“Is this part of a devious plot?”
“...a devious plot?”
“A devious plot to get into the good graces of our captor while trying to save the world by seducing her?”
“Do you really think I am capable of such things?”
“I didn’t believe you would instead be trying to get into the pants of the monster of a woman who was going to keep me forever imprisoned in a nightmare existence, but that kiss looked quite serious Omid.”
Gloved hands dug into the reins of his camel as Omid grit his teeth, his own name stinging like a salted wound. He inhaled slowly as he steadied his nerves to try and salvage this mess. “This is not part of some ‘devious plot’...it just…happened-”
“So she seduced you?” The incredulity was still thick in every one of Taljir’s words as his green eyes stared down the young mage.
“There was none of that!” Omid’s response was a bit too quick and defensive, forcing him to take a breath before he continued. “I told you, it just happened. I was traveling with her and trying to avoid some horrible fate by being as cautious and affable as possible. And you know how it goes-”
“I do not know how sleeping with the enemy goes.”
“SHE’S NOT THE ENEMY!” Omid shouted through grit teeth before breaking eye contact, looking away and composing himself before continuing to a glaring Taljir. “She is different. Very different. She’s very much not human but…but that doesn’t mean she can’t see things as we see them!”
“You certainly see things as she does.” Taljir half spat the words.
“Yes!” Omid pleaded. “I do! Or at least I’m trying to! And if I can see that about her, why can’t she do the same to see things as we would?”
The beastmaster shook his head as he closed his eyes. “You’re the smart one, Omid. Is she really seeing things as we lowly humans would see them? Or is she seeing things as you would see them?”
“I’m still human, Taljir.” Omid said as he shook his head, dismissing the absurdity.
Taljir stared him in the eyes and searched through whatever reflected back at him while his own lips pulled down into a frown. “I sincerely hope that is still true. Now I have no idea where we’re going, so lead on Prince Omid.”
More silence would probably help in this case, Omid thought to himself as he ushered Masel onward to where they would camp for the night. This was to be a several day expedition, assuming all went well, and that included several planned stops for the night in what would be the most secure locations. Today would be the easiest of days, crossing through territory that was just contested enough that it was unlikely that they would be attacked, which left Omid to lead onward in complete silence for hours upon end.
Truly, it wasn’t so different from how this journey had begun. Sure the odd conversation broke up some of those long stretches of time and that was now gone, but that only let Omid have more time to think himself out of this mess.The terrain was mercifully simple to navigate, overall. They were in a canyon complex wide enough in most parts for a decently sized team of camels to travel through shoulder to shoulder. Reddish brown walls of rock surrounded them, high enough that ascending them would take a good deal of effort yet short enough to allow the towering mountains that surrounded them to still be visible.
Every so often the path would fork, and Omid would consult the scroll that Sareen had given him with instructions for the entire venture. A few hours of silence and following the path from a wide open area through canyon walls that seemed to creep higher, and Omid had realized a few things: actions were going to go a long ways to clear up this misunderstanding while his friend had time to think, and now would be a good time to get a sense for his surroundings.
Omid raised a hand to bring them to a halt as he had Masel sit so that the young mage could dismount. He explained himself as he looked around them. “Every so often, it would be a good idea to feel what’s around us.”
“Feel?” Taljir questioned as he dismounted as well, looking over his shoulder up at the walls of the canyon.
“Yes, feel. A simple yet very effective spell allows such things.” The young man began to whisper the word of Sense Earth in a low chant as his companion looked on with a tilting head. As he had practiced, he felt all things moving in and on the earth around him as it stretched out from the canyon wall and up into the stone walls around them in pulses timed with his chant. He looked to some point off in the distance past Taljir who joined him in looking at that unknown point. “Back in The Great Desert, did you ever feel that we were being watched?”
“I tried not to think about it after the flower incident.” Taljir’s hand crept to the sword on his hip as his eyes focused on that far off point. He kept his voice low. “But seeing as how you now carry that flower like a treasure, I suppose your princess was already sizing you up.”
“That wasn’t her, and lower your hand.” Omid said in a calm, yet firm voice. “We were being watched by a few entities, one of whom is our destination. But now I can sense any watchers we find ourselves with, so long as I check with a spell.”
The taller young man lowered his hand after a moment of reluctance. “And some of those watchers back in The Great Desert watch us once more now?”
“I honestly don’t know if it is them in particular.” Omid said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “But I do know that there are many entities watching us right now, and giving them cause to view us as more than a wildly out of place curiosity would be a very bad idea.”
Taljir’s throat ran dry as his eyes went wide. “How…how many is many?”
The apprentice mage did a quick tally in his head as his eyes darted from one spot where he had sensed something hiding to another. “More than I had been expecting.”
“...can we go back to when you were keeping the truth from me?”
Omid heaved another sigh as his eyes fell shut for a moment. “We still find ourselves in a place where manners will let us pass unharmed. Respect and kind words may go a long ways.”
The Beastmaster looked out to that point in the canyon wall that almost looked as though it might be special in some way, now that he really focused on it after Omid had eyed it. He looked back to the apprentice mage with a raised brow before speaking to that spot in a raised voice. “I for one, sure do love not bothering anyone! If I were to accidentally bother someone as I was passing through, I would pass through even faster and feel very sorry about having bothered them! I would pass through so fast, there would be no need to reprimand me and the shame would haunt me for an eternity.”
The apprentice mage buried his face in his leather clad hands, drawing a long inhale and exhaling back to feel hot breath on his face. After a moment he raised his head to attempt to assuage the unseen watchers who may or may not be incensed right now. “We mean only to pass through these noble lands on diplomatic business, and recognize the greatness we find ourselves in the presence of.”
Taljir backed up towards his companion as he leaned in, speaking in a whisper while keeping his eyes on the canyon walls. “If another beautiful woman appears out of nowhere promising to take us to the land of milk and honey, she’s all yours.”
“Do you really want me testing the bounds of Sareen’s jealousy?”
“She would find a way to blame me and you would be fine.” The Beastmaster backed up to Nazer as his eyes tried in vain to find some visible sign of whatever was out there that he too now could distinctly feel watching him. “Are we done here?”
“We are.” Omid nodded as he too backed up and re-mounted Masel. “I wanted to see if any would bother to watch us on our quest. And to my astonishment, it appears everyone is. How did you ever contend with such popularity?”
The Beastmaster ushered Nazer to his feet as Omid followed suit on Masel. “My friends, family, and casual acquaintances did not carry such severe punishments for a mistake.”
There would be time to talk later and clear this up, Omid thought to himself as he suppressed a groan. This was not the time or place, and letting Taljir rant may even allow him to calm his nerves enough that things could be explained. It would just take as much care as the young mage was putting into setting a very steady pace that was neither too fast nor too slow.
“Don’t stare, you don’t want to find out if they take it as an insult or a curiosity.” He instructed his companion and hopefully still friend. No response came, and silence returned save for the padding of camels’ feet echoing through the canyon.
The silence was, however, giving Omid enough time to think. Just as the path forward was clear enough, there had to be a way to clear up this misunderstanding. Taljir had simply had the misfortune of meeting Sareen at her most wrathful, and even worse the wrath had been directed at him. Completely unlike when she had slaughtered those camel thieves with Omid. That was her wrath as pointed in the mostly correct direction, and as Omid dared to think to himself, perhaps their very first date from a certain point of view?
Of course not, Omid thought to himself as he finally stopped staring at his hands after pondering that thought. Their first date likely counted as Omid eating while she stared him down and then following it up with sleeping in the same room as she watched him sleep all night.
But how could either of those count as courting one another when they had not clarified their feelings for one another yet? Sareen did still watch him sleep every night now, but it was no longer horribly unsettling and instead endearing. It was an obvious effect of said clarification of feelings into how they found themselves now.
Which was very clear to him.
He just had to anticipate that others may be similar to Taljir and not understand.
Despite how easy it was for him to understand, but then he was in it so of course it was easier for him to understand. He could hardly fault others for not seeing the intricacies of this relationship that he had found himself in.
Truly it was as simple as the scroll of instructions that he checked again for the dozenth time in the last few hours of silent contemplation. The one that advised him to look for a fork in the canyon that bore an unknown glyph, and take a left at it.
Four times.
With every fork bearing that glyph in a row looking suspiciously similar by the third time they came to a fork bearing that glyph.
“This looks familiar…”
Omid held up a hand to stop the camels. He studied the scroll and then eyed the glyph carved into a patch of gray-brown stone. “The directions say we should be turning left once more.”
“But it looks exactly the same as before, what if we got turned around-”
“There exists a type of magic that…bends…places.” The apprentice mage tried explaining with his hands as he turned around in his saddle, even as his hands betrayed him and muddled his explanation. “Imagine a door that could link not just two rooms but three, four, and even more!”
Taljir stared him down, and though his scarf obscured his face it was still obvious his mouth was hanging open in incredulity. “...sure. And you are certain that this is one of those places of magic rather than just being lost? Or a cruel joke?”
“She gives me warning before testing me now.” Omid said as he waved his companion to follow as he spurred Masel onward and to the left. “Trust is very important to us.”
“Must be nice.”
Omid would have complained about the words like knives in his back right now, but he had enough awareness to realize Taljir was feeling something similar already. More time for tempers to cool would do everyone well, and an escalated argument here was likely to invite their watchers to join in on the debate in their own manner. One that was likely to be hazardous.The pair continued to the left, and they noticed the first of a series of scattered vining plants now starting to occupy the canyon walls.
All the vines were scraggly and faded green as though they had been fighting for every drop of water they could get, but their presence was enough to indicate that water was at least more common here. Here being a massive mountain range in the middle of The Great Desert that remained hidden enough to only be spoken of in folktales and legends. That one could hide such a vast mountain range, even in such a vast desert, was not in defiance of logic. The logic was simply different and made complete sense once one had the right perspective.
It stood as yet another testament to the power of those who called it home.
And even to those who would frequent it, if Sareen’s seeming familiarity with this place was anything to go by. Everything else had been far more subtle. Canyons and pathways that seemed to be folded in on themselves like Sareen’s palace further confirmed that. And the unending sense of being watched was proof of that. Omid almost regretted daring to sense what was out there observing him, but then he had to wonder what they were thinking.
They had all been watching, and in far greater numbers than what he had expected. Were they surprised to see a lowly human here, or had word already spread about the War Party and his involvement in it? If Sareen wasn’t testing him, might they be waiting to see what he did?
Might he be overthinking something that could wait instead of focusing on repairing his relationship with his best friend?
Omid blinked away the thoughts as he realized they were at their stopping place for the night. There in the wall of the canyon they found themselves in was a small alcove that sat adjacent to a single small, crooked tree. A tree that Omid made sure to let Taljir know that they were not to disturb no matter what, on possible pain of death. A threat that The Beastmaster took seriously as he tied up the camels a good ways away from the tree, just to be safe.
It was a rare moment of speaking to one another without hostility, perhaps out of pragmatism as even if this venture wasn’t an outright test their lives remained on the line in an oddly reminiscent fashion.
“The scroll of directions has been very helpful so far.” The apprentice mage announced as they made camp, setting out bedrolls and lighting their lanterns as the suns vanished behind a tall mountain. “I was warned that due to a shifting sense of time of day, you might have some trouble sleeping. Tomorrow will be a longer day but I have also been advised on where we can stop for a mid-day meal and rest.”
The Beastmaster raised a weary brow as he brushed Nazer before retrieving some of their rations. “So it all just…happened with your princess? The one that tried to kill me?”
The apprentice mage looked over to his friend with weary eyes of his own. He carried a sack of rations over to his bedroll and roughly sat down upon it. “They have…ancient rules in place that they adhere to. In her eyes you had violated those rules and she acted appropriately. But she didn’t kill you. What you did was not worthy of that. I’ve seen what drives her to kill before.”
“So she is a killer?”
“I am too.” Omid spat out a bit too harshly. “I did what I had to do. And she did defend me. She didn’t even have to agree to releasing you from your tiny glass prison, but I convinced her that it was pragmatic. Just as I have been working on convincing her to be more merciful, out of pragmatism.”
Taljir was silent, his face still one of uncertainty as he sat next to the lanterns. “Sounds like a devious plot to me.”
The apprentice mage waved off the accusation. “I care for her, and she cares for me. And like all relationships I would want to see her living as the best version of herself.”
“And you don’t believe she would do the same to you?” Taljir asked.
“Of course she is!” Omid threw his hands in the air. “I’ve learned things that most humans haven’t known for ages! If ever! I’m getting a rare chance to change the world! By saving it!”
“And along the way you’ll do how many questionable things? Even as you know what she’s capable of.” The beastmaster crossed his legs as he sat and idly pushed a small rock around before him. “And you fell for her…why?”
The apprentice mage bit his tongue for a moment as his eyes narrowed at the man who just wasn’t getting it, while now it all seemed so very clear to him. “Through all the madness I've endured and all that stands before me as I try saving the world. Through all the questions of morality that arise in such times, I feel like she wouldn't be questioning my morality at all as I do what I can. You don’t have to approve, but I do need you to trust me when I say I am trying to ensure a positive outcome. For everyone.”
Taljir pulled down his scarf from around his face as the sun no longer beat down upon him. He used it to wipe the sweat from his brow as he opened a bag of rations and took a bite of the hardened dough. “Don’t lose yourself, Omid.”
Not losing himself was only part of it, though Omid once again shooed away those thoughts. The same thoughts that found company in that losing himself was never something that he would need to worry about, and that in his lowest moments of doubt he would worry that he was finding himself all too comfortable in this like he was meant for it.
The two ate their meager dinner of rations in silence as a bird of the night began to sing its song.
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