The desert heat was overbearing, but that wasn’t anything new. Cojisto purchased some new clothes for our trip at the oasis and made sure to stock up on plenty of water. Such things were necessary, and he was pleasantly surprised by how little liquids cost here thanks to the aqueduct keeping the supply abundant.
After that, we hired a service to get us to the city. Our guide, a young Dwarf named Karkern, was a quiet but vigilant young man. He had told us about the different types of monsters to watch out for and how to spot when we were in their territory. His warnings took only about ten minutes when we first headed off on our way, but he was good at his job.
And he only spoke when asked something or when there was something noteworthy around, which didn’t happen a lot but I still appreciated it.
“I think getting Moose across the desert is going to be a challenge,” Cojisto had stated not far into the journey, already sweating. “You know, after we save them.”
“We’ll have to make the trip at night when it’s cold,” I told him. “It’ll be harder on us, but I don’t think he’ll do well going several hours through this.”
“Lots of monsters at night,” Karkern said. “Strong, dangerous.”
I nodded, taking his warning seriously. “We’d be careful.”
There was only one stop at a small oasis village on the way to Laroda. Still, we were making good time. After thirty minutes to let the camels rest and refill our water skins, which was far more expensive here, we were back on the trail.
Aside from idle anxiety about what could be happening to Ferrisdae and Moose constantly on our minds, the trip was rather boring. There wasn’t much to look at in the sweeping sand sea we traversed and our guide was so good at avoiding monsters that we didn’t come across a single one.
It was a few hours from sunset when we finally saw the Sultan’s palace cresting over the desert dunes. The white pillars shone like lighthouses over the ocean, calling us in, and the city of Laroda came into view shortly after. A long wall surrounded it and was built in a way that allowed the winds to sweep the sand away instead of letting it build up.
We took the camels right up to the front gate. There weren’t many people heading out of the city at this time of day. Anyone leaving this late would be stuck out in the freezing night, unable to make it to any of the safe havens strewn across the inhospitable landscape.
There were Dwarven guards, though, and that was good for us. They wore white cloth with a red line intersecting with a purple one, the colors of Laroda. We rode up to them.
I dismounted from my camel. No small feat when it was so much taller than I was, but one I accomplished gracefully. Cojisto, after hesitating for a moment, got down after me. I looked at Karkern.
“Thank you so much for guiding us,” I said, offering him a small bag of coins. It was more than what he had asked for, but I thought the service exemplary enough to warrant it.
“Are you sure?” he asked timidly, weighing the bag with his hands.
“I am,” I answered.
“Thank you, sir,” Karkern said with a nod before collecting the reins of the two camels and heading into the city.
The guards looked confused, and I specifically went towards the only one who had two purple lines. If I was remembering my uniforms right, this should have been the shift captain.
I retrieved my Department of Dungeons badge with a flourish, showing it to the Dwarf. “Dungeon Inspector Badger,” I introduced. “This is my colleague from the Adventurer’s Consortium, Cojisto Finnigan. We are here on official, urgent department business for Justisius and his crew.”
My badge was very quickly scrutinized before he looked down at me. “How urgent?”
“Life or death,” Cojisto dramatically answered before I could. The captain’s eyes widened.
“Yes, it possibly may be life or death,” I admitted, turning to glare at my companion. He did not look chastised in the slightest. Maybe I was losing my edge. “Could you send a message ahead and let them know we’ve arrived so that my colleague can greet us when we arrive?”
“Aye, I could do that,” the Dwarf said, turning around and gesturing towards one of the closest guards. He spoke in his native tongue, relaying the information I just told them, and the other man took off. The captain returned his attention to me. “Is it something we should mobilize for?”
“No, we should be able to handle this ourselves, but I thank you for taking this seriously,” I told him honestly.
“I’ve long learned to simply trust the experts on this kind of stuff. Strange that it has to do with the DoD and a dungeon, but I’m not going to pretend I understand,” he said, stroking his beard. “You should probably get going if it’s as urgent as your friend said it was.”
Stolen story; please report.
Fighting the urge to correct him on Cojisto being my friend, I simply nodded and started running. Not thirty feet into the city and I felt like it was a good decision to give up the camels; we already had to duck and weave through the crowd. It would have been much harder with a mount.
Cojisto ran beside me. “Why did you send a runner even though we’re probably faster than he is?”
“Laroda doesn’t use runners to send messages between the guards,” I answered, already starting to sweat from the heat and exercise. “That would take too much time and energy. They use the sun’s rays to send signals back to the main security hub, which is the tall building in the middle of the city, and they pass the message where it needs to go. It’s very efficient.”
“Huh, that’s pretty neat,” Cojisto said, nodding.
“It really is.”
Our conversation stopped as we ran through the streets, sticking to the shady side when possible. Things were cooler, but still not great. The stone buildings of Laroda were densely packed together off of the main road to the palace, which was kept immaculately clean even if the alleyways weren’t. People, mostly Dwarves, came and went, grabbing pots and jars of water from the twin waterways that flowed from the center of the city on either side of the path.
I had to continually snap my fingers to stop Cojisto from getting distracted. His attention span left a lot to be desired, but to his credit he didn’t complain. He did slow down as we approached the security tower, something that looked like it could have been an ancient Mage’s Guild tower in the days before the land became magic-starved, and at that point I threw a rock at him.
He got the hint, and didn’t slow down again.
The palace loomed over our heads as we got closer to it, and it was hard not to slow down even for me. Every tower was topped by a bulbous cap that reminded me of an onion. The stone was slightly reflective, but not where it could damage the city around it. Whoever the architect was, they made certain not to let that be a problem.
Unsurprising, Justisius was standing on the palace steps with a regal looking Dwarf in purple and red clothes. The guards had gotten the message out quickly, much to my relief. The two of them came down to greet us.
“Badger, I’m surprised to see you,” Justisius said, offering me his hand. He looked around, expecting another. “Your junior is not here?”
We shook in greeting, and I sighed. “I wish I could say that everything is fine and accounted for, but if it were then I wouldn’t be here. Is there a place where we can have a private discussion?”
The minister scoffed. “There is no time for this, Dungeon Inspector Justisius,” he said, speaking with the kind of forced politeness you would expect from someone who was rushed but knew better than to complain. “You are to meet with the exiled one in only a few minutes about this lock down he has put into effect.”
I frowned. “The reason why we’re here probably pertains to that.”
“How so?” Justisius asked. I gave him a look, and he nodded. “Privately, right, forgive my forgetfulness. Minister Tarbadan?”
Looking from one Inspector to the other, the Dwarf sighed and started heading up the stairs. “Right this way.”
“While I appreciate you coming right to me, the minister is correct in that I have a meeting with the dungeon owner,” Justisius said stiffly. “Things were going extraordinarily well. The Sultan and his son seemed to be reconnecting, but last night everything just… unraveled. All the rapport we had built up simply crumbled without warning.”
“That’s because…” Cojisto started to say, but he trailed off when I shot him a glare. “Right, private. Sorry.”
“Whatever’s happening isn’t your fault,” I said, figuring I could give him something without going into detail. “I’m sure you’ve been just as pleasant and conversational as ever, Justisius, and had done everything you could.”
My fellow Dungeon Inspector gave me a confused look, but didn’t push the issue. He knew what I wanted. When we entered the palace, the minister seemed to want to go deeper, but a quick word had us veering towards one of the side rooms.
“This place is beautiful,” Cojisto muttered, spinning around to take it all in.
The fountains and blue, white, and gold tiles that made up the palace’s foyer and told the tale of the country’s founding was a sight to behold. No matter how rushed I was, I could have admitted otherwise without lying. It was still a pointless distraction, and I started dragging the man along.
No matter how much cooler it was inside, we had another destination.
“This sightseer is Cojisto, by the way,” I introduced as we went through a series of hallways. “He’s our Consortium contact on my mission in Athir.”
“You came all the way from Athir?” the minister asked, furrowing his brow.
“Yup. Pleasure to meet you both,” he said jovially.
“A pleasure, Cojisto,” Justisius returned. “I am Justisius, another Dungeon Inspector and Badger’s senior at the DoD by two years. This is Minister Tarbadan, adviser to Sultan Jareet, may he live a thousand years.”
The Dwarf nodded politely, but didn’t say anything more. It was clear what he thought about our sudden intrusion at a critical time, and I fought to remain empathetic. He was just another bureaucrat who didn’t ask for any of this, after all.
Eventually, we made it to a room that looked like it used to be used for conference meetings. Old boxes littered the room from the long table in the center to the four corners, but they were dusty as if they hadn’t been touched in a long time. While there were chairs, there was also more than enough room for each of us to stand and Tarbadan didn’t tell us to sit. He was still ready to go deal with his dungeon business.
“This room hasn’t been used in years,” the minister told us, confirming my suspicions. “But it’s close to the dungeon so you can get back to the duties appointed to you by the Sultan quickly.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Minister,” Justisius said diplomatically. He was always much better at that than I was. The minister nodded, but then fell quiet. My associate turned to face me with a forced smile. “Alright, we are in private. Please, tell me what’s going on.”
Taking a breath, I started explaining. It wasn’t long until Justisius’ smile was completely wiped off of his face.