"Ma'at!"
Naomi yelled after the bird that had led her this far, and she looked up to see still more desert. Not for the first time, she wondered if this was an exercise in futility. How was she supposed to find the Sage of the Air, much less ask him for a bag of the North Wind for Mother Abska? It seemed an impossibility, and she thought of her sister, imprisoned in a cage of thousands of fingers, trapped by her own spoiled mouth. Oh, had she only been kind to that beggar woman rather than mock her for her lack of children. Diann had told her to not say such things. Now her sister was being punished for her stupidity.
"Ma'at!" Naomi shouted again, looking around for the bird that had thus far led her on. Had it been an agent of Mother Abska? That she was to die here in the desert, without a drop to drink?
Something trilled far off in the distance, and she turned to it hopefully. The bird was sitting upon a log, its white plumage bright under the full moon that illuminated the entire desert in a landscape of cool blue and black. She wrapped her cloak about herself tighter, the cold biting at her nose with needle teeth, as she made her way to the bird.
"Ma'at, you have to wait for me," Naomi warned with a huff, before her hard-earned breath was stolen from her, her eyes drawn to a palace that seemed to materialize along the horizon just under the full moon. She gazed upon it in a marvel, the place a sprawling edifice of blue-white marble, tiled in magnificent patterns of blue, gold, and white. Alcoves and balconies and terraces dotted the entirety of the palace that seemed to spring, wholesale, from the sand, and Naomi stumbled towards it. However, before forgetting herself, she turned back to the bird, and she bowed low to it.
"Thank you, Ma'at, faithful servant and wonderful creature," she intoned with all seriousness. "You are an impeccable friend, and I shall not forget this."
The bird trilled again, flying over her head towards the palace, and a shiver passed over Naomi as she stared at the mirage. With plodding footsteps, she journeyed towards the palace.