Despite serving as one of the more prominent and well-known ruins in the Sinnoh region, the Solaceon Ruins was considered little more than a tourist attraction. It wasn't even a particularly good tourist attraction, either.
This probably had a lot to do with its location. It was the next door neighbor to an extremely small human settlement, whose own greatest feature was the Pokemon Daycare, and playing host to the nearby Lost Tower, the region's memorial to the souls of deceased Pokemon.
The other half of the Solaceon Ruins' lack of traffic was that it was actually very well hidden in plain sight. With such a small town, few people could be bothered to search and explore every nook and cranny of the surroundings, and to reach the Ruins, they had to go through a small forest and traverse a stretch of ledges where one misstep could potentially sprain one's ankle and leave them vulnerable. The combination of these factors meant that the average trainer would never realize the Ruins were there, and the ones who did head that way were more likely to miss the entrance than not.
This suited Lin just fine. It was normally not advisable for three seemingly wild Pokemon to just waltz into a small human town, so she was grateful that the necessary path to access the Solaceon Ruins was just past the town's entrance. The less time spent lingering in the open, the better.
Fortunately, the town did not have a local gym, nor any remarkable trainer attractions, so even if they did attract unwanted notice, it wouldn't really bring down a lot of heat upon them unless they were ridiculously unlucky and a member of the Elite Four or the Champion were visiting. Weirder things had happened. Most human towns tended to treat Pokemon in the area with wary respect, in case they belonged to a famous or notable trainer, or just because it was a bad idea to piss Pokemon off.
Force and Cecilia had miraculously spent the last leg of the journey in almost complete silence. Lin wasn't sure whether to be concerned or relieved about that. She was definitely pleased that Cecilia was more cheerful than before, although this was balanced out by Force being moodier and more introspective than normal. She, on the other hand, only cared about getting to their destination and completing their investigation here as swiftly as possible.
It was about mid-day by the time they reached the looming entrance of the Solaceon Ruins. Even after finding Cecilia back by Celestic Town's west gate, they had traveled reasonably far before inevitably stopping for the night. This was understandable, as Force was unused to traveling for long periods of time, and it was unclear how well rested Cecilia had been if she had actually fought fifty or more Pokemon to usurp the territory she had been using, and even Lin found it practical to rest up so that her mind and body would be at their sharpest for their exploration of the Ruins.
The Weavile's fur had been painstakingly washed and groomed today. Her jet black fur was tidy and stood out in sharp contrast to the colors of spring around them. The crimson feathers making up her crown and tail glistened in the sun. Even the scarf draped around her neck had been washed with utmost care, so that the blue silks shone as vibrantly as the rest of her body.
By contast, Cecilia and Force had both done the absolute minimum required to be labeled as 'presentable', although this was mostly because they had wasted an absurd amount of time debating the etiquette of bathing in front of each other, which somehow segued into a discussion of what relationship tier was needed to access this imaginary privilege and others like it, and even conditions and sub-privileges, like what direction you're allowed to face if you're not quite at the required tier. None of this conversation had anything to do with them being unwilling to bathe with the other present, as neither of them had a problem with that - it was purely for the sake of discussion and arguing about semantics.
Lin made a mental note to never again try to save time by having them do a personal task simultaneously.
They paused at the entrance to the Ruins, and Lin's sharp red eyes skimmed the exterior, verifying that there were no signs or markings intended to serve as a warning or message to visitors or intruders. The Ruins here were different from passages buried within Mt. Coronet that led to ancient ruins, so she couldn't discount the possibility of such inscriptions here.
Seeing nothing of note, Lin led the way inside the Ruins. To her slight surprise, the interior contrasted sharply with the outside. Rather than a cave as she had expected, she found herself standing in a narrow corridor. Directly to the right was a crumbling stone staircase, worn down by age and countless people moving up and down the steps. Another pair of staircases could be seen in the back of the passageway, branching off in different directions.
"Ooh, this is going to be fun!" Cecilia giggled, her flames crackling in excitement as she peered down the nearest staircase, but seemed unable to see beyond the veil of blackness.
"One moment, stay close," Lin said seriously, making her way to the rear of the passageway. Although the sunlight streaming into the chamber was enough to illuminate this section, she doubted this would be the case with the forked pathways. Cecilia would probably manage just fine as a living light source, and her own night vision was spectacular, but Force was going to be the odd one out, and she wanted to keep the group close.
The walls were decorated with various carvings, some purely aesthetic, but many others looked like ancient writing. Distinct runes were etched into the surfaces of faded stone tablets, and several of the symbols were repeated in an uneven pattern, confirming her suspicion that it was probably writing and not just decor.
Lin peered closely at the plaque at the back of the room. Looking this close, she could see a large number of similar markings and runs, and she could even make out that every single rune seemed to share an eye motif of sorts. They were all related to one another in some way, but their meanings were lost on her.
Cecilia and Force came over to where she stood and gazed at the same plaque for a few minutes, before restlessly turning their gazes to the staircases nearby. Lin finally tore her gaze from the plaque and scanned the room again. What was the purpose of this room? It was an entranceway, but considerably less ornate than most of its kind. There was no real imposing atmosphere, so if there was a significance to the Solaceon Ruins, it did not appear to have malicious origins.
"Okay, let's try one of these staircases," Lin said finally. The room had two stairways to the right, but only one to the left. It would make the most sense to go left first, so that after backtracking, they'd have a better chance of narrowing down the possible rooms yet to see. With that in mind, she carefully descended the stone steps, the claws on her feet making an audible clicking sound with each step. Force and Cecilia came after her, their footsteps careful and slow.
Lin emerged in a small, enclosed room. The only thing here was a decorative pillar of some sort, barely more than a shaped boulder in the center of the room. Her eyes narrowed as she swept the room, examining each of the four walls. There was no writing or inscriptions here, and it didn't seem to have much purpose. But then why have it at all? It was too small to be a room to mingle with others, and there were no remains or other evidence that things were stored here, other than the pillar itself, which wasn't even given the same care as other pillars and markings.
"Weird...do you think maybe this was supposed to be an expansion to the Ruins, but it either got abandoned or the project just got cut?" Force wondered, looking as bewildered as Lin felt. Finally forced to concede that the room had nothing to offer them, Lin gestured for them to go back upstairs, her scarf trailing behind her as she followed them.
"Okay, let's try this one, next!" Cecilia chirped, running back towards the sunlit entrance of the Ruins and peering down the nearest staircase.
"Okay," Lin said, and she frowned to herself as the Quilava bounded down the stairs. Force and Lin made to follow, but the Quilava abruptly darted back up the stairs, looking mildly put out.
"Would you believe it's EXACTLY like the other room?" she asked incredulously. "Nothing. Just a big rock and blank walls."
"So if the last stairway is the same thing, are we done?" Force asked, making his way towards the third staircase.
"I have no idea," Lin sighed. This was coming off as anti-climactic already, and that didn't sit well with her. The Ruins had a vibe about them, something mysterious lingering within the walls. She was unwilling to believe that it was nothing but three dead-end passageways. Someone had gone through the effort of building staircases that went nowhere.
However, when they descended this staircase, they found themselves in a different corridor...with another three staircases apart from the one they had come down. No one spoke for almost a full minute, and the only break in the silence was the sound of Cecilia's flames.
"We're going to hate this place, aren't we?" Force deadpanned finally.
"It's a bit early to assume that much," Lin replied, but she didn't sound particularly convinced of her own words. At this rate, the Solaceon Ruins could very well be a gigantic labyrinth with a majority of the rooms being dead-ends, but they were all but required to investigate each of them to be sure they weren't missing something crucial. And it could very well become worse further in, with several of the routes going on for some time and branching out several times before revealing the dead end.
That could be giving the Ruin designers too much credit, but if the site was guarding something important or valuable, then it was a possibility. Even so, there had to be some sort of clue or key to exploring this place.
"So what are we going to do?" Cecilia asked, cocking her head towards the Weavile curiously. "Split up and check each path?"
"No," Lin replied, stepping further into the corridor and examining the area with a critical eye. There were no inscriptions on the wall this time around. In fact, each of the walls were completely blank. There were no markings of any sort beside the staircases, either. This seemed like a crucial detail, but its exact meaning was lost on her. Why did only the entranceway have writing and markings on the wall? Was that somehow going to be the clue to navigating the Ruins? And even if it was, could they afford to not explore every nook and cranny of the Ruins?
"What are we even looking for?" Cecilia asked.
"We don't actually know if anything's here," Force said dully. "Sorin apparently said the Ruins of Alph in Johto has had some odd activity, and Kaito's just sending us here on a hunch that the Sinnoh equivalent might be acting weird, too."
Cecilia wrinkled her nose. "Does he have anything to base that on? Rumors or lore history, or anything? Because I don't want to waste my whole day cooped up in here for nothing."
Lin shrugged. "Kaito considers these Ruins and the Ruins of Alph to be parallels to one another. A development in one could uncover something in the other. That's why we're checking them both out simultaneously. I don't know what he's basing this theory on, but his fascination on the subject makes him a reasonable expert."
"I guess..." Cecilia muttered, her expression still a bit sour. "So how are we going to explore the place? Go down every branch and see how many dead-ends we hit?"
"Doubtful," Lin chuckled, flicking the end of her scarf over her shoulder. "Kaito knows how to make use of our individual skills. He may have taken Iris in his group for the convenience factor, but he left Force with my group for more than just symmetry. Force, can you get an aura read on the area?"
"Oh!" the Riolu's expression lit up and he raised a paw. Within moments, the paw was ablaze with a pale blue glow, casting its dim light over the walls of the corridor. The aura Pokemon remained still, his eyes closed for several moments. Neither Cecilia nor Lin said anything while they waited.
Finally, just as the silence was stretching into awkwardness, Force's eyes opened. Like his paw, his eyes had taken on a blue glow, and he cast his gaze around the corridor before the light in his eyes dimmed.
"Anything?" Cecilia wondered.
"It's a very strange feeling," Force answered slowly. "There is something about this place, but I can't pin it down. It's like I'm getting signals from a dozen different directions."
"Hmm...then let's proceed and see if anything reveals itself," Lin suggested. She gestured for the other two to follow her, and approached the closest staircase. Force was only a pace behind, with Cecilia bringing up the rear. As Lin went down the stairs, she kept her eyes peeled for any unusual markings on the walls of the stairwell, as sometimes explorers and scientists would make chalk markings on the walls of the paths they've tried, to keep themselves from getting hopelessly lost, but she found the walls oddly blank.
They emerged in yet another dead-end room, but this time, Lin patrolled the perimeter more closely, touching and tapping the stone walls of the room. She could still remember the odd feelings within the condemned chamber of Mt. Coronet. The unease that had gripped her heart within that room. She felt nothing of the sort here, but at the same time, she felt like something was watching her. It was a feeling that was nigh impossible to shake.
"Force, is there another aura in this room?" she asked the Riolu sharply. Neither he nor Cecilia had bothered coming further down the stairs on seeing the dead-end, but they remained with her nevertheless. The Riolu took a moment to conjure up his aura flames, and he blinked.
"Yes...but very small. A piece of a larger whole kind of thing. Like a colony of insects surrounding its queen."
"But the queen is not in this room?" Lin asked, vaguely amused by the description. Force shook his head.
"Can you tell where the monarch is?" Cecilia wondered.
"Deeper, I imagine," Force said with a shrug. Lin clicked her tongue in mild annoyance, casting another look around the room before heading back up the stairs. However, she then walked back towards the first staircase.
"Are we leaving?" Cecilia asked, unable to keep the hopefulness out of her tone.
"No, I want another look at the plaque near the entrance," Lin explained, climbing up the second staircase. She didn't look back to be sure that they were following, and immediately turned her attention to the writing at the rear of the room. Thus far, it had been the only markings that had resembled writing, and if she could decipher even a little of it, she may be able to make progress here.
The symbols seemed to stare back at her as she perused the lines of symbols. She tried to read them right to left, and then left to right. Nothing really seemed to stand out to her. Then she tried reading from top to bottom, and then bottom to top. This actually netted a more interesting observation - the same symbol appeared in almost every line of some of the columns. In fact, several of the columns matched in this fashion. And as she inspected this further, she realized that some of the lines were exactly identical to a different line.
But at the very bottom, the writing deviated drastically from the others. The Weavile made a mental note to inspect that closer, but for now, she wanted to understand the relevance of the matching lines of symbols. Was she right about the plaque serving as a key, or instructions on how to navigate the maze?
"Any luck, Lin?" Cecilia asked, coming over to where she stood and peering at the writing.
"Hmm...maybe. Are these symbols identical in these lines?" Lin wondered, underlining those lines with her claw.
"Um..." Cecilia sat back on her hind legs, assuming a close equivalent to a bipedal stance to get a better look. "Kind of? I think so...but I don't know what it'd mean...those aren't very good symbols if they're supposed to be an entire word."
"They're letters," Force said suddenly. Lin and Cecilia looked back at him, startled. "Look at their shapes," Force insisted, pointing at one of the symbols. "That one looks like the letter 'O'...and that one looks like a 'W'..."
Lin peered closer, and then slapped her forehead. "I feel like an idiot now."
"Even if those are letters, some of them are REALLY weird-looking," Cecilia said doubtfully. "Like look at the bottom row. That one looks derpy."
Lin chuckled at her friend's matter-of-fact description. The symbol Cecilia was referring to had the eyeball part of the symbol at the top, with a loop at the bottom. Although the one beside it looked very much like a letter 'E', with the eyeball in the center of a vertical line, and three prongs extending from it, one from the top, middle, and bottom. The third symbol looked like the 'W', as Force had noted already.
"Hmm...I wish I had brought some note paper or something to write these down and see if they make sense together," Lin murmured. It was taking her brain a second or two to figure out the possible letter the symbols indicated, and even longer to piece it together with another deciphered letter.
"Try carving them with your claws," Cecilia suggested.
"Cece, do you have any idea how long that'd take?" Lin scolded. "Okay, let's talk this out together, and try to work it into something coherent. I can't tell what the first letter is, but I'm pretty confident on 'E' and 'W' as the next two."
"The fourth one has to be an A," Force reasoned, tracing the letter's shape over the symbol, illustrating the similarity.
They spent several minutes debating the remainder of the line, usually settling into an agreement, but sometimes being forced to backtrack to a previous symbol when the completed word was nonsensical as a result.
"Okay, what they really needed to do was just write out the alphabet before making their messages," Cecilia sighed, after the eighth revision.
"Okay, I think we got it," Lin said. Despite arguing against the idea at first, she had eventually agreed to write out their deciphered message, but chose to carve it into the softer ground than to work with the stone wall. The three of them peered at the claw-written message scrawled at their feet.
"Beware our Guardians," Cecilia said flatly. "That's...really creative. Illuminates a lot. Definitely worth the hour or so we spent. Excuse me, I need to step outside and set something on fire."
"Uh, Cece, we're next to a human town," Lin said hastily. "That would be a very bad idea."
"Do the other lines give directions?" Force asked, giving Cecilia a nervous look.
"Nuh-uh, I'm not sitting here and deciphering two dozen more symbols just to get Up, Right, Down, Left, Start, Select or whatever," Cecilia growled, her flames growing in intensity. Lin peered closer at the symbols.
"...oh, you've got to be kidding me," she muttered. She pointed at one of the lines, tracing the corresponding letters over the symbols. "Top Right." She then pointed at the staircase next to them, the one that had led them to the second corridor. It was furthest from the entrance of the Ruins, on the right-hand side.
"I hate this place," Cecilia grumbled.
