Kazuki wasn't sure what he expected when Ilya joined their group.
Maybe someone cryptic and brooding, who would speak in riddles and draw symbols in the sand. But what he got instead was a sharp-eyed woman with a dry voice, sharper wit, and an alarming tendency to appear directly behind people when they were mid-conversation.
"Stop thinking so loudly," she said during their third hour into the trek through the lower dunes. "The sand picks up stray thoughts like burrs."
Kazuki blinked. "Wait, the sand... listens?"
"No," Ilya said, frowning. "But you're annoying enough that I assume it could start."
Uzaki snorted from behind a scarf that covered everything but her eyes. "I like her."
"You would," Kazuki muttered.
Sel Eran had granted them an escort—not an army, but a compact group of guides, supply runners, and a silent boy named Rafi, who seemed able to summon camels by sheer will. Their goal: reach the Mirage Spires, a place where the stolen winds reportedly spun wildest.
