The Vision In Titania

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"Speech"

'Thoughts'

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Alaric sat down still and unmoving as he stared at the wall of the cell he was held in, his eyes hard to read as he continued to sit silently. His black hair flowing over his right eye as his blue eyes held a certain dullness to them, and his mouth remained in a neutral expression.

It had been a whole year now since he was put into this prison, and for what reason? Even he had no freaking clue. The worst part was that he was already in this cell before he had even regained consciousness, so he didn't even know who was the one that put him here.

The last thing he had remembered before losing his consciousness was fighting the three known as Tartaglia, Signora, and Scaramouche if he wasn't mistaken, all powerful members of the Fatui. The fact that he was facing the three of them at the same time was already bad for him, and now this?

If he were to hazard a guess though, the one that threw him in this cell was the superior of guards here at this prison. It was an obvious assumption, but the best one he could say. He doubted it was the Fatui as the guards had no resemblance to being affiliated with them, which only confused him more.

Alaric sighed before turning his gaze towards the other side of the cell, there he saw someone sleeping on the bed opposite to his. The person laying there was a female around his age, probably a bit younger from appearance alone.

This person was his cell mate, a witch going by the name of Magilou, that being her nickname at least. If he were to describe her, she was both ridiculous and annoying. The way she spoke got really annoying after hearing it for so long, but it got to the point he just couldn't care less after hearing it for over a month, and now a damn year.

Though, she did at least tell him what this prison was. She did mock him for not knowing where he was, not that he cared, he wasn't conscious when they put him here. This prison was called Titania, and it was a place that he had never heard about. Was it even a prison anywhere in Mondstadt, or even in Teyvat?

Anyway, over the course of the year he's been here, his clothes surprisingly remained in pretty good condition. His clothing consisting of a royal blue-shirt underneath a black and white fancy open long jacket with sleeves only slightly shorter than his undershirt, along with having black sleek long pants and leather tall combat boots.

"Damn it, I wonder if the others are looking for me..." Alaric sighed as he thought back to his friends back in Mondstadt. He'd been gone for a whole year without notice, so they'd no doubt be worrying about him. "No point in thinking about it, not going to change anything... Fuck!"

"Keep it down, Alaric~." Magilou yawned as she wiggled in her sleep. "A great witch such a myself needs her beauty sleep!"

"Yeah, yeah." Alaric rolled his eyes at the witch. He then looked towards the bars of the cell, he wasn't sure what it was, but something prevented him and any other prisoner from breaking out. They looked like normal cell bars, but there was something either protecting them or reinforcing the bars. 'Maybe if I had my Vision...'

"Listen up!"

"W-Wah!" Magilou shrieked as a loud voice suddenly sounded through the entirely area. Alaric was just as surprised, but didn't act on it as much as his eyes just widened and blinked in confusion. "What in the world?! Don't they know the great Magilou is trying to have some sleep?! Can you believe them, Alaric?!"

Alaric just ignored Magilou's ranting as he decided to pay attention to the shouter.

"I'm opening every door to every cell! We're getting off this island!" Alaric heard numerous shouts and whispers of disbelief along with hope, though he just narrowed his eyes. Who was this? They obviously weren't a guard. "Split into two groups and rush the front and rear gates! Break through the gates, and you'll have a ship!"

"Is this person for real? Doesn't she know that pretty much no-one has ever escaped from this place considering how dangerous it is?" Magilou blinked as she also listened on. "What do you think, Alaric? Alaric? Alaric~?"

"Just shut up and listen." Alaric scolded as Magilou just stuck her tongue out at him. Alaric sighed once more, he really questioned how he had survived mentally with this girl here as his damn cellmate. Her personality was really infuriating at times. "I don't care how dangerous, if I can get out, then I don't care."

"Boo~, stop having such a stick up your ass!"

"I won't force you! You want to rot in here, then rot!"

Alaric heard multiple shouts from the prisoners who soon shouted for them to be let out, and it didn't take long before the doors to every single cell suddenly began opening. He did notice something strange though, a strange symbol appeared before shattering, was it some kind of lock or seal? He wasn't sure.

"Oh~, we're free! She wasn't kidding!" Magilou spoke as she hopped off of the bed. Both her and Alaric walked out from their cell, and when they did, they watched as the other prisoners, both human and otherwise, all were running towards the exits. "W-Wait, where are you going?!"

"I have something I need to get, come with me if you wish. I'm heading to the lower floors."

"If you say so, I'll be right there! That woman we heard may have freed us, but she did still disturb my beauty sleep! I'm going to go and give her an earful, I'll be right with you afterward! See ya~!" Magilou then walked off as Alaric just cocked and eyebrow, though she shrugged before dashing towards the stairs leading down.

He had first woken up in his cell pretty much right after being thrown into it and being stripped of his weapon and his Vision, so he had managed to hear some bits of information regarding where they'd store it. They didn't seem to know what his Vision was, which confused him a bit, how could they not know what a Vision is?

Though, even if they did, it wasn't like they'd be able to use it.

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"The damn last room, it better be here."

It took a bit of time for Alaric to search each room here on the lower floor, and he hadn't seen any signs of his things or other people's, so it kind of ticked him off. He had just now entered the final room on the floor, so it should HOPEFULLY have his things.

Looking around, he noticed a few guards on the ground, most likely dead from the looks of it, though he ignored them when he noticed the crates located on the other side. He quickly dashed towards them before opening each of them, ignoring a number of useless items.

"Yes! They're here!" Alaric grinned a bit when he took hold of a long polearm along with what looked to be a round-cut grey diamond shaped gem held in a tri-feathered bronze piece with feather-shaped extensions. "I was actually going to go mental if they weren't."

Aside from his Vision, the polearm he picked up had a black handle along with a sharp blade of different shades of blue, and also had a spiked ball of the same colour and material at the other end of the polearm. The blade had blue backwards prongs, as well with the blades being connected to the handle with some kind of brilliant white metal.

Alaric took hold of his Vision before connecting it to the right side of his waist, clipping it onto his pants as it freely dangled from its position. Smiling, Alaric nodded before spinning his polearm expertly around for a bit before nodding, his skills hadn't rusted too much after a year.

"Woah, nice polearm!"

Alaric spun around quickly before pointing his weapon at the person at the entrance. "Who are you?!"

"Calm down, I'm just here to collect my items!" Alaric narrowed his eyes at a male who appeared to be older than him by a few years. He wore clothing that kind of reminded him of those from Inazuma, well, at least from the little he's seen of that place due to the recent Vision Hunt Decree. Recent being a year ago. "Rokurou Rangetsu, just here for my sword!"

"...Alaric." Seeing that the male meant no harm, Alaric hesitantly stopped pointing his weapon at the male, though he did make sure to keep his guard up. Alaric then let go of his polearm as it seemed to disappear into particles, this caused the male's eyes to widen.

"How did you do that?!" Rokurou shouted with surprise as he saw the weapon disappear. Alaric just cocked an eyebrow at the question. It was well-known that Vision holders were also all gifted with a form of pocket dimension, something very damn useful. Though since this place didn't seem to know what Visions were, this guy's question wasn't too surprising. "Oh, there's Stormhowl!"

Alaric just stepped to the side as Rokurou jogged quickly over towards the crates before picking up a large sword that was resting against the wall next to the crates, it was a very long sword. The blade it had was longer than most swords that Alaric had seen before, it was interesting.

"What a relief, it's back in my care!" Rokurou sighed as he strapped the sword onto his back. The blade was literally almost as tall as the guy, and from male's he had seen, Rokurou here was pretty damn tall. Rokurou then turned back to Alaric. "So, are you a prisoner here as well? Well, former prisoner."

"Yeah, and from your words, you're one too."

"Yep! Been here for almost three years or more!" Alaric blinked at that, this guy was here for three times longer than he had. He had to give the guy some credit, despite being in this god-forsaken place for almost three years, he sounded pretty damn cheerful. "What about yourself?"

"A year."

"Stop right there, prisoners!"

Alaric and Rokurou turned towards the entrance to the storage room and saw three guards charge in, pointing their swords towards the both of them. Rokurou was prepared to use his fists, earning a raised eyebrow from Alaric as the guy obviously had a sword, but whatever.

"I'll deal with it." Alaric spoke as Rokurou blinked before simply nodding. Narrowing his eyes, Alaric bent his knees slightly and got into a running position. The guards saw this and were cautious, and unnoticed by them, the Vision hanging on Alaric's waist suddenly flashed into a green colour. "Ride the wind!"

Suddenly, Alaric sprinted forwards as a trail of powerful green wind followed him, causing a wind stream to appear as he ran around the guards. The guard weren't able to react or even think of what to do due to how fast Alaric was, and before they knew it, the wind they were caught up in sent them flying fast into the stone walls.

Alaric wasn't someone who was above killing others, though he only did so if he needed to. Considering how these guards had put him behind bars for no reason, at least none to his knowledge, he sent the guards flying and colliding headfirst with such force that their necks probably snapped.

These guards were definitely more competent and stronger than the guards of the Knights of Favonius. He didn't want to insult them, but they honestly sucked. These guys were at least somewhat competent. Alaric just stared at them without a care, and his Vision returned to it's original grey colour.

"Woah, what kind of Artes was that?"

"Artes...?"

"Yeah, it didn't seem Malak based. Whatever it was, it was awesome!"

"Whatever." Alaric simply shrugged as he walked out of the room, followed by Rokurou as they both calmly walked towards the exit of this floor. They soon began ascending the stairs, with Rokurou making some small chat every now and then. "What's with these stairs? They go up, then down, then up? What freak designed this place?"

"Who knows? Kind of pointless of a design." Rokurou shrugged as they stared down at the flight of stairs leading down. The structure of the place was stupid, to get to the upper floors you had to go up from that previous floor, then down for whatever reason, then up again. "In any case, at least we're fre-."

"There you are, Alaric!" Both Rokurou and Alaric turned around and looked down at the stairs they had just climbed to see none other than Magilou running up towards them. "Do you know how long I was looking for you down there?! Just be glad that I saw you leaving! Wait, who are you, buster?!"

Magilou quickly took notice of Rokurou who was standing behind Alaric, which meant in front of Magilou. The witch then pounced and jumped onto Rokurou's back since he had only turned his head to look after hearing her shout, to which she was going to start questioning, if it weren't for the fact that she made Rokurou stumble.

"W-Woah!"

"...!" Alaric twitched his eyebrow in irritation when they both collided with him as they were all soon sent tumbling down the long flight of stairs.

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"Any luck, Kaeya?"

"Sorry, Amber. Nothing..."

Back in Mondstadt, two members of the Knights of Favonius were talking with one another as they were now heading back into the city, disappointed expressions present on both of their faces as they walked past the two guards at the front entrance.

These two were Kaeya and Amber, two friends of Alaric. Speaking of Alaric, ever since the male disappeared a whole year ago, they hadn't stopped trying to find out his location. In fact, pretty much everyone that Alaric was a close friend with continued looking and haven't give up just yet.

His disappearance was a mystery to all of them, and Jean, the current acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, had even relayed some information regarding his disappearance to the Qixing over in Liyue to see if they had heard anything within the lands of Liyue. Unfortunately, nothing.

The Qixing did make sure to keep an eye and ear out though, they had a friendly relationship with Alaric. The guy was an Adventurer who was sent over to Liyue's branch of the Adventurer's Guild to assist them in an expedition to clear out a large collection of Hilichurls and more that had gathered some time ago.

After Kaeya said farewell to Amber for the day, he immediately headed over towards Angel's Share, a tavern owned by his brother, to get something to drink. Once he arrived at the place, he opened up the doors before walking in and taking a seat at one of the stools at the front bar.

"No luck I assume, Kaeya?" A male voice called out as the Calvary Captain looked up to see none other than his brother Diluc going behind the bar. The redhead pouring a cup of alcohol for the captain before sliding it over. "From your expression alone, Alaric is still missing, huh?"

"What do you think?" Kaeya sighed before chugging the glass he was given. Diluc may not like his brother for a number of reasons, but he can understand how the guy was feeling since Diluc himself was also pretty close with Alaric. "A whole damn year, yet nothing!"

"All we can do is keep looking, not much else we can do."

"I guess, the others aren't dealing with his disappearance too well either. Especially Barbara, you know how close she was to Alaric." Kaeya chuckled a bit before frowning heavily, a shadow covering his eyes. "We can only hope now that he's doing okay..."

"He's strong, let's just have faith."

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"Can't believe we tumbled out that window, that really hurt..."

"It's your fault, you know?"

"It was an accident!"

Alaric could only sigh as he heard the two behind him bickering to one another, it was starting to get on his nerves. After Magilou ended up causing them to stumble down the stairs, they coincidentally rolled out the window at the bottom of the stairs and fell down who knows how far.

They were now walking through the prison again trying to find a safe route to get somewhere that they might be able to leave the island, perhaps some kind of docking area where they could find a ship since this prison was located on a small island.

Anyway, from the looks of it, they had arrived in a relatively large open room.

"Oho! Finally someplace that might not be a death-trap!" Magilou shouted sarcastically as they looked around. There were a number of traps that they had sprung while walking through the place, it was unpleasant. "I seriously thought that when we tumbled from the tower that, that was it! Magilou, this is the end!"

"It would've been less risky if you hadn't suddenly appeared and jumped on my back. Then we all wouldn't have fallen out and tumbled down the damn tower." Rokurou voiced back after hearing the witch's comment. It was obvious that he was annoyed by the little situation they had found themselves in. "Oh, hey! It's you!"

Alaric rose an eyebrow and looked over towards where Rokurou was walking over to, and he saw that he was approaching a female around his age wearing a rather questionable set of attire. Alaric seriously questioned how this girl could wear such revealing clothes, did she have no shame?

"It's thanks to you that Stormhowl is back in my care." Rokurou gestured to the blade on his back before getting into a straightened stance and bowing his head towards the black-haired female. "Rokurou Rangetsu at your service. This blade is my life. I owe you a great debt, one I vow to repay."

"Yes, yes, she's a peach and a model citizen." Magilou rolled her eyes as she popped out from behind Alaric and approached the two, Alaric soon following behind. "Can we get out move on? I think they're just about done massacring the rioters."

"...The docks are just ahead. Give me a hand."

"That voice..." Alaric blinked his eyes when the female spoke. His little comment of surprise made the three of them turned to look at him in confusion, he just placed his hands on his waist and spoke. "You're the one that freed us, right? Thanks for that, name's Alaric."

The female just stared at him for a second. "Velvet Crowe."

Velvet then turned around without saying another word and began walking away, Alaric following after her calmly as both Magilou and Rokurou shared a look before shrugging as they followed after the two of them as well.

It didn't take long before they arrived outside of the prison, walking along the docks as Alaric looked up nonchalantly at the thunderstorm. If they were going to be taking the ship he could see in front of them, it was going to be dangerous in such weather, not like they had a choice anyway.

"Guess the weather's feeling as crummy as I am!" Magilou collapsed dramatically onto the ground as Alaric just gave her a deadpanned look, the other two staring at her weirdly. As the witch was doing whatever she was doing, Rokurou also took a moment to look at the sky.

"Sea's looking mighty choppy."

"Yeah, it'll be dangerous sailing through this weather."

"Are any of you sailors?" Velvet decided to ask as she turned to look at the both of them. Alaric rose an eyebrow at that before shaking his head, he had no damn experience in sailing. He did know someone who was though. Alaric looked at Rokurou to see his response.

"No, same vote as Alaric. But, I guess I do know the difference between a sail and a rudder."

"I'll take what I can get. Do what you can." Velvet sighed hearing their responses as she turned around to board the ship, though they all blinked when Magilou suddenly appeared in front of Velvet. Alaric was pretty surprised, that girl could show some impressive speed when she wanted.

"You're leaving without a proper crew?!"

"Not like we have a choice, Magilou. Either we stay here on this prison of an island, or we take our chances and sail." Alaric shook his head while saying this. The words causing the witch to droop her shoulders and dangle her head down, along with collapsing to her knees, obviously not too thrilled with the idea. "We should get going, the remaining guards will be here soon."

"Very well then. I certainly owe you this much, at least." Rokurou spoke, obviously the statement was directed towards Velvet. Magilou just deadpanned at the guy before looking out towards the sea, a nervous smile on her face as her face twitched seeing the lightning strikes.

"Brave words... But ten minutes in this storm, and you'll lose all sense of direction."

"No... we won't." Velvet frowned as the three looked at her. "Ships have compasses for a reason."

"Oh boy, so either we rot in a jail cell or rot in a fish-tummy..." Magilou sighed as she looked up at Alaric, the guy shrugging with a small smile at her comment before following after Velvet. Rokurou just chuckling and following as well. "Welp, guess it's your lucky day, fishies!"