Fastened on the wall at eye-level, there was a small wheel next to the door. Curiously enough, the wheel was divided in four different colours – blue, red, green and black – and seemed to turn at will, the hook-like arrow on its top pointing at the wheel's different segments; all but at black, which it seemed to avoid at all costs.
Just this one time as if on order, the arrow switched to the black portion with a soft chime. The door swung open on its own, revealing complete darkness on the other side, a darkness so deep and impenetrable that the naked eye couldn't discern what it was looking at. From there, an armoured hand materialized, followed by an armoured arm and upper body, all of it covered in blood and slime in different colours.
"Caeruleus, heat up some water for me." The person that came through the door reached up to a prominently masked face, wiped their hand in front of the mask and dissolved it into magical particles that slowly fell to the ground as ashes.
"One day you will not be able to turn back anymore. Don't come running to me then." The answer came from the stove where the blue light had awoken earlier. It floated up, its bright eyes focusing on the newcomer, and changed colours from its clear blue light to red tones at its feet-like endings before the first bubbles started rising in its body. Caeruleus reached down to the stove's grid and held on tight as more and more bubbles ran through its body, building steam that evaporated in the wide room. The castle seemed to pick up on this because while there had been the continuous sound of something heavy running over ground from the outside all this time, now the sounds of steam-powered engines and quickly running water streams complimented the silence.
In the meantime, the master of the castle had noticed that there was one more person sitting on a chair in front of the stove – or maybe, "person" wasn't exactly the right word for him. Strangely, despite his prominent position basically at the entrance to the master's home, he had blended into his surroundings so neatly that the master stopped in quiet surprise for a moment before he walked closer to take a better look at their guest. He also noticed another presence deeper down.
"Why did you let it in?", he asked Caeruleus, seemingly not talking about the visitor on the chair in front of him.
"Pah. As if. It invited itself into the castle without my permission." Caeruleus slowly but steadily stopped throwing bubbles and producing steam in its body and slowly sank back to the white pebbles that were put onto a heap on the stove. "Throw both of them out, Tartaglia."
"Him? No." The sorcerer had shed most of his armour by now, piles of magic ashes falling to the ground behind and around him as he walked on, but his clothing and skin was still as dirty as before. He leaned deeper over the visitor, his eyes sparkling in the reflecting light. "Interesting, to see a dragon like this. But …"
Tartaglia reached out for the stranger, who was soundly sleeping and unaware of the conversation going on around him, got reminded of his bloodied fingers when he happened to see them and retracted his hand with a soft sound without that he had touched him. Instead, his eyes focused the depth of the room, locking gazes with a certain demon plush that emanated similar magic as the dragon.
A sharp smile devoid of any friendliness appeared on Tartaglia's face. "I'll deal with you later." Then he walked on, past the stove, up a staircase and disappeared from sight. Caeruleus gave off sounds that sounded like someone under water producing quick water bubbles, and ultimately climbed sideways, where it reached for a single white pebble that lay there.
"I'll give you the benefit of doubt", it said to Yaomo as it put the pebble underneath its glowing blue body. "You better leave before Tartaglia comes to deal with you though. He's in a mood tonight."
-x-
-x-
The next handful of hours passed peacefully. The small wheel at eye-level next to the door kept spinning and avoiding the black segment on its parameter, and outside the sun seemed to slowly rise because sunlight reached through the windows into the main room at this time (one must notice that time seemed to be passing differently here for some reason ...). However, it was also a ray of sunlight which fell onto Zhongli's scaled cheek that made him wake up from his slumber with a start.
He looked around, confused about his unfamiliar surroundings, then quickly remembered what had happened to him and immediately reached up to his face in order to see if the spell hadn't reverted and he gone back to his old self, hoping that everything had simply been a bad dream.
He had not.
The door's wheel turned to the blue section and the door jumped open another time, letting in a small person with a mask over his face. Small, but not because of his age but because of his natural height.
"Childe, I'm home!", he shouted, busy with a basket that he was holding in two arms, and pushed the door shut with his foot behind him. "Oh Childe, you're-", he began when he saw someone in the main room from the corners of his eyes, raising his gaze, and dropped the basket when he realized that this was not who he thought it was, immediately going into a defensive stance. "Who are you?!"
"Oh." Zhongli had risen from the chair, overwhelmed from the roaring feeling in his heart that demanded that he protected the castle (fighting against his logical sense that he was the intruder and there was nothing to protect). He happened to notice that his tail beat from side to side, so he reached behind himself and gripped it tightly to stop it from moving, laughing in easy embarrassment. "Hello. My name is Zhongli. I am …" He caught a look at the ashes on the ground, threw a look to the side to the incredible mess of things and completed his sentence after a short pause: "… the cleaning personnel."
"The cleaning personnel? And who hired you?", the other echoed, reached up and with a soft wipe of his hand dematerialized the mask over his face in a gust of Anemo - a sorcerer. He revealed a handsome, but rather young-looking face underneath the mask, with golden watchful but also judging eyes. Together with his chin-length black hair that looked self-cut but stylish and the random array of clothing it was hard to tell who of the two of them was the older one – posing a certain problem in terms of address.
"Childe never mentioned cleaning personnel to me. Typical." He bent over and picked up a roll of cheese that had fallen out of the basket when he had dropped it, together with a loaf of bread. With another small gesture, he used Anemo to rid the bread of ashes and dirt, put both ingredients back into the basket and walked up the small staircase to Zhongli and past him.
"You are late."
The new voice came from Zhongli's side, so he turned his head. His eyes widened – the light on the stove talked! It had eyes and while its shape was constantly changing like flowing water, it seemed to have something like feet and arms from time to time. Right now, its eyes shifted to Zhongli, forming a mouth to the looking eyes. "What are you staring at? Can't waltz into a magical castle and expect it to be normal. Be helpful at least, give me that pebble there."
It materialized a thin finger that pointed at something that was behind Zhongli. When he turned his head to follow the finger, there he found several caskets piled up carelessly on each other in incredibly impossible balance, one of them containing white even pebbles. The other caskets gave off the scent of magic and … treasure. Was this what Zhongli was feeling as light tickling under his skin, asking for his attention? He wondered what kind of treasures were waiting there for his loving attention.
"Stop staring, move already."
"Yes." Zhongli shook his head to rid himself off the clouds in his mind, let go off his tail, took a pebble and reached it over to the … water demon, repeating his action when another hand materialized, asking for more.
"Stop. Caeruleus, you know you need to limit yourself!" The other person, who had managed to balance the basket with food on top of several piled-up books and dirty dishes, turned to them with an angry look, but instead of paying attention to the direct reproach, the water demon took the offered pebble, swallowed it, gratified, and answered seemingly without any relation and interest: "Someone at Liyue."
At the same time, the wheel at the side of the door stopped at the blue section with a soft chime and somebody knocked at the door. Immediately, the youth, who still hadn't introduced himself yet, returned the mask to his face in one breath, hit against his chest once and shouted with even deeper voice: "Hold on, I'm on my way!"
With an elegant, cat-like jump he got down the stairs, opened the door manually and looked up to the visitor in front. Zhongli watched from his place of observation.
"Her Majesty to the Qixing of Visions, Childe. An invitation." The person, a Liyue official judging by his outfit and choice of colours, extended a sealed letter and bowed his head courteously. The youth took the letter with another deep "Thanks", closed the door and removed the mask, showing an even face that didn't display his swirling emotions.
"The Qixing of Visions?", Zhongli echoed, struck in surprise by the entirtey of his surroundings. Did he actually intrude into the house of such a highly ranked person? Could this youth be ... no, that wasn't probable; the official would've recognized the youth as this Qixing of Visions Childe when handing the letter over. But when Zhongli had chased the mechanical device in the planes yesterday evening together with Yaomo (where was it by the way?), this castle hadn't even seemed like a magical place actually, let alone the home of a Liyue Qixing. Only like a precious and extremely dirty one, maybe.
"I don't keep up with Childe anymore." The youth put the letter in his hands into one of the thick tomes on the table opposite of the stove, reaching for the basket with more complaints, but before he was able to, Caeruleus spoke up again, with certain satisfaction in its voice: "Someone at Snezhnaya." It seemed to say Don't get too comfortable now.
The same process as before repeated itself, but this time, the wheel selected green before the youth (quickly wrapping himself into an additional coat to cover his bare shoulders) opened the door again, and the official on the other side was dressed up warmly too because … there was snow outside?!
Zhongli, who had kept with his back to the caskets with treasure in some sort of protective stance, bowed lower to catch a better view at what was outside. This wasn't Liyue anymore. No doubt, this was snow what he saw. Could this really be a different city even though this was the same door? But what kind of magic could be behind this?
"Is the wizard Tartaglia available?" Not just the official's Russian accent captured Zhongli's attention, but also the word "wizard", when nobody referred to sorcerers that way anymore (it was outdated, to say the least). Zhongli slowly moved away from the stove and to the staircase to catch a better gaze of outside, unaware that his tail had picked up free nervous movement again. Not that it seemed to bother anyone here.
"Tartaglia isn't home. Can I be of service instead, sir?"
"Please give the wizard Tartaglia this envelope. It's an invitation from Her Majesty, the Tsaritsa. The war has started. The motherland needs his assistance."
Zhongli descended the stairs and with free sight past the youth and courteously bowing official wondered about the snow-covered street when moments ago there have been the warm streets of Liyue in plain sight. A gust of cold wind hit him directly on the front and stood in stark contrast to the warmth in his body, sending a violent shiver through him (when he had feared he'd be overdressed yesterday, now he regretted for not going for warmer clothing). Still, despite the painful cold he walked on, leaned against and out of the doorframe and put his head back in silent admiration of the view.
There was a tall mountain chain past the roofs of the compact houses opposite of here, and it was extremely cold – definitely Snezhnaya even though Zhongli had never personally been here. Everyone knew about the famed Subzero climate of Snezhnaya though, a winter so cold that simply standing still could mean freezing to death.
Fortunately, the official was unfazed by both Zhongli's behaviour and appearance – having delivered his letter he turned around on his heels and walked along the few people without another word. The youth was unfazed too, judging by his even voice.
"I want to shut the door, Didi. Move."
Didi?
Zhongli took a step back – the door snapped shut immediately, with Caeruleus complaining about the cold in the background – and turned his head to the youth, who was maybe a head taller to Zhongli than Yaomo was, with new curiosity. What had made him decide that Zhongli was the younger one between the two of them? It couldn't be based off Zhongli's behavior just now, right?
"Remember, my name's Xiao. I'm the only disciple Childe ever took in and that makes my ranking higher than yours in his home. That means, you better listen to me when the master is out." He nodded. "And now it's finally time for breakfast. Caeruleus, no more."
"You're just the disciple, don't forget that."
"What is this door?", Zhongli asked, too caught up in his own thoughts to wonder any longer about who this other person Xiao had mentioned was (even though he hadn't forgotten about the whole Qixing of Visions Childe thing; it just lost priority for the moment). As far as he was aware, this door was neither a mechanical device nor any sort magic because he couldn't feel an aura radiating from it, and yet … there must be some sort of explanation to it, right?
Zhongli inspected the doorknob closer and realized that it had a small dot on the handle which indicated the same colour as the black arrow on the wheel next to the door on eye-level showed. He extended his hand, turned the knob until the wheel jumped over to blue, opened the door slightly and peeked outside. There was no mistaking, the scenery outside was a familiar city to Zhongli – good old Liyue with bustling streets and the shouts of merchants in some distance. The same as when Xiao had looked outside earlier, with the first official and the first letter of invitation.
"Where do red and black lead to?" He shut the door before opening it again at red. To his greatest surprise yet, instead of a street like respectively Snezhnaya at green and Liyue at blue, he found himself in the middle of nowhere; it was so extremely foggy that Zhongli couldn't see very far, so he opened the door wider and stepped out. Was this the place where he had chased the castle yesterday? He couldn't tell; and the castle wasn't currently moving. This could be anywhere, actually.
At this moment, something tall shot past Zhongli and the silhouette of a black plush disappeared into the fog until it couldn't be seen anymore. It had happened so fast - "Yaomo!", Zhongli shouted, waited, got not response. Wondered, why he even cared when he couldn't care about himself in the first place and decided to turn back, closing the door behind himself. He should prioritize his own stay right now.
Who were those people?
"The beast was with you?" Xiao pushed another chair to the table and placed two plates around the basket, which was still balanced on several books and threatened to fall over with one wrong movement. Just looking at it could make one feel dizzy. "Are you sure that you're only here for cleaning? Or are you some kind of sorcerer too?"
Caeruleus cackled in the background – it sounded like heated water bubbles popping on air -, and Zhongli shrugged, unsure of what to answer. He could hardly say that he was actually a demon because a magician had cursed him and made him leave his entire life behind because of this (and to protect his family, in a sense). But maybe demons weren't a problem ... Caeruleus was definitely one too, after all.
Seeing the loaf of bread and cheese that Xiao pulled out of the basket reminded Zhongli that he hadn't eaten much since yesterday and was hungry. Though ... maybe that hadn't even been yesterday because the time differences between the different locations outside the door made time extremely confusing. Had he left everything behind just yesterday or had more time passed already? Had Albedo and Sucrose started searching for him? Had they already given up?
Maybe I should've left something as explanation behind.
"May I join?", he asked, but Xiao only waved the knife in his hand that he used to cut the bread with at the second seat without saying a word. Zhongli assumed that this was the closest to an invitation he'd get and moved to sit down where he wouldn't disturb anyone, among the piles of whatever those things around him were. This wasn't so bad if he thought about it - the amount of trinkets, caskets, chests, artefacts and whatnots collected here had a striking similarity to Albedo's collection. But Albedo had had more order in his things, a sort of "organized genius' mess".
"Is there a seat for me too?" Another, strangely familiar voice came from the staircase that led to the second level. Xiao, who had been busy putting bread on their plates, froze in motion, looked up to meet eyes with Zhongli and asked him: "Could you look in the drawer behind you, I think there's another plate there?"
"Of course." Zhongli ignored the goosebumps that ran over his skin underneath his scales upon hearing this definitely familiar voice, turned around on his chair, fought with said drawer in order to pull it open and not push everything over with this motion, intensely listening to the footsteps that came down from the second level. He might be imagining. He must be.
"I wasn't aware that you're home, Childe." Impressive how Xiao managed to make the things said with even voice sound accusing through his wording.
"I'll be gone in a minute again, don't worry, Xiao gui." This laugh … Could it be? Could it be him?
Zhongli finally managed to pull the drawer open after a short struggle (one of its wooden sides had splinters that hindered smooth movement) and ordered his hands to stay even when he rummaged through the contents, pushed a couple of notebooks to the side and really found a plate underneath some tissues. For some inexplicable reason, when he turned around and placed the plate opposite of himself for the newcomer (no doubt, the master of this home), he kept his eyes down to not meet gaze him, and picked up his bread with cheese silently. Embarrassment? Guilty conscience? Shiness? None of those fit for Zhongli.
A pair of nice legs came into view and the chair opposite of Zhongli got pushed back.
"It would be good manners to offer water to our guest, Xiao gui", Childe chided calmly, sat down at the table and leaned against an arm with a fond smile. "It has been a while since I met a dragon", he directly addressed Zhongli with his next breath, not leaving time for Xiao to answer. "What's your name?"
A dragon?
Zhongli raised his head and yet, despite all mental preparation, seeing those clear blue eyes again still hit him unprepared, made him stare breathlessly at Gongzi in silent admiration. It'd be irrational to say that he had never seen such blue eyes before - it was more about the feeling those eyes harbored, the sparkle in them that made Zhongli feel as if he was looking at the worht of a pure sapphire.
"Zhongli", he managed to answer, less eloquent than he'd usually introduce himself. He was aware of Xiao's burning gaze into the side of his face but chose to ignore it, captured by many thoughts inside his head: did Gongzi recognize him? Probably not … Zhongli didn't look like himself anymore, not at all like when they had met for the first time. Assuming that Gongzi would even remember someone as inconspicuous and unimpressive as Zhongli under normal circumstances.
Then, even though Gongzi hadn't given off signs of magic before already, this time he only carried one single Vision on himself as far as Zhongli could tell: an Anemo bangle on the wrist that he leaned against, that fond smile unchanged playing around his lips.
And what was the deal with this "dragon"? What even was a dragon?
"So, Zhongli xiansheng, what brings you here?" He accepted the bread Xiao reached over to him after getting tired of being ignored, materialized a straight dagger with a slight flick of his wrist with the bangle around it, and cut himself a piece of bread, blindly reaching into the basket way over his head, where he pulled some sausages to go with the base.
"I'm … here to clean." Zhongli remembered that he was holding onto his own bread and butter for a while now without doing anything with it and put it down again, consciously rolling his uncontrolled tail around the chair he was sitting on. There was definitely no reason to get flustered. "Your home needs it, Gongzi."
"Ah. Hahaha!" Childe laughed unrestrainedly, pointing at Zhongli but turning to Xiao: "Did you hear that, Xiao gui? Xiansheng has a point. You don't care too much about this place when I'm away."
"Is it my fault when you keep putting your things everywhere?", he shot back immediately, already on his second bread slice. Childe snickered, flicked his fingers and sent a small gust of wind against Xiao, who credited it with a toothful grin. "So, Zhongli xiansheng, as our guest you shouldn't hold onto your present either. Come on."
Huh?
Zhongli stared in confusion.
"Your pocket." Gongzi put down his half-eaten bread piece and waited until Zhongli followed the instruction and – pulled out a bluish piece of paper?
"I don't remember this", Zhongli murmured, reached the paper out to Gongzi, who had extended a hand as well, but when Childe's fingertips touched the paper it seemed to react to something (Childe flinched back too late) and burst into flames immediately, leaving a strange symbol in the air.
"The Cryo Witch!", Xiao exclaimed, losing his usual even voice, and jumped up, kicking his chair over in the movement. At the same time, Gongzi slapped a hand over the burning symbol and pressed it flat against the table, the scent and feeling of Anemo filling the air violently around his hand until smoke mixed with it. The gust was so strong that several books on the table flipped open in the process despite how heavy their covers were and papers flew through the air. However, when Gongzi terminated his magic and retracted his hand, the Pyro symbol had disappeared.
"She has guts calling me heartless", he commented drily, his smile gone for the first time ever since he had come down to join them for breakfast. He too had stood up and glared at the table, where the Pyro magic had left an ugly burn mark on the wood, ignoring the additional mess his Anemo gust had created to his side. "Seems we'll need a new table. Well, Xiao gui, keep an eye on our guest, will you?"
He turned away, keeping his hand with the bangle strangely pressed to his side. Xiao, who had quickly picked up his plate with the breakfast to save his food from the Anemo influence, rounded Gongzi, still agitated.
"Childe, she's Cryo, doesn't this worry you?!"
"I will be back in the evening." And without another word, Gongzi rushed to the door, the handle turned to black before him, opened for a moment and whoosh, Gongzi was gone as fast as he had come.
Zhongli watched carefully without comment, processing what had happened. In his stead, Caeruleus manifested two thin arms and waved them in the air, complaining: "This sorcerer's temper, his temper! He is going to be the end of us!"
Had Zhongli done something wrong? He was still hungry ... but his breakfast was gone and the basket kicked over because of Childe's magic, ingredients scattered everywhere.
"You." Zhongli flinched at Xiao's sudden address. "Are you sure that you don't work for the Cryo Witch?"
… witch. There it was again, a word that nobody used for sorcerers and magicians anymore. What could the story behind that be?
"I don't", Zhongli answered truthfully and courtly, unable to shake off the stupor that had taken hold of him since he had met Gongzi again. There was so much he didn't understand ... and the person that could explain things to him had just rushed out of the door. "I absolutely despise her."
Zhongli was positive that he wouldn't be able to tell Xiao about Signora's attack on him (who else could this "Cryo Witch" be?). He hadn't been able to before and maybe never would be. Still he hoped that Gongzi, Xiao and Caeruleus at least believed him.
This feeling of stupor only started dissolving when Zhongli was able to busy his hands, picking up what he had said he was here for. He had noticed it a while ago, actually, that he felt most at ease whenever he had something to do and a task to concentrate on. The routine in the middle of insecurity felt like a haven, had always been so. With the amount of things all around him Zhongli could almost pretend that this wasn't Gongzi's stuff he was cleaning but Albedo's that he was sorting through and bringing into an order. Almost.
It eventually calmed his mind to pick up books, cauldrons, magical items, pages, constructions and treasure parts like jewels and gold pieces that he stowed away safely where nobody would be able to find them (was that what it meant to be a dragon?). Zhongli's first approach was to ultimately bring an order into things, collect belonging artefacts on one place and the rest in another to uncover the floor tiles again, where the real cleaning would begin.
"Xiao-ge", he spoke up, looking at the traces of ashes all over the floor, and stunned noticed that the disciple was nowhere to be seen in proximity. However, the door to Liyue was open … and yes, Xiao was sitting on the threshold and visibly startled when Zhongli stepped to him.
"Xiao-ge, can you use Anemo to clean the ashes from the floor?", Zhongli asked, but Xiao shook his head wildly, already jumping up and bringing distance between him and Zhongli. One could think Zhongli had asked something outrageous and unimaginable.
"You can't use magic for something mundane as this!", he complained, confirming Zhongli's thoughts. "Why do you think did we get Visions? Not for housework."
"Housework is important." Zhongli tilted his head. He felt that Xiao had to learn a lot that Gongzi would not be able to teach him ... even if Xiao was older than Zhongli (which was not confirmed despite him addressing him as "didi"). Ah well, maybe cleaning wasn't the only thing he could do here.
"Not with Visions." Their dispute had drawn first attention and people stopped to look at Zhongli's curious appearance but hurried on when they noticed his eyes on them. He straightened up, realizing what sight he must show and immediately stepped back into the safety of the castle, away from prying eyes. "Oh. I see", he said and tried it not to get to him at the very least. He needed to have his priorities straight.
"Caeruleus", he addressed the water demon on the stove instead and left Xiao behind himself. "Can you give me water to scrub the floor then?"
The blue light floating over the stove didn't answer. In fact, it looked exactly how it had when Zhongli had entered the castle, not like a water demon at all but just some kind of fancy light.
"Caeruleus? Caeruleus, are you sleeping?" Zhongli stepped closer, reached out to poke the water drop on the side and was amazed about how it kept avoiding the touch gracefully, changing its shape constantly with the movement of his hand.
"Xiao is right, you know." Caeruleus manifested one eye, blinking at Zhongli. "You can't use Visions for mundane housework."
"Why not? I'm here to clean. This is what I do. Don't be like this." He placed both hands on the edge of the stove and leaned forward, focusing Caeruleus intensely. Because his eyes were those of a dragon, his stare was more intense than what the water demon was used to, and it changed colours from light blue to deeper colours, extending its form until it had a shape again. Zhongli couldn't tell the feeling it was expressing, but its words were clear.
"I will not tolerate this!", it protested. Another one of those obstacles ...
"I'll take away your pebbles." Zhongli demonstratively looked to the side, where he had piled the caskets with white pebbles onto each other in his cleaning routine. Xiao, who had snuck inside in the meantime and froze when he was noticed, broke into full run and rushed past them, up the staircase to the second level, followed by Zhongli's: "You better hide what I'm not supposed to clean away!"
"You will not dare to do that!" Caeruleus gasped, wrapped several water arms around the stove's grid and pulled closer to Zhongli, its eyes losing shape as its body trembled in indignation. "I'll let you know, I am the reason why Gongzi is alive, you would not dare to endanger his life!"
"No pebbles for you until you give me water to clean the ashes here." Zhongli straightened up, crossed his arms in front of his chest and raised his eyebrows. "Choose."
"Do you even know who you're talking to?! I am the powerful Caeruleus, a demon with powers beyond your imagination, and you dare to threaten me with –" Caeruleus shook harder.
"Well, I will leave the pebbles there and clean the second level in the meantime. You have time to reconsider, Caeruleus with powers beyond my imagination."
"No. Wait! Zhongli! Zhongli where do you think you're going!"
Zhongli ignored Caeruleus' protests, ignored the steam that picked up when the entire castle shook with the power flowing through its veins and started moving, and climbed the stairs to the second level, ready to keep his promise.
"No, I'm not ready yet!" Xiao shut the door to his side and shut Zhongli out so that he wouldn't clean Xiao's room first – but to be honest, Zhongli didn't have a mind for that right now. This entire time that he had been in Gongzi's castle, he had already felt the treasures inside here. When he had cleaned the first story today, he had found treasures that he had believed were the reason for his restlessness. However, here, on the second level, he realized how wrong he had been. Instantly, his mind locked to the one place that really mattered.
They were calling him. The treasures were here. Precious stones, waiting for his loving hands, just there, behind this black door. Several auras had kept it safe but now he could feel it, worth truly beyond what he thought about right now, right here where –
He reached out with one hand to the door's handle and retracted his arm immediately when cold pain shot through his fingers. With an inhuman hiss he lowered his gaze and saw to his horror that his fingertips up to the first phalanges were covered in solid Cryo, making his skin underneath the scales go numb with cold.
[What Zhongli didn't know was that dragons had a natural aversion to Cryo because of their heightened body temperature – so there was nothing more effective than Cryo as defence against dragons. Gongzi naturally knew].
Zhongli shook his hand with a more human hiss, moved his fingers and freed his fingers of the ice, finally noticing the threatening crackling of a Cryo aura coming from the door, almost inaudible underneath the call of treasures waiting for him beyond. Judging by the black wood and writing on the door, there was no mistaking that this was Gongzi's room.
"I need to clean this", Zhongli explained to the air. The air didn't care, and the door didn't budge.
Zhongli wasn't fond of the idea to try and push it open by force one more time and asking Caeruleus for help when he had put up an ultimatum just now wasn't the way to go either – so Zhongli decided to settle with another room until Gongzi returned and would allow him to enter his room then … for cleaning purposes. One day, he WOULD go in there. And he would save the treasures calling for him. Simply knowing that they were there had to be enough for now.
Zhongli went to the adjacent room, checked for magic barriers first before entering and still felt as if he was hit by another Cryo spell when he entered a bathroom – it was downright disgusting. How could words describe the state this room was in? When the first level had been mostly a random conglomerate of magical and not magical things that needed to be brought into order and treasures that asked to be discovered, then this room was in desperate need for real cleaning, a cleaning like the world had not seen before. There were ashes all over the floor, in a layer that was so thick that when Zhongli crouched down and put a hand into the ashes, his entire hand disappeared in there. The walls were smeared in substances that were unidentifiable ... and the stench, the stench!
No gust of Anemo would help cleaning this out … nor water, no matter how much Caeruleus was able to give. Additionally, the castle's movement – a side-effect of Caeruleus' rage downstairs as he tried to shake everything up even more to give Zhongli a head-ache while cleaning – moved the ashes so much that the layer rose into the air thinly and slowly rose into the hallway.
"You leave me no choice." Zhongli reached for his sleeves and rolled them back up to his elbows, clenching his jaws. "It's time to get serious."
