Chapter Text
These sages were getting bolder by the day. They seemed to believe that just because the Akademiya was short enough of qualified personnel to assign the Scribe as Acting Grand Sage, there was no chance they would lose their job now. To be honest, in any other circumstances, he wouldn't even have given him the time of day. Alhaitham was busy enough as it was. But there was no way he could ignore this.
Alhaitham knew little of the Vahumana Sage. The man was never far from the library, so Alhaitham would often find him in some lonely corner going over several scrolls at once. So what business could an old man obsessed with history have in the Avidya Forest? He had never had any interest in nature, but suddenly he was sneaking off to the area where the previous Grand Sage was imprisoned.
It was such a stupid action, but people were confident when they had that sense of security. The Sage was still there because he hadn't been involved in Azar's plan, but that didn't mean he didn't have something else on his hands.
"What brings the Grand Sage to my humble office?" asked Sage Reza after Alhaitham entered the room.
It was just as Alhaitham had imagined it. Walls lined with shelves of books and the air permeated with the smell of parchment, along with something else. Something sour, perhaps. There were several beads of sweat on the Sage's forehead.
"I need the book History of the Technology of King Deshret's Civilization," Alhaitham replied calmly. "I saw on the library list that you had it."
"I see that the Grand Sage is informed," he spoke slowly, as if straining to control his voice. "Isn't that information private?"
Of course it was, but as he said, Alhaitham was the Grand Sage. There was nothing really private to him. All knowledge at his fingertips, but he didn't even have time to research it these days. The Sage was stalling for time. Alhaitham took the opportunity to peruse the titles on the shelves, making a mental note of any that proved relevant.
"Is it a crime to look for a book to entertain myself with in my spare time? In any case, it's almost my time to leave. I just want to borrow it before I go home."
"Haha, you're right about that."
Although the Sage was still sitting, he sounded a bit out of breath. Alhaitham felt his stinging gaze on him as he scanned the shelves, but he made no move to get up to give it to him. In fact, he shuffled the chair, moving closer to the desk.
Something else caught Alhaitham's eye. A book on architecture in the middle of the history tomes. It was a paperback, hidden in a corner and covered by a larger book. He only caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye, yet that was enough to make him pause, his heart suddenly a cage for a bird desperate to escape. A blond-haired boy bent over the table, drawing absentmindedly with a soft smile on his lips. On the spine, a small castle drawn. This was one of the few books on aesthetics in architecture sold in Sumeru and, years ago, he had given it to Kaveh as a gift.
An exaggerated cough brought him out of his trance.
"The book is on the second shelf in front of you," the Sage pointed.
Alhaitham blinked.
He had many questions, but none left his lips as he stretched out his arm to reach for what was pointed out to him while using an angle and his cloak to hide the hand that grasped the small book and tucked it between his sash.
The smile on the Sage's flushed face struck him as odd, unsettling as Alhaitham turned to leave.
Stomp. The thump of a foot on the floor.
Alhaitham just looked back at him in question, not betraying any of his perturbation.
"Ah, just a tic. See you later, Grand Sage."
"...Acting Grand Sage."
He didn't let the man keep him any longer. Alhaitham turned and left.
-
Alhaitham quickly wrote down all the titles he remembered and immediately turned back to the book he had stolen.
"Modern Architectural Styles of Sumeru."
Opening the first page, there it was. "Kaveh's Book." He didn't know how he should feel about his soul twisting just being able to see Kaveh's handwriting; he knew what he felt. Hunger. Longing. He couldn't help it, how long had it been since he'd had a single hint of Kaveh? It should be impossible for someone like him to feel so strongly for a person who had disappeared from his life almost a decade ago, but he felt as if claws were digging into his heart. He was frantic just to turn the pages and find the notes the light of Kshahrewar had left behind.
How had his book ended up in Sage Reza's office?
Kaveh might be the type who would donate everything he had to someone else, but he wasn't the type to let go of something he had been given, even if it brought him suffering. Alhaitham remembered that, years ago, Kaveh still kept his mother's diary, even though he couldn't even open it. He treasured that diary so much that he had been horrified when Alhaitham suggested that he simply break the lock if he was so curious.
It had been so long.
He could have changed.
"I wish I'd never met you."
...
Why wouldn't he have gotten rid of something that someone like Alhaitham had given him? He had had no problem disappearing from his life altogether.
Then Alhaitham reached the last page.
Written in the same ink, blurred as if water had fallen on it, it read in the same handwriting he knew as well as his own.
I'm sorry.
-
It didn't take much digging through the records to discover that there had been no information on the light of Kshahrewar for years. Not a paper, not an article in a research journal, not even some note in the margin of an architectural book. Cyno returned from his old house empty-handed. Neighbors said they thought the sweet young man had moved out and, upon entering, it didn't look like anyone had been living there for some time.
Even if Kaveh had moved to Fontaine with his mother, why hadn't any news come? Alhaitham had always thought Kaveh had disappeared only from his life. It could not be any other way. Someone like Kaveh was destined for greatness, for attention with his creations and with his own person. Fontaine was not like Sumeru, there he would have had much more recognition, but there was nothing.
It was as if he had been swallowed up by the earth and no one had bothered to ask why.
Now only that old book remained as a proof that Kaveh had existed and had appeared in the office of a Sage who had recently met Azar.
If it weren't for Cyno convincing him to wait for the Sage to make his move, Alhaitham would have shown up at his office and taken it upon himself to show him all the ways in which he was not a feeble scholar until the old man told him everything he knew about Kaveh.
He had a bad feeling, growing in him like thorns digging into his soul. How had he not noticed that Kaveh was missing? It was true that they did not speak, but it was Kaveh. He alone drew Kshahrewar's attention, he alone shone brighter than all the stars in the sky. It was impossible to go so long without hearing from him. But no one had been there to attach any importance to his disappearance.
A part of Alhaitham was gone just like that and he didn't even know it.
With every thought, the thorns buried themselves a little deeper.
Alhaitham couldn't sleep, so he volunteered to join the vigil at the Sage's house. If the man wanted to sneak out again, he would most likely do it during the night. He already lived outside the city, he wouldn't even cross a guard. Alhaitham would just ignore the worried looks from the Matra as they changed shifts and he was still there.
He would go to work. When he came home, he would pass out on the couch and wake up with nightmares that made him wish the Akasha was still active. He would go to watch the Sage. Back to the beginning.
He didn't know how many days had passed until then.
"Today, the Sage Reza came home with an Eremite," he was informed as soon as he reached the point from where they were watching the Sage's house.
According to the Matra, he looked like someone with long blond braided hair completely covered, with bandages hiding his face. According to the Akademiya guards, he had not been seen leaving work, but had appeared with the person outside the bazaar and they had gone to his house.
It had only been a few weeks since Azar had left the Akademiya, relations with the desert people were not yet common, so why would the Sage Reza take an Eremite into his home?
The question answered itself later.
It was well into the night when the Sage set out again with the Eremite at his side and they made their way towards Gandharva Ville. Not much could be seen of the Eremite, much less with so many layers of clothing on him and in the dark, but Alhaitham could already deduce that he couldn't be any good if he was accompanying the Sage Reza to see Azar. He could have been hired for security along the way.
Alhaitham ran ahead of the Matra, using his abilities to pierce the night like a flash of green light.
He was close.
They only had to catch him when he was already at the entrance to the solitary prison of Azar and his allies. Once they had proof that they were related, they could begin the investigation properly and Alhaitham could interrogate him.
He would wrench the answers from every bit of consciousness he had left.
They did not seem to notice Alhaitham's presence until he fell in front of them and drew his sword with a calmness that did not betray the rapid beating of his heart.
"What a strange place to be out for a stroll, Sage Reza," Alhaitham spoke coldly.
"You-! What are you doing here?!" Without any further pretense of cordiality, the Sage went on the defensive, dragging the Eremite backwards with such force that the person almost stumbled.
Alhaitham now realized that the Sage had the Eremite's arm tightly gripped. He expected him to pull out a weapon as well, but he did nothing but shrink back in fear.
"We," Alhaitham pointed with a slight movement of his chin at the Matra who was catching up to them without ever letting his guard down, "have come to arrest you."
"This is nonsense!" The Sage was trembling now, shaking the arm of the Eremite who did nothing to stop him. "You have nothing on me!"
It was a pity that Alhaitham was in no mood to listen to nonsense.
In a flash, he was beside them. He sent the Sage flying with a well-executed kick. The old man rolled a few feet before he ended up slamming into a stone.
"Grand Sage..." Even the Matra looked worried.
"Ah," Alhaitham slurred the word with mock sorrow as he watched the man cough up blood. "I apologize, sometimes I don't measure my strength."
Even the Eremite had been dragged a few feet by the Sage's grip, but Alhaitham barely paid him any attention, just enough to make sure he wouldn't attack him by surprise.
"Son of a bitch," the Sage snarled. He could barely get up on his elbow with how he was shaking with rage. "Y-you don't even like working and you come looking for a fight... Feeble scholar and shit..."
"Stop whining." Alhaitham advanced menacingly, making sure the gleam of his sword was visible in the moonlight. The Sage fell silent instantly. "Now, tell me what you know of Kaveh."
"Kaveh...?" The Sage looked surprised for a moment, but in a second his gaze became wary and Alhaitham was sure he knew something.
"I know you know where he is," he lied.
"Tsk. Haha... Ugh. Hahahahaha."
He knew something, he knew something and he was mocking Alhaitham. Alhaitham didn't think long before he raised his sword and launched a thrust. The laughter stopped instantly and only that got Alhaitham to stop before the blade tore into the Sage's arm.
"Where is he?" Alhaitham repeated, and this time his voice also trembled with pent-up rage.
"Pff." There was something in the Sage's gaze now, that kind of resignation of someone who knew he had lost, but still had the energy to wallow in the suffering he had caused. A shiver ran down Alhaitham's back. "Why don't you take a good look at your surroundings?"
A trap? Alhaitham looked away, searching for danger. An ambush. Whatever. However, there just didn't seem to be anything strange in the forest around them. The Matra was approaching as if to contain Alhaitham. The Eremite was barely sitting up slowly, with his back to Alhaitham, bandages slipping from his head with his fall.
"Say hello to the Grand Sage, little bird," commanded Reza in a melodious voice.
And then the Eremite turned and Alhaitham felt sick.
Alhaitham passed from the Matra and passed from the laughter that returned with intensity, but was now but a distant echo among the blood pulsing in Alhaitham's ears. None of that mattered when his world had come into focus on the person before him.
For he recognized the eyes that looked back at him. He would have done so in the middle of the night, in his nightmares, and even in twenty or fifty more years.
Alhaitham fell to his knees in front of him before he could think about it.
Those eyes that had shone with so many thoughts and dreams were empty, and yet there was no one who had that shade of crimson.
"Kaveh..."
Something flashed through Kaveh's eyes. As if he understood something that Alhaitham did not. Then, arms went around his shoulders and, before Alhaitham could take in what was happening, soft lips pressed against his.