The day's warmth settles kindly on my shoulders, while the wind tugs lukewarmly at my hair, leaving a few grains of sand behind, and I snuggle a little closer to Amethio despite everything. Corviknight is currently carrying us across the sandy expanse outside the Join Avenue. We’ll probably have to walk the way home, judging by the fact that we flew the way back as fast as this Pokémon could carry us.

  Tensely, my eyes glide over the area below us. The restlessness within believes that we will soon encounter Plasma. But I want to hold on to the fact Ghetsis didn’t take the fall from the stairs well. We need this head start, this time to get our hands on something that will give us an advantage over Plasma.

  I swallow dryly. We’ve spent the last few hours resting in Icirrus City. After a hot shower and fresh clothes, my world looked a little brighter. What’s more, Amethio took everything I told him better than expected. The only comment he had left was that people want too much and I can’t say he’s wrong. Not only does Plasma want to unhinge everything, but they’ve also indirectly messed with the Explorers. On top, it doesn’t seem like the Explorers are happy that an insane cult is taking over Unova.

  As Corviknight lowers the altitude, my thoughts drift away from the previous day and cling to the present once more. The Relic Castle Amethio told me about lies excavated in a hole below us. The cracked walls make the dome-like building look terribly fragile and the sand has partially rubbed off the turquoise colour of the roof. The towers attached to the side are the only ones that still appear firmly anchored, while windows are missing and the entrance is held up by two metal pillars that don’t date from the same period. Cranes and diggers stand around within easy reach and the heavy metal staircase that has been extended to the entrance allows a direct route to explore ancient histories.

  It is plausible that the Light Stone was lost in this place, but judging by the state of this building and all the attention that has already been paid to this excavation, I don’t think we’ll find anything here.

  Still, Corviknight heads for the entrance, and when the Pokémon finally settles, I can’t wait to look inside. As soon as I’ve dismounted and Amethio has called his companion back, I knock some sand off my skirt. The Explorers’ uniform is much warmer than what I was wearing before and Conia has even remembered to pack a pair of thick black tights to be on the safe side.

  With a few leaps, I make my way inside the palace, only to hear it crunch beneath my soles. The surroundings of this ancient historical site are nothing like what I had imagined. No broken marble floors, no old paintings whose drawings are already half-faded. Nothing that suggests value and importance. Instead, everything here is full of sand and the grey-brown brick walls offer nothing more than carved signs I don’t understand. It’s a bit as if old writings had been immortalised on the wall and a dictionary had forgotten to be included.

  “Where ... should we start?” Indecisively, I turn towards the entrance, through which Amethio finally steps. His gaze glides briefly over our surroundings, but gives him as few clues as it does me.

  Judging by his reaction, we have no choice but to look around and pay attention to what’s going on at our feet. So I go ahead. Opposite the entrance is a wall that doesn’t match the rest, but is too high to look over. With nimble fingers, I release Coro from his ball. As soon as he sits on the floor and looks at me sceptically with his judgemental gaze – it will take me a while to get used to his expression – I point to the wall.

  “Would you look at what’s on the other side?”

  He follows my finger before fluttering up the border and I use the time to let Mimikyu out of her ball. For safety, I take her in my arms and when Coro returns, she’s the one who translates his words to me.

  “He say, other side down stairs.”

  “Then there must be a staircase here somewhere.” It is Amethio who comes up beside me and takes a quick look at Mirra before turning away and looking around. His careful steps crunch with his every movement. I don’t have to follow him with my eyes to hear him.

  “Did you see anything else?”

  Toucannon shakes his head hastily. Then he rises into the air again, ready to take another look at the other side and maybe even go a step further. He could fly down the stairs and see what’s hiding under this floor.

  However, I don’t get the chance to pass my idea on to him before a horrified sound escapes him and, at the same moment, quiet cursing from Amethio reaches me. Immediately, I whirl around to face him. He hasn’t got far before the sand has eagerly wrapped itself around his legs. But not only that: the grains devour him.

  “Quicksand?” My eyes widen. For a moment, my body seems frozen in place. Amethio sinks further and further into the sand before my eyes, unable to defend himself, and the more he moves, the faster the ground seems to swallow him up. I have to act, have to do something, make myself useful, but the emptiness in my head barely allows for a clear thought – until I bite my lower lip.

  “Coro, help him!” My hand darts forward as I hug Mirra tighter with the other before turning to her. “Can you stretch your arms out to him?”

  Letting Mimikyu dive into Amethio’s shadow could have consequences I don’t want to test. The tiny grains of sand drag everything with them. A Ghost-type Pokémon won’t be spared. A thought I share with Mirra as she lowers her black, billowing arms from above onto Amethio so he can grab them. Then she pulls, while Coro grabs the fabric of his shirt and tries to tug him upwards with the same force.

  But to make matters worse, we only stop Amethio from sinking further. No matter how hard my two partners tug at him, he can’t get out and I can’t think of anything else to help him. Raya would be no more help in this case than Ying or Lum.

  Pressing my lips together, I fixate on our situation as I try to grasp clear thoughts and options. Conia has often told me in our training sessions on Alola that you have to keep calm in any situation. Admittedly, not exactly my strong point, but in these seconds, I have no choice but to take a deep breath and think.

  My eyes briefly wander over our surroundings. This palace has more than one floor, as the staircase behind the wall proves. I cannot imagine that the quicksand in this place is as deadly as in a real desert. There must be a room under this floor. Another level has to exist.

  “Let go!”

  My sudden command directs all confusion in my direction. Amethio looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind and my two partners don’t quite agree on whether letting go is the best decision. Still, Coro follows my command, while Mirra is reluctant to comply.

  “What are you doing?” Eventually, Amethio’s horror reaches me too.

  “I’m sure you’ll end up one floor below,” I reply as I call Coro and Mirra back to their balls before taking a deep breath. Then, with a jump, I join Amethio.

  “Are you insane?”

  I don’t answer. Instead, I try to calm my racing heart while blocking out the uncomfortable feeling of sand over fabric. It almost feels as if the grains are pressing through my tights and rubbing against my skin. With luck, it’s nothing more than my imagination.

  Only when Amethio grabs me by the wrist does my attention wander back to him. “What if you’re wrong?”

  I don’t want to think about that, would be the only honest answer. I don’t want to believe that my opinion is wrong. It wouldn’t make sense that the floors are so thick that people can sink into them and suffocate. However, if I really am wrong, I can surely prepare for Amethio to hunt me to hell himself in the afterlife.

  “We’ll get to the bottom,” I reply instead. “I just hope the fall isn’t too deep.”

  His gaze fixed on me, he takes a deep breath. No further protest leaves his lips. He no longer tries to pretend that I am incapable of making a good decision – probably for the first time since I started travelling with him. He begins to trust me. Slowly. Step by step. Maybe because we’ve spent a lot of time in the same room over the last few days. Just him and me and some books. Time that we haven’t used to really get to know each other, but also moments when he could rely on me while I – hopefully – showed him my better side.

  I hardly want to believe it, but it’s probably precisely these days that have ensured he now puts up with these circumstances without saying a word, without panicking and looking for a way out.

  However, I can’t deny my own nervousness. The sand seems to smother my body, now reaching up to my chest. The saliva hangs dry in my throat, burns a little, and I have to blink a few times. A little later, the sand reaches my neck and I look Amethio in the eye one last time. He hardly seems to feel any differently. His face is impassive and yet there seems to be a glimmer of fear behind the violet colour of his gaze.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Then I lower my eyelids. The sand creeps up to my cheeks, so I press my lips together. A breath later, I think I can feel the grains tickling my nose, so I tilt my head back. Thousands of tiny hands pull at me, crawling over my skin and getting caught in my hair.

  My last breath before I hold it is long. Immediately afterwards, the sand covers the rest of my senses and I count the seconds. My body is still moving. I sink further. My theory seems to be coming true and when I lose my footing, I’m lost for a moment. It feels wrong, unsteady, and as soon as I lose support up to my hips and my breath slowly escapes me, gravity pulls at my body.

  The quicksand spits me out in one go. Too fast for me to open my eyes to see what is happening. Only the sudden fall, which sends everything inside me upwards, chases over my body within seconds. Hastily, I rub my eyes with one hand and feel my Poké Balls with the other, only to crash feet-first onto a half-hard floor the next instant. A painful gasp escapes from my tongue and it takes a few seconds to categorise the electrifying ache between the dull impact next to me.

  Immediately afterwards, I rub the sand from my face with both hands. It takes almost an eternity before I dare to open my eyes. Everything on my body is tingling and the shower not so long ago seems forgotten. Instead, I brush some of the sand out of my hair with my fingers and loosen my collar a little so the grains come loose and I can shake them out of my blouse.

  Amethio sits next to me, unharmed, no less plagued by the cream-coloured mess than I am. He too needs a few breaths before he’s halfway straightened himself out and looks around. My eyes follow his. Our surroundings seem almost unchanged. Once again there is a wall, behind which a staircase is presumably hidden, while a few steps lead upwards to our right. They will probably take us back to where we fell into the quicksand. Apart from the pile of sand we’re sitting on, there’s nothing else here.

  “Maybe we should climb over the wall and see what’s hiding behind it. It probably goes even deeper than this.” I finally stand up and run my fingers through my hair again. I can feel every grain on my skin.

  “The Relic Castle is a labyrinth,” Amethio replies. “The staircase doesn’t automatically mean we’ll come out at the same place we started.”

  “You know how we get out of here?”

  With a sigh, he rummages a thin rope out of his trouser pocket. As many times as it has been wrapped around itself, it must be long. Still, I don’t understand what he’s trying to do with it.

  “It’s an Escape Rope,” he explains. “It’s spun from the threads of Caterpies, which are especially good at running away.”

  My eyebrows rise. “Which is why they’re called Escape Ropes?”

  He nods. “Flight is a special ability of Caterpie, also simply known as ‘Run Away’. They are usually far too slow to escape their enemies. It is also this ability that they are said to weave into their Escape Ropes. A special yarn that allows you to flee instantly from caves or places where you’ve lost your way. It brings you back to the beginning.”

  “That ... sounds a bit like using teleport!” With my fingertips, I touch the marvel. “And only Caterpies can spin such a rope?”

  “It can also be woven from other things, such as the thread of a Wurmple, the leaves of an Oddish, or even the nets of a Nincada.”

  It seems surreal, and part of me hopes we get the chance to try out this Escape Rope. Of course, it’s one of the most recognisable tools you can find in a shop, but in my ignorance, I always thought you attached it to the start of a cave and followed back along it if you lost your way. A bit like a path made of stones – just made of a material that can’t be moved or cut. The fact it is ultimately a Pokémon tool is unexpected.

  Ready to explore the Relic Castle further, I briefly put my hands on my hips and consider climbing the stairs – when a sudden rumble of footsteps reaches us. This time Amethio gets to his feet and just as we slide off our sand hill to face any visitors, the blood freezes in my body.

  “As expected.” Ghetsis hasn’t quite reached our floor yet – he hasn’t even really set his sights on us – but the two-coloured robe and heavy steps, held by an audible but not visible walking stick, are unmistakable. And when he stops, breaking the silence between the front lines, I can’t help but put a hand on the pocket of my skirt where I keep my balls. “I’d be lying if I said it was easy for me to get here after all I’ve been put through in my noble position.” Far too slowly, his gaze wanders in our direction. “Never would I have entertained the thought that a future queen had been so thoroughly stricken with madness.”

  I swallow. Amethio would surely say the same if he were in Ghetsis’ place. After all, I threw myself off the top floor with him and narrowly avoided both of us greeting the afterlife. What I did was to act first and think later. My gaze lowers. Worse still, I didn’t even really think about it. The flight reflex in me was clearly stronger than anything else. N was safe, and it was just me. Of course, I seized the simplest idea in my head.

  “What do you want here?” Amethio intercepts Ghetsis’ pause, neither impressed nor tense by the circumstances. “I doubt the leader of Plasma is coming here to report on how dangerous his hostage’s action was.”

  “You seem to me to be a young man of clear understanding.” Ghetsis briefly lowers his eyelids. “A shame such talent is completely wasted among the Explorers.” He bangs his walking stick on the step. “But some things can’t be changed. So let me tell you why someone of my status is making the journey to face the doomed rabble once more. Team Plasma has realised that there is no need for a queen whose age is visible in her actions. Children and young people shouldn’t have to deal with matters for which they are far too mentally and physically underdeveloped.”

  Indecisively, I slide closer to Amethio. Whatever Ghetsis is getting at, he no longer needs me. His plans have changed with my actions and I hardly dare to think about what his ideas are now.

  “Consequently, with immediate effect, Team Plasma will exclude all those whose mental or physical age doesn’t reach twenty. This includes you, dearest Domino, as well as Harmonia, whose mental development is far below the intelligent thought processes of a comparable boy. At his age, you should already be able to see the world in a completely new way and understand which ideals are right and which are distant fiction.” He clears his throat. “To put it a little more clearly for the rabble of this world: You’re going to pay, girl. And we both know what you’ve put on the line.”

  I want to reply, want to throw something smart at him, like Spinel always does when Team Plasma hurls stupid things at him – but I can’t think of anything. All that escapes me is silence. Behind it is a pounding heart. I know what’s at stake. Now that N has summoned Zekrom, Ghetsis no longer needs him. Even with just one legendary dragon, he can achieve his goals as long as he prevents anyone else from getting their hands on the resources they need to send Reshiram after him.

  As he lets his free hand disappear into the chest area of his robe, I don’t know whether to call one of my Pokémon or wait and see. Amethio’s tense posture tells me nothing. Ghetsis will probably summon one of his strongest partners, and I hope Amethio will show more skill with me than I could on my own.

  “I would also like to add that your search for the Light Stone is nothing more than a waste of time. When I heard you were on your way to the Relic Castle, it was already obvious what a desperate idea you were pursuing.” As if in slow motion, his hand creeps out from between the fabric of his robe. “The Light Stone hasn’t been in this place for years. It was found by someone a long time ago and taken away.”

  Without the Light Stone, my chances of beating some sense into N are diminishing. I’m not even sure Amethio can contribute anything that won’t just roll off a creature like Zekrom.

  Pressing my lips together, I grab Raya’s ball, my eyes fixed on Ghetsis’ hand – on the fingers that, to my surprise, aren’t holding a ball.

  “A gun?” It’s Amethio, who widens his eyes and tightens his grip on the escape rope. “How does Plasma get hold of something like that?”

  “Any righteous man can get the means to fight back when no one else is around to help.” This time, a winning smile creeps onto Ghetsis’ lips. “Forbidden goods are one thing that can be found underground in every region. Most of you have just never shown the courage to set foot across said border.”

  Firearms are something even I know about. My father owns a gun as well, which he got at some point to protect us from his shadows. He used to warn me about them a lot. They are dangerous, deadly and, above all, have been banned since the Great War. Only specially trained security forces for the government of each region are authorised to carry such things – after all, you can’t guarantee safety up there with ‘fair’ Pokémon battles alone.

  Saliva burns in my throat. Faced with Friede’s Charizard, this threat would probably not be a problem. But I don’t think Raya has the firepower to melt a bullet before it kills one of us.

  As Ghetsis points the barrel at us, my gaze falls to Amethio. The sweat on his brow doesn’t bode well. All I have left to do is bet on Raya and hope for the best.

  But just as I’m about to pull out her ball, Amethio turns to me in a flash. In a blink, I hear the bang of the gun – unable to see anything.

  A wall of shiny rope rises before my eyes, winding wildly around us and growing denser with every breath. Somewhere in between, Amethio grabs me by the hand before the yarn tightens around us. Pressed tightly together, the world around us spins. At least that’s how it feels. My stomach is in knots and although all this only lasts for two breaths, the nausea rises to my throat.

  Then, all at once, the rope drops, releasing us, and the sudden fresh air almost forces me to vomit the bile out of my stomach. Only Amethio’s firm grip keeps me from doing so as he calls Corviknight out of his ball and pulls me onto the Pokémon behind him.

  With a flap of its wings, we are in the air. Away from Ghetsis and the danger of his weapon, which he will surely threaten N with too.

  My fingers claw into Amethio’s shirt. Ghetsis will shoot N as soon as he gets the chance.

  “He won’t act right away.” As if Amethio can read my mind, he interrupts my troubled thoughts. “You said that N will challenge all the regional champions who are in Unova. That gives us time to find an alterna-”

  The ringing of his Rotom interrupts him and, when it emerges on its own, Conia appears on the narrow screen.

  “Amethio, sir, we’ve located the Light Stone.”

  My shoulders tighten as Amethio echoes the information.

  “Hamber interfered with our search and reported that the Light Stone has been in Master Gibeon’s possession for years.”

  His body tenses in surprise. “Does he know about the circumstances?”

  “Hamber has passed on Plasma’s every move to him. Domino’s kidnapping and Ghetsis‘ behaviour have led him to the conclusion that Team Plasma poses a direct, pressing threat to the Explorers.”

  That’s a bit late, considering they’ve already stopped me outside the headquarters once. Sure, in an elevated position like Gibeon’s, all this probably looks like child’s play, but the danger was present the whole time.

  “Master Gibeon will have the Light Stone delivered to you by Hamber, with the mission of eliminating Team Plasma. No matter by what means. As long as Unova doesn’t fall, he’s content with the result,” Conia explains. “Hamber is waiting for you at headquarters.”

  Our goal is set, but it doesn’t loosen a single knot in my stomach. To summon Reshiram, you have to be worthy of the Pokémon. N did it with Zekrom. Perhaps because it recognised the desires in him that seem so distant and out of reach.

  Reshiram, however, is standing behind reality – behind everything I’m trying to explore and get to know better to create change. In my mind, we match.

  But no one gives me a guarantee this Pokémon will hear me out. And if it ignores me, we’re back to square one.