The Vanador Amulet

“Tsst, hey Keleon,” said a voice from behind me. I quickly turned to find Sorynn walking towards me, stepping around a large crater formed from a missile. The Xyphonite town around us was in ruins. “You have your gift?”
I reached into my pack with my left hand, and from it pulled a small medallion, perhaps no larger than a wisun, forged in the shape of an Erdellian open hand, inlaid with a single Vanador gemstone that greatly resembled an open eye.
“Pottle’s Pantry, what’s that?”
“It’s a Vanador amulet,” I said. “It’s supposed to bring good luck.”
“Well, you dip into that deposit of luck because I’m not so sure D’Dhenn’s gonna like it.”
“C’mon, she’s from Vanador, she’ll like it.”
“No, she’s from Xandor!”
“Oh shit!” I immediately rolled my eyes, recoiled slightly, and whirled my head slowly around in frustration. But I quickly turned it around after a click of my tongue. “Well, they’re in the same sector, so it’s okay.”
“Wow, you know what, that’s just so discriminatory.”
“I’m not wrong!”
“No, you aren’t, but that’s still just such a generalization.”
“Eh, whatever. C’mon, let’s go and greet the birthday girl.”
The two of us started down the street. As we continued walking we passed by a group of soldiers cleaning out a Xyphonite house, large and spacious. It appeared to be owned by a wealthy family, considering the soldiers had a steady stream of men and women carrying from it various objects of sizes, shapes, and value. I believed there was some sort of animal tusk, a hologram generator which probably weighed around fifty dzunur or something like that, and numerous metallic melee weapons, resembling several varieties of Xyphonite melee weapons.
We turned a corner, passed by covered corpses of Xyphonites, the purple and blue blood of the different species mixing on the ground, and continued onwards to where our squad was. We were occupying a roundabout, marked by an obelisk with various Xyphonite inscriptions. Now, my High Xyphonite is quite rudimentary, but I could very much comprehend the written word, and write complete sentences in Xyphonite. Well, simple sentences, but sentences. On the side facing us was written “TRUST IN THE GREAT JOURNEY TRUST IN THE HIERARCHS TRUST IN THE GODS” or something to that effect. Our squad held a fortified position, occupying a heavy gun emplacement. I heard Gir’s whistling and some commotion.
“Happy birthday, D’Dhenn,” said Oyi. I saw him hand to our anti-vehicle specialist a small bottle of dark green liquid. It was undoubtedly Ih, of the Old Yara variety. Very expensive, very strong, and very luxurious.
“Wow Oyi, thanks,” said D’Dhenn. “You didn’t need to give me this.”
“I wanted to,” replied Oyi. He turned his head to find us, where he smiled and nodded.
“Damn, Oyi,” began Sorynn. “You must’ve burned a week’s pay with that.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Oyi. “Hey Keleon.”
“How goes it,” I answered.
“Anyway, happy birthday D’Dhenn!” exclaimed Sorynn. He rummaged through one of his pockets and pulled out the handle of a Xyphonite energy sword. He handed it to her.
“Wow, one of their energy swords. Usually the techmen swipe Xyphonite weapons, especially the swords.”
“Ah, you know how it is. Clerks get the numbers wrong, mistakes are made, people forget things.”
“Hah, yeah, yeah, I do.”
“Happy birthday,” I said. I opened the palm of my hand, revealing the amulet.
“Oh wow!” D’Dhenn’s eyes seemed to light up. “It’s a Vanador amulet, right?”
“Yep.”
“Wow. You know, when I was little I had an amulet sort of like this. I lost it a while ago. God...” She looked up and we made eye contact. I have to admit, I got a bit of a chill when she looked at me. I saw genuine gratefulness in her eyes, of kindness and joy. I never saw that in her before, so I was taken aback. I did my best to hide my surprise, simply smiling. She gently took the amulet and placed it around her neck. “Thanks, Keleon.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
Category:The Weekly