The first two days after starting his plan Kairen didn’t get much reaction from the nomads. As he had expected, the children present were viewed as the likely creators of the crude art. It certainly was a more obvious cause than two dozen intelligent rats acting at the direction of an invisible ghost who controlled the Oasis. The adults responded appropriately given the information they had available. Cleaning up the ground only took minutes, but when it appeared again some adults took the opportunity to let the children know what they thought of their silly joke.

“You are young. Foolish ideas are expected. What I do not condone is the disrespect you have displayed.” Dun lectured the youth that he had managed to corral, having caught them playing in their garden. While elderly, Dun was not an Elder, mostly due to his tendency to act before hearing both sides of any issue he decided to get involved in. The adult nomads managed to avoid him by simply airing their disputes elsewhere or invoking the name of an actual Elder to remind the dodderly grump to mind his own business. The children weren’t so lucky.

“But we didn’t do it!” One outraged youth protested. The outspoken boy might be young, but he had his pride. Being at the oasis meant less time spent walking through the desert, and more time spent playing with their friends. It was also the only place they had ever been that they could swim. Thinking that any of the kids would do something stupid like that was just dumb.

Smack! Dun’s cane swung out and caught the speaker in his side, hard enough to send him tumbling. “Young people ought to be silent when their elders are speaking. Now where was I? Ah, yes, disrespect. Disrespect is a terrible thing. It shows that you do not understand your proper place in the world, and is caused by either an empty head or an overinflated ego. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to both causes; beat the foolishness out!” Once again the cane came up, waving menacingly at the seated children.

“I am not about to punish the innocent, so those of you responsible can consider yourselves lucky. But mark my words. If this buffoonery happens again I will find the ones who did it, and they. Will. Regret. It.” Dun quickly pulled his cane down and used it to catch himself. He had started leaning forwards to emphasize his last sentence, and had gone too far, only barely catching himself from falling. A couple of children had caught his mistake, but quickly schooled their faces to stillness.

Dun looked around to make sure no one was laughing at him. “Now that I am finished, does anyone have something they want to say?” His glare focused on the boy who had interrupted him earlier. A spark still flickered in his eyes, but the child showed wisdom beyond his years and remained silent. With a final harrumph the old man went on his way, mumbling about the failings of the latest generation.

Kairen was gratified to see that the kids hadn’t taken the tongue lashing too badly. Causing trouble for innocents wasn’t something he wanted to do, but Kairen knew he had to press onwards. If the art persisted even after the adults had made sure that the kids weren’t at fault then it made it more likely that they would start to think of other causes. Kairen helped justify his actions by thinking of the future that lay ahead. A spanking or a few smacks from a cane might be painful, but it couldn’t compare with the soul wrenching agony of having your family slaughtered in front of you, only to have shackles put around your arms to steal away the rest of your long life.

Shaking his head to clear the morose train of thought, Kairen returned to wandering around the Oasis, meddling with Ramses as he did his best to keep an ear out for any news that might be useful.

Unfortunately for Kairen’s plans, nature decided to involve itself. Kairen had diligently drawn out another set of arrows and a disapproving face only to be caught by surprise as the guards abandoned their position. There wasn’t much need to defend against monsters when the sands wanted to prove how inhospitable they could be.

A sandstorm had rolled in, and Kairen was grateful for his intangibility as the world around him slowly darkened. This particular sandstorm had a very gradual edge, one that gave the Nomads plenty of time to prepare. Wrapped head to toe in coverings to keep the sand away, the tribe did their best to lash down loose supplies, cover up openings in the storehouses, and finally to run anchoring ropes between the different tents. It was a precaution necessary out in the sands, where the chaos and blindness that a sandstorm brought could separate a group even if they were huddling down only yards apart. Kairen hoped such measures wouldn’t be necessary in the Oasis, but the old adage of ‘better safe than sorry’ was likely applicable. There hadn’t been any sandstorms before now, so Kairen couldn’t say for sure he was a safe space against the elements.

Before he could forget, Kairen pulled open his screen. He had been saving upgrade points to purchase the Oasis size upgrade, but without hesitation he purchased the sandstorm deflection upgrade from the defensive tree. The difference was noticeable. The storm had enough force behind it to still power through, but the air was noticeably lighter inside the Oasis than it was outside the barrier. Even though it was invisible the barrier itself was slowly becoming noticeable. The sand that was repelled usually was deflected elsewhere, but some of it simply dropped, falling to the ground where it began to pile up in a large circle surrounding the Oasis, mirroring the dirt wall that the humans had begun building.

The sand that made it through the barrier wasn’t as lethal as it would have been but was still enough of a deterrent to keep the nomads confined to their tents and the rats to their burrows. The camels and goats had been given a tent as well, cleared out of anything valuable or able to be easily digested by the goats. Normally the animals would have made a fuss at being confined to such a small space, but they could see and hear the storm outside and were content to wait patiently for it to be over.

While it did hamper Kairen’s plans, the storm wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Completely immune to the elements, Kairen was able to appreciate the wild beauty in a way that few humans ever had. Despite the reduced visibility caused by clouds of sand blocking out the sun, Kairen could somehow make out enough detail inside the Oasis to get a good picture of what was happening.

The wind ebbed and swelled, sometimes carrying only the finest articles of sand to polish exposed surfaces smooth, and other times seemingly having lifted up entire sand dunes to deposit on resisting structures. The sand slid off the alchemically enhanced tents the nomads sheltered in, but nothing else was spared. The sandstorm raged for three days, and during that time the meeting hall was first filled and then covered with sand, becoming a mini dune in appearance. The storage buildings had been constructed recessed into the ground and were completely buried, the rippling sand that covered them not even leaving any hint as to their location. The various grasses were pounded flat and then covered with a layer of sand that made the Oasis look like any other stretch of desert, and the few bushes that had started to grow had their leaves violently torn away.

While the farm outside the Oasis had been left to face the sandstorm without any aid, the plants the children had cultivated weren’t accustomed to such violent weather. A tarp weighted down with rocks kept the worst of the wind away, but it was anyone’s guess as to how the plants would fare under the weight of the sand that now pressed down on them. Kairen saw a few shapes out beyond his boundaries, monsters that reveled in the wild conditions the sandstorm provided. For them, a sandstorm such as this was a source of easy prey that was unable to escape their hungry jaws. None of them seemed strong enough to enter the Oasis, and for that Kairen was grateful. While a small part of him wanted a closer look to see just what mutations and alterations it took to live in a sandstorm, Kairen didn’t want to get that look at the cost of human lives.

The last sandstorm Kairen had been in had killed him, slowly entombing his body in sand even as he bled out. It was a traumatic experience, and only the delirium of pain prevented him from having clearer memories of what the sandstorm had done to him. Before now Kairen had still carried some of that pain with him, a hatred of the desert that always lurked just outside his conscious thoughts. But as time passed and nothing happened to the intangible boy he could feel himself relaxing. A sandstorm was dangerous, deadly to anyone who hadn’t taken the right precautions. But it wasn’t malevolent, at least not usually. Kairen ignored the existence of sentient storms for the moment and focused on the weather around him. The storm hadn’t been trying to kill him, hadn’t truly cared if he lived or died. It simply was. Much like the desert as a whole, it was harsh, filled with sand and unexpected twists that would catch you by surprise if you weren’t prepared. The fault lay on the person who hadn’t been prepared, not the storm that was simply letting its nature play out. Kairen mused on this truth, even as he took all the emotions he had over his death and began to refine them.

There was only one thing, one person who could be held responsible for his death. Every ounce of outrage, every inch of indignity, every iota of blackest hatred that Kairen had been bottling up was compressed and focused towards Zar Bloodwake. There, in the middle of the storm, with no one to see or hear him, Kairen swore an oath.

“I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I will make you pay for the sins you have committed, Zar. Whether by my hand or another’s, one day you will face judgement and know that I am responsible.”

Immediately after he was finished speaking Kairen was glad that the wind had stolen his words. He fully meant to keep his promise of vengeance, but his current situation made doing so difficult, if not close to impossible. Kairen refused to believe it was actually impossible. He was still growing into his new power and was learning what he could do outside the system as well. It might take him years, but Kairen wouldn’t stop searching or pushing his limits until he reached his goal. No matter how improbable the method was, he would follow it to its end if it gave him the revenge he so deeply desired.

The thought of improbable solutions sparked a strange image in Kairen’s mind. Zar was asleep on his bed, and sitting on his chest was a rat clad in heavy armor, with an appropriately sized sword pointed at the mercenary's throat. Then the rat spoke with Kairen’s voice.

“Zar Bloodwake, you killed my maker. Prepare to die.”

The slaver had only a second to wake up and comprehend his fate before he was run through, the sharp blade neatly severing his spine with a single cut.

Kairen shook his head at the strange places his imagination went, but found himself smiling nonetheless. Not only was it enjoyable to think of Zar dying, but to have his end come at the paws of a lowly rodent was surprisingly fitting. The rats were certainly better company, after all.

Those same rats were beginning to poke their heads out of their burrows, clearing the entryways of sand as they did so, before ducking back to safety. Kairen wasn’t positive, but he guessed that their willingness to brave the surface was a combination of the storm beginning to die out, along with their natural curiosity and adaptation to desert conditions. Night was beginning to fall and even with the worst of the storm past Kairen realized that the nomads would stay in their tents at least until dawn. All of which provided him with a unique opportunity.

By now the rats were familiar with Kairen’s requests and it didn’t take long for them to begin working. This time, instead of digging through dirt, the rodents were plowing through the layer of sand that had been left behind by the storm. The softer substance was easily manipulated, and the green grass showed through the gaps the desert rats created. The barrier kept the weakened storm out of the Oasis almost entirely, and the weak wind that made it through didn’t have enough force to undo the efforts of Kairen and his crew of followers. It did move things around enough to erase the tracks the rats were making as they ran about, leaving no clue as to who or what was responsible. Arrow after arrow was produced, and with the guards still taking shelter the rats grew bold, drawing arrows inside the encampment, between tents and along walkways all pointing towards the altar.

It might have cost him a couple of days’ worth of attempts, but Kairen was very curious as to how the nomads would react to his message this time.