Chapter Text
Collei would have rather had it that the next time she heard the name of Il Dottore, it would be to hear that he was dead.
However, she already knew that was near impossible. Not only was he alive and well and completely acquitted from all the charges for the things he absolutely did do, he was a diplomat, of all things. He was in the public eye, and everyone thought he was a hero, even though he was the exact opposite. Not that Collei cared, really. She ignored the news in general for the most part, and if he ever happened to be in it, she especially ignored it. Perhaps she should be satisfied knowing that Barnabas, the face most present in her nightmares, was long since dead and buried. But it still angered her deeply to know that besides him, most of the people convicted for the crime of abducting and performing experiments on children all those years ago were nothing but grunts who had hardly any authority on the matter at all. The true leadership all got away with it.
Still, despite the painful memories their first meeting brought to mind, Collei would be in no way upset to see Amber knocking on the door to her office today if she hadn’t had been carrying the news she was bringing. Well, to call it “her office” felt like an overstatement—Collei was still a student at Sumeru Arcademia, but she had taken a TA job this semester. The office they gave her was the size of a closet, though that did nothing to curb the frequent influx of freshman wishing Collei would zap knowledge into their brains and do their work for them. Actually, that was a lie—they only came on the day before the test. Or the day when homework was due. But, today was neither, so she and Amber were probably safe from interruptions. Which was good, because she didn’t want them to witness her calm’s quick evaporation into the wind.
“I…that doesn’t even make sense! Why him!?” Collei protested, even though it made perfect sense if she thought about it the right way. She had pushed aside her computer monitor to get a better view on the Mondstadtian police detective, currently appearing very high on stress and low on sleep in stark contrast to her usual perky demeanor that persisted through even the hardest of trials. But that was only when the trials were her own.
“It’s…mainly the timing that’s suspicious,” Amber replied hesitantly, eyes dejectedly turned at a stack of books on the floor. “Diluc, he…he’s acted on his own in the past. We all knew he didn’t trust Dottore—well, I mean, a lot of us don’t. But, I know he believed your story, Collei. Even if he never said it. So when Anthony turned up missing, it made sense that he might blame Dottore for it. Honestly, I don’t know why Kaeya’s so sure that Diluc went to the embassy that night, but I believe him. But even if it’s all coincidence and Dottore’s not to blame…”
“Diluc’s still missing,” Collei supplied, as she told herself to remain calm in spite of the thoughts racing through her mind. “You think he got kidnapped.” Or worse. Collei hated to think about the implications. She never exactly knew the young winery owner well during her time in Mondstadt, but she was familiar enough to make it feel natural first-naming him, if only because Amber often referred to him as such. She knew enough to think of him as a good guy, albeit aloof, not that she should be anyone to judge. She also knew enough, if only from the accounts of those people who knew him better, that the fool would absolutely be the type to act on his own. It made her sick to the stomach to think he might have gotten killed as a result, and at the hands of that man, no less. Just like it made her sick to know he wasn’t the only one missing.
“How long?” Collei followed, trying to piece the picture together in her mind.
“It’s been three days,” Amber answered with an air of regret. “I’m sorry I haven’t talked to you sooner,” she added, confusing Collei a little, because why apologize to her? It was Amber’s friend who just dropped off the face of the earth. But, she waited to Amber to continue, and she did. “It’s just…how do I explain? There’s actually been a lot of missing person reports, these past two weeks or so. Not just us, but other nations, as well. We just didn’t think anything of it at first. This might sound bad me saying it, but people go missing all the time. And we always try to find them, if we can. But this much? I just…I can’t help but think Dottore and the Fatui might actually be involved, although I could be very wrong. Either way, I think you should know. And, I can talk to the Sumeru police for you too, if you like. We can get you extra protection. I don’t know if you might get targeted because…”
“It’s fine,” Collei cut her off quickly. The last thing she wanted was to be coddled because she was a victim or a witness or something like that. She had enough of that back at the start, back when the discovery of that accursed laboratory finally ended her brief days as a fugitive in Mondstadt, back when everyone suddenly knew that out of all the far too many children subjected to that hell, she was the only one who survived. Not to say that there might not have been other labs. She had more than her fill of “protection” during that time, as she was never left alone throughout the whole process of those trials, as she got questioned over and over again just for them to never believe her testimony in full, because she was just a child, what did she know? She was too traumatized to be trusted, too “broken.” Compared to that, she almost preferred being on the run, or at least, she preferred that short time when it was people like Amber, Jean, and Lisa who gave her shelter when they didn’t have to.
So no, she got where Amber was coming from, but police protection? Not in a million years. Besides, they needed to focus on the people out there who were actually in trouble. “I’ll be fine,” she repeated. “What would they want from me now anyways?” They already made her their guinea pig. And she already talked, so if they wanted to kill her, they could’ve just done it back when she was a twelve-year-old. Doing it now was just procrastinating. “But Amber, is that all you wanted to say?” Collei didn’t mean anything too harsh when her tone came off as suspicious (she could never be mean to Amber, anyways; they were plenty of better candidates when it came to punching bags in her life), but she had to know.
“I…” Amber looked awkward. “Well…I guess…considering the suspect, they kind of wanted me to ask if there was anything you knew?”
Collei sighed heavily. Not like she hadn’t heard that one before. “Probably not,” she replied honestly, albeit a little dryly. “They didn’t exactly tell the test subjects their secrets back then, and that lab got destroyed, so what else is there? It’s not like I know where the new base of operations would be, if there even is one.” It was still speculation, she had to remind herself. There could be no underhanded human experimentation plot, and no Dottore. Diluc…anything could have happened to Diluc.
“I understand.” Amber nodded, smiling sadly. “I just…they wanted me to ask.”
“I’m sorry about Diluc,” Collei expressed as a way of backtracking, although her words felt largely meaningless anyways. “But, he doesn’t seem like the type that would go down easily. I hope you find him.”
That, by everything Collei expected that conversation to be, really could have been the end of it. Collei was not police. She wasn’t going to school to be police. She had absolutely nothing to do with everything that was going on, and while she was sorry things were happening and was admittedly shaken by the news beyond what her demeanor showed, there was nothing she could do about it but wait and hope.
Mr. Kaeya Alberich, on the other hand, didn’t seem to get that memo.
“I don’t know anything!” Collei, standing up from her chair with her palms on the desk, had devolved into an almost impressive level of irritation within just two minutes of this conversation. While she never bemoaned Amber’s presence or her questions here, she was rather surprised to hear her associate knocking on her door just fifteen minutes later, asking, yet again, that she tell him everything she knew about Dottore, as if she could blithely remember that incident like a damn kid remembering their fifth-grade classroom.
“I don’t know, you might know a lot more than you think.” Kaeya shrugged, his tone annoyingly suggesting that he already had a lot more to say than what he was leading with, but perhaps befitting of someone she remembered to be a leader of some sort in the FIU—Favonius Investigative Unit. Not that he was about to get anywhere with his investigating.
“I remember it was hell—does that answer your question!?”
“Almost,” Kaeya replied in stride. “My real question, I should say, would be the reason ‘why.’ What was the purpose behind their experiments? Why do it again, after all this time, with such a boldly different method as they are? The truth is, you’re our best source. I knew that Amber wasn’t going to push you in her questions. That’s why I am here.”
“What, so I can make your job easier?” Collei spat back out, a little harsher than she intended. She just really didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t need to. There was no reason why she should.
“So I can finally nail that bastard,” Kaeya spoke with a cold glare at nothing in his own good eye and a fierce calmness that could have sent a violent shudder down Collei’s spine had she not known she wasn’t the one those words were directed at. It almost surprised her to realize just how angry he was. “And I am getting Diluc back,” he followed with just as much conviction, which in a few short words proved the matter without a doubt. This was personal, wasn’t it?
“But you don’t even know it was him,” Collei countered as a matter of course. “You’re guessing.”
“Believe me, I know Diluc went to the embassy that night,” Kaeya answered in a bitter, almost laughing tone, as if he knew a little more about that escapade than he let on, before his words turned much more grim. “I also know he never left it. Not of his own free will, that is.”
Collei had more questions about that, but she already felt too tired to bother asking them. “You said it was ‘different’ this time,” she changed the subject slightly, remembering Kaeya’s comment from earlier. “How? Has something happened besides a bunch of people randomly going missing?”
“Ah, but not just any people. High-profile people.” Kaeya’s demeanor lit up conspiratorially, as if that was exactly the question he was waiting for her to ask. “Forgive me for being rude, but you, as an example, weren’t that terribly important of an individual as a child. You were sick, and that gave them an excuse. Your parents were poor, so no one would listen if they questioned your mysterious ‘death’ following their ‘care’ of you that they weren’t allowed to see. Every other child that ended up in that place were of the same class—the poor and the orphaned. That’s the smart decision, for doing a project like theirs where the only requirement is a warm body. But there’s something a lot more…deliberate, with these disappearances. Not counting Diluc, since he’s a bit of an outlier, due to circumstance, some of the missing people are fairly well known. Take Liyue for instance. In addition to the more obscure names, their list includes people like a high-ranking politician, a chef from a well-known restaurant, a notable exorcist, and an heir to a wealthy—and well-known—merchant family. These are not people who won’t be missed when they’re gone. So why them?”
Collei kind of understood where he was going with this, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a little skeptical of the Mondstadtian’s ideas. “What, like it isn’t uncommon for rich people to get kidnapped?”
“Without a trace and without a ransom note? Yes, actually.”
“But you’re still assuming it’s all linked,” Collei pointed out, since that much should be obvious.
“Some might be coincidental, yes.”
“So what’s your point?”
“Well, what I’m leading into, actually,” Kaeya glided right into the tone of an incoming request, “is the real reason I came here today. I need you to identify a body.”
Well…that was unexpected. “A what?”
“A person as of yet unidentified,” Kaeya sailed right into his explanation as if Collei wasn’t staring at him like a dumb idiot. “His fate seems to be the result of a scuffle in some abandoned house—not altogether unsurprising, but the Liyue Harbor PD got a lot more interested in the case after DNA tests turned up matches to two individuals or particular interest. That is, the heir and the exorcist.”
The gears quickly found themselves clicking in Collei’s mind as she got where he was going at. It was also obvious by the thoughtful, almost savage glint in Kaeya’s eye that he was positive this was a lead worth pursuing. But that didn’t mean everything made sense. “So what do you want me for? You think I know the dead guy?”
“If he was involved the first time around, maybe.”
“You really do think it’s Dottore,” Collei pointed out, almost accusingly, hating how the name brought a bitter taste to her mouth when she said it. She wasn’t going to ask Kaeya why he was so sure. She wished she could believe he was wrong. Either way, whatever the reason for the disappearances were…there was no way it could just be a repeat of the first time. That wouldn’t make sense at all: the explanation was far too easy, too convenient. “So…you’re saying mystery guy attacked them?”
“Or the other way around,” Kaeya countered, as if to prove that he really wasn’t one to get stuck on a first assumption, as affixed as he may be on the Dottore one. “For all we know, our fighting duo could be the villains, and the mystery man could have been the target. However, to clarify, there was more than just them. Police have identified the presence of another three different individuals already, although their identities are not known. These processes aren’t nearly as easy as they make it out to be in the movies, you know.”
“How does that even work?” Maybe Collei was asking too many questions, because no, she really didn’t want to be involved, but she still wanted to know. “So they found some strands of hair or something in some deserted house? How do know they’re all related?”
“Not hair, no,” Kaeya corrected. “Blood samples, for all of them.”
“…oh.” That…wasn’t a good picture, was it?
“I already talked to the deacon,” Kaeya moved back to the request at hand. “He said he would agree to give you time off from your duties, if you choose to help. Not that it would take long to see the body, anyways. Other questions are in order as well, yes, but that is all up to you.”
Collei sighed, looked tiredly at the clock as she wondered where all the time went. She was glad she really didn’t get any students during the course of all of this, because that would’ve sure been interesting. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” It wasn’t like this man was going to let her off the hook anyways. She might as well go on his little errand so she could be done with it.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
Collei found herself suddenly taken aback by the question, not because of the content of it, but because of his seeming sincerity saying it. Which wasn’t what she was expecting, because wasn’t he just using her to get leads for the case and his missing brother? But if she didn’t know any better, she would say he almost looked concerned when she glanced back at him. Maybe he just was weird like that—it was no wonder he and Diluc butted heads all the time.
“Yeah, it’s not a big deal,” she told both him and herself. “I’ll be fine.”
+++
When Collei got out of bed this morning, the only thing on her mind for the upcoming day was her Biology test at noon. Taking a stroll a whole two countries over down the streets of Liyue Harbor at 7:00PM was definitely nowhere near her realm of expectations.
She couldn’t deny that the experience, shoving aside thoughts of the grim events that brought her here, wasn’t at least somewhat interesting. She had never been to Liyue before. She didn’t feel too much like a stranger to it—going to school at Sumeru Arcademia, considered by many to be the education center of the world, she had met plenty of people from all seven nations, Liyue included. One of those people for whom “friend” seemed like too strong a title but who was an extreme extrovert who talked to Collei all the time for some reason, well, talked to her about it. Still, even knowing what little she did, it was a strange feeling to be at the airport downtown amidst modern office buildings and high rises and then fifteen minutes later further north find herself in a neighborhood of paper walls, bright red stairwells, and cobblestone streets that look like they’ve been here since the time of the archons.
She also couldn’t deny that the scents freely wafting through the air from the harbor town’s many nearby restaurants weren’t very appetizing right now. She was getting hungry, with the hour nearing dinnertime, but still, she wasn’t about to go saying she was hungry and make herself look weak in front of the blunet Mondstadtian who dragged her here. Or, sorry, requested that she come here. But it didn’t matter; after she gets to wherever this mysterious body is and forks over the information Kaeya wants, she could leave and get dinner and do whatever.
“So…where was the crime scene?” Collei asked, trying not to sound too curious, but admittedly, she was a little curious. “Is it nearby?” She looked up at the buildings around them, instinctively visualizing where this mystical six-person brawl could’ve possibly happened.
“Not too far away,” Kaeya answered with an annoying lack of description. “Closer to the mountains.”
“Far enough that no one heard it?” Collei probed in turn. “Or did they? I mean, I’m guessing if there were gunshots or…wait a second, how did this guy die?” Collei realized she had been filling in the details in her head already, not that it mattered.
“Sword,” Kaeya responded simply with the slightest hint of a smirk on his face, probably because of his regrettably accurate guess as to the slight shock that would be on Collei’s.
“Sorry, a sword? Not like he got stabbed with a knife with anything?” Collei raised her eyebrows incredulously, before she realized. “Oh wait, I get it. You said this was an abandoned house. It was probably some old house with ceremonial swords hanging on the wall or…”
“Oh no, one of our missing people—the merchant heir, remember? He carries a sword. The shape and depth of the slash on the dead man’s chest matches it perfectly. The dead man, however, was found with a pistol on the ground near his hand. So, the gun fight guess was not entirely inaccurate. Also, there was a window broken, so add that to your list of clues.”
“He…carries a sword?” Collei repeated, feeling a slightly bemused smirk on her lips as well in spite of the circumstances. It was just…so ridiculous. He literally brought a sword to a gun fight. “In this century?”
“Well, Liyue is known for its tradition in swordsmanship,” Kaeya responded with a shrug and a light grin. “Perhaps he thought it would work against the ghosts.”
“Ghosts?” Collei echoed with a single eyebrow raised.
“Ah, I didn’t mention this detail.” He gestured with his finger in the air, pausing a moment as they circumnavigated a few passersby on the sidewalk before continuing. “It was a haunted abandoned house.”
“A haunted house? You’re serious?” Somehow, Collei didn’t take Kaeya to be one to throw out such fantastical labels so matter-of-factly.
“Well, I did say one of our missing persons was an exorcist, didn’t I? It lines up.”
“As if,” Collei scoffed.
“You don’t believe in ghosts, I take it?” Kaeya probed with an air of curiosity, guessing correctly.
“Of course not.” Collei would be insulted if anyone thought she believed otherwise. “I mean, do you seriously buy into that crap? Exorcists are just a bunch of con artists. There’s plenty of stories, yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s real.”
“Well, you’d be surprised,” Kaeya corrected lightly. “Liyue is something of a hot spot for paranormal activity, it would seem. It’s not the same as it is in Sumeru, or in Mondstadt, for that matter. I don’t claim to be an expert, but there’s a number of reputable reports when it comes to this region. Chances are, there is some truth to them.”
Well, if anything, that made it all more suspicious. “Why just this region, though?” Not that she was surprised he would say so. She did remember that Liyuan girl from school that she knew talking about all these ghost stories from home as well, but that didn’t mean Collei believed them.
“Don’t know. Could have something to do with the adepti that made their home here in the old days, perhaps. They do say, back in the time of archons, the world was a lot more ‘fantastical’, so to speak.”
“Yeah, but those are just myths,” Collei countered in a dismissive tone. “It was so long ago, it’s not like anyone knows for sure. All we got are a bunch of legends ancient people came up with.”
“Hmm, do you still believe in Celestia, then?”
Hold on…how did they get into this conversation? Collei’s eyes shifted to the ground. “No.” There wasn’t any need to hide that, just like she wouldn’t hide the bitterness in her tone when she said it. That one, despite how widespread the belief somehow still seemed to be, was nothing but a kid’s bedtime story, and she was no kid. At least, she couldn’t picture Celestia in the glowing, fanciful terms the books liked to paint it as. It was just too far removed from reality.
“It’s good that you’re skeptical,” Kaeya responded after a short pause, surprising Collei a little. “You think critically. As long as you don’t stay fixed to the first impression you come up with, it does no harm to ask questions.”
Collei hummed in response, not quite sure what to say to that, so she turned to looking around at the scenery instead. She wasn’t exactly expecting him to affirm her like that. The advice, as well, sounded decent enough, although she wouldn’t say as much.
“Are you hungry?” Kaeya asked suddenly in a gracious tone, surprising Collei yet again. “We can make a stop for dinner before we get to the morgue.”
“But weren’t you in a hurry?” It’s not like she was here on some sightseeing tour.
“They’ve been waiting this long already. A little longer wouldn’t hurt.”
Collei scoffed. “Sounds inefficient.”
She definitely wasn’t expecting Kaeya to laugh out loud at that, but that’s exactly what he did. “Ah, I’m sorry.” He seemed to notice Collei’s offended scowl. “You sound just like someone I know.”
There were plenty, of reasons, however, that Collei wouldn’t want dinner quite yet. She was too anxious to get this over with.
There were several Liyuean police officers present when they got to the morgue, adding to the overall unsettling feel of the place. They ushered her into a back room, keeping her behind glass as some guy in a lab coat started wheeling the body out of a literal freezer, of all things. It was…kind of gross. Collei’s instinctive revulsion was hard to describe even to herself—she was no stranger to seeing a dead body, but never before had she seen one so sterile. It was unnatural, almost otherworldly. The image she had made in her mind of some guy bleeding out alone in a dark room on the floor of some abandoned house, clothes ripped and bloodied from the slash of a sword, was completely at odds with the spotlessly clean man lying tranquilly on a gurney with a white sheet covering his person from his feet to his neck, leaving only the face and his general shape visible. She guessed that was all she was supposed to need. She could tell he was probably a middle-aged man, height average and build lean. She noticed thinning strawberry blond hair and a mustache, and a very pale complexion.
Collei wondered, in this moment, why she even bothered to come here.
It’s not like she had clear memories of that time. There was little reason to try to remember the faces of the people handling her day by day, leading her to her cell and back, asking that she stay still as they gave another injection, pushing her to do another test…and another and another. Why would she remember, if she was so sure she was going to die there? If she had to live forever with that…that curse they gave her, then why not…
Collei gripped the railing, blinking herself back into the present, feeling the weight of far too many eyes on her, despite the distance Kaeya had casually asked them to give. “No,” she answered simply, after having been giving well enough minutes to do so. “I don’t recognize him.” She had no way to know for sure which one he was: the kidnapper or the victim. If he was the former, she felt no sympathy for the fate he received. If he was the latter…he wouldn’t be the first.
“How would you feel about a dinner at Wangshen Inn?” Kaeya offered after the two of them were a decent distance away from the morgue, which they left as soon as Kaeya was done discussing things with the police there, which was a quicker process than Collei expected it would be.
“I don’t have anything else to tell you,” Collei pointed out with some bitterness in her tone. Wouldn’t this guy just leave her alone already?
“Oh no, it’s not that; I just figured you’d be hungry,” Kaeya explained himself. “No questions; I promise. But after dragging you all the way out here, I at least owe you dinner, don’t I?”
Collei was still suspicious, but she couldn’t deny that dinner would be nice. “But where is that, even? Why not a place nearby?”
“Personal business. I have a contact there I have prearranged to speak with. Whether or not you wish to meet him is up to you. But I promise—it is a nice place for a good meal.”
Collei sighed heavily. “Fine. If you’re paying for it.”
It honestly wasn’t Collei’s plan to get involved any more than she had to. Kaeya’s suggestion made it clear to her that this mysterious “contact” had something to do with the international maybe-Dottore’s-fault missing persons case, but that was still very squarely in the realm of his problem. Collei didn’t need to know. She certainly wasn’t curious, or worried. Okay, fine, she’d be a cold person if she wasn’t worried about Diluc and all those other people, but…it didn’t have to be that personal. She didn’t have to know ‘why.’
Curse Kaeya for putting the idea in her head.
Collei would be lying if she said she hadn’t ever spent time wondering why the Fatui did all those experiments in the first place, why it benefitted them to infuse her with a snake demon, and why whatever they wanted was worth the cost of all those kids who didn’t make it. But all those thoughts were usually regulated to dark, sleepless nights and lonely hours in a dusty library when she couldn’t help but wonder if there was some way to know? But for the most part, she didn’t care. She hadn’t cared for a long time now, as the knowledge that the people who did this were terrible human beings was all the answer that really mattered. But when Kaeya told her that his real question lay in the ‘why’, she didn’t know how to answer, although he didn’t press it then. But how would it even help them to know? How would a ‘why’ bring them any closer to the people who were missing?
The food was good—nothing spectacular, but she didn’t need spectacular. Still, she didn’t say much as she ate, because she was far too busy thinking, which was never a good sign. So when Kaeya took his leave to meet his little friend on the rooftop…the reaction was automatic. She went with him. Briefly, she wondered the legality of her—a person neither in law enforcement, military, or politics—getting involved in this and hearing information, but screw that. She had been kept in the dark long enough—if she wanted to know, she damn well had the right to know.
She did well to ignore the slightest smile of satisfaction Kaeya gave when she joined him. It became especially easy to ignore when she finally laid eyes on his contact.
Generally, when Collei imagined someone with the label of “contact,” she thought of someone discreet and inconspicuous, maybe kind of shady. The young man turning a level glare at them from the uppermost balcony of the Wangshen Inn was not inconspicuous in the slightest. He was extra, but not extra like Kaeya was extra, because somehow, it seemed entirely unintentional that he stuck out like a sore thumb, with long blue and black gloves and a green tattoo covering the rest of his sleeveless right arm, asymmetric to a long cape-like cloth thing draped over his left arm. And that wasn’t even getting started on his clothes, which seemed to belong to a century Collei didn’t know about and was accented by a large diamond-shaped pendant over his chest.
“Who’s she?” The man greeted ever-so-amiably, earning an eye roll from Collei who was far too tired at this point to even pretend to be embarrassed.
“Old friend, and a vital part of this case.” Kaeya did the introductions for her, smiling sociably in spite of the contact’s irritated demeanor. ‘Old friend’ felt like a severe stretch, but whatever. “Collei, meet Xiao,” he introduced. “Xiao, you may share whatever information you have with her as well as me. It would save me the extra debrief.”
“Fine.” Xiao shrugged, seeming surprisingly accepting of this change. “I have the Fatui’s black market activities, like you asked. It wasn’t hard. Those old gems they purchased before they’ve been acquiring in mass. I’m surprised they’re as plentiful as they are.”
“Gems?” Collei echoed, already surprised as to where this intel was going. She didn’t remember anything about a gem.
“A very specific kind,” Kaeya started to explain, glancing briefly back at Xiao. “Excuse me for a moment: she doesn’t yet know.” He continued, “There’s a number of old gem-like orbs from an ancient era out there, escribed with an elemental symbol and placed in a gold frame of various designs. It seems to have been jewelry of some sort. ‘Pendant’ might be the more descriptive term.”
“Seven, to be exact,” Xiao added, which seemed to be news to Kaeya judging by the interested look in his eyes. “Of all the pendants that have come on the market, there’s only been seven common frames that I know of.”
“One for each element?” Collei suggested.
“Maybe. But it doesn’t match. An orb escribed with a symbol can still have any one of the seven frames. It’s more of a combination.”
“Like the seven nations of Teyvat,” Kaeya supplied thoughtfully. “That could be of importance.”
“But…how?” Collei questioned, not caring whether or not they found the question annoying. “Why would jewelry be that important?”
“Who knows,” Xiao remarked dryly, kind of tiredly. “Our records of anything over a thousand years ago are next to none. There could be a power to these we don’t know about. They could be possessed by a spirit, possibly.”
Collei made no further comment on that one. Instead, she looked around on instinct, finding the three of them to still be alone aside from a couple of tourists on the balcony’s other end.
“Ah, speaking of which, any word among the locals on our haunted house incident?” Kaeya probed.
“What do you think?” Xiao droned dryly. “They believe the ghosts got to them. That place has been inhabited by a violent spirit for a long time, although it’s far from the worst. Since no one owns the house, the neighbors are unwilling to pay the money for an exorcist. I considered taking care of it myself when I had the time, but I haven’t.”
Collei subconsciously raised an eyebrow at that last statement, wondering if this guy was supposed to be an exorcist himself. Was that why he was dressed so weird?
“To be expected,” Kaeya noted with an understanding nod. “Good witness reports are usually far too much to ask.”
“Speaking of that,” Xiao changed topics as he turned to motion at Collei once again, obviously paying absolutely no mind to whether or not he seemed rude doing so. “Who is she again? Your new partner? Or an informant?”
“’She’ is neither,” Collei spoke for herself, keeping the subtle twitch out of her eyes. She couldn’t say she didn’t appreciate the straightforwardness, but it was beyond irritating being referred to in the third person by this guy. “I’m a…witness.” It took a second to decide what to say. “I’m here to…uhhh…get more information. For my memories.”
Collei involuntarily tensed at the completion of her own weak explanation, as she wondered if this was the part when Kaeya would step in and fill in the gaps of what she didn’t say. She quickly realized that those gaps were something she was very much not in the mood to talk about. Even though she only had herself (and Kaeya) to blame for being in this conversation, talking about herself was not something she planned on doing. There was just…too much. It was better to keep her distance, get information, and think about it all on her own time.
But thankfully, Kaeya didn’t. Xiao had his eyebrows slightly raised as if he had questions, but he didn’t ask them, either. He just moved on to indicating that ‘that was all’, sliding out of their meeting as quickly as they all went into it.
“I’m guessing the description of the pendants was nothing familiar?” Kaeya asked later, guessing correctly.
“No.” Collei shook her head, gaze far off as she slipped into deep thought. “But…I’ll let you know. If I remember anything useful.”
Whether it was a good idea on her part or not, Collei was well aware that her words were clear indication that she wasn’t finished with her involvement in this case just yet.
+++
And she really wasn’t. Going back to school the next day was in itself like a sick coincidence of a reminder, when rumors started erupting about a student that had mysteriously gone missing the night before. It wasn’t anyone Collei knew, but it was again far too close to home than she would like, although that bridge had already been crossed in greater stride with whatever happened to Diluc.
It bugged Collei to no end not knowing how Kaeya was so sure that Dottore was involved. It almost felt like a trap, like the wily Monstadtian had deliberately left that out so that she would come back and tell him more information in turn. But even without that detail, it became increasingly obvious to her deliberating mind in the days that followed that Collei just couldn’t let this go. If what Xiao said was accurate, then they at least knew that the Fatui were doing something. That secretive organization was a name that meant little to most, but like it or not, it was life-hinging for Collei. Because…she knew, as much as she wished she could call her childhood a bad nightmare and move on, that it had never been truly over.
“I can’t get rid of the demon, but I can seal it inside of you,” Cyno spoke gravely, the white-haired Sumeran extending his hand as an open offering. “Just remember: once I do this, you can never use your power again, or else, it will consume you.”
It didn’t take much to convince her. This thing, whatever you called it, was not hers. It should never have been. It was a living, waking nightmare, continually gripping at her flesh and calling her body not her own, and she wanted out. “Yes,” there was no hesitation in her voice as she extended her bandaged hand to his. “Get rid of it.”
There were times, in the years afterwards, when she wondered if it would come back anyway. It was still inside her, after all. And as smart as Cyno was, calling the black snakes she was infused with a “demon” always felt like too bare of a description. It never told her how or why.
Because of this, Collei was aware that a good portion of her reasons for contacting the Mondstadt police department just a few days after the first adventure would have been selfish. But that didn’t mean she didn’t care about everyone who may have fallen victim to Dottore’s twisted schemes yet again. She was going to give everything she could to help, knowing that maybe, the more she knew, the more she would remember, and the better chance they would have for figuring out what was really happening.
For a while, it wasn’t working. She spent time back and forth with Mondstadt, gleaned information about the new maybe-victims who had gone missing, even went and talked to her dean herself so she could be allowed to go and be in Mondstadt in person, doing her classwork online in the meantime. But, they weren’t getting anywhere. Granted, only a few more days had passed, but it still felt like far too long. That was before the day came when people started coming back.
First it was some dairy farmer being found by his daughter passed out in an open field: bruised and wearing thin, ragged clothes she didn’t remember him possessing that were crusted in dried blood, but alive and recoverable. Then it was a waitress with fresh scars showing up in her bedroom as if she never left. Then it was a broken-armed accountant, found by a coworker in the parking garage beneath their workplace.
All of this happened on the same day. The number of people who reappeared was far from accounting for every missing person, but it was significant enough. And it was, well…freaky, to say the least. Most of them were unconscious when they were found. And all didn’t seem to have a single idea what was going on.
“I don’t remember, regrettably,” Keqing spoke with a subtle growl under her resilient poise as she gripped the handlebars used for physical therapy with such force as if she meant to bend them to her own will if nothing else would. “But believe me, I would do whatever it takes to figure this out.”
Collei couldn’t help but feel a little awed at the woman’s presence, in spite of the fact that objectively, she looked terrible. Thick bandages were wrapped around her forehead above a bruised right eye, underneath bright purple hair that was long in the pictures but was now cut short to the shoulder, apparently due to damage of some sort. Collei recognized the bright red veins of a lightning scar on her right arm, stretching all the way from hand to shoulder. And anyone could tell that she was finding it a great struggle to walk. Still, she wouldn’t stop trying. The woman known to Liyueans as the “Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing” seemed determined to live up to her title by keeping her head high and her form dignified, not allowing even a flinch from all the pain she had to be going through. And Collei should know.
She almost felt guilty for their presence here for that very reason. She was here with Kaeya again, in a Liyuean hospital with a few members of that country’s law enforcement and a Milleleth officer, all here for the purpose of asking questions that she was sure had already been asked. Collei wondered if they really should get on with it, because as long as they were here, Keqing was going to keep trying to look strong. But she was standing, so that was one thing. In truth, the other inhabitants of this room seemed to be the ones more likely to keel over at any moment. It’s been a ridiculous day. It felt that way for Collei, and she was little more than a bystander.
“But you remember that night?” The Milleleth asked.
Keqing breathed a deep sigh, or perhaps just a breath to steady herself as her hands tightened their grip on the bars. “Hardly enough. All I know is that they tried to take me in my sleep, and I woke up in the process. The guards I passed were all drugged, unconscious on the floor. The kidnappers all had masks on, naturally,” she spoke in a detached way, as if it wasn’t herself who went through all that, but someone else. “They brought me to a car parked outside. Everything is blank after that.”
The Liyueans had more questions to ask, but it didn’t do much good. Collei, here because she too had become invested enough to want to piece this mess together at whatever the cost, found herself in the back of the room hiding a scowl. There was no point in keeping up these questions. Why keep pestering her like the answers would magically get more favorable? Granted, she was a politician—maybe she was used to this. That was one reason Collei could never do politics: too much talking and too many people she wouldn’t want to talk to.
Collei excused herself to go wait in the hallway. Her presence was especially pointless. There was nothing she could ask or add. From what they were saying, it was the same way with every missing person who reappeared today: they had zero memory of what happened to them. It was almost as if their memory had been selectively wiped on purpose. Maybe for their sake, that was a good thing. Better to be unaware of whatever they put you through than to live with the nightmares. But then, maybe it was too soon to tell.
“Getting some air?” Kaeya’s voice broke into her thoughts, walking casually down the hallway towards where Collei was sitting on a bench.
“They don’t need to keep up with the questions,” Collei expressed her opinion, as she figured she might as well. “They’re only wasting time.”
Kaeya nodded mutely, appearing thoughtful. “It’s desperation, I would admit. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot we do know.”
“The injuries are evidence, aren’t they?” Collei suggested, figuring that Kaeya might be thinking likewise. “For all those people…someone had to have done that. It’s too coincidental.”
“Agreed,” Kaeya noted, his one eye fixed somewhere out in the distance. “The more we see, the more the Fatui do seem involved. Not that the sky isn’t still the limit on possibilities.”
“It…seems right.” It didn’t take any effort on Collei’s to think back or remember in order to recognize the pattern of random mutilation: the marks of injections, the pushing of your body to its limit… “It might be true. I just don’t know why—”
Collei was cut off abruptly by a ringing of Kaeya’s phone, as she was left to wonder alone why the people were seemed so specifically taken as Kaeya stepped aside to answer.
It didn’t take long for Kaeya’s composed expression to fade into oblivion, not that there was any discernible emotion present that Collei could speak of. But she knew without a doubt that something was up as Kaeya turned unreadable, face somewhere faint relief and intense worry. Before he said anything, Collei felt she had a guess.
“Diluc’s back.”