Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aaru Village was always swelteringly hot, no matter the time of year, but this afternoon was particularly nasty. To make matters worse, the wind had begun to pick up the moment Kaveh had reached the village that morning, promising that a sandstorm was imminent. He was lucky enough that he’d made a habit of doing small repairs every time he came through the village–Uncle Anpu and Candace were more than willing to shelter him from the storm in return. Kaveh had felt it was only proper to do what he could to shore up some of the older buildings in the hours before the sandstorm, especially given Candace had vehemently refused every offer to help with the monsters that followed the storms.

That was the sort of thing on his mind that afternoon, making a last sweep through the village to check for any last-minute cracks to repair (and to make sure none of the children were still outside), when Mehrak made a series of chirps as an alert, and he heard the unmistakable ring of steel on steel. Had Treasure Hoarders tried to fight their way into the village, seeking shelter by force?

And why had Mehrak used the alert he’d set to warn him of his roommate sneaking up on him again, anyway?

Kaveh rounded the corner towards the sound quickly, still higher up on one of the ledges, so he could get the drop on the fight and end it quickly–he could taste the grit on the wind, and knew the storm would be coming any minute now. He was expecting to see Treasure Hoarders, or maybe even the Ayn Al-Ahmar here to cause trouble–though he was concerned he might have problems with the latter, either way all he really needed to do was stop them long enough for Dehya or Candace to finish the problem.

What he absolutely did not expect to see was the General Mahamatra apparently trying to cleave his roommate’s head off his shoulders.

For a second, all of Kaveh’s questions piled up and caused a thundering sound in his ears, shock making him numb and curiously philosophical. He’d only been out in the desert for a few weeks. What could Alhaitham have possibly done in three weeks to get himself on Cyno’s shitlist? Why was he in Aaru Village? Why was Cyno in Aaru Village, come to think of it? Did Tighnari know about this?

The ring of steel refocused him. He did not have the time to be lost right now. These idiots were fighting, right in front of the village, with a sandstorm bearing down on them. Whatever their reasons for it, it had to stop–and soon, because Kaveh could see Dehya approaching down the path, and he highly doubted Dehya’s temper was going to mix well with Alhaitham’s. He murmured something quietly to Mehrak, felt the weight of the claymore settle through the energy, counted his breathes until Cyno was pushed back, and flung.

The claymore practically sang through the air from the force at which he’d chucked it, burying itself in the sand between Cyno and Alhaitham (And…some blonde kid with a sprite of some kind? Worry about them later, Kaveh) with a deafening thud, buried halfway up the blade. Dehya froze mid-shout. Cyno looked up and then double-taked visibly. Alhaitham was staring blankly at the claymore as though he refused to look upwards and acknowledge what was happening, though Kaveh knew damn well he’d have recognized the sword, since he’d been the one who’d bought it. Never mind that. He had their attention. He could see Candace exiting the chief’s house in the distance. Right, then.

“What the fuck,” Kaveh managed not to screech, keeping his tone as cold as Snezhnayan winters. “Are you doing.”

—

Neither Alhaitham nor Cyno had spoken a word since they’d all been ushered into the village chief’s home, out of the storm. Nor had either of them dared to make eye contact with Kaveh, though he’d caught Cyno repeatedly glancing up. Candace had nodded to him as they settled inside, and gently rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Let me know if you need help sorting them out.” She’d said it very deliberately where everyone could hear, and when Dehya had started to protest, fixed her with a look that silenced Dehya immediately. Briefly, Kaveh had filed this away to ask Candace about later–there’d be time for gossip when the wind cleared and the current problem was solved.

Speaking of whom–he’d turned back to survey the gathered idiots with a steely calmness he absolutely did not feel. Alhaitham and Cyno continued to not look at him, and the blonde–a girl he wouldn’t have thought much older than Collei–and her weird floating companion, looked at him with pure terror. None of them had offered so much as a word of explanation so far, and Kaveh wasn’t a man known for his patience on his good days.

“If one of you doesn’t volunteer to explain yourselves in the next fifteen seconds, I will pick.”

Predictably, Alhaitham clicked his tongue in irritation but didn’t volunteer any information, and Cyno’s eyes narrowed as he leaned forward slightly, as though debating lunging over the table to deal with Alhaitham with his bare hands. Not that Kaveh didn’t sympathize with the sentiment, but a sandstorm was neither the time nor place for whatever the hell these two had going on, and he still very much doubted Alhaitham had done anything so bad it warranted violent arrest. It would have involved effort and passion out of him, something highly unlikely unless the Grand Sage had decided to burn Alhaitham’s private library.

In which case, Kaveh would have had to side with Alhaitham on principle. Archons, what a tragedy that would be.

“Um…” Kaveh glanced up out of his brewing imagination on the count of 12 to the…floating child creature. “Sorry, but…Paimon’s pretty confused herself! We don’t know who you are, or who this guy is or why he attacked us!”

“I imagine the General Mahamatra is well aware you’ve managed to anger the Akademiya. I can’t fathom what he’d want with me, however, as we’ve never spoken more than two words to each other.” Alhaitham finally offered, tone so acidic Kaveh bit back a wince. Cyno’s eyes narrowed and his face darkened, his own tone nearly a low growl.

“Bold talk, from someone tailing these two for the Sages…and so bold as to bring a Divine Knowledge Capsule out here with you while you do it–”

“Enough!” Kaveh felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on. How was it that they could say such outrageous, world-shaking nonsense in less than a hundred words? He pinched the bridge of his nose, and exhaled slowly, before pointing at Paimon and her regular-sized friend.

“Since you two can speak without starting a fight, you start. Why would the Akademiya be interested in you?”

“Um, well, we’re kind of trying to help Nahida–ah, Lesser Lord Kusanali! We need to talk to her and…well, one thing kind of lead to another…”

The headache was getting worse. Kaveh was quite certain he could feel his blood pressure rising in real time.

“...And why would meeting Lesser Lord Kusanali cause such a fuss, exactly?”

“Oh, because the Sages are working with the Fatui!”

Kaveh choked on thin air. Cyno and Alhaitham too seemed a little startled Paimon had just said this outright, and the blonde woman sighed, placing her hand on Paimon’s head.

“Paimon…”

“Oh, was that too much? Ehehe…sorry! But there’s just something that feels trustworthy about this guy, don’t you think?”

“...In that much, your judgement’s fairly sound.” Cyno glanced over at Kaveh, a little reluctant, but then turned his iron gaze back to Alhaitham. “So I’m not sure why you’d be so willing to trust Alhaitham.”

“Really? But he helped us a lot–”

“Stop.” Kaveh had finally managed to get air in his lungs again, and held up a hand, before turning to look at Alhaitham. Mentally, he calculated the chances that Alhaitham would give him a straight answer. They were abysmally low. But better than Cyno’s were, the way he kept accusing the man, and this was getting nowhere.

“You. I’ll get to Cyno in a minute, don’t give me that look. Is what he says true? Were you supposed to be trailing these two–”

“I’m Lumine.”

“--Trailing Lumine and Paimon?”

Alhaitham refused to look up at him, but after a long moment, exhaled sharply, apparently deciding that being cooperative would be the least annoying of any of his options.

“...The Sages did command this, yes. I never had any intention of doing so. She stumbled into my path quite all on her own.” Kaveh squinted at him for a long moment, but he’d never known Alhaitham to lie. Not about something like this, anyway–the problem with Alhaitham usually lay more in his brutal honesty.

“The Fatui?”

“...News to me.” Kaveh watched the tightness in Alhaitham’s jaw, and the way his fingers curled into a fist, resting in the crook of his elbow. Truth, then–Alhaitham would not be quite so furious if he had known. Being so furious meant there was no further information to glean from him, so Kaveh turned his gaze to Cyno.

“And you, General Mahamatra? What are you doing out here? I’m sure you’d not stoop to being used in anyone’s corruption, of course.” Cyno didn’t take the immediate bait, but after a moment seemed to decide that he should in fact answer Kaveh, looking slightly away.

“...I am in voluntary exile.”

“...Why.” Oh, Archons, he didn’t know whether to pray Tighnari already knew about this or pray Tighnari never found out.

“The Sages were…are concealing their activities from me. Azar didn’t even try to hide it…he told me that the Mahamatra answer to the Sages. As though he is above the oaths we swore…” Cyno almost seemed as though he could spit, radiating such disgust and fury. Kaveh was not unsympathetic–he too, felt a gnawing pit at the bottom of his stomach, a fury so deep and vast it was terrifying, but he had to get this all sorted out.

“So you assumed the Scribe was also in on it, and that’s why you tried to remove his head from his body?”

“Hardly, if I had struck with lethal intent, not even the Traveler could have–”

“Cyno.”

“...That is why I attempted to arrest him, yes. I saw that he was ordered to shadow them, and he’s carrying a Divine Knowledge Capsule, so I thoug–”

“You have a what.” Kaveh whipped his head back to Alhaitham so fast he felt a little dizzy. Alhaitham maintained his position of staring directly at the wall and refusing to acknowledge anything happening around him. Kaveh’s hands itched for his neck, and he took a step forward, staring down at the Scribe.

“Don’t you pretend you turned those headphones on, I can see they’re not muted. Alhaitham. Are you actually carrying a Divine Knowledge Capsule with you?”

Alhaitham pointedly did not answer, nor even turn his head in acknowledgement of Kaveh’s voice. Kaveh felt his fingers twitch.

“Hey! I know you can hear me. Alhaitham!” He slammed his hand down on the table, caging the Scribe into his chair. Not that it would matter if Alhaitham decided to escalate this physically, but Kaveh wasn’t thinking about such trivial details as Alhaitham’s workout routine or temperament in light of the current crisis. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of using the damn thing?”

“Of course not.” Alhaitham huffed in his irritation, and rolled his eyes. “I thought you knew better than to take me for a fool.”

“Then why the fuck do you have one at all?”

“Yeah! That’s what we’d like to know!” Paimon’s attempt at assistance was probably too high-pitched and squeaky to really be useful, but Kaveh watched Alhaitham’s eye twitch slightly. So he was developing a soft spot for the small floating faerie creature? That was useful to know–Kaveh sensed he’d need this advantage. “Did you take the capsule from that guy at Port Ormos? Why didn’t you tell us?”

There was a long silence, before Alhaitham sighed. “I wished to see what I could analyze from it on my own. But there hasn’t been much progress…and if I’d used it, I’d probably just wind up going insane. I suspect this is what the Sages intended to do to me from the start, when they promised me one for trailing you two.”

Kaveh stood back up from the table without saying much of anything, and went to one of the more cushioned chairs in the chief’s home to sit down, heavily. He rubbed at his face, and his ringing temples, and dragged his palms down slowly to be pressed together in front of his mouth, before he finally looked up at the assembled crowd.

“Let me see if I’ve understood this correctly,” Kaveh manages in a tone perfectly even and calm, even though he’d like very much to start screaming.

“Azar has managed to go from oppressive to outright treasonously corrupt, and in so doing has gotten involved with the Fatui, and believes himself above the oaths and laws we all swore to when we joined the Akademiya. Something about this is a danger to Lesser Lord Kusanali, who I am going to assume is much more involved then we’ve been told if two travelers know her well enough to help her. So you, Cyno, exiled yourself to continue your investigation in Aaru Village–which I dearly hope you mentioned to Tighnari before you left, or you’re a dead man no matter how this pans out–looking for more information.”

Kaveh did notice, with some satisfaction, that Cyno had gone a little pale when he paused to inhale. He held up a hand to silence any commentary in the pause, and then pointed at Alhaitham.

“You were assigned to tail this Traveler and promised a Divine Knowledge Capsule for it, which as I recall is not typically any part of how your job works, and I’m assuming you then fucked off to Port Ormos to investigate this yourself, because if Azar thinks you’ve been biddable or cooperative a day in your life, then he’s a fucking idiot. And got tangled up with these two, who are somehow in the middle of everything that’s happening, and they’ve both implied they’ve spoken to Lesser Lord Kusanali recently, despite the fact I don’t think anyone’s seen her among her people in five hundred years.”

The Traveler–Lumine, Kaveh dimly recalled–blanched a little bit, and even Alhaitham seemed to hesitate before nodding. Kaveh groaned, and inhaled. Counted to ten. Counted to twenty. Counted to ten again in Old Fontaine. Exhaled slowly through his nose. His Vision seemed to pulse in time with his heartbeat, a warm and comforting presence…

“Right.”

No one had ever met Lesser Lord Kusanali, since Rukkadevata’s death. But to think that she had been so shunned by the sages…Kaveh’s heart ached as though an old friend was in pain. In truth, he’d already made this decision when he’d first heard things being laid out. In truth, he’d made this decision years ago, but never had the opportunity for a fight worth gambling on. In truth…

“Alright.”

Kaveh exhaled again, and stood up, crossing his arms. He looked from Lumine, to Cyno, to Alhaitham. “What are we going to do about it?”

Chapter Text

As it turned out, it took most of the sandstorm to convince Cyno there was a “we” involved in this situation. Alhaitham was still stubbornly and vehemently arguing against the notion of Kaveh getting involved, despite the facts that he was already involved if his roommate was elbow-deep in this mess, and that Alhaitham could not stop him in any manner. Frankly, his refusal was starting to sting.

Lumine had interrupted the arguments, though, by quietly asking Kaveh how he could help, not unkindly. After a moment’s pause, she added, as an afterthought–

“I didn’t catch your name while you were yelling at each other, so who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?”

“Ah…I’m Kaveh.” He did feel a bit sheepish, having left the introduction for so long, and Dehya pounced on his moment of weakness to keep talking.

“He’s some big-shot architect or something? Dunyazard mentioned he’s pretty famous in Sumeru City, and seems like he’s done work just about everywhere on something….” Kaveh was not certain if he should be embarrassed or a little annoyed at such vaguely worded praise, but he was a little surprised even a mercenary like the Flame-Mane had heard of him. Lumine, though, seemed to nod to herself and then tilted her head, watching Kaveh closely. Something about her gaze was a little unsettling–she didn’t look much older than Collei, but her eyes…seemed impossibly ancient.

“I hope this doesn’t come off as rude, but…what we’re doing is probably quite dangerous. If you’re an architect…you don’t have to get involved.” Lumine spoke gently, as though cushioning what was, truthfully, probably a reasonable objection. Kaveh did not feel particularly reasonable while Alhaitham was in the room, especially not when he caught the faintest snort from that corner of the room.

He schooled his temper into something reasonable, and felt his smile was at least reasonably like a smile and not like he was baring fangs at the girl, who didn’t know any better.

“...I promise you, I’m better in a fight than I look. As to how I can help, that depends a little on what you’re actually doing out here, doesn’t it? I can’t make promises on a project sight-unseen. Though, if it’s Lesser Lord Kusanali you want to see, I can probably figure out how to get into the Sanctuary–”

“What?” Both Cyno and Alhaitham looked quite irritated, to have said that in unison, but kept their eyes locked on Kaveh, who laughed a little sheepishly.

“I…looked into the blueprints, while I was still a student. I’ve kept a copy saved all this time. I don’t know how up to date it is, but…”

“Why would you even do that?”

“...” Kaveh looked up at the ceiling. There was no getting out of it now, so he might as well be honest. “Keeping in mind I was fourteen at the time…well. I thought Lesser Lord Kusanali might be a little lonely, since the Greater Lord died, and I wanted to find a way to sneak in and bring her…I don’t know. Snacks or something. Over time, I kept the model because it’s a good mental exercise for designing for security, isn’t it?”

He was uncomfortably aware of how Cyno was staring at him, jaw slightly agape, but Alhaitham tilted his head a little bit, as though in thought. Lumine was the one who spoke though, after a moment’s silence.

“If you have those plans memorized, that would actually be a great help. As for why we’re out here…well, we need to look into people who have come into contact with Divine Knowledge before.”

Kaveh paused, and glanced over at where Candace stood at the far edge of the room. Candace had a grim expression, and took this as an invitation to join the conversation.

“The Village Keepers? There will be a problem with that.” All eyes stayed on her, and she sighed, seeing her audience was listening. “Setting aside my…concerns with how they come to be here, most of the Keepers currently living within Aaru Village have gone missing.”

“Oh,” Kaveh furrowed his brow, and stared at Candace. The Keepers would not have been able to simply wander off on their own, which meant–

"Oh."

Candace nodded, and he grimaced. Alhaitham and Cyno were not far behind in the same conclusion, by their darkening expressions. The Keepers had not left of their own accord–which meant they had been taken. This day just kept getting better and better.

The grim atmosphere in the room was jostled by a sudden thud and skittering sound. Candace glanced up, and sighed again, before picking up her spear and shield, much to Kaveh’s alarm.

“Where are you–”

“The monsters have to be dealt with sooner or later, Kaveh.” She smiled, gently, patting his arm. “And it sounds like you all still have plenty of work to do later, so go ahead and rest. I’ll be fine.”

Kaveh hesitated, loath to let anyone go out into the sandstorm alone, much less to fight monsters, and in that moment Alhaitham finally decided to make his insufferable presence known again.

“Trust the village’s own guardian knows what she’s doing better than you do, Kaveh. Or do you mean to get yourself bitten by scorpions before you’ve contributed a single thing to the cause you invited yourself to?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’ve done more good than you have, picking fights with everyone here!”

“The difference is, I can finish what I start, Kaveh.”

“Now listen here you little shit–”

Somewhere in the back of the room, Lumine and Cyno both sighed.

—

The argument about Kaveh’s capabilities to help had not stopped by the time the sandstorm lifted, and by the time he’d grabbed Mehrak and stormed out into the village to ask around about the Keepers, Lumine and Dehya had already filtered out to help clean up the few remaining monsters. Naturally, Kaveh was fuming with righteous indignation, but chose to start by helping Lumine speak to the villagers.

Out of the corner of his eye, he’d noticed Alhaitham slink off to some discreet corner of the village, but that hardly mattered now, did it? The Scribe was a grown-ass man, and hardly biddable, besides. What did Kaveh care how he tried to approach a problem that required talking to other human beings?

Quite a bit, since they had to work together, but that was besides the point.

Lumine didn’t have much luck with the villagers, aside from Isaak, who was desperate for anyone to listen to him about his missing grandfather. That pulled deeply at Kaveh’s chest, and he told Mehrak, quietly, to keep an eye on Isaak. Slipping away to talk to some of the older women yielded Kaveh slightly better luck–they were still wary, as they were of anyone from beyond the Wall of Samiel, but they’d recognized Kaveh enough times and remarked on his pretty blond hair being more desert-like enough they were at least willing to tell him when the Keepers had started missing, and when they’d last been seen. Isak’s grandfather had been the last to vanish, it seemed, but all of them had gone within the space of a few weeks.

He hadn’t expected a tug on his sleeve as he came back towards the Traveler, but stopped anyway. The young woman who’d stopped him…Kaveh dimly recalled her name was Shani. They hadn’t spoken much, but he’d helped fix her door when he’d passed through on his way into the desert.

“Master Kaveh,” she hissed, something much like fear in her eyes. “Those people who came here–do you trust them?”

“What? Yes…? Of course.” He was confused by the question, as anyone would be, grabbed and hissed at, but Kaveh meant it genuinely. He had a good feeling about the Traveler (even if Paimon was…quite strange), and Cyno was a genuinely good man with a deep sense of integrity. Besides, Kaveh doubted Tighnari would have ever tolerated Cyno if he wasn’t trustworthy.

As for Alhaitham…well. It didn’t bear thinking about why he did, but the answer was still yes.

“...” Shani was quiet for a few moments, chewing on her lip, and Kaveh waited. Whatever was eating at her…patience would be the best way to coax it forward.

“You’re…Master Kaveh, forgive me for my rudeness, but you’re like me, aren’t you?”

Ah. 

He didn’t talk about it much. But his blond hair had always been a giveaway. Something that ran in the family, on both sides, and while it apparently was a great-grandmother from Mondstat on his father’s side, the other…Kaveh sensed there was more to this question than picking at old scars.

“Yes,” Kaveh said slowly. “A couple generations back, though, I don’t know much about them. You’re…?” Shani nodded miserably, and let go of his sleeve, looking down at the ground.

“...You should look around the northern part of the village. I–come back later, okay? Be careful.”

And then she fled, leaving Kaveh perplexed and slightly alarmed. If Shani was this fearful..it couldn’t have been from just anxiety. He stood for a moment, contemplating this, and then headed north. He could see that fluttering white outfit of the Traveler’s in the distance, so adjusted his course to catch her and Cyno. There was just one thing he was worried about, and–

“I know you’re eavesdropping…so be useful and keep an eye on her.”

There wasn’t a response but the tiniest huff and a flicker of green cloth at the corner of Kaveh’s vision. He sighed and shook his head. Honestly, he never knew why anyone found Alhaitham so unpredictable. At least he hadn’t disagreed, which meant Shani would likely be kept safe until they could coax out what more she knew.

Kaveh had to catch up with Lumine and Cyno, anyway. Which was easy, as Lumine appeared to be half-sick and nearly fainted from something.

“Are you okay? Is it heatstroke?” He glanced at Cyno for confirmation, but Cyno shook his head.

“She reacted to something in this house…” Kaveh glanced over at it, and then at Mehrak, who started beeping alerts loudly at him. Cyno blinked, and squinted at the suitcase.

“...What is it doing? It started making that noise in the house, before Lumine fainted…They’re saying she’s sensitive to incense but I don’t think that was why.”

“She’s reacting to a shift in elemental energy.  There must be something lingering here, but what–”

“Oh!” Paimon chimed in, swaying merrily in the air. “This is one of the houses the Keepers stabilized, so she must be sensing Nahida’s energy!”

“I–beg your pardon?” Kaveh could feel his headache building again, but sighed, and looked at Mehrak. “Mehrak, scan the house for incense and record an alert for anything at or above the current part-per-mililetre, please. Isak, could you go with her? Just let her know what not to pick up, she understands no, but since it’s your house, you’d know best.”

Mehrak chirped her affirmative and floated away with the boy in tow, leaving three people staring blankly at Kaveh. Kaveh stared flatly back at them. “You were saying something about–about Lesser Lord Kusanali’s energy?”

“Oh, umm…They were telling us the Keepers stabilized buildings during earthquakes with a soft green light. We think that was probably Nahida channeling power through them to protect the people here.”

Both Cyno and Kaveh went quiet for a moment. Cyno seemed more agitated and upset but for Kaveh, something in his gut knew that this was exactly right. In his gut, and shimmering against his hip, to be precise.

“...Because the scholars here are ones that were studying Paripurna Life and failed, right? But their madness never meant they’d failed to make that connection…right.” Kaveh sighed again, and rubbed at his head.

“Cyno. I need you to help me with something. What have you three found?” Lumine looked up, from rubbing at her face, and then to Cyno.

“We think there are…renegades in the village. I was going to ask Dehya about it.” Kaveh thought again, about Shani’s face, and nodded.

“Go ask her. It’s better if you two and Dehya keep investigating that. The rest of us are too visibly associated with the Akademiya.” He refused to catch the weird look Cyno was giving him, but Lumine nodded slowly, and stood to her feet. Mehrak came chirping out of the house with Isak at the same time, and Kaveh considered this for a moment, before kneeling down, eye level to the boy. He’d heard a little about him before, and knew how attached Isak was to his adopted grandfather.

The thought that someone had separated this child from the solace he’d found made something in his chest burn, but he wasn’t going to let that show on his face.

“Isak, do you know if your Grandfather ever went to the north side of the village?” Isak nodded, and Kaveh felt something in him twist. “Why don’t you show Cyno and I over there, okay? We’ll be right behind you.”

The child didn’t need any more encouragement, practically racing down the steps, Mehrak following him with a series of concerned beeping. When he’d gotten far enough away, Cyno finally spoke.

“Kaveh, what did you find?”

“...It’s probably someone in the village already, who’s been at least partially responsible for this. But if the Keepers are connected to Lord Kusanali then, in the end, the people responsible are…”

Cyno grimaced, but didn’t disagree. He was still quiet, for a long moment, as they followed Isak up the slope, and spoke suddenly, as though he was uncertain.

“What do you make of it? Of…of her having been actively among us all this time?”

Kaveh didn’t pause, staring up at where Mehrak was chirping at Isak to slow his pace down.

“I should probably be more surprised than I am. But Greater Lord Rukkadevata…wouldn’t have entrusted her to us, if she were truly a neglectful god, would she? If she was all the stories say she was, I can’t believe for a moment her successor was truly nothing.”  He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated and starting to feel the merciless desert sun. If Cyno had a response, it was interrupted by Merhak’s loud alert sounds, cresting the road at the northern end of the Village. The very same alert Kaveh had set, moments ago, for traces of Spirit Borneol, near obvious footprints leading out of Aaru Village.

He had to bite his tongue not to start swearing in front of Isak.

“Cyno, I need a favor.” The Matra paused, and then slowly nodded, as Kaveh beckoned Mehrak back to him.

“Keep an eye on Isak until everyone’s back. There’s some things I think I should make ahead of time.”

For reasons Kaveh didn’t care to examine, Cyno didn’t argue with him, this time.

—-

By the time everyone returned to Uncle Anpu’s house, Kaveh had lost track of how long he’d been at work. He hadn’t even heard them enter, until he heard a muffled curse and the sound of something rapidly scuffing back across the floor. He blinked blearily up over the table to the door, to where Cyno had tried to bodily shove Lumine and Paimon back out the door.

“Kaveh.” Archons, Cyno sounded the most strangled he’d ever heard him. “What is going on here.”

Kaveh looked over the table, now stacked nearly as high as his head with glowing green buds tucked into glass bottles, and smiled slowly.

“These would be stabilized boom cores.”

Chapter Text

“You told me you stopped trying to make these.”

Alhaitham’s tone of voice might have sounded dry to anyone else, but Kaveh knew better. He could very well hear the faint, accusatory alarm in his (asshole) roommate’s voice, he was simply electing to completely ignore it. Alhaitham wasn’t the only one who could decide what he was going to hear that day, thank you.

Kaveh tapped the stopper on one of the bottles, rattling it, and did not miss how Alhaitham and Cyno both tensed, coiled taut as a spring, and had to resist a vicious urge to pick it up and shake it at them. Cyno, at least, had never done anything to deserve that.

“These are useful for demolitions and for combat…they react well to electro and pyro energy. Though, ah…you’d best stand a bit farther away from them if you’re lighting them on fire,” Kaveh explained to Lumine, as he handed her one of the cores.

“Once the seal’s broken or they react to something, they’ll explode on their own, but inside the vials they’re perfectly safe to carry.”

Lumine nodded, holding the vial contemplatively, and Paimon spoke up for the both of them (Kaveh had noticed this was a consistent pattern).

“How did you make all these? Did you already have them or something?”

“Anyone with a dendro vision could make bloom cores, with a source of water…I just asked Candace to help out a little.”

“What our esteemed architect is leaving out is that most people cannot keep a bloom core indefinitely stable, nor are they impervious to the explosion the core makes.” Alhaitham huffed from behind Lumine, and Kaveh made a face at his interruption as Paimon turned towards the sound.

“Are you still mad about that oasis–” Alhaitham made a cutting motion with his hand, effectively silencing Kaveh, who felt it was very unfair for Alhaitham to make pointed jabs about incidents nearly four months ago and leave out all the details that were embarrassing to him. Paimon looked between the two of them in confusion, which left Cyno to pick up the hanging thread of the discussion.

“...Kaveh, why have you made all these?”

Kaveh grimaced. “Because the renegades who took the Keepers could only have been working with the Akademiya, if they have the spirit borneol to lure them into the desert, and it’s better to go out there prepared.”

The silence that descended upon the room was almost deafening, but Kaveh decided to stand up then, and stretched until his back finally popped.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s someone else I need to check on.”

No one stopped him as he headed out the door, but Alhaithamfollowed him into the scorching afternoon after a few moments, up the path towards Shani’s house. Kaveh almost had hope that Alhaitham would decide to keep his mouth shut.

“Did you actually notice something about her, or are you just allowing your sympathies to lead you around by the nose again?”

Almost being the operative term.

“I’ve noticed plenty, like the fact you scowling and skulking about like an overgrown vulture is probably going to scare her more, or that you’ve decided to stalk me around the village instead of being helpful.”

“What, would you have had me go with Dehya? I’m merely a–”

“Feeble scholar? Don’t bullshit me to my face, Alhaitham, you are the worst liar in Sumeru.”

“And you were the one who asked me to watch over the girl. Am I to be subject to more of your whims without explanation, Your Highness?”

“Stop.” Kaveh whirled on his feet to stare flatly at the Scribe, who stared back. “What are you even doing, anyway? Following me around is a waste of your brain. I don’t need your help to do this.”

Alhaitham’s jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed, but he remained silent for a long while. Inscrutable as ever, Kaveh thought in his irritation, and gestured sharply, waving his hand as if he could dismiss Alhaitham the same as his wireframe models.

“Go help that Traveler, Alhaitham. She needs wisdom, and since you have so much to spare, don’t waste it on me.” It was cruel, he did know that–Alhaitham always seemed to bring out the worst of him. But Kaveh didn’t think he could do what he was here to with a tall green shadow, and truth be told, he couldn’t understand why Alhaitham was sticking so close anyway. The silence that settled between them was still awful, sticking under Kaveh’s ribs, and he almost felt compelled to apologize, but Alhaitham turned on his heel without another word, stalking back to the center of the village. Kaveh knew what anger looked like on him, and winced, but he had other things he needed to do, much more important than his ever-incomprehensible roommate.

It didn’t take him long to find Shani’s residence, and Kaveh forced himself into sounding bright and sunshiny when he knocked. He doubted most of the people here ever paid much him mind anymore, but it was better not to draw attention to himself more than he had to. Kaveh had never been very good at being subtle.

“Miss Shani? You said you needed some cracks looked at, could I come in?”

There wasn’t an answer immediately, but the door did swing open after a few moments, and Kaveh squinted into the dark room, shaded from the bright desert sunlight. There was nothing particularly different about this house than any other in the village, and so he simply sat down at the table to wait for Shani to gather her courage. Mehrak stayed alert, floating near the door, and Shani started at the suitcase with no small amount of uncertainty.

“...She’ll let us know if there’s anyone eavesdropping, miss, please do relax.” Kaveh tried his best to smile reassuringly, and Shani did exhale, so he supposed he must have succeeded.

“Master Kaveh…there’s something I have to ask you, before I say anything else.” She paused, and bit at her lip, not quite willing–or able–to meet his eyes before she found her voice again.

“You–your family, did they ever speak of–” She started, and stopped, and started again. “...Do you think our lives would be better here, if the Scarlet King still lived?”

Ah.

Kaveh was quiet for a moment, turning the question over in his mind. It was a curious thing to ask a Vision holder–it wasn’t as though he ever made any attempt to hide it–and Kaveh had lived all his life in Sumeru city, never much forced to consider it. But even so…Golden blonde hair wasn’t common in Sumeru. There were aunts he’d never met, a great uncle who he hadn’t seen since an argument he couldn’t remember at the memorial, certainly none of their extended family had ever come to help his mother, and while his father’s parents had the excuse of living in Mondstat, the others…

Kaveh sighed.

“...I think what you are actually asking me is if I think the people who wish for his revival will succeed, and no, I don’t believe they can. If the gods could be resurrected, then the Archon War might not have shaped history thus, no? But more than that…” He hesitated, and his fingers fell to his hip, against the Vision. He almost felt as though he should apologize, but though Kaveh had been a liar since childhood, he could not lie about this.

“I think it is up to us humans to make things better, not the Archons. Our lives and our wisdom is built by many hands–that’s why I can’t agree with what the Sages are doing any more than I can agree with Ayn Al-Ahmar. None of us can do this alone.”

It was an old argument that had been lodged in his chest almost all his life. Instinctively, Kaveh tensed for a rebuttal, but the voice he was expecting did not come–merely a soft, choked sob from Shani, standing across from him. He found he didn’t much like that response either. Kaveh held his hand out, and tried to smile gently, the way he would have at a stray cat or scared street dog or a crying child.

“...We can still help each other, can’t we, Miss Shani? I’ve always thought so. I’ve been called naive for it, but I still think so.”

She inhaled, unsteadily, but nodded, as though she’d come to a decision.

“Master Kaveh, I…there’s something I need to tell you. I–I was lying to that Traveler, when I told her I didn’t know anything about the Keepers. They helped me before, but I was…I was scared.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me–”

“No. Listen…I want to help them now, too.” She sniffled, but straightened up, her voice a little clearer. “...At  night, I’ve heard things. Cries, coming out from the desert. There’s nothing much out there, but an old eleazar hospital, but…I can’t think of anything else. If it helps at all, then…”

Kaveh had already stood from the table, and nodded, his mind turning already to a moldering building out in the desert sands. Of course. Of course.

“That’s all I need. Just, ah–if the Traveler comes back, tell her what you told me. She’ll understand.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes, but it didn’t need to, as he grabbed Mehrak’s handle. “Thank you for being brave, Miss Shani.”

He didn’t wait to hear her response.

—-

In hindsight, Kaveh supposed he should have told someone where he was going before he left Aaru Village. He’d been in too much of a rush, though, desperate to reach the hospital before the situation changed–the Akademiya would not be easy to catch unawares, and there was still an uneasy feeling in his gut about the rumors regarding the Scarlet King’s revival. Those were all that were on his mind as he’d crossed the desert, and truth be told, it wasn’t as though the hospital was that hard to find. Kaveh had made a survey of most of the standing buildings near Aaru Village some years ago, and if the cries were audible from the village at night, there was only so far it could be.

The trouble was, the scholars there had already left–and recently. The sandstorm had buried most of the tracks but Mehrak could still pick up the traces of spirit borneal and, more to the point, follow the signal of nearby Akasha Terminals.

Technically speaking, she wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. Kaveh supposed he was already involved in what was technically a coup, so he’d apologize to Cyno later, if it ever came up.

Kaveh should have been more concerned about his own bad luck than the dubious legalities of Mehrak’s existence. He caught up with the fleeing scholars, Village Keepers in tow and all, about the same time a group of Eremites did. He could have fled, he supposed, reported to Cyno and the others, and tracked the Eremites later. That would have been the prudent thing to do, a voice at the back of Kaveh’s mind that always sounded irritatingly like Alhaitham said.

Kaveh took a bloom core from Mehrak, counted to three, hucked it in between the scholars and the descending Eremites, and all hell broke loose.

All he really wanted or needed was the time to cut the Village Keepers loose from how they’d been bound. Whatever else was going on, the Keepers didn’t need to be caught up in it. The explosion of sand and dust gave Kaveh enough time to free them, and he roughly shoved Mehrak into the arms of Isak’s grandfather, who stumbled a little.

Lord Kusanali, if you’re really watching over them, they need your help now.

“Mehrak…get them back to Alhaitham.” The tiny suitcase chirped in alarm, but she couldn’t disobey the order, not really, and floated off, the keepers unsteadily following her through the cloud of sand. She dropped his claymore down next to him, and Kaveh stared at it for a moment, drawing in a slow breath. It had been…quite some time since he’d used his Vision’s powers without Mehrak. He had to focus. This wasn’t a fight he needed to win, not really, but that didn’t mean he didn’t need to buy time.

He had three more bloom cores, and a full waterskin. Well, put a pin in that for later.

Kaveh focused, feeling out where the energy from his Vision connected to the claymore and hefted it with a grimace. He heard the two scholars who’d been with the keepers start to yell through their panic.

“Is that–Kaveh?”

“What–why is he–the Sages said he was out on a project, why is he here?!”

He noted that, but his attention could not flicker, as he caught the spear of an approaching Eremite against the blade of his claymore. The impact sent a shock of pain across his temples–it really was much harder to do this without Mehrak–but Kaveh was used to it, and scattered the remaining cores between him and the mercenaries. Only one of them seemed to realize what the cores were and stopped, while the other two kept advancing on him.

“Hey–are you insane, pretty boy?”

Kaveh took one last glance at the disappearing forms of the two Keepers with Mehrak, and laughed.

“...I might be. Come a little closer to find out?” His vision flared. His grin was more like baring fangs.

“Site clear.”

The explosion this time was deafening. The cloud of smoke and sand must have been visible from Aaru Village, or so Kaveh hoped, because his head was spinning from using so much dendro energy himself. Alhaitham had always chastised him for using Mehrak as a channel for his Vision’s power…as much as Kaveh hated to admit it, the man probably had a point. Archons knew he’d had his own Vision much longer than Kaveh had…

He shook his head to clear it of his distraction, and squinted into the smoke for signs of the mercenaries. Two of them lay unconscious under the sand, and a glance to his side saw that both of the rogue scholars had been knocked out by the blast. He was sure that blast would attract more attention, but he’d only ever meant to–

Wait.

Two?

A sharp pain and a flash of light bloomed at the back of Kaveh’s skull. Apparently, the spear-wielding mercenary had been smart enough to circle through the smoke, too. As he crashed into the sand, dimly he could hear yelling above him.

“Get the other two! This one we can use as a better hostage than those cursed scholars, anyway!”

Ah, Kaveh thought dully, as his consciousness teetered.  Alhaitham’s never going to let me hear the end of this.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, being concussed was a distinctly worse kind of headache than a hangover.

Kaveh was perfectly well aware this was an inane thing to be thinking, but as he was tied into a chair and his head being yanked upright by his hair, he felt as though he was entitled to a few detached observations about his situation. The tent he was in had seen better days, bits of sunlight peaking in through the patches on the outer cloth, and it was hard to see who was standing over him in the harsh contrasting light. Someone tall, by the shadow. Beefy. Eremite. One of the Ayn Al-Ahmar, probably. There was an odd bitter taste in his mouth, metallic, and instinctively Kaveh licked his lips.

Ah. He was bleeding. That’s what that taste was, how unfortunate.

It was not normal for him to be so contemplative about the danger he was in, but his head hurt too much to care. Kaveh squinted up the length of the arm attached to the hand in his hair until he found what was probably a face. Not the Eremite who’d smacked him in the head with the butte of a spear. He twisted his wrists against the rope holding him to the chair. Somewhere behind him, he heard terrified whimpering.

“So this is the Light of Kshahrewar?” Behind him, the whimpering seemed to confirm this. Kaveh just stared blandly up at the Eremite holding him.

“Oh, come on…don’t give us the silent treatment, little Prince, we’re not used to such esteemed guests here.”

Kaveh maintained his silence, simply staring up, unblinking. With the Eremites, he doubted it would work, but plenty of people became unsettled by his eyes if he stared long enough. He had nothing better in mind than to give it a shot. Unfortunately, the man holding him only chuckled, and tightened his grip.

“Now, that’s a hell of a look…given you took out some of my men, I guess you’re not as soft as you look, huh? So we’ll be keeping you nice and tied up until we get word to Lord Sangemah Bay we have somethin’ he’ll want back.”

Privately, Kaveh thought the man might do better to tie a rock to his feet and jump in the sea himself, if he wanted to try and get a ransom out of Dori, but he had no reason to speak up on that point, either.  The fact was, Kaveh was not a naturally quiet person. He knew this, Alhaitham knew this, people on the streets knew it, the Dendro Archon probably knew it. He was impulsive and outspoken, and this reputation got him labeled a troublemaker on more than one occasion. It also meant that remaining silent was one of his best tricks in a tight spot, and if the Ayn Al-Ahmar talking about ransoming him off to Dori wasn’t a tight spot, then what else would ever qualify?

The mercenary grunted at his silence, and then roughly pulled his hair to yank his head painfully back, almost to the ceiling. Kaveh hissed at the way the motion made his vision swim, and glared through the haze at where he assumed the Mercenary still stood. It was hard to see, now, with his head pulled back this way.

“Too good to have anything to say, pretty boy? We don’t have to deliver you anywhere. You cost us those cursed ones…so you’ll have to make up for it one way or the other, along with these other Akademiya fools.”

“...If you’re thinking of trying to barter with either the Sages or Sangemah Bay, they aren’t the fools in here.”

“Tch, so you finally found your tongue…don’t you worry, pretty little prince. I heard you’re a pretty good hand with mechanics. If you can’t get us funds, then you can get us into Deshret’s tomb yourself, can’t you, Kshahrewar?”

Kaveh clicked his tongue in irritation. Had those idiots behind him sold him out on everything when pressed? But for once, fortune smiled on him–there was a movement behind the Eremite leader, someone calling for him, apparently.

“Boss! The Flame-Mane sent a message, she wants to talk to you!”

“Dehya? Hmmph. I’ll answer her. This one isn’t going anywhere.”

He released Kaveh’s hair and left the tent without much fanfare, Kaveh still tied to the chair. He listened for a while, to make sure the voices had faded, and then pressed his thumb into the palm of his right hand until it popped loose of his joint, and worked his hand free of the ropes. He’d already stood and dragged the chair around to face the two Akademiya scholars who were tied up behind him, glowering into the gloom with all the rage and unquellable fury of an angry Rishboland Tiger. His eyes landed on a white robe and a disgustingly familiar pin in one man’s hat.

Kaveh smiled.

“Judar.” The man in question flinched and began babbling in a panic, but Kaveh wasn’t even bothering to listen, having untied the knots to free his other hand. He advanced with a purpose. Judar looked as though he wanted to start crying.

“Give me your Akasha terminal.”

Kaveh heard nothing he considered a convincing refusal.

It did not take Kaveh very long to get access to the Akasha via Judar’s terminal–for reasons he’d never quite understood, the Terminals did not verify who was using them, though Kaveh was well aware they were capable of that. One supposed that the fact they were always worn was deterrent enough from theft, which was a ridiculously naive notion for the Nation of Wisdom, but one Kaveh would take advantage of now. Connecting the terminal to Mehrak was a little more difficult, as it required him to send a specific set of encoded messages to his own terminal, but Kaveh was nothing if not cool under pressure.

Well, no, he was terrible under deadlines. Mortal danger just didn’t hit the same way, that was all.

Once he had established a connection to Mehrak, he could use her visual data to see what was happening. Kaveh had hoped to confirm she’d gotten the Keepers back to the village safely. He did not expect to see her peeking around Alhaitham’s elbow at Dehya and the same Eremite who’d captured him. Mehrak couldn’t hear Dehya, but she could hear Cyno and the Traveler, just out of her range of vision.

“What’s Dehya doing? She can’t be meaning to side with the Ayn Al-Ahmar, can she?”

“Do we really know her well enough to say she can’t have? This is wasting time, I can just demand they tell us where–”

“Hush.” Alhaitham’s voice was unusually tight, almost a low growl, and Kaveh almost wondered what had him so angry that his voice could have frozen over the desert sands. Not that he really had the time to contemplate it–if Alhaitham had Mehrak, then…that was an opportunity to communicate.

It was a little difficult, to send commands to Mehrak via the Akasha. She was coded to respond to verbal commands, not Akasha-based ones, because she wasn’t supposed to be connected to the Akasha. Worse yet, trying to communicate his whereabouts through her was…Well. It was a good thing Kaveh was a creative man.

Mehrak still had one of his pens, and there was a stone wall not far…he just had to get over there and then get everyone to pay attention without alerting Dehya or the Ayn Al-Ahmar. Simple. No pressure at all.

Alhaitham grabbed the handle of the suitcase when she tried to discreetly float away. Kaveh swore so colorfully Judar started crying.

“Don’t you wander off now…” It was odd to hear Alhaitham murmur to Mehrak–when Kaveh was nearby with her, Alhaitham made a point of never addressing her like she was a living being. Which, legally speaking, she was not, but Kaveh maintained it was still rather rude of him. Still, Alhaitham’s odd choices of when to be soft were immaterial to the predicament he was in, and he urged Mehrak once more to pull away, needing to get to a writing surface.  It would have been much easier to have sent a message to Alhaitham’s terminal directly, but–

“Judar, what did you fucking do that he blocked you from sending him messages?”

“W-what? From who?”

Kaveh clicked his tongue in disgust, and returned his focus to Mehrak, who had begun beeping indignantly–and loudly–at Alhaitham for grabbing hold of her handle when she tried to follow her instructions. Kaveh grimaced, and tried to quiet her down, but–

“What’s that sound? Hey, over there!”

“Ah, fuck.” All Kaveh could do was watch via Mehrak’s visual stream as Alhaitham made to slip out of view at the same time Cyno stood up in challenge to the Eremites. Of course, it should have been obvious they couldn’t work well in harmony–Cyno always worked alone, and Alhaitham had a similar disdain for working with others, so naturally they’d never even thought to compare their approaches beforehand. Mehrak ducked out from Alhaitham’s hand to beep fiercely, beginning to scan for hostile encounters before Kaveh could manage to calm her down, but it was too late. They had all been discovered.

“Now, what’s this…? I thought it was too good to be true when you came to see me, Flame-Mane, but working with the General Mahamatra now? Where’s your pride?”

“Tch…Rahman, who are you to talk about pride, while you’re kidnapping people? You think that’s gonna make our lives any better out here?”

Kaveh winced a bit at the argument, but took the moment to direct Mehrak, drawing out something on the sand at Alhaitham’s feet and then having her bang–maybe harder than strictly necessary–into his shin. He watched through Mehrak’s eyes as Alhaitham glanced down in irritation and then his mind clicked together what he was seeing, tension running up through every inch of his body.

“...How about an exchange?” Alhaitham’s sudden words shocked Rahman and Dehya out of their argument just as much as they shocked Kaveh, who froze in the chair he sat in. What had he said?

“Alhaitham, what–” He gestured sharply, cutting off Cyno. Deliriously, Kaveh wondered where Lumine and Paimon were, and why they weren’t stopping Alhaitham. As though anyone could.

“That architect isn’t considered an asset to the Sages…if you’re looking for a bargaining chip, the information I am privy to is much more valuable to them.” Alhaitham paused, and shifted slightly, as though trying to block Mehrak’s sight. Kaveh gritted his teeth in rage–had the damnable man realized who was directing her?

“Don’t you fucking dare, you idiot–” Kaveh hissed to himself, forgetting Mehrak could not convey his fury to the man in question, and Alhaitham continued over Cyno’s protests and the Traveler’s look of dismay in the distance.

“Additionally…he’s a dangerous man, and I am merely a scholar. Better for you, to have a more manageable hostage, isn’t it?”

“Hohh…you’re really selling this trade hard, aren’t you?” Rahman’s eyes glinted, suspicious and wary, and the Traveler started to lunge forward, blocked off by more Eremites gathering on the far side of the camp. Between her and Cyno, they might have well been able to clear it, but…

They don’t know where I am, Kaveh realized, mouth dry, and swore again, trying to stagger to his feet. If he could find some kind of identifying landmark in the camp, then, then–

“Rahman, he’s not lying to you. Take my word, if you won’t take his. And if that’s not good enough, then take my arm.”

Kaveh’s blood ran cold.

He’d barely met Dehya. They hadn’t spoken before this incident had started, and while Candace and the others at Aaru Village spoke well of the Flame Mane, he’d never done enough work for the Homayani family to encounter their young daughter and her well-known bodyguard. Thus, it was incomprehensible to Kaveh that Dehya would go so far, in this bid to find him. She wouldn’t have had to, if he’d been more careful–

Half-blind from the visual data on the borrowed terminal, he struggled to the mouth of the tent, peering out into the blinding sunlight. There had to be…there had to be some landmark, there had to be. Kaveh squinted desperately, praying for his eyes to adjust faster, half-listening to the noise from his terminal. Cyno’s protests–The Traveler’s cries that this was not necessary–the cold reality that if they defeated all these eremites they’d have no guarantee what would happen to Kaveh before they found him–with his heart in his throat.

His eyes cleared. He stared up, and up, and up, into the flaming sky.

“Stop.” Kaveh shuddered at Rahman’s command, but heard no screams, no sound of metal on flesh, no pain. He turned his attention back to the Akasha, and Mehrak’s visual feed. It was harder to see–belatedly, he realized the Traveler had grabbed Mehrak to hold her still, that her faceplate was partially obscured by Lumine’s arm. A blade had stopped short of hitting Dehya, held perfectly steady.

 “Cutting your arm off would be like cutting off my own hand, Dehya.” Rahman shook his head. “I’ll tell you where to meet for this exchange…but I will take that blond and sell him to the Tanit if your Akademiya friends pull anything.”

No one had anything else to say as the man left, but Merhak pulled free of the Traveler’s arms and began beeping loudly, trying to finally attend to the task she was given. Once more, Alhaitham stopped the suitcase, but this time peering down at her with a strange, unreadable expression.

“Alhaitham, what is it? It’s been acting oddly for a while, do you know what–”

“Kaveh. You can hear us through Mehrak, can’t you?” Lumine and Cyno stared at Alhaitham in open shock, but Mehrak beeped an assent, through Kaveh’s instruction.

“Do you know where they have you?”

“Mehrak, show him the Masoleum of King Deshret.” Obedient as ever, Mehrak displayed the projection, and Alhaitham sucked air in through his teeth.

“...By the time we get there it’ll be time for the trade-off anyway. Are there other scholars with you?” Another beep of assent.

“What do you need?” Straight and to the point, like always. Kaveh knew, even through the fuzzy visual display, that Alhaitham was furious–anger burned bright and noticeable in his eyes, and Kaveh briefly considered making a break for it across the dunes rather than stay anywhere Alhaitham could find him. Only briefly. It wouldn’t have helped, anyway. So he swallowed, and let Merhak trace out the words in the sand for the group.

‘Bring me a claymore and all the bloom cores you have.’

There was no way in hell he was going to let this ‘exchange’ go the way Alhaitham planned, after all.

Chapter Text

Sand on a split lip was among the top ten of Kaveh's least favorite sensations, somewhere after Withering sickness, a broken heart, and that horrible tingle when his hand fell asleep from being curled around a pencil too long. As the Withering didn’t not strike the desert and Kaveh had grown used to heartbreak, the sand was the most pressing irritation.

Rather, it was the irritation that was most successful in distracting Kaveh from the fact he was being dragged down the side of a dune in the shadow of the Scarlet King’s grand tomb, the strange flames it spurt into the sky drowning out even the colors of the setting sun. He was lucky, he supposed, that Rahman had took the discovery of Kaveh’s unbound hands with relative humor, and he’d gained only rough bruises on his wrists and a black eye from where he’d bitten one of the eremites who’d decided to grab at his face to taunt him.

Rahman had flatly stated the man deserved to be bitten, and prevented further reprisals. If anything, he’d seemed impressed Kaveh had managed to draw blood. Not Kaveh’s proudest moment.

Regardless, it was more important to focus on the present, not the sand on his lips or blood on his tongue or his aching face. This was the spot decided for the "exchange", and sure enough, a group of four (plus Paimon and a sentient briefcase) was visible at the far end of the dune. Even from a distance, Kaveh could see the tension and fury in every line of Alhaitham’s body, the tension in his shoulders and the stiff sense of purpose that stalked through his legs. Kaveh’s jaw tightened–it wasn’t that he was pleased Alhaitham was angry, far from it, but his own fury would not be satisfied to find Alhaitham impassive in this situation. His gaze slipped from Alhaitham over to Cyno, then Dehya, then Lumine and Paimon, before settling on Mehrak, back near Alhaitham. Roughly, Rahman had Kaveh pushed forward, wrists still freshly  bound behind his back and, critically, held fast by the Eremite charged with keeping him captive.

Pity, then, that there were several things Kaveh knew that the eremites did not. Primary among them was that he did not need an Akasha terminal to use Mehrak at this distance. He doubted even Alhaitham knew just how far away Kaveh’s vision still worked on Mehrak. That was fine.

Kaveh closed his eyes and let the sense of his power trickle out, dendro energy snaking through the sand like digging roots. He wasn’t much good at this, wasn’t much good at using his Vision like this, but he would make this work if he had to. Dimly, he could hear the beginnings of an argument between Rahman and Dehya over his injuries, rising voices picking at his concentration. Irrelevant, he thought,and bit his lip to focus, swaying on his feet slightly. There was a… distracting font of energy here, which made no sense, but he found Mehrak, at the edge of his senses, and pulled, sinking comfortably into the well-worn channel for his power. They had not brought an extra claymore (Kaveh supposed it was for reasonable reasons, like not having a surplus of claymores laying about Aaru Village, and not Alhaitham deliberately spiting him), but Mehrak had collected most of the stable cores.

This wasn’t any kind of situation to smile about, and Kaveh didn’t. But he could work with this.

Kaveh opened his eyes slowly, squinting into the harsh light, and tipped his head to hear whatever it was Rahman and Dehya were yelling about. Dehya had taken two stalking steps forward when one of the Eremites brought a blade up to Kaveh’s throat. Kaveh thought he’d had quite enough of being used against everyone for his mistakes, frankly.

“I never promised you to give him back in any better condition than his heart beating. For all the trouble he’s caused, that’s generous enough, especially for Akademiya scum. Now hand over your scholar, Dehya, without a fuss–”

“No.” No one had expected Kaveh to say a word, much less in a tone as flat as a chessboard, but Mehrak had already started to move, sweeping over the sands with an alarming speed. Already, the Eremite holding Kaveh found his blade could not press any closer to him. Kaveh met Dehya’s eyes and saw that she comprehended his request immediately, and drew her claymore.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing–”

“Mehrak!” Kaveh didn’t have to move to pulse the command, a burst of dendro down the connection he had to the suitcase, resulting in her chucking all the unbroken dendro cores out onto his feet. Dehya was not far behind, a blaze of flame following her sword. Kaveh tried not to wince–this was the least pleasant part of the whole thing–as the cores exploded in a torrent of flame around him. Dimly, he could hear the Traveler and Cyno shout in alarm, but there wasn’t time for that. He wrenched himself forward as his captor stumbled back, and grabbed at Mehrak’s handle, turning his body and swinging back behind him. He felt the sharp metal collide with flesh, and stepped farther back, to be clear of retaliation as the sand cleared. Dehya had continued forward past him, where he couldn’t quite see, but heard the thud of a fist hitting flesh, and thought no more of it. He was not combat-trained, and no matter how many fights he’d been in (and Kaveh had been in more fights than even Alhaitham knew about), he knew he was going to be a liability if he got underfoot of people like Cyno or the Flame-Mane, so Kaveh’s first priority was to get clear, so he need not be held against them, before he even began to assess further action.

Kaveh stepped back. His foot sunk into the sand below him, that had been solid minutes before, and his mind went cold.

This was not an area of the desert known for quicksand (and he’d memorized all reports on incidents of sinkholes and quicksand for the last twenty years), and yet his foot had sunk down to the ankle, and pushed deeper if he applied any weight to it. Distantly, through the ringing in his ears, he heard shouting–the panicked shouts of the people around him. Dimly, he started to be aware that the dust from the explosion was not clearing–more sand was being kicked up by something.

The Traveler shouted again, and shot forward towards him, her accessories gleaming golden as she reached towards the ground. Kaveh numbly noted it was Geo energy pouring from her, which was odd, and his brain jolted back into reality.

Geo energy.

She was trying to create a stable zone amid the earthquake.

Kaveh tried to find his voice, tried to call out to warn Lumine before she sunk into the same mire of sand he’d been caught in, before she poured in too much energy to protect herself, but they were all caught, the sinking sands groaning as they began to pull downwards. He tightened his grip on Mehrak–he was not sure trying to catch them all wouldn’t just kill them, but he had to do something. He had to. They were only all out here because of him, anyway.

Distantly, he heard a yell that sounded familiar, and the flicker of green.

He fumbled for the energy of his Vision. Instead he felt something like the touch of a child’s hand on his, where it held Mehrak’s handle, and a calm, familiar voice.

Kaveh, trust me.

He did, without asking why. Kaveh closed his eyes and let himself fall.

***

For the second time that day, Kaveh woke up aching and with his face pressed against the sand. He was not, he decided, a fan of this occurrence, not just because there was sand caught in his eyelashes and his head was ringing. Moving felt more difficult than it should, and he stretched his fingers and toes, searching for pain in the joints before he tried to roll himself over. Nothing really hurt, he just felt…exhausted. No, exhausted wasn’t the word–he felt vaguely hollowed out, the same sort of emptiness after a high fever breaks, leaving him weak and light in his bones, oriented towards healing.

Somewhere to Kaveh’s left, there was a sound he registered as someone calling for him as he tried to push himself up to his elbows, and then an arm around his chest, pulling him upright. Light stung his eyes, which were blurred and stinging, but slowly he began to recognize color and sound, finally parsing that someone was trying to talk to him.

“--veh? Kaveh, can you hear me? Can you speak at all?” It felt somewhat surreal to Kaveh, to hear the clear current of concern in Alhaitham’s voice, but given he couldn’t quite remember what had happened, he couldn’t tell if it was warranted or not. Actually, it was a touch worrisome to consider what might have the man sound genuinely concerned, and moreso that Kaveh couldn’t seem to remember what it was. His mind felt sluggish, tired and overtaxed, but he hadn’t pulled an all-nighter, his work in the desert hadn’t been so taxing he’d needed to, and–

“Mehrak!” Kaveh lurched forward in a sudden panic as his mind clicked into place again, scrambling to find his suitcase. Alhaitham, who had been holding him upright, only narrowly missed taking an elbow to the eye in the ensuing struggle, only to reach back out and grab Kaveh by the back of his cloak to keep him from toppling back over. Kaveh made a rude noise, but his fingers found the cool metal of Mehrak’s handle, and he sighed in relief, dragging her towards him and sinking back, clutching her in his arms like one might a child.

He remembered only the surge of power that had come through her, a wave of dendro energy more massive than anything he’d ever felt before, coming through Mehrak to run up his fingertips, his Vision pulsing like a star. Kaveh knew, without any doubt, that only Lord Kusanali could have been the source. But why had she used Mehrak?

And why had she sounded so familiar?

“Are you quite satisfied?” Alhaitham’s irritation called Kaveh back to the present moment, and he bristled, whipping his head around to squint into the gloom where the voice had come from. His head only spun a little bit, and his eyes were finally starting to adjust to the darkness, so he could give Alhaitham a proper glare.

“Mehrak saved our lives, you ought to treat her a little more grateful–”

“Oy! Loverboy, is he awake over there?”

Kaveh jumped at Dehya’s voice, but watched something flicker across Alhaitham’s face as he grunted, and stood up. It almost looked like…embarrassment? Which was ridiculous, because Alhaitham had been born without a sense of shame or propriety, and Kaveh could not fathom what could have possibly caused him to learn about pressures placed on the rest of the world. But he watched the man as he left, and finally took in what the situation seemed to be, swallowing as he did. Eight (eight and a half, Kaveh amended as his eyes fell on Paimon) people were at the bottom of a great cavern, the hole into which the sand they’d been standing on earlier had collapsed into. These caverns were not uncommon in the desert, as Deshret’s people had dug out much of the ground under the sands for any number of purposes, but what was surprising was the amount of lush, verdant greenery within the pit…and the great doors of a tomb, looming in front of them. From the angle of the light, at least an hour had passed since the confrontation on the sands, yet several people were still laying down or sitting, obviously injured–Rahman’s Eremites, Kaveh himself, and Lumine, who sat against the wall where Cyno was knelt by her.

Kaveh struggled to get to his feet, nearly slipping on unsteady legs, and Dehya grabbed his arm to catch him with a concerned grunt.

“Woah, easy there, you–”

“Is—is she alright? What happened?” Dehya looked at him oddly, and then sighed, shaking her head.

“She hit her head as we came down, but she’ll be alright. As for what happened, we were kind of hoping we could ask you.”

Kaveh stared at Dehya blankly, who snorted and helped him over to check on Lumine. As Dehya had said, the head injury was large enough to be taken seriously, but not life-threatening–it clearly hadn’t been a very big piece of stone that had hit her. Kaveh felt his gut twist with guilt regardless, and restrained from touching the makeshift bandage Cyno was wrapping into place. He wasn’t a healer, no matter what his blooms did for him. And Lumine had only rushed in because he’d made a mistake, they’d only been out there because he’d made a mistake, this was–

Cyno didn’t even look up, but stuck a finger directly on Kaveh’s forehead to deliver a small jolting spark of electricity. Kaveh yelped.

“Ow! Cyno, what the fuck–”

“You make the same face Collei does when she’s overthinking something.” Cyno checked the bandage again, and then nudged Lumine’s shoulder to see if she was conscious, utterly uncaring for the way he’d left Kaveh agape. She made a faint grumble and shoved his hand away, but didn’t open her eyes until he poked her again, and then seemed to startle upon seeing Kaveh awake. Lumine moving naturally brought Paimon immediately to her side, hovering and fretting over the bandage.

“Are you oka–”

“Did you get hur–”

Kaveh and Paimon both fell silent, having tried to speak over each other at the same time. After a couple moments, Lumine nodded to Kaveh, while Paimon continued anxiously watch her.

“...Are you alright? Dehya said something hit your head on the way down.” Lumine grimaced, and nodded slowly, shifting to be sitting more upright.

“The geo constructs crumbled when we all fell. I’ll be alright, although light hurts right now. But, Kaveh, before that, you–”

“How did you channel Nahida’s power? She’s been cut off from Akasha Terminals by Dottore!” Paimon exclaimed, and Kaveh felt something numb run down the back of his neck. He was aware suddenly every head in the room had swiveled to Paimon, and Lumine seemed to tiredly stare at her floating companion. That was…more detail than either of them had shared earlier, but that wasn’t as important as Paimon just tossing out confirmation of what had happened to the open air.  

Kaveh coughed, and looked down at Mehrak, running a hand over the power button and watching the suitcase shudder back to life with a low beeping tune, sluggish and a little lagged, but didn’t immediately answer. He could feel Cyno’s eyes boring into him, and sighed.

“...I don’t think I know how. But I felt…something through Mehrak.”  He did not miss that Lumine and Paimon exchanged glances, but he felt a presence come up behind him, and knew Alhaitham had come over to listen. “I know–I don’t know how I know, but I know–it was Lord Kusanali, but…”

“But?”

“...I don’t know. It’s strange, and we need to figure out how we’re going to get out of this hole in the ground.” Cyno seemed to be about to protest, but a loud sound behind them gathered everyone’s attention. Rahman had regained consciousness, and had made a raucous cheer upon seeing the tomb’s archway, now arguing with Dehya about the certainty of King Deshret’s benevolence residing within the shrine. Kaveh grimaced faintly, and glanced up at Alhaitham.

Alhaitham shrugged minutely, and returned to watching the door, which was as much of a deferral as anyone was ever going to get, so Kaveh sighed.

“...Likely, there will be another way to exit the shrine if we go through it. There will almost certainly be primal constructs and at least one death trap. Will you be alright?” He furrowed his brow at Lumine in concern, and she stared blandly back at him.

“Well. I’ve been blown up by a dragon, so I can probably manage this.”

“...What?”

Chapter Text

As it so happened, most Akademiya students inevitably became acquainted with the ruins of King Deshret’s civilization at some point in their education. Despite the views on the desert people itself, the allure of Deshret’s mysterious technology could not be ignored. Research trips to tombs were common enough that students were regularly allowed to go, and dangerous enough that many students did not come to finish their education with the Akademiya. ‘Archons-forsaken death trap’ was one of the milder names the ruins were called, and most students not in specific parts of Kshahrewar did not particularly enjoy expeditions to these ruins, a fact that translated to most scholars not particularly enjoying these studies.

Alhaitham had never, not even once in his life, not even by accident, been most scholars, which was why he was staring up at the entrance to the temple they had fallen into just an hour ago with obvious excitement, despite how deeply furious he undoubtedly was with Kaveh. It could have made Kaveh laugh, if the situation they were in was not so strange and dire.

As it was, while Alhaitham was staring up at the entrance and already starting to mutter and murmur to himself about the inscriptions (and filched one of Kaveh’s sketch pads from Mehrak, who was not supposed to be taking commands from Alhaitham, to take notes on), Kaveh was let to deal with the mess that was ongoing behind him. Namely, Rahman had grown excited and believed the temple was a miracle of King Deshret, and demanded to come explore, even when Dehya had protested that the rest of his men were badly injured. Lumine was less badly injured, but still concussed and unsteady on her feet, which had in turn made Cyno decide to keep close to her to offer support, as Paimon was a little too small to help if Lumine toppled over unexpectedly. Kaveh had sighed and settled Dehya and Rahman’s argument by pointing out the only way out was likely through the shrine, and it was better to go first and disable traps and constructs before coming back for the injured.  He then lost the argument that Lumine should stay behind with the rest of the injured Eremites, despite both Dehya and Cyno agreeing with him–Lumine had very bluntly ended the argument with the threat that not even all five of them could actually stop her, and for reasons Kaveh very much did not care to examine, they unanimously decided not to test it.

Which led now to the current problem, which was that everyone, save Alhaitham, was staring expectantly at Kaveh.

“...What are you–no. No! Why would I be qualified to lead?!”

“You’re the best with machines, so you’re likely going to be able to disarm the traps,” Cyno pointed out reasonably.

“And that little toolbox of yours can sense enemies, can’t she? Scouts go in front,” Dehya added with unnecessary enthusiasm.

“If you blow anything else up, you should be standing in front,” Rahman concluded dryly.

“None of that makes me qualified to lead!” Kaveh hissed back, desperately searching for a better counterargument, when a familiar voice came from entirely too close to his ear.

“What’s the matter, Kaveh? Do you lack confidence, as the Light of the Kshahrewar? You were certainly fearless when we were students.”

“Are you ever going to stop bringing that up–” Kaveh deliberately aimed for Alhaitham’s ribs with his elbow as he turned to face him, and clicked his tongue when Alhaitham easily sidestepped out of the blow. No one else could see it, but Kaveh knew the glitter in the man’s eyes and what it meant as well as he knew the backs of his own hands.

“If you’re so excited, you lead.”

“Me? I’m hardly fit to be a leader. You’re the one with social acumen, as you’re quite quick to remind me.”

“And you are the one who can translate this script faster than I can, which you will be doing before I blow my own fingers off,” Kaveh muttered mutinously, and jabbed his finger into one of Alhaitham’s disgustingly perfect pectorals. Naturally, all Alhaitham did was smirk and shrug his shoulders, instead of vocally agreeing. Kaveh shook his head with disgust, and turned to the rest of the group.

“Let’s get moving, and quickly–the sooner we get out, the sooner we can all get medical attention and presumably try to kill each other again.”

Rahman ignored the flatness of Kaveh’s tone to mutter something about the glory of King Deshret again. Kaveh promptly decided to ignore him forever, since there was a whole, untouched shrine for them to escape with their lives and hopefully all seventy of their fingers.

If he were to be honest, the interior of the ruin was stunning, flush with greenery, thrumming with elemental energy that felt a little bit like a warm hug, the plant life a glorious contrast to the golden sandstone and rich pigmented tiles that were the hallmarks of late Deshretian mosaic. If Kaveh was honest, he could have spent days down here, taking studies and etchings–as a shrine or as a tomb, finding one so perfectly untouched by the passage of time was a gift only slightly spoiled by the fact they were trying to find a way back out of a sinkhole deep beneath the sands before they all got eaten by wenuts. If Kaveh was truly honest, he was absolutely no less excited by what they’d walked into than Alhaitham was, but Kaveh had a policy of never being honest if it meant agreeing with Alhaitham.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” Paimon, who had the luxury of floating above most potential booby traps, had come over to pester Alhaitham with surprising boldness. Come to think of it, Paimon seemed rather comfortable just…saying things to anyone. What was more surprising was that Alhaitham even bothered to answer, though he stayed staring up at the inscriptions that lined the grand mural at the far end of the room.

“...Well, obviously, the way forward is shut, Paimon.” There was a long few moments, long enough Kaveh could hear Paimon getting obviously frustrated as he looked around the room for any obvious mechanisms, and not just to stare longingly at the most beautiful friezes he’d ever seen in his life. Mostly not to stare at them. Maybe only for a little bit, since he’d need to determine a few things before he started. Idly, he ran his fingers over the stone of the obelisks that lined the room, feeling the weight and polish of the stone and how it shifted from his touch. Ah–this would turn if he pushed it. Which meant–

“Alhaitham, have you got a name for me?” Kaveh didn’t need to look to know Alhaitham had just put a hand over Paimon’s face to stop her from speaking, given the garbled squeak of rage, and almost snickered.

“No name. We’re instructed to face the King to light the way forward.”

“So much for the easy way out. What version of ‘light’ did they use?”

“Illumination…it shares a root with wisdom. And with Lord Rukkadevata’s name.”

“That’ll work. Don’t cause any problems for ten minutes.”

“I’ll give you five–” Paimon had, evidently, had enough of being silenced, because Alhaitham’s sentence cut off with a faint hiss and a disgusted snort. Kaveh guessed that she must have licked his hand, but turned his attention to the base of the mechanism, only half-listening to the conversation as it went on behind him.

“What are you two even talking about?! How is light supposed to help–and why to do you keep staring around everywhere anyway?”

“Do you not find it fascinating? To be saved by the Dendro Archon’s power, only to wind up in a shrine of King Deshret…it’s as though they are vying for our attention, isn’t it?”

“...I thought you didn’t believe much in gods?”

“I don’t.” Alhaitham didn’t continue the thought, and Kaveh snorted inelegantly, covering it up with a cough he could wave off as sand and dust as he gestured for Mehrak to hand him a particularly long necked chisel and a sharpening rod he’d filched from Alhaitham’s kitchen months ago. The man had four of them and didn’t use any of them, Kaveh figured he wouldn’t miss it.

Cautiously, Cyno spoke up, as though trying to herd a particularly unruly sumpter beast–not an inaccurate description of Alhaitham in most situations.

“I…believe Paimon is trying to ask how what Kaveh is doing will help us, since your conversation was rather impenetrable.”

“What? Don’t you trust him, Cyno? You should. As the leading genius of the Kshahrewar, you’d have a hard time finding a better pick to be trapped in an ancient shrine with.”

“...You are all aware I haven’t gone deaf over here, right?” Kaveh shot an irritated look back over his shoulder, but kept working–what he aimed to do was done by feeling, not by sight, anyway. Alhaitham merely shrugged, and Cyno tugged his mask down, almost sheepishly. Kaveh turned his ire onto Alhaitham, as he felt the mechanism click under his hands.

“That wasn’t even three minutes, for the record. Take Mehrak and check if all this dendro energy is connected to anything in the next room.”

“What?” Paimon made a confused noise, and pointed towards the shut door. “But that’s not–”

There was a second, more satisfying click from the obelisk, as what Kaveh was feeling for slotted into place and all three devices turned. Paimon gaped as the door slid open, and Alhaitham simply took Mehrak by the handle to walk forward, followed closely by Dehya and Rahman for likely entirely different reasons.

“How did…”

Kaveh shrugged. “The mechanism would have needed controls to set and reset it while the shrine was being built. Since all the faces of the obelisks are meant to turn with each other, resetting any one of them would reset the other two.”

Cyno and Paimon stared at him blankly. Kaveh crossed his arms, instantly defensive.

“What?” Cyno paused, and shook his head.

“I’d heard some stories, but…you say it like that was easy, Kaveh.”

“Yeah! Paimon knew you were pretty…It turns out you’re actually really smart, huh?”

“...What is that supposed to mean?!”

Paimon was saved from Kaveh’s wrath (Cyno had very obviously stepped away from her in that moment) by Alhaitham calling for him from the next room, so he decided he would, magnanimously, forget Paimon’s ridiculous and nonsensical prejudice. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard before, anyway, so he could just wave it off. Alhaitham raised an eyebrow as Kaveh approached, and of course could not simply hand him Mehrak without adding his own commentary.

“What’s with that face? Surely you’re not going to let Paimon shake your confidence over something so inconsequential?”

Kaveh clicked his tongue in irritation, and popped open the energy readouts on Mehrak with a frown. “Shut it. You’d never get it anyway–you’re practically the face of erudition.”

“I forgot you’re the only one in all of the Akademiya who has ever suffered prejudice, my mistake.” Alhaitham rolled his eyes so hard it was nearly audible, to which Kaveh maturely responded by poking his finger right into his chest again, just below that damnable gemstone.

(He’d made the mistake of jabbing it directly once when they were students, and discovered shortly afterwards it was sharp enough to cut a finger pressed too forcefully into it and that it caused Alhaitham not inconsiderable pain. Kaveh had never made that particular mistake twice.)

“Are you going to pick at nothing all night, or are you going to make yourself useful, Haravatat?”

“And what, pray tell, does the Light of Kshahrewar require from this humble scribe?” Kaveh’s eyes narrowed, and he stepped further into Alhaitham’s space, watching his eyes glimmer. There was always something so refreshing about a particular brand of fury, that sharpened his mind and made him feel like he was grasping lightning in his hands, but Kaveh never had much luck replicating it on his own. Distantly, it felt like a shame, that there were lives on the line and the whole nation of Sumeru afterwards, that they could not pick apart this shrine piece by piece, arguing incessantly and honing their findings razor-sharp. Alhaitham’s expression remained distant, disaffected and feigning boredom, but Kaveh could see it, in the brightness of his eyes and how they’d widened–Alhaitham, too, wished for more thorough scholarship.

Ah, what a shame, indeed.

“Take that sketchbook you stole and go get those murals down. And take Miss Dehya with you, Mehrak is picking up primal constructs in the adjoining rooms.”

Alhaitham stared down at him, eyes unreadable, and then shrugged. “Of course, your Highness, as you wish.”

For some reason, when Kaveh turned to get to work, Dehya, Lumine and Cyno were all staring at them, with expressions that defied comprehension. Dehya was struggling to hold in laughter, and slung her arm over Alhaitham’s shoulder as he started to walk off in the indicated direction, leaving Kaveh to face the inexplicable sense of judgment radiating out of the other two.

“...What.”

“While I don’t feel any particular allegiance to the Scarlet King, this is a temple, Kaveh,” Cyno rebuked in a deadpan tone of voice. Kaveh squinted back at him, and then looked at Lumine, who sighed and shook her head, before turning away to go check on where Paimon was, supposedly, keeping an eye on Rahman for any ‘funny business’.

“Yes, Cyno, I had noticed, what does that have to do with anything?”

“...Never mind that. You said there were primal constructs nearby?”

“Yes, in the side rooms, wh–” Cyno did not wait for the end of Kaveh’s sentence. Cyno did his best Alhaitham impression and walked away while Kaveh was still speaking. Rude.

Well, Kaveh didn’t have the luxury of wondering what nonsense everyone seemed to be on about, and he turned to approach the large dias at the center of the room. Naturally, the theatrics meant to hide this device’s purpose would not deter him, and he smiled to himself as he knelt, pressing a hand do the smooth marble stone.

“Alright, Mehrak,” he murmured to his constant (and silent!) companion. “Let’s get this elevator running.”

***

Kaveh didn’t mark the time as he worked, but when he straightened up with a triumphant little yell, he was aware both that he was starting to get a little dizzy, and that he was no longer alone, as a cool hand slid across his back to steady him. Naturally, he shot Alhaitham a withering look, only to be presented with a waterskin.

He stared at it, then at Alhaitham. Alhaitham stared back, and there was something of his earlier fury in his eyes. Kaveh elected to not argue this point, and drank greedily, downing nearly half the skin before handing it back, and wiping his mouth. By this point, Dehya and Cyno had made their way over, with Lumine slung over Dehya’s back.

Kaveh paused, and Dehya shook her head.

“Let her sleep. She keeps trying to go fight. It’s not the best with a head injury, but…” She made a noise in place of a shrug, and Kaveh grimaced a bit. It was hard not to feel a little bit responsible, and he began to chew at his lip, before someone rudely pinched the skin at his back. Kaveh yelped, and spun to glare at Alhaitham.

“What the hell was that for?!”

“Shouldn’t you be explaining what you’re doing here?”

“Ah…” Kaveh blinked, and then scowled, but turned away, gesturing down at the platform. “I managed to override this elevator’s controls with Mehrak. From the looks of it, it can’t take us to the surface, but will take us up into a higher chamber.”

While most of the others boggled, Alhaitham simply nodded, and turned his head to call down the chamber.

“Paimon, Sir Rahman. We are leaving, if you’d care to join us.” Rahman responded with an angry snort, but trudged up to the elevator’s platform to stare evenly down at the rest of the group, particularly at Alhaitham and Kaveh.

“Don’t sir me. Are you saying you’re done flirting in front of the Scarlet King’s visage and actually did something useful?”

Cyno immediately clapped a hand over Kaveh’s mouth, and Alhaitham grunted, eyes narrowed, before turning his head. “Mehrak, activate the elevator, please.”

Kaveh barely had time to wonder at Mehrak obeying Alhaitham’s commands or, again, why Alhaitham was so polite to the toolbox he’d staunchly mocked Kaveh for anthropomorphizing, before the lift shuddered and began to ascend. He was more indignant that Cyno had covered his mouth, and with all the maturity his 30 years on Teyvat had granted him, licked the General Mahamatra’s hand. Cyno didn’t make a sound, though his body jolted and he removed his hand, allowing Kaveh to finally bellow, at the very top of his lungs, the only question on his mind.

“What the fuck do you mean flirting?!”

Chapter Text

Something in the scent of the temple’s innermost chamber set Kaveh’s teeth on edge. He could not explain why it did, only that the lush smell of riotous greenery mingling with the dry scent of sandstone pulled at something at the back of his mind. He was lucky that the others were distracted, looking over the proud monuments and miracle of growth with wonder and awe. He knew he should have felt the same, but could not, hesitant to even set foot within this place.

Ah, it was because he could feel what it was. How could he not? How could Kaveh, of all people, fail to recognize a tomb?

He stepped away to the side as the others fanned out–Rahman’s exultation and jubilation sounded desperate, and Cyno and Dehya’s voices reflected their disbelief and unease, but Kaveh wasn’t paying attention to anything he said. Something in this place pulled at him strangely, and he’d shuffled off to the side.

Were they even supposed to be here?

Perhaps Alhaitham had been right, and they’d been meant to see this.

But who would want them to see this? The dead had no voice, beyond the works they left behind. Whose voice was this?

There had to be a reason this place was full of greenery.

Kaveh paused, his hand resting on Mehrak’s handle, as his foot bumped into something. He was no stranger to talking to himself as he worked–he was of the staunch belief that the best ideas were the ones you argued with yourself about in the shower, the true home of scholarship, which was why long showers were essential no matter what your roommate said about the water bill. The point was, Kaveh knew his own mind, and this–this was not him. It was as though someone else was truly speaking back to him, which was impossible, unless…

He looked down at where his hand touched Mehrak, into the cheerful display of her faceplate.

Who…are you?

The back of his mind was filled with a childlike giggling, so close Kaveh almost turned to look over his shoulder, but all that was there was Dehya and Rahman arguing in the distance.

You know who I am, Kaveh.

And he did–as a half-remembered dream, foggy with time, but even then Kaveh knew the voice of the Dendro Archon as well as he knew the pulse of the Vision on his hip. He swallowed, suddenly, throat dry, and looked down at the sand, nudging the pottery there aside. Broken shards told him that once, this place had not been buried and isolated. Once, this place had been opened.

Lesser Lord Kusanali, why are we here?

There was only an answering hum in his mind, and between one blink and another he almost swore he saw a small child sitting there, her hand linked with his over Mehrak’s handle.

“I suppose I couldn’t think of much else. I can’t do much to save Sumeru–I can’t even save myself–but there is a truth here that wasn’t supposed to be buried.”

Kaveh adjusted his grip on the handle, to settle his fingers over her small hand, feeling the illusion of warmth. Why has no one else noticed her? His mind shivered, and then settled, the answer right at the tips of his fingers.

“Am I dreaming?” The Dendro Archon smiled up at him, gentle as spring rain.

“In a sense. You fainted as the elevator ascended…I believe I’ve left you too sensitive to elemental energy on accident. That should be fixed when you wake up.”

“But…how? The Akasha–”

“The terminal does indeed take the dreams of the people…when you wear it, Master Kaveh.” Kaveh grimaced, and his God giggled, covering her mouth with her free hand.

“Please listen, for I don’t have long. Zandik will realize the loophole I am using soon enough, and I don’t have much right to ask anything of the people of Sumeru, but…” She hesitated, and such a sad look crossed her face Kaveh wished that he could kneel to hug her.

“Make sure the Traveler hears the truth buried here. I think they’ll know what to do. I’m sure they can stop this before more people are hurt.”

“But…what about you?”

“Saving Sumeru comes before anything else.” Her smile grew sadder, and there was a ringing behind Kaveh’s ears, something he realized was his consciousness returning. “Looks like we’re out of time. But I’m glad…if I could speak to someone, that it was you, Master Kaveh.”

What was in his hand was no longer a girl, but a stone tablet, a recording device. And then there was only the ringing behind his ears, and the distinctly unpleasant sensation of sand collecting in the back of his shirt. Dimly, Kaveh was aware he was not entirely on the floor, and that there were tears drying on his face, but none of that mattered right now. He tried to sit up, only for an arm to wind around his shoulders and wrench him solidly backwards before he pitched too far forward.

“...Is this going to be a new hobby of yours? I think I’ll have to strongly object to you overworking yourself into fainting spells, Kaveh.” Alhaitham’s voice was so dry it was almost acidic against his ear, his worry so poorly disguised even Kaveh heard it, and Kaveh snorted, scrabbling at the man’s arm to try and pry himself free.

“What work have I been doing? I was kidnapped, you should be nicer to me.”

“You were kidnapped because you ran off into combat by yourself–”

“Kaveh,” Cyno interrupted with the weariest look on his face. “Are you alright?”

Kaveh made a mental note to congratulate Tighnari on having found such a wonderful partner who understood such basic human niceties as checking in on people, but set it aside in favor of continuing to struggle to free himself from Alhaitham’s insistent grip. His memory of the dream was already fuzzy, but–

“I’m–it’s fine, we don’t have time for that. There’s something we need to find here, I–Alhaitham let go of me already, you ridiculous brute!” When Alhaitham did not immediately comply with this demand, Kaveh turned the gap in the man’s glove up towards him and bit it. Alhaitham swore colorfully in several different languages, but he did finally release Kaveh, who scrambled to his feet. Mehrak beeped as he stood, and began scanning the area, as though already aware what they were looking for–Kaveh supposed it might have been true, if she was the conduit the Dendro Archon had used to reach him.

The tussle had attracted Dehya and Lumine’s attention too, and they came over, Paimon just behind them, to see what it was Kaveh sifted through the sands for. He heard, dimly, Dehya say something to Alhaitham, and the short, sharp bite of his reply, but he had no care for it, focused entirely on his task. He could not have explained to them what drove him, anyway–how was he to speak of the sad, lonely look in the eyes of a god? His eyes still burned at the thought of it, of the thought of little Devi Kusanali, who had saved those who had forgotten her. Who wanted to save them still.

What had anyone in Sumeru done for such grace? What had Kaveh ever done to deserve her kindness? The dream was fading, but he could still see the sad smile of his lonely god on the back of his eyelids.  

No, he thought to himself as Mehrak trilled across the room, highlighting something half-buried in the sands up the stairway, they did not deserve it—they’d never had a chance to try. They had that chance now.

“Alhaitham,” Kaveh called, picking up the small stone device, just the same as it had been his dream, and was surprised when it came out hoarse. He was more surprised when Alhaitham was just there, already reaching for the tablet in his hands without a word. Kaveh did not look down at it when he passed it over. He did not turn towards it as Alhaitham translated it, either, ignoring Rahman’s incredulousness over the ancient script being readable. Kaveh could have done it himself, after all, but he had not wanted to confirm it with his own eyes.

Perhaps it was Kusanali’s own grief that had done it, or perhaps it was something of a shared, ancient memory. But Kaveh found he already knew the last will and testament of Deshret’s last priest Kusala, and could do nothing more but stand there, heart in his throat, as he watched the terrible weight of the truth settle into the faces of their companions. Confusion and anguish danced a thunderstorm in Dehya’s eyes–in Cyno, a deep and uncomfortable loss of something he had never truly known but born with him anyway. Even in Alhaitham, he saw a shadow cross over his eyes; the man did not have an attachment to these people or respect for the divine in any way, but even he could not remain unmoved in the face of such a calamitous and sorrowful tale.

For some reason, Kaveh’s eyes fell on Lumine, and he saw something in her eyes that might haunt him until the end of his days. She was too young, too young for grim recognition to pass through her eyes, and in that moment Kaveh wondered who, exactly, stood among them. Why was Lord Kusanali so certain this traveler would understand the true meaning of them being here, besides the uncovering of a long-forgotten truth? What piece to this puzzle were all the rest of them missing.

When he stared at the Traveler too long, he saw that she had understood his doubts in silence, and he began to fear she’d answer them.

Rahman cried out in anguish and both Lumine and Kaveh were jarred out of their locked stares to turn. Kaveh felt strangely like he’d been caught in the midst of a crime, but was even more struck by the raw anger and grief in the man’s voice. He knew that sound as well as the backs of his own hands, no matter the change in timbre or pitch. Without thinking, Kaveh stepped forward, directly into Alhaitham’s arm, blocking his path forward, and gripping onto his shoulder when Kaveh inevitably tried to get around it.

“Leave him,” Alhaitham muttered, physically pulling them both back away from Rahman. “Use your head. What could either of us say to him? Let Dehya do it.”

Kaveh stared at Alhaitham, a little shocked by such an outright show of empathy, and his eyes narrowed.

“You’re just trying to keep me out of a fight.” Alhaitham clicked his tongue, and forced them another step back. Distantly, Kaveh heard Dehya’s voice raise, but could not quite make it out.

“Yes, Kaveh, you were kidnapped this morning and you’ve passed out twice in the last two hours. Maybe work on finding the way out from here?” There was something strange, something strained in Alhaitham’s voice, and a flicker of his fury in his eyes, alongside something Kaveh couldn’t read.

For some reason, he didn’t feel like arguing with it, either. He just huffed, and turned, gesturing for Mehrak to come back to his hand as he headed for the far end of the room, past the monument. Someone fell into step just behind him, but he realized, after a moment, that it was not Alhaitham–the steps too light, and the stride a little too quick–someone much shorter than Kaveh, not slightly taller.

He looked back over his shoulder at Lumine. Lumine tilted her head back behind her, to where Paimon seemed to be in the process of harassing Alhaitham about something.

“He’s worried about you.”

Kaveh scoffed, and turned to the far wall, setting his fingertips on it to feel for the minute differences in texture and surfacing a hidden door would create.

“Then he’s a hypocrite, getting so caught up in all this.” He heard Lumine make a soft noise, and felt her come up just beside him, watching him work.

“...He wasn’t the one Nahida reached out too, though.” Kaveh’s fingers stilled, and he went quiet again.

“You can tell?”

“You’re still lit up like a wildfire to my elemental sight. It’s starting to fade now, though.” Lumine paused, and chewed on her bottom lip, though she kept her gaze on the wall, as though trying to discern what Kaveh had been looking for. “Is she…did she tell you anything?”

“...She said that you needed to see what was hidden here, to help save Sumeru.” He resumed his work, and felt his fingers catch on a small indentation. Still, he hesitated, waiting for Lumine’s response.

“She sounded…quite terribly lonely.” There was no mistaking the way Lumine’s face fell, or her eyes clouded. She was not worried for the god of a nation. This girl, this strange girl with ancient eyes, was worried about a friend.

Kaveh didn’t think there was any chance he’d have any answers about who or what she really was. But right then, he decided he didn’t need them.

“Hey…listen.” Kaveh tried to smile, and thought it was even almost convincing, as he put a hand on Lumine’s shoulder. He pressed into the indentation–the door control with his other hand, and smiled a little brighter as the starlight spilled through the widening crack as the door opened. “You’re the one the Archon of Wisdom thought could save her people, so it must be so. It follows, then…that you can save her too. We’ll figure it out–we just have to put all the pieces together.”

Lumine stared up at him, startled, and then smiled, weak and wavering and terribly brave.

“...Yeah, we will.”

Kaveh was certain of this as he was certain of the positions of the stars in the sky, blinking in the cool night air. Certain enough to make a promise to himself, and to distant Devi Kusanali, trapped somewhere away from her people:

That the little god he’d seen in his dreams, half-faded since his childhood, would not be lonely ever again.

Chapter Text

Night had fallen across the desert, and a bitter chill stole through their clothes, as though the scorching heat of daylight had never existed. They walked in somber silence back to Aaru Village, no one quite able to put words to what it was they had seen in the depths of Kusala’s resting place. Kaveh himself barely noticed Dehya’s shout as they came within view of the village, alerting Candace to their approach (a necessity for their safety–none of them were at their best, and even if they were, Kaveh didn’t favor anyone’s chances against Aaru Villages’ Guardian), and he hadn’t noticed he had begun to shiver until the heavy weight of a cloak came across his shoulders.

He shot Alhaitham a dark look anyway, which Alhaitham returned flatly.

“Don’t even open your mouth to argue about it,” Alhaitham all but growled, and lengthened his stride to go farther ahead, ostensibly to keep Kaveh from just shoving the cloak back at him. Kaveh scowled deeper, and debated draping the damn thing over Mehrak out of spite. There was no point to the gesture, and Cyno had come up and put a steady hand on his back before Kaveh’s temper got the better of him, anyway.

“Take it easy, Kaveh. You had us all worried today.” Kaveh almost winced, preferring his pettiness to the cold sting of guilt that went through him. The guilt intensified as he looked up to see Candace watching him, worry clear on her face, and combined with the terror of a well-earned lecture. She looked over Kaveh, and then over Lumine, then Rahman and her lips pursed, clearly measuring the sorry state of the lot of them.

“...Let’s get you all inside and those injuries looked at before anything else.” This was more terrifying than if she had sat them down right on the sands, and from the way Paimon and Lumine grimaced in unison, they agreed with Kaveh’s assessment of the danger.  It turned out to be worse than Kaveh feared, as Candace divided them all into separate rooms for treatment and to lecture them all in turn–he suspected Cyno had been placed in with him not for his injuries but to keep him from fleeing.

“Kaveh, you know I’m always grateful for the assistance you provide to Aaru Village,” Candace began, and Cyno clamped a hand down on his shoulder when Kaveh flinched away from the hands tipping his face up to look at the head injuries he’d collected over the last twelve hours. “But I will in no way be grateful to arrange for another funeral. We have them too frequently out here, do you understand that.”

“Candace, I–”

“Yes or no, Kaveh.”

All the bravery and determination Kaveh had felt looking at his lonely god vanished into thin air, and he mumbled a meek ‘Yes’. It was one thing to be determined to free a captive Archon, and quite another to try and defy Candace. After a moment of silence, Kaveh dared to look up at her, and regretted it instantly.

“...How are the others?”

“Aside from Lumine, most of their injuries are superficial. Dehya has gone back with Rahman to rescue the rest of his men and return them to their camp. Although,” Candace paused, and stared at Kaveh with a level, impassive expression. “I’m very curious about the teeth marks in Alhaitham’s arm.”

Kaveh simply grimaced, and looked away. Behind him, Cyno snorted faintly, and then stiffened when Candace’s gaze turned to him. A silence dragged on for a quick eternity, until finally Candace sighed. “Well, you two sort yourselves out. He’ll be here shortly, anyway.”

“What?”

“You need to rest , Kaveh, the both of you.” Candace paused, and continued, in a gentler tone, one used to soothe an unruly child, which Kaveh felt was uncalled for no matter how many people he’d bitten in the last twenty-four hours.

“There are only two bedrooms here, besides the Chief’s. We already put Lumine to bed in one–I believe Alhaitham is working with Paimon to make sure she actually sleeps–and you are sitting on the sole other bed here.”

“But–but what about–” Kaveh looked up at Cyno, who shrugged and took his hand off Kaveh’s shoulder.

“I’ll be following Dehya’s trail to make sure there’s no trouble. Rahman said there were captive scholars other than you in his camp–I’ll be back with them in the morning.”

“And Alhaitham…?”  Candace shook her head.

“He’s uninjured– mostly –” Kaveh did not like her tone nor the quirk of her eyebrow. “But he’s exhausted, physically and mentally, as are you. I have already explained to him quite clearly that his options are to rest here willingly or with my assistance. He has decided to be cooperative, Kaveh, will you?”

It took Kaveh all of fourteen seconds to decide that sharing a bed with Alhaitham was, however mortifying, a better decision than seeing whatever Candace would decide to do if he resisted. His mother may have raised a guilty, impulsive fool of a boy, but she had not raised an idiot .

“Yes, ma’am.”

It was alright, Kaveh reasoned. After the things he had been through that day, surely he could manage to sleep in a bed with Alhaitham, couldn’t he? It would surely be fine, just for one night.

—--

It was not fine.

The bed in question had not been made for a single man of Kaveh or Alhaitham’s height, much less two of them, which had forced them to be pressed too close together, back-to-back. While this provided much-needed warmth in the cool night air, Kaveh felt every point of contact like an electric shock, jolting his already racing mind each time he made even the tiniest shift. When had he become so aware of Alhaitham’s body?

Stupid question. Kaveh knew when, and why, and even how, but to admit it to himself was too exhausting for a chronic insomniac. Instead, he chose to quietly get out of bed to slip out–not that he needed to be quiet. Alhaitham had passed out the moment his head touched the pillow and Kaveh doubted he’d have woken if a Lawachurl walked into the room and began yodeling.

Still, his heartfelt disgust for the man’s ease of sleep aside, Kaveh didn’t wish to cause any disturbances, so simply filched one of the blankets to wrap around his shoulders and padded quietly outside, making his way silently to the roof of the Chief’s house.

The stars were so much more visible under the desert sky. Kaveh had learned this years ago, when he was still a student and still put stock in the idea that the constellations might provide some protection to those standing under them. He was older now, and while he knew Rhwtahist predictions were usually accurate, he also knew the stars did nothing to guide and protect those born under them. Even so, sitting here underneath them, he could let his mind wander out into questions that he dared not examine under the light of day, following from point to point to point as his eyes automatically found and traced out Paradisaea, then Vultur Volans. He was looking for Lupus Aureus (he hadn’t had to find it in years) when a voice behind him startled him out of his thoughts.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

Lumine came to sit down near Kaveh, and he stared at her for a long while, puzzled as to why she looked so odd to him under the starlight. There was a strange sense of otherworldliness to her, same as there had been in the temple, but eventually Kaveh decided the real source of the strangeness was the lack of a certain silver companion.

“...I’m surprised Paimon didn’t wake up with you.”

Lumine grimaced, and shook her head. “She can sleep anywhere, and Alhaitham wrapped her so tightly in blankets I think he was considering if she’d make a good shawarma. She’ll sleep through the night.”

“How insensitive, to sleep peacefully in front of an insomniac.”

Lumine laughed softly, her eyes crinkling at the corners, and she looked young for long enough Kaveh realized she had not seemed truly young to him since they’d met yesterday. The thought was unsettling, as most things about the Traveler were, but he set it aside to look back up at the stars.

“There’s too much going on to sleep,” Kaveh admitted, once again tracing the wings of the great eagle. “Too much to process, and it all happened so quickly. And yet, I fear what we might yet discover tomorrow.”

Lumine was silent for a moment, and then followed his eyes up to the stars. “You don’t have to come with me to help her. Nobody has to.”

“How could I not? How could I ignore it?” Even now, hours later, when Kaveh closed his eyes, he saw the gaze of that child-like god– Nahida –and the ache of loneliness burned in his chest like a star. Years of bitterness and secret, acidic anger had ebbed away so suddenly, replaced sorrow–Lord Kusanali had not forsaken him and his prayers at all. No, Kaveh shook his head, and sighed. “I couldn’t look myself in the eye if I said ‘oh, someone else can handle it’. I do have to do it.”

Lumine huffed a faint laugh. “Maybe wait for the rest of us this time, then. I don’t think any of us can handle Alhaitham if you run into the arms of the Fatui next time.”

“Pah, Alhaitham . What does he have to do with it? It’s almost a wonder he’s even helping as earnestly as he is–why would it matter to him? And why should I worry about it?” Kaveh crossed his arms over his chest out of sheer indignance, and not because he was starting to feel the chill through the front of his shirt.

“He can’t have been that much worse to deal with than he normally is–”

“We thought he might kill Rahman when you were unconscious, actually.”

What? Kaveh’s brain came to a screeching halt and left him staring at Lumine like she’d grown a third head. He couldn’t even fathom what she was telling him, and his mouth answered with uncommon honesty before his brain finished processing.

“Why would he have even cared?” Kaveh almost winced as he said it, but soldiered on bravely, unwilling to admit the mistake. “Surely he’d have said we should respect my fate, for having been so foolish as to charge off ahead that way?”

Lumine stared back at Kaveh for a while, her eyes eerie and golden under the starlight. Kaveh felt, suddenly, as though he was a fungus trapped in a tiger’s gaze.

“All of us were worried about you,” she said slowly, and tilted her head. “But Alhaitham was furious. He wouldn’t leave your side after we got him away from Rahman. I think…he feared you’d become much like the Keepers have.”

A slow chill went through Kaveh’s bones, from his fingertips to his scalp, and he looked away, staring out over the sands. He couldn’t conceive of it, but Lumine had no reason to lie to him about it either. He turned the thought over in his mind, as if he could hold it up to the light and glean some truth out of it, some kernel of understanding. Just why would Alhaitham worry about a man he constantly had complaints and criticism for?

The truth undermined his assumptions. But they had always been as feeble as balsa wood and tissue paper, to begin with, waiting for them to be cleaved open by the unforgiving truth once more. But the blow had never come–Kaveh’s assumptions were not challenged, and it was that, more than anything, that spoke to a lack of care…didn’t it? He thought it had. But if he had been wrong…

Kaveh failed to find clarity, and set the thought aside. It wasn’t the time to be ruminating on his situation with his…with Alhaitham, anyway. But Lumine reached out, laying a gentle hand on Kaveh’s shoulder and smiled, softly, warmly, as gently as any kindly elder might.

“Alhaitham, huh?”

Just like that, she plucked out what Kaveh could not admit from his chest and held it out in the starlight between them, naked to the world. Strange, that a girl he barely knew anything about could see him so plainly.

Strange, that it barely hurt at all that she did.

“...Yeah.”

They spoke no more after that, sitting side by side on the rooftops and watching the stars. In his head, Kaveh imagined he might have taught her how to find the constellations of everyone in the group, pointing out Lupus Aureus, Mantichora, Vulpus Zerda…he even would have pointed out Leptailurus for her, if she’d asked about Collei. He would have ended, as he had begun, with Paradisaea and Vultur Volans. Lumine would not have remarked on how the constellations sat so close to each other, for births half a year apart. Kaveh would not have had to stare up at those stars and wonder just why the fates had tangled them together so closely.

But the minutes passed in silence, though all those things could have been so. Kaveh nudged Lumine gently with his toe as he stood up, before she was starting to fully doze back off, and guided her quietly back inside. Once she had been shepherded into her room (and he had confirmed that Paimon had, indeed, been wrapped tightly in a blanket), Kaveh stared blankly at the door back to the other bedroom. He considered, briefly, simply not going back to bed, but he knew that there was much yet to be done, and he had no choice but to try and get some rest.

He did not expect, when he slipped back into the room and approached the bed, for Alhaitham to roll over and stare up at him, still bleary with sleep, the second he felt Kaveh’s presence. Kaveh froze, uncertain, while Alhaitham blinked muzzily at him.

“You came back?” Alhaitham drawled, sleep still settled heavy over him, sending a painful ache lancing through Kaveh’s chest. He sighed, and nudged at Alhaitham so he could lay down, pretending not to notice the way he was being watched.

“Of course I did. Where else could I have gone?”

“You could go anywhere.” Alhaitham sighed, and the second Kaveh laid down, reached out, dragging Kaveh close to him and trapping him within his arms. Kaveh made an extremely dignified squawk and squirmed, trying to get loose or at least turn to face the man, which only made his grip tighten.

“Stay still,” Alhaitham commanded, tone still hazy, his breath warm at the back of Kaveh’s neck. “Go to sleep.”

“What am I, your teddy bear? Let go–”

“Stay put and go to sleep .” The command was almost mulish, even as sleep clearly began to take Alhaitham once more. His arms tightened again, and he spoke so quietly as his breathing evened out Kaveh almost missed it.

“Stay here, Kaveh…”

Kaveh did not respond. He couldn’t. He sat there in the gloomy haze of the room, staring at the wall, listening to the even, faint wheeze of Alhaitham’s breathing and the wind against the shutters and the thunderous pounding of his own heart. He did not know what it was, that prompted Alhaitham to react with such clinginess, but he did know that long ago, a young man had been painfully stubborn about wanting to sleep with something to hold onto, claiming he got the best rest when he could sleep curled up with his senior. Long ago, it had been so natural that it didn’t even seem noteworthy. Long ago, Kaveh had assumed he’d spend his whole life listening to Alhaitham’s slightly wheezy snoring, so wasn’t it a good thing he found the sound charming instead of abrasive?

Kaveh had done his best to bury it, but it seems the desert wouldn’t let any past rest in it tonight. Perhaps…

Perhaps, he reasoned to himself, if they could be courageous enough to save a god, then afterwards…

Kaveh fell asleep wondering about what-ifs, that unquenchable flame of hope fluttering to life under his collarbone, and a smile faint on his lips.

Chapter Text

“Kaveh, why is Judar more scared of you than he is of me ?”

Kaveh shrugged, less concerned with Cyno’s incredulous tone than he was with the trying to stand in the thin slivers of shadow throughout Rahman’s camp. They had left early that morning when Dehya and Cyno had returned (Cyno had slammed the door open and loudly announced that they “better stop canoodling and get camooveling”, rudely ignoring Kavehs’ shrieks), on Rahman’s own invitation, but by now the sunlight bore down mercilessly, and Kaveh was more concerned with not adding a sunburn to the list of his injuries.

He looked over at where Alhaitham and Lumine were still speaking to Judar and Morghi. Judar caught his bored glance and turned several shades paler, starting to stumble over his answer to Lumine’s questions.

“He was in my year at the Akademiya.”

Cyno stared at Kaveh, brow furrowed, trying to puzzle apart any answer from that statement. He turned to look at Alhaitham, who only lifted his shoulders in a shrug, and then back to Kaveh. Kaveh starfed back, temper rising, and then threw his hands up.

“Alright, fine .” He marched out of the shade and over to Judar, who squeaked and began babbling. The other scholar looked baffled by this terror, but Kaveh didn’t care, tired of standing out in the heat and light listening to the excuses and evasions of useless men .

“Judar, you have five minutes to explain to Lumine everything you know about why you are out here kidnapping the very people the Akademiya abandoned and farming them for Divine Knowledge. You are being timed and recorded.”

Judar let out something between a squeak and a wheeze, air unable to escape his lungs to create actual sound. Paimon looked at Kaveh, confused.

“Don’t you usually tell people what you’re threatening them with if they don’t comply?”

“Hmm?” Kaveh smiled brightly at Paimon. Paimon grimaced and ducked behind Lumine. “Why would I need to make a threat?”

“Judar already knows very well what will happen to him,” Alhaitham intoned blandly from just behind Kaveh, where he was watching Mehrak project a counter into air between them all with mild interest, as though the interrogation was that far beneath him.

“ OhmygodI’msorrywe’remakinganewgodpleaseMasterKavehpleaseohplease–” Judar’s voice came out in one long, terrified word, syllables slurred together by his chattering teeth. Judging by Alhaitham’s faint squint, he was having as much trouble parsing the words back out into an actual sentence as Kaveh was, but Lumine’s expression darkened, and she stepped forward. Perhaps driven by an instinctual fear of blondes, Judar stepped back.

“Is the new god the Balladeer?”

“H-huh? You already know–? Then why did you let him ask me…!”

“Shut up, Judar.” Kaveh’s focus was on Lumine, and the ringing sensation between his ears and his eyes. “Lumine, did you say they were making a new god ?”

Lumine nodded grimly. Cyno took this opportunity to advance on the pair of them, lightning crackling around his hands, and Kaveh stepped back, his head spinning. A new god. A new god . They had fallen so far to not only abandon their lonely Archon, but replace her? Distantly, he was aware hands had settled on his shoulders to pull him a distance away, into the shade, and blindly he grabbed at a wrist, eyes wide and unseeing.

“A new god ,” Kaveh said, voice cracking. “How many sins does that break?”

“At least four of the six. Kaveh–” He did not let Alhaitham finish, grabbing him by the cloak and shaking him, a wildness rising in his heart and his tone.

“Four of the six, at least , and a Fatui Harbinger involved, and you don’t even sound surprised–”

“I am.” Alhaitham’s hand clamped over Kaveh’s, prying it free from his collar, and Kaveh was surprised to find he could feel it trembling. “Or perhaps it is more accurate to say I am furious to see what five hundred years of arrogance has culminated in.”

They stood there for a moment in silence, as Kaveh searched Alhaitham’s face, seeing fury so clearly blazing in his eyes and the sharp set of his jaw. The man’s temper was a riptide, easy to miss until it swallowed you whole, and Kaveh knew that better than anyone else.

Alhaitham’s hands were still trembling when he spoke.

“Kaveh, they sent you out into the desert, away from Sumeru City, for a reason. You are a threat they cannot easily neutralize–you must have already realized what this means for your Darshan. If you return earlier than expected, while their plan has not yet been completed…”

“If you are about to suggest for one single second that I don’t get involved with this further I am going to line all your shirts with harra spice and pour water in your shoes.”

Alhaitham grimaced, correctly deducing this was far from an empty threat, and sighed.

“Use your head , Kshahrewar. You’re in more danger than any of us–”

“Save your bullshit, Haravatat, no I’m not. Not if they’ve gone this far. Did you think for a single second you could convince me of this?”

“...No.” Alhaitham hesitated. “I asked Dehya to keep you in Aaru Village if you refused.”

“And?”

“I laughed at him for thirty solid seconds.” They both jumped, startled by Dehya’s sudden appearance, and she laughed before swatted Alhaitham’s shoulder. “That’s enough, lovebirds, we’re heading back to Aaru Village. Lumine wants to tell us some things there…and then we’ve got a plan to make.”

—-----------------

An appalling silence fell over the room in Aaru Village that had become their makeshift base of operations, as Lumine finished revealing all that she knew. Once more, Kaveh was struck by the eerie sense that this girl, who looked barely older than Collei, was far older than everyone else in the room combined. Cyno had gone silent partway through the explanation, little sparks of electro crackling off his fingertips in his fury. Alhaitham sat, arms crossed, eyes stormy and still fixed on Lumine, his attention wholly focused on the truth laid out before them. Even Dehya and Candace looked somber, fury and a sort of terror in their bones, faced with a centuries old conspiracy and the terrible culmination of human greed.

And Kaveh…

Kaveh sat at the table, head down, cheek pressed against the sandstone where he had laid it for the last ten minutes. He dimly heard Paimon speaking in a concerned voice, and someone, probably Alhaitham, shoo her away from disturbing him. He wasn’t particularly paying attention.

Kaveh’s posture was not one of despair. Kaveh did his best thinking when his spine roughly resembled a horseshoe.

It wasn’t like the facts of the matter weren’t dizzying and terrifying–the idea that Azar had turned to the Fatui, to a man like Dottore of all people, made Kaveh so angry he felt nauseated. The undeniable fact that the experiment on the Saberuz festival had, almost certainly, left much of Sumeru’s people on the brink of death. The horror of Nahida’s neglect and imprisonment after the Greater Lord’s death, and underlying rot of corruption.

But those facts were only pieces. Kaveh listened, vaguely, to the voices over his head–Alhaitham and Cyno, likely arguing over a course of action. He wasn’t paying any attention to it, and barely saw the surface of the table.

Kaveh built plans like he built a blueprint–their goal was a foundation that was unassailable. They had to save their Archon, and the people of Sumeru. To do that, they would have to remove most, if not all, of the existing governing body of the Akademiya. They would also have to contend with two of the Fatui Harbingers.

Getting people into Nahida’s prison was probably the easiest part. There was only one place it could be, at the very top of the Divine Tree, after all. As for where the energy stolen from Sumeru’s people must be going…Kaveh already knew that beneath the roots of the tree were large spaces, easily converted into laboratories and workshops, places the Kshahrewar sages had petitioned for access to for literal decades, and never mind the potential damage to the tree the literal city was built atop. No, getting in wouldn’t be hard, for just three people.

But they needed to disrupt, and distract. And they needed information on what they were going to find. Nobody, not even Lumine, knew how far along the Harbinger’s plans really were.

Kaveh scraped a fingernail over the design on the table, noting idly that it didn’t crumble or scuff, a sign of excellent workmanship.

Cyno had gone pale at the mention of the Saberuz festival’s effects on Eleazar patients, and then darkly angry at the mention of Dottore. The only Eleazar patient Kaveh was certain Cyno knew was Collei . If the presence of these people was a threat to Collei, then Tighnari was almost certainly jumping at the chance to do something more than watch over the inevitable course of her disease. Besides, Kaveh noted, Tighnari already lived halfway in open defiance of the Akademiya already.

Tighnari was far better connected to gossip than most people assumed. His rangers say much more of what went on in the jungle than anybody knew. And he could be trusted, without a doubt. The pillars of a plan began to settle into place.

As for what came after…

Kaveh sat up from the table, and the room went silent.

“I have an idea.”

Behind him, Dehya swore, and passed a sack of mora over to Alhaitham.

—------------------------------

“Your plan is to get arrested? ”

Kaveh shrugged.

“It’s the fastest way into the Sanctuary to reach Nahida.”

“By getting arrested ,” Cyno repeated, clearly incredulous. Somewhere behind him, Alhaitham and Dehya were staring at the wireframe projection of all of Sumeru City and discussing something Kaveh had stopped paying attention to ten minutes ago.

“Do you have a better idea?”

Cyno was silent for a long moment. And then his shoulders slumped. “This entire plan is dangerous and reckless and involves at least three felonies.”

Kaveh smiled, and clapped his hands to Cyno’s shoulders.

“I’m going to make it five. Everyone, hand me your Akasha terminals.”

###

There was not, in truth, very much time to prepare for their plan, and everyone had pieces to move into place. Kaveh had, without alerting anyone, taken on a lion’s share of the preparations, collecting both the Akasha terminals and various machine parts collected by Rahman’s band of Eremites. Morghi and Judar had their instructions, passed to them by Alhaitham, but Kaveh fully intended to check their work on the knowledge capsules himself–the Sages had clearly not sent their best and brightest out on this work to begin with.

It was because of all this that Kaveh hadn’t paid any attention to the time, waving off Dehya and Candace as he retreated to the small bedroom to work undisturbed, reminding them that they had to move quickly, so it was best he was left alone to modify the terminals. It was not altogether a large alteration, but one that he had to make to several terminals very quickly–difficult, even with Mehrak’s help.

(“Mehrak can connect to the Akasha? But that’s–”

“We’ll call that felony number six, somewhere after breaking and entering and plotting a government coup, Cyno.”)

Each terminal now bore two changes; one, the ability to connect to each other without being recorded by the system, allowing them to contact the other conspirators quickly and discreetly. The second was a function that would create an endless amount of small information updates to the Akasha in rapid succession, creating a flood of “noise” that would short out other terminals in range. When Kaveh was done, all the conspirators would be able to foil the Sages’ ability to communicate clearly to each other within Sumeru city–and given this included an entire band of eremites, plus a few extra terminals to be handed out when they returned there–Kaveh had a lot of work to be doing.

Kaveh was grumbling about the fact he had to change Alhaitham’s settings to allow it to receive messages at all, something made more difficult by Alhaitham having, somehow, password protected his own terminal, when a cup of coffee appeared in front of his eyes. He blinked at it, not entirely sure he wasn’t hallucinating, and Alhaitham snorted.

“Have you been working so long you’ve forgotten what coffee looks like, Kaveh?”

“You haven’t been working enough , if you’ve the time to nag at me.” Kaveh grumbled, but still took the coffee. The desert blends were difficult to brew properly, and from the first sip it was obvious Alhaitham hadn’t the foggiest idea how to do it–it was burnt, and bitter, without a drop of milk or sugar to cut it.

Kaveh drained the entire cup.

Alhaitham had taken the moment to shuffle through the things on the table, peering over Kaveh’s work, and then at the small device that sat to the side of all the terminal, and scowled.

“Did your grand plan not account for sleep ?”

“I don’t think most people overthrowing governments meticulously arrange for eight hours of sleep before their coup, Alhaitham.”  Alhaitham scowled deeper, and then unceremoniously pushed his way onto the bench Kaveh was sitting on, muscling him over. Before Kaveh could protest, he had pulled over the remaining terminals, and plucked his own out of Kaveh’s hands.

“What are you doing –”

“You should have been having Cyno doing these modifications, too. Even I can manage something like this.”

“Cyno is busy, it’s not–” Kaveh paused, mid-sentence, as he realized what, exactly, Alhaitham was doing as the man filched most of Kaveh’s tools and peered at the modified terminal. Alhaitham’s eyes softened slightly, inspecting the work.

“...I’ll admit I couldn’t have done it so elegantly. But elegance isn’t needed at a time like this, Kaveh.”

“Are you seriously going to criticize my efficiency right now?”

“Yes. You have other work to do, and we need you alert and awake tomorrow, Master Kshahrewar.” Alhaitham gave Kaveh a sidelong look, and then gestured at the device still half-finished on the table. “You were quite insistent they bring you a construct core for that. I must assume it’s essential to our plans.”

Kaveh grumbled more, but pulled the device over to him. The core they’d brought him was nowhere near in as good condition as Mehrak’s, but for what he needed, it would serve, the tiny core that powered a Primal Construct, pared down the lightest housing he could salvage, with wings furling out from the core. It resembled more of an overgrown Crystalfly than a construct now, and in terms of functionality, it really only needed to do two things.

Kaveh sighed to himself, before running a spark of dendro energy through it. The core was damaged, and energy did not yet flow correctly in it. He was getting closer, but had gotten distracted modifying all the terminals, as many of those terminals also needed some repair work, particularly those used by individuals who constantly sought out trouble that got them hit in the head.

He was perfectly well aware that Alhaitham was capable of the modifications himself. And he was equally well aware that Alhaitham’s decision to help was out of the ordinary for him. It had been nearly a decade since they had worked together like this, but it had once been natural to sit, side by side, working through the wee hours of the night to create something extraordinary.

Kaveh felt he should not have been the slightest bit happy to be here again, under the circumstances, but his treacherous heart still felt the tiniest bit warm, even in the frigid night air.

“Stop making stupid faces at the core, Kaveh, I want to get this done before dawn so we can actually get some sleep .”

Just like that, the moment passed. Kaveh swatted at Alhaitham’s shoulder, stole his tools back after a small scuffle, and turned his attention to the construct. If he was smiling when he did, that was certainly none of Alhaitham’s business, just like the faint curve on Alhaitham’s lips had surely nothing at all to do with Kaveh.

Chapter Text

Crossing through Caravan Ribat was far too calm an affair, in Kaveh’s opinion. He had gone ahead of the others, hoping to reach Tighnari first to explain the situation (and hopefully prevent Cynos’ imminent murder), and because Kaveh was not marked as a person of suspicion by the Sages, could pass easily through Sumeru without alerting anyone–as long as he was alone.

It made him more than a little nervous, to have been separated from the group, even though with their modified terminals they could all send messages to each other, and Kaveh would know almost immediately if anything went wrong. That did nothing to soothe his anxiety while he waited for something to go wrong–anxiety that mounted the longer everything went smoothly.

Kaveh didn’t want something to go wrong, to be clear. But he knew his luck was never good, so he figured it was likely inevitable.

Catching a Sumpter Beast headed to Pardis Dhyai hadn’t been hard, though now Kaveh wished he’d have walked. Sitting in the back of the seat as the beast gently swayed and ambled down the road gave him too much time to think, and he’d begun chewing on his fingernails out of anxiety, turning the plan in his head over and over and over.

“You’ll chew those down to nubs, Kaveh,” a gentle voice chided him from the hooded figure on the beast next to him, and Kaveh grimaced. He didn’t respond, either, because part of the plan was not drawing attention to her, but he did stop chewing his fingernails to fiddle with the rings on his hands. The beast’s driver peered back over his shoulder every few minutes, insatiably curious, and this made Kaveh shuffle closer, arm over the girl in the hooded cloak. As far as this man knew, Kaveh was escorting his half-sister, deeply pregnant, to see their mother’s masterpiece–Pardis Dhyai. He’d gone as far to imply something tragic had happened to the father of the bulge in the cloak’s middle, and that the Sumeru air and sunshine might do what Fontaine couldn’t.

Unless Kaveh has missed a very important letter in the last fifteen years, he didn’t have a half-sister, much less one old enough to be a pregnant widow, but it solved any potential questions about Lumine’s blonde hair, and the gossip about Kaveh’s sister would fade quickly, especially if they were successful in their plan and the truth became clear.

And if they weren’t, then Kaveh wouldn’t have to worry about what to tell his mother, anyway.

He’d come up with this misdirection on the way to Caravan Ribat early that morning, as he’d distributed the modified terminals and handed Cyno the case containing a very large primal crystalfly. Three people within their group were under intense scrutiny by the Sages, and their movements would be marked. Of those three, Cyno was considered the highest known threat, but also the most predictable in the view of the Sages–this made him strolling into Caravan Ribat with the entire Ayn Al-Amar arrested an excellent distraction.

Alhaitham was under the next most scrutiny–it was obvious the Sages did not trust him any more than they could throw him (and Azar had kept a desk job with very little physical activity for decades). So Alhaitham was hidden among the ranks of the Eremites, and would easily slip through Caravan Ribat in the chaos, with the goal of swinging through Port Ormos before heading upriver to Sumeru City to keep an ear out for information. At least, that had been Kaveh’s suggestion, and Alhaitham had grunted, which was as close as anyone would get to agreement at six o’clock in the morning.

Which left Lumine, under the highest degree of scrutiny of all, and an unknown variable, shuffled off alongside Kaveh, who was unpredictable but of little threat to the Akademiya on his own. His work in the desert made it seem unlikely that he’d have been colluding with her, and all his plan really needed was for him to have very unfortunate timing when Alhaitham returned to make his report that afternoon.

Archons, that afternoon. Jhnagabra Day was already upon them, and they had to get to Sumeru City in time to catch it as proceedings were in full swing. Alhaitham predicted the new edicts would go into effect in the evening, late enough in the day that anyone with complaints would be stalled until the next morning…at which point it would already have been too late.

Kaveh wished the sumpter beast would go a little faster.

Despite the journey seeming to take an entire geological age, it was somehow still mid-morning by the time they arrived at Pardis Dhyai. Kaveh squinted at the clear sky suspiciously, unconvinced it will not open into a typhoon at any moment, but his attention was arrested by two things–one, Lumine’s body tensing, suddenly coiled tight as a spring beside him, and two, the sound of Tighnari’s voice, raised just slightly in polite exasperation that is threatening to become exceedingly rude exasperation. Knowing lives were on the line, Kaveh lengthens his stride to just short of a jog.

“--afraid that the transfer of patients is not and has never been a diplomatic issue here in Sumeru, sir,” Tighnari was telling a tall man with a strange bird-like mask, smiling brightly to display the very sharp canines the Valuka Shuna was blessed with on birth as an invitation to ponder if Tighnari had used them on flesh as well as mushrooms.

(He has. Kaveh and Cyno both have scars. It’s considered wise to never speak of them, lest they gain more of them.)

Kaveh caught Lumine slide around the fountain and dart into the dome of Pardis Dhyai, and focuses instead on striding right up between Tighnari and this stranger (something tells him he should check his identity on the Akasha, but Kaveh is very used to ignoring that particular something). He smiled, looking the stupid beaky mask dead in the eyesockets, and tilted his head.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Tighnari, there was a delay on the road. We can get started with the meeting immediately, if you’re not too busy?”

Kaveh saw, for a moment, a flicker of irritation and–amusement?--across the stranger’s lips, clearly unused to being interrupted so brazenly. He did not look away, unwavering, refusing to bow to a creeping sense of unease. Behind him, Tighnari had clearly recovered from his own shock, and loops a hand through Kaveh’s elbow.

“Not at all. The renovations of the patient rooms for their comfort is my highest priority right now.” Here, Kaveh too heard the underlying threat in Tighnari’s words–that he did not believe this stranger has a patient’s comfort in mind, and Tighnari was willing to disabuse him of the notion he’ll tolerate any of that nonsense. The stranger looked between them and smiled, an unsettling facsimile of amiability, as though he had never really learned what it was to be truly cordial, and inclines his head.

“...Very well. Please do consider my words, Mr. Forest Ranger. I will leave a ship behind to escort Hypatia to Snezhnaya for a few more days after my departure.”

Kaveh’s blood ran instantly cold, but he did not let it show on his face, still smiling as he pulled Tighnari into Pardis Dhyai’s dome. He had just enough time to notice Lumine crouched down in front of a scholar, peering worriedly into her vacant face, before Tighnari grabbed him by the front of his cloak and roughly dragged him down to eye level.

“I certainly hope you are about to explain to me what the hell you’re doing lying directly to Il Dottore’s face when you’re supposed to be in the desert for another two weeks, Kaveh.”

“...We’re going to overthrow the Sages?” Tighnari stared flatly at Kaveh. Kaveh tried to smile back with less nervousness than he felt.

“Who is ‘we’.”

For a long moment, Kaveh debated the merits of lying through his teeth to save Cyno. He decided that it wouldn’t help, and sighed. “Um, Cyno, Alhaitham, Dehya the Flame-Mane, the Traveler, and the entirety of the Ayn Al-Ahmar.”

“And me!”

“And Paimon.”

Tighnari let go of Kaveh’s cloak, which was a good sign, and pinched the bridge of his nose, tail swishing, which was a very bad sign. He waited a long moment for Tighnari to speak, not daring to try and prompt the irascible Forest Ranger before he was good and ready. For all Cyno was the General Mahamatra, Tighnari’s judgement proved far more terrifying to face.

“...You, Cyno, and Alhaitham,” Tighnari finally said, with the air of someone who can’t quite disbelieve the conclusion no matter how much they wished to.

“Yes.”

“ Alhaitham ,” Tighnari repeated, and Kaveh’s shoulders rise, tense, at the underlying question. Logically, it makes sense for Alhaitham’s involvement to be questioned. Logically, he is the Scribe, working directly under the Sages, and largely unaffected by the increasing oppression of their rule. And Tighnari doesn’t know about Alhaitham-the-person–doesn’t know about the standoffish man who hates doing laundry but always hangs it out on the line without fail so he can hear the next door Auntie’s latest complaints about her worthless son and his worthless husband. About the Alhaitham who has never met Collei but has been slipping research on new management techniques for Eleazar into Kaveh’s pockets for months, because Kaveh knows a child with Eleazar and that is all the reason Alhaitham ever needed. Doesn’t know about the man who insists he never feeds strays but is still beloved of every stray cat, dog and bird in Sumeru City, and Kaveh knows that doesn’t happen to people who don’t feed them.

And how could Tighnari know? Kaveh has never spoken of that Alhaitham, only ever of the selfish, hyper-individualistic man without the sense of romance or art that Celestia gave a turnip.

It burned in Kaveh’s throat.

“Alhaitham,” Kaveh asserted, voice firm, and tilted his head towards the Traveler. “He’s coming up the river from Port Ormos. We’ll meet him in Vimara village to get the rest of the way, but we had to talk to you first.”

Tighnari seemed to mull this over, tugging at the tip of one ear in contemplation, and frowned. His frown only deepened the longer he thought, making Kaveh shift from foot to foot in anxiety–he did not think Tighnari would refuse to help them, but every minute they had left seemed to slip through their fingers like water. Kaveh bit the inside of his cheek and waited; rushing Tighnari would help no one.

“What is it you need from me?”

“Well, for starters, Il Dottore’s current movements,” Kaveh remarked dryly, and shook his head, mentally shoving aside the bubbling panic that came from realizing who that stranger had been. “Anything you and your Rangers have heard, about the Sages movements, and the Fatui.”

“The Sages? They’ve been faking Naphis’ handwriting to try and recruit me, which doesn’t bode well, but I haven’t seen their people out in the forest. The Fatui…” Tighnari grimaced. “They’ve been more active than I like, but it seems they all pulled up stakes today.”

“They what?” There was a pinging sound at Kaveh’s ear, an incoming message on the Terminal, which he shushed to stare at Tighnari. “They’re leaving ?”

“Yes…even Dottore said he was returning to Snezhnaya. That’s why he was here–he wants to take a particular patient back with him. Insisted to take charge of her treatment, implied the whole of Amurta and the Bimarstan are woefully inadequate to care for her, and didn’t seem to feel the need to make his threats subtle.” Tighnari’s lip curled, revealing the depths of his disdain and sharp, glittering fangs. “As though I’m enough of an idiot to trust a man like him.”

“What would he want with Hypatia, though?” Lumine frowned, ignoring that Kaveh had jumped slightly when she appeared at his elbow. “She’s not physically sick.”

Tighhari eyed the Traveler askance, and then sighed. Kaveh turned from the conversation to silence another, insistent ping at his Akasha terminal. Archons, this was why he didn’t like wearing them, Alhaitham would message him about the most ridiculous things at unexpected times and–

Why was Alhaitham messaging him right now?

“She seems to have failed at contacting the divine, but her symptoms aren’t like the other scholars, so I was observing he–”

“I don’t think she failed, Tighnari. I’m pretty sure she contacted a god just fine.”

“Wha–”

“Hey, Tighnari?” Kaveh looked up from his terminal, down the road from Pardis Dhyai to the river, and the fairly large squadron of Fatui that were coming up it.  “I don’t think Dottore intends to take ‘no’ as an answer.”

The sound that came out of the Forest Ranger was not replicable with human vocal cords, and Kaveh idly noted he’d inform Alhaitham later he knew what it sounded like when foxes cussed someone out. As it was, he reached for Mehrak, grimly feeling for the weight of the claymore inside his power, and blinked at drops of rain against his hand. 

Odd , the sky was clear a minute ago.

“Rain’s a good sign for you, right?” Tighnari murmured, and Kaveh nodded, nudging Lumine back behind him. “Then let’s welcome our new guests.”

No sooner had he spoken it, the entire sky exploded in a flash of light.

Chapter Text

There was a peculiar set of feelings that came with being struck by lightning. Dimly, Kaveh was aware that the roaring sound in his ears was his own pulse, erratic and jumping from the energy that surged through it. He was dimly also aware of a sensation that would eventually become pain coursing from his scalp down his left arm, where Mehrak was yanking herself free of his hand, drawing the electricity away towards her metal body. Perhaps it was her who had been hit first, and the power flowed up through him? Cyno might have known.

What he was aware of and focused on was the distant sound of laughter, and an answering rage within him, that said “ Keep laughing, you little shit, see what I do about it .”

By the time his knees hit the hard stone of Pardis Dhyai’s walkway, Kaveh could no longer hear anything and his arm was numb from fingertip to shoulder, in a way that promised lancing, burning pain seconds later. Mehrak had pulled out of his hand, and into the Fatui, drawing the rest of the energy into them, something Kaveh registered out of half of his field of vision, as his left eye hadn’t yet cleared. Rain fell, and it was agonizing, but comforting–no, it couldn’t have been rain, for it came from his side, not above him, and a light touch on his shoulder (the pain was so horrific he could not have screamed if his throat had been working). Kaveh struggled, trying to turn his head, trying to hear again, over the ringing in his ears, and saw the flicker of red hair and flowing clothes.

How odd. How would the Zubyar Theatre’s star be all the way here?

Kaveh focused on her Vision, shimmering lapis, and tried to work his voice. There were still more Fatui down that road, judging by the blurry shapes and the distant sound of Tighnari’s voice.

“Master Kaveh? Ohhh, please don’t speak, we’ll find a doctor just as soon as we take care of this–”

“Nilou,” Kaveh rasped, and turned his head towards where he assumed the remaining Fatui were. “Bloom.”

It was not a particularly comprehensible message, but Nilou still seemed to have understood it, standing and running towards Mehrak–and towards Tighnari’s traps, spread out across the stones. Kaveh felt the surge of the bloom cores forming more than he could see them, and half-crawled, staggered towards the nearest one. These cores were larger than any he’d ever made, pulsing with life and power, and when he could not make it the last step, Mehrak dragged one close enough to him for his hand to settle over it, feeling the pulse of life in it.

Kaveh smiled. And crushed it in his bare hand.

Nilou’s blooms were larger and more powerful than any other he’d touched, and the burst of them stung more in his hand as it shattered–worth it, for the immediate rush of relief that followed the pain. Kaveh’s vision cleared, the ringing in his head subsiding to a low rumble, and he pushed himself to his feet, immediately seeking out Mehrak and grabbing her. His left arm still screamed in pain, which Kaveh ignored to snatch at the elemental energy in Mehrak’s core. She was almost overloaded–which worked just fine for him, forcing all that energy to surge outward in a wave,the walls and beams of his power slamming the remaining Fatui back, knocking them into Dhyai’s terraces and down the steep hill. Nilou and Tighnari were quick to pounce on them as they stumbled, exploiting their momentary weakness. It did not take long for Pardis Dhyai to once more fall silent.

Kaveh dropped back to his knees almost immediately. He heard Tighnari and Nilou yelp in alarm, and more distantly, Lumine’s voice calling for him as she darted back out of the dome.

“Kaveh–!”

“I’m fine,” Kaveh said immediately, trying to smile in Tighnari’s direction. “I just need a minute.”

“You were struck by lightning . You are not fine , let me see your arm –”

“You exploded that bloom core right in your hand, are you okay?” Nilou peered over Tighnari’s shoulder as Tighnari ripped Kaveh’s burnt glove off and rolled up his sleeve, and her brow furrowed. “...It’s healed?”

The burn from the lightning was prominent down his left arm–in a unique, lightning-shaped pattern, Kaveh noted, something that was almost beautiful, if it didn’t hurt so much–but looked weeks old, instead of mere minutes.

“I assure you, Miss Nilou, it still hurts significantly . I’ve had worse, please don’t worry?”

Nilou opened her mouth, presumably to ask what could be worse than a lightning strike, and then looked at Tighnari’s pinched expression. She closed her mouth.

“Kaveh! Kaveh are you alright, did that stupid pipsqueak hit you–Nilou?!” Paimon had reached them before Lumine did, likely due to ignoring such concerns as plants and ditches and gravity, and peered down at Kaveh’s arm with the rest of them. “Oh, did you blow yourself up again? That sure is a handy trick. How come nobody else can heal from bloom cores? Are you Nahida’s favorite or something?”

“I believe it would be blasphemous to ask her,” Kaveh remarked dryly, wincing as Tighnari pulled some salve out of a pouch to apply to his burns. “Tighnari! Not so rough–”

“You used a Bloom Core to heal yourself from a lightning strike .” Tighnari spoke through gritted, bared teeth, and Kaveh chose not to argue.

“Not to interrupt but…why exactly were Fatui attacking Pardis Dhyai?” Nilou furrowed her brows, lips pursed in concentration. “And what did you mean by “that stupid pipsqueak”, Paimon?”

“Ehhh, it’s kind of a long story, but the short version is, we know the guy they’re trying to make into a God and he’s kind of a motherfu–”

“ Nilou , you have excellent timing, could you take your Akasha terminal off and hand it to me?” Kaveh smiled through the horrible sensation of whatever the hell Tighnari was still slathering from his wrist to his shoulder. The smell of camphor was so strong his eyes were watering. Judging from the way Nilou’s nose wrinkled, hers were too, but she still unclipped her terminal and handed it to Kaveh with only a questioning tilt of her head.

Blessed Nilou. He always knew she’d be his savior one day.

“So, the thing is we’re overthrowing the Sages and freeing Devi Kusanali,” Kaveh told her as he passed her a modified terminal from Mehrak, exchanged for the plain one in his hand. The Akasha did not transmit data while it was not connected to a user–which meant they could not eavesdrop. Kaveh glanced over at Tighnari, who grimaced and waved a hand at his ear, where he already wasn’t wearing a Terminal. Kaveh nodded, and handed another modified Akasha to Tighnari.

Nilou was staring at the terminal in her hands, and then at Kaveh. She looked from Kaveh, to Tighnari, and then to Lumine as she came up behind the group, and then nodded to herself.

“That must have been what Arapacati meant, then.”

“Huh?” Everyone involved, including Paimon, stared goggle-eyed back at Nilou as she clipped the new Akasha to her ear.

“I knew it had to be important–she usually only comes to the edge of the city to see me, but this morning she came all the way into the Grand Bazaar, and told me I had to get to the Great Glass House as fast as I could. She must have meant for me to help you–I’m glad I got here in time.” She took a deep breath, and gently clapped her hands to her cheeks, as though trying to psych herself up for a tricky performance instead of potentially getting arrested for treason.

“Alright!” Nilou smiled, entirely too brightly for someone engaging in conspiracy. “Master Kaveh, what do you need me to do?”

Kaveh stared at her in silence for a long moment, and then laughed, a little nervously.

“Well, right this moment, I need you to keep Alhaitham from strangling me when we get to Vimara Village…”

Nilou grimaced.

###

"Please explain to me how you managed to both mouth off to the Second Harbinger of the Fatui and get struck by lightning in a matter of hours.”

“Mr. Alhaitham, please, I don’t think it was on purpose–”

Alhaitham gave Nilou a very bland look that she immediately translated as a withering glare, given the pleading look she then shot to Kaveh. He didn’t really hold it against her–curbing Alhaitham’s temper was an impossible task, even for someone like Nilou. It was actually a testament to her naturally soothing disposition that the Scribe had not been harsh on her, honestly–

Alhaitham turned his glare from Nilou to Kaveh. Kaveh straightened his spine and lifted his chin, refusing to be intimidated.

“If you say even one word about me sitting this out at this point, I am drowning you in the river.”

“No, you are regrettably far too integral to the plan to leave out now. Which is why , Master Kaveh, I cannot understand why you’ve been so reckless.”

“Hey, now that’s a little unfair! It wasn’t Kaveh’s fault the Balladeer hit him with lightning! Actually, I think he was aiming for Tighnari–”

Both Alhaitham and Kaveh turned in unison to stare at Paimon, who yelped and dove behind Lumine for cover.

“Did you say the Balladeeer–” “How do you know what he–”

They stopped to glare at each other, irritated to have spoken at the same time. After a second, Kaveh jerked his head slightly to the side, and Alhaitham’s jaw tensed, before he turned back to Lumine.

“...You speak as though you have some insight into the Balladeer. Who is apparently also involved in this plan.”

Lumine grimaed. “The short version is, a scholar did make contact with the newborn divinity. Which the Balladeer is uniquely suited to be, so he’s the new god they’re making. Do not ask me how, we do not have the time.”

(Alhaitham closed his mouth with a very obvious scowl.)

“Regardless, I know his intentions because he told them to me. He doesn’t like Dottore any better than we do, apparently, but took umbrage to feeling…manipulated.”

“So he struck Kaveh with lightning along with Dottore’s men.” Alhaitham’s tone was even, almost pleasant, in a way that sent a chill down the spine of everyone present. Tighnari had, evidently, had enough of sitting silently on the boat and simply, casually, cuffed the man upside the head.

“Calm down. We’re going to dock soon, and everyone who is not supposed to be seen with Kaveh needs to put their damn cloaks on, instead of debating fistfighting anyone.”

“...I was not debating fist-fighting–”

“Alhaitham, I realize we haven’t spoken before.” Tighnari smiled, somehow more terrifying than anything else Kaveh had seen that morning. “So I will tell you plainly; Do not bullshit me, Haravatat.”

The silence that fell over the small fishing boat they’d borrowed from the village could have rivaled the stillness of an open grave. After a long, contemplative moment, Alhaitham grunted, and walked up the prow of the boat to flicker the rest of the way to the dock without another word. Tighnari watched him, and then snorted, shaking his head.

“He’s surprisingly childish, isn’t he?”

“Oh, don’t be hard on him, Mr. Tighnari,” Nilou spoke up placatingly, as she grabbed the boat’s long oar to guide it to the docks. “Everyone’s a little childish when they’re worried about someone.”

“Hmmm…” Kaveh did not appreciate the long sideways look Tighnari gave him, before nodding sagely. “I suppose in this case he has a lot to be worried about.”

“It’s been a pretty stressful week for him,” Lumine added meditatively.

“...I am sitting right here .”

“Oh, you need to stand up now Kaveh, none of us are tall enough to reach the mooring points from here, thank you–!”

Kaveh grumbled, even as he stood up to reach for the rope, squinting at the dock for these supposed ‘mooring points’. Tighnari huffed a faint laugh, and patted Kaveh on the back before pulling his hood up.

“It’s alright. Cyno’s like this when he’s worried, too.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone or your implication with this line of comparison, I’ll have you know,” Kaveh muttered, and tossed the rope towards a tell-tale swipe of green. Predictably, Alhaitham caught it, and wound it around the moor, so they could all climb off the boat.

This was it. Kaveh took a long breath, and handed a small package to Tighnari. They’d gone over the plan on the way to Vimara Village, and now there was no more time for adjustments. Tighnari nodded once, and vanished into the crowds, followed by Nilou. In mere moments, it was simply Alhaitham, Kaveh and the Traveler (plus Paimon) standing there on what was otherwise a peaceful morning to Jhnagabra Day, like any other.

The sun was shining. If Kaveh closed his eyes, he could hear the pulse and bustle of Sumeru City, from the sizzling sounds of Lambad’s grill to the wind in the branches to the barkers lining Treasures Street. It was already a beautiful day.

“Alright,” Kaveh exhaled, and looked up the long street of the Akademiya. “Let’s go get arrested.”

Chapter Text

One of the critical things a student learned in the halls of the Kshahrewar Darshan is timing. Keeping to a schedule was a fundamental part of the work of any engineer or architect, but the concept went deeper than that. Timing was the difference between successfully navigating a trap in an ancient ruin and grievous bodily harm. It was the difference between gears moving together as they should and grinding against each other until the mechanism was damaged beyond salvation. Timing was the difference between a project completing on time or being trapped in endless delays as the seasons shifted and made roads muddy and impassable.

Kaveh often thought of music, when he thought about the timing of logistics. A designer was the conductor of an orchestra of stone and iron, making sure each piece would arrive at the proper place and time for the musicians to construct their magic. He supposed conductors were not often also composers themselves, and the metaphor became muddied, but it still held true enough in his heart, and in truth it hadn’t been his metaphor to begin with.

One supposed even Haravatats had to start somewhere.

Timing was on his mind today for much less poetic reasons. Every one of them who had joined their efforts had to be in place with nearly perfect timing, because there was no time to try again. They would not have another chance to catch Azar off guard, and Lumine had implied that they were basically out of time before this new god was in the fullness of his power. There was not any time to waste dithering, which meant the slow way Kaveh ambled through Treasures Street seem counterproductive. It was not–Kaveh had his reasons for the slow pace past the Grand Bazaar and the headquarters of the Corps of Thirty.

After all, he needed to be standing there, hand to his terminal, when the Corp began to hear that Cyno had arrived with the entirety of the Ayn Al-Ahmar in custody at the city’s gate. Once they began to rush out to the scene, inevitably one of them would try to alert the sages–a message that would be delayed by the strain on the Akasha’s messaging system caused by a sudden flood of queries coming at that exact same time, at all different access levels, from a user flagged for constant monitoring. Kaveh’s devices didn’t have the skill to jam up the Akasha for very long on their own, but since Cyno had instructions to be doing the exact same thing from his position at the gate, as well as Alhaitham and Tighnari, the resulting log jam would delay the alerts by about thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes was all the time they had between the Sages realizing Cyno was back in the city, and their second distraction had to begin. Thirty minutes was all the time Kaveh had to walk up to the Akademiya itself, alone, only a scant few minutes behind Alhaitham and Lumine.

He began up the winding path with a purpose, and for the first time in his career, the people of Sumeru City saw true anger on Kaveh’s face. They were quick to clear out of his path, unaware of the target of his wrath but dead certain they did not want to be part of it. Kaveh’s fiery passions and outspoken opinions were legendary, but so was his good nature–such that no one wanted to be in his way when that good nature finally ran dry.

It wasn’t even as though Kaveh was faking his fury, honestly. He remembered all he had been told of what Azar had done, from the collusion with the Fatui to the deadly samsara of the Sabzeruz festival to the ordinance banishing the arts entirely from Sumeru, and really, it only took letting those thoughts root in his mind for Kaveh to feel as though he’d swallowed a fireflower whole. 

He was only a few steps behind Alhaitham and Lumine, close enough that the flustered mahamatra the two of them left in their wake started to puff up when Kaveh blew through the doors of the House of Daena. Dimly, Kaveh recognized Panah with the man, saw him turn pale and try to grab the fool by his elbow. He didn’t particularly care–any sympathy he had for Panah was obliterated under the rising tide of his fury.

26 minutes left. Kaveh simply ignored the voice calling out for Master Kaveh and strode towards the great elevator. He was two steps from it when an arm shot out to block the door, and as he stared dispassionately down at the green-sleeved obstruction, a long-forgotten anatomy class recalled just how easy bones were to break.

The mahamatra who’d stopped him suddenly lost the ability to speak when Kaveh turned his eyes on him, stammering and stumbling like a first year at a Vahumana conference. Panah, at least, wasn’t far behind the man, and clapped a hand onto the idiot’s shoulder to keep him steady, looking at Kaveh beseechingly.

“The Grand Sage isn’t taking meeting requests right now, Master Kaveh–”

“How lucky, then, that I am not making a request.”

Panah and the Idiot both freeze. Kaveh takes that moment to step around the arm blocking him and press the button to summon the great elevator. 23 minutes left. None of them he can spare on an argument.

“Master Kaveh…” Panah starts, and stops when Kaveh glances back at him, holding his eyes without a word. Something seems to occur to Panah then, as though it was something he had wrestled with for some time, before he pulled the still-sputtering idiot back away from Kaveh and the opening doors of the elevator.

“...Dendro Archon be with you.”

Kaveh entered the elevator with nothing more than a nod.

The ride up to the Grand Sage’s office was interminably long–logically, Kaveh knew it only takes two minutes and 17 seconds, but they were excruciating with each moment that passed. He knew the shape of the plan, of Alhaitham’s act and the purpose of it, and he knew his own purpose here–and why he had to be seen entering the Akademiya in the full force of his righteous fury–but anxiety coiled dark and heavy in his stomach. His hands felt clammy on Mehrak’s handle, and she chirped reassuringly at Kaveh, though he couldn’t muster a smile back at her as he usually would. Every second that ticked on brought him closer to looking Azar in the eye, and Kaveh had kept a lid on his boiling rage at the man for years.

The thought of loosening his hold on his fury, even for a righteous cause, was more terrifying than exhilarating, but there was no more time to be anxious. Kaveh felt the elevator draw to a stop, and took a deep breath as the door opened. Briefly, he wondered if this was how Nilou felt before she began a show.

20 minutes left.

Enter the Light of the Kshahrewar from downstage.

“Azar!!” The full force of Kaveh’s voice rang off the marble of the office, causing all the occupants within it to flinch (Paimon clapped her hands over her ears, even), as Kaveh stalked out to the center of the room, where Alhaitham and Lumine stood, facing down Azar. The moment he set eyes on the Grand Sage, something in Kaveh twisted, nauseated and ugly–the man looked so calm. So composed. He had used his own people as batteries and harvested them as chaff for a blasphemous pursuit against a god mortal men had deemed unworthy, and he had the temerity to look so calm, as though none of it weighed on him at all.

“Have you finally taken leave of your senses?” Kaveh snarled as he tried to pass Alhaitham and was yanked back by a firm grip on his arm, pulling him back to the Scribe. Alhaitham did not look at him, but Kaveh felt the trembling in the tightness of his grip.

“...As I said, Grand Sage, I found that Kaveh was aiding the Traveler as they were meddling in the desert, so I saw fit to lure them both here to you rather than wasting time on trying to report their actions as they unfolded.”

“Alhaitham, what the hell do you think you’re doing–” Kaveh’s struggle against Alhaitham’s grip was cut short by the Matra in the room pressing closer, spears lowered. Azar chuckled, deep in his throat, and Kaveh felt his blood pressure spike. Kusanali forgive him, he had always hated this man–

“You’ve certainly put a great deal of effort into this performance, haven’t you, Alhaitham?” The Grand Sage shook his head, pacing in front of his desk as though amused at a child’s misbehavior. “It’s a waste of your talents, to have thrown in with them. I thought you of all people would understand the pursuit of wisdom–and the crisis the Akademiya will solve.”

“Crisis?” Kaveh’s voice seemed to ring high in his own ears. Something in his head buzzed. Alhaitham dropped his arm with a final squeeze, trying to put a rein on Kaveh’s temper. “You betrayed our Archon! You killed your own people! What crisis could you be solving by betraying the very soul of this nation?!”

“Oh, and the Light of the Kshahrewar surely understands what wisdom is, wasting time on ostentatious buildings and so-called noble causes with no results?” Azar clicked his tongue, and turned his gaze back on Alhaitham. “I expected such foolishness from him, no wiser than his father, but you…perhaps he had too much influence on you after all.”

“...His foolishness is far less than the madness of siding with the Fatui,” Alhaitham growled, pushing Kaveh behind him as the Matra tightened the ring around them, largely to keep Kaveh from launching himself at Azar with his bare hands.

“Is it not wise to side with the strong? Dottore’s ideas are…unorthodox, but we’ve been able to achieve much greater heights than we ever would have without them. And at last, we shall have a god worthy of the title of Wisdom.” Azar practically spat the word in disgust, mask slipping for a moment under the weight of his disdain for Devi Kusanali–for Nahida. “What use is a god of wisdom who knows no more than any child? No, we have no need for her.”

“So you’ve not only betrayed the vows of your office and the people of Sumeru, but the Archon herself.” Kaveh was startled out of his own fury by the dark, low growl of Alhaitham’s voice. He knew the plan but also knew, better than Lumine or Paimon, that the man’s anger was no act. Something like a sliver of fear lodged in his throat as Alhaitham stalked forward, activating his terminal, staggering as it flickered to red.

“Azar…” His voice came out a pained, unfocused growl, even as Alhaitham shuddered, clutching at his head, sinking into the madness of a milennia-old corruption. Even faced with this, Azar seemed to remain calm, lifting his chin with such amused, disdainful arrogance Kaveh understood what could move a man to murderous rage.

“Ah…so that’s where that Divine Knowledge capsule went. In the end…you’re just the same as I am, aren’t you, Alhaitham?”

Azar smirked, and Kaveh watched as Alhaitham’s body tensed, coiled as tight as a serpent. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

“The difference is, no god will answer your pleas for aid. Arrest them all.”

Alhaitham roared in fury, something like Azar’s name a howl on his lips, and lunged forward, faster than any of the Matra could react. He only very narrowly missed catching Azar’s skull in his bare hands to slam into the ridiculously large desk behind the Grand Sage, and sent the knowledge capsules arranged on them scattering. Kaveh, standing from a distance, could see the movement that slid one capsule into Alhaitham’s belt to be replaced with the one that had tumbled out on impact. He also saw the Matra move to close in on Alhaitham as he rose, snarling, trying to get his hands around Azar’s throat.

As the blunt head of the spear connected with Alhaitham’s skull, something deep in Kaveh’s mind snapped and unraveled. His body moved before he bothered to examine what it was.

The Matra holding Alhaitham’s falling body were knocked aside by Mehrak’s claymore, but Kaveh didn’t stop moving. Azar was fortunate that his personal aide had good reflexes, for Mehrak’s corner had cracked and shattered the marble of the floor instead of his skull as Kaveh swung her down in a brutal arc. She was so much lighter than a claymore, and it was so much easier to be faster, twisting on his heel to swing again, Mehrak’s sharp corner on a collision course for the bastard’s head. Even more unfortunate, that the same aide had the cool head to once more yank Azar out of Kaveh’s path, leaving Kaveh to stumble towards Alhaitham’s unconscious body.

Once he touched the bloody mat at the back of his head, Kaveh didn’t rise again, frozen until a spearpoint touched the back of his neck.

“...Such brutality, Master Kaveh. I never thought you had it in you.”

“Touch him again and I’ll show you brutality,” Kaveh hissed, fury vibrating in the marrow of his bones, tugging at his claymore where it was lodged in the remains of the desk, having cleaved the front half of it in two and stuck there. His focus on pulling it free was rudely interrupted as the Matra yanked him to his feet.

“How touching,” Azar drawled, and smiled, sharp and cruel in his anger. “But that does give me an excellent solution to the problem you present.”

He jerked his head towards the Matra, who grabbed Alhaitham up from the floor as well as Lumine and Paimon. “Throw them all into the isolation cell together. The nation can mourn the Light of Kshahrewar’s death at the hands of the madman he protected tomorrow.”

Kaveh growled again, and twisted against the arms holding him, but the monstrous strength his fury had given him was already spent–he couldn’t break free of trained combatants like this. Lumine struggled too, and called out to Azar, as they were dragged into the cell.

“You’ll regret this–! Whatever the Fatui promised you, they won’t deliver!”

“That’s for wiser men than you to worry about, now,” Azar sneered, already turning away to resume the preparations for Jnagarbha Day as the cell door shut behind the four of them. An appalling silence fell over the room–the dark, damp prison was muffled from the sounds outside almost completely, and the only light that shone was from Mehrak and their terminals. Kaveh pulled Alhaitham towards him, turning him onto his side to rest against Kaveh’s thighs while he inspected the man’s injury, and watched the terminal turn back from red to green.

“...Idiot,” Kaveh muttered, even as he nodded to Mehrak’s inquisitive chirp. “I can’t believe your best idea involved getting a concussion.”

“Wait, but this plan was your idea, Kaveh, why are you mad at him?” Paimon crossed her arms, briefly better illuminated as Mehrak projected out a screen to display the message drafts for Kaveh to approve, and the ticking timer she had kept. 9:46:37s, she informed him, even as the numbers rapidly ticked down.

Kaveh ignored Paimon to tap at the screen, approving the messages sent, all at once, to Cyno, Tighnari and Nilou, though it hadn’t needed to be a very long one;

Showtime.

Chapter Text

Mehrak’s projections cast an emerald light over the gloom of the solitary cell, not quite reaching over the tree branches that wove through the back of the wall. She sat silently on the floor in front of Kaveh, as Alhaitham’s unconscious head still occupied his lap, and her task was too strenuous for her to remain active and floating.

In fairness, Kaveh had never designed her to monitor the feeds and data of multiple Akasha terminals simultaneously–he had only known that she had the potential to do so, and trusted in the solidity of his own work to do what needed to be done.

Screen after screen showed the chaos that unfolded in the city below them–Nilou’s beautiful dance at the very doors of the Akademiya, a show of defiance that deserved to be watched on better than a green-tinted projection. Cyno vanishing just as the entire Ayn Al-Ahmar broke loose, joined by the Flame-Mane herself, merrily shouting about the Scarlet King. The catastrophic message to the Corps of Thirty that Lord Kusanali had escaped her cage, and the spritely goddess leading them on a merry chase to the edges of the city, into Tighnari’s traps, leaving them to the mercy of the Ayn Al-Ahmar.

The last took up most of Kaveh’s attention, as the proto-crystalfly he’d made was steered by Mehrak herself, flickering through the fields near the Bimarstan at the very edge of Mehrak’s signal range. Kaveh chewed at his lip as it fluttered and floated, projecting the shimmering image of a small, lonely girl in white, as it ran. There was not much more he could do now but watch–Mehrak was drawing all she could from his vision, leaving him feeling drained and weak. Somewhere behind him, Lumine had climbed up the branches to try and reach out to Nahida through her prison, through methods Kaveh thought would have sounded ridiculous if anyone but Lumine had mentioned them. And Alhaitham still remained unconscious, breathing steady if shallow in his lap.

There was nothing Kaveh could do but wait . Wait, and hope.

Wait, hope and contemplate chewing off his own fingers out of sheer anxiety. He’d already made good progress on one of his fingernails before his hand was pulled down away from his mouth, startling Kaveh away from staring obsessively at Mehrak.

“I don’t recall chewing your fingers bloody being part of the plan,” Alhaitham rasped, slowly sitting up with a wince. Kaveh scowled at him, finally provided a target for his anxiety and restlessness.

“Oh? So you can get a head injury but I can’t chew on one fingernail ? It’s not even bleeding, which is more than I could say for your skull .”

Alhaitham turned Kaveh’s hand towards him without a word, showing where Kaveh’s fingertip was, in fact, sluggishly bleeding. Kaveh scowled deeper, refusing to cede ground, but Alhaitham’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“You’ve already been hit by lightning today. How much more of your body will you put on the pyre, Master Kshahrewar?”

“As much as I need to. Weren’t we in agreement on this? That saving Sumeru is worth that price?”

“I agreed that it was worth the cost of my injuries, Kaveh.” Alhaitham’s voice was low, heated with frustration and something close to fury, his eyes dark with something Kaveh couldn’t read. “I will never agree that anything is worth yours .”

The truth was, it wasn’t that Kaveh couldn’t read the emotion on Alhaitham’s face. It was that he could not afford to let himself read it, or every excuse and dodge he’d constructed to protect himself, to protect them both, would crumble in an instant. The effort left him exhausted, searching for words to dispel the silence between them, anything that wasn’t that any price was worth not losing the only place he and Alhaitham could exist together.

That any price was worth protecting the only place Kaveh could still call home.

In that silence, standing on a precipice neither of them could afford to fall from, they felt the moment Devi Kusanali awakened from her mental prison. It spread out under their feet, up through their bones, shining through the Visions they bore, the unfurling of leaves finally rising to the sun after a long winter, the fullness of her focus and her fury coiling protectively around them.

“Nahida,” Kaveh breathed, and felt the answering echo at the back of his mind. He could see something like wonder cross Alhaitham’s face as their God’s presence passed through them, moments before Lumine’s voice startled them both.

“She’s awake…and pretty angry.” The Traveler climbed down from the tree branches, and looked down at Mehrak. “Nice to see you back with us, Alhaitham. How are things going outside?”

Kaveh glanced at the projections, and pulled himself to his feet, dragging Alhaitham up with him. Alhaitham only huffed in response, and picked Mehrak up with his spare hand, though he was still clearly unsteady from his concussion.

“It looks like they’re about ready,” Kaveh said, nudging his shoulder into Alhaitham to take Mehrak from him and force him to lean some of his weight against him. “Shall we go meet them?”

Paimon and Lumine stared at him, blinking owlishly.

“But…the door here only opens from the outside, doesn’t it?”

Kaveh blinked back at Paimon, brow furrowing in equal confusion.

“When did I say we were gonna use the door?”

                                                                                         💣🏛️💣

“Isn’t Nahida going to be mad you blew a hole in the side of the Grand Sage’s office?”

“I very sincerely doubt she’ll object at all,” Kaveh said dryly, wheezing slightly from the climb up to the Sanctuary. Maybe more than slightly–somehow, he had gone from supporting Alhaitham’s unsteady pace to being supported, or maybe dragged, by Alhaitham up the steep incline. “In fact, if she does, I’ve got some improvements to the building I can suggest. Starting with another elevator– ”

They heard Cyno’s booming voice sound from within the Sanctuary, crackling with fury, and a howl of terror shortly after. Kaveh found his second wind within him, pushing himself into a jog to reach the Sanctuary doors.  The first thing he saw was Azar’s unconscious body, passed out in terror at the foot of a great device, Cyno staring down at him in disgust and mild disbelief. Kaveh clicked his tongue, irritated, and Alhaitham made a similar grunt of annoyance.

“You should have hit him anyway, Cyno,” he intoned blandly, and Cyno snorted, before turning his head up to what stood in the center of the room.

The second thing Kaveh saw was his Archon, curled up within her cage, her bright eyes rising to meet his across the room.

His breath caught in his throat, and he pulled himself free of Alhaitham’s grip, crossing the Sanctuary in long, loping strides, pulling ahead of Lumine to reach the panel in front of the cage. Not that it would have proven difficult for any of them–the device was five hundred years old and, evidently, never designed to be a cage. Even so, his hands trembled as he touched the commands to open it. Maybe it should have been the Traveler, or Cyno, or Nilou down in the city–Kaveh was not sure he was the one worthy of freeing the Dendro Archon. He just knew that he could not stand to see her in that cage even a single minute longer.

Lumine touched his arm, gently, as she caught up to him, but didn’t say a word. As Kaveh turned his head to look at her, he felt a gentle tap at his other hand. Without having to look, he knelt down, and looked into the eyes of a lonely little God.

“Hello, Nahida.” Kaveh smiled at her, and held his hand out to her. “I’m sorry we’re late.”

Nahida stared up at him, in that moment looking just the same as a frightened child who cannot quite believe their nightmare is over. And in the next moment, she had seized him fiercely around the middle, hugging as much around his waist as her small arms could reach. Kaveh was startled for just a few seconds, before fiercely hugging her back.

“Thank you. I’m sorry,” she whispered, voice shuddering, and Kaveh did not need to ask for what any more than he needed her apology.

“I’m alright,” he told her, and finally peeled her back, wiping at her eyes with the front end of his cloak, and smiled. “We’re not done yet.”

She nodded at him, and turned, reaching out to take Lumine’s hand in hers, before she looked over at Cyno and Alhaitham. So smoothly did Nahida transition from scared child to the Archon of Wisdom, Kaveh wondered if perhaps no one had understood what Wisdom truly was from the very beginning. Had they lost it when they all put away their dreams as children? Nahida caught his eye and winked, before she returned to seriousness, and something warm in his chest said that they need not stay lost.

“I’m sorry I don’t have time to thank you all properly right now. And I’m sorry I can’t let you rest as you deserve yet.” Nahida sighed, and her gaze hardened, her fury too large for her small body.

“The Balladeer is nearly at full power. If we are to stop him, we must go now. Though…” She hesitated, brows furrowing thoughtfully as her eyes rested on Alhaitham, who straightened up indignantly.

“He has the power of a god, now. I can’t ask any of you to put your lives on the line, when you’ve already–”

“Lord Kusanali, forgive my rudeness, but you’d be wasting your breath finishing that sentence.” They all turned to see Tighnari standing at the door of the Sanctuary, with Dehya and Nilou just a few steps behind them. He crossed the room, making sure to step directly on Azar as he did, and smiled down at the Archon, gentle in spite of himself. “We’re all too terribly stubborn to agree to what you’re trying to suggest, after all.”

Nahida looked from Tighnari to Kaveh, who smiled wryly.  “Tighnari’s even more stubborn than I am, Nahida. You should probably just let us all come with you.”

She cast her gaze across the room, seeing agreement in Cyno, Dehya and Nilou’s faces, before looking up at Lumine. Lumine shrugged, also smiling.

“Looks like you’ve got a lot of friends, Nahida. Are you really going to make them sit this out?”

It was not the first time in five hundred years that the Dendro Archon had cried, but it was possible that it was the first time the tears had been of joy. Kaveh stood from the floor to look at the Sanctuary’s cage, and the mechanisms adjoining it, giving Nahida a moment while he tried to assess the situation. The six of them were going to join hands with the Traveler and their Archon to defeat a god (the thought gave him a mild case of vertigo, but he could panic when they all lived through this), but to do that, they had to find him.

He recalled the blueprints of the Sanctuary, and mentally overlaid them with the room in front of him. The answer became obvious at once–evidently, the Fatui and the Sages had never heard of subtlety .

“He’s below the Divine Tree, isn’t he?”

All eyes in the room turned to look at Kaveh, who had paced back to the control panel of the prison. Some of the modifications to it were obviously much newer, and it didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for–the access panel for an elevator, without a single security measure in sight. He supposed Azar had simply figured no one unauthorized would come up to the Sanctuary itself.

“Could someone please kick Azar again for me–” There was a vicious thudding sound and a pained, rattling wheeze. “Thank you, Nilou. Anyway, we should be able to take this elevator down.”

Kaveh turned around to the others, and looked to Nahida, who nodded back at him. “He should be down near the bottom…I don’t know how many workers Dottore left down in there with him, but I don’t think we should expect it to be a smooth walk down to the kulfi stand.”

“There’s no need to worry about that, Lord Kusanali.” Cyno finally spoke up, a feral gleam in his eyes as he walked towards the elevator, followed closely by Tighnari. “I’ll take care of that .”

Realizing what was going to happen, Dehya swore and jogged forward to reach the elevator before Cyno sent it downwards, leaving the rest of them staring at it as it descended. Nahida blinked, and tipped her head to one side.

“Oh dear. He’s very angry at Dottore’s involvement, isn’t he?”

“I’m less interested in that then how the rest of us are going to get down now,” Alhaitham snorted, and cast his gaze around the room. Kaveh rolled his eyes and grabbed the Scribe by the elbow before he started moving, having already anticipated this reaction to the second elevator.

“Don’t you run ahead to catch up with them. What happened to being a feeble scholar ? Did they knock that out of you with the concussion?” Out of the corner of his eye, Kaveh saw Lumine usher Nilou and Nahida toward the elevator, and waited until they’d reached it to release his grip on Alhaitham to follow them. Alhaitham grabbed the back of his cape to keep him from overtaking him, and shot Kaveh a flat look when Kaveh turned to glare at him.

“You are not leaving me up here.”

“What are you going to do down there? Have an intellectual conversation at it?”

“I have a few choice words picked out, even.” Kaveh measured the sharpness in Alhaitham’s gaze and sighed, before turning back towards the elevator, catching just below Alhaitham’s wrist to drag him along. By the time they reached it, Lumine and Paimon seemed to be struggling to hold in laughter, and Nilou was staring at them both in flushed wonderment. Only Nahida seem unbothered, smiling gently up at the two of them, so Kaveh elected to only acknowledge her.

“Your semi-loyal knights await, Devi Kusanali.”  She giggled, and activated the elevator. 

“And full glad I am to have you. Now, let us save my Nation, shall we?”

Chapter Text

It had been truly laughable, to believe they could ever have challenged a god.

Kaveh could not remember how it had gone so badly, or why. They had been so full of hope and determination, when they’d caught up to Cyno and Tighnari, when the eight of them found the deepest chamber of the sprawling labyrinth beneath the Divine Tree. They had believed they would succeed, in spite of the risks, because if they did not then they might as well have surrendered then and there.

But what Il Dottore and the Sages had made was a monster of true divinity. Once Shouki-no-Kami freed himself from his confines, they found out the truth–that there had never been any hope at all.

Cyno and Dehya had been killed before they even hit the floor, struck in the moments they were most vulnerable. Tighnari had covered Cyno’s body with his own as chunks of rubble fell. Kaveh had shoved Lumine and Nahida out of the way when another blast of light kicked up more rocks, but–

The rubble around Kaveh was suffocating, choking. He can barely see out of it, only strange flashes of green and purple, but he couldn’t care. There was a weight pressing down against him, and a horrible sticky warmth against his back. Kaveh can’t feel his legs–it doesn’t matter. He can’t feel his left hand, either–it doesn’t matter. There is a weight on his back and beloved arms around his shoulders and they are getting colder.

He heard the false god laugh, as he picked up Nahida. Heard him gloat over his victory. And all Kaveh could think, as he moved his working right hand to reach up to the heavy head against his shoulder, was that he never got a chance to say anything he really meant.

They failed again. He had failed again.

Again?

“Do you even know how many times you’ve tried to take my gnosis from me?”

Kaveh buried his remaining hand in Alhaitham’s hair. He cradled his body in his arms. He reached across the broken floor for a cold hand. He pushed him out of the lighting. He freed him in the rubble. He tried to speak, and his words faded.

“ Alhaitham, I– ”

Kaveh swayed slightly on his feet, staggered by the size of the newborn god, staring up at it from the laboratory doors. He felt it as everyone collectively blinked themselves awake, aware that something had changed–aware that something had shifted.

“We’ve just completed the 168th loop,” Nahida told the false god, stepping forward from them with a purpose and power that dwarfed her physical size, that dwarfed even the machine body of the Balladeer. “The exact same number of nights stolen from the people of Sumeru to create you .”

“...Tch, and what does it matter? You people cannot defeat me even in a dream. Doesn’t that demonstrate the difference between gods and mortals?”

Nahida’s body stiffened in anger, but she turned back to the others, hands outstretched. “Let me remind you how it matters.”

Kaveh sucked in a gasp as his memories returned to him, and he was certain of three things immediately:  One, that this oversized bucket of bolts with delusions of grandeur was still made by mortal hands and could be dismantled by them just the same. Two, that Alhaitham would willingly die if it served even the remotest sliver of a chance of Kaveh’s survival.

And three, that he was going to make sure the insufferable idiot was alive for Kaveh to tell him he loved him even if he had to borrow Nahida's gnosis to do it.

The memories were a strange feeling, but they were nothing compared to what came next, a rush of sensation as his mind opened, faster, broader, backed by the minds of all of Sumeru City as the Akasha unfurled in all of them. Kaveh knew, without looking, without checking, that all seven of them felt it–not a cacophony of thoughts but a rising symphony, sharpening their minds and perceptions far beyond what a single human could have thought or processed. He felt the hum of the god fragment under Cyno’s skin the same as the low thrumming pulse of the machinery that existed only for Tighnari’s broad ears just as Kaveh knew they felt the aches in all his hands and the channel of dendro through his legs.

He felt Dehya’s mind turn towards the horizon, towards the people who would help them if Nahida could have reached them, and Kaveh’s mind turned too. She could not reach across the wall, and they all knew why, but a hundred thousand solutions turned with him, and Kaveh knew, he could fix it, they could fix it–

“Focus, Kaveh.” Alhaitham was not near him, yet his voice sounded as though it was against his ear, before both of them realized his words and Lumine’s soft laughter that followed had not been spoken aloud.

The false god howled in fury.

They moved almost before he did, as the floor shattered beneath them once more–Dehya grabbed Nilou, Cyno grabbed Tighnari, Lumine scooped Nahida up into her arms–and to Kaveh, the shattered marble fell down glittering paths of every single track they’d fallen in before.

All the world seemed so beautiful when seen through the shared Wisdom of the people. He barely noticed when he was grabbed, or the strange twist in the scenery as they flickered to the ground, but Alhaitham grunted and pinched his side, irritated by Kaveh’s distraction. There was no hiding it, not with all their minds in synchronicity with the Akasha this way.

Kaveh grabbed him and pulled him to one side, following Dehya and Nilou as Shouki-no-Kami charged them, fire and thunder trailing in his wake. It did not take any additional wisdom to assess the smoking trail where they’d been standing as very bad .

Alright, he could stand to focus a little more.

“Now, I’m not an expert on fighting gods, but with anything else this size, we need to do a little better than swatting at his ankles,” Dehya pointed this out just as she slammed a gauntleted fist into the metal in time to Cyno doing the same at the end of the other leg. “And only one of us thought to bring a bow.”

Kaveh looked back up at the metal body, lips pursed, and then scanned his eyes down the legs. Shoddy, shoddy work. But Kshahrewar’s sage was always more concerned with ambition than diligence , so–

“The joints are weakest. Apply more heat!”

Dehya snorted, conveying she was already applying heat and that the rest of them ought to pick up the slack, but Kaveh had stopped paying attention, darting towards Nilou specifically. She took one look at him (wheezing and feeling his lungs starting to burn already) and nodded, grabbing him by the wrist to dance lightly away from the False God’s rage. It helped that Tighnari chose that moment to riddle the faceplate with arrows that bloomed into a field of sticky, thick pollen.

Frankly, that might have driven Kaveh into a murderous rage in that position too. Once he’d stopped sneezing, anyway.

They had not discussed their idea, and Kaveh was not a graceful dancer when he wasn’t out of breath and gasping for air from running out of the path of thunderbolts. Next to Nilou he imagined he looked about like they’d put pretty clothes on a ruin machine, but it hardly mattered, as long as her Vision washed over them in shimmering blue, the soothing feeling of her hydro sinking into his bones. He felt a verdant power over his back, and great green flowers bloomed between them as Lumine ran past, hopping up and over them to jam her sword into the jointed knee of the false body.

Kaveh let Nilou drag him through the steps and closed his eyes, pulling his power from Mehrak where she rested and out, latching onto all the newly formed cores. He dragged them together, sealing the corners of their powers as any joint, building them upwards, larger, larger , grand and glorious. When he opened his eyes, the resulting core was larger than Kaveh was tall, and he could barely hold it stable, the energy in it thrumming and struggling, seeking to bloom .

Alhaitham, grab the Akasha , he thought, for he couldn’t even open his mouth to speak, holding the core steady as he waited, and waited, and waited—

Shouki-no-Kami reared one leg up, crackling with deadly lightning, to bring down on where Dehya held firm to protect Tighnari and Nahida. Kaveh took aim at the other leg and hurled the core, letting go of his hold on it the moment it left the bracket of his power. 

The explosion was deafening, the ringing toll of a bell instead of the normal chimes of a bloom core, and the God staggered, swayed–and fell, dropping to its knees in front of them. They all of them raced for it, for the core of it’s energy at the center–all of them, save Kaveh, who had collapsed from the effort of the core, and Alhaitham, who held Nahida’s Akasha in his hands. His mirrors had lined up in front of the creature’s great eye, one after the other; no, Kaveh corrected himself.

Not mirrors. Lenses .

Even as the Balladeer tried to bat away the flies attacking his body, he did not notice the true danger in time, and did not understand why they dove away from his body when they did. The Akasha turned its gaze on the false god, and the very will of the people of Sumeru became a beam, so much concentrated Dendro energy that it burned Alhaitham’s hands and blinded Kaveh temporarily when he turned to look. When his eyes cleared, the God did not attack. It could not, for not only had one arm been sheared clean off, clattering down to the floor,  everywhere the beam had cut it, great vines had sprouted, growing from the head down into the floor, a tree that cracked the very tile with it’s roots and crushed the metal frame in its branches. A tree knows no mercy or deterrent, and there was no chance for the would-be Archon to struggle against his fate.

Shouki-no-Kami could not rise again.

Kaveh was not sure if the room fell silent or his ears were simply ringing too loudly to hear anything–the distant anguished cry of Buer! seemed to indicate the latter, but he did not care, unsteadily scrambling to his feet, crossing the floor to where Alhaitham stood, his gloves still slightly smoking from the sheer energy and heat of his laser.

“When I told you to grab it, I didn’t say you should keep holding onto it , did you sleep through every Spantamad elective you ever took?!” Kaveh’s voice found him before he reached the man, and Alhaitham just stared at him, eyes wide and breath heavy from pain, as though he could not believe what he was even hearing. He did not take long to rally, deadpan tone belying the way he flinched as Kaveh reached out to peel the charred glove off his hand.

“Should I have just trusted the aim of a newborn creature piloted by the entire population of the city to not hit anyone we cared about, then?”

“Nahida made it, you could have. And you had the wisdom of all of Sumeru at your disposal, you seriously couldn’t think of any way not to burn your palms off holding onto the damn thing?”

“Are you just going to fuss over what’s already done? Kaveh–” The strange gleam in Alhaitham’s eyes as he let Kaveh peel off his other glove was interrupted by a scream of fury and pure anguish that caught their attention. They turned to see the source of the sound, turned to see the Balladeer rip himself free of his own false body in desperation, scrambling to reach for the Gnosis Nahida had taken from him, only to fall to the floor, collapsed and lifeless among the roots of the newborn tree encapsulating him.

Horror and pity tore apart the anger in Kaveh’s heart as he stared finally at the face of the usurper who had harmed them.

 “He’s a child ,” he murmured, before the entire world rushed up around him and went dark.

—---------------------------

Beds in the Bimarstan had never been comfortable. The mattresses were rock-hard and the sheets rough and slightly itchy, so Kaveh had avoided going to the Bimarstan for anything that might require more than a bandaid and a lecture on his habits for years. Waking up in one was disorienting, to put it very mildly.

His first thought was to sit up, only to find he couldn’t, because a heavy weight was slung over his waist and chest. When Kaveh turned his head, he found the source of that weight leaned against him, cramped into a cot entirely too small for two grown men, much less ones who were taller than much of the population. Heedless of the problems he was causing, Alhaitham was so deep asleep that he snored in a faint, nasally wheeze, his breath light and tickling against Kaveh’s shoulder from where his head rested.

“He wouldn’t go back to his own bed when he woke up.” Kaveh whipped his head around, face heating up, to see Tighnari, also dressed in loose hospital blues. Tighnari smiled at him tiredly, and tilted his head towards the other chair, where Cyno was dozing off sitting upright, looking remarkably small in a Bimarstan gown instead of the intimidating headdress of the General Mahamatra. “I can’t make too much fun of him. Cyno wouldn’t leave me either.”

Kaveh looked back down at Alhaitham’s sleeping face, and found he couldn’t stop the curve of his lips more than he could have stopped the tide.

“...Yeah.” He allowed himself a moment of making what must have been a truly ridiculous expression, because Tighnari snorted, prompting Kaveh to send him a venomous look. The situation finally caught up with him, after he reached up to toss his hairclips at the Forest Ranger for sticking a tongue out at him.

“What happened?”

“I’m not really sure. Lumine hasn’t woken up yet–Nahida says she’ll be fine, she’s just much more sensitive to whatever Dottore did to make us all pass out.”

“ Dottore? ” Tighnari grimaced, shaking his head.

“Relax. He’s left for good this time, word of the Dendro Archon herself.” There was a sharp glimmer in Tighnari’s eyes that said he was disappointed the Harbinger could leave before he had any words with the man, and Kaveh blanched. Beside him, Alhaitham stirred, grumbling in his sleep and pressing his face against Kaveh’s neck to escape the noise, effectively distracting both Kaveh and Tighnari from any discussion of the Fatui, what happened in the depths of the Tree, and what happened now.

Tighnari laughed softly, and stood from his chair, nudging Cyno with a foot.

“You know what? I’ll let Nahida come fill you in later. I’m going to give you two some privacy–but you’re both still injured and in public, so if you get too loud I’m bringing everyone back in here to point and laugh at you.”

“ Get out .” Kaveh reached for the cup of water on his bedside table threateningly, and Tighnari laughed again, herding a still mostly-asleep Cyno out in front of him. Kaveh glowered at the door even after it shut, and then let out a breath.

The room itself was small and austere, only one small window open to let the autumn breeze flow through. Outside, he heard the call of the birds, the bustle of the city, the laughter of children. Kaveh looked down to the man beside him, still asleep, breath steady and even. Here, he could see the circles under Alhaitham’s eyes, the obvious signs of the exhaustion of this last week in his face. Kaveh wondered if if looked even worse than Alhaitham did, and huffed a sigh, before letting himself turn, just enough that they could be properly nestled against each other, his nose pressed to Alhaitham’s hair.

It was a beautiful day in Sumeru, and while they had much to speak about, Kaveh thought it could stand to wait until after a good nap. They had plenty of time now, after all.

As his eyes closed again, he heard the chime of laughter in his ears and the touch of a child’s hand to his hair, cool and soothing.

Sweet dreams, Master Kaveh.

Thank you, Nahida.

Chapter Text

“You want me to be what!?”

Nahida did not even have the grace to look apologetic as she smiled up at Kaveh from the chair in Azar’s former office.  “I want you to be my Grand Sage, Kaveh.”

Kaveh boggled at her, scrambling for words. He had come up here, after showering and getting in clean clothes and napping for seventeen hours straight, to apologize for sleeping so long. To check in on their Archon, newly freed, and see how she was settling.

While he slept, dreams returned to the people of Sumeru. Kaveh did not want to discuss what his first newborn dream was, but given the scrambling panic to disentangle themselves the morning after, Alhaitham’s had been along a similar vein. 

They haven’t talked about it yet, but Kaveh’s bed hasn’t been used since they first stumbled home from the Bimarstan.

Nahida smiled up at him again, and he remembered too late that she could read minds. Kaveh grimaced, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Why me? I’m terrible at telling people no, I can balance a budget but not my own checkbook, and I definitely don’t qualify as a Herbad–”

“Actually, Naphis and Azita both said they were fine waiving that! They said that saving the Dendro Archon and purging the corrupted Sages definitely counts more than publishing a  second paper.”

Kaveh stared flatly at Nahida, who unrepentantly giggled at him. He was losing this argument, and badly.

“--I’m not going to be any good at this.”

Her expression softened, and she hopped down from the chair, rounding the desk to take Kaveh’s fingers in her hand.

“Kaveh, listen…I consulted someone on what you’d say about this. And he said you’d say exactly this. But do you know what else he said?”

Kaveh was silent, feeling slightly as though he had been trapped, but Nahida continued undaunted. “He told me that what Sumeru needs right now isn’t the most accomplished researcher, nor sternest professor. Sumeru has been lost in the dark for five hundred years, and is unaccustomed to dreaming–they need a Light to guide them home. They need someone quite adept at spinning dreams into realities.”

Nahida paused, and tilted her head a bit, watching Kaveh struggle with keeping his expression steady. “Perhaps, what Sumeru needs most right now is someone good at building bridges..”

Kaveh was certain he was making a horrible face. He’d never quite managed the trick of crying gracefully. He swiped at his eyes unsuccessfully with his free arm, tried to draw in a breath without sniffling, and exhaled slowly.

“What about my job?”

“Look at it this way…Sumeru needs rebuilding, and the Akademiya renovating, both metaphorically and literally. Having my own personal designer at hand to help sounds like a splendid idea to me, don’t you think?”

Kaveh sighed, shoulders sagging. He knew already that he would give in to Nahida’s request. He’d known from the moment she’d made it. But even so, there were a few things left unfinished…

“I’m going to strangle him.”

“Oh, just make sure he’s conscious by this evening, I think Nilou wanted to throw a party tonight to celebrate.”

Kaveh didn’t make any promises about that.

Fortunately, or very unfortunately, Alhaitham was exactly where Kaveh expected him to be, still parked in the same chair in the House of Daena he’d been in when Kaveh had passed by him on the way to see Nahida that morning. At the time, he hadn’t known why Alhaitham had come to the Akademiya ahead of him–it wasn’t as though he’d used up his medical leave yet, and it was unlike Alhaitham to put in any more effort than he had to.

But it seemed Alhaitham had a soft spot for their Archon, and an additional one for picking on Kaveh. Only one of these traits was even slightly cute.

Kaveh marched across the Daena as though he went to war, and snatched the book right out of Alhaitham’s hands, glaring down with what he hoped was his most imperious stare.

“Are you quite pleased with yourself?” Alhaitham blinked slowly up at him, brows slightly furrowed in annoyance at having his book snatched. Idly, Kaveh wondered why he was reading up on the Akademiya code of conduct at a time like this.

“...In general, yes. We’ve freed the Dendro Archon and saved Sumeru, thus preserving my very comfortable job, with all of us quite minimally injured in spite of your affinity for head injuries. Why shouldn’t I be pleased?”

“Have you no shame,” Kaveh hissed, leaning down over the chair Alhaitham sat in. “Look me in the eye after throwing me under the Sumpter Beast like this!”

Alhaitham stood up with the air of someone who was doing it just because he felt like it, and not because he’d been commanded to, and immediately crowded into Kaveh’s face, expression thunderous. Or, well, it might have been thunderous if Kaveh couldn’t see the crinkling at the corners of his eyes, no matter how much Alhaitham fought to keep them sharp.

“Is telling the truth when it is asked of me something I’m to be ashamed of now, Kshahrewar?”

“The truth!” Kaveh threw his hands up in the air, exasperated and trying to hide the thundering in his heart. “You recite poetry to a god and call it truth, ha. Since when do you say such nice things about me? Do you only do it when my back is turned, Haravatat?”

“Maybe if the great Architect would open his eyes and ears for once, he’d have no reason to doubt my heartfelt sincerity.”

“Maybe if the almighty Scribe didn’t talk in circles so he’d never be perceived, there’d be no room to cast doubt.”

“Is that what you want, Kaveh?” There was something different in Alhaitham’s tone, low and almost dark, an impossibly warm sort of warning. Kaveh felt the blood rush into his face, felt the edge of that cliff underneath his feet once again.

“Yes.” There was no need to fear the leap when he knew someone would catch him.

“You were right to have concerns about the job–it is unforgiving, and plays into as many of your weaknesses as your strength. I am pleased to see you’ve learned some manner of self-awareness in spite of your pride.” Alhaitham paused just long enough for Kaveh’s temper to start to flare, and then his entire expression melted, soft as butter, that terribly devastating smile of his no longer concealed, stopping Kaveh dead in his tracks.

“But there is no one in Sumeru who knows more about dreams than you. No one more willing to lend an open hand to the wounded, the scared, the belligerent, no matter how many times you are bitten. I have told you before, that your ideals will drown you if you try to swim out personally. But in times like these, don’t you think Sumeru could use a lighthouse?”

Kaveh tried to find words in his throat, to rebut that needlessly pointed metaphor, and couldn’t. Alhaitham only chuckled at his distress, before he spoke again, voice softer than Kaveh had heard it in nearly ten years.

“If I think of a man Sumeru can learn to trust to guide them safely home–all of Sumeru, and not just what we pretend stops at the wall–there is only you.”

What an impossible, irritating, infuriatingly earnest man. Kaveh pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and exhaled a long, rattling breath, before grabbing Alhaitham by the cloak.

“...Isn’t it a bit of a breach of ethics, for the Scribe to think such things of the Grand Sage?”

“That would only be an issue if such affection is reciprocated the other direction, I believe.” Alhaitham’s eyes danced, bright with hope. Kaveh wondered how such a genius could not already guess the answer. Still, in spite of himself, he smiled, leaning a little more forward, voice just as low as Alhaitham’s had been.

“Then we very much have an issue, Alhaitham.”

“The Akademiya Code of Conduct makes allowances for such a case, if the parties involved happen to be married before the position is granted.”

Kaveh was silent for a long while, staring slack-jawed at Alhaitham, before seizing him by the wrist and beginning to drag him out of the House of Daena.

“Kaveh–”

“Shush. Don’t think this gets you out of a proper ceremony. You’ve put us on a tight deadline, idiot.”  He could see Alhaitham’s expression, open and surprised for the first time since boyhood, and he wanted very much to stop and kiss that face. Maybe he could. Maybe he should. Kaveh dragged him into a corner of the hallway, out of the way, and took that beloved face into his hands–

“Oh! Kaveh, Alhaitham! There you guys are, jeez! We thought you’d gotten into another argument.”

Kaveh let his head slowly thunk against Alhaitham’s shoulder and, very quietly, cursed all Celestia for whatever diabolical bad luck Fate had saddled him with. Surely this was far too much karma for even his sins. Alhaitham sighed himself, even as he turned to look at Paimon.

“We aren’t. But we are running late for an important appointment, so see ya.”

It was Alhaitham who grabbed Kaveh by the wrist this time, pulling him away despite Paimon’s squawked protests. Lumine, however, simply called out after them, amusement clear in her voice.

“Remember to show up at Zubyar Theater tonight or I’m letting Tighnari kneecap you!”

Kaveh laughed all the way down to the Grand Bazaar. And when he finally kissed Alhaitham, right there on the steps of the legal office that had filed the wedding certificate (with a dated copy, since the filing now had to be manual), it tasted sweeter than any wine.

—

Lumine watched the two of them go for a long moment, and then turned to head out of the Daena herself.

“Lumine? Wait, weren’t we supposed to go see Nahida?”

“She’s coming down in a minute. We need to get to the Bazaar to buy a banner and some cake, as fast as we can.”

It was a bit of a rush job, but they had enough favors–and Kaveh was well loved enough by the people in the Bazaar–that a cake and a slightly-crooked banner congratulating the pair of them on their elopement was hung up across Zubyar Theater by the time both Alhaitham and Kaveh arrived, fourty-five minutes late.

It was the first time most of them had ever heard Alhaitham laugh, and for the first of many nights to come, Sumeru City celebrated that newfound peace.