Genshin Impact | "The Eagle Solstice" | Alhaitham x Lumine

The Man with a Book, Part 3

Part 3

Alhaitham bolted up from the bed, heart pounding and chest heaving from rapid heavy breaths. That thing, that wolf hybrid or whatever unnamed species it was, took her. It took her! his inner voice raged. The Sribe balled his fists and paced back and forth in the bedroom.

The darkness in the city of Sumeru showed through the stained windows of the Scribe's cushy house. The clock had barely struck three in the morning and the city folks were dead silent, slumbering in their beds.

First, he needed to calm down and analyze what the dream meant. He was a thinker; he was never the impulsive type, so to give in to the raw temptation to launch himself out of Sumeru and hunt the Traveler right this instant was against his nature. Yet every bone in his body was dictating him to grab his pack and flee to Fontaine.

He needed to calm down. Alhaitham bursted out of the room, startling his roommate, Kaveh, who was burning the night oil at the lounge of the house for a project that was nearing its deadline. He had returned to the Scribe's house "for Lumine's sake" he had claimed. She had requested him to keep the stoic man company while she was away.

Alhaitham headed straight to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, chugging it down in one go. It didn't do anything to calm his nerves. If that creature, if the species, so much as touch a breadth of her hair-

"What?" Kaveh asked from the lounge, looking up from his architect desk while holding a pencil.

He did not realize he had vocalized his last thought. Alhaitham shook his head and poured himself another glass, then worked his way back and forth the kitchen. His feet were itching to make a move, but he needed to focus on what he saw, first and foremost. From his understanding of what dreams meant back when he studied them, they reflected a person's subconscious thoughts. Lumine had called out to the beast with a specific name, "Cerby" she had yelled, which was enough to deduce she knew who or what it was. Yet the creature took her away, as if Alhaitham were the enemy and she were the prey. If the creature was-

"Alhaitham, is everything okay?" Kaveh had left his desk and had sauntered to the kitchen with a worried look. He had not put his pencil down and was holding it with sweaty palms.

"I'm fine." He drank the second glass of water. It nearly slipped his hand before replacing it on the kitchen counter. Trouble surfaced on his features, teal eyes kept wandering back to his bedroom as if it was calling out to him - to pack his things and leave. He cleared his throat. "I may need to head to Fontaine."

If the creature was tame, it should've stopped at Lumine's command. He was completely unfamiliar with what sort of species it was, so he had no knowledge about how it should behave, and he needed to take into account that this was Lumine's dream. She conjured that creature in her mind. The uncertainty only bred more anxiety. He better ask Tighnari if the Amurta knew what it was.

Kaveh sighed, facepalming. "This is why Lumine asked me to keep you company. You'd go running to Fontaine any moment like a fool. Notice how I'm stuck in Sumeru and not running to Fontaine either? My family - my mother - is over there with her new husband living her best life, while I'm stuck here burning the night oil, trying to finish my projects. That's because I'm an adult with responsibilities. And the same goes for you. You hold a position at the Akademiya. You can't just leave as you wish."

"Do not lie to yourself. You are here because you have debts to pay." The Scribe never sugarcoats to the point of being misunderstood as cruel. He might as well pour a bucket of ice on his roommate's head. Because that was the face Kaveh was making.

"Was that necessary? You didn't have to rub it on my face, jerk!" he fumed.

Alhaitham side-stepped his roommate and went straight to his bedroom, grabbing a pack and assembling his clothes. He didn't care for Kaveh's litany about life's woes.