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Thank you, Furina, for all you’ve done. From this moment on, please live happily as a human, just as I wished we could.
Amidst the clapping of rising water against the banisters, amidst the roar of the storm outside, amidst the teary fog that threatened to blind Furina to all else, she finally heard her voice again. Faint, almost drowned out by all else, but still there—it was the woman in the mirror that wore Furina’s face. In any other circumstance, Furina would have excused it as a hallucination, borne of five centuries worth of fatigue and emotional solitude.
And yet, when the waters had receded, the rain had slowed, and her tears had dried, Furina stumbled into the light, and she watched as her undissolved people rejoiced , shouting that the prophecy had been wrong all along.
A moment had passed.
Furina did not feel her knees scrape against the concrete when she collapsed in a heap.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at the ceiling of her room in the Palais Mermonia, swaddled in her blanket in bed, same as the beginning to any other day. The sunlight filtering in through the window at her back felt much more like a warm hug than she was used to. Furina refused to move from her spot, refused to even blink.
It had been too vivid to have been a dream. Furina had literally dreamt of the day when she could finally see the end of Mirror-Furina’s plan, but all other hopeful visions paled in the weighted reality that accompanied the most recent experience.
Even still, Furina was terrified. She willed time to still as she herself did the same.
“Miss Furina—”
Even knowing the source of the voice did not help Furina’s blood pressure, as she yelped and yanked the covers over her head. A moment passed before she peeked back at Neuvillette’s face. Before he could finish his sentence, Furina schooled her face into a pout before throwing her blanket into her lap.
“That’s ‘Lady Furina’ to you, Monsieur Neuvillette! Is today giving you a special sort of audacity where you feel you can refer to the archon of Hydro as such?” Furina snapped as she folded her arms.
Her complaint was convincing, but the tremble in her shoulders betrayed her. She pleaded, begged to be in the wrong.
Neuvillette blinked. Then, he sighed softly as he stepped to the foot of the bed. “Miss Furina, I found you collapsed at the entrance to the Opera. You…did you not see what happened?”
In a voice that most definitely did not belong to Focalors, the Hydro Archon, Furina asked softly, “What…happened?”
“The prophecy came to pass; however, there were no casualties, and Fontaine is slowly healing from the flood. This was all thanks to Focalors’ foresight and your performance as the Hydro Archon.”
Furina just stared at Neuvillette. Her mouth tried to shape around words but even the muscles of her face were failing her in this moment.
“Miss Furina—”
“Neuvillette, I can’t be dreaming, not like this .” With the sudden energy of a spooked deer, Furina stood on the bed and strode to meet her companion at the edge. Neuvillette was given no time to react before Furina reached up to firmly pinch his cheeks and yanked .
“Ah—” Neuvillette was only mildly discomforted by the stretch. Still, he felt it necessary to dislodge her hands and carefully close his own over them. He gazed into her mismatched eyes as he told Furina, “The people of Fontaine are safe. You can rest now.”
A pause. Then, a smile like no other stretched across Furina’s lips as her eyes filled with tears. Her body slumped into Neuvillette’s, her chin hooking over his shoulder as his arms rose to catch her.
“Miss Furina—”
“I-I don’t know…what to do…” Furina breathed shakily. “Stay with me, please…won’t you, Neuvillette…?”
Neuvillette hesitated. He pressed her closer as he spoke gently, “Furina… Whatever you need, it’s yours.”
For days after the flood, it was as if nothing had changed for Iudex Neuvillette. The nature of his tasks was different amidst the rebuilding efforts, but he consistently remained busy. However, any time spent in the Palais during those days was spent next to Furina’s bedside.
Furina’s eyes would be glassy, as if she had yet to emerge from her haze. The food left on her table would be barely scratched at, even cakes and fruit tarts would sit abandoned on their plates. Only whenever Neuvillette pulled a chair and side table up next to Furina’s side did she grow responsive.
Some days, while examining civil documents, Neuvillette would entwine his fingers with her outstretched hand, and that would be enough. Other times, she would pull him down to accompany her under the sheets with all clothing intact, stuffy as it was.
They had found comfort in the embrace of the other before, several times without the barrier of clothing in the way, but with the earth-shattering revelation settled between them, the atmosphere was different.
Not bad, per se. Just different.
“Why do you continue to stay?” Furina croaked one day. Her thumb coasted over the knuckles of Neuvillette’s hand as he sat next to the bed.
The Iudex gave the question thought. “I only feel that I must,” he finally answered. “I apologize that I cannot give you a clearer response at this stage.”
Furina sighed through her nose. She gave her companion’s hand a parting squeeze before resting her head on both hands. She gazed up at Neuvillette as he perused another document. Furina stared as if she was waiting for Neuvillette to elaborate further anyway—no, more as if she was trying to find the reasoning in the lines of his face.
“I don’t believe you’ll have any luck searching my jawline, Miss Furina,” Neuvillette dissuaded without glancing away from the document.
After a pause, Neuvillette glanced back to the actress. Eyes that captured light sea waves and storm-fueled tsunamis drooped under elegantly-groomed lashes—Furina stared on, but she did not appear to see.
“Miss Furina?”
Furina blinked and shook her head. “Sorry, just got lost in thought for a moment.”
Neuvillette thought nothing of this—losing herself to daydreams or mental gymnastics was a tendency Furina had always seemed to find comfort in. Thus, the Chief Justice found himself surprised when the next day came and he found his companion packing a suitcase with the bits and bobs she’d collected over the centuries. When she noticed his arrival, Furina turned with an awkward half-smile and said, “I’m moving out. I need to get away from—” She gestured minutely at the four corners of the room. “—all of this .”
Neuvillette carefully put his scattered thoughts in order. “If that is what you wish, I will ensure you are provided for and comfortable, wherever you decide to go,” he eventually decided on.
Furina smiled wistfully at him. His tone and expression were measured, but the beginnings of rain pattering outside the window would always tell her the truth. “Thank you for understanding, Neuvillette,” and she meant it. Furina then returned to rummaging through her bag.
“Would you allow me a question, Miss Furina?” Neuvillette asked. Furina gazed at the Iudex out of the corner of her eye as she continued to shuffle through her belongings. “May I ask: what will happen to…erm…”
“‘Us,’ right?” Furina finished. She sighed and stepped back from the suitcase. “To be honest, I’m not sure at this point. After all, I never really gave you the opportunity to know me, Neuvillette—the real me, I mean,” she said.
Furina stopped a few paces in front of her companion. She confessed, “For what it’s worth, Neuvillette—and take this with as much meaning as you’d care to—” A beat. A collecting breath on her part, likely recalling the indescribable emotional whirlpool of her past five centuries. “—I don’t think…I would’ve lasted as long as I did, if you hadn’t been by my side.” She clasped her hands behind her back and cast her eyes away as her cheeks grew dark. “You never held it against me whenever I faltered and let the mask slip—not once.”
Neuvillette recalled moments of—at the time—uncharacteristic sorrow painting Furina’s features. Wistfully she would gaze out over children playing in the street, over women tittering and eating cake together in cafés, over people performing in the plaza with all the spirit and light of someone truly free. These moments were rare, but Neuvillette grew to notice them more as he became more acquainted with humanity. His Archon did not yearn for something she could not have; rather, she yearned and restrained herself from what she might grasp, if she allowed herself a moment of selfishness.
Moments of selfishness that came from quiet periods between them, he realized. Furina would wave away any behavioral inconsistency with a line about “trying a more melancholic personality on for size.” Neuvillette always took her at her word, little as he knew of emotions at the time, but knowing what he did now, it seemed more obvious than he could fathom.
“Neuvillette…”
The Chief Justice had not been cognizant of the past few moments, lost in thought as he was. It would seem he had closed the distance between himself and Furina and pulled her into a gentle embrace. Now, she looked up at him with redder cheeks, her hands placed on his chest as if she couldn’t decide if she wanted to push him away or pull him in. When Neuvillette made to step back, Furina’s hands tightened in the cloth of his coat.
“Furina—” The Iudex swallowed, his throat suddenly rough. “—you deserve better than the world has given you. I want to give back to you, in whatever way you wish.”
Furina let her eyes drift to her hands as they released Neuvillette’s coat and smoothed the rumpled fabric. “Well, right now I want you to tell me what you’re thinking,” she returned as she gazed back up at him. “What do you want right now?”
“What I want…” Neuvillette gave thought to his next words. “I feel like the person who gave their entire being to save Fontaine and the person who I’ve accompanied for centuries have never been estranged from one another. Perhaps my own history with you is coloring my perspective; regardless, I would like to acquaint myself better with this person you believe I don’t know.
“Does this person go through dozens of tissues after a compelling radio drama? Does her voice pitch up after she’s indulged in a particularly sweet pastry? Does she stomp after people who folded pages in her favorite books?” he gently recalled.
Furina giggled shyly, “I have always clung to you the tightest, haven’t I?”
“All these years…” Neuvillette muttered. “Five hundred years of keeping everyone at arm’s length…”
“Not so different from you, Neuvillette,” Furina countered.
“You… You had a choice. You’ve always been a human being with feelings and hopes and dreams, surely…surely you must’ve…”
A small hand pressed against Neuvillette’s cheek. Furina’s thumb rubbed along his skin and caught one of the tears that had escaped without his knowledge. He understood the look she was giving him in this moment—drooping eyes and lips turned up softly—he knew it well.
“Logically, I know it would be best to let you be on your way without a fuss. I know that that’s best, and that you deserve to be in control of this situation,” Neuvillette breathed shakily. “And yet, there’s a part of me that refuses to let you go.”
Furina hummed quietly. “We can take a break. I…I want to try again with you as well, but I know…I know we both need time to let this sink in. So, we’ll go our separate ways for a time, and I will approach you when I think I’m ready, since you’re so inclined for me to be the big decision-maker here. Does that sound agreeable?”
Neuvillette nodded slowly. “I’m not sure… I don’t know what I’m feeling—why now, why like this?” he murmured as he attempted to hold back the tears.
Furina continued to hold his cheek as her own eyes grew misty. “It’s okay to cry, Hydro Dragon.”
The most Neuvillette allowed himself was to hold Furina’s hand against his face. The rain only grew louder outside.
Parting itself is such sweet sorrow; to the ones who give self-care precedence, only joy will await on the morrow.