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Xiao’s days consisted of a neverchanging routine.
Purging demons, meditation, patrols, repeat.
On occasion, he’d find a plate of Almond Tofu expertly placed atop the railing of the balcony or someone way too invested in the adepti would ignore Verr Goldet’s warnings and ask for mindless favors if they were lucky enough to find him.
Although it wasn’t a common occurrence, it happened enough for him to not be surprised when it did.
All in all, his life was a routine, a circle drawn on parchment where the brush traced over the same line again and again, with a few uncertain strokes here and there. It would stop one day and he used to not mind, because that was where his destiny as a yaksha was headed inevitably, when his duty would end along with his karmic suffering.
That was, until the Traveler came along.
The Traveler, with her strange aura of starlight and bearing news that would shake his world. Lumine, who stirred foreign things within him with nothing but her silent affections and her soft smiles. His Lumine, beautiful and bright and kind, who weaved her way into his heart to stay.
Whatever near-perfect circle his life used to be turned into unpredictable scribbles. She would show up without warning with her own iteration of Almond Tofu, or to ask him for help on commissions she could perfectly do on her own, or to request his presence for the sole act of stargazing.
After initial reluctance, he came to welcome her fixation on the mundane and her desire to pull him along with her. It was a welcome reprieve, one he wouldn’t have experienced if it weren’t for her unyielding patience.
But, of course, she lived true to her title and left for Inazuma in search of her kin after delaying it more than she would’ve liked—she told him that herself. Xiao didn’t resent her, the thought never even crossed his mind, but her absence was suffocating.
Falling back into his routine was easy enough, but it was like she had carved her name on his skin, and he was foolishly expectant whenever he went back to the Inn’s balcony, only to be disappointed when it was empty.
It led him to making the conscious effort to lower his expectations and simply keep a small flame of hope that she would come back to visit one day, whenever that would be. Days blurred into one another, so it made sense that he was none the wiser when his birthday came around; he only realized thanks to Huai’an personally giving him a plate with Grilled Tiger Fish and wishing him a happy birthday in the very early hours of the day.
He ignored the different choice of dish, finished it, and went about his morning.
It was uneventful, which wasn’t a surprise; there were a few camps with corrupted monsters in them that he took care of and during his moment for himself, he took the liberty of thinking about Lumine. If anything, he wished she’d find a useful lead on her brother.
When he went back to the Inn with the intention of standing guard, since monsters were usually drawn to the Inn due to his karma, a glint of blue immediately caught his eye.
There was a Starconch on the railing.
With a closer look, he realized there wasn’t even a note attached to it; the conch was just… there. Xiao looked around, making sure there wasn’t anyone planning some scheme to lower his guard, but it appeared he was the only one up there.
He’d heard the stories; Starconches could contain secrets and be used to send messages, relaying what had been spoken to whoever put one to their ear. Picking the one presented to him up, for reasons unknown even to him, Xiao decided to do just that; a part of him expected words to be heard while another braced for nothing but howling wind. He wouldn’t have been fazed, being so used to karmic whispers plaguing his ears.
However, he did hear a voice, and it was one that he knew all too well. The second recognition dawned on him, he teleported to the Inn’s lobby, right in front of the counter. A man, probably in the middle of getting a room, let out a scream while Verr Goldet merely flinched.
“What is this?” Xiao asked, waving the object in his hand for emphasis.
“That,” the boss began, pausing for a second, “is a Starconch.”
“Do not play dumb, you know what I mean,” he insisted, though was mindful to keep the conch at a considerable distance in case his voice overlapped hers. To be frank, he wasn’t completely sure how the conches worked. “This is your voice.”
Verr Goldet had that glint in her eye that meant she knew more than she would ever tell him, at least until the time was right.
“Why don’t you actually listen to it, Xiao?” she asked, forgoing his accompanying title, most likely because of the patron standing there listening to the conversation.
“And why would I do that?”
“Because something good might happen if you get to the end of line. Aren’t you curious?” she asked, at least having dropped some of her smugness. Xiao was curious, apparently; he didn’t object, but he wouldn’t admit it out loud
Since she was too sharp, she noticed it on his face, anyway.
“Well then,” Verr Goldet patted the counter and leaned back to stand straight, an air of finality to her words, “enjoy the rest of your birthday.”
That was clearly his signal to leave, even if she hadn’t turned to the patron just yet. He knew it was out of respect and with a sigh, teleported back to the balcony. She’d find a way to explain the occurrence to her client, she always did.
He ran a hand through his hair before putting the Starconch against his ear again and kept it there this time.
“Near sacred grounds and in high peaks, four lonely flowers keep each other company. Happy birthday, Xiao. I hope this manages to make your day a little better.”
That was all her voice said, before the conch repeated it after a couple of seconds.
Xiao was, to put it simply, confused. She usually wished him a happy birthday in person, every year, without fail, no matter if he insisted it wasn’t necessary. Verr Goldet being herself, she never relented, so why say it through a Starconch of all things?
.
.
.
Her first sentence was a riddle.
That explained why she wanted him to ‘actually’ listen to it—she wanted him to solve her riddle.
He scoffed lightly to himself, both in amusement and bewilderment; was this her idea of him enjoying his birthday? It was new and it was a surprise, he’d give her that, but Xiao felt… strange about the whole thing, even while he went over the riddle in his head.
This was something he’d never done before, something he had never even thought about. Perhaps he would’ve done this in the past just to amuse Verr Goldet, but now, he couldn't deny the existence of curiosity pushing him forwards; he could thank a certain blonde girl for that change in him.
After a deep breath, he thought the riddle over more attentively. ‘Near sacred grounds and in high peaks’ made him think about Jueyun Karst and Huaguang Stone Forest almost immediately while ‘lonely flowers’ was probably referring to Qingxin, which commonly bloomed there.
That was easy enough. Four of them ‘keeping each other company’? Taking it literally, it might refer to four flowers growing in the same place. Could it truly be that simple? After all, there was a specific location that immediately came to mind.
Xiao knew Liyue like the back of his hand and Huaguang even more so, which was why it didn’t take him multiple tries to find the sole peak where there were four Qingxin—no more, no less.
While he didn’t know what to expect, seeing another Starconch there didn’t make him react in any way, even if it looked out of place in between the dew-covered flora and the wisps of clouds around. Perhaps expecting only one riddle was underestimating the overall scheme.
With a sigh and hints of a smile tugging at his lips, he picked up the second conch and–
“Happy bird-day, o mighty yaksha! You know, I’m impressed, because knowing you, you would’ve scoffed at the idea of hints and riddles within Starconches yet here you are, listening to one! It’s good that you’re loosening up, even if it’s a teeny tiny bit. Oh, and also, send my congratulations to your dea–” There was a voice in the background, familiar but unrecognizable. “–Aiya, alright, alright… Ahem! Falling through the skies, as missiles of water poured down relentlessly, you caught a certain someone by surprise… Hee-hee, sounds romantic. Anywho, I’ll leave you to it—have fun!”
The terrible pun, shameless teasing and utter disrespect could only belong to one funeral parlor director. Hu Tao had enough common sense to deny their strange friendship in front of other people, but whenever she could, she came fluttering around like a butterfly with her odd humor and stomach-turning dishes.
Apparently, she also remembered his birthday, or someone reminded her of it; if he had to guess, the latter seemed more likely based on the voice he couldn’t recognize. Xiao had his suspicions, but he refrained from acting upon them, and figured he’d find the answer at the end of the road.
Although, admittedly, after a minute of repeating the new riddle in his head, this one was a little harder.
He thought way back to the Archon War at the mention of ‘missiles of water’, which made him think about Osial and Guyun Stone Forest, but the rest wouldn’t make any sense. At the time, he didn’t catch anyone ‘by surprise’—at least, he didn’t think he did.
Xiao was almost certain that it referred to either Beisht or Osial and he hadn’t been heavily involved with the former. He hummed thoughtfully to himself; falling, Osial, missiles…
He wasn’t completely sure, but he went to the Harbor nonetheless, appearing on top of a ship mast in order to survey the piers. After dropping the Jade Chamber on the god, they all went to one of these, didn’t they?
In the end, it didn’t matter given there were no Starconches visible.
Ignoring the mild disappointment he felt due to not solving it, Xiao looked around and in very little time his eyes fell, and stayed, on the new Jade Chamber. It looked exactly like the last, the one that had played a very important role in defeating Osial, where Lumine and the Yuheng had fended the Fatui off before–
Ah.
The missiles broke the platform, people fell—including Lumine—and he caught her, bringing her back to the relative safety of the Chamber. So that was what the riddle was referring to, it was just more literal than he thought at first.
When he teleported to the roof of the Jade Chamber, with his eyes locked on the main platform, he blinked at the sight of Ganyu standing there by her lonesome, staring out at the vast horizon.
If he was right, the Starconch was supposed to be there instead of her, but the object in question was nowhere in sight. Was she… supposed to relay the message? At the very least there were no Millelith around, which was a relief, but also odd, considering the place itself.
Deciding to dwell on the matter no longer and shrugging it off, he dropped down and walked up to the half-Qilin, who turned around when he was close enough. Xiao didn’t miss how she fixed her posture immediately and nearly stood at attention, nor did he miss the Starconch in her hands.
“Conqueror of Demons–!”
“Xiao is fine.”
“X-Xiao… Right. Um, here,” she handed the conch over. “This is for you.”
He nodded as he took it from her, but didn’t listen to it instantly. Looking around, he confirmed that no one but the two of them were outside. The breeze was pleasant up there, refreshing and pure, with a hint of Glaze Lily and sea salt; a good place for meditation. Still…
“Why not just leave it out here?” he asked. As far as he was aware, Ganyu was very busy, enough that her sleeping schedule was a mess, so seeing her taking—or at least what he assumed was—a break was strange.
“Oh,” she seemed to catch on rather quickly. “Well, I figured since you never come here and we rarely see each other outside of training, I’d use the opportunity to wish you happy birthday in person.”
“I see.”
“...”
“...”
“Happy birthday.”
“Hm. Thank you.” She smiled at that and Xiao had no idea why. Another silence settled, in which no one said anything. He wasn’t used to interacting with Ganyu leisurely, if this even counted as such, and he could’ve teleported away to resume his riddle-solving, yet the idea felt… wrong, somehow.
Might as well voice his doubts.
“Why is this place so empty?” When she tilted her head, he clarified. “This is the Tianquan’s residence, is it not? One would assume there’d be soldiers guarding the place.”
“Usually there are, yes, over there,” she gestured towards the entrance, “but I told Zhenhai to wait inside for a little while until I was done with some business, which was to give you the conch. I’m aware humans aren’t your favorite to deal with.”
… Huh. That was considerate of her, although he was more worried about his karma affecting others rather than humans themselves.
“I should get back to work,” she announced suddenly with a small bow, bidding her goodbyes and walking off with a skip to her step, like she was in a hurry.
“Ganyu,” he called and she stopped, looking back at him. Xiao cleared his throat and turned his gaze away as he spoke. “Don’t slack on your training, it’s… proving to be useful.”
“I won’t,” she said, and when he looked back at her, the smile he’d heard in her voice was visible on her face. “Good luck, Xiao,” she waved and basically ran back inside.
Only once the door had been closed did he sigh, his shoulders falling; he hadn’t even realized that he was tense the entire time. Before the guard came back out, he went to the roof of the Chamber again and finally listened to Ganyu’s conch.
“Happy birthday! I hope this le– Wait, no, this isn’t a letter. Uh… I’ll just– By wave and storm they hunt for fish, by wind and snow they slay evil. Xiao, I… I wish you the best. And thank you, for being patient enough to train me. You’re– You’re a great mentor, truly.”
The riddle itself was easy and he knew where to go the moment she said the first two words, but Xiao still finished listening to the message. Ganyu would probably never say something like that to his face, given how painfully self-conscious she was about herself around him, but he appreciated the sentiment all the same, as strained as their relationship was.
He did wonder how many tries it took her, though.
Putting the Starconch away with the others, he went to Pervases’ Temple. Wang Ping'an wasn’t there this time around, but there were a few offerings along with lit incense that seemed considerably new. He didn’t pick up the Starconch immediately and instead, after a short pause, grabbed the unused incense sticks right next to it.
Carefully, he lit them up and placed them by the others before taking a moment to pay his respects. Xiao frequented the temple, or its surroundings, to be more specific—he rarely entered the place, if ever.
It always bothered him, made him feel uneasy, to be inside a place built and rebuilt for someone he used to interact with so casually. However, he had to admit having this was better than its previous rundown iteration. Pervases deserved to be remembered as well as the respect visitors were giving him.
With time, Xiao thought to himself, he’d come here—inside—more often. Giving the crane statue one last glance and a small bow of his head, he took the Starconch outside with him.
“Hello, Xiao, and happy birthday. I was planning on visiting you today, but given the circumstances, I might have to wait until tomorrow. I figure you’ll be… busy for the rest of the day.” Zhongli then chuckled, like he was the only one privy to a joke. Xiao imagined him smiling and with a hand on his chin. “The clue is as follows: where once rained stone now small, golden wings flutter, protected from the blazing sun. I will see you soon and do not forget your medicine.”
Xiao wasn’t expecting Zhongli, not in the slightest, but he tried not to dwell on it for too long. Thinking about the familiarity coming from the god that he owed his life to made him feel abashed, even if Lumine’s voice—or the memory of it—rang in his head and told him he didn’t have to, told him he wasn’t a burden.
Shaking his head, he listened to the Starconch again, purposefully skipping over whatever Zhongli thought was funny, and paid close attention to the riddle instead.
(Yes, he’d been taking his medicine, no matter how foul it was.)
Raining stone. Small, golden wings. Geo crystalflies, perhaps? And if they were ‘protected’ from the sun, the location could be a cave; it narrowed it down, but not by a lot. He took a moment to scour through his memories of places with crystaflies and the first image that came to mind was Guyun Stone Forest, although it wasn’t exactly a cave.
“Hmm…”
Oh, but it did fit into the ‘raining stone’ criteria, now that he thought about it. The rock formations that made up the place were caused by the remnants of the stone lances Rex Lapis used when fighting Osial.
That had to be it.
Wasting no more time, he went to the area where the small critters flew around and about, and they immediately went away due to his sudden appearance. He paid no mind to it, used to his strong aura driving certain living beings away, and instead attempted to find the next conch.
He was met with something else entirely. A call of his name, spoken with care and excitement, made him turn around to the source right behind him.
There she stood, radiant as always and unbelievably beautiful. For a moment, time stood still and the world stopped moving as he tried to process that she was there, in front of him. He’d suspected she was behind the whole ordeal, yes, but Xiao didn’t want to get his hopes up so he didn’t expect anything.
A part of him knew that was a lie, because at the moment, he was simply glad that he wasn’t wrong.
The sound of her steps snapped him out of his reverie and only then, when she was closer and at arm’s length, did he notice her version of Almond Tofu in her hands.
“Surprise,” Lumine said softly and smiled while extending the plate to him.
After a second, Xiao smiled back with a short huff of endeared disbelief.
“I cannot believe you put everyone up to that,” Xiao commented after Lumine was done explaining her entire plan, including writing the riddles herself and placing the Starconches in their respective places. She giggled with a shake of her head.
“Besides some food to convince Paimon, and to be fair she had a tough job, everybody else was thrilled to help,” she stopped playing with his hand for a second to look up at him and give him one of those smiles, warm as the sun, “they all genuinely care about you.”
He hummed, unable to get any words out, but she seemed satisfied as she went back to focusing on his hand, pressing lightly against his fingers and drawing patterns on his palm.
Lumine reminded him time and time again, whenever she had the chance, that she held him close to her heart; after the events in the Chasm, he no longer flinched away from her affection. Other people were a different story, but the messages within the Starconches were easy to listen to, easy to process and relatively easy to keep.
It was a small step, no more was needed, and a part of him was sure that was Lumine’s main objective.
He took a gentle hold of her hand and intertwined their fingers, squeezing firmly. Words had never been his forte and she knew that (of course she did), because when she looked up at him, she said nothing, with her eyes asking her questions.
“Thank you,” he whispered and he was sure that if it weren’t for their proximity, she wouldn’t have heard him, the waves crashing against the stone most likely muffling his words. She did, though, and leaned in to give him a swift peck on his lips, too quick for him to reciprocate.
She moved closer, their legs pressed together, and placed her head on his shoulder with a sigh. “I missed this.”
Lumine gestured vaguely at their surroundings. Perhaps she meant their quiet moments together, huddled close for warmth he didn’t need but welcomed all the same, and an empty plate of Almond Tofu left aside. Perhaps she meant Liyue itself, its scenery and history-heavy atmosphere. Or, perhaps, she meant something much simpler.
Xiao tugged on her hand, causing her to straighten up. Before she could speak, he tilted his head and met her lips, gently but passionately. A bottom-throat noise of surprise left her and she didn’t move for a second, but soon enough she melted into the kiss, her free hand reaching for his head and winding into his hair.
She was sweeter than a dream, she felt unreal in his arms and even when he moved to lower her to the ground, he was careful, as if she were made out of glass, a fragile star in his care, despite Lumine being far from that.
He pulled away to find her flushed and panting, her lips slightly swollen and inviting him for more. Instead, he peppered kisses along her jaw as their bodies molded perfectly against one another.
“I missed you,” he said and moved down to her throat, nosing her pulse as he added, “and there is much we need to catch up on.”
She chuckled, pulling on his hair so he could meet her eyes, the hypnotizing gold of her gaze, and then caressed his cheek with the back of her other hand just as she nodded in silent agreement. Lumine pulled him down, making him forget about routines and debts and karmic pains, making him focus on her voice, guiding and ever-present.
Lumine—once they were in a cozier and more comfortable space—later gave him a last Starconch. This one contained her own message for him, as sweet as she was; her heart and feelings put into words, and only for him to listen to.