The concern in Karan's heart manifested as an ugly grimace and narrowed eyes. The curl in her lip worsened as she watched pokemon trickle out of Crag's gates. She was just within the walls, accompanied by Thea and Sava. The sun had not yet dipped below the horizon, but the tall walls of Crag had already cast much of the interior of the dead city in partial darkness.

"Panic was because of wildlings?" asked Karan. She beckoned them to keep up with her, weaving past terrified quarry workers.

Sava shook her head. "Supposedly, but wildlings aren't skilled. These were." She gestured at a bandage around her forearm. "A salandit's handiwork. Lucky hit from a fireball I didn't know it could produce."

Thea scratched her head. "And they aren't raiders?"

The mienshao nodded. "I've heard rumblings that wildlings are more capable than we give them credit for. But only in specific locations. Very specific locations." The corners of her mouth twitched with worry.

"What, you mean those weird ass caves and shit? Crag's a city," said Thea, pointing at the significantly smaller pile of rubble the city had turned into over years of scavenging. Even her high walls had been slowly reduced in size as their stone was cut loose and traded away for goods.

The backbone of Stalwart's economy was still in the trade of the semi-magical stone of her mother's walls. It was the only reason that town was able to get a jumpstart from settlement to town proper after it had survived its first year.

Karan shook her head. "Can't be wildlings." They rounded a corner in the path between two enormous piles of rubble and found the backs of three soldiers locked in combat with several pokemon.

A cinderace struck a dive-bombing pidgeot with a spinning kick, an arc of fire in the wake of his foot. The flaming bird went flying into a small pile of stone, wings flapping uselessly in an attempt to catch itself before slamming into the pile with a soft crunch. The pidgeot did not continue to stir.

A pile of rubble beside the cinderace erupted, spewing forward a tangrowth and two gastly. Vines wrapped themselves around the rabbit immediately and lifted him high into the air. Karan cut her way through the air at the pokemon, blinking forward multiple times as her gauntlets worked their magic.

The vines cut apart easily, and the cinderace managed to land on their feet. The weavile dove onto the tangrowth and tore into its chest. In two seconds she went from pulling clumps of vines to chunks of organs and root systems. The bellowing pokemon fell backwards, its vines weakly stirring as Karan jumped off it and made for a gastly that had begun spewing poison gas at Sava and Thea.

The mienshao and delphox were distracted with helping the cinderace fight against the arrival of a donphan and mighytena from seemingly nowhere. Four shuppet and two gulpin had joined them.

A gengar erupted from a broken door beside Karan and slammed into her left shoulder, its whole body pulsing with dark energy. A deep, resonating gong-like sound filled the air as her left pauldron absorbed much of the blow. Still, the weavile went flying, but managed to right herself in midair, skidding to a halt on her paws and snarling. She cut through the air again, and brought a platform of pointed ice down onto the gengar's head.

Karan didn't wait for confirmation it was dead and made her way to the gastly again. She ran it through, tore her claws free, spun on the spot and screamed in pain as a splintered wooden support beam struck her in the chest and launched her into a pile of gravel.

She struggled to her feet and stared down her new opponent, a snarling gurdurr. More pokemon were erupting from the rubble, and a sharp pain in her back launched her forward, past the gurdurr and towards her friends. She did not land nearly as gracefully this time. The hard cobblestone ground sent screaming shocks of pain through her limbs. Though they were already healing, the breaks and chips in her claws were blisteringly painful. As she picked herself up, her teeth grit and white-hot anger burning in her throat, she could not help but feel it. Deep within.

She was scared.

Karan looked over her shoulder at her friends and saw them backing up carefully, trying to slow the advance of the pokemon. "There's too many!" shouted Sava, deflecting a strike from the gurdurr and immediately kicking its head into an impossible direction. A shuppet struck her square in the chest with a dive bomb, phasing through her and sending her stumbling back, gagging. Thea pulled her along, trying to help the mienshao regain her footing. Several well aimed balls of fire caught several of the shuppet, burning them to cinders immediately.

She watched the scraps and ash flutter to the ground, and remembered damp walls in the bowels of Lumiose. Karan shoved the memory out of her thoughts. Glimpses of the dead, from both her past life and this new one, were never welcome.

The soldiers were looking haggard. The cinderace sported several cuts, one of which had nearly severed a part of his ear. A black and white linoone darted between the feet of their opponents, tearing at hamstrings with wild abandon. It seemed to be doing well, but several close calls revealed that exhaustion was beginning to set in.

A mudsdale beckoned them all back, shouting over the din, "Stand back!" He brought his massive hooves down, sending shockwaves through the ground. Several of the bizarre wildlings were swallowed outright by the churning stone and dirt when a flash of steel cut across the air. The vibrations began to die, and the twitching, newly headless horse fell over as a bisharp came to a skidding halt a few feet away.

"FUCK, RUN!" shouted the linoone, turning on the spot and sprinting away.

Karan pushed more unwanted memories from her mind. She could see that bisharp standing before, telling her to leave while she still breathed. To turn tail on her dead king and vanish.

There were no kings to turn from here. She blew several icicles into existence and began launching them at their pursuers, beckoning for her friends and soldiers to get a headstart. "GO! I'm faster anyway!" she screamed.

Her aim had only improved in these last five years. Strikes to the head, the chest, several in the stomach. She was slowing them. She turned on the spot and cut forward several times then turned again and launched a new volley. Gods above, she wasn't stopping them. More pokemon had joined the ranks of those in pursuit. She couldn't kill them fast enough.

Fear gripped her heart properly now. They would spill out of Crag and destroy Stalwart at this rate. She turned on the spot and screamed, her throat raw, "CLOSE THE GATES!"

"We're not leaving you behind!" screamed Thea back at her. She gestured for the soldiers and Sava to rush through the open gates of Crag.

"DO IT. WILL MAKE IT."

Thea looked at the levers and finally shouted in frustration and pulled the largest one. She sprinted to the closing doors and made it through with plenty of time to spare.

The ground under Karan's feet became unstable as the earth wrenched apart, churning and spitting debris in every direction. Bits of rock and splintered wood peppered her, tiny pricks of pain erupting where they hit. In the distance, three golem were stomping their feet rhythmically at her. She began cutting through the air wildly now. Her left shoulder slammed into a pile of rubble. She hadn't blinked here.

There wasn't time. She cut desperately through the air again. She was too high, and her ankles screamed in protest as she landed on a splintered door, breaking it apart in the process. The feeling of her body compressing into a tiny space again and again was taking its toll. She couldn't breathe. But the exit was right there, and it was closing fast.

With one final, desperate swipe, she felt her left shoulder pauldron loosen completely and fall from her as she blinked forward, clear of the shutting doors. Much too clear of the shutting doors. She got up on all fours, coughing and sputtering, trying to wipe her streaming eyes as she sucked down mouthfuls of cool evening air.

She'd lost one of Outrider's shinguards.


It was night, and the cool spring breeze had become unpleasantly chilly now. The distant meadows and forests were no longer inviting, but now a looming threat. As much a threat as what lay behind the gates of Crag. At least the full moon gave them all adequate light, though it did cast long and sinister shadows here and there.

The defense forces gathered in a small camp just outside the gates were tense. Stone looked back at them, then to her friends, each illuminated in oranges and yellows by the campfire between them all. "What the fuck happened?"

Karan rubbed her naked shoulder, looking morose. "Crag has become…unusual."

Valor looked up from the bandages he was inspecting on Thea's arms and legs. "Is it like the place that mamoswine that attacked Nomad came from?"

"Possibly. Never learned much." Karan rubbed her naked shoulder more insistently. "Want my pauldron back."

"You'll get it back, we just need to figure out how to deal with this shit," said Stone, looking past the weavile and back at the gates. "Has, uh…has nothing tried to break free?"

Sava shook her head. "Aerial reports give us nothing. They're not organizing or trying to break free, or anything really. They're simply there. Existing. All things considered, this is ideal. It means we're not on a timer to get this resolved, unless the merchants start calling for Karan's head. We can't extract stone from the walls while the city is restricted to us." The mienshao's expression twisted into one of worry. "There is something very strange happening, however…"

"Thanks Valor." Thea nodded at the chesnaught and then looked at Sava. "What is it?"

"The only slice of Crag that remains," began Sava. The others around the fire nodded. "It's moving around. But only when the scouts aren't around to see it."

"What? The fuck does that mean?" asked Stone.

The weasel shrugged. "It was always in the northern part of the city. Two hours ago it was spotted in the southeast. An hour ago, it was spotted in the west. I expect when another report comes in it will have moved once again." She shook her head. "The question is, why?"

Karan shrugged. "At a loss. Any idea where we can get more information?"

"Treasure Town, maybe?" suggested Stone. "They've got everything in that place. I bet they'll have help we can tap too."

"Hm. Need payment."

"That's easy enough," said Stone, smirking. She pulled a bulging bag from her side and held it up. "Valor's got one too. Found the second best thing to coin in that quarry." She dumped some of the contents of the bag into her enormous paw – gemstones of all colors glittered in the firelight.

"Hm. Alright. Tomorrow, then." Karan stood and stretched, then looked at Sava. "Stalwart is yours while I'm gone."

The mienshao gave a start. "You're going?"

"I'm the Empress," said Karan, frowning. "No time for messengers; need to act now. So, we go."

"We could go," said Valor, standing up. "You don't have to."

Karan smirked. "Expected you to come regardless."

"Oh. Well…yeah, we're going with you. Right Thea?" Valor looked over at the delphox.

She frowned. "I mean, yeah? I guess so. Can't let you wander around alone."

"You're not leaving me behind," said Stone, positively beaming. "Alright? I'm going too."

"As if I could stop you," said Karan, sparing her a smirk and a glance. "Will need to bring Candrila. Good for her to see some of the world."

"That sounds dangerous," said Thea, her ears flattening. "You sure?"

"Can keep her safe." Karan's right paw flexed. "More than safe." Thea grimaced and nodded.

Sava looked around at them all and then shook her head, but smiled. "It might as well be all of you. You're fortunate you've been busy these last five years, Karan." The weavile smirked at her. "I'm glad I didn't have to kill you."

Karan smiled. "Likewise."


The buzz in the air all around Karan washed away the fatigue from the battle. Word of what happened in Crag had spread rapidly beyond the bar – how could it not have? The merchants present in particular were wondering what this would spell for their trade.

They'd cut enough free and stockpiled it in a series of warehouses on the edge of Stalwart, but conservative estimates put the life of their supply at roughly one year. The more hopeful believed it could be stretched for up to two.

Karan never put stock in hopeful estimates.

Her thoughts drifted to Candrila. She'd spent most of the day with Balsam and Syas, so the news of their imminent departure would likely come as a shock. She wondered if it had been wise to keep her away from this, or if perhaps she should have been present. Heard what was discussed. It'd be her at the helm of the town one day, after all.

Right? She bit a claw and furrowed her brow. There was always Valor. He could lead Stalwart as well. Probably better than she even had. Stone's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"You guys excited?" asked the lycanroc, her eyes glowing a soft pink in the night. She looked around at Karan, Valor and Thea.

"Not especially. Lots of diplomacy in my future." Karan's lip curled. "Hate it. But Stalwart needs help." She crossed her arms as she walked and cocked her head.

"That's the spirit, Karan," said Valor, suppressing a yawn.

"Ever thought you'd play the role of diplomat to another settlement?" asked Thea.

Karan grimaced. "Nightmares sometimes." She rubbed her naked shoulder again. The absence of Outrider's pauldron made her feel hopelessly exposed. She still had his brother, but that was small comfort. They were all that remained of him. Well, almost. Candrila's eyes drifted across her thoughts. Thank the gods she inherited her father's soft eyes.

"Come on, Karan, it's not all gonna be gloomy bullshit listening to some fucker talk about pointless stuff. Finally gonna see some place that ain't our sleepy fuckin' town! Back on the road at last!"

Karan nodded, the ghost of a smirk on her lips. "Knew you'd be excited."

"Why aren't you?" asked Stone playfully, pushing her friend's shoulder.

"It's work first."

The lycanroc frowned and shook her head. "Yeah, I guess…" They had arrived at their home. It was the most embellished one in the Governors' Quarter, featuring a pointed roof, large windows and an elegantly shaped wood front door bearing a carving of a lily. Karan threw the door open and allowed the others in first, revealing a cheerful fire and Candrila's body slumped back in an overly large cushion.

Her gentle snores stopped as the door snapped shut and the sneasel jerked awake. "Hey, you're not- Oh!" She struggled out of the cushion she'd sunken into and ran up to give Stone a hug and offered Valor and Thea cheerful waves each, then pulled her mother into a tighter one after. Karan kissed the jewel on her forehead. By all accounts, she'd failed to keep watch of the home alone – then again, she shouldn't have been home alone to begin with.

But now was not the time for that. More pressing things were at hand. "Back to sleep, Candrila. Going to Treasure Town tomorrow."

The sneasel looked up at her mother, eyes wide with wonder. "Whoa, really? Why? With who?"

"Who else? Us!" said Stone cheerfully, gesturing to them all.

Candrila nodded. "Okay! But why?"

"Need help," said Karan simply. "Something strange has happened. Will explain more on the way."


They hadn't traveled in some time, but all of them still had some measure of experience in it. Granted, Karan's had come from before she'd died, and Stone's had come from her old wanderings with Magnus, but Valor frequently had to scout areas around Stalwart and that was close enough.

Same went for Thea. The delphox trudged along the chesnaught, tugging the odd branch from her dress of fur now and again. The feeling of being lost and disconnected had abated, but was very quickly filling instead with a sense of annoyance. This wasn't very fun. Her sleeve caught on a long branch growing from a berry bush, earning the bush a furious snap from her jaws and a plume of fire that collapsed half of the plant into ash.

Valor looked over at the display and laughed. "Don't set the forest on fire, Thea."

"Shit keeps snagging on me."

"Language," said Karan, glancing over her shoulder.

"Don't you take things apart with those?" asked the delphox, pointing at Karan's claws.

The weavile rolled her eyes. "Foul mouths aren't necessary to stop hearts."

"Oh come on, Karan, you don't tell me off for swearin' around Candrila," said Stone, smirking at her.

Karan looked over at Stone with a half-irritated, half-amused expression. "Tell you all the time. You ignore it."

The lycanroc's smile vanished. "O-oh. Sorry. I'll, uh… aw, who am I kiddin', I'm not gonna change at this point."

"It's okay Auntie Stone! Mom said I just have to avoid a few of them!" said Candrila.

Thea couldn't keep herself from laughing. "She said what?"

Candrila nodded with obvious enthusiasm. "Yeah! Like uh-" Karan cleared her throat pointedly. "Oh. Um, nevermind."

The trail up the hill they'd been ascending finally leveled out, earning them all a welcome respite from the last twenty minutes of ascending a series of switchbacks. Valor immediately shouted, "We're almost there!"

"Only took a week and a half…" grumbled Thea, climbing up onto his back to stand on his shoulders and get a better view. Her jaw dropped.

Over the tops of the trees lay Treasure Town. Why it still was still called "town" eluded her. It was a proper city – a port city at that. Unusual stone pillars protruded from multiple points in the city, each of them flat on top. A river cut through the center of the city itself, eventually crashing over the edge of the mesa the city sat upon. Thea traced the source of the river to a bay dotted with ships. Several more were sailing towards and away from the city itself.

The sun glittered upon the surface of the calm waters. A lighthouse rose from an island some distance away from the shoreline.

"It's huge," she whispered. "Imagine how big it'll be when we get there." She gave a start and added, "There's no walls."

"Well look at it, one side is sheer cliff faces and another side is a sharp drop," said Stone, standing on the tips of her toes to try and get a look. "Why would it have walls?" She groaned a second later. "We're gonna have to find a way to get up there."

Karan pointed east. "Gentler elevation there. Will have to walk up the slope, double back, and walk onto the plateau."


"Well, you're on the right side of the river at least. If you follow this road down until you come up to a huge red inn and turn right at the intersection, you'll find the guild hall. It's huge, faces the ocean. Big stained glass window on the front."

That was it. That's all the guard had told them. No demands to know where they were from. A vague inspection of the few packs they had on them. A simple nod. They were on their way. Either their security was awful or the location was as useful as Stone suggested.

No one gave them more than a single glance as they'd passed between a set of watchtowers. The citizens that went about their business just within the walls appeared to be merchants preparing in last minute preparations before heading out.

They passed wagons laden with goods, pokemon haggling over one last purchase for the road, and even a few familiar faces that Karan recognized as being particularly bothersome merchants that had complained to her face in her office on several occasions.

The clean and neat homes that lined the cobblestone street looked portrait-worthy beneath the clear and brilliantly blue sky. Squat little structures, tall and thin buildings that looked to be aeries, and everything in between.

And then, bit by bit, the homes became older. The cobble grew cracked, began to go missing in places, and soon they were walking along a street that was as much dirt as it was worn down stone.

Tired eyes, shifty eyes, hard and judging eyes - they all stared back at Karan. It was like she was on the ground floors of Crag once again. Or in the dirty alleys winding through the quartier rouge of Lumiose. She kept her grimace to herself. Whatever gap it was she'd crossed when she died had changed nothing in the grand scheme of things.

She picked up Candrila without a second thought and had her ride on her shoulders, even when the street filled up with stones once again and the homes became decidedly nicer. "It's weird being in a place this big and seeing it not be vertical," said Thea. Karan looked back at the delphox. She was trailing a few steps back along with Valor.

"Stalwart might end up like this one day," said Valor, shrugging. "Hopefully with a smaller poor district."

It was the delphox's turn to shrug. "It is what it is, I guess. Knowing everyone can see the sky is a nice thought, at least."

The walk to the inn they had to turn at had taken ages, but now that they'd made their turn, the beating heart of Treasure Town revealed itself to them. The port was right there on their left. The docks and the various sloping ramps leading down to all manner of businesses. Open air processing stalls for fish, naval equipment, provisions, containers, lashing, netting, sails… It went on and on, and the din that came from the bustling port filled their ears as quick as the smell of old fish.

Karan wrinkled her nose. She preferred red meat. Candrila, however, fidgeted on her shoulders and said longingly, "What smells so good?" Her fidgeting didn't help – Karan was already being jostled enough by the stream of pokemon filtering up and down this street.

"Good?" said Thea, waving a paw in front of her nose. "Gods above Candrila, wouldn't you rather have roast pidgey?"

"More important things to do for now, Candrila. Can come back after," said Karan, continuing forward through the crowd. She'd tried to be polite – this wasn't her town and she was its guest. But if this is how the citizens here did things, so be it. She'd be a wall brimming with knives if she needed to. "Keep up!" she shouted over her shoulder at her friends.

It was twenty minutes of fighting a chaotic stream of pokemon before Karan finally found it. On her right, towering over the buildings on either side was a weatherbeaten but otherwise very sturdy looking structure. The oak double doors were much taller and wider, signs that much larger pokemon had to pass through. Sitting fifteen feet above the doors was a huge, circular stained glass window bearing the rough design of a compass.

Karan ascended the steps and pushed the door open, then turned to look back at her friends and beckoned them to follow.

The interior of the building was brightly lit. Ample light poured in from the multitude of windows lining the walls and flying just beneath the ceiling, and the central stained glass window cast the same compass design in sharper relief upon the expertly carved stone flooring. It had been inlaid with wood in a complex triangular pattern, giving the floor the appearance of something akin to twinkling stars.

Several pokemon bustled about, carrying papers, sacks, and baskets, each with a destination painted clear on their faces. A bidoof pressed himself up against a large crate marked with a crude drawing of oran and sitrus berries, shoving it bit by bit towards the rear of the hall. A noibat flapped above him, shouting in a tinny voice for help. Two poliwhirl stopped long enough to say something to them before one of them collapsed their hands together and then went behind a bookcase and disappeared from sight.

A large, semi-circular desk sat two dozen feet away from the entrance, bearing a single cheery looking sunflora. They were in the middle of a conversation with a sableye. Nearby, a wobbuffet stood ramrod still, looking incredibly bored. The flower looked towards the group and flashed them a smile that begged their patience before looking back at the ghost.

Karan drew just within earshot, though it was more to know when she could step forward than eavesdrop. She looked the sableye up and down, then froze. One of his ruby eyes was cracked. He looked in her direction for a moment and raised a hand to beg her patience, same as the sunflora had, but he had no sooner looked back to the flower when he snapped his focus on her again.

"That armband," whispered the sableye.

Karan rubbed her naked shoulder automatically. She'd wrapped her old bandana around it in an effort to help alleviate the feeling. It hadn't worked.

"R-Ran? That was it, right? Is that-" The sableye hurried over to her.

The nearby wobbuffet nearly tipped over as he rotated in place to look over at the weavile. "Dad, did you say-"

"It's been a long time, Jasper," said Karan, smiling.


They didn't have a lot of time to catch up then and there, especially since the sunflora was waiting on Jasper and Karan had a problem that needed solving. Instead, he'd given them instructions on how to find his shop and his home and made them swear he'd see them there for dinner.

How could they have said no? Karan tickled Candrila's stomach and smiled when the sneasel batted her paw away and nearly stumbled back with laughter. She was too ticklish.

She'd done the best she could to explain the situation in Crag. They had a few written reports, Thea's corroboration of the events that had occurred, and only had to surrender a single rough sapphire to process everything. What exactly this guild did, however, was beyond Karan.

All she knew was the sunflora had assured her this was the correct place to have come. Good enough for her. There'd be hell to pay if she was being duped, but the flower seemed too genuine to be duplicitous. Lizzie walked, unhurried, back towards them all, descending a staircase from a balcony that stretched down to the end of the building. "Great news!" she said as she drew closer. "The guildmaster has accepted your request for aid!" She climbed onto the stool at her counter and set a sheet of parchment down on it for Karan to pick up.

The weavile took it, relief fluttering to life in her heart. That was easy. "Good to hear, so-" She froze as she read over the document. "What do you mean by 'queue', exactly?" Horrible memories of Crag's bureaucracy sparked in her mind.

"Well, there's always pokemon in need of help with mystery dungeons and the threats they pose! So we have a queue set up that attends to them on a first come, first serve basis. Er, sort of… sometimes emergencies come up and we have to take those first, but we try to be fair! Everyone's working as much as they can to get through the requests as quickly as they can, but they're just normal pokemon at the end of the day. They can only go so fast."

She was horribly cheerful for someone delivering just about the worst news Karan could have received. The weavile would have preferred her to simply say it was impossible to help. It might as well have been, after all.

"But that doesn't give us a time frame at all!" said Thea, firing up. "We've got maybe two years if we're really lucky, but given how much the merchants love the stone from Crag's walls, we'll be out of our only major trade good in a year! What do we do about the shit we have to trade for then?"

Karan caught sight of the bidoof from earlier, the noibat now perched on his head holding a hollowed out berry filled with juice stopped a few feet from the party and stared at them. To her right, Candrila offered them a wave, which the noibat returned, sloshing juice onto the bidoof's head in the process.

She'd have laughed if the news weren't so abysmal. "Show me the guildmaster," said Karan, raising a paw to silence Thea.

"The guildmaster isn't taking any visitors right now," said the sunflora, frowning. "I can book an appointment with him if you like-"

"Is the wait time measured in hours, weeks or decades?" said Karan, now looking the flower in the eyes and fighting to keep out the edge in her voice. She didn't do a good enough job of it.

The sunflora's cheery disposition became sympathetic. "I know it's probably really important but…" The petals around her face laid flat against it as she bowed her head. "Alright, let's see if we can't get him to just make an exception!" She raised her head, radiant once more and marched towards the stairs.

She led Karan up the stairs, all the way to the rear of the building and to a set of double doors.

"Try to be quick. Overseer really is very busy. He's probably talking to Traveler," she said in a stage whisper. She was almost glowing; perhaps she made "exceptions" often.

Karan almost smiled. "Thank you. Apologize for being curt. This is serious."

"We take everything seriously!" said the sunflora, nodding vigorously. She departed for her desk.

The weavile went to push the door open, but no sooner had she reached out for it that it burst open on its own. A wigglytuff bustled out, stopping just long enough to spare Karan a look of apology and shout, "Back later, Overseer! I gotta get outta here and see the sun."

Karan shook her head at the pokemon as he disappeared and then stepped into the office, revealing a cramped room lined with bookcases. A huge window sat behind a large desk sporting a large, empty cushioned chair. A chatot sat on a perch beside it and offered Karan a single glance of disdain. Overseer clicked his beak once, clearly irritated and said, "Lizzie lets everyone in… what's the problem?"

"My request," said Karan. She had to reign the irritation in. Scrub it from her voice. Even five years on from that miserable night in Outrider's old office it was difficult. "Wait time is unacceptable."

"That's what they all say, perhaps if we weren't taking such big bites of the berry every chance we got…" grumbled the chatot, waving the weavile away with a careless flick of his wing. "We're moving through the queue as fast as-"

"Misunderstand," said Karan, speaking over him. "I am the head of Stalwart."

The chatot shook his head. "And that means?"

"Value trade?"

"Does this look like a trade house to you?" said Overseer, covering his face with a wing. "This is an exploration and rescue guild, a sister to the Expedition Society! If you needed someone to speak about trade-"

"Never heard of you.'' This was not entirely true. There were vague mentions stuck in the middle of documents she signed now and again. They'd never shown themselves in Stalwart. She couldn't remember seeing any office of theirs in Crag. She suppressed a scowl.

The chatot looked like he'd been slapped. "Then what are you doing in my off-"

He was cut off when Karan stomped forward and leapt onto the desk. She drew her face within inches of his and stared him in the eyes. "You value action and quiet. Can tell."

"Is this how you ask everyone for help?" whispered Overseer, his eyes narrowing.

Karan ignored him. "How do we get help faster?"

The chatot's heaved a sigh and grumbled something under his breath. "If you're going to be this belligerent: you help us first and we can discuss-

Karan held her paw out. "Deal." She turned on the spot and hopped down from the desk and made her way towards the door.

As she crossed the threshold, Valor caught up behind her and asked, "Not gonna ask for any details? Just… tossing us all into it blind?"

The weavile shrugged. "I know his type. Would be there all day arguing. Not worth it; better to cut to the chase."

"If you say so."


Stone helped herself to another cut of steak from the platter in the center of the heavily laden table. Jasper had no idea what it had come from, only that the butcher insisted it was fresh and delicious. They hadn't lied. "I didn't know you knew how to cook, Jasper!" she said as she reached for her cup and took a drink of berry juice. "Then again, I didn't really know much of anything about ya."

The sableye waved the compliment away and tossed a piece of quartz into his mouth. "You get bored of eating rocks," he said after crunching his way through the crystal. "Sometimes you just want a nice tart or something fire-roasted." He cut into a grilled leek and scooped some into his mouth along with a piece of potato. "But you can't really stop eating them, so you just spruce up your meal with treats."

Topaz put his bowl down and smiled at his father. "Dad cheats by using salt a lot." The wobbuffet gave the sableye an awkward pat on the back. Jasper laughed.

The room they were all sitting in was cozy. It combined the kitchen, dining room and sitting room, but that hardly mattered. The plush cushions that surrounded the low table between them all were pleasantly fluffy. The equally plush carpet that covered the wooden floors was a repeating pattern of white and lemon streaks - wooloo and mareep wool.

The kitchen utensils, fixtures, furniture and the single towering bookcase bearing interesting rocks, geodes, gems and even a few actual books betrayed the profession of the home's owner: merchandise had been kind to Jasper. Stone looked over at Karan, who appeared to be reluctantly taking a bite of Candrila's fish filet. The weavile stared down at the filet for a moment, still chewing, then swallowed and shook her head. "More for you," she said simply, before returning to her very rare steak.

The atmosphere was comfortable, though Stone was still worried about what exactly Karan had signed them up for. All she had was a simple scroll that gave a time and a place in the west of Treasure Town. Jasper knew the location – it was a coffee and tea shop. Why that location, however, he had no idea.

"You think we're gonna have to do something stupidly difficult for that asshole parrot?" asked Stone, looking across the table at Karan. "What does the wigglytuff even do there?"

The weavile simply shrugged. "Don't know. No sense worrying." A shadow crossed her face. "But if it's a setup he'll pay."

"Well don't ruin our chances at getting help. Even if he is an ass, we need diplomacy," said Valor, frowning. "If he is setting us up, we'll still need help."

"Can find it elsewhere," said Karan simply, before taking another bite of meat. "Hate being duped."

"I don't like it either, but if we have to find help elsewhere, where would we even go?" asked Valor. He took a drink from his juice and then took another bite of his potato.

"Mist, maybe?" offered Topaz. "I think a merchant stopped in one day and said he had a delivery to make to the guild there. Bought something for cold and wet weather."

Thea's lip curled and she shook her head. "Awful," she mumbled before taking a sip of tea. "Why would you live there?"

A loud knock filtered up from downstairs. Jasper stood immediately. "Didn't expect anyone to call at this hour," he said more to himself than anyone else present. "Who could it be now?" The sableye gestured for them all to continue and disappeared down the stairs in the corner of the room. The sounds of tableware, chewing and drinking filled the dead air for a minute at most, and then Jasper's voice filtered up from the stairs, his tone jovial.

"...expect you to be here this late! What even happened?" he said, ascending the stairs once again.

A runerigus was following him – though instead of the usual draconic face painted on the "head" of the ghost's stone fragments, there was a bizarre geometric shape that resembled a squared eye. Stone's own eyes went wide and she fought to swallow her food.

The strange eye glowed a soft pink even in the bright lights the many candles and torches set in the walls around them produced. "Hello," said several voices at once, each of them seemingly issuing from his many stone parts, all in different pitches and distances from them. "Sorry for the intrusion, the ship I took here was knocked off course and then we were stuck at the port authority-"

"Magnus!" shouted the lycanroc, getting up and rushing over to him. "What the fuck, I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" She couldn't quite hug him, but she tried her best anyway.

"Who are-" began the runerigus, but he caught himself. "Stone! Stone, that is you!"

Jasper looked dumbfounded. "You know the Runewright?"

"I traveled with him! For a while, too! Ain't that right, buddy?" said the lycanroc, grinning up at his eye.

"That's right. She was… sort of a student, you could say. A terrible one. Never paid attention because she was more interested in this." He gestured with a thin, shadowy tendril at the food on the table. "The food and whoever's sitting around it. Speaking of, is it the chesnaught?"

"What? No, that's Valor! Gods above Magnus, why would-"

"The delphox?"

"Magnus, it's not like that-"

"So you picked the weavile?"

"Karan's my best friend!" The weavile offered her a fond smile.

"Well, how am I supposed to know any of that? I just got here." His eye peered at her, magically changing in shape to appear as if he were squinting. "Oh gods, you've got a sword? Why? You don't have hands." He glanced down at her enormous paws. "Proper hands, I mean. Those are for humans, not rockdogs."

Stone looked away. "Speaking of, can we speak in private?" She looked at Karan. "Like, the three of us?"

The weavile took a sip of her water and stared at Stone. "Is it necessary?"

Stone hung her head and sighed. "No, Jasper and Topaz are alright. Okay, okay, fine." She looked up at the runerigus. "I was a human."

Magnus' eye transformed into one that betrayed unbridled glee. "Me too!"

Stone's head snapped immediately to Karan, who stared back at her, eyes wide and lost for words.

"Didn't you travel with him?" asked Jasper, looking confused. "Most people that deal with him for long enough know that."

"What?" shouted Stone, whipping her attention back to Magnus. "You never told me!"

"I was keeping a secret then. I don't bother with it now. The Bittercold Crisis was so long ago most of the pokemon alive for it are dead now. And the longer lived ones have lives to get on with. Most places have forgotten about it if there isn't a library close by. Humans are just part of some semi-true myth now. Lots of pokemon don't even know what was causing the golden motes during the Dark Matter Crisis that started after."

"What?" asked Stone, cocking her head. "The hell is that?"

"A lot of humans died," explained Magnus, his voice jumping from one of his stones to another, each of them sounding equally grave. "But unless you live in a city, it's basically mythical now. Happened decades and decades ago, maybe more than a century. That's an eternity without history books."

Jasper nodded along with Magnus' explanation. "I read about the issue maybe once over ten years ago. It's fascinating, but it doesn't help with my trade."

"The innovations humans could offer probably matter much more," said Magnus, turning his attention to the sableye. "Speaking of, how's that village you decided to stay in, Stone? I'd been considering stopping by some time to see if there was anything I could help with to make life easier there."

"Do you do that everywhere you go?" asked Stone, her eyes wide with worry.

The many stones of Magnus' body began to laugh, slightly out of time and with slightly different cadences. "Why wouldn't I? Don't you?"