Things were fairly uninteresting for the next few days on the trail. We rose early, packed all the tents and cooking implements, and rode until lunch time. Stopped for a minute for a quick bite to eat from trail rations, and trudged onward. A halt for dinner, and a quiet watch in the night. Then another day of the sun beating down upon us mercilessly. Even Nilo was brought to quiet eventually by the journey through the tedium, staring out at the landscape as if lost. Only Tasha seemed unaffected by the intense heat, a common physiological side effect of extensive work with Mana of the Flame.

It was several days into that trek that we finally saw the peaks of the coastal range come into view. Just another day or so to Fu Sāi Tsen, or as those in the know liked to call it, Sāi Tsen. An underground settlement in the desert. But that would come with its own complications...

"Listen up, everyone," Tasha called out to the camp when we'd gathered that night. "I'm sending Astra, Fen, and Jeri in to restock our supplies in the cavern town. Everyone else must not go with them. Stay here.

"That's all."

I'd spent many years living in Sāi Tsen for a mission, a long time ago. I was curious what it looked like in the present. She was right though. They don't like Relians. Which, for that trip, was me.

I'd resigned myself to another quiet night in camp when I felt that chill of eyes on my back again. I turned around and found Astra staring at me.

"I saw those ears of yours perk up," she said. "Why don't you come with us?"

"But didn't Tasha just say..."

"Well." She shot me a mysterious smile. "No one has to mention it to her, do they? I'll vouch for you."

"They don't like Relians," I muttered. "This is a bad idea."

"Ah," she said, nodding sagely. "As a Relian, yourself, I suppose you wouldn't know much about the place besides that. I imagine that sort of first-hand info could be useful to a mercenary in her future jobs, but it's fine if you want to play it safe."

Ah, checkmate. I couldn't exactly admit that I didn't care about future mercenary jobs on this route. Keia the Mercenary would definitely jump at this opportunity.

"Fine, fine. Let me grab my cloak. But if this all goes south, it's on your cute little head."

I really hoped this jaunt would pass uneventfully, but that was probably never in the cards.

Astra told the others that she'd cleared one more to come along, but she didn't say who. Her actions on that night caused me to wonder again what Astra's relationship was to the terrorist group, and to Tasha, who was the theoretical leader of the caravan. She strode ahead with an air of command that felt beyond her years. Astra seemed unconcerned about being in this place.

I wore the cloak with the biggest and loosest hood I owned at the time. The last thing I wanted was for them to see my Relian ears or hair colour. But more importantly, it was a dark blue cloak.

The believers of Dzé Kài among the desert dwellers, the seekers of divinity, wore blue robes when they were on a pilgrimage. They wandered the depths of the deserts searching for the faces of the gods, occasionally meeting up with caravans. Conveniently, they also did not show their own face until they'd seen the faces of the gods in their own visions. So even though the general custom in Sāi Tsen was to lower hoods, I wouldn't be required to do so.

I had been personal acquaintances with the woman who had accidentally inspired the religion, long ago, but it had evolved rapidly.

I just hoped that they wouldn't ask me to spin and sing, which was something a seeker might do in order to bless others. I had learned about the practice in my long time doing missions, but I can't say I could pass as a seeker, myself.

No one greeted or stopped us on the way in, but my trained senses heard the minute crunches of gravel and caught the flickering shadow of a moved corner of a cloak on the crags above the path. No doubt they'd been preparing for us for hours, seeing us coming across the dunes.

In any case, who would dare break the rules of this town? These tough desert dwellers had a reputation. Everyone knew that Fu Sāi Tsen was a community of desert-dwelling Carads who despised tech and magic, alike. That gave them a real hate-on for Relians, who weren't exactly shy about importing Carad tech when it proved useful.

And if someone didn't know the rules, they'd learn pretty fast after entering. If they survived the attempt.

I shivered slightly, but a smile crept onto my face, not a frown.

The danger is actually kind of spicy, here, I was thinking. Love it.

The cave dwellers seemed to relax a bit when they saw us trading in the market stalls. Spears were set down, and conversation hummed quietly again.

Fen led the trades, and he did so with his hood down, his face in full view, as expected of everyone besides seekers. Everything was fine until the very thing I'd dreaded came to pass.

"Kài," I heard someone say behind me.

I turned around, keeping my face hidden deep in the hood of my blue cloak. I carefully made the hand sign of the seeker to the warrior striding up to me.

"Please," the woman said. "Would you bless my baby?"

Ohhhh no.

The same strictures that made lowering my hood undesirable also made refusing such a request undesirable.

I truly did my best, the rusty memories slowly coming back to me. I spun in circles, shaping my arms and legs the best I could. I sang the words I could remember, as in tune as I was able. But apparently, it was not convincing enough. A murmur rose in the crowd around us, and two children started giggling and pointing, wondering what I was doing. I tried to focus harder, but the kids just laughed harder, as if it were a hilarious mummery. That was enough for the woman who'd made the request to give me a suspicious look, and then the children's laughter infected me as well, and it was all over.

I've always had a weakness for the smiles of children. Ah well.

The murmuring of the crowd had shifted to a somewhat angrier tone as understanding of the situation dawned on their faces.

"You're no seeker," a warrior said as she strode up to me, eyes narrowed. "It's bad enough that you'd come into our home under false pretences, but to mock our beliefs... Show yourself."

Suddenly we were surrounded by veiled warriors with spears.

I considered briefly, my eyes darting to and fro, that I might try to claim that I was a beginning seeker, to work my way out of the situation. But it was clear that I wasn't enough of one to pass. I lowered my hood to a chorus of quiet gasps from everyone in the area, and we all raised our hands in the air.

"Hmph. You've worn out your welcome, outsiders," the leader continued. "Did you really think we wouldn't find out?"

Fen was trying his best.

"Hold up, hold up," he said with his hands still raised and in clear view. "That one wasn't even supposed to leave camp."

"Too bad for you. Now none of you will leave alive."

Well... nothing for it. I flowed into a Ka Te defensive stance, twin daggers singing out of their sheathes. The warrior appraised me again, her eyes opening wider, a predatory smile slowly painting her face.

Relians who fight with nothing but martial arts skills are pretty rare. A small and fierce one with obvious competence at it must have amused the warrior. I could nearly hear the argument in her mind between wanting a match with me, and showing grudging respect for a fellow warrior.

"Well, well, seer-ling," she said finally. "One that fights with her own hands and steel. You amuse me, after all. We will let you go with what you have. But do not come back."

We high-tailed it out of the cave, and I noted grimly that warriors were now posted openly at its entrance. I could feel their eyes on my back as we beat a hasty retreat.

"What... the... HELL?" Tasha was in fine form when we returned. Her words seemed to turn the edges of my face crispy with the heat contained within. "Did I not say for everyone else to stay at the camp? And pretending to be a seeker of all things?"

"Don't be upset with her, Tasha."

I took my eyes off the Initiate long enough to see that my unlikely saviour was Astra.

"I asked her to come."

Tasha looked back and forth between us, and then stormed off without another word. Astra just gave me a knowing wink and disappeared into her tent.

Phew...