Chapter 32: Changing Course

"We need to have a talk."

The weakened form of a Yanmega hesitated as he took in the scene around him deep in Kenobi's Mystery Dungeon. To the left and right of Valatos' team were the mists of the Distortion- a careful examination of its churning suggesting the sudden drops of chasms not too far away, their bottom obscured by the haze. Behind them, a steep slope led up- perhaps to safety, though its top was likewise not visible in the fog. Blindly flying up the scarp would be a fool's errand, and climbing it would require all a Pokémon's limbs...

"Well?"

… which made it an unlikely escape route from the assembly of Cubone and Marowak just ahead. The mob from the Dungeon's colony had cut off the remaining exit, which- judging from their tight positioning- was the path from where they brought them to this place. As Valatos looked more carefully into the watching crowd, he saw the uneasy forms of a familiar white bird and his friends watching…

"Keep your talk!" the dragonfly hissed. "It's not over until we get that bird- AGH!"

The Yanmega felt a heavy swat against his back, crumpling against the ground as Tetsuzui pulled her metallic bone back. The Bug-Type twitched and fluttered his wings to try and take off, only to discover they hurt from every little movement he made. He could barely even hold his four wings up, robbed of any energy to carry him off to safety.

"Oh no, it's over," Tetsuzui corrected. "And I'm more than ready to beat it into your head if you insist on being stubborn about it."

Valatos relented and resigned himself to remaining in place; not that the fog leading into the Distortion would have been a great environment to fly or scuttle around in.

"You've committed a great transgression against our colony and against a god," Tetsuzui declared. "For that, I ought to have the lot of you subjected to a trial at our graveyard to receive the sentence the dead have pronounced on you."

"A 'trial' at your what now?" Alvise gulped.

"H-Hey wait! L-Let's be reasonable here!" Nori stammered, clearly unnerved by the suggestion of holding a "trial". "The dead wouldn't know anything about the Pact!"

"I'm aware of that, and the potential consequences of violating the Pact," Tetsuzui growled. "That's why I already conducted the trial while you were unconscious, and modified their sentence a little."

The three lavender-scarved Pokémon looked around and noticed that there were some welts that looked unusually fresh on each other's bodies. Nori began to shiver as his companions traded blank looks with each other.

"And just what does that mean?" Valatos demanded.

"It means that we had you stripped of everything other than the scarves on your necks in order to make restitution," the Elder Marowak answered, as she twiddled with a little bauble in her free claw. The Yanmega chanced to catch a glint of light- wait a minute, that was one of their burner badges! Behind the Marowak were two other badges, Nori's club, and the contents of the trio's burlap satchel dumped out onto the ground.

"W-Wait, that's my bone!" Nori cried. "I need that to defend myself!"

"A-And our badges!" Alvise protested. "You can't take those! We need those to get out of here!"

"I believe that it is custom among 'civilized' majū to send searchers after their own lost ones," Tetsuzui chastised. "It's completely within my rights under the Pact to rob you of your time, either from finding your way out of this maze, or waiting on others to help you."

The three square-necks blanched. Having to get rescued would mean missing days of work at the docks- and worse still, having to explain why they had gotten stuck in the dungeon. There were only a few possible ways things could turn out afterwards, with one possibility particularly sticking out in their minds...

"Th-That'll get us exiled!" the Manectric whined.

"M-Matte!" the disarmed Marowak begged. "We weren't doing anything to disturb the dead's resting place or anything like that!"

The Marowak with the metal bone gave a dismissive bat of her free claw and shook her head with an unamused glare.

"Pah!" she scoffed. "You're in no position to be bargaining here."

"D-Don't you get it?!" Valatos buzzed. "We don't have that kind of time to wait on getting out!"

"They don't, actually," Nida explained, folding her ears back with a sigh.

"How so?" Tetsuzui asked, tilting her head quizzically.

"They're former pirates who were press-ganged into the Company," the Nidoran answered. "Back home, pirates on Community Service would get into really deep trouble if they continued to cause mischief afterwards. I don't think their bosses would go any easier on them… isn't that right Elty?"

The little Fire-Type rolled his eyes and grumbled loudly at the spike ball's verbal barbs. Tetsuzui looked back at the three lavender knot-necks before shutting her eyes and shaking her head. While she wasn't in any particular mood to care about their fates… perhaps their shortage of time could be worth something.

"Well then, maybe it's best that you three do something to earn your prompt return home," the elder Marowak demanded, pointing her club at the Yanmega. "Answer this 'Team Traveller's' questions truthfully and earnestly, and I will give you enough of your belongings to ensure your safe return."

The three Company Pokémon looked at each other uneasily, before the Bug-Type begrudgingly growled an affirmation.

"Grr… fine. What do you brats want to know?"

"Well first off, where did you hear about these bounties on us?" Nida demanded. "We didn't see anything of the sort when we were in town at all!"

"That's because the bounties haven't been listed yet," Valatos spat back. "We overheard that they were going to be put up around Aisle Town, and we wanted to capture you before that happened and everyone in the ranks would start looking for you!"

"Huh? Someone told you this?" Guardia asked. "But who?"

The three Pokémon blinked and clamped their mouths shut. Finally, Alvise shook his head and began to growl back…

"That's not relevant to the-"

… only to have his words die in his mouth upon seeing Tetsuzui take the badge in her claws and mime a throw off into the distance.

"Ack! Okay! Okay! Just don't throw that away!" he yelped. "We overheard Administrators Farn and Elilan talking with some Commissioner 'Lyn' guy!"

Elty twitched and froze at the mention of the names the dragonfly brought up, particularly 'Elilan' and 'Lyn'. The Fire-Type lowered his body and arched his back as an awful realization crept in amidst the tension. He had been so close to getting back into his old crew. If only that stupid bartender hadn't insisted on them paying a tab so soon! But, based off of the Manectric's words, there was only one logical conclusion to draw.

"We can't go back to Aisle Town," Elty muttered, hanging his head dejectedly.

"Eh?!" Pleo squawked. "What do you mean?!"

"You heard them," the dog growled, shaking his head bitterly. "Lyn's in port and there's bounties about to be posted with our faces on it! There's no way Lyn and his crew aren't already looking for us!"

Pleo beat out his wings with a start and jerked his head back. They couldn't go back? But- But-

"What about our mission?!" Pleo protested. "We were supposed to get Team Taxonomy their field notes back!"

"Oh, if you need to complete your mission, there shouldn't be a problem with that," Tetsuzui explained, gesturing at the lavender-scarved Pokémon ahead with her bone. "He'll deliver your notes to this 'Team Taxonomy'."

Her words immediately drew derisive scorn from the Yanmega and Manectric of the group.

"What, me?" Alvise scoffed. "Dream on, jerk!"

"Yeah, how do you plan on enforcing that, huh?" Valatos buzzed dismissively.

"Not you two," Tetsuzui scowled, before prodding her club against the belly of the Marowak against the ledge. "You, the one who still has fear for the dead and their dealings with this world."

"M-Me?" Nori squeaked.

"Did I misspeak?" the wizened Ground-Type demanded. "Tell me, what Colony do you come from?"

"Uh… the Green Hill Colony?" he answered.

"Well, I don't know how the Green Hill Colony has been raising its young if it's been spawning disgraces like you," the elder Marowak said. "Given your offense, I don't see why our colony would be willing to have your blood spoil our grounds where better majū have earned their rest. Or that of any young you may have, for that matter."

"G-Gih! Pl-Please don't do that!" the Company grunt pleaded. "A-All my ancestors are buried there!"

"Wait, Nori. You actually believe in this mumbo jumbo?" Alvise demanded. The wolf opened his mouth to continue, only to bite his tongue and flinch after hearing a growl come from the Marowak with the metallic club, her grip visibly tightened around it. After the Electric-Type was suitably cowed into silence to her liking, she scowled and turned her attention back to her disarmed counterpart.

"Well now, fortunately for you the dead do have a precedent for making things right," Tetsuzui continued. "Namely to come back to this colony with proof-in-claw that someone worthy can vouch for your right to be buried in the graveyard we defend."

Tetsuzui gave a look over her shoulder back at Pleo, who was nervously preening some wing feathers. The aged Ground-Type paused for a moment before turning back to her disarmed counterpart with a gruff grunt.

"Since we're on the topic," the elder Marowak pressed. "Need I remind you that there is a god who needs this book delivered? How many better opportunities to find that worthy soul do you think you'll get?"

"R-Right, it's just delivering a book… I can do that!" Nori overeagerly answered, leaving his companions to shoot unimpressed glares at their companion.

"My gods, you really are pathetic," Valatos buzzed. As the three continued to argue among each other, Nida suddenly broke the squabble with a cry.

"Alto!"

All eyes turned on the little spike ball who was hopping and waving for attention. After stopping for a moment, the Nidoran flicked her ears and cleared her throat.

"If he's delivering the journal anyways," she began. "Could I add a couple instructions?"

"Oh?" the elder Marowak asked. "By all means, go ahead. Though what were you going to request?"

"Just to take care of some paperworks so my team actually gets credit for this mission," Nida explained. The Nidoran pulled out Team Taxonomy's journal from her satchel, along with a scrap of paper, and doodled out a message requesting that her mission's receipt be mailed to the Tromba Island Guild. When she was done, she passed the two articles along to Tetsuzui, as everyone turned their attention back to the lavender-scarved Pokémon.

"There, we've told you everything we know," the Bug-Type growled. The Yanmega's wings were still too weak to support his weight in his winded state, leaving him to glower and scuttle about on the ground. "Can we get our stuff and go now?"

"Fine," Tetsuzui grunted. The Marowak kicked the three badges along with Nori's club over to the captive grunts, before slipping the book and the note into the Company lackeys' now-emptied satchel, and tossing it their way. The three eagerly scooped up and repinned their badges as the lavender-scarved Marowak returned his club back to the tight grip of his claws. Valatos poked his head into the satchel, and noticed something deeply amiss.

"Hey! You just gave us this stupid book and our badges!" he buzzed angrily. "Where's our items and our money?!"

"Bring it up with your 'teleporter' friends after your trip!" Tetsuzui growled.

"Our tri-?"

The colony leader gave a nod and charged forward with a pair of Marowak from the front. In a swift motion, the three Bone Keepers clubbed the Company Pokémon from the side and sent them tumbling along deeper into the mist. Quickly, the three forms fell from view as the sounds of falling screams rang out, growing fainter and fainter until they faded away entirely.

"Er," Pleo murmured uneasily. "Were they supposed to go that way in the fog?"

Guardia gave a troubled-sounding shudder as the racket seemed to stir up unwelcome memories, before shaking her head and giving a grunt.

"They'll wind up scattered among the floors much as any majū that attempts to enter the Distortion off its set paths would," she explained. "They have their badges, so from there, it's merely a matter of them calling for help."

Tetsuzui stopped to rap a series of beats onto a nearby stone, and was swiftly answered by the sound of a "Come on through!" from the voice of the elder of the two guards at the colony's entrance from up the unseen ledge. The assembly of Ground-Types began to gather up the pilfered belongings of the three square-necks and make their way up the ledge with their three guests.

After heading down the entrance, Team Traveller was led through the main chamber en route for a short bedrest. Along the way, a few of the Colony's members passed Team Traveller some items left over from the loot. The Ground-Types parted with an Oran and a Pecha Berry, along with several other objects they had less use for. Some of the objects seemed to have obvious uses, such as the Poké and silver-colored Thalers Nori and his companions kept in the bag, and a small map depicting a patch of islands in the Cradle's sea. There were also objects whose purpose seemed a mystery to most of the team, which consisted of a wooden disc with an asymmetrical ellipse cut into it, and a wooden wheel with two cross-spokes and a rotating straight-edge at the center.

"So now what?" Nida asked as they shuffled along tiredly towards the mouth of a familiar den. "We can't go back to town, but we can't just hang around here waiting for Lyn to find us!"

Before Nida could trudge another step forward, she saw her front paw was blocked by a metal club being moved in her way. The Poison-Type looked up and saw that Tetsuzui had come to meet them before they slipped past the entrance to the den.

"If you have someplace in mind to go, we have a way for you to leave," the elderly Marowak answered.

"Wait," the Nidoran murmured. "You do?"


As the team laid down for rest, Team Traveller had their wounds treated by the colony's healer. The berries were applied without bandages, and their pulp seemed thicker and more filling than normal- like the berry Margi had passed Pleo before leaving Boisocéan. Evidently, they healed a bit better as well, as Guardia's friends were able to stagger along tiredly after being treated.

Team Traveller's rest proved to be more fleeting than any of them desired, as before they knew it, the lot of them were awake and waiting tensely in the main chamber for a time that felt like an eternity. Every so often, a scout would return with information, though barring a fleeting sighting of Valatos and his companions squabbling with some manner of distant Psychic, there were no square-necks to be found. Unfortunately, that changed around the time the central chamber's fire-pit was being cleared out, when the scout came back wide-eyed and nervously whispered a report into Tetsuzui's ear.

"… I was hoping that we could wait until the sea fog was at its thickest, but it appears that we cannot wait any longer. One of our scouts spotted square-necks entering the dungeon, and it will not end well for anyone if they were to find you here," she told the fugitives. "Come along, I will show you the way I spoke of."

"Eh?" Nida asked, flicking her ears curiously. "But where is it?"

The elder Marowak made her way to the back end of the room where her chest throne sat, tugged at some bricks, and set them aside. As the stones came out, they revealed a passage behind with a thick fog swirling deeper within.

"Ah!" Elty yelped. "That's a path-!"

"... to our sacred observatory," Tetsuzui answered sternly. "Now come along, we don't have much time to waste."

The three locked their limbs along with Tetsuzui in front of a sea of curiously watching eyes and slipped down the misty trail, Mojisenshi and Machitabi's patrol following closely behind in a chain of their own. The elderly Marowak guided the three along a tight stone corridor, which rapidly filled with fog as they progressed. Eventually, Team Traveller came to a tall cave with scattered skylights, where light shone murkily through a faint mist. There in the center was one particularly large skylight… large enough to let a creature about the size of a Marowak out, assuming it could get up there…

An exit that was perfectly sized for the little Protector who now curiously stared up at it into the night sky.

"This is where our tribe comes to watch the spirits of our departed make their customary approach to our world from the realm of the departed gods each month," Tetsuzui explained, casting a quick glance up at the night sky above. "For you, it's a way out of here."

Elty looked instinctively up at the hole in the ceiling and gave a surprised yip. After following his gaze and straining her eyes a bit to account for the lack of light, Nida noticed that the lights cutting through the haze were none other than the stars and a fattened crescent moon approaching its first quarter in the night sky!

"Why didn't you all tell us about this earlier?" Nida wondered, turning back to Guardia with lowered ears.

"Well, it is a special place for the tribe," Guardia answered. "Besides, you didn't ask."

Elty briefly cast a wary glare over at the lined-skulled Cubone, before giving a skeptical look at Pleo as he preened one of his wings.

"Er… will the mewa even be able to take a third Pokémon?" he muttered, flattening out his ears.

"Oh?" Pleo replied, poking his head back up. "I don't think it should be a problem..."

The little Lugia waddled over and lowered his body to the ground. One after the other, Nida, Elty, and Guardia clambered atop the creature. After some scooting, scrunching, and locking limbs around Pleo's back plates, the three managed to secure positions along his back.

The bird flapped his wings, hopped up, and much to Guardia's squeaking surprise, circled around the room a couple times before coming back down to the ground. As the young Protector came to a flapping stop, the Cubone caught her breath and began to speak to her carrier.

"T-That didn't seem so bad!" she insisted, a nervous smile cracking below her helmeted snout. "What about you, Pleo?"

"I mean, it's a little heavier than normal," Pleo murmured, putting a wing to his mouth. "I think I can still fly everyone, but... where will we go?"

"Eh?" Guardia asked. "Shouldn't you be more worried about how you're going to give the slip to those purple-necked yajū?"

"That's the idea, bonehead," Elty growled. "We're not exactly planning on sticking around to wait for Lyn to find us!"

"And what about the next island?" she retorted. "Even an incompetent hunter knows that prey can't run forever."

Nida cringed. With their luck so far, they wouldn't be able to stay at the next island for long. As Guardia said, they'd have to move on to another... then another... then another.

"... She's right," Nida sighed. "The only way this will end is when we can finally go home to Tromba."

"B-But Nida! My power doesn't come out when I need it to!" Pleo squawked. "It didn't come out back at Boisocéan, and it didn't come out when we were fighting those mean Pokémon earlier-!"

"So perhaps your escape route ought to be one that would give you enough time to try and find out how this Protector's powers work," Tetsuzui offered. "After all, once your god is able to tap his strength, surely even those lavender knot-necks would be no match for him."

Nida paused and twitched her whiskers at the Marowak's words. She remembered her mamí's tale of how Pleo had drawn out his power with shining wings, sending Hess flying head over heels all the way from the fringes of town into his ship's mast. Her mind then projected Tromba's hated Commissioner into the scene, imagining Lyn flying further and further over the horizon… as an entire fleet of lavender ships and their lackeys scurried away in a panicked retreat from the warm glow of the island's Protector's plumes.

She blinked and returned back to reality, as she realized… If Pleo could figure out how to bring out his powers when he really needed it, no force in all the Cradle would be able to pry him away from the home where he belonged.

"Right, that settles it then! We'll just have to run somewhere where Pleo can practice his powers!" Nida cried, only to catch herself and let her ears droop sheepishly. "Except… where exactly do we go to do that?"

"Hrm… let's take a look," Elty mulled. The Growlithe stuck his head in the satchel on Nida's back, pulled out a folded-up piece of cloth, and hopped down to the ground. There he unfolded and spread out the sheet to reveal a brown-colored cloth. On it, there was a map of the nearby islands of the Cradle with a compass in an empty patch at the very bottom, the top proudly labeled 'Anyilla' in runes. The cloth was flecked with colored islands set against the backdrop of an uncolored sea. In between the lonely patches of land, light and dark blue lines crisscrossed the undyed patches between islands, going in graceful straight and slightly curved routes in parts and twisting awkwardly around patches of fog in the sea in others.

Each island had little flourishes of art to it- there was Tromba with some whirlpools offshore and fog hanging from the mountain, Boisocéan with its tree-village and the dungeon on its eastern coast, and Kenobi with its twin sets of peaks and a colorful town along the greener of the two. In the center of the map, there was a big, blood-red splotch labeled 'Dead Zone' with an island barely visible underneath a scratched-out 'X' in charcoal over it that obscured the label for the island's name.

"We should avoid the sea routes if we can, but there's a star chart on the back of this map," Elty explained, gesturing at the unfurled map on the ground. "So as long as we know where we're going, we can use that to help us get around instead."

Nida peered at the cloth map on the ground and saw that on the bottom by the compass were labels to faraway patches of sea such as 'Garanza' and 'Linglan'. Now that she was looking more carefully, it seemed there were many other islands with 'X' marks drawn over them in charcoal on the western side of the map, along with numbers scribbled by them. One labelled 'Giotto' seemed to have been crossed out particularly harshly, and was annotated with a 'Don't go back here' beside it. A few solitary islands towards the middle of the map were circled, including Boisocéan and one that seemed to be roughly north of Kenobi, as well as one labeled 'Orleigh' that had a star drawn on it. On the east side, most of the islands had squares about them, including Tromba and Kenobi.

"If that's Kenobi there, then it looks like we have four places we can go," Nida said.

"Three," the Growlithe corrected. "We're not seriously thinking of going back to Boisocéan, are we? If Lyn has told the Pokémon around here about us, he's probably told the Company Pokémon along the Spiral beacons back there as well."

"Right... well what about this island there?" Nida answered, as her eyes shifted to a square-marked island. "'Vollezee'? I know that I've heard that name get brought up by the guards back home, so there has to be a settlement on it…"

"That's because it's the Company's capital!" Elty growled exasperatedly. "That's not a place to lie low, that's a place to go and turn yourself in!"

Nida blanched and folded her ears back. Yes, that would be a poor choice for a temporary shelter to test Pleo's powers. Now that she thought about it, all of the square islands seemed to be places run by the Company. A realization began to dawn on the minds of Team Traveller's members: if the square islands were Company ones...

"So then… we just need to go to the islands without squares?" Pleo asked. "How about this one that looks like a donut with all the blue lines leading to it? It's about as far away as the other island…"

"The one with all the Subway passages leading to it? Otvaga Island? Nie dzięki," Elty frowned. "The island's inhabited by ferals and all the Pokémon like us live underwater!"

"Eh?! But what's wrong with water?" Pleo chirped. "I like water!"

"Uhm, hello? The rest of us are Pokémon that are meant to live on land," the Growlithe fumed. "Even if the Subway has air in it, I'm not getting wet if I can help it!"

"Isn't he the picky one?" Mojisenshi sighed. "I mean, it's not preferable but you did say it wasn't controlled by the Company."

"Yeah, water's a bit uncomfortable, but considering the alternatives, why not just suck it up and just use a reed snorkel?" Machitabi added.

"He might have a point, water aside," Nida replied, as she pointed at a number of blue lines crisscrossing the space between Kenobi and this 'Otvaga' that would need to be crossed. "It looks like we'd have to cut through several sea paths in order to get there. That's more opportunities to get spotted by Company ships."

"Oi, Gardie," Guardia interrupted. "What about the last island towards the far end of the map?"

"Eh? 'Mengir'? But it's all the way off near the edge of the Cradle!" Nida exclaimed. "And it's still controlled by the Company!"

"Maybe so, but take a look at where it is compared to us and that 'Vollezee' island from earlier," she explained, gesturing with her club. "If news about Pleo's godhood is still travelling around, this 'Mengir' wouldn't hear about it until Vollezee does."

"It's also close enough that you could fly to Otvaga afterwards without running into one of those 'sea paths' Nida was worried about," Tetsuzui added, inspecting the map from the side. "And it looks like if you know how to use the stars, you should be able to get to Mengir itself without crossing any of those paths either."

"Eh… Mengir? As in 'the island where Fensedge Village is' Mengir?" Elty hesitantly answered. "I dunno about that…"

"What's wrong with it?" Pleo asked.

"I mean it's a small settlement," Elty muttered. "But I haven't heard anything good about getting captured there."

"Elty, we're not pirates," Nida hissed. "And we'd be in danger of getting captured no matter where we went to!"

"Well, based off your comments, it seems you really have two choices: Otvaga and Mengir," Tetsuzui explained. "These Company majū don't run things in Otvaga, but it sounds like they'll be hunting for you on the way over. On the other hand, they do run Mengir, but you won't be hunted if you're careful about how you get there."

"I don't know how well we'd hold out if someone caught us at sea," Nida murmured. "I guess Mengir would have to be the better option."

"Bah, talk about being in between a rock in a hard place," Elty spat, shaking his head. "But it does seem like the lesser evil."

"I would be able to protect you all better if we weren't underwater, just saying," Guardia grunted.

"I guess we're going to Mengir then," Pleo sighed. "But how are we supposed to get there if we can't follow the beacons like last time? How would stars help us?"

"Well-" the elder Marowak began, only to be cut off by a yip from Elty.

"Like this!" he cried. The Growlithe flipped the map over and revealed a black field with clusters of white dots linked together by thin lines. A ring around the edge was labeled with the solstices and equinoxes, in between repeating patterns of seven marks. The Marowak with the Lairon club glared, but shook her head and relented.

"I suppose that would be faster than trying to teach you all the constellations in one night," she said. "Care to explain it to them, Gardie?"

Elty nodded and grabbed the circular wooden frame with the ellipse cut into it, placing it atop the star chart. Now that the team had the time to inspect it, it seemed the different parts of the ellipse were labeled with the cardinal directions, along with a notch at the very bottom. The Growlithe set the frame down on the map and slid it in place over the chart, aligning the notch with one of the marks in the ring near some runes reading 'Spring Equinox' before clearing his throat to speak.

"If you know the season and where the stars are in the sky, you can get an idea of where you're going," he explained. "The polestar is here at the end of the Little Bear, and if you turn to the northeast like we'd need to to fly to Mengir, you'd wind up following after the Hibernator."

"Hibernator?" Pleo asked, tilting his head.

"The Big Bear? The one that looks like an Ursaring? You know, big, brown and fuzzy like that one that chased us back at Boisocéan?" Elty replied. The mention of this 'Ursaring' drew an uncomfortable ruffle of feathers from Pleo and a blank look.

"Just… follow my paw," Elty sighed, flattening out his ears. "I'll point it out."

The Growlithe sat on his hindquarters and raised a paw up towards the sky. Pleo looked up, and followed the little dog's paw to a particularly bright star in the sky, and then a little to the right. After stopping and squinting at the place where Elty stopped his paws a bit, he could see that even if the fog seemed to dull the sun-colored tint their light normally had, there really were some stars that made the shape of a Ursaring when you squinted at them.

"So as long as I fly after those stars," he murmured, gesturing at the constellation with a wing. "We'll get to Mengir?"

"Assuming that spike ball or bonehead there can read that astrolabe, then we should at least get as far north as Mengir without any problems," Elty responded. "I'd do it myself, but it's not a stick-type that I can use."

"'Astrolabe'?" Guardia asked. "What sort of hut-dweller nonsense are you going on about?"

"I guess that's this thing?" Nida asked, as she pulled out the wooden wheel with the lever mounted at the center. Now that she was inspecting it, she noticed that the rim of it was labelled with numbers.

"But how does that thing help at all?" the Cubone scoffed.

"Simple, those Company sods already did the hard work for us and wrote down the islands' coordinates," Elty answered, before pulling the wooden panel off the star chart. The Fire-Type flipped the cloth back over to its map side, and pawed at the number scribbled beside the island labeled 'Mengir' before turning back to Nida. "Hold the astrolabe so its braces are straight with the horizon, and tilt the lever until it lines up with the polestar. When the number on the rim matches up with the number they wrote down, we've gone far enough north."

Nida blinked and stared blankly at the Growlithe before looking back down at the mariner's astrolabe. How long did it take this pudgy little ex-thief to learn all of this?

"That's… a lot more articulate than I expected you to be, Elty," she said.

"Well, I do have experience sailing on ships," he reminded. "Though thanks for not being so patronizing for once."

"But how do we tell how far we need to go to the right of the 'polestar', Elty?" Pleo asked.

"Er… that… I don't know how to calculate. I remember hearing that you're supposed to be able to do it by tracking the Travellers in the sky, but I don't know how," Elty answered reluctantly. "But hey, as long as we get as far north as we need to, we should be able to just keep flying until we reach the island! And we can always follow someone else afterwards to make up the difference."

Team Traveller's members looked at each other uneasily. This sounded like a much easier way to get lost, but… if they had to be careful about not following the beacons this time, did they have any choice? Nida looked up, and chanced to see the Voice of Life's Traveller starting to slip behind the hazy crescent moon.

"It'll have to do, come on," Nida sighed, shaking her head as she scooped up the simple astrolabe in her paws. "If we get going now, we should be able to slip out while the sea fog is still rolling in."

With that, Elty folded the map back up and rejoined Nida and Guardia atop Pleo's back. The bird paced along and beat his wings to get blood flowing in them, chancing to pass by Tetsuzui, Mojisenshi, and the Cubone from Machitabi's patrol, the smaller Pokemon trading uneasy looks with Guardia.

"You're sure you'll be alright, Guardia?" Mojisenshi asked.

"Yeah, so close to the realm of the departed and all," Machitabi murmured.

"I'll be fine," Guardia overhastily answered. The Cubone stared up at the crescent moon in the sky long and uneasily, before looking down and shaking her head.

"The dead are not yet fully smiling upon us, anyways," she added. "It's nothing that I can't handle."

"Thank you again, for everything," Nida said, giving a grateful bow to Tetsuzui.

"Our interests just happened to coincide, that is all," the leader Marowak grunted. "And you make sure to gather that lore, Shugodeshi!"

"Mrph, right! I will!" the Cubone promised. As Pleo hunkered down for his hop, Guardia looked up, and then back down uneasily at Pleo's bobbed head. "So how does this 'flying to another island' thing wo-"

The next sound heard was the sudden woosh of air as Pleo sailed up into the inky blackness, prompting a collective yelp as his passengers clung tight against the Lugia's body... followed shortly by the sound of a surprised, startled shriek.

"A-AAAAAH!" Guardia's voice rang out. "Not so high! Not so high! I can't see the ground!"

"That's the point!" a fainter Growlithe's voice snapped back. "It means that we won't be seen from there either!"

The four Cubone traded uneasy looks with each other as Guardia's cries started to fade with the distance. It wasn't like the dead to make a decision like this… was it?

"Well, at least she was quieter about it than I expected," Kamenkurai sighed.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…" Keikaiashi murmured.

"Tetsuzui-sama?" Mojisenshi asked. "Will Shugodeshi really be alright out there?"

"She'll be fine," the Marowak answered back. A faint, but still discernible "Y-You didn't mention flying being like this at all!" carried on with the winds, leaving the Marowak to blink and shake her head.

"Though I suppose it wouldn't hurt to petition the departed for a little extra help. Just in case."


Unbeknownst to Team Traveller, a few hours before their flight from Kenobi, events were stirring back across the sea at Boisocéan. As the night fell and the stars came out in the sky, the Siglo Swellow slipped out of Seahive's harbor for the open ocean. Unbeknownst to the lavender-scarved Pokémon aboard, the blue-shelled form of a Clawitzer was at the same time cutting along the waves to a waiting three-masted frigate with indigo sails lurking offshore. Each of the ship's sails were emblazoned with a trio of white rhombic designs, resembling three leaves fanning out about a stem. The shrimp slipped past a surprised looking Tentacruel and Sharpedo patrolling the water and sidled along the craft. The Clawitzer latched onto a rope ladder dangling over the side, pinching and pulling her way up to a deck full of Pokémon with similar indigo scarves, each bedecked with either one or two white rhombic leaves.

"I'm back," she grunted. Right away, the hubbub aboard the craft died down, and a Sandslash turned and sounded the call.

"Oi! Captain Nugget's ba- A-Aah!"

The creature ducked, narrowly dodging a glowing orb of water that zipped over his head. When he looked back up he was met with a withering glare from the weathered Clawitzer as she unfurled and pulled off her white scarf. Underneath was an indigo scarf similar to the other Pokémon on the ship, except hers bore three white leaves on it.

"For the thousandth time, Niilo. It's not 'Nugget'," she snapped. "It's 'Nagant!'"

"T-Take it easy, Kapteeni!" the Sandslash exclaimed. "It was just a slip!"

One after the other, Pokemon on the deck, joined by those patrolling the sea and air surrounding the vessel, began to crowd around her. Their captain had been gone for quite a while, and now was the time to learn why.

"What took you so long?!" the Beedrill first mate interjected, an anxious flit from his wings disturbing a scarf with two sets of leaves around his neck. "If we knew you'd be gone for almost two days, we'd have pulled into port after you!"

"Yeah, we were starting to worry you got into trouble or something!" a Ponyta with a single-leaved scarf cried out.

"If I were truly in trouble, I'd have sent word," Nagant scoffed. "Besides, how much do you think Boisocéan would let slip about what really happened if they saw a fregat pull into port with Imperial sails?"

"We have spare sails and scarves, though!" a Tentacruel protested from the water. "We could have gone in disguised!"

"With my ship?" she retorted. "How many ships this big come here on a regular basis? It would have shut up the locals before we so much as dropped anchor in port!"

The gathered Pokémon murmured to themselves, thinking it over… the old shrimp did make some sense. The Clawitzer scuffled over to the bow, and gestured at a moving shape close to the horizon. Those with sharper eyesight could vaguely see the shape of a schooner, though the markings couldn't be made out at this hour.

Fortunately, the captain could divulge its identity.

"Besides… if the square-necks out there had figured it out while we were in port, we might've had to engage them," she said. "The customary headache from Boisocéan over collateral aside, we don't want them to get blown out of the water… yet."

Nagant's words drew frowns and puzzled stares as the gathered indigo-scarved sailors turned and murmured to each other.

"Why do we want that again?" the Sandslash, apparently named 'Niilo', asked skeptically.

"Yeah, who cares what happens to some Company sods?!" the Ponyta spat.

"Because when I was on Boisocéan, I ran into some of those square-necks, and they're up to something," the Clawitzer answered. "Something big. And we're going to follow them to Kenobi to find out what."

"What?!" the Tentacruel from the sea escorts exclaimed. "Into Company waters?!"

Worried chattering began to float around the sailors on the frigate. Their captain couldn't seriously be suggesting that they sail into enemy waters, could she? On the other hand, a handful of Pokémon seemed to take the matter in stride, as the idea of a risky mission brought other concerns to mind.

"Does this mean we're getting paid extra?" Niilo pressed.

Nagant screwed her eyes shut and shook her body irritably. Her worn shell testified that she had seen many things in her long life: A time when crews like hers didn't need their numbers padded out by thrill-seekers, glorified mercenaries, and conscripted ex-pirates. A time when pirates kept their trade to the remote seas. A time when there was privilege afforded by nobility in her own life…

And of course, the season in which it all boiled away with the fall of empire, leaving her to claw what little of it she could back for herself. One constant remained between those two eras...

"Captain Nugg-" a Cranidos began, only to see the Clawitzer level her big claw at him. The dome-headed dinosaur promptly cried out and hastily amended his words with a startled squeal. "Ack! Nagant! Nagant!"

… even after the world she grew up in burned, Pokémon were still getting her name wrong.

"Our mission's just supposed to be finding out wh-what happened at Boisocéan a few days ago!" the Cranidos stammered. "You already f-found that out, didn't you?"

"Da," the Water-Type answered, bringing her claws back to rest as she continued on. "And I have a strong suspicion that a god was involved."

A… god? The murmuring about the gathered Pokémon grew anxious. Did Captain Nagant seriously mean to suggest that the Company had woken a god? They couldn't possibly have done that! Could they?

"Given that this matter could potentially determine the fate of each and every one of your hometowns, and whether they're forced to bow before those corporatist traitors," she gravely intoned. "Does anyone else want to raise any objections about flying false colors for a few days?"

Not a single word of protest came as, one after the other, the gathering of indigo-scarved Pokémon shook their heads. A few of them shuddered at the thought of what those lavender-clad traitors might do to their precious little worlds back onshore if they had a god aligned with them…

"Wonderful. Then send word out to the Admiralty and throw together a pattern for the spares. We'll change the sails when we near Kenobi," Nagant barked before turning for the ship's bridge. "Tell them that we'll be late coming into port, and that we found something that might be a potential casus belli."

An Aipom fished out some paper and charcoal from a satchel slung over her shoulder, and hastily scrawled a message before passing it off to a Drifblim. The Ghost-Type lowered his tendrils and hastily scooped it up before floating off to the northwest. The sails were lowered and the stone anchor was raised as the deck returned to its normal, busy clamor. Soon after, the escorts in the air and water stirred up gusts in the sky and currents in the sea respectively, to help get the bulky craft up to speed. Nagant carefully clambered down the bow of her ship, lowering herself down the timbers of the frigate's hull towards the waterline.

"And we'll be doing what we can to take care of the matter quietly," she said to herself, eying the dark shape on the horizon. "For the Empire."


Author's Notes:

- Matte! (待って!) - Japanese: "Wait!" (Hepburn Romanization)
- (¡)Alto! - Spanish: "Hold it!"
- Nie dzięki - Polish: "No thanks"
- Kapteeni - Finnish: "Captain"
- fregat (Фрeгат) - Russian: "frigate" (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
- Da (Да) - Russian: "Yes" (BGN/PCGN Romanization)