An Untitled Novel

Spiro sat in the back of Basil’s truck holding Basil’s pistol. “You can probably see how it feeds in here” said Basil as he pressed down bullets in a magazine showing how the springs worked. Spiro looked at it with intrigue. “And it uses the pressure from the casing to load in the next round?” Basil seemed surprised. “You have autoloading firearms? On the Arkepello Tobias said that you guys didn’t have them.” Spiro nodded. “Yes, we have a few, but not in a platform as small as this. Can I see it in action?” Basil gestured for Spiro to hand it back. “Well, the Redcaps would probably not appreciate us shooting it here, but it works like this.” Basil racked the slide, causing an unspent casing to eject that Basil failed to catch.

“The force from the round would make the slide do that, when it moves back another one would be put into the chamber just like I would assume Amigosian ones would.” Spiro opened his jacket to reveal his handgun while replying to Basil’s demonstration. “Interesting” he said as he removed his handgun from a leather holster and handed it to Basil. The handgun he pulled had a very ornately carved grip and, as Spiro explained the inner workings, Basil could see that it was a five shot revolver. It was heavy, had an oddly long barrel for something Spiro was concealing, and Basil could see markings and imperfections on it that implied that its components were handmade.

“And here you kept saying we weren’t in danger” Basil said in a combination of statement and question once Spiro had finished showing it to Basil. “Well,” Spiro replied, “After our chat this morning, and after meeting with a few friends, I thought it best to not take chances.” Basil made a slightly worried expression, not expecting that answer. “So tell me, Basil” Spiro continued, “Why are you here? I doubt it’s here to compare weapons.” Basil, a little surprised at the question, responded. “Well, like I said this morning, I don’t know who built the technology that I used to get here, I kinda just stumbled upon it and wound up here.” Spiro glanced slightly suspiciously at Basil, then responded with a more clarified question. “Not how you got here, why are you here? At this festival.” Basil thought for a moment, internally asking himself the question. “Well, to be honest, I got an invitation so I came. Thought I would see the place.”

Spiro, without missing a beat, followed up with another question. “So where are the rest of your people? Why are you the only one here?” Basil thought for a moment, making sure to figure out the best way to word his answer. “I’m not really on good terms with some of them, they tried to kill me and I’ve been hiding out since then.” Spiro, again, prompted Basil with another question “Why did they try to kill you?” to which Basil responded “I don’t know.” Before Basil could continue to answer the question, Spiro asked a follow up. “How do you not know that?” and before Basil responded Spiro remembered their previous conversation and re-phrased his question “You said before you don’t have memories from longer than last year, how?” Basil answered, giving a summary of waking up not knowing who he was or where he was, the injuries he had that ACE had treated, and the technology they had recovered.

“And where is the facility you were at?” Spiro asked. Basil, who’s hands were now shaking having been reliving the past events, answered that question as well. “Polar ice cap, I’m sure there are two here as well, although they weren’t on any maps Tobias showed me.” Basil paused for a moment, but right as Spiro was about to speak, Basil continued to speak. “What’s with the interrogation? I know this is a crazy chain of events, but I’m tired.” Spiro, who had just noticed Basil’s hands were shaking, switched from his interrogation voice and spoke in a serious, but more calm tone. “Sorry,” he said, before pausing and nearly switching to a whisper.

“Look, the Amigosian chairman named himself chairman for life nearly twenty years ago, and things have been getting dicey. My backup plan was to get friendly with the Redcaps, but you seem to have thrown a wrench into this region’s stability with your presence. I want to find out if I have an ally who’ll be either powerful enough or far away enough that I’ll be outside my countrymen’s reach if things go tits up.”

Basil went to speak, but Spiro spoke again to follow up on his statement. “This may go without saying, but if you have any decency this conversation will not be retold to anybody else.” Basil nodded. “Of course. You’ve been good to me here, if things go bad I’ll have a safe place for you to stay.” Suddenly, Basil’s voice trailed off as he continued. “But-” Spiro looked concerned, interrupting Basil with “But what?” in a slightly concerned voice. “But I’m sick, and I’m not sure how much more time I’ll be around for.”

Spiro looked slightly nervous. “Is it contagious?” Spiro asked in surprise. “No, growths along my spine, I’m not sure if they’ll be treatable” Basil answered. Spiro sighed, “Can’t catch a break I suppose.” Basil was unsure if he meant Basil couldn’t catch a break, or if he had meant that Spiro himself couldn’t catch a break, or if it was a little of both. They both sat in silence for a moment, until Basil broke the silence. “I guess that’s why I’m here. Ya’ know, I might as well see the sights before it’s too late.”

Eventually, the two returned to talking, from talking about the weather to talking about their homes. After some time had passed Spiro pointed to two men who seemed to be making rounds, inspecting the crowd that had formed near to the castle in anticipation of the Redcap King’s coming speech. He gestured to the two, one shorter man with darker skin wearing a white shirt, and one taller man with a beard wearing a black shirt. “Those were the guys who were following me this morning” Basil responded when Spiro pointed them out. “The shorter one is Cicero, and the taller one is Casio” Spiro clarified, before continuing. “They’re brothers, and Cicero is an advisor to the Redcap King. They know him back when the Redcap King snuck off and joined the Redcap army to fight the Lizard King, they were all there during the battle of Blood Rock. I should introduce you to them.”

Basil responded very hesitantly, “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, the Redcaps specifically told me I was their enemy and I don’t want to rock the boat or provoke them in any way.” Spiro responded confidently to Basil’s hesitance. “If there is anybody who’s going to hear your side of things it’ll be them. Casio hurt his head during the battle, but they’re both good people. Fiercely loyal to the King and his people, so they might be a bit standoffish at first, but I think they’ll warm up to you.”

“They look busy right now, are you sure it’s a good time?” Basil asked, still hesitant about the idea. “Nonsense” Spiro replied. “They’re advisors, they just sometimes forget they’re not foot soldiers anymore.” Spiro paused for a second, then continued. “Tell you what, how about I go say hi and tell them you’re here. If they’re interested in talking we’ll all join you here, if not it’ll be a chance for me to catch up with them and then I’ll come back here once I’m done.” Basil thought it over for a second, before finally answering Spiro. “Okay, sure, just please don’t pressure them or anything.” Spiro stood up and began walking in their direction, leaving Basil alone. Basil, now alone and watching Spiro walk away, pulled out the package of cigarettes he had found in the parka all that time ago. This time, without any distractions, he took the plastic packaging off and took one out of the carton. “No time to start like now, unless maybe these were yours before the bullet” Basil said, talking to himself.

Spiro, finally making his way to Cicero and Casio, greeted them and engaged in a short bit of small talk with Cicero. After going over recent events that the two men had been privy to, at least the small portions that they were willing to share, Spiro decided to ask Cicero about Basil. “You guys know who Basil is right, the outsider?” Cicero answered with a sudden annoyance. “Yes, the Tyrant’s pet who threatened our Royal Police captain?” Cicero finished speaking for a second, before quickly adding “Who’s also probably a liar? Yes, I know of him.” Spiro, who was expecting such a response, but was disappointed to receive it, responded.

“I’ve been talking to him, I think you should too. He feels bad about the misunderstanding, and I’m convinced he’s not lying about where he came from. The things he’s told me about-” Cicero cut Spiro off. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for his lies. A barbarian, sure, but I expect more from someone such as yourself.” Spiro replied with a sense of awe in his voice, although most of it was manufactured.

“Look, I saw him make a thing appear in front of him out of nothing. He said it was like a radio for the eyes. All of his technology far outpaces anything I’ve seen, and he seems to legitimately want peace. But the Arkepelians just turned on him, and your police captain is going to try to kill him the second the festival is over and stated as much, while the Tyrant spoke to him as an equal. He’s refused to provide weapons to him yet, but if he ends up finding his home in the Tyrant’s kingdom and you attack it I can assure you it will not end well for any of us.”

Cicero mulled over Spiro’s words for longer than Spiro expected. “Fine, Casio, let’s go speak to the outsider” Cicero commented with a voice that carried equal parts annoyance, intrigue, and unease. The four turned and started walking away from the castle towards where Basil had his truck. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a piercing sound traveled across the courtyard. The sound, as if a roar from every direction at once, hurt the ears of the three standing there as nothing had ever before; and while they tried to determine the cause of it, all they could see was many guests fleeing or on the ground covering their ears, soldiers in a panic, and bright lights hovering over the castle.

Sitting in the back of his truck staring at the center of the courtyard, Basil was both nearly blinded and deafened in a single moment. Struggling to focus, he started to make out what had caused the commotion. With the lights dimming as his eyes came back into focus, Basil could only make out orbs of some form floating, as if he had stared at the sun. To his horror, as they continued to come into focus, they remained floating orbs. Not helicopters or planes of some sort, but two long cylindrical objects and one flat one that vaguely resembled a manta ray that had landed on the ground. People, or at least beings of some sort, began to pour out of the flat craft and storm into the castle in the center of the courtyard - killing everybody in between them and the entrances.

For a moment Basil sat there, frozen, doing nothing but dropping the lit cigarette in his hand. Moments later, seconds or minutes he wasn’t sure, he came to his senses and scrambled to the cab of his truck. Struggling to put the keys in the ignition on account of his shaking hands, he finally got them it in, turned the key nearly hard enough to break the ignition, and stepped on the gas. The truck roared and kicked up dirt as Basil turned the truck around to face the gate, slamming on the brakes as he nearly ran over a handful of soldiers running through the gate towards the commotion. Frozen again, he saw dust and smoke floating aimlessly in the headlight beams, floating in and out of the now open gate.

Spiro, Cicero, and Casio all finally gained their footing and looked on in disbelief at what was going on. They too were almost unable to process what was occurring, until the killing began. Cicero turned as if to run towards the castle, but was momentarily stunned by another noise. This noise, however, was the loud pop of Spiro’s revolver; despite the distance between them and the entrance, two of the seemingly unstoppable beings cutting their way through the few guards near the entrance dropped to the ground. “Basil” Spiro shouted at the top of his lungs to Cicero who had turned to run towards the commotion again. “What?” replied Cicero in confusion.

“We need to get to Basil!” Spiro shouted to Cicero, both still half deaf. “He might be the only one who could stop this. Or this might be his people coming to fight him” Spiro continued, still yelling. “No, we can’t trust him” Cicero replied before all three looked in Basil’s direction. “You don’t understand, he can-” Spiro began to say before his voice trailed off seeing Basil’s truck move towards the gate. “He’s leaving” shouted Cicero. Behind the three, unknown to them, several of the invaders began to move in their direction to act in retaliation to the shots fired by Spiro. Basil’s truck suddenly made a sharp turn toward the three and began to move increasingly quickly in their direction. “No, he’s coming to help” shouted Spiro, seemingly invigorated as the truck now became the fixation of the three as well as the invaders.

Basil meant to drive through the gate, but looking between the gate on his right and the chaos unfolding to his left he again became frozen. As much as he tried to will himself to drive through the gate, his foot wouldn’t budge as he went over the past events and his promise to the Lizard King, all while watching the dust and smoke dance in his headlights. Spyro and the two he was meeting with stood out among the rest of the crowd, who at this point had all fled or remained on the ground stunned. Seeing the beings suddenly moving in the direction of the three Basil was hit with a surge of adrenalin. Quickly grabbing the rifle on the passenger seat and chambering a round, he pressed the peddle to the floor and turned the wheel in the direction of the chaos.