shipwrecked || furina & neuvillette

🫧 7 🫧

Furina walks into Neuvillette's office to find Clorinde pacing in front of his desk.
"You're up early," she says when she glances up at Furina. Neuvillette walks in behind her, closing the door behind them.
"And yet you're here before us," Neuvillette speaks.
"Yes, well, the thought of a trained assassin wandering around Fontaine does not send one to sleep easily."
Furina sits down in a chair, crossing her legs over one another.
"How does one go about finding Lyney and his siblings?" She starts the conversation.
Clorinde raises a brow. "You want to talk to them? What would they offer?"
"Details about The Knave," Furina speaks before Neuvillette has the opportunity to. "She's attacked me to get what information she needs before, there's no reason she wouldn't try to do that again."

The sun crawls in through the windows as it rises over Fontaine.
Furina is listening to Clorinde suggest different ways of contacting the three Fatui members, her mind thinking.
"Doesn't Lyney do a magic show on a Thursday and Friday evening at the Opera Epiclese? At least, he used to."
Neuvillette's face twitches with recognition. "Indeed he does," the chief justice replies, nodding.
"That means that he'll likely be rehearsing there all afternoon." Furina tells the two of them. "If we're lucky, we might be able to catch them before the show." She hopes that she is not conveying the nerves that she is feeling on the inside. The thought of seeing inside the Opera Epiclese does not make her happy but she will admit that some of the fear that she has been living with for the past month has disappeared. Having a human life... it suddenly seemed so fragile. But now, she knows that she doesn't have that worry. She knows that Neuvillette will break the curse if she were to ask him about it at any time. She knows that she is not alone. Of course, this may be their little secret - much like the kiss they shared last night, but there is reassurance in that fact.

She can't help but think ahead to this evening, when Neuvillette told her they'd practice her Hydro powers. She knows that she will be just fine... but her powers are hydro. The manipulation and creation of water. Clorinde eventually sits down beside Furina. They're getting nowhere, just circling different ideas. Furina finally speaks an idea that has been swirling around in her head for twenty minutes.
"I think," Furina suggests, unsure of how this idea will be taken by Neuvillette. "That we have to do something big enough to catch the attention of whoever it is that is out to get me."
"Absolutely not." Neuvillette practically snaps.
Furina glares at him. "It makes sense, Neuvillette. Think about it. If we give them an opportunity to catch me, let them think that they have outwitted us... when really we have been the great masterminds behind it. It shall have to be staged, something so big and great that all of Teyvat will witness." Furina pauses. "A funeral for Focalors; a grand event worthy of the death of an Archon."
Furina can see from the way that Neuvillette is watching her, from the pleading of his eyes telling her to back down from the idea, that he does not support her idea.
"News of that would travel through Teyvat in hours," Clorinde nods. "The Fatui Harbinger and their accomplices would have to have some balls to target you in a busy environment like that."
"We're not-" Neuvillette begins, but Furina swiftly cuts him off.
"Because it's so busy... that's what makes me invisible. The focus isn't on me, it's on Focalors... they would know that."
"Furina," Neuvillette starts to show agitation in his voice. "We are not doing that."
"And why not?" Furina exclaims. "If we get Hu Tao involved - the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has ties to the Fatui. Logically, it will spread like wildfire. It will reach Snezhnaya and Tsaritsa in moments. And all we must do is act our parts."
Neuvillette puts down the pen he was holding, the two of them staring at each other.
"It's too dangerous." Neuvillette shakes his head.
"But..." Clorinde thinks out loud, glancing between the two of them. "If it is an open invitation, surely there'll be more people in attendance that care about Furina, than those who wish to kill her."
"It draws too much attention to Fontaine. To Furina. I'm sure that word of an attempted assassination has already escaped the region."
"It does not matter, that is what needs to happen. Let them think that we are so distracted with planning a funeral to be concerning ourselves with what the Fatui Harbingers may be devising."
She can see Neuvillette grit his teeth together, he finally looks away from her. She suspects that he is realising that her idea is clever, but will never admit that.
"Clorinde," Neuvillette looks over at the champion duelist, who straightens up. "I will accompany Miss Furina to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor today."