"Phew, the location of the withered zone that got reported is in a pretty isolated part of the forest. I'm surprised someone even encountered it," said Collei in her usual chirpy and youthful tone as she walked through the Avidia forest.

"Yeah, but it's probably for the best that you were notified. Even if it is out of the way knowing it's there means we can deal with it quickly," came the reply from none other than the renowned traveler and the current source of Collie's affections, Aether. The latter of which was only known to the green-haired girl, and Tighnari of course.

"Thanks for agreeing to let me tag along, master Tighnari doesn't let me go on patrols often, even after my Eleazar went away he still babies me!" She said looking away slightly so he wouldn't notice the thin line of red on her cheeks.

"No problem, it's a good thing Paimon's keeping him distracted back at HQ. You know, you remind me a lot of Amber, and I always had fun going out on patrols with her back in Mondstat. I hope we can all hang out one day. Maybe we can meet up in my teapot?"

He just couldn't stop saying the right things, could he?

Collei tried desperately to hide her giddiness from the young man. She nodded her head and giggled as she spoke "Y-yeah that sounds great! I can't wait!"

The duo continued their chat as they walked through the forest until they reached the general area where the withered zone had been encountered.

"So this is roughly where the zone is supposed to be. There doesn't seem to be any kind of path here that would have led anyone to encounter it." Collei said.

"Yeah, I don't see any indications of a withered zone either. Hold on, I'm going to try elemental sight. Maybe I'll see traces of it," Aether said as he focused his eyes. As he scanned the area Collei noticed that his expression grew inquisitive. Aether blinked and looked back at Collei as he spoke. "No sign of any withered zone but…. there are slight traces of pyro energy scattered around the place. Sort of like when hilichurls are making explosive barrels."

"That's unusual…but I think we should still check it out. If there are hilichurls around here and they're making those we should put a stop to it. Otherwise, they may get used during raids in the future," Collei replied.

"Good point, we'll see about that withered zone after we're done with this," Aether said as he motioned for the girl to follow him. The two trekked through the woods following Aether's elemental sight until the man stopped in his tracks.
"Here. The tracks end here and…go up this tree," Aether directed as he pointed up a tree into a canopy. There were several trees clustered together that seemed to be holding up a structure of some sort.

"Do hilichurls normally hide their barrels in tree houses?" Collei asked.

"Not that I've seen in other nations. If you haven't seen it before it means it must not be common here either. There's something else, there are no hilichurs around at all," Aether pointed out.

Hilichurls were as numerous as sweet followers. They were so common it was definitely an odd sign not to see them. Now they were in an explosive barrel manufacturing site and he couldn't even hear the sound of their raspy voices chanting. Something wasn't right.

"That probably means the ones that occupy this place are away, probably hunting. We can get the jump on them now and destroy their entire supply in one go! C'mon!" The greenette said as she jumped onto the makeshift ladder and started climbing up.

"Collei wait!" Aether called out as he pursued her.

She wouldn't listen though, she was dead set on destroying this base, if she did she'd be proving herself to both her master and her crus-hero, her hero. Who knows? Word of her accomplishment here might make its way back to Amber.

She made it to the top of the structure and climbed in, Aether followed quickly behind. Once inside the two looked around and finally realized the size of the structure. As far as they could see explosive barrels lined the walls, and the ground and even hung from the ceiling in nets.

"I've never seen hilichurls manufacture barrels at this rate before. There's no way this was all made here. These must have been brought from all over Sumeru, maybe even Liyue, you could destroy the front gates of Mondstat with this many barrels," Aether said as he felt sweat drip down his cheek. "There's no way to dispose of this many barrels at once, not by blowing them up anyway. We'd be caught in the blast and the canopy is too thick for us to shoot from a distance ourselves. We need to report this now," Aether explained.

"Wait! Look over there!" Collei said as she walked further into the structure and pointed to a roughly made window. "There's a river right next to us. If we knock out the support on that side of the structure all the barrels will fall into the water, we won't even see a spark!" The ranger trainee said walking over. She walked closer to the window to see if they could make it big enough for all the barrels to fall through once they unbalanced the strangely sturdy structure. She failed to notice as she walked that she was lucky enough to have narrowly avoided a trip wire, but-

"Collei wait! We should pull back and–" CLINK

Aether was not quite so lucky.

Time slowed down as Aether realized what just happened. He didn't even need to look back when he heard the sound of the entrance door being slammed shut. His eyes widened as adrenaline took over, Collei was still trying to process exactly what was occurring but before she could Aether swooped her off her feet and carried her bridal style towards the window that was facing the river. There was still a chance. For one of them anyway. He felt the rumble of the explosives at the entrance shake the structure, this was it, do or die.

He took one last look at Collei and smiled sorrowfully at her. "I'll see you around Collei" With that, he put all his strength into heaving her forward and launching her out the narrow window.

"AETHER NO DO-" A bright flash consumed her vision as she went out the window and down into the river below. The water muffled the sound of the explosion.

What just happened?

Several days later

Inazuma

The people of Inazuma ran indoors as thunder and lightning tore through the sky that had been all but peaceful minutes ago. Several of the people now taking shelter shivered as they felt the faint static that now permeated the air. What could have incurred the shogun's wrath that the weather would change so violently and rapidly? As it stood only two people had the answer to that question. They were arguably closer and somehow also further away from the danger itself. In her palace the almighty shogun, currently Ei, clenched a paper that Kujo Sara had just delivered, it was a report from Sumeru.

The traveler was presumed dead.

HER traveler was presumed dead by some of the local authorities after a mysterious explosion while out patrolling with the forest rangers. Tears streamed down her face as electro-energy polluted the room. Sara was finding it harder and harder to remain on her feet, her legs were growing shaky and her vision blurred as the concentrated electro energy rattled her core. On the other side of the room, the other figure fared a little better. Her pink hair was beginning to frizz however and although she shared the feeling she would not let one disaster lead to another.

"Ei," she said, grabbing her friend by the shoulders. "Calm yourself. No signs of a body have been found yet,"

"There may very well not be a body to find," Ei choked out as bloodshot eyes stared back at Miko.

Miko held her tightly by the shoulders. "I don't want him to be dead either. We have to believe in him, believe he survived. He'll come back to you, to US!" She fox said as she held back tears of her own. "Aether is a survivor, he won't die this easily, please, we'll wait for him. All of us."

Liyue

The jade chamber on an average day was bustling with activity, people walking up and down the steps, carrying orders and requests to and from the administrative bodies that presided over Liyue. Even on a "slow" day, there was little to no break from the multitude of voices and couriers that had business to attend to at Ninguangs floating chamber. This is why it was almost alarming that deafening silence filled the room. Ningguang read the report in her hand for the fifth time. From the start of her career had always been quick to adapt and overcome any obstacles in her way. There was hardly any piece of bad news that could phase her, yet the report in her hand left her in a state of pseudo-paralysis.

The traveler had perished in Sumeru.

The circumstances of his death were caked in suspicion, and the search for a body ended very quickly. Far too quickly. The search by the forest rangers was called off a few days after the explosion by the powers that be once the scale of the destruction had been measured. It was declared that no one could have survived the explosion. There evidently wasn't even an attempt to determine what caused the destruction. Ninggunag looked up at the other women in the room. The expression on Keqings face said it all, crushing shock. She was a strong borderline stubborn woman, but this had been too much for even her character. Next to her was easily the gentlest of the three, Ganyu, tears welled in her eyes as she shook and attempted in vain to contain her whimpers.

"We must..." Ninggaung went mute. Where did they go from here? The traveler was not a vital organ to Liyues governing body by any means despite his past accomplishments...so...why? Why did she feel as if something more valuable than all her wealth had been lost?

"Send word to the wang shun funeral parlor, get me director Hu tao and consultant Zhongli. We must…make preparations."

Mondstat

The Knights of Favonius walked out of the acting grandmasters' office. Despite being summoned there by said grandmaster they didn't once hear her speak or say anything herself. Rather they simply stood and listened as Albedo read the report that he had received for her. Lisa, Amber, Eula, Kaeya, Noelle, and Sucrose all listened in stunned silence as the words of the message were read out.

When it was over the knights were dispersed back to their stations to assist with the current affairs. There ,however,would be no carrying on for them as they left the KOF HQ.

Amber walked mechanically to her room in the barracks. The Knights who walked past her could feel the despair that radiated off her normally bubbly disposition. When she finally made it to her room she walked over to her bed and glanced at her nightly companion. A Baron bunny she modified, it had no ears, but blonde hair and a brown and yellow design instead of the red and white one. She kneeled in bed and clutched it tightly.

"Why?" She asked in a trembling tone. "Why hadn't I just…asked him to stay?" She already knew the answer. The two had gotten quite close during his stay and visits to Mondstat. They'd even shared some…intimate moments, as you do when you're in the prime of your youth, although they'd never gone all the way, the attraction they felt led to Aether having to lend his scarf to Amber on a few occasions to hide a few keepsakes he'd left on her neck. They were lucky that everyone else seemed to buy the 'it's kinda chilly right now excuse.

Now though, those memories only served to remind her of how she stopped herself from asking him for something more. Something that she thinks he wanted too. She always told herself when he came and went from Mondstat that…she'd tell him next time, he'll be back, this won't be her last chance.

What a fool she was.