Riders at Sunset

Shalia gazed at the sky. It was falling into shades of pinks and oranges now as the sun said its goodbye. Another day at the desert's mercy.
The people repairing the barque should have made good progress by now, meaning they could set on down the river come morning. The lingering thought of Gra'Akast being so close and yet so far almost made her skin crawl with the anticipation. She still didn't know what happened next.

Agizul had told her that the Ozainae have no ability to manipulate or predict the next incarnation. With this one gone...perhaps it wasn't as terrible a thing as it first seemed. Unplanned and a setback, yes, but those kinds of happenings were becoming commonplace the longer Shalia spent away from home.
There would be no need for influencing and persuading the new Prophetess to raise the Sand Horde-- not in the way that she would've had to do for the last Seer who seemed set in her decision not to.
This one would be a clean slate, whoever it would be and whenever they finally came into the damn position. She had a better chance this time around, surely, as she couldn't even convince a priest to try and reconsider things with her. Granted they followed the Seer very blindly...

At least, what it seemed is that Shalia and her guards would be given shelter and food in the city until her diplomatic quest could be completed. That much seemed probable.

Her thoughts were silenced when whistling pulled her attention. Riders on camelback were approaching fast, lifting a cloud of sand with every hoofbeat. The Ozainae took note of this, and clearly they were not expected, recognized, or welcome.

Then they drew their weapons as they neared the oasis.

Only two of her guards and a single Ozainae remained at the camp compared to more than a handful of the attackers. They all managed to ready their weapons as the sun faded out of the sky and began to cast the world in shadow. Fitting. There were going to be deaths this night.
Nothing they could do but fight and hope some of the barque workers came to their aid.

But to Shalia, the thought of spilling their blood made it all the better.

She, with her dagger now in hand and the other three getting ahold of their weapons, stood ahead of the oncoming riders and shouted to the sky in Odon, an attempt to shake the Aghul's bones in a way she knew would get them going.

"The fight came to us!"

They were closing in quickly with raised spears and blades when Shalia held her hands out and threw them up, growing a thick wall of ice in front of the center four riders...