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Yelan prides herself on being hard to find, never showing herself until precisely the right time, or whenever she wants. It's what makes her so good at her job. It also helps her keep her schedule clear of any unwanted appointments. You could hardly be bothered, if you couldn’t be found. That’s how Yelan likes it. She likes her solitude. In a city so full of life and people, being alone suited her.
It surprises her then when someone else sits down at her private table on the secluded third floor of Yanshang Teahouse. Well, two someones. One and a half someones?
Nobody should even know that she's there — never mind there be more than one whole person.
A blank but curious expression stares at her from across her out-of-the-way table. Yelan knows her — well, knows of her. She prides herself on knowing everything that went on in Liyue as much as she prides herself on her secrecy.
Shenhe.
And a companion. A silhouette of ice and power. She smiles at Yelan, waving mischievously in greeting. If the talisman on her forehead that she keeps flicking to the side like one might with unruly bangs, is any sign, Yelan assumes this is Shenhe’s talisman spirit.
“Did you need something?” Yelan raises one eyebrow expectantly.
Shenhe shakes her head and continues watching her with her inscrutable expression. “Were you waiting for me?”
Her voice is calm and cool. Yelan is immediately reminded of the sound of fresh water running directly from a glacier. The trickle of ice-cold water as it runs down from the frigid mountains towards the rest of the land. It’s astonishing in its clarity like if she leans in close enough she too could see right through everything and get to the bottom.
Yelan frowns. “I’m sorry?”
The other woman gestures at the second cup of tea on the table in front of her. Steam still rises from it, filling the air between them with the faint floral scent of fine tea.
A moment passes as Yelan scrutinizes her unexpected guest. It’s a silly little tradition when she drinks tea. She likes to pour out a second cup and set it across from her. A small token of remembrance for those around her that have passed — her former teammates that she had led to their deaths when she was younger and more naïve, her ancestors who never returned whole from the Chasm. All people who had shaped her into the person who she was now, even if they hadn’t known it.
“Yes,” Yelan lies smoothly. Even though Shenhe has surprised her, she doesn’t want her to know that. “I will pour you a new cup. This cup is not good.”
She sets aside the cup in front of Shenhe and pours a new one from the set at her side. If Shenhe has anything to say about this, she doesn’t voice anything and accepts the new cup with a grateful nod.
While having tea with a pretty woman is pretty great, it’s also not on her schedule for the day. Mentally, she rearranges her day. She could nap later in the afternoon sun instead and then do some late night gambling at her teahouse instead of before lunch gambling.
Shenhe sips from the cup in silence and hums thoughtfully. From seemingly out of nowhere, she produces a handful of what looks like white flower petals and crushes them in her fist. The dainty sprinkle of petals into her teacup reminds Yelan of the gentle falling of snow. She takes another sip of her cup and makes a small noise of satisfaction. Her little blue talisman spirit floats a little closer to Yelan, leaning halfway across the table. She can just make out the hint of a smile on the spirit’s face.
“Is your talisman always this friendly with strangers?” Yelan asks, raising her eyebrows faintly.
“No, she’s being….” Shenhe pauses, trying to think of the right word. “... difficult.”
The spirit turns to stick her tongue out at her caster gleefully, a trail of snowflakes and frosty air whirling around her with her motion.
How interesting. While Shenhe’s techniques and talismans differed from the ones that Yelan is familiar with, the principles were still the same. A spirit summoned through a talisman should not disobey their caster. Yelan has heard tales of Shenhe’s deeds and has personally looked into her background herself. She is powerful and strange and mysterious, living with the adepti had the tendency to do that to someone.
Perhaps the powers that were bound by the adepti were not as bound as they thought?
An intriguing idea. A dangerous idea but intriguing all the same. Especially because Yelan loves dangerous things.
She takes the leap, relishing in the adrenaline that pumps through her veins and the sensation of the world falling away from beneath her. She has never shied away from danger before, and she certainly wasn’t going to now.
“Yelan,” Yelan says suddenly.
“Pardon?” Shenhe says, startled.
“My name. It’s Yelan.”
“Shenhe.”
“I know,” She flashes her her winningest smile. “But now that we have been formally introduced. Was there a reason that you joined me for tea today? There are many available seats out on the second floor of the teahouse if you are looking for a little privacy.”
“I was led here,” Shenhe says. She takes another sip of her tea.
“Led here?” Yelan echoes. “By whom?”
She’s going to have to do a personal sweep of the property and the surrounding areas, see who was watching her movements to have led Shenhe here.
Shenhe gestures at her talisman spirit who gives Yelan a little wave that can only be interpreted as flirty. “She did.”
“Your talisman?” Yelan frowns, “What does your talisman want with me?”
Nonchalant, Shenhe gives her a shrug. “I am not sure. She spent all morning insisting I come this way. So I did. I wanted to see what she wanted.”
“Oh?” That piques Yelan’s interest even more. “Does she usually lead you to other people?”
“No. She leads me to evil spirits and other calamities.”
“Are you calling me an evil spirit?”
“Are you an evil spirit?”
The little twitch of Shenhe’s hand, like she’s about to reach for her polearm, doesn’t go unnoticed. Amused, Yelan leans back casually in her seat. “I mean, some would certainly call me that.” She flashes her a smirk, thinking about the hefty pouch of mora that she had collected at the dice tables last night.
Shenhe narrows her eyes like she’s trying to decide if Yelan was joking or not.
That only makes Yelan grin wider. “I’m joking.”
The little audible sigh of relief is certainly endearing, Yelan tells herself.
“Mostly.”
“Why are you in a tree?”
Yelan looks down. A very familiar and blue spirit smiles up at her, floating up near the lower branches. There’s a little trail of snowflakes that drifts through the air behind her that leads back to a frowning Shenhe.
“Why do you keep finding me?” Yelan grumbles. Her little perch had been perfect. There was just enough leaf coverage to prevent her from being spotted and just enough gaps between the leaves for her to have a good view of all the people entering and leaving the city.
“I am unsure,” Shenhe furrows her brows, thinking hard as her talisman spirit twirls in a circle around Yelan. There’s a large bundle of qingxin in her hands. “Are you sure you are not an evil spirit?”
“Do you think I would still be standing here if I was an evil spirit?” Yelan reluctantly leaps out of the tree. Her landing is poised and graceful, hardly a noise to be heard as she lands on her feet. All her joints do pop and groan in protest though. The talisman spirit twirls in a looping arch around her.
“I suppose not. Lady Ningguang is very well connected. She knows everything that is occurring in Liyue. I’m sure if you were an evil spirit she would have asked me to remove you already.”
Yelan bites back the retort that she is the reason why Ningguang knows so much — Shenhe doesn’t need to know what she does for a living.
“What are you doing in these parts?” Yelan stretches, arching up onto her toes like a cat in the sun after a long nap. She doesn’t miss the way that Shenhe’s gaze flicks down, back up, and then off to the side.
“I was just heading into the city to eat my lunch,” Shenhe shrugs nonchalantly. She keeps her gaze averted. “Would you like to join me?”
“Oh, where?” Yelan is immediately interested. A person’s lunch spot says a lot about them.
“Bubu Pharmacy.”
“I’m sorry?” Whatever answer Yelan is expecting it's certainly not this one.
“I’m going to Bubu Pharmacy for lunch,” Shenhe repeats as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
“Are you sick?” She is carrying a large bundle of medicinal herbs in her arms. Maybe she trades in the herbs to the pharmacy and gets lunch in return? This would be an odd lunch program, but what makes it even odder because Yelan has heard nothing about it.
“No, I have a strong constitution. I have never gotten sick.”
Yelan isn’t sure that she can believe that. “Then you are going to Bubu Pharmacy to eat what, exactly?”
“Qingxin.” As if to prove her point, Shenhe picks up one of the many flowers in her arms and eats it — petals, leaves, stem and all.
There’s nothing that Yelan can do except stare.
She should have expected as much. Ganyu eats qingxin all the time, grazing on the flowers like they are the lettuce in one of those Mondstadtian salad dishes. But Ganyu is Ganyu, half adepti. From what Yelan understands, Shenhe is very much not an adepti despite common rumours.
The exorcist swallows the flower and just stares at Yelan expectantly. “Lunch.”
“But you have qingxin here, why do you need to go to Bubu Pharmacy?” Were there other herbs that she would mix into this odd meal? Perhaps something to add a little more flavour?
“This is hardly enough. I have already collected all the suitable ones from the mountain tops around my home. I am hoping that the pharmacy might have some more in stock that I can eat.” She eats another flower in one bite. The force of such a bite sends one of the petals flying, drifting from her lips like a fluffy snowflake.
Yelan snatches it from midair, startling the other woman. “You missed some,” she says, offering up the fallen petal on her fingertips like one might hold up a sacrifice to their archon.
Without any hesitation, Shenhe leans down and eats the petal right out of Yelan’s hand. It happens so quickly that Yelan isn’t sure if she’s imagining it at all but she can still feel the briefest brush of Shenhe’s lips against her finger tips, softer than the flower petal itself had been.
“Thank you.” The way that Shenhe smiles at her makes Yelan’s heart pound thunderously in her chest.
This is dangerous.
Yelan likes danger.
“Lunch?” Shenhe repeats her offer again, this time coupled with a faint raise of her eyebrows in question.
“Of course,” Yelan decides quickly. If nothing else, this would be an interesting experience.
They walk in amiable silence into the city. Shenhe’s long legs keep up with Yelan’s brisk pace easily. Between the two of them, the busy midday streets part like theatre curtains at the beginning of a show. Easily, they make their way through the decorative ponds that lead up to Bubu Pharmacy.
“So why do you keep eating these herbs when there are so many other options available?” Yelan doesn’t mean for the question to tumble out of her lips so artlessly but something about Shenhe (maybe it’s the way that she’s unlike anyone else that Yelan has ever spoken to — there’s no judgement or ulterior motives, she’s just… there) makes Yelan want to say something.
Anything.
Just to have Shenhe engage with her.
There’s a hiccup in Shenhe’s stride. Nearly unnoticeable. But she recovers quickly, falling into step with Yelan again. Yelan doesn’t say anything.
“I want to make sure that I don’t become unused to the flavour. There are many delicious dishes here in Liyue Harbour. It would be easy to become accustomed to only eating such delicious things.”
That’s another thing that Yelan has discovered about Shenhe. She’s surprisingly honest about many things. It’s quite refreshing.
“But aren’t delicious things a good thing?”
If given the choice, wouldn’t eating delicious things be preferable to eating foul tasting things? Food is beyond sustenance, it is life and enjoyment too.
“They are, if I intend to stay amongst them.”
Yelan starts making it a point to seek out Shenhe, usually with a large offering of food in hand. First, because she couldn’t keep letting that talisman spirit show up her searching skills, and second, she couldn’t keep letting that talisman spirit find her — she’d have no good hiding spots left in all of Liyue at this rate. And of course, third, Yelan has set her sights on showing Shenhe that sometimes, delicious things could come to her instead.
(It also meant that she wouldn’t have to try to eat qingxin with her as a meal again. Shenhe never turned down food if it was offered to her. So if Yelan supplied the meal, qingxin had no place at her dining table or at least in her bowl.)
Fortunately, Shenhe isn’t hard to spot. The cryptid woman — err, cryptic woman, makes no attempt to hide, sometimes even leaving a trail of displaced boulders in her wake.
It had been quite a few days since she had last seen Shenhe. A sudden emergency in the Chasm had called her away in the middle of the night and she had been forced to leave without any additional notice. It was unfortunate, but it was the life that she led.
Idly, Yelan wonders what Shenhe and her cheeky little talisman spirit does when she’s away on a mission. They did exist before they crossed paths at the Yanshang Teahouse, so probably whatever Shenhe already did on a daily basis: lift boulders, eat flowers, and get stared at by the citizens of Liyue whenever she made a trip into the city.
Honestly, it's like people haven’t seen a strong and pretty lady before.
(Though they could hardly be blamed, Yelan hadn’t met someone as strange and interesting as Shenhe before too.)
From what Yelan can tell, the other woman is not in the city. So she heads for the mountains. It’s nearing dinner time anyway, and Yelan has a large basket of food from Wanmin restaurant in hand. Xiangling had given her a look like a child who had successfully run off with some candy before dinner when she asked for double portions of everything.
The air in the mountains is brisk and sharp at this hour, peaceful too. Sounds of crickets and frogs croaking from one of the many mountain top lakes fill the space with their symphony. She can see why Shenhe kept returning to the mountains despite all that there was to do and see in the city.
Yelan pauses at the foot of Jueyun Karst, considering her options. She doesn’t have explicit permission to enter the adepti’s abode so to go up anyway is foolhardy at best. There’s always the option of scaling one of the neighbouring mountains and trying to see if Shenhe was even at Jueyun Karst. For all she knew, the other woman wasn’t even there.
With practiced ease, she pulls her lucky die out of her pocket and tosses it into the air. The worn surface is familiar in her hand and cuts through the air with several quick rotations. Evens she goes. Odds she climbs the mountain to find Shenhe. Because Shenhe is also odd. She catches and opens her hand to examine her fate.
Five.
Well, she has always liked danger. What’s more dangerous and risky than potentially incurring the wrath of an entire adepti?
She’s about to just start climbing the steep path when a familiar glowing blue figure comes gliding out of the clouds towards her.
The talisman spirit.
She twirls in a gleeful circle around Yelan, leaving a small dusting of snow on Yelan’s arms.
“I see that you’re still very good at finding me,” Yelan says dryly.
Her only response is another flurry of snowflakes.
“Where’s your summoner?” Hastily, Yelan scans her surroundings, half expecting to see a familiar head of white hair peering around the boulders, or leaping from the cliffside.
There’s nobody there.
Just as well — it would be embarrassing if Shenhe had managed to sneak up on her unnoticed.
The talisman seems to giggle at her, the sounds of small ice crystals crackling filling the air as her shoulders shake in mirth. Her proximity sends a chill down Yelan’s spine. It doesn’t seem like she was in any rush, casually twirling this way and that like a snowflake caught in the wind.Probably safe to assume that Shenhe wasn’t in any trouble.
Instead of sticking around like Yelan thinks she would, the talisman spins away, floating further up the mountain.
“Do you want me to follow you?” Yelan calls out after her.
There’s no answer, but a glowing hand beckons her forwards.
Well, if Shenhe’s talisman spirit was inviting her up the mountain, that sure had to count for something right? Even though she technically wasn’t an adepti, or even a real person, her permission is as good as gold for Yelan.
She doesn’t even need to pull out her dice for this one.
The long trek up the mountain is all worth it though for the look of surprise that Shenhe gives her when she finally reaches the top.
“Yelan?” The confusion on her face is nothing short of adorable.
All she can offer is a half-hearted wave and a sheepish grin. “Hey, Shenhe. Hope you didn’t miss me too much.”
“Oh. I have only missed you a moderate amount.” Iridescent eyes flick from Yelan’s emerald ones over to the gleeful talisman spirit flying loop-de-loops above the two of them. “That’s where you wandered off to.”
Whatever answer Yelan is looking for, this is not it. It never fails to surprise her how refreshing Shenhe can be in her straightforwardness. She has nothing to hide and no ulterior motives.
“Well, I brought you some food to make up for it.” She lifts up the basket of food that she has lugged all the way up here. “Your talisman was an excellent guide.”
“You didn’t have to,” Shenhe says, but she takes the basket from Yelan all the same. “She’s been causing trouble all week.”
The talisman spirit lets out a tinkling giggle and then vanishes in a swirl of snow and ice.
“I think someone else missed me more than a moderate amount then,” Yelan teases, following Shenhe over to a table, already set for two.
“Master! Dinner is ready! We have a guest!” Shenhe calls out, ignoring Yelan’s good natured ribbing. Her voice echoes loudly across the stone under her feet and the mountains that serve as their walls.
Cloud Retainer pokes her head out from inside the cave on the far side of the mountaintop. The adepti surveys the scene set out before her with a keen eye. A small smile creeps up her face. “I’m not hungry. You go ahead. I have some things I am going to take care of first.”
A look of confusion flits across Shenhe’s face. “She was just complaining that she was starving…”
“Who are we to question the whims of the adepti,” Yelan smirks. “Come on, let’s eat, before these gets too cold for even the power of Xiangling’s special pyro takeout basket to handle.”
Rice and a myriad of small dishes are pulled from the depths of the basket. Everything smells delicious and Yelan can feel her mouth watering already. As they settle down to eat, Shenhe pours out two cups of tea, the steam curling through the air between them. Surprisingly, it’s not the bitter scent of qingxin that Yelan smells in the air, something sweeter perhaps. She says nothing but takes the cup gratefully. A dull ache has begun to set in in her lower limbs, climbing a mountain is no walk in the park, literally. She should see if there was any way that some kind of an elevator could be installed here — especially if she was going to be making more frequent trips up the mountain.
Perhaps she would take the day off tomorrow to recuperate from this arduous climb.
They eat in silence, punctuated with the sound of chopsticks and porcelain spoons scraping against the bottom of bowls. Yelan is halfway through chewing on a dried Jueyun chili in between bites of her rice when she notices that Shenhe is doing the same, although with qingxin flowers.
“Are you mocking me?” Yelan narrows her eyes at Shenhe.
The look of innocence that Shenhe gives her in return is hardly fair. “I assure you, that I have no idea what you mean.”
They stare at each other for a moment longer, neither daring to blink. Shenhe is the first to look away, a faint upward turn of the lips evident.
“You are! I can’t believe you would do such a thing!” Yelan gasps in mock offense.
“Perhaps this is what happens when you spend too much time with me,” Shenhe replies with a noncommittal shrug.
“You are a sly one,” Yelan grouses halfheartedly. She takes another pointed bite of her chili. A pleasant fire burns low in her mouth. “Is the food not to your taste?”
She’s about to file this piece of information away for future meal orders when Shenhe shakes her head. “No. The food is delicious.”
“Then you are eating the flowers with every other bite because…”
Shenhe gives her a rueful smile, “A reminder.”
A reminder in two senses. One, Shenhe has told her this already and two, Shenhe doesn’t want to forget the taste of the herbs.
“Is it working?” Yelan asks.
Shenhe lets out a long sigh, “The direct comparison makes me savour the food more.”
“You know, even if you don’t want to stay amongst all the delicious things, the delicious things can come to you.” Yelan spears a piece of chicken soaked in a delightful chili oil and waves it in front of Shenhe.
“Do you know the story of the boy who tried to reach the sun?”
Yelan nods. She isn't sure why Shenhe has suddenly brought this up,but she goes along with it.
It’s a story often told to children who are first getting their wind gliders. The story told of a boy who was renowned across Liyue as the best glider and he had boasted that he could reach the sun. So he set out, climbing the tallest mountain in Liyue and then gliding towards the sun. Unfortunately, he overestimated his abilities and ended up plummeting to his death when he didn’t have the strength to keep gliding.
The mountain that he climbed and his ambitions were both far greater than his abilities.
“It’s a tragedy. He reached too high and hubris got the best of him. It reminds me of…” There’s a pause as she turns the words over in her mind, trying to pick the right ones. “...when I walk through Liyue Harbour sometimes, it reminds me of me.”
Their chopsticks are still for a moment.
“You think it’s tragic he died trying to reach for the sun then?” Yelan asks quietly.
“Yes."
“I think it's beautiful that he tried and flew so far.”
Yelan sneezes, feeling a sudden chill wash over her. The pouring rain all around her certainly doesn’t help, making the stone pathway slippery and the already dark night, even darker. Her bones ache and a deep-set exhaustion has taken a hold of her.
“You’re going to catch a cold.”
She looks up at the sound of a familiar voice as a gentle blue glow washes over her. Shenhe is standing there in the street, wisely sheltering in the wide awning of a nearby building. There’s a bag in her hand, from Wanmin restaurant.
Cheekily, Yelan reaches up and grabs the hand of the passing talisman spirit. Immediately, she regrets the decision. Icy power shoots up her arm, crackling with frost as the ice immediately reacts with her rain-soaked skin.
“Yelan!” Shenhe is immediately at her side, cryo energy flaring from her fingertips as she prevents the ice from travelling any further. Another flick of the wrist and the ice dissipates, leaving Yelan significantly colder than she started and the feeling of pins and needles crawling down her body.
“You’re right. I did catch a cold,” Yelan smirks instead, valiant fighting off the way that her teeth were chattering furiously in her skull.
Shenhe simply shakes her head.
Before Yelan could say anything else though, she’s being swept off her feet and into Shenhe’s arms. “Woah, woah.” The sudden motion makes her a little nauseous.
“Where is her house?”
It takes Yelan a second to realize the other woman is not speaking to her but rather, the talisman spirit. With that, the spirit takes off, flying down the streets, leaving a trail of icy streets behind her in her haste.
Shenhe takes off without another word, almost sprinting down the streets with Yelan in her arms like she is nothing more than a bundle of qingxin. It really is quite the display of strength and if the shivering woman in her arms wasn’t so focused on leeching what little warmth Shenhe offered, she would have been impressed. Every step that she takes is sure, not fazed by the ice under her feet at all.
Another thought occurs to Yelan, how did the talisman know where her house was? She doesn’t really have the strength to ask that question though. Heavy exhaustion sets in over her and if she’s being perfectly honest, Shenhe’s arms are pretty comfortable.
It feels like forever passes, but she is certain that it is no longer than just a few moments until at last, the two of them arrive at her very normal-looking house on an exceptionally normal street. The talisman spirit has the door already open — a door that Yelan is certain that she had locked when she left several days earlier.
Gently, Shenhe sets her down. With the rainwater pouring down both their faces, they stare at each other. In the enclosed space of the entryway of Yelan’s house, there’s a strange sense of stillness that falls over, each breathing quickly for their own reasons. The warmth of Shenhe’s breath ghosting over Yelan’s cheeks, smelling faintly like qingxin and mint and ice, is enough to daze her for the moment. There’s something in the way that Shenhe stares at her, like a flower longing after the sunlight, that makes Yelan’s heart seize.
What does she see when she stares at her like this?
Something that sounds suspiciously like a certain talisman spirit poking at Yelan’s collection of dice on one of her shelves shatters the moment.
“There’s a towel in the hall closet you can use,” Yelan says quickly, nearly tripping over her own feet as she struggles to put some space between them. She leans heavily against the wall and eventually settles for sinking into her singular kitchen chair instead of trying to start a fire in her stove.
She can hear the sound of the closet door opening and closing. Moments later, Shenhe reappears with an armful of hand towels as well as Yelan’s single spare regular-sized towel. Wordlessly, she drapes the large towel over Yelan’s shoulders, making sure that her bare shoulders are covered.
“You should use it,” Yelan protests.
It’s a futile struggle against Shenhe’s superior strength on a good day, but in her current state? Shenhe quells her arguments with just a stern glare. With a smirk, Yelan flicks her wrist, summoning the rainwater that has drenched the two of them so thoroughly to coalesce into a perfect orb of water. It’s a concentrated effort and some of her clothes are still a little bit damp (she blames that on her current state of exhaustion), but it’s still better than being wet.
“Oh,” Shenhe blinks at her, looking more like an owl than a crane. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Yelan shrugs and casts the orb of water into her sink. “What can I say? I’m a woman of many mysteries.”
“So you will not tell me how you came to be injured then?” Shenhe takes Yelan’s hand, turning it over so that the many gashes and bruises on her arm can be more clearly seen.
Casually, Yelan pulls her arm out of Shenhe’s grasp. “There were some unexpected hiccups on my mission. But it’s no matter. I handled them and I completed the mission.” She had tried her best to hide those injuries but Shenhe is a lot more observant than she thought. It was an unfortunate accident. The shadowy husk that she had been fighting had accidentally brought down the ceiling of the tunnel they were in on both of them.
Fortunately, Yelan had managed to escape with just scrapes and bruises. The husk was no more, crushed beneath boulders of its own bringing. It wasn’t like she had been careless. Things just happened sometimes. It was the name of the game, and Yelan was always willing to roll the dice. Besides, it had been a thrilling fight. For that, it had all been worth it.
Unwilling to face Shenhe’s searching gaze, she gathers up what little strength she does have and crosses the kitchen to the stove and lights it.
“You were alone on this mission?”
An unexpected question. “Yes.” An easy answer. She busies herself with boiling water and making a fresh pot of tea.
“Are you always alone on your missions?” It surprises her that Shenhe continues to ask questions.
“Always,” she affirms. “I prefer working alone.”
The conversation lapses into silence.
Carefully, Yelan sets out her one teacup and pulls down her one bowl from her cupboard. The rest of the shelves were bare save for a lone plate. Her entire house is like this, furnished for one. A lone existence. She didn’t really see the point of having all this extra stuff at her place when she never has people over. Usually guests were met at restaurants, or the teahouse.
“You don’t have anyone helping you?”
Yelan sighs as she pours tea into the teacup and then the bowl. The heat of the tea is welcome against the chill of her skin and she makes her way back to where Shenhe is still standing. Most of the hand towels had been left on the dining table instead along with the paper bag that she had been carrying earlier, and she’s running one through the long strands of her hair, getting at the remaining dampness Yelan didn’t have the strength to draw out. There are a few towels that she should really just throw out, slightly pink over the many times that she’s used them to clean herself up after a rough mission. They would never be snow white anymore, even after the harshest of bleachings.
In her defence, the blood isn’t always hers.
“I have my assistants. They help me gather intel for my missions,” Yelan says defensively as she hands Shenhe the teacup. She hops up to sit on the edge of the dining table instead, long legs swinging freely as she curls around the bowl of tea in her hands.
Shenhe doesn’t say anything for a long minute, staring at the teacup in her hands.
“You need multiple assistants to gather information?”
“Well, they are expensive to hire, and gathering information is a difficult task. People don’t always talk,” Yelan suddenly feels like she’s in the middle of a performance review, or an interrogation. Maybe both.
“If people don’t talk, can’t you just beat them into giving you what you want?”
That makes Yelan laugh. Shenhe could be such a breath of fresh air. It’s clear that the other woman isn’t saying this as a joke, but a serious suggestion, but it doesn’t stop the small smile that Yelan catches creeping up her face.
“So you have assistants, but you go on the missions alone.”
“Yes.” She takes a long sip of her tea. Maybe she should start using bowls for tea from now on. Something about the larger vessel is appealing to her.
“But why? Isn’t it safer to have someone with you?” There’s an expression on Shenhe’s face that Yelan doesn’t quite know what to do with. Concern and curiosity and something else, something deeper war in her eyes. It’s like staring into the bottom of a frozen lake as sunlight plays across its glittering surface highlighting things underneath the ice that one would never be able to quite grasp. If Yelan didn’t know better, she’d say that Shenhe… cared.
“I could go with you?”
“I work alone,” Yelan says firmly. She fights back the rising feelings in her chest and ignores the way that her heart squeezes. “My missions are never about safety. They’re going to be dangerous as it is. If I go alone, I only have to worry about myself. There’s no point risking more people when I’m perfectly suited for the task.”
I don’t have to worry about getting other people killed if the dice falls the other way.
That part goes unsaid.
“But you’re injured,” Shenhe points out, there's something else in her voice. She almost sounds… sad. “And I can take care of myself.” Carefully, she trails a finger across one of the bruises on Yelan’s arm. The gentle pressure would have made anyone else flinch, but not Yelan. She relishes in the feeling. The coolness of Shenhe’s skin is actually quite nice.
“It happens,” Yelan repeats dismissively. “Besides, it’s far more fun to do things myself.” She points a finger at Shenhe. “Don’t you dare steal that from me.”
“Getting injured is fun?” Shenhe replies in disbelief. Armed with one of the pinkish hand towels, Shenhe takes Yelan’s free hand and begins cleaning up some of the gashes that had reopened on the way back to Liyue Harbour.
“No, the danger of the mission is fun. It’s even more fun when you work alone. Ow, fuck!” Yelan hisses as Shenhe touches a particularly deep gash on her upper arm.
“You have something embedded in there. Hang on,” Shenhe tells her sternly and summons a tiny needle of ice.
This is not the first time that Yelan has been patched up and certainly won’t be the last but there’s something different about this time. Maybe it’s the ice needle that’s being used to remove whatever is still in her wound. Maybe it’s the woman in front of her, tending to her with such intense focus that Yelan feels like she’s a specimen on a dissecting table, pinned down by nothing more than a firm grip on her elbow.
How fascinating.
How dangerous.
“There,” Shenhe says at last, the only sign of triumph is a small pleased expression on her face and the trophy in the form of a shard of something metallic hanging onto her icy needle.
“Impressive,” Yelan breathes out. She hadn’t meant for it to come out as a breathless whisper, but this just…. Hastily, she coughs into her other elbow, looking away from those opalescent pools which glimmer with the hope of something else, something more, and threaten to drown her in those depths.
“You must have first aid supplies, let me finish patching you up.” Shenhe abandons her trophy in favour of searching through Yelan’s kitchen for other supplies.
“Last cupboard on the left,” Yelan calls out, wincing as Shenhe opens drawer after drawer of nothing.
“Does your employer know that you get hurt on your missions?” Shenhe’s question is quiet, so much so that Yelan is certain that anybody else would not have caught it.
“They do.”
The cryo wielder returns with the heavy wooden chest, the only thing in that cupboard as well. The chest is stocked full of bandages and gauze and antiseptic — enough to keep a small infirmary in business for days to come. Sometimes when Bubu Pharmacy wasn’t open, she’d just do it herself. It’s less thrilling that way, but it would do.
There’s a look on Shenhe’s face that Yelan can only grin toothily at — one that reminds Yelan of a dog with their teeth bared in a low warning. One that implies that Shenhe might not be beneath having a word with Yelan’s employer. A beast, ready to pounce. As interesting a proposition as it was to see her and Ningguang go at it, Yelan wisely decides to nip that flower in the bud.
“Down, girl,” she says jokingly. “We’re working for the same team.”
Without any hesitation, Shenhe kneels by the edge of the table, bottle of antiseptic and gauze in hand — for how tall Shenhe is, that joke sailed cleanly over her head.
“My, my, what a compromising position we’re in. You didn’t even buy me dinner first,” Yelan teases, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. She doesn’t really expect Shenhe to respond, given how the first joke landed.
To her surprise (and delight), Shenhe simply reaches up and grabs the paper bag that she had been carrying earlier. “Dinner,” she says. “Eat up.”
That elicits a sharp bark of laughter from Yelan. Eventually though, curiosity gets the best of her and she opens the bag, wrinkled and a little bit damp from being carried for so long in the rain. Inside, she finds deep fried radish balls and a side of Jueyun chili oil. “Do you always buy women dinner and play doctor with them?”
“Only the ones who like to fly on their own.”
It’s dark.
She can’t breathe. The surrounding air is thick and sickly sweet, a cloying layer that drapes over all her senses. She doesn’t remember much. Only that she was foolish, and reckless and stupid. There’s a die clutched in her hand, the edges digging into her palm. So this is where her lifeline ended, at the roll of a die.
She really had rolled the dice hadn’t she? Taking that gamble, laid out her cards. She couldn’t win every time. Such was the nature of the game that she played.
There are no regrets. Right? This was what she had always wanted, skirting the edge between life and death. She’s alone in her darkness, alone in her chances. Just the way that she had designed it.
There are no regrets.
Right.
Still, some small part of her wonders if she would find her. If they would find her. A smaller part of her hopes not. She doesn’t want them to see her like this.
Perhaps she had tried too hard to reach the sun. But it was a glorious flight, wasn’t it? Soaring through the skies, with nothing more than a flimsy pair of wings of her own making to buoy her. So what if the sun was out of her reach? She had tried, and that’s all that mattered.
Too bad she didn’t realize that Shenhe is the moon.
“Yelan!”
Everything is wrong. Shenhe is way out of her depths in the middle of the Chasm with only a map and a handful of marked spots on said map as a guide. Ordinarily, Shenhe would have never even considered coming to the Chasm on her own, something about the lack of sunlight and moonlight and trees and wind and everything natural is very unsettling.
It kind of feels like the earth has opened up and swallowed her whole. The tunnels around her feel like a tomb. How does Yelan come down here all the time?
Still, Shenhe presses on.
Yelan is missing.
“Yelan!” Shenhe yells again, her voice is scratchy, raw with desperation, and damaged by whatever this dark ooze is. She chews on some qingxin. The medicinal properties of the herb soothe her throat somewhat but it doesn’t taste quite right — too sweet, perhaps. The existence of such a flower in the chasm is impossible and unnatural.
If she’s being honest, it hasn’t tasted quite right for a while now. Even the freshest flowers from the tops of mountains taste wrong.
Yelan is missing.
It had been a few days since Shenhe had last seen her. They had made plans to have tea once Yelan returned from her latest mission. (An excuse, really, that Shenhe had suggested. She wanted the opportunity to make sure that any new scrapes that Yelan may have acquired would be properly treated.)
She’d only be gone for three days, Yelan had assured her. But that day had come and gone. Shenhe had even sent her spirit to check Yelan’s simple abode.
Nothing. Nobody had been there for a few days. It isn’t like her.
Shenhe left a cryptic message with one of the employees at the Yanshang Teahouse. “Don’t forget you have a dinner appointment with your doctor.” The employee had looked confused at this but took down the message, nonetheless.
Another day passed.
Shenhe trawled the streets with her talisman, ignoring the double amount of stares she was getting. Still no Yelan. Another thought occurred to her, the offhand comment about how they worked for the same team. Originally, she hadn’t wanted to disturb Lady Ningguang, but if anybody in Liyue Harbour knew where Yelan was, it would be the Tianquan.
“Yelan?” Ningguang repeated, surprised.
“She is missing,” Shenhe states. “She promised that she would be back from her mission in three days. It has been four.”
Perhaps there was something in her voice, or the invisible lines of exhaustion that betrayed her frame, but Ningguang retrieved a scroll from a drawer in her desk and handed it to her. “Yelan was headed to the Chasm. There were reports of dark ooze appearing in places that it shouldn’t and potentially affecting the safety of miners.”
“Was this a suitable solo mission for her?” Shenhe asks, studying the contents of the scroll. It’s a map of the chasm with several spots marked with purple circles.
Ningguang frowns. “Is there ever not a suitable solo mission for someone like Yelan? Even if I told her to take someone else, or ordered her to leave it alone, she would never. I had strongly suggested she take someone else with her. But that’s one risk she will never take.”
So here Shenhe was.
Thousands of meters underground in a place that never had day or night, only darkness. The air smells wrong, a metallic and cloying taste on the back of her tongue. The earth shuddered and shook as mining operations continued on the level above. It’s like the ground itself is alive, threatening to swallow her whole.
With only her talisman for company, Shenhe makes her way through the Chasm, guided by purple circles on a map. For the most part, she’s left alone. Maybe it’s the threatening way that she prowled through the tunnels, a hunter out for blood. Maybe it’s because she’s following Yelan’s footsteps.
Until now.
She dodges a blast of dark electro energy. The abyss mage that she is fighting seems frenzied, wreathed in the dark power. “Where is she?” She asks her talisman, who sends several similarly dark energy surrounded hilichurls flying backward with a wave of ice.
Her talisman reluctantly flits around the area a little bit, hovering to the left and right but to no avail. The area they were in was too dangerous, too alien. She can’t find her.
Shenhe growls. Calamity Queller flashes out in a vicious arc as fire races through her veins. The hilichurls which had regrouped for another push, fall over like they are made of paper. Yelan had to be here. This was the only spot on the map that still had this dark ooze.
She would never leave something like this unfinished. She has to be here still.
The dark ooze leads back into the tunnel, where a large mass of it blocks off the rest of the tunnel. Every inch of her screams to stop, to leave, to flee. Nothing here is natural. Grimacing, she channels more cryo energy, willing the crackling frost to come forth as she rushes forwards, slamming into the abyss mage and cutting it down where it stood with a few slashes and another blast of ice.
She would have to hurry, there were hilichurls everywhere and fighting in this ooze was a lot more exhausting than she thought. But the ooze seems to retain the properties of a liquid, solidifying in the face of her icy wrath. Good, she hadn’t particularly looked forward to wading through that. Her talisman charges ahead of her, icing over the path and scattering the hilichurls advancing on her.
“Do you have her?” Shenhe shouts after her talisman.
Another shake of the head.
Where was she? They were running out of time. She can feel it in her bones, if she stayed in the ooze much longer, she wouldn’t have the strength to make it out.
Shenhe pauses, takes a deep inhale. She reaches out with her power. Yelan has always been something else. Something about her draws Shenhe in, like the glimmer of sunlight reflecting across the sea. What was there beneath the waters? What was there beyond the wall of the horizon in the sky?
She had asked Cloud Retainer why her spirit always seemed to seek out a certain mysterious hydro archer. Was she really an evil spirit? A very convincing evil spirit?
But Cloud Retainer had only laughed.
“Your talisman leads you to what you need. Sometimes it's the enemy in front of you that you need to fight. What you do with it, is up to you.”
“But why is she seeking her out now? Why not before?”
“Maybe you need her now. Maybe she needs you now.” Cloud Retainer had shrugged.
“Why would I need her?” Shenhe had frowned.
“Why does the sun need the moon? Why do birds need to fly? Why do qingxin need to grow on mountain tops? Who knows? That’s between you and her.”
She doesn’t get it. What would she need with Yelan? What would Yelan need of her? It always feels like the answer is right there, hovering right at the tip of her tongue and she just can’t say it. It’s like looking into the fog, vague shapes and blurs the only thing that accompanies her.
When she exhales, her breath is visible in the chill all around her. There’s a moment of clarity. Yelan is important to her. She does not know why or how or when only that she is. Somehow, their chance encounters have become something else. Perhaps it's the look in her eyes, one that Shenhe knows so well. The look of losing someone important to her. The look of being alone in a crowd.
Perhaps Yelan intends to live like that. Perhaps she has no other choice.
Perhaps, they could eat meals and be alone together.
A single line of blue energy pierces through the darkness.
A lifeline.
Yelan.
Shenhe reaches out, plunging into the dark ooze. It burns a bit as she reaches through the thick syrup like consistency. She ignores every fiber of her being screaming in resistance. There’s something in this mass of ooze and she has to reach it.
Her fingers brush against something. Something that isn’t just the ooze. It’s too far in. She’s up to her shoulder in the ooze. Calamity Queller is dug into the tunnel, giving her something to ground herself, or be sucked into the ooze as well.
She tries again. She has to reach. She has to; she has to; she has to. Straining, she takes a deep breath and lets the ooze wash over her.
Her hand closes around something.
She takes a hold of it, and pulls.
When Yelan comes to, it feels like she had been run over by Azhdaha himself. Or perhaps Ningguang had dropped the Jade Chamber on her. That felt like an apt comparison. She probably deserved it.
The ghost of the first Jade Chamber crushing her ghost. How strange it is that even in the afterlife, she could feel pain.
It’s bright out. That much she realizes. Sunlight cascades over her face, bathing it in warmth. She blinks a few times, trying to get used to the brightness and slowly comes to realize that this is her room.
The same wooden walls, the same wooden ceilings. Her lone bed in the center of the room. Her desk in the corner. Her wardrobe in the other corner. It smells like qingxin.
Cautiously, she sits up.
She’s definitely in her own room. Everything is exactly as she had left it. Everything but the assortment of medical supplies and qingxin flowers on her desk and her jacket is draped over the back of her chair.
“You’re awake.”
Yelan looks over at the familiar voice.
Ningguang stands at the door to her bedroom. “I must say, your house looks exactly the same as I remember. Empty.”
“Ningguang,” Yelan rasps. Her throat hurts.
“Here, have some tea,” Ningguang walks over to her desk and pours out a cup. “Careful. It’s still hot.”
“Am I dead?” Yelan accepts the cup gratefully. It’s hot in her hands, almost unpleasantly so. In fact, her whole body feels warm. Her clothes cling to her skin with sweat. This certainly didn’t feel like she was dead.
Ningguang laughs, “You think that I would be the one to greet you, if you were dead?”
“Maybe Celestia has a strange sense of humour,” Yelan quips with a cough. She takes a sip of tea and immediately grimaces. The bitter taste of qingxin floods her mouth. “Qingxin?”
“Yes, Shenhe picked them all by herself. It’ll help with your injuries and that cough.”
Shenhe.
Yelan nearly spills her tea trying to get out of bed. “I’m late for dinner.”
“Easy, tiger,” Ningguang admonishes, pressing Yelan back into the pillows with one hand. Has Ningguang always been able to do that? When did she get so strong? “You nearly died, I think anything that you’re late for can wait. If you’re hungry though, I’ll have some food brought up to you.”
“No, no. I promised Shenhe I’d have dinner with her after my mission…” Yelan trails off, staring at Ningguang in consternation. “How did I get here?”
“Are you referring to your physical location or you as a person? Because I have no idea how you’ve managed to survive this long given who you are,” Ningguang smirks, pouring herself some tea into Yelan’s single bowl. She looks down at the bowl with a frown, and before Yelan can protest, she’s traded the bowl in her hand for the teacup in Yelan’s.
Of course, Ningguang wouldn’t be caught drinking tea out of a bowl. How improper. She refills the teacup and takes a sip of the herbal tea. Her poker face is very good, but the corner of her lip quirks downwards every so slightly.
That brings a smile to Yelan’s face.
“You know what I’m talking about,” she grouses, taking another sip of her tea. “Last thing I remember, I was in the Chasm.”
Ningguang nods. “You were late to your dinner date with Shenhe.”
“It wasn’t a date.”
“She practically kicked in my door looking for you,” Ningguang argues. “That’s besides the point. I told Shenhe where you had gone, and she went after you before I could say anything else.”
“You did what? She did what?” There was a reason she works alone. Ningguang knows this.
Whatever answer that Yelan is hoping to get from Ningguang is cut off by another voice and footsteps running up the stairs.
“Lady Ningguang, where do you want me to put the door—” Shenhe pauses inside Yelan’s room, what is clearly the front door is in her hands. It looks like it has seen better days, based on the large hole in the center. “Oh, you’re awake.”
The sheer relief that Yelan feels at seeing the other woman is like a boulder that she hadn’t known was there, sitting in on her chest, had been finally lifted. The familiar visage is like a balm on her weary bones, she could dive into the moonlit pools in Shenhe’s eyes and be at peace.
Wisely (or perhaps foolishly), she doesn’t mention any of that though.
“Why are you holding my front door?” Archons, her head hurts just trying to process everything.
Shenhe looks down at the floor sheepishly. “I was in a rush, and I panicked so I broke your door. But I paid for the new door. It’s doubly reinforced with metal now.”
“You broke my door?”
“Shenhe found you in the Chasm and carried you back here,” Ningguang takes one more sip of the tea and finally decides to set it down with a frown. “I’ll take my leave now. I’ll have some food sent over later, to make up for your missed —” she looks back at Yelan and then over to Shenhe. “-dinner date.”
Yelan pointedly ignores her. “You carried me back?”
“Yes,” Shenhe looks around the room awkwardly for a moment before putting the broken door down by the desk. “I ran with you in my arms back to Liyue. Lady Ningguang was waiting for me here at your house with healers. It’s like she knew.”
“Thank you.” That's all Yelan can say. “How did you find me? Wait, no, I know this. Your talisman.”
“Actually, my talisman was unable to locate you,” Shenhe sits on the edge of the bed, a bundle of bandages in her hands. She takes one of Yelan’s hands and begins unwrapping the bandages. “I am not quite sure what happened, but I saw a blue line of light piercing through the darkness so I followed it to you.”
Honestly. Yelan shouldn’t be surprised at the state of her arms and legs, given the hell that she had just come out of, but the sight of a perfectly square scar with two raised bumps in the center of her palm is quite shocking.
“My lucky die,” Yelan whispers.
“It’s right here,” Shenhe says, she pulls it from the drawer in Yelan’s bedside table and sets it down gently next to the scar.
A perfect fit.
“You’re very lucky you didn’t die,” Shenhe tells her seriously.
Yelan squints at her. “Is that a joke? Are you making a joke? I think I’ve died.”
“You’re being dramatic. I can joke.”
“No, this is all just a dream. I'm still dying in the Chasm.”
“Don’t joke about that,” Shenhe retorts sharply.
The forceful tone of her voice startles Yelan. “Sorry.”
That draws a slight frown out of Shenhe. “I cannot stop you from going on your missions alone. But I will always go after you. And play doctor.”
“What happened to dinner first?” Yelan teases. There’s a sincerity in Shenhe’s voice that she has never witnessed before. She doesn’t quite know how to handle it either so she tucks it away, inside her heart for later.
Shenhe pulls out a bundle of fresh qingxin. “Dinner, I collected every flower that I could find for you.”
Yelan grimaces, disgusted at the prospect of eating the herbs. “What will you eat, if I eat these?”
“I can stay and eat delicious things.”
“Yeah?” Yelan brightens at that. She wouldn’t have to hike up Jueyun Karst any more? That’s a huge win in her books — that and Shenhe would be around.
“You might need to buy a second bowl.”
“You can eat out of the teacup!”