Five times someone from the Akademiya thought Alhaitham and Kaveh were dating

2: Lord Sangemah Bay

"I'd like to buy some raw harra fruits," the man says smugly, certain that his language and demeanour were perfect.

"Raw harra fruits?"

Latish looks as confused as Dori could have hoped for before this entire ruse began and she grins sharply. She had instructed him in no uncertain terms to not accept anything the Akademiya Scribe said, even if he used the correct language.

"That is a unique taste you have, sir," Latish says with a sheepish expression. His hand nervously scratches at the back of his neck, despite having cut his hair short recently due to an insufferable heat wave across all of Sumeru. "I'm sorry but we don't sell anything but fresh, ripe harra fruits."

Alhaitham stares at Latish, narrowing his eyes in annoyance.

Dori snorts from where she is hiding around the corner behind Djafar Tavern and quickly covers her mouth to muffle the sound.

It doesn't matter all that much if Alhaitham knows she's here herself. He can't stop her from doing completely legal business. However, Dori wants to revel in his exasperated expression as he finds himself unable to buy forbidden canned knowledge. She wants to see him pull at his hair in frustration and stamp his feet in anger and she knows he'll never reveal anything if he knows she is watching him.

Unfortunately for Dori, Alhaitham does neither of these things. She can't tell whether this is because he's just as tightly-wound as most academic types, or because he suspects that she's there and doesn't want to give her the satisfaction.

Dori hopes it's the latter as she rubs her hands together gleefully in the shadows of a Lokapala potted fern.

Instead, Alhaitham smiles thinly at Latish and crosses his arms over his chest. "My mistake, then. I was told you were the merchant to ask."

"I am sorry, sir," Latish says.

Dori pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose as they begin to slip down, ducking fully behind the building as Alhaitham stalks past her, and laughs softly to herself.

Like most from the Akademiya, Scribe Alhaitham is unsubtle and arrogant.

He interrogates her merchants about their goods and routes and threatens to report them to the matra.

And he now has the audacity to use their verbal code in an attempt to pry information about her canned knowledge trade. She knows exactly who he got it from and rest assured they won't be working for her on this particular route again.

Although, Alhaitham also seems to be the type who would use canned knowledge in certain situations, bending the rules to suit him due to his high rank and status within the Akademiya itself.

This is exactly why she refuses to work with Akademiya people.

They're all hypocrites.

***

"Oh the Haravatat," Kaveh says rolling his eyes dramatically. Dori watches as a bright blue feather threatens to fall from his hair as he tousles his bangs with his hand. "They have no knowledge of such things, beauty and aesthetics are well beyond their capacity to understand."

Dori agrees with a nod, only half-paying attention to what Kaveh is rambling about. He tends to talk for a long time without getting to the actual point.

In researching potential solutions for the crumbling infrastructure of Sumeru, Dori had already spoken to a Haravatat and Vahumana scholar although interestingly enough, Kaveh had only latched on to complaining about the former. They had both said the same thing: that new trade routes, even if they would be more efficient in access and area, would be too dangerous and expensive to create.