“Not your concern, recruit.” Childe limped up and stared forward to will himself on. “You have your orders.”
“Very well,” said Fez, watching the sun set behind a distant peak, promising a reprieve from stumbling through overwarm closeness in the open sun. “You clearly have made up your mind, and I won’t ignore that by questioning if you are sure. I will simply observe that you look like you’re about to die.“
“The gods are not kind. But if you pray, if you plead, and if your heart is honest, they may grant you one wish. If not, then pray harder. For that is the only way you will escape their wrath.”
***
Childe wasn’t looking at Zhongli. He was staring into the glowing eyes of Rex Lapis, the one who lifted Liyue’s mountains and carved its hills, the one who slaid thousands of gods and humans in his conquests of the Archon Wars, the one who was unforgiving, merciless, and most of all, spoke with enough rage to make the earth tremble beneath them.
“Childe of the Fatui,” Rex Lapis rumbled, and Childe couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe as the Archon stared at him with his divine anger. He was weak, but there was something in his voice that reverberated throughout the room, layered with thundering vibrations and made Childe feel so small. “You will pay your dues.”
