The day had come at last. Aralim had said all his farewells except for one, and it was time for him to leave the city of Tal’lashar. He climbed the Tenth Tower once more, to watch the sun rise on the Amirella Mountains. The dense row of peaks splintered the sunrise, casting rays like a crown upon the sky. Streaks of pink and orange faded as the day burned through their vibrancy.
In the long shadow of Queb Rionar’s home, Aralim’s guards stood waiting. Grendar had ordered them to wear armour for the departure, partially for safety and partially for show. Devran had purchased a sand robe from the Asha at some point during his stay; Aralim could barely notice him apart from the commoners and servants that surrounded the group of travellers. With the orange-robed Aura close behind him, Aralim strode past the chronicler to the other side of the group.
Dullah stood at the edge of the onlookers, her rich brown hair brushed loose around her face. She smiled to Aralim as the Walker approached. Nilless had been following, laden with a pack and hefty travelling robes. Dullah smiled at the woman and said, “Well Aralim, looks like you found an improvement over me.”
Aralim chuckled. “Don’t be hard on yourself. You’ve proven to be a true companion on the Path. Even if you don’t have a staff.”
His friend eyed his blue lantern hanging from the familiar wooden rod in his right hand. “You’ll come back to visit someday and there’ll be lanterns hanging all over Tal’lashar, I’m sure,” she said.
“Now that would be interesting.…” Aralim looked down, but then smiled at her. She had a spark in her eyes he had not seen before, not even in Rema. “For what it’s worth,” he told her, “I’m glad you’ve rekindled your ambition.”
“I’m glad I wasn’t too cowardly to come knock on your door that day, what… almost a year ago? Oh, before I forget. Here.” Dullah passed him a bundle of letters—thin scrolls bound in criss-crossing yarn. “Could you deliver these for me? I mean, could you have a trusted servant deliver them? I remember you sitting on the steps of the Third Court without a pillow, so I know you’d rather deliver them yourself instead of having someone else do the leg work.”
Aralim nodded. “Of course. Although, it would give me a good reason to walk around the city. I’m sure a lot has changed.”
Dullah’s laughter mingled with the wispy lantern smoke overhead. It was cooler in the shade; the desert grew chilly at night. “Thank you,” Aralim’s friend said, earnestly. “As Dullah the Skeptic, I’m tempted to say something about hoping you’ll one day not need the Path anymore. Instead, I’ll wish you the best in finding where it leads.”
“You too, Dullah. You too,” Aralim said. He accepted her spread arms in a quick embrace and then stepped away.
The guards had shouldered their packs, ready to be underway. Nill looked at Aralim somewhat anxiously as he rejoined the group. “I packed some food—I wasn’t certain how much to bring. And some simple tools, though I often had servants on my wilderness outings.”
“As long as you have a good pair of shoes, you should be fine.” Aralim lifted his own pack onto his shoulders, expertly leaning his staff in the crook of his elbow as he moved. “I’m called a Walker of the Path for a reason.”
Nill nodded nervously. Aralim waved to his group and declared, “Let’s be on our way!” Devran hurried to join Grendar at the front of the group while Nill stuck to Aralim’s side. They began the long walk through the dusty city streets of Tal’lashar. Between the mountainous horizon and the Forty-Seven Towers, they still walked in darkness.
After a moment, Nilless stepped closer to Aralim. She might have been more prepared for travel than other upper-classers he had known—like Dullah, of course—but she still wore perfume. “My father told me you went to him,” his newer friend said. “Thank you for assuring him this would not be a mistake for me.”
“I simply told him the truth. It’s a long trip, but you’re perfectly able to come back should you choose.”
“When I was twenty-five, I ran away for two years,” the Asha woman told him. “By the end of the first year, I knew I had made a mistake, but pride kept me hiding away. It was one of the most difficult things in my life to come home that time… but this is different. This isn’t about getting away from him or from this place. It’s about finding what is out there, finding something new.”
Aralim smiled knowingly. “It’s a large world. I could barely stay in Rema a year before I felt the need to carry on. Hence my position—Ambassador of the Eternal Emperor.”
“Have you thought about where you will go next?” she asked him.
“It’s best I leave some choices to the First Court in Rema. They tend to feel I undermine them enough as is. Besides, any place is good,” he declared with a shrug and a grin.
Nill smirked. “I see. I think I have a lot to learn about Rema.”
“So does Rema,” Aralim said.
The woman looked intrigued and fell silent to consider his words. They had spoken on philosophy many times in her father’s study, but Aralim enjoyed being able to render his conversationalist accomplices speechless with his insightful quips.
After a half-hour, they left the city along a trail that led between the Dusty Docks. The huge stone wharfs with their sand-dune partners and windswept faces gave them one last shadowy embrace. Then Aralim and his friends marched into the sun and down across the flatland toward the sparkling waves of the Shrinking Sea.
Some wooden docks were shambled together on the shore, though the travellers had passed the signs of similar constructions for each of the last few miles. It seemed like proof that this inland sea was in fact dwindling, though Aralim enjoyed the fact that it was beyond the easy comprehension of his fellow humans. Mere mortals could not track the complexity of the greater spirits.
Worlen, the fisherman, stood still amongst the bustling workers in the shanty harbour. Not only had Grendar secured use of his ship, but Worlen would serve as Aralim’s guide along the coast. They would sail as far south as the Shrinking Sea permitted and then they would disembark. The ship, Aralim soon learned, was a lot smaller than the ship on which he had once served as First Mate. Nonetheless, he eagerly introduced himself to Worlen and climbed aboard.