Kiera slowly opened her eyes. Disoriented and dehydrated, she turned on her side to feel the hot sand under her hands. Her head pounded, and her outfit covered with sand. She struggled to breathe as she tried to move her muscles.

"A-...Areiya.," she mumbled. With her vision still blinded by the bright sun, she could barely see anything. But Areiya wasn't here...

She felt a stinging pain in her neck. When she ran her hand over it, she felt a little knob. Then she remembered.

"No.." Kiera groaned, attempting to crawl back up. Though, with her attempt her arms gave in and made her fall flat in the sand again.

"Areiya!!" she exclaimed weakly. But all there was, was her own echoing voice. The hot breeze whistled past her ears when she decided to crawl towards the shadows of the oasis. When she reached one of the palm trees, she made herself sit straight against it.

Even though she remembered everything, the hoof prints of the warriors' horses were already washed away by the wind. There was no trace left whatsoever. Stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing but an oasis, she couldn't stop thinking about why she didn't stay with commander Marlock in the Ferronian islands.

She started feeling dizzy as her breath quickened. Thoughts of her own lifeless corpse shrinking and cooking in this blazing heat filled her head as her panic only became worse. She heard her own heartbeat as the gruesome images flooded her mind.

Struggling to breathe, she grasped into the sand, trying to snap out of this attack. Her heart was pounding so fast that she even thought that she was about to have a heart attack. Her quick wheezing sounded like death in her own ears. But then all of a sudden, she screamed. "Stop!!"

She covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes, replacing all the bad thoughts with good ones.

"It's just a panic attack. It will be over if I relax."

Over and over again she repeated the sentence until her breathing finally slowed down.

"Come on, Kiera. Open your eyes...you'll still be in the desert, but if you stay calm you will survive," she mumbled to herself before opening her eyes. Her panic attack was over. Her breath stabilized, and her heartbeat slowed.

"Okay...uh...water. Drink water."

When she regained some of her strength, she crawled on her hands and knees towards the pond and filled her hands to drink from it. Despite everything being so hot, the water was quite cool. She didn't even hesitate and jumped into it with all her clothes.

It felt so good. The refreshing water seemed to have made Kiera recover immediately. She even dipped her head under, but then she felt something..solid and hard underneath her feet. When she looked in the clear water, she saw it. A silver glimmer of light. "The stash?"

She took in as much air as possible before going underwater to pull out whatever it was. Hearing nothing but the water and her own blood rushing in her ears, she dug in the pond bottom, revealing more and more from this object. It became more clear that this was a chest. Most likely the stash Areiya talked about.

After quite a while of digging, Kiera finally managed to pull the chest out of the pond. She was drenched, but considering the heat, she didn't care at all. All that mattered was opening that rattling chest.

Surprisingly it wasn't even locked. She opened the lid with her hands.

The chest seemed to be watertight, containing a sword with a hilt decorated with the head of a dragon. The steel was in excellent condition. Not only the sword was in there. Two bags of smoked fish and an empty leather canteen rested on a neatly folded outfit and a rug sack.

Kiera cracked a smile and let out a sigh of relief, taking out all of the chest's content. She filled the rug sack with the food and filled the canteen with fresh water of the pond. She placed the sword on the ground and took the outfit to unfold it. It was pretty light, but the clanking sound made Kiera realize that this outfit was armored with steel plates. It only had one shoulder pad, which was adorned with another dragon head. Even the steel belt was shaped in the form of dragon wings. The rest of the outfit was made of grey cloth with leather straps. But then she dropped it and stood up, leaving the armor behind. She did take the sword though.

She walked up to the edge of the oasis, looking at the stretching horizon of nothing but sand and dunes. She took a deep breath, then looked back to the oasis, pondering on something.

Not long after, she wore the new armored suit and left her old clothes behind. It fit her surprisingly well. It felt light, despite the steel plates and shoulder pad. It also had a grey hood. To protect her head from the sun, she pulled it over her head and left the oasis behind, traveling towards the sun.

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The dungeons weren't the most charming part of the Citadel. Long hallways with countless little jail cells that were patrolled by guards with torches. In one of those cells, sat Graham. His back against the wall in his dirty, ragged garment. Bare footed, his hair greasy. He wasn't looking too good. His head fell a little to the side as he felt incredibly weak because of starvation.

His cell door opened with a squeak. Someone walked in with a torch in their hands. It was Gillian. The noble friend of Graham, in the same red noble wear as usual. The defeated knight raised his head to look at Gillian as the guard closed the door behind him.

The noble looked around the cell in an inspecting way. "I imagined these cells bigger."

Graham remained silent, staring in front of him as if he intently wanted to ignore Gillian.

"Don't tell me they cut your tongue? Do I have to-" - "..Give me one reason why I shouldn't strangle you and drown you in my own bucket of shit?" Graham interrupted the lord. He was left confused and tilted his head.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I know it was you," Graham mumbled.

"Who ratted you out? Why would you even think that? I'm your friend, Graham." Gillian said as he approached, sitting down in front of him and placing the burning torch on the floor, "I can assure you it wasn't me. But I think I have an idea of who it was."

The renounced knight gained more interest, perking up his head to look at Gillian.

"You see, the emperor has his own little group of agents as you might know yourself."

Graham knew what he was talking about. "The Eyes of the Crown."

"Exactly. They stick to the shadows and work in secrecy, but they are the emperor's most trusted people, hand-picked by himself. My guess is that they overheard us talking about him in an...ill way."

"Then why haven't they put you in chains as well?" Graham asked.

"Graham, I'm from House Berendas. Chaining me will sack the entire citadel. My house funds most of the Valquen's projects in turn for an alliance."

Graham shook his head and growled. "I thought he wiped out all his alliances."

"Not all of them. He simply can't. But just like you said...as soon as everyone turns on him, House Berendas won't be there to protect House Valquen."

The cell door opened again, and a guard showed up in the doorway. "Time's up."

Gillian nodded and shoved a little bag towards Graham before standing up. "I'll visit another time."

When Gillian and the guard left, Graham opened the bag. It had pieces of bread and vegetables. Without hesitation, he ate all of it like a starving dog.

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The sun was about to set in the blazing hot desert of Volaria. Kiera still trudged the sands in her new armor. Her sword was sheathed on her belt as she climbed a dune. She seemed to be repeating something in whispers to herself.

"You're going to be alright...you're going to be alright...you're going to be alright."

It was the only way to keep herself calm. The armor did a great job of deflecting a lot of the sun's heat, but that didn't stop her from sweating profusely. A screech sounded above her head. When she looked up, she saw a majestic eagle floating underneath the sun. Where was it heading?

All of her instinct told her that she should follow this eagle. It wasn't circling around, just heading towards one direction.

"Alright, little bird. I hope you're not leading me to my demise," she mumbled. Only then she started noticing something. Something in the far distance where the eagle was headed. It looked like smoke stacks. Were they mirages? It couldn't be. Mirages don't show up that high in the skies. It had to be real. With that information, Kiera picked up her pace. The closer she got, the more she realized that what she saw was actually real. A metropolis of tribal tents stretched across the horizon with thin smokestacks above them.

Part of her told her to stay away. Only recently she discovered these tribesmen were dangerous. But they captured Areiya, and she had no other way to go. When she gathered all her courage, she threaded forward.

She expected to be greeted by a horde of mounted warriors capturing her in an instant, but she could enter the city of tents with no problem at all. Hundreds of tribesmen and women laboring, barely paying attention to her. She could walk between tents as women carrying bowls of water on their heads walked past her.

A foul odor filled the air when she passed some tents. Finally, someone recognized her being out of place with a gasp. An old woman stared at her, almost as if she was in awe. In awe? Kiera's heart quickened immediately as she thought they were going to rip her apart. But they didn't. The old woman released a Volarian word.

"Sinha.."

Sinha? What did that even mean? When others heard the woman saying that, they looked at Kiera the same way the old woman did. What was going on? They kept repeating that word.

'Sinha.'

And before she knew it, she found herself surrounded by tribesmen, no way to go and trapped like an animal. Some touched her, wanted to feel her skin. She felt uncomfortable in ways she cannot describe herself.

"Sinha!" it sounded, pierced through Kiera's head over and over again. The crowd suddenly started dispersing away from her as she heard men shouting. There they were...the warriors. They still watched, but from a distance.

"Please don't.." Kiera whined, putting her hands in front of her while stepping back. But then she couldn't believe what she saw. Even the warriors stopped in their path to gaze at her. They all kneeled and held their curved swords against the ground.

"Anhi sa'an Sinha." one of the warriors said. They rose up again and took her hand gently, leading her through the thin street of sand. She was surrounded by warriors, pushing away people that wanted to get to her. They kept shouting the word 'Sinha'. She was led to a big tent. Probably the biggest of this massive camp.

One of the warriors guided her through the flaps, entering the tent. The smell of burning candles filled the air as well as a bit of smoke oozing around, spreading the aroma. At the end of the tent sat the probable tribe leader. His topless body covered with black tattoos and intentional scars. He stood up with his muscular body. His eyes surrounded with black paint and finished with curls heading all the way to his chin.

"Kat'hi semid rago'ma...Sinha." he said. His voice deep.

Scared out of her mind, Kiera managed to squeak out a few words. "I d-don't...common tongue?"

"How come the Rashekh send us a white Sinha that knows not our tongue? It does not matter. We welcome you to Vardehk. Our home...your home."

"My home? I don't t-think.." Kiera stuttered. The chief noticed her sword and smiled.

"How rude of me to not offer my seeing of your skill in fighting first. Sinha's are supposed to be better than the best warriors of Volaria. Come, Sinha.." he held his hand on her back and lead her outside. He was heavily guarded by at least a dozen of warriors. This was not good at all. For some reason they started seeing her as 'Sinha'? Was it supposed to be some sacred god they were worshiping? But then again, why her? An outsider that doesn't even know their language? And then they wanted her to fight...

The chief stopped at an open area, where the sand was covered with dry blood. This clearly was a fighting arena, with people already surrounding it with cheers and drums. The rhythmic drum beats made Kiera's heart race to unhealthy levels as she stood in the middle of the arena. The chief started shouting sentences excitingly as her opponent entered the arena as well. A sleek warrior with nothing but a cloth skirt and boots. His hair packed into a ponytail, and he held a curved sword.

Like a raging animal, he hit his own chest and screamed towards the crowd to pump himself up. The horn blazed, and the drums were being hit more intensely. Kiera wanted to unsheathe her sword, but it was stuck in the scabbard. While she felt like she was about to pass out and on the brink of a panic attack, the warrior approached her with a smirk.

"Sahn!" (Stop!)

A feminine voice interrupted the fight. The drums stopped and everyone looked towards the voice. Someone angrily burst through the crowd, yelling Volarian words towards everyone, pushing them away. When Kiera saw the person, she felt overwhelmingly happy. It was Areiya! She changed her attention towards the chief and even yelled at him.

"Yeri ha feri folat Sinha she jin lekh-tiholat! Akka tat ei jin chomak fin zhorre alikh? Ferik akka Sinha!" (How dare you welcome Sinha like that you beasts! Don't you know how to treat a woman? Especially Sinha!)

Areiya approached Kiera and grabbed her by the hand, leading her away from the crowd. She didn't look very calm as her pace only increased.

"For now, act like you're their goddess. If they know you're just an impostor wearing this armor, we both won't make it until nightfall."