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Of masks and dances Chapter 18: The problem with unattended fires

Things that happen when you leave Diluc to his own devices, and their consequences.

My brain fizzled after I posted this chapter, so I forgot to drop the link.

Today's menu is angst and I hope you like it because, while there is a light on the end of the tunnel, there is a few thousand words before we get there.

At this point I guess I should come clean and say there's some Ragnvindr bros reconciliation going on in this fic.
That specific trope is not tagged because it was not exactly on my original plans. The thing is, the moment you start making explanations for the problems* Diluc and Kaeya have in their personal lives, it all boils down to a duel.

This chapter is me presenting a solution of sorts to the conflict they've been going through the whole fic. Of course nothing is settled, but they! come! to an agreement!

I'm very happy with it.
Also, I got to poke Diluc with the feelings stick a bit more, and that is the whole point of this exercise.

Songs and poetry
Some small god** might be able to explain why I took upon myself to add not one but two bits of original poetry inspired by songs in this chapter. Then I looked at it, thought it was too much and turned one into a simpler quote.
Still wrote two things of the sort I don't normally do.

Poem 1 is Kaeya's. I made it to fit a quote from a D. C. Fontaines song (the direct quote is the last two lines).

I'm wary of happy moments
butterfly winged joy,
spun-glass contentment
My hands are sword-calloused, you see
unfit for fragility
What good is happiness to me
if I have to wield it carefully?

I like this poem, it really gives me a Kaeya vibe.
Oh fuck, I just remembered I wrote THREE poems. Poem 2 is another Kaeya poem, the one he writes impromptu as a reaction, and refers to Diluc (in case it's not obvious by the subject matter):

Heart bright as lighthouse
but smoke will take you under
sure as any wave

Why am I under the impression Kaeya is a poet? Mainly because he was raised to be a Mondstadt gentleman, so not to put a bad light on Diluc, which means he was educated. Poetry is both art and rebellion, poets have always been transgressors, it fits him (as the fact that Diluc can't do it also fits him).

Poem 3 is an excerpt from "The Ballad of Dawnlight", a ballad written by an anonymous bard from Mondstadt's Late Aristocratic Period. Not Venti's work, though he knew the author.
I made it by playing around with the words to a song by Legião Urbana. I'm terribly sorry for anyone that recognizes the song and, thus, gets it stuck in their head. But, hey, it's been stuck in my head longer.

To be a captive with a smile
To have him kneel before you, your conqueror
To stay true to who would kill you
Ever so conflicted is this love

The context for this song is the story of Ragnvindr and the Dawnlight Swordswoman, which is a love story if I've ever seen one. A tragic one, as it ends with her death. Ragnvindr buries her sword "where the winds meet" and decides then and there that his loyalty doesn't belongs to his lord, but to his land and the freedom Dawnlight defended, calling himself Dawn Knight from then on (he later joins Venessa's rebellion, so his heart was truly changed).
So the point Jean is making here is that Diluc's loyalties are as painful to him as his ancestor's were. And perhaps she might also mean that the only solution for his problem would be to lay his loyalty on Mondstadt only. But that would be Jean, wouldn't it? For Mondstadt, as always.
 

* To quote Mother Mother, like the goth I am: "Not just the ones that are little".
** It's obviously all Venti's fault.