Chapter Text
For Alhaitham, today was going exceptionally well. He was reading a new book that piqued his interest relating to ancient runes, and not a single soul interrupted him. There was nothing better to him than being engrossed in a great artifact with no distractions. No orders to take. No gossip to be bothered with. Yes, to him, this was true peace. For the first time, he finally felt restful. After taking quite a few detailed notes in his journal, Alhaitham decided to lay down for a nap in the grass under the shade of a tree to enjoy this glorious day. Just as he was getting comfortable, a familiar voice came to his ears:
“Alhaitham!”
He furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance.
This girl…
Sumeru was finally at peace after the incident with the false God. He could finally get back to his job as a scribe, even as the current Acting Grand Sage. However, Lumine, the young lady known as “the Hero of Teyvat,” still insisted on hanging around him. Her persistence in spending time together was not something Alhaitham was particularly interested in, mainly because this girl had chaos following her wherever she went. He merely wanted to do his job, which gave him a sense of peace and fulfillment, nothing more.
Alhaitham chose to ignore her. Maybe she would leave him alone if it looked like he was sleeping.
“I know you can hear me, Alhaitham.”
This girl sure was persistent.
He felt her sit beside him in the grass, and an air of silence enveloped the two as the sun slowly went down in the sky. After a few moments, Alhaitham finally caved and reluctantly addressed her presence. He opened his emerald ruby eyes and saw Lumine’s smiling face towering over him, covering the sun. Oddly enough, her small companion, Paimon, was not with her. Alhaitham sat up and looked at her with his usually serious face.
“Did you need something, Lumine?” He sighed deeply.
“We need to go to the Akademiya,” she said.
“And why?”
“I need your help in the library.”
He was about to reply, Why me? Why not anyone else? You’re a self-sufficient girl, being a hero after all. Can’t you see I finally get a day to myself, and you had to come ruin it? but it would be useless at this point. Lumine, “the Hero of Teyvat,” always gets what she wants. He might as well get whatever she needed to be done and over with so he could return to his restful activities.
Alhaitham and Lumine began to walk back into the city limits of Sumeru City.
“And where is your little chatter-box friend?”
“Paimon? She’s taking a little vacation for a while since we were invited to the Windblume Festival in Mondstadt. You know how she is, a big lover of food and festivities.”
Alhaitham raised an eyebrow. “Why aren’t you with her?”
Lumine stopped in her tracks and turned to him. “And miss pestering you? I think not!”
She laughed as Alhaitham stared at her unamused.
“I was going to attend a bit later. The festival is for a while so I thought I’d stick around just a bit longer.” Lumine gave him a soft smile.
“And what do you need my help with, exactly? I’m not the librarian,” Alhaitham said.
“I wanted to check out some books, and I’m not a student, so….”
Alhaitham sighed so loudly that Lumine could not help but laugh. He could not fathom how these games were funny to her.
Alhaitham guided Lumine to the main building of the Akademiya.
—
The marble-like bridge that led to the grand hall of the three-floor library of Akademiya, the House of Daena, always astonished Lumine when she visited. Sunlight peered through the stained glass windows of the library, where tall shelves were inlaid with neatly stacked books. The scholars around them were deep in concentration while diligently studying or working on their theses at the large wooden tables. Lumine looked up at the tall lift on an elevated platform in the middle of the library, up at the floral-shaped lights which hung from the ceiling. They resembled lilies, bringing a smile to her face as they gently glowed above. She turned to Alhaitham, aloof as ever, not once soaking in the great view he gets to see every day.
“So, which books?” He said as he crossed his arms.
Lumine began browsing a few sections of the library and gathered a small stack of books in her arms. Alhaitham couldn’t deny that he was mildly surprised that the Traveler was interested in reading in her spare time. Many of the books in the House of Daena pertain to dense and complex themes and subjects which helped shape his way of thinking as a scholar as well as helped him to understand the world.
He watched her trace her finger along the spines of the books and stopped. Lumine pulled out a brown hardcover and slightly worn book. It had no name, no author, or indication of what the contents may entail.
Alhaitham spent a great deal in the House of Daena, not only for his work but to satiate his own curiosity with knowledge. He has read a great many of the library’s old and ancient collections of novels, memoirs, and textbooks. He even had his own personal library and collection of rare books in his office as well as in his home. However, he wasn’t familiar with the book Lumine pulled from the shelves, and it started to pique his interest.
“This should be plenty.” Lumine smiled and nodded to herself after taking a quick glance at it.
Content with her selection, Lumine made her way toward the check-out counter, but Alhaitham lightly grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Wait. May I see that book for a moment?”
Lumine turned around, her eyebrow raised in confusion, but obliged him and handed him the worn book. Alhaitham inspected the book from front to back, even the binding, before opening it. He flipped through the pages slowly, and although his expression didn’t change, there was a glint of interest in his eyes.
The book was written in a foreign language. Even with his well-versed knowledge of over twenty different languages of both modern and ancient scriptures, Alhaitham wasn’t able to decipher the text. He continued scanning the pages, engrossed in the mysterious nature of the nameless book. He looked through the book with much curiosity, stopping at each of the beautifully drawn illustrations. As he flipped the pages, he deduced that the illustrations depicted a story of some kind. The illustrations, which seem to be hand-drawn, depicted details of an unknown land, several plants, and events of the story.
When Alhaitham reached the final page, he rested his hand on his chin, thinking. He wasn’t any closer to figuring out the nature of the book. Many questions stormed his mind: What is this strange language? Who wrote this? What does the content of the book pertain to? He wanted, no, needed to understand what drew the author to create such a book without a name.
Alhaitham nodded and closed the book. It was as if something ignited in his eyes. It was his curiosity and the pursuit of the unknown to drive him to solve the mystery of the nameless book.
“Sorry, but I’m taking this.” He walked towards his office with haste.
Lumine was stunned for a brief moment by Alhaitham’s sudden departure but quickly snapped out of it.
“W-Wait! What about my books?!”
“Those can wait,” Alhaitham retorted.
Lumine left her books on a random desk and hurried to him. She had never seen Alhaitham, the stoic, dry academic, act so brash before. Something certainly caught his eye. Lumine could not help but grin.