Chapter Text
One week later, Furina stands in the Opera Epiclese with Neuvillette, Nahida, and the Wanderer. The curtains have yet to lift, and already she is sweating. She pulls at the collar of her suit and asks, "Is it a little hot in here, or is it just me?"
Nahida puts a hand on her wrist and looks up at her with a kind but solemn smile. "You know, you don't have to do this if you're not ready," she says.
"Whaaaat?" Furina laughs nervously. "Why wouldn't I want to?"
The Wanderer shoots her a look. Neuvillette says, "Lady Furina. I am perfectly capable of handling this myself, if-"
Her stomach lurches. "No, no, Neuvi, let me do this with you!" she insists. "I can't let you just-"
She is unable to find a way to complete her thought before the curtains go up. Instantly, she yanks her arm away from Nahida; her back goes ramrod-straight, posture constricting, a false looseness to her shoulders as she stretches a meaningless smile onto her face.
There are so, so many -
eyes -
people in the crowd.
"People of Fontaine!" Furina belts out, throwing an arm out theatrically before anyone else can say anything.
Already murmurs rising like a wave. Lady Furina? - Furina? - the old Archon? - the fake? -
"I have returned to-" grace you with my presence, no, dial it back- "warn you all of a-" grave danger, no, Nahida said not to present it so negatively- "Change that will be affecting the populace in the near future!" Pause. "In fact, some of you may be affected by it already!"
The murmurs get louder.
When they planned this, Furina insisted upon being the speaker as much as possible. Neuvillette would lend legitimacy and authority, and Nahida would handle the more technical parts of the presentation, while the Wanderer was there simply because where Nahida went, so did he.
But already -
Your line. Say your line. Say your line!
The pause is too long. Her companions' gazes burn. But it doesn't matter that she can feel her throat close up at the mere idea of bringing up the prophecy, because Furina has a role to play-
"Remember all that wretched business with the prophecy?" she wrings out, high-pitched, too nervous, then hurries to deflect like a pebble rolling downhill, "Neuvillette resolved that so handily, didn't he? Let's all give him a round of applause!"
The crowd hesitates for a moment that feels like an eternity, no longer used to taking her cues, but the applause starts in a scattered burst and then a wave, sincere if not enthusiastic. It was a little soon to build momentum for that- she knows this, she's been managing crowds literally since she learned how to walk- but it's fine, it's fine.
Neuvillette frowns lightly at her. It's fine.
"As you might recall," she says, "the Primordial Waters are a danger to us all no longer. But what you may not know, is that the changes to the people of Fontaine are more than skin deep!"
The murmurs change tone - confusion and worry. No true upset, not yet.
"Buer, the God of Wisdom, Archon of the nation of Sumeru, has graciously agreed to accompany me here to help educate you on the issue," Furina declares, sweeping an arm out to gesture at the small archon. Nahida stands up on her tiptoes and waves at the crowd, waggling dainty fingers with an adorable smile.
The anticipation rises.
"And that issue is- is-" Furina takes a deep breath and forces herself to announce it:
"Humans can get pregnant!"
Silence. Then uproar.
Furina forces herself to bear it as the crowd launches into a frenzy, although her smile turns plastic and her chest feels tight. A contingent of reporters shove their way to the fore. Kamera flashes go off as one of them hollers, "Iudex Neuvillette, is this true?!"
Bam.
Neuvillette's cane thumps down harshly as a gavel, cowing the crowd into silence. "I have no reason to doubt the word of Lady Furina," he says, calm yet stern. "Nor that of Buer, who has aided our Lady in her time abroad. To my knowledge, all information to be presented here is scientifically sound. You would do well to show them respect."
Nahida steps forward, hands clasped in front of her. "Do not worry," she says sincerely, "Pregnancy is not as scary as it sounds! We will tell you all about the basics. We even brought visual aids!"
With that verbal cue, the Wanderer activates his Anemo vision and leaps into the air, grabbing the drawstring to unfurl a massive banner from the ceiling. There is a click as an assistant starts up the projector, throwing up an image for the audience to see.
The first slide reads, PREGNANCY AND YOU: The Beginner's Guide to the Gravid Condition, by Lesser Lord Kusanali and Furina de Fontaine.
"Who is that?!" one of the braver reporters cries out, pointing at the Wanderer - temporarily distracted from the grave subject matter by the startling show of power.
"He is my retainer," Nahida says sunnily, expression changing not a bit.
The reporters stare at her expectantly, then wilt in confusion when no further information is forthcoming.
"I'm no one important," the Wanderer sneers, looking down his nose at them as he floats softly back to the ground. His haughty expression and tone contrast severely with his actual spoken words.
"Well," Nahida says, clapping, "Let's begin!"
*
It's kind of a disaster.
About the time Nahida starts pulling up diagrams is when the first people start fainting in horror. It's a whole production, and forces them to briefly pause the presentation. Nahida's perplexed, slightly worried green eyes meet Furina's, and Furina in turn looks over her head to Neuvillette, who is as calm and steady as ever, a slight line of tension in his features that says, It can't be helped. He inclines his head minutely to her - your choice, my Lady - and her smile grows tighter.
"Smelling salts will be provided free of cost," she trills. "Next slide, please!" After all, the show must go on.
Nahida presents most of the actual information. The absurdity of the pint-sized foreign Archon educating them in frank terms about human reproduction with an inappropriate amount of pep in her voice is enough to defuse a lot of the tension.
Yet, the tension keeps building as they cover the shocking and grotesque physical aspects of pregnancy; the basics of what can and can't be done to carry a pregnancy safely; and the actual process of labor, at which point one audience member noisily loses their lunch.
Furina feels wound tight as a spring by the time the presentation reaches its end. Nahida claps and turns to the audience, smiling brightly. "Alright," the tiny Archon asks, "Any questions?"
And like the floodgates have been unleashed, the protests of the audience rise into a cacophony. The complaints come in a volley one after another.
"This is outrageous!"
"Preposterous!"
"It's sexist is what it is! Misogynistic!" a woman shouts from the crowd. "Why should women have to take all the responsibility for making children?!"
"Yeah!" a young man agrees, shaking his fist in the air. "What if I don't want to watch my wife go through all that? What if I would rather do it for her?!"
"The population of Fontaine is gonna collapse!"
"We'll die out!"
"This is homophobic!" someone bellows, standing on top of their seat to be better seen. "What happened to equality?! Celestia is homophobic! Monsieur Neuvillette, can't you change us back?"
"I'm afraid," Neuvillette begins, "that's outside my capability-"
"Why is the Dendro archon the one telling us this? Shouldn't you have realized sooner?!"
"What if I never get laid again!"
"Forget homophobic, we're all gonna turn gay after this!"
"What was the point of preventing the prophecy if Fontaine was gonna end like this!" someone hysterically screams- one of the same people who had to be revived with smelling salts earlier, flinging an arm out in accusation, and Furina-
snaps.
The angry ringing voices, echoing in a familiar way off the vaulted ceiling. The hundreds and thousands of eyes on her, disappointed, furious, beseeching, and she- she-
Give the people what they want give the people what they want-
She can't she was never going to be able to at the end and any moment the water will wash them all away-
Furina collapses to the floor unbreathing like a puppet with its strings cut.
The uproar, somehow, gets worse.
A pair of hands grabs her and drags her away. The overwhelming floodlights vanish. The din fades, the eyes and voices are gone and oh god, have they dissolved already, is it already over, why can't she dissolve away too-
Hands slap at her shoulders. "Furina! Furina. Breathe."
She heaves in a massive, whistling breath. It chokes in her lungs.
There's a frustrated noise. "I know you know how to breathe!"
Yes, she does. She gasps and sputters. Tears cascade down her face. There's at least one other person still alive, and that means she can say, "I tried," and it comes out in an undignified wheeze. "I tried, I tried, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault-"
"What are you talking about!" the person demands. And then they grab her by the shoulders and shake her.
This is a highly questionable action to take with a panicking person. Or really with any person in general. But somehow, it works. Furina is so shocked by it, she's knocked right back into her surroundings. She can count the number of times she's been manhandled on one hand- not even at that horrible sham trial would anyone have taken such liberties!
She blinks, and blinks, and takes a few more heaving breaths, and looks around herself.
She is propped up against a wall in a dim hallway backstage. The person who is gripping her lapels and looking into her face with a strange mixture of anger and worry is the Wanderer.
"Oh," she says.
She realizes she is crying.
"Oh no."
"Back with us?" asks the Wanderer, releasing her and taking a step back.
"M-hm," says Furina miserably, an overwhelming feeling of humiliation washing over her. She scrunches her knees up to her chest, hiding her face behind them as she starts swiping at her tears.
"Quit that," the Wanderer says with what sounds like disgust.
"I'm trying."
"No. I mean-" He seems affronted watching her dig the palms of her hands into her eyes. "Quit that. You don't have to stop crying."
"I'm not crying," she says, by reflex. His eyebrows shoot up. "I'm- it's-" She hiccups. "It's a natural overflow of Hydro-"
"No the hell it is not."
No, the hell it is not.
She really, truly does want to stop lying. But it's second nature in this place.
"What is this, Furina?" he demands and oh no, she's upset him. He waves a hand in the air. "What the hell was - all of that? None of this is how you act!"
It is, in fact, how she's acted for hundreds of years. The behavior the Wanderer is used to seeing from her is what is actually out of character. Or- well, maybe it is actually more in-character, if that's how she acts under no spotlight, but she's still learning how to tell the difference, alright?! She doesn't know what to say, and she must be silent for too long because he continues,
"Watching you like that made me sick. Prancing around out there like- like-"
Furina finally takes her tear-stained face out of her hands and asks with a hollow laugh, "Like a marionette?"
The Wanderer cuts off, staring at her.
Furina shrugs, one-shouldered. She feels herself smiling, small and empty. "It comes naturally," she tells him. "It's what I was made for."
His hands curl into fists. "Useless fucking archons," he sneers to the wall somewhere above her head. "They're all the same."
"Hey!" she protests. This is all really, really mean from someone she's come to think of as a friend. "I'm trying, okay?! I-"
"I wasn't talking about you!" he snaps, eyes wild as they cut to her again, "I was talking about Focalors!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" she squeaks.
"I'm not angry at you!" he tells her, angrily.
"Okay," she says meekly. "That- I mean. F-Focalors-" She gathers herself. "Focalors sacrificed herself for everyone, she- she actually died for Fontaine. She's the one who fixed everything. If anything, I had the easy part-"
"You cannot possibly believe that." She quails under his expression of outraged disbelief. "She left you to do everything on your own," he goes on. "She gave you an impossible task. When she came back, it was just to abandon you again, and-"
"She set me free!" Furina interrupts hotly.
The Wanderer freezes - his whole body seizing, an involuntary twitch running through it. "Free," he echoes in a frighteningly empty voice. "Are you even enjoying it?"
"I am! Most of the time! Actually!"
Listen, it's - it's not as if her relationship to Focalors isn't complicated. But she believes that Focalors was making the best of a bad situation, just as Furina was. Sure, there were so many nights she was left pleading with her empty mirror to give her a sign, to show just even one scrap of guidance-
But it happened the way it had to happen.
And sure, Furina may be teetering all the time on the abyss that is her own fledgling sense of identity, and a couple dozen things may make her flinch after the experience she had at the trial which saved Fontaine, but- it'll be better eventually. She has to believe that. She does believe that, because it has started getting better already. And none of that really explains,
"Why do you hate her? I don't even hate her. Did you somehow know her too?!"
The Wanderer eyes her in a long moment of indecision. Finally, he blows out a noisy breath and pushes off the wall to sit down beside her. He mirrors her position, his knees drawn up and his chin resting atop them, not looking at her when he speaks.
"Did Focalors," he asks, gaze slanted off somewhere in the distance, "get it right the first time?"
She hesitates. "...I don't know what you-"
"When she made you," the Wanderer spits with a degree of bitterness that makes her flinch. "Did she get it right the first time?"
"...I," Furina stammers, helplessly, "I mean, I think she did? As far as I know of?"
"Because," he says, sharp as the edge of a razor blade, "Raiden Ei didn't."
It takes a minute for Furina to put it together. But, as she's said- she isn't as dumb as she looks.
"...Oh," she says. Then: "Oh."
She can see it now. The indigo hair and stormy purple eyes. The delicate, youthful features, foreign but not of Sumeru. Furina has never met the Raiden Shogun, but she's seen the paintings. If he is an archon's creation, it explains his inhumanity, and why he seems so curiously powerful. It explains...
Well, it puts him in a very unusual class of being. In fact, Furina is not sure she has ever heard of anyone so alike to her as this. Other than, she supposes, the second creation of Ei's he has alluded to.
"Oh," she says again, more softly.
"Is that all you have to say?" he snipes, gaze finally cutting back to her. The look in his eyes is brittle.
For some reason, "Inazuma is also ruled by proxy?" is the first thing she blurts out.
His eyes narrow; he's clearly irked by this direction of questioning. "Until very recently, yes," he says evenly. "I don't know much about it. Seeing as I wasn't the successful candidate."
"...I'm sorry," Furina says.
"It wasn't part of some grand plan," the Wanderer says eventually, gaze unfocusing again. "Beelzebul was just running away. She seems to think when she discarded me, she was setting me free-" His voice breaks into a snarl, then flattens again. "But my replacement didn't fare so well either. Ended up facing her in single combat last year." He sighs and rests his head sideways on his knees. His voice is faraway, and there's a wry twist to his lips. "Things like us, we just can't win, can we?"
Okay, clearly he's- he's going through something, Furina thinks. This has all brought up emotions. Desperately, she wishes that Nahida was here. "Hey, heyy, don't say that, we're not things," she tries, scooting closer to put an arm around his shoulders.
"Don't touch me," he snaps.
She scoots back. "Alright, alright, not touching!" She has to break the tension somehow. "That's- it's, well, quite the coincidence! Thank you for... telling... me?"
He's scowling, now. "How is it you're so much more awkward when you're not onstage?"
"Well excuse me for not knowing how to be a person!" she exclaims, abruptly on the verge of tears once more.
This seems to strike a chord in him. He looks away again, blowing out a breath in something not quite an apology. For some reason it's this that strikes her with the realization that... he really gets it, doesn't he? He really... gets it.
"Thank you for telling me," she says, much more sincerely.
There's never been anyone who could understand her. No matter how much some have cared for her, none could truly understand.
"Yeah well, don't go spreading it around," he grumbles. "The only people who know are Nahida and the Traveler."
"Oh, the Traveler," she says automatically. "Of course. They seem to know everything."
There are so many things she wants to ask him. But... now really isn't the time. She suddenly remembers that Nahida and Neuvillette are still out there, trying to manage the- The presentation! She squeaks and starts trying to scrub all remaining evidence of tears from her face.
The Wanderer snorts. "That 'overflow of Hydro' thing. Did that really work on people?"
She pauses, laughing. "You know, it did," she says. "Used that excuse four or five times. And it never failed. People didn't... want to break the illusion, you know? And no one expects to see an archon truly crying."
"...No, I suppose not," he says, after a complicated, stony silence.
She gets shakily to her feet. "Now. I have to get back!"
"You don't have to," he grumbles, slouching after her.
"Maybe not," she says, "But I can choose to! They need me!"
*
When they return, Nahida is rambling her way though a very tense exploration of abortion.
"...It's, considered a highly controversial action in most nations- the issue tends to be quite divisive, but-"
"How can we be held responsible! We didn't even know!"
"Couldn't we start up the Oratrice again just long enough to ask it whether it should be a crime!"
"Obviously, it shouldn't! Forcing people to give up a year of their lives to that?!"
"But, I mean- Well, when does the baby start to be alive?-"
"Order!" A resounding noise as Neuvillette's cane hits the ground. He speaks with steely authority. "A public referendum will be held to determine the legality of abortion in Fontaine."
Beside her, the Wanderer makes an odd choking sound.
"People of Fontaine! I have returned!" Furina announces, flouncing back on to the stage.
"Lady Furina!"
"What happened?"
"Are you okay?"
"I was merely- overcome with excitement from seeing you all again!" she exclaims, feeling the Wanderer's eyes bore into her back. Her voice lilts anxiously, and too late she remembers she is not an archon anymore, to ply her people with obvious falsehoods.
But no one calls her on it.
They manage to wrap up the Q&A session, curtains closing to the strident cry of reporters begging for one moment more.
*
They reconvene in Neuvillette's study, calming cups of tea pushed into their hands.
"That went well, I think," Nahida says brightly.
"It... wasn't as awful as it could have been!" Furina concedes, a tense smile still on her face. She's kind of forgotten how to take it off.
"It will take the people of Fontaine some time to adjust, but I am confident we can overcome this challenge as a nation," Neuvillette says.
"Is no one going to mention Furina's panic attack?" the Wanderer cuts in.
"Hey! Mean!" Furina protests.
"No, no, I was going to ask," Nahida adds, frowning. "Are you alright?"
Neuvillette nods, looking solemn. "I considered stopping the presentation, but you previously expressed a desire that it should continue despite adversity, and the Wanderer seemed to have the situation in hand."
"I'm- I'm fine," Furina insists. "I just haven't- haven't been on stage very many times since-!" Her face turns red. "But we handled it!"
"Very well," Neuvillette concedes, still an unwanted pinch of worry in his face but it relaxes into something softer as he glances between and the Wanderer, who has his arms crossed and is glaring steadfastly at the wall. "Have you... considered what you will do next, Lady Furina?"
"I-" She frowns, arms squeezing around herself in a hug. "What do you mean?"
"Does this conclude your business in Fontaine?" he asks patiently, and she- flushes.
Eager to get rid of me, is her immediate thought, but especially after their awkward heart-to-heart last week, she knows that it's likely the opposite.
"I- I suppose it does," she says. It's not that she doesn't miss Fontaine, but she... just isn't ready. And besides, she's been tied to this land for five-hundred years. There's so much out there to see, so much that was never an option before.
She'd like to see more of Sumeru. She'd like to talk to the Wanderer about those revelations more. And after that, she thinks she'd like to travel further. "I'd like to spend more time in Sumeru before I continue my travels, if... if you'll have me," she says to her friends.
"Tch," goes the Wanderer, and Furina can't stop herself from flinching.
Nahida's hands clap together, once. "What he means is of course, you shouldn't even have to ask! We'll take good care of her, Monsieur Neuvillette."
"I'm not a child," Furina finds herself whining. The Wanderer, who a moment ago was sourly side-eyeing Nahida, is now smirking at her in commiseration.
"Of course you're not," Neuvillette says easily, "But I find myself reassured all the same that you have found yourself in the company of such capable allies. We will miss you, Furina."
"I'll miss you too. I'll visit, Neuvi. And I- I'll write! I promise."
His voice is warm and sincere when he tells her, "I'll look forward to it."
*
They're on a boat pulling out of Romaritime Harbor by the time the Wanderer remarks, "You rather neatly sidestepped any mention of transgender issues in that presentation."
Furina's brows furrow. "What issues are there?"
"No, you're right, it was a little cisnormative, but it was only a 101-level course," Nahida says.
"I don't see what difference it makes how you were born?" Furina tries again.
The Wanderer is giving her a look, one part bewildered and one part incredulous.
"We did try to default to 'human' instead of 'woman' where we could," Nahida says. Then, addressing Furina: "Because transgender women cannot get pregnant, but transgender men can?"
Furina blinks. "No? That's not how it works?"
They both turn and look at her.
"I mean," she says. "If you wish to change your sex, all you must do is go to the fountain and-"
Furina cuts off as the dawning realization obliterates her whole train of thought. Then she does something very, very unusual for her: she raises her voice and wails,
"Oh, FUCK!"