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Aventurine had never really liked when meetings would be held in Snezhnaya, the region was far too cold for his liking, despite having grown up in the deserts of Sumeru, where the temperature could vary wildly depending on whether it was day or night. Even with all ten of them huddled into the crowded room, it was still extremely cold. Aventurine pulled his coat closer around his small frame as Opal took his place at the head of the table, Diamond standing off to the side, silent. Aventurine watched silently as Opal gave everyone their missions to go and do. Jade’s fingers gently stroked the lethargic purple snake wrapped around her arm and neck, and Aventurine noticed her gaze fall onto him. “And what of the little Stratagem?” She hummed. “What are your plans for him? Surely he doesn’t get to sit out the negotiations this time?”
“Aventurine has been tasked with getting the Sumeru Akademiya on our side,” was the reply and Aventurine blinked, before smirking to himself. So, he had to get that horribly corrupt institution to bend? Should be fairly easy. He didn’t even think he’d have to bet on a particular outcome of victory. There’d be nothing to gamble, really. “I’m sure he’ll have no trouble.” Jade’s eyes once again found Aventurine and she smiled.
“I’m sure he’ll do just fine,” she agreed. “It is his homeland, after all. Isn’t that right?” Her gaze travelled over to the snake wrapped around her shoulders, and it weakly lifted its head. Aventurine watched quietly as its pink eyes seemed to lock onto him. However, the snake just then lowered its head and Jade tutted. “Don’t worry, you’ll be warm soon enough.”
“So, Aventurine, your mission is to convince the Akademiya to work with us, do you think you can do that?” Aventurine smirked up at them and bowed.
“Should be no trouble at all,” he replied and then left the room.
~~~~~
Aventurine found himself eying the massive tree wherein the Akademiya was held along with the rest of Sumeru City. He’d never set foot in the jungle regions before. The most he’d heard of it being stories from his mother and sister- A spike of pain shot into his heart that he quickly pushed down. That was long in the past anyways. He distracted himself with looking at the branches of the gigantic tree. How a tree could support an entire city, he didn’t know, but it must’ve been through some brilliant architect or three. Either way, he began his trek into the city.
Something that became immediately obvious to him is that one could quite easily become lost in this massive city, if you didn’t already know your way around. Getting a little distracted, Aventurine looked around the various different shops. Various different trinkets and such were being sold and Aventurine felt tempted to buy something. Simply as a souvenir, really, but he held himself back. He didn’t want to gamble on the idea of this slight distraction, and miss his opportunity to actually get to the Akademiya. He straightened up and noticed a man talking to a woman off to the side, they were discussing something architecture related, it seemed like, and the man was getting increasingly frustrated, which couldn’t be good in his old age. Aventurine simply smirked to himself and ignored them, remembering his mission to get to the Akademiya.
Aventurine eventually found the correct path to the actual Akademiya and one thing he immediately noticed were the random statues placed everywhere on the pathway, or at least, on the parts where it made practical sense. He walked over to one of these statues. They appeared to be of the various alumni of various different courses. He looked at the bottom of every statue, and etched into the stone was a message related to the said alumni. Aventurine smirked to himself
And he thought he was self-important.
The Akademiya was clearly way too invested into their own accomplishments, if they were consistently making this poor sculptor sculpt every damned alumni they had. The sculpture he was currently looking at resembled the old man from earlier, just, with much younger features to the point he looked almost handsome. Though, he wouldn’t have exactly been Aventurine’s type if they were the same age. He then let his eyes to fall to the message for the old architect. Hm, ‘Light of Kshahrewar’? Wow, the Akademiya really wasn’t hiding their self-importance, huh? Now fully distracted away from his actual mission, Aventurine waltzed over to the statue nearby.
This statue was much more Aventurine’s type, he thought with a smirk. Like the ‘Light of Kshahrewar’ statue, this one depicted the subject as much younger than he probably was in reality, seeing as the message engraved in this one was: ‘The Akademiya’s Worst Enemy’. Aventurine chuckled, clearly this phrase was the sculptor’s doing. That, or it’d been vandalized, one of the two. But either way, this statue revealed the alumnus’ identity by just that.
Yes, of course, Aventurine had heard about the ‘infamous’ Alhaitham. One of the ones who’d uprooted the Akademiya all those years ago? The Akademiya would never have approved this petty a nickname, so clearly this had been an inside job. Aventurine smiled genuinely at the fact that the sculptor’s gamble had clearly paid off. Aventurine returned his gaze to the statue’s head. If this statue was depicting Alhaitham, then the ‘Light of Kshahrewar’ statue must be depicting Kaveh. He’d heard many rumours surrounding the two, mainly that one day they just started walking around with a ‘son’ and only a few seemed to know the true origin of the child. Suddenly, Aventurine felt something slithering up his leg and he looked down.
A purple snake, not unlike the one Jade had, was staring at him, its pink eyes glowing. Its eyes seemed to be reminding him that he had an actual job to do.
“Ah, right, I’m meant to be doing something,” he said out loud to himself, and the snake, and the snake uncurled itself and disappeared into the bushes. “I swear she’s watching me,” he mumbled and he started walking into the actual building. There were two other statues near the entrance, but he ignored them to enter. He looked around once inside, trying to find any staff member that he could talk to, to negotiate with, when his eyes landed on the statue smack bang in the middle of the foyer.
Aventurine could swear his heart skipped a beat.
This statue was not unlike Alhaitham’s outside. It had the same muscular build, the hooked nose, it even had the furrowed brows of the Alhaitham statue, but this statue was different, the jawline was more angled, and its hair came out in waves.
If Alhaitham’s statue was attractive, whoever this statue depicted was handsome.
Aventurine was then suddenly pushed to the floor and a claymore resembling a pillar pushed against his throat. Blinking, he looked upward. The man above him, towered over him, even if he was hunched over. His eyes were cold and glaring at him, though the claymore was blunt, as Aventurine could feel that it wasn’t poking through his skin. When the man spoke, it was deep and somewhat regal, almost like despite his strength, the man was nary more than a scholar. “State what business you have here at the Akademiya, Jester.” Aventurine had temporarily forgotten that to most that’s all he was, The Jester. Either that or Aventurine. Never Kakavasha. Aventurine smirked when he witnessed that on the ‘Akademiya’, the man’s eyes narrowed seemingly involuntarily.
“Well, well, I certainly didn’t think we’d end up in this position,” Aventurine commented, now eying the claymore placed somewhat gently on his neck, smirking. The man was holding himself back, and Aventurine saw the opportunity. He grabbed the claymore from his end and placed it closer to his neck. “Go ahead, kill me. One less scourge on the world, huh? The other Harbingers will find a new Jester anyways. Or better, they’d even disband. I know you want to do it, so, kill me.” Aventurine smirked wider when the man attempted to pull the claymore back, and simply pulled it back towards himself. “What’s wrong? Can’t do it?” Chances are, he wouldn’t do it, in fact Aventurine was betting on it, as this man was quite attractive. The man sighed and pulled the claymore away with more strength than Aventurine could even muster, and then the Geo Vision on the man’s hip was visible as well
So he’s also a Vision holder…
“It’d be dishonorable to, plus the scholars of the Akademiya would not want blood on their pristine flooring, though, you may have already dirtied it with mud,” the man almost smirked, but he placed his hand on his mouth to hide it. “But, you still haven’t answered my question, Jester, what business do you have here?” He was once again glaring at him. Aventurine, avoided the question.
“You don’t seem to like the Akademiya much, huh?” Aventurine commented, picking himself up off of the floor, and brushing the strange white dust off of him. “What the-“
“Stone dust, I had been working before I came here,” the man said, gesturing to the statue behind them. “But then you appeared and you usually have ulterior motives. So, Jester, why are you here?” Aventurine simply looked between the man and the statue and so on.
“You made this?” The question was genuine, as Aventurine was genuinely impressed. The man looked away, seemingly embarrassed. “That’s… impressive.”
“I suppose it is,” his tone was guarded, and Aventurine understood completely why, but he was absolutely, genuinely impressed and curious. A scholar, a muscled scholar, likes sculpting? He felt himself smile genuinely, but he then felt a specific slithering sensation up his leg. “But really, Jester, why are you here?”
“Was that message on Alhaitham’s statue your doing? That was brilliant! You really got them with that petty comment. How did you get it past them?” Aventurine didn’t even care that Jade’s snake was eying him right at that moment. The man didn’t seem to notice the snake either. The man blinked and a slightly awkward smile found itself on his face. For someone so stonefaced, Aventurine thought his smile was adorable.
“It was me and my father’s idea. We don’t approve of the Akademiya’s methods. They start sending out notices for joining as soon as gifted children turn four. Meanwhile, children at four have barely started to get the concept of learning. In other words, the Akademiya basically exploits children rather than actually teaching them anything. If anyone is to blame for the idiocy prevalent in the world, I’d blame them. My fathers held off as long as they could, until the Akademiya started threatening legal action. I do not know much of my father’s escapades before I came into being, but he’s overthrown them once. But, you’re not here for that, you’re here to get them on the side of the Fatui.” The man narrowed his eyes. “I may be mundane but I’m not an idiot, Jester.”
“Wait, you’re Alhaitham’s son?” Aventurine defaulted instead of worrying that he’d found him out without actually doing anything. The man simply stood back and gestured towards the statue.
“Dr. Veritas Ratio. Or if you’d prefer titles, ‘The Light of The Akademiya’. But titles are needless follies anyways, my parents don’t go by theirs anyways.” Aventurine blinked, Jade’s snake was still around his leg, but he’d completely forgotten about the mission. Aventurine smirked however.
“‘Light of The Akademiya’, huh? They really weren’t hiding anything there now were they?” Veritas looked at him.
“I’m a once in a lifetime exception, of course they’re going to make that known. The Akademiya has never known how to be humble.”