Being injured didn’t mean that Illuvia got a free pass to slack off. She was granted adequate time to rest, but she was still sent out with some other privates to scout areas of the desert. Her bruised right shoulder blade excused her from carrying any heavy weights, so she wasn’t dressed in armor and held no bags. Her orders were to “try to learn a thing or two about the desert” since this was an entirely new climate for her. She much preferred the forest and had made that well known before they’d assigned her to the area. If she ever met who was in charge of sending her here…
Luvi didn’t particularly want to go on these scouting trips. The desert was hot and her aversion to sunlight made the entire experience uncomfortable. Without someone to fight the undesirable feeling persisted on and on enough to give herself a headache. This was the third such trip that she’d made and they never found anything interesting. One time they thought they’d found an oasis, but it had only been the overactive imagination of one of the other privates.
The privates trudged along, occasionally passing around flasks and cracking jokes about the shapes of the cactuses. Luvi kept to herself, mostly. It was common knowledge at this point among the privates that she could get grumpy in the sunlight. Plus, she commanded some mix of respect and fear due to her abilities, despite not intentionally trying to. Anyone could look at her and know she was an umbral hone mage… the kind that could curse. Not everyone held these feelings, but the group she was with certainly didn’t care to go out of their way to include her.
“Lads, I think I see something,” said a lanky man in his mid thirties named Avern. He squinted his eyes and pointed and the rest of the privates looked on. Past a field of cactuses was a couple people who were keeling down.
It was hard to tell what they were doing at that distance so Luvi drew the rune of sight on her forehead, allowing some level of telescopic vision to pick up on small details at a distance. She fueled ether into the rune until she could make out more than a hazy outline.
“There’s… three of them,” she said as she tried to adjust to her enhanced vision. This was the first time she’d ever thought to use the rune of sight in a practical way and she still didn’t know if it was going to give her any useful information.
“What are they doing?” asked another private. He seemed excited as it was the first notable thing they’d found in days.
“I can’t really tell,” Luvi said, “they look like nomads and they’re…” she could see that they were moving and working on something… but what was it? She tried to follow their gazes and surmised that they were focused intently on the ground. “I think they’re trying to dig something out of the ground, as crazy as that sounds.” She blinked as she absorbed the ether from the rune back into her body.
“That’s odd,” said another. “Should we head back and report it?”
“I, for one, would like to know what they’re trying to dig up before we head back,” said the next.
The small handful of men discussed amongst themselves for a while then decided to get closer and check things out. Luvi sighed and objected, “our orders were to scout only. If we see any nomads we are to report back. I can’t agree to approaching when it could be dangerous.”
Avern said, “you’re a private just like the rest of us and our vote outnumbers yours. I’m in line for a promotion anyways, I ought to have authority here.”
Something inside Luvi told her that she ought to have returned back to camp on her own, but another part of her told her that she might get lost without their help. She saw no other way forwards besides indulging their curiosity. She didn’t think they were in any real danger, given she could still use her left arm perfectly fine to fight if need be… but turning back would have reduced the time she’d have to spend in the sun.
“Okay, I don’t outrank you so I clearly can’t make you listen. I’ll follow along, I guess.” She threw her hands in the air exasperatedly then immediately winced when she felt a twinge in her shoulder blade. She followed them closer until their sounds were enough to alert the nomads of their presence.
“Ho there,” Avern said with a wave of his hand. “What are you lot doing?” He had his other hand on his sword in a threatening pose.
“Leave us be,” shouted a nomad, “We’re just digging for some supplies. We do not want a fight but if you come closer we will defend ourselves.”
“Let’s go,” Luvi hissed, “I’m injured, in case you forgot. I can’t protect everyone from your boneheaded decisions.”
Avern didn’t listen, instead breaking out into a grin. “Supplies, you say? Well, as it so happens… this land belongs to the Empire. So whatever you’re so intent on digging up technically belongs to us. Now, if you’ll move aside…” He approached and the nomads backed away, drawing a mix of bladed weaponry.
Avern looked down and whistled, “wowie, look at what we have here, boys. There’s a well here! Jackpot!” He bent down and tried to pull the firestone out of the ground with his bare hands and found that it was in there pretty deeply. He pulled out a dagger to try chipping away at the sides of the well to free it loose and then…
BOOM!!!
The firestone exploded, throwing Avern a couple feet into the air before his partially charred body fell to the ground with an eerie thud. The nomads burst out laughing. “You fool. Now get out of here lest you put the rest of us in danger. You’ve wasted a valuable resource and we won’t let you waste any more.”
Luvi’s eyes had widened and she didn’t know what to do. Wells were indeed a valuable resource, but clearly there was more to extracting them than met the eye. Part of her wanted to get her comrades out of there, but another part of her wanted to take a well for her own.
“That’s enough,” She said, finally stepping forward and coming into full view of the nomads. “I’m a mage and I think I’m fully capable of dealing with you all. Just allow me to have what's left and we’ll be on our way.”
“If the big scary mage wants to have a go at taking some out of the ground, by all means,” snickered a nomad.
Luvi narrowed her eyes at them and considered closing the distance and slashing into them for that remark. With great effort she managed to pull her focus back to the ground. The explosion had really done a number on the ground but she could see a couple wells stuck in the ground right next to each other.
“Striking it is a bad idea, so I’ll just cut around it and take the chunk of earth back with me,” she said. She took out her sword and made a series of precise cuts to make the earth easier to pull up then she carefully lifted the chunk of earth that contained the wells. She could focus on separating them further later, hopefully once she got some guidance.
“No explosions, so I guess I did it right?” she asked the nomads. They didn’t look happy that she’d managed to do it but they didn’t protest at her taking it.
Another private pointed at the nomads and said, “That pouch he’s carrying, I bet there’s more of those wells in there. Let’s just take it from them.” He drew his weapon and took a menacing step forwards.
Luvi said, “feel free, but I’m in no mood to fight. Do it yourselves. If you’re smart you’ll focus your efforts on carrying Avern back to camp, because I’m not helping with that either. I’m injured, remember?”
The nomads put away their weapons when it was clear that there was to be no more fighting. They didn’t seem to have a problem with how things had turned out, all things considered. Avern came to several minutes later and he would not stop making noises of pain. He had every right to, given his burn marks and numerous internal injuries, but Luvi just wanted him to shut up. He’d gotten himself into that whole mess and she was somewhat satisfied that he’d been punished.
As they walked, Luvi examined the well curiously. She had no idea she was supposed to actually do with it. Sell it? That was her first thought… but witnessing that explosion earlier had triggered something within her. If there was a way to properly harness that power, then she stood to gain from studying the well and figuring out its secrets. All she needed was some guidance…
