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Whatever was cooking over the fire barely looked edible, even to an Adeptus. That made it all the more ironic when the girl cooking it piped up, “You should take better care of yourself.”
A demand?
He’d been awake for hardly five minutes, and this human was already bossing him around. Judging by her attire, she was from Mondstadt – and therefore, it made sense that she hadn’t recognized him as the Conqueror of Demons, as an Adeptus. But helping him hadn’t been necessary.
Everything had been under control.
(His head pulsed with a pain that contradicted those words. The scent of smoke from the fire hit his nostrils, and when he turned away, his left arm throbbed from a wound that wasn’t yet fully healed. She’d wrapped it in bandages.)
Xiao wondered if there was a reason that this girl, that mortals in general, always chose to meddle in things with which they had no business. Pursuit of knowledge, a desire to fill the gaps in their understanding of the world or make sense of their lives, motivated some – and that was a reason Xiao could at least approve of, although he still preferred being left alone. He’d consciously known this girl for less than thirty minutes, however, and he could already tell she was not one such person – she did not, to put it gently, have an air of intelligence about her. Her steak was turning black and flaky, and she still hadn’t noticed.
(At this point, he’d recovered enough that he could have just teleported away had he wanted to. The Traveler had suggested he be nicer to people, and he was trying. Oh, how he was trying.)
She made up for her lack of culinary awareness and her meddlesome attitude with passion and a strong sense of duty and ambition. He’d seen the Pyro Vision that she carried and the flaming arrows that she shot. There was also something pure about the way she was attentive to his needs and had assisted in tending to his wounds, even though she must have witnessed how the worst of them had already healed before he’d passed out.
Monsters. A large group of them, caused by some Leyline abnormality. Xiao had fought and fought and fought, trying to find the source before he’d run out of stamina. She had jumped into the fight without a second thought, thwacking an arrow into the weak point of an enemy before it could hit Xiao with its axe.
Xiao hated to admit she’d saved him, because that wasn’t true. But she’d certainly… helped. That was it.
(“Try being friendlier,” a memory of the Traveler’s voice urged again.)
“What’s your name?” Xiao asked.
The girl pursed her lips. She seemed to recognize what he was doing, changing the subject and avoiding making any promises to take better care of himself, but eventually, she replied, “It’s Amber.”
“Amber. I’m an Outrider from the Knights of Favonius, but I just happened to be passing through the area.”
A memory clicked into place the moment Xiao heard the word “Outrider”. The Traveler had mentioned knowing someone named “Amber”, once. A brave and fiery Outrider who was always jumping into danger to help others…
“The two of you have a lot in common,” the Traveler had remarked, causing Paimon to verbalize surprise for both herself and Xiao. They didn’t know enough about them to make bold statements like that anyway. “It’s true. Xiao, you claim it’s because of your karmic debt, but–”
“Hmmph.”
It was probably a coincidence.
But then, Xiao had also been alive long enough to know that there were very few things that were truly coincidental. Did he care to learn more? He told himself that he didn’t, but his voice was betraying him before he could even finish the thought, “On business?”
“Oh, no. I’m taking a bit of time off to meet a friend in Liyue.”
He remembered Paimon calming down, saying, “She does manage to befriend every person she meets though, even the ones who are kinda rude and always talking about ‘vengeance’ and stuff like that! Maybe she could be friends with Xiao too?”
Friends. Xiao hadn’t had any of those in a long time.
(He had the Traveler and Paimon, didn’t he? Perhaps he could make one more.)
“Well, Amber, if you are ever in need of help…” Xiao paused, considering his next words carefully. The pain in his arm, from a wound that was almost fully healed now, had faded to a dull ache. “Call out my name. Adeptus Xiao. I will be here when you call.”
Amber smiled in a way that made it kind of possible to understand what Paimon had said about her. About being friends with everyone.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I owe you a debt now, I’m simply repaying you for a favor.”
She didn’t look convinced. Then it didn’t matter whether or not she was convinced, because a moment later, the wind changed direction and caused the smoke to swell. “A-ah, oh no, the steaks!”
Xiao used that opportunity to disappear. Maybe, just maybe, he would see the Outrider again some day – without the threat of injury or death next time.