The sun had begun its descent by the time the endless dunes gave way to something else.
It was Tristan who noticed first. His stride slowed, his hand rising to shield his eyes from the amber glare of the setting sun.
"There."
I followed his gaze, squinting against the light. For a moment I saw nothing but more sand and emptiness of the same brutal landscape that had been trying to kill us for the past few days.
Then the horizon shifted.
What I had mistaken for another dune was something else entirely. Walls, towers, the faint suggestion of structures rising from the earth like teeth from a jaw.
Recimiras.
'We actually made it.'
The thought landed strange in my chest. Hollow at first, then slowly filling with something I couldn't quite name. But I knew it wasn't joy or excitement, if anything it seemed quieter than that. Like something that had been clenched tight for three months finally beginning to loosen.
