Chapter 4

Hayden tossed and turned in his basement bedroom, alone in the dark.

Every child spent their later years dreaming about this moment, when they finally got to come into their own and grow up for real. Most families threw parties for their kids when they settled, which usually marked the passage from childhood into their teenage years. 

He still remembered Ellie's party two years ago. Mom and Dad had done several extra projects for a few bakers in town, so they could get enough food for all the kids on the town side to come and celebrate. 

There was no party for Hayden, though. Nobody had even suggested Hayden would get his moment, not even under the pretense of an eevee.

Of course, despite his father's insistence that he learn to change into something else, Liz hadn't managed any new powers that night. She was still a kitten, radiating that same shame that Hayden felt. Their special day was nothing special after all.

"What were we supposed to do?" Liz whispered to him, as hurt as he felt. Usually she slept on his pillow, but tonight she curled up inside his shirt, searching for comfort as desperately as he was. "Lose Ellie's medicine? Or pretend we were something else and accept being a lie?"

The answers might be yes, if he asked his parents. Hayden wasn't quite brave enough to try. "They're… scared about different things than we are," he whispered. "But they'll get used to us. We won't have to pretend forever."

"You don't know that," she argued. "What if we never fly again? Do we have to let the other kids beat us up?"

He had no answer—she was only asking the same questions that already tormented him. 

Then something changed. Liz felt it first, but she shared it with Hayden almost instantly. She'd felt something from the other basement bedroom.

He sat suddenly upright. Liz poked out of his nightshirt, then up into the air. "Ellie's awake," she whispered.

It worked that fast? 

Hayden knew nothing about the medicine he'd snatched, or anything else his parents were giving her. At least there was some small part of his misadventure that turned out the way he hoped.

He hurried to the door, peeking out into the gloom. There were no lights on downstairs, no light except for a single street-level window near the stairs, letting a little curtain of orange onto the floor. It was enough for Liz to see, which meant enough for him to follow. So long as he stepped where she flew, he wouldn't bump into anything.

The other door wasn't far. Beside it, Evelynn sat in a folding chair, wrapped in a blanket and slumped sideways against the wall. She snored quietly, asleep. The door to Ellie's room was already open. Inside, his sister was sitting up now, clutching her daemon close to her chest. Fresh bandages covered her arm and leg. Most dramatically, the smell of rot and death were gone, replaced with the stink of antiseptic.

She looked around, bleary-eyed. 

Hayden stopped beside her bed, taking her unbandaged hand in both of his. "Hey Ellie," he whispered. "How are you feeling?"

Her eyes glazed past Liz hovering in the air, and finally settled on him. "Thirsty," she croaked, sounding like her daemon hadn't been watered in days. "Please."

He scanned the room a second, before finding the pitcher of water they'd been dripping to her over the last few days. He poured it into an empty glass, then offered it to her. "Here."

She took it in shaky fingers, and drained it. She drained another glass almost as quickly, before settling back against her headboard, looking distant. "How… long?"

"Two days," he answered. "Maybe a little longer. You had a bad fever for a while there. Dad bought some stuff, but didn't have enough for… we found some. I think Evelynn's outside, want me to get her?"

Ellie hesitated. "How'd you hear me?"

"Didn't," he answered, tapping the side of his head. "Hear you thinking. It's a little different, but not. I'm getting used to it."

Leafeon hopped out of her lap, watching him from the bedside. His eyes followed the kitten through the air in a way Ellie still couldn't. "What are you?" he asked. Even without sharing any of Ellie's physical ailments, her daemon still sounded almost as sick. "I don't think I… how are you flying like that?"

"Mew," she said, landing on the bed in front of him, and letting the leafeon sniff at her. Hayden kept his distance from the exchange, so his hand wouldn't brush the leafeon by mistake. 

"Really?" he asked. "How?"

"Dunno," she answered. "But we like it. We're gonna stay this way."

Ellie yawned, stretching both arms. "Thanks for being here, Hayden. I'm… think I'm going back to sleep now." She did, not long after finishing that sentence. Her daemon curled up at her feet, and was soon unconscious too.

Liz landed on his shoulder a second later. "Can you feel it?"

He could. It wasn't the smell of death that had bothered him most before. It was the sensation of someone dying, a rot so deep it filled the air. Except he couldn't feel it anymore. "Yeah."

"You still don't care what happens, as long as Ellie's okay?"

"Yeah."

Hayden turned to retreat from his sister's bedroom, back into the darkened hallway. He found Evelynn had one eye open, no longer snoring. Her daemon now sat up on her lap, almost at eye-level with them.

"You settled during your fight, didn't you?" Timeltek asked.

Liz nodded. "Or we would've lost Ellie's medicine."

The espeon caught Liz out of the air with his forelegs—not quite as gently as Hayden would've done. But pokémon had always been a little rougher with each other. Before Hayden could react, the espeon hopped to the ground, holding Liz helpless in his mouth. Then he licked her, with all the nurturing affection a feline was capable of. Liz's own sensations were strange to Hayden, but he didn't have to understand them. To the kitten, it was more comforting than any hug—the first physical affection they'd felt since returning home.

He started crying again, silently. Evelynn wrapped one arm around his shoulder, and held him there in the dark until he stopped. "You did good," she whispered. "Whatever happens tomorrow—whether you're ever an eevee or not—you did good."

He wasn't sure what happened next. He must've fallen asleep at some point, because Hayden woke up in his own bed. For a few, blessed seconds of delirium, he was conscious of nothing but the warmth he remembered from the night before. The tears were gone, the soreness of yesterday's fights were gone, and he felt safe.

Then he woke up enough to realize what he was hearing. Pounding on the shop door. It must be early if they had to make such a big deal about getting in—Mom always opened by eight. 

"Get dressed," Liz whispered into his ear. "Something's happening. It's about us."

He did. Without prompting from Liz, he chose his nicest things, the trousers and white shirt he wore to church every winter when the whole family went. Not the tie or the coat, because that just made him feel silly. Hayden hated wearing ties.

He was only just finishing when he heard feet on the stairs. Not stomping police, though—his mom. He knew her footsteps even without Liz to confirm in his mind. Seconds later, he heard her tapping nervously on his door. "Hayden, the mayor wants to see you."

"The… what?" 

She opened the door, glancing at him. He couldn't tell if that was relief on her face, or dread. "Oh, you're already dressed. Good." She stepped in, then shut the door behind her, lowering her voice. "Hayden, Ahuiliztli. If you're able to change into anything else, now's the time. You won't get another chance."

Liz landed on Hayden's arm. She strained, so painfully that even Hayden felt it. She was reaching for something—but the way an unsettled daemon could change between pokémon just wasn't available to her. No matter how hard she stretched, nothing happened to them.

After a few seconds, she sprawled limply over his arm, defeated. Even Hayden was panting, when he spoke for her. "We… can't," he admitted. "It hasn't even been one day! Moves take time, and we didn't have a teacher, we—"

Mom put a gentle hand on his shoulder, silencing him. "It's okay, kit. Just come with me. We'll have to talk to him."

They ascended the steps together, with Hayden moving as slow as he thought they could. Liz floated up to his shoulder, but didn't actually land there. She mostly hovered, watching from close by as they ascended the steps, then rounded the corner into the shop.

As Hayden expected, it was still early—early enough that the shop wasn't open, and the lights were all out. That didn't stop it from looking busier than he'd ever seen. A half-dozen policemen stood along the walls, watching. They didn't have their weapons drawn at least, and they weren't trashing the shop. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad.

Hayden knew Mayor Volkner by his fancy blue jacket, modeled on many of the captain's coats that were worn across the world. A towering luxray sat just behind him, blocking the exit door. It surveyed the room with a similar expression to the policemen—harsh, watchful, intense.

His father stood opposite the assembled group. That was where Mom took Hayden. Dad rested one hand on his shoulder, and Mom on the other. That meant Liz had to float away, dodging their grip to hover just in front of him, as though she intended to stop this group all on her own.

"So it's true," Volkner said, amazed. "I had a half-dozen witnesses, but I still questioned. A real mew. Step forward, son. I need to have a look at you."

Hayden looked over his shoulder, and his father nodded. "Do as he says. We're good citizens in this family, haven't I taught you that?"

Hayden crossed the familiar shop, between racks and shelves of clothes he'd cleaned a thousand times. It was only a few feet, but it felt like miles. Liz landed on his shoulder again, her tail curling around his neck. But her grip was soft, she wasn't constricting him.

One of the policemen swore under his breath. Volkner silenced him with a glare. "You're settled, aren't you son? Can't change anymore?"

They both nodded. "Tried," he said. "But we can't. It's what we are."

"What you are is a credit to all of Sunyshore City! Miracles like this happen once a generation. Yet here you are, in my city. At your age, you can't know the significance of what you've just done—but one day, when you're an important member of a Great Family, I hope you remember your roots. Come and visit your humble home in Sunyshore, won't you?"

"Visit my…" He trailed off, glancing nervously behind him. His parents stood by the stairs, watching him tearfully. Seconds later, Evelynn emerged from downstairs, with Timeltek just behind her. She took one look at what was happening, then scurried over to join their parents.

"I don't understand," Hayden said. "I'm not from a Great Family. I live here. I love my family."

"Such humility," Volkner said, barely listening. "I'm sure you do. But when something like this happens, son—you've been noticed. Your family loves you, but there's only so much they can do to care for a person like you. Do you have any idea what that daemon can do? You could hurt them without meaning to—hurt a lot of people. You need instruction only the Great Families can provide. That's why Shaymin House, and the rulers of every region, have us watch for special children like yourself."

He started crying again. He'd been doing that a lot lately. "B-but—" It hadn't even been one day. One day, and they already found him. They already wanted to rip him away. "When?"

"Now," the mayor said. "Well, not this moment exactly. The first train to Gracidea arrives in two hours. You'll have a whole car to yourself, won't that be fun?"

No, he thought. But how could he argue, with all those angry police watching his family. If he said no, would they get hurt?

Dad turned, pointing at the stairs. "Evelynn, take your brother downstairs. Help him pack his things."

"You won't need much," Volkner said. "Shaymin House has wealth we can scarcely imagine from our humble positions. They will replace everything you own and more. Focus instead on sentimental items—anything you wish to remember this period in your life. You shouldn't need more than a single change of clothes to get you to Gracidea."

"Yes, Father." Evelynn took Hayden by the hand, dragging him towards the steps. "C'mon, kit. Let's get your things."

He cried all the way down.