-I- Her Divine Light -I-
Chapter 1 - Zeke's Always Right
Flames danced and filled the air with smoke, clouding the senses. Grass, brush, trees... All were ablaze. A sudden crack signaled a tree that had given in and collapsed only to be consumed by the inferno. All was burning, all was dying.
"Estelle!"
A Sylveon stood amid the flames, swaying on her weak legs as she looked around for a path out. Her body was covered in scratches, open wounds that oozed out blood only for the liquid to sizzle away in the heat. At the voice her ears rose and she tried to look past the flames, squinting her eyes that sat behind a pair of goggles and kept the smoke out. "Shrike?" she nervously yelled out in response. "Shrike! I told you to get away!"
"I got some wat-AH!"
The scream pierced through her heart, Estelle biting her lip. Desperately she focused, reaching back to the core of her training and centering herself, regaining her calm. Her legs shook less and she let out a breath as she opened her eyes, extending her three remaining ribbons and surrounding herself in them. The stub of her fourth still bled from where it had been torn away moments before.
Surrounded in a shield of her ribbons the Sylveon barreled through the flames in the direction her brother's voice had come from. She felt the fire beating at her improvised barrier, fur and flesh blackening as her remaining ribbons withered away. A few cinders made it through gaps in the shield, landing on her body and singing black spots amid her pink and white fur. The pain was intense; if it wasn't for her training, she probably would have collapsed and perished before she could even escape.
But then the heat fell away behind her and she knew she was out. Lifelessly her ribbons dropped to the ground and trailed at her sides, singed and burned beyond hope of healing. She would care more for their loss if not for what greeted her: an Eevee, her brother, pressed back against a tree with a spilled bucket of water at his feet. He was staring up to the hunkering beast of a Typhlosion that towered over him and was slowly closing the distance. Her own blood was still splattered across its claws and fur, and she could swear she saw strands of flesh from her lost ribbon stuck between those terrifying claws.
Just as the Typhlosion lashed out to launch a stream of fire at her brother, Estelle leaped forward between them. She slapped at the fire stream with her tail, almost crying out in pain as the flames seared at her fur and blistered the flesh underneath. Her intervention was successful, however, the one large stream splitting into two smaller sprays of fire that harmlessly flew past her brother. "Shrike! GET OUT OF HERE!" she desperately yelled again as the fire attack died down and she landed, her legs shaking underneath her from the pain that now wracked her body.
"B-but..." the Eevee whimpered, his eyes turning from his sister to the Typhlosion as it turned to face Estelle, familiarity flickering in its eyes. It remembered her from earlier, and it wanted revenge.
"I said... LEAVE!" Estelle glanced to Shrike, glaring at him in the hope it would get him to obey, but at that moment the beast saw its opportunity. A claw swiped out and slashed across her side, the Sylveon's eyes going wide as she felt it slicing deep down. Flesh and muscle alike were severed underneath the beast's sharp claws, blood spraying in the air. The world seemed to slow down as she fell back, the soft grass doing its best to cushion her impact.
Estelle's vision blurred and wavered as she looked around, the world going silent but for the crackling sound of the fire as it continued to spread. She glanced down at her side and at the wound; she could see her own ribs through the gash. Looking back up she saw the Typhlosion approaching her slowly, Shrike still pressed against the tree with tears in his eyes.
"Run," she mouthed, right as the claw came down again. With it, the world went black.
Shrike woke with a start, sitting up in his bed. Sweat rolled down through his yellow fur and he was panting heavily. His throat felt as dry as a desert and his heart was racing. He reached up to wipe some sweat off his face as he heard a thundering of footsteps in the hallway outside, the door soon bursting open with enough force he was surprised it didn't fly off its hinges.
"Shrike, I heard screaming! You okay?!" the Riolu who had burst into his room exclaimed as he took up a fighting pose with fists raised, glancing around as if expecting intruders.
Shrike gave a sigh, shaking his head as he slid off his bed and dropped to his feet. "I'm fine, Zeke... Really."
The Riolu narrowed his eyes as if judging Shrike's honesty, before slowly nodding and relaxing. "The nightmare again, then?"
"More of a flashback." Shrike padded over to a window and pulled the shades apart, letting in the dim light of early morning. He looked at his own reflection faintly visible in the glass: a Jolteon, no longer the Eevee from his dream. His loose, shaggy fur was messed up from tossing and turning through the night, Shrike setting about idly brushing at it as he stared out the window with one eye while keeping transfixed on his reflection with the other. "It's been five years today, and I still..."
Zeke slowly walked over to Shrike and put a paw on his shoulder, shaking his head. "You can't expect to just forget. It's normal to remember. You loved her, yeah?"
"She was my sister, of course I did..." Shrike was quiet for a moment before sighing, reaching up to brush Zeke's paw off him. "It was from her perspective this time."
"Oh? Learn anything new?" Zeke turned to watch Shrike as the Jolteon silently walked over to a dresser, picking up the pair of goggles that rested atop it and rubbing his digits over them. Shrike could swear they still held her scent. That, and the smell of smoke and ashes.
"She died before I blacked out. That's when I woke up."
The Jolteon took a deep breath, closing his eyes and centering himself, doing his best to let his emotions wash off him and steel his nerves. Just as his sister had taught him. Going through the motions he pulled the goggles over his head, letting them rest above his eyes and out of his vision while he didn't need them. Then he opened a drawer and took out a long, plain red scarf. He tied it around his neck, letting it flow down at his side. Walking back over to the window he looked out it again, this time focusing more closely as he used his white paws to groom his fur back into shape. The white paws were an abnormality for Jolteon, but one he had since he was an Eevee.
The town of Woodhurst was just starting to come to life outside the window, Pokemon emerging from the surrounding houses and rushing off through the town's narrow pathways to wherever they worked. Most people were heading in the direction of the merchant district, however some left towards the town gates, heading out to the nearby logging camp or to join up with hunting parties in the woods.
"So, you better now?" Zeke asked, startling Shrike who had zoned out and forgotten the Riolu was still there.
"As better as I'll ever be." Shrike tilted his head and shrugged, before turning to face his housemate. "Guess I'm going for a walk now. You know where. Seeya later."
Shrike didn't wait for Zeke to say anything, walking past him. Yet before he could get out the door he felt the Riolu's paw fall on his shoulder again. "Be careful out there, something's going down today."
"See it in my Aura?"
"Not just yours," Zeke replied with a shake of his head. "In everyone's. It's in the air."
"I'll keep it in mind," and with that Shrike was out the door, walking through their small apartment and out the front entrance. Theirs was on the second story of a shared building, with another floor below and above where other Pokemon lived. He gave a nod to a neighbor exiting below him as he descended the steps to ground level, before turning in the direction few were heading: the town gate.
The woods were quiet but for the chirping of birds. It was easy to feel calm and at ease while in them, as if the trees were great, stalwart guardians protecting you from danger. Indeed, many believed the trees WERE sacred, that they were to be protected and worshiped. Naturally that conflicted with Woodhurst's, and Whiteholt's as a whole, logging industry. Shrike chose not to take a side in such matters.
The Jolteon lowered his head as he walked, focusing inwards and clearing his mind. The central teaching he had always learned from his sister, and her from her own teachers before, was to keep your mind clear. With a clear mind, you could see and judge without bias, observe the smallest details that otherwise you could miss. Such as the smell of ash and fire drifting across Shrike's nose at that very moment.
With a start his ears shot up and he rose his head, looking around and sniffing for the source. Quickly he ran off in the direction he thought it was coming from, paws beating at the soft earth.
You always charge headlong into danger, don't you?
When he emerged from the trees, it wasn't fire he found. A large swath of land blackened and burnt, yet cold, awaited him. The fire was long gone, leaving a spot nothing would grow in anymore. A knot rose in Shrike's throat as the smell drifted away on the winds of his imagination, and the Jolteon's legs shook until he collapsed out of weakness. Every year on this day he visited this place, the dead part of the forest where the feral Typhlosion had taken his sister's life from him. It never got easier.
His eyes drifted over the death before him. One half of him was surprised it had never healed, the other half doubted it would ever change. The grass that hadn't just blown away lay in scattered clumps, while collapsed trees crossed the open clearing in various states of rot. All of it black and singed.
Gathering his energy Shrike stood up again, walking slowly through it all. Once at the center of the carnage he spun around in a circle, looking at the surrounding woods and trying to make sense of it compared to his previous nightmare. Finally his eyes came to rest on a particular tree, familiarity rising. Slowly walking over to it he slumped down against it, the same tree he had huddled against while he watched the beast kill his own sister. Shaking he turned to look at the spot he now clearly remembered she had died at... Only for his eyes to meet a Vulpix, curiously watching him.
"This isn't your first time here, is it?" she asked. Shrike remained silent as he looked over her, noticing the thin yellow ribbon tied closely around her neck so there was no slack, a silver pendant attached to it. Along with her speech, it was safe to say she wasn't feral.
"No," he simply answered as he stood up again, partially relieved that her appearance had interrupted him from dwelling anymore on his sister's death while annoyed she had interrupted his yearly ritual. "I've... Been here before."
"Mmm... A great tragedy happened here..." the Vulpix closed her eyes, something strange seeming to overcome her. When her eyes opened again they had an odd blue glow, which soon faded to their former gold. "Death."
Shrike kept his mouth closed for a moment more, but the Vulpix seemed to be looking at him expectantly. "My sister," he finally said, turning away from her.
The Vulpix gave a curt, respectful nod before walking over to him and then around where he stood to face him once more. "I'm sorry," she said, the apology in her voice real.
"It happened five years ago." Shrike sighed as he pressed a paw to his forehead, before shaking his head out. Who was this girl, and what was she doing here? "Zeke was right, wasn't he..." he mumbled to himself.
"Who's that?" the strange Vulpix asked, Shrike rolling his eyes.
"Not important. Now what is, is who you are." He stated it factually, not letting her back away from answering.
"Celine," she replied with a smile, not even trying to avoid the question. The six curly tails behind her rose in the air and she bowed her body down towards Shrike. "I'm a traveler, I hear there's a town nearby?"
"Y-yeah, I live there. Suppose I should take you to it?" While he still felt his sister's death at the back of his mind, as he had every day for the past five years, Shrike was in some ways grateful for this odd interruption. Something to take his mind off things. "Kinda weird for a traveler to be this far from the roads, though..." he mumbled under his breath.
"That would be helpful!" Celine smiled and bowed again. Shrike glanced around to reorient himself before nodding in the direction he had come from. He began walking, hearing Celine following behind him.
"So where'd you come from? Definitely not from around here, I'd say."
The Vulpix swayed her head and tails from side to side for a moment, before finally answering, "Falonde. It's been a bit of a long walk."
That froze Shrike in his tracks, the Jolteon's eyes wide as he looked back to Celine as if she was an alien from space. "Falonde, as in the region like, all the way on Varlaja's west coast? Like, a month's journey from here?"
"Yep!" she cheerfully replied.
"How'd you get all the way over here? Why? ...You're telling me about this later," he stated, once more not giving her a chance to refuse, before turning back around and continuing their walk to town.
Zeke's always right...
"Your villages are so different here!"
Celine was staring around in awe as she walked through Woodhurst at Shrike's side. Rather abruptly she stopped, rearing up on her hind legs and stared straight up at the sky. She cocked her head curiously and squinted at the light, commenting, "We can't see the sky back home."
She seemed to be waiting expectantly again, so Shrike humored her, "Why's that?" he asked as he gave her a shove on the back to knock her to her feet, moving onwards again.
"The trees. Falonde is heavily forested throughout, there's no plains and the clearings are too small to build much in. So, we build in the trees themselves." She spoke as they walked, the pair soon finding themselves in a circular plaza centered around a fountain. Benches were distributed in a circle facing the fountain, Shrike motioning Celine over to one and taking a seat on it with her.
"So... Treehouses. Well, we're pretty much like everyone else and just... Build on the ground." Shrike shrugged as he waved a paw around to gesture at the buildings that surrounded the park.
"Yeah, and there's so few trees..." Celine fell quiet, kicking her legs in the air as she fiddled with the pendant on her ribbon. Discreetly she looked up and around at the Pokemon walking through the plaza, her eyes falling on a group of kids playing in the fountain.
"Trees?" Shrike looked over at Celine and cocked his head curiously. "Well, this is a logging town. Look around you some more." More pointedly, Shrike raised a paw to motion at the buildings again; they were mostly made of wood, with some stone and bricks. "We care for trees a lot, it's just that it's most people's business here to cut them down." He could see that Celine still looked off and shook his head. "Don't worry though, we're not in the business of destroying forests. We replant what we cut down and that little... Scene, you saw... Well, it was an accident..."
"Yes..." she finally spoke again. "I could feel the spirit of the one who caused it. They were a fire type, were they not? Something... Ferocious. Feral? Not of the same intelligence you and I share."
Shrike was a bit stunned, involuntarily pulling away from Celine. "Wait, what'd you say? You felt their... Spirit?"
She blinked, tilting her head from one side to the other before quickly nodding. "Oh, right. I forgot. In Falonde, we have an affinity with the dead. We learn to commune with them, and can feel their presence. I could feel the two spirits who died back there. Your sister, and the feral one."
Shrike's fur had gone stiff, standing on end and making the normally fluffy Jolteon decidedly pointier. His mouth moved as if trying to put together words, yet nothing came out. His vision shook as he stared at Celine until he gulped and desperately tried to center himself again, letting out a series of ragged breaths.
"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong...?" Celine asked with genuine concern, reaching a paw out to Shrike before he raised one of his own to ward her off. He was finally getting his breathing back under control and shook his head out.
"St-static... Be-est not... To touch..." With one final breath he felt himself returning, hopping off the bench and nodding at Celine. "Follow me."
Quickly he ran off through the streets, dodging left and right to avoid running into anyone on the way. He glanced back to make sure Celine was following and keeping pace with him, the Vulpix seeming nearly as swift on her paws as the Jolteon was. Nearly.
Twisting through Woodhurst's streets he finally reached his home again, sprinting up the stairs and yanking the door open. Celine blinked as she could see sparks leaping from the Jolteon's paw to the door handle, finding it hot to the touch when she followed him up and grabbed it herself. Shrike's eyes locked on an exposed metal support beam in the corner of the living room as he stepped inside, Celine just walking through the door behind him when a burst of electricity shot from the stiff-furred Jolteon and hit the pole with blinding ferocity. The surprise knocked Celine down and sent her mind whirling; when she came to the air itself seemed charged with static as well now, but Shrike's fur had dropped back to normal at least.
Celine looked on in amazement as she got to her feet. "...If I had touched you...?"
"Probably would have needed to take you to the medic. I sort of lost control of my electrical generation there."
"Not the first time!" a voice piped up, Celine turning to look in curiosity while Shrike stared daggers at the Riolu sitting in a chair, eating something out of a bowl. Probably his post-workout breakfast to be exact, judging from the sweat beaded through his fur. "Who's your lady friend?"
"Celi-" she started, only to be interrupted by Shrike himself.
"No one you need to know. Don't you have work or anything to do today?"
Zeke shrugged, setting his bowl down as he hopped off the chair and walking into the small kitchen, grabbing an apple from a basket. Shrike noticed he had adorned white wrist wraps that left his prominently pointed spikes exposed as well as a yellow sash around the waist; he was either expecting a fight or planned to start one; not the best sign. "Called off. Don't want to miss whatever's gonna happen." Casually he tossed the apple to Celine, the Vulpix fumbling to raise her front paws in the air and catch it without falling on her face.
"Something's going to happen?" Celine asked, bewildered by what all was happening right now, let alone what would happen later. Awkwardly she took a bite of the apple, watching as Shrike and Zeke began to bicker.
"He fancies himself a fortune teller because of his mysterious Aura sensing," Shrike said in a mocking tone, raising his paws to wiggle them at the sides of his head where a Riolu's Aura sensors would be.
"Hey man, don't knock the Aura!" Zeke replied indignantly. "Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
As Shrike and Zeke went at it for a few minutes more, Celine tried to raise her voice to interject. "Um, uh, ah..." She went, until finally raising a paw which seemed to catch the two roommates' attention. Taking a breath she quickly spoke, "Aura is a subset of Aether, the energy that courses through the world and binds us all. Indeed, Aether makes up everything living or not, while wrapping those of us who are for lack of a better term alive in an 'aura' of energy. This is, of course, the Aura your friend's talking about. Certain Pokemon such as Riolu and its evolved form Lucario can naturally sense these Auras and the fluctuations in them, and many cultures believe that these fluctuations do indeed relate to prophecies of future events. No proof exists of these beliefs, but at the same time there is no proof against them."
Shrike and Zeke stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, Celine nervously chuckling as she idly swished her tails. "I... Sort of learned a lot about Aether and thus Aura back in Falonde."
"Dude, she's from Falonde?" Zeke turned to Shrike to ask, the Jolteon giving a nod. "Like, the place a month's journey from here." Another nod.
"You don't get many visitors from far here, do you?" Celine asked, looking somewhat put off by another person being surprised at where she was from.
"No, not really." Shrike replied with a shake of his head. "But yes, Zeke this is Celine. Celine, this is Zeke. Now Zeke, can you please give us ten?"
Zeke raised a brow and gave a sensual growl at the implications of Shrike wanting to spend time alone with a girl. "All right all right, just don't wear yourself out kid."
"I'm just a few months younger than you! Out!" Shrike practically screamed, his face flushed red much to Zeke's amusement. The Riolu needed no more warnings as he jogged out the door, grabbing his bowl from where he had left it before waving a paw in the air behind him.
Shrike seemed to sag as he slammed the door closed behind Zeke, turning to find the Vulpix giggling with a paw to her mouth. "Does he think...?"
"You quickly learn not to pay much attention to what he thinks," Shrike flatly said, declining from adding that Zeke's predictions do have tendency to be right, as much as he hated to admit it.
"So why were you in a hurry before? I take it you live here?" Celine turned around to take the place in, which she hadn't really got a chance at earlier. The home was simple, with an open sitting area with some chairs and table attached to a small kitchen. A short hallway with doors set in the walls led to the bed and bathrooms she assumed.
"Well, aside from the fact that I was carrying enough static in my fur to fry another Pokemon..." Shrike paced back and forth in front of a fireplace as he thought, before pulling off the goggles and scarf he was wearing and setting them on a low table. "What you said about there being two spirits... It can't be right."
Celine walked forward, looking at the fireplace before spitting a small ember at the logs that sat in it. They began to dance with flames, slowly at first before building up. Shrike grimaced as he watched them, refraining from telling Celine that he had refused to light it in all the five years since his sister's death.
"It is," she finally said as she sat down in front of the growing fire, its warmth quickly building and spreading through the room. "Why would you think otherwise?"
In silence Shrike dropped into one of the chairs, picking up the goggles from where he had sat them and rubbing his paws over their lenses to wipe a streak off. His mood seemed different as he looked over to where Celine sat in front of the fire, the Vulpix looking back at him. "Before I talk about that, I have to ask. Why are you here?"
"As I said, I'm a traveler," Celine shrugged. "My travels took my here, and I was hoping to find food and shelter for a few days before heading back out."
"I'd believe that if, as I said, it wasn't for us not getting many travelers here. We're out of the way, off any major routes, and the area is dense enough with ferals that exploration is ill-advised. Either you're lost, the craziest explorer I've ever met, or you're looking for something here."
Celine kept her silence for a minute as she and Shrike stared at each other, the fire flickering and spreading its warmth through the cool room. Finally she spoke, slowly, "Yes, I suppose you could say I've come here looking for someone. I've been following their Aether... Echo, I suppose you can call it. We all leave an impression in the Aether, but this person's is much, much larger than most, resonating much farther. It doesn't reach forever, though; from back home, in Falonde, I couldn't feel it. So I journeyed out, seeking to catch a glimpse. Finally I could feel it near the border of Freyden and Whiteholt, and now I'm getting close to its source."
Shrike frowned, rubbing his paws together. He didn't really understand all this Aether stuff Celine kept talking about, but he found that, for some reason, he did trust her to be telling the truth. "So who is this person?"
Celine gave a wry smile, answering with only, "Someone of great importance."
Shrike looked at her more, feeling his head tilting to the side before he shook it out and smiled. "Yeah, you're not telling me anymore are you? Well, I hope you can find them soon. Dunno if I can be much help, but feel free to ask if you need anything. I guess I do owe you an explanation as well." The Jolteon took a breath, leaning his head back against the chair's headrest as he looked up at the ceiling. Digging it up like this... It was hard, but at least he was starting to get used to reliving the past today.
"I know it's impossible for the feral Typhlosion to have died as I was there when it happened. Estelle, she was my sister, and I were out training. She had always been a fighter, but I was too young then for any formal training myself. So, she would take me out into the woods to teach me what she knew off the records."
Shrike took a long, deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling it all coming back to him...