The Desert

The Desert

In-universe date: Era Nova, March-April, Year 1

Real-world date: 31 July 2026

Author: Osiris

Osiris stood beneath the evening sky, watching the last embers of sunlight fade across the sky. They had traveled farther than he ever thought they would. They had fought, suffered... and eventually died.

They remembered the warmth leaving their limbs, the certainty that it was over. And yet... somehow, they had awakened once more.

Something...someone...had pulled them back. The memory was fragmented, slipping through their grasp in the impossibly of defying reality.... but the question remained in their mind.

Why?

There was only one place that might possibly hold the answer.

Home.

Their cold boney hand tightened around the worn cloth of their bandana, before pulling it over the lower half of their face.

Home was where the truth waited... but it was also where every mistake, every face, and every memory threatened to unravel whatever chance theyd been given. Returning wasn't an option.... Not yet.

Keeping to the shadows of the terricotta clifsides, Osiris began their careful approach, stopping only when the familiar silhouette of the desert settlement came into view... Kheta Kedet...

Their chest tightened. They wanted nothing more than to cross the remaining distance, to throw caution aside and step through those gates.

Instead, they remained where they where

They had a mystery to uncover, and answers would only come if they where patient. They would have to walk a razor's edge... close enough to observe, to listen, to learn... but never so close that anyone realized they had returned.

Not until he understood who had stolen them from death... and why.

Osiris turned as their cloak fluttered behind them, and ventured back into the redsands... not yet.