Chapter Text
Kaveh threw another crumpled blueprint across the room, he wasn’t making any progress on his newest commission and it was due in only a few days! Archons only knew how many different ideas he’d gone through at this point, his fingers were smudged with ink and the pile of crumpled blueprints only grew as the days went by.
Just as he was about to start on the next one, a knock at his door interrupted him, had time passed that quickly? Normally Alhaitham only knocked when it was around mealtimes–
“I’m working, Alhaitham! If it’s not important don’t bother me!”
“Then don’t leave your mail sitting on the doorstep, it’s been there for two days now,” Alhaitham spoke, his tone as monotone as ever. “Don’t go wasting away in your room. I’m heading to the market, surely to make another ‘atrocious decoration decision’ as you always say.” He received a glare in response to the simple jab.
“As I said, I’m working.” He grabbed the letter from Alhaitham, “Go buy your hideous decor and I’ll keep doing actual work.” His voice held no real bite to it, his irritation lay with himself, not Alhaitham. He wouldn’t ever admit it though.
“Fine, suit yourself.”
Kaveh watched him leave the room, waiting until the door had closed to look back at the letter. In the handwriting he knew all too well were the words:
“ To my brilliant desert fox.”
He put the letter back on his desk, pushing away with both his arms leaving his head in the gap looking at the ground. A shaky breath left his mouth, it had been so long, that he thought it wouldn’t be brought up in his life again. Like the mystery of his past, everything related to that was left behind him. He reached a hand to the feather that sat in his hair, the same shade it was eighteen years prior.
With an unsteady hand, he pulled the chair back to the desk, fumbling to open the letter. The handwriting similar to his own read:
“Kaveh, my fox, it’s been sometime now, hasn’t it? I hope you haven’t forgotten about us out here in the desert, but maybe it would’ve been better that way.”
He closed his eyes again, breathing unevenly, how could he forget them? Did they think he would?
“ It’s been hard out here, but the structures you helped design have saved us lots of trouble, even without being here you're still uplifting those around you.”
He should be doing more.
“ It was never my intention to write to you and interrupt your new life, but I fear our tribe is in danger yet again. I’m afraid that the fate that befell your mother might come to take the rest of us as well.”
The memories of that night flashed through his head suddenly, everything coming back to him within an instant, the smell of their houses burning around them–
“ Our hospital is left in runes, all the medications we had to treat the ones afflicted by Eleazar had to be left behind in order for us to escape in time. We’ve sheltered ourselves in one of the temples in the Valley of Dahri, I trust you still remember these desert runes like the back of your hand. You always loved the architecture of our ancestors.”
Of course, he remembered, that those runes were what inspired him in the first place, the very foundation of his passion to create for others.
“ I hope this letter makes it to you, if not to enlist your help, then to speak to you one last time. Even if it’s by letter. Your mother loved you so much, and she’d be so proud to see where you’d gotten yourself today, all from your own hard work. Don’t try to say otherwise, we both know it’s the truth.”
The letter received a small laugh from that, his aunt never did lose her sense of humor even after everything that happened to them. In a way, he saw her in Cyno, those witty jokes however bad they were reminded him of the time he spent listening to the others play their instruments around the fire as she told stories.
“ If you do decide to find us after all, try stopping by the old hospital, we could really use those medications. Please be careful if you do, our tribe will always be your home, and your family, but you’ve built yourself a life in the city. Don’t jeopardize that over my silly little letter. We’ll love you no matter what.”
No signature was left behind, all the trouble they went through to get it perfected was lost, and Kaveh didn’t blame her. It wasn’t the safest option to leave behind a signature on a letter the Akademiya could potentially get their hands on.
He hadn’t realized the tears rolling down his cheeks until they began to fall on the letter, dropping it and wiping his face off aggressively. He couldn’t risk messing up the letter he’d gotten from her if it really was the last thing she’d tell him.
The moment Kaveh had gotten the letter he’d made his decision, he’d go back to his tribe and help them, they were his family and he’d never let them fight alone. He carefully folded the letter back into the envelope, going to his closet to get the clothes he’d designed after those he remembered wearing in the desert. His daily attire still held the colors and attributes of them as well.
Packing the clothes into the bag he hastily wrote a note for Alhaitham, explaining he’d be away on an expedition in the desert. He left it on his desk, instead switching his attention to the kitchen, grabbing simple ingredients such as potatoes, mushrooms, rice, and others.
He added multiple bottles of water, his tolerance to the heat had dulled quite a bit since living in the city, but it could still help him out on his trip through the desert. His first stop would be in Aaru village, Candace could help him pack better and make ready-made meals as he came up with the proper plan.
This would work, he could save the remaining people of his tribe, and Sumeru could manage without an architect for a little while. With the door closing behind him, he resolved to help them. No matter what.