The adventurers arrived right before one of the gates of Lycir. The path passed under a large stone arch in the high wall, which was decorated by banners and flags with the two shades of green representative of the kingdom. Statues depicting important personalities from the city's history were gazing down at them. Various people were walking there, entering the place or getting out. Aspen noticed that there wasn't any guard, which was unusual for the entrance of a city that big. They were ready to pass under the arch when the Shiftry jumped :

« Hey ! What is that ? »

« What ? » Amaria and Orahcia asked at the same time.

« I just saw an eye on the wall ! »

His partners looked at the arch's walls. One of them seemed to have a slightly different shape, cleaner and smaller bricks and stood out more, but there was no sight of an eye.

« You were probably hit on your head during the battle against the bandits, » Amaria said. « Walls can't have eyes. »

« They can. And they have ears, too ! »

The four adventurers all stared at the wall with wide open eyes. One of its bricks rotated, revealing a round, blue eye. Then, another brick did the same thing. And a third one.

« Magic can enchant walls to become alive ? » Aspen exclaimed.

« I'm not enchanted, » the wall answered. « I'm a being like you. I'm an Ultra-Beast. »

One of the eyes saw Orahcia's adventurer's card that was sticking out one of the full to the brim pockets of her bag.

«Are you members of the guild of Sarathom ? »

The four Pokemon confirmed.

«You may know Rax'zod, then. They are a friend of mine and we came in this world together.»

After a quick talk, they left the guard and moved forward into the city.

Lycir was made of light stone bricks that reflected the sunlight and colorful roofs. They were walking in a broad street, but plenty of smaller ones were running between the buildings. A smooth and regular paving covered the ground. From where they stood, they could see the castle's towers and spires soaring into the sky. Trees had been left here and there, flowers were ornating the windows and ivy was growing on some walls.

There were people everywhere, each attending their own business. If most of them were speaking in the common language of Raethran, the adventurers could pass by a few persons talking in dialects from the five kingdoms or even unknown langages from continents far away.

Captivated by all these new sights, Goliath couldn't stop looking intensely at everything and everyone. It was so different from Rogghar, the small mountain village he grew up in ! Two citizens, who were chatting with a guard, looked back at him as he was staring at them. Amaria had to nudge him to get him to stop staring at people.

They passed through the stalls of a market. All sort of things were being sold there : foodstuffs, trinkets, clay jars, candles, tools, potions or small works of art. They couldn't resist the smell of baked goods coming from one of them, and bought delicious rolls stuffed with honey and blueberries. Not far, an orator had managed to captivate a small crowd. Aspen, admirative of his eloquence, could quickly recognize his favourite legendary adventurer, Olbeth the Fearless, a Wyrdeer, in his words. Apparently, this time, she had defeated a few bandits alone and with her hooves and antlers only, without the use of any move.

Amaria guided them through the maze of the small streets so they could reach the library quicker. After running into a group of children pretending to be town guards and thieves, two workers carrying a newly crafted wooden door and a group gossiping about the supposed secret double-life of the son of a local noble, they arrived on a round square dominated by a large building with multiple stained glass windows.

« Here we are. » Amaria said.

The crossed the square and entered the library.

The door barely passed, Goliath stopped in amazement to admire the interior. The light through the stained glass windows illuminated the high shelvings, that rose on several floors, with many colors. At the center of the room, they could see a huge wooden model of Lycir, complete with carefully painted colors and meticulous detail. Tapestries depicting various scenes decorated the walls. They could smell this particular scent of old books as they walked on the wooden floor. At the other side of the model, a wooden board sculpted with representations of Uxie, the divinity associated with knowledge, listed the different categories of books and the place they were stored in.

« Let's see what types of books there are, » Amaria said. « We will plan our research consequently. »

On their way, they walked in front of a large tapestry depicting a Typhlosion fighting an Eelektross.

« What an epic battle scene ! » Aspen exclaimed. « I wonder why Typhlosions don't make their flames burst out all the time ? It would give them so much charisma... »

« Because they only do this when they fight. It would make no sense for them to have their flames out when they don't need them. That would be the same thing as you constantly being in a battle pose. » Amaria replied.

The list on the wooden board was huge, one would think that all the knowledge and stories in the world were reunited in the library. Myths and religion, local legends, travel reports, magic disciplines, history, fiction, children's stories and many more. They decided to split the group to gain time. Goliath and Aspen would check the myths and religion part, Amaria the history one, and Orahcia the local legends.

The Sirfetch'd promptly got up the spiral staircase and grabbed a book about titled « Feats of Raethran, by Reani Quillsinger ». Orahcia went to her section, but a manuscript about the local legends of Reghen, her kingdom of origin, caught her attention and she decided to take a quick look. Goliath and Aspen went to the myths and religion section, and began looking through the shelves.

« So... « The Great Story of the World Creation »... « The cult of Giratina and the portal in the crypt »... « The Original Dragon : A story of Ideals and Truth »... Here ! » Aspen suddenly exclaimed.

The manuscript the Shiftry spotted was titled « The Origins of Life and Death, by Historian Onyx ». He started reading, Goliath looking over his shoulder.

« When the world, its continents and oceans were created, everything was barren and lifeless. Arceus then created Xerneas and commanded Them to bring life to the world. Xerneas gave it all Their energy, condensed into the Life Artifacts. Then, exhausted by the work, They fell asleep under the aspect of a tree. Each Artifact radiates a specific life energy in its area, creating the different zones, each being its own biome and ecosystem. Life Artifacts give their energy to living beings around, and it is said living beings could give their own energy if a problem came to arise. Seeing that the world was now livable, Arceus created the different Pokemon species, using Mew as a template.

Many years passed, and the world had to face a problem. The flowing Life energy from the Artifacts allowed Pokemon to live forever, and the ever-growing families populated the world rapidly. The balance of the ecosystems was threatened. Furthermore, the ones that ended too gravely wounded or whose bodies were too tired after a long life, were condemned to a never-ending suffering. Arceus understood that Life should be a cycle. Then, They created Yveltal as a counterpart to Xerneas. Once Pokemon and flora become too weakened or suffer an accident too harmful, Yveltal nourrishes Themselves from their Life energy and guides them to the Afterlife. If an unnatural number of Pokemon die at the same time in disasters such as wars, Yveltal absorbs too much Life energy to move and falls asleep as a cocoon. In this state, They cannot take more energy nor guide the deceased, who consequelty become undead, stuck into the mortal world until Yveltal gets out of Their slumber.

Life and Death are two sides of a same coin, in a natural balance. This is how Arceus intended things to be and how they must stay. »

« Well... » Aspen said. « That's interesting, we could fix the Artifact with our own energy ? But how much would be needed ? What if that's more than one can give ? And that doesn't tell us where to find it... »

They continued to look through the shelves. Beside a few general mythology books who didn't gave more information, they found nothing that could help their matter. Amaria arrived behind them and announced, visibly irritated, that she didn't find anything relevant. Aspen explained what they learned about the energy. Then, they moved to see Orahcia still focused on the unrelated book that caught her attention, reading an illustrated page about supposed creatures lurking in the swamps. Amaria cleared her throat.

« I don't think this is related to our researches. »

Orahcia jumped and hastily closed the manuscript :

« Oh, I... Maybe there is something about the Artifacts of Reghen in this book, no ? It could be... useful ? »

« Let's look in the local legends section together... » the Sirfetch'd sighed.

Orahcia regretfully closed her book and followed them.

A few moments later, they were back to the ground floor.

« Nothing ! » Aspen exclaimed. « At least we have a clue about how to repair them... »

«There is still hope, » Orahcia answered. « The location of the Artifacts is an information that can be dangerous in the wrong hands, so maybe there is a book in an apart section ? We should ask. »

« Good idea. Let's go. » Amaria decided.

They walked towards the counter behind which two librarians were talking. One of them, a Swanna, was visibly of higher rank than the other, judging by the gold threaded scarf she was wearing.

« Nothing to report, » they heard the other, a Shuckle, say.

« Good. We will continue to keep a close watch on this book. The Artifact's locations mustn't leave the storage room anymore, under any pretext. »

Amaria stopped.

« Follow me. » she muttered. She guided her partners behind a shelf containing books about cultural traditions. She held her breath. « Let's listen... »

« Do we have news about the intruders ? » the Shuckle asked.

« No. The Sentinels and the town guards are still on the case. I hope they will stop them before the information they copied spread. »

Then, the Shuckle took a small pile of books and returned to his work.

« Well... Seems that there is a book with exactly what we want ! But us having access to it looks compromised... » Aspen said, shaking his head.

« Hmmm. » Amaria said. « We can have it. »

« How ? » Orahcia asked, genuinely curious and hopeful for a solution. Goliath came closer and stared at Amaria, waiting for her to tell them how they will proceed.

« If we can't ask to borrow the book... We will grant us the permission themselves ! » the Sirfetch'd explained.

The Gigalith frowned, confused about what she meant. Then, he understood.

« I refuse to ever do this. » he firmly said.