The Puppet

Returning from Liyue

"Gee... what gave you that idea, Tone-Deaf Bard?" Paimon asked. Lumine ignored her.

"Venti, did the fatui do this? The Order? ... Klee?" She asked.

Venti paused. "No... to all of them. I've been trying to write a song about it... but with what little I know about it... it's not going well. What I DO know is that last month, in the middle of the night, everything was fine. One moment, it's night. The next moment, it was like the sun was rising! An inferno like the Pyro Archon decided to attack Mondstadt. It was crazy! My only guess is that it was a non-too-friendly pyro vision user. Not that little blow-everything-up girl."

Kaeya breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't the small child. "No one knows anything?" He asked.

"Well... the knights should. I've been trying to get Acting Grand Master Jean to tell me more, but she's been busy dealing with the mass panic that this caused."

"Gee... Master Diluc must be upset about this." The Cyro user said. "His entire business burned to the ground."

Amber noticed Venti flinched at the mention of Diluc. "Y-yeah..." He clears his throat. "Anyway... yeah... Jean would know more." He glanced at Kaeya. Sorry, Jean... but I don't want to be the one to tell him.

"Everything you told us is the same as what Tone-Deaf Bard told us!" Paimon yelled. The gang plus Venti had made their way to the Knights of Favonius headquarters. They would have gotten there quick... if they weren't stopped every five steps by a civilian asking for them to help them again.

"Based on investigations of the house, yes," Lisa said from next to the desk. "But there is more. Not long after the Winery was lost, the tavern, Angel's Share, caught on fire. Since we were closer we were able to put out the fire before it spread to other buildings. Thankfully, no one was hurt... badly. But one of the survivors said they might have seen who did it. Or at least seen parts of him."

"Him?" Amber asked.

Jean nodded. "Yes, him. According to the witness, the figure who started it was a human man." She explained. "Because of the fire, he couldn't get detail on him, but he said he saw a red gem on his hip. So, we at least know to suspect a pyro user. And we are led to believe that this same man is responsible for all the burning and murders around here."

"I don't like man." Razor huffed, feeling insanely uncomfortable being inside. "Man use power to hurt."

"And you said that this started a month ago?" Kaeya asked. "Then what the hell has Master Diluc been doing? Picking dandelions in a field?!"

The mood suddenly shifted. Venti slowly backed away from Kaeya. Lisa opened her spell book and shoved her face into it. Jean refused to meet Kaeya's eye.

Realization dawned on them one by one. Amber's eyes widened. Razor's expression fell. Paimon gasped a bit too loudly. Lumine looked up at Kaeya.

Kaeya paled up. "Jean... where is Master Diluc...?" He didn't want to believe it. Jean put a hand on her mouth, still not looking at him. "Jean... I-I'm not playing games..." He took a step closer to her, his normally cool appearance breaking. "Where is he?"

"K-Kaeya... e-everyone who was..."

"Spit it out!" He grabbed Jean's shirt collar. "WHERE. IS. DILUC?!"

"No survived the Winery fire! Every single person there was burned to ash!" There were tears in both their eyes. "If Diluc survived he would be here right now! I-I'm sorry, Kaeya! I know you two weren't on the best terms... but..."

Kaeya released his grip on her shirt and took a step back, shocked. While it's true their relationship was barely existing, hearing this news rocked Kaeya to the core. "Someone... was able... to kill him... I..."