Chapter 2
Published 3 April 2025
Upon reaching the pillars, Iesha gripped her spear tight and searched carefully for traps or ambush, her eyes scanning the entry chamber and the doors beyond the vaulted archway of the ruins. She recognized the Elfin aesthetic of the ruin—graceful, precise, pompous. The ancient stonework spoke of a people who believed their works would live forever. Little remained of this structure but sun-bleached marble half-buried in red sand. Finding nothing amiss, Iesha pressed her head against the door to listen. Silence met her ears, though whether it was the vast emptiness or her own weariness that failed her, she could not tell.
Unbeknownst to her, six beastmen had been tracking her across the sands. As she listened intently, they crept into the ruins, their knapped obsidian spears glinting in the dim light. The moment one of them grunted, Iesha spun, her spear raised in defense, only to find herself outnumbered. The beastmen, their forms marked by dried clay, did not attack. Their leader, a hulking brute with the head of a jackal, placed his hand to his chest and spoke, "Dajak. Dajak."
Iesha mimicked the gesture, introducing herself in kind. "Iesha." She felt the prickle of goose-flesh on her skin as her mind opened, her thoughts caressing Dajak's brain. She mimed drinking, "Water? Is there water here?"
Dajak nodded, motioning towards the door. Without hesitation, the beastmen worked together, lifting the heavy stone barrier. Beyond lay an empty chamber, scattered with broken weapons—bone, flint, obsidian—shattered beyond repair. The beastmen entered cautiously, their nostrils flaring as they sniffed the air.
As they ventured deeper, a flicker of torchlight ahead made them halt. Rounding the corner, they came face to face with a band of outlaws, their leader a gaunt Rekusian man with a greying top-knot. He raised a hand.
"We don’t want trouble with you, beasties. We just came for water."
Slowly, both sides lowered their weapons, wary but unwilling to fight. The outlaws passed by uneasily, disappearing into the darkness behind them.
Then, the sound of running water reached Iesha’s ears, sending her heart pounding. As they entered a broad chamber, the beastmen knelt at the edge of a dark pool, drinking deeply. Iesha followed suit, the cool water quenching her parched throat for the first time in days. She pulled out her meager provisions of dried meat and even drier bread, eliciting hungry stares of the beastmen. Without hesitation, she shared the food with them in gratitude. Their rest was short-lived.
Chapter 1
Published 1 April 2025
The desert Rubaa lay bare for miles all around, glowing red-hot under the torrid heat of the merciless midday sun. The barren wastes were desolate and unforgiving to all but the tenacious creatures of the earth. And yet, Iesha ne-Kuduri trudged along the rolling red sands, seemingly unaffected by the sun. Still, she ran calloused fingers over her dried lips, her left hand probing at her side for a waterskin that was no longer there. She tried her best to ignore the ringing in her ears and the dryness of her tongue, now more like scratchy wool in her mouth.
The monk’s unshod footprints trailed behind her along the burning wastes, evaporating in the wind that whipped up her garments—a red shawl frayed along its trailing edge, a yellow-dyed breast-band, and loosely fitted trousers in shades of ocean and earth girdled by a silk rope. On her waist, a leather knife sheath hung. Sun-bronzed skin stretched over her lean, battle-hardened frame, covered in half-healed scars and other evidences of past traumas. Her long brown hair, rich like Nashti carob, was matted and tousled, falling just past her shoulders that it might protect her neck from the worst of the sun’s rays. Jade eyes, rimmed with fading kohl, stared out into the distance.
Something shimmered on the horizon, and Iesha paused to fix her gaze to it. Afar, she could make out pillars erect in the desert, jutting out at odd angles.
Let that be my journey’s end, she thought, or are you yet another mirage?
She closed her eyes and counted with her fingers, feet still pressing into the sand with practiced ease, half-expecting the pillars to vanish after opening her eyes. The pillars stood fixed upon the horizon, and a slight smile broached Iesha’s cracked lips as she continued her trek across the wastes.
