Five pentads ago Atlas had left Tinith on a routine haul.

Four pentads ago the tainted beast wave was spotted, and the evacuation order went out.

Three pentads ago Atlas made it back to Tinith injured and exhausted.

One pentad ago Atlas recovered enough to spend his days in the library uncovering the secrets within the “Candles of the Twinfold Sect” and waiting for the tainted wave to end.

Sand swirled past Atlas’s face thick and heavy. It pooled on the creases robes and snuck its way under leaving him gritty and grimy. The sand was like a blanket around him oppressive and weighty He could barely see a meter out with the dark haze.

Atlas was alone on a straight road.

He made his way blindly along.

He knew not why he was walking nor where he was walking, still he walked on.

Minutes then hours then days passed. He grew parched, hungry and exhausted. Still, he didn’t stop.

He had long since reached his limits, he could feel his body breaking down with each motion, his vitality fleeing his body.

Suddenly, his foot caught something on the road throwing him sprawling. Looking back he saw a body, covered in robes similar to his own, lying in a fetal position.

Atlas had a feeling of déjà vu as he crawled to his feet. Haven’t I been here before? I could swear I’ve been in this exact circumstance.

He made a familiar motion, crouching down and gently rolled the person over. As he did his hands came away warm and sticky with blood.

!!!

A feeling of shock and abject horror washed over him at the sight that beheld him,

Naile’s bloodied face grinned macabrely back. There was no liveliness on her face. Her smile was stiff and frozen, and her eyes looked unseeingly past him.

She was dead, there was no breath on her face on no pulse on her neck. On her chest was a claw injury that covered the entire torso and made it all the way through the body.

He looked up past Naile’s body and into the haze. There he found the perpetrator.

A massive beast of a lizard armoured in bronze scales. Its tongue flickered in and out of its mouth as it tasted the air for his fear. Its eyes were locked onto him.

“Hiss, hiss, hiss”

Its breath was almost like laughter, mocking Atlas of his loss.

In that moment, with Naile’s dead body beneath him, Atlas felt a rage he had not felt in a long time. It overpowered the fear and anguish, the pain and exhaustion.

With a scream Atlas charged the lizard, spear in hand.

He barely made it two steps towards the lizard before it reached out and beat him to the ground. His spear shattered and his body was mauled.

As he lay on the road defeated, a stray thought passed his mind, why is Naile out here? She is always indoors tinkering on something, there is no way she would travel onto the desert. A sense of wrongness filled him.

But before he could muster any further thoughts the previously still and flat desert around him shifted. The wind turned to a screeking gale and brought with it a cloudy wall of sand. Great dunes formed rapidly and began to move like great waves. He could even hear the sound of great waves crashing.

The waves of sand swept over Atlas dragging him under. He struggled trying to escape to the surface, instead his motive only hastened his drowning. The roaring of water filled his ears.

And as he gasped his last breath his eyes opened to the familiar roof of his insula unit.

The sound of water persisted from his dream into the waking but turned into the sound of soft splashes and water moving through pipes. He was tangled up with his blanket and was drenched in sweat.

It took a moment for Atlas to realize he had had a nightmare. He wasn’t on the Fool’s Road and was instead safely in his bed in Tinith.

Slowly ball of negative emotions in his chest dissipated. Once he came to grasps with reality, he controlled his thoughts and calmed himself.

An early morning sunlight streamed in from the window lighting up the room in a soft yellow glow. On the small dining table was a fine paper bag with a simple and elegant script among a clutter of books and notes. To Atlas’s right was Naile’s bed and beyond that the bathroom.

Atlas could hear the sound of water and humming from someone in the bathroom. Naile must have gotten back from the emergency work. Hopefully that means the tainted wave is over.

Naile stood in the small shower facing one of tiled walls, from the other wall a mounted showerhead sprayed warm water onto her hair and back. She had finished washing for a while now but couldn’t find it in her to leave just yet.

She was nervous, once she was out, she would have to confront Atlas, and have an important talk on the direction of their lives. If she let things play their course it would be a conversation on when, not if, they would go their separate ways.

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A month ago, Naile would very well have let the conversation run naturally and moved to a new chapter of life on her own. But the last four pentads had been both eye-opening and traumatic, her dream of becoming a journeyman circuitry technician had lost much of its luster and she had realized how much more Atlas meant to her.

Now she wanted to seize control of her life, it was time to stop pushing Atlas away and she had a plan.

First she needed to get Atlas to go to the ware games with her.

She lightly slapped her cheeks and whispered to herself. “Come on Naile you got this just go out there and talk to him.”

Naile left the bathroom in her underclothes with a towel wrapped around herself for decency. Her freshly washed hair was let loose around her. In the dry and hot Tinith weather it would dry in no time at all.

Atlas was at the dinner table writing into a wax tablet. He was engrossed in his research, by now he had a functionally complete Preparing the Candle] and was working towards the [Igniting the Flame]. Looking up he saw Naile had come out.

Naile briefly made eye contact with Atlas before looking away. Almost like she’s nervous about something. He greeted her when she joined him at the table. “You’re alive?” He said, jokingly mimicked her words from their last encounter.

Naile paused his comment clearly derailing whatever thoughts had been building in her mind. “Barely.” Naile let out a sigh frustration and annoyance coloring her tone. “You don’t know how bad it got before the Foundry Masters allowed us a break. Everyone was so mad at them that by the end we basically weren’t doing any work.

Atlas cut Naile off, he knew from experience that once she got on a roll it would be impossible to stop. “Wait. A break. So, are you going back later? The emergency isn’t over?”

Naile paused mid-rant and frowned, mulling over the questions before responding. “Yes, yes. The break is only for today.”

Naile continued on venting her frustration: “They didn’t give us any finalized plans beyond that but hopefully I won’t need to sleep there anymore. Who thought having fifty people sharing a single room as a sleeping area would be a good idea. And with no showers? Ughhh. The smell by the end was so miserable that a bunch of us girls slept on the roof instead. And that’s for the day shift, I can’t imagine what I would have done if I had been forced to work the graveyard shift. Think about it. Trying to sleep with all that noise, they probably…”

Atlas nodded along as she complained, she would run out of steam eventually. I hope. While he certainly felt bad for Naile’s poor living conditions it was something that could easily be understood in the first minute of her speaking, the other nine minutes were just more complaints of the same or similar things.

Naile: “Also. Why do I need to be the one calibrating all these damn fuses. It's not even my job as circuitrist to do this…”

Atlas’s eyes had glazed over at this point.

Naile: “And the food. Fifteen days of straight days hard biscuits and cured meats. How is that even real food? I don’t ever want to see those in my life again.” Naile mimed a gagging motion. “How you can eat your weird jerky day in, and day out is beyond me.”

Naile finally paused in her diatribe.

She opened the fancy paper bag that Atlas had been eyeing for a while wondering as to is contents. From within she pulled out an assortment of baked goods, cookies, a couple slices of cakes and pies, each was held in their own smaller boxes and bags. The fruits and dairy in the bread and the generous amount of paper were difficult to find in a place like Tinith which was situated in the middle of a desert requiring an import from a great distance away. Simply put it meant that what Naile had brought back was likely very expensive.

Naile wafted in the smell of the pastries with a ravenous smile on her face. “Finally, some real food.”

For a moment Naile opened and closed her mouth looking between the pastry and Atlas, she had a look of Naile a look of indecision of her face as she chose between continuing to talk and talking a bite out of the delicious looking pastries in front of her.

*Nom*

Atlas seeing the fancy baked goods asked Naile “where did you get this food from?” “And how much was it?”

Naile deflected “you want some?”

Atlas looked at her in silence.

Naile rolled her eyes then answered. “They gave us a voucher for the day worth 5 standard grade spirit pearls…”

“and you spent it all in one breakfast.” Atlas said, finishing her statement. He grabbed a cookie from the bag and inspected it. At least she didn’t waste her own money buying this crap

“Hey don’t go putting words into my mouth.” Naile protested.

“That’s not the only thing I’m going to put in your mouth.”

“Wha...t?” Naile spluttered out, a tinge of pink coloring her cheeks.

Atlas stuffed the whole cookie into her mouth. For a moment Naile stared at him an incredulous look on her face. Then she gagged from size and dryness and spat out the cookie.

“tsk tsk” Atlas shook his head at Naile, “looks like you need more practice before…”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up.” Naile yelled, her face turning beet red. Leaping from her chair she started trying to hit Atlas.

Atlas distanced himself from the Naile while laughing. A towel was flung at his face and tiny fists were swung at him. Atlas out his hands up warding of the which landed harmlessly against his arms. Eventually, he managed to grab Naile’s wrists and stopped her hitting, but it only seemed to enrage her more as she tried to kick him.

Spinning Naile around Atlas wrapped his arms around her and held her back tightly to his chest. Naile struggled back for a moment, then, with a shudder she relaxed in his arms. With only Atlas’s thin shirt between them he could feel Naile’s heart fluttering in her small frame. She reminded him of a little sparrow; hold her too tight and she dies, too loose and she flies away.

Atlas: “I’ll let you go once you promise not to hit me.”

Naile hummed a noncommittal response.

…

…

“Fine, I promise not to hit you.” Naile let out with a huff.

Atlas relaxed his bear hug letting her go with some sage advice. “Violence is never the answer.

Naile, rather than backing away from him spun and pressed herself up and against his chest. Her hands snaked under his shirt feeling up his muscled form. Her face tilted up towards him with her eyes closed.

It was a sensual act almost like she was looking for a kiss. and wholly inappropriate. As Atlas stumbled several steps back trying to create distance between them Naile stayed close holding onto him. Frowning, Atlas asked Naile “What you are doing?”

But as Atlas tried to take another step back his foot caught on something tripping him. Looking down as he fell backwards, he saw that Naile had placed her leg in his way.

Then he crashed into his bed knocking the wind out of him. He looked at the ceiling in a dazed manner trying to recover.

Naile plopped down next to him. “Get fucked.” Glaring at him she swore before bursting out laughing. Atlas looked back at her before eventually joining in.

Naile and Atlas lay there on the bed for a while.

Eventually Naile piped up. “Hey Atlas, what do think about the war games?”

Atlas rolled over facing Naile before responding. “I don’t follow them too closely, but in general they seem to be a spectacular display of military might. I dislike their usage to recruit naïve and desperate recruits and to drive divisiveness among us. Still, I can’t deny that the experience itself is quite entertaining.”

Atlas: “Why do you ask?”

Naile: “Well…”

There was a pause as Naile mustered up the courage to continue the conversation.

Naile propped herself up with one arm and looked at Atlas. “Atlas?” Naile asked in a soft, hesitant tone. “You wanna go to the games later today? It will be a fun time; I got the tickets already and I heard that there is a special event planned. It’s going to be something you won’t want to miss…”

Atlas cut her off “You don’t have to convince me, I’ll go.”

Naile continued for a moment, seemingly not realizing that he had agreed. “just give it a chan…” Finally, his words registered. “Wait really? You’ll go?!”

Atlas: “I’ve got nothing to do right now with the tainted wave and all..”

Naile let out a squeal and hugged Atlas. “It’s going to change your life. I promise you won’t regret it.”