[ lumine hums noncommittally: ] So what's the point of choosing, then?

[ if whichever side she chooses, aether will show up either way. she showed up despite not having made any choice at all at the start, even when shown the destruction of teyvat and the other worlds she's been to. either side has lost its best way to convince her by leaving her brother to the void.

and even with childe's claim of zenith's matron possessing the power to affect anything, well ... seeing is believing, isn't it?

an amused chuckle leaves her lips a few moments later, a cloud of mist hovering near her mouth from the cold. her skin has grown paler from the temperature, but she's yet to show any signs that she's affected by it. not a shiver or a sneeze. ]

Wouldn't you rather that I stay with Meridian, though? So you could fight me again as you have back in Teyvat?

[ another shrug of her shoulders as she glances at him again. ]

Anyway, politics aside, [ and she's truly hated it when she's dragged into a political conflict like a pawn to be used. why else would she have flatly rejected ayaka months ago in inazuma? ] There are other ways to convince me without having to repeat the words of your Matron, you know.