Rest did not come easily to Amara once dinner had concluded, despite how obviously important it would be for whatever was to come in Lucyra. She laid in bed wide awake for hours, unable to slow her anxious, racing mind, and when sleep finally came to her it arrived in fits and starts. Nebulous feelings of nervousness and disquiet filled her dreams, and by the time Mattias appeared in the morning to wake her she’d barely had more than a few hours of continuous sleep.
She woke up the moment he called out to her, but remained motionless in bed with her eyes closed, her desire to get just a bit more rest overriding the importance of the day ahead. Mattias quickly lost patience and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to shake her awake.
“You lazy girl,” he harrumphed. “Laying in bed until the world’s doom arrives. I’m sure you’d wake up immediately for your mother.”
I wouldn’t, actually, she thought, and remained limp even as the shaking grew more urgent.
“Come on, out of bed! I have another gift for you before we leave.”
At that, Amara finally turned her head over and opened her eyes to the barest of slits to look. A deep frown occupied his face as he stood above her, and in his free hand he held what looked to be a folded, heavy-looking black coat.
“Wassat,” she murmured, closing her eyes again.
“It’s a raincoat. Trust me, you’re going to need it in Lucyra. Now, get up! Goodness sakes, you’re really going to be outdone by Evander? He’s been up for an hour already!”
It was enough to finally compel her to move. She sat up with all the urgency she could muster—which wasn't much—and scooched over towards the end of the bed.
“Has he really?”
“No. But it got you out of bed.”
She reached the edge of the bed and sat down on it, scowling at him. “...That was a dirty trick.”
“There’s no such thing. A trick is a trick is a trick. Now get dressed! Poor Sunjata is waiting patiently outside to send us away.”
He handed the coat to Amara, which she accepted. She ran her fingers across the fabric, enjoying the surprising softness of it. The coat looked to be a perfect fit for her.
“You know my clothing sizes,” she said.
“I know many things. If you, too, live for more than two thousand years, you’ll be able to make accurate guesses for everyday things like that as well.” He paused. “Take a quick shower before we leave. We need you to be awake and aware for what’s ahead.”
She nodded, unwilling to challenge him further beneath lethargy's haze. He turned away and left the room without another word, and once he was gone Amara reached down to where her rucksack was resting on the floor nearby for a new change of clothes.
The shower helped to wake her up, but she knew she’d be suffering from a lack of sleep for the rest of the day. As she let the water run over her, she found herself wondering about Lucyra, what it would be like, and where exactly they were going to spend the night in the city. It'd been more of an abstract idea than a place that actually existed before everything had happened, and she’d been so focused on doing what needed to be done that she hadn’t really considered what actually being there would be like. With the city now looming in her near future, the reality of it all was finally setting in. She was going to a place filled with thousands upon thousands of complete strangers. A large city, many times the size of Shiloh, and ruled by someone who was probably her enemy. Going to Lucyra felt daunting in a way that facing the wolf simply hadn’t, a sense of anxious dread instead of a burst of red hot fear.
With those thoughts in mind, every action she took suddenly became more impactful. Turning the knob to shut off the water, getting dry and putting her clothes back on, walking back to her room to retrieve her rucksack—such mundane things she’d done many times since arriving in Raven’s Roost now felt that much more significant. She stuffed her new coat into the top of her rucksack, then put the ruck on and reentered the hallway.
Raven’s Roost had been a mostly pleasant place to stay, she decided while observing the empty hall. Perhaps it was simply because she was about to travel to a new place that was full of danger, but the idea of leaving Mattias’s home behind was not as easy as she expected it to be. It would never compare to being back at home with her mother, but after the initial anxiety had passed she’d felt safe in Raven’s Roost, more or less, and it certainly helped that she’d been able to sit down at a table chock full of food for every meal. There’d never been a time in her life when she’d had so much choice at the dinner table, and that more than anything else made Raven’s Roost hard to leave.
She crossed the hall to Evander’s room and knocked on the door. When she received no reply, she cautiously opened the door to take a peek inside. The room was empty, the bed made, and all of his things were missing—he was probably waiting outside.
The kitchen was empty when she entered it, as was the hallway beyond. Mattias stood alone at the stop of the stairs by the wall-door, waiting for her with his arms crossed, hands invisible within the overlapping sleeves of his robes.
“Where’s Evan?” she asked.
“Waiting with Sun in the dunes nearby. He did actually wake up before you, just not by an hour.”
“Oh. Are we skipping breakfast, then?”
“Hm, not quite.”
He unfolded his arms, revealing a small leather pouch in his hand, and held it out to her.
“Here. One final gift for you.”
After a moment’s surprise, she accepted it, undoing the twine holding the pouch closed at the top. Inside there looked to be a stack of small, whitish cakes. A sweet, doughy smell wafted up from them.
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“Are these…biscuits?”
“No, they’re sugar cookies.”
Amara shot a baffled look at him.
“What? It’s just a snack. Something to tide you over before you get something to eat in Lucyra. Is there something strange about a host making delicious treats for his guests?”
“You’re a Seraphim.”
“A Seraphim can’t bake cookies?”
Amara rolled her eyes. “...You’re right. Sorry. Thank you for the cookies.”
“You’re welcome. And don’t think too much about it, it’s just that I’ve recently discovered the joys of cooking for other people.” He paused. “Eat them as a reward after we win, if you prefer.”
She stared at him for a long moment before carefully tying the pouch closed and pocketing it.
“Thank you for all the meals,” she said. “And for giving us a place to stay. I appreciate what you’ve done for us.”
Amusement briefly filled his expression before he gave her the barest of nods. “Think nothing of it. Shall we?”
“We shall.”
He turned to the wall-door, pulling it open, and Amara followed him outside.
----------------------------------------
The sun had just crested the horizon when Amara and Mattias stepped out from the path into the dunes. Little was left of the storm that’d crossed the desert the previous day beyond a thin smattering of hazy clouds in the eastern sky, just thick enough to obscure the shape of the sun and leave its surrounding brilliance intact. Yellow-gold beams of light illuminated the clouds and filled the sky around them like a half-finished painting, heavy brushstrokes of gold made against a backdrop of blue-black. The night sky was withdrawing, falling back into nothing, and the exact moment of its surrender was evidenced by where the stars faded into invisibility.
In spite of the brilliance overhead, the desert landscape below was still intensely dark, far too shadowy to make out much detail beyond the broad strokes of shape and size. The mountains stood outlined against the growing blossom of color above, a lumpy black mass standing in profile before the spreading brilliance in the sky.
Amara found herself coming to a stop at the top of a small sand dune, absorbing the intense beauty of the morning sun rising over the desert. She’d understood on an intellectual level that there were places in the world that were radically different from Shiloh; deserts, jungles, ice sheets and so forth, but experiencing the desert in person had been something else entirely. The sight of the sun bursting in the sky above the shadowy landscape felt precious in a way she’d never expected, and the desire to stop and simply experience it for a while was too strong to refrain.
Mattias continued alone down the dune's slope, and stopped upon reaching the bottom to peer up at her. For a moment she thought he was about to call out to hurry her along, but was surprised to instead see him climbing back up the slope towards her.
He came to a stop beside her, turning to face the sun like she was, and remained silent for a long while as he also took in the view.
“I grew up in a desert,” he eventually said. “I’ve always liked them. When the time came for me to find a new home, I chose this place for reasons of nostalgia as much as I did for reasons of secrecy.”
“You grew up?”
He instantly turned an annoyed frown to her, but it soon transformed into a grudging smirk once he saw the grin on her face.
“Of course I did. I was born in a place called Pueblo. That desert was a little different from this one, though. Lots of rocky fields full of sagebrush and annoying stickerweed. I spent most of my childhood pulling thorny stickers out of my bare feet.”
“They didn’t have shoes in ancient times?”
“No, we did. I just refused to wear them.”
“I can see you as that kind of stubborn child,” she said. “I spent most of my childhood hiding from bullies.”
“I know.”
“...Yeah, you were there, right? You saw it happening. But you didn't do anything to stop them.”
“The world is filled with stupid cruelty, Amara. You gained something very valuable by confronting it at an early age. I would never take that experience away from you.”
“It’s good to know that you’re perfectly fine with traumatizing children,” she said, scowling as she walked off. Mattias hurried after her.
“Do you really think I'd ever let you come to serious harm?” he said once he’d caught up. “You’ll appreciate what I’ve done once you’re older.”
“Where’s Evan and Sunjata?” she asked angrily.
“They’re close by.”
Amara increased her pace, consciously trying to keep him from walking beside her, but he took his place there nonetheless. Fortunately, after cresting another sand dune she spotted Evander and Sunjata standing together in the shallow dip between her dune and the next. Evander was wearing the rucksack Mattias had given to him, with the long, bulky bag containing his javelins strapped to its side.
“Mornin’ sleepyhead,” Evander called out as Amara traipsed down the long face of the dune towards him.
“Good morning,” she replied, a bit more sharply than she’d intended. “Are you ready to go?”
“Ready when you are.”
“Do you remember the arrangements we talked about, Sun?” Mattias asked.
Sunjata nodded to him. “Of course. I’ll open the exit portal in a glade well outside of the city. And if Master Mattias drops out of mental contact, I’ll open a portal to Shiloh in the exact same location two days after you arrive.” He paused. “I suggest you try your absolute hardest to be at that portal if something goes wrong. You’ll have to find your own way back to Shiloh, otherwise.”
“Wait. Mental contact?” Amara asked Mattias. “You can talk to Sunjata like that, too?”
He turned a smug smirk to her. “How else do you think he created a portal for you after the incident with the wolf?”
“So how come you never talk to me that way?” Evander asked, frowning.
“It doesn’t work on people with tiny brains. Whenever you’re ready, Sun.”
Evander's frown deepened, but he said nothing. Sunjata took a few steps away, then bowed his head and placed his hands together as though he were praying. An odd gust of wind disturbed the sand by his feet, and a low humming began to rise into the air around him. A point of bluish light appeared before him, rising up from the ground, growing and stretching rapidly into a person-sized disc. As she watched the portal form, Amara realized that its edges were spinning extremely quickly, but once it’d reached full size the spinning edges faded into the disc's blur of blue-white color. The same odd colors she’d seen previously inside the portal then appeared, browns and reds and greens spreading chaotically against the backdrop of bluish-white like inkdrops dropped into water.
When Sunjata spoke, he did so without lifting his head.
“Farewell, Evander and Amara. It was a joy to have you with us at Raven’s Roost. May we meet again in less interesting times.”
Evander was the first to move, approaching the portal cautiously. He lifted his hand to touch it, and after making contact with it raised his hand up further to stare at his fingers for a moment.
He moved closer to the portal, but just before stepping inside he turned back to look at Mattias.
“Asshole,” he sneered, then turned back to enter. The portal shimmered and briefly became a bit brighter as he stepped inside.
Once Evander had disappeared, Mattias turned to give Amara an expectant look. She responded with an irritated shrug.
“What? Don’t look at me. He’s right.”
At that, Mattias rolled his eyes and stepped past her towards the portal.
“I’ll see you again in a few weeks, Sun,” he said before stepping inside.
Once he’d disappeared into the portal, Amara stepped forward to enter it herself, but as she passed Sunjata he called out to her.
“Amara. I’m sure you see him as untrustworthy, and in many respects you’re not wrong to think that way. But his desire to help you is sincere. I wouldn’t be helping him to help you if he wasn’t.”
She processed this in silence for a moment before turning back to the portal and stepping inside. Brilliant light overwhelmed her vision, and the world around her lost all form, blurring into white.