I Only Summon Villainesses

The sun had begun its descent by the time the endless dunes gave way to something else.

It was Tristan who noticed first. His stride slowed, his hand rising to shield his eyes from the amber glare of the setting sun.

“There.”

I followed his gaze, squinting against the light. For a moment I saw nothing but more sand and emptiness of the same brutal landscape that had been trying to kill us for the past few days.

Then the horizon shifted.

What I had mistaken for another dune was something else entirely. Walls, towers, the faint suggestion of structures rising from the earth like teeth from a jaw.

Recimiras.

’We actually made it.’

The thought landed strange in my chest. Hollow at first, then slowly filling with something I couldn’t quite name. But I knew it wasn’t joy or excitement, if anything it seemed quieter than that. Like something that had been clenched tight for three months finally beginning to loosen.

Levi let out a breath beside me. “Well. That’s a sight I love seeing over and over again.”

“Dramatic,” Nisha said, but there was no bite in it. Her voice sounded tired. We all sounded tired.

We kept walking.

The city grew larger with each step, resolving from a smudge on the horizon into something real and solid. I could see the walls now, properly see them. They weren’t the pristine white stone of Aetheris or the ornate spires of what I imagined the Imperial Core looked like. These walls were practical. Weathered and built by people who expected to be attacked and had prepared accordingly.

Beyond the walls, towers rose at irregular intervals, none of them matching, as if the city had grown organically rather than being planned. Smoke drifted from a hundred different points, and as we drew closer, I could see the roads leading to the gates, dotted with travelers and caravans moving in both directions.

Life, normal people going about their business without the shadow of the Church hanging over every interaction.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed that until now.

“The southern gate,” Tristan said, nodding toward a massive archway flanked by guard towers. “La Puerta de Arena. The Sand Gate. It’s how most people arrive from Ashara.”

I stared for a moment, blinking.

’Did this guy just speak Spanish? Wait, that’s Spanish right?’

He looked at me strangely, wondering why I was probably suddenly zoning out.

I smiled and replied weakly.

“I see.”

Asides the questionable district name, we’d certainly earned our sand.

The last stretch of desert seemed to take forever. My legs had stopped complaining somewhere around day three of the crossing, graduating from pain to a kind of numb acceptance. Now they moved on autopilot, carrying me forward without input from my brain.

Kassie walked beside me in silence. Her helmet had remained absent since the confrontation with the Fox Lady and the Pale Rose, and I found myself glancing at her profile more than once. The fading sunlight caught her features in a way that made her look almost peaceful.

’She actually journeyed three months with me and helped me with every bit of it. She didn’t even complain once…’

I didn’t know what to do with that observation, so I filed it away with all the other things I didn’t know what to do with.

But one thing I do know was that Kassie and I were certainly heading somewhere.

The road beneath our feet transitioned from sand to packed earth, then to worn stone. Other travelers appeared around us, some on foot, others leading pack animals laden with goods. A caravan passed heading the opposite direction, the merchants eyeing us with the casual assessment of people who’d learned to size up strangers quickly.

None of them seemed alarmed by our appearance. A group of battered travelers arriving from the desert was apparently nothing unusual here.

’That’s… nice, actually.’

In Aetheris, Kassie’s presence alone would have drawn stares, questions, and potential reports to the Church. Here, no one cared. We were just more faces in a city that had built itself on accepting faces that weren’t welcome elsewhere.

The gate loomed ahead, and I felt something shift in my chest.

This was it. The place Tristan and the others had been steering us toward since that first night in the wagon. The reason for three months of ocean and desert and near-death experiences. The Free City. The Unrepentant. The one corner of this continent where being what I was didn’t automatically make me an enemy.

Guards stood at the entrance, but they weren’t checking papers or demanding explanations. They were watching the flow of traffic, occasionally stopping someone who looked particularly suspicious, but letting most people pass with barely a glance.

We approached. One of the guards, a weathered woman with a scar running down her cheek, looked us over.

“Business in Recimiras?”

“Returning home,” Levi said smoothly. “Black Snow Company.”

The guard’s expression didn’t change, but something in her posture relaxed slightly. She nodded once.

“Welcome back.”

And that was it.

We walked through the gate, and the desert disappeared behind us.

The city opened up before me like something from a fever dream. Buildings pressed close on either side of the street, their architecture a chaotic blend of styles I couldn’t begin to identify. Solarian influences mixed with what I assumed was Asharan design, all of it layered over something older, something that had been here before either culture arrived.

The sounds hit me next. Voices in at least three different languages, the clatter of carts on stone, merchants calling out their wares, children laughing somewhere in the distance. The smell of cooking food, spices I didn’t recognize, the faint undercurrent of too many people living too close together.

It was overwhelming. It was chaotic. It was absolutely nothing like the sterile order of the academy or the desperate flight that had followed.

It was alive.

’This is what freedom looks like, huh.’

I stood there for a moment, just breathing it in. The others had stopped too, giving me space without making a show of it.

Nisha was the one who finally broke the silence.

“So?” She stretched her arms above her head, her joints popping audibly. “What do you think of the place that’s going to be your home for the foreseeable future?”

I looked at the crowded street, the mismatched buildings, the people moving past without giving us a second glance. I thought about the three months it had taken to get here. The things I’d lost. The things I’d gained. The weight that had been sitting on my shoulders since that first night when Kassie appeared in my summoning circle.

The weight was still there. But it felt different now. Lighter, somehow.

“I think,” I said slowly, “that I could use a bath. And a bed. And about six days of sleep.”

Levi laughed, the sound genuine and surprised. “That can be arranged. The Company has facilities. Hot water and everything.”

“Hot water,” I repeated. The words sounded almost obscene after a week of desert travel. “You’re telling me hot water has been waiting for me this entire time?! Bro! Lead the freaking way! Go! Move! Forward!”