The room that had been alive with laughter fell deathly silent.
The people of Fontaine weren't human.
The Water God was false.
Only the terrible prophecy stood true.
Even though Lumine and the others were not Fontainers themselves, they felt the chill of the revelation keenly.
"Boss said the key to the prophecy is the Star-Swallowing Whale that nests in the Primordial Belly Sea, right?" Paimon asked between bites. "And the boss plans to fling that whale into the cosmos—so won't that undo the prophecy?"
Paimon's optimism was a balm to the distressed Furina and Clorinde. Furina nodded instinctively. In recent years, Fontaine's sea level had indeed risen—because the whale in the Primordial Belly Sea kept swelling. If Su Xuan could remove that whale, the sea might recede, the trigger might be gone.
But Furina let out a heavy sigh.
Everyone present understood her sorrow. These weren't just mimetic people—they were mimetic people with a built-in weakness. A Fontainer could be walking down an avenue, brush water from the Primordial Belly Sea on their hem, and dissolve like mist. It felt so careless—so cruelly unfair.
Furina's big eyes flicked to Su Xuan, who sat silent and composed. The other women followed her gaze. For all of them, one thought crystallized: Su Xuan is here—he must be able to do something about this. Yet could he turn mimetic forms into true humans? Could such a miracle be achieved?
"Don't be so hopeless." Su Xuan stroked Furina's jelly-like hair with a smile.
"Uh!" Furina gave a small dissatisfied huff, but color returned to her cheeks. "If you say so, then there must be a way."
"There is." Su Xuan nodded. "Even if we don't intervene, the Fontainers could still survive the prophecy."
"Focalors is already making preparations." Furina blinked. "Focalors—the one in the mirror?"
"Can she really save Fontaine at the end?" Furina squirmed in Su Xuan's arms. The mirror-version of herself had promised salvation via a grand trial. Combined with Su Xuan's words, Furina's gloom lifted and excitement fluttered in her chest.
"She told me so—there will be a grand trial." Furina's eyes glinted. She'd always had a soft spot for spectacle. "I want to know what that grand performance will look like."
Su Xuan's smile cooled into something sharper. "It will indeed be a grand trial." He tapped Furina's nose lightly. "Because the one on trial will be you, Furina."
Furina froze. Clorinde's eyes widened—Are you judging me?
"And the verdict is something Fontaine has never seen before." Su Xuan's lips curved. "Death."
Furina went dull. She thought of crimes in Fontaine—child traffickers who'd killed their victims and yet escaped the noose; a champion who had killed with justified fury and become a duke instead of dying—how severe must her sin be to deserve a death sentence?
Sikok scrolled her jaw, contemplative. "So the fake Water God has been exposed."
Su Xuan produced his diary and the myriad women fell silent, each turning to their own diary copies as if that simple ritual could steady them.
[Speaking of Fontaine's prophecy.]
[Long ago—so long that I can't be precise—the first Water God Egothelia had attendants: pure water-spirits who envied life on land and prayed to be human.]
[Egothelia, moved by pity, granted them humanity.]
[But the celestial rules forbid creating humans. Egothelia committed a grave crime.]
[The Sky-Isles punished her with a curse and a prophecy of destruction.]
[Before Egothelia's death she passed the second Water God's role to the cleverest attendant—Focalors, who looks identical to Furina.]
[Focalors, as the second Water God, was the unluckiest ruler in history: on assuming the mantle she inherited the task of saving Fontaine.]
[Unable to find a perfect solution, she lingered in the ocean's depths until she hatched a plan.]
[When the Water Dragon King had just awakened and was naïve, she lured him to Fontaine.]
[Then she split her persona: the public personality became the visible Water God—Furina—while her divine essence hid in a peculiar space within the Council of Judgment to gather the people's faith.]
[Her plan was to use the accumulated faith to shatter the God Seat (the Divine Throne) and return the Ancient Dragon's authority to the Water Dragon King.]
[With the Dragon King's complete form, he could pardon the people of Fontaine.]
[In essence, the Dragon King's Authority would convert the Fontainers' mimetic vessels into true human bodies.]
"Destroy the God Seat!?" The women went silent. Focalors intended to destroy the very seat the Sky-Isles had set—this was outright rebellion.
Furina's eyes trembled. "Me in the mirror wants to… bomb the God Seat?" The idea was unthinkable: blowing up the Sky-Isles' installation was tantamount to defying the heavens.
[A year or two later, when the Star-Swallowing Whale awakens, the Primordial Belly Sea will surge beneath Whiteswell Town.]
[Its waves will flood the town and dissolve many of the Fontainers living there.]
[Two loyal maids beside a golden-haired lady were dissolved in those waves.]
[The disaster unearths ancient ruins beneath Whiteswell Town—there, the prophecy's stone tablet is revealed.]
[Records from Egothelia's creation of people to her kneeling before the Sky-Isles and weeping on the God Seat are all inscribed.]
[But the Water God's tears were not for the people dissolving—they were for the shock of being unmasked as a false deity.]
[Focalors had told Furina to act the part of Water God until salvation arrived. If her disguise failed, then the hope was gone.]
[Focalors intended to conceal herself beneath the robes of the judgment apparatus so she could slowly gather faith. But the Whiteswell disaster unearthed the prophecy's tablet and unmasked Furina.]
[Too many perished. The people had begged for their Water God to soothe them—only to learn she was a mortal in a god's costume.]
[Arlecchino's theft of a Divine Heart once led her to test Furina and sowed seeds of doubt that culminated in a public trial.]
[The trial was led by Linni and Linnet of the Hearth Family, the duelist Clorinde, Lady Navia of the Thorned Rose Society, and a naive but fierce friend—Lumine—who once charged in armoured sleeves to help a friend.]
Furina—curled in Su Xuan's arms—felt as if the floor had dropped out. Her own trial had been organized by her people—even the ones here in the room had taken part in judging her. Half of the conspirators were sitting right now across the table.
"I was involved in that?" Lumine whispered, stunned. In the future Su Xuan recorded, her actions in Fontaine had indeed helped expose Focalors' plan—though her intent had not been malice.
Furina tried to brighten the mood. "Prophecies are unstoppable—whatever comes will come. Besides, with Focalors there's always a chance—she was to save Fontaine." She forced a smile. "At least in the timeline without Su Xuan, she was the hero."
Su Xuan looked at her, expression unreadable.
"You have a silver tongue," he teased fondly. "When we have the time, I'll taste whether those words are sweet."
Furina flushed. Her little fluster broke the tension between them; laughter leaked back into the room. Lumine winked at Su Xuan: "Boss, from what I can tell, Furina is delicate—use gentle hands." Furina's blush deepened and several Fatui members looked oddly embarrassed.
[After Furina's trial and death sentence…]
[The Star-Swallowing Whale, which absorbs all Primordial Belly Sea water, came ashore, drawn by the oceanic essence within Fontainers' blood.]
[Focalors—before striking the God Seat—revealed Furina's truth to the Water Dragon King and returned the Ancient Dragon Authority to him.]
[The Dragon King, now in complete form, fought the Star-Swallowing Whale to protect the Fontainers.]
[The Whale's internal Primordial Belly Sea waters surged; Fontaine was flooded—but the Water Dragon King, using his authority, pardoned the Fontainers, and they were converted back to true humanity before being dissolved.]
[Thus they did not perish, and when the waters receded, most believed the prophecy had been false.]
[In sum: Focalors and Furina's sacrifices were unseen and unrewarded. Only Lumine and the Dragon King knew the truth.]
[Ultimately, the prophecy was a mechanism the Sky-Isles used to groom the next Water Dragon King—an elaborate design called the 480 Scheme.]
Furina reeled. "What…?" She could not reconcile the grand theater in the diary with the feeling that the Dragon King had been the true protagonist. Focalors and Furina had, in effect, nurtured the Dragon King's rise—even to the cost of life and secrecy.
"So it turns out he's familiar…" Furina blinked at Su Xuan, then at Clorinde. "That man who pardoned Fontaine—he's Neuvillette?" someone supplied.
"No—Neuvillette is the Chief Arbiter," Clorinde corrected. "The man you mean is our highest judge—Neuvillette is the one." (Note: remain consistent with your names—here Su Xuan indicated the Dragon King connected to Neuvillette.)
Furina's face pinched in disbelief. "So Neuvillette was the Dragon King all along? In the end, he held the most exalted position?"
"I'm not convinced," she muttered.
Clorinde's expression stayed restrained, like a quiet bell waiting to toll.
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