The night did not lighten as the two Favored trudged through the desert, even by their first sight of the ethereal dome emblematic of any settlements in the Bardenas Desert. Inside the dome was the hazy picture of a village that seemed perfectly ordinary. Imelda had grown to be comforted by the typical stocky, square architecture and the monotone color of sandstone that was so easy to come by in the desert.

Kemen and Imelda neared the village. The dome rippled as the party passed through it, and Imelda quietly basked in the feeling of clean, clear air. It was amazing, the ability of people to adapt to any environment. The Glass Helms were a popular object of study amongst the students back at the Tower, who sought to understand how they kept only the scraping desert sand out while being completely immaterial for anything else.

As far as Imelda knew, no answer had been found. They could be made by those chosen by the right Heralds, much like any other Augury, and they worked. Unlike most other Auguries, however, nobody knew how. More importantly, nobody had figured out how to make them without a connection to desert Herald, which was even more unusual. Typically, a certain grouping of transformation runes would do the job. For her part, Imelda liked to think the Augury was a gift from the Heralds of the sands. Without the Glass Helms, after all, little human life would flourish in the Bardenas Desert.

Imelda shrugged and followed Kemen as he strode into the village. A sturdy wall, only two or three meters high and as thick as her waist, surrounded the town. A couple of guards, clad in leather armor and holding on to high-quality spears, were posted around the entrance. Their backs stiffened when they saw the dull metal rings around the pointer fingers of the two. Hard to miss the sign of the Favored.

Respectfully, the guards nodded at them and stepped aside, allowing Kemen and Imelda to enter. The guard on the left tried to speak up, voice raspy from misuse, before clearing his throat and continuing.

“If it’s refuge you’re lookin’ for, Nio’s inn should happily give you a comfortable place to lodge.”

The guard grinned, sporting a missing tooth. The grin widened when Kemen flipped a copper real to him. As rude as the Dune Rogue usually was, he’d stressed one thing (and one thing only) in their journey through the desert: always cozy up to the natives. Imelda doubted what exactly that would accomplish, but she took the rare lesson to heart.

The other guard spoke softly.

“Down the main road and the first left, there’s a sign that should lead you right to it.”

Kemen nodded and Imelda looked down the main road. It was unoccupied, which was unsurprising given the time of night, but larger than she’d expected.

“We’ll have to take you up on that offer, gentlemen. Before that, though, my partner and I can fill up your Auguries while we’re in town. The ether’s pretty rich here, so we’ll recover with a night’s rest.”

Imelda glanced at Kemen, surprised by his offer. We haven’t done that in any of the other towns…

The guards didn’t know that, though, and nodded gratefully. Missing tooth responded.

“Aye, we’d be mighty grateful for that. Can’t hurt to be ahead o’ schedule! You can find ‘em in the town hall; second right on the main road and all the way down.”

“Thank you for welcoming us. We’ll head there first."

As the two stepped through the gate, Imelda nodded thankfully to the guards before they walked down the packed sand path. After they made some distance, Imelda walked closer to Kemen and whispered.

“Why are we recharging this town’s Auguries? We didn’t do it anywhere else.”

Kemen eyed her. He looked more on-edge than usual.

“When I scanned the area with Kalatos, I told you we didn’t find the rose. That was true. What I didn’t tell you, however, was that Kalatos pointed this spot out to me specifically. He said something was going to happen here tonight. He didn’t tell me what.”

Imelda filled in the blanks. Kemen feared Kalatos had warned him of something dangerous, and he wanted the Auguries in their prime state should trouble pop up. Though she didn’t say it, Imelda agreed. She nodded and kept walking. Kemen frowned slightly, as if in thought, and decided to add, “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed it yet… the ether density here is unnaturally high. Something is going to happen. Or has already happened.”

Imelda’s eyes widened - he was right. She stood up a bit straighter and paid more attention to the sounds around her. Fe helped her with her hearing, even if her enhanced senses were giving her nothing to go on at the moment.

Idly, the young woman eyed the houses and buildings. A blacksmith’s, a tinker’s, a tanner’s… the village housed quite the number of artisans for its remote location. Soon enough, the two made their way to the town hall, instantly recognizable with its grand arches and fortified stone. A glance down confirmed it: runes shimmering in the sand formed a perimeter around the hall. Should it be needed, a sturdy shield could be instantly formed around the building.

When they came to the doors of the large building, a single guard posted in front relaxed after seeing their rings and asked about what they wanted. Kemen didn’t need much explanation - the moment he mentioned his offer to recharge the town Auguries, the guard opened the doors for them and started to lead them through the hallways, visibly excited. He must not have seen this happen before. I wonder if he’ll be disappointed.

Kemen strode in, following the guard like he owned the place. Imelda followed, trailing a little behind, wringing her hands nervously. I hope Kemen does it. She hadn’t filled an Augury except in practice at her Institute. If she broke something, that spelled incredible danger for the town. And if she broke the Glass Helm, Heralds forbid…

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It didn’t enter her considerations that she’d never heard of someone breaking an Augury except through physical damage, specialized techniques, or overcharging it, which was famously difficult and taxing for even River or Earth-stage Favored with ether reserves twice her own.

Soon, they made their way to a solid-looking door reinforced with bands of iron. The guard pressed his hand against an embedded pad and it slid open slowly. Kemen, to her horror, moved to the side and beckoned her in.

“Go on, then. Show me what one of the top second-years at Olfreid can do!”

He was uncharacteristically excited, and Imelda attributed it to the sheen of sweat on her forehead and the presence of the guard. It’s just like training, it’s just like training… she repeated to herself. Each time, it was less convincing, but Imelda had little choice.

She entered the room to see three Auguries, each pulsing with ether so dense even someone without a mark might see the air rippling. The sheer quantity of ether intimidated Imelda - how was she supposed to put a dent in that?

Kemen called in from outside the room, “Remember your lessons!”

Ah, right. One of the first things Imelda had learned about Auguries was that even with a potent self-fueling enchantment, there was something special about a Favored’s ether that Auguries couldn’t function infinitely without. She said something about a will or intent that ambient ether, which those enchantments draw on, doesn’t have.

Imelda walked over to the first Augury, a miniature spear with thin lines inscribed on it too densely to make anything out.

“This,” she surmised to herself, “is the emergency measure. Designed to launch a powerful attack at any single threat this town faces without a Favored present.” It could probably kill me instantly.

Imelda rallied her ether and extended a trickle out through her hand into the object. The energy behaved much like a liquid in most cases, and this was one of them - a bond formed between her and the Augury. Once Imelda let go of her tight grip on her ether, the enchanted object drank its fill and, soon, filled itself. Imelda, however, was far from full: her reserves had fallen by 70%.

She walked right, to the center pedestal. This one held a stereotypical talisman, cross-shaped and also inscribed with runes of excruciating detail. It was deep purple and seemed to glimmer even in the dim lighting of the room. Imelda repeated the process - much less scary, now that she’d done it once for real - and wondered as to what the item was. Attack treasures she could recognize, but generic talismans were so versatile that this could be anything from a stink bomb to a portable light source. Questions for after.

Soon, Imelda tapped out. She’d given it half of her remaining ether and, predictably, did not fill the Augury. She staggered away, shaking her head. The Hawk wasn’t known for its ether reserves; few avian Heralds were. They specialized in combat and travel, mostly. She cast a dirty look at Kemen. Desert Heralds, on the other hand… nearly all Heralds that originated from the desert had monstrous ether reserves. The lack of resources there required beasts in that biome to have incredible endurance, and the qualities of Heralds (and their Favored) reflected that. Kalatos was no exception, which made it particularly annoying that Kemen made her do it.

When she made it out of the room, Kemen walked in, expression placid. He placed a finger on the talisman attached to the pedestal and Imelda could feel it drink long and deep from his reserves. Kemen didn’t even grimace. When it had enough to drain her entire reserves, not accounting for the higher purity of Kemen’s ether, he stepped away lightly and nodded at Imelda.

He was on to the final item that allowed towns in the Balderas Desert to live a normal life: the Glass Helm, and all its accompanying inscriptions. This object, affixed to the pedestal instead of just lying there, was likely connected to reinforcing enchantments in the walls, farseeing enchantments in guard posts, and even the shielding array around the town hall. Kemen had to power all of that. Kind of.

This Augury was particularly greedy, greedier than any she’d worked with, and even when the air rippled at the speed of ether transfer, it only took more. Her jaw dropped, both at how much ether the Glass Helm demanded and at Kemen’s reserves, to weather the drain without so much as an eyebrow twitch. Soon, the process was done, with the guard thoroughly impressed at the spectacle of the last one.

Perhaps wisely, the walk out was silent from Imelda’s end while the guard and Kemen made small talk. Otherwise, she might have embarrassed herself by broadcasting her annoyance at Kemen for wasting all of their time with making Imelda recharge the weakest object in the room - and even that had taken mostly everything out of her.

Leaving the manor and finding the inn was difficult. Imelda walked through the pounding headache, which lightened a fair bit thanks to her recovery using the dense ether in the air. The hanging sign in front of the building, sporting an intricate carving of an ale-filled mug, was a welcome sight.

Kemen pushed the door open, revealing an empty main room and a young woman cleaning glass cups with a cloth wipe. She raised her head hearing the squeak of the door and her eyes alighted upon first the two, then their rings.

The young woman hurried from behind the bar and stood in front of them, bowing slightly.

“Respected Favored- welco- a room?”

Kemen nodded with a cordial smile and fished out two silver reals.

“Two rooms for the night, please. I think this should cover the cost… keep the rest.”

Imelda resisted the urge to roll her eyes as he smiled at the young lady as charmingly as he could. That jerk’s only polite to strangers. She was starting to understand where the “Rogue” in his nickname came from.

The woman quickly took the coins and turned around, leading them happily through the common room, up the stairs, and to the right. Once she reached the end of the hallway, she reached into a pouch by her side and bit her lips for a few seconds, rummaging around in the bag, before taking out two keys. She handed one to Imelda and one to Kemen, before pointing to two doors.

“That,” she nodded to Kemen as she pointed to one, “is your room. That,” she nodded again, this time at Imelda, before pointing to the other room, “is yours. Have a nice night!”

With that, she quickly turned to scamper back down, but Kemen smiled sincerely and spoke in a low voice.

“And what’s your name, young lady?”

She started in surprise at the question before blushing slightly and replying.

“Ella, sir. Thank you!”

Kemen didn’t stop her this time as she scurried down the stairs. Imelda rolled her eyes at him.

“I get being nice to the natives, but do you have to do… whatever that was with them?”

The Dune Rogue only chuckled and shrugged.

“Can’t help it if I’m too charming.” His face turned serious again and Imelda resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. “Now, get some rest; we resume our search when I wake up.”

Imelda grumbled. Of course she had to follow his clock.

Not willing to waste another potential second of sleep, she darted into her room and took off her shoes before planting her face into her bed, closing her eyes and resting quickly after.