CHAPTER 6: THE HUNT FOR THE MAGITEK SILVER
Jardin stumbled backwards, leaning on a desk for support. No wonder Readon wanted this thing. He looked over at Romo; he seemed quite surprised as well, though he had managed to compose himself better. Finally, he stood up straight and sputtered, "You mean, that thing can be used as a weapon?"
Romo cracked a grin, as he explained, "No, no, no! This is literally a key!
"Ok, kiddies, it's time for your history lesson. You remember hearing about General Zanzira, right? Well, he was the general of the old Empire's army during the time when airships and robot and all sorts of nifty things were everywhere. Now, civil war was splitting the Empire in two- the Imperials were fighting against a huge group of upstarts. So this Zanzira- he begins slowly bringing a large portion of their war machines and hiding them in a huge cave in an obscure mountain near their enemy's HQ location. He went so far as to include the crown jewels of the Empire- the twin war airships Emeralda and Rubelia. All he had to do was say the word, and his men would use these war machines and obliterate the rebels. This cave was sealed by magic, and only when two certain medallions were place inside the wall would it open. Now, it would have of course been tragic had these medallions fallen into the wrong hands, so Zanzira hid them in the last place enemies would look for them- two different temples (for it was a well- known fact that Zanzira was an atheist). Once he received the word, his messengers would collect the medallions and boom! No more rebels. However, the war ended before this tactic could be incorporated, and only a month or so afterwards, St. Ajora's miracle wiped out the Empire for good. We've managed to learn this from Zanzira's journal, which was found in a dig several years ago."
"What sort of war machines were there?" asked Romo curiously.
"Well, there were those airships- those were the major attractions- and a whole infantry of Magitek armor- for lack of a better description, they were half armor, half robot. The pilot would stand inside and control the thing. Also, there were a few robots and some relics. They were accessories that gave the equipee great physical and mental boosts. That's all that was recorded, but as you can see, with this technology no one could stand before the army that used it."
Jardin was getting scared now. "So this medallion I have has been excavated by someone else?"
"Obviously."
Jardin began pacing nervously, running his fingers through his hair. "Alec, we need to talk," he said.
Jardin then proceeded to tell Alec his story. By the time he had finished, the archeologist was shaking his head in bewilderment. "Lemme get this straight- your step brother is a Greyhelm? He gaped. "And he and his little clique of nobles are trying to find this armory? Oh, this is bad! This is bad!"
"It's bad?" answered Jardin. "Now that's an understatement. But what can I do? Even if I do secure both medallions and find the mountain, what could I do?"
"Well, first you need to ally yourself with an organization of some kind; it's obvious you can't do anything by yourself. You need manpower and money power- after all, if I may use a little saying I invented, nil gil means no go."
"And what happens when we find this lost armory?"
"Use it to pulverize the Convocation, and then destroy it!"
"Destroy it?" scoffed Romo. "Why destroy it?"
"Don't be a fool," snapped Alec sharply. "I've seen what this kind of power does to people. It twists their minds and their hearts. A man, thinking to use this absolute power for good, would find himself slowly slipping into depravity.
"Anyway, focus on the task at hand, I say. Our first job is to-"
"Wait a second!" interrupted Jardin. "You're coming with?"
"Of course I am!" laughed Alec. "You didn't think I'd pass up looking for the greatest archeological find in history, did you?
"Anyway, as I was saying, the first thing we need to do is find the second silver medallion. Tonight I'll look through all the information I have about the ancient temples, compare them to the journal, and then we'll check it out. Hopefully it's already excavated."
"How do you know it's still standing?" queried Romo.
"Unless I'm quite mistaken, all the temples were built to last just about anything. I expect it'll be buried from the Ajora disaster, but it'll be in good enough condition, considering."
"But what about you, Alec?" asked Jardin, concerned. "You can't just pick up and go. Those thieves might return, and you can't leave that knight locked in the cellar!"
In response, Alec turned to the robot. "Z-83, are you equipped with sensors?"
"Yes," replied Z-83. "I've also been outfitted with advanced scanners that can read the heart rate and brain waves of all life form in a fifty mile radius, to determine whether they have friendly or hostile intentions."
"Alright, good," grinned Alec. "Then keep those scanners on, and if you pick up any hostile life forms, go outside and kick their arse!"
"Can not compute 'arse'."
Alec groaned. "Kill them, ok?"
"Understood."
"Also, a man will stop by next Friday. He's my cousin. I want you to give him the man downstairs- he'll know what to do- and tell him this, 'I have gone on an excavation trip with some friends. Date of return unknown.'
"Heh, that old codger will be so thrilled your running that he won't even miss me. In fact, the way he was fawning over you when we dug you up, I'll be surprised if he doesn't adopt you, or marry you, even." Alec laughed.
"Understood."
That night, Jardin lay awake, thinking of the events that had transpired. Alec had found a temple some fifty miles west of the desert that he was almost certain about. He said it fell under the property of McGregor's excavation. Tomorrow they embarked on Alec's chocobos. Jardin laughed as he recalled finding a stable in the bottom basement, the chocobos trotting back and forth nervously in the lamplight. For the fifteenth time that night, he drew out the medallion on his neck, tracing the lines of the airship relief with his finger. Who knew such a small thing could unlock such terrible power. Finally, as his weariness overcame him, he drifted off into a reposed sleep.
"What do you mean, it's not accessible?!" shouted Alec at a dust spangled employee.
"Are you retarded, or do you just have a problem with comprehension?" shot back the worker contentiously. "The temple AIN'T ACCESSIBLE! It's not fully excavated yet."
Alec stood angrily before one of the workers at McGregor's dig, running his hand over the ivory handled revolver chosen to replace the broken gun. It required the sharpshooter to pull back a hammer after every round, but packed a huge punch. Alec was actually thinking of trying it out on the worker. He was in a bad mood. The two-day trip had been one of those events where nothing went right, and everything within imagination went wrong. A chocobo got sick, they took the wrong road and had to backtrack twenty miles, they ran out of food, and a scorpion had stung Alec in the hand. Finally they reached McGregor's place. Apparently, he and Alec's cousin were good friends, and McGregor was very hospitable, inviting them into his sizable Victorian house. But when he had to leave for the day, Alec began annoying the workers to no end, asking them when the temple would be fully excavated. Occasionally he would stop a worker twice his age, saying, "What kind of archeology is that? Let me show you how to do it right," or "Why are you slacking off? Can't you see me and my friends have things to do!?" Finally, with nothing else to do, the three went into the house to find some form of entertainment until the temple was accessible.
Jerald Durengeo swung smartly off his chocobo and walked the door of the shack. He wore the traditional coveralls that he always donned for work, and his brick red hair had been turned almost to blonde from the dust. He briskly tapped on the door with his hand, and, receiving no reply, knocked more forcefully. Finally, he swung the door open with an oath and told the twenty workers behind him to follow.
His scowl soon disappeared as he saw Z-83 rummaging about the shack and organizing the excavated goods. Turning his head, the robot spotted the senior archeologist and walked toward him. "Are you Alec's cousin, Jerald Durengeo?" he asked in his deep synthesized voice.
Jerald was so pleased he could barely speak. "Oh man, this is great! Uhhh, yeah that's me!"
"Alec commanded me to give you the following message: 'I have gone on an excavation trip with some friends. Date of return unknown. Heh, that old codger will be so thrilled you're running that he won't even miss me. In fact, the way he was fawning over you when we dug you up, I'll be surprised if he doesn't adopt you, or marry you, even!'" The robot let out a hearty laugh in imitation of Alec.
The hardy workers immediately cracked up. Jerald's face turned a bright red, and he muttered between curses, "Oh, that kid is dead when he gets back!"
For two weeks did Jardin and Company lounge with nothing to do, until finally Alec received the news from an employee, who frankly was just about as ready to beat the daylights out of him as give him messages, that the temple was mostly excavated. Alec thanked the worker and collected Jardin and Romo with an excited, "It's ready! Get your gear and what ever else you need!"
The trio briskly walked to the excavation, and sure enough, a huge temple, for the most part still intact save that part of the western ceiling was vacant, loomed inside. The white walls, very reminiscent of marble, were marred by the sandy earth, and yet still were a clear contrast with its surroundings. Even after all these ages it projected a Spartan air, a war-like aura that even the jaded Jardin found hard to shrug off. Alec motioned the others toward a rope ladder and began decent, his eyes fixated on the imposing pillars and enormous doors riddled with holes.
The three approached the temple. Jardin secretly wished they could wait until they afternoon, for it was only the early morning and the sun was hidden with a veil of clouds. Alec ran his hands across the stately doors, partially in awe, partially out of respect for the architectural achievement. Then he slipped in through a large crack, soon followed by his comrades.
As Jardin walked into the cavernous room, he felt like he was stepping back through the centuries into a time when airships filled the skies. He spun around, trying to take the dimly lit chamber in all at once. Everything, of course, was in disarray. The floor was now covered with a foot of sand, and a thin dust still wafted in the air. Sunlight from the holes in the roof merged with the dust, giving the temple a bluish tint. Over in the corner, an alter lay on its side in ruin. Relief carvings depicted scenes of battle and violence, graphic enough to make even Jardin flinch. This was obviously a very war-oriented religion. As if in answer to Jardin's personal observations, Alec commented, "The religion promoted by the Empire was polytheistic. This was a temple to the god of war."
Romo's head seemed liable to make 360 degree spin. "This is incredible! To think that this survived the Ajora miracle! Our buildings certainly wouldn't stand against a flood of such catastrophic proportions!"
"No kidding, though this area bore less of the brunt then the rest of the Empire," Alec agreed, his voice revealing a simple respect for such achievements. "Look at the explicit detail in those carvings! The faces- those expressions of anger, hate, anguish! Look at that one of the soldier being disemboweled- not pretty, I know- but those organs are artfully carved. Since these are reliefs, the three dimensions make it look almost real! His facial expressions make me pity him greatly."
They walked out of the room into a long hallway, still treading through the sand. Carvings were also present on the walls, even gorier then the chamber behind them. "Things get more and more death related as you move into holier sections of the temple," explained Alec morbidly. "Be careful, because in the holiest chamber we will actually run the risk of booby traps. What the ancient priests did was they'd take the sacrifice, usually an animal, but sometimes criminals plucked from the castle dungeons, and lock him in the holiest place. They would leave him there until he triggered a trap and died. I expect that Zanzira hid the medallion in there, so traps would protect it."
They passed through the hall, and Alec motioned them to stop. "This is the Grand Divine- the holiest chamber, and since this place didn't get hit that hard, most of the traps should function. Watch your step; walk toward the sides but DO NOT touch the walls."
They walked into the ancient sacred place. The chamber was circular, the stone walls parading a relief of an enormous battle. Jardin spotted the altar at the opposite end, a hollow cylinder covered by a grate. It sat on a raised area accessible by an incline. They began walking cautiously to the opposite end. Once, Romo felt a stone under the sand depress beneath his weight, and a stone fell out of the wall, revealing a metal tube. He jumped out of the way just in time as flames spewed out of the wall from the tube. A few moments later, Jardin accidentally brushed his hand too near the wall, when suddenly a large metal spike shot out millimeters from his nose.
They reached the altar successfully, and peered inside it. "Drat! I thought it would be in the altar for sure!" griped Alec, snapping his fingers in frustration. The three then began digging through the sand discreetly, watching out for odd stones or other suspicious signs. As they searched, nevertheless, they did cause a large stone cube to nearly crush them, a vat of harmless oil which was obviously kept boiling in the old days to shower them, and the traditional arrows from the wall to shoot toward them. Finally, after a quick brainstorm, Alec overturned the altar and pushed it down the incline toward the opposite end of the chamber. Sure enough, half way across the room a section of the floor buckled and gave way as the altar rolled past it. The company walked down the center where the altar had rolled fearing no traps for the stone had sprung them all. A shaft of light projecting through the ceiling illuminated the dark cavity slightly, and the three peered in hopefully. The hole fell fifteen feet into a bed of spikes, and perched between the two central spikes was the second medallion.
"How will we get to it?" wondered Romo aloud.
"Ehhh. maybe a human chain?" ventured Jardin, wincing at the unpleasant thought.
"No way, it's too risky!" shot back Alec. "Arrgh, why were we so hasty? We didn't even bring a rope, and we can't bring a worker. If they saw it, they'd claim for their own selfish purposes. Yeah, then I suppose it's the only way."
Alec took off his trench coat and guns, for since he was lightest he'd be on the bottom. Romo grasped Alec's heels tightly, and Jardin did the same to Romo. Slowly, Romo lowered Durengeo into the pit, and Jardin lay on his belly as he dropped Romo down as well. Alec's face was inches from the razor sharp metal as he picked up the medallion carefully. He then shouted his success and was promptly lifted out. The three scrambled away from the dangerous area, and Alec handed Jardin the second medallion, explaining the bulky robotic-looking thing carved in the silver to be Magitek armor. The archeologist was about to manage a relieved volley of chortling when he felt tempered steel lodge carefully so as not to break skin below his Adam's apple. He gaped in shock as his eyes followed the length of the sword down to the wielder, Romo. The young knight's eyes were cold as iron as he swept out his crossbow with his left hand and pointed it toward Jardin. "Give me the medallions," he barked. "NOW!"
Jardin stumbled backwards, leaning on a desk for support. No wonder Readon wanted this thing. He looked over at Romo; he seemed quite surprised as well, though he had managed to compose himself better. Finally, he stood up straight and sputtered, "You mean, that thing can be used as a weapon?"
Romo cracked a grin, as he explained, "No, no, no! This is literally a key!
"Ok, kiddies, it's time for your history lesson. You remember hearing about General Zanzira, right? Well, he was the general of the old Empire's army during the time when airships and robot and all sorts of nifty things were everywhere. Now, civil war was splitting the Empire in two- the Imperials were fighting against a huge group of upstarts. So this Zanzira- he begins slowly bringing a large portion of their war machines and hiding them in a huge cave in an obscure mountain near their enemy's HQ location. He went so far as to include the crown jewels of the Empire- the twin war airships Emeralda and Rubelia. All he had to do was say the word, and his men would use these war machines and obliterate the rebels. This cave was sealed by magic, and only when two certain medallions were place inside the wall would it open. Now, it would have of course been tragic had these medallions fallen into the wrong hands, so Zanzira hid them in the last place enemies would look for them- two different temples (for it was a well- known fact that Zanzira was an atheist). Once he received the word, his messengers would collect the medallions and boom! No more rebels. However, the war ended before this tactic could be incorporated, and only a month or so afterwards, St. Ajora's miracle wiped out the Empire for good. We've managed to learn this from Zanzira's journal, which was found in a dig several years ago."
"What sort of war machines were there?" asked Romo curiously.
"Well, there were those airships- those were the major attractions- and a whole infantry of Magitek armor- for lack of a better description, they were half armor, half robot. The pilot would stand inside and control the thing. Also, there were a few robots and some relics. They were accessories that gave the equipee great physical and mental boosts. That's all that was recorded, but as you can see, with this technology no one could stand before the army that used it."
Jardin was getting scared now. "So this medallion I have has been excavated by someone else?"
"Obviously."
Jardin began pacing nervously, running his fingers through his hair. "Alec, we need to talk," he said.
Jardin then proceeded to tell Alec his story. By the time he had finished, the archeologist was shaking his head in bewilderment. "Lemme get this straight- your step brother is a Greyhelm? He gaped. "And he and his little clique of nobles are trying to find this armory? Oh, this is bad! This is bad!"
"It's bad?" answered Jardin. "Now that's an understatement. But what can I do? Even if I do secure both medallions and find the mountain, what could I do?"
"Well, first you need to ally yourself with an organization of some kind; it's obvious you can't do anything by yourself. You need manpower and money power- after all, if I may use a little saying I invented, nil gil means no go."
"And what happens when we find this lost armory?"
"Use it to pulverize the Convocation, and then destroy it!"
"Destroy it?" scoffed Romo. "Why destroy it?"
"Don't be a fool," snapped Alec sharply. "I've seen what this kind of power does to people. It twists their minds and their hearts. A man, thinking to use this absolute power for good, would find himself slowly slipping into depravity.
"Anyway, focus on the task at hand, I say. Our first job is to-"
"Wait a second!" interrupted Jardin. "You're coming with?"
"Of course I am!" laughed Alec. "You didn't think I'd pass up looking for the greatest archeological find in history, did you?
"Anyway, as I was saying, the first thing we need to do is find the second silver medallion. Tonight I'll look through all the information I have about the ancient temples, compare them to the journal, and then we'll check it out. Hopefully it's already excavated."
"How do you know it's still standing?" queried Romo.
"Unless I'm quite mistaken, all the temples were built to last just about anything. I expect it'll be buried from the Ajora disaster, but it'll be in good enough condition, considering."
"But what about you, Alec?" asked Jardin, concerned. "You can't just pick up and go. Those thieves might return, and you can't leave that knight locked in the cellar!"
In response, Alec turned to the robot. "Z-83, are you equipped with sensors?"
"Yes," replied Z-83. "I've also been outfitted with advanced scanners that can read the heart rate and brain waves of all life form in a fifty mile radius, to determine whether they have friendly or hostile intentions."
"Alright, good," grinned Alec. "Then keep those scanners on, and if you pick up any hostile life forms, go outside and kick their arse!"
"Can not compute 'arse'."
Alec groaned. "Kill them, ok?"
"Understood."
"Also, a man will stop by next Friday. He's my cousin. I want you to give him the man downstairs- he'll know what to do- and tell him this, 'I have gone on an excavation trip with some friends. Date of return unknown.'
"Heh, that old codger will be so thrilled your running that he won't even miss me. In fact, the way he was fawning over you when we dug you up, I'll be surprised if he doesn't adopt you, or marry you, even." Alec laughed.
"Understood."
That night, Jardin lay awake, thinking of the events that had transpired. Alec had found a temple some fifty miles west of the desert that he was almost certain about. He said it fell under the property of McGregor's excavation. Tomorrow they embarked on Alec's chocobos. Jardin laughed as he recalled finding a stable in the bottom basement, the chocobos trotting back and forth nervously in the lamplight. For the fifteenth time that night, he drew out the medallion on his neck, tracing the lines of the airship relief with his finger. Who knew such a small thing could unlock such terrible power. Finally, as his weariness overcame him, he drifted off into a reposed sleep.
"What do you mean, it's not accessible?!" shouted Alec at a dust spangled employee.
"Are you retarded, or do you just have a problem with comprehension?" shot back the worker contentiously. "The temple AIN'T ACCESSIBLE! It's not fully excavated yet."
Alec stood angrily before one of the workers at McGregor's dig, running his hand over the ivory handled revolver chosen to replace the broken gun. It required the sharpshooter to pull back a hammer after every round, but packed a huge punch. Alec was actually thinking of trying it out on the worker. He was in a bad mood. The two-day trip had been one of those events where nothing went right, and everything within imagination went wrong. A chocobo got sick, they took the wrong road and had to backtrack twenty miles, they ran out of food, and a scorpion had stung Alec in the hand. Finally they reached McGregor's place. Apparently, he and Alec's cousin were good friends, and McGregor was very hospitable, inviting them into his sizable Victorian house. But when he had to leave for the day, Alec began annoying the workers to no end, asking them when the temple would be fully excavated. Occasionally he would stop a worker twice his age, saying, "What kind of archeology is that? Let me show you how to do it right," or "Why are you slacking off? Can't you see me and my friends have things to do!?" Finally, with nothing else to do, the three went into the house to find some form of entertainment until the temple was accessible.
Jerald Durengeo swung smartly off his chocobo and walked the door of the shack. He wore the traditional coveralls that he always donned for work, and his brick red hair had been turned almost to blonde from the dust. He briskly tapped on the door with his hand, and, receiving no reply, knocked more forcefully. Finally, he swung the door open with an oath and told the twenty workers behind him to follow.
His scowl soon disappeared as he saw Z-83 rummaging about the shack and organizing the excavated goods. Turning his head, the robot spotted the senior archeologist and walked toward him. "Are you Alec's cousin, Jerald Durengeo?" he asked in his deep synthesized voice.
Jerald was so pleased he could barely speak. "Oh man, this is great! Uhhh, yeah that's me!"
"Alec commanded me to give you the following message: 'I have gone on an excavation trip with some friends. Date of return unknown. Heh, that old codger will be so thrilled you're running that he won't even miss me. In fact, the way he was fawning over you when we dug you up, I'll be surprised if he doesn't adopt you, or marry you, even!'" The robot let out a hearty laugh in imitation of Alec.
The hardy workers immediately cracked up. Jerald's face turned a bright red, and he muttered between curses, "Oh, that kid is dead when he gets back!"
For two weeks did Jardin and Company lounge with nothing to do, until finally Alec received the news from an employee, who frankly was just about as ready to beat the daylights out of him as give him messages, that the temple was mostly excavated. Alec thanked the worker and collected Jardin and Romo with an excited, "It's ready! Get your gear and what ever else you need!"
The trio briskly walked to the excavation, and sure enough, a huge temple, for the most part still intact save that part of the western ceiling was vacant, loomed inside. The white walls, very reminiscent of marble, were marred by the sandy earth, and yet still were a clear contrast with its surroundings. Even after all these ages it projected a Spartan air, a war-like aura that even the jaded Jardin found hard to shrug off. Alec motioned the others toward a rope ladder and began decent, his eyes fixated on the imposing pillars and enormous doors riddled with holes.
The three approached the temple. Jardin secretly wished they could wait until they afternoon, for it was only the early morning and the sun was hidden with a veil of clouds. Alec ran his hands across the stately doors, partially in awe, partially out of respect for the architectural achievement. Then he slipped in through a large crack, soon followed by his comrades.
As Jardin walked into the cavernous room, he felt like he was stepping back through the centuries into a time when airships filled the skies. He spun around, trying to take the dimly lit chamber in all at once. Everything, of course, was in disarray. The floor was now covered with a foot of sand, and a thin dust still wafted in the air. Sunlight from the holes in the roof merged with the dust, giving the temple a bluish tint. Over in the corner, an alter lay on its side in ruin. Relief carvings depicted scenes of battle and violence, graphic enough to make even Jardin flinch. This was obviously a very war-oriented religion. As if in answer to Jardin's personal observations, Alec commented, "The religion promoted by the Empire was polytheistic. This was a temple to the god of war."
Romo's head seemed liable to make 360 degree spin. "This is incredible! To think that this survived the Ajora miracle! Our buildings certainly wouldn't stand against a flood of such catastrophic proportions!"
"No kidding, though this area bore less of the brunt then the rest of the Empire," Alec agreed, his voice revealing a simple respect for such achievements. "Look at the explicit detail in those carvings! The faces- those expressions of anger, hate, anguish! Look at that one of the soldier being disemboweled- not pretty, I know- but those organs are artfully carved. Since these are reliefs, the three dimensions make it look almost real! His facial expressions make me pity him greatly."
They walked out of the room into a long hallway, still treading through the sand. Carvings were also present on the walls, even gorier then the chamber behind them. "Things get more and more death related as you move into holier sections of the temple," explained Alec morbidly. "Be careful, because in the holiest chamber we will actually run the risk of booby traps. What the ancient priests did was they'd take the sacrifice, usually an animal, but sometimes criminals plucked from the castle dungeons, and lock him in the holiest place. They would leave him there until he triggered a trap and died. I expect that Zanzira hid the medallion in there, so traps would protect it."
They passed through the hall, and Alec motioned them to stop. "This is the Grand Divine- the holiest chamber, and since this place didn't get hit that hard, most of the traps should function. Watch your step; walk toward the sides but DO NOT touch the walls."
They walked into the ancient sacred place. The chamber was circular, the stone walls parading a relief of an enormous battle. Jardin spotted the altar at the opposite end, a hollow cylinder covered by a grate. It sat on a raised area accessible by an incline. They began walking cautiously to the opposite end. Once, Romo felt a stone under the sand depress beneath his weight, and a stone fell out of the wall, revealing a metal tube. He jumped out of the way just in time as flames spewed out of the wall from the tube. A few moments later, Jardin accidentally brushed his hand too near the wall, when suddenly a large metal spike shot out millimeters from his nose.
They reached the altar successfully, and peered inside it. "Drat! I thought it would be in the altar for sure!" griped Alec, snapping his fingers in frustration. The three then began digging through the sand discreetly, watching out for odd stones or other suspicious signs. As they searched, nevertheless, they did cause a large stone cube to nearly crush them, a vat of harmless oil which was obviously kept boiling in the old days to shower them, and the traditional arrows from the wall to shoot toward them. Finally, after a quick brainstorm, Alec overturned the altar and pushed it down the incline toward the opposite end of the chamber. Sure enough, half way across the room a section of the floor buckled and gave way as the altar rolled past it. The company walked down the center where the altar had rolled fearing no traps for the stone had sprung them all. A shaft of light projecting through the ceiling illuminated the dark cavity slightly, and the three peered in hopefully. The hole fell fifteen feet into a bed of spikes, and perched between the two central spikes was the second medallion.
"How will we get to it?" wondered Romo aloud.
"Ehhh. maybe a human chain?" ventured Jardin, wincing at the unpleasant thought.
"No way, it's too risky!" shot back Alec. "Arrgh, why were we so hasty? We didn't even bring a rope, and we can't bring a worker. If they saw it, they'd claim for their own selfish purposes. Yeah, then I suppose it's the only way."
Alec took off his trench coat and guns, for since he was lightest he'd be on the bottom. Romo grasped Alec's heels tightly, and Jardin did the same to Romo. Slowly, Romo lowered Durengeo into the pit, and Jardin lay on his belly as he dropped Romo down as well. Alec's face was inches from the razor sharp metal as he picked up the medallion carefully. He then shouted his success and was promptly lifted out. The three scrambled away from the dangerous area, and Alec handed Jardin the second medallion, explaining the bulky robotic-looking thing carved in the silver to be Magitek armor. The archeologist was about to manage a relieved volley of chortling when he felt tempered steel lodge carefully so as not to break skin below his Adam's apple. He gaped in shock as his eyes followed the length of the sword down to the wielder, Romo. The young knight's eyes were cold as iron as he swept out his crossbow with his left hand and pointed it toward Jardin. "Give me the medallions," he barked. "NOW!"
