Forget Where We Were (reupload!)

Chapter 6

Unceremoniously, the Grand Scribe took a week-long leave and left for Fontaine without speaking to anybody.

He could not afford to let others know without the confirmation glaring at Alhaitham's face, after all. He needed concrete evidence slapping him in the face to believe that none of this was a dream. When he arrives in Fontain in a few days, there would be a Kaveh waiting for him there, and he would no longer be trapped inside the same cycle of finding leads that have ended and inevitably amounted to nothing.

Alhaitham started his journey to Fontaine through the passageway through Qiaoying Village. The Scribe decided that it was the best route, booking an overnight room in one of the teahouses. So, now, he was seated at one of the patron tables, nursing a cup of tea, as he read through the books he had brought with him.

He stayed silent and unbothered until he finally finished his tea. When he turned off his noise-canceling earpieces in favor of calling on a teahouse waitress to request another cup. As the waitress took his order, Alhaitham locked gazes with a couple seated at the next table.

"Young lad," the old woman, wearing Liyuen garbs, called out to Alhaitham. "What brought you this far out of Sumeru City?"

The Scribe blinked. He could choose to ignore her, but the wrinkles around her eyes almost reminded him of his late grandmother, so Alhaitham closed his book to give the woman's question his undivided attention. He hummed. What was the Akademiya's Grand Scribe doing out of the city, anyway?

"I am traveling to Fontaine. I shall take a ship to reach the pier up north."

The woman's husband then frowned, "Well, whatever for? A vacation all alone?"

"There's someone I want to bring back home," Alhaitham replied, choosing not to lie in front of an old couple who looked like they would never mean harm to any living creature across the land of Teyvat unless they were out to avenge their grandkids, that is. "They have been gone from my side for far too long."

"Ah," the grandma gave Alhaitham a knowing smile. "They got away from you, huh? Did you say something stupid to them?'

The Scribe was about to say no until he remembered the conversation they had before Kaveh left their house without a word the next morning. His lips quirked up, "Yes. I might have said something that made them cry."

"Well, there you go!" The grandpa said with so much conviction for an old man. "You have to get them back, no matter what it takes. You gotta right your wrongs, son, no matter how too late you might think it is. The heart is uncontrollable. It waits despite all kinds of impossibilities. This person might just be waiting for you to bring them home."

The grandma looked over at her husband, "But what if they don't want to come home? What will this young lad do?"

"He needs to exhaust all his resources first," smiled the man, as if he has experienced all of it firsthand, perhaps a long time ago. "If all of it fails, he comes home and he will have to deal with the aftermath."

"That is a bit sad," nodded the grandma who looked back at Alhaithm. "Don't worry, dear. If this person ran away, it was because they were hurt. And people do not get hurt from things they're indifferent about. Pain only exists as a by-product of love. If you don't care about something, you can never get hurt if you lose it, correct?"

"Yes," nodded Alhaitham. "That is indeed correct, ma'am."

The grandma looked satisfied, "Then you got all you need. You're sensible enough to know what you want and how far you're willing to go. Just... I hope you could do things for them no matter how unnecessary or flashy it may seem to you. Let yourself adjust to their love language sometimes. It definitely helps to drive your point across."