aid's corner 🌿

lilethriel — or lily, to those closest to her — is a well loved lady of liyue. a truly whimsical soul, whispered about in the same reverence as that of a falling star, and often compared to golden leaves delicately fluttering through a summers breeze due to her rather gentle manner of speaking. more often than not, she can be found with a poetry book tucked beneath her arm, idly twirling a curl around her finger as she reads.

yet for all her soft radiance, her sudden descents into a deep melancholy are just as well known.

none can know for certain why or when this sorrowful affliction first took root, nor can anybody predict the ferocity of it that would sweep and crash over her bones like a relentless great wave at the end of the world. in those moments, lily retreats far away from the city, wandering the highest precipices of the great mountains of liyue, her face fixed towards the heavens, tears of molten gold running down her cheeks. the ever vigilant yaksha, xiao, often watches her respectfully — albeit, rather helplessly — from afar. for even with all his ancient strength, he cannot slay the demons that lurk within her heart, nor take away the sorrow trapped within the amber of her nightmares.

still, time continues to pass.

erosion has eased her pain, but only just. lily manages to pull herself back together each time she falls apart, dulling the jagged, broken pieces of her pain into something more rounded and gentle. and each time she returns home with that familiar haunted look on her face, she can rely on the many good friends she has made throughout her long life to help ease the burden of her melancholy.

especially on zhongli.

indeed, that mysterious man of the funeral parlor is the one lily can be seen the most often with. the two can be seen on their morning walks through the streets, or quietly conversing over steaming cups of tea at breakfast, perusing through the local vendors, dining in only the most lavish of establishments and attending the most esteemed opera concerts.

although… there is something about them that makes people whisper amongst themselves.

an unmistakable aura of antiquity glimmers between them. a familiarity with strong and deep roots, two great mountains who have withstood the tests of the ages. a resonance between two people who have known each other for a very very long time. an eternal, brilliant and shimmering thing.

something like gold.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 1

lily owns a shop.

it can be found just beside wanyou boutique, overlooking the shimmering sea and the slow passing of ships in and out of the harbor. a pleasant scent of sea salt and fresh blossoms swirl continuously through the doorway, providing a most welcoming breeze inside. most days, she buys flowers from her neighbour to place in a vase just by the counter. but during certain times of the year, lily may display the flowers she handpicked during her morning strolls with zhongli.

inside the shop, the shelves are adorned meticulously with her wares — all of them handmade crystal sculptures that glimmer and sparkle under the flickering lanterns. delicate glaze lilies, tiny dragons curled around themselves in a peaceful slumber, or important figures of liyue. her creativity knows no bounds, and her clientele hail from every corner of teyvat, all of them eager to purchase something made by her, marveling at the power lily must surely wield in her fingers to coax such beautiful pieces into being.

although, some have doubted her business credibility.

but make no mistake, behind that honeyed gaze of hers is a mind that absolutely adores arithmetic.

lily has always had a love for numbers. quick mental calculations have always come to her as easily as breathing, perhaps something that could be accredited to her upbringing. she understands the concept of trade and commerce, understands the numbers as musical notes to a musician. indeed, the lady lilethriel is one of the few worthy adversaries of ningguang’s infamous personal brand of chess. once, they played a single match over the course of seven days. it had been a great match of stubborn brilliance on both sides. lily lost, to be expected with the tianquan’s ever changing rules, however it had managed to earn her the begrudging respect of ningguang.

when she closes up for the night, she will always find the ever punctual zhongli waiting for her just outside, hands politely folded behind his back and his head tipped in that familiar greeting. they dine out together every evening without fail — the lady always handling the bill, strangely — and linger on long after all the dishes have been cleared, conversing pleasantly between themselves and other patrons. when the last light of the sun has slipped behind the sea, lily lights her pipe made from mother of pearl, exhaling silver ribbons of smoke that curl ever upwards into the night sky.

it was on one such evening, that a curious customer bashfully approached their table, trying not to buckle under the intensity of two matching golden eyes.

“what interesting faces you sculpt from such—ahem!— lovely crystal! i was wondering… where do you draw your inspiration for them?”

at this, lily looks away, her expression dimming ever so slightly. “ah, well… they were people i once knew a long time ago.”

and says nothing more on the matter.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 2

the lady lilethriel was in fact not born from liyue’s stone, but the great deserts of sumeru.

this is not a truth she reveals readily to just anyone, although it is not out of shame. not because that part of her past was particular unhappy, but more so because she struggles to recall details of it. she knows for certain that she was born sometime before the start of the archon war, and that her childhood was not an unhappy one. yes, she remembers rather hazy details about it all. the taste of sweet palm water under the sweltering midday sun, jasmine petals fluttering along the floor, playing with wooden dolls under a crescent moon.

and a vague outline of someone who lily guessed had been a maternal figure to her.

(of course, there was once a time that she knew exactly who it was that raised her, but all knowledge of that figure has been erased from history, and therefore most of lily’s memories of that time will forever be lost.)

she estimated that she must have been in sumeru for around thirty years or so before leaving. time felt slippery when she was younger, memories escaping between her fingers no matter how hard she tried to close her fist. although, lily knew that she never truly belonged in the desert. her powers were of the earth and stone and there had always been something that drew her gaze towards the mountains at the border. a thrum in her chest that felt like the call to her destiny.

she could not ignore it.

so, lily made the journey to liyue. wandering over jagged mountains and rolling plains until she came upon rex lapis himself.

and this moment she remembers with absolutely clarity.

it felt as if a missing piece had slotted neatly back into place within her soul. lily knew that the same old blood in her veins was in his, that the two of them were brother and sister. she didn’t need to ask. they were born on the same day under different years, under different skies. not quite twins, but entwined just the same. of course, there were those who had their doubts. skeptics whispered of a strange figure who did not wholly look as if she hailed from these lands. besides their eyes and hair colour, the siblings did not look much like each other.

when pressed about it, rex lapis would only answer with, “there are some things in this world that do not require an explanation, and this is one of them.”

followed by a much more stern. “she is my sister and that is all.”

he spoiled his little sister in those early days. the siblings shared a love of luxury and fine items, something which has not changed much to this day. in fact, it was him who indulged her in taking gold dust baths often because she once said she loved the way it swirled in the water.

to this day, when the light of the late afternoon sun hits her skin just right, you can see a faint shimmer of the ancient gold that still clings to her.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 3

lily does not think there was ever a defining moment when the archon war started in liyue.

but to her, it felt like the day she decided to pick up a spear and use it.

the land of geo had always been tumultuous, infested with evil beings that wandered across every corner. while her brother reshaped mountains and carved the very foundations of stone, lily walked beside him, clearing the monsters in their path. not that rex lapis couldn’t have handled it himself, but it was in an effort to prove herself capable of slaying their enemies. because she had an unshakeable will to protect their people, a duty to defend her home. because she was ambitious enough to believe she was strong enough.

perhaps that was her first mistake — to have far too much ambition.

nonetheless, she succeeded.

there is a mostly forgotten song that tells the tale of lily’s greatest feat during this time. cloud retainer sometimes hums it on quiet afternoons when she is alone, tinkering with some new invention of hers. it recounts the story of a thousand and one nights without rest nor sleep nor food. when lily struck down gods and beasts alike. sun after sun, moon after moon. it is perhaps difficult to imagine this given her personality, but it is true. and the more battles she fought and won, the more the people praised her with titles.

hero. defender. the golden lily of liyue.

a goddess.

she stilled upon hearing that final word.

lily had never considered using that word to describe herself before. but… there had been a hollow feeling in her chest. a piece of her soul that still felt missing despite having found her family and her home.

perhaps obtaining a gnosis was the answer.

she asked her brother if he had any intention of claiming the geo gnosis for himself. she grew uneasy when he replied that he had no wish to rule. that he believed the people were safe under their shared protection and the others within their alliance.

“i have just as much right to divinity as you. there must be a geo archon, and if you do not wish to rule… then let me ascend.”

the ground trembled.

rex lapis was most displeased.

“a gnosis will not fill the missing piece in your heart.”

and brother and sister came to fight one another in a heated debate. the force of their words were like blows hard enough to shake the very foundations of the earth. at one point, lily pointed her spear at him and insisted that the fairest way to settle this is that they should fight for it. but the older and wiser, more battle hardened rex lapis did not wish to end his sister. her death was not worth his divinity, and she was of the same opinion.

but were either siblings willing to submit?

no.

so, the idea of dual divinity was put forward. one would sit the seat in celestia, but they would both rule over liyue with the shared power of a gnosis between them.

and something in the sky fractured.

lily remembers that merciless voice within her mind.

“the will of the script will not be so arrogantly defied.”

and asmoday steps through a crack in the sky’s and stares at the golden lily of liyue with unfeeling contempt.

“i am a sustainer of heavenly principles, and you… you are unnecessary for this part of the story.”

before lily could raise her spear once more, she was devoured by space.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 4

lily recalls traveling through the depths of space like falling into an endless, cold nothingness.

she didn’t know how long she had been drifting for. time and all sense of place was irrelevant, a fleeting notion of past memories. there was mostly darkness, the odd flickering of distant stars. sometimes, if she was lucky, she caught a glimpse of strange planets and lonely moons. lily had plenty of time to reflect during this period of travel through space.

too much time, really.

because she only felt shame — a bitter and choking black shame.

shame that she had been so unbelievably naive. shame that she had been a fool to think she could win against her brother, to have even pointed her spear against him in the first place. she wanted nothing more than to see him again, to apologise until the word was ingrained into stone. to accept whatever punishment that he deemed necessary. she wondered if her brother missed her, or if his anger was too great for such a notion.

although, none of it really mattered anymore. she was only a comet of golden rock blazing across the cosmos.

alone.

and then, a great brilliance pierced through the void.

an infinity sigil of light ceaselessly curling in on itself, eternity folding and unfolding. its gravity seized her without warning, and lily found her path being dragged into its orbit, piercing through the atmosphere at the same time as another strange ship did to. something impossibly large struck against the side of her comet, cracking it into a million burning fragments.

and she fell.

plummeting through a strange sky. she struggled, desperately trying to call upon her powers to break her fall, but they refused to answer.

this is how i die.

at least, that is what she thought before a body collided with hers, strong arms wrapping around her in a tight grip. they twisted midair, with her mysterious saviour striking the earth instead. a great plum of gold dust exploded at their impact, fragments of her comet crumbling into nothingness.

lily blinked once, twice.

and stared into the fierce eyes of a man with hair dipped in molten flame.

“who are you?”

“i am the crown prince of kremnos, mydeimos.”

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 5

lily struggled to adapt to amphoreus in the beginning.

the constant sunlight unnerved her to no end. she did not sleep well for days. what made maters worse was that the earth did not respond well to her touch. lily had to put in ten times the effort just to summon a shield or a crystal, or to even hover a single inch above the ground. each time she tried and failed made her scream and shout in bitter humiliation.

she didn’t understand her lot. why a would-be goddess was imprisoned on a planet of mortals who could ascend to godhood.

it left a sour taste in her mouth.

the first time mydei found her laying on the ground, her chest heaving and knuckles raw from beating against the earth that refused to listen to her, he just stood there. tall and sun-kissed, unbearably composed while she felt her entire being was falling apart at its foundations.

then, he knelt before her.

“spar with me.”

he had no judgement in his eyes. just grit, honest and true, and lily’s lips suddenly felt quite dry.

but she agreed.

mydeimos was a fighter unlike any she had ever seen before. he strengthened her body and resolve, became the grounding force she needed when the wound of her divine blood throbbed with old pride. slowly but surely, he helped lily accept the reality that this new world was where she must stay and learn to thrive in. and days became weeks, and the more time they spent together, that hollow feeling in her chest lessened all the more.

“my friends call me mydei.”

and that was how it began between them.

although, neither of them seemed to realise that they were falling in love with each other. but aglaea looked at her one day, a teasing amusement on her lips as she said something along the lines of “i can feel the threads of romance trembling within you.”

lily had blushed profusely at that.

surely not.

some months later, after nearly a full day of revelry, mydei gently pulled her down from where she had been dancing atop a tabletop in a drunken haze. perhaps if she had been sober enough, she would have seen the sly smile phainon flashed the golden prince as he guided her outside for some fresh air to sober up. they walked side by side, with lily’s cheeks thoroughly flushed at the thought of how hot his hand had felt on her waist.

then, it happened without her thinking.

her palm tingled, and a crystal glaze lily bloomed right in the middle of her palm. she looked up at mydei, but he was already staring at her with a soft pride that made her heart stumble and quicken. she stepped toward him, he towards her.

and then, their lips finally — inevitably —met.

𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐄𝐘𝐕𝐀𝐓

amphoreus is cyclical.

with every beginning of one story, comes an end that is absolutely and completely inevitable. although, lily had not expected it to come so soon for her.

when mydei made the choice to ascend to godhood, to become the god of strife to protect his friends, his people — her — from the onslaught of the black tide, she’d sobbed into his chest, begged him not to leave. she swore that she would go with him to castrum kremnos and fight alongside him, but he firmly refused her. mydei had tenderly held her cheek, whispered to her that this was something only his immortal body could bear.

“i need to do this.”

lily relented.

what else could she say? she knew all to well the call of destiny and duty.

so, they made love one final time. they pretended that it wasn’t the end of the world, held each other and imagined the life they could have had. a life where he made her a queen of kremnos, that they could leave amphoreus and she could have introduced him to her brother. where they married and had many children together, and lived in peace and love with each other.

when she woke, mydei was already gone.

and the weight of his mother’s ring on her finger felt heavier than the ache in her bones and heart.

a year later, when the skies over okhema finally turned darker and nightmares swarmed into the city, lily defended mydei’s people as fiercely as she had defended liyue. she fought without rest until the moment she bore witness to her immortal lion being struck through his back. the moment she watched the great mydei fall to the ground, his golden ichor spilled bright and cruel across the stone.

oh, how she screamed.

and in that moment, a familiar voice lily had never wished to hear again echoed inside her mind.

“it is time to return to the story again.”

she clawed desperately at the earth, trying to fight against the force dragging her backwards, trying to at least touch mydei’s skin one last time.

but to no avail.

lily felt herself being torn from amphoreus and sucked back into the cosmos, hurtling at a speed unlike what she felt before. she felt the hum of the earth before she saw it. and when she stood on her on two feet again, knees buckling and warm golden blood trickling from a wound at her side.

lily had returned to teyvat.

at the gates of khaenri’ah.

as the monsters of the abyss poured out into teyvat, in her grief stricken rage, lily called upon every shred of power she thought she had lost and unleashed it upon them all.

and that is where rex lapis found his sister.

𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒

the people of liyue have a saying.

“to have control over tightening and loosening.”

that is, the ability to find balance between two things — a daily occurrence in the lives of merchants. what can be matched in value against against another thing? thus begins the art of bartering. a back and forth dialogue to determine what is too high a price to pay for something, for both sides to come to a common, most agreeable middle ground. when the scales teeter between what is fair and what is not.

for many days upon her return to teyvat, lily pondered over this — lividly. what was the price of being robbed of love? of being chewed up and spit back out by the games of gods and divinity for nothing in return.

she was owed.

but zhongli warned her once, “do not seek reckless revenge. the dust will settle in time.”

when lily pressed him more on the matter, he would not answer her. and as the years went by, as her fighting spirit rusted and her spear collected dust, her brother never told her the true meaning of his words. it was only when he informed her of his contract with the tsaritsa to give up his gnosis that lily loosened her grip on the notion of revenge. she still did not know all the details regarding his agreement with the cryo archon, but she trusted in her brother and that the heavenly principles would one day receive their reckoning.

but now, as an adeptus of liyue, lily had a one final choice to make.

“will you stand to defend liyue should the humans prove incapable of doing it themselves?”

she paused, rubbing the signet ring on her finger.

lily had given enough to war, had bled and killed enough to last several lifetimes over. and yet, she could never deny her brother. and lily knew she could not stand by and allow the people of her country to fall while her bones still had strength in them. the blood of geo still ran strong and true in her veins, and there was still that same sense of duty that her and mydei had once shared right until the very end.

mydeimos…

it had been hundreds of years, yet she had never forgotten his face.

“only once more,” she finally said. “will i pick up my spear. when i am the last defence these lands know, only then will i fight again.”

morax nodded thoughtfully.

a most fair exchange indeed.