The thief patted the rolled up carpet. "I cannot take all of the credit." He said. Standing up he smiled a smile that showed his teeth, and reaching to the small of his back, he produced one of the more expensive wines from the Emir's stash. "But thank you all the same." He said, considering tossing her the clay bottle but thinking better of it. This was no time to continue their drinking, and so he shoved it into his small sack. Finding yourself in the middle of the desert, even with a quick means of escape really killed the mood. He sighed, exasperated. Every time he was about to be a with a woman these days, something ruined it for him. He suspected the old gods had truly cursed him. 

It truly had been something else, flying swifter than a bird through the night sky, even if he didn't have Emmaline clinging to him. He could get used to flying like that, but the magic carpet seemed content to leave them be at the moment. As Emmaline gazed into the gloom, Amal turned and his demeanor turned more serious as he recalled something he saw in the distance. It was as if the carpet had known which direction to fly them in, as there was something south of them he could have sworn he had spotted by the light of the moon. 

"So, where do you suppose we are?" the northerner asked, shaking the airborne sand out of her fair hair.

"We are east, in the lands of the dead." He said. "That was where you saw your vision, right? I know we are east because there was a landmark to the south I saw. Something no one ever goes to." He checked to make sure he had everything in order on his person. His ring, such as it was, along with his knife and the scimitar he had procured, along with the rope. Emmaline would see him stand very differently than any way she had known him. Not hunched in a crouch or ready to spring, but tall and almost powerfully. Despite the small change, it was as loud as a pistol shot to someone who had spent the better part of the last few weeks with him.

"No one ever goes here, either." Amal turned in her direction, his dark eyes, shining like agates in the starlight, meeting hers. He was as honest and serious as he had ever been. "There is evil here that does not sleep. Things...things that make the Asaph guardian we encountered look like the bumbling bandits it slaughtered." The young bandit took a step closer, his eyes never leaving hers as his face drew closer. There was nothing playful or sexual as before. He was speaking to a companion he trusted, and he wanted to make sure she was paying attention. "You are smarter than me in many things, but surviving the sands of this land is what I do. If you say jump, you jump. If I say duck, you do so. Follow my lead until things turn sorcerous. I turn it to you then, got it?"

He finally gave his usual grin once he felt she understood. "Good. Now that we have that out of the way, let us see if we can go make our fortunes, yeah?"   

Amal looked about, and found the tallest sand dune amongst the waves around them to go and ascend, walking to the top as if it had perfectly carved stairs and stepping his foot upon a relatively large rock that as he gazed eastward. The moon and stars would fade within a matter of hours, but he still wished to try and see if they could view anything on the horizon. He saw a few jagged bits of masonry far away, like shipwrecked sticking out of the sea, but nothing substantial. 

"Asaph..." a whispered called, carried by a sudden wind that had materialized a few yards before Amal and Emmaline's position. There was a chill to it that was uncharacteristically cold even for the night time of the Southland deserts. As Amal took out his scimitar and gazed about, Emmaline would suddenly regain the visions of power and riches in her head as she had when she first picked up the staff, but only for a fleeting moment as her eyes fell upon the rock Amal had been standing on. It was no rock at all. 

It was a large skull. 
[@Penny]