Chapter 56

Hayden never transformed faster than in that moment. She shrank back into her new adventuring clothes, which were already at the proper size. Her tail slipped through the opening at the back, and she was herself again.

In time to turn and find a stranger waiting there. A singular stranger, with no human attached. A mew floated near the rocks, their paws so close they could touch the grass.

"Much better. Your transformations were… impressive, child of strangers. But you should practice them on another mountaintop."

Whatever instinctive respect her transformations forced into her, she needed no magical compulsion now. She dropped into a floating bow, with Liz doing something similar right beside her. "No need for that either, kitten. Who else would come to play on this mountain, if not you?"

She circled them once, nudging Liz upright with her nose. As with the other humanless pokémon, she made no attempt to keep her distance from Hayden herself. Her tail brushed against Hayden's arm, without any self-consciousness or reservation.

"Us," Julian agreed. He hadn't bowed, though he was also in such shock that he didn't do much of anything else either. Mostly he floated there, like a nervous child meeting a stranger for the first time. "How often do new people come up to your mountain? Not lots, I bet."

"Not lots," she agreed, circling in front of them. Then she gestured, and they started to rise. Whatever mastery Liz and Hayden had over gravity, this creature overpowered her, just like Fae had. But she felt none of the same danger in her presence, and so didn't resist. "Not as many as there ought to be. You are the first native born in many years. And your companion is something even more interesting."

"More?" Julian stiffened, facing the mew in the air. "Do you know my father, honored ancestor?"

"Quite well, I would think," she answered, zipping around his face, lifting her tail up into the air. "In ways you will never know him. Or me, with that attitude."

Julian watched the cat retreat, radiating only confusion. At least until he collapsed, head slumping forward into a gentle snore. Aerie started to drift away, floating sideways as her body curled—but Liz caught her, pushing her through the air until she was within Julian's grasp. He reached out subconsciously, pulling the kitten in close.

"He's a little young to be up here," the cat said. "So long as he wakes on the peak, he can conclude you both had the same treatment, and leave feeling deeply satisfied with his accomplishment."

She nodded nervously, tail curling around her leg. She wanted to question the cat for her daring—even making the heir sleep against his will seemed like a bridge too far. His parents were so protective they sent Ilene to kill people for impersonating mew!

But if the wild pokémon was willing, then who was she to question? She was the kitten here. "I'm… H-Hayden, by the way. And this is Ahuiliztli. I hope we're… allowed. Julian said we were."

"And we are—I am Hikaru. Do not fear—this mountain is yours. His too, if he matures into a kitten with anything to contribute. If not—he will end up like you before too long. That is the fate waiting for most of us."

Her guide took them closer to the falls, in an arc that remained dry of the spray, but also close to it. There was no longer any pretense to follow the trail.

"Because of your relationship with Shaymin House, perhaps? You imagine that would disqualify you? Every kind of creature maintains one such sacred place—but it is not the name tracked in ancestry records that matters to us."

She caught Liz out of the air, then floated a little further away. First a few feet, then almost ten, far enough that their connection would soon start to strain. Yet there was no hostility, and the cat stopped as soon as Hayden's first flicker of discomfort.

“Not all the mythicals think we're… real,” Hayden said. She thought it rather than saying a word, though of course Julian wasn't awake to hear her either way.

“All humans, you mean,” the pokémon thought back. In the language of thoughts, those words came with an ample helping of disdain. “In the ways that humans measure, perhaps you are an adulteration of the pure lineage. They are more right than they could imagine.”

Liz squirmed in the pokémon's grip. She wasn't brave enough to try and free herself with her powers, though Hayden got the sense that she soon might. The last thing either of them wanted was having someone hold them down.

“Do you hate us, Hikaru?” they asked, in perfect unison. But it was only Hayden who continued. “Because no myths should be born into common families?”

“Because I should've settled as an eevee?” Liz added, mewling weakly from the powerful mythical's grip. “We can't fight you. If you want to throw us off the top here.”

The cat giggled, though her grip on Liz tightened. She squeezed hard, almost at the threshold of pain. But just as with her distance, she stopped short of actually hurting them. This time.

“There was discussion. The moment you came into existence—many eyes turned in your direction. So long we held the floodgates back, until you. Maybe if we killed you, we could avert the change.”

Hayden whimpered, pulling her legs up to her chest. She reached for Liz, but the native mew still held her fast. They were now completely unsupported, directly over the falls. If she slipped off to either side, a vast drop waited to swallow them.

A little moisture splashed against Hayden and Julian—but the mew and her daemon remained dry.

“You were going to kill us?” Liz asked, squirming free enough to look up at the cat. “Why? What did we do?”

"Nothing," Hikaru said. "And not me personally. Others. Not just mew. Many saw the day of your arrival. They saw that day and feared it—and they were right to fear it."

They reached the clifftop at last, where water from peaks beyond converged from several further streams into a rushing river. A ridge of soft green grass waited, and it was there they settled. Julian and Aerie did, anyway. Hikaru kept Hayden and Liz airborne.

"If we didn't do anything wrong, then it would be… evil… to hurt us," she said. "So it was good they didn't. I guess that means the pokémon without humans are good, too."

The mew released Liz. She zipped across the distance in a second, returning to Hayden's grip. She embraced the kitten, squeezing tight. She wrapped one arm firmly over her, though of course that would do nothing if the wild mew wanted to hurt her.

"Human words. Good. Evil. You speak with such conviction, as though they had meaning. The meaning is this—you are change. And you are not the first. We know about Celebi too. Tracking her is harder—but we know."

As before, Hayden said nothing. At least that way she wasn't lying, but also wouldn't be betraying her loyalty to a friend.

"What are we changing?" Liz demanded, overflowing with frustration. "We don't want to do anything. Except maybe find a way for the orphans of Sunyshore to have somewhere nicer to live. But that's it! We want our family to be safe, we want to live. That's it."

The cat zipped past them, close enough to brush against her face. "As you live, you make changes others must endure. Surely you have noticed by now. The great families… struggle. All are affected. Some have no offspring at all—most have many children who settle incorrectly. There is no process, no indoctrination, no instruction to conform a human being from one creature into another. Even the Eldest was not above deluding himself with desperate superstition."

Finally they stopped moving. Hikaru suspended them directly over the falls, with water crushing down over a perilous drop below. It didn’t extend all the way to the rocks, but struck against the cliffs once or twice before finally reaching that deep pool at the bottom.

To another creature, even the location might be a threat. But gravity was no danger to Hayden anymore. Catching her daemon, on the other hand…

"What would Liz and me have to do with—infertility? The families are so old! We didn't cause that!"

Hikaru circled around them one last time, before stopping within arms reach of Hayden.

"Since time immemorial, Arceus ordained that the souls of His chosen would be born into the high families. We would shelter them, nurture them into the pokémon He wished. You should not have been born to a tailor living in some forgotten hovel. Yet you were. The river overflows, and no one can say why."

Hayden stared down over the falls, at the crushing water far below, pounding off distant rocks. Was there some symbolism here she didn't understand? Telling her instead of the new Eldest was the hardest part to comprehend. What power did she possibly have?

"Are Liz and I supposed to… fix it?"

The mew giggled again. She zipped around them, rubbing past Hayden's belly, then back into the air. "Guess that depends on how ambitious you are. Of course, it is harder for us to see the world as the divided ones do. Once we give up that part of ourselves, we… forget. Their minds spin in endless nightmare circles around the same loops, endlessly repeating.

"But if we were to guess, we would think… no. They see you, and would see Celebi, as symptomatic, not as treatment."

"What if… what if we want to help?" Hayden pressed. "Is there anything we can do?"

Laughter answered. "Go north, to the Lake Guardians. They remember well what so many others have fought to forget. Or abandon all of it, and join us here in perfect Unity." She flew closer again, brushing against Hayden's ears, then her tail. "You are very close for your age. But also far. Even with practice as your only purpose, lifetimes remain before you."

Whatever that meant.

"The Lake Guardians… I think Lord Moonstone went up there," she whispered. "Would they want to help me? Or…" Threaten me like you did.

"That's the fun part, we have no idea," the mew answered. "Maybe one, maybe the other. Maybe both. Either way, it will be… significant. And many will try to stop you. If you survive the encounter, no creature in any family would be able to question your legitimacy. If you do not—then you have nothing further to worry about. Your choice."

The mew flew up close, close enough to paw at Liz in Hayden's protective grip. "We will fly together again, sister. You don't seem like the dying type. But you could always prove us mistaken."

There was a flash, an implosion of air, and suddenly no one was holding them up anymore. Liz caught them both, guiding them back to the distant ridge. Far below, young Julian was just beginning to stir. Hayden landed beside him, and made her best impression of waking up at the same moment.

Julian opened one eye, then smiled weakly in her direction. "Guess we… made it up?"

She nodded, without any of his tiredness. "Yeah. The ancestor left us up here. I think she's gone."

"Probably better that way." He stood up, then stretched both arms. "I was not tired. If you tell people I slept longer than you, I'll deny it."

Hayden grinned back, spreading her arms to either side. "I won't say a word."

"Well… good. That means you can have this." He held something towards her, ripped so fast out of a pocket that she barely saw his hand move. It was a simple necklace, with a chain of tiny gold links connected to a little fragment of clear mineral, tinged slightly purple.

"It's… customary, in my family," he continued. "If I like you, I have to give you this. It's not the same as contracts or whatever. This is tradition, so I guess that means it's… more important."

Hayden accepted it, holding it closer to inspect. The stone itself was so small, barely larger than her pinky-nail. But when she held it close, it glowed. "Woah."

"Moonstone," he supplied. "There are all kinds of old stories about where it came from. The best one says it was another world, where Arceus brought his daughter long ago. Their sailing ship was made of this stuff, and all the pieces remember her."

Hayden held it back towards him. "Can you help me put it on?"

He flushed bright red, looking away from her. Still he took it, moving in behind her to rest it around her neck. Where it touched her skin, it glowed pink as light as a tiny candle. Barely visible in full sunlight, though it would probably work better than a torch to see by night.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

He nodded. "For girls, yeah. It remembers the first daughter. It's supposed to do… something, I dunno what. But now you accepted, so we're… official—er. Officialer."

She turned towards Julian, then kissed him on the cheek. That was about what the kid could probably handle—and what he could understand. "I'm glad. What does the custom say I'm supposed to do in return?"

He shrugged. "Ask Ilene. I think you're doing pretty good so far, though. Meeting the ancestors… coming out here… that's a good start."