In the old world, winter was nothing but a slight nuisance, with daytime temperatures dropping to about 10 degrees Celsius and nights that occasionally crossed the freezing mark. As a result, snowfall outside Valak Mountain was not only rare but inconsequential, with effectively zero documented cases of notable accumulation. The scientists and astronomers predicted that this would be much different in the new world, and warned that the colonies might get enough snow that life would be significantly affected. They hoped they would be wrong. They were not.

As temperatures plummeted, the first major snowfall happened in late December, plunging everything into a white haze. Mostly prepared with heavy coats and shovels, most enjoyed the novel experience. Two months later, with -20 C days and snowbanks over a metre high, everyone was sick of it.

Melia peeked through the front blinds of her house. Today was an absolute blizzard, with no visibility past one's own arm. Most days she would stare into the sunny snow and wish it were warm enough to spend time outside, but for today at least, she would welcome being cooped up inside.

Winter was especially cruel to Melia. The construction of New Alcamoth was halted for weeks at a time due to the weather, putting it behind schedule. She had nothing to protect her super-sensitive wings from the cold, her only wing-covering headgear being worthless for insulation, so merely stepping outside of her warm house was like dunking her whole head in a ice bath. Summoned flares were too volatile to counter the problem, and while they were decent at clearing snow from the walkpath to the transporter, the effort required to control them to do so was draining. Finally, while reading was usually a pleasure, spending three months being unable to do much else made it quite unappealing after a while.

Melia, still in her mauve nightgown, sipped her hot chocolate and looked at the clock. Ten-thirty. It had been difficult to wake up on time with the shorter days, especially those of dim sun and brutal weather such as today, and it didn't help that she had trouble sleeping the previous night. While it didn't matter as much with nothing to do, it was somehow even more frustrating.

I wonder if I should bother getting dressed today, she thought. This weather should preclude anyone attempting to visit, and I am certainly not going anywhere.

She continued to munch on her toast. There was't much else to have for breakfast; while the house was suitably warm, the weather made it seem colder than it was, and so "hot" was the main criteria for food.

More than any other day, this feels like a day of...relaxation. Melia couldn't even avoid censoring her internal monologue, determining that "laziness" was poor word choice.

She remained at the table after finishing her breakfast, wandering around her own thoughts while unbraiding her hair, which had to be re-braided about once a week. The howling wind outside was surprisingly calming, and it was not long before she lost track of time and became fully immersed in the daydreams.

It is a clear summer day. I am in my grassy backyard, practicing cartwheels, because I never get to cavort around. I only succeed about once every eight tries, but even falling down is fun. I feel like Shulk is watching me from atop the rock walls, but that is okay, because he can keep a secret. I look around and don't see him. He sneaks up behind me and spins me around by the ankles. I enjoy soaring through the air. He lets go and I land in the pond. It's nice and cool. I swim out and dry off in the sun. Shulk is hiding again, but I know where he is. I jump up on the roof to find him wearing a tuxedo and holding a picnic basket. He pulls out a bottle of ale and two glasses, followed by a large coconut. I take the coconut and open it up to find a wheel of cheese...

Melia's daydream became increasingly disorganised and nonsensical as she drifted off to sleep. But not long after completely nodding off, a completely different dream took its place.

Melia was kneeling on the floor of the imperial audience chamber. Head down, she could not see much but her own legs, but could hear a hushed discussion taking place around her. It sounded like dozens of people were in the room, presumably all of high status.

"Melia Antiqua," said an unknown voice, "you claim to be the rightful heir to the throne?"

Without looking up, she responded. "You have seen my evidence. You have proven my heritage. I do not know what more you could require."

"Your evidence is legitimate," the voice said. "And your heritage is true. But there remains an issue to be resolved, and it is in fact the most critical of all."

There was a long pause, presumably for dramatic effect amongst the many that had gathered.

"You are not a Telethia."

Confused, Melia broke the unwritten code and looked up. A Telethia was sitting on the throne. Several other Telethia of various types were to the sides. Every single being in the room that she assumed to be a High Entia was in fact a Telethia.

"But do not worry," the voice continued. "Our medical knowledge is quite advanced, and we have a method to remove the Homs blood from your nature and give you the rebirth you desire and deserve." The Telethia on the throne made a motion to its aides. "I am certain that your position as empress will be worth however much pain the procedure will cause."

Melia was in disbelief. Four Telethia were moving towards her, with two more blocking each exit, in addition to the dozens already in the room.

There was a hard knock on the door.

"Aaah!" Melia jolted awake. The clock was approaching noon. The wind was as loud as ever, but the knocking was clear.

Still somewhat shaken by the dream, Melia carefully peeked through the front blinds again. The snow was far too thick to see beyond the porch, but there were clearly several figures standing there. One of them was carrying a large rectangular chest.

What could possess multiple people to visit me during such conditions? Has something happened?

Melia quickly got up to unlock and open the door, then just as quickly got out of the way and closed it behind the cold snowy mess that entered.

"What nasty weather, eh?" Dunban's mess of hair was freed from his hood. "I'm glad we all arrived in one piece."

"No thanks to furball here." Reyn was apparently the one carrying the box, and Riki was hiding underneath it, probably under the guise of helping to carry it.

"Riki no have Hom Hom legs! Riki no like deep snow!" The Nopon shimmied himself off like a dog.

"Really? Yesterday you were pretending you were a shark in it!" Sharla's tone was both taunting and teasing.

"Yesterday was no wind! Wind make snow not fun!"

"Oh, hush." Even though Fiora's voice was quiet, it was still clearly audible over the storm. "Hello Melia, how're you doing?"

Having finished internally berating herself for dozing off for an hour and a half, Melia responded. "I am fine."

"A little underdressed for the occasion though, aren't you?" Dunban observed as everyone removed their heavy coats.

"I...er..." Melia looked down at her nightgown. While it covered everything below her neck, she was wearing no socks, gloves, or anything else at all, and it had been several decades since her hair had been completely loose in the company of others. With six others in the room, she suddenly felt quite uncomfortably exposed. "I did not expect anyone to attempt journeying through this weather."

"Well, we couldn't exactly wait..." Shulk unlocked the chest, which was now sitting on the table that everyone was sitting around.

Melia assumed this meant bad things. "Why? What has happened? It must be quite serious if you've come all this way in the blizzard."

There was a sort of awkward silence between the visitors. Melia could have sworn she saw Shulk wink at the others before opening the chest; the lid swung towards her and blocked her view of the contents.

"I'd say it's pretty serious", he said. "No way this could wait until tomorrow."

Melia had to work hard to keep her mind under control; it had started coming up with a host of terrible situations, such as New Alcamoth being destroyed, or the world being found to be losing the sun and having winter last forever. She couldn't see what everyone else was doing in the chest, but it seemed to be taking a while.

"You ready?" asked Shulk.

Anxious to hear the bad news, Melia responded a bit more forcefully than intended. "Yes!"

There was a few seconds' pause before all six of the visitors stood up at once.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MELIA!"

Reyn placed a somewhat large cake on the table in front of Melia. It had no words iced onto its surface, instead being covered in intricate designs loosely based on the abstract "89" in the centre. Everyone was wearing a silly hat. Riki blew a noisemaker.

Melia's brain crashed into a brick wall at full speed and blew several fuses. The confusion on her face was evident as she tried to comprehend what was going on.

"C'mon, Melia, don't tell us you forgot your own birthday!" Shulk looked somewhat concerned.

Melia was indeed aware it was her birthday; upon waking up, she had noticed what day it was, reflected on her age a bit, and proceeded to breakfast. That was the extent of her intent to recognise it.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Fiora tilted her head a bit.

Melia shook herself out of her stunned trance. "Forgive me. I was not expecting to participate in a birthday celebration of mine until the age of one hundred." She faintly recalled that when she told Shulk of her birthday six months ago, she had left out this important detail.

Reyn had procured a knife from the box. "Yeah, we heard some of your lot going on about that, how you don't celebrate all your birthdays. But eleven years of us getting presents from you without you getting anything back? That's rubbish! Here, have the first piece o' cake." He placed a corner onto a saucer and pushed it towards her.

"...thank you." Melia started to get up to gather some forks, but Fiora pushed her back down.

"Oh no you don't, silly. You're eating this with your fingers, like the rest of us!"

Melia had nothing to say to this, feeling somewhat defeated by the unexpected turn of events. She carefully rolled up her sleeves and daintily picked up her slice, trying to get the least mess on her fingers as possible. It was an amusing contrast to everyone else, who had no qualms about getting cake all over their hands.

It did not take long for two thirds of the cake to disappear. With everyone's hands washed, Riki flung open the chest once more.

"Presents time! Riki go first!" He extracted a lumpy package from the box and handed it to Melia. It was wrapped in yellow and quite squishy.

Melia hesitated for a moment. In High Entia society, birthday gifts were concealed under a cloth and revealed by the gifter, like a magician displaying the results of his trick. She had gotten used to the Homs tradition of wrapping presents, but had not before had the opportunity to unwrap them. She awkwardly prodded the seams until the contents spilled out onto the table.

It looked like a pair of deep purple socks, though quite large, bent at weird angles, and with drawstrings around the openings. Melia was puzzled.

"Melly try them on!" Riki insisted.

She picked up one of the woolly tubes. If this is indeed a sock, she thought, it is far too big for my feet. And why would a sock require drawstrings?

"Melly is confused."

She put on a half-smile and nodded. "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what these are, Riki."

"Riki make Melly wingmittens! For birdwings! Melly no longer be super-duper-cold outside!"

It took a few seconds for the concept to sink in. Melia looked back down at the "wingmittens". They seem quite heavy. Will I be able to tolerate the sensation of this kind of material surrounding my wings?

"Melly is not try them on."

"Oh, all right." She lifted one of the wingmittens up to her head and started carefully working it around her feathers. It took a few seconds to get it completely wrapped around, at which point the drawstrings were pulled around the base to prevent it from sliding off. Feeling lopsided, she hurried to put the second one on.

It was indeed a strange feeling, similar to what she imagined having heavy earrings would feel like. The wingmittens rested primarily on the tops of the wings, leaving the more sensitive areas mostly untouched. She could feel the heat slowly building up inside, which was uncomfortable at the moment, but would be a relief when outside.

"Melly seems happy!"

Melia nodded. "These should provide excellent protection from the elements in the cold seasons. I appreciate your thoughtfulness." She started removing the wingmittens. "For now, however, they are a bit too hot."

She finished putting the wingmittens aside to find another present being extracted from the chest.

"Here you are." Reyn put the present on the table as he sat back down.

Melia picked it up. She instantly recognised the blue package as a paperback book. Carefully removing the wrapping revealed that it was a book of number puzzles labelled "Sudoku". Melia started curiously flipping through the book, which contained hundreds of unfinished grids.

Reyn explained. "It's some sort of brainteaser they invented last month or so. You gotta fill in all the boxes so no number appears twice in any row, column, or square. Tried it meself, didn't have a clue. But it should keep you busy for a while."

Melia was intrigued. "Sudoku" was a Hightongue word meaning "one of each", and she hadn't had the opportunity to work through this kind of puzzle since she was in school. In addition, it had been too long since she had been graced by the smell of a new book. Most of what Reyn did typically came out of nowhere to surprise her, and this was no exception.

"I will be sure to attempt this later."

Fiora was next. She produced a flat gift about the size of a placemat from the box and handed it to Melia. "Happy birthday!"

Melia could tell this was another painting. Fiora had become quite skilled in the art, with commissions beginning to come in. She removed the pink paper to find the back of the image facing her. She flipped it over.

Oriented portrait-style, the painting had a top half of sky and a bottom half of sea. Floating in the air was New Alcamoth, with a few artistic liberties applied to its planned appearance. Reflected in the water was old Alcamoth, shrunk in size to fit, but no less majestic. Melia was surprised. It had been the better part of a year since anyone had seen or visited the old Alcamoth, yet Fiora had replicated its appearance without any imperfections.

"It's beautiful." She didn't think she needed to say anything more, and would rather avoid doing so in order to keep her emotions in check. Fiora seemed to understand; she simply smiled.

The painting was placed against the back wall as Dunban stepped forward with a heavy package. It was clearly another book, though its weight, size, and feel indicated it was quite old.

Melia's suspicions were correct. It was an ancient tome, bound in leather and inscribed with an illegible hodgepodge of both modern and ancient High Entia scripts. The book was held closed by a strap with a wax seal.

"I have no idea what this is," started Dunban. "I found it at a yard sale in Colony 6 back in October. The seller says their family has had it stashed in their basement for generations, with no one willing to break the seal and look inside. When I showed it to Shulk, he said it was definitely High Entia writing, but he couldn't read it."

"Yeah," Shulk continued. "It's some sort of midpoint script, between the two that we know. We couldn't find anyone who could read it, we'd have to open it and get a bigger sample size to begin decoding it. And we weren't going to open it without your opinion."

Melia nodded; simply staring at the book gave her a curious feeling. "It is certainly a strange item. I can almost feel its plight - as if it wants to be read, but contains that which is not meant to be known." She set it aside, hoping that a more uplifting present was to come.

Sharla handed her a long green box. "Careful, it's fragile."

Melia proceeded with unwrapping the box even slower than her previous presents. Opening up the box, the warning's purpose was clear: it was a handheld brass telescope.

"This should prove exemplary at stargazing." She tried looking at the calendar on the far wall with it, determining that it had a magnification of approximately 10x.

Sharla smiled. "Exactly! You might even find stars that no one has seen before!"

"We shall see." Melia replaced the telescope into the box.

Shulk was the only one left. He wordlessly placed a small box in front of Melia, wrapped in orange.

Melia picked up the gift. It had all the properties of a jewelry box - light yet bottom-heavy, slightly beveled corners, and felt mostly hollow. Removing the paper confirmed this, revealing that the box was a mahogany brown. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this. She was interested in jewelry, yes, but all that she owned was hopelessly overdone and irritatingly obstructive to her movement, and she could never go out and get anything simple without being badgered into something too complex. As a result, she never wore any of her bracelets, necklaces, or rings. On the other hand, this was from Shulk, so it had a high chance of being quite simple - but also cheap or low-quality. On the other other hand, she could feel a strong earthly presence emitting from inside, which was odd since most elemental gems weren't strong enough to be detected so easily amongst the ether of six other people in a small room. Expecting something that she would be underwhelmed with, she opened the box.

Her mouth fell open.

It was a single ring, nothing but a straight band of silver, topped with a tiny earth gem, about half the size of a fingernail, too small to have any practical effect on the wearer. Yet the gem sparkled and shone with more brilliance that any gem had the right to.

"W-w-what is this?!" She plucked the ring out of the box and started looking at the gem from every angle. It was the most impressive stone, jewel or gem, she had ever seen.

Shulk was sitting up straighter than he was usually capable of. "A rank X earth gem."

Melia shook her head. "T-that's impossible. In all her four hundred years, the imperial treasurer maintained that any gem of rank higher than VII is a myth, believed by only the most desperate of miners." She continued staring at the dazzling gem. The sparkle was so strong she felt she was imagining it.

"Well, what rank do you think it is, then?"

Melia considered the question. She had visited the imperial treasury a few times in her life, and while she had set eyes on only a few of the dozens of rank VII gems stored inside, even they had perhaps half the shine of what she was holding. And it would explain the amount of earthly radiance it was emitting.

"If you need proof," Shulk continued, "you can open the bottom layer of the box."

Melia replaced the ring into the fabric before lifting the fabric layer out of the box. At the bottom was a folded piece of paper.

This certificate of authenticity confirms that the Earth Gem contained within this receptacle is of Rank X (10), the highest-quality gem to ever be produced or discovered as of the time of this paper's signing. The text was followed by five signatures, all of which Melia recognised as being experts in the field.

Shulk decided to go over the item's origin. "Two weeks ago we were looking for a good earth crystal deposit, since most of the ones we know about got converted into ice deposits because of the weather. We found an unusually warm cave with a massive earth deposit, but when we started mining, most of it just crumbled to bits. After going through most of it, we found a large crystal chunk that we couldn't break up; we figure it somehow sucked all the integrity out of the rest of the deposit when it formed. After bringing the chunk back home, we threw it in the furnace, and it just started melting into itself until it produced this."

Melia still couldn't quite believe it. During their adventure, the party had gained enough skill to craft a few rank VI gems, which were uncommon even in the imperial treasury. Rank VII gems were quite rare and could only be produced by an expert with ideal conditions and materials, and were used just as often for looks as for function. Over several millennia of attempts and research, it was eventually determined by the High Entia treasurers that gems of rank VIII, IX, or X could not be crafted by mortal hands, if they could even exist at all. Yet here was a rank X gem, certified by the experts as almost certainly a priceless item, given away for free to someone who was not even the most important person in the giver's life.

Melia slowly looked up at Shulk and spoke softly. "There has to be some mistake. I am not fit to receive this from you, or to possess it at all."

"If you think he should give it to me instead, then too bad," Fiora interjected. "I don't like earth gems and I don't like jewelry."

Oh. "Then perhaps it would do more good as the subject of gem research, so-"

"Not gonna happen," Reyn cut in. "I was there when Shulk got it inspected, and once they all finished picking their jaws up off the floor, they all agreed that they'd never conduct science on a one-of-a-kind gem. They say they'd need at least two more to feel okay about it."

"...Could you then not keep it for yourself, Shulk? You were the one who found it, and it is after all your birthstone too; I am certain-"

Shulk grabbed Melia's left hand, took the ring out of the box, and placed it on her ring finger.

"This is yours. Yours. Stop trying to be all unselfish about it."

Melia's mind wasn't particularly interested in listening to Shulk, instead choosing to dwell on how the dream of "he put a ring on my finger" was now a reality. Not exactly with the desired intent, but nonetheless, it had happened.

After a moment's pause, Dunban reached into the chest. "Only one thing left to do now."

Melia broke out of her trance. "Another gift?"

"Not exactly." He began shuffling the deck of cards he had picked up. "We can't just leave after cake and presents, and there's nothing we can do outside in this weather, so let's play some games." He started dealing seven cards to everyone. "I trust you all know Lucky Sevens?"

Everyone murmured in assent and picked up their hands except Melia, who instead replied with a blank stare. While the group had played a few card games together in the past, this was not one of them.

Shulk noticed the stunned look and started to explain. "The goal of the game is to collect three 7s. Every turn, you first have the option to draw a card from either the deck or someone else's hand. Then, you have the option to pick one of your cards and either discard it or give it to someone else. Once you have three 7s, you win. But if you have 14 cards at once, or someone chooses to give you a 7, you lose everything."

"There's a few optional rules," added Dunban, "but let's keep it simple to start with. How about the birthday girl goes first?"

Melia picked up the cards in front of her and looked at their faces: 3, J, 9, another 3, 2, A, and 7. Seeing the last one brought out the competitive smirk.

Games of Lucky Sevens tended to wildly fluctuate in playing time. Sometimes one player started out with a pair of 7s and got a lucky draw from someone else; other times things dragged on as 7s kept being played and recirculated indefinitely. After a couple rounds, more rules were activated; discarding an Ace allowed swapping hands with another player, and a King could be discarded to block a draw from one's hand.

Melia caught on to the game quite quickly, winning the third round in convincing fashion thanks to her unflappable poker face, and was equal with everyone else after that. It hadn't taken her long to learn everyone's tells; Reyn always tilted his head to the left when he thought he had a clever plan, Shulk tightened up when close to winning, and Sharla looked downtrodden when she had no special cards. She decided to keep these advantageous nuggets to herself for now.

After an hour and a half of games, Dunban looked out the window. "This storm's not letting up. We might want to leave while we still can."

There was agreement amongst the other visitors. Packing up the cards, they started putting on their coats.

"Here you are, Melia." Fiora tossed what appeared to be a photograph onto the table.

Melia picked up the black-and-white photo. It was of herself, staring intently at her hand of cards, with her presents on the table beside her and her new ring shining brilliantly on her finger.

"H-how...?"

Fiora giggled and held up an instant camera she had been hiding under the table. "You were focusing so hard on the game, I couldn't resist taking a candid shot."

That explains why she was not paying attention at all in that round, Melia thought.

Everyone was ready to leave. Reyn closed and picked up the chest, not allowing Riki to bum a ride inside it.

"See you later then, I guess. Happy birthday." Shulk was the first one out the door. The others echoed his sentiments as they also walked out into the winter, closing the door behind them.

Melia watched the figures disappear into the blizzard. Turning away from the window, she recalled her last birthday celebration, fourteen years ago. She was turning 75, nearing the end of the 60-80 period of adolescent rebelliousness, yet the party was exactly the opposite - an uptight occasion that might as well have been a formal imperial event. While she wouldn't have minded it now, at the time it was terribly stuffy and overbearing. She didn't even remember what she got for presents that year, which suggested nothing of interest or lasting value was involved. Compared to that, what had just occurred was almost a dream come true. She surveyed her new possessions: one third of a birthday cake, a mysterious ancient book, a telescope, a book of number puzzles, something still wrapped, a painting, a pair of "wingmittens", and a one-of-a-kind ring.

Melia blinked. A still-wrapped present was sitting in her pile of gifts. It was wrapped in red and about twenty centimetres cubed; it was also quite light, and rattled when she moved it. She looked down at Fiora's photograph again - it was not there, meaning it had to have been added late.

Wondering if it could be from Shulk, as some sort of joke or light-hearted revenge for her secret gift to him six months ago, she began unwrapping it. The box was patterned in a curious, seemingly-random collection of blue triangles, and radiated a weak but unusually familiar aura. She opened the top.

For the second time that day, her mouth fell open. And this time, it was accompanied by tears.

It was a High Entia dreamcatcher. It looked like it had been waterlogged for thousands of years; while its circular frame was only lightly rusted due to its unique composition, the strings were terribly frayed and snapped in multiple locations, the accompanying gems laying scattered inside the box. Yet even in its disrepair, she recognised it as the very same dreamcatcher that had hung in her bedchambers for most of her life.

Overcome with both joy and disbelief, Melia saw a note in the box, and quickly started reading it.

Hello, Melia. You are no doubt quite surprised by that which you have discovered in this gift, and would likely desire an explanation.

As you may know, the corpses of Telethia take less time to be reduced to unrecognisability if they are submerged in water as opposed to air. As a result, when the new world was created, I established that the ruins of Alcamoth have been beneath the sea for approximately four thousand years, enough to ensure that no society that lives in this world can ever find evidence of the creatures' existence. I am sure you would agree that, given how very little in the way of information or technology has been lost, this was the best option.

However, approximately a month ago, Shulk approached me with an intriguing question: whether any artifacts of sentimental value to you remained in the old city. Somewhat curious myself, I ventured to find out. I hope that I do not disappoint you too much in saying that the vast majority of your old possessions are either beyond repair or nonexistent. However, I did locate the dreamcatcher you see in front of you, in a condition that surprised even myself. While we do not know whether it is complete, Shulk seemed quite pleased with my efforts and requested I document what you read now.

I wish you the best.

Alvis

A bunch of new thoughts and feelings came to Melia. She had always suspected that Alvis looked out for her more than he let on, but not enough that he dig into the past to find something that Shulk could present to her. Questions such as "How did he swim that far down?" and "Why use the phrase 'I wish you the best'?" were kept for later.

Melia carefully lifted the frame out of the box. The rust didn't look very difficult to remove, and the strings could easily be replaced. She cast her mind all the way back to her 20th birthday, when she had originally received the dreamcatcher. She couldn't remember much about it, but did dimly recall that it did help with her bad dreams at the time. She could certainly have used it over the past year; even now, she would deal with unpleasant nightmares on a semi-regular basis.

Becoming excited, Melia dashed to her room and retrieved some string and a dream interpretation book, which contained instructions on how to weave a dreamcatcher web. It was not as complex as she had first expected, but would still be a challenge.

The rust on the frame was indeed surprisingly easy to remove, requiring nothing more than a soapy toothbrush and a decent amount of effort. Melia wondered whether Shulk or Alvis had cleaned it up a little beforehand.

Beginning the web, she took the necessary gems out of the box: six triangular stones, one of each element, representing her father's name. The gems would be placed at specific locations in the web, directing incoming dreams to the centre.

It was an arduous process. Melia did not have much experience at crafting objects, and many times had to back up or start over entirely. But like everything she did, she resolved to see it through to the end. After several tiring hours, the web was complete.

Melia paused to make supper: hot soup. While sipping, she opened the sudoku book and completed all the "Tutorial" puzzles plus two "Easy" ones, making only one mistake along the way. After having a slice of cake (with a fork), she got back to work.

The second part was significantly easier than the first, consisting of strings hanging from the bottom of the frame, from which the good dreams would drip down onto the sleeper. Each of the five dripstrings had a round gem, representing her own name, and were again all of different elements. The tricky part was making each dripstring the correct length, having to account for the differing widths and necessary positions of the gems. It took several rejects, but not too much time for everything to line up properly.

Melia held up the near-complete dreamcatcher. It looked just as she remembered it, though without the crucial final ingredient. She reached inside the box to collect the final gem, which would be placed inside the centre of the web and hang weightlessly, acting as the focal point of the entire construction.

The box was empty. The focal gem was missing. Even though Alvis's note had warned that it might be incomplete, Melia was thrown for a loop. The most important and least-replaceable gem was missing, and it threw a huge damper on her spirits.

While the other gems could be of any quality as long as they were shaped correctly and of the correct elements, the rank of the focal gem was paramount to the dreamcatcher's functionality. When the young Melia was first given the dreamcatcher, it was centred by a rank III earth gem. But as she grew older and her mind grew stronger, the focal gem was unable to keep pace, and had to be upgraded at various points in her life to keep the stronger nightmares away. After entering adulthood, not even a secretly-appropriated rank VII gem was enough to protect her from bad dreams.

I shall have to go out tomorrow to find a suitable gem, she thought. But if Shulk was looking for new deposits, there must be a shortage, so I cannot expect to find anything of high qual...

Melia's line of thought trailed off. A different thought was trying to assert itself from the back of her mind. She slowly looked down at her left hand.

Shulk probably hasn't even realised what he's done.

She slowly removed the ring from her finger and placed it inside the dreamcatcher. The brilliantly-shining rank X gem began hovering in the centre. Within a few seconds, all the other gems started glowing with similar intensity.

Melia wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She never would have guessed that her favourite present of the day would be a combination of something that she had already owned and something that she did not think could exist. Heck, when the day began, with the blizzard and forgetting that her birthday was not a secret, she never could have guessed that anything birthday-related whatsoever would be happening.

Melia carried the completed dreamcatcher to her bedroom. With the ceiling being inconveniently high, she stuck an unused ruler under a book on the shelf above the pillows and hung the dreamcatcher on it. This should both function correctly and be easily accessible for whenever I wish to wear the ring, she thought.

She started bringing the other presents into the bedroom. The telescope was placed on the shelf next to the astrology books. The sudoku book was put on the desk on top of the sealed book. The wingmittens were hung on the hook on the inside of the door. The painting was propped up next to the desk; she was not yet sure where its permanent home would be.

It was not yet seven o'clock, but Melia was satisfyingly tired. She used the washroom and flopped into bed, falling asleep instantly.

The dream began as it always did. Melia was lying on her front on the terrace of Prison Island, weak from battle. She looked around to see all six of her companions unconscious on the ground, three on either side of her. Lying in front of her were the corpse of her father and the feathers of her brother. She began to cry.

"What's the matter, princess? Not interested in being the last one standing?"

Melia looked backwards. Mumkhar was standing in front of Metal Face on the other half of the terrace, both with their arms crossed in the most taunting manner he could think of. He was surrounded by various other foes of her past.

"You know it's over as much as they do," drawled Dickson. "Just keep your pretty head down and let it end."

"So terribly misguided," Lorithia chimed in. "As if you hope to accomplish something with your pitiful lives."

"If you cannot even challenge these lesser beings," stated Zanza, "what can you hope to accomplish against he who created them?"

The Telethia simply roared, but it projected Yumea's voice into Melia's mind. "You are a stain on the throne, an aberration of the perfect, all that is wrong with our society!"

The insults were different each time the dream came to pass, but the tone of mockery was always the same. They never made to attack; they simply kept taunting her until she attacked in a rage, which they would simply block and parry with little effort until she collapsed and woke up.

Melia was about to put her head back down on the ground and cry some more when she felt something...different, something that wasn't supposed to be there. She looked around until she found it: the ring on her finger, brilliantly dazzling as always. Merely looking at it gave her a mental boost.

Still shaking and leaning on her staff, Melia slowly got to her feet and turned to face the enemy, with determination on her face.

Mumkhar let out a mock gasp of surprise. "Well, well, well. So you've still got some fight left in you after all!" He sneered as the Mechon suit behind him scraped its claws together; each of its "fingers" seemed to be covered in a different colour of blood. "So c'mon then, give it to us, princess! I'll let you have your fun trying to put a dent in me, and then it'll be my turn to see how soft you really are!"

Something in Melia's heart, growing ever stronger, told her to break her silence. "If you wish to speak with me, it will be by my name, Melia Antiqua!"

"I don't care what your name is. None of us care what any of you are called! Because once you're dead and forgotten from history, it doesn't really matter, now does it?"

The gem on Melia's ring was sparkling even stronger than before. She could feel it acting as a source of positive energy, giving her the strength to stand freely again and funneling her anger away from mindless action.

Something that Shulk had once said surfaced at the front of her mind, and she acted on it. "History will record the pain and suffering you inflicted on my people and your own people, and paint you as the most depraved being to have ever lived!"

Mumkhar waved his hand dismissively. "The winners write the history books! You're just an insignificant bump on the road to victory!"

A huge surge of energy flowed out of Melia's ring and into her body. Acting on instinct, she jammed her staff into the floor. A massive shadow erupted from it and turned the world pitch black, with nothing visible except herself and her six foes. With Shadow Stitch normally having a much more tame effect, she recognised that the ring was granting her immense power.

The antagonists were confused by the sudden darkness and began to mobilise. But Melia was already making her next move, summoning six different elementals all at once, each representing her fallen companions.

"You will KNOW our NAMES!" She fired one elemental at each opponent, each one searing or cutting the name of the related friend into the foe's skin. She could feel the ether in her body ignite from the power, unleashing a polychromatic aura.

"You will LEARN our PAIN!" Thrusting her staff into the air, she unleashed a blast of energy that enveloped everything in sight. While Burst End normally did not cause direct damage, it was clear that her enemies took a major blow from the attack. Melia held up her left fist, the ring on top now glowing with a blinding light.

"And you will FEEL. MY. SUFFERING!"

Already an immensely powerful technique, the Mind Blast loosed from Melia's left hand was magnified to unimaginable levels, unloading incredible amounts of damage into its screaming victims and breaking the effects of Shadow Stitch. She could feel the power slowly leaving her body, leaving her feeling completely average once the attack ran its course.

One by one, her foes dissolved into smoke and floated away on the wind.

Melia woke with a start. It was dark, and the storm outside was quiet if not over. She was feeling slightly chilly, laying on top of her blankets instead of under them.

She opened her eyes. The dreamcatcher was glowing like a nightlight, spinning slowly. The ring's gem was not emitting light, but reflecting the light from the other gems in a kaleidoscopic display.

Melia retreated under the covers and shut her eyes, thinking of the dream she had just completed. She had expected the powered-up dreamcatcher to simply ward off the bad dreams, but instead it dove inside and gave her the power to change the outcome herself. Essentially taking revenge on her nightmares was quite the satisfying experience. She wondered if this particular dream would return for another fight, or if it had been vanquished forever.

Melia went back to sleep, eager to see what kind of dream she would encounter next: a pleasant one, or a challenger.