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When Kaveh first joined the Fatui, he had only heard of visions in stories told by his mother and father at night to coax him into sleep. The idea of a vision wielder was mystical in his head; a human capable of bending the elements to their will, sounds like something out of a storybook. He didn't long for a vision; he thought that someone like him did not deserve one. He killed his father; it was only right that he was left in the Fatui's care.
That was until he met Ajax, a beautiful boy with a bright smile and fluffy orange hair, his face dotted with freckles. Ajax was like someone straight out of mothers' stories, he thought, a warrior great with weapons even at the age of 14. A week after they became friends, they were sitting in the bunk beds together, and Ajax pulled out his vision, using it to form water into animals that danced around in front of him. Kaveh's eyes lit up, and that was when he began to long for a vision.
It was only a month later that his wish would come true. Kaveh was placed under Dottore after getting a perfect score on the test given to new recruits. Murmurs surrounded him the day he was called up to a meeting with Dottore. No one had ever achieved a perfect score in years, and that scared Kaveh. With so much pressure, he was worried about failing to meet their expectations. Sitting before the man, he froze, blood-red eyes stared back at him, and the man would see right through him. He was a failure, he was going to be discarded, a burden left to die.
To Kaveh's surprise, the man took him in. Kaveh had to try his best; he spent countless nights awake looking over every blueprint he could get his hands on. The Harbinger's personal collection of books was open to him. He didn't understand a lot of it. But that would change quickly. More sleepless nights, and soon he had gotten through half the books on architecture and engineering. There were books from all of Teyvat, from the wonderful mechs of Fontaine to the giant windmills of Mondstadt.
After three weeks of non-stop studying, he was given his first task: Make the Geochanters' shields more durable. It was simple on paper, it really was. That didn't stop Kaveh from worrying, though. He was given one of the staffs, a Geochanter assigned to help him test, and a month to complete his task. Kaveh wasted no time getting started; he dismantled the staff, looking over each of the parts carefully. After a week of hard work, the final test was conducted, and when Kaveh succeeded, he nearly cried from relief. Kaveh walked into Dottore's lab staff in hand and showed Dottore the results. Upon concluding the presentation, Dottore decided to keep him as an assistant.
That night, Kaveh went to return the books he had used. As he put the last one up, something shiny fell out. Leaning down to pick it up, he gasped. A Dendro vision glows softly in his hands as he stands up. Kaveh sprints down the hall to the soldiers' bunkrooms and into the commander's rooms, skidding to a halt in front of Ajax's room. He knocks excitedly, earning a groggy mumble from within. After a minute, Ajax opens the door, eyes widening as he stares at Kaveh's newly acquired vision. Ajax pulls Kaveh into a hug, and they stay up all night simply experimenting with their visions.
Six years later, when Kaveh turns 18, he is assigned to enroll in the Akademiya to keep an eye on students and learn more. A Snezhnayian vision would cause too much suspicion, so he is forced to hide it and use a fake one.