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The General Mahamatra was in a bad mood.
The source of this mood was unclear at this stage, but with the Kshahrewar’s exam season around the corner, many suspected it had to do with the combined tension of students fretting over assignments and the rate at which underhanded tactics occurred to compensate for not studying enough. These things happened, of course, and when they did, the Matra was normally there to take matters into their own hands.
For the leader of the Matra to be so active, however, was a bad omen.
Exam season was not unusual, however, so people had started speculating that there was something else afoot. Whatever it was, however, the General Mahamatra was taking it out on the poor and unsuspecting (albeit deserving) students of the Akademiya, who now cowered in fright every time he rounded a corner. And that was only when they could see him; it had been said that he had the uncanny ability to simply appear out of nowhere, and that alone made everyone’s exam season that much more tense and stressful.
All this stress culminated on days that the Matra did actually catch someone acting outside of the rules of conduct for the Akademiya, as was the instance today. Nobody remembered the actual context or how it started, but in the split seconds the General Mahamatra stormed into the House of Daena and then proceeded to grill a scholar caught plagiarising a section of a dusty old Kshahrewar textbook for an assignment, everyone took cover and hid behind their desks, chairs, and shelves.
Nobody dared to intervene when the head of the Matra was so heated about the findings of his investigation, having had to borrow the textbook for himself and hunt down lead after lead over the course of a week–
So imagine his surprise, combined with the rest of the House of Daena, when someone loudly cleared their throat behind the General Mahamatra.
One red eye snapped to the person behind him with the speed of lightning, glowing with ire and a silent warning. The library held its breath, any fresh-faced academic would have jumped back with a yelp by now. When one caught the attention of the General Mahamatra in the middle of a proverbial kill, one risked drawing all that fury to themselves. With all that knowledge, it was tantamount to suicide to interject.
Except, you crossed your arms and tilted your chin up slightly. “Your borrowed book is overdue by four hours.”
With how you were looking at him, suddenly the tables had turned, and it was as though you were the one doling out judgement.
And to add insult to injury, you added, “And you’re disrupting the quiet learning space of the library.”
To his credit, the General Mahamatra had never been told off like this before, particularly not when he was in the midst of administering punishment. The last time a librarian spoke to him like this, he’d made the mistake of forgetting to return a book to Mondstadt’s library when he briefly stopped for a visit.
So despite his widened eyes, he quickly narrowed them. “I was busy.”
“Borrowing a Kshahrewar textbook and not returning it on time during Kshahrewar exam season is highly frowned upon.” You were not budging on the matter. In fact, as he’d been bursting through the doors of the House of Daena, you’d been trying to console a frazzled student about the textbook they’d secured to borrow right after its previous holder returned it – which was none other than the man you were now confronting about the matter.
But you knew the General Mahamatra did not think himself above the rules, and he was too righteous to deny you.
After a staring context that felt more like he was trying to burn a hole through your skull, he finally relented and straightened with a sigh. “Wait one moment.”
With brief orders for the student he’d caught to stay put, he stormed right back out of the library. For a moment, the tension seemed to dissipate somewhat, enough for you to notice the green-looking scholar sitting before you and the white-faced scholar behind you that seemed to realise who was the previous holder of the book she’d set out to borrow. You simply shifted on your feet and counted the seconds ticking by, hoping that the head of the Matra didn’t simply decide to leave the Akademiya entirely.
A few moments later, the General Mahamatra stormed right back in, heavy tome in hand, flat-faced and clearly displeased at having been disrupted so rudely. With an unimpressed glare, he extended the book to you.
With a final thanks, you took the book from him, before turning and walking back to the front desk to process the book for the next student.
This was the first encounter you had with Cyno, and unfortunately for you it would not be your last.
It seemed that you’d struck a nerve with him that day, as he took the following weeks to make excuses as to why he showed up to prowl through the House of Daena. His initial excuse had been that he was keeping an eye on the stressed students while they tried their best to study and complete assignments, but when you kept catching him glancing at you, you started to see through his farce.
At this point, you’d established that you would not get along with the head of the Matra, which was fine by you – you’d rather not live under false pretenses, and besides there was little for you to be afraid of. You were a librarian, and not the typical target of the Matra’s judgement.
But it wasn’t like he was lying, even though you seemed to think so. His work did keep bringing him back to that library. You just happened to also work there, and it let him get a closer look at the librarian with nerves of steel.
The latter task compelled him to continue trying to strike up conversation with you. The keyword was trying, because you were rather frosty and shut down pretty much any attempt to speak with him.
It was only after a few weeks of trying when he finally noticed something shiny on your desk. Just as he was about to reach out to move the book hiding the sparkle–
“Hands off,” you snapped, looking almost like you wanted to smack his hand away, then restraining yourself at the last minute. You seemed to realise quickly enough that trying to hit a Matra would have severe repercussions. But it was too late, for Cyno’s interest had been piqued.
“Are those custom elemental dice for Genius Invocation–”
“Yes, now leave them be.” You slid the eight dice back into the drawer where you normally kept them, before slamming that shut. “If these disappear, I’m reporting you for theft to the Matra.”
Cyno raised a disbelieving brow. “... I am the Matra.”
“Then I’ll report you to the Dendro Archon.”
Although you shut him down rather quickly, it was his first in – he now knew something new about you. You liked Genius Invocation TCG, at least enough to own a set of iridescent custom dice.
However, any subsequent attempts to strike up a conversation about it were met with borderline threatening glares from you, as you had no interest in entertaining someone so serious. With how he skulked about, he was scaring scholars out of coming to the library, much to your ire.
A few weeks later still, fate made its next move.
It came in the form of an announcement plastered on the notice board outside of Puspa Café, which then took the rest of Sumeru City by storm. A never-heard-of game mode of Genius Invocation TCG was to be trialled in Sumeru City, where people could pair up and fight as a duo against other teams for a chance at victory. The Paired TCG Tournament would start in a week’s time, and the championships would lead to significant acclaim over the next ten weeks of matches.
While this news did initially catch your interest, you soon realised this was a team activity, and then grew dejected. You were quite prestigious and strict in your playstyle, and you knew that no one in Sumeru, or perhaps even Teyvat, would ever meet your standards. As such, you’d have to pass by this opportunity.
Cyno initially thought the same – his playstyle was also rather specific and precious to him – until he stopped and thought of one person who perhaps might meet his criteria. And they so happened to be dedicated enough to the game to have a custom set of dice.
How he managed to convince you was beyond anyone. He walked into the House of Daena, slammed his hand on the front desk, and firmly requested you to work with him for the Paired TCG Tournament. Once you’d snapped out of your stupor, you spent five minutes arguing with him about the logistics of having two clashing personalities on one team. Then you spent another ten minutes arguing with him about the types of support cards he had on his deck. This was then followed by five minutes of him arguing about how it was insane that you were “too proud” to play artifact support cards in favour of pressing an advantage.
Okay, perhaps convincing you to join was too strong of an expression.
Rather, by the end of this bickering, the two of you seemed to want to spitefully prove the other wrong, so you teamed up to demonstrate to the other your respective superior playstyles.
The other reason that Cyno had omitted from you as to why he wanted to team up with you was a bit closer to him. There had been rumours of a cheater in the TCG world, one who would not dare to face off against the General Mahamatra on his own, for over a month now. But to win at such an auspicious team tournament would certainly be too good of an offer to pass up. Admittedly, this had contributed to his initial bad mood, as he’d finally pinpointed the cheater to hail from the house of Kshahrewar.
But you didn’t need to know all of that. You just had to play along, and he had to work his way up to catch that cheater red-handed.
Over the next week, you and Cyno meet almost daily to discuss strategy and attack styles, and practice against one another. In five out of those seven meetings, the encounters broke down into extensive arguments, which were admittedly petty and not nearly as severe as they sounded to bystanders. By the end of it, however, it was time to start the tournament, and you were as ready as you’d ever be to sit alongside someone whose playstyle you had yet to fully comprehend.
Despite initial jolts and setbacks in your styles – such as when you used up all the omni-dice for a complex location support card, and when he used your precious dice to apply a godforsaken artifact card to your character card, and you then spent about ten minutes at each other’s throats instead of the game – it turned out that the two of you synergised quite well in the game. As expected of two veteran players, you easily cleared away the first few rounds of the tournament with relatively minimal struggles.
And at some point, it started being fun.
At your victory to advance to the quarter-finals, you jolted, then cheered, ablaze with the passion you first found for the game. Beside you, your TCG partner’s eyes lit up for the briefest moments, and if anyone looked closely, they might’ve seen the General Mahamatra smile. Why he found you so intriguing was beyond him, and why something inside his chest flickered to life with your passion was also not known to him. Yet the life in you persisted, and slowly fed into the kindling stoking his heart. And soon enough, it lifted his mood enough that the people around him started to notice.
Maybe it was the slight pep in his step. Maybe it was something softer gleaming in those ruby-red eyes. Or maybe it was the fact that he’d let out less deadpan and horrendously punny jokes that evening, and instead took to toying with one of the custom dice you’d lent him as a show of friendship.
Regardless, it did not take three scholars to notice something was amiss with him. They came to that conclusion naturally, hounding him at one of the tables in Lambad’s Tavern.
Tighnari decided to try to broach the subject with some grace. “So, how’s the Paired TCG Tournament coming along?”
“Great,” Cyno replied, though his eyes were still affixed on the die. “We just advanced to the quarter-finals. It’s all thanks to their quick thinking. They snuck up to us for a moment there, but they saw right through them.”
While the others did not share his passion for TCG, the table did the decent thing and asked him a few things about the progress of the tournament itself, and how he’d found it. But each question was met with an answer that went into great detail about how brilliant you were, how unexpectedly yet strategically you played, and how fun it was to play alongside someone of your calibre. By the end of it, the bewildered looks grew in frequency and intensity, until finally, Alhaitham decided to tentatively intervene.
“It sounds like you’re into them.”
Cyno shrugged, the die still weaving through his fingers as he spoke. “They’re a great partner, and they’re good at what they does.”
Kaveh could clearly not stand Alhaitham’s level approach. He set his wineglass down as he said, “No, Cyno, it sounds like you’re into them.”
“That’s what I just said,” Alhaitham argued.
“No, you didn’t put enough emphasis on the point of the matter,” the blond snapped back. “It’s not just that he’s into them, he’s into them.”
It seemed that this did the trick for the General Mahamatra, as the die had stopped moving in his grasp and he had gone deathly still. But this was not noticed by the bickering duo. Instead, Tighnari now waved a hand in front of his friend’s face. “... Cyno?”
How was he supposed to carry on a conversation with such a revelation? “Hm?”
“Did you hear us?”
“... Yes.”
“Were you aware of this before those two pointed it out?”
“... No.”
“Ah.” Though that was likely meant to be a sympathetic sound, Tighnari’s message still bled through loud and clear. Idiot.
Following this exchange, Cyno naturally found he was in a conundrum.
It took him a few days to sort out why, exactly. On the one hand, he had professional boundaries to uphold as a TCG player, with you also being a fellow TCG player. On top of that, he was the General Mahamatra, a title that came with many threats and drawbacks that he juggled well enough on his own, but the prospect of introducing someone else to a life of danger was not justifiable for him. Finally, he had a personal boundary – being that he could not recall the last time he had felt this way about someone, and now that he figured that maybe he did feel this way and the feeling seemed to exist on a slippery slope, he had no idea how to conduct himself. More specifically, he did not know how to behave around you now that this shock had settled into his bones.
Perhaps it would have been easier for him if he knew that you were slowly trying to think of a way to convince the General Mahamatra to stick around after the tournament, but it’s not like you’d ever act on such a thing. He has such demanding work and such a devotion to the Akademiya, who were you to ever intervene in such a thing?
The quarter-finals approach, and you manage to win by a narrow margin. To onlookers, it looked like you were mostly in-sync with your strategy and played well enough; but internally, there was turmoil. You’d not spoken as much to Cyno over the week as you were accustomed to, your movements felt stiff and awkward, and worse yet, he seemed to be stiff and awkward. You weren’t quite sure what got into him, and attributed this to mounting stress in his Matra duties.
Which was not inaccurate, as the investigation into the TCG cheater came to a head the following week.
It was the week of the semi-finals, and as such the stakes were major. Only four teams were left in the running, and yours was one of them. Therefore you’d forgone sleep and sanity to devise strategy, research your opponents’ approaches, and consider ways to get the most of your support cards paired with the TCG deck Cyno had. This led to rather long evenings spent drafting plans in the House of Daena, and you left work much later than normal. By the time you made your way home, the moon was high in the sky.
And two nights before the semi-finals, this would be your undoing. You didn’t even get the chance to scream before you were whisked off the streets of Sumeru City.
From the perspective of a cheater, this approach made sense. Approaching the General Mahamatra head-on was tantamount to suicide. But the cheater was arrogant and wanted to secure a victory over him regardless. The easiest way to do so was to take you off the board. No you, no pair; and no pair to play TCG, no winning the semi-finals and advancing. One less opponent to win over meant that victory was guaranteed.
Well, this would have made a lot more sense if Cyno didn’t care about you as a person, and immediately sensed something was amiss when you didn’t show up for preparations the day before the match.
Obviously, he would have been pretty angry regardless of the person who was kidnapped, and regardless of what the motivations were. But it was you, and that made the General Mahamatra fly into a rage that made his first show a few months ago look like he’d been in a good mood all along.
This type of motivation, together with the cheater’s poor planning, was probably what led to the fastest Matra investigation in the history of Sumeru, and by sunfall, Cyno was marching into the hideout near cliffs of the Palace of Alcazarzaray with two Matra, spear in hand and eyes ablaze.
Only, when he walked in, he heard voices echoing in the cavern. Your voice.
When he rushed in, he soon found out why.
“... I mean, come on. This doesn’t even count as cheating anymore. This is just straight up kidnapping. What were you thinking?”
Of course.
Of course you’d be lecturing your abductor while tied up. Ever-present nerves of steel, it seemed no danger or knifepoint fazed you enough and instead you were laying into the cheater – whom he now recognised as a Khsahrewar student on his suspect list – with no reprieve, not even when he appeared in the cavern and swept in to arrest the cheater for his misconduct and now crimes.
Only then did you finally stop talking, instead letting out a rather weary sigh. Your voice suddenly got meeker, though your words were still sharp. “What took you so long?”
Though worried, he raised an unimpressed brow as he secured the bindings of the student he’d be escorting back to the Akademiya. “Do you want me to leave you there?”
“... No.”
“Good, because we have a tournament to win.”
When you finally returned to Sumeru City, Cyno fretted about your welfare more than he’d proudly admit. He insisted the healers at Bimarstan tend to you as soon as possible, and that they had better be thorough. If he even so much as spied a hair out of place, he’d have words with their superior. Even as a Matra, it fell outside of his professional bounds to worry so much about a kidnapping victim, and as a TCG partner, he should have been far more worried about how you’d cope with the semi-finals which were due to occur tomorrow.
That evening, however, he could’ve lost the tournament for all he cared. What mattered was your safety and welfare. Though he didn’t know whether he was willing to admit as much.
With no obstacles to the tournament remaining, you and Cyno went on to not only win in the semi-finals, but to also secure victory over the Paired TCG Tournament in the finals. You were overjoyed by this, and ended up giving the General Mahamatra a hug– only to realise you’d just pulled the General Mahamatra into a hug, and then skittering back ten paces with a visible blush on your face but the fire still flickering in your eyes.
If only you knew how much it stoked the fire in his chest.
Naturally, your victory called for a celebration in Puspa Café with your companions, and so in the evening you milled about over good food, good drink, and good conversation. You were not aware of the bullying Cyno had endured mere hours prior to this celebration from his friends, who were adamant that he needed to be honest with you about his feelings today.
However, this advice was probably where things started going a bit off the rails.
Unfortunately, Cyno’s friends should have seen that he was quite obtuse in situations like this, and also had never been close enough to another person to need to confess his feelings. Consequently, his version of events was him wistfully gazing at you from across the café, perhaps in some small hope that he would catch your attention and you’d understand and then no further words needed to intrude on the dwindling space between you.
What happened in actuality was that, for the first time since you’d met him, you were starting to take the General Mahamatra title seriously, because he was intently staring at you at any given occasion no matter your location in the room.
It escalated in intensity to the point where you felt a small pit of anxiety open up in your stomach, wondering whether you’d secretly done something wrong because it looked like Cyno wanted to hunt you to the ends of the earth.
To relieve yourself of some of the budding anxiety causing nervous flutters in your chest, you tried to busy yourself with the conversation before you, skilfully dodging the intense and heated stare of your TCG partner and hoping you hadn’t irked him with some maneuvre in your last match with him.
This avoidance was also noted by him.
A few hours into the celebration, he sank back down into his chair besides his friends, looking rather troubled. When someone asked, he quietly complained that you kept dodging his attempts to get your attention.
Tighnari, once again the voice of reason in this quartet of fools, decided to ask the magic question. “And how, exactly, have you been trying to get their attention?”
Cyno pursed his lips. “I’ve been trying to make eye contact with them. They look wrapped up in conversation, so I haven’t gone over to talk to them myself.”
Kaveh and Tighnari’s eyes widened; Alhaitham continued to pretend to look disinterested as he turned to the next page of his book. Knowing Cyno, this was not headed in a good direction. The blond architect asked, “And how have you been staring at them?”
This was a rather baffling question. “... Normally?”
“Do show us.”
Despite his hesitation, Cyno glanced up to where he saw you from across the room, seated at yet another table with scholars and TCG fans alike. A researcher made a joke, and your face lit up with a laugh that continued to radiate heat right through his chest like the scorching rays of a sun. His eyes narrowed, and his glare intensified.
When he finally looked back at his friends, they all wore varying expressions of horror and bemusement.
Tighnari looked like he wanted to slap Cyno so hard it’d leave a handprint on his back. “You fool.”
“You should probably just talk to them,” Alhaitham added.
“If you looked at me like that, I’d look into hiring an Eremite for security,” Kaveh concluded.
Cyno sighed. If the ears on his hood were real, they would probably droop right now.
“You are hopeless,” Tighnari gently shoved the General Mahamatra out of his seat. “Go talk to them. Now.”
It took another hour of hemming and hawing, but he finally drummed up the courage to do so as the night began fizzling out. Some of the guests of the café had already dispersed for the night, the moon high in the sky at this hour. But he had other plans as he stopped short at where you were standing by the café’s counter, stony-faced. “We need to talk.”
You jumped at his voice, looking back at him with wide eyes and a slightly pallid face. After wetting the dryness in your mouth, you finally asked, “... Have I committed a crime?”
“What?” Now it was his turn to be bewildered. “No. Well– Have you?” When your eyes widened even further, he shook himself out of his shock. “Why would you think I would want to talk to you about that?”
“Because you’ve been looking at me all evening like you want to arrest me and throw me down a well?”
In hindsight, this also sounded like the feedback he got from his companions. Leveling another deep sigh, he shook his head. “This has been a misunderstanding.”
“I hope so, because I’m too pretty to be thrown down a well.”
Despite your initial anxiety, you agree to follow the General Mahamatra outside, strolling down the quiet main stretch of Sumeru City. It was late by now, meaning vendors had long shut their doors and only dim lamplight remained in the wake of a city now preparing to slumber. The air was crisp and cool, complementing the flush on your skin from the warmth you felt inside the café. Beside you, the General Mahamatra stayed silent for a while – which was ironic, given that he had invited you outside to talk.
And soon enough, your cool nerves melted, and the pressure got too much.
Just as he was about to open his mouth, your voice cut through the night. “I like you.”
He blinks, but then the fire swells and he relaxes in his warmth. “That makes this a lot easier.”
For all the anxiety you had, you stopped short this time, forcing him to look back at you. “Huh?”
“I like you, too.”
“O–Oh.”
Despite your minimally worded reaction and obvious surprise, something resolved within you. There was little hesitation in the way you stepped forward to immediately fall into step beside him, your hands carefully dancing out to intertwine your fingers with his. He chased right after, the warmth settling into a comforting heat by your side.
In that moment, he could have basked in the warmth for the rest of his time alive.
The next time he appeared in the House of Daena, the General Mahamatra appeared to be in a good mood.