Among Three Travelers 1 (Patreon)

New Ten Times crossover story!

***

I knew I was in trouble the moment I saw the wine.

Three glasses with elegant twisting stems sat on the side table. The amber liquid near glowed in the candlelight, throwing shadows across the paper screen behind. He’d tidied up since last I’d visited as well, scrolls and accounts neatly tucked away in their shelves, not that he ever made much mess.

I shut the sliding door behind me with a sharp click. “What’s the emergency?”

From his large desk of stained wood, my nominal boss looked up from his work. “Punctual as always.” His lips rose into a faint smile. “Forgive me for not meeting you at the door, work has been busy of late.”

He stood, straightening the sleeves of his long coat. As always, he was a vision of impossible refinement done in brown and amber, with a face carved from marble and brown hair that ran down his back in a single stream of shadow.

“Please, Bo, take a seat.”

I rubbed my brow. In the long years since arriving in this world, I’d grown used to many things. The body I’d inherited, her name, and the responsibilities that came with them.

But this man still caught me off guard.

“Morax—” I said.

He lifted a hand. “Please. I do not use that name in these halls.”

I sighed. “Zhongli. What is this about?”

“I have a simple request.”

“I refuse.”

He chuckled, the sound rich and warm as the earth. “You still run as fast as the currents. Please, sit. We have matters to discuss regardless.”

Zhongli pulled back a chair for me, before slipping into his own. I ran a hand through my own blue-black hair, before sitting down. I took my glass, taking a breath of the sweet fragrance. “You wouldn’t drink Ozmanthus wine with me for the first one thousand years.”

He smiled in lieu of reply, lifting his own glass. “To friends new, old, and new become old.”

I huffed. “To friends.” In two lives, the second much longer than the first, I’d never been a drinker. But even I could admit that Zhongli’s taste in wine was impeccable as the rest of him.

“So.” I set my glass back down. The rich flavor lingered on the tongue. “Where’s Xiao?”

“He was unfortunately delayed,” Zhongli replied.

“Let me go get him then.” I made to stand.

Zhongli forestalled me with a raised hand. “We do not often have time to speak at length.”

I shrugged, leaning back in the chair. He cocked an eyebrow when I effortlessly balanced on it’s back feet, wine glass still in hand. “You spend most of your time in the harbor, with the mortals.”

I was still bad at that, simply didn’t have the right drives within me to walk, hidden, among the normal people. That was something I carried with me from before, something only reinforced by the nature of my rebirth and the very world I’d found myself within. There were only two people I could speak with on even terms, one was in front of me and the other was even more anti-social than I was.

“You’ve let yourself become quite distant,” Zhongli said. “Even more than Xiao.”

“I still stop by to pick up things to read. Has that merchant boy published his latest novel, yet?”

“You could always ask him. I’m sure he would be quite pleased that the Shield of Liyue reads his works.”

“I think not. Besides,” I tapped my horns. “These stand out a bit.”

Zhongli rolled his eyes. It was a gesture I’d taught him when I’d still been young, and he’d held onto it since like a miser with his last coin. He liked how the action contrasted with his image. “You’ve carried that distance with you for millennia, Bonanus. Ever since you arrived on Teyvat.”

I leaned forward, and the front feet of my chair hit the floor.

*

I was born a second time with a blade through my heart.

It had pinned me to the grass like a bug, roiling with shadowy miasma. I would have died again, then, from the confusion alone, but there was so little of me.

Or maybe there was too much of me, and not enough of her.

When I’d died, with a bullet to the back of my skull I’d been so small. But something small can still have weight, and I’d had the weight of all worlds pressed upon my back. I had the blood of Scion on my hands. I was small and insignificant, but what I had done carried importance that could not be erased with my death.

The weight of my sins had slipped between worlds, until it was caught by yet more darkness. Here, on Teyvat, my memory had spawned twisted nightmares as part of a great sickness of the land called the Miasma. Of that darkness, I’d been just a small speck, but of course…

The great warriors who fought the darkness could not hold themselves apart from it. It drove them to rage, to insanity, to suicide.

One took in enough of me, that when she died, I was left behind, transfixed upon a blade. And above me, so close he blocked the sky, hung a man I both knew and did not. His face glowered down at me in a twisted rictus of hatred while I cradled him, almost tenderly, in hands covered in thick black ice sharpened into claws. My claws had cut into him, buried deep into his torso as blood ran down my arms in dwindling rivers.

He and I had killed each other. I gaped up at him, still barely there as the piece of what used to be Taylor Hebert filled in the cracks of this new vessel like gold dust used to repair a vase.

As the last breath slipped from him, the rage ebbed, the eyes cleared. His lips twitched, and even after all these years I liked to think he’d been about to smile.

‘Ah,’ he might have whispered. ‘We saved each other from the madness.’

But no. The madness had eaten the woman whole, and left me. Not because I was stronger, or my will greater; Because I was a small speck caught in the gears of the cosmic cycle, locking them in place until they broke.

And I woke.

But of course, he had not said those words. I would not have understood them if he had, still a jumbled mess of memories that did not feel like mine.

When it became clear that I was still alive despite the sword through my heart, I did the only thing I could. I levered the corpse off me, then pulled the blade from my own chest. The pain was so unique, I’d never felt another like it. A trickle of blood ran down my torn blue dress.

My heart began to beat, and I did not die.

That was where Morax found me, days later, still trying to put my sense of self back together.

He knew at once that I was something else, looking out from behind the eyes of his dear dead friend.

I still don’t know why he didn’t kill me.

*

“Regardless,” Zhongli continued. “Such distance does you ill. No living thing may flourish in isolation, and yours has only become more absolute in the turning of the years.”

“I’m guessing this has something to do with your request?” I chose not to argue with his accusation. Even when I’d been mortal, I’d preferred good books to good company most days. 

Now, I was something apart from most of the people of this land, and even if I’d made peace with myself, I still was an imposter among the other immortals.

The adepti, Zhongli’s disciples, thought I was Bonanus, who’d been storied and beloved long before I’d come into this life. Every interaction was tinged with awe I could not enjoy.

“I do my duty,” I told Zhongli. “Your home of Liyue is at peace, and it will be at peace for as long as I still stand.”

He sighed. “Duty does not itself beget virtue.”

“I never cared if I was virtuous. This is simply who I am.”

He waved a hand. “And I have stopped trying to convince you otherwise. It pleases me that you have made my home yours, and taken to the defense of its people.”

I shrugged. At the start, I’d taken up Bonanus’s mantle because I’d been directionless. But by now I knew myself well enough to realize that I could not sit still. I needed to have a purpose to drive me forward, or I would vanish like dust in the wind.

Liyue Harbor sat on a clear bay filled with proud ships. Happy people walked its wide streets. It was nothing like the bay of my first life.

I very much enjoyed keeping it that way.

“Are we just waiting for Xiao, then?” I took a sip of my wine.

“Alas not.” Zhongli mirrored me, burning eyes never leaving mine. “You and Xiao have set the land to peace; what demonic spirts that escape your blades are easily defeated. In truth, you are wasted upon such meagre duties.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying I should work as a consultant at a funeral parlor, like you?”

The man in front of me was maybe closer to a true god than Scion had been, but now he chose to live life as a mortal, drinking tea and arranging the last rites of his people. He only ‘came down’ to Liyue harbor as Morax once a year.

“If you were one to be tempted by mortal pursuits, then we would not be having this conversation.”

“I read books.” I frowned. “It’s hardly my fault that there aren’t enough of them.” And all my favorite authors published so slowly. I never thought I’d be crying for the return of mass market paperbacks but here we were.

Zhongli continued. “Liyue has always prospered under our guidance, but in the last century it has entered a time that will one day be called a golden age. As the land grows calmer, I have noticed that you only grow more restless. You seek enemies, and find them lacking.”

“And I suppose Xiao doesn’t?”

“The weight of his Karma affects Xiao differently than you, who has returned from beyond the edge of madness. He would be pleased never fighting again.” Zhongli let out a slow breath. “That only means he runs around like a headless chicken, trying to render aid all in need. I…worry for him.”

I nodded. “Xiao would give someone the shirt off his back, even if it meant he froze to death.” I paused. “If that painted on thing he wears would fit anyone else.”

“Indeed.” Zhongli didn’t deign to mention the shirt, but I saw his eyes flick to the side, no doubt mentally considering who else could have squeezed into Xiao’s signature outfit. Even for a ‘god’ with perfect memory, it could not be a long list.

“Be that as it may, both of my Yakshas are clearly…”

I raised an eyebrow.

Zhongli coughed into his fist. “A different approach to your responsibilities would behoove the both of you.”

I mulled that over, taking in Zhongli’s appearance over the table. His stoic mien betrayed nothing about his comment. He was right that I found myself antsy with so few demonic spirits left in the land, but how else could I fulfill my duty?

I could train the other adepti, but I was a singularly poor teacher. Zhongli had already ruled out the idea of me taking on a mortal alias and working a normal job. And as Morax, he already handed down the Mandate of Heaven to the people of Liyue, ensuring that the land was ruled…justly…

I stood. “No. I refuse.”

Zhongli raised a single, razor-sharp eyebrow. “What do you refuse?”

“I’m not taking over the job of running Liyue, just so you—” I jabbed a finger at him. “Can play coroner. You only put in one day of work a yearand now you want to shove that off on me and Xiao? I categorically refuse.”

“This is not about ‘shoving’ my work onto anybody.” Zhongli took a sip of his wine. “Liyue is ready.”

I blinked at the non-sequitur. “Ready for what?”

“To stand on its own feet.” He nodded once. “In truth, this land has been ready for some time, but they were not, are not, ready to let go of the guiding hand of the Archon.”

“So instead of just vanishing into the wind, you want to hand power over to us, and you’ll what?”

He hummed, a low rumble. “What all gods do, ascend back into the heavens.”

“And leave Xiao and me holding the bag,” I grumbled.

“The goal is to ready Liyue for a transition to its own governance, in time, I expect you would find it easier as well to hand down power to the mortals who already oversee their own affairs.” Zhongli held out his hand, palm up. “And so, the Mandate of Heaven will pass from one to the next, a chain unbroken since the days when…Morax walked the streets of Liyue Harbor.”

“And you, of course, running the funeral parlor, walking the streets,” I said. “How ironic.”

“I am simply an experienced consultant,” Zhongli replied. “That is what I aspire to be.”

I huffed again. “You just want to drink tea and play paigo by the ocean.”

Zhongli hummed. “If you would prefer that life, I would not deny you it.”

But you do not, he was saying.

I folded my arms. “That is—”

A knock came at the door. I blinked. “Is that Xiao?” I asked.

“Hellooo!” A familiar voice called. “Consultant, I’m respecting the privacy of your office by knocking, and exerting my authority as your director by coming in anyway!”

It was not.

The door slammed to the side to reveal a woman almost as petite as I was, with a somber brown suitcoat and hat that completely contrasted her bright demeanor. The sprig tucked into the brim of her hat bloomed with small red flowers that matched her eyes, and she marched into the room with a grin on her face that only grew wider when she saw me.

“Oh my! It is an honor to host the Shield of Liyue!” In a flash, the woman was in front of me, arms pressed to her chest in glee. “Elder sister, please, let me know if there is anything not to your liking! We at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor pride ourselves on excellent service provided to all of Liyue’s inhabitants. I certainly hope my consultant met and exceeded your expectations.”

I held back a sigh with the experience of long practice. “Ah, you must be Hu Tao. I have heard of you from the other adepti.” Mostly about how the mortal was the biggest odd ball in Liyue. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“This seventy seventh director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor at your service, Elder Sister!” Hu Tao swept into a bow, sleeves flaring as she spun her arms. “The pleasure is all mine. Zhongli did not inform me we were hosting such an august personage.” Her eyes glinted like fireworks. “Truly it is surprising for a mortal to have such connections, as expected of my top rated consultant.”

I tilted my head back towards Zhongli to hide my cocked eyebrow. This was no doubt why he’d told Xiao and I to avoid the parlor, if its director was poking away at his cover story.

“You flatter me, director,” Zhongli said. “But we were simply discussing business, as it has become my responsibility to oversee funeral services for the adepti.”

“True, true.” Hu Tao nodded happily. “So, Big Sis Bonanus, what can my humble parlor offer you today? Rest assured that we will handle all matters with the utmost care, as we treat all of our customers.”

I blinked as her attention rapidly pivoted back to me. Zhongli, for his part, was absolutely no help, content to watch from the sidelines as I scrambled to come up with a reason for my presence, given that I was an ageless immortal standing in the offices of a funeral parlor.

For a second, I was tempted to throw Zhongli to the wolves by confirming every one of his ‘boss’s’ suspicions, but then the door slid open once more.

“Sorry I’m late.” Xiao slid into the office with a sigh, eyes tracing the floor. “Did you…finish the meeting without me?”

“Quite the contrary,” I said. “We were just getting started.”

“Oh my.” Hu Tao’s smile somehow grew even wider. “The Spear and the Shield of Liyue in my parlor? Truly today is an auspicious day!”

“I, uh.” Xiao’s eyes widened, flicking back and forth between Zhongli and Hu Tao. “You’re…welcome?”

Xiao hardly looked as though he’d been delayed. Instead, he looked like a knife polished to mirror shine, all pale whites and deep shadows complimenting the dark green of his hair. The necklace of white prayer beads draped across his shoulders looked like they’d been actually polished.

As if he’d spent far too long ‘getting ready’ for this meeting in order to miss it entirely.

In that moment, I decided on my course of action.

“Director Hu,” I said. “We are actually here on Xiao’s behalf, he is interested in picking out a casket.”

“Oh? For whom, if I may ask?”

“For himself of course.”

Xiao stiffened, eyes flashing wide over Hu Tao’s shoulder.

“Xiao and I are ageless, but even immortals can be brought low.” I flashed a glare at Zhongli. “As such he thought it prudent to select his own casket.”

“That’s…uh…I.” Xiao started to blush, but I knew he’d knuckle under rather than reveal the lie.

I was not, however, prepared for Hu Tao’s reaction to my farce.

“That is incredibly forward thinking of you!” She flashed over towards Xiao, who froze like a deer in the headlights. “So many people utterly ignore their final considerations, but if lord Xiao, and immortal, is taking them into consideration…” She shook her head, eyes glistening with admiration. 

“Truly, you are an example to us all. Please come! I will show you all of our finestoptions, guaranteed not to decompose before they will be of best use to you!”

“That’s—”

So surprised by the two fold ambush, Xiao didn’t even react as Hu Tao latched onto his arm and pulled him back towards the door. “I promise, I won’t let you leave here unsatisfied. Only the best for the protector’s of Liyue!”

Zhongli folded his arms behind his back as Hu Tao all but dragged my fellow immortal out of the room.

Xiao’s eyes locked on me, his last, best hope to avoid the diminutive undertaker’s attention.

Alas, I was but a speck of dust. I raised a hand farewell.

三人行

Among Three Travelers

Worm/Genshin Impact