Chapter 14 | PoV: Aisha
Aisha soon arrived at the western gate, panting and sweating. She hoped she made it to the caravan on time. All of this walking . . . Blargh. She looked forward to sitting in a nice, shaded, covered wagon.
She dug through her satchel for her missive. Finding it, she retrieved it from the fabric bag.
She looked around for the caravan staging area—there! A few buildings away from the walls, an open area was reserved for various wagons and camels and such.
There were two separate caravans here. One clung to the left side of the area, and the other the back-right. The one in the back was still hitching up their camels to their wagons. The left one looked almost ready to go.
Aisha approached the left caravan. A wayfinder sat at the front-most of only two wagons. They weren't moving goods to another city, as far as Aisha knew. Actually, even two wagons seemed like a lot for an expedition like this.
“Hello,” Aisha waved.
“Greetings,” the wayfinder studied Aisha with a critical gaze. “Our other temporal mage?”
Aisha handed the wayfinder her missive, nodding.
“Why do I recognize this name?” The wayfinder wore trousers and a tunic. A turban sat on his head. He wore not the robes of a government official nor of a mage. He had a little bit of a goatee going on, too, which was such a choice Aisha wanted to look anywhere but there. He must have been in his fifties or sixties. That old, and yet still wayfindering. At least he must be good at the job, then. Unless he picked it up recently.
Aisha shrugged idly, not really paying attention. “My essays?”
“Your . . . Ah! That's it!” The wayfinder exclaimed. “Had enough time cooped up in that tower, eh?”
“Something like that.”
The wayfinder handed her missive back. “Feel free to rest in one of the wagons if your body isn't up for it.”
Ouch. Did she appreciate him looking out for her or did she feel hurt at his doubt at her body's ability to keep up?
“The job will be easy,“ the wayfinder continued. “Couriers between Glorestra and Kanimaw have already checked the two normal routes—no sign of anything. That leaves the third—through the Grand Spires to the south west.”
Aisha didn't care if it would be easy or not. She knew why he clarified that, though. This wayfinder was kind of getting on her nerves now.
“We will have six mages. Three will always be casting at a time, when one group tires, the other will fill in.”
“Got it,” Aisha replied. He was talking to Aisha like she was a new recruit. This may have been her first caravan, but she knew the standard protocol for mage cycling.
Aisha saw two aeolian mages, two thermal mages, and another temporal mage standing around. Then, there was the wayfinder back on the driver's seat, and some sort of individual in more aristocratic robes. She wondered who that was for. Investigation, maybe? That would make some sense.
Aisha got piercing looks from one of the aeolian mages and a wary gaze from one of the thermal mages, which sent a shiver down her spine and left her uneasy.
What warranted those looks? Was it her size? No—no one looked at her like those mages did for that reason. So why did they?
Perhaps this was an established team, and Aisha was intruding or butting in? Maybe they didn't trust her for that.
It's not like there weren't other women who were mages—unfortunately she was alone on that front this mission.
So, she didn't know why she could have possibly gotten those looks, she could only pointlessly theorize.
Aisha headed to the back of the first wagon and peered in. A few small crates sat in it—rations and things, by the look of it. Aisha did not head inside the wagon. She loitered around with everyone else, instead.
She could walk, and she would!
The official-looking person climbed onto the seat of the wagon and took the camels’ reins.
“We're heading out!” The wayfinder called. With a flick of his wrists, the camels trotted forward.
Aisha and the mages walked alongside the wagons, flanking them, three on one side, three on the other.
Soon, they arrived at the gate, portcullis down. A guard checked each person's missive.
The wall itself loomed maybe only two or three stories tall. Some extra height came from the fact that Glorestra nestled in a shallow crater, with the walls having been built on the normal floor of the surface. There was an incline from the rest of the city to the gate.
“They have the okay!” The guard called. The portcullis lifted, and Aisha and the caravan went beyond Glorestra's walls.
A kilometer later, they met the tempest, a wall of heat and wind. The side of mages across from Aisha's began casting, and the caravan breached the wild storm.
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No wild animals attacked the caravan. No complications fell upon the mages. The traveling went simply. The right side of mages cast, and after a few hours, swapped to Aisha's side.
At one point, they let the camels take a break, resting their legs and drinking water from one of the hefty stone crates. Aisha's strength had helped carry it to the camels. She may have been big, but she sported muscle mass along with it! She thought she hadn't gotten nearly as much rest as those camels. Her legs felt sore still, she did not want to walk much anymore. Still, she pushed through the pains and aches.
She wanted to not just prove her worth to the caravan team, but to herself as well.
Aisha knew they were on the right path because she could sense faint traces of mana usage along the way. Huh, she could almost put a wayfinder out of a job. Although, they had fancy trinkets and baubles to find the way, useful if no one had trekked a path and there weren't traces of mana.
“Grand Spires approaching!” The wayfinder called from the front of the wagon.
Quickly upon them, Spires of rock jutted out from the ground and into the sky, flanking the path.
“Wait!” Aisha said, gaining up to the front of the caravan. “Stop!”
The ground here appeared to have been melted and re-solidified. What? . . .
“What’s the call?” The wayfinder projected back.
“Thermal magic—on the rock in front,” Aisha said. “A spire fell and they melted it away.”
“That happens sometimes. Nothing unusual.”
That could be the case. Aisha still wanted to check, just to be safe—or sure. She would not let any little thing go unanalyzed while she remained on the team.
“No. I mean—can the right flank take over? I want to check this side, to the left.”
The wayfinder sighed. “Alright, it wouldn't hurt, I suppose.” The wayfinder stopped his camels. The second wagon did the same.
The official-looking individual stopped and knelt down to study the cooled rock below the caravan.
“Thank you,” Aisha nodded to the wayfinder. He was difficult, but eventually agreeable, at least.
“Right flank, magic up!”
Aisha broke off from the caravan and headed leftward.
She got to the edge of the tempest and stood there.
She turned to look behind her. “Well, are you coming?”
At that, the aeolian mage and thermal mage of her flank followed behind, keeping up a safe bubble for the three of them as they stopped into where the tempest tormented just moments ago, now being carved out.
It did not take long for the caravan to vanish behind a veil of storm and raging sands, as if consumed by the heat and wind. Of course, the caravan lounged safely somewhere beyond. There, she got a better perspective on the spire
They had climbed up in elevation a bit on their trip away from the caravan. Opposite of the spire from the wagons, she sensed traces of magic. All three—aeolian, thermal, and temporal—manifested as faint, non-visual impressions of light blue, fiery red, and a worn orange. Yeah, that did not make sense, but that was how Aisha felt it. The lingering thermal magic stood out like a boulder among pebbles, and she could feel fleeting, invisible lines connecting to the top of the rocky spire, which appeared sheared off from here.
“Yeah,” Aisha said to herself, and maybe to the other two as well. “It was sabotage. Although I don't know why they didn't just assault the caravan . . .”
This didn't make sense. Why choose this way? Maybe it was to occupy a thermal mage and distract the caravan?
No, the traces of magic here did not connect to the main path. So what happened? Again, why did they choose this plan of attack?
Suddenly, Aisha picked up a change in the winds and heat. Something shifted behind her, the signature of magic permeated the air. Her stomach dropped.
“Wait a sec—”
Aisha whirled around.
“Ah Heliux.”
The aeolian mage and thermal mage each pointed their staff towards Aisha. Aisha's heart skipped a beat. Sweat rolled down her forehead. Aisha smirked despite the circumstances, didn't they know to fight temporal mages with temporal mages of their own?
She instantly threw a time bubble up around herself, speeding up her time by like five hundred percent. She cast a slow bubble around the two mages to balance out the spell. She let go of the larger one she had been casting to speed up the trip.
Still, changes in the air and heat rushed for Aisha.