Chapter Text
sunshine dripped over mona like torrential rain. it stuck her to the sidewalk outside of good hunter, as if she was a melting candle- with how long her master was taking to order, the top of her head was a burning wick under the harsh midday sun. mona was far too young to die. she thought of her brain scrambling and her guts spilling all over the sidewalk and how she was only sixteen. and her master had the gall to be preoccupied with bargaining for a cheaper dinner.
“what if we took out the apple slices? how much would it cost, then?”
as if a few mora would matter in the long run. mona dragged her feet against bone dry cobble, pushed around the dust with her toes. it wouldn’t be long until she was back to her home cast in shadow. oh how she wished she could get heatstroke, if it meant staying home alone with that expensive telescope, wrapped up and glinting muted gold on the balcony.
even half a day away from it had her itching with lack. but sundays were errand days. why that hag always dragged her along, she had no idea. she’d blabber on about not being able to carry her bags by herself- all the ingredients they needed to buy!- but mona’s arms ached after every trip too. maybe she could sense it, how badly mona wanted her hands all over the ancient treasures in their living room, suffocating under swaths of plastic. her collection of astrolabes. the gritty armillary sphere in the middle of the living room. glass cases of dying books, all their groaning leather. the sundial that hung in the study. or maybe, in an odd, backhanded way, her master was trying to be charitable. but they both knew mona didn’t need breaks. she could drown in her studies. she wanted to.
“you brat!”
a shrill yell broke mona out of her melted brooding. everyone turned to look, the dregs of the town square- not many people skipped sunday service, but the ones who did tended to stare. her own master side-eyed the woman by the fountain before going back to potato haggling.
but mona kept looking.
the boy beside the woman was too saturated to belong to the daytime, with his glaring outfit of black and red-purples. he was a little piece of nighttime. he radiated hostility in waves. mona put a hand over her eyes and stared: pale skin and smudged undereyes. and eyes so dark they jumped out at her from all the way across the square, as if a black hole had opened in her ho-hum skip of daily life, and caught her on the horizon line.
she’d walked through mondstadt enough times to map it in her dreams, and none of it had never caught her like those eyes had.
“i never wanted to come to this dumb city in the first place! now you’re expecting me to settle down and go to church?”
his voice- the air around him wavered with the force of it.
the woman shushed him, glaring at everyone in the square until they politely looked away. she was twice his height in heels and wore a long white dress. platinum strands fell out of her updo. mona would have mistaken her for one of mondstadt’s aristocrats, but she’d never seen her here before.
“behave,” she hissed. “you’re making a scene.”
“you started it,” he snarled, the way a stray would at the sight of a hand, outstretched or in fists.
“that’s it. you’re making me do this.” and the lady pinched him by the ear, frowning as if he would dirty her dress with that dense glare of his. he grimaced and clutched at his ear- “OW! fuck you!”- as she marched him out of the square.
“meg? anything else?” mona’s attention retreated to the counter, where the waitress peered at her, pencil hovering over her notepad. her eyes were glazed over with fatigue and brown hair stuck out of her ponytail, waiting. her master raised an eyebrow as if mona were the rude one.
“i’m allowed?” she blinked.
“i don’t see why not! you’ve been so good lately. maybe half a mint jelly?”
mona didn’t even like mint.
with an impatient sigh, her master turned to the waitress and shook her head. “nevermind, that’ll be all,” she told her.
mona glanced back, but the boy had long since disappeared into the endless stairs of the city.
~~~
the air was stuffy and dim under her covers. she rubbed her eyes and begged them to hold out for one more page- dry and crinkly under her admiring fingers- just one more, and maybe she would finally understand it. the truth of life itself sat in her very hands, but its spindly writing showed itself to her in increments; in the moments her bedside candle brightened, in the moments she could blink away her blurry vision. it was almost unfair, how far away from it her mind was. her master would say she was being greedy. maybe she was.
speak of the devil- a thump broke through the walls.
mona bolted up. the candle flickered, its shadow lurching along the walls, like through its imprint on them alone it could start a fire. without the containment of her covers, the light could slip right under the door and tattle on her. even with two doors and the barrier of sleep between her and her master, she wouldn’t risk it.
mona slid the ancient, leatherbound book underneath her bed, pinched out the flame. it went out with a sizzle. she crawled under her covers and closed her eyes in mock sleep, hoping that if her master came to check on her, she wouldn’t notice the white smoke from her candle curling toward the ceiling, or the gap in the bookcase downstairs.
mona tensed- thud, again. and again.
mona opened an eye, frowning. it wasn’t coming from inside the house. and her master was never so loud, even with that old lady gait of hers. she moved to sit on the edge of her bed, tense with the effort not to drown out the strange noise with her own. another small thump. it sounded like a wild animal scrambling over the roof- then quiet.
there was nothing outside except for the starlight, draped in semi-opaque swatches over quaint townhouses, illuminating roof tiles and ivy, and a wash of dark sky. she tip-toed closer and found the streets empty too. oh, if only she could check properly, stick her head outside and touch the starlight, but there was a layer of mesh blocking her way. maybe it’d been installed with that in mind. the night was sparkling. none of it could get in. none could get out.
her master had to know- how mona craved to touch the sky firsthand. how she thought and plotted and dreamed. one day she’d steal a knife from the kitchen and saw that mesh open and clamber through. climb the supports lining her front door and throw herself onto the balcony. but she could never talk herself into it. she thought of falling out her window and her skull cracking in two and her body crushing the herb garden and she was only sixteen, too young to die, too young to live yet. that hag kept her locked away in little compartments, and unlocked them one by one as she saw fit.
with a jolt, she remembered- the telescope! her master kept it wrapped up by the balcony, outside where their house opened up to the second story of mondstadt. if some animal fell off the roof and broke it…well, saving it wouldn’t warrant a lecture, would it?
another thud spurred her on. the scent of the stars came in on the wind, ruffling her nightgown around her ankles. mona felt like the crazed animal on their roof. but instead of thrashing, she did something worse: she put on a pair of slippers, and left her room.
~~~
the door creaked, foreboding. it screamed in the mondstadt witching hours, sending a shiver up her spine. her grip on her chamberstick was tight and sweaty. mona looked around nervously, lest she miss a killer lurking nearby- then raised her light to the balcony. its weak glow did almost nothing against the thick night around it, but it caught on the plastic that covered the telescope just above her and glimmered. mona put a shaky hand on her forehead in relief. but just before she could look away, a shuffling noise drew her gaze upward.
fear froze her on the spot. there was a piece of darkness crouching on the roof.
forgive her language- really, forgive her, she didn’t often speak that way- but what the fuck was that? she thought of feral raccoons and sharp toothed squirrels and how they could so easily overwhelm her if they all pounced at once. her master would find her the next morning, nibbled to death, and think she was quite right for locking mona up, and that a death like that was simply karmic.
and then, her death shifted. mona saw a pale leg extend from the black mass and kick, then disappear over the other side of the roof. her master had always told her she was unbearably snoopy. and she supposed she was, standing here with her candle aimed at the sky, squinting just like that hag did when she was reading the morning papers or spying on neighbours, when she should’ve been good and reasonable and unsticking herself from the pavement.
that scrambling again- the shape emerged, longer now, flailing and trying to catch itself as it rolled over the tiles- mona thought she recognized four limbs and a human torso. she watched with her mouth agape as it rolled off the edge and flew towards her. she might’ve screamed, she wasn’t sure- her ears were ringing loudly and her throat felt raw- a boy with terrible dark eyes took over her vision- “move the fuck out of the way!” he yelled, his arms outstretched, but mona couldn’t- and as punishment, the weight of him knocked her to the ground. her chamberstick clattered against the cobble streets. the night swallowed it completely.
mona couldn’t breathe.
“get off! off, cretin!” she yelled, pushing at the piece of darkness above her.
“who are you calling a cretin?” his voice was so disdainful, mona recognized it at once.
“really, crawling around on rooftops, jumping on people, what-?”
“i wasn’t-“ his eyebrows narrowed in anger, patting around for a good hold on the cobble as mona yelped- “you act like i wanted-“ he pulled himself off of her and put a finger over his mouth, glaring down at her. “just, quiet!” he hissed. “before she hears.”
the lights inside her house flicked on. squares of light fell over them, and they both looked at each other in horror- simultaneously, a clicking sound echoed from around the bend- she thought of that woman’s high heels and felt herself freeze.
“god, now you’ve done it!” he groaned. but the boy seemed to have practice running on fumes. he jumped up off his knees, despite literally falling off a roof mere seconds ago, hoisting her up by the arms as if he was performing an army drill.
“wait, what are you-?” but he had already dragged her into the dark little garden beside her house, then slapped a hand over her mouth for good measure. not that he needed to. because she heard it- the click clack of that woman’s footsteps, somewhere on the second story of the city and drawing closer, bringing with it an aura so dark she felt her insides turn. cold from the stone seeped through the back of her nightdress. the thought of her master prowling past the light shining out of her windows, the thought of that pinced lady looking down on them- both converged and left her heart hyperventilating against her ribcage-
and then, the noise stopped.
mona was very still. she didn’t dare breathe. the boy didn’t either. it was as if he’d turned into a statue, and the only indication he was alive was his heart beating against hers- he held her close to the shadows cast by her home, melting them both against the wall. mona looked up, and with a jolt found a white face surveying the roof tops, scanning the bottom half of mondstadt. her mouth was pursed shut. her hair was loose and ragged. it was nothing short of a miracle that she hadn’t glanced directly downwards.
mona shrunk further back. the outline of the boy’s face caught a sliver of light as he turned to give her a warning look, and she glared back, resisting the urge to bite his hand off.
the night on the other side of the mesh was not what mona thought it would be. she closed her eyes and prayed. for what, she wasn’t sure- for her master to come get her. for her master to leave her alone. for them to get out of this situation without any trouble. and mostly for that woman to trot away and forget all about her rowdy son, whose grip on her mouth was loosening, and falling to her shoulder…
they stood there for what felt like hours, plunged in pure fear, until finally, her wish came true: the light from her window blinked off, and the sound of high heels faded away into the night.
mona immediately shoved him away.
“what in the hell is wrong with you?” she hissed.
“nothing, what’s wrong with you?” he slid down the wall, betraying a wince as his knees bent. “i told you to be quiet! you’re the one who led her here!” it was the most vulnerability she’d seen from him so far, grabbing fistfuls of grass to hide the tremor in his hands.
she decided this was too much for her. this was not going to happen. not here, in the middle of the night, a few walls away from her prowling master. mona put her hands up and stepped back. she’d grab her candle and say she was investigating the noise- surely that hag heard the commotion coming from the roof. she’d rather take the brunt of that stern look and finger wag than another moment of this boy’s disrespect.
“nevermind!” she announced. “i don’t care about your passion for rooftop parkour and i care even less about keeping you from trouble. you can do whatever you want, as long as you stop clambering around my rooftop, but i’m going home,” she drawled, looking down at him haughtily, then stepped towards the house. and promptly stopped.
the anti burglary charm.
she pat at her pockets.
and she hadn’t brought the key!
the boy snickered. “locked out?” he called.
“no-i!”
she didn’t know she had protested too loudly until she heard a click click click and that woman’s white face peered down again, catching mona staring up at her from an unobstructed part of the garden. pure, undiluted dread filled her- the boy had nothing on this woman’s piercing eyes. they flew down to him like a flock of arrows, and hit their mark.
“there you are!” she belted. “you- oh you better hope i catch you alive, you rat-“ and eyeing the distance between her and her son, she turned, undoubtedly to search for the fastest way down to kill him.
he was on his feet before mona could even process it, whooshing by her in a pale blur- “run!” mona hadn’t realized he grabbed her hand until, with a lurch, she was dragged along after him as he sprinted down the street. mona almost fell over trying to catch up. her slippers slapped against the cobble.
“hey!” she panted out, trying to get her words out between sharp intakes of air. “why are you bringing me along!”
“she saw you,” he glanced back, then veered a hard left, “you’re an accomplice now.”
“not if i tattle!”
“yeah, like she won’t think you’re lying to her. we’re about to get caught, so you’re either coming or you’re going to suffer the wrath of that woman.”
they skidded to a stop just as the exit to the city loomed before them. but as he moved to slip through the gates, mona hesitated. outside, the sprawling valleys of springvale beckoned, wild and vast. millions of hiding spots nestled between shadowed hills…slimes and hilichurls and who knew what else... monsters that mona didn’t even know the name of.
his hand was warm in hers. he didn’t take it away.
mona thought of the morning sun rising over her mutilated body, her master looming over her with a tut tut. she hadn’t even finished reading her contraband book.
“it’s dangerous, in case you haven’t noticed,” she accused.
“yeah?” his thin dark brows rose behind his bangs, tousled by the wind. “i can guarantee my mother is ten times worse than whatever the hell is out there.”
a valid point. so she let him drag her along.