“You’re back,” Camille said as he descended from the upper floor of the crumbling watchtower, a small, relieved smile on his lips.
This tower was Camille and Ron’s hideout. We weren’t quite allies yet, but we’d joined hands to survive this situation. There were things we kept secret from each other, things we couldn’t talk about—such as Elena’s position and mine. Though I doubted these two would do us any harm at this point, an information leak could ruin our plans. If it became known that Elena was the princess of Claydale, even Jaysha, who was currently our business partner, might make a move to seize her.
Though I was now known throughout Cutlass to be the assassin Cinders, there was no reason for anyone to connect the dots with the missing princess situation. We had to keep our information confidential for now.
Likewise, we didn’t ask Ron and Camille about their true identities either. Knowing that could end up hindering our own actions.
“I bought food. I’ll give it to Chaco,” I said.
“Thanks,” Camille muttered, bowing his head. “It’s a big help.”
“Thank you, Alia,” said the beastgirl Chaco as she emerged from behind him. She somewhat sheepishly accepted the food I’d brought.
While I’d been fighting, Ron and Camille had saved Chaco from the Munza. But since they’d butted heads with the Munza many times, their group was still in danger and so was hiding Chaco and the younger children here.
With Kushum dead, the Munza probably had other concerns, but I’d judged it best for Ron and Camille to continue to refrain from going into town. Though Camille could probably keep himself hidden and get food if necessary, considering the distance and the number of mouths to feed, it was more efficient for me to transport supplies in Shadow Storage.
Besides, there was something else I wanted them to focus on.
“Camille, did you gather the ingredients I mentioned?”
“Yeah, a good bit of them. But there aren’t a lot of fully grown ones around here, so I had to go pretty far...”
“I’ll take that into consideration. Should I give Ron the aethercrystals?”
“He’s upstairs, so go on ahead. Also, don’t work too hard or anything. The food and Lena are help enough.”
“I know,” I said, lightly punching Camille’s shoulder.
Camille looked conflicted, like there was something he wanted to say but couldn’t. I walked past him and made my way to the upper floor.
I climbed the spiral staircase extending along the tower’s inner walls. From the outside, this place looked like a stiff breeze could knock it over, but the collapsed inner stairs and cracked walls had been reinforced with plaster and bricks.
They’d been working on repairing a certain something here for over a year. Apparently, Ron had come to this tower using said something, where Camille had happened upon him. The two boys, whose circumstances were similar, had initially been wary of each other, but eventually they’d reached an understanding and begun to work together.
Why had Ron come to this tower, you ask?
“How are the repairs going?” I asked.
“Hey, Alia,” Ron said. “I’d say they’re about ninety percent complete.”
Ahead, where the roof of the tower had collapsed, exposing its interior to the elements, was a hot-air balloon. I only knew what it was thanks to that woman’s knowledge. It was a small thing and would fit at most a handful of adults, but everyone here could nevertheless escape the desert aboard it.
I’d never seen anything like it, not even in Claydale. It wasn’t due to a technological deficit but because the kingdom was rife with airborne monsters. Balloons weren’t practical as transportation options. But here, where large flying monsters like griffins and wyverns were rare and the worst threats were Rank 2 greater eagles, balloons were more viable. Granted, greater eagles would have been a significant threat to the hot-air balloons described in my knowledge, but in this world, the balloons were made with monster hide, making them significantly more durable.
But that also made them heavier. Therefore, instead of ordinary fuel, magical tools with fire-elemental aethercrystals were employed to generate heat and buoyancy. That was why I’d brought some crystals to Ron.
“I brought the fire aethercrystals,” I said.
“Thank you,” he replied. “That’s a big help. This thing goes through them like crazy.”
“How many more do we need?”
“Hmm...” Ron paused his repairs to scratch his head and consider the materials he had on hand. “If we’re going into the safe zone in the Kal’Faan Empire, we’ll need a few more. We could reach there with what we have now, but there’d be no margin for error.”
“Got it. I’ll be on the lookout to hunt for or buy more.”
We’d agreed to accompany Ron and his group to Kal’Faan; they were all eager to leave this increasingly unstable town. To that end, Camille would gather materials to repair the balloon as well as ingredients for my alchemy from the ruins of Reisveil, while I would continue to sell potions in town and buy aethercrystals and food. Ron focused on repairs, and Elena cared for the children with Chaco, using her light and water sorcery to keep people healthy and the space livable.
The arrangement was advantageous for all of us. They got materials, food, and their needs taken care of, and we got a new hideout—a necessity now that we’d antagonized the Kiluri and could no longer patronize inns in town.
Deal aside, repairing the balloon itself was a problem.
Maintaining a balloon was costly. It required the hides of desert lizards—heat-resistant reptilian monsters—but only their soft underbellies were usable. Not only that, the hides needed to be sizable, as the more seams the balloon had, the weaker it would be. Additionally, though the lizards resisted fire, they had earth-elemental aethercrystals, so we had to hunt other monsters or buy the fire aethercrystals we needed. Lastly, to counter airborne monsters, at least two Rank 3 or higher sorcerers were necessary. The balloon was the type of thing only nobles could really operate.
Ron, who had ridden the balloon here, had to be a Kal’Faan noble. Still, we had no intention to pry when they already trusted us enough to let us know of the precious balloon’s existence in the first place. It would have been foolish to destroy that trust by pressing Ron for information on why he’d come here.
Our group and theirs were both acting in self-interest. But...
They’re naive, I thought.
I came back down and was getting ready to leave again when Elena approached me, a worried expression on her face.
“Alia, are you going out again?” she asked.
“Yes. There’s a bit more I can do.”
We didn’t have the luxury of time. Elena and I had been missing for two months, and we estimated Claydale would abandon any search efforts after three to six months. Technically, we were making good progress, but the more time passed, the likelier it was that bad actors would make a move. We had to deliver Elena to Kal’Faan and contact Claydale by the three-month mark, ideally.
“Wait,” she said, bringing a hand to my cheek. “Restore!”
The gentle light erased the sunburn on my skin.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You’re welcome. Be careful, Alia.”
I put on my cloak and pulled on my hood, then set out into the desert by myself.