Ren
"W-Who are you?"
Ren's guard was still maxed. His breathing had mostly evened out, but his heart hadn't gotten the message yet, and his senses were still recovering from the sheer overload from before.
The presence was gone, or at least far enough that he couldn't feel it anymore, but that didn't mean he was about to relax in front of five strangers.
"You first," he said, eyes moving across each of them. "Who are you?"
He assessed the individuals in front of him. Four of them were large and bulky to an absurd amount, and even the one with fat still looked battle-ready. They were also armed, weapons at the ready as they glared at him.
The fifth was the woman in the purple hood who'd spoken first, a Fatui mask covering the upper half of her face.
Even with their somewhat intimidating appearance, they looked exhausted. Not just tired, but malnourished and weak.
Taking a look at their energy also confirmed that they didn't have much left in the tank.
"L-Let's calm down." The man in the front said as he hesitantly walked forward, his hands raised slightly to show he meant no harm.
"My name is Staff Sergeant Anton, of Ninth Company." He tried to keep his voice even, though it was evident from the shaking of his arms that he was nervous. "This is Danila, Temur, Radomir, Romanski, and Katarina."
None of the named people spoke, which was expected. But seeing as Anton was trying to de-escalate, Ren considered letting his guard lower just a little.
Anton was about to continue when—
GRRRWWL.
The tunnel went quiet.
Ren blinked.
Anton completely froze in place. His expression was hidden behind the mask, but his shoulders went stiff immediately, and his body language became much less composed.
'...Ok.'
"A-As you can see," Anton said, moving past his earlier embarrassment, "we aren't in any condition for battle right now." He took a slow step forward, hands still up. "Please. We don't want a fight."
Ren furrowed his brow. They really weren't a threat to him right now, so maybe he could—
"Anton! Did you just tell a complete stranger that we can't fight?!" Radomir was staring at the back of Anton's head with visible disbelief. "What if they decide to kill and rob us right now?!"
"Would you shut up!" Anton didn't turn around. "I'm negotiating!"
"You're announcing our weaknesses to an unknown entity!"
"And call me Staff Sergeant Anton!"
"You wish!"
Anton's jaw tightened. He turned back to Ren, hoping to ignore his comrade's words.
Ren couldn't help but look at the group again.
The way they were standing showed immense fatigue, even if they hid it well. They tried to keep up an intimidating front, but it was clear that it was to make Ren go away rather than engage in a fight.
He looked past them at the camp. Supply crates stacked against the wall. Bedrolls that had seen too many nights. The small light source casting everything in a dim yellow that made it all look worse than it probably was. Though probably not by much.
'They must have been down here for a long time.'
A second stomach growled. Then a third. Temur crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling like he was waiting for something to fall on him.
"I'm sorry to ask." Anton's voice had lost some of its careful steadiness. "But do you have any food to spare?"
"Don't talk about us like we're about to starve to death!" Temur said sharply.
His stomach chose that exact moment to growl again.
…
…
'...Ok, this is just sad.'
Ren exhaled through his nose and looked down at the floor. The shadows under his feet responded before anyone could react, bubbling up and spreading outward in a way that made Anton flinch back, and the rest of them raise their weapons again.
"Calm down," Ren said flatly. "I'm just getting something."
Everyone stayed where they were, keeping their eyes focused on Ren.
The shadows pulled back and left a large wooden storage box sitting on the cave floor. Ren reached down and unlatched it.
The smell of cured meat hit the tunnel air immediately. Around a dozen strips of jerky made specifically to last long lengths of time looked incredibly delicious.
The effect was instant. Heads went up across the group, and Ren watched Anton's posture tremble slightly at the sight.
Ren closed the lid partially and looked up. "I have food I can give you." He stopped for a moment, letting his words sink in. "In exchange, I'd like to know why you're all down here."
/ — /
He had the jerky box open for about thirty seconds before he became aware of multiple new presences approaching.
Then he heard footsteps coming from different directions, drawn to the camp by the smell of jerky alone.
'Where did all these people even come from?'
Within two minutes, about 18 people showed up. All wearing Fatui outfits, all in varying states of exhaustion, and all converging on the wooden box with the single-minded focus of people who looked like they had not eaten anything in a while.
Ren simply took a step back and watched the sights.
Anton looked at his comrades, then at Ren, then back at his comrades, eating like a pack of hungry wolves.
"Come on, guys, orderly," he said, without much conviction.
Nobody listened. And so soon enough, the jerky was gone in under a minute.
'My jerky…'
Then someone found the candy.
"Finally! Something sweet!"
Ren winced. He forgot he put those in the jerky box too.
The four bags of candy Xingqiu had given him about two months ago as a gift. Though calling them a gift would be generous, since Xingqiu had said they were leftovers he had no use for, he then handed over four full bags, which were a lot of leftovers.
Xingqiu said that they last pretty long, so Ren had been rationing them. He liked having something sweet after long delivery runs.
All four bags were empty in minutes.
'My candy…'
He watched a grown man in full Fatui armor shove a handful of hard candy into his mouth with both hands.
'These people had it rough.'
Eventually, the chaos settled down as they got full. Someone had gotten a fire going, and Ren wasn't sure when, and the group arranged itself around it in loose clusters.
Ren found himself sitting with Anton and the five from the initial introduction, the rest of the group doing their own thing nearby, content with finally having something flavourful to eat.
Anton finished his tenth strip of jerky, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and drained an entire cup of water before speaking.
"I want to thank you again," he said. "Properly. We haven't had full bellies in a long time." He paused. "Rest assured, once we have everything in order, you will be compensated."
Around them, various members of the group who had been half-listening turned their heads and added their own thanks, a scattered chorus of acknowledgment that came from all directions at once.
"It's no problem," he said, a little too quickly. Still not used to being thanked by too many people. "You were saying?"
"Right." Anton straightened. "As I said, we're a part of Ninth Company. We were dispatched here in collaboration with the Liyue Qixing to investigate and deal with a black sludge that had been discovered in the Chasm."
Ren's mind went immediately to the purple lumps he saw before. "Black sludge."
"You've seen it?"
"I… came across some earlier."
Anton's brow rose above the mask. "Be careful around it in the future. Monsters tend to gather wherever the sludge is present." He looked at Ren for a moment. "Though I assume monsters aren't much of a problem for you."
"Why do you say that?"
"Maybe because you appeared here by running so fast we thought a Primo Geovishap was coming to eat us," Romanski said it from across the fire without looking up.
"...Sorry about that."
"Don't be, it was impressive." Romanski shrugged. "Terrifying, but impressive."
Ren let it go and moved on. "You all don't have much supplies left. Why are you still down here?"
The mood immediately changed. Not dramatically, though, these were soldiers, but the comfortable atmosphere became slightly more gloomy.
Anton's hands settled on his knees. "Everything was going well for the first few months. We had sixty-four people at the start." He said as he stared at the fire. "Clear supply lines, smooth operations… Then we were ambushed by the Abyss Order."
'Abyss Order?' Now that was an organization Ren was unfamiliar with.
"We weren't prepared for opponents of that caliber." Anton's jaw tightened. "They cut off our supply lines. Killed everyone who tried to make contact with the surface and drove us deeper into the Chasm."
He paused to catch his breath. "Eighteen are all that remain."
The entire camp was silent. The crackling of the fire only added to their hopeless situation.
'Sixty-four to eighteen… That's concerning.' These weren't irregular soldiers. They were Fatui, the best trained military force in Teyvat.
While he'd never had many run-ins with their agents, he'd heard of their abilities and connections throughout Teyvat. To lose that many soldiers, to have been surviving down here on dwindling supplies while cut off from the surface—
'What is the Abyss Order?'
The name sat wrong with him. The presence he'd felt earlier. That all-encompassing, overwhelming power appeared back in his mind.
'Could that have been the Abyss Order?'
He really hoped not.
Because if the thing he'd run from belonged to the same organization that had reduced sixty-four trained Fatui soldiers to eighteen and counting, then he wasn't just dealing with a singular entity. It was an entire army that beat the most powerful military in Teyvat.
He pushed the thought aside for now.
"So you ran deeper into the Chasm to avoid them, right?" Ren said.
Anton nodded.
Ren looked at the group around the fire. The candy wrappers on the ground. The bedrolls worn thin. The weapons kept close even now, even around the warmth, because nothing down here had given them a reason to put them down.
He did not expect something like this when Xiao told him to go into the Chasm.
A part of him wanted to believe that Xiao would still be watching, but after everything that happened, that was pretty unlikely.
'I'm just about ready to head out of this god-forsaken place.'
"Would you like me to bring you out of the Chasm?"
Anton looked at him.
"I beg your pardon?"
/ — /
Ren had to work to keep the smirk off his face.
Eighteen people in various states of exhaustion, and the thing that finally broke through every mask and composure was those four words. Even the ones who'd been pointedly not paying attention to the conversation had gone still.
"You have a way to get out?" Anton said slowly. "A way that won't put us in direct conflict with the Abyss Order."
Ren nodded.
He already had the rough shape of it in his mind. Orochi's tunneling ability was useful. It could move through the earth and rock smoothly. If he shaped a geo construct around the inside of its form, turned it essentially into a moving chamber, he could get people through the ascent without exposing them to the open Chasm.
But that plan was initially just for him, where he'd hide in Orochi's mouth as they ascended.
For this many people, a fusion between Toad and Rabbit Escape could generate enough partial manifestations to function as individual carriers. Everyone gets their own Toad, where they are stuffed. Toads attach to Orochi, Orochi goes up.
'It'll work.' The downside was that they'd be covered in frog slime but hey, that's better than being stuck in the Chasm.
The camp had gone completely quiet. Behind every mask, Ren could feel the shift in their demeanors. Eighteen people who had been running on fumes for months suddenly had something that looked like an actual option.
Then Romanski's voice came from the back.
"Should we really head back, though?"
Nobody jumped him immediately. Which meant he'd said something at least a few others had been thinking.
"We were given a mission," Romanski continued, his voice losing its earlier conviction. It looked like they were all nervous about defying orders. "Our orders haven't changed."
Ren could see other agents agreeing with him, albeit silently. Though their loyalty was commendable, now wasn't the time for it.
"Your mission didn't account for the Abyss Order," he said. "Whatever your original objective was, it got overwritten the moment an organization that strong entered the equation."
He made sure to keep his voice flat so as not to accidentally offend them. "Your superiors sent sixty-four people to deal with black sludge. They didn't send sixty-four people to fight a war underground. Retreating and reporting what happened would be giving the people above you the information they need."
The Fatui murmured among themselves. Ren waited.
Anton was quiet for a moment, staring at the fire. Then he exhaled and sat up straight.
"He's right," he said. "Our best course of action is to retreat and reconvene with command. The Rooster needs to know what's down here."
'The Rooster? A Harbinger?' Ren thought about asking more, but decided against it. Not the time.
"Agreed," said Danila. A few others nodded.
Romanski didn't object further. He just settled back, satisfied with the conclusion of the group.
Ren turned back to Anton. "Alright. So the way I'm going to get everyone out is—"
"Wait."
"Hmm?"
Katarina was standing at the edge of the firelight with her arms folded. "My brother still hasn't returned… I wish to search for him before we leave."
No one said a word, but their body language showed that they must have had this conversation multiple times.
"Katarina." Danila's voice was tired rather than unkind. "We searched for three days. Nikolay is gone. He drew the monsters' attention so the rest of us could pull back. He knew what he was doing."
"Even so." She didn't raise her voice. "I will continue searching until I have proof he has undeniably passed. I won't leave while there's still a chance."
Anton opened his mouth.
"You don't have to wait for me," Katarina said before he could speak. "Take everyone out first. I'll stay here until reinforcements can be organized."
"...That will take time," Anton said with a little more force. "Organizing a second group, going through the Qixing again, the bureaucracy alone—"
"I'll wait." she said with finality. Her arms were folded for the entire conversation. She wasn't going to budge on this.
Everyone else looked conflicted. They wanted to get out, to regroup and inform their superiors. But they also wouldn't leave one of their own behind.
Ren watched the whole thing and mulled over his options.
He could take the group out now. That was the practical and safest choice. He'd done what he'd come here to do, and with Xiao nowhere in sight, he had no reason to stick around any longer.
It was only by chance that he ran across this group of Fatuus, so he didn't feel obligated to stay longer for just one person.
But…
That'd be a dick move. He couldn't just leave a pair of siblings there to die, that's just not his style.
And—just a little bit less important than the first reason—imagine the kinds of connections he would make after saving these agents. Not only with the Fatui but also the Qixing!
So, for both moral and immoral reasons, he couldn't just leave her behind.
'This place really is just a melting pot of trouble...'
"I could go look for your brother."
Katarina's head turned toward him. "I appreciate it, but—"
"Let me finish." Ren stood up and did a hand sign.
The shadows under his feet bubbled and spread, and Yoda came up out of them. The white Divine Dog materialized in the middle of the firelight.
All the Fatuus moved at once, raising their weapons and scrambling at the sudden appearance of the shikigami.
"Don't!" Ren held up a hand before it escalated. "He's docile and a very good boy. His name is Yoda. And this guy has an exceptional nose."
He looked at Katarina. "Give me something with your brother's scent, and he'll find him faster than you or I could searching manually. We find Nikolay, and we all leave together."
Yoda let out a happy yip that lowered everyone's guard. It walked over to another Fatui agent sitting across and sat on their lap.
Thus started another patting frenzy, which Yoda was happy to bask in.
Katarina's arms came unfolded. Her hands, Ren noticed, were shaking slightly. "You would... actually do that? You just met us and—"
"Let's not go into the whys and whatnot. I don't have the energy for that," Ren cut her off. "I do what I feel like doing, and right now that's getting everyone out of this place. That includes your brother." He paused. "Assuming we can find him."
She took a long breath. The shaking in her hands didn't fully stop, but it settled.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
Ren let a small smile touch his face before he moved on. "Do you have anything with his scent on it? Clothing, equipment, anything that's been near him recently?"
Katarina blinked, then straightened. "Oh—yes! I do. One moment." She turned and headed quickly toward her belongings.
"Are you certain about this, comrade?" Anton's voice came from beside him, low enough that it didn't carry. "If something happens to you down there, we have no way out."
Ren gave him a sideways look and a small smirk. "Don't underestimate me. Most monsters down here aren't a problem." He stopped for a moment, eyes narrowing slightly. "And if something too strong does show up, I'm very confident in my ability to run away."
Anton didn't look entirely reassured. But he nodded.
"Then I await your safe return."
The sound of hurried footsteps came from behind them. Ren turned to see Katarina coming back with two things in her hands.
/ — /
Katarina came back holding a folded piece of paper and a balled-up shirt that had seen better days.
She handed the paper to Ren first. "This is a map I made of the areas Nikolay might be in. It's a connected system of small tunnels and wider passages, but the area is enormous. I've only managed to explore about five percent of it by myself…"
Ren unfolded it. It was hand-drawn, precise in the areas she'd covered and increasingly vague toward the edges, lines trailing off into question marks where the tunnels branched beyond what she'd been able to map.
The explored sections were methodically marked. The rest was blank space with occasional notes about what she'd heard.
'Only five percent?'
He looked it over for another moment, getting a sense of the general shape of the area. With Yoda tracking, the map was less critical.
The dog wasn't going to follow a map. He was going to follow a scent. But knowing the rough layout gave Ren something to orient himself with if things got complicated.
"Alright." He folded it and dropped it in his shadow storage, the act gaining several stares from other agents. "What's the second thing?"
Katarina held out the shirt. It had been white once, probably. Now it was torn in multiple places and stained with something dark along the left sleeve. "This is Nikolay's. It got wrecked in a run-in with some Shadowy Husks a while back. I was going to throw it away, but..." She didn't finish the sentence.
Ren took it and looked it over.
'Shadowy Husks.' The armoured corrupted knights from earlier came to mind immediately. So those were what he had been dealing with before. He filed that away without comment and crouched down next to Yoda.
"Here buddy, you know what to do." He held the shirt out low.
Yoda's nose went to work immediately, sniffing the shirt with immense focus. His head moved across the fabric once, twice, then he went rigid.
Then he turned. Not toward the camp entrance, not toward any of the passages Ren had come from. In the opposite direction entirely, toward a section of tunnel that sat at the far end of the camp, where the lumenstone light barely reached.
They had a lead.
Katarina made a sound that was a mix of laughter and relief that her brother might actually be alive. She pressed one hand briefly over her mask and took a breath. "Okay." Her voice was steadier than her hands. "Let me grab my things and I'll—"
"That won't be necessary."
She stopped.
"You don't have to—"
"No offence, but you'd slow me down," Ren said, keeping his voice even because he genuinely didn't mean it as an insult, just a fact. "The two of us moving through those tunnels would take twice as long and make twice as much noise." He held her gaze. "You are in no condition to go long distances, and I am faster. So please, let me."
Katarina's jaw tightened, still unconvinced. She took a breath to say something—but a hand landed on her shoulder.
She turned to find Danila standing beside her. He didn't say anything. He just held the position and met her eyes until something in her posture relaxed.
She exhaled slowly and stepped back.
"...Please," she said. The word came out quieter than the rest. "Be careful."
Ren nodded.
"Wait!" Someone shouted. This time, it was actually Anton. "I just realized we never got your name. That's quite embarrassing."
The others also realized the blunder and muttered apologies. Ren found it humorous that the famed Fatui soldiers were too engrossed in jerky and candy that they forgot basic courtesy. Not that he minded.
"My name is Ren Roman," Ren said, channeling Nue's extension into his hand for dramatic effect, and giving a short bow. "Owner of the Shadow Courier delivery service. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."
The agents seemed surprised at the sudden change in demeanor, and Ren felt pride bubble from his chest. He'd been practicing that introduction for a while.
What better way to introduce your business than to Aurafarm?
He glanced back at the group one more time and then at Anton, who gave a short nod.
Ren turned his head towards Yoda, who took the initiative and walked forward.