The Final Chapter

Aftermath

Chapter 24

She was nervous. Which made sense. This would be the first ever meeting of the four nations in unity. And it happened in their nation. She couldn't screw this up. "I hate that he still can't be bothered to come back. Even for this!" Lisa chuckled and put her hand on Jean's shoulder. "I know you' re upset...", then her face became stirn, "but it's an important expedition"
The Acting Grandmaster sighed and looked towards a letter on her desk. The last letter Varka had sent. Before the war. "He isn't even responding", she said and turned her head back to Lisa. Her face still stirn, but her eyes full of pity. Quickly Jean looked away. They both knew that, he was not ignoring them. But that he wasn't able to respond due to complications. "He surely, is still alive...", Lisa's voice tried to calm her down. But they both knew, that this wasn't helping.
"It's time", Jean said looked back at the Librarian. "Good luck.", she got as an answer, before she left her office. In the hallway before it, her guests already waited. The three current leaders of Sumeru, Liyue and Inazuma. Or at least people, who represented their nations interests, while governments reformed.
Liyue's Tianquan stepped forward: "Acting Grandmaster. I am very pleased, that this meeting is possible today" The other two nodded eagerly. "I am too, Lady Ningguang. Please follow me", Jean responded and brought her guests into a conference room of the Knights of Favonius. The long oval table had been prepared in advance for them. Noelle had made some baked goods from Mondstadt for all and some people had brought or made specialties from the other nations to make them comfy. Jean stood next to the door way and invited all of them in to sit down. Then Jean gave everyone a warm cup of tea and a glass with water, before sitting down herself. For a short while it was quiet at the table. Noone dared to speak the first word. This was absurd. Something like this was completly new. These four nations had been fine on their own for the longest time, but now they needed to work together. To prevent everything that had happened from ever happening again.
"So", Jean cleared her throat finally able to speak, "today we all came here, to decide over the fate of our nations. Mondstadt was chosen as neutral ground, because we have suffered no destruction or loss of people. The topic today is the question if we form an alliance with each other. Swearing to never attack each other and support each other in times of crisis and the restructuring of lost architecture and goverment systems" Lady Ningguang nodded and looked to the other two representives. They both looked down to the floor after that last sentence. Both of their nations had suffered the most out of the three. Inazuma city was in ruins and ashes and their leader, their archon, had lost her life in that war. Also the leader of the Yashiro comission was killed in the war, leaving his sister Ayaka to his position and giving her the duty to attend this meeting for Inazuma. Sumeru's archon was also assinated and the nation fell into a civil war, because the new goverment structure wasn't able to be formed as quickly as needed. Regions in the nation had been destroyed and many people lost their houses and their loved ones. The Scribe of the Sumeru Akademiya who was the Acting Grand Sage of the nation lifted his head up: "Sumeru wants to partipate in this alliance. We don't have much of an army, but once our nation is stable again we can provide resources for rebuild purposes and can share something like wood and spices in trade" Miss Kamisato nodded and then looked at Jean and Ningguang. "All parties in Inazuma want to join this alliance too. Right now we appreciate any help, but once rebuilt, we can provide soldiers for potential threats.", Miss Kamisato said looking back up nervously fidgeting with her sleeve. The Tianquan took a sip from her tea before saying: "Let's not focus on potential upcoming threats, everyone. First we-"
Alhaitham interrupted her by scoffing: "Easier said than done. In Fontaine and Natlan are investigations happening, because of the assasinations of their archons. Not far from now, their suspiscions will lead them to think it was one of us. Also Snezhnaya's situation is quite fragile, with internal struggles for power and the unhappiness of the people. It's like an explosive barrel, which could get a problem for us..."
Jean nodded: "I'm with the Acting Grand Sage on this one. The war is not fully over yet and we have to be prepared. Due to circumstance Mondstadt remained untouched from this war. We still have all of our forces, which we can provide. We will also be sending materials and work forces to Sumeru and Inazuma to help them reorganizing and rebuilding their nations" She looked at Miss Kamisato and Alhaitham and both of them nodded as an answer. Then she turned to the Tianquan, "What will Liyue do?" Lady Ningguang sighed. "You are right. We have to prepare in case these situations explode although I don't want to think about that. Liyue will, of course, join this alliance too. We can also provide resources to Sumeru and Inazuma, since we fortunately never got under attack. We also have a few forces left in case something escalates", she responded and looked around.
"It's decided then. Sumeru, Liyue, Inazuma and Mondstadt will form Teyvat's first allied force. This is a spark of hope in this world without gods able to save us from catastrophe. From now on we can rely on each other, like we have in this war. We will make every major decision together to prevent conflicts and create a peaceful coexistence for everyone", Jean said.
Her words lighted up a light of hope in Ayakas eyes. Yes, from now on they would have hope. They would have something to rely on, to aid them in times of crisis. If only her brother were here to see this. He would have been proud to know that something like the Sakoku Decree or the Vision Hunt Decree are things of the past and will never be able to return. In this alliance they would come together for important descisions like this and would discuss them. She was hoping for this to work. In this godless world it was their last hope for lasting peace.

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Sooooo I completly forgot to upload yesterday ^^'
Do you guys want the epilogue as payback or do you want to wait for it?