Shagang was the first of the three cities of Savbath with migrating oases around it, situated not far from Ghuneit’s southwest border with Shuangguang and Shaowei Empire. Being near the intersection of three empires, and on the Road Boty that circled around the Northern continent, gave it a natural advantage of trade; and with it a somewhat rich culture and defenses that emerged with, also, the unusual circumstances of it.

In the desert, building walls was a troublesome matter that required tremendous time to make a clearing, and with most cities depending on migrating oases for food and water, they proved a threat to the livelihood of those living inside. So the Shamo people crafted humongous sledges made of wood and light metal; and they adorned them with Qi-imbued stones to make them weigh less. These sledges had tents, or in some rare cases huts built upon them to accommodate soldiers and members of the city guard. Though comfort of it could be questioned, the quest to patrol wasn’t a permanent one, but one that revolved among a few selected men and women of the city’s armed forces.

This morning, however, one of these sledges, pulled by horses half-a-torso bigger than men, contained a man of esteemed background. He was named Jiao Xue, and he belonged to Rebtan Tribe of the Ghuneit’s Thirteen Tribes Of Divination. At the moment, this man of good up-bringing and will sat inside his tent on the moving sledge, right upon a ground bed with an empty table in his front.

The table was of wood like the sledge and its surface had gathered sand, as well as the ground of the sledge, for he forgot to close the tent’s opening last night. Jiao Xue snorted and took a deep breath, then blew onto the empty table. Sand grains floated for a second and flew away from him; they floated out to the loud desert rumbling with another sandstorm.

Half-satisfied, Jiao Xue willed his Qi to move and waved his wrinkly hand in front of him. The ruby ring on his middle finger gave a faint hum in response to his Qi and brightened, and next to it an emerald and sapphire ring, too, started to glow. Their lights extinguished a moment later and in front of Jiao Xue came to be twenty-one pairs of talismans and tokens. They collapsed on the table and raised the little of the sand left, and they started to glow as well.

Everyone is safe, Jiao Xue pulled his arms to his neck, and no news came still. He gripped both sides of his neck and fondled, and he let out a deep sigh. This is what Elder Guru talked about?

Pains of old age were not to be underestimated, Jiao Xue thought, and closed his eyes to rest a little bit more. Amidst the storm outside and his mumbles, the tokens and talismans- each paired with other- released a clear hum still audible. If something happened, he would be aware at the same instant.

No news is good news. He thought and waited. Little prince is quite something to stay alive. The Royal Curse is still nowhere to be seen...if those younglings kill the prince, well. That’s their mistake.

For several hours nothing happened. As the sun rose into the sky and the storms started subduing, Jiao Xue heard a sound. He stopped meditating and massaging his sore neck.

His gaze fell on the rightmost line of the talismans and tokens. Though the talismans had their glow still live, the top token lost all luster it had. The humming stopped and a crack sprang from its top, and it spread down; the white stone token split into two half-circles.

Jiao Xue let out a snort and swept his eyes over the talismans, yet none brightened. He raised his hand and stopped it right above the bottom talisman, then he lowered it to grasp. His wrinkly fingers touched the edge of it, and the moment they clutched he heard another crack.

His head jerked up and his brows furrowed in anger. Another had split in half and still, none of them contacted him.

Is it not prince? Jiao Xue moved again to take a hold of the talisman, and yet, he heard another sound. This time not a crack, nor the faint clink of a talisman. But a whistle. One fierce, one that made the desert winds falter and the storm submit.

‘’Cursed bastard, who dares attack me!?’’ From within the sound seeped traces of wild Qi, earthen Qi. It came heavy, he felt, and it struck heavier.

Jiao Xue sprang to his feet and his Qi moved. Qi gathered on top of his palm in a second and in the other it blew into a straight line. One hand at the bottom and the other at the top, he grasped the line; it turned from transparent and materialized into a solid lance. The whistle, at that moment, turned into a roar and collapsed right onto him.

A blinding light shot out and ripped apart the tent, the clothes swished and the furniture around him blew up. Jiao Xue waved his lance in his front to fend off the light. The tip of his lance encountered, to his surprise, not strength but a light edge; and once he swept up his lance the light parted to reveal its owner: an emerald glaive with a brown shaft. It was held by a man he got to know a week ago, and one he imprisoned three days later that date.

‘’Who let you worms out!?’’ Being of old age, and also being from Rebtan, Jiao Xue showed his wild temperament with his actions. Even as he spoke his hands and feet moved: his legs blasted apart the meters lare surface of the sledge and his lance holding hands thrust forward. The red tip flashed, then it appeared right before the glaive wielding man.

‘’Worm is your parents!’’ The man shouted and struck back.

The glaive rippled and trembled, then a streak of cracks spread like webs through its surface. A glow of earthen brown spread, and it fell with the same ferocity.

Jiao Xue narrowed his eyes and stepped back. Yet his opponent, being the weakling he was, flew further beyond his reach and crashed on another sledge. The tent upon shook and the wooden side sank in together with the man.

Yet Jiao Xue had no more time to observe, for a few dozen lights streaked from his sides, all earthen brown.

‘’Where is the prince, you slave!?’'

‘’Give us his highness!’’

Shouts came with them and surrounded him, and so appeared a company of thirty-seven men and women bearing emerald glaives with black wooden shafts. They all wore black robes of a prisoner, and as he thought how they escaped, Jiao Xue saw a woman among them with a longbow; its quiver hang at her waist half-full. Her cloth, like the glaives, was of emerald but dark, almost akin to an unpolished jade. On her he smelled the scent of blood, and also from those around her.

That judge- I knew he was suspicious.

‘’Deviless.’’ He muttered through his teeth and raised his lance. His Second Stage Path Establisher Qi shot forth and collided with the air around the woman.

‘’Are you a snake? Stop hissing.’’ Then from the woman an aura of the exact caliber shot out to meet his own.

Jiao Xue calmed down and, as the gazes around him turned to glares, started whistling.

The woman’s expression turned dire and the company of men and women let go of their glares. Now came wariness on their furrowed brows and narrowed eyes, and with it a shrill hiss sounded from the horizon behind Jiao Xue.

‘’I prefer to be called serpent,’’ Jiao Xue said, ‘’ Blood Serpent.’’

The sunlight gleamed through hundreds of metallic scales at the same time; and a slithering figure overshadowed them. With the sun hidden behind the silhouette, the woman turned her head sideways to the shattered remains of his sledge, cloaked under piles of sand and wood and stone, and in there he noticed with her the flickering light of a talisman.

Then tens of figures shot forward at the same instant.

*********

Xie’e let out a grunt and his body shook. Ah Li’s palm had a tremendous force that he encountered in only two: Zi Heshang and Zi Muqin. Like the monsters they were, Ah Li too garnered a fearsome physical might behind his body and struck him hard. But what his action signified hit him harder, and it hurt farther.

‘’Scum-’’ He gnashed and swinged his right arm in response. Even as his body fell backwards and slammed onto the sand, Xie’e punched left cheek of Ah Li with what power he could muster.

Ah Li’s palm smashed him down and sent clouds of sent swirling out in rings, and from his back came a sharp pain almost unbearable. A second later, his punch crashed onto Ah Li’s cheeks and staggered him; the man toppled on his legs for a second and took two steps back.

‘’You still have this much of a strength?’’ Ah Li spit a blood-mixed saliva and turned back to look at him; his head high and a red mark around his cheeks he showed the trace of a deep worry.

‘’Yet you have no dignity close around it,’’ Xie’e said and let out a deep breath. Blood, too, dripped down his nose and lips, and they dyed his still-scarlet face a tad bit crimson. His chest felt lighter than a second ago, however, and he presumed it to be because of Ah Li’s palm. It gave him pain indeed and it gave his chest a deep-purple bruise, but with it the remnants of the Fire Qi seeped out.

‘’Benefactor, stop for a moment,’’ Ah Li said, and his figure flickered again. Xie’e reacted faster than he thought, and underneath his feet appeared two balls of Qi. The smooth red surface gleamed scarlet for a moment, then it burst into a shower of red light and brown sand. His body took off into the sky and off he went towards the sun, away from the second palm of Ah Li.

‘’Don’t call me benefactor-’’ Xie’e gathered his hands together and made several seals, and with each he garnered a more powerful force of Qi in front of his chest. The faint shape of a hexagonal crystal started appearing.

Ah Li’s brows rose in distress, he glimpsed, and he lowered his body to the ground. His legs hardened and, like the surface of a water, the clothes around his muscles tore apart. There appeared legs of bronze, a tad bit lighter than his skin, and with it a surge of brown Qi rose under them.

Aerial Step, Xie’e heard a mutter, and a moment later the sand exploded around Ah Li. Rings of white, compressed air shot all around him in circles, and with them an outrageous amount of sand, and his body flew up to Xie’e; his eyes had a trace of fury in them.

Xie’e let out a shout in response and Qi materialized again above him; tendrils of blazing fire flowed all around him towards the crystal. This time no storm sprang up, for he was careful with the amount, yet it was the lack of the screen that let Ah Li come closer.

Though he had flown quite near to Xie’e, his fall came a tad bit quick. Ah Li clawed at the air for a moment and his body floated in the air, then started to fall. Xie’e rejoiced, and he smashed both his palms together to complete the crystal. The hexagonal shape turned corporeal and from its inside gleamed a bright crimson; its heat scorched his palms in a matter of seconds and filled his innards with Fire Qi again.

Taking control of the crystal, Xie’e cast his gaze down and looked at Ah Li’s eyes. He saw the same trace of worry, a bit soft and anxious, yet when his crystal appeared he noticed a trace of fury. A chill crept up his spine and with that feeling, he turned sober. A sharp, burning pain slashed open his chest.

For a moment, what he was doing seemed wrong, even foolish. Yet a moment later, his confidence returned and he pushed his hand down. The crystal illuminated his whole body red, and the surroundings a dark crimson; its body brightened then dimmed, and at last it shot forth. A shockwave spread from its back, rings and tendrils of red light seeped from it and a moment later a flame roared into existence around it: the shape of a pair of wings.

Xie’e’s body started falling down at the same time, so he willed again for Qi to gather. Amidst the booming roar of the firey wings cascading down another pair of Qi spheres sprang under his feet, then burst off. His body flew further and further away, yet his sight didn’t part away from Ah Li.

He watched Ah Li’s body fall down to the ground; he fell from the air and, right as his brown cloaked feet touched down, squatted down. A sound so loud escaped from his place that Xie’e’s ears almost ruptured, then a storm of sand exploded back. The land and the sky seemed to obey his will, and also fear, for they blasted further and further away from him. Rings and tendrils and whirlwinds of sand and compressed air whistled from the sheer strength he put in his legs.

Xie’e felt his heart palpitating, yet this wasn’t the end.

The blazing wings of the crystal descended on Ah Li at that moment, when sand paved apart and air escaped. The roaring flame brightened, then expanded into a wave of fire surging down. Ah Li, at the same instant, shot up again to meet it. His right leg retracted to his stomach and his left leg stretched out; and on both of his ankles appeared plates of earthen armor made of Qi. His right leg shot forward, the flames halted for a second, and they collided.

He heard a crack resound in the sky, then a sonic boom. The hexagonal crystal shattered between the wave of flames and the compressed energy within exploded; a pillar of fire shot into the sky like an unending line. Yet Ah Li came out fine and sound, with his legs still moving and his eyes still glaring.

Xie’e gasped, then horror filled his heart again. He remembered the terror of the scorpions of the night, then the pain of the forsaken’s spear at Yadratafos. His body acted in response to his instincts and, with no lead from him, tens of balls of Qi surrounded his body.

Ah Li’s eyes blazed with fury at the sight. ‘’STOP USING THE FORSAKEN QI FOOL!’’ His voice boomed with such strength that half of the red spheres dispersed, yet the other half managed to shoot forward. Xie’e woke up from his momentary stupor, too, but a greater sense of worry invaded his mind. He imagined Ah Li being blasted away by the balls, and his flesh being burnt by the flesh. A faint excitement crept in, then his conscience smashed it shut.

‘’Watch out!’’ He shouted with the desperation of killing another fellow human.

Ah Li didn’t bat an eye at his shout and moved again. He heard the same mutter, but this time louder and sharper, as if coming out of a gnashed teeth.

‘’Aerial Step,’’ There and then he saw Ah Li stepping on thin air and dying it brown, then shooting out of the ways of the red Qi balls. His body streaked across the sky whilst Xie’e fell down, and, he stepped once more. His legs hardened, his muscles bulged, and the sky turned half brown again; then he watched Ah Li shoot from above towards his falling body.

Regret overcame him at that moment. Xie’e closed his eyes, then opened. Two streams of tears escaped. He knew the man lied about his recovery time. He, after all, treated a paralyzed men for months. How the legs would subconsciously twitch, how the chest heaved up and down, or how they trembled; he knew of it. But even then, Ah Li hadn’t acted once. When he encountered his enemies, he didn’t act. When he seemed to be in danger, he warned, and once he was in fatal danger, he saved him from it.

Yet, when he struck wasn’t even his weakest moment.

And yet, why? Was his nature treacherous? Was he not fond of feeling pity? Yet, then, he didn’t give him any. He couldn’t think of why he did it. Because he heard those men yell little prince? It was too common of a nickname for rich children; that, he willingly revealed at their meeting with the price of his robe. Then what? To not let anyone else know he lived, to silence him?

That...was cruel for Xie’e.

His lips parted at the open hand stretching out towards his neck, and he glared with such fury even Ah Li seemed shaken.

‘’I killed men for you! My own kind! YET-’’

Then Ah Li’s hand arrived and reached out to him. Xie’e forced his vocal cords to tremble, to talk, to not let him restrain his voice before he snapped his neck.

But he couldn’t. He swallowed his words as the hand grasped him from the shoulder, then took him into Ah Li’s embrace.

‘’...ah?’’ He felt the wind travel through his hair and clear up his tear-stricken eyes, and he heard Ah Li’s almost-amused voice.

‘’Though I don’t understand why killing someone matters to you, benefactor,’’ He reached the ground at here and squatted at the same manner; clouds of sand blasted away to make a clearing. ‘’You have my thanks for that.’’

‘’Only, you are too rash,’’ He let go of Xie’e’s shoulder and laid him down on the small clearing, where sand from surroundings flowed down to fill it up again. ‘’If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead by now.’’

‘’...’’ Xie’e didn’t respond. He couldn’t respond. What was happening?

‘’Now, let me get rid of that Fire Qi in your body.’’ Ah Li grasped the burnt collar of his robes and pulled them down to reveal his open chest. Let alone the cloth, even his chest had black ashen marks, and under them a scarlet skin seemingly boiled. Ah Li placed both his palms on his bare chest and sent forth a wave of Qi into his body.

‘’...’’ He still had no words for what was happening, yet gradually his body relaxed and calmed. It turned lighter and his senses came back to him, with it a searing pain. Every part of his body: his head, his arms and legs, his cheeks, his feet, his fingers, his back, his arse...they all felt scorching hot.

‘’Aagh!’’ He let out a loud grunt at the forthcoming pain, he didn’t have the strength to endure it. But it lessened. He felt how the sliver of Qi traveled in his shattered meridians and through his veins. It moved back and forth and it absorbed the remnant Fire Qi hiding inside his body. This was a situation he never encountered before, and he had no memory of Zi Heshang warning him against.

In his painful estimate, half-a-minute passed until the pain went away and left a bundle of exhaustion in its place. His limbs turned heavy and he felt the need to sleep for a moment. Drowsy and unable to move, he knew it was too dangerous to go vulnerable for now. And he was still confused, even if assured that his speculations weren’t the case.

‘’Why in the light did you attack me there, if you were going to act like this?’’

‘’Because you would die?’’ Ah Li said and sat next to him. He covered up his chest and tied the collar of his robes to not let any sand in, then let out a sigh. ‘’If I didn’t act fast, your innards would burn from inside in a matter of seconds.’’

‘’Though I accept, that might have been a bit rough.’’

‘’...too rough...’’ Xie’e muttered and loosened his neck. ‘’And now I feel...like a dead horse...’’

Ah Li gave him a blank stare, then his eyes widened. ‘’Wait, don’t go to sleep!’’

‘’I...’’ Can’t- Xie’e couldn’t finish before he gave in to the urge.

*********

Ah Li cast his eyes at the shady youth lying down, then let out another sigh. He looked up at the sun, then down the sand, and at last to his throbbing legs. The ache turned faint with each second, but it would remain for a while. Oh father, ah father, he lamented, what did I deserve to live like this?

His eyes then glazed to his side again, to the boy already in deep slumber. He knew, or heard, how tiring it was for the mind of those cripple warriors to work. They controlled the Qi not with instinct and guidance, but with power and precision; akin to weaving a web, or looming silk, yet not with the exact tools, but with two rough hands made of will. How it worked and how they did it: that, too, was instinctual, but also different from the meridians’ natural influence.

He had not much knowledge about the topic, Ah Li realized. All he knew came from the superficial lessons he was obliged to take in his childhood; and in advanced classes he only paid attention to the arts of war and ruling land, in which he wasn’t near the success his brothers had. In relations he was weak, and in forging connections he deemed them as a dangerous work. Why would you bow and give to people, just to get none of their scorn for you?

That, he thought, might be why I am here. That wasn’t how a ruler had to look, his eldest brother said, and was, perhaps, what made him dismissible in his father’s eyes. If not, would the Ghuneit Elder even raise a finger of his against him? Of course, he would. Taking sides was what mattered now- without sect, the remaining strong decided who got the power and who lost it.

Shaking his head, Ah Li raised himself and stood on one knee next to Xie’e. He raised the boy from his shoulders, slid him on his back, and got on his feet. His erratic breathing sounded quite loud, and so he shook his back a little; Xie’e’s head tumbled twice and now rested at the edge of his shoulder, and his legs twitched before they trembled twice above his hands lifting him up.

For first, the tracking path- Ah Li pushed his feet and a brown shower of light cloaked his open legs, and the still-sunken sand burst into the air again; there appeared another pit, and sand grains flowed in to close the gap. By then, Ah Li had climbed onto the air and cast his eyes to the ground.

As it had been no longer than two or three minutes, he noticed the battlefield after two glances. Knowing the destination he kicked the thin air and the sky behind him dyed brown; he shot forward and then kicked again. The moment air cleansed, another veil of brown encased it in its colors. The faint booming of his steps came right after he reached atop the bloody past sand dune and with their heralds he descended, this time slow.

His feet sank a few centimeters in the sand, then rose again with the cloaking of the brown around his legs. He stepped forward and inspected the ground for a moment: there laid eight corpses- four of them horses, four other humans. One human died from a gap in the chest, one by bleeding to death from arrows to the back, and two with their heads smashed or ripped to pieces. Two more died by burning to ashes, and he saw no trace of the black remains, while the magic casting woman killed the deserter herself. He still didn’t know why she had done that; was it not their quest to find and be assured of his death? Then it was the most logical to have someone send the news.

But they shouldn’t be that careless- For a Guru of the thirteen tribes, it was impossible to act without at least two or three means of communication through his hunting bands. Establishing the flow of information, then relaying his orders were crucial if he wanted to, especially, achieve something in the desert; and that being his life, and it was quite precious, he would be a fool to not act with caution.

So, Ah Li concluded and came near the first corpse; the woman with the chest wound. He laid Xie’e down on the ground and kneeled in front of the corpse. With a shake of his hands his meridians whizzed, then created a gust of wind barreled forward by his Qi. It swept the accumulated sand over the woman’s body except those stuck on the wound, but he had not that much of a need for it.

With her robe’s belly being already torn, he didn’t fuss over it and cut with his finger from the remains to half. There pooled out another surge of blood, and so he rotated her to face the sky. The remainder mixed to the ground and there appeared her innards; half smashed, half torn out, and inside a foul smell that made him grimace for a moment. But no longer than a moment he looked, then cut the front of her clothes again. Her dead head titled to the side for a moment, then he took off the whole robe.

Taking away the robe Ah Li turned his head away from the naked corpse and looked at the inner pockets first. There he found nothing, and so he traced the cloth with his hands. Over at the upper-left of the robe was a bump not so noticeable, but one that he noticed. Qi gathered at the tip of his fingers, then cut through the cloth; there appeared a small paper with a faint red glow.

‘’One,’’ Ah Li counted, then traced the cloth again. He found nothing alike, so he turned to the corpse again to inspect. Another time he glazed over her body and the pants, but there he also didn’t find anything.

Then he went over to the other corpse not so far down, to the man lying down; coagulated blood shielded his back from the sun, and perhaps it would help him preserve the remains for a tad bit longer.

Ah Li crouched down again and did the same; he traced the corpse for a few seconds then ripped apart his clothes. He cast his eyes over the bare chest down to the pants, then cut once more the take out the robe. He laid it on the sand, glanced back at Xie’e’s position, then looked over it. He found another bump, this time near the center of the chest, and revealed another talisman among the fabric. Color and shape was the same, and it glowed the same as well.

‘’Two-’’ He muttered, ‘’But what were they tracking me with?’’

He rose up and inspected other two corpses, and he found nothing but talismans. Now four of them laid in his hands and he had nothing more to do. The presumed tracking device was either on the two men burnt alive, or at the bowman who fled not far from him.

Or at another group.

For scouting purposes, this little of a squad was a miserable amount unless they had dire circumstances; A royal retaliation perhaps.

But no need to be wary about that; It is those chasing that are annoying.

Ah Li looked down at his roughened hands; above the calluses, old scars, and the blood from the corpses on his palm now he held those glowing talismans.

Should I bait them out?

But then he felt his skin tingle, and his meridians wriggle with alert. A trace of disgusting, foul Qi wafted from horizon, and with it the weak presence of poison.

His head shot to the side and his eyes focused at three figures, one hounding two; then he realized he knew them all.

‘’Beri! Nehkar!’’

*********

The moment he shouted, Ah Li also shot back towards Xie’e and grasped him from the ground. His hand clasping on Xie’e’s shoulder, he rushed and stomped on the ground towards the man and woman riding towards them. Their mounts were a pair of horses tainted with red skin, and they bore high quality skins and exquisite saddles adorned with gems. Right behind them rose from a cloud of sand a huge serpent: it had scarlet scales glistening under the Sun, and atop it stood a figure clad in blood and crimson scale armor. The figure was of an old man, and within his wrinkled hands he grasped a half-black half-red lance above two meters in length.

‘’Your highness, run forth to the northwest!’’ The woman shouted from afar. Ah Li cast his eyes at her, then at the bare-chested man right next to her who continued.

‘’The rest of the company waits there for your arrival! Please hurry!’’

Ah Li neither affirmed nor refused, but steadied Xie’e on his back. He let his legs dangle under his palms, and he let his arms coil around his neck. Perhaps from natural instinct, Xie’e clenched tight to hold on, and this made Ah Li feel at ease.

Then he turned around to glance at the trio approaching closer and closer. He stood upon the sand for a moment, deep in thought, and a second later the sand beneath him exploded into a shower of grains. His body shot off into the sky and towards the trio, and watching his actions the two gasped.

‘’Your highness!’’

‘’My prince!’’

A cloak of brown appeared all around his legs, then it slithered up to his back and shielded Xie’e from the upcoming. It solidified like a barrier, and it acted like a barrier indeed. The next moment another brown wave of Qi rose like a tide, and it coagulated into a pair of solid greaves. Now two followers let out another series of gasps, yet it was apparent that this was more of relief.

Ah Li retracted his left leg to his stomach, and extended his right leg all the way; he practiced this stance so many times that it became an instinct already. The horse mounting followers, noticing the stance, spurred their mounts and rounded their compatriots, and they faced the large serpent drilling through sand and clouds to chase them.

The old man let out a laugh and grasped the lance from the center, and in a blink the lance started wheezing and revolving. It turned into a half-red and half-black whirlwind, and looking at his expression Ah Li noticed a trace of amusement.

‘’Jiao Xue,’’ He called out. Though he was far and away from him, concentrating his Qi into the shape of an expanding cone boosted his voice and echoed it through the whole area. ‘’Was it Ghuneit or was it the Warlord?’’

‘’What if I say both, little prince?’’ Jiao Xue grinned.

‘’Then-’’ Ah Li showed a grim smile, then whilst floating in the air stepped on the blank space. A brown dyed the sky, and with it came a deafening boom that rumbled the ears of anyone present. For Xie’e inside the half-sphere brown, Ah Li made sure he wasn’t disturbed.

But for the target, he was disturbed indeed. Jiao Xue stopped grinning and narrowed his eyes, and his lance rose into the air whilst spinning.

Ah Li’s body streaked down in response and the brown color started changing; its color became brighter and lighter, and from within the faint outline of a hand could be seen. The blood serpent of Jiao Xue let out a nervous hiss at the image, and the man himself turned warier.

Two followers, however, stopped their charge at the sudden voice in their heads.

‘’Which one of you has strength left?’’

Beri looked at her compatriot, Nehkar, and he looked at her. A glint passed through their gazes and they nodded at each other.

Ah Li’s figure flickered in the air at the same moment, and he disappeared. A deafening explosion gave way to a shadow parting the air itself, and the light-brown brilliance in the sky revealed a humongous hand holding a divine bow. With their rise Ah Li appeared right in front of Jiao Xue; his leg raised, his expression grim, yet with eyes filled with contempt he struck.

‘’Ugh!’’

Dozens of rings of brown Qi shot off from the center of their clash and the blood serpent wailed in pain. Jiao Xue let out a grunt and pushed his lance against Ah Li’s leg, and Ah Li continued putting strength into his right calf to push harder. Clouds of sand rose into air from sheer pressure. The blood serpent coiled down to resist the strike while Jiao Xue let out another grunt: his face twisted with anger at last from the pain.

‘’Nehkar!’’ Ah Li suddenly shouted and kicked with his retracted left leg. Jiao Xue tilted the lance sideways to counter, and taking the rebound from it stretched his arms forward.

Ah Li snorted and shot himself back by kicking the lance again. His feet pushed against the shaft and he flew back, then came above his follower duo.

‘’Yes, my prince!’’ Nehkar let out a vibrant shout and grasped at thin air. From empty space he clutched a pair of glaives: Both with shafts of black metal, yet with heads differing in color; one a deep emerald bordering jade and the other a dark yellow almost gold. Nehkar raised both glaives, upon his humongous and muscular physique bulged out almost all vessels of blood in his body, and with tremendous physical might he swung them both down.

From the glaives’ tips shone radiant brown and shot off in the shape of crescent moons. The blades of Qi cut through the land, left devastated sand dunes in its wake, and appeared right before the blood serpent.

‘’Scram!’’ Jiao Xue shouted and retracted his lance; his hands caressed its surface for a moment, then thrust it with all the force he had. From his lance’s body emerged a blinding scarlet, then burst towards the incoming crescent blades with a booming screech. The serpent, too, accompanied the strike and drilled through the sand to guide Jiao Xue.

Ah Li turned his head away as the strikes met.

He dissipated the cloak around Xie’e and landed next to Beri, who cast him a glance more than shocked.

‘’Take him to the company and treat him well,’’ He said, ‘’Your first priority is to get in contact with Kuhzeit Warlords at Tanbrid. Tell them of the Rebtan as rebels, and move. We will catch up once-’’

‘’My prince, stop babbling and let us go while Nehkar holds him off!’’ Beri said and pushed Xie’e against Ah Li, refusing to take him. ‘’And who is this pilgrim again? Is this the hundredth you saved when you are in times of trouble?’’

‘’Deviless-’’ Ah Li said, ‘’I’ll dismiss you once I catch up, so do not dare complain again,’’ He shoved Xie’e over her hands, and this time she didn’t object. A trace of sorrow appeared in her dark eyes when he spoke of dismissing.

‘’And he is not a pilgrim-’’ Ah Li added and turned around. ‘’He is the one who did the duty that was yours, so do not let him suffer, too.’’

With that, he stomped on the ground and shot off towards Jiao Xue and Nehkar facing off. His figure flickered in the air, beneath his feet the sky morphed into brown, then he blasted through the shockwaves of their strikes to appear right in front of the duo clashing their weapons.

‘’My prince, here!’’ Nehkar blocked the tip of Jiao Xue’s lance with difficulty and hurled the yellow-headed glaive to Ah Li.

‘’Have you gone senile, Prince Ali?’’ Jiao Xue let out a snort and started revolving his lance again, and the serpent beneath him retreated to get in a defensive stance.

Without a word Ah Li clutched the spinning glaive in the air and kicked at the empty sky once more; he drilled through the air from above to swing down.

Nehkar, however, responded in his place with a slash of his own.

‘’You are the senile one, old snake!’’

*********

There and then they exchanged a dozen moves after the initial strike, and with them keeping both the serpent and Jiao Xue, Beri carried Xie’e away from the battlefield to the northeast.

As his eyes glazed over the scales of the serpent and noticed the lack of presence other than the four of them, Ali retreated a safe distance away from the serpent and Jiao Xue. Nehkar, too, moved back with his alert and now they confronted the blood serpent with their gazes alone.

‘’Jiao Xue-’’ Prince Ali said, ‘’Would you mind telling me who convinced those two?’’

‘’Hah!’’ Jiao Xue let out a snort, ‘’No one! They acted on their own, those mad dogs!’’

‘’On their own?’’ Nehkar raised a brow, and his eyes slid to his prince. When he saw another brown surge of Qi rising, he, too, took a step and readied for another attack.

‘’And, little prince,’’ Jiao Xue said, ‘’Telling of Rebtan as a rebel won’t do. They exiled me, hahahaha!’’

‘’Since when?’’

‘’The moment word reaches them, of course,’’ Jiao Xue laughed and laughed, and the serpent beneath him hissed with amusement. The slits on both the man and the beast’s eyes narrowed into thin lines, and the dull yellow of their pupils glowed.

‘’I never used their name when conducting business, after all,’’ And right then the blood serpent coiled down; the Sun gleamed through the scarlet scales and, unbeknownst to their foresight, turned into brilliant rays of blinding light. Ali clenched the shaft of his glaive kicked the ground; his body shot forward at the same time as Nehkar and together they swung their glaives down on Jiao Xue.

‘’My little prince, you should have escaped!’’ Jiao Xue roared in laughter and pointed the tip of his lance at the sky. The serpent beneath him hissed and lowered its body again, and its tail extended dozens of meters behind. There, at the tail’s end, shone a crimson crystalline light and a moment later it pierced through the air towards the lance’s tip.

‘’My prince, that’s poison!’’ Nehkar shouted and slashed through the air to Jiao Xue’s head. Ali, at the same moment, kicked the air and dove down towards the serpent’s fangs almost as long as him.

From their glaives shot off waves of brown Qi, and within them a tinge of gold they turned into crescent moons that descended upon their targets.

Jiao Xue swung down his lance in response. From the lance’s tip extended the serpent’s crimson poison, and it expanded into a huge curtain spanning the upper body of the serpent.

A second later, all strikes met their match.

Jiao Xue’s curtain blocked Ali’s glaive with booms that had no equal until now, and the sand dunes and hills all around them burst into miniscule grains of sand. The sky absorbed the colors of scarlet, brown, and gold all together, then it morphed into a pillar of humongous Qi left in the wake of their strikes. It blinded the eyes of all but Nehkar.

Nehkar, right there and then, came down with his own glaive. What he supposed to be the weakest moment of Jiao Xue, and the moment he decided to strike, turned out to be the most dangerous of the times. The huge blood serpent raised its scaled head and lunged forward towards him, with jaws wide open and fangs gleaming with lust for blood.

Yet Nehkar smiled. His crescent-shaped Qi cut through the tongue of the beast, and it let out a shrill hiss; from the darkness of its throat came pouring out thick, foul-smelling blood, and on the passages they came appeared two gashes.

‘’HISS!’’

The serpent rose, its body heaved up and down as Nehkar retreated with his prince, and on it Jiao Xue clenched his left chest with a trace of red on his cheeks. His breath, too, turned ragged with the serpent’s pained cries.

‘’So you knew-’’

‘’I am a servant of the royal, of course I know!’’ Nehkar slammed his bare-chest with a mischievous grin.

Ali, then, stepped out of the pillar of Qi with his clothes torn to shreds, and his body revealed to the duo.

Compared to the bulging muscles on his legs and the refined belly muscles he had, his arms seemed quite insignificant. And indeed they also looked tiny in comparison, as if he had a physical deformation.

Looking at the naked prince and the grinning Nehkar, Jiao Xue snorted for the uncountable time and slammed the end of his lance on the serpent’s body. Blood serpent wailed, tremors passed through its dulling scales, and at last it shriveled and fell dead on the ground. Jiao Xue stepped off the dead serpent’s head and came in contact with the sand earth- then the serpent disappeared from sight.

All it took was a blink for it to vanish, and the next moment a huge shadow appeared behind Jiao Xue.

Ali cast his eyes to the shadow and took a step back. Nehkar, in reverse, took one forward.

‘’Little prince, I’ll see you again-’’ Jiao Xue said and the shadow behind him solidified: It was another serpent, this time smaller and seemingly with an aura much weaker than before. ‘’-and when I do, it won’t be alone like this.’’

Then the shadow turned corporeal and his eyes froze in shock.

Nehkar trembled and felt tremors passing through the ground, and he looked up at the sky.

Ali was the sole person with no shock; he had a simple, yet grim smile on his lips.

‘’Don’t forget my bow-’’ He said and extended his left arm forward, and put his right hand’s index finger and thumb. As if he carried a bow, he pulled the imaginary bowstring back.

Then the lands rumbled again. At the sky, Nehkar and Jiao Xue looked, the image of the divine bow with the hand could still be seen.

As Ali took a hold of the bow, the hand did the same. As he pulled the string, another hand came and mimicked the movement. And once he set his eyes on Jiao Xue and the serpent, a single eye opened in the sky that gazed down with might.

They all recognized what this spell was, or who that eye belonged to.

‘’Khan!’’ Jiao Xue paled.

‘’Your majesty!’’ Nehkar kowtowed on the ground.

‘’Father-’’ Ali said and, right after muttering let go of the string. There appeared no arrow, nor there was any other sound.

Only, right inside his pupils flickered an aura; seven colored, tiny, and mystifying.

Then Jiao Xue let out a curling scream.

The old man wailed and cried, he grasped the top of his head with both hands and dug with his fingers deep into the skull; he kicked on the ground, fell on his knees, and smashed his head again and again, and yet didn’t stop. He cried tears of blood and from his nose flowed a river of crimson, and he spat his teeth out of his dry lips with bloody saliva.

Ali raised a brow at the prowess of the spell but chose not to comment. Amidst the blood-freezing squeals of help he gazed up at the sky, to the single eye encompassing the whole space above them.

‘’Get back alive and we will discuss-’’ From the eye came a majestic voice.

‘’...yes, father.’’ Ali said, and bowed.

The voice didn’t respond again and instead dissipated into chunks of Qi, and they, too, turned into streams that disappeared into thin air.

Nehkar rose from the ground after a second of silence and gave another bow towards the sky, then kneeled in front of Ali.

‘’My prince, I am glad you are safe.’’

‘’Hm,’’ Ali nodded. ‘’Me too, Nehkar. Rise first, and get that man’s head for me.’’

‘’Yes!’’ Nehkar rose and went forth with his glaive to retrieve the head of screaming Jiao Xue. Ali watched the man cast a glance at Jiao Xue, grin, then behead him with one swift strike. The headless body spasmed and trembled on the ground, from the severed neck blood flooded the ground and at last it stopped moving. Nehkar clasped the head with one hand and ran back to him.

‘’What shall I do with it, my prince?’’

‘’Hang it on your mount of co...oh,’’ Their eyes swept the battleground for the horse but they found none- not even any remains. Amidst the deafening explosions of their strikes, it must have slipped out of their minds. Or it could have escaped, but either way now they had no means of transportation.

‘’Then I shall carry it myself!’’ Nehkar raised the head from the severed neck and it dyed his palm red, yet he seemed content with it.

‘’Do you have a Sun Calculator?’’

‘’Of course-’’ Nehkar said and waved his hand in front of him. Out of thin air appeared a cloth cloaking something, and whatever it had in was about to tear the fabric apart to get out.

Ali took it and pulled the thin bond at its top to unravel it. In his hand, now, laid two medallion-like metal circles. The one at the bottom he recognized: it was a Sun Calculator, with four iron-made rods separating the image of a sun into four pieces. They showed the hours of the day, and it seemed like they were at the fourth hour of the third division; there was only an hour or two before the night came down.

Apart from the hour, though, it also showed the cardinal directions: there was a small grey stone placed in the center of the circle that glowed when injected with Qi. Ali did so, and right after a second a thin line escaped from the grey rock. The line grew with his Qi and morphed into the shape of arrows that pointed at four different sides. On each side were words written in the old language: Up was used for both Up and to point north, Dovn was used for down and south, Arta was used for either behind or east, and Maet was used for front and west.

Ali raised the Sun Calculator and extended his arms to the front. The arrows moved with his action and tilted slightly, and with it he nodded. It worked fine.

Now he rotated to stand between Up and Arta, and with their direction now clear and with no worries he looked at the second object.

‘’Nehkar, can you explain?’’

‘’This medallion was used to track you, my prince,’’ Nehkar said, ‘’They took it from one of the Warlords it seems, as it could detect your Chief robe.’’

‘’My robe!?’’ Ali glared. ‘’Why did I not ask you before, my unlucky ancestors! Do you know how many were chasing us?’’

‘’It seemed like three squads: One we got rid of when we ambushed the blood serpent, and the company took care of another one when they were on the road. But the third one we can’t find. We have been trying to bait them out but there is no response,’’ Nehkar sighed.

‘’If we had their life tokens, it would be much easier.’’

Ali gazed at Nehkar for a moment, then sighed as well.

‘’Then let us be on alert for them- after all, it is my benefactor who wears it in my stead. If something happens to him, it would hurt my prestige, no?’’

Nehkar froze, his eyes dulled, and then his skin turned bright red. Ali passed him his glaive at that time, and Nehkar subconsciously grasped it with his other hand.

‘’Imperial family’s dignity must be protected! My prince, I will carry you on my shoulders till we find your benefactor! Let me- let us depart immediately!’’ He shouted and two glaives disappeared from his right hand. Then he put Jiao Xue’s hair in his mouth and bit on it to hold, making it sway back and forth.

With it being done he kneeled, and breathing now rough he gazed down.

Ali coughed twice and stepped on the kneeling Nehkar’s back, then put his legs over his shoulders. Nehkar held him from his thighs and stomped on the ground to start running.

In a second he picked up speed and a few seconds later they started raising humongous clouds of sand. Ali enjoyed the feeling for a moment, then looked down at the two medallions.

‘’Wait, Nehkar stop! You are going the wrong way!’’

*********

It was no longer than fifty or fifty-five minutes since they departed from battlefield. The sun floated down and its rays turned red, it let out the last bits of its light before it would set and disappear down the horizon. It was amidst those that Ali and Nehkar saw a woman riding towards them. She rode a silver-maned brown horse with an exquisite saddle, and actually held the reins of another pair of horses; their manes black, and their saddles, too, donned with jewelry, they followed behind her.

The woman wore a green robe that had stitches around her breasts, and looped around these stitches were strings connected to a cloak hiding her body and half of her hair. For most members of the military, it was a requirement to wear one, save one, and craft one for themselves. Though it seemed Nehkar and Beri had lost theirs, and now Beri came with one of her own.

The woman was Beri, of course, and two horses she brought were belonging to them. Only, Ali frowned, there was no trace of Xie’e.

A few seconds passed and they came before each other with sand rising against their faces. Ali stepped off Nehkar’s back and Beri threw the reins in her hand to jump off.

‘’Ours, I presume?’’ Ali glanced at the two horses. They were two heads bigger than him, and the power he felt from them indicated a breed not so easy to find. Did they steal it from Shagang’s Judge or was it a gift?

‘’It is, my prince,’’ Beri said, ‘’and with their speed it won’t take longer than half-an-hour to get to the company- and the pilgrim there, too.’’

‘’Why the haste, Beri?’’ Nehkar said through his teeth- they still clamped on the blood serpent's hair. ‘’You could have waited with them, and my prince would have kept his promise the same.’’

‘’Let her have some privacy,’’ Ali said, waving his hand. ‘’I said I’ll dismiss, so give me your Citizen Talisman.’’

A smile lit up her face and Beri waved her hand. On her ring finger lit up a piece of stone, strapped to the center of a golden ring, and from within flickered a faint shadow. A moment later the shadow turned corporeal and revealed itself to be, as its name suggested, not a talisman paper, but a bulky metal; Circular and quite weighty, on its front it had the image of a wooden bow and at its back the head of a horse.

Ali took ahold of it from her palm and bit off the tip of his left thumb. A small piece of flesh came off, drops of blood dripped from its tip, and without stop Ali drew a straight line upon the two sides of the citizen talisman.

His blood had, as it was of the imperial, the ability to sever a person’s affiliation with Shamo. It would destroy the records of their birth, their homeland, their families, their past professions, their crimes, or even accomplishments that were notable. All left would be a blank piece of metal: and that was the sign of exiled ones.

Soon his blood on the talisman shone crimson and absorbed the images; they turned into a liquid and rushed up to his blood, then disappeared. With nothing else left in its wake but his fingerprints, Ali put it back on Beri’s palm and closed her hand around it.

‘’Do what you wish with it,’’ He said, ‘’But if it comes down to nothing...you know what to do. Go find your brother.’’

‘’Thank you, my prince,’’ Beri lowered her head and nodded. ‘’I’ll visit with him, if it is possible.’’

‘’I hope so.’’

Ali then took a step back and caressed the head of the silver-maned horse. It neighed and heaved its head up and down, then it calmed down and pushed his hand away.

‘’My prince, these...’’ As they were about to bid their farewells, Beri snapped her fingers and her ring flashed again. This time a pair of rings, similar to her own, came on her rough palms. ‘’The judge had them collected from the guards when we were imprisoned-’’

‘’Nehkar can tell you the whole story,’’ She ceased her speech and winked at Nehkar. For a moment, Ali thought that instance of heaviness around them relaxed. ‘’But well, these are yours. I almost forgot and took them with me.’’

‘’It wouldn’t be a big deal,’’ Nehkar laughed and scratched his bare chest. ‘’Are you sure you won’t take mine?’’

‘’Then I won’t be-’’

‘’I was kidding! My mother’s potteries are there!’’

Ali showed an amused smile, and his brows loosened after hours of worrisome events.

‘’Thank you, Beri,’’ He said.

‘’It is- it was my pleasure, my prince.’’ There she handed them two rings, with Nehkar clutching his own with the look of a mother protecting her children, and mounted her horse. The horse neighed and stomped with its hooves to raise some sand, and it cast a glance to Ali that he presumed to be some kind of promise. He nodded, and gazed as Beri showed them a final smile before departing towards southwest; to Shaowei border.

Nehkar let out a sigh after she went beyond the horizon and turned away from the scarlet Sun. He, alone, was enough to protect Ali from the Sun’s sweeping lights.

‘’My prince, shall we depart?’’

Ali swept the horizon with his eyes one last time and nodded.

‘’Let us return to our people.’’

*********

As per Beri said, their journey lasted no more than thirty minutes on the fine horses she brought. They galloped and neighed, and once the sun almost set they saw a rising tongue of flame a few hundred meters in their front; placed at the center of a camp of tents, and surrounded by two sand dunes squeezing them, a gathering of thirty or forty men and women came to their sight.

‘’Is it not the week of waning crescent? Why are they settled this quick?’’

‘’My prince,’’ Nehkar said whilst releasing the horse’s reins, ‘’You might not be aware of the time- it is new moon tonight, and two days thereafter as well.’’

‘’Then comes the Merciful Crescent,’’ Ali nodded, ‘’We have around three months to march from Ghuneit to Bashkend,’’

‘’March?’’

‘’I need treatment,’’ Ali said.

‘’...I dare not overstep my rank’s boundary, my prince, but...was it the royal spell?’’

‘’It wasn’t complete-’’ Ali straightened his back and they both slowed the horses. The soldiers around the camp had noticed them long ago, and now a dozen of them lined up at the supposed entrance to it.

‘’-and it is a soul spell, so it had quite the toll on myself as well.’’

‘’So we need to get to High Judge...’’

‘’No need to worry,’’ Ali waved his hands and their mounts came to a halt in front of the spikes entrenched around the camp.

‘’We welcome the Third Imperial Prince!’’ The soldiers, seven of them woman and six of them men, half-kneeled in front of Ali and put their hands on their left chests. It was a piece of old military etiquette; its meaning akin to serving the royal and holding the people at heart whilst on duty. Who invented it, no one knew, but it lasted till this day fine in action.

‘’Rise-’’ Ali gave his first command in a while and got off his mount with Nehkar. With his words they rose, and among them one man and one woman stepped forward to take their mounts. They grasped the leashes, bowed to him, then walked off to the back of the camp where the flame rose.

‘’My prince,’’ a man with tied up dark hair rose, and he caressed the thin mustache above his lips as he spoke. ‘’We tried to contact Warlord Irohan and Warlord Purehan of the Batıh, and Warlord Balkash of the Bashkend. We can’t reach them with our talismans; either they are tempered, blocked, or...my tongue won’t extend to the last possibility.’’ There he bowed and took another step back.

‘’It is worrisome,’’ Ali said, ‘’but not too troublesome. Thank you, Kazad, let the men return their duty, and-’’ Here he grasped Kazad from shoulder and gazed deep into his eyes.

‘’Where is that benefactor of mine?’’

*********

‘’I say-’’ Xie’e glared at the two soldiers in front of him. ‘’I am not from any damned tribe!’’

‘’And where you are from, then?’’ These two soldiers, unlike their compatriots, wore armor reinforced with steel plates over soft tunics, rather than normal scale armors, and green steel gauntlet rather than leather gloves . Hence, each time they moved or snapped their fingers, they made an annoying clink or clang, or tick and tock. These sounds aggravated wounded Xie’e more, more than the fact that he was strapped to a column of the tent with nothing soft to sit on but hot sand.

‘’You have no Qi yet such strong body and soul, you have no knowledge of the world outside and travel the desert, and while looking like us you don’t bear our curse; you know of old tongue, you recognize our armor, and by accident found our prince near the territories of Thirteen Tribes?’’

‘’Look, boy,’’ The bulky built man at the left raised his right index finger and started digging around his nose. ‘’It is enough if you admit to being from the Divination Tribes, at least then we will know how to explain things to your Elder Gurus.’’

‘’And do you not fear your own elders? What will they do to you once they come?’’

‘’I am saying this for the fifth- no sixth time!’’ Xie’e kicked the ground and growled for a moment. ‘’I.AM.NOT.FROM.ANY.DAMNED.FUCKING.CURSED.TRIBE!’’

‘’...’’

‘’...You said you once met with one of those divinators, right?’’ The soldier at the right turned to his friend. ‘’Are they always this bratty?’’

‘’...’’

‘’What?’’

‘’...well, they were, but now I remember something.’’ The soldier at the left threw off the gathered mucus on his finger and kneeled in front of him, his hands drooping forward.

‘’Perhaps, were you from Tianhui tribe?’’

Xie’e stopped shaking and glaring, and his momentary freeze gave the kneeling man the glimpse of something he seemed to be thinking of as the truth.

‘’...Fourteenth tribe?’’ The other soldier raised a brow, and his expression also changed to a wry smile.

The kneeling soldier rose and turned around, and grasped the arm of his fellow soldier to take him out with him.

‘’Well, boy, sorry for your loss, but don’t endanger us with your revenge,’’ He said and cast one more glance before shoving his friend out.

‘’You can tear those off anytime you want-’’

There he spoke something, yet he couldn’t hear what he said, but he disappeared beyond the flapping entrance of the tent before he could ask. Xie’e looked after those two for a while.

‘’Is it...father’s home?’’

In silence he sat and thought, and his complexion changed with each thought coming one after another.

Then, perhaps after a few more minutes, he heard the entrance faintly whip in the air again, and he saw a bronze, brown-eyed figure that was quite familiar these days.

‘’...is this how you treat your benefactor, Ah Li?’’

‘’...’’

*********

An hour or so later, Xie’e found himself sitting alongside the whispering and giggling soldiers. They sat next to the huge campfire at the back of the camp, the fire contained by stones and flared by woods rose towards the air whilst roaring. His eyes cast themselves to the sky for a moment, and he saw none of that creepy crescent moon looking down; and he saw no moon as well.

Instead he glanced and watched the men and women encircle the fire with bowls of wood in their hands, and an orange-ish soup in their bowls that they chugged down with no spoon. They gave one to him, too, and he caught a whiff of a sweet meat, akin to venison. But no doubt they couldn’t find deer, or any of that kind of animals in the desert. Then where did it come from?

For a moment he considered asking, then he forgone it. It was better without knowing; not like he would feel worse by learning it was from a freakish monster, but it would be unpleasant to consume further of it.

So he took the filled bowl from the smiling woman and took a small sip. It dyed his lips with an oily orange, and it tasted like liquified deer leg. Now he became more curious about the ingredients, but he held back the urge and drank more.

‘’Slow, benefactor,’’ Ali said beside him, ‘’You’ll burn your throat.’’

‘’Mm,’’ Xie’e nodded and lowered the bowl. He had consumed half of it with one, though at first intended to be, a sip.

‘’Good?’’ The man who wore nothing even in the cold desert night, Nehkar, asked, sitting at Ali’s left.

Xie’e raised his head again and looked at him, confused. ‘’Sorry, did you say something?’’

‘’Is it good, I asked. It must taste better since you two ate nothing for a few days.’’ Nehkar spoke again, and now his voice seemed on the normal strata.

‘’I was fine,’’ Xie’e said. ‘’It is water that makes a problem, else I can preserve without food for some time.’’

‘’But does it taste good?’’ He asked again.

‘’...yes, it is delicious.’’

‘’It is made of horse meat- those that you asked us before, you remember them?’’

Xie’e thought of it for a second. Other than the horses of the company of thirty-three men and women, and a few more that were of those deceased, the group also carried a plethora of fat horses and mules. They used those to transport rations and everyday supplies, and some of them they said were for special purposes.

It turned out, making meals out of them was one of them.

‘’I do. Is this from them?’’

‘’It is,’’ Nehkar said. ‘’And the milk those guys are serving-’’ Here he pointed at three men filling cone-shaped cups with creamy white milk. ‘’It is also from them. It is quite tasty, too.’’

‘’I’ll try, then,’’ Xie’e nodded again, and he turned back to look at the flame. It rose and rose, then it fell with a cackle and flashed forth again. Though it faltered amidst all these voices sounding and muttering, with these faint outbursts the flame alerted them of its existence.

‘’Benefactor,’’ Ali said and tapped his shoulder, ‘’Would you like to move closer?’’

It came as a surprise to Xie’e, and he wondered why there would be any need for it, but he noticed something peculiar in Ali’s gaze. So he nodded, and they both stood up, chugged the last bits of the horse-meat soup, and walked away from their cushions closer to the campfire.

As they went further from the soldiers and closer to the flame, Nehkar behind them sighed and waved his hand towards them. His Qi moved, it shot up to the sky, and turned into a half-sphere around them. It would block any sound coming from outside, and wouldn’t leak any from inside.

It was, in the eyes of the soldiers, a message to not disturb the two. So they returned to their conversations, and Nehkar did the same, but a portion of their attention stood glued to the duo standing by the side of the flames.

*********

‘’There was something I had to ask,’’ Ali said and stared at him.

The fire blazed in front of them with a revolting warmth, and their backs felt quite cold from the everlasting gusts of cold wind. Nehkar’s barrier cut off all sound from outside, so all that remained was their breathing, the wind, and the roaring blaze in their front. Between two extremes of fire and cold, and silence and deafening loudness, Xie’e felt a familiar complexity that he had in his home; when he sat in front of the fireplace with his grandmother and the foxes at winter, meditating, and sometimes playing with the little children, and then visiting Haoren with clothes he made from the skins of the deers and boars of the forest. It all blinked like a star in his heart, then vanished.

He had, in these past few days, never once thought about Zi family and the followers of the raven, spare the momentary awakening he had when fighting the Rebtan tribe’s members. Even his grandmother, he never thought.

All he had in his mind was his father.

And now that it all ambushed him at this single instance, and made him shake and turn solemn, he also felt what Ali was about to ask to be something precarious. So he paid utmost attention and import-

‘’Are you really not from those tribes?’’

‘’...Ah Li,’’

‘’It is Ali,’’

‘’Ah Li, Ali, aren’t they the same? And no,’’ Xie’e exhaled through his nose, distracted, and spoke again. ‘’Why do you still insist on asking the same thing?’’

‘’Because I heard a specific speculation from one of my men.’’ Ali crossed his arms and took a step back from the flame, then stared right at him.

‘’I’ll confess...I saw your tattoo that night, at the pit,’’ Xie’e raised a brow. ‘’And...do I need to mention your problem with killing people?’’

‘’What does it have with my family?’’

‘’Tianhui were more of pacifists, or middle-man among the fourteen tribe in the past. Why? Didn't they teach you so?’’

‘’They are my own...or not.’’ Here Xie’e thought of his reservation for the first time they met, how he decided to not reveal much to him, then ended up showcasing all he had in the span of two days. Background wise, still, they knew nothing; but the case was, he, too, knew nothing about it. His father was born in Shamo, and his mother was a supposed forsaken, a light damned forsaken. His grandmother? He didn’t even know what manner of a being she was.

With how much he lacked knowledge about them, and correlated with that about himself, would it be too bad of an idea to ask them himself?

Had he not fought alongside, then against this man just some hours ago, and from what it seemed gained some kind of trust, and gratitude, from him. And he too saw Ali in a favorable light, for he didn’t, even if it was to pay back his debt, leave him to his own fate.

Why was the hesitation, then?

‘’I...’’

‘’Is it something uncomfortable to talk about?’’ Ali wore a grim frown on his face, and it wasn’t directed at him, Xie’e felt. More like something related to him, or the matter they spoke at the moment.

‘’It is, but...haaah!’’ He muttered and looked down at his feet, then let out a small shout of anger.

He was here, in the middle of some place where he knew nothing else but his father belonging here; he had the little child Erhuli waiting for him in a cave god knows where, in a deep slumber that he also didn’t know when would end; and he was in a family so complex and frustrating he couldn’t even estimate whether they were family or not. Then came the new influx of small revelation about his father’s tribe, and it made him conscious of the constant efforts of his grandmother that she succeeded at sending him away out of the forest, the plans The Raven had on him that might still be in effect, and...what?

And what?

Was there anything else that he forgot about himself, or was there not?

All the complexities these thoughts brought to his heart made him sleazy, and his heart heavy. For a moment he agreed with his father on his traits; he was weak-willed and easy to mislead: was he not played in those two old things’ hands? Even the delicate moment he shared with his father, the one he always longed in his heart, was it not, too, a part of what they sought and wished to do?

Xie’e bit his lip, then released his grip after the small ache assaulted his nerves.

And he was mistrusting, too...

‘’It is all confusing, frustrating,’’ He spoke after a lengthy silence for him. To Ali it might be a second, or a dozen seconds,. He didn’t know which.

‘’The history?’’

‘’Our history,’’ Xie’e said, ‘’My family’s, and my own. Everyone is...distant isn’t the right word, but-’’ He tried speaking what he felt, but even then his feelings weren’t that clear to him as well.

‘’Benefactor,’’ Ali said and reached for his right shoulder and swayed him back and forth; his body, yet, didn’t even move. ‘’Think of it a little, speak after that. If what you want to say isn’t possible to deliver in speech, then so be it.’’

Xie’e cast him a downtrodden look, yet he saw none of the grim expression Ali had a moment ago. There instead was a bright smile, with lips parted to show fresh silvered teeth, and glinting eyes with an intent he was quite familiar with.

He saw the same gaze in Boris when he first came to the sect.

He saw the same gaze in Quan when he turned out to be one of his long-lasting students.

He saw the same gaze in Gaobun after their experiences in Yadratafos, and in the last days of the sect.

And he saw the same gaze in his father, whose memories he so obsessively treasured that anything related to him got his attention straight away.

But what kind of a gaze was this? Why would their eyes twinkle, and they would smile? Why did it give such a comforting feeling of safety and trust? Why did it convey him You will be safe, I will solve whatever problem you have in such a direct way?

His heart, for better or worse, lightened for a moment; it was the familiar things that gave the men comfort, and he, too, felt it. But there had to be a logic behind that, else, would it really be familiar?

What was the logic behind his gaze, then?

Was Xie’e a benefactor here, or was he the victim now? Once he thought of it, Xie’e realized, he seemed more and more like on the receiving end. So he showed a wry smile and spoke.

‘’Should I call you benefactor now?’’ Xie’e asked, and Ali’s smile froze. He retracted his arm, then his neck, and cast a glance that showed how frivolous his question seemed to be.

But then he laughed, he roared in laughter.

‘’Ahahahahaha! Ahahaha!’’ He laughed and laughed, took a breath in between to rest, then once he looked at Xie’e’s dumbfounded innocence he laughed again.

‘’Benefactor,’’ Ali said after collecting his cool. ‘’I still owe you; both as Ali Shamo, and Third Prince Ali Shamo. Even if you consider one of them paid, there is one more debt I have to pay to you.’’

‘’And I don’t like being called benefactor- it gives me ire.’’

‘’Benefactor, don’t be like that,’’ Xie’e said and started smiling. ‘’We both saved each others lives, right? And yours should be twice, too. One from those group, and the other from that supposed man with a serpent.’’

‘’Call me benefactor one more time and I’ll throw you into this fire,’’ Ali tilted his head left to the fire and glared, then they both ended up smiling again.

‘’But still,’’

‘’Even then,’’

They spoke at the same time, and were taken aback. Then they both gestured each other to speak at the same time, and suddenly bowed to each other.

‘’Thank you.’’

‘’Thank you.’’

There came a silence between them, and the roaring fire at their side silenced with a puff. Faint crackling of it stirred both of their hearts, and from the still shadows it cast onto their feet both of them saw the other in a bow.

Since the other wouldn’t rise, so would he, they thought, and in front of the company’s gazes they hold their bow for a good minute. Then from the crowd Nehkar could no longer hold himself and jumped into the fray, holding them up and telling them to cut the spectacle.

‘’That is embarrassing for both of you, grown men so persistent on small things.’’ Though, the small things were their lives, and if asked in private by any soldier Nehkar would confess that his prince’s life was naturally worth a ten thousand of Xie’e’s life. But blatant disrespect towards the savior of that one life wasn’t something his pride would allow; Imperial dignity wasn’t all about upholding the royalty, after all, though it existed around it for the large part.

But it indeed was quite face burning for Xie’e, for he realized that he made the prince of all these soldiers bow to himself. Ali, on the other hand, seemed calmer and relaxed. And the peculiar gaze he had at the beginning was long gone, replaced by serenity.

For himself, Xie’e couldn’t speak that well. But at least, he was feeling better now. Being better than before was the important thing, so the rest didn’t matter.

‘’Now go, since you interrupted us, we have things to talk about.’’ Ali said and shooed Nehkar away from the barrier again. Then actually replaced the barrier with one of his own, and Nehkar retracted his Qi with a faint trace of reluctance.

‘’Benefactor, what shall you do from here?’’ The question cam both as abrupt and as natural, but it coming right after his embarrassing act baffled him a bit. He stood silent for a moment, and looked at Ali.

The smile of his had disappeared, and there was that intent still, but more than that he noticed a...unwillingness. Was it the possibility of seperation, or staying together?

Xie’e, then, took on a more serious expression and started speaking.

‘’I want to look for my master.’’

*********

The next morning Xie’e woke up with a tiresome ache on his back. He rose from the bedding and threw the blanket off to a side, where it happened to fall on a soldier’s wide open mouth. For a moment or two he felt dizzy; setting the pain a side, he seemed to have problems about sleeping and hearing as well.

To get rid of his weariness he looked around at the tent; there were two weapon racks set aside near the yellow veil leading outside, and on those racks stood multitudes of white and yellow robes, glaives, and bows; their quivers hung beside them with filled arrows, and the nocks of the arrows had the same type of scales as those Rebtan people had. They were among the things he asked about yesterday: about how they could set pillars on sand and pitch their tents on it, about how they fed the horses and what they fed with, about why the mules slept with them in the tents- one was snoring to his left, crushing a pair of man and woman under its belly- and a myriad of other things, but it seemed he had no recollection of the answers.

He shook his head, tried stretching his back, then grunted in pain before stopping. He should have taken the offer of massage from that old soldier.

As his thoughts turned clearer and his mind awoke, Xie’e looked towards outside. From the trickles of light seeping inside, and the glowing surface of the tent, he presumed it was already the daytime; that would explain the unbearable hot he felt right now. He climbed out of the bedding, careful of not stepping on any of the soldier’s feet or stomachs or heads, and tiptoed towards the exit. He parted the veil and sneaked out.

Then he came back inside, and snatched one of the robes to put over his naked upper-body. He wore it quick, strapped the leather belt around his waist and tightened the tied-up cloak around his neck. Though sand seeped in and stuck to some extent already, but it didn’t matter.

This time he stepped out for real and looked around. To the entrance of the camp, past the sole tent at their left, he saw a pair of soldiers standing upright with glaives in their hands. Over their white tunics, of which he recognized, they had steel-plated armors and actually shields propped on the spikes surrounding the camp. There were only two men dressed like that in the camp, so he recognized them, though the shields intrigued him. Was it theirs or another watchmen’s?

There he turned around and cast his sights to the right. At the end of the camp, further from the last five tents, was the snuffed out campfire and the ashes of the woods; the stones around it had turned half-black, and it just came to him now about how they found that much of them in the desert.

It seemed these people, too, needed some rest, and so other than the watchmen at the entrance and at the end of the camp, no one was out of sight. But looking at the sky, to the Sun climbing up to the center, it didn’t seem that early. Where was the military discipline they talked about yesterday? That, too, he didn’t answer and, since there was no one to talk, he walked off towards the duo at the camp’s entrance.

As Xie’e came near, one of them cast a slight glance to his back and noticed his arrival. He tilted around, smiled, and put his hand over his left chest. The other also turned at the same time and greeted him the same; it seemed, cusping fists or bowing were not in the Shamo’s social tradition.

So he responded the same and tilted his head down a bit.

‘’Why the head motion?’’ The one at the left, fond of scratching the insides of his nose asked.

‘’Just habits- no worries.’’ Xie’e said and took a step forward. Now he stood the same place as them, in their middle, and together they looked at the distant horizon and tasted the dry wind of the desert. There in their front rose and fell dunes and hills of sand, and every once in a while, like at that moment, they could see flying beasts assessing them on whether they could be prey or not. Eagles, he thought that he recognized, but they were not the same; these he saw here had longer necks and fatter bellies.

‘’Say, benefactor,’’ The man at his right said, and once he craned his head to look Xie'e saw the man stood a head shorter than him. ‘’Was your ears always this bad?’’

‘’Please don’t call me benefactor-’’ He said, ‘’And no, a little bit...of an accident happened.’’

‘’Is it permanent?’’ The left one asked. And he was one head taller than him, so they looked like a flight of stairs descending down from the left.

‘’I hope not-’’ It would indeed be annoying to live with hearing problems. ‘’I don’t want to force a conversation to be a shouting contest.’’

‘’Pity we lost the shaman to those dirty bloods,’’ left one said, scratching his nose again. ‘’Else he might have taken care of it.’’

‘’Pity indeed,’’ Xie’e nodded. ‘’But Ah Li said there were many towns before our road- it shouldn’t be that hard to find a physician.’’

‘’...a what?’’

‘’Physician, doctor, medicine man. Do you call them just shamans?’’

‘’Ooh, benefactor means physician!’’ The one at the right said, snickering.

‘’What?’’ Xie’e looked at his disheveled hair- no, at him, confused.

‘’Your accent- it is quite different from ours, benefactor. Well, each tribe has its own language and jargon, but yours is quite a...how do I say it?’’

‘’Slippery-’’ The one at the left said and threw the gathered ball of mucus aside. ‘’Or too soft?’’

‘’I didn’t realize the difference,’’ Xie’e said. ‘’Your speeches sounds the same as those of the central continent.’’

‘’You mean those food and drug merchants? They visit Shamo quite a lot, so its normal for them to speak it the same.’’

‘’Well...’’ Xie’e thought of correcting the right soldier for a moment, then decided not to. They seemed to be in a good mood for once, and he hadn’t even talked much about his background with Ali yet. It didn’t seem appropriate to discuss it with them when he referred to duo as the left and the right soldier. ‘’Understandable.’’

‘’Say, benefactor,’’ The left- the man said. ‘’It might be a bit insensitive, but how was the life in the tribe?’’

‘’It is insensitive, Thleaft,’’ The right sai- wait, his name was the left!?

‘’But I wonder- all we heard were like horror stories your sister talked about.’’

‘’Pardon me for my words, benefactor,’’ The right said, ‘’But what if its the same and he doesn’t want to talk about it?’’ This he told to Thleaft.

‘’I’m sure you just don’t want to hear it since your sister isn’t here. There is no one the little Theraght can cry, yes?’’

‘’Benefactor, can you watch the horizon for a moment?’’ Theraght said, and tried to pull his sleeves back to lunge at Thleaft, but Xie’e didn’t even move a muscle. Instead he looked at Thraght, then to Thleaft, and alternated between for a solid minute.

An awkward and horrible silence descended between the trio, and Thleaft’s face paled and brightened with red each passing second. Thraght, however, seemed quite haughty, as he might have thought he won the argument. Yet he more looked like an imp, and Thleaft looked like a wronged giant.

At last Xie’e stopped and cast one last glance to his feet. Then he stared at the sky and sighed.

‘’This is fucking ridiculous...’’