by Ashley West
She was waiting for them when they arrived at the house, standing outside and smiling her terrifying smile. Stephanie had met her a couple of times since Draco had been on Earth, but he could tell that Presea made her nervous.
He held her hand as they walked up to the house, the blade gripped in his other hand.
“Time to go?” Presea asked.
Draco nodded. “Time to go.” He opened his mouth to explain what had happened, but Presea held up a hand to stop him before he could start.
“I already know,” she said and then grinned wider, lifting a finger to tap her head. “My kind are gifted with foresight.”
“You’re a Chelercca,” Draco said, all of a sudden understanding. “That’s amazing.”
Presea inclined her head. “Someone on this planet has to have some sense,” she replied. “The shuttle is fueling now. You might want to pack some food or something for the trip. I don’t do all that.”
“Of course,” Draco replied, and he led Stephanie into the house. She immediately set to work making him sandwiches and fetching bottles of water, and he left her to it, going to his room to get his clothes and call Plintos.
“I’m coming home,” he said as soon as his friend’s face filled the screen. “I’m leaving tonight.”
“It’s too soon,” Plintos protested. “We aren’t ready yet. Can’t you-”
Draco cut him off and shook his head. “No, I can’t. One of the Triptherus attacked Stephanie tonight at the museum. We have the blade now, and it’s only a matter of time before they figure that out. If we want a head start on this, I have to leave now.”
Plintos’ face was grave and paler than usual, but he nodded. “I see. Well. Come home, then. We’ll figure it out together.”
“Like we always do,” Draco said and ended the call. He sighed and began gathering his things, throwing them into his bag before he headed back out into the kitchen.
Stephanie was standing in front of the massive pile of food she’d accumulated on the table, head bowed. When she looked up, he saw that she had tears in her eyes, and he dropped his bag and pulled her to his chest. “Don’t cry,” he whispered. “Please.”
“I don’t want you to go,” she said. “I don’t want to never see you again. I don’t…” she broke off with a little sob, face buried in his shirt.
“I know,” he said, rubbing her back. “I don’t want to go either, but. I have to. I have to be there for my people.”
She nodded, wiping her eyes and giving him a watery smile. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m just going to miss you.” She pulled back and let out a breath, making to pull away. “Let’s get your shuttle packed.”
A split second later, something occurred to him. “Come with me,” Draco said, catching one of Stephanie’s hands in his before she could pull away completely.
“W-what? What do you mean?” she asked, eyes wide.
“I mean that it’s not going to be safe here. They know who you are and they’re going to figure out that I’m taking the blade back to Aldara. Sure they’ll follow, but probably not before they vent their frustration at the blade slipping right out of their grasp. They might not know that you’re connected to me, but you’ll still be in danger.”
“And so you want me to go with you?” Stephanie demanded. “To space?”
“Just for a little while,” Draco promised. “I’ll bring you home when it’s over.” And he would. It wouldn’t be a permanent solution, but it would give them more time together and keep her safe.
Stephanie seemed to be wavering a bit, hesitation warring with excitement in her eyes. “But...Nate and the others. They’ll be in danger in the same way, won’t they?”
Draco didn’t have the heart to tell her that he couldn’t care less about them. It was her that he would drive himself crazy worrying about, for reasons that he didn’t exactly have time to examine at the moment. If the Triptherus got their clammy hands on her and hurt her while he got away, he’d never be able to forgive himself.
“Please, Stephanie,” he said. “Please. I know it’s a lot to ask for you to just up and leave everything to come with me, but the second you say you’re ready to come back once it’s all done, I’ll bring you right back here. I swear it.”
Time was running out, and Draco needed to go if he was going to keep his head start and get back to Aldara before they figured out he was gone, but he had to try.
“But I don’t have any of my things, I… I don’t know anything about space.” Stephanie looked at him and then let out a messy breath, seeming to make a decision. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go to Aldara.”
They changed their plan on the fly. Stephanie got in her car and raced back to her house to pack the things she couldn’t be without, and Draco loaded the shuttle. He packed practically all of the food in the house under Presea’s watchful gaze, noticing that she was smiling in a satisfied way now.
Maybe she’d foreseen that this would happen, maybe she was just pleased for him. Either way, she was clearly keeping her mouth shut about it.
Plintos wasn’t going to be happy when they got back and he found out that Draco had a human in tow, but he’d deal with that when they got there. Even at the fastest speed the shuttle could fly they had at least a week to wait before they would get to Aldara. He’d come up with something to soothe his prickly friend’s ire.
As it turned out, that, like so many of his other plans, was mostly wishful thinking. The week that it took them to get back to Aldara was mostly spent not thinking about Plintos or how he would react to Stephanie’s presence.
Instead, it was spent checking the radar to make sure that they weren’t being followed and showing Stephanie the sights. He pointed out stars and planets to her, telling her tales of the places he’d been and the things he’d seen while enjoying the way her face lit up as she ask him questions and devoured the information he gave.
Unlike the trip to Earth, which had been lonely and full of anxiety for him, this trip was light and fun, and he wasn’t looking forward to getting back to Aldara at this rate.
But of course, as soon as his home planet was in sight, he called Plintos to let him know, carefully keeping Stephanie’s face out of the view of the comm device. There wasn’t much Plintos could do once they got there and he found out, so he wasn’t going to worry about it overly much.
Stephanie, on the other hand, seemed to be vibrating with a mixture of anxiety and excitement and she kept looking out of the windows with her hands pressed to the glass.
“It’s just so amazing,” she said over and over again, looking out at the approaching planet and then back at him. “And beautiful.”
“It’s home,” Draco replied, and there it was. There was that pleasant rush of well being that always accompanied coming home, and he was pleased to see that the predicament they were in hadn’t done anything to take that away.
All too soon they were landing, and Draco sighed, hefting his bag and the blade and letting down the hatch. Through the window he could see his crew assembled, ready to clean and take the shuttle back to its spot, and he felt a rush of affection for all of them. It had really been too long since he’d been back.
As soon as his feet were on the ground, a cheer went up from the assembled people. Some of them called questions to him, but they all fell silent after a few seconds, and Draco didn’t even have to turn around to know that Stephanie had just gotten out of the shuttle.
It was probably the quietest he had ever heard his people be, and he drew in a deep breath and stepped forward. He could explain later. For now, he needed to get the blade to Plintos and they needed to find somewhere to keep it where it would be safe.
“Follow me,” he said over his shoulder to Stephanie, and he wished he could take her hand, but both of his were full, and he needed to see how she was going to react to this.
“Right,” she said, tentatively waving at some of the people staring at her before hurrying after him. “I don’t think they like me.”
/> “They don’t know you,” Draco corrected. “And they’re surprised. There hasn’t been a human here...well, maybe ever.”
“Well, that’s good to know. I love being a trendsetter,” she muttered.
They made it as far as the marketplace before someone said something about Stephanie being there, and it was hardly a surprise that it was the ever outspoken Canna, grinning at them as they approached her stall.
“Well, well,” she cackled. “Seems like someone had fun on Earth.”
Draco sighed. “Canna, could you please not?” he said. “It’s going to be hard enough to explain this to Plintos without you making jokes.”
She grinned and leaned around him to look at Stephanie, basically ignoring him. “Hello there, lovely. Welcome to Aldara.”
“Oh,” Steph said, clearly surprised. “Thank you. It’s...it’s good to be here.”
“Here,” Canna said, holding out a thick pastry to her. “Ask your boy here. They’re best in the market, and if I know Draco and the king, it’s going to be some time before you get a proper meal.”
“It’s just meat and spices,” Draco said, accepting a pastry of his own. “Kind of like that food we got on our first date.”
He’d said it without thinking, and Canna cackled. “I knew you’d like it there.”
“Thank you,” Stephanie said taking the hot pastry in her hands.
Before either of them could say anything else, the crowd ahead was parting, and Plintos came striding through the market, flanked by two guards. Draco closed his eyes and let out a breath. If the king had come down from his tower to meet them in the market, then he already knew that Draco had come back with more than just the blade.
“Evening, your Majesty,” Canna said with a wicked smirk.
“Canna,” Plintos greeted without even looking at her, his bright eyes fixed on Stephanie who was standing behind Draco still. “I wonder, Draco, because I seem to be confused, if you could remind me of what it is I sent you to Earth to do.”
Draco squared his shoulders and met Plintos’ stare. “To get the blade. Which I did, I should point out,” he said, waving the cloth covered bundle. A ripple of murmuring went through the assembled people at the fact that the blade was on Aldara at long last.
Even Plintos seemed momentarily distracted from whatever tirade he was building up to, and Draco mentally encouraged him to take the blade and leave them alone.
But Plintos could be absurdly stubborn when he wanted to be, and he just folded his arms. “Yes, well done,” he said. “But you seem to have come back with something that wasn’t on the list.”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” Draco said without thinking. “She’s not a thing, and there’s a reason she’s here.”
“Oh, wonderful,” Plintos said. “You’ll have to tell me all about it, then. But not here. We need to get that,” and he nodded to the covered blade in Draco’s hand. “Somewhere safe. Come with me.” He turned to walk away, making it clear that it hadn’t been a request.
Draco glanced back at Stephanie, who had yet to say anything, but was scowling at Plintos’ back. “I’m sorry,” he mouthed at her and then turned back to his friend. “Plintos, I’m not just going to leave her here in the market.”
Plintos sighed, aggravated and clicked his fingers at one of the guards. “Take her to Draco’s rooms,” he said. “She’ll be fine there.”
“I’ll see you in a bit,” Draco said to her. “You’ll be okay?”
“Sure,” Steph replied. “I'm a big, strong girl. I’ll see you when you’re done.”
He watched as she followed the guard and then sighed, following Plintos to the palace. Of course, his friend was muttering to himself the whole time, and Draco could already feel a headache building behind his eyes. They didn’t have time for this. Who knew when the Triptherus would decide that following them was a great idea and turn up with the other two items in tow.
They made it up to the tower and Plintos held out a hand. Draco put the blade in it and then stepped back, forgetting his irritation for the moment so he could watch his friend unwrap the blade and see it in person for the first time. He glanced to the shelf where the other two had been and found them bare.
There wasn’t time for feeling bad about that, either. They would just have to get them back.
Plintos had unwrapped the sword, and Draco could hear the hitch in his breath as he stared down at it. They’d cleaned it up from Stephanie’s use of it to fend off the Triptherus, and it was just as bright and beautiful as it had been in the museum.
“Long live, oh king of kings,” Plintos murmured, fingers tracing the runes for just a moment. “We were so close to having all of them.”
“We’ll get the other two back,” Draco said. “If they want the blade, they’re going to have to come and take it.”
“And if they don’t bring the other two Artifacts?”
Draco rolled his eyes. “Then I’ll hunt them down all over again. But they’ll bring them, Plintos. They want all three, and they won’t turn down the opportunity to put the weapon together here. Not after I snatched the blade right from under their...well, I guess they don’t have noses, but you get the point.”
“I do,” Plintos said. “What I don’t get is why you would bring her here.”
“Because she would have been in danger if I’d left her there,” Draco explained. “She was attacked, remember? How long do you think they would have waited before they went after her again? And then she would have been basically alone with nothing and no one to protect her, and I wasn’t going to leave her there to deal with that when none of this is her fault.”
He folded his arms, daring Plintos to argue with him, though Plintos being who he was, Draco knew he would try.
“Do you know what I think?” Plintos asked, sharp eyes on Draco. “I think that’s just a convenient excuse. I think you thought of that bit after you’d already decided to bring her back. I think you’ve lost sight of what’s important here.”
“Important to who, Plintos?”
“To all of us! We’ve been trying to do this for years now, and as soon as some pretty human takes an interest in you, it’s like none of it even matters anymore. Would you have come home at all if it weren’t for the fact that we’re basically in a crisis right now?”
Draco spluttered. “Of course I would have!”
“Would you? Or would you have stayed there with her?”
It was a ridiculous question. Yes, alright, so Draco had been having some trouble with the idea of leaving towards the end, and the crisis at hand had pushed it so he had to leave, but that didn’t mean that he had been willing to turn his back on his home or his people. Or on Plintos, for that matter because irritating as he was, he was still Draco’s best friend. His brother.
All he’d wanted was more time to try and come up with a plan that would have allowed him to have all the things he wanted, as selfish and greedy as that sounded.
“I would have come home,” Draco said firmly. “And I’m going to take her home as soon as she wishes it. This isn’t a permanent thing.”
Plintos snorted, looking skeptical. “Sure, it isn’t.”
“She has a home, too, Plintos. I won’t keep her here if she wants to go.”
“But will she?”
Draco didn’t know the answer to that, and he didn’t want to think about it just then, either. The headache that had been building was threatening to blossom in full, and all he wanted was food and fresh water and a nap.
“Do we have time for this?” he asked. “Because I thought there was something we were meant to be doing. Some reason I rushed back here. Do you have a plan?”
“I do,” Plintos replied. “It’s not a very good one, but we’re short on both options and time. When they come, we fight. The guards are armed with the usual swords and blasters, and they’ve been training. We outnumber the Triptherus, which will hopefully give us even a small advantage over them. I’ve set some civilians who want
ed to be involved to keeping watch. We don’t need to be taken by surprise again. Every little bit will help here.”
“Yes,” Draco agreed with a sigh. “It will.”
And so it seemed that, for the moment, all they could do was wait.
Chapter 10: Trouble Lurks in the Dark
For her part, Stephanie wasn’t put off by Plintos’ less than gracious handling of her being there. It seemed to be par for the course from what she knew of him, and she took it in stride, the excitement of being somewhere she’d never been before (and somewhere probably no human had been before) was taking over and not leaving room for any negative emotions.
She was shown to Draco’s rooms that first day, and she was surprised that they were so lavish and well furnished. While Draco and Plintos talked or argued or plotted or whatever it was they were doing, she explored the suite of rooms, finding a bedroom as well as a sitting room and bathroom all adjoined.
There were a number of things that she didn’t recognize, little switches and knobs in the bathroom and sitting room that looked interesting, but she didn’t want to touch them and mess something up.
One whole wall in the sitting room was dedicated to a large screen surrounded by several smaller ones, and she wondered what TV was like in space. Obviously they got Earth channels if Draco had seen the blade on their news programs, and she could only assume that there was something to do with satellites at work there.
On another wall there were pictures, though they were sparse, and the wall that didn’t have the door set into it held a shelf full of books. It was these that Stephanie amused herself with while she waited, flipping though them even though none of them were written in English or even in an alphabet she recognized.
When Draco came back, he looked tired, and he wasted no time in dragging her into the large bathroom and drawing them a bath to soak in.
Stephanie was perfectly at home sitting between Draco’s spread legs in the bath, her back to his chest while she asked him about the things in his rooms. They didn’t talk about Plintos or about the Triptherus, and Steph was pleased as she felt Draco’s tension melting away.
