The initial, city-wide euphoria over the "man-made Visions" slowly settled into a new, exciting, and remarkably orderly reality. The Qixing's registration system, implemented with a swift, ruthless efficiency, was a resounding success. Long, but patient, lines of citizens formed outside the newly established "Department of Elemental Affairs," each person eager to claim their own small piece of the divine, their names and chosen elements meticulously recorded in thick, heavy ledgers.
The city was transformed. A baker would use a small gust of Anemo from a brooch to cool his pies, utilizing his fingers to grasp the brooch and direct the air force. A fisherman would use a spark of Electro from a wristlet to power a lamp on his boat. It was a quiet, domestic revolution, a thousand small miracles happening every day, woven into the fabric of normal life.
It was into this atmosphere of hopeful, controlled progress that a new, chilling shadow fell.
The emergency meeting was convened in the dead of night, in the deepest, most secure chamber of the Jade Chamber. It was just the core group: Ningguang, Keqing, Ganyu, a newly returned and very grim-looking Yelan, and Ren, who had been woken and brought along, his presence in these high-level meetings now considered non-negotiable.
Yelan, her usual enigmatic grace replaced by a cold, hard tension, laid a single, reconnaissance photograph on the table. It showed a remote, heavily fortified Fatui stronghold deep in the northern mountains of Liyue. And stepping out of a black, Snezhnayan carriage was a tall, imposing figure in a strange, plague-like mask and the ostentatious uniform of an easily recognized Harbinger.
"The Doctor," Yelan's voice was a low, chilling whisper. "Dottore. Second of the Fatui Harbingers. He arrived three days ago. He is not in the Harbor. He is at their most secure military and research outpost in Liyue."
A heavy, profound silence fell over the room. If Sandrone was a cunning puppeteer and Scaramouche a venomous viper, Dottore was a plague. He was a man with no morals, no ethics, a mad scientist who viewed human life as nothing more than a resource for his grotesque, twisted experiments.
"He's here for the technology," Keqing stated, the conclusion as obvious as it was terrifying. "He's not a diplomat or a spy. He's a scientist. He's here to steal it, to replicate it, and probably, to twist it into something monstrous."
"And he's here for Ren," Ganyu added, her voice trembling with a barely suppressed fury and fear. "The rumors of his involvement with the heater and refrigerator are already widespread. The Fatui are not stupid. They know who the inventor is. It's only a matter of time before Dottore tries to get to him."
Ningguang's face was a mask of cold, hard calculation. "The stronghold is a fortress. A direct assault is impossible without starting a full-scale war. And we cannot guarantee Ren's safety in the Harbor if Dottore decides to make a move. He is the most dangerous piece on the board."
They were trapped. Their greatest asset, the boy who had changed their world, was now their greatest vulnerability, the primary target of the Fatui's most monstrous agent.
It was Ren, who had been listening in a quiet, unnerving calm, who broke the tense, fearful silence.
"He's here for me," he said, his voice a simple, factual statement. "So… let's not be where he's looking."
The four women looked at him, confused.
"You're right," he continued, his mind, as always, seeing the chessboard from a different, unexpected angle. "He thinks I'm here, in Liyue, the source of the technology. He's probably setting up his plans, preparing his agents to try and abduct me from the city. So we need a diversion. A big one."
He looked at Ningguang, his glowing azure eyes full of a startling, strategic clarity. "You should continue the device rollout here, in the Harbor. But you should publicly, and very loudly, announce that due to 'unforeseen logistical challenges,' the distribution of the devices to the rest of Liyue is being postponed indefinitely. Make it seem like you've hit a production wall. That will keep Dottore's attention focused here, on the factory, on the city, on trying to steal a technology that he thinks is still in its infancy."
He then took a deep breath, and delivered the second, far more audacious, part of his plan.
"And while he's looking for me here," he said, his voice dropping to a low, serious tone, "I will go somewhere he would never, ever expect me to be. Somewhere it would be almost impossible for him to follow."
He looked at the map on the wall, at the archipelago nation shrouded in a perpetual, violent storm.
"I'm going to Inazuma."
The statement was so completely, utterly insane that for a moment, no one spoke.
"Absolutely not!" Ganyu finally burst out, her voice a mixture of horror and disbelief. "Inazuma is a closed nation! It's under a tyrannical lockdown! And the Vision Hunt Decree is in full effect! It's the most dangerous place in Teyvat for someone like you!"
"Which is exactly why he won't look for me there," Ren countered calmly. "He'll think I'm hiding in the mountains with Master, or in the safety of the Jade Chamber. He will never suspect that I would run towards a different, unrelated danger. And it's a closed nation. A Snezhnayan Harbinger can't just march in with his troops. His influence there is minimal. I would be safer from him in Inazuma than I am right here in Liyue."
His chilling, paradoxical logic was, as always, flawless.
"But why?" Keqing asked, her mind struggling to keep up. "What could you possibly hope to achieve there?"
Ren's gaze turned distant, full of a purpose that went far beyond simply running away. "I want to understand," he said softly. "I want to understand the Vision Hunt Decree. I want to understand the Shogun's will of Eternity."
It was a gamble of staggering proportions. A desperate, brilliant, and incredibly dangerous diversion. He was proposing to hide from a monster by running into the heart of a hurricane. But in the strange, high-stakes game he was now playing, it was the only move that made any sense at all.