Chapter Text
“In the beginning, there was nothing.”
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light!’.”
And now, there was still… nothing? what?
This isn’t right, this is not how the story is supposed to go! Where is everything! Where am I?
The colors! the people! i can’t se-
Wait? colors? what are colors? why is that term unfamiliar? and what does it mean to see?
There was always nothing and there will always be nothing for her to see.
She… if she remembers the term correctly, she was born… blind? That’s weird. Why do I sound uncertain? I should know how I lived my life.
Why can't I remember anything before now? How did I come here? Where IS here?
She heard a chuckle. It terrified her. Was this a malicious person? Why are they laughing? The person is right in front of her! She has to get away!
“Be not afraid, I was just marveling at how innocent you are, my dearest Furina.” The voice was soothing, it was calm and confident, Furina –Was that her name?– instinctively knew that this person meant her no harm, she basked in the warmth it gave her.
“Before we discuss anything, Tell me, Furina. What do you know of the prophecy?” despite the heavy question, the voice never changed its tone.
The… prophecy? Wait… she remembers! Why does she remember it now?
Furina decided to ignore all her inner turmoil in favor of answering. “Uhh… the prophecy, it states that ‘all people from Fontaine are born with sin that cannot be absolved; one day the waters of fontaine will rise, drowning the sinful and only the hydro archon will remain, alone on her throne, weeping as her people dissolve. Only then will their sins be washed away' right?” She was anxious. “But… it’s not true, is it? Fontaine won’t drown? right?” she… lived in Fontaine?
“Ah, good, good. you remember afterall.” The voice praised her. It was so comfortable, she could drown in it.
The voice resumed in the same tone, “Unfortunately, my lovely Furina. The prophecy will occur, tha-”
Furina cut her off, terrified. “What?! It will happen?! But it’s so horrible! Is there really no other way? Am I going to die?” She frantically fired one question after the other, giving the voice no room to respond.
It laughed softly, the laugh was music to her ears. All worries were washed away once again.
“Oh, the sweet, marvelous sound of humanity. You really do care for the nation, don’t you?” It did not leave a chance for Furina to answer the question. “But don’t worry, my beloved Furina. The prophecy may come to pass, but I have a plan to save the nation.” It finished.
“Really? We won’t die?" She asked the voice excitedly, oh, how relieved she was at that revelation. “What will you do? Can I help you?” She was willing to do anything so she didn't die.
The voice chuckled at her forwardness. “Ah, my part of the plan will be a long and arduous one, but don’t worry. For my plan to work, I do need help.” Furina was almost lost in the beauty of that chuckle.
It elaborated in the same relaxed tone as before, “You see, for my plan to work, the Hydro Archon needs to be weeping on her throne. And I need someone to play the part of Hydro Archon, are you willing? O’ beautiful Furina?” She could hear the voice take on a playful tone at the end.
“Th- The Hydro Archon? But how? I am not the Hydro Archon.”
“That is why I said ‘Play the part’.” The voice sounded amused, “You will not be the Hydro Archon, just an actress playing the role of one.”
Despite wanting to agree to any request the voice made of her, she was still uncertain. “But how do I play the role of an Archon?” It sounded like a tall order for her.
“The role of an actress is to make the audience believe that what they see on the stage is real, their fates are real, their flaws are real.” It took a moment before resuming. “You, my Furina. your job is to convince the entire world of your divinity, they must look upon you and only see the Hydro Archon.”
Furina thought for a moment, then came to a decision. “Okay, I will play the role of Hydro Archon.”
“Are you sure?” the voice took on a surprised tone, “This will be a very long and demanding role, you cannot tell any other soul about the truth. Are you willing to go to such lengths?”
The Actress took a moment to sort her thoughts out before explaining. “At first I was thinking, ‘Why does it have to be me?’ but then I realized, if my pain and suffering and the entirety of Fontaine were put on a scale, isn’t it obvious where the scales should tilt?” There was a silence for a few seconds, then loud laughter filled the space. It lasted almost a full minute. The sound was divine to her ears.
After taking several more seconds to compose itself, the voice continued with clear joy in it, “Ah, betting on humanity was the correct choice afterall, you never fail to impress me.” Furina can clearly hear the doting in the voice’s tone, “I suppose this would be the justice that belongs to you, all will end in a beautiful and magnificent trial.”
She took this opportunity to pose a question she was thinking about. “Uhh… I know I agreed to your plan, but how will I convince the people that I am the Hydro Archon? I am blind afterall.”
The voice immediately replied confidently, “Do not worry about that, I would not throw you to the wolves without at least giving you a knife to defend yourself.”
Furina waited a few seconds for an elaboration that never came, instead she suddenly felt something weird around her body. It was … flowing, slowly encompassing her whole being. She almost lost herself in the feeling, she felt confident. Empowered. Comfortable. She felt like she could take on the entire world and not break a sweat.
What is this?
The flowing sensation reached her face, slowly caressing her cheeks. For some reason she felt like tears were falling from her eyes but she couldn’t know. The feeling was overwhelming.
The voice returned once again and sounded apologetic, “I do apologize for what I am about to do. Please forgive me.”
Huh? Wha-
It all happened so suddenly, she felt something enter her skull through her eyes. then she started screaming in pain.
It felt horrible! Painful! Like someone was using a knife to carve out her eyes and brains! she felt like she could almost taste the pain with her eyes!
IT HURTS! IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!
And just as suddenly. The pain was no more.
She was on the ground panting, she wished to never experience that pain again. Playing the Hydro Archon would not be as painful.
It took Furina several minutes to finally compose herself. The voice was silent the entire time.
After finally regaining some semblance of coherent thought, the voice started talking again, “I hope you have it in yourself to forgive me. To help you in your role, I had to use some unconventional methods.” The voice returned to its relaxed tone, although Furina was too tired to feel the comfort in it. “Desperate times call for desperate measures as the saying goes, no?” The joke fell flat.
It stopped to see if she had any retort, but she had none, so it resumed, “What I did was give you a curse and a blessing, you will learn what the curse is in due time. But as for the blessing, do you feel any different?” It Asked.
She took a deep breath and answered the voice, “Other than the overwhelming pain, there is… something weird deep inside my head that keeps nagging at me. What did you do?” she asked back.
The voice ignored her question, “Try and reach out to that thing in your head.” it instructed.
Furina did as she was told and something changed. Her head was looking in the direction of the voice when something exploded in her head. The pain she feared did not come back.
instead… there was… something? In fro-
Wait… in front? There is no voice coming from the front. What… is this?
“That would be me, my sweet Furina. in normal human terms, what you are doing could be called 'seeing'. You are seeing me right now.” The voice explained.
Is the voice reading her mind?
The thing? in front of her chuckled, "No, I am not reading your mind. Your cute face just has everything written on it like an open book," she explained, before resuming. "I gave you the gift of a modified 'Elemental sight'. With this, you are capable of at least seeing anything imbued with one of the seven elements without needing a normal vision, so tell me. What do you see in front of you now?" she finished with a question.
Furina started with deep uncertainty, "I uhh... I don't know how to describe it... it feels powerful, but gentle... I feel like life is blooming 'In front of me'. Are you God?"
The... God? Thing? Froze for a second then laughed. it started doing something indescribable.
Is this what it means to laugh so hard your shoulders start shaking? The thing IS laughing hard right now. Furina thought to herself
"Oh my, I did not have a laugh as good as this in years. you humans truly are perfect." It took a moment before explaining, "No, what you see is the 'color blue' in the 'shape' of a person. You have to study this carefully if you want your act to be convincing.”
She had an epiphany. “Oh! Is this what everyone sees? What is that sticking out of your shape? Is this what standing looks like?” Excitement overtook her, “ But what do people mean when they say a person has a beautiful face? Where is the face? You are just… something!”
The person in front of her did another weird move. Fascinating.
“Calm down, calm down. What I am doing right now is raising my arms to placate you.” They raised their arms? “What you see here is the arm, it is what you use to move things around.”
They raised their arms once again. “This over here is the face, and the ‘sticking out my shape’ is the top of my hair. It is considered a beautiful and trendy hair I will have you know, you have the same style” the person replied.
They did not give her time for any more questions. “Unfortunately, due to certain restrictions, I could not give you a true sight. Easy to do, but not necessary.” The person muttered the last part as if talking to themself.
They crossed their arms and said, “No matter, sit. I will be explaining to you all the human anatomy so that you do not doom the nation on the first day.”
They took on an authoritative tone and raised one arm in a funny shape, “ and I can see how you look at me, like I am some nameless object. I have a name and a gender just like you, you do not need to know my name, but I can at least tell you that I am a female. so treat me with the respect I deserve.” Why did she sound so annoyed at the end?
The female started her lecture and Furina found herself lost in the voice and the movement. she found herself distracted on several occasions and had to focus again.
And the voice admonished her every time, no matter how much she tried to hide it. It honestly annoyed her a little.
How is she able to figure out everything I do? It’s not like she can truly read my mind, right? She found her thoughts wandering again.
“Ahem, if you wish the nation to flood, you can tell me right now.” And her attention was snapped to the woman once again.
After what felt like hours of explanations, the woman in front of her was finally done.
“And finally, your true challenge is not playing the role of an Archon, but rather trying to not lose your humanity while doing so. But I believe you will not disappoint me.” She did not like the added pressure upon her, but she will manage.
“Any questions?” She asked Furina as she put her hands behind her back, looking down at her as she was sitting on the ground.
The Actress took a second to think up a question, and she returned to the one that she did not find a time to ask, “I know you said I am not allowed to know your name, but what should I call you?”
The woman raised her hand to her chin and thought for a moment and started muttering, “Hmm, I suppose I can steal the way they name themselves. I doubt they would care for someone hidden such as I.”
She reached a conclusion and clapped her hands before saying, “Alright! If you wish to refer to me you can use the letter 'F' isn’t it perfect? It is the first letter of your beautiful name!” Ms. F said happily.
Furina stood up and took a deep bow. “Alright, Ms. F. I promise you that I will not falter in my role as the Hydro Archon.”
The woman chuckled for the last time before saying, “I know you won’t, Humans always had the determination to acquire the future they want.” Her tone suddenly took on a solemn tone, “So go forth, O Hydro Archon of this nation. Save your people from certain doom.”
“Wake up.”