The Eyes and Ears of the House

The lights flickered briefly as Nikola turned them on at the doorway before giving up and blinking out. Groaning to herself, she turned on the flashlight she had in her hand. If these were her lights, they would have worked just fine.

Everything, albeit coated in a thick layer of dust, was frozen in time. The bookshelves still missed the same books, their absence like a smile missing teeth. The royal blue couch, now faded, still sat isolated in the center of the room, Mophead’s throne no longer.

Nikola left her heavy rolling suitcase behind and walked further into the room, shining her flashlight up the white stairs, the paint on the walls peeling. She didn’t even consider going up there, flashing to the mess of discarded food and dirty laundry her room on the top floor was. Seventy years later, she shudders to think of what it would have become.

She shined her light into the oppressive darkness of the corridor to the right. Down here would be where they used to keep Ada, that ridiculous piece of old tech that always felt precious yet vexingly complicated to Nikola. She might pale in comparison to that bot from the bubble universe, but…Nikola would be lying if she said she didn’t miss her. Ada was never trouble.

Nikola stared down the corridor for a moment before turning around. She wasn’t really here to reminisce. No, she thought she’d just stop by for a little while she was in London on important business. Alone. Even just thinking about the reason she was here brought a blaze of fury to destroy her nostalgia. She didn’t waste any more time, grabbing her suitcase and marching out of the lab.

There were only so many hours in a work day, and Nikola had to figure out what was wrong with her latest shipment of Barberry goods in just a few of them. There was no other way to describe it. They were trash.

“Damned capitalism. Five thousand dollars and I get the crap I’d expect from fast fashion. Why on earth do I even spend money on this, might as well waste it on Arahato figurines…” Nikola muttered to herself as she pulled out her phone, opening her transport app and calling for a taxi deeper into the city. Right by the Thames, she noted as she pulled up the address for their headquarters. Damn the Thames, too. 

She put her phone down and waited by the curb outside the lab, staring at the trees, empty of leaves. She couldn't see much of a difference between a winter tree and a dead tree, so they all looked dead to her. A biting cold gust of wind blew her hair into her mouth, and she screeched with surprise and mild pain as her suitcase rolled into her boots and crashed down on top of them. “Fuck!”

The universe was impossibly vast, full of countless worlds beyond Teyvat, and it was on one of those worlds Lynette found herself.

To draw less attention to herself she was wearing a disguise of sorts, just to hide her feline traits, a beret and a longer dress than usual, so she could hide her tail easier. It was winter luckily so she wouldn’t boil.

She watched the fast flowing river before her, the Thames people here called it. It was nothing compared to the waters of Fontaine, very few things could compare to the beauty of the terrestrial sea. She absently wished she had brought a Kamera, despite how often they broke on her, just so she could capture the atmosphere of this place, she supposed telling stories to the smaller kids of the house would have to do.

Lynette let her feet carry her through this strange city that reminded her so much of Fontaine, gliding from place to place before stopping out the front of a large establishment. Barberry headquarters. Apparently this place did luxury goods? She’d have to bring something home… Lyney always did like these sorts of things, and maybe they’d have some diving gear? Or toys for the children.

Lynette walked into the building, carefully inspecting a few items before coming to a conclusion.

The quality of these items was nowhere near worth the price they were going for!

Lynette’s ears twitched beneath the beret as she overheard other customers gossiping, something about a sharp decline in quality. Interesting.

Before Lynette could ponder much more on the matter, a locomotive screeched to a stop just outside the store, and when the doors swung open Lynette couldn’t help but watch from the corner of her eye.

A world that was just reconnecting with the rest of the universe it seemed, Lynette wondered when the day would come that Teyvat would deal with the vast universe, if she would be around to see it.

Still, this was good for intel gathering, getting to see everything. The city itself reminded her of Fontaine, only even more advanced. She just had to be careful not to touch anything or she might cause an incident…

Maybe that’s why Lynette found herself in the midst of the snowy plains, where an active investigation was underway. Her hair stuck up on end, trying to trap as much heat as possible, as she found herself standing over said dead body with another outlander.

Curiosity killed the cat it’s said, but maybe it’s more apt to say in this situation that curiosity got the cat roped into unnecessary work.

She looked to her pink haired partner, somewhat baffled she was in this situation to begin with.

“So.”

Lynette began awkwardly. She wasn’t good with small talk, she’d usually leave that work to Lyney. She looked back over at the body

“… He’s definitely dead.”

The Good Hunter, a busy place on a good day and one of the finest establishments in all of Mondstadt. Fresh meat sourced local from Springvale, the finest ingredients, the daily specials, all of that was irrelevant to Lynette. She was here for just one thing. Dessert.

The waiters brought out platters, piling them on Lynette’s table. Tea Break Pancakes, Mint Jellies, Apple Roly Polies, the dishes kept coming.

Maybe she had gone a little overboard. Oh well, Lyney could yell at her later for using most of her budget, how often do you get to visit the second finest food establishment in Mondstadt? It would be foolish to let this opportunity slip by.

Once the waiters were done Lynette bowed her head in thanks, before looking at the collection of dishes.

…

On that earlier point of going overboard, maybe she’d need some help finishing all this. The portions were bigger than in Fontaine, bigger than she’d expected. She looked around, spotting a purple dragon fellow, dropping off a package to the Good Hunter. It smelt like fresh meat, from Springvale? Someone running errands then, they must be hungry.

Before the dragon could leave Lynette stood and very gently tapped him on the shoulder

“Excuse me, I noticed you were making a delivery? I seem to have ordered too much food, perhaps you could assist me.”

She gestured at her table and the extra seat.

As not to cause panic, she woke Lyney, telling him to keep an eye out while she went for a grocery run, that she would do a proper investigation soon. And to not leave the hotel unattended. He had accepted this task diligently.

So that’s what lead her to this situation, walking the streets of Fontaine, holding a few paper bags full of not only milk but other delicious delights she had been tempted into.

She spotted someone very familiar approaching, Lyney. But she had told him not to leave the hotel.

Something was off.

He ran up to her and began speaking. As soon as the first few words left his mouth, she knew something was wrong. Lyney and Lynette were nearly inseparable, she knew her brother better than she knew herself, he was the only truth she could trust. And now he was lying.

She couldn’t pinpoint about what, but something was wrong, it was like a performance she hadn’t been clued in on as he explained that he saw someone suspicious outside the house. They ran as soon as he saw them, but they dropped an bright red envelope. He handed it to her quickly and ran off to go find Father, leaving Lynette to carefully inspect.

He hadn’t opened it yet, as she could tell upon brief inspection but she noticed the wax that sealed the envelop bore a striking resemblance to the face of the doll. She rotated it in her hands, strands of dark brown hair clinging to it and silken microfibres.

She looked up to follow up with her brother, but he was nowhere to be found. He’d pulled a disappearing act on her.

She quickly returned to the hotel, and as much as she hated to even consider this, she didn’t have the time to make up tea. This was far more pressing. She packed the groceries away, mind racing with possibilities, and quickly secluded herself to the quiet of her room.

The envelope in her hands and the doll sitting on a shelf she evaluated the very limited evidence. The fashion the doll wore was almost Inazuman, but a few details were off, perhaps she could consult Chiori? No, this was a House of the Hearth matter. She couldn’t involve outsiders. Lyney was going to find Arlecchino, however off he was acting and had entrusted the red envelope to her.

Enough dilly dallying, she had to know what was inside.

Her deft hands broke the wax seal, carefully opening the letter when a cloud of some kind of gas spewed out, causing Lynette to hack and cough before it fully enveloped her.

When Lyney entered the room hearing the commotion, all he found was yet another doll where Lynette used to be, and a letter on the floor.

This predictably woke Lynette up, being the light sleeper she is, and creeping through the halls she found her brother, Lyney, sniffly and sick.

On any other day this wouldn’t be a problem, Lynette would stay home, make sure Lyney was well taken care of. Unfortunately today was not like any other day.

This was the day of one of their biggest shows, and as much as Lynette would like to skip, that simply wasn’t possible. See, they were tracking a person of interest to the House of the Hearth, who just so happened to book today’s show. Who knew how long they would stay in town? There was no choice.

The show must go on, with or without Lyney.

The performance was in the afternoon, and all day Lynette has been practicing tricks.

Sure, she was an equal to Lyney in almost every way in terms of raw talent, but she very rarely took centre stage, and now unless Lyney made a miraculous recovery, she would be forced to take that role.

There was another matter that needed tending too.

Any good magician needs a reliable assistant, the other half to their flashy tricks, the hand behind the scenes.

But where would she find a magician’s assistant? And how could she train them in less than a day! She couldn’t just pick someone up off the street, and hope they had some latent talent… could she?

On her 15 minute break Lynette hurried out of the theatre, and scanned the crowd. She had to be flawless in her judgement.

Lynette had been on a special trip to Mondstadt, accompanying the Knave, her Father, on some fairly routine business that Regrator couldn’t be bothered to take care of, something about being too busy.

Checking on agents for Project Stuzha, something that Father had unfortunately been roped into, and along with it, the rest of the House of the Hearth.

Fortunately they weren’t here to participate in that project, rather, to follow up on another matter. Agents residing in the Goth Grand Hotel had accrued an outrageous debt with room service, that the 9th Fatui Harbinger was none too pleased about.

Luckily that headache was over for now at least (though Lynette did catch some very interesting intel that was worth following up on). They walked through Mondstadt’s market district, stores shutting their fronts as the 4th harbinger strutted the streets openly, everyone run in terror! What sinister plots could this Harbinger and fatui member be discussing?

Well, or so he thought.

He was half through a plate of Tri-color Dango when he picked up on a few rumors of a, rather large, sum of Mora in exchange for finding some fireworks. And how hard could it really be?

...

Okay so really fucking hard apparently. One day of searching and he already lost his little bit of pocket change to some fuckers in samurai outfits. They even laughed at him for being broke. (Which he certainly is not, thank you very much!)

The hopes of paying his debt seemed to slip through his fingers much like sand. As if he needed another reason to hate it. He sighed and examined his surroundings. Maybe there was something to help.

A tree, a Ruin Guard that beat his ass five minutes ago, a crazy lady talking to cats, some ruins that he personally thought needed a little- wait. What the fuck is some lady doing talking to cats? They couldn't respond. Could they?

Without his permission, his feet took him to the cat girl. Well at least that explained some things. She seemed to be in deep conversation with a small orange tabby. "Ahem. Um, excuse me? Can I ask why you're talking to a cat? They don't exactly talk back...."

Sure Kaveh talked to Mehrak the whole boat ride here but at least she replied! In her own way of course.

Going out for a breath of fresh air, Lynette came across a stray cat that roamed the streets of Inazuma.

This changed things.

There was a local stray population, cats that, should these loud fireworks go off, could be spooked or worse, hurt!

To prevent a potential cat-tasrophy, Lynette took her few days of free time, and set off to track down these purr-loined fireworks. How hard could it really be?

…

Maybe it was a little harder than she initially thought, she’d taken the commission with the adventurer’s guild, and began talking to the Naganohara family, people in the area, the stray cats of the city, anyone she could think of but it seemed this thief left very few clues.

Could an amateur have done this? Lynette was an expert at stealing things without the victim catching wise, though what she stole was information. A bundle of very dangerous fireworks? Different story.

So she had found herself slightly further out, following the only clue she had, a stray Tabby cat called Whiskers said she heard that a grey Tom on Yashori island, saw a group of suspicious people headed to Watasumi island, and if you want to know what happens on Watasumi Island, you went to Izumi, the orange tabby loved by the Shrine Maidens.

She’d luckily managed to catch Izumi on her way to her favourite sunbathing spot, and in return for some good dried fish, she’d negotiated a conversation.

That was, at least, until Izumi noticed a new figure, leaping from the rock she had settled on and dashing into the thick shrubbery. Lynette wanted to chase after her, but apparently it was considered ‘rude’ to ignore someone.

“Activating conversation mode.”

She stood up properly, turning to face the blonde haired architect with a look of mild annoyance.

“I was extracting intel.”

She said simply, pulling a face at the insinuation that cats ‘don’t talk back’. Her tail flicks with irritation.

“They do, you just have to learn to listen carefully.”