by Ashley West
“Just so,” Presea said with a nod. “I’ll take you there tomorrow and you can see for yourself.”
“Thank you,” Draco said, feeling uncertain. At least it was a place to start. He’d need to familiarize himself with the building and the security and see for himself what he was working with before he could come up with a plan. And if Presea proved to be a problem, well. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it. If he came to it.
The next morning found him dressed in smart clothes that Presea had in the house. She’d stood in front of him and smiled at his appearance, telling him that the jeans and shirt looked good on him and then explaining why the fabric of the jeans was so rough. They were nothing like the soft pants he was used to wearing when he was home, or the leather pants he wore when he was exploring, and he was already anticipating being hot and uncomfortable when they stepped out of the house to go to the museum.
To his surprise, the weather was much cooler in the morning, and the mist that clung to everything gave it all a much needed chill.
It was a lovely morning, and he relished the walk to the museum, nodding when Presea had explained that she didn’t think anyone would give her license to drive a car when she looked like she did.
Her horns were hidden under a hat with a wide brim that also shaded her face, and he noticed that she was careful not to open her mouth too widely when she spoke.
It was probably harder for her to blend in here than it was for him. Other than the scales going down his back, he was indistinguishable from everyone else around them, and it made him relax just a bit.
“I’m not going in there,” Presea said once they reached the museum.
“No?”
“No. It’s going to be too quiet and people will stare. I’ll meet you here in a couple of hours.”
Draco shook his head. “There’s no need. I was paying attention, and I can find my way back.”
She regarded him for a moment and then nodded, waving over her shoulder as she turned to head back the way they came. Draco watched her for a moment and then turned to walk up the stairs to the large double doors.
It was even nicer inside the museum, quiet and cool, and Draco could see pockets of people milling around and looking at the exhibits. There were various cases holding things that looked old and fragile and people wearing blue vests going between each group answering questions and pointing things out.
At first glance, he couldn’t see the blade anywhere, so he sighed and resigned himself to having to ask someone.
It had been at the very least a week since they’d announced their find, but that didn’t mean it was on display yet. Draco didn’t know how human museums worked, but on Aldara something like that wouldn’t even be put out for other people to see. Hence why Plintos kept all of his old treasures in a room that only he and sometimes Draco were allowed in. Even the servants didn’t get to go in.
Not wanting to draw too much attention to himself, Draco wandered around for a bit, looking at the things on display. There were other weapons, rusted through and dull with age, and Draco wondered if these were all human things or if there was some way that they had made their way to Earth like the blade he was looking for.
“Can I help you with something?” asked a voice, and Draco turned to see a woman standing behind him, a smile on her face.
His first thought was that she was very pretty. Her hair was a reddish blonde, and her eyes were bright as she stood there, waiting for his response. She was several inches shorter than him, but she had a presence about her that automatically assured Draco that if anyone would know how to help him it would be her.
Curious.
“Maybe,” he said. “I...saw on the...news that you had found a blade of some kind, and I was interested to see it.” There. Hopefully that was good enough that he’d get the answers he wanted without arousing any suspicions that he definitely meant to make off with the Artifact.
The woman smiled at him, but this time it was apologetic. “I’m afraid it’s not on display yet,” she said. “Still more work to be done.”
“Work?” Draco asked, alarmed. “What kind of work?”
“Oh nothing that would damage the integrity of the blade, I promise,” she replied. “We’re just trying to find out all we can about it, and it’s kind of giving us some trouble. We wouldn’t want to put it out before we had any information on it.”
Draco nodded because that made sense. It was likely that they’d never seen or dealt with anything like a blade made centuries ago on another planet. “What sort of things are you trying to find out?”
“Anything really,” she said. “As of right now we’re still trying to find out what it’s made of. The head of our research team seems to think it’s some kind of silver, but the fact is people just weren’t making things out of silver back in the day. It was expensive. But then, this isn’t just a run of the mill blade. Did you see the runes on it? On the news?”
“Yes,” Draco said. “I saw those.”
“No one knows what to make of them. We’ve been comparing them with all sorts of different pictographic characters to find somewhere to start with deciphering them, but we’re just stumped. Either it’s a language we’ve never even seen before, or they’re just random symbols that don’t mean anything. Either way, the implications are fascinating.”
“You sound like you know a lot about this sort of thing,” Draco said carefully.
She nodded. “I guess so, yeah. I mean, I work here, and I’m working on a Master’s degree in history. I love this stuff. Finding out just how old something is or where it came from. What it was made for. It’s all so interesting to me.” Her face flooded with color after a second and she cringed. “Sorry. I’m sure you didn’t come here today to listen to me ramble on.”
He hadn’t, but he found he was interested in what she had to say. “So you’ve seen the blade, then,” he said.
“Yep. Got a first-hand look at it. It’s…” She hesitated and then rushed on. “I’m going to tell you this because you seem like you’re interested, but it’s definitely unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And I’ve seen some things, let me tell you. It’s got this...weird energy to it. Like it’s powerful or it could be if we knew what we were supposed to do with it. I know that doesn’t make much sense considering it's an inanimate piece of strange metal, but.” She shrugged.
On the contrary, it made more sense than she knew, and Draco felt a rush of excitement followed immediately by bafflement. He hadn’t thought that humans would be able to feel the power exuded by one of the Artifacts.
Of course, he hadn’t expected a human to find one either, and there they were all the same. He knew that his earlier thought was right and that this woman was going to end up being necessary to him getting the Artifact back to Plintos. For all she was bright and bubbly, Draco wasn’t foolish enough to think that meant that she was stupid or easy to fool. She clearly had a strong mind and a keen eye, and he was going to have to play this carefully.
“It sounds like it’s very special,” he said. “I can’t wait to see it.”
“Hopefully we’ll be getting somewhere soon,” she replied. “I don’t think a lot of people are interested in it like I am or like you seem to be, but it’s a discovery that deserves to be shared, you know?”
“Of course,” Draco said. “Can I ask your name?”
“Oh!” She looked surprised and then embarrassed. “I’m Stephanie.”
“Draco,” he offered, holding out his hand for her to shake like he’d seen others do on feeds from Earth. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Her cheeks colored a soft pink and she shook his hand. “Likewise. That’s not a name I hear a lot.”
“I’m...not from around here,” he said, and it wasn’t even a lie, really. “Just visiting, and I thought it would be nice to stop in and see some things before I have to return home.”
Stephanie nodded and released his hand. “Well, I can show you some other things if you�
��d like a tour. I’m sorry the thing you really wanted to see isn’t ready yet. Hopefully it’ll be out before you have to go home.”
“Hopefully,” Draco agreed. “And I’d like that very much.”
Her answering smile was bright, and he let her lead him in the direction of some of the other weapons they had on display, listening as she explained what era they were from and what they might have been used for.
It turned out that she had a pleasant voice to listen to, and while he had been planning to tune her out and try to think of how he was going to get her to show him the blade even though it wasn’t on display, Draco found himself listening intently to her words and asking questions that he hoped didn’t make him sound too ignorant about the way humans lived.
Plintos would like her, Draco knew that for a fact. She was intelligent and had the same passion for history that he did, even if it was the history of a completely different world. He could already picture them held up in the tower room looking at the treasures that Draco would bring them to discuss and coo over.
And then he blinked, wondering where that thought had come from. It wasn’t like him to think about things like that.
Not that he was immune to the charms of a pretty female. No, as Plintos’ right hand for the most part, he’d had his fair share of dalliances. More than, really. Of course, none of them had been human, and he hadn’t been planning to steal something right from under their noses either, so he supposed the comparison didn’t really work all the way, but still.
For a moment there, he’d had such a clear image of himself taking things for her to study and being the recipient of that bright smile of hers.
Creators. Where had that even come from?
Draco listened to the rest of her spiel and then thanked her, telling her that he would see her again soon but he had somewhere he needed to be. He could feel her eyes on him as he made his way to the door and he drew in a deep breath as he stepped outside, instantly regretting it when he coughed from how smoggy the air was.
And there was another thing about humans. They had no notion of how to take care of their planet. Honestly, the sooner he was away from this planet, the better.
Of course as soon as he made it back to the house, he stripped out of his jeans and put on the looser pants he preferred, checking his comm device to see that he had missed three messages from Plintos.
Draco rolled his eyes at that. How did he expect him to stay in constant contact and get the job done at the same time.
Sitting down in one of the squashy (and rather comfortable) chairs, he called his friend back.
“Well?” Plintos asked, his eager face filling the screen of the device. “Did you see it?”
“Hello to you to,” Draco replied with a sigh. “Yes, I made it here safely. So nice of you to ask.”
Plintos sighed right back, the sound crackly with static because of the distance. “Alright, alright, I take your point. Hello, I am glad you got there safely. Now, did you see it?”
“No,” Draco said. “I didn’t. It’s there, though, but according to Stephanie they won’t be putting it on display yet.”
“Who is Stephanie?”
“The human girl who works at the museum,” Draco explained. “She said they want to know more about it before they put it out, but from how she described the blade, I think it’s definitely the Artifact.”
“Hmm,” Plintos mused. “That might actually work in your favor. They’ll miss it when it’s gone, obviously, but they won’t have to worry about replacing it if it wasn’t on display.”
“Somehow I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Draco said. He thought about telling Plintos about how the girl had been able to feel the power in the blade, but ultimately decided against it. It would honestly probably only agitate his friend, and that was the last thing he wanted to do just then. Instead he promised that he was going to make more progress soon and signed off, slumping back in the chair to think.
Chapter 4: Taking a Chance
Weekends were the only days Stephanie had off from the museum, and usually she took the opportunity to sleep in and do practical things like laundry and run errands. Sometimes she had lunch with her mother, sometimes she had dinner with Paul, but it was always her time.
On this particular Saturday, she woke up with another plan, getting out of bed and hurrying through her morning routine before dressing comfortably and heading for the museum.
What drove her was the fact that her boss often chose weekends for his own days off, and there was a large chance that Simone or Nate or both would be there and would let her see the sword again without her having to deal with Clive Dearborn being a pest. She crossed her fingers that this would be one of the weekends where he did whatever it was he did when he wasn’t there making her life harder than it needed to be and made her way inside, finding Nate in the employee lounge drinking coffee.
“You don’t work on Saturdays,” he said when he saw her.
“I know. But I was hoping that…”
Nate laughed before she could finish. “Let me guess. You were hoping that Clive wouldn’t be here and that I would be so you could look at the blade again.”
Stephanie sniffed. “Am I that transparent?”
“I wouldn’t say transparent,” Nate replied. “Just I know you pretty well by now. As it happens, Clive isn’t here, and I’d be glad to let you have another look.”
“Thank you,” Steph gushed, grinning and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She tried to keep her excitement to a minimum while Nate finished his coffee, but as soon as he beckoned her to follow him, she was on his heels, shooting him rapid fire questions about the progress they’d made since the last time she’d been allowed to have a look.
“Not much new to report,” Nate told her. “We cleaned it up and it’s...well. I’d be really interested to find out what it’s made of because it seems to stay just as bright no matter what kind of light it’s under, and regular metals just don’t do that. Judging from the area it was found in and how long it’s been since it was disturbed along with some of the minerals that we pulled off the blade when we cleaned it, it’s been buried for at least a hundred years.”
Steph frowned. “But it doesn’t show any signs of wear. No rust, no tarnishing. Nothing.”
“I know. That’s what’s baffling us. It…” He trailed off with a strange look on his face. “It’s almost like something from another planet.”
That was hardly what she had been expecting him to say, and she glanced up at him with a furrowed brow. “You’re not serious, are you? Just because you don’t know what it is yet doesn’t mean it’s something from outer space. And how would something like that even get here?”
Nate shrugged, hands in his pockets. “Who knows? There are plenty of unexplained things on this planet, Steph. They all had to come from somewhere. I think it’d be pretty easy to get a sword to Earth if someone wanted to badly enough. Anyway, it’s all just speculation. The fact remains that we have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
His words were still buzzing in her head when he handed her a pair of gloves and put on his own before letting them into the room. No one else was there, and it was quiet as Stephanie walked closer, peering down at the shiny strip of metal in its case on the table. With careful fingers she lifted the lid and reached out a hand, immediately feeling that sense of power and warmth that she’d felt the first time.
This wasn’t an ordinary find, and she positively itched to know what it really was. Both to satisfy her own curiosity and so she’d have something to tell Draco if he came back.
He’d said he would, and Steph found herself hoping that he’d hold true to his words. The way he’d listened to her speak had made her feel...good. It hadn’t been the same as when other people on tours listened to her either. There had been an interest in his eyes that seemed to go beyond what she’d been talking about, and while she didn’t want to get her hopes up and make an idiot of herself, she had to admit that
he’d been very good looking.
Tall and broad with features that managed to be both classic and striking at the same time. He had that strong jaw line that she favored and eyes that seemed almost muddy at first but then glinted with warmer, almost reddish tones in the right light.
And god, she’d only spent about fifteen minutes in his presence and already she was thinking dreamily about the color of his eyes.
It was definitely time to get a hold of herself, but she didn’t think there was anything wrong with her letting herself wish to see him again.
She was still telling herself that on Monday when she returned to work for real, back in her pressed pants and her blouse with her blue vest over it, smiling and leading a group of uninterested looking fifth graders through the exhibit on Ancient Greece. Not even talking about battles and showing them weapons seemed to perk them up, and Stephanie shrugged it off, giving them her best until their teachers returned and claimed them, ready to take them back to the bus.
A quick cup of coffee restored her energy, and she made her way back to the front, answering questions as she went and directing an older couple to the gift shop.
Her lunch break came and went and there was still no sign of Draco. Steph kicked herself mentally because it wasn’t like he’d said that he’d be back right away. Not everyone wanted to spend everyday in a museum looking at things from times past, after all.
It was a good mental reminder, but it served to make sure that she wasn’t really paying attention when Draco did walk in, an hour before closing.
She’d been showing arrowheads to a group of teenagers, but she excused herself and walked over to him when she spotted him, trying her best to keep her composure. “Hi again,” she said with a smile.
“Hello, Stephanie,” he said, smiling back. “How are you?”
“Doing well,” she replied brightly. “And you? Did you have a good weekend? See anything interesting?”