Chapter Text
Morax carried many secrets.
This was a fact that Xiao always accepted about him as a neutral reality. After all their centuries together, he trusted that there was purpose to Morax's choices to share or withhold. This impending visit to Snezhnaya had been a constant test of that trust.
Xiao did not know the reason that Morax gave his gnosis willingly to the Tsaritsa. The entire plan had baffled him, from its earliest stages.
Morax had first introduced it as they dressed one morning, after a night spent together. One of their fortnightly visits to their cave deep underground, where Morax kept a hot bath and a feather bed and stone walls to absorb any sounds they made. It was one of the few places in the world where Xiao felt he could truly be himself.
That morning, Morax had so casually buttoned his shirt as he said, "Don't be alarmed, but you'll hear news of my death in a few days."
Xiao had his shirt only halfway on. He stopped. Turned. Stared.
"Why?" he said.
"I want to retire."
"Retire? You hardly do anything as it is."
"Then I am already halfway there." He patted Xiao's thigh and added, "Oh, and you heard that from me in a dream."
Xiao had rolled his eyes and sighed.
Still he said, "Whatever it is you're really doing, I trust you."
He meant it. He stood steadfast at Rex Lapis's side, his faith in his archon as unshakeable as the mountains shaped by Morax's own hand.
Even when he heard the news that Morax had willingly traded away the gnosis, Xiao did not balk. The harshest criticism he offered was, "This is all seems very foolish. I wish you would explain your greater purpose."
They were standing in Xiao's private room in Wangshu Inn, speaking in low voices. Xiao had his arms crossed over his chest, frowning upward as Morax looked down in mock surprise. Hands clasped behind his back, eyebrows raised.
"Retirement," Morax said, "is a human custom where one indulges the finer pleasures in life, as a reward for many years of dedication. I have heard even yakshas may retire, if they so choose."
"You know that's not what I mean. What is your true goal?"
The way Morax looked at him was so ancient that it felt young again. That sly glint in the eye from reckless millennia ago.
"In truth, I am running an errand for Director Hu. I am meant to test a variety of teas newly shipped from Chenyu Vale."
"I see. You're in one of those moods."
"I could benefit from a tasting partner."
Xiao moved his palm over his face, summoning his yaksha mask, and answered, "Some of us still work."
He almost vanished to his patrol without another word. But he climbed upon the windowsill and paused, head tilted. Then he said over his shoulder, "Perhaps we'll run into each other, when I stop for lunch."
"Director Hu was most interested in how refreshing the tea is under a midday sun."
When Xiao returned to Wangshu Inn that day, he found Morax play-acting the affable and airy Mr. Zhongli, sitting at a table outside with three pots of tea and a plate of almond tofu.
Before Xiao could think of a natural reason for their interaction, Morax had stood up. He put a hand to his chest, bowing his head forward as he said, "What a rare and pleasant gift it is to run into you again, Adeptus Alatus. I did not expect my path to cross with such good fortune twice."
Xiao's entire face instantly went pink.
"Mr. Consultant," Xiao said. "There is no need for such flattery."
"I know how valuable even an immortal's time is. Would you be so kind as to share a little with me?"
Xiao had sat flustered as Morax poured him tea, making a show of explaining each tea's qualities -- in flavor, symbol, and history -- then asking Xiao to explain his opinion on each in great detail. It felt to Xiao that the entire patio and every passing traveler on the road was staring at them. He feared hearing playful mockery from the adepti later. His face only grew hotter as the hour wore on, until even his ears were flushed.
Morax loved these games. Xiao… endured them, for Morax's sake.
For the next six years, Xiao held a question unanswered. Another of Morax's many secrets. But his patience was rewarded, in those grey days after the celestial nail appeared in the sky above the Chasm.
As winter settled over Liyue, it brought with it iron skies and a cold, lingering damp that drove Xiao often to the stove in the inn's kitchen, just to warm his palms. He was succumbing to a rare head cold, after unfailing nights camped out on the eave of the Chasm, looking at oblivion above and below him. His years of torment were so long behind him that his body could no longer handle the cold as it once did.
It almost felt funny, sitting stuffy-nosed and headached in the kitchen, sipping the congee that Smiley Yanxiao had insisted on making for him. In some ways, the cook reminded Xiao of Bosacius. The insistent kindness, the quick laughter.
The cook was, at that moment, preparing an insulated vessel of green tea and a steel cup to go with it. He was talking as he measured out the tea leaves, saying, "It is rare that I worry about you, Conqueror of Demons. But I do wish you would take a day off and recuperate."
"It's nothing."
Xiao said that congested, his eyes half-lidded, his face puffy.
Smiley Yanxiao looked up, the disagreement obvious in his eyes, then continued working as he said, "Then I will send this with you as a wish for it to continue to be nothing."
"Thank you."
Xiao finished his congee slowly. He pretended it was to savor the flavor, not to extend his time warm, dry, and indoors.
When he returned to his usual post at the Chasm, he found Morax already there. Standing beside Xiao's makeshift lean-to, where the ground was saturated, but he could be covered from the sleeting rain.
Morax glanced at him and said, "You should be taking a nap."
"Is that an order, Rex Lapis?"
Xiao tried to sound composed, but he ended up coughing hard and chesty on the end.
"Must I make it one?"
"Yes."
Xiao never trusted that they were truly unobserved, even in a wild like this one. Heaven forbid some treasure hoarder or mine worker saw General Alatus lean himself against Mr. Zhongli's body -- or even worse, an adeptus, taking notice of his disregard for the boundary of god and follower.
"I have a different order instead. I need you to come with me for a moment."
Xiao frowned between Morax and the glinting threat above. "What's wrong? Is it to do with the nail?"
"Nothing so serious."
But Xiao inferred its secrecy, when they stepped out of view and Morax joined their hands. They disappeared and reappeared in their cave beneath the world, where the lanterns were already lit and two garment boxes sat upon their bed.
Xiao swayed in place, eyes pinched tight. There was such pressure in his skull. He was wishing more and more than Morax did order him to take a nap.
"I need you to test the fit of these clothes."
Morax took the tea carafe and poured out a cup, as Xiao stepped forward and opened the first box. Folded inside was a coat, with a fur-trimmed hood, a teal cape, and a pinkish fabric down the chest, matching the apron Xiao always wore, woven by Menogias's hand. Brass chains strung across the chest in even rows.
Xiao looked up, frowning.
"Who is this for?"
"Someone your exact height and size." Morax offered him the teacup.
The heat soothed Xiao's throat. He coughed into his elbow, sniffed, frowned at the coat again.
"For me?" Xiao said, not able to believe it.
"Hm. Now that you say it, you do fit that category."
"Be gentle with me, Morax. I don't have the mind for games right now."
Morax snorted and leaned to kiss his temple, telling him, "Of course it is for you."
"I don't get sick often. This is unnecessary. I hope you did not spend too much money."
The archon's mouth twitched, and he failed to fight off his smile. "It's not because you are ill, Xiao."
In the next box was a pair of ku trousers in a perfect replication of Xiao's own, but the interior was fleece-lined, the fabric a stiff and water-resistant linen.
"I need you to accompany me on a diplomatic venture," Morax said. "It will be a long journey, and it is very cold there."
Xiao already knew the answer. Even as his mind physically pulsed, he knew.
"Where?"
Morax had an apology in his eyes when he said, "Snezhnaya."
Xiao froze. He was so aware of how his sinuses ached around his nose and eyes. He could not even think past it it. He could hardly fathom all that was being asked of him, in this moment. Time was imposing itself upon this room, all the dread of the unknowable future.
"I know you have not left Liyue in all our years together. And I hope you know I would not ask you without absolute necessity. But it is not an order. It is a request. Please answer honestly, not out of obligation."
He lifted his stare to Morax's. He tightened his fingers on his teacup.
Then Xiao answered, "If you need me, of course I will go with you."
The weight of the moment was promptly shattered by a harsh, rib-shaking cough. Morax rubbed his back and laughed at him, so adoringly.
"I must revise my earlier statement," Morax said. "That nap now is an order."