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Alhaitham did not like to be interrupted. He preferred to finish every task from start to finish in one fell swoop, hardly resting is he could help it. This method caused him the least amount of stress.
So when there was an incessant knocking at his front door, Alhaitham was understandably peeved. He was right in the middle of organizing his various daily records and did not need Kaveh to start talking his ear off. Because who else would be knocking on his door besides a forgetful Kaveh?
The Scribe sighed and went to open the door anyway. The pounding of the wood against the frame of the house was much more aggravating than Kaveh’s animated rambling anyway.
“Forget your key again?” he asked lightly, undoing the locks.
“Now is not the time Alhaitham! Just open the door!”
The door swung open and Kaveh nearly knocked Alhaitham on the head. “About time!” he said, barging past Alhaitham and promptly slamming the door in his wake. “We have a serious problem!”
“And, by ‘we’, you mean yourself? Or is it a royal ‘we’?” Alhaitham sighed as the architect swept by.
“Please, stop it with those witty remarks of yours for once! There’s a serious issue going on out there!” Kaveh bent over with his hands on his thighs for support. He was breathing heavily, and one of his hair clips was missing. All things considered, though, he’s looked worse. Perhaps a little winded and disheveled, but seemingly unharmed. The architect glared at Alhaitham with a mixture of exasperation and worry, but he quickly dropped his gaze when his roommate returned it. Alhaitham decided that this reaction was most likely not exaggerated. Mostly unheard of in Kaveh’s case, but it did happen.
“Alright, I’ll stop. What’s the situation?”
“The Eremites are everywhere,” Kaveh said on an exhale, “They’re coming out of nowhere and attacking the citizens… The streets, the Akademiya… I even saw a few hiding in the branches of the Great Tree for Archons’ sake!”
“Okay. And that’s my problem because…?”
“Because the whole city is under attack! Would it kill you to have a shred of concern?”
“I’m just the Akademiya’s Scribe, Kaveh. In case you’ve forgotten, defending the city is neither my job, nor yours. That matter is left up to the Matra.”
“And that’s the issue!” Kaveh shrieked, “The Matra are completely overrun. Most of them are taking on two or three Eremites at a time, I saw Cyno get dragged away by a group of at least seven of them…”
That piqued Alhaitham’s interest. “Cyno has been captured?”
“Yes! Or, I don’t know! Maybe! It doesn’t matter. At least I’m getting through that thick skull of yours…”
“Have you heard anything from Lord Kusanali?” he asked. Surely, if this were a big enough threat, she would’ve contacted him by now. The fact that she hadn’t yet was…concerning.
“Obviously not. She barely even knows who I am, why would she contact me before you?”
Alhaitham nodded thoughtfully. Finally, Kaveh actually said something that made sense. The Dendro Archon could be incapacitated, but that was highly improbable. It was more likely that she was too busy managing the city’s defenses and securing classified information to actively send for aid.
Kaveh seemed to guess at Alhaitham’s thought processes and spoke in his stead. “Should we go to the Sanctuary of Surasthana?”
“I will be going to the Sanctuary,” he stated, “Whatever you decide to do is not under my control.”
“Well, obviously I’m coming with you!” retorted Kaveh, “It’s not safe for anyone to be traipsing about alone out there, even you.”
“Suit yourself. Let’s go.”
Strangely, Kaveh did not complain about the excessive physical exertion. He ran just behind Alhaitham, dispatching various Eremite mercenaries with Mehrak as he went. Alhaitham did his best to simply wound the mercenaries, though Mehrak did most of the work in that regard. The race to the Sanctuary was littered with bodies. Once or twice, the Scribe contributed to the piles. Each strike was swift and mostly painless, and Alhaitham definitely heard Kaveh mutter “Feeble scholar my ass,” after a particularly aggressive group was felled by his hand.
It was going smoothly, right up until they reached the top of the Great Tree.
The path that led up to the Sanctuary of Surasthana was a short, winding one, just past the doors of the House of Daena. It functioned as a sort of walking garden, though most of the foliage was now trampled or in flames. The duo tore through the scattered branches and leaves, and when they got to the last platform, a platoon of Eremites was waiting for them. The last line of defense.
“Woah! I didn’t expect the Academiya’s Scribe to actually show up in person! It seems Azar was wrong,” one of the mercenaries said. He looked vaguely familiar. Alhaitham racked his brain for a moment and found the name Muruwa, which seemed about right. He was a mercenary from here in Sumeru city, Corps of Thirty. If even they had turned to the other side, then things may be worse than he had initially anticipated.
Not to mention that Azar was apparently involved. Just fantastic.
“Who’s that guy behind you?” Muruwa sneered, “Is he your sidekick or something?”
Kaveh bristled but did not speak. His eyes darted around the crowd, which seemed to be expanding. More and more mercenaries were arriving at the scene, and more powerful ones at that. Dendro Ring Dancers, Scorching Loremasters, Daythunders and Clearwaters… The whole package. Alhaitham sighed internally and prepared for a fight.
“Okay…Not a talkative duo. Whatever, doesn’t matter. You here to protect that weakling Archon of yours? Go right ahead!” Muruwa paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, then unsheathed his scimitars and continued, “You’ll just have to get through us, first.”
Fine. Always resorting to violence…
Two Dendro Allogenes did not generally make a good team. Sure, their resonance allowed for increased intensity in terms of elemental reactions, but there were no elements to react with. Alhaitham’s main strategy was to use physical blows with the occasional Dendro-infused strike to bounce off of a Daythunder or Clearwater attack, but that was the extent of what he could do. Kaveh covered his blind spots, and he covered Kaveh’s, mostly on instinct. Mehrak did all of the heavy lifting anyway, so covering Kaveh wasn’t a tall order.
Alhaitham found very little logic in the sheer volume of mercenaries that sought to stop him. It was like their numbers were endless, however impossible that was. There had to be an end to them eventually. But, alas, they just kept swinging, kept throwing their knives, kept shouting their taunts and battle cries. Alhaitham was more annoyed than anything else. So he just kept meeting their blows, dodging their attacks…elementary actions, really.
Even so, humans would tire. Neither he nor Kaveh could keep going for much longer. Mehrak had sustained enough damage for Kaveh to actually swing his claymore with his own arms, which was exceedingly unsustainable for the architect. Alhaitham could feel himself slipping ever so slightly. He’d fought like this before. He’d probably fought for even longer than this before. But still, the limits of his physical ability were nearing.
When Kaveh went down, Alhaitham was quick to follow.
He’d been distracted with blocking the crackling axe of a Daythunder when massive arms locked themselves around his waist and pulled him backwards. Alhaitham tumbled to the ground rather ungracefully and found himself restrained right next to his roommate. He saw no point in struggling. His captor was several times larger than either of them. Logically speaking, they had no chance of escape by any physical means.
“Alright now,” a burly Eremite rumbled, “It’s time to take a nap.”
Alhaitham was powerless to stop it. He was just a feeble scholar, after all. Pain exploded from his head, and the world went black.
•
“Well, this sucks.”
“An astute observation.”
Kaveh glared at him. “You’re not helping.”
Alhaitham didn’t respond. After they were defeated on the walkway to the Sanctuary and promptly knocked unconscious, he and his roommate had been tied up and thrown into a cell. It was one of the Akademiya’s prison cells, which was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was the cleanliness of the cells themselves, since they’d hardly been used in the past few months. The curse, well, they were the Akademiya’s prison cells. That meant the Eremites had control over the Akademiya. They had failed.
They’d failed to reach Lord Kusanali in time, and now, Sumeru was no longer under her command. That’s what Alhaitham guessed, anyway. He had no concrete evidence to back up his inference.
Kaveh sighed dejectedly for the fortieth time. Alhaitham felt a pulse of anger run through his system, the Eremites had taken his headphones, so he had no way to tune out Kaveh’s complaints.
“Ugh, I feel terrible. Like, mentally and physically,” said Kaveh, “Who do these Eremites think they are anyway! Trying to get rid of the Dendro Archon…”
“It’s called ‘guilt’, Kaveh,” the Scribe sighed.
“Don’t remind me…” Kaveh said instead of arguing.
The air soured in their tense silence, causing Kaveh’s brows to furrow as he contemplated their predicament. Alhaitham watched the door in disinterest. Then, there was a loud pounding on said door, and both Allogenes perked up at the noise. Kaveh’s posture bolted upright and he shuffled to the bars of their cell, Alhaitham remaining where he was.
“You think…will collapse…the door down?” The voice was muffled behind the door and was thus unrecognizable, but it sounded vaguely familiar to Alhaitham’s ears. Kaveh must’ve noticed it too, because he leaned forward in futile hope that he would be able to hear the voice more clearly.
The voice spoke again, this time so muffled that Alhaitham couldn’t make out a single word. A resounding crash suddenly shook the door in its frame, the wood bulging. There was another crash. Then another. Finally, the wood splintered spectacularly and the door exploded outward, scattering splinters all over the room.
Standing in the doorway, the light at their backs, was Dehya and Nilou, one looking extraordinarily proud of herself, and the other poised timidly behind her counterpart. Kaveh’s face lit up in recognition, and even Alhaitham couldn’t help a surprised smile.
“What’s up, boys?” Dehya grinned, “Ready to get out of here?”