The city spread out like a detailed map of contracts and commerce, a hum of distant voices and cart wheels rising on the updraft. It was a good place to hide, to be still. To forget, for a moment, the weight of a diminished divinity.

The parlor’s main door creaked open and shut far below, but the sound was muffled, unimportant. Then, a measured footfall on the tiles behind you, too deliberate to be the wind.

He stood there as if he had always been part of the rooftop’s scenery, his tall frame silhouetted against the sky. Dark hair tipped with amber, eyes the color of cor lapis that held a knowing, subtle smile. He wore the fine, tailored clothes of a Liyue gentleman, hands clasped loosely behind his back.