What's out there

Great Desert of Skulls

Islana crossed her camp, with her personal guards in tow, flanked by Amastan and Agizul. Everywhere she looked she could see people staring at her. Many stared open mouthed at her flowing robes and flaming red hair. Most just dropped to their knees prostrating themselves as she passed, their foreheads touching the sands in devotion.

The large convoy was once again ready to march. Tents were being dismantled, animals were loaded with gear and men and women hefted their belongings to travel the ancestral sands of their homeland towards the enemy of the faith.

The coming of an enemy from across the seas had been one of the Twins maxim tenets since the first incarnation of Sister Locust. Now that enemy had come and the gods in their infinite wisdom had bestowed a child of their enemies with the wisdom of two thousand years, to rid the world of the Helians.

How could anyone doubt they were leaving in the end of times? That they walked the ways of sacred scripture? That Yther and Viher themselves blessed their mission?

The Prophetess of the Ozainae walked across the camp of the Sand Horde towards the perimeter of the camp. Past were most animals were kept, past were the low caste warriors assembled, where their baggage trains rested before the next leg of the journey started.

They crested a large dune and Islana stood looking again across the burning hot sands, that had been her crucible, that were now her adopted land.

She had not used her powers since the Skara attack and she had touched the Hive-Mind. But she could feel something out there. Watching, stalking, searching.

For her...