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"I spy, with my wicked eye, something beginning with... A!" For Anika and Ella, or any child in the city, Sunday was an excellent day for this game.
From the second story window of their father's apartment, they'd watched as the cobblestones were buried under the merchant carts and colourful marquees of Market Sunday. A ribbon of groceries, homewares, clothing and knick-knacks brought the entire city out of their homes, along with a steady stream of people from the nearby villages dotted around Mondstadt. The streets were never this busy, never as full of things starting with different letters.
Ella scanned the stalls. "Apples!"
Anika grinned. "Nope."
"Aprons!"
"Nah."
"Uhhh..." She turned, pointing at her sister. "Anika?"
Anika giggled. "Pfff, no. Give up yet?"
"No! I've got more guesses!" Ella's eyebrows smushed into her nose as she peered into the crowd. There had to be another A-thing somewhere.
At that moment, if she'd been very good at 'I Spy', she might have spotted one. A pair of dark twin-tails streaked through the crowd, trailing behind their blue-clad owner whose profession began with A.
Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit.
Mona Megistus sprinted through the bustling streets, half-awake, doing her best to weave a path through the masses of people. This was one of the few times she appreciated her short- ahem, modest frame. She could duck and spin with the grace of a sparrow.
It had been a productive evening for the astrologer. The setting sun brought with it a rare corner of the night sky; a unique alignment of the heavens, scarred by a brilliant meteor shower right upon the hour Mona predicted.
Most would simply marvel at the astral phenomenon's beauty. Only an astrologer of Mona's calibre, of which there were vanishingly few, understood how much the phenomenon could teach one skilled enough to read it. She'd spent the evening in supplication to her profession, tirelessly making observations and recording data. The opportunity present for a few short hours – a cosmic blink – must not be wasted.
The great astrological genius bore witness to no mere pretty image. Through studying every minute detail of that image, she could one day uncover hints at the twisting coils of fate, the naked truths of the human heart.
Because of this, she was about to miss out on cheap almonds.
It was the last market Sunday of the month, which meant a particular grocer on Crow Lane had two days to rid himself of surplus almonds before receiving a new shipment from Liyue. Mona knew it was a waste. Almonds kept remarkably well, far beyond a month. Selling them at a third of the regular price was an insult to their frankly miraculous nutritional value! Still, if he wanted to cut off his nose to spite his almonds, Mona was happy to take advantage.
Except today she'd overslept, passed out at her desk. It was well past noon. She vaulted a decorative hedge into a garden bed, hopping from toe to toe around flowers as she flew past a crowded fisherman's toast stand. If she didn't hurry there'd be nothing but fresh, full market price produce left to greet her. Cheery chalk signs would leer at her, mocking her with mora-per-stone costs she couldn't justify.
Her stomach growled, her face twisted. She would not spend another month scrounging for mushrooms in the woods. She would not. She had far more important matters to attend to, matters of fate, the truths of the universe, the-
Her foot crushed a cecilia with the grace of a sparrow. AUGGHHH. Leaping from the garden, world-renowned astrologer Mona Megistus sprinted, breathless, stumbling through the city for discount nuts.
Even as the sun travelled west, stretching the shadow of Barbatos' statue across the central square, the market was still in full swing. The established store-holders always drew crowds, packing every inch with eager customers. A keen eye scanning the surface of this roiling mass of people might spot a blonde, black-ribboned ponytail bobbing anxiously through the square.
"KLEEEE! KLEEEEEE!" Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit.
The Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, Jean Gunnhildr, gently, politely shoved her way through the crowd. Calves straining for every last bit of elevation, she broke the surface, searching for the Order's runaway collective child. This was one of the handful of times she appreciated her gangly- ah, relatively tall frame.
Jean sighed. She could hear Lisa admonishing her for that thought.
On Sundays, Klee was allowed to leave headquarters only when escorted by one of the Knights. Kaeya was due to take her today, but had arrived to collect her and found an empty room. She'd escaped and taken some of her toys. The explosive ones.
Klee's escort was as much for everyone else's safety as her own.
"KLEEEEEEE!" Jean pushed on. She'd roped every off-duty Knight she could find into the search. As such, she could hardly refuse to join the hunt herself, even if she was in the middle of redrafting distribution guidelines for the Church's missionaries, plus searching Mondstadt's trade network for leads on a new source of wheat after a crop failure in Sumeru, and then there was Lisa's brief on current Mondstadt-Liyue border treaties prepared for tomorrow's conference with the visiting Liyue military delegation that she was yet to even glance over not to mention the request from the Adventurer's Guild for-
Her foot caught on something. Wha-
Her arms shot out as she swung herself back and forward, like an undignified reed in the wind. Regaining her balance, Jean blinked. Her foot had caught on the lip of the fountain, the centrepiece of the square. She'd made it halfway across the square with no memory of doing so. Her stomach dropped. She could have passed Klee and not known it.
Jean closed her eyes. Stop. Focus. Klee, Klee is the priority. She drew herself up, corrected her posture. Clear your mind. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to ground herself with her surroundings. The warm breeze rolling in from the north, drawing loose hair across her cheeks. The gentle mist drifting from the fountain, dusting the tip of her nose. The buzz of the marketplace, hundreds of voices, footsteps, clatter, a dizzying array of noises mashed together, impossible to separate, a hopelessly tangled mire with no beginning nor end-
Her face scrunched. Damnit! FOCUS. She drew breath. The warm breeze rolling in...
As any astrologer knows, an accurate reading of the heavens demanded a clear recognition of scale. Every component of the universe, every object, person, moment or thought influenced the path of the fates. The skill lay in correctly judging the weight of that influence.
If judged as single components, the vast majority weighed little. This is not to say they did not matter. Combined, they made up the Whole, the rolling, undulating fabric of the universe upon which fate flows and spins and crashes.
Some things, however, bear outsized influence. Objects, people, moments and thoughts which sit deep against the fabric, distorting it, redirecting the flow. The grandest amongst them carve their own landscape as they move, great valleys and pits, drawing in whatever that comes near and trapping it in orbit.
As stated, the skill lay in judging that weight. A novice but diligent astrologer must gather masses of data, painstakingly cross-referencing for an accurate reading. An experienced practitioner develops a muscle memory of sorts, an easy estimation that could be rapidly confirmed.
If an astrologer was particularly skilled – one of a calibre of which there were vanishingly few, for example – weight could be felt. Such was their knowledge of the heavens, so expansive their memory and deep their understanding that a kind of interweaving occurs. A connection between universe and astrologer. The fabric tugs on their mind, delivering a direct sensation of the weights and influences surrounding them, the distortions and redirections of the fates.
And right now, Mona felt the presence of a real big ditch.
Her graceful, poetic motion was devolving into hard shoves as she approached the town square, the crowd’s density increasing. Mona growled through her teeth. Reduced to acts of brute force…
Though they were a factor, the crowd was not the true source of her frustration. A truly massive object of fate lay somewhere nearby, something that threw the scales completely out of balance. The sensation was almost like someone insistently tugging at her hair. Yet despite its size, between the sheer number of people and her sleep-addled state of mind she simply could not identify it. It was infuriating. An astrologer of her skill, unable to read such an obvious sign…
A blasphemous thought exploded in her mind. Damn the signs, damn the fates, I want my almonds! Desperation called for extreme methods.
Mona called upon the power of her Vision. With a whispered word her body dissolved to water and streaked along the ground, heading for the square.
She prayed no one slipped on her.
The canvas sails of the windmills, rippling in the breeze. There are seventeen unopened letters waiting on my desk. The crackle of Sara's frypan, the scent of braised meat drifting over the square. Kaeya's quarterly inventory of the cavalry's supplies is late. Again. The uh... the sound of... mushrooms...?
Rigid all over, Jean clicked her tongue as angrily as one could. This was a waste of time. She could still search for Klee, even if she couldn't attain perfect focus. She got plenty done without perfect focus. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had perfect focus, come to think of it.
As she spun on her heel, about to take off, her gut went tight. Time slowed. Instinct. An assault.
Her eyes went wide. Every hair stood on end. A streak of water shot up before her. She continued her spin, turning her shoulder towards her assailant, bracing for the blow. The water shifted, darkened and burst into form.
A face. A gorgeous, stunned face, like a surprised water nymph.
Barrelling into Jean, she and her assailant tumbled into the fountain.
Maintaining this form was by no means taxing. It wouldn't be, if not for the growing, insistent alarm from Mona's astrological senses. As she entered the square it tugged on her being, pressed her soul to the ground, squeezed and befuddled her mind.
Her whole body tensed, as much as that was possible for a speeding puddle. Focus. Focus on the almonds. Delicious, filling, maybe just a little stale alm-
Almost halfway across, her senses screamed. It was here. It was right here. Concentration broken, she returned to human form and sprang from the ground, face to face with her obstacle.
Her obstacle had a face. A beautiful, shocked face.
Mona hit her obstacle like a sparrow slamming into a mountain. They tumbled, landing underwater.
Jean's spin was unbroken by the impact. As such, despite starting with her back to the fountain, she landed on top of her assailant, legs tangled. Shoving herself up, her vision cleared as water poured from her face.
Her breath hitched.
Between her arms, breaking the surface of the water was a small, terrified face. Skin like porcelain shot through with crimson, framed by deep, sparkling violet hair. Wide emerald eyes stood against dark brows and lashes, flecked with tiny crystals of water. Archons, she...
Nothing. There was nothing. For the first time in years, Jean's mind was empty. Quiet. There was nothing but this face.
The quiet didn't last. "HI MONA!"
Klee's voice. Jean span. Standing by the fountain, surrounded by stunned onlookers was a grinning Kaeya and a startled Klee, riding on his shoulders. "Well now," Kaeya said, looking happier than Jean could ever recall seeing him, "I hope we didn't interrupt anything?"
Jean knew only weightless fog and roaring silence. There were people here. She should respond. "O-oh, Kaeya! You found Klee! That's good!" Yes, finding Klee was good. She remembered that.
Klee scratched her cheek. "Master Jean, why are you and Mona in the fountain? You said knights aren't allowed to play in the fountain."
"Oh! I.. uh..." Jean shot to her feet and almost came down again, the fog tightening around her head. Wh... why am I so lightheaded? "Uhhh..." She turned to Klee, to the lady, to Kaeya, back to the lady, processing maybe one word at a time. The lady was still there, flinching, up to her chest in water. It finally clicked. Archons, where are my manners?!
"M-Mona, is it? You're acquainted with Klee?"
Jean, throwing Mona the calmest smile she could manage, extended her hand.
Slowly, agonisingly slowly, Mona came to.
Sensation, awareness of her surroundings seeped into her brain. Her butt was wet. Water lapped gently against her armpits. There were people surrounding the fountain, all of them staring at her. She was aware of these things, but that awareness occupied the smallest, dustiest attic of her mind.
Towering over her, the knight offering her hand took up everything else.
A simple linen shirt, rolled up to the elbows, clung to her firm, powerful arms. Water ran from her glinting, blindingly bright hair. Freckles peppered her sun-blessed skin, which was coloured with a gentle blush.
The knight smiled. For its hesitation, its slight waver, the smile brightened her entire face, crinkling eyes that made Mona think of the Evening Star hanging at dusk. That smile pierced Mona's skull, bound her lungs, set her stomach rolling and warm.
Mona couldn't move. Couldn't speak. The seconds ticked by, and she could do nothing but gawp.
Too many seconds, and the knight's smile faltered. Mona's heart seized. Origin unknown, a single command shot through her body. Run.
"SorryI'msosorry!"
The lady scrambled, launched herself from the fountain and crashed through the crowd. "Sorry! Very sorry!"
She was gone.
Jean, hand still outstretched, stood dumbfounded. Did... did I say something wrong?
"Master Jeeeeaan!" Klee's voice finally pierced the fog. "You have to get out of the fountain! It's not allowwweeed!"
She turned. Klee's puffed up, angry form bounced violently on Kaeya's shaking shoulders. Eyes shielded, he seemed fascinated by something on the ground.
Jean hurriedly exited the fountain she wasn't supposed to be playing in.
Mona slumped against a wall, clutching her chest, gasping for air. She'd barely made it two blocks before almost collapsing, her entire upper torso about to explode. How?! She couldn't be that out of shape. Mona's physical fitness was a point of pride, a necessity for the demanding work of an astrologer. Why was her chest so tight after a mere minute of sprinting? Maybe she'd skipped one too many meals lately-
She froze. Meals. Food. Almonds.
Such was Mona's skill, she needed no tools, no incantation, only a moment's reflection on the faint strings of the universe. From this moment on, down every twisting path of fate, a sign advertising cut-price almonds was nowhere to be seen. All that remained was the satisfaction of a grocer, pleased that he had sold out his stock.
Groaning, she sank to the ground, face buried in her hands.
Maybe she could make do with those awful dried chickpeas she'd been avoiding.
"...something beginning with..." Anika's face lit up. "Ooh! W!"
Ella's eyes darted across the crowd. She must have seen something new, something-
Her body sprang up, as if electrified. "There! There!" She was half out the window, frantically shaking a finger at a figure in the street. "Wet lady!"
The lady, who was crouched on the ground attempting to wring a small lake from one of her ponytails, looked up at Ella. She'd probably been a bit loud.
Ella waved. "Hello!"
The lady didn't wave or say hello. She rapidly turned red instead. Then she ran away.
"Aww." Ella turned to Anika. "Was I right?"
Anika giggled. "Yep. Your turn."