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Kaveh and Cyno sit just far apart that Cyno cannot see Kaveh’s cards. He is the only one interested in not cheating – and that is made evident by the way Kaveh has crept closer over the course of their card match. What began as two hands splayed with cards across a table has progressed to Kaveh’s calves slung over Cyno’s lap. Kaveh’s climbed onto the chaise and abandoned his chair altogether, every handful of minutes scooching a little bit closer.
Tighnari leans his head against Alhaitham’s temple. He gathers one of his ears out of the way, pressing it down to curve against the wavy strands of Alhaitham’s hair. Together, they bend over the same desk, observing the moss-covered fragment of stone.
‘When did you say they were making a card of me?’ Kaveh is saying.
‘I didn’t,’ Cyno answers.
Kaveh scoffs in the back of his throat. ‘Yet they’ve made a card of Tighnari’s apprentice? See–”
Before Kaveh can flash Cyno his hand, Cyno turns his eyes away. ‘Kaveh. We’re in the middle of a game.’
And Kaveh kicks up a foot, jingling the charms on the gold chain around his ankle. ‘This is much more important than our game. Who chooses the next participants? I want to premiere in the next batch.’
‘It’s called a “season”.’
‘Fine then. I want to premiere in the next season! Tell me who is in charge.’
‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘The General Mahamatra doesn’t know something this important?’ grumbles Kaveh. Without missing a beat, he grips the arm of the chaise and turns around. His other hand goes limp, and one way or another, he puts his cards on full display for Cyno to see.
While Cyno sighs and begins to put the TCG set away, Kaveh calls out across the room. ‘Haitham! You think you’re important.’
‘I am nothing compared to the General Mahamatra,’ answers Alhaitham, not looking up from his work. ‘Nor the Light of Kshahrewar.’
Kaveh’s eyes narrow. In plain view of them both, Tighnari smiles. Kaveh retorts, ‘Shut up! Listen! You’re the Acting Grand Sage. You’re important right now. Isn’t that right?’
‘If that’s what you think.’
‘Then you must know the person who manages this card game business!’ Kaveh has stood up, now, and he gives Cyno’s head a careless pat as all his attentions pounce on Alhaitham. Cyno watches the argument bloom in his wake, shoulders relaxing the tiniest bit.
The shadows gloaming across the walls, pronounced by the sun’s farewell arc, shudder and morph anew when Kaveh cuts through them. Alhaitham’s quill stops its work upon Kaveh’s approach, and he is just in time to up the white noise on his headset when his spouse’s arms wrap around him.
‘Even if it’s second-, third-, or fourth-hand!’ Kaveh insists, raising his voice. ‘You said it yourself! If I’m the “Light” of my Darshan, then I deserve to be featured– agh. Sorry, Nari.’
Tighnari shakes his head and, with effort, releases his ears from how they have folded back at the squalor. ‘We can all hear you, Kaveh.’
‘Are you sure?’ Kaveh wrinkles his nose above Alhaitham’s head; Tighnari puts away his tweezers, sealing the samples of moss under a dry cloth. ‘The Acting Grand Sage often prefers to act like I don’t exist.’
‘If you don’t keep your voice down,’ observes Alhaitham, ‘You’re going to alert Sag and his squad. And mind the steam blowing out of your ears.’ Unbidden, he smiles into his words. ‘The whistle could attract them as well.’
‘You,’ hisses Kaveh, ‘are the worst. I have never been able to stand you.’
‘You married him first,’ Cyno points out.
Kaveh whirls on him, the dance of his billowy fabrics again twisting and twirling the shadows. ‘He would have kicked me out otherwise! It was under duress. Duress.’
‘You’re more than welcome to come live here,’ Tighnari chimes in. ‘Not that you would. You love Haitham too much.’
‘Nari,’ Kaveh whines, ‘Why are you being so cruel? For that matter, why you too, Cyno? Are not the both of you also married to me? Do you intend to take sides and break up our marriage?’
Once more, Tighnari shakes his head. Kaveh’s eyes are glistening when they meet his own.
The argument is briefly suspended so Kaveh might kiss all his affection into Tighnari’s patient mouth.
Cyno passes by the desk on his way out of the room, brushing Alhaitham with his shoulder. He says, ‘Nilou should get a card as well.’
‘I’ll let them know,’ Alhaitham agrees. Cyno nods and pushes down the hall.
Withdrawing from Tighnari, Kaveh reels up in a show of offended horror. The three rings on his nose chain jingle and collide with how fast his spine snaps up. ‘So you do know them! Haitham! I asked first!’
Alhaitham sets his chin in his palm and dips his quill back in the inkstone. His half-finished translation curls and dances on the paper beneath his hand. ‘What have you done to merit celebration, Kaveh?’
‘I built an entire palace! I am improving relations between the people of the desert and those in Sumeru City–’
‘Are you going into debt for that project, too?’ says Alhaitham.
‘How dare you!’
Tighnari watches the two of them through half-lidded eyes. He sneaks out a hand to brush over Alhaitham’s knuckles, and he says into the air, ‘I love all of you. So deeply.’
‘I’m in love with you,’ says Cyno, hovering like a shadow near the door. ‘... Haitham and Kaveh, perhaps.’
Kaveh lays a hand over his heart. ‘I would lay down my life for all of you, without question.’
‘Then–’
‘“Then perish”?’ Kaveh mocks, finishing Alhaitham’s sentence. He grabs his left hand and kisses the three ringed fingers as aggressively as one can. ‘I won’t let you be the death of me, Haitham.’
‘I would,’ says Alhaitham. ‘For the three of you.’
The shadows spackle and moult as the sun encounters the trees.
Somewhere far off, a dog barks.
The night grows.