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The days dawned bright and joyous in the land of Teyvat. It had been five hundred years since that fair kingdom had been established, and there was to be a grand festival to celebrate that auspicious accomplishment. The streets were buzzing with the news, and not only because this was expected to be the biggest to-do Teyvat had seen in years.
For you see, when the proclamation of this upcoming event was first made to the public, responsibility of organizing it and ensuring all was ready in time had been ceremoniously handed over to the three crowned heirs of the realm. So the rumor whispering its way across the land was that this was meant to serve as some sort of test of their abilities. All eyes, therefore, were on the royal heirs, and each citizen had their own opinion to give about who would emerge victorious, and how.
Many argued on behalf of the first crowned heir, Jean. She was an accomplished swordswoman who led and trained the knights and had long been responsible for preserving the peace and maintaining the kingdom's defenses. Most of the citizenry owed her their lives. Surely, her most ardent supporters declared, no one could disagree that she would be the ideal candidate for any duty that served the kingdom's interests.
Still, there were others who did favor the second crowned heir, Keqing. She was an astute bureaucrat whose sharp insights had long kept the government running like a ticking clock, with none of the inefficiencies that plagued other lands. Certainly, they attested, Jean was very capable, but Keqing's skill set was much more suited to this task.
When these arguments flared up, those were the names on everyone's lips—Jean and Keqing, who were both lauded all across the land for their exceptional talents and their unwavering diligence to their work.
The third crowned heir, in contrast, was well-known to be a bit of a wastrel, always gallivanting about and leaving the duties of governance to their siblings. They'd wander off to taverns and fishing holes, go on inadvisable adventures, and get into all sorts of ridiculous scrapes—so much so that they had been nicknamed the Traveler by the populace, as they never seemed to stay where they ought.
True, they were always ready to lend a hand to someone in need. But they just as often caused trouble as solved it. The camps who leaned towards the first or second crowned heirs were at least in agreement on this point—whatever this test was meant to show, one of the elder siblings would come out on top, and certainly not the Traveler.
Jean and Keqing, had they been privy to these debates, would have (quietly) been in full accord with this sentiment. The two elder crowned heirs were always left shaking their heads despairingly at their youngest sibling's constant roaming. They consoled themselves that at least the kingdom had the two of them to rely on, as the responsible pair, instead of their good-for-nothing youngest sibling. So when the job of organizing the festival was handed to the three of them, they two glanced at each other and nodded in unison, for their hearts were in full agreement that in truth, this task was up to them and them alone.
Jean, the eldest of the royal siblings, stepped first into the role of organizer, urging her middle sibling to return to her usual work. Keqing did so with little protest—there was always more work to be done, after all. Neither spared the wayward Traveler a glance.
Jean had not ever planned a celebration of any particular scale before, but she was determined to tackle it with all the attention she brought to every other pursuit. Whenever a vendor came to her with a concern, she did her utmost to resolve it with all haste. She ran back and forth across the capitol city, and sometimes ranged further afield when she deemed her attention was needed on an issue in the countryside.
But even with the wind at her back, she could not move swiftly enough to be everywhere at once.
After several long days of resolving problem after problem, Jean found herself quite overcome. The royal physician gave orders that she be confined to bed until she recovered fully. The issue of the festival, it seemed, was now up to the second crowned heir.
'Well, of course this task overwhelmed my older sister,' was the thought in Keqing's head, as she busied herself with it. 'My sister is talented and capable, but in the end, she's only a swordswoman. I am the bureaucrat of the family. Naturally, the organization of a grand event such as this is more within my own domain. I should easily be able to accomplish this task.'
She picked up where Jean had left off, contacting entertainers and suppliers, sending missive after missive and drafting schedule after schedule.
But even if she wrote like lightning, she could not write fast enough to bend the world to her will.
After long days of sleepless work, with her head pounding and her wrist aching, she stumbled to her bed and did not stir again for two full days and nights.
She woke disoriented and alarmed. She had only meant to close her eyes for a short while, but she could tell it had been much, much longer than that. There had already been so little time left before the festival was scheduled to begin, and she had not yet been able to finish all the arrangements! She leapt from her bed and stormed across the hall to her elder sister's room, knocking quick and loud. "Jean, Jean, are you there?!" she shouted.
Her sister opened the door, her clothes mussed and her hair in slept-on disarray. "Keqing? What is it? What's wrong?" Jean asked.
"I fell asleep! How long has it been? Is it the day before the festival already? Why did no one fetch me?!"
"The festival?" Jean's brow furrowed. "The physician gave orders that no one contact me about festival preparations, but… isn't it…?"
They both heard the sound of firecrackers in the distance, and a muffled wave of cheers.
The festival had just begun.
Exchanging panicked glances, they both raced down the halls of the royal castle, down the main staircase, and out into the palatial gardens. Sure enough, they could see bright explosions of light out in the city.
Jean had spoken to a few fireworks sellers in the kingdom in hopes of setting up a display, and Keqing had written to them to attempt to schedule everything just so, but no agreements had been properly made. So how had this come to be?
The two hurried in that direction, down to the city gate and out onto cobbled streets. There, they spotted a girl with peach-blonde hair passing out sparklers to a crowd of kids, a bright grin on her face. In a box on the ground behind her was a variety of larger fireworks of all shapes and sizes and colors. The children thanked the girl and raced off, back towards the main thoroughfare, where… a parade was going on. On a slowly rolling platform, accompanied by a small troupe of dancers, an opera singer in traditional dress struck a pose, and the crowd lining the street gasped and cheered.
Had either of them booked an opera singer? They looked at each other and shook their heads.
The two wandered on through the city, seeing some traces of entertainments they'd planned, but many that they hadn't. It was as if a miracle had occurred while they'd both been indisposed. And neither of them could fathom how.
How had the festival begun without them? How could this be, when they were the ones who'd been meant to do all the work?
It was only when they caught sight of the Traveler that things began to become clear. Their youngest sibling was setting a crate of supplies down next to a pink-haired girl who was mixing drinks at a streetside stand. The Traveler started dusting off their hands, turned around, spotted Jean and Keqing across the way, and then waved and started moving towards them.
"Jean! Keqing!" they called out. "Glad to see you both up and about! How are you enjoying the festival?"
"How did you do it?" Keqing demanded, apropos of an answer, ignoring Jean's chiding 'Keqing!' "Have you been secretly holding out on us? Are you really as diligent and hardworking as Jean and I after all?"
"How did I do it?" the Traveler repeated with a bemused smile on their face. "I didn't really do any of this, honest."
"Then, dear sibling," Jean said, giving Keqing a quelling glance, "could you tell us how this whole festival got arranged so very quickly, when neither of us were able to finish our work?"
"Well," the Traveler laughed, gesturing around at the pink-haired girl, at the nearby performers, at… at Jean's cavalry captain, slinking innocently by. "All I did was ask for help!"