The sun baked the cracked desert earth as the caravan crawled south, a line of armored beasts and grim-faced riders weaving across the desolate sea of sand.
Ael stood atop a dune, cloak snapping behind him, eyes fixed on the horizon. His skin burned beneath the sun, but he felt no discomfort. His mind was elsewhere—on the words the Empress's envoy had spoken before turning to ash.
You think you've won? She knows your name now.
He hadn't known his name before. Not truly. Not the one that echoed in the winds of fate and fire.
Althar stepped up beside him. "We're three days out from the ruins of Zarad-Kesh. The scouts found something strange in the sand—pillars with old clan markings. Some match your flame."
Ael nodded. "That's where we'll find answers."
Behind them, Elen tended to the men. She moved like a commander—issuing orders, checking supplies, reinforcing morale. She'd grown since the Keep's defense. Sharper. Colder. But when she looked at Ael, her eyes softened.
"Water's low," she called out, wiping her brow. "And the winds are shifting. We may have a storm."
Althar cursed. "A sandstorm now?"
Ael frowned. "No. Something else. This feels… wrong."
Then it hit.
The air went still. Silent. And then the ground moaned.
The first scream came from a beast—one of the armored drakes pulling supply wagons. It collapsed, thrashing, before something dragged it under the sand.
"Defensive formation!" Elen shouted.
Warriors leapt into motion, weapons drawn, forming tight circles.
Then the sand erupted.
Black, spiny limbs—thin as spears, long as trees—burst from beneath the dunes. Creatures with bone-white carapaces and eyes like burning embers screeched as they emerged. Sand Wraiths. Ancient predators of the deep desert, rarely seen—and never in numbers.
Dozens. Maybe hundreds.
They'd been waiting.
"Protect the relic carrier!" Althar bellowed, rushing into the fray.
Ael's fire surged from his hands instinctively. He hurled a wave at the closest wraith—and it screamed, bursting into blue flames that didn't go out. His fire clung to them like tar, ancient and hungry.
"Keep them burning!" Ael yelled, unleashing more flames, this time weaving them into lines—walls between the creatures and the caravan.
Elen vaulted from wagon to wagon, her enchanted blade slicing clean through armored limbs. "These things aren't random! They were sent!"
She was right. These weren't beasts hunting for food. They moved with purpose. Like tools. Like weapons.
And then the largest one rose.
A behemoth. Twice the height of the others. Its back was covered in black crystal-like thorns, and around its neck hung a sigil—one Ael had seen burned into the floor of the Empress's throne room in a vision.
She was watching.
"She sent this," Ael whispered, eyes narrowing.
The behemoth roared and slammed into the line.
Althar was the first to meet it. His blade rang out against the creature's hide, sparks flying. He ducked, dodged, and struck with precision—but it wasn't enough. The creature batted him aside like a ragdoll.
Ael saw it—his mentor crashing into a dune, blood trailing in the air.
Something inside him snapped.
He didn't think.
The fire surged—not from his hands, but from his chest. His veins glowed blue, runes flaring across his skin as dormant power awakened.
Ael leapt into the air, fire exploding beneath his feet.
The wraith turned its head too late.
He struck the beast's skull with a condensed lance of flame, boring into the armor and detonating it from the inside. The explosion rocked the entire battlefield.
When the smoke cleared, the behemoth lay burning.
The remaining wraiths shrieked—then fled, burrowing back into the sand.
Silence returned. But no one moved.
Elen ran to Althar, who groaned, bloodied but alive.
Ael landed heavily, fire still crackling around his shoulders. "Everyone… accounted for?"
Elen nodded. "Losses. But we're alive."
Ael looked back at the battlefield. Dozens of corpses. Scorched sand. Black smoke rising into the orange sky.
"They're not going to let us reach Zarad-Kesh easily," he muttered.
"No," Althar said, clutching his side. "But whatever's waiting there… she doesn't want you to see it."
Ael stared south.
Then that's exactly where they'd go.