Kaden wiped the desert sand from his mouth. He also tried to brush its irritating grit from the wound on his chest where it had ground itself in. Pushing himself up from the scorching earth as his palms burned, he felt the suns searing the skin on his back. He didn't have anything on except a black urk.

"Looks like the traitor still doesn't know when to just lay down and die." Prince Relastin mocked his defiant effort. "But, I guess I should respect that from a warrior."

"Why don't you let me heal?" Kaden bit back like a viper. "Then we can both find out how much of a warrior I really am."

The sovereign of Ison stood there, proud and smug. He towered over Kaden as his former Karo Shar had trouble getting up through his persistence pain. Prince Relastin planted a sandaled foot into Kaden's ribs to knock him back down once more.

Kaden found himself face down in the sand after a hard landing.

At Kaden's feet, the prince discarded the mangled halves of his Rohs Fang. The mechanism that would allow them to be joined into a single weapon was crushed and mauled to the point of uselessness. While the blade was chipped, bent, and purposely dulled. The forks of the other half were bend in opposing directions.

"Let's see you defend yourself with that." The prince laughed.

Kaden gripped at his ribs, trying to show no discomfort, but failed miserably as he rolled over. On his back, he stared at the blue desert sky.

With a snap of the prince's fingers, two of the dozen soldiers the prince had brought with him hoisted Kaden to his feet. The walls of Ison were faint on the horizon and just visible over the dunes as the suns were reaching their midday zenith. Waves of heat rippled upward from the sand.

The soldiers tied the injured former Karo Shar's hands behind his back with ropes tightly snugged. Then they shoved a dark sack over his head, casting him into darkness. Then the bottom was cinched tight so Kaden could not easily remove it.

Kaden felt the halves of his weapon being jammed into his hands that were useless to him in his bound state. The soldiers spun Kaden several times so that he lost his bearings and then released him.

"For crimes against the Throne of Ison, I sentence you, Kaden, Son of the Traitor Orl, to wander the desert until you die," the prince declared. "Which shouldn't be long."

There was the distinct sound of footsteps marching away crunching sand, but no more words from the prince or anyone else.

After a few moments of silence, the footsteps now a memory, Kaden drew a pained and roared defiantly. "I will return! I swear by all the luck in cursed land that I will return!"

There was no answer.

***

The inside of the dark hood was oppressively hot. And the tightly woven mesh was impossible to see out of.

After some time after just standing in the sands where Prince Relastin had left him, Kaden had begun foolishly to roam. He believed, when he started trekking through the sand, that he was headed back towards the walls of Ison. But by his count, he hadn't reached them after about three hours. And that told Kaden that he had gone off in the wrong direction.

What he needed to do was get the damn hood off his head.

He'd tried several times unsuccessfully. But he felt as though the ropes on his wrists were starting to loosen after his long struggles against them. And how he cursed not just sitting still until he had accomplished that task. Or, perhaps, someone would have come to rescue him. Perhaps he had an ally who would have done so. He didn't know.

Jaden had dropped the useless pieces of his once great weapon long ago.

With a final tug, his left wrist came free. The use of his hands returned to him, Kaden tore the hood from his sweat covered face.

The blinding light of the suns upon the desert punished his eyes, and it took him long moments to regain his vision.

The suns were halfway off their zenith now. Perhaps even a bit further than that. Soon, there would be darkness. Soon, the Black Rohs would come out in droves.

Kaden forced himself onward. His steps stumbled. The pain in his body from the beating at the prince's hands made him fall more than once. Still, Kaden kept going.

After years of consuming essence, there was still a trace and lingering amount within him. And Kaden used that to residual power trapped deep within his body to trudge onward.

It was a few more stumbles into the sands before Kaden felt certain his bruised and broken body would give out. As kneeled there, however, thinking he should just wait for the suns to set, he saw something out of place.

On a far dunetop, looking like a mirage, a figure stood. Kaden could tell, if it was real, it had seen him. And it stood there, only staring in his direction.

Kaden rose to a knee and then wobbled to his feet. "Hey!" he called out, waving as much as his pained body would let him. "Hey!"

Still, the figure stood. Unmoving.

Then it turned and started to walk away, disappearing over the dune.

"Hey!" again Kaden called. He found strength in his legs to propel him forward and towards where the mysterious stranger had once stood.

Arriving at the base of the dune, Kaden stumbled up it on all fours like a lame dog. Once at the top, he caught sight of the lone form once more—standing atop the next dune. And that person seemed to be impatiently awaiting him.

Again, the form moved down behind that next dune and disappearing once more.

Once more, Kaden followed.

On and on the game went. With each passing dune, Kaden was gaining no ground, but the mysterious stranger would continue to wait for him.

Then, with the suns beginning to kiss the horizon, and the sky shifting from a burning hot blue to reds and yellows and oranges, it ended. The stranger had descended the latest dune, but not traveled to the next. Kaden, slid down the sands to stand before the tall, slim figure dressed in black silks, and donning the armor of a Sava Warrioress.

Her emerald eyes were like a pureness that held Kaden entranced. So enthralled was he by the woman, that he didn't even notice the large cavern carved in the base of the dune as he stood next to it. The woman had to point to it silently with her own Rohs Fang.

Kaden blinked. The weapon she held was even finer than the one he had until recently possessed. And unlike his, it seemed ancient.

"Where did you come from?" Kaden asked.

In silence, the woman only reinforced her point at the cave.

"You want me to go in there?"

She nodded.

He realized what it was. "That is a Black Rohs den," he informed her. "I don't have a weapon."

The woman audibly sighed. Then broke her silence. "I have cleared it out for you. It will provide you shelter for the night. If you seal yourself up in it, you will be safe. There will be enough air for you to last the night."

"I'd feel safer if I stayed with you, I think."

"That is not an option. You are a liability in your current state." She motioned to his broken body.

"I have no food or water," Kaden pleaded. "I won't last another day out here."

"On that subject, we will see. Everything you need, you will find within the Black Rohs Den, Kaden."

The sound of the woman speaking his name that he had not given her stunned him. "How do you know who I am?"

"You are wasting time asking questions that are irrelevant to your survival at this moment in time." She looked to the sky. "You have perhaps an hour? Perhaps two at most, before the Black Rohs come out and find you. So, I suggest you get in there and bury yourself in for the night."

"And what about come morning?"

"I suggest you worry about surviving until then first." She sounded like a disappointed teacher speaking to an unserious student.

"And I think sticking with you would increase my chances." Kaden again pleaded his case.

"I already told you, no. This is a test."

"A test?"

"Yes. One all Sava Warrioresses and Savan Devotees must pass to prove their worth. Although, admittedly, I did cheat a little bit by clearing the den for you. But, seeing as how you were made lame before being released into the barrens, I bent the rules a little bit. Besides, I've already witnessed you defeating the spiders, and there is more to this test than simply slaying monsters."

"Wait, you've watched me slay Black Rohs?"

"Yes," the mysterious woman replied. "Particularly the night you fought in Ison's Lower Ring against the creatures after the torches went out. It was impressive. Now, I'm going to leave you."

"Wait. How will I find you again? There're questions I have."

"When it's time to find me, you will. But for now? Our fates lie along different paths," the warrioress slung her Rohs Fang across her back. "But those paths will converge soon enough. But only after you take care of some unfinished business in Ison."

"Prince Relastin," Kaden growled.

"Yes. Now, into the hole with you. Or I could just kill you?" The woman in black whipped her weapon back out and brandished her Rohs Fang's bladed end.

"Okay." Kaden held up his hands and entered the den.

The mysterious woman in black began to leave him, and then Kaden began collapsing the entrance to keep out the Black Rohs.