At the neighing of the golems, the earth began to rumble.
The Reiszer jumped out of the way when the horse golems stormed right into their midst and brushed their hard bodies against them.
One of the stallions—the apparent leader with the flaming mane—charged directly at Jorunn. She raised her round shield just in time to block it and be pushed back through the entire camp.
“You think I will just give up? I dealt with worse and I know your weakness!” Jorunn shouted and jabbed her sword right into the golem’s neck.
Another shout ran through the camp, this time from Kiur as he held his neck in terror. His flaming heart intensified and the stallion golem returned the kindness. Its mane erupted with searing heat and it stood up on its hind legs to crush Jorunn to the ground.
Dust and sand burst in small explosions and the two were locked in a heating battle.
“What was that? What happened to you?” Cylia and Xander tried to reach Kiur but the flames around his body forced them back. They heard him scream in such a painful way Cylia and Xander wanted to cry out as well.
Some kind of transmission happened which they could feel coming from Kiur.
“Reiszer Magic,” Xander explained in a grim tone. “Remember what I explained? They can cut the thread of magic and cause backlash to the original user. It’s extremely chaotic but also very dangerous.”
Cylia remembered. Xander was lecturing Kiur about magic to help him gain control and she was eavesdropping. She couldn’t use magic herself but wielding magic like that terrified her.
She looked at her dirty ash-covered hands and feared to even imagine having this kind of magic.
“We have to get out,” Kiur exhaled sharply through his teeth and held on to his neck. The tears from his eyes vanished from the flames. “Each of you, get on the horse golems and get out.”
“But–”
“No butts,” Xander made Cylia look at him. “You heard him, get yourself a horse and let's get out of here!”
Cylia wanted to protest and shout at Xander why he was always so cold but she knew he was right. Kiur used his magic and kept the golems somehow under control so they could escape on horseback.
There was little time to spare and they needed to act now to escape.
“Fine, but I will make you regret talking like that.”
“Whatever,” Xander bolted to a nearby golem and so did Cylia.
There was a total of three stallions and one of them was so wild and uncontrollable that it alone was enough to keep all the Reiszer at bay.
Cylia ran for one of the horses and got on its stone back.
On top of it, she watched how Kiur was limping towards the warhorse while clutching his heart. He wouldn’t make it in time, the golem was too preoccupied with the Reiszer.
Cylia furrowed her brows. “He won’t make it, not like this.”
Another neigh escaped the warhorse’s flaming muzzle. It bucked against Jorunn’s sword and with its hindlegs against the other Reiszer. Amidst the flames Cylia saw an eye flashing gold and bright, staring directly at her.
She somehow understood immediately its intentions. The stallion would remain and fight while they escaped.
“Kiur, take my hand,” Cylia grabbed Kiur by the hand and hauled him up. He sat behind her and weakly held on to her hips. She could feel his burning chest against her back but strangely she didn’t feel the heat but the immense pain it transferred into her heart.
They needed to escape, quickly.
“Xander, do something!” Cylia asked as there was no way out.
“Thought you would never ask, ha!” Xander thrust his hand forward and blasted a hole into the barricade. They jumped right through it as it collapsed and kept running through the passage. “See you never again, woman!”
Xander laughed and almost fell from his horse. Cylia couldn’t help but feel worried for Kiur. The pain his heart transmitted was immense.
—☾—
They left the ridge and galloped through the desert in the dead of the night. No lights marked their way except for the few stars not blocked by the clouds in the sky.
The Achernar stood like a manifest far in the distance and like a beacon showed them where they were in the open fields.
“East, we have to go east and find shelter,” thought Cylia and accelerated their advance. Monsters, Uridimmu Hell Hounds, came out and hunted them when they saw them.
Cylia was never happier than at this moment for having a ride to avoid the monsters.
The night left them quickly and they rest in a clearing of palms and hidden between hilled ruins. Kiur had fallen asleep against Cylia’s back during their escape but his face was contorted with pain.
“Well, this was nice,” remarked Xander and got a glare from Cylia. “What? Could have been worse, no? At least we got away and got a nice ride with us.” Xander patted his golem who turned away and trotted over to its companion. “Horses, one has to like them.”
“You’re a jerk,” Cylia cursed and frantically walked from one end of the ruin to the other. “Why are you so unbothered? Do you even care what happened?”
Xander raised an eyebrow at her, observing how she bit her lip, rubbed her knuckles and how her eyes darted left and right. All the sympathy he felt earlier was long gone.
“Unbothered, me? It’s a setback to have our guide incapacitated but he should recover. He’s tough enough or should be. Have some more faith, will you”
Cylia furrowed her brow and stared at Xander silently which unnerved him but didn’t say anything as it somewhat intimidated him. “And you call yourself a friend? You are the worst.”
That took Xander off guard.
He knew he wasn’t great but the worst? Now that crossed a line!
“And who are you? A tag-along, that’s what you are. A girl with no defining qualities to contribute. You are the token treasure, someone’s girl of interest. I, however, am someone with worth. I am his friend, you should know your place and be quiet.”
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“Why did I say this?” wondered Xander. Did he actually think of her that way? Did he even consider her a friend?
Whatever the case, Xander had burned down the bridge by saying something he always had in mind. For him, Cylia was no one important. They couldn’t afford to lose Kiur who knew the topography, dangers and routes of the desert.
And Xander? He was a wizard who could help defend the group as he had proven time and time again.
Unlike them, Cylia had no useful qualities. Or so believed Xander.
He tried to read Cylia’s expression. He waited for a rebuttal or an outburst so they could argue as they usually did but nothing came. Cylia turned back to the unconscious Kiur and made sure he was lying down comfortably on the slab of stone.
“I will go and check the surroundings… don’t break anything,” said Xander and left.
Cylia sat down on a nearby rock and placed the back of her hand on Kiur’s forehead. His temperature was high but she couldn’t tell if that was normal or not because of his fire magic and the fact they were in the desert.
Checking her own forehead it was cold to the touch. Cylia was tired and took a deep breath, trying not to dwell on the hurtful things Xander had thrown at her.
“I don’t care what he said but I hate how true they are,” mumbled Cylia and brushed with her hand over Kiur’s hair.
Her hand was calloused, full of scratches and caked with dirt and ash that they were almost grey. She felt terrible for touching his hair with her dirty hands but she couldn’t help it.
“Your hair is beautiful,” Cylia admired it with envy and tugged on her raven black hair. After so much time as a slave and in the desert her hair was greasy, tangled and dirty yet Xander’s long blue hair looked smooth and Kiur’s like woven gold.
She was jealous.
“Gold, a great colour, much better than silver.” Cylia tiredly closed her silvery eyes and wearily opened them again. “You know, Kiur, I stopped dreaming a long time ago. Being a slave for so long, you eventually go to sleep haunted by nightmares. Mine only grew worse when I was separated from my mother.”
Cylia remembered that day all too well. She had told him how her mother fought like a reborn valkyrie even though she didn’t know who they were except for strong warrior women. Her mother was a great woman who knew so much about their history. She was strong but Cylia hid the part about how her mother hid her between crates and cowered in fear.
Cylia was young and too afraid for her life.
After her mother was gone Cylia relieved all of those moments whenever she went to sleep. They were often accompanied by endless streams of nightmares until Cylia stopped dreaming and eventually, hoping, like the rest of them.
“I have given up hope of ever being free, then the week before we were deployed to assist the raids, I had a dream.”
She wasn’t sure if Kiur was hearing her but Cylia shared with him about her dream.
“There was this house. Not as big as a palace but not as small as a hut. It was standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by mountains and lakes. The door was open and when I walked inside I saw two large cats.
“One was orange and sleeping peacefully, and the other had dark blue fur and playing with a ball of yarn. I heard the humming of a woman who had her back turned to me. She was sitting cross-legged over a cauldron that frothed with what I understood were flying runes.
“She wore a blue dress that looked like a gown with a feathered falcon mantle hung over her shoulders. Her skin was icy blue and very beautiful to look at. She wore jewellery and wristbands made of gold, the same as her hair which looked like smooth golden silk.
“When she turned to pick up a bottle for her cauldron I saw her pink irises and a golden necklace that was more beautiful than anything I had ever seen. I don’t know who she was but my mother would have said she was a goddess. When she saw me enter the house she made me stay for supper and I was able to taste the food!”
Cylia joyfully explained the various flavours she could taste from the stew and how warm she felt afterwards. She explained how she felt at home being with the goddess and how her image flickered to that of her mother.
She hadn’t seen her mother in years and sitting with her and having supper was the best dream she had in years.
“Before I woke up she told me about the future. How I would be saved by someone with hair of gold, and eyes that shone like gemstones. Someone brought from the deep earth and a heart that burned so brightly they were afraid to turn to ash.”
Tears flowed from Cylia’s face and she looked over to Kiur.
“She was talking about you, wasn’t she? You are here to save me, aren’t you?” Cylia bend down and placed her hands down on Kiur as she cried into his chest. She was glad he wasn’t witnessing any of that but she wished he would comfort her.
Someone… anyone.
—✹—
Xander explored the desert’s ruins like a tourist. His hands wandered over the old structures and he occasionally broke off a piece only to throw it away a second later.
Out of boredom Xander sat down on a rogue stone and let out a sigh, remembering the dusty lectures back home in Hellas.
In the academy next to the tower he would go to various lectures from nutcase professors teaching the most esoteric and dangerous subjects. One such professor was someone who hid her face in gauze.
A woman who only held one lecture in front of the entire student body and became the topic for the entire semester.
No one knew who she was or why she had her entire face covered. Her eyes looked as dead as a fish when she lugged her way to the podium. She raised a finger and projected the ruins of the most ancient civilization known to mankind—or so she stated.
No surviving documents predated their time and the only existing monument of that time was the ancient Achernar but since that was all they knew Hellas never attempted to find out more.
“Gods created our world, that much we know but who did they create to wander on? Humans? Dwarves? Therianthropes? Someone entirely else? The answer is neither and everyone,” the woman coughed into her gloved palm, alarming every student of what was going on. She bled through her gauzed face and sharply eyed them all. “The secrets of the world lie within the hazards of the desert. Ruins mark their path to a forgotten world. Reiszer talk about the Great War, Idaris from the Great Flood, and Jhangsi about the Great Destruction and Recreation but remember–”
The wizards broke down the barred doors and made their way to the rogue professor that held the lecture but before they caught her she disappeared in purple whisps.
“‘The Heart of the Earth will beckon forth its remnants. Don’t forget the past, return and study the ancients. For they held all the answers.’,” Xander remembered the words of this nutcase professor and couldn’t help but spit at the old desert. “Nothing worth studying here, professor. Nothing but sand and old rocks. If there was something we would have already discovered it.”
Xander’s hand broke off a cornerstone from an old structure and the wall crumbled to dust. “I tell you, there’s nothing here. Everything was lost long ago.”
Stuffing his hands into his pockets Xander walked among the ruins and into the direction where he spotted a rare oak tree growing. A rare sight for sure but Xander simply appreciated the shade it offered and the clean humid air.
He could feel his magic reinvigorate him. Breathing became easier but the arid air was too predominant and Xander had a hard time breathing again.
The Achernar was still so far away, standing as opposing as ever. “So far away, we will never reach the end in time.”
“Agreed, not like it will get any easier either.”
“Right? It’s impossible—” Xander realised too late that the voice belonged to none other than Jorunn who was so close to sting Xander a nose piercing with her sword. “Easy there, don’t want to hurt someone with it, do we?”
“Don’t tempt me,” Jorunn brought her sword closer to Xander’s face and brushed it against his chin. Like the world’s most dangerous razor—Reiszer approved. “I have enough of this desert, do you have any idea how hard it is to breathe here?”
“Oh, I can believe that. It’s hot, you feel sluggish all of the time and sweat in the most awkward of places.”
“Right? It’s awful!” Jorunn waved her hand before her face and adjusted her collar while she held her sword closer to Xander’s throat. “Making me chase you three through the night was the last thing you wish you did.”
“About that, how did you catch up to us? Last time I remembered WE USED HORSE GOLEMS TO ESCAPE YOU!”
Behind Jorunn the other Reiszer revealed themselves. Sitting on horses and surrounding Xander from all sides.
“Right, Hades Draught Horses. I am very familiar with them, guess you had a scouting group nearby… so… what do you want? Money? Got none of that—”
Jorunn pierced the bark of the tree behind Xander who could feel the magic vanish around them. It’s as if she was destroying its entire life force through her sword.
“Where are your friends? I am asking kindly and believe me,” Jorunn came closer with her face to Xander. He could see the freckles on her chocolate brown face with ridges underneath her eyes but also a few very sharp teeth in her mouth. “I am tired and very annoyed, you better not—”
As Jorunn was about to intimidate Xander further they heard a distant roar echoing through the desert and steam rising. Xander and Jorunn shared their disbelief and annoyance at the return of a familiar enemy.
“Son of Hera/Loki, it's back!”