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Rite of Descension. An annual ceremony in which Rex Lapis graces this land with his prophecy, giving guidance in this year’s economy and the path that should be taken.
Tartaglia, 11th of the Harbingers and the Tsaritsa’s personal vanguard, however, has another plan for Rex Lapis! Simply ask him, Morax, to comply with the Tsaritsa’s wishes, or force shall be instituted. The entire Harbinger rank if needed, all 11 of ‘em.
So, being the only Snezhnayan diplomat in Liyue does have its perks. Besides being called ‘that one important ginger guy that’s dating the elusive consultant’ in a nation full of brunettes.
For instance, the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor consultant - Zhongli - has been his boy friend- friend, and guide around Liyue for the past 3 months. Although it felt a lot shorter than the 3 months he spent in the abyss…
===
Tartaglia had been sitting atop the ridge of the glazed tiles on the Northland Bank for quite a while now, and fortunately, he’s gone unnoticed by the mysterious traveler that arrived in Liyue about 2 days before. While overlooking Yujing Terrace, a white haired lady dressed in the finest light silk and pure gold made her way down to a table in the middle of the crowd that bore a - what is that? Some sort of cauldron looking thingy… Whatever, it doesn’t matter right now anyways. Tartaglia is here to get the geo Archon’s gnosis, his heart and right to sovereignty!
“ The hour is upon us ,” A faint voice could be heard coming from the direction of the white haired lady.
Tartaglia swerved his head a bit to get a better view of what she was doing through the crowd.
The lady’s hand shot up to point towards the sun with two fingers. Well, gold clawed fingers. Now Tartaglia was certain that it was lady Ningguang, The Tianquan, aka head of the Liyue Qixing. She’s responsible for maintaining the book of ancient laws laid out by Morax and all subsequent amendments, so it makes sense that she’s running the Rite of Descension. Tartaglia only knew this much because Zhongli had helped plan it to correct historical terms- again.
Ah, the show is starting.
Lady Ningguang’s geo crystals circled and spun around her at a brutal pace, gaining the energy of prayers to their beloved Rex Lapis, and with a flick of her gloved wrist, they flew into the censer holding incense right behind her.
The blonde haired traveler and their small floating fae companion were now at the front of the masses, watching very intently…
As soon as Ningguang’s little rocks dug themselves into the censer, a beam of golden light shot straight up into the swirling clouds of the heavens, expelling a bit of the wind gust that even hit Tartaglia a tad and ruffled some of his messy auburn hair and fluttering garnet scarf. The light began to disperse, beckoning Rex Lapis to come forth.
And come forth he did.
Those spinning cotton candy clouds turned the color of dust and old memories as the exuvia quite literally fell out of the sky from where the beam retreated, crashing onto the table and tipping the censer.
Tartaglia scoffed. What an entrance.
The Tianquan nervously whipped her head back and forth before she hesitantly kneeled in front of the Exuvia’s face and touched its umber scaled dragon snout. She stood again for a quick pause before she declared her decision. “REX LAPIS HAS BEEN KILLED, SEAL THE EXITS! ”
Murmurs within the crowd were quickly broken up as the millelith swarmed and took people to question, leaving the traveler alone and wandering again, so Tartaglia took that as his cue to catch them being led down the stairs.
Oh how fun this chase would be.
Tartaglia skid down the rooftop of the bank and ran across the shingles of the Feiyun Commerce Guild, and slid down the hip before he jumped the stone wall and booked it towards the last U curve of the stairs.
“Hold still kid,” Tartaglia leaped over top of the traveler and their little white haired fae-girl companion, and summoned his twin hydro blades to slice through the millelith that cornered them. His fighting style was quite majestic, really - years of ballet as a kid and his time with Skirk must’ve paid off. Each twirl, bounce, kick, and cut made no difference however; guards kept appearing, and continued to rise from the ground with pointed spears surrounding the ginger and traveler friends.
“GO! GET OUTTA HERE!” He stopped for a second to look the traveler in the eye and shoo them out while they still could.
So much for him though. The millelith soon caged him in, and one kicked the back of his knee causing him to stumble a bit. Armored men continued to jab him before he gave in.
One of them spit on his face. “And here I thought diplomats were supposed to follow the laws. Tch, what else are we supposed to expect from Snezhnaya,” they sighed at the sight of the now ruddy Harbinger. “Buncha good for nothing freaks .”
Tartaglia brought his shoulder up to his cheek to wipe the foreign saliva and dirt. “We aren’t freaks -”
Another quick jab to his side with a boot was administered.
“Did we say you could talk, boy? Now get up, you have somewhere to be, and it ain’t here.”
===
“Let go of me, for Archons sake, I am a grown man I can walk myself-”
The two millelith that drug him through the cobblestone of the harbor and dirt of Dunyu Ruins threw Tartaglia onto the ground of a cell and watched him keel over in agony.
“Shit,” Tartaglia coughed some dust out of his lungs and winced when he felt the rubble push into the scrapes of his knees.
He sat on his bottom to pick at the torn fabric of his pants.
One of the millelith cleared their throat and slammed the barred door shut and locked it with a click. The other’s gravely voice spoke up. “Typically we wouldn’t throw vision users in this cell, but I think you’ll comply once we bring in your friend soon… Unless public execution sounds nice,” - the man spun the key ring around his index finger - “But then again we wouldn’t want the Tsaritsa on our bad side again.” The millelith man kicked the white-iron bars and made Tartaglia startle a bit and whip his head up to look the both of them in the eye, a contrast of their pale dirt and his sea holly.
Tartaglia jeered at his situation. “ That’s what I get for being nice to weird foreigners. Huh, kinda ironic aint it, ” He mumbled to himself, still poking around his wound and peeling the specks of pebble out. “Pshh, and what friend ? I don’t, I don’t have any anyway. Not even here. Quite pathetic.” Tartaglia groaned and tilted his head back and squeezed his eyes shut.
“It’s always the suspicious Snezhnayan…” A light murmur came out of a taffy haired woman, maybe only a year or two younger than Tartaglia - 19, 20-ish?, that rounded the corner to his cell. “I can’t believe someone so loving of the one person that held Liyue so dear to his heart could do such a thing, I didn’t think you had it in you, honestly.”
The Harbinger’s head shot up to get a good look at the girl. “ What are you talking about? All I did was fend off some millelith for that new traveler kid, pretty heroic if I do say so myself,” he boasted.
“Oh that’s not what I’m talking about, Childe.”
Tartaglia scoffed for the second time today. “Don’t call me that. Your guards threw me in here. You don’t deserve to call me anything but my given title.”
“Fine, fine,” The girl summoned a book with 3 Liyuen characters, Tartaglia could only make out one, ‘law’. She sighed once more, “Then sir Tartaglia, what was your motive?”
“Oh so you’re my lawyer! Alright I see, what’s your name then, since you obviously already know me…?” Tartaglia’s eyes almost sparked a glint in them, if that was even possible for his dead fish ones.
The girl exhaled sharply, and continued to flip pages through the book. “It’s Yanfei, sir Tartaglia, and no, I may be a lawyer but I’m here to ask why you killed Rex Lapis, specifically his draconic true form of the Exuvia.”
“What?”
“Why did you kill Morax, Tartaglia?”
Tartaglia slowly furrowed his brows. “W- What do you mean??? I had been at the bank the whole day, I-”
“Don’t lie to me, all of Liyue knows it was you.”
He dug his fingers into the cuts of his knees. A drop of blood rolled down his calf and soaked into the grey cloth of his tattered pants. “No, no I didn’t, I didn’t have to, I had no reason to, why- why do they think it’s me ?”
Yanfei sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose, then closed her eyes. “I think it’s quite obvious, Tartaglia. Isn’t it? A strange Snezhnayan man, let alone a Harbinger , one of the cryo Archon’s front military line-men, came to Liyue and established a bank in less than a month, and 3 ½ months later, Rex Lapis is suddenly dead? ”
Tartaglia just stared at her in disbelief.
“I see that since you cannot fess up, I shall go get Zhongli-xiansheng. Please, tell him the whole truth since you cannot confide in me.” Yanfei bowed and began to back in the direction she came from, not daring to look back.
Tartaglia just watched her leave, and buried his head into his scrunched up thighs.
“Childe…?”
“Zhongli-” Tartaglia scrambled to his feet and ran to the metal bars holding him hostage to grip Zhongli’s cheeks and give him a shaky peck on the lips, then looked away to the crumbling excuse for a floor. “Tha-that girl, Yanfei? The p-pink haired one, she- she said all of Liyue thinks I killed, I- I killed Rex Lapis, I don’t know what to do, I swear I didn’t do it, I couldn’t have, I was at the bank and Ekaternia watched me go up to the roof to watch the Rite, and-”
Zhongli gently wiped his leather gloved thumbs under Tartaglia’s eye and pressed their foreheads together. “Shh, it’s okay, I know, I know you didn’t. It’s alright.”
“What?” Tartaglia had been saying that a lot lately it seems.
Zhongli backed away from the bars and crossed his arms behind the small of his back and nodded twice. “Ah, yes. It was me who killed the Exuvia. This old god is tired of the struggles of immortality, and I couldn’t think of any way to tell people without giving away my mortal cover. I… I apologize. I did not realize it would affect you in this manner.” Zhongli scrunched up his face and gingerly turned his head away from Tartaglia. “And the gnosis you sought was already taken by your Harbinger peer, La Signora.”
Tartaglia choked on his tears for the first time in a while.
He’d not seen any eyes with such a deep ochre color that beautiful, yet misleading.
The ginger broke into hysterics, “I can’t believe it-” he continued to nervously laugh while carding his fingers through his hair, the heavy stone wall soon hitting his back; bottom meeting the cold stone for a second time. His eyes finally gave way to the cascade of tears he’s kept pent up for so long. “I can’t believe you, Zhongli. Why? If you knew what I was here for all along why did you have to be so nice to me? Why did you have to give it to her of all people?” He didn’t dare look up to meet Zhongli’s eyes, even if the other’s were trying to find his.
“I’m sorry, Ajax, I really didn’t think this through enough,” Zhongli sucked air through his teeth and let it go shakily. “Just know I didn’t regret any of the time I spent with you, and you will forever live on in my memories.”
Tartaglia let out an obscure whimper and tucked his head further into his arms. “Just, get out,” his voice wavered as he silently sobbed, and the clicks of Zhongli’s heels could be heard as he made his way out of the dim lit ruins.
Ajaaax, hey. Ajax. Heyyyy Ajax?
The voices wouldn’t leave him alone no matter how hard he covered his ears.
Ajax, wake up, Ajax!
He could still feel Zhongli’s touches and hear his timbre.
Hey, baobei, wake up, Ajax? Ajax! AJA-
Ajax jolted up with a gasp, panting like a dog.
“Ajax?”
He shifted his head to the right of his… Bed? At least he thought these were his silken sheets.
“Ajax its okay now, it’s alright, I’m here,”
A warm hand rubbed across the span of Ajax’s hunched over back. When it finally set in that he was back home with Zhongli and it was the middle of the night, only then did he actually burst into tears.
“Hey, your night terrors have gotten worse lately,” Zhongli crawled to the end of their shared bed to pick up Ajax’s face and hold his cheeks. “Was it the same one as last time?”
He nodded.