Chapter Text
He's different from the Kaveh that Alhaitham knew back then. What was once a perfectly-manicured appearance is now a disheveled wreck, and exhaustion is etched into every line of the architect’s face.
"...Hey.”
“What”, Alhaitham begins slowly, “could you possibly want from me at this hour.”
Kaveh smiles at him tiredly. His teeth look funny, but underneath the dim light, Alhaitham can't seem to pinpoint what exactly is wrong.
“Rude as ever. Just wanted to make sure you were well. That's all.”
Alhaitham’s eyebrows raise so high they disappear behind his bangs.
“‘That's all?’ I know full well you did not wake me up at three in the morning just to satisfy your own curiosity, senior. I have work tomorrow morning- either explain why you're here, or come back at a more reasonable hour.”
Kaveh hesitates then, the weary politeness slowly fading into something more grim.
“...I suppose I should tell you, if no one else.”
His voice is painfully soft, with none of the fear or rage of their last encounter all those years ago.
Something cold curls at the base of Alhaitham's stomach.
“Tell me what, exactly?”
Kaveh takes a deep breath, steadying himself against the doorframe.
“I'm dying.”
Alhaitham stares at him in utter disbelief. “...What?”
Kaveh grimaces. “I don't know how to put it in any clearer terms. I'm going to die very soon.”
“No you're not.”
“Yes I am.”
“No.” Alhaitham insists, a familiar bite of frustration slipping into his voice. “You are barely thirty. You are not dying.”
“I am.” Kaveh repeats again, a little louder this time. There's something very raw in his expression as he stares at the tile at Alhaitham's feet. “It’s okay if you don't believe me, but I thought I may as well check in on you first. Goodbye, Haitham.”
Alhaitham steps aside, holding the door open- but Kaveh's feet remain planted firmly on the porch, crimson eyes darting nervously between Alhaitham and the hallway within.
“Oh. I don't know if I can...”
“Come in.” Alhaitham grits out, knuckles white where they grip at the door handle. “This is your house too. Your stubbornness does not change that fact.”
Invitation given, Kaveh stumbles over the threshold. Now that he's finally stepped into the light of the hallway, Alhaitham can see that the architect is unnaturally pale and thin.
The scribe frowns as he watches Kaveh limp over to one of the divans and throw himself down on the cushions.
“I must admit, this is a marked improvement from sleeping on the floor…”
“I sincerely hope you're going to explain yourself, senior.” Alhaitham paces around the divan, eyes fixed on Kaveh's worryingly prominent spine. “There's no need to change the subject.”
Kaveh shudders, curling up beneath his tattered red cloak. It's a warm night in Sumeru, but his teeth are chattering as if he's spent a week in the snowfields of Snezhnaya.
Alhaitham's frown deepens. “...I’ll wait, but I'd prefer it if you got to the point. You seem to be running low on time.”
Kaveh sighs. “I have a condition. It's fatal. That's all you really need to know about it.”
“Nonsense.” Alhaitham retorts, leaning over the divan to squint at the architect. “You're telling me the best and brightest of Amurta and Spantamad can't do anything for the Light of Kshahrewar himself? There's no fancy doctors in Liyue- or, or Fontaine? There are even shamans in Natlan.”
(But his rebuttal is already falling apart- what right does he have, to tell Kaveh what is or isn't happening to his body?
It's not like he's seen him for a decade. It's not like he's an insider on Kaveh's life and health. Not anymore.
All he knows is that Kaveh, the most passionate, lively man in the entirety of Sumeru- should not be talking so casually about his own death before the age of thirty.)
Kaveh shakes his head, gaze downcast. “There's nothing that can be done. It's over.”
“Over?!” Alhaitham demands furiously- because how can he not be? “You waited until you thought it was over to come to me? Do you think so lowly of me, that I am the very last resort in a matter of life and death?”
“You’re not my last resort, and I don't need your help!” Kaveh snaps, temper flaring for the first time that evening. “That is not why I'm here!”
“Then why did you bother coming back?!” Alhaitham doesn't mean it, he never does- but his temper gets the better of him once again. “What do you want me to do?!”
Kaveh suddenly goes very quiet.
“...I wanted to say goodbye.”
All the fight seems to leave Alhaitham’s body at once. He flops down on the divan next to his former friend with a deeply aggrieved sigh, dragging a hand over his face.
“Oh, Kaveh.”
“I'm sorry.” The architect murmurs, eyes glossy. “I don't like the idea of leaving unfinished business. I mean, you still thought I hated you. Figured I should at least set that straight.”
The scribe shakes his head. “I don't think that way. I never did. You were angry, but you're not a spiteful person.”
Kaveh's hands fiddle anxiously in his lap. “Well, I thought- I wanted to- agh, I don't know. Asking to make amends after everything I said to you back then is a little much, but I figured I should at least warn you ahead of time. I mean, what if you'd found out through my obituary in the Sumeru Tribune?”
Kaveh pauses, tilting his head. “That would've been… tasteless, I think? The part of my life that I spent with you was worth more than a couple paragraphs surrounded by furniture ads.”
“You underestimate your own fame, senior, if you're under the impression that your passing would not make front headlines in the news.”
Kaveh laughs, but there's no humor in it. “You're as blunt as ever.”
His eyes rove around the room, softening at the familiar sights of their old research center. Hideous furniture, books strewn about... Not Kaveh's style, certainly.
But since it's not his home, perhaps it doesn't matter.
“...You're doing well for yourself, aren't you? You seem content with work and everything.”
“You come to me on the brink of death, and yet you worry about my wellbeing?” Alhaitham complains dryly. “Think of yourself first, senior.”
Kaveh offers him another horribly sad smile, the kind that makes Alhaitham feel more frightened than he ever has been.
“I'm not trying to deflect. I'm just happy for you. You've built a good life here. I feel a lot better now that I know you'll be okay.”
Alhaitham’s nausea worsens.
Kaveh should be in the prime of his life- but is instead clinging to life in this little research center, like an injured animal that has crawled back to its old den to die.
“...You think I should just move forward.”
“Yes.” Kaveh replies, eyes fixed very steadily on the tile wall. “We’ve both dealt with death before. You have experience.”
“You are the closest thing I have left to family.” Alhaitham admits quietly, and Kaveh's eyes widen in horror. “Do you expect me to let you go, too?”
Kaveh swallows harshly, watery gaze darting back and forth between Alhaitham and the floor.
“You're not being fair to me. I didn't ask for this- I don't want to die.”
Alhaitham turns to face him directly. Kaveh's face is so different than it was back when they had last met, the illusion of a carefully-kept appearance entirely gone. Those painfully sunken crimson eyes, dull hair that had once shone gold…
“I want to help you, but you won't even tell me what's wrong. Is money the problem? I can help if the treatment cost is the issue.”
Kaveh sniffles, brushing at his nose with his sleeve. “No! It's just this disease I have- it destroys your immune system. I can't eat.”
Alhaitham stares at him. “...What?”
The architect weakly throws up his hands. “I know it sounds insane! But I can't eat normal food, no matter how hungry I get. Not even water! At least it solved my alcohol problem, I haven't even been able to drink for months...”
“You should be dead already, if that's true.” Alhaitham replies tentatively, cogs turning in his mind. “Humans can't survive without basic hydration or nutrition.”
Kaveh smiles again, this time very widely.
Nestled between his ordinary teeth are two long white fangs.
Everything clicks all at once.
“Oh.”
So it's because you're not human.
Alhaitham's eyes travel down to Kaveh's neck, where two twin puncture wounds lay near his jugular vein.
…Vampirism.
An incredibly rare curse originating in Nod Krai and Snezhnaya- but not one completely unheard of in Sumeru.
“How?”
Kaveh sighs, slumping forward. “It happened in the desert. I don't really want to talk about how I got infected, so spare me the lecture. I made some bad decisions, and let a stranger into my camp even though he was clearly unwell.”
“I’m not blaming you, if that's what you're concerned about. Is this the reason why you've stopped taking commissions after the palace?”
Kaveh sighs, folding his hands in his lap. Even in the warm lighting of Alhaitham's living-room lamps, he looks absolutely gaunt. “Yeah. I can't exactly travel during the day with my current sun allergy. Even heavy moonlight is a problem, since it's just a reflection of the sun's light from the other side of Teyvat…”
“And how many months has it been since you fell ill?”
“Two. I've survived this long by chewing on a piece of pure iron rebar I stole from a construction site, but it's not enough. I need… well, you know what I need.”
Alhaitham feels almost dizzy with relief. Finally, a problem that I can solve. “That's such a simple solution. Why are you starving yourself to death?”
Kaveh, for his part, looks deeply affronted. “It's not that easy! I- I can't do animals, or blood bags. I tried both, and they just came right back up.”
“You have to feed from a human host, then.”
Kaveh sticks his tongue out. “Ugh, don't put it that way, it sounds foul… But essentially, yes. I talked it over with my forest ranger friend a few days after I got this bite. He seems to think my nutrition is similar to vampire bats, but with the additional added curse of needing human blood composition. My body can only use the kind of cells it's already familiar with.”
“Did he let you take some of his blood?”
Kaveh shakes his head forlornly. “It was more like several hours of him trying to convince me to bite… but it didn't work anyways. He's a Valuka Shuna, not a full human. So his blood ended up being completely inedible to someone like me.”
“Why not seek out someone else?
“I don't want to bite another person! I don't know how it works for vampires, and I don't want to go too far and accidentally turn somebody else… I won't become a monster just to sustain myself.”
“Then what about the person who bit you?”
Kaveh sighs. “I was exploring some ruins for inspiration, and found a man wandering the desert with horrific sunburns. He said he was from a nearby settlement that got wiped out by monster attacks, and needed something to eat. So of course I tried to help... He attacked me shortly after dusk.”
“So he got away with it.”
Kaveh winces again. “Not exactly. He gained enough strength from my blood to last a few more hours, but the burns were too much to bear for someone suffering from malnutrition… and by that point, I was too weak to treat him. He died in my tent. ”
Alhaitham's frown deepens. “Starving or not, you shouldn't let your guard down around strangers. He could have killed you.”
A cold hand wraps around Alhaitham's wrist, pulling him forward to slide his palm under the cutout in Kaveh’s shirt. Right over his heart, the body's ever-moving core of life.
…Nothing. Just cold, unnatural stillness beneath clammy skin.
The only thing Alhaitham can feel is the rapid hammering of his own heart, which seems to be trying to break free of his chest.
“He did kill me, Haitham.” Kaveh's voice is hollow with sadness. “There really wasn't anything I could do about it.”
Alhaitham can't even help it. He turns away from his old friend and gags. Kaveh's resigned expression immediately morphs into a mix of horror and offense.
“Wha- hey!”
Alhaitham claps a hand over his mouth, desperately trying not to vomit. There's a horrible swirling darkness in his stomach, trying to tear its way out of his throat like a trapped bird.
(Somehow, he'd forgotten the part of the book that mentioned vampires being undead.)
“Calm down.” Kaveh says, looking anything but calm as he gingerly pats Alhaitham's shoulder. “Look- being a reanimated corpse isn't actually as rough as it sounds! I'm still standing, aren't I? And I don't think my body has started to rot or anything, so-”
“Not helping.” Alhaitham rasps, squeezing his eyes shut. Kaveh falls quiet again, blueish lips pressed into a thin, worried line.
“...I don't know what I can say.”
“You don't have to.” Alhaitham manages. “It’s not your fault. Just… give me a minute. I think I need to lay down.”
Kaveh's eyes go wide. “Don't tell me you're about to faint just because of that! Are you squeamish about touching dead things? I promise I won't do it again.”
Alhaitham presses his hand against Kaveh's chest again, causing the architect to go still as a board.
“I'm not afraid of you or your body. Don't think that for a moment.”
Visible relief washes over Kaveh's waxy face. “Oh. Thank the archons.”
Alhaitham lets his head drop into his hands, pressing his watering eyes against his palms.
…Kaveh is dead.
This, unfortunately, is irrefutable. Kaveh's heart has stopped. The human man known as the Light of Ksharehwar has died at the age of twenty-nine.
(He's half hoping this will all turn out to be a nightmare, but the people of Sumeru do not dream.)
Technically dead, but still capable of functioning as himself. Alhaitham's brain amends. We can work with that.
Kaveh is practically hovering over him, hands wandering close as if to comfort Alhaitham before once again pulling away.
Alhaitham sighs again, scrubbing away the moisture from his eyes.
“Apologies. I'm just… trying to process everything you told me.”
“It's okay.” Kaveh looks sadder than Alhaitham has ever seen him, but he still tries to offer the scribe some semblance of a smile. “I was freaking out too when I first realized what happened to me. It's a lot to take in.”
“I hate the fact that a stranger did something so cruel to you, after you extended so much kindness to them.” Alhaitham confesses, eyes fixed on the floor of their living room. “I know they were starving, but they were selfish enough to condemn another person to the same fate. And I hate the fact that, even after dying at their hands, you're still suffering. That's what upsets me most, not the fact that you have a new form.”
Kaveh blinks rapidly. “Oh.”
“Also,” Alhaitham continues, “I'm going to help you eat. And before you resist, or twist my words, or whatever you're doing to justify starving yourself- just know that I would by far prefer that you borrow a little bit of blood from me than die a second time.”
Kaveh's face, miraculously, manages to turn even more pale from fright. “Wha- borrow from you?! Have you completely lost it?!”
“I'm perfectly sane.” Alhaitham retorts irritably. “Stop being so damn stubborn. You say you pity the one who attacked you for starving, but refuse to take advantage of ample resources to improve your own situation. Isn't that unfair to him?”
Kaveh makes an odd growling noise in the back of his throat, his gaunt face contorting with genuine hurt. “How dare you-?!”
“-Anyways, I'm perfectly healthy.” Alhaitham interrupts. “I exercise regularly and weigh over 200 pounds. I'm not going to suffer any physical consequences from you having a small meal.”
“Where would I even bite?!”
“My neck, obviously. That's the instinct for all vampire species I've read about.”
Kaveh balks, looking deeply troubled.
Alhaitham tilts his head sideways, brushing his hair out of the way to expose bare skin.
“Come here.”
He waits a second more.
Something in Kaveh's expression wavers- and then snaps completely as he lunges for Alhaitham's throat.