Work Text:
An Ode to the Conqueror of Demons
by the Windswept Bard
O Conqueror of Demons
With mighty spear in hand
Won’t you forgo your borders
And travel towards my land?
The wind here is sweet
The tides are calm
The wine is lovely
A precious balm
But there’s one thing I miss
That I cannot here find
My soul longs for your own
Please, come to my side!
I stay within the city
At the height of Windblume
Come find me, my love
Where my words all ring true!
For the past few days, Xiao has been haunted. Not by his usual demons, but by a new foe: the letter currently taunting him from within his grasp.
Verr Goldet had flagged him down the day before to hand it to him. At first, he had approached her with an apology already burning the tip of his tongue. He never used to feel bad about destroying parts of the inn in his eternal fight against evil. Now that he knew exactly how much work and Mora it took to repair a single destroyed room, he tried to avoid fighting nearby whenever possible. He did have to fight in Dihua Marsh the day before, so he figured a stray burst of Anemo energy must have ruined something else.
But she didn’t look stressed as he approached. She looked confused; he mirrored her expression as she handed a sealed letter to him. “It’s for you,” she said.
His first thought was that this was sent from the Traveler. His second was that it was from Hu Tao. Neither sent him letters often, but he couldn’t think of anyone else who knew where he often stayed and would be bold enough to send an adeptus a letter.
He looked down at the envelope and saw his name written in a familiarly beautiful hand. He instantly knew who this was from. Before Verr Goldet could ask any father, Xiao teleported away to his room. Something this precious had to be read in private.
Usually, these letters arrived on his balcony, sent in by the breeze. They never arrived through the typical courier system. Xiao found the change strange, but not strange enough to not immediately open the letter and pour over the sweet words within. Venti’s poetry always soothed him, but this one left him with a lingering question. These weren’t sweet words to comfort him. This was an invitation.
Two days later, standing at the gates of Mondstadt City, Xiao realized something.
Venti said to find him at the Windblume Festival.
But he didn’t say where within the city he was.
With no idea where to go, Xiao decided to test the option right in front of him: a permanent wooden stall just past the city’s gate, which was decorated with a giant banner at the top that read “VISITOR INFORMATION.”
He didn’t particularly like talking to mortals, even now. His brief interactions with mortals over the past couple of years had yet to result in any grotesque deaths, and Vision holders tend to be particularly resilient against Xiao’s lingering negative karma, but still. Centuries’ worth of instincts were hard to put aside.
That, and the two people within the booth looked the same way that Xiao felt — utterly unwilling to talk to strangers. A woman with short blue hair scowled fiercely down at the book she kept pinned in a death hold against the counter, while a man with shoulder-length blond hair stayed tucked away at the back of the booth, engrossed in his painting.
Xiao peered at the counter, looking for a map or brochure that could aid him. If he could get a map, he could avoid talking to anyone in this festival that wasn’t Venti. He assumed that the woman was too engrossed in her book to notice him.
He assumed wrong.
“Hmph. If you need to ask me something, can you just ask me already? Standing there and staring at me is wasting your time and my patience.”
Her words came out in a sharp bark. Xiao felt his own patience run thin. People in his own country, even ones he had never met, knew he was an adeptus. No one there would ever dream of talking to him so rudely.
The last person who had spoken to him this rudely was Venti, and even those words were tinged with mischief, not aggression. That thought made Xiao soften a little. This was a country of freedom, after all. For many, perhaps freedom also meant “a complete lack of decorum.”
“...I wasn’t staring at you,” Xiao said, approaching the booth. “I was looking for a map of the city.”
“We’re all out. Some Fontanian girl took the last one.”
Not ideal, but Xiao was already here, talking to her. If she was meant to provide visitors information, then she likely knew where most booths were located within the city. “I’m looking for the poetry booth. Do you know where it is?”
Her face twisted into a nasty scowl. “Oh. The bard’s stall.”
Maybe this was going to be simple. “Yes. That stall.”
“No idea. Sorry,” she said, sounding not sorry at all.
“Eula, I’m sorry to say this, but… I think your customer service skills could use some improvement,” said the blond man as he dabbed some paint into his canvas. Xiao didn’t realize he was listening.
Xiao looked over at him, taking a moment to try to decipher whatever the man was painting. There was what Xiao thought was a little girl in red in the foreground of the painting. Next to her was a giant fish, leaping out of what Xiao assumed would eventually be a lake. What really baffled Xiao were the red clouds everywhere.
Maybe it was a creative interpretation of some famous old Mondstadt tale. Venti had never sung Xiao a ballad about some Mondstadt girl in an apocalyptic haze, but there were far too many ballads in Mondstadt for Venti to sing them all.
“If you think I’m so bad at this, then why don’t you stop painting and cover the front?”
“On second thought, you’re doing great,” the man responded.
“...You don’t know where the booth is?” Xiao asked.
“Nope. But this city isn’t big. You’ll find it eventually,” Eula said.
Great.
Xiao left without a word. The visitor booth may have been a waste of the past five minutes, but it was only five minutes. Besides, Eula was right about one thing: this city was only so big. He’d find Venti’s booth eventually.
Xiao soon found a few booths, but what he learned there was far more useful than booth locations: where the two most popular taverns in the city were.
Xiao ignored the first one. Venti would never frequent a place called the Cat’s Tail. But Angel’s Share? Surely Venti would want to set up his booth near there. Xiao found Angel’s Share without too much trouble. There were even a few booths set up nearby.
Which would have been great, if only any of those booths belonged to Venti. None of them did.
As Xiao passed by the final booth, he felt a pair of eyes settle on him. The hairs on the back of his neck rose on end. His hand itched for his spear; an automatic response to detecting a powerful superhuman aura, after so many millennia of fighting.
He knew better than to draw his spear here. The last thing he needed was for Mondstadt’s local law enforcement to descend upon him and toss him out of the city. He forced himself to calm down and turned around to face whatever threat happened to be here.
A pink-haired woman with fox ears sat alone at a nearby table, nursing a glass of wine. One of her ears twitched as she rested her hand on her chin. Her eyes dug into Xiao. If he were any weaker, he would crumple under her gaze. But he was a warrior, so he met her eyes with an even look of his own.
“Hello there, fellow traveler,” she said. “Care to join me for a glass of wine?”
She must have been Inazuman, based on her clothing.
“I’m busy,” Xiao said.
“Busy being lost? You’ve been wandering around for the past five minutes.”
“...I’m looking for something.”
Her smirk somehow grew wider. “What could an adeptus so far from home possibly be looking for?”
Xiao snapped his mouth shut. This didn’t feel like a conversation. It felt like a battle, and every instinct in Xiao’s body was screaming at him not to reveal anything his opponent could take as a weakness.
Sometimes, the best way to throw an opponent off-guard was to deflect their strike. “You’re an Inazuman youkai. Couldn’t I ask you the same?”
She giggled softly, all poison and daggers. Xiao didn’t trust this woman at all. “I’m here for market research. I run a publishing house in Inazuma, and keeping tabs on the foreign markets is only good business strategy. Now that Ei’s opened our borders, it means I can do fieldwork myself.”
“I see. I’ll leave you to your research, then,” Xiao said, seeing the perfect opportunity for a quick exit. He turned to leave, but in a flash of purple light, the fox woman appeared in front of him. She looked down at him, her arms folded over her chest.
“Tell me, adeptus. What’s your title? Maybe I’ve heard of you before.”
“Nothing important.”
“Now, now. It’s no good to lie to your new friend.”
Xiao gritted his teeth. Maybe the best way out of this situation was to tell the truth. If he gave her what she wanted, perhaps she’d leave him be. “...I’m the Conquerer of Demons.”
Her eyes sparked a terrifying shade of pink. “I see,” she practically purred. “No wonder you seemed familiar. You’re a popular character in Liyuen folk tales.”
“Superficial fan fiction, all of it,” Xiao said. “Don’t bother reading those.”
She leaned down until they were face to face. When she grinned, Xiao caught the hint of a few sharp fangs. Xiao resisted the urge to take a step back. “Then how would you feel about a new piece of work? I have plenty of ghostwriters you could work with. We could make something that dramatizes your legacy in a way you actually like. All you have to do is agree, and I’ll take care of the rest for you…”
Over Xiao’s long life as a warrior, there was one lesson that had been beaten into him more viciously than anything else.
Sometimes, the best move one could make was a tactical retreat.
Before the woman could say anything else, Xiao teleported away.
Even at the opposite end of the city, her chuckle still rang in his ears.
Next, Xiao tried his luck inside of a large, gray brick building. Apparently there was a library somewhere within this building. A few guards outside had encouraged him to visit the booths within. While not as personally exciting to Venti as reciting poetry next to a tavern would have been, maybe he was somewhere here, appreciating the thematic consistency.
The library was big, but not terribly so. Xiao leaned over the edge of the railing, peering down at the two booths on the floor below. One booth was manned by someone who was clearly not Venti in a knight’s uniform, but the other seemed promising. There were a few papers on it along with a small sign that read, “Back soon!”
Xiao headed down the stairs to get a better look at the empty stall. The handwriting on the sign wasn’t Venti’s, but he could have gotten someone else to write it. Xiao fought back a smile at the thought. It was exactly something Venti would find funny. He focused on the other materials scattered across the table, looking for any other hints of Venti amongst the mess. After a few moments, Xiao realized what the theme of this table was: Mondstadt fables.
He turned to leave, only to see a young woman with teal pigtails in a white dress appear out of nowhere. Xiao crept by her, hoping not to attract the attention of yet another strange woman.
He should have expected to fail.
“Oh! Another visitor, hmm? Let me guess… looking at your clothing, you must be from Liyue.”
“Yes,” Xiao said, then, seeing no reason not to, he followed up with, “Have you seen a poetry stall here?”
“Poetry? Not here, young man. If there’s one in the city, then I have no idea where.”
The irony in a mortal calling him young was almost enough to make Xiao scoff. “I’m not young by any means,” Xiao replied.
“Ha! I’ve heard that one before. Trust me, I may look young, but looks are deceiving. I’m far older than even your grandparents, young man. Are you lost?”
“...I’m looking for someone.”
A hand clamped around his upper arm. “Don’t worry, young man. Madam Faruzan will help you out. You’re looking for your parents, I assume? Where did you last see them?”
“I don’t have parents.”
She flushed. “Oh. U-um, my condolences. Where did you last see your guardian, then?”
“I—”
“You don’t know what it’s called, do you? Ah! No worries. I’ll take you to the information booth, then. They can make an announcement to Mondstadt’s knights. Mondstadt has some cultural baggage around helping people during Windblume, but leaving a minor unattended is a major safety issue they can’t ignore. We’ll find your guardian even if it takes the whole city looking to locate them.”
As she spoke, she slowly dragged Xiao out of the library. Xiao let himself be dragged along as he formulated his escape plan, not wanting to hurt her. He could have teleported away, but since she had a death grip on his arm, she would just teleport with him.
Then, an idea struck.
He shot a burst of Anemo energy out towards the empty booth. He meant to shoot a burst just strong enough to send a few papers to the floor.
Instead, the entire table flipped over.
The woman let go of his arm with a shout. “What was that!?”
Xiao took the opportunity to teleport away. The destination didn’t matter, as long as it was away from his new captor.
He found himself, somehow, on the roof of the same building he was just in. He took solace in his temporary solitude.
A few minutes later, the woman stormed out of the building’s front door. Even from the rooftop, he heard her angrily complaining about how kids these days had no manners.
But Xiao paid no mind to his lack of manners. He wasn’t here to be bullied by fellow tourists. He was here to find Venti.
Still, there was no sign of him anywhere.
Xiao set off once again. He’d find him eventually… or at least, he hoped so.
There was absolutely no way Venti would be anywhere near a tavern whose entire draw were all the cats that frequented it. Still, Xiao found himself loitering outside of its entrance. It was a central location in the city, and just busy enough that no one paid any mind to him wasting time there.
He had yet to go up the large staircase at the northern end of the city. He had overheard a few visitors complaining about the lack of booths up there, but at this point, he was running out of places to look.
The door to the bar opened. From it, a small black and white cat slipped out. Xiao met the creature’s eye; he froze at the exact same time as it did.
He expected it to run away. Most animals did once they sensed his lingering negative karma. This cat, however, came closer. Xiao took a step back in response. Still, the cat was undaunted. It flicked its tail up in the air and rubbed its side along his boots, weaving in and out amongst his legs.
Tentatively, Xiao reached down a hand. The cat stood up on its back legs and headbutted his hand, following with the rest of its body in a forced pet. Hesitantly, Xiao crouched down and gently patted its head. After a moment, a purr started to rumble loud enough for Xiao to hear.
He knew cats purred. He had never had one purr at him before.
Venti would be so frustrated. He could practically hear Venti’s complaint now. Why couldn’t Xiao have befriended an animal with less dander, like a dog or a rabbit? Why did it have to be the one that made him sneeze?
He made a mental note to take off his gloves once he found Venti. The last thing he’d want was for their reunion to be full of Venti sniffling, red-eyed, and miserable from allergies.
“Aha! She likes you,” a voice said, accompanied by a pair of black shoes that stepped into his field of vision just behind the cat. He looked up, and found them attached to a young woman clad in blue. Like the cat, her eyes were two different colors, with little teardrops in the center where her pupil should be. Xiao wasn’t entirely sure if she was human or not.
Xiao cleared his throat and stood up. “Animals do not usually like me. It’s.. surprising.”
“Really? Animals love me, and yet it seems you’ve dethroned me in Madame Merlot’s eyes…” she said, casting a pointed glance at the cat in question as it thrust its head against Xiao’s hand, demanding even more pets.
Xiao wasn’t the most social person in the best of circumstances. The woman apparently was the exact opposite, as she cleared her throat and puffed her chest out. “I’m Furina de Fontaine. Fontaine’s beloved star, and one of its most promising directors. And you are…?”
“Xiao.”
“Xiao, of…?”
Of what? Xiao took a moment to figure out a response. “...Liyue,” he settled on.
“Well, it is lovely to meet you, Xiao of Liyue. Tell me, how familiar are you with this city?”
“Not very. This is my first time here.”
She frowned. “A shame. I’m looking for a performance here, and I’ve yet to have any luck finding it…”
A performance? Xiao wondered if they were looking for the same thing. Poetry was technically a performance, after all, and he wouldn’t put it past Venti to want to recite his poetry for an audience. Furina seemed like the type of person who would get along with Venti, too.
“I’m also looking for… a performance,” Xiao responded.
She clapped her hands together and grinned. “I think it was fate for us to meet, Xiao! Shall we look together?”
Xiao could easily have said no. Spending an extended time with mortals was bad for them, but as he looked down to consider his options, he caught sight of the Vision hanging off her waist. Vision Holders were more resistant to his karma than negative humans.
Besides, two heads were better than one.
Xiao nodded. Furina instantly took off, leaving him to jog just to catch up to her. She fumbled with something in her pocket. After a moment, she pulled out a piece of paper and smoothed it out. It was a map — likely one of the very same that the information booth had run out of.
They did say a woman in blue took the last map.
Furina paused to squint at the map. Xiao peered at it from over her shoulder, but the more he looked at it, the more lost he felt. The map showed where the booths were located, but they were spread all over the city, and there was no key to indicate what booth was where. Worse still, it didn’t match up to his mental map of the city. He had explored all of the southern half of the city, but this map showed a basement level that Xiao had somehow completely missed.
Then it hit him. “You’re holding it upside down,” he said.
“Oh!” Furina squeaked. She cleared her throat. “A-aha! I was… testing you, you see. It seems you’ve passed.” She turned the map right-side up, and then immediately went back to squinting at it.
Xiao looked at the corrected map. There were booths just outside the city, to the east. “We should go there,” Xiao said.
“Aha! Brilliant idea. They’ll need plenty of room for a magic show, after all. Let’s go!”
Wait… magic show?
That wasn’t right.
Despite Xiao’s misgivings, they spent the next fifteen minutes wandering around the eastern quarters of the city, looking for the gate that would take them out towards the lake. Xiao felt just as lost as before. Judging from Furina’s increasingly frantic muttering under her breath, she wasn’t doing any better.
Finally, they found a small gate. Furina squealed at the sight, then she latched onto Xiao’s wrist and dragged him outside. After a few moments, they came upon a large stage.
A blond girl in a black bodysuit sat at the edge of the stage, legs dangling over the side. Her ear, tall and cat-like, twitched as she noticed them. “Furina, you made it. Activating social mode…”
A young man with similarly-colored hair appeared practically out of nowhere. He tipped his hat to Xiao and Furina. “Oh! Lady Furina, you’ve made it!”
“Yes, apologies for the delay.”
“And it seems you’ve brought another guest!” the man said. “This is…?”
“Xiao of Liyue,” Furina responded. “My new companion. He was also looking for the magic show!”
The cat-eared girl got to her feet. She took a few steps behind the young man; he didn’t even react to the change. Seeing them next to each other, Xiao assumed they must be related. Twins, perhaps.
“Oh, perfect! Lynette and I are just about done setting up. Go ahead and take a seat. We saved one for you!”
“Perfect. Xiao, let’s go!” Furina said, dragging Xiao away. She moved a little reserved plaque off one seat and sat down; Xiao was unceremoniously tugged into the one next to her.
Before Xiao could escape, the show started. Furina gasped in delight, her hand once again finding his wrist and trapping him in place.
It wasn’t the worst twenty minutes he’s wasted. Xiao wished Venti was here to see it, too. He would have loved to watch this.
The small gathered crowd cheers and applauds at the end. Furina stood from her chair and cheered loudly.
Xiao found himself clapping along.
After the show ended, the twins approached Furina and Xiao once again. The young man — Lyney, apparently — was still panting from the acrobatics required of his final trick.
Xiao braved a question. “...Are you performing again tomorrow?”
Lyney grinned at him. “We’ll be here all weekend! Same time, same place!”
Xiao nodded. Next time, he’d bring Venti.
Xiao still hadn’t found Venti’s stall by the time twilight began to creep in. After an intense examination of Furina’s map, Xiao ended up at the last place he’s yet to check; the courtyard in front of Mondstadt’s church. Furina’s map showed a few booths here, but the ones that hadn’t packed up early weren’t Venti’s booth. He had hoped maybe Venti would be at the feet of the large Archon statue here, teaching people how to profess their love to whatever they care for most, but the stand here sold necklaces, not poetry.
With nowhere else left to check, Xiao began to lose hope. Venti must have also packed up early. He must have thought that Xiao had refused his call. Xiao would need to apologize profusely the next time they met. Venti must have been hurt, and he had every right to feel so.
Xiao stared off into the distance, steeling himself for the long trip home. Just before he left, he noticed a figure in the distance. This one had long red hair. As they got closer, Xiao realized it was a knight, though one in different armor than what the guards in Mondstadt all wore.
The man waved at Xiao, approaching him before Xiao could grimace and teleport away. “Hello, my friend! You seem unwell. Is there something I can help you with?”
What’s one more crazy human, after the cast of characters he had met today? “I’ve spent all day looking for a poetry workshop. I fear the workshop is already closed, and I won’t be able to see my… my…” Xiao trailed off, unwilling to give any more intimate information to a complete stranger.
The man didn’t seem to care. “Do not fret, young man. You are in luck, for I have just returned from the poetry workshop! The young bard running it is a fantastic teacher. Someone who truly understands all Beauty in the world. At first, I thought crashing my ship onto this world was a terrible misfortunate. Only now do I understand that this was a blessing that Idrilla has given.”
Xiao chose to ignore the half of that speech that made no sense. “You did? Where is it?”
The man handed him a single rose. “Follow the song in your heart, and you will find it. May you hold onto all that is beautiful in this world! Now, I must go before I am trapped in this world forever. Safe travels, my friend.”
With that, the man practically disappeared. Xiao blinked. He must have had teleportation magic, too.
He said he came from the workshop but he didn’t say where it was.
Before Xiao let himself give into despair, he thought of where he first saw the man. He appeared from somewhere behind the church. Which meant…
There was one last place Xiao needed to look.
Xiao found Venti bathed in the orange light that precedes dusk. He stood next to a small booth, a lyre tucked in the crook of his arm. There were no other people at the workshop, but Venti didn’t seem to mind.
There was nothing else here save for a small graveyard. Cecilias sat in front of every tombstone. Xiao recognized wisps of Venti’s magic on every bloom. A gift for spirits passed.
Venti plucked out a familiar melody on his lyre. Xiao sunk into it easily, thinking of nights spent at the top of Wangshu Inn together, splitting wine and small cakes. Xiao had little taste for human food, but food and drink tasted better when Venti was there to enjoy them with him.
Venti’s eyes were warm as he approached. “Xiao! You got my message. I almost thought you hadn’t.”
Xiao stopped an arm’s length away from him. He looked away in shame. “Forgive me. I set out this morning, but I was… lost, along the way.”
Venti’s eyes grew sympathetic. “Oh no. Battles?”
Xiao shook his head. He tried to explain, but his embarrassment kept the words at bay. He swallowed around it and forced out an answer. He could never lie to Venti. “No. This city is… hard to navigate. And the map I saw, once I finally found a copy, was unhelpful.”
Venti laughed. “You didn’t know where to find me?”
“...Your letter didn’t specify where within the city.”
“I said at the height of Windblume, didn’t I? I meant that literally!”
“Oh.” The answer was right there all along. Xiao looked away, suddenly overcome by embarrassment. He was a fool.
“Ah, oh well! At least you got to experience the city. Did you like it?” Venti set his lyre down on the table. He crossed the distance between them, his arm gently falling on Xiao’s bare shoulder. His touch was warm and comforting.
Xiao moved to return the touch, but he suddenly remembered the sheer amount of cat dander clinging to his gloves. He hastily shoved them off and stuffed them into his pocket.
Venti watched with a raised eyebrow. “Oh? Are you hiding something from me?”
“...I met a cat that wasn’t afraid of it.”
Venti made a face. “On one hand, I’m happy for you. On the other... eugh. My nose itches even thinking about a cat. Anyways! Is that what you did all day, Xiao? Follow streetcats around?”
“I met some humans, too. Not just the cat.”
Venti stepped even closer. Xiao’s hands found his waist, emboldened by the fact that only the sunset could see them back here. “You’ll have to tell me more. I want to hear everything.”
“I’ll tell you everything,” Xiao said. He leaned closer.
Venti met him halfway in a sweet kiss.
This place was unfamiliar, but Venti always felt like coming home.
When they part, Venti whispered his next words against Xiao’s lips. “Well. I propose a trade. Your stories for the poem I wrote specifically for you. Deal?”
Xiao nodded.
Venti took him by the hand and led him away.
By the time the sun set, all was right again.