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Furina flees her apartment in the middle of the night when few are awake to witness her departure. She would give it a while before anyone checked in on her. No one except Clorinde had visited her in the month Furina had settled in her new apartment.
Not even Neuvillette who so often whispered words of affirmation and love in the quiet hours of midnight.
The apartment was stifling. No… the entirety of Fontaine was a prison, eyes judging their false archon across grocery store lanes and cafes. She couldn’t bear to stay in it for a moment longer. She would never hate the nation—her love for Fontaine was the only thing that kept her going amidst her solitude.
It seemed Fontaine did not hold the same love in return though. The people loved nothing more than drama, perhaps a culture Furina had built up with her performances. What was more thrilling than their archon’s fall from grace, a goddess who was human like the rest of them?
It is a long walk to the harbor and she takes in the sight of her nation almost mournfully. Fontaine is beautiful—the elegant architecture and the vast species of marine life under her oceans. Yet even as her heart will always belong to Fontaine, Furina knew it was time for her to leave—to heal her broken heart and explore Teyvat.
At the docks, she finds another merchant who, judging by their clothes, is from Sumeru. The woman’s boats are the only ones docked at this time, but as Furina searches her bag, she realizes she packed no mora in her hasty escape. There was water, snacks, her beloved book detailing the adventures of Mademoiselle Crabeletta, and hastily scribbled scripts. But no mora.
Archons, why couldn’t Furina even run away correctly?
A shimmer interrupts her thoughts and her gaze falls on her bracelet, its sapphires sparkling under the moonlight. Despite her outward projection of extravagance as the hydro archon, Furina was not one to needlessly indulge in luxury yet it did not make the gift—from Neuvillette on their hundredth anniversary—any less meaningful. With a bit of sorrow, she unclasps the bracelet.
The merchant accepts her bracelet in exchange for one of her boats. It would have been foolish for one to refuse. Even an untrained eye could tell the gems were worth far more than a simple boat.
It’s not like Neuvillette would care anyway. He’d probably rejoice that the bracelet was used to cart her away from Fontaine.
He who stared at her with the indifference he treated criminals at the Opera Epiclese. His eyes had no hint of the warmth he would always direct her with as he kissed her and caressed her hair. He hadn’t even visited since she had settled in her new apartment. It was clear he wanted nothing more to do with her.
With a sigh, she banished her unhappy thoughts, stowing her belongings in the cabin below the decks. Furina set sail with little fanfare though it was not before long that she realized her folly. Sumeri boats were unlike Fontainian boats, powered by pneumousia. It was not a long journey between Romaritime Harbor and Bayda Harbor though so Furina sailed on. She could always stop at Petrichor if she needed to.
There was not much to do on the small ship so she hummed as she steered. She found a quiet solace in the persistent lap of waves and the night breeze through her hair. She felt free.
Freedom.
It was a strange concept to consider and yet, Furina has fulfilled her duties to Fontaine. She was no longer obliged to stay in Fontaine like before, too scared the nation would drown in her absence.
She began planning her agenda once she arrived in Sumeru. She would first go to the dendro archon to ask for refuge. Buer was a kind and gentle god from what Furina had heard. It was far from the tales she had heard of the archons of Liyue and Inazuma—both archons who had participated in the archon war, thousands quelled under their polearms. Besides, Sumeru was the closest to Fontaine.
Lost in her thoughts, she did not notice as the waves grew rougher until one particularly strong one made her lose her balance. Standing back up, she wrestled with the sails before realizing that her efforts would be in vain. While on smooth waters, her handle of the boat was fine, Furina was no experienced sailor.
It was strange, now that Furina thought about it as she gripped the steering wheel. She was no longer trying to go against the waves, but angled the boat slightly away from waves. The seas between Fontaine and Sumeru were said to be always smooth with thousands of sailors crossing to trade their wares daily. Of course, the one day Furina decides to leave, the waters decide to turn against her.
Another wave crashed against the boat. She yelped as mist sprayed in her face. She watched as her bag was thrown into the tempestuous waters.
How ironic. Furina, who pretended to be the hydro archon for so long, will meet her end in the domain of hydro. If she had even a sliver of the power she claimed to have, she could have calmed the waves. But as it was, she was powerless.
Powerless to save Poisson as the primordial sea crashed over the settlement.
Powerless to refute the traveler’s accusations as they demanded for her to demonstrate her control over hydro as the archon.
Powerless to stop the great flood of the prophecy. It was only thanks to Neuvillette that the prophecy was over.
Neuvillette. Of course. He had dominion over all of Teyvat’s waters.
Perhaps this was Neuvillette’s sentence. The oratrice had sentenced her to death yet Furina had lived without consequence.
But she had never thought of him as cruel—stoic, yes, but never callous. She knew all too well how the hydro dragon wept in times of tragedy, the constant rain in Fontaine revealing his soft interior.
A moment of clarity, perhaps brought by the acceptance of her death as the next wave threw her overboard.
Perhaps Furina had pushed him that far—her deception for five centuries leading him to mercilessly leave her to drown in his dominion. She had already glimpsed his indifference and anger during the trial—the way he turned his back on her, treating her even more lowly than other criminals.
She had not a drop of control over the tempests and even as she pushed her legs to reach the shore in the distance, she could feel her body giving out. She hoped Neuvillette is mollified by her death and that Fontaine does not suffer for her mistakes.
I’m sorry.
***
A letter sat on Neuvillette’s desk. It is embossed with a wax seal in the shape of a leaf. He does not finish reading it before the skies share his grief.
***
Buer was the only archon beside Furina that Neuvillette held no ill judgment toward and logically, he had no right to be angry at the Dendro Archon. Gods were not omnipotent and Buer’s domain was over the earth and grass.
Yet that did not stop his accusations, his impartiality forgotten. “Furina died in a foreign land.”
The archon faced his accusation with a sad smile as if trying to console and pity him at the same time. Eyes containing wisdom millennia beyond her child’s appearance stared at Neuvillette unflinchingly. Before she could respond, a bitter laugh came from the corner of the sanctuary. It was from the Inazuman Neuvillette had barely registered earlier when he stormed into the dendro archon’s abode.
“What right do you have to speak of Furina’s fate?”
“Wanderer!” A sharp reprimand from Buer that went ignored.
“What? I’m simply speaking the facts that you’re too kind to say aloud. Iudex Neuvillette pushed her away the moment he commenced that trial.” Then turning to face the other man directly, Wanderer looked at him with disgust. “Don’t you dare blame Nahida for your lover’s death when it was you who betrayed her. And aren’t you supposed to be the all-mighty hydro sovereign? She drowned in your domain.”
There was silence. From Wanderer who spoke all the thoughts he wanted to get out. From Nahida who was still searching for the right words. And from Neuvillette who turned still as a statue. Melancholy stained the room, three immortals mourning the loss of a fellow archon, a potential friend, and a lover.
Wanderer had nothing but an understanding forged through the pain of his past. He may have never met the human who masqueraded as the hydro archon, but he knew all too well the line between humanity and the divine. How ironic. He wanted to become a god; she wanted to be human but was forced to be a god.
Nahida had nothing but respect and a deep sorrow for Furina’s fate. She was human yet she had endured the same suffering as Nahida. Five centuries was not an insignificant time for a god, but for a human, it was interminable. If only Nahida was not trapped the past centuries, perhaps she would have figured out her fellow archon’s secrets and aided her in defying fate.
And Neuvillette: once an apathetic dragon that did not care for humans and one that despised the usurpers… yet fell for one who was both. There were no words to describe what Furina, who taught him the beauty of humanity and life, was to him. Friend, confidant, lover. None were adequate to label the all-encompassing devotion he held for her.
“Wanderer does not mean to be harsh.” Buer sighed, finally breaking the terse atmosphere.
“Oh, I do mean it. Stop being so nice all the time.” Wanderer scoffed. “You’re the Chief Justice. Let me present you with some evidence: you initiate the trial of your archon, the prophecy occurs, and Furina runs away and drowns. How do you plead?”
“I know.” A whisper.
“I know.” A bit louder this time.
And finally one said full of despair, of acceptance. “Oh Nibelung. I know. I, Iudex Neuvillette, am guilty.” He had known it well before the Wanderer’s scathing remarks that he was the one responsible for Furina’s death. He may have just held a blade and stabbed her himself.
“What’s done is done, death cannot be reversed unless the threads of this world are unraveled. Go back to Fontaine, Monsieur Neuvillette. Lead them like she would have. Furina had so, so much love for her people. Including you. ” Nahida sprouted a lakelight lily in her hands, offering it to Neuvillette. “Honor her memory by doing what she would have wanted.”
Even as Neuvillette hesitated to listen to an usurper, he knew Buer was correct. He knew instinctively that Furina—always so kind and pure of heart—would have already forgiven him if she knew he was inadvertently the cause of her death. He knew he would never fully heal from Furina’s death—dragons only had one mate in their long lives—but protecting Fontaine was one thing he could do.
“Okay.” It was all the words Neuvillette had the strength to say, still lost in the ocean of his grief. “Okay, I will.”
That night, with the lakelight lily on his bedside table, Neuvillette dreamed of dancing in a secluded meadow. Furina was beside him, beaming as she twirled, her laughter the sound of wind chimes.