Chapter Text
He ran past several of his classmates before he could finally stop behind a building, huffing for breath and bending with the wall as a support. None of the Akademiya faculty seemed to have seen him.
Why did he run? He didn’t know.
Slowly, he picked out a compact notebook from his pocket and flipped through the pages to reach the one he had marked with a folded corner. It had hasty scribbles all over, leading up to an address and a password he had already memorised at least ten times. He put the notebook back and peeked behind the wall to see a man standing near a shop.
Everything that happened after that seemed a bit too quick. He talked to the man, spoke out the password and the man lead him to another secluded place where he waited intently for someone to arrive.
Am I making a huge mistake?
He shook the thought out of his head. He does this for the sake of Sumeru and the splendid wisdom it lives up to. He cannot be bothered by the consequences of his project just yet.
“Well, if it isn’t Kaveh?”
He turned around to look at Sangemah Bay grinning wide at him with her hands on her hips. She eyed him carefully from up her rather fashionable glasses as if examining him from head to toe.
But, before he could say anything, Dori smiled. “I really do love you little Kshahrewar scholars running to me for funding when that big building of yours cannot provide you with any.” Her grin widened as she wrung her fingers in front of her. “Now, tell me. Tell me all about your big, juicy project.”
And so he did. He told her of his plans of building a palace. He told her everything he had worked so hard for and all the ideas he can ever think of. The efforts he had put into creating it were something he was immensely proud of and he cannot let go of the opportunity he had worked so hard to come to.
After hearing all of it intently, Dori only smiled.
Seemed like things were going smoothly.
Under the cold, harsh rain, Kaveh couldn’t help but curse the sky. Was the downpour really necessary when he did not even have an umbrella at hand… or for that matter a house to go for shelter into?
He didn’t have a single Mora. He had impulsively sold his house and was in heavy debt that he could not even fathom wiggling out of. He supposed, in hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to invest so much in his project. And to strike a bargain with Sangemah Bay? Was he out of his mind?
He had successfully finished his magnum opus… only for it to drain everything out of his pocket completely.
He didn’t know where he was headed, but he kept walking down the empty city roads, hoping that he would reach somewhere, eventually. The sun had set a long time back and there was barely any light to guide him down the path. The shops were all closed and the only light he could see was flashing from the Akademiya building behind him. He almost felt tempted to go up there, but what could the Sages provide him with? He had an elective to hold in the coming days and that could give him some money, but what would he do with that? Buy a house? He could not even dream of that.
Besides, it is humiliating to walk in there as one of the greatest scholars, begging for a place to stay. What kind of image would he impart to the budding scholars in there?
He shook his head and kept walking. He saw a house right beside the staircase to the Akademiya and a fleeting recognition came over him. Was he really that desperate? He groaned internally.
When the door opened, albeit having expected to see Alhaitham staring down at him, he still felt a part of him tug him away from the place. But, he stood there, swallowing his pride as the rain poured mercilessly over him.
Alhaitham didn’t say anything. He merely looked up at the rain and then back at Kaveh.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” Kaveh said.
***
Kaveh’s eyes open to a blinding flash of light pointing apt into his retina. His head is going to torture him for the entire day.
He sighs. He is not used to dreaming. After spending decades without seeing anything while he sleeps, he doesn’t know if the sudden change is something he likes or not. Perhaps it is something he has to get used to, eventually, whatever his feelings for it may be.
Ignoring it all for the time being, he groans out loud, pushing away his blanket. “Alhaitham, I’ve told you numerous times to not open the curtains when you go to sleep.” He squints his eyes open. “I hate the way the light falls on my face early in the morning.”
From somewhere beside him at the end of the bed comes a sleepy mumble. “Get used to it.”
Sometimes, he is tempted to break down one of the walls to create a separate room for himself. Alhaitham would probably kick him out if he does that, so he cannot risk it for anything.
He groans, though, loud enough for Alhaitham to hear his misery. For some reason, it always works quite the opposite.
“Coffee. Black. One spoon of sugar is enough,” Alhaitham mumbles from the bed, his eyes still closed.
Kaveh scowls at him and Alhaitham pulls his blanket closer to his face.
“Ugh,” Kaveh grumbles, standing up from the bed, straightening his shirt down, and walking towards the door, “I’m going to kill myself one of these days.”
“Make my coffee before that.”
When he was a kid, Kaveh had seen vivid images in his dreams. They were never concrete or sensible, but he liked them just the same. The abstract vision was what made it special in his eyes. He supposes that dreaming, at that time, was not something he needed to control. Every night, he could see something new, something different from the one he has seen before. One night he could be jumping across the sky and the next day he could be swimming under the ocean and all of that wouldn’t matter when he woke up.
Now, when he has grown up, he has the urge to be in control of things. He isn’t afraid of what the future holds, yet he doesn’t like it when things slip out of his grip. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why children stopped dreaming after growing up in Sumeru for such a long time. Perhaps he wasn’t the only one who sought control.
He sighs despite that, unable to get the image of his younger self out of his mind. Of all the things he could have seen, why dream of something like that?
He places one of the coffee mugs he had prepared on the table and settles down on the divan, gingerly sipping his own. It doesn’t take too long for Alhaitham to freshen up and arrive in the living room.
He sits down on the same divan and picks a book out from the shelf nearby, periodically sipping his coffee while flipping through the pages.
“I had a dream last night,” Kaveh says, unsure of whether he should talk about it.
Alhaitham doesn’t look at him. “Congratulations.”
Kaveh clicks his tongue. “I don’t remember the last time I saw one.” Sighing, he looks back down at his mug. “It’s weird to see them again.”
“The Lesser Lord is back,” Alhaitham says in his matter-of-fact tone, still not looking up from his book. “I suppose dreaming should become a norm soon.”
His candidness makes Kaveh want to bury Alhaitham deep into the book itself. But, he controls his urges. “It’ll take a while to get used to them, that’s for sure.”
Alhaitham doesn’t say anything. He sips his coffee again and lets his eyes wander around the words on the page. “This has too much sugar.”
“Make it yourself, then!”
Honestly, he has had it with Alhaitham and his constant nagging! He honestly wonders if that dream had been a reminder of his mistake of coming here that night.
He stands up and walks around to the kitchen to place the mug in the sink. Turning around, he looks for his bag, but seeing the messy table filled with stacks of bulky books and papers makes his frown deepen.
So, he sighs and points at the table. “Alhaitham, do me a favour and clean up these books. You’re not even reading these.”
Alhaitham doesn’t respond to that and flips another page of his book. That only infuriates Kaveh.
“Oi, I’m talking to you.”
At that, Alhaitham looks up for a brief moment to look at the table and then looks back down at his book.
“You insolent—” Kaveh stops himself and inhales deeply. He is not about to let Alhaitham ruin his entire day.
Exhaling, he picks up his bag from under the pile of books and decides to leave. “You know what, fine! Make messes around the house and ignore me all day. Do whatever the hell you wanna do.”
“Don’t you have work?”
“I’m going!”
Kaveh really needs to do something about his debt and get out of here while he has the chance to.