The First Relic -- Relic of the Sun

I hightailed it away from the Madboulis and went toward the marketplace to find Layla. I had learned that she worked there as the head chef.

After I delivered the book, Layla sent me to Raffi Barakat, the relics expert and merchant at the market, who would tell me about the very first of the three ancient relics -- the Relic of the Sun. I thought to myself, all right, now I'm in business!

I arrived at Raffi Barakat's small relics shop about ten sim-minutes later. It looked like any antiques store in town, except all the trinkets there were Egyptian, some of them many hundreds, if not thousands, of sim years old.

I had never met him before, but he seemed to recognize me right away. "Savannah Plumb," he said in his Egyptian accent. "The famed relic hunter. I've been told to expect you."

It was a strange feeling, being recognized, but a good feeling too -- and I was recognized as "Savannah Plumb" not "Nathan and Shandra Plumb's daughter."

Raffi and I talked a lot about my adventures to break the ice. He told me he'd gotten interested in antiquities as a teenager and started working in the shop when he was my age, when the shop was owned by his father.

"Tell me about this relic," I said as I leaned closer. "I've heard and read that there are three ancient relics --"

"That the ancient kings of Al Simhara left behind."

"Yes."

"There are three ancient relics -- the Relic of the Sun, the Relic of Life, and the Relic of Eternity." He then paused and told me about the relic that he had. He seemed to dismiss it as a trifle, but apparently Layla thought it was far more valuable. Still, he'd determined its value at five pieces of copper.

I left Raffi's relic shop and scoured the deserts of Al Simhara for the required five pieces of copper so that I could bring the relic back to Layla, who seemed to believe that he actually had the Relic of the Sun.

As usual, these metals were all over town. Thankfully, I'd swiped mom's metal detector, which helped tremendously.

The copper pieces glowed in the hot desert sands. I'd needed five; luckily there were two side by side.

After finding the other pieces (it was now getting on sunset!) I headed back to the marketplace to find Raffi.

"That was fast," Raffi said when I got there. "You are really good at finding these."

"Been finding things most of my life," I told him.

I was paid handsomely for my services and told to give the relic to Layla, and I wanted to get to her right away.

"You got it?"

"You know it."

"Savannah," she said, calling me over, "it IS the Relic of the Sun! Raffi was mistaken --"

"Five pieces of copper --"

"That's all you paid for this?"

"Yep."

"I have to tell you -- it's not going to get any easier from here. MorcuCorp's goons are around at every turn. You cannot let your guard down, at all. They will be highly suspicious of you. But here's what I need from you now. I need two pieces of mummitomium to bribe their guards so that you can get into their headquarters."

"Mummitomium? I've never heard of that!"

"It's an extremely rare and valuable mineral that can only be found in Al Simhara. And since they're worth a lot of money, the greedy guards will be running to cash them in."

After leaving Layla's I decided to go to the bookstore in the marketplace to take in one of their new tomes. Since discovering these libraries I've found books here that are not in the Sunset Valley bookstore or library. I was even shocked to find a first edition of Aunt Margaret's first novel, Paloma of Plumbob Farm, written when she was a teenager!

It was a clear, cloud-free night so I decided to do a little stargazing with the telescope in the town square. The ancients used the stars to tell what time of day and year it was, to tell them when to plant their crops, when to harvest, even when to marry and procreate. As I looked through the telescope, my destiny became clearer and clearer. I was supposed to find these relics, and I needed to find them before MorcuCorp did. If I found them, I'd be known as 'the archeologist who found the Three Relics of Al Simhara' and my name would be on the lips of everyone in the industry. I suppose it's the same mindset the explorers who set sail from Europe all those centuries ago had, the intrepid adventurers who staked claims to lands far from home. Without even trying, I had yet more material for my book. My publisher needed to wait. I had more work to do!