A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 12: Dark Corners

As soon as I couldn't hear the lift anymore, I stood with my back against a wall and sighed heavily. I ejected Rotom from my pokeball and once his eyesight adjusted to the darkness, he rammed my face, in his way of hugging me.

"Oh my god I thought I'd lost you forever!" Rotom yelled in the darkness. I tried seeing further inside, but not even the lanterns could help me see. They ended a ways down and after that was total darkness.

"Do you know where we are." I asked him.

"You mean this tunnel?" He looked at me with a dash of concern on his face.

"No. We're underneath the Hearthome Forest." He blinked when I said this to him. The both us just talked in this hallway for a long time, exchanging information. I told him exactly what had happened to me after I put him back in his ball to where we are now. He wowed many times and shook his head with anger when I retold how Hera had felt sympathy for Dusknoir.

"If I see that man again. I will kill him. What he did is unforgivable." Rotom roared, floating furiously.

"I want revenge, too but how can we do that when they won't let us leave?"

"Oh my god what about your father." Rotom realized.

"I already tried asking but they wouldn't let me leave. They said I had to go down here and join this House. We're supposed to going to the Chateau of Umbra I think it was called." Rotom looked confused, as though he had never heard of this place. I personally didn't know what the word umbra meant.

"I know umbra is a complete shadow, that's really it." Rotom buzzed. I was so happy to hear his voice and to be around him. I walked up to him and grabbed hold of his electric body. He nestled in my arms as we embraced. It could have been better had we not been cloaked in darkness. I told him there wasn't anything for us to do except go further into this tunnel and maybe join with their ranks. I wondered what kind of people I would meet down here who spent all their time covered in darkness.

The lanterns began appearing less and less until we were completely covered in the murky blackness. I was using Rotom as my light source because I no longer had a flashlight or a backpack for that matter. My poketch was gone too. The only thing I had left was Rotom. And as much as I could be satisfied with just that, I wasn't. I wished and wished that Dusknoir could have been saved, and it was eating me alive that the pokemon I had just rescued was killed in that fire.

"I'm so angry, Rotom." I whimpered as we were walking. Rotom sensed my animosity and I couldn't tell, but he was very tense, floating in the dark. We walked aimlessly through this hallway until Rotom turned a corner and I almost ran into the wall directly in front us. I held my hands out touching the side wall to maintain some balance and used Rotom to guide myself through the rest of the nothingness. Rotom stopped abruptly and I could see the fiery outlines of candles around the outside of a huge castle. We were several hundred feet underground and I was questioned why castles could be built all the way down here.

Rotom and I approached the castle, whose dimly lit candles served as my only light source inside. There was a murky moat underneath where we were standing and I only noticed when Rotom floated over the moat and I almost plunged in after him. Rotom quickly floated back to me and we pondered how we would ever cross to the castle. Was this part of my test? Before I could answer that in my head, a drawbridge was released and as it creaked down to us, several Zubat and Golbat flew out of the castle in massive throngs. If my heart wasn't racing from the nightmarish darkness we had just come into, it was because of these pokemon flying past me with large wings and sharp fangs.

Even so, Rotom and I wandered across the creaking drawbridge, and entered the castle, that was still underground. This place didn't really make any sense to me but I figured doing what these people say might get me closer to my father.

Inside of the castle was terrifying. It was pitch black and if I didn't know any better, the hanging knights on the walls adjacent from us, would grab at us and take us to a dungeon if we tread too close. Candles only lit up individual rooms of the castle, which I saw through an opened door. I couldn't tell if there was anybody in there, but I was sure I wasn't the one to find out.

"Where are we, Aria." Rotom said as I was following him through the endless main hallway. We went up some stairs but then the hall continued and it felt like we were back in the Bridge, navigating through seemingly infinite twists and turns.

"Chateau of Umbra." I whispered, following his trail cautiously. We passed by several large pillars inside the castle, leading to somewhere deeper inside. I was surprised this castle could be built so high up when there had to be floors for other pokemon types. Hera did say the Dark chamber was up above so maybe they were somehow connected? I'm not exactly sure where we are. It felt like we walked in this castle for another five minutes before coming to a semi-large room where the hall ended. Inside of the room there were couches and chairs lined perfectly to face the center which held a fireplace, whose blazing flames welcomed me with a few snaps until I saw two people standing in the room near the fire. Their faces were obscured by the darkness and I could only see the color of their clothes.

The woman wore a dark dress with red accents lining down the side. Her heels looked really shiny in the darkness but her face told otherwise. She held her hair in a bun on the top of head but still her hair was long and drooped down. The man wore black clothes, surprise, and I could see his hair was grown out a little longer but it was still kept nice. These two people watched me and Rotom as we entered but didn't say anything until I asked if I was intruding.

"No-o, course not! Take a seat." I followed the woman's arm, beckoning to a chair and sat in it while Rotom floated nearby and I could tell he was very tense.

"Now aren't you just a beautiful Ghost? You can relax we aren't enemies. Yet." She said chuckling to herself and I knew I was in the wrong place.

"How may we be of service to you...um?" The man started talking up a conversation with me.

"My name's Aria. And this is Rotom." I responded into their blank faces. The man came up to me and knelt on one knee, he took my hand and laid a dry kiss on the back of it. He rose up and joined the woman at her side. All I cared about was seeing the man's face and he did look very handsome in that suit.

"Well, Aria, we would like to welcome you to our castle. This is the sanctuary for Dark and Ghost pokemon." The man began. I looked to the fire momentarily and saw its colors and shapes. It was haunting and I couldn't look at for too long without the pain coming to me. That pain would haunt me for the rest my life. It was unfortunate that I discovered the truth through all this pain. The woman noticed I looked very solemn and placed her hand on the man's hip. He stopped talking about whatever he was talking about and the woman resumed.

"Talia is my name. And he is called Crow." Talia's hand pointed up at her associate when she stated his name.

"Yes, that would be me." Crow began. "You won't be seeing me that much in your training but I'm still important enough to know. I govern the Dark trainers in the Bridge. And Talia here leads the Ghost trainers." Crow said looking at me. I could see the curves and features of his face every so often when the fires wiggled closer into our direction. I even saw Talia's face which looked beautiful when it was masked by darkness.

"Aria, have you been acquainted with the whole House system?" Talia said looking at me with her hawk-like eyes in the dark.

"Yea, I'm here aren't I?" They both began chuckling when I said this.

"Clever and funny." Crow stated. "We could use more of those around here."

"Anyway." Talia started up again. "You do know that you must go through a test to see if this castle is the right place for you?" She held her hands together in front of her when she said this, and it gave off the impression that I was about to jump up from my seat and run out of this castle screaming. I just sat in that chair, next to Rotom and looked up at the strange people before me.

"I know and I'll accept your test."

"Good of you to say that. A lot of the other Houses of the Bridge don't require an entrance examination of their followers. We are very different from those fools in the Normal Army. They are trained to fight against the Society and Team Galactic when in reality our trainers could mop the floor with that army and the other factions." Talia sneered.

"Yes. You picked us and now it's our turn to select you." Crow said to me. "You will take this test and if you pass, alive, you will be welcomed by all of the Ghost and Dark trainers." I was surprised and scared when he said that last sentence. What kind of test were these people going to have me undergo? I saw the man crack a dark smile as he began talking again. He noticed my uneasiness amid my very solemn face.

Talia took the floor again, and with her right arm she pointed to an open room.

"Take that hallway until you reach a fork and make sure you go left. Then keep walking until you find the dome. Your test will be inside of this dome." She looked at Crow and they both exchanged a smile.

I got up from the chair and Rotom followed me and as I walked in the pitch black I could feel their eyes watching me from behind. Rotom floated in front of me and I used his light to guide myself through this room. In the room, it almost looked like a kitchen because I saw three refrigerators and cabinets lining the sides of the hall. It smelled like dry loaves of bread in here.

We came to the fork like Talia had described, Rotom chose the left part, and we entered it as I took one final look back at the fireplace room but no longer where the eyes watching me. They had departed, leaving me in the darkness alone. Rotom floated carefully and slowly, making sure I was following him close by. He stopped and looked at me in the dark when I had looked back and he buzzed to get my attention.

"Sorry. This place just creeps me out." I said looking into his eyes. He nodded at me and turned around to float further into the fork we had just ventured into.

"We're looking for a dome right?" Rotom said to me and I told him yes as I tried looking around the room but Rotom's light wasn't enough to allow me a high resolution visual of the place. There could be bones hanging above my face and I would never know. We continued walking in the dark corners of this castle until we couldn't walk any further. We had come into a room that was illuminated by a single large hemisphere in the center. We were in the dome, which might be the only illuminated room in the entire castle. I shuddered when I thought I heard a whisper and turned around to see nothing there and it scared me, because we were now sealed inside of the dome which was whispering and there was no way out.

"We're stuck in here, Rotom." I said, my voice trembling. "Do you think they're imprisoning us in here?"

"This is our test, isn't it?" Rotom said, ignoring my earlier question. We walked closer to the hemisphere, bulging out of the ground which was the only thing inside of this large dome, other than us. I looked up and we were completely encased by this dome with the bright hemisphere.

"Who are you."

"Did you say something, Rotom?" I turned to him.

"No, did you just ask me 'who are you'?" Rotom replied and my heart almost dropped. I turned around to look around the dome but there was nothing there. Rotom looked around too, but wasn't able to find anything. The dimly lit dome became more menacing when more whispers became apparent to the both of us.

"Prepare thyself." The whispers said. I was turning around in the chamber, trying to make sense of what was going on but nothing made sense. We were alone in this dome, but something was in here with us. It was invisible and I thought there was an actual Ghost in the dome until my eyes came to the specter floating the air. It wasn't Rotom because Rotom was also looking at the murky poltergeist floating before us. It was hard to make out the shapes, but I could see the jagged edges of the Haunter that floated right above us now.

"You are my test?" I asked the floating shadow.

"Yes." It responded back, startling me. I had never encountered another pokemon that could talk, other than Rotom, and this Haunter was beginning to creep me out. I didn't know what the test was and why we had to be shut in this dome.

"My name is Jasper." The Haunter whispered to me as it floated above us in the enclosed dome.

"I'm guessing we have to defeat it in battle." Rotom said, never taking eyes off Jasper. The battle started abruptly when Jasper lunged at us and arched to the other side. I had Rotom use an Ominous Wind to rattle Jasper around, but the pokemon seemed to dodge the attack. Jasper released a mighty Shadow Ball, which was hurled at Rotom, and missed by an inch. For a counterattack, Rotom fired off another Ominous Wind which seemed to hit Jasper, but he emerged from the murky attack unscathed. It seemed as though the attack had gone completely through him.

This time, Jasper lunged at us again, and scratch Rotom with his ghostly hands, Rotom flew backwards and struck the wall of the dome pretty hard.

"Rotom!" I screamed running to him, but before I could get to him, Jasper turned his attacks to me. He fired a Shadow Ball at me and I fell onto the ground to avoid it. Jasper flew at me and before he could inflict another attack, a bold of electricity struck him coming from Rotom. The Discharge attack went through Jasper and didn't affect him at all. He used a Shadow Claw on my leg and tore into my flesh. I screamed in pain and Rotom flew over, to protect me.

"Are you okay?" Rotom said, not looking at me, but at the specter that floated near us.

"I'm okay, but that really hurt." I said sitting up from where I laid. I looked at my thigh which had some red stains where my shorts ripped. I tried standing up and realized Jasper hadn't seeped his claws deep enough to do real damage. He just scratched the surface, injuring me. I looked at him, angrily and he returned a dark smile.

"This is a test for you and your pokemon. I am going to attack you both. And you fools can't touch me. Haven't you noticed?" Jasper cackled. But he was right. None of the attacks Rotom had been using were touching Jasper at all, not even the Ghost attacks that are supposed to be super effective against Ghost pokemon. This seemed like an impossible test and I didn't know what to do. I was trapped in this dome as this indestructible Haunter tormented us.

"Do you give up yet so I can eat your souls?" Jasper cackled louder, stunning me. I looked around the room for something to help us with but the only thing in the room other than us was the glowing hemisphere in the center of the room.

"Rotom." I said, beckoning to the center of the room, avoiding the gaze of Jasper. Rotom nodded at me and floated at Jasper, but before they were about to collide he just flew past the menacing specter and Jasper became enraged. He started yelling taunting things at Rotom and chased him around the dome firing Shadow Balls. Rotom turned around in their chase every so often to fire back a Discharge. Each time, however, the attack just passed through Jasper's intangible body. It confused me how he was able to touch me, but not be touched and I realized what Rotom had told me long ago. His words echoed in my head: Ghost pokemon are intangible, yes, but some of us are able to control when we are and aren't tangible and usually our partners are allowed to touch us. If someone like your friends wanted to pet me I'd change my composition to be intangible again. So Jasper must be using his ghostly ability to shift between being tangible and intangible. But this was different. Ghost pokemon can only do that with physical interactions. Jasper could change his tangibility with non-physical attacks like the Discharge and Ominous Wind.

I quickly ran over to the hemisphere in the center of the room, releasing a dim light, which was released into the whole dome. I touched it with my hand and saw Jasper starting to charge at me. Before he could use another attack on me I shifted to my left, rapidly and managed to avoid his attack as he arched upward and faced me. I ran over to Rotom who was close to the wall of the dome and Jasper just stared at us.

"I figured something out." I said to Rotom who broke focus from Jasper and turned to me.

"What is it? How do we beat him. Because nothing I'm doing is working." Rotom looked at me nervously. Jasper, on the other hand, looked at us weirdly and fired off another series of Shadow Balls. Rotom and I became split apart so I had to speak louder so as to reach him. He tried floating to me, but was struck by a Shadow Ball and collided with the wall, then oozed down to the ground.

"Rotom!" I yelled, and ran to him. I picked him up, and he flew out of my arms, ready to fight again. Jasper looked at us, disgustingly as though I did something wrong. I approached during the battle and hugged him in my arms tightly with my back facing to Jasper.

"Ow. He hit me good again. I don't think I can take many more hits like that Aria. So what's your plan." Rotom said looking at me, damaged and a little fatigued from fighting this impossible opponent. I pointed with my chin to the center, and noticed Jasper was floating protectively, over the hemisphere now.

"He only attacks me when I'm near that glowing bulb. And you when I'm not. He's protecting it and I think it's the answer we're looking for." I said to Rotom. Jasper just looked at us unable to make sense of our plan. He flew closer to us, cautiously and lowered himself so that he was directly in our view. Rotom became alert that Jasper was advancing on us, floated out of my grasp. Then he fired another Shadow Ball and Rotom used a Discharge. We both jumped in opposite directions when the Shadow Ball was absorbed by the dome wall. The Discharge went straight through Jasper and partially hit the hemisphere. Jasper yelped in pain and temporarily shifted on and off, like he was a projection.

"Are you even real?" I yelled to the pokemon.

"You won't be alive to find out." The ghost pokemon retorted, then lunged at Rotom. Rotom attempted to use another Discharge but missed the hemisphere.

"We need to get closer!" I yelled to him, while I started running at the hemisphere. Jasper saw me running to the center of the dome and changed his barrage of attacks from Rotom to me. I looked over at Rotom and heard him faintly say that I was boneheaded and reckless. Then I saw him dash in the air towards the center, while avoiding Jasper at all costs. I was almost as fast as he was while running, but when I turned around Jasper was right directly above me and used a Shadow Ball. I felt the ghostly energy when it almost struck me and dived to the ground. It hurt a little when I fell, but I was right next to the hemisphere. Jasper flew at me and just before he could use a Shadow Claw, he was stunned in the air when Rotom used an Ominous Wind on the center of the dome.

"Rotom use Discharge on that hemisphere!" I called to him. He released a violent burst of blue energy that struck the hemisphere and it flickered. Jasper grimaced when the electric attack struck the hemisphere and his body was sucked into the glowing bulb. Then the door opened where we first entered, and I knew the test was over. Rotom floated in the air and I was just laying on the ground near the hemisphere breathing coarsely. I was tired from the encounter and it hurt a little on my bad thigh as I was sitting on it awkwardly. I saw Rotom was looking faint and so began to rise up off the dusty ground.

"We did it." I stood up, huffing. Rotom floated weakly over to me and we both traveled to the door, I was limping and he floated so weakly that I grabbed him and carried him the rest of the way.
"Thanks." He said when he got comfortable in my arms.

"Don't get too comfortable." I said, walking through the door back into the hallway where the fork was. The door to the dome slid back down and I was glad to be rid of Jasper and his maliciousness. I held my thigh while holding Rotom with one hand and felt the wound. It hurt when I accidentally touched the cut flesh but I concluded it was only a flesh wound and would heal without too much worry. But wow it was painful.

I walked, holding Rotom in my hands, as I navigated through what I described as the kitchen of the castle and approached the same place I had previously been to, with the fireplace. I remained standing straight in the room along with Rotom, as I waited for someone to appear and congratulate me. Instead, I saw a figure walking down the hallway and felt a touch of fear. The figure turned into a room, and came out holding something. When the person walked into the room I was so surprised to see who the familiar face was.

"What are you doing here." I said to the girl. The girl looked at me with no emotion in her face. I could see the same purple highlights in her long, dark hair as she chose the closest seat nearest the fire and began reading a book.

"I live here." She said looking at Rotom before becoming immersed in her story.

"Where's your Gengar." I asked her, while she was reading. She looked up to the fire, then at her book. Then she looked at me with an annoyed look on her face.

"Why are you even here." She looked at me, closing her book without us losing eye contact. She stood up and approached me, observing my wounded leg. She raised her eyebrow and then cracked a half-smile.

"You just fought Jasper." She said flatly.

"I just defeated Jasper." I corrected her.

"Nobody can completely defeat him." She retorted. "You just figured it out like I did. Except it was obvious and I didn't get cut like you did." She smirked at me. I shook my head looking at her and Rotom eyed her cautiously.

"What's your problem." I spat at her.

"I don't have one. You do, though." She said, crossing her arms.

"You're so rude, and you wouldn't tell me your name when we first met. You just left without saying anything." I said looking at her black eye makeup.

"Please be nice to our newest associate, Vesper." My attention shifted to the doorway of the commons we were in as Talia stole both of our attention. The only thing I knew about the girl standing next to me was that she possessed a Gengar and her name was Vesper. I said the name without any volume to feel how it would sound in my mouth. Vesper.

Talia stood in the doorway and I could see her face clearly now. It was how I thought of it to be from before, but she was slim in her dark dress. She walked into the commons and joined the two of us.

"Why don't you go back to reading, Vesper, while Aria and I have a little chat." Talia, said as Vesper returned to her chair and restarted her book. I sat on a couch near the fire and faced Talia. I placed Rotom beside me and he just sat on the fabric, looking up at the both us while we talked.

"Well, you're here which means you defeated Jasper. You were just three seconds short of beating Vesper's time." I looked at the girl who was reading. She didn't take eyes off of her book and just read in the light of the fire but I knew in my heart that was listening to us. Why didn't Talia excuse her from the room altogether was beyond me.

"You don't seem excited." Talia looked at me with her head on an angle.

"Oh sorry." I said looking at Rotom who sat on the couch. It looked kind of funny and he looked at me viciously for joking at him.

"It's a huge responsibility to be apart of the chateau, you are aware of this, yes?" I nodded, then looked over and noticed that Vesper had left the room with her book. I continued nodding until Talia opened her mouth again.

"Do you know why I had you fight Jasper?" She looked at me, and was well aware that I wasn't completely paying attention to her.

"To test my physical strengths? Which I lack in." I said to her.

"To assess your strengths and weaknesses." Talia said, looking from Rotom to my eyes. I was stunned when that last sentence registered in my mind. I didn't think about this until now but people were watching me conduct my test. That means people saw when I got scratched and when I figured out how to beat Jasper. They also saw me talking to Rotom.

"I was watching the whole thing along with Crow and some of our other trainers. You were unanimously agreed on by five of us, including me. Do you want to know the rest of your results?" She said, but it felt like she would tell me even if I had said no.

"You showed a memorable physical strength on the battlefield. Despite, being attacked by Jasper you managed to stay strong in that high-intensity situation. You showed courage and intuitiveness. A Ghost trainer must possess these qualities in order to be successful. We here in the chateau require your complete focus when we train you in special operations, because the slightest mishap can lead you to your death." I watched her mouth move and when she finished I nodded, and looked at the fire when she finished talking. I looked away, then back to her face.

"You did however, reveal several undesirable imperfections about yourself, but in order to be selected for our team, you must possess an equal amount of strengths and flaws or the imbalance will lead you to your own demise."

"What are my flaws." I said looking at her earnestly. I was never too excited to talk about myself or hear others talking about me to me and it made me feel a smidgen of awkward.

"You are reckless. You allowed yourself to be the target of Jasper's relentless strikes when Rotom could have taken the blows for you." She explained my mistakes very solemnly and it made me nervous and a little bit angry. I never thought of myself as reckless. Maybe I did some things impulsively but I wanted to help Rotom and I get out of that situation.

"He's my partner. I would do anything for him and-"

"Do you realize we are at war?" She said shushing me. "In a war it is either do or die and although your devotion to your pokemon is formidable it's impulsive and unhealthy on the battlefield. As your mentor, I will attempt to rid this poor quality from you through your training." I nodded, discouragingly at her.

"Next," And I thought wow, I must've really screwed up. "Something interesting came up when we all talked about you. One of my associates said he figured out your fear from watching you." My heart was racing when she stated this. My fear? How could somebody figure out my fear from watching me battle?

"Yes. Usually we don't notice a trainer's fear but you were different. We noticed that when you momentarily stopped the battle to hug your pokemon when it got hurt." Talia said and I blinked, looking at Rotom who was looking up at me. We sat there in the room with the fire and I was getting really uncomfortable with all this information being thrown at me. It was also getting really hot and I started fidgeting on the couch we were both sitting at. I think Talia noticed I was uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything of it and just readjusted herself as well.

"You fear for those around you. You can't stand when those close to you experience pain. When they do, you feel twice the pain they feel. You feel theirs and your own. That's something we've never seen before and it can be very cumbersome when you're in battle for your life against the Society or Team Galactic, for instance. When you are training, don't let your emotions cloud your judgment. I've seen far too many fall because of their inability to control their feelings." I cringed when she said this. Somebody had spot on, analyzed me and now I had to live the rest of my life knowing that people knew how I felt on the inside.

"It's alright Aria. Everyone normally starts off with poor qualities. But through hard work and dedication, you will become a strong special operations trainer and a valuable material to the chateau. All of us here are. We live and serve the Bridge. And soon, you will, too." I was sweating now. Someone had actually guessed my fear just by a single fact. It was true. But it hurt being told that.

"Is that why you don't like looking at the fire?" Talia said, looking at me and to the fire in one quick turn of the neck. I nodded and looked into the fire, almost getting teary at the sight of those flames. Talia looked at me and pressed her lips together lightly, then adjusted herself closer to me and placed her hand on mine.

"You can tell my anything. I may be one of the leaders of the Bridge but I'm always here for you." She said looking at me eyes. I began tearing up a bit, but I managed to tell her the story of how I got here. I went into detail of my encounter with Team Galactic and the Society. I told her about the flames and Dusknoir and how it haunted me in my dreams. She nodded when I told her this but I could see it wasn't affecting her like it was affecting me.

She shook her head but didn't take her hand off mine. She told me she was very sorry about Dusknoir but that I had a life I had to continue living. Those words made me think about something my father had told me when I graduated from high school. He told me that he was getting older and someday I would be on my own. I would have a husband or kids perhaps but he told me the number one thing he didn't want to leave this world with, was leaving me by myself. He wanted me to always be there for someone so that I wouldn't ever tread alone. Rotom was my partner for life, but my Dad wanted me to get married, have kids and have a better life than he said he had.

"Aria, when you're here, we are a family. I want you to hear this now so you don't think I don't like you when you're in training. Your instructors, including myself, will be very tough on you when you are training in special operations." She said looking at me. I nodded and said that was okay but I was more concerned with finding my father at the moment. Remembering him and his words made me agitated and even more uncomfortable and I couldn't handle it without opening my big, impulsive mouth.

"I need to say something." I said interrupting Talia as she was telling me about the last mission the chateau was responsible for finishing.

"What." She said, a little annoyed with me.

"I promise that I will train and I will be the best student you've ever had."

"Yes?"

"It's just my father."

"Your father is keeping you from training in the Bridge?" Talia looked at me annoyed, curious and a little aggravated as well.

"No. He's back home in Twinleaf. And that's the thing. I think the Society is after him. I want to bring him here. To the Bridge." After a few moments of absorbing this information, Talia stood up and my heart started quickening again. Rotom floated up and I also stood.

"Very well. Your training begins now." She said, looking at me rather curiously.

"But I told you."

"Your fear is knowing that those around you are hurting. I can't train an operative when she's not giving a hundred and ten percent. Go find your Dad, but know this." She raised her finger at the large ceiling. "He is not allowed to stay here while you train. That is detrimental to your success." I bowed my head and she finally stopped talking.

"This is your first mission so make it a good one. Then make sure you return here for your training, alright Aria?" She looked at me like I was a child.

"I promise you the mission will be smooth and clean. Then I'll come back here and, I give you my word that I will train without being impulsive or letting my emotions get in the way." I extended my hand to hers. She looked at it, but shook it firmly and then Talia disappeared into the darkness.

"Ready Rotom?" I looked at my Ghost pokemon who bounced happily and we, too entered the darkness of the chateau, heading for the castle gates. As I walked I noticed the same hanging knight on the wall to my right and ignored its presence when I walked right beside it, when it could have breathed on my shoulder. I walked through the same hallway I had entered in through and soon I was reunited with the drawbridge. Rotom and I walked across the drawbridge, walking through the long hallway headed for the lift that would take us back to the Psychic floor.