The Stage Is Set: The Truth About Lady Furina de Fontaine and Focalors

Prologue

Me, before 4.2: Meh, Fontaine's archon quest isn't anything special and the characters don't seem interesting so I'll probably skip them all. 

Me, after 4.2: Furinaaaa! Huhuhu, I need you! *Proceeds to pull both her character and weapon, spending all my F2P primos and becoming a broke player*

~~~

Furina quietly sat on her throne, Neuvillette's explanation of the four slates sounded like static in her ears.

Did she fail "mirror-me"?

Did she waste five hundred years of effort due to her stupidity?

Did she doom Fontaine to a faith of death just because she couldn't act properly?

Tears rapidly fell from her eyes as she wished nothing more than to curl in on herself, to find comfort that she was never given all these years of pretending. And yet, she couldn't do it, not when there was still an audience in sight. Besides, she didn't deserve any comfort, not when she couldn't even play her role right and basically sentenced Fontaine to death.

Vaguely, she felt the room shake as the terrified screams of her peop– of the Fontainians rang around the room. Wearily looking down, she saw a large whale emerge from the ground as the ̶l̶i̶a̶r̶ Traveler and the ̶t̶r̶a̶i̶t̶o̶r̶  Neuvillette fought it. She knew she had to leave before the whale sensed and targeted her as she had no power at her disposal but...

...she was just so tired – She wanted to rest so badly. In fact, she didn't even have the strength to stand. Thus, she leaned in the cold chair and closed her eyes, tears still streaming down her face as she awaited her fate.

Would she be eaten, dissolved or saved?

Only Fate knows the answer.

̶J̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶.̶

Suddenly, she heard the Traveler shout her name as she felt the wind blow on her face. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the Traveler reaching out to her with a desperate look. She was shocked at this, having thought that the Traveler disliked her for her arrogant actions during their meetings. But for the Traveler to appear in front of her with such a face...could it be that the Traveler wanted to save her?

No.

She immediately crushed that idea down. Based on her observations, the most likely reason as to why the Traveler wants to save her is simply because the Traveler wanted answers from her.

"Heh," Furina couldn't help but scoff at her pathetic life.

For five centuries, she forced herself to play the role of another being.

For five hundred years, she acted as if everything was perfectly fine when it was not.

For one hundred eighty two thousand and five hundred years, she held onto the hope that everything she was doing had a purpose.

She endured all the hardships, the loneliness, the mocking of people and didn't give up because she loved Fontaine's people and wanted to save them.

However, after seeing how easily they abandoned her and how the prophecy became true at the end, she couldn't help but wonder if everything was worth it. Because sitting at the cold throne right now without anyone by her side, Furina can't help but believe that everything was in vain.

That all of her efforts were pointless.

That everything was useless.

̶T̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶F̶o̶n̶t̶a̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶e̶r̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶i̶e̶.̶

She closed her eyes again, not wanting to see the Traveler or anyone else ever again, as a final tear fell from her eyes, signifying that she finally accepts the fact that her life was nothing more than a futile effort of a god to save the nation.

In the end, she was only a puppet who had no real use if no one controlled her. She was a mere doll destined to be played and abandoned after some time. She was an actress whose role has finally ended and won't be needed anymore for this show called Fontaine.

However, that might be better because right now, her only wish was to finally put her exhausted soul to rest.

'Soon,' she thought with a small smile. 'Everything will end and I can finally sleep peacefully.'

Because of her closed eyes, she never noticed how everyone in Fontaine started disappearing one after another as a bright light was emitted by the Oratrice.