This particular cycle was a little more unique than the previous ones that the Descender had experienced previously. Why, you might ask?
He awoke and found his body being regressed to those of a child whose age probably just broke the double digits. This was the first time he was reincarnated into a body that's not yet an adult.
According to the people who found and took him in, he was found unconscious along a stretch of beach near Fontaine. The House of the Hearth was where he ended up.
"Father was the one who found and brought you back," a young girl with strange traits resembling those of a cat told him shortly after he woke up. He subtly prodded around for more information and soon realised where he was at, which time period he had ended up in, and who the current director of the House of the Hearth is.
Arlecchino, the Fourth of the Eleven Fatui Harbingers, the Knave. While he had no foreknowledge of this person before he descended upon Teyvat, he's no stranger to this particular figure due to his work as the secretary of Yuheng back in his fifth cycle. She's a highly dangerous individual whose motives and thoughts could never be understood, but it was also noted that she seemed to harbour a soft spot towards children.
He soon learnt that Arlecchino had only just taken over the House of the Hearth very recently and the house was still in the stage of transitioning from the reign of the previous Knave to the current one. He soon decided that there's no harm staying here for now. For one, his current body was that of a child, not yet strong enough to be able to face the horrors outside despite his current wealth of knowledge and skills that he had accumulated from his previous cycles. Secondly, this cycle might be an opportunity to get a better understanding of how the Fatui work through the House of the Hearth, which might be beneficial for his future cycles.
"You are awake? How are you feeling?" The Knave questioned without any fluctuation of emotions in her voice after she came over and learnt that he had woken up. He simply shook his head to indicate that he was fine.
"Do you have a name? A place to return to?" She pressed on and he took a few seconds to ponder over her question. The cat-girl was a Fontainian just like many of the other kids that he had met thus far, and so he made the reasonable assumption that he's currently in Fontaine despite knowing that the House is a Snezhnaya organisation. He recalled that Furina kept complaining that his names were too hard for her Fontainian tongue to pronounce properly in the eighth cycle and it was why she kept calling him Adam.
This time, he decided to take Furina's feedback into account.
"Adam. I… don't have a place to go."
"I see," Arlecchino replied and then placed a hand on his head in an uncharacteristically gentle manner, if he could call it that. "Then from now onwards, your name will be Adam Snezhevich, you are a member of the House of the Hearth. We are all each other's family but remember, the House does not tolerate traitors."
She left after telling him those words, leaving him under the care of the cat-eared girl and her twin.
"That's how Father is. She's not too good at expressing herself, but she cares greatly for us," the young boy explained. "I don't think we have introduced ourselves yet. I am Lyney, this is my sister, Lynette."
"Adam," he replied in kind, and that was how he got to know the twins.
There was a lot that he already knew about the House from his previous cycles. In his opinion, the House serves more like a military school that provides training and education for children of various ages to prepare them for service in the military forces in the future. For the House's case, their future is the Fatui. He also knew that the House used to be a more depressing and inhumane place under the rule of the previous Knave but he did not know much about that particular history because Arlecchino had already taken control of the House by the time he became the secretary of Yuheng, so such outdated knowledge was not needed and thus, not investigated.
He hid his secrets well in the House, pretending to know nothing when he knew a lot more than everyone else. He slowly got to learn everyone's names, he learnt that he's one of the oldest kids around in terms of physical age despite joining the House later than most of them. Most of them actually looked up to him as an older brother figure due to his physical age and the air of maturity that he couldn't really quite hide because he wasn't a child in the truest sense. Funnily enough, their "Father" also seemed to place a great deal of trust in him.
He decided that he might as well dedicate himself to playing the role of an abandoned orphan. He had no idea what the significance of this cycle would mean to him nor did he know what fate had in store for him by placing him in a position with the Fatui. Most of his experiences from his past cycles had placed him in an antagonistic position against the Fatui and he was even killed by their hands in the fifth cycle. He's still a little sore about that, to be perfectly honest, and is a little reluctant to embrace the idea of working as a Fatui even if he acknowledged that strictly speaking, there's no other future for him than to become a Fatui agent in this cycle.
There wasn't an option left the moment he decided to take the hand that Arlecchino extended to him and accepted her offer.
He kept his presence muted and diligently learned what he was taught alongside the other orphans of the House. He didn't really participate in their games, he's really too mentally old for that, but after a certain period of time had passed he began to see the logic and ideals that shaped the way Arlecchino governed the House. Being placed on the side of the Fatui in this cycle allowed him to view things from a different angle and lens, and certain things that he previously could not understand about the Fatui were starting to make sense.
There were no good or bad guys, just different people who worked for different allegiances and ideals.
He felt another presence sitting down next to him where he was seated alone at the side of the playground quietly watching the other children play their games. It was Arlecchino.
"I noticed that you don't seem to like playing with the other children."
"I don't see the fun in their games," he replied honestly. "But it would also ruin the mood if I outright reject their invitations, so I would usually join them for the first few rounds before excusing myself, like what I'm doing now."
"There are times where I feel that you are not a child," Arlecchino mused and Adam idly wondered what she would think if she knew that she's actually not too far from the truth. "The only time where I noticed you paying attention to anything was when we were having our combat lessons. I take it that you love learning how to fight?"
"It's the only thing I can rely on to protect myself."
"You also don't seem to like addressing me as "Father" like everyone else does. Had I ever done anything to warrant such a treatment?"
"Are you mad that I avoided calling you Father?"
"No, just curious."
"I have nothing against you personally and I am grateful for being taken into the House, but it felt weird calling someone who has no blood relations to me whatsoever as Father."
"Your opinion is noted, you are free to do as you so wish in this matter," she replied. "If you truly love learning how to fight that much I can grant you that wish. Until I say otherwise, come look for me at eight in the evening every night. You look like you have a strong disposition for using swords and polearms, so let's see if you are the one who can inherit what I have learned."
The "preferential" treatment that Arlecchino gave him wasn't exactly a secret. The other children soon found out about it and there were some who expressed jealousy over the fact that he received special one-on-one training with their Father.
He learnt more about the mysterious Knave during these lessons. It is difficult to describe what kind of person she really is, because her existence felt like an embodiment of contradictions. She's strict but also forgiving, cruel but also gentle, devious but also loyal, manipulative but also honest.
She's also a splendid teacher, although her methods tend to fall under the spectrum of "tough love" category.
The training room which he trained under her guidance every night was filled with the metallic sound of polearm clashing against each other at this hour. Arlecchino truly taught him everything she knew about polearm techniques and it was knowledge that he devoured without restraint. In the House of the Hearth he would try to make himself forget what he already knew about the various weapons that he once wielded. One reason was because it would be difficult to explain how he had already attained such skills and knowledge if he was caught in the act, the other reason was because the House was the only place where he could safely reside in for now and he's not interested in being hunted down by their full might for being a suspected spy or undercover agent if he accidentally revealed something which he shouldn't know or possess.
"Too slow," she would tell him when he failed to land his strike with a sweeping blow. "Too low, higher," she would correct his posture with her own weapon by whacking his own spear with hers when he was in the midst of doing a thrust, physically righting his spear back at the correct angle. "Overcommitted," she would tell him while sending him flying across the room in a beautiful arc with a roundhouse kick.
It truly is difficult to fight in this body, especially when he kept consciously or subconsciously try to compensate for the lack of height or reach that he was so accustomed to in the body of an adult. He either kept overextending or misjudging the distance between him and his tutor.
"You have talent in the combat arts," she told him after she ended the lesson one fine night and offered him a drink which he accepted. "It's very likely that you will be assigned as an active combatant of the Fatui once you are of age."
"Can I ask why we are working for the Tsaritsa? I can sense that not everyone is enthusiastic at the idea of having to work for the Fatui when we grow up, and there are times where I feel that the sacrifices that we made weren't important to them," he asked instead. He had gotten a decent grasp of Arlecchino's character in the period of time he had gotten to know her; he was confident that she would indulge his question.
"Your question is a valid question, one that I believe that your peers should start thinking about and be taking the initiative to ask me like you did," Arlecchino acknowledged his inquiry and invited him to sit down on the same table as she was at the seat across hers. "Traditionally, the House was an organisation set up in Snezhnaya and one of the Fatui members was also its co-founder. You might have heard of his title from the other children, he's also the co-founder of the Fatui: The Jester, Pierro. We have our roots in Snezhnaya and realistically speaking, it would be suicidal to try and extract ourselves from the Fatui's influence and be an independent organisation on our own. At least for now."
"For now," he had immediately captured the key words in Arlecchino's reply, "but in the future?"
He saw how a faint smile adorned the face of "Father" in his response.
"I will betray the Tsaritsa in a heartbeat if the day comes where our ideals do not align or worse, come to a state where they cannot be reconciled."
He had gotten what he needed to know and he ceased with his questions thereafter. Not all members of the Fatui are loyal to the Tsaritsa's goals and they are far from a tightly knitted bunch. He already had his speculations from the experiences in his previous cycles but it was nice to have heard it coming directly from the Knave's mouth.
Speaking of which, how is this version of Junjou doing right now? Is he still Scaramouche, or had he already tried changing the past and erasing his presence from Irminsul and becoming the Wanderer?
He had always kept his true skills and knowledge hidden and only displayed the things that he was taught in the House. However, the improvement in his combat skills were obvious to all as days passed. Only he was able to last longer than the other children in their combat lessons with their strict Father as their instructor. Only he was able to complete the more dangerous tasks that Father assigned them where others had failed.
Only he was able to push Father to the extent where she had to tap into the power of her flames to subdue him and end the battle in her victory. He was becoming stronger and stronger at an exponential rate and every child in the House could see it.
He found himself being relied upon more and more frequently by the other children of the House despite the fact that he never once forged any close bonds to any of them in particular. Being relied upon by others wasn't his original intent, he simply wanted to learn other forms of combat arts that he never had the chance to learn before so that he would have more options to leverage upon in his future cycles, which was why he threw himself into his lessons and dedicated his entire time to it.
Yet, he didn't really have the heart to turn down the requests by the other children when they looked at him with such sincere eyes. He doesn't want to be relied upon, he's tired of forging bonds and losing them all at the end of every cycle, and he really wishes that there is a way for him to not forge any bonds with anybody in this House where he doesn't belong.
His secret wish aside, if there's one thing that he's forever intrigued about, it would be the source of Arlecchino's power. Her flames definitely were anything but ordinary, she wields both vision and delusion but he also knew that she could command the pyro element even without the aid of a vision. He pondered over the decision if he should just come clean to her and admit that he could also manipulate the elements like she did without the need of an external foci, and ultimately decided to do so because in a way, both of them were alike, and she might have answers that he might not have regarding his special constitution.
"It must not have been easy to have hid this from me for so long, and also made the decision to come clean to me about it."
There was a mild sense of reprimand in her words because of what had happened. In his demonstration to Arlecchino to prove his claim, he had copied and used her own technique against her, a power that he now learnt is known as the Balemoon Bloodfire. What turned out from that was irreversible damage to his hands, turning it into a darkened state much like burnt charcoal.
At least now he knows why Arlecchino's hands looked like that. It was a question that he always wanted to ask but knew not to ask.
"I didn't want to be seen differently from the rest," was his response to Arlecchino's remark. He watched as Arlecchino fell into deep thought with her hand on her chin and it's the first time he saw "Father" taking such a long time to come to a decision.
"While visually, it would look as if our powers are similar, I don't think we share the same source of power," Arlecchino eventually replied after much careful thinking. "My power originates from an ancient dynasty known as the Crimson Moon Dynasty and the power of these strange flames runs in my blood because I am its descendant. My power, the Balemoon Bloodfire, you can think of it as a bloodline, a power that can only be inherited through blood."
She then placed a somewhat comforting hand on his shoulder – if it could be referred to as such for a controversial person like her – and continued.
"I do not know why you are able to use the Balemoon Bloodfire like I do despite not being a descendent of the dynasty. Just remember, do not use this power unless the situation is dire enough to call for it. Our hands are proof that this power comes at a cost and it will take time for me to teach you how to tame this uncontrollable power; it's not going to be easy. Your power may be a result of a bloodline of another ancient dynasty like mine, or it could also be something else entirely. I will try to assist in seeking an answer for you, but your ability to manipulate all elements and eventually copy the elemental techniques of other vision holders, keep it hidden for now. We do not know what kind of attention it will attract and you do not yet have the power needed to protect yourselves against people who covet your unique power. Now, go get your hands some medical attention."
He found himself agreeing with the Knave's last sentence and he did as per her advice. He started wearing gloves starting that day, much to the curiosity of the other children but they knew not to probe. He knew the state of his hands were not a secret that he could keep forever but the fewer who knew, the fewer he needed to explain how his hands came to be in its current state.
Years passed. He became a combat agent of the Fatui as Arlecchino said he would be. He learnt many espionage techniques as a Fatui agent, which were knowledge that he didn't really have the opportunity or chance to master in his previous cycles and he soaked them up like a sponge. He wouldn't say that the years he spent as a Fatui agent in this cycle were full of excitement, but they weren't entirely uneventful either.
"I think… Father wants you to be his successor."
This unexpected heart-to-heart talk came out of the blue one fine day at the Hotel Bouffes d'ete, one of the many faces of the House which they use for their operations. Lyney had invited him for a meal when they ran into each other here at Fontaine and the conversation had somehow taken a turn in this direction.
"I had my suspicions too," Adam admitted, "but I'm not interested in the position. At best, I'm just a warrior who's good at nothing but fighting. I have no interest in becoming a "Father" like our Father is nor am I suited for this position."
"That's not true! Everybody in the House reveres you!" Lyney voiced his disagreement instantly. "You are… just so perfect! If not you, then who –"
"You," Adam interrupted the aspiring magician from going on his tirade. "It was always going to be you. Yes, some revere me, but it was my combat prowess that they respected, not who I am as a person. You are actually the person that everyone in the House could talk and look up to, unlike me who didn't bother to forge any bonds with anybody. I will let you in on a secret, Lyney. If you are able to understand the constellations written in the skies you will be able to take a glimpse of your fate, and then you will see that there's no stars in the skies that represent me. I've been fated from the start to die an early death, so there's no point in making me the next "Father". You, on the other hand, would make a great successor of the House. The stars had already dictated as such. Now, if you would excuse me, I have a mission to complete."
He stood up and left. The expression on Lyney's face displayed his anger, disbelief, and confusion over everything he just told him but Adam felt that it was only right to be frank to Lyney about his thoughts. He had purposely adopted a cold and aloof attitude to anyone and everyone in the House from the very moment he was inducted into it, purposely not forging any close ties to anyone like how he had tried to do in most of his previous cycles.
Children are the purest beings in the world and he didn't feel like hurting or deceiving them. He had seen many times how some of the children had grieved and cried when they received news that their best friend had perished in the line of duty when they were executing their missions elsewhere under the banner of the Fatui. He had no idea when he's going to die another untimely death and this was what he did in order to avoid the outcome where there will be unfortunate children grieving for him when he inevitably dies from some weirdly tragic cause.
He would admit that the House had grown on him in the years that he became a child of the House and grew up within it. In a manner of speaking, it could be seen as an utopia for the orphaned children who seeked shelter under its warmth and it was fortunate that they had Arlecchino at the helm, but it was also unfortunate that such an organisation had to be under the bigger umbrella that is the Fatui. If it wasn't for their roots with the Fatui, he genuinely believed that the House could be a great place for children with no place to go. The House can become a place where they could grow up happily and safely under the protection of the flames.
He paused in his steps when an epiphany hit him. Perhaps this is his purpose in this cycle? It would make his meaningless life a little more meaningful if he could do something like this for the House before he goes.
He resumed his steps and efficiently completed his mission within the next couple of days. He wasn't expecting to receive any welcome when he returned to the House because he never made any close friends there and had never received a welcome in all these years. It was something he had done on purpose and people simply took him to be an antisocial person, a misconception that he's all too willing to play along with.
So why on earth was there a huge reception waiting for him?
"Happy birthday big brother Adam!" Heloir cheered loudly and like dynamite that had been ignited, shouts and cheers began to rouse from the younger children as they crowded around him excitedly. Some of the older children noted that this was probably the first time they saw Adam acting flustered and looking as if he had no idea what to do, even if he composed himself almost immediately thereafter.
Adam, on the other hand, was utterly confused. He had a birthday? He never celebrated one nor had anybody celebrated it for him until today.
"Lyney said that you suffer from a weird case of martyr syndrome. We figured that showing you some love might relieve that," Lynette told him blandly at a volume that nobody else could overhear. "We do not know how you came to believe that you did not forge any bonds here, but I think this shows for itself just how many bonds you had forged in the House. You might not have remembered the date when you were inducted into the House, but Lyney and I had never forgotten. Today marks another anniversary of this special day and we thought it's fitting to call this day your birthday. We are a family, big brother Adam, that will never change. Happy birthday."
"Happy birthday, big brother Adam," Freminet shyly stepped forward and presented his gift, a mechanical clockwork penguin that he made himself.
"We made a big cake for you!" Foltz excitedly pulled Adam over to the table where said cake was at. It definitely was made by the children, the squiggly well wishes written onto the cake with coloured cream was a dead giveaway.
"You guys made it?"
"Yeah!"
"Including Heloir?"
"Of course!"
"There are no poisons or other weird stuff added into the cake, I hope?"
All heads immediately swivelled towards the little girl with an unhealthy obsession for concocting poison-based potions.
"Uh…"
"Heloir?"
"I… I cannot remember if I did…"
"Heloir!"
Lyney had caught a rat and fed it a small portion of the cake to test if it was indeed poisoned, intentionally or not. They observed the rat for the next hour and it lived, but everyone still came to an implicit understanding to eat anything else on the table but the cake.
(The rat died from unexplainable causes the next morning, proving to them that what they did the night before was indeed the right choice to make.)
(Heloir was also banned from entering the kitchen.)
Years passed once again.
He had experienced the aftermath of Fontaine's prophecy in his eighth cycle so he was a little concerned when the House suddenly found itself involved in resolving the prophecy. He had a better understanding than most about the prophecy due to his experience in the eighth cycle, he was also fully prepared to repeat what he had done to avert the prophecy but this time, Fontaine pulled through.
Furina stepped down from her position as Fontaine's archon and disappeared from public view. He would search for and comfort Furina if he could, but this wasn't the same Furina that he knew from the eighth cycle and his current identity as a member of the Fatui would make things very awkward, so he ceased having those thoughts. Experiencing the full ordeal of the prophecy and how it was ultimately solved also gave him a greater understanding of the underlying problems that Fontaine has and it will also be useful for his future cycles.
Of course, he would be eternally grateful if this cycle would be his final cycle, but he doubts his wish would be granted anytime soon. That paradise may be unreachable for him, sadly enough.
Then, another huge wave of change hit the House.
Project Stuzha was a collaborative effort between Rooster and Regrator. The House's successful acquisition of the Hydro Gnosis gave the two Harbingers an excuse to give the House an opportunity to play a "key" role that they have no grounds to refuse, because "everything is for Her Majesty". However, this project was actually dangerous to the House and it's likely that there will be many people who will die in the execution of this project, mostly from the House of the Hearth. Many interpreted this as an attempt from the two Harbingers to rein in the House because their influence had grown to be too huge and it had threatened the interests of those cowardly businessmen.
Adam did not tell anyone, but it was then that he had a premonition that everything that he experienced in this cycle would culminate for this very event. That heavy sense of foreboding drove him forward and he accepted his predetermined fate. It felt like a weight was finally being lifted off his shoulders the moment he made his peace. He knew he would die an untimely death, but knowing for what and how he would die would make it easier for him to accept it.
He's quite done with surprises. This time, he can only hope that his death in this cycle would be a relatively painless one.
And hopefully, the younger children wouldn't cry too much over his death as well.
The children of the Hearth followed after their Father and completed the near impossible tasks that they were assigned for Project Stuzha. As expected, they were soon being put in a precarious position by nobody other than Rooster and Regrator themselves the moment they outlived their usefulness.
"Those scheming cowards…!"
Adam could hear Lyney gnashing his teeth angrily while firing off his arrows with burning vengeance. The children of the Hearth grouped up and fought ferociously together against their enemies. Monsters, automatons… Anything that you could possibly think of, they were presently being surrounded by it and left to fend for themselves.
Explosions of crimson flames carved a path out for them. They have their "Father" with them and she is the greatest guarantor of safety for these children. There's no doubt that she's a capable and devastating fighter but the odds still didn't look too good for the House. There simply are too many enemies and many of those had their capabilities greatly enhanced by the Fatui's crazy experiments.
Against such odds, even the strongest of titans would fall.
"FATHER!"
The children were ordered by Arlecchino to go ahead and head for the exit that would bring them to safety while she stayed behind to delay their pursuers. However, the number of enemies they faced were still too much for her to handle alone. An automaton had gotten a clean hit onto her and powerful she may be, it was obvious that the Father of the House was running on fumes at this point.
And her children who revere her so, did not hesitate to immediately turn back to save her when they noticed the plight that she was in.
"I told you to run…!"
"We are not leaving without you, Father!" Freminet voiced his determination out loud and there was a common understanding within the House that if there was something grave enough for Freminet to raise his voice, then it definitely had to be important.
"You told us that we are family, and family leaves nobody behind," Lynette said just as resolutely, using her own body to support Arlecchino's weight and using her free hand to deflect any incoming attacks with her sword. Father had been supporting them all these years, this time, it's their turn to support their Father.
Lyney shot powerful bursts of pyro-infused arrows, blowing up their enemies in an earthshaking display of firepower and it was the signal that they all understood. As one, they immediately broke into a sprint to head for the exit while escorting their injured Father out. Things would be much safer once they got out of here.
However, Adam was the only one who looked back to check during their mad sprint for escape. As the child of the Hearth who was recognised to have the strongest combat potential and also one of the oldest ones among his generation, he always took it upon his duty to be the very last man at the back of the group during missions to ensure that nobody had been left behind. As such, he saw and recognised the signs of demise that nobody noticed in the heat of the moment.
He saw how numerous Ruin Hunters had already locked on to them and were on the verge of firing their missiles. He saw how Riftwolves were about to teleport through portals to stop them, he saw how hilichurl archers had already their arrows loaded and pulled on their bow strings in a coordinated attack instructed by abyss mages.
They are not going to make it, plain and simple.
He knew what fate had in store for him at that moment. He turned his head back towards the front, committing the sight of the backs of the fellow embers of the Hearth to memory before skidding to an abrupt stop, turned sharply on his heel, and shot himself back to the fray like a speeding comet, successfully preventing the Riftwolves from slipping into their portals to get to the children of the House. The domain which they were in was already on the verge of a total collapse, it was a race against time and the House cannot afford to be tangled up with a fight against these monsters even for a second longer.
As a senior member of the House, he had decided to stay behind to ensure their safe escape.
His lance lit and burnt with unrelenting flames of a forgotten dynasty and his gloves burnt off to reveal his charred hands. The fellow embers of the Hearth finally noticed that they were a member short and when they turned their heads, they saw what their big brother Adam was going to do and immediately understood his intentions.
"GO!"
He shouted for them to leave him and go. The power of geo was unleashed from him to sever the route between him and the House to prevent people from coming back to try and save him and also to prevent the monsters from laying a hand on the children. His manipulation of the geo element was crude and rudimentary but it was enough to serve its purpose. No monsters could reach the House and nobody from the House could reach him. If someone has to die today to guarantee everyone's survival he'd rather be the one to do it.
This is not going to be his first dance with death anyway.
The last thing the children of the House saw before the domain collapsed was their big brother Adam igniting himself in flames similar to how their Father did whenever she entered combat. No matter how they screamed at him to come back, how they desperately tried to claw their way through the falling debris to go back and assist him, it was all in futility. Only the Father saw Adam's last words as she read the movements of his lips before he charged ahead with the power of Balemoon Bloodfire raging by his side and her fists clenched, her nails digging deep into the flesh of her palm until it drew blood.
She's their Father, it's a parent's duty to protect their children. Yet, that day, it was her child who sacrificed his life to protect her and their family. Adam's sacrifice was her failure as their parent.
That day, the Father swore an oath upon the crimson moon that dwells in her dreams–
Her vengeance would be excruciatingly painful, merciless. Nobody harms her children and gets away with it.
Hell hath no fury like a Father who lost their child.
–Tales of a Hundred Cycles, Vol XII
.
.
.
Rooster, Regrator…
I will make you pay for this debt in blood.
Terrified screams resonated across the luxurious mansion which the two cowardly businessmen had holed themselves in to hide from her rage. The House had officially broken ties with Snezhnaya and the Fatui ever since the end of Project Stuzha and now she's cleaning up the last bits of the mess so that their past could no longer haunt her children's future.
The charred corpses of the guards that stood in her way collapsed by her feet as she strode into the mansion with simmering calmness. The blood red scythe that she wielded gleamed with greed and desired to be drunk on the blood of their enemies. Her anger would not be appeased until she had ended the lives of both Rooster and Regrator with her very own hands.
"You also don't seem to like addressing me as "Father" like everyone else does. Had I ever done anything to warrant such a treatment?"
"Are you mad that I avoided calling you Father?"
"No, just curious."
The memory of the conversation that she had with her child a long time ago was still fresh in her mind. The memory of his last words that she read from his lips would also forever be imprinted into her mind for eternity when he sacrificed himself for the sake of everyone from the House.
"Thank you for everything, Father."
It was the first time he ever called her Father, but also the last time she would hear him call her so.
"– it would be suicidal to try and extract ourselves from the Fatui's influence and be an independent organisation on our own. At least for now."
"For now, but in the future?"
"I will betray the Tsaritsa in a heartbeat if the day comes where our ideals do not align or worse, come to a state where they cannot be reconciled."
"Such is a day, Adam. Such is the day," she whispered into the moonlit night as her feet finally brought her to where the two scoundrels who killed her child had holed themselves in after killing all the guards present in cold blood. A vengeful smile snaked its way up her face as she pushed the doors open to allow that sliver of moonlight to shine into the dark room where the two cowardly murderers were trying their best to delay the inevitable.
"Rest in peace, my child."
"The warmth of the Hearth flame will light your way forward."