Chapter 3996: Exotic Beauty (Part 1)

"Do you want to put some on?" Friya offered the makeup to Nalrond.

"Yes, thank you." He reverted to his human form and took the small container, staring at its contents with great focus. "How do I use this thing, exactly?"

"Silly man." Friya chuckled as she swiped her thumb on his mouth and cheeks.

Nalrond lost just a few droplets of water, but his lips cracked while his skin became taut. She then applied a little makeup on his hands and face.

"There. You now look exactly like one of the people from the Black Stork tribe I treated for sunburns today."

"Thanks." He replied. "Between my bronze skin and magic, I never got burned."

"Lucky bastard." She sighed. "Let’s change our clothes and get this over with. I’m parched for less than a minute, and I can’t stand it already."

Nalrond and Friya shapeshifted their armors into the white robes typical of the Blood Desert. They put on a headgear that travelers used to protect their heads from the sun and their eyes from the sand carried by the gusts of wind.

At that point, they Warped away from the village and in a different direction from which Lith had landed, not to arouse suspicion in case someone had spotted the flying Divine Beast earlier.

"Is Solus okay?" Lith asked the moment he and Menadion were alone.

He took in slow, deep breaths with Demon Grasp to draw in enough world energy to bring Trion, Valia, Varegrave, and Locrias to seven eyes without consuming Invigoration more than three times.

"Epphy has the tower, and she sits above a powerful geyser." Ripha replied. "She’s the last person you should worry about."

***

The Yellow Wind village bustled with activity as everyone got settled in their new oasis.

The children ate the ripe fruits of the orchard and drank plenty of water to recover from the long march. The adults, instead, dealt with the annoyances that came with every relocation of the village.

Tents had to be raised, water jugs needed to be filled in case the tribe was discovered by the Usurper’s forces and forced to escape, and the loot had to be split evenly among the families who had taken part in the raid of the Black Stork tribe.

Magic books, artifacts, crystals, and metals were the easy part. They had a market value that could be used to assess the value of each piece without arguments. Slaves, however, were another matter entirely.

They had a market value only for those willing to engage in the slave trade and take the risks that moving away from the village to deliver the goods entailed. For everyone else, the value of a slave varied greatly depending on their future master’s taste and the purpose they would be employed for.

Workers needed to be strong and healthy, concubines to be young and attractive, while servants needed to be smart enough to perform their duties, but not so intelligent as to pose a threat to their owner.

"Today’s flesh harvest is mediocre at best." Hassar Fellhand, chief of the Yellow Wind tribe, said. "You dumb bastards must have slaughtered the good ones and beaten the others so hard that they’ll need to be treated for weeks before they can be put to work."

"How was I supposed to know that the Black Stork had acquired a Star Fragment?" Sehir Firesong, the captain of the raid team, replied. "The damn barrier pushed us off before we could strike them with our full force and kept us from stopping their escape.

"Moreover, we couldn’t wait until it powered down, or those cowards of the Black Stork would have reached the merfolk village with all their treasures, and you ungrateful curs would have gotten nothing at all!"

"That would have been terrible." Hassar conceded the point as his face twisted into a disgusted grimace. "How close did you get to those filthy fish-blood?"

"Enough to smell their revolting stench, but not enough to be tainted by it." Sehir’s expression mirrored his chieftain’s. "None of them moved a finger to help the Black Stork, but I don’t know if they followed the Usurper’s law or if they were just too scared to act.

"I couldn’t risk a direct confrontation. If we wounded even one of the fish-blood, the entire Nest would have chased us to the ends of Mogar. I ordered the retreat because no slave is worth the safety of our village."

"Sehir is right, and even if he hadn’t given the order, I would." Tarek, the head mage, turned her head from the loot to look Hassar in the eyes. "All our tricks keep us hidden from the yellow eye of the Usurper, but only because she doesn’t care enough to hunt us down.

"Not one tribe among those that drew her gaze upon them survived. No matter how fast they traveled or how powerful the artifact they bought was, the Usurper always found and exterminated them down to the last person.

"It’s as if the Desert itself is under her thrall and keeps no secret from her." She said, having no idea how close she was to the truth.

"Is there really a chance that one day the Yellow Wind will do more than run from the Usurper’s loyal dogs? That the day of reckoning is close?" Sehir asked.

"It’s too soon to tell." Hassar’s lip curled up in disgust. "I won’t risk our people falling from the hands of one usurper into another’s. We can’t trust that pale son of a filthy-"

A long whistle signaled the approach of intruders and cut the chief short, along with every other noise in the village. All outlaw tribes maintained lookouts at all hours to spot any potential threat and still have the time for a safe retreat.

The three leaders raised their heads to the scout. He showed two fingers and then lowered them while slowly moving his hand forward, mimicking a walk.

’Two people on foot.’ The leaders of the tribe thought, each reacting to the news by enacting their part in the emergency evacuation protocol.

Hassar took the control crystal of the arrays from the breast pocket of his robe while Sehir unsheathed the khopesh he carried at his hip and took out a body-enhancing potion, quickly followed by the rest of his soldiers.

The riders pointed their blades at the prisoners’ throats, ready to cut them. There was no point in leaving the merchandise behind, and if the enemy had an ounce of pity, they would waste precious time trying to save them.

Tarek, instead, wielded the Home Stone and gestured for her apprentices to go back to their tents and be ready to store every piece of the magical legacy of the Yellow Wind tribe inside their dimensional amulets.

They could always find more water, food, and gold, whereas every bit of knowledge they lost could never be recovered.

The mothers herded the children and brought them to the Chiros. They were a rare variant of the Cyr (horse-type magical beast), much less powerful than a magical beast but more docile and still better than any horse.

A travelling merchant had found one by chance and bred it until one of his disgruntled apprentices had killed him and used the herd of Chiros to establish the Yellow Wind.

At the same time, the fathers brandished their weapons and assumed a battle formation, ready to cover their families’ retreat.

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