The Forgotten City XVII

As the Lamia burned both with a spiritual desire for the perfectly ordered afterlife guided by Ator and with the flames of Teleptyon's spellwork, Alex sliced at her human-like back with the sickle. Kegho having recovered himself slightly raised his crossbow and loosed a bolt into her arm, but she did remove it and the wound closed. Riven attempted one of her silver-tipped arrows but it too failed to do her harm. The Jiam and Theo pulled Kegho away from the fight to treat his wounds; Khufu appeared between them and began chanting in his Kemetic tongue, his eyes staring blankly at the Eastern Horizon where Xam would roll the disc of the sun into the sky the next morning. As he chanted Theo felt that he was on holy ground and had an easier time than normal summoning the healing mercy of Maya through him.

The Lamia continued to attempt to escape, this time drawing up a great sandstorm around her. Teleptyon attempted to dispel the magic of the storm but was unable to. The party near the tent covered their faces against the biting wind and grit and made for the tent. Alex searched in the storm for the visitor, but heard the swishing of scale on sand and saw the faint silhouette of her form disappearing into the distance. Once she was gone the winds began to settle. They found no grit in their mouths or sand piled on the yurt when it was gone.

As they traveled on none spoke of the discord she had sown among the party members. The Jiam studied Riven with careful glances but could sense no smugness from her for having been right about The Visitor all along.

As they traveled they stumbled on a group of three wild camels cropping at barely there scrub. The Jiam approached them with openness and they were calmed by his presence. He blessed the scrub and it grew somewhat much to the camels’ delight. Kegho and Theo approached hoping to use their various skills to replace the camels slain by scorpions. Through charm and skill at taming beasts they managed only to frighten the creatures off and lose some lengths of silk rope. The Jiam felt dejected that he had failed to make new friends, but they continue on, Elissa, Yahi and their safe cave less than a day’s travel away.

The sun continued to bear down on them as they trudged through the increasingly rough terrain near the cave. Many became overcome by the beating sun and Alex toddled along the line telling them to slake their thirst as there would be more water to drink once they reached the cave.

Elissa was delighted to see them as they stumble into the cave, and began to tell them the work she and Yahi had done to make the cave more comfortable, but after looking over La Compagnia asked “Where’s Asbjørn and who are these odd looking folk you’ve brought instead?” Alex gave her a very high level overview of the events that led to finding The Jiam and Khufu, and the temporary loss of Asbjørn. At the talk of Asbjørn's transformation she mentioned that her mother has been able to change form and had promised to teach her and Amma bas Sisa when they came of age. Alex stared in disbelief and Teleptyon came over to ask her to repeat what she had said. "She might have some 'her'nt 'bilities" Teleptyon drawled. "We sawl she was miscegenated with fish folk who took the form of men." He pondered this and promised to look in his books to see if he could help her find the path without her mother's help. She pulled Alex aside and commented on the odd appearance of The Jiam and Khufu and he was reminded that she had come from a small village and had spent most of her time in Eknopolis as prisoner of House Kerularios.