.
.
.
Epilogue:
Where This Tale Comes To An End and Others Begin
The Restoration of the Logarian Empire
.
We do not know where and how the Emperor buried his father. So we say of Robert Tercano that he has gone on a journey into that land where we walk without footprints.
-the Rorian Whip
.
ANALYSIS OF HISTORY, BY JIBB OF UNOVA
[DOCUMENT RESTRICTED TO PRIESTHOOD EYES ONLY]
.
Bronze Tercano's Imperial reign generated more historians than any other era in human history. Most of them argued a particular viewpoint, jealous and sectarian, but it says something about the peculiar impact of this man that he aroused such passions on so many diverse places. Of course, he contained the ingredients of history, ideal and idealized.
This man, born Bronze Tercano in an ancient Great Family, received deep physical and mental training from the Lady Lily, his part-Hisuian mother, Robert Tercano, his Logarian father; and had through this a superb control over muscles and nerves. Above all else, Tercano was the direct descendent to Tar-Silmathrim which the Aredian prophecies had predicted for over a thousand years. This prophet, this man who hoped to control human destiny: this man became Emperor Tar-Tercano and executed a marriage with a daughter of the patriarch of House Berlitz. Think on the paradox, the failure implicit in this moment, for you surely have read other histories and know the surface facts.
Tercano's wild Aredians did, indeed, overwhelm the Eclipse Alliance. They toppled the Djinn's legions, the allied forces of the Association, the Corporate Alliance armies and the mercenaries bought with money voted in by the Devon Corporation. He brought the Techno Guild to its knees and placed his own mother on the religious throne the complacent priesthood had thought their own.
He did all these things and more.
Tercano's arrival is called "religiously timely" by Koneywell, but timing had little to do with it. As the Emperor himself said: "I am here; so..."
Over two decades into Tercano's reign, his Avestan missionaries carried their religious war across the world in a Jihad whose major impetus endured only twelve standard years, but in that time, religious colonialism brought all but a fraction of the human universe under one rule. Twelve long years of violence. It was a time of gods whose powers were real. The measure of them is seen in the fact they never boasted how they grasped the firebrand. Those born during that time were a generation beget in chaos. The god of machine-logic was overthrown among the masses and a new concept was raised:
"Man may not be replaced."
Those twelve years of violence were a thalamic pause for all humankind. The Logarian Empire had just trounced the established balance of power and became dominant. Rorian commandos occupied territories from the Alolan Islands, scarcely fifty miles north of the Rorian heartland, to forgotten islands northern of the farthest reaches of Kalos. We know this moment of supreme power will contain failure for Tercano. No man can remain dominant forever. Hopefully future historians will find some lesson in this.
...
Jibb of Unova: A distant cousin of the Berlitz line, he was executed for heresy in 2091.
.
.
.
OFFICIAL ACCOUNT:
.
Following the Battle of Discordia, the Rorian War was essentially over. Though there were still some minor skirmishes with the remnants of the Eclipse army, no serious challenge remained to the central authority. Emperor Tar-Tercano and Empress Moon Tercano emerged victorious, although greatly weakened in both authority and military power.
For the Eclipse sympathizers, a sizable number were still loyal to the cause of the fallen Cypress and Emrett and would not accept the rule of the central government, Association or Logarian. A great force of them rallied in Western Roria. Yet instead of fighting a pitched battle they disbanded and departed en masse for wild lands, seeing "the justice that was denied to them by Anthein and Roria." Sporadic reports of banditry and criminal behavior trickled into Roria over the following months, but these rumors soon diminished to nothing and it was assumed that they had been either killed or made unable to resist during the course of their exile.
Beyond the human cost of the Rorian War, the office of the Association Chairmans suffered significantly. Rebellion and disloyalty before the ascendency of Bronze Tercano was never a question. But in the aftermath of the War, the Emperor assumed his position. He began a strong diplomatic and military campaign to re-establish control in Roria as well as oppose the enemies in the North. On the domestic front, he offered clemency to those rebel governors and territories that had declared for themselves or each other. Most of the governors and territories that had supported the rebellions repented of their opposition and were (for the most part) forgiven. Several governors were sacked and forcibly retired but others were simply demoted and moved to positions of lesser responsibility. New governors in the key border regions were put in place with an emphasis on both loyalty and ability. By establishing a policy of reconciliation, Tercano prevented further civil strife and managed to hold the remainder of the Rorian Army loyal to the throne.
For the military, Tercano moved quickly to appoint new generals, mostly raised from the ranks of his own Imperial Army He also raised new levies and replenished the ranks of the loyal armies that had gathered and fought at Discordia. He was greatly aided in this effort by the unique facilities of Anthien and the massive training and recruiting grounds around Seafarer's Island. The war machine that the Association had neglected was soon drawn up to peak efficiency, and within a year, Tercano made good most of the losses suffered during the War.
On the diplomatic front, the situation was much more severe. The enemies of Roria took note of the internal strife of the Logarians and seized on their presumed weakened state and fractured leadership to resume their wars or make territorial grabs. Notably, the Kalosi and the Unovans went to war the same year as the Battle of Discrodia and laid siege to Crescent Island and the city of Al-Kitbutar, respectively. After destroying their Techno Guild mercenaries, Bronze offered peace and was ceded a few islands out in the Western Sea (their training facilities and oil reserves destroyed by the Unovans) for his trouble. The army was strong but it was also exhausted. The time had come to bring peace.
With the League disbanded, Bronze appointed the Gym Leaders and Elite Four as administrators, leaving Michael Bertliz as the de facto Chairman of Roria and representative in the Association Council, while also sending loyal officials over the continent to keep the peace. In this the Pokedex Holders had no small part, and soon the corruption that had marked Association rule of Roria was unheard of.
The road networks were improved to a state beyond that seen in the ancient days and they were secured by able governors and administrators. Free trade flowed from the Horn of Roria to Alola and from Crescent Island to Rosecove. New universities and schools were built in every major city and poor and rich alike were provided with an education. The great stagnation of ideas that marked the past few decades was banished and new advancements occurred on an almost daily basis. New and more powerful ships sailed the seas and oceans, new poke balls were developed, medicines were tried and produced, advanced technologies became cheaper by a factor of ten, and Logarian cultural and architectural advances were spread through the world.
The discovery of Galar in the Western Oceans only three months after the Rorian War created a new outlet for expansion and additional territory. The northern regions were mostly disinterested in the colonization of Galar, which proved to be to their detriment. Tercano sent a Rorian force to occupy the island and make treaties with the natives, learning their language, culture, and bringing new advancements to the land that many had once thought only mythical. Terrcano established a massive economic conglomerate that would develop Galar into a modern nation: Macro Cosmos. Soon Macro Cosmos controlled every import and export in Galar, from bullets to poke balls, including the mysterious Dynamax energy that provided a new and energy-intensive fuel source.
Prepared due to Bronze's long-term planning, the Tercano family passed a series of sweeping reforms of the judicial, legal, and economic systems, most of which were stunningly successful. They put an end to domestic anarchy, and elsewhere they allowed bands of peasants who found Association rule oppressive to receive clandestine training in Orre. Military and administrative careers were separated, Pokemon were given new rights under Hisuian-Logath common law, and the democratic system was gradually deprived of its privileges. Bronze systemized all these arrangements in such a way that all his reforms led to a centralized absolute autocracy that would dissolve upon his death, which put effective means of action at his disposal in the meanwhile.
Over one hundred thousand extant rescripts show another aspect of the Emperor's personality. A conservative, Tar-Tercano was concerned with the preservation of the ancient virtues: the obligation of children to feed their parents in old age; of parents to treat their children justly; of spouses to respect the laws of marriage; of sons not to bear witness against their fathers, or spouse against spouse; and of private property, creditor's rights, and contract clauses to be protected. He forbade the use of torture if truth could be discovered otherwise and encouraged governors to be as autonomous as possible.
The army was also reorganized and brought back to the old discipline. Sedentary troops (local troops) were sent to the frontiers, and the ready army (main movable army) was made domestic. Troop strength was multiplied by four in the pre-Jihad years. There too, Tercano's reforms were infused with a sense of human realities; he exempted soldiers from duty after twenty years of service, and, if he limited the price of commodities so as to reduce the cost of living, it was mainly to make life easier for the troops. If one is to believe the Techno Union propaganda, the Emperor divided the provinces "so as to make himself more feared," but in fact it was to bring the governors closer to those they administered and, by fragmenting their power, to diminish their territorial strength. He undertook to facilitate economic development through a recovery of agriculture and a program of building.
Bronze had reorganized the Logarian Empire without political romanticism. Even though his descent from Tar-Silmathrim was often spoken of as divine right, all this was accomplished with practical goals in mind. His reforms had proceeded from a premeditated plan and had imposed themselves out of historical necessity. He may be accused of several things: of having been cruel, but his harshness was not the act of deep-seated brutality; of being miserly, but this miserliness was inspired by the desire to obtain resources for the state; of cutting a slightly muddle-headed, visionary figure, but these were the traits that led him to reflect on better methods of governing an immense territory; of having paved the way to bureaucracy and autocracy, but this was done with greater efficiency in view.
Personally, Tercano was a religious man. No doubt he did not manifest any unusual piety compared to faithful Rorian agricultural laborers or low-grade factory workers, but he always thought that the Original One guided the fortunes of the emperors who governed the world. In later years he exercised an absolute, "divine right" dictatorship, and he surrounded it with majesty. Arceanism was the state religion of the Second Logarian Empire, and although not given explicit privileges, other religions, both local and regional, were considered heresy and discriminated against on a scale far greater than before Tercano's rule.
Tercano wrote more than fifty books during his life, along with his two masterworks, the Green Book of Bronze Tercano and Matters of Society. The Book was published after the Jihad, and consists of his day-to-day political thoughts, fragmentary and epigrammatic by turn, mostly developed from his reflections in the midst of campaigning and administration. The Matters is a social and political masterwork meant for widespread consumption among the masses, resembling more the thoughts of a philosopher-emperor than a politician. Bronze made the Hisuian Coda required reading for all Rorian citizens, authoring a translation along with his wife, remarking that "a thorough knowledge of the book is more valuable than an education."
It is from this that we see the inspiration for Tercano's own commentaries in "The Pillars of the Universe" as interpreted by his holy men, the Avestan Tafrid, that we see his real debt to the Coda's existing books and Logarian-Hisuian orthodoxy.
...
Tar-Tercano: "Law and duty must be one for a society to maintain itself; so be it. But remember your limitations, for you do not see the mind of God. You are never fully conscious of the movements around you. Thus you remain immersed in the communal disorder. Thus you are always less than an individual."
Coda: Identical wording. (Epistile of Manucher. Authorship traced back to Taurwa of Logaria.)
Tar-Tercano: "Men organize religion to have a built-in mechanism of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future. Only Arceus moves time along. Have you seen anything new in the world?"
Coda: Identical wording. (Sayings of Adaman. St. Rei.)
Tar-Tercano: "If a child, an untrained person, an ignorant person, or an insane person incites trouble, it is the fault of authority for not predicting and preventing that trouble. For who will God judge then: the troublemaker or the neglectful?"
Coda: "Many sins can be ascribed, at least in part, to a natural sinful tendency that is an extenuating circumstance of perpetual evil, forgivable by God." (Second Letter to the Calathrim. St. Lian.)
Tar-Tercano: "Reach forth thy hand and eat of what Arceus has provided thee; and when thou are replenished, praise the Lord."
Coda: a paraphrase with identical meaning. (Second Kalosi. St. Lian.)
Tar-Tercano: "Kindness is the beginning of cruelty."
Coda: "The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing. Did not God give us the burning sun? Did not God give us the deadly Pokemon? Did not God allow the Djinn to rule? From the Djinn did we not get the hurtfulness of sorrow?" (Kitab al-Abar.)
...
It would be well over twenty years before the Second Logarian Empire was first seriously threatened. Her allies in Sinnoh, renamed Sinnosui, Galar, and Alola were threatened by an increasingly aggressive and imperialistic Kalos and Unova, with Johto and Kanto as their subordinate puppet regimes. A series of disasters in Orre, Fiore, and Oblivia led to the exposure and destruction of a conspiracy intended to assassinate and posthumously humiliate Tercano and his family. The Aether Foundation was put under the control of Roria after Wicke was found to have been one of the engineers behind the plot. After the annexation of the humanitarian and mercantile foundation, the Central Powers of Kalos and Unova launched their invasion of Alola and northern Roria.
The crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots began during the Rorian Jihad. The war began poorly at first, with Rorian forces suffering heavy losses at the battles of Shaaman-Pah and Murkwater. However, through no seeming effort of Bronze's own will, a holy war began. The Rorian Jihad attracted millions of soldier-followers, increased Bronze's religious mystique to immense levels, and pushed the Central Powers out of the southern hemisphere. The Emperor's doctrine of Mannish supremacy, along with a distaste for artificial intelligence and other forms of conscious robots, led to a holy war that consumed ten million lives a year at its high point: a terrible thing that remained unheard of until then.
After an orbital battle that destroyed the space fleet of the Central Powers, Kalos and Unova were conquered, razed, and then given limited self-governance with puppet rulers installed. Kanto capitulated after the sack of Cinnabar Island while Johto was invaded by Sinnosui, ending the war, although not the Jihad. Holy warriors, Rorian or Galarian or others alike, went over the width and breadth of the world, destroying "dangerous technology," or artificial intelligence that was not controlled by a Rotom or Porygon. Thinking machines that could process information without the aid of Pokemon were made illegal under the Grand Accords, a set of edicts made by the Emperor to both put an end to the Jihad and safeguard the world from the real peril that artificial intelligence posed.
At conservative estimates, the Rorian Jihad resulted in the death of over fifty million people, the sterilization of over ninety major cities, and the demoralization of over five hundred additional civilizations; additionally, over forty different religions were wiped out, along with their followers. Over ten thousand delegates gathered on a neutral island in the middle of the Summer Sea to swear fealty to the Logarian Empire. Twenty enemy officials were executed by their people. One committed suicide by stealing a space frigate and diving it into the Emperor had ascended to a higher power. Riots and comedy were but symptoms of the times, profoundly revealing. They betray the psychological tone, the deep uncertainties, and the striving for something better, plus the fear that nothing would come of it all.
There has been peace in the fifty-first year of the Emperor Tar-Tercano's reign. Peace, peace, and more peace. Another force besides the Jihad shaped beliefs in those days, but its effect is so universal and profound that it deserves to stand alone. This is, of course, space travel - and in any discussion of Tercano's rule, it deserves to be written thus:
SPACE TRAVEL!
Mankind's movement through the solar system placed a unique stamp on religion during the five decades that have followed the Rorian War. To begin with, early space travel, although widespread in Tercano's childhood, was largely unregulated, slow, and uncertain, and, before the Rorian monopoly, was accomplished by a hodgepodge of methods. The first space experiences, poorly communicated and subject to extreme distortion, were a wild inducement to mystical speculation.
Immediately, space gave a different flavor and sense to ideas of Creation.
That difference is seen even in the highest religious achievements of the period. All through religion, the feeling of the sacred was touched by anarchy from the outer dark. The Alliance's Djinn had not died, some said, but he had fled to another corner of the universe. It was humanity's duty to go to the farthest corners and burn him out. It was as though the Sky-god Rayquaza retreated into the maternal darkness to be superseded by a female immanence filled with ambiguity and with a face of many terrors. The ancient formulae intertwined, tangled together as they were fitted to the needs of new conquests and new heraldic symbols. The colonization of the solar system was a time of struggle between beast-demons on the one side and the old prayers and invocations on the other.
There was never a clear decision. During this period, it was said that the Coda was reinterpreted by Tercano, permitting Arceus to say:
"Increase and multiply, and fill the universe, and subdue it, and rule over all manner of strange beasts and living creatures in the infinite airs, on the infinite earths and beneath them."
The major dams against anarchy in these times were the embryo Macro Cosmos, House Berlitz, and the remains of the Association Council, which continued its five-hundred-year record of meeting in spite of the severest obstacles. Macro Cosmos's part appears clear: they gave free transport and regulation for all Imperial and Association business. House Berlitz's role is more obscure. Certainly, this is the time in which they consolidated their hold upon the Hisuian bloodlines, explored the subtle narcotics, and developed Bibliographic training under Tessa Woodhall. Certainly some, though not all, of this meddling was at the Emperor's bidding. It is also the period that saw the composing of the ancient Hisuian manuscripts, and the assembly of the Emrett Dialogues, that demented yet informative bibliographic marvel that preserves the great secrets of the most ancient strategies used by demonic forces.
The Emperor is nearly as Aredian as he is Logarian. This is likely one of the roots of his civilization's emphasis on superstition (disregarding the Hisuian Coda's ministrations). What matter that whistling sands are an omen? What matter that you must make the sign of the fist when first you see First Moon? A man's flesh is his own but his labor belongs to the tribe: and the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve but a reality to experience.
Omens help you remember this. And because you are here, because you have the true religion, victory cannot evade you in the end. When religion and politics ride the same cart, when that cart is driven by a living holy man, nothing can stand in their path.
And nothing did.
Partially the Emperor has failed in his task, and one can rightly say that the state he created is not "the new house for the Logarian people he intended to build, but rather an emergency shelter," which offered protection against storms with the help of the gods. The fact remains that he is, in his actions, his religion, and his time, the man whom the State and Church needed.
...
Note III: The Almanak en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Significant Peoples)
VASILEIOS II (1998-2055)
The Rorian Chairman, twelfth of his position. Administered Roria from 2048 to 2055, when he died at the Battle of Seafarer's Island. His reign is noted chiefly for the Eclipse Revolt, blamed by many historians on his dalliance with Court functions and the pomp of office. The ranks of generals were doubled in the first two years of his reign. Appropriations for military training went down steadily in the final three years before the Eclipse Revolt. He had five daughters and no legal sons. Four of the daughters were given a paid retirement by Emperor Tar-Tercano. His wife died in 2045.
ROBERT TERCANO (2014-2055)
A distant descendent of Tar-Silmathrim, he is frequently referred to as the Last Chief. His line lived in the Mitis area and around Rosecove for twenty generations before the events of 2054 and 2055. He is known chiefly as the father of Emperor Bronze Tercano, the Shahanshah of Logaria. The remains of Robert Tercano occupy an unknown location called the "Lost Tomb" in southwestern Roria. His death is attributed to the Sorcerer Supreme Emrett of the Eclipse Alliance.
LADY LILY (Hon. Tercano) (2025-2102)
A natural descendant of both the Logarian and Hisuian genus. Mother of Emperor Bronze Tercano. She graduated from the Rosecove School of History. Died of natural causes.
SHAHBANU MOON TERCANO (2039-)
Legal daughter of Lord Michael Berlitz and his formal wife, Yanase Berlitz. She was born a Hisuian and holds the next claim for the High Elder of Hisui. Wife of Emperor Tar-Tercano and Shahbanu Empress. Designated regent for the throne in case of emergency. She is known in popular history as St. Moon or St. Moon of the Hallowed Titles. (For a detailed history, see St. Moon, Author of a Billion Words by Pander Oulson.)
JONATHAN ROWELL CYPRESS (2012-2055)
Commonly referred to as the Eclipse Lord, his title was official Sirdar (regional administrator) Professor of All Roria. Cypress was the direct ruler of the Eclipse Alliance and their allied forces. The rise of the Eclipse Alliance to power generally is ascribed to adroit manipulation of clandestine financial markets and later consolidation with military wealth from illegal factory labor. He came under the influence of demonic possession in Anthien City and died during the Battle of Discordia. Tar-Tercano is considered the sole witness of Cypress's death.
COUNT JAKE ALBANS (2045-)
A distant descendent of a Logarian bloodline, he was a childhood companion of the Emperor Tar-Tercano. (The frequently discredited Pirate History of Logaria related the curious story that Albans was responsible for an attempted assassination attempt that nearly disposed of the Emperor and Countess Woodhall.) All accounts agree that Albans was the closest friend the Emperor possessed. The Imperial chores carried out by Count Albans included that of Imperial Agent on Orre during the Cipher regime there and later military governor of Kalos.
He founded the Rorian Swordmaster school. Adepts are highly skilled in bladed weapons (namely knives and swords) and hand-to-hand combat, which re-entered human warfare after shielding systems (invented circa 2063) made the use of projectile guns futile.
COUNTESS TESSA WOODHALL (2045-)
Tessa Woodhall, Countess of Rosecove, was a friend of Tar-Tercano and granddaughter of Quentin the Brave. Founder of the Bibliographer School of House Berlitz and Chief Bibliographer of the Logarian Empire. Known for being trained in supreme accomplishments of logic; a "human" computer. Inventor and popularizer of several technological and military innovations, notably the crusherall, a military space vessel composed of many smaller vessels locked together and designed to fall on an enemy position, crushing it; and the cutterary, a short-range version of lasgun used mostly as a cutting tool and surgeon's scalpel.
END LOG
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Rosecove, Evening
Four months later
.
The kitchen of Quentin's lighthouse was bright and warm, curtains drawn against the dark outside, against the rain driving past the house from the northwest. Tess had made an arrangement of chrysanthemums for the dining table, and the yellow, bronze, and pale-gold blossoms seemed to add light to the room. Flower-setting hadn't ever been a thing she would have considered herself good at, but it turned out better than she'd hoped. A delectable smell of roasting turkey came from the oven, and Quentin stood by the stove, stirring the giblet gravy. The remains of a second turkey lay ona cutting board with its insides hollowed out and stuffed.
It was good to be home again, she thought, to be with the reunited family, catching up on what everyone had been doing. Yellow was home from medical training up north. Bronze had gone off to a gathering of corporate delegates in Fiore, where he was—perhaps at this very minute—drawing a deal about the recent tariffs of Rorian immunological drugs.
"It's a tremendous honor for him, isn't it?" asked Quentin.
"Enormous, getting thrown around the world," said Tess.
"Whoa!" Very much surprised, Quentin slapped his head. "By all the saints, I'll be calling you Mrs. Albans one day. How will I get over that?"
"It's hardly final," she said, then looked across the room to Jake and Pearl, who were deep in concentration, bent over the holographic model they were building of a four-dimensional battlefield: the apex points in red, the troops in orange: a construction of the dimension of time and space. The hologram was emitting from a beautiful and complicated creation of steel wires and ball bearings and lucite, parts of it revolving, parts swinging like pendulums.
"I miss Cobalion," she said suddenly.
Quentin turned from the stove. "Yes. He sounds like the kind of fellow to be missed. But he died honorably at an old age. How about making the hard sauce for the plum pudding?"
"Oh—of course." She opened the refrigerator and got out half a pound of butter.
The door-knocker whumped up and down.
"I'll get it." Dropping the butter into a small mixing bowl en route, she went to the door. Outside she saw the wet cliff that climbed upward at a steep angle under the moving grey clouds. There was a letter in the mailbox.
"Everyone!" she cried. "We've got a letter from Bronze!"
She returned quickly to the kitchen and opened it up. Pearl and Jake stopped talking and switched off the hologram. Quentin turned around, his wooden spoon resting against the lip of the saucepan. Yellow continued to stare from a rocking chair, looking morosely into the fire. Ruby and Sapphire's smiles fell away and were replaced by an expression of nothingness. She read the letter as follows:
...
Dear Tess,
I would have called earlier but Banerjee (the Aredian security chief) thought the phones were rigged with a dusting poison. Turns out he was right, but it had nothing to do with me. Unbelievable.
You'll be reading this aloud, so happy belated gathering. The immunological tariffs are not worth a thing but I've got to fight them anyway. Ryan's wife is pregnant and it looks like these's going to be a male heir for the Kingdom of Aredia. Moon wants the wedding to be next month but I've decided to wait till we can have it near Atun-Kaah; that is, till the spellbreakers flush out all the demons lurking on the grounds. I've just written my mother a very important letter, and it took me nearly an hour and a half to work my way through it. I just don't have the energy to repeat the effort, so I am going to suggest that you call her if you want the full story.
So now, I wonder what would happen if none of our fellowship had met. Maybe if we hadn't, you'd still be agnostic living with Quentin and I might not be alive. On the other hand, maybe nothing at all would have changed. Maybe nothing of importance changes in the future, and we would have been handed the same bullet to eat in a week or month or a year later.
Well, we had our chance, made our stand, and it came up on a lucky number; seven or three for Arceus, I guess. But I wanted you to know that I think of you and Jake more often than I guessed. For me there really haven't been many friends to speak to in these days, mostly Moon and the Aredians. Well, cry your eyes out for poor Emperor Bronze.
I'm sure you wonder how we even won. There are still times when it's hard for me to believe there ever was such a year as 2055 and upheaval in the factories, and the Alliance existed, Association rule, massive property taxes, no Ruby-brand fashion or Galarian discoveries either. And at other times it seems like that time is only a handsbreadth away, that I can almost touch it, that if only I could wish it of God, I could carry you all away with me into a different future with no pain or darkness or bitter choices. Pray for me and the humanity that I will lose.
Who can deny the value of such experiences that we've had, the worth of learning through what we remember in every new instant?
Ahhh, but it's the past. Don't you understand?
It's only the past!
I've buried my father and made a marker for Cobalion. Not even my mother knows where the grave is and I don't suspect anyone will for a very long time. There's a certain courtesy in not having your grave known: no space is taken up and you have the whole planet as a resting place. He's freer than he was when alive.
Jake, don't be discouraged. Foes of Arceus beware! You've Logarian blood in your veins, no matter your place or lot in the world. Whenever you feel tempted to put down the sword and partake in the delights that my royal peace will offer, know that then your back is most exposed.
Well, we all do what we can, and it has to be good enough; and if it isn't good enough, it has to do. I only hope that you will think of me as well as you can, dear Tessa Woodhall. All my best,
Tar-Tercano.
P.S.: I will certainly be at the next gathering. If Quentin fails to make a good roast bird, I shall hang him. Ha ha!
...
She put the letter on the table. "What was that about?" asked Jake.
"Pardon me?" But Tess looked just a trifle too innocent.
"That look."
"What look?"
"I know a look when I see one," said Jake. "I may not know what it means, but I know it when I see it. Sit down with me, Tess."
"Like that, is it?"
Tess sat down on the couch and looked out through the window to the sea. The waves were rising to exceptional height tonight, and out in the distance she thought she caught a flash of neon glare, as if Kyogre was swimming outside his ravine tonight.
"It's just so sad," she said. "Robert died so horribly and Bronze thinks that he's the only one to keep the secret of where the tomb is. It's so nonsensical and sad."
"We can't live our lives sad and afraid, can we?" he said. "Cobalion himself said that exceptions to death don't happen. Life is short and people died in war. Robert would have agreed with that."
"Don't use his words against me," she said.
"I'm not. Robert believed in the Arceus that we know. We've seen the face of God, Tess. Nothing that's happened has been coincidental. But it's a jealous, jealous God that rules this reality. The Arceus that let Robert die is the same Arceus that permits evil. He's brought damn hard judgments down on our sorry skins. I've heard He once wiped out a lot of the human race with water, and sometime further along, He's going to do it with fire."
"God have mercy," said Yellow suddenly.
"You're not just saying that to placate me?"
"No," he said. "It's not a comforting thought. Arceus is going to get around to dealing with our world. You heard Dialga and Palkia. The Djinn's gone and his demons are scattered. There isn't really any Dark Lord anymore, but it just means we've less excuses. The Devil can't make us do anything now. There's still evil, and it probably came from original sin, but its in all of us and getting it out is as impossible as getting an egg out of its shell without cracking it. Now the Djinn's power is like a jigsaw puzzle: ever man, woman, and child on earth added his or her little piece to make up the whole."
"That sounds like the new preachers that got into the land about two decades ago, talking the talk that there weren't any demons," said Quentin, his lips twisted unpleasantly.
"Well, if you believed that when the Djinn was roaming around," said Pearl, "he'd eat you for dinner. Maybe things are different."
"I don't know anything, Tess," said Jake. "I don't know Arceus's mind. He doesn't explain to the likes of Jake Albans."
"But he did!" Tess cried. "He sent me and Bronze one of his angels."
"And Cobalion didn't know much more than you, from what I hear," said Quentin.
"There are other enemies," said Tess. "One the demons we excorcised on Crescent Island said that he served Eternatus of Galar."
"Might be a demon in the new land to the west," said Yellow. "Not the Djinn, but he and the Djinn must of each other and have kept their councils together of old. The stories don't say what happened to the Golden Company and their families after the first time the Djinn was imprisoned. But I wouldn't be surprised if there was some awful battle for the souls of those few people—for their souls, their bodies, their way of thinking. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's what is going on for us."
"If this is His way," said Ruby, "why, I wish He'd retire and let somebody younger take over."
Yellow shook her head patiently. "Ruby, all things serve the Lord. Don't you think this Eternatus serves him to? He does, no matter how mysterious His purpose may be. Evil will follow us no matter where we run, because all evil serves the purpose of God, and God wants us to treat with it. It doesn't do any good to run from the will of the Original One. A man or woman who tries that only ends up in the belly of the beast."
"I don't believe in Arceus," said Ruby. "Obviously there's some divine Providence that I saw, but I don't belive in the Master God, the king that gives us little objectives and waits for us to complete them."
"Oh, Ruby," said Quentin, "I have harbored hate of the Lord in my heart. Every man or woman who loves Him, they hate Him too, because He's a hard God, a jealous God, He Is, what He Is, and in this world He's apt to repay service with pain while those who do evil ride over the roads in splendor. Even the joy of serving Him is a bitter joy. I do His will, but the human part of me has cursed Him in my heart. 'Quentin,' Arceus says to me, 'there's work for you far up ahead. So I'll let you live and live, until your flesh is bitter on your bones. I'll let you see all your child and her husband ahead of you and still you'll walk the earth. I'll let you see your daughter taken away from you. And in the end, your reward will be to go away from all the things you love best and you'll die, without knowing your work is finished. That's My will, Quentin,' says He, and 'Yes, Lord,' says I. 'Thy will be done,' and in my heart I curse Him and ask, 'Why, why, why?' and the only answer I get is 'Where were you when I made the world?'"
"Your family has lived here a long time, haven't they?" said Sapphire.
"Long and long," said Quentin.
"Tess," Jake said, and turned her around so he could look into her eyes.
"What, Jake?"
"Do you think...do you think people ever learn anything?"
She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, fell silent. The fireplace flickered. Her eyes seemed very bright
"I don't know," she said at last. She seemed unpleased with her answer; she struggled to say something more; to illuminate her first response; and could only say it again: "I don't know."
"How much do you and Bronze know about Eternatus?" said Pearl. "Yellow, you guessed he's another demon. Do you know who he is?"
"I know what he's about but not who he is," said Yellow. "I've been told of him in a dream. I started having dreams two years before this war ever fell. I've always dreamed, and sometimes my dreams have come true. Prophecy is the gift of Arceus and everyone has a smidge of it. My own grandmother used to call it the shining lamp of the Third One. I haven't told many a soul that I've been having these dreams, for they scared me. I saw ships going west to a new land; Galar, they call it. There I saw the hidden evil of Eternatus. He's the purest evil left in the world. The rest of the bad is little evil. Shoplifters and sexfiends and people who like to use their fists. But he'll call them. He's started already, now that Galar has been found. Before he's ready to make his move, I guess he'll have a lot more hearts on his side. Not just the evil ones that are like him, but the weak ones, the lonely ones, and the ones that have left God out of their hearts."
"Another Dark Lord?" cried Quentin. "Are you saying that..."
"It was all for nothing? Course not. Everything I've seen can still be changed. Maybe they are just dreams, but whenever I say that I feel like a silly woman running from Arceus. It will be many a mile and many a decade before any of this every happens, if it does at all."
"I still wish Cobalion was here," said Tess. "Maybe we can purchase another angel, if the hourly rates are affordable."
"You think the Swords of Justice are in the habit of getting wages?" said Jake.
"Oh, it was just a bad joke."
Jake touched one of the lucite rods carefully, so that the entire model began to vibrate, to hum softly, throwing off sparkles of brilliance. "We still don't know much about the future, do we? I think—" He looked bewildered. "I think it's going to be all right in the end. But not because we were intelligent, or clever, or in control."
"This whole evening's confusing," said Sapphire. "I suggest we just forget it and eat."
"Right," said Pearl. "But I think every point made here tonight has something left in it. I'd never know you could see the future, Yellow."
"Don't get any funny ideas, boy," said Yellow. "I see what the Third One lets me."
"It's getting calmer outside," Ruby observed.
"Here now! You can see the stars," said Quentin, pulling back a curtain. "Aye, that's the sky we've needed. Let's eat!"
Jake did not dare disobey. As he rose, a memory of pain scalded him. It was his inkvine scar; the burning subsided when he hesitated. He went into the kitchen: found himself in some place of sweet smells and bright fires, with food and wine and a rich roast turkey.
Tess passed through the glowing warmness of the fireplace and entered the kitchen with Yellow. Before Quentin held a prayer, she thought of the Emperor, then she thought of Arceus. Then she thought of her future, and the setting of each foot before the other became a kind of sacrificial ceremony. And she thought of children, and of pain and death. She thought of Bronze and Jake and their pains and sufferings. But Quentin had spilled the gravy. How exactly like him! Obviously it was high time she helped clean up the mess.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dusk, earlier
.
The two Elohim were gone, vanished into their own business after transporting Bronze to his father's body. It was a mortuary he was in, guarded by Rorian soldiers. If they saw him he would have them stand down and give him the body. If they made that impossible he would incapacitate them; Arceus knew there had been enough killing. But he would bury his dead, one way or another.
He would bury his dead.
The hoverpallet holding Robert's body in stasis disengaged from its wall with a touch. Then came a sudden warmth and the torrents of plaster walls around him rolled away. Everything became a mist; and then, as the lights in the fog vanished, this mist grew softly luminous in a different place—above him, as the sun slowly pierced through the haze and shone down on a forest.
His mind was ill at ease, but as for his body—health and youth and pleasure and longing seemed to be blowing towards him from the glowing woods ahead of him. He never doubted that he must keep on.
Sorry for your loss, the saying went.
And now he was alone with that loss. Alone with his father. For a moment Bronze stood surveying the little forest of trees, wondering why the gods had drawn him to this place; a young man, crowned; an old man, dead. His eyes were dry and hot, throbbing in their sockets, and for a moment he was sure that he had lost the ability to weep. The idea horrified him. If he was incapable of tears after all of this—after what he'd gained and lost— what good was any of it? So it was an immense relief when the tears finally came. They spilled from his eyes, quieting their nearly insane glare. They ran down his cheeks. He cried almost silently, but there was a single sob and a bird heard it. It fluttered into the corridor of fast-moving clouds above him and then was gone.
Bronze moved the hoverpallet deeper into the woods. Most of what Bronze thought about on that short walk was a prayer for the dead he had heard Antarah speak on their only and last campaign together, the one that had ended in the Battle of the Djinn' Fast. He doubted that Robert needed a prayer to send him on, but the emperor needed to keep his mind occupied, because it did not feel strong just now; if it went too far in the wrong direction, it would certainly break. Perhaps later he could indulge in hysteria—or even a the healing madness—but not now. He would not break now. He would not let his father's death make him come to nothing.
The hazy green-gold summerglow that lives only in forests (and old forests, at that, like the one where the Guzzlord Ir had rampaged), deepened. It fell through the trees in dusky beams, and the place where Bronze finally stopped felt more like a church than a clearing. He had gone roughly two hundred paces from his starting place on a westerly line. Here he lifted Robert off the hoverpallet and looked about. He saw two rusty beer cans and a few ejected stun-casings, probably the leavings of hunters. He tossed them further into the woods so the place would be clean. Then he looked at Robert, wiping away his tears so he could see as clearly as possible. The man's face was as clean as the clearing, the morticians had seen to that, but one of his eyes was still open, giving the man an evil winky look that must not be allowed. Bronze rolled the lid closed with a finger, and when it sprang back up again, he licked the ball of his thumb and rolled the lid shut again. This time it stayed closed.
Bronze had expected the soil to be soft beneath the thick carpet of needles, and it was. He might have tasked Electabuzz or Steelix with digging a grave, but he set to the fulfilling and partially insane labor of performing it with sticks and his hands.
He would bury his dead.
The lovely green-gold light of the clearing deepened. Mosquitoes found him but he did not stop what he was doing in order to slap them, merely let them drink their fill and then lumber off, heavy with their freight of blood. He heard a Purrlion howling as he finished hand-digging the grave, the smooth roar a river, the uneven sound of squirrels in the underbrush. Any questions, such as how the empire was faring without him, did not matter. All that mattered was this; all that mattered was seeing to his own.
He made three trips to collect stones, because a grave dug by hand must necessarily be a shallow one and animals, even in such a tame place as this, are always hungry. He stacked the stones at the head of the hole, a scar lined with earth so rich it could have been black satin. He remembered the man standing before the people of Roria in the brazier-light of the Djinn's Court, his face hard yet wise, as if he would live forever. I am Robert Tercano, son of Steven, the Line of Elrosi, the heir of the South and Ancient Lands, he might have said, and here he was, oh yes, with his grave all dug, clean and ready for him.
Bronze began to weep again. He put his hands over his face and rocked back and forth on his knees, smelling the sweet aromatic needles and wishing he had cried off before Arceus, that old and patient demon, had taught him the real price of his quest. He would have given anything to change what had happened, anything to close this hole with nothing in it, but this was the world where time ran just one way. Robert was the source of the story that found its chief part in Bronze. It was first conceived, Lily had told him, in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Mitis.
In those days the chief's hair was raven, his skin dark, his eyes brighter than either Tess or Jake had seen them, and he could sing and dance. But the story had gone crooked, and Bronze was left, and he could not plead before the inexorable Celebi.
When he had gained control of himself again, he wrapped Robert carefully in a blue tarpaulin stored inside the hoverpallet, fashioning a kind of hood around the still, pale face. He would close that face away for good before refilling the grave, but not until.
Beside the grave, he stuck the heaviest stone he could find into the soil. He then took a forth trip to surround the large rock with smaller ones. Taking his Logarian dagger he carved the words COBALION on the face of the stone, etching the lines deep so that wind and water would not erode them for a long time. Below that he carved a longer message:
.
.
.
Verses Funereal on the Memorial of Cobalion, the Sword of Justice:
Other mighty men of old, other burial places for themselves ordained,
But Cobalion, God in Deep Heaven,
rests in the forest and sabbatizes from the endless toils
which he accepted in battles, and which he endured.
For nobody saw his sword at rest,
from when the King of Heavens called him to Imbar
but remaining vigilant through the whole span of his life
guarding the Children of Arceus, whether Men or Pokemon
when he marched bravely to the land of Hisui
and as far as the very borders of Roria
settling countless battles all over the earth.
The Dark Lord and his demons bear witness to this,
and along with them the Nurian, the Eclipse-thrall, the Unovan, and the Rumhoth.
And now, man, looking upon this shrine,
reward his campaigns with prayers.
Born from the thought of Arceus Almighty
Entered life eternal and received reward.
...
He was great and lovely during his being and is wise in his unbeing. The joy of our meeting when we meet again in the Great Dance is the reward of fruit with sweetness inside. But the rind around it is thick, more years thick than can be counted. Yet my hope and sweetest comfort is to meet him again in the realm of Bliss. There we may speak again in the spring, when the flowers are in full bloom. I shall be satisfied when I awake to thee. Farewell.
.
.
.
He was my second father, in a way, he thought. Some memorial had to exist. The rock was not nearly enough, but he supposed that there were not enough rocks in the forest to lay out the whole of his feelings for Cobalion.
Then Bronze gathered Robert up (how light he was, this man who was once a boy that jumped from barn lofts, and stood against the Dark Lord with his wife, how curiously light; as if the weight of him had departed with his life) and lowered him into the hole. A crumble of dirt spilled down one cheek and Bronze wiped it away. That done, he closed his eyes again and thought. Then, at last—haltingly—he began. He knew that any translation of a Logarian prayer into the language of Kanto would be clumsy, but he did the best he could.
...
"Time flies and life passes, so hear my prayer.
"Birth is nothing but death begun, so hear my prayer.
"Death is speechless, so hear my speech."
The words drifted away into the haze of green and gold. Bronze let them, then set upon the rest. He spoke more quickly now.
"This is Robert, who served his son and wife. It is true.
"May the forgiving glance of Uxie heal his heart. May it be so.
"May the arms of Arceus raise him from the darkness of this earth. May it be so.
"Surround him, Original One, with light.
"Fill him, Third One, with strength.
"If he is thirsty, give him water.
"If he is hungry, give him food.
"May his life on this earth and the pain of his passing become as a dream to his waking soul, and let his eyes fall upon every lovely sight; let him find the friends that were lost to him, and let everyone whose name he calls call his in return.
"This is Robert, who lived well, loved his own, and died as the Lord would have it.
"Each man owes Arceus death. This is Robert. Give him peace."
...
He knelt a moment longer with his hands clasped between his knees, thinking he had not understood the true power of sorrow, nor the pain of regret, until this moment.
I cannot bear to let him go.
But once again, that cruel paradox: if he didn't, the sacrifice was in vain.
Bronze opened his eyes and said, "Goodbye, Father. I love you."
Then he closed the hood around the man's face against the rain of earth that must follow.
...
When the grave was filled and the rocks placed over it, Bronze wrote the last epitaph. Antarah, Cobalion, Robert. Death, death, death. Who would it come for next?
.
.
.
Here Lies the Body of Robert Tercano
Forth-Sixth Chief of Logaria of Elrosi's Line
Father of Bronze Tercano, Wife of Lily Tercano
He was Born when Imbar Had Completed Its Two Thousandth and Fourteenth Revolution
About the Sun Since the Birth of Arceus, Blessed be He.
He Crossed the Great River when Imbar had Completed
Its Two Thousandth and Fifty-Fifth Revolution About the Sun
Since the Birth of Arceus.
He Lies Here Like a Book
Its Contents Torn Out, and Stript of Its Binding
Food for Worms. But the Work is not Wholly Lost
For it Will, as he Believed, Appear Once More
In a New and More Perfect Edition
Corrected and Amended By the Author.
...
This is the time of choice. It is not a passing whisper. What is Matters. But what was strong in the Shadowed World Arceus will not break in Eternity, Rest here Robert, who fought his fight and made his Stand. He slew the black serpent and kept the faith. He wears the Crown of Life. Well done, Father. I love you.
.
.
.
Bronze watched the dust of his digging settle and heard a great silence move down upon his world. And lying there it seemed that he saw every single grain of dust and every blade of grass, and that he heard every cry and shout and whisper going up in the world now. Silence fell down in the sifting sunbeams and all the leisure he might need to look around, to gather the reality of this day into his senses.
He looked up in the direction of the river's noise.
I'll go on the river.
He looked at the path behind him.
Or I'll go that way. I'll go back to the Empire, and I'll have time to put things into myself. And someday, after it sets in me a long time, what I did here will come out of my hands and my mouth. I'll just start walking today and see the world, and the way the world walks around and talks, the way it really looks. I want to see everything now.
The Emperor stood and left the two sepulchers.
Look at the world out there, my God, my God, look at it out there! Outside me, out there beyond my face, and the only way to really touch it is to put it where it's finally in me, where it's in the blood, where it pumps around a thousand times, ten thousand a day. I get hold of it so it'll never run off. I'll hold on to the world tight some day. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning.
He would go back to the empire. Whatever awaited him there he would accept. A time would come to mourn, a time would come to sing. All kinds of times were ahead. And he would speak of them and live through them, and sometimes he would talk with others about God. He wondered if God would still speak to him after today. If He didn't, then he would have his friends to speak to, and they spoke and wouldn't forget. Either way was alright. The breath of God was his breath, for it passed through man to man since the dawn of time.
Bronze left the clearing and went to the stream. Its waters moved by with the humming sound of mystery.
.
.
.
Brick Bronze:
Fin