The Skyblade cut through wind and sand like a bolt of lightning. Raywick slammed the control stick to the right narrowly avoiding a tall boulder blending into the red landscape. Any slight misstep at this speed would be fatal, but Raywick didn’t make mistakes in the cockpit. In the seat of his flyer, where margins were thin and the outside world was reduced to a blur, Raywick thrived.

I’m not sure we will make it back in time to save them Ray, Syra said.

“I know we can’t help them all but maybe we can save Tessa. I owe her that much at least.”

Besides his caring for her deeply, Tessa had a very logical and brilliant mind. Raywick had seen things in the Barrens that should have been impossible. If anyone could make sense of the past few days, it would be her.

A troubling question began to form in his mind. Should I tell her everything or just the relevant parts? How would he explain that he had finally excepted the voice in his head as an actual person from another realm?

Ray, I think I see something.

He was getting ahead of himself. Chances were that the Company had already raided his home and either killed or imprisoned everyone he knew. Home. He had never used the word to describe Heathen’s Rest. Not that he didn’t think of the sanctuary as his home, but because he was afraid that if the word ever left his lips, it would be taken from him.

RAYWICK STOP.

He pulled the Skyblade’s air brake, rotating the short wings flat against the wind and tilting the engines towards the nose of the flyer. The sudden force pushed him hard against his seat harness sending sharp pains through his chest from the healing bullet wound.

“Thousand Realms Syra, what?”

There is someone out there, Syra said.

“We are still an hour away from Heathen’s Rest. There’s no—” and then he saw her.

A beautiful mess of red hair and tattered clothes stood on a tall rock face waving both arms high in the air. Against all odds, Tessa had made it out. Raywick pushed the throttle forward and the Skyblade followed his heart.

“You look like you’ve just lived through a sandstorm,” Raywick said.

Tessa brushed a bit of red sand from her sun cloak.

“I’ve had a rough couple of days.”

she pointed a questioning finger at the bullet-sized hole in his duster.

“Looks like you haven’t fared much better.”

“It’s a long story,” Raywick replied.

He wanted to ask but the words caught in his throat. He already knew the answer. It was almost as if it wouldn’t be true without the telling. Raywick held on to that moment of false possibility for as long as he could. Finally, he summoned the words as his eyes met hers.

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“Did anyone else make it out?”

She looked down at the blood-colored sand.

“I think I was the only one. Dante saved me. But Ray, I think he did something terrible. He had the strangest air about him like he was a completely different person.”

“I think he might have worked with the Company before Heathen’s Rest,” Raywick said.

He filled her in on what happened in Nowhere and his conversations with Freeman. She didn't seem surprised when he got to the part about Freeman healing him and having some kind of strange power to disappear.

She showed him an old leather book that looked remarkably well kept for its age.

“Dante gave me this journal before he showed me the hidden passage. I haven’t read it all yet, but it seems to connect all the missing points from the books in the library. Something is going on here that’s bigger than anyone understands. The people of ancient Solaris had the same kind of power you saw Freeman use.”

Raywick opened the cuff of his duster and pulled up his shirt to show the nasty scar still swollen and angry from the bullet wound.

“They shot me, Tess. This scar is from yesterday. I should be dead right now, how is this possible?”

Tessa’s face was as red as the sand at her feet.

Perhaps you should be a little more subtle before undressing in front of a lady, Syra whispered.

Tessa regained her composure.

“I don’t know how it’s possible, only that it is. Our ancestors harnessed the same power, some with technology and others through spirit, but something destroyed their minds. They called it the voice.”

Well, this is awkward, Raywick thought.

“They called it what?”

“The journal says a voice that speaks to the mind was what caused the great war,” Tessa said.

“Never heard of her,” Raywick shrugged.

She studied him with a cocked eyebrow.

We are not all the same. Visitors come from many different realms, some light and others very dark, Syra said to his mind.

It was becoming very difficult for Raywick to have conversations when one person was speaking to his ears while another spoke to his mind. He changed the subject.

“I need to see it one more time Tess.”

“See what?” She asked.

“Home.”

“If I end up back in the mines, I’ll never forgive you,” she said.

“The Company will come back for stragglers, but not so soon,” Raywick said.

They awkwardly piled into the single seat of the Skyblade, Tessa sitting on his lap. It wasn’t a purposeful embrace but neither of them shied away from the touch of the other. In that moment, drifting through the dunes with Tessa in his arms, Raywick felt like they could conquer the world.

The beacon of light reflecting from the solar panels told Raywick everything he needed to know. Dante had done this. They were the only two people responsible for maintaining the panels. It hurt to know that the Company had found their sanctuary, but the betrayal was a deeper pain that eroded his faith in humanity.

Instead of flying into the main cavern directly, he landed the Skyblade at the entrance to Heathen’s Rest. The ground had been disturbed by scuffling feet and large flyers. They climbed out of the cockpit to get a closer look.

“This is where it happened. This is where they rounded up our friends and took them away,” Raywick said.

Tessa put a hand over her mouth and pointed to a body not far from where the Company flyers had landed.

The face was gone, but the features were still recognizable. Many knew him as the old man of the desert, a shepherd of vagrants that offered a place to rest for heavy hearts and weary souls. To Raywick he was just Linus.

He put a hand on Tessa’s shoulder as she wept.

“We need to lay him to rest. It’s not right just leaving him out here like this.”

She fell into his chest sobbing and Raywick held on to her for dear life.

The final resting place for the old man of the desert held no significant meaning or esteem. It was just a mound of sand that lay at the entrance to a deep cavern. Future generations wouldn’t read tales about Heathen’s Rest or its shepherd, but it would live on in the hearts of those who called it home.

They stood pensive over Linus’ grave as the sun fell in the sky.

“Where do we go now?” Tessa asked.

“There is no escaping the Company without crossing the boundary,” Raywick said.

Tessa’s brow furrowed.

“Solaris isn’t habitable outside of the boundary. The weapons used in the great war made the air toxic, there are numerous accounts of that fact.”

Raywick showed his trademark rebellious smile.

“We are about to put that theory to the test.”