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The meetings among the Fatui were always maddening, Arlecchino could not believe that those ten individuals had been selected to receive the highest honor that could come from the Tsaritsa herself. Everyone was crazy, she was the only sane one. And that was exactly what the other members of the organization also thought.
In particular, she was unable to understand the third harbinger. She rarely saw her go on missions, she didn't speak at meetings, she just sang. Columbine was a sweet haunting, disappearing through the halls as unobtrusively as a fanned flame. At first, Arlecchino believed that the girl craved attention, she was always starring in some dramatic and morbid scene, but over time, she observed that she was that way even when she was alone. Columbina was in another dimension, as intangible as an elemental force, but never appearing arrogant, it was clear that she didn't care about others around her.
It was a cold night on Snezhnaya, just like the previous one and the next one in succession. Being the bearer of a pyro illusion did not change the way the icy air entered the harbinger's body, bringing the feeling of being cut from the inside. She brought back bad memories of when she lived on the street, it wouldn't let her sleep. She left her dorm and started walking around the palace. The cold corridors were a predictable little maze, yet she took her nightly walk with her hand on her sword scabbard.
As she approached a crossroads, she began to hear a perfectly tuned melody. She kept her distance, watching only the third harbinger silhouetted in front of a huge stained glass window in reddish tones. She had never actually heard Columbina singing, just a few murmurs in the middle of meetings, never anything more than humming, but here she was actually singing. Arlecchino couldn't say what language it was, it didn't resemble any of those spoken in Teyvat, it seemed like a dead but sacred language. She asked herself if she should really be listening to that, though, she couldn't move anymore. The notes seemed to guide a journey of suffering where Arlecchino didn't need to understand a word to know how much pain they carried.
The spy would have cried if her heart had been a little softer.
In an instant, Columbina put an end to her colleague's daydreams. She stopped singing abruptly and jumped out of the window as if the height and cold were a mere fluke that would make an exception when noticing who was present.
Arlecchino followed stealthily, zipped up his heavy coat once more, and followed the tracks in the snow. It wasn't difficult to find a girl entirely in black in the middle of the snow, however, for the first time the spy felt guilty for chasing someone, there were always very clear and rational motivations, but what was yours at the moment? She wouldn't know how to answer.
“I always knew you were a creature of the night too, Arle.” The girl commented without even having to turn around. "Since you're here, would you mind helping me?"
Arlecchino swallowed hard and decided that justifying himself would make things even more awkward.
"On what exactly?"
“You will see...”
They continued walking through the palace's immense garden, following the snowy path between the greenhouses.
"You know, if I knew what we were looking for it would be easier..." She crossed her arms.
“Oh, sure, it always is. But would I be able to describe?” She laughed innocently at her own question. "No, it's definitely impossible..." She fell silent again before running her fingertips along one of the greenhouse's panes of glass. “Do you think they are sad?”
“They” who?” She tried to look inside the building.
“The flowers.”
"Flowers... feel?"
“Of course, every living creature feels it. But tell me, are they happy trapped inside?”
“Well, as far as I know, there are few flowers that manage to grow in the middle of the snow, the soil of Snezhnaya was never conducive to them, after all.”
“How ironic is the land of the archon of love unable to nurture even a wild daisy?” A smile formed on the woman's lips.
“That's what greenhouses are for.”
“Artificial heat doesn't take away the pain of being ripped from your homeland to serve as decoration.” She explained calmly.
Arlecchino knew that they were no longer talking about the flowers, but he couldn't argue without feeling that she would offend, after all, she had grown up alone in the streets of Fontaine, her dream was to have had a “greenhouse” earlier.
“You were listening to me sing.”
“Yes...”
“It wasn't a question, I knew you were. What do you think?” Her posture changed, she put her hands in front of her body.
"I... I don't know if I have the words..." Arlecchino actually felt dizzy as she thought. Columbina had turned the artful harbinger into a humble footnote.
“See? You're beginning to understand what I've been saying about the indescribable.” She chuckled, putting her hand over her mouth. “I was singing it to a friend, and apparently it worked.”
Columbina crouched down in front of a small cave, revealing a bluish ball of energy. The creature made a pleasant noise like wind chimes being blown and moved like a small mesmerizing flame.
“I'm glad to see you too, dear.” Columbina smiled as the flame began to swirl around her.
“What is that?”
"Well, you've never seen a Seelie before?"
“Personally? Never, only heard legends.”
"Well, they don't show up if they don't want to be found... What did you hear about?"
“That they are an extinct race of beautiful creatures who were cursed to lose their memories and their carnal form when they fell in love with humans.”
“It's not wrong.”
“When we say that, it means “but it's not right either”, doesn't it?” She smiled.
“Not exactly, I just find it sad that any society is remembered solely for its downfall. Descriptions become, over time, a mediocre attempt to embrace reality.”
“I understand...”
“No, you wouldn't understand even in five hundred years.” Columbina laughed. “But please don't be offended.”
“I wasn't offended, maybe you're right.” She confessed thoughtfully.
“I thought you were a stubborn person, Arle.”
Columbina moved again, following the seelie. The spy noticed that the girl didn't even seem to be walking, she didn't know if it was an illusion caused by her coat coming down to the ground or if she was actually levitating. The girl was indeed a curious creature, she had never seen her without the eye band, but she seemed to see more of the world than any other human being.
“It is said that seelies lose all their memories after the curse, but then why do they retrace exactly the path of the last time they saw their loved one? This is something I've never been able to understand...”
"Is she doing this now?"
“Yes.”
Arlecchino looked back, looking at the road they had traveled with different eyes. Every bench in the garden, tree and fountain that the little ball of light had passed through were now pieces of a melancholy jigsaw puzzle of an ancient love story. The seelie moved faster, causing the two to give chase.
“Here.” The seelie stopped in front of a piece of concrete that, looking quickly, could be mistaken for just a decoration of the palace's exterior. “I can see you, don't be afraid, you can rest now.” Columbina took a few more steps towards the flame and it glowed more brightly before merging into the “court”.
Arlecchino watched two tears roll down the young woman's cheeks. She didn't know how to act, consoling people was definitely not on her list of skills.
“She'll be fine now in the court, at least I hope.” She chuckled as she seemed to talk a lot more to herself than her colleague. “I wanted to know, but I'm also so afraid to find out... I'm afraid that one day my turn will come...” She whispered the last part making the words get lost among the snowflakes. "Well... Thanks for the help." She smiled.
“But I did nothing.” She commented while still watching the seelie in her court.
“You stayed with me.” Columbina hugged her gently, taking her colleague completely by surprise.
As they were, Arlecchino could feel his heart beating in a strange way. Her hands wiped the traces of tears from the girl's cheeks, who just smiled, not complaining about the spy holding her delicate face with her sharp claws.
"Columbina... What are you?" She questioned softly.
“Indescribable...”