The first day of travel was an unbroken sea of stone and sand.
The cavern ceiling that had arched high above, riddled with cracks had given way to open sky. Here and there, wind had carved pillars into twisted shapes that loomed like watchmen. The air shimmered with heat, and every breath tasted faintly of copper.
I kept the twins close, rationing their water and forcing myself not to glance over my shoulder every other minute. The desert here was too still, no wind, no birds, no sign of other travellers unlike the howling of the wind I had to deal with before. Only the sound of our own footsteps crunching against sand and grit could be heard.
By nightfall, the temperature had dropped sharply. We found shelter in the shadow of a massive boulder that looked as though it had fallen from there centuries ago and was worn down to this. The twins slept curled under a blanket, but I sat awake, sword in hand, listening to the low groan of shifting rock somewhere far off.
The second day began with a subtle change in the air. The heat grew heavier, almost pressing against our skin, and the copper scent became sharper. My pulse quickened. Around midday, we crested a ridge of jagged stone and froze. I stopped with the twins as we watched the macabre sight below us.
Below us, cutting through the desert floor like a wound, ran a river.
Its waters were a deep, glowing red, the surface rippling with slow, heavy motion. It wasn't the sunlight that made it glow this was light from within, a strange, molten shimmer that made the very air above it hum.
The twins stared, wide-eyed. "What is it?" whispered the usually quiet Ayesha.
As we approached the river, I could feel the hair on my arms rise. "Not water," I murmured. "Raw energy, if mana really exists, this is like liquid mana"
I descended the slope slowly, the heat growing more intense with each step. The river's surface smelled faintly of ozone, and a faint tingling sensation crept up my fingers just from being near it. I knelt down beside the banks, tentatively dipping my hand into the red current as I felt draw to it.
The sensation was immediate and overwhelming like a storm exploding within my head.
For a moment, I could feel the desert itself, every shift of the sand grains, the slow groaning movement of stone, the faint life threads of creatures burrowed deep below. My body trembled, and my breath came fast, but I didn't pull away.
Mia…
The voice wasn't a voice at all, it was the vibration of the energy itself, threading into my bones. I felt it sink into me, warm and cool at the same time, flooding the pathways of my body like water into dry earth.
I took a gasping breath and yanked my hand back, stumbling back unto my buttocks. The glow clung faintly to my skin for a few heartbeats before fading. I looked at my palm, my limb felt heavier, alive in a way I couldn't explain.
"What happened?" asked the other twin, Abu, peering at my hand.
I flexed my fingers, the strange warmth still coiled in my chest. "I… can feel it now. This unknown power. It's inside me."
The river's hum seemed to deepen, as though it recognized me now. I resisted the urge to touch it again. Too much, and it felt like it would consume instead of filling me.
We crossed at a narrow point where the current moved slower, I watched for the twins to jump over safely before going over myself. On the far bank, I glanced back once, the river still shimmered, but it was obviously getting more narrow until it seemed to slither underground. Disappearing from sight.
That night, I sat apart from the twins, focusing on the strange warmth in my chest that had felt before but had now grown in intensity. I could feel the unknown energy like a thread running through my veins, waiting for me to pull it towards my chest.
When I reached for it, a faint pulse answered my call. Pebbles shifted at my feet. The air stirred.
It wasn't much. But it was a beginning. I could feel it.
Somewhere ahead, the City of Bones waited. I needed to brace myself come what may.