Chapter 4

Aether's commissions took longer than expected, and he came back to the Court of Fontaine three days later. He really wanted to visit Furina again since they had such a great evening last time, but he was so tired he could barely move. So, he just had an early night and woke up around midday the next day. After a light brunch and a cup of coffee, Paimon asked, "What should we do today, Traveler?"

"I was thinking we could visit Furina again."

"You seem to want to visit Furina quite often lately, don't you?" asked Paimon smugly.

"What do you mean?" Aether got defensive for some reason. "We've only visited her twice."

"Twice just before the commission, and now we just got back and want to visit her again. We don't visit Navia that often, do we?"

"Speaking of Navia," the Traveler changed the subject: "I wanted to ask how the visit went the other day."

Paimon was still giving him suspicious looks, so Aether decided to just ignore her. Although this got him thinking, why did he want to see Furina so much? As often lately, he found himself thinking about recent events. About Neuvillette, Skirk, Focalors... and, of course, Furina. Or was he actually thinking more about her than the others? His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Paimon.

"Aether? Aether! Do you hear Paimon? The waiter wants us to pay him."

"Yes... yes, of course, here."

"Okay, let's go ask Furina about her day with Navia and Clorinde then."

They were in luck. As they came to Furina's house, they found Navia and Clorinde already there, sharing dessert with her. When she saw them, Furina smiled and let them in; she seemed to be in much better spirits.

"Aether, how nice to see you! And you too, Paimon!" exclaimed Navia. "Come, have a piece of cake with us!"

"No thanks; we just ate," said Aether.

"Paimon would love some!" said Paimon immediately.

As Furina served Paimon a piece of cake, Aether turned to Navia and Clorinde and asked, "So, how did your meeting go the other day?"

"Oh, it was fantastic!" answered Navia. "We actually came here two days ago, yesterday and today! As the reconstruction of Poisson is going rather well, I took a few days off and decided to spend them in the Court."

"And as Fontaine is going through some reorganization now, trials have been put on hold, and I don't have too much work either," said Clorinde. "I used to either be available for duels or guard the Hydro Archon," she said, nodding at Furina. "Now that I am no longer needed for that, I decided to spend some time with Navia."

"Ehehe," laughed Furina a bit awkwardly, maybe because of the Hydro Archon mention.

"So, what did you do?" asked Aether.

"Well, the first day, we just talked really. We wanted to get to know Furina. You, know, the real Furina," Navia smiled at her. "We had so much to talk about. We must have talked for hours; by the time we noticed we had to go, it was already late at night. You know, we had a girls' night; we talked, we laughed, we cried, the usual stuff."

"And yesterday," continued Furina, "they actually managed to get me out of the house."

"Really?"

"Haha, yeah... we went shopping. I was pretty hesitant at first, but I really wanted to look for new clothes. And some of my old ones needed dry cleaning pretty badly, ehehe."

"Furina's taste in clothes is impeccable, as expected. She helped me so much with refining my style. And believe it or not, she actually found an absolutely gorgeous dress for Clorinde, of all people! Too bad Clorinde is probably never going to wear it though," Navia squinted her eyes at Clorinde. "You always wear these tight-fitting clothes, don't you?"

"They're just much more comfortable," said Clorinde. "Plus, they are more fitting for my position."

"But you still bought the dress, didn't you? I bet you're going to wear it for Wriothesley, aren't you?"

Clorinde choked on her tea while Furina was giggling but regained composure quickly.

"Wh-what are you talking about?! You're imagining things."

"Am I? So, there's nothing going on between you two? You visit him down there quite often, don't you?"

"I just meet him to drink tea," Clorinde explained calmly. "That's all there is to it. You know, Navia, you should find yourself a boyfriend; maybe then you don't stick your nose in other people's private business," said Clorinde bluntly.

"Hey, come on now; don't fight," Furina intervened.

"Don't worry, Furina; that's just how we talk to each other; no offense taken," said Navia. "Maybe Clorinde is right, though. Now that my personal problems are slowly getting resolved, maybe I should start looking for a partner. Hey, maybe I can go out on a date with Aether here?"

Aether tried to laugh it off together with Clorinde and Paimon but couldn't help himself from blushing. Navia was, after all, a very pretty and elegant girl. He noticed something else as well, though: did Furina also blush a little bit, or was he just imagining things?

"Don't mind me; I'm just teasing," said Navia. "Well, it's time for me to go. I want to check things out in Poisson; I wasn't there for several days after all. Clorinde, are you coming with me or staying?"

"No, I am coming with you. We've taken advantage of Lady Furina's hospitality and her cake for long enough."

"Clorinde, please, we've talked about this. Just... Furina."

"Sorry, old habits die hard... Furina. We'll see you soon, then."

"Of course, you're always welcome!"

Navia and Clorinde got up, said goodbye to Aether, gave Furina three kisses on the cheek, as was Fontanian custom among friends, and left. As Furina came back and sat down to finish her second piece of cake, she seemed happy but also a bit tired.

"Did you really enjoy it?" asked Aether.

"Yes, I did. Quite a lot, actually. They are both very nice to me and treat me like a friend... even though I'm not sure I deserve that. I've mostly known them in their professional capacities, especially Clorinde, so it's refreshing to see a sweet side to them. I've never been much into shopping, but picking dresses was great fun. It reminded me of when I was Prima Donna at the Opera," Furina raised her hand theatrically. "I really enjoyed picking a good costume before a performance. The other performers even said that I was very good at it and sometimes asked me to pick a good costume for them as well. Silly, really, as their costumes are decided way in advance before the play, while mine was a last-minute addition because they never knew for sure if I was going to perform or not. Anyway, I obliged and sometimes picked other costumes that I thought were better. I never knew if they said that I was good at it because they genuinely meant it or simply because I was the Archon. Anyway, Navia and Clorinde seem to think so too, so that's why I helped them choose. Clorinde was especially interesting. I could pick a very beautiful dress for her since she has a thin waist and rather big -" Furina paused, flustered, and blushed a bit. "Well, you've certainly noticed them."

"Noticed what?" asked Paimon.

"Yeah, it's pretty hard not to notice them, haha," laughed Aether.

"Notice what? What does Clorinde have? HEY, DON'T IGNORE PAIMON!"