Chapter Text
Fontaine was not, had never been, a nation of spiritualism.
Even from the time of Egeria, Fontaine had never been spiritual. They revered their archon, one with the highest power, but was never religious. There had never been this belief about inevitability nor the meaning of life in Fontaine.
Mondstadst’s church was always overflowing with believers, lovers of freedom. They prayed for their freedom in life, in heart, in soul.
Liyue was so dependent on their archon, leaning like children to their emperor for stability and wealth so they could nurture their family and future. They held onto contracts like prayers, so unfaltering and so, so faithful.
Inazuma was all about steadfastness, crying in fear for their archon to protect them and not punish them. Every flash of lightning brought reverence and unimaginable amazement. Even their archon sought the meaning of life and sought spirituality.
Sumerians always sought knowledge, the meaning of life, existence, and all the past and present could offer to them. Their archon was the symbolism of knowledge and wisdom and they sought her like sunflowers chasing the movement of the sun.
Natlan, as the nation of wars, was the closest to death. They experienced deaths in battle almost every day, and it made them spiritual. It made them see life and death as something more. They chanted their archon’s name as they marched into battles, believing.
And as cold as the hearts of Snezhnayans, wasn’t it because their archon’s heart was frozen? And did they not utter their queen’s name with reverence and faith? Did they not believe their existence, their lives, could mean something more in the grand scheme of things?
Fontainians were not like that. Oh, do they believe in justice, but it was only for necessity. Justice, after all, is a concept that is changeable. The scale of justice changed shape depending on where you stood.
The first Hydro Archon, Egeria, was too gentle. With the exception of her dignified stature and the sword she wielded, she inspired no true faith nor believers. Not when she couldn’t even solve the matter of the deadly prophecy Celestia gave to denounce her and Fontaine.
That was why, Furina herself wasn’t spiritual. She was a devout believer because she had no other choice. Every night, she sat on her bed, hands clasped, begging in whispers of prayers so her mirror-me could succeed. She wished dearly that her encounter with the person in the mirror was not a mere figment in her part. But despite being a devout believer and unshaken in her faith that Fontaine could be saved (it must be saved, because then what else?), Furina never really thought about the meaning of existence beyond what she was told to do.
Five hundred years was enough to worn even the strongest immortal, five hundred years was enough for a literal human to see that every single thing was fleeting to the eyes. But Furina was born with nothing but humanity. She befriended one person, the next thing she knew she buried them, and the next thing she knew that person’s great-great-great grandson pointed at her nose and loudly declared that he saw no justice after being apprehended for several counts of murders to avenge a loved one. One moment, she held hands and entrusted her safety to a knight captain with gentle eyes, the next moment the man’s eighteen-times-great granddaughter pointed her sword at her in a trial with cold eyes, challenging her to a duel if she wanted to prove herself innocent of all charges.
Water holds memory. To be sure she could play her part as the Hydro Archon to the maximum, Furina tirelessly memorized every single face she saw and every single name she learned. One would not catch her forgetting their face, name, or voice. Even if that person covered half of her face and her most eyecatching feature, Furina would still know who the person that raised her hand to hurt her when she was relaxing and strolling around during the night.
Suppose speaking, Furina had never lived for herself in the last five hundred years of her luxury to be an immortal. But she had seen others live (and die), and it numbed her... But it never stripped her off of her humanity.
So... what was the meaning of existence? Beyond saving Fontaine, what was it?
182,376 painful days, what was the meaning of existence. Was it to live as you like, recalling life fondly as you let your mind fly to the open free sky? Was it to find happiness and fulfilment in the face of adversity? Was it to live with contentment with as little as you got and find beauty in simple things? Was it to compile knowledge that would revolutionize yourself and future generations? Was it for close friends and the peace you’ve never seen? Or was it to see through what you started, to find a way to make life meaningful after it shattered?
Furina didn’t know. She suffered as she suffered, soothed as she was soothed. She couldn’t find a place to complain about her situation because she had all her needs fulfilled (it helped that she never knew what she actually needed at all), but she couldn’t find fulfilment to say she was happy sincerely.
She was in a purgatory of dilemma. Lonely when surrounded by people, empty while surrounded by wealth, wanting to cry when surrounded by laughters, yearning for a corner while being adored at the center... All the reason to laugh, she wanted to cry. All the reasons to cry, but she must smile.
How terrible. What was the meaning of existence, then?
That was why when her mirror-me came to her and said she was going to leave, Furina completely lost it. She’d had enough of people leaving her, then even her own reflection wanted to leave her too? Was she so despicable???
Was deceiving everyone for the last five hundred years made her the most unpleasant existence? She lost everything, and even her own reflection didn’t want to associate with her? How pathetic! Ahahahahaha.
Don’t.
Don’t leave me alone...
Her reflection left her first... then what would be next? Would the heaven tear her from limb to limb for her deceit? Would the Knave come back and finish what she had wanted to do that night and rip away Furina’s heart? Would she be stripped off of every single thing she had left and be left with nothing, not even an intact body for her bleeding heart?
Would Neuvillette watch as she was getting her deserved punishment for her lies for the last five hundred years? Would he help rip apart Furina too? Or would he just watch coldly, too disgusted to even go near her?
What was the meaning of existence? Existence is terrifying. So much uncertainty, so much danger, so much heartbreak.
Furina couldn’t see the meaning of it beyond saving Fontaine.
People lived in the pursuit of happiness, to do what they wanted to do, to build themselves a life worth living for. Did Furina ever deserve to be happy?
From the moment she opened her eyes, she was destined to lie. A terrible sinner she was. Pretending to be a hero while actually being nothing more than a dirty liar. A liar, a fraud, a pretender, a conwoman.
She once read that the Church of Mondstadst encouraged people who had done wrong in their lives to repent. To do good deeds and pray for mercy upon their souls so no shackles of guilt and regret could hold them down from letting their souls soar freely. The concept was very foreign.
In Fontaine, there was no such repenting. Justice demands just punishment and just result. Feeling guilty and regretful alone were not enough. If you do a crime, then you do the time. Repenting just meant you did not repeat after you were punished.
With such a straightforward outlook, how could Furina dream for more? She took the coward’s way out and begged her mirror-self to end her.
Furina genuinely thought that was the end of it. she didn’t mind dying a wretched death with ugly crime on her head. Her life had been for Fontaine, how she lost it didn’t matter if Fontaine was already lost... or if what her mirror-self said was true and Fontaine was saved, Furina didn’t think Fontaine would want her, a fake archon and a fraud, back.
Rather than facing rejection from the people (children, they were all once children she watched grew up) she poured all her love and life towards, she’d rather escape justly. Furina had been brave for so, so, so long. She had been at her limit. In reality, she was a very cowardly person, a detestable woman.
There was no meaning in existence, there was no expectation beyond death. She was a pawn in the grand board, a necessary sacrifice that no one ought to remember.
Furina was content with this. She tried to smile when her mirror-self hugged her. (Finally, someone hugged her. How many centuries had it been? How many centuries guarding a detached and haughty image, keeping distance from people so they didn’t get too close and find out her secret? ...a split second when mirror-self hugged her, Furina wanted to hug others. She wanted to hug more people. Her loyal subjects, the children of Fontaine, the melusines, Neuvillette... Neuvillette...)
Furina expected purgatory, nothingness, void, or field of stars her mirror-self promised (She didn’t know whether to believe her on that)
She didn’t expect to wake up in an ice box. She glimpsed Neuvillette reading by her side, separated by a translucent barrier of ice. She thought, she must be delirious, and she closed her eyes.
She was still in the ice box when she woke up again and she heard someone was speaking. Neuvillette. The low thrum and calming cadence of his voice was unforgettable for Furina, unfortunately she couldn’t hear him properly from inside the ice box, just broken muffled hums. It sounded like a lullaby to her, so she closed her eyes again and lulled back into nothingness by it.
She woke up again, and it was dark, she was still in the ice box. Furina began to consider that the afterlife might be just a small coffin-like space made of ice where the deceased could watch their living loved ones through the translucent screen. It sounded terrifying when worded out but Furina couldn’t find herself be sad over the lack of space. As long as she could see how her Iudex was doing, that would be fine. But, it didn’t seem her Iudex was doing fine. She wanted to say, ‘You should rest. It’s late.’ But it was dark, and Furina was sleepy, so she closed her eyes and fell into complete darkness once again.
Her eyes fluttered open when she heard a sobbing noise, her heart ached at the despair in that muffled cry.
‘I have done everything...’
‘Why is it not working...?’
What? What is it you’ve done? We can talk it out and look for a way out together...
‘Have you truly gone...?
‘No... if you can wait five hundred years for a way to save Fontaine, then I will do so tens times of that to have you back.’
You don’t have to do that. Saving Fontaine is the burden I meant to shoulder.
‘Furina, please come back.’
I’m here... But everything is so heavy. Let me close my eyes for a bit.
‘I’ve looked everywhere and yet still no answer... is this how lost you felt when you looked for a way to defy the prophecy and the flood yourself?’
‘I have met with the usurpers, I thought maybe they had an answer. The usurper of Sumeru, in all her wisdom and intellect, apologized and said she had no answer. Disappointing, but I didn’t blame her. The other usurpers, especially the one from Inazuma, on the other hand...’
Wait... what...?
‘...I can’t stand any of them.’
Neuvillette...
‘Why are they allowed to live when most of them are nothing but useless relics too trapped in their own self-righteous motives?! While you...’
A pause, shuddering. ‘Apologies, how hypocritical of me.’
‘After all, I’m the same...’
‘If there is another life and reality, I would take you away and let this nation drown.’
No...
‘Furina, I had a dream again. But why is it always Focalors? I want you...’
‘Furina... Furina, which one is the real you...? You’re not Focalors, not that woman under the sword, I know this. I’m sure of this. That woman has no humanity, she’s not you... But I realized I didn’t know the real you either...’
‘Which one is the real me...? The Iudex... or the dragon...’
Both... Both are good.
‘Sometimes I think your eyelashes are trembling...’
‘But the last time I thought so, it was just my imagination and I broke the coffin...’
Coffin...?!
‘... and had to hold the whole Snezhnaya hostage to flood just to get the Cryo Usurper to fix it...’
Huh?!
‘Open your eyes, please...’
‘Let me gaze upon your magnificent eyes again, let me see your mismatched irises, let me lost myself in your teardrop pupils.’
‘is this her...?’
‘Naturally, there’s no other person encased in a special Cryo coffin made by the tsaritsa herself, isn’t there? The Tsaritsa’s aura is all over that coffin.’
‘...’
‘...’
‘...She has not aged a day, I presume. There’s no trace of rigor mortis. I almost thought she’s a puppet.’
‘Stop it.’
‘Oh, sorry.’
‘...She might as well be a puppet. Used for a purpose and discarded afterwards by her creator.’
There were voices of strangers, Furina didn’t know who. They were not Neuvillette. She felt trepidation, her mind woke and aware after so long. But wasn’t she dead? Or was this how purgatory work?
‘Technically speaking, she was Focalors. The body and spirit. But indeed, she was without memory and it had been so long she might as well be a new entity instead of ‘Focalors’.’
‘What use of body without memory, heart, and mind? She might as well be a new creation. The real Focalors was the Hydro Archon who gave back the hydro authority to the dragon sovereign that is now everyone’s problems.’
‘Sigh... I’m sure even Focalors couldn’t foresee this.’
‘What a goddess. Ha! You know there hasn’t been any new Hydro Vision holder in the last ten years and Fontaine’s roads are basically canals now.’
‘...Well, the Dragon Sovereign promised he would set aside a portion of his power as a show of peace, we’ll get new Hydro Vision users soon...’
‘...So, what do we do now? Destroy her body? No, right?’
What?!
‘What? No. We stick to the plan and transport her to Irminsul for safekeeping! How could you think that, Wanderer? Remember the simulation we did? Even removing Miss Furina from Hydro Dragon Sovereign’s memory would make him go on a rampage. She’s the reason he is human and even attempting to understand human. If we do anything to her, there’s no peaceful way to appease him.’
‘Well then, just tell me how! I don’t like carrying a dead body.’
‘I’ll help you, don’t worry. Just, be careful with your words. I’m the only archon he tolerates and I need to retain that so I could be the neutral zone between him and the rest of the archons... At least until this whole debacle ends.’
‘Yeah... Has anyone ever thought what should we do after? If we lose this fight, we’re dead. If we win this fight and the dragon finds out we actually didn’t have a way to revive this poor girl, everybody is dead too.’
Neuvillette wouldn’t do that. He was too gentle to do that!
‘...As long as heaven asunders, I believe it will open paths we have yet to traverse.’
‘Let’s hope what you said will happen, Kusanali...’
‘This is the dearly departed Hydro Archon?’
‘What are you doing here?! If the dragon knows you’re here, he’ll do anything to kill you.’
‘Wanderer, it’s fine. Barbatos, what is your intention here?’
‘Buer, I got no other intention, I come by to see her. What a beauty, it is really a tragedy. In life, she’s trapped in her role. In death, she’s trapped in this coffin, sigh...’
‘That’s enough, if you start to sing ballad, I will beat you up.’
‘She was a terrific performer when she was alive. Who knows, she might be revived when she hears my tear-jerking and magnificent ballad for her, hm~’
‘...Kusanali, release my legs from your dendro vines. I will have to kick this stupid archon out.’
‘Hohoho, harsh~’
‘As much as I value your presence, Barbatos. I’m afraid I cannot entertain you in this room. Shall we head out?’
‘Of course. Dear lady of hydro, although you are long departed, please accept my bow of admiration.’ Silence. ‘I wish you're still here. Well! That's all. I'll be going now~ Bye Buer, bye Hat Guy~'
‘Furina...’
‘I will tear apart the heaven for you. Once we succeed, there will be a way to revive you.’
‘I just hope when you wake up, I won’t be someone you hate.’
‘It’s getting harder to not tear apart selfish humans who cared not about you. I don’t want to be someone you don’t recognize when you do wake up, so please wake up while I still resemble the Neuvillette you know.’
‘I don’t want to be the Iudex anymore. I cannot be impartial. If I am given a choice between Fontaine or you, the scale will tilt towards you.’
‘Wuuu... wuu... Lady Furina, what should we do?’
That voice... Sedene?
‘Are we going to lose Monsieur Neuvillette too?’
‘No, no, no, what should we do if Monsieur is gone...?!’
‘Wuuu... We already lost Lady Furina ten years ago, what should we do if he’s gone too?’
‘The injury he sustained was so fatal last I saw. Sigewinne tried to hide it and I might not be a nurse but I know that didn’t look good!’
‘He’s the only independent sovereign so he is extremely crucial in battle to wrestle back some control over the authority of heaven, but as a result he suffered the most brunt!’
‘At this rate, he might die!’
No... No! How on earth could this have happened?!
Furina needed to wake up. She needed to! She had to...
What?
What could she do even if she run to the battle right now? It sounded so serious and fatal, what place a normal human like Furina had in a battle between gods?
Furina, you can’t even do anything about the flood, let alone a fight against the Heavenly Principle. Look at yourself. You have no ability. All you did for five hundred years is acting, and even on that front, you failed.
Furina despaired. She wanted power, she didn’t want it to be better or anything, she just wanted it so she wasn’t so powerless. Just once, she wanted to actually succeed saving people, someone, she cherished.
She failed her life mission and failed everyone’s expectations. Just once, she wanted to succeed and be deserving of someone’s love. She wanted to stop being a disappointment and actually fulfil something in her life, even if that would cost her her life.
Furina’s chest fluttered, and she suddenly felt warm.
Mirror-me... My apologies. I don’t want to go to rest among the stars with you. This life of mine, I want to use it. I can’t lose it yet to despair or for nothing. I have to use it! If I must lose my life, then please let me use it to help him!
And Furina felt her smile, then, she saw her mirror-self smiled sincerely and warmly. Touching her head in an ethereal stage that only had them, the ethereal version of her nodded. “You have finally made a decision. So long, my dear Furina. I will await you, but don’t join me too early this time.”
Furina teared up. “Focalors...” that name appeared in her mind.
Focalors nodded. “Don’t be too sad.” She patiently wiped Furina’s tears. “I also think you’re destined for something greater, a stage bigger than I could imagine. Although I’d rather you live normally, but alas, one must work with what one is handed. Now go.” She stepped back.
“Thank you.”
Focalors nodded, fading, leaving a whisper of affection. “Thank you to you too, my dear ideal.”
.
Clink
All the Melusines huddled in the room hidden inside Irminsul had to look up when they heard the strange noise. On the initially empty Cryo Coffin now laid a Hydro Vision and they stared at it bewilderedly.
“Whose... vision is that?” Sedene asked her sisters and all of them shook their heads. She stood up to retrieve the vision but suddenly it burst, and three water mimics with unique features appeared out of nowhere.
“AH!” They all cried out when the water mimic ferociously attacked the Cryo Coffin.
“No! Stop!”
“Don’t hurt Lady Furina!” The Melusines cried angrily and geared up to fight back.
Hearing the commotion inside, an all-geared Wanderer barged in to settle them down and froze when he saw what was happening.
“Hey, stop! Who is doing that!?”
“We don’t know!” Sedene exclaimed, defending her and all her sisters from suspicion. “It suddenly appeared from the Hydro Vision over there!”
“What Hydro Vision? --Ugh, you lowly mimics, scram!” Wanderer attacked the three water mimics but the hydro mimics seemed to have way higher intelligence than normal mimics. They dodged and kept on attacking the coffin, one of them even blew bubbles to Wanderer to keep him away and busy. “What the—”
Crack!
“Fuck,” Wanderer blurted out.
Shatter!
The tough Cryo Coffin, made by the queen of Snezhnaya herself, shattered and crumbled tamely. Cryo aura spread with the break of the coffin, causing mist to fill the room. Wanderer’s outstretched hands fell on his sides.
“Impossible...” he muttered.
Furina got up slowly, breath short. Her three summons huddled around her, propping her up. Mademoiselle Crabballeta fetched and dropped the Hydro Vision on her lap, and she then grasped it tightly. Despite her weak condition, she raised her head and stared straight at the purple-haired stranger whose voice she recognized.
“Take me to Neuvillete,” she gasped breathlessly. “Please.”
If her body didn’t dissolve in water for failures in saving Fontaine, then let her use it to assist her righteous Iudex to fight for justice (and let him keep walking down righteous paths).
Water flows, simmers, freezes, and vaporizes but it remains there. As is Furina.
Nobody knew it yet, but the regina of all waters was bound to bring back hope into the wrought battlefield and a Dragon Sovereign that was ready to give it all up.