A Sudden Loss of Vision

Alhaitham was sitting sideways on his usual couch, one leg splayed out in front of him, the other bent at the knee so he could comfortably rest his book against it as he read. He had spent the past three days with only Kaveh's trio of desert foxes, rescued during the Interdarshan championship, for company due to the architect being away making final adjustments to one of his client's building plans. He was expecting Kaveh back later that evening so with his last few hours of solitude he had made a simple meal of meat, cheese and bread and had poured a large glass of deep, red wine before parking himself on the couch for a couple of hours of peaceful reading. The foxes dotted themselves around the couch, revelling in his body heat as they were used to doing when Kaveh was away.

He was still there almost forty minutes later when he heard the latch on the door slide open and he smiled gently as he turned his head towards the door, fully expecting an exuberant Kaveh to burst into the room talking nineteen to the dozen about the project he'd been away working on.

What he got however, was a quiet, sombre architect who wandered, seemingly unseeing, down the corridor from the front door until he reached the doorway to the sitting room, where he stood, swaying slightly. His hair was in disarray, several of his red clips were missing and he had obviously caught too much sun over the past couple of days.

Kaveh breathed in a deep, ragged breath, scrubbed viciously at his eyes and, without acknowledging Alhaitham in any way, stepped backwards out of the room. He shuffled slowly down the corridor towards the back of the house where the bedrooms were located and Alhaitham heard the door to Kaveh's room open and then close again with a soft click. He shook his head and sighed, "And a good evening to you too." One of the foxes slid off the back of the couch and landed on his stomach with a squeak. He chuckled softly, patted the animal's little furry head and then addressed both it and the others. "It looks like you three are in with me again tonight and, with a bit of luck, a certain someone will be feel better after a good night's sleep in his own bed."

Alhaitham, as usual, got up at 6.30am the next morning. He left the foxes curled up asleep on his spare pillow and wandered out of his room in search of coffee. As he walked past Kaveh's door he paused, listening for any sign that the architect was awake, but the house was silent, so he continued towards the kitchen alone.

An hour later the foxes scurried into the kitchen and hopped up onto the window ledge and then out of the window once Alhaitham opened it for them. He wedged it part-way open so the little animals could come and go as they pleased and then poured himself another coffee as he pondered the lack of noise and bustle in the house. While once he had liked, and actively sought out, the solitude of living alone, he now found the current quiet was unsettling. A house with Kaveh in it should have been loud and vibrant; full of colour, movement, and life. Kaveh in a still, near-silent house, just felt wrong and Alhaitham began to worry.

"Kaveh." Alhaitham knocked softly on the other man's door. "I'm going to work. The pantry's full but I'll pick something up for dinner from Lambad's on the way back so expect me a little later than normal. Kaveh? Are you awake?" Alhaitham's quiet question was met with silence, and he sighed softly. "I guess I'll see you later then."

The scribe stepped out of the front door into a warm and sun-drenched street. He pulled the door closed behind himself and smiled at the little fox who was sunbathing, tucked close to the house beneath the front window. "…and I'll see you later too."

Alhaitham had a pretty standard day at the Akademiya then headed home, stopping at Lambad's on the way back to collect dinner for himself and Kaveh. He then let himself into the house and noted that it was still too quiet but at least showed some sign that Kaveh had emerged from his room at some point during the day by the fact that a plate and cup had been washed and left to drain beside the sink. He put the bag of food in the middle of the table, took some plates and cutlery out of the cupboard and then, as an afterthought, fetched a bottle of wine and a pair of glasses and added them to the table as well. He looked down at the table, sniffed appreciatively at the spicy aroma coming from the bag and then nodded to himself.

"Kaveh." In a repeat of that morning's efforts to raise his housemate, Alhaitham found himself once again knocking on Kaveh's door. "The food is ready and the table's set. Are you coming to join me?" There was no immediate reply, so Alhaitham tapped on the door again, "Kaveh? Are you in there?"

This time he was rewarded with a rustle of bedclothes and the sound of footsteps padding quietly towards the door. There was a click as the door was unlatched and it swung slowly open to reveal Kaveh, fully dressed but extremely crumpled, minus any footwear and with a blanket draped around his shoulders. His hair was pulled back in a simple, low ponytail, tied with a long piece of red string which hung limply down his back.

The architect remained in the doorway for a moment and then pulled the blanket tighter around himself with a shudder. Alhaitham frowned and raised his hand, intending to feel Kaveh's head for a temperature but immediately stopped the motion when the other man flinched back with a breathy squeak.

Alhaitham held both hands up with his palms facing Kaveh in a non-threatening manner. "Easy," he murmured. "I only want to see if you're running a fever. Will you let me?"

Kaveh eyed him warily for a moment and then lowered his head slightly towards the scribe. Alhaitham slowly moved his hand up to Kaveh's forehead and rested his palm there for a moment before smiling gently. "Seems normal," he said softly. "Are you cold?"

Kaveh blinked slowly and gave an all-in-one nod, headshake, and shrug before turning around and taking a step back towards the bed. "Oh no you don't," Alhaitham stepped around him and, ensuring Kaveh could see his hands, reached up, gently grasped both of Kaveh's arms and turned him back towards the door. "Food, Kaveh. You need to eat."

Kaveh made a weak, half-hearted attempt to remain in his room but ultimately allowed Alhaitham to gently manhandle him into the kitchen and into his usual spot at the table. He remained there silently with his left hand holding the blanket tightly around his shoulders and picked fussily at the plate of food which Alhaitham slid in front of him.

Alhaitham, for his part, remained quiet but watched Kaveh with worried eyes. While this was a dance that the pair had performed many times over the years, each time Alhaitham worried that this would be the time that he wouldn't manage to pull his gentle-natured housemate back from the brink of a depressive breakdown. Kaveh wore his heart on his sleeve, didn't cope well with rejection and was known to turn to alcohol in an attempt to drown his sorrows. Several times since Alhaitham had taken him in, clients had strung Kaveh along with promises of a grandiose building project, only to fuss about with, object to, or try to change the architect's beautiful designs. Kaveh's work was his life, his ideals were true, and he was unwavering in his faith in his abilities. This unfortunately meant that he could also end up riling certain people with his dogged inability to adapt. Oftentimes after one of these projects ended abruptly, Kaveh would become quiet and dejected and Alhaitham, with the help of Cyno, Tighnari, Collei and a few select others, had their work cut out to keep him from sliding too far into depression.

~#~

After a near-silent half an hour, Kaveh had managed to pick his way through about a third of his meal and had sipped just a couple of mouthfuls of wine. His eyes, which had been steadfastly staring down at his plate the whole time, began to flick between the plate and the door and it was clear to Alhaitham that his too-quiet tablemate was looking to escape back to his room.

Only a moment later sad, crimson eyes flicked up to briefly meet Alhaitham's who inclined his head to acknowledge the look. "Do you want company?" he asked softly. "Until you fall asleep?"

Kaveh took in a shuddery breath and reached up with both hands to clutch the blanket tighter around himself. He blinked slowly, pursed his lips, and eventually shook his head. "N-no. N-not this-this…not now." He clumsily got to his feet and shuffled towards the doorway before turning back to meet Alhaitham's gaze. "Thank you. For not…you know."

Alhaitham inclined his head again in a silent reply as Kaveh turned and shuffled back towards his room. Once he heard the click of Kaveh's door he let out a long cleansing breath, rubbed his eyes, scrubbed his fingers through his hair and sighed. Something had gone wrong and Kaveh was clearly spiralling; he was barely talking and had given Alhaitham nothing to go on apart from worrying the scribe beyond all reason. It was going to be a long couple of days.

~#~

The next day turned out almost identical to the last. Alhaitham failed to get a response from Kaveh before leaving for work, found a washed glass and plate on the draining board when he returned and, from memory of what had been in the pantry before he'd gone out that morning, deduced that Kaveh had consumed a small meat pie and nothing else.

Alhaitham put together a simple but tasty pasta dish with some fresh fish. He added a generous sprinkling of Tighnari's mood-boosting nuts and seeds and then successfully managed to extract Kaveh from his room and was gratified when the architect ate almost half of what was put in front of him. "I'll be here when you're ready to talk," he reminded Kaveh softly after they'd finished eating. "You hear me? I'm here for you."

"I know," Kaveh looked up and briefly met Alhaitham's gaze. "I…I know. Can…can I go now?"

Alhaitham let out a short breathy laugh. "Since when have you ever needed my permission? Go by all means, but remember, I'll be in there to drag your scrawny little self back out of that room tomorrow evening, if you don't show up here on your own first."

The briefest of smiles showed on Kaveh's face as he nodded and then fled back to his room. Only after he had gone and Alhaitham was clearing the table, did he realise that Kaveh had still been wearing his blanket. Was he cold, sick, or just using it as a barrier between himself and Alhaitham like some sort of frightened child? In himself, Kaveh wasn't as quiet and withdrawn as he occasionally became but the blanket, and the initial flinching away from Alhaitham was new.

~#~

As it happened Alhaitham had reason to disturb Kaveh much earlier than the next evening. He began closing up the house for the night and knocked on the window ledge to call the foxes back to find that only two of them appeared. The pair skittered around the kitchen, jumping up at Alhaitham's legs and seemed generally unsettled.

"Hey now, stop that," Alhaitham crouched down to address the little animals only to immediately have the pair of them jump into his lap. "What's got into you tonight and where's…" He picked them up, one in each hand and studied them for a moment. "V? Where's V, eh, little ones?"

Both foxes chittered quietly as they hung in his hands. Alhaitham rolled his eyes at his one-sided conversation and then transferred both foxes onto his left arm and stood up. "Nobody move," he told them firmly. "And for Archon's sake, don't jump." He walked back to the window, rapped firmly on the ledge again and whistled loudly.

After another round of tapping and whistling failed to produce the third fox, Alhaitham frowned and pulled the window closed to ensure the little animals on his arm couldn't get out again. "Are we sure he's not already inside?" the scribe looked down at the two of them and scratched, first one then the other, gently on the head. "Let's look, shall we?"

Alhaitham carried the foxes as he checked through the house, stopping in the middle of every room and listening intently for any sign that the little fox had become trapped somewhere. After checking everywhere else, and failing to locate the animal, Alhaitham realised that the only place left that he could possibly be was in Kaveh's room. He stood outside the architect's door for a moment and sighed before knocking gently. "Kaveh," he addressed the door softly. "Kaveh, may I come in?"

Alhaitham heard a brief rustling before Kaveh replied with a simple 'OK.' The scribe pushed the door open to find Kaveh sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed with the blanket in its now-usual spot draped around his shoulders and there were several pieces of paper to Kaveh's left side with what looked like the start of some sort of architectural design roughly drawn in charcoal. The scribe gently lowered the foxes onto the bed and both animals immediately hopped into Kaveh's lap, chattering as they vied for his attention. Kaveh smiled tenderly at them and then, as well as he could without getting up, looked around the room and then up at Alhaitham. "Where's V?"

"I don't know," Alhaitham shook his head. "He didn't come back with these two and I can't find him in the house so I was hoping he might have been in here but…I guess not."

Kaveh frowned, gathered the foxes in his arms and scrambled off the bed, stumbling as he got to his feet. Alhaitham instinctively reached out to steady him and didn't miss the wince that crossed Kaveh's face when he grabbed the architect's arm through the blanket. "Be careful," he scolded softly. "Or you might drop someone."

~#~

With Kaveh trailing behind him, Alhaitham opened the kitchen window and whistled but received no response. He quickly rechecked the rest of the house but, once again, there was no sign of the third fox. The scribe had been aware of Kaveh silently follow him around and shook his head. "I'll have a look outside." He gently directed the blonde into the sitting room and persuaded him to sit down. "Stay here and look after those two. I'll be…well I guess I don't know how long I'll be but please, Kaveh, try not to worry."

Kaveh was clearly not happy but pressed himself into one corner of the couch and hugged the foxes against him as Alhaitham smoothed the blanket around his shoulders. As Alhaitham turned to leave, Kaveh reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Th-thank you."

Alhaitham patted his hand, nodded, and then turned away and strode out of the house into the dusky street outside

~#~

It took Alhaitham a little under forty minutes to locate V. After scouring the area directly around the house, he moved to the level below theirs and after a few minutes came across a dog snuffling around excitedly under some bushes. He moved the dog aside and found the little fox curled up as if he was sleeping but when the scribe reached down to pick him up, he realised that the little animal was no longer breathing. "Oh," he murmured as he scooped the little animal into his arms and gently examined him. "What happened to you?"

Alhaitham was glad it was late in the evening so there were very few people around as he walked back up the ramp towards his and Kaveh's home. Despite being known as an unemotional, unfeeling person, he was well aware that if someone had challenged him about what he was doing that evening that it would not have ended well for either himself or whomever had challenged him.

The scribe quietly pushed his front door open, stepped inside and turned round to close it behind himself. He remained in place for a moment with his head resting on the door in an attempt to ground himself before he took the tiny body in his arms to Kaveh.

Kaveh himself had moved off the couch as soon as he heard the front door open. When Alhaitham didn't continue into the room he stepped slowly out into the hallway and his heart dropped when he immediately realised the scribe was having a quiet moment. "Hai?" he murmured softly as he paused just inside the corridor, leaning on the wall opposite the sitting room door. "Are you…?"

The mutilation of his name made Alhaitham's heart sink. Kaveh was inclined to omit most of the syllables only when he was absolutely furious or in great distress and he realised that Kaveh had probably guessed the outcome of his search. He sucked in a fortifying breath and turned slowly towards the architect. Kaveh's eyes immediately fell to the small furry bundle held tenderly in his arms and let out a wail. "No," he cried. "No, oh no."

Alhaitham stepped quickly towards Kaveh as the blonde's knees buckled and he began to slide down the wall towards the floor. Kaveh burst into tears mid-slide which prompted Alhaitham to drop to his knees and pull him into an awkward, one-handed hug. Kaveh clung to him, sobbing, before suddenly falling quiet and Alhaitham realised that he was gently stroking V's fur back and forth with one finger. "He was curled up under a bush," he said softly. "I don't think anything untoward happened, he just looked like he'd peacefully gone to sleep."

Kaveh sniffed loudly and nodded. "That…that's good." He remained quiet for a long moment and Alhaitham wondered if he was falling asleep until he brokenly started talking again. "I…you…can we…bury him?"

Alhaitham smiled sadly even though Kaveh couldn't see him with how he was tucked under the scribe's chin. "If you wish."

"Not in the city." Kaveh's speech was clearer as he tried to impress the importance of what he was saying to Alhaitham. "Somewhere outside, where he…where he can be free."

"We can do that," Alhaitham replied softly and then frowned softly to himself as he remembered that Kaveh had barely left his room, let alone the house, in days. "Or I can, if you don't feel up to it?"

Kaveh pushed himself out from under Alhaitham's chin but remained in place where he'd ended up slumped between Alhaitham's knees. He looked around, realised the protective position the scribe had taken around him, "I…um…oh…"

"It's fine," Alhaitham replied softly. "I'll go. Can you fetch me something to wrap him in?"

Kaveh nodded and scrambled to his feet. He reached out his hand, helped Alhaitham up off the floor and then wandered towards the bedrooms. It took a moment for Alhaitham's mind to register what he was seeing as the architect walked away but, once it did, a frown formed on his brow. Kaveh had left the blanket back on the couch and the uncovered window in the back of his shirt was facing Alhaitham as he walked away. As he moved, the window swayed and Alhaitham had could clearly make out blue, mottled bruising marring the smooth, tanned skin across Kaveh's back.

The scribe stored this discovery away for investigation once he got back from his funerary task and schooled his features as Kaveh reappeared with a soft green towel. He transferred V's body into the towel and wrapped it around the little fox so he was no longer visible and then stepped into the sitting room, fished a piece of string out of a drawer and tied the towel tightly shut. Kaveh smiled sadly. "Not in the city," he reminded the other man. "Somewhere…nice."

"Nice," Alhaitham repeated. "Will do." He pulled his cape from the peg by the front door and draped it over the towelling bundle which he had supported on his left arm. "To stave off any questions," he explained softly.

He opened the front door and glanced outside. "I'll be a while. Go to bed if you need to, don't feel you have to stay up."

Kaveh shrugged. "Just…come back safely."

Alhaitham nodded in reply, stepped outside and closed the door behind himself. While the streets of Sumeru were lit, the wilder areas beyond the city walls were not, so he walked around to the back of the house and grabbed a lantern to take with him. He set off down the ramp to the level below and strolled past shops that had been safely locked up for the night and past houses with chinks of light shining out from between curtains that were drawn against the dark outside.

Alhaitham detoured to the right as he neared the outer city wall. He had noticed in the past that Vardan often left his tools stuck into the ground around the edge of his herb fields and the scribe was pleased to find a shovel, hoe and pickaxe within easy reach of the path. He transferred the lantern into his left hand, picked up the shovel with his right and walked out of the city.

The guard to the right-hand side of the entrance raised an eyebrow as Alhaitham passed by but their primary goal was to stop people going into the city, not to stop residents from leaving so he passed through unimpeded.

Once he was outside of the walls, Alhaitham stepped off the path and jabbed the shovel into the grass so he could use both hands to light the lantern. Once he'd done that he picked up the shovel again, set off down the path and past the merchant's tents that were a near-permanent fixture just outside the walls.

He took the right-hand fork where the path split, crossed the bridge until he was level with the doorknob-shaped rock before Chatrakam Cave and then veered off to the right, down a gentle slope to where a tree sat overlooking the river valley below. The scribe set the lantern down at the base of the tree, carefully placed his cape, and contents, beside it and then stuck the shovel firmly into the ground and began to dig.

He had barely lifted three shovelfuls of grass before a voice called out of the darkness. "What in Archon's name are you doing out here? You do realise it's way past midnight?"

"Cyno," Alhaitham responded curtly as he stopped digging and leant on the shovel without turning round. "I should have known that someone would send word as soon as I left the city. I'm doing no harm to anyone, just…leave me to my business so I can get back home before Kaveh does something stupid."

Cyno crossed his arms at the scribe's words and frowned. "What?"

Alhaitham let out an exaggerated sigh and turned to look at the General Mahamatra. "It's been a long couple of days," he explained. "Something…something happened to Kaveh on the way back from meeting his client out near the edge of the desert. He's been out of sorts, like how he gets sometimes but…but not quite like how he gets. He's twitchy, sore and has taken to wearing a blanket pretty much constantly, presumably to stop me finding out that he's covered in bruises."

"He took a beating?" Cyno concluded. "But how does that become…" he waved his arms, encompassing the general area around Alhaitham and the tree. "…this?"

Alhaitham sighed again. "It doesn't, per se. This…" he made his own arm motions in reply to Cyno's. "This is just something else that happened to upset him even more, hence the need to get back to him. That…" he pointed to his cape, "…is one of the foxes, the ones he rescued from the desert during the Interdarshan championship. You do know he brought them home, right?" Cyno nodded silently. "Well one of them died suddenly this evening. Kaveh was already…" He paused and waved his hands in front of himself as he searched for the right word. "…out of sorts before the fox disappeared and, as you'd expect, he didn't react well to finding out it'd died. Look, I really need to get this done and get back."

Cyno held his hand out for the shovel. "Give me that," he replied softly. "It sounds like you're going to have your work cut out when you get home so just take a moment and breathe. OK?"

Much as Alhaitham had fully intended to dig the grave himself, he had to admit that he hadn't been sleeping well since Kaveh had come back from his trip and that was unlikely to improve for at least the next couple of days. "Be my guest." He handed the shovel to Cyno and then leant heavily against the tree while the smaller man made short work of digging a decent sized hole.

Once Cyno was done, Alhaitham unwrapped his cape and handed the towel-covered bundle to him. Cyno carefully placed it at the bottom of the hole and then shovelled the dirt back on top and patted it down. "Done," he said quietly. "Now, let's get you back home safely."

The two men walked back to the city in silence. Cyno waited while Alhaitham returned the shovel to Vardan's field and then walked the scribe right back to the front door of his house. "Try to get some sleep," he ordered. "I'll do some digging, oh, wrong turn of phrase there, I guess. I'll see if I can find anything out about what happened to Kaveh."

Alhaitham paused by the door and nodded. "Send word if you find anything…and, thank you for…" he waved his arm back in the general direction of the gate. "…that."

Cyno nodded briefly and then turned and strode away without a backwards glance.

Alhaitham pushed the door open then stepped through and locked it behind himself. He pulled off his boots and yawned as he hung his crumpled cape back on its peg. Scrubbing his hands tiredly through his hair, he wandered through the sitting room, intending to get a glass of water before heading off to bed, only to realise that Kaveh hadn't entirely retired for the night. The blonde had obviously tried to stay up to wait for Alhaitham but his body had betrayed him as he sat on the couch. He had ended up with his feet on the floor while his torso was slumped sideways across two cushions. One fox was curled up tightly against his stomach and the other little animal was sprawled over Kaveh's rib cage with its head hanging down across his chest, watching Alhaitham intently.

Alhaitham shook his head at the sight before him. Kaveh was sleeping peacefully, which was good, however if he remained in that position all night he'd wake up stiff and even sorer than he'd been for the past few days.

Mindful not to jostle the foxes too much, the scribe gently lifted Kaveh's legs up onto the couch and rolled him slightly into a more natural sleeping position. He let out a tired grumble but thankfully remained asleep as the fox by his stomach tucked itself back against him. The fox draped over his ribcage simply adjusted itself slightly and then remained still.

Alhaitham picked up Kaveh's blanket from where it hung over the back of the couch and covered him up to where the fox was lying on his chest. He folded the rest of the blanket back on itself which left one fox out in the open and the other one, by Kaveh's stomach, completely hidden from view.

Feeling happier about how Kaveh was situated, Alhaitham continued through into the kitchen and filled two glasses with water. He left one on the coffee table where Kaveh would see it when he woke up and carried the other into his room, sipping it slowly as he changed into his night clothes. Once he was ready for bed, he opened his door a little way to ensure he'd hear if Kaveh got into distress in the night then lay down and was asleep within minutes.