Legend of the Snowman-Mancer 2

Euri Lawrence

“And this is how you fashion a bow-drill,” a kindly old man said. Much of his once chestnut-brown hair had faded to silvery white but his eyes shone brightly with decades of wisdom.

At his feet, Eula, Amber, and I crowded in fascination as the retired outrider started a fire without a flint nor match.

He wrapped his left hand in leather before using it to press down on a dry stick. He then sawed the bow back and forth, creating a twisting motion that drove the stick into a larger piece of driftwood. In seconds, he had smoke. Kindling, cottontail plants taken from the shores of Cider Lake, was added and he soon held out a lit bundle.

“There, you see?” He said with a jovial smile. He offered the rustic firemaking kit to Amber. “Nothing to it. Now you try.”

As the three of us each took our turns, I thought about the man before me.

Amber's grandfather, one Ambrose Bandel, was a man Eula and I admired more than Barbatos himself. Not only was he a man of great skill, he held no prejudice against us for our surname and ensured his granddaughter was raised with a similarly kind heart. His lessons on wilderness survival were things to be cherished, but to a pair of lonely children, Amber's friendship was worth more than words could ever say.

Amber, the chipper, outgoing girl she was, befriended Eula one day three years ago when my sister was wandering around Mondstadt. Eula and I often did so simply to get out of our estate for a time. Anything, even the scorn of the people, was better than the cold, arrogant ambivalence of the Lawrence estate.

When Amber heard that Eula was training herself to join the Knights of Favonius, she dragged her to her grandfather and insisted she join her own lessons. It wasn't long before I too got roped in by the young girl's bubbly personality. We were only seven then.

After our lessons, Mr. Bandel brought out three large boxes, about the size of our torsos. He handed one to each of us.

“I've got a special present for you three,” he said.

Amber practically vibrated in her seat, the twin ends of the bandana holding her hair flopping around like bunny ears. “Is it what I think it is, grandpa?”

“Yup. Euri and Eula share a birthday and I figured I'd get you yours at the same time. Go on, kids, open them.”

I was older. I had a lifetime of experience. Yet, I could not stop my hands from trembling nor my eyes from watering with gratitude. It didn't matter what was inside. This was a gift, not of obligation, but sincere and genuine kindness. It was the first of such we'd received.

We lifted the pine box to find three collapsed windriders. Amber's was a deep crimson, her favorite color, while ours were a pale blue like our hair.

“You're ten now,” Mr. Bandel said. “I figure it's alright to teach you kids.”

“Amber is eight,” I said with a teasing smirk, as much to get a rise out of our friend as to draw attention away from my unshed tears.

If he knew what I was doing, he played along. “She'll pout for weeks if we leave her out.”

“I wouldn't,” Amber said indignantly. “Knights don't pout.”

“Oho, then I suppose our little knight doesn't mind waiting then, hmm?”

“No! That's not fair, grandpa!”

“Hahaha, I'm only joking, of course you can learn with your friends.”

I slid an arm around her, pulling her into a sideways hug. “Yeah, relax, Amber, we know you've been looking forward to gliding training more than any of us.”

She “protested fiercely” in the way only an eight year old “knight” could, puffy cheeks and crossed arms and all. “You're both mean!”

X

In the end, Amber got the last laugh. Over the next few years, we quickly found out that the future Gliding Champion of Mondstadt was a prodigy in the air.

Where Eula was just okay and I had no talent for it whatsoever, Amber practically danced through the currents as if she'd been a bird in her past life. What initial trepidation she felt left her quickly, banished by the plot of her favorite storybook and replaced with a fearless jubilation that neither of us could match.

Rather than jealousy, I was currently a little peeved with her, my sister too. The two of them giggled incessantly as they looked up at me.

I hung upside down from a windmill, my windrider caught on one of its arms. Sighing, I crossed my arms and stared down at them helplessly. “Whenever you two are done laughing, how about you fetch me a ladder?”

“Hehehe, how did you even manage to fly into a windmill, Euri?” Amber asked. “This wasn't part of the flight path!”

“Never underestimate my brother's ability to become a nuisance, even to himself,” my traitorous sister nodded sagely.

“Well, I guess I win the race then.”

“Indeed, but at least I managed to finish the course.”

I sighed and resigned myself to being the subject of their mockery, again. Truly, tween girls were vicous creatures.

“Fine,” I said, “What do you want for your prize, Amber?”

The young girl held a finger to her chin. “Hmm… Oh, can I have a Euri special?”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Eula says you're super artistic so I want something you've made.”

“Fine, just get me down from here.”

“What's the magic word?” Amber sang.

“Pleae…”

“Hehehe, okay, give us a minute.”

X

An hour later, Amber, Eula, and I had our feet firmly back on solid ground. Truly, if Barbatos meant for us to use those death-kites, we would have been blessed with wings.

The three of us were outside the city walls, overlooking Cider Lake. We often gathered here for a dinner picnic, or simply to fish.

Here, I presented Amber with a small, wrapped box, red with a snow-white ribbon.

“E-Euri? What's this?” Amber stammered.

“You wanted something I made, right? I've been working on this for your birthday but I figure you may as well get it early,” I replied with a smile.

“What? I can wait!”

“Nah, open it. I promise you'll love it.”

“R-Really? Are you sure it's okay?”

“Yeah, go ahead. I'll just have to think of something else for your actual birthday.”

Amber gingerly unwrapped her gift. She gasped as she lifted a plushy into the air. “Aww, it's so cute! Is it me in bunny form?”

“Yup, and definitely not stuffed with incendiary explosives.”

“What? Why would anyone turn a plushy into a bomb?”

“Gee, I wonder… Just don't call it something stupid like ‘Baron Bunny,’” I said with a laugh.

Amber had to have gotten the idea for her signature explosive trap somewhere. In this timeline, I was happy to provide her that inspiration.

She stuck out her tongue. “Just for that, his name is now Baron Bunny von Thumper, Lord of Fluffington.”

“Fine, whatever. As long as you're happy.”

“I am!” She gave me a hug and a peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Euri, I love him.”

“Good, now Eula can work extra hard to top this gift.”

“It's not a contest,” my sister sniffed.

“Of course not. But if it was, we both know I'd win.”

“Prat.”

“Can I just say I love you both?” Amber said with a sigh, well used to our bickering by now. “Oh, Euri!”

“Yes?”

“I know what I want for my birthday.”

“Really? Do tell. I'd much prefer people tell me what they want rather than making me guess. If you can save me the trouble, that'd be lovely.”

“Lessons. I want sewing lessons.”

“Are you sure? It's not as easy as it looks, you know.”

“Yup. That way, I can repair Baron Bunny if something happens. And, I can even make my own.”

“Alright,” I agreed easily. “I'd be happy to teach you.”

X

I pulled Amber into my lap as she cried her heart out. Eula folded into her back, sandwiching the girl between us in a fierce hug.

Ambrose Bandel was dead. Neither Eula nor I could stop our own tears as we mourned the man who loved us like his own grandchildren. For my sister, his had been the sole example of true paternal love.

It was a death we’d all seen coming. He'd been unwell for a while now and the girls didn't need canon knowledge to know his time drew near.

That didn't mean his passing was any less difficult on us.

We sat on Amber's living room floor, wordlessly comforting each other as best we could. It had been all Amber could do not to break down at the funeral home.

I wasn't sure how long we stayed like that. Finally, I felt her unwrap her arms from my neck.

“Eula?” Amber whispered weakly.

“Yes, Amber?”

I felt her squirm in my lap. “I… I need to pee…”

I wasn't sure who laughed first, but we all giggled as we untangled ourselves. Amber stood on wobbly legs before hurrying to the bathroom.

I took Eula's hand and allowed her to drag me to my feet. Her face was a splotchy mess of dried tears and snot, not that mine was any different. We really were ugly criers.

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“She's alone,” Eula said sadly.

I nodded. I had my past life's memories to bolster me. I had canon to look forward to and prepare for. We had one another to rely on against our asshole family and the city's judging eyes.

But Amber? She'd just lost her sole remaining family.

“She doesn't have to be,” I told her. “We can be there for her.”

“Of course we will. She is like a sister to us.”

“That she is.”

X

Jean Gunnhildr

Mondstadt was at peace. Grandmaster Varka had taken me on as his personal student and I’d grown by leaps and bounds. Now, Euri wasn’t the only one who called me “little lion.” It never failed to get a flush out of me; I didn’t feel like I’d earned that kind of regard yet, no matter what people said.

I sighed quietly into my cup of tea. It was a shame. My status as Grandmaster Varka’s protege wasn’t entirely undeserved, but I felt that this esteem should have been shared with Eula.

She was my rival, someone with every bit the potential I had. When it came to swordplay, we were evenly matched. Where I was groomed for leadership within the city, she had more experience out in the field than anyone else our age. This was the difference between our names, nothing more.

“Are you listening, Jean?” Lisa asked. The genius scholar had returned from Sumeru’s Akademiya only a few months ago and had taken up the post of librarian. She’d quickly become one of my closest confidants, a friend who could always offer a different perspective. It wasn’t uncommon to find her in my new office for mid-morning tea.

“Sorry, Lisa,” I apologized. “I was just wondering how the reconnaissance mission was going.”

“You mean how your rival is doing?”

“Am I that transparent?”

“Yes. In any case, things have been rather quiet lately. All I’ve had to deal with were a few overdue library books. I’ve even caught up on my beauty sleep.”

I giggled. Lisa wasn’t nearly as lazy as she pretended to be. “That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Even the hilichurl tribes have been quie–Hold on, do you hear that?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

I shushed her. Yes, I could hear a catchy melody, quiet but getting louder as whoever was singing drew closer.

“Jingle bells,

Jingle bells,

Jingle all the way~”

I made my way to the window and opened it wide. Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed. It was only mid-October but I could see large snowflakes descending from the sky, carried by a southerly wind. There could only be one cause: Euri was paying his biannual visit.

“I think I hear something too,” Lisa said as she joined me by the window. She held out a hand and gasped as a snowflake landed on her finger. “Is that… snow…?”

“Dashing through the snow,

In a one-horse open sleigh,

O'er the fields we go,

Laughing all the way~”

“HA. HA. HA!”

Yes, that was Euri. No one else flew into town with a full accompaniment of cackling snowmen, not that we could see him at the moment. His ride of choice was a sleigh made of Cryo energy that skated along rails of ice, dragging clouds of snow behind him.

I rocked and hummed a little to his song. It was catchy, with a cheerful air that reminded me of festivals and simple delights.

“It is,” I confirmed with a bemused sigh. “I suppose it is about that time.”

“I didn’t realize Mondstadt suffered from fluctuating weather patterns. Have you consi–Aah!”

I could have stopped it. I’d seen it coming. Really, Euri did something like this whenever he dropped by. He sometimes came around with useful intel, but more often than not, simply to socialize. He’d tell stories of lost hikers he’d rescued or just an herb he’d found made for decent tea. Once, he fed me a jerky that I only found later was made from a fox, the very same fox whose pelt he’d had stuffed into a pillow, its soulless eyes gazing at me.

I may have hit him a bit harder than I meant to for that.

He was getting a little predictable to be honest, not that I was stupid enough to tell him that. He was exactly the sort of person who’d take that as a personal challenge and I liked predictable. Whatever satisfaction I’d get from poking fun at him wasn’t worth the pandemonium he’d unleash just to prove he could.

And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to defend Lisa from the snowball that sailed through the window. It exploded against her face with a wet splat. I fell into an uncontrollable fit of giggles as surprise, then thunderous wrath spread across my friend’s face.

Euri’s silhouette could be seen against the clouds now. There was a chorus of snowmen riding on his sleigh and singing along to his song. Really, the control he had over his constructs was downright impressive.

He slid to a stop outside my office window as the last notes of his song trailed to a close. Then, pulling his trademark, white overcoat around him like a cape, he swept into a flourishing bow. “Dame Jean, I have traveled far for the pleasure of your company.”

“Hehehe, Lisa, may I introduce you to Euri–hehe–Lawrence, the Snowman-Mancer,” I said. If nothing else, he wasn’t boring. “Euri, this is Lisa, the new Head Librarian of the Knights of Favonius. She’s got an electrifying personality.”

Lightning began to crackle around my friend as her hair levitated on currents of mana. “Oh, is that the name of this dead man?”

The look of terror on Euri’s face as he realized he’d missed me and struck this total stranger was one I would cherish for many nights to come. “Ah… Truce?”

“Hmm… Let me think… No.”

X

Lisa didn’t kill Euri, thankfully. I didn’t know how I’d tell Eula that her twin brother committed suicide-by-librarian otherwise. After a few punishing zaps, we sat around my office tea table, a fresh pot made for us all.

“So, the Snowman-Mancer, hmm? I think I’ve heard about you. I didn’t think you lived up to those rumors however,” Lisa said, calmer now.

“Ahahaha, what can I say? I like to bring a bit of excitement into people’s lives,” Euri said with a shameless grin.

“He likes to visit twice a year or so for supplies,” I informed her. “Otherwise, he mostly lives somewhere in the Dragonspine Mountains.”

“Oh? You live there permanently? Most people would call that a frozen hellscape. You can’t possibly survive off the land with only two visits to civilization, surely.”

“I call it home. It’s beautiful up there,” he replied. “And no, I don’t just head into town twice a year, more like once a month. I usually visit Springvale because it’s a lot closer. I can trade pelts and herbs I find for food there.”

“That makes sense. Then what brings you here? And why a sleigh?”

“I can answer that,” I said with a laugh. “Do you remember Amber?”

“Yes, the outrider. She’s a delight.”

“She is. She’s also quite proud of her title as Mondstadt’s gliding champion, and a good friend of the Lawrence twins. She kept making fun of Euri because he’s terrible at gliding.”

“So he made something to glide in the air with? Does a sleigh really count?”

Euri pouted like a child. “Of course it counts. Amber just can’t admit when she’s outmatched.”

“One of you can’t at any rate,” I teased.

“Hush, Jean, or I tell Lisa about your experiments with chili brew.”

“T-There’s no need for that!”

“Are you sure? Don’t you love to brag about your wonderful little sister?”

“That’s not the same!” I cleared my throat and willed the blood in my cheeks to go down. As much as I adored Barbara, her tastes were… questionable. “Ahem! So, you’re here. Why?”

“Oh, don’t change the subject, Jean,” Lisa said with a teasing grin. “I would love to hear about your culinary experiments.”

“Nope. Not today. Euri. Talk. Now.”

He laughed, that frustrating man-child. “Fine, fine. As you know, I always have snowmen all across the mountain range, keeping a lookout for any suspicious activity. Mostly, I’m just trying to keep people away from my own projects, but I also look for rare herbs, minerals, and treasures.”

“Right, what about it? Thank you for keeping hikers safe, by the way. I know your snowmen have led more than a few people safely back down the mountain.”

“No problem. Anyway, I noticed that there has been increased Treasure Hoarder activity along the route to Mingyun Village. The route traces the edges of the mountains and isn’t part of my jurisdiction–”

“You don’t have jurisdiction,” I pointed out, mostly for the sake of giving my friend a hard time.

Truthfully, he did, sort of. Grandmaster Varka had a letter in his drawer signed and stamped that revoked Euri’s expulsion. He didn’t have the public support to implement such an order thanks to Euri’s family name, but he was of the opinion that Euri should be welcomed back into the knights whenever he finished… whatever he was doing up in the mountains.

As far as we knights were concerned, Euri left voluntarily and simply insisted on doing so in his usual, bombastic style. It was why no one, not even Albedo or Rosaria at the church, looked too deeply into the happenings of Dragonspine.

“Details,” he waved me off. “Anyway, there have been a lot of bandits poking around nearby.”

“That’s on Liyue’s side of the border. I’m not sure I want to do anything about that.”

“True, which is why I think you should send word to the Qixing. If I had to guess, the reason for this hubbub is the emergence of a new Domain.”

That got a gasp from us both. Domains were a big deal, pockets of high magical concentration that formed around temples, ruins, and similar. They inevitably contained clues about ancient civilizations, rare artifacts, or sometimes even priceless treasures and technologies. I heard that in some cases, powerful entities like gods or adepti could even isolate the space from reality entirely.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked.

“Pretty sure. There’s a certain underground cavern on Liyue’s side of the mountain range with a great deal of Electro energy, like a lightning storm that’s somehow fully contained underground.”

“I see… It could be that the Treasure Hoarders somehow heard about this place.”

“Yup. Again, maybe you should send the Qixing a heads up so they can investigate.”

“I will, thanks for letting me know.”

He got up and rummaged around in the back of his sleigh. “I also brought some interesting goodies for Albedo. Starsilver and scarlet quartz that you can’t get anywhere else. I’m sure our resident alchemist will appreciate it.”

“I’m sure he will, but you know you don’t have to offer him tribute, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I can go find R and I am poaching her son in a way.”

“Who?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You know, one of these days, you’re going to have to tell me where you get your information.”

“Eh, that sounds boring. Anyway, that’s all I had to say. Ciao~”

WIth that, he leapt out of my window and ran off, probably to Good Hunter. If I remembered right, he and Sara were good friends, maybe even a bit more.

X

Euri Lawrence

“Yeesh, Lisa hits way too hard,” I whined as I sat at a table at the Good Hunter. I really hadn’t thought anyone might be visiting Jean at eleven in the morning. When I saw someone poke their head out of her window, I hurled my snowball as accurately as I could. Lisa hadn’t been my target.

Still funny, but wrong target.

It wasn’t long before Sara came over with my usual order, the glorious Reuben sandwich. It was my sole contribution to the prestige of the Lawrence clan, just about the only compromise I made with my asshole father: Gebratenes fleisch mit sauerkraut really didn’t taste that bad.

It was common German fare in my old world too. It literally translated to “roasted meat with pickled cabbage.” The version my family enjoyed was so disgustingly sour though, that I had to soak the sauerkraut in water for an hour to bleed off some of that vinegar. I then slapped it between two rustic buns, made my best approximation of thousand island dressing, and made Teyvat’s first Reuben sandwich.

Truly, I was a culinary genius to rival Guoba. Xiangling should bow in reverence.

“Euri! You’re in town again,” Sara said, sliding my plate over with a welcoming smile. “Will you be staying long?”

“Hey, Sara. How’s business?”

“Oh, you know, pretty good. Business might take a hit if adventurers ever learned to make more than campfire dinners.”

“Like that’ll ever happen.”

“Right? This is what I call prime job security,” she chirped happily. “My family won’t go out of business so long as we have adventurers.”

Sara was one of the few civilian friends Eula and I had. In the knights, Eula’s swordplay and my magic earned us a measure of respect, begrudging as it was. That hadn’t translated to the general public quite yet however.

Despite that, Sara saw us as Euri and Eula first, professional homeless man and knight second, and Lawrence clan members a distant third. For that, she was easily our favorite person. Because of this, and given how little we liked our family, she was something of an unofficial mailbox for Eula and I.

I placed a gift box on the table. I’d dropped by the smithy before coming here for lunch and found Master Wagner had completed my commission. “Mind passing this along to my sister whenever she shows up next?”

“Ooh, what’s in here? A gift for your little sister?”

“Yup.”

“It’s not fox jerky again, is it? Because Eula threatened to stab you last time,” Sara reminded me.

“It’s not.” I opened up the box to reveal a set of vambraces, intricately decorated with snowflakes and my twin’s personal sigil. “They’re wristguards. Vision bearers don’t really wear much armor because we don’t usually need to, but a strong set of enchanted gear does come in handy every now and then. These won’t interfere with her combat style while allowing her to block with her arms if push comes to shove.”

“Ooh, they’re also very pretty.”

“Yes, Sara, they’re also very pretty.”

“What is it? It doesn’t really look like steel.”

“Starsilver. It’s a type of magical silver ore that’s unique to the Dragonspine Mountains. It’s stronger than steel and reacts favorably to enchantments, particularly those that generate ice.”

“Ooh, fancy. Sounds expensive.”

“Very. Mining it is problematic for a dozen different reasons, unless you have an army of snowmen and can ignore Dragonspine’s weather.”

“I’ll make sure she gets this,” she said with a smile. “You know, she’d probably appreciate it more coming from you directly.”

“She would, but I can’t. She’s already busy being a knight captain and I can’t take too much time out from my projects.”

“Just what are you working on up there, Euri?”

“Hopefully something that’ll be very useful in a few years,” I told her. “Don’t worry, the letter contains the location of one of my campsites in Dragonspine.”

She slid the box back to me. “Then give it to her yourself, you dunce!”

“Can’t. That’s her birthday gift. Our birthday’s October fifteenth, you know.”

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t get you anything and it’s only a few days away!”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll consider this favor my gift.” I stood and placed mora on the table for the food. “Thanks for lunch, Sara; it was delicious.”

“O-Okay. Take care, Euri.”

Author’s Note

Euri’s fun to write. And I need to find the time to do the Aranara questline. I’ve legit not even left Sumeru yet.