Chapter Text
Everything fell right into place, just like he wanted it to.
It took far more goading than expected, and even getting a little too close to actually harming his “Stellaron friend”, but the Emanator of Nihility finally unsheathed her blade to strike at him.
Then came that endless void, the same power that had shattered his Cornerstone by absorbing most of the blast (A shame, but it was broken anyways. Either way, the light in his stone would fade and thus the signal for Topaz and Jade to move in. It was a worthy chip to play both for his own freedom and the IPC’s needs) and ripping the Harmony’s controlling strings (Oh how hilarious it would be to see that Halovian’s face when he realized that his little trick to entrap him to the Family failed. He refused to be wrapped in another pair of chains, not again). It was a relief to no longer feel that strange entangling sensation in his head from the Harmony’s attempts of assimilating him. Once Aventurine had gotten his bearings together, he looked back and noticed he wasn’t alone in that void. Even then, she seemed to know exactly what he had wanted and why.
After speaking to Acheron and reading the note the good doctor has left for him, he said his final farewell to Kakavasha and the sweet falsities of the Dreamscape. When Aventurine stepped into the void, he embraced the emptiness brought by the abyss, and dove in, to see what this impossibility of “dormancy” within a dream held.
At least that’s what he had planned. From there, he expected that the true nature of the deeper Dreamscape in Penacony would be akin to an ocean. A cold and dark abyss where he'd be having to dive deeper and deeper to see its true colors after leaving the small island that the Family had carved away to make its profitable dream paradise.
For an unspecified amount of time, it did. Acheron did try to warn him that his fight wouldn't be over once he made it to the True Dreamscape. Is this what she meant? To feel as if his soul was in a never-ending freefall, where he couldn't tell up from down, to not see and feel where he was, all as he tried to keep his sanity as he sunk further and further into the true prison the Dreamscape really was?
But then something changed and Aventurine eventually could feel again, no longer so disconnected in that cold void.
Yet, why did he now feel heat and…sand?
Aventurine's body felt heavy, like he had been weighed down to the floor by lead. He could barely will his eyes to open in order to see his surroundings, only managing a glimpse of the golden sands that reminded him of somewhere else from long ago. Was this the dark secret the Family was trying to hide? A devoid wasteland left behind from the days of being an IPC prison hold? With how he was fighting against his own body to stay conscious, there was little to no chance that Aventurine would be able to find his answers just yet as his eyes grew heavy and darkness engulfed his vision once more. Had he remained conscious for a second longer, he would have realized that there had been something, or rather someone coming towards him.
It was just supposed to be a normal expedition out to the desert for inspiration and possibly some spare parts to ensure Merhak's maintenance would be upkept. Then Alhaitham so rudely forced himself along, citing that if he went alone again, he'd end up taking so long that he'll miss another major change to Sumeru. Well excuse him for missing it last time, Kaveh will be sure to be first in line the next time they decide to overthrow the Akademiya! (No he wouldn’t, he quite liked the changes now that the arts were becoming more recognized and celebrated. Kaveh would much rather deal with more of Alhaitham’s poor interior design choices for their house than have to put up with Azar’s regime over the Akademiya once more.)
Despite Alhaitham's remark, it turned out that he’d been given an assignment by the Dendro Archon herself. More specifically, in his capabilities as the Scribe and one of the finest Haravatat alumni, he had been assigned to research some specific runes and scriptures found around King Deshert's ruins and report his findings back to Lord Kusanali. That was acceptable, because at least then the expedition would be partially covered by the Akademiya. Kaveh is quite fine with paying less to travel, even if it would be just the two of them in the desert, alone, for however long their expedition takes. But hey! Additional funding meant that maybe they could even afford to borrow a Desert Sumpter Beast to haul their supplies!
So, after preparing their rations, supplies, appropriate attire, camping materials, and weapons for the expedition, the two locked up the house and set off from Sumeru City to Caravan Ribat. Once there, Alhaitham managed to find someone who would lend out their Sumpter Beasts for a decent price. Kaveh was far more thrilled that he wouldn’t have to use Merhak to help haul his supplies during their expedition. Saving Merhak’s battery would be better in the long run in case they’d have to spend more time than anticipated inside Deshret’s ruins. After all, who knows what they could run into while inside! There could be Eremites scouring inside, or some of those old primal constructs that loved to come online at the slightest bit of motion detection, and don’t even get him started on those elemental consecrated beasts! Those things are aggressive, can tank a lot of hits, and deal out so much damage. The last time Kaveh was unlucky enough to run into one of those creatures, the Red Vulture scorched part of his scarf as he tried to run away from it! He hadn’t even been attacking it, just unlucky enough to stumble into its territory.
After Caravan Ribat, the trip into the desert went as expected. Sure, there was the harsh heat of the desert sun beating down on them, the occasional sandstorm hampering their progress, the cold temperatures that the nights in the desert brought along, but camping alongside an oasis whenever they were lucky enough to find one was nice. There they’d set down their things, let the Sumpter Beast rest, eat their rations, and just chat, sometimes it turned into an argument or debate, but that’s just how Kaveh and Alhaitham are. If Cyno and Tighnari had accompanied them, it would be like their normal hangouts back in Sumeru City, but sadly the Forest Ranger did quite terribly in the desert, if the last Interdarshan Championship was anything to go by (not that he had done much better, but those desert foxes obviously wanted help considering how much they followed him around).
By the time they had reached the ruins, Kaveh already had worked out some sketches for some new designs he had in mind, but there’s nothing wrong with looking inside to see if he could find more inspiration within the relics of the past. There was still the matter of him getting some new parts for Merhak’s maintenance as well. It had nothing to do with the fact that Alhaitham still had to go and transcribe those ancient runes and texts, nothing!
Once their Sumpter Beast was secured in a decent area with some cover (in case of there being a sandstorm) outside the mausoleum, with food and water to last some number of hours without their supervision, the two entered the grand Mausoleum of King Deshret. They stuck close to one another as it would do them no good to get separated in a tomb that can be filled with traps and threats. They ran into a few smaller primal constructs, but they went down without too much of an issue thanks to their combined strength, even without Cyno around to electro to their dendro infused attacks. However, Kaveh thought something was wrong, as the few times he’s run into those primal constructs, they’re normally not so active. They’d be left on standby a majority of the time and usually have a start up sequence before beginning any attack patterns, so why were they just live and on a sort of sentry mode? Alhaitham must have had the same line of thinking as he grabbed Kaveh’s hand and pulled him to an unlocked corner room, surprising the architect from the sudden movement. Kaveh was just about to huff and scold the younger man about giving him a warning before pulling him away so out of the blue like that, the scribe put a hand over his mouth to stop him from saying anything! Then Alhaitham so rudely pushed them against a corner to the left of the doorway, preventing them from being seen so easily by the wandering automatons, but leaving Kaveh’s face a bright red from the close contact and manhandling.
“Don’t move. Something put these machines on alert and now they have begun to protect something here. Let’s not waste more energy than we need to and avoid as many confrontations as possible. I still need to find those runes Lord Kusanali described.” Alhaitham quietly advised as another primal construct flew past the doorway of the room they entered, scanning the room briefly. After finding nothing from its simple scan from the doorway, it continued on its way and the two relaxed their position. Seeing that the close before pulling his hand away from Kaveh, the architect left frowning after being silenced like that, but understanding of the situation at hand.
“Do you even know what personal space is!? Honestly, I could have hidden just fine if you had just said something instead of just grabbing me like that.” The architect complained in hiss of a whisper. However, he knew Alhaitham wouldn't really respond to him like that so he instead focused on the problem at hand. “What exactly do these runes look like and is there anything specific that may be near them?”
Alhaitham paused, recalling what Nahida had told him to keep a lookout for when inside the ruins. “Supposedly, they would lead to an area to honor higher beings from beyond the stars, beings above an archon. These runes are the key to unlocking it, but seeing these constructs gives me the feeling someone else discovered it before us.”
“Something above an archon, how?! Just saying that feels like blasphemy, yet…I could see why Lord Kusanali is interested in uncovering this, but how exactly does that information help us find these runes?”
“Simple, we watch the constructs from the shadows and then follow where the highest amount of traffic leads them. They're actively guarding something, and the fact our Archon sensed enough of a change in the mausoleum to send me out to investigate means something has changed here.”
“Sounds reasonable enough, but if we have to engage with the primal constructs, I’m going to take some of their parts. I’m not leaving empty handed when there are perfectly good mechanical parts in front of us, so I might as well grab what I can for Merhak’s maintenance from them.”
Alhaitham grunted quietly in agreement before peeking outside of the doorway, watching the pattern of the primal constructs, noticing a small lull in activity before gesturing for Kaveh to follow. Soon enough, the two were going through and hiding in various blindspots of the roaming automatons’ patrol. Whenever one of the patrolling constructs strayed away from the paths of others to come close and scan nearby them, the duo would swiftly attack and disable the light sensor it would use to scan before directly engaging, preventing it from sounding alarms to call over more sentries. Soon enough, they followed the swarm of constructs closer and closer to a domain entrance that looks as if it had just risen from the sands recently judging by the disturbed terrain around it. Strangely enough, the primal constructs only were patrolling up to the room’s doorway, while the hallway to the entrance of the domain room gate was clear of any activity.
“Looks like we may have found where the runes are located. Not surprising that they’d be hidden within a dormant domain.” Alhaitham calmly whispered before Kaveh rolled his eyes and quietly scoffed.
“Yeah, as well as an area where the primal constructs are constantly on patrol! There’s no chance we can just sneak by them or hide in a blindspot considering it’s one way, so how exactly do you suppose we get around?”
The scholar wasn’t at all perturbed by Kaveh’s statement, and instead looked a little smug. Oh Kaveh hated that look, because usually it meant Alhaitham had a plan and that the architect was going to hate it.
The architect never discounted Alhaitham’s abilities with his Dendro vision. After all, he was all about contemplation and calculations to ensure he didn’t waste time on executing his actions, but by the gods did Kaveh despise the teleportation involved in one of his skills. It’s fine whenever Alhaitham is just closing space and creating chisel mirrors for attacking enemies with, or using it to get the jump on an opponent with the element of surprise, but whenever he’s part of the teleportation involved, it always makes him nauseous. So here Kaveh was, hunched over against the wall, trying to ease the queasy feeling in his stomach and dizziness in his head, as Alhaitham is engrossed with the runes on the sealed domain.
“For how much you focus on contemplating before acting, you certainly didn’t think of the consequences here.” Kaveh hissed in his general direction, as his eyes were shut in order to try and prevent the room from spinning in his vision. Alhaitham simply gave a nonchalant hum of acknowledgement.
“Nausea is better than fighting an entire swarm of primal constructs at the very least. You’ll have to get over that soon, as it’s the only way we can return the way we came in from.” The scribe mused as Kaveh felt even sicker hearing that statement, half-tempted to just keel over and pass out until Alhaitham was done ruminating over the ancient script. Sadly, someone had to keep an eye out in case said automatons decided to change their patrol routine and look their way.
“Well, since there's nothing left to do but to wait on you, have you had any luck deciphering what script these ruins are in? C’mon, enlighten me.”
Alhaitham continued to cross-reference what he had on hand versus what was inscribed onto the domain's entrance panel. He noticed a pattern that kept popping up, but he wasn't sure what they even meant. “There's not a concrete script, but I’ve been able to decipher two words that consistently appear throughout the passages, AEON and PATH. There’s mention of an EMANATOR as well, but it has only been mentioned once or twice, so it relates to the prior two phrases yet it does not share as much importance in these passages.”
Aeon? Well, that certainly sounded like a high title, so they were likely the higher beings that were being honored within this domain. What Kaveh couldn’t make heads or tails of was whatever Path meant in this context (and certainly focusing on the matter at hand was better than thinking about how dizzy he actually was and how his stomach was betraying him for its own weakness). Thinking out loud was helpful for him, though Kaveh does know Alhaitham preferred silence, so the architect might as well bring back the mention of what could be an indication that these runes were indeed the one the scribe had come here for. “What about any mention of knowledge or wisdom? Or maybe something akin to the Dendro Lord mentioned there?” he openly questioned as Alhaitham seemed to be reading through a new section of the runes.
“And for a moment I thought you’d forgotten what I had mentioned earlier. It's nice to hear you remembered that at least. As for what I’ve found so far, I haven’t seen any direct mention of knowledge or wisdom thus far, but I’m not done transcribing yet…” he trailed off until something caught his interest mid-sentence. “Give me some more time. I think I've found something interesting here.” Alhaitham stated before dipping back into the ancient script.
By the sounds of scribbles and hums, it meant whatever Alhaitham saw had drawn him into a state of flow, meaning Kaveh wouldn’t have much conversation with him until after he was finished. Shame.
Sometime afterward, he could feel his headache coming back, but at least the room wasn’t spinning so much anymore, and if he had to stare at the primal constructs that were coming and going outside the room’s hallway, he’d feel sick all over again. Slowly, Kaveh got back up on his feet, still leaning against the wall for support and began to walk around the domain entrance room, looking for any kind of clues that could help with Alhaitham’s task.
The room was dimly lit by three chisel mirrors that had been created during their teleportation into the room, and Alhaitham thought it’d be a waste if he just immediately dismissed them instead of using them. Thankfully, maintaining them as just simple light sources took much less energy, so his roommate wasn’t wasting away like Kaveh was, with his head feeling like it would split in two. One of the dendro-created chisel mirrors hung around the top of the room, like one would hang a chandelier, while another hung around Alhaitham’s side as he continued to vigorously study the runes into a workable translation. The last had been floating gently beside Kaveh while he’d been resting against the wall, trying to steady himself after the teleport, and remained there.
Now that Kaveh was standing back up, he didn’t need it there anymore, thus he reached his hand out, pushing out a small pulse of dendro to guide it over to him. Like a magnet, it flew right over to his side to hang around him rather than where Alhaitham had stationed it. Once he confirmed that the small chisel mirror was attuned to his dendro energy for the time being, he slowly began to walk around and explore the room. There wasn’t much to it, however, as an architect, Kaveh couldn’t help but be drawn to some strange tiles that were added to the wall on both the left and right faces of the room. They were obviously accents to decorate the wall, but each tile held a different sort of carved out symbol, and yet they didn’t look like pictographs you could find in ancient scripts.
“There has to be some sort of purpose to these… Otherwise, what kind of loon would design a hidden domain entrance with these and just use them as decoration!?” Kaveh reasoned to himself before he impulsively pressed his hand onto one of the tiles, one that seemed to be a shield? Once his hand was pressed against the surface of it, nothing seemed to happen on his end, leaving Kaveh to let out a small sigh of disappointment. He had hoped that it would do something, but it's probably best that nothing actually happened. At worst, it could have been a way to set off a trap…
“Ngh-! Kaveh, what did you do?”
It did do something, but to Alhaitham?! Kaveh felt himself tense up as he turned around to face the scholar, afraid that the tile he pressed was indeed a trap and he had hurt his junior somehow. Thankfully, he didn’t appear to be hurt, but was instead surprised by some of the ancient inscriptions just glowing out of the blue!
Was that because Kaveh had touched the tile, but more importantly…!
“Wait, why do you assume it’s my fault?” The architect questioned as he walked back over to Alhaitham, who was using one of his hands to shield part of the light from his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. It wasn’t so bright as to blind the scholar, but it did just suddenly flash him while they’re in a dimly lit room with only three chisel mirrors as their main lightsource, so it’ll take a bit for his eyes to adjust.
“Kaveh, as much as I’ve been translating this, I haven’t laid a hand on the inscriptions themselves. I doubt they would suddenly light up after being examined for nearly an hour without being touched the entire time.” Alhaitham flatly answered as he blinked a few times, slowly removing his hand away from his eyes once they got used to the new light. “Now that’s interesting…”
“What’s interesting?”
Alhaitham pulled up his written rough translation of the ancient script to show Kaveh what he had been working on before he’d been interrupted by it lighting up right in front of his face. “PRESERVATION. That’s the word that lit up after you did something over by the wall.” he stated before looking back over to where Kaveh had originally been standing. “I want you to repeat whatever you did.”
“Huh-!! But why?!”
Alhaitham gave Kaveh a knowing smirk before he looked back at the sealed domain entrance. “Because you may have just given us the key to unsealing this domain.”
“Okay, so I’m going to press this one that resembles a wine cup in just a moment. Ready?”
“Mhm.”
Alhaitham braced himself for the sudden illumination of the olden script, quickly taking note of what word had begun glowing and then referencing it with his notes. “ELATION, I see...” he muttered before writing it down in the new section of his notes regarding the symbols and inscriptions. Kaveh silently noted that the notebook Alhaitham had brought with him for the expedition was almost full, maybe he could…
“I think with that, we've got our code.”
Alhaitham’s statement cuts Kaveh’s train of thought. Well, he’d deal with it later. For now, the architect walked away from the walls to examine the scribe's notes on what he had been assisting with. “Let me see it first before you start asking me to press those tiles again. I’d like to know what exactly we’re getting into.”
“By all means, be my guest.” The scholar nonchalantly offered as he passed along the notebook. Kaveh looked through the page and took in the notes that Alhaitham wrote, then frowned.
While there’s nothing wrong with just having written notes and general descriptions of the tile symbols, these notes were going to their archon! In Kaveh’s eyes, that meant they should include visual details as well! These expedition notes had to be perfect!
“You were just going to turn them in like that? Honestly Alhaitham, these are going to Lord Kusanali! It helps to provide some visual aids instead of just a description seeing as it's not very likely our Archon will be able to come and examine these herself. That’s why she sent you out here, after all.” Kaveh quipped before removing the feather in his hair to reveal the quill he always had on hand for any sudden ideas of inspiration and held it over the page. The feather hovered over the page, as Kaveh only planned to proceed if Alhaitham gave him permission.
“May I?”
Kaveh could see the faintest smirk as Alhaitham gave a slight nod in his direction. “You may.”
And with that, the architect began drawing out the symbols for each description the scholar had provided. Thanks to Alhaitham’s detailed descriptions, it made figuring out which symbol belonged to each passage a breeze. Soon enough, the notes now included the symbol, a brief description of the symbol, the original script and translation comparison for each passage. It did help actually seeing what each rune meant as he looked to where Alhaitham had been transcribing earlier. He could pinpoint where each specific translated rune was thanks to the scholar’s diligent work, and now the additional drawing could help simplify the decoding should the domain was to be opened once more by other scholars, if necessary of course!
Satisfied with his handiwork and the scribe’s notes completed to his degree of acceptance, Kaveh handed Alhaitham back the notebook and positioned himself back over by the tiles, ready to assist in solving the domain’s puzzle. Alhaitham gave him a slight nod of acknowledgement and in turn, readied himself with his notebook to read out the runes in order. The whole passage may not be fully translated just yet, but considering they were able to match each symbol to a rune, it should just be enough to satisfy the seal’s requirement.
Clearing his throat with a small cough, Alhaitham began to read out the ancient script, leaving a few moments in between for Kaveh to get over to each and press their corresponding symbol.
“Equilibrium. Voracity. Order. Permanence.”
One by one, the first passage of the entrance panel began to light up, but there were still five more sections to go.
“Preservation. Trailblaze.”
Second section is lit, four to go.
“Erudition. Elation.”
The third section is completed now, three to go.
“Propagation. Remembrance. Harmony. Enigmata.”
Another four runes lit up and the fourth passage was lit, with only two remaining.
“Abundance. Destruction. Beauty. Hunt.”
The final passage awaited them as the second to last section lit up.
“Nihility. Finality.”
All the runes with corresponding symbols were now lit. The pair watched in anticipation, eager to see if it had done the trick.
Slowly, they all began to flash in low intensity before beginning to flash brighter and brighter until light engulfed the room. Alhaitham stepped back to shield both his eyes and Kaveh’s eyes from the sudden illumination that filled the room. Loud cracks echoed inside the small chamber as the domain gate rose from the ground, the gate’s faint glow changing from red to blue, indicating the seal had been removed.
They had done it!
Once the light had died down and Alhaitham removed his hand from Kaveh’s eyes, the architect excitedly walked over to the fully revealed domain gate, and exclaimed in delight. “Haitham, look! We managed to reveal the domain!” he shouted before rushing straight back at the scribe, who panicked for a moment before catching the blonde and twirling him around to help disperse the inertia.
“We did it!” Kaveh repeated, equally as elated as his last shout until he noticed what Alhaitham was doing. Alhaitham was holding him, his hands were on Kaveh’s waist, the younger man had even spun him around. Kaveh felt his face warm up as he realized all this, thankfully the scribe was merciful enough to set him back on the ground and not say a thing. The architect didn’t even have the energy or heart to try and wipe the smirk off Alhaitham’s face as he was set back down, instead walking forward towards the domain gate.
Alhaitham, needing no further prompt than Kaveh’s actions, let out a small laugh hidden in a huff before following behind him. “Now then, let’s see just what kind of higher beings they were honoring here by building this domain.” he stated as the two of them stood at the doorway, and pushed the doors open, revealing the rift way into the domain.
The scribe and the architect glanced at each other, gave a slight nod in agreement, and stepped in together.
Upon immediately entering the domain, Kaveh and Alhaitham found themselves in a typical open dome Deshertian domain but what stuck out were the strange colored bubbles, various crystalline fragments hanging around in the air, and the fauna that seemed to be made of light. The bubbles and crystals floated around to and fro, simply existing within the domain as the domain’s layout was akin to a long walkway, with the end being a large fork in multiple paths out.
Kaveh gazed at the domain with wonder and awe, admiring the solemn beauty this deeply sealed domain held, but Alhaitham didn’t share the same sentiment. The scholar respected their surroundings, but kept cautious, there was a reason this domain was sealed away, and he didn’t want to risk any chance of forbidden knowledge escaping here, or worse, causing either of them to become ill with Eleazar as their archon had warned was a consequence of forbidden knowledge.
“Take my hand.” Alhaitham plainly stated, shattering the awestruck moment Kaveh had been experiencing just by taking in the area.
“W-What!! Why!?” the blonde asked, flapping about with exaggeration, albeit to hide the slight dusting of red on his cheeks. Just when he had been getting over that embarrassing moment earlier too!
The scribe was quiet, looking out to the strange domain they had entered before holding out his hand to his senior, concern etched over his neutral expression. “We don’t know what we’re walking into, Kaveh. This is uncharted territory to the highest degree. We’re in a domain lost to time that only our archon had sensed become active recently. She only sent me out here to study what could be found from some archaic script. Perhaps she knew I’d be able to decipher the puzzle here, or maybe she never foresaw this possibility of actually gaining entrance to this lost ruin. There’s a chance she was simply expecting my return with notes, observations and a hypothesis to break the seal in order to come back at a later time.” He disclosed before looking straight at Kaveh, their eyes meeting, and Alhaitham’s own wavered with fear and worry. If it weren't for how earnest Alhaitham sounded in his concerns, Kaveh would have turned away, because he felt he was undeserving of the genuine vulnerability Alhaitham had on display right now.
“Kaveh…I don't think she could have ever predicted you. We've made it this far because of our combined efforts to see this through. Now, I'd just like to ensure we both make it to the end of this expedition unharmed.”
Kaveh bit his lip, feeling a fluttery feeling welling up in his stomach as he glanced down at the outstretched hand. Whether it be a second wind of his nausea from earlier or an indescribable feeling he'd really like to not think about at this time, Kaveh pushed through it and reached out to take Alhaitham’s hand, entwining their fingers together as he took a deep breath in, then let it out.
“...Okay, lead the way then. I’d like to return home soon as well.”
Alhaitham’s body language was enough to show that he’d been relieved to hear his answer, soon enough, the two marched forward through the domain, occasionally squeezing onto the other’s hand as if to ensure their shared lifeline of the other was still there.
Despite Alhaitham’s warning, Kaveh found the mysterious domain all the more mesmerizing. The strange bubbles filled with cool toned colors, to the strange crystals that seemed to just hang around in the air, refracting the light into small rainbow specks that glittered around the domain. The two of them were careful not to touch anything as they walked along the straight walkway to the branching paths ahead, but somewhere along the midway point, Kaveh had an idea.
“Hold on for a moment, Alhaitham.”
The scholar obliged, stopping their pace momentarily as requested, all while giving Kaveh a questioning look. “Is something wrong?”
Shaking his head to lessen the other’s worries, the architect used his free hand to draw a modest amount of dendro energy to power on Merhak. Once the automated case was activated and aware of their surroundings, it unsheathed its generated face and greeted Kaveh with a few happy beeps. “It’s good to see you too, Merhak.” he greeted before looking back to Alhaitham with a slight grin. “I know you implied we should not touch or interact with anything here as a precaution, but what if we kept inside something from here inside an object that’s also made from Deshret era technology? Then we’d be able to take back samples to the Akademiya for later observation in a safe and controlled environment.”
The scribe pondered his suggestion, then hummed in agreement. “It could be worth exploring, but only by a limited amount. If nothing else, Lord Kusanali would be able to determine if it’s safe or not to continue expeditions here if she has something physical to examine. Remember, this domain was supposedly used to worship…”
“-higher entities. Yes, I can recall that quite clearly. I’ll be careful, okay?” Kaveh complained, feeling a little like he was being coddled by Alhaitham’s overly cautious approach, but his own pride wouldn’t let him so easily admit that the scribe was right.
Alhaitham seemed to ease up after hearing that, and gestured for the other to continue walking along. Kaveh followed along, now with Merhak flying by his side. The architect did instruct the automated toolbox to collect a small cluster of the crystalline fragments that hung in the air, a few small bubbles that hung near, and a few leaves of light that flew past them but nothing major yet.
Soon enough, they had made it to the end of the walkway and into the large crossroads leading down to deeper chambers of the domain with familiar symbols decorating each archway, yet one more thing awaited them there. An opaque multi-colored bubble hung at the center of the crossroads, the muddled colors within seeming to swirl around inside as if it held something. It was directly blocking the way, and they wouldn’t be able to proceed forward.
Alhaitham refused to move forward, and judging by the way Kaveh could feel dendro energy beginning to gather around them, he had an idea what the other was planning. Before the scribe could release the concentrated dendro energy to utilize in another teleportation burst (and bring back the inevitable nausea with it), Kaveh reached out for Merhak and triggered its storage mode to hide the murky bubble within the case. As it was buried away into the automated toolbox, a small burst of rainbow light flickered about before dying down, with Kaveh letting out a sigh of relief before Merhak let out a concerning beeping noise.
“Oh no…oh no, no, no, no, no! How did that manage to fill up your entire internal storage?!” Kaveh lamented as Merhak shakily returned to his side, falling right into his free hand to be held. Thankfully, while it was full from the inside, his suitcase companion wasn’t any heavier from the outside.
The obstacle had been removed, but Alhaitham did not look pleased as he dispelled the dendro energy, green particles of light shimmering in the air before it faded away.
“Kaveh, I had it handled. Why did you decide to take the very thing that was blocking our way along with us via Merhak, or was that just you being impulsive again and not think about the consequences?”
Kaveh frowned upon hearing Alhaitham’s unwarranted remark, pursing his lips together in a pout as he retorted back. “I did think about the consequences and I’d much rather prefer not being able to store anything else from here inside Merhak than be sick again in an unknown domain! I mean, Merhak running out of space internally wasn’t planned for, but that also means whatever was just packed away could be something big and substantial. Maybe it could even provide some answers on why this domain was even constructed in the first place!” He attempted to reason before he hoisted Merhak up by its handle, leading it to beep quietly as an indication of it going into standby mode.
“You and your idealism…” Alhaitham muttered under his breath, shaking his head before focusing back on the new objective at hand, venturing forward into one of the deeper chambers of the domain. Using his free hand, he reached for his side bag to pull out the notebook he had used earlier. “These archways for each chamber path all have one of the same symbols that we saw early on the mechanism used to hide this domain in the first place. There's a possibility that we'll have to go down each path in a specific order to reach the actual end of this domain, similar to how we had to activate each tile's symbol in order of their place in the entrance panel's description.” the scribe mused before noticing something about one of the branching chamber paths. “Kaveh, do you see the shield symbol faintly flashing as well?”
The architect was still miffed about their argument (but not upset enough to let go of the other's hand, it was his lifeline in this strange domain), but decided to glance over to the archway Alhaitham pointed out, and found himself at a similar conclusion. “Your eyes don't deceive you, Alhaitham… That symbol’s flashing. If I recall, you translated that one to Preservation, right?”
“That's correct. And what are you thinking, dear senior?”
Kaveh felt his cheeks flush hearing that tease, but he brushed it off and gave Alhaitham’s hand a small squeeze as he spoke his mind. “Well...I think only one of us should go down that chamber.”
He felt Alhaitham stiffen up at the proposal, so the architect was quick to back up his statement. “I'm only suggesting it so both of us don't get stuck there if it ends up being a trap! Also, whoever goes in can always yell for backup or help if it becomes necessary…” Kaveh trailed off as he tried to slip his hand away, signaling that he was willing to let go of his lifeline to not put the other at risk.
The scribe, however, had different plans, and kept his grip firm, refusing to budge. “And if I refuse this proposal?”
Kaveh felt stunned for a moment, but shook it off and let out a small laugh. “Then, I guess we're both fools…” he joked to himself before looking off to the path they'd go down, the chamber of Preservation. “Are you sure about this, Haitham? I can go in alone.”
“I'd rather teleport us again and have you nauseated enough for me to carry you out of here than hear that ridiculous suggestion again.” Alhaitham bluntly responded, giving the other a side eye, as if to call him foolish in the most non-verbal way possible. “Let’s continue forward and get to the bottom of this.”
The architect sighed as he saw another one of Alhaitham’s signature look of disapproval, but he brushed it off to continue marching onward. “Right. Down the Preservation chamber we go…”
There wasn’t anything that stood out much as they walked through the chamber’s corridor, aside from the occasional round, yellow crystals that decorated the floor, walls, and ceiling. They glittered from the light of the artificial torches inside the hallway, making the path seem all the more mystical. Internally, Kaveh wished that Merhak still had some space left so he could take a small sample of the yellow crystals, but what’s done is done. He’d just have to live with getting to experience this strange expedition.
Soon enough, the chamber finally led into an altar, where the yellow crystals were on full display around the room as four large columns at the corners of the room, and the amber tiles embedded to the walls. At the very back of the room was a large mural of an imposing stony structure(?) was etched into the back wall, with more ancient runes etched onto a decorative archway below it. However, what stood out most was the small figure that laid underneath a faintly flashing amber pedestal in the center of the room. Lying on top of the amber platform was a small blonde child, who appeared to be soaked to the bone and unconscious.
Both were in shock at the discovery of the strange shrine before them. While Alhaitham was theorizing whether this altar room was used for worship or sacrifice, Kaveh’s altruistic instincts kicked into overdrive as he used the distraction to pull away from Alhaitham and go to check on the child. Alhaitham barely noticed the absence of Kaveh’s presence, having been preoccupied by their surroundings, and only the sound of Kaveh’s voice was what broke him from his train of thought.
“-tham! Alhaitham! Stop standing around and help me! We need to get this kid out of here, they’re burning up!”
The scribe rushed over hearing the panic in Kaveh’s voice, gently pressing his hand onto the child’s forehead to confirm the quick diagnosis. It did appear they were running a mild fever, but at the very least, they were still alive seeing as the slight rising and falling from their chest. Even then, seeing how slow their breathing was didn’t give Alhaitham any peace of mind.
“Being in wet clothes doesn’t exactly help their condition either, so we’ll need to wrap them in a cloak or blanket. What doesn’t make sense to me is just how exactly are they so wet and cold? Did someone just leave them here to die?!” Kaveh rattled off as he pulled off his red scarf and wrapped the child as best as he could in it. “It’s not much, but maybe this can help…” he muttered to himself before moving to hoist the youngling into his arms, but the architect wasn’t able to carry the child and Merhak very easily. It’s not that they were heavy, his own claymore weighed far more, it’s just that his hands were full from both the child and his automated toolbox.
Thankfully Alhaitham stepped in and took Merhak from Kaveh’s struggling hands, allowing Kaveh to keep a firm grip on the boy to fully lift him from the flashing amber pedestal.
“Thank you.” the blonde quietly whispered to his companion, only receiving a quiet grunt back before hearing an odd scratching sound. Neither of them had noticed the flashing from the pedestal ceased the moment the boy had been lifted off for it, and barely registered that the pedestal was now lowering the ground. “Oh geez, now what?!”
By the time they had registered the pedestal was gone, the shrine room began to shake. Kaveh quickly tried to shield the child in his arms with his body, fearing the room would collapse on them, while Alhaitham moved to shield them both. Yet, the room did not collapse, but rather a hidden stairway revealed itself from the decorative archway under the large mural; the ancient runes inscribed to the archway were glowing in a soft golden light.
Once the shaking ceased and finding that the room was still intact with a new passage, Alhaitham eased up his protective stance and lightly shook Kaveh’s shoulder to let him know they were both okay. “It’s over now. There’s only one substantial difference to this altar room now, and it’s possibly an exit out of here.”
Kaveh uncurled himself from the child at the physical contact, getting the idea that nothing major had happened, yet the idea that a way out of this very unnerving domain was right in front of them had his attention immediately. “An exit? Then what are we waiting for! I think we have done more than enough exploring and sample collection here. Not to mention, we’re on a bit of a time crunch!” the blonde insisted as he tried to emphasize the sick child he was currently carrying, and his desire to not let their condition deteriorate until it was too late.
Alhaitham rolled his eyes, once again a witness to Kaveh’s impulsive decisions whenever his altruism was involved, but relented and walked towards the archway. He glanced up at the imposing mural of the strange rock creature, then out to the mysterious stairway out of the chamber that had appeared after taking the sick child from the pedestal. The gears in Alhaitham’s head spun, trying to put together whatever may be going on with this domain, but they didn’t have enough substantial evidence at this time.
He quietly contemplated the possibility before them, the anomaly in this domain. “Then maybe that child could…no that wouldn’t work. They’re too ill to answer any questions at this time. I’d need to wait until we’re back in Sumeru City and they’re cleared by Birmarstan. Then comes the matter of the Matra, they’ll undeniably open an investigation the minute we report a child found alone and sick in one of Deshret’s temples.” Just as hastily as he discarded that thought, a new idea came to Alhaitham’s mind. “Hmm…if it comes to the question of guardianship during the investigation, perhaps Nahida could help sway it in my favor. It would be simple to monitor them and see if they have any ideas about what may have happened to them here. Not to mention, Kaveh gets along with people easily, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to open up about their circumstances.” The scribe triumphantly proposed to himself, before moving past the mural and entering the staircase.
With caution, Alhaitham began to climb the staircase, torches automatically illuminating his path with each step he took. So far, nothing seemed dangerous, and he could even see a glint of light at the end of the corridor. Still, it would be a long climb and he wanted to run one more test. Calling forth a small amount of Dendro from his vision, he formed a single chisel mirror. With a steady aim, the scribe sent the chisel mirror forward, having it bounce against the surface of each wall of the stairwell to see if there were any pressure sensitive traps. When he felt the connection of the chisel mirror naturally taper off, Alhaitham deemed it safe enough to allow Kaveh to enter.
“No traps as far as I can see. Follow, but stay behind me.” he strongly advised, checking back just to see the blonde peeking in first to see him before starting to catch up.
Once Kaveh was directly behind him, the two began their way up the stairwell, as light greeted them at the end of it. Once they had reached the archway greeting them out of the stairwell, they found themselves directly back at the entrance hall of King Deshert's Mausoleum.
“What a stroke of good luck! Be sure to note that down for your expedition report, Alhaitham. It'll be good for any other Akademiya sponsored excursions that may come to study that strange domain in the future.” Kaveh commented as they both began to pick up their pace now that they were somewhere familiar. The scribe only offered a small hum to acknowledge Kaveh’s idea, but he was more focused on getting his cloak on to brace himself once more for the desert weather outside the temple. Once the two were dressed to brave the heat and sand outside of the temple, with the small child decently wrapped to protect from the weather while in Kaveh’s arms, they bid farewell to the ruins of Deshret's time, and exited the mausoleum.
Once outside, they secured their Sumpter Beast, made sure it was unharmed, fed and ready for the trip back. As Alhaitham secured their supplies and personal belongings onto the Sumpter Beast’s saddlebags, he glanced at Kaveh, who was trying to whisper reassurances and prayers to their archon for the unconscious and ill child they found. It would slow them down if Kaveh was carrying them the entire time due to the extra weight and energy he’d be expending, and they had used up half of their supplies up to this point, so the Sumpter Beast’s load had significantly lightened.
“Kaveh, I’d like you to ride the Sumpter Beast back with the child.”
Before Kaveh had a chance to even react (and inevitably complain), Alhaitham continued his statement to explain his reasoning. “It will be faster if you both are on the Sumpter Beast, as they can’t exactly hold the reins while unconscious. You can also monitor their condition so we can plan our stops accordingly. I plan for us to stop at Aaru Village briefly, if only to get medicine to lessen their fever and chills. We can have a doctor from Birmarstan fully examine them once we’re back in Sumeru City.”
The architect stopped whatever he was going to say and let out a large sigh. It was a reasonable request, and he wouldn’t argue about it this time, but he also wasn’t just going to let Alhaitham neglect his own health like that! “I have no problems staying on the Sumpter Beast for now, but the minute we take a short break, we switch. I can’t have you tiring out on me just because you insist on acting tough.” Kaveh commented as he secured the child up on the Sumpter beast first before climbing on himself.
Alhaitham decided to not open his mouth and comment any further on their agreement, as any mention of “Kaveh” and “liability” would infuriate the blonde and create a miscommunication between the two of them, so he instead only let out a small hum of agreement. He didn’t like it; the breaks would be enough for him to rest and continue a steady pace, but at least this way they could both avoid blisters on their feet from treading in the desert for long periods of time.
Once Kaveh was settled on the saddle on the Sumpter Beast with one hand wrapped to keep the child close to their side and the other to keep hold onto the reins of their ride, Alhaitham took hold of the lead rope and they set off on their way to Aaru Village.