Chapter Text
Jean sighs for about the fifty-fourth time this morning. The sun beats down on her desk through the glass panes of the windows in her office, illuminating the snow-white sheets of paperwork that still sit in piles waiting for her to get started on them. Her hand twitches towards the nearest pile, but a sudden gust of nervous energy sends her fingers tapping on the cedarwood desk halfway instead.
‘Jean, dearest. You need to calm down.’ says Lisa, elbows perched elegantly atop the railing separating the bookshelves from Jean’s office desk space. ‘If I didn’t know better, I would say you have doubts regarding our beloved Calvary Captain’s capabilities.’
Jean forces out a breath through the gaps in her teeth. Fifty-five.
‘I am not. You know I have complete trust in him.’
It’s only because Lisa knows her words to be fact that she shuts the book she was skimming over with a soft thud and fixes Jean with a knowing look mixed with the slightest hint of exasperation for her direct superior. ‘Then what do you have to worry about? Kaeya is a perfectly capable knight. Besides, didn’t you say he was just going to the winery for a preliminary inspection?’
Jean remembers saying that. She also remembers forgoing the idea of sending a team of knights to accompany him as backup, but that was before a horrible sneaking feeling kept her from doing her paperwork. The letter that they received had specifically said not to-- The nerves spike again, shattering ice in the confines of her throat.
‘Lisa.’ She croaks weakly and waits for a soft hum from the witch in acknowledgment. ‘When are you planning to go for teatime again?’
Lisa blinks slowly at her in slow comprehension, like Klee does when Albedo starts talking about a scientific concept that is much too much for her little head, before erupting in a sincerely warm smile. She walks over and clasps an equally warm hand over Jean’s still fidgeting fingers, stilling them.
‘Why, I’m glad you asked. Right now. I’ll choose a brew that doesn’t have caffeine in it, yes?’
*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*
Kaeya wouldn’t admit it even if he was dangled by his toes by a hair over that big simmering pot of unknown and very questionable contents that the hilichurls cook up over in Daduapa Gorge, but he was nervous.
He -- the infallible Kaeya Alberich -- was nervous. He doesn’t think anyone would believe him if he dared to speak it. The picture he’s painted of himself, the very same one he paraded in front of all of Mond and nailed into place on a wall where everyone can see, doesn’t get nervous. Nothing makes him nervous, least of all enough to pace back and forth.
Diluc has always been an exception though, especially in the places where Kaeya is concerned.
Although his boots shuffle restlessly across the cobblestone pavement of the winery grounds, Kaeya keeps his back towards the grand structure of the manor that he once used to call home. He hears familiar voices drift towards him and for a moment, he pretends the years that have snuck past him like water through his fingers never did at all. He lets himself have at least that.
Then, he spins on his heel and flashes the brightest, most sickly sweet smile he could muster up at an ushering Adelinde and perpetually frowning Diluc. Trailing behind them in an awkwardly timid gait is a woman dressed in the manor’s staff uniform. Kaeya doesn’t recognise her.
‘Master Diluc!’ He says at the same time Diluc says, with no sugarcoating of false enthusiasm, ‘Captain Kaeya, do the Knights not read the correspondence they receive with care?’
‘They definitely do.’ says Kaeya, knowing exactly what this was about.
‘Then, why--’ Diluc’s frown grows impossibly deeper. ‘--are you here? Are you all really so understaffed as to ignore my direct request to send any Knight, but you? Captain Kaeya?’ The last address leaves Diluc in a clipped tone, clearly meant to wake Kaeya from whatever stupor he had sunken in for a brief moment.
Send any Knight, but you.
He shakes it off, like water off the back of one of the ducks that little Timmy loves so much.
‘This has nothing to do with the number of Knights we have on hand. Acting Grandmaster Jean saw it fit to send me, one of her most capable officers, to carry out this investigation, despite your discouragement. But-- and I’m sure you agree with me, Master Diluc -- I am certain this would just turn out to be just another routine safety protocol check-up. Nothing that requires pulling the other Knights away from their duties. I’ll be in and out.’
For a moment, Diluc stiffens as if he wants to argue, mouth already falling open to unleash whatever scathing, passive-aggressive comment he aims to make to chase Kaeya away from heading this investigation. Kaeya doesn’t stop smiling pleasantly, hands clasped behind his back, and doesn’t stop looking Diluc dead in the eye.
The stand-off lasts for hardly a minute before Diluc acquiesces, looking about as happy about it as he would trodding in the skeletal remains of some poor rotting creature.
‘Alright, but remember, it’s your funeral.’ He mutters as he turns to Adelinde and the new recruit, who barely muffles a startled squeak at the sudden attention of the youngest wine tycoon in Mondstadt. For his part, Kaeya barely muffles a biting laugh at the boar-caught-in-Regisvine-frost look on her face.
‘I can take it from here, Adelinde. As I said before, don’t hesitate to use any funds necessary to replace all damaged property after Captain Kaeya is done with his investigation. Anything that can be salvaged, hand it over to Mr. Ludwig Goth in the city. With that hotel business of his, he will have connections with the best carpenters in Mondstadt. Whilst anything that cannot be…’ Diluc pauses, a thoughtful look in his eye. ‘... send them up to my quarters for the time being. I’ll make the necessary decisions then.’
‘Right away, Master Diluc.’ Adelinde says chirpily and not-so-subtly elbows the young housemaid beside her, who lets out a genuine squeak of shock this time.
‘Right away, Master Diluc!’ She says in a voice that has no concept of volume. Diluc is as gentlemanly as ever and hardly reacts to the shrill sound, only a minute twitch of his fist giving away any of his discomfort. After Diluc thanks them, the two women walk off and Diluc is not far behind, striding with purpose towards the heavy double oak doors of the manor.
‘A new recruit?’ Kaeya ventures, casting a last cursory glance at the women’s backs before they are swallowed by the grapevines. ‘She seems jumpy.’
For a moment, Diluc stares at him, clearly deciding if the manor’s mundane housekeeping staff turnover was worth wasting breath over telling him. Then, he says, ‘Yes. Raven. She just started today, if I’m not mistaken.’
Kaeya lets out a low whistle and decides to thank Diluc for his answer by skipping past the small talk he so despises. He gets straight to the point.
‘So, what did happen here last night? Your report gave the shallowest of details and simplest of instructions.’ Kaeya has the negative version of the letter, written in Diluc’s neat hand but choppy enough to show a trace of nerves when the words were scribbled down and signed, imprinted on the backs of his eyelids. He had read it time and time again this morning before he had shown up at the winery, stomach sinking every time his gaze flits past the words,
‘incident at the Dawn Winery manor’
‘drastic enough to alert the Knights’
‘exclude Calvary Captain Kaeya.’...
‘-posthaste. Please.’
‘And yet, you couldn’t follow even that.’ sighs Diluc as he pushes past the doors and into the main hall, Kaeya sauntering leisurely after him. He breathes in through his nose and holds it in. The smell of the manor never changes, has never changed since his time spent here as a boy. Aged wood and aged wine, the scent of the dewy grass outside seeping in, and the soft smell of fresh linen growing stronger the further one ventures upwards into the sleeping quarters.
Which, Kaeya realizes with a start that he only belies that with the quick rise of eyebrow into his hairline, they are doing. Diluc walks without looking backward and ascends the stairs to the upper level of the manor. Kaeya follows.
He releases a soft laugh at how he thinks he feels the imprint of smaller, steadier hands on the banisters as he drags his gloved palm up it. Ahead of him, Diluc shoots him a subtle backward glance.
‘There was an incident.’ Diluc says, ‘I am not sure if it constitutes an attack as such, but like I said in the letter that you all oh-so-thoughtfully didn’t follow,’ Kaeya snorts. Politely. ‘--we at the manor decided that it was strange enough to warrant calling in the Knights.’ The tone of his voice implied that that ‘we’ had been an Adelinde and Elzer thing instead of a true group decision.
‘And--’ Kaeya swallows, ‘--why did you specifically exclude my involvement in this so-called minor attack?’
Diluc’s sigh of exasperation and resignment tells him he still isn’t happy about being directly contradicted by the Knights and Kaeya himself. They pass a painting of a bowl of Sunsettias and exotic lavender melons from Inazuma, shades of vivid orange and magenta painted in strokes that feel like they were etched onto Kaeya’s memory instead.
He knows this painting.
‘Wait--’ He says, once again colliding with Diluc’s ‘Because--’
He’s got his hand on the knob of a horrifyingly familiar door. Kaeya searches the wood at knee height and sees a tiny little etching that seizes at his throat. A small four-pointed star, carved there by his own then-smaller hands with a penknife he had nicked from Crepus' study. He can’t bear to look into Diluc’s eyes. They bore up at him anyway.
It’s your funeral.
‘The attack happened in your childhood room.’
*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*
Inside, it’s a massacre. Diluc would know. He had been the first one to charge into the room after a startlingly loud crack in the night had jolted him awake from his already light sleep. In a flash, he had thrown open his bedroom door and ran barefoot to the room down the hall. He knew all too well the direction where the sound had come from.
Standing in the hallway last night, clad in only his thin nightclothes, it almost seemed like nothing was amiss. The door to Kaeya’s old room didn’t bang open, the doorknob didn’t rattle or shake. No shadows flitted through the gap between the door and the floor. No voices or movements that he could hear.
Diluc had given himself the chance to convince his racing heart that what he had heard had just been a dream.
He opened the door anyway and couldn’t have helped the horrified gasp that tore out.
The furniture had been wrecked, pieces of wood, metal, and cloth that once belonged to prized sets sat littered across the floor. The window had been slammed open -- presumably where the intruder had entered and left, and what had caused the violent sound that had woken him up in the first place -- and the blue curtains drifted like ghosts in the night wind. The wall around the window was a brutal mess, parallel lines running through the torn wallpaper, pieces of it hanging limply downwards. Around the damage, small glittering forms glistened almost wetly.
Claw marks. And ice.
‘Master Diluc?’ Elzer’s familiar voice called out from somewhere in the hall, questioning and startled. ‘Master Diluc, are you there?’
Diluc stared at the scene for another beat. He called out, hoping his voice didn’t come out as shaky as he felt inside, ‘Here, Elzer.’
‘Master Diluc, did you hear--? Oh, dear Barbatos above.’
“What happened here?’ Adelinde had shown up too, her usually authoritative and unwavering voice high with nerves from being woken up by a scare. ‘Master Diluc?’
Master Diluc. Master. Right. He’s the head of the house now. Being in this room-- He shook his head to clear it and turned around to face his two most trusted members of staff, bare feet crunching on something delicate and freezing cold. He hadn’t noticed the frost that had been on the floor earlier. Adelinde notices and rushes off to a neighboring closet to produce a pair of house slippers for him. He thanks her, but not before saying, ‘Elzer, please bring me a quill and paper. And prepare Noctua for a nighttime flight. I intend this letter to arrive before dawn.’
He had entered that room in a state of thinly-tempered fright and caution last night, afraid for what might lie in wait for him. He feels the same now presently, careful to keep his face free from emotion as he watches Kaeya’s own cycle through about eleven different ones. All minute, barely noticeable changes, but Diluc knows.
He’s nervous.
With a twist and a push, he opens the door and rips the band-aid off as quickly as he can. It doesn’t stop the painful, sharp intake of breath that Kaeya nearly chokes on as he takes in the scene before him.
This, Diluc thinks, is why he had specifically demanded that the Knights not send Kaeya of all people to investigate his report. To any other Knight, this would just be another room. A normal bed with torn sheets and a normal pillow with its goose-feather stuffing spilling out like innards. A normal desk, a normal wardrobe.
That wasn’t what it was to Kaeya.
Diluc watches as he drifts like a ghost untethered into the damaged room, footsteps light. Underfoot, small puddles ripple instead of ice crunching.
‘The scene is largely left untouched.’ Diluc says, after a minute of poignant silence. ‘The only thing we couldn’t preserve was the ice around the edges of the window and the frost across the floor.’
‘Cryo?’ Kaeya’s voice is small.
Diluc shakes his head although Kaeya has his back turned towards him. ‘No. At least, I wouldn’t call it an allogene’s Cryo. It was more just elemental power, not as concentrated.’ Kaeya remains eerily silent.
‘It melted fast.’ Diluc adds, feeling like an idiot.
‘Quite the astute observation then, Master Diluc. So it was just normal ice.’ Kaeya smiles at him, but it’s missing the usual infuriating edge. His lone eye strays to the mangled desk and the chair that now lies on its back, missing a leg. ‘I feel sorry for the poor guy who was sleeping here last night. They must’ve gotten quite the fright.’
Diluc frowns at him. The thought of assigning this room to anyone else besides its rightful owner is…
‘No one was sleeping here.’ Diluc says with finality and directs the conversation to the window, a gloved hand sweeping up to gesture at it. ‘There was a loud crash in the night and I came in to check not even a minute after I heard it. I found the window smashed open and the whole area was frosted over with Cryo elemental energy.’
Kaeya scrutinizes the window and the wall around it for a minute, cataloging the evidence. From within the standard Knights of Favonius-issued messenger bag he has strapped across his chest, he withdraws a clipboard with a few sheets of paper clipped onto it and a freshly inked quill. For a moment, the two men stand with only the scritch-scratching of quill on parchment to break the silence.
‘Clawmarks.’ Kaeya says after a while, ‘How odd.’
‘An animal then.’ Diluc says what has been knocking around in his mind for a while now. What else has claws? Well, many other things, but Diluc would rather pick the safest option for now. ‘If that’s the case, then I was right. This isn’t an attack, but merely a wild creature who got desperate.’
‘That may be the case.’ Kaeya says in a light tone that means he doesn’t quite believe that. ‘But what species of animal do we have here in Mondstadt that can litter around Cryo elemental power like this?’
Diluc tsks and turns away with his arms crossed. He walks across the room, careful not to disturb anything that might prove to be useful.
‘If there was an animal, there would be other evidence to allude to that. Fur, perhaps, or prints.’ Kaeya says, leaning forwards to take a closer look at the claw marks. ‘These marks seem quite deep.’
Diluc knows what he’s thinking. Bigger claws mean a bigger animal. Or a bigger something, at any rate. He had looked at the claw marks before as well and remembers the strangeness of them. Wood chips when hacked at-- splinter, and split down the grooves-- but this attacker somehow had the means to slice through the wooden walls and window frame like one slice into butter. Clean grooves carved out deep indents into the wood with no sign of split pieces anywhere as if it were as malleable as clay.
‘Very odd indeed.’ Kaeya says again and straightens up. He turns to address Diluc, evidently finished with inspecting the claw marks. ‘You said the only thing you heard was the sudden crash in the night? Were there no other disturbances prior to that?’
‘No,’ says Diluc, ‘It was an hour or two after midnight. Most of the staff are dismissed to their own homes or retired to their quarters by that time, but I’m sure there were nightwatchmen on duty. You can try asking them for information. No one, however, had been as close to this room as I.’
‘Right. Your room is just up the hallway. And you’re a notoriously light sleeper.’
Diluc stiffens and stares at Kaeya, wondering if the last comment was a prod to his choice of activity at night down the streets of Mond. Kaeya only smiles appeasingly back.
‘So your account is the sturdiest one we have at hand.’ He breaks the facade down a little with a small sigh. ‘Mind recounting everything from top to bottom again for me?’
*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*
Kaeya leaves the Dawn Winery manor with a sinking feeling that this, unlike what he had spouted to Diluc previously, was looking less and less like an in-and-out thing. He wonders about the best way to go about telling Jean that and how many extra Knights he might need to post around the winery’s grounds. Diluc won’t be too happy about that, but Kaeya isn’t too happy about leaving the winery as exposed as it was either.
In his messenger bag, his clipboard full of standard regulation scribbles about the witnesses’ recounts of the incident -- Diluc’s testimony and the sparse ‘I didn’t hear anything’s from the two nightwatchmen on duty -- key evidence logs, and the next steps to take sit waiting for his signature and instructions later at Headquarters.
He fumbles when a boar he didn’t notice on the path before him suddenly swerves toward him with a squeal of blind fear. Dodging its path by the merest inch, he huffs. Wills his racing heart to slow down.
This case has gotten the best of him, winded him up, and left him hanging.
He could see it in Diluc’s eyes before he left, the sheer doubt that Kaeya’s visit and inspection have really done the situation any good, and really, Kaeya is loathe to do so, but he agrees with him. He had just gone around, looked around, scribbled some words, and left. But there had been a thin glimmer of-- he wouldn’t call it hope, but something like it-- in Diluc’s conflicted face as he had seen Kaeya to the door.
‘Do you have any idea what it might have been?’ Diluc had asked, in lieu of parting words.
‘I’ll work on it.’ Kaeya hadn’t been any better at a goodbye.
The next thing he knows, he had been looking at the intricate carvings on the winery's front door. He supposes Diluc has yet to fully forgive him for defying his orders in the letter.
‘Kaeya!’ Jean’s voice calls out to him far earlier than he would’ve anticipated. He’s barely past the gates of Mondstadt. Her lithe form waves down at him from a table at Good Hunter, where a seated Lisa smiles amusedly and, as he draws near enough to see, cups of sweet-smelling tea and a steaming teapot sit between them on the table.
‘Afternoon, Jean, Lisa.’ He says, letting a rare genuine smile take over, as Lisa flags down Sara for another teacup and Jean ushers him down into the empty seat beside her. The whole spectacle makes him want to laugh, they really do treat him so kindly, it’s hard to get used to even after years of being around them. Still, he supposes that’s what you get from befriending the Dandelion Knight and the Witch of Purple Rose. An overload of manners at all times.
‘So, how was your trip?’ Jean barely gives him time to lift his bag from his shoulder before asking. He blinks.
‘Jean! At least give him time to sip his tea. Here you go, Kaeya. Don’t mind her one bit, she’s been like this all morning. I daresay I’m exhausted from stopping her from storming over to the winery herself.’ Lisa fans herself, hiding a smile from a betrayed-looking Jean.
‘I wasn’t that worried.’ The Acting Grandmaster hurries to clarify. He only hums laughingly from behind his teacup, absentmindedly noting the sweet and refreshing taste of the Valberry tea that washes down his throat.
‘As much as I hate to bring down the mood of our little tea party,’ He says, genuinely feeling regretful as he places his teacup down on its flowery platter with a clink. The sky is clear with hints of puffy clouds and the cheery everyday sounds of Mondstadt City around their little bubble filter in. And here Kaeya was, delivering bad news over a tea set handprinted with kittens and sweet flowers. ‘The Dawn Winery might be in for some trouble.’
Jean sucks a sharp breath in. Lisa leans back in her chair, a pondering look on her face.
‘What kind of trouble?’
Kaeya shrugs with one shoulder, the plumes of his feather scarf tickling his cheek. ‘Pour yourself another one, ladies. This is quite the tale.’
So he pulls out his trusty clipboard and, from it, gleans all the information he needs to relate the exact story Diluc told him to Jean and Lisa. They are good listeners and don’t interrupt him once, although Jean comes close to it when he reveals that it was his room that was mangled. He snaps his gaze away before she can hold it, and dives headfirst into the next point.
When he finishes, both of them take a moment to digest the information. Lisa, naturally, recovers from the information overload first and jumps straight into questioning him for more information.
‘Did you ask if there were any strange occurrences before that night? During the daytime, perhaps. I doubt an animal that was capable of such destruction -- if it really was one that caused this -- could have snuck into the manor without someone noticing.’
‘I did ask the nightwatchmen, but they hadn’t taken note of anything strange that night. Adelinde and Elzer had all questioned the staff under their care beforehand and reported their day went by without incident or suspicious activity.’ Honestly, it was one of the quickest and smoothest check-ups Kaeya has ever done for a civilian report. Clearly, Diluc ran a tight ship. Even more reason to wonder just how an intruder that could have sliced a person clean in half with those claws managed to slip past their defenses.
A chill runs down Kaeya’s spine. Diluc had been just down the hallway when the attack happened, isolated from the rest of the manor’s inhabitants enough to be the first one on the scene. He had charged into unknown danger just like that. He curses in Barbatos’ name that even now as a shrewd and well-respected businessman and an even more suspicious character, Diluc was still as reckless as ever.
‘This is an unexpected situation. On one hand, we are uncertain just who or what attacked the manor, and why they did it. It could have been a stray animal like Diluc suggested, or it could have been someone with-- more nefarious intentions.’ Jean muses, one arm held horizontally across her chest to clutch at her other elbow, and another arm poised to raise her fingers to her chin. The Acting Grandmaster’s signature pondering pose, Kaeya looks on fondly.
She shakes her head. ‘And Master Diluc likes working alone. To send more Knights his way would surely cause him inconvenience. But we can’t possibly let the winery deal with this on their own, considering their great influence on Mondstadt’s economical interest and what with Master Diluc's reputation as a public figure. Kaeya?’
He snaps to attention, eyebrow lifting. ‘Yes, Jean?’
‘Continue to investigate this matter. At least until we know the winery isn’t in any immediate danger. Diluc won’t be pleased about our continued interference, but I’d sooner take a grumpy Diluc than an injured Diluc. If it really was just a creature, then it wouldn’t return anytime soon. If there is anything the Knights can do to help in the restoration effort, relay it to me and I’ll arrange it accordingly.’
Kaeya nods and schools his expression in an overzealous pout. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
Jean swats at his head.
‘Say, dear Kaeya. You mentioned ice.’ Lisa interjects, eyes shining with a certain gleam that reminds Kaeya of the fact that before him sat one of the brightest minds of the Sumeru Akademiya. Or rather, ex-mind. Still, you can take the student out of brightness, but not the brightness out of the student.
Or something. Kaeya feels his brain cells wither every time he’s reminded of Lisa’s true nature.
‘That I did.’
‘In the puddles it left behind after it melted, did you notice any strange liquid or residue?’
‘No.’ Kaeya frowns. ‘I don’t recall anything of that nature.’
‘Then, it was simply normal ice.’ Lisa murmurs, ‘Somehow… somehow I find that hard to believe.’