Heir of Haishan

The Tianquan's Bane

It was the early evening in Ningguang's penthouse at Yujing Terrace. Lavish though the sixteen-room duplex was, Ningguang liked to infuriate her business rivals by referring to her apartment – only one of many that she owned – as the "makeshift" Jade Chamber. Yes, this was but a temporary home, until the day she reassembled her fortress in the sky and reasserted her unsurpassable wealth over all Teyvat.

That was what Beidou wanted for her, and where she wished to whisk Beidou away to. Their own little castle getaway high in the heavens.

"I'm heartbroken that you don't invite me to your parties here anymore, Tianquan," said Childe, as he sat down on the sofa opposite of Ningguang's sandalwood chair in her book-lined lounge. "I can't dip my fingers into Liyue's social networks as easily as I used to." Tonight, he wore a Snezhnayan winter coat over his usual outfit, lending him a more sombre and grand air than usual.

"Gongzi," or "duke's son," was the code name for Liyue's expat Harbinger and powerbroker, Tartaglia. Although Ningguang had turned him into somewhat of a diplomatic pariah since the Osial incident, he remained invaluable to the Fatui cause, and with the news of Signora's recent death at the hands of Inazuma's Raiden Shogun, he remained as indispensable to the Tsaritsa's will as ever. He was therefore allowed to continue operating in Liyue, and not even the Qixing could stop him from gathering intelligence from his subordinates at the Northland Bank, one of Liyue's largest foreign investors.

Ningguang shrugged, her mild smile giving only the slightest hint of her disdain for the man who'd almost destroyed Liyue. "It's enough trouble balancing the interests of this harbour's traders with those of the stakeholders that seek the security of our wealth and the reliability of our contracts. I don't need you butting in and sewing chaos." She peered at him, flicking her high heel back and forth. "The Northland Bank has its fingers in enough enterprises here. Should any rival bank make a run on you – or you become overextended and collapse – a boatload of businesses here would sink with you. Yet you still hand out exorbitant loans to the more unsavoury magnates here. Never one to make things too easy for Keqing and I, are you? You want the Qixing on its toes constantly. It benefits your country's strategy of disruption and managed chaos."

"Ha, someone making a run on us. Cute. Anyway: see, that's what I'm here to talk about. Balance. It's a delicate thing. Hard to maintain, and even harder to restore if upset." Childe leaned forward, his voice even but his eyes glinting more aggressively. "Even if you bear a grudge against me for summoning Osial, you have to admit I've been of benefit to you, since I helped smooth over Liyue's relations with Snezhnaya. Remember that indemnity the Northland Bank paid to the Qixing for my part in Osial's awakening? That payment that will double the value of the Qixing's investments across Liyue? I set that up. That's right, me." Tartaglia sat back, his eyes glinting. "If you feel I'm a vortex of destruction, you've got to at least concede that I've been of benefit too."

"Your point? I seem to remember that you had the name of our famous pirate captain on your lips. That's why you're here," said Ningguang airily.

Childe's smile was cold. "The Northland Bank doesn't presume to tell the Qixing how to govern this great land. When it does feel the need to raise its voice, it's when a well-known, well-connected pirate like Captain Beidou – already in a questionable line of work, given how strict the Qixing is with everyone else – targets the one place that should never be targeted, and in doing so angers many of Liyue's most important people." 

Unspoken between them was the knowledge that Ningguang constantly indulged, abetted, or covered for Beidou's activities.

"Indulge me," said Ningguang, trying to shift the focus of the conversation, "why is the seedy Yanshang Teahouse the one place that shouldn't be targeted? What about the Qixing? What about the Northland? Are they not more important than that gathering place of crooks and extorters?"