Chapter Text
Chapter 1: When Instincts Betray
The sky shimmered with golden light as lanterns bobbed through the evening sky, carrying whispered wishes into the heavens. Liyue Harbor was alive with celebration. Children giggled as they chased firecrackers, vendors called out their best deals on candied hawthorn and steamed buns, and the rhythmic pounding of drums echoed through the streets as lion dancers twisted and leapt, their costumes gleaming beneath the lantern glow.
Paper artisans folded delicate sky lanterns with practiced hands, each having their own shapes and sizes, while families gathered along the harbor to light them, their eyes reflecting the flames as they watched their wishes drift higher. Musicians played soft guzheng melodies beneath decorated pavilions, and sweet-scented smoke curled from incense burners left at shrines.
But far from the warmth and laughter of the city, along Liyue’s distant cliffs and quiet borders, not all was celebration. Some kept watch in the silence.
Above the shimmering city, Xiao stood at the edge of a cliff, his gaze fixed not on the lanterns but on the horizon. The quiet wind tugged at his blood soaked sleeves, carrying faint echoes of laughter and songs from below, sounds that had long since grown distant to him.
He did not celebrate. He never had.
His karmic energy always grew heavier during this time of year. While mortals used lanterns to remember the ones who have passed on, for Xiao it was a reminder of past regrets of the ones he couldn’t save. Every passing year it took a toll on him. His spear rested loosely in his hand but his senses were taut and sharp. Beneath him laid ashed corpses of the abyssal anomalies he just killed, he was used to this life, this duty. Xiao wiped some of the tainted blood that lingered on his face, causing it to smear across his skin.
As he was about to close his eyes and relax, he found his pupils dilating, something was wrong, something was here. A presence…dark, unfamiliar, and powerful had crept past Liyue’s border. He had felt it, a howl beneath the mist, a disturbance heavy enough to draw him away from the revelry and into the highlands beyond the city. Could it have been another abyssal creature who has crawled its way up from the dark pits of the chasm? No, it felt new, foreign. Dusting off his clothes, his gloved hand gripped his spear tightly, ripping it from the earth as he began his pursuit.
- - -
The wind in these highlands smelled different. Richer. Older.
Cyno crouched near a disturbed patch of earth, gloved fingers brushing over the faint outline of a boot print half-buried in moss. His ears twitched beneath the hood that no longer concealed their sharp shape. His jackal ears, always alert, always listening.
He didn’t need to sniff the air or taste the wind like Tighnari would. He could feel it in the soil itself. They had passed through here not long ago.
“Found you.”
Former scholars turned mercenaries, men who thought intelligence gave them the right to manipulate borders, steal sacred knowledge, and sell it to the highest bidder. They had allied with treasure hoarders, stolen classified scrolls from the Akademiya, and vanished eastward into the mountains near Liyue.
Most would never dare cross into another nation’s land, not without good reason. Which meant this wasn’t just an escape, it was a transaction. A meeting. Someone in Liyue might be waiting.
Cyno stood slowly, adjusting the strap of the satchel slung across his chest. It carried rations, his waterskin, and other small supplies in emergency cases. He was used to traveling light and alone. Especially now.
His tail behind him flicked once, agitated. His body was still adapting to what Sethos had given him: the other half of the Ba fragments. Immortality, strength and clarity of divine origin. The transformation was complete and yet… his instincts felt even more animalistic now. More aware .
As he stepped foot into Liyue, he could feel a noticeable difference between the two nations. The air felt lighter, colder, foreign from what he was used to. During his pursuit, he had stumbled upon a few hilichurl camps who were alerted by his presence, and yet they didn't dare to approach him, as if they knew their fate. He stopped where the path seemed to split, East or West. Cyno crouched down, studying the faded boot prints that continued on the west route, he was close, he could feel it.
Suddenly, something tugged at the edge of his senses, something heavy, something malicious. His ears flicked under his hood but caught no sound of approaching footsteps, which only meant he was being watched, stalked.
He turned. High above, on the jagged cliff bathed in twilight, stood a figure still as stone. Dark hair caught in the wind like a banner. A jade spear in hand and golden eyes as menacing as a Rishboland tiger, locked onto him with unmistakable intent. A dark presence, barely visible. Something buried in the figure’s aura, something ancient, unstable and tainted. Was this a corrupted spirit who’s drawn to the border? Something that was summoned? A demon?
He didn't know. He didn't wait.
Cyno’s hand instinctively reached back to his spear holster, prepared for anything.
- - -
He moved too smoothly to be a lost traveler.
Xiao watched the figure from above, his golden eyes narrowing. The man below carried himself like a warrior, each step measured, too deliberate, as if he knew the land beneath him didn’t welcome his presence.
Dark robes shifted with the breeze, edged in gold. His face was obscured beneath a hood but what caught Xiao’s attention were the sharp, pointed ears twitching through the fabric, not human , not quite beast, either. Something… in between.
And the tail.
Long, thick, furred, it moved with restless agitation behind him, like a predator testing the air. Xiao watched as the tail faded from snow white to soot black. Its eyes shifted from crimson to a pool of gold like his own. Whatever this being was, he didn’t belong in Liyue- and he carried an energy that prickled at the edge of Xiao’s awareness like cold iron dragged across a nerve: Heavy, divine and old.
The Adepti’s grip on his spear tightened.
He knew spirits, he knew demons. He knew curses stitched into bone and beings who wore mortal skin like masks. This… creature felt like one of them. What was its purpose here? Waiting for the Lantern Rite for an attack? Perhaps he had been summoned intentionally or not by a foolish wish whispered into a drifting lantern.
Xiao had seen it before. He had cleaned up such mistakes before.
His duty, as always, was to protect. Even if it meant killing before speaking. With no further hesitation, Xiao vanished from the cliffside in a flash of wind and shadow. Spear forward, body angled like a falcon mid-dive.
The stranger barely had time to look up, but he reacted fast, far too fast for the mortal eye. A curved weapon hissed into his hand and their blades met in a deafening clash that split the air like a thundercrack. The force of it knocked Xiao back a step but he was already moving again, darting low, then twisting midair for another strike.
His opponent blocked him again and again. Faster than most abyssal anomalies, stronger than they should be. This wasn’t just some wandering spirit. This thing fought like a God .
But Xiao didn’t falter.
“Who are you, state your purpose.” he muttered under his breath, voice low with restrained fury as he slashed upward, aiming for the creature’s neck. “I won’t let you harm the people of Liyue”. He wasn’t sure if the stranger could hear him. He didn’t care.
The spears sang as they met again. steel against steel, sparks trailing in the dusk like stray fireworks from the harbor. Cyno ducked under a sweeping arc of Xiao’s spear, claws raking up to catch the Adepti’s mid-strike. He felt the impact, his claws sliced through fabric, then flesh.
But Xiao didn’t flinch. He twisted with the wound, not against it, and retaliated with a powerful downward thrust that nearly skewered Cyno’s shoulder. It glanced off at the last moment, grazing his upper arm with the sting of steel. Cyno’s ears flattened back as he launched himself backward, catching his breath as his tail lashed once, scattering dust.
‘He’s fast. Too fast.’
Stronger than most monsters he’s encountered. There was fury in his strikes but it was clean and disciplined. Xiao darted forward again, vanishing into the wind like smoke. A blur of green and black appeared behind Cyno in an instant. He barely managed to parry in time. ‘Who fights like this?’ Cyno thought, teeth bared. ‘Was he more than I imagined?’
He dropped low, spinning his polearm in a wide sweep, aiming to knock the legs out from under his attacker. Xiao leapt clean over the arc, twisting in midair, spear pointed downward. His eyes locked with Cyno’s for the first time in the chaos.
And both of them hesitated, just for a second.
Something passed between them. Recognition, or perhaps the unease of seeing something too familiar in the other?
Xiao then lunged again. “Leave this land!” he growled, voice low and edged with pain. Blood now trickled from the claw marks slashing across his side, soaking into his clothes but his focus never wavered. Cyno deflected the strike with the flat of his blade, gritting his teeth. Cyno didn’t understand the words, they were foreign sounds, his expression faltered for the briefest second at the tone but it was gone in an instant.
They clashed again. Once, twice, a blur of movement, Anemo and Electro. Cyno’s polearm was knocked from his grip with a twist of Xiao’s spear. He was forced to leap back, only to slip on loose stones. His back hit the ground hard, breath caught in his throat. Xiao landed above him, weapon poised for the kill.
Cyno’s eyes widened as he stared at the Adeptus above him. He had messed up and now it’s going to cost him his life. As Xiao brought down his spear, he was too caught up in the moment to realize something sharp had sniped right between them, catching him off guard causing his spear drive into the dirt beside Cyno’s head with a violent thunk.
Warm blood trickled down the jackal’s cheek where it had grazed him, his eyes trembling as he finally let out the breath he was holding in the entire time. Xiao stood there on top of Cyno, his own breath shaky. A bead of blood drizzled down Xiao’s cheek down to his chin before dripping down on Cyno’s cheek. He brought his fingers up to his cheek, wiping the wound before turning to where the object had sniped through. It was an arrow that lingered traces of Dendro. ‘Where did that come from?’
A sharp voice cut through the air, strained and urgent.
“ ENOUGH! ”
From behind, Tighnari skidded into view, bow drawn, an arrow pointed directly at the Adeptus. His breath was heaving, his tail bristling, panic and anger etched across his face.
The tension broke like ice.
Xiao stiffened, blinking once as if waking from a trance. His eyes darted to fox, then down to Cyno. His prone form, his robes, the traveling satchel, the bandages peeking from his collar. This wasn’t a demon nor a monster…he was a person?
Xiao’s hands trembled slightly as he pulled his spear back, gaze sharp with disbelief. A few thin strands of Cyno’s silver hair were stuck to the blade of his spear.
‘What have I done…?’
The wind had finally settled.
Xiao stood still, the blood from his wounds staining the fabric at his ribs, his weapon lowered but not released. His chest rose and fell in sharp, uneven breaths. He kept his gaze on the man before him, no longer an enemy but still something different . Cyno hadn’t moved from the ground. His claws were half-curled into the dirt. One cheek bled from the near-fatal strike. A few strands of silver hair, freshly cut by Xiao’s blade, fluttered in the air between them.
Neither spoke.
Tighnari’s voice finally broke the silence, a little more breathless than before. “Are you out of your mind?!”
He lowered his bow but did not slacken his posture. His ears were high, alert, and twitching with leftover adrenaline. Cyno exhaled through his nose and slowly sat up, brushing some dust off his black cloak, though the movement made him wince.
Xiao stepped back on instinct when Tighnari approached but his spear remained loose in hand. He didn’t understand the words, just the tone, and the meaning behind the fox's sharp eyes: You almost killed him. His lips parted slightly before closing. He glanced at the man on the ground again, no longer monstrous up close but strange still. Divine, Mysterious, whatever he was, he was… not what Xiao thought.
Xiao bent forward without a word. Slowly, dropping onto his knees and lowering his head. The Adeptus pressed one hand flat to the ground and bowed, the gesture formal and deliberate, weighted with guilt. He remained there in complete silence, waiting.
Tighnari blinked. “Are you… apologizing?”
Cyno frowned, confused, before forcing himself up, grounding himself with his polearm. “Hold on a moment”. He inched closer to Xiao, still keeping his guard up, “Hey, you, do you know what I’m saying?”. Xiao lifted his head from the dirt, looking up at the person he wounded, blinking with uncertainty.
“This is such a mess” Tighnari muttered, then gave Xiao a slow glance. “And he clearly doesn’t understand Sumeru’s language, judging from his clothes, I think he’s Liyuen. No wonder this turned into a disaster.”
Xiao stayed bowed, unmoving. Tighnari hesitated a moment longer, then gently lowered his bow and crouched beside Cyno. “He doesn’t seem hostile anymore. You’re not going to smite him, are you?” Cyno gave a dry, humorless chuckle. “Tempting. But no.”
Tighnari approached Xiao carefully, trying not to startle him more. When he was a few feet away, he raised his hands and began gesturing slowly. Basic, universal signs: [No harm. Not enemies. We were mistaken. Are you okay?]
Xiao raised his head slightly, warily watching. His golden eyes flicked from Tighnari’s face to his hands, piecing together the meaning. After a few more repetitions, his expression shifted. Something like relief; small, barely visible, ghosted across his face.
He nodded once.
Then lowered his gaze again, quietly murmuring words in a language neither of them understood.
“What did he say?” Cyno asked from behind Tighnari.
“I don’t know,” Tighnari said softly. “But I think he’s apologizing again.”
Cyno raised both hands, showing the Adeptus that he was alright, that no harm was done, even though Cyno was clearly masking his pain. His ears and tail had faded from their dark shade to his previous white features along with his eyes returning to their original color, though now they were covered in dirt and dried blood.
Tighnari let out a long, exhausted sigh and rose to his feet. “Well. That was almost catastrophic.”, Xiao stood as well, silently, his spear now secured against his back. His wounds remain unacknowledged, as if the pain didn’t matter. He refused to meet Cyno’s eyes again, head still slightly bowed, like he was afraid one wrong look would reignite what had just been extinguished.
Cyno wiped the blood off his cheek with the back of his hand and studied the man- no, the being before him. Even his silence had weight. He had assumed this was some feral spirit from Liyue’s mountains. Now? He wasn’t sure what he’d just fought.
“Tell him,” Cyno said, voice low, “that I accept the apology.”
Tighnari gave him a tired glance. “You do know he doesn’t understand a word of that, right?”.
Still, he turned back toward Xiao and used his hands again to sign slowly: [Forgiven. No danger. We… respect your duty.] He pointed at Cyno, then mimed a calm breath, and touched his chest lightly. [He’s okay.]
Xiao hesitated. His gaze flicked to Cyno at last. Still cautious, still unreadable. Then, unexpectedly, he stepped forward. He extended one gloved hand out between them, wordlessly, a gesture of peace.
Cyno blinked.
For a moment, all he could do was stare at it. At the long fingers, the faint trace of dried blood and dust, the way Xiao didn’t flinch despite being the one who had bled more. Cyno reached out and grasped his hand.
And instantly-
A jolt..A snap of unseen energy passed through their palms, like something ancient and volatile had been disturbed. A hum then a pulse.
They both flinched.
Cyno yanked his hand back on instinct. Xiao recoiled half a step, brows furrowing as his golden eyes widened slightly. It wasn’t painful, exactly. But it felt odd, close to a clash of power.
Even Tighnari felt the shift. “...What was that ?”
Cyno stared at his hand. His Hermanubis blood had reacted with something that stirred inside of Xiao, something dark, as if his body was subconsciously still in self defense. The kind of pressure that responded to a divine presence or karmic weight.
He looked at Xiao again, more intently this time. The Adeptus had already turned away. He stepped back toward the cliffside, wordless, solemn and vanished in a blink of green mist, like a dream dissolving in daylight.
Only silence remained.
Tighnari finally broke it with a long sigh. “Well, I think that went great, don’t you?”. Cyno didn’t laugh, Instead, he stood still for a long moment, his hand still tingling. His tail bristled. “…Who was that?” he murmured. “Dunno..but let’s hope you don’t run into that kind of trouble again” Tighnari glared.
Later that night - Gandharva Ville
The forest wind howled faintly outside the modest wooden huts where Cyno lay bandaged and still. The walls were cool, washed pale by moonlight and the warmth of the dimly lit fireplace. Inside, the air was quiet, too quiet for sleep.
He had returned not long after moonrise, escorted reluctantly by Tighnari, who had all but dragged him back to Gandharva Ville after seeing the condition of his wounds. “You’re not walking another step after that,” Tighnari had said sharply, tail puffed in frustration as he secured the last bandage around Cyno’s ribs. “If you open that gash again, I swear I will tranquilize you.”
Cyno didn’t argue. For once, he didn’t have the strength. But more than that, he didn’t have the focus.
As soon as they’d reached the village, he had gathered what strength he had left and issued a command to the other Matras through his Akasha. His voice was hoarse but firm:
“The targeted group was last seen heading northeast across the Liyue border. I’m wounded and unable to pursue. Continue tracking them, use force if necessary. Report at dawn.”
A chorus of affirmations echoed back. With that handled, he had handed over the mission at least for now. Tighnari had not stopped fussing since.
But none of it registered. Not the sting of the ointments, not the murmurs of the guards outside the window. Not even the threat of a long report he'd have to submit to the Akademiya later.
His thoughts were elsewhere. He laid on the thin cot, one arm draped over his eyes, tail curled close to his side, unmoving. Still too restless to sleep.
That handshake .
He could still feel the ghost of it on his skin. It wasn’t just a jolt of elemental power. It wasn’t aggression or just a warning. It was something deeper. As if two ancient forces had brushed, neither compatible nor opposing, just… aware.
He recalled the golden glow of that stranger’s eyes. The way he moved like mist and struck like wrath incarnate. The silence he carried, heavy as centuries.
Who was he?
A guardian of Liyue? An exorcist? A forgotten spirit? No name. No identity. Just presence.
The Hermanubis within him had stirred not from rage but recognition. Cyno rolled onto his side, staring out the window, even now, curiosity tugged at him like a thread he couldn’t sever. It wasn't an obsession. Not yet. But the pull was there. He exhaled once, slow and deep. The wound at his side ached in time with his thoughts. Cyno then closed his eyes but sleep continued to elude him and it would for the rest of the remaining night.