Chapter Text
-x-
"Oh! Well if it isn't the renowned Light of Kshahrewar! They're calling you that now, did you know?" Dori sing-songed playfully. "I didn't expect you to be lurking alone in a dim alcove with such a wistful look on your face." She’d actually been looking for him for a while, but he didn’t need to know that. Over the course of her palace’s construction, she’d learned that Kaveh didn’t like it when people expressed their concern for him.
"Lord Sangemah Bay," Kaveh acknowledged, raising his wine glass before downing the entire thing. He was seated as if he’d slumped down the alcove wall and didn’t have the energy to hold himself up.
Dori eyed the empty bottles beside the architect. "If I had been as drunk as you, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a speech on the meaning of art during the inauguration ceremony."
Her backhanded praise fell on deaf ears.
“It was a victory of such devastating cost. And I thought it would be enough, but here I am, so unhappy that I can’t take it, Dori,” Kaveh said through gritted teeth. “You were right. It wasn’t worth it.”
Dori shook her head with a sigh. “Lucky for you, I have just the thing to cure your troubles!”
“Is it a reasonable payment plan for my crippling debt?” Kaveh asked warily as Dori rummaged through her pouch. With a twirl and a flourish, Dori presented him a flask of a shimmering light blue liquid.
“This, my friend, is Opalite Water! Don’t be so glum. I know you’re feeling unsatisfied in life. You’ve given more than you got back. What if I told you that you can magically turn all that crappiness into happiness? This is a revolutionary fix for your problems!”
Kaveh watched Dori go through her fervent sales pitch with jaded eyes. “This is just blue-colored water with edible glitter, isn’t it? When did you turn into a snake oil merchant?”
“Water is good for you! Your hungover self will thank me in the morning,” Dori said with an eyeroll, grabbing the wine glass out of Kaveh’s hand and exchanging it with the Opalite Water flask. “And excuse you, I’ve never sold snake oil in my life.”
Kaveh uncorked the flask and swirled the liquid within. “Where did you even get this?”
“It was a trade for a desperate person’s life. Satisfaction guaranteed!”
Kaveh eyed Dori’s sparkling expression and decided to pick his battles. He didn’t want to know that much.
A magical fix for getting rid of my problems, huh? But aren’t I the problem? In that case, will this get rid of me? Kaveh thought morbidly. They’re even calling the Palace of Alcazarzaray my magnum opus, as if this would be my last and greatest contribution to the world, even if I haven’t reached my thirties yet...
He downed the whole flask anyway.
True to its name, it just tasted like ordinary water. But the blinding light that suddenly engulfed him? That was definitely out of the ordinary, for a non-magical world. The light faded, and took Kaveh with it.
-x-
Alhaitham stared at the crumbling remains of his grandmother’s estate. It had been hit by the Withering two months ago, the first location ever affected in Sumeru, before the Withering began popping up in other locations. As such, it was hit the hardest.
He could hardly even recognize his childhood home now. The vibrant greens of his grandmother’s garden had long been replaced by the thorny gray branches and sinister red flowers of the Withering, and the structures had been eroded and pierced by the roots and branches of the plague threatening to spread and take over the rest of the Lokapala Jungle.
The Akademiya’s research had finally borne fruit, but it was too late for his grandmother’s estate.
Nahida laid a soft touch on his arm, barely felt through his sleeve. “Alhaitham...”
Alhaitham looked at his Archon, trusting his poker face to conceal his inner thoughts, even if Nahida could easily read his mind if she ever desired it. “We shall proceed as planned, Lord Kusanali.”
Nahida nodded solemnly and handed him a flask of shimmering light blue liquid. “This is called Opalite Water. It needs to be poured directly over the Tumor of the Withering...”
“...Like a powerful magical pesticide. I understand. It shouldn’t be too hard to dodge the incoming attacks and get near the Tumor if I go alone,” Alhaitham concluded. He summoned his sword.
“If the Withering could be defeated by a mere pesticide, we would’ve defeated it ages ago,” Nahida giggled, before turning serious again. “Opalite Water works based on belief, on hope, because it’s meant to counter the despair of the Withering. At the moment of pouring, wish with all your heart to get rid of the problem. The stronger your desire, the stronger the effect is.”
Alhaitham paused mid-step. “Then am I really the one who should be pouring it? What about you?”
“You know how important it is for Lokapala Jungle to be cleansed of this disease, for Sumeru to get rid of the Withering. You know just as well as I do, how much we’ve worked on this for the past few months. You were there with me every step of the way. Aside from that, you told me this was your childhood home. You have countless memories with your grandmother here. Your emotional connection to this place takes precedence, I think,” Nahida explained. “Emotions would give more power to your wish.”
“The general consensus would say I’m the least emotional man in the Akademiya,” Alhaitham rebutted.
“Just because you don’t normally show them doesn’t mean you don’t have emotions,” Nahida patiently answered with a knowing look. “I believe in you.”
Alhaitham accepted his Archon’s wisdom and turned back to his goal, the Tumor - the red flower that started all of this.
When the Withering initially formed, they’d tried to fight it through normal means, but cutting the Tumor just made it grow back bigger and more prolific, and they’d also lost a few lives in the process. But here, today, he only needed to evade the attacks and get close enough. He already knew his opponent’s attack patterns, already analyzed where he could place his feet without danger of getting tangled or swallowed by thorny branches.
He would not fail. His childhood home may not be salvageable, but he would not let the Withering spread any further. He would not let this cursed disease take anything else.
And after everything, he can always rebuild. He can make new memories. The last two months made him feel like he was stuck in a mire of depression, working around the clock, racing against time and fraying hope, coming home to an empty, silent house that’s too big for a single person in the middle of a lively, bustling city. It felt like it would never end, but right now, right here, he had the cure in his hands.
It would be fine. Everything will be alright, Alhaitham imagined his grandmother saying, and poured the Opalite Water on his target.
The effect was an immediate blinding light. He covered his eyes too late, and as he hastily looked away, he could hear stone and wood tumbling down all around him where the branches and roots of the Withering used to hold them up.
He opened his eyes when the light faded, and was greeted with the sight of... a person?
A man with shoulder-length blonde hair, pinned back to frame his handsome face, in a slightly revealing flowy white shirt and tight black pants. His eyes were a beautiful crimson - but they were dazed, and the man himself was swaying where he stood.
“Huh? Where-?” The man mumbled, visibly confused as he looked around. Alhaitham approached slowly, taking care to secure his footing around the rubble on the ground.
“You are in the Lokapala Jungle, in private property, in fact. Can you tell me who you are, and how you got here?” Alhaitham asked calmly. “It can’t be a coincidence that you appeared right after I poured Opalite Water on the Tumor of the Withering. You’re even standing right where it used to be.”
“What? Wait, did you say Opalite Water? No, before that, who are you?” The man babbled. “I’m Kaveh. I was inside the palace just now, so why is everything in shambles? This doesn’t even look like my Alcazarzaray! Did I drink too much? No, wait, just what did Dori make me drink?”
“My name is Alhaitham. I’ve never heard of an Alcazarzaray. This estate belonged to my grandmother, and it’s certainly not a palace,” Alhaitham said, crossing his arms across his chest. Kaveh looked back at him with slowly growing desperation.
“Then do you know Lord Sangemah Bay? I was with her just now. She owns the Palace of Alacazarzaray. I was the architect who designed it. It was just finished. Tonight was the inauguration!”
Alhaitham shook his head. “I am not familiar with that name. But... you recognized the Opalite Water. How do you know about it? It was created in secret and manufactured for the first time earlier today.”
“Huh? But... Dori gave me a flask of Opalite Water. It’s just blue-colored water with edible glitter, isn’t it? She just wanted me to drink some water for my eventual hangover... I don’t understand what’s happening,” Kaveh trailed off, rubbing his temple.
Soft footsteps heralded the arrival of Sumeru’s Archon. Alhaitham turned his attention to her. “Lord Kusanali, the destruction of the Tumor of Withering was successful, as you can see. But there was an unintended side-effect. This is Kaveh.”
“Oh dear. Hello! Please call me Nahida. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kaveh,” Nahida said, offering her hand. Kaveh shook it in trepidation. At least being acquainted with Dori accustomed him to the idea of a lord with short stature.
“Um... same here, Lord Kusanali. Uh, Nahida,” Kaveh stuttered.
“Shall we move somewhere else? Preferably where we’re not in danger of being crushed by a stray load-bearing wooden beam,” Nahida suggested. Kaveh could only nod.
As Kaveh followed Nahida, Alhaitham looked back at what used to be his grandmother’s estate. The dark, soul-crushing aura was gone, and all that was left...
-x-
Kaveh marveled at Sumeru City. There was a massive tree at the heart of it. What fantastic version of Sumeru did he just get transported to?
“Does your Sumeru not have its own Akademiya?” Nahida asked curiously. She was skipping while leading the way and holding Kaveh’s hand. Kaveh was trying hard to ignore the fact that her feet didn’t directly touch the ground, but instead green holographic squares with a four-pointed flower motif emerged and served as a platform wherever she stepped. The ginormous tree on the horizon was less mind-boggling.
“The Akademiya? Yes, but - wait. Did I say that out loud?”
Nahida giggled. “No, but you were thinking it so loudly.”
“Huh?”
“So you believe that he’s not from our Sumeru,” Alhaitham said, trailing the two of them in the empty street. It was late enough that it could be called early. The trip back from Lokapala Jungle had been quiet, as all three of them were deep in thought, but it seems Nahida decided that they’d had enough time to process what happened.
“We would know anyone important enough to be called Lord who’s rich enough to build a palace, and we’d definitely know the architect she hired. But Kaveh speaks fluent Sumerian with no noticeable foreign accent even while intoxicated, though he’s almost sober now. I merely arrived at the logical conclusion,” Nahida explained, mostly to Kaveh.
“The Akademiya I know is a typical skyscraper with a brutalist modern design, not... not that!” Kaveh gestured at the Divine Tree cradling the Akademiya. “It was functionality over aesthetics, minimalist and imposing.”
“Hmm. Then I must say, I prefer this Akademiya,” Nahida concluded.
“That’s not the issue here!” Kaveh protested. “I don’t belong here!”
“Do you want to go back?” Nahida asked guilelessly. Kaveh flinched, which both his companions definitely noticed. “You can stay here with us. I don’t mind.”
“Uh... isn’t that up to the government? I don’t think you’re just supposed to accept people who came from alternate realities...” Kaveh replied gingerly, hunching his shoulders in discomfort at the thought.
“I am the government!” Nahida declared, attempting to reach his shoulders but ending up patting his arms instead. “Don’t worry about the matra.”
Kaveh looked askance at Alhaitham. “Should I be taking her words seriously?”
“Does the word Archon mean anything to you?” Alhaitham asked. Kaveh shook his head. “Then what’s the highest government position in your Sumeru?”
“The president? The current president is Azar. My Sumeru is a democratic republic,” Kaveh answered on reflex, looking down as Nahida held his hand again to pull him forward. His companions’ expressions darkened, unnoticed by Kaveh.
“Then, just think of Lord Kusanali as the president of Sumeru,” Alhaitham explained.
Kaveh’s jaw dropped. “What?! Then what’s the president of Sumeru doing with only you as her escort? We’re literally walking the streets with her. I’m holding hands with her. Oh my god.”
Nahida burst into peals of laughter, her joy piercing through the darkness of the night. “To be precise, I am Sumeru’s Dendro Archon, the God of Knowledge.”
Kaveh spluttered at her nonchalance. “Wh-What do you mean, you’re a god?! Does a god just casually roam the streets like this? Am I too drunk or not drunk enough? I can’t believe this!”
“Not at all. This would’ve been impossible just a few months ago. But, that’s a story for another day. It’s late, and I’m sure my Scribe is eager to go to bed. He has a guest room you can use for the night,” Nahida gestured to the door of a house that Kaveh hadn’t noticed until then.
Alhaitham nodded, as if it was commonplace for his god to commandeer his guest room for a hapless traveler from a parallel dimension. He took his keys out his pocket and entered the house, leaving the door open behind him as an implicit invitation to come in.
“Huh?! Wh-What? Wait, then what about you, Nahida? You’re going home alone?” Kaveh asked worriedly. “Shouldn’t we escort you?”
“The Akademiya is only a few streets away. I can handle myself. Besides, there are patrolling matra on night duty, so don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Nahida soothed him. “Go get some rest, Kaveh. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“O-Oh... okay. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kaveh repeated and turned to the door. When he looked back, Nahida was nowhere to be seen.
-x-
Kaveh woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling, in an unfamiliar bed. The room was furnished sparsely, like a bare room at an inn. He looked out the window and remembered through his pounding hangover: giant tree means he’s still in the alternate Sumeru.
He followed the sounds of puttering in the kitchen. His benefactor from the night before was in a simple shirt and pants, evidently not dressed for the day yet. Kaveh himself had slept in his own clothes, so he wasn’t judging.
In the light of day, he could study Alhaitham freely. Alhaitham’s gray hair looked soft and wispy, as if inviting Kaveh’s touch. His teal eyes were intent on the tulumba he was frying. Nahida had called him her Scribe last night, but Kaveh could see his firm muscles through the thin sleeping clothes. There was no way the guy was a feeble scholar. He stood as if he knew his place in the world, and he was content with it. Kaveh, who was always anxious about his own existence and how he always ended up inconveniencing others, felt the faint stirring of jealousy. He took a deep breath and brushed it away.
“Good morning,” he greeted. “Need any help?”
Alhaitham shook his head. “Good morning. Help yourself to the coffee. This will be ready in a bit.”
Kaveh did as he was told, looking around some more while sipping coffee. The kitchen looked barely more furnished than the guest room. Just like the living room he barely glimpsed last night, and the bathroom too. “Have you not lived here long?”
“I moved two months ago,” was the reply.
“Oh. So your things haven’t arrived yet?”
Alhaitham turned around with a plate of freshly fried tulumba that he deposited on the table. “I used to live in my grandmother’s estate, which was rendered hazardous on account of the Withering sprouting there overnight. Think of it like a wildfire, except twice as deadly. So I don’t have a lot of things to my name at the moment.”
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” Kaveh winced.
Alhaitham raised an eyebrow. “It was not your fault, and I am not upset.”
“Uh... right,” Kaveh agreed and looked away. “Sorry.” Kaveh stuffed a tulumba into his mouth to stop himself from blurting out anything else.
After breakfast, Alhaitham changed out of his sleep clothes into the same ensemble he wore the night before and led Kaveh to the Akademiya. Kaveh gawked at every newly-revealed angle, admired every detail, every nook and cranny, and itched to draw and expand upon the new ideas blooming in his brain. He barely registered that they’d arrived at their destination until he was face-to-face with Nahida in her larger-than-life chair.
“That chair really doesn’t suit you,” he blurted out. Then he buried his face in his hands in embarrassment.
Nahida laughed, her voice echoing throughout the cavernous space of her office. “It’s not my preference, no. Good morning, Kaveh.”
“Good morning,” Kaveh mumbled into his palms. “Please excuse me.”
“Excused. Did you have a good sleep? Breakfast? I hope my Scribe took care of you,” Nahida teased, turning to Alhaitham, who merely nodded.
“Wha-Yes! I’m fine. We’ve eaten. Even had coffee,” Kaveh spluttered, dropping his hands.
“Good, good-” A knock on the door interrupted her teasing. Nahida perked up. “Enter!”
Two men entered. One had white hair and a headpiece with prominent jackal ears, and the other had black hair and huge, very lifelike fox ears on top of his head - holy moly, did his ears just move?! He even had a tail. The dedication to the furry cosplay was insane. He looked back at the other guy, and noticed that he was wearing ceremonial desert clothes that bared his whole midriff. Kaveh was in awe, okay? These guys just walked into the office of their god dressed like that.
“Good morning, everyone! Introductions first. On the left is Cyno, the General Mahamatra. Beside him is Tighnari, the Chief Officer of the Forest Rangers,” Nahida explained. Kaveh straightened up and mentally shook his head.
“Hello. I’m Kaveh, an architect. It’s nice to meet you,” he smiled nervously, already starting to sweat. Internally, he screamed, Why am I meeting the General Mahamatra and the the Chief Officer of the Forest Rangers?! Am I going to be exiled to the forest?!
“Keep calm and curry on,” Cyno replied. Kaveh felt his brain grind to a stop.
“Get it? Curry-” Cyno attempted to continue, but was interrupted by Tighnari covering his mouth with his hand.
“No need to be nervous of this guy,” Tighnari sighed.
Nahida giggled and clapped her hands. “Shall we start this meeting? We all have a long day ahead of us. To start, we successfully manufactured Opalite Water yesterday night-”
“That’s great!” Tighnari exclaimed.
“-and Alhaitham and I decided administer it posthaste to the Tumor of Withering in his grandmother’s estate-”
“You did what?! Just the two of you?” Cyno demanded, turning to Alhaitham.
“-and it was successful. Nobody got hurt,” Nahida finished reporting smugly. Kaveh watched Cyno glare at Alhaitham, seemingly unable to do the same to Nahida, on account of her being a god. Alhaitham bore it with ease.
“...Fine. And I assume you’re commissioning Kaveh to rebuild?” Cyno said, after a hefty pause.
“That’s up to Alhaitham and Kaveh,” Nahida chirped. “The fact that he’s an architect is irrelevant to his presence here.”
“It’s not. Irrelevant, that is,” Alhaitham corrected.
“Huh?” Kaveh gaped. “It’s not?”
“It’s not?” Nahida wondered.
“Why would he be here, if not that?” Tighnari asked Nahida.
“Well, it’s because he appeared in place of the Tumor of Withering, right after Alhaitham doused it with the Opalite Water,” Nahida answered. “He’s from a different Sumeru. Can you tell us what happened on your end, Kaveh?”
“Uh, right. So yesterday was the inauguration ceremony of the Palace of Alcazarzaray, which I designed. In my Sumeru, it’s in the same location as Alhaitham’s grandmother’s estate. I was drunk, and my employer gave me a flask of something called Opalite Water to... y’know. Help me sober up. And reduce the dehydration I’d undoubtedly feel in the morning. So I drank it.”
“Did she tell you what Opalite Water is?” Tighnari asked.
“Something about magically fixing my problems?” Kaveh replied. “Look, we don’t have magic in my Sumeru. I thought it was just colored water. but after I drank it, there was a blinding light, and when I opened my eyes, Alhaitham was there.”
Heads turned to Alhaitham, who obliged and continued the story. “After I poured the Opalite Water on the Tumor of the Withering, there was a blinding light, and when I opened my eyes, Kaveh was there.”
“So what we’ve learned is that the Opalite Water works well against the Withering, but there’s a slight hazard of transporting a person from a parallel universe if that person happened to drink Opalite Water at the same time?” Tighnari said, stroking his chin. “If we use Opalite Water on the other affected areas, we might end up with random people from other parallel universes.”
“I don’t think it was random,” Alhaitham denied. “I was thinking of rebuilding, not just getting rid of the Withering. And so the Opalite Water granted me an architect with the skill to do it.”
“Y-You don’t even know me! You haven’t seen any of my works! What if I’m absolute trash at designing buildings?” Kaveh spluttered.
“In the words of the Dendro Archon, Opalite Water works based on belief. The stronger your desire, the stronger the effect is. My wish was strong enough to overcome the Withering and summon you, who can help me rebuild what was destroyed,” Alhaitham laid out, like it was rational, when Kaveh thought it was anything but. “Besides, you said you designed a palace that was good enough to the point of having an inauguration ceremony for it.”
“W-What if I was lying? Why are you just taking my word for it?!” Kaveh was one wrong word away from panicking, trying not to think of the disaster that happened during the palace’s construction. He couldn’t-
A gentle touch on his face made him open his eyes. He didn’t notice when he closed them in the first place.
“Breathe with me, Kaveh,” Nahida urged, breathing in deeply, exaggerating the motions. Kaveh struggled to follow, but eventually recovered after a few repetitions.
Tighnari offered him a glass of water, which he gratefully accepted and drank.
“Feeling better?” Tighnari asked kindly.
“Y-Yes, thank you,” Kaveh stammered, firmly avoiding anyone’s eyes. “Anyway, that location... the ground is unstable and can give way unexpectedly. I don’t recommend building there.”
“...We can reinforce the ground, now that we’re aware of the issue,” Alhaitham replied. Kaveh opened his mouth to dissuade him, but Alhaitham continued. “But rebuilding isn’t urgent, so we can put that aside for now. How many Withering zones currently exist, Tighnari?”
“93, now,” Tighnari answered promptly. “Unless more sprouted overnight.”
“Can we make more Opalite Water, now that we know it works? Enough for 93 more Withering zones?” Cyno asked Nahida, who nodded in response.
“Yes. The cost and the materials are reasonable enough. But...” She turned to Kaveh. “As you can imagine, this is a crisis. Would you consider assisting us, Kaveh? I don’t mean rebuilding, not just yet.”
“Then how?”
“We don’t have an excess of materials or time that we can spend on extra experiments. We know of exactly one sure method that works, and it involves Alhaitham being the one getting close to the Tumor of the Withering and wishing on the Opalite Water. He can probably modify his mindset and only wish to destroy the Withering without also focusing on rebuilding, but it might unbalance the equation and cause an unpredictable variable,” Nahida explained. “So if we go forward with this plan, you’d be summoned to the location of the Tumor of the Withering every time Alhaitham does it.”
“Uh, wouldn’t I need to drink Opalite Water at the same time as well?”
“I don’t think so. You mentioned your Sumeru didn’t have magic, so it’s likely that only the wish from our Sumeru is needed. In any case, we can’t afford to test it,” Nahida shook her head. “This does mean staying here, though. We will cover all your living expenses. At the end of it all, once the Withering has been fully eradicated, we can give you a flask of Opalite Water that you can drink to go home. This, I swear as the Dendro Archon.”
Kaveh couldn’t look away from her solemn gaze. This was a god, asking for help. From Kaveh. He’d been a coward. He’d wished to disappear from his own Sumeru, because he couldn’t bear the weight of his own life there. He wasn’t needed there. But did he subconsciously wish to go to a place where he was needed? Here, in this place, he could genuinely do some good.
Kaveh curled his hands into fists. “I’ll do it. I’ll help.”