The Unknown Cost
Kingdom of @WattpadFantasyAR
***
The arid air has sucked every drop of water from my body, but my water detector is going strong. The device has led me on for miles.
There must be water somewhere in this cursed desert. I could find it if I used my magic, but I have sworn off that. Magic only causes trouble. Look at my home, Afirani, torn apart by what once kept us safe.
No, I'm better off with technology. Magic can't be trusted.
As I walk, my detector beeps faster. The sensor must be broken.
Only a nearby water source could trigger it like this, but there's nothing far as my eyes can see, unless the water-like mirage the air and sand conjure to trick me counts.
I shouldn't have left home. Afirani is overrun by rebels, but at least it has shade and water.
All I wanted was to get away from the war magic caused. Now, home is long behind me, and I don't know how to get back.
Keep going, Ifaaz.
Bumping into something, I stop. I scan the air from my feet to the sky. I don't see anything.
Maybe my mind is deceiving me. I've heard of dehydration causing hallucinations.
I step forward but meet resistance. It's the invisible barrier again.
People who ventured into the desert and survived it are few enough that it has become a place of legend. There are stories of wind-controlling demons and massive burrowing worms. There's even a myth about a kingdom named Sahara'Eden.
Nobody has seen it or met anyone from there in years. We aren't sure if it still exists. What's for certain, however, is that strange magic fills the desert.
Maybe this invisible veil hides an oasis.
The water detector in my hand beeps, confirming my suspicion. Noticing a flashing red button, I squint down at the small black writing around it.
Go to water source.
Nifty. Maybe this can teleport me through the mysterious wall.
I press the button.
The water detector yanks me forward. My face squishes into the invisible barrier. I try to pull back to adjust the settings on the detector, but I can't fight the force.
The next moment, I'm sliding through what feels like jelly. I squeeze my eyes closed. After hearing a pop, I dare to open my eyes.
Before, there was only desert before me. Now, I'm in a city.
The single-storey homes are of mudbrick. Children race about laughing and playing in their dirty cotton tunics. Men carry crates of food and wood suspended above their heads. Women's washing baskets float in front of them as they carry them towards the city centre. A group of them has gathered under a palm tree beside a river, chatting while washing their clothes.
I blink, then look at them again. They don't use their hands to wash their clothes, at least not in the traditional sense. With a flutter of their fingers, the clothes scrub themselves.
I've never seen a community use their magic for peace, only for war.
The water detector beeps. I switch it off. It folds into a little metal rectangle that I slip into my pocket. I don't need it anymore.
My legs carry me to the water.
I sink to my knees beside it, far upstream of the women and their washing, and lower my mouth to its surface.
It's just water. It tastes like nothing, but it's cold and pure, and to me, that's heaven.
I drink until my mouth doesn't remember being parched.
Refreshed, I tilt my head up to the cloudless blue sky. A flock of geese flies overhead, calling to each other. It's a beautiful day.
Twin towers stand at the edge of the city. I remember a symbol I saw in a book about the ten kingdoms of Quorin once.
It represents the kingdom of Sahara'Eden.
No wonder there's magic being used for ordinary tasks. That's what Sahara'Eden is known for in the stories.
But the magic comes with a price, legend says. Nobody who wields it can have contact with an outsider. What the punishment would be, I don't know.
I haven't spoken to anyone. If I leave before being noticed, I can return home. I've drunk enough water to last the journey.
The longer I linger, the higher the chance someone will talk to me, and the greater the risk to them and Sahara'Eden.
I've seen what trouble magic brought to Afirani. I won't subject others to that if I can help it.
I freeze at the muted thud of an object falling into the sand behind me.
A girl curses. "A little help?" she calls.
My eyes skim my surroundings. There is nobody else around.
The girl must be talking to me, but I can't reply.
Sahara'Eden is supposed to be a legend, but here it is around me, as real as I am. I can't take the chance that the cost of their magic is real too.
"Hey, you!" The girl raises her voice.
I keep still, hardly daring to breathe.
"Yes, you!" she cries. "You at the edge of the water, pretending not to hear me."
Without thinking, I turn to retort, but at the sight of the girl, my words leave my mind.
She looks about my age. Her eyes gleam a honey-gold. The frown that creases her lovely face fades when our gazes meet.
"Please can you refill this for me?" She uses her foot to indicate a water-pot lying in the sand.
The two pots she holds occupy both her hands. She must've been balancing the third on her head, which was why it fell.
I say nothing but pick up the clay pot and submerge it in the water. If I don't speak, we technically didn't have contact.
The girl offers me her head to rest the full pot on, but I hold it away from her.
"Are you stealing my water?" she asks.
I shake my head.
"Then what?" she asks. "Say something! Are you mute?"
That does it.
"No, I'm not!" I cry.
A tiny smile curves the girl's full lips.
She wouldn't be smiling if she knew what I've done.
But it's too late now. We've made contact.
I expect the earth to tremble and fire to rain down from the sky, but nothing happens.
"So, what do you want with my water?" she asks.
"To help you carry it," I say. "You shouldn't balance it on your head when I have two perfectly good hands."
"I wish more men around here thought like that." She tilts her head. "Why haven't I seen you before?"
"I'm from the east," I say.
That should be vague enough to avoid her suspicion while not giving me away.
She shakes her head. "Sahara'Eden has expanded so far that the east is like a different kingdom." She smiles. "Come, I'll show you where to leave the water."
I walk beside her, anticipating the screams of Sahara'Eden's people while their kingdom collapses around them, but it never comes.
The young woman's name is Firoja. She talks about everything under the sun, including the sun. She tells me about her six brothers who can't do anything for themselves. I tell her about mine, who probably haven't noticed I've been gone a while.
"Surely not too long," she says. "East Sahara'Eden isn't more than an hour away on foot."
"No, not long." My mouth dries out at my lie, but Firoja doesn't seem to notice.
"Well, here's my home."
Firoja leads me through an arched doorway into a kitchen. It's small and simple but cosy. A little window looks out over the river. Colourful cloths lie scattered around the kitchen. We set the water-pots on the floor.
Firoja waves her hand to summon a kettle. It soars through the air, curving towards the ground as if carried by a hand that has suddenly lost its strength. Firoja grabs it before it hits the ground.
"I can be clumsy sometimes." She gives a sheepish smile.
She pours water from the pots we filled into the kettle, then splays her fingers against its base, presumably to boil it.
"It's not working..." She looks at her hands then at me with frightened eyes. "My magic... something's wrong."
An unseen force scoops me up.
Firoja's high-pitched scream tears at my eardrums. I look around, but all I see is blackness.
We land on our backs in the desert sand.
I hear Firoja stand. Blinking against the bright sunlight, I sit up to see her running in circles.
"Where's Sahara'Eden?" she asks. "I can't find it."
All I see is the desert's shimmering mirages, but looks are deceiving.
"You can't take my magic and my home!" Firoja screams into the sky. "I haven't contacted the world outside Sahara'Eden. Unless... you."
Firoja turns her eyes on me.
They're no longer golden like the sunlight but like the harsh desert where we are stranded.
"You're an outsider, aren't you?"
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