Chapter Text
It seemed to be a cozy day in the Serenitea pot. The Traveler had swapped the layout back to the default, so in the distance of the Liyuean mansion, there were floating islands, teeming with various small animals.
On that day, Furina was sitting down in her designated room, sipping some tea that Wriothesley had sent in the mail and eating some cake. The three members of the Salon Solitare and the Singer were all floating around with the crab trying and barely failing to grab some chocolate cake. The room was lovingly decorated blue, with Fontainian-style decoration on the inside. While it wasn't as large as her apartment-
(Which she was starting to suspect Neuvilette had bought for her, or had at least helped her obtain.)
-it had been decorated by the Traveler personally, with them bragging that it was "waterproof and designed to resist Hydro!" which, considering her powers, was both an amazing gift and hilariously ironic. The Traveler had then tried to demonstrate its immunity to Hydro with their Hydro powers, but considering their admittedly terrible Elemental Skill, it had at most wet the curtains.
It was a lovely gift. Furina just tried not to think about how much Realm Currency it had cost and how much Fontainian wood had been chopped to fund it, because that was probably enough to get the Gardes on the Traveler's case for deforestation.
" Speaking of," she thought, " why don't the trees go down when I hit them with my sword? It's not just me, I've seen Jean hit those trees full force, and they just dropped some fully chopped logs."
Ah well. If Buer ever came to the Pot, that'd be a question for the much more capable than her God of Wisdom.
Furina’s seahorse bumped up against her, and she grabbed a piece of cake before looking at it.
”What is it, Surintendante Chevalmarin?”
The seahorse in question then pulled out a tiny box for her.
”Oh right, un truc* I have to do.” She remembered.
“Hey, I’ve already gotten these artifacts for the Raiden Shogun, so you be the one to deliver it to the Teapot, ok?”
”Why me, Traveler? You know I’m not an Archon, and can’t you just give it to her yourself?”
”Eeehh…it’ll be a bonding experience for you two. Besides I think you’ll find that she’s not the Archon people think she is either. And we’re past the point of calling me “the Traveler”, you can just call me-“
Furina shook her head, dispelling the memory of that. She picked up the box and set it down upon her table.
“Don’t worry, Surintendante Chevalmarin, It’s Peu importe*. I’m sure that it’s just some other Electro user, like Clorinde, and that they were just messing with me. Besides, it's not like we’ve got two seconds until somebody important walks into the room.”
The door opened, revealing the Raiden Shogun herself walking in.
”Hello there. You are the one I believe I am supposed to meet.”
All 500 years of playing the role of a “perfect god” were all that was keeping Furina from choking on her own cake.
"Hello there, Lady Shogun!" Furina said, while practically dying on the inside. "Here, as a fellow Archon, sit down on the other chair across from me."
Distantly in the back of her head, Furina swore she saw something in the Archon’s eyes shift, but the former goddess couldn’t tell what. Maybe it was the light in her eyes. Maybe it was the posture. Or maybe it was the fact that the Electro Archon’s face didn’t seem like a clockwork meka anymore, mercilessly judging her.
Instead, Ei took a seat on the chair across while Furina quickly took out the artifacts from the box the Traveler had given her. Ei pointed at the desert that Furina was having.
”Can I have some of that? I'll give you some dango Sara made for me.”
“ No, get your own. ” Furina almost said. ”Wait, actually, nevermind. Insulting a god like her is probably not a good idea.”
“Hey, what were you talking about when you said you had a resume in fighting gods to me?”
”Oh, I fought the Raiden Shogun two years ago.”
”The warrior god. The same god that could possibly rival Rex Lapis in combat? Same one that killed the Electro Dragon?”
”Contrary to popular belief, Orobashi isn’t the Electro Sovereign. I’d tell you more about the lore, but we don’t have the time. I only beat her because I got a favor from my dead friend. Also, I fought her depressed son who was in a giant robot. Anyways, bye!”
”Waitwaitwait-come back here! You haven’t explained yet!”
Ei was waving a hand in front of Furina's face. "Are you ok? You've been spacing out for too long."
Furina blinked, then flinched backwards. "I'm sorry Lady Shogun! Just...uh, I was distracted! That's all."
Ei sat back in her chair, a portrait of unflinching calm. "Well, then, I suppose you can show me these "Artifacts" I keep on hearing about." Furina took out a box, and set it down on the table. Furina opened it, revealing five artifacts, one weapon, and so, so many Kairagi handguards.
Ei blinked. "This is...a lot."
Furina sat back down, and started taking out each thing out of its slot. She handed the weapon inside to Ei, who spun the polearm around, making all of the Salon Solitare quickly duck. Ei swung the trident with perfect form, before finishing with a Charged Attack and putting the weapon behind her back. Ei then stared at the trident, a tad bit confused. "Why does this weapon...smell like salt?"
Unfortunately, despite being her best free to play weapon, The Catch still had a fishy odor, probably from being used to catch fish so long ago.
Furina quickly put down the dango she was eating, as holding a laugh while having dango in her mouth would have been a good way to choke. She pulled out her new sword.
"Maybe it's just that us Archons work better with weapons gained from fishing?" Furina brandished her own weapon, the "Fleuve Cendre Ferryman". Both weapons had been gained from intense fishing. The Traveler had boasted that it had taken literal days to get each Archon's weapon, and that the passive abilities of each weapon perfectly complemented each Archon.
Furina saw why The Catch was so good, with Xiangling having used it to great effect. However, she wasn't so sure why the Ferryman was so heavily vaunted by Fontaine's Fishing Association. It may have made her Salon more powerful, but was literally just a pipe.
(A famous pipe used by a criminal leader, but at the end of the day, it probably wasn't meant for swinging around, you know, like a sword.)
Ei looked at the weapon in question with a look that could best be described as completely bewildered. "That's… but... Nahida..." Ei stared at Furina for a second. "Maybe you should get an actual sword?"
Furina looked back at Ei. "I could say the same, Lady Shogun,"
"Just call me Ei, please."
"Don't you have your famous strike Musa, er, Mousse, erm..."
"...The Musou No Hitotachi?"
"Yes, that! Isn't that the godly attack only you can do?" Furina leaned back into her chair, feeling a bit more comfortable now that the conversation had shifted away from her.
"Well, when it comes to the Hitotachi, I actually changed it up a bit, added a second strike because of the Traveler.” Ei said. “And besides, I don’t believe either of us are really Archons in the traditional sense. You’re not really Focalors, and I’m not really Baal.”
Furina was actually quite startled when she heard that, her eyes widening. She coughed up some tea before barely managing to gag it down.
“What did you just say?”
“So you want me to talk to Furina because you think we’re similar?”
“You’ve already been through 500 years of your own fighting against the Shogun. She’s been alone for 500 years fighting against loneliness.”
“But she retired from the role of an Archon for a good reason. Are you sure my assistance will be good for her?”
“She sees the Archons as…beings that are above everyone. All of those mortal concerns. And she thought that she was the only Archon who didn’t get the worthy right to have that role. She just felt like a fraud. But you also made those same mistakes. You even stepped in as Archon when, well…yeah.”
“If that’s the case, I will be off to the tea pot immediately. Just let me prepare in my Plane of Euthymia first.”
“Alright then. Hey, Shogun.”
“What is your request, Traveler?”
“Treat her kindly if Ei has to dip out, ok? You two are more similar than you believe.”
“I wasn’t the person Celestia meant to give the Gnosis to, Miss Furina. I was a kagemusha, a shadow for my twin sister. I ran away from my grief by creating a puppet body and a machine to rule the rest of Inazuma.”
“A twin? But how…” Furina thought.
“The Traveler told me about your situation with Focalors and your 500 years of loneliness. And…I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“I’m very sorry for the fact that as the Electro Archon, I didn’t step up and see that you were suffering as one of my fellow Archons. I should take just as much responsibility for your suffering as anyone else.” Ei took a bow on her seat, with Furina not knowing what to think.
Furina cleared her throat, almost scared to speak. “Ei…”
Ei looked up at her. Furina could swear that she could see someone else gazing at her from those eyes.
“Listen, it’s not your fault, ok?” Furina got a bit closer to Ei. “Besides, we’ve both been running from our responsibilities for…half a millennium now?”
Furina laughed, a bit bitterly from the tears spilling down her cheeks. “Although I suppose you actually deserve all those heavy responsibilities. Besides, you weren’t a fraud like I am-”
Furina’s self-loathing spiel was stopped by Ei gently wiping away her tears. For a second their eyes connected, and Furina wondered if her pain was really so different from any other Archon’s.
“Don’t say that.” Ei softly spoke, “If you really see a god as someone who rules over everyone omnipresently, or someone who has a gnosis, I don't think… that either of us are really gods.”
As Furina slowly sniffled, Surintendante Chevalmarin offered her a tissue, which she readily took.
“If it makes you feel better, I could have you talk to the person that ruled over Inazuma for years, the Raiden Shogun. She’s quite similar to you.”
Furina took in a deep breath, wiping away the last of her tears. “I think I’d like that, Ei.”