The Artifacts Of Elios (Book 1)

by R N Skye

  By the afternoon he was looking through the lists and found enchantments dealing with healing and protection. Thinking that it would be a shame to be hurt on the final game he carefully used his scribe to enchant his game socks and jersey with a simple impact protection and a heal enchantment that would heal over time simple sprains and scrapes. There were more efficient enchantments but they were very complex and he didn’t feel comfortable with that level of difficulty.

  That night Shane took a drink of nice cold water from his mug; proud that he had been able to make something so practical. He then transformed his scribe into a spoon that he placed in the now empty cup. He glanced up at the instructor hanging on the wall in the form of the portrait of Ava and with a smile he turned off the lights and went to bed.

  “Instructor, instruction dream number one augmented please”

  “I am happy to instruct.”

  Assassinate Tanner Artifact’s head magetech and destroy the company’s artifact activator; the Crown was out of control. This was one of many reasons that Stafford was quitting the game. The laws were bad enough but to begin killing the competition just because you were the ruling class and wanted it all for yourself? That was not what he had signed up for.

  Stafford knocked lightly on the door that read “Constantine Roget”. When no answer was forth coming he carefully unlocked the door with a set of stolen keys and entered the room. Seeing the room was clear except for a slumbering man face down on his desk Stafford motioned for Wendell to enter the room.

  “Here he is Wendell; all in a pretty package. All this time you wanted to know what secret work I did for the King, here it is. I kill traitors that threaten the crown. It appears the king wants someone to be able to take my place; should anything happen to me, so he asked me to bring you along and show you how it’s done. Intelligence work is a dirty business; it isn’t all chasing ministers mistresses, snooping through mail, and hiding in closets, you better get used to it.”

  Stafford pulled a large gleaming knife with a wicked looking edge and offered it hilt first to Wendell.” Go ahead, you can tell the king you were the one to end the head magetech at Tanner industries. I promise not to tell Allion that I had him drugged first.

  Wendell paled and backed up a step. “I’ll pass this time, you show me what to do,” he stammered.

  “This job is not just whining to the king and tattling on your fellow ministers, Wendell it has a dark side and you need to man up. If it’s any consolation this man has a room full of smuggled unlicensed artifacts behind a secret panel on the other side of the room. He’s a criminal and by the artifact laws against smuggling and willingly producing unlicensed artifacts he is guilty of treason and subject to summary justice and capital punishment.

  The man stirred.

  “Hurry Wendell, he’s waking up.”

  Wendell said nothing he paled even further and silently shook his head negatively.

  Stafford gave the sniveling intelligence officer a scathing look of disgust and reversed the knife as he quickly walked behind the sleeping mage. He wrapped his arm around the head of the sleeping victim and lifted the mage bodily from the chair by the head exposing his bare throat. Stafford smiled at the horror in Wendell’s eyes and he spun the body away from the agents view and brought the knife to the exposed throat and made a slicing motion. There was a gasp and large spurt of crimson and Stafford let the body fall to the ground.

  Wendell hated Stafford for that look; just as Stafford hoped he would.

  Wiping the knife on the man’s tunic Stafford walked to the wall. He pressed a knot in the paneling and a door slid to the side exposing a large room littered with artifacts.

  “Come on Wendell, bring that bag I gave you,” said Stafford as he entered the room.

  Hesitating for a few moments the paled agent picked up a duffle bag and followed the senior agent into the hidden room.

  The Stadium was packed the crowd louder than usual; it was the championship. Shane huddled with his team on the sideline listening to the coach’s last second advice, waiting for the game to begin. He looked around at the myriad of fans decked out in the schools colors of red white and gold, many with their faces painted as well. On the opposite side of the stadium the other team’s fans were dressed in a like manner of yellow and purple.

  The Officials walked out onto the field and soon blew their whistles indicating it was time for the teams to take the field. Shane whooped and shouted with his team and ran to the starting positions.

  Shane as team captain walked with his ball handler Bernard and his co-captain, the other receiver, Rene to the center circle of the field or “eye” as it was called to meet with the head official; the other team captain and his co-captain approached with his handler as well.

  “I’ll make it easy for you gentlemen. I have just two things. First I want a clean game,” spoke the official in a no-nonsense tone glancing at the U of J players. If I see any cheap shots the penalty flags are going to fly. Secondly, if I see any artifacts, I’ll give a technical to the man with the artifact and a team technical resulting in a two free kicks for the other team. Is that clear?” The official looked at Shane and his team mate as if just because they were the Wizards they would be the ones to try something using magetech.

  Shane and the others all nodded yes. Shane consciously rubbed the neutral colored glyphs on his sleeve and gulped.

  “Take your places.” Shane and the other captain hustled out of the eye and into the field section ready to begin.

  As the official took the small melon sized grey and white warball and readied the toss Bernard shouted the play. Shane and the other receiver started running to the outside of the field toward the zone and the planned goals; followed by a battler each from the U of J Lions. Two other Wizard battlers assumed warrior roles and immediately shadowed the other team’s receivers. The remaining two Wizard battlers stayed near the eye.

  The whistle blew and the ball went skyward. Bernard out leapt the Lions handler snagged the ball with a large right hand and ran towards and then past his two unguarded lone defensive battlers. Bumping and nearly tripping on his own man as he flew by Bernard hurriedly pulled his hands into his midriff and wrapped both arms inward to avoid fumbling or being stripped as he tried to regain his stride. Seeing he was off balance the U of J players left their defensive coverage and began to collapse around the staggering Wizard handler with the other defensive Lions players. Just as the swarm of Lions players were about to pile on the doomed Wizards handler, one of the Wizards battlers that had held back and was yet to move pivoted and hurled a cleverly handed off ball to a now wide open Shane. Shane quickly pulled down the pass ran, the short distance to the undefended five point goal, and leaped high for a jam and thrust the ball through the opening.

  The crowd roared as the outside official nearest the goal raised his arms signifying the score.

  “Terrific,” yelled the king standing and applauding with the rest of his retinue. “Did you see that play, Stafford? What splendid execution.”

  “Yes your majesty,” commented the agent, his eyes roving the crowd and not paying as much attention to the game as the rest of the spectators.

  Noticing his in attention to the game the king tried to see if he could catch his top agent off guard. “Who was that that just scored, did you catch the name?”

  “That was Shane Chason,” Sire, “He is the Wizards star receiver and Captain of the team,” responded Stafford still scanning the crowd.

  “How does he know so much,” wondered Allion. The man seemed to observe so little but missed nothing. “What do you know about him, Stafford?”

  “He is one of the top students at Wonstrowd and is the top magetech student that will graduate at the end of this term. If he hadn’t been on the warball team he would no doubt be with your expedition of researchers that you commissioned from the college a few weeks ago, Sire”

  “Why didn’t he go?”

  “He was highly recommended by his p
rofessor and the dean of the collegium, but he turned it down due to his scholarship as a warball player.”

  “Where is he from? Is his family someone I should know?”

  “Not likely, your highness, he is from the province of Pierre, their largest city; Colline Verte. His mother is a widow who has a small dress shop.”

  “Sounds like someone with a lot of drive. I’m sure we will see him as a future leader if he remains that motivated.” The king changed the subject. “Are you ready with the presentation that I will be giving Tanner at the end of the game?”

  “Yes your majesty.”

  The King returned his attention to the game. “Excellent he said with a cruel smile, Excellent.”

  The Wizards hurried back into starting position. This time when the whistle blew Bernard missed the toss and the U of J Handler threw the ball to an outside battler who tipped it to a warrior that had just pushed off the Wizard battler guarding him.

  Shane was tightly defending the receiver near him and saw the tip to the freed up warrior and saw that he was facing an open goal; fortunately the other team’s receiver was not yet in position but was out running Shane’s co-receiver to a location where he could get the pass. Shane gambled and broke away from his receiver and sprinted across the far side on the blind side of the warrior on an intercept course of where he thought the other receiver would be to make the catch from the warrior.

  The Lions warrior was now in trouble; the battler that he had shaken earlier had recovered and was about to tackle him. With no choice the Lions warrior hurled the ball to where his receiver was running. As the ball was descending from its trajectory to a now wide open Lions receiver, from out of nowhere Shane, who was running full speed leapt wildly and picked off the pass. The Lions receiver who was traveling nearly the opposite direction was unable to change direction quickly enough and by the time he could react Shane had run into the zone and slammed another goal home for another five points.

  The crowd went wild as the official signaled the score and the U of J Lions called for a time out.

  In a distant Army mess hall tent a large crystal screen was showing the game to a large congregation of soldiers. With the soldiers all in uniform it was difficult to tell what team they were cheering for; except for when one of the teams scored. At the front of the mass of viewers there huddled a dozen or so civilians decked out in their school colors; their allegiance quite apparent.

  A group of magetech student was cheering exceptionally loud, led by a uncharacteristically beautiful blonde scientist shouting at the top of her lungs “Go Shane GO!”

  Ava was thrilled and was pointing excitedly at the screen “I should have gone to his games, who knew warball was this fun to watch.”

  “I can’t believe you never watched him play before,” chided one of her fellow students.

  “I can’t believe he’s an academic. It’s not fair he is so smart and good looking,” spoke one of the other female magetech students.

  “Back off Sister,” said Ava, “we’re dating.”

  “Just in case you change your mind,” the other girl teased back.

  “He reminds me of Dr. Evan’s, Minister of IDAD, back in his day,” interjected an older Archeologist from U of J. “He was a handler for the wizards back when he was young. He led the Wizards to a championship win against U of J; He really used to make us mad; but then he graduated and came to U of J for his doctorate in Archeology so all was forgiven.” The older man laughed.

  Suddenly a blaring claxon began to sound. Instantly the soldiers scrambled and filed out of the tent to their stations. The group of civilians looked around in confusion.

  “I wonder what that is for,” someone thought out loud.

  The older Archeologist took charge and instructed the group to stay together and remain in the mess hall. He then hurried away to the command tent to find out what was going on.

  After an hour of waiting the civilian scientists and researchers were about to leave the tent to see what was going on when the claxon ceased it’s wailing. Moments later the Lead Scientist, followed by a pair of armed soldiers, entered the mess tent. “Everyone follow me we are in extreme danger here; we’re all getting back on the ships.” The Archeologist did a head check as each of the researchers and students filed past. He was one short. He double checked and looked to see who was missing.

  “Hold up he hollered. Has anyone seen Miss Desmond?”

  All of the others nodded negatively, some commenting that she was just there a second ago.

  “Maybe she went to the washroom,” said one of the students.

  “Go check the latrines,” directed the Archeologist to one of the armed guards. “The rest get to the pier immediately.”

  “Excuse me miss, could you spare me a moment of your time?” Ava heard a low voice ask just as a hand tapped her on the shoulder. Ava let out a startled yelp as she turned to see a tall middle aged man that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She calmed down from her surprise as she took in the smiling demeanor although he had very serious eyes.

  “I’m sorry, you startled me,” she exclaimed.

  “I sincerely apologize,” that was not my intent. It’s just you are in danger and we have several mutual acquaintances that would greatly appreciate your safety.” He held out his hand, “if you would come with me please.”

  “What acquaintances,” she asked raising a questioning eyebrow.

  The man smiled even wider, “your uncle Ari for one, your father for another, and your Aunt Leslie.”

  Ava, with some trepidation took the man’s hand. He then calmly held up a small artifact in his other hand and pressed a glyph with his thumb. And Ava suddenly found herself in a new location.

  By half time defense had tightened up and both teams were giving and taking at an even pace although the wizards were up by five points the Lions had managed to get ahead in goal clearing; so it was still anybody’s game.

  As Shane’s team sat in the locker room most of the team felt as if they had run a marathon and were all physically drained and exhausted. The coaches were a little upset; angry because they had had two days off prior to the game and they all looked as if they had been up all night carrying on. After a number of them protested that they had all rested and had honored curfew the coach’s lightened up as they began having scrapes and sprains attended to.

  While they were listening to the coach outline the second half strategy, there was a slight commotion as several well-dressed people with twice as many royal guards entered the open bay locker room.

  “Your majesty,” the coach rose to his feet and bowed his head.

  As the team all started to stand, the king waved them down saying, “please remain as you were.”

  As the team resumed their wrapping and bandaging the king told them how great a team they were and congratulations on a well fought first half. The king went around the room shaking everyone’s hand commenting to each player as he made his way around the room. When he got to Shane he commented on his two quickly scored goals, his several other steals and goals he had made since then, and how entertaining his intensity was to watch, and to keep up the good work. As if an afterthought he added, “I understand that you are top of this year’s magetech class and are graduating at the end of this term.”

  “That is correct your majesty,” responded Shane sensing that it was more of a statement than a question.

  “I certainly hope you look into some of the career research opportunities at IDAD, I would certainly hate to see talent like yours go to waste just doing run of the mill magetech for one of the other three markets.” The king laughed as if he had made some sort of joke.

  “Thank you your majesty. I will definitely look into it.” Shane didn’t mention that he had already received an offer directly from the minister of IDAD inviting him to interview for a research position.

  The king turned to an aid standing nearby. “Stafford, make sure the boy gets a letter from me to the minister.”
r />   “Yes your highness,” replied Stafford; not mentioning that IDAD was already recruiting him.

  The king finished making his way around the locker room ending with the coach wishing him a successful second half and then he and his retinue departed except for the man he had instructed to leave a letter for Shane to the IDAD Minister.

  Shane was lacing his shoes back on and was reflecting on how refreshed and undamaged he was compared to his fellows and considering the intensity of the game so far. He was glad he had put the glyphs on his clothes. He rationalized it wasn’t cheating as it only was meant to keep him safe.

  As the kings man approached Shane stood and the man handed him a piece of paper saying, “here take this, read it after the game.” Without another word the man departed.

  Shane was tempted to read the paper but the half time was nearly over and the coach was hustling players out the door. He went to his locker and using what little glyph mastery he had practiced, he mentally used the simple hide enchantment on the note hiding it in plains sight on his locker shelf then he glued the door shut for good measure.

  Shane’s team was ahead but by only two points. Both teams only needed to clear a final goal each; the U of J Lions goal on one side of the field, the Wonstrowd Wizards on the opposite side. Both goals were worth three points so whichever team scored first would complete their final goal and would win the game.

  The last thirty minutes had been a stalemate both teams defending magnificently. The stadium was a roaring torrent of shouting and cheering; so loud it could be heard nearly across the city. Both teams were beginning to tire but Shane’s team was dragging. It was when, for the tenth time, Shane had barely made a block that had saved the team from defeat that Shane suspected that something was off. Wondering if the other team was cheating somehow he began watching closely.