The night shines brightly yet so darkly, the beauty of it could only be seen by the gaze of innocence and purity. The smell of Liyue cuisine on the streets reached the trio's noses.
Their mouths watered as they quietly went to a street vendor, "Hello son, What would you like to eat?" The old man with a joyous smile spoke to Aether, Aether bought some food but just as we were about to munch on it a strange figure entered their gaze.
"I am an emissary of the liyue qixing, named Ganyu, A secretary at the Yuehei pallivon and I am here to meet you." After hearing the words Liyue qixing, both siblings were not slow to draw out their weapons.
"Why are you here?" Paimon asked, sweating buckets from the fear. An anxious expression presented on her face but it turned into a relieved expression as soon as Ganyu started to explain and read the letter that Ningguang wrote.
"She wishes to meet like right now?" You asked, confused at the timing. Of course, a professional woman like herself wouldn't have a meeting in the middle of the night. Your confused face twisted more as Ganyu nodded.
"But how will we be able to enter that thing in the sky?" The last question that you will ask her, Ganyu looked perplexed for a moment but it switched into a small smile as she spoke about the way of getting into the palace in the sky.
Paimon was about to ask her something but bid her farewell and left us alone in the middle of the night.
"Our entire day was filled with gruesome activities and we have to do more?" you felt annoyed, annoyed at your fate but suddenly you got reminded of something, Lumine. She is the reason you are doing all of this, only for her...only of her.
"Ehh we really have to do more?" Paimon pouted with me, How could she be tired, Aether and I are the ones who did the hard work.
"But I suppose we could take a look. Who knows what she has to offer." Aether spoke, his hands reaching mine as he holds them tight. "Well then, let's begin." I huffed in annoyance as he dragged me with him.
Before we knew it, we were in front of a man named, Bu'yun. He was tall and dressed in Liyue traditional clothing with a lean figure. "Excuse me, do you moon here?" Paimon spoke of the secret code, The man nodded with a smile, "And how much would you like?"
"It is not convenient to speak of numbers here." he replied with confidence, "Ah, well said, please ascend the Jade chamber with this." he placed us on a large piece of rock, We three stood on it though only "two" were actually standing.
The rock slowly floated as it took us to the jade chamber. Just as we took a step on the land of the jade chamber a voice spoke, "I have been waiting for you, Travellers."
"Hello....nice place there..?" Paimon spoke, her voice filled with confusion. "I am glad you liked it, this palace floats in the sky higher than the peak of any mountain, It was my dream to make it, since when I become the tianquan I waste no time to make my dream come true." a smile graced her face, her eyes shining as she gazed the night sky.
"A beautiful place and a beautiful lady with a beautiful brain make a great pair but I must really set everything aside and ask of you Why did you called us and additionally in the middle of the night as well." It was getting hard to not show the annoyance, First, we had to help a god and fight the dragon, Second, we are now labeled as that god's killer and who knows what's next?
"Direct to the point, I like that. The acting grandmaster spoke great words for both of you no wonder you would like to preserve your time and I do have to apologize about meeting you in the middle of the night." She placed a hand on her chest with a small smile on her complexion.
She turned around and walked to the edge of the chamber, looking at the city below her. "And I would like to clear some misunderstandings." She spoke but was immediately met with a question by Aether, "Then why hide the corpse?"
She chuckled lightly as she began, "Rex Lapid used to be our god and even if someone did kill him, he will eventually be replaced by another god which states that our action will be in vain, Rex lapis has protected us from two millennia. Do you think we will forget that, that easily? Right now we are just playing the spider for the enemy, Just deceiving them until we get our hands on them." She explained, placing a hand on her chest as she spoke truthfully and from the bottom of her heart.
"Who is this enemy you are talking about?" Paimon asked, even I felt a little puzzled but who could be it other than him...he means no good, and nor has he shown any signs of his genuine nature, it surely has to be him.
"Travellers, who do you think?" She suddenly turned around facing both of us, expecting an answer out of us.
"It is 'Him'." Both siblings spoke together, "It seems like twins surely have some telepathic abilities but nonetheless, well answered." They both left Paimon in confusion.
Ningguang invited all of them inside, treated them with kindness, and told stories and talked. "I have troubled three of you and invited you in the middle of the night, so to make it up why don't you choose one thing in this room?" She presented the idea, lights sparkled in Paimon's eye as she quietly explained how we could make a lot of mora.
I chuckled at her antics as my attention turned to a board with many papers on it, I stood up and walked up to it, reading the words carefully, I learned that it is about sigils, that are used to summon the adepti, a weird question entered my mind.
"Ningguang, can I have you?" I asked, rubbing my eyes from the lack of sleep. "What?" She retorted almost immediately, "I said can I have you, I have a question about sigils." Her confusion turned into amusement.
"You could just ask for wisdom, nothing is wrong with it. Now as you were saying, Sigils of permission are made so we mortals or any other species could meet the adepti or gods." I smiled at her as I nodded.
In the end, we chose a paper from the table which showed few marks. We got interested and decided to search for the place. We found fatui with a bunch of sigil of permission. We discreetly left to not make a scene.
We camped in the forest and slept, but Aether and I pondered about those sigils of permission and why the fatui was interested in Sigil of permission.
In the morning we met up with Zhongli. He suggested that we should look for glaze lilies even though she helped us with other things but it seems like she forgot about lilies and we decided to not annoy her more.
"For the rite of parting, I suggest that we should sing a melody to the flower before plucking it." He spoke, and Paimon turned to us, "How good is your singing?" She asked both of us.
We both shrugged and replied truthfully, "Our singing sucks." Paimon frowned, "Singing is a form of art that comes from the bottom of the heart, We will only truly know when you two start singing." Zhongli said, pushing us to sing.
We found a glaze lily nearby, and we both inhaled deeply, "Okay so....Da dada da! Datdada da!" We sang the song that Barbara used to sing but it came out horribly.
Suddenly the flower started moving and jumped from the ground. It was a whopper flower. Aether fought it off with ease.
"look we told you, Even the flower didn't like our singing." I pouted as I stared at the flower's remaining. Zhongli chuckled, "I assure you, it's not that bad. These whopper flowers were using glaze lily petals as a disguise and you happened to disturb them." Zhongli explained with a small smile.
Paimon laughed, "There is no need to assure them, Zhongli! They are bad singers hah! One point for paimon." The small fairy chuckled.
Eventually, we found a new glaze lily and sang to it, Surprisingly it didn't attack us.
We walk back to the city but something suspicious is going around the city. The entrance is filled with Millith and the fatui.
"This is highly abnormal, I suggest we ask around." Zhongli suggested, we nod along and asked a fatui member.
He explained that Adeptis is finally taking action and the qixing finally decided to keep an eye on the fatui.
Zhongli had some work to do so he left but before leaving he told us that, "Consider your move wisely, it will be wisest to look for the fuse first."
The fuse....did he mean him?
"Who could be the fuse?" He should find him or else the Adepti might go berserk and maybe end Liyue itself or who knows maybe he is planning to do something with the sigils.
"I think that he should be near Rex lapis exuvia but where was his exuvia?!" Arms crossed, I pondered every place where it could be.
"I know." Aether quietly spoke as he grabbed my arms and dragged me. I mindlessly sprint beside him not knowing where we are going.
"Name the place, I will take you." I said to him as I jerked my arms and ran beside him. "The..The golden house." His voice is coarse, sweat dripping down both of our faces. Paimon is nowhere to be seen.
This time, I gripped his hand and used anemo to speed us up. I kept using Anemo until we reached the golden house.
Both of us were tired, sweat dripping down, eyes widened, huffing for air. Paimon finally came back, she pushed her whole weight on the door and opened it.
The guards were laying on the floor, obviously passed out. We looked around the fancy place that was filled with more and the floor and the walls were colored golden.
We turned our attention to the exuvia, seems pretty fine to me. I exhaled in relief but it turned into one of a fear as I heard a familiar voice. "Why are you still here?" It was Childe, The twelfth fatui harbinger.
"If you were Fatui, You would have been a great help but right now, you are nothing but dross." He chuckled as he gazed at the exuvia.
"I could say the same to you too." Hate mixed with the words, you grit your teeth, drawing out your weapon.
"Haha, You know... I am not like Signora, whenever she faces a worthy opponent her first action is to complete the task and disappear without ever facing the enemy But I on the other side, loves battle. It gives me a thrill." He spoke, His bow summoned in his hands as he smiled brightly.
"Oh nononono, he gets off of fighting!!?" Paimon circled around, her eyes wide in fear.
"Haha, you could say that. Now travelers are you ready? because if you aren't, there I come." He pointed the bow at Aether.
Aether and I both had our weapons in our hands, two daggers in my hands I turned to childe. Without hesitation he shot the bow, terror seeped into me as I threw one of my daggers to cut it in half.
With the other dagger in my hand, I gripped it tightly. Before he could even pull out another arrow, I sprint to him, aiming for his throat.
But unfortunately, he was able to push his bow on me, tripping me to the ground. My hand slowly went up to my pocket to fetch for more.
Aether stared at the bow that pointed at him, Childe flashed a bright smile as he shot. His entire life flashed before him but fortunately, his sibling was able to cut the arrow in half.
He watched his sibling running to Tartaglia with a dagger in hand, he understood what you were going for. And hell even he didn't think twice before sprinting up to Childe with his sword in hand.
Paimon is staring with worry from the sidelines. Aether watched his sibling fall to the ground but he didn't waver, trying to place a hit onto the other man. Childe turned his attention to Aether but a quiet scream left his mouth as you stabbed the man in the thigh.
"Never let your guard down, bitch!" your sibling spoke with a smirk, Childe has already retrieved balance and acted like it didn't hurt.
To hurt more, Aether added a slash to his other thigh. "Not bad...not bad.' He heard Childe mutter.
Childe stopped using arrows and slammed the entire bow on you. A painful screech left your mouth. Childe pulled out two bows, both coated with hydro that he was producing with his vision.
"I see, so this fight is going somewhere!" He threw his hands up in the air as his clothing suddenly changed. And I could sense Electro in him but how?
Instead of pondering on the answer, I lashed forward. My dagger pointed at him, aiming for the eye.
But he was able to dodge and he pointed an arrow at my chest, right in front of my heart. He fling his hand backward and lunged forward.
That was it, my life, my hope, my life, my dreams. It seems like I will never be able to meet Lumine. A small tear left my eyes as I waited for my demise.
But to my surprise Aether saved me, "Childe!" A scream filled with hatred could be heard. "You...You are going to meet your end." Aether lunged at him with his every piece of strength, using the elements to help.
A lot of dust has risen as Aether threw him back, He could not see clearly but just as the dust got down on the ground, the harbinger was nowhere to be seen.
"Haha." a laugh could be heard from the back of our heads. Childe is near the Exuvia! He reached his hand to take something but as he retracted his hand, the laugh of malice turned one of anger.
"You took the gnosis?! Don't you?" He lunged forward, he transformed into a monster. A size that could not be considered human.
"Give back the Gnosis!"He shouted as he started attacking us, we dodged it and landed hits ourselves.
In the end, the siblings were victorious. Childe sat on the ground in a fetal position, "The legacy transformation was too great for my body.. I should have considered more, Now that I think about it you never had the chance to steal the gnosis, nor any use. But after everything, I am satisfied with this fight but I must leave now because I have to complete a quest, it seems like the exuvia was a diversion." He talked.
"What do you mean that Morax isn't dead?!" paimon shouted with confusion. "Problems have arisen, I suppose we now have to look at the backup plan. Well, then I never wished to use it but." Suddenly a great number of sigils of permission surrounded the harbinger.
"The great god Osial, by awakening a god, Morax will have to come out." He threw his hands in the air as he smirked, He used his vision and got swallowed by water and left.
[Spoiler hehe]
[The left one is [Redacted] ]