Xiao ultimately decided to speak with the other adepti and get their decisions on the matter before doing anything else. He hesitated before he left and shooed me, Aether, and Paimon off the balcony. Confused, we did as he said and walked down the stairs. I could only assume he was giving Lei-Li a more heartfelt goodbye before he went to the other adepti. Paimon sighed beside me and crossed her arms.
"Well, he's rather intense," the floating girl complained. It seemed she didn't quite like him. To be fair, I'm not surprised by this development. "He deserves an ugly nickname! But, I'd rather not insight the wrath of the adepti..."
That was wise of her. I didn't know she could be so level headed- mostly because of her stubbornness. I chuckled and shook my head. "Trust me, he's not as mean as he comes off," I explained, the few fond memories I had of him during the Archon War proved that. He could be genuinely sweet every now and then, he just wasn't used to mortal dealings. Actually, there's probably a multitude of things he wasn't used to.
"If you say so," Paimon huffed, deciding not to argue any further. I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed. Tiredness was beginning to seep into my bones the longer we stood there doing nothing. My vision attempted to blur as my eyelids started drooping. I forced myself to stay awake, promising my body I'd get to sleep when we hit the road again. Liyue Harbor was nothing but a day's walk from Wangshu Inn.
I could muscle through it. Hopefully.
Lei-Li finally came down after at least fifteen minutes had passed. She immediately took notice of my current state of wellbeing. "Juno! Did you sleep at all during the walk from Jueyun to here?!" She demanded, glaring up at me. A guilty smile settled on my face and held my hands up in surrender. Before she could start ranting to me about my health and wellbeing, I quickly suggested we start heading to Liyue Harbor to get everything we needed to do with Childe out of the way.
She gave me the stink-eye, knowing I was just trying to get away from her scolding but she relented. We gathered up any supplies we would need and set out. Tiredness continued gnawing at my bones as we walked. I thought about asking Aether if we could teleport to Liyue, but I knew that wouldn't be very beneficial for me. What a double edged sword.
While I was still suspicious of Childe, I knew he'd be vital to helping us with this situation. Whether we liked it or not, he would be one of few chances to figure out what happened. If he dared do anything to Lei-Li and Aether, I'd give no shits about how much he'd helped and show him what being an Archon entails.
Some mortals truly believe having a vision means you're directly on par with a God. Quite delusional but that's what a Delusion was made to mimic, right? At least vision holders are aware, for the most part, of their mortal limits. Those who wield Delusions have long since rejected the hands of the Gods and accepted the beautiful lies of the dark. In their minds, the Tsaritsa was their salvation. They crave power to surpass gods no matter how hard it punishes their bodies.
In my eyes, their "salvation" would be their damnation.
Maybe some of them can be saved, for the others...the Gods hold no power over them, only she who pulls the puppet strings from her throne of bittersweet lies can reach them.
Enough dwelling on that, I suppose. Maybe I'd get to see Childe in action at some point. I could feel deep down in my bones that something was brewing under all of this.
"Are you sure you don't want to rest while we speak with Childe?" Lei-Li questioned me as we walked up the stairs to Northland Bank. I, once again, brushed off her concern and smiled at her.
"I promise, I'm perfectly fine," I lied. Truth be told, I was exhausted. I'd been having a lot of trouble with prophetic dreams and visions during my sleep lately that it was more detrimental to sleep than it was to go a bit without sleep in hopes of avoiding said dreams. Was it counterintuitive? Possibly. Was I going to stop avoiding sleep? No. If the consequences kick my ass, so be it.
YOU ARE READING
Dominator Stellae
Fanfiction【Zhongli x God!Oc】 Four thousand years ago, a god ascended to the heavens. Leaving behind all those who cared for him most, he took with him his kingdom and the grief of a sister lost to pages of time and history. Soon, he too became lost within tim...
