Apparently the group was not “in” the Tear because after an hour, nothing at all had happened. That wasn’t to say things didn’t happen. Monsters were prevalent, the increased mana making them frenzied and the flat landscape making them easy to kill. What good was a monster the size of a horse if the monster was killed from dozens of yards away by a bolt of ice?

But besides occurrences such as that, nothing happened.

Eventually, the group found the small fort hidden in the center of the sand. Made of dark sandstone, probably the same sand on which they stood, the fort stood with four walls, a roof, and a battlement. It was square, simple, and well-fortified.

Trenches had been dug, reinforced, and left to protect the fort by way of simply being in the way. Walls had also been erected around the structure, each as tall as the trenches were deep. Magic was obviously involved, but Leland saw no signs of enchantments, protective runic patterns, or invisible traps.

“I guess they have a sand-mage of some sort,” he told the others. “Legacies of Magic could do it. I suppose there may be a specialization within the Lord of Sand’s Legacy as well.”

“My dad could make something like this if given enough time,” Jude said.

Roy Brown was a Legacy of the Bastion, a defense focused Legacy that mainly worked in melee combat. Shields, bulwarks, and even using their bodies to protect others. But like most Legacies, sometimes the use cases for very specific spells or abilities were second to none.

“It would be built out of mana, not sand,” Leland said.

“True. But he could do it.”

At that, the group finished their journey to the fort, Gelo easily making the trek past the trenches and over the walls.. With her talent in manipulation, ice bridges and frost hills were like boiling chicken compared to sauteing.

“HALT!”

They did, expecting the command earlier if they were being honest. Looking up, they found the source of the voice standing tall on the roof of the fort. Behind the man were three others, each standing high upon the battlement. And while the three weren’t actively harboring spells or drawn arrows, they weren’t relaxed either.

“This area is off limits by order of the Palemarrow Queen!” the man shouted.

Jude nudged Leland and whispered, “Hey that’s your girl!”

Leland gave him a death glare, stepping forward two paces.

He quickly found the yelling man, mentally sizing him up. The man was tall with a strong build and not nervous whatsoever. A veteran of the military, Leland supposed, a man accustomed to working in unfamiliar places with unknown and unvetted people. And while he decided the man deserved respect, it was obvious to him that the man was not the one in charge. No, that role was assigned to the woman standing a half-step away, her frame hidden by the battlement’s shadow.

She was very similar to the man. A veteran warrior, a leader within the Palemarrow military. Confidant and graceful, someone who oozed authority and commanded respect. And that was exactly what she did. Instead of yelling at Leland and the others, she ordered her right hand to do it for her. Why harm her own voice when she could, instead, study the newcomers and strategize in case of attack?

Still, there was a way things were done, and Leland wasn’t one to go against that… well, he was, but there was no reason to currently. Not yet at least.

“Vagrant Warden Leland Silver and company here on orders from Queen Sybil Palemarrow herself!” he shouted. “I sent a letter!”

When the group was about thirty minutes from the fort, Leland had sent Zeke with their letter of introduction from Aunty P. The crow had been spotted instantly and was nearly shot from the sky by one of the three on top of the battlements, but ultimately one of them noticed the paper tied to his leg. From there, Leland was able to watch through Zeke’s eye as the bird landed, had the letter taken, and was shooed off.

Stolen story; please report.

The yelling man was holding a crumpled piece of paper, but at Leland’s words, he fully crushed it into a ball. With a mocking toss, he threw the ball at Leland, it landing only a few yards from the fort’s wall.

“Written words mean nothing here! Forgeries are as common as banditry!”

Leland felt a vein push against his skin near his temple. “And how would you prefer us to announce ourselves—”

“If the Queen presented you herself! That’s a good start!”

The quip came fast, almost too fast. And yet, Leland hesitated to say his own. The letter was signed, notarized, and magically sealed by Aunty P in such a way that it could only be opened by the leader of this little fort. If there was any question of authenticity, well, there shouldn’t be. If banditry was truly the worry, how would the would-be bandits even know where to deliver the letter? It wasn’t addressed like an envelope sent through the post.

Which made Leland circle back to just how fast the man’s response had been. It was almost as if the man was practicing…

Leland spun on his heel, facing his friends. “Okay, they are messing with us. Probably Aunty P trying to test me. Or us I suppose, but I piss her off, so I’m going with me. That said, they are going to give us a hard time on entry unless we can prove we should be here and that we’re not some stupid kids.”

“I agree with it being Aunty P,” Glenny whispered, “but why do you think we have to prove ourselves?”

He shrugged. “Seems like something she would do.”

“More like something Isobel would do,” Jude added.

“That too. They are very similar, if I’m being honest. With a few differences, though.”

“Which are?”

Smirking a little, Leland said, “I actually like Isobel. Aunty P? I’m indifferent. The whole, ordering my death thing really hurts, you know?”

Gelo coughed, her breath icy. “What are we doing here then? How do we prove ourselves?”

Leland didn’t so much as glance back at the fort. “We walk in. They obviously want us to do something, otherwise they would be shouting at us right now or attacking if they thought we were bandits. But they are waiting for us to make the first move.”

“What if they attack when we start to walk in?”

Still facing away from the fort, Leland said, “Then we kill them. For all we know, they could be bandits. We were sent to secure this area until more people arrived.”

He said it just a bit louder than he had previously been speaking. Figuring that the people on the fort were listening somehow, Leland gave a large wink when he finished speaking. They weren’t going to kill anyone but rather give the illusion they may.

“Or I could just make us invisible,” Glenny suggested, referring to the newly added utility to his Legacy. Chameleon’s Camouflage was the ability’s name, and under previous circumstances, it only made himself invisible. But with his most recent Legacy evolution, he now had the option to make allies invisible as well.

The only issue was that for allies, the invisibility wasn’t perfect. Glenny had practiced it a few times with the others, but everyone agreed that the effect wasn’t going to fool anyone. Not until he was able to rank-up the ability a few more times.

“We could…” Leland said, trying not to be too down on the idea. “But I think that’s overkill. All we have to do is walk in.”

“I don’t know, Leals. That seems kind of stupid, I mean just look at them,” Jude pointed to the fort, “they have something to protect. Something to lose. They wouldn’t risk it on people like us.”

“See, that’s where you are wrong. We are people who could threaten them. We didn’t get put on this quest because we are pushovers. We’re here because we fought and killed the Sightless King and Ashford. Us. Not them—” Leland threw his hand back, gesturing at the fort.

His arm flopped back to his side. “Look, maybe I’m wrong about this and my head is messed up and thinking the way Isobel would think. But I don’t think I’m wrong.”

“We should vote,” Glenny suggested. “Walk in, or figure something else out.”

“Fine by me. Walk in?” Leland raised his own hand. He was the only one. His face fell a bit, but there was no point in stewing on it. He wasn’t the leader of this group by any means and he desperately didn’t want to force himself into that role. “Alrighty then,” he said. “What’s the plan?”

“It’s easy,” Jude began. “First we send in Jude Two. He’ll act as the distraction while—”

“Stop.”

The group looked up at the fort, the woman Leland suspected to be the leader had stepped out of the shadows.

“I’ve heard enough. Come in before I tell my archers to fire on you for being boring.” She paused a moment before locking eyes with Leland. “And welcome to the Sand Castle, Vagrant Warden.”

Leland held his tongue. He’d been right, but again, this wasn’t something he needed to be petty about. The others could have been just as right as him. Saying “I told you so” would only sow seeds of animosity. Still, he felt he needed to say something.

“Sand Castle,’ is that really the best name they could come up with?”