"What do you mean we can't leave the city for a while?" I asked, a bit puzzled.
"While you were gone, I tried to check if our compass was working fine by comparing it with sunset." Aria began.
"Our compass has stopped working correctly since who knows when." She pointed to her side.
"That's the direction we entered the city from after following the compass for the last couple of days. Meaning, according to the compass, that direction should be the north." She pointed to the opposite side.
"Unfortunately, that's also the direction I saw the sunset today."
"Seems like all this time, we have been walking towards west," Tess spoke up while straightening her legs.
Listening to them, I slowly let out a deep sigh.
"What direction is the compass pointing towards now?"
"South," Aria replied. "The thing had been constantly shifting since the last hour, maybe even before."
I understood what she was trying to say, we had talked about this only a while ago after all. Shifting compass in the Wastes meant only one thing.
"So when can we expect the sandstorm to come our way?" I questioned, letting out another sigh.
"No idea; we don't have the correct equipment to predict that. The sandstorms in the wastes are no joke; the shortest ones last up to a couple of days, and the longest ones last for weeks. If we are caught dead in the middle of the storm, who knows what might happen? We can not leave this place until that storm passes.
I slowly nodded in understanding while internally, my mind was letting out a sigh of relief.
After facing problem after problem, it seemed like the goddess of luck had finally decided to smile at me.
I was already searching for a way to stay for a couple more days to investigate that building, but to straight up give me a sandstorm that can cause all the surrounding machines to malfunction.
I didn't know how to hide the grin threatening to let loose on my face, so instead, I lowered my head, hiding my face under the campfire's shadow.
There was something about that place; with the stone statues assigned to guard it, it had to be hiding something. Perhaps an ancient treasure, some kind of spell maybe.
But the treasure wasn't the only reason why I wanted to explore that place. I could still remember the sudden sense of rage that had taken over me when I first saw those pillars.
I have always prided myself on keeping my emotions in check. Back there, that wasn't me.
Thinking about it for a while, there had been only one conclusion that came to my mind, something I had read Soren struggled with quite a few times.
It had to be the dormant will residing in my bloodline. Which after not showing any signs of resistance, had momentarily awakened after seeing those statues.
As for what reason? I had no idea.
But whatever it was, I had to get to the bottom of it and investigate. This world was a dangerous place; I couldn't trust myself to fly off the handle every time I walked inside some ancient place. Today, it might just have been a moment of rage; tomorrow, I might lose all reason and attack the stone statue protecting it. Soren had done it once, after all.
"Are our spatial storages still working?" I asked after collecting myself.
"It is for now. Still, we didn't want to take any chances, so we took some supplies out for the next couple of weeks." Aria pointed at the back of the room, where underneath the darkness lay a large quantity of canned goods and water, among other essential supplies.
Looking at the amount of food laid down outside was like staring at our biggest problem in the face.
"We need to start hunting as soon as possible."
With us staying in this place for at least a week, our food shortage problem was going to become bigger than ever.
"We need to get out there tomorrow and find something to hunt. Meanwhile, Tess can stay here and try to make some satchels for us to carry the bags."
"Let's also try to find a water source while we are at it." Aria chimed in from the side. Tess agreed as well.
And so it was decided, we would hold out in the city until the storm passes. Of course, during this time I would try to sneak out and investigate the marble building.
Once the storm has passed, we would use the sunrise to determine directions in the morning and head north.
During midday, we would use the stick method every couple of hours to confirm that we were going in the right direction.
The compass would only be used to determine if there were sand storms around us. During our journey, we would need to hunt and actively look for water sources.
Once the plan was finalized, we decided to take some rest. I was the first one to jump inside my sleeping bag. The shadows had stolen enough of my goodnight sleep, not anymore.
Aria wanted to take the first watch, but Tess insisted she should be the one to watch it. After a bit of back and forth, Aria decided to concede, getting in her own sleeping bag.