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Esteemed Chief Justice Neuvillette,
Greetings from Sumeru! I know you probably know me as "Buer" or "Lesser Lord Kusanali" but considering I'm writing to you about personal matters I think you should call me Nahida, if you please. xP
I heard through the grapevine (get it?) about what happened in Fontaine, and after thinking it over I had an idea that I wanted to offer you!
I'm sure that Furina is having a hard time adjusting to having a whole new life. I don't know if you're on speaking terms right now, but, if you are, I have someone I'd like to introduce to her! Talking in-depth about his background is difficult thanks to him being in a similar but not one-to-one situation to Furina. Because of that, I thought to ask if I could introduce them. With your permission arranging dates and times, I can arrange for him to travel to Fontaine. They're both very acquired tastes, but I think that if they like each other they could do each other good! :D
He's from Inazuma, and has 'ex-family ties' to the Raiden Shogun. He's often prickly and grumpy, but underneath he's not so bad. He likes bitterness in his food, and he is working on graduating from the Akademiya under my personal instruction from the Vahumana Darshan. He has already published some delightfully incendiary papers in the department! He's almost like a stray cat, really...a little standoffish, but once you're in, you're in.
Like I said, you probably know Furina's state better than I do, so this is a bit of a shot in the dark. But that's alright! Failure is part of the learning process. Please respond with your thoughts when you have them, and keep in mind that this is a personal matter, not a professional one, so don't think of a decline to this idea as being personal. I won't! :P
Please respond at your earliest convenience for further discussion and planning. Please note that my scribe who has been taking most of this letter as dictation will be out of the office for a week and a half starting the week after the post date of this letter so my responses may be delayed. Thanks so much!
Your neighbor ^-^,
Nahida
--
To my neighbor, Lesser Lord Kusanali or Buer, but preferredly Nahida,
I thank you for your concern about the state of Fontaine, and, more relevantly, the state of Furina. Imported goods from Sumeru have been up as part of the reconstruction effort, and all of the graduates that I have interacted with in the course of it have been extremely capable and skilled individuals. Truly yours is a land excellent at cultivating the wisdom you value.
In regards to Furina, we speak on occasion, though not at length. She sometimes avoids me, although she still agrees to my checking in on her once in a while thanks to my continued concern about her health. Your proposal on this front does intrigue me. From what I know about you, I consider your judgment to be very good on most topics, and you to be one of the better archons. (My feelings about the Seven- or, well, the Six- as an institution are not worth committing to paper, as we both know, words spoken in anger have consequences the same as facts spoken coldly.) Therefore, I have thought over your proposal for a few weeks, additionally waiting out the period where you said your correspondence with me might be delayed. I hope this was not inconvenient.
Enclosed with this is an open ticket endorsed by yours truly, good for passage to Fontaine via Lumidouce or Romaritime Harbors. The seal of the Chief Justice is recognizable to all Fontainians and Fontainian ships. I recommend showing it to a melusine of any stripe, as any of them are typically aware of where to find me and how to get there. They are also trustworthy and dear to me, so I respectfully ask you and your acquaintance treat them well in your travels. Once you have arrived at either harbor, passage to the Court of Fontaine across the Terrestrial Lake is a simple matter, and this ticket will provide ease in arranging that should you prefer to avoid the aquabus line from Romaritime Harbor.
I do believe that having more acquaintances will do Furina some good. While she speaks to many people, most if not all of them knew her as the Archon first, and bring that perception to bear when looking at her. I am not an exception. A friend who sees her as just Furina would do her very good. If you wish to tell the person you wish to introduce about her as a person, my opinion is as follows.
Miss Furina is a young lady of great integrity and great stubbornness. She has an unmatched sweet tooth and loves animals, especially cats, who only sometimes dislike her in return. She is a creative of peerless quality, and is currently working as a stage manager and director for various Fontainian theater and film productions. In the past she has worked as an actress, and while she at times does so again, she prefers direction. Obviously, the stage and screen captivates her, but she is also a fan of literature and is very well-read. Like she used to, she has many friends but very few close confidantes. She can get along with almost anyone.
From what you said of the young person you wanted to introduce to her, he sounds generally abrasive, which Furina is more than capable of handling, especially if he ignores former titles and accolades, which is always a relief to her of late.
Again, thank you for your concern for Furina- I will arrange an introduction if word reaches me that the ticket has reappeared within the borders of Fontaine.
With much regards, your neighbor,
Iudex Neuvillette
--
"Miss Furina," Neuvillette scolds, "I asked you about this several weeks ago, and you said that if you had time-"
Furina groans, digging in her heels to little avail as Neuvillette drags her into the living room of her townhome. "I know, I know, I said if I have time, but I have very important appointments today!"
"With whom."
Furina doesn't speak for a minute.
"My point exactly."
"Ugh, but this is so stupid," Furina groans. "I don't need you to introduce me to people."
"Obviously not, but we've been working on getting you out of the house more. Am I correct?"
"...yes," Furina says sullenly.
"And is this not 'out of your house.' I specifically did not arrange this meeting to be in your home to avoid crossing boundaries-"
"I hate how respectful you are," Furina grumbles.
"-it's a coffee, miss Furina. Just..." Neuvillette trails off, and looks at her. "Humor an old man for once?"
"We're the same age."
"That never stopped you from calling me an old man before."
Furina looks up at him, and he just looks concerned for her again, like he always has. She huffs out a sigh, slumping her shoulders. "Oh, fine, and don't say I never did anything for you, Neuvillette!"
"Then get dressed."
"Where's this guest waiting?"
"An out of the way cafe I buy from sometimes. Outdoor seating, but private. I will know if you try to skip your appointment, as always."
"How long before you won't be disappointed in me for leaving?"
"Fifteen minutes."
Furina groans. "That's so long."
"Eat something then. Your orders are on my tab."
"Oh, well, you could have opened with that!"
--
At least now that it's been a few months since she officially stepped down as archon, people don't look at her and whisper as she passes in the streets. They do sometimes if Neuvillette goes somewhere with her, but that's to be expected, and it's more about him than her. The speculation around what, exactly, Neuvillette is has been revived by him taking over the duties of archon while making it very clear he is not an archon. Most people are unaware that there is no way anyone else could be hydro archon ever again, and so, similarly to the public in Liyue, they expect someone new to fill the position sooner rather than later. Furina heard a courier talking about it once while she was walking to a shooting site. "Who knows how long it'll take," he had said dismissively, "Gods operate on a different timeline than the rest of us. For them, five, ten years, it's nothing."
Having known Neuvillette, who very much does operate similarly, she knows it's true.
So it seems no one minds a transitional period, especially not with someone competent and well-liked at the helm instead.
It's a relief, honestly. She hates feeling watched, especially now.
Neuvillette does not tell lies, especially not to her, and so, he did mean it that the place he selected was quiet, and isolated. She orders a coffee and cake, and sits down outside with a huff. Neuvillette said she'd know him when she sees him, and that he was going to have one of the Marechaussee Phantom notify him that he could catch up with her. Of course Neuvillette had resorted to putting pressure on her to be on time by exaggerating the start time of her appointment. How many times has he done that to her now?
Furina absently eats her cake- La Lettre a Focalors- maybe that's self-important, but it always tastes so good. She's jerked out of a train of thought about her latest production by someone standing next to her table.
"Oh. It must be you I'm being..." she gestures dismissively. "Set up with."
"Yeah," the boy says. They look to be about the same age, but Furina can tell that that's almost certainly not the case. "So. You're Furina."
"Hmph. Neuvillette didn't even tell me your name."
He shrugs. "Don't really have one. They call me Hat Guy in Sumeru."
"You're pulling my leg," she scoffs, "People do not full-time call you Hat Guy."
"Take it up with the Dendro Archon. It was her idea."
Furina makes a disbelieving noise, stirring her coffee absently. "Well, I don't know how you feel about this, but-"
Furina and the boy both talk over each other, saying essentially the same thing.
"-you don't have to be here because Neuvillette put you up to it. He's just such a helicopter sibling. Just order something and leave if you want to."
"-I don't care about this very much, so if you just want to finish your coffee and leave, I don't care. Buer likes to stick her nose into my business."
They both break off, process what just happened, and then Furina dissolves into giggles. "Sorry, sorry- it's just...did we actually get set up for introductions like we're some kind of...animals being introduced to the same environment? Did Neuvillette think the way to get people to make friends is to let them sniff each other through a door?"
The boy cracks a slight smile at that. "I bet she persuaded him it was a great idea. From the bit I've talked to him, it seems like he doesn't really know how people actually think."
"He absolutely does not," Furina assures her companion. "I've been trying to teach him for so long, but he's never learned. Oh, take a seat! Neuvillette said that we're ordering on his tab, and I intend to take full advantage of that!"
The boy makes a hmph noise, but he does sit down. "Doesn't he pay for everything for you?"
Furina scoffs, offended. "Not anymore!" She pauses. "...well, he pays my rent, but I have a job of my own, so I buy my own food and groceries now."
"What, and you just let him?"
Furina pauses, and then shrugs. "Sure, I could take on more work, but he would fuss more if I told him not to pay for everything. He doesn't spend his money on anything else."
"I have a hard time imagining what his hobbies would even look like."
Furina lights up. "Oh. My. Gods. You're not from Fontaine, so you don't even know."
"Don't know what."
Furina grins, leaning over the table. "Water. Tasting."
The boy's nose wrinkles. "What?"
"Water tasting," Furina wheezes. "If he didn't spend his mora on me, it would be on fancy water from all over Teyvat. He keeps them in glass bottles in a secret case in his office, with handwritten labels he makes."
"...you're kidding."
"No!" Furina exclaims. "I'm not!"
The boy finally caves, and laughs at that. "That's insane."
"He's the worst," Furina groans. She loves him, of course, but he's the worst.
"You should hear Buer. She's always trying to feed me. Says it's all...Sumeran folk tales about being healthy." He shrugs. "...I don't need to eat, physiologically...every time I tell her that she says that it doesn't matter."
"Is it good food, at least?"
"...pretty good."
"Ahh, I'm terrible at enjoying Sumeran food," Furina groans, "Unless it's the sweets."
"I hate sweet things."
Furina gasps. "You hate- this is wretched! Evil! Immoral! Gardes!"
He kicks her under the table. "You can't send me to the Fortress of Meropide anymore for things like that."
"Ugh, but I wish I could."
"Great," he says, with only a trace of sarcasm, "I've killed this friendship with efficiency. We can both go tell them they're wrong and forget about this."
Furina, of course, pounces on that. "You haven't even ordered a coffee, Hat Guy."
"Ugh. I suppose. Fontainian coffees are always packed with a bunch of other things. All it needs is a bit of cinnamon at most."
Furina, who takes her coffee with more cream than coffee, is offended once more. "You're atrocious."
Hat Guy, who was standing up to order, sticks his tongue out at her. She returns the gesture, folding her arms.
"Marinate on what an awful person I am. I'll be right back."
Furina sips her coffee, until he returns with one of his own. As he sits down across from her, she pauses.
"You have an anemo vision?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
"Mm. I don't know what I expected when Neuvillette said he was going to try and introduce me to someone from Sumeru, but you're not it."
"That's because I'm not from Sumeru," Hat Guy corrects. "I just live there now."
"Your vision is Sumeran."
"Because I got it after I moved there."
"Ah."
They go silent for a while, before Hat Guy tips his hat back slightly, so that she'll have a better view of his face.
"This isn't the worst coffee I've ever had."
Furina brightens up. "Neuvillette may be a socially inept dummy, but he does keep tabs on what the best places in Fontaine are."
"And you?"
"Hm?"
"Do you have other places in Fontaine you like?"
"What, are we extending this beyond the mandated fifteen minutes now?"
"Neuvillette only demanded fifteen minutes? Buer demanded an hour."
"Ooh, looks like my big sibling loves me more than yours."
"She's hardly a sister, she's a taskmaster," Hat Guy complains. "But yeah, whatever. You're not intolerable. For an archon."
"Former archon." She pauses, frowns, and shakes her head. "Honestly...I was never really an archon. Not mentally, at least."
He opens his mouth, closes it, and then thinks for a second before saying, "I don't think an archon is something anyone should want to be. So it's whatever."
"It's awful," Furina agrees. "I wouldn't take the job again for the world." She tilts her head. "So...the reason they asked us to spend at least fifteen minutes to an hour together is that we both have certain inflammatory opinions about archons?"
"Probably. Among other things."
She's curious what that means, but definitely senses that prying into that is a horrible idea. "Mm. Well, there are worse things to build a friendship on, don't you think?"
"Probably."
They fall silent for a while, Furina twitching her leg under the table, before her eyes light up with another topic of conversation. "Have you been to any performances at the Opera Epiclese yet?"
"What, trials? That's just-"
Furina waves it off. "No, no! I mean actual performances!"
"No. Why, should I?"
Furina beams. "Well, this week something excellent is showing! There will be a two-night blowout for a play that yours truly helped write the book on showings of. A lovely operatic musical in old Fontainian, Les Aléas de l'Amour. It's been a new breakout since last season, the tragic story of the love between an oceanid girl and the bond-son of fairies-"
"Sounds gross."
"Ah, but it's so much more," Furina gushes. She could be mistaken, but she thinks that Hat Guy inclines his head towards her slightly. He's listening, even if it doesn't sound like he likes this sort of thing as much as her. "You see, the fae queen is furious that he has taken a lover, so she hires a murderer to capture the oceanid..."
"Typical stuff so far. Let me guess. The fae boy rescues her or dies trying?"
Furina's eyes sparkle. "Well, you'll have to come to a performance tomorrow night with me to find o-ouuut..."
Hat Guy gives her an annoyed look. "Well now I want to go see it just to tell you what I hate about it."
Furina giggles. "You think that's going to discourage me? Neuvillette and I have had that conversation every opera season for the last three hundred years!"
"Oh, so you can handle constructive criticism, miss 'I wrote the book on showings of this opera.'"
"Yes," Furina sniffs haughtily. "I did not write the narrative, only defined the optimal staging, costuming, and lighting decisions, so unless you have a complaint about any of those, it's no skin off my nose."
"Now you're going to make me nitpick."
"Nitpick if you want!" Furina cries overdramatically. "It will be above reproach if they followed my recommendations!"
"We'll have to see about that." He takes a sip of his coffee. "What time are your tickets for tomorrow, anyway?"
"Oh. Tomorrow evening's show."
"Hm. Should be fine, then. Buer said I can stay in Fontaine as long as I want if you or Neuvillette is aware of it."
"What, do you have to let her know where you go?"
"Usually, considering I'm technically her prisoner."
"Wait, what- Neuvillette did not tell me that part!"
"She pardoned me," he grumbles, "Legally, but not spiritually."
"What were your crimes, being too brooding and sarcastic?"
"Piloting the false god that tried to usurp her."
"Mmm. That is pretty bad," Furina says, nodding as if she's some sort of authority on this. "But I suppose I can forgive you for daring to enter the Nation of Justice if she has let bygones be bygones."
"What's the mora she didn't mention it to Neuvillette?"
"Oh, if she didn't, she's got him all wrong," Furina replies, dismissively. "Neuvillette doesn't care what happens to the other a- to the archons. I found him drinking one of his favorite waters like a fine champagne when the news came in from Liyue."
"Huh."
"You wouldn't think so, would you?"
"Fuck no."
"He'd probably like you for trying to steal power from an archon, at least a little bit."
"Ha. At least I'm off the hook."
"Yes, when you show up at the Opera Epiclese, you can expect an actual opera, not a trial." Furina can't help the note of bitterness that seeps into her voice. For the first time, Hat Guy sits up and pays attention to it.
"Hey. Do you want to get out of here? I can take you somewhere up and quiet." He pauses, then clarifies. "I get the feeling the things we really want to ask each other aren't for discussion in public."
Furina nods. "I have to admit, I'm awfully curious about you. As a person, that is. You must know something about my situation."
"At least with your 'situation' it'll have you a lot more likely to understand mine," Hat Guy snorts, standing up. "You said it was all on Neuvillette's tab, right? So we can just leave?"
"Yeah."
Hat Guy offers her a hand, almost on polite reflex, and Furina accepts.
"Have you ever been to the top of the Palais Mermonia?"
"No. Why?"
"We can do that."
--
To my neighbor, Lesser Lord Kusanali, also known as Nahida,
I thank you for your most insightful recommendation of introductions to be made to miss Furina. It appears that your estimation of their social compatibility was accurate, more accurate than Furina thought it would be, at least. I am writing to notify you, additionally, that he has extended his visit in Fontaine by a week or so, and they have been racing around the countryside. Furina has needed someone with full availability to help her refine combat with her vision, and he has been very helpful.
Accordingly, I wanted to let you know since I heard that his movements are at your discretion, I am considering granting him a more solid version of the Chief Justice's seal of approval, so that he might visit Furina more easily. While I am aware he can use his anemo vision to travel quickly, it might prove less tiring this way.
However, if this meets with your disapproval in any manner, feel free to renegotiate. After all, this is, as your letters have made clear, a purely personal matter.
I am not certain in what mood he will be when he returns to Sumeru but please be assured that I quite honestly see them both in quite high spirits of late. The occasional return here will likely do him some good, although perhaps not to distraction from that Akademiya education you mentioned.
Additionally, thank you for the gift of rainwater from the Apam Woods. Your description of the Varuna Contraption was very intriguing, I must imagine that the underlying principles were introduced from collaboration with the oceanids of Fontaine, perhaps stretching back to the age of Remuria. The water you have produced with it is clean and clear, lacking other flavor profiles in a rather intriguing way, but it shares subtle similarities with other samples from Sumeru. It does seem that a slightly better professional relationship will indeed remain beneficial.
I should state, however, that this will not factor into the final understanding I must reach with you one of these centuries. Forgive me- or do not, but I know you to be a mature and wise individual, so I imagine you had no such expectation in the first place.
Hopefully I will have that 'ward' of yours back in short order after sending this to your office.
Your neighbor,
Iudex Neuvillette
--
To our good friend and neighbor Iudex Neuvillette of Fontaine,
It's wonderful to hear that they've hit it off, and that you enjoyed your present. Please don't worry about bribes. I'm aware of your stance, don't you worry, and I'm just going to work on being good enough to pass on my own. You don't cheat on a test! xD
A- to borrow a phrase from Fontaine- 'carte blanche' to catch a ship headed to Fontaine at the northern shore should be perfectly fine. He tends to talk up how much I control his movements, really! I do keep tabs on him, of course, but he does alright, and it's not like there's that much trouble he can get into anymore.
I had a theory about oceanid contributions to the Varuna Contraption, but I would be overjoyed to hear some of yours. You know the lochfolk much better than I do by nature, I should think? I know many of them left Fontaine towards the beginning of your tenure, however, I don't think there are any permanently residing in Sumeru- at least, nowhere I can detect on my own, and I'm not in the habit of asking Irminsul trivial questions. What's the use of looking everything up when you can solve a puzzle, anyway?
If you want any other water exports, just send some invoices to my office. If you're hung up on the possibility of bias, then don't worry! You can pay for them. That sample was a gift from me as a thank-you for entertaining my plan to introduce them. It's a gift given for a favor you did me, and it's all paid off now. :)
Thank goodness for my favorite scribe being just around the corner whenever I need him. I know it makes me sound terribly spoiled, but, well...my hands are too small to hold most pens effectively. And I know he prefers this to other job duties he has. Most of my correspondence is dictated to 'Hat Guy,' but seeing as this had to do with him, I wouldn't narrate to him a plan to get him a friend, would I? My scribe has a loose taste for Fontainian literature, and I would be very interested in your recommendations to order as a thank-you. [Transcriber's note: Lesser Lord Kusanali, I must remind you that I am going to Fontaine in a few months regardless.] Even if that's just small-talk. Maybe I'll read it instead of you! XP
Hopefully that's everything that needed to be covered for now. Please inform Furina that she's always welcome in Sumeru, in turn!
Your neighbor,
Nahida