From the Kampfzengruppe Gateway City on Abaddon to the Emir's Gateway City on Sinai – one oasis in the middle of a rusty desert, the other in the middle of a storm with more desert beyond. The sickening sensation of being thrust through space by unconventional means is never mundane, but Envoy has experienced it so many times before that it holds no surprises. Or does it?

A covered carriage drawn by leathery-skinned Dromodons rolls through the gateway, the semi-reptilian beasts so slow to react to much of anything that there is not so much as a falter in their step, while the driver and the wagon's occupants adjust to the sudden shift in realities. Sandy-colored felines in robes and kadibans of white and vests of green and gold (with ornately sheathed scimitars at their sides) usher the carriage as just one of many in the caravan, out of the ancient alien tower and out to the merchant city beyond.

Passing out from the dim light of the tower interior, into the blazing Himaatian sunlight, Envoy has to shield her eyes from what filters through the windows to each side of the carriage.

It seems brighter, more brilliant than on Abaddon … which might very well make sense, since Sinai is indeed closer to the sun than Abaddon. While Abaddon is covered considerably with desert, much of it is cold desert, though many areas are especially hot due to volcanic activity and steam vents.

Still, Ashtoreth is even closer, and Envoy didn't feel quite the same way in the light of the sun. As the carriage rolls down the central throughway, and merchants identify Envoy's carriage as that of a traveler and thus a potential purchaser of goods (and thus start shouting and waving wares about), it registers that it's not really the sunlight at all that is stimulating her senses so.

No, it's something else entirely.

Envoy can sense magic.

Envoy blinks at the merchants, but for the most part ignores them. The past few days have been rather hectic for the Aeolun, and the request to return to Caroban came as a bit of a surprise. She hadn't expected them to want to see her again until they'd worked out the College's new policies. But this way she can probably meet with some Dream Mages under better circumstances.

As the carriage rolls through the little bazaar of Gateway City, she sees some of the gas-masked Kampfzengruppe guards scanning her vehicle with their blank, hidden stares from underneath the spiky tops of their helmets. A couple of the alien Hookas bob along, looking for all the world like a child's toys come to life – and this is apt enough, when Envoy spies a merchant selling some wooden toys that look like Hooka parts. (The Hookas are evidently fascinated, judging by their curious whonks and honks, but it's unlikely they're carrying any shekels to buy any.)

Seated on a blanket thrust out underneath a colorful canopy decorated with stylized stars and comets and runes of the Procession, a Zerda in sand-colored, sun-faded robes plays a flute, bobbing back and forth, as a pile of sand in front of him forms up into a swaying serpent-shape that moves in time with the music. A group of humans – Abaddonian, perhaps – stand nearby, watching in awe at their first exposure to genuine magic.

Seeing the Hookas reminds Envoy of the next target in her quest, somewhere in the bowels of Moltpaa, but that seems far off in the future at the moment. Being able to sense magic again is her first real sign that she's on the right track, and she tries to focus on the spell being cast by the fennec as the carriage passes.

The notes ring in Envoy's ears with a resonance beyond mere physical perception. She can "hear" in her mind the large-eared vulpine's coercing of the pile of sand into the shape he wishes, and she can feel the lingering resonance of an active spell that has already been charged up and cast, which the Zerda is controlling now that the chanting and invocation has stopped. It is most assuredly Earth Magic – just using sand instead of wood or soil, rock or metal.

Envoy's grin widens as she identifies the magic, and she starts reaching for her travel pack … only to stop herself at the last moment. There'll be time to test out the effect the crystal crown has on her senses when she's on Caroban. Taking the glittery artifact out now would probably just attract further attention to her.

And so Envoy remains quiet and poised in her carriage, looking every part the noble traveler riding by. A few merchants notice her appearance, and whisper amongst themselves ideas about just what adventures the winged alien might have been up to on the other side of the Gateway, but otherwise her return to Sinai is free of any great trouble. On it is, therefore, to Caroban…