Sand blew everywhere beneath the blazing sun.
When the wind swept across the desert, it made it hard to even keep your eyes open.
Traveling through desert country was grueling.
Even with the world-famous technology of the Twin Cities, there were still times when the wagons sank into the sand and couldn't get back out.
And when that happened, the whole caravan had to get down and push, straining to yank the wheels free.
Of course, Caleb and Kai'Sa didn't help with that.
For one thing, even if Caleb wanted to lend a hand, the people from Zaun would do everything they could to stop him.
As for Kai'Sa, that was even less likely. As long as she stayed by the Governor's side, everyone felt safer.
Even if the face beneath that mask was breathtakingly beautiful, almost no one dared try to chat her up.
Throwing your life away just to flirt with a pretty girl, and giving up wealth and comfort on top of that?
Only an idiot would do something that stupid.
In Shurima, the real reason the population was so sparse was the lack of resources.
The northern regions, close to the sea, at least had some cities with a bit of fertile land.
But farther south, once you entered the wasteland, the endless desert was enough to make anyone uneasy.
And the winds there were so violent that airships weren't practical either.
In other regions, like Demacia and Noxus, airships could ride the currents and use their own propellers to make the return trip to Piltover.
But in Shurima, with the extreme difference between day and night temperatures, the wind patterns were bizarre.
Under those conditions, airships simply weren't suited for commerce in Shurima.
After all, no merchant wanted a one-way trip, or to abandon an airship there.
The wealthy merchants had simply given up on trading with the region altogether. Airships were so useful, why obsess over Shurima?
Of course, scarce goods were valuable goods, and that was exactly why the Twin Cities had joined forces to head for the Marrowmark Market.
After all, the region was full of ancient tombs, and antiques were plentiful.
Shurima might have been vast and sparsely populated, but its handicrafts were exceptional too.
After all, Mount Targon lay to the southwest, and ancient Shurima had once been an incredibly powerful empire.
The handcrafted goods made by the people in those lands could be brought back to the Twin Cities and sold to nobles for an enormous profit.
That was the trade route the people of Zaun had suddenly discovered.
The people of Piltover had grown used to every convenience Hextech brought them, so Shuriman goods had gradually become rarer.
Naturally, prices rose right along with that.
And since they were the first group to get a head start, they could quietly make a fortune, and do it with Governor Caleb traveling alongside them.
Nearly every Undercity member of the caravan felt like their spine had straightened a little more.
That was Caleb.
The same Caleb who had forced the council into cooperation by sheer strength, cleaned up Zaun, and killed every Chem-Baron.
If he had only dealt with Silco and let him keep fighting the Chem-Barons of Zaun,
who would have suffered?
The ordinary people of Zaun.
Even gang fights trashed huge sections of the city.
If that chaos had kept going every day, the Enforcers, terrified of Shimmer, wouldn't have dared say a word.
But Caleb?
He moved fast and hit hard, cutting straight through the mess.
Silco was thrown into prison, the Chem-Barons died violent deaths, and then came the riots from Dr. Mundo and Urgot.
Caleb dealt with all of it in less than ten days.
Not to mention that during the Harrowing, inside the Black Mist, the heroes Caleb led from Zaun were better than Piltover's by such a wide margin it wasn't even funny.
In the end, it was the people of Zaun who arrived to reinforce them, and only then did Piltover escape disaster.
After that, Zaun finally stabilized and became something that could stand on equal footing with Piltover.
The Chem-Barons, who had once dreamed of coming up to the surface and building empires of their own, were forced back down into the mines.
Back to being the damp, filthy rats everyone despised.
...
"Once we get to the Marrowmark Market, you'll be free to do whatever you want."
Caleb lowered his head and gnawed on some dry rations as he spoke through a mouthful of food.
"Mm."
Kai'Sa only gave a muted response, then fell silent again.
The air itself seemed to go quiet enough for a crow to glide by, cawing lazily overhead.
"You really don't talk much..." Even Caleb, thick-skinned as he was, felt awkward now.
The problem was, what was he supposed to talk about?
Shurima? Neither of them really knew the place.
The Void and Icathia? That would just stir up Kai'Sa's painful memories.
The Twin Cities? Then it would sound like Caleb was doing a one-man travel pitch.
And to make matters worse, Kai'Sa's clear, bright eyes kept drifting toward him every so often.
Caleb honestly felt his scalp tingle, especially with Kai'Sa looking that delicate and striking.
"Listen..." After bottling it up for a while, Caleb finally spoke.
"How about you wash your hair?"
That suggestion clearly caught Kai'Sa off guard.
She had wandered the Void for years, and with that living layer of purple skin wrapped around her,
even though she had grown into a beautiful young woman with an incredible figure, she had never really developed any sense of grooming herself.
And as luck would have it, the whole caravan was made up of men. The people from Piltover liked to act refined, sure, but they weren't so fussy that they tried to stay polished while sleeping rough on the road.
Kai'Sa's hair hung in greasy strands, clumped together and shiny in all the wrong ways.
Caleb had endured it for a full day.
He couldn't take it anymore.
How long had it been since she'd washed it... the fact that it didn't even smell bad was practically a miracle...
"Wash my hair?" Kai'Sa tried hard to remember. It felt like something from another lifetime.
Back then, her father would bring over a basin of warm water, and her mother would take care of the whole thing for her.
"Or... could you help me?" There was still a little confusion in Kai'Sa's eyes.
"What is up with this girl..."
It wasn't like Caleb had never seen beautiful women before. Wild little Jinx, swaggering Vi, gentle, intelligent Caitlyn, Mel with that faint edge of danger, and even Camille with her own cold, elegant charm, the pop star Seraphine, and Janna, the older goddess who could make anyone's blood race.
But Kai'Sa was different from all of them.
Was she just naturally airheaded... or was something actually missing upstairs?
"All right..." Caleb grabbed a bottle of shampoo in one hand.
That was another one of the little products the Twin Cities exported to Shurima. Once it reached the markets along the river, it was guaranteed to sell like crazy.
In practical terms, the caravan wagons were still a lot faster than camels and the like.
With a helpless sigh, Caleb squeezed out a huge blob of shampoo into his hand.
There was no helping it. Judging by how long it had been since Kai'Sa washed her hair, he needed a serious amount.
And honestly, how did this girl still have such a low hairline?
Caleb was clumsy at it. Kai'Sa's shoulder-length hair wasn't especially long or short, and he just worked it around however he could in his hands.
If his grip had moved just a few inches lower, he could have snapped her neck without effort.
Looking at Kai'Sa sitting there obediently like a little girl, Caleb suddenly felt a little dazed.
Was his heart maybe beating faster?
As he washed her hair, he couldn't help letting his gaze drift a little lower. The Void skin was far too tight against her body, so tight it almost looked painted on. A painted body, with stunning curves, especially down there.
Caleb shook his head and forced those useless thoughts away.
Even though they were in the desert, Caleb's group had already replenished their water, so it wasn't exactly a scarce resource.
Once they reached the market, they could resupply from the nearby river as well, so water wasn't really an issue for the caravan.
[Ding. New mission triggered.]
Just as Caleb was rinsing the dirt and grime out of Kai'Sa's hair with water, the system chose that exact moment to speak up.
"Then spit it out."
Caleb had no intention of being polite to it and snapped back in annoyance.
[Destroy the Xer'Sai nest on Shurima's outskirts, kill Rek'Sai, and suppress the Void at Icathia.]
That mission made Caleb's eyelid twitch.
"I..."
Seeing the strange look on Kai'Sa's face, Caleb dumped a whole basin of water over her head.
That familiar feeling of getting screwed over again...
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