“Screw your mum, I’m offering two thousand points!”

           “Your son just died in Heritage, so may as well concede to me. I’m calling two thousand and one hundred points!

           Yells like these filled the air, although it must be said that the insults and personal attacks were tacked on by Gaius’ imagination. In truth, the bidders were all sipping on tea and whatever other beverages that were provided elegantly, while leaking out the occasional ‘Ohoho” like the high matron of an esteemed family as they chatted with each other. Despite all these, Gaius could sense an odd atmosphere, perpetuated by the surreptitious glances that people kept throwing at each other.

           The sale of the purple ether core was eventually concluded at twenty-seven hundred points; after the second highest bidder bowed out with grace and a gentle smile. Gaius couldn’t help but feel somewhat disappointed at this overly civilised and polite auction. He didn’t expect that the senators and representatives of these factions to be so polite with each other.

   Tell me that beastfolk are an unruly bunch of inelegant animals, and I’ll beat the living daylights out of you. Gaius clenched his fists, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by Senator Alexandre.

           “Oh, you wanted that?”

           Gaius jumped. “No, I was just excited to see, err, how lively the auction was.”

           “Lively?” The senator echoed, before rubbing his eyes. “What a…unique description.”

           Gaius tapped his feet. Indeed, his description did feel a bit off. This wasn’t like the auctions that he’d seen in the criminal underworlds of Earth, and were far closer to the elegant art auctions that rich art collectors attended. It wasn’t rowdy, at least.

           The auction continued on. Nalus revealed, in rapid succession, a sword that had just sliced through a one-metre block of iron like butter, an odd artefact that fired large, slow blasts that required a Squire’s full strength to block, and a dull bracelet lined with expended emeralds. Each of them was settled by a bang of his gavel without much complaint.

           That last object was nearly laughed off the stage, until Nalus told the crowd that it had the ability to enable its wearers to fly for five minutes without the use of any energy or qi whatsoever, with only a cooldown of one day. No one knew how it worked, or why it worked, but even Gaius joined in the bidding.

           Well, when he did, all the Harvesters stopped bidding on the spot, leaving Gaius to contend with the people from Ark City and the other lecturers. Gaius felt his heart wrench when he called out twelve thousand, but he felt better immediately when no one else challenged him, leaving him with twenty-three thousand points.

           “So,” asked Senator Alexandre, “what are you going to do with the bracelet? You already have an Engine, so it’s probably only useful if you’re entirely out of qi.”

           “Nakama doesn’t, though.” Gaius ruffled the little girl sitting in their middle. “And you know full well as I do that five minutes of flight is both something and nothing.”

           “True.” The senator’s eyes lit up. “Look, they’re bringing up the real deals now!”

           Nalus rubbed his hands as a masked man brought an ornate box onto the stage. “This here is the Phoenix Flight, a one-use artefact whose creation was derived from Champion Polaris’ Nonpareil Translocator itself. Upon use, the Phoenix Flight will open a real-time display of a list of up to five pre-set locations and after you select it, a formation capable of transporting ten people will be created.”

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           “That’s…”

           “Truly a derivative work from a Champion.”

           “It’s not random either…”

           The Auctioneer cleared his throat lightly. “There’s no maximum distance, and the Phoenix Flight is able to transport one from Heritage to Orb proper. Originally, this artefact had two uses, but one use had been expended a few months ago, to transport a Harvester group into Orb itself.”

           Gaius pricked up his ears at these words. Nalus’ description of the Phoenix Flight once again used words that would not usually make sense in Orb, so where did he get them from?  

           The bidding began as Gaius mulled over his thoughts. The second part of Nalus’ words had also gotten him thinking, and the numbers had shot up by the time he came to his senses.

           “Twenty-three thousand!”

           “Twenty-four thousand! Senator Guo Hong, I have two children working in Heritage as Harvesters. Surely you know how important this is to me!”

           “I apologise, honoured senators, but the Intelligence Department also needs this if we are to prevent any more Nelsons! Twenty-seven thousand!”

           “You-! Twenty-eight thousand!”

           “You-! Twenty-eight thousand!”

           Gaius glanced at the two senators who had yelled out the same words at the same time, and chuckled. “Truly people who care for their kids, eh?”

           “It can’t be helped,” said Senator Alexandre.

           Nakama bobbed her head in agreement, and Gaius smoothed out a strand of loose hair from her head. The Phoenix Flight was an artefact that could be given to people sent out on deadly, yet essential missions, but also guaranteed near-survival to any Harvester holding it.

           He didn’t know who had put it up on auction, but selling such a treasure spoke worlds about their own needs. It was possible that they were aiming for something else that might appear on the auction, but whether it would appear or not was another question all together.

           The sound of the gavel slamming ended Gaius’ ruminations. The Phoenix Flight was won by the representative of Ark City’s Intelligence Department at an impressive thirty-five thousand points. The man nodded in apology to the two senators, and sat back down.

           After the clamour subsided, Nalus clapped his hands again, and the auction continued. Most of them were mundane treasures, when placed beside the Phoenix Flight, but Gaius wasn’t particularly taken by either of them. Senator Alexandre, however, had purchased what looked like a butterfly knife for four thousand points. Other than looking chic, it was also able to convert the user’s qi to project a blade of ether, which was admittedly a good reason to buy the weapon. The senator played around with the butterfly knife, carving out arcs of shimmering light as both blade and the grips twirled.

           “Don’t learn that,” Gaius whispered to Nakama. “It’s dangerous.”

           “Ok.”

           The knife folded up, and the senator stowed it in his pocket. “Hey, I heard that.”

           Gaius grinned sheepishly as Nalus brought up the next item on the auction, having concluded the auction of an abnormal Straight shot that had a range of one kilometre. He’d placed a bid for it, but clearly, such long-ranged weapons were highly desired by the Ark City Intelligence Department.

           They’d brought the price up to twenty-seven thousand, and that was it. Gaius didn’t have that much, and the department’s decisiveness in raising the price from twenty-thousand to twenty-seven thousand had scared everyone else off. 

           Nalus struck the gavel a few times, and whatever turmoil that had permeated the atmosphere had vanished. “As per the request by the senators, we’ll be having thirty-minute break for a buffet dinner, where we hope that the esteemed of Ark City and Heritage Basestation will mingle and socialise with the Harvesters.”

           Gaius turned to Nakama, his eyes gleaming. “Do you know what a buffet is?”

           She shook her little head. 

           “Well, it’s an event where you get to eat everything you can…”

           To their sides, Senator Alexandre held his head briefly. He was beginning to feel a headache come on, and it wasn’t because of a war or politics. The little duo was going to empty the whole place out…