Ren
'Hengyi should be finished by now, right?' Ren thought as he entered Qingxu village once again.
He was surprised that Hengyi could make the armbands so quickly. But the man was confident that "Such a simple task took but a day's work!" as at least that's how he said it.
Tucked safely within his shadow storage were the contracts Yanfei had written up. As he got closer to Hengyi's house, he reminded himself to set his expectations right. There was always a chance that the item would still need adjustments.
Not a moment longer, he arrived at Hengyi's house. 'Here it goes.'
He was about to knock—only for Hengyi to open it before his fist even made contact with the door.
Hengyi stood in front of him with a prideful expression. It seemed like he was waiting for Ren for a while.
'How long was he standing behind the door?' Ren couldn't help but think.
In his hands were two armbands.
Ren blinked. He had commissioned only one and had paid for only one to be made.
"I made two," Hengyi said, before Ren could ask. "The first was to confirm the design. The second is the one I want you to evaluate. The first one is yours regardless, no additional charge."
"I see. Thank you." Ren took the armbands and inspected them.
The weight was the first thing he noticed. It was heavier than he expected for its size. The Cor Lapis had taken on a deep amber-gold in its finished form, warmer than the raw ore, catching the morning light as if lit from within.
Two clean black lines ran along the length of the band, one near each edge. They were so precise that Ren wasn't sure if they had been etched or inlaid.
At each end of the band, worked into the face of the Cor Lapis, was a Dharmachakra wheel. It was small, yet the detail was immaculate.
'He actually made it exactly as I sketched out… How the heck did he do this in a day?'
He tried to bend it.
It flexed, but nothing considerable happened.
He hummed and tried again, putting more force into it this time. More than he would reasonably expect the material to handle without stress fracturing.
The armband bent under the pressure and then, when he released, returned to its original shape.
'What the fuck.'
He looked at Hengyi.
Hengyi was watching him with the expression of someone who had anticipated exactly this reaction.
"How?"
"Hmph. It is a difficult skill to most, but it is nothing before my prowess," Hengyi said while rubbing his chin.
Ren looked back at the armband. It was like pressing against a stone that was both rigid and flexible. He didn't know how to describe it.
The flexibility and memory to go back to its previous shape were astounding.
'He made this from a rock in one day…'
Zhang had said top-notch, but this was just absurd!
He channeled a small amount of CE into the armband experimentally to test its conductivity.
It took it flawlessly. The CE moved through the Cor Lapis, saturating the rock equally on all sides. He could feel exactly where it went and how it settled.
He exhaled slowly.
'This is really worth thirty-five thousand Mora.'
He looked up at Hengyi with newfound respect and with a goal in mind.
'I NEED to get him under a contract!"
Hengyi was not maintaining his composure as well as he probably wanted to. The professional bearing was still there in the technical sense, but his hands were fidgeting on his sides, and his eyes were wandering anywhere but towards Ren.
Ren had seen that look before. He had worn that look before, standing in front of Katheryne when he proposed a collaboration with the Guild. The way his heart thrummed in his chest, and his head went light.
He extended his hand.
"It's going to be a pleasure working with you."
For a split second, Hengyi's eyes widened, and his jaw went slack. The poor man didn't expect Ren to actually say yes to his work.
But his composed look quickly returned, and he reached out and took Ren's hand.
"The pleasure is mine," Hengyi said.
Ren released the handshake and held up the armband. "Let's get the contract sorted."
"Yes. Let's."
/ — /
The contracts took longer than expected. Not because Hengyi was difficult, he read through everything without much issue. He did ask some questions about his payments for the long-term collaboration, and his limitations for commissions outside of Shadow Courier work. The back-and-forth took around 40 minutes.
What took the remaining time was Hengyi's reaction to the shadow storage.
Ren reached for the signed contracts to put them away and, without thinking, did what he always did. Put them into the shadow at his feet, the motion as casual as putting something in a pocket.
Hengyi stared at the space where the contracts had been.
"What was that?"
"It's one of my abilities. I can keep things in there." Ren said smugly, "Why did you think people called me the Shadow Courier?"
Hengyi continued staring at the floor. "In the shadow."
"Yes."
"Your shadow."
"That's right."
"And the contracts are now—"
"In the shadow. Yes. They're fine. Think of it like the storage space you Vision-Wielders have."
Hengyi looked up at him with an expression that said he had several more questions and was exercising significant restraint by not asking them all at once.
Hengyi stared for a while longer, apparently deciding this was acceptable, and straightened in his chair.
Ren took that as his cue to explain further.
"Since you've signed the confidentiality clauses," he said, "I can tell you what the armbands are actually for."
Hengyi's attention sharpened.
Ren kept it simple. He explained the gist of his Cursed Technique and Cursed Energy. He demonstrated briefly, letting a thread of purple CE curl around his fingers for a moment before pulling it back. Hengyi watched this with focus but said nothing.
"It's similar to elemental energy in some ways. The main difference being Elemental Energy is positive, while Cursed Energy is negative." He held up one of the armbands. "I'm going to turn these into what is called Cursed Tools. Artifacts that carry the energy and give the person wearing them effects. My employees wear them so they can do their jobs better."
Hengyi was quiet for a moment. His expression had gone through several stages during the explanation, and he was now covering his mouth with his hand, muttering something.
"Are you telling me," Hengyi said slowly, "that my first officially commissioned work is going to become a magical artifact?"
"Yup," Ren confirmed. "Will that… be an issue?"
The professional composure disappeared immediately.
"THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!" He shouted, making Ren flinch in surprise, before he stood up from his chair and turned away from Ren for a moment.
"A magical artifact," he said again. "My first commission. Not a set of farming tools. Not a merchant's cargo hooks. A magical artifact."
"That's correct."
"My journey to becoming a world-renowned blacksmith is truly beginning." He said it as though he was announcing a historical event, which, from his perspective, Ren suspected it genuinely was.
Ren was unsure what to say. But at least Hengyi was happy?
"I'm glad you're enthusiastic."
Hengyi recomposed himself with visible effort and sat back down. The professional attitude returned.
Ren gave it a moment and then asked the question that had been sitting at the back of his mind since Zhang's warning yesterday.
"Can I ask you something?"
Hengyi inclined his head. "You may."
"Zhang recommended you, and your work is clearly good. But he mentioned you've had trouble getting customers." Ren held the armband out. "Your work is immaculate. So I'm having trouble understanding why you don't have a line of customers waiting for you."
Hengyi's expression immediately turned sour. "It is not a short story."
"I've got time. If you're comfortable with sharing, of course."
"…I come from a family of blacksmiths," he said. "Established. Respected. My brother is the eldest and was set to inherit the family's legacy. But there were talks that I could have been the one to inherit it instead… My brother did not take kindly to such rumors."
He paused. "Our family had a prized creation. A work my great-grandfather made that was considered the pinnacle of our craft. It was destroyed… And my brother pinned the blame on me.
"I did not destroy it, of course." Hengyi continued, his eyes fixed on his teacup. "But he is the eldest son, and the family believed him. So I was cast out." He picked up his tea again. "When I tried to find work afterward, he had already spread word. No established smithy would take me on. No serious client would look at me." He took a sip. "So I have been working alone, waiting for someone willing to give my work a fair chance."
"..."
'Damn.' That was all Ren's brain could come up with.
'A scheming older brother and a banished younger one,' Ren thought. 'A treasured family heirloom, a false accusation, working alone to reclaim his honor.'
If he didn't know any better, this seemed like the setup to one of those Chinese cultivation stories. Which made sense as Liyue was basically Teyvat's China.
Hengyi, a banished young master striving to regain his honor and get revenge on his two-faced brother.
'Yup, Hengyi is definitely protagonist material.' He was absolutely certain of it. 'As long as he does his job. It doesn't matter what background he has, I couldn't care less.'
"That's rough," He said, feeling genuine sympathy for the man. "For what it's worth, I don't care about your history. I care about your work, and your work is exceptional." He stood up, tucking the armband into his jacket. "Good luck with your brother."
"I… appreciate that."
Ren nodded, "I'll be seeing you soon then, Hengyi."
Hengyi stood up as well and shook his hand. "I shall eagerly wait your return, Master."
"..."
"Huh?" Ren blinked, "Where did master come from?"
For some reason, Hengyi found no flaws in his logic. "Well, you are my superior. And in this journey to reclaim what I rightfully own, you are my master."
"Ok…"
/ — /
Back in his apartment, Ren set the armband on the desk and sat down.
He had been turning the imbuing process over in his head for the past few days, and now that he actually had the finished armband in front of him, it was time he made his final decision on how to do this.
While he didn't remember the specific explanation about Cursed Tool rituals his father gave, he remembered the general information. Words and intent played a significant role in shaping the Cursed Tool.
But the specific ritual structure, the exact components that turned a CE-saturated object into a tool with defined properties rather than just an energy receptacle?
Ren had zero clue how to do that and had made zero progress on figuring it out.
He internally slapped his younger self.
He could work with the general principle, chanting helped channel CE more precisely, and intent shaped what the energy did once it was inside the object. But without the ritual framework, he couldn't define specific effects through imbuing alone.
He could saturate the armband with CE all day and end up with a semi-cursed tool at best. It would make a durable weapon, but would be useless for making a delivery employee run faster.
Which meant the binding vow really was the only path.
'I was really hoping I'd figure something else by now…' He sighed, 'Oh well.'
For a binding vow this specific and this permanent, he wasn't going to wing it.
'Yanfei it is.'
/ — /
"You want me to what now?" Yanfei stared at him in confusion.
"Ehe," Ren laughed nervously. "I need your help to structure a binding vow to make my Cursed Tools because I don't trust myself to get the specifics right."
Yanfei let out a long, drawn-out sigh and put down her pen. She had a feeling that whatever Ren was going to tell her was going to give her a headache for the entire week. "Explain."
"In simple terms, a Binding Vow is like a contract, but on another level." Ren took a moment to think of the right words. "Essentially, it was an exchange that is reinforced by the world itself."
Yanfei raised a brow. "That sounds scary."
"I guess it is to someone just finding out about it. But it's a mechanism of sorcery from my homeland. Essentially, you offer something of value and receive something of equal value." He explained. "Oh, and you can make a binding vow with yourself or with other people."
The expression on Yanfei's face was one of befuddlement and immense concentration. She really was thinking this thoroughly.
"With an exchange of this nature… I assume there are consequences to breaking a Binding Vow. And that these consequences depend on who you make the vow with. Am I correct?"
"Oh wow." Ren was speechless for a second. "Yeah, that was basically spot on."
Yanfei looked smug that her guess was right. "Alright, we can discuss that part in detail later. But what I want to know is what you specifically need help with."
He explained that he needed the vow for turning the armbands into Cursed Tools that gave the wearer enhanced speed, strength, and stamina.
The problem was that he knew he wouldn't be able to think of the best vow possible for him. So he was hoping she could come up with a vow that would also be future-proof.
Yanfei was quiet for a moment, tapping her finger repeatedly on her desk. "I can work with the structure," she said carefully. "Drafting the terms of an exchange is no different from drafting a contract."
"Making it future-proof also shouldn't be too difficult. As long as you provide me with enough information on what you're willing to give up." She stopped for a moment and shifted nervously on her chair. "What makes me hesitant is the nature of what you're making the vow with. You said it's a contract reinforced by the world itself?"
"Roughly speaking."
Ren was really cursing himself for not memorizing the technical explanation of a binding vow.
'Curse you 22nd-century attention span!'
"I don't know how your people's sorcery works. But from my experience, anything involving the world is very… Daunting," She looked at him straight in the eyes. "Are you sure this is safe?"
"It's fine as long as you don't overdo it," Ren said.
"And if you overdo it?"
"..."
"..."
"...I don't actually know what happens."
Yanfei was not amused.
"Don't look at me like that!" Ren defended himself. "I don't really know of anyone who really pushed the limits of binding vows in a meaningful way."
"Well, there was one exception, but it's not really—"
"Who?"
"A being known as the King of Curses."
The room went quiet.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I have several follow-up questions."
"It's just a really old story ok? Not at all relevant to what I'm doing."
Her expression said that she didn't really buy it, but didn't push for more info. With a sigh, she grabbed a piece of paper and set it on her desk.
"Fine," she said. "I'll help you structure the vows. But I need you to be transparent about any side effects this has on you. Before, during, and after. As your legal advisor. This falls into legally ambiguous territory for me, and I am not going to be the person who helped you do something irreversible without full documentation of what I knew at the time."
Then she added quietly, "And as a half-adeptus, anything involving forces larger than individual people is not something I take lightly. So please be honest with me."
"Nothing I'm doing will harm anyone," Ren met her gaze with full confidence. "Including me. I've thought it through."
Yanfei studied him for a moment. He had learned over the months that she was good at reading people, and he held her gaze steadily until she was satisfied.
She exhaled and nodded. Dipping the tip of her brush pen in ink, "Alright. Let's work out the terms."
But she suddenly stopped.
"Before we start. I have a question."
"Sure?"
She tilted her head slightly. "Is this why you're so jittery about contracts?"
Ren laughed. It came out slightly too quickly and slightly too awkwardly to be convincing. He turned his head and looked at a particularly interesting plant near her window.
Yanfei's amused expression confirmed that she had her answer.
/ — /
The beach Yanfei suggested was one Ren had passed on deliveries but never stopped at. It was a quiet stretch on the harbor's eastern outskirts, with few people.
They settled on the sand, Yanfei with her papers and Ren with the armband, and she spread the two drafted vows on her knee and walked him through them one final time before he committed to anything.
"Let's go over this one more time." Yanfei started.
"First vow," she said, reading from her notes with the tone she used when she was in her professional mode. "The rate at which your Cursed Energy pool grows decreases by fifty percent, permanently. In exchange, you gain the ability to turn your armbands—current and future—into Cursed Tools with imbued effects of enhanced strength, speed, and stamina for the wielder."
She looked up at him. "You've thought this through?"
Ren nodded.
The CE increase he had been experiencing since arriving in Teyvat was a byproduct of the world interacting with his constitution, the passive absorption of negative energy that his body had been doing without his permission since day one.
He never had this to begin with, and while it was something he put great importance on, slowing it down by half didn't take anything away from what he already had. It just changed the rate at which he gained something he hadn't expected to gain in the first place.
He would still grow. Just slower.
And the scope of what the vow gave him in return was exactly what he needed, not just the ability to make these three armbands, but any armband, at any point, for as long as the vow held. Perfectly future-proof.
He had briefly considered trying to structure a vow that gave him the general ability to make Cursed Tools of any kind.
But that was a much larger exchange for a much less defined benefit, and the more he thought about it, the more unnecessary it felt.
Teyvat was vast. He had time. He would find the knowledge through other means eventually, without burning something significant in a binding vow to get it faster.
"Yeah, I'm good with it."
Yanfei made a small note. Then she set her pen down and looked at him more directly.
"I want to flag something before you proceed," she said. "This permanently reduces your Cursed Energy growth by half. That's not a small thing."
She kept her voice neutral, but it was clear that she was worried about what this could mean for him. "I don't fully understand how your energy system works, but I assume that growth rate matters to you."
"It does… But I didn't have it before I got to Liyue. Everything I'm gaining is a bonus I didn't plan for. I'll still be growing. Just not as fast."
He thought about it for one more second, then smiled. "Besides, I'm not really a raw power type anyway. I'm crafty. I work with what I have." He shrugged. "If anything, it's a fun challenge."
Yanfei stared at him.
"That is a surprisingly mature way to look at permanently losing half your power growth rate," she said. "Though maybe calling you a masochist would be more accurate."
"I prefer the term optimistic."
"I said what I said."
"There's a different side to me that comes out occasionally."
"Apparently." She smiled despite herself, then looked back down at her papers. "Alright. Second vow."
"When turning his armbands into Cursed Tools, the effects granted—increased strength, speed, and stamina—cannot be used for offensive purposes. The sole exceptions are self-defense and defense of others. Additionally, there is a limit placed on how much Cursed Energy the armband can absorb at any one time." She looked up briefly. "In exchange, the armband becomes self-sufficient. It resupplies its own Cursed Energy over time without requiring Ren to be present to maintain it."
She finished and waited for his response.
Ren nodded again. The offensive limitation didn't worry him. His employees were couriers, not fighters, and the last thing he needed was for the Shadow Bands to end up being used as weapons.
'Thank goodness Yanfei thought of this or else I could be dealing with a very hard lawsuit in the future…'
The absorption limit similarly made sense, a ceiling that kept the tools from being turned into something they weren't made to be.
And the self-sufficiency was the part that made the whole thing viable. Without it, he would need to periodically recharge every armband himself, which meant his time and CE were permanently tied to maintaining the tools he needed to run without him. With it, the tools operated independently once made.
Yanfei had thought it through much better than he would have managed alone.
"It's perfect," He said, because there was no other word for it. "Seriously, I wouldn't have gotten here without you. Thank you."
Yanfei made a small sound that tried not to be pleased and failed. She gathered her papers with more focus than the task required and tucked them away.
"Just make sure you document every side effect," she said. "For the record."
"For the record," he agreed.
He set the armband down in the sand in front of him and looked at it for a moment.
He took a slow breath.
'Time to make the vow.'
/ — /
Ren sat down on the sand and closed his eyes.
He had done meditation exercises before. His father had insisted on them as part of CE control training, and while his younger self had found them tedious, he was now grateful for the practice.
The sound of the water retreated. The warmth of the sand under him retreated. The ambient elemental energy of Liyue that he had grown so used to also dissipated.
What remained was Cursed Energy.
It moved through him as it always did, the cold current that had defined his entire life from the moment he was old enough to feel it.
He followed it inward, past the surface layer he used in combat, past the reserves he kept ready, down to the deeper current where his energy was still becoming rather than already being.
Soon enough, he reached his CE pool that was expanding day by day as his body processed the negative energy Teyvat fed him.
He held the intent clearly in his mind.
Then he made the vow.
___
[With this Binding Vow]
[The rate at which Ren Roman's Cursed Energy Pool grows decreases by fifty percent. Permanently.]
[In exchange: The ability to turn any armband, at any point, into a Cursed Tool carrying the imbued effects of enhanced strength, speed, and stamina for its wielder.]
___
A weight settled over him.
He instinctively grunted at the added pressure. It wasn't painful or even uncomfortable. It was merely an odd sensation.
This weight wasn't the same as when he bore the weight for items in his Shadow Storage. This heaviness was not placed on his body.
It was placed on his soul.
'So that's what a Binding Vow feels like,'
He took a breath, giving himself a moment of respite before continuing.
'Alright. Second one.'
He found the flow of Cursed Energy again. This time, the intent was about the tools rather than himself, what they could and couldn't do, the boundaries he was setting in the fabric of the exchange.
___
[With this Binding Vow]
[Any armband turned into a Cursed Tool by Ren Roman cannot be used for offensive purposes forever. The sole exception is self-defense, or defense of another.]
[There is a limit on how much Cursed Energy any such armband may absorb or hold.]
[In exchange, any armband made will be self-sufficient. It resupplies its own Cursed Energy over time, without Ren Roman's presence or interference.]
___
The second weight joined the first.
It was different in quality. The first had felt more… personal, a cost measured against him specifically.
This one felt more like a door being closed, a set of parameters being fixed in place so they could no longer be adjusted.
'That should do it.' He opened his eyes.
Yanfei was crouched in front of him with a worried expression. Her papers were placed aside, and she had one hand hovering near him.
"Are you alright?" she pulled her arm back. "There was a lot of… something, just now. It engulfed the whole area and gave me the spooks!"
"I'm fine," Ren said as he rolled his neck. "Both vows are set without issues."
Yanfei looked at him for another second with clear skepticism. Then she straightened and composed herself, returning to professional mode. "Show me."
Ren reached into his shadow and pulled out the armband. He held it in his palm and started pushing CE into it, the same way he had tested it at Hengyi's door.
It took it exactly as before. CE moving through the Cor Lapis, saturating evenly.
Then he felt it.
A small ping at the back of his mind. Not a pain, more like a notification, a switch that had always been there and had just now been turned on.
He focused on it, pressed his intent toward it the way you pressed a key into a lock.
Something clicked, and the armband lit up purple.
Yanfei shielded her eyes from the sudden glow.
After a while, it settled into a light, constant glow deep within the amber-gold of the Cor Lapis, like a second color living within the first.
He could feel the CE inside it moving on its own now, circulating slowly and maintaining itself.
'Whoa.'
Yanfei was leaning forward slightly with her eyes wide. "What just happened?"
"It worked," Ren said. He was still looking at it with curiosity. "It's maintaining itself. I don't have to keep feeding it."
Yanfei held out her hand. "Let me see."
He gave it to her. She turned it over once, examining the glow, then muttered something under her breath that sounded like she was running through an analysis framework.
"I haven't done this in a while," she said, more to herself than to him. "But it should be sufficient."
He was about to ask what she was about to do when Adeptal energy suddenly emanated from her briefly. It washed over her entire body before dissipating.
Then she put it on.
"!" The moment it settled on her arm, she made a small sound of surprise.
"Did it work?" Ren asked.
Yanfei turned her arm and flexed her hand slowly, feeling whatever the armband was doing. "Yep, I definitely feel something. I feel a little fresher than before. It's like a current running through the body."
She turned towards him. "I used Adepti Arts to analyze any effects on my body, and it confirms no negative side effects."
She took it off and held it back out to him, still genuinely surprised at the outcome.
"I have to say, for an energy as malevolent as yours—no offense—"
"None taken."
"—It does remarkably clean work when you want it to." She set it in his palm. "That's really strange."
Ren looked at the armband in his hand. The purple glow settled into a fainter glow, giving the Cor Lapis an even more beautiful coloration.
"Are you going to name it?" Yanfei asked.
"Uhh, I didn't really think about that," Ren admitted.
"Calling it just an armband is boring," she reasoned. "And a name would help your branding. You're already the "spooky Shadow Courier", you might as well lean into it."
He deadpanned at her. She smiled back with no remorse.
He considered it while she offered suggestions, each of which he was not going to repeat to anyone.
He looked at the armband one more time.
"Shadow Bands,"
Yanfei raised a brow. "And you called my suggestions tasteless."
"Hey! If it fits, then it fits." Ren huffed back.
/ — /
Zhongli
Not far from where they sat, behind the natural cover of the rocks that bordered the beach's eastern edge, a pair of golden eyes watched.
Zhongli had not planned to be here. He had sensed something shift in the fabric of the world and had followed it out of curiosity.
He watched until Ren stood up from the sand, brushing off his jacket, and he and Yanfei walked back toward the harbor. The glow of the armband briefly caught the late-afternoon light before disappearing into shadow.
Zhongli remained where he was for a moment longer.
"What exactly have you done?" he murmured, more to himself than anyone.
"How fascinating…"
He turned and walked in the opposite direction.