Chapter 38

Something was different.

Hayden wasn't sure exactly what had changed—but something had. She sat up in the empty study. Except she wasn't there anymore. Her legs floated beneath her, resting on something softer than any cloth.

Liz floated from her dress, emerging from her sleeve to hover near her head. What she had taken for the dark room was now a sky full of stars.

"There's no wind," she whispered, holding the kitten close to her. "Are you doing that?"

The little pokémon was still holding them up, she felt that much. What would've taken all of Hayden's concentration was a small part of Liz's.

"I am not fond of the cold," said another voice. Whether it was mental or physical, Hayden couldn't tell. It passed through her whole body at once, overpowering every other thought.

There was someone else in the sky with her. His outfit was as ancient as hers, though it seemed more like a robe than a dress. It had an opening for his tail, anyway.

A pair of bright blue eyes settled on her, reflecting the moonlight in the sky above. How long had he been watching her?

"A long time," he said. It didn't matter that she hadn't asked the question yet. He was in her mind. Whatever innate protection being legendary had did not work on him.

Then he was beside her, without a flash or even a breeze against her skin. A large cat emerged from behind him, almost as large as Evelynn's espeon. The pokémon caught Liz right out of the air, holding her by the neck. Instead of an attack, the little daemon relaxed, falling limp. She was so relaxed, she wasn't even floating anymore.

Hayden slipped through the cloud. She caught herself, and pushed back up to where she had been sitting before. "It is… very hard to stay focused, when you hold her like that."

"Focused." He turned his back on her, and they were somewhere else. Ancient jungle trees towered overhead, their broad leaves obscuring most of the light. They wrapped around the structure of a stone ruin, outlining what was once a pyramid.

They were still in the air—ten feet, far enough that the fall to stone would be quite painful. "Focus is what they say. Psychic powers are discipline, mastery. Let me meditate a few more hours, then invisible numbers that track my power will rise, and I will win more battles."

He scoffed, then a hand touched the side of her head. "You want to join my clan? Don't think like them. Flight is not a burden. A kitten wants to be up here. Her mind yearns to be free of the shackles. Do you think your daemon has to discipline herself to be up here? Neither should you."

His touch pressed against her mind, light but overwhelming. This was why the others feared him—they were right to be afraid.

Even in the shadowy, indirect moonlight, his features were beyond human. His hair was as long as hers, a pink so pale it was gray. There were no wrinkles exactly, but his skin had a thin, stretched look to it. That was the weight of wisdom, beyond even what his wife had shown.

A mew that old must know what he's talking about. Hayden relaxed her mind, just the way he said. She didn't have to fight to be up here, like a stranger.

She twisted in the air—but instead of falling, she was only drifting, bobbing gently up and down instead of holding still. A thin smile crossed his lips. His daemon released Liz then, only to catch her again on a bubble of floating pink. They floated overhead, voices lost to her.

Whatever they were doing, she felt Liz's focus. Not fear, but some worry. She couldn't ask why, not without being overheard.

"I am the Eldest," he said. He reached towards her, tucking something behind one ear. A flower, sweet and strange in its scent. The perfume was sweet, but sharp on her nose. "And you—you are not a product of the Great Houses. I cannot smell Gracidea's mind in her letters, but they reek of deception. Your cultivation was not a product of years. You are the wildflower on stormy mountains. You disobey, and you resent. Am I wrong?"

She would've lied to Lady Gracidea. The shaymin didn't care about what was true, she only wanted to be obeyed. But this creature was something else entirely. "I am those things. Liz and I feel trapped in one body. When the tutor tried to stop us from changing, we fought her."

"Did you win?"

She nodded, grinning prouder. "Of course! We learned from the wild shaymin how to…" She trailed off, then straightened, lowering herself in a bow. "Apologies. I… should not speak this way."

"You should not allow others to hear you speak this way," he said. He gestured for her to rise, and they were somewhere else. They were very high up now, surrounded by crags of broken rock, and snow as far as she could see. It was daytime here, and the light briefly blinded her. But the cold never reached her.

"And now, they will not hear." He turned away from her, drifting down to the snow far below. He landed on its surface near the peak, but his bare feet did not sink. Even so, the ice melted where he walked, leaving an obvious trail of footprints.

Hayden followed him, but not quite so close. She still wasn't sure exactly how she flew. But if she thought about it too hard, she might drop out of the air and make herself look very, very silly.

"Ritual and custom can always be taught. But the strength I need for my son's partner cannot be given to her. I could rewrite your memories here on this mountain—I could make you a perfect courtier, who knew no other life. But that would not give you strength. When he takes my office, a thousand monsters will seize on his weakness and crash against their bounds. There may be war, or there may not. But if there is a piece of rotten timber holding up his bedchamber—this first and oldest of all houses will crumble. I can't allow that, even if I have to hold this office another thousand years."

"But you—don't want to wait that long," she said. Was it stupid to be so brave? But the way his daemon held hers—it was far more like a parent than an enemy ready to attack them. "You've already had to live for… a really long time. You shouldn't have to carry this weight."

He was silent for a time. His tail moved, twisting wildly through the air behind him. But his mind was completely unreadable to her. "Be careful what you say, kitten. When my son ascends to this office, it may be your shoulders bearing some of this load."

Suddenly she was next to him. His hand was on her wrist. He tugged, pointing upward. There in the sky above was… a dragon. She'd never imagined anything could grow so large—bigger than whole buildings, bigger than any structure in Sunyshore. It soared overhead, shaking the mountain beneath them when it roared.

"Shaymin House are a noble, ancient line. Your adoptive mother wants a lifeline—perhaps she will get one. She imagines you will be a puppet she can manipulate. You will sit in a fine throne, wear a new silk kimono every day of the year, and send her wealth."

He let go of her wrist. "If that's why you're here, you will not be strong enough. This world will tear you to pieces."

"No," she said, pulling back her wrist. "I'm here because my family is in her territory, so I have to do what Lady Gracidea says. Sinnoh is my home, and I want it to prosper—but not at the expense of Johto or anywhere else. Our world is full of wonderful things—I'm sure there's enough for everyone."

The old man bent down to the snow, then stood up again. There was a gold glass in his hand, worked into the shape of a mew's long tail. Then he stepped again, and they were somewhere else. A grove, with rows of perfect trees stretching in all directions. He took a single berry from the nearest tree, then squeezed it over the glass.

Liquid came steaming out, melting much of the ice pooled inside. He tossed the rind aside, then offered her the glass. "Take this, and drink."

She took it. The smell was strange, stinging her nostrils. The metal chilled her fingers, turning them instantly numb. Thin purple liquid pooled in front of her, mixed with ice. "Will it hurt me?"

He shrugged. "When you drink it, your life will change. You will suffer greater hardship than you imagined possible. But you do not have a choice."

She faced him. Her fingers shook—but she lifted the glass to her lips, and drank. Despite the strange smell, it was the sweetest thing she had ever tasted, delicious beyond description. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she tilted the glass back, draining the rest of it in seconds, and even licking the last few drops from the gold.

Only when she was finished did she realize how silly she looked. The Eldest watched her, still smiling.

"Is it a… slow-acting poison?" she guessed. "To torture me, like the gurus did?"

He gestured, and the weight of the glass vanished from her hand. "No, kitten. If you were a lesser creature, it would be deadly. It was the last gift of our ancient father, when he left this planet behind."

They were standing in the study. A dirty glass sat on the table between them, as though they had been sitting for tea the entire time. She was sitting, not flying! Granted, it was a very comfortable chair.

Her daemon was comfortable too, curled up by the fire with a much larger cat. "With the gift of Ambrosia, the betrothal contract is accepted. I welcome you into my household, child of no birth."

"Can I…" Her eyes drifted back to the glass. "Do you drink that stuff often?"

He laughed, quiet and delicate. "Not more often than we have to. I require you to stay human enough to bear children, Hayden. For me to leave this burden, another must fly with it."

She was alone in the room. The fire burned down to embers in seconds, then flickered out. Liz twitched, then shivered. She was alone on the cushion, and clearly not happy about the change.

She took off, flying into Hayden's lap. "Was he as scary as you expected?"

Hayden gasped, clutching suddenly at her stomach. Pain came from nowhere, rippling up her body in a wave. "I don't… poison?" She held onto the table in front of her, keeping herself up with all her strength.

It wasn't enough. The table was getting bigger, along with the chair and the gown she wore and everything else. "I don't think so. He wasn't lying. Or… if he was, he could hide it really good." Liz floated into the air in front of her, watching her. "This is something else. Look at your ears!"

There was no mirror, so she couldn't look back at herself. But she could reach up and feel them. Her hands slid along bare skin on either side of her face. But further up, something soft and fuzzy poked out of her hair. Like Holland, though smaller and more graceful. She was no umbreon.

"There's… a drink that gives you… Unity?" she asked no one in particular. "Why bother with gurus?"

The longer she sat there, the more intense her pain became. She had felt that kind of discomfort before—but there was no end. She whimpered, then fell sideways off her chair. It felt like she was falling forever—until she landed in something huge. She squirmed to escape, but her limbs were too weak, and much too short. The barrier that held her was impenetrable.

"Ahuiliztli! Where are you!"

Anyone else in the world could abandon her, or flee in terror when things became too difficult. But there was one who would never flee. Her daemon would be there for her.

The pain was gone, except for a pressure on her chest. It held her down, monstrous hands that made every breath a struggle. She couldn't even cry anymore, that took too much effort. 

Something huge appeared in front of her, lifting her prison enough for a face. She recognized Liz, though she had never seen her quite so enormous. She nudged up against her side, mewing in pain and confusion. "Haydie, we aren't supposed to look like this. You're a kitten!"

Then it all made sense. The pink fluff in front of her, the pathetically small hands and weakness across her body. The prison. She tried to reply, but she could barely get enough air into her lungs to breathe. 

"Fly!" Liz ordered, shoving on her again. "You know how!"

Fly. The command was so obvious, but somehow hadn't crossed her mind until that moment. Even staying conscious took so much effort…

"Can't you pick me up?" she sent back, curling up tight. She had a tail now, much longer than she was. Somehow even the soft silk underneath her felt rough compared to her own downy fur. "You fly all the time."

"No!" Ahuiliztli exclaimed, audibly into her ears. "You're fading, Haydie! I can't… I don't know why. I can't target you! Fly, or we'll suffocate!"

There was no color anymore. Not that there was much light to begin with. She had faced this same ultimatum once before—if she could not fly, she would die.

The Eldest had just taught her another way to do this, one that didn't take active concentration. She didn't fight the universe anymore when she could ignore its harshest decrees. Hayden started flying.

Gravity's cruel grip released her chest, and air flooded her lungs again. Stale and stagnant, trapped inside a prison of cloth. But at least it was air. "What's… happening?"

Liz embraced her as she had never felt before. The daemon was huge. In fact, she was exactly her size. She smelled the same too, to a level of detail that she would never have known before. She had a pokémon’s sense of smell.

Hayden was a pokémon.