Chapter Text
He’s dead and he knows it, otherwise how else is he looking at his currently sleeping body?
Running a hand down his face in frustration, Wriothesley paces the rather cramped infirmary as he tries to recall what had happened to him not a few hours prior. It had been a normal day as any other really, where he was just perusing through some documents, checking on the inmates to make sure that they’re doing their tasks as they’re supposed to, and evading Sigewinne when she wanted him to try one of her new milkshake recipes.
It was normal, mundane even, and now he’s looking down at his somewhat transparent body while his real body is in bed, unconscious and unresponsive.
“I don’t know if I should have died, or that I shouldn’t and that this is all some sort of mistake,” he grumbles, glaring at his comatose body as though it will provide him with an answer for his trouble.
Sitting back down on a nearby chair, Wriothesley ruminates in his thoughts, going back to the morning of his now-predicament.
***
“Your Grace, here are the numbers for today’s Meka production.”
Accepting the report with a thanks, Wriothesley quickly dismisses his guard whilst going through the numbers. Though the flooding had caused some infrastructural damage, it luckily wasn’t severe enough to compromise productions. A dip in the graph, but it’s nothing he can’t handle given a little bit of time.
Placing the report on top of his growing pile, Wriothesley mentally files away a reminder to go over them once the sun had set and the clamor of the Fortress tones down. If he were to do it now, he’ll actually lose his mind from not being able to think.
He also needs to go over some of the inmates, not everyone managed to escape the flood mentally unscathed from what Sigewinne had told him.
Making his way down the stairs and out his office, Wriothesley greets his people with a polite nod whenever they pass by him, and waving Wolsey down to send his lunch to his office later. He would enjoy a meal with everyone else, but he knows that there are some new arrivals who are still wary of him, so he’d give them a few days to adjust.
“Hello, Your Grace,” came a highly familiar voice.
Turning around, the Duke sees a young blonde Traveler making their way to him, a surprising lack of flying fairy by their side.
“Traveler, good to see you in the Fortress,” he greets with a small smile. “Paimon not with you today? Or are you finally going solo in your adventures?”
The Traveler merely huff a laugh. “Paimon was kidnapped by Lady Furina for a once-in-a-lifetime all-you-can-eat buffet at Hotel Debord. They both wanted me to join but Katheryn needed my help with a commission, so I told her to enjoy herself since I doubt it will take me long anyway.”
Wriothesley lets out an impressed hum, not surprised that the Traveler holds themselves with pride in their strength. He’d personally seen it after all.
“No doubt you can handle it then,” he says, but he sees a particular glint in those golden eyes. “But something tells me that you’re not here just to see me, or to get your free Welfare Meal from Bran. Out with it kiddo, what is it?”
“And here I thought you won’t be able to catch me,” they chuckle. Wriothesley merely sends them an exasperated smile as a response.
“Alright, alright. The truth is, I want you to join me in clearing out this commission.”
This causes him to raise an eyebrow. “Any particular reason why? I thought you said that you won’t have any problems dealing with this commission.”
“I don’t have a problem really,” they shrug nonchalantly. “But according to the reports Katheryn received, the ley lines near the Fortress is erratic, meaning there’s going to be an anomaly or some sort of disturbance soon. And, well, being friends with a Spantamad scholar, an alchemist, and a librarian really teaches me more things about ley lines than I care about.”
Wriothesley doesn’t respond for a moment.
He knows about ley lines and the anomalies along with the problems they can cause whenever fluctuations happen, he had seen it happen a few times, and he doesn’t really like it. Not only will it cause trouble to the land nearby, people who are unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity tend to have a slew of ailments, not to mention the monsters it attracts…
“How nearby is nearby exactly?” he asks after a while. If the radius of the fluctuation is big enough, he might need to get his people deeper into the Fortress and clear out everyone from the Administrative area.
The Traveler opens their map, showing him an encircled area directly at the shore beside the Fortress.
“The radius of the problem is big enough to reach the top of the Fortress, but I don’t know how deep it goes, that’s why I want to settle this with you in case something happens and it affects this place,” the blonde exclaims with a slight frown, their eyes looking up at him, perhaps hoping he’d understand their reasoning.
Well, anything that threatens Meropide is automatically his problem, and he’s not going to let someone so young deal with something like this on their own, no matter how strong they are.
Summoning his gloves, he quickly checks over them to ensure that they’re working as they should before putting them away again. Looking at the Traveler, now with excitement on their face, he simply grins at them and nods.
“When are you planning to go? You did say the sooner we get this done, the better,” he says, trying hard to contain his own excitement.
It’s not everyday he gets to deal with a ley line anomaly, especially one this big and this close to his turf, but he’ll take this chance just so he can observe and study a few things in case it happens again in the future and the Traveler won’t be around to help. Perhaps he can send in a few researchers to study normal ley lines too, knowledge is power after all, in a sense.
“I would go now,” they say, but their eyes roam around a little. “But I heard that there’s someone named Alain who refuses to do his work in the production zone.”
The Duke immediately picks up the edge in the Traveler’s voice, an edge that’s very common when someone is not fond of another person and wants to indirectly cause a little bit of trouble just to annoy the other person. He tilts his head with the barest hint of a smile.
“Sounds like you’re familiar with this Alain person.”
“You’ll enjoy his character, immensely,” they deadpan.
It doesn’t take long for Wriothesley to wrangle up Alain and whip him into shape, all while enduring a whole spiel of curses and screaming. It had honestly amused him, and he’d like to believe that the whole Production Zone enjoyed their free drama, but he has bigger issues to deal with and he doesn’t want it to blow over further by wasting time.
Once he’s ensured that the Fortress is running smoothly, and telling Sigewinne to give her new milkshake to Alain instead, he and the Traveler quickly head outside to where the ley line is now churning with rapid energy flow.
Wriothesley can’t help but wince slightly when he feels his skin prickling as he nears the outcrop.
“I don’t like how out-of-control this thing is starting to look, Traveler,” he says with a frown. His gloves are immediately activated when the ley line swells further, more energy pouring out of it like waves just as the blonde brings out their sword.
Wriothesley can’t help but glance at said sword a little given how creepy it looks. Is that an eye at the center staring at him?
Maybe he needs to have a better sleep schedule after this.
“Your Grace, I think it’s about to expel some things,” the Traveler exclaims as they take a step back, sword poised and ready to attack.
Wriothesley follows suit, his gloves resonating with his Vision as he puts himself in a defensive stance. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen next but the fluctuations are happening at an alarmingly fast interval, a clear sign that something is about to pop up.
Neither have to wait long as the next thing they know, a whole group of Fontemer Aberrant and tainted Hydro Phantasms appear from the now smoky area, attacking as soon as they saw the two.
Seeing as the Traveler is fighting with Hydro, Wriothesley took it upon himself to fight the Phantasms and freezing them before they can start doing anything, mercilessly punching them down and taking them out.
Never has he been so thankful to wield Cryo in a land of Hydro.
“Your Grace, more is coming out!” the Traveler cries once they’ve taken out all the Aberrant. “We’ve got Gardemeks this time!”
“I get the monsters, but the Meks as well?” he questions, sending a couple Meks flying in pieces.
“There must have been some sort of Meka going through here at some point, and now the ley line is spitting out some old records,” the Traveler explains as best as they can as they dodge and weave through the bullets and swords coming their way.
Much to Wriothesley’s surprise, the Traveler’s sword is imbued with a huge surge of Electro, doubling its length and size allowing the blonde to cleave through the remaining Mekas like butter.
“Kid, you’re full of surprises,” he laughs once the wave of Gardemeks finally die down.
With a flick of their wrist, the creepy sword returns to its original shape and size, and Wriothesley is certain that the eye is staring at him like it’s smug of itself. He’s not sure why, but he has a sudden urge to throttle the thing and snapping it in half.
“So, what’s going on with this thing? I’ve never seen a ley line this color before,” hums the Duke as he takes a closer look at the misty red outcrop.
The Traveler decides to walk a little further ahead, possibly on the lookout for any monsters that may have been attracted by the anomaly.
“I’ve seen one like this in Mondstadt some time ago while I was helping a friend,” they start. “I saw a snippet of his past fighting a whole group of Abyss monsters. Turns out the ley lines were active during his fight that it expelled the recording when it was disturbed later on, so he and I just had to deal with the monsters.”
Wriothesley blinks at the explanation. “The ley lines expelled the monsters he fought, but not his past self?”
“Maybe because he himself is still alive?” shrugs the Traveler. “If it’s similar to the roots of the Sacred Sakura in Inazuma, then it shouldn’t have a problem expelling the recording of a dead person, at least from what I know.”
Now that’s an interesting knowledge to have. It’s a well-known fact that ley lines record everything and will occasionally expel some information, but he’s never known it to expel records of a dead person before. How interesting, and intriguing. He definitely should have more ley line studies for the future.
Before he or the Traveler can conclude that the ley line is dormant once more, the red outcrop practically collapses in on itself faster than he can blink. Wriothesley doesn’t remember what happens after that.
***
Thus, it brings him to this predicament.
Something must have happened to that ley line because when he opened his eyes, Sigewinne and the Traveler were discussing beside his bed on what to do and how to wake him up. He did sit up on his bed saying he’s fine, but neither of them seems to have even heard or seen him, and that had sent alarm bells blaring in his head.
When he looked down, he sees how transparent he looks and his body lying motionless in bed. That’s when he knew he had died, or maybe something close to it.
Sigewinne and the Traveler eventually left his ghostly self alone, much to his chagrin.
He would have gotten up from his chair to figure out his next plan when Neuvillette practically bursts through the door, eyes looking somewhat wild, or at least as wild as he can as the very put-together Chief Justice.
Wriothesley would have laughed at the Iudex’s expression when he notices how Neuvillette is staring both at his body and him.
Like he can see him.
“Wriothesley,” Neuvillette finally speaks after what seemed like hours. “Why are there two of you?”