Archon of Cynthis [Book 1]

Chapter 32 - Contracts

You felt a shiver of power ripple through the room, a contract set in stone now fulfilled. You watched Morax's Gnosis materialize in his palm, pulsing lightly with golden energy.

Signora scoffed lightly. "How sanctimonious."

"I mean, I did have my suspicions..." Aether mumbled.

Paimon gaped at Zhongli. "What! So you're the Lord of Geo!? No, wait! That's any exciting twist and all - but why give the Gnosis to the Fatui??"

You barely heard the scoff in Zhongli's voice that he hid. "I do not give it for free. I give it as agreed upon in the contract, for it is a matter solely between the Tsaritsa and I."

"But why fake your own death?" Aether pressed.

"Yeah, you don't think you went a little bit too far with that whole fake death thing!? Everyone was preparing the ceremony for you when splat, this big dragon falls out of the sky and all of Liyue goes into an uproar. Talk about a disaster!" Paimon agreed.

Signora laughed. "Gathering all the forces that had been bubbling behind the scenes, and then stirring them together in a pot that was bound to boil over... that's what he wanted to see, am I right?"

"W-what?"

"Maybe it's best if Zhongli explains." You suggested, tilting your head in his direction.

Zhongli sighed. "As you know, I've dwelt upon this world for more than six thousand years. I witnessed the founding of Liyue together with the adepti three thousand and seven hundred years ago. Even boulders that can withstand whirlpools will erode with the passting of time. I kept convincing myself that cracks and not begun to form and that the end of my time had not yet come.

Until one drizzly day, as I was strolling along the harbor, I heard a merchant tell one of his workers, 'You've finished your duties, go ahead and call it a day.'"

You tilted your head. You could tell where he was going with this.

"I stood motionless among the crowds, asking myself, 'Have I already finished my duties?'"

"Oh, Zhongli..." Paimon said quietly.

"But as I began to consider relinquishing my divine role, I soon discovered that many reasons still remained to not hastily depart. Was Liyue, the city I had dwelt in for so long, already prepared to enter its new age? I decided that a test was needed in order to reveal the answer. So I feigned my own death, and gathered the cast of Childe, the adepti, and the Liyue Qixing to play their roles together on the stage that was Liyue.

"Let me guess - you had another plan in case it all burned down." You said, crossing your arms.

"That's right, which is why I continued to safeguard the Gnosis until now."

Paimon frowned. "So you mean that if the chaos ever reached the point of no return, you would simply appear and use your divine powers to bring Liyue back under control?"

You lifted an eyebrow. "She's not wrong."

"Of course. And it would have been all too easy for him, too." Signora answered. "Just as a child quickly matures after losing their parents, so has Liyue matured when faced with the death of its deity..."

A trace of a smile appeared on Zhongli's face. "I was pleasantly surprised with the finale of the show that you all put on. Why, you even deserved an encore. The adepti deserve the greatest applause considering their years of seclusion... they hardly recognized the city. Yet, faced with such a crisis, they exerted the greatest amount of restraint. Not only did they manage to cooperate with the Qixing, but in the end, they even tried to understand the heart of the people.