[Alhaitham x Kaveh: One Shots(?)] Through The Torn Pages And Crumbled Buildings

Mortality [Chp. 2/?]

[I posted this on my birthday :D]

Chapter [2/?]

The weightless sea of clouds is heavy beneath the god's lingering feet. Swift steps of the divine are swallowed by the clouds' hungry embrace. Emerald-green shards hover over his open palm. The lone moon's glow is soft, drifting onto their uneven form. Alhaitham tilts his head to the side, stern eyes tracing the mechanism. He hopes to see even the quickest of sparks between the shards. They float there, still and moved only by the wind. The shards crack and fall after; shattering into bits of glass before disintegrating into nothingness. No matter, he will reconstruct it once more.

Contemplation wanes from his face. Alhaitham huffs. For a few short years, Alhaitham has worked notoriously for it to work. The self-disintegrating mechanism gifted by Dehya is said to have a fragment of light perpetually bouncing off mere glass shards, eternally encased by them. The goddess did not emphasize on its inner workings nor did she provide clear instructions for operating it. The goddess would not mutter a single word if asked of it.

A call, one familiar enough to find its way into every crevice of his ears, echoes through the dark lit by dim starlight, and guided solely by the moon's path of light amidst the abyss. It is the near-transparent wings of sage-green which taints a part of the sky with color. The god of literature's gaze follows the glowing tips of its ruffling feathers. It is above him when it folds the wings away and plummets downward, spiraling with a trail of fading green in its wake- like the tail of a shooting star. It is the show of return of the Vultur Volans. Eagle. The bird pierces through the high clouds, stretching its pair of wide wings apart, and shifting its head to the side. A flap of its wings bursts a gust of strong wind. Its turquoise eyes fix on a pair of the same shade.

Alhaitham sees a rolled parchment between its talons. Punctual as always. His companion did not fail him. The god raises his arm, feeling it sink from the heavy weight and sharp talons on his scarred skin as the eagle lands. It lets out a gentle chirp and lightly pecks at the arm it is perching on. With his free hand, Alhaitham unbinds the rope around the Vultur Volans' leg and slips away the parchment between the grasp of two of his fingers. His companion leaps off of his arm, feathery wings spread, and disappears under the thick clouds. It knows dismissal.

Displeasure. Displeasure is what fills him with subtle ire. Alhaitham pinches the bridge of his nose. A gruff sigh escapes. Another piece of writing in need of rune translations for the goddess of the hunt. His strings are far from pulled by the divines. They are tugged and stretched till they are nothing but a thin straw, tangled and knotted by their own kin. His sight flickers to darkness at that thought. Exhaustion creeps from behind. Gods and goddesses need no sleep, but they are able to feel the cost of their ignorance. Alhaitham almost misses the small words hidden in the corner.

'The deers have told me about the start of the construction of a beautiful temple, and its yellow-haired mortal artist. Perhaps it is high time for a rest. Surely you would be interested in its progression? You have spoken of it- lies will not evade me.'

Alhaitham lifts a brow. Curiosity blooms. It had been quite a while since the god last laid eyes with the blond mortal. His birdsong voice and blood-red gaze are still slotted within the dust-filled shelves in the archives of his memories, waiting for the day of remembrance. He seals away the parchment; a frown forms when plagued by the thought of it. It would not hurt to visit the architect, and it was a sturdy excuse from his given workload. "Hmph, I suppose," he mumbles under his heavy breath.

...

The acropolis is hardly complete. Its walls are not even shaped yet and the dome that hides the light is nonexistent. There are only the upright pillars pointing towards the night sky, but it is beautiful all the same.