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It was weird to say, but Furina didn’t feel much different after the trial. Everyone assumed she had changed, but really she just stopped acting. As an Archon she must be cheerful, she must inspire confidence, she must be firm, both an immovable object and unstoppable force. Once that was stripped from her, once she was left with nothing. Then she didn’t have to care about letting the world see just how empty she had become.
Neuvillette and Chlorinde, having them betray her hurt, hurt more than she expected it to, but at the same time she always knew that once she had fulfilled her duty that they’d want nothing to do with her. She had been hoping for a quiet goodbye, but a sword to the neck worked just as well.
As the weeks passed by she tried to pretend that she was okay. Chlorinde, Navia, Neuvillette, that… evil girl. They all pretended to be her friend after the fact, as if a few half hearted apologies and hastily made snacks made up for what they did. As if that could make people stop sneering at her on the street, as if that could stop people from vandalizing her home, as if that made up for centuries worth of suffering.
It didn’t
Furina wasn’t an angry person, but for the first time in five hundred years she hated with all her heart. All that emptiness she’d been building had filled with bitterness and hate until she couldn’t even look at the Opera Eclipse without wanting to tear her own hair out.
Furina spent five hundred years protecting Fontaine, and now she wanted nothing more than to be rid of it.
Leaving was a decision she made fairly easily. She’d go to Sumeru, perhaps perform at the Theatre there. If that didn’t work out she’d go to Liyue, then Inazuma, then Mondstat…
Not Natlan. That awful woman was headed there next. Not Snezniah either, the only one worse than that woman was the Knave.
But Furina didn’t want her bitterness to sully whatever opportunity may arise in the future. So she wrote a series of letters. She let her true thoughts shine through for the first time… ever really. Each one was sealed expertly, and to make things more authentic she wrote the names of the intended recipients on the envelopes. Before throwing all but one of the letters in the trash.
It felt good to let it all out, but Furina wasn’t petty enough to actually have them all delivered.
Bags packed she had originally hoped to just let her remaining letter be found naturally. But once she spotted Siegwinde on her way out she decided there wouldn’t be any harm in letting the Melusine deliver it for her.
Bitterness swirled within Furina when she remembered how the girl declared her symptoms to the court, how she acted as the final nail in the coffin.
Furina shook her head. Seigwinde was a doctor, she had only come in case something went wrong, in case Furina got into real danger.
That was the justification the Melusine gave, always justifications, never an apology.
Furina left, and the young Melusine’s heart broke at the look on her Archon’s face. Siegwinde never knew Furina as well as she did Mr. Neuvillette, but she knew enough. Enough to know that her face was always full of life and genuine love and compassion. Enough to know that a version of Furina with eyes so dull they might as well be gray was a tragedy in and of itself.
She knew enough to know that those letters in the trash weren’t meant to be delivered. And she knew enough to know that if they were left intact, there was a small part of Furina that wanted them to be seen.
So Siegwinde delivered quite a few letters that day.
Ever since the trial things had been unbearably busy for the Hydro Sovereign. From the outside looking in everyone would assume that Neuvillette was the one who did all the work while Furina played it up on stage. But that was hardly true, while Neuvillette certainly took on a greater workload he would never claim that Furina hadn’t done her part. She didn’t spend all her days eating sweets, napping, and waiting for the next performance. She spent them studying, working, and learning. The sweets were just a nice bonus.
Neuvillette knew this… HE KNEW THIS… and yet he still. At her worst moment! The dragon set aside the document he had been reading, and glanced at the letter on his desk. Siegwinde had come to his office that day with a letter and a message. ‘She never meant for you to see this, but if it is what I think it is, then you definitely should.’
He saw his name written on the front of the envelope, Furina’s immaculate penmanship dancing along the page. He had planned to wait until he was finished work to read it, but he so desperately needed to know what his… what Furina wanted him to hear.
I Hate You
He wanted to know so badly… so badly what Furina wanted to say, until he actually heard her true feelings. Those three words were like a slap to the face. After the trial she had seemed tired, oh so tired, but after a couple of months he thought she had perked back up.
He should have known better, if anyone knew how to fool the whole world it’s Furina. It was too swift a recovery, he should have been more suspicious. He should have been!-
The letter didn’t end there.
There is a saying, in order to truly hate someone, you must have first loved them. I didn’t quite understand what that meant in the past, but now I find myself all too aware.
I understand that my demeanor may have seemed childish, in truth, that is because I never had a childhood. I was far too busy for that. Busy keeping Fontaine running. Busy fooling the gods who were so much further above me than they realized. Busy praying for this hell to end.
My prayers were answered by you Neuvillette. After one hundred years of back breaking labor, of being utterly alone you came along. You came along and gave me the piece of mind I craved. The first hundred years of my life were dedicated to my mission. The next few were spent seeing if I could trust you.
My first mistake was thinking that I could.
You were dependable, I thought that I could finally relax with you around. I thought that I could indulge in all the things I had missed in the past.
Despite what many think I have never been stupid. Not many people seemed to agree with me on that, but you did. You saw that I wasn’t just some bratty child. What I truly lacked was wisdom. I was born with the expectation that I would be perfect, I never learned what it meant to make mistakes. You were the only one to watch me trip and help me up.
Why Neuvillette?
Why is it that when I was at my lowest, when I was at the edge of a cliff, why was it that you were content to let me fall?
For four hundred years I had deferred to your judgment, for four hundred years I had trusted you with everything I could say. You knew I had been working tirelessly to stop the prophecy, you knew that I wasn’t as stupid as I acted, you knew that I’d never hide anything from you without a good reason.
You knew I was in pain
You knew
And your response was to turn my whole country against me. Now people say my name as if I had personally caused all their problems. As if the public humiliation wasn’t enough, the people I had sworn to protect made it clear that I was unwelcome.
But worst of all…
I’ll never forget how you looked at me that day.
As if I deserved everything I had coming
You truly thought I was human
And yet you gave me a god’s punishment
And never once since the trail has it rained.
Drops of water stained the page, more and more as Neuvillette read. A pit in his stomach growing as the penmanship got less intricate as the letter went on, by the end it looked more similar to an official document than how Furina would write something. As if something in her had truly died.
Maybe something did. One of the worst storms Fontaine’s ever seen raged outside, and it only seemed to get worse when an awful thought entered Neuvillette’s mind. ‘Maybe the death penalty was for Focalors. But we killed Furina that day too.’
The Fatui siblings flinched as the storm raged outside, thunder rumbling above. Fontaine had been all clear skies for months now, and yet the day that they received a letter from the former archon it started to rain? Lyney didn’t believe in Freminet’s fairy tales. But he didn’t believe in coincidence either.
Lynette sipped her tea as if she wasn’t bothered by everything, but Lyney saw the way her tail stood on edge, how her hand slightly trembled, how her eyes remained focused on the unopened envelope on the table.
Siegwinde had dropped it off soon after the rain started. She gave them two actually, one for them and one for “Father” the latter of which a Cicin Mage was taking care of for them.
Still… that still left them with the problem of the letter they had been given. Very clearly on the envelope it had both his and his sister’s names. But not Freminet’s oddly enough. Lyney glanced at the diver and found he was just as transfixed as the twins.
Eventually Lyney decided that it would be best to rip off the bandaid, and grabbed the letter off the table.
Any feigned disinterest vanished near immediately, Freminet and Lynette both crowded around Lyney as he opened the envelope.
I Hate You Both
“oh…” It was a voice so soft that he barely heard it, but taking a quick glance to the side he saw Lynette’s ears droop in sadness. Lyney’s temper flared until he remembered what Siegwinde told them. That Furina never meant for these letters to reach them. Lyney had done something similar in the past, when he was mad at a decision Father had made. He’d of course destroy the letter after, but he admitted there was a certain temptation in leaving it lying around for her to find.
He took another quick glance at his sister and found that she and Freminet both were still reading, so he figured he should do the same.
It feels good to finally say that. It’s been so long since the trial, and it still makes me angry to see you both walking the streets all smiles.
You. Murderers. Fatui.
You are accepted by the people of Fontaine with open arms, you are accepted after everything you’ve done while I’m treated like trash.
Maybe I deserve it, after I failed all the people in Poisson maybe I truly do deserve it. But it’s not like anyone else had a solution. The prophecy was put in place by The Heavenly Principles, even if the seven archons stood as one we wouldn’t hold a candle to them.
Sorry. They wouldn’t hold a candle to them.
I wouldn’t have been there, would I?
Though it’s kind of funny isn’t it? How Fontaine can look at me and call me a fraud, and then turn around and blame me for not doing anything about the prophecy.
But I was doing something, I did everything I could. I had to trust Focalors. I trusted her for 500 years.
I should have let you all drown
No… I don’t mean that. As much as it hurts to know that my country hates me, as much as I look at Fontaine and see a land I’m no longer capable of loving, I can’t say that I’d rather you all be dead.
Though I do have a question for you both
What is justice?
Even if I was a false Archon I still found myself pondering this question. After the trial I think I’ve found the answer.
To seek justice is to be vindictive
That is why there is always a prosecutor and defense. Two words that couldn’t describe the positions any better.
The defense, either they’re the worst of the worst, murderers, rapists, terrorists, trying to make the world dance to their tune, or they are victims, scared of the world and deserving of protection.
The prosecution, either they’re a paragon of righteousness, wishing for nothing more than to see scum trapped behind bars, or they are snakes, willing to let an innocent man rot so they can line their pockets.
That is ‘justice’
And what kind of justice can the guilty expect? What kind of justice can remain after a verdict?
A sentence never ends. It only changes.
I understand that now.
Physically you may be free, but socially you're trapped. The world will turn on you.
The world will turn on you both.
Or maybe it won’t
Because last I checked in order to get me to the Opera House you both resorted to kidnapping
And that charge would never stick
Not because you didn’t commit the crime, but because Neuvillette would never accept the charges.
And even if he did that horrible woman would just save you again.
Funny how I spend my life trying to save Fontaine and end up as a hermit living off macaroni while you both find yourselves…
Whatever
This world never cared about fairness.
There is no such thing as justice.
When Lyney was done reading he felt empty. To hear that the once Hydro Archon had such a twisted view of justice, to know that he helped instew that view in her, it made him uncomfortable.
“I… I want to go lay down.” Lynette muttered, and Lyney didn’t stop her.
Instead he began penning a letter of his own. He had been given another chance to perform at the Opera Eclipse after his last performance was cut short.
He doesn’t feel like he could do it anymore.
Charlotte was perhaps the most surprised out of anyone who received a letter from the former Archon. The little Melusine she had interviewed back in the Fortress had approached her soon after the storm started up and handed her an envelope with her name on it.
She heard it was from Furina herself! And well, Charlotte had never been given a chance to interview her old Archon so this was a huge opportunity.
Her journalistic senses hadn’t gone off like they usually did when she found a huge scoop. But this was a letter from THE Furina. There was no way it could be anything but news right?
Wrong
I Hate You
Charlotte’s face fell as she read those first three words. Sure she had been a bit pushy in trying to get an interview, but that surely wouldn’t be enough to earn the full ire of a person like Furina right?
Right. Though after reading Charlotte kind of wished the reason was more petty.
I suppose I should clarify why I hate you though. It’s not because of the incessant knocking on my door, or the fact that you don’t seem to understand that no means no and I won’t give you an interview. Those things irritate me, but they don’t inspire true contempt.
No. The reason I hate you is quite clear.
You ruined my life.
Neuvillette may have approved of the trial, Chlorinde may have pointed a blade to my neck, Lyney and Lynette may have kidnapped me, Navia may have made all my worst fears come true, that horrible woman may have acted as Prosecutor. But you…
You were the one who wrote that headline.
You were the one who wrote that article.
You were the one who got everything wrong
Furina de Fonatine, the fraudulent Archon, the prophecy was false!
Let me let you in on a secret.
It wasn’t
The prophecy was real.
The Death Penalty wasn’t meant for me, it was meant for Focalors, the real Hydro Archon. She used her punishment and the Oratrice to destroy her throne in Celestia. Neuvillette was then able to forgive the sins of the people of Fontaine.
The moment you all discovered I wasn’t the true archon was the moment the flood started in earnest. The moment you started to doubt my validity was the moment the water started to rise.
That was my role. My role was to lie. As long as you believed the lie Fontaine was safe.
I won’t argue that I’m a fraud.
But even frauds deserve some peace of mind
I haven’t had a good night's sleep since my address was leaked.
The address YOU leaked
It may not have been written in the paper, but did you think people weren’t going to notice you knocking on my door yelling ‘Furina! Furina! Open up!’
And I know what you're thinking. I’ll just report the truth.
No.
I Furina de Fontaine do not give you permission to use any of what’s been written in this letter in the Steambird or any other newspaper. Nor do I permit you to show it to anyone else.
According to segment 24b of the New Privacy Act ‘In order for a source to be considered valid, the original author of said source needs to give the reporter in question express permission to share the details of the written document. Publicly available documents, and academic papers do not apply to this rule.
The charge for breaking this law is at minimum twenty years in Meropede.
You ruined my life, now live with the fact that you have everything you need to fix that mistake, and yet will never be allowed to act on it.
Charlotte put the letter down on her desk. Her breathing was almost as shaky as her hands. She had loved her job, performing interviews, investigating odd occurrences, writing articles. She loved all of it.
The day of the trial she had been a bit hasty she’ll admit, but every journalist in Fontaine was going to pick up the story. She wanted to make sure she was first. The information she had was already mind blowing, but the fact that the prophecy hadn’t come true, that the Archon was human? It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Now she kind of wished that she did.
She knew that she was never meant to see that letter. Seigwinde made that very clear. But how much do you have to hurt someone that they’d be willing to write something like that?
Charlotte didn’t really want to find out.
So she left the office hours earlier than she should have.
It was the first time she missed a deadline. It wouldn’t be the last.
Chlorinde knew what this letter was the moment Seigwinde handed it to her. The Melusine gave her a small smile, but the duelist couldn’t find it in herself to smile back. She recognized the handwriting on that envelope, and she knew that anything Furina wasn’t willing to say in person wasn’t going to be pleasant.
Chlorinde was probably the person who understood Furina the most, while the rest of Fonatine had found it easy to cast her aside, and the rest of the people who advocated for that awful trial were able to put her out of their mind Chlorinde never could. The guilt was overpowering.
She was Furina’s protector, that should have come first. She should have trusted her. But she was a coward, and turned her blade against the woman she swore to protect.
Whatever was in this letter… she deserved every word.
I-
I don’t know how I feel about you.
It was so easy with everyone else, so easy to tell them that I hated them, so easy to tell them everything they’d done wrong.
For whatever reason whenever I try to tell you the same, I can’t bring myself to bring pen to paper.
I don’t forgive you, not yet. But…
After the trial Neuvillette approached me, he told me what Focalor’s true plan was, he told me why he had put me on trial. He had plenty of justifications for his actions, and logically I couldn’t find a decent argument.
Navia as well, when we had met, during that party you had me attend, she had plenty of justifications for me. Plenty of excuses, her eyes practically begging for my forgiveness.
She thinks I gave it to her.
I lied.
I Hate Her
But this isn't about Navia. It’s about you.
It’s about what you did, that nobody else dared to do.
You visited me… a few times even. You never begged for my forgiveness even though I could tell you wanted it. You helped me move in, you tried to cheer me up…
You apologized
I don’t think you understand- just how much that meant.
You’re the only person to apologize to me-
Everyone else just justified what they did, as if I was supposed to feel better that my humiliation was for a good cause.
It hurt more than anything else when you rose a blade to my throat, but I’m glad to know that it hurt you too…
That it wasn’t all fake.
You may be the only person in Fontaine that actually wants me around…
So while I can’t forgive you, not yet. I can say that I look forward to the day that I can.
I wrote so many letters you know? To Neuvillette, to Lyney and Lynette, to Charlotte, to Navia, to… to the Knave, to that woman…
None of them were meant to see them.
I wrote to them because I wanted to let out all my hatred.
This is the only letter I plan to send.
Because right now… you are the only person in all of Fontaine I can say I don’t hate.
Maybe one day when the scars fade that number will grow, but until that day comes…
I want you to know I’m leaving Fontaine. Being here… it hurts far too much. The jeers, the insults, the vandalism.
I can’t take it anymore.
I wanted to let you know, so that when you next come to visit and I’m not there you don’t freak out.
It was nothing you did.
You’re the only reason I haven’t left sooner.
Goodbye for now
Still Friends
Furina
Chlorinde hadn’t realized she started to cry until Furina’s letter started to stain itself with her tears. Furina didn’t hate her, she had been an absolute disgrace of a protector and yet Furina couldn’t find it in herself to hate her.
She wiped away her tears and found herself glaring at the storm outside. She thought about the old fairy tale, how the rain is caused by the tears of the Hydro Dragon, Chlorinde really hoped that wasn’t true.
Because in her eyes Neuvillette had no reason to cry, he was one of the few people who knew the full story. She only knew because she found Furina crying to herself one morning, and the girl had confided in her during a moment of weakness.
Neuvillette heard everything from Focalors herself, and yet he hadn’t given Furina an actual apology, in fact, Chlorinde doesn’t think he’s seen Furina once since the Trial. What right did he have to cry?
Chlorinde frowned as she thought about that. The role of a duelist in Fontaine is to protect justice from criminals looking to escape the law through violence. She could fight proudly to protect Furina’s justice, but she couldn’t say the same anymore.
Had Furina and Neuvillette swapped roles, that trial never would have happened. And without her around the Opera had seemed far more empty.
Furina had sacrificed everything for Fontaine, and Fontaine decided to take even more than that in return. It hurt, but it’s no wonder she left.
Chlorinde stood in silence for a moment, and then she started to pack. All those years ago she pledged her loyalty to Furina. Even if she’s faltered in that duty before, she refuses to do so again.
Even if Fontaine doesn’t want her, Chlorinde still does.
Navia was busy reconstructing Poisson when Seigwinde found her, and while she took the letter from the Melusine with a serene smile, inside she was all sorts of uneasy. Especially after she heard that Furina never meant for it to reach her eyes.
Hate mail. It was the only explanation. She asked Siegwinde why she would go out of the way to deliver something Furina didn’t want to be seen, but the Melusine just shook her head sadly.
‘She’s hurt in a way I don’t know how to heal. At the very least you should know what you’ve done to contribute.’
But Navia already knows what she did. What they all did.
Maybe Furina wasn’t responsible for Poisson but they didn’t know that at the time, in her eyes Furina was just playing around while everyone she loved was dissolved or died.
If she had known all she did after the trial, she may have chosen differently. But without that context she couldn’t find it in herself to regret her actions.
Even though her eyes were so empty…
I Hate You
“So dramatic…” Navia chuckled as those first three words burned into her vision.
And I know you hate me too
Even if you don’t want to acknowledge it, even if you know now there was nothing I could have done about Poisson. You still hate me for it.
That’s okay.
Navia’s humorless smile fell and her eyes widened in surprise as her archon summarized her feelings so easily.
Logically, I shouldn’t hate any of you either. We were all doing our best to save Fontaine.
But…
Was that really the only way?
Every part of that plan was designed to hurt me.
Any duelist would have sufficed, why Chlorinde? I love to perform, if the problem was getting me on stage, why resort to kidnapping? Why have those people yell such awful things at me, chase me through the streets?
Why let the whole nation watch?
We have both suffered Miss Navia, that I will not deny.
But did you really need to punish me so?
How did you feel when I was given the death penalty?
Were you happy?
“No!”
“Miss Navia?” One of her attendants looked at her, concern evident “Are you okay?”
“Y-Yes. I’m fine.” Navia stammered, very clearly not fine “Just- leave me be.”
“O-Okay ma’am…”
“I never wanted you too… I was just scared.”
It seems like a weird thing to assume but…
For the past 500 years I’ve had a reoccurring dream
I’d be in the Opera House, and I’d be playing the role of a hero. I’d have brought peace to a kingdom, or saved a princess, or slayn some manner of terrible beast.
I’d take a bow and one of the audience members would yell out at me.
How dare you act as a hero. You can’t even save your own people.
Then he would dissolve.
The Opera House would be in a panic. More and more people would stand up and shout, they’d chase me off stage, and everytime I’d turn around another few would have dissolved.
It was like you made that nightmare come true.
And while you may not have known about that awful dream, I’d think common sense would dictate that having a woman chased through the streets, and blamed for dozens of deaths would be fairly traumatic.
I understand you were hurt.
But why hurt me in return?
What good does that do? Does that really ease your pain? Is that the kind of person you are?
I don’t know why I’m asking. I don’t intend to send this.
I don’t intend to hurt you just because you hurt me. That solves nothing, and I’d like to believe I’m above such petty revenge.
It took Navia a moment to regain her composure, her hands couldn’t stop shaking. Because she couldn’t deny Furina’s words. Back when she was investigating her father’s murder, seeing that look of shame and guilt on Chlorinde and Neuvillette’s faces… it did bring her a bit of comfort.
And having Furina chased out of the opera house, it did bring her a bit of vindication.
She found the macarons she had made tasted bitter. She’d never been more disgusted in herself. “I won’t be that person.” Navia decided “Not anymore.”
Arlecchino was surprised when a Cicin Mage arrived at her office in Shnezniah. She was even more surprised when she was given a letter penned by Fontaine’s false archon.
Ever since the trial the Knave had thought little of the girl, her name always brought a strange sense of discomfort, and because of that she didn’t like to ponder it too much. What she felt wasn’t exactly guilt, she hadn’t felt guilty for a long time. Rather… she felt a bit silly. It was clear to anyone who understood Shnezniahn history that the Tsaritsa had eroded quite a bit through her life. Her mind was hardly the steel trap her colleagues pretended it was.
She called a human that could keep her sanity through five hundred years of suffering weak. That, in Arlecchino’s opinion, was rather ridiculous.
Though Arlecchino couldn’t help but wonder what the Archon had to say to her would be assassin.
I Hate You
‘Ah.’ Arlecchino’s smile widened and her eyes twinkled with interest. ‘Perhaps the kitten has some claws after all.’
Oh by the Seven how I’ve dreamed of saying that to you.
In a perfect world you’d have been battered and beaten by that bloody whale, and I’d spit on your grave. But alas you are alive and well.
I wish I could make you understand what it felt like
To have your hand enter my chest, to dig around a part of myself that I could feel, and yet was not my flesh. To have you rip your hand out of my stomach and yet remain uninjured.
Of course not. That’s a hell I wouldn’t even wish upon anyone, not even you.
My life, is a hell I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.
Though from how you speak it seems you think you could have handled things better.
So tell me Knave?
How would you have fooled the Heavenly Principles?
How would you have stopped the flood?
How would you have stood against the All Devouring Narwhal?
How would you have stood up against Celestia?
You don’t have to answer. Because I already know it.
You wouldn’t have even tried.
Call me a coward, call me a fraud, call me weak.
But at least, I tried.
So go to hell Knave
While many of the others felt gear or sadness upon reading Furina’s letters, Arlecchino couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of pride that she hadn’t associated with her homeland in years.
When Dvalin attacked Mondstat, Barbatos had a very hands off approach to the problem, despite being a god he allowed humans to solve his wayward servant.
Morax faked his death to escape divinity. When Osial struck the harbor he allowed humans to handle both the disaster and the fallout. His act took precedence over the people he was meant to protect.
Raiden Ei allowed for Inazuma to serve as the Fatui’s plaything for far too long. Seizing Visions and leaving herself blind to the struggles of her people. Hiding away like a coward and allowing her pupper to viciously strike against resistance.
Kusanali had the power of a god, and yet allowed the sages to run Sumeru in her stead. She hid away and wallowed in her own uselessness instead of using her near endless knowledge and five hundred years of prep to free herself.
Furina… Furina had none of those powers, and yet endured true hell for centuries. She was a mere mortal, didn’t even have Focalor’s protection anymore, and yet she had the audacity to lash out at her would be assassin? Arlecchino could only laugh “How ironic. That the first archon I can find myself respecting isn’t an archon at all.”
This is perhaps the first time Lumine is leaving a nation worse off than she arrived. Ever since Seigwinde acted as a delivery girl for Furina’s innermost thoughts the whole place had gone to hell. Neuvillette in his grief and anger, had regalled Fontaine with the true story of Furina’s sacrifice, shocking the public but also putting a lot of recent events into perspective.
Lyney and Lynette’s show in the Opera House had been canceled, and the duo never gave a reason as to why, after the announcement the House of Hearth had been located and then accosted by an angry mob. Lumine sneered at the memory, she had helped Lyney and his siblings protect the place, the citizens of Fontaine had been the ones who couldn’t leave Furina alone after the trail, and yet they take their anger out on a group of terrified orphans, most of which hadn’t even been indicted as full time Fatui yet.
The Steambird suffered as well, nobody knew why the paper’s top reported had decided to take an extended vacation, but after Neuvillette’s announcement it was easy to connect the dots. There had been a walk out, and a strike, and all of a sudden the Steambird was struggling, you’d be hard pressed to believe that once upon a time it was Teyvat’s prime newspaper.
Another unforeseen consequence was that duels had shot up in popularity. After the disappearance of Chlorinde, and a slew of Fontaine’s best retiring or denouncing the nation’s justice some criminals found that duels to the death weren’t nearly as risky without the previous champions.
Lumine hadn’t seen Navia in the longest time either, Spina la Rosa busy undertaking a series of reforms. What exactly they were changing Lumine didn’t know, but she had a pretty good feeling as to what sparked the idea.
“Can we really leave things like this?” Paimon asked, “It seems kinda…”
“There’s no prophecy for us to stop, or monsters to defeat, or Fatui Plot to foil.” Lumine denied “Fontaine just realized what it lost, and it needs time to grieve.”
“Maybe… you still have the letter Furina gave you right?”
“I do…”
“Are you going to keep it? Because you always look sad when you see it in your bag.”
“No…” Lumine took out the letter, and dropped it on the ground.
You have everything I lack.
People trust you
They love you
You smile, and they smile back
The people hate me
They never trusted me
I smiled because they expected me too
And they threw me away when I cried.
The whole world loves you
But not me
I Hate You
“I don’t get why she’d say such a mean thing.” Paimon frowned.
Lumine let the letter fly off with the wind. “She doesn’t mean it. She just needed to let it all out. We hurt her, and next we meet we just have to hope she’ll be willing to forgive us.