She was tied to a chair, hands locked behind her and feet secured to the legs. Her heart raced with panic, naturally, but she also couldn’t look at these people without feeling the cruel sting of embarrassment. They tricked her, and she fell for it. She was just on her regular everyday Outrider patrol, and she saw these travelers crying for help. They were right in the middle of a Hilichurl camp, desperately trying to get their supplies back while being attacked by the angry monsters. They really shouldn’t have walked into a camp like that without help (something Amber takes it on herself to advise travelers about a lot), but regardless, it was Amber’s duty to rescue them now. So, she did. She fought off the Hilichurls, and as soon as that battle was over, she dashed off to help the one woman crying in pain over her hurt leg. Amber knew first aid very well, so she stepped in to help.

That was when it happened. While she was distracted with the wound (which was indeed real), she was hit in the head from behind—hard. She noticed a motion a second too late, and she wasn’t able to mobilize herself after the shock of the impact fast enough to avoid being suddenly held down by each one of the four members of that group. They slapped a strip of tape over her mouth before she had the chance to call for help, but even so, she kept screaming against it in vain in her panic. She wasn’t strong enough to resist, and she couldn’t summon her bow. She did manage to call on raw elemental power to burn the one guy’s hands in the process, before they took her Vision away.

That same man sat before her now, both hands thickly bandaged up, and with a fierce glare in his eyes. The other three stood in various positions behind him and watched. There were three men and one woman in all, and the woman’s lower right leg had a splint on it (which was honestly terrifying, that they would take the ruse that far). They were all adults on the older side, judging from their appearance, and the man sitting in front of her looked almost old enough to be her…well, her grandfather.

It took Amber a minute to see that they were waiting on her for an answer, for some reason.

“Ummm, talk about what?” she questioned, as they were probably expecting her to.

“Very simple,” the man replied with some kind of satisfaction (far too much of it, really), “we ask for two things: the location of Jiahao, and an account of everything he told you about what he’s up to. To make myself clear, I am referring to your grandfather, of course.”

Her…her grandfather? Amber froze, any words she might have had dead on her lips. That’s what this was about? It had been four years now—she hardly talked or heard talk about him at all anymore, even if she still inevitably thought about him from time to time. He was, simply put, a memory to her, and by now, she had come to terms with that. She hoped that he was okay, wherever he was, and she hoped to one day see him again, but she knew there was a good chance that might never happen, if only because of his age.

“What do you mean, ‘location’?” Amber asked, still stunned. “You’re asking if I know where he is?”

“Yes, that is it. So, where is he? I don’t have time for dawdling.”

“But…I don’t know.”

“Hmph, you would say it. Trying to protect him, are you? Or is it duty to the Knights that stays your tongue?”

“No, I really don’t know,” Amber reiterated, telling the absolute truth. It almost made this a little boring, in a weird way. Amber was aware that as a knight of high-ish rank, there was always a chance that someone might try to manipulate information out of her one way or another (although the kidnapping was certainly an extreme way to do it). It was part of her duty as a knight and as an Outrider to keep secrets and not go blabbing information that should be classified. Especially when criminal cases were involved, caution was simply necessary to make sure everyone remained safe.

However, this time? The one time anyone has ever caught her? She was absolutely blank. Her grandfather never even left a note.

“Hmph, likely story,” the man scoffed. “Besides being his granddaughter, you are the only one in the family to follow in his footsteps and become a knight. If anyone would know, it is you. We have reason to believe that he has been keeping contact with you, as well. Don’t think we don’t know about the letters he’s sent you.”

“He’s sent letters?” Where were they even pulling this from??

“Oh, save the act,” the woman with the injured leg responded with a loud scoffing sound. “We know you’ve received them, under various pseudonyms. We also are not so foolish as to believe that you would keep them around for people to find. Since you’ve likely burned them all, we skipped that step and went straight to the mind who surely knows it. What we want is to know the content of what he’s been telling you. Everything he knows, we want.”

“But why?” Amber had to ask. “Who even are you!?”

“Old friends,” the man in the chair responded with a menacing grin. “From a long, long time ago. We wanted to catch up with him, is all.”

Amber gulped. “From…Liyue, you mean?”

“Indeed,” one of the other guys, someone with a red bandanna around his neck, answered. “And sometime thereafter. Let’s just say that your grandfather was highly involved in many things.”

“Like…like what?”

“Pfft, as if we would tell you.”

Yeah, of course they would be like that. Amber took in a deep breath to steady herself. Just two minutes into this conversation, and it was already ripping open old wounds. “Did he betray the knights?” “He was always hiding something, wasn’t he?” “Do you think he might have defected? To the Fatui, even? He had that one meeting…”

Amber remembered it all too well. Everything seemed fine, and everyone loved her grandfather, or so it seemed. Then, he left without a trace, and all of a sudden, the rumors and accusations sprung forth from every corner. Amber wanted so hard to prove them wrong, to say it wasn’t true. She wanted to tell them, even, that every bad thing they said about her grandfather was like a stab in her own heart. Did they mistrust him because he was a foreigner, or because he used to be a mercenary? But Mondstadt has great relations with his home country of Liyue, and everyone knew that even as a mercenary, he was very honorable. Right? So why would they think otherwise? Why assume the worst?

She wanted to tell them they were wrong; however, she really couldn’t, because she didn’t know, not for sure. She just knew what kind of person he was. She knew he was good and that she wanted to protect Mondstadt just like he did. However, regardless of who he really was, she knew now that it didn’t change a thing about who she was. She would still be a knight protecting Mondstadt and her friends, no matter what.

She wondered what these people were talking about. The very idea that he might have been involved with dangerous, evil people sent shivers down her spine. However, she knew better than to take their words for face value. She would get out of them what information she could, but she wouldn’t be swayed by or be quick to trust what they say as truth. However…that was going to be a little difficult, with her being in the position she was in, and being very much alone.

Eula got onto her about this sometimes. Told her she should bring some knights on her patrols, so that it wouldn’t be just her out there. That was just a little tough when she was literally the only Outrider. When her grandfather left, everyone else left too. It was just her. They hardly even qualified as a real division, and she wondered if the others might think they would be better off just dissolving it (but ten companies was such a nice even number, though…). Not that it was a problem, usually. Of course, she did do things like patrols with other people sometimes, which was mostly just tagging along with Eula and her team, especially since they were short-staffed by Varka taking most of them on the expedition.

Anyways, the point was that Amber was alone, and there wasn’t much she could do about it right now. She needed to figure out what in the world was going on, but she decided, right then, that maybe finding answers would be the thing to do after they were in prison.

“Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Amber repeated, letting herself sound more desperate and scared this time. “I haven’t heard a thing.”

“Look, Outrider,” the man in the chair with the burned-up hands spoke while leveling another glare her way. “If you don’t want to talk, we can find ways to make you. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.”

“Like…like what?”

He exchanged a look with the others, and a couple of them nodded. He reached for a bag on the ground, and pulled out a knife…

“Wait, stop! Please!” Amber blurted out, almost manically. “Please, I’ll talk!”

“Ha!” the man laughed with pleasure. “You really are going to crack so easily, Ms. Knight?”

“Please, please…” She shook her head, trying to make it sound like she was near tears. “It’s…it’s not like that. I’m a knight, just like you said, but my grandfather…he betrayed the knights, a long time ago.” Those words really felt like poison, coming out of her own mouth, but she kept going. “He made me promise to never tell of what he did, but he’s been gone so long…I’m sorry, it’s not worth it. If I keep his secret like this, it’s almost like I’m betraying the knights, too.”

“Hmph, so you’re saying you see reason? You’ll tell us where he is.”

“You can have better than that, sir,” she spoke with her head hung low. “I’ll show you the letters.”

They seemed surprised at that. A couple of them exchanged whispers to each other. “You’re saying…you still have them?” one of them said.

Amber nodded solemnly. “Yes. I do.”

“Hmph, well, the gesture is appreciated,” the man in the chair responded with a sharpness in his eyes. “However, I would prefer to not go waltzing back into Mondstadt at this time. You can simply tell us. That is all we require.”

“Well, that would be a problem,” Amber admitted as if embarrassed to say it. “You see…I actually don’t know what the letters say. My grandfather was really smart—I’m sure you know that, right? So, he spoke in code. It’s not like he could risk the letters being intercepted, right? However, I didn’t know what the code was. He wrote to me talking as if I should be able to figure it out, but I couldn’t. I’m just…not nearly as smart as he was. I’m so sorry. I hid the letters, hoping that one day, I could figure them out.”

“So, where did you hide them?” the woman asked with a raised eyebrow.

Amber took only a couple of seconds to respond. In that time, she visualized the map of Mondstadt in her head, the regular route lines overlaid on top of it. She guessed that they would probably wait until it was dark, especially since it was already evening…

“Starfell Lake,” she answered. “The mechanism is just beneath the water and soil, kind of hidden.”

“Mechanism?”

Amber nodded. “Yes. I have a mechanism them that will only respond to fire from my Vision.”

“Only yours?” one of them asked.

“Yeah, of course! Why not?” Amber responded. “I have to keep it secure.”

“Hmph, I don’t know of any mechanic whatever that needs only one specific Vision.”

“Well, she kind of is skilled like that?” another guy offered. “She did make a stuffed animal that explodes, I guess.”

“It’s fine,” the man in the chair decided. “We’ll take her with us, as soon as nightfall comes. That would be the most efficient thing to do.”

 +++

 Amber’s heart was racing all over again when they got to the lake. It was very quiet, which wasn’t exactly unexpected, but it made her anxious knowing that she was going to have to stall for as much time as possible.

She never thought that Kaeya’s lessons on lying would be of any use, but apparently, today was that day.

A guy pushed her along with a firm grip on her upper arm, her wrists tied behind her back. This cart they had was used to hide her for part of the trek, but now it had been left behind. The nice thing about the lake was that it was in the open. Even though it was in the midst of forest, it was hard not to notice something or someone in the middle of it, especially with the Statue of the Seven as a beacon.

“Alright, get on with it! Where is it!?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll get it.” She paused for as many seconds as she dared, mulling it over. “Hmm…”

“What are you waiting for!?”

“Ah, just…remembering where it was… Also, there’s one other problem.”

“Hmph,” the man huffed in annoyance. “And what’s that?”  

“I kind of need my hands. To get to the thing?”

“Ugh, fine. Untie her. But keep her in check.”

They released the ropes, and the woman then moved to aim the crossbow so close to her head, it was almost touching. “One wrong step and you’re dead, Outrider.”

“Ahhhh, yep! Understood!” she affirmed with a shaky laugh. Now was the part when she needed to go searching. Please show up soon, please show up…

“What’s taking so long!?” the man barked. “I have half a mind to think—”

He was cut off by the whizz of an arrow flying towards him.

The woman startled. In that second, Amber moved to grab at her legs and throw her down, definitely aggravating that injury in the process (which she would use to her advantage, thank you very much). The crossbow fired but missed Amber’s head, and Amber turned to wrestling the weapon away from her. She felt movement from the guy with a sword coming up behind her, but…

“Freeze to the core!”

An icy blast stopped him in his tracks. Eula dashed into the fray, claymore at the ready. A few moments later, she was there to help Amber up. “What happened!? Are you hurt!?”

Amber was so on edge, she almost forgot to breathe or indulge in her emotional wave of gratitude and relief. All around her in the clearing was the noise of battle, but the kidnappers were hardly any match for Eula and her knights, not when it was Eula who had the element of surprise. “I’m fine,” Amber breathed, expression beaming with light in spite of her exhaustion. The Reconnaissance team had arrived, just as she predicted they would from knowing the route they would be taking tonight. Her gamble actually paid off. “Just a little banged up, that’s all.”

The fight was over quite quickly after that. Eula had plenty of questions, but she respected Amber’s request to wait for a moment. Amber would tell everybody back at headquarters who needed to know all at once. Usually, she had no problem with telling stories twice or even more, but, well, she just needed a moment. To catch her breath, to massage her rope-burned wrists, to think.