It's time to come home
What are the first steps when one wants to run away from their filthy rich husband?
Get somewhere where his Mora does not have much of an influence. Furthermore will it be beneficial to have a second person one can trust at least as far as once can throw them.
And last but certainly not least, use the allowance one was able to squeeze out of said filthy rich husband to plan the escape
Obviously the plan had it's plot-holes and its hard edges but somehow it had actually worked. The hard proof being her ability to finally look at the clear night sky again. The hard proof being that she was finally able to feel the warmth in the wind again. The hard proof being the sounds of leafs underneath her feet and the smell of a night whose day had immersed it's nature in gentle sun.
Having stepped over the border to Sumeru just seconds before she didn't know who to thank.
Lord Barbatos for helping her in reaching her freedom once more? The Raiden Shogun to somehow grant her the courage she had needed? Greater Lord Rhukkadevata or Lesser Lord Khusanali for granting their wisdom? Or maybe even the Tsaritsa for showing her how to endure his love? His obsession?
Maybe the people that had helped her on the way? The Kamisato Clan who had granter her refuge when their servant Thoma had found her, literally stranded at the shore of Narukami Island? The Crux fleet for taking her over to Liyue? Beidou and Kazuha for helping her improve her swordsmanship? Xiangling who finally showed her how to cook many different things she found in the wilderness.
She had many people to be grateful for. Though if she had to pick there were probably especially two. First the one that had granted her her vision. No one except probably the Seven knew how the whole thing worked, so she didn't know if she had to be thankful to Celestia or the Raiden Shogun or whoever. But since she didn't know she only hoped that the gratefulness she felt in her heart when she had received her electro vision, could be felt by them.
The other person was probably Baizhu. The pharmacist from Liyue being the one from the outside. The one she could trust at least as far as she could throw him.
Now on this hill right between Lumberpick Valley and Ghanda Hill, having picked up her second Sumeru Rose she was once again thankful that she had taken the leap. Obviously she hadn't taken the way Baizhu had told her to go. Map wise it would have been the fastest, but in the end, Baizhu was still his brother and she did only trust him as far as she could throw him. So Yes. While Baizhu had told her to go straight through the mines she had taken the long journey. By Mount Tianheng over the Dunyu Ruins and finally Lumberpick Valley she had finally made it.
Sumeru.
Just far enough for her Husband to think she should have went further. Just unknown enough for him not to wait directly at the entrance and so so very little Fatui. And the best factor of all. The Rainforest. The rainforest meant danger. Danger meant people taking trades and favours over Mora and no Mora meant a certain someone did have nearly no way of tracking her down.
Sadly even he would at some point come to that conclusion, so even Sumeru would only be temporary. The only place she could never return to however would be Mondstadt. Dear dear Mondstadt. The place where she was born, the place where she had spent her first childhood years before that dreadful move and the dreadful years that followed.
Reaching for her vision hung around her neck as if on instinct, it's pulsing calmed her.
If she were completely honest, hiding this vision from him had probably been the most difficult of all. Not the escape from his estate. Not the escape out the country. No the most difficult had been hiding the vision. There had been so many times where he had been so close to it. So close to discovering her biggest secret.
She even had expected it. The memories of the night just before her grand escape still made shivers rake down her spine. She would have said that he knew. She had been so absolutely sure that he knew. Even remembering his words, and having it made out, she was still so sure that he had known. It had been the first time his facade had slightly cracked. The first time there hadn't been any thinly veiled threats behind a pleasant smile.
No. When his thumb had caressed the spot behind her ears and he had stared down at her with this sense of -
Sense of what?
She couldn't really say what it had been. In her memories it always changed. Sometimes it was desperation. Sometimes it was admiration, sometimes it was pure unadulterated fury but always, she thought there was this spark of absolute and utter coldness.
He must have had known.
But why then let her go?
After having lived with him for around six years having planned the escape for around five, she knew that the Regrator wasn't someone to let go of his possessions. No. Rather he sometimes reminded her of a dragon that fiercely protected it's treasures. Even or especially when the treasure did not want to stay.
The first few weeks, she had expected a Fatui behind every friendly mask. Her Husband inside every shadow.
Nothing ever happened however. He never showed up. Instead it had always just been either the normal bustle of the street or an animal inside the bushes.
Still. There was an incessant ringing inside her heart. An incessant alarm going off in her head.
She wasn't through the storm yet. And she wouldn't be for a while.
Something told her he had known.
And something else told her that he had decided against hindering her from leaving.
She only had to find out what his endgame was. And an Endgame was something a strategist like him always had.
She didn't have to go much further. She could see a huge tree far in the distance. Maybe she would be able to either make it there by morning or find a suitable tree to sleep in.
That was another thing Kazuha had taught her.
The memory of the young man brought a nearly instant smile to her face. He had been so gentle. So calm. His manner of speaking never failing to settle her down.
She already missed him dearly.
When she spread the wings of her glider she took one last look back at the rustle of the field only to once again be greeted with kind nothingness.
She would probably never stop having to look behind her back. Pantalone would come back for her and she knew that if he really wanted to, there would be nothing she could do but accept her failure. She just had to try.
She had to taste freedom one last time, before he would shut her away from it for all of Eternety.
She had to fly one last time before he came back to burn her wings for good.
She could already see it in front of her eyes. He would mock her. Ask her if she had finished her temper tantrum. Maybe he would tell her to come home and she would have to follow him, ultimately wondering where Home was and what Home was.
Maybe she would fee the shackles binding her once more, the moment he would put his arms around her waist to guide her back.
Away from the warmth. Away from the birds. Away from the air.
Yes. She really should savour that flight. In the end it might be the last before being put back on the shelf in the stuffy room of his stuffy estate.
It was laughable wasn't it?
She was finally free of him. Free of his presence hanging over her. Free of the Mora binds that had tethered her to him.
But instead she had never felt this caged.
She had met so many wonderful people on her journey. Seen so many wonderous things. And yet she hadn't been able to enjoy even one. His existence always looming over her head like a Damocles sword.
Maybe that had been the exact reason he had let her go for now. To let her get a taste of the abject horror that came with an escape. Maybe that was his first and last attempt to quell all her curiosity for anything that wasn't him.
And now, as she was flying down this hill with the wind in her back and the night sky above her, with her heart beating furiously in her chest and all the gratefulness her body could hold, she finally admitted to herself that if he were to appear in front of her now, she would let him.
She was tired.
So so tired.
Was that really the freedom she had learned of in Mondstadt? Or had it just been the innocent conception of a child lost in the worlds marvel who didn't know any better?
