Chapter Text
The life of an archon wasn’t an easy one, living years and years through wars, misery, with an eternity to grief. One thing they didn’t need to worry about, however, is mora.
That’s what had to lead to the three former archons to be sitting around a simple stone table, tea in their hands as they pondered what they must do now. While it’d become a spot for mortals to give their blessings to the archons, it had originally been used for the three to drink tea and converse with each other. The three hadn’t formerly spoken in centuries, however dire circumstances caused the three to come together and form a plan.
“How had we even run out of mora so quickly…? Even with the extra funding from the Tenyro Commission I barely manage to get, all the mora seemed to evaporate into thin air…” Ei spoke wearily, letting her head lay on top of the palm of her hand. “How could we have been so careless… and now without our gnosis, we’re forced to behave like common folk.”
One of the perks of being an archon was the ability to go your entire eternity without the need for basic human needs, such as food and water. Archon’s being immortal beings, it wasn’t something their bodies had needed. That was, till their gnosis’s were taken away.
Well, for Venti’s case at least. Ei and Zhongli had technically given theirs away semi-willingly. Though Ei herself hadn’t given full permission to give her gnosis away, Zhongli had gone as far as to sign an entire contract to give away. They just hadn’t thought hard enough of the consequences of giving them away. Now the only title they had were ‘mortal-like gods’. An oxymoron in it of itself, though that seemed to be the only way to describe themselves. While they did have their godly powers (to an extent…) It seemed like they were still affected by mortal problems. Sickness, starvation, and pain were all qualities they seemed to experience now.
Zhongli out of the three seemed like one of the only ones who had a slight advantage in financial stability. That being the small investment he had gotten from Childe before “the incident.” As he dubbed it. Now, it seemed that Chlide had no intention of being speaking to him.
“I had managed to gather a bit of mora from singing near the cathedral back in Mondstat! Till Sister Victoria had forced me to take my singing else where…” Venti huffed in annoyance remembering the experience, placing a small pouch of mora on the table. “It was a lot more…! I just, well, spent some of it on some wine… eheheh…” He rubbed the back of his neck in a sheepish manner.
The three had no experience with saving money and it was painfully clear.
Zhongli took a small sip of his tea, pondering for a moment on what the three could do. Asking the other four archons wouldn’t help, considering they wouldn’t have any more mora than they had, so they’d have to find some way to get a stable income.
“Oh-oh!! I got an idea! What if we went ahead and sold our limbs?”
Ei and Zhongli stared at him as though he were insane, slowly shaking their heads in unison. “Cmonnn! We’re still gods, we could just grow them back! Ei does it with her teeth when she got cavities right? It’d just… ya know, hurt a lot more, but it’s still means we get money!” Zhongli thought for a moment, pursing his lips, eyes brightened as he suddenly had an idea.
“I have a better plan.” He said, a small smirk appearing on his face. “I’ll marry a wealthy man.”
The two looked over towards Zhongli, confusion now washing over their faces as well. “Is Liyue filled with rich people walking around?” Ei asked, tilting her head to the side. He shook his head, “Well, no. But, I think there's a person I know that may be willing on the idea, with a little bargaining of course.”
Venti nodded his head, slowly beginning to understand what he meant. “Hmmm… I like it! But what’ll we do once your married? Slowly rob him till he’s just as broke as we are?”
“No… Surely he’d find out eventually. Mortals aren’t as stupid as one would imagine.”
“Well then what’s the point of marrying him? Are you gonna let him be your sugar daddy or something? Just for funzies? Kill him and inheirt his greed?”
Zhongli merely nodded, taking another sip of tea before responding. “I was thinking the last option, yes. It’d be a bit of a hassle to convince him, however, I believe within the time I could manage to work our a plan and take his wealth, as well as his life.” Ei and Venti wished they could be surprised by the answer, but it wasn’t such a far-fetched idea coming from the God of War of all people. It wasn’t the first time any of them had murdered or harmed a mortal after all. Though, the idea still startled the former-archons.
“Whos this, ‘wealthy man,’ you’re thinking of then, Mor- Zhongli?” Ei asked, crossing her arms. She was still getting used to calling the two of them by their new titles, it didn’t help that she hadn’t spoken to either, or any of the other archons, for centuries, otherwise she would’ve gotten used to them relatively quickly.
Zhongli felt his face grow a small tint of pink, placing his tea down on the stone table once more. “A… certain Snezhnayan fatui member I know. Nevertheless, I believe with time I may be able to squeeze a proposal out of him. In the mean time, we’ll use the money Venti’s slowly gathering from singing around Mondstat, perhaps use a Teapot to grow simple crops.”
The two archons weren’t the most confident with the plan, but they would admit that it certainly did intrigue them. If this all managed to work out, they could have some sort of stability for the time being.
“A fatui member? You know how they work, Zhongli…” Venti said wearily. It was because of the fatui that they were all in this situation, having more ties to them could bring more problems than solutions… “Venti does have a point, they’ve brung nothing but trouble for us. Are you sure of this?”
Zhongli nodded, “Trust me, we’ll be able to get more than enough mora just before you know it.”