Chapter Text
Furina, Dehya and Cyno stood at the edge of the sea of sands. The road was long and perilous, but the destination loomed in reach.
After Cyno agreed to the plan, he looked into the archives of the Grandsage searching for the keyword that Dedro Archon left.
“The story of old says that in the old world there lived a God whose Domain was the entirety of Sumeru. The ‘heart of oasis’ was the source of this God’s power. This heart is beating somewhere beneath the sand to this very day. The place where it's buried is called the realm of beginnings. It's where every elemental lifeform in Teyvat was born.”
Furina listened to the story, so it was a God as they surmised, but what was more important than its origin was its location.
“Did you find out where it is?” she asked.
Dehya interfered after Cyno’s hesitation. “Depending on the description, I can find it.”
Now, withstanding the scorching sand and the long hot distance for hours, Furina was glad they were close. She wore a headscarf and thick clothes to protect herself from the sun, but unlike Dehya and Cyno she wasn’t used to the desert of Sumeru. Without her vision, she was nothing more than a fragile human who couldn’t even conjure water to quench her thirst. Still, the promise of finding out the truth about Nahida’s death and protecting Neuvillette from facing this alone made it easier.
It hadn’t been hard for the General Mahamatra to sneak out unnoticed with her, but how long their absence was going to remain unnoticed was another thing. They needed to be quick about this.
When the sandstorm began to clear, they finally arrived at a huge cave beneath the sand. “This should be the location, at the end of this cave,” Dehya said, advancing up ahead.
“Something feels wrong,” Cyno spoke softly so as to not disturb the calm before the storm. “If we are close, there’s no way this thing hasn’t sensed our presence and yet it didn’t attack us or send any earthquakes our way.”
“You have a point,” Furina feared that it was playing with them, watching them approach it like moths to a fatal flame. The fact that it didn’t warn nor welcome them meant that it was waiting for them to come willingly into its trap.
If something happened, what could she even do against it? She was powerless without her vision. She wouldn’t be able to protect Cyno or Dehya if something went wrong. Furina did not want to risk their life any more than she wanted to risk anyone else’s life in Sumeru, but someone had to deal with this thing and learn the truth, and she didn’t this one to be Neuvillette.
“Furina,” Cyno must have noticed the uncertain look on her face. “Don’t worry. I too have the spirit of a God residing within me and your power is also extraordinary.”
Furina smiled weakly in response. It was too late to regret their actions anyway.
“If this thing could hurt us, then it would have by now,” Dehya said trying to reassure her too.
“Or… it simply doesn’t know of your transgression here yet,” a voice spoke to them, popping up mysteriously from the void.
They all turned at the same time to the voice source to see a guy with a big hat hovering up in the air.
As he descended lower approaching them, Furina asked. “Who are you?”
“Who I am is not important. I’m just a nameless wanderer.”
***
Neuvillette had been flying over the desert for hours looking for anything suspicious or a source of abnormal power in the vicinity of where the tremors had taken place earlier when they had gone there.
He suddenly felt a jolt in his chest and clutched his clothes. It wasn’t anything tangible, just an odd sudden feeling of alarm and it disappeared just as quickly, but Neuvillette felt uneasy about it for some reason, as if something bad was about to happen.
His brain immediately thought of Furina. It couldn’t be. If something happened to Furina, he wouldn’t just suspect it, he’d know. His senses were tuned to Furina. Anything that happened to her before hit him immediately and he knew for certainty where she was. After all his power inside her vision connected them…
His thought trailed off and his hand went absentmindedly to his coat pocketing the vision and looking at it in disbelief. It couldn’t be…
This could not have been Furina’s intention from the beginning. She… wouldn't trick him like this. She wouldn’t betray him. More than this, this thing could not have been the only thing that connected him to Furina.
His gut feeling just now. The sudden alarm. It suddenly made sense now and he decided to not ignore it. He darted back immediately to the camp, grip tightening around the vision like a vice, refusing to believe what he knew was true.
*
Cyno raised his spear in the direction of the mysterious person facing him with a menacing look. “This is not the time for riddles. Explain yourself!”
The stranger chuckled lightly. “You’re right. You don’t have much time until you are discovered,” he then looked at Furina and said. “You. I have been waiting for you. I knew you’d come here.”
Furina’s eyes widened in surprise, but before she could ask anything, the ground started to crumble.
The wanderer looked over his shoulder and said. “The dragon couldn’t discover you because I set a hidden barrier separated from time and space while it was not looking, but nothing could be hidden from its watchful eyes for long,” he spoke quickly as the ground started to shake harder.
A dragon? They were facing a dragon? Furina couldn’t help this bad feeling that settled in the pit of her stomach as the ground started to crumble all around her. Dehya planted her claymore on the ground and clutched Furina’s shoulder to steady her.
“If you stay here you will fall into its domain, I can teleport you out,” he continued, giving them a final warning. “Choose quickly!”
Furina looked at her two companions who nodded back in determination. “We have to face it!”
The time for retreat was gone before Furina finished her words. They were being sucked through the tunnel falling into the endless pit of light leading to another domain.
*
Alhaitham ran toward him as he flew back to camp as if he were waiting for him.
“Is Furina okay?” Neeuvillette asked urgently before his feet even touched the ground.
“She ran off.”
Damn it! He was wishing to f*cking Celestia that his gut feeling was wrong, but it had never been wrong when it came to Furina.
“-she wasn't alone, the General Mahamatra and the head of the mercenaries were with her.”
Neuvillette didn’t know if that made it better or worse. At least she wasn’t alone unprotected, but she planned this… with them? She was still in danger. He needed to get to her.
“Where did they go?” He asked too violently and too out of composure, but he couldn’t care less about it at this moment.
“I don’t know for sure, but Cyno had been looking into a certain location. He thought he was sneaky about it but-” Alhaitham looked up and stopped talking, seemingly realizing Neuvillette was not even listening. “I will give the location.”
As soon as Alhaitham gave him the info, Neuvillette was dashing through the sky faster than he ever did in his life. He cursed himself. How could he have been so stupid? How could he never have suspected anything about Furina’s sudden change of heart and insistence on handing him her vision?
*
“Puny humans. You shouldn't have come here.”
A voice spoke to them. Intimidating. At first, they didn’t realize what was happening and when they could finally see, Furina couldn’t believe her eyes. She had never seen anything bigger than this dragon. Its outlines didn’t even fit inside her vision.
Cyno and Dehya looked as shocked and speechless as her, looking in awe at the massive dragon.
The dragon fixed Furina with its blazing eyes. “I remember you. You’re the human who resisted my control.”
Furina felt a cold chill run through her body at the reminder of that strange power that tried to take over her mind in Apam Woods. She didn’t resist it. It was Neuvillette who helped her overpower it.
This confirmed it. This was the culprit they were seeking. Moreover, Neuvillette was right, this was the same power they faced in Apam Woods.
Suddenly realization washed over her. “You’re the Dendro Dragon,” she said in disbelief once she recovered his ability for speech. “You’re an elemental dragon… Just like Neuvillette.”
Cyno glanced over at her and then back at the dragon. “Were you the one who killed Lesser Lord Kusanali?”
“I’m Apep. The Dragon of Verdure.” The majestic voice thundered all around them.
Furina thought the situation couldn’t get any worse… but she knew now. This dragon could control them if it wanted to. It had the power of dreams exactly like Nahida… and if it had it since Apam Woods, then their earlier assumption was correct… Nahida had been dead this whole time and this was the thing who took her power.
“I have nothing to say to mortals,” the dragon said, ignoring their questions. “But I will speak to the Hydro Dragon.”
Furina stifled a gasp, trying not to expose the fear she was feeling under the dragon’s gaze.
The dragon continued speaking disdainfully. “You’re the Hydro Sovereign’s pet, aren’t you? Tell me. If I take you away, will he come for you?”
Furina knew Apep wasn’t really asking. If this dragon was watching them in Apam Woods and as they searched in the tunnel, then it saw enough of Neuvillette’s relationship with her, but she tried anyway. “No. He won’t.”
The condescending laugh the dragon let out sent a shiver through her. “I didn't think a human could be of much importance to someone like us, but I was mistaken. You are trying to protect him,” the dragon spared her only these words before capturing her.
In a second she found herself encased in a dendro shield far above the ground. “But you don’t need to fear for him from me. We’re relatives. In fact, I won’t kill you as a good-faith gesture.”
Furina was unable to move or free herself. Dammit, if only she had her vision with her.
“Furina!” Cyno and Dehya tried to retrieve her. Cyno extended an electro arm to pull her back.
Furina wanted to stop him. They were no match for this dragon. If it decided they were a nuisance, it could smite them easily.
Just as Furina opened her mouth to tell them to leave her and run away, a quick surge of power tore open the shield that held her in and she started free-falling.
Cyno’s clawed arm picked her up before she collided with the hard surface. Looking up, she saw the figure who freed her. It was that strange guy with the hat from before.
“Run now!” He commanded with an urgent voice. “Get out while you still can!”
“Let’s go,” Dehya told Cyno and they started to run out.
By now they must have realized they didn’t stand a chance against this dragon, but Furina wasn’t even sure they would be able to get out if Apep didn’t want them to.
With a last look toward the wanderer, she decided to follow suit and run away. She knew she should return to save that guy, but what could she do without her powers?
Her heart was drumming in her chest as they were about to reach the end of the tunnel. She needed to go find help. Neuvillette was the only one now who could help.
Just as she had that thought, she was being swept off the ground by a blitzing shadow. One she could recognize anywhere. “Neuvillette!”
Apep’s roaring voice felt like it was speaking inside their minds. “You were faster than I expected, Hydro Sovereign.”
Neuvillette stopped for a moment after reaching the end of the tunnel, waiting for Dehya and Cyno to catch up.
“Don’t concern yourself about those humans’ safety. If I wanted them dead, they would have been already,” Apep spoke again. “Do not waste this opportunity to talk.”
Furina looked up to see Neuvillette’s reaction. He waited for a moment to make sure Apep was telling the truth. Once he saw Cyno and Dehya get out, he finally said to the voice around him. “Oh, I will be back. Trust me.”
He started dashing away through the desert at an impossible speed. Furina had to yell for him to hear her. “Wait! There’s still someone inside! We need to go back and save him.”
He spared her only a quick glance, not stopping or turning back. Furina panicked and tried to stop him. “What are you doing? He saved me. That dragon would kill him!”
“You have yourself to thank for that,” Furina was shocked by his cold attitude.
When they reached back the camp, he went for the furthest tent he could find and put her down.
Neuvillette had been awfully silent the entire way. She knew he would be mad, but she didn’t realize just how mad. When he finally spoke, his voice was just as intimidating as his silence. “Not only did you disobey my command, but you tricked the others too into risking their lives.”
“I’m sorry, but you left me no choice.”
“Tell me everything, start from the beginning.” He commanded simply not bothering to acknowledge her apology.
“Ask me nicely and I’ll consider it,” Furina said looking him back in the eyes.
“I’m not here to play games with you. There's nothing you could have done against that thing. Why can't you understand that?”
“And you think you can do something about it? You only made it back because it spared you,” he squinted at her, not quite understanding. Furina could feel his frustration, but she was just as frustrated as him trying to talk sense into him. She had not forgotten why she kept Neuvillette in the dark in the first place. It was only because she wanted to protect him.
She decided to explain to him everything. From Nahida’s words to the conversation they had with Apep. If she thought knowing that Apep is a dragon sovereign too would change his stance, she was mistaken. That fact hardly seemed to mean anything to him.
Furina tried to convince him again. “If we can't do it together why do you think you can do it alone? That thing is more powerful than you are now.”
He stared into her in silence for long seconds. “Maybe,” he said eventually. “It doesn't change the fact that I’m the best chance this land has to defeat it, and the only thing you will do if you come with me there is allow it to take you hostage to tie my hands.”
After it already happened once, Furina wasn’t going to be too stubborn to refuse to admit it, but that didn’t mean that she was okay with sending Neuvillette away alone. Neuvillette was the type to hit first and think later and Furina knew that power alone couldn’t win against that thing. But… after finding out that Apep was behind this she felt herself more at ease, even if she shouldn’t considering what it did.
“We don't have to fight if we're smart enough. It's your kin, we might find a way to reason with her.” She suggested.
“Did you forget that it killed your friend?”
“I didn’t.”
He sighed. “With the power of Buer, Apep could eliminate Sumeru. The only choice would be to kill her.”
Furina wasn’t sure about this. Apep could have destroyed Sumeru long before if that was its intention, so why didn’t it? Many things were puzzling. The explosion was also one of them. If they were wrong about the explosion and Nahida was dead since Apam Woods then what was that explosion? The only way to get those answers now would be Apep.
“Even if it came down to that, I want to go with you,” she said.
“It seems you misunderstand the situation. I’m not negotiating with you again, Furina. You already tricked me once,” he took a couple of slow steps toward her.
Furina was startled to hear her name in such a chilling tone. His eyes glowed with intimidating light. She took a step back. What was he planning to do? “Your powers don’t work against me-”
She cut her statement in shock once she remembered... Neuvillette realized it too. He took out the vision from his pocket and clasped it in a fist. Furina gasped as hydro ropes tied her hand and dragged her to the tent’s wall fastening her against a chair. Furina looked at him in shock.
There was a hint of regret on his face, but only for a second. “It was you who gave it to me. And without it, you’re powerless against me,” he said.
“You’re talking to me as if I was your enemy.”
With a gesture of his hand, a hydro seal started to surround this place. “This barrier is indestructible and no mortal can pass through it. Only your vision can dismantle it.” He explained to her then set the glowing vision on a small table across from her just away from her reach.
“Neuvillette if you do this, I will never forgive you!”
His face remained stone cold. “I know.”
“If you died…”
“Don’t worry. If I die, those chains will disappear and you’ll be free to reclaim your vision and get out.”
Those were the last words he said to her before he disappeared.
No… No… “You stupid ass!” She yelled to nobody. It was not herself she was worried about. He didn’t even take the vision with him. He would stand no chance against Apep.
“AAAH!” She yelled again unable to free herself. She needed to get out this instant, but there was no way out. She looked at the vision tempting her… just right outside her reach.
