Excerpt: Viktory Empire

A handspan of digging to her right, and sweat beading on her brow, Viktory found an edge. Curling her fingers over it, she found that it continued downward. So probably a box, then. It occurred to her briefly that she might be digging at something she shouldn't; some fixture of the New Venezia infrastructure, but she dismissed that thought quickly. Who builds in wood anymore? Wood was rare; wood was treasure. In her head, that meant it was buried treasure, but it disassociated it with government authority. The government might have authority, but wealth - wealth it did not have. Suchi had told her that often enough.

So much the better. She kept digging in other directions from her starting place, uncovering, little by little, a rectangular shape, two handspan wide by a handspan and a half high. It was hard to tell, at this point, how deeply it was buried in the ground. But it did indeed appear to be a box - here were two hinges, blazing with the bright green-gold of brass. Here was a latch with a spot for a lock, but no lock on it.

And there was writing on the box, too - burned into it, in fact. Some of it was symbols, unreadable to Viktory, but below it was the text she recognized.

Bukihagara.

It sounded like a proper name of some sort, but if it was one, it meant nothing to Viktory. She ran her fingers over the lid, wondering if she should try to dig this thing out of the ground, or simply open it and see what was within. In the end, she decided just to open it - it was uncertain how much deeper the box was buried, and she figured that Nevin might find a safe final resting place within.

She paused at the latch, fantasizing about what might be inside. Money? Gold? Did there really need to be treasure? Wood was rare enough. But then again, if the contents were housed in wood, imagine how valuable they might be? Viktory briefly reconsidered digging out the box again, but decided to explore inside first. She lifted the lid.

Weapons. The other currency of New Venezia. Viktory drew in a deep breath as she regarded her find, and quickly glanced around to be sure no one was near.

In the box lay two guns. They were handguns, but Viktory wasn't sure she could say much more about them. The were flared at the end, like a trumpet, so she felt like this meant they were older than the ones traded in back alleys today. (Or so the crime kinny reels told her. She had a few favorites among that genre). There were made of metal, and were, obligingly, a dull gunmetal grey color that Viktory couldn't describe any better. The grip was wrapped with what appeared to be leather, and it appeared to be rounded to fit a small hand.

Cautiously, she put her hand to one of the weapons. It was warm, as if it had been sitting in the sun. Like Nevin, but no more. Once again glancing around her, she picked it up, cradling it in her hand. Somewhere in her head she heard her mother's voice reminding her that one of the first rules of gun safety was to never point it at anything you don't intend to shoot, and she maneuvered it with that in mind. She wasn't sure why her mother had ever had reason to tell her that, but she was silently grateful for the guidance at this moment.

There was writing, it appeared, on the barrel of the gun. She bent closer, squinting to see it. Like the box itself, there were again the symbols she couldn't read, with underneath writing in the text she knew. Jaiten, she read. Again, a proper name, she was sure. A manufacturer? She set down the first gun, and picked up the second to inspect it for similar writing.

There was writing on the barrel of this gun, too. But it was not similar. Skaaru, she read. Slowly it dawned on her - these were the names of these guns.

How strange. No one she knew of named their guns. Not in the kinny reels, at least, for the little that was worth. Maybe they should. She thought that might make a good basis for a story.