Chapter Text
Alhaitham was on his way to work, there was nothing especial about that day, the streets were lonlier than usual, but it was only ten of the morning in a monday so its possible most of the citizens of sumeru city were already at work.
Then he approached to the akademiya and noticed an abnormal amount of people in the front of the building aswell as a stage in which the grand sage was making an announcement.
- Welcome people of Sumeru! , as you may know recently a new architectural building has been finished, and, since even the least interested in art have admired the beauty of this building we've decided to name the author of this magnificent piece of art the new light of Kshahrewar -as he said that last part a blonde boy appeared in the stage he had a feather between his hair and was wearing a white suit.
Alhaitham recognized him, he was a past acquaintance from the akademiya, his name was Kaveh, he used to be his friend and they even started doing their final project together, but a coment from alhaitham made kaveh angry; he ripped apart their work progress infront of him and took alhaitham out of the project
Alhaitham actually intended to apologize, but it was then when the grand sage started to pay attention to his way of studying and his vision of the world so the sage took him as a sort of apprentice, he slowly started to forget about the blonde boy, after all a Haravatat student wasn't meant to talk to a Kshahrewar student, eitherway his sudden appearance made a hint of some sort of sadness appear in his thoughts about him, but he decided to don't think about it.
He came back to the present as he heard the mention of the nation of justice.
Now the one talking was the sage of Kshahrewar and the crowd had more or less dispersated as most of it was now composed by Kshahrewar students.
- And as a share of Sumeru to Teyvat, this young architect will travel to fontaine as a result of his efforts, and we even managed to make the hydro archon interested in a project from him.
And as that sentence ended, for some reason the sadness in him had turned into anger or maybe even jealousy, he didn't get why though, he barely recognized his former colleague and he didn't care about what he did nowadays, why should he? , he liked how his work as a scribe was going he didn't yearned for anything else, he didn't wanted anything, and still watching someone he used to know making some sort of reputation in the world made him wish he needed more, made him question if he really just wanted a peaceful life, he would never doubt his own words or his grandmother wish for him, so he decided to forget about this feeling, even if it follow him as he ignored the small crowd of people and made his way to the inside of the akademiya.
The day after that small inconvenience went at its normal pace, his office only was entered by haravatat students and some others from spantamad, that was until the break for food came in the middle day and he was called to the grand sages office.
He made it to the grand sage office without any obstacle, he had almost memorized the way to it when he got to the door the receptionist told him to wait until the grand sage came out of an important reunion.
It passed some time around ten minutes when the door finally opened and from it the sage of Kshahrewar and the blonde boy came out of the grand sages office, the appearance of his past acquaintance left him once again with that weird feeling, the other boy didn't seem to even recognize him, and he looked happy almost excited, the sage of Kshahrewar went in front of the boy and seemed to talk to him about his future or something similar.
- Alhaitham, you can now enter -the receptionist called him and he stood up and entered the office.
As he entered he noticed that the grand sage desk had some sort of blueprints they seemed way too complex from Alhaithams perspective but before he could start to analyze them the voice from the sage distracted him.
- ah, hello alhaitham -he said as he got up from his desk and walked infront of him- do you wish to accompany me for a walk around the akademiya, i got something important to discuss with you.
Alhaitham didn't really got a say in if he wanted or not so he just decided to just follow the grand sage.
When they were outside of the office the sage started talking again.
- I guess you saw the little announcement in the morning -he made a small pause to see alhaitham nod and continued- well, I wanted to talk to you exactly about that, you know my main goal since I took you as my apprentice was to give you the best opportunities, and in the morning I realized that Haravatat also needed a person to make his way in the world, don't you think, Alhaitham?
The tone of the grand sage was as if he had waited this moment since years ago
-What? , why are you telling me this? -Alhaitham didn't quite understood the concept, Haravatat didn't had something as a "light of Kshahrewar" that type of recognition had been long forgotten by most of darshans, except of course Kshahrewar and all their romantic students that insisted it was a necessary recognition- I don't think there is another tipe of recognition more valuable for Haravatat than to be the scribe of the darshan.
-Hmm, Alhaitham, do you wish to become my successor as the next grand sage?
Alhaitham only thought was that the sage must be sick, that was the most reasonable possibility, since when can you go and say those things to the scribe that had said no to the similar offers before.
Before he could answer the sage started talking again
- Well, of course I know the way you wish to see your life, but I would like you to consider my offer, after all who knows how much longer I will stay in this position.
After that the grand sage went back to his office and Alhaitham did the same.
The day continued and he almost managed to forget about the morning, if it wasn't for the constant mention of it by some of the students who came to his office, it was almost as if the universe didn't wanted him to forget that feeling and that event in the morning.
By seven in the afternoon he was leaving the akademiya building, again the streets were full of people talking about the morning announcement and compliments for the new light of Kshahrewar. At this point in the day it almost felt as if his house itself was reminding him of his old colleague, the house that they once shared for the same project that brought them apart, at this thought he stopped some seconds before he entered, he spent a good time of his night thinking about the proposal of the grand sage, but at the end he realized that the best option was to say no, he wasn't going to change his whole way of living only because his past best friend.
And so he went to sleep with his head cleared and hoping for this theme to end quickly.
The next morning he went to work as always and this time there was no unexpected events or crowds of people, a relief for him, until just when he was approaching the main door someone was going out, it was kaveh, he was talking with the kshawerar sage again and they seemed to be on the way to the port, again the feeling appeared in alhaitham but he ignored it as he made his way to his office.
Again the day went at its usual pace, before the eating break he decided to go to the grand sages office and coment him his final answer, as he made his way to his office he noticed that there were less students in the akademiya, it was weird since it was their recess, but then he overheard a conversation about going to see the departure of the new light of Kshahrewar, and he decided to continue ignoring it.
This time he entered without having to wait, the grand sage was sitting in his desk and the same blueprints from the day before where there but now there was a list of materials and a time of launch but again before he could finish reading the grand sage started talking.
- Hello alhaitham!!, I assume you are here to tell me your final decision about the proposal that I explained to you yesterday, do tell me, have you made up your mind?
Alhaitham paused for a moment and then answered.
-Yes, I have decided that I- he again paused for a moment and continued after some seconds- I...I accept the offer.
Perhaps if he had woken up earlier the day before he wouldn't have seen the event, maybe if he had actually forgotten about kaveh, and perhaps if the whole akademiya just stopped talking about the event, maybe he could have said no, maybe then he could fulfill his grandmothers wish and dont aspire more than what he already had, but the last days he remembered how upset he felt in the past to have lost his only friend, but now he had began to convince himself that he didn't had any fault in the fight, and that he wasn't the one wrong, it was kaveh, the blonde had always been wrong, and he would prove him that by acquiring this title.
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