't recall..."

"...best guise is when you believe your own lies..."

"...drown in endless waves of monsters..."

"...pay for your ceaseless arrogance..."

Images flashed, like rolling film flying across the screen far too fast for ordinary human perception, but achingly too slow as she fought to rise to the surface of her conscious mind.

The sheets hurtled across the room, and there sat a gasping brunette, eyes still blurred and distant into the images she saw.

What...was that...?

Alhaitham...? Hu Tao....? Venti....?

How...?

A dream? A dream of what exactly? What was that? Her fingers trembled, crunching up through the fabric of the bed sheets as her chest continued to heave.

It hurt. Her chest hurt. Why was it hurting? It felt like a burn, like her skin was too raw, too irritated and sensitive to the clothes she was wearing. Why? Why?

Why was everything still so dark? Why couldn't she see? She couldn't see....?

Was she still unconscious? Is this a dream? Was she still not awake? Then why was she aware?

What was this? What? What? What what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what-

"Divya?"

A gasp. Divya flinched violently, her body shuddering as her head snapped in the direction of the voice. Her blurry pupils cleared, and an almost overwhelming sigh of relief escaped her.

It was just Lumine. Just Lumine. That meant she was awake. She wasn't dreaming. That was good.

"..yeah?"  The brunette's voice was weak, but clear. Lumine tilted her head in confusion and mild concern.

"Are you okay? Do you need water or anything of the sort?"

"N-no...No I'm fine...sorry, did I wake you up?"

"Wake me up? It's only been ten minutes since I got back."

Ten minutes? All that was just a mere ten minutes of dreaming?