Why is this chapter so long o-o

Arc I, The Plate of Space

Chapter Thirteen:

The Touch of Mortals

The heat had slithered its way into the hotel room at the rise of the noontime sun.

Aurelio and I had not left the building since our meeting with Grimmwolfe. I had spent most of the previous night observing the notes written in his journal, finding most of them to be accurate, and then spent the better part of that morning, while he slept, flipping through the television channels. My favorite by far was the channel on which they showed documentaries about wild Pokémon.

"Is there anywhere you would like to go before the boat leaves?" he asked me. "We visited the downtown area when we shopped for our clothes. There's a botanical garden area, or we can go eat at restaurants."

"I don't eat," I reminded him.

He leaned back on the bed, watching me fiddle with the remote.

"The television told me that there would be a special presentation about me at the Devon headquarters," I said suddenly. I had seen the scrolling caption beneath the news. "I would like to attend."

"Yeesh," went Aurelio. "See, this is the part where I would go along with the idea, and it would come back to bite me in the ass later. But I'm not going to do that. My father is the presenter of that research. I'm not keen to be in the same room as him."

I was appalled. "But you're always speaking of your father," I said, unsure if I was treading upon perilous waters.

"We've hit a rough patch," he said with a tart smile. "Don't get me wrong, I'd go with you. Nothing excites me more than research on the ever cryptic legends of Arceus. Just don't be expecting a fun father-son show."

"You truly wouldn't mind?"

"Arceus, this isn't about me," he said. "We both know that your time in the mortal dimension is limited. And if you haven't visited since the creation of the universe, it's safe to say that you won't be back for a long, long time. If you want to go to that presentation, we're going to that damn presentation."

Aurelio got up and turned off the television.

"Now get up," he said, exasperated. "You look pitiful in front of that TV."

"Hello, Aurelio."

"Hello, Dani."

"Your father's in there," drawled Dani. She never looked up from her computer. Her fingers tapped the keys in a constant, unchanging rhythm. "The room is packed and is still filling up. They were charging for admission, but I'm sure you'll be an exception. Your friend, I'm not so sure."

Aurelio pulled my wrist, gravitating towards the elevators behind the secretary's desk. "If he knew who she was, she would be an exception too," he said.

Dani waved her thin wrist in the air. "Third floor conference room," she said without emotion.

When we entered the conference room, an auditorium with chairs sloping downhill with stairs on the side, I was surprised to see the hundreds of people who were attending. Aurelio and I stood taller than most of them. Without speaking to me, Aurelio kept his hand on my wrist and led me, more gently this time, towards two empty seats in the middle of the room.

"There are many people here," I remarked, my chest swelling. There was a large screen at the head of the room, between two marble columns, which read: Arceus in Hieroglyphics, Mortal Traces of the Ancient Creator, by Alcott Solomon. "That title is fancy. Do you conduct presentations like this as well?"

"Not as much," said Aurelio in a detached manner. He was reading the program. "I prefer to keep most of my information to myself. I think that broadcasting what you know to the public changes you. You start working for them and not yourself. My father, on the other hand, thinks the exact opposite. But he likes the funding, so there's that."

"Aurelio Solomon," said someone in the aisle. "I'll be damned."

We turned to the voice. An older gentleman in a purple suit leaned over, his hand extended. Aurelio stood and exchanged greetings with him. I peered upward at them, curious by the sudden encounter.

"I had heard from Mr. Grimmwolfe that you were in Rustboro," said the man. His hair was whiter than mine, and it was slicked back into a dramatic updo. "If I had known, I would have invited you for coffee in my office first thing. But first, tell me who your lovely friend is. I must exercise my manners."

"Mr. Stone," said Aurelio, making room in our row for the gentleman to shake my hand, "this is Thea, an old schoolmate from university. Thea, this is Mr. Stone, the president of the Devon Corporation."

"Pleasure," I said, finding it amusing how my identity had been amended once again.

"Thea and I studied humanities together," continued Aurelio. The fabrications were coming easier to him each time. "I ran into her while at Kathy's excavation site out in the desert. We caught up, exchanged a little bit about what we've been doing, and now she's a big Arceus fan. She's even joined me on the Crystal Towers expedition — with Mr. Grimmwolfe's permission, of course."

Mr. Stone chuckled. "Yes, yes, I've heard," he said. "Well, if you know anything about Aurelio, you must know plenty about his family. Bunch of odd birds, but the most brilliant bunch I've ever seen. Alcott Solomon has uncovered some truly fascinating stuff. You're in for a real treat."

"I can't wait."

"Well, I must be off," said Mr. Stone. "Aurelio, it was great to see you again. Whenever you get a chance, we must meet up so we can discuss what you've found yourself. Alcott always has wonderful content, but when in the need for some new perspective, you're my first pick."

I noticed Grimmwolfe standing with another man near the front of the room. This man had bronze hair, neatly-cut, and a full beard. Though he didn't wear glasses, I immediately recognized him as Aurelio's father, Alcott Solomon. Only, I also noticed, they did not share the same passionate eyes. His were cold and calculating, and I was immensely relieved that I had not been discovered by the wrong generation.

Mr. Stone and Aurelio were still talking in the background.

"By the way, Aurelio, have you seen my grandson walking around?"

I carefully watched Grimmwolfe and Alcott speak in the corner of the stage. I couldn't be sure of what they were discussing, but the conversation was heated and fast. Alcott seemed provoked, and when he spoke, his jawline was tight and his face was pale. Why would he — who despised the Antebureau with his life, as Aurelio had claimed — be in the company of a member?

"Oh, you mean Steven? I thought I saw him when I walked in through the lobby."

My concern spiked after I witnessed them shaking hands, like they had just closed an arrangement. Grimmwolfe promptly left the stage. As he descended the stairs onto the bottom floor, he lifted his head slightly and produced for me an impish smile. It compressed the entirety of my body, leaving me breathless. Then he covered his face with his hat and swept out of the room, his black coat floating behind him.

"If I could have everyone's attention," said Alcott, his voice amplified by the microphone in his hand, "I am going to begin the presentation: Arceus in Hieroglyphics, Mortal Traces of the Ancient Creator."

The room slowly eased into hushed murmurs.

"Thank you to all who are here today," Alcott went on. The picture of the words on the screen changed. "If you are in attendance, you must have some interest in the creature we know as Arceus. My name is Alcott Solomon, and nine generations of my family, including my son, have invested their lives into researching this topic. The first thing I want to say to those of you who are new to this research — it is incorrect to refer to Arceus explicitly as a Pokémon. However, it is also not right to say that it is a human. So throughout the course of this presentation, we will refer to it as a genderless entity, a being of higher power which we still know so little about, called The Original One."

"How flattering," I whispered to Aurelio, who laughed quietly.

Alcott pointed to the screen. "Also to those of you who are new — there has never been a sighting of Arceus, except for the one documented by my grandfather from eight generations ago, which occurred when he accidentally stumbled into the world in which Arceus lives, known as the immortal dimension. It is a dimension separate from our own, which only Arceus and presumably several Pokémon can access. He came upon this place, saw The Original One, spoke with it, and then fled. We have not seen it since, nor we have discovered how to gain re-entry into the immortal dimension."

Aurelio had tensed in his chair. On the screen, there was a rough sketch of my human form, a stark contrast from the ones he had drawn on his own. At least the drawing was accurate. I had looked very different many hundreds of years ago. He had even meticulously captured the startled expression on my face.

Some audience members started to mutter, creating a dull drone throughout the room.

"This is the drawing he composed," said Alcott, staring deeply at the picture as if he had never seen it before. "Only research boards at private conferences have seen this photo. But we are bringing it to public light that Arceus has the ability to disguise itself as a human, or even a Pokémon—"

He flipped to a photo of my most popular form: the white, four-legged creature that had been depicted so many times in writings and artistic renditions. "—its most popular shape," he finished.

Aurelio's eyes had widened by an infinitely small fraction, but I caught him. "Not once has our family or its confidantes disclosed to the public that you can take the form of a human being," he whispered, his voice low enough that even I had difficulties hearing him. "That stuff's not supposed to be out there. Only published journals in libraries of the utmost security tells that information, and even then, only in small paragraphs, tiny charts off to the side — unnoticed. If he tells any more, we'll have to explain what we know about the Alterstone."

I had covered the stone with a scarf, tied expertly around my wrist. It looked like a unique fashion statement.

"When my grandfather from hundreds of years ago drew this photo, he also detailed Arceus' ability to transform from a human to a Pokémon and back again," said Alcott. "Whichever form it desired. After seeking its presence, diving into the deepest of caves and records, my family finally came to the conclusion that Arceus has been amongst us all this time, only unseen. And, in fact, for the second time in all of recorded history, it has been spotted again."

My heart leapt from my body and through the floor. My instinct told me to jump up and leave the room, and I might have if Aurelio had not swiftly grabbed my hand and squeezed it with all the force he could muster.

"He's lying," he muttered. His face could have been a sculpture, chiseled from stone, with how it had hardened so instantly. "He has to be. Just listen."

"What about Grimmwolfe?" I croaked.

The room had also erupted into an ensemble of noise. The people sitting in front of us had turned to each other and were discussing what this could mean for their museum. Those behind us were worrying about the presence of an all-powerful entity just lounging around the earth and acting on its whims.

"Attention, please!" called Alcott. His powerful voice thundered across us. Random audience members were launching their questions at him, creating a chaotic choir of sounds that had no meaning or sense. "All of your questions, we can answer in time. But first let me explain…"

Aurelio squeezed tighter, and if it were not for him, I would not have sat through the hour-long presentation. Miraculously, my heart stilled, and so did my body, and I was able to feign normalcy amongst the dangerous crowd of people who were feverishly seeking me out.

Alcott had redirected the audience's attention to the proof he had compiled of my presence. This proof consisted of changes in the atmosphere, mathematics concerning the immortal dimension, stories passed along people that somehow lined up with all of the other random evidence. And the string connecting it all — it was all arbitrary.

Arbitrary and utterly meaningless.

And Aurelio knew that too.

After the presentation was over, and the audience members had been successfully frightened into believing that I was wandering about the earth with millions of years worth of boredom and unrivaled powers, all that I wanted to do was leave the building, the planet, and even the dimension. For a man who claimed to have dedicated his entire life to me, Alcott was surprisingly incorrect and perhaps even deluded. I had seen more accurate notes of my day-to-day existence in the margins of Aurelio's notebook, long before he had ever met me.

People were leaving their seats, mumbling to each other. I nudged Aurelio, suggesting that we leave as well, but he was gripping the armrests of his seat with unbridled anger. He was more furious than he had been on the fortieth floor, when Grimmwolfe had suggested that my catacombs were nothing more than a pile of dirt, ready to be ravaged.

"Aurelio—" I started.

"No," he interrupted. "Whatever you're going to suggest — no."

I sat meekly in my seat. "We're going to miss the boat."

Aurelio was glaring at the stage, where his father was organizing some materials. "Come with me," he said, standing up from his seat.

He stormed down the stairs towards the stage, and I trailed after him, hoping that the impending confrontation would be brief and unheated.

"Aurelio," greeted Alcott emotionlessly. He was stacking papers on the podium. "I saw you in the audience with Mr. Stone before we started. Did you enjoy the presentation?"

"It's bullshit," said Aurelio. "It's bullshit and you know it."

Alcott looked up. His eyes were slimmer, his jawline sharper, and his lips thinner, giving him the aged look of a man who was not accustomed to being challenged. The longer he observed us, completely unimpressed, the more unbelievable it was that Aurelio — warm and happy Aurelio — had been raised in this man's household.

"It is research," he said simply. "Research I conducted while you were out and about, doing who knows what."

"I've found better stuff than you," said Aurelio fiercely. I hung around at his shoulder, tentative to be anywhere else except at his side. "Everything you said in that presentation was made-up statistics and science. We both know that Arceus hasn't been in the mortal dimension since grandfather saw it. Is that what you're doing — selling out because you haven't found anything, so now you've got to make shit up to look better?"

Alcott's eyes finally showed a flicker of pained emotion. "And you claim to have found something more substantial?"

"I'm closer to Arceus than you ever have been!" snapped Aurelio. I felt the urge to vocally agree with him but knew I couldn't. "All that nonsense about how it's been coming in and out of our world all this time, just because it was bored, is completely wrong. You don't know Arceus. You can't speak on its behalf to humans like that!"

"And you can," said Alcott, amused.

Aurelio faltered. For a moment, I worried that he would reveal my identity. But then he grabbed my wrist, purposely placing his hands over the scarf-covered Alterstone, as if protecting it. "One day, you'll see," he said. "For now, stop lying to the public. They don't deserve it, and neither does Arceus."

"It sounds like travelling in questionable company has gotten to your head, son," said Alcott, sighing. He redirected his attention to the podium and began organizing his papers once more. "Mr. Grimmwolfe told me about you. Thea, isn't it? Your beautiful silver hair is unmistakable. What else did he say...that you were an old family friend?"

"I went to university with Aurelio," I said quietly, letting our locked gazes conduct the battle, not our words.

Aurelio looked like he was swallowing needles. "So now you're communicating with members of the Antebureau now, aren't you?"

"He's fully merged into Devon," replied Alcott nonchalantly, sliding his materials into his leather briefcase. "His past is no matter to me. Not to mention, I am not the one who came to him about the Crystal Towers expedition, nor am I the one who will be working under his supervision."

Before Aurelio could interrupt, Alcott snapped the briefcase shut with a click that was deafening in the auditorium and said, "Remember, son, that it has never been about Arceus. The Original One will go on as it always has, for all of eternity, even after we have died and our future generations have died and everything has turned to dust. Discovering its secrets won't benefit it. Neither will making communication, sharing its stories, and blah blah, all of that. This has always been about us. Our drive to feel smarter, more complete, more fulfilled. Every time Arceus blinks, it provides us a hundred more years of content with work with."

Aurelio would not let go of my wrist. He was shaking.

"So what does it matter to Arceus if I give people something to work with?" Alcott continued, growing more agitated. "It has never done anything for us. And I don't expect that we will ever get the opportunity to do something for it. So shut the hell up and let your dreams be nothing but dreams. They will lead you into ruin when you find out that The Original One only lives for itself."

By the way Aurelio had his eyes lowered, I thought that he would break. That my secret would ultimately be revealed, that he would return to a life of research over books and maps. I could tell by the shiver in his breath.

"You may not believe in Arceus," he said quietly. "But I do. I always have."

He slipped his fingers between mine, letting our speeding, erratic pulses beat together, as he rescued me from the onslaught of his father's deceitful words. "Come on, Thea," he muttered, pulling me gently along, like he had all day. "We've got a boat to catch."

Aurelio had been pulling me along with that willpower of his since we met.

Only I was beginning to enjoy the touch of his hand much more.

End of Chapter Thirteen