While others may have been shirking their duties to the caravan and drinking and getting to know each other, Silas and William rode in their carriage in relative silence. The anvil saint was fine just looking out his window and taking in the scenery. William seemed as if he wanted to say something. Several times he took a deep breath in and was about to say something until he stopped. It seemed like he wanted to talk about something heavy, but didn’t know how to go about it. Silas ignored the fire cultivator. He had no interest in talking to him.

  All Silas wanted to do was get to the capital, maybe see his father to see if he knew something, and then to try to see the head of the healing order, Order of the Dawnpetal. Hopefully, that person could tell him more about what was going on. His father, ugh, Silas wasn’t looking forward to that. He hadn’t seen him since he left home when he was just a young boy and was sent to the sect after the mother told his father the news he wouldn’t reach the Heavens.

  The caravan pushed hard and didn’t even break for lunch. The crew ran the horses and pack mules ragged as they tried to push as far as they could to get to the Desolation. That was the part Silas wasn’t looking forward to. It had not only bandits, but bandits that were cultivators and illusionists. Dragon worshippers who found a dragon’s lair and then stayed in the area to try to cultivate the dragon’s power to extend their own. He still didn’t know whether that actually worked or not. He had never run into an illusionist that was particularly powerful, well, besides that Ami character. That man had his own thing going on.

  When sun was first setting, the horses and animals finally slowed to such a point that the caravan master finally called it. They would break for the evening and have a meal and rest. The caravan being so close to the Desolation, parked in a large circular area to try to protect the outside. Those less inclined to fight could bunker in the Master’s wagon if needed. The guards positioned themselves around, and William and Silas, being the only real cultivators, could mostly relax unless needed.

  The pair, along with some of the other merchants and their families, positioned themselves in the middle around a few small fires and cooked their dinner. Silas still had some of the dried rations he had taken from his home, so he ate that. William seemed to have packed well and had some fresh meat he cooked over the fire and gave Silas some, as well as some vegetables. The merchants who were more well off had noodles and broth with meat, while the less fortunate stuck to dried rations.

  “Tomorrow the guards will start trying to hunt. They may find some sort of game out in the desert,” Peter, the caravan master, assured everyone.

  “Maybe the cultivators will deem us worthy of their help, and they’ll help grab us something. Maybe they can find a baby dragon. I’ve always wanted to eat dragon,” Peter continued, his sniveling voice continuing from when they first left the sect.

  Silas continued ignoring everything, and William scoffed at the man. “We may have the Anvil Saint, and I’m not too bad myself, but if you think we can take down any age of a dragon, you’re crazier than I thought you were when you told me this original route of yours.”

  Peter rolled his eyes. “Two cultivators, and still can’t feed us.”

  “Aye, we can tell your people where some game might be, but send me to the hells now if you think I’m gonna be trying to take on a dragon for your fat ass,” William said and pointed at the rotund master.

  ”You watch it! Where did that other cultivator go, and his little girlfriend and that spirit beast? I bet if we had that, I wouldn’t be worried and getting bitched at by the guard captain about how we’re gonna be the ones eaten by a dragon tomorrow as we push through,” Peter spat. “He should have been here by now.”

  William just shrugged. ‘How the hell should we know?”

  “I had been sensing him for a while, but I lost him sometime ago. The man radiates like a beacon with his power. He needs to learn how to hide it. The alchemist girl isn’t as powerful, so she’s harder to tell,” Silas offered with a shrug.

  William nodded along with Silas’s assessment. “Aye.”

  Peter sniffed. “How does he just disappear?”

  Silas shrugged again and went back to eating his dinner.

  Peter eyed the two cultivators before he wandered off to check on the rest of the caravan and make sure everything was ready for the night.

  “Look, Silas,” William started.

  Silas groaned. “You were doing so well with not doing what you’re about to do. Don’t ruin it now.”

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  William stared at him. “You know, you're kind of a dick.”

  Silas shrugged.

  “There're bigger things at play here than you believe. You believe everything is figured out, everyone knows everything there is to know and we just have to break through, right?”

  Silas lowered his head and cuddled up to his hammer next to the fire. “Obviously we don’t have everything figured out. No one has become an immortal.”

  William nodded. “Aye, true besides that storyteller bastard. Maybe that’s the only way to become one,” he said with a snort.

  Silas smirked and tried to get comfortable on the ground. He had the pack he took from home, but his channels felt like they were on fire. Something was coursing through him, something he didn’t know and was very unfamiliar.

  “Silas, seriously. You’ll want to see my master. If anyone can help you, he probably can. He seems to know more than most,” William said and got serious once more.

  Silas groaned. “Oh yeah, and who’s your master?”

  William smirked and lowered his head. “Ah, you wouldn’t have heard of him. He’s not one of the named cultivators in the world or anything like that. He’s just a guy who seems to know a lot. You don’t even really have to go that far from the capital. He’s right in Sunjin.”

  Silas perked up a little hearing that and looked over at William. “How do I know that name?”

  William looked a little sheepish. “It’s known for its tea, also I guess it's one of the villages that makes clay for those sumo rings those big bastards fight on.”

  “What, is your master some tea farmer?” Silas asked, not really expecting an answer.

  William moved uneasily but eventually stood. “Well, whatever. Don’t come. I don’t care. I’m just following orders. You go on and keep being unable to cultivate and go to sleep. I’m gonna go check on the guards, see if they need anything.”

  The broken cultivator just rolled over with a grunt and closed his eyes.

  He slept fitfully, which probably saved the caravan. Silas rolled over onto his back and opened his eyes when he saw a large shape in the sky. He couldn’t make out much other than that it had a faint glimmering purple glow to it. He breathed in deep as the form started to make itself out in the barely there dawn.

  “William, get up. Dragon,” Silas reached and shook the cultivator that was sleeping next to him.

  At first, William just grunted and groaned and mumbled no. When Silas said the word ‘dragon’ though, the man jumped to his feet with his short swords in his hands and blinked the sleep from his eyes. “Fuckin’ dragon, where?”

  Silas snorted and climbed to his feet. He perked his head up and heard the guards starting to roam around on horses and ring bells. “Where else would a dragon be? It’s not a dragon though. It’s the damn cult sect. They’re making their move.”

  William looked into the dawn sky. The sun’s glow was just starting to shine over the mountains. The pinks and reds of the not yet risen sun gave a bleak look to the oncoming fight. “Oh. Well, hell. They could have at least waited for me to get a little more sleep.”

  All around the duo there was movement now. The young and fair sex as well as the old men ran towards the middle of the caravan circle. Peter was in front of course, cursing and yelling about Maikeru and why wasn’t he here.

  “I knew he was going to be a problem! That man isn’t continuing on with us if he catches up and we survive!” He spat at Silas and William as he ran past them to his personal wagon and opened the door. He was ushering people in, squeezing as many in as he could.

  Surprisingly, he stayed out of the wagon and kept right by the door. The short, portly man held a sword and looked ready to defend it. Silas raised his eyebrows and hefted up his war hammer. Thanks to the runes he carved in it, he could heft it and rest it on his shoulder with relative ease since it was using a bit of wind aura to help move itself.

  He looked to the sky, to the glimmering purple dragon that was flying around. It was dive-bombing the guards. What was surprising to the broken cultivator was that the group still hadn’t made their move.

  ”Come on, we'd better go check on the guards. Make sure they’re ready,” Silas told William, who just nodded.

  “Aye, why haven’t they come down from the mountains yet?” William asked.

  Silas could only shake his head and shrug as he trudged away from the middle of the circle and to the outer perimeter to go and help the guards. He needed to see what was going on. The illusion dragon was also fading from view quickly. When he first saw it, it was vibrant and bright. If he hadn’t known what a dragon was supposed to look like, he would have believed it truly was one. The great wings and long snake-like body were so vivid. Now, though it was barely an outline of its former self.

  “About time you guys got here, aren’t you two supposed to be protecting us from that?” someone yelled at the pair as they walked through the wagons to the outer perimeter.

  Silas looked at who he thought was the guard captain with a frown. “Nothing is happening though?”

  “There was a dragon!” He roared at them.

  William laughed, and Silas shook his head.

  “It was an illusion. There is no dragon. What is concerning, though, is that the attack hasn’t come,” Silas said as he looked up to the tops of the mountains still blocking the sunrise.

  “I have people all around. They’ll ring if they see an attack,” the captain assured the pair.

  William pointed and squinted up the mountains. “What the fuck is that?”

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