unexpected missunderstanding

Not far to the west, at the very edge of the Great Red Sand where the dunes finally gave way to more stable rock and distant green, Aether’s party finally arrived at the worst part of the desert.

They never got the chance to rest.

The ambush came fast and clean. Warriors rose from concealed positions among the rocks and low ridges, weapons already drawn, formation tight. At their head stood a tall woman with dark skin, a distinctive dual-colored eye, and the calm, absolute bearing of someone who protected her people without hesitation.

Candace.

[](https://im.ge/i/QMR2fup)
(arstist: skypassion)

Her voice carried clearly across the sudden stillness.

“You will stop there. Weapons down. Hands visible.”

Dehya tensed, recognition flickering across her face, but the warriors’ aim never wavered. Candace’s gaze moved over the group — the well-armed women, the travel-worn but dangerous-looking Traveler, the overall readiness of people who had already crossed half a nation by force of will.

“We know why you are here,” Candace continued, tone measured but cold. “Another search party sent to drag Lumine back to the Akademiya and the Akasha. She is under Aaru Village’s protection. You will not take her.”

The misunderstanding landed like a blade between them.

Aether’s party had not come to capture anyone.

But to Candace and her warriors, every detail of their approach — direction, timing, composition — matched the profile of yet another group sent to reclaim the blonde outsider who had slipped the sages’ net.

Dehya stepped forward before anyone else could speak, arms crossed and expression already sharp.

“Are you blind or just stupid, Candace?”

The words landed with zero diplomacy. Several of Candace’s warriors tensed, but Dehya kept going, voice flat and cutting.

“You’re standing there talking about search parties and dragging Lumine back to the Akasha while the spitting image of her is right in front of your face. Look at him. Really look. Same face, same eyes, same damn presence. That’s her brother. We’ve been tracking her across half of Sumeru because she went missing, not because we want to hand her over to the sages.”

She jerked her chin toward Aether.

“If we were here to capture anyone, we wouldn’t have walked straight up to your ambush like idiots. Use your eyes.”

The desert air went tight.

Candace’s dual-colored gaze moved from Dehya to Aether and held there for a long moment. The resemblance was impossible to ignore once it had been pointed out so bluntly. The tension in her shoulders shifted, but it did not fully disappear. Something older and more personal sat underneath the correction.

The two women stared at each other with the unmistakable edge of people who already had history.

“You always did prefer the loudest possible way to make a point, Dehya,” Candace said at last, voice still controlled but carrying a clear undercurrent. “And you still assume everyone else is slower than you.”

Dehya’s grin was all teeth and old rivalry.

“And you still hesitate when the answer is standing right in front of you. Some things never change.”

The warriors looked between their guardian and the Flame-Mane, clearly used to this particular friction. The misunderstanding was already cracking, but the personal tension between the two women had only just been given fresh air.

Aether watched the exchange in silence.

His sister’s protector and his newest pride member clearly knew each other — and it had some playfullness in it.

Candace held Dehya’s gaze a moment longer, then exhaled and lowered her weapon. The rest of her warriors followed.

“I apologize for the rudeness,” she said, voice steady again. “The resemblance is… unmistakable now that it has been pointed out. We have had too many groups come looking for Lumine with orders to return her to the Akademiya. I acted on pattern instead of evidence.”

She turned to Aether and gave a short, formal nod.

“You and your companions are welcome in Aaru Village for the night. We can speak more there — about your sister, and about what she left behind.”

As the group fell in behind her for the short walk to the village, Aether studied the guardian more closely. Beneath the professional composure and the lingering tension with Dehya, something familiar sat in the way Candace’s eyes tracked him. A quiet, instinctive pull. The same undercurrent of desire he had felt from so many women across Teyvat — yet it made little sense coming from someone who had been ready to kill him only minutes earlier. It was already there, unearned and unexplained.

Aaru Village came into view as the sun dropped lower.

The marks Lumine had left were impossible to miss.

The men of the village moved slower than they should have. Many sat in the shade with empty, satisfied expressions and heavy limbs. A few still looked faintly dazed, as if something essential had been poured out of them and they had not yet fully refilled. Conversations paused when the new group passed. More than one man glanced at Aether with a complicated mix of recognition and residual exhaustion.

Aether understood almost immediately.

His sister carried a mirror of his own effect — the same overwhelming pull and capacity, simply inverted. Where he left women ruined, devoted, and often pregnant, Lumine left men thoroughly emptied. The village still carried the clear, recent evidence of her presence.

Candace did not waste time once they were inside the village.

“Your sister left every man here so thoroughly satisfied that none of them have been able to perform for two full days,” she stated flatly. “The women are… restless. You will correct the imbalance she created.”

It was not a request.

Aether turned to his pride for any form of support, excuse, or intervention.

What he received was a wall of completely unsympathetic faces.

Rosaria raised one eyebrow and took a slow drink.

No one offered him an exit.

Candace watched the silent exchange, and the underlying desire Aether had noticed earlier sharpened into something much clearer. She had seen Lumine move through the village. She had watched the effect the Traveler’s sister had on men. Whatever dominant, protective instincts Candace carried, they sat on top of an aggressively heterosexual core that had been thoroughly stirred by the display. She wanted the male mirror of what Lumine had done. She wanted it from him.

The rest of the village women began to gather at the edges of the square with the same hungry, neglected focus.

Aether felt the metaphorical ankles-first drag toward a wasps’ nest of frustrated, dominant, and currently very motivated women. His own companions, fully aware of what was about to happen, were already drifting toward a quiet house with the clear intention of enjoying a peaceful, uninterrupted all-girls night by themselves.

Rosaria paused just long enough to pat his shoulder once.

“Have fun. Try not to die.”

Then she left him to it.

Candace stepped closer, dual-colored eyes steady and openly expectant.