Chapter Text
The Traveler had other things to deal with at the moment. Zhongli figured as such considering they had gone with the Adepti and Qixing to handle the Fatui whilst he himself decided to make sure his final pawn had been moved into place. After all, it’s always better to handle things yourself. Quite hypocritical considering he had let others do the work on the mere trust that they would do exactly as he predicted. This was only one of the few probabilities he had expected, facing the Harbinger he had spent hours upon hours with.
His steps were meticulous and slow, he wondered if he wasn’t in such a hurry as he knew the other would wait for him. Or if he didn’t want to face him at all.
La Signora was in the Harbor after all, she’d come to take his Gnosis as the contract had told it so. But she could wait a moment longer, she knew not everything was set in stone. Zhongli held the last pawn upon his board he just needed to move it. Let it slide into a checkered piece with such slow and methodical movements place behind it as the clock tik tik tiked for him to check for the other to make their move.
Was Tartaglia a pawn?
Was he a knight?
Perhaps the role of a Knight would fit him, but a Pawn was the role he was forced to play. Or perhaps a court jester, a man who made a fool of himself to woo the love of a simple and wise Funeral Parlor Consultant. Only on the mere whim that he might be able to succeed in whatever plot he stirred to bring Liyue Harbor and it’s god to their knees and pray.
He had taken notice of the severe lack of Liyue Qixing in the area. He knew the making of Mora and the Golden House itself was sacred, not to mention the fact the (albeit false but no one was aware) Exuvia was stored within its thick walls.
To break in and defile the Archon in such a place was sacrilege within itself. However there was no need to bestow punishment upon the Harbinger, no.. Not at all. Morax himself had decided to let him so as such, as to let Zhongli live on normally. The Liyuean pulled on his gloves hiding the golden glow of a geo permanently etched into his skin. Some things are simply impossible to hide with a trick of illusions and shapeshifting, such as his eyes or the glowing tips of his hair. He pushed himself inside as the doors of the Golden House opened.
He could see the knocked out or possibly.. even deceased Qixing that once protected not just the Exuvia on the floors of the Golden House. But nonetheless it didn’t make the sight from across the room any less surreal.
There lay himself. Held upon a pedestal as he had been in life.
Or a fake body of himself in what is often known as his true form. The Exuvia.. Every scale on his body perfectly placed, every bit of fur down to the sharpness of his talons. Even from a far he knew he had done good work on keeping the civilians and even the Fatui themselves fooled with such a realistic prop.
A prop. Like one used in the theatre to show the audience a false version of the object it represents. Funny with how much he adores Liyue’s Opera.
“Tartaglia.” He spoke, his baritone chords echoing into the chamber where his dead body lay. It was odd staring at such a lifeless yet unreal corpse. To think one day he shall truly become a corpse, hopefully in the form he had become and not the form he was born in. “The Traveler had told me you would be here, it seems I am too late to stop you from stealing the Gnosis. How cruel, to steal from a dead god who cannot defend themselves.” He knew the Harbinger was a master at stealth, even if he chooses not to partake in such an activity. However the Fatui must be vigilant at all costs, and he knew Tartaglia quite enjoyed a good attack from behind.
At Least when he knew the opponent could, would and should expect it. The Harbinger had such high morals despite ranking highly in quite possibly the most shadiest and ill moral of organizations in Teyvat.
A childish scoff was heard as Zhongli felt the hair on his neck move upwards. “You and the Traveler have fulfilled your tasks as guides, so why do you follow me Xiansheng? Haven’t you caused enough trouble for Liyue already?” Zhongli felt it, even in the soft beating of his Gnosis, that there was something more than to what Childe had said.
He shouldn’t know. Yet he was still implying- “I'm afraid I do not understand, what trouble have I caused if not me trying to give our dear Archon a proper and traditional farwell. The Qixing nor the Tianquan would approve of a Harbinger breaking in and harming the Exuvia.” He turned watching the man he dare even call a friend ascend the steps with boots clinking against the polished floors as he spoke in monologue. The lifeless and yet once cheerful oceanic eyes stared at him with nothing but a frown ever so present on his face.
It was..
It was too different. Too hard to comprehend that the Harbinger could truly possess such an expression. Even if Childe held no spark within those eyes the smile he held carried it. Now he truly looked lifeless, as lifeless as the prop he constructed. “Haha—.. I would’ve asked you to join me back in Snezhnaya, perhaps you would be granted a reward alongside the Traveler from the Tsaritsa herself.” His laugh was nothing like it had been a day prior.
Nothing like the laugh they shared over comedic stories of the past at wanmin restaurant. Zhongli held off on summoning his polearm, swallowing whatever saliva had collected in his mouth.
“But now, you’re in my way, that of course I can understand. But I recommend you come clean with me already Zhongli.” The rare time he ever referred to him improperly, with a force that could shake any man who hasn’t lived as long as he has. Or had the idiocy or perhaps even courage to stand against a Harbinger who held the incredible amount of bloodlust the Eleventh had. Ginger brows furrowed as Zhongli only stared back silent and unwavering. “You don’t seem surprised at all to see me here Xiansheng, could it be you guessed I would have the wits to figure this all out myself? Or did you truly find me dumb enough to fall into your hands like a pawn?”
“Tartaglia I am afraid I cannot let you harm the Exuvia. The Traveler was the one who had told me to come here, I merely expected to see the worst with such timing as this.” Finally ending his silence with clenched fists at his side. “I do not wish this be the grounds we fight on—” Yet he knew it was how it had to be.
It was how it was meant to be.
And how it would have to be.
The Harbinger had stopped him from continuing gave a dry laugh. “You know it is my job as The Fatui Harbinger to see to it that the Will of the Tsaritsa is fulfilled. However you had underestimated me far too much, they say that no matter the form Rex Lapis takes he will always be permanently stuck with the eyes of cor lapis.” A step further. A step back. His dominant hand held out ready to summon a weapon in case he needed to defend himself. “Eyes so unmistakable anyone would deem themselves a fool to not believe they met a god staring into them.”
Sweat began to form on his brow. He wasn’t supposed to know, he always forgot his mora, he was knowledgeable and could never forget a single detail of the past but he was so sure he had perfected being a mortal. Perfected his new life. Perfected his plan to keep the other in the dark-
“You can’t possibly mean-”
“There is no Gnosis within the Exuvia Morax.”
Childe stared at him with a glare he couldn’t possibly imagine the other could muster. The pure venom he spat towards him speaking his name, his true name, the name he had been given since he was first born. The way he spoke it was never the way he wanted him to say it, it was not spoken with softness. Nor intimacy he had come to know from the Harbinger when he spoke his mortal name. “I had my suspicions for a while you know, maybe I wanted to believe you didn’t see me as a tool but as an equal. A human.”
Perhaps it was true, he saw him as someone considered equal to he was. Not equal to gods but equal to him.
Yet treated him in the end like a tool, or a pawn to sacrifice to the other side to secure a righteous victory. Just like he had done so long ago within the war of Archons. “Tell me Xiansheng will you hand over your Gnosis or will I have to rip it out just like La Signora had done to the Anemo Archon not so long ago.” The Harbinger summoned himself a blade purely of hydro. Zhongli hesitantly had summoned his polearm. A vortex vanquisher, a signature weapon of not just his but of Rex Lapis himself.
Perhaps afterwards he should pay his dear old friend a visit. Maybe bring some of Liyue’s finest alcoholic beverages, and a dish made with cecelia.
Zhongli looked at Childe with pensive eyes, “Do not let this be the grounds I must harm you on Childe.'' Holding hand out while taking a stance of defense from the Harbinger’s offensive pose. “The contract has yet to be fulfilled if you simply-”
Childe spared him no chance to speak, nor explain his actions. Hydro and metal clashed as Zhongli refused to bow down to his will of battle. “Contracts, that’s all this is about isn’t it? You never cared about anything else but your precious contract.” A cackle escaped his mouth as Zhongli only sent a pulse of Geo to send Childe down to the platform within the middle of the Golden House.
The Harbinger slid as he fell onto one knee looking upward towards the not yet retired archon infront of him. Zhongli held the tip of his polearm towards him as if asking him to try and come further.
His heart guarded as its always been. His posture being that of an unwavering stone. But water always eroded it in the end didn’t it?
Tartaglia laughed realizing he truly stood no chance against a god who held his gnosis close to his chest. Though that thought wouldn’t truly stop him, he wiped the edge of his mouth holding his hydro blade out to Zhongli. To Morax. “Come on Xiansheng, show me what a god can do.”
Zhongli shook his head his throat feeling dry. “I don’t want to hurt you Tartaglia.” Let alone kill him. The Tsaritsa sent him as canon fodder, it never mattered who summoned the god of vortexes to cause havoc. She only wanted his Gnosis.
That was the conclusion Zhongli had come too after weeks of meeting him. But he remained silent and compliant in the end.
He clicked his tongue, “In a battle it’s kill or be killed, I thought you as the god of war would know that.” With that he charged forward letting his vision leap him into an attack towards the consultant who once again blocked with his weapon. Together the two lead a dance of blades, sorrow and regrets. Zhongli holding himself back from the need to kill, to hurt, to stop him by any means possible from stealing what was his. He had planned on giving it, yet without knowing his home the place he had sworn to guard for over thirty thousand seven hundred years would be safe without him, it caused him to fight.
His last stand to defend what was rightfully his.
“Childe we can talk about this, please” he begged before lifting a pole from the ground to stop the onslaught of arrows towards his person and a pulse of geo bringing Childe back onto the ground groaning. “Let us end this.”
The Harbinger on the floor cackled yet again letting his fatui mask slip onto his face, effectively hiding whatever feeling was behind those lifeless yet alluring oceanic eyes Zhongli found himself staring into far too often. “I’ll stop when you’re dead” A large surge of electro energy threw him off guard.
Zhongli found himself slammed into the nearest wall gasping as he felt the air escape his lungs far too quickly before he forced himself to stand a hand feeling his ribs as he looked upon the new form Childe wore. His clothes inverted shades, as purple electric particles and ripples came out of his form. So this was his delusion, this was him using the power bestowed upon by the dear Tsaritsa and Cryo Archon herself.
“Then I have no choice then do I?” he spoke hopefully loud enough for the other to hear his voice. His voice wavering ever so slightly as he watched the other wield a spear made of pure electric power and proceed to break it in half. Zhongli only sighed as he summoned his polearm that had disappeared in the midst of the knockback.
The archon found himself yet again clashing weapons with the other.
Sweat and blood appearing as soon to be scars mar not just his but the other’s body as well. His eyes glow as if one was putting a stone of cor lapis up to the sun letting it shimmer and gleam as a sight to behold. Parry, push back, rise, defend, the dance of blades and not the dance of love he had hoped to share with the Harbinger.
Love.
Did he love him?
Had he only kept what he kept from him as a way to keep him safe? Perhaps he had tried to keep him at arm's length so as to not hurt not just himself but the other once the truth came out.
How laughable.
To think in the end they would still hurt each other both physically and emotionally that they’re performing a glorious battle to the death. “You’re still holding back Morax.” Tartaglia had said once Zhongli had realized he’s been pushed against the geo pole he had raised only moments earlier. “Come on, do I have to be the one who pushes my limits to get to yours?” Zhongli let out a low growl before dissipating his polearm and gripping the electro spear. He bit back a howl at the burn as his leather gloves could only help so much against the pure energy.
He had lifted the lower half of his body leaning his back onto the pole heavily as he kicked the Harbinger off in the midriff letting him roll onto the beautifully, now ruined and cracked floor of The Golden House. Zhongli slid his tattered gloves off revealing what he had hidden underneath for so long.
The dark coat he had used to cover his body fell to the floor as sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Summoning the Vortex Vanquisher and twisting and twirling it in his hands stepping up towards the fallen man. Pointing the end of his spear to the apple of his throat and crouching down ever so slightly. “Till death do us part, do you wish for this second to be your last Tartaglia?”
Almost pleading with the man to rethink.
To rethink this battle, to come into his arms and hold each other in an embrace. An embrace that exceeded the status of what could be considered ‘friendship’. The Harbinger stared up at him, Celestia above he wanted to know the emotion and turmoil that swirled in those blue abyssal eyes. But they were covered by the red mask he often adorned on the side of his head
“No. I don’t Morax.” For just a second he felt hope. Relief. A smile formed on the god’s face.
A split second he could speak to Childe and not Tartaglia. Yet it was crushed like his enemies were, once he felt the energy of hydro and electro colliding at once. The reaction was felt down to the bone and even down to the beating Gnosis that took the place of his heart, perhaps he had thought to rejoice too soon. Perhaps he thought it too good to be true. As the Harbinger had released his final transformation he would soon learn to be called ‘Foul Legacy’.
One moment he was ontop of him with a spear to his throat. The next he found himself struggling for purchase on the floor.
Foul indeed, Childe may smell faintly touched of the abyss something only those divine and wise know of. But this form reeked of it. The smell was overwhelming his senses as he lay shifting weight to his elbows paralyzed at the man.. The animal. The monster in front of him.
How could his body handle such a form?
He had grown twice his height and taken in the power of not his vision, but delusion and the abyss itself and can still stand on his own two feet. The sheer power a mortal like Tartaglia could hold was… Should it be done in another instance than this Zhongli might feel a sense of pride for him. But now he felt a sense and a twinge of fear. “Do I leave you speechless Morax? Does my form remind you of the Abyss?” Childe’s voice was no longer recognizable, it was almost mechanical and there was a growl evident. The man, the monster had summoned his weapon from abyssal energy and slammed it into the already cracked and worn out floor little it collapse underneath the two of them.
Zhongli couldn’t react and only attempt to keep himself from being buried under the hard thick rubble of The former Golden House floor as he felt the air leave his lungs once he hit the hard floor. He spat out what he surely hoped wouldn’t be blood as he stared up at the descending abyss form of Tartaglia.
Cor lapis eyes squint through the dust as he sees a shine of purple before getting tossed by Hydro charged with Electro and groaning yet again. Archons he was going to feel that in the morning after and he knew it. If he even survived till the morning after.
“How about you hand over your gnosis before I kill you for it.”
Zhongli stood on his legs, letting his adeptal energy wash over him to let the ache dissipate. “You won’t kill me.” He growled letting his form show the power he held. The glowing horns his Exuvia held, the tail he hid and the talons that grew from perfectly manicured nails. “I will make sure of it.” His polearm helped him stand from the sparks of electricity coursing through his body. A growl leaving his throat as he let his legs that felt so incredibly numb carry him to make a move towards the other.
In his mind, his primal instinct was only to kill, to protect, exterminate the threat that will lay chaos across his land. The abyssal scum who reeked of its homeland and made him snarl in disgust.
The two beings fought with the energy and power that resonated within one another, Tartaglia taking favor in attacking Zhongli with large bursts of electro and hydro energy with the use of his summoned polearm that turned into a bow shooting projectiles towards the Archon. Whom of which used the might of his polearm to break the projectiles of his relentless attacks but still finding himself getting grazed by the arrows in question and dealing with the slight shock of electricity.
Zhongli himself returned with summoned spears made of the pure energy of geo clawing and scratching at him like he was a cat gone feral. Biting, scratching, pulling, he was a god of war for a reason. War was never fair, so why fight fair?
He witnessed the Harbinger lift himself upwards, Zhongli stilled for a moment. Unsure of what attack the other had in mind as he watched Tartaglia send a beast of an attack plunging down towards him. A Narwhal made of hydro came crashing down. Zhongli couldn’t give himself the reflexes to dodge inhaling and drowning in the copious amounts of water and wanting to scream at his muscles paralyzed by the electro energy within it. He found himself without his polearm, wet, and most of all exhausted and worn from the fighting. He hadn’t thought he would find himself in this position to begin with, perhaps erosion had come for him early in the form of taking away his fighting prowess and talent. Perhaps he didn’t want to fight Tartaglia at all, not even if he reeked of the Abyss and wielded it with only pride and not a sense of disgust or remorse for it.
Perhaps the draconic beast within him found no need to harm someone who became apart of what could be called a ‘hoard’.
He turned his head to the side and spat out the blood and spit in his mouth, growling as he watched the abyss monster descend to him and crouch straddling his waist and not letting him with any way to escape.
Weak.
Weak was not a word he could often find himself being described as, emotionally, mentally and physically he had the strength of a boulder, a mountain. Immovable and unstoppable. He looked up at the monster unable to see his eyes, “You.. Coward.” He spat Tartaglia only laughed.
“Me? A coward? What could make an archon who plans on running away from his duties under the false tense of being dead gain the authority to call me a coward?” He felt the weight of the other’s polearm on his neck, the sharp end threatening to pierce the skin. Zhongli grit his teeth narrowing his eyes at the Harbinger in the orb that protruded from the mask. “If anything I may have to call you a coward instead.”
Zhongli spat at him in the mask leaving Childe disgusted at the blood that stained it, though he did nothing to wipe it off.
An Archon’s blood touching him?
Isn’t that quite the accomplishment.
“A coward wouldn’t hide himself behind a mask. Nor choose to fight with his gifted strength to keep himself from the truth.” Tartaglia felt himself recoil but Zhongli had not moved an inch, he didn’t know if he could find himself the strength from within to do so. “I am no coward, I fought you in defense of the contract between me and the cryo archon. I may have hidden myself from you, but my actions were no lies.” To flip the Harbinger over and keep him from kill, he knew he would one day regret. He felt his form return to its mortal state as his eyes softened.
A brief pause and chill went through the air. Childe found himself back in his normal form, his false polearm gone as his hair and clothing were just as messy as Zhongli’s
Zhongli could see the dimness of his eyes. Deep as the depths of not just the sea but the Abyss he managed to crawl out of still alive and entirely human. Human… That’s all he was, a fragile human who has no idea how heavy the weight of immortality and godhood lies on the shoulders of an archon. Morax envies him, to live as freely as he wished for only a handful of decades to a century.
What a life that would be..
“Xiansheng..” Childe said, his voice hoarse and dry, could the strain of his abyssal form be hard on him? He’d assume so, growing and shrinking at such a fast rate would cause tension to one's body. A dry chuckle escaped the mouth of the Harbinger. “Xiansheng- xiansheng… Why do you always break me down.”
“I don’t understand..” He replied in a voice barely above a whisper.
He heard the other make a choking sound similar to a whimper as he felt the warm leathery glove delicately touch his cheek. He longed to feel the calluses and rough skin that was hidden beneath it. “I can’t love another god.. I-.. I don’t want to love another god—”
Love.
Love was a hard concept to grasp.
There was no proper definition to it, it could mean so many different things across all kinds of cultures, eras, and people themselves. Morax could never quite understand what brings others to love him when he himself can't quite understand love beneath the surface of extreme admiration. Yet staring into those oceanic eyes he knew what he meant.
This love, he spoke of, it was not familial, not in the same way he had thought of Hu tao, or Barbatos or even the Adepti. It was not platonic like how he had thought of Guizhong or Azdaha in the days long before he had become a funeral consultant.
This love was new.. Dangerous.. and yet he embraced it willingly. Because he too felt that love, a romantic love he’s never felt in any sense of the word and finally he could understand why it was so important to mortals to love. “Then don’t love me like a god Childe.” He smiled softly leaning into the tender touch of the Harbinger. “Love me like a mortal, or an adepti. Love..Love me like I am only Zhongli. Not Morax, or Rex Lapis.”
He let the other lean down feeling the other’s breath on his face, he’s never been so close to admiring the other quite like this before. A face so pale like snow, yet bore freckles that came out from the Liyue Sun dusting across his nose and cheeks.
His eyes that held no spark no twinkle like a starless night but could imitate the brightness as if it bore one. They even resembled the beautiful deep blue oceans of liyue.
If perfection was a human Zhongli would assume it’d be the man on top of him. “M-Maybe.. I will, if you’ll love me like I’m only Ajax.” Ajax.. What a name, a true name for a warrior and a man as fierce as he is. For a moment he forgets about the plan he and the Tsaritsa had curated, for Morax to test Liyue Harbor and for Tartaglia to unleash an ocean god trapped under the sea bed.
It was a good moment.
“I plead with you Ajax..” Zhongli enjoyed how beautifully the name rolled off the tongue. “Let me Kiss you dearly.”
“How can I say no to that?”
The gap between them closed as the two let their lips connect, neither had realized they had longed for such affection. Neither realized they had never been given the chance until now, forgetting the world around them, their duties, their desires that didn’t align with wanting the other. All they wanted in that moment was each other, a simple love story tied up with a bow.
At Least for a few moments.
Once their lips parted they gazed into each others eyes before being interrupted by a clap and a familiar clink of heels on debris and polished floor. “A beautiful blasphemous love between Liyue’s god and a Schneznayan man who had already given himself to the Tsaritsa.” Childe glared as he turned his head to the side to spot his fellow Harbinger, La Signora. Tall and as femme fatale as she could get as she crossed her arms with a smirk dashing across her red lips.
“What are you doing here.” Zhongli asked, beating Childe to the punch. “I had told you-”
“Rex Lapis, it’s not kind to keep a lady waiting.” She interrupted the Archon earning a growl from him but she continued. “Once I realized things were going.. not as planned, I had to investigate myself. Imagine my surprise seeing you two in such a.. intimate position.” Childe’s glare held even more so at the poison she spat. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that a face like that might stick if you hold it like that any longer?”
The other scoffed letting himself stand despite the ache in his muscle screaming to him to do otherwise. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you when to shut up?”
Zhongli sliding out from under Childe, put himself in a sitting position unable to bring himself to a stand yet unsure of what may happen. Should the two harbingers fight with Childe in such a state… He may not be able to handle more stress on his body, even if he was built to endure the harshest of conditions. “Now now, you said you would summon Osial. Yet here you are betraying our dear Tsaritsa for another God, she will not be happy when she hears about this especially if we get no Gnosis in return.”
“Why- YOU-” Childe summoned a hydro blade in an attempt to lay an attack but he was far too slow to dodge the dagger made of ice that was stabbed in his abdomen.
The Harbinger choked at the pain as it was twisted before being pulled out, he held the spot before falling backwards. Zhongli screamed as he forced himself to run towards the Harbinger cradling and checking over the wound. “I shall test Liyue myself, I’m sure Rex Lapis would never break a contract even in spite of this. Recent development.” The Archon glared at La Signora, he had been promised no harm shall come to the citizens of Liyue. Yet there was no clause against harm on Tartaglia.
“I recommend you leave me be, before I do break it.”
The woman only huffed before leaving him be with the bleeding Harbinger.
Right.
He was bleeding. Bleeding. Zhongli hurried to put pressure on the wound, earning a groan from the other who was luckily hanging on by a mere thread. Bubu Pharmacy was too far to walk or run with the weight of another on his shoulders. “Please- Hold on for me Ajax, if only for a few minutes longer.”
The other only muttered with a slight nod to signify he was conscious.
Resonating with the adeptal energy within him the Golden House was soon left empty. Only rubble and Debris with the untouched Exuvia left behind to show the battle between the Harbinger and the Consultant.