A Padisarah Amongst the Roses

Chapter 1: A Quarrel

Kaveh POV

I stepped out of my roommate's house and closed the door with a long, tired sigh. The key got stuck in the lock when I attempted to lock it, it pissed me off. It wouldn't budge. I had to put a bit of extra force into the key. That's when it broke. Crap, I thought. I broke the key I used to open the door, the door I needed to enter the house, the house I lived in alongside my roommate. And locked myself out. Alhaitham was going to be so furious. To be honest, I was pretty mad at myself, if not more than Alhaitham was. Earlier, the well known architect of Sumeru, Light of Kshahrewar, got a beating from his roommate, Alhaitham, for forgetting his scribe papers in his room despite receiving strict orders to put them on the bookshelf.

This is what happens almost every morning when I wake up and look into Alhaitham's dark teal eyes telling me to get the hell out of bed. He would call me incompetent and roll me off my own mattress before splashing an unwelcome cold glass of water on my face. So inconsiderate. But there was something about Alhaitham that made me not want to hate him. There was a part of him that I knew liked me. Not enough to at least be nice to me though, I thought. The way he looks at me when he gets lost in thought is mesmerizing. His eyes grow hazy in a way, like he loses himself. But his gaze remains on me the entire time. He confuses me. Back to the situation of the broken key, I didn't know how to tell him. Maybe I would just let him find out on his own. He would kill me, but I've survived it already. It didn't matter. So I went on with my day.

"You left my damn papers in your room, when I had told you five times to bring them to my office? God, you are so useless!" Alhaitham screamed at me as soon as he came back from the Akademiya.

"I couldn't find my papers anywhere, and it didn't help that I had to present that information to a supervisor today!"

I sighed. "Well, dear Alhaitham, why the hell do you even give me your papers, huh? If you really think I'm that irresponsible, why leave them with me? I think you are the one that is irresponsible."

I shot a sassy look at him. I regretted it when he glared at me and made a rather rude gesture with a certain finger that told me to shut up. Alhaitham sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Why are you living in my house? Why can't you go get your own? You rely on me to give you a home to live in, a bed to sleep in, and a workspace that can handle you."

"Well maybe it can't handle me because you are too intolerant of different types of people!"

"Kaveh, you have not repaid me once. For all that I do for you, not once!"

I winced. Those words struck a blow to my heart. I didn't realize until I looked down, but my hands were trembling. Alhaitham's were, too. I balled my fingers into fists and my shoulders tensed up, a tight spring, waiting to uncoil. I tasted blood in my mouth because I had been biting my lower lip for so long, it hurt. It was a long time before I spoke. "I will," I said shakily. "I will repay you, Alhaitham. I'm sorry I haven't yet. But I will. I'm sorry. Maybe one day you will forgive me. I'm so sorry." My eyes flooded with tears, I slammed the front door behind me and headed someplace safe.

                                                                              ***

Alhaitham POV

What did he mean "maybe I will forgive him?" Forgive him for doing absolutely nothing? Hell no. I had spent so much on him, I felt like a doting father. I often questioned myself why he had to act like this. Like a woman that just got dumped. Maybe he is a woman. I mean, he acts like one, so why wouldn't he be one? I would never know. Even so, I still felt I was too hard on him. For the next few days or so, Kaveh ignored me entirely. He never was home anymore- like the days he would wake up and get so excited he would break the toaster trying to cook. He just walked out and left without a word. And I continued with my life, thinking that he went somewhere to vent. As I walked in the front doors of the Akademiya, I was greeted with familiar faces left and right. The grand sage smiled at me from next to the fountain. I waved and head to my office. The door creaked open to my touch, I closed it behind me, sat down on my office chair, and dropped my head down on the desk in front of me. I was extremely tired from the day before as I hadn't slept due to a stack of work I had to fill out. So I let my eyes shut for a second, just a minute. Then I woke up frantically. The clock read 2:05. I was late for a meeting. Waking up was a drag. I felt like I got shot, so I took a pain pill for the headache. But as I rushed out the door, the medicine kicked in, so I tripped on my foot and fell on my face. And that's one way to knock yourself unconscious.

What seemed like a few moments later, I heard a faint voice above me. "Alhaitham? Are you awake? Alhaitham, can you hear me?" The voice got louder and louder as I opened my eyes. Much to my surprise, it was Mahamatra Cyno. Standing next to him was the fox ranger of Gandharva Ville, Tighnari. His ears twitched, which I found odd. "Ugh, who.. Cyno.. is that you?" I asked the figure hovering above my face. When my brain decided it wanted to function correctly, I panicked and accidentally lifted my head too quickly, bashing Cyno in the nose. He winced while I got busy apologizing.

As Tighnari dabbed Cyno's nosebleed with paper towels, he explained to me that I had been out for almost an hour. "What? And no one tried to wake me up?" "Well," Cyno began, "Tighnari and I tried a lot of things, and they didn't work. We even tried cold water." I touched my hair- it was soaked. "Damn it, I missed the meeting," I hissed. Now I could guarantee the Akademiya would fire me. "Why did I pass out anyway?" "You tripped," they both replied in unison. Kaveh and I could never. Cyno broke the silence.

"Alhaitham, have you seen Kaveh lately? We want to stop by to say hi, maybe go to the tavern."

I thought for a moment. To be honest, I hadn't seen him around since the fight. Nor did he come home at night. I guess I stopped worrying.

"No. We had a little quarrel and he's been gone since then. Not a word from him either."

They both looked at me with concerned faces and then at each other. "Gone?.." Tighnari said. I saw Cyno place a hand around Tighnari's waist and pull him close. "What do you mean, 'gone?' Disappeared? Kidnapped? Maybe even.. dead?" Cyno questioned. Dead? Why would he be dead? Who would have the guts to kill Kaveh? I just thought he was hiding and waiting for me to forget about the incident. Again, still just a thought.

Cyno looked worried.

Tighnari looked scared.

I was, too.