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~ Jean: Aquila Favonia ~

As Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, Jean's daily schedule consists mostly of administrative work, as well as tending to the various commissions posted by the people of Mondstadt, who, more often than not, immediately turn to the young knight to help for even the slightest problems. Despite the mountain of work she throws herself into everyday, however, the young knight makes it a point to find some time to herself every now and then at the training grounds just behind the Knights HQ to keep her skills sharp.

Knowing that the next crisis is always just around the corner, Jean practices her swordsmanship using the wooden dummies set up at the training grounds. Staying true to the principles of Favonius Bladework: Light, swift and precise in defense of Mondstadt, she deftly goes through the set course with quick, precise strikes to certain parts of the wooden dummies. While the dummies appear unscathed to the untrained eye, a closer inspection would reveal them chipped at identical places; what would be incapacitating strikes if it were against a human opponent.

During one of these training sessions however, Jean received an unlikely visitor in the form of Venti, the free-spirited bard. Being one of the few individuals aware of his true identity as the human vessel of Barbatos the Anemo Archon, the young knight knew that the bard had not come for a courtesy call, despite his attempts to make small talk with her. Eventually, Venti told her to come with him to the Temple of the Falcon alone the following morning before abruptly bidding farewell, leaving Jean dumbfounded as to why the Archon would request such a thing.

At the very least, Jean believed that Venti wasn't the type to play pranks. Despite how much he loved to play with his words and circle around a topic like how a typical bard would sing a story, or how Liyue's storytellers would try and dramatize their tales, she knew that whatever he had in mind had to be something worthwhile. The next morning, the Dandelion Knight met with the bard just outside the Temple of the Falcon's gates as they had agreed upon.

As they walked inside the abandoned temple, Venti began to recite an ancient tale.

"1000 years ago, the Lionfang Knight broke the chains that bound her to slavery and lead the rebellion against the twisted nobles and planted the seeds of what we now know as the City of Freedom. With her work done, she ascended to the heavens to walk amongst the divinity, watching over her people with a gaze further reaching than she could have ever imagined. But as the divine were not to lift a finger for the sake of mortals, she found herself helpless and could only watch as her people struggled through the passage of time. Eventually, she decided to let her spirit descend upon her people, the one they worship as the Falcon, as well as instilling her will on certain individuals who have lived on through the countless generations of the one they call Dandelion Knight."

Jean listened intently as Venti's tale spoke of the great Lady Vennessa, founder of the Knights of Favonius as well as the first Dandelion Knight to whom she holds a lifelong adoration for. As the current Dandelion Knight, Jean regards her duties to be well beyond of herself, dedicating her life to live up to the image of her great hero and become a woman worthy of the title as many others have done before her.

Venti continued on with yet another tale, this time prefacing it as the reason why he had brought Jean along to the barren temple.

"You see, during her mortal life, the Lionfang Knight wielded a very powerful blade. While crafted by human hands, it is said that the sword itself was blessed by the divine, which is what paved the way for the revolution to succeed. Before she ascended to the heavens, she left this sword in the hands of a dear friend, who then sealed this sword away until one worthy of wielding it in her place comes about."

As the two stood in the middle of a large but empty hall, a stone pillar suddenly began to rise up from the ground in front of them, causing Jean to momentarily grab hold of her sword's hilt readying for an attack. However, she stood down once she saw what was on the stone pillar: a pale gold sword with a blade that had ornate engravings along the fuller and a thin edge, with its flared handguard shaped like wings that somewhat resembled the ones she had on her Favonius Sword, while the sword's grip was a very narrow one-handed grip.

Initially hesitating to approach until Venti smiled and tilted his head towards the stone pillar, Jean gently took the sword from where it was embedded and observed it further. Everything looked to be in good condition besides the edge, as a closer look revealed it to be quite dull and chipped across almost the entire length. From a practical standpoint, the sword as it is was no more useful than a ceremonial sword. Thinking that with proper care, the sword can be brought back to its original form, Jean quickly pondered on the idea of commissioning Wagner, Mondstadt's resident blacksmith, to work on restoring the edge.

However, the ground suddenly started to tremble and as Jean struggled to maintain her balance, she saw several blocks of stone come up off the ground and the surrounding walls. Seconds later, the tremors eventually stop, only to be followed by an Eye of the Storm appearing out of nowhere not too far from where they were. Strangely, however, the green orb began to slowly pull the displaced stone blocks towards itself. The stones then start to form what appeared to be a body of sorts, with the larger blocks forming the center while the smaller blocks coming together to form what looked like a pair of arms and legs.

Sensing that the energy that had pulled the stones in was Anemo energy, Jean looked towards Venti who simply looked back at her with an indifferent expression. The Archon shrugged as he summoned Anemo energy at his feet and levitated away from the Dandelion Knight, settling at a spot good high enough to watch the upcoming battle.

"Now I may have left this part out unintentionally; while the Lionfang Knight's friend did seal the sword away, they made sure to leave a trial for those looking to claim the Falcon's blessing as theirs to ensure that the sword does not fall in the wrong hands. Of course, since you are the genuine successor to the Dandelion Knight, I believe you should be able to handle this trial pretty easily. Of course, you can always call out to me if things get just a bit too tough."

Unable to resist the urge to react, Jean frowned at the bard for leaving such a vital piece of information out, making a mental note to give him a piece of her mind later on. Not wanting to damage Vennessa's sword to the point of disrepair, Jean set down the sword on the ground and drew her own Favonius Sword at the ready. Recomposing herself for the upcoming battle, she observed the stone golem that stood before her, looking at all possible angles of attack and carefully considering what movements the giant could be capable of.

Figuring she could start by immobilizing it, Jean charged towards the golem's feet, channeling Anemo energy to her feet to speed up her movement as well as to her blade as she moved to thrust her elementally charged blade, blowing away a sizeable chunk of the giant's foot away, scattering the stone blocks behind the golem. However, the attack didn't seem to affect its balance as she had intended and it simply swung its arm in retaliation, a blow that while Jean was able to block with her blade in time, was still forceful enough to send her back several feet away.

Landing her feet on very uneven ground, Jean lost her balance and fell to the ground, rolling for a few feet further from where she landed. Wincing in pain as she got back to her feet, she prepared to strike back at the stone golem, but audibly gasped as she saw the giant undo the damage by her prior attack by pulling back the stone blocks that got blown away to reform the damaged limb. This time, the golem went on the offensive as it held its arms forward and started launching the stones on its arm towards the Dandelion Knight, causing her to start running to dodge the flying projectiles.

Jean charged her sword with elemental energy to try and blow away the projectiles she couldn't dodge in time as she ran, barely avoiding getting hit by anything during the barrage. Realizing she can't keep up with dodging its attacks, Jean went back on the attack and aimed to disable one of the giant's arms to temporarily stave off its offense. She ran in a circle around the giant to avoid its projectiles slowly inching closer to her target, and once she was close enough, used her Anemo vision to jump towards her target, gathering as much elemental energy in her blade as she slashed at the point where the golem's left arm connected to the body.

The attack worked as the stones that made up the golem's left arm all dropped to the ground. Sensing an opportunity for a follow up attack, Jean unleashed a burst of Anemo energy around her which loosened the stone blocks around the giant's body, momentarily exposing the Eye of the Storm's core beneath them. Thinking that the core served a similar purpose to a Ruin Guard's, she started swinging her sword at the stone golem's body to try and get to the core.

However, because of the burst of energy she had released, Jean was unable to channel Anemo energy to her sword to help with her attacks. Unaware of how hard she had been striking the stones at the body and the stress she had been putting on her sword by attacking without the help of elemental energy, the blade of her sword suddenly broke in half after a hard strike, with the loose blade actually hitting her right shoulder as it flew away.

Now without a weapon, the knight beat a hasty retreat, creating as much distance as she could from the stone golem while holding her wounded shoulder as she went. Getting down on one knee, Jean hissed in pain as she felt the warmth of blood on her left hand she held over her shoulder, then looking down at the now broken Favonius Sword she held on her right hand. Taking a deep breath, she began to draw power from her Anemo vision to heal the wound on her shoulder, letting out a pained moan as she felt the wound gradually close.

Fully aware that she wouldn't stand much of a chance without a weapon, Jean began to eye Vennessa's sword that she had set on the ground not too far from where she currently was. And although she didn't want to damage the sword further than it was, the situation left her with very little choice, and so she began to run towards the sword, picking it up as she went.

With the hero's sword in her hand, she began to channel as much elemental energy onto the blade as she can afford, using the Anemo energy to help with her attacks as well as soften the blows on the blade itself. This however, meant that she had stacked all her cards into attacking, with little to nothing left to help boost her movements to dodge any of the golem's counterattacks.

Believing that she can end the battle with her next series of attacks, Jean charged at the stone golem, who once again began firing its projectiles at the charging knight after it repaired its damaged arm. Instead of dodging however, Jean ran directly towards the oncoming projectiles, blowing them away with the Anemo-powered slashes which also sent waves of wind blades towards the golem.

Once close enough, Jean jumped up towards the stone golem's body and began striking with the heavily charged sword. Little by little, the stone blocks started flying off from the body, gradually exposing the core inside. What she didn't expect was the golem launching the stones on its body point blank towards her, knocking her away as several blocks made contact.

As she laid on the ground, the stone golem began to slowly walk towards her, raising its arms above its body as it got closer towards her. Having taken several direct hits from the stone blocks, Jean was unable to muster up enough energy to try and get away. Bracing for the worst, she closed her eyes and raised Vennessa's sword in front of her to block the golem's arms coming down on her. As the giant's arms struck however, a sudden burst of Anemo energy exploded from the Dandelion Knight, powerful enough to blow away both of the golem's arms.

Jean then felt a warm, comforting sensation from the Anemo energy now enveloping her body as her wounds began to heal. Looking towards her hand, Jean's eyes widened as she noticed Vennessa's sword in her hand had changed. The pale gold along the blade had turned into a mix of bright gold and silver, and the dull, chipped edge had now turned into a sharp, shining bright teal edge.

Meanwhile, watching from his spectator's spot, the Anemo Archon began to feel a bit giddy and couldn't help but break out a smile at the sight of the awakened Aquila Favonia.

"So...after 1000 years, it's finally happened."

Realizing that the tide of battle had now completely tipped in her favor, Jean quickly got on her feet and began to move on the offensive, slashing at the stone golem. She found that her slashes were now cutting the stone blocks apart instead of just blowing them away. After eventually cutting away the stones covering the core, the knight delivered a decisive thrust that caused the Eye of the Storm to gradually contract and disappear, taking all the stone blocks that made up the stone golem with it.

Venti floated back down to where Jean was, and as the two exchanged looks, the Anemo Archon summoned a swirl of Anemo energy to completely heal all of Jean's wounds, making her appear as if the tough battle with the stone golem never even happened.

"Vennessa would be so proud of you, Jean. That sword, the Aquila Favonia, is a sword forged by Vennessa herself, and while it has stood the test of time, not once since her ascension has its true power been brought out, until now. Your predecessors, the previous Dandelion Knights, they would find the sword in its state of disrepair but all of them chose to either preserve it as it is, or even attempted to restore the blade but never even use it. However, the true power of the sword only awakens in battle, the purpose to which Vennessa forged it in the first place."

Jean looked away as a wave of guilt suddenly overcame her. She recalled that when she first laid her hands on the blade, she too had thought of simply restoring it and keeping it stored somewhere, never to see battle alongside her. Venti noticed this and decided to alleviate the knight's worries.

"I could tell you also thought the same as the others did, but in the end, you recognized the sword's true value and used it to help you clear the trial. It may have been because you were left with no other choice, but that decision alone is what caused the sword to answer you and reveal its true power. Vennessa did indeed build the foundation for what Mondstadt is today, but even that path was paved in countless battles and bloodshed, yet it was her determination to see each battle through that got her to where she was, just like how you did today."

Jean smiled and looked down to the sword she held in her hand. For but a moment, she felt as if she had taken a leap towards her hero's legacy, but her humility reminded her that she still a long way to go and that this whole affair simply meant a few steps in the right direction. While she had indeed obtained a powerful weapon, it didn't change the fact that she still had her duties to uphold as the Dandelion Knight and the Acting Grand Master. If anything, the Aquila Favonia only served to strengthen her resolve towards those duties.

On the way back to Mondstadt, Venti decided to split off and go back to the city ahead, claiming that he just couldn't keep in his excitement to celebrate Jean's achievement ever since they got out of the Temple of the Falcon. Knowing that Venti was bound to head to Angel's Share to drink regardless, the Dandelion Knight decided to make a stopover by the big tree at Windrise instead.

As she stood in front of the big tree, Jean planted the Aquila Favonia on the ground in front of her and got down on one knee as she would always do, quietly paying her respects to her great hero Vennessa. Only this time, the tree appeared to answer her as waves as Anemo energy began to surround her, eventually converging onto her sword.

"For Mondstadt, as always."