Tapping quills and shifting papers. The lecture hall was alive with sound, and at the center of the pitched room was a methodical voice, conducting the pens to make their subtle orchestra one note at a time. The Delphox sat horizontally across the metal staff she levitated off the ground, her claw tapping at the edge of a diagram on the blackboard. Dozens of eyes followed the motion with unwavering concentration.
"Without nearby ruins or ancient script to tell any tales, one must look to the earth to tell the stories you want to hear," Panne continued, idly rolling her tongue in her mouth between thoughts. "Layers of sediment can be traced back for thousands of years, and much like the rings of a tree, you can find a wealth of information just in these colored lines alone. Natural disasters, geographical events, and even ecological changes can be tracked depending on what you measure. It's mundane history compared to, say, finding a long-forgotten relic buried in the sands, but with every discovery the image of the past becomes clearer than ever."
A few heads nodded. The song of scribbling picked back up as the students rushed to jot down their notes. Larger pokemon went still as they leaned in close to their papers while smaller species seemed to put their whole bodies into the motion of their writing. Avians used their talons. Quadrupeds used whatever manipulators they had or simply partnered with another. Some pokemon even had precise enough telekinesis to hold a quill with their minds. Regardless of the methods, those present were laser-focused on the lesson at hand.
As was Panne, until a flicker of realization dragged her eyes over to the clock, whose hands had already traveled ten minutes past noon. Then her eyes followed down to the Serperior who smiled at her patiently from the frame of the door, presumably for just as long.
"Oh damn. I lost track of time again, didn't I?" she softly mumbled to herself, then turned back to the class and cleared her throat. "Anyways! We'll have to go over the specifics tomorrow. Keep marks in your books, I'm not even going to erase the board."
Vallion slithered in before a tide of students could surge forth and wash him away. All the while, Panne struggled to gather up the mess of papers that she had thrown across the desk. What was once a neatly organized folder had been torn apart and rearranged in a multitude of apparently useful ways.
"You get carried away again?" the Serperior asked as he tried to make sense of the clutter at a glance.
"No I didn't! Mawile's notes were totally a mess! She's unraveled so many cyphers and weird languages that she just naturally writes in one! And you know I don't get hungry when I'm working, so of course I'm not gonna realize how late it is!" Panne huffed and simply stacked the papers rather than attempting to put them back in any meaningful order. She readjusted her position on the staff that held her aloft, her lame leg dangling as lifelessly as ever.
"What about you?" she asked. "How thrilled were you when you heard that you had to pick up that algebra lecture this morning? I'd rather have to deal with a labyrinth of lecture notes any day of the week."
"Calculus isn't that bad," he said as they both started towards the exit. "Helps if you tried not being bad at it. Maybe you should brush up a bit?"
A murky sun beamed down on the courtyard through a layer of fog. All manner of Pokemon crowded the gardens and walkways of Nexus University, still pouring out from the monolithic classrooms that lined its perimeter. A biting chill swirled up from the ocean, wove through the crowds, and rustled in the stout needles of the pine trees. A few flying types caught the gust and soared even higher into the sky, but what it mostly did was turn the pages of open journals against the wills of their owners.
It was claustrophobic out here today, wasn't it? Did Kadabra really have to schedule all of the classes so close together?
Panne scratched behind her head with one hand and steadied her staff with the other. "Geez, are we really only halfway through the day? I already can't wait for it to be over. You hear that they're finally opening up Meowth's Theater again? I bet they're gonna be looking for actors for a while, too." Her ears pulled back as she regarded her own posture. "So? You think I'd make a good starring role?"
Vallion looked off to the side. "You'd make an incredible stagehand with your skillset."
A playful blow landed on the back of his head. He leaned away and went to retaliate with a vine, but she grabbed onto it and wrapped it around her wrist. "Shut up! I mean, you're obviously right, but you're still an asshole."
The warmth of the main building enveloped them as they passed through a pair of double doors. The masses were a bit thinner indoors, but those that did walk the compound's halls did so with purpose. Most of the commotion appeared to be centered around Floatzel, who was in the process of herding up a handful of young explorers to the side of the marble compass on the floor. A Beautifly and an Ivysaur, among a few others. Floatzel sucked in a breath to bark another slew of orders to the group when he saw the two professors pass by.
"Hey! You two, hold on a sec!" The water type raised a finger to the students and beckoned Panne and Vallion over. "Ampharos told me to tell you to head up to his office once you were finished with your classes. It was something about a letter, I think? I don't know, it's probably some nonsense administration work again, but he was very adamant about it. You better check it out just in case."
The Delphox grumbled and shifted in the air. "Well whatever it is, it better not cut too deep into lunch. I don't trust Swirlix to leave anything for us."
"Psh. You're telling me," Floatzel said with a roll of his eyes. "These guys have an expedition for field research in Air Continent tomorrow. Meteorology and whatnot, and it's apparently the project itself is very time-sensitive. Mismagius was supposed to be here to arrange the whole ordeal, and of course he's nowhere to be seen. Like, I'm not the weather guy! I don't know what's up with all that!"
The Ivysaur shook their head. "Neither is Mismagius. Professor Altaria's already went to Air Continent early without telling anyone."
"She just does that all the time!" The Beautifly whined.
"I know she does. She's been doing that since we first met her. Maybe she has a secret lover or something?" Panne snickered. "You guys have fun with that. Sounds to me like you've got a long couple weeks of independent studies ahead of you."
She and Vallion made their way through the oldest parts of the building before the expansion. At the top of the stairwell was the spinning holographic globe responsible for not only the name of this place, but a vast majority of its notoriety. A bumpy texture stuck out from the image where mountain ranges extended into the heavens, offering an overwhelming amount of detail to the five continents. The world seemed so simple when reduced to such a size, but the Nexus took years and years of work to construct, and possessed every ounce of cartographical knowledge they'd ever accrued. Not to mention how it was constructed from an incredibly complex relay of wonder orbs and circuits. The pride, the joy, and the statement of the Expedition Society.
Ampharos' office changed shape much more frequently than that globe, but it generally had the same feel each time. Messy, scatterbrained, and without any immediate sense of direction in the slightest. It was the perfect personification of its owner. The only one who could bring any order to this place was Mawile, who just so happened to be attempting to do just that when the two of them arrived, muttering under her breath while Ampharos himself reclined in his chair.
"You called?" Vallion announced his presence. "Hello, Mawile. Haven't seen you since you went to that conference yesterday. Panne really appreciated that lesson plan you made."
Shrugging, the Delphox's eyes wandered to the certificates along the walls. "I mean, I suppose so. It was organized like you were trying to hide the notes from me, though. Had to flip through half the damn thing to get from one thought to the other.
Mawile pulled at the bright scarlet scarf around her neck-the same that Ampharos himself was currently wearing. "That's what happens when I have to arrange a whole lesson on such short notice. Maybe if you had given me more warning, I'd have given you a better lecture. We live busy lives, I can't conjure up entire books on geological history in a single night. It would take about three."
"Hey, hey. No starting fights in my office, honeylove." Ampharos' chair squeaked in an expertly distracting way as he leaned forward. His hand landed on what appeared to be the letter in question. "We've all had a stressful autumn. I can understand those charged feelings carrying over into winter. It takes a village to raise a child, and we just so happen to be fostering the growth of an entire generation. But Panne, you really should be making lesson plans in advanced."
After a curt nod of agreement just to move the conversation along, the Serperior slithered to Ampharos' desk and extended a vine. "I presume that letter's the one you wanted to talk to us about? It has to be something pretty miserable if you had us drag ourselves all the way up here for it."
The headmaster's face went stony. "You'd presume right. Normally I'd just have dropped this in your guys' box and let you sort it out yourselves, but seeing the kind of seal we're dealing with, I couldn't help but feel like I ought to take a few extra measures. It's not often you see the royal signature of Paradise slapped so boldly on the front of any piece of mail."
"The what's on there?" Vallion swiped up the letter and held it so that Panne could see as well. Sure enough, a blue wax stamp menaced at the very center of the envelope. An insignia of a star peering out from behind the peak of a mountain. It was as official as it got, straight from the monarchy of Paradise.
Panne immediately made a sour face and turned away. "Fuck that. You read it. I can't be assed to care about stingy nobles freezing their balls off."
Vallion cut open the envelope with the sharpened tip of his vine and unfolded the letter that was neatly nestled within. As he began to scan over the waterfall of flawless handwriting that sprawled down the page, a nervous stone sunk to the bottom of his stomach.
Vallion of the Expedition Society, or to whomever can forward this message to him,
We have not spoken for over a decade. Apart from the obvious reasons as to why, it was simply not necessary to contact you. There was nothing for us to talk about. However, as the darkest months approach Paradise, I feel that I am about to be forced into a corner from which I cannot escape alone. There is no one else for me to turn to. No amount of pride or dignity is worth what I fear could be coming. The very foundation of Paradise may be at stake if I don't act now. Please understand, Vallion. I am desperate. This may very well be something that is beyond my control. I need your help.
"Bullshit!" Panne struggled not to shout, peering over his collar at the letter in spite of her previous resignations. "If this is from who I think it is, this paper's gonna be kindling before I leave this office. You know what? Just set it on the ground and I'll take care of it. Controlled burns are easy."
The Serperior held the letter away. "Even if it is from him, at least let me read through the whole thing before you go off and make ashes out of it. This sounds like it could be important."
Mawile tilted her head. "Who's 'him?' Neither of you have ever explained why you both refuse to go to Paradise, you know. Is it some sort of old dispute with noble blood or something?"
"And like I always say, it's complicated and it's in the past. No need to go digging for it now," Panne said with a huff. She twisted her staff away and stared off into space in the opposite direction. "Fine. I don't care what the letter says anymore, but I guess it can live for a couple more minutes."
Something is lurking in the streets of my city. Something that shouldn't exist in the first place. The mere rumor of it is a dark omen that could spell disaster for more than just Paradise. My hunches about these kinds of things are rarely wrong anymore, so I plead you to consider the severity of this threat. I write to you not as the Master of Law, but as a fellow human. Keep this in mind when I say that I want to disclose the rest of my thoughts in person.
On the back of this letter is my full writ of permission. It is your passport, your payment, and your safe passage. This paper can get you from right where you stand to Noe Port and well beyond. I will be notified of its use should you choose to accept my summons. Once I do, I will arrange to receive you and we will talk. This offer does count as an official mission, as well. I have already gone through the proper channels. Should you accept, upon reaching whatever conclusion there may be to this issue, there will be a reward for your time. Any payment you might ask will be considered.
I beg of you, Vallion. I know that I'm in no position to be asking anything of you, especially with our distant history, but I feel that this could be bigger than the both of us. I want to be wrong. I'd love nothing more than to simply waste your time and pay whatever princely sum you wanted for recompense. That would be such an unbelievable relief to me. Even so, I cannot in good conscience hesitate to send this letter any longer. I am worried.
-Alexander
Vallion stared at that name for long enough that he started to lose track of time. The weight of that word alone made the paper feel three times heavier in his vines. He simply didn't know what to feel. A couple dozen emotions ran through his chest all at once, the most striking of which being sheer disbelief. The fact that he was staring at that handwritten name in the flesh, and that it wasn't some strange fever dream ,was truly the strangest part. Everything that happened in Poliwrath River all those years ago was such a distant memory that the only evidence of those events seemed to be the faint scar on Panne's chest. And yet, here was this.
"...Well?" Ampharos broke the silence.
"We've been summoned to Paradise," the Serperior replied in monotone.
"I figured that much," the headmaster said. "But what's the occasion? You're looking rather pale underneath your scales, Vallion. Is it that bad?"
Panne raised her voice. "Since we're probably not going, I don't think it particularly matters. I could go without-"
"It's a mission," Vallion cut her off. He flipped the paper over and scanned the intricate ink stamp that covered most of the back of the page. This was apparently what a full writ of permission looked like, as the letter suggested. If he used it at all, Alexander was bound to hear of it. "...It might be an important one at that. It's not quite an emergency, but the way this is worded makes me feel like it could become one very quickly."
"Do you have any idea how huge Paradise is? They can deal with their own problems!" the Delphox waved a dismissive hand at the matter and started towards the exit. "It's not like we're the only guild that takes missions. And we're already drowning in students, anyway! We've got more than enough on our plates. Speaking of which, there's nothing on my freaking plate! Let's get down to the cafeteria before Swirlix swallows a pot whole."
Taking care not to make any creases in the paper, Vallion folded the human's message in the grasp of his vestigial hands, gave Ampharos an uncertain nod, and hurried after his spouse, who had already flown over a Torkoal's head and rushed down the stairs. Everything he had just read continued to swirl around in his mind regardless of how quickly he moved, repeating themselves in a voice he no longer remembered. For a while after the event, Vallion had assumed Alexander met his end up on that hill that fateful morning. It came as a surprise all those years ago when he heard that the Serperior was still alive and had returned to Paradise, but perhaps he hadn't really accepted that fact as reality until now. Alexander was alive. And their paths might cross again.
The world around him kept on turning regardless. Two currents of footfall pulled on opposite ends of the halls-one towards the library installed at the far end of the compound, and the other towards the murmur of idle chatter and the smell of fresh-baked buns and wafting garlic. Panne urged Vallion to move faster with a glance and disappeared around the corner, narrowly avoiding a Staravia with a bag in its talons.
Even after the Society's expansion, the cafeteria still felt packed on busy days like these. A gloomy grey light filtered in from the curved windows near the roof, shining down on the growing line of customers at the front of the kitchen. A bang cascaded into a violent clattering from somewhere behind the counter, silencing the room for several long seconds. Then, without any further context, Swirlix sprung onto her stool and launched the bag that was balanced on her head into a Gallade's arms.
"Thirty coins! Next!"
Faculty had the virtue of being able to enter the kitchen to get their lunches right from the source. At least, it certainly would seem like a virtue to most observers, but some days it was better just to wait in line. Walking back there was like stepping near the horde of a dragon. Panne and Vallion pressed through the doors and found themselves in a battleground of beige tiles and rolling steam. Swirlix's assistant, an unfortunate Makuhita, rushed about as he struggled to keep track of half a dozen ringing timers. There was no immediate indication as to what that crashing sound even was.
"Aha! Slaves!" Swirlix called out as she tumbled down from her stool and back into the kitchen. "Quick! Get the ovens! Stir the pots! Earn your share! I run a successful business model!"
"Yeah yeah I know," Panne said, already starting to pull at trays out of furnaces in a balancing act of telekinesis.
The policy was that, if you wanted to assemble your own lunch, you either had to do it without Swirlix knowing, or with her direct approval. Approval is a very broad word in this sense, since it referred to the point in which she wouldn't try to bite at your ankles if you left with anything. Panne, having a decoy ankle she didn't care so much about, often got away with doing much less than Vallion, who was practically a single ankle of a pokemon. Swirlix didn't exactly hold back, either.
"Ah! The-!" Makuhita started to shout, but Panne had already rushed over to the pot and pulled it away from the burner before it could boil over.
"B-but what about-!"
The Makuhita looked to the cheese buns which Vallion had already taken out of the oven, the ends of his vines knotted up inside a pair of oven Serperior shot a look of pity at the fighting type before setting in the next batch. He could barely stand to be in this place for more than a handful of minutes, much less an entire lunch rush.
Sighing with relief, Makuhita let his shoulders slump and wiped at his forehead with a spare rag. "I swear, I'm gonna die in here before I learn how to cook anything."
"You think this is hard?!" Swirlix butt in, a bag of coins jingling as it hit the ground beside her stool. "I've been doing this for years with no arms! No arms, Makuhita! Put those phalanges to use already and get me another six cinnamon rolls!"
"Y-Yes boss!" Makuhita said, attempting some gesture caught hopelessly between a bow and a salute.
The two of them did their piece, took their fill, and escaped back into the mess hall relatively intact. Vallion swallowed a couple bread rolls for maintenance, but was otherwise so far away from the thought of eating that he didn't bother taking anything else. He followed the Delphox over to the corner of the room beneath the dull spotlights of the windows. There, Dedenne and Archeops sat together at the edge of the table, alongside a couple of empty seats that were recently vacated by a handful of inquisitive students. Nowhere was safe but their own rooms during the day.
Finishing off the oversized bite of food that she had partially stored in her cheek, Dedenne hummed at the newcomers. "Took you two long enough. We're already almost done. Did you guys get lost on the way here or something?"
"Hardly. Do you see how many pokemon are here today?" Vallion said as he coiled around a seat. "We should be asking you how you managed to get here on time. Floatzel is probably tied up for the next hour."
Archeops smiled. "I mean, that's what good business is, right? It's not so bad to have a lot of work to do. I'd rather take up another thirty pokemon to teach environmental sciences than lose thirty of what I already have."
"In that case, you can take my classes if you want. I barely got time to breathe," Panne muttered between bites.
"At least you're not studying under Jirachi," Dedenne said with a hum. "I've seen Astrology lessons that should have been two hours long last an entire night. Some of those students take Wonder Orb Tech, too! How can one pokemon ramble on for so long? They lived in a cave for, like...I don't even remember how long Jirachi said they were down there for!"
Without any appetite to concentrate on, Vallion's eyes wandered off to the far side of the mess hall and glazed over. The letter tucked away in his hands became his center of gravity as he drifted into space. The Serperior liked to think that he knew himself rather well. It was reasonable to assume that, if he was having this much trouble coming up with a decision to a problem he should ignore for the better, then the decision was probably already made. The fact that the answer wasn't immediately no meant that it was eventually going to be yes. What mattered was how he was going to get around to that answer, and how to get around Panne's objections.
"Not hungry?" Archeops leaned into the Serperior's peripheral vision.
The Serperior shook his head. "Not particularly. I had a big breakfast. Or at least, I had a breakfast."
"Oh, it's too much! Just look at what this place is doing to us!" Dedenne moaned, a dramatic hand on the cheek that wasn't filled with berries. "Vallion's gone anorexic! Floatzel actually has to do work! Panne had to decipher ancient scripture just to teach anyone anything!"
The Delphox immediately pointed to Dedenne with a muffled hum, struggling to swallow what was already in her mouth. "See?! I'm not the only one that can't read Mawile's fucking handwriting! Couldn't she use that typewriter of hers to slap something legible down real quick? How much longer would it have really taken? Oh, and don't even start on how hard it was to actually sort through."
"But no seriously," Archeops continued, his polite chuckling tapering away into concern. "You look a little worse for wear, Vallion. Are you sure you're feeling alright?"
With the stone in his stomach getting heavier by the minute, Vallion tucked the letter deeper into his leafy palms. "Just thinking. Got some news that means I might be gone for a few days. Maybe a couple weeks, I don't really know yet."
Panne grimaced, but she didn't look particularly surprised. "You're seriously going to go, aren't you? Val, you- ugh. Someone could be pointing a wand straight at you and you'd still go up to ask them what's wrong. Frankly, I think it should be illegal to write so flowery and imprecise on formal shit like that. Doesn't get to the point at all."
"You're seriously going where, now?" Dedenne tilted her head.
"Paradise," he answered flatly. "On an official mission of some kind. Not much information about it otherwise, but it's apparently all there and proper."
Archeops pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth and winced, his feathers visibly ruffling in displeasure. "Uh oh. You know what that probably is, right? I hear Paradise has been going through a real rough patch with the demonstrations that were happening last year. Er- Well, I think it's a little lighthearted to just call those 'demonstrations.' And that's not to mention how awfully cold it must be getting that far north. I assume you weren't given much detail on purpose, judging from all that."
"It's not like we're the only guild that does missions around here," Dedenne said. "And it's been a long time since we've taken one, to be frank. You should probably just pass that one along. It's too much trouble, especially with your schedule. I know how much you want to help people with stuff like this, Vallion, but maybe it's time we step aside and let the youngsters have their time in the sun."
"The letter was specifically addressed to him," Panne noted, and followed with a disinterested spoonful of stew.
"Oh. I suppose that would be different."
With a nod, the Serperior let his eyes fall to the texture of the table. "It is."
The mood was beyond repair by that point, so there wasn't much left to do but finish their meals and head back to work. Dedenne groaned as she hobbled off towards Communications. Archeops lingered a bit longer, but his presence was soon needed in the library, and so off he fluttered as well. Panne and Vallion left shortly after.
The halls were significantly clearer now that the crowds have had ample time to diffuse. There wasn't a single soul over the compass rose, and what few pokemon were still in sight were mostly moving away. Distant conversations could be heard bouncing off the stone floors, but it was otherwise silent.
"So," Panne began with a stretch of her arms. "What should we expect to bring on an urban mission we know nothing about?"
The Serperior shot her a sideways glance. "We? I never said you had to come. You clearly don't want to, anyway."
"Are you kidding, Val? Don't you remember the one and only time I left you with that guy alone? I don't care if we were just kids at that point, I'm never letting anything like that happen again."
Having suddenly gotten bored of supporting herself using her telekinesis, the Delphox snapped up her staff in one hand and wrapped her other arm around Vallion's neck. He momentarily buckled under her weight, but it was one he was well accustomed to carrying.
"Besides, you think I'm just gonna let you sneak out so that you can leave me with all of your work, too? Hell no. We're gonna leave it to Floatzel."
"You do realize he's going to absolutely freak out on us the second he finds out we're gone, right?"
Her ears bounced forward, bumping the side of his head as she bared a fanged grin. "I'm gonna have my gadget off for like three days straight when we leave. I know it usually takes him a week to cool down, but if you let him build up a bunch of responses he'll spit them all out at once and it's ridiculously funny. Have I ever showed one of his outbursts to you? I had to have, right?"
"Geez. Give the guy a break, will you? He's got enough on his plate as is."
"Yeah, right! What about our plates?! He's not the one that has to travel to one of the farthest northern settlements in the world! And on behalf of that snaky fucking bastard, no less. Hmph!"
He shot her a frown. "Am I a snaky bastard?"
"He's the most bastardy of snakes. You're the most snaky of bastards."
Vallion felt the weight lift as a small chuckle left his lips. He wrapped around her, sighing as the tension released the slightest amount. "I don't actually feel good about this, you know. It's not like I'm particularly happy to go. I just feel like I have to. But...I do feel a little better about it if you're coming."
"Yeah, yeah. You wouldn't turn down a cry for help if it killed you. That's why I'm around, and why you're still alive."
