Moraxcon and the Lord of Geo - Part 3
…
It felt like a dream.
Weightlessness. Silence. Dense fog obscured her view. Her arms and legs froze the moment she thought of moving them. She tried to speak, but her throat made no sound.
All she could do was watch.
A man in a hooded robe stood up. By his feet appeared to be a small gravestone, the inscriptions, and names on it too faded for her to read. A bouquet of glaze lilies laid next to it.
She blinked.
Faster than she could react, the hooded man now stood before her. He was tall. Too tall to be human, even though it had a human-like body. Shadow obscured the upper half of his face, leaving his lips forever locked in melancholy. Black granite covered his skin from the neck down.
A living statue. It raised its arm up.
Terrified, she struggled in vain to escape— to at least scream for help. Nothing happened. She remained paralyzed and at the mercy of the man's stony gaze. She shut her eyes in desperation.
The rugged hand patted her on the head.
"...?"
Slowly, she stared into the man's amber eyes gleaming under the hood. She could not tell why his grin felt familiar.
"Thank you," the man said.
And with those words alone, she knew.
"...!"
Her voice came out in muffled gasps. She willed her limbs to move harder, gaining a modicum of control when the hooded man started to walk away.
It felt like a dream, but at that moment, she felt she could reach for his hand.
To grab it and drag him back. To slap his vainglorious face for all the suffering he's caused, abandoning them all alone. To make him grovel before the worried faces of the citizens for believing he was gone.
At that moment, for once in his goddamn existence, to finally make him listen to her.
She screamed louder.
"MORAX!"
…
A single tear beaded down Keqing's cheek as she woke up on her bed, shouting. Cold sweat clung to her back, and immediately she tried to move her arms and legs. Keqing looked around. The lone Rex Lapis figurine Zhongli gave her sat quietly on her desk.
A jumbled flurry of emotions swelled inside her. First was...
"AARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"
Unbridled fury.
With her heart a mess and face flushed beet red, Keqing screamed into her pillow until her throat went sore.
The figurine tumbled to its side as if rubbing salt to the wound.
"Alright, listen you!" Keqing yelled, glaring back at the inanimate object. It naturally stood motionless. "Don't you DARE invade my privacy ever again! Who gave you permission, huh? If you just stopped to look back, I would have STRANGLED YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"
Sure he was over two meters tall, but that just gave her an excuse to hamstring him or kick his shins.
Confusion.
"And what's with that grin? Were you watching me? Were you sipping your goddamn tea while listening to me make a fool of myself? You were there the whole time, huh?!"
Maybe. Maybe not. Not like a figurine could answer.
A new emotion bubbled in her throat. In her rage, she swallowed it down while still ranting explosively. Tossing and turning on the floor, Keqing pulled her hair as hard as she could. She spat curses left and right, all to keep that disgusting emotion bottled away.
When exhaustion kicked in, she could no longer stop the pain.
Longing.
"Thank you…? Thank you for what? For forcing you to leave? You prepped us to handle your duties as best we could... but we're failing. You want to thank me for that?"
The figurine stared silently.
"You did so much for us from behind the scenes. I didn't realize that until it was too late, and now the Qixing could barely keep itself together. Every day we're swamped with work you did all by yourself. Every night, all of us go to sleep in the hopes of seeing you again to ask you what we should do. What Liyue should do. We can't do this alone…"
The dream played in her mind over and over.
"But then, you came to me, the last person who wanted to see you. I thought you hated me. And now you're saying thank you? What have I done? I made everything worse. I thought I was better than you. I wanted you out just so I could prove myself, not realizing how much you were guiding me. And now, without you, I've stumbled hundreds of times. Without you, everyone's suffering. It's all my fault!"
Tears cascaded down her cheeks.
Regret.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Rex Lapis!" Keqing groveled. "I failed you. I failed everyone. I'm sorry!"
The empty night offered no comfort.
Like an echo, the voice from her dream spoke once more.
"Thank you."
Keqing gritted her teeth and pounded the floor. Again? She expected him to scold her, to shame her for being so naive. Anything, anything at all, except acknowledge that what she had done was right.
Another voice, a familiar one, resonated in her thoughts.
'I'm not lying. I am merely stating facts.'
"Answer me…" Keqing pleaded. "Are you really proud of me?"
...
Whether it was from the sleep deprivation or the stinging sensation in her eyes, the Rex Lapis figurine seemed to smile.
"...Heh..."
Keqing chuckled. Grinning from ear to ear, she wiped away her tears, realizing what she could do— the only thing she could do.
Her Vision, tucked underneath paper sheets on her desk, glowed brightly.
Acceptance.
"I promise. I won't let you down."
Day two of the Rex Lapis Memorial Fair. Zhongli arrived at the plaza a few minutes ahead of their scheduled time. Although he did arrive early, it did not take him long to be greeted with an angry pair of cat-ear hair buns.
"You're late." Pouting, Keqing jabbed a finger on Zhongli's chest. "Any later and I would have gone on ahead of you."
"My apologies," Zhongli said, scratching his head. He still wasn't sure why she was so angry. He woke up early and arrived early, the same as Keqing did. He even dressed more casually for the occasion. "I am still unsure if this is what you meant when you asked to 'hang out.'"
Keqing clicked her tongue. Loudly. She was similarly dressed in more ordinary clothes— probably so the citizens won't recognize her. "If you're unsure, then you just have to learn stuff on the fly. Not everything can be read off from some book."
"I apologize…"
"Don't act so formal, either." Keqing shook her head and sighed. "We're meeting here as friends, not business partners. No contracts, no work, just two people hanging out and spending leisure time together."
"...Got it," Zhongli answered.
"But, seriously, what an outdated way of thinking," Keqing mumbled. "That's just like you, Rex Lapis…"
"...What?"
"Huh?"
…
Keqing blinked, not exactly sure of what she said either.
Zhongli asked first. "Did you just call me…?"
Amethyst eyes stared deep into amber ones. For a minute it stayed like that until, after another dismissive shake of her head, Keqing smiled.
"It's nothing. C'mon. Let's go, Zhongli."
And done. Tbh I had this fic idea for a very very long while now. The KQM discord event was a great motivator.
For clarification, this takes place soon after the events of Zhongli's first story quest- and in my continuity, before the epilogue of 'starlit bridge.' Basically how Keqing turned into the Rex Lapis simp she is seen today (the figure Zhongli gave her being the first in her collection)
Also, laptop frizzed and had to replace it, so don't expect a new chapter of Fischl's fic anytime soon. ; ;
Reviews, comments etc are appreciated.
See ya.