I think Lumine was feeling salty about me going to become Ei's disciple. As she didn't hesitate for more than a minute when it came to sending me along with Shenhe on her quest of suppression and tyranny.
I was abandoned and betrayed worse than any Ash in a Pokemon betrayal fic...
"Jake quit being melodramatic and go. The Raiden Shogun expects you in three days remember." Lumine said dryly as I pouted at how her Eula and Paimon were talking about going back to Mondstadt with Diluc and Amber who came down to Liyue for the Ritual of Descension. "We will meet you in Inazuma via the Leyline teleporters we marked so don't worry about us." Lumine finished while giving me a hug.
With my friends leaving, I was marooned... Alone and forgotten, now I will wander the wastes searching for my own future, and with this step, I shall take I will become a new man! I will be free!
I went to take that new step in freedom away from Lumine's trouble-gathering essence but before my foot could land signifying my new life at hand, a hand filled with deceptive strength landed on my shoulder with a calm cool voice speaking out softly. "Ah Jake, the ocean is to your back we will need to fly that way." Shenhe ever so helpfully reminded me.
I turned around and Shenhe was practically only inches away from myself so I took a breath and nodded with a wry smile. "Alright Shenhe, let's go," I said with a sigh, and with a flex of my aura a Schnee glyph formed in the air that expelled the Anemo Hypostasis I had within my soul.
As the Hypostasis picked us up Guizhong said her goodbyes to her friends and made sure that Ping was going to stay in her younger form. But before we could leave as Guizhong broke apart into motes of light to return to my soul to further recover Morax flew over to us as we got off the ground and I obviously stopped to hear what the Geo Archon had to say.
"Jake Barris... I cannot thank you enough for helping one of my dearest friends return to some semblance of life, I won't give you some kind of shovel speech as I am well aware Guizhong can handle herself, and should something happen she will come to us. But either way, I owe you a debt of gratitude that I shall repay one day." Morax said and I could all but feel the weight of his words.
As Morax's whole shtick besides being the god of smashing people with huge rocks was being the god of contracts... And when he promises something, he will deliver regardless.
"I accept this contract Morax," I spoke clearly and he nodded silently, although I couldn't see his face under the darkness of his Archon hood. I could see his glowing draconic golden-slitted eyes looking directly into my own eyes as we shared a silent message between the two of us.
But that moment ended as Cloud Retainer flapped her crane wings to launch herself into the air. "This one will be returning to Jueyun Karst then, the mortal world is too loud and the city is in good hands now." Cloud Retainer announced as she blurred with some kind of Adepti magic and then flew off out of the city at an insane speed.
With her teacher and adoptive mother now gone and no longer acting as the 'social police' Shenhe poked my shoulder. "Jake let us set off for Beisht's dominion." Shenhe requested with some impatience and I nodded with the Anemo Hypostasis rising up into the air and flying out of Liyue's city limits and into the ocean.
"So we are going to try to talk to Beisht first right?" I asked and then I couldn't help but facepalm as Shenhe only tilted her head to the side and shrugged.
Her following words only made me feel even more despair. "If you want to talk to her, I do not mind... I was sent to suppress, and make sure she doesn't bring harm to Liyue with her husband's resealing." Shenhe flatly replied.
"Why do you need to 'suppress her?" I asked tiredly making question marks as this whole cultivator aspect never made sense to me. If you come fuck over someone's life just to remind them of their place in the power structure that just makes someone hate you and do whatever petty shit they can get away with.
At my words Shenhe froze and tilted her head to the side as she obviously had to ponder my question and finally, she seemed to get the answer as she spoke with a bit more energy. "Ah... Because Beisht is the inheritor of Osial's domain of the sea's she is in control of the terrible sea monsters that can even give Morax pause... So we will remind her not to cause issues or we will kill her as she is far weaker than her husband!" Shenhe said with a small smile filled with pride at coming up with the solution.
But her only answer was a stinging thumping noise as before she could react I whipped a pillow out of my space bag and whapped her across the face with it. Her proud face was completely wiped off her face as she eyed me like a cute dog that suddenly snapped at her and regardless I held the pillow at her face again in warning making her face twitch as I scolded her.
"No Shenhe... Bad, we don't just walk over and beat people up to make them not attack us. Did you like my surprise with the pillow?" I asked and Shenhe frowned but I continued. "That surprise hit was basically us coming in and rudely ruining whatever life Beisht has going on... I will try to talk to her but don't go in there just wanting to stab her." I finished sternly.
"But pillows are carved rocks for resting your head upon the jade bed... Why would you call a bag stuffed with cotton a pillow?" Shenhe's frown actually turned into a small smile as my face twisted as she continued to speak. "Although it kind of reminded me of the night's Cloud Retainer welcomed me to share her bed during my childhood and I would rest my head within her bosom," Shenhe spoke guilelessly while I was screaming at Cloud Retainer in my head for making Shenhe into a meathead cultivator who didn't even know what a real fucking pillow was!
Thus for the rest of the flight, I was made painfully aware of just how out of touch Shenhe was with modern or even 'normal' things as she was more Adepti/Cultivator than even the other real Adepti were. As that trip into Liyue City was literally the first trip in her whole life from outside of her village before she was adopted by Cloud Retainer.
"So you are saying that pillows are made to make your head more comfortable as you sleep instead of merely propping it up?" Shenhe questioned with a frown before shaking her head.
"That makes sense... But honestly, that just sounds like weakness, with the person not having trained their neck and head to be able to relax with just a well-smoothed yang stone pillow to keep nightmares away and help the mind heal from the day's exertions." She said making my eye twitch but then I smiled as I took out my most prized possession here in Teyvat.
That I got from Lisa by helping her beat up some people to get back her overdue books... I don't like to think about Lisa threatening to torture people with her Electro magic to get her books so I try to keep the memory buried away. But either way, she repaid me greatly with a magically controlled combo of a heavily weighted blanket and pillow that with magic could be temperature controlled so it could be used anywhere when me and Lumine were out in the wilderness for days at a time.
I held the pillow outwards towards her and the heavy blanket in front of me and patted the pillow. "Come here Shenhe... Experience what a real pillow is." I said jokingly and she raised an eyebrow at how I practically laid out a little bed for her. But with a shrug she moved from her kneeling position on the hardened air of the Anemo Hypostasis's cabin it made for us and as Shenhe lay within the blanket and her head sunk slightly into the plush pillow. I saw Shenhe's lavender eyes widen as she settled into the little bed I made.
"I see... So this is a pillow." She muttered before closing her eyes and I snorted as Shenhe relaxed.
But before long that relaxed time was cut short as Shenhe had to guide me until we finally found a large rocky island that jutted from the ocean with Shenhe giving me a bit of a history lesson about how Osial made the island for Beisht before the Archon War engulfed the world.