Chapter Text
“The devil works hard, but funeral directors work harder!”
Yanfei perked up from her mountain of paperwork and to the creaking door frame.
She laughed as she lunged towards Hu Tao, twirling her ‘round and giggling as both their hats spun onto the floor. “You’re back! I was beginning to wonder what to do with all the plums Xiangling dropped off!”
Hu Tao tittered back, “Surely you haven’t finished too many already?”
With mock horror, Yanfei gaped and smacked Hu Tao’s twintails with an accusatory glare, only to be met with cackling in response, “Alright, alright, how about we dig into them now?”
That’s the first thing you want to do now that you’re back? Yanfei thinks incredulously, but only manages to shake her head in mild disbelief. Hu Tao chuckles at the disappointment on her face.
As they cleared the table of all the jumbled paperwork (Sure, Osial caused much terror and danger for the Liyuean populace, but dear Archons the paperwork -), she noted how Hu Tao kept one hand perpetually on the table for support.
Since Osial’s awakening, malevolent activity in Wuwang hill had surged, most likely from the karma and corruption that seeped from the festering corpse, and Hu Tao’s usually-monthly patrols there had now developed into weekly ones.
From the way she flopped onto the chair and lounged like she hadn’t sat down in 20 years, the emerging toll was undeniable, even if it was (not really) miniscule.
But, as Hu Tao teased her and pecked a kiss to her cheek, her worries melted away, if not totally.
Liyue could move on from Osial and the death of Rex Lapis. Surely this too, shall pass.
As they feasted on the sheer abundance of plum blossoms present on the table, Yanfei finds that she wouldn’t trade this happiness for anything else.
-
“Surely this too, shall pass.”
It would, but it appeared that it would do so later rather than sooner.
Turns out, old and crusty dead gods were pesky, petty creatures. Immediately after the fall of Osial, Beisht had decided to try and come back to the land of the living.
She died as quickly as he did.
(Yanfei isn’t sure if she should be disappointed or in awe of the commitment.)
Either way, the corruption seeping from Wuwang was ever-persistent, and Hu Tao’s patrols were now biweekly ones. (Logically, the corruption should seep into Liyuean shores, but according to Hu Tao the ley lines that coagulated at Wuwang had a far greater influence over the path the corruption took)
(Yanfei wasn’t sure how to feel about that either.)
As of now, Yanfei was treating one of Hu Tao’s many wounds, wrapping them in layers of gauze as the latter sipped on her grape juice.
Unprompted(?), she notices how it shares the same shade of red as Hu Tao’s blood did.
In the right lighting, it looked the same way it did as when it was ignited by pyro, as greedily consumed by the flames as Hu Tao greedily gulped down her choice of drink.
Yanfei pauses as Hu Tao hisses at the antiseptic, intertwining their fingers together and glancing at the blossoms of her eyes. “Won’t you let me come along the next time you go?”
Hu Tao fervently shakes her head. “And neglect all that paperwork? I’m pretty sure Liyue is a bit too dependent on your services at the moment. The last time we went on a day-long vacation together, didn’t everything in the harbor go to shit?”
With a light smack ( “Language!” “Sorry.”) , Yanfei replies, “Well, the death of Rex Lapis had us learning to stand on our own two feet. Surely they can learn to live without their best lawyer around for a few days.”
“Very true. ( “Could you work on this wound now?” “How did you even get one there?” “Don’t ask.”) But what happened to those who couldn’t take care of themselves during Osial? What would happen to those who can’t take care of themselves for now without you around? Anybody’s life could get ruined in a single day. Isn’t that why you chose to become a lawyer in the first place? To prevent that from happening to anyone? To make sure all are treated fairly under the law?”
Yes, it was . Yanfei thought. But it wasn’t how I got my Vision .
Everyone deserves to live life happily without overstepping. The whole world seems to overstep into yours.
Hu Tao hums as she flings her drink into the trash bin across the room. “We can only do what we can, can’t we?”
And Yanfei, she thought miserably, probably wasn’t.
-
In the months after, the aftermath of Beisht's awakening declines into the new normal of Liyue harbor: one with the heightened expectancy of reuniting with not-so-dormant gods, and the driving progress of the Qixing thrusting Liyue into a new era of prosperity.
Clearly, this did not reflect the state of supernatural activity.
Because, after one of Hu Tao’s tri-weekly patrols, she comes back with eyebags that make her look like she hasn’t slept in 3 days. Most likely, she didn’t.
Her behavior seemed to point to it too: she was being unusually direct with her answers as Yanfei tried to fix her up.
“What was it this time?”
“Some other ancient reawakened god.”
“Do they have a name?”
“Azhdaha, from what the wisps were saying.”
“That sounds awfully famili- Archons above , Hu Tao, why the fuck are there ancient characters burned into your stomach?”
Hu Tao looks away, quickly pulls her shirt down and giggles nervously, ( “Language.” “Answer the question.”) “Azhdaha…was a giant frog. A frog that could also stick characters to you that would throb for a little while.”
Yanfei’s head was spinning. Archons, what mortal’s duty was it to fight the remnants of some fucking obscure, unknown (probably cracked in terms of both power and mind) God?
As Yanfei struggles to find any words to force out, Hu Tao’s eyes soften as she pulls her closer. “You’re going to ask me to stop and take a break.”
Yanfei nods.
“Then you already know what my answer is.”
She does.
-
It takes a few more weeks of this routine before Yanfei actually realizes that there is corruption clinging to Hu Tao .
Maybe it was the fact that it was so gradual, or maybe it was the fact that Hu Tao’s excursion was 5 days long this time, but it doesn’t shake off the fact that holy shit corruption .
“How are you alive?”, is the only greeting she gives Hu Tao, who was leaning on her staff as she limped through the door.
“I’ve been wondering that for years.” Hu Tao blankly replies.
“I’m coming with you the next time you go.” This is not the time to do this. This is not the time to reopen this conversation. She should be treating Hu Tao’s wounds and they should be pretending that this was all going to be over soon. “Liyue doesn’t even really need a lawyer right now anyway.”
“No.” Hu Tao clasps Yanfei’s arms, nearly collapsing in the process. “That’s a horrible idea.”
“Hu Tao, I can fight. I’m an adeptus. What use is a lawyer if one of Liyue’s biggest threats is the sheer amount of untreated and unknown corruption in Teyvat? Let me come.”
“No.” She protests weakly, again. “We could…We could get lost. I almost get lost myself, sometimes. Two people means a greater chance that two people don’t make it out alive. If we make it out at all.”
Yanfei is going to scream.
Hu Tao tries her best to smile. “And before you ask again, no, stopping isn't an option. This is all for Liyue, remember?”
Hu Tao’s vision glows an angry red. Yanfei stares into her eyes, the blossoms in them seemingly ablaze with flames of their own, filled with a multitude of emotions: passion, resignation, drive, and overwhelming sadness.
(And a bit of love, and a bit of devotion)
“Fine.” Yanfei bites out, “Fine.”
It’s just another restless night.
-
Yanfei isn’t even fazed anymore when Hu Tao comes home with multi-colored bruises all over her body, after treating Abyss-related activity that had something to do hilichurls assembling in the Chasm (or something adjacent; Hu Tao wasn’t able to catch much this time).
There was yellow pus on her legs, angry red welts on her knees, sickly green spots on her arms, and a blue eye that was, well, an actual bruise.
So, it was extremely shocking that, as Yanfei wrapped bandages across Hu Tao’s arms, two things occurred:
1) She noticed, with stark horror, that one of Hu Tao’s fingers was cracking and black.
2) She noticed, with starker horror, that said finger fell and impacted onto the ground, into fine soot and powder.
Her gaze must have been far too fierce, because Hu Tao actually flinches away and refuses to meet her eyes. “Ah.”
…
“Your finger got burnt into soot.”
“The adrenaline must have been intense.”
“The only way that’s possible is by burning it inside out.”
“Very intense.”
Yanfei almost breaks down crying, and the tears are spilling over anyway. “Hu Tao, please.”
Her partner makes something in between a smile and a grimace, “I know where to get prosthetics, the funeral parlor requests them for some clients.”
“That’s not the point .” Yanfei grabs Hu Tao’s shoulders, nails almost biting into skin. Hu Tao still refuses to meet her eyes. “Your vision used to just burn away your blood and your lifeforce. You’re telling me it’s now burning you too?”
“...it was meant to burn away the corruption.”
“Also not the point.”
…
“...maybe it always has been.”
“For fuck’s sake”, Yanfei really is crying now. Through her blurry vision, she’s half-convinced Hu Tao is too. “You should’ve stopped this a long time ago.”
They’re going in circles. They’ve been going in circles for the last few months. “I can’t. I want to, but I can’t. ”
They’re hugging now, desperately and fervently, their fingers cradling each other’s faces, and each other’s shapes.
“Then let me come with you this time.”
The silence that follows after is only broken by their gasps and their sniffling.
“Okay.” Hu Tao’s voice breaks, as she concedes. “Okay.”
-
The realm beyond was beautiful.
The clouds on the ground were pure, untainted white. The sky, a never-ending pinkish-purple. The wildlife, evergreen, lush and flourishing.
Unfortunately, staying here meant the absolute opposite: certain death.
Yanfei has been, for the last hour and a bit, attempting to catch Hu Tao’s hand, as she dashes around from the other realms beyond.
Her words kept breaking off as she kept disappearing back into the pocket of the realm she herself was in:
“I’m going", she disappears.
"To try and", she erratically cuts off once more.
"Count down again. Try to catch. Me. After I say. One.”
Yanfei had little faith that it was going to work, given that Hu Tao's form kept fading in and out sporadically, but what else was there to do?
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
Yanfei lunges forward, nails digging into the raw skin of Hu Tao’s forearm, before the both of them came crashing down onto the compact soil of Wuwang hill again.
As they panted and lay down on the cold, moist ground, Yanfei was quite sure she was going to cry from relief. And the lack of it.
Hu Tao gulps and chokes her next words out. “Let’s…let’s never do that again.”
Yanfei agrees.
-
“Your eyebags look horrible, Miss Yanfei.”
Yanfei blearily looks up to see who she’s being addressed by.
She's greeted with the sight of Mr Zhongli elegantly striding forward, with what seemed to be genuine concern in those amber eyes of his.
He walks up to her bench, places himself on said bench, and motions for her to sit down.
Maybe it’s because she and Hu Tao truly regard him as a friend (who they just so happened not to share this with, who knows why), maybe it’s because he’s far too knowledgeable, or maybe it’s because there’s no one else for her to confide this in (because if she did, mass chaos and panic might spread throughout the Liyuean populace), but either way, she somehow ends up spilling everything to Mr Zhongli.
The time passes by in a blur, and she’s not even sure how much she has shared, as she stares at her hands the entire time.
“And…and this has been going on since Rex Lapis’s death. It’s been so long . She’s collecting karma . Mr Zhongli, I’m not even sure you know the answer, but what on Teyvat am I supposed to do now?”
Silence follows. Yanfei realizes that Zhongli has been eerily quiet for the last few minutes, compared to the usual tranquil silence that he usually carries.
“Mr Zhongli?”
Warily, she tilts her head up.
Zhongli’s face is a sickly pale. His hands were clenched, stiff on the table. His face, often retrospective and deep in thought, looked like it couldn’t want to be further from the present moment enough.
He still doesn’t reply.
As she stares at him, as he stares at the ground, she realizes that Mr Zhongli also has corruption leaking out of him what the fuck?
If she looked closer, she could see the lines of his suit glowing a dark orange, the ends of his hair fluorescing in the little shade of the parlor.
She had never looked closer before, but his narrow eyes carried a reptilian edge to them. And his Vision wasn’t glowing.
How- How has she never noticed this?
Part of her mind tells her that it’s just been running on panic and desperation for the last few months, that her mind is just going off on irrational tangents, but what if Rex Lapis never actually died, his cause of death was never actually released public and if Azhdaha’s remains made it to Wuwang Hill than someone actually had to deal with Azhdaha himself first but that means that Hu Tao has been dealing with Rex Lapis’s problems and he might not even actually be dea-
“Geez, the two of you look absolutely horrible.”
Hu Tao exits the parlor smelling like death.
(Yanfei realizes that Hu Tao always smells this way after her patrols.)
(She also realizes that Hu Tao’s tendrils of corruption are now familiar to her. And she feels remnants of that familiarity when she looks at Zhongli.)
(She vaguely feels like puking.)
Hu Tao frowns. “Yanfei?”
She forces herself to calm down. Rex Lapis is dead. Zhongli is not Rex Lapis.
She still never visits the funeral parlor again.
-
This time, Hu Tao doesn’t come back with any wounds.
Instead, she steps through the door with an empty face, and even emptier eyes. Wordlessly, Yanfei pushes a bowl of plums towards her as she sits down, still staring into space.
The silence is uncomfortably comfortable now.
“It was some spirit from Inazuma this time. Some spirit named Kazari. She died 500 years ago, and passed on months ago, but part of her traveled here, somehow.”
After Hu Tao’s monotonous drone, Yanfei still doesn’t know what to fill the silence with.
“Thank Archons there was no fighting this time...My vision seems to be malfunctioning now.”
Nothing really surprises her anymore. With a raised eyebrow, Yanfei tenderly unclasps Hu Tao’s Vision and raises it up for inspection.
Indeed, for a pyro vision it appears much more lackluster than it usually does.
Still, she silently clasps it back, and reaches out to clasp Hu Tao’s hand in hers, another desperate, resigned, hopeless plea.
It’s clasped back equally as tightly. An equally desperate, resigned, hopeless rejection.
-
Yanfei isn't sure if her experience in the Chasm was supposed to be liberating, but it was.
Her mind didn't have to think about Hu Tao and death much, because they were all in too much danger to actually think anyway. Sure, the pressure was much more intense, but having that weight lifted and only being left with the weight of Hu Tao’s predicament felt much better in comparison.
This, of course, made the realization that Hu Tao hadn’t been home for days much worse in comparison.
The plums in the house were rotting, dust was collecting on the dining table, and the Staff of Homa was nowhere to be found.
When Yanfei finally ran her lungs dry and heaving, she finds Hu Tao’s body at the base of the Hidden Palace of Zhou Formula.
As she scrambles forward and shakes her limp body, as she checks for breathing and a pulse, she freezes at the sight of Hu Tao’s hands.
The arcs on her fingers and the tainted color of her veins were unmistakable: they were the works of incredibly precise and powerful electro.
And those very same marks were on Yanfei’s two arms.
With a gasp, Hu Tao’s eyes snap wide open. She jumps onto her feet, conjuring her staff and points it at Yanfei’s throat.
“Bosacius”, she rasps.
Fuck , Yanfei thinks.
She rolls to the side as Hu Tao’s spear spins forward, carefully but hastily leaping over the ponds of water to prevent getting vaporized.
Hu Tao scrambles up with wild desperation, eyes crazed as she throws her polearm towards Yanfei’s abdomen. She dashes to the side, and Hu Tao materializes next to her weapon again.
Hu Tao grunts, lighting aflame with pyro, brandishes her weapon and charges forward. Yanfei thrusts a ball of pyro onto the ground in front of her and maneuvers away from the smokescreen.
With a handful of dirt, Yanfei thrusts the cloud of dust towards Hu Tao’s eyes. She cries out, retreating back a few steps, but the air around her remains scalding.
“Hu Tao please , calm down. ”
“Get out of my head, yaksha.” Hu Tao snarls and aims for the feet. Yanfei hastily climbs up the tree and readies her catalyst.
The tendrils snake and wrap tighter around Hu Tao’s body. They flare and fall, rise and roll.
Gods above, if she hits Hu Tao with her Vision she might scald her to a crisp. And yet, playing pacifist meant being burnt to a crisp.
The only solution was to remove pyro from the equation altogether.
With a quick thrust, Yanfei launched another fireball a few meters away. Hu Tao immediately whirled around and struck empty air.
Yanfei jumped and plunged down, slamming Hu Tao into the ground, wrestling and keeping her limbs bound.
Despite a few attempted bites from Hu Tao, Yanfei manages to snatch her Vision away and hurls it off the cliff in the direction of Stone Gate.
Almost instantly, Hu Tao’s limbs turn to jelly, her eyes roll to the back of her head, and she passes out.
After a few precious seconds of peace, Yanfei slumps to the ground and stares desolately at the charred ground.
Good grief.
-
Hu Tao finds herself a lot worse for wear than she ever remembered.
Groaning, she tosses around in her bed, lifts her head up, and sees Yanfei staring hollowly at her form.
She notices that Yanfei has a pinwheel scar in her shoulder in the shape of Homa’s tip. She’s too tired to think of the implications.
Yanfei’s lips are moving, but the only thing Hu Tao hears is ambient ringing.
It takes many repeats for Hu Tao to finally absorb what Yanfei is saying.
“I can’t find your Vision.”
Oh.
She blinks.
She wouldn’t be surprised if Yanfei decided not to find her Vision on purpose, but still. Oh.
“Oh.” She very eloquently responds.
They sit in silence again.
Hu Tao looks at Yanfei carefully. Very carefully this time.
Her shape has gotten angular, in a much more fragile way compared to her own sharper features. Her arms, thinner. Her fingers, longer. Eyes that used to shine a retrospective turquoise are now much more akin to the view of the never-ending deep sea.
Her mouth has gotten thinner too. Hu Tao wonders how long it has been since they’ve passionately kissed.
“Why…”
Here it is.
“Why did your Vision, if it represents your ambition, why does it burn and eat away at you?”
It’s too early in the day for this taboo.
Regardless, Hu Tao fidgets with her blankets, and slowly forms a reply. “I’m sure I’ve told you a little bit of this before.”
“Dear old Yéyé had this job before I did, after mom and dad both got caught in some freak accident at the ley lines. Even after all that, and all this, he didn't wait at the barrier. At all. He didn’t have any regrets, and passed away in peace.
Surely, with all the turmoil that Liyue (and the rest of Teyvat, of course) has been experiencing, everyone wants to pass over peacefully, and happily. Of course I want that too. But I’d have to ensure peaceful passing for everyone else first. It’s my duty, and responsibility.
Maybe it isn’t, and maybe the Gods above should learn how to clean up their own messes. Who knows? I didn’t have anyone to teach me.”
She laughs a little wetly. Yanfei remains sullenly silent.
Archons, it really is far too early for this conversation. Or maybe far too late.
“Because, even if it’s originally up to the Gods above, at the end of the day, this service was always for the people of Teyvat first and foremost. Who would want to be half-trapped in the land of the dead? Who would want their essence to be mixed with that of evil spirits? Who is this on now? It’s us. It’s always been us.
"But," Hu tao laughs wetly again. "Look at me!" She summons Homa and drives it into the wall. Yanfei doesn't even bother coming up with a rebuke, and thud that sounds is painfully dull. "How do I do any of that like this? I've always been too weak to fight properly, and there's too little time to learn. What else can I give but myself?
"And that’s what the Vision was. Who else could possibly fulfill this job? Who else could possibly navigate those realms? Who else even knows how to properly interact with those spirits anyway? Who else knows the importance of the purpose, the intricacies, of sending people off? There is only this. The last time I tried showing you a few gimmicks of the trade, we both almost died. My Vision maybe have been killing me, but it's the only reason I'm alive.
So now? Now, I’m the only one who could possibly carry out this duty. It's for Liyue, for the Qixing, for families, for Yéyé and for you. Even if it’s not necessarily what I want: I want to be free of all of this. But I can’t. Even if it means that there would be nothing of me left.”
(The room glows a dull green.)
“Besides”, Hu Tao snickers humorlessly, “have you ever seen anyone as comfortable talking about death as I am? Are you sure there’s anyone better for the job anyway?”
She looks to the side, at Yanfei’s incredulous eyes, staring into her lap.
Hu Tao shifts her head over, and sees the Anemo Vision on her blankets.
…
Huh.
-
After the events in the Chasm, Liyue finally did return to times of mundane normalcy.
Hu Tao’s patrols went back to occurring monthly, but the tolls of accumulating karma constantly for months and years had already made their mark in the form of phantom pains and terrors.
Despite her monologue (the day after she nearly murdered her beloved), Yanfei found that there was a stubborn wedge that developed during those long months that just didn’t go away. Hu Tao returned to being her pre-Osial self, or as much as she superficially could, anyway. She wasn’t sweeping the past year under the rag, exactly, she was just waiting for Yanfei to initiate talking about it first.
Yanfei was not going to initiate talking about it first.
And so, they still shared the same house. They still ate plum blossoms together, and they still enjoyed the occasional banter. But somewhere along the line they had developed from lovers to strangers. Perhaps lovers and strangers.
And perhaps there was no other way that it was going to play out. Hu Tao had burned most of herself away, and there were only the wisps of what was left.
Yanfei’s own flame was too dim to relight what burnt out a long time ago.