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“Your name will be Neuvillette.”
It is a bright sunny day not yet marred by rain, the sun reflecting on them from the lake. Focalors stands before him, regal and confident, inviting him to human society. Usurper, the voices whisper to him. He frowns.
“And why should I join you?” He questions.
“So you can learn, explore the nation you’re living in. Have some fun,” She says, shrugging. “In any case, it’s better than just living in this lake isn’t it?”
He hesitates. The lake is all he knows, its shallow depths a welcome home. But, he is old, and has already explored every nook and cranny, nothing excites him anymore.
Maybe it’s time for a change.
“I accept your offer,” Neuvillette answers.
Focalors smile widens. She holds out a hand to him.
Neuvillette takes it.
***
Focalors, he learns, prefers to be called Furina. She takes him to eat cakes and wander the streets of Fontaine. People stare at her as they walk by, reverent.
“Do you see,” she starts, “the children laughing as they play?”
They are sitting outside a cafe, an umbrella shielding them from the sun. She’s drinking something called coffee, with a rich burnt smell, while he drinks filtered water from Fontaine’s streams.
Privately, he thinks it's weird the Hydro Archon prefers coffee over water.
He glances at the kids. Their laughter and shrieking like tinkling bells in the wind. They’re playing a game, passing around a dirty red ball.
“A happy sight is it not? Humanity is composed of such complex emotions, so pure, yet so terrible.” Furina muses, her voice a lyrical light thing.
“I think it's lovely,” she finishes, looking at him with her bright unnervingly blue eyes.
Neuvillette struggles to understand. It has only been a day since he has stepped out into the world and the few humans he has encountered weren’t very nice. (They stopped him and Furina, attempting to rob them. “Halt,” she had commanded, a strange tremor to her voice. “I am Focalors, the Hydro Archon, Regina of all waters, and ruler of Fontaine. You will stand down and leave us.” They ran. Later, he will learn they were treasure hoarders.)
But, as he looks at the children, who smile with missing teeth, he admits they are a bit cute.
He looks to the side. People in dresses and suits mill about the street, living their day-to-day life. Some of them are laughing, while others argue over things that matter little.
Fontaine, he decides, is strangely beautiful.
***
Furina teaches him about society. In the Palais Mermonia, where all administrative matters are handled in Fontaine, they sit in her office.
“-and people that are accused of crimes are held on trial. There they will be judged as guilty or innocent. The guilty face punishment in the forms of going to the Fortress of Meropide, paying a fine, community service, house arrest, etc. While the innocent are released.”
“Why do the punishments differ?” Neuvillette asks.
“Because some crimes are not as severe as others.” She hands him a book.
Fontaine’s Criminal Justice System, it reads. She points behind her at a bookshelf, “Read them all. Then come to me and tell me your thoughts.”
He devours them. It takes him a month to read all of it, and another to organize his thoughts before he faces her again.
He is educated now. He knows about Fontaine’s government system, with its nobles and class divides.
The Oratrice Mécanique D'analyse Cardinale is a fascinating machine. Fontaine’s entire justice system relies on it. However it does not decide what punishments people deserve, it can only tell guilty from innocent.
It’s an inefficient system, the whole thing relies too much on the Oratrice. Who decides what charge a criminal gets? How does one get imposed with community service instead of house arrest?
He tells Furina this as he recounts. By the end of it, she’s clapping and smiling as if she’s watching an opera.
“That’s actually part of why I brought you here! I’m going to appoint you as Chief Justice!” She says, entirely too happy.
He immediately protests. He is still new to human society, not yet versed in human laws, and is not qualified for it.
Furina, of course, knows this. “You’re not going to start immediately, silly. We’ll sit in on trials, so you can experience the atmosphere. You’ll read and learn and slowly get used to the paperwork I delegate to you, until you’re ready to inherit the full position.”
There is little else he can do but accept. Neuvillette is still apprehensive about becoming Chief Justice, the weight of their human lives weighing heavily in his mind, however Furina is the Archon of Fontaine.
What else can he do but go along with her whims? A part of him burns at the thought, his draconic nature roaring in his soul - but he is powerless. He reminds himself it is not exactly Furina’s fault. It is the heavenly principles and their inane schemes.
They observe a trial the next day.
***
“Hah! Did you see the look on her face? That was hilarious!” Furina says as she laughs.
They are walking down from Furina’s seat high above the court, long after the jurors and audience have filed out. Neuvillette furrows his eyebrows, Furina has been treating this entire trial as if it was an opera.
“Is it not prudent to treat this more seriously?” He asks her, disbelieving.
A woman had sued a restaurant for food poisoning. She ended up losing the case and it was revealed that she was actually a relative of a rival business owner.
“That’s exactly the kind of attitude you need to be Chief Justice!” She happily squeals. It’s a deflection from his question.
Neuvillette’s lips purse. He isn’t happy with Furina treating this all like some game, but she probably knows the situation better than he does. Considering he is still new to human society, it could be trials just weren’t as serious as the books make them out to be.
The next week they sit in on a trial for an accused murderer.
***
“I-I saw him walk away from the body,” the witness stutters as they conclude their testimony.
The defense attorney sneers, ”That could have been anyone. My client already has an alibi.”
Furina is uncharacteristically silent. Neuvillette himself feels a bit down as he watches the defendant. The murderer… is smiling. Neuvillette feels bile rising from his throat, an unpleasant feeling spreading through him.
“If you don’t have any other evidence, then I think this trial can be concluded,” says the lawyer.
The victim's friends and family watch helplessly. The father bursts into tears, sobbing as he hugs his children. The Oratrice ticks down to the innocent verdict.
Furina chooses this moment to interfere, frowning. “Is that all the evidence you have?”
Everybody turns to them. Surprised at their Archon’s interference. At that exact moment, a man bursts through the doors.
“Stop! Stop the trial!” He shouts. “I have definite conclusive evidence!”
The murderer frowns.
“I have a picture of him murdering the victim,” he states, glaring at the murderer. He takes out a photo from his pocket, it’s in black and white but the image is clear.
It’s obvious the murderer is guilty.
Neuvillette feels a massive wave of relief crash into him. Outside, the clouds drizzle, not giving in to full raindrops.
The trial concludes with the Oratrice giving its judgment. The people file out and the victim’s loved ones cry in relief. The murderer is taken away in handcuffs to go to the fortress.
When everyone is gone, Furina turns to him. “As Chief Justice you’ll have to face situations like that at least once a month,” she says, grim-faced. “We won’t be so lucky then, evidence won’t just show up out of nowhere like that.”
Neuvillette grimaces, feeling the position weigh him down even if he isn’t officially it yet. “Back there… Why did the murderer kill? Humans are all one species, so why?”
The words feel wrong-footed in his mouth, yet he can’t help but voice them.
Furina sighs. “Why do people do anything really? Maybe he was just feeling particularly bad that day? Or maybe the victim had wronged him somehow? Most likely he just wanted to hurt somebody for the sake of it.”
She suddenly looks vulnerable. As if the whole world is on her thin shoulders. Neuvillette thinks this is the most sincere she’s been since he met her.
She looks… human.
As soon as the thought crosses his mind, she straightens up. Suddenly back to normal, confident to face the world. She smiles, not a hint of sadness on her face.
“Well there’s no use thinking about it now!” she declares. “Let’s rest, that was exhausting.”
Neuvillette agrees. He thinks about his position - about being Chief Justice, judging people, deciding their fates, and choosing based on the evidence provided. Being impartial, no matter his connections.
It’s a heavy responsibility.
It’s raining when they step out of the Opera Epiclese. They head back to the Palais Mermonia with Furina’s chatter filling the air even as rain drops pelt them from the sky.
On the way there Neuvillette sees a child. She is bowing her head and has her hands clasped in prayer. Chanting something under her breath as they get closer.
Passing by he hears, “Hydro dragon, Hydro dragon, don't cry.”
He looks at her in shock, stopping in the middle of the street as she prays. Furina steps beside him.
“It’s a popular saying in Fontaine,” Furina is saying softly, “children often chant it when it rains.”
The sky clears as time passes by. They stay standing in the same spot even as the little girl goes home. The sun rises, and people start mulling about the streets. Children come out to play, like a cycle, rinse and repeat.
It’s lovely. The world is filled with color. It’s not all blue like the lake was, nor is it the drab gray of rain clouds. It’s the red of children’s cheeks as they smile, the bright reds of apples being exchanged between friends. It's the yellows of the ladies’ dresses, twirling around as they talk, and of the greens of the gentlemen's wear, setting up shop.
Ah, Neuvillette thinks, this is what Furina meant.
As he looks out at Fontaine from where he stands in the street, Neuvillette feels his burdens become smaller. So small he doesn’t even feel them. The sun peeks out from behind a mountain, and bathes everything in an orange light.
It’s bright, and gorgeous.
Neuvillette opens his mouth, “Fontaine is truly beautiful,” he remarks, almost unconsciously to Furina.
At this one moment in time, he thinks about being Chief Justice and protecting this peace.
Behind him, he thinks Furina is smiling. Something small, sincere, and not like the ones she plasters on her face everyday.
He thinks he is too.