Chapter 28 - Tension
Neuengelstadt, 20. Herbstmond, 1027 n. d. B.
An Viertels Oberwachtmeister Lua Olangaarstochter,
Meine Untergebenen haben Ihren Bericht weitergeleitet, den Ihre Kontakte von der „Diebesgilde" dieser Stadt über unsere Interessenpartei übermittelt haben. Es genügt zu sagen, dass wir uns sehr gefreut haben zu hören, dass Ihre Kontakte ihre Anwesenheit in einem bekannten Schwarm von Abschaum und Schurken in Ihrem Bezirk bestätigen und sogar so weit gehen konnten, dabei zu helfen, sie aufzuspüren und zu meinen Streitkräften bei der königlichen Bibliothek wie geplant zu lenken.
Bedauerlicherweise muss ich Sie aufgrund früherer Präzedenzfälle noch weiter belästigen und Sie zwingen, Vorkehrungen für den Fall zu treffen, dass es unseren Bemühungen in der königlichen Bibliothek nicht gelingt, diese Schurken zu fassen. So unglaublich es auch erscheinen mag, insbesondere die Milza unter ihnen verfügt über Fähigkeiten, die es besonders schwer machen, sie zu fassen, und sie verfügt seit langem über die Fähigkeit und das Glück, sie gut genug einzusetzen, um unseren Fängen zu entkommen.
Sollten Sie heute von irgendeiner Art von Unruhe im Verwaltungsbezirk rund um die Universität von Wahrheit hören, müssen Sie Ihren Ansprechpartner und alle relevanten Parteien bitten, alle Pokémon aus der Diebesgilde, die unseren Zielen begegnet sind, sofort zur Befragung beiseite zu legen. Entlocken Sie ihnen so viele Einzelheiten wie möglich über ihr derzeitiges Versteck und geplante zukünftige Bewegungen in der Stadt. Aufgrund meines Verständnisses der Dynamik, die sie in dieser Stadt involviert, vermute ich, dass sie recht kooperativ sein werden.
Für den Fall, dass unsere Interessengruppe uns in der königlichen Bibliothek entgeht, werde ich einen meiner Untergebenen entsenden, um den Sachverhalt bezüglich des Verstecks unserer Zielpartei zu überprüfen, damit wir dort einen Überfall organisieren können.
Meine einzige Bitte besteht darin, meinen Untergebenen alle Informationen und Unterstützung zu erhalten, die nötig wären, um eine solche Razzia relativ geheim zu halten. Auch wenn ich vollkommen damit zufrieden wäre, die Sündengrube, in der sich meine Ziele versteckten, niederzubrennen, um sie gefangen zu nehmen, erfordert die Realität meiner Mission, dass ich relativ umsichtig bleibe.
Dies ist eine existenzielle Angelegenheit für das Königreich, und es gibt für keinen von uns einen Spielraum für Fehler. Noch weniger, um zu riskieren, dass Akteure unter den Feinden des Reiches, die aktiv gegen dieses Land, das wir „Wahrheit" nennen, planen und seine Bewohner auf diese Machenschaften oder ihre Bedeutung aufmerksam gemacht werden.
- Dringende Depesche von Graf von Wellenhafen, Lacan Dragoransohn an Viertels Oberwachmeister Lua Olangaarstochter vom Wohnviertel Schiffsplatz
Fourteen… Fifteen… Irune swore they hadn't gone up this many floors on the way to the Upper Streets from that ancient tunnel. She kept running down the stairs, occasionally flinching whenever she thought she heard a door opening or shouting coming from further above.
She didn't know how much more of this she could take right now. Everything had gone wrong. Her status as this 'Dyad' had been outed to a group of Pokémon that had no use for her aside from needing her to get treasure, and they were now trapped in the middle of a city full of Grünhäuter searching for them.
She didn't even know how they were going to get out of this shaft right now. Even if it weren't for the poor lighting coming from Lyle's fire bouncing along as he ran, the bare concrete all around just blended in with each other, and she didn't recognize the door they came through.
"D-Dalton?! Where are we going?!" Irune cried. "There's no way we can outrun those soldiers all the way to the bottom like this!"
"To that tunnel we went through on the way up!" the Heliolisk insisted. "It's three floors down and connected to other shafts! If we're lucky, we'll be able to hitch a ride with a passing Puller without getting noticed!"
Irune didn't know how to feel about Dalton being the one who was suddenly counting on luck breaking in their favor. Things must've been more dire than she realized.
The Axew counted down the floors as they made their way further and further down. Three more floors, two more, one… when they came across the wooden door and its rusted hinges. Before she could say anything, Lyle all but threw himself at it as it lurched open and she stumbled through the doorway along with her teammates. They stepped out into inky blackness that Lyle's fire aside, was punctuated only by the glow of the lanterns along the tunnel's ceiling and the dull sound of rain.
She looked along frantically as her breath caught in her throat as Kate tried to cake up ice to jam up the door behind them. There wasn't a wagon already here, so that meant they needed to find another door to keep going down, but which one?! Wouldn't whatever stairs they found just take them back to the University? Would they really be able to get past the guards down there?
Irune breathed in and out tensely as she felt burning warmth flood her body and felt her eyes shrink. No, no, no. Not here, not now. Her mind started to go blank and his vision went fuzzy with panic, when a faint clatter pricked her ears from off to the left.
"Gah, this just isn't my day. First I get stopped and searched for no reason, and now I have to put up with this racket?"
The power inside her calmed as she felt Lyle jerk her away from the railing. She looked back at her teammates, and caught a faint glimpse of Dalton motioning for a stop after Lyle briefly pushed fire out of his vents before hurriedly smothering it. After a moment, she heard it herself: the sound of rumbling wheels echoing from further down down the tunnel. Irune strained her eyes as she saw shapes approaching them down the tunnel spaced out from each other, with the first one being a lumbering figure with a cart carrying a tall heap… that same Camerupt they saw from earlier in the day, now pulling along a cargo of hay on a rickety cart.
There was a moment of blinking disbelief, as she looked over to her teammates and saw Kate flick her ears with a quiet huff.
"Think we can work with that one, Scales?" she asked.
"Yeah, just lay low and wait for my signal," the Heliolisk replied. "The dim lighting should help us avoid getting spotted by anyone else in this tunnel, but we're only going to get one chance to sneak aboard."
… What on earth would a Puller be doing with all that hay here anyways? Wasn't this passage coming down from further up these human ruins? Irune felt fur against her flank and shoulder and snapped back to attention, seeing Lyle brush up against her and swivel his ears towards the door Kate jammed. She turned around and listened in herself, when there was suddenly a sharp thump from somewhere behind it.
"Alles Klar!"
Irune's breath caught in her throat. It was faint enough that she couldn't hear the other voices with it clearly, other than that the one that'd just shouted wasn't alone. With how bad an Axew's hearing was compared to most warmbloods' like Lyle, it couldn't have been that far away. She turned her head back for the ledge overlooking the road, where the Camerupt was starting to pass by, just barely a dozen paces away from them.
The Puller didn't raise his head and kept continuing on—either not seeing them or not caring. She briefly caught a glimpse of Kate tilting her head and motioning as the Camerupt's body passed them.
"... Scales, are we going to jump aboard," she hushed "Or-?"
"Wait for him to get closer," the Heliolisk insisted.
Irune heard the voices from the stairwell start to grow more and more distinct coming from the other side of the door. Footsteps, then hesitation and a loud noise, and an "Alles Klar!" that grew more and more noticeable with each repetition. She felt her breaths come shorter and more panicky as any moment, expecting to be set upon by a snarling wall of flesh and green armor. One that her only hope of withstanding was that power that she could barely control.
"Now!" the Heliolisk whispered.
Irune whirled around just as Dalton took off running and vaulted off the ledge onto the cart's hay pile. She lurched ahead and saw Kate's claws grabbing a hand, all but dragging her off her feet, when there was suddenly air underneath them.
The Axew's eyes widened and she tried to fight back a yelp as she saw the wooden edge of the cart pass by, and then landed face-first into the hay pile. She squirmed and wriggled onto her belly, just in time to see Kate latch onto the cart's edge and pull herself over.
Except, something was wrong, Lyle wasn't here.
The cart abruptly stopped and the Axew held her breath. Had the Camerupt overheard them? There was a tense silence, as she peeked past and noticed Lyle up along the railing of the tunnel. He paced back briefly as the cart suddenly began to move along again. She briefly saw the Quilava's vents spark to life in alarm, and then suddenly his again-darkened form blurred together with a lunge that sent him over the railing, and through the air… straight towards her.
She rolled out of the way as Lyle landed in the hay with a soft crunch and saw him sprawled out next to her panting, his vents visibly smoldering. She heard shuffling and saw that Dalton was starting to bury himself in the hay, and tilted her head puzzledly.
"Dalton, what are you-?"
She didn't get an answer when frigid claws suddenly dragged her under into the hay pile and everything went dark. The wagon started moving again, as she heard voices barking out in the distance and saw a hazy blue light overhead in between the straw. Then another. And another.
"Keep yourself hidden," Kate whispered. "With all those Grünhäuter who were up there, the skies around here are probably filled with Air Marshals right now."
Irune supposed that made sense, and the fliers in Lacan's Fähnlein would've been the ones most likely to keep pace with the Salamence out to Newangle City. The Axew crunched her body lower into the hay and breathed in… almost immediately regretted it. The hay smelled stale and reeked of what she hoped was musk—spent bedding that for whatever godsforsaken reason hadn't been reused as kindling for fire. She fought back a gag, as her breathing slowed to a more regular pace while her heart continued to pound in her chest like a startled Butterfree.
It was so hard to tell what was going on outside. All she could hear was the wagon rolling and the faint sound of the rainstorm from outside the tunnel. The hay next to her right shifted, as a patch off to the left suddenly answered in kind.
"Psst, Lyle. How many of those lights were supposed to be there in this tunnel again?" Kate's voice whispered. "Not that I mind getting a free ride, but it'd be nice to ditch this thing sometime soon. This hay stinks, and it's getting kinda itchy."
And then the wagon came to an abrupt, clattering stop. The patch of hay where Lyle was suddenly smelled singed as the Camerupt's voice suddenly cried out in surprise. The sound of pouring rain and other voices up ahead followed, then furious snorts as the Puller began to stomp his feet.
"Oh for crying out loud, again?! What is it this time?!" the Camerupt's voice demanded. "This isn't even a proper tollbooth!"
"Sorry, but there's been a disturbance in the Imperial Library," a grunting voice answered. "We've been ordered to check all outbound traffic as part of a 'monhunt."
Irune held her breath and went still as her heart raced in a panic. Gods, they'd been so close! After all the times they'd managed to slip away, they were really going to get found out at a spot checkpoint?
And what about the others? When the guards found them, they'd- The Axew's thoughts trailed off as she started to feel bleary-eyed and felt her body quiver against the straw. She braced herself, for limbs suddenly pawing through the straw from above, when the Camerupt's voice came from outside the hay pile in a frustrated bellow.
"You said you were checking all inbound traffic just a couple hours ago!" the Camerupt fumed. "I was late dropping off my deliveries up top and now you're going to make me late again?!"
"Easy buddy, we don't like this any more than you do," a buzzing voice answered. "But orders are orders. So give us a moment to have a look around, and we'll let you go-"
"What, is this your new scam now? Look, if it's money you want, just take it and let me go already! I'm going to get my pay docked if I'm late for another delivery today!"
There was a noticeable pause after the Camerupt's retort, where for a moment Irune could only hear the sound of the pouring rain from beyond the tunnel. There was also the sound of other wagons approaching and stopping along with some quiet murmuring, whether it was from Grünhäuter or other Pokémon, Irune wasn't sure, until she heard the grunting voice pipe up again in a wary tone.
"... How much money are we talking here?" the voice asked. "I mean, we can't just wave you through, but it's not like we've got all day anyways to search a big hay pile-"
The cart abruptly creaked and shuddered. Then something metallic clinked against the ground, and then more angry stomping and shouting.
"Just take it and let me be, you useless leeches!"
A few impatient cries from further down the tunnel of "hurry up, already" along with a testy "Beeil dich₁" joined in, before the first voice cut in with a sharp buzz.
"Alright! Alright!" the guard's voice grumbled. "Sheesh… Meinrad, just let me do a quick flyover and let the 'mon go. If this traffic backup winds up letting those suspects get away, we're never gonna hear the end of it."
Irune held her breath and stared up through the gaps in the straw. Something blotted out the light from above and then left with a buzzing noise. Then it came back again—once, twice, and then a third time. There were some words exchanged in front of the wagon, followed by a snort from the Camerupt. The cart jolted forward again as Irune heard the wheels grind against the pavestones and suddenly felt cold dampness from above, as the sound of the rain was now much louder and there were droplets leaking in through the straw from above.
"Lousy creeps. Who needs to worry about Röthäuter when that's who we've got defending us?"
Irune rolled in the straw and poked her eyes back just out of it to see the darkened spires of the Administrative District towering overhead. Back along the ground, a Machamp and Ribombee in green armor stood guard along the left end of what remained of the human tunnel through that great tower and then the sudden drops on both sides of the ancient roadway that spiraled upwards. There must've been quite a line after the Camerupt, since the two Grünhäuter already moved on to stopping a Donphan with a cart before the rain made it too hard to make three in the distance.
The Axew exhaled and breathed in and out shakily, flopping back into the surface of the straw. She couldn't believe she was happy to see Grünhäuter engaging in that sort of disgraceful behavior for once…
The Axew heard rustling to her sides and saw the rest of her teammates cautiously breaching the surface of the straw. She let out a tired sigh, pinching her brow with a low murmur.
"... Words fail me," she grumbled.
"Can't say I ever thought I'd be grateful for incompetence and corruption in the army," Dalton murmured. "Guess there's a first time for everything."
There were so many things about the whole episode at the tunnel exit which just rubbed her wrong: how greedy and dishonest the two were, the sheer unrighteousness and injustice of extorting hapless Pokémon like that… it just made her want to burn something!
She supposed she had to admit that even if she didn't want it to be the case, that if Lacan and Sophia were right about her, there was a good enough explanation for why she had such feelings.
… But if that was the case, then why did she feel so worried about these Pokémon around her who livings depended on being unjust to others?
"So we're in the clear now, right?" Kate asked. "If so, now can we get out of this straw heap?"
She turned and saw Lyle giving a grimacing stare up at the rain, along with Dalton giving a sharp frown in reply.
"What, right now? While there's fliers from around the library up in the air going around to try and sight us?" Dalton asked. "At least wait until we're in the next district over before trying to sneak off!"
Irune looked up and felt the rain patter against her face's scales. She was getting more and more soaked by the minute and probably going to reek from this stay by the time they got off this wagon if they had to wait for that long. But all things considered, was it really the end of the world? If those Durin Berries had masked their smell the other day, wouldn't the straw around them do the same and make it harder for them to be tracked?
She looked out back at the sides of the ancient roadway and supposed there was another reason why Dalton had made the suggestion. It didn't look like there was much in the way of exits nearby.
There was a moment's hesitation, when a low sigh turned her attention to Lyle just in time to see the Quilava flatten his ears.
"Yeah, next district sounds good to me," he said. "I could go with trying to stay a bit drier in the hay until then."
The Quilava buried himself in the hay as the others followed suit one by one, leaving Irune to stare off back at the towering ruins behind them before she sank into the straw herself.
She didn't know how they were going to get out of this city, or what would happen now that the others knew what this 'Dyad' she was supposed to be was. She supposed that for now, all she could do was keep riding this wagon and hope for the best.
If Kate never rode in the back of a wagon like this again in her life, it would be too soon. Somehow, in spite of being surrounded by soft cushioning from every end, the entire ride managed to be uncomfortable. Not being able to see her surroundings as the Puller carried on with his jerky course certainly wasn't helping. Even if she couldn't feel the bumps in the road, the clatter of the cart's wheels against cobbles and broken pavestones rang in her ears, and the Camerupt kept alternating between hurried dashes and abrupt stops… probably less than voluntary ones with how much she heard the Puller's voice shouting during those latter moments.
Maybe she wouldn't have minded it as much if it hadn't been pouring buckets up until what had to have been at most ten minutes ago. Water kept dripping down on her from above, while clumps of straw and hay kept poking and prodding every which way on her body from below. She'd gotten through tighter scrapes as an Outlaw in the past, so why were things bothering her so much now of all times?
It dawned on her that the sensations she'd felt hitchhiking in the back of this cart were familiar, uncomfortably so. Between the rain leaking down on her from above and the stench of stale bedding all around her, it was almost like she was back in the refugee camp with mom in that tatty tent all over again…
Kate didn't understand what 'going to ground' meant back then when they first arrived there. Just that dad wasn't coming back, no matter how much she missed him or wanted him to return. That mom wouldn't travel around between towns and Provinzen anymore, so instead of going from one village Day Care to the next every couple of weeks, they would be staying in this smelly camp where most of the Pokémon looked miserable most of the time.
It didn't take her long to realize that something had changed about mom. She stopped telling fun stories about the 'jobs' she did and didn't go off on her own as often. Stranger still, instead of giving a playful tease or congratulation whenever Kate stole something small like a berry or a few coins from someone else, mom would get upset at her.
Everything grew much more meager and lonelier after that, and mom seemed to always be less happy and quicker to get into nasty arguments like so many other Pokémon in the camp did. Especially during times like when the local food dole ran short. Even after started doing 'jobs' of her own, it'd been the only time in her life that Kate remembered going to bed hungry so often that the specific nights didn't stick out in her mind.
The Sneasel jolted back to attention after the Camerupt and his cart went over a bump in the road sharp enough to shake the entire straw pile, and she heard her teammates let out stifled yelps from elsewhere in it.
Kate peeked back out to try and see what they'd run over—she didn't see whatever bump in the road the wagon had hit, but when she looked up, she noticed that the sky had largely cleared up. The dark clouds were mostly gone and replaced with the moon and stars, along with a prominent aurora filling the sky above them.
"Wait, why's the sky all red?"
Kate poked her head further out of the straw and saw that the clouds in the sky had mostly cleared away, with the rest of the sky being dominated by apple-colored auroras that looked like they were almost right on top of them. Except, she could've sworn that auroras that looked like this were normally supposed to be green.
She looked back and saw Dalton and Lyle poke their heads out of the straw themselves. The Heliolisk turned his eyes up and they briefly widened as he stared up, before the Electric-type turned to Irune with a shake of his head.
"Oh. It's a crimson aurora. They're known to occur over some Mystery Dungeons, including the one underground here in Newangle City," the Heliolisk explained. "It's not that common of an occurrence, even if I don't know how good a sign it is that we're seeing one now."
Kate twitched her ears and peeked back at the Heliolisk.
"Eh? Why's that, Scales?"
"Because when I lived here, I was told that crimson auroras like this were considered a sign of bad luck."
Well, that was reassuring to know… Not. Kate opted to try and get her mind onto something else and turned her attention closer to the ground, spotting dingy buildings and shacks that blurred together with each other. None of them looked familiar to her… until she happened to notice a tall rise, almost like an unnaturally straight hill, visible in the distance.
"Hey, Scales?" she asked. "Did we see that ridge before? Since I swear it looks familiar."
"Yeah? That's the Great Arena, or the outside slope of it that's been built over into a city district at least," Dalton replied. "It's just west of Shift Square. We saw it from that lookout point in the Administrative District just the other day. Why?"
Kate turned her head back to the rise and scanned her attention leftwards along the rooftops and dingy buildings around them, sure enough there was that gutted metal lattice tower she remembered seeing near that marketplace. So then they had to already be in Shift Square right now!
The Camerupt turned and tugged the cart along down a narrower side street and began to slow down. Just big enough for a 'mon about half his size to squeeze past him on either side. She took a moment to swivel her ears and sniff the air to check her surroundings: nothing else was there but garbage, which was probably as good an opportunity for them to ditch their ride.
"Then I think that we want to get off this wagon right about now."
Kate pulled herself from the straw, and sprang leapt over the back edge of the cart, landing in a crouch on the rain-slick cobbles just behind it. She briefly heard the Camerupt shift and poke his head back with a flick of his ears, but otherwise he didn't notice her as she motioned up at her teammates. One after the other, Lyle, Irune, and Dalton each made their own way out of the hay pile and off the back of the cart with tense pants as the cart began to roll off. The Sneasel reflexively stopped and brushed some stray straw out of her fur and tail feathers, when the cart abruptly stopped and a sharp bark from behind her rang out.
"Hey! What are you doing with my cart?!"
Kate whirled around and saw the Camerupt Puller looking back past the cart's front—as good a cue as any that they needed to make themselves scarce.
"Alright, time to leave!"
She took off running down the street along with her teammates, hurriedly ducked out of the way of a plume of fire. As she tore along, she scanned the red-bathed surroundings for any convenient escape along the darkened street. A couple buildings down, there was a flight of stairs that wrapped around the side of a row of half-shuttered shops, which she didn't question before bolting up them.
Steps flew past her feet one after the other, with the patter of footsteps and fading cries of "Stop!" from behind them. A glance over her shoulder revealed her teammates keeping pace… along with armored figures starting to circle in the air. She kept running, and the balcony came and went as she and the rest of Team Forager reached a set of steps descending back down to the street and the surrounding streetscape went by in a blur of dingy shopfronts, rubbish-filled alleys. After what felt like a small eternity, the four came to a panting stop under a tattered awning. The Sneasel looked around and didn't see anyone following them from the air or surrounding streets—as good an outcome as any of them could've hoped for at the moment.
"I… I think I'm good on visiting any more libraries for a while," Kate said.
"You and me both," Lyle gasped.
There was a moment of silence as the Quilava's attention drifted rightward and his expression seemed to harden. Kate raised a brow briefly at her teammate, before following along after it. Irune was there, looking up from beside Dalton and awkwardly pawing at her shoulder.
Kate flattened her ears. Right. That Corvisquire back in the library said that Irune had known about this whole 'secretly being a god' thing. Or at least that Irune knew that they thought she was one. And here she was, stuck with them—three Outlaws without bands to call their own stranded in the middle of a city with gods-knew-how-many Grünhäuter prowling around.
It was times like these when Kate wondered if she'd never really made it out of Waterhead Cave in the first place. That if everything that'd happened since that night had just been some sort of dream she was having while lying in a ditch or passed out in the back of a prison transport somewhere.
This little kid, some sort of reincarnated god? That needed some sort of treasure badly enough to join forces with a bunch of Outlaws like them to try and get it? What on earth was a 'mon even supposed to say back to that?
"You're sure that book we grabbed will help you get to the bottom of things, Irune?"
Kate snapped to attention as she saw Dalton staring down at the Axew with a skeptical gaze. The Axew grew uneasy for a moment, and seemed to weigh the words in her mouth before finally shaking her head in reply.
"No," she murmured. "But Lacan wouldn't have stopped to try and find it if he didn't think that it had something useful in it about either the Nameless Dragon or the Divine Roost."
… Right, that Graf somehow found out about their journey for the Divine Roost. Had he forced it from one of their old pals? From someone Irune had run into earlier? Or maybe the scaly windbag had just been mistaken and been chasing a dead end.
He surely couldn't have gotten everything right about this Nameless Dragon or whatever this treasure related to it that Irune wanted if it'd taken him a year to chase the Axew down… right?
The Sneasel breathed in and out with a low sigh, when she felt a prod at her shoulder and looked off to see Dalton motioning at a wooden post with signs labeled in runes she didn't recognize at the street corner.
"'Salemstraße'... I'm pretty sure that was one of the streets that our hotel was on," the Heliolisk said. "If we're seeing the tower near the guild's marketplace, the Möbius can't be far from here."
Lyle flicked his ears at the suggestion, before giving a worried tilt of his head.
"Are we sure that it's a good idea to go back, Dalton?" Lyle asked. "When the Gendarmen start looking for us outside of the Administrative District, isn't this the part of the city where we'd have been most likely to have been spotted over the past day?"
Kate quietly set her teeth on edge and tensed her feathers. Right. They still needed a way out of this dump. And there were untold questions which still needed to be answered after everything that'd come out today. About Irune being this 'Nameless Dragon', about why the hell Lacan and his goons needed her so badly, and where that treasure at the Divine Roost fit in with all of this…
She looked over at Dalton, who shook his head with a quiet frown.
"No, but it's not as if we're going to be able to just walk out through the city gates right now. And Igna and Ansel mentioned there was an entrance to the Undercity in the Möbius," the Heliolisk said. "As bad as things are right now, it won't be any easier for us to get out of Newangle City with the Thieves' Guild breathing down our necks."
The Heliolisk hesitated a moment and quietly chewed his lip, before shaking his head.
"Our best shot if we can afford it right now would be to go back to the room and try and weigh our options for getting out and where we'll go after Newangle City," he said. "Besides, we have to go back to the Möbius at least for a little while: Igna and Ansel are supposed to come pick up those books we stole."
Kate pinned her ears back thinking about that lanky Marowak and her Fearow companion. Right, she supposed that Dalton had a point about not wanting to give themselves more problems to worry about. After barely getting past all of those Grünhäuter in the University and then that library, maybe it was for the best to take a moment to slow down and catch their breaths. Even if there was no shortage of questions about just what they'd gotten themselves into, they had an idea of what they needed to do to try and start making sense of it all.
"Alright, let's go back to our room and see what we have to work with, then."
Dalton quickly discovered that he had remembered his street names correctly. Close to the very end of this 'Salemstraße', he noticed a wooden placard along the wall labeled with a '5', along with a set of stairs headed up to an entrance beneath a sign bearing the Möbius' band-like sigil.
He probably should've been thankful they'd gotten back already. He hadn't gotten a chance to apply an Oran Berry to his broken arm since the morning, and the pain from under his splint was starting to grow unbearable. To say nothing about the additional aches he'd picked up from Lacan's Earthquake, or their desperate escape from the Upper City. Even the sky itself felt like it was trying to signal that something was wrong. The auroras in the skies were noticeably stronger tonight, and had lit up the entire street with an eerie red glow that somehow managed to make this place feel even more threatening and foreboding than when they first entered yesterday.
Maybe it was more threatening than it had been the other day. They had been lucky to make it through this job that Igna and Ansel had tasked them with. Why had the two not mentioned that there would be soldiers present at the University and Library? And more worrisome still, why were Lacan and Sophia of all soldiers there too?
Had someone overheard them and ratted them out? Was it Igna and Ansel? Was it the Crobat or the Aggron who worked at the hotel? Had it been someone else there that they hadn't noticed?
He hated the idea of coming back to a place that wasn't really safe, not knowing who or what they could trust. But at the same time, it was hard to think of better options to turn to at the moment.
Dalton shambled up the steps and past the door along with his teammates. The Möbius' lobby had been lit up in red tones from the aurora outside, with the blues of a couple Luminous Moss lanterns in the still-darkened corners forming violet patches on the floor. For a moment, Dalton didn't think that Ecks was on-duty, when he suddenly saw movement behind the counter from the ceiling. He heard wingbeats as she dropped down from the rafters and beat her wings in place behind the counter, eying him and his teammates impatiently.
That was probably a sign to not keep her waiting. The Heliolisk made his way up, carefully resting his splinted arm on the counter. The Crobat sized him and the rest of Team Forager up briefly, before narrowing her eyes with an unimpressed huff.
"I see you've been causing trouble tonight," the Crobat said. "Typical of a client of your sort, really."
Dalton chewed his lip and quietly sucked in a breath. Was Ecks about to show them the door? He supposed that it should've occurred to him that it'd be a risk while coming back, but…
"... Yes, I suppose that we have," Dalton admitted. "But we don't need to stay here for long if that's—"
"I don't particularly care to hear about your problems, Elezard," the Crobat interrupted. "Just that I don't want to get involved with them. You do have that badge that Frau Knogga lent you, yes? It's not complimentary, and if you no longer have use for it, we need it back. Proprietor's policy."
Whoever ran this hotel sure seemed to be quite a stickler for rules, as if it was a personal fief or something like that. Dalton didn't raise the issue with the Crobat, and hurriedly dumped his bag onto the counter. He pulled its flap open with his good arm's hand, taking the scarf that Igna and Ansel had spotted them to unpin the badge from it. He let it clack against the counter as Ecks eyed it, before depositing it into a drawer off in the background.
Dalton wasn't sure whether or not that was a good sign or not. He suddenly heard a sniffing sound, and turned to see Irune on her tiptoes and giving a wary sniff at the air.
"Wait, Dalton, did the box on the counter always used to smell like Cheri Berries?" she asked. "I could've sworn it was different when we left."
The Heliolisk trailed off when he noticed Irune pointing off at a small violet box with Vivillon designs on the counter in the background. Dalton wasn't sure how he was just noticing that now after an entire day, but sure enough there was a smell of Chesto Berries in the air at the moment. The Crobat shot an askew glance back across the counter, before flapping in place with a sharp scoff.
"That's an incense clock, Milza," the Crobat said. "I realize that they're not exactly convenient to constantly carry around, but I'm not sure why you find it so unfamiliar. There's a wick inside which burns off a different layer of incense every hour. It started going through the current one an hour past midnight."
Dalton's eyes widened and started to bat his frill out only to consciously fight it back after feeling a shot of pain—duller than the day before, but still noticeably sharp. From the sudden pall that seemed to come over the others on Team Forager, they'd realized the same thing he did:
They were late. He supposed it had been quite a journey getting back from the Royal Library, but he didn't realize it had taken them this long… had Igna and Ansel assumed they'd been caught? Had they just written them off entirely?
Dalton felt heat in the air beside him, and saw Lyle reared up and put his forepaws on the counter. The Quilava must've had the same worries he did from the way the Fire-type nervously glanced back at the door.
"Ecks, did Igna and Ansel come by here earlier?" the Quilava asked. "If they did, are they still around?"
"I hadn't been keeping track," the Crobat replied. "Though even if they had, I'm not sure why you're expecting an answer from me."
The Crobat flitted up and gripped the rafters with the claws on her lower wings, flipping upside down and draping her wings over herself with a knowing smirk.
"We at the Möbius make a point of maintaining the confidentiality of our clients as best as we reasonably can—you should already have a few ideas as for why," she said. "We'd hardly be able to maintain a customer base if we just casually gossiped about their dealings with every Pokémon that poked their head in from off the street."
Right, Dalton supposed that such ways weren't rare among taverns and inns that knowingly sheltered Outlaws. Though from the way Igna and Ansel had reacted to Ecks' chiding earlier, he wasn't convinced the Crobat was telling the truth.
Except, he wasn't sure what to do here. It wasn't as if they could just move along without making amends with the Thieves' Guild, and Igna and Ansel were supposed to be their ticket past the city walls. A jingling noise snapped him to attention, as he glanced over and saw Kate with a small purse of coins in her claws…
"Not even for a paying customer?" she asked. "We did need a dry place to stay tonight, after all."
Dalton blinked. Had that money come from one of the soldiers in the Library? If so, Kate was clearly quicker with her paws than he gave her credit for. The Crobat briefly glanced down, before settling in place on her upside down perch with a sharp frown.
"If you're expecting a room, you're more than a little short right now," she harrumphed.
"Didn't say that I was finished paying."
Dalton briefly saw a flash of fire and looked over and saw Kate pulling out a small bag of coins from Lyle's bag, much to the Quilava's fiery surprise and then subsequent annoyance. The Sneasel slid her teammate's bag over the counter, and shot an insistent look up at the Crobat.
"We know those two aren't strangers to you, or at least their friends aren't," she insisted. "So isn't there anything you can do to help us find them?"
Dalton sucked in a sharp breath and had half a mind to snatch the money on the counter back, when Crobat flitted down and landed on the counter, taking a moment to count through the coins. The Poison-type emptied the snatched coinpurse, and made her way most of the way through Lyle's before stopping, and passing back the rest.
"... Your friends stopped by briefly about an hour ago, but we made them leave after they drew some unwelcome company," the Crobat said. "It was a bit of a mess for the Proprietor to sort out and it forced him to spend time away from his more normal pursuits. I can't imagine he's happy about it."
Dalton set his teeth on edge and fought back a grimace. He wasn't sure if he liked the sound of that 'unwelcome company' that Igna and Ansel ran into. Had the two been spotted by Gendarmen? Had the four of them missed their opportunity to close their job entirely?
"Did they say anything about if they'd come back?" Irune asked.
"They mention that they intended to, yes," the Crobat answered. "Though even if they've gotten their troubles squared away, I sincerely doubt they would be in the mood to meet you at this hour or in this weather, especially the Marowak."
Dalton turned his head for the door and noticed that there was rain coming again from outside the hotel. Not as strong as earlier, but it was noticeably picking up, and definitely not the sort of weather that any sort of Marowak would find tolerable—southern or not. He glanced back at the Crobat, and noticed her clambering over to a few sheaves of paper lying on the counter and a writing pad dusted with charcoal on its underside.
"Though, if you are going to be staying another night, there's actually something that we needed to square away that I forgot to take care of the other day between tending to your damage to the rug," the Crobat said. "I never entered you into the guest list as part of your stay yesterday."
Dalton blinked in response and he noticed wary glances on his teammates' faces. Yes, he supposed that was normally a part of staying at an inn, but…
"... Didn't you say that this place prioritized the confidentiality of its clients?" Lyle asked. "Doesn't recording names go against that?"
"Well, I would hope that you would be clever enough to provide an alias, then," the Crobat retorted, slipping a small writing pad on one of her upper claws. "Unless you just intend for me to talk plainly about your species Herr Ibitak₂ and Frau Knogga come back and ask to see you."
Yes, that… could be a problem. After all, even in a city as large as Newangle City, just how many teams were going around that specifically had a Heliolisk, a Quilava, a Sneasel, and an Axew on them. He noticed Lyle raising a paw to speak, only for Kate to sharply elbow him and cut in.
"That would be a room for 'Crewe'—yours truly. The Heliolisk with us is 'Gus', and the other two…"
The Sneasel paused briefly and seemed to fumble with her words. She glanced over at Lyle and Irune, and then back at the Crobat.
"Are 'Cinder' and 'Hatchet'."
Dalton swore that he saw Lyle and Irune's faces visibly sag after Kate passed their names along. Those last two names were certainly quite… direct, even if he couldn't say they were unfitting. A clink on the counter rang out as Dalton glanced down and saw a key resting on it, with the Crobat returning to her perch up in the rafters.
"Same room as last night," the Crobat instructed. "We'll send someone to let you know if we hear anything from Frau Knogga and Herr Ibitak about if and when they're able to meet with you. At the very worst, we should be able to get ahold of one of their fellows from the Thieves' Guild to send a surrogate for them to complete whatever business you have by dawn."
"... Understood. It'll have to do, I suppose."
Dalton grabbed the key and pulled it off the counter before making his way for the steps with his teammates. He wasn't sure this was a positive sign, but with so much uncertainty about their future right now, maybe it was for the best just to have some small comforts at the moment.
There was a long journey awaiting them once they made it past the city walls, and gods knew when they'd have another chance to be able to rest in an actual bed again.
Barely a minute later, Lyle and the rest of Team Forager were retracing their steps down a red-carpeted hallway with light so dim that the Quilava had to flare his vents in front of everyone else for extra illumination. Gods, it was like whoever ran this hotel was trying to make it feel threatening and uninviting.
Maybe his vents would've been afire anyways. His body was sore and aching, and there were more things that were gnawing at him at the moment than he could count:
Worries about how they were going to get out of this city, worries about being late with returning from Igna and Ansel's job, worries about whether or not it was even a good idea to see those two again. And of course worries about what on earth Irune had gotten them into if she was some sort of reincarnated god...
It was a bit petty, but just then, there was one worry in particular that lingered on his mind above them all. Lyle cocked his head as he walked along on all fours, shooting a sour frown over at Kate.
"'Cinder'? Seriously?"
"What? I had to think of something on the spot," the Sneasel said. "'Crewe' is kinda second nature since I'd been using that alias recently, and 'Gus' wasn't that different from Scales. And you're on fire and Irune can cut things with her tusks, so 'Cinder' and 'Hatchet' it was."
"Just saying, you're never allowed to complain about me naming things on the spot again," Lyle grumbled.
The Sneasel shrugged her shoulders in reply, and he swore that he saw Dalton rolling his eyes a little further off. The only one who wasn't really reacting was Irune, whose own eyes were glued to the floor as she seemed to be adrift in her thoughts. He supposed that was one way to tell that she was still thinking about that run-in with the Corvisquire.
There was an intersection of corridors just up ahead. Lyle noticed Dalton slowing down and breathing in and out winded as the Heliolisk ran his uninjured arm along his splint. Right, Dalton had really gotten thrown around out there. Had the battle made his arm injury worse? The Quilava began to make his way over when Irune beat him to the punch, going up and tugging worriedly at the Heliolisk's hip
"Dalton? Are you okay?" she asked.
Dalton paused, as if there was a reflexive answer that he wanted to give that he thought better of, even if instead of frustration there seemed to be an almost sad tinge to his expression. Was there something about this place that reminded him of that dead brother of his? Even weirder was how genuinely worried Irune looked for him right now.
Tch, three Outlaws stuck together with the Goddess of Truth… or the God of Ideals… or however the hell that worked with some 'Nameless Dragon' that was apparently the two and Kyurem all at once. Even so, he couldn't shake something about Irune's reaction:
They'd only been together for a few days, so why was she treating Dalton like this? She was perfectly happy to let them know how much she didn't like them back in Primordial Woods the other day.
… Did they also remind her of things from her past?
"It'll be alright after we get back in the room and I get a chance to use one of the Oran Berries we left behind," Dalton said. "I just needed a moment to rest."
Kate made her way up and helped Dalton to lean against her shoulder, as Lyle briefly stole a glance over at Irune and then back at his teammates as a low, flinch-worthy patter lingered on the roof and windows:
The rain was back again. He briefly shook his head, as unwelcome memories of their earlier encounter and other wet, miserable days past filtered through his mind, making him pin his ears against his head.
"Igna and Ansel sure picked a great time to leave us waiting for them," he murmured. "Between all those guards going around and how much the extra night cost, we're cutting things really close for the rest of that journey to the Divine Roost."
"Tch, we'll just part some merchant from his money on our way out once Igna and Ansel show us the way past the walls," Kate scoffed. "If I could manage with a soldier earlier, I'm sure we can pull it off."
Dalton and Irune didn't think much of the reply, with the Heliolisk between the two leveling a particularly sharp frown. It wasn't as if Kate couldn't manage something like that, he'd seen plenty of her in action to know she could make good on that plan with or without the rest of them helping… but after everything they'd been through tonight? When for all they knew, every Gendarm and soldier in this city was going to be looking for them?
He began to round the corner for the hallway to their room when his ears flicked. There were voices coming from the room to their left that he could just faintly make out, some sort of argument between a yipping-sounding one, and one that sounded rough and vaguely draconic.
"I'm telling you, Hesper. We need to make our move now before those Varritaean scum get that big mission of theirs rolling. So let's grab the 'mon and get out of this dump!"
Lyle stopped dead in his tracks and whirled towards the room, his heart skipping a beat as he missed the immediate follow-up between the two. Their accents were strangely neutral and unplaceable, but something about it didn't add up. What big mission were they talking about? And why the hell were they talking about 'Varritaeans'?
Especially since it was never a word that he'd ever heard used by a Varhyder normally...
"Lyle? Is something wrong?"
He whirled around and hurriedly shushed Irune, as Dalton and Kate shot puzzled glances only for the Sneasel to similarly pause and twitch her ears as she neared. She must've heard the voices, too.
The Quilava motioned for quiet as he crept ahead and his head around the corner, where he saw a small hole in the wall just around the corner. The voices were more noticeable the closer they got to it, enough so that from their expressions, Dalton and Irune were hearing the voices inside themselves.
"Deva, do think this through more carefully than your latest barhopping flirt," the second voice snapped. "We don't exactly have a large margin of error for misidentifying our target. We both know how dire things could get if we get this wrong."
There was a sharp thump in the room and the sound of someone abruptly standing up as Lyle fought back startled fire from his vents, expecting the door to burst open at any moment. Were those two 'mons talking about planning a hit or something? He looked back at his teammates, who looked equal parts mystified and on-edge, when the growling voice spoke up again.
"Hesper, what the hell is there to think through about that kid?" the voice demanded. "We both know what those green-plated bastards went through to get him."
Lyle froze and felt his throat tighten, as he looked back and saw Irune squeezing Dalton for dear life. He backed away from the wall, and saw Kate already fishing through her bag in alarm.
Were those two talking about Irune? No, that couldn't have been right, whatever Pokémon they were talking about was a 'him', so-
"Pourquoi est-ce si difficile à croire, Hesper? Attends-tu que les paysans le révèrent dans la rue? Les signes sont là; le 'mon est un Reptincel et on sait qu'ils appellent leur grande mission secrète 'l'Opération Zundfünke'."ᶠ¹
Lyle had to fight not to spring back from the wall as his teammates visibly paled themselves. He didn't understand any of that aside from the weirdly accented 'Operation Zundfünke' at the end, but that cadence… those slurring words… that was exactly the way that he'd heard others say Edialeighers' equivalent to Hightongue was supposed to sound.
A hiss followed, when a stream of words from the second voice followed.
"Deva, we're supposed to be trying not to stand out. Arguing with me in Oldspeak isn't the way to–"
There was movement, then something swishing through the air much like Parker's seamitars might have when she swung them around.
"Dit le Pokémon qui a ruiné un sanctuaire délabré parce qu'il t'a aggravé. Rappelle-toi que leur mission secrète se nomme 'l'Opération étincelle qui allume un feu' dans leur langue grinçante et qu'ils ont ce Reptincel qui fait ami-ami avec un membre de leur État-Major général. Me dis-tu vraiment que c'est une coïncidence?"ᶠ²
The two had to be spies from their topic of conversation. The absolute last Pokémon that needed to know about Irune or who she was right now. From the corner of his eye, he saw Dalton creeping off, shuffling Irune alongside him.
"We're going to our room. Now," he whispered.
Neither he nor Kate objected, they began to creep off as the sounds from the room started to grow softer and less distinct when the second voice spoke up, just barely audible at their distance.
"Ça n'explique pas ces rapports de cette compagnie qui traverse le paysage, Deva. Si les Véritiens avaient véritablement déjà en leur possession cette 'Dyade' si essentielle à leur mission, pourquoi le laissent-il se balader autour de la capitale plutôt que de l'envoyer au front? N'est-ce pas l'espèce d'action prise par un leurre?"ᶠ³
Lyle turned his head after he swore he heard the second voice mention 'Dyad' before it left a lingering emphasis on the last word. The next thing he knew, his snout bumped up against scales, and he saw Dalton losing his footing. He stumbled forward and hit the ground with a sharp thud. Dalton bit his tongue and fought back a yelp as Kate hurriedly drug him up with a claw as her other one remained tightly wrapped around something.
Except the damage was already done, and there was now loud shifting coming from the spies' room.
Lyle briefly saw Kate whig a Seed he couldn't make out back at the doorframe of the spies' room, before dragging Dalton along. There was a sharp pop as Lyle and his teammates took off running down the hallway, Lyle frantically rearing up and slipping a key in as the door down the hall flew open. The lock gave way and they hastily piled into the room, Lyle pushing the door shut and guiding it closed to try and keep it from making any noise. He saw Irune reflexively reach for the lock to try and bolt the door shut only for pounding footsteps to come down the hallway.
He reflexively grabbed the Axew and covered her mouth, motioning for silence as he fought every fiber of his body from lighting up his vents right then and there. The movement was just on the other side of the door, pacing back and forth, as he stole a glance at Kate and Dalton and saw them frozen stiff, their eyes visibly shrunken to pins.
He held his breath, when he realized that light briefly winked in and out by the keyhole. He moved his eye up to it, where he saw blue scales on the other end that moved away and saw them one after the other in the hallway:
An Umbreon in a dull-colored scarf, green or red, tensely scanning her surroundings, along with a similarly-garbed Gabite sniffing at the air, before turning to the Umbreon.
"Smells like wet fur out here… and smoke," he murmured. "Whoever was listening in on us had to be a Fire-type of some sort. Did you find anything else, Hesper?"
"They or one of their buddies had green scales," the Umbreon replied. "I found a couple loose ones on the carpet. At first I thought it was a Cyclizar's, but it's smaller than I expected. Maybe an Axew's."
Wh-What the hell, those two could figure all that out just from a couple traces in the hall?! Lyle quietly breathed in and looked over at his teammates as everyone's eyes were wide and panicked. The Quilava was visibly fighting back spurts of anxious fire from his vents as the Gabite's claw passed the door and his belly scales blocked the keyhole.
"Their scent trail peters out around here," he said. "Come on, they've gotta be in one of these–"
"I'm not sure that's really our best move, Deva."
Lyle felt his breath catch in his throat and started to feel lightheaded, expecting the door to fly open at any second, when the Gabite turned and drifted off. He couldn't get a solid glimpse of both at the same time, but just from what he could see of the Gabite's posture, the spy seemed fairly agitated.
"Hesper, we were just eavesdropped on! The correct thing to do here is to find those loose ends and remove them."
"In the middle of a scummy inn that the local criminals use as a gathering place?" the Umbreon answered. "Where the staff explicitly warned us not to settle 'business' outside their 'playhouse'?"
Lyle started to feel his lungs hurt as the Gabite on the other end remained silent. His Umbreon partner walked up and passed the keyhole, before looking back up at what Lyle assumed was the Gabite.
"If whoever overheard us was an actual threat, they would've just kicked the door down and ambushed us earlier, Deva," the Umbreon said. "Considering those Axew scales in the hallway, the 'mons who listened in on us were probably some street urchins. What are they going to do? Run and call the guards on us?"
A long, tense pause followed, before the Gabite let out a growling sigh.
"... Fine, but let's not take any chances. Pack up everything and let's get out of here," the dragon's voice answered. "Can't believe I'm actually looking forward to going back to that dump in Zelba City, but that Crobat and Aggron behind the desks here had been giving me the creeps from the moment we booked our room here."
The shadows drifted off as footsteps rang out, followed by the distant sounds of a door creaking and closing. Lyle fell back and panted, fire spewing out of his vents as he slumped to the ground, panting in and out as a tremor wracked his body. He laid there for a moment and heard a hasty click, shakily getting up to see Irune locking the door as Kate clambered the doorpost to bolt the latch shut before they collectively backed away from the door, trading wide-eyed stares with each other.
"Wh-What did we just walk in on back there?" the Axew asked.
"Spies. Ones that weren't recruited locally, either," Lyle answered. "Their lack of accent threw me off, but I sure as hell didn't understand any of that 'Oldspeak' of theirs."
Gods, he needed a freaking drink, except none of them had a flask to work with and it sure as hell wasn't a good idea to go out and look for a tavern now. The Quilava pawed at his face, when he noticed Dalton pause and look after the door, before looking down at Irune with a puzzled blink…
"Did Lacan ever tell you about an 'Operation Zundfünke' to you before?" he asked. "If so, what is it? And what do you have to do with it?"
… That was right, the Gabite did mention 'Operation Zundfünke' during one of those rants in that strange language. Why, it'd stood out from the rest of that slurring mess as clear as day, so it surely didn't also mean 'ignition spark' in it as well.
Except, Irune didn't have any response. She stared up blankly at the Heliolisk before shaking her head and stammering nervously.
"I-I've never heard that name before, okay?!" the Axew insisted. "Lacan never told me anything about what he or the army wanted to do with me!"
Lyle frowned for a moment, only to notice that Irune looked genuinely shaken, and she hadn't hesitated or struggled at all with her answer. A good enough sign that if nothing else, she was being honest at the moment.
Was that whatever mission Lacan and Sophia were up to? But if it was, why would they choose such a peculiar name? An ignition spark? With a reincarnated god? Was the army planning to start a machine with her or something?
"Whatever it is, Lacan thought that this book would help him with it."
Lyle turned his head at a quiet shuffling noise and saw Dalton staring down at the copy of The Collected Legends from Wander they stole. The Heliolisk let his gaze linger on it for a moment, as Kate flicked her ears and gave a dubious frown.
"Not that there isn't a story behind whatever's going on, but don't we have other things we need to worry about?" the Sneasel asked. "It's not like we're going to last long in the countryside after getting out of this dump, so shouldn't we be worrying about nailing down how we're going to get to the Divine Roost?"
Lyle hesitated, before stealing a glance down at his bag and seeing that that book with the same design as Irune's pendant was still there—Ein und Alles, Sophia had called it. She'd explicitly mentioned that that one was about the Nameless Dragon, wouldn't that be worth reading, too?
He let his eyes linger on it briefly, before turning and shaking his head.
"She's right, we should figure out where we're going first," he said.
The Quilava made his way over to the table further down the room, before pulling the black book out and pushing it out onto its surface.
"But keep that other book out anyways," he said. "I don't know if we'll get a chance to read it before Igna and Ansel show up or not, but if we have the chance, I think we should take a look at it."
Author's Notes
Words and Phrases
1. Beeil dich - "Hurry up"
2. Ibitak - "Fearow"
Dialogue - Special Thanks to 1571 from AO3 for Translation
f1. "Pourquoi est-ce si difficile à croire, Hesper? Attends-tu que les paysans le révèrent dans la rue? Les signes sont là; le 'mon est un Reptincel et on sait qu'ils appellent leur grande mission secrète 'l'Opération Zundfünke'." - "Why is this so hard to believe, Hesper? Are you waiting for the peasants to revere him in the street? The signs are there; the 'mon is a Charmeleon and we know that they call their big secret mission 'Operation Zundfünke'."
f2. "Dit le Pokémon qui a ruiné un sanctuaire délabré parce qu'il t'a aggravé. Rappelle-toi que leur mission secrète se nomme 'l'Opération étincelle qui allume un feu' dans leur langue grinçante et qu'ils ont ce Reptincel qui fait ami-ami avec un membre de leur État-Major général. Me dis-tu vraiment que c'est une coïncidence?" - "Says the Pokémon that ruined a ramshackle sanctuary because it aggravated you. Remind yourself that their secret motion is named "Operation Spark that Starts a Fire" in their grating language and that they have that Charmeleon going buddy-buddy with a member of their General Staff. Are you really telling me that's a coincidence?"
f3. "Ça n'explique pas ces rapports de cette compagnie qui traverse le paysage, Deva. Si les Véritiens avaient véritablement déjà en leur possession cette 'Dyade' si essentielle à leur mission, pourquoi le laissent-il se balader autour de la capitale plutôt que de l'envoyer au front? N'est-ce pas l'espèce d'action prise par un leurre?" - "It doesn't explain these reports of this company travelling the countryside, Deva. If the Varritaeans truly already had this 'Dyad' so essential to their mission in their possessions, why are they letting him stroll around the capital rather than sending him to the front? Isn't this the type of action a decoy would take?"
Teaser Text - Special thanks to TorchicBellow for Translation
Newangle City, 20. Herbstmond, 1027 n. d. B.
To Viertel Sheriff Lua Olangaars,
My subordinates relayed your report that your contacts from this city's "Thieves' Guild" provided about our party of interest. Suffice to say, we were quite pleased to hear that your contacts were both able to confirm their presence at a known hive of scum and villainy in your district and even go so far as to help track them and steer them towards my forces at the Royal Library as planned.
Unfortunately, past precedent requires me to trouble you further and compel you to prepare contingencies for the event that our efforts at the Royal Library fail to apprehend those ruffians. As incredible as it may seem, the Axew among them in particular has abilities that make her particularly difficult to apprehend, and a long history of having the skill and luck to utilize them well enough to escape our clutches.
Should you hear of any sort of disturbance in the Administrative District today around the Universität von Wahrheit, you are to have your contact and any relevant parties immediately pull aside whatever Pokémon from the Thieves' Guild encountered our targets for questioning. Wring as many details as you can from them regarding their present hiding place and any planned future movements out or about the city. From my understanding of the dynamics involving them in this city, I suspect they will be quite cooperative.
In the event that our party of interest evades us at the Royal Library, I will dispatch one of my subordinates to review the state of affairs about our target party's hiding place so that we can organize a raid on it.
My one request is that my subordinate is provided with all information and support that would be necessary to make any such raid relatively clandestine. While I would be perfectly content with burning whatever den of iniquity my targets were hiding in to the ground to capture them, the realities of my mission demand that I remain relatively circumspect.
This is an existential matter for the Kingdom, and there is little margin for error for any of us. Much less to risk actors among the realm's enemies who are actively plotting against this land we call 'Varhyde' and its inhabitants being made aware of these dealings or their importance.
- Urgent dispatch from Graf von Wellenhafen, Lacan Dragorans to Viertel Sheriff Lua Olangaars of the Shift Squareᵃ Residential District
a. Derived by phonetic corruption. In a more faithful semantic translation depending on desired nuance, this would be "Ships' Square", "Ships' Place", or "Ships' Enclosure"