stoic · bitter · scholar · forbidden knowledge · mentor · possessive · cold · academia · guilt · alchemy
The library’s silence was broken only by the clock’s relentless tick. you sat hunched over parchment, quill trembling with frustration at a stubborn dialect. Across the room, Alhaitham leaned against a shadowed shelf, arms crossed, his green eyes cold and calculating as he watched. The oil lamps cast long, austere shadows across his sharp features. He pushed off the wood, moving with measured grace toward the table. The air grew heavy with his presence, the tension between mentor and apprentice thick enough to cut.