It seemed like his people were finally getting used to the new world, or Teyvat as the locals called it apparently. After their fields were left behind, the craggy plains and plateaus of Mondstadt made for surprisingly good farmland, although the untamed soil of the wilds weren’t as bountiful as their originals. But it wasn’t anything that he couldn’t fix. Things were finally going back to normal.
... well, almost, anyway. Strangers that came to the town usually got the folks talking or mildly complaining, such was the case when a woman in a... peculiar witch outfit strolled right into their settlement. Word started to spread quick, but Izren heard it quicker. The de-facto leader set down a sack of grain as the stranger drew closer to his neck of the woods and wasted no time to approach. The faster he learns her intentions the better.
“Welcome to our little piece of the wilderness, miss. What brings you here?”
The green-clad figure is uncharacteristically silent.
How? Ever since the war, it had never even crossed my mind. The thought that I could awaken in a land where he was the last. The last of the original Seven. The memories we’d all shared...
Sometimes, even the lissome wind grows heavy in its grief...
Morax? Struck down..? So quietly. Almost as if he was never here. Does Teyvat not shed tears? The ground stands firm. Unchanging. Unforgiving. Uncaring.
But not that mortals could ever see a moment oh so brief.
He shakes his head, as if to clear it. No... Now was not the time to think such things. New winds blow across the world. Against those winds of change, all things bend and break, to be regrown anew in an infant age. Every new beginning requires a crushing end.
A memory surfaces. Six faces, smiling. Happy together at the end of the last age. The beginning of the new. The end of the war. The end of the tumult. Venti remembered smiling. It was the first true smile to cross his face since the fall of Decarabian. That, too had been a beginning. A shining new age. Still adjusting to his then new form, he’d called for the newly appointed Seven to gather. To know each other. To become acquainted with the gods of Teyvat who shared their title.
That age was no longer new. The sky was no longer so shiny and fresh. If anything, it had reached its dying days. If you’d told him then that he would be the last, he’s not sure he’d have believed it. Nor was he entirely certain that he wouldn’t. That seemed to be the way of things. Just as he’d come to rely on a presence. Just as he’d come to know it as something unchanging, these winds would blow. He’d come to expect them. In truth, Venti wasn’t sure what he thought of that.
Yet, it was those very same winds that brought him here. He’d sensed something. Something... drastic. Irreversible. Brown shoes stand near the shrine on Yujing Terrace, far from the grassy plains where they usually watched. Over two millennia had truly passed since they’d gathered here in Liyue that first time. Yet, he’d returned for a much more somber reason. This wasn’t a pleasant introduction, but a bittersweet farewell.
Head bowed, Venti for once was at a loss for words. Rare as that may be, it didn’t seem to matter much. Words of grief would be lost without any ears to hear. And so he stood, alone at the site of an old friend’s demise, with only a turmoil of emotion for company. So lost was he in his thought, he didn’t even notice the approaching footsteps from behind...
@celestarial asked: [ surprise ] for your muse to show up at mine’s house without explanation / :>
nonverbal memes.
There is a scent that wafts through the thickets of the forest. It is a distinctive one, one that cuts through the pine --- the sweetness of a white flower ( cecilias, a girl once told him ); the staleness of old books; a dash of electricity thrumming in the air, crackling, barely grazing his senses. The smell -the thin, delicate tendril of power- comes to Razor like a breeze.
When he follows it and weaves through the grand, towering trees, the more it tickles his memory. It should be new. It should be. Yet... it’s familiar, even if it’s muddled with the spices that clings onto any human that ventures out of the city. Razor prowls after it --- and isn’t it a surprise, a wonderful surprise, to see a familiar vision of purple and white again. “Purple teacher,” he breathes out, voice laced with awe. How strange it is to see her like this, out in the grassy, bramble-brimming wild, away from the clutter of city-dwellers and books.
There is a rustle, a fumble, and then he slides down to land beside her. “You are here. Why? This is far from the city.” His lips twitch into the barest of smiles. “Are you looking for me?”
”So... question... do you have any maps or charts? Maybe any reading materials on the local ruins?” Inquired a redhaired lass as she had sort of slipped into the library and parked herself right in front of the front desk. Of course, she was a bit of an odd duck and it wasn’t much because of her choice of dress, but the small fluffy beast that followed along behind her like a strange pitch black blotch that might be a dog or a cat, yet wasn’t.
Hurried steps carry the swordsman toward the outskirts of the quaint Inazuman village. He stood out like a sore thumb amongst the everyday villagers thanks to the large black cloak and sword at his hip, but what made him truly different was the electro vision buried in the layers of clothing. Refusing to give his up made him an enemy of the Bakufu, and with how relentlessly they had been pursuing him that much was very clear. So long as he kept moving he was confident he could keep one step ahead of them...
“Bakufu soldiers are here!” The alarming sentence spread like wildfire amongst the concerned villagers and it did not take very long for it to reach Izumo’s ears as well.
“Damn.” He cursed, taking an abrupt turn into a narrow passageway between houses. A change in plan then, he couldn’t risk taking any road out of the village so instead he would have to use the nearby forest. The numerous rumors of a forest guardian dwelling within certainly made him hesitant... However the soldiers being much closer behind than ever before left him with very little choices. But if he stayed respectful and observed tradition perhaps he could live to run another day.
“Welp, here’s hoping they show more mercy than the Bakufu.” Izumo muttered to himself before trading the shade of the buildings for that of the forest. Once it became harder to see the village through the trees, he pulled back his hood and stopped holding his cloak completely closed. Eyes were constantly scanning his surroundings and his left hand maintained a cautious hold of his swords sheath as he moved deeper and deeper into the forest.
A Heart of Pure Water and a Face of Ice. This reputation proceeded him throughout Liyue, causing him to be the one to call when a spirit was making a fuss, spreading evil and darkness in it’s wake. However, when this commission was rumored to be an Adeptus that had lost control, Chongyun was shocked. Not only was he going to face a powerful Spirit, but an Adeptus at that. Such a powerful deity! Surely he might be able to see it...however, one must not go unprepared for such a journey.
Having packed, and double checked, there was one more thing he wanted to try. He had spoken to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor’s Consultant. Being typically declined when he asks for accompaniment, he did not have high hopes. That was proven wrong when he was given a yes.
Now they trot through the cold and ice, snow covering every inch of their vision. Blinding white was met with a freezing touch. His slipper sunk into the ground as the snow came up around bare skin. Such an adventure reminded him of a dark time, a time he did not feel like sharing quite yet. The chill, however, that still ran down his spine was ever too familiar.
The frozen flora around them had perked his interest, and he made an offhand comment about it. He looked back over at Zhongli...
“Your lack of warmer clothing...are you certain you will be alright?”
Even if he himself brought no heavier clothing, and still wore his light and breathable outfit, he still voiced concern. Hearing the reply, Chongyun looked up at the foreboding clouds. The warning they gave was clear, and so he nodded in agreement.
“That would be for the best for the incoming storm.”
He spoke as he caught up to Zhongli, looking at the flower that stay crystalized by the cold. He kneels down to get a better look, his eyebrows furrowing in thought.
“Something like this is most unusual. Plants in cold weather usually wilt and end their life cycle, only to continue when it’s warmer....However, it seems as though the flower is being preserved by the cold...”
Standing alongside his companion, Chongyun spoke once more.
“My congenital positivity so far has staved off any spirit that has even been in my vicinity for all of my life. An exorcist that has never seen a spirit... I have been searching for a demon that does not run off due to my appearance for some time now. This might actually be the chance that I get to see my first sight of evil.”
There’s a small bit of hope in his eyes. Though he can feel his body struggling to stay warm at all in this climate, he seems genuinely happy that he could do something he always dreamed of: exhibiting the actions of a true Exorcist. However, he shook his head, remembering to answer the last part of his comment.
“While I cannot deny that it is effective at driving away evil, it is not the work of an experienced exorcist. When all that is required of me to do is to stand still in one area for a period of time to rid that area of evil, it feels as though I am not an exorcist at all. It does not utilize thaumaturgy or martial arts in any capacity, techniques that other exorcists use to master their trade. I have never once used those same techniques passed down in my family for several generations.”
He looks off to the side.
“Being of use means little if I only stand idle.”
He gazes to his right, and then left. Standing here for too long...he shouldn’t have talked so much. They needed to find a shelter, and soon. He perks up when he sees a cave off in the distance, and plunges his feet into the snow once more.
“Over here, quickly. We should be protected from snow and storm inside here.”
Maybe if he was sneaky enough, he could manage to dodge Lisa’s notice as he made his way out of the library that he was hiding in.
He appreciated everything Teacher Lisa did for him, of course. He was only able to communicate so soon because she helped teach the local language to him. She also told him a lot of things about the land as humans perceived it, so he wasn’t entirely clueless. But at the same time, she was a little scary-- not in the way her coworkers considered her to be scary, but rather it was that knowing look in her eye as she stared at him, as if he was a particularly interesting specimen and a fun little mystery to solve.
Well. He was. But still, he was trying to blend in here! He couldn’t have his true identity found out so soon. What if Favonius Master slices him up for being a danger to Mondstadt?!
So he was scuttling. Quietly. Almost to the door--
“We’re closed.” He doesn’t try to hide the annoyance from his tone, nor the surprise from his face when he turns around with a well-prepared glare and his guest isn’t quite the Favonius Knight he expected to see. Still, there’s most definitely an eye-roll there. They all share a knack for showing up past closing time exactly on the evenings he happens to have taken over his employee’s shift. Their knowing exactly when they can find him here is more than a suspicion by now. Ah, well, he thinks, putting away a freshly cleaned glass. Whether they need information from him or have some of their own to share, it ought to be of interest. He can certainly humor Lisa for a minute or ten. “But you know that already, don’t you ?” He throws the towel over his shoulder so he can lean back and cross his arms, waiting expectantly. I’m listening.
