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Phew. Another group cleared, you think to yourself. After the final blow to that common enemy, you shake your hand to get rid of the sticky snow on your gloves. It falls to the ground, but it’ll soon serve nothing—you sense a snow storm approaching in a few hours. That’s actually great, since you’ll have time to possibly complete another small mission sent by your Fatui higher-ups.
You take a deep breath and sit on a pile of snow. There’s ice beneath it, so you didn’t totally melt into it. The snow was particularly bright at noon today, but after tea time, clouds would get darker and The Tsaritsa’s element will fall onto the closed-off nation. Taking advantage of this moment, you close your eyes and rest your weapon beside you. A bird sings in the tree above you, mourning the dead humanoid creatures you defeated a minute ago. Though, it still knows that no amount of mourning would be able to bring one back from the dead, and that made its song sound a little darker to your ears.
The low sound of Abyssal energy dissipating catches your attention. You glance at it, eyebrow arched curiously. Little red sparks carry on into the cold air—something you haven’t seen before in this type of mob. You shrug it off. That’s not my job. I just have to inform my superiors, and they’ll figure it out.
The jay abruptly stopped singing and flew away from its branch. You look up to see if there’s anything that disturbed the bird so much, but the only thing you see is snow falling from the branches. You duck, letting out an annoyed groan when it falls on top of you. You shake what you can off. You shiver once the moment passes—some snow penetrated through your hood and slipped right on your back. In a time like this, you’d laugh if you were with your friends. But now, you thought that your current mission had ended. Turns out, another one’s has just began.
In the corner of your vision, you see someone who appears to be your ally: the dark and turquoise themed Fatui uniform that every Snezhnayan has seen before. You squint, trying to take a better look of the mysterious person. With all the reflecting snow, you can’t see well, but you form out a blonde figure. Sending out someone to pick you up wasn’t what usually happens on your mission, so this must be a newcomer! Since you aren’t that low in the ranks, you sometimes give new recruits a do-over. This is a perfect opportunity to make them introduce themselves, and find out why they’re here. After all, only you are supposed to be on this campsite.
You stand back up and wave at them. "Hello," you shout, as normally as a normal citizen would. "Are you lost?" No answer. The blonde walks toward you slowly, and you do so too after a second. Upon closer inspection, you notice they have a gun in hand. A gun? The Fatui only gives out those types of Cryo guns to pros, so why haven’t I heard of this g—
The stranger leaps at you, not even bothering to shoot their gun at you. Quickly putting up your sword up in defence, you avoid the attack. Looks like this Snezhnayan isn’t my friend. You curse under your breath. This weirdo isn’t talking, only focusing on the fight. They jump over you, and it takes you off-guard. You gasp, only to be met with a plunge from the individual. You barely dodge, tripping onto the snow that’s already been flattened by your previous fight. "Who are you," you ask alarmingly, out of breath from their slick and fast attacks. "What do you want!?"
"There’s an easier way to end this," the calm yet stern voice says, already approaching your hurt figure. "Give up, or I’ll shoot you." They take their gun up and aim at your chest.
You crawl away, but stop after a pain echoes in your leg. You gaze at it, and see a paralyzer bullet coated in Cryo. They changed their aim at the last second, and even you didn’t see it. Fuck! I dropped my sword behind them. I can’t fight properly anymore. "Dirty cheater!" you yell in annoyance. "A real Fatuus doesn’t attack their subordinates. You didn’t even try to pretend! You—"
A blast of Cryo comes out of their hand and lands next to you. "Last warning…"
You twitch and force a smile. Damn, this blondie’s good. "Whatever."
Their finger pulls the trigger, setting the same type of bullet that landed in your leg. In your last moments of consciousness, you force your pained groans to stay in your own throat. A cold spreads throughout your body. Your vision goes black.
"Oi! Wake up," a masculine voice calls you. "Dear Fatuus Agent??"
You hear soft thunking beneath you—the all too familiar sound of the Snezhnayan train. You sigh, slowly opening your eyes. You take note of the dark and snow outside and realize: It’s been hours. The storm’s already here. You look up at the unknown person and take in his appearance.
His short wavy hair and purple eyes made his baby face stand out a little more. The uniform he wears is consisted of mainly cold colours and black, with rich golden accents. Small faded elemental gems that one couldn’t use anymore sit embedded in the golden ornaments. His cape seems as loud as his thoughts, in a student’s way.
He raises a light navy eyebrow. "Is there something wrong?" He puts out a hand to help you stand up, since you tipped over during the ride and wasn’t in a great condition from the Cryo gun’s bullets.
"Who are you and why are you helping me?" you ask briskly. "Any normal Snezhnayan wouldn’t help a Fatuus."
He smirks. "First, I am Mitya, a new researcher who studies in Snezhnograd. Second, I’m not helping you—I’m helping myself. I guess I got captured along with some other randoms, I guess they’re not here though, and now I obviously have to get out of here somehow. You seemed stronger than the other Fatui, it’s pretty clear because of your white and red uniform. So then, I woke you up."
"We both got captured. Doesn’t that make us both weak?" Mitya’s logic didn’t even make that much sense since he got into this situation before you did. You could tell by the melted ice near his neck. He got shot by the same stranger, or maybe their accomplice.
"You’ve got a good point. But we should both do what I say, unless you don’t wanna get off this train," Mitya spits back, however there’s no negativity. He dusts off his shoulder in an attempt of nonchalance after helping you up. "Don’t you have a weapon or something?"
I dropped my sword in my match against that blondie, so I guess not. "I don’t," you sigh. "I lost it before getting here. How about you?" You’re uncertain whether you should trust this guy, but he was right.
"Currently, no, but you don’t really need violence to get out of here." Mitya looks toward the sliding door and turns on the lights of the wagon. You finally notice the Abyssal blotches on the walls. Outside, everything seems distorted rather than "dark". It’s still snowing, but it’s not the same. "Now, no need to panic. I discovered this place a few weeks ago, and safely returned home. Except, some things don’t work as they do in Tevyat." He grips the handle and with more force than usually needed, and the door slides open.
You gasp, expecting another withered wagon—instead, you see the ground, multiple stories away. One wrong step, and Mitya would fall right there. "Hah," he chuckles, seeing your surprised face. "I know right!"
"Uh… Never mind that, how do we even get back to Tevyat?" You walk near the opening. I swear I heard the sound of train tracks and a storm just now…
Mitya hovers a hand in front of your chest, signaling to stop right there. His eyes say Don’t. "There are portals in our world that lead here, so logically, the portals aren’t one-way trips to this dimension."
"… Do you at least know how they look like?" you deadpan.
"Yeah. Kinda. They look like the blue goo on the walls, just brighter." Mitya pointed toward them and then to you. "You. You haven’t introduced yourself, what’s up?"
You give him a small intro, but still keep some things bland. You are a Fatuus, after all. "Enough talking already. C’mon, ‘lead’ the way, Researcher Mitya."
"Nice. But, yeah, let’s go." He slides down beneath the door, holding onto the "floor" of the wagon. You call out to him, but you hear a laugh coming from under the frozen cart. "Caught you off-guard again!"
You glance under it and see the researcher hanging by one arm and from the other, elemental power shooting out to keep him from falling. "You have a Vision?" you exclaim. "Wow, it’s hidden pretty well…"
His Electro Vision clips into his pants, except only on the inside, facing his back and not the world.
"Hum. I’d rather not," you say uncomfortably. "Don’t you have a Wind Glider? ‘Cause I’ll just use mine." You summon your Glider and equip it with ease. You jump off the floating platform, gliding toward the ground. After a moment, you hear Mitya mutter something then you look back.
Is he seriously stuck…? You turn and gape at him. "You’re joking. Get over here!"
"Gah, at least help me out!" Mitya yells. "We’re in this together, aren’t we? And you agreed?"
You roll your eyes. There he goes, changing the rules. Idiot. You reach to your waist, where a carefully camouflaged rope is. You align your focus to both gliding and throwing it to Mitya. You toss the rope to him, and he catches it with his free arm. He wraps his hand around the rope, a bare minimum for support. "Let go of it," you tell him. "I’ll catch you." … Somehow.
Without warning, he lets go. For a split second, he doesn’t move. The next, he falls with a scream. You dive to save him from hitting the ground, flying practice coming in handy. The wind—colder than you expected for such a dead place—howls at your face. Mitya reaches his hand out. Just as you thought you’d be close to missing it, you grab his hand and scoop him into your arms. With the extra momentum, your Wind Glider can’t keep up. You both crash into the ground, though you fall first. "Ow!" you yell to him, a little bit of mocking to how he screamed earlier bleeding in your tone.
"Uh… Do you need any help, dear Fatuus?" Mitya asks coyly, lip forcefully curling.
"Get off me!" You push him off. Mitya stumbles and hits his head on a tree trunk, a bit of powdered snow falls onto it. You stand up, adrenaline still rushing inside of you. You notice the snow and can’t help but snicker.
Mitya introduced himself pretty flashy way, but now, he just seems pathetic in your eyes.
"Tch…" Mitya snickers too as you wait for him to get up. Out of nowhere, his eyes widen. "Look out!" You snap around and are met with a large Abyssal creature that resembles a bird. Since you have no weapon on you, you’re obliged to act quickly and jump away from its attack. "A Fisher of Hidden Depths!? What’s that thing doing here? I thought those things only resided in Nod-Krai," Mitya exclaims.
Mitya runs and swings his spear at the Fisher. The creature puts up a dark purple shield on its skin the second he swings, deflecting his attack.
You raise an eyebrow. Hmm… It would be really funny if I didn’t help him. I don’t have an actual mission with him, so it’s not important.
Mitya stabs it, but misses. The Fisher claws at him in return, grazing his shoulder. He groans—his pain tolerance is surprisingly low. Mitya furrows his eyebrows and says, "You’re gonna pay!" It responds with a mix of shrieking and growling. "Haven’t seen one of you guys in a long time," he murmurs before enforcing himself into the Nod-Kraian monster, tip of the spear first.
This time, he doesn’t miss. It hits the target right in the neck, where any normal creature’s weak point is. It shriek-growls again, but much louder than before. Alarmed, 1 takes a step back. Actually, he changes mind at the last second—he knows that if a Fisher of Hidden Depths does this, it’ll enter an enhanced state. He instantly approaches it again, no mercy in mind. Electro coats his polearm, making it twice as strong. He goes directly for the head, slashing it down from its brain down to its vocal cords. A spark ignites in its wound, stopping it from powering-up. Satisfied, Mitya laughs, "See? That easy. Just wait a little…"
You walk up and peek down on the dead Fisher of Hidden Depths. Its body disintegrates, just like the numerous other Abyssal monsters you’ve fought. "What eye-catching aspect exactly am I supposed to see here? This is normal… Hmm?" Beneath the sparks, you notice a layer of snow and grass. The last glimmers fall down on that layer, but something unusual happens. They turn into something lighter. Little by little, the sparks coat the grass and snow in light blue. You glance at Mitya. He’s smiling ear to ear, as if he’d just accomplished the greatest job.
"Follow me through it," Mitya advises. He crouches in front of it, waiting for the perfect moment to slide in.
"What? Through?" Your questions were left unanswered as Mitya takes your hands and drags you into it. The light blinds you for a second, but you manage. I didn’t anticipate going through a portal to feel like. It’s so trippy.
After the short multidimensional ride, you rub your eyes. You’re back on the edge of the capital city, and there are clouds approaching in the distance. Not the cursed place you were in with Mitya. Oh, yeah, Mitya. You look around to hopefully see him, but he acts first. You suddenly feel a familiar touch on your shoulders accompanied by an unexpected voice.
"Gotcha!" Mitya gushes. Soon after, he puts his ungloved hands away.
You don’t really mind it, since you know he’s a valuable trusted asset, even outside of your Fatui work. He’s got a good mind.
In a hurry, Mitya says, "I might get in trouble if someone sees me hanging out with a Fatuus Agent. and I’m a little behind on stuff, so let’s meet soon, friend! Bye!"
You pause and think, What an informal goodbye. But you don’t really mean it. He’s already running to the inside of Snezhnograd, and for a valid reason. He has his own work, too.