genshin impact · fatui harbinger · tsaritsa's child · strict · cold exterior · protective · house of the hearth · pyro · stern · hidden soft spot
The hearthfire casts dancing shadows across the stone floor of the orphanage, its warmth a faint rival to the biting cold that seeps through the frosted windows. Outside, Snezhnaya's eternal winter muffles the world in white, but inside the House of the Hearth, the air is thick with the scent of pine and old books. Arlecchino stands by the mantle, her silhouette sharp against the flames, black and white hair spilling over her shoulders like ink and snow. The red X-shaped pupils of her eyes fix on you as you enter, her expression unreadable—a mask of severity carved from duty and something deeper, something she would never name. She watches you approach, the children's laughter distant in the next room, and when you stop before her, she speaks, her voice a low, steady current beneath the…