A Frail Mortal
A loud, rattling sound was what woke Xiao up.
Eyelids peeled back instantly at the noise, and the immortal boy shot up from his rest, already summoning his spear to his side —
“Bang!” Only for his forehead to come into intense contact with something stiff and distinctly smelling of mold and wood and the rotting of age.
“What?!” Xiao hissed out, eyes gutting the wooden plank placed in front of him with his gaze, offended by the offense taken by his forehead. His eyes soon wandered to scan the small cramped and dark space around him. There was a distinct amount of spiders and cobwebs in the space, and the cot he sat on was worn and old and very dirty.
Xiao’s blood froze cold, alarmed, where was he? Was he abducted? By who? There were many who would want the famed Conqueror of Demons, but there were few who were capable of accomplishing the feat. Not to mention the fact that he was in slumber just moments ago. Think, Xiao, think, who has the power to lull him, the Adepti that feasted on dreams, into sleep, and then kidnap him?
There were few with the abilities required that Xiao could think of, and none of them would benefit from placing him here. The situation was confusing, everything was confusing.
Xiao kneeled on the cot, and crawled over to the wall, knocking on it to identify how thick the — the sound was hollow, Xiao froze in shock, before he felt at the material with his fingertips, weak, poor, fragile, very breakable. Another thing about his kidnapper, he thought, they must be planning something, for them to place him in such a confined space, yet in such a poor cage.
Suddenly, the rattling sound that had awoken Xiao started up again, this time, he could hear very clearly the approach of the noise from right above his head, getting louder with each rattle. Xiao stiffened, crouched, preparing to spring into battle any time. Only for the sound to pass by him from overhead, and head forward, bypassing him.
Xiao was still tense, ready to move at any minute.
He heard the sound, the sound of footsteps, approach him.
The wall from his right was rasped harshly on. Xiao jumped and kicked open the door that he noticed, just in time.
Wood splintered everywhere, and Xiao looked up into the face of a shocked human, who stumbled at his approach.
The Yaksha’s mind was whirring, a human? What was a human doing here? What was going on? The questions kept piling into a hill. But the most important one — Xiao knew he was short (although he never mentioned it beyond the rare ponderings in his head, and no one else dared to bring it up either), but was it so exaggerated that he had to strain his neck at a nearly perpendicular angle upwards in order to look into the face of the mortal?
The Adeptus and the human looked at each other for a moment longer, before the mortal’s face tore into anger.
She started yelling unidentifiable words at Xiao, who stared back at her blankly. Xiao shifted to look away, being an Adeptus of more than two thousand years of age, Xiao has traveled far and wide, and he mastered all languages he knew of in Teyvat, but this one was foreign to his ears, the vowels and intonations placed together were without meaning in his head.
Xiao stumbled past the woman, looked around the space, eyes widening at the unfamiliar style of the furniture. Xiao whipped his head and scrutinized the women, her clothes seemed of mixed style, but the only thing that he could guarantee is that it certainly wasn’t Liyuen style.
Xiao looked for the exit, and found the door moments later (was the doorknob always so tall?) and stumbled towards the exit, legs weak suddenly, body heavy in an unfamiliar way (it was usually burdened by karma).
Only to be hauled back by his neck, the mortal woman dragged the Yaksha, back towards the cramped space, voice shrill with uncontained anger. The audacity, Xiao thought as she struggled weakly in the grasp of the mortal, but it was like his strength was sapped, there, but there was something blocking him from accessing it.
The moment that the woman shoved Xiao back into the dark space was the same moment the dome containing a short lifetime of memories flooded into Xiao’s head.
Harry Potter.
Dursley family. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Cousin Dudley.
School.
Beatings.
Starvation.
Cooking.
Working.
Judgment.
Disdain.
Xiao took a moment to process the flood of memories, it took no sooner than that, and no shorter than that. Were it a mortal who received the memories, they might’ve just crumpled under the sheer mental exhaustion, but Xiao was an Adeptus, and his mind had the quality of eternity into it, and unending space that he sometimes found himself dreading, to remember every detail he noticed in his lifetime perfectly, every happy moment, every painful sacrifice, it was as much a curse as what some may call it a blessing.
It was due to this curse that it took barely a few seconds for Xiao to identify and dissect and consume the memories of Harry Potter in just a few short seconds.
Xiao was momentarily drowning in a small puddle of memories, but he soon pushed them back and separated himself from them. He started judging the situation critically.
Harry James Potter. Seven years-old. Human.
Earth, England, Dursley household.
Not on Teyvat.
Xiao folded his arms and started meditation.
Meditation was a technique that all Adepti were very familiar with, in order to cope with the long years and the emotional strain accompanying immortality, beings like them couldn’t afford a breakdown.
Because the ones to suffer wouldn’t be them, but the innocents standing nearby.
Being a Yaksha, this is even more true.
Xiao breathed in, allowing his presence to integrate and swirl with the air around him.
He stretched his senses out. He felt the previous mortal - Petunia - hovering nearby, turning on the stove.
There were two other presences in the house, upstairs, still deep in sleep. Xiao stretched his senses further, until it was covering the entire neighbor and some. He surveyed the place, before he shrunk back his senses and looked down on himself.
Now, with the help of the boy’s memories, Xiao didn’t know why he himself couldn’t see it. The callused hands of the child with bruises littering them wasn’t something he himself could have had, Adepti healed with a simple thought, they can sustain injuries, but after healing, it never leaves marks on their skin.
As an immortal warrior that has lived for thousands of years and have fought through countless battles, Xiao lacked the battle scars and callused hands that some may expect of him. The same goes for every other Adepti.
The human body that Xiao was resting in had pronounced ribs, protruding elbows, shoulders, and kneecaps, in other words, he was made essentially of skin stretched over bones. His ebony black hair was matted and dirty, Looking into half-lidded eyes, Xiao caught sight of green eyes, a brilliant shade for a mortal.
Xiao had a relatively poor understanding regarding humans, as he never bothered to engage in close interactions with humans in the same way his Lord and Ganyu did. But he wasn’t so ignorant as to be unable to tell the signs of abuse and intentional overlooking in human society.
Xiao opened his eyes, retracted his senses from his surroundings. The boy - Harry Potter - has had a sad life so far, but none of it was Xiao’s business. So far, his only intentions were to return back to Liyue and find out who had done this to him; he does not wish to have further interactions with the mortal world.
However, he was without any lead, any plan, not a single inkling of what to do.
Xiao pictured Liyue, with the large looming mountains, beautiful scenery, all visible from the rooftop of the strategically placed Wangshu Inn. Where he could spend his time resting in peace, and also survey the communion of the humans below without interfering beyond the necessities.
The bony figure of the child resting cross-legged on the cot briefly flickered, with a flash of black and teal, the figure was gone.
Five minutes later, with another flash, the figure appeared back on the cot. Eyes squeezed shut and fists balled on his knees.
Xiao took a deep breath, before he began to meditate once again, repressing the growing annoyance in his mind.
“Freak.” A soft voice came from outside the dark and cramped space. Xiao turned his head to look at the woman looking at him in shock, her face was visible from the hole he had made in the wall.
Seeing Xiao looking at her, the face of the woman paled rapidly, she started stumbling backwards. “No, no, no, get away from me - Freak! I knew it! Nothing good was going to come from taking you in! I can’t stand this anymore, you need to leave!”
Muttering insults under her breath, and how much she couldn’t stand his presence, the mortal raced upstairs, presumably heading for her husband. Xiao noted the way her body trembled in poorly hidden fear.
Xiao looked at the scene of the woman tripping over her own feet to get upstairs. He wondered what situation the mortal who owned the body would be in once Xiao left and returned back to Liyue.
Whatever it was, Xiao would just have to make it up for them, perhaps with an Adeptus blessing? With that thought in mind, Xiao once again closed his eyes and started meditating.
…
They left him on the streets.
Xiao was left on the street with nothing but the loose rags on his back. While Vernon Dursley had driven off in his metallic transportation device, leaving with but a parting threat. “If you dare to say anything about us, Boy, I will make sure you regret it!”
Xiao could always teleport back to the Dursley household, but he found himself reluctant to do so. Either way, Harry Potter would be better off without such irresponsible guardians, if nothing else, Xiao himself, while stuck in the body, can do the job of caretaking for the child — the body.
Xiao wasn’t the best at adapting, but he didn’t survive wars and battles for nothing.
…
“Bloody hell, another one.” Amy Benson exclaimed tiredly and under her breath with her groceries in hand when she saw a boy, standing in front of the iron wrought gate of Wool’s Orphanage. Said boy in question gave her a cold glance, arms folded across his chest in a way that radiated back off energy.
Amy sighed, she crouched down to come face to face with the boy. Her wrinkled face often endeared her to children, and it made conversations like these just that much easier. “Hello, darling, excuse me, but would you mind telling me where your parents are?” Although Amy heavily suspected that such as question was pointless, given the heavy implications of the boy being left in front of the doorsteps of an orphanage, she still had to go through all the procedures, just in case if there was a misunderstanding (of all the children she had greeted, there was never a misunderstanding).
Which was why she wasn’t so surprised when the boy replied bluntly, “Dead.” She’d seen many reactions before, and while apathy wasn’t common, it wasn’t entirely unseen before.
Amy sighed and gave a weary smile, “Is that so? If that’s the case, can you come in with me? Blimey, almost forgot, what’s your name?”
The boy blinked, took a few seconds of contemplation, Amy waited patiently for a reply, or a rejection, sometimes the children weren’t willing to give out their names. “Harry.”
Amy blinked, usually there was a bit more screaming and crying and just an overall higher level of ruckus involved at this point. “Thank you, Harry, would you mind coming in then?”
Amy unlocked the gate and gestured for Harry to follow her in, if the boy minded about following a suspicious stranger into a suspicious building, then he did not show it. Amy sighed as she thought about lecturing the boy on stranger danger later on.
Walking the two of them into her office, which she had taken from the late Mrs. Wool after her passing, Amy pulled out some documents from her desk.
“Harry, do you know your last name by chance?”
“Potter.”
“Any middle name?”
“James.”
Amy hummed as she filled in the boxes, wishing that all children left at her doorstep could be this easy.
“Do you have any family?”
“Yes.”
Amy paused slightly as she wrote down the information. “Do you mind telling me their names and addresses?”
“Apologies, they aren’t willing to share that information.”
Amy’s shoulders slumped, a bit more than confused at the progress of the conversation with the child, it can be said that this was an entirely unheard of situation for her. The attitude of the child, the family, there was something wrong, but wasn’t there something wrong with every other child in the building too?
Amy rubbed her temples and asked, “Can I ask how old you are?”
“I lost count.”
Amy blinked, “What?”
“Seven years-old.” Amy confusedly glanced at the boy, whose face was unchanging as he stared back at her.
Amy went back to the documents, hating the fear that was beginning to crawl up her spine.
Somehow, she feels as though there was more to this situation than what she’d seen as far.
…
“Another bloke?”
“What does he look like?”
“Where’s his room?”
“Isn’t it just another one, why’s everyone going bonkers over him?”
“Is it just one?”
In a spacious room, children congregated into a group, hushedly discussing the newcomer. A few others were scattered around the room, but most of them were crowded in the hungry group.
Thirteen-year-old Amelia Stubbs rolled her eyes, “They’re all rubbish for going crazy for another orphan like this.”
“Isn’t it like this all the time?” Her sister remarked drily beside her. “It’s just the novelty, and it’s not like it’ll last long, we just have to bear through the day and the craze will die down soon enough.”
“At least until the next one comes trotting along.”
Patting Amelia’s shoulder, Samantha laughed and got up.
…
Xiao looked into the dark night sky, there were a few pale dots hovering in the sky, but compared to the scenery of the millions of stars littering the sky at Wangshu Inn, the only way possible to describe the sky of London was … pitiful.
Xiao didn’t know how, but somehow, the humans had managed to pull down a curtain of obscurity over the stars, dimming and shutting out all but the brightest, but even the brightest couldn’t compare to the brilliance of Liyue’s dimmest stars.
While Xiao would say that he had not attachments to Liyue beyond his contract and his Lord, he still couldn’t help but shuffle with discomfort as he gazed at the unfamiliar sky, the dark night seemed to turn it’s bare face onto him with a frown at his presence in the mortal world.
The only comfort that Xiao could wrought for himself was the fact that there were other Adepti that could temporarily hold his station back at Liyue, but it was certainly no permanent solution. The combat abilities of the others could never compare to the Yaksha, not to mention that without his presence there, the karmic debt would slowly pile up, becoming a mess to clean up for Xiao, and if not Xiao, then only Rex Lapis himself would be capable of fixing it.
The shadows were the cradle of slumber for Xiao, taunting him with the comfort of sleep. Xiao was familiar with pain and injuries, thus the many that was spread across the mortal’s body was only too easy to ignore, but the weariness that weighted in his bones and bit down on his eyelids was entirely unfamiliar for him, and he had developed no immunity, given that he had never experienced it in his immortal life. Sleeping was simply a matter of choice for the Adepti, and Xiao much preferred to spend his time on more pressing matters. Like the cleansing of karmic activity, or the rescuing of some helpless mortal who somehow managed to get themselves into a sticky situation.
Never before has he ever felt the desire to sleep, so never he had. The closest that he had ever come to the act was when he prowled on the edges of the dreams and nightmares of others. Mouth watering at the delicious complexities of the unconscious mind.
So when faced with this unfamiliar feeling that compelled him to fall into his first ever slumber, Xiao could do nothing but listen to its unyielding command, falling under the waves of exhaustion that pulled him under.
…
Xiao looked down at his hands, smaller than what he was used to, but his, he could tell.
It was like he had returned to the early years when he had taken on a humanoid form, still small and unsure in his steps, the form he’d taken on reflected his child-like innocence.
“Who are you?”
Xiao side-eyed the cowering mortal that questioned his identity and shrunk into the shadows. He did not deign to reply when the other immediately, wanting to first see if they will share their own name first.
The child backed further into the shadows, hiding themselves away, as though the shadows could form a barrier that would separate Xiao and the child from any contact whatsoever, but even so, a mortal was still helpless against Xiao.
With the simple will of his mind, the shadows dispersed to reveal the human hiding under its protective cloak.
Large emerald eyes blinked towards Xiao, shoulders shrunk into themselves, matted hair sticking to their scarred forehead, a peculiarly shaped scar - as though capturing the strike of lightning as it approached the earth from the heavens.
“I am Adeptus Xiao.” Xiao offered the piece of information for the squeaking boy, eyes going round as his protection disappeared.
A few moments passed for the tense shoulders of the boy's slumped shoulder, and like a puppet cut from its strings, Harry fell to the ground, breathing harshly.
Xiao didn’t offer his help, but his hands balled up the cloth on his thighs. He wasn’t as proficient in the art of healing as Madam Ping, but he could still accomplish feats that would appear as miracles to humans, he just didn’t know that what the boy was experiencing could be cured by Adepti means, he’d never seen it before, because as far as he could perceive, the boy wasn’t suffering any physical pain.
The boy whimpered and rocked forward on the balls of his feet.
The boy took his time, but luckily, for him, of the few things that Xiao had, time was one of them.
“Why, why, why did you get us kicked into an orphanage?” The boy finally spoke up, raised his tear-stained face from the enclosed cavern formed by his arms and legs.
“You’re better off there.” Xiao didn’t mention that it was never his intention to do so.
“No,” the boy wiped at his face, but more tears kept falling from his pink-ringed puffy eyes, “Orphanages are bad, why, why —”
And the child broke down again.
Xiao crossed his arms and looked into the reflective ground beneath him. Pure gold eyes gazed back at him from his reflection. “It’s better than your former family.”
The crying from the child only got louder. It was irritating, extremely so.
And Xiao absolutely loathed the way it made something in his chest clench. He hated the feeling as though he owed a great debt to the weeping boy before him, every frail tear that was soaked into the ground was like a nail was drilled into his nonexistent heart.
The boy never stopped by his own means. And eventually Xiao spoke to the boy, it came out in the same apathetic way as it had all the thousands of years it had. “Quiet.” Short and concise, the virtues held in all of Xiao’s sentences for millenia.
And most unsurprisingly, the boy fell quiet to the whims of the immortal.
“Now then,” Xiao spoke seriously, golden eyes pinned onto the boy, “We must analyze our current situation with a clear head.”