Chapter Text
“Lord Kusanali and the General are having tea in her sanctuary, sir,” the woman at the entrance to the Sanctuary that had once been used to keep their archon prisoner, told Al Haitham as he walked past her. Now, it was Nahida’s personal room to use as she pleased. A workshop, bedroom, study, meeting hall- it truly was a jack of all trades.
“Thank you… what’s your name again?” Al Haitham had been told it before, but she was a quiet girl who kept her head down, so it had never had reason to come up again. That’s why she had been assigned the arduous task of guarding their archon’s door. Literally so unremarkable yet capable that Cyno nor him had found anything that made her suspicious or untrustworthy.
“Ashari,” she told him with a perk to her stance. “Sir!”
“Well, I’ll be sure to remember next time, Ashari,” Al Haitham told her plainly, opening the door and closing it behind him.
“Ah, Grand Scribe! Come, we have tea, and my General brought cookies!” Nahida gave him a warm smile, swinging happily from her swing as if she truly was just a happy little girl having a tea party with friends, rather than an archon having a meeting with two of her most powerful people.
“Oh, did he now? Surely that could be considered bribing his archon?” Al Haitham asked as he took a seat beside her. She gave him a cup of tea, comically large in her hands, and a plate of the cookies that Cyno had brought. Shortbread, from Mondstadt. A rather expensive treat, considering no bakery in Sumeru he knew of had them in their stock.
“Amber sent Collei a recipe, and she of course had to try her hand at making them,” Cyno explained as he seen Al Haitham’s quizzical expression, “Lord Kusanali has never seen a shortbread before, so I figured she would enjoy some.”
“They are quite good,” Al Haitham said as he took a bite, “tell Collei she is a good baker. Kaveh could never .”
“She’ll be happy you enjoyed it,” Cyno told him, smiling fondly at the mere thought of the girl. Honestly, Al Haitham thought it was a bit silly, how much he was a girl dad , as Kaveh said. Indulgent of every one of Collei or Nahida’s whims, always ready to do whatever it took to see ‘his girls’ smile.
“Well, as good as these cookies are, they aren’t the reason I called this meeting. Al Haitham, the General Mahamatra and I have decided to reopen a couple of the cases that we have deemed to be ‘suspicious’, that were closed before he became the General, and before we overthrew the sages’ corruption. There are a couple that just do not sit right with us, for several reasons,” Nahida made a sour face, setting down her teacup.
“Alright,” Al Haitham took a sip of his own tea. It was a tea Kaveh had sent the archon, he realized, recognizing the flavor as the mint and rose tea that Kaveh enjoyed at home. Had the archon somehow known he also enjoyed it every now and then? “If you feel the need to reinvestigate, it is not within my right as Scribe to stop you.”
He looked over the two files on the table, having not noticed them before. One had a name he did not recognize, probably from long before any of the people he knew had even stepped foot in the Akademiya, but one had names he knew achingly well.
“Why is one of them my parents’ death? Their death was ruled an accident, everyone agreed,” he asked slowly. He had known the Akademiya kept files of all the scholars who passed while working for it, regardless of circumstances, but he had never had the opportunity to read through what they had found surrounding his parents’. Nor had he ever found the courage to.
“Al Haitham, I know this is uncomfortable, and you were young when it happened, but the more Nahida and I read, the more it just didn’t add up . Your mother was a Vahumana scholar, your father Haravatat like you. She translated poetry, history, and all he did was approve research projects and do presentations if the professor he worked for couldn’t make it. Neither of them worked with anything that could have caused a lab fire . The fire started from inside the lab, but neither of your parents had any smoke in their lungs. Don’t victims who die of fire have smoke inhalation?” Cyno asked, “and why would they be conducting dangerous experiments, knowing that it could result in the orphaning of their son?”
Al Haitham sat, in shocked silence, as Cyno gave him a hard, slightly pleading stare. He was right . It didn’t add up. Haravatat didn’t work with elemental energy as Spantamad did, and Vahumana was more historical contents and translating ancient forgotten works. And the smoke inhalation… Cyno was right. Even without knowing how smoke inhalation worked, logic dictated that if his parents had been alive at the time the fire starting, they would have inhaled at least a small amount of smoke.
“Al Haitham, why are you crying?” Nahida asked gently, floating up to be eye level with him. Her small, cool hands gently grasped his face, eyes shining with concern. “Why are you so sad?”
“You just told me my parents’ could have been murdered ,” he whispered, “I am sad because I don’t want it to be so. My- my parents were kind people, they didn’t have enemies, who could have hated them so much to want them dead? To- to subject me to a life without my family?”
“I don’t know,” Nahida whispered softly, “but the general and I will work to find out who could do such a thing. I personally believe that it was not an accident. We will see justice for them. Your parents will see their son get the justice and closure that they did not.”
“Nahida is right, I, as General Mahamatra, will do all that I can to seek justice for those who have been wronged, living or dead. Should there be a deviance in the records of the law, their sins shall be brought before the scales and shall weigh upon their soul in the judgment chamber of the divine.”
Cyno spoke with a slight echo to his voice, his eyes coated in a violet glaze. He was not speaking as just his friend, or the General Mahamatra. He was speaking as a vessel of the divine himself, the god who dwelled inside his body would deliver justice, however cruel.
“Go home, Al Haitham, enjoy your supper and dreams. We will update you if we find anything,” Nahida told him kindly, “try not to dwell on anything too much.”