Chapter Text
It had been a few days since the waters receded and things returned to normal across the Hydro nation.
They had passed through Sumeru, freeing the God of Wisdom from her confinement, fighting giant machines and sovereign dragons, traversing the endless desert in search of relics and forgotten stories; now they had just resolved the mysteries, schemes, and dramas of Fontaine.
The Traveler, known as Mari, had already crossed four nations in her relentless search for a path by following the traces of her sister, meeting many companions along the way. Many strange things had happened. She went through countless dangers and trials, witnessed and helped bring about many changes in that world, yet she always felt as if she were taking someone else’s place. And after seeing a Vision appear out of nowhere with her own eyes, watching an artificial being rewrite Irminsul and return as if nothing had happened, she was no longer easily surprised.
After being consumed by illusions of power fueled by his own hatred, the Balladeer was definitely different, neither better nor worse. He had gone by many names, and now, with an almost entirely new identity, he sought to reinvent himself somehow, perhaps. Mari fought him and fought alongside him, and only thanks to the little goddess did the dissonances of Scaramouche’s complicated life become somewhat understood. He was now a new man, or perhaps not entirely a man and not entirely new, but something had changed enough to grant him an Anemo Vision.
Now, what was once called Scaramouche had been reduced simply to Scara by Mari, who did not want to give him a strange name she might forget. In any case, after more or less making peace, the girl with glasses and the boy with the large hat set off toward the desert region on their way to the roaring waterfalls of Fontaine.
Upon arriving, they were greeted with warm and somehow threatening greetings by the Hydro Archon, Furina, the highest authority and most celebrated figure of the aquatic nation, or at least, that was how it seemed. She called Scara a “balloon” and dismissed half of what Mari said. The lady invited them to attend the spectacle of trials; however, the city was going through a chaotic situation behind its masks of luxury and sophistication.
Furina always appeared to be in good spirits and sharp-tongued, yet distant and superior. After all, she was the star of the courts and the head of state. The scandal involving Synthe traffickers and primordial water dissolving people should not have been enough to make her panic. However, she no longer knew how much longer she could keep hiding her most scandalous secret, with guilt eating away at her from the inside and leaving behind only a shell of pettiness and arrogance, something the Wanderer despised, perhaps because he recognized a strange reflection, something uncomfortably familiar.
And time ran out, revealing the greatest truth of all: she was never what she claimed to be. She was not even anything of the sort. So many years performing perfectly, only to see everything fall apart under the imminent flood. For the truth to be revealed and the prophecies fulfilled, the goddess was judged for hiding the truth and putting an entire nation at risk. Mari and Scara, along with their new companions, helped build a façade and forced her to become the defendant of her own fate.
The thing is, flooding a city, almost an entire nation, and then draining it within minutes leaves behind a great deal of mud, debris, and chaos. There was much work to be done. About two weeks after the flood, Mari met Furina again.
This time, she had been stripped of her powers, though she was still regarded with care by some people in the city. The girl helped a theater group with their problems and, even with fear and hesitation, stepped onto the Opera stage once again, replacing a friend. And this time, Mari witnessed the miracle once more. Furina gained a Hydro Vision, which was, at the very least, interesting. Mari returned to studying Visions, their nature and their contracts, trying to understand what made someone receive one.
But this story is not exactly about her.
The story is truly about the Wanderer, now walking through Fontaine and across the world, half unwilling, half curious about everything. The story is truly about Furina, who tries to use her free time for more meaningful things, exploring her homeland and meeting new people.
Neither of them feared or hated the world anymore; they simply came to realize that they inevitably lived in it and had to learn, at the very least, how to make something of it. Mari, the Traveler, might not have written it down in her research, but the Visions granted to them were signs that second chances did exist, even for people who were petty, egocentric, and materialistic… at least after a near-death experience.