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Under the Illuminating Lights
This is for Xiaoqing Weekend 2021!!! Hope you all like this. Real life happened so it's tricky for me to commit to full length stories. Real life kicked my ass but I'm better than ever at life. Thank you for your patience.
i.“Angry people are not always wise.”
The first time she meets him , it’s dislike on pure sight.
Keqing had little fear and reverence for the divine back then. After all, she was critical and skeptical of Rex Lapis and the way he ruled with his hand. Liyue, she used to say, was better off with people governing actively.
But she had not anticipated such a scenario.
She spotted them first, the adepti. They were at the gate. She’d only heard of him from the books her grandfather had loaned her and let her read when she had been small. The Conqueror of Demons. Cloud Retainer. Madame Ping.
Madame Ping was the one she was most familiar with; Keqing had some love left for her.
But for Cloud Retainer, Moon Carver and the Conqueror of Demons… She had little love lost between them.
The Conqueror of Demons stands, almost at a height with her, those amber eyes sharp and guarded, hand tight on his Primordial Jade Winged Spear. A legendary weapon, Keqing notes.
“Why are the adepti here?” she asks.
“Why do you dare question our presence?” retorts Moon Carver. Behind him, the Conqueror of Demons eyes her with a faraway icy stare.
She raises her chin.
But there is a crack - and the stirring of the wind and waves make them all jump.
The air has become fraught with an unworldly smell, and feeling.
This is a god .
She turns to the sky, where the clouds have parted and lightning crackles in the black canvas.
“We cannot waste anymore time.” She turns to a Millelith soldier. “Call Lady Ningguang. We have to fight him.”
“We can settle this later,” cuts in the Conqueror of Demons. He nods at her.
“Liyue Harbor needs us now.”
She still hates him in spite of it, she thinks, as she alights with Madame Ping.
- “I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
A few days later, she still thinks of him. Not the Traveller.
That young man with his aloof manner and perpetual frown and the yaksha’s mask in his hand.
It had been busy lately. There was a huge void that Rex Lapis’ departure had left. For the past week, there had been no end to work. She’d pulled all nighters, barely ate, barely slept.
There was so much work to be done.
“Lady Ningguang, I’d like to go talk to the farmers in Qingce Village.” She told Ningguang.
The Tianquan tapped pensively the surface of the table, letting her pipe down. Like Keqing, she had not bothered to stop to rest. But she was definitely more well-rested.
Keqing could tell. The Tianquan never did truly lose her composure, huh. It seemed like Ningguang knew what to do.
Not like Keqing. This was a bigger problem than she had foreseen.
“About the crisis? We can always tell them later.” Ningguang waved her away, lips curling up. “This mora crisis is… a huge problem.”
“That’s exactly why I want to talk to them.” Keqing smiled, albeit tiredly. “And I’d like to check out how they’re holding up. Ganyu can take Liyue Harbor while I can go look and check the further areas.”
Ningguang eyed her.
“I know the farmers… and workers will understand. I’ll do my best.” Keqing raised her chin. “I think we owe them at least an explanation.”
“Very well, Lady Yuheng.”
*
The journey took three days.
Granny Ruoxin received her, with the other members of the community. They waited for her, in Granny Ruoxin’s small house. The crone was not a stranger in Keqing’s eyes. She reminded Keqing a bit of her old grandfather, who she had missed dearly since his passing.
“I want to ask how Qingce has been,” Keqing murmured. “Has the lack of mora supply affected you?”
“Prices have gotten higher,” began the crone. “And it’s been tough, child. We were wondering if you’ve decided on anything that could help.”
Keqing nodded. Filling Rex Lapis’ shoes was no easy task, she realized. The weight of her duty had never felt heavier.
“Lady Ningguang decided to lower the prices for basic goods,” Keqing admitted. The realm of the unnatural, though… That was another matter entirely. “Luxury item prices have gotten higher, though. It’s for the better.”
Granny Ruoxin gently clasped Keqing’s arm.
“Is there anything else you need?”
A pause. The old lady turned towards a young child in the small crowd. Little Liu. Keqing knew her name, just like how she knew every face and every name in her work journeys.
The old crones who needed financial support, the young children who missed their parents who were out there in the city, working…
“When is my father coming home, Lady Yuheng?” asked Little Liu, eyes brimming with tears.
“This Saturday,” the Yuheng promised. Give Jiayi a paid three days off , she noted.
*
Her last stop was Wangshu Inn. Another grueling day since Rex Lapis’ passing.
She alit on the top floor of the ominous inn, unfazed by the inhuman presence in the abode. The huge tree was a fodder for the divine and otherworldly. But Keqing was not an idiot. She was a skeptic - no, she corrected herself - she had been a skeptic.
She was one tiny and tired human, defending her people and their lives with all she had, even if everything weighed a thousand times heavier than usual. Liyue had clothed, fed and cared for her. It was her responsibility to give Liyue that now.
And who knew this task better? Of course it was the yaksha. He had millenia.
“Conqueror of Demons.” She stood, the package in her hands. “I’m here for you.”
“You called?”
A small rustle and he was there - she caught easily with the hilt of her Lion’s Roar.
Her pink eyes were met by golden ones.
Gods. She had forgotten how menacing and beautiful he was. How could the gods create such a creature so fearsome but so lovely at the same time? He had not changed.
Not like she did.
“It’s not everyday that I would ask for help,” Keqing began. She sheathed her blade. “I’m not here to insult the divine.”
“As you should,” said the yaksha. His jaw was set, his arms akimbo. His face was made of ice and stone.
She moved closer, saw his grip on his polearm tighten.
“You’ve learned respect, mortal.”
“I am not just any mortal,” Keqing breathed. “I’m sure I am a match for any adeptus.”
To her surprise, his normally glum facade broke. A snort, a dry chuckle. So he was not above it all.
“You speak such big words for a small girl. So what does Lady Yuheng ask of me?” He folded his arms again.
“I want to ask you… How do you protect the Liyue best?”
Then his gaze softened.
And she leaned into him in the darkness, illuminated by the dimming lights, in her asymmetric and purple dress, wet hair and sturdy shoes..
iii.I hope your feelings won’t change
The first thing Keqing learned from him was great humility. But when they walked together in the darkness, it was different.
She offered him a taste of her Grilled Survival Fish. He took it, and put the fish in his mouth.
When he saved her, she had not thought too much of him until a week later. She hated it - the idle thoughts, when her workload was already consumed, and his face swam in her mind.
Those strong and gentle hands, the muscles in his arms, his chapped lips and that green tattoo…
And the stories.
And how he looked at her that night in the dimming lights.
When she closed her eyes and said she rested for the night, they were there . The old tree, where the balcony was open, where she had come to him for a taste of her own medicine.
“You’re thinking about me,” Xiao said. His eyes were impassive. That hn was tempting to leave his mouth.
Or that was what she thought.
“Do I have any reason?” Keqing asked him. Eye to eye. Shoulder to shoulder. He smelled musky, a little sweet. Tofu? It was nice.
“You’re too modest, Keqing.”
“I don’t have any claims. Unlike Lumine.”
Xiao gently put a finger on her wrist. He traced it, gentle.
“Think well on me.”
“What if I already do, Xiao?”
There was a rustle - of the wind, the leaves. This was a dream, but this was also so, so, so real. She was with him, beside him. Right beside the Liyue of their dreams. Her dreams, his duty.
She smiled.