The days in the desert were long and grueling, the open dunes stretching across the horizon like waves on the ocean. Amidst the rippling yellow sands, a camp had been nestled into the dunes as best as its occupants could manage.

Clusters of tents and tarps huddled around a tall stone obelisk, their fabric barely stirring in the stifling heat. Though the sun was beginning to set, the camp remained still—no one eager to test the scorching sands just yet.

Near the outskirts, a quiet tent trembled with soft grunts of exertion.

Inside, Emily groaned into her sleeping bag as Dunham straddled her, his arms flexing with effort. Sweat dripped from his brow as he worked her over, his breathing ragged.

"Come on, man," Emily muttered. "That can't be as hard as those hands can manage."

Dunham wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, looking exasperated. "You can't be serious, Miss Emily. I can't keep this up much longer—we've been at it for hours, and you said I'd still have energy for the day's travel."

Emily only groaned in response as Dunham's hands dug into her back again, kneading stiff muscles with steady pressure. The journey had been murder on her shoulders, but luckily, he was a quick learner with a surprising amount of endurance.

She hadn't even needed to show him what to do, his massage was already decent. The only problem? He was holding back.

Emily cracked open one eye, shifting against the fabric beneath her. "Look, I get that you're trying to be nice, but if you don't press harder, I'm doubling tomorrow's session."

Dunham sighed but rolled his shoulders, adjusting his grip before applying more force. Emily let out a satisfied hum.

"That's more like it."

He continued for another ten minutes before finally hopping off Emily and standing.

"Alright, I'm heading out. I need to don the rest of my armor and get ready," he said.

Emily glanced at him from the corner of her eye and nodded.

Since she had no desire to be crushed under heavy metal plates, she had made him remove his armor before the massage. He'd done so with surprising ease, though he insisted on keeping his chest plate on. His reasoning remained the same as always—his title demanded that he always wear at least one piece of armor.

Emily had let it slide, but she couldn't help thinking whoever ended up as his lover was in for a challenge. Getting that man out of his tin can for anything intimate would be a battle in itself.

"Fine. Thank you for keeping your end of the bargain. I'm acting as a tether again today, so get ready."

Dunham nodded and stepped out of the tent.

Half an hour later Emily had packed up her tent, eaten a fresh breakfast with cherry tomatoes and scorpion steak, and saddled up Cupcake.

Kael's call to leave came shortly after.

The pups were growling in anticipation as they took up spots on Cupcake.

Since the threat of the Miragestalker was solved so quickly, they did not lose much travel time as they headed for the nearest sanctuary. Unfortunately, the only one was a fair way away.

During the ride, Emily took out the page she'd gotten from Ashe and began trying to memorize the wards necessary to remove Selia's curse.

Emily had seen the woman in question, and as of late she'd seemed fine, but Ashe's face was getting darker by the day, and Emily could only imagine what the sisters were going through in private.

As far as she could tell, Ashe was leaning heavily on blood magic for this spell, and leaving the removal of the curse to grey source's natural properties.

The longer Emily had thought things over the more she'd realized that using Grey source might still be an option. It might not necessarily work as Ashe wanted, but it could pull apart and disperse whatever energy kept the curse together.

Deciding it could still work, Emily ushered Cucpake over to Ashe's mount while Dunham watched the pups.

"Ashe we need to speak about the… this," she started holding up the page

The woman looked up from the little book Emily had gotten from the Weeping.

"Oh! Emily before that, did you know what that woman was offering you back there?"

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Emily blinked slowly.

"Um, come again? What are we talking about right now?"

Ashe waved her hand and flipped the book around to face Emily.

"The Chalice ceremony. That's what Zilha said it was called. Basically, they use a ritual to artificially bolster your Life source and then funnel a lot of energy into you. Sadly it looks like it doesn't come without strings attached. You'd have to help them with any ritual they might need, but in exchange, you grow rapidly." Ashe said a strange excitement creeping into her voice.

Emily shook her head.

"Oh, I never would have done something like that. I'm not interested in working for anyone else. Better to just steal what they had, in that case."

Ashe's brows fell and her lips tugged down at the corners.

"Ah, okay… well the book says that only a higher-rank Blood Mage can get rid of a curse like this, but I think we have a good chance with what we've cobbled together. I'm almost done with the last set of wards we'll need."

Emily held up a hand to slow her friend down.

"Hang on Ashe, listen. I've done the test you asked me to and honestly, the source is not what we thought it was, but I think I can still help."

Ashe's face didn't shift at all, only her eyes showed her inner turmoil.

"But, you can still do it, right?" she asked, her voice breaking at the end.

Emily nodded.

"I'm not sure we'll get the results we want, but it should still work."

She went into greater detail as to what she'd discovered about her source and Ashe listened attentively.

After a while, she agreed it would still be possible, but there was a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"I'll go over the runes again and adjust them, hopeful they won't change too much… Emily I just wanted to thank you for doing this for me."

Emily shook her head.

"I said I'd help, so I will."

Ashe nodded and looked toward the front where Selia was traveling next to Alex.

Emily noticed he had the small desert fox resting quietly in his lap with what looked like a collar around its neck. It seemed well-behaved as it sat there staring ahead quietly, searching the sands around them.

Emily bit the inside of her lip at how adorable it was, but quickly looked away.

She only refocused when she heard Ashe's mount drifting off to the side as she headed off, opening her book again the moment she left.

Continuing from where she'd left off, Emily studied the wards as she relaxed in Cupcake's saddle.

The journey over the next two days was exhausting, and Emily looked forward to the evenings when Fox would prepare her meal. The Chef always made sure there was something extra in it for her, even if it wasn't much more than everyone else's. He'd even found her a small flask of ale resembling the smooth burn of brandy.

Blessedly during these few days of travel, they didn't encounter any more obstacles or beast hordes waiting for them.

The days and nights were unnerving calm, almost worryingly so, and yet Emily couldn't shake the feeling something was building on the horizon.

Luckily they found the butte shortly after that.

When a large chuck of rock came into view Kael's face was a mask of sour warmth.

"We're going to search the area for threats and try to rest here tonight. Before we bunker down for the day, I need to investigate something, so get ready, but don't unpack just yet and wait for my call."

As they approached, everyone was on guard for any more surprises, but by the time they explored the area, they were certain nothing was out there.

Moving to the base of the butte would protect them from the majority of the sun when it arrived, and it also offered protection from the winds that had picked up in the last few days.

As Dunham went to set up their tents Emily looked around the area. There was a crack in the side of the rock that ran all the way up to the top of the mass. It filled with sand and Emily was about to write it off when she saw Kael heading that way from the camp. He wasn't sneaking away but no one was following him so Emily decided to tag along.

Following the lithe man wasn't easy; five minutes in, she realized he fully intended to climb the side of the butte with just his bare hands.

As he began climbing the cliff with practiced ease, Emily lifted herself with her blood, drifting up to float beside him.

"You know, this would be a hell of a lot easier with climbing gear. I'm pretty sure we have some somewhere."

Kael fastened his fingers into a gap in the rock and flipped himself over to look at her. He didn't look the least bit surprised to see her.

"You know, I never thought of that. How could I not think of such an obvious solution," he said with eyes half closed.

Emily grinned.

"Sarcasm, nice. But my question still stands."

Kael searched Emily's face, the wind around him buffeting his clothes.

"To answer your question. I'm doing this because it's the right way to do it," he said as he flipped over and continued to climb.

"Right way? " she asked. "Surly the right way is whatever is the most efficient."

Kael hopped to the next crack in the walk and grunted.

"Not when it comes to tradition."

Emily followed him up slowly.

"Oh, so this is something your tribe does. I thought you didn't like them, why are you observing their customs"

For a while he didn't answer, just continuing to climb.

"Because I don't hate everything about them. Some of our customs hold weight. It's the people I'm not so fond of."

Emily hummed as she leaned back like she was resting in a recliner.

"And what will we find when we get there?" she asked.

Kael vaulted a gap easily five meters in length with just his upper body.

"Hopefully a sign."

Emily's brow rose sarcastically as she looked up.

They were a little over halfway and Emily didn't want to waste energy drifting next to the guy, even if it was negligible.

"Alright, see you at the top."

Launching herself upward at full speed left a rush of wind in her wake as she whipped up the side and landed on the top of the rock less than a minute later.

Looking around she saw the stone was smooth up here, where the wind had softened its harsh texture.

Finding a rock to lay on Emily turned her eyes towards the horizon. Night still reined supreme, but the edges where the sand met the skies were turning from a deep purple to a vibrant orange.

When Kael got to the top ten minutes later he shot her a dirty look.

"What? You said you had to do it alone."

Ignoring her Kael moved over the empty plain until he found the top opening of the crack running up the side of the butte. There, in the recess, Emily saw what looked like two rusted metal poles stabbed into stone. They crossed like an 'X' in the air and Kael's face turned to look at her.

"Looks like we're on the right track"

"What? Why?" she asked.

"Because, this area is marked by my tribe, which means there's a good chance they left a large-scale shelter here. Now we just need to get in there"

Blood points: 610

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.