Xtreme Saga - Book One: The War for Rig

Chapter 10 - Trust

Mera, Nia, and Orb continued on through the desert. Slowly but surely, they made their way towards the great stone structure. It would not be long before they finally reached it. Several days had passed since Nia had joined Mera on her journey. It was a nice arrangement for both of them. Save for Orb, Mera had been alone since the Cult of Ios kidnapped Adara. She had forgotten how much she missed having a sister. While Nia could never replace Adara outright, Mera was ecstatic to be speaking with a fellow Rigan.

So too was this newfound partnership beneficial for Nia. She had travelled from the forests of Solox all the way to the Pylon Desert alone. It was a long, difficult journey, fraught with peril. She quickly came to learn about the Cult of Ios and the stranglehold they had on the people of Rig. As she still wasn't sure who she was, she assumed she was a Rigan. Meaning that her own planet and people were under siege. But it wasn't just the Cult of Ios that had made Nia's journey long and dangerous. The wild beasts of planet Rig, coupled with the often unruly terrain, proved to be more of a challenge than Cult of Ios soldiers in many instances. Having a traveling companion to look out for her was a welcome respite.

Nia's memory was still mostly fuzzy. Small bits and pieces had returned, and she still held countless memories of battles past that she had no reference for. Sadly, she still couldn't remember anything about who she actually was. Nor how she ended up unconscious all alone in a forest. She found that battle seemed to make some of her memories come back, but only those pertaining to her skills in battle. Who she was off the battlefield was still a complete blur.

"If you don't remember anything, how do you know your name is Nia?" Mera asked.

Nia explained that she didn't know her own name and that Nia had been chosen on the fly. During her travels, she met a pair of merchants being harassed by some Cult of Ios soldiers. Nia intervened and rescued the merchants. When they thanked her, they asked her name, and the first thing she thought of was "Nia" because of the odd piece of metal she had found. It was these two merchants who had given her the pants and cloak she now dawned.

"Do you still have the piece of metal?" Mera asked.

Nia drew the piece of metal from her pocket. She told Mera the story of how it had been dropped by a Gursalumio soon after she woke up in the Solox forest. She spoke of the odd experience she had when she first picked it up, and how it gave her the ability to read the symbols on the hilt of her sword.

"Can I see it?" Mera asked.

"Of course," Nia replied.

She handed Mera the piece of metal. She examined it, hoping to find something that Nia might have missed. She saw the three letters carved into it on the broken edge. Otherwise, there was nothing about it that stood out to her either. Unlike Nia, she had no reaction when touching it. No visions or odd sensations. To her, it was just a broken piece of metal. Also unlike Nia, Mera had a super intelligent talking robot with thousands of years of knowledge stored in its brain.

"Can you tell us anything about this, Orb?" Mera asked.

Orb scanned the piece of metal. The analyses took several minutes. This was extremely odd for Orb. Usually his scans took just a few seconds, but this one took considerably longer for some reason. Mera wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. She hoped it meant that they would have a lot of information to share with Nia.

"Scan complete," Orb said.

"Is there anything in your database that might be helpful?" Mera asked.

The robot had quite a lot to say about the piece of metal, but sadly none of it was particularly helpful to Nia. It turned out that Orb didn't actually have any information on the metal itself, which the robot found rather odd. It was made from an element that could not be found in its database. Though they never displayed any emotions, Mera felt like they were a bit irritated by this fact. What Orb was able to provide was information about the various microscopic particles found on the piece of metal. Though they couldn't be seen with normal organic eyes, Orb was able to identify thousands of different soil samples. They were able to identity substances from countless planets across the galaxy. Orb went on to say that the chances of a single object visiting so many different planets and remaining intact would be functionally impossible. Ultimately, Orb's scan led to more questions than answers.