Erison

Comfort

Xiao's feet felt heavier the moment he saw the cemetery. It was new, all the graves crisp and sharp and delicate, but for Xiao it wasn't as nice of a place. His feet felt like stones, heavy and unbreakable, the wind howled harshly against his hair and the flowers left for the dead. Xiao sucked in his tongue strongly, it was getting to the point when injuring his own mouth was starting to backfire on him daily, his mouth was covered in sores, yet he couldn't stop himself from inflicting pain.

Freminet was the opposite of him, curiously gazing at every stone, every statue, ever message and quote. He paused at one spot. At one statue. At their statue. Xiao felt his heart sink.

"A stag?" He questioned. Xiao felt like throwing up, but he hadn't even in a while so he couldn't.

"Yeah," He replied dully. It seemed to draw Lyney's attention too. Great. Fantastic. Wouldn't this be fun to explain. "He was an Adeptus," Xiao explained "A good one."

"... But aren't Adepti immortal?" Lyney objected, head tilting.

"It's hard to explain. We are, but we can die too. We're more susceptible to death too, unlike gods, who are harder to kill, Adepti can die of more natural causes. Though, it's not really death, more just... fading away. Unless you are killed, if you're killed you're actually dead."

Lyney and Freminet blinked in confusion, both in perfect synchronization like dancers performing at their best. Xiao knew what they were wondering, how did he die . Everyone asked that, whenever Xiao met someone the topic would always slither back to how someone died, usually, Xiao didn't have the answers. This time, he did. "He was killed," He said, despite neither of them having asked verbally. "Him and the woman."

The woman. Ningguang.

Xiao wondered if there was an afterlife, or if there wasn't, and both she and Beidou died wondering how the other was fairing.

Xiao recalled the shimmering golden platform Ningguang created, he fought on, he fought with her , he fought with everyone . It wasn't enough.
No one knew this would happen. No one planned Osial to rise from his sleep and attack. How could anyone have predicted that? No one had time to get to Liyue Harbour and protect everyone - when they did so many lives were already lost.

Xiao remembered how he puked instead of fighting, he saw the bodies and puked all the tofu Childe had brought for him that morning.

That morning. It was an odd one.

It was deadly silent at the inn. Childe had come to visit Xiao again. He brought Xiao tofu as usual, in return, Xiao didn't yell at him... much. Childe laughed and asked Xiao what type of tea he should try. Xiao said jasmine tea, Morax's favorite. He always said it was relaxing and helped digestion. He always encouraged Xiao to try it if he felt comfortable, Xiao never did. He wished he had, because now Childe banned it, he said he hated the smell, Xiao knew better, he knew it was a punishment.

It was a hot day, but the sky was cloudy. It was humid, Xiao remembered taking off some of his armor. That was a mistake. A big one. He remembered sleeping on the wooden handrails with the cats, he remembered bird-watching and brushing his hair. And then everything went south. Xiao memorized Osial's roar, he heard it from the inn and his brain stopped working for a few minutes. The roar was something he carried with him everywhere, whenever it was too silent it would replay, whenever Childe hit, strangled, hurt him it would replay, whenever he got too happy it would replay just to spite him. It was like a broken record, and Xiao covered his ears every time his brain forced it back into his head. He didn't know why, it's not like covering your ears influenced something you heard in your brain.