inside.
CHAPTER FOUR
~ Artifacts ~
527AX January 8, Black Currant Ridge
THE XENENS HAD once ruled over all of what was today the Selpe and Avan Empires. Basically every square kilometer of land in the world that was outside of Elitia had belonged to the Xenen Dominion. At least until the Elitions got rid of them some five hundred years ago. By all accounts, the Xenens were an oppressive, utterly amoral folk who enjoyed butchering men and women almost as much as they did conducting perverted medical experiments on children. Everett didn’t think anyone missed them.
Despite their obscene appetite for pain, the Xenens were most famous for their technology. Even today, neither the Selpes nor the Avans had developed anything close to matching that which the Xenens had wielded half a millennium ago. The gadgets and doodads of the Helleans, the modern world’s most technologically advanced civilization, looked like children’s toys next to the few pieces that remained from the Xenens’ days in the world. In fact, a whole black market had developed around the salvaging and sale of Xenen artifacts.
The box of pieces sitting on the dining table between Everett and Terra was easily worth several million Crowns. Not that anyone knew how to turn any of these artifacts on. Remnants of a time long past, their batteries had all gone dead centuries ago.
“What do you think?” Everett asked Terra.
She shot the box a dirty look. “They’re tainted.”
“Poisoned? Booby-trapped?”
“Xenen,” she explained, using the word as though it were the most vile curse she knew.
Elitions despised the Xenens. It was in their history books. In their songs. Ingrained in their very cultural being. According to his Elition friend Ariella, the Elitions had ‘expelled the Xenens from this world’—whatever that meant. Perhaps, they’d merely expelled them to their graves.
“Would you like another apple tart, dear?” Natalie asked Everett.
He’d already snarfed down five, but he nodded anyway. There was always room in his stomach for his mother’s apple tarts.
“Do you have any more specific ideas about the artifacts?” he asked Terra.
“Perhaps if I had more information to go on,” she said, turning her eyes on the others. “Where were these found?”
It was Ryder who answered. “In an underground hideout on the island of Marsh, just after the Selpe attacks this past summer. The hideout had withstood the bombings. It’s heavily reinforced and pretty far underground, so a number of Rev mercenary guilds used it to store extra supplies. I and a few other survivors of the attacks stopped by there to resupply. We’d planned to flee the area before the Selpes found us. That was when we found this box down there.”
“And a crazy old woman along with it,” added one of Ryder’s men, speaking for the first time. “Muttering ‘they’re coming to kill me…to kill us all…to destroy everything’. A bit late on the warning. Most of that had already happened.”
“Who was she?” Everett asked.
“The den mother of the Fourteen Phantoms, the guild Hark and Kelten started up,” replied Ryder. “I’ve forgotten which of their mothers she actually was.”
At the word ‘Phantom’, Terra had pressed her lips together. She was obviously trying not to laugh. She pulled the box toward her and began to sift through the contents—without actually touching any of them.
“Neither of those two ever was the sharpest tool in the shed,” Everett said.
Fourteen Phantoms indeed. Not one of that band of misfits had even ever set eyes on an Elition.
“How did the Fourteen Phantoms manage to get their hands on a box of Xenen artifacts?” he asked Ryder.
“Who knows. They must have stolen it off of someone else. And because of that, the Selpes attacked us.”
“Do you have proof of that?” Everett asked.
Ryder shook his head. “No, that’s why I need you. Word is you’re playing with the big boys now, holding your own
CHAPTER FOUR
~ Artifacts ~
527AX January 8, Black Currant Ridge
THE XENENS HAD once ruled over all of what was today the Selpe and Avan Empires. Basically every square kilometer of land in the world that was outside of Elitia had belonged to the Xenen Dominion. At least until the Elitions got rid of them some five hundred years ago. By all accounts, the Xenens were an oppressive, utterly amoral folk who enjoyed butchering men and women almost as much as they did conducting perverted medical experiments on children. Everett didn’t think anyone missed them.
Despite their obscene appetite for pain, the Xenens were most famous for their technology. Even today, neither the Selpes nor the Avans had developed anything close to matching that which the Xenens had wielded half a millennium ago. The gadgets and doodads of the Helleans, the modern world’s most technologically advanced civilization, looked like children’s toys next to the few pieces that remained from the Xenens’ days in the world. In fact, a whole black market had developed around the salvaging and sale of Xenen artifacts.
The box of pieces sitting on the dining table between Everett and Terra was easily worth several million Crowns. Not that anyone knew how to turn any of these artifacts on. Remnants of a time long past, their batteries had all gone dead centuries ago.
“What do you think?” Everett asked Terra.
She shot the box a dirty look. “They’re tainted.”
“Poisoned? Booby-trapped?”
“Xenen,” she explained, using the word as though it were the most vile curse she knew.
Elitions despised the Xenens. It was in their history books. In their songs. Ingrained in their very cultural being. According to his Elition friend Ariella, the Elitions had ‘expelled the Xenens from this world’—whatever that meant. Perhaps, they’d merely expelled them to their graves.
“Would you like another apple tart, dear?” Natalie asked Everett.
He’d already snarfed down five, but he nodded anyway. There was always room in his stomach for his mother’s apple tarts.
“Do you have any more specific ideas about the artifacts?” he asked Terra.
“Perhaps if I had more information to go on,” she said, turning her eyes on the others. “Where were these found?”
It was Ryder who answered. “In an underground hideout on the island of Marsh, just after the Selpe attacks this past summer. The hideout had withstood the bombings. It’s heavily reinforced and pretty far underground, so a number of Rev mercenary guilds used it to store extra supplies. I and a few other survivors of the attacks stopped by there to resupply. We’d planned to flee the area before the Selpes found us. That was when we found this box down there.”
“And a crazy old woman along with it,” added one of Ryder’s men, speaking for the first time. “Muttering ‘they’re coming to kill me…to kill us all…to destroy everything’. A bit late on the warning. Most of that had already happened.”
“Who was she?” Everett asked.
“The den mother of the Fourteen Phantoms, the guild Hark and Kelten started up,” replied Ryder. “I’ve forgotten which of their mothers she actually was.”
At the word ‘Phantom’, Terra had pressed her lips together. She was obviously trying not to laugh. She pulled the box toward her and began to sift through the contents—without actually touching any of them.
“Neither of those two ever was the sharpest tool in the shed,” Everett said.
Fourteen Phantoms indeed. Not one of that band of misfits had even ever set eyes on an Elition.
“How did the Fourteen Phantoms manage to get their hands on a box of Xenen artifacts?” he asked Ryder.
“Who knows. They must have stolen it off of someone else. And because of that, the Selpes attacked us.”
“Do you have proof of that?” Everett asked.
Ryder shook his head. “No, that’s why I need you. Word is you’re playing with the big boys now, holding your own
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