Author's Note

Sorry, I missed a few updates there, life got hectic fast! But here's this one regardless, I'll get back on track Monday.


Zhongli

"It's so… simple."

Xingqui was right. The camp wasn't much more than a circle of tents and caravans overlooked by ramshackle wooden walls and stacks of crates. The waystation had been erected in the clearing below an old temple to the anemo archon, deep in the chilly forests of the border's backline. It was backed into the shelter of a harshly-cut valley.

The temple itself had once been a series of open stone platforms bearing statues that looked out over sacred pools. Now, the carvings were worn away, the clearing plowed by wagon wheels, and the tiered plazas converted to a poorly-constructed fort that seemed to serve as more of an oversized watchtower than anything else.

"That is certainly a word for it. This outpost was never designed to be defended or, as it seems, to please the eye," Zhongli muttered.

"It probably looked better when it was still a ruin," Hu Tao added.

Zhongli smiled at that and peered down closer to the forest floor below them. The trees they were hiding behind swayed gently as Xingqui leaned forwards beside him.

"He's really in there?" Chongyun asked, frowning slightly.

"The camp? Doubtful," Zhongli speculated. "The temple includes an entrance into the cliff face. There was likely no outside camp here in ancient days, meaning that the priests probably had quarters there which I'm sure anyone of importance uses for shelter today."

"Ooh, smart. We are sure he's here though… right?" Hu Tao confirmed.

"If not we are well and truly out of luck. There is no other place in the area we know of where he could have stopped, and we cannot afford to endanger ourselves by searching the road," Xingqui analyzed. "Not that we have the time to anyway."

"Well let's hope he isn't the camping sort," Tao muttered, stepping back from the ledge to sit down against a tree. "What do we do?"

Zhongli surveyed the smoldering cookfires, restless horses, and setting sun. Surely the Snezhnayans would set a night watch, but was it worth attempting to take out the guard? It would leave evidence of their operation, but as long as their goal wasn't ascertained that wouldn't necessarily matter. Did the risk of discovery from such a patrol outweigh the benefits of complete stealth?

"I suppose we wait for night to see what kind of watch they set. We will descend in whatever fashion we need to once we've figured that much out. For now, we sit and rest."

The team dropped their packs and sat down in the tangle of pine and spruce trees dotting the highland. Hu Tao looked as if she wanted to just sleep until the operation began, and her bright eyes were half-closed already. Xingqui immediately submerged himself in the pages of a book, reading by the fading light of dusk. Chongyun, for his part, stayed by the edge; drinking cold water from his thermos and peering into the forest.

Zhongli sat on the stone at the edge of the cliff, setting his pack and shuang guo down on the cold, root-threaded earth. He set a palm down on the rock and closed his eyes, reaching outwards with a hand focusing his magic through his staff. He could feel the chunks of stone in the dirt, and where the earth became a solid limestone layer. As his senses magically extended below him, he tried to focus downwards on the temple, but they must have been 200 feet above it. He wasn't nearly close enough to map out the interior.

He had a book of his own, but he wouldn't be so distracted tonight. He stayed by the edge, watching for their target with Chongyun. The young spiritcaller was intently focused, but Zhongli felt that he already knew where Childe was tucked away.

His confidence only grew over time as the man never appeared in the camp. The horses were unhitched and lying down in the clearer grassy areas, and the fires had been put out. The soldiers were tired after traveling, and most had disappeared into their tents.

A short while later, the lingering men and women took up torches and spread out to posts around the camp. Three of them wandered a short way to the border of the large clearing, but two climbed out onto posts on the temple proper. They were a bigger problem.

"Five of them?" muttered Chongyun. "What are they worried about?"

The young spy looked to Zhongli, but he really wasn't certain either.

"It might be that they want to make sure at all nothing goes wrong while Childe is here, or that he's instructed it. I'm sure they also need to be alert for the wandering bear, wolf pack, or maybe just slime; but besides that, I don't know the reason."

The other two had been stirred by their whispering, and they crept over. Hu Tao had been animating small spark butterflies to light a small area and let Xingqui keep reading, but she dismissed them as she came within sight of the camp.

"Just five?" she asked.

"Yes, but I think we need to take them all out in order for this to succeed. They are visible to each other, and we can't reliably get past them into the temple," Zhongli proposed.

"Fun, who takes two?" Tao grinned, stretching the black silk of garotte between slender fingers.

"You are a bit too excited about this," Chongyun cautioned, frowning slightly. "Fighting shouldn't be relished…"

"Fighting is just a means to an end! Well, a means to reach THE end… for them. Besides, we aren't fighting! Just attacking, plain and simple," Hu Tao protested.

"Regardless," Zhongli interrupted. "We won't be doing anything at all for some time. We should wait until the second watch. There is a chance that they will have a lighter patrol once the night has quieted, and that will let us know the timing for shift changes. It also ensures that the soldiers enter deeper sleep."

"And then we get in, find a piece of waterboy, and get out," Hu Tao cheered.

"A DNA sample, yes," Xingqui corrected.

"We'll take turns watching for the change, it may be a few hours. In the meantime, we wait. Hu Tao, please watch the camp first."

If he didn't ask her to now she would probably fall asleep. Xingqui took a notebook from his bag and began sketching, and Chongyun sat down a ways from the ridge where he began meditating.

The night was growing deceptively peaceful, considering why they were here in the first place. Zhongli settled down carefully off to the side. He was leaning against a tree in the dark, wondering how many days it would take them to get back to Mondstadt; and then he was awoken by Hu Tao announcing that the shifts had switched.

He was dimly aware of the fact that two hours or so must have passed, he was disoriented from falling asleep. Hu Tao motioned for them to come to the edge, and Zhongli stood to approach, rubbing his eyes. Xingqui, looking as if he had been no more awake than Zhongli, began rapidly packing his things. Chongyun was silent and looked resolute as he crouched by the ridge.

"Wow, only four. You were right," Hu Tao whispered, watching the camp.

It was true. For whatever reason, one less watchman had taken up the second shift.

"An even split," Chongyun muttered.

"Do you want to go now then?" Xingqui asked, turning to Zhongli.

"Yes, make your marks," Zhongli advised.

"Farthest," Xingqui announced.

"By the horses," Hu Tao called.

"Chongyun, take the guard on the far side of the temple. Drop me on the nearest one," Zhongli ordered.

Chongyun nodded, and firmly gripped the pine staff he held, holding it horizontally. He drew his other hand around it in an arc, tracing a vibrant, white, circular seal. He completed it and slammed his staff on the ground. The seal pulsed and then burts outwards with the sound of a violin string snapping, and after a pause the wind hit. Zhongli's clothes snapped back against his body, and his hair grabbed at his face wildly. Without another word he launched into the air, so far above the ground that he could not see the cracks in the stone below him, and began to drop.

He didn't slow down until he was nearing the ground, and he feared for a moment that the spell had failed, but as he knew it would, his plunge came to a gradual and soft halt as he touched down quietly to one of the upper platforms of the temple.

The guard in front of him barely had time to turn around before the backside of a shuang gou slammed into the side of his head, knocking him unconcious. Zhongli caught his torch and spear so they wouldn't make noise, and watched in the direction of the other guard on this side of the camp. A second later, Chongyun descended like a swooping hawk, right on top of his target.

A few seconds later, the young mage held the torch up over the wall to give the illusion that the guard was still at their post, like Zhongli was doing. He didn't bother to try and make out what the other two were doing, but once both torches were extinguished Zhongli put the guard's helmet over his own to snuff the flame.

"No issues?" Chongyun clarified quietly as they all assembled in front of the temple door.

Hu Tao and Xingqui shook their heads. Somewhere behind them the sound of an owl's cry, not far off, shook the quiet of the night.

"Lets get this going before one of the others wakes up to use the bathroom." Zhongli placed both hands to the stone wall on one side of the entrance.

He reached out into the stone again. This time, he could feel the rooms. The hallway wasn't wide enough or neccessarily tall, it would only accommodate at most two people walking side by side, but it was long. It took maybe 50 feet for it to end in a large chamber. Two smaller rooms as well as a few closet-sized pockets were scattered along either side.

He relayed as much to the others. "Chongyun and Xingqui, please watch the door. We'll go in."

Xingqui produced a black feather quill and began to write with it in the air. It traced a thin cerulean line in the air, and as he signed it with a flourish the two young men shimmered out of sight. Zhongli heard them move invisibly beside the door.

Zhongli took a deep breath and stepped into the stone wall. The hard surface magically gave way to something softer that moved out of his way and he slipped around the corner into the hallway, wiping grey sand from his robes as his signature recessed. Once he had stepped in he saw that the stone was worked exactly as he had sensed, but there was a warm light emanating from beneath the door of the room at the end of the hall.

Was Childe awake? That would not be at all conducive to the plan. Hu Tao phased through the front door and began to creap down the hall, motioning that she would check the room. The other doors were all closed as well, but he wouldn't risk opening them or stepping in himself.

He crept after her. Hu Tao leaned down to peer under but apparently couldn't see anything. She ever so slowly leaned right through the door to peak in, and she froze.

"There's nobody here," she whispered.

Zhongli he heard a door at the other end of the hallway open.

The shadows cast by the two liyueans standing in front of the light danced and flickered over the bare muscles of Childe's shirtless body and the massive scars streaking his pale skin as Zhongli turned to face him. Even in the darkness; the bright blue shimmer of Childe's eyes stood out as he tightened black gloves on his hands.

"Visitors! And here I stand in only pajamas," the man drawled. "There's nobody in that room, that would be an obvious choice, but I take it that you're looking for me."

The hinges of the door behind the Snezhnayan creaked as someone tried to open it, but a metal bar kept it in place. Zhongli felt a cold sensation grip his heart, they were locked in. He cursed himself, tehy should have checked that when they first entered.

"My first would-be assassins in quite a while, I'm so proud of myself," Childe added, his lips drawing into a canine smile. "You should probably be trying harder."

If they went through the walls, Childe would only follow them through the door, and then they would bring Xingqui and Chongyun into danger while drawing the entire camp in. If those two snuck away now they could find a way out separately, but they couldn't communicate that. Zhongli needed to fight him off now.

Zhongli twirled his blades and Hu Tao couched behind him, there just wasn't room here to fight side-by-side. The door slammed against the bar again, and Zhongli burst down the corridor. Lashes of fire spiraled on either side of him like molten whips, and they reached Childe first.

In a second, a cloud formed and condensed before him, and the fire cracked harmlessly against a solid sheet of clear water fulling the hallway like a windowpane. As steam hissed out from the clash, Childe slammed the flat of his other hand into the wall and it crystallized into a solid javelin of ice.

Water vapor was enough for him to work with, that was an unfortunate new lesson to learn. Zhongli swiped to shatter the icicle with his left-hand blade when it fired at him. He let out a grunt of exertion as his arm was jarred by the impact, but he swung with an uppercut from his right at the same time as he closed the distance to the other man.

Childe lunged forward instead of away, catching Zhongli by surprise. His gloved hand clamped around the hand swinging the hook sword and he slammed his other fist into Zhongli's ribs. Zhongli staggered back and blindly slashed his sword into the wall to his left. He caught the stone with his signature, forcing it to disintegrate into sand. As it did, his sword knocked waves of it into the air and at Childe.

As the other man staggered back from the billowing dust Zhongli planted a flying kick with his boot onto his bare chest, throwing Childe to the ground where he rolled backward before bouncing to his feet.

"Neat trick," Childe snarled, as the sand pulled back into the wall to take its original form.

As he said that, Hu Tao stepped out of the wall directly behind him. Childe didn't take notice at first, but Zhongli saw him notice she was gone. When she slid the door bar out of its position, Childe whirled around to see her lunging back through the stone.

Zhongli smiled. "And you thought the sand was remarkable."

The door flew open and Childe threw frozen shrapnel towards it; hitting nothing. Nobody stood in the doorway, and Childe narrowed his eyes. Without warning, ice began to pull together in the hallway, forming a wall to hold them inside. Hu Tao sent fireballs roaring over Zhongli's head, and he slammed his fists down on the ground, spitting out the verbal components for Groundroil. A wave of sand surged forwards from the stonework, shattering the unfinsihed wall and building in height. Childe lunged for the door but it impacted him with a dull slam before he got there.

As it settled back down, Zhongli saw the ginger tumble to a stop outside. When he got up and lunged for Zhongli again, snarling like a wild dog, a throwing dagger slashed his arm and sparked on the stone floor in front of him at Zhongli's feet. Now that the invisibility had been shattered by Xingqui's attack, Xingqui could be seen drawing another knife, and Chongyun appeared immediately behind Childe.

That was exactly what they needed, Zhongli slid to grab the bloodied knife and, seeing Hu Tao behind him, slid it across the ground back to her. Chongyun lashed out with his staff, but Childe was suddenly holdinga gleaming pair of water-formed blades and he deftly blocked both the staff and Xingqui's second knife.

"Four on one is simply ill-mannered," Childe scolded. He lashed out with a high kick and almost broke Chongyun's staff, based on the crack that sounded out when it was blocked. Zhongli tried to pull more sand from the ground, but Childe stomped down on the stone and sent a low wave of water cascading and bubbling towards him, breaking the contact and interrupting the spell. As the wide puddle began to swirl together and freeze Zhongli threw himself away from it, but the icy shards still cut his back and shoulders when the ball exploded across the temple a moment later.

"If you want to play that unfair, I'll have to fight dirty myself," Childe laughed. Mist began to swirl around him, and as he lifted gently into the air on a churning column of water Zhongli cried out; "Take cover!"

He mentally reached out for the stone walls to find ammunition, but it was no use. He needed to take his own advice. He turned away and slammed the door of the inner temple behind the four of them as they all darted inside.

Hu Tao hurriedly rebarred the door, and Zhongli pressed his hand to the side of the hallway. Was there anything he could have missed? Any other exit? Wait-

Something slammed against the thick metal doors, and the metal shrieked and ground together as the bar began to stretch. Dust shook from the rough hewn ceiling and they all backed away from the entrance.

"Is there another way out?" Chongyun demanded, backing away with his staff raised, breathing heavily.

"No doors, but we have what we came for, and there may be a way," Zhongli groaned.

He was dimly aware of the blood seeping from the wounds in his shoulder, but he turned and ran down the hall, throwing open the door to the room they thought they would find Childe in.

"There's a large underground chamber a dozen feet into the mountain, tell me you can still go through," he implored Hu Tao.

She nodded and ducked into the back wall.

"Hold your breath," he cautioned the other two, grabbing their wrists. He had never pulled multiple people with him before, and his eyes were already in seering pain as he pulled the force of his signature up yet again in such a short time frame, but he stepped towards the stone regardless.

The surface began to churn and shimmer as it disintegrated, becoming a fluid layer of sand. He pushed it back, compressing the outside, and Xingqui went first into the gap. The world closed around him and went dark as he extended his senses through the rock, and then he heard the scream of metal shredding apart and something exploded behind him.

He threw himself forwards, and he had almost fully submerged himself into the wall when something sharp tore into his arm as fast as falling rain, and everything else in the world was replaced by roaring pain and the sickening agony of saltwater mixing with his blood.

He kept his signature going, but it felt like everything was already fading away. He tried to focus, but the beat of his heart pounded in his ears, and the sand felt miles away as it rushed by his face. He was faintly aware of Xingqui ahead of him, and he could feel the tremors of the earth on every side.

At the same time, there was something violent in his mind. The pain felt like an animal, thrashing and howling in the cage of his body. The fear was all-consuming, it was fighting to stay in control.

When he broke through, and his signature gave way, all of the remaining strength he had shattered. He hit the ground and lost conciousness before he realized that his right arm had not made it through to this side, and neither had Chongyun.