The evening settled over the house on Feiyun Slope like a soft, familiar blanket. The intensity of the day, with Keqing's sharp intellect and the finality of the completed blueprint, melted away, leaving behind a comfortable, domestic peace. The heater hummed softly in the corner, its gentle warmth a constant, reassuring presence.
Ren was curled up on the large couch, a book of Liyue folk tales resting unread in his lap. Ganyu sat beside him, a cup of herbal tea warming her hands. She wasn't reading or working; she was simply watching him, a soft, contented smile on her face. This was her favorite part of the day, these quiet hours when the world outside and all its demands ceased to exist, and there was only the warmth of their home and the comfort of their shared presence.
Ren's gaze drifted from the swirling patterns in the wood of the ceiling to the figure beside him. His eyes, glowing softly in the lantern light, came to rest on the Cryo Vision nestled at her hip. It was a beautiful thing, a hexagonal shard of what looked like captured ice, pulsing with a faint, inner light. He had been surrounded by adeptal power and had even designed a machine powered by elemental crystals, but he had never truly stopped to consider the raw, personal nature of a Vision.
"Big sister?" he asked, his voice soft in the quiet room.
"Yes, Ren?" Ganyu replied, her attention immediately and entirely his.
"Your Vision… what does the power feel like? Not when you're fighting, just… when you use it. What does the cold feel like?"
It was a question of pure, innocent curiosity. Ganyu's smile widened. She was always happy to share a part of herself with him. "It's hard to describe," she said thoughtfully. "It's… a part of me. It feels like taking a deep breath on the coldest day on Dragonspine, but without the bite. It's… still."
Seeing the fascination in his eyes, she put her tea aside. "Here, I'll show you."
She held out her palm, and with a quiet hum of power, the air above it began to shimmer and frost. Crystalline patterns of ice bloomed from her skin, swirling and coalescing. A miniature snowstorm, no bigger than her hand, danced for a moment before a single, perfect ice lotus, exquisitely detailed and glowing with a soft, blue-white light, formed in her palm. It was breathtakingly beautiful, a work of art sculpted from pure Cryo energy. It radiated a palpable cold, a cold that was more than just a lack of heat; it was a living, ancient stillness.
Ren stared, utterly mesmerized. It was one thing to see it in a game, another to see it bloom into existence a few feet away, so real and so magical. Without thinking, driven by that same innocent curiosity, he reached out his small hand, not to touch the lotus itself, but to feel the cold air that surrounded it.
"Be careful, it's very—" Ganyu began to warn, but her words died in her throat.
The moment Ren's fingertips entered the sphere of intense cold radiating from the lotus, something impossible happened.
It was not a gentle touch. It was a connection.
The Cryo energy, which should have simply chilled his skin, did something else entirely. It surged towards him. The delicate, crystalline petals of the ice lotus instantly unraveled, transforming into streams of brilliant, white-blue light that flowed directly into Ren's fingertips. It was not a violent process, but it was hungry, inexorable. The energy was being drawn into him, devoured by him, as if his body were a vacuum and the Cryo power was the air.
"Ren!" Ganyu cried out in shock, trying to pull her hand back, to sever the connection, but she couldn't. The flow was too strong, and a terrifying, unfamiliar weakness was spreading up her own arm as her power was siphoned away.
Veins of shimmering frost crawled up Ren's hand and past his wrist, visible for a moment under his pale skin before being absorbed. His own eyes, normally a gentle, glowing azure, flared with a sudden, blinding light. The blue became an intense, almost white, supercharged luminescence, pouring out of him like twin searchlights.
His body went rigid for a single, terrifying second. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over.
The last wisp of Cryo energy was pulled from Ganyu's hand. The blinding light in Ren's eyes vanished, returning to their normal soft glow for a split second before extinguishing completely, like snuffed candles. His body went limp, all the tension leaving him at once. He collapsed sideways on the couch, a puppet with its strings cut, completely and utterly unconscious.
Panic, cold and sharp and far more terrifying than any Cryo she could command, seized Ganyu's heart.
"REN!"
She dropped everything, her mind, usually so calm and organized, shattering into a million shards of pure terror. She lunged, catching his small, limp form before he could slide to the floor. She pulled him into her lap, her hands shaking uncontrollably.
"Ren? Ren, wake up! Please!" she pleaded, her voice a high, frantic whisper. She gently patted his cheek, but there was no response. She pressed her fingers to his neck, a desperate sob of relief catching in her throat as she felt a faint, steady pulse. He was breathing. He was alive.
But he was so, so still. And his skin… his skin was cold. Not the normal coolness of a body at rest, but a deep, unnatural chill that seemed to emanate from within.
She held him close, her mind racing, replaying the last thirty seconds over and over. What had happened? What had she done? Her power, her own adeptal energy, had been absorbed by him, and it had hurt him. The thought was a dagger in her heart. She had hurt her little brother.
Tears streamed down her face, hot against her own skin, a stark contrast to the chilling cold of the small boy in her arms. She looked around the warm, cozy room, at the heater he had built, a machine of comfort and safety, and a wave of desperate helplessness washed over her. She was a half-adeptus, a guardian of Liyue, but in that moment, she was powerless.
She needed help. She needed someone who understood adeptal energy, who understood him.
There was only one person to call.
Cradling Ren's unconscious body in her arms, her heart frozen with a terror far colder than any power she could ever command, Ganyu's mind screamed a single, desperate name.
Master.