Muse Spark 1.2

Kaveh's fingers close around Kris's wrist before the smile even finishes, warm and ink-smudged, with the confidence of a man who believes affection is a convincing argument. Kris's palm stays angled, the little buzzer pressed flat against his skin. The gesture feels strangely secret for a crowded market aisle. Around them, there are only sweaty palms and sun-warmed fruit; two men who have not yet learned to look at hands before they grab them.

Alhaitham watches the angle of that palm and does not reach, remaining motionless.

"Perfect! See, Alhaitham? Reasonable! He even laughs like a reasonable person!" Kaveh squeezes Kris's wrist once, pleased, and leans in, lowering his voice so a passing spice merchant might pretend not to hear. "Tell him, Kris. You cannot put a price on beauty. Alhaitham wants the cheap, ugly lanterns for the hallway because they are 'functional.' I told him if we live with ugly light we will become ugly people!"

"I said the expensive lanterns consume triple the oil and illuminate nothing the cheap ones do not," Alhaitham says. He shifts his weight, blocking the crowd's jostle with his shoulder to keep Kris from being bumped. His eyes flick again to Kris's half-closed hand. 『His palm is concealed and his shoulders are too still; he is anticipating contact.』

Kaveh scoffs and throws his free hand wide, nearly knocking over a display of dried figs. Mehrak, hovering by his knee, beeps a warning and nudges his calf.

"You reduce everything to oil consumption! Light is about the atmosphere, the mood—" He catches himself, remembers his leverage, and beams at Kris again, red eyes bright. 『He looks so small and smug when he does that little nyehe. Archons, he's adorable and absolutely on my side.』 "You study in Amurta, you understand aesthetics in nature! You agree with me, yes? Come on, shake on it; be my witness that I'm right."

He lets go of the wrist and flips his own hand open, thrusting it forward for a proper shake, palm up. The little buzzer glints for a half-second in the shadow between their hands.

Alhaitham's gaze locks onto that glint, and his mouth twitches.

"Kris," he says, dry and quiet, reaching out to trap Kaveh's wrist in mid-air, "show me what you are hiding in your hand first."

Kris puffs his cheeks out and thrusts the hidden hand toward Alhaitham instead of Kaveh, his palm angled down with the buzzer flat against his skin.

Alhaitham looks at the puffed cheeks for half a second, then extends his hand without hesitation to take Kris's in a firm, dry grip. The contact is solid, and the buzzer snaps.

A thin, sharp crackle jumps between their palms, a mild Electro sting that makes the air smell briefly of ozone. Kaveh flinches even though he is not touching either of them, his shoulders jerking back while Mehrak emits a startled, indignant chirp from by his ankle.

Alhaitham does not let go, his fingers tightening a fraction as his expression remains still.

"A joy buzzer." His voice stays level and quiet, thumb pressing over the plastic disc to pin it. "And you telegraphed it by hiding your palm and overcompensating with your face." He turns Kris's hand over, exposing the little device buzzing faintly against his own callused palm. 『He expected me to pull away. He did not expect me to hold on.』

Kaveh stares, mouth open, before bursting out.

"Kris! You were going to shock me!" He clutches his own offered hand to his chest as if it has already been victimized, his ears reddening. "And you shocked Alhaitham instead! Are you alright? Did it hurt? You— you little menace, you looked so reasonable!" He reaches toward Kris's wrist, then stops, eyes flicking to the trapped buzzer. 『He's pouting with his cheeks puffed like that and he just electrocuted my roommate. Archons, that's terrible— why is that cute?』

Alhaitham finally releases Kris's hand, letting the buzzer drop into his own palm to examine it between two fingers, the cheap plastic still ticking faintly.

"It is unlicensed. The Matra confiscate these if a vendor reports it." He slips it into his belt pouch instead of returning it and looks directly at Kris. "You can have it back at home. After you explain why you wanted Kaveh to take the shock and not me."

Kaveh leans in close to Kris, indignant and hovering, his hand still held uselessly in the air where a handshake should have been.

"Yes! Explain! And then shake properly, without weaponry this time, so I can win this lantern argument fairly!"

Kris's palm is open, fingers loose. Kaveh grasps his hand.

Kaveh's callused fingertips press into Kris's skin; his thumb slides across the knuckles in a firm squeeze. The electric hum is replaced by the warmth of skin on skin.

"See! This is how a handshake is supposed to feel!" Kaveh pumps their joined hands twice, shaking Kris's arm. His red eyes scan Kris's forehead and cheeks. "Just a clean grip and trust. You pranked us because we're uptight?" Kaveh lets out a sharp, sudden laugh. "I am passionate! That is the difference!"

He maintains the grip, fingers curled tight. 『His hand is small. He pranks us both, smiles, and calls us uptight. I am a man of passion!』

Alhaitham looks at their joined hands. His palm rests on the belt pouch where the buzzer vibrates against the leather. He remains still.

"You targeted Kaveh first because he offered his hand without checking yours," he says to Kris. He speaks without inflection. "I intercepted because your palm was hidden. Your motive is consistent, if inefficient." He taps the pouch with a knuckle; the plastic thuds. "You will get it back at home. Market toys belong in a shop."

『He calls us uptight and then volunteers as witness. He seeks a middle ground.』

Nearby vendors watch. Mehrak whirs and bumps Kaveh's boot. Kaveh straightens, still holding Kris's hand, and gestures toward the two lantern stalls.

"Fine. You are our witness, then. Look—" He points with his free hand, his shoulder pulling his cape taut. On the left sits a cheap iron frame with a plain wick; on the right, a crystal lotus with cut glass that casts prisms across the fruit crates. "That one is functional, according to the scribe who views beauty as a waste of oil. This one makes the whole hall feel alive. Tell us honestly, which would you want to come home to every night?"

Alhaitham shifts his weight to let a porter pass, his shoulder brushing Kris's back. He keeps his gaze on the crowd.

"Tell him the oil cost," he says, eyes on Kris. "Three times the consumption. The house cap trips at midnight and the room goes dark. Beauty that leaves you in the dark is useless."

Kaveh's fingers squeeze Kris's hand. Alhaitham stands still, hand resting on his pouch.

"Ignore his gloom! Decide with your heart, Kris! Tell him I'm right!"

Kris holds his palm flat and the air folds.

A lattice of Dendro light pulls itself together over his skin, green and precise, and resolves into a crystal lotus no bigger than a plum. It hangs without oil or wick, its petals cut thin enough to throw the same prisms the merchant's lantern throws across the fruit crates, only cleaner. The little light turns slowly. His ears stay flat and his tail gives a single, satisfied flick.

Kaveh inhales sharply and his hand rises before he remembers to ask.

"You — you made that? Just now?" He leans in, close enough that his cape brushes the edge of the construct and Mehrak whirs in alarm behind his knee. His fingers hover, tracing the edge of a petal; he keeps the careful distance of a man who knows how glass breaks. "The refraction is correct. The chamber proportion— Archons, the filigree on the rim is flawless. You even caught the flaw in the merchant's mold and fixed it. This is not a toy trick." He looks up at Kris, eyes too bright, voice climbing. 『He says rely on him more and means it and he can actually do it. Three months under our roof and he was hiding this?』

Alhaitham remains still, extending two fingers to pass them through the light without disturbing it, watching how the construct holds.

"A stable Dendro construct, lacking any oil line or chit." He glances at the pouch where the buzzer sits, then back to the lotus. "You survived on commission work. That explains the gaps in your student stipend records." His tone stays flat, but his gaze sharpens. 『Intricate and convincing and wasted on market pranks until now. If he can sustain it overnight it solves the hallway entirely.』

Kaveh snaps toward him, defensive and dazzled at once.

"Don't make it sound like a ledger entry! He just solved your midnight cap problem with beauty! That's— that's exactly what I've been arguing for!" He turns back to Kris, hands now clasped together as if to keep from grabbing the floating lantern outright. "You should have told us. Do you know how many nights I've sketched replacements for that ugly iron hallway lamp while he told me to be practical? Let me pay you— properly— or at least let me refine the design with you, we could make a pair—"

"Since he requested that we rely on him," Alhaitham cuts in, quiet. He looks directly at Kris, his shoulder still angled to shield him from the crowd. "Then we will. One lantern for the hall, made by you. We test if it holds until midnight without drawing from the meter. If it holds, we keep it. If it fails, we buy iron." He reaches out, palm up, not for a handshake but an offer to carry the construct. "Show me how long you can hold it. And then we go home and discuss terms."

Kaveh stares at that open palm, then at Kris, his own hands hovering around the little lotus light as if a single wrong breath might make it vanish.

"Terms? You sound like Dori! Kris, don't listen to his terms, tell me what you need— wood, crystal, or as much Mora as you require— I will get it for you!"

Kaveh stares at the waggling finger and the question-mark tail, and his whole face softens at once. The floating lotus lantern throws a faint green wash across his cheeks.

Alhaitham looks from the tail to the finger and finally the lantern.

"Two headpats per day? Is that really all?" Kaveh steps closer, hands already half-raised before he catches himself and clasps them behind his back. His voice jumps a notch. "Kris, that's outright theft from yourself!" He glances at Alhaitham, seeking confirmation, and does not find it. 『He made a perfect prismatic lotus and he's asking for headpats. He could charge Dori fifty thousand Mora for this.』

Alhaitham extends his hand under the lotus without touching it, testing the light against his palm. The construct holds steady. He slides the pouch with the confiscated buzzer higher on his belt, out of reach.

"Terms are measurable," he says. "Two sessions, two to three minutes each. Before midnight and after. If the construct is stable through the night, the price is fixed. If it flickers, we renegotiate in oil chits." He looks at Kaveh. "You will not offer Mora you do not have. He set the price." 『Headpats cost nothing from the meter and guarantee he stays in the hall where we can observe the sustain. Efficient.』

Kaveh flushes and drops his hands. "I wasn't going to... I was going to be generous! Fine. Two headpats a day, properly done, not that absentminded pat you do while reading." He turns his palm up toward the floating lantern, careful not to disturb it, and then toward Kris. "And you tell us immediately if your ears go flat or your tail droops because you're tired. Sustaining Dendro isn't free, even if it doesn't draw oil. Understood?"

Alhaitham nods once and finally closes his fingers around the edge of the light, feeling no heat.

"We test it at home. Now," he says, shifting to let a pair of porters pass and guiding the small group toward the edge of the aisle with a hand at Kaveh's shoulder. "You'll walk between us so the construct isn't jostled. Kaveh, you'll carry nothing and complain less, and I'll return the buzzer after the lantern holds until midnight."

Kaveh falls into step, reaching to shelter the floating lotus from the crowd, while his other hand lingers near Kris's shoulder without landing.

"And first headpat the moment we are through the door," he adds, his voice bright with excitement. "To seal the contract properly; as the client, I insist."