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There is a child in that bush, Keqing notes, her heart still pounding from the battle with a Mitachurl with a blazing axe. For a moment, she blinks and stands stock-still, letting the bodies of the Mitachurl slowly disintegrate as she catches her breath.
Then, she looks again.
The child is still there. It’s only in the aftermath of the battle that she’s able to see the child’s slight form, the thick viridian bush hiding his body from both the hilichurls and Keqing herself. Now that the battle is over, he peeks his head out between the leaves.
“Miss Keqing,” he asks, as if he hadn’t witnessed the admittedly-violent battle that had just taken place, “do you know where Wangshu Inn is?”
Keqing stares.
He emerges from the bushes, brushing broken twigs and torn leaves off his clothes. They’re a rich navy blue and of a similar make to Keqing’s, matching the colour of his mussed-up hair. Both the clothes and his formal address of her point to his status as a son of a prestigious family.
“How… do you know my name?” She asks, warily.
“My father’s tutelage ensures that I know the names of everyone important to the governance of Liyue Harbour.” The child replies formally. He looks around twelve years old.
Furthermore… important? Keqing had only recently begun working under the Qixing. Her role is barely more important than that of a grunt - her errand today, in fact, is attempting to buy silk flowers from sellers around Wangshu Inn in a likely-fruitless attempt to break the silk flower monopoly that the Feiyun Commerce Guild holds. It’s a low-skilled task that requires the bare minimum amount of commercial knowledge.
Seeing her confused look, the child clarifies further. “Your beliefs and values have been making waves in the calm waters of Liyue Harbour.” He says, with a smile that tells Keqing nothing. “I daresay you’ve made quite a few people upset.”
Her mood darkens. “And what would a child like you know of that?”
“I listen.” He says, indifferent to her sharp tone. “But I don’t think I know enough of religion to formulate an opinion. The hero of the novel I’m reading says that it’s important to stay your hand until further knowledge is acquired, anyway.”
“I see…” Keqing says slowly.
“Regardless, would you happen to know the way to Wangshu Inn?” He repeats his question. “I’m afraid that I came across a spot of misfortune on my journey and found myself separated from my companion.”
“It’s that way.” Keqing points, “the hills block the way, but if you follow that path then you’ll see it as you round the bend.” Having travelled to Qingce Village a few times, both for work and leisure, the route is no stranger to her.
The child’s eyes light up. “Thank you kindly, miss!” He makes to head off, but Keqing grabs his arm.
“Hold on, are you here alone?” She asks. The child is entirely unprotected, with nothing but his own clothes and a tiny satchel that she doubts could hold a weapon. “Where are your…” She trails off, briefly. In a world like Teyvat, where monsters roam wild, asking after parents can be a loaded question, no matter how wealthy the family may be. “...guardians?”
“My father assigned a servant to be my guardian on the journey to the Inn, before the monsters that you soundly defeated split us up. I hid in the bush that you saw me in - but I’ve no clue where he could be now.” He tells her. For a child as young as he is, he is surprisingly calm.
“I…” Keqing sighs. Could she really leave a child in the middle of the wilderness? “I’ll show you to the Wangshu Inn - that’s where I’m going.” Without any knowledge of the local silk flower vendors, she would have to visit to ask Verr Goldet where she could find them. “As it’s your destination, so your guardian might have headed there to seek help if he couldn’t find you.”
He beams up at her. “Thank you, miss Keqing!”
“We can’t have you getting yourself killed, can we?” She remarks, stowing her sword in her weapon subspace now that it is not longer needed. The trip wouldn’t be a detour, by any means, and it wouldn’t be right to abandon a child in the middle of nowhere. “Come along, now…” She trails off.
“My name is Xingqiu.” He fills in. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
By the time they get to the inn, Xingqiu has had the dubious pleasure of witnessing Keqing dispatching of two more hilichurl camps that had strayed too close to Wangshu Inn for travellers to feel comfortable with, but weren’t close enough for Wangshu Inn’s Adeptus to dispose of them.
He had seemed more in awe than frightened, much to her consternation. A regular child would have stayed out of view of the hilichurls and allowed her to wipe them out with a few well-placed slashes, but Xingqiu got dangerously close to the fight each time, despite her admonishments.
“It’s just like in my martial arts novels!” He rambles happily as they continue on their journey.
Keqing really wonders what sort of bad influences children are being exposed to, nowadays, after the latest brush with a hydro samachurl ;eaves Xingqiu unharmed but completely drenched.
When they finally reach cross the bridge across the river to Wangshu Inn, she almost audibly breathes a sigh of relief. Escorting Xingqiu had drained her of much of the energy that she had started the day with. Paperwork and legislation management she could do. Interacting with children? Not so much - especially ones as animated as Xingqiu.
“There they are!” Xingqiu says suddenly.
Her head jerks up, looking around for someone looking their way, before she catches the use of the plural ‘they’. Rather than rushing over to an older person who might qualify as his guardian, as she had expected, Xingqiu hurries over to a rosy silk flower bush by the water’s edge.
He peers at the flowers with intense scrutiny. Keqing has no idea what he’s analysing them for, but when he turns away, it’s with a faint aura of smugness. “They aren’t as good as my family’s.”
“...What?” This peculiar child has somehow managed to baffle her once more.
“My friend once told me that the silk flowers grown around Wangshu Inn weren’t on par with my family’s. I now know for absolute certain that it was a comment simply made to rile me up.” He says, a serene expression on his face that is incongruent with his self-satisfied tone.
“I see.” Keqing says faintly. By now, she’s learned that it’s easier to smile and nod when Xingqiu says something out of the blue. Instead of querying him, she brings his attention to something more pertinent. “Where do you think your guardian will be?”
Xingqiu looks up from the flowers and up at Wangshu Inn, which stretches high into the sky. “The top, maybe?”
The unsurety in his voice is almost depressing.
“To the top we go, then.” Keqing deadpans. Her hopes aren’t high, but at least they’d be able to ask the owner of the inn if she had seen Xingqiu’s guardian. Verr Goldet has the memory of an elephant - one of her assets that makes her invaluable to the Qixing.
Verr Goldet’s eyes sharpen as they approach. Xingqiu’s indifference to the stunning views of the Inn suggest that he’s been there before, so Keqing brings him straight to the countertop.
“Miss Keqing.” Verr Goldet greets her, a gleam in her eye that Keqing can’t quite interpret. “Master Xingqiu.”
“You know him, then?” Keqing asks. “Would you happen to know where his guardian is? I found him on the way up from Liyue Harbour.”
Verr Goldet nods. “As it would happen, I do indeed. Master Xingqiu, Sheng will be glad to know that you have been found. He returned not too long ago - you must have missed him on the way up. I shall send someone downstairs to set his mind at ease.”
“Thank you, Madam.” Xingqiu smiles.
As they wait, Keqing glances at Xingqiu before deciding that the assignment that she was tasked with wouldn’t necessitate confidentiality. Attempts to break one of the many monopolies that the Feiyun Commerce Guild held over the trades of Liyue was a near-daily endeavour by the merchants of Liyue - that the Qixing were attempting the same would be of no surprise.
“By the way,” she says softly, so as not to disturb Xingqiu as he looks out over the landscape of Dihua Marsh. “As the one who knows the area best, would you know where I could find the silk flower vendors of the lands around Dihua Marsh?”
Verr Goldet’s eyebrows raise. “Is this for the task assigned to you by your superior? In that case… I suppose you could find some to the east of the Inn.” Verr Goldet discloses, but there’s something that she isn’t telling her.
“What is it?” Keqing asks, wary.
“I doubt negotiations with them would do you any good.” Verr Goldet says, her eyes scanning a document that is likely a report of the area’s goings-on by one of the Inn’s staff. “With no major festivals coming up, I assume this is another attempt to break the Feiyun Commerce Guild’s monopoly?”
“It is.” Keqing confirms.
“Then I’m afraid it is a hopeless endeavour.” Verr Goldet says. “The Guild has already managed to acquire the stock of every silk flower vendor in the vicinity. I would have thought you already knew.”
“Already?!” Keqing is hard-pressed to stop herself from crying out. To think that she had missed the deadline by a mere day… “Wait, why would you think that I knew that? This task was only assigned to me this morning.”
“Ah… Did you not know?” Verr Goldet seems to have come to a conclusion all on her own, because the smile that she gives Keqing is almost unnerving. “The young master you entered with, Xingqiu, is the second son of the Feiyun Commerce Guild - and the one who acquired the silk flowers.”