Divinity in mortal | Childe x Zhongli

Liyue's calligraphy classes

When Childe reached his room, he summoned the Sigil of Permission again. Although the golden glow was truly blinding he couldn't help but stare at it. After a while he decided to put it down on the table to inspect it, and when he released it, it had lost all the light it had previously had: it was a simple piece of paper with some letters of the Liyue writing system. Childe palpated the sigil carefully, it looked like tissue paper, it was not dense at all. It would be easier to fake it and create copies but he wasn't sure if it would be of any use to him. It would just be a simple paper without its characteristic golden glow, which he guessed was the adeptic energy of the Sigil. He had already searched the Fatui archives for this element, without finding anything significant, he wasn't sure it would work. He could approach Dottore directly but entrusting him with the original sigil for his research was a high risk for the mission, he'd better try it himself first.

Childe walked out of the bank to Liyue's lettering store. It was a small shop but the walls were lined with shelves full of all kinds of goodies: brushes, inks of different colors and textures, paper and even fabrics. Childe admired the decorative pieces of fabric they had on display with different liyuan characters. He didn't know what it read, but he thought the Liyue writing was beautiful. The smells of paper and ink mixed in the small shop.

There were a few more shoppers in the store, trying out some of the red inks on offer and a girl demonstrating writing on fabric to some children at the counter facing the street. The girl was making very confident movements with the brush and her writing was very elegant, the children looked on in amazement. It looks easy from here, Childe thought.

"Do you need help?" asked a high-pitched boy's voice. Childe had a hard time finding the kid, he was short and was obscured by papers hanging from the shelves.

"Hm," Childe hesitated. It would be best to show the boy the Sigil so he could recommend the exact paper but he didn't know if he would recognize it and spread the word, giving him away. "I'm looking for a thin type of paper, like silk paper but less transparent."

He wasn't sure if the boy was going to understand him but he immediately turned around went to the corner, bent down, pointed to the row of papers and said, "These are all the ones in that style that we stock."

"Good," Childe replied. It had been very easy for the boy to pick them out because of their stature but to Childe they were out of his field of vision. He crouched down until he was level with the boy. The boy seeing that he had found what he was looking for, let him alone to look at the varieties on offer.

He was frustrated as he looked at the different textures of paper. He didn't think there would be so many varieties for the same type. The easiest thing to do would be to pull out the Sigil of Permission and compare its texture with the others but he didn't want to draw attention to himself. Or maybe if he played it natural no one would be suspicious.

He glanced around and no one seemed to be paying attention to him, the guy who had served him was talking to another customer and the rest were still concentrating on what they were doing. He slyly took out the Sigil. Fortunately the golden glow had not returned to the object. One by one he compared the Sigil paper with the ones in the store until he found one that was quite similar. Of all the ones available, it was the most suitable option, he would have to test if his plan had worked. He put the Sigil away again and picked up some of the same type of paper to buy. Ink, he would also need to clone the writing. He chose a neutral black ink and a traditional brush recommended by the kid at the store.

When he returned to the Bank he went to his room, he would try to clone it there to avoid prying eyes in the Fatuu laboratories. He spread the papers he bought on one side of the table and placed the ink and brush on the other end so as not to ruin the paper early. He took out the Sigil of Permission and placed it on top of the first paper to mark the size to be cut with a pencil. After cutting them out with extreme precision - he was trained from playing cut-outs with his brothers - he placed them in a row on the table. He was proud of his work.