The halls of the King...

Lord Tar-Adunakor of Logaria sat upon a throne plated in gold and precious metals, stroking the mane of a Pyroar absentmindedly. His throne sat in a great, rock-hewn carven in the uttermost depths of the city, where he could wait out nearly any assault.

Rei wondered if it was wise to have the Lord of Logaria seated at the bottom of the empire's greatest fortress, as the Enemy sat in his Nethermost Hall in a similar manner. Berothrim assured him that this was to signify that the King of Logaria was a rival to the Evil Djinn, not to emulate him.

Indeed, above the throne was a titanic statue of Arceus, appearing in a similar way to how it had appeared at Mount Coronet. This signified that the Original One was above all earthly leaders, even the most mighty.

Tar-Adunakor was deep in his own mind, walking in the Dream World to tease out the secrets of the Enemy. However, the Evil one also had such a ability, and though the King had learned much, the struggle with the Will of the Enemy had aged him far beyond his years. Although he was only about fifty, he appeared as a very old and tired man, weary and wise, yet still destined to linger on, his will to live enduring until the Evil Djinn was at last defeated for ever.

While this was happening, Laventon was weaving the Silver Feather into a advanced Capture Net in the most secretive areas of the tunnels beneath the city. The great spinning wheels turned the strands of the feather into gossamer-thin threads, weaking into a shape that eventually resembled a wine bottle with a toroid-like bottom.

Still, a bottle was needed...

Rei and the other members of the Golden Company bowed before the king, who then awoke from his trance, his clouded eyes turning to ordinary brown. Putting the assembled at ease, he stood upon his throne, recalling some of the old majesty of the kings of the Elder Days, before the great battle between Kyogre and Groudon a millennium ago.

"Dark are my visions..." Adunakor said. "I see many things that the Enemy has kept hidden. The earth readies for war. This I know. And wither we will succeed in this last attempt, the future is clouded, but not without hope. We are weaving the net for the prison as we stand here, and we have time yet before the Evil one launches his final campaign to destroy this free kingdom for aye. But we are in need of a bottle!"

"Sir," Akari said. "We have many strong metals in this land, and many Pokémon that could make such a shell for the net. Such things would contain the Enemy, even for a hundred years."

The king looked at Akari, and suddenly to Rei it seemed a battle of wills had taken place. Adunakor was looking slightly behind the girl, his eyes matching some invisible foe, his glances like arrows.

Relenting, Adunakor turned his world-worn gaze away. "You are young," He said. "And there are powers at work that you have little knowledge of. Even if we sealed the Enemy away, even with our greatest craftsmanship, he would escape, and merely rise once more. What metal of earth can hold him, unless such a power lies within the World? But we see that the Evil One can torment the very hills. Furthermore, it would not be wise of us to merely end this threat for the lifetime of a man, or even a score of them, but rather till the End of Time, when the world is mended."

"What are we to do?" Adaman said. "Perhaps we can appeal to those who live in Deep Heaven, and they will do this deed for us, for it is their interest to defeat the Enemy as well as us."

"Nay." Adunakor said. "Those who dwell in such places would not break the Firmament and descend to bear our cause, unless all the world is withered and without hope at last. Even if we sealed the Evil Djinn for a time being, and offered the prison to the Authorities to safeguard it, they would not take it, for the Enemy is of the World, for greater or worse. And who can know if we are not being aided by the elohim as we speak?"

Adunakor glanced at the Swords of Justice at the ceiling of the throne room, but even they were only shapes of shining mist to him. Turning away, he delved into his mind, searching for a answer.

After a time of silence, he opened his eyes, and requested that the tale of the adventures that Rei and the Golden Company had in the North be told to him, as he knew only a little from the dreams of the Pokémon in the company.

Rei's father and Cyllene told the tale, sparing no detail. After it was over, the single beam of sunlight that came in through a diamond-covered window pane had faded, the sun lowering into the mountains.

The kind bade that the maps of the known world should be brought to him, and so that he could show the others the extremes that lay to the South.

Once the parchment was readied, Adunakor pointed to Atun-Kaah, at the northern base of the Frostveil Mountains. Dor Daedeloth lay to the north-west, with the Alolan Islands and Crescent Island to the north and north-east. Further down the mountain chain little was known, outside of the deserts of Old Nuria. The Sereghir, the River of Blood, went down from its source in the mountains to the Taur-I-Ndeadelos, the Forest of Great Fear. Then, nothing was know outside of the rumor of the land of Beulah, and then Dor Bendor, the Landless Land, made of the southern ice-floes.

Drawing a line with a Honchkrow feather from Atun-Kaah, down the Sereghir, through Nuria, and into the Southern Forest, Adunakor made a route to the fabled domain of Beulah.

"This place does exist," He began. "I have seen the dreams of the Pokémon that dwell there. What I have no knowledge of is the precise location of it, or what one would find that could aid us. But rumour has it that three elohim have recently come from the north, embodying Knowledge, Emotion, and Willpower. They might be able to aid us, and legend has it that Beulah is also a place where the heavenly spheres and the earthly meet, making it the most ideal place to appeal to the Authorities."

"I think I have heard of these three elohim that you speak of," Lian said. "They are said to dwell in the three lakes Acuity, Verity, and Valor. Lake Valor had been swamped by the Crimson Mirelands, and is still defilied even though the Ba-al Enamorus has been defeated. Legend says that if one is disturbed, all three will awaken. As such, they may have journeyed across the Great Sea to this place that we are to go to."

The king told the assembled about the dangers that they were to face. "You will have good fortune down the Sereghir, but be wary in Nuria! Half-men sometimes creep down the western coasts, and bandits are a present threat in that debatable and desert land. The water of the Sereghir is drinkable, but some of it is foul from the red patches of iron that flow through it. Many dangerous Pokémon dwell in the Taur-I-Ndeadelos, especially along the western eaves. In lighter news, Nuria is rumored to be the home of the Remnants of the Royals of Nuria, and many may have turned away from elohim-worship. You may find aid in them."

"How long are we to be gone, and with who are we to travel with?" Iscan said.

"If you travel by the Sereghir," Adunakor said. "You will arive at the Taur-I-Ndeadelos in a months time. How long you will search for Beulah, or stay in it, I cannot say. As in your last journey, follow the signs of the Original One. As for who you are to go with, Berothrim and Arnethrim will accompany you, along with the ranger Targon. He is wise in the ways of the wild. If the lady and girl are to go, I will grant my finest warriors and Pokémon."

Adunakor was going to continue speaking, but a presence that he sensed stopped him. As he stood, brandishing the sceptre of Logaria, a hush fell over the entire hall.

"YAAH-HAAAA!" Adunkor swung his sceptre, and there was a bang, and the form of a Pokémon lay dead on the stonework.

The guards rushed to their defensive positions, and Berothrim and Adaman inspected the being. It was a Gengar, and having snuck in through the shadows, now was rapidly fading into nothing, its life force being dispersed.

A very human growl escaped the Gengar's insubstantial lips, and Adunakor gave a cry. "This one can speak!" He yelled. "We must put it to the test while time still remains!"

"One whose authority have you desecrated this place, and for what reason?!" Adaman yelled. "Answer, in the name of the Original One!"

The Gengar, writhed a bit, and then whispered a name.

"Lucius...Luciferous Rofocale! Lucius is lord Lucius is lord Lucius is lord..."

"Wait, do you not serve the Enemy, or this Lucius?" Adunakor said. "By whose authority do you act? Answer in the name of the Original One!"

The Gengar was dissolving more and more. "The Enemy is lord. The Enemy is the lord of Lucius! Lucius is lord! And don't say that name!"

"That name defeated you long ago, thrall." Adaman said. "Where is this Lucius?"

"Ah!" The Gengar screamed. "Lucius is lord!"

"Arceus is lord!" Rei reminded it.

The Gengar sighed, and then went back into nothing. Adunakor nearly collapsed, and those present tried to support him.

"That was the third this year..." The king rasped. "They are getting bolder, attacking me in my own throne room. More and more power is necessary to defeat them. But if the one named Lucius is against us, we rebuke him as well!"

...

Sitting like a Mandibuzz on a dead snag of a tree in Nuria, Lucius felt as though someone had pricked him. He whirled around, suspecting one of his own demons. Upon seeing that no one had moved, he furled his wings again, and continued to wait.

...

Once Laventon had perfected the weave, preparations were made for journeying down the river Sereghir.

The ranger Targon had arrived, along with his Stoutland. Once the others had showed him how to put his Pokémon into a Capture Ball, he swore eternal allegiance to the Quest, and that he would not desert it for as long as it endured. And that way another companion was added to the journey.

"We will ride the calm waters through the darkness of the caves," Targon said. "But once we see light, be ready for a hard journey. We will turn to the south, and whatever fate that may befall us will run its course. We fashion our boats to travel lightly, but they are quite long. They are made of steelwood, with a sheen of Skarmory feathers. Two will travel in each craft, and Pokémon are to stay in these Capture Balls at all times. We will camp on the banks of the river at night, or sleep in the boats if I deem the waters ahead to be safe."

After two days of gathering essential goods for the voyage, the Company was led by a Warden of the House of Kings to a small hollow, deep within the roots of the mountains. There, the river Sereghir spread south from its spring, and the boats had been tethered to the long platform be the border of the rushing, somewhat reddish waters.

Tar-Adunakor and Rei's father gave the Golden Company their blessing, and they were then off, the torchlight of the tunnel end fading into the devouring blackness.

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It was dark.

Rei had never imagined this kind of darkness before. Even in a dark room, in the depths of a clouded, moonless winter night, light still found a way to enter his eyes.

But there was no light. Blackness, true blackness. It was as dark as a Octillery squirting ink at the bottom of the greatest trench of the sea. There was nothing but a damp wind, and the soft splashing of water.

"Ho!" Artherim said from somewhere in the murk. "We might want to light a candle, or spurt up a flame around here! The dark shant take up all of our time, or we will start to think that it won't ever end!"

Since the boats were too small for Typhlosion, Rei sent out his father's Magmar. A burst of fire lit up, showing all the walls of the cave in a extremely faint light. There was nothing to do but talk and mind one's business for a while, until they were out of the mountains.

"Adaman!" Cyllene yelled from another boat. "Tell us the song, the Lay of Hisui. We all need to hear it, especially these Logarians."

In the flickering light, Adaman frowned. "That song is not for happy times, but I suppose that these days are far from those. I will tell you a bit of it, if you all have the mind to listen..."

Adaman then began to sing.

"Once there was One,

And then there were two.

And one looked upon time's steady pace,

And one looked upon the expanse of space.

And the two set out:

The fullness of future they did seek,

The worlds far end would they greet.

Two different paths-each walking a route of their own,

Though they walk with Almighty Sinnoh.

O you, who at the world's far off end dwell,

I know you wish-it is my wish as well.

My own beloved is now gone from me,

Departed to a place I cannot reach.

My old companions have left me behind,

Their faces faded into Elder Days gone by.

Still to my breast I clutch this hopeless dream,

A futile wish for us to once more meet.

O you, who at the world's far off end dwell,

I know your wish, it is my wish as well.

But our days are of cold and endless winter,

Warmed only by memories locked away.

Once the sun shone upon us,

With all the warmth of the welcoming summer.

But now we weep, to grief we fall,

Starved of Light, it is devoured.

And some they go, despair wherewithal,

In search of it they heel and run,

They quit their hearths, abandon hall,

and leave our lands to be undone, by the Evil One.

And when they are gone without recall,

And when the Dark Lord lifts his hand,

Over dead sea and withered land,

This land will be a home to none.

This land will only ever be a home for Pokémon."

Adaman stopped.

"Well, I suppose that was that. It is not even close to the whole song, but it may be more weary than comforting. I was taught it very young, a cradle-song if you will. It tells of the eventual triumph of the Enemy, and how all our deed will come to naught. It certainly seems that way in This Present Darkness, that we are destined to fail, and all the lands will be covered in shadow once more."

"Then we will prove the writer wrong!" Akari said. "Strength still remains to resist the Evil One. He has not won yet, and I would only agree with that song when all the free folk have been hounded out of the hills at last. Even then, the Enemy will never touch the Original One, for he is bound to earth for ever."

"I will teach you the whole thing, eventually." Adaman said. "Perhaps we should ride in silence. I never cared for the song, and some never would use it, as it refers to the Original One with the blasphemous title of Almighty Sinnoh. Let us go forth in quiet, and debate in our own minds."

Over the next few hours, the speed of the boats was increasing. The cave was getting wider, and some light-giving Morelull dotted the walls, providing a beautiful example of nature's artwork. The red splotches of iron in the Sereghir were thinning, and you could put your hand in the water and drink without fear, although it was a bit bitter.

Targon estimated that the end of the tunnel was very near, and that the company should prepare for the ride on the rapids.

Rei saw a reflection on the cavern wall, coming from around a corner...

Light.