Chapter 32

It wasn't as easy as Hayden anticipated to convince Holland to take her home. With every minute they spent arguing, she lost another minute she could've spent with her family. So, she threatened to teleport straight there, and he finally caved.

The honored ancestors had beat the danger of deception into her—but that only applied to Mew House. Eevee house only had two members who could do that.

Of course, she was disguised, so she couldn't sense the resentment and anger radiating from him during their walk back. But she could still hear it in his voice as they left the hotel and see it in the way his umbreon kept giving Liz dirty looks.

"I know how strong you think you are, Hadie. But there are dangerous people out there. The house has enemies that you can't understand. They would do things—no one your age should even think about. I can't do my job to keep you safe if you go over my head."

Her disguise was working. Once they were past the hotel, it was only Holland who attracted attention. His uniform gave him status, but that tail and ears marked him as someone blessed by the great families. He had powers that went beyond any weapon he carried.

"I know you're right. But there’s being safe, and there's hiding from our family. We aren't in danger there."

And she was right—or right enough that they faced no risk. Hayden heard the voices of her friends, saw them playing on the rooftops in the warehouse district—but she couldn't get away to join them, not with Holland watching her.

Then they came to her family's old building. Or—where it had been. The walls were painted now, the broken window fixed, and a new chimney rose from the side of the building. Smoke ascended from within, carrying the smell of familiar food. And just outside it, near the entrance of their shop, was the shrine.

It was a small statue, about the size of a stuffed toy. A bronze mew, curled up on a plinth as though she was asleep.

Hayden slowed as they passed, reading the simple inscription. "Here, a legend was born. May he bless every child of Sunyshore"

There were numberless paper tags tied to the fence behind it. And on each one, a prayer.

The shop doors were closed at this hour, the door already locked. Holland lifted one hand to start knocking, but Hayden stopped him. Liz approached the door, then wedged her ribbons through the crack. She unlocked it, and the door opened.

"Breaking into your own house?" Eleanor asked. It didn't sound much like her. Eevee were small, and she couldn't look at one without feeling protective. Even if the girl's familiar sarcasm was undimmed by her transformation. "Don't they know you're coming?"

"Yeah," she shot back. "I mean, Hudson does. I told him during the parade. I guess everyone else was back here at the shop."

"You didn't," Holland said. "I saw him in the crowd. You went straight to the carriage, like you were supposed to."

As a sylveon, she had no way of demonstrating, so she could only settle for the simple answer. "It was telepathy. You know, like Evelynn can do." 

They stepped inside. Holland lingered by the door, locking everything up behind them. But something ahead of them drew Hayden's attention—a set of light footfalls down the stairs, two at a time. 

Ellie appeared around the corner, peeking out from behind the “employees only” doorway. Hayden waved, beaming at her. "Ellie! You're okay!"

Her sister froze, stuck somewhere between recognition and confusion. Her daemon poked out from behind her, advancing on Liz. They passed each other, with Liz rubbing up against him the way they always used to greet family.

The leafeon tilted his head to one side, bewildered. "Ahuiliztli? They told us you were a myth now, not…"

"We are," the sylveon answered. "But we wanted to belong. This is how we were supposed to be."

More footsteps from the space overhead, then her dad's voice. "Is someone down there, sweetheart?"

She looked back. "Hayden." She stepped out from around the corner, staring. Her eyes moved from Hayden's chest to her hair, then the hem of her dress. "Mom says you got my medicine. When I couldn't wake up."

"I hope she didn't tell you I stole it. I did, but I hope she didn't tell you."

Ellie wrapped her arms around her and squeezed. "How are you back?"

She couldn't fight her tears—the battle was lost before she even started. "Just to visit. I leave in the morning. But I have another sister now—this is her! Ellen. She's been taking care of me at Shaymin House since I got there."

"Against my better judgment," she muttered. But the usual venom just wasn't there.

Ellie let go. "It's not a disguise. You are a girl." 

She nodded. "Y-yeah."

"Did it hurt?"

"Yeah."

Her father appeared in the doorway. He was somehow smaller than Hayden remembered, with a few more gray hairs visible on his usual vibrant head. He looked from Hayden to Holland, then the eevee. "Hudson told us you were coming," he said. 

He dropped to one knee in front of her, so they were almost at eye level. "He said the shaymin had you dressed like one of the ancient mew priestesses."

"Don't pin that on me," Eleanor snapped, with as little restraint as ever. But when she was the heir of a Great House, she could talk to its servants however she wanted. Except their tutors. "My mother demanded the costume. The Johto Mews are so backwards. The Eldest might be upset if they saw her interacting with commoners in their clothing."

Would he really? Hayden's curiosity mixed with sudden fear. Her dad was a loving man—but firm. He expected children to treat him with more respect than Eleanor had.

Hayden stepped hastily in front of her, resting one arm around her shoulder. "Dad, you should know who she's talking about. That's…"

"Nobody," Eleanor said, loudly. "I'm just one of her friends. Another kid who settled wrong."

He looked to Holland, then jolted back into a standing position. "Holland, welcome home. Are my eyes…" He reached up, touching the empty space above his head.

He saluted—but not her father. He was saluting Hayden. "I've been promoted to Shaymin House's personal guard. We are given a divine blessing in their service, and power to fight the region's enemies. I'm accompanying Lady Hayden to Johto for a diplomatic meeting with Mew House."

Mom appeared around the corner. The doorway was properly clogged then, but more footsteps followed behind her. "I just want to know what I'm supposed to call him—her? Hayden? Lady Hayden?"

She scooped Hayden up into a hug, buzzing with energy. The electricity used to hurt, sometimes—but it didn't hurt anymore. She was tougher than she used to be. "Welcome home."

"Hayden," she said. "And—she. I don't know how much I'm allowed to say about… how it all works." She glanced back at Holland, but he looked obediently away. "But please don't call me lady. Even if Liz changes us back for a while—"

"Okay, sweetheart. Just Hayden." She let go, then turned on Eleanor next. "And you. Ellen, you said?"

Hayden nodded, resting one hand on her shoulder. "She protected me from the first day I got to Shaymin House. She helped when she could've left me."

Her mom lifted Eleanor up into a hug, no less affectionate. "Then you're welcome in our home too, Ellen." She didn't hold on as long—but the gesture still left Eleanor baffled. For once, she had no clever comebacks. 

"We had no idea what would happen when our son was taken," Dad said. He was too formal to embrace her the way Mom did. His daemon did squeeze over to Loch and lick his unruly fur for a few seconds. Exactly why Hayden had picked sylveon—she didn't want to be babied. "We knew he was too naïve to survive. He thought climbing around on roofs and pushing kids off a pier was real fighting. Even with Holland there, we couldn't know what would happen to him. Thank you."

Eleanor was caught completely off-guard. "I felt bad for him," she stammered. "And after the transformation—even worse for her. You should see her try to put on a—"

"Shut up!" Hayden said, loudly. "Don't tell them that part. That's embarrassing!"

"But now I wanna know," Ellie muttered. Her little voice was lost in the press. 

By now, every single one of Hayden's siblings was visible in the back room. They couldn't all fit, but their daemons could, slipping past to surround Liz and Loch for their own version of the same reunion.

"How about dinner?" Dad said, breaking the silence. "Real meat and veggies this time, not tofu. And it's not even the Sinnoh Festival."

Dinner back home was everything Hayden could've imagined it would be. Once the awkwardness of her transformation was over, her family opened back up to her. They wanted to tell her about all the strange and amazing things that had happened in their store. Thanks to her, they were the most popular destination for visitors to the city, such that the shops nearby had all been renovated into restaurants and cafes.

There was fresh bread on the counter, and an icebox that was actually cold. 

She sat next to Eleanor, in case she had to step in and protect the ditto. Without her name to hide behind, there was no way to know exactly how her family would respond.

But she stayed an eevee all through the meal, without looking like she might melt away into a puddle as her afternoon as a shaymin had done. She got into a conversation with Ellie about fashions, and soon the two of them had slipped away together, to some adventure in the backroom that Hayden couldn't see.

She told them what she could about her time with the noble house. Some things were too sore to get specific about—like her transformation. She didn't have the heart to tell them she had already been betrothed, that she was only worth anything to their noble rulers because another house was desperate for a mew to make a marriage. There were so many other things she could tell them that little details like that were easy to hide.

A few hours passed, and she found herself up on the third-story balcony, far from the window. She was in a nightgown, her hair damp from the shower. She sat in Evelynn's lap, while her older sister worked her brush. 

"Still feels like a dream," her older sister said. "Ever since you left. You made every problem go away. Even working together, we can't sew enough to keep up with the orders. We'll need to hire help to run the shop."

It wasn't that Hayden was too weak to stay transformed. But she felt so relaxed and comfortable around Evelyn that she didn't want to stay hidden. She shrank. Her hair got longer than she was, so long that Evelyn squealed in surprise. 

"Okay, first of all. What conditioner do you use to grow your hair out this much in four months? Can you mail me some?"

Could she transform someone else? Probably not. The Guru hadn't changed her, really. Hayden's transformation was the natural product of her Unity. "Dad can't make me cut it anymore," she whispered back.

The espeon caught Liz out of the air, then dragged her back to a nearby cushion to groom her. That only made her more relaxed, so comfortable she started floating. 

"Now I'm seeing her. My real sister. Those bow ties and ribbons can't fool us. You're still a kitten underneath."

She floated closer to her, ignoring the brush. All that could wait. "I don't want to leave."

Evelynn rested one arm around her. "We don't either, Hadie. But we're not… we're not strong, like you are. Shaymin House can make the world obey. They'd crush us if we fought."

"I know." She closed her eyes, and drifted for a while. Evelynn floated over a few dozen hair ties, working her long hair into something more manageable. Hayden didn't need to look; she was warm and safe and nothing in the world would hurt her.

Her sister giggled, and she opened one eye. The moon was high overhead, plenty for her cat-eyes to see even with no light on the balcony. "W-what is it?"

"Sorry, I—I just didn't know people could purr."

She was past embarrassment with Evelynn. Maybe it would be different if Eleanor had said it, but she wasn't there. "I guess I can. I can fly too—isn't that cooler?"

"Maybe, but it isn't cuter." She stood up, holding her easily in her arms. "I think your friend already crashed. I'll take you down to her. Guessing you have an early morning." 

She nodded. "Have to go back to the hotel… leave from there."

Liz crawled under her collar and up against her chest. The house blurred around them for a while, then she was somewhere else. A bed, with fresh blankets and someone already tucked into one side. Eleanor, pretending to be asleep. Except that her thoughts were racing, so loud she might as well be screaming.

But Evelynn didn't notice. She lowered her carefully, then tucked her in. 

“I can't imagine what you've been through, Hadie,” she thought. Her telepathy was so faint, compared to what she was used to. Liz could've silenced her without much effort, blocking her out. But neither of them wanted to.

“I don't know if this helps or not. Probably not.”

“I want to know,” she thought back. She didn't even need the kitten's help that time. Her little daemon just wanted to sleep. But so long as one of them was awake, they would both be.

Evelynn hesitated, glancing at Eleanor. “Your friend is still awake. I can't pretend not to notice if I stay in here much longer.”

She nodded, then spoke. "Goodnight, Evelynn. I hope I see you tomorrow."

Her sister stood. "You will." Then came the telepathy. “I've never seen you this relaxed. Since you were little, you were always tense. Nobody could calm you down. But now that you're a kitten, you seem content. I'm glad you're happy.”

She left, clicking the door quietly closed behind her. 

Hayden's room wasn't very large. The bed was bigger than she remembered—or maybe she was just smaller. But it was big enough for adults, so barely wide enough to fit two kids.

"You're still eevee," Hayden whispered. "This is a long time for you."

Eleanor rolled over, so she was on the pillow next to her. She held Loch in her arms like a stuffed doll, squeezing him protectively. "How can they be like this?" she asked. Her words were so jumbled that Hayden couldn't have understood them at all without her thoughts.

"Because they were—"

"The way they act." She pressed down on Hayden's shoulder, as though she thought she might try to escape. "It's weak, vulnerable. Someone should have taken advantage of it. They must face constant betrayal."

Hayden shook her head once. "N-no, that's not how families work. They're family. They act like a family is supposed to. The danger is outside. They keep you safe."

She sniffed, then wiped her eyes on Hayden's shoulder. "That's not a real thing. I'm not even—they must realize who I am. They figured it out. They think they're earning my mother's favor."

Hayden giggled. "No. I told them you protected me. And you're an eevee. Most of the eevees in Sinnoh are related if you go back far enough. So, you're family one way or another."

She whimpered, covering her head with the blanket. "Real people can't… act this way."

"They do," she whispered. "Until Liz and I mutated, we didn't have much. But we had each other. I don't have to tell them who you are."

Eleanor wiped her eyes again. Her voice was barely comprehensible. "I thought you were poor. You l-lied."

Hayden had no answer to that. Her tiredness grew more intense, until eventually it was too much to fight. 

At least she could rest knowing she wasn't the only one who wanted to stay longer.