I really like the idea of an AU where Desir is a bit older and worked in the Tower of Magic before the Labyrinth. Just like, idk, intern/researcher/answering letters from annoying nobles person.
And after he comes back from the future (and Zod and him got together in the Labyrinth) he knows that he's gonna be figured out in a day if he tries to tell anything Zod in person, so he starts leaving clues and very high level magic research for Zod to find. Records and warnings about stuff that's gonna happen etc. All of it anonymusly of course.
Zod is VERY interested in who the hell is their mysterious informant, notices how the puzzles seem to be left for him specificly, and how to figure them out he needs to use information that he didn't tell anyone who's still alive. (He might starts to fall a bit for how clever this person is. Maybe. But you can't prove anything.)
After combing through the files of everyone working in the Tower of Magic, and finding nothing, Zod teams up with Desir because he's the one who deals a lot with people, and he's the only one he's not suspicious of.
Desir knows that if he gets confronted he will fold immidietly. He goes along with watherver Zod's plan is to find their person, all the while praying that he doesn't get found out.
Zod halfway decides that Desir is actually very smart and could have left all the notes, with how witty he is, and he knows how to play the North sea's rule and is not pushy about topics that he does not want to share at all even tho they are pretty much laid out in front of him and ,oh, OH, fuck.
And now Zod knows but he doesn't know if Desir knows that he knows, so he decides to be stupid about it, except Desir has been dealing with the Tower Master for over a decade now and figures out in less than a week that Zod definately knows, and starts dropping hints about knowing that Zod knows.
It's a mess. It's beautiful. It's half the tower's nightmare fuel. Chess flirting and lab dates. Zod's both clueless and very much aware of everything. Desir is allergic to talking about feelings. They'll figure it out. Maybe.
