It was cloudy that late April afternoon. Aliya Todo was at work, either aiding or babysitting her eccentric uncle, depending on your perspective. Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, this was an easy task when the speaker was busy fiddling with his toys. In truth, he wasn’t lying when he said he did it to meditate; when his fingers were preoccupied, you could be certain that his brain was at work.
The problem, then, was when his fingers weren’t preoccupied. In such cases, Nadal’s silent scheming manifested itself much more vocally, in the form of snark, sarcasm, and every other technique in his arsenal of being a public nuisance. Should there be no one within earshot of his ramblings, he would go out of his way to rectify that by ensnaring some poor soul, regardless of the importance of whatever their task at the time might have been.
Thus, Aliya’s mission was simple: keep her uncle on a leash. And for the times when he didn’t know when to shut up, she had a secret weapon.
“Indeed, compared to we elves, you humans are rather simple, neurologically speaking, and your people have the emotional intelligence of wild animals,” Nadal ranted. “Rest assured, however, that I say that with no prejudiced intent. I’m actually something of a zoology buff... Just a bit of black humor for you.” There was silence. “You were supposed to laugh. Why are you smiling like that? Are you patronizing me?”
“Don’t make me call Ein,” Aliya said.
That secret weapon never failed. Reluctantly, Nadal finally stopped accosting the innocent cleaning staff. The Replicant girl evidently held great sway over the fastidious speaker.
Aliya giggled with cruel satisfaction. “I’m very glad that little birdie told me how often you got raked over the coals when you were the queen’s counselor.”
Nadal’s hard expression looked a little paler than usual. “We have no business bothering Her Highness with these trivial matters.”
“I dunno,” she said menacingly, “Ein told me to let her know whenever you got on my nerves. She seemed pretty serious to me.”
Nadal went quiet. Pleased with her victory in their battle of words, Aliya turned back around and regarded the items on display closely. Several incredibly valuable-looking objects were locked inside glass cases, like what one might find at a museum. The place had a long name, so most elves simply referred to it as the Treasury, but Aliya remembered it was actually called the Other World Archive for Culturally Significant Artifacts.
There was an ominous pot, a staff, a cape, a mysteriously glowing black agate, a bracelet engraved with magic runes, an aged scroll, a stone pagoda carved with a long inscription, the skull of what looked to be some kind of mammal... Numerous items of unknown origin were set out, and supposedly they had all been brought over from Param by the migrant elves.
“Nothing here really strikes me as ‘treasure,’” Aliya admitted. “But they make my head feel...tingly. Maybe it’s the nanomachines.”
She looked down at the ring of light glowing from her right palm. It had been active ever since they first set foot in the Treasury.
Nadal shot his niece an aloof and sidelong glance, then puffed his chest. “As suspected,” he said. “These former magic items all lost their powers when they were brought to Earth, but the spiritual energies they’ve imbibed over the ages are not so easily diminished.”
“What’s ‘as suspected’?” Aliya asked.
“Oh, just a theory I had. Your nano-abilities are manifested in your perception, and you can already detect magic, so I thought I’d give them a little extra nudge. See if you would react to the energy of the items here.”
“I don’t remember signing any consent form for this experiment!”
“Try to understand. These times are dire, and you and your friends’ abilities very well may be our last hope. I brought you here to that end.”
“You know I’m your niece, not a tool, right?” Aliya huffed. Shame on her for expecting anything different out of her uncle. “And here I thought you were spending all this time with me because you managed to find some semblance of familial love in that thick head of yours!”
“I’m simply being logical. Wait, you’re seeing Her Highness later. Redact that statement.” Nadal forced his face into a different expression. “Oh, but I do love you, my dear niece!” he said unconvincingly. “There. Tell her that’s what I said. She should like that.”
“Oh, sure, I’ll tell her that. Along with everything else!” Aliya stomped away from her uncle and his oh-so-genuine affection, though not out of any real anger. She had made peace with the man he was a long time ago. Something had caught her eye.
She approached an elongated display case, inside of which lay a weapon. At the end of its long shaft was a vicious blade that was curved like a katana and far too big to fit a normal naginata.
“This looks like something straight out of Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” Aliya murmured. The point where the hilt and blade connected had been crafted into the shape of a dragon, with the blade extending from its open mouth. A name popped into her head—Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
On the opposite end, at the ferrule where the shaft would meet the ground, there was an oddly shaped bit of construction.
“A wheel? Why would there be a...”
Aliya stared at the Green Dragon, at the implement at the bottom of its shaft. Suddenly, her head started to tingle.