Xero Chronicle

by Ross Buzzell

  “Xero! Xero can you hear me!”

  he yells as Xero feels his body being jostled by Ro. With every part of his body aching from the impact, he slowly opens his eyes. Looking up at his younger brother he groans as the effort to speak enhances the sensation of just being hit by a planet.

  “Ro could you not, please.”

  his voice is forced as he slowly sits up and takes his sword from his brother. Ro helps Xero to his feet. As he stands he starts a self-inventory, beginning with his feet. Toes, good toes are wiggling, those still work, ankles, shins knees… all good. Hips, spine, skull, by the Creator how am I whole? He thinks to himself as he looks up. The Nidhogg’s wings finally hitting the ground on either side of the two boys. Xero looks down at his little brother; concern fills his face, not for himself, but for the safety of Ro.

  “Are you injured?”

  “Me? You just fell two hundred feet! Are YOU ok?”

  Xero looks down at his hands, opening and closing his fingers, gripping the hilt of his blade. He slowly sheaths it on his back and nods as he begins to be able to feel his face. The aching pain throughout his body has already begun to subside.

  “I wish I were dead, but I am whole.”

  Ro turns to walk back down the mountain.

  “We should go back home.”

  Xero grabs his kid brother’s arm; with a semi-forced smile he shakes his head.

  “We have come this far Ro; we are so close to Starfall we could not possibly turn back now. Next time we will just remember NOT to jump on the flying animal’s back, or cut its wings off while it is in the middle of the air.”

  Turning Xero begins to walk up the hill. With each step the aches and pains of his monumental belly flop dissipates.

  “We live and we learn little brother!”

  he calls back. Ro quickly runs up to his brother’s side and walks side by side with the one who had just risked his own life to save his. The two do not speak. Xero could tell that Ro was feeling guilty about the incident. It was not his fault and Xero holds no ill will toward his brother. One thing he had learned while training to be a soldier is that the unexpected can and will always happen and often times if a worst case scenario is possible, it will occur. He was just happy Ro was safe. The two continue to walk in silence with only the crunching of the stones beneath their feet to break the quiet. Each step brings them closer to the ancient blade. Eventually a soft hum begins to fill Xero’s ears. He pauses for a moment, scanning the area. By now they had followed the winding path up into the canyons of the mountain. Sheer rock faces tower over the two boys. The familiar site of Caelum had vanished long ago.

  “Do you hear that?”

  Xero asks his brother who stops walking, looking back at Xero before around at the towering walls of crystalline stone.

  “Hear what?”

  “That hum.”

  Xero adds before picking up his pace. Following the noise the Prince passes his younger brother, who quickly takes up behind him, and begins to climb one of the small rock faces before him. Xero scales the sheer plateau with ease; it only being three to four times his own height. Ro is able to follow. As Xero pulls himself up onto the ledge he pauses for a moment. His eyes catch something peculiar, as a small stone floats past him. Xero pulls himself to his feet onto the flattened surface. Another small rock floats past him before a third gently runs into his cheek. It does not harm him but causes him to flinch and move out of the way. Ro pulls himself up as well and stands next to his brother. Upon seeing dozens and dozens of stones being suspended in the air, the two look at each other without a word before making their way toward a small alcove. The hum begins to grow louder in Xero’s ears to the threshold of pain.

  Cautiously the two round the corner of the alcove, the older followed closely by the younger. Upon entering the alcove the humming stops and the rocks fall to the ground with a soft pitter patter, when suddenly they both see it. There in the center of a cylindrical chamber stands a blade comprised of gold and silver. Glowing ever so slightly it is thrust into the ground with its leather bound hilt pointed skywards. A wide smile forms on Ro’s face as he charges the blade, getting close but not touching it. Xero, on the other hand, moves slower, more cautiously as he feels a pull toward the blade like metal to a powerful magnet.

  “Do you see this?! It is Starfall, THE blade of our people.”

  Xero slowly begins to approach the sword. His brother’s words echo in the back-ground like ambient noise. With each steady step Xero reaches out his hand toward the blade. As he goes to touch it Ro grasps his brother’s wrist, snapping Xero’s attention back to his brother.

  “Xero, what are you doing? If you touch this it will overload your brain. It could kill you!”

  Xero pauses for a moment, dropping his hand down to his side, looking back at the blade, still feeling the pull.

  “You do not feel that? Like a pull to it, as if it is calling out to you?”

  Ro pauses for a moment. Xero notes a sly grin form on his lips as he steps back, nodding towards the blade.

  “If it is calling to you, then you should claim it.”

  Without another word Xero approaches the sword. He hesitates a moment as his heart begins to pound in his chest. Grasping the sword Xero is flooded with visions; a massive war fought by beings the size of planets, life and death being created on an enormous scale on a daily basis. A burning object falling onto Boron that unleashes an all-encompassing golden pulse and an ensuing explosion that creates the cradle that would one day hold Caelum; in a flash of chaos and golden light. He sees the Lorian family crest flash before him on different plates of armor. An ancient ancestor stands before him, one he does not recognize but who had strong features, dark hair and golden eyes. His voice booms before Xero, resonating throughout his very soul.

  “You, Xero house of Lorian, are chosen to bare this blade, but you are not yet ready. It will loosen itself for you once you are.”

  In a flash Xero’s vision goes back to normal. He feels a surge of energy leave the sword and enter his body with such force it causes him to go weak in the knees. Xero looks back at his brother before gazing at the blade once more. He gives it a tug, nothing; the sword does not budge, once again, the same result. Dropping his arms to his side, Ro approaches his brother with a wide grin and pats his back.

  “Well I’m glad to see that it did not kill you.”

  his voice was almost taunting his brother that Starfall would not release itself to him.

  “What did it show you?”

  This time Xero notes his little brother’s voice is sincere and brimming with curiosity.

  “It showed me a great war, one that happened eons ago. It showed me Starfall’s arrival to our planet and our ancestors who all have wielded it… One of them even told me that I had been chosen by the sword but that I was not yet ready to wield it.”

  Ro takes a few steps back, a wide smile on his face as he had borne witness to something few had, the choosing of a wielder. Ro pulls the map from his tunic and holds it out to Xero.

  “I do not need this anymore; I have seen what I have come here to see. I am going to return home, you should stay. See what you can learn from Starfall before you leave.”

  Xero pauses for a moment, leaning toward his brother who takes a step back and puts his hands up.

  “No Xero, you need to stay. Do not worry about me. I will take the Emissary route to get home. I will be ok.”

  Xero notes something in his voice, a satisfaction, as if being chosen by the blade was not his intent for the dangerous climb but just too actually lay eyes on it. Now that he had, Ro appears to not even care for it. As he disappears at the mouth of the alcove, Xero begins to walk circles around the sword, pacing back and forth his eyes on the blade. ‘What did it mean I am not ready?’ He thinks to himself over and over again, his gaze never once waning from the monument before him.

  Minutes slip into hours before Xero finally gets the courage to approach the ancient weapon once
again. This time without hesitation he grabs the hilt and gives a powerful pull on it. As he exerts his will onto the blade the ground begins to shake. Xero stops pulling for a brief moment and the tremor stops. Xero tries yanking on the sword once more. This time the tremors are much more severe. He pauses once more, so do the quakes. With one final attempt to free the sword from its resting place, Xero yanks on it harder than he had previously and is caught off guard when the ground opens up beneath him. For a split second Xero has no idea what is going on. His eyes quickly adjust just in time for him to hit a slanted wall. Debris rains down around him as he comes rolling to a stop, his armor and cape getting covered in dust as he does.

  Xero coughs. Pushing off the ground he rises to his feet. Looking up Xero sees the hole he had fallen through, and the sword still in its resting place as a pillar of light illuminates the cavern that had swallowed the prince. Slowly his eyes scan the large cavern; he is able to make out shapes all around him. As he becomes fully acclimated to the dark, it dawns on the young Prince that this is not just any room. It is an ancient lab. One of the very labs that was used to devise the earliest Boronian technologies; with this a sly grin forms on his lips.

  Chapter: 2

  Xero looks around in the darkness; he searches for a source of light but to no avail. After a few moments the ground quakes again, grabbing the nearest table Xero steadies himself as his eyes scan the roof of the cavern in hopes that it will not collapse on him. The sound of stone falling catches his attention, as the light that was being allowed in is blocked by stones covering the hole from which Xero had fallen. The Prince stands alone in the darkness, his eyes attempting to adjust to the complete darkness and fail to. A soft squeaking catches his attention, turning his head to look behind him Xero and sees only darkness. Like a wave every sound from inside the cavern washes over him at once, the sound of every animals squeak, every insects scurry and every impact of water droplets and their prevailing echoes throughout the cave.

  Xero attempts to focus his vision to see anything, it is far to dark. Closing his eyes the young soldier focuses the energy that courses within him, he draws it to his chest like a river flows downstream. He slowly opens his eyes a soft blue light illuminates the lab before him. Glancing down he notices the family crest aglow on his breast before raising his head and allowing his hearing to return to its normal state. Slowly Xero turns and begins to walk through the underground laboratory, his eyes adjusting to the low light his family crest emits. As he carefully makes his way through the darkened lab Xero catches glimpses of ancient medical devices, the first scanners created by his people generations ago. His eyes catch the form of a number of small centrifuges, another antique medical device. It soon dawns on him that this lab was once used to create and run tests on medical and scientific discoveries.

  With the dim light illuminating the room Xero’s enhanced vision is able to make out a wall that is full of books from floor to ceiling. They were undoubtedly used to journal discoveries, what secrets they could have held. In awe of the magnificent of the subterranean structure the Prince slowly rotates and takes in the glory of this ancient find. A symbol catches Xero’s eye, he squares off himself and looks directly at it, and the symbol is the shape of a diamond shape with a circle above it. He remembered hearing his little brother speak of it from his studies at dinner one night; it was the symbol of a tribe of people who would eventually become the Emissaries.

  Out of the corner of his eye a soft yellow glowing light catches his attention. Stepping around the table before him Xero sees something in the dark, a book, thicker than his arm, lays chained to a table. Glyphs on the book glow the color of the Emissaries, the black, leathery cover is accented only by gold leafing around its edges. The glyphs glowing are in an older dialect of his native tongue but he is able to make out enough to put two and two together. The accumulated wealth of knowledge of the people of Boron, beware if knowledge is power than this is a god. The warning intrigues Xero, he reaches forwards and gently places his hand on the chains holding the book in place. Upon contact sparks flutter into the darkness as they jump from the book to Xero’s fingertips with a soft sizzling crackle. Being so enthralled he does not notice that a soft yellow glow fills the chambers behind him or that the sound of footsteps gradually begins to approach him. Xero always seemed to suffer from tunnel vision, when intrigued or enraged everything around him would melt away while his concentration is focused on the object of his desire be it an enemy, or in this case a book.

  The soft touch of a hand brings Xero out of his translate stare-off with the ancient text, he jumps and lets out a startled cry as he faces the owner of the hand. A smile forms on his lips as he recognizes the comforting smile of Judh’Sena, the Emissary matriarch. She had lead the Emissaries since before his father was born, and his father before him. No one was certain of her age, only that she was blessed with long life and that she was kind. Xero rights himself before her and bows slightly; she is one of the few beings in existence that the Lorian family would prostrate themselves before even if it was to her disliking. Judh slowly approaches Xero, placing a soft, weathered hand on his shoulder and standing him upright.

  “You are a Prince of Boron; you need not prostrate yourself before me.”

  Xero looks up at her wrinkled face, her eyes a soft gray peering from behind her black cloaks hood. Judh’s cheeks are pushed up from the wide smile she displays to Xero which both shows off her teeth and nearly squints her eyes shut. For being considered an ‘ancient’ she looked barely older than his father.

  “I see you have found the laboratory of the old ones, no one has set foot in here since before my time.”

  Xero looks up at Judh with a slight look of worry on his face.

  “I did not mean to trespass matriarch I apologize.”

  Judh shakes her head; gently she puts an arm around Xero and begins to scoot in such a way it seems that she glides across the floor. Slowly he begins to walk with her, both terrified that he would be punished for trespassing and yet somehow oddly comforted by her partial embrace. The two move slowly and silently for a moment towards the chamber wall, there is something about Judh that throws Xero off. She exudes peace, a comfort that wraps itself around him like the hug of a mother. After a few moments she speaks into the darkness, her voice still as gentle and loving as before.

  “It is not trespassing for you young prince, you are to be High King one day, that means that all of Boron is yours. And besides anyone found worthy and chosen to wield Starfall is more than welcome in Laconia.”

  A perplexed look slowly makes its way over Xero’s face, his brows furrow and a slight frown forms on his lips.

  “How do you know I am to be High King, and that I was chosen by Starfall?”

  As the two approaches the wall Judh throws her head back and gives off a boisterous laugh as if the answer were so obvious that he should have known it himself. With a wave of her hand she opens a portal, on the far side Xero sees a lush garden of green that is tucked away, hidden from the rest of the world. A pure place for the Emissaries to dwell without contamination from the outside world.

  “You forget young prince, I am the matriarch, and I am privy to many abilities that others do not know about.”

  As she speaks the two walk from the stale, damp, darkness of the cave into a new kind of echo system Xero had never yet seen before. The air smelled sweet, the ground was soft, so much lush greenery is scattered about them, more than Xero had ever seen in his lifetime. Even the air is different; it is thicker, warmer, and almost damp unlike the cool crisp air everywhere else on the planet. The sensation is invigorating to Xero. He looks around in awe for a few moments; Judh removes the hood from her head revealing curled gray hair that falls nearly to her shoulders. After a few moments of being enthralled in rapture Xero allows his attention to come back to the matriarch.

  “Why have you brought me here?”

  she places her arm back around his shoulder and continues to lead him thro
ugh this veritable garden.

  “I have not, it was determined that you would come here and so you have.”

  ‘Determined’ by whom? The though perplexes Xero as the soft grass crunches beneath his every step. It is only in his moment of contemplation that he realizes just how quiet and peaceful it is here.

  “What do you mean by determined?”

  “The Creator knows all; it is He that brought you here, He that guides your every move and He which guides us all.”

  The thought of not being in control of his own life sits like a ball of razorblades in Xero’s stomach. He gnaws on the inside of his cheek for a few moments.

  “Are you saying that the Creator already has planned out what I will do? That he will control me to do what He wants?”

  Again the matriarch gives off a laugh and shakes her head.

  “That is not the case, He knows what you will do, He has a path set out for you, whether or not you take that path and become what He wants you to be is up to you.”

  Again, her statement confuses Xero; he was beginning to understand why few ventured to Laconia for advice from the Emissaries.