Spreading and burning
Only faint smoke remains
the aftermath of his leaving.
The sunrises in Mondstadt have changed.
Nothing has been the same since that rainy day in April all those years ago and she is still trying to piece out the puzzle in her head, trying to find all the lopsided pieces, forcing her to complete a picture that had one missing part. It is arduous for her to come back to parts where they carved their love: singed bark in Windrise, eating grapes in the winery, clandestine kisses during watch hours on top of the walls. Sometimes the events feel like a terrible disease in her body; something foreign, bloody, and disgusting that it has no choice but to be eradicated. A Sister told her that night she was lucky, and that she was protected and safe. (but Jean admits to herself that on that day she never felt lucky, protected, or safe.)
She was riding back to Mondstadt, having just finished a commission from Liyue, and hurried to make it in time for Diluc's birthday; in her saddle contained chess pieces carved by a talented craftsman that she helped on the way to Liyue Harbor. She asked if the knight piece can be fashioned to have an eyepatch, the queen piece with a hairbow like hers, and the king piece with the gem in his cravat. She could not wait for these smiles and laughter and jokes that he is now of legal age to drink, for in which she would also grin and laughs that he was one year more handsome.
By the time she passed the border of the two nations, she felt droplets of rain. Such bad climate weather like this was unusual, so she wondered why it was storming at a time like this, almost as if the heavens, themselves were mourning.
Something in her screamed danger.
(an omen she would later find out to be true)
So she treaded with her horse lightly, vigilant just in case a civilian might be in danger. Her faithful horse trotted near Galesong Hill, almost nearing Windrise when she smelt the remnants of burning grass, and a chill traveled down her spine, hand flexing near her sword just in case.
Her suspicions were confirmed right when she saw someone slumped against the big tree of Windrise, and to her disheartenment it was Kaeya slumped against the tree roots, utterly defeated. Her blood ran cold immediately as she gets off her steed. The sheer terror in her blue eyes. Thoughts raced in her head. Why was Kaeya alone? Where was his squad? Where was Diluc?
Kaeya who was in the aftermath of the collision of his newly formed Cryo and Diluc's terrifying Pyro resulted in a massive Melt reaction that injured them both. Whether who truly won didn't matter. In the end, it was Kaeya's legs that buckled first, due to the pressure of a power he cannot control properly yet. He registered help in the form of Jean, her worried eyes, and lightly wet clothes. The unconditional worry that she held for him instantaneously made the scorch marks on his chest sting harder.
Careful, practiced hands loosened his jacket and vest, only to be met with a gash of cauterized wounds and viscous blood oozing out.
"You're wounded…" she said voice cracking with shock "Kaeya, who did this?" she trembled as she tried to stop the wound from bleeding out with her hands. The blue-haired boy slumped in response, grateful for the warmth stopping the bleeding. He heard her gasps with such sadness it makes him disgusted by the day's turn of events.
Jean should not be a part of his sins.
Kaeya can't bear her observant eyes, angry eyes glimmering, ready to fight whoever caused this mess; Jean's eyes dimmed when she realized the perpetrator of his injuries was surely a pyro vision holder that wielded a claymore. Kaeya knows a lot about Jean, when she smiles it was usually with no teeth, she orders her coffee purely black, and he knows that when she is rattled to her core, her fingers tremble like tremors that can only be stopped by a force just as powerful as hers. She already knows the sickening answer. He just has to confirm that it really was his older brother.
His head pounded badly from the loss of blood, he feels his pulse weakening as he kept weakly muttering "It's my fault, it's my fault." before he weakly said Diluc's name.
Jean swallowed the lump in her throat harshly, the boys; her boys must have some stupid misunderstanding because she wasn't there to mediate.
The battered young boy saw her horse and insisted "Chase after him. Go!" Kaeya pressed, voice hoarse.
But Jean did not get on her horse, nor did she chase after Diluc, instead she checked her surroundings for immediate signs of danger before she ripped apart her skirt. Her heart sank in denial with every small thing she noticed.
Diluc left Kaeya near where he singed their initials in the bark. Something rippled in her horribly, the bile in her throat almost rose up if it were not for the pounding adrenaline shooting up her system. Her lover placed Kaeya close enough to the Anemo God's stature for it to purify the wounds, but so, so far enough so it could not heal them properly.
As the adrenaline in her body rushed to aid her body, her smaller body began to carry Kaeya's much heavier one, tugging and pulling him as much as she can, trying to balance his arm on her shoulder despite his almost 6 feet and her a measly 5'5. She struggled but eventually, she put him near Barbatos' statue so his vision can respond and give him enough stamina and strength to make it out alive on the way back home to the city.
"You're losing too much blood!" Jean panicked as she tried to press the makeshift bandaid into his chest, "And I can't do anything about it!" and she heard Kaeya who has regained some life back weakly said, "I'm not worth saving, even the Anemo God doesn't want to heal me."
Jean tiredly sighs, and heaved to support Kaeya's weight again "And you…are being so difficult." she held his cold freezing hand as if trying to impart her warmth, and the faint glow of the statue replenishes and closes the wounds "You are Mondstadt's child as much as I am."
His pulse almost stopped again, leading her to hoist him up to her mare. "I need you to breathe for me Kaeya," She tried to encourage him as she fastened her saddle's belt on his person, "This is only temporary,"
When she heard a pained grunt from her best friend. She felt as if she never begged this bad in her life "I need you to stay conscious please," she continues as she tries to stop the tears that start to prickle in her eyes.
"Hold on to me, until we can get to Barbara and Father."
"Jeanie." he started again with such a hollow and empty sound "Go after him." Kaeya was frustrated even in this weak and cowardly state, he knows Jean would never let him go to chase after Diluc.
The girl inhaled deeply and almost snapped at him, her patience with his stubbornness is wearing thin "You would have to rip me apart from this horse before I will." Jean finally gets Kaeya on her horse with much-strained effort "Kaeya listen to me." she told firmly "He would want me to save you first."
As thunder and lightning clasped together, and the rain mourned, even more, Kaeya has had enough of her stubbornness in turn "Then why was he the one who tried to kill me, Jean?!" he shouts, words like a dagger dipped in ice dragging against Jean's spine
"I don't know!" she shouted back tiredly, her composure slowly breaking with each minute they are not moving from this place. "I wasn't here!" the confession struck guilt into her very being.
"What I do know is that you're hurt and bleeding and you need to shut up and let me do what I need to do before I lose you too." she couldn't hold back on her feelings anymore, even if she was in pure denial that this could've happened - it already did and the only thing on her mind is that she needs Kaeya to live.
The way home was not favorable in every little way. His body was almost slipping off the saddle, she had to tug her reigns harder, her horse was struggling to carry two bodies, it was storming and it is all happening at the same time. With every gallop, Jean's heart sank so heavily it's a miracle she can still feel her own pulse tirelessly drumming away in her head and neck.
They stumbled dangerously across the stairs at the entrance of the cathedral. The almost impact and collision lead Jean to fall to the ground, breaking her heels in the process and injuring her arms and ankles, as she cushioned Kaeya. She struggled to breathe, the pain was hammering her down but she can't give up. She has to fight for her boys. Even if she feels the pelt of water on her face and even if it's making her shiver.
"Please bear with me Kaeya," she whispers to him, kissing his temple lightly and he grunts in response, a reminder that he is alive. Barely. But alive. "Don't give up on me now."
The loud persisting knocking resonated through the Cathedral, like a beating drum of war and pain. Preparing for the next day's ceremonies, Seamus Pegg rose from the altar and swiftly attends to the lost soul that was seeking refuge. What greeted him at this late hour was his eldest daughter in such a ruined state and an unconscious captain in her arms.
The Seneschal looked into Jean's eyes that were almost shutting close, understanding what she couldn't say. His daughter was always the person who cared for and loved everything that she has, and it is in her nature to put them before her. Kaeya comes first before her. He helps carry Kaeya, her Kaeya from her arms. Seamus shouted and called in the Sisters to help the bloodied man. Leaving Jean to lift herself up from the ground, as the adrenaline left her body; the dulled excruciating pain that her body has ignored is now resurfacing.
She is left to process what happened.
There wasn't any time to cry earlier, nor is it still the proper time now. The heavens had already done for her outside, but now as she sat in the warmth of her second home, the tears that wanted to fall from her eyes still cannot spill out. She brought one hand to her mouth as she writhed in pain and despair.
She was silently grieving for the people she lost today. For her boys who she lost today. For the girl inside of her that she lost today.
She was exhausted.
Today was pounding at her like she was a punching bag that could remain put together no matter how much force you beat against it but there could only be so much you can take before you fall and collapse. She forced herself to walk the aisle, knowing Barbatos was watching her from the altar, and that somehow gives her strength to trudge on and limp to the infirmary.
She needed to be there. She would hate herself so much much more if she couldn't be there for Kaeya, her Kaeya. The way she couldn't be there for Diluc, her Diluc.
Fumbling with the doorknob, she saw sweet little Barbara and the other sisters in their nightgowns, stained red with Kaeya's blood and injuries, and the quietness of the solemn place filled with his agonizing and sharp cries as they applied salves and pressed tissues. Jean, a trained medic herself, limped to get to him.
She felt someone grab at her shoulders and she fought against it, not caring who they were "Let me go!" she howled, some of the Sisters flinching despite their best efforts "I have to stay!"
Kaeya dazed and delirious from the antiseptic and hydro powers heard her echoing cries, he tried to project his voice as loud as he can as he lifted his torso – the sisters protesting. "If you don't go away, Jean, now." he looks at her, with such seriousness "I'll rip the bandages off my chest."
"You wouldn't."
"You know I can." Jean's knees buckled under the pressure letting the person behind her support her. It must have been her father who leads her away. The last thing she saw was Kaeya coughing up blood from the over-exertion.
The first thing Jean sees when she settled into her father's office was his rigid and broad back again. She adjusted and tried to ground herself. Her father's room was big and expansive with books lined up. She blinked slowly at the book she and her mother made for him during Father's Day smiling at her by his desk. A dress that he might be stitching for Barbara, his medicine cabinet, his clothes on a bed that seemed too big for one person.
Her view of love was once more his back turned against her, as he prepared her own bandages and salves.
"Mein Herz," he spoke so gently in contrast to the horror that was today, that it threw Jean off-balance "Where's Diluc? Does he know about this?"
"He left."
Jean Gunnhildr has always been a dreamer, a child in love with the strength to want a man facing her instead - like a stream of bubbles blown into the gentle breeze, drifting along with the wind and never quite landing anywhere.
And then she met Diluc Ragnvindr in all his glory, and she was suddenly in his carefully spun web made out of enchantment and love. All the care and safety that he showered her with; the subtly dropped hints and his childlike eyes and distant smile, the way he made love to her, took care of her... She felt like she was trapped in perpetual vertigo, only there was no way of getting off this delirious high.
(She knows she does not want to let it go. Never, ever, ever, ever)
Today – her bubble, floating ever-so-carefree on the light breeze, is hurled into the midst of a tumultuous tornado and popped.
The corner of hope and dreams she took refuge in her darker moments was now gone.
Her father finally turned to her, carefully taking off her detached sleeves, and boots as he did when he was still in the Gunnhildr Mansion.
"He told me…he won't leave like you," she said in between gasps, finding it so difficult to breathe.
"But he…"
She's just like a child now - innocent, frantically looking for more soap to blow a bubble of protection around herself but is left ultimately vulnerable. Diluc took that soap along with him, and she does not know if she can take it back.
(She does not realize yet, that she could have just made it herself)
She regained her strength to try and talk, focusing on Seamus' steady hands holding her shaking ones "Kaeya said he's leaving."
"To where?" Jean bit her tongue before she answered him "Away...far away from Mondstadt." From me. From the future, we could have had.
She found herself enveloped in an embrace, one that she lacked and couldn't feel for so many years. She tried to wrap around her head, how her mother could have lived a day without a warmth like this; a warmth that could make worries and heaviness disappear in an instant.
"When…you left mother…she…she could've chased after you," Jean murmured, she never had the chance to tell him about what she felt about the divorce, about the event that ripped her heart out in half before it could've fully formed. His hand smoothed at her back, reassuring her it's okay "And I never knew why she didn't."
She found the courage to look into her father's eyes, "I understand why now. It's because I was holding her hand…it's because she was holding on to my hand."
Seamus gently tucked in the strands of dirtied, bloodied, and wet blonde hair. He got up and wrings a wet towel so he can gently press it to her face, to wash the dirt and grime. Saying a firm sorry to her before kissing the crown of her head.
"Kaeya needed me,"
"I'm sure Diluc would've wanted you to save Kaeya too."
"When you pray to Barbatos tonight, Father," Jean sought out "When I finally do get my vision, if ever I do. Please let Barbatos grant me a healing one," she was so worn out.
When things had finally calmed down, the thumping in her heart doesn't stop. Maybe she could still change things, maybe she could bargain, and plead and beg for something, anything. She had to…
"I have to try and chase him." but she finds herself pulled by Seamus' strong grasp. "Jean this is reckless."
She tugged out of his hold and just like her father did back then, Jean didn't look back.
The whole horse ride to Dawn Winery made her hands red and sore from holding in the reins too hard. The rope shredded into her palm but Jean did not care.
She thought that even her body knew he would not stay. Her eyes would linger and drown in his eyes as if she were not going to see them the next day. Her hands would linger on the ledge of the stairs because she cannot hold him during work hours. She thought even her voice falters whenever she feels the rush of the time ticking because they have been talking for so long. Her legs would know when he's going to go out, because they have this sense of running and running, just to catch up to him.
Somehow she liked to think her body knows he would not stay because her heart had no clue.
It feels like bit by bit he's straying further and further.
Adelinde, with a mirrored downcast expression, opened the door.
"Master Jean, We could not convince him to stay."
The tiredness and numbness were trying to come back, but the hope in her eyes still burned, she would not give up when Adelinde said "But he just left, took all of his belongings, some of your books, mora. He may still be at Stone Gate."
Ever the most attentive person Jean knew, she helped Jean off her equally exhausted horse, and helped her on one of Winery's, well-fed and taken care of.
"You might still get to him."
She thanked the head maid and led the horse in the direction of Liyue. Silently hoping that she can convince him. Silently praying to Barbatos that he comes home to her.
Silently begging that for some God-given miracle she was fast enough to reach him.
The pouring rain felt like bullets to her chest.
There was no other person.
There was no strong eagle.
It was just her.
A soaked little dove.
With no other way to go. Jean took one final road to the opulent white home across the Springvale Lakeside.
Her mother was already waiting at their gate.
When she rushed to Frederica's warm arms, she is led into their living room, across the enduring embers of the fireplace. Mimicking the warmth she has now lost, but it was never truly enough to replace.
Jean finally gave in and let out an exhausting cry.
Later that night, a piercing cry is heard from a falcon that claws over the window. Her mother in her black mourning dress coaxes her to get out from the fireplace.
Frederica helps write her letter to Diluc, fastens it to the bird's letter holder, and together, they wait for a new dawn. Sharing both pain and loss.
Change is an inevitable thing. The only constant in this world is changing. It is simple. It is not difficult. One day she was delicately pressing flowers in the book he bought for her, and the next she is running for her life trampling on dandelions and windwheel asters on the way to try and reach for him.
That is not difficult.
Diluc is out there, traversing the whole of Teyvat for power he has not understood and that is not difficult. He's out there not even thinking of writing to her, abandoning her, and Barbatos knows if he would even come back and even that is not difficult. One day she's in his office, helping him write his reports, and the next the papers marked with organized annotations are submitted to another person.
That is not difficult.
She wears the same uniform, and the same ribbons, she still wears the promise ring that echoed Amos' eclipsed moon on her left hand and even that is not difficult. Everything is still the same yet so, so different.
The changes are not difficult to adjust to, it is agonizingly unbearable.
The short blonde hair that prickled against her shoulders is like knives instead of the bouncy curls that fall gently. When her mother offers one day to brush it, and trim it like she usually does by the end of the month, just as the scissors skim against her back she pleads that wants to let it grow out. Her mother seems to know why change is inevitable. Gone were the fingers that twirled the short strands when they had finished making love to each other, the fingers that tucked it into her ear when she felt haggard; memories were stirring up in Jean's mind again. She can see herself begin to tear up in the boudoir, the young girl of only seventeen thinks that this must have been a regular sight for her mother during the rainy days of August.
"Mother, how did you stop hurting?"
"Liebling…I didn't"
Rough but still so lithe hands experimented with the flaxen hair; as simple as the wind, Frederica puts her hair up into a high ponytail and presses a kiss to her temple, and Jean smiles in deep respect and love.
Kaeya's scars and wounds never fade: he has a big one, a visible one that stretches diagonally across his stomach from the butt of a raging claymore; a huge gash, twisted into knots, like a massive pair of puckered lips. It's burnt, angry, and a deeper crimson than the Chasm. And Jean routinely has to help him dress for days, has to see him crying from his one eye, and has to be a pillar once more.
"I had never felt so alive, and yet so dead at the same time."
For there are the scars they can't see underneath the charisma and bravado; hidden away behind the contours of his archaic skull and within the grey matter of his brain; wicked things, defeating things, a kingdom full of knowledge and wisdom that would drive others to the insanity that he weathers with a mute stubbornness, letting them fester, harden and killing them softly and letting them cool all over again so he can murder his memories repeatedly, without end.
"I'm sorry." he rasps out
This is a girl who remembers saltwater and empty caverns, feels the touch of fire on her skin, and rubs her hands absently over those patches of Kaeya's tan flesh corroded by smoke, pitted with scars that stretch deep down and splattered like puddles of muddy water. This is a boy with phantom cuts on his cheeks and fingers, recollections of the night, remembrances of sulfur and hydrogen, and the sound of his own damned screaming.
"There is nothing to be sorry for,"
Kaeya becomes Cavalry Captain, she becomes Master of the Knights.
Diluc is still nowhere to be found.
In her leadership, her squad and Kaeya infiltrate a Fatui Hideout with rumors that a harbinger is in there supplying and bribing Eroch and the other corrupt officials that led to the disaster two years ago.
The story was quite charming if not for the nature of their work. Eula sketched out her run-in with the 10th harbinger during a scout in Fontaine. The captains used that to create a fur coat similar and Eula styled her hair.
"You looked like her," The Spindrift knight remarked as she finishes putting the pins in her hair styled in a low bun. "The same baby blue eyes and softness."
"Be careful. Any harbinger can kill you if you aren't."
You don't have a vision to help you. Unspoken, but Jean knows it was the intended remark.
Through reconnaissance, interrogation, and a close ear to the fatui's situation and how they are mobilized. Each harbinger's recruits are not familiar with the ones they are not assigned to. If Jean looks like one of them, it might help.
The hideout was difficult still. Unarmed Fatui alerted, and then swiftly defeated.
Everything just seems so peaceful after a few lackeys that it screams danger. Kaeya tells her to go on, he'll be her shadow.
At the end of the domain. There is a tall dark-haired man, sitting at a table, sipping from a wine glass.
Once her heels click the cobblestones wrong, she feels at least 3 or maybe five hidden agents in the room.
"I was confused when my men told me Sandrone was here." He faces her, still smiling.
Pantalone, 9th of the Fatui Harbringers. With the immense wealth that can counter the Ragnvindrs.
He pours a cup of wine for Jean.
"Enough. We already immobilized your troops."
"Ah. I see." He still keeps smiling, as if the death of his comrades does not matter. "This isn't fun, I offered you a seat, Master of the Knights. Do take it for me."
Jean grits her teeth, and reluctantly sits down in front of him. The bespectacled man had a glint in his eyes.
"I see, you were the young woman in a certain Diluc Ragnvindr's portrait." His voice is saccharine, a threat permeates each word "Hair dye stains quite badly on clothes, not to mention the bathroom floor."
Jean focuses on her surroundings. Feeling both the agents and Kaeya listening to this conversation. Ready to strike at her. Her right-hand man is ready to strike at the harbinger. She straightens her back. Alert to anything that might happen.
"My dear Ponine lost her legs because of you," She feels a dagger press into her thigh, threatening to rip her coat "Why should I go easy on you?"
Jean tries to calm herself as she feels the blade inch closer to her skin. The pain was freezing, and realizing hydro is also infusing with the blade. Fuck. Her hands feel their familiar tremors.
"I have no interest in who lost their legs because of me." She grits feeling her audacity anger the man. He cuts her thigh open. She stands her ground. Swallowing down her gasps. She finally gets the bearing to get her sword. If she cannot have a proper conversation, she is not afraid to use her own force. She unsheathes her Aquila Favonia, its own glowing blade aimed at Pantalone's neck.
The chaos started when the ninth harbinger brought the bloody dagger from under the table, and instead of using it on her. He flings it in the direction of where Kaeya was hiding. Hit near his tan chest where scars haven't fully healed.
The adrenaline in her rushes once more.
Kaeya has been hurt again. That is the only thing she can process, nevermind her own pain.
Cryo powers unleashed from his body, leading the hiding agents to go to the middle of the room. Kaeya jumped from the balcony he is one. Releases a surge of ice to let himself heal. It instantly kills one.
They have 4 more to fight.
"You take on Pantalone. I'll take them on."
Jean nods as the said man unsheathes his own fencing sword, and rushes to overwhelm her.
She starts to counter every hit of the blade as they parried. On the verge of dancing with death. When both of their blades fall. Pantalone punches Jean's face to throw her off balance. She swiftly kicks both of his legs so he can fall with her. He slams her to the floor, but never relenting, she bashes her knee onto his stomach.
She hears a blood-curling crack of bones before she sees what happens.
Kaeya gets overwhelmed with the last tall and huge assassin. The Cavalry Captain is experienced in fighting and sparring but it is evident that the Fatuus was quicker and faster. Jean struggles to finish her fight with Pantalone to help Kaeya, but the harbinger moved away from her. Excited to kill her best friend.
The moment Pantalone gets ready to sink his blade into Kaeya's chest, a forceful gale of wind releases from her body. Entrapping the dark-haired man and his helper in a hurricane.
An anemo vision materialized near her.
Her vision…She says a prayer to Barbatos, and it glows. A dandelion field that is now ripping and shredding violently on its perimeter.
The deep cut in her thigh is slowly healing…
Kaeya is regaining his strength.
She never lost faith in getting in her vision.
It did not matter whose prayers Barbatos heard.
Whether it be hers or her father's.
Her vision can heal, and she did not need to haul Kaeya back to the cathedral and see his gaping wounds.
She feels strength and hope radiating.
"Wind, hear me." She says confident and brave. They continue the fight until Pantalone gives her Eroch's name and terms as a recognition of her deed. No more, no less.
With a last look into her eyes, he leaves abruptly.
Kaeya helps her to stand up and get out of the domain themselves. His still bruised lips kissed her temple.
"Prayers heard, Jeanie?"
"Yes."
Eroch peered through his curtain of copper hair. The newly appointed Master Jean had come to pay him a visit, how lucky. He thinks to himself that he will savor this last sick indulgence. Despite the previous beatings and coaxing from Hertha, he looks at the Dandelion Knight with a haughty swollen face. The silence stood thick between the alertness pressed on his mind she kept her eyes open, unwilling to reveal any weakness. The silence stood thick between them.
"What was your involvement in Knights' Corruption?"
Cracked lips twitched in pain, blood filling the spaces between his pulled-out teeth, the lines in his damned mouth. Jean merely blinked at him as she pushed ahead with the next question.
"What was the reason for attempting to cover up Master Crepus' death?"
He spat the blood and bile out, crimson splattering across the stone right by Jean's heels. His neck felt on the edge of snapping and he half wished it would. She stared at the spots of blood, refusing to look the defamed Inspector in the face, the fury within her threatening an act of idiotic violence, the violence she was capable of for people she has lost respect for.
"No need to bite your tongue, Inspector. I will gladly remove it for you once we're through." She dragged her eyes up to meet his. The firelight deepened the shadows on her face, her calm eyebrows and doll-like face transforming into the fearsome scowl of a lioness who lost her pride.
"Now tell me what you know."
Eroch licked his lips and tasted the pang of iron. In the end, he is a dead man after all of this, what's one more sin to a list of the ones he already did.
"I was the one who sent you out to Liyue that day." He snarled, wanting to get a reaction out of her, pity that she only straightened her back, and put her arms behind her back, maintaining her posture. His fine, brown brow quirked up. Amused, he struggled past his exhaustion, looking for a mode of attack.
He sets his sights on what can rile her up. "Varka would tempt me with a lighter sentence," his hoarse voice dripped out like a snake's venom threatening to slither to strike her down "Captain Kaeya would offer me a part of Crepus' fortune."
His eyes looked into her as if he is the one passing judgment on her "What would you give me, little girl?"
Two short steps finish the gap between them and his face is harshly gripped in her hands. He can feel biting fingernails and burned skin on Jean's palm, one that he knows is from a vision. Eroch almost laughed in delirium. It was obvious how hard it was for the knights to break him, even burning his eyelashes off. His once handsome face was now grotesque, a reflection of a putrid soul.
He sees her take off her earrings, one that he had examined closely when he found it in the Seneschal's confession box. He got it appraised before returning it, one of them alone can amass a fortune that could grant him a new lease of life "Bribe your way out of hell with this."
Eroch locked his bloodshot eyes on her, "I admire the gracious offer, but I'm not interested in getting out of hell." his voice just above a whisper, as if sharing some intimate secret with a lover. Hot breath washed over Jean's face.
"I could smell you on Diluc."
Unadulterated rage seized Jean, the back of her knuckles bashing against Eroch's face, the red mark blazing hot on her pallid skin. Her head pounded, blood flooding her heart and leaving her breathless with rage as she turned her fist sideways and smashed it against his jaw. A crack resounded through the stone room but no one from the room came in to aid her.
Eroch let out a choked gasp, fighting through the pain to lift his head again; that smug, regal defiance never leaving his face. He's found the button, now he just needed to push a little harder.
"To get me to loosen my lips, my dear. You will have to kneel and open yours."
Jean looked at him with such hatred and desperation for the answer. She did what she was told.
Eroch snarls into her ear "I know of the false bottoms and lambskins," he released a groan as the young girl in front of her unbuckles his pants "Before you touch me with those fingers, schlampe," He peers into her blazed cold eyes "Heal your hands first, I don't want to feel burn marks on my cock, not the ones coming from the boy who left you."
He feels the cross earring that was pressed to his palm earlier, and he fastened it back to her ear, digits gripping on the now growing blonde hair. "Go on. Suck."
The next day, Eroch was beheaded, his head on the pike. The withering head still looks like it was laughing.
Time only marches forward.
"I don't think I can ever love someone as much as I love you," she says to him, after a night of passion and he gently kisses her forehead.
"I pray to Barbatos that one day you do."
Just a few months into her adjustment, Alice had sent off on a great adventure and never looked back, just as her father, just as Diluc. She requested, appealed, and begged Jean if she could be Klee's guardian. The Dandelion Knight who was all but a teenager herself as well looks at the young baby who learned her name first than any other word. The same baby girl who had the same blonde locks as her and the same sunsets as his eyes. A reminder of the future that she had wanted to build but is ultimately so far away now.
She looks at Alice incredulously, expecting that it was just some cruel prank, or some foolish joke, to try and lighten her mood, but when she is seated next to Varka and her father, a pen in her hand as she reads the legal papers, she notices a name that makes her stomach flip horribly.
The printed name next to hers for co-guardianship was Diluc's but was signed by Kaeya instead. The Seneschal had to steady her shaking hand before she could sign.
Jean spends the next three years of her life taking care of pure sunlight in her arms. It would be pessimistic of her to only acknowledge the heartbreak and loss that she had struggled with. The last four years brought joy, laughter, and friendship that she had neglected due to her impassioned love of her youth.
"Jean, darling" she hears her mother from her tea table, "Stop walking so much, Klee already has bumped into your knee three times,"
"Big Sister, the tortoises are as healthy as ever, Father is asking if you want to spend dinner with us tonight?"
"Jeanie. Thank you."
"Good morning Jean! Let's jog near Springvale today, I heard that Brooke is inventing a new dish."
"Sweetie, there's a new romance novel from Fontaine, I'll let you borrow it for more than two weeks."
"Master Jean, I would like to sketch your face if it's okay?"
"You have not rested during the week, and for that, I will have my vengeance…do try and relax some more, Jean."
"M-master Jean, Timeus, and I wanted to brew you a stronger coffee."
"Master Jean, Your room has been cleaned…and I want to thank you for inspiring me to try again…I got my vision!"
Teaching Klee how to make Fisherman Toast, carving heart-shaped onions for an adventure, reading and sipping tea with Lisa on the afternoons, and jogging with Amber every morning. Saluting Noelle and seeing her emerald eyes gain strength once more. Accepting Eula and training, and dancing with her.
Diluc was always right, she did find love in her heart, enough to match the one she has for his, that keeps her marching forward.
With the love and duty burning in her heart. It bestowed upon her a vision, glowing Anemo in her hand. And as the dandelion that floats around it, and the awe and the proud praises she has gotten.
Thoughts in her head echo.
I am proud of myself.
When he comes back, I'm sure he will be proud of me too.
She loses count of the countless taxes, bills, and commissions strewn around her office, or the days that she has been working non-stop, and how many times the knights had to give her food so she can at least take a pause and gain momentum once more. Ever since the missing children, the reappearance of treasure hoarders, and the Fatui's growing presence in the City, she feels like she has worked herself to her core. Her back muscles ache, her eyesight blurry sometimes. She feels exhausted but she marches forward.
Or at least she tries to.
She stands from her chair to count to ten and pace herself, taking sips from her coffee cup. She stops by her window and sees the beautiful horizon and the ever-stretching beauty of Springvale. She closes her eyes to take a break.
Maybe it is time for a well-deserved. Any more and she might faint again.
A walk might do her well, perhaps praying in Windrise is a good idea as well. Maybe pass by Cat's Tail to order pizza for herself.
She listens to the sound outside her window, the creaks of the windmill, the chatter of the people, and if she can listen closely, it might as well be the shrill piercing cries of an eagle and a gentle chirp of a dove following after.
Sighing deeply, she opens her eyes and trails after Springvale again. Perhaps a visit to her mother in the middle of the month is a good venture as well. She mentally notes on who to pass the remaining of her documents, and what gifts she needs to prepare, and reminds Klee that she would be out today. Meticulously stacking the remainder of her work and listing instructions on how to do them, a sudden knocking on her door rasps.
"Master Jean!" Amber's frantic and worried tone is heard, making Jean alert all over again "You need to come to the square, it's a mess!"
Well…that goes her day, but as the saying goes For Mondstadt, always.
"Just give me a moment, and I'll be there momentarily.
When the treasure hoarder that was hung upside down was brought down the fountain. Jean observes the knotting. Complicated but sturdy and strong to hold a body. This could not be from her father.
This means only one man capable of doing this.
"Diluc is back."