Chapter Text
With the Lantern Rite in full swing, the Traveler finds themselves helping Lady Keqing with a lot of the preparations. After they give Xiao his festival presents, they go to the downstairs area of Wangshu Inn to rest before returning to the harbor. There, they find one of the firework-makers, Pengyi. He informs the Yuheng about the firework theft in Qingce Village.
Since the firework show is one of the key parts of the festival, the Traveler’s party heads over to the village to investigate. With the help of Xingqiu, Chongyun, and the Feiyun Commerce Guild, they locate the Treasure Hoarders’ camp and deal with them. So, after avoiding this crisis, Keqing leaves to seal the case, telling the Traveler to spend the meantime in the city.
“Traveler, wait a moment, please,” an old woman calls for them, right as they are about to depart for Liyue Harbor. The Traveler analyzes her for a second, as they don’t remember her from their numerous visits to the village. Something feels off about the woman in front of them, but she doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. Maybe she is just a withdrawn person, they assume, and that’s why they have never seen her around.
“Thank you for helping with the fireworks situation. I’m sure that with how busy Lady Keqing is with the festival, she really appreciates your help. Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is (Name), I moved to the village a few weeks ago. I heard all about your great deeds in Mondstant and Liyue, and now even in Inazuma. It’s truly an honor to finally meet you in person”
“You flatter me way too much. Is there something I can do for you?”
“Ah, yes, there actually is something,” she pulls out an envelope from behind her back, materializing it out of nothing. And yet, this isn’t the strangest thing the Traveler has encountered so far. “The next time you stop by the Grand Narukami Shrine, please hand this letter to Guuji Yae. I would deliver it myself, but with these old bones of mine and the Sakoku Decree still in place, I won’t get too far. I will have your reward ready by the time you complete this task. I have more than enough time to wait, so don’t rush”
The Traveler and Paimon look at each other with confused looks. Surely, granny (Name) seems to be in good health, but that was still a weird thing to say. They assume that a little bit of insanity comes with age, so the Traveler brushes over her statement and grabs the letter.
A few days later, the Traveler finds themselves back in Inazuma as they want to visit Ioroi of Chinju Forest. As they are at the base of Mt. Yougou the Traveler remembers the letter they had to deliver.
“Let’s talk to Ioroi after we deliver the letter. We completely forgot about it,” the Traveler says and Paimon agrees. On their way to the shrine, the flying companion suddenly stops them.
“Wait! We’ve been carrying this letter with us for quite some time now, and yet we never got to read what’s inside. Aren’t you curious about it too? After all, (Name) looked like an ordinary Liyue elder. What kind of business could she have with Miko?”
“Are you out of your mind?! If Miko finds out that we read a letter addressed to her, I don’t even want to think about what she might do to us,” the Traveler feels shivers going down their spine as they picture the kitsune’s evil smirk.
“Oh, come on! Don’t be such a baby and open it!”
The Traveler takes a second to think about the situation. They’d be lying if they said they are not curious about the letter, but at the same time... Miko is scary... Curiosity wins over them and they gently open the envelope. Paimon quickly rushes to their side to read the content of the letter.
But the paper is blank.
There is nothing written on any side of the sheet of paper.
The two look at each other with confused looks.
“Uhh… Did we go swimming or something? Where’s the ink?!” Paimon asks, but the Traveler shakes their head.
“No. Maybe there was nothing written to begin with”
“So, what do we do now? Do we deliver the letter like this? What if Miko thinks we’re making fun of her or something?!”
“Calm down, Paimon. Yes, we’re taking this letter to Miko. (Name) promised to reward us and we’re kind of low on Mora, thanks to someone who eats like they have four stomachs”
“Hey! Paimon doesn’t eat that much, okay?!”
The Traveler rolls their eyes and starts walking towards the shrine again. Paimon quickly follows behind, still not convinced that this is a good idea.
They reach the Grand Narukami Shrine and find Miko talking to the only visitor. As soon as she makes eye contact with them, her smile widens. She says a few more words to the man in front of her and then he takes his leave, cheerful probably because of something that the kitsune has told him.
“My, my, what brings you here, dear Traveler?” But neither the Traveler, nor Paimon say anything back to her. It would've been better not to open the envelope. “Hmm, cat got your tongue or something? Hahaha”
The Traveler takes a deep breath and hands Miko the envelope with the empty letter.
“We were tasked with delivering this letter to you”
“A letter? From whom?” Miko turns the envelope around, as there is no name written on it.
“It’s from an old woman from Qingce Village named (Name)”
For the very first time, the Traveler and Paimon see another expression on the kitsune’s face other than the mischievous one: shock. Her eyes are wide open as she stares in disbelief at the two.
“Miko, are you alright?” Paimon asks as she notices how all the color from the Guuji’s face has drained.
“Yes, yes. Give me a moment,” she opens the envelope and pulls out the letter. As she meets the blank page, she smiles and applies some Electro to the sheet of paper. Words slowly start fading in on both sides.
“What?! What kind of magic trick is that?!” Paimon asks loudly, but the Traveler quickly silences her. Miko’s eyes quickly scan the words. She’s gripping the letter tightly as her hands are shaking.
After a few minutes, she finishes reading the letter and returns to her normal attitude and facial expression. However, they can see a trace of nostalgia and sadness on her face, no matter how hard she tries to hide it behind the smile. The words on the paper start fading away.
“Thank you for bringing me this letter, Traveler. It put me in a good mood to hear from an old friend. You can take your leave now, if you have nothing else to do here”
“Wait, what was written in that letter? You seemed to be very shocked to hear (Name)’s name”
“Sure, I could tell you about the contents of the letter. For one hundred thousand Mora, of course,” her mischievous grin has returned.
“One hundred thousand Mora? Are you out of your mind?!” Paimon shouts, but fortunately there are no other visitors or shrine maidens around.
“You are asking me to share an intimate letter I received from a very good friend. This is precious information to me so I won’t be sharing it with anyone, especially for free”
“Ugh, forget about it. Let’s go visit Ioroi, Traveler”
They start heading down the mountain when Miko calls for them.
“Traveler, please keep what you saw here today to yourself. And don’t mention (Name)’s name to anyone else,” her facial expression is uncharacteristically serious.
“Don’t worry, Miko, I won’t tell anyone about it”
“Good. I thought I had to threaten you a bit,” she chuckles as she watches the Traveler’s scared face. The two quickly turn on their heels and rush down the mountain.
Miko approaches the Sacred Sakura and applies Electro to the letter again so she can reread it. The handwriting and turn of phrase are exactly the same. You couldn’t tell that her last letter and this one are five hundred years apart.
Miko lowers the letter and stares in distance at the imposing Tenshukaku.
“Oh, Ei... if only you knew that your little girlfriend is alive and well, waiting for you to open your nation and your heart to her once more. Archons, what am I going to do with you two…”