"Is it you who practice these arts?!" the woman demanded, trudging toward Emily.

Lately, people seemed far too eager to pick fights. Sure, blood magic was taboo, but the sheer anger in this woman's approach felt too raw, too personal.

Emily had no desire for trouble, but she wasn't the type to shrink away when it came knocking at her door. There was only one way to handle this.

"Yeah, it's mine. Who are you, and what of it?" she sneered.

The woman hesitated, her advance faltering at the unshaken strength in Emily's voice.

"I will not give my name to anyone who would steal our time-honored arts like this," she said with equal strength.

Now it was Emily's turn to pause. Did they practice blood magic?

Their conversation drew the attention of Kael and Sol, the former moving over to them with a concerned look.

"Emily…" he said, caution lacing his tone.

She almost wanted to throw her hands up. How was this her fault? She'd been minding her own business.

Sol had followed behind shortly, his tone was equal parts calming and annoyed.

"I'llva, what is going on?"

The woman I'llva turned to look at Sol and pointed at Emily.

"This woman is practicing sacred shamanism," she said.

Sol's eyes narrowed at Emily, but he turned to look at Kael, who snorted.

"Relax, Emily is no Shaman. Certain rituals look all too similar to what we are used to, but they are not tied to the land." Kael said this out loud as I moved next to Emily, and in a quieter voice, he spoke to Emily.

"It's fine, the Ashvali are no strangers to blood magic, you're not being accused. But it is seen as an insult to do rituals in their space without permission."

Emily shot him a glare, thanking him for the late warning. It wasn't like they'd had a lot of choice on the matter.

Sol glanced at the ritual site and then searched her face. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end under his gaze.

He wasn't as strong as Kael, but he was still a threat. If Emily had to guess, he was at least comparable to Marth, if not a little stronger.

"As long as you don't practice while we're here, then I see no problem. However, I like permission to clear away the circle."

Emily shrugged.

"Be my guest. And I won't practice other blood magic while you're around. That was an emergency, anyway. But just so you are aware, if I need to defend myself or mine, then I make no promises."

Sol pursed his lips and nodded.

"I wouldn't deny you protection out here, but I must insist you avoid using it when we get to the tribe. Neither the Cheifs nor the Shamans would look kindly on it."

Emily held his gaze and finally nodded.

If she needed to fight, she'd do it her way. Their customs be damned, but for now, seeing as Kael was trying hard to get them across the desert she'd comply.

With the settled Sol and Kael seemed to come to an unspoken conclusion. They moved everyone around so that the offending site was out of view as Kael set a couple of his men to clean the dried and flaking blood.

Emily, on the other hand, moved back into the sea of tents, heading for her sleeping bag. When she got there, she saw the last person she wanted to meet right now.

Ashe had posted up by the entrance to Alex's tent, waiting there quietly. Behind her was Selia, who looked in far better condition than she had this morning. In fact, in a day or so more, no one would be able to tell she'd been dying of a curse just hours prior.

Emily almost turned around to go look for Dunham, perhaps she could commandeer his tent for a while.

Sadly, Ashe spotted her before she could make her get away. She asked

"Emily, wait, do you have time to talk?"

She frowned at the vulnerable tone in her voice. Emily didn't like how much it tugged on her heartstrings. Which felt unfair; had she ever given anyone this kind of consideration? Maybe when she was younger and inexperienced, despite the little voice in her head telling her to walk away, Emily stayed

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"What is it, Ashe?" she sighed.

"...I wanted to say I'm sorry for what I did."

Emily's face twitched, and all her emotions turned sour.

"Sorry for what, Ashe? Sorry for killing yourself in a self-sacrificing blaze of glory?" she sneered, her voice turning to full-blown rage by the end.

Selia's face hardened as she stepped in front of Ashe protectively, as though that would save her.

"That's a bit harsh, Emily. She came to make amends."

Frustration clawed at Emily's chest.

"Stay out of this, Seila. This is between me and her."

This only caused the muscled Jailor to puff out her chest.

"She is my sister. Now, you may have saved me, and I'm grateful, but you don't get to talk to her that way."

Emily cocked her head to the side just a fraction of a degree and held the woman's gaze.

Neither spoke as they sized one another up, both ready to act if needed.

"Enough, you two," Came Ashe's voice, firm and hard. "Lia, she's right. What I did, even an Adept would now not do. And Emily, she is just worried don't take it out on her when I'm right here."

Ashe got in between them and faced Emily.

"I am so sorry, not just for what I did, but for not telling you that I was doing it. You could have helped, I see that now. Forgive me," she said as she placed a hand over her heart.

Emily looked down at Ashe's soft eyes but had to tear her gaze away.

"Words are cheap, Ashe. I can accept your apology, and I can even work with you, but I can't forgive you. Not until you show me that your life means more to you than what you've shown me."

Ashe looked lost at her words, while Selia looked about ready to hurt her, but Emily wasn't going to back down. What happened when Selia was in danger again? Would she jump in front of a monster to save her sister's life? To most, this trait was seen as a selfless act of love; to Emily, it was foolish beyond words.

Ashe pursed her lips and nodded.

"I see where you're coming from, Emily, and I won't argue with you, but I don't regret what I did. And I just wanted you to know that I'm grateful for what you did for me. "We're going to go…" she said as she began to lead Selia away from the tent. Emily didn't move or even acknowledge her as she frowned to herself. Before Ashe left, she paused and looked back.

"Kael has asked me to bump up the plans to train magically together, so I hope you were being truthful earlier when you said you'd work with me because we're going to need to if we're going to get the hang of this."

Emily brought her hand up to the back of her neck and rubbed her muscles there harshly. She didn't respond, but after a couple of seconds, she heard both of them retreating.

Emily stared at the tent in front of her. Her sleeping back was right there; she could just curl up in it and sleep for the day, but she didn't feel like sleeping in more. It probably wouldn't come right now anyway, not with all these useless thoughts flickering through her mind.

Changing direction, Emily decided to find Fox and see if the man needed any extra help or was perhaps willing to part with an extra something.

Tracking the man down turned out to be more difficult than she first thought. She couldn't even find any of his workers to guide her to him, but in a limited space, there were only so many places he could hide, right?

As it turned out, the man had not been in the main chamber. It was only when Emily remembered there was a food storage area that she made a beeline for the side area.

She found him there, busy preparing for the early morning rush. With the addition of a dozen people, he was spinning to make it in time. Even jumping in now looked like she would only do more harm than good, so she snagged a ration bar and stepped off to the side. It was while she was watching the organized chaos unfold that Emily noticed a door leading out of the storage. She thought there was only one entrance, but then she hadn't looked very hard, anyway. Making her way to it with the ration bar still partway in her mouth, she pulled on the handle.

The stone door was steadfast, not budging even slightly.

Looking around the handle, she saw the same mechanism as outside. It required her to lift and then push.

The desire to explore ignited, and she pulled blood from her chest to create a rod that fit into the stone door.

What a powerful lift and pushing mithing the stone door groaned inward, releasing a gust of sand. Fox looked up from his production line long enough to shoot her a fiery gaze, though he turned back to his work shortly.

Seeing the way open, Emily poked her head through. Of course, there was another flight of stairs right in front of her with unlit torches on the walls. Sighing, she rose into the air and drifted up the stairs.

If there were more traps up here, then she wasn't going to risk setting them off now.

When she got to the top of the stairs, a passage turned sharply off to the left. Following it, she saw light at the end of the tunnel, and when she got there, she looked out over the camp below. She was back in the main chamber, only, from here she could see out over the whole area. There was a small knee-high balcony that blended well into the side of the upper wall. So from here, a Chief or lookout could watch over everything from her without being noticed.

She could see everyone going about their routine quietly, their voice merging into a quiet buzz up here.

Since she was near the top of the dome, the sound seemed amplified, and were she to speak, the natural shape of the space would carry her voice to everyone.

Emily could also see the glass-like skylight better from here, and it was clear there was some kind of light-reflection technique with mirrors going on here like they did in old Egyptian tombs.

From up here, Emily felt like all her problems were a little more distant. There was another corridor leading off to the side, which Emily assumed was an office or meeting room of some kind, but she wasn't interested in moving right now.

So, crossing her leg near the edge, she sat and just watched everything going on below.

There was peace to it that Emily needed right now.

Sighing to calmly to herself, she began her mental exercises in this environment. The low hum of voices acted to lull her deeper into a meditative state quickly, and Emily let herself drift in the darkness.

Stars drifted past her awareness, and though she was interested in finding out her ranks, he wanted to sort something out first.

A thought had been bothering her since Alex shared his status, and frankly, she was having a hard time not reaching for the answer. With Eva's memories locked away, she just knew the answer she was looking for was right under her nose. Now the problem was finding.

Emily waved the stars away. She imagined herself in robes of draping silk. Able to protect her from Eva's radioactive memories.

Then, with one goal in mind, she took the plunge.

'Who was Alexander?'

Blood points: 612

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