under a burning sky

Pyrotheo. The god of fire. The summer tyrant. Not a god of malevolent evil, but a being of inflexible devotion to order. The purifier of chaos. The executor of unquenchable justice. His **** prejustice and hatred of anything that carries the element of chaos, of change, means that he is engaged in an endless conquest of anything that grows, and he is quite a bit stronger than the other gods of natural forces here in the desert.

The city of Tutmanu 'Taliku hails Pyrotheo as their patron deity, more out of **** than anything else. His priest are all quite somber and boring when the sun is up and his eyes are upon them, only enjoying the night times in their secret sins when they believe he doesn't see them. He is as inflexible logical as he is intolerant of all things erratic and/or emotional. Families are banned among his followers, as is romance, poetry, and asymmetrical art.

Alex never cared much for the god, but he did on more than one occasion need access to the libraries in the under-city. Tut 'Tel had the second largest selection of written works in the lands of Myrioth, and had the largest most secure vault of knowledge deemed "forbidden". It was in those vaults that Alex found the clues he needed to get past the seals and into the prison of Xenrdomus.

He had to gather a collection of six heroic symbols, most easily done with one symbol for each party member, just to take on the trial of heavens and earn the special signet of Pyrotheo needed to enter those vaults. Even all of the caretakers for the vault had to earn the signet as a heroic party. Many wizards who had been heroes in their younger years retired into the service of Pyrotheo as caretakers.

It was almost ironic then that the nearest city to Tut 'Tel was Jenida, where the god of Chaos and his Avatar resided. A god who by contrast to Pyrotheo was basically indifferent to the doings of the world, but would offer "help" to anyone who asked for it. Shershi was listed as an evil god because of his indifference to the suffering of mortals, even the times when he wasn't responsible in any way. He was almost completely irresponsible, but he was also not to be taken lightly. Worship of him might be forbidden, but the last time an army gathered to face his city they suffered a fate far worse than ****.

As a result neither Pyrotheo nor any of even his most zealous followers would dare to attempt an inquisition on the city of Jenida itself. However there were always inquisitors on the hunt for any followers of the chaos god, and as a self appointed god of order Pyrotheo was perhaps the most heavy handed in his dealings with chaos priests when they were found.

Here among the dunes you could really feel how a god could earn the title of Summer Tyrant and take pride in it. Even in the closing days of autumn the heat of the desert became oppressive. The fact that it would be winter by the time they made it to Tut'Tel mattered little to the weather here.

Winter was not the season of strength for Pyrotheo, in the rest of the world beyond he would be at his weakest, replaced by another deity he hates even more than the god of Chaos; Piahoar the frost god.

There was another great contrast to be made. Those two gods were truly opposites, where Pyrotheo wanted submission Piahoar encouraged pride. Where the god of fire despised pleasures of all veriaties the god of winter was also the god of revelries and parties. Not to be assumed though that he was a god of lazy decadence, Piahoar taught to work hard all summer to prepare for the winter, but when winter had come the work stopped and the party began. The harder you worked during the summer the bigger the party you could enjoy during the winter. Have a large enough celebration and the frost god might just show up in person to enjoy the fruits of your labor with you.

But there had never been a tale of Piahoar showing up at Tut 'Tel. Even in his strongest time of the year the desert and the people here were not his crowd. In his many travels this was one part of the world that Alex would also avoid unless business demanded his presence here. Piety was all fine and good, but even the level of piety among the followers of Pyrotheo was oppressive, as if the ban on fun had reduced their ability to even show common courtesies to outsiders, not like the arrogance of nobles, but that condescending way that only the self-righteous can muster.

There were a few exceptions, as there always are. There are moments when one could look out across the desert and see a vibrant beauty that one would not have imagined without being there to see it in person. But to come here in search of those moments was a lost cause.

Inhospitable is an understatement.

As they plodded through this desolation Alex would often glance at their guide Raven and marvel at how absolutely easy the guide found it to enjoy the scenery as they passed various dunes. As if he were completely indifferent to the oppressive rays of the sun, the heat radiating from the sands, or the wind that filled the lungs with an uncomfortable fire.

Raven gave a friendly greeting to every rock, lizard, snake and bug that they happened to find as they wove the caravan around the endless sea of dunes. Random conversations, questions about the weather, advice and directions. If Alex wasn't positive that the blood raven was insane from the moment they had met he'd be fairly convinced that the man lacked any reasonable degree of sanity by now.

And despite that clear lack of common sense or proverbial wisdom Raven would speak from time to time with an unnerving level of clarity that even got to Demon. It was contradictory and unsettling how he would do it, but it was also always so brief you were unsure if that was simply a part of his madness or if his madness was just a coping mechanism for living a wild life.

Demon didn't travel in the lead with Alex as much in the desert once it got uncomfortable, choosing instead to hide among the cargo under the shaded canopies. The guards didn't bother her there and the sun bothered her less than it did on Alex's pack.

By the end of the first week Alex was fairly sure that all the guards would volunteer to take turns hiding in the shade of the wagons. Alex had noticed that one by one they had modified their armor, doing away with anything that was metal and replacing it with a thick lattice of wicker that didn't capture heat the way metal does, would breath as well and yet still stop an arrow. It wasn't as durable in an actual battle, but for dealing with an ambush in desert conditions it was still an edge that most of the nomads and the few bandits who wandered the desert didn't have.

Alex too was wearing far less plate metal than when he left Grumen 'Kal, much like his guide he was now in loose layered cloth with a the leather under-plates of his standard armor beneath it all. He still carried the metal plates, but they were on and in his pack rather than being on his body. Not having a spare helmet he now wore something of a curtain over his helmet to keep some of the sun off of it. He had no means of covering up his eyes without it and even this far into their time across the desert the only members of the caravan who knew why he always wore the helmet were Raven and Julian.

Demon still bothered Alex about wanting to see him in bed with another human, but the sleeping arrangements were such that even if Alex had wanted too, which he didn't, there was no way that he could have done so discreetly. Demon's solution was a long seduction and an orgy when they got to Tut 'Tel, but Alex simply wasn't interested. The desert heat and unrelenting pace had taken all thoughts of sex out of him.