Emily sat watching Ashe work in the early morning light. She'd found herself a nearby spot and dumped her tent out onto the sand so that Dunham could get started. In the meantime, she used her pack as a cushion.

Since they had started making camp for the day, Emily had been keeping an eye on their surroundings for any signs of change, but so far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, Kael had been moving around, scanning the horizon, and though she wasn't certain, Emily thought she detected the smallest hint of unease in his stance.

Ashe had been working on Kael's request for quite a while now as she built up an obelisk in the center of the camp brick by brick. Well not exactly, but with every hand gesture more sand would swarm up into the structure. Compacting into a hardened glittering stone.

It was a simple yet impressive affair.

Ashe had already built it over two stories in height, and even in the shifting sands, the dense four-sided column looked sturdy.

It was at times like these that Emily remembered that this was what Ashe had originally been headed to Tagrin's keep to build structures for people to live in. If she had not found her sister, she probably would have been doing exactly that right about now.

The type of casting Ashe was doing now was by no means fast. It had taken her all of two hours to build this far, but apparently. The slower casting allowed her to cut corners and reach her limits more slowly. At the same time, it made for a stronger structure.

Emily was watching the slowly rising mound of earth and turned her head to look at Svent.

The Treefolk looked worse for wear. He was panting quietly to himself and Emily did wonder why he'd decided to join them in this place as it seemed he was suffering the most out of everyone here.

Even though Svent looked beyond exhausted he seemed to be working on a metallic disk, etching in fine lines with an unwavering precision.

It was impressive that even in this heat, his skill didn't fail him.

"What are you working on over there?" she asked, genuinely curious.

The Treefolk looked up from his work and then at their surroundings. Everyone had just about finished their work on the camp and were settling down for the day so there weren't many people around.

Seeing this he shrugged.

"It's not a big secret, but Kael would probably not want me to spread news of what I'm working on Miss Emily," he said with labored breath.

Emily scooted in closer.

"Oh come on, he won't care, and I won't tell anyone," she said with a reassuring smile.

Event pressed his lips together.

"Well, I'm trying to figure out a way to protect us from the desert storms."

Emily shifted on her pack causing it the jingle with the sound of moving equipment.

She recalled Kael saying he was working on it, but it sounded like they weren't as far along as he'd made it sound

"Okay, but like, what happened to that large stone ward we used up in the mountains? Wouldn't that help if we encountered a storm?"

Svent nodded as he continued to work.

"That's what I said, but Kael insisted it wouldn't be strong enough. It needs to resist heat to the highest degree. The only problem is that the ward is built to keep the cold out. So I have to redesign it using what we have on hand."

Emily raised her eyebrows in appreciation.

The fact that this guy was making something like this was impressive, but doubly so that he was using scraps they had lying around.

"So how far are you?" she asked.

"Well, I think I have the protective enchantment down, but the problem now is source requirements. To make it as strong as possible I had to ignore the energy requirements. The problem now is getting enough to activate the wards."

Emily shrugged.

"I have plenty, I can help," she said, but contrary to her expectations Svent shook his head.

"The requirements would be too large for you, and even if they weren't that's not the main problem. The ward needs a very exact amount of source released at an incredibly stable rate. People aren't capable of this without years of practice."

Rubbing the side of her face she glanced around for Kael.

"Well, then what about the refined source we got from the layline? Can't you ask Kael if you can use that?"

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Again Svent nodded.

"That would be perfect if they weren't all so drained. I've already tested them you see. As refined source goes, each tile has than enough energy in it to outshine this whole convoy. But from what I can tell, the tomb was drawing from them more than they could naturally recharge. Meaning they are comparatively empty."

Emily frowned at this. Up until recently, she hadn't had a chance to properly inspect the refined source. What with escaping the mountains, and helping research all day, then escaping the city– she was doing a lot of running nowadays.

Emily shook her head, thinking back to when she had first found a piece of the stuff. It had responded to her, yet she had never looked into it again—aside from selling it—but perhaps she could fix that now.

"One sec I might have an idea," she said as she hopped off her bag.

Rummaging through it she found her coin purse and extracted one of the tiles of refined source.

Not wanting Svent to see that she had the stuff. Emily turned her back to him and kept her hand in the bag.

Closing her eyes, Emily felt that same buzz of energy in the palm of her hand. She tried to feel it out but the tile didn't respond much beyond that.

She tried shoving energy into the metal just like she would if it were a ward, but there was no give. Emily tried to urge the source to enter and when that didn't work she tried forcing it but something was preventing her source from approaching, causing it to collect outside uselessly. The piece of refined source refused to take anything from her.

Frowning Emily looked up an expectant Svent.

"Um, on second thought I…" Emily paused.

There was one thing she hadn't tried.

Letting go of the refined source Emily rummaged around her pack for her chalkboard. She found the rune Ashe and Alex had given her and poured power into it.

The world exploded into an array of threads. Before anything, Emily glanced around for the eye.

What she found was not what she'd expected. Gone was the massive eye, but now several tiny ones were watching her from all directions.

Swallowing she tried to take a better look at them, and the longer she stared the more she realized they held no displeasure for her.

Seeing as all they were doing was watching Emily decided that she would do whatever she wanted.

Looking down at her pack she pushed through the material and arrived at the refined source tile.

What she saw was a chaotic mass of color swimming around inside a bundle of green strands. It looked like a densely packed forest surrounding a miniature sun.

Pressing her lips together Emily turned her sight to the barrier between her and the energy. It was like a tightly bound ball of yarn keeping other energy out. There was the odd thread that managed to get through through the barrier but that was few and far between.

Every strand was added to the wall. Emily frowned at the separation but she also had an idea.

If all that was stopping her from getting to the energy was that wall then could she perhaps dig her way in?

The last time she'd moved the strands the eye had appeared, but if it was already here, then there was nothing to fear.

Grabbing hold of a lump of strands in her hand Emily pulled them into a needle of sorts.

Then pressing her finger back up against the metal she stabbed the threads into the green barrier.

Seeing as they were the same size, they weaved their way through the threads and arrived on the other side with little resistance.

Right away Emily could feel a connection to the enormous amount of source on the other side, but it was strange. The energy felt untamed and wild, like an electrical charge.

The majority was grey source but there was also a good amount of all the other colors.

As she pushed her energy in she found that some of the power was leaking out through the opening.

The only thing Emily could equate it to was blowing up a balloon. As she pushed more power into the refined piece of metal, it more pressure inside, making it slightly harder to get more in. But this didn't stop her from funneling her available source into the tile. With the path clear Emily felt the pressure within the tile grow and she only let up when the density in her bones fell to almost half.

Emily got the sense that if this amount of power were to get out it would be the equivalent of a grenade going off. No, more like a brick of C4, when this energy got out it would probably all try to escape at once and there was enough energy in this thing to create over a hundred attacks with her staff.

Best to treat it with care and respect.

Luckily, the green source was incredibly stable, as it would take a significant deal of effort on her part to rupture the 'ballon' in this case.

When Emily opened her eyes the world of threads faded and she saw Svent still sitting there looking confused.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Sure, and I found a way to recharge the refined source, so if you get a couple of pieces from Kael I can charge them up for you."

Svent's face blacked rapidly and shook his head.

"Is that even possible? As far as I know piece of refined source is consumed during use. Once it is completely used up it's useless. It can only naturally regenerate over decades of non-use."

Emily had given over half her source to the tile, but if she were to guess it was less than a tenth of what the tile could handle.

If she were to show Svent her piece of refined source she was sure he could tell, but she wasn't about to admit to anything yet.

"I guarantee it, but it's ultimately your choice whether you want to believe me."

Svent bit the inside of his lip seeming confused.

"Well, I can ask Kael. I'm going to need to use them anyway. I'll let you know when I have them."

Emily nodded and refocused on her own piece. Should she continue to charge it? Was there a need?

As she was wondering this Emily looked up to see Ashe finishing her obelisk. She'd flattened out the top and added stairs to the side so it was more like a watchtower than a beacon, but the structure was almost three stories tall.

Emily spotted Ashe walking down the side of her creation with a tired but satisfied look on her face.

When she saw Emily looking at her, she smiled and made her way toward them. By now, Dunham had set up her tent and was heading over to help Fox with the food—when a cacophonous sound erupted from in front of them.

Emily was on her feet in seconds, ready to act. But as she caught sight of the distant horizon, she struggled to reconcile what she was seeing.

She sprinted to the pillar Ashe had just finished and ran halfway up its side. When she stopped, her gaze locked onto the horizon, where the air itself was trembling.

All around the camp, people were searching for the source of the disturbance, and Emily saw it unfold in an instant.

In front of her, a massive chasm yawned open, pulling the nearby sands into its depths. The dunes tumbled down its sheer sides like rushing water, and as the void expanded, even more sand was dragged in.

Like a wound splitting open across the landscape, the chasm curved inward, wrapping around them. Before they could react, they were surrounded on all sides—an island adrift in a sea of shifting sand.

Kael appeared beside Emily, his lips pressed into a thin line as he stared down at the gaping abyss.

"They're here, aren't they?" she asked.

Kael glanced at her. "Yes. And there are far more than I first thought."

Blood points: 532

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