West of Mondstadt City, deep within a hidden, abandoned mine, the air was cold and damp.
A few lamps hung on the rock walls, their dim yellow light illuminating stacked wooden crates.
Lumiere lifted the lid of one crate, revealing neatly arranged longswords inside.
He picked one up, his fingers brushing against the cold blade, and the tension on his face eased slightly.
He glanced at Gunnhildr standing beside him, thinking to himself that this woman certainly had some skill.
Gunnhildr wasn't looking at the weapons; her gaze was fixed on Lumiere.
"You have what you wanted," her voice echoed in the mine. "Now, can we discuss business?"
Lumiere carefully placed the longsword back in the crate and closed the lid. "Yes," he nodded. "Let's talk back at the hideout."
...
Inside the contact point, it was more crowded than usual.
Candlelight cast flickering shadows of people on the stone walls as more figures slipped silently through the darkness outside the door, joining the silent crowd.
Orion sat at the stone table in the center of the room, his face still pale.
Many people were gathered around him, their eyes focused on him.
Venti hovered quietly across from Orion, having gathered all the wind around him, just listening silently.
"...That wind," Orion's voice was a bit hoarse. He raised an arm covered in fine scratches, his fingertips trembling slightly. "It's not the kind we normally feel. Beneath the throne, at the base of the tower... it can grind down the hardest rock, corrode steel... to say nothing of a person?"
He looked around at the familiar faces, seeing that the anger they once held for the nobility was now mixed with something new, something deeper.
It was the shock of realizing their true enemy, and the fear of a power described as a natural disaster.
Some people instinctively avoided his gaze, while others exchanged uneasy glances. The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.
Orion realized his words had thrown a bucket of cold water on everyone. He pressed his lips together, swallowing the more detailed descriptions he was about to give, and his eyes dimmed.
In the suffocating silence, Venti spoke softly, "The Solitary King is so powerful, so why doesn't everyone just leave and go outside?" Its small, luminous wings fluttered slightly. "Some people have already left, like Gunnhildr and her people, and the Lawrence Clan... they've all survived out there."
Orion gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "Because our lives are not entirely in our own hands."
He took a deep breath, trying to explain more clearly. "The fields, the seeds, the farming tools, the materials to build houses... almost everything that allows us to live nominally belongs to the nobles. The snow and ice outside the walls might not be insurmountable, but even if we walked out, we would have no supplies or tools to build a new home on the frozen plains."
He paused, his voice growing softer. "Besides, many people have family and friends bound here in various ways, some even held under the nobles' control. We can't just abandon them and flee alone." He concluded, as if speaking to Venti, but also to everyone else, "The Solitary King's power maintains a certain order. This order protects the interests of the nobility and traps us here, stripping us of the right to choose another way of life."
Venti hovered silently, asking no more questions, seemingly digesting this complex and heavy human predicament.
...
Lumiere returned to the contact point with Gunnhildr, Coppelia, and the others.
His face still showed the excitement from acquiring the weapons, but the moment he stepped into the room, that excitement froze. He saw several people with their heads down, quietly shuffling toward the door.
"What's wrong?" Lumiere blocked their path, his brow furrowed. "Why are you leaving?"
One of them looked up. "Orion just got back." He paused, his voice low. "We also just learned who our real enemy is. But... as for what to do next, we might need some time to think it over."
Lumiere first felt a wave of joy at Orion's return, but it was immediately followed by the unconcealable hesitation and fear in the man's words, which felt like a bucket of cold water dumped on his heart.
He understood. These comrades who had fought side-by-side might not fear crossing blades with the nobles, but when faced with that high tower and the god within it, the reverence and fear hidden in the depths of their hearts had been awakened.
He looked at these familiar faces, wanting to say something encouraging, but when he opened his mouth, he realized that deep down, he harbored the very same doubt and heaviness.
In the end, he simply stepped aside to let them pass, his voice a bit hoarse. "Alright. We... all need to think it over."
The men kept their heads down and left quickly, their figures disappearing into the darkness outside the door.
For a moment, no one in the room spoke.
Orion was long gone. Venti remained in a corner of the room, not flying in lively circles as it usually did, but just hovering silently, as if still pondering Orion's earlier words about "losing the right to choose."
Lumiere walked to the stone table and sat down heavily, his gaze still fixed on the closed door, as if he could still see the figures of his departing comrades.
"We have the weapons," he began, his voice laced with weariness, "but no one who dares to hold them." He raised his head, his gaze sharp as he looked at Gunnhildr opposite him. "What's your solution?"
Gunnhildr met his gaze. "From now on, the resistance can no longer be content with covert activities. We must act openly, raise our banner. Otherwise, in everyone's eyes, we will forever be just a band of elusive 'righteous thieves,' not an 'army' capable of challenging the old order and bringing new hope."
"Open rebellion?" Lumiere leaned forward. "That means a greater chance of provoking the Solitary King's direct suppression. When the people witness His calamitous power with their own eyes, how can we guarantee they won't lose all hope?"
Venti, who had been thinking quietly on the side, suddenly flew a little closer. It picked up where Lumiere left off, its voice revealing a steadiness completely different from its usual liveliness. "I can help get reinforcements." It looked at everyone. "For example, I can ask the King of the North Wind to intervene and hold back the Solitary King."
Coppelia also stepped forward, adding, "We can also quickly inform the Lawrence Clan outside about the current situation in Mondstadt City so they can prepare. And while we're at it, we can try calling upon the Master of Time once more."
Venti's luminous wings brightened. "Okay! Should I leave now?"
Gunnhildr nodded.
Without a moment's hesitation, Venti's body was enveloped in a cyan glow before it transformed into a streak of light, swiftly passing through the crack in the door and vanishing from sight.
After Venti left, Gunnhildr continued her explanation. "Even if the Solitary King does act, we are not without a response. We can use the poems of the bards to spread public opinion with all our might. We can skillfully guide the people's fear of divine might and transform it into anger at the Solitary King for his indifference and tyranny."
"Stir up their anger, and then what?" Lumiere pressed. "There will always be those who are 'angry but dare not speak.' Anger doesn't necessarily overcome fear."
"That is why we need to build a new faith upon that anger." A light of conviction shone in Gunnhildr's eyes. "We will use the bards' songs to spread the faith of the 'God of Freedom and Wind.' Let the people know that there is another choice besides the Solitary King. Including Andrius, the King of the North Wind and Wolf, who has already made his stance clear, the people will believe that two gods are displeased with the tyrant's actions! And with our own human strength—"
She looked into the eyes of everyone present and said, word by word, "—this battle is a three-against-one situation!"
An unprecedented strength surged into everyone's heart with her words. It was the thrill of finally seeing a clear path through the fog after being suppressed by despair for so long.
Lumiere looked at Gunnhildr, at the unquestionable determination and clear strategic plan in her eyes. The heavy stone in his heart, the question of 'whether to fight a god,' seemed to have been mostly shattered by this force.
The doubt in his eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by a rekindled fighting spirit and determination.
He shot to his feet and extended his hand to Gunnhildr across the stone table.
"Alright!" His voice had regained its strength, even louder than before. "From now on, we fight together, to the very end, for the dawn of Mondstadt!"
Gunnhildr also stood up and, without any hesitation, took his hand in a firm grip.
"For the dawn of Mondstadt," she repeated, her voice as steady as a mountain.
At that moment, force and ideology, the sharp sword and the written verse, finally reached a complete accord within the dim contact point.
___
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