Desert Wind

[Aeric Ecrai]

As their small escort trudged ever slowly along through the shifting sands of the desert that Victor had come to curse for it's merciless heat and hot, rough air, he looked back again in a futile attempt to see something, anything, out of the ordinary. Sighing inwardly, he turned back around. The same scene greeted him every time: sand, either blowing in the wind or in dunes. No life aside from the ten Chorros soldiers and Magnus who made up this expedition of sorts. Turning to look at Magnus, he commented on how desolate and devoid the desert seemed.

"Of course," the massive robed Dragerok rumbled in his deep, almost monotone voice, "the desert should be this way, if what we fear is true. Life in stark places such as this is slowly dying out - for instance, have you seen any cacti or insects? Or perhaps some desert buzzards, circling anything that might have died?"

Victor White could only shake his head in resignation and sigh. He knew it was futile to argue with Magnus - the man was one of the Vanguard, after all - but it still seemed that whatever he had been called from the royal halls of Al'Zhara for was nothing but a field trip into a sweltering hot geographic expanse of nothing. Even though the temperature was so despondant, he refused to remove his cloak. Many knew him by it, and he was not going to be shown up by Magnus who, despite the temperature, wore his full robe complete with the hood over his head. The white garment was inlaid with red trim - polymerite, as Victor knew it to be - and it encompassed the whole of the man: Victor had yet to see a single feature. The only thing that marked Magnus as a Dragerok, aside from his rumbling voice, was that he stood at an imposing ten feet tall.

As the line of men continued, Victor could tell that fatigue was setting in. Not to himself and Magnus, but to the soldiers. But whenever he'd ask Magnus when to expect water, the man would only rumble out the word 'soon'. To Victor, a single word on what they depended on for survival in this place was not adequate, but telling this to Magnus would suceed in nothing.

As if reading his thoughts, Magnus turned to him. "An outpost is ahead of us. Master Ecrai has dispatched two Knights of Dawn to aid us in our search. Provisions will be available." Holding his hooded gaze on Victor for another few seconds, he turned back around and continued to walk.

The Knights of Dawn...whatever they were searching for, it was far more serious than Victor had come to suspect. Granted, the signs, or lack thereof, of life where part of the search, but Magnus had never disclosed the true initiative of their journey. And know that a few Knights of Dawn had been sent, things were suddenly getting more serious. The Knights where a group within the Dawn Inquisition that served as Commandant Ecrai's personal bodyguard, escort, and aides. They rarely, if ever, left his side. They were easy to tell apart from the regular Inquisitors by two features: one, their cloaks were full length, reaching down to their boots; and two, they had a distinct symbol on their capes. Victor did not know what it meant, but only knew that Ecrai and the Knights wore the sign on their cloaks: similar to an infinity loop, it had two dots in the seperate loops, and two slashes through the middle, going diagonally from the top right to the bottom left. The loop, instead of bisecting the middle of the infinity, stopped before touching these two slashes. To some, it was a symbol of Ecrai's authority; to others, a way to tell who worked for him.

A Vanguard and now a few Knights.

Things were getting interesting.

[Aeric Ecrai]

Several hours and nothing but sand later, Victor spotted a trail of sand blowing in the wind, just off in the distance. Upon looking more closely, he noted that it was a small caravan of wagons, and a few men riding camels. This must be the outpost Magnus had mentioned earlier. Good. He needed something to drink. And answers. Water first, though.

Magnus turned his hooded head to Victor, and put his sleeved hands together behind his back.

"We can refresh ourselves here. The Knights shall lead us to whatever it is that is so important. I am as unaware as to what is it as you, Victor, but it is no idle thing to call a Vanguard so urgently. Curiouser and curiouser..." he rumbled, trailing ahead of the escort in the direction of the caravan.

* * *

There wasn't much water, it turned out. And it was lukewarm from sitting in barrels on the way to...where ever they were.
Somewhere in the middle of the Cataroc is all that Victor could think of. Victor had lived in the Cataroc with the Rel'Typh Monks in his early years, and it still looked as bleak as ever. It also hadn't become any cooler. Living with the Rel'Typh, especially the Eti sect, had been a hard life. Even so, it was better than the death that had been planned for him. To this day, he never knew why the royal sect of the monks had taken him in, or why they even had a royal sect for that matter.

What little shade that the wagons provided was comforting in a small way. Even if it didn't do much for the heat and all the gritty sand, it at least brought the temperature down a little. There were three wagons, each with it's own purpose. The first carried all of the water in barrels, leaving little room for anything else in the wagon. The second acted as a small transport; obviously, the means for the two Knights of Dawn to arrive. The third was completely empty for reasons Victor and most likely Magnus did not know.

Victor had yet to see either of their cloak donned friends. Either Magnus had them both preoccupied or they were off somewhere in the Cataroc doing something for Ecrai at the same time Victor and Magnus were waiting on them. Victor was glad that at least in Chorros no one referred to Aeric as "Commandant" since he was, in fact, only the Commandant of the United Army of Raoro and Fabrith. Chorros was still decidedly neutral. Victor had picked up rumors of the man from the soldiers that had escorted them to the caravan. Most of the rumors were decidedly far-fetched, and opinions of him were mixed. Victor decided he would have to decide for himself when and if he ever met the man.

"Sir."

Victor turned around to the two Knights of Dawn standing by the final wagon. Both wore their cloaks, even in the heat. The cloaks swept across their frames, the bottoms resting barely above the rough sand. Their cowls were also covering their faces, as was expected of Knights. Victor couldn't see how they could stand the heat. Each one had a polished silver rapier through a loop in their belts, their blades polished so finely that when they caught the sun the light reflected in every direction, casting a bright glare on the surroundings. Each bore a small, golden crystal embedded in their armor right below their necks where one would wear an amulet. Each had a hand pressed to their hearts in a formal salute.

"So you two finally decided to show up. What is so blasted important that you had to drag a Vanguard, a half dozen troops and myself out into the middle of the Cataroc Desert that I've yet to catch a glimpse of?" Victor mused, hands on his hips.

As they dropped their salutes, one said,

"Well, the thing is, sir...we don't exactly know."

[Aeric Ecrai]

"You don't know? What do you mean, you don't know?" Victor pressed, his patience wearing thin. He had hiked into the hottest part of the entire continent in response to an urgent summons from one of the continent's most powerful men just to get the response "We don't know"? Even a Vanguard had come along, for gods' sake. Whatever they had found, it had better be pretty blasted interesting.

Magnus chose this moment to appear behind Victor. He had heard the latter part of the conversation on account of Victor's rather loud voice. Magnus, however, had infinite patience.

One of the Knights - Victor could not tell them apart, nor were any names given - addressed Magnus.

"According to our scouts, there is some sort of narrowl tower or obelisk jutting straigh out of the sand. There are no visible entrances and our Earth-Users cannot judge the depth with magii due to the inconsistincy of the sand. The make of the tower is unknown, but the entire structure wards off all attempts at a forced entry via magii - that is, we cannot use Earth to force an entrance an any of the stone. Additionally, our Grey-Users cannot use their Spark to perceive what is on the inside. So it appears that we have stumbled upon an object completely immune to magii, but we have no idea what it could be."

"Curiouser and curiouser..." Magnus rumbled, turning away from Victor and the Knights. Over his shoulder, he commented, "I shall enjoy seeing this anomaly of yours. Let us depart tomorrow; I am sure everyone would enjoy a day's rest from our travels."

Victor sighed. That man reminded him so much of a dull boulder that it had stopped being funny the moment they started the journey. Then again, what else was their to expect from the Vanguard of Earth? "I'm with Magnus. I could use some rest, and I'm sure our escort could as well. In the morning, before we depart, I would rather enjoy it if one of you two were to spar with me. I can only hope you live up to the high reputation set by the Knights of Dawn."

"We won't disappoint you, sir."

Snapping another salute, they both turned to go back to their duties as Victor turned to depart and ready his tent.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day...