Furina
'How much longer is this going to take…' Furina whined internally, slouching backward on one of Fontaine's many benches.
One would think that almost 500 years of waiting and playing her role would grant her immense patience.
That was true for some cases.
However, most of the time she hated waiting.
She had followed the individual who defeated three Rogue Duelists as he went into questioning. Being in disguise and all, she couldn't really peek into what they were asking, but that was no matter.
All she had to do was wait for him to walk out of the Palais, and she would get her chance.
Finally, after what felt like nearly an hour, her person of interest walked out.
'His name is Ren Roman, I think.' She straightened on the bench, trying not to look suspicious. 'I can't just show myself to him, so I have to wait until he's in a quieter part of the city.'
Did it bother her that she was acting like some sort of stalker?
No. Not at all.
This was Fontaine after all. You had crazy journalists everywhere if you looked hard enough. For someone as high-profile as she was, she'd had her fair share of crazy stalkers.
As she was about to leave the bench to follow Ren, he was stopped in his tracks by someone Furina was very familiar with.
'No, Charlotte, why?!' She despaired as she saw the journalists excitedly chat with Ren, no doubt trying to make him give her an interview.
Given the journalist's reputation, Furina knew she was in for another long wait.
…
'Finally!'
Charlotte started to put away her Kamera stand and all her items back into her Vision storage. She bid Ren farewell and left the man alone.
This was her chance.
She followed at a distance far enough not to alert him to her presence. This was not the first time she had to do something like this in her five hundered year reign as the "Hydro Archon," so she was confident in her ability.
She followed him throughout the city. After a while of walking, she noticed that they had just walked a full loop around the busiest areas in Fontaine.
'Is he lost?' It was his first time in Fontaine after all, and this city was quite large for a newcomer.
The possibility of him knowing about her presence didn't occur in her mind at all.
There was just no way for him to know. She could barely see him from this distance, so the chance of him noticing her was as good as zero.
But her confidence slowly wavered as time went on.
Ren led her to Fontaine's quieter areas, where businesses closed earlier, and fewer people went through the area.
An eerie feeling slowly crept into her heart, and the loss of light to the night didn't help her nerves at all. But she was undeterred.
'What could he be doing in such a place?' She couldn't help but grow suspicious of the boy.
But before she could further dwell on her thoughts, Ren suddenly sprinted through the area, nearly disappearing from her sight.
Furina gave chase, her wig nearly falling off from the sudden burst of speed.
In her adrenaline-filled mind, it didn't occur to her that this could mean that her cover was blown.
He ran into a dark alley, and Furina stopped a few feet away from it.
She didn't like how dark the alley was, and the place was so quiet that it gave her goosebumps.
After a moment of deliberation, she went inside, convinced she had finally cornered him.
But he was nowhere to be seen.
"...Huh? Where could he have gone?"
Her question was soon answered when something long and slimy coiled around her like a snake.
"WAAAH—!" She tried to move away, but it was no use, the grip around her was too tight. Looking down, she finally saw what was holding her in place.
"—Is this a TONGUE?!" The sight of the large and slimy appendage made her gag, nearly throwing up.
Fortunately or unfortunately, something else took her attention away from her predicament.
Something much more terrifying.
A dark figure jumped down from the rooftop, landing in front of her with barely any sound.
Her entire body froze in place as a cold chill crept up her spine.
The figure walked forward, and Furina could finally make out his face.
It was Ren.
In his hand was a blade, raised and directed at her, the metal shining dangerously in what little light there was.
"Who are you and why are you following me?"
Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she trembled in fear.
She miscalculated horribly.
'He's going to kill me!'
…
…
Or at least, that's what Furina thought was going to happen.
So how did things end up like this?
"Please forgive me for my grave transgressions against the mighty Hydro Archon!"
The man who had just pointed a weapon at her, who had her bound in some horrifying slimy grip only moments ago, was now prostrating himself on the ground in front of her.
This was without question one of the strangest things she had experienced in five hundred years of existence.
"I, uh—" What was she even supposed to say at this point?
"My foolish mind mistook you for someone stalking me! I acted rashly and without proper judgment!"
To be completely fair, she was kind of stalking him.
"Please accept my deepest apologies, Lady Furina, I beg you to—"
"Alright, you—"
"I'm truly sorry from the bottom of my heart! I would never intentionally threaten someone of your stature—"
"Wait, no—"
"I understand if you wish to have me punished, but—!"
"ENOUGH!"
Her shout echoed off the alley walls much sharper than she had intended, and Ren's entire body flinched as though she'd struck him.
But it did the trick. Ren was no longer begging for forgiveness and was instead trembling while still bowed low to the ground.
Furina winced.
Even if he had pointed a sword at her, it was a completely justified reaction on his end. Seeing how she could make someone tremble this badly didn't sit right with her.
She's only done something similar a few times in the past, and she didn't like any of it.
'Get it together, Furina.'
Furina smoothed her expression to one closer to her usual composed public persona. Furina de Fontaine, the Hydro Archon Focalors.
"You may rise. I, Furina de Fontaine, accept your apology." she said, and Ren slowly got up, still hesitant to meet her eyes.
"The truth is, I only wished to speak with you. As the person responsible for capturing three Rogue Duelists, you've done Fontaine a great service. Given that, I am willing to overlook this entire... misunderstanding."
Misunderstanding was a great understatement, but she couldn't think of anything else on the spot.
"T-Thank you, Lady Furina. Your power is truly terrifying."
'My power?'
She couldn't help but pause at Ren's words.
What power?
In her five hundred years of playing the role of Hydro Archon, she had never once possessed any power befitting her role. Aside from her immortality, she was the same as any other mortal, with no inclination of any form of divine strength in her body.
'Could it be that mirror me left something behind that I haven't discovered?' The thought arose. 'But how did he feel it when no one, not even Neuvillette, felt anything? Or maybe he did, and he just didn't say anything… That was just as likely.'
When she sought out Ren, she didn't just wait outside the Palais for him to finish. She had one of her many aides bring her all the information about the man they had.
Color her surprise when she found out the man was an owner of a courier business.
A business owner taking on three duelists? Yeah right. It didn't take a genius to see something was amiss.
One of the reports she was given was one they stole—borrowed—from the Fatui, who interestingly also had a file on him.
It talked about his ability to summon creatures called shikigami, along with his extraordinary sensing ability.
There was also something about a compound raid and mansion raid, but they didn't get those parts of the report.
In any case, it would make sense that someone like him could sense something within her.
'Interesting.' She filed it away for now. There would come another time to bring it up.
"In any case, I believe we have matters worth discussing somewhere more appropriate than an alley."
"Of course. I was actually about to go find a hotel for the night." Ren rubbed the back of his neck. "We could talk there, if that works."
"That will do."
/ — /
The hotel Ren selected was of the more lavish and expensive type. It wasn't that much of a surprise to Furina. She thought a successful businessman like him would have more than enough Mora.
She waited a few steps back while he approached the front desk to book a room.
"A room with a single bed?" The receptionist lady asked. She looked at Ren and then at Furina's disguise before a knowing look appeared on her face.
"Here is your key." She smiled at the two of them and winked. "Have a good night, you two. Don't worry, the rooms have great soundproofing."
'Soundproofing? That's good and all, but why is she—oh. OH!'
The receptionist chuckled at Furina's flushed red expression as she scurried off with Ren.
Thank the heavens she took the time to tidy up her disguise before coming here. The scandal that would have erupted from the Hydro Archon booking a hotel room at night with another person… She didn't even want to think about what would happen.
It didn't take long before they arrived at the room. But Furina still couldn't bear to look Ren straight in the eyes.
'A room. Alone. With a MAN.' She didn't know how, but her face heated up even more than it already had. 'What if he gets the wrong idea? What if he thinks the Hydro Archon is a—!'
"T-The room is open, Lady F—" He stopped himself just in time. "My Lady."
'AAAAAAHHHHHHHH' Furina wanted to scream, 'He totally thinks that's going to happen! NOOOO.'
"Y-Yes! Coming!" She sputtered, hurrying after him while doing her absolute best to hide the anguish in her mind.
/ — /
Ren
Ren was close to having a breakdown.
'She's going to drown me. Or turn all my blood into water and melt me into a puddle.'
It didn't help that he already pointed his sword at a god, but the receptionist's words were the nail in the coffin.
She thought he was going to have a one-night stand with an Archon! Granted, she didn't know that the one next to him was Furina, but still!
There was no way Furina didn't catch on to what the receptionist was hinting at.
'I'm so fucking cooked.'
He thought back to the alley, how Furina's presence pressed down on his existence the moment he'd raised his sword. A wave of negative energy far beyond anything he'd ever seen suffocated him so much that breathing was nearly impossible.
And then it all disappeared. Folding back into whatever unnatural control she kept over her power.
Just like Rex Lapis, Furina was on another level.
But now that he was somewhat calmer, he finally noticed how familiar her energy felt.
He couldn't sense anything from her right now, no doubt because of her godly suppression technique, but there were still residual traces of her energy on her clothing.
Sure enough, it was exactly as he thought.
Her energy was too similar to Cursed Energy, much more than he had initially thought.
It wasn't just normal negative energy like Arlecchino's or the ones he felt from Delusions. This was just unnervingly close to Cursed Energy.
If Ren was still as he was back then when he first arrived in Teyvat, he wouldn't have been able to make the distinction.
He put the thought away for later, he had much more pressing matters right now. Like trying to please a certain Hydro Archon.
"Please take the bed, Lady Furina." He gestured toward it and resigned himself to getting a chair.
He completely missed how Furina froze in place, and her face turned crimson.
"Wait! This isn't what you think it is—huh?" Her shout was cut off once he saw Ren dragging a chair across the floor.
Furina blinked.
"...Do you not like the bed? I could book a different one if this doesn't meet your standards."
"No! No. This is perfect."
They settled into their respective seats.
The silence that followed was thick enough to cut.
Ren did not want to speak first, lest he say or assume something that might get him the Archon's ire.
Surprisingly, Furina stayed silent for a long while. Her eyes darted across the room, like she was trying her best not to look him in the eyes.
Finally, she coughed into her fist.
"Before we begin, understand that nothing said here leaves this room."
"Understood." He nodded vigorously.
"Fantastic!" Her usual bright smile snapped back into place, and she clapped once. "As you likely already know, Fontaine is facing a Rogue Champion Duelist crisis. But I believe there's something amiss. That these so-called duelists aren't duelists at all."
She fixed her gaze directly on him. Her magnificent eyes, as vast as the ocean itself, no longer hidden behind the red contacts, were a sight to behold up close.
"This is where you come in. I believe you have information that could help me uncover the truth. That's why I sought you out."
'So that's what this was about.'
"Did you hear or learn anything from the duelists that you didn't tell the Gardes?" She phrased her question carefully, as if she already suspected him of hiding things from the Gardes.
Which he did.
"I told the Gardes everything relevant," Ren said carefully. "I was taking a walk and came across some belongings scattered on the ground, so I tracked down whoever they belonged to. It just so happened to turn out that they were attacked by Rogue Duelists, so I decided to help."
"How did you track them?" She tilted her head and crossed her arms. "I find it strange that a businessman would possess such skills. Tracking the Vasquier family, I can believe. But these rogues evaded Gardes and Champion Duelists for weeks. How did you manage what an entire nation couldn't?"
'Dammit. She's onto me.'
"I used one of my summons called Divine Dog. It has a really good sense of smell."
He hoped that this would be enough to satisfy her curiosity.
"Show me."
'Drat.'
He couldn't exactly refuse a direct request from an Archon. Usually this was the part where he'd try to weasel his way out with some kind of deflection. He tried it with Cloud Retainer and succeeded, even if unintentionally.
But there was already bad blood between them, so he wasn't about to test his luck.
He made the hand sign.
"Come out, guys."
Vader and Yoda emerged from the shadows beneath his chair, and Furina's eyes went wide with immediate interest.
Both dogs were immediately wary of the Archon, their ears going back. It wasn't hostility yet, but just the instinct of sensing someone dangerous in front of them.
Ren felt sweat fall down his neck. Who knows what Furina might do now that—
"Awww, aren't you just the cutest!"
'...What?'
Furina was off the bed before Ren fully processed the sentence, crouching down to scratch behind Yoda's ears with unrestrained delight.
Both dogs froze for a moment, clearly as confused as he was, before their tails started wagging despite themselves.
After about a minute of enthusiastic petting, she finally sat back on the bed in a much better mood.
'Okay, I think I can work with this.'
Ren gave both dogs a pointed look. They understood immediately, trotting over to Furina. Vader hopped up to curl against her side on the bed, Yoda settling contentedly at her feet.
Furina cooed and resumed petting Vader.
'Thank the Archons. Or, well. Thank the dogs.'
"Sorry about that," Furina said, not stopping the petting for even a second. "Let's continue."
/ — /
Furina
"Interesting..." Furina tapped her chin. "So they were going to split up what they stole to have leverage in case one of them got caught. And they were attacking random adventurers too, not just to steal from them, but to instill fear?"
"So... did that help you at all, Lady Furina?"
She nodded. "I believe you may have just helped me locate their base of operations."
"I did what now?" Ren asked, completely befuddled.
Furina didn't bother hiding her pleased expression and grinned widely. "There's always been something off about how the Rogue Duelists operate. Every time we've come close to apprehending them, reinforcements would arrive out of nowhere, and they'd all slip away."
She remembered the way public confidence had eroded with each escape. Faith in the Gardes fell, and faith in the Champion Duelists crumbled right alongside it.
But it had always struck her as odd how the rogues seemed to have backup ready every single time without fail.
Except this time. Ren had somehow apprehended three of them without any interference at all.
That was the first oddity.
The location itself was significant too. It lined up precisely with a theory she'd developed after mapping out every known Rogue Duelist attack across Fontaine's outskirts.
With careful analysis, cross-referencing the locations against each other, she'd found several spots that sat conveniently equidistant from every reported incident.
That would explain the reinforcements.
The Rogue Duelists must have a hidden base of operations somewhere, and she'd already narrowed the general area down.
'If I'm correct, their leader should be there as well.'
The final piece of the puzzle was simpler and far more unsettling.
How they always seemed to know in advance exactly when and where to send those reinforcements.
As if they had inside information.
'The Gardes have been compromised.' There was always the possibility that she might be wrong, but this was her guess for now.
"I won't go into detail," she said, "but thank you, Mister Roman. You've assisted me, and in turn, Fontaine, more than you realize."
She rose from the bed, reluctantly pulling her hand away from Vader's soft fur.
"Well, I must be going. An Archon's duty is never truly done." She extended her hand toward him.
He seemed considerably calmer now, and his eyes looked at her with a hint of adoration.
Even after five hundred years, she still loved that look.
He shook her hand. "Glad I could help."
She said her goodbyes and turned and walked toward the door, about to grab the knob—
[ Don't let him go. ]
She froze.
Her heart slammed against her ribs the moment she registered the voice.
'Mirror me?! What do you mean?!'
She hadn't expected an answer. But color her surprised when she did.
[ Keep him close. ]
'Can I get anything more than that?!'
Nothing came.
Ren noticed her stillness by the door. "Lady Furina? Are you alright?"
"...Yes. I'm perfectly fine." She turned back to him. "I've simply thought of a better plan to deal with the Rogue Duelists."
"Oh? And what's that, if you don't mind me asking?"
She gave him a wide smile, hiding her own thoughts behind it.
"You will become my personal assistant!"
"Oh, that's—wait, WHAT?!"
If she weren't currently spiraling over her own mirror suddenly deciding to speak to her, she might have laughed at his expression.
She had no idea what was happening, or what her other self's plan actually was.
But she would see it through, whatever it took.
'I'll do my best, mirror me.'