Ren
It was just another morning at the Shadow Courier.
Daquan showed up slightly late, and Xiaosi tried to protect him from Meifen's wrath. All the while, Shenhe had already arrived hours earlier, eating her breakfast and having nothing better to do.
Shenhe was on the same table as Hengyi, the man in question seemingly blissfully unaware of her origins.
Ren didn't think the two were friends yet, but they were cordial enough. He was pretty sure there wouldn't be any friction having Hengyi around for a long period.
As for why Hengyi was here. Ren had called him up in the early morning to watch over the warehouse while he was gone. It wasn't like Ren had anyone else to ask, and Hengyi was trustworthy.
It so happened that Hengyi also had business in Liyue. Something about meeting with Master Zhang.
Ren waited until everyone had settled before clearing his throat.
"Alright. I'll be out for about a week starting today. Maybe a little longer depending on how things go."
Meifen crossed her arms and gave him an unimpressed look. "A week."
"Give or take."
"Let me see if I understand this correctly." She narrowed her eyes at him, but Ren wasn't fazed by it at all. "It's been a little over a month since you hired us and expanded your business. Now that everything has just started to run smoothly, you're just… taking a vacation?"
"It's not a vacation."
"You're leaving us here while you go do something that isn't work." She tilted her head. "That sounds like a vacation."
'Oh yeah, that's how it might look to them, huh?' To them, Ren must look like a boss who stopped working hard the moment he got people to do his work for him.
That… may have some truth, but it wasn't like he was going to slack off. He had important things to do!
Ren smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, I can't say too much. I'm heading out to deal with some personal business."
Meifen seemed unconvinced.
Ren sighed and looked at Shenhe for some kind of neutral party support. Shenhe gave him a look that showed she completely supported Meifen.
'Of course.'
Those two really liked to gang up on him. It was like they got some sick enjoyment from verbally abusing their boss. Shenhe, more so, due to Meifen's influence.
'I swear these two…'
"I know how it might look, but I won't be gone for long," Ren said. "I'm handling something so I can work with a clear head in the future. Besides, you don't need me to keep the business running."
'I'm the one who does 99% of the paperwork, after all,' his eye twitched.
"And what is it we are supposed to do if something goes wrong?" Xiaosi asked.
"That's why I brought Hengyi," The man hummed the moment he was called, "While I'm gone, you can go to him for normal administrative issues. But for delivery, you all don't need much help at all."
He glanced at Daquan, "Though I trust you all to make sure that no one pays less than quoted, and remember to not accept fragile cargo without the surcharge. That means you, Daquan."
Daquan let out a small grunt at being called out, and Xiaosi snickered at his friend.
"I guess that's fair," Meifen said. Unable to make a snippy response as Ren was basically complimenting their ability. "I'll take extra care not to let Shenhe or Daquan negotiate with anyone again."
"Good call," Ren smirked. He could sense Shenhe's irritation growing, but didn't turn to face her.
"Oh, and one more thing. The paperwork goes in the left drawer by date, not by client name. I know someone switched the system."
Nobody said anything. Ren looked at each of them in turn.
"Xiaosi."
"It made more sense at the time…"
"Left drawer, by date. I want everything refilled once I get back," Ren said sternly, "Am I clear?"
"Yes, boss."
Ren went through a few more logistics with Hengyi. But other than that, he was just about ready to head out.
Though before he could, he noticed that Meifen was oddly quiet. But the worried kind. Not her typical snappy kind.
But before he could ask, she spoke first.
"Is everything okay? Is it about your family?" Meifen asked.
Ren blinked.
She looked up briefly and then back at the table. "You don't have to say. I'm just—. Actually, it's nothing, I'll pray you have a safe journey."
'What a tsundere,' Ren thought, amused. 'She really is just a big softie.'
Meifen was loud, and she pushed, and she called him out on everything, but underneath all of it, he knew she was a good person.
"Don't worry, it's not a family situation." Ren smiled at her, "Like I said, just some personal business I need to sort out. The usual boring stuff."
"Boring stuff that takes a week?"
"Some boring stuff takes time."
"Fine. Go sort your boring stuff." She walked away to prepare for the workday. "We'll keep the business from falling apart."
"Appreciate it."
Ren turned to the others, and they said similar things. Except for Shenhe, she just gave him a nod while finishing up the last bits of her breakfast.
As he headed for the door, everyone went into preparations. Xiaosi and Daquan were going over their routes, Shenhe finished her breakfast, and Hengyi was discussing something with Meifen.
'Hopefully nothing bad happens while I'm gone,'
/ — /
"Can't you fly smoother?!" Ren was high in the sky, flying on Nue's back to the border of Liyue and Sumeru. His face scrunched up as he tried to read a map through the powerful winds.
Nue squealed at him and shook its body.
"I know I could check it later, but doing it now wouldn't hurt!" Ren sighed and forced the map open.
The border between Liyue and Sumeru was marked on it as a rough line running through the middle of an unmarked stretch.
He'd been flying for about an hour now, pushing towards two. The flight had been pretty smooth so far, and by his estimation, he should arrive at the border not long from now.
A few minutes later, the border came into view. 'Damn, the map does not do the sights justice.'
One side was Liyue, filled with stone mountains and the earthy, rocky palette of the Nation of Geo.
The other side was dense greenery with layers upon layers of canopy. Literally couldn't see the ground as it was mostly covered in dense forests.
Weirdly enough, the two parts didn't blend that well. It was like there was a line separating them that was too clean to be natural.
'Could it be the work of the Archons?'
He stared at it for a moment as Nue descended. The more he looked, the more it did seem intentional.
Like someone had drawn a boundary in the actual landscape. Which, given that both nations had patron gods who had been actively shaping the land for thousands of years, was probably exactly what happened.
'But I'm pretty sure Sumeru's archon is the youngest of the seven.' Ren asked himself, 'I'll read more about that when I get back.'
As he got closer to the ground, he could feel the change in elemental energy saturation in the air.
Liyue had a wide mix of all kinds of elemental energy despite being the land of Geo. But here in the border, he could sense an overwhelming abundance of Dendro.
Ren could already tell this saturation was going to be a pain for his senses.
He landed Nue at the edge of the transition zone, one foot in Liyue's rocky terrain and one on Sumeru's forest floor.
But before he took a step, he stopped for a moment to make a quick prayer.
He put both hands together briefly and addressed the Dendro Archon.
'Oh Lord of Dendro, I mean no harm to your nation,' He thought with eyes closed, 'I'll only be here for a little bit over a week. I am NOT a malevolent being attempting to kill your people.'
With a sigh, he finished his prayer. He hoped that would stop any of Sumeru's protectors from taking any action against him.
He would prefer not to have a repeat of the Xiao situation.
He dismissed Nue and went on foot.
Even as he walked through the barrier between the two nations, he still felt some doubts about this whole thing.
He'd followed a storyteller's planted words to the border of Liyue and Sumeru, looking for a mage that may or may not exist.
The reason he even decided to go was because of desperation and the fact that he was stronger now and had a better weapon, and his business could run while he was gone.
Hopefully, the words of that vanishing woman were true.
He extended his senses across the area to see what he was dealing with.
Just like what he sensed before, elemental energy here was absurdly dense. Not exactly overwhelming, but it just made everything hard to distinguish.
'Alright, just need to stick with the plan,' He'd mapped out the stretches of border most likely to have a mage operating in them.
It wasn't based on any factual data, but from his experience (many forms of entertainment media), mages were either very eccentric or impossible to find.
A mage who wanted to stay undetected would choose either the most inconspicuous location possible or the most obvious one.
He picked a direction and started moving.
It was a little odd walking in a new terrain after getting used to Liyue's vast mountain ranges. But this damp forest had its own charm.
As he traversed further, he spotted what looked to be pieces of metal embedded in the ground.
It was half-buried in the dirt, broken into sections that had been there long enough to have vegetation growing over them. He crouched next to a piece and turned it over.
Ren was immediately able to identify the material. It had an identical design to the Ruin Guards and aimless machines across Liyue.
'These things must be common across nations then…' He made sure to sense it for anything interesting, but otherwise moved on pretty quickly.
He wandered about for a while longer, finding nothing substantial. He considered bringing out Divine Dog to help sniff out anything interesting. But then again, what Vader or Yoda defined as interesting could just end up being a piece of meat.
And then, he found a big mushroom.
'That's a big mushroom,' He stared at the giant fungi. It was bigger than his entire body.
Sensing the thing, he could feel that it absorbed more elemental energy than other plants in the area.
For some reason, he felt a big urge to stand on the thing.
Slowly, he put one foot on the cap and pressed down.
"Whoa!" The mushroom bounced him back.
A thought popped into his head.
He stepped onto the mushroom, surprised to see the thing hold his entire weight without issue.
Then he jumped.
'This is awesome!' The mushroom acted like a trampoline, sending him flying upwards.
He did this several more times before a part of his brain reminded him why he was here in the first place.
'Right. Mage. Focus.'
He stepped off the mushroom and kept walking.
/ — /
Ren had given up on using the map. It did not help with the number of trees that were around here, especially when he went off-road.
He had been moving through the denser section of the border for about twenty minutes and still hadn't found anything substantial.
'Calm down,' He told himself, ducking under a low branch, 'This trip is going to be around a week anyway, no need to rush—Hah?!'
Just as he stepped forward on what he thought was solid ground, the earth and grass under his foot turned out to be a thin layer of vegetation that had grown over nothing.
And so he fell.
"Oof!"
Rubbing his bruised behind, Ren looked up to see that he had fallen inside a cave. It wasn't that deep, and he could get out easily with his extension.
He considered whether he should get out or explore the cave when he spotted colorful shapes at the far end of the cave.
'Are those… Sentient mushrooms?'
It was.
Three of them, standing in a loose cluster, their entire bodies turned toward him. One was faintly orange-red. One had a pale blue tinge. One crackled very slightly with yellow at its edges.
They were very cute.
'Aww, that's adorable,' Ren thought as they hopped closer to him. Looking up at him with wide eyes.
'I wonder if—'
The Pyro one fired a fireball at his head.
He ducked, and it scorched the cave wall behind him.
'Okay… Not friendly,'
Without a second thought, he reached into his shadow storage and brought out the sword.
The moment his hand gripped the handle. Everything around him sharpened instantly.
Every detail of the space became more distinct. The sound of dripping water from the ceiling was more pronounced, and the small movements of the Fungi became much clearer to his eyes despite the dim light.
It was a little disorienting, but he could handle it.
The improved sense of smell, though, was what bothered him the most.
'Let's get this over with,'
In a blur, Ren cut through two of the mushrooms. The slices felt much cleaner than any weapon he'd used before. It was literally as smooth as butter.
'Thank you, Madam Xianyun!'
The Electro one had circled wide while he dealt with the others. He sensed it build up elemental energy, preparing to release a discharge of electro.
But he merely jumped to the side the moment it released and rushed forward to cut it down.
That left the Cryo one.
"Alright, just one more—Hey!"
The Cryo one ran.
It was surprisingly fast for something with no visible legs, moving through the cave in a bouncing motion that covered ground faster than it had any right to.
Ren followed it through a lower tunnel section, ducking his head, the enhanced senses picking up every irregularity in the ground before his feet hit it. It was starting to get uncomfortable.
The mushroom took a corner. He took the corner. It took another corner.
'You are a mushroom,' Ren thought. 'How the heck are you outmaneuvering me?'
Finally, he caught it at the end of a dead-end, and that was that.
'That was a little more annoying than I expected,' Ren thought as he put the sword back into the shadows.
He stared at the remains of the mushroom, and a thought popped into his head, 'I wonder if they're edible…'
Ren shook the thought away and decided to just find an exit.
He found one not long after, having to crawl a little up a slope, and pulled himself out into the open air.
Standing up straight, he brushed the cave dirt off his coat and sighed.
'Looks like this is going to take a while…' But if Ren were being honest, it wouldn't be so bad if his trip were like this.
It was kind of like a little camping trip. 'Maybe this will end up a calm adventure after all—'
BOOM.
"I spoke too soon…?" Ren muttered as he felt the ground shake slightly. At the same time, it was followed by a surge of elemental energy released in large quantities.
'An explosion?'
Without wasting another second, Ren rushed in the direction of the blast.
/ — /
The forest blurred as he ran.
The trees thinned, and the ground softened, the dry earth giving way to an environment that pulled at his boots with each step.
'A swampland?' He realized once he noticed the water-filled area. The ambient elemental energy felt much more concentrated throughout the area, but he could still pinpoint the explosion.
As he ran, he prepared himself to face a strong opponent. He did come here to find a mage after all. Who knows what kinds of beasts she could have up her sleeve?
'Alright. Let's see what we're dealing with.' He kept his guard up and his senses wide as he moved through the swamp.
'Is that… Blood?' His eyes immediately narrowed once he recognized the unmistakable color of blood.
From the looks of it, it was still fresh. Thinking there could be someone injured, Ren followed the blood trail through the dark, wet swampland.
The trail ended as he finally spotted the source of the blood.
It was a man lying in a puddle of water. Breathing heavily as blood pooled under him.
'He's still alive.'
Another detail he noticed was that the man was a Fatui Agent using the standard gear with their mask split in the middle, and their uniform scorched all across.
If Ren had a nickel for every time he found an injured Fatui agent, he'd have two nickels. Which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Without a second thought, Ren rushed forward to help the man.
The man's eyes opened the moment he saw Ren. Two daggers manifested in his trembling arms. He got himself upright despite his injuries, body shaking from the effort.
"I'm not an enemy!" Ren raised both hands immediately. "I just want to help,"
He didn't wait for the man to give him permission, he was losing blood. He walked up beside him and brought out medical supplies from his Shadow Storage.
"Please, don't move too much."