Emily sat back under the tarp watching their people dig out the recess as the winds drifted through the plains.

After finding signs of his tribe, Kael returned to his men and had everyone grab shovels to start excavating the entrance.

At first, Emily had wondered why they even needed to bother getting in if it was so much work but Kael had been staring at the dune for a while now as the winds continued to pick up.

If Emily were a betting girl she'd say a sandstorm was on the way.

The sun was almost completely out at this point, and Emily was lounging with Cupcake, watching everyone hard at work, when Alex broke off from the team shoveling sand. He had exchanged his armor for a thin veil that clung to his sweat-drenched body, tapping his shovel against his shoulder.

"Are you going to help at any point? Or are you just going to sit there like a prized Millo?"

Emily gazed at Cupcake who snorted in her face.

"I think I'm good here for now," Emily said

Alex groaned.

"Emily, the sooner we get in there the sooner we can eat and relax, plus I heard Kael say they have some good things we can make use of."

Emily pursed her lips. She had heard that, but at the rate they were currently going, it would be nightfall again before she dug it out.

Ashe had helped in the beginning but she was still recovering from creating the pillar, and after removing about half of the sand she'd had to take a break.

Alex threw the shovel at Emily now, who had to scramble to avoid getting hit with the tool.

"Watch it!" she growled, but Alex ignored her and moved to sit under the tarp.

She squinted at him, watching the heat rise from his body in a shimmering haze. From her spot in the sand, she noticed the way he clutched the siphon, his hands trembling.

Snorting, Emily got up and brushed the sand off her butt, leaving the shovel in the dirt beside her.

"Cupcake, let's go. If I have to work so do you."

The large Rime wolf let out a bass rumbling from her chest but climbed to her feet and followed.

When she got to the point Ashe had marked out as the entrance, she pointed for the Dire Rime wolf to go at it.

Using her large mass, the wolf moved into the center of the other diggers and began to paw at the dirt. Then, as though an instinct kicked in, she began to dig through the sand using her front paws to kick up plumes of silica into the skies.

Those directly behind her had to move out of the quickly or risk being buried.

A lot of people let out groans as they were covered head to toe, but they changed their tune when they saw just how quickly the wolf was tackling the task.

The main problem with digging out an entrance when it was filled with sand was that each time one removed any sand below, more sand would fall from above to fill the space. Every spadeful of sand would pull more from the gradually shrinking pile, and yet it felt like an exercise in futility.

Seeing the problem, Emily decided that the only way forward would be to work from the bottom up.

The thing was she'd need to make the ward pretty big if her plan was to work.

Taking a moment to center herself, Emily pulled blood from her arms and converged them above her head, slowly allowing the ward to take shape.

It was the first blood ward Emily had ever learned from Ashe, and while it didn't quite fit the task at hand it would just take some creative spell-casting to make work.

The ward gathered all available dust and dirt to compress them into a rock. She'd used it to great effect up in the mountains to destroy an elven village, and she would use it to solve their problem now.

When it was done, a disk of runes drifted above Emily's head almost one meter across. She charged it with source and to everyone's surprise, she pushed the blood ward into the crevasse right near the base of the mountain of sand.

Emily then concentrated, and the shift in the sands became evident almost immediately. Sands began to fall from above as though she had opened a hole in the ground, causing the crevasse to rapidly begin to empty.

Sweat formed on her brow from exertion and when the sand had fallen by almost a third, Emily lifted the new rock out with a grunt. Because it had built up inside the dune, Emily used this to pull more of the blockage apart, dragging the massive stone out into the open.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Out of the way, I'm not responsible if you get crushed!" Emily shouted.

People scrambled as she yanked the five-meter-tall stone from the recess.

As it came free, Emily could see that it had formed into a near-perfect sphere, which she dropped a little ways from the crevice.

Looking back at her work, she saw a huge gap in the butte, and at the back very was the top of an entryway.

Smiling, Emily created another ward and began the process again. Only this time once the second rock was created, she could see more than three-quarters of the opening. It was large enough to let them in at that point but there was a solid-looking stone door in the way.

By that point, Emily took a breather. If she wanted she could still have pushed herself but the way was uncovered enough now that it only took ten minutes of everyone together to clear the rest.

Kael arrived at the doors almost on queue.

Emily had searched the large stone gate for any way to open it as they were finishing up but the only thing she noticed was two holes angled diagonally in the stone, which had leaked sand for a short while.

When Kael got there he slotted his spear into to hole and braced his shoulder against the one side. Lifting and pushing inwards. It was a simple but effective way to keep people out. Any kind of complex mechanism would only fail in this environment.

There was an echoing grinding of stonework as the doors creaked inwards to reveal a sandy corridor leading to a flight of stairs going up.

Turning back Kael looked toward his men.

"Alright, I'm going in to check for traps, the rest of you get ready to enter on my order."

Kael began to slip inside and Emily happily followed.

When Kael turned back his lips pressed together but he didn't try and stop her.

"Just don't touch anything."

Emily held her hands up in surrender and happily followed him into the corridor. What she didn't expect was for Alex to arrive right behind her.

"Weren't you slacking off?" she asked.

Alex rolled his eyes at her.

"Aah yes, and who was it that's having all their duties taken care of by someone else? Not to mention the sounds coming from your tent yesterday"

Emily crossed her arms and scoffed.

"Hah, he agreed to the deal, I'm just getting my money's worth."

Before either of them could continue Kael made a shushing hiss.

"Don't move! Can you guys see the color of the tiles ahead?"

Emily froze as they neared the bottom of the staircase. Squinting in the dim light, she tried to make out the colors in the tunnel.

The passage itself was strangely smooth as if shaped by magic rather than carved by hand. Its edges were clean, and only a thin layer of sand had gathered along the sides. The walls and floor were made from the surrounding sandstone, forming a long, uninterrupted corridor.

The staircase ahead was a stark contrast. Instead of plain stone, the steps were covered in vibrant, patterned tiles green, yellow, and blue. Emily found it odd that there were only three colors here, especially if this place followed a consistent design.

"Make sure to step only on the blue tiles," Kael warned. "Anything else could trigger a collapse."

Emily pursed her lips as she gazed up at the long, colorful staircase. Then, she simply took to the air. If she didn't touch the ground, she didn't have to worry, right?

Kael deftly moved up the stairwell using the walls as pivoting points with his lanky limbs.

Alex on the other hand began to trudge up the stairs having to lunge and jump at large intervals.

Each step had at most one blue tile, and to make matters worse, some steps had none at all.

To Emily it looked like Alex was climbing a step of stairs far too large for him, taking four or even five steps at a time to get to the next blue safe space.

At the mid-way point, there was even a spot where he had to hop over ten steps at once. Emily remained with Alex in case he missed a step, but Kael had long since left them in the dust.

When Alex finally made it to the top they saw Kael had already flipped a switch at the top of the staircase to turn the trap off.

Alex sent the man a withering glare but he just shrugged.

Emily wanted to snicker, but the sight of the chamber held her attention. It was a vast, circular space—large enough to bring the animals inside if needed. Near the top of the dome, a reflective material had been used to let in a good amount of light while keeping the sand out.

At the back of the room, two passages stood out—one leading to what appeared to be a storeroom, and the other suspiciously resembling a long drop. The fact that they included a toilet here was a sign of what these chambers were used for.

The space was large enough that they could fit the entire company in here with their tents and from what Emily saw there were tons of earthen jars in the storeroom which could feed them for a long time if need be.

After exploring the three of them headed back out to let everyone in. The stagnant air of the chamber was washed away as the draft making its way inside carried the scent of sunbaked sand and minerals

"Everyone inside, stow your gear. We will not be traveling tomorrow, there is a storm coming, and if we're lucky it will only be for a day, but if not, we have the perfect place to hunker down for a time." Kael shouted

Emily searched the horizon for signs of a storm but couldn't make out any signs of clouds, what she did feel was the strange excitement in the air.

The wind was picking up, and the animals were becoming restless, even willingly seeking refuge in the shelter. Luckily the glanemares had no problems with the wide stairs.

When everyone was inside Kael looked toward the south before moving to close the door behind them. The last thing Emily saw was a cloud of sand rising in that direction to blot out the sun. She was fairly certain if they were out they wouldn't be able to see the person in front of themselves.

The door cracked closed shutting out the rising wind and Kael grunted.

"Now we wait."

As Emily climbed the stairs for the second time she heard a wail of agony from up ahead. Hearing this Emily and Kael shared a look and both took off running. When they got to the top of the stairs Emily saw a crowd gathered –unable to even set up their equipment yet.

Emily pushed through the crowd in time to see Ashe hunched over Selia, her voice trembling with panic.

"Lia? Lia, please. Talk to me!"

When the two of them got to the front Ashe looked up at Emily.

"Emily, we have to do something, she's suffering."

Emily pursued her lips. She would have liked more time to practice the spell but it looked like things were looking worse for her than they'd first thought.

"Alright, what can I do?" Emily asked.

Ashe searched through her pack and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"The ritual Emily, we have to do it now!" Ashe said in desperation.

Blood points: 612

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