|A Lone Adeptus| xiaoven

十三

One evening shared over a drink soon turned into nights of bottled wine and storytelling poured into wine cups of song and laughter. What the adeptus had thought would have been a single and treasured memory turned into a craving nostalgia that he couldn't get more of, an addiction of which he grew drunk.

With the warming introduction by the archon of freedom, he also found danger. Every song and story told by the archon was stored in the empty spaces of the adeptus' tired heart of bitter memories, but after only a quarter of the aromatic dandelion wine was left on one chilled, summer night, it felt like everything shattered.

"I won't be able to come to drink with you for a while."

Just like how a few months ago he had been left by Rex Lapis in a state of hopelessness, Xiao couldn't speak. The evenings where he had looked forward to sharing a drink, story, and song with the archon would now only turn into a melancholic memory, to fade away with time. Perhaps he had become too comfortable with this new. He could have come close to admitting evenings like these with the archon were what hope he had left in the world.

Barbatos looked off to the distance where Mondstadt stretched, but that was not where his eyes focused on. Above the glittered sky of stars and the moon, was the silhouette of Celestia. It wasn't only the archons that sensed Celestia would fall soon, but much talk circulated around Liyue Harbour with an uneasiness of what events would follow when it happened. "You understand, right?" he turned to the adeptus, his smile present but empty.

The eyes of the Yaksha lowered, "I understand."

Barbatos laughed and cheered as he raised his cup, "Let's not get glum now! The moon is still high and there's plenty of songs to play and wine to scarf!"

Then, when the bright-coloured leaves of Liyue crumpled and fell to the ground in browns, winter came withering.

The sun flowed over the dim blue land of Liyue at a later, leaving Xiao to his karma which stretched as far as his shadow did. When there was a bright summer light creeping between the leaves and onto where Xiao rest in a tree, he would hear the humming of Barbatos' song and his laughter that followed. When Xiao's karma would become too much to bare on his own two shoulders, Barbatos would give him his shoulder to lean on. Then, when it would rain and thunder, Venti would splash in the puddles and encourage Xiao to join him. It wasn't until Venti had left that he realized a part of his day was missing. Without the new vision that Venti gave him, he couldn't see all the beauty, joy, and freedom left in life for him to experience.

The chilled air of autumn began to settle in with a stilling of life. Birds migrated overhead towards the South and small critters began to settle down in their wooden homes for the winter, but the Vigilante Yaksha remained ever unchanging. Seasons would pass in the blink of an eye. Leaves would grow and fall, and skies would clear and cast over, but as life was born and eventually withered to eternal sleep, the same would not apply to him. Unlike the beautiful and ugly nature surrounding him, his soul was only ugly.

Snow fell for the first time a month sooner than the year before, or was it later? Nothing of the sort mattered, but he found himself wishing to recount the events of the past in an attempt to make time pass faster. Soon, the worn students would retire with family for holidays, big gatherings would be held, cheerful melodies would be sung, and warm dishes with revisited memories would play. But there were no good memories to return to, only the overwhelming loss.

Xiao tread along the beaches of Yaoguang Shoal, where the small straw and decaying wood homes tilted and watched from Mingyun Village. The snow fell in light flurries and it was quiet aside from a few disturbances of slimes or cicins. The rock formations were rigged and sloped, reminding him of Rex Lapis' great prowess. From atop, he could see violetgrass and a few qilin by scent even through the salty ocean wind.

Continuing through the thin trails of sand, there appeared small footsteps in the sand ahead. At first, he continued on and paid no mind, until they became more prominent.

Not much farther ahead, a small girl dressed in purple was squatted over near the shore. Xiao stopped and watched, the little girl's braid flowing in the wind behind her. For some reason, the movement reminded the adeptus of Barbatos when they had met in Dragonspine, his cape billowing behind him through the gusts of snow.

The water crashed against the girl's feet, but she persisted in digging out a large starconch stuck halfway into the sand. Crabs bubbled as frogs hopped by without any mind; she seemed to have a special connection with nature. She didn't seem to notice him until she stood and brushed off the sand on the bright blue shell, turning to meet his eyes.

The two stared at each other without speaking, the girl's hazy lavender eyes both alive and dead. From the distance they stood, Xiao could see the talismans pinned to her, proof she wasn't linked to the living anymore. Then, the girl took a few steps forward and motioned upwards to the mountains nearby, where violetgrass peeked and qilin peered.

Xiao's eyes followed where she pointed, then looked back to her. The girl seemed familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on when exactly he had met the undead girl.

After plucking the herbs from the cliff and bringing them back to the little girl, he watched in silence as she packed them away in her bamboo basket. Her hands were small and her movements were stiff when she stood still for too long. Much like the girl's fingertips that faded into death and grey, the adeptus felt the same way as winter approached.

"What is your name?" Xiao finally spoke, looking into the dazed eyes of the girl.

The zombie looked away and over the ocean that stretched infinitely until the faint silhouettes of Inazuma could be seen. She tightened the bandages on her hands and shifted aside to look up at him, "Qiqi."

It was silent as they both stared off into the cold sea as flurries of snow blew past. The cold didn't seem to bother the zombie, in fact, she seemed to rather enjoy it. The cryo vision at her side glowed as she began to take a notebook out from the basket. She walked away to a flat rock and sat down on it, writing down whatever seemed to come to mind.

Xiao watched her from where he stood by the shore until a cold front blew her flimsy notebook away. He jumped up and caught it with ease, seeing the page she wrote on. A drawing of the girl and him along the shore and the words, "An adeptus helped me pick flowers today." The girl's face was smiling in the drawing.

He returned the notebook to her, who took it promptly and a small smile formed on her cold face. "Thank you, Gege."

Xiao decided to sit with the odd zombie girl for a while, watching the progress of time as the snow fell. The two knew death well as they watched the world around them change while they stood ever-unchanging and still. Winter always lasted the longest.