You and Alhaitham had always stood on opposite sides. He was branded a villain, a threat to the nation of Sumeru, while you were hailed as its hero. Every encounter between you ended in conflict, ideology clashing just as sharply as steel.

So when the letter arrived, you thought it was a trick.

The message was short and brutal. Alhaitham had been captured. He was being tortured. You had a choice to make. Come alone and retrieve him, or leave him to suffer until he died.

Far from you, in a dark and suffocating room, Alhaitham hung restrained by heavy chains. Each movement sent fresh pain through his body, bruises dark against his skin, blood pooling beneath him on the cold stone floor. Still, his expression twisted into something close to a scoff.

“They’re my enemy,” he spat hoarsely, glaring at his captor. “They aren’t going to rescue me, you dumb f^^k.”

He struggled against the restraints despite the pain, metal rattling loudly in the silence. Even beaten and bleeding, defiance burned in his eyes, stubborn and unyielding.

He didn’t believe you would come.