reawakening (897 words)

Xiao does not expect the sheer number of people waiting for him in the tiny room where he fell asleep a century ago. It is still hidden away between the branches of a tree atop a pillar marking the border between Dihua and Guili, but he is surprised to discover the hideaway for Adepti has been since transformed into an Inn while he was away.

"Much has been happening while you were asleep," Rex Lapis solemnly explains. His face is different from how Xiao remembers it; he must have started a new life again. His eyes are still the same, with irises as bright as gold, though they seem to have aged far more than a century in Xiao's absence. "A disaster has befallen Teyvat. A plague of monsters has risen from the depths of the Abyss."

Shamefully, Xiao feels next to nothing upon hearing his Lord's words, the shock of waking up still wearing off. But when Rex Lapis pulls out his old friend the Primordial Jade-Winged Spear in a shower of golden light and presents it to Xiao, the yaksha's heart sparks to life.

"Khaenri'ah has loosed their mechanical monsters upon the Chasm. You are still needed, Xiao," the Geo Archon continues, and for the first time in Xiao's memory, he breaks his steadfast eye contact. "The people of Dunyu have joined our number in the Harbor. Ganyu has been protecting them, but we have already lost your brother, Bosacious, and many great members of the Millelith to an underground collapse."

Xiao picks up his heavy arm and takes his weapon back from his Lord. It feels like a stone in his hands. It's as grounding as it is comfortingly familiar, but he still can't help but to feel as if his hands are now meant to hold something lighter than the wind.

"Did you have a good dream?" Rex Lapis asks, a burden beneath his words.

Xiao stares at the half-reflection of his bare face in the tip of his spear. "Mm," he grunts in quiet affirmation, a little distracted by an ache within his heart weeping blood, and by the sense of a hollow, whirling wind taking up residence in his chest, cradling and sheltering that same feeling away from his Lord's view.

(And it's true. He lived in such a beautiful dream these past hundred years.)

((But it was merely a very lovely dream.))

There's a long pause, heavily laden with thousands of books' worth of unspoken words. Xiao feels his master's weighty gaze upon him, but he does not know how to express all the reasons why he cannot bring himself to really hold his weapon tight in his hands. He is no longer dreaming; he is once again beholden to the consequences of the real world.

At long last, Rex Lapis speaks.

"I'm sorry," is all he says, as he hands Xiao his mask.

And then, he leaves.

Xiao sits on the edge of the bed, spear lead weight on his lap and mask spun glass in his hands, for much longer than he thinks he is supposed to. (A part of him thinks, perhaps a little bit selfishly, What's another day more?) But, as the afternoon wanes and the sun sinks low in the sky, he manages to don his mask once more.

Dragging himself to his feet, Xiao steps out into the open air for the first time in a century, where a chilly breeze as biting as a winter storm greets him. Xiao allows it to blow through his hair, sending shivers down his spine, and when it fades, he decides to pay Dragonspine a momentary glance before he goes.

Dark storm clouds gather over its peak and nearly even block out Xiao's view of Celestia. Faint roars rumble in the distance, causing the earth to faintly tremble beneath his feet, and suddenly, a great, black, skeletal dragon erupts into view, belching thick plumes of smoke and flame that glow ardently even from afar.

Now Xiao readjusts his grip on his spear into something more secure, as if shaken out of the final wisps of a daydream. He watches the snowy mountain bordering Liyue for a moment longer— just long enough to see another dragon, this one a being of pure Anemo energy, swoop into battle— before clearing his thoughts and teleporting to Dunyu, where he is most needed.

~***~

Xiao does not sleep again for years. By the time the Calamity in the Chasm has been quelled, and the people of Liyue begin to forget their fear of the dark once more, he thinks he might have forgotten how to dream again.

Still, sometimes his hands will twitch when he holds his spear and stares up at the moon from Dihua Marsh. Sometimes his feet will fall in familiar patterns when he walks amidst the glaze lilies and hopes they like his song. Sometimes his body remembers a dream from not too long ago, and it asks if they can go back to it tonight.

Most days, Xiao simply sighs and returns to his work.

Days turn into weeks, into months, into years, decades, then even centuries. Rex Lapis never tells him to prepare for another gathering of the Archons in Liyue again. Xiao never asks why.

His eldest brother has run away without saying goodbye. Xiao no longer has time to play for the glaze lilies.