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dearly-beeloved · 15 hours

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Adeptal Affection

Leraje discovers more than just how Qiqi's doing when she visits the pharmacy c;

taglist: @adoredbyalatus @dorothys-wife @kylars-princess @one-winged-dreams

Xiao had gotten out of the practice of maneuvers so early in the morning, especially when war’s shadow had stopped casting itself so wide and dark over Liyue. He knew Liyue by night, however, from the patrols he took with Dae at dusk and under the rising moon, as they made sure to clear away what manifested from the malice of long-gone gods.

So he wasn’t concerned as he crept through the sub-space. He was mostly tired. He led Dae by the hand, keeping her close—much as he had been all night, sleeping beside her after patrol.

He shushed her, even though she didn’t really need shushing. He just wanted (since he could have it here, unlike on patrol) silence as he looked around the corner.

The coast was clear in the drawing room. That was to be expected, but still, better to check.

So Morax and Leraje were still sleeping. Probably not for much longer; Morax liked to rise early, sipping tea while watching morning arrive over the hills and plains of the nation he’d watched over for thousands of years. Leraje would join him before long, too.

So he and Dae had better get a move on.

He pulled on her hand, leading her toward the door again, but when he set his hand on the knob, readying to turn it and break away into the freedom of the fresh air of Liyue before dawn, he heard a voice.

“And where are you two going?”

Busted.

“Leraje,” he said, turning around.

“Of course, you’re both old enough you can come and go as you please, but I wasn’t aware anything that appealed to you would be going on at such an hour.” She squinted as she thought. “The meteor showers aren’t for another couple months.”

He sighed. “Right. Dae and I are—”

“We’re going to Mount Hulao to check the amber. I promised him I would when he felt ready to go look,” she explained

“Does Mountain Shaper know you intend to go poking around his amber?”

“Is it his amber?” Xiao asked.

Leraje shrugged. “It’s his mountain; he maintains it. Is that really what you’re worried about?”

“No,” he admitted.

Leraje threw on a shawl. “All right. To Mount Hulao. I’m coming with.” She dashed off a note and left it where Morax would find it, and then followed Xiao and Dae out the door.

“Ooh, that humid spring air makes it crisp up here,” she mused as the three of them circled the mountain, looking into each column of amber, trying to discern what was in each of them.

Some held criminals who had come to loot the mountain. Some held boars Mountain Shaper hadn’t felt like dealing with. Some held chests, or flowers, or all manner of things.

What they weren’t finding was any amber that held a little girl in an herb gatherer’s outfit.

“Xiao, do you recognize any of these?”

He looked at a blast pattern of shattered amber around a broken column. “This is where she was. She’s gone.”

Dae gasped. “I heard people talking about this in the harbor the other day,” she said suddenly. “They were saying they found a little girl here in Jueyun Karst, a girl who had gone missing a long time ago, and they’d freed her. They were bringing her to the harbor; they said it would take a couple days. The granddaughter of Director Hu at the funeral parlor said she was very interested in meeting the little girl. It’s probably Qiqi.”

“It must be.” Leraje hummed, thinking. “The Hus are very concerned with maintaining the natural balance of life and death, and care-taking for those who cross from one side to the other… and making sure traffic only flows in one direction. She’ll be a peculiarity to them.”

“Is she in danger?” Xiao asked, worry clear in his voice.

“Probably not yet,” Leraje replied. “Dae said they were discussing her coming in future tense a couple days ago. She’s probably only just arrived in the harbor.”

“So we can still go help her?”

She nodded. “But what are you proposing we do?”

Xiao grew silent, looking at the toes of his boots, and the amber scattered around. “I don’t know. I guess, if she’ll be safe from the Hu girl, just make sure she’s someplace she’ll live happily?” He took Dae’s hand, recalling the promise they had made. “That’s what I wanted for her. For her to have a happy second life.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Dae squeezed his hand reassuringly before they started down the mountain again, heading for the harbor.

The trio wandered the harbor, not yet awake, with their eyes sharp.

Outside the funeral parlor, there was a cart that had a wooden box still in it, and several large pieces of amber.

“You think that’s how they got her here? That cart?” Dae asked, pointing.

Like a hound, Xiao zeroed in on the amber around the cart, finding a trail of amber shards leading away from the funeral parlor, and across Feiyun Slope, glimmering in the first rays of morning light.

“This way,” he said, pointing the way the amber trail led.

Dae followed, still holding his hand, and Leraje brought up the rear.

They crossed Feiyun Slope and wandered north through the harbor, following the little chunks of amber past the fountains and up the flight of stairs to the pharmacy situated halfway between the rows of shops and Yujing Terrace.

“So little has changed about this place over the years,” Leraje mused as she watched the fish in the water, before catching up to Xiao and Dae.

“Good,” Xiao murmured, looking through a window at the pharmacy.

“Found her?” Leraje called.

“Yeah. She’s asleep in here. She looks… well.”

Leraje came to his side and looked through the window as well. “Oh, she’s covered in talismans. Did you do that to her?”

Xiao shook his head. “We just gave her Adeptal energy. She didn’t need anything else.”

“Hmm. Then those must be tempering her. I wonder who did that.”

Xiao looked over to Leraje, who was still studying Qiqi. “Does it matter? I’m satisfied that she’s safe here.”

“No, not especially. If you’re satisfied, do you want to go home?”

He thought for a moment, and as he was preparing to answer, Dae yawned, leaning against him. He gave his answer. “Yes, I’d like to return to the sub-space. She should get some more sleep.”

Leraje looked at them, then back to the pharmacy. “Then you can head back.”

“Are you not coming with this time?”

“Something is compelling me about this pace. I’m going to look around some more.”

In a flash of teal light, Xiao and Dae were gone.

Aedin looked at the white snake curled up near Qiqi’s head, feeling a sense of familiarity. Hadn’t Herblord been…? But no one had seen Herblord for a long time. Poor thing. She was missed; Leraje hoped she knew that, wherever she was.

But Qiqi did look well. Still a little pale from being kept in amber, but it pretty good shape, for what she’d gone through. She was so cute, cuter than Leraje had anticipated. She could see why Xiao had handled her with such care—she exuded a precious quality. As her chest rose and fell, Leraje understood more of Xiao’s heartbreak at how cruelly fate had tried to take such a thing as Qiqi from the world.

There was no flush of the sheets on her cheek to contrast with her moon-white skin, but there were other colors greeting the eyes. Was it just the light, or was her hair truly purple, like the essence of Violetgrass?

As dawn spread over Liyue, there were voices beginning to echo in the harbor, and footsteps in the pharmacy. But Leraje continued to look on.

There was the shuffling of feet and the running of water—first, seemingly as someone washed up, and then filling a kettle for tea. Candles were lit, and a cooking fire, based on the scent of the wax and then wood, and then came more steps. Steps coming closer to the room in which Qiqi and the snake lay.

The door opened, and a man stepped in.

His hair—strikingly long and vibrantly green—was unbound, and he was clearly fresh from bed, rubbing at his eyes behind his glasses.

He knelt at Qiqi’s bedside, laying a hand on her shoulder to gently rouse her from her sleep. When her eyes opened, he smiled at her, speaking to her softly, and Leraje felt her heart ache. Such tender, loving care. She’d seen similar from Morax, when Dae and Xiao were little—especially when each of them had first arrived in their care and needed to be soothed into and out of sleep.

How wonderful that Qiqi was so clearly safe and well cared for here. She had found a family, just like Dae had told Xiao she would.

As Qiqi rose from the bed and began to stretch, the man stood up and looked at the window, his shocked expression revealing warm golden snake eyes soon melting as he smiled again and waved to her.

Leraje blushed, hiding her ears and tail and heading to the door. She would have to pretend she was a patient seeking the doctor’s attention, then.

When she was returning home after her consultation, a vial of Mistgrass Pollen in her hand, she burst through the door. “Morax! When you told me there was a new doctor in the harbor, you didn’t tell me he was a jaw-dropping beauty!”

He paused with his teacup halfway to his mouth, and laughed when he processed what she’d said. “Did I not mention that?”

“You did not.”

“Hmm. Well, I certainly thought it. What were you doing at the harbor’s pharmacy?”

“Xiao and Dae went to find the little girl who got caught in crossfire during the war. She’s been removed from her amber and brought to the harbor. Luckily, that doctor has her and is taking good care of her.”

Morax’s eyes flicked to the pollen clutched in Leraje’s hand. “Looks like he took good care of you, too.”

“I… wanted to talk with him, so I faked a cough and congestion.”

“Oh, Leraje, you’re a terrible actress.”

She blushed again. “Do you think he saw through me?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, but you left with treatment. I think he likes you.”

Her blush deepened, tail thrashing behind her. “Maybe we should see him again, to bless Qiqi.”

“We?” Morax asked.

“I—you think he’s beautiful, too. If he likes me, he’ll like you.”

Morax laughed. “You only say that because you like me. But we shall see. Perhaps I’ll take a job in the harbor and see if any closeness develops. Our blessings for Little Miss Qiqi may end up far more hands-on.” He came to her side and stroked her cheek. “She likely misses her mother, after all. And I know a wonderful mother to take up that mantle.”

#fic #Moraje #Lerazhu #Morajezhu?#herpetology but A Little Different!#this one is longer than I planned hee hee

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