Yu Rael woke up with a start.
She had no sense of where she was for a moment. The air was dry, and faint sunlight pierced the rough tent fabric. Her head felt strangely heavy, and there was a tight, aching sensation in her chest as if something vital was missing.
She came slowly to a sitting position.
The banquet. The sensation of the wine burning down her throat. The way she'd faced Vaen and… told it. All that she'd been storing inside of her for over two years. She'd admitted. Enveloped him. Told him she couldn't wait any longer.
Her fingers trembled a little bit.
And then?
Her mind was blank.
The rest of the memory was foggy, sand in the wind like. She recalled that she'd asked him something, not just anything. She'd asked the question.
His answer…
She couldn't remember.
Yu Rael bit her lower lip. The more she tried to focus, the more it escaped her. Maybe she'd been drunk. Maybe she didn't want to remember because if it was a rejection, she'd rather not know for just a bit longer.
Her heart tightened again.
When she stepped out of her tent, the camp was underway. Warriors of her tribe packed equipment into sand-wagons, their metal clinking in the cold morning air. Horses and desert lizards stamped impatiently as handlers tied them in.
And there he stood.
Vaen.
Standing aside, blindfolded, silently probing his sword. His movements were smooth, controlled. Just as they always were. He was the same as yesterday, no hint of self-consciousness in his expression.
That made it worse.
If he had been odd, maybe she might have known something. But like that… impossible to gauge. Did he forget? Did he even hear her? Or was this the way he pretended it never happened?
Yu Rael forced herself to speak when she bumped into him.
"Morning."
"Morning," he said flatly.
And that was it like always. Just… normal.
It was as if what they had talked about last night never occurred.
The tribe traveled lightly but in masses. The caravan had been set up before the sun dropped below the dunes. A huge column of wagons, horses, and scouts that stretched for miles like a moving fortress across the desert.
Yu Rael rode behind the head of the lead with the chief elder, muttering observations as to where they were headed. Behind them, scores of warriors mounted in light desert armor rode in close formation, their eyes scanning the darkening horizon.
Vaen was somewhere near the middle, walking alongside one of the wagons. He didn't need light to see, and he seemed unbothered by the night's chill. Every so often, Yu Rael would glance back, but he never once looked her way.
The silence between them was beginning to feel like a wall.
---
They rode for days under the silver moonlight and golden sun. The dunes they navigated swelled higher, their shadows stretched out. The air was colder, biting. The landscape was changing.
By the second night of travel, the stars above were fading into a gauze of mist.
"From here," declared the leader of the tribe, his voice low and authoritative, "we enter into the Beastlands. The outer border of the Immortal Organization's territories.".
Yu Rael's eyebrows furrowed. "You mean…"
"Yes." The leader's eyes were keen. "This is not the desert we know today. Any shadow could hold a predator. Watch out."
---
The mist hung on their bodies as they crossed into the new land. The dunes became uneven, jagged boulders and scraggly clumps of black grass. The silence was heavy. No wind, no insects, just the crunch of hooves and boots.
Then it came.
Roar.
It wasn't loud, but it was resonant—so resonant that it rumbled through their bones. The warriors winced, hand going to weapons. Even Yu Rael's heart pounded faster.
A second later, she felt it.
A wave of spiritual pressure swept over them like a churning air wave.
Peak Golden Core.
Not one, but several. Stretching out there in the distance, like predators hovering over their domain. Vaen's head tilted to one side. He could feel them too. Every aura was sharp, hunting, waiting. These weren't mindless beasts. They were stalking.
Yu Rael's fists on her reins tightened.
"Walk on," the leader ordered. "Don't infuriate them."
The caravan paced itself. The warriors' eyes scanned the darkness with every step.
---
It didn't take long to know that they were being stalked.
Hours passed. The golden core auras danced at the edge of awareness, never really drawing near, never really moving away. They were being walked out or pursued.
Then, one more time, the air changed.
A mountain of pressure had formed in front of them. Crushing weight that made even the horses snort and pull on the reins.
Yu Rael's throat dried out.
Nascent Soul Stage One.
Her tribe's warriors exchanged tense glances. Even at their strongest, none of them could stand against such a beast. This was no longer stalking; this was territory, and they had just stepped into it.
"Leader…" one of the scouts whispered. "It's close."
"I know." The leader's voice was grim. "We'll avoid direct confrontation. Follow my lead slowly."
The caravan shifted course, traveling along the edge of a boulder. Every step was the last. The Nascent Soul beast was there in fits and starts—spiking here, dying off there. It was as if it was pursuing something else, but it was acting at random.
Yu Rael's heart was racing. She glanced over her shoulder at Vaen.
He was calm.
Too calm.
It wasn't pride but it was focus. Every muscle in his body stood ready to react. If the beast went for him, he'd fight back. Blind or not, he'd fight back.
And for some reason, that acknowledgment reassured her… and scared her half to death.
---
They rode for the rest of the night, traveling gingerly through the Beastlands. The heavy air later blew away into the distance, but no one relaxed. Even without the Nascent Soul energy around them, they were well within enemy territory.
Yu Rael exhaled slowly, her shoulders tense with strain.
When she glanced at Vaen again, he was still the same being unfazed, steady, inscrutable.
And that wall between them?
It was still there.