lovers' oath

the leaving

'here, morax. take this as a symbol of our newly found friendship, and a challenge from me to you,' guizhong said, handing him a stone dumbbell.

'oh?' cautiously, morax took the dumbbell from guizhong's hands.

'all my wisdom is within this dumbbell. i thought since there's such a gulf between us in terms of physical strength, i'd use wisdom instead. consider this a mark of our pledge.' guizhong said, smiling.

'..ah. but.. isn't this a children's toy - the kongming lantern?'

'indeed. though, i've made some meticulous adjustments to it, it's ever-changing, and one requires patience and skill to open it.'

'..wow. that's.. impressive. i accept your challenge, lady guizhong.'

that day, there was still an abundance of glaze lilies.

--

'guizhong,'

'my time has come, morax. please..'

> black dust choked the heavens,

'guizhong- stop it, please, you promised me we'd be together, forever! y-you even signed the contract!'

guizhong let out a weak laugh.

'after all this time.. you're still as persistent as ever, morax.'

she paused.

'morax.. some contracts cannot be upheld.'

'stop, guizhong, please.. you don't- you don't want this as much as i do!' he said, hysterical.

she coughed.

'oh, and that.. that stone dumbbell,'

'forget about it, will you?'

'because..' her form turned into dust, slipping from morax's hands.

'wait, guizhong, don't go- don't leave me for this!'

> and a thousand rocks splintered.

despite all the years that passed by, he never found out what would've followed that sentence, nor what the dumbbell contained.

--

an: bro this required sm guizhong lore tabs just for this goofy guizhong thing please i cAN FINALLY DELETE THEM