Desolation of Erimos
Copyright© 2026 by Rycliff
Chapter 8: Leaving Erimos
They walked out of the temple together. Three abreast. For several seconds the doorway framed them against the darkness behind, and then the harsh morning light of Erimos swallowed everything else. Alliyanna raised one arm against the glare. After hours underground, even the darkened visor of her environmental suit could not keep the light from feeling painful. The twin suns had already cleared the horizon, and the temperature display inside her helmet was climbing almost as quickly as she watched it. Directly in front of them stood a dune.
It had not been there in quite the same shape when they entered the temple. Kahlan stared at it. Talak stared at it.
Alliyanna finally said, “Of course.”
The wind had spent the hours they were below rearranging the landscape. Their shelter, the powered sled, and most of their supplies remained on the other side of the dune field. Not far by normal standards. Far enough under the rising suns of Erimos.
“We move now,” Talak said. “Before it gets worse.”
Nobody argued. The first climb reminded Alliyanna how tired she was. The sand shifted under every step. Their suits protected them from the heat, but the suits were heavy, and the cooling systems could only compensate for so much exertion. Every meter upward seemed to surrender half of itself beneath her boots. Talak reached the crest first. He stopped and looked down the other side. Alliyanna joined him. Their equipment was still there.
The sled remained where they had left it, half surrounded by windblown sand. One reflective panel protruded from the pile of equipment. Nothing appeared disturbed.
“That is encouraging,” Kahlan said when he reached them.
Talak looked at him. “You sound surprised.”
“I have adjusted my expectations.”
They descended. Going down was faster but not easier. Their boots sank deeply into the loose slope. Twice Alliyanna had to throw out an arm to keep from falling. The First Fragment was secured against her body beneath the outer layer of her suit, wrapped and protected as well as they could manage. She could still feel its warmth. Not the heat of the desert. Something steadier than that. She resisted the urge to check it again.
It was there. They had it. That should have felt like success. It did not. Success was twenty-five kilometers away, sitting on its landing gear and waiting for them.
By the time they reached the sled, nobody wanted to celebrate anything. Talak immediately started pulling out the shelter components. Kahlan unfolded the reflective barriers. Alliyanna connected the portable power unit and helped raise the frame. They had done it enough times that almost none of it required conversation. Poles locked into place. The shelter expanded. Reflective barriers went up on the exposed sides. The cooling units came online. They waited until the interior temperature fell into a safe range before opening their suits.
Alliyanna removed her helmet and stood for several seconds with her eyes closed while the cooled air touched her face. Kahlan sat heavily beside one of the equipment cases and pulled off his gloves. Talak took longer. He checked the power draw, shelter seal, environmental system, and exterior sensors before finally releasing his own helmet. Nobody spoke. That was unusual.
Normally Kahlan would have found something to say. Talak would have found something practical that needed attention. Alliyanna would have opened the ancient book or started asking questions. Instead they sat in silence. The temple had followed them out. Not physically. There were no moving walls, false voices, mirror panels, or black rooms waiting to show them something they did not want to see. But what they had learned remained.
Alliyanna thought about her brother. Her mother. Birsha. The contract. The cold and deliberate part of herself she had finally admitted existed. She did not regret surviving. She did not regret protecting herself. But she understood now that there was a difference between being capable of ruthlessness and pretending she was incapable of it. Across the shelter, Talak sat with his back against one of the cases. His eyes were open, but he seemed to be looking somewhere far beyond the fabric wall. Whatever the Chamber had shown him was his. Alliyanna did not reach for it.
Through their connection she could feel him faintly. Tired. Thoughtful. Unsettled. Kahlan was quieter still. He sat with his forearms across his knees, staring down at his hands. There were questions waiting for him. How long he had been able to hear them. What had changed on Luminara. What he had heard. Why he had hidden it.
Alliyanna knew that conversation had to happen. Not now. They were exhausted. They were still twenty-five kilometers from the Star Shadow, and the temperature outside was moving steadily toward lethal. Some problems could wait. Alliyanna unfastened the protective wrap and carefully removed the Fragment.
Green light immediately spread across her hands. Talak looked over. So did Kahlan. The Fragment rested across both of her palms, perhaps a foot long and only a few inches thick. It still glowed. It was still warm. Outside the Guardian’s chamber it almost looked too small to justify everything they had endured to reach it. For a long time nobody said anything.
Alliyanna turned it slightly. The green light moved over her fingers.
“The first,” she said.
Talak nodded. “Yes.”
Kahlan leaned back against the shelter wall. “One of three.”
That was when the meaning of what they had done finally settled into place. Inside the temple, accepting the Guardian’s charge had been a decision. Here, beneath reflective barriers while the suns climbed over Erimos, it became a fact. They knew a second Fragment existed. They knew there was a third.
They knew the Key was real. And they knew enough about the Void to understand that walking away now would not return any of them to the lives they had before. Alliyanna looked at Talak. Then Kahlan.
“We’ve started this.”
Talak held her gaze. “Yes.”
She looked down at the Fragment.
“So we finish it.”
Kahlan was silent for several seconds.
Then he nodded. “We finish it.”
Talak said nothing. He did not need to. Alliyanna felt his answer through the connection before he gave the smallest nod. Outside, wind drove sand against the reflective barriers. Inside, the First Fragment continued to glow.
They rested through the day. Alliyanna slept for perhaps two hours before waking without knowing why. She lay listening to the steady hum of the cooling system and the soft movement of air through the shelter. Talak was asleep across from her. Kahlan appeared to be. The Fragment rested inside its protective container near her equipment. Even enclosed, a faint green line escaped through the seam.
They had it. After everything beneath the temple, that fact still seemed strange. They had found the temple. Opened it. Passed its trials. Taken the Fragment. But Erimos was not finished with them simply because the temple was. Late in the afternoon Talak woke everyone.
They ate without much conversation. Field rations. Water. Electrolytes. Nothing that required effort. Kahlan examined the outside temperature display.
“One hundred twenty-six.”
Talak checked the time. “We wait.”
Nobody argued. They waited until the suns dropped low enough that the temperature began falling rapidly. Then they dressed again. Environmental suits. Cooling systems. Respirators. Weapons. Fragment secured. Shelter collapsed. Reflective barriers folded. Everything returned to the sled. When darkness finally came, they started walking.
The first night was uneventful. That did not make it easy. The ground around the temple basin was softer than the terrain they had crossed on the way in. Wind had shifted several larger dunes, forcing Talak to adjust their route twice. The powered sled carried most of its own weight, but its broad runners still dragged heavily through the deepest sand. Talak walked ahead. Alliyanna stayed close to the sled.
Kahlan followed several meters behind, periodically turning to examine the darkness. Nobody talked unless there was a reason.
“Left.”
“Watch the drop.”
“Hold the sled.”
“Stop.”
“Water.”
They walked. Stopped briefly. Then walked again. The temperature continued falling. Within hours Alliyanna had changed her suit from cooling to heating. Erimos remained determined to make every part of survival inconvenient.
Around midnight they stopped for ten minutes. No shelter. Just rest. Alliyanna sat on the edge of the sled. Her legs ached. Talak drank slowly from his suit line. Kahlan stared into the darkness.
Alliyanna looked at him. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“That usually means something.”
Kahlan considered the desert. “I was thinking about the ship.”
Talak glanced over. “What about it?”
Kahlan shrugged. “I miss it.”
Alliyanna smiled slightly. “So do I.”
Talak nodded. That was the entire conversation. They stood and continued walking. By the time they stopped before dawn, they had covered a little more than seven kilometers. The shelter went up.
The barriers followed. Coolers started. Suits came off. Alliyanna dropped onto her bedding without removing her boots. Talak noticed.
“Boots.”
She opened one eye. “I know.”
“You’ll regret it.”
“I already regret everything.”
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