The moment Emily saw the scene, something felt wrong. The desert spring looked like an oasis, and even the distant vegetation looked almost too vibrant to call the desert home.

Kael stopped their advance, and Emily approached the front to hear what was happening.

He looked to be locked in a discussion with Atticus.

"From above it looks unguarded, but if there is water there then I believe there must be a guardian," Atticus said.

Kael nodded at this.

"Good, what else do you see."

"I don't see venomtails in the sand however I'm fairly certain there were some edible fruits on what little vegetation there is."

Again Kael nodded holding his gaze.

"What else did you see?"

Being asked for the third time Atticus frowned, but still put some thought into it.

"I'm, not sure. From the onset, everything looks okay."

Kael nodded slowly like a patient teacher.

"Look at the shadows for me, what do notice?"

Atticus glanced back at the butte and Emily did the same thing now. She glanced along the edges of the shadow from their vantage point.

The shadows in question were pretty distant so they trembled from the heat wafting off the dunes, but as Emily focused she could make out more.

The way the water rippled or how the large dry trees swayed ever so gently.

Emily frowned as she held an open palm up and narrowed her eyes.

Squinting at the picture again only served to make her certain.

"It's not real she whispered."

Kael turned straight around and locked eyes with Emily, an amused glint in his eyes.

"And why do you say that?"

Emily glanced up at the skies and back down at the trees

"The wind, there is none tonight, and yet the trees are moving. What makes it more interesting is that the shadows in the sand are not."

Kael smiled.

"I would have gone with how irregular the shadows were but yes, you're right. And what was one of the three things I warned everyone about?"

Atticus crouched as he lowered himself to level with the ground.

"Miragesalkers," he whispered.

Selia who was close by crouched as well.

Kael nodded.

"It's an illusion. The sanctuary may or may not be real, but there is a group of Miragestalkers there. So, we'll do the smart thing and go around."

No one disagreed with his order, but he'd taken time to teach them what they were looking for and Emily could appreciate that. The thought that they might have walked straight into a trap without realizing was far from reassuring.

They maintained their distance and traveled around the rocky peak which raised a good question.

How did they know what direction to go in?

After a certain point, Emily had lost track of which way was left and right, yet Kael seemed to know exactly where they were going from the start.

He would consult one of Selia's maps now and then, but since there were no landmarks to help them, Emily wasn't sure how he was guiding them.

She thought maybe it was the stars as she looked up into the ethereal night sky. Its ceiling was so full of pinpricks of light that she wondered how anyone could make a map using them. Not even Earth, in its unpopulated regions, had this many distant suns.

Emily had lost herself in the breathtaking colors when Alex and Mist pulled up beside them.

"How are you feeling right now?" he asked.

Emily shrugged as she leveled her gaze on him.

"Still a little sore, but I have it under control."

"What happened back there? I don't think it was your source." Alex asked.

Emily glanced behind her and shook her head.

"I'm happy to tell you when there are fewer ears around, but suffice it to say that shouldn't happen again for a while."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Emily saw Dunham shoot her a glare but said nothing. He was working on something with his hands, using a dagger to carve something into a piece of wood.

Alex didn't look happy but he nodded,

"Here, Ashe asked me to hand this to you to practice, you're going to need them for whatever you're doing together."

Emily's brows rose as she looked at a folded sheet of paper he held in his hands. It hadn't occurred to Emily to ask Alex for help, but as Ashe had said he was incredible at rune recognition, so she probably ran something by him. Not that Emily minded, she nodded and took the page.

"Okay, thanks…" she said as she opened it and began reading. It was a series of different runes she needed to memorize and be able to recreate.

Because Emily refused to let Ashe be the one to do it, they had to do it this way.

She still hadn't figured out how to break the news that Grey Source didn't work the way they had first thought.

Tucking the page away, she watched as Alex nodded and made his way back to the front. He had taken on a lot of responsibility in the Wandering Fangs lately, and Emily had noticed more and more people deferring to him whenever Kael or Seila weren't around.

Her train of thought was abruptly interrupted when Dunham spoke from behind her.

"You look guilty over something,".

Emily gazed back at the man in annoyance.

"How about you don't poke your nose into my business."

Dunham lifted his hands in surrender, revealing a small wooden carving of a bird in his palm.

"Shit, I overstepped again, I offer my deepest apologies," he said with an awkward smile on his face.

Emily's brows knitted together wondering why she'd gotten so defensive.

"I'll accept you sorry if you let me see that," she pointed to the carving.

Dunham glanced at the piece of wood and shrugged before passing it to her.

The carving's detail was incredible—a raven, complete with a saddle for a rider. The tiny bird's wings were mid-flap, captured with such lifelike precision that, for a moment, she almost expected it to take off and fly away.

"I'm not guilty, I just need to deliver bad news and I don't want to," Emily said finally.

Dunham hummed and she could feel him shrug behind her.

"Well, when I have to break bad news to one of my men I try and do it as soon as I can. The person won't thank you for hanging onto it, and maybe then you can help them come up with a solution."

Emily's eyes fell on Selia's back and then moved back to the wooden bird in her hands.

"I'm not sure this is something I can fix… out of interest how does someone like you get put in charge of their own unit in a place like Lorethil" she asked changing the topic.

Dunham cleared his throat.

"Well, I was born in the city so that helped, but it was probably because of my title. They were trying to make sure I got experience before swearing in."

Emily cocked her head but remained looking ahead.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been training for as long as I can remember to protect people. The Sentinel title has a rare skill that offers a similar bond to a Vow,"

"Is that a good thing?" she asked.

Dunham didn't answer for a second but when he did there was a smile in his voice.

"It can be, depending on the person. If I use it, I lose all my freedom, but in exchange it allows me to protect someone far more effectively, and as long as I'm alive they won't be in any danger."

Emily turned the bird over in her fingers to see the underside where he was still finishing it off. His title reminded her of her current situation and it bothered her.

"That seems like a pretty big weakness to tell me," she said.

The rumbling from his chest seemed carefree as he laughed openly.

"Not really, it has to be my choice to activate it in the end."

Emily sighed as she thought over her choice. She needed to tell Ashe about the grey source but hopefully, there was a way to reconcile the two before she had to.

Emily turned in the saddle to hand him the carving back and be done with this conversation, but what she saw caused her to freeze.

They had been traveling for a while now, so the little oasis was securely in their rearview mirror, only it wasn't.

The butte remained but from their current position, Emily could not see the illusion behind them anymore.

What was worse was that there was no sign of anything having been there at all.

Emily squinted in the distance to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her but shoved the carving into Dunham's hand and clicked her tongue.

Cupcake took off, pushing from the middle of the pack Emily found Kael looking at a chart with dozens of lines on them.

"Hey! Is it weird if they disappeared?" Emily said when she was in earshot.

Kael looked up but his face was immediately serious.

"What? Who disappeared?"

Emily shook her head.

"No, I mean the Miragesalkers, their illusion is not there anymore."

Kael's eyes narrowed and he began scanning the area behind them, and when he couldn't find the oasis he scanned the horizon.

"Shit, it's not weird, it's worrying. It means they've caught our scent."

Seila arrived next to them.

"What does that mean for us?" she asked. Emily looked at her pale complexion and saw her hands trembling from exhaustion.

Alex arrived next with Svent behind him.

"It means we're not going anywhere," he said, glancing at Kael.

The man nodded as he continued to follow the horizon as he spoke.

"If they have decided to stalk us it is because they think they can take a group of our size, meaning the skulk is large enough to not feel afraid."

Seila shook her head.

"Then I don't get it, Why don't we run?"

Alex shook his head.

"We could but all that would do is play into their tactics. To make matters worse navigating through this place will become almost impossible. With creatures capable of manipulating the landscape they would just run us ragged as we moved in circles."

Kael had pulled his eyes off the landscape to look at Alex.

"He's right, the only way to fight these particular beasts is to hunker down and wait for their attack. When we were spotted by the Miragesalkers, we may as well have thrown our sense of direction out."

Kael took off his gloves and placed his fingers in his mouth to whistle. Calling a halt to the procession.

His voice went up into the night skies.

"My fangs, we'll be cutting our travel short this evening. Everyone will now grab a partner, do not leave their side even just to relieve yourself. There is a chance we are being hunted. In a moment I will have a marker placed, do not lose sight of it. For now, everyone unpack as usual."

The people behind him looked for one another as a creeping chill began to enter their eyes. Telling a group of people that they were being hunted by illusion creatures, would not have been Emily's first move, but she could see the logic in his thinking.

An illusionist's greatest advantage was people not expecting their manipulations, so arming them with this knowledge gave them a chance at survival.

Unfortunately, it also put everyone on edge as they too began searching their surroundings.

Once Kael had spoken he turned back to them all.

"Find Ashe for me. Have her put up a pillar in the center of the camp. She needs to make it as tall as possible. Make sure everyone sets their tents in a tighter formation today, as we don't know if they will attack."

Everyone broke into groups to go and follow his orders but as Emily glanced around at the horizon she felt certain that something was out there. All of this could just be in their heads and they were panicking over nothing, but it was hard to tell, and deadly to ignore

Grunting she kicked the sand.

"This is why I hate illusionists."

Blood points: 530

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.