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That night was full of bright lights, of cool air that felt wonderful to breathe, of smells of sweet flowers and warm spices. It was full of music, of happy conversations, some of them her own. It held a dance, and a crowd that had gone wild upon seeing a very special dance. Nilou remembered every part of it vividly.
Days passed, and so did another performance, and she began to wonder why that night stayed on her mind.
"You've been thinking about the festival, you say?" Faruzan seemed slightly amused. "More specifically, you've been thinking about a boy you met at the festival? Hmm, sounds like a classic case of a kid developing a crush."
Faruzan's office was quiet for a few long seconds, save for a spincrystal playing from somewhere underneath her desk.
There was a long and awkward pause
"Well, what do I do about it?" Nilou finally asked.
" I'm afraid you'll have to ask someone else. Romance isn't my specialty."
And the office was once again uncomfortably quiet.
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The next day, Nilou was sitting on a bench in the city, thinking about nothing in particular, when suddenly she was startled by a figure dropping out of the sky.
"Well, well, if it isn't Sumeru's favorite dancer." said Wanderer.
Nilou rubbed her eyes. "And why might you be here again?"
He glared at her for a moment, and it would have been intimidating were they not better acquainted. As it was, she knew that she was about to be hearing some interesting news. "Deliveries."
He continued staring beyond her, and she finally broke the silence by saying "from where?"
"One is from Aaru Village, and it's the costume you ordered. The other is a letter. As for who it's from, I don't know, and I certainly don't care."
Nilou greatfully took both, and before she knew it, Wanderer had put his hat back on and left. He really was a strange person.
Since there was no one else she wanted to talk to, she opened the letter.
Greetings from the desert!
Cyno and I explored a ruin recently, and we found a mural which seems to represent some sort of ritual involving dance. Seeing as you seem to be quite knowledgable on the subject, would you be able to come take a look at it? The ruin is quite safe, I checked multiple times.
Sincerely,
Sethos
P.S. (Cyno asked me to write this) Someone stole all of my lamps. I'm de-lighted. Get it? Because I lost all of my lights...
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Of course Nilou wanted to go! She loved exploring, and the desert was still a fairly new place to her! And, of course, she would see her friends! But of course, she had to have made the mistake of telling Dehya.
"Kid, the desert is a dangerous place. Plus, how much do you really trust this boy? All I'm saying is, I wouldn't go if I were you."
In the end, her words were ignored. Cyno would be there anyway...right?
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"Hey, so, uh, Cyno had some other buisiness he had to get to." Sethos sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "He did say he would send Candice after us, but she'll take a bit to get here. If you'd feel more comfortable, we could wait here."
"Oh no, that's perfectly fine!" Nilou quickly followed.
"You sure?"
"Yep!"
Nilou could only thank the archons that Faruzan and Dehya couldn't see them.
After a few minutes of walking, they reached the entrance the the ruins. Sethos slid in first and then helped her down. Once inside, they found themselves in a spacious room, with a glowing blue mechanism in the middle, which released a ray of light towards the sky. Around the walls were candles and a few shelves that held scrolls and vases and other trinkets. On one side was a beatifully carved door, which probably had a mechanism to unlock it somewhere.
Nilou looked all around the room, in complete awe, and Sethos looked at her and how her expression lit up.
"First time seeing a place like this?" he finally asked.
"It is!"
Both continued to stand in silence.
"Hey, remember, you're standing next to the best desert guide in all of Sumeru! If you want, I'll show you all of the amazing sites this desert has to offer!"
"You sound like this room is nothing to you." With this Nilou turned to face her friend.
He grinned. "If this area makes you happy, then I can't wait to see what you'll think of the rest of this desert."
Nilou snapped out of her trance, remembering that they needed to go forward. "We open this door next, right?"
Sethos went over to the wall, pushed a button, and suddenly, the door was open to reveal a staircase leading downwards.
They continued through the sands in this manner, with Nilou looking at almost everything, and Sethos happily explaining what they were to her. Once, she stirred up some scorpions, but they were swiftly defeated by overload reactions.
Curiosity became a little bit of a problem for them when Nilou stepped on a pressure plate, right before it collapsed. She was, of course, fine, being a dancer and used to landing on her feet. Sethos ran to the edge of the pit and jumped in after her.
They were now stuck in a rather small area with a locked chest, and absolutely nothing else.
"Uh, how do we unlock this so we can get back up?" Nilou asked.
Sethos was looking through the sand in one corner. "No clue."
Nilou scanned the sand, looking for anything that might appear unusual. Seeing nothing, she kicked some sand out of the way, only for her foot to hit a piece of stone. Slowly, she began scooping the sand (which was surprisingly cool) off of what now appeared to be a plate, slightly bigger than was needed for a human to stand on.
Once it was mostly clean, and some stange symbol had been revealed, she stood on the plate, having no other ideas.
Nothing happened.
"Maybe it's just stuck," Sethos offered, stomping on the plate.
Still nothing.
She moved over ever so slightly, and he joined her in standing on the plate. They both fit, but it was close.
Slowly, the mechanism began to sound through the stone walls.
If Sethos was uncomfortable with how close they were (it was something akin to hugging) he didn't show it. Nilou was desperately trying not to have her face burn up, and likely failing. Faruzan's words circled through her brain, and she knew there was probably no more denying them.
After whay could have been half a minute or an hour, the mechanism stopped, and the red spell over the chest vanished. Nilou went to open it, feeling extremely conscious of the temperature in the room.
Inside were 2 bags of mora.
A ladder materialized at the side of the room, and they climbed up it.
Candice was waiting for them at the top. She looked like she had something very interesting on her mind, but whatever it was, she didn't say anything about it. Just "I knew I would find you here."
And so, the party of three continued forwards into their final room. It had a large painting on one wall, and the others were filled with cracks that glowed a dark blue. Above them silvery white branches showed through a hole in the ceiling.
Nilou studied the painting. There were six figures, two in the foreground doing a lift not unlike the ones she knew, and four others holding strange poses in the background.
"I'll have to be honest, most of this looks unfamiliar. The lift though...I could do that."
"It looks quite difficult..." Candace began.
"Need a demonstration?" asked Nilou.
"I'm concerned how casually you suggest that."
"It's going to be absolutely fine! Sethos, would you please help me demonstrate?"
Candace simply looked on as Nilou effortlessly picked up her companion and threw him over her shoulder.
Nothing else remarkable had happened that day, yet something about it still felt so warm, so comforting. They had gotten a picture of the murals and taken it back to the Akadeymiya, where several researchers were hard at work, analyzing the pictures and notes from Nilou.
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At this point, the party had split up, with Candace going shopping, Nilou going to the theater, and Sethos sitting on the outskirts of the town, contemplating the previous day.
Something felt just a little bit unsatisfying about the how their encounter had ended. Sure, they had accomplished their goal. Sure, they all had ended the day on good terms, promising to see each other again. And yet, part of him felt that he should have said something else. Told Nilou that for some reason, her smile was somehow the brightest expression he had ever seen. Would that be weird? It was the truth...
Perhaps next time...