Fontaine, House of the Hearth.
Arlecchino
"—I wouldn't have made it out without him."
Nikolay finished his words without embellishment. He was leaning on his walking stick, the cast on his leg visible beneath his trousers.
Katarina stood by his side. Resting a hand on her brother's shoulder, not that he needed the assistance, more for her own peace of mind.
Arlecchino's eyes moved to him briefly, then back to Katarina.
"The person that saved you… What was his name again?"
"Ren Roman," Katarina answered immediately. "He runs a delivery service in Liyue Harbor. The Shadow Courier, if I remember correctly."
Arlecchino's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before going back to normal.
Neither sibling noticed the change.
"I see." She set her pen down. "You both performed well under difficult circumstances. Rest until you have fully recovered. This means no assignments until I clear you personally." Her eyes moved to Nikolay's cast.
"That includes field-adjacent work." She continued just as Nikolay opened his mouth to say something.
"I'm pleased to see you two are alright. That will be all."
The two siblings bowed, "Thank you, Father." Then they walked out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind them.
Arlecchino stared at the closed door for a moment.
"What an unexpected turn of events."
Even if she had never met the person, she was quite familiar with that name.
A little side project from her fellow Harbingers that had been running for months now. She hadn't involved herself with it personally. It hadn't seemed relevant to her operations, and she had enough to manage without adding someone else's problems to the mix.
But even so, it was hard not to be curious. Sandrone had made it difficult not to. The woman had been insufferable about her findings, or lack thereof.
She did not know the full picture, but she had a rough understanding.
The boy was special. Possessing an odd energy with a technique that interacted oddly with the Abyss.
So much so that they had theorised he might be a Descender that they failed to take notice of.
While it was certainly endearing, she still didn't have a personal stake in it.
Until now.
'Ren Roman.' She thought the name over in her mind, slightly amused. 'You have a talent for getting attention.'
Two of her children had been in that Chasm for eleven months. He had walked in by accident and come out with both of them.
Not only that, he had even gone back into the deeper sections alone to find Nikolay and saved his life.
She owed him a debt.
The House of the Hearth operated on clear principles. Debts were among the clearest.
'Signora should still be preparing her operations in Mondstadt.' That would mean she would be occupied, and the others would be focused elsewhere.
If there was a window to meet this "Shadow Courier" without other Harbinger agendas running about, this was it.
She preferred to do things herself anyway.
/ — /
Xianyun
High at the peak of Mt. Aocang, Cloud Retainer's abode was as peaceful as usual. Xianyun let out a soft sigh as the midday breeze softly hit her face.
'How fitting.'
Across from her, Shenhe sat eating her food without worry.
Xianyun had found herself pleased these past few weeks. Shenhe had suddenly, and without reason, started showing up more and more.
So much so that she had started to prepare meals in advance. Yes, she was certainly very pleased.
'Things are proceeding rather well,' Xianyun thought, watching Shenhe turn a piece of tofu over with her chopsticks. 'A rather unexpected, but welcome result.'
The arrangement with the stray had been a gamble. She could admit that, if only to herself. A calculated one, certainly, but a gamble nonetheless.
Among mortals, the situation might have required careful management. Cloud Retainer was not mortal. Nor, in any meaningful sense, was Shenhe. And adepti had always operated by different principles in these matters.
Multiple bonds were not remarkable. They were simply a feature of existing across centuries.
She was very glad she had not turned Ren into a red smear across the mountainside at their first meeting.
She really had been close.
She set that thought aside and made a mental note to remind Shenhe, before she left today, to extend an invitation for him to her abode.
The weapon she had promised had finally been finished. It took slightly longer than a month, the materials alone taking up half of the time. But now that it's done, she preferred to hand it over in person.
'I wonder what expression you'll have once you see One's magnificent creation,' She thought pridefully, 'Yes, you better be grateful.'
As Shenhe reached for her cup, Xianyun's attention moved to her arm. Specifically, to something on her bicep that had not been there before.
'What is that?' She registered the energy before the actual shape of the object. It was filthy, no doubt, yet expertly contained and unmistakably familiar. The quality of energy she associated with a particular sorcerer.
'Not only that, the craftsmanship is quite impressive.' She had to admit.
"That armband. I haven't seen it before." Xianyun said plainly, not putting much emphasis on her words.
Shenhe glanced at the armband briefly. An annoyed expression made its way on her face for a split second, which surprised Xianyun. To see such an expression on Shenhe's face was unprecedented.
"Ren made it," she said. "It helps with the curse. Gives me something to work from. A structure for how to channel the energy instead of merely containing it."
And then quietly. "I decided to wear it constantly after he told me that it would allow me to grow faster… It works."
The last two words came out slightly strained. In the manner of someone who had intended to say them more neutrally than they did.
Xianyun's eyes widened the moment she realized what had just happened.
Shenhe was pouting.
Or at least, it looked like that in her eyes.
In reality, Shenhe's expression was that of immense irritation. But Xianyun didn't pay attention to the details.
The expression lasted no more than a second. Her cheeks puffing out as if she had a tantrum before her face returned to its default state.
Cloud Retainer forcefully kept her expression blank through a significant effort of will.
'I ought to thank that child…' She had to stop before she outright squealed at the sight.
Shaking her head, she extended her hand, "May I inspect it?"
Shenhe wasted no time and took it off.
Unable to hold back a chuckle, Xianyun turned the armband in her hands. The Cor Lapis craftsmanship was very intricate, much more so now that she could see it up close. The "Cursed Energy" that flowed through it somehow embedded itself in the item, as if it were always a part of it.
"Are you certain this is his own creation?"
"Yes, Master." Shenhe confirmed, "He also made several more for his employees."
"Several, you say…" An interested glint settled in her eyes. "How interesting."
She gave it back and picked up her cup.
Whatever she was thinking, she kept to herself.
/ — /
???
"How fascinating." The woman said it to no one in particular, or maybe she spoke to only those who could hear.
She sat at a table on an island high up in the clouds, with six other seats left empty. She held a cup of tea that was somehow still warm despite the wind, watching the sun sink behind the curvature of the world below.
This woman was none other than Alice.
The Great Adventurer of the Realms. The Dodo-King. Founder of the Hexenzirkel. Among other titles she had accumulated over the years and occasionally remembered to use.
She had been thinking about a disturbance she'd noticed some time ago. Small enough to nearly miss, and she rarely ever missed things.
That alone had been enough to get her interest. A ripple in Teyvat's fabric, faint and insignificant, yet still rippled throughout the planet.
Out of curiosity—and of course out of care for Teyvat—she decided to investigate.
Eventually, she traced it to a name in Liyue Harbor.
'Ren Roman. What an odd name.'
If she were being honest, she had low expectations. While ripples across the fabric of Teyvat weren't common occurrences, they happened enough over time that it was usually nothing impressive.
She had expected a minor anomaly, maybe another mad scientist seeking to transcend to godhood. Something she could note and move on from.
Instead, she had found a Descender.
Alice set her cup down, a frown finding its way on her face.
How a Descender of all things had avoided her notice until now was a question she still had no answer for.
As the one who kept watch over Teyvat's borders, she had a particular sensitivity to exactly this kind of thing. Descenders did not simply… slip past her. That was essentially the entire point of her role.
And yet.
What interested her more than the Descender himself was what surrounded him—what surrounded his soul, to be precise.
The barrier around his soul was the most precisely constructed thing she had encountered in Teyvat in a very long time. Whoever had built it knew exactly what they were doing.
She had to tip her hat to the people who made it.
Almost equal to her own work.
Almost.
She turned the barrier's energy over in her memory, trying to place an odd sense of familiarity. And then something clicked.
A long time ago, long enough that she had nearly forgotten about it. One day, when she was surveying Teyvat's borders, she had felt a wave of unknown energy pass through from the wider cosmos.
She had initially thought it to be some attack, that someone was looking for Teyvat. But after a thorough investigation, she had found nothing and ended up filing it away.
She had not found any traces of that energy until now.
The person or people who had constructed that barrier and the source of that border disturbance were the same.
Someone either purposely or accidentally sent a wave of energy that passed Teyvat. And that same someone had built a very sturdy barrier around the soul of a boy working as a courier.
Alice smiled. "How amusing~."
She stood up, stretched, and looked down at the world below.
"Looks like I need to meet this boy myself." She rolled her shoulders. "I don't have anything else on the schedule."
She picked up her cup, finished the tea, and set it back down.
"Time to have some fun."
…
"Hope you enjoy the show~."
/ — /
Ray
"Any leads?" Ray asked flatly.
The hooded figure across the table shifted uncomfortably. "...Not yet." They paused, head turning away from Ray's gaze. "Locating him is proving more difficult than anticipated. Even Maru's technique can't seem to get a fix on him. It's like something is actively blocking us from finding him."
Ray dragged both hands down his face.
The hooded figure winced. "But I'm sure if we just—"
"Oh, shut up."
The figure went quiet.
Ray let out a slow breath and rested his chin on his hand. "Don't patronize me." He glared down at the table. "I know what my son is capable of. He's not going to get himself killed. That kid's too paranoid for that."
…
"But even so…" His eyes softened, "I'm worried."
The hooded figure's eyes were visible beneath the hood. They had gone slightly wide.
"What's that look for?" Ray asked irritably. "And take that hood off. You look ridiculous."
The figure let out a loud laugh and reached up to pull the hood back, revealing a mop of white hair that was slicked back, and a scar on his face and on the side of his lip.
Itadori Yuji. The Strongest of Tomorrow.
"Sorry," Yuji said, though it was clear he wasn't really sorry. His eyes softened. "You've changed a lot, you know."
Ray said nothing.
"I know you're worried, but…" Yuji leaned forward slightly. "Trust in Ren. He might be young, but I believe he'll break that curse. He has more going for him than you might think."
Ray looked at him for a long moment. Then he looked away.
"...Still as irritating as ever."