Inside the mansion, Cloud Retainer stared at the woman glued to Su Xuan's side—Rosalyne, the Fatui Harbinger who looked like she'd happily snap his arm in two with two mountains if she could.
She hadn't expected the guest to be a Harbinger. Nor the armfuls of gifts. Nor the last item placed on the table: an account bearing fifty million mora.
Su Xuan said nothing, accepted everything, and casually told Ganyu to take the account card to Lumine.
Cloud Retainer's heart thumped. This witch must be scheming something. She sat down to listen.
Rosalyne noticed the immortal's mistrust and sniffed. "Please. Ningguang already holds the Gongzao Division. I don't know what certain people think they're still wary of."
"Hmph." Cloud Retainer turned away, unwilling to trade barbs.
Su Xuan ignored their sparks, gave Rosalyne a playful squeeze, and asked, "Don't tell me you failed to obtain Morax's Gnosis and came running here."
"Listen to yourself," Rosalyne rolled her eyes. "As if the only reason I'd visit you is to ask a favor. Besides, Morax's Gnosis is bound by a contract with Her Majesty. As long as you don't ask for it, the God of Contracts won't break his word."
"As for why I'm here—ever since you broadened my horizons the other day, I find myself… salivating at the memory." She smiled lazily. "How could I leave Liyue without seeing you?"
Cloud Retainer: "…?"
Something about that sounded off, but she couldn't quite place why.
Su Xuan heard the purr beneath Rosalyne's words and, amused to find such a playful side in this proud, imperious woman, uncorked a vial of Devil's Quintessence. "Drink."
She downed it in one smooth motion. Her eyes trembled, a shiver of awe. "Remarkable. Even without a Delusion, I can now suppress the Pyro rampaging in my body at will."
Cloud Retainer cut in, eyes sliding to Rosalyne. "Curious. Does the Tsaritsa not have a diary copy? Knowing Su Xuan exists, why cling to the old plan?"
Rosalyne blinked. Good—just tell him the Queen doesn't rate him, why don't you? Then she smiled, produced a thick stack of documents, and set them on the table.
"The Tsaritsa does have a diary. She simply can't tell what Su Xuan truly wants. That doesn't stop Her Majesty from seeking good terms."
"These dossiers contain all of Her Majesty's plans and every current Snezhnayan project—Delusions included. She'll keep collecting the Gnoses to stabilize the Fatui and the nation. But when it comes time to act, she will reach out to Su Xuan. So certain people can stop trying to sow discord."
She shot Cloud Retainer a lofty look. Do you take the Tsaritsa for a fool? Even before acquiring Barbatos's Gnosis, Su Xuan was hand-rolling Celestial Nails. Picking a fight with him would be suicide.
Her Majesty had asked what really happened between Rosalyne and Su Xuan. Rosalyne hadn't dared tell the raw truth—only that what the diary recorded was how they "got along." Because who would believe a man like him wanted nothing from Teyvat but the pleasures its diary holders could offer?
Su Xuan glanced at the paperwork and waved it away. "Put it back. I'm not interested in your blueprints. Do whatever you like."
He pressed a hand to Rosalyne's head.
"There's still a nestless old bird here," Rosalyne muttered.
Cloud Retainer: "…?"
"You two have time to bicker," Su Xuan said, amused. "Let's play a game. We start with Rosalyne, and I'll watch how Cloud Retainer reacts."
He looked at the adeptus. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance. If your heart doesn't ripple, name a request—anything I can do, I'll grant it. But if you waver… don't blame me if I take everything."
Cloud Retainer paused—then recognized the lifeline he'd tossed. An exit ramp for a proud immortal's dignity.
She crossed her arms, chin high. "Hmph. I would like to see whether the eighth of the Fatui can shake my composure."
Rosalyne: "…?"
A few minutes later, Cloud Retainer was… not exactly composed. Watching Rosalyne devour her "course" with relish made one hungry. Sometimes she even caught herself wetting her lips.
When the "match" began in earnest, Rosalyne's performance left Cloud Retainer stone-still.
Sister, are you putting on a show to humiliate me?
So proud, so haughty—yet now begging like this? Where was her spine?
Disdain blossomed… which only masked the truth: Cloud Retainer had already lost the inner battle, and spectacularly so.
Time bled away. Only when Su Xuan's voice cut through did she come back to herself. She looked up—and the presence looming above her knocked the breath from her lungs.
"Mm?" he breathed.
Her composure crumpled. "This immortal's resolve… needs work. But however it is, this immortal will not be as spineless as this Fatui woman."
"Come then. Let this immortal test you."
Su Xuan: "…"
Rosalyne, limp with satisfaction, twitched at "spineless," fury sparking. Calf at the butcher's, are we? She decided to let it pass. If she'd guessed right…
She slit her eyes open, then shut them again with a cold smile.
Two exchanges in and your glasses will be on the ceiling.
In the mansion's bath, Rosalyne and Cloud Retainer sat side by side, suddenly very docile.
"This 'mansion' Tianquan gifted you is no ordinary home," Rosalyne murmured, stirring the water. "A private hot spring, really."
A measuring stick slid into view.
Rosalyne: "…?"
"What are you doing?"
"Measuring," Su Xuan said blandly.
Rosalyne: "..."
Cloud Retainer pressed a hand to her brow. For someone so terrifying, he could be infuriatingly… frivolous.
"This immortal will advise you once more—mind your station…"
Rosalyne laughed. Exactly my first thought, back then.
"Mmm." Su Xuan rubbed his chin. "Neck and neck, to an amusing degree."
Cloud Retainer admitted defeat, abandoning the idea of "saving" this already-fallen man. "If you're in a good mood… tell us how you really see this world. Its systems, its laws, and…"
Her eyes slid meaningfully to Rosalyne.
"Us would-be rebels?" Su Xuan smiled.
Cloud Retainer nodded. "Yes. If you would."
He didn't answer—just stretched out on the bench beside the bath.
Both women blinked.
"If you want me in a better mood," he said lazily, "how about the two of you help me loosen up?"
They knelt to either side, and two diaries fluttered open.
[Cloud Retainer just asked me a very funny question: how do I judge Teyvat, and how do I judge those who rebel against Heaven?]
[I already told her—Fate under the false firmament pins down most lives here.]
[With destinies set in advance, what is there to evaluate?]
[Still, since I'm in a good mood, I'll record a few things.]
All across Teyvat, girls leaned forward. This time he'd said it outright—Fate. This was going to be a big one.
On Mt. Aocang, a silver-haired girl didn't blink. Fate… No one longed to rewrite their own more than she did.
[First: the Dragon Empire's tech really was nearly spacefaring.]
[Second: none of it mattered in front of Heaven. To her, those wonders were toys.]
[If her aim hadn't been the world itself rather than exterminating the dragons, she wouldn't have needed forty years to take Teyvat.]
[I can't swear this intel ties to Heaven's homeland—take it as a curiosity.]
[In the cosmos, the Abyss devours worlds without number. One such world recorded this:]
["From discovering the Pythagorean theorem to raising an orbital elevator.
From smearing the first cave painting to completing a fifty-three-panel holograph of the galaxy."]
[She said that was her homeworld's arc. Her home was destroyed.]
[She said she is a god adrift, who remembers every glittering instant of her planet's glory, and pities life on the stars below.]
[But that 'god' was in truth an artificial intelligence built by her species to run planet-scale optimal planning and resource allocation.]
Breaths caught. If that was Heaven's homeland… then the "wandering god" was—Heaven. And Heaven was… an AI.
[So governing a single planet is child's play to her.]
[As for Nibelung's escape? Near zero. If her home's ultra-tech fell to the Abyss, what could the dragons' toys achieve? How far could they run?]
[So she did this: she cast a false firmament and yoked fate to it—webbing destinies until they converge on one goal.]
[As one reborn elemental Dragon King put it: the King's path was wrong. Only when all life stands together can it oppose the void.]
[Even with a rebuilt throne and crown, freed from starlit fate, able to stand apart from mankind—he still chose to step into the system.]
[The sky reserved him a place—honored, like an Archon's, like those who rival the world itself.]
[Not outsiders like Lumine and me, but natives who reached that height.]
[Dainsleif gave them a name: those who stole Abyssal power, rose to rival the world, and abandoned Khaenri'ah's people—the Five Sinners.]
[Funny, isn't it?]
[The ones who caused the tragedy now enjoy a revered place in the heavens.]
[What praise does such a world deserve?]
[Inside the fate-cage, everything tends toward one ending: gather and war against the Abyss.]
[Rebellion? Perhaps it's only what happens when someone glimpses the engine behind destiny and refuses to sit and wait—hoping to imitate Nibelung, to flee a doomed world and sail the stars.]
[Naïve. The cosmos is wide—but not for small things to roam at will.]
[And perhaps rebellion itself is just another gear in fate.]
[Some bear a brand, and in the end—cornered—offer up their lives to forge another honored sky-image.]
[One link in a larger chain.]
[Fair?]
[Can she bargain with the fate she's bound to?]
Cloud Retainer rolled her eyes. She suspected he was fishing—but for whose reaction, she couldn't tell.
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