Sigma/Star

Chapter 129: Shifting Sands

Grimsley's foot drifted around the sand, his toe dragging little lines into it as it shifted beneath him. He would look up from time to time, finding the sun was still around eye-level, finishing its descent into night, and it blazed out across the desert in a final show of glory. A warm breeze, one that had been slowly losing its heat as the evening drew closer, pushed grains of sand back and forth across the expanse, blowing small fragments of rock into Grimsley's hair as it passed by. He had to spit every so often to get the sand off his lips.

The same breeze would rustle the odds bush, a tree here and there swaying under its influence. It was majestic to watch, particularly from someone who had never seen anything like it. The deserts that occupied the south of the Artisan Confederate, which had once belonged to ancient Egypt, mirrored the open expanse of fields that Grimsley hailed from. If one stripped away the green, the result was much the same, and he could look out at the horizon forever, never knowing where it ended.

"We're still a ways off from the Nile." Goulet sent rings of smoke out from his lips between his words. He was resting against a rocky wall, or the remains of one. They had found these ruins during their travels, among many hundreds of others, and picked it as a resting space. A wall that barely rose out of the ground three feet still provided a back rest for the ageing general. "There'll be a few more towns there to cross through on our way into the United Eastern States. If we keep up this path, that is."

"Doubt they would let us in," Sigmeund mused, tossing a coin from one hand to the next, checking the result each time. "Confederate did a mighty fine job of pissing them off the last time they spoke."

"But," Goulet cut in, raising his finger to object, "that was then, and this is now. The East was in some sort of truce with the Enians, who are now in some sort of truce with Artisans, so that might just sneak us through by proxy."

"What if they don't?" Grimsley asked, genuinely curious about the answer, as opposed to the snide remark Sigmeund had clearly had on his lips.

Goulet paused, taking a drag from his pipe. He puffed out a cloud of smoke that drifted upwards into an empty sky, curling around a barely visible moon for a moment. "That's a good question."

"And why would we go to the Eastern United States? The Jahari attacks have largely been focused on Enian and Artisan land." Grimsley hopped down from the wall he had sat on, knocking sand aside around his feet as he landed. He twisted in place, his head swivelling back and forth between Sigmeund and Goulet.

"Why indeed," Sigmeund giggled, flipping the coin once more, final glints of sunlight reflecting off of it.

"That's another good question," came Goulet's follow up, before silence fell between all three.

"I mean, what are we doing here anymore?" Grimsley threw his hands up into the air. He had previously had no issue in following his new mentor, a man who was mysterious, and yet so full of strange answers. Who challenged everything Grimsley knew but also reassured him all at the same time. But now, they had simply returned to wandering the countryside, and at this point, discussions of leaving to a very foreign land made no sense at all. Where once they had travelled down into the pits the Jahari came from, now it seemed they were running from them. "What is your goal?"

Goulet and Sigmeund exchanged a glance with each other before both returning to watch Grimsley. "I would impose the same on you, but yours has been made quite obvious." Goulet stretched his legs out as he spoke, shifting slightly to regain comfort in the sands. "What is our goal? That is a question I may not have an answer to. We choose to spread knowledge, and to gather it. Enlighten and be enlightened, and we see where that takes us."

Grimsley narrowed his eyes at the elder, displeased with the vague answer. "We're finding allies." Sigmeund caught his coin, no longer amused by the game he was playing in his own mind. "We're playing the field."