Operation Cupid (tartali !¡ zhongchi)

prologue: The 10 Steps to Make Your Partner Fall in Love Again

It was rare to see all the Fatui Harbingers gathered at the same place, most of the time it didn't mean anything good, usually to other people and archons that they come across, but this time Childe could sense something bad happened as soon as he walked through the door and found two empty chairs: his own, marked with the number eleven, and the eighth, which belonged to Signora.

She was supposed to have returned from her mission on Inazuma a week ago and be dealing with annoying paperwork in her office across the street since then, Tartaglia was the only one to come from far away to witness that meeting and, for that, should have been the last one to get there, but even so, Signora's chair remained empty and pressed against the table, even when a full 10 minutes had passed.

The trip from Liyue to Shneznaya had been long and completely ended with Ajax's characteristic good humor, the idea of ​​having to go through it all again as soon as Tsaritsa ended the meeting was stressful enough to make the young harbinger consider suicide, he didn't even was sure if he wanted the meeting to end as soon as possible or never.

It's not like he had anything to come back to anyway, anything besides his boring job and a certain consultant slash god who just lied to him and has been avoiding him since then.

Tsaritsa asked Pantalone to lock the door to the room and dismiss the guards at the door as soon as the redhead arrived, 15 minutes later she was still silent, making the room stare at each other with tense expressions, none of them brave enough to rush the Cryo Archon.

— where is Signora? — Scaramouche asked 5 minutes later, staring at an empty chair completely ignored by the queen.

— the eighth is dead — Tsaritsa answered quickly, 20 minutes of silence and this was the best way she found to tell this news, some faces contorted in surprise at how sincere it had been, but no one showed genuine sadness. — we are all gathered here to mourn her loss and pray that her soul finds peace.

It wasn't like they actually cared, no, Signora was a narcissistic bitch and most of those present felt a complete aversion to her existence. The eleventh wouldn't be ashamed to admit his curiosity in meeting and congratulating the person responsible for putting her head on a platter.

He looked inside a vase that was sitting on the corner of the table, an urn filled with Signora's ashes, the ginger asked himself how awful was the state of her body for no one to be allowed to see her face at her funeral. Or maybe there was no body. The person responsible for her downfall turned her into ashes right then and there...Tartaglia felt a sort of morbid excitement start to rush through his veins at the idea of ​​someone so powerful existing, that he would love to fight against something with that much potential. The ginger was sure he wouldn't end up in a vase too.

He noticed that he was smiling, but none of the members seemed to care for that show of apathy, the Fatui Harbingers were a group of people too proud, bloodthirsty, and cruel to feel anything for the death of a fallen colleague, if anything, they all shared the thought that La Signora had been defeated by her own incapacity, nothing more.

— that's how she was found? — Ajax established enough courage to ask, the queen nodded before turning back to a funeral speech that sounded as cold as the land they all were stepping on, Tartaglia was sure that the shivers down his veins weren't caused by the frigid air.

At the end of her speech, she warned that someone would be sent to Inazuma soon for diplomatic matters, in an attempt to prevent an unwanted war between the land of the Electro Archon and Shneznaya. Not that any of them would lift a finger to avenge Signora's death, not really, but it wouldn't hurt to warn them not to.

After a long and boring meeting, they were slowly dismissed one by one, Ajax sat there reflecting on how he would have enough time to see his family before coming back to his duties until there were only him and the queen in the room, she made a hand gesture, calling him to get up and come closer, he did so, getting on his knees.