Ajira was angry with me, but I distracted her by explaining how to conjure objects. It could only be a good thing for her to know in the case that we ran into trouble, but from past experience, I knew her usefulness with a sword or a spear would be limited. She was a slightly built, scholarly, healer and as we talked, I realized that our fight with the skooma addict was her first experience in fighting. She didn't even take time to keep her claws sharp like most Khajiit and had just used the points to tear.

Still, teaching her was a good trade for getting her glaring eyes off my bag and it dispelled her brooding mood. Even better, the more I talked about the magic skills I'd been neglecting, the more details and tricks I remembered myself.

She struggled as we walked, concentrated on her open hand. Blue shadows seemed to partially take shape for a couple seconds at a time before dissipating back into the light of day. "Why can't Ajira make it work," she asked?

"Well, what kind of weapon are you picturing?"

"A knife."

"Well what kind of knife?"

Her cat lips pursed and she shrugged in frustration. "I don't know, just a normal knife."

"Aha," I exclaimed! "I think I know what you're doing wrong. See, I have a natural advantage at this because I've used all kinds of weapons. Details matter. You have to imagine things like shape, weight, what it's made out of, how it's balanced, that kind of thing."

"But Ajira thought it was made out of shadows or magic."

"Yes, but magic doesn't know how to take shape on its own. You have to think for it and help it fill in the details. One trick I used a lot is I would make copies of weapons I was familiar with. Like this."

I conjured a copy of my Nord broadsword I left with Bargrum back in Cyrodiil. "I never used to go anywhere without this sword on my person. I spent hours with it in my hands. I know its weight and balance perfectly. I can copy the texture of the wire wrapped handle. That's a good trick for beginners and honestly, I never tried to move past that. My mom was much better at it. She could make up a weapon from scratch and she could make it whatever weight she wanted. She could make it less than a pound when she moved it which made her super fast, then when she needed to block or stab, she could make the weapon super heavy, allowing her to block much bigger weapons or pierce armor like butter."

"Ajira is still confused."

I sighed. "Alright, try this. Make a perfect copy of your little alchemy knife."

Her fingers fell to the little sheath and she drew the blade. "Feel its shape and its weight in your hand and imagine one just like it in your other hand."

There was no hesitation this time. No delay. A bluish spectral replica appeared in her left hand that was just as solid and existent as one of my summations. She looked up at me with a grin. "It's much easier that way." I nodded and gave her an appreciative smile, hoping it would be enough to satisfy her. Instead she held out her hand. "Let me try it with your staff."

I handed her the pole, "Knock yourself out. I've got to check the map." The landscape didn't change much here. We'd seen a handful of hardy animals and rare patches of prickly shrubs, but no other people. We followed paths at the bottom of small canyons between large hills With few to no distinguishing features. The place was a veritable maze and I was only able to navigate by the position of the sun. By my calculations, we were nearly to the lake, which was good because night was falling.

With Ajira behind me, busy studying the details of my borrowed staff, she didn't notice the shift in the wind that I did. My map fluttered and I realized that the breeze was no longer coming from the west, but from the north and it had turned hot. I walked out into the crossroads where I could see a valley to the north. A wall of dust billowed towards us faster than a galloping horse.

"Ajira!" All I said was her name. She looked up and quickly followed my lead, putting on the scarf the soldier had given her, wrapping it to cover her mouth and leaving only a slit for her eyes. I had time to grab her arm before the storm hit us. The ash buffeted my bare arms and obscured my vision. I squinted and felt around for the staff Ajira had dropped. I found it and stood, realizing I had no idea which way to go. I couldn't see far past my hand, let alone the sun.

I yelled desperately to Ajira. "I don't remember which way! Any idea where east is?" She kept her head tucked down, scared and completely overwhelmed by the elements. I shook her. "We can't stay here!" Once again, she failed to respond, only scooting closer to me as if afraid we might be swept away by the gale. She would be of no use. I turned to my right and walked until I felt the ground incline, indicating the canyon wall. I thought this might be the foyoda we were meant to follow, so if I stuck to the side of the hill, it should empty out in front of the lake. The only landmark I could remember were some small red circles scattered throughout the canyon, but I had no idea what they were.

Ajira and I clung together and I half dragged her along with me for half an hour with no visual confirmation that we were moving at all. The only sound was the howling wind and the world began to feel empty. I kept to the right until I felt the ground slant under my feet. Eventually, my ankles became tired from walking on such an uneven surface, but I didn't dare stop for fear of losing the only sense of direction I had.

Then, in a moment, a red light seemed to emanate from the ground in front of me and I stopped. Bending down, I experienced extreme heat and saw a little caldera of volcanic rock jutting out of the ground and I could hear a sporadic, deep pitched bubbling sound. I didn't get near the source of heat, currently unable, or maybe unwilling to imagine its source and skirted around it. I prayed it was one of the circular markings on my map.

What seemed like an eternity later, my feet splashed into water. The dust was still too thick to see well, but there was only one source of water marked nearby on my map. This had to be lake Nabia.

Ajira yelled over the wind. Fatigue showed in her voice. "What do we do now?"

I stomped back up to the shore and followed the shoreline, not sure what else we could do. My body felt dry and chapped and very tired, but I couldn't imagine how to find shelter in this.

"Han-lu, Ajira cannot continue. Ajira must rest."

I peered into the great dark blur of the world around us. There was nothing. Finally, I took off my backpack and took a small blanket I'd purchased. It was little more than a bedsheet and I'd meant it more for comfort than heat at the time, but I'd just thought of another use. I laid down on the ground and gestured for Ajira to lay beside me, then threw the sheet over our heads and tucked it under our bodies so the wind wouldn't blow it away. The sheet kept the ash out and that was all we could ask for as we waited out the storm.