“Aye. I am the warden of this caravan. And who are you?”
The stranger tilted his head up, revealing a pair of lilac eyes beneath the cowl of his cloak. “I am son to Calamity. It would be wise of you to speak only when asked.”
“Calamity?” Alden frowned. He had let the hooded stranger enter his camp because he thought he might be a potential customer, but clearly this man was just delirious from the heat. “I don’t know what desert hole you crawled out from, but you’re obviously in the wrong caravan. So why don’t you go and fuck off somewhere else—”
The stranger snatched Alden by the throat. “On the contrary, I believe I am precisely where I need to be.”
The slavers stopped what they were doing and drew their weapons. The stranger didn’t move, he didn’t even seem bothered as the group of men closed in on him in a loose circle. Alden tried to pry the blue fingers off his neck but they may have as well been steel.
“What is your name, warden?” The stranger released his hold just enough for the man to draw breath.
“A-Alden!” he gasped.
A slaver charged in from behind, sword held above his head, and swung the blade down in a clean arc. The stranger moved his free arm in a flash of white light and the sharp clang of steel. His arm disappeared under his cloak as fast as it had emerged. All Alden saw was his crewmate stagger backwards. The top half of his sword fell in the sand with a soft thump.
The slaver stumbled to the ground, holding his abdomen as his guts spilled out from an unseen cut. The others gasped as the man collapsed in his own blood.
“You collect broken and lost things. Is there a young girl in your possession? She would be about ten,” the stranger said calmly as if he hadn’t just slain a man.
“We don’t take any children,” Alden said, trembling.
The stranger tilted his head to the side and examined Alden. The latter felt a cold sensation stretch across his body as if the layers that comprised him were being pulled back and in his innermost thoughts were laid bare.
“You do not lie. In this, at least,” the stranger finally said.
“I-I wouldn’t dare lie to you, s-sir.”
“Have any of your men come across a child in the last few days?”
“I, uh…” Alden licked his lips. “I can’t recall.”
“Try.”
“Sir, we stop at several villages. There are many children in each one. I’m not sure what you want from me.”
“This one would be different. She is a sune child. Most likely accompanied by several mages. Hard to miss this deep in the desert. She would be dressed like a noble. Gold, jewels, silk clothes.”
“I didn’t see any child, b-but there was this young sune woman. My men caught her yesterday. She was dressed like you said, gold, silk, and all of that. And she was a mage, yes.”
That seemed to get the stranger’s attention. He leaned ever so slightly closer. “What was the color of her eyes?”
It was an odd question. All sune people had yellow eyes, some darker or paler than others. “Uh. Yellow? Wait, no.” Alden frowned as he remembered her face. “Her eyes were… gold… I think.”
“Where is she now?” The stranger pulled down his hood, revealing pristine silver locks that spilled down to his shoulders. His complexion was as pale blue as the sky. He looked around the camp, expecting to see the young woman.
“She… escaped,” Alden whispered.
The stranger slowly turned his head and looked Alden in the eyes. “What?”
“She had help. The Tribe Slayer was with her.”
“Tribe Slayer…?”
“Yes. He was here. He helped her escape last night. Along with some farmer’s wife.”
“Where did they go?”
“Towards the east.”
“...Back towards Olduun,” the stranger muttered.
“I can help you find them,” Alden offered.
He glanced down at the warden and crushed his throat. “I told you to speak only when asked.” He tossed the warden’s corpse aside and stared at the frightened slavers with disgust.
They dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender. “Please, we don’t want trouble,” said one of them.
“I despise your kind,” the stranger said in a cold voice. An orb of light spun into existence above him and floated up above the camp. With a snap of his fingers, a dozen beams of light shot out from the orb, perforating the slavers with meter-wide holes.
The men screamed in terror as they ran. The orb flared with light and fired beam after beam until the screams were silenced. The stranger walked through the burning camp, observing the surroundings, searching for any clue he could glean about his quarry.
“Thank you for saving us,” said one of the chained women.
The stranger paused in front of her cage and glanced at her, then he noted the others. Some were still in their cages, others had been dragged out for manual labor. All were in chains.
“Save you…?” The words felt strange on his lips. “You don’t deserve salvation,” he snarled. The sand shifted under his feet until it became a rumble that rippled outwards.
The slaves shouted in surprise and tried to move, to no avail. The sand swallowed their feet in the span of a breath. The slaves’ shouts became confused and quickly devolved into screams of fear as the sand became like water and swallowed the wagons, tents, and people alike. In a matter of seconds, the desert had reclaimed the entire caravan. Only the stranger remained, the anger in his expression having stilled to a cold fire. He looked to the east and set his eyes on the horizon of dunes in the distance.
~~~
…Several hours earlier… Deep in the Golden Desert…
Titania did what she could to dig a grave for Vela, but her hands were a poor substitute for a shovel, and the dune sands shifted with every parting. The burns on her right hand only made it worse. After half an hour, all she had to show was a shallow grave that not even a beggar would use.
“Leave it,” Noct said.
“She deserves a grave,” Titania said, anger and frustration dripping in her voice. “You could help, you know.”
“This is no place for a grave. The desert will take her body as it has countless before her.”
Titania rounded on the rulus and looked him in the eye with a glare. “Then help me carry her. We can’t just leave her here!”
“It seems you are confused.” Noct placed a finger on her forehead and shoved her aside with ease. She stumbled and fell on her butt.
“Ow! What are you doing!?”
“Enlightening you. You think this is some sort of partnership? You’re wrong.”
Titania furrowed her brow. “I broke you out of those chains.”
“And I helped you escape that camp. We’re even. So, no. I am not going to help you ‘bury’ a body that belongs to the desert.”
“But she died because of us! Because of me…” Her voice died down to a whisper by the end.
“No. She died because one of those slavers shot an arrow into her back. If you are wise, you will leave her body before the sun rises, and find shelter from the heat,” Noct said before walking away.
“W-Wait! Where are you going!?” Titania called out and hurried after him. She wanted to stay and properly bury Vela, but the fear of being left alone in the dark drove her to chase after the Tribe Slayer.
“To Bright Wind,” he replied without looking back at her.
Despite his steady gait, he moved surprisingly fast. Titania struggled to follow him up the dune. She was exhausted after her failed spellcasting and their subsequent escape. Her thighs burned with every exaggerated step up the dune.
“Vela said it was in ruins? What do you want to do over there?” Titania said between tired breaths.
“That doesn’t concern you. Now leave me be.”
“Wait! Please, just wait a second.” Titania scrambled to get in front of him. He was a whole head taller than her and she had to arch her head up high to look him in the eye.
Thankfully, he stopped in his tracks and looked at her with a mildly annoyed look. “What?”
“Take me with you, please,” she said in quiet utter sincerity.
“No.” He sidestepped her and continued on his way.
“Please! I don’t know how to get home,” she said weakly.
“That doesn’t concern me, lady.”
“I’ll pay you!”
“I’m not interested in your coin.”
“I have jewels, too. Look!” She held up the rings that she usually wore on her small horns.
“Not interested.” He didn’t even bother to look.
“My family is very powerful! Please, if you help me, I’m sure they’ll repay you in whatever form you wish.”
Noct paused in his steps. “Where is your family from?”
Titania froze. Before, Noct had been interrogating the warden about some sort of weapon. A weapon she was quite certain was the same one her caravan had been transporting in a sealed chest that could only be opened by the amulet she wore around her neck. If he learned the truth, she had little doubt that he would slit her throat right then and there. Her only saving grace was that she had been heavily sheltered her whole life in her family’s estate. Few people knew her parents even had a daughter.
“I, um…” Titania had to think quickly or he’d grow suspicious. “My family is from Olduun.”
“Only the most powerful and elder families claim the Great City of Olduun as their home,” he noted. “What is the name of your House?”
“I am a daughter of House Lorn,” she lied. The Lorns were well-known rivals of her family, House Clarus. If word about the Clarus’ weapon had gotten out, then being an ally of the Lorns would only serve someone trying to steal the weapon, or at least, that was what she hoped.
“What is a daughter of Lorn doing this deep in the desert?” Noct asked suspiciously.
“I was sent to inspect our iron mines,” she lied. The Lorns had many iron mines further into the desert. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine the Lorns would send one of their own to inspect their assets.
“They sent you to oversee their iron mines? Not someone more wise and experienced? Such as one of the elder sons of Lorn?”
Cold sweat dripped down her back. She was slipping. She needed to add some truth to her story. “W-Well, my guardian was actually in charge. She is quite good at what she does. I was sent only to observe and learn.” That much was technically true. “We were hit by the midnight sun,” her voice grew raw. “I don’t know what happened to her… I don’t know what happened to anyone I was traveling with… I’m lost,” she admitted quietly.
“...I suspect your guardian had more to her mission than simply inspecting your family’s mines if your caravan was that close to the midnight sun.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked her over and debated silently how much to tell her. “The Clarus family was transporting some sort of weapon of great power in the area.”
Titania’s eyes grew wide at the implication. “And you think it caused the midnight sun?”
“I think whatever happened that night, the midnight sun eradicated everyone and everything in its vicinity.” He gestured to the desert around them, “It even affected people who weren’t that close by.”
“Like you?”
Noct grunted. “The desert only amplified the blast. I was struck by a sandstorm created in its wake. I imagine several nearby villages suffered the same fate.”
“Like Bright Wind?” she guessed.
He grunted again and resumed his walk.
She rushed ahead of him and opened her arms wide to block his path. “Take me with you, please. I won’t be a bother, I promise.”
His green eyes examined her once more. There was a question in his gaze, but she couldn’t quite tell what it was. “Your father will owe me a debt.”
She tried to hold back her relief. “Yes. He will repay you. Gold. Lands. Whatever you want.”
“What I want is information. Knowledge.”
“We have a vast library. I’m sure you’ll find whatever you want.”
“...I suppose we’ll find out.”
“Then you mean?”
“You’re lucky I’m heading towards Olduun. The slave warden said my prey is headed in that direction.”
Titania did recall the warden’s words. If the slaver wasn’t lying, then perhaps Naomi was also heading in the same direction. A small ember of hope bloomed in her chest at the thought.
“What is your name?”
“Titania. Titania Lorn.”
“Listen well, Titania, daughter of Lorn. The desert is dangerous. It has claimed many lives. If you wish to not join them in the Soul Chasm, then you must do what I tell you to when I tell you. If you cannot, I will leave you without a second thought. Understood?”
“I think so?” Titania said hesitantly.
Noct shrugged. “If you don’t, you will soon cease to be my problem.”