Rosewater Oasis Killed him, took his name, and I got new glasses.

samir sighs.

he watches as the boy staggers, his gray form spilling like water down the dunes. samir is there.

he moves with the swiftness of one ordained by gods to act. his long strides bring him to the boy’s side, and with a fluid grace, he gathers nokht into his embrace. the boy is light, a thing barely tethered to this world, and samir feels the fragility of him as he lifts him onto his back—a back caped in gold, gilded by ra’s light and strengthened by divine purpose.

rest now, child, he murmurs. you are not yet lost.

and so he takes him, carrying nokht the rest of the way to the heart of the oasis.