A month had bled into the white sands.
During the day, Asteria was a quiet presence in the Hollow Oak, helping where she could but remaining a shadow at the edges of their community. She listened to their stories and ate their bread, but she never let herself belong. Attachment was a luxury for those who planned on staying, and Asteria was already gone in her mind.
At night, she was a predator. An obsessive, hunger driven predator.
She had spent her weeks hunting the outskirts of the settlement, dragging the carcasses of Sand-Eaters back into the darkness to devour them.
Her core needed power, and her body had hardened accordingly. She wasn't just walking anymore; she was moving with a lethal, predatory grace.
She had a debt to pay. Nephis had given her the means to survive the sun – and her embarrassment; Asteria wasn't going to let that gift go to waste by rotting in a hole in the ground.
However, she was leaving, now.
The day of her departure finally arrived. The settlement gathered at the base of the massive, withered oak that gave the place its name. They looked at her with a mixture of awe and heartbreaking sadness. To them, she was walking into her grave. A pointless suicide.
Elara stepped forward, holding a roll of tattered, yellowed parchment. "If you are truly set on this madness, then you should at least know what you're getting into."
Elara spread the map on a stone slab. It showed the mountain pass to the North and the Citadel beyond.
"The scouts from our earlier years called it a Glass Temple." Elara began, her voice low. "Before the Spell claimed this land, they believed it wasn't a desert but a kingdom built on glass. You'll see mosaics – or what's left of them, and entire structures made out of glass."
She pointed at the entrance of the Temple.
"There are runes littered around the inside of the temple and its neighbouring buildings. We think they were trying to perform a ritual. Of what? We don't know. The Statue I mentioned previously was said to look like something a priest would wear in the waking world, with a face that's frozen in fear."
"What about the Gateway?" Asteria asked, her eyes fixed on the map.
Elara looked up, her eyes pleading. "...We aren't sure. But we believe the Statue is guarding it. If you can't kill it or skip past, you'll just get swallowed."
Asteria memorized what she needed to. She didn't care about rituals or a priest. She just wanted to go home.
"I've paid for my stay," Asteria said, adjusting the hilt of the [Obsidian Blade] at her hip. "I'm going now."
She turned and began to walk toward the shimmering heat of the North, leaving the only safety she had known in the Dream Realm behind her without looking back.
Asteria had taken only a few steps into the shimmering haze of the dunes when the sound of frantic footsteps crunching through the sand made her pause. She didn't turn her head, but her hand shifted instinctively toward the hilt of her blade.
"Asteria! Wait!"
It was Elara. The woman was breathless, her face flushed with the exertion of a sprint she hadn't made in years.
In her hands, she clutched a small, weathered wooden crate. It was carved with intricate, swirling patterns that looked like waves – a cruel irony in a world made of dust.
"You can't go with just monster meat and hope," Elara gasped, pressing the crate into Asteria's startled hands. "If you are truly serious about the Temple, you will need this. We've kept it hidden, a last resort for the day we finally lost the Oak, but... the village can survive another season without it. You won't last three days."
Asteria felt a familiar weightless sensation as the object dissolved into white sparks, flowing into her soul.
[You have received a Memory.]
Memory: [Oasis' Greed]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: II
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: ["The desert was the harshest for the lone travelers.
Without food nor water nor shelter they were withering like husks on their death bed. Until the oasis called them, its voice was pure and made the travelers yearn for its grace.
When the travelers arrived, the only thing that greeted them was the flawless, scorching sand dunes; except for a singular creature singing like a Siren.
The Siren blessed them with water, a good dream, and safety.
Until those travelers were far too comfortable encroaching on her land.
The Siren was slain out of their greed, and her corpse was turned into a crate that can satiate that greed."]
Memory Enchantments: [Siren's Song] [Siren's Blessing]
[Siren's Song]: [The holder of this memory will attract those with their voice being as sweet as the slain Siren after consuming the food or drink within.]
[Siren's Blessing]: [This crate can keep the food inside fresh and become its own water source.]
[Glass Eyes are peering into your runes.]
[Enchantment: Siren's Blessing's description has been updated.]
[Siren's Blessing]: [This crate can keep the food inside fresh and become its own water source. Oasis' Greed requires essence or soul shards to keep this enchantment maintained, else the items inside may spoil and the water may dry.]
"It's an Ascended Memory," Asteria whispered, stunned. The sheer value of it was staggering. In the NQSC, a memory of this rank could buy a life of luxury; here, it was simply the difference between a corpse and a survivor.
"It's for luck," Elara said, her voice trembling slightly. She reached out, squeezing Asteria's shoulder one last time. "But luck is thin in the Dream Realm. Take the water, take the safety it gives you, and for the sake of those of us who can't... make it back alive."
Asteria looked at the older woman, seeing the reflection of a decade of lost hope in her eyes. For the first time, the Queen of Nightmare didn't feel like a predator or a beggar. She felt like a messenger.
"I don't believe in luck," Asteria said, her voice steadying as she turned back toward the North. "But I believe in debts. I'll remember this, Elara."
With the crate stored in the void of her soul and the weight of the Ascended tool humming alongside her blade, Asteria stepped off into the white waste. She didn't look back again. She had a temple to find, a priest to face, and a hunger that the desert could no longer contain.