"Where can I find happiness?"

I have been everywhere there is to be, so here's my answer:

If there is happiness to be found, it's not elsewhere.

Therefore, it can only be found in the one place you refuse to look.

— Excerpt from Lost Winds, by an unnamed traveler.

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Mur, Open Square

Primrose stepped out of her tent with Meera, running her hands through her bushy hair to get rid of the tangles that had formed in her sleep. To her surprise, Molam and Kalle were walking back towards their tents' location in the light of the morning Sun.

Seeing Molam's vaguely annoyed expression and Kalle's slightly satisfied smile, Primrose guessed, "I take it you woke up to find Kalle went to visit a ruined building?"

"I worked on fixing two doors," Kalle replied proudly. "Quite an interesting challenge. The old City of Mur didn't have an advanced concept of hinges yet! It required reconstructing what they realistically used."

"But…why would you do that?" asked a confused Meera. Primrose found Meera to be a morning person, always alert and awake the moment she opened her eyes. She could appreciate a quality like that.

"As I said, it was a challenge," answered Kalle. "I guess I wanted to see if I could." He turned to Molam, adding apologetically, "sorry you had to come get me."

"What you do with your sleeping time is up to you so long as you can still contribute to the task at hand," Molam replied testily. "I was only worried you would be so engrossed with the rest of the building that you’d forget we're leaving soon."

"Yes, yes," Kalle agreed. "You know, we could bring the chandelier with us to—"

"Kalle, Meera's here to oversee us," Molam said in a teasing manner, but Primrose heard the hint of warning. "I don't think we want to be robbing from the mursashu's heritage while they're kind enough to treat us as guests."

Meera laughed, patting Kalle on the shoulder. "You're always welcome to come back after we've cleansed Mur. I'm sure there will be much to fix then! But there's work to do right now. Let's get everything packed up so we can join the rest of the caravan."

As they took down the tents and cleaned up their encampment, Primrose kept Molam visible in the corner of her eye, hoping to glean some insight into what he was thinking. He had come back from his meeting with the Mursa and refused to elaborate on anything, merely stating that the Mursa wanted him to take a look at DuskWing's Curse. Primrose could understand that, even if Molam didn't elaborate on the sudden spike in aura from their direction. Afterwards, he'd gone through his notes again, murmuring under his breath. Primrose only found it curious that he'd look through the list of names of the dead he kept with him, as she thought he had long since memorized it.

But there was much to do. They packed the tents down, ensuring nothing could catch a loose flap and cause the sled to run askew. Meera retrieved their two camels. While Primrose wasn't an expert on camel facial expressions, she guessed the animals were unimpressed to see them again.

"Heads up!" Meera shouted at them as she slung three full waterskins towards their faces. Primrose snagged hers in midair, pulling an arm through the strap. Kalle blocked one with an arm and caught it after it bounced into the air. Molam attempted to catch it with the pot he held, where it bounced off the rim and fell to the ground.

After he picked up his waterskin, he straightened to see Primrose's eyes on him. "This pot is heavier than it looks, you know," he told her, putting the lid back onto it.

"I didn't say anything," she replied with a wry grin. "But try not to break that. I'm not excited by the idea of chewing on flatbread and jerky for dinner."

"It could spare me from garlic for a bit." Molam winked back at her. "Yesterday's amount of garlic must have been someone's idea?"

Kalle better not have… Primrose thought while she feigned ignorance. "Was it? I was too busy setting up the tent. Kalle was in charge of the stew."

"Hmm," he pondered, but did not pursue the subject. "I'll be riding with our sled for the first time today."

"Oh, finally done with the Mursa? I was beginning to think you forgot why you went."

"You think I enjoy his method of storytelling?" he replied with a false sense of hurt. "I've heard all I need to hear about Mursa Allyce's predecessor. I just need to think about whether it validates my working guesses to answer her question."

Primrose raised an eyebrow as the two of them hooked the harness to their camels. "Is it that bad? His method of storytelling?"

"Oh, don't get me started." Molam grimaced as he stopped the camel from nibbling at his hair. "I hope that what the Mursa does is just an act to waste my time, or else I really feel for Jyuni. No sense of straightforward beginning, middle, and end. This one — he just tells it all with every single tangent and 'which reminds me of' interruptions you can think of. How is he only shrewd when making negotiations? I don't need him to be so forthcoming with information now; give that up when trying to take me for all I'm worth."

Primrose sputtered with laughter at Molam's unexpected rant. "I can see you two are getting along." She hid her grin behind her hand, watching Kalle take the reins from their camels and walk back towards the sled. "Perhaps enough to have found anything worth sharing with me and Kalle?"

"You shouldn't have stopped him from complaining, I think he was just getting to the good part," Kalle said as he fastened the reins to the sled. "But yes, we've been waiting for any new information."

"I see both of you are in a conversational mood," said Molam, but it seemed he was also ready to talk about what he learned. Primrose noticed Molam's pause, seeing his eyes dart around and confirm they were alone before he continued. "He's closer to his apprentice Jyuni than it appears." Molam raised an eyebrow at Primrose, then tapped Kalle on the shoulder. "Do the two of you understand?"

Primrose nodded. Kalle might understand Molam's words as telling him to be careful around the Mursa-to-be, but Primrose heard Molam's unsaid words confirming Jyuni as one of the Mursa's potential weaknesses. She tucked that bit of knowledge away, hoping she would never need to use it.

"Meera's back," Molam warned under his breath, and the three of them busied themselves as Meera returned, riding her camel.

"We're taking a detour to see the Black Pyramid, as you requested," the mursashu rider told Molam specifically. "Did you want to ride with the Mursa again? He has offered you a seat and refreshments."

"No," Molam replied. "I've been meaning to experience Kalle's driving."

Kalle chuckled, "You do remember I don't have enough sleep, right?"

Molam turned back to Meera. "The Mursa will keep that seat open… hopefully? Moreover, how difficult is it to switch sleds in the middle of —"

Primrose ducked as Kalle picked Molam up by his clothes with one hand in a surprising display of strength. He deposited him onto the sand sled, despite his protests.

"Time to go," Kalle winked at everyone. "We wouldn't want to keep everyone else waiting."

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The Endless Sands

Primrose thought that she had acclimated to the heat of the Endless Sands. She had already been traveling in it for ten days, after all.

She was wrong. Somehow, the temperature had managed to become even more oppressive. Primrose imagined a suffocating, invisible blanket of heat enveloping the Sands. A covering that was only briefly visible outside the corners of one's eyes. Kalle said that the wavy vision she referred to was simply a phenomena conjured by the warmth, but Primrose half-suspected that couldn't be the answer. It was the heat, yes; but it was also something more.

Heat, decided Primrose, was the enemy. The heat did not so much pursue them as surround them. There was nowhere to hide from it as they traveled. While they huddled under the cloth awning stretched above their sand sled, the three of them could find little solace from the radiating waves.

"Why can't we travel at night again?" she complained, pulling aside her mask. If the heat wasn't bad enough, the mask somehow trapped it against her face. "At least I wouldn't feel like I'm being cooked for dinner."

"Monsters," answered Molam, his voice muffled by his own face covering.

"Ah," she said weakly, fanning her face. "Right." They didn't want to encounter the things that couldn't bear the light of the Sun. Each and every single breath she took seemed to sear her nostrils. But more importantly, the sheer dryness of the Sands seemed to sap away the moisture from her breath each time she undid the mask.

"Wonderful," she muttered mostly to herself, taking a quick sip from her waterskin before readjusting her mask. Primrose wasn't sure whether she hated the heat more or the possibility of nosebleeds, but Meera had said that once a nosebleed started it only led to further complications.

And so she suffered in relative silence. Any sweat — if she even had extra water in her body to sweat — must have been leeched away by the parching wind as it rolled over the dunes. She tried to distract herself by stretching when she could during the monotonous travel, more out of a need to shift her body than to adhere to her daily routine. There were limited movements in a cramped sled, but in a way, this was a blessing. Coming up with new methods to pull on her muscles gave Primrose something to think about that wasn’t heat.

Kalle said little during this time, much to Primrose's surprise. For some reason — well, she knew why she had thought it — Primrose had expected Kalle to complain the most. But he said little during the day, keeping his eyes focused on the sand sled in front of them. He only spoke when something specific absolutely needed to be conveyed, which mostly meant pointing out Meera was waving towards them.

As for why Meera would be waving towards them, the reasons differed. There were little to no signs of life in the day, and the Mursa took a route that avoided any possible encounters with what hid beneath the Sands. Meera would occasionally point out far-off areas where the sand was a slightly different shade of yellow, a strong indicator that something had disturbed the grains. Other times, she was pointing to curious ruins or rock formations, evidence of places where humans had probably been.

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From what Primrose gathered, several merchant groups had tried establishing their own trade routes to Oasis since the abandonment of Mur. The allure of being able to also trade in moon wine, woven textiles, rare metals, and most importantly, jade, had resulted in hefty fortunes spent on each attempt to build waystations which could alleviate the issue of water resupply.

All had failed. And though Primrose could scarcely stomach the taste of warm water with the scent of cured leather, she could at least appreciate the mursashu advantage of being able to refill at Mur. She couldn't imagine being in any of the failed endeavors that had arrived at a broken waystation, desperate for water and finding only the faint traces of monsters.

But now, as they approached the Black Pyramid, Meera was pointing to splotches of black on the Sands. To these, the caravan gave a wide, healthy berth. Primrose didn't need to use her Sight to see why; just looking at them sent a shivering chill down her spine, enough to cut through even the oppressive heat. The Red Emperor and the Nine Lords had killed DuskWing four centuries ago, but the areas marked by the dragon's black blood had stayed as tainted as the day he fell.

Primrose spied Meera coming back to the caravan, weaving her camel between the large dark marks. She wasn’t alone. Another rider approached alongside her, his face grim. Wondering if something was wrong, Primrose poked Kalle, hoping he hadn't fainted in the heat. The man grunted through his mask, then she elbowed Molam in the arm before pointing at the two riders. She didn't say anything, hoping the two of them would understand. If the riders were heading towards the Mursa, something must have changed.

Yet as they looked up, Primrose noticed the Black Pyramid again. Or, what she had thought was the Black Pyramid when it first crested the horizon. The structure towering tall as a mountain above the Endless Sands seemed different from what Lyka had told her. Layers upon layers of gold were stacked up in tiers, reaching high into the sky. Lyka had told her it was exactly eight hundred eighty-eight levels and Primrose believed it, such was how tall the pyramid stood.

Shouldn't it be black? she thought to herself as they stared at the golden structure. Lyka had made it very clear in her stories, describing the Black Pyramid as true to its namesake color. And yet the pyramid shone a brilliant liquid gold, a shade so beautiful it took her breath away. It was almost painful to look at.

Molam had pulled down his mask by the time the Mursa's whistle sounded through the air. Primrose barely had time to notice the red lines around his mouth as he shouted at the two of them, his voice unable to overcome the loud note of warning.

Primrose's eyes read his lips, but the sheer insanity of what was being conveyed made it difficult for her to believe what he was saying. She rifled through the thoughts she had as she yanked down her own mask, preparing to shout her own questions when a deafening roar echoed throughout the dunes, overwhelming even the shrill whistle.

The Pyramid suddenly shone even more brilliantly than before, something Primrose had doubted was even possible. She realized the source of the intense shift a split second too late, as Molam was already shouting the answer into their ringing ears.

"It's a dragon's Domain!"

The pulse of aura radiated out from the Pyramid in a giant wave, enveloping everything within vision before dissipating after a brief moment. But the moment was enough for anger to rise unbidden within Primrose's chest; she palmed a dagger while Kalle dropped the reins to extend his silver rod for runecarving. Her right hand stabbed forward while her leg shot up to hook Kalle's horizontal blow, stomping his weapon to the ground. He knocked aside her stab and reached forward with a grasping hand, aiming for her neck. Leaning backwards, Primrose kicked her other foot upwards between Kalle's legs, extending the blade hidden within the toe of her boot when Molam's voice broke through her haze of fury.

"The anger isn't yours!"

Primrose slammed her foot back down; harder than she intended to and winced. The impact sent a painful jolt up her shins, a sensation that meant she would be feeling it later. Kalle's fist struck down into her shoulder, knocking Primrose into the ground.

"Sorry!" Kalle shouted immediately as he knelt down, hands hovering over Primrose in hesitation as though he was unsure if he should touch her. "I couldn't stop my body in time! Are you hurt? I'm really sorry!"

"I'm fine," she grumbled, taking Kalle's hand and allowing him to hoist her up. "It's not that bad. You pulled back as much as you could." Kalle's face — or, what she could see of it behind his mask — seemed to still be in shock, as he looked at his own fist. Rotating her shoulder to check her range of movement, Primrose looked towards Molam. "How did you hold yourself back? That was…" she winced at the pain and developing soreness in her shoulder, "...overwhelming."

She noticed her nostrils were feeling dry already. Primrose pulled the loop of her mask over her face, still in surprise at what just happened. Is that how people feel when I use my Charm on them? she thought.

It was from the Domain, Primrose realized as she looked at the other sand sleds. Many of the mursashu had come off worse for wear. Even the camels had bitten each other. She saw the bright red of fresh blood interrupting the silver reflections off some of the drawn blades, with several mursashu staring at their own weapons or other injured mursashu in horror. She could not blame them.

The emotion had seemed so real.

Pure, unadulterated wrath.

And what had Molam said earlier about a dragon?

Molam jumped off the sled, startling Primrose from her thoughts.

"I'll join the Mursa!" Molam shouted back at them as he ran towards the Mursa's sled. "We need to go to the Pyramid!"

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Molam

Molam ran as fast as he could towards the Mursa's sled in front of them, his footing unsteady upon the Sands. His ears rang, but his eyes still worked. The Black — the Golden? No, no time for that — Pyramid was in front of him. He recognized that specific sheen of gold, having seen this particular dragon’s aura so many times growing up. This was why he was here, why he had accepted this undertaking. There was no time to hesitate.

The Mursa stood up from his sled, his eyes ablaze with anger. Molam dug in his heels, sliding across the Sand. Was the Mursa also affected by…?

"Is everything all right?" Molam pulled down his mask to shout at the Mursa, hoping the man's thoughts were clear. The Domain had passed through him as well, but Molam had returned to his senses when Kalle's fist struck him.

"Molam, are you sane?" Mursa Shang's voice muffled through his mask.

Relief flooded Molam's veins. At least Mursa Shang had resisted it, but Molam assumed Jyuni had attacked him. "Yes, but there's no time!" he shouted back at the Mursa. "We need to head towards the Pyramid!"

The Mursa also pulled down his mask, revealing a bloodied nose. "That's your current priority? You do realize that's where the aura came from? Do you even have a good reason?"

I want to see her, he thought. But Molam couldn't say that. Instead, "That Domain reached far beyond where we are. It affected even the camels, and we know we're not the only things in the Sands." He swallowed, mouth already dry from the desert heat, but took the time to speak his next words slowly, with weight. "Everything is coming."

Mursa Shang's face blanched. Upon seeing the man's moment of realization, Molam added, "The only place to hide is the Pyramid."

Mursa Shang looked grim, then he looked back into his sled. "Jyuni. Can you move?"

The woman's voice seemed groggy as she responded from a place where Molam couldn't see her. "Yes, Mursa. You could have been more gentle."

"You drew your knife on me. Consider that a love tap," the Mursa replied, then continued, "Get up. You heard Molam. We need to move." He brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled, the shrill sound piercing through the dunes. Before the sound had died out, he was shouting out at the rest of the caravan with an aura-enhanced voice, "I know some of you are injured, but we need to move to the Black Pyramid for safety. Group up with me when you can. Mursa has spoken."

The mursashu responded as well as they could. Accepting the Mursa's help, Molam pulled himself up to their sled to see Jyuni with a bleeding cut on her hand as she inspected the camels.

"They'll move," Jyuni declared, settling back in with them.

"What injured you?" Molam asked Mursa Shang, indicating his bleeding nose. "Did Jyuni…?"

"No," he shook his head, wiping the blood from his nose. "That golden Domain overpowered my own. At best, I'll spread my aura thinly, but I don't think I should exert my full Domain again while we're in the Pyramid's vicinity."

A sand sled pulled up close. Kalle waved from the driver's seat. One by one, the rest of the caravan grouped behind the Mursa's to follow his command. Two camels had been gravely injured and were being swapped out.

Molam couldn't help but to be impressed. He'd seen the mursashu work together like a colony of ants, but they had just experienced an unexpected crisis that left more than half of them bleeding or injured. None of the mursashu showed panic, even the younger ones. He could appreciate that sort of determination, but also wondered at what level of disciplined life they lived for all two hundred of them to stay stoic in the face of the unknown.

A rider came up, one hand bandaging a bleeding gash on his arm. He pulled his mask down then continued working on his bandage while he reported, "That's all of them, Mursa. All accounted for."

The Mursa beckoned the man over, then helped him with the bandage. "Any casualties?" he asked

"No deaths, but four people are currently unconscious." The rider grunted as the Mursa tightened up the tourniquet on his arm.

"Too tight? I can loosen it."

"No," the rider replied as he extended his arm, testing the range of his movements. "It'll do. Thank you, Mursa."

"Good. We're moving out to the Pyramid. Now, Jyuni."

Jyuni flicked her reins. "Hyah!"

The camels snorted, then began their movement. Molam watched as the rest of the caravan's sand sleds followed. The Mursa sat down next to him, handing over a waterskin. "Drink. We need to think."

Molam obliged eagerly, pulling down his mask. While the daily water ration was enough, it wasn't anything like being able to drink one's fill. He drank deeply, hoping to be able to share any extra water in his waterskin with Primrose and Kalle later. This was their first time traveling to Oasis and Molam never forgot the way his body learned how much it could crave water.

His thirst sated, he handed the waterskin back to the Mursa. "Only two things to think about. What's behind us, and what's in front of us."

"They've reached the edge of my aura sense," Mursa Shang said darkly. He drank deeply from the waterskin.

"Numbers?" inquired Molam.

The Mursa didn't stop drinking, and held up a hand to signal. Seven. A moment later, his hand signal changed shape. Eight.

"How far can you currently sense?" Molam needed to know if it was far enough they could escape.

Instead of an answer, the Mursa jerked a thumb behind them. Molam stood up, balancing on their sand sled as he looked beyond the caravan's tail in disbelief. Eight long, segmented bodies undulated through the dunes as the monsters dove into the Sand, slithering through it like a swamp. A monstrous maw erupted from below, revealing a gaping hole ringed with razor-sharp teeth before it dove back down. The smallest seemed to be easily eight times the size of a camel, and the largest appeared to span the length of their entire caravan.

These were the only monsters of the Endless Sands that could stand the light of the Sun.

Sandwurms.

A teeth-rattling clang echoed throughout the Endless Sands, dragging Molam's attention away from what was behind them. The sound had come from the place they were heading towards: the Black Pyramid.

Jyuni's gasp was audible through her mask as a thunderous charge rumbled from the Pyramid's base. Sand flew into the air as several dunes erupted in a frenzy of movement. Camels crested the dunes heading away from the Pyramid, galloping as fast as they could at an off-angle from Molam’s group. Several tens of riders rode the camels with a few sand sleds trailing behind, their spears held at the ready and gleaming in the Sun's light.

But what were the other group running from? Molam's eyes trailed behind the riders, and his stomach fell upon seeing the large shapes emerge from the cloud of sand. At least six more undulating bodies, all baring gnashing teeth, chased the foreign group in front of them.

If they continued to go forward, their caravan would be caught on both sides.