Early in the day on the approach of the mountains, far off in the distance another mundanely momentous sight crept into Omid’s vision.

A see of miniscule grains of sand started to transition into a sea of larger rock and solid ground. Still desert, but the time since Omid last saw an actual change in environment and not just the odd patch of grass or rock formation here or there had him staring at it all for what felt like hours. It may have, in fact, actually been hours.

Omid shook off the thought as he shielded his eyes and looked up to check the position of the suns, then down to see the length of the shadows. It was a habit he had picked up after a few too many lengthy silences and nought but staring out at desert and the bobbing gait of a camel to lull one into a trance. Usually a perfectly harmless thing but when one was supposed to be scouting The Great Desert it helped to be observant. That there were numerous illusion weaving and trance inducing supernatural beings was all the more reason to stay vigilant.

And when such things were unavoidable, you learn methods to keep track of time. How much the suns have moved, how long the shadows are and which way they point. All good for keeping track of time in the short term. A bit of idle daydreaming while the suns and shadows don’t noticeably move wasn’t so bad. But if your facial hair is longer than last you remember? Or if the moons seem to have skipped a phase? Then something had gone horribly wrong and it was time to worry.

Omid pulled down his scarf, running his hand over the hair covering his face just to be sure. He groaned a small protest, finding it getting a little bit longer and unkempt than was typically his preference. Though it was no different than this morning when he last checked. He had alleviated the small splash of panic and found that time had not in fact eluded him and there was no cause to worry about unknowingly having encountered such a being that could alter perceptions in such a way.

Instead, he looked over to the questionably young woman of unimaginable power. She was still there, and a far better source of panic and worry. Seemingly on cue, she came to a stop atop her camel. As Omid followed her lead, he had to wonder with increasing apprehension how aware she was of being observed.

Before Omid could ask about the nature of their stop, Sareen was busy with a chant that called forth a stone stable. As Omid dismounted and led Masel and Nazer to a shady resting spot in a stone stall, he couldn’t help but notice that this building seemed to be only a stable and had a distinct lack of any additional accommodations. He craned his neck around, looking for any additional doors hiding out as that was now a thing he had to consider. He found only a simple yet elegant stone stable in that familiar too perfect style. Three stalls for camels and nothing more.

As he turned his head to double check a corner, he was met with Sareen’s smiling face far less than an arm’s length away. Omid was getting better at this, and only flinched a bit and feared for his life a lot.

“I take it you have something other than rest planned?” Omid asked, resignation creeping into his voice in thankfully small and manageable amounts.

Sareen nodded with obvious joy. “You are correct, it will be far better than rest!”

Omid inhaled and the initial urge to correct his original intent died in a slight frown that vanished in a flash. “We should get to it then, wouldn’t want to wait.”

“We have made fantastic time, so this will now be possible.” She said as she spun around on her heels and walked from the shade of the stone stable to the blazing light of the suns.

The heat clearly didn’t affect her, as she glided along with perfect grace. Omid closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he savored the shade before stepping back into the sun, his own steps getting a bit more labored and uncoordinated with each day. He didn’t even bother asking what exactly would now be possible, or where it was, or why they would be arriving there on foot.

He didn’t react at all when Sareen spoke another one of her spells into existence as she walked along. He simply followed along, trudging through the sand until one step didn’t stop on the surface. Panic gripped him as he thought he was sinking, but the sight and sound of a large amount of sand around him all falling in on himself told him he had somehow found a massive sinkhole out in the middle of nowhere.

“Sareen?!” Omid called out to her as he and the sand all rapidly began to fall as he tried to sprint out of the collapsing ground. The Kirzallan was nowhere to be found as Omid fell with a massive amount of sand into the depths of the earth. Omid shielded his head with his arms as he held his eyes shut, knowing full well it was likely to do nothing against the weight of the sand that would be crushing him any second now as he tumbled along with it all further and further down. The sensation of falling lasted just long enough for him to wonder if his entire life, his entire journey, his entire fool plan of daring to step into the world of the supernatural was going to come to a sudden yet abrupt end from the fall itself or if it would be from the weight of the sand crushing him.

A third possibility of just suffocating under all of the sand hit right before he finally hit something. Not as hard as he thought he would, and what sand did cover him wasn’t near enough to crush him. Omid didn’t move, if he moved he was going to disturb the sand that was waiting to collapse onto him. If he moved, he would disturb the surface holding him up and he would once again fall and this time die on impact. If he moved, the nightmare would continue and he could no longer hold onto this tiny moment in time where he had regained a modicum of control of his life.

If the nightmare continued, he may yet still turn it into a dream or even finally wake up.

Omid took a deep breath, groaning in protest as he reached out a shaking hand to feel about before risking opening his eyes and filling them with sand. Or worse, seeing how bad things were. When he felt only a sandy surface, he next tried wriggling all his limbs about. The lack of pain told him that nothing was broken, most likely. He tried feeling around again, and near leapt out of his own skin as something grabbed his hand.

“There you are!” Sareen’s voice hit Omid with a wave of confusion as she pulled him to his feet without a hint of effort. His eyes shot open and he found her standing there, smile bright as always and showing no signs of having just tumbled down amongst what felt like half the desert into the depths of the earth. Light from above filtered in from afar through the sand and dust filled air, giving her an illuminated aura.

“Are you doing all of this on purpose?!” Omid said through gritted teeth, losing himself for a moment as his mind ran too wild to force any facade of politesse through.

“Yes!” Sareen said with a toothy smile. “We were making good time, so the lessons start now! The lessons are also trials.”

“What tr-” Omid started to raise his voice until it caught in his throat, his glare downward to the young woman diverted to finally take in their surroundings.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Looming tall in a cavern lit only by distant sunlight was a massive stone building with metal detailing. Strange figures Omid did not recognize adorned its face, only some of them bearing any resemblance to humans and not in any style he knew of. The myriad of other figures carved into its surface and jutting out as small sculptures at times resembled supernatural beings Omid had only read about in the most ancient of books, and at others being completely and utterly foreign to him. As he gawked with open mouth and took all of it in he realized that the edges of the building stretched from one edge of the cavern to the other, indicating it was likely even larger than the front would indicate. And there at the bottom in the very center sat a large entryway opening into inky black darkness.

“Where...where are we?” Omid asked without looking at Sareen.

“You see? You’re doing well so far.” Sareen said.

Omid blinked, still in a daze and looked over to her. “...what?”

“Knowing what question must be answered in a trial is of vital importance.” She plainly stated as she started walking towards the dark entryway.

“I...see?” Omid asked himself aloud, not at all seeing.

“Not for long.” Sareen said as she reached into a pouch at her belt and withdrawing a small crystal. She squeezed at it, and tossed it to Omid as it started to glow bright. “There, now you’ll see.”

Omid caught the small glowing crystal, finding it cool to the touch. He was unable to look it over for long as the light was just bright enough to be uncomfortable to look directly at for too long. When he looked back up, he saw Sareen pausing at the threshold of the ancient building and leaning against its frame.

“Are we the only ones down here?” Omid asked, slowly accepting that there was little alternative as he dusted himself off.

“You know another one of the questions, you’re doing well so far!” Sareen said with a small smile and a laugh before taking a step into the darkness and quickly vanishing.

Her laugh echoed along the cavern and into the ancient structure, reverberating and surrounding Omid as he gave a great sigh and pulled his green scarf from his head. He shook it to get as much sand from it as he could before tying it around his neck. Now that he was alone and the last echoes had died down he could feel just how cool it was down here. His free hand ran through his braids as much out of nerves as it was to get more sand off of his body before deciding it was largely a hopeless endeavor at this point. Both the attempting to calm his nerves and the attempt to rid himself of all the sand.

Omid drew his short sword and held the small glowing crystal up as he walked towards the ruins, staring up at the figures both known and unknown. He sincerely hoped that they were not a display of what was contained within, but he gripped his sword a bit tighter just in case. The distant shaft of light playing off of the settling sands grew more distant with every step, and with every step he had to rely on the crystal Sareen had given to him. Barely larger than a ripened date, Omid wondered if he would ever be able to replicate such a small wonder. He held it high above his head as he stood before the building front, looking once more at the figures with a frown and a shake of his head before stepping up to the slightly raised threshold.

Just to be sure, Omid looked down to the ground and confirmed that both his and Sareen’s footprints had led this far. The reassurance, along with the footprints, stopped just inside of the ancient structure. No great amount of sand seemed to make its way inside, and Omid’s frown deepened at not being able to track Sareen in that manner.

“You know what? I’m happy, that would have been too obvious a trick anyway.” Omid said aloud, trying to convince himself this was good news.

He gave a final groan and took a hesitant step inside, pausing with one foot in and poking his head in afterward to give a quick glance around. A large foyer awaited him, empty except for bas reliefs on the walls on either side of a hallway leading further in. Finding that he had not been immediately slain by some unknown and yet expected force he casually strode in and held up the crystal to get a better look around.

No Sareen, anywhere to be found. Omid was once again unsurprised, though he did clench his jaw slightly at the lack of information becoming a new normal for him. He held the small crystal aloft and approached the bas reliefs on the walls, each step more confident than the last until he was able to make out the carvings.

“All right, more depictions of...various creatures... contained? Hmmm…” Omid leaned in, squinting and thinking aloud to himself. “...if this was a menagerie, I’m going to be disappointed in how everything is dead and dust or somehow still walking around and ready to kill me.”

Shadows cast by the pale white light of the small crystal made even the tiny carved figures seem more ominous than they should be. Something that made Omid glance over each shoulder with darting eyes, just to confirm that he was still safe and nothing was watching him.

Nothing

And no one.

He was all alone.

Down here in some long forgotten ruin deep under The Great Desert.

Omid sighed. “Are you still watching? How long have you been watching? Since I left the caravan?” He muttered it all so low he wasn’t entirely sure if he was making an attempt to talk to Sareen or his own crumbling sanity.

“Or is this a ‘been watching you your whole life’ thing?” That thought made Omid shiver as he looked over the carvings. What little carved text there was scattered about the bas relief, he didn’t recognize. Didn’t even recognize it as a foreign language he had seen before but could not comprehend, nor was it anything he had seen in books of civilizations long gone. Omid thought it possible that he simply didn’t recognize the obscure language, but the far more exciting idea that it was something exceptionally old took hold.

“Sina taught us the first language and then we had to go and keep making more languages, didn't we…” Omid mulled over the unknowable text and carvings for a few moments longer, then decided he would find little else of use in the very first room of this complex of unknown size.

That he was to navigate with a crystal that shone for an indeterminate amount of time.

His eyes darted to it, narrowing slightly as he walked a bit faster towards the long hallway stretched out before him. Omid held the crystal out into the darkness, seeing nothing but walls made of the same slightly red stoneworking he had seen so far. Even less sand to hold onto footprints, which he confirmed with each step he took leaving no trace.

The light didn’t reach the end of the hallway, and for a time somewhere between moments or minutes or what felt like hours Omid couldn’t see where he had come from or any possible destination ahead. Only those same reddish walls on either side of him with the lightest of detailings to give it some character. Which was good, it let Omid know that whoever built this place didn’t want it looking as welcoming as the inside of a Kirzallan guest house. It was a small yet welcome detail in this corridor he had now spent several days within that had no end in sight.

Omid’s eyes flicked to a tiny glimmer while a single drop of sweat ran down his temple. He shortly thereafter chastised himself for jumping at the reflection of the crystal’s pale light upon his short sword. Within a corridor he had spent at most a minute in. Which was something of a long time, but this far underground and this level of being alone made everything seem worse.

Three new doorways crept into view from the darkness, minus the actual doors themselves. Possibly having ever existed, possibly having had the wood withered into dust over the ages. Omid came to a stop as he saw his options, then held the crystal towards each entry in turn. A frown overtook him as the crystal failed to do anything to indicate the correct way forward.

“Well, it was worth trying.” Omid said with deep resignation, and waited for some manner of cosmic answer to what was likely a tempting of fate.

No response came, and though he first met it with a shrug he then froze and looked around. The hallway was decently long, the cavern large, and all three ways forward extensive enough for the light of his crystal to not fully illuminate them.

And there was no echo.

Omid kicked at the stone floor a few times, hearing only the soles of his leather boots against the ground and no reverberation. He looked over his shoulder, not even bothering to frown before he looked back to the three options presented to him.

“It will have to wait,” Omid said to no one in particular while weighing the three doors. “A certain someone would be the first to lay claim to getting to kill me, then there’s whatever is ahead of me to the...left.”

Omid strode ahead to the left doorway, not waiting for a response and focusing on whatever fresh horrors the light would reveal ahead of him.