Lumine felt the ground beneath her feet lose its solidity as they ventured deeper into the heart of the Archive, the glass cascades of runes surrounded them now like a cage of flowing gold and deepest violet. Suddenly, Noxira stopped and her body is stiffening. The blue cracks on her face began to flicker in a rhythm that felt like a signal.
>>"Noxira? What's wrong?"<<
Lumine reached for her hand, but at the moment of contact, she was swept away by a vision more powerful than anything she had ever experienced.
They didn't see the Abyss, they saw Teyvat but a Teyvat Lumine didn't recognize. The sky wasn't the familiar blue she had seen since waking in Mondstadt, there was no "false sky" as Scaramouche once called it and the heavens were pitch black, littered with myriads of real, burning suns swirling in an infinite spiral.
It was a glimpse into the true universe, the same sight Lumine and her brother had once before they let them strand on this world
>>"This... is the record of the First Era..."<<
Noxira's voice now sounded like the crackle and hum of a high purity energy source.
>>"Before the throne in the heavens erected the barrier, before the seven colors chained destiny... my core remembers the time when light was not yet filtered."<<
Lumine looked up and in this vision, she saw the towers of Khaenri'ah, but they weren't destroyed. They were proud monoliths of white stone and black steel, soaring directly into that starlit sky.
>>"Alice sealed this part of me"<<
Noxira continued, tears streaming down her cheeks.
>>"She wanted me to know what we are fighting for. Not for the destruction of the gods, but for the return of the truth. But Lumine... look at this."<<
Noxira pointed to a figure standing at the edge of the memory, it was a man with a familiar cloak, his right eye hidden by a mask. Dainsleif. But he was younger, and he wasn't alone beside him stood a familiar figure it is Lumine,s brother. Aether. He held a document bearing the exact same seal as Noxira's heart anchor.
>>"He knew..."<<
Lumine whispered, her voice trembling.
>>"My brother knew about you. He was there when they... created you?"<<
Noxira shook her head and the vision began to crumble as the Abyss reached for them with renewed power, she corrected.
>>"No, Lumine... He tried to stop the memories, je didn't want a soul like mine to be sacrificed for this knowledge. He wanted me to sleep... forever..."<<
Lumine was still staring at Noxira's hands, where the blue flickering only slowly faded and the echo of the annihilation still hung in the air like static noise.
>>"Noxira... what was that? You didn't just defeat them. It looked like you... unmade them."<<
Noxira stood still, looking at her trembling fingers, the blue veins beneath her skin pulsed in time with the distant cascades of runes.
>>"I corrected them"<<
Noxira answered and for the first time, Noxira's voice doesn't sound longer like that of a subject, but like that of a protector.
>>"I am not just a collection or an archive... Lumine, those only store data. But I... I am the Memory Guardian I know the true signature of this world, before the Abyss distorted it."<<
She turned to Lumine, her glowing eye seeming to peer deep into Lumine's soul.
>>"In this space here, at the heart of the Abyss, only information matters. The Lectors... they are a glitch in the source code of Teyvat, they are parasites feeding on the shadows of the truth. When I struck, I didn't attack their flesh. I erased their place in history or rather. I corrected it. I commanded reality to I remember that they were never there, and that they must never be."<<
Lumine swallowed hard, she felt the enormous responsibility weighing on this fragile girl. Noxira wasn't a weapon, she was the judge of what was allowed to remain and what must be forgotten.
>>"The Memory Guardian..."<<
Paimon murmured in awe, floating a bit closer. >>"That sounds way cooler than Archive! But! Promise us one thing. Don't ever erase Paimon, okay? Even if Paimon eats too much cake! Or eats your cake!"<<
A faint and almost sad smile flickered across Noxira's face, appreciating Paimon's attempt to lighten the mood.
>>"Your existence is stored deep within my heart, Paimon. Some memories are too precious to ever surrender to the void and you, Paimon you are one of them."<<
Lumine watched as Noxira raised her hand and gently brushed against the glowing runes in the air, as if soothing the ghosts of the past, but the weight in Lumine's chest, however, wouldn't lift.
>>"Noxira..."<<
Lumine searched for the right words, the image of her brother still dancing before her mind's eye.
>>"Aether wanted you to sleep because he knew the memory of an entire world is a burden no one should carry alone, he didn't want you to be a judge. He wanted you to be... the girl you could have been, if Khaenri'ah had never fallen."<<
Noxira paused, the blue flickering in her cracks softened, like the glow of a dying candle. She looked at Lumine and for a moment, there was no Guardian, no correction of reality only infinite loneliness.
>>"Perhaps... We do not know his intention."<<
Noxira whispered, pausing for a moment before continuing.
>>"But the truth doesn't like to sleep, Lumine. It screams in the darkness until someone hears it. Your brother hid me but Alice... Alice gave me a choice and I choose to remember. For you, for him, and for all those whose names now exist only within me."<<
Paimon sniffled quietly, wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she didn't fully understand, but she felt the emotion in the gesture.
>>"Paimon doesn't really get all this time and memory stuff... but Paimon knows that friends help each other when things get too heavy! So, if your head gets too full of old things, Lumine and Paimon will just stack so many new, fun memories on top until there's no room left for the sad ones!"<<
Lumine smiled weakly at Paimon's logic, she knew Noxira understood the sentiment behind it. Still, her gaze remained serious and she took a step toward Noxira and placed her hand on the girl's heart anchor.
>>"Then it's decided, we will bring this truth to light but we do it on one condition. You aren't the Guardian alone i will be your shield when reality tries to punish you for your corrections."<<
Noxira placed her hand over Lumine's and in that moment, the mechanical tower around them seemed to respond with a deep and vibrating tone echoed through the walls and the next gate at the end of the cascades began to part. It wasn't a violent breaking it was an invitation.
>>"Then let us go, before the Abyss realizes the Judge is already delivering its sentence"<<
Said Noxira and her gaze is fixed on the darkness behind the gate.
Lumine nodded, her hand firmly closed in Noxira's as they took their first step together into the unknown heart of the Archive. Paimon hovered close behind them, nervous and constantly glancing over her shoulder.