So, here's what will probably be my last posting in the Cauldron for the year. Considering how the last several posts were my attempts at High School DxD crossovers with a Harry/Rias pairing, I thought you'd want something different. So, it's another attempt at a Genshin Impact story. But while Nahida is still very much a key character, the focus of the story is not on Sumeru, but rather, Inazuma.

The Inazuma arc is one I feel very ambivalent about, especially as it seems to involve so many people playing Hot Potato with the Idiot Ball, and some of its characters are immensely frustrating. On the other hand, seeing La Signora finally get a well-deserved comeuppance was satisfying, and many of the character sidestories were interesting, and in the case of Ei/the Raiden Shogun, redeemed the character, actually making her more interesting than a boneheaded tyrant with no critical thinking ability whatsoever.

In fact, Ei is being paired with Harry for this story. It'll be a story about how Harry, along with an adopted Delphi, help draw Ei out of her shell and have her realise her folly at least a couple of years prior to canon. It'll also be a variation on an MoD Harry fic, albeit one where he is unknowingly an MoD Harry...and not a completely immortal or invincible one either. If you've read my abortive attempt at a Harry/Raynare fic here in the Cauldron, Azrael Rising, you'll probably see similar concepts involved.

As for the title, I was inspired by the title of one of the Doctor Who spinoff novels, Eternity Weeps by Jim Mortimore. At the end of the rather dark and brutal story, after stopping Earth from being wiped out by an alien contagion terraforming it, the Doctor remarks solemnly to long-time companion Bernice Summerfield, "I have walked in Eternity. And Eternity weeps". Given that Ei is obsessed with Eternity, and is crying on the inside at least for the losses she has suffered, Eternity Weeps would be a fitting title for a fanfic about her...and yet, this will be a story, if it becomes a full fic, about her regaining herself. This is about her relearning to enjoy life again, hence the new title, Eternity Smiles.

Of course, there's no guarantee of this becoming a full fic at all. But hopefully, you will enjoy this little sample...

ETERNITY SMILES

CHAPTER 1:

WELCOME TO TEYVAT

He coughed up a gout of blood, while his eyes met the cold, golden gaze of the demoness in front of him. Oh, she considered herself a god, indeed, THE Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles. But to him, she had been a devil for a long time. What she had done to him was merely further proof.

The pain was unbearable, but the physical pain was nothing compared to what he felt. The anxiety, the knowledge he would be leaving those he loved behind. But he would not be afraid. Instead, he would be defiant, and muster up enough power to ensure this bitch would not have the satisfaction of killing him.

"Asmoday," he sneered. "You show your true colours as the treacherous slattern you are."

"Your words are as empty and as meaningless as you are," Asmoday sneered coldly back. "We could not risk you helping Rukkhadevata and the upstart god-king with their issue."

"ISSUE?! You all but led Deshret to the Abyss, to the tainted Forbidden Knowledge there." His eyes narrowed. "I see…you're hoping to weaken Deshret and Rukkhadevata."

"The triptych of Sumeru was altogether too powerful and too…free-thinking, much like Egeria was. After Egeria's hubris, we need to take further measures. We will hobble Sumeru's power, we will replace the transient one with her shadow, and we will take you off the board. The Seven may consider you to be the Eighth Archon, but there is no room for a stateless Archon in our design."

"Fuck you and your design," he spat, even as the energy he gathered reached a crescendo. "You may have imposed Erosion on Teyvat, but Death comes to all…even to you demiurges sitting on high in Celestia. Let that be my curse unto you, that one day, someone will bring Celestia crashing down around you, and all on it will face judgement!"

"Are they to be your final words?" Asmoday asked, making a gesture and gathering energy.

"No. I'm not done yet!" With a thought, he opened up a portal beneath him, hoping to slip away back to hiding. He couldn't risk returning to Inazuma, to his beloved ones, yet. They may pursue.

Yet Asmoday, after the initial surprise, was quick off the mark. She blasted the portal just as he slipped through it. It snapped shut long before he intended it to, annihilating an arm and a leg, along with part of his torso, and instead of a bolthole, he found himself tumbling through a multicoloured void, not the Abyss, but something else.

He was suddenly spat out above a river, and hit the river with a splash. He must have blacked out, for his next memory was choking up water as he was pulled to a riverbank. "I've never seen clothes like that," remarked one voice.

"Merlin, look at that injury," spoke another, more nervous voice.

"He's not long for this world. Can you heal him, Iggy?" asked a third, rapacious-sounding voice.

"I'll try."

"Good. Maybe he'll be grateful enough to give us something in return."

The nervous voice spoke into his ear. "…Sir, whoever you are, I'll try to heal your wounds. Pay my brothers no mind. But…I can't guarantee I can heal you."

He croaked, "Thank you, anyway."

"Focus on my voice. Try to stay awake. My name is Ignotus Peverell. Can…can you tell me yours?"

"Phenex…the Archon of Death and Spirit…"

That dream again…he'd been having them a lot lately, for over a decade now. Ever since the Battle of Hogwarts. Ever since he united the Hallows. He was struggling back to consciousness, but he was aware of that dream at least.

However, when his eyes flickered open, it was to meet the worried orbs of his daughter in everything but blood. "Dad!" she yelped, hugging him.

"Delphi," Harry Potter murmured, returning the embrace. He looked around at their surroundings. It was the Expanded Trunk, his bedroom to be precise. Which was both reassuring, and yet not. Delphi couldn't have dragged him inside of it by herself, so either the others weren't as scattered in transit as he had feared…or someone else had helped them.

Breaking off the embrace, Harry looked his daughter in the eye. "…Delphi…did Hermione or Andromeda or Luna help you get me in here?"

Delphi shook her head. "They're not here, Dad. That spell that hit the ritual circle, I think it scattered us. I don't know where they are."

Harry stared at his daughter. While he was with her, true, the fact remained that Hermione, Luna, and the Tonkses were gone. Delphi was young, ten years old, but she was pretty smart for her age. Then again, considering who her birth father was, that was hardly surprising.

Finding Delphini Riddle at the Rowle house had been serendipity, to say the least, part of a routine mission while training to be an Auror. After considerable debate what to do with the toddler daughter of Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry had volunteered to adopt her. That had caused a strain on his newly-reestablished relationship with Ginny, which had fallen apart. Not completely, they still remained on friendly terms, but strained, with Ron and Hermione's breakup being gentler by comparison.

Impromptu fatherhood was testing on Harry. It got especially hairy when someone leaked her identity to that bitch Skeeter. But Harry and Delphi reconciled at least, with Delphi crediting it to an imaginary friend she saw in her dreams called Nahida.

Only, they learned recently that Nahida was real.

Harry had seen someone called the Dendro Archon in his dreams, albeit called Rukkhadevata, which seemed weird. But he'd gotten contacted by Hermione, who had joined the Unspeakables, who'd found out that Voldemort had stolen items from the Department of Mysteries. He had then used them to try and enhance Delphi while she was still in Bellatrix's womb. One, supposedly, had been a donation from a witch known only as 'Alice', who had claimed that the item was actually a cutting off a world tree called Irmunsul…a world tree belonging to a world called Teyvat.

It couldn't be a coincidence that Harry heard that name in his dreams, dreams that seemed to involve a distorted retelling of The Tale of the Three Brothers, and that Delphi had spoken to a girl who claimed to be the current Dendro Archon. He wasn't sure about the source of his own dreams, unless the Hallows had something to do with them, but it was a moot point. If what Nahida told them was true, then she needed help.

So, between Harry, Hermione, and Luna, they began formulating a ritual that would allow them to travel to Teyvat. Specifically, Sumeru, the country that the Dendro Archon was supposed to rule, and yet, Nahida was a prisoner of her own people, if what Delphi relayed was true. Given how increasingly disillusioned Harry was with Magical Britain and how it treated it's so-called heroes, he agreed to help. The so-called former Death Eaters still had a stranglehold on power in the Wizengamot, prejudice against Muggleborns and Muggles had only leavened slightly, and there had been calls for either Delphi's murder, or for her to be adopted by a more suitable family. Like the Malfoys.

On the day the ritual was put into play, though, things went wrong. Draco Malfoy had come in, just as the ritual started, and demanded Delphi. When refused, Draco, having never truly grown beyond the petulant machild he was, began firing spells at the ritual circle, just as the magic reached a climax. The memories of what happened next were blurry, but Harry remembered an impression of them being scattered, and he barely managed to grab hold of Delphi. That was his last remotely clear memory.

"Do you know where we are, then?" Harry asked Delphi.

"Umm…the lady who helped me tried to explain it, but…I'm not sure what she meant. She called it the Plane of…You-Time-Era? She seemed surprised that we got here, even angry, but…she was nice enough to help me get you into here. I think she wanted peace and quiet before asking questions. But she did say we were on Teyvat, I think…in some place called Inazuma. Nahida told me about it once. It's a bit like Japan."

Harry frowned, digesting this. This mysterious lady who helped Delphi…although she was angry, she did help bring Harry into the Expanded Trunk. And she claimed they were on Teyvat, but on some other plane? That did not bode well, especially if the others were nowhere to be found.

Harry got off the bed, swaying a little, but he needed answers. "Okay…well, let's go meet our host, and apologise for barging in on her. Hopefully, she'll be amenable to answering a few questions…"

When he emerged from the Expanded Trunk, Harry's first thoughts was that he was in Hell. The ground was sandy, with strange patterns of lines and circles adorning its surface. The sky was dark, with red streaks. Oddly enough, there were gates in that landscape, like the gates outside Japanese temples he had seen in pictures. It was desolation embodied, and yet, there was something to this place that nagged at his mind, even as, after Delphi exited the Expanded Trunk, he shrunk it and pocketed it.

But the most extraordinary thing about this landscape was the woman, hovering a little above the ground in a seated pose, one leg dangling towards the ground, the other curled up, as if half in a meditating pose. Indeed, her face had an expression of concentration, of intense meditation. He was loathe to disrupt it.

The woman was actually quite beautiful. Her long purple hair framed elegantly beautiful if stern features, seemingly in her twenties. She was dressed in a regal silk kimono or something similar, albeit one that exposed much of her legs and her cleavage. Yet power radiated off her in waves.

And he had seen her before in those dreams. Unbidden, he murmured, "Which one are you?"

The woman's eyes snapped open, the violet irises glowing. "What do you mean by such words?" she asked, her harsh and hard tone a demand.

For a moment, Harry bristled at the harsh words, before sighing, remembering that they were intruders. "I honestly don't know. Look, I'm sorry about the intrusion. I'm Harry Potter. We were trying to get to Sumeru, when…"

The woman held up a hand, standing, her feet lowering to the ground, before approaching. "Your daughter has explained much to me already, claiming that Buer is caged by the Sages," she said, her tone a little softer, though still imperious. "I had merely thought her secluded of her own will, as I am. It is fortunate that your daughter explained matters. Had I heard the words from your own lips, I would have been less likely to believe them, and consider you a wilful trespasser in the Plane of Euthymia."

"…That's what this place is called?" Harry asked, looking around. "What is euthymia anyway?"

"Peace. Serenity. A perfect place to strive towards Eternity," she said, approaching him. "It could be considered an inner world."

"This is…a mental world?" Harry asked, looking around at the grim, devastated landscape. As the woman nodded, he said, "…I think you need a touch nicer décor. I mean, that's my opinion. Is there any way we can leave?"

"While none, under normal circumstances, may enter or depart the Plane of Euthymia without leave, you both are exceptions, albeit inadvertently." She then seemed to reach for her cleavage, and before he could react, she seemed to pull a katana, crackling with purple electricity, from it. She then slowly raised it to point it at Harry, who moved to put himself between the woman and Delphi. "Had you been an intentional intruder, seeking my life or to disrupt Eternity, I would have annihilated you with the Musou no Hitotachi." She then lowered the katana, her expression softening. "But you are an accidental interloper, separated from your companions, and one who clearly loves his daughter. Indeed, in that, you should consider yourself extremely fortunate, for the Heavenly Principles frown upon travel between worlds. Thus, I will extend the hand of hospitality towards you, and you will be my guests in Inazuma until your friends and loved ones are able to come for you."

He was about to snark that Inazuma sounded like the name of a prison, but he decided against it. In fact, if those dreams were any indication, Tenshukaku was a palace. The palace of…the very woman standing in front of him.

"…I think I know who you are," Harry said in dawning realisation. "You're the Raiden Shogun, the Electro Archon who rules Inazuma, aren't you?"

The Raiden Shogun seemed to do a double take, before peering at him anew. "You come from another world, so your daughter claims, but…you know of me?"

"…I've been having dreams about you…about both of you, and I don't know why. They're old dreams, like memories, and yet..."

After some thought, the Raiden Shogun shook her head. "There has always been only one Raiden Shogun, my shadow aside. Now, I will notify my people of your advent and status." A smile touched her lips, a surprisingly gentle one, despite her earlier harsh tone. "Welcome to Inazuma…"

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, we've got a Delphi adoption, and now, Harry's ended up in Inazuma. But what link does he have to Phenex? And will he be able to win over Ei?

I have reused the plot device of Nahida being linked to a Potterverse character a few times, but c'mon, she doesn't deserve her fate!

Now, before you get ornery about Ei being so cold, remember, this is Ei prior to her character development in the Inazuma arc as well as her Interludes (I'm using the Fate/Grand Order terminology here, I prefer calling character-specific sidequests Interludes). In theory, we should have her character development take place in advance. She'll still have moments of kindness and goodwill.

I have to admit, the Inazuma arc, along with the Mondstadt arc, aren't my favourites in the game. While they have plenty of good elements, the fact remains is that a lot of the conflict could have been avoided if Ei actually questioned why the Vision Hunt Decree needed to go ahead, as well as Yae Miko, who is canonically shown to be in command of a vast spy network, did more to stymie the Fatui's plans. I actually reckon Yae in canon just wanted to be entertained by the civil war caused by the Vision Hunt Decree. I mean, she is a major bitch, after all. What else would she be after calling Ei's actions in isolating herself after being a 'temper tantrum'? And this is someone who is supposedly Ei's best friend. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

So, yeah, at least in other arcs, it was down to malice, not unreasonable incompetence, or both. But in Inazuma, it's frustrating how many people have grasped the idiot ball.

No numbered annotations this time.