AN: Blown away by the response this got! A massive thank you to everyone engaging with the fic!
Furina stood in front of the lift that would take her to the station's main hall. She had been standing there for far longer than she thought was necessary, attempting to build the confidence to call the lift to her. Walking from the opera house to Marcotte station was much simpler. By the time she left, the route had been largely empty.
The aquabus journey had been pleasant at least. It was a quiet night, she was the only passenger and she simply looked out over the water below. She had smiled a little when she spotted a few blubberbeasts lying on their backs on the shore, seemingly oblivious to recent events. She was reminded of the afternoons she would spend playing with them to her heart's content.
She didn't have to pretend around them. They were simpler times. She missed them.
Then again, she didn't have to pretend at all anymore and it wasn't the same.
She reached slowly towards the button, going over the last part of her trip to her residence again to convince herself to be done with it so she could finally rest for the day. The route to her home was simple: go through the Waterway Hub's main hall, left through Vasari Passage until she reached Beaumont Workshop and it was across from the workshop.
The walk between the station and the apartment building wasn't something she was overly opposed to. Having to pass through a public area, on the other hand, was what she had been dreading. As much as she would like the station to be empty, she knew better than to hope for it. As long as the aquabus was running, there would be people around and it wasn't so late at night that it'd be near empty. There was no other way to reach home without passing through the main hall of the Waterway Hub.
It would be fine, she kept telling herself. The more she waited around, the worse she was making it for herself.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she finally pushed the button to call the lift.
It arrived after a short delay and she stepped inside. The easiest part was done. She was almost there. She knew the Court of Fontaine like the back of her hand and she had surely passed by the same route countless times. It would be like any other time she walked through the city, the people's reactions would be a little different this time.
Despite how she felt on the inside, Furina was impressed that she managed to maintain her posture. She had at least expected herself to be fidgeting or tapping her foot as the lift descended. That saved herself the worry of not being able to compose herself before anyone saw her. If she could at least make it look like she was fine, they wouldn't pay as much attention to her. Centuries of experience wearing a mask wouldn't leave her so soon, she supposed.
The lift doors opened and she tentatively walked forwards. There was a short distance to cross before she reached the main hall proper. She still had time to mentally prepare herself. There were going to people in the main hall when she rounded the corner. She could already hear them.
She would be fine, she told herself. If she looked like she had her destination in mind and kept walking, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone on the way. Furina reminded herself of her route one last time before finally stepping into view.
It may have just been her imagination but the hall seemed to become much quieter to her as conversations and activities stopped and she could feel more eyes on her with each passing step she took.
It sounded like only a handful of people noticed her at first. She knew that wouldn't last long as a few more heard them muttering her name and a few more happened to catch sight of her.
"Isn't that…?"
"That's Lady Furina, isn't it?"
"I haven't seen her since the trial."
"Where's she been all this time?"
Furina tried her hardest to not pay them any mind. She kept her eyes straight ahead, avoiding directly looking at anyone and walked as quickly as she could without drawing more attention to herself. All the while, she repeated the same thought in her head.
"Just keep walking. I'll be there soon."
As she pressed on, she thought it was working when the voices around her seemed to fade away and she could only hear her own words. That was good. Though some of the hushed whispers had reached her before she filtered the others out, what she had heard wasn't too hard to put out of her mind. It was natural that they would be surprised to see her but all she was doing was passing by. The novelty of her appearance should be wearing off, they could all go about the business and soon forget about it.
So why were they still looking at her? They had no reason to anymore. She was just someone making their way home.
While they all appeared as indistinct figures out of the corner of her eye, she could still see several of them turned to face her. As much as she fought against it, her eyes shifted slightly from straight ahead and her focus was inevitably drawn to hazy figures, now appearing much clearer to her. Catching herself, she forced herself to look ahead again but she had already seen enough. Some were just watching her pass by while some kept glancing over trying to make it less obvious they were looking at her. The image that stuck with her were the ones who were talking amongst themselves.
Furina felt her heart beating faster. They had to be talking about her. What were they saying? Was it something about her trial?
What if they were talking about how she had them and generations of their families believing a lie for 500 years?
She bit her lip to try to stop any other thoughts like it crossing her mind. She didn't want to know. She wasn't ready to face it all yet. She just wanted to be home.
There was still more of her walk home to go and she hadn't even left the station yet.
"It's… just a little further," she reminded herself.
Furina put her bag down and closed her apartment door behind her, leaning back against it.
She was finally alone.
The rest of the walk to her home was a blur. She couldn't remember anything from between the station and the apartment building. It couldn't have been that bad, she thought. She had reached her destination after all. If she had been able to shut everything out completely once, she could keep doing so until she felt she was ready to talk about it. She wasn't running from her problems, she told herself, she didn't want to have to deal with them now was all.
She sighed. Gently pushing herself from the door, she took in what she hoped would become a familiar and welcome sight.
This was it. Her new home.
The only thing she remembered Neuvillette telling her was that it was small but it had everything she should need for now. That sounded nice. She hadn't had the energy for any of the luxuries she usually enjoyed. Maybe she just needed to focus on the essentials for a while.
Taking her bag, Furina stepped further in to finally look over it for herself. To her immediate left was the kitchen and to the right, the bathroom and a sliding door to a wardrobe. The rest of the apartment past the entryway had a sofa, a table and a few chairs on one side and a bed on the other and apart from the window that gave her a good view of the street below, that was all.
It really was small. She had already tempered her expectations, knowing that comparing anything to her previous residence would only lead to disappointment. It was far too early to hold any strong opinions of her new home but she knew she didn't dislike the apartment. It was just different. Getting used to what most residents of Fontaine would consider a normal place to live would take some time.
Furina sighed again.
She didn't want to have to think about anything else for the day given how tired she was. With the knowledge that today would be her final day of residing at the Palais and opera house looming over her all day, she had been exhausted. She hadn't tried to drag out the time she had spent at either. At the point she had been at for the past few days, she just wanted to be able to move on.
Making made her way towards the bed, she set her bag down next to it. Unpacking wasn't anywhere near the top of her list of priorities. She didn't have everything with her and she would have to pick up the rest of her belongings from the Palais anyway. There wasn't much in her current bag, only a few changes of clothes and some books she enjoyed. The only thing she thought she would need at that moment was her nightgown. She didn't like the idea of sleeping in her current clothes. At least some sense of familiarity would be nice.
She crouched down to open her bag and retrieve it only to be reminded of the item she had placed in her pocket earlier when she noticed its outline. She took it out and looked over the wooden talisman.
Aether's gift to her.
He had called it a Realm Dispatch. She'd never heard of anything like it before but it was apparently given to him in Liyue. Her thoughts wandered and she cast her mind back, recalling Liyue was only the second nation Aether had visited in Teyvat after Mondstadt. It couldn't have been much later than that time when her curiosity about the mysterious traveller supposedly from another world had been piqued. It seemed so long ago and he had since been to Inazuma and Sumeru as well and now he was here in Fontaine.
How many people had he met in his journey across Teyvat? How many of those people did he consider to be close enough friends with to give one of these talismans to?
Why was she now one of them and what had she done to deserve it?
She still didn't understand.
Furina had truly appreciated the thought but she didn't know when she would be able to accept the invitation he had extended to her. Aether seemed genuine in wanting to reach out to her which had given her a faint hope to hold on to but…
The thought of him and others conspiring against her to bring her to trial came to mind.
Navia and the Spina stoking the people's anger at her inaction.
The children of the House of the Hearth creating an elaborate trick that she had so easily fallen for.
Clorinde preparing to face her in a duel.
Neuvillette handing down her guilty verdict.
And through it all, Aether and Paimon dismantling her arguments and turning the people against her.
In the trial, it had all been too much to take in. All she could do was fall to her seat as everything came crumbling down around her. She had failed. Everything she had done for the past 500 years meant nothing anymore. Everyone would be lost to the Primordial Sea and she would spend the rest of her days alone.
She knew now that they had done it all for the sake of reaching the truth. They wanted to save Fontaine as much as she did. Time had been running out and they were determined to get answers from her. Before the trial they couldn't have known the danger that she would have put them all in if she had told them the truth.
But it still hurt.
Thinking rationally about it, she tried to tell herself she couldn't blame them especially since the end result had saved Fontaine. She couldn't have told anyone the truth but that didn't mean there wasn't a way around it to spare her feelings, was there? Or if she had told Aether everything before the trial officially began, could she have avoided feeling so hurt by them?
No, that would be selfish of her. She couldn't be selfish.
If Fontaine no longer had to worry about the prophecy, then she couldn't take their achievement away from them just so she could feel better. Their actions saved everyone.
"It's not like I did anything to help," she muttered.
It wasn't an unfamiliar thought. Furina remained completely still, letting the words echo in her head.
She didn't even have the energy to feel anything about it anymore.
She then shook her head furiously and pinched the bridge of her nose. It wasn't the time for this. She reminded herself that she just wanted to go to sleep. It had been a long day and she was letting the day's events and her tiredness get to her. She would deal with her thoughts and feelings about all that happened another time.
Fontaine was moving on and she needed to do the same.
She looked at the Dispatch in her hand. For now it could sit on the kitchen counter. When tomorrow came, she would find a better place for it, ready to be used if she felt she needed it.
Furina returned to the bed, changed and let herself collapse, completely drained.
She lie there simply staring at the ceiling for a while before closing her eyes.
This was her home now. It would take some getting used to but that was to be expected. She just needed some time to herself and maybe then she could figure out what her place in Fontaine would be going forward.
She would be fine.
AN: When writing this chapter, I was a bit confused about Furina's previous residence. We're told she lived in the Palais but Neuvillette says she moved out of the opera house. I'm running with an idea that she spent most of her time living in the Palais but she also had a place to stay in the opera house.