Chapter Text
If getting into the Fatui army as a simple soldier was quite easy due to the diversity of ranks in the infantry – depending on which weapon you were mastering you were either sent to become a mage, and agent, a skirmisher and so on – few people could have the honor to pretend to the title of Harbinger. In fact, only eleven people could benefit from this privilege: People from different backgrounds, different places across Teyvat, different visions and different personalities as well, all reunited under the same goal: that was to serve the Tsaritsa, their leader. The hierarchy in the military department of the Fatui order goes as following: first the Cryo Archon, better known as the Tsaritsa, ruling over the land of Snezhnaya. Under her commands were the Eleven Fatui Harbingers, and each Harbinger led a group of Fatui soldiers. And due to the low number of Harbinger, very few recruits were good enough to be promoted to a higher rank – actually, there was no “good”. If one wanted to achieve such a position, they had to be excellent. Whether it was plotting skills or physical strength, among the Harbingers there was no place for the goods, only the elite, the best among the excellent people could at least hope to one day obtain the honor of responding directly to Her Highness the Tsaritsa’s orders.
Being promoted to a higher rank was kind of the dream of all recruits, in some ways: the first time they could ever witness the overwhelming grace of Her Highness was when they first joined the military order and they would never see her again. Every recruit could tell you about the day they met her in person: everyone remember how the day felt magical – almost unreal, admiration sparking in their eyes. Some could even get lucky to met their eyes with Hers but none would dare to maintain the eye contact, for she would not lay Her eyes on a recruit for long. At here side were the eleven Harbingers, with as much grace as her. It was a dream for the most dedicated recruits to one day, stand by her side with this stand, with the cold and icy look, glancing over a sea of new people ready to give years of their lives to serve a goal.
And after an emotional and prestigious, glorious speech, the recruits would get assigned to work under a Harbinger’s order. No one was allowed to protest against the orders for these were irrefutable, and were spoken by Her Highness in person.
Among these recruits was once a ginger boy, with wide eyes as blue as the sea and among these recruits, this boy seemed to be the most enchanted of them all. He was quite young – not more than twenty years, and he was glancing in awe at the Tsaritsa, his look could not even be dragged away to observe the other Harbingers, no, all he could see and hear was the Tsaritsa. He drank Her words like a child would drink what their mother would feed them, he heard and felt each of Her words resonates to his very deep core intensely. He, a boy whose hunger for power grew more and more each day, each minute, each second felt like this place was where he could finally let it out and let his strength become valuable, and useful. And he was not wrong at all, however neither was he right.
It was true, this boy with ginger hair was powerful and perhaps, this made him too careless too. Wherever he was, he was constantly asking people to fight. He could be nice and ask directly if one wanted to fight. However if you dared decline his offer – or worse, ignore his presence -, he would not take your “no” as an answer, and would insist day and night until he got what he longed for. And as most people would get harmed for fighting so much, he wouldn’t mind it. He was asking for it, and he was enjoying ever. second. of his fights. With poor consideration for his body, this boy would throw himself into battles and would often ruin the stealth missions he was assigned. And the more people were scolding him, the more he continued; he was barely stoppable.
Nobody knew why he wanted to fight so badly and most importantly, nobody knew how the hell could he be good at it: he was quite literally throwing his body in battles like he was nothing but a killing machine, like he was not made of flesh and like he had some kind of superpowers that made him resistant to every attack. This boy knew no fear and was terribly careless.
There were theories circulating among the recruits: maybe he was the son of a Harbinger and received a harsh training before being put to the Fatui? Either way, these rumors spread so much they got to the ears of the Harbingers. Pulcinella was the first one to hear about it He knew the rumors about a Harbinger having a son – or whatever that was he heard – were false as these were all speculations from recruits who obviously had so much time to loose that they’d make false and stupid theories, he knew that, everyone was a recruit once and everyone wanted to have a bit of fun here and there by making nonsense, somehow this proved to be relieving.
No, what caught his attention was the ginger boy, the one who was setting everyone’s eyes right on him: he asked where he could be found and as soon as he could, Pulcinella could witness the boy’s monstrous skills in fighting: a boy gifted with a hydro vision was there, out in the Snezhnayan cold plains, fighting against monsters all alone. Paying more attention to him, the Harbinger realized the boy was not fighting: rather, the large grin on his face indicated that this boy was playing. For him, it seemed even the hardest fights were but a game that he would gladly win each round of.
He was fighting with a bow and arrows, but he would occasionally use a spear made out of hydro. It was also clear that this boy came from a place somewhere in Snezhnaya, as he would never stay in place: he was always moving, dodging, preparing his bow or straight up shooting arrows with the only strength of his arm. And on top of that, the boy was enjoying all of it.
As soon as he defeated the last enemies, Pulcinella approached him. Hearing the footsteps in the snow, the boy turned to face the harbinger as he wiped some blood from his cheeks with the back of his hand, only for his eyes to widen a little as he noticed this time, they sent a harbinger to scold him.
“I saw you fighting these monsters” Pulcinella started.
“Yes, I disobeyed the orders that stated we had to only observe their camps, and not make any move” The boy said while his eyes were looking at the monster camp, which now was just a ghost camp. If the boy was careless, he was not suicidal. Lying to a harbinger was not possible because disrespecting them counted as disrespecting Her Highness Herself. He was averting his gaze from the harbinger’s not because he was ashamed of his actions, but because there was a little fear inside of him.
“ You took down all of them alone?"
"Yes, sir.” The boy was aware he disobeyed and it felt like this time, he had gone too far. Never, they never sent someone as important as a harbinger. This time either everyone was fed up by his behavior, or either they were going to send him back to his family for good.
“ You are… quite strong for a new recruit. I never imagined they recruited someone like you. Though you are indeed bold and… careless, that is true, I do not think you ever wished to harm the mission itself. I will ask you to follow me now before a storm rises.
"Yes sir.”
Once back at the headquarters, Pulcinella instructed the boy to go rest in his personal room, take care of his wounds as he would discuss the issue with other harbingers. And once the boy disappeared in the hallways, Pulcinella headed to the common room of his colleagues: in all ways this room seemed like a regular common room. There was some tables with a couple of chairs, there was a couch where they could pick a book from the giant library sitting next to it. A huge and bright chandelier was the main light source of the room though candles were lit all across the walls during night time. Pulcinella sat down on a chair and took a glass of water. His mind was somewhere else and that, the Fair Lady noticed it. She let out a soft giggle, before speaking.
“My, my, Pulcinella you seem concerned about something."
"I am."
"Would you care to share?"
"La Signora, do you think I, alone, can make a proposition to the Tsaritsa?"
"What is it about?” Now, Pulcinella really caught her attention
.
"I witnessed a new recruit today. His
strength is, well… never seen before. He is however very careless but I believe that, with adequate training he will learn not to be this careless”
La Signora crossed her legs, and seemed to think about it as well.
“Well I do not think the Tsaritsa would be against it at all, especially considering the eleventh harbinger spot has been left free for quite a long time now… Besides she would be quite fond at the idea of having a boy capable of giving his whole body just for her.” She said as a smile curved its way on her lips.
And no other words were needed as Pulcinella’s decision was made.
An icy, clear voice rang in a room. Before her throne the Cryo Archon was standing, speaking to a familiar ginger boy with wide eyes as blue as the sea, bowed before her to show the respect he felt for her.
“Under my words, I declare you as the eleventh Fatui harbinger. You shall now be known by the name of Tartaglia.” She said, her gaze laid upon the ginger who lifted his head. Their gaze met.
She made a hand gesture that instructed him to stand up. The Delusion has already been given to the ginger boy before this ceremony, and he who now went under the name of Tartaglia and as he stood up, the huge door behind him opened. He was not allowed to look back, but he heard footsteps coming closer, and closer, and closer. He heard clothes folding at the movements, and he heard the sounds of tiny bells ringing together. He was not allowed to look back.
The Tsaritsa opened her mouth to speak again.
“As your first mission, you will learn how to work with a colleague. For this task, I chose to personally pair you with the sixth harbinger, Scaramouche. You will be given several missions and if any of the mission I gave you fail, both of you will be punished equally.” Her tone was menacing and sent shivers down Tartaglia’s spine. He stood up, and walked out of the
Out of the room, Tartaglia could finally look at his colleague but before he could think about anything, Scaramouche talked.
“So I got just lucky enough to be paired with the incompetent idiot who’s unable to listen any order he is given… Wonderful. Listen here bastard, you better listen to what I tell you to do if you don’t want to be punished, alright? I warn you, if you dare to disobey me once… Not only will you get the Tsaritsa’s punishment, but I might also make you suffer like you never did. Have I made myself clear?” His last words were more of an affirmation rather than a question. At least this is how Tartaglia felt.
But though this little act was meant to scare Tartaglia, the latter felt a smile across his cheeks.
“- So you are my senior? I bet you are so strong! If you are as strong as you let me believe, then come and fight me.”
This was not what Scaramouche expected.