The journey beyond the Curtain Call

Prologue

Hello everyone, so before reading, do keep in mind that there are spoilers in this chapter of the Furina quest, and it highly depends on the story, so you need to be at least familiar with the story quest.

Also, I will soon post this on AO3, making it my debut AO3 book.

Also, another thing that is non-canon and a headcanon of mine is that during the 500 years, Furina actually learned some basic level of combat and knows a lot of stuff, cuz if she tried to research how to deal with the prophecy, she had to have a VAST knowledge of things.

With that, let's get into it.

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Neuvillette was standing in front of Focalors.

She had just explained her plan to him, and he was overwhelmed.

"But... Furina is only human, isn't she? Even though she has had a long life... her mind is no stronger than an ordinary human being! I... I cannot begin to fathom what she had to endure, it must have been torture to her," Neuvillette said in a grave tone.

"Indeed. And although she is me in a human form... I do owe her an apology. I have a few things prepared to aid her, but I'll leave that up to you... after all, o' Hydro Dragon, all this was done to return the authority to you. A vision, one that is more powerful than other visions, thanks to the excess Indemnitium, and the same curse of immortality I placed on her back then. Should she find something to dedicate herself to, I suppose that she should be given those. But of course, it will be your decision."

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Furina and Aether were taking a stroll after a talk with Navia. Aether told Paimon to stay behind, as he knew she didn't know how to read the room. As much as he liked her company, she really said some stupid things.

"I... I don't have many friends I can be honest with, so maybe she's right. You're the closest thing I have to friends that I have..." Furina said, looking down.

"I..." Aether started, but stopped. He had a lot of things he wanted to say, but the guilt of it all stopped him from saying it. How could he, when he was the cause of her pain?

"I'm just so grateful Miss Navia was so understanding. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure if I was ready to meet her..." Furina said, noticing Aether's uneasy look.

They then continued to walk in silence.

'How much pain is she in...' thought Aether, looking at her face as she wore a sad smile.

"It's always easier to run from your problems, but it never fixes anything. You can't get around the obstacles without facing them..." she said turning to him.

"So that's why you were nervous when they brought up Poisson..."

"Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. But it was something that I had to do. As I was saying, I wanted to see things I could never in past..."

She went on to tell Aether about her fear, and how she felt, as they moved to a more secluded place.

'Here she's talking about facing everything, while I keep running away. What am I even scared of... her hating me?'

He couldn't bring himself to talk to her before. Just the thought of her looking at him with disdain pained him more than any injury ever did.

'I just... after 500 years... I just want to see her happy...' he thought, not noticing the tears welling up in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, you probably just wanted a relaxing stroll, and here I am dumping all of this ont-- TRAVELLER! Why are you crying?" asked Furina, surprised by his tears, as he was jerked out of his thoughts.