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Alhaitham knew that her position as the Acting Grand Sage made her a prominent figure in Sumeru’s political landscape. She also knew that Kaveh’s unofficial title as the Light of Ksashrewar made her a prominent figure in Sumeru, period.
She just didn’t think things would collapse on top one another quite like this.
She grunted when she felt the mercenary’s fingers dig into her scalp, gripping a handful of her hair and yanking her up. “So what do you say, Architect?” the mercenary asked. “Do you still say no?”
Alhaitham frowned, trying to tell Kaveh with her eyes to decline, but even then she knew it was futile. Kaveh was stark white, staring with eyes so wide they looked like saucers. There was a tremble at her knees, easily missed to anyone who wasn’t Alhaitham. She would stare longer, but she had to squeeze her eyes shut when blood started to drip into her eyes and the dizziness she had tried to stave off made the world spin. She would tell Kaveh verbally to say no, but the rough ropes gagging her made it downright impossible. It dug into her cheeks when she tried to say something. She wondered how the welts left behind would look like.
“Fine.” Kaveh’s voice made Alhaitham open her eyes, blinking through the reddish tint. Kaveh had her teeth gritted, hissing her words through them. Her eyes glistened with angry tears. “I’ll draw your stupid design. Let Alhaitham go.”
“And lose my hostage? I don’t think so,” the mercenary said with a chuckle. All the same, he let go of Alhaitham’s hair. Alhaitham’s chin fell immediately, hitting her chest. She grimaced when her gaze landed at the painful gash across her chest. Directly looking at it somehow made it even more painful than it already was.
The mercenary opened a roll of paper and placed pencils and a ruler on the table. “Be a good girl and draw well for me, Kaveh, or the Grand Sage will get more beating.”
Kaveh stayed still as the man untied the ropes binding her wrists behind the chair. She rubbed the chafed skin and glared at him. “You do realize that no matter what I draw, it won’t make any difference if there’s no approval to build, right? You really think something as obvious as stables made for human trafficking would get approved?”
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll get approved, alright,” the mercenary said. “Why did you think my boss asked me to bring both you and the Grand Sage in? I’m sure dear Grand Sage wouldn’t want her roommate to suffer the same beating she just endured.”
Kaveh gulped and stared at Alhaitham. Through the haze of pain still ringing through her head, Alhaitham quietly wished a painful death for the mercenary and his employer.
With a sigh, Kaveh reached for the pencil. She held it with her dominant hand, the thumb pressing against the sharp end of the graphite. “This isn’t nearly enough for me to really draw, by the way. You can’t expect me to make a decent design with just pencils and a ruler, right? At least bring me an eraser. And a pen and inkwell as well as a compass, while you’re at it. Perhaps three sets of spare papers at the very least.”
The mercenary rolled his eyes. “Just draw, woman.”
“I don’t get why you would even agree to take part in this,” Kaveh said mulishly. Her grip on the pencil grew tighter. Her free hand smoothed out the paper.
“As long as I get paid, I don’t really care.”
Kaveh was silent for a moment. Alhaitham tracked her motions with her eyes, knowing Kaveh was weighing her options. For what, she had no idea. She could only hope Kaveh knew what she was doing.
Then, Kaveh took a deep breath. The pencil twirled in her hand, graceful, delicate. Her thumb rested at the blunt end of it instead of the exposed graphite, this time. “Apologies in advance,” she said in a cold tone more akin to Alhaitham’s than her own, and with deadly speed she stabbed the pencil into the mercenary’s thigh.
The mercenary howled in pain and surprise, staggering as Kaveh flitted out of her seat, out of the mercenary’s reach. She took the wooden ruler and whacked it against the mercenary’s cheek when he tried to stumble closer with rage in his eyes, but it only seemed to enrage him further.
Alhaitham’s heart dropped to her stomach when Kaveh tried to flit away again only to get caught by the chains around her ankles and falling painfully to the stone floor. The jingling chains masked her yelp, but Alhaitham heard it loud and clear. She struggled against her bonds, ignoring the ringing pain as she pulled hard enough that she wondered if she’d break her wrists trying to get away, a muffled scream of Kaveh’s name seeping through the ropes gagging her mouth.
But Kaveh, fortunately, could handle herself. When the mercenary tried to lunge to her, she drove the ruler forward like a sword and caught the mercenary at the throat. He stumbled back with a violent cough, and Kaveh took the opportunity to get up, grab the chair she had been tied to, and used to whack the mercenary over the head. And one more time, for good measure, and one more, and one more. The chair broke little by little with each hit, and by the time the mercenary was lying motionlessly on the ground with the pencil still jutting out awkwardly at his thigh, plugging the wound that he wouldn’t bleed out, Kaveh was only holding two sticks instead of a whole chair. She threw them away and looked at her hands, frowning, but soon shook her head and flipped the mercenary over to start searching. Soon she found the keys to the chains around her feet, a knife, and two Dendro Visions.
Alhaitham watched patiently as Kaveh took off her chains. When she tried to rush to Alhaitham’s side, Alhaitham shook her head frantically and pointed at the mercenary with her chin. Kaveh bit her lip, nodded, and resorted to chaining the mercenary’s hands together. When she was done, she stumbled to Alhaitham’s side.
Quick, careful fingers cut the rope gag first. As Alhaitham worked her jaws, Kaveh shifted behind her to cut the ropes keeping her wrists and ankles together. “How do you feel?” Kaveh asked, voice low and hushed.
“I think I may have a concussion,” Alhaitham answered matter-of-factly. She brought her wrists closer to her face. The ropes had burned marks into her skin, chafing and hot. When she gingerly touched her face, she winced at the welts the rope gag had burned into her face. The mercenary had clearly been more careful with Kaveh than with her. Though, considering that he had wanted Kaveh’s talent, perhaps that was to be expected.
“You think?!” Kaveh hissed. She sounded like she wanted to be irritated but was too scared to truly pull it off. Once Alhaitham was free of the ropes, her gentle fingers roamed all over to check for more wounds aside from the obvious ones. Whatever she found made her purse her lips in distaste. “Stay here, I need to look for something to deal with your wounds.”
Alhaitham hummed in response and closed her eyes, resting her head against the wall. Everything hurt, but they had dulled somewhat. That was probably not a good thing.
Gentle pats to her cheek brought her back, and Alhaitham blinked as Kaveh’s carmine gaze filled her vision. Kaveh pursed her lips in distaste. “I found our things,” she said, “and some supplies. Let me see your head wound.”
“We should go back and inform Cyno,” Alhaitham mumbled as she shifted to obey Kaveh’s request.
Kaveh shushed her softly. “First aid first. This might sting.”
Alhaitham hummed. She bit her pained moans back when she felt the sting of antiseptics against her head wound. She’d have to spend some time at the Bimarstan after this. How annoying.
“I wish I could make healing bloom cores,” Kaveh murmured softly, voice full of remorse. “I’ll just hurt you more if I tried.”
“That’s out of your hand,” Alhaitham pointed out. She let Kaveh tend to her head in silence until she drew back. “Do you need to bandage it?”
“No bandage,” Kaveh said. “I need to check for other wounds.”
“Chest,” Alhaitham mumbled. She glanced down at the slash across her chest, right where her breasts began to swell. The mercenary got her good. “The bleeding’s stopped, so it’s at least shallow. Could do with some cleaning.”
“Oh.” Maybe it was the dim light, but Alhaitham thought she saw a blush spread across Kaveh’s cheeks. “I might… have to take off your shirt.”
“Yes.”
“The… bra, too.”
“I’m well aware,” Alhaitham sighed. “Clothing will only hinder me. Get the zipper.” She lifted her arm so Kaveh could unzip her shirt. She didn’t like how hard it was to keep her arm up, or to bend so Kaveh could pull it off her head. Absently, she noted how Kaveh’s hands trembled when she set aside the ripped, bloodied shirt. Kaveh paused when she turned back to her.
“Front clasp?” she murmured. There was a tremble in her voice, too.
“Mmm. Easier.” Alhaitham watched, keeping herself from squirming when Kaveh’s hands pushed against her breasts to open the bra. Despite everything, Alhaitham instinctively sighed when her sizeable breasts spilled free. A part of her wanted to laugh at how Kaveh visibly gulped at the sight of her naked chest, but she was mostly too tired to do it. She allowed Kaveh a brief moment to ogle and piped up, “You can stare all you like once I don’t have a concussion anymore.”
That seemed to snap Kaveh out of her reverie. “Right,” she said, blush nearly gone altogether. Shame; she looked good with it. Alhaitham could barely bite back the pained moan when Kaveh dabbed antiseptic into the gash. Somehow, it was more painful than her head wound.
“Sorry,” Kaveh said with a grimace.
“No. Keep going,” Alhaitham gritted out.
Thankfully, Kaveh didn’t need long to patch her up. She hesitated when the wound was cleaned and tended with a salve, unsure of what to do, then she seemed to come to a decision. She helped Alhaitham put her bra and shirt on again and took off the red cape she wore around her shoulders.
“That’s your favorite one,” Alhaitham said.
“I know.”
“You’ll get cold,” Alhaitham protested.
“I’d rather sneeze a bit than let your wound fester after I try to take care of it,” Kaveh said as she wrapped the cape around Alhaitham’s torso. “We should get to Bimarstan as soon as we can. Come on.”
“What about the mercenary?” Alhaitham asked.
Kaveh sighed. “I’ll make sure he’s tied up real good and I’ll strip him from all possible weapons. Can we go after that?” At Alhaitham’s approving hum, she nodded. “Okay.”
Alhaitham floated hazily as Kaveh went to do just that. When Kaveh finally went back to her side, it was with Mehrak floating fussily around her. Carefully, Kaveh slung Alhaitham’s arm around her shoulder, grimacing when Alhaitham grunted, and gingerly wrapped her own arm around Alhaitham’s hip. Slowly, they made the trek back to the city.
“You shouldn’t have taken that hit,” Kaveh whispered into the night as they walked.
“Hmmm?”
“The hit to your head. You could’ve dodged that.”
Alhaitham looked away. “You would have been hit instead.”
“They want me. They wouldn’t hurt me badly.” Kaveh sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
It was clear that Kaveh didn’t agree, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she sighed, chest heaving up and down, and with how her head lolled Alhaitham couldn’t help but notice how Kaveh’s cleavage moved within the confines of her low-cut blouse, now speckled with blood.
Well. She could understand why Kaveh spent so long staring at her chest, now.
Kaveh’s quiet voice cut through the silence. “Thank you.”
Any time, Alhaitham wanted to anwer. It was no trouble. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. She didn’t say any of it, and all that came out of her mouth was a quiet hum. Somehow, she thought Kaveh understood anyway.