Xiao prepares to tell Aether he has it all wrong about Rex Lapis even before he walks in the door. Before he can, Aether apologizes. "I'm sorry for saying all that about Zhongli yesterday. You've known him a lot longer than me and I'm just his acquaintance. Please forgive me."
Xiao's expression remains stoic although his emotions are tumultuous in his mind. "I don't know that you really mean that Aether," he starts.
Aether shakes his head. "Please, just drop it. I changed my mind" he says in a tone that's almost dejected..
Xiao sets his face. "I don't think so. You need to learn that Rex Lapis is on a level most mortals can't comprehend. All of his motives and means of achieving his goals are noble. You've tainted your knowledge of him from knowing him as Zhongli. I don't mean to shatter your mortal conception of the kind old man you know, but that isn't Rex Lapis at all."
"I said drop it, ok?!" Aether suddenly bursts out. Xiao shrinks back. Aether groans. "I'm sorry. I'm just on edge. Just ignore what happened yesterday. Tell me what happened after you made a contract with Zhongli."
Xiao sighs and looks weary for the first time that Aether has ever seen. He looks down at his seat and laughs softly. "This has just turned into a retelling of my personal history, rather than the archon war. I'm sorry Aether. You probably don't want to hear about this." Aether is about to say something, but Xiao continues. "My personal history at this time coincides with a very important part of the Great Archon War. I can continue being selfish and take your time with stories of myself while providing you with what you really need to know. I'm sorry."
Rex Lapis continued to train me one on one for the next three months. After that, we left Mount Tianheng and ventured south. That was where most of his followers were concentrated. It was also where the biggest city in the world would come to be.
Rex Lapis called this city "Liyue" although it would grow to expand much farther. It was already a prosperous city two thousand years ago. Rex Lapis created mora at about the same rate he did now, just above what was needed to replace the currency was destroyed, so he could reward Liyuen businessmen who were loyal. This would both incentivize people to be loyal to the Geo Archon and make sure that Liyue would gradually get more and more prosperous thanks to Rex Lapis.
There was no Qixing composed of loyal human administrators. The population wasn't big enough yet to warrant a cabinet of bureaucrats to make economic decisions, so Rex Lapis was able to take care of everything related to money by himself. He usually went for a more involved approach to the economy than the modern day Qixing. He lowered interest on loans from the banks so the economy could expand and spend faster. This helped lead to Liyue becoming the economic center of Teyvat, right next to Snezhnaya which instituted a system where the Tsaritsa would threaten to kill people who didn't produce according to quotas. The Qixing in contrast to Rex Lapis mostly let the banks do whatever they want which will lead to Liyue's eventual stagnation. Add this to the fact that there is no mora being currently pumped into the economy and Liyue will soon struggle to keep its lead ahead of the rest of Teyvat.
Xiao sighs and scratches his head. "Rex Lapis…" he mutters.
"What was that?" Aether asks.
"I-I know it's selfish but I wish he didn't step down from being the Geo Archon. How will Liyue fare without him?"
Instead of the humans, Rex Lapis turned to the adepti in order to serve him since they were much more powerful than the mortals. You already know a few of them, such as Cloud Retainer, Moon Carver, Mountain Shaper, Madame Ping, and Ganyu. He also had four adepti servants that fought against the enemies of Liyue physically. Those were the yakshas.
When we arrived in Liyue, while I was still gaping at the city, Rex Lapis told me that he wished for me to join the yakshas. I agreed immediately. Rex Lapis only smiled.
"Tonight, I wish you to journey to the edge of this city. There's a minor salt goddess named Havria who has staked out a part of the territory for herself. Drive her and her cultists out, kill them if they refuse to leave. The other yakshas will be rendezvousing with you from separate directions. Once you have finished your task, return to this location. I'll await your report."
"I won't let you down sir." I wanted to prove myself to Rex Lapis in my first assignment, especially since I was working with a team he had specifically hand crafted.
Later that night, I set off to the location Rex Lapis had signified. Before long, I could see a camp. It had about a hundred vulgar tents set up, illuminated by several lanterns.
I didn't approach but waited behind a rock. While I did so, I could sense four other powerful spirits around the perimeter of the camp as well. They positioned themselves so the camp could be cut in equal quarters. The one remaining sidled up to me. "So you're the new guy, huh?" he asked. "Yes." I replied curtly. He laughed under his breath. "Not much of a talker are you? Anyway I'm Bosacius. Who're you?" "Xi…Alatus," I replied, about to give my previous name. "Well Xialatus, what's going to happen is Menogias will confront Havria directly. If she and her posse goes, great, this can all end peacefully. If she doesn't, he and the two others attack her and the other humans directly. If they try to flee towards Liyue, we'll be on the borders of the camp to prevent them. You're going to stick right by me so I can make sure you don't pussy out. Got it?" I nodded. I could see a large man with a muscular build walking towards the center of the camp. Several humans left their tent to look at him. "HAVRIA! Come out from where you are!" I could clearly hear him although I was half the camp away from him.
I saw a woman in a robe leave from a tent near the edge of the camp. She walked to the center. I could see her talking with the man called Menogias. It didn't seem to be going well, with her gesturing around the camp and Menogias refusing to back down. After about fifteen minutes of this, Menogias made an exaggerated arm movement above his head. With that, I saw the two other yaksha run in from the sides and attack Havria. One of the humans next to her screamed. Havria didn't move, but I could see one of the adepti's arms start to turn into salt, from their fingertips to their elbow. I heard him scream and he waved his spear wildly. Menogias seemed to say something to the other two which I couldn't hear, but then cupped their hands to their mouths and yelled it out loud for me and Bosacius. "KILL THE HUMANS! SHE'LL CONCEDE IF WE KILL HER BELIEVERS!"
The mortals weren't able to react quickly enough. The yaksha changed strategies from that point. They rushed in opposite directions from Havria, but none facing us. While fanning out, they made sure to eliminate as many humans in their path as possible. One of them plunged his spear into a woman's heart and kept on running towards the edge of the camp, her body still clinging to his weapon. Another ripped apart a tent, found a sleeping man inside, and crushed his head with his hand. They continued like this until they reached the edge of the camp, at which point they cleared the perimeter. The yakshas then started herding the humans towards Bosacius and I.
Throughout this scene, I was paralyzed. I thought this would be a simple case of driving out a rogue god, maybe killing a few cultists, not this massacre. Bosacius nudged me. "Hey, Alatus, wake up. You promised Rex Lapis you'd do this job, didn't you?" I roused myself and prepared my spear for when the humans ran towards us.
Xiao pauses and looks down at his lap. He doesn't say anything for a long time, just fiddles with a tassel on his clothes. He winds it on his finger, unwinds it, winds it, unwinds it. Aether breaks the silence. "Well?" he asks. "What did you do?"
"I-I'm not proud of what I did that day Aether. You have to understand it was for the good of Liyue. If it wasn't for us, Havria's cult would've proliferated and damaged the country. There could've been war. It was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do."
"Xiao, I want to know what you did."
Xiao doesn't continue talking. He looks at the table in front of him. He picks at a hangnail. He looks at the ceiling.
"Xiao!"
We killed them. I killed them. Tortured them even to drive the message home to Havria. This all happened in under a minute. Havria was staring blankly into space for who knows how long before managing to abruptly gather her wits.
"We'll leave!" Havria screamed. "We'll leave!"
The other yakshas instantly stopped. Havria walked in the yaksha's paths, trying to find survivors. Thirty seven people were killed in total. I killed eight. Several had been crippled for life. She looked towards each of us in turn with such hatred in her eyes. I can still remember that glare to this day.
She gathered the remaining believers and left. The humans that were left alive huddled around in a group around her as they left towards the north.
The other yakshas turned around and went in opposite directions. I went back to Liyue, where I found Rex Lapis. I recounted to him everything I just told you. He smiled at me. "You did a good job Xiao. You can officially be one of the yakshas now." He kissed me on the forehead.
"That was how I met up with the other Yakshas. Throughout the rest of the Great Archon War, we fought against weaker demons and adepti. We carried out the same thing we did to Havria's camp to believers of many other minor deities. That's why the yakshas got their karmic reward. Osial and Chi were defeated before Rex Lapis utilized the yakshas. Havria was the only goddess we faced against. Rex Lapis had already practically secured his position as the chief god of Liyue without me." Xiao falls silent and looks at Aether.
Aether opens his mouth as if to say something before shutting it a few seconds later. He fidgets in his chair before asking Xiao directly. "Why did you kill all those people?'
Xiao manages to keep his face and mannerisms stoic unlike when he interrupted himself mid story to justify his actions. "I did it because I had to Aether. I entered a contract with Rex Lapis and I had to obey-"
"Not that you idiot! Don't blame your own shitty actions on Rex Lapis! Why did you kill those people?"
Xiao answers after a few seconds. "I killed them because I wanted to kill them. I had a job to do to protect the people of Liyue and I needed to carry that out. If you wanted to know why I in particular did it, it was because I was already a monster. It makes sense to have someone like me do the dirty work."
"Jesus…" Aether rubs his head. "I can't believe you. Referring to those lives as 'dirty work'. Why would you obey such a shit master even if you had a contract? Do you have no free will?"
Xiao's eyes turned to slits. "Don't ever refer to Rex Lapis like that again."
"You know what, I'm not going to try to change your mind on him. But even if you believe he's such hot stuff, you still have the wherewithal to determine whether his commands are moral or not. And you still carried out that massacre which seemed to be a hundred times worse than what your former master commanded."
"Don't talk to me about my former master!" Xiao bursts out. He jerks up in his chair so he can look right into Aether's eyes.
"Why didn't you help those people? You described it as a massacre. Why didn't you do the right thing?" Something in Aether seems to break and he sits down again. He buries his head in his hands and makes a small sound under his breath.
"I-" Xiao starts, but finds he can't continue. He tries to swallow before continuing. "I know what I did was wrong. No amount of telling me what I did was wrong will make me realize it any more. I did it for the good of Liyue, but it was still a wrong action. I understand that Aether. You can berate me for that all you want, but leave Rex Lapis alone. He's the sole reason Liyue is the greatest nation in Teyvat. He's not tyrannical but not lax, he has a good enough hold on the economy to make sure it prospers while also helping the poorest of the mortals, he's a good god, a kind god, a just god. So for the love of god, stop accusing him of being evil." The last sentence came out as a hiss.
Aether doesn't say anything for a long time. He eventually rouses himself from his chair and looks down at Xiao. "I'm going to go," he says.
"Wait!" Xiao cries. "You're going to come back tomorrow, right?"
Aether doesn't say anything. He continues looking at Xiao, coldly but with a little pity in his eyes.
"Y-you haven't even heard about the fate of the yakshas, or how I got assigned to Wangshu Inn, or how Rex Lapis was chosen to be one of the Seven! Please don't go, we still have so much to talk about!"
Aether remains unconvinced.
"I know Aether, I'm a shitty person and I always will be. I have proof of that every single day when I wake up and I need to take qingxin to make myself feel better because I'm a coward who can't face the pain he deserves. I don't care about that, please stay with me! I don't want you to go. Please."
Aether doesn't say anything.
"Please Aether, you were friends with me before you knew everything I had done, nothing's changed about me since then. It gets so lonely here, Rex Lapis barely talks to me since he's given up his duty, I don't even have Barbatos, you're the only person I feel like I have a genuine connection with. Please don't leave me I don't want you to go. Stay here with me."
Aether starts to head towards the door.
"I could've killed you at anytime you slandered Rex Lapis Aether! But I didn't because I like you. I know you like me too, or liked me. Please don't go, don't go, don't go ohhhhhh."
Xiao collapses to the ground. Aether leaves and shuts the door behind him. Xiao stays like that for a few minutes, before picking himself up and putting himself back into his chair. He summons an anemo spear and fingers it as if not sure what to do with it, before letting it dissipate. His eyes prickle faintly with tears.
Xiao stays like that for a few minutes before reaching to the table. He had picked several qingxin flowers earlier so that he could spread them out over the week, but he grabs them all at once and crushes them between his fist. He lets the juice sap into his mouth. Slowly, Xiao calms down. He continues to sit in that position, waiting for someone else to visit him or for his pain to flare up again, whichever comes first.