The inside of the place was dark, with all sunlight being barred from entry by the thick drapes and the only source of luminosity being feeble lamps which lined the path towards the core of the tent.
The abode of its namesake, the Sanctuary was an establishment built to combat Darkrai and his malignant influence upon the village. Inflicted Pokemon were brought here to be healed or woken up from their nightmares, when such a thing was possible, while Gothitelle made her own Chesto Berry concoctions to help others stay awake for longer periods of time. These concoctions were also generally supplemented with other elixirs whose effectiveness was somewhat... dubious, to say the least.
He didn't like the place, as he wasn't fond of its owner, but keeping an eye on her and on Hoothoot, who also resided there, was fairly important. It was just behind the Dojo on the scale of importance, actually.
This was partially because they were rather well-connected to the outside world, relative to the rest, so, with her and the travelling Druddigon, he could overhear information about what was happening elsewhere. But, most importantly, it was because he wanted to know in advance of any projects that were meant to help the town's situation with the nightmares.
Ideally, this meant that one day he would finally overhear Gothitelle mention the existence of Lunar Wings or, even better, that she had procured one for herself already. Such a marvelous scenario was limited to fantasy land, for now.
Regrettably, for how essential she was to Haven, Gothitelle had a lifelong vendetta against him, hating him with more passion than the rest of the village combined, which meant she would attempt to rile up the townsfolk against Darkrai at any given opportunity, whether it would be by exaggerating or simply fabricating issues he was causing. Luckily, they had learned that they never stood a chance against him, and so her calls for violence were met only with fear-induced passivity.
The only thing going up into the Blightwoods would bring you is severe injuries and a coma, and he had made sure that they all understood that well at this point.
Being in the tent made him feel... somewhat paranoid. He wasn't scared of Gothitelle, quite the contrary, the only townsfolk more pathetic than her were unevolved, but to so easily infiltrate the lair of someone who loathed him so felt... wrong.
And, worst of all, it wasn't execration for no good reason, either. She was someone he had done much wrong to, all accidental, of course — as all of the damage he ever did was — but she had ample reason to revile him as she did.
Gothitelle was one of the oldest inhabitants of Haven, having had to live almost her entire life under the dreadful shadow cast by him. Initially, as a Gothorita, she started the Sanctuary because her kind were fairly adept at dealing with issues relating to the Dream Realm. Her taking the adequate measures to counter the nightmares was why he had decided that staying near the village would be the most prudent thing to do. Sometimes, she had even managed to guide others out of their nightmares by entering their subconscious herself, a psychic trick which he would have found very intrusive in any other circumstance.
One such expedition into the mind of an afflicted Pokemon ended with her as the victim.
While she did come out of the ordeal alive, being saved by the intervention of one of the Dream Eaters at the time, Gardevoir, losing herself and getting trapped within the nightmare of another was not without consequences: she had severe migraines and fevers within the following days and, as those symptoms began to lessen over time, so too did her psychic powers whittle down in potency before completely vanishing. This did not only apply to her moves, but to her distinct abilities to project and read the stars as well as the power to walk dreams. Following this loss, it all became much more personal to her.
He watched as it all played out from the side lines, he couldn't do much for her anyhow but, contrary to what she thought, he didn't want for her to have to go through such torment and to amputate the town of someone as effective as her. He had been quite appreciative of Gothitelle before this episode, now he was just left confused as to what to think of her, and that was very frustrating.
It reminded him of Cresselia who, in spite of her being necessary for helping those he had hurt, became more and more hostile towards him later on. In the end, it was fairly understandable, who wouldn't get irritated if their main concern in life was to forever trail their brother because, by selfishly wanting to visit a town, he could inadvertently turn the afternoon nap of an innocent Drampa into a deathly coma, among other tales?
At least, he had become a little more responsible since those days... though, the fact that he was in a populated area right now did reinforce that it was only 'a little more'.
"So if she's such a problem, let's just get rid of her!" He heard the familiar voice of Hoothoot, the current Dream Eater, from the room he had on the point of entering. Get rid of her? Who was 'her'?
"It is true that she has been becoming quite the burden to bear for us," now the voice of Gallade, the Guardian of the village, took over as Darkrai entered the room they were talking within, positioning himself not on the ground but on the ceiling of the tent. Gallade's presence here meant that he had no reason to go to the Dojo later on, really, which would avoid the risk of getting hit with a stray attack there.
"I'm not saying that we should kick her out just yet, but if this continues at the current rate, I will be forced to put the safety of the village first," he finished while leaning against a crate of glass bottles filled with unknown brewery.
The owl standing on the table next to him vigorously nodded, turning to look towards a dark passage between the drapes. Who was it that they were speaking about? Had one of the Murkrows gone too far and done something heinous, again?
"As of right now, Espurr may be causing some... issues, but she'll ultimately be very useful for the community's protection as Dream Eater," and in came Gothitelle, her tattered self striding out from somewhere between the darkness of the decorative drapery the bird had been staring into, giving it her best to appear at least somewhat elegant, to no avail.
He couldn't help but recoil at the sight of her. Perhaps he was acting overly emotional, she was still helping the town, after all, but the impulse was stronger than he was.
Hoothoot immediately flew over to her, landing on top of the black disks which lined her head. "But Gothi, I'm here to do all the things you want the little vermin to do already!" Hoothoot was quite the odd Pokemon, but his presence was appreciated, as he was a Dream Eater who didn't get sick, but rather enjoyed, feeding on nightmares. Quite convenient to have around.
"I wouldn't word it that way, but that does raise a good question which I'm asking for an answer to: why do we need her when we already have him?" Gallade asked, which was a legitimate question. Darkrai wasn't sure why they would need two Dream Eaters when generally not more than one Pokemon was plagued at a time. As an assurance, in case the current one were to pass, maybe? For the coming night of the New Moon?
"Exactly!" Hoothoot exclaimed. "And, unlike you psychics, I don't get sick from eating only nightmares, I'm the best choice! Yes, yes! Keep me!" It was useful that he didn't need to be put under care himself after saving someone from a nightmare, which was a problem that absorbing the dark-type energy of the night terrors caused to psychic-types. The only issue was how often he did save Pokemon from Darkrai's nightmares: there had been a sharp and obvious decrease in recoveries since Gardevoir had passed.
"Right, if I need to put it plainly for you all to understand: Dream Eater is most effective when used by psychic-types, more lives could be saved by her than by you, Hoothoot," that sounded intuitively true, yet it was just as likely that he was simply bad at using that move to the end of dissipating nightmares. Really, it was meant to be used to feed, Gardevoir may have been better at using it to heal others due to the predispositions of her kind towards care and protection. "Must I remind you of how many times you've failed to wake the blighted up? And must I also remind you that you were always meant to be temporary in that position, yet you somehow stuck around?"
Hoothoot narrowed his eyes. "But I love my job! And I do good work! I was even the one who found Gardie when she fell into her nightmare! I'm very committed to the job! Yes, yes!" Gardevoir's story was an old one at this point, but there was always something odd about it, whatever was she doing so deep in the woods in the first place?
"And then you failed to wake her up, which I consider to prove my point. The psychic outbursts will continue until she evolves, at least, but she's staying. Is that clear?" Espurr was someone he had mixed feelings on as well, but he would not mind her continuing her stay in Haven. They were both in a similar conundrum, neither of their powers were quite under their control, which lead to others getting mildly injured due to psychic outbursts on her side and Pokemon being emotionally scarred for life or just ending up dead on his.
"All clear," Hoothoot responded in an irked tone as he rolled his eyes. Poor bird, would likely be getting replaced, but it was for the good of the village.
Gallade sighed. "But why do we need to employ somebody with her... defects? She's impractical to keep around," Darkrai would love for them to import, say, a Drowzee from somewhere outside of town, those were fairly good at anything dream related and could almost certainly help in a myriad of ways with such expertise. They knew about Lunar Wings, after all.
"Leavanny found her while outside of town, not me," Gothitelle explained. "Luckily, her age means that she can be distracted from just about anything happening around her by dangling a Pollen Puff in front of her face, so we don't risk her needing a pay raise to stay or having her suddenly leave because she couldn't stomach life here, like that cursed Shiinotic did."
The sound made by Gallade suddenly slashing the wooden table with his arm-blade made them all recoil. "This isn't fair!" He exclaimed. "I don't want to have to continue living like this!"
"See? That's the exact energy we need to finally be rid of that thing!" Gothitelle responded. "Wanting to defend ourselves is great and all, I appreciate those who stand up to do it. Such as the Dream Eaters," Hoothoot gave a slight bow and a nod. "But we need to be more offensive. We need to collectively go up there and put that demon out of its misery! Sadly, a lot of us are cowards and, let's face it, some are likely under its spell," what a foolish plan that would be, it would end up with most of the town being cast into a coma with Dark Void. But it's not like she would put any sort of concern for their safety before her schemes of vengeance. "You could be the hero this town needs, just do something already!"
Gallade sighed after having composed himself. "We've been there, Bisharp tried to do just that, and he isn't around anymore for that reason," the former Guardian had been disposed of. It wasn't like Darkrai could have done anything else in that situation. As much as he didn't want to do it, it was not his fault that Bisharp chose to interpret Darkrai's retreats as confirmation that he had the upper hand, rather than the openings for him to leave an unwinnable duel that they were meant to be. "For now, the course of action is to not disturb it, the only other competent fighters in town are Scyther and Ursaring, and that won't be enough. Leave it be and lie low."
"It'll kill us all eventually, anyway, we're idling while at our weakest," she muttered.
"Is there no one out there we could call to, then? The Swords of Justice? Zacian and Zamazenta? Anyone?" Gallade continued. His family members didn't quite care about what he was doing in lonely Haven. Ironically enough, he was probably the only one who did care about Haven's well-being.
And that was a good thing, not only would it be incredibly embarrassing for any of them to have to be the ones to have to explain to the village his whole ordeal for him, it would also just be useless: at best Cobalion might come over and politely ask him to vacate the area and then turn back and leave himself after receiving Darkrai's refusal, and that simply wouldn't be a productive usage of the leader of the Swords' time and nothing will have changed for anyone.
"Neither are exactly easy groups to contact, you know," Gothitelle responded. Right, good luck finding them, he wasn't quite sure what they were up to now, when Kyurem wasn't sound of mind enough to guide them as he once had. He recalled hearing that they rarely stood in one location, the trio (or apparently quartet now. Congratulations, Keldeo) were always up and about, as were the duo, protecting the innocents and delivering justice or whatever.
He turned his sight back towards the two, waiting for whatever Gallade's response would be, but their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a sudden eruption followed by a slight shaking of the earth.
Gothitelle and Gallade both looked to each other, wide-eyed, and then quickly ran outside, Darkrai slithering down from the ceiling and after them.
All four of them were quite well aware of who was behind the squall.
Gallade was the first to run over to the site of the disaster, unwittingly transporting Darkrai in his shadow, and with Gothitelle and Hoothoot following closely behind, more willing to take their time getting there than he was.
The extremity of the marketplace had been ruined: debris, in the form of bent or broken planks of wood, of the torn fabric from what had once been a shop and of various valuable items, was littered across the pathway, some of the stores were only partially damaged while one of the stalls had been completely levelled.
"What happened here?" Gallade asked as he started to scan the field once the dust had fully settled, being met with the sight of Espurr, distraught and looking over to the mess she had caused and which was slowly getting covered by the curious Murkrows.
"I'll tell you what happened: that hazardous pest blew my shop up!" Druddigon emerged from the pile of debris which used to be her shop, startling the birds inspecting it. She coughed out the dust and sand she had gotten in her mouth and pointed to Espurr, who shrivelled up in fear at the dragon's sudden hand movement.
"I'm so sorry," the little one murmured, her voice trembling and her eyes too embarrassed to be fixated on anything other than the ground, earning her a vexed growl from Druddigon.
Gallade initially tried to chase away the Murkrows, which had all descended upon the site and were picking apart anything of value they could find, but his attention soon turned towards someone else: Lampent, who had just tortuously emerged from a pile of debris as well, had a visible fracture running across his spherical, glass head.
"Lampent, are you alright?" Gallade asked after running over to help him, instantly being joined by Mothim at Lampent's side, doing her best to keep him afloat.
"Y—yes, just... hurt," the wounded Pokemon struggled to say while verifying that no shards of glass from his cracked body were falling off of him.
It dawned on Darkrai just how badly this could have ended: not only did he risk fainting, and thus falling into a never-ending nightmare, but a slightly more severe accident caused by her could have quite simply destroyed him all the same, and then the fault would not have been his, but Espurr's. As much as he identified himself and sympathised with her, it was in no uncertain terms that she could very well indeed be described as a hazard.
...A hazard whose presence only helped to exacerbate an already existing sense of insecurity due to him, of course, so it still wouldn't feel quite right for him to want for her to leave due to this. It had always been a struggle to justify both the value he placed on the town's security and his will to continue living there, now he also had to contend with the risk of being a hypocrite on top of it all.
"You're asking if he's alright?" Druddigon cried out. "What about me and my shop?" She sure did have her priorities straight, if only giving any care about a Pokemon who had been almost fatally injured was higher up on her list. "I've got places to be, much more lucrative places! And I make an effort to come to this middle of nowhere, only to get everything I own smothered into the ground? Why did you crush my shop?"
"I'm so so so sorry! It won't happen again!" Espurr cried, tugging on her ears to better cover the peculiar organs from which emanated her psychic powers. "I just touched the shiny rock there and I couldn't keep calm! I don't understand why, but it wasn't on purpose!" An Espurr generally lost control of her powers once it had been overwhelmed by a certain emotion which precluded it from actively being able to concentrate on suppressing its own power leakage. It must be quite the chore for her, to have to actively suppress it at all times, though Darkrai himself would prefer such an option over having none at all.
"Excuses won't put my store back in order!" Druddigon shouted at her, seeming no less inclined to give any leeway in this case, though what she expected to get in compensation from a child was anyone's guess.
They then heard a loud stomping noise coming from behind them: Ursaring, the local builder of just about everything there was in the town, was running over to where the others had gathered, scaring off the Murkrow for good and instantly starting to pick up the littered planks and other debris in order to repair any damages which had been done to the marketplace. "Don't worry about a thing, Miss Druddigon, all damages caused by her are covered already," practical, but whomever that kind soul was would now be forced to pay either a hefty sum or help in some tiring reparations.
"And by whom?" Druddigon asked aloud while Darkrai uttered the question only in his head.
"Uhm, hello!" Leavanny called, running over from between the crowd which had formed and respectfully bowing in front of Druddigon. "That would be me, I'm the one assuring Espurr's outbursts."
"Well, then you'd better pay up!"
"Right, we can negotiate, but in a second!" She was answered with a growl as she turned to the gray Pokemon standing by her and on the verge of tears. "Are you alright, Espurr?"
"I'm fine," she answered, walking over to and hugging Leavanny's leg. "I didn't get hurt."
"Druddigon isn't wrong when she calls her a hazard," Mothim told Leavanny after Lampent was confirmed to still be in one piece. "Look at what she did to my poor Lampent!" She pushed herself up against his face.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Lampent assured, still sounding rather weak.
"He risked fainting because of her!" Mothim started. "And what would have happened after that? My dear Lampent would've been taken by the Nightmare Weaver, that's what! While she's here, none of us are safe!"
"I understand but—" Leavanny tried to respond but was immediately cut off by Gothitelle stepping in front of her.
"Shame on you all for condemning a little girl experiencing problems inherent to her species foremost, all while being too cowardly to address what the real plight of Haven is," Gothitelle began the monologue Darkrai had been expecting.
Hopefully this would amount to nothing, maybe fear lead to hate, but the latter didn't always surpass the former when it came to its hold over the heart, and she had been failing to rally anyone against him fairly consistently now. And, it wasn't like there were too many of them there who could hope to stand up to him, those few brave or strong enough to answer her initial calls were no longer amongst them.
"Our real enemy lurks up there," she pointed towards the Blightwoods, though his lair wasn't even in the exact direction she was pointing to. "And I'm sure that it delights in watching us further divide ourselves over such petty stories! You having to fear for him fainting so much, when getting knocked out is so natural anywhere else, is the core problem of Haven, not her mildly bruising him," she went silent for a moment, observing the attentive yet visibly fearful crowd. It was more than a mild bruise, but that could be ignored for the sake of the rhetoric. "I have told you before and I will tell you again: we don't have to continue living like this, but we can stand up to it!" Her speech and tone of voice shifted into pleading, as she saw that none were enthusiastic to entertain her project, which had failed so many times before.
"It can't fight us all at once, so let's go and put that demon out of its misery already!" Everyone was slowly leaving the marketplace, fearing that what she had just said would bring upon them the ire of the 'demon'. An irrational worry, it was, as he had never attempted to attack the town or even shown himself there at all.
"I reiterate: useless cowards," she murmured, at this point almost none were left listening.
"We know of your grievances with it, Gothitelle, but no," Gallade said as he walked up to her. "We will put no more lives at risk."
"Useless. Coward. Under mind control or possessed, perhaps," this accusation was another trick which had long since stopped working. Though it had gotten some exiled before, after the mounting decades, it had become more and more reasonable to think that they would not stand a chance and to thus take a more pathetic, defeatist approach to the issue. A welcomed development it was, truly.
"I assure you, it's neither, but I think you know that well enough," Gallade was unfazed by such remarks, how focused the current Guardian was on solely defending themselves was another welcomed development.
She huffed and turned around. "Lampent," she called. "Come with if you want to be healed," he obeyed, being followed along by Mothim, who gave one final glare towards Espurr before disappearing into the Sanctuary.
Levanny patted Espurr on the head in an attempt to comfort her. "There, there, little one. It'll all be fine, I promise you that," she managed to say before Druddigon nagged her hand away.
"You can focus on fixing her case after you fix mine!" What an inamicable merchant she was. Frankly, had her Shinies Shop not had as much success as it did with the locals, and, were overhearing her recounting of her journeys not necessary for Darkrai's understanding of what was happening outside of the village, she would likely have enjoyed a nightmare just horrific enough to make her never want to return to Haven by now. Sadly, he had to tolerate her, luckily, she didn't stick around for too long.
"Right, of course," the bug tugged her arm out of Druddigon's grasp. "I'll take care of this and I'll be right back for you, okay?" She told Espurr, who simply nodded and began to slowly walk away from the place.
From the corner of his eye, Darkrai noticed Ursaring and Gallade rummaging through the piles of derelict material from the shop and Ursaring pulled and handed to Gallade an item which made the Nightmare Weaver stop in his tracks and observe them: a Life Orb. A 'shiny rock'.
The issue was clearer to him, now. The accident hadn't been entirely her fault, if she had truly touched it. Why would she have become emotional to the point of losing composure over a rock? A Life Orb, an item which was made from a specific crystal excavated in the Carbink Mines and further strengthened the holder at the expense of his own health.
Of course, this became an issue with an Espurr, which was, in a sense, always using an attack, having to stave off outbursts of psychic energy at all times. So a sudden rise in the power of that energy would have caused her to temporarily be unable to keep it in. At least that was the theory.
This wasn't a safe item to keep in Haven, not at all. But, for now he was far more preoccupied with Espurr and what she would end up doing. Perhaps he would find a way to get rid of the Orb later on, but he trusted that Druddigon had explained the intricacies of it, which she was sure to know.
As the little Pokemon continued her sorrowful walk down the street of the marketplace with Darkrai hiding in her uncomfortably small shadow, she was avoided to an almost comical degree by all those around her: most would cross to the other side of the pathway so as to stay as far away from Espurr as possible and could not stop staring her down while she passed by.
It wasn't unwarranted, but seeing how nervous they were around a child was not a good sign for the possibility of Darkrai ever reconciling with the village, either.
Her slow and upset walk through the village continued until she arrived at an empty alleyway between two homes in the residential quarter, sitting down and curling up against a wall in the relative silence.
Well, it seemed as though he would just need to leave her there, there wasn't much he could do to help her—
"Espurr!" Hoothoot came crashing down from the air, his sudden shout startling them both and causing Darkrai to retreat a distance deeper into the shadows of the alleyway, initially believing himself under attack.
"Uh? Oh! Hello, Hoothoot!" Espurr jumped up in fear and then immediately scrambled to wipe the tears which had begun to stream down her cheeks.
"Espurr! Your help is needed! Your help is needed! Come with! Come with!" The owl got back up and flew into the air, continuing to scream at her before his irritation at her continued confusion and lack of a response quickly caused him to turn to pecking and pulling her fur.
Espurr pushed him away as he sought to grab her with his claws. "Just explain why!" She cried out, frustrated by the sudden nagging.
"Nightmare! Someone's having a nightmare! Come quick and help!" He responded.
...
At those words, Darkrai felt his stomach sink. His complacency had finally done it. His selfish meandering through the town had finally taken someone.