Dominator Stellae

7 | Conqueror of Demons

Tears crept slowly down Lei-Li's face, orange in the firelight. Some paternal part of me nagged me to comfort her, so I did. It was a little awkward considering the fact I was nearly two feet taller than her, but I gently hugged her. I was reminded of the old days when I'd comfort her after she had a nightmare. How ironic I was comforting her like the old days and yet lying about my true identity.

Between sobs, she recounted everything Cloud Retainer had told her. So, thousands of years ago, after Guizhong's death (which she's just now learned about) and after I essentially went "poof" she'd fallen into a deep sleep. After that, the war raged on until the last archon took their seat. Alatus, or Xiao as he was known now, had watched over her for the thousands she slept. Otherwise, everyone assumed she'd died.

"I never even got to say goodbye to them," she cried, hugging me even tighter. Say something, I told myself, she deserves to know. That was, of course, true. She did deserve to know. I still couldn't bring myself to do it. After millennia of being alone, I was so used to it. However, Lei-Li would feel alone in this new Teyvat if I didn't explain myself to her. Making choices like these made me want to tear my hair out.

I guess I was afraid of potential attention. That and the Tsaritsa was hunting down gnoses according to Paimon and Aether. It wouldn't be very beneficial to anyone should she somehow nag my gnosis. I hadn't fought another god since the Archon war and even then I hadn't been present through all of it. To say I was stuck between a rock and a hard place was either accurate or just me being delusional in some godsforsaken way.

Lei-Li suddenly said, "You remind me of Aphelion... you've got the same vibe as him."

The irony of this situation made me want to take a nosedive right off this mountain. I expertly hid my terror of being called out behind feigned surprise. I could almost feel the gray hairs setting up shop on my scalp. That just took a thousand years off my life. Maybe it would be enough to kill me and help me avoid this mess I've made. "Really? I'll take that as a compliment then," I said, smiling at her.

"Are you an astrologer?" She asked me, eyes wide with curiosity. "He was technically the god of astrology." Somehow, I already could tell where she was going with these questions. I gave in and showed her her birth constellation, a glowing wheel of purple appearing between my two hands. She gasped, tentatively touching it.

Her fingers phased right through it since it wasn't actually solid. "I do, in fact, practice astrology," I said, letting it fade away. "I personally don't use any of the elements you recognize today, but I will say Hydromancy would be my first choice should I decide to try anything else. I feel it's the most accurate." I used to be very close with the previous Hydro Archon because of that fact.

"Oh, wow! How much of its history do you know?" Lei-Li questioned. It seemed I'd hooked her. I never got to officially teach her, just small fun facts here and there.

"I pride myself on my knowledge of it," I said, mentally recounting all the arduous years of perfecting it. The first time I had accurately scried something was exhilarating.

"...Can you read the constellations of gods?" She asked, once again seeking to sate her curiosity.

"Well yes, but I prefer to stay away from reading ones who are alive."

"Rex Lapis. I want- I want to know if there was anything specific that caused his death, if that's ethical."

That was an iffy subject. On one hand, it was quite common for me to see long passed people's constellations being read to attempt to figure out death causes. On the other hand, Rex Lapis had just passed and we didn't even know if he was truly dead. I liked having permission to read someone and I'd been assaulted by rocks in the past for even thinking about reading him.