With a mighty crack, an ash caked skull spun off over the horizon, teeth flying in every direction. Zheng Nan squinted into the distance, racing the fading arc, his staff still held outstretched. All around the soldiers of the Gu clan remained in formation, a bristling hedge of spears surrounding her carriage and the horses. Ash and sand clung to blades and armor, leaving as the only sounds the eternal wind and twitch of broken bones too splintered to attack.

Zheng Nan lowered his staff and scratched at his ear. “Bit boring wasn’t it?”

Gu Xiulan cocked an eyebrow, gently blowing the smoke and sparks from her still crackling fingertips. She stood atop the carriage, pale orange flames still licking at the contours of her dress. “We are on the road. I told you it would only be pests along the road.”

“I thought you were just tryin to sound tough,” Zheng Nan complained, resting his staff over his shoulder.

“The Lady was not,” Captain Yun said dryly. His golden spear spun, gleaming in the sun and vanished back into storage. “Honored guest, please step aside that we might purify these.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zheng Nan said, moving away from the piles of broken bones and ashen flesh as the soldiers began to take the purifying salts from the saddlebags. “How’d you lot keep this road clear anyway? Haven’t spotted a single wardstone.”

“Oh the road itself is the ward,” Gu Xiulan said dismissively, daintily seating herself on the side of the carriage’s roof. It was good to be out in the open air for a time. “I don’t understand quite how it works, but it follows and connects certain nodes in the formations network that covers the land.”

“Eh? So that’s why it swoops so far out the way, thought that was weird,” Zheng Nan said, squinting at the rolling dunes on the horizon. “What'd you mean by nodes?”

“I thought your sense of direction was terrible,” Gu Xiulan replied, resting her chin on her hand.

“Nah, I just choose to take more fun routes,” Zheng Nan said with a grin. “And you didn’t answer me.

“I know,” Gu Xiulan smirked. “You will just have to see.”

“A surprise huh? Well-” his head suddenly snapped to the side, looking out onto the road. “Someone is coming.”

Gu Xiulan glanced up, worried, and saw Captain Yun do the same, only to relax a moment later as she extended her senses, and made out the dots on the horizon for what they were.

“It is only roadwardens,” Gu Xiulan dismissed, waving a hand.

In the brief moments where they spoke, the tiny dots on the horizon became larger, resolving into two riders. One was a man in polished dark green armor, with a face covering helm and a spear held over his shoulder. He stood on the back of a tremendous brown shelled scorpion, whose eight legs churned the sand beside the road into a plume of dust. Wider than three horses standing side by side, with a tail that arced some six meters into the air, it was an imposing sight.

On the other side of the road, the second figure stood in a wide stance atop a disk of pale white stone, its bottom marked by clusters of seemingly organic blue crystal that flashed and sparked with lightning as it flew, hovering some two or three meters off the ground. The rider wore dark brown obscuring robes, including a headdress and veil that left only a slight sliver of flesh around the eyes exposed.

Gu Xiulan hopped down from the top of the carriage, moving up beside Captain Yun to greet them as Zheng Nan hung back looking curious.

It took only a minute or two for the pair to reach their location, and being the Lady of their group, Gu Xiulan naturally stepped forward, offering a sweeping bow. “My Lord Guo, my Lord Deng, you do us great honor in keeping the roads clear and safe.”

Patrolling the great roads was a duty shared between the Dukes of the province, the Guo, and the three great count or marquis clans. The Han, the Fan, and the Deng. Always in pairs, and never a pair from the same clan. It fostered unity among those who ruled the wastes. Or so it was said anyway.

“You are too kind, Lady Gu,” said the first rider, his mount coming to a stop a polite distance away. He held his spear easily over his shoulder as he shook his head, sending the signature long braid of the Guo clan swaying behind him. “It seems you’ve done our duty for us!”

The other, the warrior of the Deng clan, was silent, but a gesture swept the dust and sand that billowed in their wake away, stopping it from engulfing the group at a stop.

“Only small pests,” Gu Xiulan said, with just the right mix of humbleness and pride

“The road has been very clear, my lords,” Captain Yun said gruffly, bowing lower than her. “This small event has been the only trouble since reaching the provincial border.”

“You’re too kind, it's been a light season,” the young Guo said. “Might I ask your business, Lady Gu?”

“Returning home due to circumstances in the south,” Gu Xiulan said politely straightening up. “I am Gu Xiulan, late of the Argent Peak Sect.”

“Ah the little war with the cloud barbarians,” he said. “The Gu can hardly afford to risk both of their young geniuses, even in a small way.”

Gu Xiulan felt her smile grow a little brittle behind her veil. The feeling of receiving such praise was still… strangely mixed. “Now you are too kind, Sir…”

“Guo Sho,” he replied. “But I see you have a guest as well.”

“Don’t mind me, just a messenger,” Zheng Nan said from behind them. “I might have a bone to pick with you though, keepin all the good fights for yourself!”

“Most travelers are not of such hardy blood as you, Young Lord of Zheng,” Guo Sho laughed. “I am not going to apologize for doing my duty and keeping them safe.”

“Fair enough!” Zheng Nan laughed. His smile was wide and bared many teeth as he sized up the scion of the Dukes of Golden Fields. Gu Xiulan restrained a sigh.

“Well, let us not keep you,” Guo Sho dismissed, his mount skittering in a wide circle to turn around. “Since you have eliminated our targets, let us at least escort you to the oasis, Lady Gu. I would love to hear a tale or two about the endless forests and hills.”

Gu Xiulan bowed again, just a little. “It would be my honor, Sir Guo.”

She wouldn’t mind a bit more refined conversation.

“And I bet he’s very handsome too,” Linhuo, agreed sagely. “His flames are nice.”

Gu Xiulan shushed the spirit, honestly she had thought she’d taught her not to be so blatant. Her tribulation had changed them both.

Mounting the steps to her carriage, Xiulan returned to the cool interior as Guo Sho waved to his partner, the Deng Man, whose flying disc turned swiftly with no motion from its rider. Outside the soldiers and Captain Yun were mounting up and Zheng Nan stood there with an oddly pensive look on his face.

The purified remains of the small ashwalker band, smoking under the purifying salts, scattered into dust under the hooves of the soldiers and the wheels of the carriage. The rest of the journey was not long in its conclusion, Captain Yun’s planning had put their arrival at the first hour of dusk, and the old captain knew his business. They arrived on the ridge overlooking the oasis as the sun first began to touch the horizon.

In the valley below, a great lake of pure glittering waters spread out, stretching many hundreds of meters in every direction. A riot of greenery surrounded it, divided into neat squares and rectangles by paths of white marble that expanded out in a fractal web. The bottom of the lake gleamed with tiles of jade and marble and more precious stones still, marking its artificial nature.

They had reached the Blooming Life Oasis, one of the many powerful constructs that made the Golden Fields livable at all.