The next morning

"Well, here's the dune... You think Lady Medina is going to kill us?"

"We're in store for quite the verbal lashing. We better find those Quicksanders." Ilia takes her mind off her lady's potential punishment and focuses on the canyon wall ahead of them. Strong winds exit the canyon, keeping the exhausted noblewoman on her feet. Last night wasn't the best sleep she's ever had, being cold and all. Far from the worst, but she still feels drained of energy. "The valley ahead looks to be carved by erosion from the wind."

"Probably," Mia responds chipperly. Maybe the conditions that ill-suited Ilia last night didn't faze the darkworlder, even with the lack of her armor. Her home is a destitute land depleted of resources, after all. "I don't see any dust clouds, though. How far does it go?"

"I don't know. It's not on the map, and the desert isn't used as a road."

"Maybe there's a way around."

"Even if there were, we wouldn't be following the Quicksanders anymore. There's only one way. Get ready, Mia." The dark knight apprentice sighs, commenting how all this walking is bad for her health. Ilia's assessment of Mia's tolerance might be wrong, but it cannot be helped. They have no other choice but to make their way through the windy valley.

It doesn't take long for Ilia to wish there was an alternative pathway. She uses the formal arts to create a barrier around her, so her body is protected from the cloud of sand, but her view is still impeded. She takes her steel sword and holds it out, using it to follow the canyon walls.

How the Quicksanders get through here is a mystery, one she'll have to ask them. If Jaymes was around, they could fly over the valley...if he felt like doing so. He just recently learned how to 'fast-travel' with more than two people, something he couldn't perform two years ago. Can he take an entire group to the skies? Doubtful. Ilia would've thought Mia knew that ability by now, given how traces of her swordsmanship adapts the Aincrad Style and her tendencies reflect her teacher, but she's adept in the formal arts compared to Ilia.

Right behind her, Mia holds her own with a similar barrier. She doesn't show it, but Ilia is impressed with the other girl's abilities.

The Dark Territory would have won the war with their overwhelming numbers, but at the same time, if the war was fought in lands with plentiful resources and possessed the full might of the Order of Integrity Knights, the Human Empire might have had an arguable chance without the otherworldly aid. It's that one advantage the empire has over the dark realm, the one advantage Ilia possesses over Mia. Or maybe that's how Mia wants Ilia to think. Trained in the swordsmanship of the dark realm's knights, tack on the skills learned from the new emperor, and the Loveblight Bow on her back, created from the resources left by the Reaper of the Woods they beat at the beginning of this ordeal, this girl possibly has the power and skill of an Integrity Knight.

Ilia won't sell herself short, though. Mia may have some advantages, but Ilia has hers. One, she's trained not only in the Norlangarth Style of swordplay but she's adopted the Orthinanos Style as well. That same style held its own against the Aincrad Style multiple times before, her abilities with the arts are higher than Ronie and Tiese. She hasn't fully figured out her Divine Weapon, the healing dagger strapped to her waist, but that doesn't deter her. If only she had a dragon companion like the other trainees...

She looks back again, this time not seeing Mia's form. "Mia, are you still with me?"

"Illy? I'm right behind you! These winds are something else! Can't see anything!"

"Keep moving forward, okay?"

"Yeah!"

Ilia presses onward, praying to Terraria for an end to the winds. Her prayer is answered a little bit as they come to a wider part of the valley. She lowers her blade and scans the area as much as the veil of sand allows her, then suddenly pauses as she feels movement below her feet. Immediately she gets into a battle-ready position and scans the area again, this time with her senses. However, the only life she senses is Mia, right behind her...yet her boots are continuing to sink into the sand.

Sink...into...the sand?

Ilia notices the sand around her takes on a gentle slope, and the sound of rushing movement in the air is the sand moving down towards a center point. "This is an antlion trap! The sand...under us is moving! We're getting sucked in! Mia!"

"Ilia!"

"Mia! Your voice is getting farther away! Where are you!"

"I'm here! But the quicksand..."

Ilia, the sand up to her knees, pinpoints Mia's location from her voice... The center of the trap. "I'm coming for you!"

"I'm fine, I can still...gah! I'm sinking!"

"Mia! You're sinking fast! Grab my hand! I'll pull you!"

"And how will that help us?" That's an excellent point, but Ilia's logic-based mindset is more concerned with saving Mia than a possible solution. With the sand creeping up her skirt, Ilia makes the decision to dispel her barrier and get to Mia.

"Like hell I'll let you die before we save Jaymes. Medina will really chew me out over that." Ilia comes as close to the center as possible, spotting the purple-clad Mia fighting to stay above the sinking sand. Half her body is consumed by the trap, and she's sinking quicker than Ilia. "You're sinking farther every second. Mia, grab on!"

Mia turns around and glares at Ilia. "I said stay there! Why did you come closer? Now you're going to die too!"

"And if I was the one sinking?"

Mia grits her teeth in silence, then with a strong yelp reaches for Ilia's hand and grabs on tightly. "...I knew you liked me more than you relay, Ilia. Fine. But how will we get out of this?"

Ilia answers with a totally out-of-character worried smile. "I haven't got that far."

Mia chuckles as the pair continues to sink. "That's not you."

"I know. Not having an answer is...ridiculous..."

When Ilia came to, she found herself not sinking to her death in a sea of sand, but laying down safely on a diamond-patterned carpet Her confusion is furthered by her surroundings that seem to have the makings of a base camp with the multitude of barrels, boxes, and bags placed around. At first, she believed that, by some miracle, Medina had found them, but where would the supplies come from? They traveled two days with preparations for the three of them, not a small force.

"Finally awake, I see. How are you feeling." Ilia turns her head to a weathered middle-aged man. He wears a dark purple tunic with yellow edges, and a white shirt underneath. Matching white pants are tucked into brown leather books. He looks too well-dressed for the desert, considering all she wears is a light, somewhat breezy grey uniform. It might work well against the cold nights, though.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the chief of the Quicksanders, Rayhan."

"The Quicksanders..." Just their luck, she found the Quicksanders...well it is more appropriate to say the Quicksanders found her. And if they found her... "Mia. Did you find another girl with me?"

"Be at ease. Your friend is fine." As he says that, Ilia hears her new nickname and adjusts her eyes in time to see the purple-wearing darkworlder run over. Ilia braced herself for potential impact, but Mia stops right beside Rayhan.

"Illy! You're awake."

"Seems so." Wincing, Ilia gets to her feet, dusting off her clothing. Feeling only soreness, she looks at Mia. "What happened?"

"The Quicksanders saved us!"

Ilia refrains from sarcastically responding, that much she figured out. Instead, she looks around, seeing no more of her makeshift tent around the camp. Furthermore, men are not the only people here; women and children of all ages can be seen. "Is this where you live? It's nothing but a carpet and cloth for the roof."

"This is what we use to set up a trading outpost."

"What are children and the elderly doing at an outpost?"

"We're wandering merchants, traveling the desert to make ends meet. We use cloth like this to set up tents as we travel. They make flexible dwellings. But one week ago we lost all of our cloth. It was all because of those...things."

A week ago...Ilia was at the northernmost reach of her homeland, Mia was in the Dark Territory. It took a week for this news to make it to them..Just like it took a month for them to hear of the blue thorn sickness. Her features hardening, Ilia presses on. "What...things?"

"We thought them only a myth, but the fearsome Pebblestone Giants truly exist!"

"Giants?" Mia exclaims.

"A band of criminals exiled from the kingdom of giants in the Dark Territory. After casting a sleeping spell, the witch found them and buried them in the sand. We laughed at the elders who spoke of them as if it were nothing but a fairytale. But the giants awoke and began crawling out from beneath the sands."

Ilia looks at Mia and sees the same conclusion in the darkworlder's eyes. The witch spoken of has to be Administrator, Giants entering the realm isn't uncommon, she's heard of goblin breaches back up north and there were two long-past breaches of giants and Dark Knights to the south and east that gave the ATCF trouble two years ago. But the latter two were resurrections of those defeated dark worlders by Hersyrian's Clamps, not like the goblin raids on Norlangarth. As far as Ilia knows, the Southern Corridor has been closed off for centuries, which is why Nerguis and Enriko were sent to see what to do about opening it back up.

"With the giants ravaging our camps we had no choice but to abandon our cloth!"

Ilia turns back to the setup she awoke at. "So you braved the heat of the desert with nothing but this single cloth?"

"It wasn't only the tents-we left all of our business goods. Without them... We sent a warrior to reclaim it, but the Pebblestone Giants have yet to leave. You seem to be warriors from the capital. I beg of you, please help us! Please, defeat the giants that have claimed our cloth!"

"You saved our lives. We'll help with whatever you need. Right, Mia?"

"Of course!"

Rayhan bows graciously. "Thank you. Blessed are we who were not forsaken by Goddess Terraria. Our tents are set up at five different points. Take this map. Signal when you reclaim each point. We'll send men to get the equipment."

Mia nods. "Got it."

Ilia feels for her waist, the steel standard issue blade on her left side, and the dagger obtained from Illfang on her right. Mia has her sword on her side and the Loveblight Bow strapped to her back. They look prepared to head out. "What time is it, sir?"

"About two o'clock in the afternoon."

"We'll set out in an hour, then."

Meanwhile, in Norlangarth

While one set of apprentices prepare for trouble in the desert, another set had just finished training their young dragons on how to hunt for their own food. While the sacred creatures frolic on the knoll near Lake Norkia, Ronie and Tiese sit nearby, enjoying the open air.

They came here after their morning exercises, which gives them the rest of the day to do as they please. The report from the South Centorian city office hasn't arrived yet, so they weren't needed by Kirito and Asuna. They thought of taking a trip to the northernmost point of the Cordia Plains, to Medina's estate, and check on Jaymes, but didn't want to be bothersome to Medina's staff.

The lake used to be part of private lands owned by the imperial family, but after the Rebellion of the Four Empires, all private property was made public, including imperial holdings. February might be drawing to a close, but it is still a far cry from spring, so the lake's only inhabitants are the two girls and their small dragons. To Ronie, however, it feels like a waste. "After we opened up the private lands, you'd think more people from the city would come out here to visit."

Tiese, drinking tea, snorts. "Oh, Ronie, you're too used to living at the cathedral now. It's not the day of rest today, so people aren't going to just get up and leave the city in the middle of the day."

"Oh…r-right."

"Oh, but from what I heard, nobody comes out to the emperor's holdings, even on rest days. Even though the other private estates are so popular there are lines at the gates."

"Ohhh…" Ronie still wondered why that was. Lake Norkia, as well as all the imperial holdings, were just outside North Centoria, on the west side of the main route from the city. Other noble holdings, including Medina's new home, were on the eastern side of the main road. Distance definitely wasn't an issue. Looking at her friend, it looks like Tiese is awaiting the question on ROnie's mind, so she bites. "Why aren't the emperor's holdings more popular?"

Tiese clears her throat and points to the far side of the lake, where a forest originates. "See that mansion on the other side?"

"…Yes." Out of the treeline, one can see the spires of a black building. It was once the manor for the royal family of Norlangarth, used when they stayed on the private lands. There used to be soldiers and servants present, but nowadays the place, including the forest, is off-limits. "The emperor's mansion, right? What about it?"

"…I hear you see things there."

"See things? …Like what?"

"You know what I mean,..Ghosts"

"...Whose?"

Tiese's serious facade cracks. "Aw, come on, you're no fun! You're supposed to get all scared!"

"Let me guess: You were preparing yourself to say that all day."

"Of course I was! I don't get many opportunities to spook you, Ronie."

Ronie pokes her friend in the arm. "That's not just a story you made up, is it? Where'd you hear about that?"

"The last day of rest…when you and Kirito were in the dark lands, I went shopping in the market in the sixth district, and the man at the bakery told me. He said that people like to go out to visit the formerly private lands now, so his hard rolls for packed lunches are selling well, but the emperor's holdings aren't a popular destination, and it's because there are ghosts near the mansion, apparently."

"Really? They believe in ghosts now?" As a child, Ronie heard stories of ghosts causing trouble to various towns and villages before Administrator rose to power, and based on recent expeditions, there is some truth to the matter. She heard the Integrity Knights and the Axiom Church's bishops got rid of them. The Ancient Apostles and those resurrected by the Clamps may fit the bill to a degree, but they're not the ideal ghosts in her mind. "For one thing, the actual fighting happened at the palace in the first district, and the only people who died were the emperor for not surrendering, the noble generals, and the grand chamberlain of the palace, right? Why would there be ghosts around the mansion in the holdings outside of the city?"

Tiese smirks at Ronie's rapid speech. "Wait a minute, Ronie. Are you getting a little intimidated?"

"M-me…? No, of course not!"

"Oh really? Well then…why don't we go and check it out?"

"Huh?" Ronie's taken aback by the suggestion. Tiese did not just suggest they go to the old emperor's mansion. "Ch-check out…the mansion?"

"Of course," Tiese smugly remarks. "Look, if these creepy rumors are going to continue spreading, it's going to have an effect on the Unification Council's plans to reuse the private land, right? Apprentices or not, we're Integrity Knights, so if we realize that something needs to be investigated, shouldn't we be the ones to do it?"

If Ilia was here and not secretly in the southern lands (well, Ronie's sure Instructor Deusolbert and Commander Fanatio know by now why Ilia is not here), she would think Tiese is being suspicious. But like Ilia, Ronie and Tiese are knights of the order, and Deusolbert told them that they couldn't just sit and wait for orders all the time. So Tiese is right to a degree, and unbeknownst to them, Ilia is acting on those words currently.

Ronie decides to placate Tiese. "All right. But what about them?" She gestures to the young dragons, running around in the nearby field.

"Why don't we take them along? Ghosts should be afraid of a sacred animal like a dragon, right? Assuming there's actually one there."

She can't tell if Tiese is serious or not. Given the state of emergency the realm is in, though, a ghost is the least threatening compared to the First Children. Only the knights can enter the mansion, and the threat of bears or wolves was unlikely. It should be safe for the juveniles to come along. "I suppose you're right…"

"Then that settles it!"

Ronie stands up with Tiese, her fingertips sliding against the hilt of her new sword, the Divine Object she named the Moonbeam Sword. "If it was going to come to this, you should have chosen a new sword for yourself, too." She was given permission to take a weapon of high priority of her choosing before she joined Kirito in the Dark Territory days ago, and, being told by Asuna, was of the understanding Tiese and Ilia were next in line. Turns out Ilia skipped said line to a degree, while Tiese looks at her standard-issue sword and shrugs.

"Mmm, I guess so, but I like this sword…It's so familiar to me now." Tiese smiles and turns towards the dragons. "Shimosaki! Tsukigake! Come over here! We're going to go on a little trip!" The juveniles, full on fresh, self-caught fish, beat their little wings energetically and thrill happily.