Ren
Ren walked back toward the edge of the clearing, putting a decent amount of distance between himself and his employees before stopping.
Partially for privacy. Mostly so that he could have enough space to summon a shikigami if Shenhe tries anything without putting his employees in harm's way.
Just in case.
Shenhe followed and stopped a few feet from him. It was obvious that she would rather be anywhere else other than within his proximity.
Her expression was blank, but as she was now wearing her red ropes again, he couldn't really sense her curse at all.
He reached into his shadow storage and pulled out the fourth armband.
Shenhe's eyes moved to it immediately. He watched her sense the CE running through the Cor Lapis. Her posture straightened up, and her eyes narrowed at the object.
"The energy that permeates that object," she said, "is the same as your filthy one."
"...That's correct."
Her eyes narrowed. "I hope you aren't planning anything with it that you shouldn't be." She paused. "If you were, I would have to kill you." Another pause. "What a shame that would be."
She did not sound even slightly sad about it.
'Why can't you just be more like Ganyu?' Ren thought.
"The armbands can't be used to hurt anyone. It's a failsafe built into them that prevents offensive use," he said, keeping his voice even. "If you have concerns about the legality of the item's construction or any questions about the vow terms, I can direct you to my legal advisor."
"You have a legal advisor?"
"I run a business, what did you expect?"
She looked like she wanted to say something else, but decided to keep it to herself. She accepted his explanation and gave a single nod.
Ren exhaled quietly and continued.
He then explained in more detail what the armbands did and what they meant for whoever was wearing them. Making sure to specifically say that they had no negative side effects.
"I see," Shenhe crossed her arms over her chest. "But don't you only have three employees? Why make a fourth one? I doubt it would be of much use for you with all its limitations."
"I'm getting to that part." He sighed, "I made this one specifically for you, to help you control your curse."
Her eyes widened in response, though it was only for a fraction of a second. "For me?"
Ren nodded. "You're already operating at a level where basic Cursed Energy control exercises aren't going to do anything useful,"
He pushed CE through his hand, and it lit up in purple flames. "Meditation, emotional control—that's for people who are just starting. While you're already..." He gestured to her entire body, and her right eye twitched in irritation. "What you're doing now is containment. Holding the curse in rather than owning it as your own. The problem with containment is that it's static. One crack and everything comes out at once—"
"—Like at Master's abode." She said pleasantly. As if nearly beating him to death was a good memory.
"Yeah…"
Brushing off the slightly unhinged comment, he reached back into his shadow storage and brought out a polearm. It was a standard polearm he got from Master Zhang. He held it out so she could see it.
"The armband circulates CE continuously on its own. It moves it through the material and to whoever is wearing it." He let a thread of his own CE run through the polearm as a demonstration, and she watched the faint glow move through the metal from one end to the other. "I want you to observe how that works and use it as a reference. Then I want you to do the same thing with your curse through this weapon."
He let the CE dissipate, and the glow around the polearm disappeared.
"Imbuing your energy into a weapon makes it stronger and more durable. Continuous imbuing over time makes that item stronger long term." He met her eyes. "But you have to be careful with the volume. Too much too fast, and the weapon breaks. Your curse is more volatile than Cursed Energy—I can sense that much—so you'll need more control than I do."
Shenhe was quiet. She looked at the polearm in his hand. Then at the armband.
Her expression hadn't turned into anything that looked like outright agreement or refusal. It was the same flat expression it had been since she arrived.
Then she reached out and took the polearm.
"Very well… I will accept your guidance. Just this once."
/ — /
His employees had made good use of the thirty minutes.
Xiaosi lay on his back, a piece of dried meat hanging from his mouth, staring at the sky with a much more relaxed expression. Daquan was sitting cross-legged with a water flask in one hand and a piece of bread in the other. Meifen had her back against her rock again, but some color had returned to her face, and her eyes were sharper than they had been when he left.
They all looked up when he and Shenhe approached.
"Sooo," Ren started, "slight change of plans. We'll be having an additional person join us for training today." He gestured to Shenhe beside him. "This is Shenhe. She'll be joining due to some special circumstances."
Shenhe looked at the three of them with her usual expression.
But if Ren's eyes weren't deceiving him, he could have sworn that she looked nervous.
Neither Shenhe nor his employees said anything for a while. Until Shenhe gave a short nod, "Greetings, I am Shenhe. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Her tone was completely flat as she said it, but it did help ease his employees tension a little. They must have seen her as some sort of soldier due to her serious demeanor and manner of speech.
Daquan gave her a nod, which seemed to satisfy both parties.
Xiaosi raised his hand to wave, thought better of it halfway through, and turned it into a kind of salute that didn't fully commit to either gesture.
As usual, Meifen looked like she had many questions. But she decided to hold back from asking any of them, which was a good call.
Until a certain someone decided to speak without thinking.
"Are you an Adeptus?" Xiaosi asked.
He seemed to realize what he had said at the exact moment it left his mouth, because both hands came up and pressed firmly over his lips immediately after.
Ren almost laughed. He kept it to an internal chuckle and thought, 'Pretty close, actually.'
He was fairly certain Shenhe wouldn't say anything about her connection to the Adepti. Not many knew Cloud Retainer by name, and Shenhe didn't strike him as someone who volunteered personal information to strangers.
"I am not an Adeptus," Shenhe said. "I am a disciple of one."
'Bruh.'
He could see his employees brains immediately short-circuit.
"Hahaha," Meifen laughed nervously. "T-That's a funny joke. You're joking, right?"
"I do not see what there is to joke about."
The three of them turned their heads toward Ren simultaneously. They looked to their employer for an explanation, reassurance, or at a minimum an acknowledgement that they had all heard the same thing.
Only for Ren to suddenly have a clipboard in hand and seem to be reading whatever was on it with immense focus.
"It's a long story," he said to the clipboard. "Not really relevant to today. What is relevant is that we're starting phase two now, so if everyone could—"
A collective groan came from all three of them. Even Daquan made a sound, which was notable.
Ren finally looked up. "It won't be as bad as phase one. You have the armbands now."
This did not appear to comfort them as much as he had intended.
He glanced at Shenhe.
She was looking at his employees with an expression he couldn't fully read. It was an odd mix of confusion and something else.
Three adults who had just been told they were training and had responded with the collective energy of a child being told to study.
Her expression turned into one of suspicion.
He wasn't sure what the look meant exactly, but it felt adjacent to a question.
"They're fine. That's just how they are."
Shenhe just hummed in response.
/ — /
"Alright, armbands on. We're doing the bag drill again."
They groaned one more time, but did put them on. Daquan first, then Xiaosi, then Meifen.
The moment all three had them on, they went still.
Then all three of them made a noise at the same time. Xiaosi's was loud, and Daquan's was quiet, and Meifen didn't make one at all.
But they went equally still as Cursed Energy hit their tired muscles and the body registered the sudden burst of energy.
Daquan slowly clenched and unclenched his fist, staring at his hand. "I feel… awake?" He asked, though it was more to himself. "What an odd sensation."
Xiaosi had started bouncing on his heels, testing the sensation. "This is—! Okay this is insane. I feel like I could run across the entire harbor. Like, the whole thing. All day." He looked at Ren. "Could I actually do that?"
"Probably not. But in time, you should be able to."
Meifen hadn't said anything.
She was looking at something to the side of the clearing. A large boulder not far away. She walked toward it without a word.
Stopping in front of it, she hesitated for a split second before she pulled her fist back and hit it.
CRACK
The stone cracked from the point of impact upward and split across the surface. Small pieces of rock skittered off the boulder and landed in the dirt.
She looked at her fist in awe.
"Careful with that," Ren said. "The armbands aren't making your muscles stronger per se. They're just reinforcing what you already have. Push too hard in the wrong direction, and you will hurt yourself."
"...Also, please don't hit the client's cargo like that," he added quietly.
Meifen lowered her hand. Her ears turned red in embarrassment at the brutish display she just showed. Daquan and Xiaosi both chuckled at her reaction.
Ren clapped his hands once. "Now. Bag drill. Go."
They went. With considerably more enthusiasm than they had shown at any point in the previous three hours.
He watched them pick up the bags with glee. Daquan lifted his like it was a fraction of the weight it had been before, Xiaosi practically bouncing down the road, and Meifen had already run on first.
As his employees disappeared, he turned back to Shenhe.
She turned to him with a pensive look, "Shall we begin with the polearm?"
"Not exactly."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Getting you to imbue the weapon will work eventually—I'm sure of that. But it takes time, and the results are slow to show up. Imbuing is more about refinement than anything else." He met her eyes. "I want to do something else instead."
"What do you propose?" Her eyes narrowed slightly, suspicion growing as her posture turned tense.
He said it plainly. "Let's have a friendly spar."
"..."
"..."
"Huh?"
The expression on her face was the first one he saw that wasn't something hostile to him. Genuine surprise on her face as her mind was unsure of how to respond.
Shenhe was there when Ren was talking with Cloud Retainer. He had said then that he had no interest in being in her vicinity for any longer than necessary, as she had nearly killed him.
"I'm going to be honest with you," he pointed at her. "You scare the absolute shit out of me."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Our fight reminded me that my strength is nothing compared to even a demigod." He shook his head and unconsciously reminisced on the adrenaline and fear he felt during their fight.
"But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the most exhilarating thing I've experienced in my life." He let the corner of his mouth pull up slightly as his gaze gained more intensity, "And I know you don't like me. So this way, you get another shot at hitting me while training to control your curse."
He reached into his shadow storage and pulled out a standard sword he got from Master Zhang, and then held out the armband he had brought for her specifically.
"Take off the ropes, and spar me with the polearm."
Shenhe's eyes moved to the armband.
Then the understanding crossed her face. "You want me to imbue my curse into the weapon to keep it from breaking under the strain of the spar."
"Bingo." Ren confirmed, "With your level of strength, any normal weapon would break almost instantly."
Shenhe was still very suspicious. But her eyes drifted towards his hands, and she saw the slight tremble in them.
To be afraid of someone stronger is a given.
To fear someone who nearly killed you is logical.
To ask said person to a fight merely because it gave you a thrill?
Without a word, she began loosening sections of her red ropes. They fell from her in coils, landing on the ground with a series of soft thuds until the last one fell.
The moment the last rope left her body, she let out a loud exhale.
Ren could feel her curse immediately. No longer contained behind the ropes, pressing outward in cold waves.
Then she took the armband and slid it onto her bicep.
The CE hit her curse like two currents meeting. She pulled a sharp breath in, something crossing her expression that wasn't pain but was adjacent to it.
The wrongness of CE mixing with her particular energy, the cold of one meeting the cold of the other. Her breath and body shuddered as she got used to the sensation.
When it settled, something on her face had shifted.
He almost missed it. It was small, and it was gone quickly, but he swore that on her face was—
A smirk.
She took the polearm and twirled it in her hand with a fluid ease that made it look like an extension of herself.
"I was too hasty in my initial assessment of you." She settled into her stance, polearm pointed straight at him, "You are insane."
Ren felt his heart beating out of his chest. But even so, a smirk found its way to his face as he brought his sword up and got into position.
"I'm a sorcerer."
/ — /
"Woohoo!"
Xiaosi launched himself off a tree branch and grabbed onto another one, swinging forward with the momentum before landing on the next.
The armbands were, objectively speaking, the best thing that had ever happened to him.
He had never felt this strong before. His arms didn't ache when he grabbed the branches, his legs didn't protest when he landed. He felt like he could do this all day. He probably couldn't, but right now that wasn't relevant.
He reached for the next branch—
'Oh no.'
His hand slipped.
The ground rushed up at him before a hand closed around his collar and yanked him back up.
Daquan set him down on the branch with a flat expression.
"Be careful," he said.
"Sorry," Xiaosi said sheepishly. "Thanks."
Daquan was about to say something else when a sudden shadow passed over them.
Both of them looked up just in time to see Meifen jump over them, landing on the dirt path below with a soft crunch.
She straightened up and turned around. Facing her colleagues with a huge smirk.
"You two are slow," she said. "At this rate, you're both going to get fired."
Daquan looked at her. "You spent the entire morning telling us to be responsible. Now you want to make this a competition?"
"That was in the morning."
"That was two hours ago."
"Are you two coming or not?" She turned and started walking, glancing back over her shoulder. "Unless you're both too scared."
That did it.
Xiaosi was already moving before he had consciously decided to, dropping from the branch and hitting the path running. He heard Daquan land behind him a second later with considerably more weight.
The three of them ran.
Meifen was the fastest of the three. Her feet barely made noise on the dirt, her movement swift as it made her look no different than a wind current.
Xiaosi pushed harder. Shouting as he forced his legs to run faster. He got closer, but it was not enough.
They heard a loud crash and saw that Daquan had left the path.
"What are you—"
He jumped to the mountainside, grabbed onto a ledge, and launched himself upward. Hand over hand, ledge to ledge, using the armband's strength to push off each surface and cover distance vertically.
"That's cheating!" Meifen shouted.
Daquan glanced down at her from the rock face.
He smirked.
Then he kept climbing.
Meifen's jaw tightened, and she ran faster.
Not long after, the entrance to the clearing came into view. Meifen got there first, a few seconds ahead, and turned around with a triumphant expression as she panted.
"Looks like I win,"
Daquan landed beside her a moment later, barely winded. He was about to make a comment when his eyes drifted to something behind her.
She turned her head, and her jaw went slack when she saw Xiaosi.
He was sitting on a rock, catching his breath with a sheepish expression.
"How?"
"Funny story, actually," Xiaosi jumped down from the rock and approached them, "I tried to do the thing Daquan did."
"You tried to climb the mountain?"
"I grabbed onto something on the side, yeah."
"And?"
"It was a Geovishap hatchling…"
"..."
"It burrowed all the way to the top while I was still holding on." He laughed out. "So I actually had to run down instead of up. Which was faster, apparently."
"You are truly favored by the heavens, my friend," Daquan said.
"I've had enough of this bullshit!" Meifen shouted and got all up in Xiaosi's face, "How do you always—!"
BOOM
An explosion cut her off.
All three of them turned just in time to see two weapons shining beneath the sun.
At the far end of the clearing, Ren and Shenhe clashed, and the resulting burst of force rolled outward, hitting them a second later and pushing all three of them back.
Neither of the two fighters seemed to notice they had an audience.
/ — /
Ren
'She's as fast as I remember.'
Ren thought as she circled him with her superior speed, waiting for the right moment to strike.
The ground crumbled when she stomped her foot and blitzed towards him. She came in with a downward strike that he parried, but the force of it sent him skidding back.
"Damn!"
Shenhe closed the distance immediately, driving the polearm at his midsection. He redirected it to the side rather than blocking it this time, letting the momentum pass, and countered with a slash at her face.
Shenhe let go of the polearm.
She grabbed his wrist, twisted her body, and threw him over herself and into the ground.
BOOM.
"Agh!" The force created a crater, and the impact knocked the air out of him.
Before she could follow up, he let himself sink into the shadow beneath him and disappeared.
"Hiding, are you?" Shenhe called out. She had already recovered the polearm and was standing in the center of the clearing, her eyes shifting all around to spot the moment he would reappear.
Ren emerged through the shadow beneath her.
She sensed it a half second before he emerged and backflipped away. His slash hit nothing but air as he regained his footing.
Neither of them moved to attack, taking a moment to breathe.
Shenhe couldn't help but look down at her polearm.
It was in poor shape. Chips running along the surface from repeated impact, one section near the base looked structurally questionable.
Ren looked at it too.
He laughed.
Not loudly, he didn't want her to actually kill him. Just a short exhale that was clearly amusement.
Shenhe's eye twitched. "Is something funny?"
"No," he said. "Nothing."
He put his sword back into his shadow storage.
Shenhe looked at him for a moment, then lowered the polearm. The spar was over.
She stared at her hand, clenching her fists repeatedly. Without the adrenaline of the fight, she was finally able to feel the slight change in her curse's composition.
It was like a small weight was lifted—No, it was more as if the weight itself had become a part of her. No longer an extension that pressed against her being.
"Your energy is a danger to Liyue."
"Yeah." Ren rolled his eyes. "That's the fifth time you've said that."
"It remains true."
He extended his hand. She looked at it for a moment, then handed him the polearm. He turned it over and examined it properly.
He could feel it immediately, her curse running through the metal just like how CE would. The texture was different from CE, of course. It was more volatile and had less structure. She had imbued too much in places and not enough in others.
'Looks like going for the spar was the right option.' Initially, Ren was hesitant about even bringing up the possibility of fighting again.
It was too risky. Without Cloud Retainer here to stop her, Shenhe could easily kill him if she wanted to.
But a part of him just couldn't help but crave the thrill of their fight once more.
'Mom would kill me if she saw what I did.' Ren mused, a nostalgic expression appearing on his face, 'But Dad would back me up, he always did.'
He pushed the thought aside, "You can control your curse now, right?"
Shenhe nodded. She held out her palm and channeled it into her hand.
It lit up in pale blue. Not the same blue of Cursed Energy, though it was certainly just as cold. It looked more like a liquid than the standard blue fiery nature of Cursed Energy.
Ren stared at it for a second.
"I'll say it again. Even if you are Cloud Retainer's disciple, I didn't expect you to get the hang of it so quickly." He looked at the armband on her bicep. "So the armband actually did help, huh?"
"As much as I despise admitting it." She lowered her hand. "Your Cursed Energy is more intricate than I initially understood. Observing how it flows through the armband and through my body gave me an adequate reference. Applying it to my curse was not as difficult after that."
Shenhe's mouth opened to say something else, but she closed it quickly. A pensive look appeared on her face as her gaze found the ground.
"Then refining your control shouldn't take long at all." He smiled. "We can start with—"
"Thank you."
Shenhe was looking back at him with the same expression she always had. But her eyes were no longer blank. They held a shine of gratitude that Ren never would have expected to be directed at him.
He genuinely did not know what to do with that. He had prepared for many things regarding Shenhe. This had not been one of them.
"I—" he started. "I didn't think you'd actually thank me."
Her eyes narrowed. "Do you truly see me as such a brute?"
He was not going to answer that.
Which was apparently the wrong move, because her expression shifted in a direction he did not like.
Thankfully, a distraction appeared that saved his skin.
"Ehem."
Both of them turned.
Meifen was standing at the edge of the clearing. She was sweating, trembling slightly at the knees. She must have been standing there for a while before finding a good opportunity to interrupt.
"W-We finished the drill already."
Ren looked past her.
Xiaosi and Daquan were standing together near the tree line. As far from where he and Shenhe had been fighting as the clearing physically allowed.
Xiaosi was hiding behind Daquan, and Daquan himself was staring at Shenhe with an expression of fear.
Ren winced at their reaction. Then at the state of the clearing. The dirt was displaced, scuff marks covered the ground, and the clearing had been left in a battered state.
"Ehe," he said. "My bad, guys."
/ — /
Nue touched down near Liyue's secondary entrance with everyone on board.
Shenhe had her red ropes back on. She hadn't said anything after they finished the spar. Though Ren did see her show some interest in Nue. Much to the shikigami's dismay.
His three employees climbed off first. They were moving better than they had any right to after today, but the moment their feet hit the ground, something in all three of them visibly relaxed.
"Good work today," Ren said. "I'll evaluate the performance data and let you know when we start actual deliveries. Shouldn't be long."
Daquan nodded. Xiaosi gave a thumbs up.
Meifen said, "Please don't make us do that again."
"The training or the—"
"Any of it."
He chuckled as they thanked him. Then all three of them left for the harbor at a pace that suggested they were very ready to be somewhere else.
Ren watched them go, internally hoping that they weren't scared off by his spar with Shenhe.
He had forgotten that to normal people, the spar between him and Shenhe would have looked nothing like training. It would have looked like a fight to the death.
He winced. 'I'll make it up to them somehow.'
Then he turned to Shenhe.
She was looking in the direction his employees had disappeared, her expression unreadable in the way it usually was. He sensed that she had something to say, so he waited.
After the spar and helping her control a little bit of her curse, he was fairly certain that she wouldn't try to murk him.
Though he still kept some distance between them.
Just in case.
Shenhe's eyes dropped to the armband still on her bicep.
She looked at it for a moment. Then back up.
"You run a business, correct?" she asked.
Ren blinked at the question, "I do."
"And those are your employees."
Ren frowned slightly. "...Yes. Where are you going with this?"
She didn't answer. Her gaze moved back toward the harbor, then returned to him.
"Hire me."
Ren stared at her.
"..."
"..."
"What."
Ren hoped she was joking for some sick reason. But her blank expression showed that she was being completely serious.
"You want—You want to work for the Shadow Courier?"
"I am stating what I want, yes."
"As a courier."
"Unless you have other positions available."
"That isn't—" He stopped himself.
Taking a deep breath to calm down, he considered the possibility thoroughly. Having Shenhe as an employee would significantly increase his delivery speeds—and make him more Mora.
'I could also pay her less since she's probably loaded… A thought for later.'
Also, he would be able to help her with her curse easier, while maybe—hopefully—making her fractionally less likely to kill him.
But on the other hand, this was fucking Shenhe.
The woman had physical strength far beyond anything he'd ever seen, and who knows when something could go wrong, and she just kills him.
Just the image of what his employee lineup would be was already absurd: 'The Shadow Courier's employees include three former Treasure Hoarders and a demigod-adjacent ice woman who nearly killed me.'
He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.
"...Let me think about it."
Shenhe nodded, pleased. "Don't take too long," she said, and walked away toward the harbor without waiting for a response.
Ren stood there and watched her go.
He pressed his fingers to his nose again.
'What even is my life anymore?'
***
Author Notes: Here's a little image of Ren getting Choso'd.