Chapter Text
The wedding of the geo archon and his partner had been a beautiful event from start to finish. It was abundantly clear how much they loved one another and how much the nation of Liyue loved its archon and celebrated his happiness.
Neuvillette enjoyed the event very much, even if it was ever so slightly painful. Seeing the newlyweds so in love reminded him of his own predicament, and while he was happy for them, he could feel the slight twinges of what must have been jealousy.
Not that he had much experience with that particular emotion, he wasn’t usually someone who got jealous. Well, apart from the few times where he’d heard people make crude remarks about duke Wriothesley. At least Furina insisted that that was jealousy. He could only assume that she would know what she was talking about, considering she was a lot more in tune with her emotions.
In any case, he was just happy to spend the day with the duke by his side. And while he had taught him one of the simpler dances, he was excited that Wriothesley seemed more than willing to make the most out of the opportunity to showcase this newly acquired skill. Of course, Neuvillette had promised him to teach him more dances, should he actually want to take part in one of Furina’s balls.
The celebrations went on until late into the night. Furina insisted them to go ahead back home, because she wanted to keep dancing a while longer. So, it was Wriothesley and him, walking to the nearest teleport point together as the sun was starting to rise on the horizon.
It was clear that Wriothesley was at least a bit inebriated, considering he had slight balance problems and a hint of slurred speech. But he seemed to be in good spirits still. Admittedly, he did feel a bit impacted as well. He’d had more wine than he usually would have and while he was the hydro dragon, his body still was a strange in-between state. So, he actually could get drunk, probably. Even though he assumed it would take him longer than a human.
Not that it mattered, with Wriothesley by his side like this. He still looked wolfishly handsome, his slicked back hair a little messier now after hours of dancing. He’d opened a few of the buttons on his shirt on their way back, clearly feeling a little too warm even in the early morning breeze.
It had been comfortable, going home like this, just the two of them. Quietly talking about anything that came to mind. Admittedly, he wished he could have taken the other man’s hand, feel it against his own just like when they were dancing. But that was not something he was permitted to do.
Feelings were complicated, and Neuvillette was not good with them. He always tried to pretend that they just were beyond him, even though he did understand that he was very much a deeply emotional being. But for the sake of everyone around him, he tried to uphold the image of the stoic chief justice.
Much too soon, they arrived back in Fontaine. Here, the sun wasn’t yet quite visible, the moon and stars still shining above them. Neuvillette insisted on walking Wriothesley back to the entrance to Meropide. After all, he’d picked him up there as well. And admittedly, it meant a couple more minutes with him than if they parted ways at the fountain of Lucine.
But sadly, the few more minutes were over all too soon as well, and they found themselves at the entrance to Meropide. They kept talking a little bit, seemingly hesitant to bid their goodbyes. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was a good sign, if maybe his affection for the handsome and capable duke wasn’t only one-sided.
For the fact that he doesn’t quite know how things happened after that, he blamed his inebriated state. Apparently, it was bad enough even if he hadn’t thought so, considering that suddenly, there was a surprising warm press of lips on his own.
And while he had never kissed, he certainly knew why it was done and had a rudimentary idea of how it worked. He had to admit that it felt nice. What Neuvillette didn’t know was, who of them had initiated it. Considering his infatuation, it must have been him most likely. Surely it had been him, and Wriothesley.
Supporting that theory was the fact that the duke pulled away with a shocked expression, before turning around to hurry down the stairs to the underwater prison, calling out “Have a good night, monsieur!” as he practically fled.
It started to rain as he walked back to the opera epiclese. He didn’t bother to try and shield himself from the rain in any way, letting it drench him completely. The fine fabric of his clothes soaking up the droplets. His chest felt painfully tight. The walk to his apartment in the opera building felt like an eternity. Every single step felt heavy and slow.
He was glad that nobody was around outside at this time. That way, he could get inside the opera epiclese and slowly walk up the stairs to his apartment without anyone seeing him in this pitiful state. His cane sounded too loud in the silence of the building, resounding through the stairwell.
His bad leg hurt from all the walking and dancing he’d done, but the pain in his heart was worse. But he had alcohol just an hour or two ago, so he decided against taking any pain medicine. He had been advised not to mix these things a very long time ago; he wasn’t even sure if that advice really was necessary for him. But he couldn’t bring himself to not follow it.
When he finally unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside, he took a deep breath. It was only then that he remembered that he was still dripping wet. With a flick of his hand, he collected the rainwater, instantly drying himself that way. Another flick and the water joined the moisture of the air.
Slowly, he walked to his bedroom. He hadn’t felt very tired before, but now he felt as if he could sleep for a century. A heavy kind of tiredness that he rarely experienced after mentally taxing trials, so far. His hands were shaking as he undressed and changed into a set of silken sleepwear.
He really had made a huge mistake and didn’t know how to explain it or make amends. How could he ever face Wriothesley again? The shocked expression on the other man’s face seemed to have burned into his mind.
Carefully, he took out the ribbon from his hair and started to work the braid open with his fingers, combing through the strands as he went. The rain pattered against the large windows at a fast rhythm, as if he wasn’t already hyperaware of the turmoil in his heart and mind. He sighed, walking to the windows and pulling the curtains shut one after another.
It wouldn’t be long before the day started, and he still hoped to get a few hours of sleep. Sure, he would be fine even if he didn’t rest. But he would prefer to, considering there was only a trial on in the later afternoon and some paperwork. So, sleeping until around noon wouldn’t hurt, even if he usually would get up at dawn. But today was a special circumstance and everyone had insisted that he should take the morning off.
He leaned his cane against the bedside table and carefully climbed into bed. After some moments of fiddling with his hair, he laid down and felt exhaustion take over. He was so tired, both physically and mentally. Could one be emotionally tired, too? Probably.
It had been three months since then, and neither of them had acknowledged what happened, likely chalking it up to their drunken state. And that afterwards, things had become incredibly stressful all around was probably to blame as well. So, they just kept going the way they had before, albeit there was a bit of an awkwardness between them that hadn’t been there before.
The famed traveler – Lumine – had arrived in Fontaine and the prophecy had come crashing down on them. With her help, as well as Ajax and his former teacher, Skirk, they were able to subdue to all-devouring Narwhal and save the people of Fontaine from being devoured by it. And thanks to Focalors’ sacrifice, he received his absolute authority over the hydro element back. Fontaine no longer had an archon; the divine throne of hydro was destroyed. And Furina was free, after five centuries of pretending and putting on the ultimate performance.
He took a deep breath as he walked away from the entrance to the fortress of Meropide. Lumine and Paimon had ran off to help people in the aftermath of the flood and he had been informed that Wriothesley was out with the Wingalet. Off to rescue people and help where he could, knowing that his contingency plan was an incredible success. Neuvillette couldn’t help but feel proud of him, of how brilliantly he’d managed to take the legend of the Fortuna and build something of that magnitude himself, with help from other skilled people.
Then, almost soundlessly, it came into view over the fontemer sea. Truly a magnificent sight, indeed. On the deck, towards the front, he could make out the dark silhouette of Wriothesley, looking like a proud captain. As always dashingly handsome, hair messy from the wind.
“Monsieur Neuvillette!” He called out, hands cupping his mouth to carry the sound further.
“Your Grace!” He called back, unable to hold back a chuckle.
It felt good to see him. To know for himself that Wriothesley was safe, that the primordial sea hadn’t gotten to him before Neuvillette could pardon the original sin. The Wingalet came closer towards the edge of the water and to him.
He took a deep breath, making sure to hide his inner turmoil. There was so much that had happened today, but he had to keep himself together. And he couldn’t allow it to rain, either. It would most likely send people into a panic if it did rain right when the floodwater was slowly but surely receding.
Wriothesley bent over the railing of the Wingalet, looking at him intently. “Good to know the flood didn’t get you.”
“Right back at you,” he replied.
“Give me a second to find a way down to you. Jurieu, you lot go on without me, I’ll be with the chief justice!”
“Fine, fine.”
“Allow me to help.” Neuvillette moved his hand, water forming into the shape of a staircase all the way up to the railing of the Wingalet.
He could see Wriothesley look at it for a moment, then releasing some cryo energy to freeze the water. Unceremoniously, he swung himself onto the railing and started carefully going down the steps until he joined Neuvillette at the beach.
The ice disappeared and so Neuvillette made the water rejoin the fontemer sea. With a slight mechanical noise, the Wingalet turned and flew away slowly. Wriothesley looked at it for a moment, then turned to him again. “Well, turns out that it works.”
“Truly a magnificent ship,” he praised softly. “It was already impressive to see down in the fortress, even more so out and about like this. And it certainly is a tremendous help to many people on this day.”
“We picked up a couple. Miss Navia’s on board too, and some others from Poisson. Whatever happened that the prophecy didn’t come true, it was a miracle.”
Neuvillette swallowed around nothing, chest feeling tight. “It wasn’t a miracle,” he said quietly, staring out to the water. “It was a sacrifice.”
Wriothesleys head whipped around, and he could see him stare at him from the corner of his eyes. “A sacrifice?”
“It is a long story. A difficult one. And I do not think that the people of Fontaine as a whole should know the full truth, it would be too difficult to comprehend. Too frightening to think of any further consequences that might happen, too. It will be better for them to only know part of what happened.”
“And that is?”
“That the hydro archon abdicated and decided to leave Fontaine in my charge,” he said with a deep breath. “Hopefully, that should be enough.”
Wriothesleys blue eyes widened in surprise. “Lady Furina abdicated?”
“That, at least, is probably the best explanation for the people of Fontaine. Hopefully they will not be against me formally leading the nation. Or give Lady Furina any trouble, she does not deserve it. She has been through far too much already.”
“Neuvillette… What actually happened? Because you look terrible, and I doubt that Furina abdicating would be such a messy affair to make you look like that. I… I can’t help but worry about you.”
He let out a breath, looking to the side. “Do I really? I was hoping it wouldn’t be too noticeable.”
“I’ve known you for a while. You may hide many secrets, but you’re not a good liar.”
“I don’t like to lie. But at times, it is necessary. This time, it is necessary. I… cannot tell you the full truth either, Wriothesley. But I am willing to tell you more, if you swear not to tell anyone. But we should not talk here…”
“I swear. You know me, I don’t go around gossiping. Well, with the Melusines and you. But not about the really important things. Should we go inside the opera? Or down to Meropide?”
“The opera should be fine; it’s currently closed for the public…”
“It is?”
“The official statement is that the flood damaged the Oratrice méchanique d’analyse cardinale and it’s closed for repairs,” Neuvillette said, nodding towards the building. “There’s a back entrance close by, let us use that one.”
Wriothesley followed him, walking so close that their shoulders were almost touching. They entered through that door, entering the empty opera building. Neuvillette couldn’t feel a single being in here, apart from the two of them.
“And what’s the real reason?” Wriothesley asked, hushed.
“You don’t have to whisper. It’s only the two of us here, nobody will overhear. Simply put, the Oratrice stopped working. From now on, I will be the one giving the final verdict, with no Oratrice to back me up. Which… admittedly, worries me. But then the Oratrice usually gave the same verdict, so I probably ought to be more confident about myself and my verdicts.”
“But if the Oratrice stopped working… Then the Indemnitium reserves will only last for so long, before they’ll run out. Which will leave Fontaine without energy.”
Of course, Wriothesley would pick up on that detail. He was smart, after all, and had a penchant for mechanics. So, it was unsurprising that he would think about how Fontaine would move forward in a case like this and how the lack of Indemnitium would affect the nation and its people.
“Or… can it be repaired?” Wriothesley asked, brows furrowed. “Please tell me it can be repaired, and we won’t have to go back into the olden times with no actual energy source.”
Neuvillette opened the door to his office, letting Wriothesley step past him, and closed the door behind them. “It can’t be repaired, no. But the energy supply will be fine. It will be different, but things will be fine.”
“Can the leftover Indemnitium be used, at least? Or not, with the Oratrice being broken?”
“There is no leftover Indemnitium. The entirety of it has been used up, with not even a trace of it left,” he said softly, as he stepped over to the door leading to a small kitchen area.
Once inside, he reached for two bottles of water from chenyu vale and two glasses. Then he brought them to the seating area in his office, where Wriothesley had gotten comfortable. He put one glass and a bottle in front of him, the other he kept for himself. “Sadly, no tea today, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Wriothesley said, waving his hand dismissively. “So, there’s no Indemnitium left? How?”
Neuvillette took a deep breath. “To summarize a very long story into a quite short one… Furina wasn’t the actual hydro archon. The hydro archon Focalors split her divinity and her humanity into two, Furina being the humanity. She cursed her so she wouldn’t age. And she had to play the part of the archon for all this time, even though she had no actual divine powers herself.
When Focalors became an archon, she inherited the prophecy from the first hydro archon, Egeria. She was one of Egeria’s followers, so she knew the specifics of the prophecy, that would be lost to time eventually.”
“So Furina isn’t really a god at all, she just played the part… Incredible. And what specifics?” Wriothesley asked, looking at him curiously.
“Are you sure you want to know? It might be distressing for you to know,” Neuvillette reasoned. Suddenly finding out that everyone had originally been oceanids would probably be quite the identity crisis, at least he could imagine. And empathize with it, thinking back to when he learnt of who he was… But that didn’t matter now.
Wriothesley looked at him firmly, setting down his glass with a grave expression. “Neuvillette.”
“I’m just warning you. I don’t doubt your strength.”
“I killed two people with my own hands in cold blood when I was barely a teenager. Trust me, not much distresses you after that. Try me.”
“If you insist. As it turns out… what Egeria did, was to turn Oceanids into humans. She created an entire human race from them. So, the heavens punished her with the prophecy, telling her that a flood would come and be the punishment for this sin. The oceanids that turned human didn’t have proper blood in their bodies; the primordial seawater would turn them back into their original form as Oceanids.”
He looked at Wriothesley, trying to gauge how he felt so far. His face didn’t give away much, he sat there in his usual casual fashion and seemed quite relaxed, even. “So that is what the prophecy is about. The flood of primordial seawater was supposed to return all people of Fontaine to Oceanids. Reversing the sin of Egeria, who had turned them into humans when she was not supposed to.”
“What, so I’m possibly an Oceanid, if I’m from Fontaine in the first place?”
“You would have been, yes. But that no longer matters that much in the grand scheme of things. As you have seen, everyone survived the flood.”
“And how did we do that? Wasn’t it enough primordial sea water? Or was there something else at play?”
“Something else. The main factor being the sacrifice that I mentioned.”
Wriothesley looked surprised now. He wondered what he was thinking. Sometimes it seemed easy to guess, but today it felt quite hard. “Whose sacrifice?”
“Focalors’.”