Those Among Teyvat

SUMERU | First Meeting

ALHAITHAM

[name] has always been second place throughout her entire life. She had an older sibling who'd been successful all their life which left [name] with little to no spotlight. But it didn't matter. Though she got some praise it would always return to how they'd reminisce on how their sibling got a great score.

She was a very quiet girl through her years in the Akademiya as a young scholar learning her place in the world and taking extremely difficult courses that would prove where they belonged in the world for the rest of their life whether they liked it or not.

...

That didn't matter either. It came easy to [name], with studying of course. But those first waves of test results came in and she cared. She cared so much but she was in second place. Their sibling wasn't even in her grade and she got second place. That gray-haired boy. The way he looked as if he didn't care at all, as if he knew he'd get first.

It became an unhealthy obsession to surpass him but as time went on she learned that it was not that she wanted to be first place. It was that she wanted to be acknowledged by this person. Alhaitham. That was his name.

Plenty of years later she still remembered that name. After all, he was one of the figures who helped save Sumeru from the grasp of the Fatui and the corrupt scribes who agreed with the Doctor's ideals. She was there too but not on the side of the Fatui. She'd snuck into the Akademiya within the House of Daena. She had a plan but it proved to be too risky and had escaped to where they put prisoners, finding the Traveler and Paimon there.

She was the one that got them out, whether that contribution was made known to the others that the Traveler was working with, great. If not? Oh well. Not like she cared.

She was told that the Acting Grand Sage position was vacant but would soon be filled by none other than Alhaitham. A thick jealousy swarmed her mind for a brief second before disappearing. She also learned that her parents pulled some strings and she would be an assistant. It turned out that many had already failed Alhaitham's 'trial' process to determine if they would be able to keep up.

So now she is here. The elevator slowly came to a halt at the Acting Grand Sage's domain. It was an elegant sight to behold but she could not dwell on that for long.

"You're ten minutes early." She heard the nonchalant voice from the large desk before she saw him as the woman rose, stepping up a few stairs at a time.

"I see it as being ten minutes early as 'on time'. It's better to get ahead before others do." She inferred to cut that comment to a close. [name] heard a hum come from his throat. Whether it was positive or negative she could not figure out.

"I need all this done before the end of the day." He held out a piece of paper to the woman and she took it, looking it over expectantly.

"Don't you want to know my name first?"

"I'll learn your name if you're qualified for this position."

Right. It was too much to ask. Too much for him to remember second place.

KAVEH

Whenever it came close to the end of a school year, everyone could tell that the attitudes of all the students changed. Some became more hardworking, others became more lazy, while others just wanted to get the few assignments over with. As a student of Kshahrewar, [name] was partially eager to get her assignments done, not because she disliked her choice of study but because she enjoyed it.

And, thankfully, her professor knew how to end the year easily for their students. Currently, many students taking the Kshahrewar course were told to go out within Sumeru City and Port Ormos and to find a piece of architecture they liked most and create something entirely different based on that structure.