SLV Chapter 22: "Why Is His Oasis Completely Unharmed?"
April 22
Zalimu kicked at the fallen slaves with his foot.
After confirming that not one had survived, the shadow on his face deepened.
Buying more slaves to replace these would cost who knew how many source stones.
He walked out to the dry wheat furrows.
Fragments of everything were scattered through the rows, most of them stained with blood.
He stepped over the bodies of the slaves who had died defending the oasis and looked with pained eyes at the flattened wheat stalks.
Most of the wheat had already ripened and showed no obvious structural damage.
As long as he bought more slaves to come and harvest it in time, he could still sell it on tribute day in seventeen days.
It would still bring in a decent number of source stones but it was nowhere near enough to cover the losses from this night.
"Father! The source energy obelisks! The obelisks on the oasis!"
Suddenly Zalimu heard Ruleh's voice from behind him.
Ruleh had gone to inspect the remains of the sand spirit arrow towers.
Seeing the current state of things, a prickle of unease stirred in him.
"Speak, Ruleh!"
Ruleh had been fumbling for words for too long. Zalimu's voice cracked out like a whip.
"Father, it's the source energy obelisks. One of the source energy obelisks is missing. It must have been carried off by the undead!"
"What!"
Zalimu stood speechless for a moment, then immediately moved to go and verify it himself but his feet had barely started moving when something stopped him dead.
"Quickly, Ruleh. With me. To Lin En's oasis!"
Without any hesitation, without even waiting to confirm what had happened, he set off.
Whether the obelisk had truly been carried off by undead or not was irrelevant.
As long as he could get to Lin En's oasis and claim the source energy obelisks there before the outer city magistrate arrived, he could make up for all of it.
Even losing two obelisks would be bearable.
Zalimu had no other option left. Every remaining hope he had was riding on this one certainty, this fact that required no questioning in his mind.
"Hurry, Ruleh!"
His camel had been killed in the night. This was perhaps the first time in Zalimu's life he had walked this far on his own feet.
Ruleh lumbered along behind him, completely out of breath.
Zalimu sustained himself entirely on the image of the obelisks he intended to take from Lin En's oasis, forcing his not particularly robust body forward through sheer willpower.
"And that old man's hidden treasure, whatever it is. There might not be time to find it before the magistrate arrives."
As the oasis drew closer, Zalimu's mind turned again to the rumored valuables, and greed rose alongside it.
His pace quickened further, as though he were racing against the magistrate himself but the moment Lin En's oasis came into view, Zalimu's face went completely rigid then the corner of his mouth and the skin around his eye began twitching beyond his control.
His body shook as though touched by an electrical current.
"Father..."
Ruleh finally caught up, gasping for air.
When he had recovered enough to breathe normally, he noticed that something was wrong with Zalimu.
He looked at the shock in Zalimu's eyes, the disbelief, and something that bordered on fury.
"Fat..."
Ruleh couldn't form the question, but then he saw it for himself.
Lin En's oasis, right there in front of him.
Sand spirit arrow towers.
Three sand spirit arrow towers.
Still running without the slightest interruption.
No. These were upgraded sand spirit arrow towers.
What was happening?
His own oasis had been reduced to ruins. They had even lost an obelisk yet this oasis was completely untouched.
Even that run-down shack didn't have so much as a scratch on it.
"This is impossible!"
"Why is his oasis completely unharmed? And with upgraded sand spirit arrow towers!"
"How can this be?!"
Ruleh flinched at the sound of Zalimu's voice tearing through the silence.
When he looked at Zalimu's eyes, nearly bulging out of his skull, Ruleh caught movement in the corner of his vision.
Lin En had walked out of the wooden shack with all the ease of someone out for a stroll.
He came to the heart well with perfect calm, drew a bucket of water, and picked up a clay bowl then, without particular intention, three sets of eyes met across the distance.
…
"Zalimu?"
Lin En had just set the source energy obelisk down inside the shack.
He had simply come to draw water and quench his thirst.
He hadn't expected to find Zalimu standing right at the boundary of his oasis.
That quickly?
And with no camel in sight either.
Surely he hadn't run the whole way here.
As for why he had come, Lin En understood perfectly.
Still coveting the obelisks on his oasis?
A flicker of wicked amusement rose in Lin En's chest.
He raised the clay bowl toward Zalimu and Ruleh standing in the distance, as though toasting at a Triumph Festival banquet then he tipped his head back and drained it in one long, satisfied swallow.
When the bowl came back down, there was one fewer person standing in the distance. Only Ruleh remained.
Zalimu had collapsed to the ground and was convulsing where he lay.
Goodness. This wasn't going to be a case of the shock killing him outright, was it?
Lin En had no way of knowing that Zalimu had placed literally every last hope he had on the assumption of what he would find here and now, with every illusion shattered at once and the violent contrast of reality crashing in, his mind had simply given way under the weight of it.
Not that Lin En cared about Zalimu's survival either way.
On the contrary, he would genuinely prefer Zalimu die on the spot.
If Ruleh actually inherited that oasis, then by the time the next blood moon came, the two remaining source energy obelisks on it would almost certainly find their way into Lin En's hands and there might even be other unexpected gains.
Ruleh appeared to be shouting something at Lin En, though it was too far to hear then he hurriedly twisted his bulky frame around and began dragging Zalimu away.
Lin En hadn't caught a word, and at this point didn't particularly care.
He simply felt a deep, satisfying release in his chest.
He went back inside and looked at the source energy obelisk sitting on his wooden bed, brought back from Zalimu's oasis.
Before long, that obelisk would be taking on a new shape on his oasis.
"Master... should we, um, hide this somewhere?"
Milya looked at Lin En with some worry when he came in.
Lin En thought about it and nodded.
Under Atreydi City-State's Common Law, there was no specific provision against this. Hardly surprising, given that the people who drafted Common Law had been very practiced at exactly this kind of thing.
The Law Codes imposed no restrictions either and if anyone asked, he could simply say he had bought it. No one would question it or deny it but to be safe, Lin En decided to store it away for now.
The less unnecessary attention, the better.
His oasis's defenses were now more than adequate. Ordinary nights would be nothing but pure reward stages for him from here on.
There was no urgency to put it to use before the next blood moon.
"Find somewhere to hide it, Milya."
"Yes, Master!"
Milya seemed genuinely delighted to have something useful to do for him. She perked up instantly and lifted the heavy obelisk into her arms, hurrying back and forth.
She didn't seem to find any hiding spot satisfactory. Every time she set it down somewhere, she would pick it back up again.
The blood moon was over.
A new month was beginning.
Lin En drew another bowl of water and poured it down his throat. He couldn't explain it, but he felt thirsty beyond reason.
He looked out at the oasis, and for the first time since this all began, the tension that had been wound tight in his nerves finally, slowly, began to ease.
Three days ago, Zalimu had been watching from nearby with hungry eyes. Now his oasis was nothing but rubble.
While Lin En's territory had been transformed.
No vast stretches of fertile land yet, and nowhere near Medya's domain.
Only the upgraded sniper tower and mechanism tower standing there, with enough defensive power to feel genuinely secure but it had only taken three days.
What would thirty more bring?
"Oh, right, Milya. What was it you were trying to tell me earlier?"
Lin En turned and sat down on the wooden bed, suddenly remembering that Milya had looked like she wanted to tell him something just before he left with Fortune.
Milya's eyes went wide at the words.
He remembered.
An undisguised joy spread across her face.
She immediately prepared to tell him her discovery with great enthusiasm.
"Master, Milya discovered that Fortune..."
Lin En looked at her, but found himself slowly losing the thread of what she was saying.
A crushing wave of exhaustion descended on him without warning, blanketing everything.
"Master! What's wrong!"
"Milya is scared... sob... Master please don't die..."
In the last moment before sleep claimed him entirely, Lin En felt a pair of cold little hands press against his chest and begin pushing down with a gentle, careful rhythm.
And then...
He felt a soft warmth against his lips.
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