An aeromancer for the past eight years, Tanya was no stranger to being airborne. It was fundamental to her identity, both her sword and shield. The ability to soar into the sky, leaving rock-crusted terrain behind with winds ruffling her cloak, was the closest she’d ever felt to the concept of true freedom. Yet somehow, sitting on the shkroi hawk, barely sixty feet above ground, was enough to make her sick.

This is a nightmare.

“How far are we?” she croaked, suppressing the urge to puke. Flying on a shkroi hawk was hardly the most comfortable mode of travel, given the speeds at which they soared across the skies. The putrid, congesting atmosphere of the desert didn’t help either.

It was only thanks to Maude’s skills that their group was still functional.

“Five,” said the rider, a lanky, awkward-looking man dressed in gray. He’d given them the name Aered, no doubt made up. Smugglers were hardly famous for their professional integrity, but Zuken seemed perfectly content to hire them to help find the entrance to the anomaly, as well as act as spotters for any Cyffnarian soldier camps posted in the area.

Five meant five miles. They were most likely within the anomaly’s radius already.

Tanya glanced down at the never-ending ocean of yellow beneath her. There was sand, more sand, and nothing else but sand. Great dunes shifted around like the waves of the Sea of Mone. The day prior, she and her group had witnessed a vicious sandstorm, an orgy of wanton violence that meandered through the Namzuuhuu Desert, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. Compared to that, the dreary weather was rather tame.

“Me men have camp away cave.” Aered’s thick Maluscian accent was audible even through the dense, hot winds slapping Tanya about. “Force in the around the cave of.”

Translation: There were Cyffnarian troops stationed near the entrance of the caves. His men set up camps out of their reach.

Which meant Zuken’s suspicions were right. Cyffnar Scanners had definitely caught on to the energy spikes.

It made no sense. All bureaucratic work was supposed to shut down during the Black Moon Rising. And the desert was a forbidden zone. So what was Cyffnar up to, sending soldiers into the desert to capture this anomaly? And why did Zuken want it destroyed?

It was like for every answer she got, it raised five more questions in return.

“How far is that from the caves?”

Aered raised a single, sand-eaten finger.

“Alright.” She nodded. “Take us to the camp. We’ll set up our things there. What about getting us back to Haviskali after the mission is over?”

“Us wait.”

Right. And she was the freaking emperor of this land. These smugglers would escape the moment they set foot into the caverns. No bremetan would choose to stay behind in the desert for a second longer than absolutely necessary, greed and professionalism be damned.

As Aered turned the massive hawk due west, the other birds quickly followed suit. The sky was clear, with no sandstorms on the horizon. She would need to start creating a cover for them before they trespassed into Cyffnarian troop territory.

No point complaining when you’ve a job to do, Tanya told herself, calling upon her lifeforce. Warmth exuded from every inch of her body, enhancing her muscles and augmenting all her physical capabilities. Her sense of balance and awareness sharpened, and the nausea dissipated into thin air.

With practiced ease, she shaped the wind with her fingers and sent a slash of pure energy down, raising a gale of sand into the air. While her right hand channeled enough wind to maintain a constant upward flux, her left moved in a graceful, horizontal semicircle, commanding them around her to follow through.

The key to successful windcrafting was finding the path of maximum flexibility and minimum resistance. But here in the desert, it was the opposite. Unless she exerted ironclad control over the element, it was all too easy for it to devolve into a powerful sandstorm, one that would hurt more than it would help.

Tanya waited with bated breath until the other flyers were safely within the eye of the sandstorm, before closing the circle. Cyffnarian troops or not, it would take a very brave soul to peek out of their rock-tents when there was a storm brewing.

“You won’t have trouble seeing, right?”

Aered shook his head. “Us know flying sands.”

Tanya nodded. Given their flying speed, they would be reaching their destination any moment now. As soon as she felt a sudden lurch of the hawk descending, she clenched her fists and bent the wind to follow her commands more closely.

Just a little more.

The elevated noise of the shifting sands drowned out Aered’s voice as he tried to say something.

“Repeat yourself,” she commanded.

“Problem!”

“What’s—” Tanya began, but the smuggler raised a hand and pointed straight ahead. She squinted her eyes and poured some lifeforce into them, enhancing her vision. Even from her vantage point, she could now spot a gray, wispy thread climbing into the sky from blackened spots on the sandy terrain.

It took a second for her to register what she was seeing, and another to understand its implications.

“Isn’t that your camp?” she gasped.

The gray thread couldn’t be anything other than smoke. And smugglers were not stupid enough to light a fire within spitting distance from enemy troops—discretion was a part of the job description. Her anxiety weighed her down like bands of iron across her back and shoulders, and her head pounded from the tension combined with the glare of the sun above. Had something already gone wrong?

There are enough demons out there, Tanya, she calmly told herself. No need to invent phantoms.

Upon Aered’s command, the hawk swooped downward, flapping its majestic wings as it neared the ground. Tanya barely had a moment before the bird shook violently, bucking her off and headfirst into the bright, hot sands. She spat out some sand and muttered a curse, and when she turned around, the shkroi hawk was glaring balefully at her.

It was enough to freeze her in her tracks.

Aered grabbed the reins and slapped his mount next to its beak, making it shake its head in confusion. When it looked back at her again, the rage was missing from its eyes.

That’s weird.

“What’s the matter?” she heard Olfric ask. “Are we already there?”

She ignored him with practiced ease and slowed the winds down. It was a taxing job—if she fuddled it up, the currents would smash into each other and create an explosion, but if she let it go, it would turn into a real sandstorm.

“We leave,” Aered said, grabbing his reins. The other riders did the same. “Cover!”

“But—”

“Cover! NOW!”

Tanya did as asked without further protest. She watched as the four hawks, three with riders and one without, rose into the sky under the cover of a receding sandstorm, leaving them behind on top of a massive dune, overlooking the smuggler camp nearby.

The same camp from which fumes of smoke danced into the sky.

“I don’t suppose they’re having a picnic down there,” Maude dryly said.

“We were too late!” Olfric muttered with disgust. “Cyffnar troops got to them first.”

“What if it’s all gone?!” Elena exclaimed.

“What if what’s all gone?” Tanya asked, turning toward her.

“Those men over there were supposed to stock our rations for us!” Elena continued.

“We need to get those rations back,” Olfric began, “before—”

He paused as an inky blackness loomed in front of him. It arose from his feet and spanned several feet ahead, forming a passing semblance to a bremetan outline. He took a step back. And the shadow followed.

“Be—before things get worse,” he finished.

“Be practical, Olfric,” Zuken replied. “We don’t know the exact situation in the camp. We don’t know how many enemy troops there are now, or how much the curse of the desert will interfere with our manacrafting. And none of us can operate in the…” His voice wavered. “In the darkness.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Tanya did not need to turn around to realize that everyone was staring at her. “Don’t look at me,” she mumbled. “My head’s still throbbing from holding up the sandstorm.”

“Like I said,” Zuken said after a moment, “we’ll wait this out and then attack in the morning.”

“DAMN IT!” Olfric screamed, angrily kicking up some sand. “DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!”

“Olfric—”

“Don’t you Olfric me! I don't know if you’re being intentionally oblivious or not, but we’re standing in the fucking Namzuuhuu Desert with these evil shadows already attached to our feet. This is our only chance to attack and capture the camp and our supplies, and—” His voice cracked as the dark shapes lengthened.

Tanya stepped forward. “Sunset is approaching. The shadows will keep lengthening until it goes completely dark. We don’t have to worry. Nothing is out of place.”

Olfric sneered and looked away.

She sighed. As crazy as he was acting, it wasn’t without due reason. Sunset wasn’t just about the sun moving across the horizon; it was a shift in supernatural energy. She could feel sunlight still gliding down to be trapped in the overcast, its presence and warmth fading, the concurrent stirring of magical forces as it did.

Soon, it would be night, the time of darkness. Of wild, unpredictable energies. Of forces of the spirit world that hunted when the sun went beyond the fringes of the Empire.

Dark things came out at night.

“It’s not nothing! It’s a shadow! Evil incarnate! And now we’re stuck out in the middle of a non-warded location, in the desert, under the Black Moon!

“And you’re throwing a fit!” Elena replied cheerily. “Hey, don’t look at me like that! I thought we were just describing everything around us.”

Olfric growled slightly. His face was pudgy and reddening with anger, or fear, or maybe both. Tanya didn’t know for certain. All she knew was that he was one step away from doing something that would probably come back to haunt him later.

He’s looking for someone to punish, she finally realized. It was the same as before, when they had met after the unfortunate mission and he’d condemned her in front of everyone, accusing her of murdering the team.

He raised his arm, his expression darkening dangerously as he took another step toward Elena—

Tanya’s fingers twitched.

—and then he paused. Sighing, he turned away quietly and lowered his hand.

Tanya watched with surprise, and admittedly some concern, as the aquamancer waddled away to stare at the camp on the other side. She subtly glanced toward Elena, wondering if she had somehow allayed him into complying with Zuken’s decision. Or was it something else?

The emotional shift was too quick to be natural, and it seemed Olfric had no inkling of what had just happened.

Was this why Zuken brought Elena along on the mission? To ensure that emotions didn’t get in the way?

She exhaled, allowing the wind blade in her hand to dissipate. Judging from the knowing look in Maude’s eyes, she wasn’t as subtle as she had believed. Meanwhile, Olfric was still staring at the rising fumes.

“You know, I’ve often heard about how no plan survives enemy contact,” Zuken said. “I suppose this is an example. Not that I’m surprised.”

Tanya frowned. “What do you mean?”

He grinned. “You see, the most important part of a plan is to plan on things not going according to said plan. Which is why…” He began unzipping his bag. “I had some extra warded tents made for us, just in case of—”

“Olfric!” Elena yelled.

Tanya whirled around, took stock of where Elena was pointing, and then looked toward Olfric. The scene clicked in her mind all at once. Olfric Bergott had lost it, and was madly rushing down the side of the dune in a downhill dash.

“—of such situations,” Zuken lamely finished.

“What the hell?” Maude demanded. “He isn’t planning a direct frontal assault, is he?”

Tanya just sighed.

And then they all started running downhill toward the camp, with Olfric leading the charge. The hysterical man was somehow sliding through the sand as if he were skiing through it, making it difficult for them to catch up with him. But she didn’t have the time to play catch up. They were on the verge of losing their camp. If they lost Olfric as well, then they would lose their only source of water too.

Extending her awareness, she grabbed the wind right before the speeding aquamancer and yanked it backward, hitting Olfric right in the face and onto his ass. By the time he fought through the shock of the surprise attack, they had caught up.

“You impossible imbecile!” she snarled. “Did you think a frontal assault was a good idea?”

“When the other option is fighting in the dark? Then yes, I’ll take my chances! Are you in, or are you not?”

“Zuken has a tent prepared for us as a contingency!”

“Yeah, and that camp has our rations for the entire mission!” Olfric countered. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to risk letting them take it away. If we take shelter now, we risk starving to death in the safety of your contingency.”

Tanya considered his words. The sun was going down and the wards would be up in a few minutes, which meant they either had to do something now, or sit tight and wait until morning.

“We have the advantage of surprise. We can hit them hard,” Olfric suggested.

Elena squeaked. “Is that really necessary?”

“Well, do you have a better idea?” Tanya demanded.

“Actually I do,” the changeling pompously declared. “I can go in and talk to them. You know, charm them.”

“I considered it. I just decided it was too brainless and predictable.”

“It’s simpler to just talk to them! If it doesn’t work, you can always kill them then.”

“That is simpler. But once you set foot in that camp, whoever is in charge can simply raise the wards. The rest of us will simply have to put a lot of effort into breaking down the wards, and even if we simply recapture the camp, it won’t stop the desert monsters from coming because the wards are simply not there anymore!”

Zuken hummed thoughtfully. “Then what do you suggest, Tanya?”

She squinted down at the camp below. “I hate to admit it, but if we’re attacking, a direct blitz is the best bet. Can you use Terramancy to hold the wards down until I clear up everything inside?”

He nodded.

“What about me?” Olfric demanded.

Tanya gave him a condescending look. “You can get me some cool water to drink after I win the camp back.”

Maude cheered and let out a soft whistle.

“Ambitious,” Zuken muttered. “Dangerous too. They might have spiritists of their own, and they’ll definitely be on the lookout for monster attacks.”

“That’s why we don’t give them the chance,” Olfric replied. “We go in, end them for good, and take everything.”

Tanya was taken aback, not expecting the aquamancer to support her on anything publicly. “Alright then.” She nodded to everyone. “Let’s do this.”

Standing five feet in the air, levitated by the power of wind circulating beneath her feet to counter gravity, Tanya drifted through the camp while the others stayed behind. There was no mistaking the coppery stench that assaulted her nostrils.

Blood.

If she had any remaining shred of doubt about what happened inside, it was firmly extinguished.

Focusing her power, Tanya aimed at one of the seven tents. If there were people inside, they’d either be killed or grievously injured. And if there weren’t, at least they would scurry out of wherever they were hiding like rats. There were very few things in life more disorienting than a sudden explosion.

Skillfully, she wove her wind around and around, over and over, spinning at speeds high enough to draw in large amounts of sand and dust had she not maintained a tight closure on all ends. The pressure grew as her creation spun faster, and she took careful aim at the center of the tent.

Tanya had always maintained ironclad control over her powers, employing only the minimum violence necessary. But here in the desert, that control looked for every opportunity to slip.

This wasn’t the time to play it smart. The more overwhelming she appeared, the more her teammates would respect her strength and accept her.

A wild grin crossed her lips and she let loose.

The spinning ball of wind leaped from her hands like a living thing and streaked through the air, traveling so fast that it appeared to be little more than a blue blur. In a single instance, it crossed half the distance to the target. A moment later, the tent imploded from pure force, and the camp erupted into activity.

There were soldiers, and…parts of the smuggling team? She didn’t know what was happening. Had the team betrayed them and joined hands with the enemy? Or was there something more sinister going on that not even Zuken saw coming?

It didn’t matter. She didn’t need the smugglers anymore.

Conjuring a pair of wind blades in either hand, Tanya leaped into the fray. She landed on the sand and rolled over, hurling both blades successively to her left before gracefully spinning around to avoid a sharp dagger and sending yet another blade in the attacker’s direction.

The three attackers were dead before they hit the floor.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Olfric slashing an enormous watery tentacle at two soldiers, cutting off one of their arms. Another, wrapped around someone’s chest, smashed them against the rock wall surrounding the compound. Several boulders of pure sand smashed into the troops coming from the tent farthest from her, leaving nothing but bones and blood in their wake.

Three anxiety-filled seconds later, there was no movement.

“Okay!” Olfric yelled frantically. “Okay! Now bring the wards down! Light the Eternal Light shells!”

Zuken, Maude, and Elena quickly made their way into the premises. Still sensing no movement, Tanya relaxed her stance and reviewed her work. The camp was now theirs, as were the food supplies. She walked toward the largest tent, the one on the right with bands of metal running around the surfaces. If she were a betting woman, she’d wager this was where the food supplies were being kept.

“That was one powerful spell.” Zuken waved his hand casually, gathering the surrounding desert to bury the dead bodies together into one large sand coffin.

“Doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Olfric added out of nowhere. “Everyone in our original team thought she was hoarding a powerful kami. At least a century old.”

Silence fell.

“What?” Tanya demanded, flustered from the odd gazes she was receiving from her team.

“Well, is that true?” Zuken probed.

Tanya sighed. “It was my father’s. I got it from him moments after he died.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Maude offered. “Was he an adventurer too?”

Tanya looked away, a bit of shame on her face. “Not really. I suppose you could call him a vagrant, like myself. Nowhere to go, no one to call his own. Except, well, me.”

“A mercenary then.” Zuken peered at her. “Are you sure you don’t have nobility in your ancestry?”

“No,” she deadpanned.

Everyone chuckled at that.

“Anyway,” Zuken continued, clearing his throat. “I guess what I wanted to say is that you’re good. Really good. A real asset to any team, especially this one.”

“Gush later,” Tanya said, as dryly as the sand beneath her feet. “We still have some work to do. The sun’s about to go down.”

“What work?” Olfric asked. “We have the camp. There are no more troops around. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Tanya didn’t know whether to groan or punch the man in the face. Olfric Bergott was a noble, but he was also an idiot. Intelligent people knew better than to tempt the universe like that.

Turning away, she regarded the vast desert around her.

I wonder, would you be proud of me, Father?