Chapter 30

That next week passed in a blur. Once Hayden learned what was planned, it didn't matter what else happened after that—nothing could take her mind from the prospect of seeing her family again.

Even fear over the purpose of that meeting couldn't phase her. So maybe there was a boy in another region who thought she was a princess. Maybe when she was older, they would give her away and expect her to do whatever noble ladies did for their husbands.

But none of those heavy responsibilities would find her yet. She could handle a few conversations with some important pokémon. It didn't matter if everyone else was afraid of Mew House—the idea of meeting another of her own kind only filled her with curiosity.

There was no replacement tutor, though Lady Gracidea did inform her that a replacement teacher would be found by the time of her return.

"I believe Mew House may be appointing someone," the shaymin said. "They will be returning with you. I suggest you find another way to resolve your disputes with them when your lessons begin. If the family rejects you…" 

She didn't need to finish that thought. Her daemon's harsh eyes told her everything she needed to know.

"I will," she promised, as humble and obedient as she could be. It would only take one word from the lady of the house, and their route would change, robbing her of this chance. She would not jeopardize such an opportunity. "Do you think it might be Ilene? She's a great teacher!"

Lady Gracidea laughed. "As if I needed more proof you had a death wish, mew child." She left, chuckling smugly to herself.

Hayden spent plenty of her free time in the shrine, practicing with Maylene.

"You aren't required to come here anymore," she said, on their first visit. "You've reached the Unity that Shaymin House requires. Your work is finished."

Hayden dropped lower, in the bow customarily exchanged between students and teacher. "I am not here because of duty," she said. "I'm here because Liz and I realize how unprepared we are to face the world of the Great Houses."

She dared peek up at Maylene, long enough to see her neutral mask falter. But her discipline was too great to read her feelings, not without pushing against her defenses.

"How did you win against Mrs. Boylston?" her sensei asked. "I didn't teach you to fight like that. Her daemon was mighty."

Hayden kept her head down, saying nothing. Unfortunately, her daemon was a kitten. She slipped out of her dress, floating over to her. "We used what the ancestors taught us. The… sacred shaymin of the northern wilds, or… I dunno. Havalina seemed like she wanted a pokémon to teach, but no one had come out there from the manor in a long time."

Maylene's mask of emotional neutrality shattered, leaking shock and wonder. It took her a little longer to reply. "Perhaps you don't need me. If the ancestors accept you, their wisdom goes far beyond mine. They have found oneness with their daemons. They have Unity I never will."

"We will," Hayden said. "We wanted to—" but she probably shouldn't admit to that. She wanted to take Eleanor to meet those Shamin. If she could get them to accept her, maybe she would feel a little less self-conscious around her mom. "But we want to learn from you, too."

Maylene stood up, looking away from her. "You should have had much more time. After a decade of study, your evolution would be a sacred experience, not torture. You deserve a finer sensei than I. I knew what Lady Gracidea wished for you, and I taught you anyway. I deserve no forgiveness."

Hayden rose. She floated up into the air, settling her legs roughly under her. "If you refused, the lady of the house would've found someone else. Your replacement wouldn't be as good as you. Then Liz and I would be dead, instead of just girls."

"I was already a girl," the mew squeaked.

"But we're not ordering you. Even if we could… we'd just like to keep practicing. If you could train us for a few hours a week, we would be very grateful."

She bowed, just as Maylene had always expected in the shrine after each of their lessons. "If you'll have us."

She wasn't sure exactly how long it took her sensei to finally answer. Eventually, she did. "You have learned what is easy, Hayden. If you continue to study here, your growth will come much slower. As it does, you will forfeit little pieces of your humanity. You and your daemon will become more alike."

"We know," the mew said, before she could. "That's for the best. She has to float her weight sooner or later."

Hayden glared sidelong at her, but the kitten floated in a loop at that exact moment, so she wasn't even looking in her direction. No way that wasn't intentional.

"Then you may continue to practice. For now, once a week. Too much meditation tends to try the patience of the young. There will be other things—but there is a wide gulf you must cross first."

The next day, Hayden slipped out of the house, dodging the guards to escape into the trees. For once, she didn't go looking for Cody. On her last visit, something had pulled her, demanding that she go hunting for the strange pokémon. Neither of them felt that attraction just then, and so they didn't go.

They did fly north, into the glaciers and the wild. They explored for a time, until they found a large stretch of red flowers—and a handful of shaymin.

"Not pink," said Havalina, tackling Liz right out of the air, and holding her down. "Kittens don't get to learn from us. Sprouts do. Kittens need to bring offerings."

It didn't hurt—even so, Hayden shared her daemon's fear and discomfort at being trapped. 

“We can't forget that they're dangerous,” Liz thought. “They were nice to us, but people who come out here sometimes don't come back.” 

She was beginning to see a trend from the mythical pokémon she encountered. They were cute, but they were also powerful, and sometimes cruel.

As soon as her daemon turned green, Havalina let her go. "We did bring an offering, Havalina." Hayden reached into her pocket, holding up the pack of expensive chocolate. So expensive that her family had probably not even seen a box of it before. "But we would still like your wisdom, if you will share it."

"Chocolate?" Someone else appeared from the underbrush—a land forme shaymin. Mara. "Constantine finally remembers we exist."

Hayden dropped to her knees in the soft grass and shrugged out of the jacket. Despite their mythical stature, the two pokémon each accepted chocolate from her fingers. She was still too nervous to touch them on her own, in case she accidentally crossed some sacred boundary she hadn't learned about yet. She couldn't exactly ask her adoptive mother, who probably didn't want her out here to begin with.

"She allows me to visit," Hayden said. That was technically true, in the sense that she hadn't been forbidden yet. Not an endorsement, but she probably wasn't going to get anything better. "Something is about to happen to me… I hoped I could get your advice. Everyone else who talks to us just tells us to be terrified, and that doesn't seem right."

The honored ancestors didn't say more, until the packet was empty, and they could recline in the grass. 

"We hear your plea," Havalina finally said, hopping up onto a stump beside her. "Why has the sprout come, if not to learn?"

"We do want to learn!" she began. "But we can't stay the night. We have to take a train tomorrow morning, because… we're meeting with Mew House."

She changed back into herself, so smoothly that she barely even thought about it. But returning to her correct shape was always the easy part. Liz was already in her lap. "Lady Gracidea is giving us away to the Johto Mews. Betrothed to their heir. We're going to meet the Eldest and get his approval or whatever."

The sky-forme shaymin floated into the air beside her, looking sympathetic. "Eldest. He used to be more fun. But he has been trapped for so long in two pieces that he's turned old and bitter. He might take out that anger on you, if you give him reason."

"How do we make sure we… don't?" Liz asked. "We don't want to die. Maybe we thought about it for a little while, after the Guru came. But we've made up our mind. There's too much to experience to give up."

"Can we make him like us?" Hayden finished.

The two old shaymin took a few steps away from them, whispering together. Hayden couldn't make out what they were saying, just a series of indistinct whispers.

Then Havalina took off again, hovering in the air right in front of her. "Mew are hard to predict. Cats don't make up their mind—do they want inside, or out? Are they excited, or bored? What body will they use today? Hard to know what he will think about you."

"But Mew House hates one thing more than anything else," Mara said, her voice a timid squeak from the underbrush. "Don't lie. Don't tell him what he wants to hear, don't pretend you're something you aren't. That's—the difference, between a mew and a ditto. There's no masquerade, you must be what you imagine."

Hayden stiffened, her grip tightening around the little mew in her lap. "B-but… but I'm not a noble. I don't belong in his world. I'm only there because Lady Gracidea is making me."

Something smacked into her, crushing her to the ground with sudden, painful force. A pair of paws pressed down on her shoulders—Havalina, with his teeth up against her throat. Apparently, he wasn't afraid to touch her after all. He growled, his voice low and dangerous. "The kitten lies. He would do more than this if you told him that."

Hayden whimpered, releasing her grip on Liz. The little kitten wiggled free, floating near Havalina. But she didn't attack yet. Neither of them knew yet what that would mean. If the ancestors were people, it would be unthinkable for a daemon to attack one. But if they weren't, then it would be perfectly normal to fight.

They seemed to think it was okay to attack them, anyway. "I'm not a noble! I'm telling the truth!"

Claws pressed into her shoulder, hard enough that one pierced the skin, and a little blood seeped out onto her blouse. "You were born common," Havalina said. "But you are not common. We saw what Camael did. You are a child, and yet you live."

He hopped off her shoulder, and into her lap. Hayden winced, massaging the painful spot on her chest. It wasn't an attack—the shaymin could kill her if he wanted to. "You must not lie," he said again. "If you are uncertain, say nothing. Be you, and not another."

"And maybe—worry about the boy?" Mara added. "You're going to be his wife, not the Eldest's. If he likes you, he'll be the only ally you need."

She whimpered, pulling her knees up to her chest. Havalina hopped off as she moved, circling through the air again. "Arceus only knows how to do that. I don't like boys. I don't know how to make a boy like me, either." Yet as she said it, she realized that only the latter statement was true. There was one boy, or maybe a girl, or maybe both. One person who she liked without caring how masculine or feminine they were.

But the shaymin didn't attack her again. They couldn't read minds, not like mew did. "You're too little for that to matter," Havalina said. "Love is only a minor part of a noble betrothal. The kitten will not be thinking of siring an heir. He will wonder if he enjoys your company, if you entertain him, if he can trust you. Like his parents, he will know your deception no matter how powerful you think your mental defenses are. Make him an ally, and you will survive his father."

"Assuming I don't see the Eldest first," Hayden muttered, defeated. 

"You won't," Mara said, without hesitation. "There are customs here. The steward will take you into their home, the mother will dine with you. You will spend one day with your betrothed and leave at sundown, so you aren't tempted with foul thoughts. Then the father will see you the next day and judge your performance. He will decide how long you will remain at their household. Hopefully he sends you back. I want an offering of cheese next. Remember cheese?"

"Of course, I remember cheese," Havalina snapped. "But we might not see you for a while. The Eldest has been known to…"

"Duel people to the death," she finished, lamely. "Even a little girl?"

"It hasn't happened to a child before," Havalina said. "But it could, if you anger him enough. He might order you to stay for… a year and one day, at the most. But then he would be forced to let you return to us."

Mara nudged up against her leg, until she finally lowered it. Then she climbed up into Hayden's lap. "We would visit if that happened. Fly over with some friends. I've wanted to fly for a few decades now."

"You always say that."

"Thanks," she sniffed. "When I get back, do you think I could… bring Eleanor with me? Lady Gracidea's only daughter. She's… I think it would mean a lot to her to get to meet you. Her mom treats her like a servant. But she has been there for me since I got here, even if she doesn't want to admit it."

"If she brings you back," Havalina said. "You may bring her. We will judge whether she is fit to return."

"Ditto."

"If she could not make up her mind, she should have been a kitten instead." Havalina picked up Mara in his mouth, then settled her up onto his back. The little one didn't seem to mind—maybe this was how they usually got around. "But she would not be the first child of our house who settled wrong. Perhaps we may teach her, as we teach you. Two pretend sprouts might add up to one real one."

"If only…" 

And just like that, the two mythicals left them, floating off into the forest. Hayden knew better than to try and follow them.