In Your Eyes: Empyrean Admonition

You Are Now Awake

Land of Upper Setekh, Great Red Sand, Sumeru

The Matras set up camp for the night, with the captured Eremites tied up outside the ruins. Alhaitham is also able to set up a tent where the unconscious person sleeps. The other Matras are busy helping Kaveh and since he is not medically trained, Alhaitham lets them do their work.

"I can hear a sandstorm coming," one of the Matra reports, "We need to take the Eremites inside the ruins for the meantime since we don't have enough time to set up more tents."

"I'm glad you're here, Prem. Your ears are really sharp," Cyno praises his subordinate before giving out more orders, "Make sure the Sumpter Beasts are tied well on the post and check Alhaitham's tent too."

The Matras spring into action, making sure everything is prepared before the sandstorm hits.

Alhaitham enters the tent and sits beside the unconscious person, taking out the book he took before the rescue mission started. Yakshas: The Guardian Adepti. He just picked it up randomly for a quick read but the more he read through the book, the more he became intrigued. Does the Adepti relate more as humans or animals or are they an entirely different being? The late Geo Archon was the Prime of the Adepti which means that he was Adepti before he became the Archon. Nowadays, people outside of Liyue think that the adepti or the illuminated beasts are mere folktales from the nation of contracts. But now, as Alhaitham looks to his side, seeing a human with rabbit features makes him believe that anything is possible.

He wasn't able to notice that the sandstorm had been going on for quite some time, he was too engrossed in the book anyways. The strong gusts of wind outside makes the entire tent shake. Alhaitham closes the book and his eyes, it has been a long day. He sets the book down as well as his soundproof earpieces and keeps them inside his Doer's belt pouch. After some thought, he also removes the modified Akasha terminal. There's not much room inside the tent but he doesn't want to move the unconscious person so he just leaned on one of the tent poles, trying to catch some sleep.

Curiosity has always been one of Alhaitham's weakness, though he makes sure he doesn't show it. If there's something he wants to know, he quickly goes through his book collection or the Akademiya library, or the now defunct Akasha, to search for an answer. Right now however he is very curious about the unconscious person's ear. He has already measured it, at least 15 cm in length and 6 cm in width, but what he really wants to know is how it feels. Is it just like a regular rabbit's ear or is it tougher? He has already checked if the person has a human ear, he initially thought that this person might have been dressed up as a rabbit, but the rabbit ears are the only ears they have.

His fingers slowly uncurl and he gingerly reaches out, touching an ear with the tip of his finger. Curiosity got the best of him as he traced the length of the ear boldly. Instead of feeling warm, it is unnaturally cold. Alhaitham moves closer, noticing how the person shivers underneath the spare blanket from the Matra. The person is also very pale which bothers him. He places his palm on the person's cheeks and they are really cold.

Alhaitham takes off his cloak and places it on top of the blanket. He observes the other person for a few minutes and they remain shivering. Outside, the roar of the sandstorm continues and he thinks it will be like that for quite some time. Not wanting to let the unconscious person suffer, Alhaitham lies down beside them, pulling them closer in his arms.

"I hope my body heat is enough to warm you up," he whispers.

He pulls the blanket and his coat over them before pulling the person in a tight embrace. Slowly, Alhaitham feels that the person is warming up. He doesn't mind being in close proximity with someone, the purpose of this is just to warm them up to avoid them suffering from hypothermia. But he can't help staring at the person's face, their eyelashes looking like a small fan over their cheeks.