Next day I woke up to the sound of a muffled beast roaring in the distance. A gritty smell was permeating inside our room. The air was heavy and dry, seeping inside the room through one of the broken windows, carrying along with it fine silver grains of sand.
"The sandstorm, it finally came." Noticing that I was awake, Aria spoke up, sitting beside the door.
"At least we don't have to eat sandweavers today." Saying so I got up from my sleeping bag and walked towards the semi broken window.
Outside the city was just as one would expect, a large, moving wall of sand stretched high up in the sky. White dust danced in spirals, taking over everything in its path, transforming into dunes piling over houses and streets.
"This might be a bit more troublesome than we thought." I spoke while spooking up a handful of sand near the window. The storm had just begun and already this much sand had begun seeping in inside our hideout, a place we were supposed to wait out the storm.
"Tess flew out a while ago to check for sturdier houses in the area," Aria spoke up.
I nodded in understanding. Considering Tess's injuries it was usually hard to remember but she was the strongest among us, besides right now, the storm didn't seem to be strong enough to pose much danger.
"Thousands of years enduring through storms of this magnitude, it's truly a wonder how this city hasn't been buried under the sand by now."
"Maybe there is some sort of runic sand removal system still functioning in the city. It might only work once a sandstorm has passed." Aria added.
I nodded in agreement. That made sense; some of the ruins in the expanse still had runic technology working on them. Considering the frequent sandstorms in the area and how we hadn't seen much sand when we arrived inside the city, it wasn't a bad guess that this city had one, too.
The fact that it isn't working right now only increased my hopes of infiltrating the marble building.
The storm became more and more violent as time passed, forcing both Aria and I to cover our faces with some extra clothes we had lying around. Tess still hadn't returned yet, so we waited, occasionally cleaning up the excess sand in the room.
It was several hours before Tess finally came back, her entire body covered in silver sand from head to toe.
"It's bad out there," Tess spoke while landing back on the ground. "Every single house out there is covered in sand. Heck, from the looks of it, ours might be the safest one with all the reinforcing we did the first day."
"If there is no other way, we should focus on fortifying this one. Let's identify every single leak, however small we can find, and plug it from inside." Aria suggested.
Both Tess and I nodded in affirmation.
"Tess, you should be tired after flying for hours. You and Aria should go search the house. I'll go outside and look for supplies."
And go check how those statues were doing. Of course, I didn't say that part out loud.
Once everyone had their roles decided, we got to work. Aria and Tess began looking for some ways to stop the sand coming in from the walls. I took one of our spatial storage and stepped outside, only to be hit by a strong, sand-filled gale in the face.
Tightening the makeshift scarf around my face, I began walking while summoning the stormraven in front of me. After making sure he was strong enough to withstand the air currents, I sent him away to the marble building while closely following behind, making sure he didn't go out of range.
"That's promising." I quietly mumbled behind my scarf. Even though the storm had just begun, I could already see the figures of several stone statues frozen in the streets, completely unmoving.
The further I went towards the building, the better the scene got. Dozens of statues were helplessly fixed in their position as sand pilled up over their body.
The stormraven eventually reached the marble building, but what it saw there completely crushed my good mood. Amongst the series of frozen statues, one stood out.
Unfazed by the storm, this one statue would occasionally move around the building, patrolling to see if it could catch any intruders as it had days before.
"Bastard." I cursed and asked the storm raven to take a closer look.
My suspicions were correct; the armor that thing was wearing was completely identical to the one who had ambushed duskwraith a couple of days ago. The ambush that had cost him two limbs.
Was this it? Did I have to throw away all my plans to infiltrate that place?
I was about to begin cursing again when I suddenly noticed something peculiar. The statue was moving, no doubt but somehow it's movement felt a little stiff.