This time, the meeting place was inside an old greenhouse off the side of some manor. The old Weavile shot glares at the pair of grunts that tried to hustle him through the shaded backyard, the crimson of his feathers addled with an aged grey. It didn't matter what was considered good manners to the Matriarch, these Toxicroak and Gosliopod were still beneath him. Grinding fangs behind pursed lips, the Weavile allowed himself to be escorted past the grove of evergreens that shrouded the hideout. Beneath a curtain of scraggly, dead ivy was a half-dome of dirty window panes. The Toxicroak was just about to nudge the Weavile in through the door when he brandished his talons and let himself in at his own pace.
The conservatory itself was almost too dark in spite of the wall of windows. What little light the clouds allowed was once again filtered through murky sheets of glass, and was inhibited even further by the cracked shadows of vines, and a dome of snow that had accumulated on top. He passed by all manner of dormant or dead flora on his way through one of the gang's inner sanctums. Following the flowing pattern of the tiles beneath his claws, he came to a circular structure in the center situated directly beneath the glass dome. The gazebo there was covered with patches of nesting material, both on the arched roof and underneath. There was nearly a dozen avian pokemon sitting among them, all partially shrouded by the low light.
"You rang?" the Weavile called out, head tilted to the side.
A few pinprick eyes turned towards him, but not the winged figure with a fang in her head crest, who had nested directly beneath the roof. It was the harsh, grating tones of the Skarmory in the upper left that spoke out to him.
"Weavile. Our faithful servant arrives. Do you know of Beartic?"
"Hm? What about that waste of space?" He shrugged out his claws. "'Course I heard what happened. Dumb bastard got nicked when a few Shardurr came to collect. Didn't even kill him, either-just took his shit and ran. Them and that new face-A Serperior I think. Why? Were you thinking we take care of that embarrassment ourselves?"
One of the Braviary let out a snort. "That's a waste of energy. What Beartic lost was his, not ours. The Family has still decided that he will no longer be of any use."
A Swellow picked up disconcertingly close to where their sibling left off, like they had practiced this very discussion already. "Worthless as he was in the end, he was hardly involved enough in our work to be a threat. No. You're not here for a hit. You're here to receive a warning."
"Oh? And here I was hoping you invited me over to pick a corpse clean." The Weavile's shoulders sagged. "Warn me about what? That Beartic's an idiot? That other gangs will feel obligated to retaliate if you slight them?"
"That there are omens in the air."
She was the one that answered. The Mandibuzz in the shadows, directly in the center of the gazebo's shade. A shudder nearly ran down the Weavile's spine at the rumbling sound. The Matriarch rarely spoke for her children. He could count the number of times he'd heard her voice on just his six claws.
"What?" he said. "What do you mean by that? This ain't the first time the south has tried to start shit with us. And as far as I was aware, this is still a great season for business."
The Mandibuzz picked at something on the floor of her nest. "This isn't a petty quarrel over money. It's probing. We're being tested by more sinister minds."
"Tested? Why? For what? Do you honestly think those two-bit assholes can-"
"You wouldn't understand," the Matriarch silenced him outright. "This goes deeper than you. Be quiet and do as you're told."
It wasn't as if he had a choice. The Weavile let his hands fall to his sides, head reluctantly bowed to his superior.
The Matriarch went silent, and in her place was a different Swellow entirely. "Do business with care. Prepare for the worst. Tell your underlings the same, or you'll come to follow Beartic's example."
With a scoff he hoped no one could hear, the Weavile gave a curt nod and twisted around to leave. This time, he felt every one of that flock's beady eyes fall on his back upon his exit.
...
Panne just knew it was going to be a bad day. Waking up in the laps of luxury to a full breakfast and a roaring fire still wasn't enough to appease this sense of dread that had been building in her gut all morning. And if something like as extravagant as that didn't help, standing out near a marble statue of Reinhardt and waiting in the glacial winds wasn't fucking improving anything.
It wasn't Nibby that finally tipped the scales from bad to worse. Oh no, the Noibat didn't even have a chance to show up before that happened. Trouble reared its ugly head in the form of something that was supposed to inspire a feeling of security. A patrolling guardsman-specifically a knight of all things-singled her out amidst the city square.
The Kommo-o was the least conspicuous pokemon for the next square mile. After a brief glaring contest, they lumbered towards her on all fours, each stomp eliciting a cacophony from their metal plating. The trappings and cape they wore proudly shouted out the colors of Paradise, as well as this individual's profound position in its hierarchy. These types of pokemon always looked like they were in a bad mood, but just in the way they moved she could just tell this was going to end poorly.
The first thing the dragon did was grunt at her, their narrow eyes sizing her up like she was their next meal.
"I know you,"
She grunted right back. "Yeah? Join the club, buddy. I tend to get around."
"No." They leaned in not a foot away from her face and sniffed at the air. Their eyes were predatory slits. "I know you from the palace. You're the girl that disrespected His Majesty in the middle of his court several nights ago. I was there when it happened. I regret doing nothing about it."
Panne scoffed. "Oh. That? I was wondering when that little stunt would come back to bite me in the ass. For the record, I don't particularly care for that fool or his authority in the slightest, and you don't scare me much either."
Kommo-o stood on their hind legs and postured, eclipsing her in their shadow. They huffed through their nostrils. "Do you know what they call His Majesty in my circle? The Aegis of Paradise. The mighty protector of his people. Stubborn is he, to extend his endless kindness even to an insolent cur such as yourself."
The Delphox rolled her wrist to speed them along. "Uh huh. Sure, dude. I'll remember that the next time I make fun of him for those girly little arm drapes that he wears. Are you gonna try to pulverize me already or what? I don't exactly have all day here."
A bitter, hateful silence went by. Then, another sigh of exasperation blew from their nose and caught on the wind. Panne just raised a brow and flipped her ears in response.
"Were it up to me-" the Kommo-o finally started to say when she refused to shy away. "-I would have you punished. Severely, if you did not repent for your behavior. His Majesty and his kingdom demand respect. Even in lieu of his lenience with you, I would suggest you watch your mouth. Not all of us possess the same patience."
Next came the rapid fluttering of tiny wings. Nibby was barely a speck in the backdrop of a sea of clouds until he was right on top of her, landing on the edge of her staff with a small thud. The downy fluff around his neck and chest was spattered with caught snowflakes, which he viciously tried to shake off.
"Knight captain," the Noibat regarded the Kommo-o with a slight bow of his head. "This Delphox giving you a hard time?"
They waited another bated breath for good measure before finally breaking away and continuing on their patrol. "No. Continue on your way, detective. You're better off not associating with the likes of this one." The clanging metal scales and mighty steps of the dragon echoed through the square even as they turned a corner and disappeared. The wind couldn't carry their stinking breath away fast enough. What an asshole.
"...This one? What's he mean by that?!" Panne repeated to herself, crossing her arms. "What a prick!"
"I reckon you're not going to tell me why the knight captain was staring you down like that?" the Noibat eventually said. "The guy only has a glower on the best of days, but I ain't seen him give it to anyone so hard before."
Panne rolled her eyes. "Those big ears don't quite work as well as mine, huh? And what's with the way you two greeted one another? You know each other or something?"
"Not personally. I've just done a lot of work for the Order in the past. Not the knighthood specifically, just the Order."
"There's a difference?" She shook her head. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. Now that you're here, why don't we get a move on already? I just want this over with so I can be someplace warm."
"Hmph. Whatever you say." Nibby hopped around and faced past the staff's edge, pointing with his nose. "Walkin's different from flyin', so let me see if I can get my bearings from here. We'll be traveling down the length of that street there, turning left at the end."
It's about time. The Delphox stretched her usable limbs in preparation, then willed the iron pole beneath her to move. That little interaction back there put some feeling back into her skull, alright. She'd been doing totally fine up to this point, but the slightest pangs of a headache were definitely on the horizon now. It better not get any worse than that.
"Didn't think you'd come," Nibby said in the interim as he eyed the various pokemon they passed, most of which returning the gaze.
"Really? Assumed I would just pussy out, did you?"
He sniffed. "Not quite. Just didn't think you'd bother relying on me for a lead. It settled in after a while-just who it was I had spoken to. The pokemon that you are. A walking myth. You're unbelievable to anyone who didn't live through what you solved. I could hardly believe what I'd walked into, myself. Follow the signs after this left."
Panne did as she was told. "Good. Then you'll take me seriously. Where the hell are we going, by the way? You never actually mentioned where we would be getting the information I needed, just that you knew where to get it. It wouldn't happen to be a museum of Weavile heritage and history, would it?"
"If only it were that simple," he said. 'No. I just know where we might find the start of your trail. Take this next right here and keep going all the way. It'll be pretty crowded, but don't mind it none."
"What do you even get out of this?" she asked, to no response.
It was pretty damn crowded, to be sure. Despite how cramped it was, she was lucky to be moving with the flow of the road. A Golurk and a Hippowdon trudged on through in the opposite direction. Behind her, a wagon was pulled by an impatient Mudsdale. Skittering groups of Rattata and Raticate tried their best not to get stepped on. The shadow of a Fearow passed over her head. Shouting, selling, chatter. And it wasn't even midday yet.
"Keep on going!" Nibby assured her above the chaos. Must've been easy for him to say, perched so smugly on the tip of the weight that she carried. If only she could reliably levitate higher than the heads of this crowd. Without bonking everyone on the head as she passed, that is. Nah, better not. This was not the right day for a migraine, and she was skirting the line enough as it was.
The street did eventually open up slightly, thankfully. Enough pokemon poured out into arterial passages that Panne could finally start to breath again. Without having to guide herself through a sea of bodies, she managed to look up and see the city's heart as it was truly presented-with arches of latticed steel and hanging pots of winter flowers and dormant vines. Like a Masquerain's dazzling display, Paradise's overbearing design loomed over her, casting the Delphox in its shade. The dull checkpoint she went through hardly compared to the sight.
Even with an open sky above her head, the space she entered gave the impression of a packed building. Enclosed within short barrier walls and railing were queues that made Panne dismount her staff and hobble on with her good leg, with Nibby coming to a rest on her shoulder as a result. It had all the claustrophobic feeling of a train station but without the train. Wait, what was this place, actually? Was Magnagate not the name of a company or something? What were these schedules on the wall for?
Nibby hummed in her ear. "Looks like we've made it with some time to spare. Hope you don't mind the wait. Our place is on the other side of town, and since you ain't exactly a skilled flyer, this is the easiest way."
"What way? What are you talking about? All I can see is a big empty lot with pokemon stuffed into it."
And it was a peculiar lot, at that. A handful of officials marked by special patches herded the crowd off to the side, mainly shoving them into a space populated by benches and signs. Carved into the smooth ground behind them and spanning across the length of the lot were several layered circles of lines and runes. Though it would've probably fallen into Jirachi's field of research, Panne vaguely recognized that these wards might have something to do with leylines. The sets of inscribed stone tablets laid out at the foot of the circles were about where her knowledge fell short.
An announcement rang out. A Noivern bearing that official patch went on to list out a series of keywords and times to a system she didn't particularly get. The last thing they shouted about was an arrival in the next couple of minutes, from a district Panne recognized as being miles away from this one. She would have interrogated Nibby more, but a flash of light from one of the circles stole her attention.
The engravings glowed a deep red, with some sets of lights even lifting off the ground to spin in various directions mid-air. The lights stopped, shifted, turned, raised, and fell at will, working through and solving some sort of unknowable magical equation in real time. When that solution was eventually reached, the floating circles converged and crashed into the center in a brilliant eruption of spectacle and sensation. A vortex opened in the stone, and with it came a wave of all-too-familiar energy that washed over the Delphox and made her fur stand on end.
"Shit!" Panne spat out, nearly tripping over herself after stepping back. "What the hell is that thing?! It felt like a mystery dungeon swelled around me! That's not something I should be feeling inside of a city at any point ever!"
She could've sworn the Noibat chuckled to himself. "It's a Magnagate. Exclusive to Paradise from my understanding, since we're so close to the northern leyline pole and all. The first two Masters of Books happened to dedicate their lives to understanding these things. Now, we got 'em down to such science that they're public transportation. You can thank an Espeon and an Umbreon for that."
Lo and behold, a steady queue of pokemon began to emerge from the fucking thing, popping out of the portal and shifting upright like gravity didn't know what to do with them. The uniformed workers ushered them along the opposite end of the building and out the same way she came in. After a minute or so, the portal popped to a close and took the hair-raising static aura along with it.
"We're next, by the way," Nibby said, then gestured with a wing towards one of the spell circles on the far end. "That one."
"You're telling me I have to walk into one of those fucking things?!"
He shrugged. "Sure. There's probably thousands of pokemon that go through them day after day. I'm sure we probably won't end up as a red paste on the other side. I ain't gonna pretend to know how they work, but all I'm sayin' is that they work."
When their turn finally came, the electric air flooded back into her fingertips and teased at the ends of her ears. The Magnagate imploded into existence, a line already gathering near its base. A bit more herding was required to ensure everyone crossed over one at a time, but the process seemed disconcertingly quick, and it was time for Panne to take the plunge before she knew it. It felt especially uncomfortable to stand near, like a fire radiating heat but with that shifting energy instead. Nibby egged her on, and with even more pokemon waiting behind her, she mounted her staff and dove in.
It was bright and sudden. The Delphox slipped out the other side, still tensed up like the world depended on it. A sickening bout of inertia came and went, and just like that a set of different workers were pulling her on to make room for the next arrival. There was hardly any time to even comprehend what had happened. Geez, Ampharos would've come out of that thing upside-down with how disorienting it was.
Nevertheless, the sky above her head was a different one, with clouds thrown in all new places. This station had a different design, and was filled with different faces. The air itself tasted different, though that might've just been the chaotic radiation getting on her tongue. She sure as hell came out somewhere else.
"I'm surprised you hadn't heard of 'em before," Nibby went on to say as they exited out into an unfamiliar part of the city. "You run a school, don't you? Thought you'd be up to speed with these sorts of things."
Panne shook the residual dizziness from her head. "Guess nobody bothered to tell me about your stupid city's magical morning commute portals."
It was colder on this side of town, which was immediately a big downside in itself, but at least it wasn't as crowded. The Noibat continued to guide her out of the busier parts and into a pocket of hilly suburbs. Admittedly, she enjoyed the look of the place way more than anywhere else she'd seen in the city. A nice evergreen here and there, some actual yards for plants to grow, and plenty of space. Must be a rich neighborhood, she thought to herself.
They eventually came to the largest hill around. Dotted with trees and wrapped in a blanket of permafrost, the only reasonable way up the slope was to climb a wide set of stone steps, which was hastily cleared of snow at some point this morning. The fading trails of footfall of varying sizes told of a mild amount of traffic earlier today, but even the freshest prints still had to have come from a couple hours ago.
There was a grey building at the summit. It wasn't like anything else she'd seen yet from Paradise, set apart by a very particular kind of structure that seemed to defy the patterns of the city. It reminded her of several other places she'd seen in her long travels, mostly of ruins nestled between the corpses of forgotten civilizations. No doubt about it-this was a temple of some kind.
"Hm. Here we are," Nibby spoke from the perch of her staff. "Go on, then. Head in. Don't worry about bargin' in on anything, services only happen in the morning."
Panne pricked at her fingertips with her claws to ward off the numbness. "Yeah? That something you're intimately familiar with?"
"At one point in my life. Not so much anymore."
Ugh, why did all the doors in this stupid part of the world weigh a hundred pounds? It was worse than Meowstic's house by this point. Panne managed to nudge the entrance open with an enthusiastic push of her telekinesis and ducked in before the damn thing could close on her. She expected the shelter to be much more comforting inside, but that wasn't the case at all. In fact, it was as cold in here as it was out there.
Turns out that was by fucking design. Several long, narrow slits in the walls gave the chilly place light to see by. The holes also weren't windowed up at all, allowing snowfall to come through freely and build up in the corners of the temple. The structure of the pews was circular, built almost kind of like an amphitheater. That seemed to be typical for a northern design, at least. The pulpit at the center was surrounded by a moat of two spiral staircases that descended down into the earth.
Apparently she was wrong about the window thing. There was exactly one window in the whole temple. A massive stained-glass one, situated above the far end of the building within a domed section of ceiling apart from the roof. Pictured within was a highly-detailed depiction of what appeared to be some sort of draconic monster shrouded in ice. There must have been hundreds of individual pieces that made up the fearsome image, projecting a rainbow of cold colors down onto the pulpit.
She frowned at the artwork. "Yeesh. It feels like it's staring right at me."
"Well that's because it is," Nibby said.
"Oh ha ha. You're a real clown, aren't you?" She hitched her staff into a diagonal position and locked her elbow around it, shooing the Noibat away in the process. "So where's this supposed lead you were going to get me? This place couldn't look more deserted. Might as well have cobwebs hanging off the railing."
CRASH
The Delphox launched halfway to the ceiling, a yelp caught in her throat. The shrill crash happened so close that she felt the wind of the impact rush past her back. Clutching to her staff with every available limb, she twisted around mid-air and scowled at whatever made the noise. That whole goddamn stained-glass window had fallen out of its fixture and nearly landed directly on her head.
Yet, shattered as it may be, the pieces started to pick themselves up again. A near-invisible shadow collected the bits and began to rearrange the scattered pile. None of the glass had actually broken in the fall, but rather separated from their leadings like a disassembled jigsaw puzzle. Accompanied by a harmony of clinking pieces, the window picked its own damn self off the ground, with several free-floating clusters connected by translucent threads extending off of the whole like the legs of the beast in the image.
"I like to think that I keep my place of worship rather tidy. Heh-heh-heh." The animate art fixture sounded soft-spoken and feminine despite the gruesome image it came from. A warm and inviting voice-so much so that Panne already knew something was wrong. Nobody trustworthy ever sounded like that.
Panne stopped hugging her staff, but she most certainly didn't come down. "...A Runerigus. Wonderful. Fucking fantastic. You could've made that entrance a little cleaner, you know! You're lucky I didn't blast you apart on reflex alone! Mismagius learned that lesson a long time ago!"
Nibby landed on the back of one of the pews and folded his wings. "What's the matter, Panne? You don't seem too keen on the supernatural."
She grumbled, eventually letting herself fall to a more reasonable altitude. "Look. I haven't had very nice experiences with ghosts, okay? You'd dynamite a room too if you've faced the kinds of fucked-up demon things I have."
"Would it help to say that I was a Munna in a past life?" The Runerigus giggled, the floating pieces of glass behind them shimmering beneath the newly-opened skylight. "I'm sorry. Truly, I am. I just can't help myself sometimes. The opportunity is always so irresistible. What brings you to The Church of the Hollow, my children?"
Nibby cleared his throat, the acoustics of the building catching the sound a little too well. "Just doing a bit of digging. Nothing major, just some ancestry we're tryin' to track. We'll be in and out as quick as possible."
A crystalline wave flowed through the Runerigus as they turned to face Nibby. No matter how gentle their voice, those draconic eyes never seemed any less malicious. "Noibat, my dear. I recognize you now. It's been quite a while since you last visited my temple. There's a hole that was never quite filled after you left. Has your heart mended since we last met?"
"Answers, lady!" Panne snapped back. "We're gonna freeze to death here if we gotta spend all day chatting it up. Not everyone's made of glass and ectoplasm."
That piercing gaze pivoted towards the Delphox, but the rest of the Runerigus' body didn't. "Noibat. I know you still follow in the footsteps of who came before you. I will be honest with you because I know you. Understand that I may be...hesitant to speed any of my disciples off to prison, for whatever it was that they have done."
But Panne already had her finger on the pulse. Like drawing a blade from its sheath, the Delphox withdrew the writ of permission and held it aloft in front of the jingling ghost, her tail whipping behind her.
"Firstly, this stupid piece of paper says nobody cares. Second, we're not sending anyone off to prison, certainly not any of your followers. We're trying to find Sneasel or Weavile or whoever's old enough to tell us about the tribes that came before Paradise took over the valley. It really is a matter of ancestry. I assume we came to you because you happened to know a few, what with being a community leader I suppose?"
"Oh my. What do we have here?" The priestess leaned in like they were reading the letter, but without any actual pupil movements it didn't seem particularly convincing. "...Well, if you insist, I could perhaps point you in a few directions. There are a few that I've come to know over the years. Though I can't imagine the reason why you would need this information."
Holy hell, finally. This was exactly dealing with those damn nobles back at Lively City. The walking art installation dropped a few addresses that Panne took note of, but ultimately didn't have any frame of reference for. Nibby just nodded away as he absorbed the whole thing, looking perhaps even more eager to leave than she did. Turns out there were quite a few Weavile that liked to worship ice dragons. None from around Shardurr's territory in West District, but more than she thought.
With that out of the way, Panne was glad to call Nibby back over perch on her staff and leave this freaky Runerigus in peace. Nibby seemed equally as ready to leave as she did. There was something in the way that Runerigus spoke to him that made the both of them uncomfortable. Of course, nothing could be so easy around here. Just as she was about to push that comically heavy door open, that melodic tone came calling after her.
"Pardon me, Delphox, but it is so rare to see one of your kin in this part of the world that I'm afraid I'm a tad curious. Your species is one that is able to use a certain type of clairvoyance, is it not?"
Panne made sure to roll her eyes before she actually turned around. "Yeah, some Delphox can do that. Mostly only in groups, though, and I was never good at it to begin with. Best I can do is see immediate danger in the flickering of my fire, and that's only for a few seconds into the future. It's easier to just look around than to focus on which direction a candle's freaking out in."
An intrigued hum joined the jingling of glass shards. "How very interesting. A future told in the licks of a fire rather than in ice. I have always wondered how the two compared. Even so, Delphox, I can't help but feel drawn to you in some way. Perhaps Kyurem has a particular fate picked out for you, hm?"
"Psh. Yeah, no. I can assure you that my fate's been filled up from the day I was born until the day I bite the dust. Your god's got nothing on what I've been put through."
"Now, now, Panne. The Hollow's reach may not be infinite, but He knew that your path would surely bring you here. This I am sure."
"I-" she stuttered. "I didn't tell you my name. I didn't even tell you I had one. You've recognized me this whole time?"
Panne could've sworn that the corners of the image's mouth curled into the slightest of smiles. "There is a chamber below this temple dedicated to recreating His vision. If you wish to, we could travel there and pray-see if Kyurem might impart some of his knowledge unto you. I have a strong feeling that He would."
"Priestess, what are you doing?" Nibby butt in, swiveling his head towards the Delphox. "Panne, listen to me. The future ain't somethin' you wanna play around with. Especially not the kind of futures that Kyurem might try and show you. Trust me-some things you're better off not knowing."
Now the immediate prospect of going into any dark hallway with any sort of spectral anything was awful. Doubly so with the fanatical bits added in. The Delphox crossed her arms, furrowed her brow, and bent back her ears all in the same second, glaring at the sparkling priestess. It sounded like a terrible goddamn idea. That's partly why she was pouting. It was such a bad idea that her curiosity had already won, and the Runerigus already knew that. Probably saw it in the future, too, the freak.
"Say, can this Kyurem fella predict possible great disasters, if one were theoretically going to happen sometime soon?" Panne asked.
Runerigus let out another seductive chuckle. "Oh, my dear. If only you knew the story behind such a question. Come. Let us make our descent."
"...Just what the hell is Master Alexander having you research?" Nibby asked out loud. "Fine. Go ahead. Just don't say I didn't warn you."
Panne angled her staff to force the Noibat to take off again, then left him for the twin stairwell in the center of the temple. "Don't worry. I wasn't going to listen to your advice anyway."
At the bottom of the circular stairway where the two passages connected was a lightless corridor. The temperature was somehow worse off down here, enough that Panne started to shiver again like when she first arrived in Paradise. She compensated with a needlessly large flame to help light her way, but the darkness was suspiciously thick down here, almost like a fog. The Runerigus paid her little mind and ambled onward, their various floating parts reflecting a kaleidoscope of shapes onto the ornate carvings in the walls.
The deeper they went, the more Panne's stomach turned. It didn't quite feel like danger, but there was something undoubtedly heavy in the air. The priestess' body echoed so well in this space that it sounded like they were surrounding her. A white mist started to pour out into the bottom third of the hall, which felt like it was sprawling on for far too long. And it was colder than a fucking arctic blizzard.
The Runerigus' voice overcame the tenuous silence. "We have arrived into His sanctum. After you, Panne."
Abruptly ending, the corridor transitioned from stone to frost, a chamber made entirely of ice and darkness opening up just beyond. The bright flame in her hands should've easily reflected off the far end of the room, yet she saw nothing but black.
Needless to say, Panne didn't exactly take the offer to continue forward right away. "So, um. How does this thing work, exactly? 'Cuz I've decided that I don't want to go in there."
Runerigus tilted their face to the side. "It's always intimidating at first. The vastness of the ice is overwhelming, but have faith. There is nothing about Kyurem's grace to be afraid of. It is only a vision, after all. Or, perhaps you won't see anything, and this pause will be for nothing."
"Uh huh. You're not making this sound any more appealing." Panne rapped her fingers over her arms, tapped her good foot against the ground-generally doing everything she could to put off going into that icy hole. Of course, having already come all the way down here, there wasn't much not reason to. "Okay, fine! Whatever! Just, tell me what I gotta do while in there. And it better be worth my time! I'm a valuable person, my precious minutes are actually worth something."
"Of course," the phantom dryly agreed. "Simply extinguish your flame, wander forward, and observe. Do not worry about having to perform any sort of ritual. You will know if Kyurem wishes to impart His wisdom unto you. Trust me. It's not a subtle thing."
The Delphox, in spite of her own instincts, dismounted and limped on forward. The frost immediately burned at her foot as she entered, but the ground wasn't all too slippery like it seemed it would be. In the inky black, she used her staff to feel around before proceeding, finding only flat ground laid out before her. The acoustics no longer suggested that there was a gaping corridor behind her at all, yet she would've definitely heard if something had closed. This fucking sucks. This was a terrible idea. Why the hell would she-
A tiny, translucent wisp of green drifted past her head. Then another, this one more blue than green. More little lights manifested from seemingly nowhere, bringing the slightest modicum of sight back from the brink of blindness.
She was surrounded by an enclosed pocket of ice, so flawlessly frozen to the point that she could see her own reflection. And the reflection of her reflection, and the reflection of that reflection from the other side, and so on. Looking more carefully, she could see that the ice was transparent, and there was yet another pane of it beyond this one doing the exact same thing, and probably more beyond that one. Transparent mirrors, huh? Cute.
The cold was nearly unbearable, but she had stopped shivering at some point. Perhaps it was out of wonder. Or maybe it wasn't actually cold, and this was some sort of illusion. Either way, her eyes were drawn deeper than the reflections, and she found herself peering into the empty space between it all. Like the murky abyss just below the surface of the ocean. An infinite blur of nothingness.
Her eyes refocused on the reflections when something changed. She couldn't name what, but there were differences in each mirrored iteration. Maybe it was the positions of the wisps? Distortions in the shape of the ice? Why was it so dead silent in here, anyway? She could scarcely hear herself breathe. It felt as though she were stuck in some frozen air bubble somewhere beneath a mile of glacier.
And back to that rolling plane of emptiness. A shifting of currents-the turbulence of a massive sea. Her vision began to cross the longer she stared, forgetting to blink in some sort of mystifying trance. The ice reminded her of a prism for some reason, which made her worry what exactly was passing through it and being transformed.
Panne thought she saw a rooftop of snow in the distance. Sensory deprivation, she told herself, but she still edged closer to the wall to get a better look. No, something definitely looked like one of those shingled roofs you see everywhere around Paradise. In fact, it looked like a whole field of 'em, from a bird's eye view. Logic and reason seemed to leave her at that point. Any sort of detailed analysis felt impossible to grasp in the wake of the vision's stupor.
Paradise was laid out before her. She could see the miniscule specks of pokemon walking its streets, obscured by a lack of detail. No, not walking. Running. Fighting. She could see explosions and blasts, and she saw the lines of conflict drawn in the streets. The light of the streetlamps twinkled like stars in the sky, illuminating isolated pockets of the chaos. The panic settled behind her heart. The rage clenched in her fists. She heard crashing in her ears, shouting in the distance.
It was clear up until that point, but the ice almost appeared to expand though seemingly lacking a central point. The cleanest emotions that gathered in her body were muddled with confusion. The passage of time became indecipherable, yet some sort of pressure continued to build in the icy chamber. An aura of intensity washed over her, so strong that she dared not move an inch for the fear that she was actually standing at the edge of a cliff. Was this Alexander's calamity?
The moment went on and on, never bursting open like it so fervently promised. A city resting on a bed of pins, with the slightest movements threatening to throw its balance off. And did it ever move, churning back and forth like a ship on a stormy sea, churning like the way her innards did flips. Friction. Heat. The sun had set, but she could still feel a warmth. But what about the ice?
An explosion of flames. The mirrors went yellow from the sight as the line of reality became too difficult to keep track of. She needed to do something, but the thought had escaped her like the fading vestiges of a dream awoken. It was so urgent. So, so urgent. She couldn't wait here for a second longer. Then, a tiny shadow passed over her, calling her name in some desperate plea for help. The swell of the flames brought Panne's attention back to her own reflection in the pane of ice before her. She was not alone. Just behind her shoulders was a crested figure swathed in darkness. A pair of talons had been creeping over her jugular. She gasped and surged forward.
And smashed her nose into the wall of ice.
The Delphox fell backwards, her staff slipping away and clattering to the hard floor. Her eyes immediately began to water as she clutched at her snout. Profanities poured from her mouth until she realized that whatever was happening had suddenly stopped. Wheezing, she wiped the tears away and gawked at the darkness that enveloped her.
She heard an intrigued hum from behind her. Runerigus glowed slightly in the dark, but only just enough that you could see them. "Are you satisfied with this gift of fate that The Hollow has bestowed unto you?"
Without saying anything, Panne scrambled to find her staff in the black and lifted into the air. She sucked in a breath, shook her head, and exhaled before she took off past the ghost type. Only halfway down that impossibly long corridor did she actually summon a flame to light her path, the abrasive flash burning into her eyes. The ascent into the temple proper was even worse. Even with just that skylight and the slits in the walls, it was like she'd been staring at darkness for hours.
Nibby had perched on the railing of the pulpit. He hopped around upon her exit, just in time to see the Runerigus emerge out from behind her, a decidedly satisfied stride in her floating.
"Well?" the Noibat said. "You're the one that's always in a rush. So did you get what you needed out of that? I reckon you didn't, with that hungover look in your eyes."
"The gift of fate is oftentimes disorienting, even to us oracles," Runerigus answered for her, not that she was going to answer herself. "Let it settle. Get some rest. The truth will come whether you seek it or not."
Another sigh left Panne's lips. She shook the feeling from her skull and beckoned for Nibby to hurry along.
"What the fuck ever. I've definitely had enough of this place for one lifetime. Let's get to the bottom of this Weavile thing already before I puke my brains out."