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“Do you know why it's called a lifeline, darling?”
The line of hydro energy clenched in Yelan’s fist illuminates her face with a soft, blue glow.
Shenhe shakes her head.
“It’s because if you hold on tightly, everything will be alright.”
There’s a wistful look on Yelan’s face as she stares off into the brightly lit city of Liyue Harbour and the dark waters that lay beyond it.
“And you?” Shenhe leans slightly into Yelan’s side. “Are you alright?”
Yelan laughs. She places the end of the lifeline into Shenhe’s hand and the power that thrums through it sends a shiver through her body.
“As long as you are holding the other end, I’m perfect.”
Shenhe looks at the lifeline in her palm. It's heavy. Heavier than she thought it would be. It’s nothing that her inhuman strength can’t handle, but it’s a weight that she has never known before. A weight that makes her chest feel tight and her body warm with an emotion that she has no name for, no understanding of.
She understands what Yelan is saying with this lifeline, with this action. She isn’t sure that she, the Divine Damsel of Devastation, should be the one holding this honour.
“Are you sure you want me to hold the other end?” She asks quietly.
“There is nobody more worthy.”
Shenhe has never been in the Chasm. She has heard stories of all the dangers and beauty of the land below. But she goes, following after Yelan on one of the archer’s missions.
Yelan takes no one with her on her missions. Shenhe knows this well. Even when Ningguang strongly encourages it — a command to any other person — Yelan travels alone. It was a surprise then when Yelan requested Shenhe accompany her on a mission into the depths of the Chasm over dinner one night.
Shenhe had looked down at the table covered in a spread of her favourite foods, a veritable feast for many, but really just dinner for two. For all the indomitable strength, an indomitable amount of food was required to fuel it.
Perhaps this dinner was a bribe.
Unnecessary, since Shenhe would have gone with Yelan with nothing set out before her, but Shenhe appreciated the gesture that she usually saw in front of dignitaries and important people. It made Shenhe feel important and respected.
Wanted.
Worthy.
Maybe.
Yelan knew the way to her heart (through her stomach) and also knew Shenhe.
Gestures like this that seemed so ordinary made Shenhe feel seen. The gaze that Yelan has when her eyes alight upon her is like no other. There’s no fear or terror, no horror or disgust, no blind admiration, or even worse, pity.
There’s something else though, a warmth that Shenhe can feel in her soul, an understanding perhaps. She doesn’t know what Yelan has gone through or what she has lived. Yelan doesn’t like to speak about it very much. Something about the way that Yelan never pushes, only waits for Shenhe at the beginning of the path for Shenhe to decide on what she wanted — and sometimes Shenhe went, and sometimes Shenhe didn’t. Yelan always gifted her a smile, no matter the choice.
It’s strange to consider what she wants. What she really wants. She doesn’t know what she wants, what she could want.
Shenhe would have followed Yelan to the ends of Teyvat.
Following her into the Chasm is nothing.
Yelan seemingly found her worthy, despite who she was.
"Just stand there, darling." A gentle touch on Shenhe's arm guides her into place.
The uneven stone tunnel gives way to a smooth and perfectly round platform embedded into the ground. Shenhe watches as Yelan stands just a few paces away, next to her. The platform beneath them glows, bathing them in a warm golden light. The ground shakes beneath them as the wall in front of them opens up into a yawning passage leading further into the depths of the Chasm. Shenhe wrinkles her nose. Personally, she thinks that Yelan is much more suited to the silver glow of the moon than this, but even so, Yelan still looks ethereal in this light.
Before Shenhe can register that she was staring, Yelan has sauntered up to her in two lengthy strides. A warm finger slides under her chin, bringing her gaze into focus on the very woman in front of her.
“There you are, darling. I know you’re as beautiful as a stone sculpture, but you’re so much more than a pretty art piece. So let’s keep moving.” Yelan grins at her, walking backwards into the passageway. She beckons to her with one crooked finger, the dark secrets of the Chasm looming ahead of them.
Shenhe follows after her, content to be here.
Content to be anywhere that Yelan invites her.
Content to be anywhere that Yelan wants her.
Red.
That’s all Shenhe sees. That’s all Shenhe knows.
Blood roars in her ears, a war drum pounding in her head. There’s a rush of something raw, something dark, coursing through her veins. She’s not sure what it is, but it makes her feel powerful. It hungers for life, broadcasting its intent to every living thing in the vicinity.
The feeling is red. That’s the only way that she knows how to describe it.
She crushes a glowing blue shield with one hand, watching with some vicious satisfaction as the light ebbs and bits of metal rain down from her bare hand.
Perhaps this was all that she really was.
The Divine Damsel of Devastation.
Except there is nothing divine about her.
She is not worth the divinity that people see in her name.
Only devastation.
Her spear sings as the sharpened point cuts through the air. Calamity Queller, an apt name, except the calamity were the living beings that stood before her and she would not stop until they stopped moving.
Something in the back of her mind pulls at her, trying to reconnect broken pieces together. Memories of her following someone down a darkened tunnel. A series of shadowy knights blocked their path forward. The struggle to maneuver in such a tight space with so many foes. Taking two steps forward to shield… someone.
The Divine Damsel of Devastation doesn’t know who.
The Divine Damsel of Devastation doesn’t remember who.
The Divine Damsel of Devastation doesn’t shield anyone.
She destroys.
The purple sludge that coats the ground and walls of this tunnel pulls at her legs as she wades through the viscous material. Thick waves of it drip from her body, a never-ending flood that pours from a hidden opening in the ceiling above her, washing away everything in its path — leaving only the Divine Damsel of Devastation behind.
The shadowy knight creature that had once stood in her path falls to the side lifelessly, disintegrating into dark pieces of ash. The red in her veins clamour for more, surging past bonds the colour of freshly spilled blood, tearing away at the thin threads that can no longer contain who she truly is. The binds fall away, leaving her, and only her standing.
Yes. This is who she is.
Yes. This is the power that she alone is worthy of, unrestrained, free-
Something blue and light zips past her, dodging out of the way of her spear.
Prey.
She turns, searching for her latest prize. Another flash of blue dashes past her. Instinctively, she swings her spear, the silvery point a match for her prey’s speed. The light stumbles but continues onward, looping around her.
It’s a game of cat and mouse.
But she is no cat.
And this is no mouse.
She is the Divine Damsel of Devastation.
She always has been and always will be. The destruction that settles around her shoulders like a mantle, proof of who she was, what she was worth.
She only needs to destroy this annoying blue thing before her, and then she could move on to other areas — like the bright place from above. There is sure to be more devastation to be had there. She swings at the light again, purely out of instinct. The spear carves into the stone of the tunnel as she brings it down in a wide arc, sending debris falling into the path of the light; casting a shadow where there was none.
The other end of her spear slices through the light. It’s not enough to quash the light where it shines, but with some sickening satisfaction, the spear comes away bloody.
Red.
Something tightens around her leg, forcing her to stop in her tracks. Amongst the dark purple of the sludge that seems to move with a mind of its own, something blue is wrapped around her leg, pulling taut as she strains to free herself.
With a swipe of her spear, she cuts through the thin blue rope — only to find more and more of these ropes appear, ensnaring her like a spider and a fly.
Rage fills her vision.
She is no fly. She is no prey. She is the Diving Damsel of Devastation, meant to hunt and kill and destroy. Calamity Queller slashes and stabs, cutting through these ropes. But where she cuts one, dozens more reappear to replace them. Even as she rends gouges in stone and sludge and things in between, she keeps swinging, furious, angry.
Destroy.
Hands grip her spear, threatening to tear it from her grasp as more and more ropes flash into place around her.
A familiar face appears before her, a weak smile beaming down at her. A faint red line trailing from one corner of the smile mars an otherwise flawless expression.
“Shenhe.”
Shenhe?
There’s nobody here by that name.
That’s you.
“Shenhe!”
Shenhe?
That’s me.
“Come back to me. I know you’re in there… This isn’t you, remember? You should do… what you want.”
“I don’t know what I want. I don’t know how.”
“Remember… what I told you?” The light in front of her reaches out, grasping her face with two hands, wiping away sludge so that she can breathe a little easier, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
“Ye… lan?” Recognition is slow, but the longer she stares, the more certain she is.
“Yes, darling,” Yelan smiles brightly down at her, breathing laboured. The spear shifts, making Yelan wince. “Just hold… on tightly to… my lifeline.”
There’s something in her hand. Something that isn’t her spear. She looks down. A comforting blue light in the palm of her hand; a familiar weight that settles over her. The feeling of hundreds of blue ropes pulling across her skin in a familiar pattern, joining frayed red threads that had been corroded away by sludge, makes her look around her in confusion. Broken pieces of the Red Ropes that she had once thought to be indestructible are pulling together, strands of blue weaving across gaps where red couldn’t reach and reinforcing lengths that had been worn down to a handful of single threads.
There’s no way that any mortal could repair an Adeptal artifact. Not by ordinary means, and certainly not with ordinary sacrifices.
“No… Yelan, no. I don’t deserve this.” Her voice breaks. “You don’t have to do this. I’m not worthy of this.”
“Shh… I have only… ever done what I want.”
The painfully bright glow of the lumenstone adjuvant digging pressing against her face makes her close her eyes. The last thing that she sees is the brilliant emerald green of Yelan’s eyes as they flutter shut and she lets out a long breath, like she’s just settling down for a long afternoon nap — that beautiful glimmer of life fading away. Something cold and hard clicks into place around her wrist, reminiscent of cuffs — she’d deserve it for what she’d done.
“You… were… always worthy…”
When the light finally fades, Shenhe is alone.
Shenhe drops to her knees, clutching at the lifeless anchor of her lifeline. She’s tangled helplessly in Yelan’s parting gift. Yelan’s bracelet sits firmly around her wrist, no longer mooring the lifelines to the woman who had smiled at Shenhe so soft and gentle, asking her what she wanted.
She is untethered, adrift and lost.
Shenhe had killed her.
How could she be worthy?
Shenhe doesn’t attend Yelan’s funeral.
It’s a small and quiet affair behind the Yansheng Teahouse. The busy establishment closed for a fortnight while the small circle of people that Yelan had surrounded herself with grieved.
Shenhe couldn’t bring herself to be or count herself amongst that group.
She watches from the top of a nearby mountain, unable to bring herself to attend but unable to miss Yelan’s final farewell. She’s not sure that the people in attendance would appreciate her presence, given… well, everything.
There’s nothing she can do but watch.
Nothing she can do but hide — alone in her thoughts. Alone in her grief.
Instead, she starts to wander the back alleyways and side streets of Liyue like a spectre at night, and during the day, haunting the empty house that Yelan had once lived in like the ghost of the one who had passed on. Calamity Queller leans against the door of the house, planted into the barren dirt next to the entrance like a stick of incense in a censer. Where incense before Yelan’s funeral portrait was to guide her journey to somewhere beyond the living’s reach, this was the stick of incense that had sent her there.
The spear has been polished since Shenhe’s return to Liyue, gleaming too bright in the afternoon sun.
By whom?
Shenhe has no idea. Certainly not the pairs of hands that last gripped the spear.
For all the calamity that this spear was meant to quell, it cannot quell the one that tears Shenhe apart from the inside out.
Yelan’s final words echo in her mind.
How could she be worthy?
Worthy of a life that didn’t belong to her, pulled from the depths of the Chasm by hands that she could no longer hold. Everything that she feels is heavy and cloying, dragging at her until she’s drowning in tides of emotions that she has no name for or understanding of.
She grabs a fistful of the ropes winding around her body, letting the strands dig into her skin. The sensation is grounding, binding her to a reality she doesn’t know what to do with. Strands of blue are interwoven with the bright red of the original Red Ropes until the two colours blend so seamlessly into each other that she couldn’t tell where one started and one ended.
“How long will you hide here?”
The voice makes Shenhe jump.
In the darkness, garnet-coloured eyes gleam as a figure steps into a house haunted by the living. Shenhe hadn’t even heard the front door open, sunlight spilling in through the door like a glass knocked over on a table. Some part of her wants to clean it up, wipe the light away until nothing but darkness remains. Everything feels like too much; like her chest might explode with the pressure mounting within.
“Lady Ningguang,” Shenhe murmurs, voice raspy with disuse.
“You didn’t attend her funeral,” Ningguang says. Her tone isn’t accusatory, just a statement of fact.
“My apologies.” Shenhe closes her eyes. She wishes that Ningguang would close the door and leave her alone.
“I have no need for your apologies. It’s not my funeral.” The click of expensive heels on the wooden floor tells Shenhe that Ningguang hasn’t drawn closer, but wandered off to the side instead. “Yelan’s assistants have informed me that you haven’t left her house for weeks now.”
Shenhe doesn’t know what to say to that. The sound of Yelan’s name brought into reality by a voice and not just the muddled thoughts in her head makes her wince. It’s like a bruise that never quite healed over, jabbed at by cruel fingers whenever she thought about the woman who no longer existed.
“You know that Yelan thought very highly of you.”
Shenhe blinks. Ningguang is sitting in one of Yelan’s dining chairs, one leg crossed over the other, pipe spinning lazily between her fingers. Shenhe can almost see Yelan sitting there not that long ago, but at a time that feels like a whole other lifetime.
“I don’t think she should have.”
The look that Ningguang fixes her with would have been enough to make an ordinary man cry. “Yelan may have been a lot of things, but I don’t think that she was ever wrong about people.”
“My apologies.” Shenhe lowers her gaze.
“Again, I don’t require your apologies. I just don’t want to see you throw your life away after Yelan has saved it.”
“I don’t-”
“You don’t what?” Ningguang challenges, rising from her seat. “You don’t think you’re worthy of being saved?” Her voice is low, a dangerous hiss like a snake poised to strike. She takes two steps towards Shenhe, slow and sure. “Do you trust Yelan?”
Do you trust Yelan?
Present tense.
Like she isn’t gone. Like there’s anything left of her in this world.
“Always,” Shenhe whispers.
“Then trust that she knew what she was doing when she saved you. Her life is yours now and who are you, to squander it?”
“I’m not worthy. If I hadn’t gone with Yelan, then she’d still be here. I’m the Divi-”
“You’re not worthy enough for her to give her life for, but worthy enough to throw away the life that she had saved?” Ningguang demands harshly.
Shenhe’s mouth snaps shut so forcefully that she can hear her teeth click, the reverberations bouncing harshly against the inside of her skull.
“I-” she lets out an unsteady exhale. “I don’t know,” she admits.
"Yelan loved you," Ningguang says, a fraction gentler than Shenhe feels she deserves. "And she thought you were worthy — not despite of who you are, because she never cared about something like that, but regardless of who you are."
Shenhe doesn't say anything for a long time, closing her eyes.
"The people we lose aren't truly gone, Shenhe. They live on in us, through us. Yelan told me that once after she lost her entire team on a mission. They were the reason that she worked alone, and you were the reason she wasn't so alone anymore." Ningguang’s voice sounds distant, heels clicking as she moves back across the room.
“I don’t know what I should do,” Shenhe says at last. She takes solace in the small space behind her eyelids.
By the time Shenhe opens her eyes again, Ningguang is gone, as if she was never there, to begin with. The door is closed, leaving Shenhe alone in the darkness.
Alone again.
The bracelet around her wrist pulses with a faint blue light and lilting laughter could be heard, soft and gentle like bells swaying in the breeze.
What do you want to do, darling?
Shenhe remembers the first time that Yelan asked her that question.
“Just hold on to this for a second, will you, darling?”
Shenhe blinked as Yelan placed one end of her lifeline in her palm.
The other woman pressed a kiss against her cheek and shot her a flirty wink before she was diving off the edge of a cliff, the other end of the lifeline connected to the bracelet around her wrist. Joyous laughter echoed all the way down the cliff face as Yelan dropped out of Shenhe’s sight.
This wasn’t the first time that Yelan had done something like this, trusting Shenhe with her life as she does something dangerous. Even so, something in Shenhe’s gut twisted uncomfortably, because what if Yelan doesn’t return?
What if, like Shenhe’s father, she never came back? What if, like Shenhe’s mother, she never opened her eyes again?
For who Shenhe was, she would expect nothing less, but she should know better by now; it was a feeling that never quite settled.
Shenhe grunted as the lifeline started to go taut. She gave no ground, standing firm as she let the lifeline pull her arms forward a little bit — just a bit of cushion to further reduce the whiplash for Yelan at the bottom. From past experience, Shenhe knew that Yelan slows the rate at which her lifeline spools as she neared her target so that she has a soft stop at the end of the drop, but it never hurts to be a little extra cautious.
The rope jerked twice, the signal for Shenhe to pull.
She pulled with arm strength alone, easily sending Yelan sailing back up the edge of the cliff, a stolen but gleaming black pearl in one hand and a smug smile on her face. Shenhe barely had to take two steps forward to catch the archer, who has no intention of landing on her own two feet, already expecting Shenhe to be there.
“There you are, darling,” Yelan said, comfortable in Shenhe’s arms. “I knew that I could count on you to anchor me.”
“I am glad that I can be of assistance,” Shenhe replied, dipping her head slightly in acknowledgement. It was nice to see that her training and inhuman strengths and other talents be put to a use that didn’t involve destroying something, or someone.
She knew it was not all that she can do, but sometimes she couldn’t help but feel like that was all people came to her for like it was all that she was worth. But to help maintain the peace of the land, that was an Adeptus’ job, and while Shenhe wasn’t truly an Adepti, there wasn’t really much else for her to do.
What could she do? Keep her power at bay and keep people safe, perhaps.
Yelan frowned, the pearl, that she had just dived several hundred meters for, fell from her hand without a second thought. She reached up to grab Shenhe’s face instead; thumbs swiping so gently over her cheekbones that Shenhe believed for a second that she might be a priceless, fragile treasure.
“You know that’s not the only reason why I ask you to come with me, right?”
Shenhe tilted her head to the side, confused. “Am I not required?”
“You are always required in my eyes,” Yelan said. “But you are required simply because I want you here. You could sit here, looking beautiful, and do nothing and I would still want you to be here.”
“I don’t think I understand.” Shenhe frowned. What good would she be if she just sat here and did nothing?
“I enjoy your company, whether or not you are here to help me or not. Your worth is not determined by how much you do,” Yelan told her sternly, one finger jabbing her in the chest. It didn’t hurt, but it caught Shenhe off guard all the same. “You should do what you want, don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. Not even me. So tell me, what do you want to do, darling?”
There was a moment of silence as Shenhe thought these words over. “I like to be helpful,” Shenhe offered at last.
Yelan smiled, “As long as it's what you want.”
“I’d like lunch too,” Shenhe said.
That earned her another laugh from Yelan, crisp and beautiful. She gracefully slid out of Shenhe’s grasp, scooping up the fallen pearl with ease.
“Lunch for my darling then. What do you want to eat? I’ve heard that there’s a new place in Liyue Harbour that serves Inazuman cuisine. Probably not nearly as good as going to Inazuma. Maybe someday we can take a vacation and we’ll travel and I’ll treat you to all the food that you can eat.”
Shenhe let herself be pulled away from the cliff’s edge by a gentle hand in hers.
She’d like that, Shenhe thought. She’d like that very much.
She’d still like that, Shenhe thinks.
“You are leaving?” Cloud Retainer’s acceptance of Shenhe’s request is calm. It’s less of a request and more of a statement, anyway.
Part of Shenhe thinks that her master would have outright forbidden it, but Cloud Retainer seems at ease. Shenhe had wanted to stop by the Adeptus’ abode anyway to have her master check over her newly woven Red Ropes, anyway.
Could they still be called Red Ropes if they were no longer just red?
“Yes,” Shenhe replies slowly. “I would like to go see what lies beyond the mountains of Liyue.”
Cloud Retainer hums thoughtfully as she cranes her neck to get a better look at the Red Ropes. “The world is vast and beautiful. One does think that it would be good for you to see how other humans live, not just the ones who live in the land of contracts.”
“I think Yelan would have agreed,” Shenhe murmurs. It has taken her days and weeks and maybe even months (time has lost all meaning and keeping track of it, even less) to finally say her name without her voice cracking in her throat.
“She was always a bright one,” Cloud Retainer replies. She finishes her inspection of the Red Ropes, stepping away with a satisfied expression. “One hates to say it, but one does think that these ropes are stronger than before. There is something to be said about the power and force of human life and will alone.”
Shenhe dips her head in agreement. Perhaps Yelan would have been delighted to hear that an Adepti approved of her work.
“One is sorry for your loss, my disciple,” Cloud Retainer says, bowing her head too. “She meant a lot to you, one can tell.”
“Thank you, master. “
The two of them stand at the top of Mount Aocang, looking down at the sun setting over the vast horizon of Liyue and beyond. Reds and oranges and yellows and golds splash across the sky like carefree strokes of a brush from the heavens. Even as the colours darken and turn to blue and purple, the sky is still beautiful.
If only Yelan could’ve seen it.
“Can I ask you a question, master?” Shenhe asks quietly.
“You have just asked me one.”
“Can I ask you two more questions then?”
“Of course, Shenhe. As many as you want.” Cloud Retainer ruffles her feathers, drawing herself up to her full height like she is about to answer the most important question in all the land.
And perhaps, it is.
“Am I worthy?”
Cloud Retainer chuckles.
Shenhe presses on, “Yelan gave her life for me. While I don’t understand it, she has always deemed me worthy.”
“And that troubles you?”
“Yes.”
“You are afraid that Yelan made a mistake.” Cloud Retainer nods to herself sagely. It’s incredible how easily the Adeptus can see right to the heart of what’s troubling her.
“Yes.”
“Do you think one made a mistake when one saved you?”
“Master… doesn’t make mistakes like that.”
That makes Cloud Retainer give a full-bellied laugh, one that echoes off the mountain tops. “You have been learning from the humans. You have never been so charming before.” It takes a few moments longer before Cloud Retainer finally catches her breath, wiping away at a tear at the corner of her eye. “Listen, Shenhe. Yelan saw worth in you, perhaps it's beyond what you can see and understand. One sees worth in you too. At the end of the day, it does not matter what other people think you’re worth.”
Shenhe frowns, “It doesn’t?”
“No,” Cloud Retainer affirms. “It does not. All that matters is what you think you are worth, not despite who you are or what you have done, but regardless of those things.”
Her frown deepens. Ningguang had something similar to her too. What she thinks she’s worth? She thinks about all the things that she has done, and could do, and maybe will do in the future. Not despite all of those things?
How would they add up?
How could she determine her worth?
“You do not have to know what you are worth immediately, Shenhe,” Cloud Retainer chides gently. “Just know that you are of worth. What you are of worth, that’s up to you to decide, and you alone.”
“I don’t think I understand, but I will try,” Shenhe acquiesces.
“Good, now one has a question for you.”
Shenhe nods, gesturing for Cloud Retainer to continue.
“Have you tried summoning your talisman spirit recently?”
“No.” There was no need to, she hadn’t faced anything more dangerous than herself in the last… while.
“Could you try?”
Confused, Shenhe does as she’s told. The surge of power through her veins is familiar and comforting. Cryo energy flows, glowing around her fingertips in the shape of her talisman. In a flurry of snowflakes, her talisman spirit appears, twirling around her with delighted crystalline laughter.
The silhouetted figure looks at her, with what could only be described as a smile on her face. She’s familiar, but not the spirit that Shenhe has always known. Still smiling, the figure swoops down towards Shenhe, taking her by the hand. The bracelet on her wrist glows, and the spirit draws a faint blue lifeline from the metallic adornment. She spins around Shenhe, looping the lifeline around her in lazy circles.
“Ye-” Before Shenhe could say anything else though, the spirit has flown up to her, pressing one chilly finger against her lips.
Oh.
“One thinks that things will work out.”
Shenhe doesn’t quite understand, but she’d try.
There are stories about a mysterious woman who wanders the lands of Teyvat.
She travels from nation to nation, helping those in need, and eating all the food that the nation has to offer. She sips tea by herself, trading sips from a cup with bites of a pale white flower wherever she goes. Often she’s found to be staring off at the sky while opalescent eyes glimmer with what can only be frozen tears.
Snow white hair and supernatural strength mark her as someone beyond any ordinary mortal. Some who encounter her swear that they’ve seen an Archon in disguise roaming the lands as she pulls helpless people from burning buildings. Others who know better insist that she’s one of Liyue’s esteemed Adepti, travelling beyond the borders of their home as she fends off bandits and Treasure Hoarders who hunt on the roads between cities and towns and villages.
But all who encounter her know that she’s never alone.
There’s a woman in blue who floats along just a few paces ahead of her, snowflakes trailing beside her as she spins and twirls in the air with a grace that would make crystalflies jealous. Blunted bangs cut in a lopsided fashion sit under a pale blue talisman on her forehead, both of which she flicks out of her undefined face with a toss of her head.
A thin blue cord connects them both, starting at the silvery bracelet clasped around the mysterious Adeptal woman’s wrist and ending in her talisman spirit’s hand.
Shenhe still doesn’t quite understand why Yelan chose her. As she runs grips the lifeline tighter, tugging gently to call her talisman spirit back to her side, a warmth pulses beneath her fingertips.
Perhaps things would be alright.
It’s up to her to decide, after all.