Chapter Text
[Tartaglia]
“You have your orders, Childe. Execute them, and I shall reward you handsomely.”
“Yes, Tsaritsa.”
I looked up at the graceful figure sitting on the throne. With her fair skin and wavy blond tresses, many would be quick to underestimate her. But I saw the fire that sharpened her ice-blue gaze, her burning ambition that would allow her to do anything to achieve her goals. She was a true warrior at heart; I yearned to be like her.
“You are dismissed,” she said with a flick of her fingers.
I turned and walked out of the great hall of the Zapolyarny Palace, ideas already whirling through my head. Once I was outside, I let out a deep exhale, my breath fogging in the frigid Snezhnayan air.
A plan of this magnitude required some heavy-duty thinking... preferably in a quieter place.
Crunching through the ever-present snow, I followed a trail out of the city. Higher and higher I walked, until I reached an overhang that overlooked the glimmering city lights and the roaring sea beyond. I sat down on a flat boulder and began to think.
The Tsaritsa had finally given the order to remove the biggest thorn in her side. And I was glad that she had entrusted the task to me. The other Harbingers probably would’ve taken care of it with a mere flash of swords, but for someone who had plagued the Fatui- and by extension Snezhnaya- for so long, I felt that wasn’t enough...
What was the best way to do that?
I could break her...
But how?
A series of images flashed through my head then- a good friend, sobbing into my shoulder after she’d found out her fiance was cheating on her. She was utterly broken, unable to function for a long time. More broken than I had ever seen in my life.
So that was it...
Love was the answer.
Puzzle pieces clicked together in my head, more and more of the plan becoming clearer.
I chuckled and stood up.
“Watch out, Honorary Knight,” I whispered. “I’ve made a promise to destroy you, and I intend to keep it.”
[Lumine]
“You’ll never take me alive!”
I watched in fascination as the white-haired oni ducked under the polearms of several Tenryou Commission members.
“That Itto is something else,” I sighed.
“Oh, he really is great to have around, though.” Ayaka picked up her porcelain cup of green tea and sipped from it. “So, Lumine, do you have any plans to go back to the other two nations any time soon?
“Actually, yeah. I was going to take a ship to Liyue in the next couple of days, to catch up with some friends. Beidou and Ganyu, Hu Tao, Chongyun...”
“It’s good that the Sakoku Decree has finally been repealed,” Ayaka mentioned. “Families have been reunited, trade has boomed, tourism has been skyrocketing... It was a good decision for Inazuma all around.”
I stayed quiet, watching the sakura trees wave gently in the light breeze.
"Have you booked your ticket yet? It can be hard to get on those boats," she pointed out.
"Oh, no." I bit into a rice cracker and winced at the loud crunch. "Maybe I should go do that today, huh?"
"That would be wise. Maybe you should take Thoma; he could get you an excellent deal." The blonde housekeeper of the Kamisato clan was popular in Inazuma and thus could haggle his way down to jaw-dropping prices. I once watched him turn a four million Mora fee into just 50 Mora.
"The three of us could go," I offered.
"That sounds good to me." She drained the last of her green tea and stood up. "Let's get back to the estate then, shall we?"
As the steamship pulled into the harbor, I hurried to the rails to catch a glimpse of the city that had amazed me ever since I had stepped foot in it.
Of all the cities I'd visited, Liyue Harbor was easily the most prosperous, it being the commerce hub for all of Teyvat. The city was built on the side of tall Mount Tianheng and split into tiers. It was cleanly divided into parts: the lower left contained the docks and shipyards; the lower right contained many shops and restaurants; the upper held the nobility's buildings and the main pavilion. The buildings were done in the traditional Liyue style: walls painted white, poles and accents painted red, doors and windows made of screens, and pagoda roofs tiled in dark green.
The ship docked and the gangplank lowered. Clutching my luggage, I joined the mass of people filing off the ship.
As I walked along the dock, I caught sight of someone I never expected to see again.
Oh, no...
"You!" I hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"Come on, girlie, I haven't seen you in months! Can't I welcome my favorite traveler back to Liyue?" Tartaglia teased.
"I learned from the last time you were here that you only want to use me," I grumbled. The ruthless Fatui Harbinger had used me as a pawn in an elaborate attempt to capture the gnosis- the item that gives a god their power- of the god of Liyue, Zhongli. That had ended in a duel and then the near-destruction of Liyue Harbor.
"Sure, my motives may not have been completely pure... but I still feel like we bonded!" he protested.
I fought against the urge to roll my eyes and said, "How did you know I was gonna be on this boat?"
"It's all most people can talk about. They absolutely adore you for how you helped out the city," he said, playfully wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
I shrugged his arm off. "I seem to recall that a certain someone was the reason for that... Wasn't that you? You're awfully brave for showing your face in a city you nearly destroyed." Indeed, many of the locals were giving him disgusted looks.
"Yes, well..." Instead of the usual sarcastic remark, silence filled the air as Tartaglia glanced away. I shifted uneasily; I felt as if I had glimpsed something I wasn't meant to see.
He cleared his throat and turned back to me, his cocky smile back. "So, the reason I'm here. Remember how we used to duel every week?"
I sighed, exasperated. Was fighting all he lived for? "I'm only here for a short visit."
"We can still have at least one duel! What do you say, girlie?" He wiggled his eyebrows.
I should've said no. This was the man who nearly destroyed Liyue Harbor, after all. Yet... if I managed to defeat him, I would be doing Liyue- and Teyvat- a service. I owed it to them, after all the wonderfulness they had shown me.
"Fine," I muttered.
He clapped his hands together. "Great! I'll be waiting for you at the Golden House tomorrow, at the crack of dawn."
"Dawn? Normal people don't get up until much later," I protested.
"You and I both know I'm a little special," Tartaglia joked with a wink.
"Don't I know it," I said under my breath. "Okay, crack of dawn tomorrow... if I remember to wake up on time."
"It's a date, then!" With one last infuriating wink, he left me there on the dock, spluttering indignantly.