Seven Months in Heaven [Zhongchi/Tartali]

Chapter 14 - Severed Bonds

Romanski was dead.

Childe walked through the tunnels, the body in his arms growing ever colder.

Romanski was dead.

An abyss hound charged at him, but Childe didn't blink as he summoned a hydro orb, sending it toward the creature with a flick of his wrist. It connected, the riptide mark reacting with the hound's own bodily fluids, tearing it apart from within. Childe readjusted his hold around the boy he carried.

Romanski was dead, and it was his fault.

It was his own foolish, selfish fault, because he couldn't say no. He couldn't say no to Romanski's desire to follow him back into the depths. He couldn't say no when Romanski followed him to Mashkov's hideout. He couldn't say no to the excitement in those eyes and the way Romanski's cheeks lightly dimpled when he gave him one of those boyish grins.

For that, he was foolish and selfish.

It was his fault that Romanski was dead and not basking in the morning sun, waiting to go home.

It was his fault that the next time Romanski's mother would see her son, it would be at a funeral.

It was his fault that Romanski's sister no longer had a little brother to dote on.

His throat tightened, but Tartaglia had no more time to mourn. Tartaglia had taken command of the situation in the Chasm and fucked it up, and now Tartaglia had to live with the consequences of his failures.

This shouldn't have happened.

This should never have happened. None of these men should've been left abandoned here for so long.

Abandoned by the people they'd hoped to aid, abandoned by the Millelith soldiers who'd worked beside them, and abandoned by their own Archon.

The Tsaritsa.

How had Her Majesty let this happen to her people? He'd known the passionate fires of love had long been extinguished within her heart, replaced by the icy thorns of heartbreak and vengeance, but for her to show such apathy to her own people, to those who had committed their lives to her cause...

How easy it was to rule from a throne. How easy it was to ignore the plight of those on the ground, those most willing to give their lives for her cause.

A deep simmering, a fetid bitterness that rose like bile in his throat, a tension throbbing between his eyes – she'd let this happen.

No, that was wrong. Her Majesty was a gentle soul, a peaceful soul; she wouldn't let this happen willingly. Childe shoved those thoughts away as quickly as they rose. Her Majesty had tried to solve this. Her solution was the mission entrusted to him for the past half a year, the mission he'd failed to take swift enough action on to avoid this happening.

Her Majesty had done everything right.

Again returned the uncomfortable truth: it was his own incompetency that had caused this. Some protector of childhood dreams he was. He couldn't even manage to keep Romanski alive, but this was his burden to bear; there was no other who could've changed Romanski's fate.

Oh, but you're forgetting someone, aren't you? Someone who could've told you the truth all along...

The words wrapped around his ear, whispering their tempting suggestions.

Zhongli.

Zhongli could've changed things here.

If Zhongli had taken him aside from day one, told him there were people in the Chasm, he would've charted the entire course of his mission differently, regardless of contracts and diplomacy. It wouldn't have been difficult to find some ancient creature to cause a bit of chaos for a while to distract the Millelith, no more than prison guards to their sordid torture chamber. It would've given them something productive to do for once.