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

3: Kshahrewar Driyosh Jazari

The first thing Jazari notices about Professor Kaveh is that he never finishes his lectures on time.

Waving his arms wildly as he speaks, cheeks flushed with frustration or passion depending on the lecture subject, Professor Kaveh will talk and talk until the chimes interrupt him mid-sentence. Rather than wrap up whatever he's saying, Professor Kaveh then shoos everyone out of his room so they won't be late to their next classes.

It's very unprofessional.

Jazari tells him this after class once, bracing himself for Professor Kaveh's ire. Instead, the instructor laughs loudly, throwing his head back so the blue feather in his hair flops back and forth, threatening to fall to the ground.

The second thing Jazari notices about Professor Kaveh is that he's beautiful.

***

Jazari didn't know this before joining the darshan, but Kshahrewar students are known for being pretty.

Perhaps it's due to the preconceived stereotype about artists and their passion. Kshahrewar scholars and researchers aren't always artists, in fact, most of them decidedly aren't, and Jazari doesn't like being automatically lumped in with them.

He wants to study mechanics and machines like Pir Kavikavus, not art and design. Their speciality is supposed to be technology for archon's sake.

Being called pretty is not as much of a compliment as one would initially assume. Jazari is told that he's pretty all the time in the same breath that people tell him that he should have chosen a different darshan or a less difficult field of study.

"You're so good-looking Jazari. If only you weren't so obsessed with machines."

"Jazari, you're everything the Akademiya could want in a scholar and your looks could make you popular. Why are you wasting your talents in Kshahrewar?"

"The Kshahrewar is a dying darshan. I think you're great, Jazari, and really hot, but this relationship isn't going to go anywhere. I need to be with someone successful."

As the last memory fades away, Jazari lifts his head and strides purposefully down the hallway.

"Don't worry about that nonsense," Professor Kaveh snorts, waving his hand dismissively in front of Jazari's face. "They used to tear me apart while calling me 'The Light of the Kshahrewar.' My own parents disowned me for not choosing their alma mater. And now I am everything they said I would never be: successful, popular, and an acknowledged and accomplished architect. I'm certain you can do the same."

Professor Kaveh interrupts himself to look down at Jazari's latest grades. "You're certainly intelligent enough to do so anyway."

If Professor Kaveh had faced the same scrutiny when he was a student and had come out successful, then Jazari can certainly handle a few failed relationships and petty comments from other scholars.

If Professor Kaveh, winner of the Pir Kavikavus Prize, true Light of the Kshahrewar, and creator of the Palace of Alcazarzaray can do it, so can Jazari.

If Professor Kaveh can now not only pull the Kshahrewar somewhat back into the Akademiya's good graces and acquire significant patronage from Lord Sangemah Bay of all people, then Jazari will surpass him and become the next Pir Kavikavus.

Smiling brightly to himself, Jazari adjusts the forms tucked under his arm and raises his hand to knock on Professor Kaveh's office door.

"This is preposterous!"

The professor's voice drifts out into the hallway from behind it as Jazari's knuckles stop just short of the lacquered wood.

"You have two keys! There is no need for you to take both of them when you leave to do...whatever it is that you do!"