“Please, husband. Hold still or you’ll lose your arm!”
Alex’s hasty flight became a careful glide back down to the desert sands as he noticed his friends tending to the wounded caravanners. For all that his heart broke to see so many grieving families, he felt a sense of relief as well that the casualties hadn’t been far worse. Yet for every caravanner who had gotten off with the lightest of injuries, spear thrusts to limbs that hadn’t pricked deep enough to critically injure or kill before their assault was interrupted, there was an equal number who had been grievously wounded with the first blow the raiders had inflicted.
Alex’s gaze then fell upon all those groaning and writhing in obvious pain, being tended to by none other than Nili, Zichen, and Sunlay. For all that Alex understood the need for sharp priorities in these final hours when an entire city skirted peril, he couldn’t help but be grateful that, in the end, his friends had decided to back him up. Even after all they had been through. All the while Nili and the others focused on healing, her husband and the male wujen Anjen stood careful sentinel over them beside them.
Alex frowned, noting that Quing Da’s guandao was covered in gore. Alex took a moment to truly taking in the killing field that was the desert sands sprayed with blood, gore, and fallen bodies. And not all of them had been struck down by the bull-stopping thrusts and cleaving blows of his fangtian ji, either. Enough of the disguised soldiers bore the telltale sweeping slashes of Quing Da’s favored weapon to make it painfully clear that Alex hadn’t cleared the battlefield nearly as well as he had thought, even if the caravanners still had armed men of their own.
Yet it was those stalwart defenders who were the most grievously wounded, the closest to death, who had been triaged to receive care last of all. His friends were focusing on the patients they could hopefully save, not on those who would heal on their own or were beyond whatever healing aid they could give.
Alex’s features tightened when he saw that armed caravanners weren’t the only ones who had been mortally wounded. A mother was sobbing over her shuddering child, tiny hands unable to hold back the blue grey streams of intestines spurting from the mortal wound. Alex couldn’t suppress his horrified shudder, recognizing the soft brown eyes of the very girl he had been just a heartbeat too late to save. His ears then caught a dying gasp, spotting a dark skinned Ruidian woman with an ochre jewel upon her sweat-covered brow, perhaps she was the one who had guarded the caravan with a storm of sand and wind. Yet now the only wind was the breeze rustling Alex’s brow as the fallen jewel master’s eyes went wide with oncoming death, her breathing rapidly fading to a dying wheeze.
“Fan!” The mother sobbed, tears splashing upon her daughter’s dying cheeks, before she instinctively looked up at the presence looming over her covered in gore, radiating fearsome potency, and holding out salvation in his hands.
“May I?” The only words Alex had time for, immediately acting as the woman just began to dip her head, knowing he had only seconds.
Alex allowed a globe of water to form on the tip of his finger, surrounding and cleansing the grit free of burst entrails even as he gently pressed the now gathered ropes of intestine before gently forcing it into the dying child’s abdominal cavity.
For all that his gaze was tender, his grip was like steel when the little girl screamed and thrashed before shuddering as shock left her utterly breathless, her screams replaced by her mother’s desperate cry. Then and only then did Alex dare to place a few calibrated drops from the crimson vile he had claimed from the silver tier wujen he had so recently decapitated. A potion whose potency Alex knew all too well.
If anything, the child’s thrashing grew more desperate before she finally collapsed in her mother’s arms.
“Fan!” The mother screamed in despair before horrified sorrow turned to a look of wonder as her child opened her eyes, gazing with wonder at the gut wound that was now no more than an ugly pink scare.
“Mommy?”
Alex could spare no time for the woman’s joyful sobs, immediately turning to the Ruidian that even now he sensed slipping away with her dying breath.
Alex gazed into amber eyes the same shade as her jewel that had known their share of bitterness, sorrow, triumph and joy. A young woman eager to find her fortune as a delver and to honor her clan, making the smart choice to earn coin while embracing safety in numbers by escorting a caravan all the way to Wanshi.
The final flickering thoughts of a dying woman, that was jolted to horrified awareness when a blood covered palm smacked against her forehead and claimed her for all time.
Slave Node successfully accessed.
You have successfully formed a party with Rachel Lu!
Warning! Detrimental neural cascades are in effect. Neural matrices must be stabilized within 17 seconds or party member will be lost!
Current party members have participated in shared experience point accrual. Inter-party experience points may be freely exchanged and manipulated!
You have authorized RESTORE TO SAVE STATE.
You have successfully directed claimed potency of Slave Node Lu0866.
Additional potency needed.
You have successfully channeled personal potency into Lu0866.
Party member’s neural matrix has been successfully stabilized!
The air filled with a woman’s high pitched scream as Rachel Lu stumbled to her feet in wide-eyed horror, her eyes darting around with animal-like terror that immediately muted to confusion then exhausted sobs moments later.
Alex gave the confused and clearly shaken young woman his gentlest smile, solemnly passing her a fresh water flask. “Are you alright?”
She blinked, lurching back for an eye-blink before furrowing her brow in confusion, as if having no idea why she would be horrified of him… before taking in with growing dismay the carnage all around them.
“What by all the desert sands happened?”
She had a soft, husky voice that Alex thought suited her slender form. Her skin was darker than most Ruidians, even those belonging to this desert. Her complexion, high cheekbones, and epicanthic folds made her look far more like a true-blood native than a Ruidian, to the point she could have easily passed as a native, save for the jewel sparkling proudly and brightly in the center of her forehead that she made no effort to hide.
Alex grinned. In truth now that the fear of a death forever erased from her psyche had passed, her twinkling amber eyes were filled with genuine curiosity and a joy of life, her healthy physique radiating a vibrancy that made it clear her clan’s liberal intermingling of bloodlines had been to their most definite benefit.
“Exactly what it looks like. An ambush.” Alex gazed fondly at the little girl he had saved, now wrapped in the tender arms of her teary-eyed mother. Only then, after finding solace in the two lives he had already saved, did he force himself to examine the other critically wounded, ignoring the merely mildly injured, for all that they were now looking his way with an odd mixture of both fear and wonder.
“Fortunately the good guys won, and the raiders paid the ultimate price.”
The young Ruidian’s lips pressed tightly together, pert features furrowing as she rubbed her temple. “Why? Why can’t I remember anything?” She shook her head in dismay as Alex rapidly made his way to a grizzled caravanner who looked just seconds away from dying.
“Timon!”
The grizzled caravanner, hands holding his own entrails as he wheezed for agonized breath, flashed a weary smile the panicked Ruidian woman’s way. “Don’t be lookin’ so crestfallen, Rachel. That Sand ward of yours brought us the time we needed. Time for help to arrive. You did good, girl.”
Rachel blinked in confusion, clearly not remembering a thing. “Timon, hold on, we’ll get you to a healer! We’re less than a mile from the city… aren’t we?”
This earned a rueful chuckle, the man not bothering to resist when Alex effortlessly ripped open the ragged jack of bronze plates that hadn’t done nearly enough to protect the old caravan guard, exposing the ugly wound it hid.
“I’m afraid it’s a bit late for that, girlie. But at least I skewered the bastard who did this to… By Long Wang’s Hammer, what are you doing?”
The man’s words cut off as his eyes rolled back, Alex effortlessly holding the man’s sturdy limbs as he bucked and thrashed while Alex methodically gathered the man’s spilled entrails, cleaned them in a fresh ball of pristine water he formed, and shoved it all in the gaping abdominal wound… before sprinkling a handful of drops from a crimson healing potion that Alex was determined to use as sparingly as possible.
Two gut wounds in under ten minutes. Alex guessed he was glad he wasn’t getting any snarky interface messages, for all that such were one of the few types of wounds where the victim would suffer for an extended time period, even if there was little that most save the supremely gifted, or resourceful, could do to save them.
Yet save them both Alex was determined to do, even if he had to hold his patient down while Timon screamed and thrashed, before he finally collapsed with an exhausted sob, gazing down at his own puckered scar with awed disbelief before turning his gaze up to Alex with a look of hope and reverence that made Alex wince.
“Honored hero, thank you! Thank you for my life! Please forgive my ah, bloody hells!”
The man paled and groaned.
Alex frowned thoughtfully. “Alright, even with my pretreatment, cleaning, and shoving everything back in place, an adult needs more than a couple drops of tincture. Noted. Open your mouth, please?”
Timon blinked in momentary confusion.
“Timon, he’s clearly a healer! Open your mouth!” Rachel urged.
Timon did so, whereupon Alex sprinkled three additional drops of his crimson tincture, and the poor caravanner collapsed and began to shudder and groan.
Alex frowned. Because with only a single Meridian open, Alex knew that using it had been a risk. Yet after a few seconds a shaky, exhausted looking Timon opened his eyes, took a deep shuddering breath, and laughed for joy. “It’s gone. The pain is gone!”
“That’s good to hear,” Alex allowed with a gentle smile, carefully putting away the precious potion he was wise enough to use very sparingly, clearly being intended for far stronger cultivators of Bronze or Silver, at least those with fully intact Meridian configurations, even if only a couple people in every thousand of the general population normally enjoyed such.
His hopeful gaze then turned to tightly pursed lips, concealing his dismay. Because of the critically injured he hadn’t gotten to yet, there were only a pair of corpses, glassy-eyed men who had suffered grievous injuries before completely bleeding out upon the desert sands.
The young Ruidian woman smiled up at Alex, her hand gently reaching to squeeze his own. “Thank you. My name’s Rachel, by the way,” She said.
Alex smiled. “Alex. Happy to help.”
Rachel’s amber eyes peered intently into his own. She inhaled as if to ask a question, before abruptly lowering her gaze. “We were fighting for our lives, and I don’t remember a single thing. I think that means…” She trembled, squeezing her arms. “My father once told me that the most elite delving groups can form such a communion that they can use the potency of their kills to heal almost any wound. Even those of their teammates who have fallen, if they act in time. But I’m all alone out here. Foolish. And here you are, a Ruidian boy who doesn’t look like anyone I’ve ever met before. Not from my clan, which is hardly a clan at all now, and not from the neighboring tribes that all look down on us, even if I can use my jewel as well as anyone just starting out.” She sighed, and Alex totally wasn’t expecting her to lean against him, her hand now entwining with his own, or the curious scents of cinnamon, cardamon and hope that tingled against his nostrils.
“I owe you a life-debt, don’t I?”
Alex solemnly shook his head. “You owe me nothing at all.” He lifted his head to meet Nili’s awkward grimace while Sunlay tended to a wounded guardsman, revealing talents Alex certainly hadn’t expected, but perhaps should have, in a Water-aligned noblewoman. “I was traveling with friends, and we caught sight of raiders far too focused on what they thought was easy prey to spot us at their back. Between your stalwart defenders and our own men,” he said with a nod to his companions including Anjen and Quing Da who solemnly nodded back, looking oddly relieved for some reason. “We made short work of those assholes.”
Timmon snorted at this. “You make it sound like it was as easy as filling your plate with bread. There were Bronze-tier monsters amongst that crew!” The man paled, wincing at the memory of death narrowly avoided. “It didn’t matter how well positioned we were or how bravely we fought, those monsters just tore right through us!”
Alex chuckled. “Have you not felt my friend’s presence yet?” He said, nodding towards Quing Da whose expression turned rueful when Timmon’s eyes widened with awe.
“I can feel it, even from here! And his size… by Zheng Yi’s beard, is that man actually a Silver?”
Alex winked. “Do you really think these ragamuffins stood a chance?”
The rank 1 Basic, still enough of a cultivator to at least sense and understand a Silver’s potency, rapidly shook his head. “Not with a man of his caliber coming to our rescue.” He took a shuddering breath, gazing intently at a still smiling Alex. “Or you.”
Alex blinked. “Me?”
“He’s right.” Rachel gazed up at him, eyes twinkling merrily. “You radiate potency I can all but taste in the air, for all that I see no jewel upon your forehead at all,” she said, lips curving in wonder as delicate fingers brushed his naked brow, earning an unexpected shiver.
He stepped back abruptly. “Forgive me, I believe my friends will want us to get going before nightfall. All things considered…”
“Of course!” Timmon quickly agreed, looking at the vast empty desert all around them with a worried light in his eyes. “It’s a miracle so few of us fell, all things considered. We’d be fools not to take full advantage of this blessing and seek the shelter of Wanshi’s pristine walls before the hour grows any later.”
Alex smiled and dipped his head, pretending he didn’t see the odd questioning look in both their gazes as he quickly made his way to Quing Da.
“Good to see you,” he softly said, nodding in approval at the corpses by the powerfully built Silver’s feet.
Instead of returning his smile, Quing Da solemnly bowed his head, Anjen’s cheeks actually heating up as he looked away.
“Guys?”
Quing Da sighed, a powerful hand gently clapping Alex’s shoulder. Yet his words were kind enough. “It’s good to have a light in the darkness traveling by our side. One who can remind us of the righteous path, when it is all too easy to go astray” he softly said, earning a bemused snort from Alex.
“Okay, I’m not even going to pretend to know what that means, but I say we do what we can to get the caravan organized and safely trading its wares within Wanshi’s walls before it gets any later than it already has.”
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Quing Da nodded his agreement, catching his wife’s eye. Nili immediately shifted gears from reassuring the despondent looking man dressed in rich silk and dyed leather who was obviously the own of the caravan to cajoling him for immediate action.
Much to Alex’s relief, it appeared that of all those injured in the original seconds of the blitzkrieg assault, only three had expired to their wounds. Everyone else was either healed, on their way to recovering, or suffering only superficial wounds already cleaned and treated with liniments.
In truth, Alex was surprised that his companions didn’t break away to make use of their carpet once the camels were soothed, stirrups and saddles straightened, and the wagons were once more making their plodding way to the cit. Yet he was content as anyone to enjoy a peaceful hour’s meditative walking, electing not to sit on any of the raised seats or wagon beds, despite being offered his choice of seats. He had always found it far easier to meditate or distract himself with motion than stillness, and there was something to be said for a meditative walk under the waning light with the cool desert breeze now brushing against his skin.
“Thank you, Alex.”
He blinked, not expecting Sunlay to be matching him stride for stride, let alone peering at him so intently, the rest of their band a respectful distance back.
“For what?”
“For reminding me of what truly matters.” She bit her lip, cheeks flushing underneath her dusky complexion. “I was so busy thinking of the big picture, and yes… if I’m going to be honest, still feeling the sting of helplessness, powerlessness, and that collar that had been around my neck less than a day ago. And I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that it was fear as much as prudence that held me back, making it so easy to tell myself that we had other things to worry about. And we were all getting ready to turn our focus right back to the city when you actually jumped right off the carpet hundreds of feet in the air.” She shook her head with wonder. “For a half-second, I feared the worst, before remembering the odd talent that let you swoop so nobly to our rescue such a short time ago.”
She gave a soft shake of her head. “And what an awesome sight it was, to see that charming eccentric Ruidian boy transform into a living weapon, tearing through those vile pawns of our enemies as effortlessly as a shadow puma could tear through all our throats.” She shivered, eyes growing wide at her own words. “At first, I felt shamed. There you were, throwing your life away like a foolish idealist embracing dreams of heroism. Then it quickly became apparent that you’re the farthest thing from a fool, and a foe to be feared by anyone below Gold.”
Alex awkwardly raised his hand. “Let’s not tempt fate. I’m a Rank 1 Silver with a decent foundation. A powerful enough Silver could easily crush me, let alone a Gold-tier monster.”
Sunlay chuckled softly, biting her lip as she took Alex’s measure. “But that’s just it. You somehow managed to ascend to Silver. In what, the space of a week? A legend? A fortuitous encounter? How? In what world could anyone, even a wealthy scion with unlimited resources at his disposal, accomplish such a feat before his forties, even if he would look a perpetual twenty for centuries?”
“An excellent point, my lady,” Nili agreed with a grin, stepping free of the growing gloom as if she had been walking beside them all along. “And we all saw what he did to the Wujen commander, before that fool could cast a single spell.”
“And that monstrous Silver Giant, who had managed to align himself to an element, in addition to infusing his body directly!” Sunlay declared, now peering intently at Alex’s fangtian ji. “And what enchantments allow your wondrous weapon to cleave through a Silver Giant’s stone wards and unbreakable body so effortlessly?”
Alex winked. “Let’s just say Fu Tan isn’t the only one with strong Elemental affinities.”
“Of course,” Sunlay quickly agreed. “But to actually cut through his defenses like it was nothing!”
“Just requires the right infusion of Wind, Water, and Steel, among other things.”
His words died off when he saw the intent looks that the pair were giving him.
“That’s three elements, at least,” Nili calmly noted.
“Um… maybe?”
“And I’m almost positive I saw you unleash lightning as well. Against an entire handful of Xien Tang’s henchmen.”
Alex shrugged. “Who can say?”
The pair of women exchanged pointed looks.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Sunlay?”
She looked strangely uncertain, even anxious. “Some might consider our hesitation… unworthy.”
Alex chuckled. “What are you talking about? Your timing was perfect! My Wind Walking ability is basically flight and moving how I wish through the air at this point, and you all had a rug to steer. The way I see it, we did it perfectly. I struck like a hammer, Quing Da and everyone else doing their part, sweeping up all the pieces I had scattered. Fom there it was healing and helping those we could before regrouping and heading to Wanshi, only now we’re up an entire caravan of valuable grain to give hope to a city full of people I’m guessing have been living half-rations for at least a while… and equally importantly, it gives us excellent cover, posing as mercenaries ourselves, just in case the situation in your native city’s even more precarious than we had realized.”
Nili gave Sunlay a pointed look. “I told you this boy was no fool. Or perhaps I should say… he’s the best kind of fool. The kind you want on your side. Always.”
“Your words are more accurate than I wish to admit,” Sunlay said with a sigh, before her eyes brightened with her smile. “But you’re right. This caravan will give at least a bit of hope, and with the prize now in our possession, if all goes well… it’s only a matter of time before our fields are flourishing once more and everyone can eat and drink as much as they like.”
“Sunlay?”
“Yes, Alex?”
“You did the right thing. The city’s welfare has to come first. What I did was tactically idiotic, risking my life for relatively little, compared to what was truly at stake.” Alex gave a helpless shrug. “Only thing is, there’s no way I could have lived with myself after hearing a child’s desperate screams than to jump right into the thick of things and give those raiding assholes the comeuppance they so richly deserved.”
Sunlay bowed her head, smiling freely despite the moisture in her gaze. “That’s because you’re exactly what this world needs. A hero who would put aside games of rulers and thrones for what really matters. The safety and wellbeing of all the innocent lives caught between the madness and machinations of too many titans who see the entire world as nothing but a game board for their own amusement.”
Alex chuckled bitterly. “If only you knew how right you truly were, Sunlay.”
Nili flinched at those words, haunted eyes making it clear she understood all too well what Alex would never be stupid enough to say. Not now, anyway, when he had finally freed himself from the most vile game of all.
And how easy it would be to fall right back in, he thought ruefully as, between one moment and the next, Wanshi revealed itself in all it’s pristine lacquered glory. Alex was captivated by the sight of a city of hundreds, perhaps thousands of brilliant white marble buildings around a caldera just as vast and grand as Quianshi’s own.
Alex traded looks with a grimly smiling Quing Da, more than halfway expecting to see the entire city surrounded by the Red Prince’s hard-eyed troops. But there was no one at all.
Much to his surprise, and relief, the rest of the trip to the city was proving to be as quiet and peaceful as a stroll through a city park.
Alex actually dared to let himself relax, before the tightness in Nili’s gaze made it clear that he was once more playing the fool.
His fingers flashed in handsign. “What is it?”
She blanched, holding the hand of her husband so tightly, strained features carefully not looking in any direction but straight ahead. “Our death, if you’re not careful, pup!”
Alex blanched at this, feeling an awful tingling between his shoulder blades, as if fearing an assassin’s mark that could strike him dead at any minute… and then the pressure was gone.
Nili gave a heartfelt sigh moments later.
She gave Sunlay the tiniest of nods. She seemed ready to collapse with relief.
Alex’s lips pursed into a tight frown. He knew he should let it go, but…
“Relax, Alex. I spotted them. They don’t know that I spotted them. But at least now we have a chance.”
Alex’s eyes widened with growing anxiety, fingers flashing with frustration. “Nili, what the hell are you talking about?”
She glared his way. “I’m talking about certain death, for all of us, if we dare to tangle with the sleeping tigers content to let us pass. For now.”
“Nili!”
She glared his way in exasperation. “Another hidden band that allowed us to pass only because they think themselves truly hidden. Had they truly gone unnoticed, I’d fear for our city’s ultimate fate. But now, since we know they’re coming…”
“We have a chance,” Sunlay whispered, making it clear that Nili had served her well in teaching her so many secrets, including handsign, that he suspected few nobles went to the trouble of mastering.
Yet Alex was far from comforted.
“let me guess. There’s another nest of enemy dickheads and we’re not rooting them out because why, again?”
“Because they’re Silver Tier, you fool!” Nili snapped in the interface that had blossomed so strongly between them after she had literally summoned him between worlds.
And for all that he felt his cheeks flush, feeling as if he had just been castigated by his mother, he couldn’t let that particular sleeping dog lie. Forcing himself to ask the question that would make clear what his next step had to be.
“And why are a cluster of Silver tiers waiting here? Within sight of the city, but not inside?”
Nili frowned, refusing to meet his gaze.
Alex turned to the noblewoman staring at them both so intently. “You get it though, don’t you?”
Sunlay’s beautiful features tightened with worry. “Yes, I think I do.”
“Sunlay…”
The noblewoman flashed her kitsune companion a sad smile. “Alex’s right. There’s only one reason. IF they dared enter the main gate while radiating a Silver’s power and refusing to take the oath… that would be a declaration of war, right then and there.”
Quing Da winced, cursing under his breath. “Damn. If only I didn’t know what that meant.”
“But you do,” Alex softly whispered. “We all do. They refuse to enter until their diplomatic pawns have put whatever gambits they have in play. Because the minute they do, their objective is as clear as day.”
Quing Da sighed. “Through stealth or direct assault, they intend to force a coup.”
“Or slaughter the entire royal family in the dead of night,” Nili said with a dark scowl.
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “Yet right now, at this very moment, with at least half an hour of sunlight left, we know exactly where they are. And they have no idea that we know. We have the drop on them. Only for this precious moment, perhaps, but this moment is ours.”
Nili blanched. “Alex, those are the farthest thing from raw recruits. At least half of them are Silver! Such a concentration of power, here in the deep desert…” she shuddered with dismay. “And Xien Tang, so eager to overthrow Quianshi, is an actual Gold. How is it that our enemy has so many deadly pieces at their disposal?
Alex flashed a bitter smile, afraid that he already know the answer, which filled him with hope and dread in equal measure. He didn’t know for sure yet, but he was now filled with the increasing suspicion that maybe he hadn’t committed the unforgivable crime of turning all of CuiJing Principality into a vast desert, centuries ago. Maybe he wasn’t where he thought he was at all.
Either way, it was clear that his old enemy still had access to incredible resources he could bring to bear to crush the will of the desert cities… and there was little his new friends and allies could do to stop him.
If there was any truth to his odd dream and Dongfang Hong had either fled or been exiled… maybe here was where he was intending to forge his own desert empire, for reasons Alex could only guess at, or perhaps the oldest reason of all. The accrual of power and dominion over everything within one’s domain. No matter how many lives pursuing the Path of Conquest might cost. With a foundation as twisted as that monster’s had been, once the puppet of a spite-filled god… perhaps still the puppet of a spite-filled god, perhaps it was the only path available to the former Red Prince.
Alex felt a sudden chill.
If Shalu really was still inhabiting Dongfang Hong like a puppet, perhaps he was trapped inside, or maybe it was his only relief from a divine body undergoing well-deserved torments as it lingered between immortality and death. And the one thing above all else Alex was dead certain of was that under absolutely no circumstances did he want to encounter that creature ever again.
The precious improbable and glorious veil protecting Alex with a fresh start, a second chance at a life free of malevolent influence, would pop like a soap bubble if that monstrous abomination ever caught sight of him again, he was sure. Somehow, Alex was certain that the Fog of War that had no real bearing on his new life was still protecting that mad possessed fanatic from understanding any report regarding Alex that was sent his way. To that man alone, descriptions would become muddled and wavered, knowing only that an unknown individual was interfering with his plans.
But Alex refused to duck his head in the sand and allow that monster the absolute freedom to pillage and destroy the fragile oases that were the only sources of life and hope in this beautiful yet barren desert. And perhaps that was okay. Maybe Alex could successfully defend a few cities from afar.
So long as he didn’t take it to extremes.
So long as he was never forced to meet the living heart of Zuihaoshi city’s newfound military might.
Should Alex ever find himself meeting Dongfang Hong’s gaze… should he dare to force the fight his opponent that had fled countless years, decades? Ago… he just knew that the odd, unexpected truce between him and a pantheon that absolutely despised him would be at an end. As would any hope of a peaceful life free of horror and tragedy that Alex was so desperately eager to embrace.
He wasn’t even sure how he knew these things, just that he did.
And until he hit Gold… he shook his head with dismay, somehow certain that he would never be able to sense, let alone find, access, or enter his own precious realm until that near-impossible milestone had been reached. An additional silent accord between various parties that Alex just knew to be true. And one that he was fine with, already knowing the terrible price that would be paid should a version of Alex, perhaps countless lifetimes from now, whose memory had been wiped clean, dare to enter his created realm before he had achieved that milestone, no matter how many lives it took.
He scowled, pulling himself free of his own brooding thoughts and pointedly looking away from the score or so of Silver-tier killers hidden in the sands, because his friend’s unspoken plea was right on the money.
It was one thing to risk his own life, rescuing a doomed caravan from certain peril. But to pick a fight here and now against such an overwhelming force… an act that could so easily lead to the slaughter of everyone he had tried to save over the last two days, showing just what a fool he could be after pushing himself with such arrogance… no. He was a better friend than that.
Even if he made damn sure he knew exactly where his opponents were on his growing desert interface map, even receiving a notice to that effect.
Congratulations! Your desperate efforts to mark the location of a band of killers that could so easily wipe out any desert city’s elites has paid off. Desert Sense is now Rank 3!
Nili’s eyes widened with surprise, quirking a relieved smile when Alex dipped his head.
“You’re right, this isn’t the time. Now that we know the location of the threat… let’s get your charge and this caravan to safety. But you know we all need to take an added precaution now.”
Sunlay’s eyes widened in an unspoken question to their silent conversation.
Nili sighed and nodded, gently squeezing her charge’s hand, speaking aloud for all their benefit.
“It means that we must be very careful when we return to your father’s side. Our presence alone must serve as our reassurance while we do nothing to disrupt the status quo.”
The young noblewoman looked momentarily outraged. “But that would make it effortless for our enemies to manipulate him unmercifully!”
Alex flashed his fingers in ways that made Sunlay flinch.
“And pacified diplomats, certain that your father will come to heel, will feel no need to destroy all their own hard-won efforts by sending out messenger boys, or maybe paper cranes, to alert these assassins with a kill order against your family.”
Sunlay flinched before his warning gaze, before lowering her head. “So, you know.”
Alex wanted to roll his eyes even as Nili and Quing Da tensed. “Really? Like it wasn’t obvious with so much resources brought to bear on your behalf? With you acting with such unspoken confidence, like the hero of your own story?” Alex quirked a smile at their expressions. He wasn’t going to say anything more than that out here in the desert, of course, with the caravan and a score of presently quiet Silver-tier foes at their back. Some things, after all, were best left completely unsaid.
And when the caravan finally reached the impressive city gates, all of them, even Alex, was filled with a giddy sense relief at having actually made it in one piece. Of course, no one they had rescued dared contradict Sunlay when she made it clear that she and her companions were nothing more than hired mercenaries who had taken out a handful of bandits barely worth the trouble of mentioning.
And then they were through the massive gate, Alex hurriedly stepping free of the imposing portcullis to behold the awe and wonder of white-washed towering buildings on either sides of a stately date tree-lined boulevard looking every bit as magnificent as Quianshi, men and women dressed in white robes or loose flowing blouses and shirts could be seen hawking figs, dates, and all matter of goods at the handful of stalls leading in the direction of what must be the central market, and Alex couldn’t help but smile in relief from ear to ear even as a handful of smiling children approached with excitement, open palms Alex happily filled with dates, and offers to serve as tour guides.
He turned to smile with heartfelt relief shared by his companions.
Against all odds, they had successfully made it to Wanshi city, with desperately needed resources at hand, enemies carefully spotted and noted, and nothing worse than a teary-eyed and grateful caravan clan that actually knew of their presence.
Maybe, against all odds, their mission might actually have a happy ending.
Yet the tense look in Nili’s eyes made it clear that it wouldn’t quite be as easy as walking boldly up to the palace with prize in hand.
Still, Sunlay was looking as relieved and filled with hope as Alex felt, her beautiful brown eyes twinkling with all the warmth of the glorious fiery gold sunset now gracing the sky.
“Come on, Alex. Let me take you to the best inn in Wanshi city. From there, we’ll plan our next move.”