Chapter Text
They find themself self dreaming, or perhaps, having a nightmare is more plausible.
Or both.
Or actually neither.
It wasn't like anything of that sudden crack in their body, an uncomfortable sound that they usually associated when death would forcibly flung them back to the realm of the living whether they liked it or not.
Rather, it was that they woke up to an unrecognisable bed, wearing a dress shirt that clearly wasn't theirs and a pack of scent in the air that reminded them of the fresh scent of the ocean during the summer seasons. Wherever they are, they try to cling to that distorted darkness again, hoping that the tiresome pull of life would leave them be for another five minutes.
Wait a moment.
They (she? he?) then broke into a series of coughs as they unceremoniously curled their body on their side, shutting their eyes tightly closed in an attempt to ease the sudden discomfort.
Their whole body was aching all over and they felt paralysed. The seething pain settling in the pits of their stomach, and the hammering ache in their head indicates that they must've hit it somewhere(?) hard.
As if coming out of a long tunnel, sound starts to be recorded in their ears with increasing intensity. Billowing waves, silently howling winds, snapping twigs, rustling of sheets, hushed whispers that they can't understand coming from somewhere…
They had no idea where they were. They felt a soft canopy beneath them, and a dry, heated wind messing with their clothes and hair. But they tried to think over the cloud that seemingly covered their mind, giving themself time and tried to take slow, even breaths as they started organising their thoughts…and memories.
That's probably how they become aware.
Oh, how they wished that wasn't the case.
Again.
If "Furina" had a nickel for every time that she had been born, she would have seven nickels at her disposal, which really isn't much to begin with, however, it is odd that it has happened not once, not twice, but seven times already.
After all, being "Furina" is the seventh life that she had remembered, in a row.
Truthfully speaking, gathering the jumbled and fuzzy memories from all of her lifetimes combined is not an easy task, especially not with her ever present headache that seems to persist whenever she reincarnates as if her memories across her different lives were hammering and frying directly in her poor sod of a brain.
Being able to remember her previous incarnations certainly didn't make her trip to whatever psychedelic in-between spacetime slash astral planes any worthwhile, as a matter of fact.
Her first life was both fulfilling and a boring one, to say the least. At the age of thirty-seven, she was an astronaut working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She remembered being an ambitious dreamer and prideful mentor, highly obsessed with catching the stars in the palm of her hand and hanging out in the moon while singing to the tune of her favourite jazz.
Although much more ignorant and carefree compared to her more successful lives afterwards, she could confidently say that her first life was the very foundation of her lifetimes that followed after her apparent death in the space station at the age of forty-seven. Getting caught in a cosmic explosion is not one of the most typical ways to die, but it is what it is.
Then, contrary to popular beliefs, she did not remember her previous life immediately after being born the second time. In fact, it was when she accidentally knocked her head in a metal crucible due to an important experiment—at the age of seventeen, at that—that she remembered her past lifetime as an astronaut. This time, though, she found herself as an aspiring mechanical engineer and an inventor. Unfortunately, her life had ended by the same experiments and machines she learned to love just a decade after she remembered her first life.
Then, in her third lifetime, she was mercifully spared in the road of science (and explosions). This time, she was both an avid reader of fiction, and a not-so-popular writer of fantasy and supernatural fiction at a very young age. But being an auteur, especially when not being as famous as others, is spectacularly arduous and taxing.
However, this life also taught her the true meaning of having a voice , of having an opinion for yourself and expressing it freely. As an activist, she wrote countless journals and articles about politics, the government, the wars, and discrimination with the help of her experiences from her current life and the previous ones, which are both fulfilling and honourable. Though, to no one's surprise, like at all, that also caused her demise for the third time around at the age of thirty-seven.
Her fourth lifetime is so much simpler and uncomplicated compared to the previous ones. She was a he , and he was then a son of the owner of a small farm of strawberries and cocoas. This is where he (she?) learned to be humble and accepting of what he has, to earn diligently for the sake of his loved ones, and although life was not as grandiose as being an astronaut, engineer or an activist, he perfectly found a very close-knit family and friends he could only dream of having.
(It was honestly a huge breather from explosions and assassinations that his lifetimes seems to be so fond of.)
As a matter of fact, he was probably so content with the simplicity of his existence that he had only gained the memories of his previous lives when he was already at death's door after being stabbed by a robber in his own damn house. He was already fifty-seven at that time.
The fifth lifetime, however, he was once again being thrust into a position of power and prestige. He was a forty-seven years old businessman when he regained his memories. But as an owner of one of the biggest pastry conglomerates—and admittedly, his overall attitude in that lifetime isn't close to being pleasant that gained him lots of enemies—of course, seven years after that, he would die of assassination again. It was too late to redeem himself—and he wasn't the biggest fan of his own self at that time, to be completely honest—even with the help of his experiences in his previous lives.
The sixth lifetime, the one that came before living as Furina, he was the Senior Associate Justice in the Supreme Court. He served his country faithfully and diligently for over thirty-seven years, before retiring at the age of seventy. He then spent his retirement in peace, living in a secluded townhouse (while anxiously trying to avoid any possible assassinations), but his demise actually came in the form of him stupidly slipping in the swimming pool and drowning himself in it.
And, now, in the seventh cycle of rebirth, he was back to being a she. And while she struggled to comprehend what in the world is happening, who she is this time, and where she is now, at that moment of recollection, she had a feeling that no one, not even herself, knew what was yet to come.
If there is one thing that "Furina" wasn't familiar with even after living for so long—or rather, for living so many lifetimes—it's dream interpretation.
Finding a meaning inside her nightmares, as they represent subjects in real life that one would wish to not think about or work through, or when they dream of certain things because they've experienced them before.
It's all connected in your unconscious mind, some dare say.
Yet, she never fully understood her own dreams. And even science cannot precisely explain everything about dreams either—she knows, because she's one of those who curiously tried.
So, when Furina opened her eyes and found herself standing in the void, it's quite confusing. Nothing but black around her, no walls or ceiling. There's not even a floor she's standing on, all she did was resting inside a pitch black chasm.
She figured it's a strange dream of hers, the first in this lifetime that she can remember having, and since nothing like this had ever happened before, she's a bit more curious than usual how it will all play out.
"Um...Hello?" After calling into nothing, her voice echoed loudly only to come back into her own ears, hesitant and unsure. No sound answered her. Not a single one.
Confused as to what's going on, Furina frowned and tried to take a step forward. To her surprise, it worked. But what did she gain from being able to walk when there's literally nothing around her? Was this even considered a dream when it had nothing to show?
Many questions and nobody there to answer them.
But then, a sudden hum filled her ears. It's very quiet and almost nonexistent, thanks to the silence around, though she managed to gauge the whisper somehow.
"Furina… Furina… "
There's a rectangle floating in the same size as her, even a bit bigger than her body.
Was that…a mirror?
When she walked in front of it to inspect the unknown object. She saw it's indeed a mirror.
Seeing her reflection perfectly, even though there's not a single source of light around, made her blink in confusion. One more point to 'this is definitely a dream' theory.
"Huh..? Who's that? Who's calling me?" Furina hesitantly moved her finger to touch the mirror, but to her shock, her hand went through the glass as if it didn't exist. It scared her for a bit, considering she's the only real aspect in this whole construct. "Where are you?"
"Be not afraid. Be not nervous." The mirror showed her surprised face for a moment longer, before the colours inside suddenly began to mingle. After taking a step forward to find out what's happening, the colours formed a brand new sight—one Furina didn't expect to see. It's still her own self, indeed, but what's not correctly reflected in the mirror were her clothes . "I am before you."
Furina did a double-take, blinking in utter surprise. "Did my reflection just talk? Wow. T-There's some kind of mirror-me. I must be going insane."
"Hmm. 'Mirror-you', huh?" The one reflected in the mirror in the same visage as her own self save for that beautiful white dress, chuckled in sheer amusement at her words as she rested a closed fist on her waist. "You know what? That's not bad. Let's go with that."
Perhaps calling her own reflection beautiful is sort of a narcissistic comment, but Furina gazes in reluctant awe at the person reflected in the looking glass. How can someone look like a completely different person when clad in something else? But her own clothes aren't that bad either…
"Mirror-me, what do you wish to say?" She asked, a bit cautious, but she couldn't help but be curious. Is this what a mind could truly produce when dreaming? Is there some kind of stimuli that makes a particular dream so engaging like…this?
"The 'prophecy'..." The reflection started in a solemn tone, crossing her arms. "Have you heard of it?"
"What prophecy?" Her brows furrowed in confusion. As much as she tried to think it through, Furina cannot remember what her life was prior to being aware . She could say that she's already a grown woman, probably close to being a young adult, judging by the growth of her physical body, but she cannot remember anything about her childhood, who her parents were, what was her life like…
What in the world is going on? Does Furina suffer from some kind of amnesia? Her head did feel like it smashed into something blunt when she became aware earlier.
Something seems to have struck the reflection suddenly. "—My, what a surprise. It appears I miscalculated something." The mirror-her muttered, surprise colouring her bi-coloured eyes for a bit before it vanished as fast as it came. Her smile then widened into a grin, and suddenly, warning bells started ringing inside Furina's head. "An unanticipated turn of event, but a welcome one. Perhaps with your presence, our slim chance to prevent the prophecy will turn a bit more favourable on our side."
"W-What do you mean? You're increasingly becoming more shady and suspicious, you know." Furina narrowed her eyes at her mirror-self, taking a step back. If there was one thing she was thankful for with her reincarnation's memories, it was that it came with past experiences. "...Is this what teenage people back then called stranger danger but with a twist because it's yourself all along?"
The girl in white dress ignored her question. "The people will all be dissolved into the waters, and only the Hydro Archon will remain, weeping on her throne. Only then will the sins of the people of Fontaine be washed away."
"What. That's—" Furina's jaw dropped, before she groaned in pain and pinched her temples when seemingly new information surfaced on her mind.
The prophecy. Fontaine. The deceased Hydro Archon. Gods. Celestia. Cataclysm…
Holy shiznits. Why did she have to be reborn in a high fantasy, novel-worthy, game-changing world?! Isn't the upgrade too extreme?!
"Disaster will come to Fontaine sooner or later, Furina, that's why I decided to seek you out." Her mirror-self said, and if Furina is in the right mind she'll get somehow offended by how matter-of-fact the reflection was. "Things will develop just as the prophecy declared—there is no escaping it."
"Wait!" Furina's shoulders tensed as she realised the magnitude of the situation. For some reason, she had a feeling that her mirror-self was telling the truth, even though she generally doesn't…like her tone. "Doesn't that mean everyone in Fontaine will die? Will all of us dissolve, too?"
The girl in the reflection chuckled as she put both her hands on her hips. "Don't worry. Didn't you already realise this is a magical world, Furina? Therefore, magical meetings precisely exist to give people a chance to turn things around."
"Let me guess," Furina warily looked at her. "That is the reason why you met me today, haven't you? This is not really a dream, right?"
"How astute of you!" The person in white dress neither confirmed nor denied her words, merely smiled at her impishly. "Listen, Furina, I will tell you how to save everyone. But, first, you may have…to suffer somewhat."
The two of them silently stared at each other afterwards, gauging the other's reactions. The one in the mirror was slightly smiling, a little hopeful yet somber, while Furina subconsciously played with the ends of her vest as she carefully assessed what she said.
The silence didn't last long, before Furina hesitantly tore her gaze away from her own reflection. "If the prophecy will come true, then that means I will be dead soon again. I honestly do not appreciate getting flung to a different life back and forth. So, if it's between me suffering, but nevertheless saving myself and everyone else in my homeland from our inevitable demise, and dying again like an idiot because I didn't do anything worthwhile, I guess the former is a better choice."
"...And?" The mirror's smile stretched a bit more. "You want to say something else, no?"
Furina shrugged lightly, her shoes seemed like a good distraction today. "I just thought that if there was a scale between my supposed suffering and the countless lives on the line, isn't it obvious where the scales should tilt?"
She's no hero—she doesn't want to be one—and though she knows that she cannot help everyone no matter how she desires it, that doesn't mean she won't do what she can . She did, for a lifetime, serve as a Justice after all, and she fought hard as an activist in another life.
If there was one thing she kept close to her soul across her incarnations, it's the belief that even the smallest move can make a difference , and if done right, a simple pawn can even completely change the flow of the game.
Furina doesn't know whether to fully trust her mirror-self, but she will give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, she has a feeling that despite the near nonchalant way the reflection speaks, she didn't lie to her (and have no reason to lie to her) and that she was earnest to the fact that she wanted to save Fontaine.
"My, you truly are the perfect human—my finest ideal." The reflection almost purrs that made Furina's brows furrowed. But she just waved a hand and smiled mysteriously at her. "But I suppose this would also be the 'justice' that belongs to you."
"You sound so suspicious!" She snapped.
"Fret not, it's nothing." The girl in white dress huffed in amusement, before her expression became serious again. "Listen well, Fontaine has just lost its Hydro Archon. To save everyone, I need you to 'play' a role—that of the new Archon."
Of course, this is a magical world where gods—Archons—ruled the world. And of course again, the archon has just perished when she becomes aware. Luck wasn't really on her side, no matter which lifetime.
"Are you still sane, mirror-me?" Furina is flabbergasted as she points at herself in utter disbelief. "Me? Play as…a god?"
She nodded, her two coloured eyes gleaming in something unreadable. "That's right. You must begin a never-ending masquerade. You must never let anyone suspect your identity…" She trailed. "If you can keep it up, then I shall have my way of defying this prophecy...But should your identity be revealed, then all hope will be lost."
"That sounds like a threat to me more than anything." Furina's shoulders tensed once more as she heard what the mirror truly wanted from her. "It's nearly impossible to do this, you know? Even if I have previous experience from a different life, a human assuming the role of the god without being exposed…?"
The reflection shook her head lightly, the ends of her long white hair, decorated with light blue ombre, glowing slightly. "Don't worry, what you must do is not to turn yourself into a real god. You simply need to play the role of a god as humans imagine them to be." She assured her. "Being a human yourself, I'm sure you already know what such an entity would be like."
"I'm…not sure." Furina's eye twitched as she remembered what a god was like in her previous life. Compared to them who worship gods, of different religions, to gain faith and spiritual protection and divine forgiveness, the gods residing in Teyvat is more hands-on, manifested in physical vessels and they mingled with their own people, powerful and all-knowing, leading their subjects using their respective ideals.
And she, a mere human, would have to play someone like that? Furina, though a seven-time reincarnated soul, didn't think it was possible.
As if reading her thoughts, the reflection smiled pleasantly. "Furina, remember, your true challenge will not be pursuing 'divinity', but contending against 'humanity'."
"If, hypothetically speaking…" Furina looked down on her shoes in silent contemplation. "How…How long am I going to have to play this role?"
"To accomplish this mission, you will have to stay on the stage for many, many years." Her serious gaze turned a bit melancholy. "You will endure and not grow old until your task ends. But I promise you...all will eventually end in a magnificent and dramatic trial, and everyone will be saved."
Will she be granted immortality just to play this long charade?
To be fair, souls were fairly immortal in and of themselves, proven by how many times she had reincarnated in different forms, it's just a matter of question what would happen if the soul itself is destroyed. But to gain physical immortality?
Could she really endure this…until the end?
"Furina, believe me, if it's you, everything is guaranteed to eventually end, in the form of a magnificent and dramatic trial." The reflection assured her with absolute certainty, placing her own hands on the surface of the mirror on her side as she stared at Furina intently with a grin. "And then, everyone, including you , will be free."
Furina de Fontaine, her newest reincarnation, decides that her fate is as atrocious, for the lack of a better term, as the past ones.
Not a week had passed when she regained her memories that Furina was internally cheering on herself to find the best outlook in her current situation, while her mind still reels and connects all her memories in her previous lives together in a way that is coherent and not outwardly stupid, when she was once again shown just how much of an unlucky soul she was.
One could only imagine how her jaw dropped and her eyes widened like a pair of tea cup saucers when she realised that magic was very much a real thing in this world. Not to mention that not only humans inhabited the land and created civilisations, which immediately threw all logic and science she knew out of the windows like a basketball aiming for a perfect shot.
Furina groaned and buried her face in her crossed arms resting on her office table, where the piles and piles of papers stacked haphazardly. Honestly, such a familiar sight, after spending her last two lifetimes being a businessman and a politician who almost have the same amount of never-ending paperwork.
In any case, it wasn't as if she was purposely looking at the negatives in her new life, per se. In fact, she tried her best to be always optimistic in these cases, if she said so herself. As illogical as it was to believe in the spoken promises and unspoken suffering her reflection in her dream that day told her, she would like to cling to the belief that everything will turn out fine in the end.
It's just that…
"...I'm a freaking god now." She muttered under her crossed arms, thumping her forehead to the smooth Cypress wooden table in an attempt to ease her nerves, but to no avail.
(Well, technically, she was not a god, but she's still masquerading as one. Deception at its finest, but for the sake of the people, she'll gladly deceive everyone, including her own self.)
Not only was magic prevalent here, it's also the fact that gods —real gods —exist in this world. Not to mention that they are the physical rulers of each nation, not just their patron protector from afar, or from nowhere, like what she had led to believe in her last lifetimes.
And not only gods, but other immortals and creatures that simply defies all that she knew and believed in throughout her six cycle of rebirths. This is insanity to a whole new level!
Just imagine from being an avid star gazer, to a mad scientist, to a well-opinionated writer, to a strawberry and chocolate farmer, to a cold-hearted businessman, to a just servant of justice, and then playing the role of a god…a god, for who-know's sake!
What kind of a groundbreaking and backbreaking and mind breaking upgrade is this?!
"Oh, lorddddd!! Woe is me or so help me!" Furina wailed dramatically as she threw her head back on her chair, leaning back as she kicked her feet under her desk. She then frowned to herself."...Wait a second. Aren't I technically the lord here? Who am I asking help for? Myself?"
Chewing on her bottom lip while shaking her head, Furina picked up a random paper from her desk and began idly reading it, an attempt to divert her attention and do actual work.
The Maison Cardinalice has announced her succession before, but it's only a few days ago that she had the chance to face the people she was supposed to save in the future. At first, she didn't know how to act like a god; but she had braved countless different crowds before as an activist and as a leader of a supreme court, so she at least had an experience in public speaking that didn't stumble over her words like an idiot.
Furina decided to test the waters first. She tried to act natural, a humble and earnest leader befitting the facade of the God of Justice, but it appears that her approach is not appreciated by the people. Her heart almost leaped from her throat then, but she tried to calm herself and not panic. They cannot know she's a fraud no matter what.
Humans, she observed with critical eyes then, want a god who is assertive, who has a strong sense of presence, one who can dispel all doubt. That is the character she's fated to play for a long…long time.
If that's what they want, she has no choice but to play her part.
She was brought back to the present when a certain topic caught her interest.
"...oh?" Her eyes narrowed, interest quickly piqued at the paper she held. "...the consequences of…Cataclysm?"
Apparently, it's only been seven months since the 'war' that ravaged the entirety of the continent had ended. Furina doesn't have many memories from that time, and even she herself doesn't remember what role she played. It was as if there's something—someone?—blocking her memories from resurfacing.
Or maybe that's just the trauma speaking and it's pushing back some of her unpleasant memories somewhere far. Which, in fact, is not entirely good for her psyche in the long run. But for now, Furina decided to let it be for her own peace of mind.
Still, just the mention of the Cataclysm brought unknown shivers down her spine, and she had a feeling that memories of those times were best left off forgotten instead of brute forcing her memories to remember just to satisfy her curiosity.
"Alas, seven months wasn't enough to rebuild a whole nation that suffered from the brunt of a war." She muttered to herself, heterochromatic eyes diligently reading paper to paper with practiced ease that was only possible due to her long experiences with seven different lives at her disposal.
The more she read about what needed to change and fix in her nation, the more she frowned. Fontaine used to be a very beautiful and bountiful country under her predecessor's rule—Egeria, the deceased god of justice and for now, Furina can't really remember what's her direct connection to her—but the Cataclysm had ravaged the lands and waters so thoroughly that almost all settlements—village, government infrastructures, research institutes and rivers alike—were still struggling to rebuild everything they had lost from the very bottom.
Fontaine had lost so much more than their own beloved god. The people died like flies due to unknown diseases that rose, countless homes had been burned to ashes, crops and trees had withered to nothing, soldiers sacrificed their lives to protect their homeland and most important ones…
And then, there was she, the new 'god' of the nation, who mostly spent her days doing who-knows-what.
Furina let out a shaky breath and leaned back on her chair in silent contemplation. No, the mirror-her was doing something . She was planning something to help the people. And Furina herself knew she was thinking of something before she regained her six lifetime worth of memories.
"—But what was it?" She hissed to herself. It's something to do about the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale—a machine(?) that the people believed she created not too long ago but has no prior memories of, that she was certain of. Although countless questions without proper explanation from her mind plague her thoughts.
She carefully slipped them in the back of her mind for now. Help the people, as her first objective, and then maybe demand the answers to her questions if she were to meet the reflection in the mirror again.
"—Lady Furina," a timid voice brought her back to reality, followed by a series of methodological knocks on the door of her office.
Furina straightened her spine rigidly, fixing her pristinely blue coat and arranging her top hat, puffing her chest in an attempt to look confident before placing her interlocked hands together on top of her desk. "Ahem, come in, my dear."
(Is this Furina's self-esteem issues talking even though she technically has more than enough experience in the deadly field called socialising over the course of her seven different lives?)
A brown-haired woman, shoulder-length locks framing her face, with braids on either side of her head, entered her office. She was wearing the standard blue uniform for a high-ranking officer in the Marechaussee Phantom. Her movements looked really elegant and practiced, even as she clutched a bunch of papers in her arms.
"Mademoiselle Mary-Ann," Furina smiled, a bit stiff for her liking, but her false bravado makes up for it. "I suppose you were quite busy in your station, so forgive this god, as magnificent as she is, to have called you in such a short amount of time! Fret not, however, for I, Furina de Fontaine, welcome you dearly tonight. Please take a seat."
Mary-Ann seems not to be used to her theatrics yet, but tolerates it, at least that's what Furina could guess from the slightly stiff curve of her lips. "Lady Furina, thank you for your hospitality. But you need not to apologise for bothering me. I would be more than happy to have a chat with you." She sat on the cushioned chair adjacent to her desk.
"As much as I desire for casual chatter, alas, we must perish the thought for a bit." She hesitantly dropped the false dramatics, her expression morphed into a serious contemplation before leaning in. "Now, without any delay, could you gather the complete reports regarding Fontaine's income and expenditures in the past decade for me? Especially the capitalisations and budget during and after the Cataclysm."
Mary-Ann seems to be in utter surprise at her strange request, she can't fault the poor girl at all. Furina, in the past seven months after the war, was almost not involved concerning these kinds of things—mostly because she's getting ready for her succession?—which was usually left with the government officials in Egeria's regime.
"I…respectfully obey, my lady. However, what will you be doing with it?"
Furina smiled conspiratorially at her. "Why, I will be reading all of it, of course! I am, after all, the newly appointed archon of our beloved Fontaine. Although I’m truly ashamed to say I currently have no information on how the nation is being managed. Therefore, my dear, can you please give me a month?”
Mary-Ann's eyes widened further. "One month, my lady?"
She waved a gloved hand across her desk brimming with stacks of paper. "Yes, yes. It is a matter of course for me to read all the reports and do the paperworks piling in my poor desk, and to give me enough time to inspect the country."
Though her gaze seemed to be in utter disbelief, the officer still nodded her head hesitantly. "Certainly, Lady Furina. However, if you wish to inspect the land, it will take approximately one week in order to make necessary preparations."
The white-haired archon shook her head, smiling with her eyes closed. "While I'm usually not opposed to having all attention to myself, as it should, there is no need for an entourage this time. In order to grasp the present condition of Fontaine at once, I intend to do an incognito inspection in two days. Therefore, I’ll only need the minimum number of people to accompany me. Preferably just one or two."
"I asked a presumptuous question, I apologise, my lady." Mary-Ann bowed her head.
"Hehe. Not at all, my dear~" Furina crossed her legs in a relaxed manner and leaned back, her two-coloured irises twinkling and not in the usual mischievous and playful way Mary-Ann was used to. "...I, Furina de Fontaine, shall personally manage the country from now on, from rebuilding, the laws, the land, and so forth. So, as the first person to have heard my proclamation, you may rejoice in this~"