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A fist slammed into the wall by his head.
Fractured pieces of slate bounced off of his shoulders as Kaveh dropped into a crouch. Ducking to the side, he grabbed his claymore and slashed. The blade cut through the air. Silver flashed in response. It cracked against his own claymore. A dagger. Smaller, lighter, still with a stupid amount of strength behind it. The man leering above him grinned.
Scowling at him, Kaveh twisted and rammed his shoulder into the man’s stomach. The dagger fell. Come on, come on! We need to finish this, Kaveh! He didn’t dare glance in Alhaitham’s direction, didn’t dare take his eyes from the man in front of him. Dodging another strike, he rolled to the left. Fighting was an art really, just like architecture. Feint left. Duck right. Strike to the middle. Block a blow, duck beneath the right hook and send one of his own into the man’s jaw.
Shaking his hand out, Kaveh side-stepped another potshot at his face. His claymore could only do so much. The man didn’t seem to care. He was big, he was brawny, he probably outclassed Kaveh by a good thirty years of experience. Short gray hair, dark brown eyes, lined skin tanned from years of working outside. He was a powerful guy, really. Kaveh could respect that.
However, he was also keeping Kaveh from getting Alhaitham somewhere he could get treatment. That part, he couldn’t respect. Alhaitham needed help. A lot of help. Kaveh needed to get him to that help.
To do that, Kaveh needed to get this guy out of the way.
Dropping down, Kaveh lunged in again. A thick hand wrapped around his neck. Choking, he kicked the man’s knee. Nothing happened. No. No, no, that’s not—this is not how this is going to go!
Calling on his Vision, on Kusanali, on whatever and any and every Archon who was listening, Kaveh gritted his teeth. He felt…something. A burst of Dendro at his left hip. The energy spiraled through his veins, up his side and down into his fingers. Reaching up, he locked a hand around the man’s wrist. Their eyes met. The man grinned wickedly.
“What is that going to do? You’re going to try and make me feel bad?” He asked, laughing softly. Holding his gaze, Kaveh rasped in a breath. It hitched, locked in his throat. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t quite inhale properly. Dimly, he heard Alhaitham rasping for air. His breathing was ragged, too. He was struggling.
Kaveh needed to get him out of there.
Taking a slow breath, Kaveh tightened his fingers around the man’s wrist. “You’re going to put—me—down. Now.” He rasped out the last words. It hurt. It hurt bad. He couldn’t pull any more air in.
“Or what?”
Sucking in what little air he could, Kaveh tightened his fingers. His Vision flared in response. It answered him. Little orbs of Dendro were swelling in the air around them, flickering to life. They sparked and brightened. Kaveh didn’t even glance in their direction. Instead, he grinned at the man holding him. Dropping his claymore, letting it dissolve into his Vision, Kaveh lifted his other hand.
Slapping his hands down on the man’s wrist, Kaveh said, “I’m going to do this.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, he pulled. Dendro struck out across the ground, across his skin, across the man. There was a sharp shout. His heart thundered in his chest.
The world went bright, bright green, almost white.
When he woke, he was lying on the ground. The man was lying a few feet away. Jet black, vine-like tattoos wound their way across his skin. They were burned in. Staring at him, Kaveh panted. I killed him. Holy Archons above, I just killed him. Without even using my claymore. That’s—
Alhaitham wheezed. Alhaitham. Swearing, Kaveh staggered to his feet. He stumbled his way over to the man. There was blood pooling around him. Alhaitham’s blood. Eyes closed, chest heaving, Alhaitham let out a groan. His lips were barely parted. Blood dripped down the side of his face, from the corner of his mouth. From his nose. Cupping his face, Kaveh gasped. Whimpered, actually. He wouldn’t deny it. Under his fingers, Alhaitham’s skin was cold. Clammy. No, no. Please. Please, don’t—
“Don’t leave me, Haitham.” A glance at Alhaitham’s Vision, where it had fallen to the wayside—it was flickering. No. No, please. “You can’t do this to me.”
His eyes were watering.
Alhaitham’s breathing was ragged.
His own Vision was bright, shining.
Bracing a hand over it, Kaveh paused. Frowned. His eyes went back to Alhaitham, lying beneath him. Once, Alhaitham and Tighnari had mentioned something. Something about Visions. They had been talking with the Traveler. Trying to figure out how the Archon Statues healed, it was something about…life energy. But…Dendro is life energy, isn’t it? Plants. Or are all Visions energy?
He'd heard of Electro being used to stimulate someone’s heartbeat before. But Dendro…with someone’s heart when they weren’t dead yet, but close—
Wait.
I know what to do.
Taking a breath, Kaveh closed his eyes. He’d done research before, too. On this subject. Dendro could be used to help, he just needed…he needed to reach. Alright, Kaveh. Breathe. Just breathe—
He placed one hand on Alhaitham’s neck, over his pulse point. There wasn’t anything there, silence where there had been a fluttering pulse only a second before. Not this time, sweetheart. I swore to you that I was going to do anything I could to protect you.
It’d been a quiet ceremony. Something out of public eye. It happened officially not too long after Kaveh ended up back in their shared house. It was Alhaitham’s on the paperwork. It was both of theirs. They knew that much.
Alhaitham swore it had been for tax reasons.
Kaveh still swore himself anyways.
He knew Alhaitham meant the same, he just didn’t need to have it written down.
Let me do this for you, he thought. In his chest, his heart started thundering, louder and faster and harder than it ever had before. His ribs squeezed, seizing around his lungs and heart. Gritting his teeth, clenching his jaw, Kaveh gasped in another breath. His throat hurt. His sternum hurt. Everything—hurt.
Come on, Alhaitham. Something in his chest buckled. There was copper in his mouth, flooding over his tongue. His breathing had gone ragged, too. Come on. His teeth ached, if he clenched his jaw any tighter then it they would crack. I can’t.
You have to.
Come on, Alhaitham. Wake up! He pleaded. Tears running down his face, he stared at Alhaitham’s own closed eyes. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing. Sucking in a breath, he rasped out, “Please. Alhaitham. Come on. Please. For me?”
His other hand settled on his Vision. Taking a slow breath, Kaveh squeezed his eyes shut again, tighter. His stomach did a flip. Everything went green at the edges.
The pain started slow. It dug its claws into his chest, slowly. Sharper fingers dug into his heart, his lungs, his ribs. They sank deeper and deeper, curling up like…like thorns. Okay, Kaveh. It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re okay.
It hurt.
The thorns drove deeper into his chest. Holding his hands where they were, Kaveh squeezed his eyes shut. Don’t let go. “It’ll be okay, Alhaitham. I—promise."
The world went green.
“Alhaitham? Kaveh?”
Tighnari glanced around the room, then back at Cyno. They’d known as soon as Alhaitham and Kaveh didn’t return from their day trip that something was wrong. When they followed their last known location, they found nothing good. Blood. Broken walls. Broken everything, really.
“This isn’t good,” Tighnari said to Cyno, ducking further into the cave. Room. Whatever it was, he didn’t care. It didn’t even really matter, either. He just needed to find his friends--
“Tighnari.” Cyno knelt by something. Darting to his side, Tighnari reached out. “Is this a vine?”
“I think—” Running his hand over it, Tighnari blinked and pulled back. His Vision flickered brighter. Glancing at Cyno, he grimaced. “We need to find them. Now.”
“Right, on it.” Standing up, Cyno glanced around. Tighnari remained to study the plant in front of him. His fingers brushed the ground around it. The plant was definitely Dendro-made, but the colors…it was almost wrong. The green was too reddened. The thorns were too sharp. So much of it was just the wrong color, the wrong shade, even the wrong smell.
Standing up, Tighnari glanced around. “Cyno, I think this is Kaveh’s work, but something’s…wrong. It’s got that sort of aftertaste?” He waved a hand through the air. “I don’t know what exactly it is. Just…something, I suppose. It doesn’t matter. The Dendro is sloppy and something’s wrong. It’s like he’s…in pain.”
Both of them exchanged another look.
Gritting his teeth, Tighnari glanced around. Cyno followed his gaze. “The Dendro is thicker over here. Come on, this is probably where they were earlier. We’ll follow the Dendro to the epicenter. Find them there. Sounds right?”
“Should be.” Glancing at the vines again, Tighnari raised a hand to his mouth, biting his knuckle. “I have a bad feeling about this. Stay close.”
“Always.”
The two of them ducked through a variety of caves. As they went, the vines grew thicker. The air grew thicker, too. Tighnari could smell the Dendro, taste it almost. Around them, the air began to grow humid, damp, like Avidya Forest after a fresh rain.
They ducked into another cave. Around them, the vines had grown large. Huge, actually. The smallest ones were as thick around as Tighnari’s thigh, with the bigger ones dwarfing some of the trees he had seen in Avidya. Swallowing, he exchanged another glance with Cyno.
Something caught Cyno’s gaze. Eyes widening, he whipped around. Something green caught in his eyes, turning them an odd shade of brown. “Nari?” He started.
“What?” Cyno tilted his head towards the rest of the cave.
“I think we found Kaveh and Alhaitham.”
The house was burning.
“Alhaitham? Alhaitham! Where are you?” Kaveh rushed into his old bedroom, his and Alhaitham’s room, the bathroom—where was he? “Alhaitham?!”
The world was on fire. Panting, coughing, Kaveh choked on the smoke. He grabbed the edge of his cloak. Holding it over his nose, he glanced around again. Thick, dark green smoke poured over their furniture. The paintings were burning. The windows were cracked. The rug beneath his feet was going up in flames. Green flames.
Wait.
Why was the fire green?
Reaching out on impulse, Kaveh brushed his fingers against it. His hand caught flame. With a gasp, he yanked back. The fire didn’t go out. Even when he shook his hand, stumbling back, Kaveh could only watch as his skin continued to burn.
It…it didn’t hurt.
Somehow.
Transfixed, Kaveh watched as the fire licked over his fingers, across the backs of his knuckles, down his hand to his wrist and then slowly up his arm. The thick smell of petrichor filled the air. He tilted his hand from one side to the other, curious.
The flames continued to roll up his side, his shoulders, settling into his blood. Huh. “Kaveh!” That wasn’t—
“Tighnari?”
Kaveh turned to look. There wasn’t anyone there. No, of course there wasn’t anyone there, he was—he was alone. No, he wasn’t—he was looking for—
Alhaitham.
Where was Alhaitham?
“…haith…am…”
Tighnari sat at Kaveh’s side, wiping down his friend’s forehead with a damp towel. Tossing his head to the side, Kaveh whimpered. His skin was fever-bright, lips bitten raw and swollen. Panting, Kaveh kicked against the bed. Kaveh, you fool, what have you done?
Kaveh had always been a little pale for someone from Sumeru. His mother’s Fontainian blood, likely. Now, though, he looked almost gray in color.
He’d been sick for days. Alhaitham had woken up earlier, asked where Kaveh was, and then passed out in Cyno’s arms as the man tried to get him back into bed. As for Kaveh…nothing. He was still sick, still unconscious, still…Archons, Kaveh, what did you do to yourself?
He could only guess the answer. Though, with all honesty, Tighnari would wager that Kaveh tapped into his Vision, used it to save Alhaitham, because Alhaitham showed signs of his own that were all too telling. Kaveh had drawn on something he shouldn’t have. He was just paying the price for it.
Brushing Kaveh’s hair from his face, Tighnari stared down at him. Was it worth it, Kaveh? Is destroying yourself for your friends worth it to you? Is killing yourself worth it, if you save someone else?
On the bed, Kaveh didn’t answer. How could he, when he’d drained himself of everything? They would be lucky if he survived…
With another sigh, Tighnari turned to wet the cloth in his hands, then went back to wipe down Kaveh’s forehead again.
When Kaveh woke, his husband was sitting at his side, holding his hand.
Cracking a weak smile, thankful that someone—Tighnari, probably, because Alhaitham would usually let him suffer the consequences of his own actions—had dripped enough water down his throat that he could talk, Kaveh mumbled, “Hey, Haitham.”
“You are a fool.” Alhaitham said.
Glancing down, Kaveh pointed out, “And you’re still holding my hand.”
Alhaitham’s fingers intertwined with his tighter. He opened his mouth. Of course, Kaveh wasn’t expecting anything sappy, or sympathetic. He didn’t get that, either. “You could have killed yourself. Your selflessness is becoming a problem, Kaveh. First sacrificing your water to foxes in the desert, and now this? You’re going to cause yourself too much harm one day. Do you realize that?”
Both of them went quiet. Alhaitham looked at him. With a sigh, Kaveh set his free arm over his stomach. He stared at the other wall. “I know, Alhaitham. I…I’ll work on it.”
Alhaitham pressed a kiss to the back of his knuckles. Blinking, Kaveh turned to look at him. There was a soft smile on his husband’s face. “We will work on it.”
Kaveh smiled at him.