Fontaine is the nation of water. As such, one should expect that water is abundant in a nation who named itself after the source of all life.
However, he wasn't expecting for Fontaine to be a nation submerged in water when he came to.
The nation is here, yet there are no people. Fontaine had somehow become a nation who only had an archon but without her people. He swam to the most important looking building in the nation and finally found a lone person there, silently weeping on her throne with a mechanical dog-like thing standing by her side.
"Who…?"
The girl sitting on the most important seat within the submerged opera house raised her head when she sensed the presence of another. The prophecy had come true and everything had been lost to the great flood. Her mirror-self, Neuvillette, her people; she wasn't able to protect them, she had failed them as their archon and this is her punishment for her sins.
The two stared at each other in shared confusion and silence. Fontaine was not yet released when this world was still a game, his foreknowledge contained almost nothing about the nation other than it being a Nation of Justice. This was also his first time in Fontaine so he's not too sure what's the norm in this nation and what's not. He's not going to question why the entire nation is submerged in a flood, why he's able to magically talk and breathe underwater, and why she's the only living person he could find after he swam around the place for hours on end.
He's simply glad he found another living person.
"Adham, a passing wanderer," he extended and offered his hand after he swam closer to the only person he could find in Fontaine. The lady looked extremely melancholic, looking so lost and in pain that it made him wonder just what on earth had happened to her and also to Fontaine for her to look this way, but she weakly extended her own hand in return as well.
"Furina de Fontaine. The… archon, of Fontaine."
He was surprised that this petite figure is the archon of the nation without people, but he knew from his past experiences that one should not judge a divine being by their appearances. Nahida was smaller than petite, but the vastness of her wisdom was anything but that.
"I just arrived. Do you know what happened here?" He tried asking but his question seemed to have jolted a painful memory judging from her reaction. He immediately regretted asking it.
"It's… It's a long story. I failed, I failed as an archon and… and…"
She broke down and collapsed to her knees, her face buried in her palms as she sobbed uncontrollably in silent screams. She could not remember what happened next but when she finally woke up again, he was there beside her tinkering with Seymour's module with unconcealed curiosity. She had picked Seymour up sometime shortly after the fulfilment of the prophecy and it was the only one she had left until Ad… Adha? Ad… Aha? Urgh, Sumeru names are just so hard to pronounce correctly.
"Adam?" She called out weakly. Her voice had caught his attention and he turned to face her.
"It's Adham, but yes, are you feeling better now?"
She nodded mutely, the look in her eyes still lost and unfocused.
"I think I had gotten a brief understanding of what happened after looking through the logs recorded in this robo doggy. I apologise, I wasn't aware of what happened and asked you such an inappropriate question. Is there… truly no way to undo what has been done?"
"If there is, I would have already done it, no matter the cost," she replied before looking back at the dismantled Seymour. "Please tell me that you can fix it. It's the only one I have left."
"Fixing doggy is not an issue. My concern is you. You look like you need serious therapy, archon or not."
"I'm not the archon, I have always been Fontaine's greatest lie," she shook her head. "This is my punishment, for deceiving my people, for deceiving fate. I… I deserve it."
"Miss Furina –"
"Just Furina would do, Adam."
"Furina," Adham corrected himself as per her request and made a mental note to correct her that his name is Adham and not Adam. "If undoing fate's work is what you need, I might be of help. I am not bound to the laws of Teyvat, I may just be what you need. Are you willing to hear me out?"
They sat down side by side and she listened to his story. A story of a Descender travelling between parallel versions of Teyvat at different points in time. Her sorrow and worries were temporarily forgotten when she was immersed in his storytelling, telling her how he had defended the Chasm from monsters, became the Sage of the Dendro Archon, became a Knight of Favonius, how he was saved from depression by a cheerful girl with an unhealthy love for pyrotechnics and also partook in a duel before the throne in the Nation of Eternity.
His stories were each more ludicrous than the last but as someone whose existence revolved around deceit for over 500 years she could say for certain that he had to be telling the truth.
Or maybe, he's just a delusional madman. Which is fine, she's not exactly sane herself. They are two of a kind, peas in a pod. She's wallowing in survivor's guilt and he's going insane for not knowing his purpose in life.
"You can… reverse time?"
"That is the hypothesis and also conclusion I arrived at after seven cycles, but I never had the opportunity nor the means to test things out. For me to invoke my power on a scale where something tangible and lasting could be felt I need a great source of power, power that I do not have as a mortal. Is there something that I can use here in Fontaine to supply me with that power?"
Her first reaction to his words was that he's clinically insane. Yet, there's already nothing which she could lose.
So, why not? Let's embark on a gamble to deceive– no, defy fate. This injustice, she will fight to defy it one last time. Not as the deceiver Furina de Fontaine, but simply as Furina.
"If it's power that you want, the oratrice should have what you need," she pointed at the large mechanism situated silently in the middle of the empty hall. "It was what my mirror-self used to accumulate power for centuries before she put her plan into action. It was supposed to work, the plan was flawless, I do not know what went wrong. All I knew was that her plan did not fully work out as she intended it to and all that power stored in there wasn't able to be unleashed to save the nation. Neuvillette, he… he then tried his best to save Fontaine all on his own using his power as a Sovereign but he couldn't possibly defy fate alone. I… I watched him perish, and all this time I wasn't able to do anything to save him, to save my people. I couldn't save anybody."
The sorrowful mood was inappropriately broken by his inappropriate remark.
"It looks like a weighing scale."
"It is an instrument to represent and enact justice and scales are traditionally symbols of justice. What else do you want it to look like?"
"Can't a guy just state his observation without being judged?"
"Argh whatever floats your boat, Adam."
"It's Adham."
"It's too hard to pronounce. Adam sounds better."
"Okay, fine, how about you call me Xun instead?"
"Why do you even have a Liyue name? That's even harder on my tongue. I don't care, I'm calling you Adam."
Only barely a month had passed since the prophecy came true so the amount of power that remained in the oratrice was more than sufficient to power Adam's (how many times did I tell you, the name's Adham! Adam's a nicer name, just call yourself Adam!) power to influence time. They did several experiments to test if Adam (For the last time Furina, my name is Adham! According to the judgement of the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale, your name shall be Adam!) could harness the oratrice's power to fuel his own and it worked. She got to observe and verify his claim that he could indeed exert influence over time, the only limit to his fate-defying ability was the amount of power at his disposal.
"Can they really come back?" She found herself whispering her question as they sat side by side at the front seat of the opera house watching the instrument of judgement. In the two weeks since they met they had done everything they could think of to test, verify, and extrapolate the feasibility of their plan ever since they set their minds on it. The success rate looked promising and they will enact their plan to defy fate tomorrow.
"I will make it work," he promised. "If the world's a stage and Fontaine as members of the cast, then I will be the director to decide which take will become part of the final product and which ones will not pass. This take?" He gestured to their empty surroundings filled only by the lonely waters around them. "It shall not pass. And after we achieve what we set out to accomplish the nation which you love so much will return. You said that you were a superstar? May I have the honours of watching your performance after all is said and done?"
"Of course!" She readily agreed. "I will let you have the best seat, right where you are sitting right now. Be prepared to be swept off your feet by the splendid performance of Furina de Fontaine!"
"So you often perform on this stage? Acting, singing, dancing, those kinds of things?"
"Yes, I did. Why are you asking like you had never seen a performance before?"
"Because I really never saw one before. The entertainment options of this world are really sorely lacking."
She giggled into her palm. She probably would never admit it out loud but she's grateful for Adam's presence in her life. His presence made her existence a little more bearable and more importantly, he gave her a glimmer of hope when all seemed lost.
"Come, let me teach you. You are not going to get yourself a better teacher in the performing arts than myself in the whole of Teyvat, let me tell you," she stood up from her seat and offered her hand to him, which he took. Furina's demeanour changed the moment she let herself become Furina the performer and she gracefully led him onto the stage. The two most unlikely people began to do a slow dance among the waters with no audiences, no music, nobody else but the two of them in this lonely underwater ruined nation which they swore to save in their last insane bid to make things right by defying fate.
"One two three, one two three… Hey you are getting it right! Good job, Adam!"
"It's honestly easier than I thought it would be," he admitted. He had also long since given up trying to correct Furina about the topic regarding his name.
That night was the happiest night in those two weeks of her life. They shared a dance, she taught him a little about the performing arts, she finally found the courage to perform again even if she only had him as her only audience. Time flew and finally, it was time for them to reverse the judgement passed onto them by Celestia.
It was time for them to defy fate.
"Ready?" He asked and she nodded. To be perfectly honest with herself there was nothing much she could do in this entire plan. She's nothing more than an observer, he was the one who's integral to saving Fontaine.
He placed his hands on the oratrice and the instrument of justice roared to life once more. Light shone defiantly which nearly blinded her eyes.
"It was nice meeting you, Furina. Be well, may you forever be happy, may you live a life free of deceits from now on."
She didn't have time to understand what he meant by those ominous sounding words. Light enveloped her and she lost sight of her surroundings.
The next thing she knew, the water receded.
Her people returned.
Fontaine is saved.
–Tales of a Hundred Cycles, Vol VIII
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.
.
"Have you watched Lady Furina's latest performance?"
"Oh yes! It was so good!"
The latest play titled "This Take Shall Not Pass" was the only thing Fontainians talked about in the last month. There were many factors attributing to its success, like how it was a play written, directed, and also acted by Lady Furina herself. Some of Lady Furina's previous works were also equally mesmerising: "The Forgotten Wanderer", "Defense of the Chasm", "First Sage of Buer", "Secretary of Yuheng" had also won much acclaim among Fontainians and also from audiences from outside the nation.
Lady Furina's performance was so engaging and enrapturing but that was to be expected since she's Lady Furina, their archon who brought everyone in Fontaine back from their deaths when the heavens passed on an unfair judgement upon them and their nation through a prophecy.
"Have you found him?"
Neuvillette shook his head. As the Iudex he was made aware of the truth of what truly happened that brought the whole of Fontaine back. Time had been reversed, allowing Adam to alter the flow of fate in a way that would result in the best outcome for the nation. The throne of the Hydro Archon had been destroyed and his powers had been returned to him in full. The prophecy had been fulfilled but the worst outcome averted. It was the happy forever after ending that Fontaine needed.
He could only provide Lady Furina his silent support while she looked outside the window of the Palais Mermonia with a sorrowful look on her face. Adam had disappeared and no matter how long they searched, no traces of him could be found. It's like he never existed.
The search had been going on for almost a decade.
"That liar," she whispered. "I should have known that it was too good to be true, that Fontaine could be saved without any sacrifices and not paying any price. Is this my punishment? To be deceived because I had been deceiving everyone for so long?"
"Lady Furina…"
"I'm sorry to trouble you, Neuvillette, but please continue to look for him. Fontaine owes him their gratitude and I owe him a performance. That particular seat at the front row in the Opera Epiclese, it shall always be reserved for his use."
"It shall be done," he solemnly promised and watched as his former archon took her leave.
The play that Celestia wrote, that take which they wanted, it didn't pass.
Because on that fateful day, Fontaine had Adam as their director of their play with them as the members of the cast.