Chapter 60

Things went more or less back onto the schedule after that. Lady Moonstone presented her to Julian, then returned her to the Shaymin table. Most of the plant-foxes there were strangers to her—she hadn't even known the family had enough people to fill their own table.

"That melting thing was killer, sapling," one of them said. Hayden didn't know him, though he wasn't much older than Eleanor. At least, he didn't look much older. "Little morbid, but—damn. Quick way to make a point."

Lady Gracidea nodded her approval. "The kitten is fortunate that the core competency of her kind is also one that comes naturally to her. I doubt she could manifest long range teleportation or a large variety of powerful attacks so easily."

She nodded respectfully to the lady. "We have been studying. We know a lot of different moves now—but not post-sympathetic teleports. The math is just insanely complicated. I think I might need a tutor in… some things I don't have names for."

"My name is Blanche," said the boy next to her, patting her head. "I'll tutor you anytime. Come along for a migration with me, and you'll hear all kinds of amazing things. Just have to stretch out, get a little green. I know you can."

"She may not," Lady Gracidea snapped. "You should know better, Blanche. She is betrothed, and much younger than you."

They continued like that for the next few minutes. Mostly her adoptive family wanted to know what she had done living with the mew, and what they were like. While they spoke, she ate several courses of strange food, brought by a different servant than the one that served her family.

But while they ate weird plant things, she had fresh fish, and vibrant fruits she had become accustomed to while living with Mew House. The cats sure knew how to make things tasty.

Besides, each time she emptied her plate, she got to see that same servant from before, with that quite mature leafeon for his age. If she got close enough, maybe she would figure out what made him seem so familiar.

But it wasn't he who took her away from her family's table—of course it wouldn't be. Instead, it was someone she knew quite well.

Granted, she'd never seen Ilene dress in anything so nice. No servant gown, but instead a metallic dress covered in little stars, including a single bright streak of shooting star across the back. She didn't even bow when she approached, though she did have a gown under one arm.

"Hayden, I hope you're enjoying the ball so far."

She turned, beaming at the jirachi. "It was scary at first, but I think it will get better from here." She couldn't look for very long, not without her eyes lingering on specific parts of Ilene's dress. It was like everything else the Great Families wore, perfectly crafted to accentuate the person wearing it.

How could she spend months around Ilene and think of her as a servant? This was a princess, one who had belonged to a house as large and powerful as any of the others.

"I thought you might want this back," she said, holding up the dress. It was the same one Hayden had been wearing before, the beautiful kimono that Lady Moonstone gave her. "You've earned your right to wear it. I would be happy to assist you."

She nodded, floating up out of her seat. "Of course! But… you don't have to do that. You're… you belong here way more than I do, Lady Millenium. You don't serve me."

"I am not serving you," she said, smiling ruefully. "I am assisting. And in exchange, you will dance with me. If it pleases your mother, of course."

Lady Gracidea looked between them, expression as unreadable as her suppressed emotions. "My daughter is very fond of you."

Ilene might look much younger, but she replied with no less total neutrality. "I am fond of her also."

The shaymin waved one dismissive hand. "Go then. I would like to see that absurd servant's dress removed quickly. My daughter is so fond of playing roles that she might forget which one she currently occupies. Remind her, please."

They vanished, back out into some distant patch of empty field. Ilene held the dress, allowing herself only a modest smile. "You can't even imagine how much this will infuriate the young members of other houses. The prince and I have plotted this moment for weeks."

Hayden didn't even think—in Ilene's presence, she slipped out of the other clothes, and back into her nice ones. Despite her preferences for human contact, there was no time for anything fancy to fix her long hair—she used her powers for it, braiding the length carefully back into the position that propriety required.

"Is that a good idea?" she eventually asked. "I don't want to make more enemies."

"You won't, I will," Ilene said. "Only I have no house, no lands, no friends and no family. I am already in the lowliest position I could possibly occupy, I can't be put into my place any further."

“No friends?” Hayden repeated, raising an eyebrow. “What about me?”

Ilene looked away. “Present company excluded. No matter how many times you remind me, I find myself surprised that you do not behave like the others in your station.”

She tossed the pink dress Hayden had been wearing casually aside, letting it land in the muddy grass out of sight. Then she took one hand, grinning. "I'll take us past Julian's table. He will ask for a dance as soon as ours is over. Assuming you… accept, that is." She stiffened, adjusting her dress. "I assumed, but that was foolish of me. The other mew still… view me as their servant, even here. I'm forbidden from acting in that role, but still it lingers in their mind. I imagine it is present in yours as well. You would refuse."

Hayden took her hand, gripping metal fingers as cold as Lord Iron had been. But under her Unity with her daemon, Hayden knew real emotions. Ilene felt less than most people—her perceptions were out of focus. "Did Julian tell you? I've been a jirachi now."

"He didn't." She looked down at Hayden's fingers. "Without my presence? That would be quite remarkable."

"Maybe if we weren't together like all the time," she answered. "I could do it now, but… that seems a little showy. Instead, how about this."

She said nothing, relaxing her mind as she did when there was some particular move to perform. She left only one thing—her desire to accept Ilene's dance, and have the bigger, experienced legendary spin her through the air for everyone to see. She felt that wish clearly, right down to how fast they would move, and how strong a leader Ilene would be, so she wouldn't look stupid and uncoordinated with an audience.

That focus lit up her necklace against her skin, a sudden burst of purple so bright it was clearly visible even under the gradually-setting sun.

Ilene inhaled sharply. She settled her other hand over Hayden's, pulling her closer. "You did change!"

Not much later, Ilene granted her wish. They were dancing together, floating well above the floor under the watching eyes of hundreds. A live band performed somewhere below, though like the servants each and every one of them was a child with an unsettled daemon. If Hayden wasn't so distracted, she might've wondered after the strange necklaces each of their daemons wore.

Instead, her attention was focused entirely on Ilene, as Rael proceeded to grant her wish. They spun together, with firm hands to lead her through the air as though a floor was always under her feet. She didn't once feel confused, overwhelmed, or awkward.

Part of that was having a tail, and the greater poise and dexterity that came with feline Unity. Part was the constant telepathic contact between them, as intimate as the hand on her back.

“I wonder what I would see if I changed right now,” Hayden thought, a grin plastered on her face. “You must desire more than just being a good servant to Mew House. Even if you're very good at it. I could find out.”

Ilene squeezed her hand, just hard enough for her to notice. “You will not perform such an ostentatious display on my account. Using that power when not compelled will only attract other challengers. They may not all be as friendly as the metallic Lord.”

Hayden met her eyes. Not defiant exactly—getting this dance right required her to submit to Ilene's direction, to go where she wanted and feel what she wanted.

She had no trouble trusting the jirachi to lead, considering she spent most days in Mew House doing the exact same thing. It just usually didn't leave her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “You could just tell me. What do you really want?”

Ilene slowed their steps just a little, and they nearly fell behind the beat. She recovered with a twirl, spinning Hayden around in front of Julian's table. Maybe she'd planned that the whole time.

“It shouldn't be that hard to figure out. There's one thing the mew can offer me that no one else could.”

A transformed Hayden might not still be old enough to understand. But now she did—instantly and completely. “They'll help you start the house again. They can provide a male jirachi even though there aren't any real ones left.”

Ilene nodded, slight enough that it would not disrupt the steps of their dance. “There is no guarantee that it would make any difference, of course. But I have sired many offspring by common blood, and all were common. Nothing can compel a soul to take a particular shape—but when both parents share the same form, the odds are greatly improved.”

Hayden flushed bright red at the thought. A telepathic exchange wasn't just a conversation, obviously, she felt the pain and loss heavy in Ilene with the words “many offspring.” She might have a strange way to express it, but it was still the pain of a parent lamenting their children.

Common children, who lived ordinary human lifespans. Suddenly what the jirachi had told her about how briefly Hayden would get to live with her own family made a great deal more sense.

“They've held it over you all this time? Not… doing what you ask?”

Now it was Ilene's turn to smile. “No. I just haven't found the right mew yet. It wouldn't have to be the Eldest, as you know. Only your true form is constrained by that restriction.”

“Julian?”

She received amusement in response. “After raising him? I could never.”

Just like that, the dance was over, Ilene lowered her to the ground, or as close to it as she could get without touching it. Julian was already there, tapping Ilene's shoulder. The two of them were crazy if they thought the other mythicals wouldn't see the conspiracy miles away.

But from Julian's silly grin and Aerie's reckless flight, he didn't care. This whole occasion was hysterical to him.

"You're wearing the necklace," he said, as soon as they were back in the air for another dance. His touch was far clumsier than Ilene's, slipping off her back and squeezing her hand too hard. She pretended not to notice.

Well, she did, Liz chased Aerie through the air around them, in wide arcs that were very much not the daemon steps of any waltz.

"I am. I like it a lot. It's… warm, no matter what."

"Really?" His hand slipped off her back, and they both would've got out of step, if she didn't nudge him back into rhythm, humming along with the music for a few seconds.

He put his hand back, then went to the steps. “I mean, I'm glad. Girls like moonstone, that's what my mom said. She knows about these things, since she's a girl.”

She smiled innocently back. “Lady Moonstone is a wise mew. I learned a lot from her while I lived in your house. I will miss her when I leave. Not as much as I will miss you.”

That had about the intended effect—Julian blushed, so bright that Aerie returned to his shoulder to try and hide her embarrassment. “It doesn't seem fair that you can't stay longer. We’re betrothed, right? We're basically married. Why not just stay forever?”

She shrugged. The watching legendaries must be wondering how the expert dancer she'd been a few minutes before turned into an idiot who could barely remember the steps. But Julian wasn't very good at leading.

“The way mythicals do things is all old and confusing. They had good reasons when they made the rules, even if they don't make sense anymore. But there are loopholes!”

He stiffened, and missed several steps in a row before she guided him back onto the beat. “Loopholes? Like what?”

“The rules are about sleeping the night in your lands, or mine. If one of us teleports there, and goes home before bedtime, no rules get broken.”

“Oooh!” Aerie floated off his shoulder, following Liz through the air. But she wasn't trying to do the daemon's portion of the dance—Julian still had no interest in that. “We can already do short teleports! A big one can't be that much harder.”

Another of those things Julian had down better than Hayden—so far. But now that she had more reason to work at it, maybe she would learn.

“I'll try to learn too,” she thought. “If we both try, someone will get it. Then we can see each other again.”

Julian continued in silence for the rest of the song, mind racing with the possibility, but never putting it together into any concrete thoughts. At least until the end, when they dropped back towards ground level. "If I don't figure something out, I'll still see you again soon. I can go to your house in six months. Stay there for… as long as your mother will let me. It wouldn't be fair if I don't get as long as you did!"

Hayden nodded weakly, eyeing Lady Gracidea from across the dance floor. The ruler of her house was deep in conversation with many important-looking pokémon. Very few of them were shaymin.

Somehow, Hayden doubted whether the lady would have anything to do with the decision. It didn't matter if they were equals on paper, the Johto Mews would write the ticket regarding exactly how long their son would live in Sinnoh. Contract required only a single day.

"I'll look forward to it," she said. "Not seeing another mew for all that time will be…"

"Boring," Liz supplied, embracing the other cat. Hayden couldn't do the same. "We'll miss you."

Julian said something else—but Hayden didn't catch it. She suspected no one did, because of the volume of the screaming.

Their words blended together into an incomprehensible mess, but their feelings were clear. Young servants radiated shock and fear. Soldiers waiting not far away all rushed into action, urgent protectors of their noble sponsors.

A single telepathic word cut through it all, sent from a mind that was somehow a stranger and intimately known to her at the same moment.

“Help us!”

"Celebi!" someone shouted. "Guards, quickly! Over here!"