Being told by the officers on duty that Lucian was "alright" did not lessen their anxiety in any way or form. Whatever happened to Lucian that caused him to be in pain and blacked out certainly wasn't normal, especially if it required the aid of the nation's Chief Justice to personally intervene in quelling it.
They were grateful for how the officers went out of their way to accommodate them although Lyney inwardly felt the adults treated him and Lynette like little kids which in a way, was not wrong per say, but they had long since outgrown most of their childish innocence out of necessity. Whatever was left of it remained thanks to Lucian, who was the only reason why they could still enjoy a relatively happy and sheltered childhood.
It was a happy coincidence that they met a fellow street magician while waiting in the Palais Mermonia, a well-known magician in the nation that went by the name of Cesar who he and Lynette had met a few times before while they were busking on the streets. The twins had a favourable impression of the man due to how helpful he was when he and Lynette gathered the courage to ask him for advice in regards to learning magic, but they did not have many opportunities to really indulge in an in-depth conversation beyond that.
The kind-hearted Cesar voluntarily waited with them in the Palais Mermonia after learning of the reason for their stay here. To him, it's simply not right to leave children alone in a foreign place without the guidance and supervision of an adult. While it's true that they are in the Palais Mermonia and there's no way the children would come to harm here based on that fact alone, he cannot in good conscience leave them alone after being aware of the fact that they have no legal guardian looking after them.
Thus, they ended up spending their time talking and discussing magic while waiting for Lucian to return. Clorinde had to leave early because her parents would worry, so the twins assured her that they would inform her of Lucian's status as soon as they could after they finally met him again. Talking with Cesar had been an effective means of distraction from the tortuously long wait for Lucian to return but that anxiety eventually returned.
Where's Lucian? The melusine officer said that he's alright but had to see to some personal matters in the Palais Mermonia, but isn't this taking a little too long? And what kind of business would need to take hours to be completed in the Palais Mermonia for an adventurer? No adventurers would have any business here that would need hours to complete.
Unless… Lucian's not just an ordinary adventurer and there is much more to him than it seems on the surface? He wouldn't be surprised if that were to be true. Even after having lived with him for a few years there are many things that they do not know about him because the only times he would talk in complete sentences was usually when they asked him questions about swords and the history of Fontaine, or if he's in a particularly good or chatty mood that day which was a rarity in itself. Clorinde had also offhandedly commented once or twice that certain things about Lucian simply don't add up.
Time continues to pass. Even the skies were starting to turn dark and the officers on duty started to rotate their shifts, with some of them knocking off for the day while some of them started their work for the night shift. The three of them were given a free and sumptuous dinner which Lyney heavily suspected the Chief Justice being the reason why they were obviously given preferential treatment here. He couldn't help but inquire about Lucian once more but the only answers he received were their claims that he's alright and that he had matters to talk about with the Chief Justice. By this point it's getting obvious that even the officers had no idea what Lucian was really doing or what happened to him.
Even Cesar had to inevitably leave due to the long wait. Apparently his lover wasn't very pleased that he had suddenly gone missing for hours on end without her being informed of it. The man seemed reluctant to leave them alone but the officers on duty reassured him that this is the Palais Mermonia and that they will keep a lookout for the children, everything will be fine.
However, when another hour had passed since then Lyney was starting to feel increasingly frustrated and worried. Is Lucian really alright? They only have the officers' word to go by and while he liked to think that their nation's law enforcement can be trusted, the darker side of him which had seen what the worst of humanity has to offer cannot help but assume the worst. What if his worst fears turned out to be true and Lucian was not alright? What if there's… he don't know, some sort of national secret that Lucian happened to stumble upon at the wrong place and time and he had been spirited away to some secret research facility where he would no longer see the light of day-
He shook his head, cutting his train of thoughts right there. He glanced at his twin sister and their gaze met. He only needed one look to know that they were on the same wavelength.
Assuming that their worst fears and concerns were valid, it would mean that they cannot afford to wait any longer.
The crux of magic is all about misdirection and the easiest way to do so was usually through utilising distractions. Even if they were caught he's not too afraid of facing the repercussions because he can easily abuse the fact that they are still children, especially when they are children whose sole adult figure in their lives had been missing for more than half a day with no rhyme nor reason. He's confident that he and Lynette could easily get away with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist even if their infiltration attempt were to fail.
He was quickly exposed to the harsh reality of the world. For some reason he failed to account for the possibility that gardemeks might be patrolling the upper floors of the building instead of the usual human or melusine officers.
He quickly pulled Lynette aside to hide behind a wall, just in time to dodge an element-infused projectile that whizzed past them in righteous fury. Great, he could already hear the mechanical steps of the mekas steadily converging onto their location. How is he going to get Lynette out of here?
A gardemek equipped with a sword sprung an ambush on them from an unseen corner and they would have been in big trouble if it wasn't for Lynette's sensitive hearing picking out its presence, allowing her the time to parry its attack with her sword. The twins quickly pressed their backs together in a defensive formation with their weapons drawn and their situation looked to be rather grim with how they were being surrounded on all sides by clockwork mekas specialised in combat. Forget about trying to save Lucian, they don't even know if they would be able to save themselves right now.
Another shot was fired and Lyney ducked before quickly returning fire in kind, not like it was of any use because another meka used its equipped shield to easily block his arrow. This is why he hated dealing with shield wielding enemies. Their existence is the bane to his existence.
The mekas armed with firearms began to take their aim and Lyney knew that they were in big trouble. He tried to think of a plan, something, anything, but nothing came to mind. He was about to shield his sister with his own body when water suddenly rose from nowhere to engulf them in a protective dome.
"Stand down," the deep voice of the Chief Justice rang across the corridor and the gardemeks immediately ceased their assault as though a switch within them had been flipped. The dome of water dissipated and they were pleasantly surprised when the first person who greeted them outside of that dome was the person who they were pining for.
"L-Lucian!"
"You both gave me quite a scare," he briefly chuckled and patted their heads. He seemed to be in a good mood although it's still kind of obvious that he's still feeling a little under the weather, probably due to whatever caused him to undergo that fainting spell earlier today. "Sorry for taking so long, things took far longer than expected to be done. Are you two okay? Where's Clorinde?"
"She had to go back home so that her parents would not worry," Lyney explained. "Wait, more importantly, are you okay?"
"Could have been better and it will be better, this is not going to be the end of the world," Lucian reassured the two children. "You've eaten, I hope? I did ask Neuvillette to get somebody to make sure the both of you ate but I wanted to be sure."
"The fish and chips were pretty nice, wish we could share it with you though," Lyney recalled about what they had for dinner, feeling a lot more relaxed now that he's certain that Lucian really was fine. "So… are we done here or…?"
Lyney's question was promptly interrupted when a petite figure only slightly taller than them glomped the twins from behind, startling them.
"Oh they are so cuuuuuute!" The twins were certainly shocked when the Hydro Archon caught them in a tight hug, ruffling their hair, pinching their cheeks… almost treating them like how some might react when they saw a cute poodle trotting down the streets.
Wait, Lady Furina?
"L-L-Lady Furina?!" Lyney found his voice going up at least one octave higher when he realised just who was glomping them. His mind ceased working. How? What? Why? What on earth is going on?
"You are scaring them."
It was Lucian's voice who grounded the twins back to reality and gave them the sense of security they needed, rescuing them from the bewilderment that they were facing. Lady Furina visibly pouted at Lucian (wait, their archon, pouting?), her cheeks puffing up like a squirrel who had stuffed berries and nuts into their mouths, while Lucian simply looked unimpressed.
No, more importantly, Lucian and Lady Furina knew each other?
Now that he's starting to calm down he also started to notice details that were previously missed out. Lady Furina and Lucian do share some striking resemblance in certain ways. Their hair colour, the colour of their eyes, even the shape of their face are a little similar, especially their jawline.
"But they are just too cute!" Oblivious to the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raging through Lyney's mind, Lady Furina began to pinch and lightly pull at Lynette's cheeks while cooing incessantly. Lynette had no idea what to do or say and sent a pleading look of help at the only person who she could rely on. Lucian visibly sighed and to the twins' surprise, grabbed onto the wrist of their archon and unceremoniously separated them.
"L-Lucian, what is… Why…" Lyney's finger slowly alternated between pointing at Lady Furina and Lucian. While he had a general idea of how their archon looked thanks to the Steambird this is the very first time where he could observe their archon up close with his own eyes. The resemblance between Lucian and Lady Furina is just too uncannily similar for anyone to not harbour some semblance of suspicion when they stood together side by side.
"A-Ahem," Lady Furina cleared her throat. "As I was saying before the gardemeks started going on a rampage. I, Furina de Fontaine, hereby appoint Lucian the Adventurer as my personal Champion Duelist. Rejoice! For this is the first time in our nation's history that an archon appointed an individual to be their personal Champion Duelist since the times of which the Grand Duelist, Lucine Fontinas, was still around! Such an occasion with historical value should be commemorated-"
"Cut it out," Lucian blandly interrupted their archon and for a moment Lyney and Lynette felt a little light-headed at the sheer audacity Lucian displayed towards a literal God. The both of them had to have known each other way back, there's no doubt about it in their minds.
But just what kind of relationship do they really have with each other? They looked so alike when standing side by side, the only real visible difference would be their hairstyle.
"L-Lucian," Lyney was the one who mustered the courage to ask, his fingers apprehensively tugging at the edge of his shirt to grab his attention. "Are you and Lady Furina…"
There was a short pause of activity. Even the Iudex seemed mildly interested at what the young child had to ask.
"... mother and son?"
It was like the world had come to a stop at that instance and it was only broken when Lady Furina broke out into peals of uncontrollable laughter.
"AHAHAHAHA! M-Mother and… HAHAHAHA!" Lady Furina was laughing so hard to the point that she was bent over and clutching her stomach, unable to straighten her back. Lucian simply facepalmed while the esteemed Chief Justice looked bemused at the situation. So that was a wrong guess?
"That's-"
"You are absolutely right!" Furina reappeared before Lyney in a blink, patting him on the head to affirm his guess. "But keep it a secret, okie? As you can see, this son of mine has a rebellious streak a mile wide-"
"Focalors."
"You see, you see?! No respect to his mother at all! This is the unfilial son that I have given birth to!" Furina pointed an accusing finger at the former Grand Duelist and it was at this moment that Lucine simply gave up in exasperation. Whatever, he will let Focalors have her fun. This misunderstanding might just be useful in keeping his true identity hidden anyway.
Lyney and Lynette shared a look, simply more confused than they initially were. Lyney's guess seemed wrong but Lucian wasn't refuting it either, so what really is the truth?
"It's going to be their bedtime soon. I'll see both of you tomorrow," Lucine ended this farce and gently pushed the twins by their backs, guiding them away from the two highest figures of authority in this nation. The twins followed after him and they ended up on a separate floor of the Palais Mermonia.
Are they even allowed to be here?
"This will be our place of residence from now on," Lucian informed them, knowing that they must be very confused about the entire situation. "As an archon's personal Champion Duelist who serves only her and nobody else, I am given some perks that others won't enjoy. This is one of them."
"W-Wow. You mean, Lady Furina appointed you as her Champion Duelist after your performance with the Icewind Suite today?"
"Yes, my skills had caught her attention. I did not refuse her offer, so I will be working as a Champion Duelist instead of an adventurer starting from today," Lucian told the twins a half-truth. It's not his intention to lie but the experience he accumulated in his long life had taught him that learning of secrets that one is not yet ready to learn might sometimes bring more harm than good. Until the twins are able to protect themselves from most threats, he will keep them in the dark about some things that are better left unsaid.
"So… clean."
"And luxurious."
"I'm just as surprised as you are," Lucian agreed. In truth, this was his residence when he was still Lucine Fontinas. He assumed that his room and belongings had been cleared away or even just removed entirely since his disappearance, he wasn't expecting it to still be here, in the same condition and arrangements that he remembered it to be before his last death. It has to be Focalors' work.
For that, he's grateful, and also saddened by what she had to endure for the past 500 years.
It took the twins quite a while to fall asleep that night, simply not accustomed to sleeping and living in such luxury when poverty was all they knew in their lives. Living in the same building as the famous and beloved Lady Furina meant that they run into her often, and Lynette was a little apprehensive of their archon because every run-in would somehow lead to Lady Furina pinching her cheeks and cooing over how cute she is, and Lynette can only simply wait until Lady Furina was done because she cannot simply deny her archon's wish.
"Oh, you want to know more about Lucin-, ahem, Lucian?" Their archon clarified and the twins nodded their heads with enraptured interest, having been invited to a tea session with her on one lazy afternoon. The Hydro Archon sat with her legs elegantly crossed with a cup of warm tea in hand, her posture of refined regal elegance, and began to speak.
"How should I put it… That rebellious son of mine is a boring person who knows nothing but swinging a sword, a warmongering oaf who thinks with his muscle rather than his brain, an uncultured barbarian with no elegance-"
"Um, Lady Furina?" Lynette meekly interrupted but her words went unheard.
"-and the sheer audacity to doubt his mother's wisdom-"
"L-Lady Furina, um-"
"-always thinking of usurping my throne and authority as the Hydro Archon, challenging me to a one hundred and seven duels but lost one hundred and seven duels in return-"
"Is that so? How about we have our one hundred and eighth duel right now?"
That sudden voice popping out from behind Furina's back had her jumping in her seat with an unsightly shriek. She shakily turned her head in slow motion, spotting the one person who she was verbally smearing with false words looking down at her with an equally false and deceptively pleasant smile that promised justified retribution the moment she took a single step into a duelling ring.
"H-H-H-Hi there! The w-w-weather is nice today and ah, look at how forgetful I am! I have an appointment at the Opera Epiclese today and am running late-"
"Is that so? Allow me to escort you, my archon, punctuality is a virtue and you won't want to be late."
"N-N-No need for that! I can make my way there myself- Ah ah ah let me go let me go PLEASE LET ME GO-"
"Lady Furina, it is my duty to ensure your safety as your Champion Duelist," Lucian coolly chirped in an eerily ominous tone and the twins can only watch when their archon was being comically dragged out of the room by their guardian wailing and screaming and begging as her cries trailed off in a decrescendo until her pleas could no longer be heard. That's… their archon? The dynamics between Lucian and Lady Furina certainly is very, um, unique?
"Are they really mother and son?" Lynette finally asked.
"I don't know. I'm just as confused," he shared a look with his twin before they both shared a sigh in perfect sync.
"Let us go too, we have an appointment with Cesar today," Lynette reminded her brother. Cesar had very readily agreed to take them in as his students after they re-established contact with him, something which they would forever be grateful for as aspiring magicians. Lucian had been disappearing for longer lengths of time as of late, saying that Lady Furina had assigned him some important work that only he could do and be allowed knowledge of as her personal Champion Duelist. Now, they are largely left to their own devices when Lucian is away although he will always spare time to coach them on a variety of subjects when he's back. They made it a point to do their best to excel in everything that Lucian deemed important enough to teach them, disappointing him is the very last thing they wish to do.
One day, they will be his source of strength too, just like how he had been since he saved them.
"So that is where you think it contains what we need?"
"Preliminary findings suggest that this ruin predates back to the era of Remuria, that's all I can gather for now," both Lucine and the Hydro Archon stared at a specific pin embedded onto the large map of Fontaine that was pinned onto a board that's riddled with many other pins demarcating locations that they had already investigated, or suspected and pending further investigations, and more. The former Grand Duelist had been scouring the nation's land and waters for clues based on everything that they could gather, organise, and document from their nation's archives. Be it stories, myths, historical facts, they had been doing everything they can to collate everything that might assist them in saving the nation from the prophecy.
"You are not taking the Temporal Sword with you?"
"I am now Lucian, the Champion Duelist of Lady Furina, not the Grand Duelist Lucine Fontinas serving Lady Egeria. What's in the past should remain in the past," Lucine answered. "That said, is your other half coming out of the Oratrice to say hello anywhere in the near future?"
"I… don't know?" Furina shrugged cluelessly. "To be honest, I know very little of what my other half is planning to do when we split. She gave me "humanity" while she retains "divinity", my role that she dictates that I play is to "be Fontaine's Hydro Archon" while she works on "averting the prophecy" from behind the scenes, that's all she allowed me to know. She… She only shared with me enough of "our" memories before we split, enough for me to remember my origins and those who I once knew when I was still "Focalors"."
"Interesting," Lucine lightly stroked his chin in thought. Focalors' ability to split her consciousness into different entities was a power unique to her, and the original had the freedom to choose what aspect of her she wanted to allocate to each entity split from the original, spanning across a diverse range of options from memories to power and even divinity.
In this case, the original Focalors had chosen to split herself into "divinity" and "humanity". The "humanity" is the entity known as Furina, while the "divinity" is Focalors that had hid herself within the Oratrice, which was why Lucian now addresses the entity standing beside him as Furina instead of Focalors ever since he was made aware that this "Focalors" is in fact, not "Focalors".
So why had she deemed it necessary to split her "divinity" and "humanity"? What is the real Focalors planning? Lucine is certain that "Focalors" had to have known that he had returned at this point, so why had she chosen to remain concealed in the Oratrice? Was she unwilling to see him, or was she unable to come out and meet him?
What convoluted quirky plan is that devious little brat concocting this time?
"How are things on Neuvillette's end?"
"He's working with the Duke or whatever, last I heard," Furina answered. The three of them had agreed that anything that had been around during or before Egeria's rule which had existed before any of them had come to Fontaine must be investigated. The Fortress of Meropide was another famous legacy that Egeria had left behind, having been established shortly before Lucine joined her as her Grand Duelist and is still existing today, which made it an easier entry point for them to start conducting their investigation. Ever since they came to a consensus that Egeria's secrets and actions had to be deeper than it seems on the surface they had agreed to leave no stones unturned. Furina will gather the manpower needed to assist to collate and sort through the nation's archives and based on those findings, Lucine will scour the land for clues in search of anything that predates back to the era of Remuria, and Neuvillete was left in charge of the investigation of the history behind the Fortress of Meropide.
"Let's hope that the fortress has what we wish for," Lucine commented before making his leave. "I will be bringing Clorinde along with me for this trip, this would be some nice exposure for her. Take care of the twins for me in the meantime."
"Of course I will! What do you take me for? An unreliable person? How could you, Lucian? I'm hurt!"
"And stop bullying Lynette."
"I don't do that!"
"Stop pinching her cheeks."
"But, but- she's so cute with those puffy cheeks! I could squeeze them all day!" Furina exclaimed in self-defence as Lucine left the meeting room, his thoughts wandering to his student and how he could maximise her education for this trip that he will be bringing her on.
No doubt that they will run into various monsters on this journey, but the real question is how he should have her handle them at her current skill level that could allow her to improve with the greatest efficiency. The Iron Sting that he had commissioned to be forged is about to be completed, and he's hoping that Clorinde will reach the level of skill where he could present to her the blade as her "graduation" gift sooner rather than later. The act of gifting of a sword from master to student as a mark of the student's graduation had been an old custom since the founding of Fontaine, like how he had received the Temporal Sword from Egeria, although this custom had fallen out of popularity in recent times much like many other traditions that he remembered having been existed 500 years ago but not now in the present.
He closed his eyes and cleared his mind. No point dwelling on the past anymore.
For the sake of Fontaine and those close to him, it's time he directs his attention onto the future.
AN: So I finally finished the 4.2 archon quest and Furina character quest and… I'm kind of proud that most of my guesses and speculations were actually pretty close to the truth?! Muahahaha
Furina finally came home for me as well (yay!), and I really enjoyed her heart wrenching lore. She's a complex character that's incredibly well written with many deeper philosophies behind her character and existence, really embodying the concept of duality that she's supposed to represent. She's the archon who I can actually relate to and empathise with the most out of the five that we currently know and I really love the song from her character quest, The Little Oceanid.
On a side note, this probably will be the last chapter that I will be posting this year due to irl commitments, meaning, I will regrettably skip out on writing an anniversary story again like how I did last year. In fact, this chapter was hastily written in the very meagre spare time that I now have, so bear with the numerous grammatical or spelling mistakes that I'm sure still exist in this chapter, I simply don't have the time to do a thorough check. I will try to squeeze in another update if the opportunity arises but for now, I will simply assume the worst. My apologies for that, but life has been pretty stressful for me as of late and I have very little time for myself and my hobbies nowadays.
Hope you enjoyed this story, see you when I see you guys again