Chapter Text
The skies of Liyue always had the best sunsets, Atleast that’s what everyone says, all the travel guides and vacation pamphlets emphasise the beauty of Liyue’s dusk skylines.
And at this moment, you couldn’t help but agree. At the pinnacle of Mt. Aocang the view was breathtaking. The mix of amber and orange tones in the clouds complimented the yellow of Liyue’s grassy plains almost perfectly.
“Ah, hello Y/n, come to watch the sunset have you? Mind if I join?” The monotone cadence of Shenhe’s voice snapped you out of your thoughts as she climbed up the rock face and sat down next to you. “The sunset always reminds me of that night all those years ago, and while I do not look fondly on those memories it wasn’t all bad, after all I met you and cloud retainer. My life is only how it is today because of that. You never did tell me what happened after I fell unconscious, could you fill in the gaps perhaps?”
At Shenhe’s request, you begin to think back on that faithful day, the events of that night still clear in your mind.
You where only 12 at the time, you’d snuck off from your house to go find some violet grass as a gift for your mother, her favourite flower. You went up to the mountains to find some you could safely reach when you faintly heard the sounds of fighting and the death throes of something that certainly wasn’t human. You followed the sound back to a cave and once the sounds of fighting had quieted down you approached the cave entrance cautiously to investigate. As you ventured further in you found the body of a black monster, covered in wounds, with unblinking red eyes almost seeming to glow with a malicious vigor but the utter lack of any discernible movement told you it was dead. Curiously some of it’s wounds while fresh, had began to clot while scabs had formed on others, implying that whatever this creature had been battling, it had been doing so for days on end.
The shape of the cuts didn’t resemble claws or teeth or anything of that sort, so it was safe to assume that whatever was battling this thing was a person or from the extent of the damage done to this creature, more likely a group of unlucky treasure hoarders or adventurers. Either way whoever fought this creature no matter how many of them there where, would certainly need help.
“H-hello? Is anyone in here?” Crying out you try to listen for a response, all is silent until the faintest cry for help sounded out from a little further into the cave.
Rushing towards the sound you find a girl, around the same age as you are, bloodied and sitting down. She rested her back upon the caves wall, her jet black hair seemingly fading in and out of the darker spots of the cave.
Unsure of what to do, you ask “are you alright? You seem quite injured, did you fight off that creature?”
Clearly straining, the girl replied “Y-yes, I did, but i’m so tired I can barely move, please help me get out of here.”
You offer your hand out to the girl to take, as she grabs onto your hand you sling her arm around your shoulder for support. “Here, lean on me, I can see your leg is pretty heavily injured so it should help ease the stress on it.”
Admittedly you didn’t know where to bring this girl, her injuries were quite severe and you doubt you could get to Liyue in time. Realising this, you understand the best chance this girl has is with the adepti, after all it wasn’t unheard of for adepti to grant aid to injured travellers so maybe there was a chance and it’s the best chance you have.
Shuffling out of the cave as fast as you could with the girl leaning on your shoulder you decide to strike up conversation to help keep the girl conscious. “So, what’s your name? And how did you end up in that cave?” Slowly the girl raised her head as she responded meekly “my name is Shenhe, my father lead me to the cave, started muttering about bringing back my mother by sacrificing me to that creature.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Shenhe, I wish it could’ve been under nicer circumstances, my name is Y/n.” Weakly, Shenhe replies “it’s nice to meet you too.” Reaching the entrance of the cave you begin to see more and more light fill your vision “look Shenhe, we’ve made it out of the cave.” You had never been so happy to see the sunset. “Yes, such a beautiful sunset, isnt it. You feel the wieght on your shoulder shift as you turn to check on Shenhe you see that she has passed out.
Panic begins to set in as you hurriedly pick Shenhe up and begin to run down the mountain as fast as you can.
“PLEASE, ANYONE SOMEONE NEEDS HELP, THEY AREN’T CONSCIOUS!” As loud as you can muster you continue to yell out, for adepti, for travellers, anyone that could help. But you receive no reply.
Just as you begin to yell out again a rock gives way under your foot causing you to stumble and end up tumbling off the side of the mountain.
Panic sets in once again as you begin to fall. Not knowing what else to do, you hold Onto Shenhe tightly to avoid losing her in the air. Time seems to slow down, you try to calm yourself down and figure out what to do but nothing seems to come to mind, though really what can you do?
As the ground gets closer and closer you shut your eyes tight. “this can’t be how it ends, I won’t allow it, I’ll find a way to survive I have to. I can ride, not when I haven’t even left Liyue.” As those words race through your mind you feel a slight weight drop into your pocket as a strange sensation wraps around your legs, like a strong cooling breeze. You feel yourself gradually lose momentum until you come to a complete halt.
Slowly, you gain the courage to open your eyes as you see thick layers of wind wrapped around your legs as you hover inches above the ground. “I’m not dead? But how? And why is the wind doing this?” Remembering the strange shift in weight in your pocket you check and sure enough you find a small cyan gemstone with the symbol of anemo engraved in it.
“Is this, a vision? Thank the archons.” Still shaking pretty violently, you take a deep breath to try and calm yourself, and as you do you feel the wind around your legs begin to dissipate. You gently set Shenhe down on the ground as you check her pulse, thankfully she was still alive.
“Oh my what’s happened here?”
A sudden voice calls out from behind startling you. “Oh I’m sorry did I give you a fright? I should’ve made my presence known before suddenly speaking up, my apologies.” Looking behind you, you see a large white and blue crane with strange golden lines down it’s neck.
“Are you an adepti? Please you’ve gotta help her she’s weak, she fought this black monster for days on end and I don’t know how much time she has Le-“
the adeptus cuts you off “slow down child, there’s no need to worry I shall take care of her, I was intending to find that monster myself before I witnessed your ordeal. I must say I’m very impressed with your bravery. I am indeed an adepti, my name is cloud retainer but if you may, I’d like to hear the story of what happened inside that cave.”
You begin to recount everything you experienced to the adeptus. “I see, so you earned your vision as you where falling? I must admit that was rather fortunate, what is your name child?”
“Oh sorry I never introduced myself, I’m Y/n and the girl’s name is Shenhe, I don’t think she has any family to go to anymore. Her father lead her to that cave and I believe her mother passed away which drove her father to his madness.”
The adepti seemed concerned upon hearing this “I see, perhaps I can take care of her, this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve raised a child, but I do not wish for her to become fully detached from humanity, if I may be so bold could I ask you to visit Mt. Aocang every now and then? To give her some company as I do not wish to have her live a solitary life.”
“Of course, I’ll visit whenever I have the time.” Admittedly you did love wandering the grasslands of Liyue, the view of the plains from the mountains even more so. Plus, who where you to deny an adepti’s request?
“Oh good, thank you, feel free to stop by whenever you have time. Though I believe she will be on bedrest for the next week so perhaps wait till then to begin visiting.” Cloud retainer then carefully picked up Shenhe and flew off towards Mt Aocang “I best be off now, I can’t be gone too long, thank you again and I hope we meet again soon under less, dire circumstances.”
“And there you have it.” You make a grand sweeping motion as if to signal the end of the story.
“I see, well, that certainly was an eventful night wasn’t it? Seems both of us got our visions on that day.”
Shenhe leaned back, with a pensive tone she said “I’m glad you were there that night, I fear what would’ve happened to me if you weren’t around to get me out of that cave.”
The thought lingers for a moment in your mind, would cloud retainer have found her anyways while searching for that monster? Or was she too far in to be found once cloud retainer saw the monster was dead and left. “I don’t want to think about it too much, I’m just happy I was in the right place at the right time.”
“That reminds me, you mentioned as you were falling that you expressed a desire to travel outside of Liyue yes? I admit I have similar desires to see the world, Liyue is beautiful but I wish to see the landscape of all of the nations.”
Surprised at Shenhe’s wish to travel an idea begins to form in your mind. “maybe we could travel together? It’d be fun. We could try to go to all the nations of Teyvat, see what life is like there and experience the different cultures.”
You could almost swear you saw Shenhe smile, a sight you’ve missed ever since her red ropes where bound to her to help keep her violent emotions in check. “Yeah, I’d like that. Maybe we can talk to cloud retainer about it.”
“After everything that happened with the reopening of the jade chamber, I’d say you’ve more than earned a vacation, let’s go ask cloud retainer tomorrow if they aren’t too busy.”
With plans made and the sun fully set You climb down the rock face towards the foot of the mountain and head back to Liyue to rest for the night.