Chapter Text
Diluc made his way through the halls of Mondstadt’s small castle, nodding in greeting to the guards and other knights he passed along his path towards the throne room. He had been summoned during one of his routine checks of the stables to confirm that none of the other knights were hiding something they shouldn’t have that could end up injuring one of the horses when one of the king’s messengers came to summon him for an audience with the king himself. It was odd that he would be called to speak to the king so suddenly considering that he wasn’t one of the veteran knights who were normally the ones called if the king needed the knights for anything but he knew better than to question his king’s motives. While there wasn’t any risk of being punished by way of beheading or being drawn and quartered since his king was well known for being the most lackadaisical of all the rulers of the seven major nations, he still wasn’t about to risk causing trouble for himself by refusing to show for a summons by the king. As he approached the door to the audience chamber, one of the guards by the door announced his presence before opening the door to the chamber.
“You called for me?” Diluc asked as he bowed to the king.
“Come sit down, this is gonna be a long conversation.” Venti explained with a sigh before motioning to the chair across the table from where he was sitting.
Diluc did as he was told, making his way over to the table to sit at the table across from his king. The young looking king passed over a pair of papers that he’d been apparently reading before he’d summoned the knight and after a moment of confusion on why he was being offered them, Diluc picked up the stack to start reading over the papers. The page on top was a transcript of a letter from a Mondstatian spy who had been stationed in Snezhnaya for the past few years explaining that the Tsaritsa plotting to overthrow the other seven nations, leaving out what the actual plan was considering the odds of someone from the country the spy had infiltrated finding the letter and being able to decode it. While most people would think that it was just a shopping list, there was no denying that there was always the chance that someone would know what they needed to look for to understand the contents of the letter.
The second page was a transcript of a letter from the king of Khaenri’ah - a man close to the same age Diluc himself was named Kaeya - stating that he would happily welcome the diplomat from Mondstadt with open arms. The more he read over the letter, the more he noticed there were a few glaring holes where information had been redacted, but he understood that he wasn’t really in the place to ask too many questions. If he had more seniority or had the person he’d been speaking to wasn’t his king - the anemo archon Barbatos, god of freedom - then perhaps he’d be able to ask questions without questioned insubordination so for the moment, he accepted what information he had been given and made a mental list of the questions he would need to find the answers for after arriving in Khaenri’ah.
“I take it that I’m going to be the diplomat that the letter mentions?” Diluc asked as he looked up over the edge of the paper at his king.
“You’re correct.” Venti answered with a nod while he ran a finger around the rim of the glass of ice water he had on his desk. “We need someone to bridge the gap between Mondstadt and Khaenri’ah for negotiations. If the Tsaritsa does plan on overthrowing the rest of Teyvat and even touching the Abyss then we need to have allies in the war. I’m good at staging rebellions but active wars are better left in the hands of Liyue and Khaenri’ah.”
“Alright, I’ll do what I can.” the redhead nodded and let out a quiet sigh before pausing, setting the transcripts on the table as he thought about the second half of that statement. “Who are you sending to Liyue as a ‘diplomat’?”
“I was thinking about sending Barbara since the people of Liyue seem to like her. At the very least, she’d be able to get Morax to take the stick out of his ass for a few minutes and relax for once.” the king propped his elbows up on the table, settling his chin in his palms and swinging his legs.
Diluc let out a sigh, nodding his agreement to the reasoning that hadn’t been vocalized. With the risk of Schubert and his cohorts trying to steal the crown it would be negligent to send Eula or Jean away at the same time that Diluc was going to be away. It would take at least two of the three families to indict him for his crimes if he really did try to kill the king and take over the kingdom so sending Barbara to Liyue, while seeming to make little to no sense at all, made the most sense out of any of the alternate choices. Lisa wouldn’t leave her library even if the king himself was requesting her to, Sucrose was likely to cause an accident with her curiosity, Diona was too young and reckless still, and Rosaria would reject it on the bounds of it being outside the scope of her work. Other than sending out Diluc’s own aging father, there wasn’t any other choice that made sense and with the current climate, they would need at least one member of the Ragnvindr household to stay behind with the risk of needing a court hearing against the current head of the Lawrence family.
“She’ll do fine. I should go pack my things, please excuse me.” Diluc nodded as he pushed his chair back from the table, pushing it back in before bowing and taking his leave from the audience chamber.
“Make sure to pack for winter!” Venti called back before the door to the audience chamber could close.
Right, winter. He was going to be away from home for a while.
Packing his things for a journey of an indeterminate amount of time was harder than he thought it would be. Trips where there was no guarantee he would be home within a few months were already an annoying enough challenge but with Venti’s comment about packing for the coming winter, he knew he had to pack for at least a couple of seasons instead of just a few months. He dug through his closet for the packed away winter clothes that he hadn’t needed to pull out yet due to summer just starting to fade into the much more pleasant feel of autumn. He’d been hoping to help at the winery as the vineyards finished producing for the season but his plans had changed against his will. At least he knew his father would be well taken care of in his absence with Adeline watching over him. She had a habit of being a little overbearing at times but if there was one thing he knew for a fact, it was that there was no one in Teyvat he would trust with his father’s safety more than her.
“Diluc? Are you in there?” Crepus asked before knocking on his son’s bedroom door to catch his attention.
“The door’s open.” Diluc called back as he shifted through the peppery mothball scented winter coats he had packed away in one of the trunks at the back of his closet.
He sneezed at the irritating scent filling his senses and shook his head to try and ignore the tickle in his sinuses before dragging the trunk of winter clothes out of his closet so that he would be able to look through it without straining his eyes. The sound of the door opening and footsteps making their way over to him kept him from getting too into picking mothballs out of the wooden trunk, leaving him to toss the handful he had already removed onto his dresser for easier disposal.
“I heard the king is sending you to Khaenri’ah for diplomatic reasons. When do you think you’ll be back?”
Diluc glanced over his shoulder to where his father was looking over what he had set aside on his bed to pack so far before shrugging as he closed the trunk he had been digging through. “As far as I know, I’ll be in Khaenri’ah until after winter ends. Snezhnaha’s Tsaritsa is planning to overthrow the other seven thrones so I’ll be away at least until I can reach an agreement with the current king of Khaenri’ah that’s mutually beneficial for both our countries. If all goes well, I should be home before the end of spring.”
“I see….” Crepus let out a sigh before sitting on the edge of his son’s bed. “I know that you’re an adult now and have an important position among the knights but having you away for a significant amount of time….it still seems too soon. I still feel as though you’re that young boy who would cry when he scraped his knees yet here you are, a full grown man off on an important diplomatic mission. Stay safe while you’re away, would you? I’ll be waiting for you to come home.”
“I’ll return as soon as I can.” Diluc promised as he folded the winter coat in his hands, setting it aside on the foot of his bed before offering his father a reassuring smile. “For now, why don’t we consider what we’re having for dinner tonight?”