𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙄𝙢𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮| 𝘢 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘤 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺

𝙀𝙮𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙮𝙨𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩

TRIGGER WARNING: AB*SE

Ai [redacted]
She was a very calm and nice woman. Born in the season of autumn, when the trees start changing their color palletes to warm and beautiful shades.
Ai was seen as one of the nicest people in the town, her smile was just as tender amd warm as the sun. She was hard-working aswell. But nobody knew what or who she worked for.

Nobody had to know.

Ai sided with a fatui cicin mage. She needed the mora more than anything. Her life, even though it seemed perfect just as her, it was a living hell. Her husband a two-faced manipulator. He was an alcoholic mess without a care in the world. But when he did remember that his wife existed, he would release his anger on her. She wanted to leave him but she was too scared to. She knew that he might and probably will take revenge. Beating her up or even worse...
Most of the mora went spent on alcohol.
That is why Ai desired the mora so much.
But she knew what she was doing was wrong.

One day, something made Ai snap. She didn't want to work for the fatui anymore. She didn't want to do stuff as such every again. She wanted a fair job. She wanted to live normally.

At the next meeting, Ai explained her desires to the cicin mage. The mage didn't like the idea of all. She knew that if Ai said anything about the fatui, the mage would be to blame for trusting her. So to make Ai shut up about their buisness, she casted a curse apon her.

"Ai [redacted]. I will not acceot your leave so fast. For I need to hide certain information that you know about. You have messed with the Fatui. I have warned you about this. Now you shall see what I meant." the mage said with a rough voice.

Ai's eyes widened. Messed with the fatui? Nonesense! Altough she ddi faintly remember her deal she made with the mage the first time she applied for the job.

" Now you shall suffer the consequences. The first born in your family shall have a cirse laid apon them. A curse of a non-mortal life. They shall be forever alive and live through the pain you had caused. This is your payment. I will give you one more chance to think it through."

Ai was left speechless. How did the mage know about her child? It was't visible since she herself found out not so long ago. "But what I'm doing is wrong..." Ai dared to speak I'm sorry little guy... I guess this really is a payment for both of us.. She tought

"I have decided. I will pay what you asked for. As long as I will be freed from this job." Ai spoke with little to no emotion in her words.

The cicin mage was quite surprised but quicly snapped out of it and smirked. "Let it be your way then." The mage spoke. She then proceeded to fulfill the curse. Then dissapeared.

Ai lived with a huge regret from that day. She didn't want her only child to suffer, but she also didn't want her child to find out what a bad person she was if she remained with the fatui. The guilt was eating her up on the inside. But she had to live with it. She had no choice.

Months passed by. And the child was born. The child turned out to be a boy with cold white hair just as his mothers, with slight streaks of a dark blueish colours that were varely noticable if the hair wasnt grown out longer. But this boy, he had something to him that would give anyone a chill down their spine. His eyes, even if he was cheerful, happy or nice, his eyes seemed epty. They had a dark colour that seemed almost pitch black, but not as dark for his pupils to not be visible. But the emptyness and lackness of emotion in his eyes, no matter how much affection he showed, wouldn't go away.

The childs name was Xinghao. He was raised by his mother when she was at home. Of course she sometimes had to leave for buisness matters or for groceries. When Xinghao was still very young, he didn't seem to be bothered to be left at home with his father, that didn't pay much attention to him.
But as he grew older, at the age of 4 when he was already able to walk and somehow speak, not perfeclty, but enough just to understand, things started getting out of hand.

His father was annoyied by his glace. Whenever Xinghao looked at him he'd just build up enough anger and hate to hit him.

Ai rapidly noticed and never left Xinghao alone at his house again.
Instead, she decided to let Xinghao explore around Liyue Harbor.
Xinghao was more than happy to be out in the city. Sometimes helping someone, or just collecting plants and learning new things about which one helps with what.

When it came to groceries, Xinghao to let his mother go there alone. He felt useless when he didn't help her where he could.

[870 words]

𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗𝚎 "𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚜 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚋𝚢𝚜𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝"
𝚃𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍

-𝚂𝚊𝚐𝚎