Kiva Empire
About 1900 years BJ
The sensation of the first time-travel had been dizzying, and the second round was no improvement. Jessie groaned and rubbed her eyes like she had just woken up from an inadequate nap. She could feel the warm, humid air around her, and when she looked around, a clear sky and green hillocks greeted her sight. For a second, she was confused and wondered if they had actually gone forward in time at all. This was just like the last time spot they had been to.
"Wher—I mean, when are we?" she wondered aloud, glancing around for Clockwürk.
"Take a look around and guess," was his reply. He and the others stood by, also taking in their new surroundings.
So Jessie obeyed, scoping out the area. Now the details were becoming apparent. The land wasn't entirely hilly; they were actually standing on a small mountain overlooking a lowland valley, which stretched out to a coastal slope. Said slope then crumbled into little islands cast into the shimmering ocean beyond. The escarpments were dotted with stout olive orchards, dogwood thickets, and beds of clover. Roads, the nice ones being paved in stone chips and the lesser ones being scattered gravel, ran up inclines and out to the shore, as well as leading down to a large city of clay-brick houses at the base of the foothills. Limestone monuments and pyramids, tucked among the houses, rose into the placid sky. The rest of the city remained unseen, hidden in the fog bank veiling a mountain range beyond.
"Wait a minute," Lukas said. "I know what this place is; I remember it from the books. They called it 'the greatest ancient nation on earth.' We landed in the Kiva Empire! Right in its heyday, right?"
"Someone knows his history," Clockwürk said approvingly. "That's good. It's true; we're about 1900 years in the past at the moment. Right at the height of its power, but it's also a bit dangerous if you don't know how to act like a citizen of a great ancient empire."
"Oh, dear," Ivor moaned.
"Relax," Clockwürk soothed. "I know what to do. I watched the Kebo Empire rise and fall. I'm older than I look...8,000 years to be exact."
Lukas could have sworn he heard a whispered "darn it, he's too old," from Jessie.
"...Anyway, I know what how we need to act to blend in. When in Kiva, do as the Kivans do. And at the very least, we look the part." He motioned to indicate his changed outfit for the new time period. His brown robe had become a clean white toga. It clasped at one shoulder, leaving the other and part of his chest bare. He also had a pair of golden wristbands on his arms and a matching scarab-shaped collar hanging on his neck. Lukas and Ivor had similar togas, albeit with less glitz and glamor than their time-travel guide ("How come I don't get gold wristbands, too? Gold is an alchemist's best friend!") Jessie and Petra, meanwhile, had identical blue toga-dresses with little silver clips on either shoulder. Silver necklaces and bracelets complemented the look.
"I hate these outfits," Petra grumbled, obviously upset about having to wear a robe again. "Your magic clock has no taste in fashion."
"Maybe you should write a letter and complain," Clockwürk retorted. "Now, to business. We're here to find the Tear of Ancients. Like the Spark of Creation, it's a powerful gemstone The only problem is that I've forgotten where it was kept at this time. I think it was a treasure that the emperors of Kiva kept."
"So what makes you think it'll be here?" Ivor questioned.
"This is Qalbopolis, the capital of the empire," Clockwürk explained. "The Tear of Ancients was a treasure kept by the emperors, and the emperors lived here. They're not going to hang out in the occupied nations."
"I guess that makes sense. How will we find it?"
"We explore. Also...I've always wanted to walk through the Kiva Empire in and with the people. Watching it from the celestial realm just didn't cut it. So...let's go! Time's a-wastin'! I don't want to have to hunt for an inn. You can never find a room in an ancient inn when you really, really need one. Like that one time when…"
"Save it, Clockwürk, we hear that one every Christmas!" Petra cut him off.
"Oi! Get away from the olives, scavengers!" someone behind them shouted. Jessie and her friends spun around to see a handful of orchard tenants approaching, baskets of harvested olives abandoned and rocks in their hands. They clenched the stones in their hands, way too eager to fling them in anger.
"We're just travelers passing by," Ivor said quickly. "We weren't looking to snitch from your supply."
The tenants eyed him suspiciously, then shrugged and let their rocks drop to the ground before returning to their work. Not wanting to annoy the farmhands any more than they already had, Jessie started walking and motioned for her friends to follow. They did, of course, keeping on the wide, paved road. Jessie assumed that it was the main road that would take them into the city.
"Gee, I hope the rest of the people here aren't like those tenants," Lukas said as they passed under a sandstone arch curving over the road as it led into the city. "Otherwise this is not going to be a great experience."
"None of this adventure has been a great experience," Petra grumbled.
"Not even meeting me?" Clockwürk clapped a hand over his chest in mock indignation. "I take umbrage at that remark."
Petra turned red. "Well, except for that. You're cool, you're cool."
"Remember what I said," their guide advised as they entered the bustling city, dodging pedestrians and donkeys on the dusty roads. "Do as the Kiva do."
"What does that even mean...oh, wow." Jessie trailed off when confronted by the mosaic of sights before her. There were a thousand things to see all at once, the result of many cultures blending together under an empire. Pyramids, ziggurats, limestone temples, standing-stone circles, and obelisks made up the skyline. People of every skin tone and hair color were present, wearing at least thirty different styles of togas, robes, kimonos, and tunics. There were merchants hawking their wares, shepherds with their livestock in tow, slaves shuffling along gloomily in their ankle shackles, scholars scribbling on scrolls, children playing tag among the crowd, and priests standing outside the magnificent temples. It was overwhelming to the point where Jessie just wanted to sit down for a second and process it all.
"Well, this is...interesting," Petra said, looking at everything. As she stood there, clad in her blue robe and silver finery with her fiery hair shining in the sun, several men passing by smiled and waved flirtatiously at her. She rolled her eyes and turned aside from them.
"We're not here to sightsee, though," Clockwürk reminded them. "We need to find the Tear of Ancients. I'm worried that we've wasted too much time already."
"How could we possibly have wasted any time?" Jessie asked. "We just got here...I don't think we've been here for fifteen minutes yet." She was sitting on a low stone wall that sectioned off a house's courtyard. A sheep in the yard waddled over to her and nuzzled her hand. She grinned absentmindedly and stroked it under its chin.
"I mean, we spent almost an entire day in you-know-when looking for the Spark." Clockwürk answered, trying his best to allude to their time-traveling jaunts without sounding like a lunatic to passersby. It didn't work. A few stopped and stared at him quizzically before muttering something about "mad men on the streets," before continuing to go about their business.
"Real subtle, Clockwürk," Jessie sighed.
"You're going to kill our cover if you're not careful," Ivor warned their guide. "Whatever happened to 'when in Kiva…'"
Clockwürk suddenly looked very uncomfortable and twitched, like he had at their first time-travel stop. "What did you say?"
"I said, you're going to kill our cover," Ivor repeated. "We have to be more careful to pretend we know what we're doing."
Clockwürk frowned, then blinked hard a few times and responded, "Oh. Yes. That's correct. It's just that...um...this place is a little overwhelming. It was much less intimidating when I was simply observing."
"I'd bet it would be," Lukas agreed, shrugging.
"Right," Clockwürk, still looking dazed, motioned for the others to follow him. "Come on. The emperor's palace is in the heart of the city. That's probably our best bet for finding the Tear."
Jessie obediently followed his lead, but she had that churning feeling in her stomach of something not being right. She ignored it for now. Maybe she was just psyched out from the sensory overload of Qualbopolis.
Lukas was trotting alongside her as the group made their trek through the gritty streets. "Hey."
"Hey what?" she asked.
"Nothing, really. Just saying hi. I was wondering...how you holding up with this time travel stuff, Jess?"
"I'm dizzy whenever we land for the first time," she replied.
"It's a bit of a culture shock at each stop," the blond boy said, motioning to the limestone temples and clay-brick ziggurats lining the roads. "First when we went all the way back to the beginning of the world and there was nothing but nature, and now jumping ahead 7000 years from that we're in the middle of a mashup of a hundred different cultures. This place is really something."
"I get the feeling that Clockwürk has no idea what he's doing this time."
Lukas chuckled. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, look at him." Jessie pointed to the head of the group, where Clockwürk was meandering along and looking this way and that at the buildings and people.
"He's acting kind of funny lately," Lukas commented. "Like how he flew off the handle when Ivor said that he was 'killing' our cover."
"He was like that at the beginning of the world, too. When Petra said that we had time to 'kill,' he acted up then, too."
"Weird. Why do you think that's so?"
"Maybe he's just sensitive to the word 'kill'?"
"Could be."
"We're getting closer to the palace!" Clockwürk announced triumphantly, pointing ahead. Sure enough, past a line of olive trees and an open plaza of stone, the huge form of an ornate palace loomed above the bustle of the vassals' world. It was a marvel of limestone, ivory, white marble, and quartz...a shining pearl among a sea of mundane sandy buildings. Short towers marked its four corners. The sloping, clay-tiled roofs were supported by rows of Doric pillars. There were murals of frescoes, mosaics, and hieroglyphs for decoration, some taking up entire sections of wall. The structure definitely lived up to its cred as the home of the emperor of a powerful domain.
The gang was so busy gawking at it that they failed to notice the perturbed palace soldiers approaching. The guards assembled themselves into a circle around Jessie and her friends, cutting off any chance to slip away. As soon as she found herself surrounded, Jessie knew that there was trouble in store.
The guards had broad shoulders, muscles bulging under the metal plates of their armor, and stony expressions. Each man's armor consisted of a metal torso shell, with leather straps crisscrossing their arms and hanging off the bottom edge of the chest piece, making a sort of leather kilt. The biggest of them, who seemed to be the leader of this group, had scars on his face and a whip tucked into his belt. Judging by the suspicious dark stains on its fronds, the item wasn't just for decoration. The bruisers stood in a disorganized circle around Jessie and her friends, cracking the knuckles of their huge fists.
"Hello…" Jessie said in a tiny voice. "Is something wrong, sirs?" Obviously, these were not fellows to be trifled with.
"Taxes," the one in the lead grunted.
"Taxes?" Jessie repeated. "What do you mean, 'taxes'?"
"Idiot girl!" he sneered. "Don't you know that you owe taxes to the Emperor?"
I do? Well, it probably wouldn't be good to argue it with them. "Uhh...Okay, I guess. How much are taxes here?"
"Ten iron pieces," he replied.
"Ten iron pieces for each person," one of the other soldiers added.
"Oh, dear," Jessie whispered, then started rummaging through her Pocket. Did she have any iron pieces left over? No such luck. And she wasn't going to trade in the Eversource crown, the enchanted flint and steel, or her diamond sword to pay a simple tax. Absolutely not.
"Why the wait?" the lead soldier grumbled. "Do you not have any iron, or what?"
While the guards were distracted by talking to Jessie, Lukas turned his attention to Petra, knowing that she had a solution to the problem in her Pocket.
"Hey, Petra, do you still have those iron pieces from before?" he asked her.
"Yeah," she responded.
"Would you mind floating us a few so we can all pay their goofy tax?"
She snorted. "Nope."
"What do you mean, 'no?' These guys don't exactly look like they'll negotiate."
"I don't have to give these jokers anything."
"What's that?" the leader challenged.
Petra wouldn't budge. "I said I don't have to give you guys anything. What, do you really expect people who just got here to have iron pieces to spare?"
"Emperor Zero requires it," the soldier responded curtly. "All residents of the city must pay their dues. Not paying is dissent. And dissent will be punished." He patted the whip on his belt, for emphasis.
Petra crossed her arms and grunted at him.
"Pet-ra," Clockwürk hissed to her. "I think it'd be a good idea to comply."
She shrugged. "What's the worst they could do to us?"
The jail cells were small and perfectly squared, with hay on the floor for the prisoners to sleep on and one barred window in the back. The whole place reeked of dampness and rot.
In a massive understatement, Lukas said: "You know, I think this might be a problem." He was crowded into a cell with Ivor, Clockwürk, and a couple of scruffy strangers.
Across the aisle, in a cell with Petra, Jessie just held on to the bars at the front and glared at him.
"Gee, I never could have guessed that." Annoyed, Petra kicked a pebble on the floor. It ricocheted off the wall and almost hit Jessie in the side of the head.
"Now, you don't get to complain, Petra," Ivor said. "You and Jessie have that cell all to yourselves. We have to share one with a bunch of thieves and scalawags."
Lukas had another question. "So, Jessie...um, how exactly did we end up like this? Everything was happening so fast."
"Well, those soldiers came up to us and demanded that we give them some iron pieces for taxes. You remember that much, right?"
"Yeah," Lukas replied. "Yeah, yeah. It's making more sense now. Decreed by Emperor Zero, I think they said...whoever that is."
Jessie jumped in. "It wouldn't have been a problem elsewise, I bet. But none of us have any iron in our Pockets. None of us except someone who refused to give up any so they would leave us alone!" She glared pointedly at Petra.
"I was not going to hand over my hard-earned iron to a bunch of stooges in leather skirts!" Petra snapped.
"Yeah, but did you really have to try punching one of the in the nose?" Jessie said.
"I didn't try punching him. I did punch him. He squealed like a little girl. It was glorious."
"...And then we got arrested," Ivor concluded. "Now we need a plan to get out of here."
"Ideas, anyone?" Jessie offered. "Does anyone have a pickaxe? Then we could break through the walls or something…"
"No pickaxe," the others replied.
"Clockwürk, can't you use your magic clock to teleport us out of here?" she asked, desperate.
He shook his head sadly. "Afraid not, lassie. We're on a quest. Once we have landed, we cannot leave until we have obtained the Tear of Ancients."
"Rats. Well, there has to be some way out of here." Jessie paced the floor in her cell, kicking hay out of the way.
"There is," croaked one of the 'scalawags' in the other cell. "The arena, heh heh."
"The what?"
"You hear that?" the ruffian chortled to another prisoner. "Poor lass hasn't a clue about the arena!"
Jessie was both confused and suspicious. "Is this going where I think it's going?"
He chuckled hoarsely. "Probably. You'll find out soon enough."
It wasn't long before the thick wooden doors of the prison swung open and four of the beefy soldiers appeared, forcing their muscular frames into the cramped aisle between the rows of cells.
"Who's getting executed today?" the same ruffian asked them sarcastically, leaning against the rusty iron bars.
"It's gonna be you if you don't shut up!" one of the soldiers snapped at him, then mumbled something under his breath about "annoying mouthy prisoners."
Meanwhile, the other three moved over to the cells where Jessie and her friends were being kept, one to the girls' cell and the other two to the boys'. They rattled off a list of who they were summoning:
"We summon from this cell...the old man with the black beard, the pasty blond kid, and the one with the amber eyes and gold wristbands. From that one...the fiery-haired lass and the raven-haired one. Out, out of your cells. Waste no time."
Jessie and company were herded out of the cells into the aisle, in the midst of the guards who crowded around them to hem them in.
"Are we getting executed? I don't want to die!" Lukas wailed, dabbing his eyes with the corner of his toga. Jessie patted him on the back, a grim expression on her face.
"Stop crying, you wuss!" a guard growled. "You're not getting executed. No-one is getting strung up or nailed down or anything of the sort. So stow it."
"Oh. So does that mean you're letting us go?" A sparkle of hope glinted in Jessie's eyes.
"Not even close. You wanna be free, you have to earn it. Now let's get a move on! The sooner we start, the sooner we can be done."
The group was marched down the hallway, toward a gaping stone arch leading out of the dark tunnel and into a very bright area beyond. Jessie may as well have been walking into a wall of light, because she had no idea what lay beyond the arch. Glancing back, she could see that her friends were equally unsure of themselves. The guards had to prod them in the back to keep them moving.
Jessie cringed and covered her eyes with her hands when they stepped out into the light. It was nearly blinding after standing in the dark for who knows how many hours. When she could see again, the first thing she saw was that she stood in a large pit of sand. There were three other arched entrances, set around the perimeter of the pit. Surrounding the pit all around were rows and rows of seats, made of staggered layers of stone bricks. They rose above the arena floor, about ten tiers in all. And the seats were not without occupants; although not entirely packed to the brim with patrons, people filled the stadium all around. They cheered and whooped in excitement, some of them waving banners in the air.
On the other side of the arena, a raised platform for the special Box seats rose above the commoners' seats. It was occupied by several high-class men wearing gold sashes and red capes over their togas. The most important of the seats was a high-backed silver throne, upon which a man wearing the same regalia, along with a crown-like gold band around his head and an emerald staff in one hand, was seated, pompously watching it all. The mighty Emperor Zero, undoubtedly. An identical silver throne next to him was the seat of an equally regal-looking woman whom Jessie assumed to be the Emperor's wife.
"Crap," Jessie mumbled to her companions. "I don't have a good feeling about this at all."
The guards standing behind them just chuckled.
Emperor Zero stood up, about to give a speech. Some servants standing at the corners of the Box made sure to get everyone's attention. One blasted on a shofar, and the other slammed a hammer into a gong. The din echoed in the great open space, and hundreds of heads turned to look at the Emperor.
"Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, patricians and plebeians, it is my great pleasure to announce another climactic day of competition at the arena. We have a fresh crop of criminal souls to see in action in the pit. But I am in high spirits, for the efforts of the Kivan Empire have recently captured many of those heathen Way-followers, who threaten my ability to govern our empire. Because I am in high spirits, and because the gods in their good pleasure granted a fair day of clear sky and warm sun, I have decided to be merciful to these criminals from the bowels of the Kivan prisons. I will offer them an opportunity for freedom. One will walk away from this arena a free man or woman, holding the Tear of Ancients."
Jessie gasped and tugged on Clockwürk's toga, almost pulling it off his shoulder. "Did you hear that? He'll give the Tear of Ancients to whoever wins this competition!"
"I don't think it's going to be easy. The Kivan emperors were not known for their kindness."
"Hmm. But who are those Way-followers that he was talking about?"
"People who still believe in the Creator and don't worship anything from the Kivan pantheon," Clockwürk explained. "The emperors hated them. Especially Zero. He was their most ruthless persecutor."
"Oh, goody. And we've been thrust right into the middle of his gladiator games," Ivor said bitterly. "This isn't going to end well."
"Who'd like to go first?" one of the guards asked the group, smiling nastily.
No-one made a move, of course. All of them were hoping that somebody else would step up.
"That's how they always respond. All right, guess I'll just have to choose one." He grabbed the arm of the nearest person, who happened to be Jessie. "I think you'll do."
Jessie whimpered, both from fear and from the discomfort of the soldier's meaty hand crushing her upper arm. He dragged her more toward the middle of the pit and handed her a wooden sword and a tiny wooden shield. Her diamond sword had been confiscated when her friends were arrested
The barred gate on the arched entrance cranked open so her challenger could enter the stadium. A hulking form lumbered out, a very large and very unfriendly-looking animal. Its body was the size of two minecarts, and it walked on four legs as thick as tree trunks. Covered head to toe in grizzly white hair, It had a tiny nub of a tail, husky shoulders, a beefy neck, and a wedge-shaped head. The animal's round ears were shoved forward in a display of dominance, and its black lips peeled back to reveal sharp, yellow teeth.
"Polar bear," Jessie whispered.
Jessie had never seen a polar bear in the flesh before. She lived in a temperate region, far from the tundras and taigas that polar bears made their home in. Prior to this, she had only known what they looked like because of pictures in books. But now, here she stood in the wrong place and the wrong time, being stared down by a particularly cantankerous specimen. Normally polar bears were neutral, she had read, but they had obviously done something to bother this one. She had no idea what to do. Zombies were child's play. Skeletons, a breeze. Creepers, hardly a threat. But a polar bear? She had never battled a polar bear before!
The bear approached, snuffling heartily as it caught her scent. Jessie wilted. The crowd booed, wanting to see some action.
Then the bear craned its neck back and roared. It sent a wave of hot air blasting into Jessie's face, speckling her cheeks with spit, blowing her hair back, and assaulting her senses with its rotten fish-breath. Jessie fell on her back and scrambles backwards as the bear advanced, paws thudding against the sand. It made a swipe for Jessie. She dodged away. Her puny wooden sword wouldn't do squat against this beast. Not that had much of an opportunity to try using it, though, because the bear swiped again and knocked the blade clean out of her hand. It flew out of reach.
The enraptured crowd cheered. Was it for Jessie or for the bear? Hard to tell.
She raised the shield to block another incoming attack. The bear lunged, ready to bite. Its jaws closed around the edge of the shield. Jessie winced when the force of the impact ran up her arm, and she heard a cracking sound. She couldn't tell if it was the shield or the bear's teeth breaking until she opened her eyes and saw a sizeable chunk of wood missing from the shield. The bear had bitten it clean off. Right now, it was crunching on the wood in its mouth, spitting it out in clumps, and glaring at Jessie. Once it had spit out the wood splinters, it went right back to fighting. It stomped about and roared. Jessie hopped to her feet and threw the shield aside, seeing as it was now useless. She had nothing to try except dodging the bear's attacks.
A misjudged veer away from one of the bear's headbutts sent Jessie sprawling spreadeagled on the ground. The polar bear snarled and raised its paw, terrible claws at the ready, preparing to smash it down on its victim. As it lifted its foot, Jessie noticed an object piercing the underside of the paw. It was a stone point and a broken splint of wood—an arrow shaft. Of course! Every time the bear set that foot on the ground, the pain from the lodged arrow was refreshed. The pain was what was making the bear so aggressive! It gave Jessie a brave, desperate, and rather foolhardy idea. But it was all she had.
It was time to act. So Jessie did one of the most risky things she'd ever done.
She reached up and grabbed the bear's paw by the wrist as it came down and held it still with all the force she could muster. Her muscles strained against the pressure. Jessie's strength versus the bear's. The polar bear snorted, confused.
Panting from fear, Jessie reached under the giant paw, closed her fist around the arrow shaft, and ripped it out.
Immediately the polar bear threw its head back and roared from the pain. It made a swipe at Jessie with the offending paw, then discomfort forced it to recoil and draw back. It moaned as it started licking the blood from the paw, even sucking on it a little. As it did, it seemed to realize that its foot actually felt better now that the arrow was gone.
"See? You're okay now," Jessie soothed. "Better?"
The polar bear paused licking its paw and looked at Jessie with its shiny black eyes. A soft murmur escaped its lips. Then it drew forward and nuzzled Jessie on the neck, running its warm wet tongue across her cheek. Jessie grimaced at the bear-kiss, but sighed with sheer relief that the animal wasn't angry anymore.
Meanwhile, there was a dead silence in the crowd. Emperor Zero leaned forward in his chair, stupefied by what he saw. Jessie, hugging the bear around its shoulders, glanced around at them.
"How can this be?" Zero thundered over the crowd. "Is this girl the spawn of Androcles?"
As far as she could tell, Jessie was not, but the aghast emperor's sputtering gave her an idea. She'd put on a little act.
"You fooooooolish emperor!" Jessie cried out in a weird voice (her "fancy voice.") "How dare you call me the spawn of lowly Androcles? I am descended from the gods!"
"What?" Zero gasped.
"Surely you do not doubt me? Does any mortal woman have the power to tame the mighty polar bear? This was a test, Zero! The gods have deigned to walk the streets of your empire, and you have treated us shamefully! Most shamefully!
"Indeed, we are divine! The golden-haired boy you see is Lucania the god of light. The amber-eyed one is the Work-Of-Clocks, god of time. The man with the hair like a raven's feathers is Ivorus, sagacious god of magic and arcane arts. The woman with the fiery hair is Petrathena, goddess of war and the hunt. And I am Jessiana, master of all animals, able to tame with my touch! And yet you have treated us as despicable criminals?"
"Oh! Forgive me for my ignorance! Have mercy, O mighty Jessiana!" Zero fell facedown on the floor of the Box seating. "Please, I will do anything for your absolution! I'll...I'll declare your festival days. I'll sacrifice my livestock and gold..I'll sacrifice my servants and slaves to you! Please do not punish me!"
"Then you shall fulfill the requests I make to you," Jessie said in her most threatening tone. The others, picking up on the act, strode up and joined her, crossing their arms and giving their best steely stares to the emperor.
"Yes, yes, of course."
"I have no need or desire of your livestock or your gold or your slaves. You shall grant my party and I full release from your prisons, or I shall break out anyway and smite you with my divine power. You cannot hold a god in your thrall. And you shall give the Tear of Ancients to us. You dare not refuse."
Clockwürk leaned close to Jessie and whispered an extra request to her.
"And we have one more demand," Jessie continued. "You shall cease to persecute the Way-followers. Am I understood, lowly mortal?"
Zero gulped. "Yes. Yes, most mighty Jessiana, Luciana, Work-Of-Clocks, Ivorus, and Petrathena. I will obey your commands." He bowed again.
Jessie and the others kept up the act, floating on a celebrity air, as they were escorted from the arena with the respect due a royal. The soldiers took them to the foot of the palace, assuming that it would be the stairway for the "divine" visitors to return to the celestial realm. When they were gone, Jessie and the gang immediately dropped the act.
"Holy heck, that was awesome," Lukas said to Jessie. "You should be an actress."
"That was quite impressive. You are marvelously creative, Jessie." Clockwürk smiled. He was holding the Tear of Ancients. The faceted blue stone twinkled in the waning sunlight. Clockwürk gripped the gem tightly, hugging it close to his chest as if he feared it being taken from him.
"Not too shabby," Petra said, "but 'Petrathena'? That's kind of silly."
Jessie shrugged. "It was the best thing I could come up with on the fly. Thanks for going along with the spiel, guys. I owe you one."
"You were the one who saved our hides by pulling one over the emperor," Lukas said. "We're the ones who should be thanking you."
"Now that we have the Tear," said Ivor, "does this mean we're ready to go to the next stop? When is it?"
"You'll see when we get there," Clockwürk replied, once again cryptic about their next jaunt.
"Not even just a little hint?" Petra asked.
"Okay, fine. 'Kingdoms.' That's all I will say."
"What kind of a hint is that?"
"A cryptic hint."
"Of course.
"Come on, guys," Jessie said. "Let's get a move on."
"She's right." Clockwürk started spinning the magic clock in a circle again. "Here we go!"
The splendor of the Kiva Empire vanished behind the screen of pink magic, and all that was left was the unknown. Time turned, and Jessie could only guess where they were going now.
A/N: Yep, Emperor Zero is an allegory of Emperor Nero of real Roman antiquity. That's what you get for persecuting the early Christians; 1900 years after your reign, a plucky teen satirizes you in her video game fanfiction.
What a horrible bout of writer's block! My goodness...
