Chapter Six: The Halo Mountains
"In this case I'll ask you. What do you think a mountain is? A mountain is a concept! Something you must overcome is a mountain!" - Hiker Ryan, Sun & Moon
"He killed her too?" Tobias said.
Octavia looked up. "Too?"
He explained what the Archon had done to Bruiser, the Pokémon who raised him, and to the Pokémon he'd grown up with.
"We never found proof, but…"
"No need," she said. "The bastard killed his own mother. It wouldn't be beneath him. Thank you for telling me."
She gestured to Vex, who reached down behind the throne.
"Here," she said as she took it from him, "present for you."
She handed Alex a sword. It was a claymore, built for a small Pokémon, a foot and a half in length with a golden hilt. The guards were studded with dazzling ruby and opulent sapphire. The hilt, a gleaming emerald shaped like a star.
"Thought it would be a fitting combo."
Alex's face was still. I could sympathise. I would never want to hold a sword again, after what happened last time. But this was, genuinely, a kind gesture. She hadn't just sent him to the armoury to pick any old thing off the shelves, this was a personalised weapon handed to him directly by the most powerful Pokémon in Itori. And it was customised to him in rather touching detail.
He said nothing. I kicked him in the back of the leg.
"Thank you, your grace," he mumbled.
Octavia grunted. She handed him the scabbard, red steel pattered with a gold-painted ivy pattern, and a belt, boiled hemp in navy blue. He attached it around his waist with minimal effort. It hung resting against his left thigh. A perfect fit.
"Send word to Asa," she said to Vex, "tell him to meet us in the War Room at the Ledyba's hour. You three."
"Your grace," I said.
"You know more about the Archon than any of us. You'll be there as well. Don't you dare be late. Dismissed."
…
Our trio stood with the Queen, Lord Vex the Dusknoir, and Asa in the War Room, adjacent to the Queen's solar. The room where Topaz had died. A map of Itori was carved into the table below us, complete with wooden figurines. A Charizard in Grande City, a Hydreigon up in the north. Octavia quietly put it away and replaced it with a question mark to symbolise Fitzroy and his companion.
"So we're dealing with a Pokémon who can blow through entire countries?" said Vex.
"If that were the case," I said, "they would have blown through ours by now."
"The Legendary will still be weak," said Asa, "not nearly at their full potential."
"So we can stop it?" said Octavia.
"Them. But it won't be that simple, even now they're stronger than any one of us here, they're incredibly fast, they aren't sleeping, and they're blowing a hole in the biggest advantage we do have."
"Which is?" asked Vex.
"Our civilisation."
The sounds of moving feet and barking voices sounded very distant through the thick walls.
"Fitzroy clearly has a handle on Ingot magic, a cruel art fusing the body and the soul with enchanted metals."
"So the bronze soldiers… are alive?" said Tobias.
"I've been wondering that this past year. I've had my suspicions, but based on what you told me— you're certain they were the same six Pokémon?" Tobias nodded. "The Bronze Pokémon do seem to be… Pokémon."
"Even the Lugia?" Vex said quietly.
"I have my own theory," I said. "No doubt you'll remember our report on the Skeleton from Stormfell? Its body was formed from the remains of twenty-four other Pokémon. I believe the Bronze Lugia is much the same. Except in place of bodies, it uses souls."
"With such a powerful magic I don't see why he doesn't just bronze everyone," said the Dusknoir.
I frowned at him. The Dusknoir puffed out his chest.
"If we want to stop him we need to think like him. Pussyfoot around all you like, but I'm getting to the bottom of this."
"Easy, boys, easy," said Octavia.
"Bronze Pokémon use silver magic," Tobias said, "maybe they have to be trained in sorcery first."
"Good thinking," said Asa. "How many soldiers did he have?"
"Dozens."
Asa then look suspicious.
"How difficult is it to train someone to become a sorcerer?" I asked.
"I can only give an account from a Gem Mage's perspective, but… several years. Dozens upon dozens?"
"He can't have trained that many," said Octavia.
"Not on top of everything else he was up to," Tobias said.
Vex looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe all they need to be is… willing."
"The silver Pokémon," said Alex. "Do we know how to free them yet?"
No one answered.
"You freed me," Alex said to Asa.
"You had a Sapphire," said Octavia, "we don't have anything like that for the silver Pokémon."
"Why do gold Pokémon get sapphire parts and silver ones don't?" asked Vex.
Asa shuffled his feet. "My working theory is so they can preserve soldiers for… later use. Silver seems to be the technique reserved for enemies."
Octavia nodded. "Bronze for willing soldiers. Silver for unwilling enemies. Gold for unwilling allies."
The mural that took up the whole dome depicted hundreds of Pokémon, water-types in front and assorted others at the back, all bowing down to Lugia, who had one foot triumphantly on top of a raging Gyarados, pinning them to the ground. This time the Atrocious Pokémon was lying on its side, defenceless, disarmed, defeated.
That's what Alex had written.
"There has to be a way to save them!" the Charmander said then.
"There has to be," Vex agreed. "But we can't prioritise them right now, I'm sorry but we can't."
"And what if one of us is silvered?" Khan asked.
"I'm prepared to sacrifice myself if it means keeping my country safe."
"If we lose Asa, if we lose Alex again and need his soul, what then? This is a potentially deadly and versatile threat, we need to be able to defend ourselves against it."
"Don't get hit. There's your defence."
"Easy coming someone who's never had to face it."
"Twice," Tobias added.
Asa rubbed his temple with his vine. "Tobias, did Soleil give you any more information you think we could use?"
"I really don't think so."
"Think, anything at all could be the missing piece."
The Bulbasaur looked desperate, and when the person you turn to for guidance looks to you in desperation, the pressure is never higher.
"There are the human souls," Tobias said slowly, "Mal— Fitzroy said he needed three. And the stone. He needed the stone from the Epsilon Cavern."
Vex pulled a Fletchinder quill and paper from the drawer. "Draw it."
Tobias wrote out the words, symbols that look roughly like the letters: U
Before he'd even finished writing the first letter I felt a twist in the yellow part of my chest.
Asa swallowed. "It's clear those symbols you found in the Epsilon Cavern are crucial to unlocking the Legendary's power. I've seen them before on my travels, in the Polar Region and the Isle of Legends. And the Halo Mountains."
"Do you have any idea what this Pokémon's like?" Vex asked. "Their names? Their powers?"
"I don't know," Asa confessed, "I've met four Legendary Pokémon in my life. Shaymin, Diancie, Latios and Latias. I'm not the only common Pokémon who's ever met a God. But Tobias and Alex might have been the first Pokémon to meet this Legendary Pokémon in hundreds of years. Thousands. Bar Fitzroy, of course."
"We didn't really get to meet them," said Alex.
"We got to run from them," Tobias said, "but we didn't really find time to swap life-stories."
"You got a glimpse of them, didn't you?" Octavia asked Tobias.
"A little. More of a shadow, than anything. It was so chaotic, I was so focused on keeping everyone safe, I don't know if I'll be able to paint you a picture."
"Give it your best shot."
"They were like… the bit that I saw… I mean, it was so hazy, it might have been Fitzroy, but… they looked kind of like a black Charizard."
We all looked at one another. No idea.
"Fitzroy described it as…"
"A dragon god," Alex finished.
Everyone's eyes were drawn to Octavia. She was staring at the question mark on the table.
"What they look like doesn't matter," said Asa. "We have their type, or at least one of them. We know they've been aiming for civilisation and avoiding wild areas. We know they attack with fire. It's clear to me that whatever Pokémon they are, there's only one way to stop them. And it's Unown."
…
From south-west tower we could see edge of Ruby Forest. A Watchog named Siren guided us to a set of binoculars, a crafty new invention that lets you see miles ahead of you as if you were seeing it up close. The image was a little blurry, but it was a handy way of spotting anything in the distance that weren't supposed to be there. They were big and clunky, and took levers to turn. I guess that's what comes with all those mirrors and panels. Alex stepped up to peer through them first.
"Kukui, poinsettia," he said, "myrtle, fireglow, also known as the "spurge" family."
"The what family?!"said Tobias.
"Spurge."
"Oh... Yeah, that makes more sense."
A flock of grey Staravia flew above the shining top of the Barrier below a blanket of black smoke. Alex pulled away.
"Do you think…" Alex began. "Is there any chance of it… catching on fire?"
"Ruby Forest doesn't burn," I replied.
But neither does stone.
"What about the Pokémon in there? What if he tries to hurt them?"
"He wouldn't do that, would he?" said Tobias. "Ruby Forest is a wild area, he's only attacking civilisations."
"It's just, what he said about… spreading."
"There's a different between just swallowing something up and building on what's already there," I said.
"Not to him, apparently."
I looked back out the window at the Pokémon toiling in the fields; someone from the bakery had brought a delivery for the workers, I smiled as they all scurried around the Daschbun carrying a huge white box on her back.
"It can't burn down."
Tobias frowned. "Alex?"
"All of that pain, all that sacrifice, the people who died fighting a war to protect the Pokémon in there… it can't all be for nothing. He can't take it all away from us."
Alex was close to tears. The watchmon looked on awkwardly. I get down and put an arm around him.
"You did a hell of a lot more than save Ruby Forest, Alex. We took the throne from a greedy, self-obsessed, delusional King, one who's idea to every problem was to wipe it from the earth as quickly and as violently as possible. Octavia may not be our favourite person—"
I gave a warning glance to the watchmon. He shrugged in apparent agreement.
"But she cares about this country and the lives of the people in it."
Alex nodded. Still looking, through the window now, red trees, black smoke.
"I don't want anyone in there to die…" he said quietly.
Another bright flash. Another black cloud.
"Then you'd better do something about that smoke…" said the Watchog.
Bonnie came to fetch Alex and Tobias to take them to the blacksmith's. On the way there I stopped at market for Tamato seasoning for Alex and Magost for Tobias. That's where I ran into Ewan.
Ewan was a red-and-magenta (non-Shiny) Furret who guided us through Ruby Forest. He was one of four we'd picked up along the way, along with Japeth the rust-coloured Sawsbuck, his spouse Lucas the Ditto, and their daughter Susie, the orange-and-pink Deerling. I called to Ewan and he sprinted over. We hugged, exchanged pleasantries.
"You've settled into civilian life, I take it?" I said, looking at his dark-red cloak with the Skarsgard insignia sown onto the back.
"Quite well!" Ewan said. "All four of us have, actually. I work at the library now with my partner Joseph. Japeth's employed as a guard for the civilian areas of Grande City and Lucas is an acting teacher! Little Susie's a big strong Sawsbuck now, and she's training to be a Skarsgard Dame." He crossed his paws on his chest. "We're all very proud but very worried! I'm actually her "god-father" now. We never had that custom in Ruby Forest! Listen to me rambling, what brings you here, Professor?"
I told him as much as I could in a crowded area. I told him about our close call with Alex, and he put a paw over his hand, then both of them around my claw.
"Please give them both my best, won't you?"
"Of course. Give my love to—"
"The Vaughns. That's their family name now. Another exciting new concept!"
"Hah, I guess so. Have you picked one for yourself?"
"I have," the Furret said, drawing himself up proudly, "Atlanta."
I was too stunned to speak. Ewan took it for flattery. He looked behind me, I turned and saw a brown-and-beige Furret waving at him.
"Ah, there's my partner, I must run," he scurried past calling over his shoulder, "good luck on your next treasure hunt!"
For a few moments I simply stood there, surrounded by the din, taking in none of it, thinking of him.
…
The real Skarsgard blacksmith's was an impressive beast. A Durant-shaped boxy metal building consisting of six forges, an entrance hall, an underground engine room, a loading bay for materials, and a testing room. The hall was soot-stained black walls with metal pipes running symmetrically along the walls; it clattered with the sound of hard work. A far cry from a tent. It boasted thirty-five employees and six trainees working their way through their year-long training course. The only issue, Neo the Delphox informed us, was the lack of new metal coming in.
"Most of our work these past couple of weeks has been melting down old armour and forging it into new materials," she explained. "Our main supply as been the Glacier Region, but recently nothing's been coming in. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?"
"A couple Teams have left for missions in there this past fortnight," I said, "but these days a lot of northerly missions are being taken up by the Dojo. You might be best writing to Kara."
"Will do. Issue is we don't currently have enough armour for the numbers Octavia's asking for. Not enough fit for a long mission, anyhow."
Alex raised his hand. "I don't mind not having any."
She arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
"I feel more comfortable without it."
Neo shrugged and went off to the testing room. Alex and Jessie had found themselves side-by-side on a bench, waiting for the Growlithe's new helmet to be brought out. I couldn't help overhearing their conversation. (I couldn't!)
"You're back with the Victory Hunters," said Alex.
"Mm. Started re-training in the spring, they took me back in around… seven weeks ago? Teo took a bit longer," she added with a sly smile.
The Beedrill threw his stingers in the air. "Well for some of us it was our first exam!"
Jessie stuck out her tongue at him, and the Beedrill buzzed off to help Niamh with her chainmail straps. Alex cleared his throat.
"I just wanted to say… I'm sorry. Again. For all the trouble I caused. For… abandoning you."
"Even though you don't remember it?" she added sardonically.
"At this point, that's most of the things I've done."
Jessie laughed good-naturedly.
"Are you still mad?"
"Not really," she said, "I mean, it set me back a few months, but I got some experience working at a smithy. Helps to know about arms and armour when you're a soldier."
He said nothing. She looked him up and down.
"Is there something you want from me?" she asked.
"I want to make amends.I don't just want this to be… it. I want to make things right."
"You can't."
Alex recoiled.
"Look, I'm not bearing a grudge against you. As far as I'm concerned we're allies, and honestly I'm glad to have you here. You're a great solider. And I think you're a good person, too, if that makes you feel better."
"It does, but—"
"But that doesn't mean you get my forgiveness. You did what you did, and I suffered the consequences. We can't go back in time.."
"Then… what do I do?"
Jessie shrugged. "Try not to do it again. Change."
His head drooped.
"Let me ask you something," she continued, "what's more important to you? That I'm happy now, or that you're the one who's made me happy? I'll leave you to think about it."
She hopped off the bench. Gallagher the Infernape waved to her, helmet in hand, and she bounced over to him, tail wagging.
Neo returned with Avalon's new chest plate. She turned, then Alex's new toy caught her eye.
"Ah, Octavia finally passed on my gift," she said.
"Your gift?" said Alex.
"I heard what happened to your old one. I figured a new blade would be fitting recompense for saving the Kingdom," she said sardonically.
"She kinda implied it came from here."
"Hah, of course she did."
She picked up the sword, weighing it in her hands.
"A fine thing," she said, turning it to inspect the blade, "quite lethal. Some of my best work, if I may say so myself. Have you thought of a name for it? We can have it stitched on the side like we did with Neon."
Alex glanced to where Tobias was nodding along glassy-eyed as Bonnie rattled on:
"And the interesting thing about the insignia is, the three red tips actually represent the three original tenants of King Sol's manifesto: Kindness, Determination, and Growth. And the yellow—"
Alex looked back at Neo. "I named it Toby."
"Toby it is. And the colour?"
"Gold wrapping, blue thread." He indicated where he wanted it stitched.
"It'll be ready in a few minutes," she said, and returned to the other room.
"Toby, huh?" I said.
Alex looked a little bashful. "Yeah, I mean I think it fits. The last one I named after the Pokémon who made it, this one I've named after the Pokémon who made me."
…
It was a long trek up to the Halo Mountains. Four an army of two-thousand Pokémon, it was set to be a four-day journey at best. The Queen's guards, Vex's guards, the Enderpyres, the Victory Hunters, the Grande Mage. And us, tagging along yet again. The Forest Fires remained behind to help protect the city. They wanted people to see Rubies on their side.
Sunlight bounced off the purple stone faces of the Mountains, and from a difference the mix of colours from its trees and its rivers and its flowing lava fell away, leaving only a deep heather tint. Westernmost is Mount. Chronicle, the dragon Dungeon. Its grassy neighbour, Mount. Spring, was flush with colourful plantlife. The marshy Mount. Mire extended its flat peaks to connect with it and its friend to the east, Mount. Magma, the easternmost point.
Following on were the windy peaks of Mount. Cyclone, taller than the rest, but thinner. Beside it, the disorienting rounded crests of Mount. Resolution (you'd need to be psychic to navigate your way around that place). Finally, smallest of them all, sat the flat-stoned layered peaks of Mount. Herald. There were very few wild Pokémon on that mountain. To be honest, even I wasn't entirely sure what type it was meant to be.
To the east, tucked into a comfortable valley in the Mountain Range Region, stood the New Paige Dojo, the sister location of the Atlanta Academy. I'd been there only once, six months ago, to discuss the construction with Lady Dora Rosi (Bewear, liege of the region), select my new staff, and oversee the beginning of construction. I'd been to Majime Village many times before, of course.
She would've loved it.
…
"Absolutely fucking not."
Octavia walked half a pace ahead of me. She was the Queen, so she needed to be at the head of the party at all times. Her personal guardsmon walked in step just behind her. I marched in tandem with her two Charizard and Scizor.
"Whatever threat the Varias pose, it's nothing compared to what's behind us," I looked over my shoulder. Black smoke from the moor region.
"What exactly makes you think they aren't a part of it?"
"Why would they be involved with the Archon of Tenrai?" I asked.
"The enemy of my enemy is a friend."
"Then why didn't we see or hear from Fitzroy during the last war? If he had all the Tenraian forces at his command?"
"He would never have gotten them across the sea while our allies controlled the shores. But clearly, Dreigo and Fitzroy are in agreement about one thing: Destruction is only solution to our problems."
I had my suspicions that Octavia was starting to tangle the Varias up in Topaz's death, despite being allies at the time. I nodded to the sheet of white spreading in the north-east.
"And what do you suppose that is?"
"The ice?" said the Queen. "We believe it's due to a renegade group called "Team Arctic". They're a pretty small threat, but they've proved impossible to take out root-and-stem. This new development worries me. It started a day after the southern skies turned, when the smoke started appearing. What do you think?"
"Hm?"
"What do you make of it all?"
I was surprised she was asking for my opinion. In all honesty, a little flattered.
"The timing can't be a coincidence," I conceded, "and it has spread us pretty thin."
" Does that not confirm my suspicions about the Varias and Fitzroy being allies?"
"Well for one thing, the Varias are moving away from Fitzroy, and away form whoever's coming to meet us from the north."
"Meanwhile we're walking right into the path of both of them."
"You think they're luring us?"
"They are. And it's working. Because we cannot allow our allies to converge."
"Instead we're letting them surround us on all sides."
"Three sides, not all sides."
"Oh. Well. Why didn't you say?"
Octavia gave a barking laugh and flashed a confident smile.
"Have a bit of faith, Professor. This isn't my first time."
"Nor mine, as it happens. But I drag myself, my students, and potentially my oldest living friends into a warzone, do you mind telling me what your plan is?"
"Come on, you really can't work it out? I thought you were a professor. What was your degree in?"
"Treasure Hunting."
"That's not a degree."
"And yet I'm a professor in it. Your plan?"
Her smile widened. I didn't like it.
"What did Asa say was waiting for us at the Halo Mountains?"
The Unown.
"And what did our good friend Tobias say was the key to awakening a Legendary Pokémon?"
For a moment I was speechless.
"You're… You're not…"
"Fight fire with fire. Fight dragon with dragon."
The Halo Mountains loomed sharp and angry above us.
"Fight God with God."
…
Most Pokémon from the Mountains know the legend of the Lake Guardians. Three lakes somewhere in the World, no one knows precisely where, although many like to believe the stories speak of the three great pools of Mount. Mire. It would be a curious place for them to reside, considering the physic-type Mount. Resolution is right next door. But many Mountain Pokémon many worship one or all of the three Gods of the the Psyche:
Mesprit, who gave humans and Pokémon the gift of emotion, of wants and fears, hopes and dreams. Azelf, who gave us the will to act on these feelings. And finally Uxie, who gave us the knowledge and wisdom to make those ideas a reality.
No one had told me, but I knew that's who they were hoping to awaken. The journey to the first lake was a sheer drop, an impossible climb for an army of any size. We would have to travel there via Mount. Spring. How Asa intended to summon these Gods, I had no idea. How Octavia intended to ally herself with them was a greater mystery still.
Octavia said a funny thing to me as we walked. She said this had been an idea long in the back of her mind, inspired not by Fitzroy, but by Alex.
…
Fields of flowers spiralled up the mountain's face. Red, pink, orange, yellow, white to the top. A winding path was lined by (of all things) fitzroya trees, tall white barren trunks topped with spires of dark-green leaves shaped like spears. Their lining was oddly symmetrical, and beside us beams of sunlight shone through, leaving golden patterns across the red poppy petals. Bizarrely symmetrical.
But up close I could see why. The trees grew between evenly-spaced rocks, while the flowers grew on the soil adjacent to the path all the way to the top, where fitzroya trees reached for the sun atop five symmetrical flat pillars, lined up around a taller sixth peak.
"Oh boy," said Alex, "another magical grass-type Dungeon. Can't wait."
We couldn't stay at the mountain's base. We'd be sitting Psyduck for the Varias (possibly) gathering up above. For several hours our procession was in full view from Mount. Chronicle's east. Thankfully,the temple the Varias had traditionally called home faced west. Still, even I couldn't take my eyes off it throughout the first stretch of our journey. Then again, that might be for a long of reasons.
A curving peak, six jags angling downward and to the east. A dozen metres below was a yawning cave with jagged, stalactite-like walls. (Stalactite-like, try saying that five-times fast.) On the west side, I knew, was a sheer flat cliff, and it was here the Temple of Nature was built. Surrounded by black hawthorns and a thin river. A small plateau of bright green grass. Tranquil.
The sun began to set. Grey clouds were thick and heavy in the sky. The bulk of Mount. Spring was between us and Mount. Chronicle. It was time to charge up. A blessed relief for some, a tortuous wait for others. I think for most of us it was a bit of both. We fanned out to lay claim to the area, driving away a few wild Pokémon in the process. I watched as soldiers dug plants out of the ground, levelled the earth to make way for accommodation, to keep them comfortable for a day, maybe less. We would leave a mark here that would take years to heal over. I made the diplomatic error of saying this out loud. A Charmeleon soldier turned to me with hard blue eyes.
"A hell of a lot quicker than the mark he's leaving," he nodded his head to the black smoke creeping closer by the hour. Point taken.
The Victory Hunters were setting up their orange-and-yellow pavilion. I was being useless with my two sharp claws, and eventually settled for holding them up over my head to make it look like I was helping as the support beams wobbled over our heads. Alex and Tobias were hammering nails into the ground when Maroon the Flareon came bounding over to us.
"Message from the Queen," she panted. Apparently this was urgent news, it took some real running to get a messenger Pokémon out of breath. "Pokémon from the mountains. Here to see you. Asked for you three especially."
"Us specifically?" I asked.
"How many of them?" asked Tobias.
"What species?" asked Alex.
"Didn't see 'em," said the Flame Pokémon, "you'll just have to come with."
So we followed her through the blue, orange, and pale-yellow tents, through the grunts of the soldier Pokémon, through the dug-up greens and wild Pokémon tracks, to the field of yellow flowers, where four Pokémon stood waiting for us.
A Feraligatr. Hard of face, and one I didn't recognise. A Drapion, a stranger too, but one that looked back at me as if she knew me. And beside them, two Pokémon I very much did recognise; a Blaziken and an Empoleon.