The Knave

The next morning the group packed to leave for Citlali.

Varesa refused to be left behind. She appeared at the orchard gate with an absurd mountain of food — entire crates of fruit, wrapped parcels of dried meat, dense cakes, jars of preserves — all of it stacked higher than her head and clearly intended to travel with them. Getting the load down to something manageable required the entire pride treating her like a stubborn child. Rosaria scolded. Dehya physically blocked crates. Xilonen listed weight limits in a flat, unarguable tone. Even Ganyu’s gentle insistence was required before Varesa finally, sulkily, reduced her supplies to a still-generous but portable amount. She kept sneaking extra fruit into other people’s packs whenever she thought no one was looking.

Progress along the coastal path was slower than usual because of it.

By midday they reached a broken stone bridge that had once spanned a narrow, rocky inlet. Half the structure had collapsed into the sea years ago, leaving a jagged, uneven crossing of remaining pillars and tilted slabs. One by one the group began picking their way across.

Ganyu, Xilonen, Lisa, and Varesa had already made it to the far side and were waiting on the opposite cliff path.

Aether, Rosaria, Yelan, Dehya, Cloud Retainer, and Shenhe were still on the near side or carefully mid-crossing when it happened.

There was no sound. No warning. No visible attacker.

Shenhe simply folded.

One moment she was stepping onto the next stable slab with her usual silent precision. The next she collapsed face-first into the dust and broken stone, body completely limp. A thin, dark needle stood out clearly from the back of her shoulder blade, still quivering from the impact.

The pride on both sides of the gap froze for a split second.

Cloud Retainer’s face went white with pure panic.

““That needle—! It’s one of mine from the abode””

She spun on her heel, already forming the first signs of anemo energy to intervene.

She never completed the turn.

Ornate talismans ignited in mid-air with sharp cracks of light. Pillars of blinding white energy slammed down around the adeptus in a perfect cage, sealing her inside a humming barrier before she could take a single step. The source of the talismans circled high above them like a hunting hawk — vast, dark-red wings cutting silent arcs against the sky.

The Knave had waited with perfect patience for the group to split across the broken bridge.

She dropped.

One moment she was a silhouette against the sun. The next she stood in their midst in a burst of displaced air and black-and-red coat, twin scythes already spinning.

(https://im.ge/i/QMRJTop)
(artist: Annimatrix)
Dehya barely had time to raise her claymore before a precise, brutal kick caught her square in the chest and sent the Flame-Mane flying backward off the bridge entirely. She vanished over the edge with a sharp curse that was cut short by the distant crash of waves.

Ganyu’s bow was already drawn. Three arrows left the string in rapid succession, each one aimed to cripple. Arlecchino’s scythe blurred. The arrows were batted from the air like annoying insects, splintering into harmless fragments. In the same continuous motion the Knave drove the butt of one weapon into the stone of the bridge. Ragged blood-red spikes erupted in a jagged line across the remaining path, sealing the far side and preventing any immediate return from Ganyu, Xilonen, Lisa, or Varesa.

Yelan moved next.

Hydro ropes exploded outward in overwhelming quantity — far more than usual, a dense web of blue-black bindings that wrapped Arlecchino’s arms, torso, scythes, and legs in a fraction of a second. For one heartbeat the Knave stood fully restrained.

Then she simply flexed.

The ropes detonated into useless spray. Yelan’s eyes widened a fraction before she had to throw herself aside to avoid the counter-slash that carved a deep groove through the stone where she had been standing.

Rosaria did not hesitate.

She planted herself directly in front of Aether, cryo forming along her weapon, and used the brief opening to drive a full-powered thrust straight at the Knave’s center mass. The strike was clean, fast, and lethal.

Arlecchino caught the blade in her bare hand.

She closed her fingers around the freezing metal as though someone had politely offered her a handkerchief. Frost crawled up her glove and was ignored. With a contemptuous twist she ripped the weapon free of Rosaria’s grip.

The ground answered her next breath.

A forest of blood-red spikes exploded upward in a tight ring, impaling nothing but stone yet forming a perfect, razor-edged cage that locked both Rosaria and Yelan in place. One spike caught the cord of Rosaria’s necklace on the way up. The bright red stone was torn free and hung in the air for a frozen instant.

Before it could hit the ground Arlecchino was already moving.

A precise, open-handed strike to the side of Aether’s neck dropped him into unconsciousness mid-breath. She caught his falling body with casual strength, flared those great dark-red wings, and launched skyward in a single powerful beat. Wind slammed across the bridge. Within seconds she was only a rapidly shrinking silhouette against the clouds, the Traveler limp in her arms.

The very next second the light-cage around Cloud Retainer shattered.

Raw adeptal might surged outward. The ornamented talismans cracked and spun away; the blood-red spikes nearest her simply disintegrated under the pressure. She stepped free in a swirl of anemo and frost, already calling on the change into her crane form—

Nothing happened.

Her body refused the shift. The fallen talismans still carried a lingering, vaguely familiar restraint that clung to her limbs and core even after they tumbled lifeless to the stone. She snarled under her breath, forced the frustration down, and moved.

Ganyu had already ceased firing, bowstring slack, eyes locked on the empty sky where Aether had disappeared. She would not risk an arrow while he was in the Knave’s grip.

Cloud Retainer reached Yelan and Rosaria first. A precise slash of anemo parted the crimson spikes holding them. The two women dropped free, already reaching for weapons again. Without pausing the adeptus crossed to Shenhe, closed her fingers around the dark needle embedded in her student’s shoulder blade, and tore it free in one clean motion. The design was unmistakable — an early prototype of the very restraints Shenhe still wore, left behind long ago in the Liyue abode and never meant to be used like this.

Shenhe’s eyes snapped open the instant the needle left her flesh.

She was on her feet in the same breath, polearm materializing, body already coiled for combat—

Then she saw the empty air above the bridge.

Aether was gone.

Shenhe stood perfectly still for one silent heartbeat. The coastal wind moved across the broken stones. The distant sound of waves filled the gap where their Traveler should have been.

Then the red ropes around her body ignited.