Keala stepped into the cavernous chamber and looked around. "This is incredible, Diane. And we got to be first. A pristine site, can you imagine?" The sneasel riding on her back purred. Mobile floodlights illuminated the massive stone throne in the center of the room, as well as a large stone sarcophagus. She approached the sarcophagus and inspected the inscriptions etched into its sides. "This is old, Diane. Way old. This is from a time beyond the ancient kingdoms often discussed in Kalosian history. This is a First Era sarcophagus." Diane yawned. "Yeah, yeah, I know you don't care. You could at least pretend." A wet, sandpaper-like texture ran across her cheek as Diane licked it. "Alright, alright. You're forgiven." She looked up at the throne and noticed a thin crack in the center of the backrest that did not extend far. She frowned. Odd.
She walked slowly around the fixtures and her eyes caught a glistening, pristine mirror that reflected fractal patterns beneath its surface. She approached and her eyes traced down to an onyx slab bearing a set of buttons and dials. A divot, roughly the size of one of the stone devices she'd been provided with by the KMHPS, stuck out to her. "This is almost too easy sometimes, you know that?" She popped the stone sphere into the divot and the console began to shine with runes that had been etched into it. An ancient script appeared on the mirror.
"Uh…" She looked from button to button, and twisted a dial. The script changed to a longer set, then changed back. She pushed a button. New set of script. She pushed another button. An image, heavy with static, grew from the center of the mirror and showed nothing but darkness. Keala ducked down and looked around the stone pedestal the panel had been set into. After a minute of searching, she felt an indented patch of stone, smoother than the rest.
"I wonder if…" She pressed, and with a loud click, the button depressed into the pedestal and the sound of stone grating against stone filled the cavernous room. She tugged her flashlight free from her belt and shone it at the source of the noise. A section of wall had slid down into the ground, revealing another room. Keala jumped into the air with glee. "By the Tapu, we found something big, Diane!" She rushed forward, the sneasel on her back meowing a loud protest at the sudden movement.
The room was filled with more mirrors, onyx panels, and now bulky bits of machinery inlaid with glittering strips of silvery metal and glass bulbs. A rush of millenia-old stale air greeted her and she wrinkled her nose. "You'd never know this stuff here is older than dirt itself, Diane," she mumbled, waving her hand in front of her face to ward off the dust the sliding wall had shook loose. She approached the center panel and traced her flashlight across its surface. Another divot. She fetched her stone sphere from the previous panel and inserted it into the one before her. The mirrors in the room lit up, the ones to her immediate left, right and before her all powered on first and revealed several lines of script.
She stared down at the panel before her and her eyes found a rune inscribed in a hexagon that appeared curiously familiar: it was an ancient depiction of an eye. She pressed her finger against the symbol and it shone. A matrix of lines and right angles exploded from the hexagon and covered the slab, and the stone sphere she'd set into the divot glowed brightly. Keala fumbled with her pocket and pulled her phone free, flipping to its camera application as quickly as she could. She tapped the screen to turn the flash on and began to take picture after picture of the panel, then looked up at the mirrors. She nearly dropped her phone. Maps. The script had turned into maps of regions she recognized. Yellow blips came to life on the map to her left and to her right, but script filled the center mirror, writing over the map. A red blip came to life and blinked insistently.
She snapped more pictures as her breathing quickened. Diane gave her an inquisitive meow. "We're gonna be famous, Diane! Uh, somehow! I don't know what this is but-"
The mirrors went black, and after a moment, the fractals reappeared.
"What!? NO!" She looked down at the panel in a frenzy and found the sphere had stopped glowing. In fact, all of the panels had ceased to glow. "What happened? Did this thing...run out of power?" She pulled the sphere free and looked at it glumly. "Lame…"
She heard footsteps approaching, and Diane jumped from her back and raised her claws, hissing all the while. A man in a raincoat appeared. "Conrad." She sighed. "Take it easy, Diane. It's just Conrad."
The man stared back at her and said quietly, "The guard told me someone had slipped inside bearing official paperwork. Didn't expect it to you be you, Keala."
She shrugged. "Back at you. What're you doing here?"
"Same as you are. Investigating. Can't let you steal all the glory." He stepped past her and looked up at the mirrors and then down at the panels. "But I think you already did."
Keala beamed. "Don't be so slow next time," she replied. "Hop up Diane, let's get going."
"Stop," he said, turning back to face her. Keala's stomach froze over. "Did you figure out how to power these?"
She fought down the urge to shiver as she looked him in the eyes. They seemed to bore straight into her soul. Are his eyes… She shook her head, half at the thought and half at his question, then said in an apologetic tone, "I couldn't get much out of them, stupid sphere ran dry. Or something, I dunno." No need to give up my secrets.
He stared back at her for a second longer. She swore she saw his hand clench and unclench. "So it goes. Can't have all the luck then, can we?"
Keala laughed nervously and excused herself. Once she was confident she was out of earshot in the tunnels that led to the surface, she mumbled to Diane, "He's got a stare chilly enough to freeze you over." The sneasel hissed. "I know, I know. You don't like him much either. But! We got out with our secret safe." She pulled her phone from her pocket with glee and turned to her photos. "See these things? Maps. There's home!" she said, tapping the photo she'd taken of the map with a flashing red blip. "Dunno why Alola has this flashing red blip but, whatever." She swiped the screen and brought up the second map. "And Johto's got...well, a lot of what the next one's got..."
She swiped the screen again."Hoenn! "We got an offer from the Society to check out Hoenn as well for them, and I think we're gonna take it. No one knew where to look, but with this…" She smiled. "That lucky pendant of yours is gonna come in handy, Di. Just you wait."
The scratchy, wet feel of sandpaper graced her cheek again.
Conrad rolled his eyes as he watched the woman leave. Idiot. Little too close for comfort there, but nevertheless, she's found exactly what I needed. An observation chamber. Perfect. He pulled a stone sphere from his pocket. A piece of crystal jutted out from the top of it. "Tell me, tell me, tell me," he droned as the mirrors reflected maps and an array of yellow and red blinking blips, "tell me of the times long past and the places I should go." He pulled his raincoat aside and ran a finger down the hilt at his waist. "Tell me where the new cornerstone goes."
He gave a start and dug into his pocket, swearing. Damn girl and her meaningless drivel. I'm late, aren't I? He pulled a watch from his pocket, roughly the size of his palm. It echoed the appearance of the mirrors above him, and displayed the time and date with clean green lines. He spun a dial atop the watch three clicks to the right and then pulled on it once. The face of the watch went blank and flipped over with a mechanical whir. He pushed on the button jutting from the dial and the display came to life again, this time in clean blue lines.
He was late.
ジョウト地方
Hark! land of solitude's brother.
You are blinded, you are robbed!
O silver moon beneath the tides,
O golden sun that flies eternal,
Hear my calls and prayers:
The wind has stilled;
Gone are the whispers from the air that said:
"Help. I have been stolen."
Gold and silver graces, hear my plea:
"Stranger tides are coming,
I will require thee."