“Godsdammit.”

Lila had been saying that a lot lately. Ziya hadn’t been saying much of anything, which made Hugan worry a little. She’d been casting on them almost every minute they were awake for a week now. He wasn’t sure what spell it was or where she’d learned it, but it was helping. She was still the one who needed it the most, though. Hugan had started giving her half of his water quite a few days ago now, but he didn’t need it much anymore. Every step he took felt like pushing a big load of his father’s stock down the street, but the heat and the thirst barely touched him. Ziya wasn’t the only one who’d learned a new ability.

“We have to keep moving. Come on.”

Hugan lifted his chin up, pulling the reins of the camel and concealing the grunt of effort it took. The power arcing through his body made it hard to move, but he had to. For them.

“But where are we going?”

Hugan didn’t have a good answer for that one. Lila’s ‘map’ had been enough to get them to the middle of the Waste, but they hadn’t been able to find any of the landmarks it listed in the two weeks since they'd entered the Waste. No ruined village, no three huge boulders, no cave nestled in the side of a cleft in a massive rock. Of course, that shouldn’t have been a problem--they were going to Lila’s home after all, and she should have been able to figure it out, but…

“The Temple of the Sands,” Hugan said tiredly. He felt a bit guilty, but he didn’t want to deal with the complaining. Not now.

“Oh.”

Silence. They kept walking, and Hugan kept his eye on Nomenadon’s Lantern, the reddish star that, according to Uncle Yafi, would be glowing roughly east during this part of the night. Idly, he looked around, his head heavier than it had ever felt. There was Garthen’s Spear, almost kissing the Lantern, and Juris’ orb, a trio of bright lights in the West. There were countless pictures in the sky, but Hugan didn’t remember them all, only the ones that had to do with a story he liked. He smiled a little as he took note of Roon’s Shield almost atop his head. That had always been his favorite to point out with his father, as night took hold and they were packing away his tools.

“I see something.”

Hugan almost frowned. Usually Lila stayed quiet for longer than that after he mentioned the Temple. But no, that wasn’t her. It was Ziya, her voice a little raspy and even quieter than usual. Just then, a cool wave of power passed through him, rejuvenating his body a little. He barely felt it.

“Ziya. Save the spells for yourself.” After a moment, her words registered. “What?”

Atop the camel, she pointed north. The sand was sloped slightly, a huge shallow dune, and Hugan couldn’t see anything of interest. Ziya must have caught it with her vantage on the camel’s back. As much as he could, he picked up the pace as he turned towards the direction she indicated. He still wasn’t going very fast, but then both Lila and the camel seemed equally slow, so it was just as well.

Normally Hugan would have just asked what Ziya saw, but he didn’t want her talking more than necessary. Even more, he found the feeling of excitement at the thought of what they might find… enticing.

Eventually they crested the dune, and Hugan frowned again, glancing at Ziya.

“What?”

Instead of speaking, she pointed again. There were a few more impressive dunes here, the landscape--sandscape--dipping and rising in wild ripples. Hugan couldn’t generate much excitement from it, though. It was just sand after all, and if he never had to look at the stuff again it would be too soon..

“It’s just a big rock, Ziya,” Lila said, voice already edging back to complaint.

Oh. Now that she said it, that was a rock a few hundred meters away, not a particularly lumpy dune. Their trip so far had been an uninterrupted slog through endless sand, and Hugan hadn’t been prepared for that to change.

“The cleft.”

Ziya’s words brought Hugan back into focus, and he felt the tension in his shoulders increase even more. Gods, he was so tired. He’d even been sleeping with his new skill active, though it felt worse than being pressed between two sheets of metal as he lay.

Ziya was right, there was a cleft in the rock, though it was difficult to make out in the moonlight. Immediately, Hugan looked sharply at Lila. “Is that it? From the map?”

She had a strange look on her face. “I don’t recognize it from the outside like this. We need to go in.”

Hugan frowned again. “What do you mean?”

“I…” her voice trailed off, and Hugan recognized what that meant. This had to do with the Temple, somehow. They weren’t getting anything more out of her. Still, this was more than a little ominous. As casually as he could while in full view of the other two and moving like an old man, he unslung his buckler and long dagger from the camel’s back. Both of them, though relatively small, felt like sacks of bricks on either side of his belt, but he felt better with some protection. Just in case they were going to meet whoever had cast this spell on Lila.

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“Let’s go then.”

When he looked at Ziya, she gave him the slightest of frowns, but he shrugged. None of them were getting any more prepared to face whatever was there, out in this godsforsaken desert.

It took longer than it really should have to make it there. Most of it was downhill, and as they approached, Hugan began to see, dully, how beautiful the scene was. The moon was high in the sky, casting a soft silver light on their backs as they got closer to the wall of stone before them. From his earlier perspective, Hugan knew that the rock tapered away on either side, giving way to the sand, but from this angle it seemed like there was nothing else before them and no way through. Except for the almost perfect crack in the middle of the rock, only two shoulder lengths wide. That led to darkness and, hopefully, a way out of this situation.

Eventually they made it, though when the sand turned to rock the footing became a bit rough, and they had to leave the camel behind. Hugan almost tried to suggest that Ziya stay with the animal, but she was already getting down and shooting him one of her looks before he could say a word. Sometimes he wondered who was worse, Ziya, Lila, or his mother.

Without speaking, they all became just a little quieter as they entered the black of the cleft. Even Lila seemed on edge, though Hugan was sure she had no idea why. The other end of the cleft didn’t appear to open back up, making this a strange sort of cave. Hugan led the way forward, keeping a finger on the rock wall and ready to move at the first sign of danger. Suddenly, his finger slipped and he almost jumped. There was an empty space in the wall.

“This way.”

The cleft did have another cave in it, just like the one in Lila’s map. Hugan would normally be grinning ear to ear, but even he had his limits. And he was beginning to approach them. Lila didn’t seem to recognize the place yet, and at this point he was too curious not to see what in here. They continued on into the darkness, almost stumbling a little. Hugan wished that he’d thought to bring a torch from their supplies. They’d packed a few of those, hadn’t they? He was having trouble remembering.

After some time following a few twists and turns in the cramped path, something began to change. The way forward was still tight, sometimes treacherous, and dark, but... it wasn’t as dark as before. Was there light further in? Hugan pulled his shield onto his arm, the motion more awkward than usual. He drew his dagger as they continued. Sure enough, more and more light illuminated the path, until it opened out into a cavern whose walls glowed a soft white.

But instead of finding monsters or evil mages waiting to attack them, all Hugan saw were--

“--bodies?”

The ground was covered in the corpses of so many snakes, it almost seemed carpeted. They were all a deep black with red markings, and each seemed smaller than was typical for the the area. Many were also mangled beyond recognition, chopped up into grisly chunks by an axe of some kind, or… burned? There were bits of charred snake meat everywhere, and blood streaked the walls in many places, some of the bodies appearing to have been slammed against them by a great force. Still more were contorted into strange shapes, muscles rigid in death, and others were dry, as if they’d been out in the sun for hours.

Hugan shot a glance at Lila, but she just looked dazed. More of the mind magic. Ziya was looking at the corpses on the ground, frowning more than he had ever seen her do before. Hugan himself was also confused. Had a group of combatants just been through this place? And what exactly was this? It might not have been the wisest course of action, but he had to find out now.

“Let’s go.”

When Ziya looked like she was going to object, Hugan gestured emphatically at Lila’s confused expression, and began walking confidently forward. Of course, he was moving at a fraction of his normal speed, so the tactic wasn’t as effective as it should have been. Ziya must have been curious too, because she didn’t say anything as they continued.

The next room was more disturbing. Instead of regular snakes, there were long beasts with scales the same color as the rock of the cave. That would have been fine, but one or two of the things had bodies partially in the rock, as if they’d been in the process of leaping out of it like water. Monsters. They’d been killed in the same varied manner as the ones in the previous room, though Hugan saw that a few more were contorted out of shape, and one was covered in ice. The corpses also seemed less mangled than in the previous room. Huh. He supposed that made sense, if their scales were like stone in more than looks, but that was quite a different types of abilities this party of combatants seemed to have had. How many were there?

The caverns after that were just as varied--one was just full of ash, some of it wet, and another dust, much of which had been blackened by fire. Another had been full of snakes so small they looked like worms. Their bodies had all been crushed by something, and the corpses squished as the three walked over them. Finally they turned into another stone chamber, and Hugan knew immediately that this was the last one. Mostly because of the mangled corpse of the absolutely massive snake coiled about the floor, but also because of the short, dark haired young man standing over it, clutching a long staff.

He looked different than the last time Hugan had seen him, hair longer, skin looking as though he’d spent hours in the sun every day. He was wearing a ridiculous poofy white outfit stained with blood and gore, but even still Hugan could see that his frame, once painfully slight, was becoming more powerful. As he turned to face them, Hugan also noticed that his face was… harder. More intense.

“Maiz!”

Pure shock registered on the other boy’s features, and suddenly he looked like he hadn’t changed at all.

“Uh, hi.”

They looked at each other over the corpse of the snake for a long moment. Then, with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face, Maiz let his staff clatter to the ground as he stepped over the monster’s body and embraced Hugan. Hugan hugged his friend with a small smile, and raised his hand. As he brought it down with a resounding thump on Maiz’s back, the other young man did the same to him, and Hugan actually winced slightly at the blow.

His smile widened.