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He was not among the first in the house, there were several who were long grown up and were already traveling unknown lands and waters outside of Fontaine’s borders. Nor was he one of the strongest, as there were plenty who were colder and trusted with more work, with harder jobs that ended with no witnesses. In fact, despite being one of the older children, he wasn’t even that well known by his siblings. There was a quiet resentment and distance between them, encouraged by the Director keeping them separated. So Freminet clung to the shadows, clung to his secrets, and tried to avoid the gaze of anyone else for his only well-being.
The children were siblings in name alone, each one fighting for their right to eat and breathe. “If not you, then me.”
Then, the Director walked out one day and Father came in that evening. Her sharp eyes caught on dusty shelves and infested flooring, on children who wouldn’t look up and on disheveled appearances, and her face doesn’t change but… she is displeased.
“Greetings children, I will be in charge of you from this moment forward. You may refer to me as “Father,” understood?” She doesn’t smile, or look very welcoming at all, but he couldn’t help thinking that anyone would be better than their previous guardian.
Although when Freminet saw the reticles in her pupils, he immediately knew that she would kill whatever remained of them, that there would be no escape from whatever she deemed just. She must have been sent to finish the old Director’s job. He told his mother that he would see her soon, following with a soft prayer to be heard from the useless boy.
“Go to bed for now, continue your nightly routines and we will properly clean you up in the morning.” Father commanded.
The house children went scattering like rats in the Fleuve Cendre when Father sent them away. All they could do was wait for her judgment and pray for a tomorrow without tears. As Freminet quickly walked to his bed, passing whispers hoping that she would be kinder than Monsieur Neuvillette… he didn't have much hope for such a tomorrow to ever come.
From that night on, their House of the Hearth slowly became more akin to a home. Father started the mornings by very carefully treating any of the lingering hurts left by the Director’s punishments, bringing in new sets of donated shoes and shirts to those with ratty hand-me-downs, and implemented more duos of siblings to work together in their chores and assignments. It was… almost as if they were a box of scrap parts finally coming together to bring their dead house back to life. Cogs in a machine that has finally been woken up from their slumber.
Of course, Freminet knew that in order for their machine to work properly, he would need to do his part, knew that as kind as Father was, she was still the Knave for a reason. Yet, it was difficult to be bothered when for the first time, in a very long time, he wasn’t in pain. In fact… Perhaps this was a good thing.
He continued to work efficiently, quietly finishing his reconnaissance and extermination tasks without mercy. Just as the Director liked. Just as Father encourages. He finds himself slowly falling into the depths, leaving behind nothing but a little clockwork Mech to finish off the difficult work.
It was a kinder thought, to be a cold machine. Something that couldn't be sad or lonely, something that didn't struggle with understanding human relationships or expectations, to be something instead of someone.
-
One day, Father had called him in for a different job. She sat at a grand desk with several papers in neat stacks. He kept his gaze firmly on his feet until she acknowledged him. She looked up and he felt trapped, like an animal of prey staring down their death. Her eyes glinted with amusement.
"You are to lead your siblings down into the flooded Narzissenkreuz Institute for the reports from a Monsieur Guillotin's kinematics research, which I believe you will find it of interest." A shrewd smile played on her lips, and Freminet's heart jumped in fear. He had never seen her smile, and all he could think of were those of rifthounds. He looked away, towards the lapel of her coat, avoiding those knowing crosshairs.
"After all, you do love those clockwork robotics, yes?"
He looked up in surprise. Since when did Father know about that? He was certain to only work in quiet darkened corners, away from the eyes of anyone else. Nobody could have known… nobody should have known.
It seems he still has much to learn of espionage.
"Ah… thank you Father. It will be done." She nodded in approval, a neutral expression back on her face.
"I will inform your other siblings with ocean exploration experience and you will set out this evening."
This evening!! That's so last minute!! Freminet internally despaired. But of course, what Father wished will be given to her.
He nodded, unsure what else to say.
"You're dismissed.”
He walks backwards, right until he’s at the door frame, where he finally turns around and leaves. Just as quietly as he came in.
-
That evening, the siblings leave under the guise of night. The group is silent and awkward as they made their way to the city limits, and Freminet is convinced that Father held him in too high regard. Even so, he checks their gear and they check his in turn, and they step into the waters.
The sea is beautiful, and Freminet marvels at the bioluminescence of the little tidalga, floating gently along the current, before the rest of his siblings get used to the weightless feeling of diving so far past their comfort levels. They look prepared and ready, so he leads them to where the source promised a solid lead.
The ruins of old are beautiful in a different way from the waters. Concrete and white marble come together in stunning arches and buildings that are worn with the constant water erosion. Seaweed and vines grow around broken windows and fish swim through the broken study halls. It’s nothing like his own magical getaway, it’s exactly the same, it’s indescribable. The children swim from wall to wall with little concern for their oxygen levels or safety and marvel at everything around them. Freminet can hardly blame them, but... their job is not to observe.
Freminet isn’t bold enough, even here, to demand their attention, so he simply herds them along like he would for the shielded crabs as they go deeper into the research facility. They don't seem to mind much, he figured as they get the hint to focus.
They look through waterlogged books and older machines that look foreign in ways they can’t identify, and it is more than any of them could have imagined ever being underneath their city.
In a rounded room, there is a collection of books and records and they complete their mission, taking what they can find and hiding it away. As they swim back towards the entrance of the ruins, they smile as openly as they can with their gear on at each other and he… feels less anxious than usual. He smiles back.
All of a sudden, however, Freminet noticed that something was off. He quickly forms an emergency gesture for his siblings to surface and they nod. Duty above all else, the children- the agents, force their bodies to swim up, up, up.
He didn’t know what the danger was, what set his instincts off, but the others listened without hesitation. At the group’s center, he noticed that he started moving slower.
Fear grips his heart and everything seems to be caught in a single frame as he realizes what was wrong, his diving equipment began to malfunction as dark spots flickered around his eyes. He was losing consciousness! He flailed around, trying to see if anyone could help him, trying even more to make sure nobody else was drowning, but he couldn’t focus.
“If this carries on,” he thought, “I'm never going to make it to the surface.”
Then, immediately, “even if I make it, what good would it do?”
His limbs grew heavier and heavier and he was so tired. Perhaps it would be for the best if he just… didn’t wake up this time.
Everyone knew that Fontaine was meant to return to the sea, and he always felt more at home when in the company of the friendly marine life around the city walls. They must have known to welcome him.
He… was too tired to keep moving. He closed his eyes.
“Freminet... Freminet.”
The voice was slow, solemn, and seemed to be coming from the other end of the earth.
“Come now, Freminet. Get up!”
He looked around in surprise, unsure who was speaking and why, but it brought back to consciousness in a way that he was struggling to do alone.
And it was then he noticed his siblings, motionless in the water, and terror sent a frozen shock through his body.
“I have to save them!” He exclaimed, for no one to hear. “I won’t abandon my family! I have to be there to see the blue horizon after the storm!”
In that moment, his body seemed to be imbued with power, and even his breathing became easy once more, his equipment working as if it was never broken. He quickly swam over to his siblings, who were each of them drowning and pulled them with hysterical strength up above the waters.
And they lived, no matter how easy it would have been for them to give up that night.
Because of such an act, later, Freminet noticed a shiny cryo vision gently on his waist belt-loop.
When he goes to show Father, she smiles a genuine smile.
“Well done, Freminet. Our Lady has shown you immense favor. Don’t disappoint her now.”
-
It wasn’t long after the novelty of his vision wore off that Father returned with two new children in tow.
In fact, it wasn’t long at all.
Freminet didn’t pay them much mind in the beginning. His siblings were skeptical and hesitant to let some outsiders into their carefully built walls and doubted their competency. He kept his ears to the walls and listened to their concerns, but ultimately, none of them were trustworthy in his eyes.
Enemies no longer, and siblings they may be, Freminet refused to forget his mother and first mechanical friends. Refused to forget how quick they were to leave.
So yes, Freminet paid no mind to the twins, nevermind that they seemed to be the same age as he was, if not just a touch older.
Until the sister broke the plumbing system, and sent his life on a path that he could have never expected.
The twins latched onto his “act of kindness” and insisted on helping him wherever and however they could. Lyney and Lynette, they introduced themselves, before becoming a quiet company whenever he worked on the maintenance in the House.
Flustered with the attention, Freminet tried to hide away in his usual places where the other children let him work with Pers on machinery, only to be shocked by Lynette taking a nap in his seat!
The walls he had built up, to protect himself against the weakness of his own heart, seemed to fall easily in that moment. He couldn’t possibly guess what she was doing there, but she was comfortable and Freminet knew that he would never want to wake her from her nap.
So he turned away, and allowed her the moment of rest in peace, unaware yet again, of the reticles in the shadows keeping an equally careful watch.
-
“Oh! Lynette, be careful!”
“I am.”
“Don’t drop it!”
“I won’t.”
“Oh! Freminet, this was such a fun idea! I’m so glad you had it!” Lyney practically skipped along the streets, hand holding onto his hat to make sure the wind didn’t run off with it.
“Ah… I just thought… it was the least we could do for Lumine…” Lynette smiled knowingly at him from over the box that protected his birthday cake. He gave a flustered smile back, pleased at his sister’s approval.
“You’re very sweet, brother. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it just as we do.”
Lyney cheered, “Yes! I’m certain this will be your best birthday yet!”
“Lyney, quiet down. People are staring.” The magician laughed nervously, as his sister scolded him.
“Oh come on, it’s our little brother’s birthday! I’m sure no one will think poorly of my excitement.”
Lynette, unhurried and unamused, rolled her eyes. Freminet looked behind them at the amount of citizens watching as Lyney hopped onto the guard rails beside the path.
“Perhaps not, but since it is our little brother’s birthday, let’s make less of a crowd than usual for him, yes?”
For the first time, Lyney visibly seemed surprised at the people around them.
“Oh!! Truly, you’re right again!”
He got down with little ceremony to stand on Freminet’s other side, instead of beside Lynette as he might usually.
“Let’s go see our friends!”
Friends… Freminet felt his heart warm at the thought. Friends who knew about them and were still kind. He would have never thought it so, for an unwanted little boy to grow into someone so loved…
“I hope they’re in…”