The oasis disappeared behind Sakura by midday.
The great tree became a distant silhouette.
Then a speck.
Then nothing at all.
Only the desert remained.
Endless waves of gold stretching toward the horizon.
Normally, the sight would've been discouraging.
Today, it wasn't.
For the first time, Sakura wasn't chasing a rumor.
She was following footsteps.
Old footsteps.
Faded footsteps.
But footsteps nonetheless.
The map Abel had given her rested safely inside her bag.
She'd checked it three times already.
Not because she doubted the route.
Because having a route still felt strange.
The afternoon sun blazed overhead.
Heat shimmered across the sands.
The wind carried grains of dust through the air.
A normal day in the Northern Expanse.
A terrible day everywhere else.
Sakura walked.
And walked.
And walked.
Months of experience she naturally became an expert in exploring...
By her standards of course.
By sunset, she reached a small caravan camp.
Merchants were resting for the night before continuing deeper into the desert.
A few travelers sat around a fire.
Others tended animals.
Nobody paid much attention to her.
Which was exactly how she liked it.
After buying a simple meal, Sakura found a spot near the edge of camp.
The stars gradually appeared overhead.
One by one.
Silent.
Ancient.
Watching.
As she ate, voices drifted across the campfire.
Stories.
Rumors.
Arguments.
The usual.
Then one conversation caught her attention.
"...I'm telling you, it was real."
A merchant shook his head.
"No chance."
"It happened."
"No."
"It did."
The argument continued.
Eventually Sakura sighed.
Curiosity won.
"What happened?"
Both men looked toward her.
The older of the two pointed deeper into the desert.
"The Glass Dunes."
That immediately got her attention.
"What about them?"
The younger traveler leaned forward.
"I saw lights."
The older man groaned.
"Not this again."
"I did."
"You were dehydrated."
"I was not."
"You absolutely were."
"That was a mirage."
The younger man ignored him.
"There were lights moving between the dunes."
Sakura listened carefully.
The traveler lowered his voice.
"Blue lights."
Her hand unconsciously drifted toward her pocket.
Toward the blue stone.
The same stone she'd carried for years.
A coincidence.
Probably.
Yet her heart still skipped.
The older merchant noticed her expression.
"Don't encourage him."
"I'm serious."
The younger traveler frowned.
"I followed them."
That immediately sounded like a terrible decision.
The older merchant seemed to agree.
"You followed mysterious desert lights."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"...I was curious."
"That is the worst answer possible."
Sakura almost laughed.
The conversation continued for several minutes.
Unfortunately, it didn't lead anywhere useful.
The traveler never found the source.
The lights simply vanished.
A strange story.
Nothing more.
Probably.
Later that night, after the camp had fallen silent, Sakura lay beneath the stars.
Sleep should have come easily.
It didn't.
Her thoughts drifted.
To Haruto.
To the sketch.
To the note.
Still looking for you.
The words replayed endlessly.
Then another memory surfaced.
A small apartment.
A rainy evening.
Haruto sitting by the window with a sketchbook.
Drawing.
Always drawing.
She remembered asking him a question.
One she'd completely forgotten until now.
*"What would you do if we got separated?"*
At the time, she'd meant something simple.
Getting lost during a trip.
Missing each other in a crowd.
Nothing serious.
Haruto had thought about it for a moment.
Then answered:
*"I'd leave clues."*
Sakura smiled.
Even in memory, the answer was ridiculous.
*"What kind of clues?"*
*"The kind only you would understand."*
She remembered rolling her eyes.
He'd laughed.
Then returned to drawing.
The memory faded.
The stars remained.
The desert wind whispered softly across the camp.
And suddenly, Sakura understood something.
The sketch.
The tree.
The symbols.
The clues.
They weren't directions meant for everyone.
They were directions meant for her.
Haruto wasn't just leaving a trail.
He was leaving a conversation.
One stretched across years.
Across continents.
Across worlds.
The realization made her chest ache.
Not painfully.
Warmly.
The kind of ache caused by missing someone you loved.
Eventually, sleep claimed her.
And when dawn arrived the next morning, Sakura resumed her journey.
North.
Toward the Glass Dunes.
Toward the next piece of Haruto's trail.
Toward a future that no longer felt impossibly far away.