“Relics of the past. Things I would never appreciate. The work of false demons. Maybe I am one.”

(«^») Iris Exurrana

8E/438Y/10M/84D 4:32 PM

I looked up at the sky through the partially collapsed ceiling of the tower I called home while laying on my bed. It was a chilly afternoon. Slightly windy. But there wasn't a cloud in the sky. You could see our two moons, Nova and Pyre slowly arcing across the sky. Although they were more like smaller planets caught in our orbit, given that Nova was half Paradoxe’s size, and Pyre was a little smaller than that. I held my hand up to the sky, wondering if Aurora had gotten my letter yet.

It was a shame I didn't have access to the MCS in this tower. If ever I wanted to look something up I had to buy or borrow a book from Vaeri. Or The Silver Academy which kept and copied records of everything they could think of. After so many years books piled up in this little tower of mine. I didn't have any shelves so I organized them in stacks on the floor.

I decided I should head to the market to buy some more rations from Vaeri. A weapon would be nice too, I thought to myself.

But first I needed some money. Weapons were much more expensive than simple rations. Rations were, by law, supposed to provide all the nutritional value you needed and cost 200 vials per pound. Same for water. But weapons? They could cost up to hundreds of thousands of vials. It just depended on how well it was made, and how tailored it is to certain fighting styles. So, I decided to go pay a friend a visit. I went into the market and found a small, simple shack just on the edge of the massive tent that covered the entire district.

“My services come at a hefty price. Secrets do not come easily Miss Excalibryanna.” I could barely make out A’s voice through the magically soundproofed walls.

“10,000 for something like this is quite a-a-a-a lot..!”

“Not when you consider how hard it is to get these things, and how much people usually don't want them to be known. 10,000. You're of the Excalibryanna family what's ten grand to you?”

The girl I heard inside arguing with A stopped for a moment. For a while I heard nothing, then she walked out tucking a slip of paper in her pocket. She had medium length black hair, and dark eyes. Like the bark of a crimson wood tree. She was carrying a rapier, and wore thick greyish brown leathers. I walked into the door. Or rather, the curtain that served as an entrance. “Oi, A.” I walked in to find a skeleton wearing a suit. The man only known as A, which was short for anonymous. An information broker, a spy, an assassin, and a thief. He wasn't exactly what you'd call a good person.

But then again neither am I.

“Hello Miss Exurrana! Are you here to do business or for business today?” He greeted me with his slow, snarky, raspy voice.

“For. I need some money. A lot of it actually…”

“How much is a lot?” He didn't even look at me, he just rummaged through some papers under his counter.

“200k.”

“What in the world could you need 200 grand for?”

“I'll gladly accept 10,000 vials if you want that secret.” I grinned at him.

“Clever girl.” He passed me a paper, “The Von want a letter from one of the high nobility. Apparently it's pretty important since they're offering 260 grand for it.”

“I can do it. They haven't caught Vete Cethyr Lethana yet, have they?”

“Yet. Have fun.”

I waved him off, and walked away. I headed to the nearest train and started my way towards the noble district.

(«^») 6:11 PM

It took a little over an hour, but I got to the place I needed to be. Luckily the man was having a party which would make this easy. It seemed to be open to anyone in the area which would make it even easier. I put on some contacts that made my eyes look neon blue, and walked in, and observed the inside of the house. According to the paper A gave me the letter would be in his office. I had a few options here. I decided to go with the first plan I came up with though.

I went up to the noble in question, holding a glass of wine, “Eyyy’ Reji I haven't seen ya’ in years, man!”

He turned to me as he finished telling a servant something, “Excuse me?”

“You don't recognize me? It's me Levy!” I noticed the ceremonial sword on his hip, plated in Exurra Steel, “I was there at your rite of binding with your wife remember?”

“Hrm… I seem to recall…” Yeah, sure you do, I thought.

“We drank all night after it was done! Surely you can't forget such good times!”

“The rite of binding was ages ago, but yeah I remember now. How have you been?”

“Ah, same old same old. I still work in one Vaeri’s shitty warehouses in Haestul. I'm visiting my cousin out here today. I decided I'd stop by while I was in town. Visit some old friends, y’know?”

“Ah, I see. It's good to know that you thought of me.” He gave me a small smile.

If you don't know what I'm doing here, it's very simple. If you have a silver tongue like mine, and do the dirty business I do you learn a few tricks. It's very easy to create false memories by lying if you're convincing enough. Although it doesn't always work. False memories are a thing in your world too, go look it up.

“Of course man! Ima go for now, but just call me if you wanna talk, yeah?” As soon as he responded and turned away, I snatched the key lace dangling out of his pocket, and made for the hallways which were blocked by servants, mostly male. I changed my contacts and approached two of them.

“Ey’ I need the bathroom. I've had a little bit too much to drink today, can ya’ help me out?” The two servants looked at each other, and the older one gave the other a nod.

“He'll take you. Stay in sight.”

“Of course.” I acted like I was holding it in really hard, and followed just behind the man leading me around. The house seemed bigger on the inside than the outside. Which it probably was given the fact that this was a noble’s home. I followed him down a few hallways.

I noticed there was another servant watching the hallway. Shit… I used my gift on the servant that I was following’s leg, and made him fall. Immediately the other servant ran to him, knowing it was magic. Just as she got to me, and right before he hit the ground, I knocked out the servant by hitting him in the back of the head, forcing him into the ground even harder. I then grabbed the female servant, turned her around, covered her mouth, and kept her arms behind her back.

“I'm not here to hurt any of you. I'm just doing my job. I have 10,000 vials waiting just for you if you don't say anything about this, yeah?” She nodded slowly, “Good.” I let her go and gave her a small pouch. “I don't have time to count it. Tell this one here I did my business and left. Where do you keep servant uniforms?”

“On the second floor…”

“Fuck… okay, I need you to lead me there. This one will be out for awhile. Just come back to him when we're done. Play along and let me do the talking. That's an extra 5,000 vials.”

I changed my contacts again, and she gave me a nod and started leading me around. I wasn't about to risk getting caught by one of the servants. She led me around a few more hallways then up a set of stairs. I got a few glares from the servants we ran into, but none of them said anything until we ran into a much older one. Male, tall, grey hair. “What are you doing up here?”

“I-I-I-I’m new here, s-s-sir. I don't quite know e-e-e-everything. She's leading me t-t-to where the uniforms are.” I kept my head low to keep up the act. He stared at me.

“I wasn't informed about a newcomer.”

“I-I-I-I’m not even fully employed sir. I just had a chat with the o-o-owner and they decided to put me o-o-on a trial…”

His stare hardened a little bit. C'mon, c'mon, I don't have all day.

…

“Carry on.” He said as he moved past me. Fucken’ Hell that was scary… eventually the servant girl got me to the uniform room, and I sent her away, and gave her the rest of the money. I put on a uniform and made for the fourth, and top floor. I found the room I was looking for, and unlocked the door. I went in revealing a rather large and robust study room. I locked the door behind me for safety, and started searching the room. I was careful to place everything back as I found it. Eventually I found two drawers full of letters. They were separated into incoming and outgoing. The letter I was looking for was supposed to detail plans about ‘OPERATION NEW DAWN’. I didn't know to who or who it was from, though. So, I copied each letter by using clear ‘imprint’ paper I had prepared earlier. I already carried a lot of this stuff on me anyway. In total I copied about 19 letters. I put the letters back exactly as they were, unlocked the door, tossed the keys on the floor, and jumped out the window using my gift to make the fall slow and easy.

I then booked it for the nearest train, and the got the fuck out of there.

(«^») 7:58 PM

I got home and actually read the letters I copied. As I read them I transcribed them to actual paper because the magic would only last for a day. Creating permanent imprint paper is hard yo’. After I found the letter I was looking for I took it to A.

“Good work Vete Cethyr Lethana!”

“For being a silent storm I sure do have to talk my way out of a lot of shit to do my damn job.”

“Well, you're only cethyr because they haven't got a clue who you are.”

“I do my best to leave as little a trail as possible. Why do you think I don't go robbing banks in broad daylight?”

“Clever girl. You've done us a lot of good today. Here's your payment.” He handed me a hefty pouch. “Don't spend it all in one place, yeah?”

“There's only one place to spend it!”

“Yeah, on me.” He gave me a grin.

“Oh, shut up.” I walked away and waved him off.

I made my way further into the market. Now if you're wondering who Vaeri is, he's the shopkeeper. Long ago he made a pact with someone that if he followed the laws of fair, ethical trade he would forever be the best businessman on Paradox. Due to just how powerful the magic is, he's effectively immortal, can create an infinite amount of clones, and can stop anyone who dares rob him with magic beyond our understanding. It's insane. But it only applies to doing business. He can't use those abilities for anything other than doing business.

He could've become a god, but no, he just wants to be the best businessman around.

Well, I guess with what he can do in the name of business he basically is a god. A god of business and fair trade.

At least he's not dead like most of the gods.

I walked into the fanciest armory I could find.

I couldn't stop myself from grinning when I walked in. Weapons of all types, from daggers, to ultra greatswords, from revolvers, to miniguns, to sniper rifles, to great bows, and everything in between. They even had heavy armor that was both functional and nice looking. Something you could wear everyday. Although there was one set of armor, and three weapons in reinforced glass stand that caught my eye immediately.

Firstly the armor. The armor was a white coat with a gap in the front. A single black leather cordage was sewn between the gap, tightening it in the center in a horizontal to diagonal pattern, and then sewn in a spiral down the rest of the left side. The left side was half the length of the right on the front. On both sides on the front of the coat the bottom was cut diagonally, then on the back the coat was untouched, leading from the upper end of the diagonal cut at the bottoms from the shorter side to the longer side. Underneath it was black leather cut similarly, except both sides were equal length, and the gap in the middle was small, and only cut into half the length of the front. It had stockings made from very fine, very strong exana steel chain. The right shoulder had exana steel plated armor leading almost to the elbow. Covering the top quarter of the white coat, was black feathers, in an uneven, half hexagon shape. It had a black tricorn hat. The back fold was missing, and the ends of the two corners that were there were torn. It was also slightly elongated, so it wasn't in an equilateral triangle shape like other tricorn hats. It also had a full biker helmet. It had an air filter, like the one you'd find on a gas mask, however it was modernized. The filter was an oval that was pointed on the top and bottom, and was tapered at its edge. The front was just glass, but the back and sides were black exana steel. It had a black visor that could completely cover the glass, and could only be seen through the inside. It had a very torn white cloak. Ornate, feminine arm covers made from fine exana steel chain, that let had holes for the middle finger and thumb. It came with long, black metal biker boots. It had a necklace that led from an upside down heart, to a black feather, to a claw.

Secondly was the revolver. The chamber was about two inches wide. The barrel was almost as big, but its walls were about a centimeter thick, making the inside of the barrel only about an inch wide. It was made of exana steel as well. It also had some ornate engravings on it.

And finally the sword. The sheath was actually a combat scabbard. It had two long, trapezoidal holes at the bottom to function as hilts. The top half had large serrations. The blade itself was a kiriha zukuri blade, and so was the actual sword. The tip was split into two separate edges, and at any point could pop out a very sharp, very thin, short, three plated scythe. The actual sword was serrated on the back for half its length just like the combat scabbard. The crossguard was minimalistic. It was diagonal, going upward towards the edge, and bending straight at the edge. The pommel was that of a dragon with full black eyes, and a serrated bone plate covering the top of its muzzle, and head, as well as a large part of the sides of its face. It had two horns that curled inwardly, and curved from vertical to horizontal. And finally, the sword’s blade was wider near the hilt for about a foot of the blade’s length, with the name ‘Exurrana’ inscripted on it in English.

After I finished inspecting it, I looked towards Vaeri and pointed at the case.

“510,000.” He said. The man himself was tall, and blonde, with the tail of a leopard. He was obviously a lacuna.

I nodded and put a bag on the scale. Like in the older days of your world, trades were commonly done by weighing currency. In this case vials. Vials are small, and weigh exactly a microgram. They're extremely light, which is good because you need a lot of them to get stuff done. If you want a rough estimate of what a vial is worth in your world, it's about 1 American cent. That's not exact mind you, but it's close enough. So that means when I buy five government mandated rations for the day I'm spending about ten dollars. However this armor, pair of swords, and revolver cost me a rough total of 5,100 dollars. Which is a lot in our world. However your money is absolutely worthless to us, because vials have literal uses other than us saying it's worth whatever we say it's worth.

Anywho, more rambling, let's move on. Eventually we got the trade done. And I walked home in that fucken’ armor with that sword and gun like a complete and total badass. What was curious was the fact that the sword had my last name engraved in it.

But I guess it's whatever.