Zalia slowed to a hover, again, as Sazcha dropped down to the sand.

“Do you really have to land every time you check we’re headed in the right direction,” she called down.

Sazcha looked up, then shaded her eyes against the sun, panning around.

“Yes, the dunes can’t guide me from up there.”

It hadn’t taken Sazcha long to adapt to the flight, yet for some reason she was unable to guide them unless landed. While Sazcha wouldn’t tell her why, Zalia guessed it was one of her abilities. In fact, despite seeing a lot of high-ranked people, she hadn’t seen any flying. She would have guessed it would be extremely common, making the traversal of the desert much easier. Sazcha didn’t have anything against flying or she wouldn’t be doing it, so Zalia doubted it was a cultural thing.

She tried discerning where they were from in the sky but the desert all looked the same as it had the day before and the day before that. Landing next to Sazcha, she tried to figure out what exactly the woman was seeing that she was not.

“How… are you determining where we’re going?”

Sazcha glanced at her, then went back to what she was doing.

“It’s complicated.”

Zalia waited.

With a sigh, Sazcha looked back at her.

“I know where we are by how the dunes form. Even though the dunes might all look the same to you, there is a chaos to the order that you can use to differentiate between one place and another.”

Zalia stared blankly, not understanding a word.

“Come here and look over there.”

She stepped over and looked towards where Sazcha was pointing.

“Um… what am I looking at?”

Sazcha shook her head, muttering.

“Look. Dunes form in waves perpendicular to the wind. The small section of land between the desert and the sea west of Endaria, north of us, is a plains. Winds are always blowing off the sea into the desert, causing the dunes to build in a certain pattern. If you use that, plus the location of the sun, you can figure out where we are.”

Zalia stared at her. Whoever had figured that out and passed it down to Sazcha must have been incredibly intelligent. She knew that the hot air created in the desert would rise, pulling in the cooler air from the sea and surrounding land but using that and the formation of the dunes to determine one’s location was incredible, something she never would have come up with.

Granted, the method wasn’t perfect and by no means accurate but when you were in a desert filled with a whole lot of nothing, you didn’t have to aim for your destination with any amount of exactness unless it was hidden.

“Ok, I get it kind of. So is that how you all navigate the desert then?”

Sazcha scoffed.

“What? No, only this part. The dunes tell a different story wherever you go.”

Zalia rolled her eyes.

“You’ve got some kind of ability that helps you read the dunes though, don’t you? Something that you need to be landed to use.”

Sazcha looked down from the sky, checking the dunes once more.

“Ah, this way.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She took off into the sky once more.

With a sigh, Zalia followed.

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

Zalia and Sazcha stood atop a dune looking over a single structure. It was made of huge, roughly shaped sandstone blocks forming a pyramid shape that was missing a wall. It was hollow, a wide set of stairs leading down into the ground and out of sight. Chiseled into the sandstone blocks was imagery of sandstorms, many with people fleeing from them.

Around the pyramid were two dozen trees that reminded Zalia of palm trees, only these had branches that stabbed diagonally into the sky rather than large arching leaves. Centred in the trees and on the side of the pyramid with the opening, sat a small calm pool of turquoise water.

“Well, that is pretty much exactly what I asked for.”

Sazcha lay a hand on her shoulder in a friendly manner.

“I thought it might be.”

Zalia took another look at the markings on the sandstone blocks.

“Now I probably should have asked this before, but how haunted is this place exactly?”

She wasn’t exactly prepared to fight spirits, though she was certain that her sword and bow would be able to harm them with their starlight powers. If that failed, she could always use Manifest to cast spiritual rituals. Her preference would be to make peace with any possible spirits though, as they might prove valuable to Aylie in the use of her Spiritual Connection ability.

“Well, if the person I spoke to is to be believed, which they should be, there are a few Bronze ranked spirits on the first few floors of the place, with Silvers appearing further down. The guy I spoke to, who was a contact of that vendor, never got to the bottom. Said something warned him away from going down any further.”

Zalia nodded a few times.

“Okay, sure. Don’t go too deep and we should be fine.”

Sazcha peered at her.

“I usually wouldn’t do this but before we go in, it’s best we share what our skill sets are,” she gestured to her long bladed spear, “I am a fighter class, with sand magic as a specialisation. I mostly do melee combat with disabling abilities related to my sand magic and a little bit of minor healing.” She sighed. “And yes, an ability that helps me navigate.”

Zalia pointed at Sazcha.

“Ha! I knew it wasn’t just you looking at the dunes.”

“All of us learn to navigate by the dunes before we ge-”

“And are any of your abilities capable of hitting something incorporeal?”

Sazcha sighed.

“Kind of. I can enhance my weapon with magic, which usually hits most things.”

Even if it didn’t, Zalia thought she might be able to cast some kind of weapon enhancement ritual.

“Alright, sounds good. I’m a Hunter, Herbalist and Druid. Focus around hunting things down, ritual magic and powerful long cooldown abilities. Usually use a bow but can use a sword when necessary. I’ve got a lot of healing and good defensive abilities. Here, these are the three that are probably most important for you to know about.”

She shared the descriptions of Healing Presence, Nature’s Wrath and Protection of the Wilds with her.

Active 1 - Nature's Wrath - spell - area

Tin - You invoke the wrath of nature. Nearby enemies are bound by vines, sinking sand or other area related hazards. Enemies are also subjected to a damage over time effect relevant to biome that lasts until the restraint has ended. The damage over time effect deals moderate damage per second.

Iron - When used, Nature's wrath now summons two short lived allies of nature. The allies are one rank lower than this ability. The allies are of a type based on the surrounding environment.

Bronze - Upon using Nature's Wrath, you gain temporary control over the natural elements within the area. You can manipulate the environment to your advantage, causing vines to entangle enemies, rocks to rise as barriers, or water to surge forth and sweep foes away.

Silver - The mana drain from continued use of Nature’s Wrath is reduced. The range and ability to manipulate the elements from this ability is increased greatly. You now summon five elemental allies instead of two. The Tin rank effect no longer restrains enemies in place, instead dragging them all towards each other.

Mana - extreme mana

Cd - 6 hours

Sazcha frowned.

“Hunter, Herbalist… and Druid?”

“What!? Three? Is that something that you Endarians can do somehow?”

Zalia shook her head.

“No, just me. Still haven’t figured out why or how it happened yet, though I do have some clues.”

“That should help, having three classes must be great assuming you get just as many abilities per class. These abilities look very strong as well. How are you against spirits?”

Zalia stepped off the top of the dune and started floating down towards the pyramid.

“I’ll manage!” she called back.