Giver

6

as the ginger entered the room, the girl had already seated herself on the edge of the couch her hair falling onto her shoulders

while the brown haired male sipped tea on the chairs I front of the table that where placed infront of the couch.

"o-oh zhongli sensei I- didn't expect you to be out already" the harbinger nervously said

"I don't mind Tartaglia, but please refrain from doing that next time." the brunette smiled

~...~

 zhongli and I started to talk into the details of the contract

"in the basics you will not harm liyue under the circumstances that I hand over the gnosis"

I was surprised that he would dare mention the gnosis especially while other people where in the room but I just ignored it, gods must have reasons right?

"oh wait! mr zhongli" I said as he was about to say something 

"yes?" he inquired

"well, since your retired as of now, from being a god and all wouldn't your adepti be free of all contracts as well ?"  I piped, this would make sense after all because if he truly wishes to live AS a mortal, well most mortals don't have contracts with adepti and...other reasons

a sharp inhale could be heard next to me. I looked over to see the ying lady I had seen earlier. her hands where in fists as little pelets of water slowly fell onto her dress, was she crying?

"what is it. what do you want" zhongli said the faintest bit of mirth in his voice

the girl winced and opened her mouth but nothing came out. she closed her mouth and opened her mouth again and said

"Sorry I must have gotten my hopes up.. apologies" she said

all Zhongli did was give her an almost pitiful look

"you aren't one of my adepti my contracts on you will stay firm, they will also stay firm on the rest of the adepti in ilyue, yet I have given up my status as god I am still the prime adeptus and can retain my for as a dragon ". he said with that same tone as earlier 

"I'm going to get more tea"he said again obviously agitated as he headed back into the kitchen

as he left I turned my head to Ying

"has he always been like that?"I questioned jerking my head in the direction of the kitchen

she shook her head no "actually he used to be very kind...almost like an uncle or a second father"she said her face darkening 

"I see" I murmured. to be honest I was interested on why Zhongli was so cold to her like that, he was usually pretty nice to everyone well that was excluding Hu Tao on his bad days.

after Zhongli came back with the tea we further discussed the contract. after we did he told me all about the history of liyue, he told me of the archon war, he told me about adepti, he even told me about Ying. 

ying in question was passed out on the couch next to me

"you see, she was convicted of murdering the god of dust Guizhong, she was...a friend of mine. I resented her for dong so, in events that unfolded I ended up mistreating her. we only found she wasn't the murderer about one hundred years ago so we really were being stupid, yet somehow I still resent her despit knowing she did nothing wrong...I'm just a foolish old men with grudges that's all" he sighed, taking a sip of the Othmanthus wine he had taken out a while ago

" she's also dangerous, very dangerous in fact." he said putting down the cup

"how?" I questioned 

(A/N:STORY TIME YALL)

"well he sighed, you know the gnosis right? well Ying birthed from two lowly gods, one in question was the god of salt, brutally murder during the archon war, her father on the other hand is still unknown. she had a few siblings but unfortunately they died as well. so she seeked out an answer to make gods or immortal beings powerful..thats when she met seven different gods....can you guess who they where?" zhongli said taking another sip of his wine

"ummm, the archons right?" I guessed as zhongli gave me a questionable look

" yes and no, actually the dendron archon is only a bit over five hundred years of age so there is no was she could have been there. the original dendron archon was there, funny thing she was...always telling me that I was an old man" he said smiling slightly

"back to the subject at hand, she found us. she proposed that she would try to make devises capable of concentrating our power. then she made the seven gnosis. you see? one capable of giving and making what makes the archons the archons surely is something dangerous isn't it?"

~...~

 it was almost 2 am, the conversation turned out to just be very awkward 

"sheesh I really gotta go, but the tea was nice" I yawned as I started to get up from the couch.

"damn" I muttered, I had been sitting on the couch so long my leg had fallen asleep.

I looked around to see Zhongli picking up the tea and wine . Zhongli had the tea set on a tray as he headed back towards the kitchen

"oh? Tartaglia you're still here? I thought you had left already." he said as if he had just snapped back to reality after thinking of something

"....you don't mind staying the night do you?, you look awfully tired...there is a guest bedroom down the hall and I'm pretty sure Ying is quite comfortable on the couch" he spoke giving me a soft smile 

"sure if you don't mind" snapping back to reality and returning the smile the man gave me

Later that night I heard a knock at my door 

"Oh.. who is it" dragging my feet to the door... when I opened it, Ying was there

"DONT listen to anything he tells you about me...nothing about my heritage, nor my story...it's all fake... I can sense adeptal energy coming off of you... all of the fatui harbingers are made to adepti so they will last longer...that's why I can trust you..well, the gnosis thing was true but still..."and then she left back to the couch