Ganyu gave Jiang Bai a small nod in greeting, then let her gaze fall upon Aether and Paimon.
"And the two of you are?"
"I'm Paimon, this is Aether—we're Travelers, planning to journey through all seven nations."
Ganyu's eyes lit with recognition. "So you are the ones who saved Mond during the dragon calamity."
"I am Ganyu, secretary to the Qixing. But right now is my rest time—you may call me simply Ganyu."
Her demeanor at work was not the same as in private. Of course, Jiang Bai had never seen her in her "work mode."
"Ganyu, what are you doing out here?" Paimon asked curiously.
"Looking at flowers."
Jiang Bai noticed—compared to the last time they'd met in Wanmin Restaurant, Ganyu did not look well. A trace of sorrow lingered between her brows, her spirit dimmed.
Remembering how Director Hu had said Ganyu hadn't even thought of the Rite of Parting right away… the Archon's passing must have struck her very deeply.
"Looking at flowers? Why not look at flowers in the city—why come all the way out here?" Paimon glanced around. All she saw were reeds and tall grass. At most, a stray sweet flower or a patch of mint. Hardly much in the way of "flowers to admire."
Ganyu sighed heavily, sorrow unhidden in her face.
"Yujing Terrace is the place where the Archon passed. Looking at flowers there is unbearably lonely. These past few days, whenever I work near Yujing Terrace, I keep the windows shut—lest my eyes stray to the scenery outside."
Jiang Bai sighed as well. "True enough. The Archon's death weighs heavy. Even our Director was downcast for a long while."
"Sorry… I shouldn't have brought it up…" Paimon scratched her head, at a loss for what words could comfort.
"It's that I have not adjusted my heart," Ganyu shook her head. "Two thousand years ago, when the Archon War ended, the First Seven gathered in Liyue, drinking with the Geo Archon. And now… of those seven at the wine table, five are already gone."
That much, Jiang Bai knew. With a guest secretary at home, he had sometimes heard about the Archons of Teyvat in idle conversation.
"So that means…" Aether mused.
Ganyu nodded. "Yes. Now that the Geo Archon has returned to the heavens, only Lord Barbatos of Mond remains in this world from among the original Seven. The other five—including Inazuma's Raiden Shogun—are no longer the same figures from two thousand years ago."
No surprise—from someone who had lived since the Archon War, such secrets came as naturally to her lips as common talk.
"So in other words, only when the previous Archon dies, does a new one arise?" Jiang Bai considered aloud.
He wondered if it was possible for an Archon to voluntarily abdicate, leaving a successor to govern while the predecessor still lived.
Ganyu shook her head. "That I do not know. Even the Yuehai Pavilion rarely gains information about Archons—save for great matters such as succession."
"Of the present Seven Rulers of the Mortal World, Sumeru's Dendro Archon is youngest, barely five hundred years old. The Geo Archon reigned the longest—over six thousand years." Ganyu sighed deeply. "Thus, in three thousand seven hundred years of history, Liyue has never once endured a 'farewell' to its god."
"I'm curious, Ganyu. What do you think of this 'farewell'?" Jiang Bai asked, studying her.
Ganyu froze, then sighed again. "As a human, I still cannot imagine what Liyue will become without the Archon…"
"But as an adeptus, I suppose sooner or later I must accept reality. The Archon has passed away. Then the age of contracts between god, adepti, and Liyue… has in truth come to an end."
Seeing her mood sink further, Jiang Bai quickly changed the subject. "Let's talk flowers instead. Which flowers were you looking at?"
"Wild glaze lilies." Ganyu smiled faintly, leading them to the spot she had been watching.
The lilies grew from cracks between stones, half-hidden beneath grass—difficult to find.
"You must be here to gather wild glaze lilies for the Rite of Parting, aren't you?"
"Eh? How did you know?" Paimon was shocked. She still didn't quite understand what it meant to be "secretary to the Qixing."
Jiang Bai looked at her as though at an idiot. Paimon's intelligence really did rise and fall by the moment.
She had already said she was the Qixing's secretary. Did Paimon really think she wouldn't know about the Rite of Parting?
And besides—she was half-adeptus, had lived through countless rites. How could she not know the customs?
Ganyu's face softened in a patient smile at Paimon's curiosity.
"I've attended many Rites of Parting, so I know the traditions."
"Then you must be super old!" Paimon's eyes went wide.
According to Zhongli, the Rite of Parting was only held when an adeptus died—it could be hundreds, even thousands of years before one happened. That meant Ganyu must already be thousands of years old!
Not that she looked it at all.
"I am half human, half qilin. I carry half the blood of the adepti. During the Archon War, I fought at the Geo Archon's side for Liyue. After the war, I signed a contract with him and began serving at Yuehai Pavilion as secretary to each generation of the Qixing. That service continues even now."
No matter how the Qixing changed, the secretary of Yuehai Pavilion remained the same.
Ganyu was the executor of the Archon's will, his voice in the mortal world.
Every great and small matter of Liyue Harbor passed through her hands. As both human and adeptus, she was the bridge between two sides.
If not for her complete lack of desire for power, she would have been the foremost beneath the Archon—rendering the Qixing irrelevant.
Perhaps that was why the Archon had chosen her for such a role.
"So she's really that kind of big figure!" Paimon was genuinely stunned this time.
Jiang Bai's warning—that offending her meant not surviving in Liyue Harbor—had been no joke!
Now Paimon worried whether she'd already said something offensive.
Moving past the topic, Ganyu looked at them. "By tradition, one must sing before picking glaze lilies. Only then does the fragrance grow richer. Do any of you know how to sing?"
Jiang Bai would have liked to try—but remembered how the lilies on Yujing Terrace had withered faster when he sang. Better not.
There were only a few wild lilies here—and they were tied to his apprenticeship tea. He had to be careful.
"I know a song from Mond," Aether said.
He had heard Barbara sing.
Ganyu shook her head. "It must be a Liyue folk song. Let me."
Then she began singing softly. Her voice was gentle and beautiful. Under her song, the lilies shivered lightly, petals spreading as though dancing, their fragrance spilling thick into the air.
Ganyu plucked the finest blossom and offered it to Jiang Bai.
"Thanks to meeting you, I too can send a token of my heart to the rite of Farewell to the Body of Eternity."
"We should be the grateful ones. Without you, who knows how long it would've taken us to find one…"
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