by Ashley West
Something that looked very much like fear flashed into Plintos’ eyes just then, and Draco frowned harder, but when he looked closer it was just impatience, which figured. “I have confidence in you, Draco. And besides, I’ve already instructed your crew to begin preparations to set out again. You do have until the end of the week.”
He said it like it was some kind of boon, and Draco had to restrain himself from saying something he would probably regret. He drew in a deep breath and reminded himself that this was his best friend and the man he had grown up with. “Plintos,” he said softly. “Why is this so important to you?”
“It just is,” Plintos replied, not looking at him. “No one has had all of the Artifacts in over three hundred years. The possibilities are endless.”
Draco didn’t know about that, but then, no one had done as much research into the Cillidan Artifacts as Plintos had. For his part, Draco just went to find them and left the rest to Plintos, who cared more than anyone else about them.
Apparently he saw that Draco was less than thrilled to be in the position he was in because Plintos sighed and moved closer to him. “You are the only one I trust to bring it back, Draco,” he said. “I’d send someone else if I could. but you’re the only one who I know will find it and bring it back in one piece. Someone else might give into the temptation to sell it or keep it for themselves. It has to be you, and I would very much like it if it was soon.”
“I think you’re giving our people too little credit,” Draco said, but then sighed and nodded. “Alright. We’ll go back out. But it will be at the end of next week because the crew deserves time to be with their families for longer than a few days. Especially since we have no idea where to begin looking and might be gone for some time.”
Plintos pursed his lips but then nodded. “Very well, that’s fair. I’ll use the time to reread some of the material about when they were scattered and see if I can give you a better idea of where you’ll need to look.”
“That would be an enormous help,” Draco said. “Now let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“Out of this room. If I’m going back out into the deep darkness of space, I’d like to spend some time with my closest friend first. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
Plintos smiled at him and inclined his head. “Not too much at all.”
The next several days went by rather quicker than Draco would have liked, and soon enough he and the crew were climbing back aboard their shuttle to head back out. They had enough food and fuel for a month’s journey since Draco and Plintos had agreed that checking back in at home every few weeks would make more sense than just endlessly searching.
There was something anxious about Plintos when he bid them farewell, standing with the rest of the people who had turned out to see them off.
Draco waved and watched Plintos until he couldn’t see him anymore, leaning back in his seat with a sigh. “Do you think there’s something wrong with the king?” he asked out loud, glancing up at his crew as they rose higher in the air.
The ones who were close enough to hear him exchanged glances. “I’m not sure we can answer that,” said Phobo, the man in charge of maintaining their technology. “Sounds like treason to me.”
He laughed at that. “I promise I won’t tell him. It’s just. He’s seemed a little off to me lately, and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed.”
“You mean aside from the fact that he’s sending us back out when we just got back not too long ago?” piped up Gemmi, the lone female on the shuttle. “Because that struck me as strange. And annoying,” she added under her breath.
“He just. Wants to have all the Artifacts,” Draco said. “Really badly. I think it’s a king thing, and I don’t get it, but if I have the power to give it to him, then I will.”
And he meant that. It was obviously important to Plintos and Plintos was the most important person in his life. If that meant a few more months going from place to place, then he could handle that. Once this whole thing was over, then he could come and go as he pleased and wouldn’t have to worry about being sent out suddenly anymore.
A year later, Draco was really starting to understand the meaning of the phrase ‘wishful thinking’.
He’d been all over. Almost literally everywhere in their quadrant and in the immediate vicinity. He had combed ruins and wastes for the final artifact, finding several other items in the process, but seeing nothing that fit the description of what he was supposed to be looking for.
Their failure was starting to wear on everyone, but no one so much as Plintos. Every time Draco came back empty handed it was just one more blow for his friend. Gone were the laughing smiles and the bright glow to his eyes, replaced by thin lips pressed into a hard line and a growing sense of hopelessness that Draco could feel but didn’t understand.
It was becoming a rift between them, which frustrated Draco to no end because there had never been anything like this between them before, and it wasn’t like he was doing this on purpose.
He was going out there and doing the best he could to find the last artifact, but with no idea where it was and, there was only so much he could do.
Draco believed that Plintos understood that on some level, but each time Draco came back with nothing their conversation was shorter. The servants told him that Plintos spent more time locked in his tower room than anywhere else, pouring over old books and trying to find something that he might have missed to give them a clue where to look.
For his part, Draco was getting tired of searching. For a year he practically live on his shuttle with the rest of the crew, and it wasn’t fair to keep taking them out again and again when they had families and lives that they would much rather be living.
Of course, he had no idea how to bring that up to Plintos when he was in one of his moods, and it wore on him, making him irritable and cross until he knew he had to say something.
They came back from exploring one of the remote planets just outside of their quadrant, loaded down with trinkets and things that they had found, but nothing even close to being the last artifact.
They were all tired and in need of sleep and real food, and Draco dismissed his crew and then made his way to the palace, steeling himself for what he knew wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.
There was a marked difference from when he had come back with the sheath, and everyone knew there would be no celebrating that night. The market was as busy as ever when Draco passed through it, but people were keeping their eyes down and the chatter was at a minimum. As always, Canna stopped him to talk and passed him some food, this time in the form of chunks of warm, spiced meat on a skewer.
“What’s going on?” he asked her, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“The king’s in a foul mood,” she replied. “And no one’s seen him outside of the palace for days. People are starting to worry something’s wrong with him.”
Draco sighed. He had been worrying about that same thing himself. “I’ll go see what’s going on,” he said. “Thank you, Canna.”
She nodded and shooed him off, and Draco hurried the remaining distance, eating his food and wiping his hands before he presented himself before the guards. There were no jokes or grins for him today. Instead they ushered him inside of the palace which was surprisingly quiet.
Fearing the worst, Draco made his way to the tower.
He didn’t bother to knock, pushing open the door and stepping inside of the room. The window was closed and the shade drawn down over it, the room gloomy except for the light from globe in the center of the table Plintos was hunched over.
“You’re back,” the king said, not even glancing up. “I’m not even going to ask if you found anything.”
His tone was bitter, and Draco frowned. “I found many things,” he said, setting down the heavy bag of treasures. “Just not the thing you sent me to find.”
“Which is basically the same as you coming back empty handed,” Plintos snap
ped. “Again.”
Draco was taken aback by his tone, and he stepped closer. “What’s the matter with you, Plintos? The people are concerned. They say you haven’t been seen outside of the palace in days, and I’m sure you’ve been holed up in here the entire time.”
“What’s the matter with me?” Plintos repeated. “What’s the matter with me? Can you even hear yourself, Draco?”
“Can you hear yourself?” Draco shot back. “You’re acting like this is the end of the world. I understand, Plintos, I do. You want to have all three. You want to be the first king since before we learned how to get off this planet to have all the Artifacts because that’s something to be proud of. I understand that. But you’re acting like a lunatic right now. When’s the last time you ate, Plintos? Or slept? And I don’t mean hunched over a table and pouring over a tome. I mean when’s the last time you went to your rooms and slept in your bed?”
“You can’t speak to me like that,” Plintos hissed, and the tension in the room grew that much thicker. “I’m your king.”
“And before you were ever my king, you were my brother,” Draco said before he could stop himself.
Plintos got up suddenly, his chair skidding back and then falling to the floor with a crash. His eyes were fiery when he turned, and it was very clear that he hadn’t been sleeping or eating well at all since the last time Draco had seen him. There were dark smudges under his eyes, and his face looked gaunt, skin even paler than usual. His fury seemed to be the only thing keeping him upright at the moment. He was clearly not well, and Draco was worried and frustrated all over again.
“You don’t understand!” Plintos shouted, hands balled into fists at his sides.
“Of course I don’t understand. You won’t tell me anything. You just keep sending me out again and again to chase something we may never actually find. What if someone else already found it? What if it was scattered further than we can reach?”
“No!” Plintos said. “No. I refuse to believe that. You’re just not looking hard enough.”
“We’ve combed every planet from here to Tellar,” Draco replied, voice flat. “I think it’s safe to say we’re looking hard enough. It’s just not there.”
His words seemed to take the fight out of Plintos who sagged and swayed in place. Draco swore under his breath and moved closer to him, supporting him with one arm. “Draco,” Plintos murmured, and he sighed.
“I’m here. Let’s get you out of here, alright? You need food and rest.”
Plintos nodded and let himself be maneuvered out of the tower and down the stairs.
Draco left strict instructions with the servants that the king was not to be disturbed or allowed out of his rooms for the rest of the night. The two of them clearly needed to have a conversation, but Draco didn’t think either of them were in the right frame of mind for it that night. He needed sleep himself, and he made a promise that he would go see Plintos first thing in the morning and get to the bottom of whatever was going on.
And really, he shouldn’t have been surprised when that didn’t happen at all.
The next morning found him waking up to the sound of pounding at his door, and he groaned and called for whoever it was to enter.
A blushing Daebtheri servant girl bowed to him, averting her eyes from his bare chest. “Begging your pardon,” she said. “But his Majesty is calling for you. He says it’s urgent.”
Draco groaned again and pulled his pillow over his face, muffling the cursing that he was doing. After a moment he pulled the pillow down and found a weak smile for the girl. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll be right there.”
She bowed and made herself scarce, and Draco got out of bed and got dressed, taking his time so that when he saw the king, he wouldn’t strangle him.
He marched to Plintos’ rooms, which were not far from his, and pushed the doors open without knocking, glaring in the direction of the king’s bed. “Do you have any idea what time it is?” he demanded. “Or how tired I am? Just because you’re dedicated to never getting enough sleep and running yourself and the rest of us ragged-”
“Draco,” Plintos interrupted, raising a hand to silence him. “Look.” He pointed that same hand to the screen on the wall of his room, fingers trembling.
Draco frowned and stepped in, closing the door behind him. He couldn’t imagine what could be on the screen that would make Plintos summon him at such an absurd hour of the morning, but when he saw it, his eyes widened.
There, on the screen, which seemed to be getting a feed from Earth of all places, was the final Artifact. From what he could tell, the story was about how they had uncovered it and had taken it to a museum to study.
“But...how?” Draco asked.
“I don’t know,” Plintos replied. “I honestly don’t. There’s nothing in any of the books I’ve read even suggesting that one of them could have made it all the way to Earth.”
“But there it is,” Draco said. And it was without a doubt the last one they were looking for. The blade was shiny and bright, just like it was in all the images in Plintos’ books, and the runes on the blade could be seen on the screen, though Draco couldn’t get a good enough look at them to read and see what they said.
“I know you just got back,” Plintos murmured, and he actually did look repentant.
It was a lot to ask. Most of his crew were worn out from the almost nonstop back and forth they had been doing, but Draco could see the prudence in going now. It would take almost a week to get to Earth from where they were, and if it left the place it was now, then there was no telling if they’d be able to find it again.
“I’ll go,” Draco said. “Just me.”
“Draco. You can’t do that. You’ve never been to Earth before.”
“It’s like all the other inhabited planets isn’t it?” Draco asked. “There should be someone there who can help me. I’m not going to ask the crew to come with me for this, but I’m not going to wait either. I know it means a lot to you, and if it leaves this place they’re taking it to who knows where it will end up. It has to be now.”
Plintos looked torn, but Draco already knew he was going to get his way when it came to this. He wanted the Artifact bad enough that he was going to let Draco go alone to retrieve it.
“Alright,” he said finally. “Alright. But you need to be careful. This is the last one, so just get it and come straight back.”
“Of course. What else would I do? Go sightseeing while I’m there? Earth isn’t like the other planets I’ve been to. I know enough to know that. Humans are an entirely different thing, no matter how much we look like them.”
Plintos sniffed at that. “Some might say that they look like us.”
“That’s beside the point. I’m not planning on staying long. It might take me a few days to figure out how to get the thing without them noticing and shooting me, but I’ll get it.”
“I know you will,” Plintos replied. He dropped his eyes to his lap and then looked back up at him. “Draco, I...I’m sorry for yesterday. I wasn’t in my right mind, and I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”
Draco smiled and shook his head. “It’s fine, Plintos. Consider it forgotten. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a trip to plan for.”
Chapter 2: The Discovery
Stephanie Baker smiled at her reflection in the mirror and adjusted her glasses on her face. She smoothed down her blouse and checked the creases in her pants before pulling her ID card on its lanyard over her head. It marked her as one of the interns working at the Carperville Museum of Science and History, a job which she was all too pleased to have snagged.
She was working on her Master’s degree in History, so the job was perfect for her, and she loved being one of those people who enjoyed getting up and going to work in the mornings.
While classes were over for the summer, she found herself at the museum every day, helping to give tours as well as handling some of the administrative tasks. The pay wasn’t great by any stretch of the
imagination, but she always told herself that the experience and the learning made it more than worth it.
Stephanie was always excited to go to work, but that day she was more excited than usual. They’d found something.
Well. Not her. She hadn’t found anything, since that was definitely not a part of her job description, but she would get to look at whatever it was the team who had done the actual digging had found.
Those were the best kinds of days. When the researchers were trying to figure out what it was that the team had brought in. As part of her internship, they sometimes let her watch while they worked and allowed her to ask questions and get a close look at the find. Even though she had no idea what they’d brought in this time or where it had come from, she was hoping that this would be one of the times when she was allowed to observe.
Satisfied with her clothes, she pulled her strawberry blonde hair up into a ponytail and grabbed her purse and keys, doing a quick check to make sure she had her phone and tablet and wallet before she was heading out the door.
Steph was definitely a morning person, and she paused to inhale the cool, damp morning air, watching the last traces of morning mist linger around her car and the trees before the sun burned it off.
Her morning routine was always the same. Get up, shower, get dressed, drive to the drive thru coffee shop a few blocks down from her house for coffee and a bagel sandwich and then head on to work. It took her exactly twenty-seven minutes to get breakfast and make it to work when there was no traffic, and she was always sipping the last dregs of her coffee and crumbling the plastic from her sandwich by the time she stepped out of her car and made the walk up to the museum. Both the cup and the wrapper went in the trashcan that stood at the curb, and she was brushing any crumbs from her hands and clothes by the time she hit the stairs that led up to the gilded double doors.
She checked her reflection in the shiny glass of the doors and then pulled one open, stepping immediately into the air conditioned lobby. They weren’t open to the public yet, so the lobby was quiet, safe from the sounds of people going about their jobs. Calla was stocking the cash register, ready to assist people in purchasing tickets for the exhibits, and there was Donald, walking the shiny floor and giving it a once over to make sure the night crew had waxed and cleaned it to perfection.