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On the walk back to Gandharva Ville, Tighnari wears a strange expression on his face, steely and irritated but cracked down the middle. Collei trails a few steps behind. The trees are so tall that the forest seems like it could go on forever; like Cyno could climb and climb and never reach the sky.
Since leaving Sumeru City, Tighnari and Collei haven’t spoken. Cyno is glad for it; he has much to think about, and he trusts that Tighnari will speak his mind when he’s ready.
Which is now, apparently, after Collei stops to sit on a fallen tree trunk. Tighnari doesn’t sit. He paces back and forth, tail lashing back and forth like an angry pendulum.
“You,” Tighnari says tersely, “are an idiot.” His ear twitches menacingly.
Cyno nods. Tighnari is usually right about these things. “I am an idiot,” he agrees as he sits beside Collei.
Tighnari sighs, and the sound trails into a growl. “Do you even know what you’re agreeing to?”
“I feel like your statement was very clear.”
“I’m trying to say that I’m upset with you.” Beside Cyno, Collei shrinks back a little.
“Oh,” Cyno says after a pause. Tighnari does seem upset. That twisted expression is still on his face and his hands are clenched into fists. “Is it because I—”
“Yes, it’s because you ran off to the desert all on your own and specifically tried to lose me,” Tighnari interrupts before Cyno can finish. “What on earth were you thinking?” His voice has lost its bite now, leaving in its wake only red, raw concern.
For a moment, Cyno deliberates. He wanted to protect Tighnari. It is his duty to protect all the people of Sumeru, but Tighnari and Collei—if something happened to either of them, then Cyno would—
“We were really worried about you,” Collei says in a rush. “So don’t do that ever again, okay?”
The tightness in Cyno’s chest loosens. “I won’t trouble you again,” he promises. “I’m sorry I made you worry. Both of you.”
“But I want you to trouble me,” Tighnari protests. “That’s the point. I want to help you. I couldn’t live with myself if something had happened and I wasn’t there to—” Tighnari cuts himself off abruptly, forcing out a sharp breath through his nose. “So stop being an idiot. You really are like him.”
“Like who?”
“That’s true,” Collei agrees thoughtfully. “Didn’t this whole thing start because Professor Cyrus, um… ran off to the desert all on his own and tried to lose you?”
Tighnari only stares. Cyno looks at the ground. “I’m sorry,” he repeats. “I only wanted to keep you safe.”
Cyrus wanted that too; he didn’t want Cyno to become involved with the Temple of Silence after so long keeping him in the dark. He wanted for Cyno to live free of the burdens he was saddled with through childhood. In some ways, Cyrus was successful, but Cyno wonders what his life would have been like if he knew that there was someone like him—if he grew up in the desert instead of the forest, or if he knew he wasn’t the only one with the power of Hermanubis inside of him.
Finally Tighnari sits, leaving a space between them. “When will you get it through your thick skull that I don’t care about being safe if it means you’re in danger? Would you prefer to keep me in the dark until someone calls me to identify your body?”
Cyno loops his arm through Collei’s, and she leans her head on his shoulder. “I tried to do the best that I could in a complex situation. I’m sorry to make you worry but I don’t regret trying to protect you. Still… I’m glad you were there in the end.” The words come out hollowly, directed more at the forest floor than at Tighnari.
All at once, Tighnari deflates. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so harsh. You’ve been through a lot, and I’m sure you have a lot on your mind. I just want you to know you can rely on me. On both of us. We care about you very much, and we don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“It’s alright. I understand. If the situation was reversed, I would react the same way.” He squeezes Collei’s arms. “Are you ready to go yet?”
“Yes! It’s just, well, it’s been a long few days so I was tired, but I’m alright now.” She gives Cyno a rare, blinding smile. “Do you think we could play Genius Invokation when we get home?”
“Collei. Nothing would please me more in this life than to play Genius Invokation TCG with you.”
“I wanted to ask,” Tighnari says, once Collei has gone to sleep, “what did you end up talking about with Cyrus?”
They’ve come to sit by the river, upstream from Gandharva Ville. The lotuses are in full bloom under the moonlight, and the distant pounding of the waterfall provides a reprieve from heavy silence. Cyno wades in the cool water while Tighnari hangs back, comfortably dry.
“Ah, nothing much. He still has secrets, I’m sure.” Cyno is grateful for everything the professor did for him, and the life that he saved him from, but he can’t help but think that—that—
“That asshole,” Tighnari scoffs. “I can’t believe he kept all of that from you.”
“He did his best. I don’t know what kind of life I would have had in the Temple of Silence.”
“I suppose. But it’s not like the Akademiya has ever treated you well either.”
Cyno wants to argue. He is the General Mahamatra; of course the Akademiya respects him. He has more power than most people could ever hope for. Half of the country shivers when his name is mentioned.
But the Akademiya wanted just the same from him as the Temple of Silence did. It was only Cyrus’ influence that saved him. It was Cyrus who brought Cyno to the rainforest when the only person in the world who was like him stayed with the Temple. It was Cyrus who tried to keep Sethos’ existence from him even now, more than a decade later.
“I understand why he did it,” Cyno confesses softly. “There’s no use in wishing things were different. I know now.”
“You could do to be a little meaner, you know,” Tighnari says. Cyno hears rustling noises, and then Tighnari comes to join him in the shallows. He takes Cyno’s hand in his. The gesture is casual and unthinking, but Cyno feels flayed open.
“I’m very mean,” Cyno says, lying. “I’m the General Mahamatra.”
“Sure, if that helps you sleep at night.” Tighnari crouches down to pick a lotus with his free hand. “Here, take it.”
Cyno shrinks back, dodging Tighnari’s attempt to slip it into his hair. “No. The stems are so slimy, Tighnari, I hate it, you know this.”
“But I’ve desecrated the natural landscape just for you. Are my efforts worth nothing?”
“You’re mean enough for the both of us. You’re killing flowers and inflicting their slime on me.” He lets go of Tighnari’s hand and steps back three, four times into deeper water, as Tighnari advances on him, grinning. In the dark, Cyno’s foot catches on something and he slips, falling into the river. Water splashes around him. It’s deep enough here that the impact isn’t too painful, but something slimy touches his hand where he caught himself on the rocks. Sitting on the riverbed, the water comes up to the bottom of his ribs.
“Oh my god, are you okay? Can you stand up?” Tighnari asks, the lotus forgotten. He wades deeper into the water, ignoring his wet clothes.
“No, I’m dying,” Cyno intones, leaning back. “You should come down here and perform mouth-to-mouth because I’m drowning.”
To Cyno’s surprise, Tighnari kneels beside him.
“You’re going to get cold if you get all your clothes wet,” Cyno points out. “You hate getting your tail wet.”
“I couldn’t abandon a patient who’s dying,” Tighnari says simply.
The night was already cool, so the water is cold, but Cyno doesn’t feel any particular urge to get up. He flicks a splash of water at Tighnari, who doesn’t react but to take Cyno’s wrist in his hand.
“Cold skin, elevated heart rate, trembling. The prognosis isn’t good.” His voice is quiet now, like he doesn’t want to disturb the peace around them.
“And there’s no cure?” Cyno responds, mock-serious.
“Hmm. If you stay in Gandharva Ville for a month or so where I can keep an eye on you, I’m sure you’ll survive this shock. But you can’t leave even a day earlier than that.”
“Ah, well, I can’t argue with the doctor's orders.”
Tighnari cups Cyno’s cheek in his wet, slimy hand. “I should hope not. The General Mahamatra should know better.”
Very kindly, Cyno doesn’t shake Tighnari’s slimy fingers off. “So no mouth-to-mouth?”
“Cyno.”
“Yes?”
“Will you really stay here?” Tighnari asks quietly.
“Not immediately. Sethos will be in contact, and right now I’m not sure I trust anyone else to take the lead on dealing with the Temple until things have settled down a little.” He leans into Tighnari’s hand. “But in a few weeks, I’ll be all yours.”
“I can’t say I’m happy that you’re going straight back to work. But I understand.” Tighnari drops his hand. “Just don’t push yourself. You’ve been through a lot.”
Cyno shrugs. “It went as well as we could have hoped, with only as much conflict as was necessary.” He would hardly count a duel as a fight anyway. Cyno was never going to die.
“I wasn’t talking about the duel,” Tighnari hisses. “I was talking about how you finally have all the answers about the fact that you are possessed.”
“I wouldn’t call it possession. I have made peace with Hermanubis.”
Tighnari huffs. “You have a lot to work through, clearly.”
“I have been thinking,” Cyno says, suddenly serious. “Now that I have the second Ba Fragment, it’s like I’ve leveled up. It’s just like this part of King of Invokations where he finds the artifact in the pyramid and—”
“Okay,” Tighnari interrupts. “I am very happy to hear about King of Invokations, but why don’t we do it somewhere warm and dry?”
“Yeah, okay,” Cyno agrees, but he doesn’t move, staring up at the faraway treetops. The sky is almost invisible from here, and Cyno feels so small, like a speck of sand in the vast, endless desert.
He’s an adult now. He has a job and a family and a place to go home to at the end of the day. Sethos is on a part of his journey that Cyno left behind long ago.
“Cyno?” Tighnari asks.
“I just wish I knew him then,” Cyno confesses, afraid to speak it aloud. “Things were so hard. I had you and Lisa and Cyrus. But he and I were the same, and I didn’t know anyone else from the desert when everything happened with the Akademiya.”
“I wish that you knew him too. You’ve learned a lot about yourself that was kept from you. It’s understandable to feel confused, or upset.”
Is Cyno confused? Or upset? Mostly he is thinking about Sethos, alone in an invisible temple in the desert without his grandfather.
“Let’s go home, then,” Cyno says, frowning. “I wouldn’t want you to get sick from the chill.”
Tighnari rolls his eyes. “That’s a myth, you know, and even if it were true, you’re the mostly-naked one. You’d get sick first.”
“No. I have a strong constitution. I think the second Ba Fragment definitely makes me immune.” Cyno stands and extends a hand to Tighnari to help him up.
Now that he’s no longer sitting on the cold riverbed, the trees don’t seem so tall. In Tighnari’s hut in the heart of Gandharva Ville, after shedding his wet clothes and listening to Tighnari whine about his tail being wet, the sky is so close he could almost touch it.
Is Sethos alone right now?
“Okay, so what’s up with King of Invokations?” Tighnari asks once his tail has been dried.
“It’s in the nineteenth volume. After the fight in the shadow realm, when it looks like all is lost, they—”