"That's the finest ore I've ever seen."
"So can you forge it?"
Estelle of the Beaumont Workshop carefully studied the weapon diagrams that she was given. These were some of the finest diagrams she had ever laid her eyes upon and the ore that Lady Furina's Champion Duelist provided her was something that even she had never seen before.
"This is my first time working with such an ore. What even is this, if I may ask?"
"You just have to know that it's one of the rarest and most sought after weapon crafting materials in Teyvat, found only in the deepest depths of the sea," Lucian answered. His return journey with Clorinde reminded him about his promise with Ei about giving each other a blade from their own nation. He had sourced the needed materials to craft a weapon suitable for the kagemusha and hid it somewhere before he headed for the Tunigi Hollow, but he wasn't sure if it was still around after five hundred years. He decided to make a slight detour to retrieve the ore to go through on a promise that was five hundred years too late and thankfully, it was still there.
The ore was large enough to be able to craft two swords. He had already prepared the Iron Sting as Clorinde's graduation gift but he decided to use the leftovers of this ore to create another sword for her, one that would befitting of her when she inevitably becomes a Champion Duelist. He had seen and also wielded many other famous blades during his long life. He knew the ins and outs of each and every single one of them and so he recreated from memory the weapon diagram of a legendary rapier that he felt would be most suitable for Clorinde, the future top Champion Duelist of Fontaine and most possible successor to his previous epithet as the Grand Duelist.
This would be his last gift to her, the legendary rapier Absolution. The original Absolution had been lost and its honour was marred by the sins of its original wielder, but the Absolution he intended to have reforged and reborn would be the perfect gift for Clorinde.
As its name, Absolution, suggests, it's time for the sins of the legendary sword to be forgiven.
He left the Beaumont Workshop and headed for the largest market in the Court of Fontaine. The twins will be wonderful magicians one day, that he did not doubt, so the least he could do before he embarked on his last duty as the Grand Duelist will be to give them something that they could use when they eventually realised their dreams and become professional magicians.
"Thank you for your patronage!"
Lucian left a certain clothing store not too long thereafter, carrying with him a large paper bag that contained his gift for the twins. He should get Neuvillette, Focalors and Furina gifts as well. He's sure Neuvillette would enjoy tasting water from other places; he had already commissioned adventurers to do that for him.
Focalors and Furina are enjoyers of the performing arts. There's little he could give or assist them in this regard so he decided to give them his brooch, the Flower of Life. Both of them were born from the same source of power that also created the Flower of Life, they would be able to benefit from the lingering power on the brooch for what's to come.
Fontaine truly is beautiful, he found himself thinking as he stopped and looked down upon the nation from where he was on an elevated ledge. He knew what fate had in store for him after his meeting with Pierro and he will face it with calm acceptance. The cause of Fontainians' sins were no longer important as long as there was a way to remove it permanently.
To do that, they would need the power to sever the connection between fate, heaven, and the stars.
He headed for the Opera Epiclese, bought some freshly baked macarons along the way, slipped past the guards and staff working there undetected, and found his way to the passage beneath the theatre below where the Oratrice sits. He could feel the tremendous amount of power humming within the device at this distance and his suspicions were affirmed the moment he stood before the Oratrice.
Focalors had a plan and that plan involved the Sword of Mercy.
"Still not coming out to greet me? I brought your favourite macarons."
He held out the packet of macarons that he brought into the opera theatre. There were a few seconds of silence before he finally heard her voice.
"It's always you who spoil my plans."
"Somebody has to get you out of trouble. It's been awhile, Focalors."
"It has been awhile," a small portal appeared before him with a swirl. "Come on in, I believe you will have questions."
Lucine stepped through the portal and his surroundings changed in an instant. Focalors had somehow created a separate domain within the Oratrice to hide herself and from the looks of it, she had been staying here for almost five hundred years. He couldn't imagine how the girl who used to be incapable of sitting still for less than five minutes would end up voluntarily imprisoning herself within the Oratrice for centuries, and his heart tightened at the thought of it.
"So this is how you look like now?"
"You look the same as I remember you to be," Lucine answered Focalors and he finally got to see her again after so long. "So this is your plan? Hiding here biding your time until the prophecy starts to unfold?"
"You really know how to kill the mood. It's been five hundred years since we last saw each other and the first thing you asked me about is the prophecy? Really?" Focalors lamented dramatically and snatched the packet of macarons from his hand. She wasted no time popping one into her mouth and let out a satisfied sound for finally being able to satisfy her craving for her favourite snack after so long.
Lucine allowed Focalors her own moment to indulge in her guilty pleasure. Meanwhile, he continued to observe this domain and it was particularly easy to spot the missing Sword of Mercy. It's floating in midair right in front of him. It had absorbed so much power that it had grown to a height that eclipsed even the tallest building in Fontaine.
"I knew it. The Sword of Mercy had to be with you."
"It makes sense for the archon to personally ensure such a powerful weapon is in safe hands, wouldn't it?"
"So says the person who left my sword carelessly hanging out there in the public at the theatre."
"Nobody other than you could wield that temperamental sword anyway," Focalors casually dismissed his accusation and popped another macaron into her mouth. "So what brings you here today? What do you want to ask?"
"I plan to accelerate the fulfilment of the prophecy."
Another deafening silence fell upon them, the only sound they could hear was Focalors munching on her macaron.
"Neuvillette and Furina found the source of the Primordial Sea beneath the Fortress of Meropide. The prophecy will happen, you and I both know there's no avoiding the prophecy and it's just a matter of when. If that is the case it would be better if we could somehow choose the best time to artificially kickstart the prophecy that would reduce losses to a minimum. We couldn't do that previously because we had no idea where the Primordial Sea might be, but it's different now."
"... You are deviating from the script that Celestia wrote for us."
"That's what we had been trying to do all along. That's why you took the Sword of Mercy with you, isn't it?" Lucine questioned in return. "Let me tell you what I think your plan is. You plan to let the prophecy unfold as it is. All people from Fontaine are born with sin that cannot be absolved; one day, the waters of Fontaine will rise and the sinful people will all be dissolved into the waters, and only the Hydro Archon will remain, weeping on her throne– only then will the sins of the people be washed away. You plan to wait for the day the water rises. Seeing as now we have confirmation that the Primordial Sea lies under the surface of our seas and lakes, I think we can all agree that the only way that the water level will rise is if the underground water of the Primordial Sea leaks out in huge amounts and submerge Fontaine, dissolving our people in the process. Are we on the same page so far?"
"Correct," Focalors nodded her head once and finally looked up to face him. Before the Cataclysm he had always hoped that the devious brat would finally mature and wisen up for once but looking at the archon in front of him now, he wished that she would not have needed to experience so much hardship to become the archon that she is today.
"And when that happens, you plan to stop the prophecy. The problem lies in the fact that this prophecy was a punishment passed onto Fontaine by Celestia. However, there are two people in the whole of Fontaine who possessed the power to possibly be capable of overruling Celestia's judgement: me and Neuvillette, for I am a descender and Neuvillette is the current incarnation of the Hydro Dragon. That's how you plan to stop the prophecy; you plan for Neuvillette or I to do it in your stead. That's also where your next problem presented itself: I was missing and then believed to be dead for over five hundred years when I showed no signs of resurrecting. Neuvillette's powers are incomplete, he would not be able to override and overrule Celestia's punishment. Correct?"
Focalors clapped her hands with a smile on her face.
"Amazing! I honestly didn't expect for you to be able to deduce so much so soon after your return, especially since you were more of the brawns than brains type of person. Yes, your guess is right. The reason why I ultimately decided to let Furina retain her memories before she split from me was because I was still clinging onto the faint hope that you might return and if that happens, my plan would be foiled if she had no knowledge of you. You would immediately know that something is wrong. If you returned I would need her to deceive you for a little longer until I could go through with my plan but I guess that failed too. All of your guesses were right so far, do you want to go on?"
"You believed me to be dead until very recently, so the focus of your plan revolved around Neuvillette for over four hundred years. For him to regain his power as the true Hydro Sovereign you would need him to recover the stolen powers of the Sovereigns, but that power is the elemental authority that Celestia bestowed upon the Hydro Archon through the divine thrones. It's impossible to hand over your elemental authority to him when you are bound to Celestia through the Gnosis and also the divine throne of the Hydro Archon. That's why you needed the Sword of Mercy, the sword that could hold sufficient power to sever the connections between fate, heaven, and stars."
"And when that day comes, there will be no more pretences, no more lies. Justice will be served and the sins of our nation be purified," Focalors admitted truthfully. "Yes, I've been intending to sacrifice myself all along, you've already guessed my intentions a long time ago. I will use the accumulated power gathered by the Oratrice that's imbued into the Sword of Mercy to execute me and also to destroy the divine throne of the Hydro Archon, and only then would Neuvillette's elemental authority as the Hydro Sovereign be rightfully returned to him. Are you planning to stop me, Lucine?"
"No," Lucine's reply surprised Focalors, "because once I understood how you had planned to deal with the prophecy problem I had no choice but to admit that it's the best and possibly the only plan anyone could think of. You did really well, Focalors."
"... That's rare, hearing a praise out of you," Focalors gave a soft laugh after getting over her initial surprise.
"You plan to keep Neuvillette in the dark until the day arrives."
"He wouldn't agree with my plan if he knew about it."
"Fair enough. I would do the same too if I were in your shoes."
"You are not going to tell me off for my recklessness?"
"Is that going to help save Fontaine?"
"Nope, but it would be nostalgic to hear you telling me off again."
"I've never heard of such a weird request in my entire life. Then again, you had always been a queer brat, so I'm not surprised," Lucine replied and handed over his brooch to her. "Here, a gift from me."
"Ah, the Flower of Life. We tried searching for it for so long but we never found it. I was of the belief that Lady Egeria was in possession of it before her death, not you."
"No, it was with the Fatui. It was Lady Egeria who gave them the Flower of Life, they returned it back to me after they knew of my return."
Focalors happily pinned the brooch on her chest, liking how well it complemented her appearance. She, Lucine, and the Flower of Life all were born from the same source of power, so them looking similar to each other was a given. Like Lucine, she also took an instinctive liking to the Flower of Life which she attributed to the fact that they were all from the source.
"You said that you plan to accelerate the prophecy. How soon will that be?"
"I will inform Neuvillette and Furina of my plans after this meeting. Furina told me that she has always ensured that Fontaine will always have enough ships to ferry the entire nation at any one time in the event that the prophecy finally happens, so let's make good use of her hard work. The preparations will take a while but once it's completed, we can work on evacuating our people from Fontaine and after that, we can get started on destroying the divine throne. By the way, have you tried wielding the Sword of Mercy?"
"Do I look like I could wield that?" Focalors gestured to the humongous sword hanging precariously above them. So she hadn't or wasn't able to properly wield it before? Good, that means that the chances of his own plan succeeding had just been raised a few notches higher.
The prophecy was a problem that he and Egeria should have dealt with. Egeria is no longer around so this time, he will remove this problem that had been plaguing Fontaine for so long, once and for all.
Once that is done, he could then handover a pure and beautiful Fontaine to his new archon, Focalors.
All the sins, all the injustice, he will be the one to bear it in the nation's stead.
"Chenyu Vale is really beautiful! The tea is very fragrant too!"
"I agree. I think Navia would love to visit Chenyu Vale for their tea someday."
"Their tea is good, but I still think Liyue's cuisine is too heavy on my tastebuds," Lynette softly mumbled under her breath. She had accidentally taken a bite out of a local cuisine which unfortunately included Jueyun Chili and was still feeling the effects of it hours later. Her tongue is incredibly sensitive due to how she was born with a rare case of atavism that gave her feline features and traits.
"Even drinking three full bottles of cool water is not helping, huh," Lyney showed some sympathy to his twin but there's really nothing that he could do for her at this point. He then turned his attention back to Lucian, who had suddenly decided to bring all three of them to a vacation at Liyue. They had taken a boat to Chenyu Vale and are now moving southwards to Liyue mainland after they had a fun stay at the valley of tea.
"Lucian, you said that you had visited Chenyu Vale before. So what about Liyue Harbour? Have you been there before?"
"Many times," Lucian replied from where he was seated on the horse-drawn carriage that he had paid for a local to ferry them towards the direction of Liyue Harbour. Liyue looked a little different from how he remembered it to be, although the iconic sights of certain important landmarks were still present and recognisable.
"How's that place like?"
"Bustling, always very busy. It could be a little overwhelming if it's your first time there."
Clorinde silently watched as Lyney started asking Lucian questions about Liyue in his excitement. As someone who was let in on Lucian's true identity she obviously knew that Lucian was heavily glossing over everything that he said. He told her that he believed that the twins were not yet ready to be let known on his secret due to the danger that could befall them simply by knowing his name. However, looking at things now she's of the opinion that he had been slowly releasing crumbs of clues for them to eventually deduce his true identity in the near future.
This trip to Liyue also came as a surprise to her. She knew that Lucian had discussed a lot of things with both Lady Furina and the Chief Justice behind closed doors after she and Lucian had made their return from their expedition. She knew that whatever was discussed had to be important so she didn't pry, but Lucian brought them all out for a trip to Liyue immediately thereafter. The twins were ecstatic about the trip and she also found no reasons to not accept Lucian's invitation, when he even went to great lengths to offer to speak to her parents to assure them that he would take full responsibility of her well-being on this trip.
It was then she had no choice but to come clean to him that she had been lying to him all along. She had no parents, she was adopted by a Marechaussee Hunter named Petronilla which had gone missing about a year ago. Clorinde learnt the basics of swordplay and marksmanship from her before her disappearance and then she met him not long after.
She had imagined many possibilities after Lucian heard her admission for lying to him. Yet, his response was:
"I already knew that you were related to the Marechaussee Hunters the very moment I saw you hold a sword. It was obvious that you had learnt the basics of swordplay before meeting me, and the bladework which you were trained in by your former master was too distinguishable for me to not notice. You said that you wanted to combine marksmanship and bladework into a single fighting style. I think that's a direction worth working towards, there are many advantages that a firearm could bring that a traditional weapon could not."
"Are you not angry about the fact that I lied to you?"
"Should I be angry? If it would make you feel better, you could tell me why you lied in the first place."
"My master told me that it would be safer for me if I introduced myself to strangers as a child with parents rather than admitting that I am an orphan."
"So you didn't lie out of any ill will, but rather because that was how you were taught to protect yourself as a child. I don't see any fault in that."
His words did ease a little of the guilt for the lie she made.
"Just out of curiosity, had you interacted with the original Marechaussee Hunters in the past?"
"I taught them their unique brand of bladework to slay monsters. How else did you think I recognised that you were affiliated with them from the very moment I first saw you hold a sword?"
That interlude aside, Clorinde just simply cannot shake off the feeling that Lucian's true agenda for visiting Liyue was more than just taking them on a simple vacation.
Personally, she's more interested in the person whom Lucian intended to meet. Lucian had told them that he would bring them to Wangshu Inn and meet a friend along the way. Wangshu Inn is a famous inn located within Dihua Marsh that almost all travellers passing by Liyue to other nations would pass by and take a rest. Now that she has knowledge of who Lucian really is, she believes that whoever that Lucian is planning to meet, they couldn't be simple.
It might be ludicrous to even think about such a possibility, but should she be expecting to meet the Geo Archon in the flesh soon?
"Welcome to Wangshu Inn! Would you like room and board or would you like to just have a meal here?"
"Room and board for four, we will be staying here for one night, thank you. Also, we would like to have dinner here later, but we have someone who is unable to eat spicy food. Do you have any recommendations?"
"Will any of you be allergic to seafood?" The staff asked and Lucian shook his head. "Then I will recommend your friend to try out our shrimp dish, Palace Jewels. Will that be alright?"
The children watched as Lucian quickly settled the room and board and also their dinner for later with the staff at Wangshu Inn. They explored their surrounding vicinity eagerly once they had put down their belongings into their room. Clorinde had brought along a kamera and they had a blast taking pictures of anything they found interesting, which was pretty much everything since they could not be seen or found back at Fontaine.
But in Lyney's opinion, the true highlight of today's trip had to be the dinner. Lucian had really ordered a feast for them.
"Whoa, what is this dish?"
"This is arguably the most famous and renowned dish in Liyue, but the process of cooking it is also very complex. The locals here call it Adeptus' Temptation, where special ingredients are selected and slowly boiled into soup stock. It was said that the original Adeptus' Temptation was so good that the aroma of the dish urged an adeptus to return to the world of men just to have a taste of it. This dish is not spicy so have a try, Lynette."
"It smells really good. Wait, what's this dish? And that one? There's so many that I cannot recognise!"
"Tianshu Meat, Honey Char Siu, Jade Parcels, Zhongyuan Chop Suey, Squirrel Fish, this dish should be the Palace Jewels that the staff recommended to us," Lucian effortlessly named the dishes that were unknown to the children. "The last one here is Bamboo Shoot Soup. According to a book I once read in the archives of the Palais Mermonia, it was said that this dish was Lady Egeria's favourite Liyue cuisine and that the Geo Archon would personally cook this soup for her whenever she made a diplomatic visit to Liyue."
"Really?" Lyney asked curiously and even Lynette looked interested at this unknown piece of news. Lucian was always weirdly informed about small tidbits of historical events that nobody could ever verify the truth of but Clorinde knew that he must be speaking the truth. Out of curiosity, after she had returned from her trip with Lucian she had asked Monsieur Neuvillette if there really was such an event called the Gathering of the Seven and the Chief Justice affirmed that such an event used to take place, and that Liyue was the location where the gathering of the seven was traditionally held.
So if Lucian said that Bamboo Shoot Soup was Lady Egeria's favourite Liyue cuisine, it must be the truth.
While it looked like Lucian had ordered a lot, none of them felt that their stomachs were uncomfortably bloated after the meal since he had made sure that the portions of each individual dish ordered were just sufficient to have them get a taste of traditional Liyue cuisine. The dish that truly filled their stomachs were Adeptus' Temptations which according to Lucian, was his favourite Liyue cuisine. Lynette preferred the Squirrel Fish while Lyney expressed a liking for Tianshu Meat. Clorinde found herself liking the Bamboo Shoot Soup that Lady Egeria was once fond of.
"Five plates of Almond Tofu, thank you," Lucian ordered desserts for them after they were done with their main courses.
"Lucian, we only have four people," Lyney immediately reminded Lucian when he believed that he had made a mistake in his order.
"The last plate is for a friend of mine. I will bring his portion up to him later," Lucian assured Lyney and the staff were quick to serve the dessert to their table. Lucian excused himself and brought his own portion and also the extra serving along with him, leaving the children alone at the table.
"So Lucian's friend stays at Wangshu Inn?"
"I don't know, but it seems like it. What do you think, Clorinde?"
"Um, probably?" Clorinde put on her best poker face and inwardly hoped that her response would not have given anything away. She also had no idea just what kind of friend Lucian was referring to and was giving a visit right now but if she really had to hazard a guess, it definitely had to be an entity that had been around for at least five hundred to a few thousand years old.
Maybe the friend that he's referring to is one of Liyue's famed adeptus?
Lucian was unaware of what the children were talking about after he had left them alone for a short while to meet the person who he wanted to meet. He had gone through many discussions with both Neuvillette and Furina after he met Pierro and also Focalors, and they were both willing to join in on his plan to accelerate the prophecy. A prophecy is just that: a prophecy. It doesn't matter how the prophecy will be fulfilled, all that matters is that it comes true. This very nature of a prophecy was what the three of them were planning to take full advantage of to save Fontaine from its inevitable tribulation.
Neuvillette and Furina will take care of the preparations and once done, they could finally start on their grand plan to save Fontaine. Until then, there's nothing that Lucian could really do but wait so he decided to create some happy memories for the children that he had grown to care about, which was one reason why he brought them on a trip to their neighbouring nation, Liyue.
Because after all is said and done, it's very likely that he would no longer be here to care for and protect them after his plan to save Fontaine came to fruition.
There were a few things that he wanted to achieve when he decided to make the trip to Liyue. Bringing his student and the twins on a vacation was one and he had every intention to make this trip a memorable journey for them before he enacted his own plan. Verifying the rumours that an oceanid who fled Fontaine and had taken residence at Liyue and locating the other scattered oceanids through it was another reason. Lastly, there are some loose ends that he plans to tie up ends through the help of a trusted third party.
The problem is, he had no idea how to locate the Geo Archon after so long had passed. Thankfully, he knew how to locate the adeptus who definitely will be able to assist him in that matter and hopefully, he or his siblings are still around after five hundred years. Too much had changed during his disappearance and there's very little he could do to verify which of his old friends and acquaintances are still around.
The topmost floor of the inn was usually empty at this hour, which worked to his advantage since he knew that the yaksha which preferred to hide his presence tend to enjoy the solitude here alone on the roof. The yaksha which he planned to meet was the easiest for him to get a hold of because Lucine was aware that he made Wangshu Inn his secret hideout in order to fulfil his duties as a yaksha. According to him, as Wangshu Inn was strategically located at the centre of Liyue, it simply was the most obvious and pragmatic decision to station himself here so that he could respond to any threats as swiftly as possible.
"Alatus, it's me, Lucine."
Nothing responded to his call for a few seconds and even Lucine believed that Alatus might have also passed away within those five hundred years after there was no response for close to a minute. He was about to leave when he felt the yaksha's presence and the slight displacement of air above him. He raised his head, spotting the figure of his old acquaintance which he had the honour of sparring against in a friendly duel during the gathering of the seven standing on the top of the roof. The yaksha had a mild look of surprise on his face and Lucine imagined that it must come to him as quite a shock when he suddenly heard him whispering his name after five hundred long years.
"Lucine? You are still alive?"
"It took me a long while to resurrect this time but yes, I'm back. I hope you still have a preference for almond tofu," Lucine held up the plate of dessert which he intended to offer to Alatus all along. Alatus landed down with nary a sound and the two long lived protectors of their respective regions leaned against the wooden handrails overlooking Dihua Marsh on this moonlit night, enjoying their dessert together in comfortable silence.
"I'm the last yaksha now."
"My condolences. I take it that the Cataclysm had greatly affected Liyue too?"
"I had already lost most of my siblings to karmic debt before the Cataclysm, but the Cataclysm took a great toll on us too. I lost too many comrades that day," Alatus recounted with an unreadable look on his face. Nothing more needs to be said but Lucine already understood everything that was left unsaid because he himself had participated in that war too.
"I lost my archon too. I followed after her to the Tunigi Hollow and I died before her, only to wake up and suddenly find myself thrusted five hundred years into the future and that she had already been dead for the same amount of time. Too many lives were lost that day."
"Indeed," Alatus agreed with a nod of his head. Silence fell over them for an undetermined period of time until Alatus initiated the conversation once more.
"I go by the name of Xiao now."
"You go by another name too? I thought I was the only one who decided to take on a mortal name."
"So what's your mortal name now?"
"Lucian."
"... I stand by what I said the last time. Fontainian names are difficult to pronounce."
"You don't see me complaining about the ridiculously long titles that Liyue adepti conferred unto yourselves. Isn't that right, Golden Winged King-Conqueror of Demons-Great Sage who Subdues Demons-General Alatus-Vigilant Yaksha, Xiao?"
"Those are the titles that mortals conferred upon me. I didn't choose to use them."
"These are still the titles that people refer to you by," Lucine rebuked. "Anyway, I came to ask a favour from you. It's been five hundred years for me so a lot of my knowledge has been rendered obsolete, which is why I need you to help me locate someone in Liyue."
"That wouldn't be too difficult. Who is it that you want to meet?"
"Your Geo Archon, Liyue's Rex Lapis, Morax."