Deserts, like any other ecosystem, changed frequently. Those changes weren't usually noticeable in small time-frames, for example, if you traversed the area frequently or lived there. For Faruzan, however, the desert had changed. And a lot. The major landmarks still remained, even if somewhat more weathered than she remembered. But if she had been told this was the Great Red Sand of old, she'd have laughed at you.

Like a puzzle that had been reassembled, the major pieces remained but their shapes had changed. The annoying fauna was there, but they seemed stronger and bigger than before. The raging storm surrounding King Deshret's Mausoleum had subsided. And somehow, there were many more travellers around.

But the worst thing. Something that had not changed in the slightest.

"It's so hot…" Faruzan walked behind the Wanderer, whose pace didn't change as she slowly lost all the energy that she had gained sleeping. "Must you go so fast…?"

"Must you go so slow?" He retorted, not looking back.

"You're a cheeky brat. My seniority aside, I'm the afflicted victim and you're the rescuer… You should listen to my troubles, so I'm telling you. Stop right now."

Contemplating whether to stop or not, he walked a few more steps. Then, the Wanderer stopped dead in his tracks and reluctantly turned towards her. As he waited for Faruzan, he pulled out the metallic water bottle and handed it over to her the moment she got close.

"Look at you, it seems you indeed have manners. But so do I. You can drink first, I can wait…" Faruzan waved away the offer, but the Wanderer placed the bottle in her hands nonetheless.

"I'm not thirsty. Just drink." He looked away. "The audacity of this…"

The bottle seemed even fuller than the last time she drank. But with her body acting so sensitive, she wasn't sure of her own analysis. For that reason, she chose to believe him. And this time, thirst didn't take control of her actions.

"I think I am sick." Faruzan thought out loud, handing him over the water. "My senses are too delicate. Even the faintest breeze tickles me, the smallest grain of sand torments me and the blandest water tastes like pure iron… I'll call it stasis sickness. My five humours need rebalancing, clearly."

It wasn't limited to her body. Even her emotions were many times more intense. Even being a few steps back put her on the verge of crying for sheer incompetency. Drinking that water did the opposite, making her unreasonably happy. Something was wrong and it was because of that chamber.

"Now you're a doctor? Don't be daft and just keep walking."

"You're so foul sometimes. It's not like you are being forced to do this, is it? You can allow yourself to show some kindness."

He answered by keeping the words to himself. Her saviour had mentioned he disliked small talk. She could try to respect those wishes, but she was going crazy with so much sand around.

"What were you doing here?" Faruzan broke the two seconds of silence. "This place seems remote, with little besides sand and this path."

"You answered it yourself."

He came here because there was nothing? To be completely honest, she understood that motive. Perhaps that's why she ended up trapped in those ruins. Nothingness, after all, did not exist in King Deshret's realm… This Wanderer was clearly hiding some shrewd thinking.

"So did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"For the love of… Shut up. If you want to talk, do it about topics that aren't about me."

Faruzan heaved a sigh and kept on walking. She didn't miss the exercise, that's for sure. Her body hurt all over, and she wasn't quite sure why. Another symptom of the stasis sickness? Or perhaps an effect of the scorching sun to her left?

"Has anything interesting happened in the last century?" She switched up topics, as requested.

"The Geo Archon's six feet under. And the Dendro Archon has returned from her imprisonment. That's probably it."

"She was imprisoned?"

"Look, just…" The Wanderer rubbed his eyes in exasperation. "Ask someone to tell you the full story when you get to Sumeru City. She was being kept captive by the Sages to do their bidding. She's fine now. You can probably even see her around the streets."

"Oh, that's terrible… But… She must know I exist! Hah! That's a weight off my shoulders."

"I very much doubt that. She'll believe you, however." He glanced back at Faruzan, scanning her from the toes to the head. Then, he removed his hat and placed it on her head. "You need this more than I do."

Faruzan muttered a thank you as she fixed the hat properly. "You believe me too, right? That's why you're so nice."

"I do believe you. And I am not being nice. Don't waste your breath and keep walking." He returned to his usual walking pace. "Tell me if you need a break."

Whether it was the hat's shade or his words, Faruzan's spirits were a tad brighter. She matched the Wanderer's pace, though perhaps it was because he had slowed down. Her body still ache, but the lack of sun helped immensely.

"How much more is left?" Again, she asked another question. "I don't remember this path."

"Five-hour hike. Six if we're going so slow."

"I see… That's a long time… Will you be alright without your hat? You're very fair-skinned, like a porcelain doll."

"I'm no doll." He glanced at Faruzan, who seemed quite happy under the shade of his hat. "Can you stop asking questions? It's annoying."

That, ironically, brought a question to Faruzan's mind. How did you actually talk with people? After so long, she had forgotten. Wasn't it questions and… well… whatever sprung up? She didn't really know her saviour, and he was completely reticent in giving away information about himself. Whatever Faruzan had in her mind was nothing she could talk about… It was mostly fear, uncertainty and insecurity. Anything else was left a century ago.

As if sensing that tangle of emotions inside her, the Wanderer decided to speak. "I hate speaking for the sake of speaking… Since you've been trapped for a century, I'll humour you for a while. You said you're good with languages. That's what the Haravatat specialise at. Tell me about it."

"Yes." Faruzan paused for a few moments. Then, she realised she could add more to the answer. "I was Distinguished in the art, even among my peers. Many people back in the day specialised in Haravatat as a way to learn ways to decipher ancient mechanisms… But that's the wrong way to look at it. I joined specifically to learn languages and then started resolving puzzles or mechanisms as a hobby. Since ancient languages are a puzzle in itself, resolving the secrets of these ruins became a piece of cake… Whether rainforest or desert, nobody could compete with me!" Her bragging stirred little reaction from the Wanderer. Listless or bored, he simply nodded.

"I… I also wrote books. And guides." Her eyes slowly shifted to the path below. "I miss writing. And reading. I liked focusing on small issues nobody looked at and writing thousands of words about them. Like underwater bivalves. Depending on the type you find on a ruin, it could signify a trap, a treasure or a hidden chamber. To be guided merely by language and scripture will make you easier to fool. I even had to correct a few staple guides… Argh, I used to hate the paperwork to remove such disgraces. Sometimes I applied corrections to my work and the bureaucracy always managed a way to add more mistakes! I thought I wouldn't miss that but I would take that every day if it meant returning to my…"

"I've dabbled with ancient languages." He quickly interjected, ignoring her last sentence. "Only a few words… But I do know more than the average idiot." Faruzan was still in the dumps, so he added: "Say, how do you say doll in the Ancient Desert tongue?"

That picked up her interest immediately. "Southern or Northern?"

"I don't… Southern?"

"Which era?"

"This is what I get for trying to be considerate… Late?"

"Andare." Faruzan cooed the word, as delicately as she could. "If it was northern, it would Panpina. You passed the first test. The Northern and Southern dialects only appear in the Late era."

"You wanted to make a fool out of me, is that it? A little question to humiliate me?"

"Hmm… Yes! For not slowing down before." Faruzan pushed out the hat's brim, having a clear view of the Wanderer's scowl.

"Biting the hand that feeds you, are you? I'll take back my hat then."

Faruzan quickly pulled the hat down to her head. "It was just a jest! I was merely testing your knowledge of the matter, nothing devious. Is it normal to know about languages and history now?"

"No. I am merely familiar with the Desert's eras… What self-respecting traveller does not learn of the area they wander by?" It sounded more like a complaint rather than a statement. Then, he forced himself to continue. "So, I passed the first test, did I? What is being tested? My knowledge?"

"You'll see. Now, the second test. Do you know how to write and read in the Sumerian script?"

"No."

"Good, you passed the test. It is better to start from scratch. Final test! Since you're being so nice, you'll do anything I tell you to, right?"

"That's not a test."

"And that's not an answer."

The Wanderer's grimace expressed a no. His tense posture did as well. Yet, that's not what he answered. "…Sure…"

Though she expected him to push back, Faruzan only received resignation as an answer. Dissonance. He made a conscious effort to agree with her, or do what she said. Strange. Regardless, she hadn't answered.

"Sure? Sure who?" She tapped his shoulder, not hiding her mischievous grin. "How should you refer to me, hmm?"

"Sure, Twintails."

"Eh, close enough. We'll work on your manners." Faruzan then got in front of Wanderer, prompting him to stop. "Very well! You are now my Pupil!"

"The bar is really low, is it?" He cackled an answer. "So desperate for my attention?"

"My keen eye tells me potential when I see it! Also, you're the first human contact I've had in one hundred years, you're going to bear that weight… Pupil."

As the Wanderer sidestepped and kept on walking by her, Faruzan followed his shadow.

"You know, all that talking has left my throat parched." She observed how the Wanderer muttered some curses before throwing back the metallic canteen at her. Again, she managed to catch it. "Thank you, Pupil. You're so nice."

"Fuck off."

"Hoho! Do you think being nice is somehow a weakness? You don't have to balance it by saying vulgar words. I will let it pass this time, but there won't be a next time!"

"Just shut up. You've babbled long enough. Leave me be."

He hastened his pace, leaving Faruzan once again a few steps back. It could very well be that she wasn't the only one with issues communicating. Obviously, being his senior, Faruzan just had to recover from this incident and she'd be socialising like in the old days. Very sparsely but of good quality.

They walked in silence for ten minutes, the desert offering little besides a few breezes of hot and dry air. The moment a landmark appeared in the distance, Faruzan quickly swooned over it.

"Would you look at that!" Faruzan ran up to the ruins that had popped up next to the path.

They were little more than a broken gate leading to a half-destroyed facility. It couldn't be bigger than two or three chambers together. A few collapsed columns delimited the shape of the building, but even those had been mostly covered by sand. The gate contained a few words and a pedestal of some kind a few metres away.

"A simple lock. This couldn't have been more than an administration building. Come here, Pupil." Faruzan looked back at the Wanderer, who seemed completely peeved at her curiosity. She walked next to him and ushered him towards the pedestal. "These pedestals were usually covered in marble to hide their mechanisms. But we can now see a few words. Do you know what they say?"

Faruzan dusted off one of the glyphs and looked back at her Pupil.

"I don't know. I merely said I understood part of its language. I never said I could read it."

"Very well. Maybe I could write down the basics..." She pointed to the first word and traced each symbol. "Dar. Da. Ra. Ka. All together is Dardaraka. Anything here that could help us open that gate?"

"…Ka denotes an action. Dardara… Means tremor. So I suppose it means trembling or something along those lines."

"A fair analysis. However, Dardara means shiver. Adding the ka makes it… Shivering. Freezing the mechanism for an extended amount of time can open it. We lack the ability to do so, but the Ancients always had a backdoor. Look at this next symbol." Faruzan walked to the opposite side of the pedestal, pulling him with her. She kneeled and dusted off another symbol. "Bus. Ti. Ta. Bustita."

"Ta denotes a state of being. Busti means wet. I guess it doesn't take a genius to know how to open it."

"Exactly right! With water, we can open the gate. Simply pour some of your water…" The Wanderer spat on the vessel, immediately liting up the rest of the pedestal. "Or do that, I guess."

"I'm not wasting water for a sideshow." He turned towards the gate, which suddenly received energy and opened up.

Inspecting the gate for a moment, Faruzan nodded quite proudly at her accomplishment.

"It is quite strange to see someone who cannot read the ancient language yet knows its grammar. Have you studied in the Akademiya?"

"Of course not. I told you, I used to be an explorer of sorts. You pick up certain words even without knowing the language of the desert… Especially those referring to elemental reactions."

"Quite the accomplishments. Yet you do not know how to read them. Do you want to take it up a notch? Look at this." On the crumbling gate, there were a few glyphs unlike the rest. Carved by hand and with rough, unkempt handwriting. "Three glyphs… Let's start with the last one. The verb. It's one of the most complicated features of the ancient language… This one is an auxiliary verb. It indexes useful information, such as the grammatical tense, prefixes indexing person and number… The pillar of the language. This one in particular says Za-i-tu-t. Zaitut. To make things simple, it contains this. The nominative I. The accusative you. And…"

Faruzan glanced at the Wanderer, who seemed to have no clue of what she was talking about.

"…I guess this is too advanced. This was a love message. It means, I love you. Quite endearing, don't you think? To think the message has transcended the end of civilization, almost makes this person's love immortal. If these feelings can make it through s many years… For better or worse, my fears will last as long."

He scoffed at her answer. "And how do you say… the desert fauna is out to hunt us?"

Faruzan dwelled on the question for a moment. Then, she turned around to see three scorpions sneaking towards them. "Oh, that's why you said that. Well? You're the Pupil, pull your weight."

"You're the teacher, handle them yourself." He spat back.

"Yes, I'm the teacher. And I'm telling you to do it yourself, Pupil."

The Wanderer mumbled a curse under his breath. Raising his hand, a plenum of anemo energy squished the three bugs into a flat mush of viscera and haemolymph. Faruzan certainly didn't expect such quick kills, but she wasn't about to complain.

"Happy, Twintails? You had your fun, let's keep walking."

"We haven't even checked the inside. And that is not my name." She answered, crossing her arms. "I told you to refer to me properly. I'm not going to move until you do so."

"I'll leave you behind then." The Wanderer did not budge from his position.

"You don't have the guts." Faruzan retorted, raising her chin. "You're too much of a good person to do that."

Her saviour immediately cracked into laughter for a moment. It quickly turned into a scowl. "You have no idea what kind of person I am, brat."

"Brat? I'm much older than you are. And nobody helps someone so much without a reason."

Again, that dissonance appeared.

The Wanderer's expression twitched, her words clearly affecting him deeper than expected. Faruzan was certain that she was right. Obviously, this angry Wanderer was an adept rescuer but a lousy conversationalist. She couldn't quite tell what was going on in his mind. Certainly, the puzzle of the mysterious Wanderer was simple… but by no means easy. At the moment, she was quite certain the man was simply stubborn, and couldn't handle showing what he perceived as a weakness. Which was odd, since he had decided on his own to help her.

"Fine," The Wanderer threw up his hands and strode off towards the open gate. "Let's check what's inside the stupid ruins."

Faruzan happily nodded. "Good! We have nothing to worry about with a strong fellow like you!"

"Don't try me."

She walked a few steps, stopping in front of the gate just so she could see its interior.

The chamber was backlit by the sun. Inside, she couldn't see much besides the entrance and a few glyphs. Something seemed off.

Its walls were too short. The ceiling too low. The air too thick.

But that was enough. The solace she saw inside the ruins brought her nausea and dizziness. Her body locked mid-step, unconsciously bringing her hands to her chest. With each blink, the chamber looked smaller. And tighter. The darkness inside seemed to encroach itself against her, even from the safety of the outside. It stuck to her lungs, making breathing harder as if it scratched against her lungs.

The throbbing of her heart hastened her breathing, compelling her hand to cover her mouth. She took a step back. The walls seemed to move with her. She took two steps back. And the walls moved again. And then she bumped into something. It had to be yet another wall.

She had never left. This had to be a long-winded hallucination. And she was still trapped in the chamber. She was still trapped in the chamber. She was still trapped in the chamber.

"What? Saw a snake? There's nothing inside, just—"

What did the nameless Wanderer notice that he stopped mid-sentence? Was it Faruzan's haunted expression with no colour on her face? The fact she tripped while walking backwards? Perhaps she mumbled something under the distress?

He wasn't quite sure what had occurred. He seized up Faruzan's state, immediately checked the surrounding for enemies and wondered if there was something he was missing.

Faruzan ran away, unsure of what was real or not anymore. She didn't get very far away before her dear Pupil stopped her.

"What in the world are you doing?"

The grip on his wrist became loose as Faruzan merely walked back to the downtrodden desert path.

"Are you just not going to say a damn thing?" Again, his question went unanswered. "Alright, whatever. I don't care."

Annoyed or angered, the Wanderer strode past her. He tried to do so, but Faruzan clung to his arm the moment he passed by. "What now? Can't you… Now you're crying? Not gonna say why? Just stay mute or whatever."

Wiping her tears away, Faruzan now realised she was really crying. It was because she was sick, of course. Not because she was scared of… of nothing… Everything was real.

It took a few minutes of walking with silent whimpers for the Wanderer to speak up again.

"I'm going to regret saying this but I preferred your rambling. Can you stop crying already? It was just a stupid dilapidated room." That only furthered Faruzan's sulking. "Oh come on, am I not right? It's stupid." Again, his supposedly logical arguments did nothing but hurt Faruzan more. "Look, just… stop clinging to my arm. Put your arms around my neck and I'll carry you again."

Faruzan nodded, her arms gliding through his arm until they reached his shoulders. Then, she jumped on his back, making him stagger for a brief moment.

To think that she was reduced to mere cargo brought her no solace. It didn't matter that she had broken out of a seemingly impossible chamber after a hundred years. The fact that she had taken that long could very well be because she simply wasn't good enough. Perhaps she never had been. Nowadays, there were probably a couple of hundred scholars better than her. And then…What would she do?

"Scared of cramped places? Is that it?" He clicked his tongue, snapping Faruzan back into reality. "Look, I was… I used to be… I spent my childhood inside a building. It wasn't as cramped as whatever place you were at, and I could see the sky. There was nothing to do there, however. I just stared at the ceiling most of the time, wondering why she… That doesn't matter. I was basically a blank slate, so I didn't know what I was missing. When I finally was freed from that prison, I came to realise that I hate being indoors. I like the feeling of the wind on my face and the warmth of sunlight on my skin. My point is that… I'm not saying I'm scared of rooms. I'm merely… Just forget it. I don't know what I was trying to say."

"…I suppose" Faruzan started, prying her stare out from the path. "You stay silent for a reason. That was an awful attempt at cheering up."

"What makes you think I was doing that?"

"Because you're terrible at it." Faruzan felt the faintest need to giggle at her own answer, but nothing came out. "I'm… tired. Even if I fall asleep, you won't disappear. You're real." She reassured herself. "Don't let me go."

Her Pupil grunted a muted answer. Faruzan closed her eyes and hoped for the best.