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Alhaitham wasn’t the kind of person to be easily worried, but Kaveh hadn’t returned to their shared apartment yet, and it was getting late. The streets of Sumeru were dangerous at night.
He knew about the dangers better than most people, being involved with what he was. A vigilante feared by all sorts of people, from the militarized Deshert’s Relics to the shadowy rulers of Sumeru City, the Akademiya corporation, the name of the Scribe was well-known in the underground.
After all, he made sure the people who dared to threaten his peaceful life could never do so again. Alhaitham despised extra work, but one break in lead to another, and now several times a week he was beating up gang members and destroying paramilitary supplies in the dead of night while wearing an extremely stupid bird mask.
Sometimes he wondered how he ended up as an infamous, violent vigilante. But then he’d hear of a robbery that happened to a coworker that caused his workload to increase because the coworker was stuck at a police station giving their statement, and he would have no regrets breaking into wherever caused his newest irritation and putting the fear of Lord Kusanali into the culprit.
…maybe he should reevaluate his approach. The amount of attention he had already brought onto himself with his alter ego was annoying, since he had to listen to meaningless chatter to understand his current standing in Sumeru’s underground in order to keep himself safe and to prevent people from connecting that Alhaitham was the Scribe. It was also getting harder to hide his large collection of weapons from his roommate, as he really didn’t have a good explanation for vast array of electric guns and small army of drones currently stored in his room.
Mehrak, their tawny brown cat, was seemingly nervous too, pacing around and refusing to settle even when Alhaitham gave treats that Kaveh swore would always work. Mehrak refused said treats - which the fussy cat never had done before - and sat on the window, staring out into the cold street below.
Screw it. It was already 40 minutes before midnight, and midnight was when a lot of the gangs began to seriously start their operations. If Kaveh was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he could be killed just by overhearing something he shouldn’t have.
Alhaitham went into his room, grabbing anything he might need and preparing for combat if necessary. Opening his window, he took in the skyline of Sumeru at night.
The Scribe left through the window, ready to see what the nightlife of the City of Wisdom had in store for him tonight.
…after a few moments, a certain cat jumped out the same window and disappeared into the night.
Kaveh was having a decidedly Not Fun time.
First, his client cancelled their meeting when he had shown up 30 minutes early, then he had to stop a homeless man from being beaten up by some thugs who roughed him up, and while he was trying to get back home, he found out that the train system he’d usually take was under repair and not running.
Even worse, it was too late for the buses to be running, unless he wanted to stand for an extra hour waiting for the late-night bus. And the meeting place was quite literally across the city from his house, almost a 2-hour walk.
So here Kaveh was, trying to get home either by running or getting a taxi before the dangers that hunted him down for being Allogene Paradisaea, the destined wielder of dendro and apparently whose blood contained the power of the dragons, killed him.
Why destiny called for a depressed, broke, fresh college graduate with no job, he has no idea. But it allowed him to meet Mehrak (his best friend of all time! And the bonus of the form of a very huggable cat!) and apparently gain the full trust of a race of round forest spirits in the name of fighting weird, world destroying monsters at least once a week.
It wasn't as if this was the first time he was running on a horrific lack of sleep, anyways. Architecture school was rough on his sleep schedule, and in present time he usually ran on spite and 5 hours of sleep. Which was currently a far dream away because he was running across the city trying to get home before anything tried to kill him!
To Kaveh’s surprise, while he was jogging back home, his magical senses picked up on a dangerous presence nearby - wait, no, make that three. Two abyssal, one definitely mortal, if not magical. Mehrak wasn’t with him, so Kaveh couldn’t access his full power, including the ability to hide his identity with magic - but this was the promise he made to Mehrak when the cat had asked him to help deal with the encroaching abyss.
Looking around and finding the streets empty, Kaveh summoned his claymore and went to follow what his senses told him, that of danger, of darkness and despair, and someone needing to be saved from all of that horror.
Just another night for Allogene Paradisaea, he supposed.
The Scribe’s search was not going well.
He had combed through Kaveh’s usual places without finding any trace of his roommate which was a bad sign. Kaveh knew better than to go out drinking alone, so that crossed out all of the usual bars they liked to go to after a shared stressful day of work.
The Grand Bazaar district had cameras and Kaveh didn’t show up on any of them. He wasn’t near the Palace of Alcazarzaray and neither was he in the Caravan Ribat district. The Scribe had done a thorough search with his Eagle drones sweeping the areas and his eyes looking at alleyways and behind buildings for the golden hair he’d grown fond of.
Kaveh was absolutely going to have to do all of this week’s chores for all the extra work he was putting Alhaitham through. Maybe Alhaitham should lay his books around more just to anger Kaveh…
…there was something near him. The Scribe had been in enough fights and had snuck into enough dangerous restricted areas to have honed his instincts for when someone with intent to harm was sizing him up.
Turning around, the Scribe saw something that completely stunned him, because he had never seen anything like that before.
2 canine-like beings, except they very much were not the usual street dogs. They were made out of black stone with glowing yellow patterns strewn through, and they were floating in midair.
They were looking right at him.
The Scribe ducked just as one of them lunged at his head, and rolled to the right to avoid the other. He pulled out a rod that quickly expanded into a bright green blade made out of stolen hard-light technology.
A stab into the eye of the stone-wolf next to him deterred it from turning and biting him. Strange black goop oozed out of the wound, but the Scribe couldn’t focus on that since the other wolf was coming at him.
He pulled out an electric pistol and shot it into the open jaws of the wolf, stunning it momentarily and allowing him to take the opportunity to change positions.
The vigilante was confident in his close combat abilities, but not against whatever these were. He needed a way to take them out fast. Aiming his pistol again, he unloaded the rest of the clip into the non-injured one, causing it to stumble as electricity surged through it. The injured one was already back up and -
teleported?!
The Scribe took a defensive stance - a change in the air behind him, and he swung the sword just in time to block the claws that came at his chest and the mauling wolf trying to bite his head off. He stabbed it again in the eye, trying to knock it away from him.
The non-injured one was already back up, and Alhaitham was surrounded. He prepared for a injury to his back just as the sound of footsteps were arriving in the alleyway.
“VANA’S CAGE!” A familiar figure ran in, wielding what seemed to be a large claymore made out of wood. His roommate slammed the claymore into the ground, causing massive roots to explode through the pavement and stabbing into the wolves.
The wolves visibly winced as the roots kept them in place. Kaveh stabbed the claymore into the ground and did two hand gestures, holding out his index and thumb while the rest of his delicate fingers were cured into his palm.
He created a frame with them, and then two diamond featherlike symbols appeared on the wolves. The symbols flashed just as the roots squeezed, and with a howl the wolves collapsed and turned into the black goo from before.
Kaveh smiled, and then turned to look at Alhaitham. His jaw dropped as he finally took in the appearance of the person he had saved.
“Wait, wait, wait, you’re the Scribe?!” Kaveh stammered out in shock, and Alhaitham remembered that he was dressed in the sharp bird mask that covered his eyes and the intimidating coat slung around his shoulder like a cape, gun drawn and glowing sword in hand. Kaveh dismissed the claymore in a spattering of leaves and soft glowing green particles and began to wave his hands around like he usually did when nervous.
“I, uh, please don’t ask anything about what happened, please! You can keep secrets, right? I mean, you obviously can keep your secrets I’m just asking you keep mine and also to not look to into this stuff because I’d be in a lot of trouble beyond what I’m already involved with-”
Mehrak ran in and nuzzled Kaveh, and this time, Alhaitham couldn’t hold back his shock as he stared at their cat.
“Mehrak?! You followed me out?!” Alhaitham said, incredulously. Kaveh stared in shock at both the familiar voice and now that he thought about it, the messy gray hair with green highlights were the exact hair shade of a certain roommate.
“Alhaitham?? You’re the Scribe?!” Alhaitham paused at the fact he had just revealed his identity. Kaveh then made another revelation as he tried to match what little he knew about the elusive vigilante to his lazy roommate.
“Wait - I’ve literally seen you read news about yourself! How egocentric do you have to be to read about your own alter ego?!” Alhaitham rolled his eyes and decided to take the initiative to get the both of them out of their shared shock.
“I have to be aware of how people see me. Something you have no idea about since you have nothing to hide your identity.” Kaveh sputtered at the response.
“For fuck’s sake, this is something completely different then going around beating people up in the dead of night! And I do, you ass! I’m sorry for saving your life not dressed up as a bird!” He crossed his arms, Mehrak staring amused at the two humans arguing. Kaveh decided that Alhaitham did not need to know that he was forced to wear something more ridiculous then the Scribe’s outfit when Mehrak unsealed his power.
Something about the attire of a past hero being his ancestor and the reason why Kaveh had powers in the first place, but Kaveh very much considered both a back window and a chest window to be unnecessary when paired with the absurd amount of feathers and charms attached. He wanted to talk to his ancestor about why the fuck they thought the outfit was a good idea.
“Well, are you going to explain your miraculous ability to grow plants and apparently going around fighting mutant animals as your hobby?” Alhaitham was going to get answers one way or another. Everyone in the alleyway knew this, but Kaveh refused to yield to the probing remarks for the sake of his remaining pride.
“You-! I cannot deal with you! I’m saving this for when we’re back home!” With that, Alhaitham remembered why he was outside in the first place.
“Let me escort you back, at least. Sumeru’s dangerous at night.”
Kaveh flushed a little remembering that he was trying to get back home, but agreed and nodded in response. He turned to leave the alleyway, Merhak at his heels. Alhaitham stared at the leaving architect, and then took off to the rooftops as he listened in on Kaveh chatting to Mehrak. He should probably decide how much of the Scribe’s life he wanted to tell Kaveh, Alhaitham thought as he followed his light through the darkness of the city.
After all, everything he’s done was in the name of keeping his comfortable life.
And Kaveh was a part of that life, no matter if he knew or not.