The flute amidst a sea of flowers

Soul shattered into dust in the eternal night Part 1

Liyue changed a lot since the day I visited Morax. The hustling of people and echoing chatters made the air more lively than usual. People carrying boxes of lanterns and decorations ready to be set on those red flashy buildings, were bumping into each other. Kids ran across me as they giggled of joy. I couldn't resist smiling like a child.

"Two more days and it's the lantern rite festival"

I said to myself

Just as I was inspecting the streets full of flahsy red colors, I spotted Morax's brown chestnut hair. He was talking to someone. Probably a person taking care of the festival's management. As I was about to yell out his name I stopped since I didn't want to disturb their conversation. Instead I walked towards them and I waited for them to finish discussing.

Just as Morax finished talking to the person, he noticed my presence and was a bit surprised.

"Barbatos, how are you here?"
"Morax! I came for the lantern rite festival!"
"The preparations are still not done so Liyue harbor is kinda busy now."
"Oh... did I come at the wrong moment?"
"No don't worry, guests are always welcomed."
"Well that's good, I'm glad seeing you after a while."
"It's not that long since I saw you."
"Still it's nice to see you."
"How did you know there's a festival in Liyue?"
"Xiao asked me if I wanted to come with him."
"Xiao?"
"Yeah. Though I didn't expected him to ask me to visit Liyue again."

I glanced at Morax and his expression changed a bit. He was thinking as if he was questioning himself of something. I didn't asked further.

"Anyway I just came by to say hello, I'll let you finish your business here since I'm guessing you're helping with the festival's arrangement. I'll just walk around. See you"
"Wait Barabatos-"
"Don't worry I won't cause any trouble, I'll just be looking around!"

I yelled back. I'm sure he's worried about me.

The streets were full of food vendors and children holding sugar coated haws, a sort of deserts the locals of Liyue liked. I've never tried it and it seemed good. I spotted a food cart who were selling these goodies. I went straight to it and as I was going to order a serving of sugar coated haws, a young girl came beside me. It was the 77th funeral parlor director, Hu Tao. She noticed me and smiled widely.

"Well isn't that the customer Zhongli brought

a big banging noise transcended the whole Liyue harbor. It came from up front. The Yujing terrace.

At that moment I never thought that what was going to happen was worse then I've imagined. A storm is approaching and I got a bad feeling about it.

By the time I was eating my sugar coated haws while making my way up to the Yujing terrace, curious of what happened, guards were telling people to leave as soon as they can and that the Yujing terrace is now closed for entry.

I saw the panicked eyes of the people running away from the place. I didn't know what happened as I picked up the pace to seek out what happened. One of the guards blocked my way.

"You cannot trespass further from this point. I suggest you to return."
"What do you mean return, do you know how tiring it is for me to run up on these stairs. Also I don't know what's so-"

A loud bang vibrated the ground. More guards came out panicked with fear in their eyes. What was happening? As I saw guards coming out of the place, I eavesdropped a conversation between two other guards.

"Hey! Did you hear that lady Ganyu and Lady Keqing are now fighting someone."
"That can't be true. Didn't they confirmed no such thing as monsters could get in Liyue harbor during the festival."
"It's not a monster, nor a demon and not a fatui."
"Then who?"
"Come closer, I don't think it's good for other people to hear this."