Chapter Text
Cyno doesn’t remember the first time he heard the name “Tighnari.” He only knows that one day he did not know it and the next day it was the most common word whispered among the scholars at the Akademiya.
Like most sudden changes at the Akademiya, it makes him apprehensive.
“I was having trouble understanding Khedive’s recent phytopathology articles from his expedition in the Liyue Chasm, but Tighnari was nice enough to study with me. He made everything so simple and easy to learn!”
“Tighnari knows everything and he’s so nice to talk to!”
“I’ve heard Tighnari has read every article published in the Amurta library!”
“Well I’ve heard that Tighnari has not only read all of those, but also has studied a bit in every one of the six Darshans. His thesis is for Amurta, something about the Withering, but I’ve heard he even helped Pursina in Haravatat too.”
“Tighnari sounds too smart for his own good if you ask me.”
“Have you seen him? He’s so cute! His family is descended from foxes. He even has the ears and tail!”
“He’s so nice! Even if he can’t answer your question, he’ll try his best to help you solve your problem. He finds articles so quickly and from any of the libraries, even without the help of an Akasha Terminal.”
“If Soraya doesn’t return from Liyue soon, I think I might ask Tighnari if he wants to do a joint research study. I hope he says yes!”
“Tighnari? I’ve heard he’s graduating next year from Amurta. Why do you ask, General Mahamatra?”
Annoyed, Cyno clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. It scares the student in front of him enough for her to take a small step back, hugging her books tightly to her chest.
“Thank you,” Cyno says curtly. He turns leave without answering her question.
All of the information gathered on Tighnari was either overwhelmingly breathless praise or unhelpful anecdotes and descriptions. Cyno is not in the same seminars, or even the same Darshan as this Tighnari, but finds himself both curious and weary.
In his experience, anything that rises to prominence so quickly without proper vetting is suspect. Although scholars at the Akademiya claim to be always guided by wisdom, reason, and facts, they’re just as emotionally-swayed and attached to rumours as the next person.
And the sudden rise of Tighnari over the past few months is suspicious. If his goal is to rise through the ranks of the Akademiya without putting in the scholarly effort, he won’t be the first person who spread rumours about themselves to gain favour, nor will he be the first to form close-knit factions to support his work.
If these are Tighnari’s goals, he must be stopped before a deeper corruption takes root. Cyno remembers what happened with others who had hoarded information and resources for themselves rather than the good of Sumeru and the pursuit of wisdom.
Frowning, Cyno taps his fingers against his desk absentmindedly, ignoring the articles scattered across it.
He hates assignments like these, but it is necessary for the preservation of the Akademiya.
***
Cyno feels a bit ridiculous as he approaches Tighnari in his full regalia, casting his eyes nervously around the busy coffee shop at the centre of the Amurta campus. Large crowds of people put him ill at ease and he makes it a point to avoid them, keeping to his studies.
For all of the whispers of Tighnari’s name on the lips of Akademiya scholars across multiple Darshans, the man himself is alone and pouring over multiple research papers at a small table in the corner, surrounded by soft cushions. Cyno almost misses him due to the shadows from a nearby potted palm.
He wonders if Tighnari chose this table purposefully to study in relative quiet. If so, he’s fighting a losing battle.
“Do you mind if I share this table? It’s rather busy and there’s nowhere else to sit.”
“G-general Mahamatra!”
Visibly startled at Cyno’s presence, Tighnari nearly upends his coffee cup. Cyno watches as he catches it in his hands and places it gently in towards the corner of the table in front of him, notably away from the paperwork on its surface.
Cyno peers down at the man in front of him sternly, waiting for an answer.
Although the rumours had mentioned that he was a fox-human hybrid, Cyno is still somewhat surprised to see two large ears rising from Tighnari’s dark hair. He has a soft, guileless expression on his face and a pink blush across both cheeks. His eyes are partially-heterochromatic and expressive from what Cyno can see, but Tighnari refuses to look at him directly. Behind Tighnari, a large tail twitches nervously, thumping against a large cushion.
If his fox-like qualities give Tighnari away this frequently, Cyno should have no problem quickly uncovering his true motives towards the Akademiya.
Clearing his throat when it becomes apparent that Tighnari isn’t going to give him an answer, or has perhaps forgotten the question — not a good first impression, although Cyno internally admits that he was trying to intimidate him — Cyno sighs and repeats himself.
“Do you mind if I sit here?”
Tighnari shakes his head and then nods — confusing but said confusion is in Cyno’s favour — gesturing towards some cushions across from him in the corner.
“Of course not! Let me just move some of my papers…”
They rustle loudly as Tighnari gathers them together, clearing off a small space on the table. Tighnari looks shyly away from him but gestures again to the empty seat and shrugs. Brushing past the potted palm, Cyno takes a seat and pulls a small journal from his bag cataloguing a series of presumably new Abyss glyphs that Lisa Minci had sent him from Mondstadt.
He may have tasked himself with observing Tighnari, but he also has other research to do.
To the scholar’s credit, Tighnari doesn’t say another word to him. He simply nods and returns to his own research. Occasionally, Cyno notices Tighnari’s eyes dart up to look at him in small confused glances, but Tighnari doesn’t say anything else.
It’s not the behaviour Cyno had expected from someone gathering clout to break into the upper ranks of the Akademiya. Perhaps Tighnari had considered how awkward it would be to chatter with someone who just happened to sit at his table out of convenience.
One of the advantages of being a government official recognized by the Akademiya itself is that Cyno can generally keep to himself. People are usually too afraid to approach him. However, in this particular case, he finds it curious that Tighnari doesn’t even ask an innocuous question regarding his studies or the weather.
Mind beginning to wander, Cyno casts his eyes around the coffee shop itself, studying the patrons from what Tighnari has, presumably inadvertently, selected as an advantageous position for people-watching.
He sees one of the workers behind the counter flirting with her customer. The customer in question blushes and twirls her hair, responding to her advances.
A man yells above the collective chatter — clinking glasses, and hissing sound of hot water meeting coffee grinds — and slams his hand on the table. Cards fly everywhere as his friend laughs loudly, gathering them onto his side of where they’ve been playing.
Cyno wonders if Tighnari plays at all. It would pass the time and possibly lull Tighnari into a false sense of security.
Across the bar another server, small tray full with a large mug of coffee distractedly stumbles forward, tapping at his Akasha Terminal.
Cyno judges the amount of time it would take for him to intervene. He wouldn’t make it prior to an accident. Furthermore, it serves him better to remain here with Tighnari and observe him. Somehow, he had slipped into the shop relatively unnoticed, and would like to remain as such for as long as possible, although it’s probably only a matter of time before someone recognizes him.
Tighnari had recognized him immediately just as Cyno had wanted.
He watches as the server, still fiddling with their Akasha Terminal, inevitably crashes into the woman who drops her own cup on the ground and the clay shatters loudly.
“Job opening,” Cyno jokes automatically, forgetting that he’s not alone.
It’s a slight misstep, one that Cyno doesn’t usually make.
Tighnari giggles and then quickly covers his mouth, eyes widening in fear as he looks at Cyno directly for the first time that afternoon. “Sorry I didn’t mean to laugh it was just—”
“One of my friends from Haravatat always said it whenever someone in a coffee shop dropped something,” Cyno says. “I suppose it’s a bit mean.”
“It’s a bit…but then again, I did laugh. After almost dropping my own coffee cup in front of you,” Tighnari says diplomatically with a sheepish grin. “I just didn’t expect you to make jokes like that.”
Cyno can’t help but smile back at him, genuinely this time. “I don’t, usually.”
***
Tighnari is visibly confused by Cyno’s sudden recurring presence in his life and Cyno observes him as he gamely accepts it.
If Tighnari finds Cyno suspicious at all, he doesn’t say anything about it and only expresses the usual amount of uneasiness that comes with Cyno’s title and status.
By contrast, Cyno finds Tighnari far less guileless than their first meeting would suggest. Tighnari is shy and soft-spoken but his eyes lit up with passion regarding his botanical studies. His dedication to researching the Avidya Forest was matched only by his overwhelming love of plants and his ire at how unconcerned a large portion of the Akademiya was with the ongoing Withering.
He also has corroborated the source of the initial rumours at least hundreds of times at this point, confirming something altogether unexpected: Tighnari is not at all interested in gathering clout or rising through the ranks of the Akademiya.
The gushing praise that Cyno had heard from myriad sources is true but Tighnari himself is hilariously dispassionate towards other scholars. When they approach Tighnari, the foxlike man is kind towards them, but regards them in the same way that he would a piece of furniture or a decorative rug until they begin talking about their own studies. Then Tighnari listens, large ears twitching at attention as he soaks up as much knowledge as possible.
In fact, Cyno had not met another person at the Akademiya who is less interested in others than himself until he met Tighnari. His initial hypothesis couldn’t have been more incorrect and he tells his fellow government officials as much.
“This is an upright and reliable talent who has no questionable dealings.”
Somewhere in the time between Cyno initially approaching Tighnari in the Amurta coffee shop and now, they have become something like friends.
“Desert?” Cyno asks, laughing as he offers Tighnari a honeyed date during one of what has become their usual weekly study sessions.
Tighnari raises his eyebrows incredulously as a small blush rises in his cheeks. Slowly taking it from Cyno’s outstreched hand, he surreptitiously looks around as if he’s anticipating someone yelling at him for eating there.
Cyno laughs.
In fairness, they’re not supposed to be eating in the library.
“Dessert. Desert. Dessert. Did you get it?” Cyno explains, chuckling at his own joke.
Tighnari tilts his head to the side as if he’s confused by what Cyno is saying but smiles all the same. “Yeah, Cyno. I got it.”
***
He waits for Tighnari at the large double doors of the Amurta lecture hall but quickly grows annoyed with the hushed whispers and long stares at his presence and darts inside to wait for Tighnari there instead. From what Cyno remembers Tighnari telling him, this particular seminar is part of an ongoing lecture series on restoration efforts in the Avidya Forest and one that Tighnari and his classmates had been looking forward to.
The presenter’s voice is obnoxiously smug and Cyno quickly tunes him out, reviewing his own work in his mind as he taps his foot against the hardwood floor. He’s cleared out enough time to visit for a few days this week and has been looking forward to seeing Tighnari again.
“My apologies,” a soft voice says, interrupting Cyno’s thoughts. “If I may interject—”
Cyno blinks because he recognizes that voice — realizes that he would probably recognize that voice anywhere.
It’s Tighnari.
The presenter has a similar reaction to Cyno as sharp whispers fill the room. “By all means, elaborate.”
Tighnari grips his hands at his sides and his tail twitches nervously. He hears someone giggling and Cyno glares at them without thinking. Nodding to himself, Tighnari begins to speak.
What follows is one of the oddest confrontations that Cyno has seen at the Akademiya.
No scholar will be unused to challenges from fellow researchers. It’s a part of academic life, and an important one that allows all of Sumeru’s collective wisdom to grow. However, this is the first time that Cyno has seen a critique come from a bystander attending the lecture of a supposed expert. Usually any criticism is reserved for the question and answer session at the end of the seminar, and even then, pointed disputes are rarely debated openly.
He watches as the nerves slide off of Tighnari, replaced by a fervent and genuine devotion to the forest that lights up his eyes. The researcher too is stunned, as are Tighnari’s classmates and teachers.
Pride bubbles up in Cyno’s chest. He smiles as he watches Tighnari, hands now gesturing wildly in the air with every word. The Akademiya is about to lose one of their greatest assets and while he and Tighnari have argued fiercely about it at length, Cyno is not going to make Tighnari stay against his will.
“I don’t think I want to say at the Akademiya,” Tighnari whispers.
If Tighnari hadn’t then turned to him, gauging Cyno’s expression, Cyno would have questioned whether Tighnari had spoken at all or whether he had imagined it.
Cyno smiles as he thinks again about how wrong his initial impression of Tighnari was.
“I want apply my research practically, as a Forest Watcher.”
To the presenter’s credit, he accepts Tighnari’s criticism with humility. As Tighnari sits down, suddenly looking both exhausted and bewildered, one of his teachers speaks up next and the debate continues.
Cyno waits at the door for another hour, watching as various scholars and the presenter discuss Tighnari’s corrections and form new hypotheses.
This is what the Akademiya should be.
“Cyno…” Tighnari says softly.
Raising his head, Cyno smiles as Tighnari appears in front of him holding out his hand. His cheeks are flushed and his tail is thumping against the floor.
“Cyno,” Tighnari repeats, uncurling his fingers. “Look.”
A dendro vision shines in his palm.