Freedom

Part 44

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 Chapter 44:

When you get back to your room that day, you're really fucking annoyed to see the silk and the card sitting on top. Letting out an irritated sigh, you drop your bag on your vanity chair and grab the card on top of the silk before flopping onto your bed with an obscene groan.

"That bad?"

You look up to see your favorite adeptus sitting in the window. He wasn't there two seconds ago, but Xiao seems to come and go like the wind. It's something you're growing accustom to.

"Did you catch something this time?" You ask, waving the card halfheartedly.

Xiao shook his head again, earning another, long, and loud exhale. He pushed himself up from his perch and made his way towards the bed. Wordlessly, you moved over, letting him sit next to you.

"Gonna read it?" He questioned.

"Gonna have to." You huffed, irritation growing.

Flipping the card over, you let your gaze travel the cursive writing. It's abhorrent how easily you accept this as "normal" within your routine now. As if it's a plot device meant to keep the story going.

'To my champion,

Though you are angry with me, I bare no ill will nor ill intentions towards you or the people who matter to you. I know you blame me for the pain your adeptus went through, but I must absolve myself from the equation as I made myself absolutely clear when I told both he and the Son of Angels that consequences awaited those who ignored my warning. I do not wish to argue with you. I wish for you to grow as a warrior and person from your time here. It is my intentions for you to become a protector of sorts, but I cannot, as of yet, locate the source of blight within the land. I only know that it exists and is something that has grown recently. You can speak to me as you reached out yesterday if you have other questions that do not surround the only variables that I still question myself.

It is my hope that you utilize this and continue to hone your skills.'

You let the arm holding the card up fall against the mattress. It's no secret that this ally of yours has been gearing you up for war. They've never really hid that part what with the showing of weapons, but you weren't sure from where or what. Were you supposed to just accept that you were being honed as a weapon? Is this how Xiao felt? Or were you supposed to feel proud?

"That bad?" Xiao reiterated.

You huffed out a bout of laughter. Xiao's speech has become a lot less formal since you'd met him a couple years back. He no longer felt the need to create a wall of pretty words and language between you. There was a type of ease that settled in your chest at the idea of the adeptus being comfortable enough that he doesn't need to build his walls up around you. There is a comfort to understanding that Xiao is, at the very least, starting to see you as a safe space.

"I assume that it is another weapon." You breathe out, leaning over Xiao to chuck the card back onto the dresser.

"You won't open it?" Your adeptus asks.

You let out an irritated wine, turning your back towards him in a childish display of resistance. You don't want another weapon. You don't want to fight some huge battle coming up out of nowhere. You want answers to your questions and this ally of yours seems more hell-bent on keeping the people you love unhappy then actually aiding you in this quest to save Teyvat or whatever.