A search of the camp showed while they might have been bugs of some sort, they possessed an incredible ability for subterfuge. The patrol guards were dead on their routes, the warriors in their bunks. The things had been methodical in the elimination of every man and woman camped around the oasis. Osilliaice looked to the water and would wager it had been tainted to poison any who drank of its waters as well, the opponent had left little to chance. Even had their attack failed they ensured this oasis would no longer support the little rebellion the lizardess had begun.
Lifting her head she glanced to her returned companion. As Alustriea had suspected, saving Osilliaice had indeed filled her friend with a sense of pride that the young elf was now secure in her own abilities to share the task of trying to keep their odd little family alive with her own means. Still Osilliaice had to frown slightly as she watched the elf move about the silent camp arranging the bodies of the camps troops without a word of complaint.
It had been over a week since the odd sandstorm had separated them, it was another point of pride that Alustriea was even still alive, as she had shown a distinct lack of foresight when it came to her self preservation. For an adventurer she had been almost too green for travelling. Yet here she was today sharing the lizardess' burden without complaint. These days had changed her somehow, some ways good, others likely not so good. They needed to find Xing Lei, bad enough he could be dour half the time in his pursuit for his dream, but this desert was rubbing them all the wrong way.
In truth she wasn't wrong. Alustriea had both found her determination in the dunes and lost her more free spirited nature. Everywhere she went she kept finding misfortune. Between the bandits, the sand worm, her time after the sandstorm was beyond rough. But then a week of wandering where lecherous bandits just kept coming? She was ever so ready to get the hell's out of this sandy deathtrap. If she never saw another sand dune or another foul tempered camel she would praise the gods unwaveringly. Yet each day was the same, blistering sun, bandits and a mount that had taken to spitting at her whenever it thought she wasn't paying attention.
Yet the desert seemed endless, the only change in scenery usually being which dunes were higher or lower than the rest around them. A sea of sand that stretched in all directions for as far as an eye could see. Like at the start, Alustriea and Osilliaice had taken to travelling at night, the cool evening hours was when they made the best time, when the moon was high the temperatures really dropped off making Osilliaice alot more lethargic. Thus when midnight came it was Alustriea's time to lead the duo, and while her resolve had improved, a capable scout she wasn't. More often than not, the elf deviated off the course Osilliaice set. Though the lizardess never faulted her friends poor sense of direction, she was getting worried about her seeming divine level of misfortune.
Despite her presence, the nomadic bandits were a constant encounter... if not worse strayed across their course. From beasts to monsters, Alustriea seemed to have an uncanny ability of finding trouble whenever she got distracted within her own head. Osilliaice really had to shake her head one morning when they set camp to wait out the day, Alustriea had laid a blanket over the soon to be burning sands and went to lay down when she literally sank into the ground. Osilliaice had quickly hauled the elf out but had to really ask herself how she had missed the edge of a quicksand pit like that? After Alustriea had sunk into it after laying down it was obvious what it was but when they had set the spare tent Osilliaice carried on her pack the area had looked like normal sand.
Watching Alustriea curse and try to get the silt out of her clothes, Osilliaice truly wondered what malignant star her friend had been born under to warp the laws of nature to be just THIS unlucky. Though looking back on their adventures together, the lizardess could only shake her head in wonder, she had merely considered Alustriea as one who was young and naive but in consideration of a wide open waste where most dangers could be seen miles away to have them literally seem to be pulled out of the air? Osilliaice was now convinced Alustriea had to have some connection to Loss, Goddess of Misery. No one was this unlucky and misfortunate without having some vendetta against their person from the dark Goddess.
Osilliaice sighed and moved over to start moving the tent while Alustriea cursed fate, the gods, the very desert. It wasn't like Alustriea wasn't aware of Loss, she just tried very hard not to think what it would mean being on that Goddess's particular hate list. Like Osilliaice the sheer absurdity of her bad luck could simply be explained if she attributed to Loss having a problem with her but for the life of her, Alustriea had no idea why Loss would be picking on her specifically. As far as the elf knew her family had never had any interaction with the Goddess. She supposed seeking out one of Her dark oracles might quickly resolve the matter but such mystic soothsayers were in themselves an ill omen to come across. Most tales of people seeking out the oracles to get Loss to leave them alone, one and all ended in tragedy.
Still, having seen Tyrix and Quellia in person last month, the idea she had bumped into Loss when she was much younger was probably the easiest explanation as to why her life seemed to be great but was ultimately a series of her fumbling from one disaster to another. The only question was, how did a young elf girl manage to piss off an ancient demonic goddess? Surely her father might have mentioned that his darling offspring was cursed to fumble through existence right? Shaking her head, Alustriea dismissed the negative thoughts that seemed to spiral further and further to implicate everyone, focusing instead on dragging her fingers through her hair to dislodge a clump of quicksand.
With the tent repositioned, and double checked in light of the new possibility, the two could finally get out of the blistering sun, still, sleep dud not come easily to the pair. Between recent thoughts and worrying over Xing Lei, neither truly slept. They were both just so use to his presence at this point, dragging them both along on his own quest for personal power and ascension. Neither could truly grasp where they now stood, between being on the opposite end of their homeland to being powers onto themselves, neither really expected their paths to go so far, and the road ahead promised to be longer still.
As the day passed and night granted a reprieve, the duo once again set their footsteps south. Passing each day focusing on their own thoughts, though at least once a day now Alustriea's horrendous bad luck would raise its head to imperil them in some fashion or another. Neither could really understand it, before the sandstorm the elf's luck was bad but since their separation it just seemed to get worse by the day, by the end of the week both were glad to finally stand atop a tall dune and see the coast on the horizon. A distant smudge on the edge of the coast told the tale of a journey end. Hopefully when they reached it in the next few days they would be reunited with Xing Lei.
Still it was a slow trip across the dunes, unlike most towns, this was the seat of power for an enemy of Xing Lei, to blindly walk in would just help the genie against their lover, thus each night they avoided patrols, using a round about path to reach the port rather than just taking the sandy path. As the place loomed ahead a great palace hung over the port, seemingly supported by clouds that cast a dismal pall over the port below, sneaking in was easy since no guards patrolled the streets, a rough camp sat on the outskirts telling the tale that even the genie's brigand soldiers would not live in the shadow of the tyrants palace. The people went about their lives looking highly stressed, always casting a wary eye to the silent floating structure.
Sticking to the slums and alley ways their first day stretched into a second. Then a third came and went. Hiding her ears Alustriea frequented the wine shops and taverns, making subtle queries about a wayward kobold but no one seemed to have even heard of kobolds this far south east. Even his name brought no attention, it was if the tyrant had not warned her people of Xing Lei coming here. Osilliaice was growing more worried, she herself had been trying to rebuild a cell of her rebels from the lost of the port slums but no one had any thought of resisting, all life just seemed drained from them.
A week past and Xing Lei was nowhere to be found. The two were now truly worried, with his drive he really should have been the first to arrive here but by all accounts no one in the town had seen or heard of Xing Lei. The tyrant was quite mum as well, most despots tended to gloat over their subjects, or showed some interest in ruling their land, but the palace above was silent. The sense of dread that hung upon the populace made no sense, it was like they all expected to be eaten alive at any moment.
From what they COULD learn, to reach the palace one needed a flight spell or make use of a special ferry that docked in the harbor of all places. The cost of passage was steep and with good reason, the ferry master was quite informed of what was going on. While the genie was in charge, its master was still around trapped in the palace. The genie had given him a time limit to free himself last 'all he held dear would fall from the heavens'. Most of the town heroes had already made the attempt... but they all fell to whatever awaited them above.
The ferryman also knew of Xing Lei, well more accurately a kobold who had been escorted into the palace by the genie itself weeks ago. He had been encased in glass, the ferryman well assumed the strange trophy dead much to their horror. Still the fact the genie hadn't been seen since that day either was also a good sign to most folks, yet the thought of the palace crumbling and crushing the port town below weighed heavily on people.
With little else they could do they paid the greedy man his fare, emptying most of their reserves to reach where Xing Lei would likely be. Surprisingly the ferry itself didn't move, looking unquestioningly to the man he motioned to the gang plank behind them simply stating... "You have arrived. When you wish to return, ring the bell. That costs double by the way."
Alustriea nearly cursed the deceiver when Osilliaice caught her attention, turning the elf saw they no longer stood on a ferry moored to the docks, but a ferry sitting serenely before the massive front doors. Glancing back the man had vanished like smoke on the wind. The pair looking to each other in confusion, each held a suspicion but neither wanted to voice the possibility. The likelyhood they had just walked into a trap was high but with a nod to each other they stepped before the gate and pushed. The large door opening with no resistance and not a whisper of sound. Reaffirming their resolve, Alustriea and Osilliaice strode inwards to save their lover...