When the explosion enveloped us, I couldn’t help but think that it was the second time that I was about to die, in well… three days. I had lost count of the hours we had passed in absolute darkness, so I couldn’t exactly say how long it had been.

And yet, when I opened my tightly shut eyes, I only felt a few burns here and there on my body, and the light of the cave exit above was getting smaller and smaller.

I believed I understood what was going on only when Aisha pulled on my hair.

I instinctively threw a pebble somewhere and transferred us.

We ended up rolling on the ground, still inside of the cave.

I knew we were alive; I knew who we were; I knew where we were; what was still unclear to me was how we were still alive.

My burned-up skin, well, mostly the edges of my arm and shoulder, stung. But the burn was nothing to worry about. It was just a little burn I could get by not being careful near the fire. It wouldn’t even leave a scar.

“Are you hurt!?” an Aisha entirely covered in soot asked me.

“Me? I’m perfectly fine, but you… you look a little darker than usual,” I jested.

“Come on, Loke! It’s coming to get us!” She shouted, and she was right.

The wyrm was slithering on the cavern’s grounds to come and get us. At least it wasn’t absurdly fast; we had to get away. Now.

I started throwing pebbles as if my life depended on it, not that it didn’t. Still, I gave it my all.

Since the creature seemed to read our intentions to some degrees, I started throwing two pebbles, one after the other. I had to be scarce because they were about to end, and I had no time to grab some more.

We just had to get out of that place and as fast as possible, but then I was faced with the harsh reality.

I had been automatically using the Stones I had stored in my satchel.

It was day, the cavern was full to the brim with Flow, and what little Shade was in the air, thanks to the darkness, had disappeared because I had been overusing my Trick Shot.

When the pebbles fell to the ground without generating any Shade copies, I understood that we were indeed done for.

“Run!” I shouted at Aisha. Taking her by the hand and leading her away toward the cave where we had come from.

“Why!?”

“No Shade left!”

Judging from her gasp, if I could have seen her at that moment, I guessed I would have probably seen her going from black as coal to bone white.

When we reached the height where the tunnel entrance was located, I grabbed her, shouted, “Climb!” then literally threw her by pushing her from her ass.

She did climb, while what little had remained of her clothes turned into cinders.

When I looked at her climb, I had to admit that I had no idea how she managed to survive that explosion, especially since her clothes had practically disappeared; just how had she done it? Yet, whatever the means, I was thankful that I was still alive.

Climbing for me was easy; I took out my now trusted knife, and I wall-walked up the height, then stuck my knife into the earth and pushed up with my heels to climb the last few meters.

We did not wait for the bastard wyrm to attack again.

We ran inside of the tunnel.

If we didn’t move and the monster belched its acid attack inside of the tunnel, we would be smothered down by the fumes or utterly melted if the acid caught up to us, so we ran; we ran until our breath allowed us to go no further.

I led Aisha by the hand, and we stopped running only when it was clear that the creature could not follow us there.

It was a Sand-Wyrm, a sub-species of Earth-Wyrm, so his signature ability was to swim in the sand, not in the earth; it could not follow us.

After half an hour or so of running, Aisha slugged down, then leaned with her back on a wall and literally dropped to the floor.

“Ouch…” she said, heaving.

“Alright,” I replied, sitting near her, “I think there really are only two solutions here, go back where we came from, or wait for the coming of the night; hopefully, it hasn’t collapsed the exit or spit acid all over it. Anyway, I sincerely prefer the second one.”

“I second that…” she answered, still gasping for air.

“Alright, now tell me, how did we survive that?” I was too curious to let it slide.

“I’m a magician…” she said, waving her hands about.

“You know I can see you, don’t you?”

I did not intend what she understood, but she covered her body with her hand, shutting her legs closed.

“Yeah, that doesn’t help, anyway; care to explain?”

Aisha took a big breath, trying to calm her breath, “I’m resistant to fire, and I can also Control Flow, remember?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t take away why I’m barely scalded and not toasted.”

“I’ve just stretched my sphere of Flow Control as wide as I could, I could do nothing for the Sand Dragon’s acid, but once it exploded and turned into fire, it entered my reign. I controlled the Flow around me, making it… essentially mine and shielding us from the explosion by channeling it away. Well, I was mostly trying to cover for you, as you can see. Since I really am fire-resistant. Sadly, my clothes weren’t…”

I nodded, “So, mages’ stuff; I get it."

“You didn’t get any of it, did you?”

“No, not even close. But it’s alright; you’ve got your mage’s stuff, I’ve got my archery, big deal!”

“Is that envy that I hear?” She said, grinning.

“No, it’s not… although. Yeah, I might be a tad bit jealous, but only, like this much."

“You know I can’t see anything, right?”

“Yes, it’s better this way.”

We shared a laugh of relief.

A few hours later, Aisha started feeling cold, so we got closer to the opening.

Luckily for us, the passage had not been sealed. I suspected the wyrm was still around somewhere, but we did not dare get close enough to check. We had to wait.

I got even closer to check the opening once again, and it was still day, although likely the afternoon, then I got back and heavily sat down.

“How are you feeling now?”

“Much better. Wherever there is Flow, I feel good,” she answered.

“You know,” I started saying something I had tried to repress but just couldn’t anymore, “I’m really sorry it got that way, I mean, back during the festival. If I could do things over, I would go back and change everything.”

“Yeah. I understand… you are not that bad of a person, Loke. You sincerely care for people, maybe not all people. But at least you do. There are many others I know that only care about themselves… it doesn’t justify what you’ve done… but, it’s something...”

A few long moments stretched the time to what looked like minutes in which the only thing we could hear was the sound of our breaths.

“What are we gonna do once we are out of here?” She asked me.

I already knew what I had to do. I realized it the moment she saved my life.

“You are going to go back home, and I’m going in hiding, but, I must warn you; if my friends or my… village is in peril, I will slaughter whichever Sunguard or Inquisition members are responsible.”

Aisha sighed, “About that... I can see just a few ways in which the Inquisition has answered what happened. One: they are currently presiding over all the villages, inquiring on the people responsible for the slaughter. Two: a mass arrest, followed by… torture; although this scenario is unlikely because they are playing at being nice people. They need to show their good mask in these troubled times, especially in front of the City-States of the bordering regions. Three: the first alternative, plus an active manhunt for us. Whichever of these options is the road they’ve taken, be sure that the villages and the nomad tribes have received a visit from the Inquisition. So if you want to disappear, I’d suggest you leave and go as far and as fast away from here as you can. Or…”

“Or?” I arched my brows. There was another option?

“Or... I could testify that you guys are the ones that saved my life from those responsible. The ones that freed me, my... saviors.”

Those words… I couldn’t believe those words, yet she continued.

“It won’t be easy; there were other people that have seen you, and not only you, Alistar and Roana as well. But my word is not without its weight. It will be hard, but it is possible. Although, after this is over, I believe you will likely have spies on you, at least until it is ascertained that you are of no threat to the City.”

“Why would you go so far as to do that?” I was sincerely incredulous.

“I think I saw something in you guys. Something which is absent in Sundoor. Something we should have but never really had. And something which I value very much.”

“And what should that be?”

“Ideals.”

Ideals?

After that, she did not add anything related to the subject; she didn't want to, no matter how many times I asked, so we talked about other things.

Her life, my life, our situations.

We spoke until nightfall, only understanding it had been nightfall because she yawned.

“I think it’s time,” I said.

“Really!? I hadn’t noticed,” she closed her eyes and likely focusing on something I didn’t know, “Indeed, the Flow is still there, but extremely scarce.”

I took her by the hand, and we traveled to the exit.

The wyrm was there, sleeping, rolled up like a worm.

We could make it.

I turned toward her, she could at least see part of my features now, with the light from the moon, so I signaled to her to be silent.

After that, we took as many pebbles as possible; I put them in my satchel; then, before long, we were flying through the air and out of the hole.

We rolled on the ground multiple times as the erratic transfer got us too fast and too close to the ground to really prepare for the impact.

I was worried about the chance of having been heard by the Wyrm. So I sat on top of her when I shushed her. I put my index finger on my mouth, and closing my eyes; I focused on my Perception to understand if the wyrm had heard us.

Aisha sucked in a breath.

After a few seconds, I was certain. The beast hadn’t even noticed.

I sighed in relief, then let myself fall by her side, “We’re saved. The monster is still sleeping.”

“Sun be praised…”

We slowly got up, looked around us, then exploded into laughter, failing at trying to be as silent as possible.

When suddenly something attacked me, pinning me down, Sixth Sense failed entirely to recognize the threat.

Then the creature started licking me, and weirdly, purring?

“Loki!” I said, embracing him.

“I told you I saw them!” Roana whispered.

“What in the Abyss took you so long? It’s almost eleventh bell in the night!” Said Alistar, “Oh, I see. I get what you were doing now! Dirty rats!” He exploded into entirely unrestrained laughter.

Roana shushed him uselessly.

“What!? No, It’s not how it seems! Really! My clothes were torched when the acid exploded!” Aisha stated. The soot that still blemished her was not enough to hide the fair red tint that her face had taken.

I did not answer. For some reason, I liked the implications of that joke; almost… almost wished they were true. But then I thought about Harlow.

How in the Abyss could I think about another woman, now of all times? What an asshole!

I tried to shake it away, but the thought did not leave, not right away at least.

“Here, you’ve got to wear this now,” said Alistar, removing the chest part of his armor.

When she put it on, it looked like a nightdress on Aisha. A MoonSteel nightdress.

“How did you fare, guys?” Roana asked?

“My reserve of Stones dried up when I brought you over here; I thought the Shade still in the cave was enough for the transfer, so I really did not take into consideration how many Stones I had left. I’ve been making a lot of mistakes lately. Maybe I’m growing too sure of myself.”

Roana shook her head, “What matters is that you are alive, Loke.”

“Alright, alright, now we should leave. Also, we’ve found something nearby. You’ve got to see it. We wanted to approach this morning, but Roana noticed something rather... preoccupying, so we thought we’d take the decision together,” Alistar said.

It made me curious.

“What is it?”

“Follow us, and you’ll see for yourself."

We left the hole in the ground and soon found a trail of threadbare ground. This was a worn path. Why was there an overused trail that led to a gigantic monster’s burrow?

However, we didn’t follow the trail for all its length; we crossed over to the western side, following the mountain trails, while the road continued down, descending toward the Wastelands.

“Where does it lead?” Aisha asked, yet, for some reason, felt I knew the answer to that.

Alistar said we would see for ourselves, and in the end, we did.

We entered a few kilometers into the mountainside to be sure we weren’t seen, and then we settled down.

After fighting down a few Desert-imps, small biped creatures that had limbs too thin for their own good, and an elongated muzzle that made them look just a tiny bit like birds, we took place on a well-hidden rock platform that gave us a glimpse of the desert side.

There was a nomad encampment, far in the distance.

Yurts, typical of a nomad camp, had been set, and given the number of buildings, animal farms, Crystal beacons, and such, it looked more like a proper village than a nomad camp like it should have been.

“Alright, that’s peculiar. But must not mean what I think it means, right?”

“You already guessed?” Roana asked.

“Do you have proof?”

While an estranged Aisha looked back and forth, from me to Roana, as she chewed on the food they had prepared.

“They have been covered, but if you take a look over there,” Roana pointed, “behind the hog farmyard, you’ll see a big cage covered by a massive cloth. That’s where they keep them. We saw them, well, I saw them.”

“What are you talking about? What are they keeping there?” Asked Aisha.

I sighed; that was what I feared.

“Cyclopses. That’s where the Cyclopses that they use as offerings, to keep the Sand-Wyrm at bay, are held.”

Hearing those words, Aisha’s face went from surprised to horrified.

“You don’t really mean that, right? Surely you jest.”

I did not answer; Roana did it for me. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Then we must free them!” Aisha said.

Hearing those words, I could see Roana sincerely smile.

Yes, we might have just killed them, Cyclopses, yes they would hunt humans, and yes, we were natural enemies. But Cyclopses were sapients, just like us.

Sealed in those cages, they understood what was about to happen to them, they cried, they despaired, they pleaded, just like we would do in their stead.

Also, if those Cyclopses could be kept in there, if those Cyclopses could indeed be tamed and constrained behind those bars, then it meant that they were young, far too young.

That treatment was abhorrent, the same type of abhorrent behavior that the slave traders held.

But it was not related to the nomads, not at all. There were way too many nomad tribes around these parts. This one had decided to take that course of action, and as much as I hated that choice, I did not know how to act.

I was at a loss for what to do.

Nomads people were like those from our villages. A mix of ethnicities. Regulars, Shade-cursed, Kobolds, Half-Elves, even Flow-blessed that had not bought their citizenship to enter Sundoor.

They were exactly like us. They also did not hurt anybody on purpose, exactly like our villagers. They just wanted to be left alone, from anybody, from other sapients, just as much as from giant monsters that could destroy the village they were trying to build by simply passing near them.

“What can we do about it?” I asked, uncertain.

"Is there even a need to ask?" Said Roana, "We go there, we free the Cyclopses, and the nomads get them to fuck off and go back to being nomads! If they want to join a village, they are free to do so or create their own, but surely not at the cost of other people's lives! I might have just helped kill Cyclopses, but that doesn't mean I'll allow them to be treated like that! I... just can't..."

“You are asking us to save Cyclopses and condemn our kinds, Ro,” Alistar reminded her.

“I-!” She bit her lip, “It’s not right, Alistar, and you know it! We all do! It’s not different from what the slave traders do! Exchange lives for money! Or in this case, the liberty to chose the place in which to stay, or whatever the fuck their deal is!”

“I can’t go and evict our kinds, Ro! I just can’t do it! Not to mention that they will stake their lives on defending their stand! We are going to have to kill them to free those Cyclopses! Damn Cyclopses, Ro!” He shouted back. “Would you be willing to do that? Because I certainly can’t…”

"Yeah! I would!" She answered, getting fired up.

I tried to hush them, but it was ignored, “Guys, we can try to talk to them first.”

“Who in the Abyss is going to listen to somebody that wants to kick you out from their lands!?” Alistar asked back.

“They will have to, or I shall make them!” Roana shouted back.

“Now you are no better than them,” Star answered, shaking his head.

"Oh, shut up, we are no better than anybody, and you know it!"

After being silent the entire time, Aisha finally spoke, “I have a solution,” but she was completely ignored.

Roana and Alistar kept on bickering, and I had no idea what to do; I really did not.

I couldn’t take anybody’s side.

“I’m saying that I have a solution!” Aisha said again.

Once more, her plea for attention went unanswered.

“Hey! Assholes! Listen to me!” She conjured fire on her hands.

They snapped to attention, Roana even in Form stance.

Yet, Aisha’s flames soon disappeared, “I’m saying that I have a solution. You both won’t like it, but it will solve this problem,” she continued, “The Cyclopses will be freed, and you won’t get to force away or kill your kind,” she added, looking at Roana first then at Alistar.

“And how would you do that?” Roana asked.

“It’s simple; we call for the Inquisition.”

If I had not been surprised by the sacrifice treatment that the nomads gave to the Cyclopses, then sure as the Abyss I was now.

Yes, that solved the question. The Inquisition would come, settle things down, free the Cyclopses, have the nomads go back to being nomads, and anybody would be happy because we were not the ones responsible for doing things right.

And yet, why was I unhappy with it?

Oh, right, that was because I hated Sunguards, the Inquisition, and everything they stood for.

Damn.