Chapter 13 Divine Intimacy #3
In the heart of the deep freeze, the landscape was a surreal collision of extremes. The permafrost had turned the vast, rolling dunes into ivory sculptures, their ridge lines accentuated by the dazzling snow.
The Wadi Tansin was a corridor of shadow and hoarfrost.
Frozen waterfalls hung like silvery rib cages from the canyon walls, and the seasonal riverbeds were choked with slush that moved with the slow, heavy grind of broken glass.
Up on the Okama Plateau, the vast, flat expanse, a mantle of snow covered every surface all the way to the horizon, making the earth and sky bleed together into a single, seamless void of porcelain white.
There was no sound here but the crunch of the drifts under Idan’s heavy boots and the whistle of the gale through the porous stone pillars, a hollow, ghostly music that seemed to mourn the very sun itself.
As they crossed an invisible meridian, the world went mute.
The rhythmic crunch of their boots vanished.
The wind became a ghost of muted breath over the skin.
Sound collapses here, Idan murmured into her mind. The mineral composition of these dunes absorbs every vibration. We’re standing in a pocket of near-zero acoustic input.
He stopped and turned to her, his amber eyes scanning the horizon where the violet sands shifted into obsidian spires that pierced the sky.
The silence calms your brain’s fear center and heals stress injuries three to four times faster after just one night. Tis the ultimate reset for a fractured mind.
They sat on a plateau of dark stone to eat their lunch, gazing out at the soundless vista.
The food flavors, heightened in the silence, burst on her tongue: the sweetness of the berries, the rich, smoky salt of the meat, and the dense, nutty bread.
Sheba was hit with a profound stillness, a peace so deep it was almost heavy.
It’s stunning, she whispered.
This is why I must protect it at all costs. I have something I need to do now. Stay where you are, salkia and enjoy the show.
She arched a brow as he rose and strode about one hundred meters out into the desert vista.
He raised his hands, and the atmosphere began to fracture.
He drew raw energy from the dry air, blue-white lightning coiling around his forearms like living serpents.
He traced intricate patterns in the space.
Faint, crystalline ripples shimmered into existence; wards, hexes woven from a geometry older than the stars.
He dispersed the force in a massive, pulsing wave that settled over the vast geography like an invisible, shimmering shield.
Sheba observed in awe as the sheer scale of his godlike nature hit her hard.
When he rejoined her, she shook her head in disbelief, her hands trembling as she touched his arm.
You’re something else.
He shrugged. I can’t help it. The Rhixon Corporation is eyeing these plateaus for new mines,’ he rasped.
‘The mineral concentration here is a siren song to them. If they break this ground, the silence dies, and the ecology too. I won’t allow it, so I set hexed traps.
If anyone other than a local tries to bypass them, they’ll be incinerated.
Sheba stared at him, transfixed and unnerved by the passion for the territory they stood in and the indigenous people who lived here.
Sensing her emotion, he gathered her into an embrace and gave her a long, lingering kiss filled with a fierce heat.
Why do you care so much? she said with a wry smile as they pulled apart.
It’s what needs to be done.
She huffed, unconvinced. Why do you carry the burden of an entire habitat, Idan? Why does this planet matter this much to you?
It is in my DNA to protect, he replied, his gaze fixed on the shimmering horizon. I possess a sense that my time in this realm is finite. I’m merely a visitor here, and I must safeguard the sanctuary that took me in when I fell from the heavens.
So you are High Sacran, not just some soldier on the run?
He took a deep breath. I am.
Sheba tilted her head, tracing her hand down the rough stubble of his jawline.
Tell me, she whispered. I want to hear your story.
His warrior’s mask stripped away, leaving a raw vulnerability.
A muscle ticked in his jaw before he took an inhale.
I was one of many squad leaders in the Sacran army.
Due to a series of harrowing events, I fell from on high.
When I landed here, I was disoriented, unstable, and at my wits’ end.
I stumbled into the village, where Chef Xian and Muna nursed me to health when I had nothing but my own confusion and hate for my enemies.
Then Xian gave me the mountain land in exchange for supplies and my labor.
That welcome, that farm, its soil, and my animals, they saved my mind and my soul.
They healed me. I owe this dirt and these people a debt I can only pay with my very essence.
It was still a sanitized version of his truth, but Sheba let it slide. He’d share it all when he was ready.
They stood arms around each other for a long time as the sun dipped below the dunes, painting the silent sands and hoarfrost drifts in shades of bruised gold and deep indigo.
In time, Idan gathered her up in his embrace and glimmered them both away.
In a heartbeat, the desert air shifted into the familiar scent of wood smoke and pine as he returned them to the mountain hut.
He tucked her sleepy, exhausted self into the heavy furs of his bed, his touch tender.
‘Is this a dream?’ she murmured out loud, pulling him down for one last, soft kiss. ‘If it is, I never want to wake from it.’
He let out a rumbling, deep chuckle that reverberated in her own chest. ‘Nada, woman. We’re just each other’s dreams come true.’