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“I won't kill you, Lumine, I just want to feel the thrill of battle. So why don’t you play with me?” Childe’s smile made my heart race, and I gripped my sword tighter.
“This isn’t a game,” I growled, “I don’t fight for fun.”
He chuckled, and shook his head. “You don’t know yourself as well as you think you do.”
“And you know me better?”
“Maybe. Only one way to find out.”
The atmosphere in Golden House was tense, and cold, and the dregs of sun that filtered through the skylight did little to brighten things. Negotiations had broken down, which left us with only one choice left. I motioned Paimon to get behind me, and shifted my stance ready for Childe to rush me.
And then he didn’t. Despite everything about his stance, his build, his demeanor, that told me that he was a close combat specialist, the first thing that Childe did was summon a Hydro bow. He wasn’t going to come to me. I had to go to him.
I surged forward, side stepping the first barrage of arrows with relative ease. The second barrage was cut short by me deflecting one or two arrows, and then sending a decisive slash at his right shoulder. I didn’t want to kill him either, but I couldn’t afford to hold back in this fight, not even for a minute. Not versus a Fatui Harbinger.
The slash never landed. He nimbly dodged back, and then changed his stance again, the bow melting away and instead taking the shape of a pair of knives in his hand. I pressed forward, hoping to keep the fight in my favor, but he met my attacks head on. The knives crossed, reinforcing each other, and caught my sword mid slash.
We stood there for a moment, my strength against his, until he broke the stalemate with a swift kick to my chest. I rolled with the blow, sliding back away from him, catching my breath as quickly as I could.
He was still smiling.
I wanted nothing more than to see that smile shatter.
[hr]
I rammed my foot through the wooden door, bursting into the break room of the warehouse possessed by unadulterated fury.
The first few Fatui agents didn’t even have a chance to get out of their chairs before I sent them flying head over heels with a gust of wind.
The fourth one managed to get up, but didn’t manage to draw a weapon before I bashed him over the head with the pommel of my sword, dropping him like a sack of bricks.
Then the fifth one managed to tag me with a blast of Cryo, courtesy of a catalyst.
I pushed through the pain like it was nothing, grabbed her by the face, and smashed her through a window, hurling her into the loading dock.
The warehouse was located only a dozen or so miles south of Liyue Harbor, just far enough to be outside the immediate surveillance of the Millelith. The Fatui used it as a place to store contraband they were smuggling in, and out, of Inazuma. When I’d left the island chain, I’d offered to Kujou Sara to clean it up.
Really, it was for Teppei.
Months had gone by since my confrontation with Childe in Golden House. I’d become comfortable fighting Fatui agents, and more and more it seemed obvious that they were starting to know me. Starting to fear me.
As I walked through the room, I drew on the Geo energy beneath the warehouse floor, and curled my hand into a fist. Rings of stone emerged from the ground, breaking through the wooden floorboards, and wrapped around the hands of the various Fatui agents scattered across the floor. They tightened, not enough to hurt, but enough to ensure that they wouldn’t be able to get away.
Then, I opened the door on the other end of the room, and exited into the loading dock.
It was a huge, empty space, with small boats hung up on the walls. Overhead, a series of catwalks loomed. And, of course, on the ground in front of me was the catalyst user, who hadn’t managed to get up yet. I walked over to her, and pointed my sword down at her supine form. “Where are the Delusions?” I asked.
“Not…here…” she replied. I shifted my grip, and shifted the sword so it was pressed up under her chin. “They left this morning.”
“Where to?” I demanded.
“Snezhnaya,” said someone, from the catwalks. I looked up, my brain already placing the voice even before I saw his smiling face. “Lumine,” Childe greeted me, voice as friendly as the day we met. “If I’d known you were back in town, I would’ve sent you a lunch invite.”
Of course he was here. He was the only Harbinger currently assigned to Liyue, as far as I knew, which meant this warehouse was operating under his command.
“Your friend isn’t here,” Childe observed.
“Paimon lets me handle the fighting.”
“Of course. But,” he gestured idly, “she’s not outside either. So where is she?”
I gritted my teeth. “She’s at the inn, sleeping.”
Childe whistled softly. “So you snuck out at night to visit me?”
“I’m not here for you, Tartaglia,” I uttered his name with as much venom as I could. “I’m here to tear this warehouse to the ground.”
“And you’re ashamed of that?”
The question nearly sent me spiraling. The curiosity, the genuine interest, in his voice added to it, certainly. But also it was just hearing the question, said out loud, by someone else. Why had I chosen to do this without Paimon? She’d been around for my conversation with Kujou Sara, this wasn’t a secret mission.
I glanced down at the Fatui agent at my feet, and found my answer there. The level of viciousness I’d just engaged in was a step beyond what I would’ve felt comfortable doing with Paimon around. And I had needed an opportunity to get these feelings out, after everything that happened on Inazuma.
I looked back up at Childe, still smiling down at me from the catwalk. “You don’t need to stick around. Like I said, I’m not here for you.”
“Why would I leave?”
“Could be scared.”
“Scared?” He straight up laughed. “What should I be scared of, Lumine?”
I pointed up at him with my sword. “That you’ll end up like Signora.”
And there it was. A stunned silence. I could see a flurry of emotions rushing across Childe’s face, his excellent acting slipping for a second. The smile faded from his face, although it never fully left his eyes.
Then he leapt from the catwalk, and I flew upwards to meet him in the air.
The clash was loud, and immediately got my heart pounding in my chest again. Adrenaline rushing through my veins. And, strangely, I could feel myself unconsciously smiling.
The gust of wind I’d summoned carried both of us forward and upward, until I slammed his back into the edge of the catwalk. Then, I pushed off of him, flipping backwards and letting my Anemo attunement naturally guide me to a safe landing. He joined me on the ground a few seconds later, although his landing was a lot less graceful, or pleasant.
Childe rose from the ground with his Vision glowing on his belt. “You’re smiling,” he observed. I waited for him to continue, to maybe monologue. But that’s where the thought ended. Instead, he conjured a set of Hydro trench knives, and rushed forward towards me. Now things were going to get serious.
I took up a defensive stance with my sword, and nimbly back stepped to dodge the first two swings, looking for an opening I could exploit. But he wasn’t giving me any; his attacks were short, noncommittal. He was trying to pressure me backward, into a corner, where it’d be harder to maneuver. But I wasn’t about to let that happen.
Instead of continuing to dodge, I blocked one of the swipes, and pivoted on the ball of my right foot, sliding towards his flank. The noncommittal nature of his onslaught had meant that he wasn’t able to push the brief window I gave him, and I managed to reset back to a neutral position. Now I had a lot more room behind me to work with.
Still, as much as I hated to admit it, he was stronger than me. I was a little bit faster than him, but not by a lot. And I could hardly say I had a range advantage over him when he could summon a bow.
But I had tricks up my sleeve that he didn’t know about. Plus his archery definitely didn’t seem like his strong suit.
I launched myself back with a gust of wind, creating a wide distance between the two of us. Then, I sheathed my sword, shifting my stance. I kept one hand on the hilt, and the other on the scabbard, tucking in my shoulders slightly.
Childe cocked his head. “Are you surrendering?”
“Why don’t you come closer, and find out?” It felt like something that should’ve made him laugh. But he didn’t. And that strangely disappointed me. Instead, he dismissed the knives, and summoned a longsword instead.
Then, he rushed at me. He’d realized that if he was forced to rush in, at this distance, the stubbiness of the knives would be a problem. Hence the longsword, to match my reach. If anything, he’d have an edge, since his arms were longer than mine.
He’d almost seen the trick.
Almost.
I breathed out, and time seemed to still for a moment. I imagined the space between us like a canvas, with Childe and I being no more than letters on a page. I remembered watching the scribes on Inazuma write in calligraphy with deliberate and elegant brush strokes. I remembered Ayato’s calming voice, as he walked me through everything one more time.
In the blink of an eye, I drew my sword and slashed the air in front of me, extending the blade far beyond its normal reach with a burst of Anemo. One perfect cut, like lightning out of the sky, and then immediately sheathing my sword in the same instant.
Anyone other than Childe would be dead or dying.
Somehow, he blocked it.
Not fully, and he didn’t seem to know what hit him. But the same moment I drew my sword, his shifted into a defensive stance in front of him. The burst had sent him flying, and left a gash running diagonally across his chest, but he was still standing.
Slowly, he reached down and ran ran his pointer finger along the wound, before holding it up in front of him. Finally, his smile returned to his face, at the sight of his own blood.
“You can tell a lot about someone by fighting them,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m good at reading people in general, but I’m really good at getting to know them in combat. That’s why I’ve been dreaming of getting to fight you again, and again, and again, ever since that day in Golden House.”
It made my heart ache to hear him say that, and I had no idea why. Well. Maybe I did, but I didn’t want to. “I’ve thought a lot about that day,” I said.
“Really? That makes me very happy to hear.” He chuckled. “When I fight you, I can tell that I’m not just fighting you. I’m also fighting against every single person you’ve spoken to, and learned from, and fought for, and fought with, since you came here. It’s like I’m fighting an entire army.” Childe cracked his neck. “And let me tell you, I love fighting armies.”
His stance shifted, and I immediately knew what he was going to do, before he even did it. So as Hydro surrounded his hands, as he began to summon a bow, I reached out with my right hand, and unleashed a blast of Electro at him.
He hadn’t known I could do that.
The blast of electricity surged through his body, amplified by the Hydro he’d put on it. My heart sank as he screamed in pain from the elemental reaction. I rushed towards him, unsure if I was going to finish him off, or tend to his wounds.
And then his vision changed color, changed shape, and twisted into something darker. With gritted teeth, Childe reached up, and pulled his mask over his face. Shit. Right. His Delusion was Electro.
Wordlessly, he rushed forward, meeting me halfway, before I had a chance to try to switch to a defensive position. His hand wrapped around my throat, and he lifted me into the air, kicking and screaming, and carried me forward. I couldn’t help but think of the Fatui agent I’d thrown through the window, just minutes ago.
My head smashed against the warehouse wall, and I could taste blood filling my mouth as the impact caused me to bite my own tongue. He stared me in the eye, and then started to slide me up the wall, feet completely off the ground, leaving me only able to stare down at him.
His grip was like iron, and when he tightened it, I realized I was out of options. My life was in his hands now.
“Forgot…the Delusion,” I whispered, barely able to take in enough air. “I was scared...that I might’ve…killed you.”
The words sounded fake. But I knew they were true; the brief instant where I thought I might have actually killed him had almost ruined me.
Childe cocked his head, his expression obscured by the mask. “Why did you come here?” He asked. He loosened his grip just enough for me to be able to talk, but the pointer finger digging into the back of my neck reminded me that he could still crush me if he wanted to.
“To tear down this warehouse.”
“Why?”
“Revenge.”
“No. Try again.”
I stared down at him, my mind trying to parse what he said.
If it was just revenge, if it was just a mission, I would’ve brought Paimon, I realized. She liked Teppei too. Instead I was here, on the verge of dying, while she was laying asleep in bed.
And my heart was pounding, but not with fear.
I felt tears well up in the corner of my eyes.
“Fun.” I said, and even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew the expression he was wearing. “I came here because I wanted to fight, and to hurt someone, and feel as close to death as I could. I wanted the thrill of battle. Because I love it. Because it’s fun.”
Childe nodded.
Then he lowered me back down, until my feet were on the floor, and let go of my neck.
In that same instant, his hand slipped down to my waist, steadying me as my legs threatened to give in. “Careful,” he said, pulling his mask aside with his other hand, his face covered in a smile that made my heart race. “Wouldn’t want you to getting hurt.”
I stared at him, wondering if he wanted to kiss me as badly as I wanted to kiss him. But instead, he just let go of me. “I’m sure I’ll see you around,” he whispered. “Next time, we’ll both be on the same page about what we want.”