Chapter Text
“Wait, where are you going?” called out Kaveh from one of the couches in the living room. Alhaitham halted in the doorway with a bag slung over his shoulder, and turned toward his roommate.
“What do you care? I’ll be back in a few days.” He absentmindedly picked up his keys from the little bowl next to the door, avoiding Kaveh’s eyes on purpose.
“Of course I care,” Kaveh snapped, closing the book in his hands. The man had an expression of disgust on his face and a furrow between his brows that Alhaitham knew only too well.
“Why is that?” he queried back, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s not as if we’re friends, right? As you told the Traveler, we
used
to be friends.”
“Ugh! You know as well as I do that that’s complicated!” the architect stood up abruptly and turned to face Alhaitham, and his hands were clenched into tight fists at his sides. “Besides, do you really want people asking more questions about your personal life or living arrangements?”
Alhaitham pursed his lips in thought. On one hand, it was true that unnecessary gossip was annoying at best, and dangerous at worst. But on the other hand, something about the way Kaveh had used the past tense when he had said it still niggled at the back of Alhaitham’s mind. It also bothered him how much Kaveh fussed about keeping their roommate situation a secret from anyone he could, as though he was ashamed of even knowing Alhaitham. He felt his blood beginning to warm with irritation.
“You spend way too much time caring about other people’s opinions. Why don’t you go ask them what they’re up to and where they’re going?" He huffed, then repeated with more command, "Meanwhile, I’ll be back in a few days.”
“Wait, Alhai–!” Kaveh’s voice was immediately cut off by the clattering of the front door closing, although Alhaitham could have sworn he heard some muffled expletives through the walls.
There was no need to worry Kaveh, he told himself as he headed out of town. As usual, he would only nitpick at Alhaitham’s decisions and attitude, so avoiding the mother hen-like interrogation was merely a way to save time. He really did plan on being back after just a few days, and then he would go back to his simple desk job and be that stoic rock for Kaveh, as usual.
The journey through the desert took the entirety of the morning, and he decided to stop at a small oasis to sit in the shade during the peak heat of the day, eating a simple lunch he had packed. It was very hot, and much drier out here than in the lush greens near Sumeru City. He filled up his canteen in the fresh, clear waters of the oasis, and then went on his way. The sun was at his back, and was nearly set by the time he was able to find what he was looking for.
A ruin, its gaping maw of an entrance half-buried in the sand, loomed before him in the oncoming gloom of early evening. Alhaitham checked his map and notes for the nth time, then let out a sigh of relief. He would set up camp and inspect the ruins in the morning, when he could have a chance of a bit more light.
Normally, a scribe was not needed for anything much beyond the confines of his office, which was one of the reasons Alhaitham liked his job. But every once in a while, there came a commission or research team that had happened across some ancient inscription that needed on-site scrutiny, and Alhaitham gave in to it. A simple task, of course, but it had been a contentious one in his household - Kaveh thought it was too risky. He would bring up the ill-luck of Faruzan, trapped inside a mechanic puzzle of a ruin for a hundred years , or he else he would half-brag, half-fret about the Traveler’s most recent excursion into some ancient treasure trove filled with strange beasts. Alhaitham had tried to reason with him, but there was simply no way to actually get Kaveh to stop worrying once he had begun.
The most efficient way, then, was to not tell him about any on-site assignments. And the only way to ensure that Kaveh did not hear about it was to not take anyone else with him - that way there was no chance of rumors reaching him.
During the night, temperatures in the desert dropped significantly until Alhaitham woke up shivering. He pulled one of the canvas tarps he had brought over his blanket, dislodging something in the dark with a loud jangle. Feeling around in the darkness he found his keys, and clutched them in his hand. Then, he paused and fiddled with the keys for a moment, letting out a hollow chuckle. Somehow, he had taken Kaveh's keys again, their two copies always prone to entangling together thanks to them using the same bowl by the door, as well as Kaveh's stupid little lion keychain decor. He rolled the pad of his thumb over the face of the lion in the darkness, and he wondered if Kaveh was still awake, or if he had gotten to bed at a decent hour for once. Neither of them were very good at maintaining a sleep schedule, with Kaveh claiming that creative energies only came to him past midnight and with Alhaitham always just a couple hours away from finishing another book. Often as of late, the quiet sounds of them working or reading in their respective rooms was a welcome familiarity. It would also be nice, Alhaitham thought to himself, if something could break down the barrier of the walls they kept around themselves, and if they could spend the quiet night hours just a little bit nearer. It would be nice, he imagined, if they could entangle around each other as easily as their ridiculous keys seemed capable of doing.
In the dark, alone out in the desert, Alhaitham lay beneath the sky. He held the entwined keychains to his lips for the briefest of moments before tucking the keys into his satchel and rolling over to go back to sleep.
🌱
When Alhaitham woke the next morning the sun had barely risen, but it was already starting to heat back up. He had forgotten during the night just how miserable the desert heat could be. He knew he had to get to work before the sun got too high, but nonetheless he was sluggish as he made breakfast, and drank more of his stock of water than he probably should have.
Things went much more smoothly once he entered the ruin. The walls were very intricately decorated with murals and carvings of a king and his subjects, of elemental constructions of eons past. Alhaitham brought out his writing implements and took thorough notes on the inscriptions below and above the artwork, creating a very rough diagram of the illustrations to go with the story being told. Vaguely he thought about how much better the art would look if it was Kaveh who was copying it down, and it was as though he could hear the man’s voice in his head, as if he could smell his cologne as a soft, angular hand reached over his shoulder to point out his mistakes and inaccuracies. But no matter - Kaveh was not here, and he wouldn’t want either of them to even be here in the first place. Alhaitham’s work continued for the entirety of the day, and as the late afternoon began to fade into twilight he was even forced to bring in a torch to light up inside the ruins in order to get the last of the writing inscribed.
It seemed to be a sort of antechamber, perhaps an entrance to an old base for some smaller tribe under King Deshret's rule, or it could also be a tomb. Many lines were dedicated to warning against unauthorized persons going into the next chamber, which was beyond a stone door that seemed to be carved right out of the surrounding rock. Over time, the door had become slightly crooked, and a visible crack along the bottom had formed. When he finished the last line next to this door, he gave a relieved sigh and started putting his pen and paper into his satchel.
A distinctive chink was heard as the keys fell out of the satchel and onto the floor. Alhaitham crouched down, holding his torch about to see where the keys went, and inadvertently his foot pushed against the keys, sending them skittering across the floor and directly into the crack at the bottom of the door.
Cursing to himself, Alhaitham reached below the door trying to find the keys with his fingertips, but either his hand was too large or the keys had slid too far. Slamming his fist against the floor in frustration, he stood up and glared at the inscriptions around it.
If it was just his own keys, that would be one thing. But those were both their house keys, and Kaveh's keychain charm was also in there…
After considering for a moment, Alhaitham set his jaw and decided he had no choice but to go in and get the keys back. If he returned without them, Kaveh wouldn't let him hear the end of it, teasing him for his folly - an unacceptable scenario. So Alhaitham set his satchel down carefully to the side, set his torch down nearby, and used both hands to push the door open.
It gave in only after a considerable fight, the scraping noises sharp and painful in his ears, but the door did give way. He lifted his torch again and stepped inside, holding the light aloft to inspect the room. It seemed surprisingly barren, with a single square tile a little raised on the floor and bearing a strange marking. It looked as though it was meant for something to stand on, but he assumed it had been stolen by Treasure Hoarders some time ago. Turning his attention back to the floor, he spotted the keys just off to the side.
But when he bent to pick them up, an ominous and thick clicking sound alerted him. Even as his hands grasped at the keys, he could see the door rapidly swinging closed. He had had no chance to escape.
Stupid! It was a fool's mistake, and one that should definitely have not been made by someone who could read the clear warnings outside. Alhaitham tried to push and pry the door, slammed his palm against it, kicked it, and tried using Dendro on it, but nothing happened. He was stuck.
He laid his forehead against the stone, letting out a sigh.
Oh, well, he thought to himself. Perhaps like Faruzan, he had simply happened to stumble into a puzzle ruin, and there was some other way out. Alhaitham turned to the raised stone tile in the middle of the room, and leaned forward to inspect it. He did not recognize the symbol, but it reminded him of some markings he had seen from Inazuma, so it could have been some imported tiling. He reached out with his hand and touched the carved symbol, intending to inspect the writing, when suddenly the tile started to glow blue. Alhaitham's eyes widened. He stepped onto the tile, and more tiles appeared on the ground around him, identical to the one he stood on.
He stepped from tile to tile, trying to figure out the puzzle. He was almost done with it when suddenly some dark creature raced across his feet, causing him to drop his torch in alarm. He fell, and all the lights vanished.