The smell of paper and ink overwhelmed Ethan as he walked into Espeon's house, and it was easy to see why; all around the room, books and scrolls were stacked high, many of them half-open or seemingly abandoned partway through. Some pockets of the room were much more organized, and seemed to have not been carelessly abandoned like everything else. Espeon mentioned that she and Umbreon worked together, so he guessed that those were simply their different workstations. If how scatterbrained Espeon seemed to be was any indication of her work habits, it wasn't hard to tell whose stations were whose.

There was nobody in the large singular room of the first floor, so Ethan and Fennekin went to the stairs on the left-hand side of the room and walked up. The smell of freshly-brewed tea mixed with the paper and ink as they ascended, and he could see a steaming pot sitting on an end table next to the stairs once they got near the top. The second floor was more organized than the lower, and an Umbreon was actively sorting books on some of the bookshelves lining the walls opposite the stairs.

"Ethan!" Espeon called out from a table in the center of the room where Leafeon also sat. "Fennekin! Ran your errand?"

"Yeah," he nodded as he went up the final step and started towards the table. "Hey, Leafeon. Espeon said you had something for us?"

"Can say that again," Umbreon chuckled, leaving the bookshelf and going to the end table to pour herself some tea. "Nice to meet you kids, Leafeon has spoken highly of you two. I'm Umbreon, yet another of his sisters."

"'Yet another'," Leafeon repeated. "They've only met you two so far."

"Yeah, 'yet another' cause we've got a lot of sisters." She picked up her full mug and walked to the table, beckoning them over as she sat down. "We're the only three that live in Pokéopolis, though, so get used to seeing us. Sylveon comes through occasionally and Jolteon's husband comes by every now and then, but he's usually in and out for business and we don't even see him."

"He and I usually try to meet up," Leafeon said, "even if it's just for tea or something."

"You're his favorite in-law," Umbreon winked. "Just a couple of boys hanging out, eh?"

Leafeon shook his head softly, a slight smile on his face. "He and I just get along, what can I say? We're both explorers, that's probably it. Even if I don't know what he actually explores…"

"Flareon's an explorer too, remember? She was an explorer before you."

"Yes, but she doesn't live here like I do. If you two want to come along, I'll try to see if he can give me advanced notice next time. Sometimes I only find out when he shows up at my door and asks if I feel like tea."

"Knowing him," she laughed before taking a quick sip of tea, "I believe it. But your mentees didn't come here to hear us discuss our family, did they?"

"Doubtful," he laughed before looking to Ethan and Fennekin. "How are you two doing this morning?"

Ethan exchanged a quick glance with Fennekin before looking back to the rest of them. "We're doing pretty good, they gave us a day off so we were trying to figure out what to do."

"You two should go sightseeing!" He turned to look at Umbreon. "Umbreon gives great tours. She's a historian, after all."

"I'd be happy to. But your news, first?"

"Right." Back to Ethan and Fennekin. "Espeon said she told you about the map piece that you acquired for them, and we think we've found one further away that Meowstic, Houndoom, and I agree we want to let you go get as your very first independent exploration. So far all of the pieces we've found have been near the Dark Caverns north of Pokéopolis, but this one is further to the south. Have you ever heard of the Starlit Grove?"

Ethan shook his head, but Fennekin nodded slightly. "I've read about it once or twice. It's real?"

A smile grew on Leafeon's face. "That's where it gets fun; we're not entirely certain."

"We've found some evidence that it is," Umbreon added. "Not enough to say so definitively, but enough to think it's plausible."

"We'll meet in a few days to go over everything we've found and give you everything you'll need for an extended exploration; you can also ask us any questions you have then, about the Grove or exploring in general. Does that sound good?"

"I'll be sure to do plenty of reading up on it before we meet you. We won't let you down!"

"Glad to hear it! Even if you can't find it, don't worry — sometimes explorations don't end the way you hope for them to, and it's entirely possible there's nothing even there to find."

"We'll do our best, though, and I have a feeling that we'll succeed."

"I like the enthusiasm! That's all I have for you two, do you have any questions for me right now?"

"I'm sure we'll think of some. Do you want to go on a tour of the city now?"

"I'll be giving you the tour," Umbreon spoke up before he could answer. "There's some things for our research we have to go through with Leafeon, so he'll be staying here with Espeon."

"Hey!" Espeon called out. "Why don't I get to go give them the tour?"

"It involves your research, so you're the one who should stay here and work on it with Leafeon. You don't even like studying Pokópolis history!"

Espeon slumped, pouting. "I know, I just wanted to give them the tour."

Umbreon sighed and rolled her eyes as she stood up. "Whatever. You two ready?"

Ethan shrugged, getting up almost as soon as he sat down. "You're sure you're fine giving us this on such short notice? We only just met you."

"You're fine," she replied with a wave of a paw. "It's a nice break, and the history of Pokéopolis is interesting. Besides, if you're one of Sunstriders' mentees, we'll probably see you around a lot. We need explorers to help with our research and they need people to send them on missions and find them new places to explore, so it makes sense."

"Don't worry about imposing on her," Leafeon laughed. "Consider it me calling in a favor of her if it makes you feel better; we're siblings, we probably owe each other a lot anyways."

"Well, thank you," he responded after seeing the nervousness still on Fennekin's face. "I wouldn't even know where to begin, the city seems so big. You said you study the history of Pokéopolis, are there any really important historical places we should see?"

"I know of a few," she nodded. "Come on, let's go. They're not too far away." She motioned her head to the stairs, then started leading them outside.

"So what is it you study?" Fennekin asked while they walked through the street. "Leafeon hasn't really mentioned you two before. If you're interested in humans, are you archaeologists?"

"Historians mostly, and we do work with some archaeologists a lot. So, while no, it's not too far off. Espeon studies stories and legends more, while I tend to look more at the physical and material records that we have."

"What made you start studying humans?" Ethan spoke up. "I thought most Pokémon didn't like them."

"Doesn't mean there isn't any value in studying it. It's maybe optimistic that we could discover what happened to all of them, but there are still things we're not entirely sure about. Pokémon weren't organized before the war and there's very little record of the war or what became before, so we're left to piece together what we can and find whatever might help us. We're actually heading to one of the few things we know about the war, as a matter of fact."

"Something here in Pokéopolis?" Fennekin asked. "I've never heard of anything like that. Is it in a museum?"

She pointed ahead, up in the sky. "It's the tower, if you can see it from here. Ninetales' Tower, The Water-Type Monument, Keldeo's Monument...whatever you want to call it, it's one of the oldest structures in the world and was made to honor the war. I can give you the whole story when we're there."

"Keldeo is a Pokémon from the legends about the war," Fennekin said, "but Ninetales are real and common. Why is it called that?"

"There's a Ninetales that's lived there for decades. Pokéopolis doesn't technically have a leader, but she's the closest thing to it, even if she doesn't impact the city much. She's very wise, and will occasionally grant audiences to those seeking advice or guidance. There's plenty of rumors about why she lives there, but you'd have to ask Espeon; Ninetales doesn't talk much about herself, and before she showed up in town a few decades ago, there's no record of her. Lucario, the brother-in-law we were talking about, meets with her almost every time he's in town, but he never talks about what he does outside the fact that he's an explorer."

"Nothing?" Ethan confirmed. "Not even where he's going?"

Umbreon laughed a tiny bit. "No, and it drives our sister Jolteon nuts. He doesn't even say what the weather was like where he was! You can imagine that's given Espeon no end to ideas about why he's so secretive."

Ethan looked to Fennekin. "We met a Pokémon that Falinks said comes and goes from there a lot, right? The one that helped us capture Ariados."

Her ears perked up. "Oh, right! Umbreon, do you know a Pokémon named Decidueye? Or does Lucario?"

"Can't say I do," she responded with a shake of her head. "Lucario might, but I doubt you'd get much out of him. I'd believe that Lucario isn't the only one that works with her, but I don't know anybody else for certain. We only really know about Lucario because he's family, I don't think he talks about it to anybody else."

"Decidueye was a bounty hunter," Fennekin spoke up. "Maybe they do bounty missions for her?"

"No clue why she'd need bounties put out," Umbreon laughed, "but I suppose anything is possible." The crowds had slowly been increasing, and now had grown into the true wall to wall traffic that Ethan had come to expect from the city. Somehow, he had gotten adept enough at navigating the streets that they bobbed and weaved through the Pokémon together for a few minutes, coming out in a small, narrow street lined with homes, the top of a stone tower visible over some of the roofs.

"Is that the Monument?" he asked, trying to point to it over the homes.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Just a little walk down this street and then we can see it, come on."

"Why is it Keldeo's Monument?" Fennekin asked. "Wasn't Keldeo one of the Pokémon that fought against humans?"

"Correct," she nodded. "There were four Pokémon that led us in the war with the humans: Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, and Keldeo. They disappeared after the war, and each of them had their own monument built to honor their memory; interestingly enough, only Keldeo's is known. We don't know where any of the others are."

As they reached the end of the street, they turned and saw a large, rectangular stone tower on the top of a small green hill: Keldeo's Monument. "Why's the top floor look different?" Fennekin asked. Ethan looked at the top, and saw what she was talking about: a thin strip of stone at the top was a little bit darker than the rest of the tower.

"The most common theory is that it was originally a larger monument," Umbreon explained as she began walking towards the hill. "A sword, most likely. And that's all that's left of the hilt. There aren't any mentions of what it looked like before, however, so we're just left to guess. The city was founded around the Monument, and by then it was already worn down to what we see today."

"Just how old is Pokéopolis?" Fennekin asked as she started following Umbreon. "Isn't it the oldest city in the world?"

"That we know of," she corrected. "I'm no geographer, but I've heard Pokémon say that Marnica is only a small part of our whole world. There's still plenty of lands we know exist, but haven't explored or found out what's beyond them, such as the Rockruff Mountains. So it's possible there's an older city out there, but we don't know of any." She paused for a moment. "You know, if they're right, it might explain why only the Water-Type Monument is known to us. Maybe the others were built elsewhere."

"Why Water-Type?" Ethan spoke up. "Is Keldeo a water type?"

"Water and fighting!" Fennekin beamed before Umbreon could respond. "And the other Pokémon he fought with are also fighting types, so it was probably named that since none of the others are water types. You know, makes it obvious it's his than if you named them all Fighting-Type Monument."

"That's what we think," Umbreon confirmed while nodding. "Again, we haven't found any definitive proof, but the official name is the Water-Type Monument, which implies that it was for Keldeo and that the others have other monuments somewhere else."

"Interesting," he said to himself while looking up at the tower in front of them.

"Is there anything about Keldeo himself in there?" Fennekin asked.

"Not to my knowledge, no. You seem to know a lot about history, have you studied it before?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw Fennekin quickly lock eyes with him before looking back forward. "Kind of, I heard a lot when I was a kid and have read a lot about humans."

"You'll fit in nicely with myself and Espeon, then. If you have any questions, we're always always happy to teach you or discuss ideas that you have."

He locked eyes with Fennekin again. "Thanks," she responded. "I'll keep that in mind."