Chapter 286: A Gift

Words : 1107 Updated : Oct 1st, 2025

By the time they reached Cassim's trail, east of an old trade road, the Twelve Moons hung low, pale hooks over the jagged mountains. The night air here was really dry. Not a single breeze moved. Even the stars above seemed reluctant to shine on the place they had found. The scouts were right. There was a camp. It sat before them, deep within the narrow valley. But something was amiss. Very unusual. From their perch on the slope above, Malik's little warband was able to easily peer down on them, see what was what. The campfires between large tents were all snuffed out, while wagons remained aligned to the sides without steeds. There was literally no sound in the camp. No movement. Not even the lazy clatter of soldiers whispering to one another outside. Just... stillness. "That's one obvious trap." Kabir was the first to say what everyone thought. "Even worse in this choke point." They were surrounded by steep cliff walls. It would be far too easy to close the mouth of this canyon, and once inside, there'd be no getting out. Especially not with their one pitiful steed, their children, and their women. One of the men snorted. "No way Cassim expects us to walk into that." "Only an idiot would do that." "Or a dead man." Whispers began to swirl. Suggestions came to circle around. Scout it longer. Wait for dawn. But Malik, the only one whose thoughts held weight, stood still. Silent. Eyes unreadable. Sinbad, ever perched on his shoulder, flapped his wings once. A quiet hoot. Malik glanced at him, then said: "We're going in." "..." "..." "..." Everyone fell silent. Even the wind seemed to pause. Kabir blinked. "My Lord... respectfully—" "If he wanted to make the trap this obvious..." Malik interrupted, his voice heavy. "Then we'll accept the invitation and still crush him." That was that. No one dared argue again. He glanced over his shoulder—just briefly—toward the women and children behind him, further up the slope, clinging to each other. "Besides, this place will do." "Do for what?" Kabir asked. "Rest." A single word. And then he descended. The camp was even colder than expected. As if life had fled it in a hurry. Cassim didn't seem to bother selling this trap to them. There were no bodies, no blood, and no signs of a fight. He saw only one thing. Stuff—so much stuff. Crates of supplies. Abandoned weapons. Water still in pots. It didn't look like a camp that had been struck. It looked like a camp that had been fled. Malik walked through it while Sinbad flew above, scanning the surroundings with glowing, pink eyes. "Too much left behind." Kabir muttered, brushing dust from a tent flap. "Not even the dumbest of the dumb would abandon these supplies." A loud hoot echoed from above as Sinbad whispered in Malik's mind: "I see no one. Camouflage is highly likely. They emptied the men but left the bait. This wasn't to catch scouts. It was meant to catch you." Malik nodded his head, silently saying "I know," and gestured for his men to move. They split up. A few checked the perimeter. Others filtered into the tents in the back, searching for anything useful—or dangerous. Malik entered a large command tent, torn in one corner, maps left on the table as if the officer had simply walked out mid-sentence. He touched the map. Still warm. Hm. It seemed as if they had just— "There!" Someone shouted from outside, cutting off his thoughts. "On the ridge!" Malik emerged instantly. A figure stood tall atop the right cliff, silhouetted by a few pale moons behind him. He looked every bit the noble scoundrel thought of him as—Cassim, dressed in an embroidered cloak too fine for a camp, his beard oiled, his smile snake-like. "Malik!" He spread his arms out as if greeting an old friend. "What a pleasure it is to see you again." "..." Glancing at the still flying Sinbad, Malik said nothing. Instead, he stepped out into the open, the wind tossing his cloak slightly. Cassim chuckled. "You came all this way just for little old me? My, my, I didn't think you'd take the bait that quickly." "..." Still, Malik gave no reply. Not to the grin. Not to the mockery. Cassim clicked his tongue and kept talking: "You know, when you vanished, I thought—'Oh no, perhaps I went too far!' But then I realized... you're the kind of man who needs too far. And here you are. Back from the dead, and already making waves." Ignoring his words a third time, Malik took a stance. Slight bend in the knees. Right foot sliding back. Shoulders squared. "Elder Brother, don't. He's going to—" Cassim's eyes flashed. "NOW!" The valley shook. A thunderous CRACK split the air. Purple light exploded around the cliffs. In one breath, a massive dome of Aether surged up from the very rocks around them—runes igniting, and space itself warping. It slammed into place like a prison dropped from the heavens. A few women and children cried out, terrified of what was about to happen. Even those of the Silent Crescent felt a chill crawl up their spines. Malik didn't bother to calm them down; he didn't even move for a whole second. Only when the dome's Aether settled did he look up at it. His right hand lifted slightly, feeling the air. 'Interesting...' It was as if the region's gravity doubled. Aether was simply pushing them into the ground. This was not just some gravity manipulation; it was more, a lot more. Besides the fact that dome felt unbreakable from the inside, his own Aether... it was suppressed. Everyone's was. "It's not a spell. This is a Holy Relic's work. You're trapped inside a siphoning sphere..." Nodding his head, Malik turned to the side just as Kabir stumbled beside him, sword drawn. "What is this?! What did he just do?!" He pointed at Cassim... or rather, where he just was. The man was nowhere to be seen. Gone. Vanished into the snowy hills. Malik's eyes returned to the dome, lips parting just barely. "A gift." And the valley groaned around them. The earth trembled beneath them. "They're coming." Thousands upon thousands of men revealed themselves. They were completely surrounding the camp, blocking them in. And they marched towards them, each footfall rumbling the ground. Indeed, the trap had been sprung... Now all they had to do was survive it.

Chapter 286: A Gift

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