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Alice managed to convince Rhinedottir to visit Windblume with her but things went slightly badly.
“The answer is no. It was unnecessary and Albeo still needed to complete his studies,” the Khaenri’ah alchemist ran her dainty yet scarred hands across her scalp as she readjusted her disheveled platinum blonde hair. She looks majestic–it is almost hard to believe that this is the same woman who was traumatized and broken a few years ago but Alice isn’t easily fooled by the look of it. Rhinedottir is pretty much still affected by the fall of her nation, Alice knows that whenever they sleep together Rhine will shift erratically before waking up and walk off to do something else together. Sure, she managed fine so far in that cave with Albedo but going outside should be good for her too. Yeah, Rhine has not been out of that mountain for about a decade now—sounds insanely ridiculous but from the perspective of the immortal, this is nothing.
“Come on, Rhine! Don’t you think little Albedo deserves to make some friends too? Also, tomorrow is the day of the Windblume festival, didn’t you say once you wanna see it by yourself?”
“Alice…That was a long time ago. I have changed,”
Alice rolls her eyes at the comment but she catches a glimpse of Rhine’s gaze. It was shaken and unsteady which evokes a painful memory. Remembering the first time since the fall of Khaenri’ah when she met Rhinedottir, she was ‘safe’ but her mind seemed to be somewhat ripped into pieces
Rhinedottir emerged from the ruin of her nation about a year ago—Alice found her wandering about the mountain. Well, the word ‘wandering’ might be wrong since she was pretty stationary for the most part. The survival royal alchemist was found alone in a small cavern among the freezing tundra–Alice still remembered the haunting first image she saw of Rhinedottir.
The smugness of the usual alchemist she knew was not at all seen in the face of the woman, even in the most stressful situation; Rhinedottir has always been known as the silent and yet smug type. That person which Alice has fallen in love with has turned into something else. something tragic; her eyes were sunken, and she seemed to still be wearing the Khaenri’ah royal alchemist uniform but Alice couldn't be too sure as her lover wore a tattered cloak that was stained by dust and dirt…and probably blood. She was spooked. It was something Alice had never seen on Rhindottir before, she had seen something down there as the rubbles crumbled and her nation and compatriots were buried alive.
Alice knows well why Rhinedottir refused to move into the city—it does have something to do with the bitterness she experiences in her heart of ancient origin but there is also another reason, the corpse of Durin rested here at the peak of the Dragonspine. The heart so pure yet born of the corrupted origin still beating to this very day—and for Rhinedottir to stay here, Alice guessed that because he is one of the things she truly cared about. Care in what way sometimes Alice just couldn’t tell either.
“He is a kid too, no? Biological or otherwise. Stopping children from socializing at this growing age wouldn’t do any good for his development,” Alice attempts, arguing from a different perspective. If emotional appeals don't work, something like this will.
And Alice's guess is right, Rhine stops in her tracks trying to compute the new argument. She seems to conflict with her own personal–internal debate with herself from both reasonable and stubborn sides. However, when Alice hears a sigh from the woman in front of her, she immediately knows that she has, indeed, won against the alchemist.
"Fine, fine. You have convinced me but he will return before evening—I will be waiting—"
A crack of a smile is currently painted all over Alice's face after Rhine finished speaking. A strange feeling of sharp and cold electricity feels like it is shooting through her spine. Alice is cooking something up and Rhinedottir isn't sure if she likes it or not.
“Waiting? You wouldn’t be waiting on anything sweetheart!”
——
Even though Alice successfully convinced Rhinedottir to go to the Windblume festival with her, and the kids, the golden alchemist mist
“You know what I mean by that, don't… Albedo, stop putting your hand into your mouth!” The alchemist switched her focus from Alice to her creation Albedo—about 11 years of age by now. Still very much a child but too grown to put things in his mouth. Alice cannot help but wonder…was it because Rhinedottir has stopped him from performing a role as a child since the day of his existence that made him try to ‘reclaim’ his childishness this way? The little hand of the chalk prince was harshly yanked out of his mouth—so sudden that Albedo slightly tore up.
“You are being too harsh with him,”
“He will be fine, need to learn but he will be fine,”
In the end, Rhinedottir comes, disgruntledly, to the agreement of joining with the
“When this is all over, I will snap your neck from your shoulder—“ Rhinedottir was interrupted mid-sentence as she felt the impact of Alice's body weight on her back and arms snake around her neck from behind—Alice’s face is only an inch away right beside her.
“You are grown, Alice,” the alchemist said
“But we also did this back then…when we also were grown?” the mage in red counters but before Rhinedottir could say anything in return. Suddenly, Alice remembers something that changes her smile of joy to that of bitterness and sadness
She thought back to the time when she found Rhinedottir. The exact moment in which her lost lover was found face facing the rocky wall of the cave. Some writings are on the wall—felt like the mad ramblings of someone who lost her mind a long time ago. Alice remembered embracing the woman who immediately responded with recoiling and resistance—almost as if the blonde Khaenri’ah had lost all of her memories along with the flame that engulfed the city she devoted herself. She was worried because she was afraid to lose Rhinedottir forever—the memories and ego death of someone are equally if not worse than physical death. Thanks to the alchemy, Rhinedottir doesn’t lose her memories but is just heavily affected and traumatized by the assault of Celestia. But as time passes, Rhinedottir starts to heal—Alice is there to help with the process. She still struggles with it all but regardless she’s glad Rhinedottir has gained back some of her strength back.
“Nobody is out to get you here, Rhine. You need to..relax a little,” the red attempts to appease her girlfriend have been rather falling short all this morning, so she doesn’t at all expect any kind of positive responses now. Oh, but Rhinedottir is full of surprises.
“I know, sorry…er..about the earlier,” the alchemist sounds like she has
someone put a blade onto her neck, forcing her to say an unfamiliar word to the unfamiliar crowd. Alice was shocked and Rhine sounded like she had a stab wound to her side.
“What earlier?” Alice asks, genuinely too shocked to remember. Normally, the alchemist would have rolled her eyes to the mage's forgetfulness.
“The way I treated you this morning… it isn’t fair,” Rhinedottir confesses but it feels as if the woman is fighting against the demon that is her ego. Yet, something is missing from this apology, or rather someone.
“What about Albedo? He was pretty upset because of you this morning,” Alice promptly replies and the face of her lover quickly tenses up.
“He won’t remember,”
“Albedo is 10, Rhine. He WILL remember, you want him to remember as being… mean to him?” Rhinedottir could hear Alice slow down on the word ‘mean’—because she wanted to say another word like ‘abusive’. Alice knows her lover doesn’t like that word.
“I—“ then a prolonged silence. Rhinedottir takes a deep breath and then says “Yes… I treated him unfairly too”
——
The kids were left to their element about several minutes ago with the knight of Favonious. Rhinedottir was extremely reluctant but after a lengthy talk down, she seemed to concede (but never let go of her skepticism)
There is only so much for two grown-up women to do at a festival like this—the balloons, and the bright yet mellow colors of green, yellow, red, and pink can be seen all over the place. It wasn’t new for Alice she had been secretly bored with the festival for a very long time now but for the sake of Klee, Albedo, and even Rhinedottir—two of whom had never seen the overworld before. And the golden alchemist is bewildered, she is good and acting proper but Alice knows her lover way too well.
“This… hot air balloons have eyes.. does it make them real people?” Rhinedottir asks and Alice almost chokes on her saliva.
“N—no, I think those were made out of anemo slime.. they were used as cute decorations and for games!”
“Games?”
“Well! Some of these hot air balloons will be used in a game of chase. The players will be chased by one of these in the maze and players have to avoid it!” Alice replies—she sounds like an enthusiastic candies seller talking to children.
“Are the participants killed if they were touched by one of these?” The question asked by Rhinedottir would sound way too absurd in anybody's ears. But the mage has patience as large and deep as the uncharted dark sea which reaches to the unknown depth and stretches to the great beyond. If Rhinedottir is treated with patience and understanding—she will surely adapt to life on the surface.
“N—nope, players got their score subtracted but nothing bad happened—it’s just a fun game,” Alice answers.
After they went to eat, Rhinedottir didn’t seem to be completely bewildered by the food Monstadt had to offer—partially because Rhine, herself, has quite somewhat of a luxury dining once on several occasions back in Khaenri’ah. Still, the ingredients of the dish surprised Rhine—just how big the proportion of the food is, sending the message of the city's abundance.
“What do you think of Monstadt?” Alice asks while she still puts one of the hash browns dipped in strawberry jam into her mouth. The red mage had no idea what possessed her to ask such a sensitive question but the demon had already escaped the hellfire so now Alice could only ask for the best. Rhinedottir storming off sounds like a logical prediction on how she might react—but to Alice‘s greatest. To Alice’s surprise
“It was good,”
Life above on the surface is good. Rhinedottir saw that the trees were not only bearing fruit but also did not try to resist when being harvested. Only emotion of anger was ignited from the smoldering ember that resided in her heart. It is irrational—the alchemist knows that, but the humanity in her does not want to listen to reason. She is as angry and bitter as one without a nation and a home to go back to would be. The air around the blond Khaenri’ah woman is as thick as the smell of blood and burnt flesh.
“They seem to have everything,” Rhinedottir answers—there is an air cold unspeakable aura surrounding Rhine, any sane person would connect the dot and immediately apologize. But Alice isn’t a normal person and neither is Rhinedottir. The red mage is used to Rhine's cycle of strange emotional shifts and how she often expresses herself inappropriately to stress and pressure. She seems to be in a better mood today than the other days which means a lot for Alice.
She wants Rhinedottir to move on. Alice knows Rhinedottir has been obsessing over rebuilding her nation from the ground up but that’s unhealthy.
Alice couldn’t care less about pride and nationality—she just cares for Rhine.
“I despised them…used to kind of,” Rhine adds, despite the tone being less than pleasant—but Alice can detect a surprising amount of..softness in her voice.
“Change your mind?”
“Alice—I see the surface dwellers in a slightly different light now, that doesn’t mean I changed my mind,”
Of course not, that’s because you are Gold Rhinedottir. You are not like a regular who can bury the hatchet and go leave her best life— Alice thinks in her head bitterly, she always wants her lover to let it all go, and maybe start a new domestic life together. Yet, there is a relief in the red mage’s heart that Rhinedottir whom she fell in love with about 5 centuries ago is still her today. The fire that engulfed her homeland did not take her brilliance away—not even a little.
Maybe, Alice is the one who has to let her dream go. This is the woman she chose and loves after all.
——
There is not much left to do in the evening and more festival goers started to gather in the city, either to call it a day or join in for the last feast of the day. Unexpectedly, a storyteller from Liyue has joined the festival today—Alice only has seen them operating in Liyue. Alice wonders what kind of story he would tell the crowd since she only hears him tell Liyue's story. The crowd starts to gather–since this isn’t a tradition that Monstadtians experience every day.
“...A very long time ago, born from the ash of previous fallen nation–the castaway sinners band together. With bitterness and vengeance, they swore off the seven and welcomed the power of darkness… where their capital of iron soldier and monster resigned–the city of Khaenri’ah,” the storyteller speaks and the color from Alice’s face is completely gone–she immediately looks at her lover who stands beside her. The alchemist's jaw tightened and her arms were now crossed over her chest, the fists were slightly white from the way they clenched
But before Alice could calm Rhinedottir down, the woman was already fully standing up from where she was sitting. Her eyes were mean and hot with fury.
“And what happened above ground that led to them flee to the underground? What made them ‘sinners’? Are they born with sins? Or–perhaps it is a label that was cursed upon the disadvantage? Monsters? Do we birth monsters and foster them? Or do we study them so we can fight them more effectively?” the pissed-off blond alchemist yells back at the storyteller who is now staring dumbfounded but also fascinated.
“Rhine…” Alice is now also standing up right beside her lover but the woman continues.
“We are humans! We are just as much of a human as you are! Sinners? Why do you think that would be the case? Survival is our priority but you wouldn't understand…” as she continues on the crowd is whispering to each other.
“What is she talking about…?”
“Wait…take a look at her eyes!”
“Oh archon…she is one of them,”
The alchemist is now slightly shaken by anger, she looks at men and women around her so that they can immediately avoid her gaze. Finally, she looks at Alice, the expression of pain and regret is the only thing Alice can catch before Rhinedottr takes off and leaves.
Alice follows her lover immediately after she runs off but Rhine is much faster and more elusive than she anticipates. After an hour or so, Rhine was found at the Windris–looking up to the anemo archon. Her face was plastered with disgust yet somehow felt softer than what she saw this evening. After a few minutes of silence, the alchemist speaks
“I’m sorry— you did try but I can’t…”
“Rhine…”
“Up here, nothing is happening. Khaenri’ah’s demise is simply a chapter in a history book that gathered dust,” the alchemist said—the bitterness in her voice can no longer be contained.
“Wherever I go, their waves of laughter are like the mockery tailored for me as my torture,” she continues; then Alice who is right behind her places her hand on the woman’s cheek, the touch is airy but magical, and welcoming. Welcome enough to the tightened shoulder of the Khaenri’ah. Yet, the bitterness in her heart of black and gold still shimmering with the rage of a mortal who has lost her home regardless of her unwelcome immortality.
Oh, how much Rhinedottir hates the surface for it possesses a privilege to grow and to rot regardless of sins or virtues. But the sinners below are always forever restrained—forced to live it out in the cursed box of arbitrary rules created by the principles. When Khaenri’ah spread out as the rule tamed them no longer, the life that was outlawed must be destroyed. So they destroyed her home, the place she was born in and ever knew of…the place which she helped to prosper with her two golden hands. But the divine only sees the value of lives where it’s allowed—so, the Khaenri’ah, Rhinedottir’s greatest pride, must be reduced to cinder.
But when the dust settled, all that remained was the story of monstrosity and the absent humanity of Khaenri’ah. They carried the light for the abyss for millennia, and yet. On every page of a book, in the deep and shallow street of any nation, a piece of Khaenri’ah identity has been stolen and then twisted for the curious to come and see
“We should go and pick up the kids,” Rhinedottir says while she is shaking her head at her very own statement.
“Yeah, let’s” and that is all that comes from Alice.