Tarrin stared at the marble crypt a long moment, every memory he had of Faalken swirling unbidden through his mind, and then he turned his gaze to look past the broken walls of the arena. The city was exactly the same, every tower exactly where he remembered seeing it rise up over the walls and the rubble. He knew exactly where he was, and could guide them with unerring accuracy to any part of the city they wanted to go.
Mala Myrr, the Lost City of the Dwarves, protected from looters by the desert and the Selani, cradled in the arms of the Holy Mother. If there was anywhere he would want to begin a journey through the desert, it was this place.
A thought occurred to him. In all the confusion after leaving here, he had forgotten that the Goddess had moved a great deal of priceless Dwarven art after he had stupidly left it sitting out at the mercy of the howling winds. She had never told him where she put it, and after a while, he'd forgotten to ask any more. But the turning had restored all his memory, even things he had forgotten through time and nature rather than a curse, and it was again very fresh in his mind.
He was going to take this up with Mother as soon as he got back. He wanted that art put back where he'd gotten it from. To take it seemed wrong to him. It belonged to the Dwarves, it belonged in Mala Myrr. "Is this it?" Allia asked quietly in Selani.
"This is Faalken's crypt," he affirmed, looking at it again. "This is where I fought Jegojah."
"I remember this place," Sapphire said, looking around. "It looks much different from the air, though. It looks like time hasn't touched it very much. It looks the same now as it did a thousand years ago."
"I kind of like it that way, Sapphire," he told her. "This place is very special to me. I like the idea that no matter how much things change, this place will remain the same."
"Dwarves lived here?"
"They did," he answered.
"A pity I'm not old enough to know them. They look to have been quite remarkable stoneworkers."
"How old are you?" he asked curiously.
"About two thousand," she answered. "But a thousand of that was the time I spent as a drake, so it doesn't really count in my mind."
"Shew," Sarraya huffed. "I forgot how hot it gets out here."
Tarrin turned his attention to himself. He could feel the heat, but it didn't really bother him. His Weavespinner protection from fire made the searing heat of the desert actually rather pleasant. And it was hot. The heat shimmered off the stones and sand of the city in undulating waves, hot enough to burn unprotected skin that may touch it, and the sun struck down like a hammer on anything its rays touched. It was late summer in the desert, and summer in the Desert of Swirling Sands was one of the most hostile environments in all the world. But as summer waned, the famous storms that gave the desert its name would begin to spawn off the Sandshield, howling across the desert like tidals waves of raging destruction, scouring the rocks and threatening to scald and strip exposed flesh off the bone. "I like it," he told her.
"You would," she said acidly. "Mister immune to heat."
"Be thankful it is just hot," Allia told her. "This is the quiet season. Not long from now, the storms are going to begin."
"Don't remind me," Sarraya grunted. "I still feel a little tender from a few of those. But right now, I may actually prefer a little skin-stripping sandstorm to this heat."
"Stop complaining and shield yourself, like you did back then," he said dismissively. "When are you going to leave, Sapphire?"
"As soon as we get clear of the city," she replied. "If I return to my true form here, I'd knock down several buildings. That would defile this place, and it's not very pleasant for me either."
"How long will it take you to get home?"
"Not long," she smiled. "My lair is on the eastern edge of the desert, but conditions this time of year are perfect for flying east. The winds aloft will push me along. I should be home in about seven days."
"Well, let's get started. It's going to take us about an hour to get to the edge of the city," he told them. "This place is pretty big."
After climbing up to the stands to get out of the arena, they exited near the grand open courtyard or plaza or whatever it had been in antiquity and turned up one of the wide avenues leading to the eastern edge of the city. "Why did you bring us here, deshida?" Allia asked curiously.
"This is the only place in the desert I'm sure that I'm familiar with enough to Teleport to, sister," he answered.
She frowned. "How familiar do you have to be?"
" Very familiar," he answered.
"Then how did Jenna Teleport into the dining room?" she asked. "Surely she did not study it."
"No, but it's what you'd call local," he answered. "There are two ways to Teleport, deshaida. There's local and long distance. They have different rules."
"Explain them," she said.
"Well, if you're going to Teleport a very short distance, the rules are very lax," he answered as they passed the building where he, Sarraya, and Jegojah had taken shelter from a sandstorm. "If you're Teleporting where you can see, or someplace within just a few hundred spans, you can do it without knowing the area very well. There's another rule about Teleporting in a confined area called domain, too," he continued. "Jenna could Teleport into the dining room because it's hers. She's the Keeper, and the entire Tower is her domain. She can Teleport anywhere in it or on the grounds, because it's all hers." He stepped absently over a place where he knew a Dwarf skeleton lay buried under the sand. "Jenna can do it, and most of the Sha'Kar can do it too, though they can't go everywhere. They can only go to public places or areas that they consider their personal domain."
"Why is that different?"
"Mother makes it different," he told her. "It's the Goddess' influence that changes the rules. She wanted it to be much easier for us to Teleport in the Tower, I guess. Though why someone would Teleport when they can walk is beyond me." He threw his braid back over his shoulder after a gust of wind pushed it around him. "The third rule is the rule concerning what I just did. If you're Teleporting a great distance, or somewhere that isn't your domain, you have to be very familiar with the area to do it. You have to know exactly what you're looking for in order for the spell to find where you want to go. You don't have to get down and study every rock and pebble, but you do have to be able to conjure up a very detailed memory of the place you want to go. And I mean detailed. I could come here because I spent three days studying every rock and pebble in a longspan-wide radius of that arena to give myself an advantage over Jegojah. But I didn't need that kind of preparation to be able to Teleport here. I could have done it just by spending a day or two camped in one place in the city, staying in that one place long enough to get a good detailed feel for it and a good memory of it. I might be able to Teleport to Amyr Dimeon, but I'm not sure. I also might be able to Teleport to the Great Canyon, but again, I'm not sure. I spent a goodly amount of time in both places, and some pretty memorable things happened, memorable enough for me to possibly be able to make a connection with those places."
"Could you Teleport to Dala Yar Arak?" Allia asked.
"Easily," he replied. "I could also Teleport to the Star of Jerod or the Dancer, because I was on both ships a long time."
"But they are not where they once were," she protested.
"That doesn't matter," he told her. "I'm Teleporting to the ship, not to the place where the ship is. No matter where it is, I can Teleport onto the deck, because it's that deck that's my target. Not the location where the ship happens to be."
"Ah. I understand," Allia nodded. "What happens if you try to Teleport to a place you are not familiar enough to reach?"
"The spell fails," he answered. "It can't find the destination, and the spell unravels before you can release it."
"Quite a restricting rule," Sapphire said. "Wizardly Teleportation is much more liberal. You can try to Teleport anywhere you want to go, but the less familiar you are with a place, the greater the chance that you miss."
"Miss? W
hat is a miss?" Tarrin asked.
"Not appearing where you intended to appear," she answered. "If you happen to Teleport inside a solid object, you won't live to learn from your mistake. That's why it's not done without extreme care or a great deal of desperation."
"Ouch," Sarraya said, and he felt her shudder a bit on his shoulder.
"Can you do that?" Tarrin asked.
She shook her head. "There's a size limit for the Wizard version, and dragons are just a bit past it. Besides, I'd much rather fly. I've never in my life felt a need to get somewhere faster than my wings can carry me."
"I wonder if there's a Druidic version," Tarrin mused.
"I doubt it," Sarraya answered. "Transplanting yourself like that absolutely defines unnatural, Tarrin. You know how the effort goes up when you cross that boundary."
"It's theoretically possible, but not even I would care to experiment," Sapphire agreed. "You'd either succeed, or you'd die trying. I'll leave making that kind of a choice for when I have nothing more to lose."
"I think I agree with you, my friend," Tarrin nodded sagely.
It took them about an hour to get to the edges of the city, where there was much, much less sand. The winds blew predominantly from west to east through the wide valley in which the city was nestled, and the stone buildings of the city formed a barrier that broke up the wind and caused the sand to pile up on the western edges. After they passed the last building, Tarrin and Allia followed Sapphire as she got what she considered to be a safe distance from the outlying edge of the city, out onto bare, windswept rock that was strewn with rounded stones from the size of Tarrin's fist to large boulders, too large for the summer winds to pick up and carry away. She stopped suddenly and turned around, then opened her arms expectantly. Tarrin stepped up and embraced her warmly.
"Now you be careful, little friend," she said. "Did you think to bring my bell?"
"I have it with me," he told her with a smile.
"That's a good boy," she said, looking up at him with a satisfied smile. "If you need me, call me. I'll come."
"I appreciate that, my friend," he said as he let her go. "Have a good journey, and try not to be too hard on your brood when you get home. Remember, they're young."
"That's the problem," she said with a dry smile. "Take care of him, Allia," she called.
"He will be safe with me, honored dragon," Allia replied confidently. "This is my home. I will not allow its dangers to take him unaware."
"That is the only reason I'm letting him out of my sight," she told the Selani calmly. "Step back now, both of you. I need some space."
The space Sapphire needed, as they both well knew, was a good hundred or so spans. They retreated well away from her, and then they watched in mute fascination as the human female shell that had held her was cast aside, and she quickly expanded and regained her true shape. She was absolutely majestic in her true form, a proud, handsome, noble and stately creature, and her gigantic immensity still did not fail to boggle Tarrin's mind. She had to have blood vessels inside her body so big that he could stand inside them without having to stoop. It was almost unbelievable that something could be so huge. She only had to take a few steps towards them and crane that seventy or so span long neck over to get her head almost directly over them, and amber, serpentine eyes, each larger than Tarrin was tall, regarded them with unblinking intensity. Sarraya had never seen Sapphire in her true form before, and the little Faerie's hands were clutching the fabric of his shirt so tightly that she was about to punch her fingers through it. Tarrin was only as large as one of Sapphire's clawed fingers, but Sarraya wasn't even as large as one of her scales. The difference in size between the dragon and the Faerie was as profound as one could possibly imagine.
"Am I impressive now, sprite?" Sapphire asked with light humor in her deep bass voice, a voice that actually vibrated the air around them, making them feel the words more than hear them.
Sarraya could not reply rationally. All Tarrin heard was a series of high-pitched squeaks and stutters. Tarrin wondered idly if the dragon, with its huge eardrums, was even capable of hearing so shrill and mumbled a sound.
"I thought so," she noted with eyes narrowed in amusement. "Well, little one, this is farewell," she sighed. "I hate leaving clan alone, but you have your duties, and I have mine. I'm sure we'll meet again."
"I'm sure we will, Sapphire," he called to her.
Her massive head bobbed in a single nod, and then her neck carried her head away, faster than Tarrin or Allia could have run the same distance. Tarrin wondered absently what it would be like to be so incredibly immense, to be able to cover in one step what would take a human more than fifty, and move with a deceptive speed that came with the strength and size of the form that could outpace anything else alive. Putting things in a perspective of relative sizes, Sapphire's movements, though stately to her and very graceful from a distance, were amazingly fast when viewed from so close. Tarrin was sure that he moved with the same incredible swiftness to an insect gazing up at him from the ground, who would have to walk along for several moments to cover the same distance he could traverse in a single step. The ground shook noticably when her huge paws struck it, as she turned and walked several steps away from the Selani and the Were-cat, and then her sail-sized wings unfurled from her body.
"Uh oh, turn away, sister," he warned quickly in Selani.
"I want to see her take off," Allia protested.
"You won't see it," he warned quickly. "Her wings are going to kick up their own little sandstorm."
"Hmph," Allia snorted, reaching under her shirt and producing a crystal visor the the Selani wore to protect their eyes from the brilliant sun and the sand-stinging wind, a single piece of crystal that was tinted violet to reduce the power of the sun's light.
"Good idea," Tarrin mused, absently Conjuring a new visor for himself and settling it over his eyes as Sapphire's wings snapped down in the first stroke, even as her legs pushed her titanic frame off the ground. A virtual shockwave of air rushed away, expanding on the ground under her and blooming out, carrying with it a cloud of dust and sand. It blasted over them, pulling fiercely at their clothes and making Allia have to reset her feet to keep the wind from pushing her backwards. The sand and dust concealed the dragon's ascent into the air for a moment, and when the dust cleared enough to see, she was already a few hundred spans in the air and about a quarter longspan away.
"Now that was an experience," Allia said, pushing her turban-like headgear back down over her bangs. The wind had nearly pulled it off. "You're going to make sure that I have an entire lifetime of things to sing about when I return home, brother."
"Who wants a dull life?" Sarraya piped in.
"I didn't know you speak Selani, Sarraya," Allia said with some surprise.
"Neither did I," Tarrin added.
"Triana put it in there last night," she answered. "I think she thought I may have a need for it this time."
"It's best to know that now, I suppose," she mused. "Before I say something."
"You wouldn't talk about me behind my back, would you, Allia?" Sarraya asked challengingly.
"No, I'd tell you to your face, then comment on it to Tarrin," she replied immediately.
"I thought so," Sarraya laughed.
"Well, brother, where are we going?" Allia asked.
"Amyr Dimeon," he answered. "I want you to see it, and I want to see how Ariana's doing."
"The Cloud Spire is only about fifteen days' run from here," Allia said. "Ten if we push."
"It took us nearly a month the first time," Sarraya said.
"Then you weren't going very fast," she snorted in reply.
"I was thinking of having an Air Elemental carry us, sister," he told her.
"Posh. It's been too long since I've had the chance to stretch my legs, and I am not going to be carried like a child. Besides, deshida , we have two months. Does it matter how long it takes us to get there, as long as we get there?"
"Alrig
ht, that's a good point," he acceded with a chuckle. He could see her opening up already, shedding the protective manner she kept when surrounded by the others. She was home, she was very comfortable, she was in her own element, and the Allia that he knew when they were alone was going to be right there all the time. She had no reason to subdue her true personality out here. In the desert, she could breathe free, and Sarraya was about to get the full Allia experience. He had no doubt that the Faerie was going to be quite surprised at how playful and emotional his Selani sister really was.
"Come on then, Tarrin," she said with a wonderfully glorious smile. "Let me show you my home. I've waited too long to do this with you, and I won't wait any longer."
"I just hope you can keep up, Allia," he teased as he brushed Sarraya off his shoulder with a paw.
"Well excuse me!" Sarraya snapped, flitting in front of him. "Should I try to sting you now, or just buzz in your face until you swat me?"
"Save your energy, Sarraya," Allia said with a quirky smile. "You're going to need it."
And with that, the sleek Selani female turned and started loping off towards the east, towards the Cloud Spire, in easy strides that ate up shocking amounts of ground with each step. Tarrin burst off after her, catching up with her quickly as Sarraya zipped along behind them, cursing and shouting at them. Together the two of them ran on, in the traditional and effective Selani mode of travel, setting a pace that would kill just about any other living thing within an hour. They ran in silence, but fully aware of one another, and both showed with glances and smiles just how much both of them were looking forward to spending time together, spending time in Allia's home, renewing a bond of love and trust that often defied rational explanation. Tarrin's relationship with Allia was one of the main cornerstones of his life, and without her, he wouldn't know what to do. Time and need had separated him from her more than once, and his amnesia had made it difficult for them; harder on Allia than it was on him. The journey before them, those two months, would renew the ties that bound them soul to soul, forever together as brother and sister.
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