Meropide Stories

{Updated Weekly} #1 - #wriothesley #1 - #genshinimpact Irina Rimeheart came to Fontaine for a holiday, not a life sentence. A bookstore clerk with a quiet talent for keeping things in order, she's framed by Childe for a crime she didn't commit and sentenced to fifteen years in the Fortress of Meropide, no appeal, no way out but time. Wriothesley, Duke of the Fortress, runs Meropide with the same quiet, absolute control he brings to everything else, careful, composed, and entirely unwilling to let anyone close enough to matter. He's heard every inmate's excuse before. Irina doesn't offer him one, not out of defiance, but because she's innocent, and it never occurs to her that the truth needs dressing up. She's sharp, direct, an open book in every way that keeps pulling his attention back to her, whether he means for it to or not. What starts as reluctant proximity slowly, quietly, becomes something else entirely, filing, paperwork, the odd shared pot of tea, until neither of them can quite pretend it's nothing anymore. But the Fortress has its own secrets, and the deeper Irina looks into her own case, the clearer it becomes that Meropide's troubles and her frame-up were never as separate as they first appeared. A slow burn. A prison. A conspiracy that refuses to stay buried. And a Warden who's spent his whole life keeping people out, slowly, unwillingly, learning what it costs to let someone in. {I do not own the characters of Genshin Impact. Irina is my own original character.}

"𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙤𝙛 𝙁𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙖𝙥𝙚𝙧. 𝙄𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙣 '𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙨' 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙮. [...] 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙢 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙨." You have faced justice for your crimes, at last. Being granted the chance of a rebirth in the underworld, your first day reveals a never-foreseen landscape, economy and society - and, to your biggest surprise, a tea-loving ruler. * Note: this oneshot was written before I played Fontaine's Archon Quest, so the procedures upon entering the Fortress diverge from canon. I did write a small explanation so it would make sense in-world, but in case any reader finds themselves questioning the deviation, this is the reason. Note 2: The narration is in second person, but the protagonist is not y/n. She is an original character of mine and doesn't exist within Genshin's world. Word count: 4.080 Publishing date: 17.03.2024

"In the depths of the Iron Fortress, even the coldest ice begins to melt." Pattra never expected her journey from the breezy hills of Mondstadt to lead her to the sunless corridors of the Fortress of Meropide. As a traveler with a Pyro Vision and a loyal black puma, Nyx, at her side, she was used to freedom - not iron bars. Wriothesley, the Duke of Meropide, is a man of order, cold logic, and frozen silence. He doesn't trust strangers, especially those who carry the warmth of the sun in their eyes. But when Pattra is forced to stay within his domain, the friction between her fire and his ice creates a storm neither of them can control. Can a spark from the City of Freedom survive in the underwater prison? Or will the Duke find himself consumed by the very flame he tried to extinguish? #Wriothesley #GenshinImpact #Fontaine #Romance #SlowBurn #OcCharacter #Pattra #Meropide #Vision #Action