DECATHECT | HSR x F!Reader

07 ~ 426 Days Before

[Y/N] hummed as she rearranged her cluttered shelf, dusting off a couple jars and throwing out old orders and receipts. The chimes clicked against one another as the door open, revealing two Foxian men. They wore fine silk robes decorated with intricate patterns, and wore panicked expressions on their faces. 

"Hi, how may I help you?" [Y/N] greeted the two, who shoved a picture in her face. 

"Our ring got stolen, have you seen this ring anywhere?" The man asked desperately, "My best friend's wedding is in a couple hours and we've looked everywhere but we can't find it!" 

She frowned, taking the photo from his hand. "I have a ring that closely resembles it, but I'll have to make a couple adjustments to match the one in the photo. Please wait right here." 

The woman unlocked one of the display cases and carefully plucked out the ring in question. "What is the ring size? And do you happen to know if the side are garnet or ruby?" 

"Six I believe. And I think it's ruby??" 

"Okay, please wait here as I go make the adjustments." 

[Y/N] disappeared into the workshop at the back of the store and began making adjustments to the ring. Less than an hour later she came back with a ring nearly identical to the one in the photo. "I unfortunately don't have any rubies currently, so I used a Chrome Pyrope Garnet for the side stones. But otherwise, it should look the same." 

"Thank you miss!" The Foxian bowed down to the point where his forehead was touching the ground. His companion was also thanking her, albeit not as dramatically. 

She shook her head, "It's no problem. I know you're in a hurry, so go give the ring to your friend. We can always work out the payment details later." 

The duo thanked her once more before scurrying out of the store. [Y/N] watched them leave before going back to work. She spent the rest of the morning and most of her afternoon cutting and polishing the stones, sorting each of them based on type and color.

The [h/c]-ette sighed as she began to close down the shop for the day, going outside to put away the signs and other decoration she had put outside in the morning.

"Look out!" 

[Y/N] blinked as she saw a morphed figure covered with golden leaves lunge at her. It pointed it's blade at her and made a move to slice her, but before it could do so, it was struck in the back by three arrows. The creature screamed before it disintegrated into a pile of dust at her feet. "Are you okay?" A Foxian with long lavender hair secured in a braid approached [Y/N]. In her hand held an impressive recurve bow. 

"Yes...thank you for saving me." [Y/N] gave her a small smile while bowing. 

"Don't worry about it!" The Foxian grinned, flashing her a thumbs-up. "It's my duty to protect the people." 

"That thing you just killed.... What was it?" She asked curiously. 

The smile on the Foxian's face vanished in an instant, replaced with a more serious and stoic one. "A cloud knight who was struck with mara. There's been an epidemic lately and many people are becoming stricken with mara. It's almost impossible to contain it." 

"Mara?" [Y/N] murmured, staring at the pile of ashes at her feet. 

"It's like a side-effect of the immortality, to put it simply." She offered, shrugging her shoulders. "Once you reach a certain point in life, you'll be stricken with mara, and it takes over your body and mind to the point where you're just nothing but an empty husk walking around. And it also makes you go insane." 

"I see...." 

"Name's Baiheng, by the way! Nice to meet you!" Baiheng smiled once again and offered out a gloved hand to shake. 

"[Y/N], it's nice to meet you too." [Y/N] smiled as they shook hands. After all the commotion, people had started to come out from hiding and stared at the Foxian in awe. 

"Wow, she made quick work of those abominations!" 

"That's Lady Baiheng for you!" 

"Isn't she a member of the High Cloud Quintet? So cool!!" 

[Y/N] tilted her head to the side and curiously glanced at Baiheng. "You're part of the High Clound Quintet?" 

Baiheng nodded proudly, "That's right!" 

The female nodded, her mouth in an 'o' shape. "I see, you must know Yingxing then, right?" 

"Mhm! He made me this bow. Looks very nice no?" The Foxian showed off her shiny recurve bow to [Y/N]. "You know him?" 

"Yes, I've made some items for him before. He's my friend." [Y/N] stated, fidgeting with fingers behind her back, unsure what to say. 

"Aaah, I see! He's a grumpy guy, so I'm surprised he has any friends really!" 

"Eh?" 

Baiheng sighed in exasperation, "He's always complaining about something here and there! Like how Jing Yuan is always running around and getting in his way, or if he messed up on his projects and all the ore is now wasted, or how the seller at the market ran out of ores by the time he went there, yadda yadda. The list goes on." 

She nodded as Baiheng continued to ramble on about her troubles with the craftsman before suddenly pausing. "O-oh! Jingliu! I didn't see you there!" 

A woman with light blue hair, fair skin, and crimson eyes stepped towards Baiheng and [Y/N], "Baiheng, you got distracted again, didn't you?" The woman, Jingliu, stopped in front of the two, she turned her attention towards [Y/N], cold eyes boring holes into her, as if they were trying ti decipher all her secrets. "Who is this person?" 

"That's [Y/N]!" The Foxian smiled nervously, "Sorry for getting sidetracked." 

Jingliu nodded, averting her attention from [Y/N]. "I see. We need to get going, there are more and more attacks by the day. Let's go." 

The two began to leave, but Baiheng turned around to give [Y/N] a wave. "It was nice meeting you [Y/N]! Maybe we'll see each other soon!" 

"Goodbye Baiheng, stay safe." She waved as the two left, presumably to go fend off the mara struck beings. 

[Y/N] recalled what Baiheng had commented earlier about the mara sickness. It was originally an Emperor who created the Xianzhou fleet in pursuit of immortality. They were blessed by Yaoshi, but in return, they would find out that it was a curse that caused the people to go mad, consuming them in a flurry of golden leaves. 

She always found it strange that the people of the Xianzhou blamed Merciful Medicus for their misfortunes. If they had to blame anyone, it would've been the Emperor, who sought for immortality in the first place. A side effect of immortality.... [Y/N] thought, placing a hand on her chin. The mark on her forehead began to burn. Since she wasn't a Xianzhou native, she wasn't immortal, but she had still received the blessing of Merciful Medicus. 

Would [Y/N] meet the same fate as the mara-stricken cloud knight too one day? Or would it be much worse?