Chapter Text
"You know," Alhaitham said conversationally as they stepped into another identical-looking chamber, "This would have been a lot more efficient if you had actually planned."
Kaveh scowled in response. "I never forced you to be here," he answered, holding up his map. "My client just said it was 'one of the ruins around Khaj-Nisut, you'll know when you see it'. How would I have known all these ruins look exactly the same?"
Alhaitham shook his head with a sigh. "Perhaps you could have asked him for the coordinates. Or at least viewed the title deed. Or even-"
"Like I said, I'm not forcing you to be here," Kaveh said, forcing up his most pleasant smile. He was trying his best to be patient, but between Alhaitham's snarky commens and the fact that every ruin looked practically the same, he was running out of it fast. "You are the one who insisted on tagging along because you had nothing better to do."
"More accurately, I said that I could spare some time to join you," Alhaitham corrected. "I have plenty to do."
"Surely you don't mean work," Kaveh muttered, "Since when have you ever worked overtime?"
"Of course not," Alhaitham agreed, "I am efficient enough to prevent work from spilling into my personal time."
The 'unlike some people' comment went unsaid, but Kaveh still heard it.
The next few ruins seemed the same - a collection of crumbling chambers which seemed near-identical. Thankfully, though, they finally found a chamber which contained a table in the centre, with a diadem nestled on soft cushions.
“This must be the one!” Kaveh exclaimed triumphantly, striding forward, “He did say we’d know when we see it-“
“Kaveh, wait-“
As Kaveh reached out to touch the artefact, there was a flicker of green and he found it knocked away from his reach.
“Hey, what are you doing!” Kaveh asked, his eyes wide as he watched the diadem clatter onto the ground.
Alhaitham shot him an unimpressed look as he languidly reached to pick up the diadem from the ground, nothing betraying the fact that mere seconds ago, he had for some reason used his elemental skill to dart in front of Kaveh. “Only an idiot would touch an unknown artefact.”
“You’re touching it right now,” Kaveh pointed out.
“Well, unfortunately I already touched it earlier when knocking it away from you, so that ship has sailed,” Alhaitham muttered, placing the diadem back onto its cushions.
“It could just be a normal diadem, not some fancy artefact. Maybe my client put it here to signify something,” Kaveh argued. “And you seem perfectly fine!”
“Go touch it then,” Alhaitham said, rolling his eyes as he turned to leave.
“I’m not going to do that, after you say something like that!”
“Then don’t touch it,” Alhaitham said, in his usual matter-of-fact tone. “I highly doubt this is the land your client purchased, but continuing this endeavour is an entire waste of both of our times.”
That was true, Kaveh thought, as he hurried up to follow behind Alhaitham, who was purposefully striding out of the area. Alhaitham was being his usual sarcastic self, but for some unknown reason, there just seemed something… a little wrong, about their last exchange.