Alex stared at the sky, the pebble still floating in his hand. ‘Prison walls,’ he thought. He couldn’t help but laugh at just how apt a name that was for his situation.
He was to be stuck in this world for who knew how many years, so this place might as well be his prison.
The four began asking Alex questions about where he had come from and how he learned pastes, so he simply lied and said that he came from a faraway land where the place was full of greenery and was cold enough to not need sunhearts.
He remained as vague as he could in order to stop them from asking more questions. He was glad that they didn’t question why he wore clothes from head to toe, showing only his eyes.
He learned the names of the four next. The old man with graying hair was called Lun Tala. The woman was his daughter, Lun Mabi. And the other two were apparently guards to keep him safe while they came to this place. Their names were Yul Orla and Pid Bajan.
Their names were so weird that Alex misspoke them multiple times before he correctly learned the pronunciation. They were so close to what regular names were supposed to be outside of hell, and yet so far.
They didn’t seem surprised to hear his name. Every name there was weird to them, so they just accepted it. Alex did lie about his age to the men. He made himself out to be 30 years old, despite the fact that he was close to 300 years old at this point and had a physical appearance that could pass for someone in their early 20s.
“What are you doing with that stone?” Mabi asked.
“Just passing time,” Alex said. He showed no outward signs of strain despite how difficult it had been to keep the rock afloat for this long. The longer he did, the more the strain was, but it also meant he was improving over time, so Alex continued.
Many people came to the marketplace with large carts and whatnot. They sold what they had brought over to the Tala—which was mostly grains and silk—and bought some tools in exchange.
It took the man until the evening to finally sell everything. He had placed everything he had received into his storage bag, so it was time to leave the marketplace.
As the old man took away the sheets he had laid on the ground, Alex stood up, the pebble finally falling down. He struggled to stay up, his mind buzzing as if it wanted sleep. “Where are you guys staying for the night? Is there a room there, or do I need to find a place of my own?”
“Stay?” Mabi asked. “No, we’re leaving right away.”
“Right away? But it’s night.”
“Aren’t you a cultivator?” the old man asked. “What does it matter if it is night or day?”
Alex sighed. He thought he had time to rest, but it appeared that he didn’t. ‘Screw it,’ he thought. ‘I should just continue training then.’
The pebble floated back into his hand, and they left the marketplace.
The streets of the city glowed with bright lanterns that were hung in front of many of the stores. Even in the evening, the city bustled with people.
“Now that I think about it, who governs this city?” Alex asked. “Do you guys know?”
“It’s the chief of the Cliff Edge tribe,” the old man said. “This place used to be a stronghold for the Cliff Edge tribe and slowly expanded to become a city as it grew to be a hub for trade between the desert and the tribes in the east.”
“A tribe grew to be a city, huh? I didn’t think that could be the case.”
“All cities in the desert are just that,” the old man said. “You will find many more examples soon enough.”
Alex nodded as he walked along. They made their way through the busy streets, walking for nearly half an hour, before arriving at the gates that led west into the desert.
They walked out without any issue and followed a dirt path that went down the side of the cliff. However, it appeared these people were not interested in that.
The old man jumped down from the side of the cliff first, followed by the two other men. The woman was about to jump but paused and turned toward Alex. “You can fly, can’t you?”
Alex nodded. “Yes, I can.”
He stepped off the side of the cliff, plummeting close to a hundred meters before coming to a gentle stop. The ground beneath his feet was hard and lacking any soft soil. There was no moisture in the ground or in the air around him.
There was a lingering heat, although it seemed much less than what it should be, probably due to the presence of many sunhearts in the area.
“Where do we go from here?” Alex asked curiously. The land before him was flat for most of what he could see with the evening light.
“We continue west for now,” the old man said. “There is a dip in the land far up front that will let us know what direction to turn to. After a few such turns, we will arrive at our city, Sunspear.”
“How long will it take?” Alex asked. “All night?”
“You would wish,” the woman said. “No, it’s much further away. It will take us at least two days, depending on how much interference there is on the way.”
Alex narrowed his eyes. “Interference? Like bandits?”
“No, not bandits,” the woman said with a look of suspicion on her face. “Beasts. Don’t tell me you didn’t have to fight beasts where you came from.”
“Oh! No, we did. I just didn’t expect you to mean the beasts when you said interference. Are there a lot along the way?” he asked.
The woman laughed a little, and so did the other three men. “You have not lived in the desert, so you do not know its danger,” she said. “Come with us, and we will make sure that you know of it.”