Chapter Text
A cool afternoon breeze blew past Varka’s face as he sat in the rooftop of the Favonius Headquarters. From where he sat, he could see the the view of the city, as well as lands of Mondstadt as far as his eyes could reach. He can even see the lighthouse in Dornman Port, though relatively small because of the distance.
It was one of those rare instance where he gets to enjoy his alone time without any paperwork, or to be precise, his brief “respite” from those mountains of work. Surprisingly, he left his flask of alcohol in his quarters.
He never thought that he would still be alive to witness Teyvat attaining unprecedented peace, though one cannot become too complacent. Even then, he is confident that the Knights of Favonius will able to address them should another one emerges.
It was time for him to hand over the reigns to the new generation, and retire as Grand Master.
He is now more confident than ever that Jean is ready for the role, just as she always had been when she was the Acting Grand Master. He did fear that Jean would overwork herself and worry about the littlest thing when she could just delegate these tasks to others.
‘And here I am, hiding from paperwork again,’ Varka chuckled, ‘I’m so sorry, Jean…’
For Varka, this will be the last time that he would be evading from those piles of paper, and those escapesof his became one of his favorite pasttimes. Maybe when enough time passes, he’ll eventually miss the same paperwork.
‘Well, time to go back,’ Varka thought. But as he was about to stand, he felt a familiar presence behind him. The said presence doesn’t talk with her lips, but rather, projects them straight to another person’s mind.
“Oh, you were here indeed, Grand Master,” Nicole said, “Just as Jean said.”
Varka glanced back over his shoulder and smiled. “To be fair, I was about to return. Care to join me? Or do you want to be inside the office?”
Instead of answering, Nicole walked towards Varka and took a seat beside him. “What a lovely view.”
“So, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
Nicole smiled in return and answered, “Oh, I was just visiting Mondstadt and give Klee a gift from Alice, before she comes over. So, I decided to appear before her superior officer first as a gesture of goodwill.”
Varka chuckled, and said playfully, “Ah, how thoughtful. I extend my heartfelt gratitude, Miss Nicole.”
Nicole laughed at his response. She quite enjoys it when he plays along with her antics.
“Though, I’d say you can just go straight to Jean for that matter. She’ll be officially taking over in a few days, and at least you can get used to the change,” Varka said, “Oh and give her a heads up to prepare for several reports regarding fish blasting.”
“Oh my! My goodwill has now turned to a warning,” Nicole said, feigning worry, “Also, you all know how Alice couldn’t resist Klee…”
“Ahaha! Like I said, thanks for the heads up,” Varka responded, “You know what? I’ll tell Jean myself, to compensate my… umm, escape.”
“You were hiding from Jean, yet she knows where you are?” Nicole teased, “What a mischievous Grand Master we have here, though he’s getting a bit rusty.”
“Hey, now! First of, I’m not hiding from Jean; I’m just ‘taking a break’ from those papers. Second, the knights had gotten good in tracking down my hiding spots,” Varka retorted, justifying himself. He then smiled, and added, “Back in those days, I remember them frantically searching for me all over the city, even resorting to using tracking birds at some point, until Amber saw me in this very spot.”
She laughed. “I confess that I couldn’t see any difference.” Nicole played the scenario in her mind. She thought about using this as inspiration for a future novel. “But why here, though? Wouldn’t it make more sense to escape and hide in a faraway distance?”
“Well, to someone like me who wishes to escape from paperwork, the rooftop of the headquarters is that last place they’d think to search,” Varka replied. Nicole’s face showed a look of comprehension. “I do have other hiding spots all over Mondstadt. In a way, it’s some sort of training exercise for the knights as well.”
Then, there was a comfortable silence between them. The winds blew gently around the two as they watched the windmills continue to turn, and the people below going about their way. Finally, Nicole broke the silence.
“So, do you have any plans on your retirement?”
Varka did not immediately answer, but she waited patiently.
“Honestly, I’m not quite sure yet,” Varka said, “There were some instances when I thought that I’ll be spending all my life as Grand Master, perhaps dying while in service. But I knew that someday, I’ll be passing the torch to the young ones, and that day has arrived… well, in a week, to be exact, for Jean’s inauguration. Honestly, I am not sure what I want to do after I step down.”
“Perhaps, I can guide you to the answers you seek,” said Nicole, “I am, after all, duty-bound to guide humanity.”
“I suppose I can take advantage of that.” Then, Varka turns to Nicole and ask, “Miss Nicole, indulge me for a bit, but what comes after the end of a story?”
Nicole narrows her eyes and retorted, “Is that a jab on my writing progess?”
“Haha, no, I didn’t mean it that way, my bad. I’m just merely curious,” Varka said in defense, “Actually, maybe I thought that I can get inspiration on what to do in retirement, starting with that. And, of course, since you are a prolific writer, I also thought it’ll save me time to ask from the source itself.”
Nicole sighed, and let out a soft laugh. “You and your way of words…”
She looked up the orange-tinged sky and spotted some dark clouds seemingly covering the sun. She didn’t even notice that night was about to fall. She pondered for a while, and desperately tried to answer him in a very concise manner.
“A story that has ended doesn’t really mean that the lives of my characters have completely stopped. As an author, I could go on and on about the adventures and fate of the heroes in my stories, but I put ‘The End’ because that specific part of their tale has ended, and a new one is about to begin, unless of course I’m writing a tragic one. I put it because I might lose thedirection of the tale, and most importantly, the very message that I wanted to convey, and you do know I have the tendency to include things that might cause more confusion. Another reason would be that I’d like to leave it to my readers what happens after ‘The End’; I don’t like to constrict them with my own views, and perhaps they can give them a more exciting adventure.”
A pause, and then she gave him a small smile. “Does that help at all? Now that I think about it, it doesn’t really answer your question at all.”
“Just a bit, to be honest, but I appreciate your insight. I do agree with you though,” Varka replied, “I remember when I was younger, I was excited in reading and listening to the stories of the knights and their chivarly, being fascinated with their glorious feats; the hero does an act of sacrifice, the evil is vanquised, the main protagonist gets the love of his life, and all that. The memorable stories were the ones ending on a high note.”
“And, does that not apply to you? Do you want to end like those knights in those stories?”
“I thought about it,” said Varka, “It may not be as exciting as those stories, but retirement as an ending isn’t that bad. Yeah, I’m perfectly happy with this. I should count myself lucky that I’m still alive and able to enjoy life.”
Then, Varka stood up, and extended his hand to Nicole, “It’s getting late. Thank you for your help. I should go back and tell Jean about Alice. Wanna come along?”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to tell her myself?” asked Nicole, as she took his hand to support her as she stood up.
“Nah, it’s fine. Like I said, this is my way of apologizing for umm.. cause her a minor inconvenience.” Varka said. Then, in the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar knight and a blind lady and turned towards their direction. “Oh? Has Godwin already returned?”
“Glory’s lover?”
“Yeah. I sent him to Nod Krai as some sort of penance,” he said. “Just in time for the inauguration ceremony… oh right! We’ll have an afterparty to celebrate Jean’s appointment as Grand Master, would you like to come? I’ll invite Alice when she get here, and Barbeloth if she’s available..”
But Nicole was still staring at the couple, strolling nearby Barbatos’ statue. “I thought she would get mad and leave him,” she mustered.
“Well, we do make mistakes…”
“But he deceived her for so long,” Nicole remarked and turned to Varka, “Why can’t he gather courage to return at the earliest instance and explain what happened to him? And how come Glory can forgive him so easily?”
“Well, that’s love for you,” replied Varka, “Besides, I share responsibility with what happened to Godwin by not accounting for him when I embarked on my expedition.”
“That’s beside the point, though!” Nicole retorted back, “Is love a reason enough to cause such forgiveness? I can’t imagine how Glory had felt because of his deception!”
Of course, as someone who once was an envoy of the Heavenly Principles, the topic about love is close to Nicole’s heart. It was the very thing that led to the downfall of her race, of which her eldest sister was enticed to point her blade against their creator. Their very being was tasked to love humanity equally, and when one does the opposite, to bestow such love only to a single being, the angels regressed to a seelie. It’s been a long time ago ever since she shed half of her wisdom and power and came to the lands of Teyvat that she had embrace her then newfound state, and with the Vision she now possessed, was now recognized by the heavens as ‘human’. The teachings of when she was still a heavenly envoy, however, was still instilled upon her.
“Beside, don’t you think it’s a bit incosiderate to devote yourself to a single peson? Is a love like that actually selfish?” To her, it’s much better to loving others equally, at least, that way, many people would stand to benefit, rather than just giving all of it to only one. Perhaps that is why she was in awe of the Grand Master; the man in front of her had so much love to give to his people, and such selfless love that only a few can do especially for a human like him.
“Hmm, I don’t think they perceive it that way,” said Varka, who eyes were still on the lovers below. He turned to Nicole, smiled and said, “That said, I don’t really have much experience myself on that front.”
Varka studied Nicole’s conflicted expression, and said, “You’re still curious about it, huh?”
He let go of Nicole’s hand, crossed his arms in concentration and thought of any solution. Then, turned again to Nicole and asked, “Then, would you like to find out the answer ourselves?”
Nicole was stunned to hear that from Varka. ‘Find out? How? Wait, he said ourselves… But the only way to find out is that… does he mean… no, it can’t be suggesting us to become...’ As the string of words rushed in her mind, she felt her cheeks getting a bit warmer by the second. She, of all people, couldn’t believe what he had suggested. ‘Doesn’t he know about us and the curse? Wait, he does know because of Ursa.. but why…’ but her train of thoughts was cut short by none other that the very person who caused them.
“Why don’t we head out in the library? I was thinking of asking Glory herself, but I think that’ll be too direct,” Varka suggested enthusiatically. “Lisa probably has a ton of references there… wait, are you alright, Miss Nicole?”
Before him, he could see Nicole immediately covering her face and crouched on the ground.
“Miss Nicole! Please stand properly; you might fall.. Hey!”
With one hand still covering her face, Nicole snapped her fingers and instantly vanished.
When she came to, Nicole was standing on top of a cliff in a nearby field of Cecilias.
‘Looks like I’m in... Starsnatch Cliff? Well no matter. I just needed to be away from him.’
Suddenly, what had transpired a few minutes ago flashed in Nicole's mind, and she had to grab her beret to cover her flustered face. She can’t believe of what just happened; even moreso, she was taken aback on herself for thinking that the Grand Master was suggesting for them to be lovers to see what the deal was.
‘I know he has good intentions, and he just wanted to help like he always does; he’s always been that way, but does he have to say it like that?’ she thought. ‘But, there was nothing wrong with what he said. In fact, I was the one who basically jumped into conclusions…’
And then she realized that she just left him alone on a snap of a finger. Literally. Now, she’s mortified of what she had done.
Nicole sighed. She knows that he didn't mean for her to misunderstand, and it was bad manners to not even say goodbye before leaving.
She was wondering, however, as to why her thoughts immediately pivot to that direction. Could it be, all this time...
‘No, calm yourself Nicole,’ she told herself. ‘Yes, this embarrassment wouldn't had happen if not for him... or rather… yes, he could have definitely worded it differently.’
Now with a renewed sense to seek justice for herself, she huffed, and declared, “I think it’s time to plan another assassination!”
In Varka's point of view, Nicole just vanished in a puff of smoke.
“I didn't even get her answer if she's going to attend the party,” Varka told himself. “Well, that's the mages for you.”
They’re always doing something out of this world that it's almost hard to keep up, and to be completely honest, he quite enjoys it; at least it keeps him on his toes. Most especially with Nicole’s, all in the name of her writing process.
Ever since the first Tripartite Conference, he has always been amazed by the mages of the Hexenzirkel, just as how fascinated he was with the tales of chivalrous knights when he was younger. Alice’s magic, and Nicole’s abilities, especially with the latter, doing her duties while also having time to do her hobbies like her sculptures, not to mention the stories that she writes (she does have a ghostwriter, but still), and her mind housed knowledge and history so vast that he cannot even fathom, just as how felt listening to Alice’s adventures. Even mere paperwork is something he finds tedious.
‘Truly, I'm no match for her…’
Knowing her juggling with all her tasks and passions roused something inside him, like even he can do anything, and that starts with the task that he had escaped from.
Admittedly, he'll miss moments like this. He realized that, after he retires, it will be Jean who will represent Mondstadt in the Tripartite Conference should Alice calls one. He’ll probably won’t be able to see those familiar faces during his tenure as Grand Master frequently, unless they come and visit him, or he to them. With those thoughts in his head, Varka couldn’t help but feel a bit sentimental. One could only grasp the value of a thing when the same is about to be taken away.
He’ll be around, for sure, or perhaps he’ll go and visit other nations to catch up with the friends he made during his expedition. He’ll always be a knight, but the title of the Grand Master can be inherited by someone who is up to the task.
He stayed for a bit longer, until the evening breeze no longer carry the lingering scent of flowers that the one who had kept him company earlier had always wore.