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Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of The light will guide you, but I don't know where
Stats:
Published:
2023-08-28
Completed:
2024-02-18
Words:
132,650
Chapters:
52/52
Comments:
1
Kudos:
24
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9
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1,403

Mondstadt's old and new History

Summary:

The city of Mondstadt conceals many secrets

One of them hidden deep down behind the years

Everyone knows it, yet it now belongs to the past

As the person who wields it has already turned their back to the unsteadfast history

Only to find themselves abandoned to loneliness and solitude, unable to resist the ghosts of the past

But little do they know that fate has a different future planned for them

And that, one fateful night, their life will take an unexpected turn, leading them toward brighter days

Be it under the fireworks or while walking on a snow-covered mountain

Be it alone or with her friends

Uranus will finally get the peace she had long been yearning for

And will, after years of fighting, finally discover what it means to be in harmony with her past (and her future)

Notes:

Hello hello, dear (hopefully) future readers.
So before we start, there are a few things I would like to tell, I'll try to make it short I promise.
1- this is my first time writing a fic so it's not the best.
2- english isn't my first language so there might be a few (or a lot) errors despite my best efforts to try and correct my work :')
3- it takes a few chapter for the plot to actually become good (hence why I'm gonna post the 5 first chapters at once) but I swear it get better
4- there might be some hinted romantic relationship between main characters but it won't take a big place in the main story so you can just ignore it if you want (actually nothing is hinted until the end of the fic but I'm still saying it there just in case)
5- I chose the mature rating but I might change it to explicit later (and there's one chapter toward the end that's really violent but I'll say it in the notes in case you're uncomfortable with it)
6- I'm a lore player, so there is lore in the fic (although not that much in this volume) and I may add some theories, but if you don't know anything about the lore don't worry I'll explain everything in the notes. And also, I sometimes changed the lore so the game's story doesn't always match with my fic (should I add a tag for this?) but again you'll see this later
I think that's it for now so have a good time reading :)

Music to listen to while reading this chapter: (I might recommand some musics from time to time)
My kind of woman - Mac Demarco

Chapter 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The city of freedom is silent in this warm summer night, the stars illuminating the dark blue sky in a perfect contrast. A cool breeze pass through the trees and an owl is perched at the top of the large cathedral. This couldn’t be a better representation of Mondstadt at peace, and yet, a silhouette comes and break this harmony.

The form of a young lady is jumping from roof to roof, as fast as the wind itself. She barely makes any noise on the red tiles and doesn’t slip at all, despite the darkness enveloping the place. She finally stops at the top of a house overlooking the commercial place of the city.

At the light of the moon, we can see her blue t-shirt, white pants and black high boots stopping right under her knee. Her brown hair is tied in a tiny ponytail and her eyes are the color of the sky right after a storm. But the most noticeable thing is the glowing anemo vision in her back, worn as a kind of necklace, with a charm made with a piece of wine bottle and a tiny rock resting on her chest in order, to balance the weight of the vision.
Although she doesn’t seem aware of it, everyone in town knows her as that one woman who stand on the roofs, watching the city every night from dusk to dawn.

 

Mondstadt looks as calm as always. Uranus thinks to herself, looking down at the fountain, “I’m glad I found this place to call home.” She smiles.

The sky slowly turns to pink, and it’s time for her to go back to her home, she doesn’t want to interfere with the citizens. With a swift movement, she gets up and start jumping to another roof, and another, until she arrives in front of a slightly opened window. She gets in and disappears with the night. In a few minutes, a new day will start while hers just ended.

This process repeats every night, and nobody seems to mind it. When someone tries to talk to her, Uranus will just go away where no one can follow her. On the day, she doesn’t do anything special, she just waits until the night comes. When she tries to sleep, she always wakes up 2 or 3 hours later, she lost the habit of having a healthy sleep schedule.

A long time ago, she read all of the books she accumulated on her bookshelves with the years, but that time is long gone and she hadn’t read a new book in years. Now, Uranus’ life is just and endless cycle of waiting for the night and then waiting for the day while the city lives and grows without her. Well, she wanted this, so she’s the only one there is to blame.

The city has been quite busy these days. Uranus thinks, looking through her window. I wonder what day it is, maybe something important will happen soon, I should check tonight.
Outside, more knights have been patrolling and receiving boxes, all probably filled with festival materials, they even had to ask the Adventurer Guild for some help. The mood of the citizens also seems to have become happier within the pasts few days.
Uranus smiles, it’s always great to see the Mondstadt inhabitants so joyful, that’s one of the main reasons she likes this place, it’s peaceful and full of life.

 

Once the night falls over the city, Uranus gets out of her house, but this time, instead of stopping at the usual place, she continues her route. She soon arrives in front of an imposing statue.

The water reflection draws a calm pattern on the polished stone surface, night birds are flying with the warm wind, occasionally landing on the hands of the construct, right in front of the carved face of the Anemo Archon, Barbatos.

Uranus gives a quick look at the gigantic statue but soon notices a few boxes beside it. One of them is opened, and inside lies light blue fabric and material used to make stalls. There are also different types of flowers, all in elaborates vases.

“Of course,” starts Uranus, “the Ludi Harpastum. Time past so fast, I totally forgot it was happening soon.”

She remembers when she used to participate in it, the 15 days full of joy and happiness. How things changed since this time.

Well, how things changed for me. She corrects herself, taking a look at a house near where she stands. The citizens are still living the same way as they used to. Anyways, it’s time for me to go, I don’t have that much food anymore, I should hunt down some boars before the sunrise.

With that said, she goes near the edge of the plaza and, without thinking about it, she jumps.

 

“Wait you’re gonna hurt yourself!”

A voice says, in the silence of the night. Uranus lands safely on the floor, like if she just jumped from a staircase. She then turns her head in the direction of the voice.

“Oh.” The voice says.

“Oh” answers Uranus, “someone saw me…”

“I a-am sorry!”

“…and spoke to me.” Uranus seemed lost in her thoughts.

“Y-You jumped from a high place and I… Sorry to disturb you.”

Uranus lifted her head. The plaza was high above her, if someone jumped from here, they be considered lucky if they survived.

“No, I’m the one who disturbed you.” She said with a gentle smile, “You- I should have thought twice before jumping, you probably thought it was a suicide attempt or something. I’m sorry.” “I… see.”

The clouds moved away, and the moon lit up the street. The person Uranus was talking to was a girl, almost at the same height as her. She wore not completely half circle but not completely circle glasses and had light green hair and ears, whose color contrasted with her amber eyes.

“W-wait, I know you”, she said, “you’re Uranus, right?”

“Yes, that’s me.” Uranus was puzzled, “How do you know me?”

“Well, it’s just that almost everyone in the knights know you.”

“Really?” Uranus asked, in spite of herself. “What do you know about me?”

The girl looked a bit surprised by the tone Uranus had, but answered nonetheless. “Uh, not that much actually. We were just told that your presence in the city is normal and that we don’t have to worry about you.”

Uranus got lost in ger thought again, wondering since when did the other knights knew about her.
She would also like to know who she was talking with, but she directly erased this idea. I don’t want to interfere with peoples anymore. she thought to herself.

Uranus then decided to leave, the question of peoples knowing about her wasn’t that important anyways.
“Well I’ll be leaving then,” she said with the same gentle smile, “have a nice night, or day since the sun will be raising soon.”
And without letting the other woman answering, she left.

 

“Well, well what a night.”

Uranus just came back to her home, a small apartment located in the neighborhood near the forge. She immediately went to bed, exhausted with the small talk she had.

“When was the last time I talked to someone? It’s been so long I can’t even remember.” She muttered, looking at the white ceiling.
“Let’s hope it won’t happen again, I’ve been reckless and bothered someone. Can’t even stick to my own principles, what a shame I am.”

She felt very sleepy, at least she’ll maybe be able to sleep for a while. That though made her a bit happier and, as the city was slowly waking up, she fell asleep.
Unfortunately, an hour and half later, she was fully awake and going to her kitchen, realized that she forgot to go hunting. No food today, it’s okay, she doesn’t use that much energy. She’ll have to think about it tonight.

The night...

“And I’m thinking about it again, great! It’s true I left a bit fast but I do that all the time when someone tries to talk to me, what’s the deal with it? I should have left as soon as she saw me. I’ll never see her again anyways so there’s no need to think of it.” Uranus said out loud, trying to convince herself.

But she knew she was lying, she has seen the other person a few times before, always leaving the headquarters of the Knight of Favonius, often at some random time of the night, even though it’s been between 4 and 6am lately. She also knew that she looked tired, overworked and in a hurry all the time. And that she would sometime pass not far from Uranus’ favorite rooftop, and that she now would recognize her. Great.

Notes:

Annd that's it for the first chapter. It's a tiny bit short but the chapter lenght will stabilize later.
Let me know your thoughts it would help me a lot!
Thanks for reading.

Posted on: 08/28/2023
Word count: 1469 (hehe funny number)