Peiter followed suit with Sabine and gave his farewells to the Khajiit pair. He personally had not spent as much time around La'khay as Sabine, but he would still miss her, and many of the others they had met from the Senchal clan, during the march. La'khay was an unconventional person in about every sense, but she was still caring in her own way, and at the very least, amusing to be around. Their separation was becoming sentimental enough that Peiter almost forgot about La'khay's immediate plans, until he saw La'tahne tackle her to the bed on the way out of the door. 

---

Most of the final preparations for the march were made hours in advance of the actual departure. The warband had a fair number of carts at their disposal which would somewhat lighten the load for the soldiers along the march. They would primarily be pulled by camels purchased from Orcrest, though some of the Senche could also take on the burden when it came time to allow their pack animals some rest. The warband had ample supplies of food, and as long as they kept along their planned path, would be able to resupply their water reserved along the way. As an improvement from their last trek through the desert, the sand and sun would not be as much of a problem, since they were all now properly clothed for the journey. The most popular garb among the Orcrest clan for walking in the desert were cloaks made of linen: a fabric that could breathe enough to allow them to stay reasonably cool, while still fully protecting their bodies. 

As soon as the sun was directly overhead, the soldiers, along with most of both clans, filed out onto the flat sands outside the stronghold. Ri'vashi had sent out multiple teams of scouts hours in advance to scour the area within line of sight of the stronghold to ensure that there would be no witnesses to the warband's departure. Given that a single outsider had never wandered close to the stronghold in all of its years of existence by accident, it was perhaps not a necessary measure, but she wanted to remain cautious all the same. All of the carts were packed, and they were ready to depart as soon as Meesei and Ri'vashi felt that enough time had passed for final goodbyes. 

Among the many friends and family members seeing off the soldiers was all of Ra'kalesh's pride. Newt was in Jo'rashaad's arms, while Rhazii was standing alongside S'ajira. Even Leaps was present, though Ciinriel had to keep a hold of him to keep him from running up to Janius and Kaleeth.