Chapter Text
As you rested under a tree with freshly picked sunsettias, you leaned back onto the trunk of the tall tree overlooking a valley of Guili plains. The sun was low in the sky, and your baskets filled with medicinal herbs, fruit, and flowers were left discarded next to you. It had been a long day of traveling around the area to gather ingredients for a stockpile of medicine the village doctors were making.
Even in the secluded and remote expanse of your village, the Archon War reached every corner of the world. The village nor you had any stakes in the war, disapproval of all the bloodshed was common among the village folk.
The elders told tales of massacres to the children of the village, refugees, and worshippers of fallen gods were all welcome. Even the people of warring gods were treated with respect. But no god shall enter the gates of the village. Your elders warned against the danger of wrathful gods, seeking revenge against all that challenged their rule or bid for victory. Warriors of the village would guard the entrance from trespassing gods, and wounded soldiers were treated and sent on their way. The lives of gods were not to be interfered with. Though at most, the heretical thinking was kept in hushed whispers and storytelling. Nothing blatantly disgraceful, even the River Adepti feared the wrath of Celestia.
You didn’t have any particular thoughts about such things, you simply picked the herbs and fruits. You did what was asked of you, and trained with your greatsword. You danced and laughed like any other youth of this age. Wandering around the mountains and rivers doing as you please.
Today you had been sent out on an unusually cold day, the skies grey and cloudy. To pick Sunsettias for the children, and to find Quixing Flowers and Violet Grass for medicine. It wasn’t urgent, so you spent your time meandering around, enjoying the scenery and tending the small brooks along the way.
Which led to your current predicament of being stuck under a tree as it started drizzling, and in just a few minutes downpouring. The tree had a small hollow that you were able to tuck yourself into to escape the worst of it. The sun had begun to dip farther into the sky, casting its light from behind the clouds.
Shielding your eyes you leaned out of the tree as dark smoke on the horizon caught your eye. Squinting to see farther your eyes widened as more and more smoke gathered. A flash of realization squeezed your heart, the direction of the smoke was coming from where your village sat.
Throwing your gathering basket onto your back you ran through the rain desperately. Even as your lungs burned and your legs ached, you pushed on. When you neared the gates, the air left your lungs, as horror overwhelmed you. The guards tasked with protecting the entrance to your village were a mess of blood and gore.
The path leading into the center of the village was paved with bodies and blood ran down the road. Being swept away in the downpour.
The guard's bodies were mangled, with traces of geo and stab wounds at the heart, flesh being ripped away and bone being splintered with the amount of force as their hearts were pierced. Some were ripped even further to shreds, the sight left you kneeling over and emptying your stomach for what felt like an eternity.
Finally, you had gathered yourself enough to brave further along the path to the village center, which opened up to a large mountain outlook. Smoke was still rising, fire crackling, and the clang of metal still sounded every so often. The scene from the gates was distracting enough that you hadn’t realized the invaders were most likely still in the village. As you crouched down behind a semi-standing building you gasped as you peeked around the corner. At the outlook, a scream erupted from your throat.
Before you even realized you had begun moving you were throwing yourself at the figure that lay kneeling before a god cloaked in white. As the crater of a meteor lay in the center of frozen bodies. Some kneeled and crawled away, others adults shielding their crying children with their bodies. But in the center, a broken sword that seemed to shatter before your eyes, and her with a polearm piercing her chest. Meifeng(美凤) dripped blood, with a look of sadness and defeat on her face.
And you screamed, raw and broken as the polearm was pulled from her chest, and her blade laying in pieces fell to the ground and her vision which glowed so brightly.
Which had shown in the darkest of hours.
In the brightest of days,
In days of grief,
And in days of joy.
Went dim.
You cradled her in your arms as she left the world. And the so-called god stood before you, in righteousness, glowing with divinity. With power.
And rage burned itself into your heart. Engraved it upon your very soul, your vision flickering with absolute hatred and fury. You stood before the god and you paid no attention, you tucked her hair behind her ear to brush it out of her face, and you closed her eyes, wiping the blood from her lips.
“Leave” The word left your mouth before you could comprehend your actions. You kneeled in the ashes of your home, in the ruins of your life, and surrounded by the bodies of everyone you’d ever loved.
It broke your heart into millions of pieces.
Words were exchanged, in hateful and cold sentences, not that any of it mattered. Their bodies were burned.
Sacrilege.
You were cursed the moment the first one turned to ash.
All that besides the point, you were dead now anyways. And what point was there in torturing yourself with memories that haunted you in life?
So you let it go, there wasn’t anything else to do with that pain. You had lived with that grief for three thousand years, and it killed you.
You still loved her; of course you did, but your spirit was free, free from that corruption, free from that god-turned-body Morax has forced you into.
You were free from the pain that hounded you for three millennia. As you let the painful memories slip away, warmth engulfed you, her hands held your face, not cold and icy like you remembered as they clawed away at your sanity, but warm and reassuring as she whispered to you.
“Oh my dear, how you’ve suffered. I’m so proud of you, you’ve been so strong. My warrior.” As her lips pressed against your temple. But she pulled away slowly, and you almost whined. Her eyes were soft and kind but held a hint of sadness.
“Why…? You managed to croak out. Fighting against the lull of exhaustion, for just another moment in her embrace.
She laughed gently, but then tutted with a playful tone “We still need to talk dear.” She sighed as if the topic was going to be unpleasant. “You’ve caused quite a bit of suffering before you left,” she held your hand as she let go of your face.
“It doesn’t matter does it?” That was in the past. None of it mattered, you were at peace, finally.
Clicking her tongue she shook her head sternly, “You know that’s not true, what you did was wrong.” She silenced you with a hand, “I understand your reasons, and I understand the effects of corrosion on your mind.” She wiped at the tears forming in your eyes, “I’m not angry, but you need to help make it right.”
“No…I want to stay with you!” You cried out losing any composure you were attempting to keep. You didn’t want to go back to that wretched world.
“I know, but I’ll be there with you every step of the way.” She smiled, but her eyes betrayed her sadness.
A very long time ago, you said the same words at her grave as you did now, “There is nothing I would not do for you, nowhere I would not travel, no one I would not challenge. For you I would stand head held high in front of the Geo Archon himself, I would stand for your honor, and your pride. I would declare war on the world, I would stand before the gods of Tevyat and not regret a thing.” This time she was there to hear it.
She glanced back at you, smiling sadly, “I know but I’m dead and have been so for a very long time, and I have long reconciled with the events of my death and my regrets.” She told you.
“I’m tired, have I not given enough to that wretched world, have I not suffered enough with these vile emotions?” You begged voice cracking.
“You have suffered terribly, and for that, my heart breaks, but your life was shadowed by my death. You were in existence for over three millennia, but in all that time, you spent barely a century of it living.”
“I don’t care about living, my life is meaningless, worthless without you in it!” You cried out. The truth—your perceived truth—from your lips burned her, and it tore you apart inside.
Her face was laced in pain, “It was never my intention to hurt you, I made a mistake–I allowed you to devote yourself to me, to equate your value with my own.” She held your head in her hands, gentle and soft. “I am not a god,” she laughed, “and you are your own being, with thoughts, emotions, and most importantly, will.” Bright eyes met your own.
“What I wish for you, and the path you take. It doesn’t have to be the same, but you won’t know peace—you cannot know peace if you do not learn that.” She studied you, finding what she was looking for, “You have been festering in grief and hatred, you lived solely for me.” She didn’t give you any time to argue, “I’m giving you one last gift, and that is a second chance.”
“I want you to live,” her hands felt the expanse of aether around her, she was no more and she had long ago accepted this fact, “Promise me,” she pursued her lips. “Promise me that you’ll live.” Her eyes met yours again, and you swore despite your despair. You had promised to follow her will, and you would be damned if you ever broke that promise.
“I’m afraid, that this is truly goodbye. I waited here for you, to see you one last time, and perhaps to talk with you for my own selfish desires. To hear of the wondrous life you lived, now go make sure you live one not for me, but for yourself.”
As she dispersed into the water you openly sobbed, but her warmth stayed with you, perhaps…this time you wouldn’t be alone.
The remnants of her were gone. And yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to grieve her any longer, of course, sadness panged in your heart, but the all-encompassing grief was no more. It didn’t ensnare your heart in painful thorns. So shedding one last tear, you allowed yourself to be carried away, the in-between of life and death was rejecting you, gently nudging you, like a stream of a gentle brook, back into life.
The rage and indescribable despair that had plagued you until your death had been released, and most of the painful memories of your three thousand years of life had faded into vague conceptions with them.
In death you were reborn, and the life that surrounded you formed a new body. A body to make amends, that was her gift to you, and the pendant that hung around your new body’s neck was to remind you of your mistakes yes, but also of hope. Hope for the future, as you healed alongside the lands of Liyue.
Your eyes closed, and you drifted off to the soft melody of a familiar and foreign tune.