Archive of Our Own

Alhaitham tugged at his restraints again, even though that only succeeded in making the rope bite deeper into his skin.

Sighing, the woman stalking around him—Daphne—glanced down at him. There was an unimpressed tinge to her violet eyes, blond hair tied back and away from her face. Knotting her fingers in his hair, she yanked his head back. He squinted against the hot desert sun. Gasping, he stared up at her. “Would you stop doing that? It’s rather annoying.”

Scowling at her, Alhaitham steeled his jaw, “Not a chance.” She arched a brow at him. Then, she shrugged.

“So be it, Acting Grand Sage.” She sneered at the title like he had wanted it. The fingers in his hair tightened.

She smashed his head into the stone tiles beneath him.

Black sparked in his vision. Pain shot through his head. The stone tiles were hot under him. In the back of his mind, a voice yelled concussion!

He was lying on a large stone circle in the middle of the desert, on a raised stone dais. At each cardinal direction, a large stone pillar rose from the sand. They all had chips on them. He wasn’t sure where it had come from. Maybe Daphne had decided to find it on her own. He didn’t remember any permit requests coming through…would she even have gone through to try and get a request? Or a permit? He couldn’t—he needed to—

Daphne stalked around him, a massive golden pike in her hand. “Azar was right. The Archon of Wisdom Nahida—” Don’t call her that. You don’t get to call her that. You don’t have the right, the bond— “should have been replaced long ago. She was never there when we needed her. Why should we continue to follow such an absentee Archon?”

Alhaitham tracked her in the corner of his vision. His chest heaved as he struggled for air. It was so hot, he hadn’t had water since Daphne had captured him. He’d been taken late at night, waiting for Kaveh to get home. Cyno and Tighnari were already asleep in bed. He’d just wanted to make sure Kaveh got home safely. He always tried so hard to take care of them, even when he didn’t have to. He could stay home and do nothing for the rest of his life but make blueprints he never even showed anyone else, and Alhaitham wouldn’t care. Neither would Tighnari or Cyno—they just wanted him to be happy. Since meeting with clients was what made Kaveh happy, then…so be it. He could meet with clients.

But then, when Alhaitham opened the door, Kaveh hadn’t been there. He’d been jumped, knocked out before he even had the chance to fight, and now he was here. An unfamiliar woman was stalking around him with narrowed eyes and a pike in her hands.

With a scoff, Daphne twirled the weapon. The sunlight sparkled on the sharpened golden head. “It’s beautiful, really. You don’t deserve something like this. But then—these ruins need the blood of a leader. I would never be able to get to Nahida even if I had wanted to. But you, Acting Grand Sage…you were so easy to get to. Really. It’s almost sad how little protection you had, especially for the General Watchleader, the Acting Grand Sage, and the General Mahamatra. I would suggest that you find some better guards.”

Dragging herself upright, she stood over him with the pike raised. A vicious glint lit her eyes. The sun flashed in her hair almost like Kaveh’s—it wasn’t nearly as pretty, it didn’t shine the right way. Using the head of the pike, Daphne tilted his head from one side to the other. Alhaitham scowled at her, even when the blade nicked his cheek and sent a sharp bite of pain across his skin.

“Too bad for you,” Daphne grinned wickedly, raising the pike again, “You won’t be around for it.”

With a deft spin, Daphne drove the pike into Alhaitham’s stomach.

The world went white with pain.

When the pain faded, he was still pinned to the stone table beneath him.

Everything hurt. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t stop the bleeding, the pain. Gasping, he scrabbled for a grip on the stone. His fingertips tore on the rough stone. The world was white-hot. Everything narrowed down to the pain in his stomach. It was piercing, an arrow through his body to drive him into the earth. Heat rolled over his skin, down his sides—he was bleeding. Badly. He needed to try and stop it, but how? He couldn’t—he didn’t have his hands free.

Focus, Alhaitham. Focus, he steeled himself. Gritting his teeth, he tilted his head to the side. Focus! Blink past the pain. You have to get home. You need to get home. If you don’t focus, you’re going to bleed out.

His arms were stretched above his head, the rope digging into his skin. He could see two—no, three—coils where Daphne had bound him. Alright, okay. We can figure this out, Alhaitham. We can get—his next breath forced something in his body to twinge. Gasping, muscles seizing, Alhaitham dropped his head back. Desperate, he twisted his arms. The rope bit into his skin more, tearing and rubbing raw the already-damaged skin there. If he were lucky, he would get out of this with fixable damage.

He could be dead, though.

Pressing his nails into his palms until he was sure they bled, Alhaitham turned his head to the other side. Daphne was standing off to the side, fiddling with something. There was more blood spattered on the stone.

Okay. Okay, I need to lift my head. I need to see how bad the wound is. He didn’t have the strength. Closing his eyes, Alhaitham gritted his teeth. Worrying the inside of his cheek between his molars, he pushed his shoulders into the rock beneath him and forced his head upright.

The pike driven into his middle was buried up to the start of the hilt. When he shifted, the pain shooting through his middle returned. Worse, he could feel where the metal had sunk into the stone beneath him.

White shot across his vision again. Slamming his eyes shut, Alhaitham groaned.

Fingers curled in his hair and his head was yanked to the side. A dagger drew across his cheek. Cracking his eyes open, Alhaitham stared up at Daphne. She had a knife in hand. Something sparked in her eyes. “I’m surprised you’re still conscious. Maybe I should correct that.”

Yanking his head away, Alhaitham sucked in a few sharp breaths. The desert sun was still beating down on him. Sitting on the table beside him, Daphne brushed his hair out of his face again. A shudder passed through him. It hurt even worse. “Don’t touch me.” He bit out.

With another scoff, Daphne twirled the knife in her hand. Alhaitham kept his eyes focused on the sand dunes. His heart stuttered in his chest. The pain in his stomach was getting worse. Biting his lip, he shifted. The pike didn’t move. He was pinned to the stone, still. Even if he wanted to, he didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Swallowing, he closed his eyes again.

I’m going to die here. The realization was painful, but…calming. Almost. He was going to die, and his boyfriends would survive but they would be hurting for a long time. Turning his face away from Daphne, he gritted his teeth.

Pain split the inside of his left elbow. Sharp, stinging, burning-hot pain. Gritting his teeth, he tried to kick, tried to move away. It didn’t really work. Slowly, agonizingly, Daphne dragged the blade from Alhaitham’s elbow to his wrist in a straight line.

Apparently, impaling him wasn’t bad enough.

Daphne wanted to make him bleed out.

As soon as she had finished drawing one line through his left arm, Daphne began to cut two more lines in that same arm. All of them hit the inside of his forearm, all of them cut deep. Panting, he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. I don’t want to die. I can’t even get out of this, either. I can’t—

His breathing sped up as Daphne stalked around to his other side, grabbing his other arm so she could slice up his skin. Heart pounding in his throat, Alhaitham curled his fingers until his nails bit into his palms. It hurt. His arms hurt, it was too hot, he was already going to die and he had honestly thought he was going to die with at least someone he knew around who cared about him—

He bit back a pained cry as Daphne’s knife slipped, slicing jaggedly across his wrist. Heat rushed across his face, down his neck. Panting, he pushed his shoulders back into the stone beneath him. He wanted his boyfriends, he wanted to curl up somewhere cold and dark and hide away from the world for years. He never wanted to leave, he just wanted to grab someone—probably Tighnari or Cyno, Kaveh didn’t like being the little spoon—and curl up with them and never move again. He just—he needed to—

Daphne shrieked.

Blood spattered on his cheek and face.

Alhaitham snapped his eyes open to see Daphne staggering back, grabbing onto her shoulder. An arrow sprouted from her arm. He recognized the fletching—Collei. “Back off!” Kaveh’s voice roared. Daphne staggered back.

The next thing Alhaitham knew, the world was spinning around him. Things were happening way too fast. Suddenly, Dehya and Collei were by his side, Collei standing on the table, over him, as she fired off arrow after arrow. There was a flash of Cyno and Kaveh running into the fight. There was a glimpse of blue hair and golden ornaments at his side—Candace.

Panting, Alhaitham tried to tilt his head to the side. Someone stopped him—Dehya. Her hands were warm, but even more than they usually were. Blue eyes held his own, and she quickly brushed his hair from his face. “Focus on me, Alhaitham. Trust me, you don’t want to look.”

His breath caught in his throat. Copper flooded the back of his mouth. Wincing, he cracked his mouth open, stared up at her. Another ragged gasp left him. “Deh—Dehya. What—how—”

“That idiot isn’t very good at covering her tracks. She’s fast, I’ll give her that, but all her smarts were focused on ancient rituals or…whatever this all is.” Shaking her head, Dehya turned back to him. She brushed his hair back again. “You’re going to be fine, I promise. Tighnari’s back home and making sure that the medical bay is prepped. Candace would normally be fighting, but…”

“I need…more healing than normal.” Alhaitham rasped out. Nodding, Dehya glanced over at where Candace was working. Her face twisted. Then, she turned to the pike in his stomach. “I think…I’m going to pass out.”

“What? No, don’t—” Alhaitham blinked, fighting his eyes not to close as he did. There was a weight on him. The heat was oppressive, far too much. It was a fight he didn’t even have a chance to win. “Alhaitham—Alhaitham, stay with us—”

Alhaitham blacked out.

He woke to Tighnari’s hands on him, rebandaging his wounds, and the pain dulled.

His head was in someone’s lap. Fingers brushed through his hair, and someone else—Cyno—had his hand clutched in both his own. Cracking his eyes open, Alhaitham sucked in a breath. One of those Fontainian inventions—an Anemo mask, a new way to help ease an injured person’s breathing—was strapped to his face. His hearing aids were gone. The mask’s straps probably didn’t fit around them.

Fingers traced along the left side of his jaw. Blinking, trying to clear the blurriness of his vision, Alhaitham looked up at Kaveh. He managed a tight smile. Kaveh returned it, carefully pressing his fingers to the sore spot in Alhaitham’s jaw. Slowly, he looked around.

Tighnari was working on his right arm. His stomach had been rebandaged already, as had his left arm. Slowly, carefully, he twitched his feet, his legs. Still working. The pike didn’t pierce my spine. Lucky.

A glance at Cyno showed him curled on the bed beside him, eyes soft as he watched Alhaitham come back to the waking world. Settling Alhaitham’s hand on the covers, Cyno pushed himself up and then began to sign to him, “Hey, Alhaitham. You’ve been out three days. Blood loss, presumably.”

Nodding, Alhaitham lifted his free hand. He could feel Kaveh’s rumbling hum of a voice. He was probably talking to Tighnari and explaining things. In the corner of his vision, Alhaitham could see Tighnari nod once, ears flicking.

“Collei?”

“Fine. Dehya and Candace are fine.”

Again, Alhaitham nodded. “Good. Thank you.”

“Of course.” With a smile, Cyno leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Sorry about your hearing aids. We couldn’t fit the mask over them.”

“I thought as much.” Lips curling into a smile, Cyno laughed. His hand dropped down to gently rub Alhaitham’s shoulder. “How bad was it?”

“We got there pretty quick. Looked worse than it was.” Cyno explained, “The pike managed to hit your viscera, but we managed to get there fast enough that the bleeding was minimal. We’ve mostly just been waiting for you to wake. You woke a few times but weren’t really conscious. Tighnari’s been changing your bandages every day.”

“Has he been sleeping?” Tighnari finished his work. Gently, he raised Alhaitham’s hand to his mouth, kissing his knuckles. Glancing at him, Alhaitham laughed softly, moving his hand to brush Tighnari’s cheek. Tighnari leaned into the touch, closing his eyes and kissing Alhaitham’s palm when he had the chance.

“I’ve been sleeping fine,” He mouthed into Alhaitham’s palm, kissing his skin again. When Alhaitham ran his fingers across Tighnari’s lips, over to cup his cheek, the man just started to purr softly. “Get some rest, Alhaitham. You need it.”

Nodding, Alhaitham closed his eyes, feeling Kaveh laugh and Tighnari purring as Cyno told some kind of joke and settled down beside him.